Chapter 9

.:. Crash Course .:.

It was a normal day at Aldera. A few minutes remained before class would begin, and most of the students had already arrived. Everyone filtered into the room and hung about like usual, chatting about the latest news or griping about homework. Midoriya Izuku hovered near the open door, helping steady a poster that had gotten loose while another student taped it up.

Bakugou Katsuki looked as surly as ever as he trudged into the classroom, which while not abnormal, seemed worse today after getting delayed by a villain attack. It had nearly made him late, so his scowl was a bit more pronounced than usual when he stomped towards his desk.

"Out of the way, Deku," he grumbled, shoving Izuku with his shoulder as he passed. The shove wasn't that hard, but it still made the green-haired boy lose his balance, stumbling a few steps towards the wall as he tried to regain his footing. He staggered and twisted his torso so his shoulder collided with the wall.

And then there was was a flash of light and a magnificent crash. The room fell into abrupt silence as everyone turned to stare at the brand new hole in their wall. Izuku sat in the midst of said hole, legs still in the classroom but the rest of his body firmly in the hallway and covered in plaster and dust. Small bluish-green hexagons still flickered in the air around him, already rapidly fading.

For a moment, all was silent.

And then, everyone exploded, Bakugou much more literally than the rest.

"MIDORIYA GOT A QUIRK!?"

Two weeks after getting Burst Dash, everyone at school found out about it.

It was probably the busiest day of Izuku's school career. His classmates mobbed him almost instantly, their excited shouts and cries drowning out Kacchan's angry yells. The teacher had come running at the sound of the crash, as had several others, but instead of getting mad he'd sent him to the nurse's office to make sure he hadn't been hurt. Then the principal arrived to congratulate him, and called his mom since they hadn't actually notified the school yet.

The attention never let up once after that. When he got back to his classroom for second period he was mobbed again. Word spread fast, and between classes students from every grade would come by to gawk at the hole he'd left. And at lunch, he found a small crowd waiting at the door to pepper him with questions. At the end of the day more students mobbed him, and he ended up 'accidentally' using Burst Dash to flee once he reached the school gates. One useful perk: it gave him a speed boost that made it easy to outrun his peers.

By the time he reached the train station and got onto one, he all but collapsed onto an empty seat. Honestly, Izuku didn't know what to make of the attention. He had always been more in the background, so having everyone seeking him out was jarring. It probably wouldn't have been so bad if he'd just told them instead of accidentally showing it off the way he did, but they wanted to finish working out the details of the registration before telling the school.

Guess we'll have to finish that today, he thought with a sigh, turning his head to watch Musutafu zoom by. It only took fifteen minutes before his stop arrived, and from there another ten minutes of walking before a now-familiar building came into sight. The Mighty Fitness Gym was a decently-sized gym that modeled itself with All Might's branding, partially because All Might actually did own it. Izuku only learned this fact because the man had suggested he go there to train his new Quirk.

He dropped off his school bag in the locker room like always and changed into his training clothes before heading to a private back room to train. Five seconds after closing the door, he felt a sudden sense of dread and instinctively leaped to the side. That dread proved well-founded because he only barely managed to avoid a flying kick aimed at his side.

"WHY DO YOU DO THAT EVERY TIME!?" he cried.

"To keep your reflexes sharp!" came the gruff response, and Izuku groaned as he turned to face his mentor. Gran Torino was a hero Izuku had never heard of, and whose name he had come to regret knowing. The man had apparently retired for the most part many years ago, but he came out of retirement to teach Izuku at All Might's request. It had only been a little over a week since they started training, and Izuku already felt mildly traumatized by the experience.

The small old man huffed as he crossed his arms. Despite being the shorter one, it felt like he was somehow looking down at Izuku. "Your mom told me about the call from your school. So you couldn't even wait until we got all the registration details sorted out, huh?"

"It just kinda... happened," Izuku said with a grimace. "At least I didn't get in trouble with the school...?" That had been nice at least, he didn't get lectured or anything. If anything, his teacher had seemed happy for him. "I kinda expected them to be more upset about breaking the wall."

"That's because your school is run by brown-nosing idiots who want to profit off your success," Gran Torino replied flatly. "They see you have a Quirk with a potential for heroics, and between that and your grades they're banking on you making it into UA so they can boast about a graduate becoming a hero." That had Izuku pausing, and he felt himself deflate a bit.

"O-oh..." The school did show some obvious favoritism towards Bakugou and Hachinose, both from the faculty and their classmates. The thought of the latter had him freezing, eyes going wide with horror. "Wait, are my classmates going to be crowding me every day!? I barely made it through today, I can't go a whole year dealing with—gack!" He yelped as Gran bopped him on the head with his cane.

"Boy, it's only been a day," he groused. "You can worry about that later. For now, any ideas on what name you'll give it? Or your other one, for that matter." Izuku frowned as he rubbed the spot Gran had hit.

"I still don't know what to name my actual Quirk," he admitted. "I've come up with a lot of names, but none of them feel right. But as for Burst Dash..." He paused, thinking back to how he'd crashed through the wall, and how his mother had done the same thing the first time she'd used it. "I might as well go with Crash. I mean, today was basically a repeat of when my mom first used it, and we already sometimes called it that as a joke anyway, so..."

Gran snorted at that. "Took ya long enough to decide. And the name's accurate, given how much crashing you do." He nodded at the large, colorful foam blocks set up around the room. They looked similar to the ones used in gymnastics, only these were taller than Izuku and had weighted centers. Izuku had been using them for training on how to crash into stuff: seeing how much force would be needed to knock them over, controlling the force of his dash. That sort of thing.

Knocking them over tended to be hit or miss so far with how heavy some of them were. He had basically destroyed the foam padding on one to reveal the hard, dark core, though, which had been kinda painful to hit. Burst Dash—or Crash, now—shielded him from serious injuries while it was active, but slamming into something that hard still left him sore.

"So should I keep charging at them like usual?" he asked, and Gran nodded.

"That's a start. Yesterday you managed to knock over all the green ones pretty consistently, so see if you can knock over a blue one." The blocks had different weights based on the color, with blue being around the middle range.

Izuku sighed as he nodded, turning to face the nearest one. Activating Crash so far felt much simpler than trying to activate his other Quirk. It didn't require much concentration, just imagining himself channeling energy into his legs. He could actually feel the power build up in him, and when he took off running he saw a flash of blue and green in the corner of his eyes.

He crashed into the block with his full force, successfully toppling it over. He hit it so hard, in fact, that when it rolled over it kinda carried him with the roll, flinging him into the air with a startled shout. Izuku reflexively folded his arms over his face as he went crashing onto the thickly padded mat, the impact knocking all the air out of him with a pained gasp. Nothing broke, but that still really, really hurt.

As he laid groaning in agony a shadow stretched over him, and he opened his eyes to see Gran looming over him. "Kid, you deactivated your Quirk on your descent again," he pointed out gruffly. "You wouldn't be this sore if you used it." Izuku blinked slowly, wondering if he could speak when it felt like his lungs still lacked about half the air they usually held.

"C-couldn't," he wheezed, struggling to get the word out. "Quirk... wore... off..." Crash had a time limit, followed by a short cooldown period. It wasn't his fault that it wore off while he was still in the air!

"Then you need to work on extending the duration. That, or figure out how to use the right amount of force to not send yourself flying when you knock something over. Why'd you go full force, anyway?" He lightly tapped Izuku's side with his cane, not too hard but still reminding Izuku that area was still sore. "Now get up and try again, but don't try to charge it like an elephant."

"...Yes, sir." Izuku reluctantly dragged himself to his feet, taking a few seconds to catch his breath as he staggered to face the block. With a deep inhale, he channeled Crash to his legs once more, and charged forward.

"Based on all my research, it seems that Midoriya Izuku does, indeed, possess the Quirk All For One itself, and not a copy or relative to it."

Nedzu's words had Toshinori sagging his seat tiredly, rubbing his forehead. "I don't know if that's a relief, or makes this worse," he groaned, and Mirai gave a soft hum of reassurance.

"It's not exactly a surprise," he pointed out. "We'd already been operating under the assumption that it's the same Quirk. At least we know what we're dealing with."

"Yes, but I'd still prefer that Quirk not exist at all," Toshinori murmured to himself with a grimace, but his words went ignored. It had been two weeks now. Two weeks since he found the boy who received his nemesis's Quirk. In that time they'd been busy, contacting the very few people who knew the true story of All For One and the second Quirk boom to alert them of that situation.

Given everyone's busy schedules, today marked the first time they had all been able to meet in person. Minus Gran Torino of course, but he was busy training Midoriya so his absence could hardly be faulted. The meeting had been hosted by Nedzu on UA's campus, inviting Toshinori, Mirai, Shuzenji Chiyo (better known as Recovery Girl) and Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa.

"I never would have thought that All For One would be distributed by the second Quirk boom, too," Naomasa mused quietly. "I thought it would have died with him."

"Well, if it scattered all the other Quirks he collected, maybe it shouldn't be so surprising," Mirai sighed. "We shouldn't have assumed it died with him. I'm more interested in why it went to Midoriya though. From what I know, the Quirks seem to be distributed rather randomly from what I've seen, with a few exceptions where it meshes with the original Quirk. But All For One seems to be a decent fit for his personality."

"I did consider that he may have a genetic predisposition for it," Nedzu commented. "A Quirk like that would be powerful, so I thought it might be biased towards someone with a familial connection. However, his family history is easily verifiable and shows no space for All For One to subtly insert himself. It seems to be largely random chance."

"Not entirely random," Shuzenji murmured, eyes narrow as she leaned back in her chair. "Remember, Midoriya Izuku was Quirkless prior to the boom. Statistically speaking, the strongest Quirks tended to manifest among two demographics: people who had no Quirk, and young children. He would have been nine at the time, so he managed to fit both demographics."

"Still, would that have been enough?" Toshinori couldn't help but wonder aloud. "I know the Quirkless population is small, only twenty percent, but..."

"Twenty percent is the total on a global scale," Shuzenji pointed out. "That number can be broken down further by nationality and age. In the last Japanese census prior to the second boom, only about eleven percent of the people registered as Quirkless were younger than eighteen. I imagine by the next one, that number will be even lower, even disregarding the ones who gained a Quirk in the boom." The number had Toshinori jolting in his seat, eyes going wide.

"The battle with All For One happened in the Nagano prefecture, which is close to Musutafu," Mirai murmured thoughtfully. "And we know Midoriya Izuku still lives in the same apartment as he had then. If he was the closest Quirkless child, it may have latched onto him as the first viable host."

"A plausible hypothesis, but unfortunately near-impossible to confirm," Nedzu remarked. "At least, not without breaking several laws to check previous censuses in detail. In any event, the specifics of why Midoriya Izuku got it do not matter, so much as what we do now." Everyone nodded grimly, sitting a bit straighter as they got to the heart of the meeting.

"Gran Torino has already started training him in using his mother's second Quirk," Mirai reported. "On that note, he apparently used it today at school, so we'll have to finalize the details for the registration by this weekend. Fortunately we were already on track to do that though."

"Speaking of his mother, how much do we tell her?" Naomasa asked. "I know you gave her a rough outline of the situation without naming All For One directly, but we may need to fully read her in so she can understand the situation."

"We can cross that bridge when we get to it," Toshinori declared with a grimace. "I'd rather not tell her everything, but with the circumstances as they are, I suppose that may not be an option."

"It's not," Shuzenji agreed with a cool nod. "She has a right to know, as does the boy's father. He's stationed overseas on a medical expedition right now, isn't he?"

"Yes, and that makes notifying him much trickier," Mirai said with a frown. "We've been speaking with Midoriya Inko about how much to divulge, and so far she's told him about Burst Dash, but not the specifics of his actual Quirk. We're not sure how safe it is to divulge any of this over a phone call or video chat, even if we were to use a highly secure, encrypted line, which could draw the wrong kind of attention all on its own."

"Paranoia is our best ally," Nedzu said with a sage nod. "This is one secret we absolutely cannot risk exposing to anyone we cannot completely trust, especially so soon. Unfortunately, we may not be able to give Midoriya Hisashi the full details until someone can brief him in person."

"His background at least checks out," Naomasa commented almost wryly. "No criminal records in Japan, US or anywhere else. Not even a single parking ticket. The only reason he has any records was because of a speeding ticket from a faulty radar in the US. It got dismissed since most cars on the market can't hit 300 miles." The number got some soft snorts from the others, lifting the mood slightly.

"One thing I don't miss from America were those speed radars," Toshinori chuckled. "One officer tried to issue people tickets for running past them with their Quirks. Luckily those all got thrown out and he was reprimanded." It was an amusing memory from his time in America. He remembered David Shield had actually fallen to the floor laughing when Toshinori showed him the ticket he'd received in the mail after one busy patrol.

Still, as amusing as the memory was, the good mood couldn't last forever with the subject at hand. He found himself sobering quickly as he thought of Midoriya Izuku. With Burst Dash, he could probably manage to move fast enough to trigger the radar devices, and that Quirk didn't even specifically enhance his speed. With All For One at his fingertips, he could probably get the right combination of Quirks to shut down the devices if he ever desired such.

They couldn't allow the boy to fall to the temptation that the power of All For One provided. From what he knew, the boy lacked a single malicious bone in his body, but that may not always hold true. Not with a power like that. Right now, the only reason Toshinori wasn't more panicked by his existence was simply the fact that the boy had always, always idolized heroes and dreamed of being one. Hence why Nedzu had called them here specifically.

"Nedzu, you'll make sure he gets into UA, correct?" he asked, meeting the mammalian principal's beady eyes. "Into the heroics course?"

"Of course," Nedzu agreed without missing a beat. "With a Quirk like that, I can't imagine anywhere better equipped to handle his training than UA, and I am not saying that just because I'm the principal. UA has the facilities, faculty and funding most suited to handling his needs. I've already begun planning how to best handle his admission. With the next year still so far out, I can't plan everything in advance, but it does give me time to change some policies to better suit the situation. The main challenge will be if he can pass the exam."

"Wait, you're having him take the normal exam?" The decision surprised Toshinori. While Burst Dash, from what he'd seen and heard from Gran, seemed to be a fairly powerful Quirk, that didn't necessarily mean he'd pass the entrance exam. "Can't you enlist him as a recommendation student instead?"

"There are two issues with that," Nedzu answered. "First, UA currently has up to six slots for recommendation students each year. As such, those students will be subject to heavy scrutiny and attention from the public—and the Hero Public Safety Commission. And as I'm sure you're aware, the more attention Midoriya Izuku receives, the more precarious his situation will be."

"...O-oh, that's true." They had decided from day one that the Commission absolutely could not be allowed to know about All For One. Toshinori had already resolved himself to keep its existence a secret from as many people as possible anyway, but Mirai and Nedzu had been particularly vehement about that. After seeing how heavily they lobbied against it, perhaps he should pay closer attention to the Commission's handling of private matters.

"What's the second point?" Naomasa asked curiously, and if it were possible, Nedzu's smile grew.

"That one's much simpler: who would have the clout to recommend Izuku?"

That point was... even more obvious in retrospect. With its limited number of recommendation slots, UA wouldn't accept recommendations from just anyone. Typically it had to be someone recommended by a faculty member, a hero in the Top 100, the Commission, or some other politically powerful or influential figure. And as it stood, Midoriya knew no one in the hero industry.

Well, almost no one.

All eyes turned to Toshinori, who blanched. "Recommending him would be very unwise," he murmured, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. He didn't need to be told how disastrous that would be. Getting recommended by the Number One Hero would be an instant recipe for paparazzi and endless public scrutiny if it got out. The poor boy wouldn't know the meaning of the word "privacy" anymore.

General exam it was then. Good thing Gran Torino had already agreed to train him. Toshinori offered a silent apology to the boy for having to endure the training. It's for the greater good.

"Besides," Nedzu chirped. "Recommendation students still have to pass another exam, which is more rigorous than the general one. We only directly accept recommendation students under very special circumstances. So in reality, Midoriya would have an even harder time passing since he'd be up against people who'd trained specifically for that exam."

"...A-ah, I see." Toshinori had a lot of research to do, it seemed.

"I'm sure he'll do fine," Mirai said. "More importantly, I think it would be good to have a teacher who's aware of the situation once he enrolls, just to be safe." That had Toshinori jolting in his seat, spinning to look at his former sidekick in disbelief, but his silent protest went ignored as he continued, "All For One is too dangerous to be ignored outright. Even if he focuses on using only his mother's Quirk, the temptation to take other people's Quirks is too risky for us to ignore. He may very well end up taking one on accident in a high-stake situation like when it first activated."

That had Toshinori reeling, sucking in a breath as he looked away and remembered the sludge villain. Remembering the sheer terror that had filled the boy's eyes once he realized how close to death he'd come, how he could barely even bring himself to recount nearly being suffocated... If the boy hadn't possessed All For One, he could have died, or at the very least been seriously injured before Toshinori found them.

"Yes, I suppose with internships that is a risk," he murmured reluctantly. "Quirks are instinctive in dangerous, life-threatening situations." At the very least, Burst Dash probably wouldn't have helped against the sludge villain as much as All For One would.

"Toshinori and I are too busy with our work to teach here though," Mirai continued. "So we'd likely need to read in someone else." Toshinori flinched. While he knew it was logical, the idea of telling someone still filled him with a certain innate revulsion. Telling them couldn't be restricted to just vague details like with Midoriya Inko, the teacher would need to know exactly what they were dealing with.

"Not to worry!" Nedzu chirped brightly. "I already have a faculty member in mind who would be a tremendous help. And I can assure you, no matter how many of them ultimately find out, I have the utmost faith and trust in all of my faculty to keep this matter discreet."

Toshinori still didn't like the idea, but he nodded along anyway. If Nedzu trusted them, that was good enough for him. The mammalian principal wouldn't trust just anyone after all. "We'll take your word for it," Mirai said on his behalf. "In any case, we can't afford to be careless. I don't need to remind everyone here how dangerous All For One can be if the user goes down the wrong path. As much as I want to have confidence in this young man, we cannot allow another All For One to rise. In the worst case scenario..."

He trailed off, expression darkening, and everyone fell silent. No one wanted to risk another All For One rising. Toshinori had barely survived the first one, and that was with the stockpiled power from seven other predecessors. Given how much time young Midoriya had already devoted to studying Quirks before he received this terrible power...

For the sake of Japan—no, the world, Toshinori hoped Midoriya Izuku would become a fine hero.

Wall Casualty Tally: 3

A cookie for all who guessed "Crash" as the name! (Fun fact: we actually came up with that name before "Burst Dash".)

Also, next week we'll be doing an extra update on December 22! Consider it our holiday present to you!