Titanium Soul

[CHAPTER 8]: Intellection

[ALTERNATIVELY]: In Which Izuku And Mei Terrorize The UA Faculty In Their Own Unique Ways

Intellection (n): the action or process of understanding; the exercise of the intellect

Izuku sat nervously in the chair next to Mei as the typical pleasantries were exchanged, too distracted to freak out about being surrounded by Pro Heroes. At least, he was nervous internally; HERoS was making sure that didn't translate into his body language. Yeah, being a robot was basically cheating at this stuff, but he was gonna take whatever he could get.

Nezu cleared his throat. "Now, Miss Hatsume, as you may have gathered from my previous correspondence you did pass the entrance exam, so you're not here for the same reasons as our other Hero Course applicants. I've invited you here today to address some irregularities in your application. Namely the fact that your friend there is registered as support equipment."

Mei blinked. "Yeah, Miracle Girl said that since he maybe might not quite legally be a person we should probably do it like that. Was there a problem with that?"

The very tired looking hobo at the end of the table snorted. "You're applying to a school with a rat for a principal-"

"Or dog, or bear," chimed in Nezu.

"Yes, that," amended the homeless man who was inexplicably sitting at the table right next to Midnight, the R-Rated Heroine. "It would be irrational for us to care."

That… was actually a good point.

"So," continued Nezu, "I have an offer for you. You can continue your enrollment as-is, with yourself in the Hero Course and Midoriya as support equipment. Or, we can put you in the Support Course, enter Midoriya in the Hero Course, split your practical score between the two of you, and mark you down as an auxiliary to his class. Essentially, this would mean that whenever they hold a practical lesson you would be with his class instead of your own."

Izuku and Mei looked at each other for a moment, before turning back to Nezu and nodding simultaneously.

He straightened some papers on the table, stacking them neatly off to the side. "Excellent. Now, ordinarily we can't just shuffle students around between departments, but not only did we catch this before the school year started, it just so happens that everyone and everything that I need to file a new student application is right in front of me! I had Power Loader prepare a Support Course qualification test for you, Miss Hatsume, so you can get that done right away." The diminutive mammal —Mei was right, that didn't really have the same flair as referring to him as a rodent— shot a glance down the table.

Power Loader nodded and stood up. "Right. We're going to be using the support labs for this, so I'm going to run you through a workshop safety course first— I'm legally required to do that, so don't take it personally…" Mei, whose eyes had snapped to him and hadn't blinked since the words 'support labs' had come out of the Hero's mouth, jumped from her seat and followed him out a side door.

Nezu smiled and turned his gaze back to Izuku. "Which leaves us with you, Mr. Midoriya. I don't suppose you'd just tell me if you were a haphazardly constructed simulacrum making a mockery of Izuku Midoriya's identity and patiently biding your time until you snap and go on a bloody murder spree, would you?"

Izuku frowned. "Would it be too much to expect you to believe me when I say I'm not?"

Nezu nodded slowly. "Well, we do have All Might on staff this year, so rest assured that if you were to go so far as to deliberately cause permanent harm to another student you'd likely have a maximum of two minutes until he would return you to the pile of scrap from whence you came. Would you like some tea?"

Izuku blinked his eyescreens. As if on cue, a wheeled cart piloted by Lunch Rush rolled smoothly into the room, making it way down the table and distributing beverages. The hobo —wait that was Eraserhead, the Erasure Hero! No wonder he hadn't recognized him, the guy was practically an urban legend in the hero-chasing community! Sure, there were rumors that the Hero worked at UA but he was sitting right in front of Izuku— got an entire thermos full of coffee, which was immediately chugged. A dainty silver tea set was removed from the cart, and Lunch Rush poured two cups skillfully. One was deposited in front of the principal, and the other was slid across the table, coming to a perfect stop in front of Izuku.

A splash of color on the napkin the teacup rested on caught his attention. He hesitantly lifted the cup, revealing a 'Good luck, Midoriya!' and a thumbs up scrawled in purple ink.

Izuku's eyescreens flashed question marks as he looked back up at Lunch Rush. The Cooking Hero was renowned for his anonymity and professionalism, and not only did the man know his name but he also wrote him an encouraging note? His confusion was only exacerbated as the Hero flashed a thumbs up at him and pushed the cart back out of the room.

Izuku distractedly sipped from the teacup in his hand. It clinked loudly against his face and the contents of the cup splashed down his front.

Right. He was a robot. He couldn't drink tea. "Whoops."

Midnight snorted over her latte.

[Would you like me to warn you next time you are about to take an action that could potentially harm the Corpus Primus II Prototype?]

Yes, HERoS, that would be wonderful.

[Settings Updated.]

Izuku firmly placed the teacup back on the table and inwardly thanked the fact that while he could not drink tea he also could not blush. He quickly picked up the napkin and cleaned himself off.

Nezu calmly sipped at his own tea, eyeing Izuku over the rim of his cup. "I must admit, I am rather curious about something. Why are you applying here?"

Izuku stared at him. "Why am I applying to the top Hero school in the country?"

Nezu nodded. "Yes. With your current… situation, you could likely download the standardized curriculum, test out of high school, and apply for a Hero license directly. From a practical standpoint, going through any Hero course is completely unnecessary and a total waste of everyone's time. So I ask you again; why are you applying to my school?"

Izuku frowned. He hadn't even thought of that. The principal had a point; he absolutely could just skip high school and go straight for the Hero license. But then again, the license wasn't the point, was it?

He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Well, sure I could probably qualify for a Hero license, but that doesn't mean I'd be able to get anywhere with it without the connections graduating from UA would get me. And I definitely would get stronger from going through a Hero Course; I'm running some natural learning algorithms to learn how to fight properly, and those work better the more data you put in, so practical lessons with low stakes are the best thing for me. But that's why it makes sense to be here, not why I want to be here."

Izuku smiled weakly and leaned back in his chair. "This might sound petty, but I don't want to just sit on my friends' hard work and go straight on to what I want to do. This body, this technology? I'm running on Mei and Momo's blood, sweat, and tears. Sure, I helped, but without even one of them I quite literally could not be sitting here in front of you today. I… I want to become a hero who's worthy of this body, not one who's only there because of it."

All Might grinned widely and let out a bellowing laugh. "Well said, young Midoriya!"

Nezu chuckled and dipped his head. "Indeed. That would be all of my questions, is there anything you would like to ask us?"

Izuku shifted in his seat. "Well, nothing particularly relevant to this discussion, no."

Nezu raised an eyebrow. "We're here until Miss Hatsume finishes her testing with Power Loader, so let's have them anyway."

A grin spread across Izuku's metal face as he leaned forwards, turning to face the hobo Hero. "You're Eraserhead, right? Your Quirk is Erasure? How does it work? Do you shoot a Quirk-impeding beam out of your eyes or what? Can you deliberately not Erase the Quirk of someone in your line of sight while Erasing the Quirks of others? What happens if you try to Erase your own Quirk through a mirror?"

[I took the liberty of slowing that down enough for it to be intelligible to the average human being. You're welcome.]

HERoS was absolutely the best.

Eraserhead frowned. "Yes, yes, and the rest is classified."

Izuku nodded, internally pulling up his document on the Hero and underlining the 'keeps the specifics of his Quirk ambiguous' line. He then turned his gaze to Midnight. "Your Quirk is on record as 'Somnambulist,' which seems to be based off 'somnambulism,' the scientific term for sleepwalking. You release a gas from your skin that puts people to sleep, this much is confirmed, but the Quirk's name seems to imply you might be able to control people while they're asleep. Is that true? And does the sleeping gas work chemically, or does it function as the medium for your Quirk Factor?"

Midnight blinked. "Come again?"

Izuku tilted his head. "In other words, is your Quirk 'producing sleeping gas' or 'inflicting unconsciousness through the medium of a gas'? I've been leaning towards the second one but you would know better than me."

She hummed thoughtfully. "Is there a difference?"

He tapped his chin slowly. "Well, the second one would imply that your gas is a biological agent with your Quirk Factor distributed throughout it, while the first would mean your Quirk Factor stays within your skin and just produces the gas."

She leaned forwards. "Does that change anything from a practical standpoint?"

Izuku raised an eyebrow. "If Eraserhead Erased your Quirk after you released your sleeping gas, would it stop knocking people out?"

She frowned. "I don't... think so? It hasn't come up."

He nodded slowly, updating his entry on her before turning to his next victim. "Vlad King, have you noticed any irregularities in your blood composition-"

Mei flung open the door and stared. The room, which had been full of conscious and highly rated Pro Heroes and Izuku when she had left, was now littered with limp, defeated bodies. All Might and Nezu were the only ones left sitting tall, and both of them watched on with visible amusement. Izuku sat on his chair in the middle, hands positioned as if he were holding an imaginary notebook, firmly interrogating Present Mic.

"Why would I know the tensile strength of my vocal cords?" cried the Voice Hero. "I've never taken them out and I never plan to!"

Her grin spread even wider as she reached out and firmly knocked against the doorframe. "Hello? Your future number one support course student has returned!"

Nezu turned from where he was gleefully watching Izuku verbally try to dissect his employees and smiled. "Welcome back, Miss Hatsume. Power Loader sent you back ahead of him, then?"

She nodded. "He stayed behind to make sure my super-cute self-replicating utility drone doesn't burn down his workshop while it runs."

Izuku looked up and frowned. "Is that something with a risk of happening?"

She shrugged. "Well if it does, it was supposed to. That's my story and I'm sticking with it."

He sighed. "I'll head down later and add a fire extinguisher to it."

She pouted. "You're no fun, Zuzu. It's been too long since I've cut loose and made babies just for the fun of it!"

Nezu cleared his throat. "Well then, Miss Hatsume, that is all we need from you. Do you have any questions for us?"

Present Mic groaned from where he lay against the table. "Please, no more!"

Mei hummed thoughtfully, tapping her chin. She snapped her fingers and nodded. "Yeah, actually. What does your insurance policy look like?"

"Confidential," Nezu replied cheerfully. He looked down at his watch and sighed. "Unfortunately, that's all we have time for today. Expect your results to come in the mail within five to eight business days. Oh, and before I forget; we're opening on-campus dorms this year! They aren't mandatory but it is highly advised that you consider moving in, due to a number of security concerns that have recently been brought to our attention."

Mei and Izuku looked at each other, before turning back to Nezu.

She raised a hand. "What is the dorm's stance on us installing a crucible in our rooms?"

Nezu raised an eyebrow. "Don't."

She nodded. "Understandable." She turned around and made for the door.

Izuku sighed and stood up. He bowed to the table of Heroes, most of whom were still trying to recover from his admittedly overenthusiastic questioning. "Thank you for this opportunity!"

All Might grinned and flashed him a thumbs up. "It was our pleasure, young Midoriya!"

"Excuse me, Pro Hero Ectoplasm?"

Ectoplasm looked up from his phone. That metal kid from earlier was standing in front of his desk like some kind of cybernetic puppy. "Yes?"

"Do you have the time to answer a couple of questions about your Quirk?"

Eh, what harm could it do? "Sure. What have you got for me?"

Midoriya's eyes lit up. "Your clones are made from some sort of bio-ooze, right? Have you ever run that stuff through a mass spectrometer?"

Ectoplasm blinked. "No?"

Midoriya pouted. "Do you at least know its density? Have you looked at it through a microscope? Does it taste like anything?"

Ectoplasm frowned. "Are you asking me to eat one of my clones?"

Midoriya thought for a moment. "I mean, if you want to? It would definitely provide valuable data."

The pink-haired girl standing behind him cheered. "Cannibalism, for science!"

Oh no.

Izuku's many sensors tracked the tip of the staff whirling towards his head easily, batting it off course with one arm and jabbing at his assailant's face with the other.

Momo spun her staff, catching Izuku's arm along the length and levering it away, frowning when it took more effort than she expected. She quickly disengaged, backing off and watching him carefully. Her staff clattered to the ground, quickly replaced by what could technically also be called a staff but in practice could only be called a double-ended sledgehammer.

She gave it a few experimental twirls before running back in towards him. He sidestepped her swing and stared when it shattered the concrete floor of their arena.

"My calculations suggest that taking a direct hit from such an attack could inflict permanent damage on this prototype."

Momo grinned viciously, spinning her weapon around herself to build up momentum. "Then he'll just have to dodge!" Her words were punctuated with a horizontal sweep, forcing Izuku to duck under the attack.

"It appears my lack of tonal indicators led to a minor misunderstanding. I will now rectify this. Amusement; dance, monkey."

Yeah, HERoS had definitely spent too much time with Mei.

Izuku frowned as he barely managed to evade Momo's next attack. "I would like to remind everyone present that we never actually set up an automatic backup system, so actually killing me would defeat the point of this sparring match. Actually, HERoS, can you do that now?"

[Affirmative; You will have to set up some hardware for this. I'll send the orders to Miss Hatsume once I have everything set up on my end.]

He brought up an arm to guard his face against a (relatively) light blow, and stared in astonishment when it left a dent in his reinforced plating. "Ok, what the heck is that thing made of?"

He leaned back from another swing, only to have his legs swept out from under him by the weapon's other end. His arms shot back, trying to catch himself as the hammer-staff whirled right for his head.

The weapon slowed right before impact, lightly tapping his forehead with a quiet 'dink'.

Momo smirked. "That's a win for me."

Izuku let out a sigh and stood up. "Good fight. My question still stands, though."

She hefted her weapon. "The shaft is carbon-fiber and resin, the heads are osmium with tungsten plating. I figured I'd need something a little more hefty to do anything to you."

He nodded. "Yeah, that'd do it. What about your lipid stores, though? Creating that much mass at once can't be that great for you, can it?"

She shrugged. "My fat reserves tend to get denser before they get bigger, so I could probably go another 30 kilograms before I start hurting myself. It's why I prefer lighter weapons, most of the time."

Izuku blinked. "30 kilograms, on your weight?"

She blushed. "No, no, 30 coming out. My efficiency is somewhere around 300%?"

He frowned. "That's insane. Can you Create and then eat food? I know you can't make living things but organic compounds should be doable…"

Momo shook her head. "Not only does it tend to taste bad, my digestive system does not react well to food made from my Quirk— no idea why. And before you say anything about seeing if it's just something specific to myself, I'm not going to risk putting another person through… that… if I can help it."

He nodded understandingly. "Valid. I'm gonna go chew out Mei for infecting HERoS with her crazy, wanna come with? She might have some ideas for increasing the mass efficiency on your constructs."

She tilted her head. "I may as well."

Izuku jumped over the sparring arena ring and led them to a small door set into the wall. "Y'know, when you mentioned this place being part bunker I thought you meant it was just heavily insulated against everything, not that an entire military could operate out of this place for about three years with no problem."

Momo shrugged helplessly. "Yeah, my parents tend to go a little overboard."

They stopped outside the door. Izuku took a deep breath, remembered he was a robot, and sighed. "Alright, let's do this."

She raised an eyebrow.

Izuku squared his shoulders at the door. "See, when you're telling off Mei, you have to get her attention in a very specific way. Observe."

He kicked the door open and stormed into the hangar bay their friend had converted into a temporary workshop. "MEI, WHAT THE FU- Oh, hey, All Might!"

All Might looked up from whatever it was that Mei was doing and grinned sheepishly. "I AM HERE, to congratulate you on your results?"

Izuku's eyescreens snapped to Mei, who rolled her eyes and tossed him a memory chip. "They sent another set of hologram projectors, what was I supposed to do? Actually watch them, like some kind of rule-follower? I'm upgrading our old projector with all the newfangled doohickeys UA jammed in these babies."

Izuku nodded along. "So, what were the results?"

Mei smirked. "Do you even have to ask? We aced it, obviously. Split first place in the practical, and I'm not even in the Hero Course."

He blinked. "Wow, they really let us keep that score?"

She grinned. "Yep."

He leaned over her and grabbed the discarded envelopes, pulling out the actual letter and paperwork within. "Alright, welcome to UA, Hero Course, there's the scoreboard- oh god, Kacchan's gonna flip when he sees that- where's the class designation? There you are. Class 1A!"

Mei glanced down at her letter. "Support Course, Class 1H, Auxiliary to 1A."

He looked up at Momo. "What class are you in? I'm pretty sure you got your letter like, a week ago, and held off on telling us because you didn't want us to feel bad or something."

She blushed but nodded. "I'm in 1B."

He pouted. "And I was looking forward to having friends in my class."

Mei cackled. "A member of Hatsume Industries in each Hero Class! That's twice the networking!"

Izuku stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Dang, you're right. Momo, make sure you convince your class that Mei is the best support technician this side of I-Island."

Momo nodded with mock seriousness. "It is my solemn duty."

All Might let out a booming laugh, reminding everyone that he was present. Izuku sighed and waved towards him. "You can probably drop it, by the way. Everyone here already knows, and you're wasting precious time like that."

He frowned, but deflated anyway. "Alright. So… Congratulations on your acceptance to the UA Hero Course, Young Midoriya! Nezu insisted on doing your video messages himself, so I felt that coming by was only appropriate."

Izuku nodded and flashed him a thumbs up. "Thanks! How are you holding up, by the way? Are you eating enough? HERoS and I did some research and apparently when you don't have a stomach you're supposed to eat smaller meals, but more often? You're doing that, right?"

Mr. Yagi started laughing. "I see the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree with you, Young Midoriya! Your mother asks me the same thing every time I speak with her!"

Izuku crossed his arms. "I should hope so. And that wasn't an answer, Mr. Yagi."

He straightened up indignantly. "I'll have you know that I can take care of myself, young man! That being said, I sometimes lose track of time and miss the occasional sub-meal."

Izuku sighed. "Mei, get him something to do something about that."

Mei's eyes gleamed. "Ooooh, if this is going on All Might, it'll have to be the cutest baby ever! Maybe… a watch, that tases him when he's supposed to eat? Maybe a bomb? He's a hero, we gotta motivate him somehow-"

Izuku thwacked her in the back of her head. "No holding people hostage with a bomb to make sure All Might takes care of himself."

She pouted. "But it's almost guaranteed to work!"

All Might laughed nervously, backing away towards the open hangar door. "That's wonderful, Young Hatsume, but I really must be going now. Have a wonderful day, see you at UA! All Might, AWAY!" With that, he puffed back into his heroic form and leapt away.

Izuku sighed again. "See, Mei, look what you did. You scared him off!"

[CALENDAR ENTRY: UA MOVE-IN DAY, occurs in roughly two hours. Miss Yaoyorozu should be arriving soon.]

Izuku looked up from his task of scanning his Hero Analysis notebooks and nodded. "Thanks, HERoS."

[I would also like to remind you that your mother asked you to go by before you headed out.]

He waved HERoS off. "Yeah, I'm not gonna skip out on her. I do wanna get everything loaded up first, though."

He opened the door to the workshop and facepalmed. Mei lay across her workbench, unconscious, tools still in her hand. For a brief moment Izuku considered grabbing some pipes and banging them together to wake her up, but then he realized that a sleeping Mei was safer than a sleep-deprived Mei, and shifted her into a position that should be less damaging to her spine.

A gentle knock against the garage door let him know Momo had arrived with the truck, so he lifted it open, and stared. "I thought you said you were bringing a truck," he said.

She blinked in confusion. "I did."

A massive freightliner truck sat parked outside their garage.

"I thought you meant, like, a pickup truck or maybe one of the smaller rentals."

Momo shrugged. "We already had this one laying around, and I do have a license for it already. You guys have everything packed up?"

He nodded. "Just about. Mei has the blueprints for the automatic maintenance pod, so we're gonna be setting that up for most of the weekend. Besides that, I just have a few boxes. I think Mei packed up most of the workshop herself, so I dunno how that's gonna work."

Momo shrugged. "Rico will make it work."

Izuku blinked. "Rico?"

She turned back towards her truck and snapped her fingers loudly. A large, hulking man jumped out of the cab and ran up to stand beside her.

She gestured towards him. "This is Rico, his Quirk is 'All Hands On Deck'. He can make copies of himself as long as he's touching an object and all versions of him maintain contact with it. He has a labor-based Quirk Permit."

Izuku's eyescreens shone. "That's so cool! Are there limitations to how many clones he can make, or what the object is? Are the clones on a hive-mind or do they operate independently? What happens if-"

"Chiding; I hate to interrupt, but since the loading situation seems to be handled, I would advise you to go see what your mother wants. We are on a schedule, after all."

"Right. Try not to wake up Mei, make sure you don't drop anything important, and for the love of god don't open the fuel cell containment unit. That should be everything, please don't leave without me, I'm gonna go see what my mom wants!" He shot one last, curious glance at Rico, who was now two people and carrying a box, before heading down the driveway and off to the Midoriya house.

Izuku silently entered the cab of the truck, carrying his payload.

Rico sat at the driver's seat, with Mei and Momo in the back. The former was still asleep, leaned against the wall of the cab, and the latter raised her eyebrows as Izuku entered.

"What's that?"

Izuku stared down at the foil-covered industrial-sized bakeware dish in his hands. "My mom's casserole."

Momo stared. "It's seven AM."

"I know," he replied, setting the ridiculously huge dish on the seat next to him.

"...was there a reason she gave this to you?"

Izuku spread his hands helplessly. "She said to give it to my friends when we move in."

"I see," Momo lied.

He turned his eyescreens to the sky. "I suspect my mom still hasn't forgiven me for letting her think I was fully dead for a few months, and this may be her attempt at vengeance."

She nodded sagely. "That might be it."

He sat back in his seat. "You got everything loaded up fine?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Everything's ready to go. You gonna buckle that down, or…?"

He reached over and wrapped the seatbelt around the casserole, clicking it into the slot.

Momo turned towards the front. "Alright, Rico, we're ready!"

He nodded silently and started up the truck.

Izuku and Momo sat in silence as the vehicle pulled out of the driveway.

"Smells pretty good," commented Momo.

"I can't smell," Izuku replied miserably.

Momo shifted awkwardly. "Ah."

Mei snored loudly.

Izuku snapped his fingers. "Right! Rico's Quirk. Tell me about it."

Momo gave him an amused smile. "Sure. What were your questions, again?"

His eyescreens gleamed ominously. "Tell me everything."

[EXTRA #2]: Lament of a Brainwasher

A/N: This, along with all other Extras, is canon to Titanium Soul

Hitoshi Shinsou left the interview room numb, stepping past other waiting Hero Course applicants without seeing them.

He'd botched it. He didn't think he'd made a bad impression, more that he'd failed to make any sort of impression —besides being overwhelmingly nervous, but let's face it, that'd be the same for everyone walking into that room. The way Nezu looked at him, like he was trying to look into his soul, and succeeding… he shuddered to himself as he entered the elevator.

He was snapped out of his reverie by one of the interviewers, the hobo looking one, descending into his line of sight, hanging upside-down from some sort of grey scarf thing from the elevator's access hatch.

"Why didn't you use your Quirk?"

Hitoshi blinked. "Come again?"

Eraserhead sighed and elaborated. "Why didn't you use your Quirk in that interview? Brainwashing, right? You ask a question, someone answers, you're in control. There were plenty of opportunities for you to get everyone in the room. Why didn't you just brainwash us into accepting you?"

Hitoshi had considered it. Seriously. The only reason he hadn't was because the principal was literally a rat or dog or bear and Brainwashing only worked on humans.

But he also knew that sounded really really bad, so he decided to not say it.

"Because," he improvised, "using your Quirk to get whatever you want isn't what Heroes do. A Hero uses their Quirk for protecting others, not personal gain."

Eraserhead hummed thoughtfully. "We'll see how that resolve holds up."

The elevator chimed pleasantly, and the doors slid open. Hitoshi blinked, and the hero was gone.

He stared blankly at the closed elevator hatch. What the hell?

A/N: So there's the interview! Nezu and Eraserhead are really fun to write!

I considered going back and rewriting certain parts of this fic (cough cough the bakugo scene) but honestly? I don't wanna set a precedent for that. So I'm just going to take the fact that I want to change it as a sign that I've been improving as a writer and work with what I've given myself. I've got a lot I want to cover with this story, so I'm gonna keep moving forwards, rather than look back.

Think I messed up somewhere, or that I did something really well? Did I make you laugh? Cry? Throw your laptop across the room? Tell me in the reviews! Feedback is a critical component for improving your skills, and that's what reviews are for me!

Next chapter should be out by the end of, what, December? Maybe sooner if I end up hammering out chapters for my other fics quickly, but I make no promises.

Thanks for reading!