The Sports Festival Arc: Preparation Begins, The U.A Sports Festival!
Inko Midoriya sighed as she looked at the phone in front of her. So far she'd avoided calling her husband, the last time they spoke he'd mentioned he was going to be busy and soon after Izuku found herself in terrifying moment after terrifying moment. She'd rather not worry him when he's dealing with work but he was going to see her soon, he'd see what she can do, he'd see how much she changed, he'd investigate what had happened to her, he'd find out either way.
She needed to be the one to tell him about how their little girl didn't just one day have a quirk.
Inko picked up the phone and started to dial a number she'd only ever hesitated to dial once before. For the second time in her life his cell number made her nervous, made her feel guilty. She brought the phone up to her ear and swallowed as it rang once, twice...
"Inko, my parakeet, how are you tonight... or is it daytime for you?"
"Hisashi, it's nice to hear your voice... I... do you have a moment, somewhere you can sit?"
"Now!" Momo shouted as she formed a mirror in front of herself and hid behind it.
"Guided Sparkle!" Yuga said as launched his navel laser at Toru, staying behind cover as best he could to prevent being shot. The Laser hit the invisible girl and she closed her eyes concentrating, The laser entered her before shooting out at a different angle. Snipe ducked low and shot three rubber bullets in Toru's direction.
They had been fighting their teachers for a week, this was their final session before the festival. After each attempt, both classes would go over what they did, go over each other's quirks to try and strategies, what worked, what didn't. Every day they came a bit closer to landing a hit...
They were determined to land at least one.
"Get him!"
Momo held her hands to her stomach and created a pair of stun grenades. As Snipe re-orientated himself she primed and threw them at the gun carrying hero. The resulting flash of light and earsplitting bang further disorientated the hero, letting Mezo get in close with Fumikage on his back, hidden by Mezo's arms and webbing along with a blanket Momo had created earlier.
This kept the light created by the grenades from affecting him too much and put enough shade over him to give him a small power boost.
"Dark Shadow!" Fumikage said as his quirk formed from his chest and lashed out with both hands. Snipe aimed his gun at Fumikage, trying to lock onto him with his quirk when Setsuna came out from behind a rock and split herself into numerous pieces, flying in between Dark Shadow and Snipe. Snipe smirked under his mask, he could barely see as it was, trying to make out which blurs were which.
They couldn't stop his quirk from increasing his accuracy... so they made it a crapshoot as to whether or not he'd lock onto the right thing. "Not bad."
Dark Shadow's fists came closer, and he grinned behind his mask. "But this old cowboy still has a few aces in hand." He said before bringing a hand down to his belt and unclipping a smoke grenade. It hit the ground and immediately started to expel smoke in every direction.
"We lost him!" Fumikage shouted as Dark Shadow came back to him empty-handed.
"Damn it, Kyoka!" Setsuna said as she pulled herself out of the smoke and put herself back together.
"On it!" She said before stabbing her earjacks into the ground, listening for footsteps. "He's heading in your direction Koji."
The quiet boy gulped and nodded. His quirk wasn't much help here, there weren't many animals nearby save a few pigeons. That meant he had to fight himself and while he was strong... he wasn't used to it. Still, he nodded and got himself ready, looking around for their teacher. He just had to keep him from taking him out or using him to hurt his friends.
He clenched his fists, thinking about the tips Mashirao, Rikido, Nirengeki, and Itsuka. How to use his large frame, how to fight, and how to use his head. He held his breath and clenched his jaw, waiting for a sign of where Snipe was coming from. He was alone for a reason.
"Later ki-"
There are only a few pigeons nearby, and they were already under his control.
"Get him!" Koji yelled as he spun and lunged at Snipe as the pigeons that had escaped into the building flew in through the ventilation and attacked with him. It was a momentary confidence boost to see Snipe falter slightly at the fact Koji was, in fact, a good two inches taller and much wider.
It didn't last and rubber bullets struck his bird friends before Snipe put a boot into his stomach.
Koji tried to catch Snipe's foot but their teacher was faster, pulling back and slamming a roundhouse kick into the back of his right hand. As Koji tried to suck in a breath a laser shot by his shoulder and knocked the teacher's hat off of his head. There was a moment of silence as the hat fell to the ground, revealing their teacher's hair was braided into cornrows on the top of his scalp before they were braided into dreadlocks.
"... Pardon me a moment." Snipe said before planting a boot into Koji's face to knock him onto his back and opening fire in the direction the laser had come from. From the rapid-fire apologies reaching Koji's ears, it seemed Yuga had managed that shot on his own. Koji grit his teeth and picked himself back up before lunging at the hero.
"Damn it!" Katsuki said as he threw his weight behind a right hook, striking a red punching bag with an open palm. It took them a week just to land a punch on All-Might, a Single Punch, and it wasn't even his fist, it was one of the kids from Class 1-B, Sen Kaibara. The plan had been for him to land a hit with his arm spinning at full speed while All-Might was in the air, with any luck it would dig into his back a bit and cause All-Might himself to start spinning.
That, along with Katsuki firing a blast up at them would have had All-Might spinning on two axes and possibly leaving him open to a few heavier hits while also giving them time to try and go reinforce the others. Instead, All-Might punched the air so hard, he flew backward and slammed back into Sen, who then flew into Katsuki just before the blast could go off.
Izuku said something about the punch being so fast the air in front of him got pressurized, then in the process of expanding back to normal pushed All-Might backward. Katsuki still wasn't sure how the hell that worked and even four hours after they'd been sent back to the dorms Izuku still couldn't explain the math behind it.
The teachers said that they weren't expected to win, just to get smarter with each fight, to get better at using their quirks. In addition, they'd been recorded in the fights, with the recordings sent to the Support classes to give them new ideas on how to help bridge the gap as well as come up with gear that would allow them to keep up during the festival. The goal of the fights was ensuring when it was time for the First Years to put on a show for the Sports Festival, it would be more intense than any other.
But that didn't make him feel any better. All he felt was just how far away from his goal he really was. He wanted to be the greatest hero there ever was and he couldn't even land a single hit on the current number one.
It was infuriating!
"Damn it, Damn it, Damn it!" Katsuki yelled, accenting each pause with another strike against the punching bag. Three years, they had three years to try and match up, to leave U.A. as a hero already on par with them. No-one would be able to question just how amazing he was going to be, no villain would ever be able to take him down, he would be the strongest hero that ever lived!
"Damn it!"
He hit the punching bag and the sweat on his hand exploded, scorching the bag and launching it off of the hook it had been hanging from. Katsuki looked at his hands and growled, nothing was going according to plan. Everything had been going pear-shaped for any plan he made ever since Izuku...
He shook his head and grabbed fistfuls of his own hair, just thinking about it hurt.
After that, he rewrote his plans to include her by his side, keep her safe, for both of them to become heroes. He started planning out how to be a better hero, found out what sort of videos she watched and went over her journals. All-Might was more than just victorious in a fight, he rallied the heroes around him into working harder and was as much of a leader as a fighter.
Still, being nice wasn't easy, it came to Izuku easily but he wasn't as patient as she was or as forgiving. When people did stupid shit it felt right to call them out on it, if nothing else to make them realize they shouldn't do it again. When someone insulted him it felt right to make it clear that doing so was a stupid thing to do, because you never know when someone is actually a villain in civilian clothes.
Having other people around him helped more than he'd like to admit, watching how they corrected each other, the words they used. If there was one thing he'd picked up from Izuku even before he realized how terrible he was being towards the girl, it was how to be observant, how it helped.
Not to mention a few of their friends were hilarious when they lost their patience with a particularly stupid person. Hitoshi is a sarcastic savage and Mei asking people to help her advertise how useful her inventions are because they're so naturally inept at doing something basic is a riot.
But he couldn't really do that, he had a hair-trigger temper and he honestly didn't understand how the hell people kept from snapping other people's necks off. Lately, he'd tried containing it, but goddamn it was hard to keep from knocking idiots upside the head. It wasn't like he was trying to just be mean, he was just trying to put a negative connotation to whatever stupid thing had just happened so they wouldn't want to do it again.
Wasn't his fault people didn't understand if you get hit across the head for attempting to do something that maybe it's not a good idea!
Katsuki clenched his fists, he had a feeling Mr. Aizawa wouldn't take that as an acceptable answer. Hell, he was having trouble justifying it to himself these days. He walked over to the punching bag and picked it up to put it back on its hook. He flashed back to a time when he'd grabbed a still living Izuku by her shirt collar after knocking her down and dropped the bag.
He could still make out the burns, the fresh trails of tears crossing her cheeks, the look of betrayal in her eyes. Katsuki scrambled away from the punching bag and fell, hitting the back of his head on the ground. "Fucking damn it!" He said as he reached up and put his hands over the back of his head. He could hear the door of the gym swing open before footsteps were rushing towards him.
"Hey, you alright Bakubro?"
Katsuki turned towards the voice and his eyes immediately noticed bright red, spiked hair. Eijiro Kirishima, the kid Tetsutetsu had met after the exam and fought beside him at the USJ, was holding his hand out to help him up. "Course I'm alright," Katsuki muttered under his breath as he picked himself up. He wasn't fine, but he hardly wanted to get into details with Shitty Hair. "Just forgot how sweaty my hands get if I don't use my quirk mid-combat."
Katsuki dusted himself off and went over to the punching bag, careful about how he picked it up. "Dude, you knocked it off the hook without your quirk? Talk about manly!"
"Shut up and help me put it back!"
Eijiro snorted and moved over to the other side of the punching bag, helping Katsuki carry it back to the hook. "So, what do you think Mr. Aizawa will surprise us with this time?"
"Probably something stupid..."
"Student Agencies!?"
"We're going to be working together!?"
"With the other classes!?"
Katsuki wanted to bang his head against the desk, he just had to open his big mouth.
"That's right, you've had time to enhance your skills, now you'll be working with members of the other courses her at U.A. in order to make a big show in the festival," Shota said as he looked at his class. Seeing the looks on their faces he pointed a device at the wall and it slid open to show a large screen. With a click of the device the screen turned on, showing a list of names. "Each of you will be assigned to a team of management, support, and general education students. This gives the students from the other courses a chance to use the publicity of the festival for their own ends rather than just being there to prevent 'favoritism'."
"The Management students get a chance to micromanage a group of people as well as come up with advertisements to better sell you to hero agencies looking for interns, giving them a taste of what it's like. Support students will get the chance to build tech for you to use either as a way to enhance your skills or cover your weak spots, as well as learn how to prioritize tasks as they'll only have until the Sports Festival to create the tech your team will need," Shota explained as the screen showed a picture of All-Might, a man is a business suit, and a man with brown hair and classes in a lab coat. "As for the General Education students, they'll get a chance to help in all three other fields. The Sports Festival acts in U.A.'s interest by catching those in the General Education course who either had an off day or just weren't suited for fighting robots. They'll be able to act as agency heroes alongside you or help the support and management classes to prove they belong in a more specialized course."
A number of other high ranking heroes appeared on the screen, standing next to All-Might.
"I'm going to make this clear, you're not their boss and you're not the leader of the group, you're all rookies. You'll be paired off with a student from Class 1-B and the two of you will be on equal level with the support, management, and general studies students. You'll have to work with them to create a power structure if you even bother with one," Shota finished as he turned off the screen and the wall closed back up. "By now every other homeroom teacher has finished giving their class a similar speech, and Nezu is giving you all time to get to know your teams. After today you'll have to work with them on your own time, any questions?."
"How will we know which room to meet our teams in, sir?"
"There's a note in your desk, it has the room number you're assigned to for the day," Shota said as he zipped a yellow sleeping bag around himself and fell to the floor, asleep almost instantly. Katsuki pulled his head from his desk and ground his teeth, did he really have to work with not just another hero-in-training, but a bunch of idiots from the non-hero courses?
"Oi, Izuku, try not to scare the living daylights out of the people you get partnered with, and keep the blood to a minimum." Katsuki said as he opened his desk and found the paper. Class 1-P, a class closer to the second year building than he'd like. He didn't like being near people who thought they were better than him, even if they had every reason to be.
"So mean..."
"Fuck off Round Face you were thinking the same thing!"
"... True, but you shouldn't say it."
Katsuki rolled his eyes and walked out of the classroom, the quicker he met up with this group of extras, the quicker he could get away from them. Was he really expected to work with a bunch of people who couldn't even fight off a bunch of lame ass robots? Granted, he didn't exactly know anything about the normal entrance exam, but robots, seriously? Izuku might have gotten a little messed up but she'd fought the thing you're supposed to run away from and it wasn't like she took care to avoid getting hurt. "This is fucking stupid..."
He looked up to see Class 1-P in front of him and prepared to knock on the door when it exploded off it's hinges and slammed into his face. "Mthrfk!" He growled against the door as it slammed him into the opposite wall before he put his hands against it and set off his own quirk, launching the door back into the classroom. Screw the rules, screw the whole 'they're the same level as you' shit, He Was Going To Murder Someone!
"Holy shit!"
"What the fuck!?"
"Awwww, I wanted Izu-chan... Oh well, I guess you'll do."
That last voice was painfully familiar. "Oh fuck all of this." Katsuki said as the smoke died down enough for him to see Mei Hatsume holding what looked like a cartoonishly large barreled rifle. "They put you on my team, do they want to collapse this shitty place?"
Mei just shrugged as the other members of their team peeked out from the edges of the ruined doorway. "I guess if anyone's going to get the attention of the investors, it'll be the loudest person, it's going to be boring making babies with someone I've already practiced with before though."
"Excuse me!?"
Katsuki looked to the side to see a girl with green eyes and long, vine like hair. "B-Babies, out of wedlock, have I been abandoned in a den of sinners."
"Oh fuck you."
"Such foul language!"
"Oh, I'll take her, I can already imagine the sort of babies we'll make together!"
"H-How dare you, not only is that not appropriate it's not possible!"
Mei laughed. "Oh you'd be surprised the sort of babies I can make..."
"Would you fucking call them what they are already!?" Katsuki shouted before turning back to the girl with vines for hair. "She means support gear, she considers her creations 'babies'. I'm Katsuki Bakugo, she's Mei Hatsume, I don't know the rest of these extras, you got a name?"
"... I see... Lord give me patience." The girl said before looking at Katsuki. "I am Ibara Shiozaki of Class 1-B, shall we get started?"
Katsuki had a feeling he was going to need a lot of curry to deal with these two, and he still had the rest of his 'team' to meet... he just hoped the others were having as much trouble as he was.
"So, you're the little zombie girl from Class 1-A huh, cool, names Setsuna Tokage!" Setsuna said as she held out her hand for a handshake.
"Izuku Midoriya, nice to meet you!" Izuku said as she reached out and took Setsuna's hand.
A loud click emanated from Izuku's bracelet as Setsuna pulled her arm back while disconnecting her hand, causing both of their hands to fall to the floor as blood dripped from Izuku's arm. "Oh n-holy Crap are you okay!?"
"... Did I mess up?" Izuku said as the other students in the class started screaming, muscle strings pulling her hand back onto her arm.
Katsuki sat back in a chair as Mei spoke with their general education classmates, finding out more about their quirks and writing down ideas on how to enhance their quirks or at least counter their weaknesses. He looked at his fellow hero classmate from Class 1-B, who seemed to be talking with the management students about how to best sell the group. He wasn't good at dealing with other people and if they had things locked down he was good with hanging back for now, he'd move to take the reigns when it came time to focus on battle tactics.
"Excuse me, you're our team member from class 1-A, right?"
He looked over to his left to see a boy about half his height, an ugly son of a bitch with small eyes and the nose and ear structure of a bat. The boy opened up his mouth to speak and Katsuki noted he also had the jaw structure of a bat. The only human things about his face was the color of his skin and his hair, which he'd tied into a topknot. "My quirks Microbat, makes me good at search and rescue... not the best at combat though..."
"You got a point?" Katsuki said as he looked at the kid, looked to be from the General Education course. If he managed to get into U.A. he couldn't be an idiot, even if it was the easiest course to get in to.
"I want to help, but not as a paper runner, as a hero!"
"Oh?" Katsuki said as he looked at the boy. He didn't look particularly strong, and he was giving him a glare as if challenging Katsuki to say no or something... well if that's how they want to play it. "Can you think fast?"
"Thi-grk!" The boy barely started his next sentence before Katsuki thrust a fist into his gut, making all conversation in the room stop. The boy fell to his knees grabbing his stomach and looked up to level a more open glare at Katsuki, who just popped his neck and looked over his fist. Whatever this was he had to nip it at the bud and while maybe one of the others could have been nicer about it... he's still working on the nice part, and they don't have time to play around. "Th-The hell!?"
Katsuki began to pop his knuckles, one by one. "You said your quirk is Microbat, right, I'm guessing this annoys the hell out of this big ass ears of yours." He said as he continued to pop his joints. The boy winced subtly with each pop, and once he'd popped each knuckle in his hand Katsuki moved on to other joints. "Enhanced hearing, fangs, that nose... search and rescue via echolocation and smell to find injured civilians and villains, right?"
He popped his shoulders, then his elbows. "Bats don't have hollow bones, but they're thinner than comparably sized animals to help keep their weight down while not giving up too much skeletal strength. They also have a damn quick muscle system, especially around their larynx." He said as he popped the knuckles of his toes in his shoes. "But against robots, fast muscles and thin bones aren't helpful, neither is echolocation... this is your one shot at being in the hero course."
Katsuki held his left hand up and let off a small crackles, no louder than firework poppers. "I don't see much sweat on you, or smell it for that matter. I'm no bloodhound but I know the smell of it damn well given how often I push myself in the gym." He said as he glared down at the bat-like boy. "Yet you want to fight along side us when we've been training our bodies since before we even applied for U.A."
"So if you want to put on a good show and get in... we're going to have to get you started..." Katsuki said, getting a confused look from the boy. "Yeah... Hey, Thorny Nun, you up for training these losers into something half-decent in time for the festival?"
Ibara glared at the explosive blond and his nickname for her before straightening her shoulders. "I see no issues with that plan of action."
"You hear that, you losers are about to get tutored into badasses!" Katsuki said as a grin stretched across his face. The boy found himself gulping at the look on Katsuki's face. "Better hope you're ready."
The boy bit back his fear and nodded, getting a chuckle from Katsuki as he started to go over a few tactics they could use in his head.
"You punched him!?"
"Oh please, I tell you to keep the blood to a minimum and you cut off your own hand!" Katsuki said as he laid on top of Izuku while she did pushups, a bottle of water in his hand. He cracked the cap and opened the bottle, taking a drink as Izuku continued to do pushups underneath him. Normally that wouldn't mean much but he was wearing a weighted vest, arm weights, and ankle weights as he rehydrated, putting a decent amount of weight on her as she forced herself to failure. Once she was done he'd practice using his quirk to fly and maneuver with the extra weight.
If he could fly with the extra weight, then he'd move on to carrying around a dummy to make sure he could use airborne escape routes without burning whoever he was evacuating. If he could get that down, he'd smooth the flight out with one of his classmates and their input.
"It was supposed to be funny, and the other hero student did it too!"
"They what!?"
Hitoshi groaned from the other bar, where he was doing pull-ups. "Damn it, she got Setsuna… Her quirk is Lizard Tail Splitter, it lets her cut herself to pieces and telekinetically control every piece, as well as put herself back together or just regrow parts of her body if she loses something." He said as he pulled himself up to the bar and pressed his chest against it. He then lowered himself down slowly and continued. "She's a recommendation student like us, but came in through the normal testing process. She's got a head for tactics and isn't afraid to play dirty."
"She also has green hair." Tetsutetsu said as he and Eijiro sat across from each other, both of them holding dumbbells and punching each other's fists with their quirks active. Katsuki stiffened and turned to look at the metallic boy as his eye started to twitch. Green hair, quirk involves breaking into pieces and growing them back... Katsuki groaned and looked at Hitoshi.
"Did they fucking put Izuku with someone whose quirk naturally does everything that Izuku forces her body to do, and just so happens to share a resemblance with her?"
Hitoshi stopped mid push-up at Katsuki's comment, just in time for Ochaco to float over his head while covering her mouth. "I mean... if Izuku was flirty, taller, had sharp teeth... Oh god they paired her up with an older sister figure."
The grip Momo had on her burger tightened at Hitoshi's words, causing a tomato slice to shoot out and slap Tenya on the cheek. Tenya, who was running on the treadmill, managed to keep himself from being thrown off and kept running as he peeled the tomato from his face. "That was rather intelligent of them, by having us work with people we can get along with on a personal level, our classes will be able to grow more effectively together!" Tenya said as he tossed the piece of tomato into the nearby trashcan. "As expected of our-"
"Izuku's hanging out with someone who regularly cuts her own limbs off by thinking it."
That sent Tenya to the wall as he froze up and launched him to the opposite wall, looking like the silhouette on an emergency exit sign. "... I realize now how that would be a problem." He said before he pulled himself from the wall and dusted himself off. Momo sighed and went back to her burger, a number of small objects of different sizes and materials forming from her body. "But I'm certain our teachers have thought of this as well!"
Izuku fell to the ground, mumbling into the floor as she tried to get in one last pushup but found her arms and chest unwilling to hold up her weight. Katsuki rolled off her back and helped her up. "I'm not that bad..."
"Your original costume idea had a cleaver... a cleaver." Hitoshi said as he dropped from the pull up bar. Izuku pouted a bit before she went over to a low bar, trapping her feet under it before lowering herself to the ground for sit-ups. Katsuki shook his head at the greenette's actions as he checked his weights. Once he was sure they were ready he waved at the group. "Huh, where are you going?"
"Flying practice Mind games."
"Oh ho, cause I haven't heard that one before, Cherry Bomb."
"Fuck you!"
Hitoshi exhaled through his nose and walked over to the dumbbells, picking a set for himself before doing curls. "So... we're all going to be facing each other, I don't think any of us got grouped up." Hitoshi said as he started working on his sets. "Speaking of that, I got partnered with a Rikido, any pointers?"
"He needs sugar to use his quirk, but he'll get tired the longer he uses it." Momo said between bites of her burger. She swallowed and created a small pouch in her hand. "I'd recommend limiting his sugar intake, while making sure anyone you bring along with you as sidekicks keeps some sugar on them in the event he runs out of his own but needs the extra power."
"Got it, who'd you get?"
"Kendo Itsuka."
"Her quirk makes her capable of expanding her hands, the process can add a lot of force to her punches and boosts her hands physical strength. You might turn her gay if you can make knuckledusters that can grow with her hands." Hitoshi said as he switched arms, smirking a bit as Momo coughed into the next bite of her burger. He didn't know why it felt good to make comments like that, but it got the others to laugh and the glare he got from Momo was half-hearted at best so he rolled with it. "In all seriousness, she's a frontline fighter with a head to tactics and our Class representative so you got lucky, if you got her though... who'd you get Tenya?"
"I've been placed one with Pony Tsunotori, she was quite eager to prove herself… though we had some difficulty communicating."
"Oh, she's one of our transfers from America, do you know English?" Tetsutetsu said as he slammed his fist against Eijiro's, the clang was noticibly quieter than before and Tetsutetsu noticed how fatigued his arms felt. He put down the weights in his hand as Tenya put his index finger and thumb to his chin.
"I might be passable thanks to a few visits my family's made to America for support deals. I'll try it next time we meet, thank you Tetsutetsu."
Izuku finished out her sit-ups as Tetsutetsu explained he'd been placed with an invisible girl, which meant he was with Toru, and decided to head outside. She could barely believe everything that had been happening so far. She was in UA, she got to fight actual villains, she had a quirk... She had friends, friends who she was training alongside for The Sports Festival itself, the biggest public hero event in Japan aside from The Ranking Announcements!
She squealed into her hands as she spun in place, she couldn't believe how well everything worked out in the end, if only she'd jumped sooner. "Hahaha, it's good to see a fellow trainee is such good spirits!"
Izuku blinked and looked up to see Mirio's head poking out of a wall. "Want to hang out?" The blond hero-in-training asked. "You can bring your friends, there's a sparring room not too far from here!"
"Are you sure?" Sorahiko said as he stood with Toshinori and Sir Nighteye, watching over Mirio as he interacted with Izuku and her friends. The three of them had been seeing each other a lot more often recently. It was tiring having to get up on a regular schedule again... but it felt right, like a bunch of instincts he'd been ignoring were finally being listened to. "Just an Hour?"
Toshinori nodded. "That fight took a lot out of me, and I was already out of time as it was. I pushed myself and aggravated my wound as a result, now I'm paying for it." Toshinori said as he turned to Sorahiko. It was good to see his mentor up and about, his help training the students for what was likely to come would be invaluable. "If One for All was still mine, then I'd probably get that time back with some rest, but with no fuel to burn it's only going to go downhill."
Sorahiko nodded, while he'd been rather angry Toshinori proceeded to ignore his demand and found a successor himself... he could have done a lot worse than Mirio, the boy was good in ways that reminded him of Nana. He'd given the blond idiot a piece of his mind, but had deemed the boy acceptable in the end. "Now we just need to find out where All for One is hiding, as well as ensure he won't get to Mirio before we're ready." He said as he put a hand on his chin. "Much as I hate to say it, you won't be able to live up to Nana's example in this scenario, if All For One is still around and he finds him, there's no way you'll be strong enough to hold him off while the boy escapes."
Sir Nighteye nodded while Toshinori clenched his fists. "That's something we've already designed a plan for." Sir Nighteye said as he watched Mirio lead the students into a sparring room. They'd already been shown hw much further they had to go before they were ready to be pros, so Mirio's power would likely light another fire under their asses. They didn't have time to sit back and relax, not if All For One was alive and recreating the Nomu project. "Mirio and I have been looking for possible successors already, people in his age group that would fit in the event we need to transfer One For All away from him due to serious injury."
Toshinori choked on his own spit, as well as a bit of blood. Once his airway was cleared out he looked at his former sidekick. "You can't be serious, even if you found someone All For One would see the transfer, it's hardly subtle handing off your hair to someone." He said, smiling a bit at the reminder of how Mirio reacted to the process. He wondered if that's how Nana had felt when she gave him the strand of her hair.
"The delivery system is still being worked on, but we'll likely have an answer before Mirio's next internship with me. If not, we'll ask that he does errand work, keep him out of the spotlight." Sir Nighteye explained. At the moment they were looking into using samples of Mirio's DNA in darts, as well as possibly giving certain exceptional individuals samples of Mirio's DNA in small hard candies to eat in the event of an emergency. They weren't sure how long the samples would contain the capacity to transfer the power however, and there wasn't exactly a way to test it. Thankfully, Mirio understood how important it was to have these contingencies. "For now, we should focus on who we'd want to have One for All, who do we trust that kind of power with?"
"Toshinori might have reservations against it, but from what we've seen of that girl, Izuku might be worth considering." Sorahiko said. This drew looks from his two conversation partners, one curious while the other was horrified. Sorahiko held up his hand, closed into a fist, when Toshinori went to argue. Toshinori's mouth snapped shut and he shivered. "Before you said that aside from your fear of implying that she couldn't be a hero with her current power, she was perfect. Now we're not implying that, but instead implying she's capable of becoming an amazing hero on her own, one who could be trusted to keep the world safe in the event you and Mirio are defeated. On top of that, her quirk along with the power of One for All would be a sight to behold."
Sir Nighteye closed his eyes, then nodded. "He has a point, Toshinori. She makes a good Plan B."
"I'd rather avoid causing her more pain, the burden of One for All is great and she's been burdened enough by life as it is."
"She's planning to be a hero kid, there's no greater burden than that. Besides, you always talking about One for All as a great honor, what's different about her?"
Toshinori shook his head. "Make no mistake, it's as much an honor as a burden, one Mirio will learn to live with quickly, but he already chose a heavy burden for himself with his Hero Name." He said. "One he's already proven he can live up to. As much as it hurts to admit it, we don't know if she can handle that kind of pressure."
Sorahiko took a deep breath through his nose while Sir Nighteye watched Toshinori's face carefully. "First she seems perfect, now she's missing something... you said something similar about Mirio when you decided on him." He said as he watched confusion form on Toshinori's face. "When it was Mirio, you were worried that he didn't have the strength to wield One for All and began training him, but even then it took a while after he got it to build up the strength needed to use it safely."
"What are you implying?" Sorahiko said as he looked at Sir Nighteye, who looked as if he was trying to put a puzzle together.
"Not sure yet... we'll shelf her for now, who else do we think would make a good option?" Sir Nighteye said, making sure to keep that information in mind for later. "Surely there's others."
Toshinori shook his head. "None that I've noticed, while they're all likely to be good heroes... they just don't feel right, unlike these two." He said, something about them made the image he used for One for All, an inner flame, lean towards them as if blown by the wind. They were the perfect candidates, they just needed to be a bit stronger, both physically and mentally. Mirio was the closest of the two, but there was still the occasional twitch in Izuku's direction. "Those two... I can feel it in my gut."
"Your non-existent one?"
Toshinori gave Sorahiko a look. "You know what I mean, sensei."
The small, retired hero shrugged. "Anyway, we'll need to find more possible successors if we're going to use Sir Nighteye's plan. That means either you drop standards or we offer you to other schools." Sorahiko explained as he rummaged through his lunch bag, finding some still warm taiyaki. He took a bite and chewed for a bit to let the two think about it before swallowing. "We could play it off as randomizing your location, since apparently people will stop at nothing to try and get to you now. All for One certainly won't expect you to choose someone not from the same school you graduated and there's more than a few people who just didn't make the cut on recommendations who went elsewhere, they might be what you need."
"If I remember right, there was one student who denied U.A.'s recommendation acceptation and went to Shiketsu. His quirk is rather powerful, ad he seems genuine enough."
Toshinori gave a nod. "I'll ask Nezu if he thinks he can set it up, we've had students come from other schools to train with our Hero Course before, maybe we could return the favor with me as their chaperone."
"Good idea... I'm going to check on Mirio, ensure he's not going too hard on them."
"I'll go with you" Sorahiko said as he popped a few joints in his back. He let out a sigh and walked up to Sir Nighteye, cane in hand. "Might be a good idea to see what sort of boy I might be training alongside you."
The two made their way down the hall as Toshinori went to visit Nezu in his office. Once they turned a corner Sorahiko snorted. "So, do we have a real talk now?" He said. Sir Nighteye looked at the older man, who rolled his eyes. "Don't play dumb with me, I trained your mentor, I know what actual dumb looks like."
Sir Nighteye coughed into his hand, holding back a laugh at the small jab. Once he composed himself he started walking again, keeping his eyes forward. "Recently there's been a change in Mirio, a change I've noticed in Toshinori as well. At the moment it's rather subtle, but it's there." He explained as they walked. They were heading towards a viewing room that would allow them to see into the sparring room Mirio had chosen without alerting him to their presence. "I'm sure you've noticed it as well."
"Why don't you go first, sometimes an old man like me gets lost in the reminiscing and mixes facts ups." Sorahiko said, fishing out another taiyaki from his lunch bag and taking a bite out of it.
Sir Nighteye gave him a nod as he opened the door for him. "For one, Mirio has always focused his training on his quirk, mastering it, then he worked on physical training to ensure that he was capable even in the event his quirk wasn't useful." Sir Nighteye said as the two walked into the viewing room, closing the door behind him. "Lately however, Mirio has been far more interesting in physical training, putting his quirk training to the side unless it involves One for All. In addition, Toshinori demanded a certain level of strength from Mirio before the transfer, but despite knowing the sort of power needed to withstand the amount of recoil that much power has..."
"Toshinori gave him the power when he couldn't use it's full strength without causing injury, forcing Mirio to train with One for All in his body, strengthening the quirk as much as he strengthened himself." Sorahiko said. "You think there's a form of instability connected to One for All, one that Toshinori had and still has, one that Mirio is starting to have now that One for All is a part of his quirk."
"You've seen it too then?"
"Didn't want to, but it's hard to miss." Sorahiko said as they watched the fight in front of them. Mirio was dominating the fight, using his Permeation to avoid attacks and put himself in a position to use his opponents as shields or weapons. It was brutal, but efficient. "When Toshinori was carrying One for All, he was excited to train, as a test to see his limits I started to become more aggressive, started attacking him like he was a villain rather than a student... he just got more excited and trained even harder. Lately though he's afraid of me and looks back at those memories with fear, even before he passed the quirk on. If anything it started the moment he began looking for a successor."
"Now a lingering part of him feels this Izuku is a worthy successor, and Mirio's been keeping an eye on her as well." Sir Nighteye said. The first part of what they noticed made sense, One for All was a stockpiling quirk and, as a result, it's users would want to train and stockpile as much power as they could. What didn't make sense to him was why Mirio and Toshinori were still looking at Izuku like she was important to the continued existence of the quirk. He normally avoided looking too deep into the futures of his allies, especially after he did it with Toshinori and the man ignored his warnings, but something told him he'd need to take a good look at Mirio's future, as well as Izuku's. "I don't suppose you could take her as an intern after the festival."
"Hell no, at my age, damn girl has a record of dismembering herself for kicks, I'll have a heart attack."
Sir Nighteye sighed before jumping back from the glass they were watching the fight from as Izuku slammed into it. Mirio had decided to throw her into what he must of thought was a wall with One for All active, causing her to smash against the wall with enough force to break skin and bone, splattering blood around her.
"That was supposed to be a joke!" Sorahiko said as he dropped to the ground, grabbing his chest with his right hand as his left arm tensed. Sir Nighteye watched as Izuku's flesh stitched itself back together where it had broken, bones taking their normal shape underneath until she looked at she did before the throw, save a few extra stitch marks. "Sweet heavens that's terrifying to watch..."
Sir Nighteye looked into the girls eyes, despite her being unable to see him. There was a light in the girls eyes, an excitement he'd seen in Toshinori's eyes back when he was the mans sidekick. He only saw it in the mans eyes when a villain promised to be a challenge, something that would give him a workout and push him to be even a little bit stronger. He remembered times were Toshinori would ignore plans to rush into the fight instead, sprinting to a powerful villain and taking him on directly rather than through intelligent strategies for that extra challenge and, with it, physical exercise.
"... You saw it too, didn't you?" Sorahiko said, getting a nod from the green haired man as he fixed his glasses. "That need to get stronger, she has it just like he did."
"We should keep a closer eye on her, Mirio will accept that request easily enough." He said as he watched the girl throw herself back at Mirio, flying through his stomach. This time as she went through him she arced her leg back, surprising Mirio and making contact with the tip of his nose before he activated Permeation on his head before she could do any real damage. Mirio was grinning as he turned towards her, catching Tenya by the arm as the first year student rushed him. The boy struggled for a second before finding himself being thrown at Momo, who was trying to form what looked like a cannon. "Though whether or not that's a good thing remains to be seen."
Himiko walked into the makeshift arena that she'd been brought to. Her costume had been updated to facilitate her quirk's use in combat, now featuring a mask over the lower half of her face. A set of tubes connected to the collection system allowed her to drink blood as she collected it or keep it for later use, allowing her to transform mid-combat into various people. This was due to a discovery of the Doctors, during her recovery. He'd allowed her to drink a bit of the blood she'd collected from Izuku, using it as a bribe to get her to stay still as he put her back together... only for the blood to do exactly that.
As it turned out, her quirk did more than copy people's appearance, it allowed her to copy their quirks, albeit only for as long as she kept their form. Switching from form to form could be slow at times but the ability to use the quirks of those who oppose the League, in the hands of someone designed for infiltration... it was too big an advantage to let go to waste.
So, they started training her, helping her master her quirk, promising it would make her capable of getting to Izuku, Keeping Izuku.
She'd go along with it, they still trusted her. they couldn't blame her for failing, Izuku had more power than she'd realized, they all had more power than they'd realized, even All-Might. She also played it off tht having to fight in a stuffy place like the Fire Zone while covered in her quirk was difficult... it had worked, thankfully. Now she just needed to get stronger, more flexible with her quirk. A mass of black flesh, covered in writhing muscles as it stalked forward in four limbs, each tipped large spikes instead of feet.
"Engage."
Blood flooded into her mouth and she drank it, waves of excitement flooding through her system at the coppery taste. Her quirk activated and gray sludge exploded from her pores, wrapping around her and lifting her off of her feet. Her field of vision expanded, she was able to see both of her own shoulders at the same time and the world seemed just a bit flatter than she was used to, she had a metallic beak but could feel rows of teeth in her jaw, and she was huge. She rushed forward and slammed a pitch black fist into the Nomu in front of her and her syringe, hidden within her transformation, burst forth and pierced the creatures flesh. It howled and fought back but the various quirks in the blood she had drank kept her in one piece as she drained the creature dry.
The creature make a pitiful noise and she lifted it into the air, ripping it in half and letting what little blood was left in it spill onto her new face. She licked her beak with a coarse tongue. Another group of Nomu were released into the arena, mindless screeches filling the air as they rushed her. She lashed out, a single fist more than enough to send the new opponents flying into the arena's walls, syringes piercing through her transformation and drawing blood into her collection pack. She tugged on the tubes and pulled the syringes out of the Nomu, devices strapped to her arms reeling them back into the gray sludge that made up her transformation and back onto the harnesses around her arms. The other Nomu stopped moving and she stood calm, waiting for whatever would come next.
"Attempt to Replace the Anti-Symbol of Peace is a Success. Prepare for Warp."
She released the transformation, the sludge disappearing as it hit the ground. Black mist enveloped her as she was pulled back into the bar, where Tomura and Kurogiri were waiting for her. Tomura scratched as his wrists with a set of specialized gloves on. Each glove was made of two separate parts, one part covered his thumb, index, and middle fingers while the other covered his ring finger and pinky. Once on they held each other place via Velcro straps around the wrist, allowing the young man to close his fist without putting all five fingers on a single object. "It worked then... you became Nomu?" He said, scratching at himself in excitement. "All we need to do now is get it out of prison, or get someone in there who can order blood tests and ship us the blood..."
Himiko grinned and swayed a bit before taking a seat at the bar, where Kurogiri gave her a cup filled with some sort of brown liquid. "Huh, this isn't my usual..."
"Sensei's orders." Tomura said as he reached towards the counter and picked up his own cup, swirling the liquid inside. "Once a week while training."
Himiko pouted, but drank. She'd ask Kurogiri to make her a Zombie later. Maybe she could get him to use the green absinthe instead of rum to get the color right... no, he disliked breaking recipes like that. Maybe if she asked for the right kind of juice, that was more likely...
In Italy, a man sat down in a large, cushioned chair in his hotel room. His skin was the coarse, gray color of ashes and contrasted with the glowing emerald eyes. His hair was as black as smoke, combed and gelled back against his head and stopping just over his neck and behind his ears. His white, long sleeved button down shirt was messy, his tie on the nightstand next to the chair, his pants as dark as his hair, a red sash around his waist. His facial hair was trimmed to a five o'clock shadow over his upper lip, jaw line, chin, with a slightly longer tuff of hair under his lower lip.
On his lap was his phone, his back arched so his head was leaning over the phone. He could barely believe what he'd heard, what had happened while he was away. The moon shined into his room as clouds parted in the night sky, accenting sharp facial features. He took a deep breath before picking up his phone and dialing a number he tried to avoid calling. He sighed as he dialed the last parts of the number, small tusks peeking out from his lips as a wisp of smoke left his mouth with his breath. "Hisashi, rare for you to call"
"I'm going to need some time off, sir."
"I understand, just to help move the paperwork along, why?"
"Call it a family emergency." He said as he looked out the window of his hotel room, the glow in his eyes growing brighter.
OMAKE: Katsuki learns he has a Theme Song.
"Hey Mind Games, what's this?" Katsuki said as he looked through Hitoshi's CD collection, finding an album with a sea green color palate and what looked like a skeleton. "Alestorm?"
Hitoshi looked up from his computer and then turned his head towards Katsuki. "That thing? A few years back a band started recreating songs from the Pre-Quirk era, tried to sell the albums as their own music." He said before waving his hand in a circle. "When they got caught, their albums became stupid cheap, so I bought a few, unfortunately they're not really my style, go ahead and take 'em."
Katsuki raised an eyebrow and turned the CD case over, looking at the list of songs before finding one in particular. "... This should be good."
Later
"Fuck, You, You're a fucking Wanker, We're gonna punch you right in the balls!"
Izuku watched in horror as Katsuki, stereo in hand, burst into Class 1-B while singing along to the song he'd found. Next to her, Ochaco couldn't help but try to contain her laughter behind her hands while Momo rubbed her temples. Tenya reached over and put a hand on Momo's shoulder, deciding there wasn't really any way to defuse the situation Katsuki had decided to cause this time.
"Fuck, You, With a Fucking Anchor, You're all Cunts so Fuck You All!"
In the classroom itself, Hitoshi held his head in his hands and tried not to give himself away by busting into laughter, the looks on the faces of his classmates was Priceless.
Unfortunately, he lost all pretense of self-control when Pony's horns fell off of her head.