Chapter 13

.:. A Reason to be Proud .:.

While waiting for the results of the exam to come in, it was only natural Izuku didn't let up on his training since it would take a couple weeks. He partially regretted this decision, mainly because every time he went to the gym it ended with him covered in fresh bruises.

"Urk-!" Izuku collided with the padded wall backfirst and stuck there for a second before sliding down with an almost cartoonish squeaking sound.

Gran shook his head as he watched Izuku moan, arms folded over his chest. "Like I thought, your cooldown's still giving you too much trouble to meaningfully chain things together."

"Yeah, I guess picking up something like flight right away would've been a little too much to expect," Izuku mumbled as he got up. His voice became more eager as he added, "But my cooldown, thrust, and duration have all improved since we started training, so if I keep training Crash, I should be able to do it eventually!"

"Mm," Gran half-agreed. "Why the sudden interest in midair combat, anyway? Isn't that the sort of thing that makes more sense to wait until you're in school to start thinking about?"

"Maybe, but I'm already a decade behind everyone else in developing my skills. Even with a strong Quirk, that's something I'm going to have to work to overcome. Plus, someone I met at the exams had an anti-gravity Quirk that could let people float around, so that got me thinking!"

"Anti-gravity Quirk," Gran repeated and nodded. "Oh, right, you were telling me about that. The cute one, right?"

"Yeah, that's h—wait, cute?" Izuku felt his ears heat up. "I-I don't think I said anything like that! I-I mean it's not that she's not cute, I just don't think I really thought about—wah!" He dropped to the ground just in time for Gran's kick to brush the top of his hair, then used Crash to push himself along the ground to the other side of the room and roll into a crouched position. "That was dirty!"

"'Course it was! You still get sidetracked way too easily, but at least your reflexes are getting better. Now, if you're serious about maneuvering midair, we're gonna have to work out the basics of it down on the ground first. Focus on your coordination and pacing, and see if you can keep your guard up against me. Ready?"

Izuku lifted himself up into a ready position and nodded, and Gran charged.

He went home that evening sore, tired to the bone, and a little frustrated with not having much to show for today's efforts, even if Gran Torino's response had been uncharacteristically encouraging. All that melted away, however, when he walked through the door to a familiar aroma.

"Katsudon?"

"Yep. Almost ready. Could you set the table, sweetie?"

"Sure."

As Izuku got out the tableware, he found a thick envelope sitting face-down at his place at the table. "What's this?"

"It came in the mail for you today while you were out. I didn't open it yet."

Izuku finished setting the table, then glanced at the address and—yes, it's from UA! He tore the top off the envelope and slid out the contents. There was paper, like he expected, but also a thick metal disk. Actually, he was pretty sure he'd seen these before, as part of some promotional merch thing. Didn't they usually—

"Hello!" announced a giant, shrew-like face that suddenly appeared in midair. Izuku stumbled backward with a startled squawk, accidentally dropping the hologram projector in the process. Thankfully, the little thing was pretty sturdy and kept on playing.

"I hope this recording finds you well, Midoriya-kun."

Izuku's eyes lit up. "I can't believe it! That'—"

"Principal Nedzu of UA, hero name 'Mr. Principal.' Correct! I'm flattered you recognize me," the recording replied. "And no, this is not an active conversation, but I would genuinely be surprised if you did not recognize me. Unfortunately, due to some unexpected technical difficulties forcing us to reevaluate our scoring across the board, we're a bit pressed for time, so I'll cut right to the point,"

Reevaluating the scoring? Izuku didn't like the sound of that. Wait, did that mean he might not have passed? He'd thought he did pretty well, but—

"There's no cause for alarm," the recording assured him. "As a matter of fact, you scored fifth place out of the entire practical!"

"...What?"

A scoring chart popped up behind the principal, displaying a series of names and numbers. Kacchan's was right at the top, with 117 "villain" points but zero... rescue points? Next were three people he didn't know named Kendo, Shinsou, and Tetsutetsu (and wow, the guy in third had a lot of rescue points), and then his own name. 57 villain points, and 25 rescue points. Three spots below him was Uraraka in eighth, and then another two spaces down in tenth place was Tsuburaba.

He really hoped the projector had a replay feature, because his brain short-circuited for most of the Principal's remaining speech as he stared at his score. He knew he'd had at least 50 points, but he got 57 villain points, and 25 rescue points for a grand total of 82. Out of hundreds of people, he had the fifth highest score.

"...dorms," Nedzu was saying when Izuku finally remembered he should probably pay attention. "And welcome, Midoriya Izuku, to your hero academia! I look forward to seeing you once school begins. Goodbye for now."

"...I got in." Izuku whispered in disbelief. His initial shock gave way to excitement, practically vibrating as his face broke into a brilliant smile. "I got in! I'm going to UA!"

"I knew you could do it!" Inko beamed as she set dinner on the table. "Why don't you sit down so we can eat?"

"Oh, right!" Izuku promptly sat down, and paused as something else occurred to him. "Wait, did he mention dorms near the end?"

"You short-circuited and stopped paying attention, didn't you?" Inko asked with a smile, and Izuku ducked his head with embarrassment. "Well, UA has dorms. From what I heard they started them to help people with difficult Quirks or ones that needed special accommodations, but this year they're opening them more to the public."

"Really?" Izuku asked in surprise. "I knew they added private dorms after the Quirk Boom, but I haven't heard about them opening to public this year. I feel like that would be all over the news..."

"It hasn't been officially announced yet," Inko explained, and Izuku paused.

"Wait, then how do you know?" His mom smiled coyly at that, while also looking a bit flustered.

"Well, actually... I got a job offer to work at the dorms." It took a few seconds for her words to process, and when they did Izuku dropped his chopsticks, jaw dropping in tandem with them.

"Wait, what!?" he blurted, and his mom nodded.

"Well, a few weeks ago I visited Yagi, and he told me they were looking for someone to work at the dorms. Since they're opening it up to a wider range of students, they thought it would be good to have someone live on-site as a 'dorm parent' of sorts. If I take the job, we can still keep the apartment and come back on weekends and holidays so we don't have to stay on campus all the time, but if you decide to move into the dorms..."

She let the sentence hang there, and Izuku stared dumbly as he continued to process it. Slowly he picked up his chopsticks again to resume eating, because he would not waste good katsudon. "So the school offered you a job if I want to stay at the dorms?" he asked before taking another bite.

His mom nodded. "Pretty much. It's up to you, though. The things they said about the opportunities there sounded really good, but this is your big thing, Izuku. I don't want you to feel pressured into anything. If you don't want to stay there, or even if you want to go without me, I'll support you."

"Are you kidding?" he asked, eyes sparkling. "It's the chance to live at UA! And of course it's fine if you come! ...Um, if that's something you want, I mean," he added, feeling suddenly sheepish. He didn't want to pressure her to uproot her life for him. He'd already put her through so much between his early diagnosis as Quirkless and everything else that came after getting Graft.

He had nothing to worry about though, because her eyes filled up with pride and tears. "Oh, Izuku, you always do watch out for everyone else, don't you," she murmured, and then nodded, mind apparently settled. "Alright, I'll call the school in the morning and begin getting things set up."

The two of them excitedly bounced plans and ideas off each other for the rest of the evening. After they both turned in for the night, Izuku pulled out a box and started packing up some of the basics he'd need once they moved to the dorms. The move might not be right away, but he just felt too excited. Packing just one box right now wouldn't hurt.

When he'd filled it up, he pulled out his phone to charge for the night and saw that there was an unread message notification. He must've forgotten to unmute it after finishing with Gran Torino.

As soon as he opened it up to check the message, his eyes bugged out. A text from All Might.

'I heard the news! Congratulations on being accepted. Do you think you'd be able to swing by Might Tower some time this weekend? I have something I'd like to discuss with you.'

Five minutes later he sheepishly apologized to the neighbors who had pounded on their door worried about the "dying animal cry" they thought they'd heard.

Toshinori sank into his office chair and leaned back with a sigh. This... might be a mistake. It might be better to skip over his plan entirely, just give the boy a more formal congratulations, ask some vague questions about his plans for the future, nod sagely and send him on his way.

But no, he couldn't do that. He'd already asked the boy to make the trip all the way out here, and he'd been keeping a close eye on his development over the past several months. Mostly indirectly through Gran, but the point remained. And at the end of it all, he felt compelled to admit what Gran had told him so long ago: the boy simply wasn't All For One. And since he wasn't, he deserved to be judged on his own merits.

"Boss?" Yowai's voice crackled over his intercom. "Midoriya's here."

Nana help him. He reached over and pressed the response button. "Thank you, Yowai. You can go ahead and send him in."

A few seconds later, the door opened to reveal Midoriya, practically vibrating with excitement. "All Might! It's good to see you again!"

"You too, young man," Toshinori replied with a smile, and gestured to the empty chair facing him. "Why don't you come in and have a seat."

Midoriya did so, somewhat dwarfed by the size of the chair. It wasn't uncommon, most of Toshinori's office furniture was quite large, but Midoriya was still a bit short for his age. "You said you wanted to talk to me about something?"

"I did! First, I wished to congratulate you on your acceptance into UA. Fifth place is quite impressive. It certainly sounds like you applied yourself well."

The boy was practically glowing at the praise. "R-really? But, wait, how did you hear about that?"

No one told him yet? "Super hearing! Ha, but seriously, I don't want to risk spoiling any surprises if you don't already know. I doubt I'd hear the end of it. For now, I'll just say a friend of mine teaches at UA and I heard it through the grapevine. Anyway!" he said before Midoriya could ask about it. "On to the other thing I wanted to talk to you about. I have a graduation present for you."

"A graduation present from All Might!" the boy squeaked. "Amazing, I'd never even imagined something like this, I wonder what it—" He fell into a spiral of muttering, and Toshinori picked up references to some of his rejected merchandise. He resisted a cringe and cleared his throat to get his attention, making the boy stop. "Oops, sorry."

"It's quite alright, Midoriya-shounen." He stood up and walked over, Midoriya rising as well on reflex before Toshinori held out his hand. "To commemorate this occasion, I'd like to offer you Glow Ink."

Midoriya stared at his hand in disbelief, slowly turning to meet Toshinori's eyes. "You want me to take one of your Quirks?" he whispered.

"I do," Toshinori confirmed with a nod. "Particularly that one. I'm afraid my others are a bit too crucial to my work, but I think you'll enjoy Glow Ink anyway." That was an understatement. The boy had been so excited the few times that he'd gotten to use it as part of practice that whenever Toshinori needed to ask for it back he felt like he'd just kicked a puppy. "Take it, Midoriya-shounen, in recognition of the great hero you're going to become."

It had been a long decision, but somehow it just felt right. Though he'd never voiced his fears of the Quirk's original owner, he felt he owed the boy something for this unspoken wariness. It was a peace offering of sorts, a silent offer of support and a wish for Midoriya to become a hero.

Midoriya hesitated for less time than Toshinori would have expected before taking his outstretched hand and squeezing his eyes shut. Toshinori forced himself not to tense as reddish-black sparks of energy briefly flickered out from the point of contact, and a moment later Midoriya released his grip and smiled. "I got it."

"Excellent! Now, I would recommend not making this one public. You wouldn't be the only person to have received multiple Quirks, but it still might invite some difficult questions and attention that you'd be better off not dealing with, given what usually… well." He supposed he didn't need to spell it out for the boy, given his reaction to his own revelation of having multiple quirks.

"Got it," Midoriya said with a nod. "Hmm... maybe I should ask for some support gear that leaves glowing marks for my hero costume, so I have an excuse if I ever have to use it for some reason?"

"Now there's an idea. Anyway, I apologize for having to cut our meeting short, but I do want to get in a little bit more patrolling before the day's over. Do you mind if I escort you to the elevator?"

"O-of course not! Thank you so much!"

It wasn't until Midoriya waved goodbye and the elevator doors shut that Toshinori released the tension he hadn't realized he'd been holding in. Yowai walked up beside him. "Good kid?" she asked, and Toshinori had to pause.

"...He's still getting his feet under him, but yes, I believe he is." And he meant it. The boy did seem good, wanting to do nothing but help others, and he hoped that spark of goodwill would never fade from his eyes.

"Mm. You and his mother must be so proud." Yowai spun around and headed back to her desk.

Toshinori startled and turned to follow her. "Hey, now hold on just a second, what do you mean by that?"

To say Aizawa Shouta felt tired would be like saying the sky was blue or water was wet. Shouta always felt tired to some degree, a fact which got some teasing. At least this year his colleagues found it justified. Class 2-A, while not his direct responsibility thank goodness, tended to drain everyone who came into contact with it.

He felt an overwhelming need for an eight-hour nap (his equivalent of a multi-day hibernation by anyone else's standards) by the time his hero ethics course ended. Thank goodness he had a free period afterwards, and lunch after that. They had arranged his schedule very carefully.

He had just wrapped up his lecture when the door opened to reveal Hizashi there for his English class, smiling brightly as usual. "Hello, listeners!" he announced grandly in English. "Are you all ready for another day of English?" He got a chorus of half-hearted "yeahs" and one very enthusiastic "YES MIC-SEI!" that had even Hizashi flinching slightly, while Shouta felt his eye twitch. How the hell did anyone have that much energy?

He stuffed his papers and files under his arm and trudged to the door in silence, though he slowed when Hizashi nudged his arm in passing. "Yo Eraser, before you head out, bossman wants to see you," he commented, and Shouta felt his face sour further.

"Right, thanks," he grunted, and headed out for Nedzu's office. So much for that nap. Maybe it was for the best though, he'd probably end up sleeping through lunch. Again. Why did he bother teaching instead of just sleeping all day again?

It didn't take long for him to reach the office, and he didn't even bother trying to knock, just skipped straight to reaching for the handle. Nedzu called "Enter" before he even touched it, just like every other time, and Shouta dutifully slipped inside and closed the door. As usual, Nedzu sat at his desk with paws folded peacefully and a smile on his face, a steaming pot of tea and two cups already waiting.

Shouta eyed the tea warily. That was not a good sign, that meant he expected the meeting to last more than five minutes. "You called me, sir?" he asked as he hovered by the door.

"Take a seat, Aizawa-kun!" Nedzu chirped, and dammit, that meant the meeting would probably cover his entire free period. He resisted a sigh as he prodded over to the chair facing the desk and sank into it, noting Nedzu had gone out of his way to switch out the super-plush one for one with a stiffer back and seat. Given Shouta fell asleep in that chair last time, he didn't blame the rodent or whatever he was. (Kayama's latest theory: quokka. Given that many quirked animals came from Australia, she might actually be onto something this time.)

"Is something wrong?" he asked, skipping straight to business. He hadn't slept through any classes since early last semester, and even that time he had the excuse of recovering from a fight gone sideways. He also hadn't expelled anyone since January. (That brat had deserved it, kid kept pulling pranks despite repeated admonishments, and everyone knew not to mess with his coffee.) Last he checked the current batch of students in the first and second years had shaped up, too, so not that.

"No, nothing of the sort," Nedzu replied cheerfully. "I wanted to talk to you about next year's class!"

"I am not moving into the student dorms," Shouta deadpanned instantly. He didn't care what Hizashi and Kayama liked to say when teasing him about his "parental instinct towards the kids." He was not moving to the dorms and living with these hellions twenty-four seven, especially with them opening it up to more kids next year.

"Don't worry, that was not my intention at all!" Nedzu chirped, undeterred by Shouta's harsh glare. "We already have a few new employees lined up to help handle supervision and logistics. In fact, the mother of one of the incoming students has graciously agreed to move onto campus part-time as the main supervisor for the first year hero course dorm. She won't be present at their building every night, but we should have everything covered."

Shouta relented in his harsh glare and slouched in his seat again. "Alright, fine. So what do you need to talk about?"

"It's about one of the students in your upcoming class."

"You've already arranged the classes?" Shouta wasn't surprised, Nedzu had probably plotted the rosters the day of the exam. He hadn't given him or Vlad their copies yet though. Usually he had it sorted before the exam results were sent out so he could include students' class assignments in the acceptance letters, but the disaster in Site C had led to some more intense debates about scoring and placement than usual.

"Indeed I have!" Nedzu confirmed, and pulled out a file from beneath the desk to slide over to Shouta. "I will distribute the official class roster at today's meeting of course, and have already sent follow-up letters to the students. However, I want to speak to you about one in particular." Shouta grunted as he took the file and opened it, greeted by a photo of a kid with green hair.

"Midoriya Izuku, huh," he muttered as he flipped through the pages. He recognized the boy from his team with two other students during the exam; it stood out as one of the most impressive examples of teamwork from this year. Of course, he'd only reached that conclusion when reviewing footage later after sorting out the Site C mayhem. "Kid's got some kind of kinetic propulsion Quirk, right?"

"Technically, yes," Nedzu confirmed, and Shouta paused. He glanced down at the file, eyes narrowing as he read over the Quirk registry information.

"It manifested less than a year ago? That's impressive given his score, but still not anything particularly concerning. Are there details he didn't register?"

"Oh, most definitely," Nedzu said, ever sunny and cheerful, and Shouta felt that instinctive sense of dread grow. If he had learned anything in his ten-plus years as an underground hero, it was to trust his gut. That smile on Nedzu's face and bright, cheery tone? That was dangerous.

"He has a second one he didn't officially register, doesn't he," he sighed, and Nedzu hummed, producing another file. One much thicker than the first, thick enough that when he dropped it on the desk it produced a loud thump.

"For the record, Ishiyama has graciously agreed to cover your class after lunch," he commented, and it would have made Shouta's stomach sink if he wasn't still stunned by the file's size.

"How the hell do you have that much information on one Quirk?" he asked incredulously. "One unregistered Quirk? I've seen villains with files less thick than that!"

"Speaking of which, this is only file one, by the way," Nedzu commented nonchalantly, and Shouta just stared. "There's altogether too much information to have in a single file, so I compiled all the key details into this file as a starting point!"

Shouta slowly raised his head to look away from the file, staring at his boss with wide, bloodshot eyes. "Nedzu," he ground out slowly, already dreading the answer. "What the actual fuck is going on?"

Somehow, Nedzu's smile seemed to grow wider. "Today, we are going to speak about Midoriya's true Quirk, Graft—or as its original owner called it, All For One."

Izuku's second Quirk: Glow Ink! We gave it to All Might purely to pass on. (Since Izuku's "official" Quirk isn't similar enough to One For All here to raise Todoroki's suspicions, Yowai is instead Aftershock's local representative of Team #DadMight)

So an important note: a lot of people seem to be assuming the absolute worst because of all the stories about being disillusioned with hero society and such. So to clarify, since some of it won't be addressed in-story for a while and some people will get worked up based on reactions to other chapters:

The exam attack is NOT a sign of incompetence or UA being too haughty, nor was it a planned villain attack. The cause was an examinee whose EMP-type Quirk turned out to be stronger than anyone realized, even the student in question. It's not the kind of thing a civilian would want to test seeing as the worst-case scenario is a city-wide blackout, so this was the first time anyone saw its potential. It was a genuine Quirk mishap. In a world with superpowers, no one can predict everything. No one got seriously hurt (at least compared to canon Izuku's injuries, which obviously didn't cause any lawsuits) and most people didn't realize something was THAT wrong.

That's also why UA hasn't announced it to the press yet. They won't ever reveal just how bad things went at Site-C for the kid's sake. Knowing you could have caused deaths is uh, pretty heavy on your conscience.

Also, there's no nefarious scheming behind Izuku getting invited to stay at the dorms. Nedzu has no evil plans for him, he is just VERY eager to have him as a student. (Everyone else should be scared.)