Whoa! Longest chapter so far!
Anyhow, thanks for the wait! I'll explain some things at the bottom note by the way, so I'd read it.
No warnings this time! Hope you enjoy!
Normal Text - Story telling
"Hey there!" - Dialogue
I like cheese - Thoughts
"I will kill that bastard!" - Whispering and/or mumbling
("That shirt looks ugly") - Small Flashbacks and/or comments
BEEEEEEP - Sound Effect
"Water is real?!" - Announcement and/or Online Text
Chapter 06 - Academy City
Izuku was very thankful for GPS technology.
No, seriously. If he did not have a phone, he would have been lost ages ago. The city was confusing to navigate, especially since he had little clue what the landmarks were.
The windowless building? Is that some tourist destination where they made a building with no windows? Sounds… interesting?
Thanks to the GPS, he was able to find his way to the same underground mall he was at yesterday. The restaurant nearby was closed, but workers appeared to already be working on refurbishing it. Izuku suspected that it would reopen soon, considering the speed they were going at.
Right now, he was looking at a map of District 7 on his phone. He was checking to see what some of the city locations were and whether he could reasonably figure out what they were for.
"The School Garden? I want to say that it's what it sounds like: a large garden that schools use, but it covers way too much land for it to be just that… I wonder if I should just ask someone what that is?"
"You can't go there," a random passerby said, startling Izuku out of his mumbles. "It's an area that's only for girls. Any guys who try breaking in are usually severely punished."
"O-Oh, really? Thanks for the information!" He said that with a face of embarrassment. Why did he always mumble out his thoughts?!
Ok… try not to mumble Deku! Anyways, definitely avoid the School Garden. He turned back to his phone and continued searching the map. There's several different schools randomly placed all around the city. Maybe I could visit one of them… why would I visit a school during break?
He continued to scour the map, seeing if there were any places that he could try visiting. There were several arcades nearby, along with baseball cages and other forms of entertainment. Izuku considered going to a nearby arcade, until a huge issue popped up in his mind.
I don't have any money!
Actually, wait. He still had his wallet from his old world, so maybe he was ok? But what if the yen was different here? Ahhh, what do I do?!
As he was panicking about his possible lack of money, another stray thought struck the green haired teen.
Wait… this city is mainly students, right? So then… How do they have money?
Jobs were a thing, but all of the people lived in a city centered around school. It was likely that a majority of the students could not put in the time needed to do a job.
Maybe their parents sent money? Somehow though, that didn't feel like the right answer. He did not know the population of the city, but it had to be pretty large. There was no way that many students had parents who could afford that.
So then… where did the students get their money from?
Izuku decided to look that up on his phone. Surely there had to be something on the internet about this. He closed out of the map and went to the search engine, simply searching "Academy City Money Students".
His answer was found pretty quickly.
Oh, they get paid per month based on what level they are. The higher the level, the more money they get from the city. I… guess that makes sense. It also says they get additional payments, but it doesn't really go into detail about what those payments are for. I should write this down, it could be important!
The quirk user looked around for an empty bench and quickly spotted one nearby. He walked over and sat down while taking off his backpack. He briefly noticed that his hand was still slightly swollen from punching a robot whilst quirkless, but it would not interfere with his writing.
He pulled out his new notebook and flipped to a new page. He grasped his pencil and began writing, mentally trying his best to not let his words slip out of his mouth.
Izuku scrolled through the website to search for more information, only to stop at some words that caught his eye.
"Only seven people get the Level 5 pay. But that number can increase at any time!"
Only seven get the pay? Does that mean there's only seven Level 5s? How did I miss that?!
He needed to confirm this, so he searched up "Academy City Level 5". One of the first results was a news article titled "Academy City's Level 5s: Who Are They?". It seemed like a good source, so the green haired teen selected it.
Academy City's Level 5s: Who Are They?
As our readers likely know, Academy City is a place where its technology is far beyond anything else in the world. However, what most people come to the city for is not just for that, but to get the opportunity to see their unique espers!
Izuku skipped the beginning of the article, as it was just recapping what each level meant. He already researched that yesterday in deep detail, so it was unnecessary to read more.
Now, who in the world holds the title of Level 5? Here is all of the information we have on them!
The #7: Sogiita Gunha
We are unsure of the name of his power, but he is a Gemstone! The most powerful gemstone, as a matter of fact! The specifics of his power are not known, but witness reports suggest that it is extremely versatile. Sadly, there are so many conflicting reports about their power that we cannot confirm very much.
Below the name was a picture of the esper, although it was a little blurry. But Izuku was able to make out some details, such as a white headband and a white coat flowing behind him. It was enough for him to draw a picture of what he could make out in his notebook.
Oh yeah, he's writing down everything he can about each esper.
The #6: Aihana Etsu
Unfortunately, we know literally nothing about this esper, aside from their name. There are many who claim to be the real Aihana Etsu, but they tend to be impostors. Thus, we cannot confirm anything about this person.
Huh? No information? That's pretty weird. Must be the super secretive type then. Or… what if they have an ability that hides their presence or something? It would explain why no one knows what they do! But, I can't say for sure... Well, guess I'll move on.
The #5: Shokuhou Misaki
Their power's name is known as Mental Out. As stated by its name, it is a purely mental ability, which can be used in various ways. However, we are unsure to what extent these powers can be used for, as information about every power is rare to find. Like every other esper except for the #7, they got their powers from the power curriculum program...
Just like with Sogiita, there was a picture of Shokuhou below her name. It was just as blurry, although, from what Izuku could see… uh…. she had blonde hair?
(If the picture was not blurry, he would have gotten flustered just from looking at it. Thankfully, he was spared from that.)
He was writing down all of the information he could, already thinking of theories on what the specifics of the power entailed. Since he had a point of reference (Shinso) for mental abilities, he already had many ideas.
"It's really vague, but if it's mentally related, then brainwashing is a possibility. But considering how that Sogiita guy is speculated to have a very diverse set of powers, then my guess is that she also has diverse abilities. What else can you do with mental powers? I guess… memory manipulation? That could be really useful for people with PTSD! There's a lot of possibilities with that kind of power!"
Frankly, he could have spent a whole day speculating on the nature of her abilities, but he wanted to learn more about the other Level 5s, so he decided to leave it for another day.
The #4: Mugino Shizuri
Their power's name is known as Meltdowner. Our information on her is very much limited, as it is nearly impossible to find her out in the public. If you've seen her, consider yourself lucky! We know she is able to summon beams of light and fire them at targets. Some people suggest that she's… not very nice, but we're sure they're exaggerating!
There was a picture of the girl as well, but it was so blurry that no details could be made out. For some reason though, Izuku was getting the sense that he had seen the girl before. Why was he having that feeling even though the picture was impossible to use for anything?
Still, he wrote down as much as he could about the ability. He came up with a few theories on how it worked and what the potential of it was, but he decided to move on. Something was tingling about this person and it was frustrating.
The #3: Misaka Mikoto
Their power's name is known as Railgun. She started out as a Level 1 Esper, but with hard work and using the power curriculum to the fullest extent, she was able to reach Level 5! Her ability is an Electromaster one, which are abilities relating to electricity. We have a lot of information on her, so brace yourselves!
Following that paragraph was a large heap of information on her ability, which was like food for Izuku's analysis skills. He found out the reason for why Misaka had more information than the others was simply because she was the "poster child" of Academy City. She has had a lot of public appearances, so more was known about her than the rest. Speaking of which, she had by far the clearest picture.
"Her power, from what it seems here, appears to be more powerful than Kaminari's. The possibilities she has are possibly endless! Wow! I wonder if she can also do things with conductors, like being able to manipulate them into certain directions and such…"
Like with Shokuhou, he could have spent a whole day on her power, but he was very curious to see what the #2 and #1 were, so he forcefully stopped himself.
The #2: Kakine Teitoku
Their power's name is known as Dark Matter. Not much is known about this ability, but witnesses claim that it defies all known laws of physics. It involves an unknown material that he can use, but this is as far as we know.
Izuku wrote down some ideas, although his theories were limited, since he was not sure what made it violate the laws of physics. There was also a picture attached, however it was just as blurry as Mugino's. It was impossible to make out any details, so he unfortunately could not make a very good drawing. He quickly decided to move on.
The #1: Accelerator.
We do not know his real name, so he is simply known by his ability name: Accelerator. His ability's details aren't well known, but we do know it has something to do with being able to reflect attacks. Rumors say that he can do far more, but we cannot confirm these.
Even with the little information he had, Izuku already thought of many theories and possibilities with the reflection ability alone. The definition of attacks was very vague, so he wanted to know more. At least the picture attached was not as blurry as some of the others, but it still made his drawing a little bit hard to get accurately.
"Does it mean only esper attacks are reflected, or does it reflect ALL attacks? If it's the latter, that would be really powerful! You could easily take down villains without even doing anything! Of course, you might have to worry about collateral damage, but considering he's the #1 esper in the city, he could probably do something to not worry about that."
The green haired teen continued to furiously write down anything he could for the various espers, unaware that he had mumbled much of his notes out loud. It gained him a lot of weird looks from passersby that overheard it, thinking it was some weird nonsense.
If anyone bothered to pay attention to the mumbling though, they would have assumed that Izuku was either a stalker or a huge fan. No one would have guessed that he did not even know about the level 5 espers until thirty minutes ago.
Eventually though, he was able to stop himself thanks to a sudden burst of wind that snapped him out of his note taking.
Whoa, that was longer than I expected. Huh, I've already filled out another quarter of my notebook? That didn't even cover half of my theories! Am I already going to need a second one?
Deciding to leave the rest of his note taking for a later time, he placed the notebook back into his backpack and zipped it. He stood up and slung his backpack onto his shoulder, wondering what to do next.
Oh right, I originally wanted to look around the city some more. How did I get distracted by the espers again? Oh well, it's whatever. I guess I should go ask a worker to see if they accept my money.
Izuku decided to go to the underground mall again, as he at least had an idea on the items they sold. He walked past several groups of people and went down the same staircase he used yesterday.
At the bottom of the staircase, there was a small convenience store directly to the right. It seemed like the perfect place to test out whether his money worked.
Inside the store, there were four small aisles full of different foods, plus a refrigerated area on the other side from the door. Next to the entrance was the checkout area, which would be Izuku's destination.
There was no one else in the store, so he pulled out his wallet from the backpack and walked over to the counter. Manning the counter was a high-school aged girl with short black hair. She looked nervous as Izuku approached her.
"W-Welcome! Do y-you need assistance?" She asked that with the best smile she could muster. It was sort of ruined by the small beads of sweat on her forehead.
"Yeah!" Izuku opened his wallet and pulled out a 1000 yen bill. "I was wondering if your store accepted these? I, um, found them and I wasn't sure if they would work here."
"U-Um, I can check with o-our manager. Is that o-ok?" It was clear to the green haired teen that she was not trained for this kind of situation. Well, it makes sense. No one really asks about if their money works.
"Yeah, that works for me!"
"O-Okay! I'll b-be back." The girl left the counter and nervously walked towards the back of the store. Izuku assumed that must be where the manager's office was.
He waited at the counter, absentmindedly looking around the store. It honestly looked no different from any convenience store back in his world. Same layout, same design and same… everything. So instead of wandering around the store, he looked out the window.
Right as he did, two girls walked down the stairs into the underground mall. One of them was a short girl sporting short black hair and a school uniform. On her head was a headband made out of flowers, which was an unexpected sight. That wasn't something he saw everyday.
Next to her was a slightly taller girl with long black hair and the same school uniform. Her head was turned to the shorter girl, which allowed Izuku to notice that she had a white flower on the left side of her hair. Both of them seemed like they were middle schoolers, but he could not be certain about that.
Before his thoughts could wander into strange places, the girl and her manager had already returned to the counter. The manager was an adult with brown hair. He seemed to hold a serious expression.
"Excuse me, customer?" The manager began speaking. "I heard you had questions regarding payment. May I take a look at your currency?"
Izuku nodded and handed him the 1000 yen bill. The manager inspected it from a lot of angles, before pulling out another bill. He appeared to be comparing the two bills and stared at the details between them. Meanwhile, the girl was awkwardly standing next to him and fidgeting her hands.
After a few minutes of this, the manager finally looked up. "I hate to break it to you, but unfortunately, these will not work in this city. They're brilliant recreations of an actual 1000 yen note, but the faces here have never been on an actual note." He pointed to the face that was on the yen. "As someone who's studied currency for a while, I can tell you that there are no yen notes that have these people on it. Sorry."
He offered the yen back to Izuku, who took it with a slightly bewildered expression. Who would have thought a convenience store manager would be an expert at this?
"It was no problem! Thanks for the help!" He gave a bow to the manager and girl. "Well, I'll g-go find some actual money then!" He turned his back to the two and walked out of the convenience store.
...Well, shoot. I can't do any of the entertainment options here now! A depressed aura surrounded him. Guess all I can do now is to simply walk around the city.
He walked back up the stairs to the surface, not noticing that one of the girls he observed earlier was looking at him. Why was she looking at him? Who knew?
...It was probably the green hair.
Izuku was back outdoors, looking at his phone map again. He was looking at the locations he could visit, but he was not sure where to go exactly.
He considered checking out whatever the Windowless Building was, but it was quite a ways away from here. He'd rather save that for a later time, when he could maybe go with Yomikawa. Most of the other locations that he could go to were either something involving money or just sounded uninteresting.
He originally also dismissed the School Garden too, but then while reading on it, he saw a line that changed his mind.
"The School Garden is home to Tokiwadai Middle School. It is a well known school, as it has extremely high academic standards, as well as being where the #5 and #3 attend school."
W-Wow! I guess it might be worth going there after all… would it really though? B-But maybe I can see something with espers? Agh, just do it Izuku!
He steeled his courage and began walking in the direction of the school garden. He could have easily taken a bus there, but he wanted to see a little more of the city, since he did not take this route with Yomikawa yesterday.
He passed by numerous stores, arcades and even a couple of other schools too, but none of them really made him want to revisit it after checking the school garden. If only I had money that I could use here.
Izuku was maybe about ten minutes away from the garden when the sidewalk suddenly split into two separate directions. One seemed to continue going straight forward, while the other diverted to the right.
There was a sign next to the sidewalk that listed the locations that were in each direction. Going forward would eventually take him to the school garden, while taking the right would take him to various different places, including...
"...A Certain High School?" Izuku said out loud. That's… a really odd name for a school. Well, maybe I can check it out! Eh, but I'm really close to the school garden… maybe on the way back.
He walked past the sign and continued on the path to the school garden. As he got closer to the garden, more girls filled the sidewalks. At the same time, less boys were around as well. Izuku was starting to feel like he was sticking out like a sore thumb. W-Was this a good idea?
Still, he kept moving forward. He was agonizing over why he thought this was a good idea when the sight of the School Garden came into view. And… wow, those were some tall walls.
Only a couple of girls were walking through the entrance, likely having finished doing whatever occurred inside the walls. The vast majority of them were wearing a school uniform and uh… they… looked- no no no!
Either way, he finally completed his trip and was ready to turn around. There was no way of progressing further into the garden. And really, why did he do this again? He mainly came here to see where the level 5 espers went, but instead, he was getting a serious composure test. Why are there so many pretty girls?! This was not worth-
Izuku froze. As he was rambling in his thoughts, he spotted a girl that looked awfully familiar in the corner of his vision. She had short chestnut colored hair and was wearing the same brown uniform many of the other girls were wearing. Next to her was the same girl he encountered yesterday after the fight against the fire esper.
T-That's the Railgun! The timing was amazing. Who would have thought that he'd see one of the level 5s only an hour or so after first learning about them?
The green haired teen seriously contemplated just walking up to her and asking questions about her esper ability, but he stopped himself. That would probably be seen as extremely creepy. Plus, he had a feeling that she got asked about her ability plenty of times already.
He turned around and started walking back in the direction he came from. Now that he completed his original objective, he figured he would check out that high school he passed by earlier.
"Sensei, the DNA results of the test subject have arrived."
It was only a couple of hours after the first experiment of Izuku Midoriya had concluded. In a separate lab area, a dog and his student were combing through the data that they were able to gather. It was, admittedly, not as much as Noukan would have liked, but they would make do with it.
One crucial bit of data that he was interested in was the DNA test. He originally planned to use a sample of blood he had gathered from Kazuma's makeshift laboratory, but it was too contaminated to be of any use. Instead, he had his subordinates take a sample directly from the boy.
"Brilliant. Let us see if the boy has something in him."
Yuiitsu launched the program used for DNA analysis and quickly found Midoriya's file. A long stream of random letters and numbers appeared on the screen for a few seconds, before it was converted into legible data.
"The subject's DNA seems to be within normal bounds. Sensei, is there anything I may be missing?" Yuiitsu asked after taking a quick glance.
Noukan took a minute to look through the analysis before he found something a little unusual.
"Yes, there is indeed something slightly unusual. Take a look at this section here." The dog used his robotic claw to point at one of the DNA sequences sampled. "Yuuitsu, compare that section to all of our other files on record."
"Of course, sensei." The Kihara activated the comparison function on the program and ran a command to make it compare Midoriya's DNA to some of the other DNAs they had on record.
A few minutes later, the comparisons were completed. And, just as Noukan had suspected, there were some minor differences between the boy's DNA and normal DNA.
"While the length of a DNA sequence varies in length, they all fall within a certain range. But, as you can see here, the boy's DNA contains extra base-pairs in this section only." Once again, he used the claw to point out the area. "This section is above the usual range of numbers. Let this be a lesson to you: a true romanticist would be able to find this with little effort. Train your skills, Yuiitsu, and you will reach great heights."
Yuuitsu smiled. "Sensei! I will do my best, as a Kihara should!"
"Indeed. Now, our next task." Noukan pulled out a cigarette and placed it in his mouth. "Find out what the boy's extra DNA has changed."
Izuku had backtracked to where the sidewalk split off towards the high school. He stood in front of the same sign he read earlier, listing the name of that school.
A Certain High School… Huh, now that I think about it, I never thought about what a normal high school is like, here or in my own world. UA is far different than any other kind of school after all.
He walked on the sidewalk that led towards the school, looking at the sights that surrounded him. Lined up along the sidewalk were various other buildings, but Izuku had no clue what they were for. Some were multiple stories tall, while others looked like convention centers.
He turned around a curve and stopped moving. His eyes widened as he took in the view of a large complex of buildings just straight ahead of him. They were all large and could fit numerous classrooms. In addition, several wind turbines were placed in the empty space between the buildings.
W-What?! This place is huge! I was thinking this was going to be a normal high school, but maybe the city's standards of 'normal' are really high!
Shaking himself out of his stupor, Izuku moved forward towards the school. He was amazed at how many buildings made up the actual school itself. Now that he thought about it, was this place really a "normal" high school?
As he was climbing up the stairs leading to the school, the front doors opened. Out walked several students in school uniforms, which confused him. Didn't Yomikawa say that Academy City was on summer break?
The students walked past Izuku as he climbed up the stairs, close enough so that he was able to overhear some of their conversations.
"-understood that concept at all? I need help on-"
"-new store over by seventh mist-"
"-you crazy?! The best bunny suit color is-"
"-pick me up? Remedial classes are done."
Ooh, it's remedial classes. He remembered how Kaminari, Ashido, Sero, Satou, and Kirishima had to go through those at the training camp. From what he heard, they had hellish hours and always woke up extremely tired. Considering that these students still looked functional, Izuku assumed that theirs was nowhere near as bad.
He debated whether to walk into the school or not. On the one hand, he was really curious to see what it looked like inside. On the other hand… it would be really weird to walk into a random school just to look inside. There were likely pictures on the internet he could just use instead.
Well, he should probably check if there are pictures online. He pulled out his phone and searched 'A Certain High School' into the search bar.
There were indeed some pictures of the school, but the vast majority of them were all taken outside. The only inside picture was of a classroom, which admittedly looked similar to his own at UA, except it had windows.
Well… I guess there's not a lot online. Since he still wanted to satisfy his curiosity about the high school, he decided to just walk inside.
The first thing Izuku saw when he walked through the front doors was a hall of lockers. Nothing unusual about that. Even UA had those.
What was pretty unusual was the extremely short pink haired person standing near one of the lockers. She was wearing a pink dress that would typically be found on a younger person. In addition, she appeared to be carrying an oversized bag under one of her arms, struggling to keep it lifted off the ground.
Izuku watched her struggle for a few moments, having not yet noticed his presence. It was pretty painful watching what seemed to be a child struggling.
"...Um… Do you need help with that?" He couldn't help asking. Once the words came out of his mouth, the pink haired person yelped in shock and accidentally dropped the bag on the ground.
"Ack! O-Oh, you're a new face. I appreciate the help but I-" The girl attempted to pick up the bag again. "-think I-I'll be fine!"
She was able to lift it off the ground again, but she was only able to walk a few more steps before her balance suddenly failed. Her bag fell to the ground, taking the child with it.
"...On second thought, I'd appreciate your help!" The girl held a sheepish expression as she raised herself off the ground.
Izuku walked over to the bag and picked it up with his left arm, since his right hand was still a little bit sore from the experiment earlier. He noticed that it was somewhat heavy for a school bag. But it was nothing compared to holding up a steel beam with one arm.
"Just follow me. We're going over to my car." The girl moved towards the front doors with the green haired teen close behind. He was not expecting to have to leave the school so quickly, but it was to help someone, so he was fine with it.
Once outdoors, the girl pointed a finger to the right. "The lot's this way!" She then started to lightly skip, which gave Izuku a lot of conflicting information on her age. She was as short as a twelve year old and was acting quite childishly. But then she was carrying a heavy bag without any help at all, plus she mentioned that she had a car.
Well, it was not important, so he filed the thought away for later. Right now, he was helping someone who needed it!
(In the distance, a certain blue haired teen saw this and cursed the strange looking person next to his loli teacher. How dare he! That should have been him there!)
The two walked in silence for a few moments, before the girl piped up. "So, who are you? I don't remember seeing you for remedial classes today…"
"O-Oh! Sorry, but I don't go to this school. Actually, I'm new to this city!"
"Oh! I didn't know! It's not very common for visitors to check out our school. Usually, they don't even bother with looking at any schools actually…" For some reason, the childish looking girl had a depressive aura around her when she said that. "How come you came here then?"
"Ah, um… I was walking around the city, w-when I saw a sign with the school name on it. It, er, made me curious." That was the honest truth, and yet it somehow made the depressive aura worse.
"Hah, you only came here because of the name…"
"A-Ah, wait!" Izuku rapidly moved his right arm back and forth. "S-Sure, it started out like that… but once I saw the school, I wanted to really see what it had! It's bigger than any school I've seen before!" Except for UA.
The depressive aura vanished quickly as the girl smiled. "R-Really? In that case, maybe I can show you around after we put this bag away!"
"Oh, you don't have to do that!" Izuku shook his head. "I can probably find my way on my own." He did not want to force this person to help him out on something he could easily do on his own.
"It might be a bit suspicious if you're in the school on your own," the girl pointed out. "With me around, I can ensure you won't get in trouble!"
"...Still, I don't… wait, why wouldn't I get in trouble with you?" What was he missing?
"Oh right! I'm Komoe Tsukuyomi! But everyone just calls me Komoe-sensei. I'm one of the teachers at the school here."
S-She's a teacher?! B-But she looks like a child! Then again, there's probably quirks from my world that can stunt one's ability to grow. Still, there aren't quirks here! At least, as far as I know…
Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he gave a smile. "I get it now! By the way, I'm Midoriya Izuku!" He reflexively responded back with his own name.
"Midoriya… hold on, do you know Yomikawa Aiho?" Komoe replied back with an unexpected question.
"H-Huh? Yeah, I l-live with her. D-Do you know her?" Izuku got noticeably more nervous at that. He was unsure if he was about to get in trouble for something he was not even aware of.
"Of course I know her! Did she not tell you?" Kome said with a surprised expression. "She's a teacher here! The gym teacher, actually."
"Really?! Wait…" Izuku moved his head up in thought. "She did mention that she was a high school teacher, but she didn't really explain much more than that."
"That sounds like her." She shook her head in amusement. "She tends to avoid telling others about her high school job most of the time. Mainly because she forgets to."
Izuku gave a nod, not quite sure how to respond to that. By that point though, they both reached the parking lot, which only contained a couple of cars. Komoe was walking towards a black car that was surprisingly large considering her… size.
She opened up the passenger door and gestured for the green haired teen to drop the bag in the seat. He did so, idly noticing that the gas and breaks were too low for the short girl to reach when sitting normally.
He stepped back out and Komoe closed the door. "Well, that settles that! Come on, I'll show you around the school!" She began walking in the direction of the school entrance.
"W-Wait." Izuku called out before she could get far. "You were about to walk out right? Doesn't that mean you have to go somewhere?"
"You're really that concerned about not bothering me huh?" The green haired teen flinched slightly. "Don't worry about it! I was just planning to head home really. But I have no problem doing this!"
"O-Okay… then I guess it's fine." He did think a guide would be helpful, so he was not going to argue any further.
Komoe gave a smile. "You bet! Now let's get going!"
Back at the lab, Kihara Noukan was staring at the results of the newest analysis of the boy's DNA. He had expected it to take a few days to complete, along with another possible experiment. Instead, the results were already back after a few hours.
"Sensei, it appears that nearly all of the base-pairs we analyzed have zero genetic material inside," Yuiitsu explained.
"Indeed. For a normal human, the boy has one of the strangest DNAs I have seen."
There were hundreds, possibly thousands of base-pairs that held zero genetic data. In nature, that was supposed to be extremely rare. And yet, that was indeed what the data showed.
They used multiple machines to analyze it, so any technical errors would be avoided. For the most part, they all showed the same data.
"Sensei, what should we do now?"
Noukan remained silent for a moment as he stared at the data. It took him a few seconds to find something they could further analyze, but he was able to find something.
"Look at this specific base pair, Yuiitsu." He used his robotic claw to point it out. "Prior to it, the DNA sequence matches that of a normal human. After it occurs, the empty genetic code starts to occur. This is what we will be analyzing next."
"And this is my classroom!"
Komoe was currently showing Izuku around the high school. So far, he has seen most of the facilities it held, including the locker rooms and the staff rooms.
Right now, they were standing in front of the door for a first year classroom. Above the door was the class name, which displayed "1-7".
"My cute students are some of the best ones I could ask for! It always makes a sensei so proud to see their students working so hard!" The short pink haired adult was expressing how much she liked her job. They were just outside her classroom, so it only seemed natural.
Well… was it? Aizawa never made that expression when talking about his classmates.
She opened the door and walked inside, with Izuku following from behind. In the front of the classroom was a chalkboard while at least twenty chairs faced the board.
Hmm… it looks like the picture I saw. Similar to the 1-A classroom at UA, except it's bigger and it actually has windows!
Indeed. On the side of the classroom, there was a large window. Beyond the window, he could see the tennis courts and some of the buildings he walked by earlier.
Other than that… there honestly was not much else to note.
"Although, I hope Kamijou is ok... " He heard Komoe murmur in a low tone, not intending for Izuku to hear it. That name sounded really familiar to him, but he could not quite remember where-
Oh right! Wasn't he that person in the hospital I met? If he remembered correctly, their full name was Touma Kamijou. It seemed like the pink haired adult knew him, probably because he was a student here.
"So, Midoriya! Any questions?" She asked that as if she just finished a lesson and was waiting for someone to ask anything that they did not understand. Since they were in her classroom, it was likely that she simply fell into that kind of tone from instinct.
"Umm… not yet…"
"That's great to hear! Well that, or you're too nervous to actually ask anything…"
"Nono!" Izuku waved his arms back and forth. "It's just, um, there's not much to ask about. So far, it feels like a normal school to me…"
"Hmm, I haven't been to an outside school in a long time. But I'll take your word for it!" Komoe smiled, before she walked towards the door leading out of the room. "Most of the classrooms look just like this one, so I don't think I need to show you those. Instead, I'll show you the outdoor track!"
The two walked through the halls of the school, passing by numerous doors that led into the other classrooms. Most of them were closed, but a few were open, giving Izuku a quick look inside. From what was he able to see, the classrooms did indeed look very similar to the one he was just in.
Before long, they were standing outside the school, looking out towards the outdoor gym area. It was mostly a large grassy field, with a running track surrounding it.
"This is where the students have their outdoor gym classes! During the summer, they're always out here, working hard! Oh it makes me so proud to see their students doing their best in all of their classes!"
Umm… didn't you say something similar already?
Komoe turned to the green haired teen with a finger pointed up. "Oh, but there's an actual gym too, of course! However, I think someone's using it right now, so I can't show it to you today. Sorry about that!"
Izuku shook his head. "It's ok! This school has been a pleasure to look at, so just missing one thing is much less than I expected!"
"Ah, it's so great to hear that!" The pink haired adult once again smiled. "Now… oh, that's all of the places I can show you right now. That was quicker than I expected." She appeared to be in thought. "Huh, I guess we're done! Well, any questions now?"
"No... I have none-" Izuku started shaking his head, but then halted. "A-Actually… it's not related to the school, but I do have one."
"Oh?" Komoe tilted her head to the side in a cutesy manner. "Go ahead! I'll answer any questions that a stud- er, a visitor has!"
The green haired teen pulled out his notebook and started flipping through the pages. "I read that espers are ranked from Level 0 to Level 5, but, um, it didn't really explain how they get ranked. When I looked it up, the only thing I found was a…" He paused for a moment while he searched for the right page. It took him a bit before his eyes landed on the information he needed. "...'System Scan'? I-Is that right?"
"What a great question! Allow Komoe-sensei to explain everything to you!" The teacher made another cutesy pose, before her expression became slightly serious.
"In order to measure an esper's power, Academy City creates a set of tests that can measure these abilities. What the tests look like depend on the esper. For example, a telekinetic esper would likely have to bend a piece of metal to a certain degree. The closer they are to that degree, the most 'powerful' they are classified."
Izuku was quickly writing down all of the notes he could. Since he already used up most of the page for other notes, he was squeezing the words into the margins.
"These tests are indeed called the System Scan. By combining several tests, you are given a list of attributes that you may have an affinity for. Those attributes determine what level the esper is given. And, of course, the larger the level, the stronger the esper is!"
Izuku wrote every single word Komoe had said into his notebook. Since he was an otherworldly traveler, he wanted to know about everything the city had. Hence, why he wrote down everything. He was not going to accidentally miss something because he forgot one little word.
It was terribly inefficient for note taking, but he did not care.
"If I recall, there were six different attributes that contributed to an esper ability. What would each one's test look like? Perhaps for fire espers, they have to burn something really hot? Or maybe-"
A giggled erupted from the pink haired adult next to him. "You must be a good student! Taking my teachings and already expanding on it? Oh how it makes a sensei so proud to see that!"
"E-Eh? D-Did I mutter t-that outloud?" The green haired teen's face turned red in embarrassment.
"Yes, but the little I heard was impressive, considering that I just told you the information not even a minute ago!" Komoe was looking at Izuku with… shining eyes? "You have a well established theory in analysis, something that isn't very common in people of your age!"
'Theory' in analysis? "U-Um… All I did was just mumble out my thoughts…"
"It was only a little bit that I heard, but it was great!" Komoe wagged her finger back and forth. "You shouldn't downplay your skills!"
But I really didn't do anything impressive…
Poor Izuku; while others have seen his analysis skills, no one in his class had read his notebooks. Due to this, he has assumed that his analyzing habit was merely a habit and completely average.
"Anyways! Do you have anything else to ask?"
Izuku surely had many more questions to ask, but for some reason, none were coming to mind. He shook his head and placed his notebook back in the backpack. "That was all I wanted to ask. Thanks for the explanation!" He bowed to the short adult.
"It's no problem! Just ask me about anything and I will answer it!"
The two, completed with their conversation, reentered the school. They walked through the hallways towards the front entrance again, as there was nothing left to show the green haired teen. A few teachers passed by, but none of them bothered to stop or say any words to the duo.
It was not long before they were back at the front entrance again. Just like he did not long ago, Izuku bowed to Komoe. "Thank you for showing me around the school!"
"Gee, you really bow a lot? Well, it was no problem Midoriya!" It was the truth. She had nothing else planned for the rest of the day, so doing this was a good way to not get bored. And the best part about the whole thing? She never got mistaken for a child! "Tell Yomikawa I said hi!"
"O-Okay!" With those parting words, Izuku turned around and walked down the steps that led to the school. The trip into the school and his encounter with Komoe was unexpected, but he enjoyed it.
It probably was not necessary in the first place to even do this side excursion, but hey, it gave him a better idea about the city itself. Whether that information would help him out...
I'm sure it will… Hopefully…
He pulled out his phone again, deciding where he wanted to go next. After a few minutes, however, he let out a yawn. Huh… I'm more tired than I thought… Then again, I did get up earlier today.
Izuku set his GPS to the apartment building, but when he saw the distance he would have had to walk, he decided that he should take the bus instead. Normally, he would have just walked, but he was tired from the events of the day. Thankfully, the school had a bus station nearby, so he waited there while checking the best route to the apartment.
Conveniently, there was a bus station only about 3 blocks away from where he wanted to go. Unfortunately, it looked like that the bus would only come around every thirty minutes, due to it being summer break. He also did not know when the last bus was, so he was unsure if he was going to wait a long time or not.
Fortunately, he only needed to wait five minutes before a bus horn sounded off in the distance. Izuku turned his head to see a blue-green bus pulling up to the station. Once it had stopped, the doors opened. He was startled to see no one sitting in the driver's seat.
S-Self driving buses? That's cool! Not a lot of people have them in my world, but they do exist. But I've never been in one before!
The green haired teen climbed onto the bus and walked towards the back. The seats were mainly placed in a double seated layout, while the center of the bus had seats facing towards the middle of the bus. It was actually quite similar to the one his class used to get to the USJ.
There were a few other people onboard, but none of them bothered to look up from their phones when he walked past them.
He sat in a seat close to the back, away from most people. None of them seemed to be in the mood to talk and he sort of just wanted to look over his notes for now. He wanted to make sure that his notes on the System Scan were accurate. Of course, he made sure to listen to the overhead speaker on the bus.
The page he used to write everything down was now overfilled with words, making it nearly impossible to add anything else. With a sigh, he turned to a new page and copied down his earlier notes, before he started theorizing.
"The six attributes are known as Telekinesis, Precognition, Clairvoyance, Telepathy, Psychometry, and Psychokinesis. I wasn't sure how they were ranked, but now I get it! Komoe said that Telekinetic espers usually have to bend a piece of metal to a certain degree, but what about telepathy. I'm not sure how one determines the strength- oh wait, maybe telepaths can't use it after they get too far? In that case, they probably do a distance test-"
It was a good thing Izuku was far away from the others, because someone would certainly have gotten very annoyed at him for the mumbling.
The bus stopped at a couple of other stations, but barely anyone else stepped on. The first part of the route mainly visited the schools in the area, so during summer break, it was not very crowded.
The second part of the route, however, happened to stop at several of the student dorms, as well as the underground shopping mall. Thus, the bus was gradually getting more crowded as it moved towards the shopping area. It was enough to make the quirk user snap out of his muttering. Still, no one had bothered to sit near him yet.
Then the bus stopped at the underground mall. There, half of the bus disembarked, but they were quickly replaced by new people who were likely done shopping and wanted to go back to their dorms.
This time, a group of two decided to occupy the seats in front of him. Both of them were girls, but one of them had long black hair while the other had short-
Wait! Didn't I already see them earlier? He recalled that he saw the two in the underground mall while he was at the convenience store. Eh, they probably didn't see me.
The green haired teen returned back to his notebook, writing down some notes while keeping his thoughts in his head. He'd been writing for only a minute when a sudden voice cut in.
"Oh hey, it's you! The green haired guy!"
Izuku jumped in surprise. He turned his head up from his notebook and found who called his name: the long haired girl that sat in front of him. She was staring at him from her seat with a grin.
"E-Eh?"
"Ruiko!" The short haired girl next to her stared at her friend in surprise. "Don't refer to people by their hair color! It's rude!"
"Ah, heh heh, sorry about that." The girl rubbed a cheek bashfully. "In my defense, green hair isn't really a common color. It's the only thing the rumors even point out!"
"Huh? R-Rumors?" His stuttering was coming out again. Nervousness plus the fact that the girl was- Bad thought!
"You haven't heard? There's a popular rumor going around that a green haired person attacked one of the Level 5 espers!"
"...What? I-I never did that!" The only Level 5 he saw was the Railgun, and that was only from afar. He certainly never attacked her!
(Then again… the Meltdowner keeps tingling at my mind, but I don't know why...)
"Oh. So you never did that?" The girl noticeably deflated, before perking back up. "Unless it wasn't you and it was actually some other green haired person!"
"...Um…" The short haired girl spoke up. "Ruiko, are you sure there would be other green haired people in Academy City?"
"Oh come on!" The long haired girl turned to her friend. "You didn't even believe that there were any in the city in the first place! If one can exist, why not two?"
"But Ruiko! Even if you're right, who would be dumb enough to directly challenge a Level 5?"
...Why do I get the feeling that there would be plenty of people who would do that?
"Kazari, it's not about if people are dumb enough. It could have simply been an accidental encounter! Maybe the culprit had to fight back in self-defense!"
The two continued to argue about the rumor, while Izuku sat there watching them. He was feeling pretty confused about this whole thing, especially the part that it was a green haired person.
Even back in his own world, green hair was rare to see, and that was with quirks. In a world where quirks did not exist, it would be impossible to find that hair color naturally. The only way there could have been someone else would be if someone dyed their hair.
That means that the rumor was likely talking about me. But I know I never attacked any Level 5s! Was someone trying to make fun of him by spreading a rumor around that? Except there's plenty of other material they could have made fun of. Hell, attacking a Level 5 could hardly be something embarrassing.
Well, alright, maybe that isn't true. But I don't think it would ruin any reputation I have.
Surprisingly, the argument seemed to continue throughout the rest of the bus ride. The green haired teen tried to listen in, but he did not get what they were talking about. Something about… Shirai? Is that a person?
Before he could ponder on that any further though, the overhead speaker came to life.
"Next stop: District 7 Apartments. Please stand clear of the doors as the bus comes to a stop."
In preparation for leaving the bus, Izuku put the notebook back in his backpack and put it back on. It appeared that the girls in front of him did not notice that he was getting ready to leave.
Once the bus slowed to a stop, he stood up and walked towards the doors. He hopped off the bus and looked around the station. In the distance, he could see the apartment building that he was currently staying at.
Behind him, the bus doors closed and began moving away towards the next station. The green haired teen started walking towards the apartments. He wondered if the girls ever noticed that he had left.
"Kazari! Listen, we might have gotten offtopic, but the point is that green haired people do exist in Academy City! The proof is right there!" The long haired girl pointed at the seat where the person was sitting.
"...Um, Ruiko? He's gone."
"What?! Since when?!" She was frantically looking for the person in the bus to no avail.
"I think it was at the last stop."
"Ugh! I wanted to ask him some things!"
Izuku opened up the apartment door with the key he had. It was a good thing he did not forget that in his rush this morning.
He walked over to the couch and sat down while placing his backpack on the table in front of him. Now that he could relax slightly, his exhaustion from the day was starting to weigh on him.
"Gee… Today sure was tiring, huh? You know… a nap… might be really nice…"
Even though he'd only been in this apartment for a day, he was already feeling quite relaxed in it. He closed his eyes whilst thinking about his old dorm, which caused him to fall asleep quite quickly.
Hope you enjoyed it! That was the longest actual worded chapter (9.1k words of content). This Authors Note is going to be super long too.
This chapter (unless I change my mind for whatever reason) should be the final chapter of the first arc of this story. Hypothetically, it should mean that we get into more serious stuff.
That being said, the next chapter will likely take a while to come out. There's a few reason for this. 1: I need to plan out the next arc properly. I found that its easier to write when I actually know what's supposed to come next and I am not just winging it (I'll explain this later)
2: I recently decided to start writing my first story again. I want to actually finish it, so I might be shifting back and forth between these two stories. The good news is that I am on break, so I have more time to do these things.
This chapter was... pretty difficult to write. In my opinion, it contains a pretty high amount of filler. The main purpose of this chapter was purely to have Izuku look around the city, learn a few more things and interact with some of the characters. The parts between the first Noukan conversation and when Izuku encounters Komoe were extremely hard to get through, because I was winging it and just writing whatever came to mind. The rest of the chapter was fine though, and I found that the latter part of the chapter was pretty easy to go through.
Ok, enough of that. I will now explain some decisions in this chapter.
First: The Level 5s. This idea actually came from a review wondering why the hell no one in the novels knows what the Level 5s look like. You'd think that their pictures would be spread over the internet (ESPECIALLY Misaka, she's literally the poster child of Academy City, yet everyone seems clueless about her). That said though, I'm still not sure about Kakine and Mugino having pictures, since those two are the most dark side characters in the series (And Accelerator, but he's the #1 and I remember there was a scene with people challenging him, so the population has to know what he looks like, right?). I'll stick with it for now though.
Second: Currency. Fun fact that I didn't know until I was writing this chapter: Apparently in Japan, the face of the yen notes changes every twenty years. Since Izuku is technically in the future, the yen would be different than the one shown in Index. Combine that with a manager who knows a lot about yen and you get what happens in the chapter.
Third: School Garden. Eh, I just wanted him to go there. That's it. Lol.
Fourth: Ok, this one is going to be longgg. The DNA sample from Izuku and One For All. Firstly, remember last chapter when the scientists use a device to monitor him when the experiment ended? That's where it came from.
Ok, now onto OFA (WARNING: THIS MAY CONTAIN MHA MANGA SPOILERS. I WOULD ADVISE TRYING NOT TO SPOIL IT IN THE REVIEWS IF IT IS NOT ALREADY COVERED IN THE ANIME). This one is largely a headcanon, because we have zero idea how One For All works on the scientific level. As we know, Quirks come from a genetic area known as the Quirk Factor. Quirkless people lack it, while quirked people do not. It's additional DNA that humans in Index do not have, so it would be detected.
Now, a normal quirk would be filled with genetic data that makes it work. However, with OFA, you're literally taking genetic material and giving it to someone else. Then it has to spread out through the body and cells in order for it to work. And yet, it cannot be forcefully taken by people by ingesting it. So, what's my theory? There's a specific Base-pair (Genetic term lol) that controls the quirk factor's ability to be transferred. Here's how I imagine it: If any DNA is taken from Izuku without him intending to transfer OFA, then the base-pair automatically deactivates the power (Realistically I don't think its possible for that to occur, but we're talking about superpowers lol). Thus, the DNA cannot transfer OFA and thus cannot be copied or given to someone. (There is another portion of my theory, but it does not occur in this chapter, so I will leave that for when it occurs.)
I know that this may be full of holes, but Horikoshi has not given an explanation, so I went with what I thought made sense.
Damn, that was long. Moving on to sixth: Izuku goes to A Certain High School and meets Komoe. Honestly? I just kind of wanted him to go to the school for kicks. Yeah, it's a bit meh, but oh well, too late! I originally was going to have him alone, but then realized that he would get in trouble for that, so I figured I'd include Komoe here! Hope I wrote her in character! (I have a question to ask at the end of the note, so I'd scroll down for that.)
Finally: Izuku meets Saten and Uiharu! I was originally just going to have him go to the apartment quickly, but then I realized it would be a good opportunity to have a meeting. It's not very long, but I think it makes sense. Maybe.
Holy shit, that was a long explanation. Well that's all- eh? Review response? Ah right. Let's do that!
Kamijou Touma1- ...What? I'm pretty sure I made him more in-character that chapter. Also, if I recall, you posted that review only a few minutes after I posted the chapter. That said, I sort of get what you mean, but it does feel like you did not read it fully. But that's alright. Hope this one satisfies you more.
Kisame Hoshigaki - Yep! Right now, Izuku has it pretty easy fighting wise. That will soon change, however... and you'll see my plans for Accelerator sometime in the future!
craytherlay - Yeah, you might be right about the energy source thing. But again, since they do not know what they're looking for, it may not be detected. And yeah, the romance thing was a bit forced (I only mentioned it once this chapter). Also, I found what you meant by promotion. It was the person Izuku fought in Chapter 4 and a piece of dialogue he said. Yeah, he may or may not be from the darkside (You'll find out!).
TrainerRed164 - Thanks for the review! Yeah, exams can totally be a killer in time. Hope that whenever you get the chapter out, it goes well! After I thought about it a bit more, I think I'm going to put the discord idea on hold. It would be a bit much right now, so I'll avoid it.
jar02 - His new costume is really cool! Horikoshi really did a great job designing it.
bees be beein - Hmm... yeah I think you may be correct in that. Once again though, you could argue that UA is an elite school while ACHS is just a normal high school. But as you pointed out, it's an Academy City school, which would likely be advanced. I'm not sure.
Well, uh, as for why I wouldn't want to read it... I probably got a bit burnt out from reading NT for a while. I actually read GT3 (Only because the wiki had a summary of GT1 and GT2 already, but not GT3, so I felt like reading). Don't question my reading choice though, it's wonky. Maybe I'll read GT 1 and 2 later on.
ptl - Yep, agreed. Izuku is brillaint at thinking of plans and analyzing. Honestly, it's a shame that they don't really show it in the series itself. I'd love to see more of analytical Izuku (If you couldn't tell, I put a lot of that in this chapter). Against a string opponent though... yeah he might see troubles.
J for Joker - I'm glad you liked the first chapter! I did end up fixing the verbal tics (Frenda saying 'Super' was a complete accident though, lol). And if you're wondering which order I am using, it goes like this: The narration uses english order, but the in-universe dialogue uses the japanese order. I figured it would be easier, but I get why it could be confusing.
And that's it! Thanks for the reviews. This author note was extremely long, whoa. Well, we're at the end!
Clarifying question for you Index experts: Is Touma a 1st year or a 2nd year? I originally thought he was a second year from a review from last week, but then while I was looking at the wiki for what homeroom he's in, it says he was in Class 1-7. That confused me greatly, so if anyone has an answer, that'd be great!
See you next time!