Tasks and Rules
Izuku felt a touch of fear creep in at the reminder that All for One still had an unknown number of allies still hiding in the dark. Still working toward his goals.
But his excitement about all the people his teacher and principal were talking about arranging meetings with overpowered those fears. Getting to meet Sir Nighteye was both exciting and terrifying. He wouldn't mind getting the opportunity to thank the policeman, Tsukauchi, for his help, either. As for Aizawa's old connections…despite seeing him almost daily, Izuku still didn't know much about his role as an active member of the hero community. Izuku would love to see the types of people he worked with.
"Have you discussed anything with Midoriya about his restrictions for coming up here?" Mr. Aizawa asked, jarring Izuku from his thoughts.
"No, I wanted to wait for you. But after talking for a while, he did agree to come under my tutelage, which means we are going to need to discuss making some further adjustments to his schedule, in addition to those you were already planning."
"You really couldn't wait a couple more days for his punishment to end, could you?"
"To be fair, you never said anything about offering lessons, earlier."
Aizawa gave the principal a deadpan glare as Nezu stared back mischievously and Izuku knew that the other was referencing something he wasn't in the loop on and doubted either would tell him about, even if he asked. Finally, the teacher relented, "Alright, then we should get the rest of this done so that Midoriya can get back to his dorm. He is still on house arrest, after all."
"I agree. I don't like interfering with your approach to handling your students any more than necessary."
They spent the next few minutes just running through some basic rules related to Izuku's access to the office they now stood in. There were only a few important ones that stood out. One of which was clarifying Izuku's restrictions for coming to the office, mainly that he was to be supervised either directly by someone authorized to be up here or indirectly through Nezu's surveillance, after getting express permission to go up from the principal, there was talk about possibly putting in a code words but more as something to set up in the future than to immediately implement. He was also not allowed to bring anyone else up here or allow them access to his information unless first approved by Aizawa or Nezu. The third rule was that if Izuku wanted access to information that he wasn't allowed to see, he would—at the bare minimum—have to ask one of them, with an explanation of why he wanted it and they would tell him whether his request would be accepted or denied.
"Do you have any objections to the rules we've imposed?"
"Not really," Izuku replied. "Although, I don't really understand why you needed the last one. What kind of stuff would I even want that would be restricted?"
"Oh, I'm sure you'll start to understand soon enough," Nezu replied, ignoring Aizawa's exasperated sigh as he continued. "Speaking of which, I'd like to take a moment to give you your first assignments as my student."
"I already gave him enough work yesterday," Aizawa objected.
"I'll only need him to complete one thing by our first meeting and it should be relatively simple. Besides, you know that, whether you're in the room to hear them or not, I am going to give the rest to Midoriya at some point, anyway. Wouldn't you rather know what he's working on sooner, rather than later?"
"Fine," Izuku's teacher responded. The despondent tone with which he uttered the single word suggested a struggle between frustration and exhaustion and Izuku suspected they'd settled for a draw.
"Excellent!" Nezu exclaimed before continuing, "Midoriya, for your first assignment, I want you to come up with a reasonable public description for One for All that will allow you to openly admit your inexperience with the quirk without giving away its true nature."
"What? Why?"
"A couple reasons. The first being that you have a lot of tells for your inexperience for anyone who knows how to look, both direct ones—such as your rate of improvement over the last few months—and indirect ones such as behavioral hints. It won't take much digging for someone to find out that until recently, you were registered as quirkless, either."
"I guess not," Izuku admitted.
"I also want you to have better access to help. If you can explain your inexperience without giving away One for All, you can get assistance from others without exposing them to dangerous information."
"Oh…" Izuku hadn't thought of that. "I wouldn't want to burden anyone."
"Asking for help learning to work with your quirk in an institution designed to help you master it is not burdening others, Midoriya," Mr. Aizawa stated tiredly. "It's using available resources and often leads to critical alliance building."
Izuku frowned, having problems processing his teacher's words. Still, he understood a lot of the reasons he and Nezu had already given him. "I'll have one ready."
"Good, the sooner the better."
Izuku nodded in acknowledgement. It didn't seem like a hard thing to do at all. His mind was already trying to come up with a reasonable approach. "What's the next one?"
"You are to keep a journal for One for All. For now, on your tablet and backed up here, documenting each experience you have with the quirk. You are to take special note of any unique events and review what you write from time to time to check for any unexpected patterns. It will be understandable if you just have general descriptions for most of your previous experiences, considering that we are asking you to recall information from several months ago."
Izuku was actually surprised that he hadn't thought of doing that himself. He had always figured out the most about quirks by writing them down and going over the information again later. "Are you going to require me to show it to you?"
"Not as long as you come to us about concerning incidents with it. Aizawa told me that during the tournament, the previous users appeared to you and may have caused a reaction outside of your control. If anything like that happens again, you are to report it to Aizawa or myself as quickly as possible, certainly before using your quirk again. Even if the event happens to your benefit, as that one was. There are also other things I would like to do with the information in the future but not without thoroughly discussing it with you first."
"I can still tell All Might, too, right?"
"Of course," Nezu confirmed.
"As long as he uses safe practices for keeping One for All secret, there's no reason not to include him. He's too central to this for it to be avoided," Aizawa stated.
"So," Izuku said, "a new quirk description and starting a quirk journal. Anything else?"
"Yes," Nezu said, now looking visibly excited. "Your first overarching assignment for my course."
At this, Mr. Aizawa actually cast a curious—if wary—glance toward the principal.
"Okay?" Izuku replied, also wanting to know what had the Principal so excited.
"I want you to gather and organize all the information you can on One for All and All for One. Anything you might think relevant about them both individually and in relation to each other."
"W-what?"
Nezu smiled and said, "Your abilities present us with a rare opportunity to document both quirks accurately and in depth. Even with the risk of personal biases from being a wielder of One for All possibly being an issue, it's still an effort well worth the investment. No doubt a few HPSC members have done so for All for One himself in the past but the government is either keeping it heavily protected or the villain has gone to great lengths to remove their work. One for All is just as, if not more, mysterious than its sibling quirk. Next to nothing is known about it, except what we can learn from its use and what has been passed on by word of mouth from user to user. Don't you think having such documentation might have benefited you upon receiving the quirk?"
It was awkward to hear One for All referenced as the sibling quirk to All for One, even if it was partially true. And, although he knew it was only a temporary escape now that the point had been planted in the fertile soil of his mind, Izuku chose to focus on how the previous users keeping a record of the quirk would have benefitted him, "Probably. I might not have been caught off guard by the sight of the previous users if I could have read something from All Might's own experience with it." And who knows what else. Had other users gone through anything similar? Were there strengths or weaknesses that they'd learned about One for All but never got to tell their successors?
Then there was All for One. Izuku had gone in knowing nothing. That the villain even existed had been news. Could there be lost knowledge of strengths or weaknesses that which could have helped his predecessors? Would finding or even theorizing on them save lives in the future?
Probably. Especially if either he or another multiquirked villain like him ever appeared again.
Which, in and of itself made the effort worth it.
"Is there anything in particular you want?" Izuku asked, already thinking back to how All for One had acted at Kamino, sets of questions rushing into his mind as quickly as the Villain had listed the quirks he'd used in the combos he'd summoned to face All Might. Izuku realized it would be easy for him to get sidetracked if he wasn't given a specific focus…
"I'm giving you free range on it. It's your project. Anything you might think relevant or even interesting is fair game. This will hopefully be the start of a project that you will continue with through your life. And as time goes on, you will hopefully gain access to more and more information. I'm hoping to eventually get you to become the lead expert on One for All and maybe even All for One."
Izuku bit his lip. He didn't know how major the undertaking would be, just that it would be huge.
"But not too soon," Aizawa retorted.
Nezu giggled and said, "That all depends." He then looked back to Izuku and said, "Well, I've given you a lot to think on. It's probably about time to send you back to your dorm. I look forward to having you as a student. I'll probably see you before that, during the meeting with your mother. I hope that you have a good evening."
Izuku knew that he was being dismissed.
After Nezu and Aizawa were sure that Midoriya had departed, sensors indicating the elevator had activated and was descending, Nezu finally asked, "So, was the issue between young Togata and the Class 1-A resolved for the evening?"
"Yes, although the fact that two incidents occurred in just as many days and we were delayed in responding to both worries me. Actually, not just security but the fire alarm system, this time."
Nezu nodded and said, "Actually, Midoriya threw out an idea that might solve that problem…if I were to repurpose a training ground into a set of dorms, which one would you recommend?"
Aizawa stared. "He…"
"I'm honestly embarrassed I didn't think of it myself. I mean the more I think about it, the more advantages I can see with it over having the students' dorms spread in a mile-long line down the road off the main grounds in an area where we haven't even properly established our security systems, as has been demonstrated in the last…what…twenty hours or so?" He shook his head. "Still, I'm not sure if it'll work out or not, yet. But I'm getting a little off topic. I understand that you pulled Bakugou aside to talk to him afterward and revealed another blind spot in my security. Anything I might need to know from that?"
"Actually, yes. I have reason to believe that Midoriya's old school might be training its students to use their quirks illegally. Possibly even using the children and their quirks for entertainment."
"Possibly?"
"Probably but I need evidence before throwing accusations."
Nezu gave a big smile, sequentially tapping the corresponding fingers of each hand together as he said, "I would be happy to work with you on it."
"Did he tell you something?" Aizawa asked.
"He didn't need to. His body language and his understanding of…certain topics did the talking for him. I want to track down the people that instilled that knowledge in him." After a moment, he pushed the thought aside. "But we can set time aside for that later. I feel that, for now, we should discuss his potential new schedule, since we are here now."
Aizawa glanced around before stating, "I want to know what you plan on teaching him so I can plan my lessons accordingly."
"A brilliant idea…"
The two continued their discussion into the evening.
I condensed a portion of a conversation! I think this is the first time. Seeing how boring the rules were to write out, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to practice doing this.
The last assignment, for Izuku to analyze OFA and AFO was going to be introduced during Izuku's first official lesson with Nezu. I decided to introduce it now instead. I have long wanted to explore this possibility with Izuku and have always planned on bringing it into this story; basically, as soon as I was certain that I would have a big focus on his analysis. I feel like Izuku could have been set up so that he was a threat to AFO not because he has One for All but that he would be able to analyze the villain and simply have the added protection of it. He also could figure out a whole lot about OFA that would be useful knowledge down the line (assuming there is an 'after Izuku' for it, which I honestly doubt but the characters would have no reason to think that way).
I would be lying if I were to say I wasn't kind of rushing this so I can get to the next couple chapters. I actually had them completed before these ones.
