Chapter 21: The Truth We Seek
19 April 2179
It was early morning, a few hours before the students would be arriving back from their long weekend.
Hizashi stifled a yawn, his eyelids heavy.
The last five days had been strange, first Shota had been injured, he'd spent most of his time resting, letting his muscles and tendons heal, then Toru has come to live with them, at Hizashi's insistence.
After all, he knew what it was like living with parents that controlled you, tried to force you to be someone, something, you were not.
They had given Toru her space, allowing her to settle into the guest bedroom, or rather, her bedroom now. The support boy, Akatani, visiting had helped as well, clearly having friends over was not something she'd been allowed to do with her parents.
All they could do now is be there to give Toru help when she needed or asked for it.
The door to the conference room opened, admitting Nedzu and Detective Tsukauchi, the two of them coming to a halt at the top end of the u-shaped table.
The two spoke briefly, before Nedzu took a seat, next to All Might, in his true form, Kayama and Yosei sat in the middle section, while Hizashi sat on Kan's left, filling in for Shota.
His partner had insisted on attending the meeting, but Hizashi had insisted he do it, Shota would need all the sleep he could get for his first day back, he was still far from top form despite Midoriya's healing.
Hizashi's eyes turned back to All Might, something about him was off, he looked happier, and weirdly, his face didn't seem quite as gaunt as normal.
Nedzu cleared his throat. "Apologies for calling this meeting at such an hour, but I felt it was pertinent that the results of the police's investigation should be shared with you before we return to full-time teaching. Detective, if you would."
Tsukauchi nodded, stepping forward, a small stack of papers in his grip. "The police have investigated the group of villains that go by the name 'The League of Villains' and their attack on the Unforeseen Simulation Joint facility."
The faculty members listened intently.
"147 villains were arrested on Wednesday, however, seven more, including the ringleaders, managed to escape." Tsukauchi paused. "Their leader, Tomura Shigaraki. There appears to be no record of a man by that name, in his 20s or 30s with a disintegration quirk like his. The same applies for his right-hand man, Kurogiri."
"In other words, they are people with unregistered quirks, living in the criminal underbelly of Japan. However, the other ringleaders are of note, two of them are villains we recognise the names of, Nigata and Sangata. But, these two must be copycats, the originals haven't been sighted in over thirty years, while these two appeared to be in their 20s."
"Nigata? Sangata?" Hizashi frowned. "I recognise the names."
Tsukauchi nodded. "They worked for a larger villain, but the record of their appearances and quirks seem to have been lost to time."
"I've fought them, when I was still a hero-in-training." All Might said, earning the attention of the room. "I've seen the footage, their appearance, their quirks, they're different, but their behaviour, their mannerisms, it's a perfect match."
"All Might, can you tell you anything more you remember about them?" Tsukauchi queried.
All Might nodded. "I can, the woman, Nigata, her quirk back then was touch-based, invoked a wave of irrational fear in the target. As for Sangata, he was quirkless, but always dangerous, more machine than man."
"I see, so these new villains, they're the originals, with new bodies." Nedzu postulated. "It's certainly possible, those sort of quirks do exist, for example, we have two students whose quirks involve the changing of bodily possession in first year alone."
"There is another point to consider." All Might spoke again. "These two, Nigata and Sangata, the larger villain they worked for wasn't just any villain, it was the same man who injured me six years ago."
Yosei shook his head. "That would make him at least sixty, more like seventy, when you fought him, it's not possible."
All Might sighed. "It is when you're the Merchant of Quirks."
"All For One, that's just a bogeyman parents tell their kids about to make them behave." Kan argued.
"Yeah, my parents did it, told me the All For One would steal my quirk if I'd didn't do my homework! Spoilers, I still didn't do the homework." Hizashi exclaimed, striking a pose.
"I'm serious, he's a fearsome foe who killed heroes for generations." All Might could tell he was fighting a losing battle.
"Come on, even the name All For One itself is a bit on the nose." Hizashi shook his head. "Lemme guess, he has some kind of opposite, a hero maybe, called One For All?"
All Might looked tense, glancing across at Nedzu and Detective Tsukauchi every few seconds.
"It's ridiculous." Yosei declared, motioning with his hand, rocking his dreadlocks slightly.
A murmur of agreement passed through the room.
All Might spoke. "O'Clock."
The room went silent.
"He lost his quirk to this supposed bogeyman." The No.1 Hero continued. "Yesterday, a woman, a civilian, reported her quirk, Dust Devil, was stolen. The pro hero, X-Less, suffered the same fate on the night of the USJ attack."
All Might stood, transforming into his hero mode.
"Many more have lost their quirks, it's why Japan has the highest rate of quirklessness in the world." All Might's eyes glowed with conviction. "And it's my duty to stop All For One, I refuse to pass the burden onto the next generation."
Deflating, All Might sat, the atmosphere in the room now tense, awkward.
Nedzu cleared his throat. "So, you were saying, this Nigata and Sangata worked for the Merchant of Quirks."
"They didn't just work for him, they were his children, created, not birthed."
Hizashi raised an eyebrow. "Created?"
All Might nodded. "Created. As in created artificially from All For One's DNA."
"That they are." Nedzu confirmed. "All For One's DNA merged with DNA harvested from pro heroes, villains, even civilians, anyone with a quirk he is interested in seeing compound with his own."
"I've seen them myself." All Might added. "My fight with that man six years ago started as a raid on a facility that was growing them, on a rig offshore of Dagobah Beach."
Yosei frowned. "I don't want to seem like I'm doubting you, but cloning technology was lost, during the Quirk Wars."
"Or it was taken, under the guise of being lost, by a villain, a villain who, for example, had a quirk that allowed him to steal a longevity quirk, perhaps." Nedzu lowered his paws, gaze falling on Yosei. "All For One hordes anything he finds interesting, quirks, technology, people."
Tsukauchi cleared his throat, before pressing a button on the remote in his hand. "Sangata is an example of this technology."
The screen behind the detective lit up, showing footage of a white-haired man fighting Mikumo Akatani. The camera switched angle and the image froze.
"WHAT?!" Hizashi shot out of his seat like a bullet fired from a gun. "That person, why does he look like Shota?!"
Tsukauchi winced, his ears ringing slightly. "It appears Sangata is a clone created from the DNA of All For One and Shota Aizawa, also known as Eraserhead. From what the student, Akatani, explained to us, Sangata's quirk allowed him to temporarily copy another's quirk, in a similar fashion to Eraserhead's own quirk."
Kayama gave a small chuckle of resigned disbelief. "So this man is technically Shota's son ?"
Hizashi gave a strangle shout at that, having to reign himself in, he didn't want to blast the ceiling out.
Again.
"In a manner of speaking, he is." Tsukauchi pressed the button again, the screen changing to show two images, one of Sangata, the other of Nigata. "The same could be said for the other Children of All For One."
"The Children of All For One?" Kan questioned. "Weren't they a terrorist group?"
"Hm, yes, they were, still are I suppose, although they've been inactive for many years, until now." Nedzu scratched his furry cheek. "They rose to prominence killing pro heroes they judged as being unworthy of their quirks, invoking fear by tying themselves to the legend of All For One. Now it seems they've somehow integrated into this League of Villains."
"More like they share common leadership." All Might looked pensive. "I thought I killed that man, but yesterday, that was right out of his playbook, an attempt to emulate him, learned from the source."
"This Shigaraki, you propose he is a child of All For One as well?" Nedzu placed his paws together.
"Perhaps not in blood, but certainly in every other way." All Might shifted in his chair. "He's a wild, immature child, he's a braggart, believes himself entitled to anything he wants."
"In fact, his behaviour, it's pretty similar to how All For One was the first time we fought, nearly fifteen years ago." The No.1 Hero leaned forward slightly, clearly deep in thought.
The room listened.
"When I injured him, not badly, a nasty cut on his arm, he freaked out, it was the first time he'd been hurt in over a century. He retreated immediately, and after that, when we faced again, he had changed, far more serious, far more cautious."
Kan sighed. "So this Shigaraki guy, he's a man-child, a powerful man-child, trying to emulate his mentor in his prime."
"Could it be that this guy never received any Quirk counselling that every child has?" Kayama offered.
Hizashi shrugged. "I don't know how counselling would have stopped that brat, especially if he learned at the foot of a supervillain like that."
Tsukauchi spoke. "All but a couple of the villains we arrested on Wednesday were small-time crooks, squirreled away in the back alleys. What concerns me is how easily they followed Shigaraki, his simple, childish method of approaching villany must attract those who've been downtrodden by our hero-saturated society."
Kayama frowned. "This is troubling."
Her fellow heroes murmured in agreement, Hizashi just nodding his head.
"Our plan moving forward is to expand our search network and continue to assist the heroes in arresting the perpetrators of the attack on the USJ." Tsukauchi folded his papers, lowering them.
Everyone began to move, getting ready to leave.
"Wait!" Hizashi called out, using a tiny portion of his quirk to make his shout louder.
The assembled heroes and detective stopped, their gazes turning to the voice hero.
"You said seven villains escaped, the man-child, the mist, the two children and those two beasts." Hizashi was counting off on his fingers. "That leaves one unaccounted for."
Tsukauchi nodded. "It does, however, at this moment in time the Hero Commission has placed a seal order on the identity of his villain, I apologise, I cannot tell you anymore about him."
Hizashi frowned.
This villain, is he an undercover hero, or would it make the Commission look bad if his identity was revealed?
Izuku sat in the Class 1-A homeroom, everyone had arrived, apart from Aizawa. His classmates chatted amongst themselves, some about the TV coverage of the attack, others about the attack itself.
And then there were the ones like Izuku, they felt like they were cut off from the rest of the world, out of step. They could not unsee what they'd seen.
Mineta. Tsuyu. Hagakure. Himself.
Sero shrugged at something Jiro had said, before leaning back in his chair. "Who's to say what would have happened if the teachers hadn't shown up?"
Izuku couldn't help himself from flinching, neither could Tsuyu.
Mineta jumped nearly a full foot into the air out of his seat. "Don't say that, Sero! Just thinking about it again terrifies me, and if I think about it too much I'll hurl-"
Bakugo interrupted him. "Shut up, rat-face."
Izuku frowned, his childhood friend seemed subdued, muted somehow, he'd noticed on the day after the attack, when they'd talked in Izuku's bedroom, but now, it seemed more prominent.
Was it because of our talk?
Maybe the stress of the attack has gotten to him?
But that didn't seem likely, from the texts he'd got from Uraraka over the weekend it was more like Kacchan had managed to overcome a personal demon that day.
Oh.
That was why Bakugo was so full of rage all the time. His demons.
Izuku gave a small smile, he was happy for his old friend.
Bakugo began to turn.
The green-haired boy was panicking, had he been muttering out loud again? Had Kacchan heard it?
Bakugo's head stopped turning before it could face Izuku, instead pointing to the back-right of the classroom.
Izuku followed Bakugo's line of sight, his eyes falling on Uraraka.
Wait, what?
Uraraka quickly saw Bakugo was looking at her, prompting her to beam at him and display a peace sign.
The corner of Bakugo's mouth turned upwards.
Was Kacchan, smiling?
Bakugo whirled around to face Izuku. "Stop fucking muttering, you shitty nerd! You've been doing it the whole damn time!"
Izuku's eyes widened, he slowly nodded. Bakugo huffed for a few seconds, before he turned back to the front of the classroom.
Okay, so maybe Kacchan hadn't totally lost his anger and rage.
Explosions crackled in Bakugo's palms. "You're still fucking doing it, dammit!"
This time Izuku blushed, aware of the entire classroom's attention being on him.
Kacchan is really touchy that I saw him smile at Uraraka, does he have a crus-
Bakugo tilted his head back and yelled, an expression of pure rage.
Izuku turned his head, most of the class watched on in amusement, Ashido and Uraraka were howling with laughter, Kirishima was coughing from laughing too hard and Kaminari had fallen off his chair, rolling around on the floor.
Izuku looked nonplussed. "What's so funny?"
The laughter only increased, Kirishima's face went almost as red as his hair as he wheezed, even Iida released a small chuckle.
This was the scene Aizawa entered to, his class dissolved into gales of laughter, Bakugo yelling ineffectually at them to shut up, while Izuku tried to hide under his arm.
Aizawa smirked, before clearing his throat.
"Morning."
Izuku's head shot up, taking in his teacher's appearance. He was disheveled, yet no more than usual, a curved scar under his right eye, bandages peeking out from under his sleeves.
The underground hero started making his way towards the podium, a limp in his step.
All in all, he looked rather well for a man who'd had all his limbs and his face crushed by a 300kg genetically engineered monster a few days earlier.
Iida's arm shot into the air. "Mr. Aizawa, are you sure you're well enough to return?!"
Aizawa sighed as he reached the podium. "I'm alright."
Uraraka looked aghast. "Could you even call that alright?"
Tsuyu shared a look with Mineta, they'd both been up close and personal with Aizawa's wounds before Izuku healed them.
"My welfare doesn't matter." Aizawa looked back at his class, their expressions ranging from stoic, Todoroki and Bakugo, to concerned, Asui and Kirishima, and finally crying, Midoriya.
The entire class recoiled, before yelling back in unison.
"OF COURSE IT DOES!"
Aizawa hid his smile in his capture scarf. "Sure, sure, but more importantly, the fight isn't over yet."
Mineta whimpered, shaking like a leaf in his seat. "Don't say villains, don't say villains."
"The U.A. Sports Festival is drawing near."
Kirishima leaned his head back, bellowing from the bottom of his lungs. "THAT'S A SUPER NORMAL SCHOOL EVE-"
Kaminari's hand pressed against Kirishima's cheek, tilting his head and cutting him off.
Mineta was openly crying. "I thought he was going to make us fight villains again!"
Momo patted the short boy's shoulder in an attempt to comfort him, shocked when Mineta didn't make some kind of obscene comment about her.
Maybe he was just that scared of facing villains again?
Jiro spoke up. "Are you sure it's okay to have a sports festival right after the villains have attacked the school?"
"Yeah, what if they break in again?" Kaminari chimed in.
"Personally, I agree with you, but I was outvoted." Aizawa rolled his neck, the horrendous cracking noises making the class wince. "Apparently, they think keeping it running will allow U.A. to show that our crisis management can handle even a villain attack inside a school facility. Security will be five times the previous years, with three times the number of pro heroes on site at all times."
The class murmured amongst themselves.
"The sports festival isn't just a chance for students to display their talent and determination to industry professionals, but the major sporting event of the Japanese calendar." Aizawa paused, pulling a sleeve down to further hide his bandages. "With the decline of the Olympics, starting with its banning of quirk usage, and sealed with their disqualification of any competitor with a mutant-class quirk, the U.A. Sport Festival, as well as similar events at other hero schools, have taken the spotlight."
Silence reigned, the students listening to every word their homeroom teacher spoke.
"A spotlight that will shine down on you all in a little over two weeks."
Kaminari grinned. "It's gonna be awesome, all those hero agencies will be watching us, scouting for the next generation of heroes, loads of heroes end up as sidekicks for an agency they've interned with!"
Jiro shrugged. "Yeah, but loads of those who don't go independent end up as eternal sidekicks. That's probably going to be you, right Kaminari? You know, since you're a moron and all."
The blond-haired boy's eye twitched, before he recoiled dramatically. "Et tu, Jiro?"
"Jiro." Aizawa spoke, his tone low, the class, bar Bakugo and Todoroki, froze in their seats. "No calling your classmates morons, U.A. is just as selective academically as it is heroically, Kaminari wouldn't be here if he was a moron, would he?"
The purple-haired girl shuffled slightly in her seat. "Right, sensei."
"Good, I'm glad to see you agree." Aizawa paused. "By the way, Kaminari, Mic wanted me to pass a message on about that English essay you wrote."
Kaminari looked hopeful. "Yeah?"
"Next time, don't write nearly three times the word limit." Aizawa shuffled slightly. "But, he did say it was good work."
Kaminari beamed. "Thank you, sensei!"
Aizawa cleared his throat. "Now, back on topic. Your time to advertise yourself to these hero agencies is limited, the sports festival only happens once a year, that's three chances in total ,you can't afford to blend into the background of this event."
The students were on the edge of their seats now, even Bakugo was getting excited, a bright gleam in his red eyes.
"In conclusion, the last thing you should be doing is slacking off. As such, from now until the sports festival, lessons will run in the mornings, while afternoons will be dedicated to personal development, be that quirk strength training, or quirk strategy training."
Izuku clenched his fists, pumped up by Aizawa's speech and the general atmosphere of the classroom.
"I expect you to give this your all."
"Yes, sensei!"
"Good, homeroom is dismissed."
Izuku walked along the corridor, lunch break had begun, Uraraka and Iida alongside him as they made their way to the food hall. Uraraka had explained her reason for wanting to be a hero to them, prompted by Izuku's asking.
"Bravo, Uraraka!" Iida cheered, clapping his hands.
Izuku nodded along. "Yeah, just because you're becoming a hero to support your parents, doesn't mean you won't still be saving lives like the rest of us."
Uraraka nodded, the same intense energy she had shown earlier in the classroom returning. "I'm going to do my best!"
"So I've heard." Izuku smiled. "By the way, you and Kacchan seemed, friendly."
Uraraka nodded. "Yeah, I spoke with him the day after the attack, where you said he'd be, I guess Katsuki isn't just an angry ball of rage all the time."
Izuku choked on air. "Wait, Katsuki? He let you call him that?"
"Yeah?" Uraraka looked slightly confused. "Why wouldn't I? We're basically friends, especially since I gave him that hug."
The green-haired boy's eyes seemed to bug out of their sockets. "You hugged Kacchan, and you still have all your limbs?!"
Uraraka frowned. "Why's that strange?"
"Young Midoriya! I am here!"
All Might appeared from a side corridor, in his hero form, flexing his muscles for effect.
"To-, I mean, All Might, w-what's wrong?" Izuku queried, having jumped nearly a foot into the air.
"Lunch." All Might held up a bento box, tied up in cloth. "Wanna eat together?"
Uraraka did a spit take, howling with laughter. "H-He's l-like a love-struck teenage g-girl!"
All Might smiled. "How about it?"
Izuku glanced first to Iida, then to Uraraka, getting a nod from each of them.
"I'd love to!" Izuku set off after the No.1 Hero, towards one of the staff lounges, while Iida and Uraraka continued to the food hall.
Toshinori, still in his muscular form, handed the bento box to Izuku as they walked. "Here, Izuku."
"Thanks." Izuku smiled, untying it as they went. "Wait, is this my limited edition All Might bento box?"
All Might looked slightly nervous. "Well, your mother may have made me lunch in it a week or two ago, she insisted, I guess I could say this is my way of making sure it gets back to you."
"R-Right." Izuku replied, caught somewhat off-guard by the reminder that All Might and his mom were, well, whatever he'd seen the day after the USJ incident. "Thanks, All Might."
Toshinori smiled. "You've kept it in mint condition. By the way, make sure to call me All Might when we're not in private, or with your mother."
"Sure thing!" Izuku bobbed his head.
Toshinori stopped, one a door, marked as a staff lounge by a golden metal plaque. "After you, Young Midoriya."
Izuku beamed, ducking into the room, followed by the No.1 Hero.
Todoroki peered out from the spot he'd hidden, having trailed All Might and Midoriya since before they'd parted with Iida and Uraraka.
"Midoriya, he almost called All Might something starting with 'to', could it have been..."
Tou-san?
"The close relationship, the similar quirks, could it be that All Might is Midoriya's father?"
Izuku stared at the mountain of food laid out on the coffee table between the sofa he and Toshinori sat on.
"W-What?"
Toshinori, now in his true form, laughed, not quite as booming as he did in his hero persona, but definitely more warm. "You healed my stomach did you not, if I'm going to increase my muscle mass once more I'm going to need plenty of fuel."
Izuku's eyes widened with horror. "You're going to eat all this food?!"
Toshinori laughed again. "In my prime this amount of food would have been enough to maintain my muscle, however, I don't need as much now, despite your healing of my stomach, my wound is still pretty nasty, I'll never be able to regain my full form."
"O-Oh, I see."
"Thus! We'll be eating all this food together!"
"Together? I'm not sure I could eat even a tenth of what's here!" Izuku insisted, his stomach choosing that moment to prove him wrong by rumbling loudly. "Okay, maybe I could eat a tenth."
"Izuku, my boy, you're not eating enough." Toshinori thrust a bowl of katsudon into the green-haired boy's hands. "After I got One For All I nearly ate my master out of house and home. Besides, I had Recovery Girl do some tests on you while you were out cold on the day of the attack, they showed early signs of malnutrition."
"Really, I-I just thought that was just a side-effect of one of my quirks!" Izuku exclaimed.
Toshinori shook his head. "It isn't, now, eat up, we'll talk as we eat. There's something I wanted to tell you about."
Izuku picked up a set of chopsticks, snapping them apart. "Is this about you and my mom, because I'm actually okay with it. I mean, I understand, my mom's been alone for such a long time-"
Toshinori choked on his food, unintentionally transforming into his hero form. "What?"
"What?" Izuku echoed.
"W-What are you talking about?" Toshinori wheezed, coughing up the rice he'd inhaled. "Myself and Inko-"
"Inko, huh?"
Toshinori's cheeks flushed red.
Izuku couldn't stop himself from chuckling.
Imagine if I told myself two years ago I'd have a quirk, no, quirks, and I'd be watching All Might himself blush like a schoolboy with a crush?
"I can be pretty oblivious sometimes, but even I could tell." Izuku smirked.
"You know, I think Uraraka has been a bad influence on you." Toshinori commented, smiling back. "I think I preferred it when you could barely speak to me, now you're giving me cheek."
Izuku shrugged, releasing the pull on Slingshot, Uraraka's frankness fading away.
Toshinori took a deep breath. "Fine, there is something, I asked Inko out on a lunch date for next week. We just clicked, I guess she reminds me a little of my master, the kindness, the warm heart."
"You mean Nana Shimura?"
Toshinori choked on his food again, deflating instantly. "H-How do you know that name?"
Izuku shrugged. "I checked the hero database, crossed MIA heroes who showed enhanced strength as well as another ability with the time period you attended U.A., it was p-pretty simple if I'm honest."
"I see, how astute of you, but this isn't what I wanted to talk to you about." Toshinori paused, uncertain of how to continue. "I guess there's no easy way to say this, but-"
"My father is alive." Izuku finished. "All For One is alive."
Toshinori sighed. "So it seems, those Nomu, those monsters, from examination of the one that was captured, two quirks were surgically implanted, but the other three, bar its natural quirk, were imparted by All For One."
"How did he survive?" Izuku questioned. "Your fight six years ago, you say you killed him."
"So I thought, the injuries I gave him that day, they should have been fatal." Toshinori lowered his bowl. "We buried the body, at least what remained of it."
"So, a fake then."
Toshinori nodded. "It seems likely, possibly with the help of an insider."
Tears leaked from Izuku's eyes. "It's been such a rollercoaster, in a week my father has gone from being missing, to a supervillain, to dead and then alive again."
Toshinori placed a hand on Izuku's shoulder. "I know."
"Is it bad?" Izuku looked up. "Is it bad that I just want to forget it, to go back to wondering what happened to my father, instead of knowing he's a monster who created something as twisted as those Nomu?"
Toshinori pulled Izuku into a hug, the green-haired boy sobbing openly. "It's okay, it's okay, it's a lot to take in, I understand."
Izuku forced himself to stop crying, breaking the hug. "Sorry, I really need to stop crying like you said."
"Izuku, it's not weak to cry, it's human." Toshinori gave his successor a weak smile. "I mostly said it because I was worried you'd get so dehydrated you'd collapse."
A wet chuckle slipped from Izuku's lips, unable to stop himself.
Toshinori sat back down, picking his bowl up. "Now, tuck in, I hear you've got quirk training this afternoon."
Izuku nodded his head, wiping his eyes with his sleeve at the same time. "Y-Yeah, I need to focus on training my copied quirks to make them more powerful, and work on creating quirk combos."
"Quirk combos?"
The green-haired boy rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "R-Right, I forgot to tell you about that. During the attack I figured out how to use more than one copied quirk at a time."
Toshinori's eyebrows shot up. "You did? I thought that was a hard limit on Quirksmith."
"So did I." Izuku stopped, gathering his thoughts, before continuing. "I thought I could only use one quirk at a time, however it's actually that Quirksmith provides energy, like a battery and I was channelling it into one quirk at a time."
Toshinori nodded along, understanding his protege so far.
"So I changed the way I think about using Quirksmith, now I can use multiple quirks at once, like in a parallel circuit, except the power is split between the quirks."
"Equally?"
Izuku rotated his hand in a 'so-so' motion. "As a default, yes. But I can alter the power distribution by imagining resistors in the circuit."
Toshinori placed his chin on his thumb and forefinger. "I see, what effect does One For All have on this parallel circuit?"
"Same thing as when I charge a single quirk, except the power is shared in the same ratio as I have the circuit set." Izuku explained, before seeing Toshinori's blank stare. "Basically, it works."
"Excellent!" Toshinori cheered, bulking up for a moment. "It seems you have a lot of work to do with your quirk before the sports festival."
"Y-Yeah." Izuku nodded his head.
"However." Toshinori pointed a spindly finger at Izuku. "About the sports festival, you still can't regulate One For All's power, can you."
Izuku's face scrunched up. "I think I did it, but by accident. Something Thirteen said before the attack started stuck with me, about how our quirks can easily be used to kill. The first smash I used on that larger Nomu wasn't my full power, I was consciously holding back. Around fifty percent in total."
"I see, can you replicate it?"
"I think so, I used a memory recall quirk I copied to remember the sensation of fifty percent, I'm going to try calling on the same feeling again during quirk training."
"Well, that's progress, is it not?" Toshinori smiled. "You should be proud of it."
Izuku hummed, nodding his head at the same time.
Toshinori stood, his food eaten, moving to look gaze out of the window. "Honestly, my time as All Might is growing short, you may have bought me some time, but my embers are still going to burn out. And that something that villains like Shigaraki are starting to realise."
Izuku stood, facing his mentor.
"I passed One For All on to you because I wanted you to succeed me." Toshinori turned, pointing at the green-haired boy. "I assure you, I still feel the same way, in fact, I'm even more confident in my decision than I already was then."
Izuku couldn't stop himself from grinning like a madman at his idol-turned-mentor's praise, his cheeks tinged red.
"So, it's come time for you to show yourself as the hero that will succeed All Might." Toshinori continued. "The sports festival is an event not just by pro heroes, but the general public as well are watching closely."
Izuku felt the tension rising in the room as All Might's voice did the same.
"The next All Might, the Symbol of Peace-to-be, is Izuku Midoriya." All Might stared directly at his successor, his face filled with pride. "I want you to go out there and tell the world, 'I am here'."
Tears once again brimmed in Izuku's eyes, warm, soft droplets, in harsh contrast to the racking sobs of earlier.
"Izuku, you must tell them, you will be a hero!"
Chapter 22: The Future We Seek
Izuku took a deep breath.
Raising his left arm, he called on the quirks that swirled inside of him.
"Parallel Circuit: Recoil Defense."
Izuku felt Shock Absorption, thrumbing passively under his skin, before it was joined by Super-Stretch, his left arm rippling as the quirk took hold.
Acid suddenly spat from the palm of his left hand, hitting the floor with a wet splat.
Izuku deactivated the quirks and sighed, that had been his fifteenth attempt at that circuit, everyone one of them a failure.
Before the USJ it had been easy for Izuku to keep track of his quirks, he hadn't had too many of them. But now, he had over a hundred, and he just couldn't keep track of them.
He wasn't even exactly sure of the exact number now.
Raising his arm again, Izuku took a steadying breath.
"Parallel Circuit: Recoil Defense."
Shock Absorption. Rockhard. Discharge Digits.
Electricity sparked around the fingers of Izuku's diamond arm.
Damn it! That's still not the right quirk!
It was the one Izuku had copied from the helmeted villain, the one Momo, Jiro and Kaminari had taken down, Galvan.
Allowing his body to return to normal, Izuku tried to calm himself, frustration would only make this more difficult.
But then the words All Might had said to him the day before came back to him. Telling him it was his role to yell to the world that he was here with his performance in the Sports Festival.
But Izuku just felt overwhelmed, like he was drowning in a sea of quirks and expectations, he couldn't get fired up like Uraraka, or impassioned like Iida, or even competitive like Kacchan.
Pulling himself out of his pity party, Izuku slipped into his quirkspace, trying the move again with direct view of his quirks.
Izuku's left arm turned to hardened diamond, rippling slightly as it did.
Rockhard. Shock Absorption. Super-Stretch.
The green-haired boy returned to reality, he may have been able to do it, but he needed to be capable of summoning this circuit at a moment's notice.
Doing it from within his quirkspace just took too long. Brushing those thoughts away, Izuku turned his attention back to his left arm.
Rotating his arm, Izuku noted it wasn't as stiff as it normally was when he used Rockhard, the elasticity granted by Super-Stretch negating a portion of the restriction of motion.
Turning his attention to the concrete pillar in front of him, Izuku formed a fist with his diamond arm and punched it with his natural strength. The point of contact with the pillar burst into shards of concrete, the top of the column wobbled, before crashing to the floor of Gym Beta.
Izuku flexed his hand, looking down to see it was unharmed, covered in a thin sheen of concrete dust, instead of broken and bloody as it would be without using any quirks.
Smiling, Izuku clenched his fist again and approached another pillar, this one thicker, reinforced with steel rods. Allowing his passive Strength quirk to reactivate, having consciously suppressed it during the last punch.
The diamond fist slammed into the reinforced pillar, blasting through it with greater ease than before, sending the top half flying five meters, cracking the concrete floor on impact.
"Wow." Izuku breathed, seeing his fist and arm were still unharmed, if slightly scuffed.
Turning to face the last pillar, made of solid metal, Izuku imagined the feeling of One For All 50%, the same feeling he'd felt when he'd punched that monster.
Red lines of pure energy covered Izuku's left arm, over the top of the diamond, lighting it up.
"Egg in a microwave, right." Izuku spoke himself, before drawing his fist back, ready to unleash One For All on the metal column.
"Yo, Midoriya."
Izuku jumped, his arm going wide, the power of One For All releasing in a gust of wind, knocking Sero off course as he swung between beams, his tape tearing.
The green-haired boy winced as pain filled his left arm, looking down he saw the diamond had cracks running through it.
"Sorry, Sero!" Izuku called to his classmate, who was now dangling by the tape from his other elbow.
"No worries!" Sero replied, firing a new tape strand, recommencing his swing training.
Izuku nodded, feeling his arm repairing itself already, it would take a few minutes, Hyper Regeneration still wasn't at full power after last week.
But at least now I know I can regulate One For All to 50%, and probably 100% if the principle holds.
"Midoriya, are you okay?"
Izuku rotated his head, seeing Kirishima standing next to him.
Izuku felt his mouth going dry, social anxiety starting to kick in. "I-I'm fine, my arm'll heal pretty quick."
"I'm sorry, man. I didn't mean to scare ya." Kirishima apologised.
Izuku waved his hand dismissively, wincing as he realised he'd used his injured arm. "It's fine, it's fine, I would have injured it anyway."
Kirishima hesitated, before he shrugged. "Oh, okay I guess."
The green-haired boy flexed his diamond arm, the crack inside it well on it's way to being fixed.
"So, what was it you wanted to talk about, Kirishima?"
"Right, I was wondering if you had any tips on using my quirks, Sero said you were really good at quirk analysis." Kirishima grinned at his classmate.
Izuku chuckled nervously, resisting the urge to rub the back of his head, he was trying to stop that particular habit.
"R-Right, I am, aren't I?"
"Yep!" Kirishima held his fist out, Izuku hesitantly bumped his own against it, prompting the red-haired boy to holler loudly.
"What were you interested in?" Izuku questioned, releasing the quirks acting on his arm, now fully healed.
Kirishima held up his arms, hardening them and his chest. "Er, well, I can't really cover all that much of my body with my quirk, I was hoping you might have thought of a way to harden more of my body."
"Hm, maybe, I think." Izuku held out his arm, activating Rockhard. "I merged your quirk with a mutant quirk, but I think I might have a couple of ideas. Yeah, I do."
"Awesome!" Kirishima pumped a fist into the air. "What are they?"
"Well, can you control the level of hardening?"
Kirishima blinked, taken aback. "Er, I don't know, I never thought to try I guess."
Izuku nodded. "Give it a try, just imagine your normal level and loosen it slightly."
Kirishima held up his arms, staring at them, brow furrowed in concentration.
The crenulations in Kirishima relaxed, becoming more shallow and less pronounced.
"I did it!"
Izuku gave a small smile. "Right, you did, that looks like about fifty percent of your maximum, now try seeing how much more of your body you can cover."
Kirishima did just that, the effect of his quick spreading to cover almost his entire body, patches of unaffected skin where the separate effects hadn't met.
"Woah!"
"Now try lowering the effect again, just a bit."
Kirishima concentrated again, the crenulations flattening slightly and spreading to the last few areas of his body.
"It's all over my body!" Kirishima cheered, slowly bending his arm, as fast as his quirk would allow him. "I can even move hardened joints more than normal."
Izuku spoke. "I have an idea about that."
The green-haired boy took Kirishima's arm, unbending it.
"Try lowering the hardening effect at the joint." Izuku ran his finger across the inside of Kirishima's elbow.
Kirishima nodded, the hardening where Izuku had indicated reducing to almost nothing.
Bending his arm back and forth, Kirishima grinned. "It works! Thanks, Midoriya."
Izuku smiled, bobbing his head.
Kirishima fist-bumped the green-haired boy before racing off.
"Hey, Bakugo, check this out!"
"You know, you might be fighting Kirishima in the sports festival."
Izuku turned his head to see Momo approaching him.
The green-haired boy shrugged. "It's fine, I mean, Kirishima wants to be a hero too, what's wrong with helping him get a little closer to his dream?"
Momo chuckled. "You really are too pure, Izuku."
Izuku shrugged nervously, before he had a realisation, beaming away. "I've got some suggestions for your quirk if you want to hear them."
"You have my attention."
21 April 2179
The bell had rung.
Izuku packed up his belongings and pulled his backpack onto his shoulders.
The green-haired boy moved to join Momo and Kirishima, while Iida and Uraraka did the same.
"Whoa, look!"
Izuku followed Kirishima's line of sight to see a massive crowd of students outside the classroom door, he recognised none of them.
Bakugo slouched forward, glaring at the crowd. "Don't you have anything better to do at lunchtime, you bunch of extras?!"
Mineta recoiled. "D-Don't c-c-call them that, they'll h-h-hate us, Bakugo!"
"Zip it, half-pint." Bakugo somehow managed to slouch even lower.
Mineta's face went red. "D-D-D-Don-n't c-ca-call-"
Bakugo interrupted the purple boy. "Tch, whatever."
Izuku opened his mouth to reprimand Bakugo, but Uraraka beat him to it.
"That's not very nice, Katsuki."
Bakugo straightened, before sighing. "Fine, I shouldn't have called you that, Ballhead."
Iida chopped his arm. "You just insulted him again, is this any way for a hero-in-training to behave? What will the other students think of us?"
Bakugo shrugged. "I don't really care, Glasses."
More arm chopping commenced, with Iida arguing back while Bakugo ignored him.
"So, this is what the hero course is like?"
A lavender-haired boy with a striking resemblance to Aizawa pushed his way to the front of the crowd.
Basically, he looked like he hadn't slept in a few years.
"An arrogant ass, a sanctimonious loudmouth and a shrinking violet." The lavender-haired boy looked at them with contempt.
"Oi, don't talk to them like that!" Kirishima stepped forward. "It ain't manly at all!"
"A Crimson Riot knockoff."
The lavender-haired haired boy pointed at Jiro.
"A wannabe punk rocker."
Then Momo.
"A socialite."
Before finally Todoroki.
"And the No.2 Hero's kid who definitely didn't get in on nepotism."
This got the crowd riled up again, insults being thrown at the gathered members of 1-A.
"Enough!"
The crowd stopped.
Izuku took a step forward, looking the lavender-haired boy in the eyes. "You want to be a hero, don't you? Is this any way for a hero to act?""
The lavender-haired boy's face showed shock, the first expression he'd had other than carefully projected apathy. "How did you know?"
"You feel bitter, jealous of us, so you lash out." Izuku lowered his voice until only the lavender-haired boy could hear him. "I've been there, I know what it feels like when everyone else seems to have the perfect hero quirk."
"How can you?" The boy replied, his tone practically venomous. "I've heard about you, the one with the insanely powerful copy quirk, how can you ever have felt the same way?"
Izuku spoke again. "I didn't know I had a quirk until the day of the Entrance Exam."
The lavender-haired boy recoiled. "You thought you were quirkless?"
"Er, yeah, pretty much." Izuku rubbed the side of his neck. "I knew I had, something, but the Entrance Exam was the first time I ever used my quirk, a quirk in general."
The lavender-haired boy frowned at Izuku's odd word choice, but brushed it aside.
"So?" The boy shrugged, before raising his voice so everyone could hear. "It doesn't matter, the Sports Festival isn't just a place for you lot to show off to pros, but a place for non-hero students to show off to the U.A. faculty, if we impress them, then there's a chance we'll get moved up to the hero course."
The wave of murmurs shot through 1-A.
The lavender-haired boy raised an arm and formed a thumbs down. "Of course, that means one of you hero course chancers gets demoted to make way."
The murmurs grew in volume and quantity, the crowd joining in as well.
"Basically, don't get comfortable, I'm coming for your seat at the table."
A loud pop silenced everyone, all eyes turning towards Bakugo.
"You can try, Eyebags." Bakugo glared at the lavender-haired boy. "But whatever shitty quirk you got can't hold a candle to mine."
"So, not just an arrogant ass, you're a braggart too."
"It's ain't bragging if it's true, it's just stating a fact." Bakugo took a step forward.
Izuku resisted the urge to sigh, he knew whatever Kacchan would say next, probably something about how much stronger he was than the rest of 1-A, would go down like a lead balloon.
"Besides, don't come looking for a seat here." Bakugo groused, before jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "These losers are more than enough to take on the lot of you."
Izuku couldn't help but shed a few stray tears, that was the nicest he'd ever heard the blond boy say. "K-Kacchan-"
Kirishima slammed his fists together. "Bakugo, he's so manly, supporting his classmates."
Kaminari frowned. "He called us losers."
"We've all faced down villains, and won, that's more than I can say about you." Bakugo growled. "If you want to crow about how you're going to take a seat, go do it to 1-B, at least you stand a chance there."
With that, Bakugo pushed his way through the crowd, towards the lunch hall.
"Oi, you class A lot really are arrogant! I'm Tetsutetsu from 1-B!" A silver-haired boy called out from the crowd. "We'll show you 1-B is more than a match for you at the sports festival!"
The blond-haired boy pulled Tetsutetsu back, a permanent smirk on his face. "Calm down."
"Calm down? That bastard was slandering us!" Tetsutetsu argued.
The blond-haired boy shrugged. "So what, we'll show him and the rest of his arrogant classmates how much better we are at the Sports Festival. But first…"
His eyes zeroed in on the green-haired boy.
"Izuku Midoriya."
26 April 2179
Mikumo took a step backwards, he was in his gym uniform, the jacket tied around his waist, white tee smudged with oil and grease.
Before him was the SHTR Mark Alpha-II, an upgrade from the Mark Alpha-I he'd used during the USJ incident, as the press had labelled it.
The α-II included the same gauntlets as the α-I, including the Shield and Foam variants, as well as new Spear and Booster Arms, the latter had a matching pair of boots alongside the originals.
The chest armor and default boots remained largely the same, while the visor had been taken back to the drawing board, redesigned to swap the plastic display to a hard light hologram projected from the two temple pieces.
Extra armor had been added in the form of shoulder armor, with repulsors to stabilise the Booster gauntlets and boots as well as upper arm and thigh armor, with strength-enhancing repulses.
Finally, a heavily reinforced backplate had been added, primarily for when he landed on his back, similar to a motorcyclist's.
Mikumo's eyes reflected the glow from the main repulsor in the chestpiece.
"1-A, 1-B, I'm sorry, but I'm coming for one of your seats."
Aoyama twirled on the spot, his naval laser cutting a falling concrete pillar into small pieces.
"My turn!"
Ashido slid past, flicking acid from her hand, hitting the concrete pieces and melting them to nothing before they could hit the ground.
Aoyama struck a pose and winked. " Merci, rosâtre ."
A fragment of pillar, missed by Ashido's acid, landed on his head. The blond boy's face fell, before he slowly fell backwards.
"Aoyama!" Ashido slid on her acid over to her classmate.
Aoyama looked up at the pink-skinned girl from where he lay, his eyes unfocused. "Do you think I'm a star?"
"I think I'm taking you to Recovery Girl."
" Oui !"
Tsuyu heard the buzzer.
The green-haired girl pushed off the edge of the pool and into the water, darting through it. Her eyes locked onto the small robot dragonfly, her target, before shooting her tongue out to wrap it around the drone.
Crouching down on the bottom of the pool, Tsuyu jumped, breaking the surface of the water and landing at the side of the pool, her target still held by her tongue.
3.43 seconds.
Tsuyu tossed the drone back into the pool.
"Again, kero."
The buzzer sounded.
Uraraka stood in the middle of Gym Gamma, cubes of concrete floating all around her as she held a handstand, her arms trembling as she focused on keeping both herself up and her quirk active at the same time.
Five minutes.
The brown-haired girl sighed in relief.
"Release!"
Uraraka dropped out of her handstand as the concrete cubes came crashing down around her, most of them shattering on impact.
Cementoss nodded at Uraraka, giving her a thumbs up.
Uraraka smiled, returning the thumbs up.
"Again, Mr. Ishiyama."
"On it."
The concrete rubble liquidised, sinking into the ground and rising back out as fresh cubes, ready for Uraraka to use.
"Thanks!"
Iida was in a crouch, his engines warming up, next to him was Ojiro, flexing his tail.
"GO!"
The navy-haired teen fired his engines at first gear, and pushed off.
Ojiro slammed his tail down on the ground, shooting forwards.
Iida quickly climbed to third gear, but he was still slipping behind Ojiro, the blond-haired boy pushing off the lamp posts of the mock city.
Determination fueling him, Iida forced himself up to fifth gear, and then beyond.
Iida accelerated massively, his engine ports showing a few flickers of blue as he quickly passed Ojiro, and then the finish line a few seconds later.
Skidding to a halt, Iida turned to see Ojiro landing, his tail cushioning him.
"Nice one, Iida." Ojiro smiled, nodding his head.
Iida bowed to the other boy. "Thank you, however, in a non-linear course you would have beat me."
Ojiro chuckled. "Iida, you shouldn't keep putting yourself down."
Iida bowed. "I apologise."
"And apologising all the time."
Iida bowed. "I apologise."
Kirishima took a deep breath, before hardening his whole body, at 50% of his full power, trading the rest in for area.
The red-haired boy pitched forwards, his arms crossed in front of him.
Kirishima fell, plummeting six stories and slamming into the ground, a massive cloud of dust and tarmac fragments flying in every direction.
Jumping up, Kirishima released a whoop of joy as his quirk receded.
"Indiscriminate Shock, 1.2 Million Volts!"
Kaminari released a torrent of electricity, arcing out in every direction.
The electricity slowly subsided, showing Kaminari, on the verge of frying his brain, his face slack.
"Yay?"
Koda blocked Sato's punch, before evading the knee to his chest.
Sato took a step back. "You know, you really need to throw a few punches of your own."
Koda shook his head slightly, before signing. " What if I hurt them? "
Sato released a booming laugh. "That's kinda the point of punching someone."
Jiro stood in front of a mechanical mannequin, one of her earphone jacks raised.
It suddenly lashed out, hitting the mannequin's wrist, the area lighting up green and a buzz sounding. Jiro's other jack struck, directly in the mannequin's neck.
A louder buzz sounded, the area flashing red for a few seconds.
"Damn it."
Jiro retracted her jacks, collecting herself before going again.
Two green lights.
Jiro smirked.
"Now, let's do three."
Sero swung through the streets, firing his tape non-stop, never slowing.
"Hey there, you might be wondering why I'm swinging around like this. Well, I'm training for the U.A. Sports Festival-"
"Stop narrating, I can hear all of it."
Sero glanced up to see Shoji standing on the edge of a building, one foot on the small wall, his six arms fanned out, a gentle rush of air slightly ruffling his hair.
"You majestic octopus man."
"I can hear that too."
Tokoyami stood in the middle of a baseball pitch, Dark Shadow materialised in front of him.
"Now."
Floodlights blazed into life, bathing Tokoyami and Dark Shadow from every direction.
Dark Shadow shrank backwards. "Make it stop."
"Dark Shadow, we need to be stronger, right?" Tokoyami's eyes met his familiars.
"R-Right." Dark Shadow answered shyly, the light making him timid.
Tokoyami clenched a fist. "Then this is how we do it."
"Okay." Dark Shadow turned back towards the light, forcing himself to withstand it.
Shoto stood in Gym Alpha, slowly melting ice constructs all around him.
He was breathing heavily, the skin on his right side frosted over.
"It's your power, Shoto. Use it."
Endeavor gave you that scar, I know it, and he framed mom for it! I'll make you admit it!"
Flames flickered along Shoto's left arm.
The teen clamped down on them, stopping them
Could Toya be right? Am I blaming mother for something that the bastard drove her too? She burned me because that side of me looked like him.
Taking a steadying breath, Shoto slammed his right foot, creating another ice mountain, re-freezing himself in the process.
Katsuki glared at the obstacle course before him, before jumping into the air and igniting his palms, using a near-constant stream of explosions to hover through the air, dodging walls and tires by angling his palms.
Nerd, I'm sorry for what I did, but that doesn't mean I'm not gonna crush you in the Sport Festival, I'll crush them all!
Landing, Katsuki rolled and kept running, sending explosions at the mannequins lined up at either side of him.
I'll crush the whole damn world, I'll make the shitty fucks of the world irrelevant!
Katsuki smirked.
Mineta lifted the smoothie up, drinking down the entire blender's worth, before lowering it.
"Let's try this again."
Running forwards, Mineta grabbed one of his spheres from his scalp and threw it on the ground, before jumping and landing on it with one foot.
Mineta angled his bounce, aiming for moderate height and long distance as he tossed down another sphere.
He bounced again, repeating the process until he misjudged a bounce and ended up sprawled out in the dirt.
Midnight cracked her whip. "Fifteen!"
Mineta nodded, scrambling to his feet.
Momo held out both of her arms, concentrating as the telltale glow of her quirk covered them.
Hardened metal rose out of every pore, coating her arms entirely.
Stopping her quirk before her creation was fully pushed out of her skin, Momo flexed her arms, testing to see she still had full range of motion.
Satisfied, the dark-haired girl turned her focus to the massive concrete pillar.
A punch struck the pillar, a small spider web of cracks radiating out from the point of impact.
Examining the damage, Momo nodded her head.
Another punch deepened the cracks, one more causing fragments of concrete to fly off it.
Taking a step back, Momo surveyed the damaged pillar. It wasn't as much as much as Izuku's immense strength, or Kirishima's offensive defense.
It was a work in progress, but as her ace-in-the-hole for the Sports Festival, it would do the job.
28 April 2179
Aizawa returned his bottle of eyedrops to his pocket, blinking rapidly as he walked to his next class, Underground Heroics with 3-B.
"On your left."
The true form of the No.1 Hero passed him, jogging at a pace normal people would call sprinting, dressed in an All Might tracksuit.
Aizawa rolled his eyes.
"On your left."
The problem child of 1-A jogged past Aizawa, only a few seconds behind his mentor, dressed in a matching All Might tracksuit.
Aizawa rolled his eyes again, continuing to walk towards Ground Beta, along the side of Gym Beta.
"On your left."
All Might ran past him, still at the same blistering speed.
"On your left."
Followed by the green-haired menace Aizawa insisted he wasn't becoming fond of.
(He was.)
30 April 2179
Izuku laid back on the bench, gripping the bar and lifting.
Activating his Strength and Speed quirks, the latter giving a 9.2 times boost, Izuku lifted the 300kg with blinding speed, his arms a blur.
1 May 2179
The morning light cast long shadows over Dagobah Beach.
Izuku grunted as he dragged the carcass of a burnt-out truck along the sand, two ropes tied across his chest, straining even with the eight times enhancement his Strength quirk provided him.
Reaching his clearing zone, Izuku let the ropes go slack, collapsing into the sand.
All Might released a booming laugh as he picked up the truck, resting it on one shoulder and giving Izuku a thumbs up.
The green-haired boy looked up, returning All Might's gesture with a shaky thumbs up if his own.
3 May 2179
Izuku stood in same athletics field that Aizawa had used for the Quirk Apprehension Test, specifically, in the circle for the ball throw.
Reaching out, Izuku turned off all his passive quirks, minus Perfect Recall.
Tightening his grip around the ball, Izuku pulled his arm back and threw the ball, releasing the largest unenhance explosion he could produce.
The ball soared through the air, propelled by the explosion from Izuku's palm.
"202.7 meters."
Izuku nodded to himself, satisfied this the 10-meter improvement he'd made.
I know I can't replicate the ten years of power training that Kacchan has had, but technique, that's something I can improve.
Grabbing another ball from the waist-high basket at his side, Izuku threw it, another explosion propelling it.
"207.8 meters."
Izuku threw another ball.
"208.5 meters."
Another.
"210.6 meters."
4 May 2179
Izuku stood in the middle of Gym Alpha, a mannequin placed ten meters away from him.
The green-haired boy raised his right arm, his fingers ready to flick.
Electricity coursed through his body, filling every cell, Kaminari's quirk, he copied it the day before, with the blond boy's permission of course.
Charging up One For All, at 50%, in his middle finger, Izuku activated Discharge Digits and flicked.
Or at least, he tried to activate Discharge Digits.
Izuku's finger bone cracked, electrified steam billowing from his hand instead of the intended effect.
Mihaze.
The quirk Izuku had copied from Azubaz, the villain who he'd slingshotted into the Shipwreck Zone during the USJ attack.
Izuku suppressed a cry of pain, holding his broken finger with his other hand.
"Damn it, I used the wrong quirk again."
"That's one of the drawbacks of copy-type quirks, I'm afraid."
Izuku turned, seeing a blond-haired body leaning against a concrete pillar he swore hadn't been there a minute earlier.
"You're from 1-B, right?" Izuku questioned.
"Oh yes, I am." The boy smirked. "Neito Monoma, and you're Izuku Midoriya, 1-A's class representative."
Izuku nodded. "So, you have a copy-type quirk as well?"
"Perhaps." Monoma answered.
"So that's a yes."
Monoma rolled his eyes. "You have no sense of mystery."
"I'm not a fan of uncertainty." Izuku looked Monoma in the eyes.
"So it would seem." Monoma shrugged. "You're struggling to keep your copied quirks straight, aren't you."
Izuku nodded hesitantly.
"You copy permanently, how many do you have in total?"
"Over a hundred, the Perfect Recall quirk only seems to work on memories, not on my quirkspace." Izuku answered.
Monoma's eyebrows shot up, before he quickly schooled his features. "Over a hundred, no wonder you can't keep them straight, I've never heard of copy-type with that many."
Izuku shuffled nervously. "How many do you have."
"I can manage three at once, four if I fancy a headache, five for a migraine, never tried six." Monoma paused. "I can only use one at a time, but you, you can use more than one at once."
Izuku nodded. "Er, y-yeah, I can."
"I want to know how you do it." Momoma smirked. "In return, I'll tell you how to keep your quirks straight."
Mulling it over in his head, Izuku hesitantly agreed. "O-Okay, I use more than one active quirk at once by picturing my base quirk as the battery in a parallel circuit, with each quirk I want to use on a seperate track of the circuit."
Monoma looked at him in disbelief. "I wanted an honest answer, not that drivel."
Izuku shook his head. "That's really how I do it. Try it, oh, and imagine resistors in series with the quirk, if you raise resistance to one quirk, it'll be less powerful and the other will be more powerful."
Monoma gave a shrewd look, but relented, turning his attention inwards, face screwed up in concentration.
A few seconds Monoma's right fist began to grow, stopping at about a meter in width, a second later the entirety of Monoma's body took on a metallic sheen.
The blond-haired boy examined his body with excitement, a little of disbelief mixed in, reducing his fist size, the metallic sheen becoming more defined, harder. "You weren't lying after all, I'm impressed, such a simple solution."
Izuku shrugged, uncomfortable at receiving praise from the aloof teen.
Monoma cancelled his quirks, straightening. "A deal is a deal. You need to assign a familiar word or feeling to each quirk, kind of like a mnemonic."
"Huh, that's kind of simple too."
Monoma smirked, his expression smug. "Quite."
Izuku gathered his concentration, quickly finding Electrification, forcing himself to associate the letter A with, doing the same with the letter B for Discharge Digits.
Raising his arm to point at the mannequin, Izuku took a steadying breath.
A - Electrification. B - Discharge Digits.
Electricity surged through Izuku's body, a second pool forming in his right hand.
The power provided by Electrification drained into his hand, Discharge Digits acting as a lightning rod.
"Parallel Circuit: Finger of Thor!"
Izuku summoned One For All 50% in his finger and flicked.
A gust of wind blew past the mannequin before a thick bolt of greenish-blue electricity fired from Izuku's now broken finger, exploding the torso of the mannequin and scorching the rest.
Izuku lowered his hand, finger stinging as Hyper Regeneration began its work.
"Wow." Izuku turned to face Monoma. "Did you see th…"
Monoma was gone, the door to Gym Alpha slowing swinging shut.
"Oh."
5 May 2179
Izuku pulled the laces of his red hi-tops tight.
Standing, the green-haired boy slipped on his U.A. blazer.
He turned his head to look at a poster, proudly hung over his desk, his mind thinking back over the last few weeks.
Bakugo's confidence.
Uraraka's fierce determination.
Iida's respect for Ingenium.
The purple-haired boy's declaration of war.
Monoma's quiet intensity.
Momo's ingenuity and resolve.
All Might's faith in him.
Izuku understood it now, what he had to do.
His fist tightened, his eyes staring at the All Might poster.
"All Might, I won't let you down." Izuku paused. "I will definitely win the Sports Festival."