So I had originally planned on going back to my main story after last chapter. But, after finishing up that one, this one came to mind almost immediately and I felt I had to write it. So here it is, enjoy.
Chapter 4: The Changing World
Schonheit leaned back in her chair. She sat in an office space which made her seem more like the CEO of a company rather that the boss of a criminal organization. Next to her stood a woman who appeared to be in her mid twenties dressed business casual. She had steely grey hair and white eyes.
"It seems as though Bodum's been captured." She noted. "What a shame she was so useful to me."
"You don't think she'd tell the authorities anything do you ma'am?" Her assistant asked her.
"Don't worry my sweet Chiyo I never told her much for a reason. She was never really loyal to us. The minute she gets an out she'll take it. That's likely what's happening here." Schonheit noted.
"I see, then we have nothing to worry about." Chiyo noted.
"Indeed, the most they'll be able to gleam is my villain name and the location of one of our hideouts. Speaking of which be a dear and order everyone there to vacate the area before the heroes so up." Schonheit directed. "And make sure they clear everything out."
"Of course ma'am." Chiyo replied before make her leave.
She closed the door behind her leaving Schonheit alone in her room. 'So what's your next move in regard to this girl.' For now I'll do nothing. It's highly likely she's tied to him. However I think it's safe to say she's an enemy of his, and one not to be messed with. 'Indeed, we'll end up wasting resources on her. As they say the enemy of my enemy is my friend.' Correct you are. For now we should focus our resources on dealing with said enemy.
She rose to her feet and headed out the door.
At the police station…
"Is that really all you can tell us?" Naomasa questioned.
"Yep, Sorry," Bodum, now clothed in a simple dress, expressed. "Schonheit made it a point to not tell us 'mooks' too much in case we either 'A' get captured or 'B' betray her. Or in my case both."
"Well surely you had some way of communicating with her. As you stated, you answered directly to her and not one of her more 'trusted executives'. Perhaps we could use that to get more info." Naomasa inquired.
"No can do, this things basically a brick now." She stated while holding up her phone. "There's a program on here that will completely fry the phone and alert Schonheit if someone gets captured or killed. Don't ask me how it figures it out it just does."
She tossed him the phone.
"I don't know if you have anyway of gleaming info out of it, but it can't hurt to try." She added.
"right… well… we'll get on that. For now, we'll investigate this hideout you mentioned and see if we can find anything." Naomasa stated.
"It's probably being cleared out as we speak, might want to hurry." Bodum suggested.
"R-right," Naomasa noted.
He looked to an officer in the room who nod in confirmation before heading out.
"Welp I think that about wraps everything up." Naomasa stated.
"Sweet, so it's new home life now?" Bodum asked.
"We'll before that, you need a new name. Can't have your old boss finding you and Kun isn't exactly a name you'll find in Japan too often." All Might noted.
"True, any ideas?" Bodum questioned.
"Hmmm… How about… Kimiko?" All Might suggested. "I always said if I ever had a little girl I would…"
"I like it, let's go." The newly named Kimiko stated as she hopped off her chair.
"This is gonna take some getting use to." All Might muttered as he went to follow.
"I'll get you the paperwork sometime this week." Naomasa stated.
"Thanks," All Might replied as he headed out of the room.
Later, the Midoriya residency…
Eri laid in Nana's bed fast asleep. The girl had been tired after everything that had happened today. With no other bed to use, the Midoriya's had her sleep with Nana for the night. Nana herself had some homework to do before she called it a night. As she slept Eri was plagued by a constant stream of nightmares. She tossed and turned in the bed her breaths becoming heavier and heavier with each passing second.
Suddenly she felt a comforting presence embrace her. A gentle calming warmth spread through her as Nana got into bed and embraced the trembling girl. In her mind it was as if the warm rays of the sun were rising over the horizon, banishing the dark nightmares that had plagued her. She turned towards Nana and clutched onto her as if her life depended on it, burying her head in Nana's chest. In her mind it was as if she were holding the sun. It was a sun that did not burn but only warmed her with soft soothing pulsating light. Nana smiled gently as she lovingly stroked the now calm girls hair. She too let sleep take her, not letting go of the girl the whole time.
In her mindscape, Izuku in his original male self sat across from an adult Nana Shimura. The two were currently playing a game of chess.
"So what's our next move from here?" The original Nana questioned as she moved a piece.
"For now I think it's best to lay low. We're on their radar, though they know very little about us other than that we're investigating them." Izuku answered as he moved a piece of his own. "We need to wait till this blows over before making our next move."
"A wise decision unfortunately I can't say the same for your chess play." Nana stated as she moved another piece. "Checkmate."
"Darn, your back in the lead in wins." Izuku expressed.
"Hahaha… you're lagging behind Izuku. Wanna go another round?" Nana questioned.
"No thank you. Why don't we switch to Go." Izuku stated as he swiped over the board.
Instantly the chess board switch to a Go board with all the pieces set up. The two began to make their moves.
"Speaking of our enemy what do you make of Bodum?" Izuku questioned. "More specifically who do you think she works for."
"It's unlikely she's with our primary enemy. But that begs the question? Who is she with?" Nana questioned.
"I wish I could have heard her testimony with Mr. Tsukauchi. That would have revealed a lot." Izuku noted.
"Indeed, for now though it seems things are about to be shaken up in the underworld." Nana observed. "We have no way of knowing, but it's unlikely that All for One is down for the count. He may be weakened but he's still likely a force in the underworld."
"Though with his weakness, comes room for others to grow and challenge him." Izuku added. "Such as Destro and the other possible faction that Bodum worked for. And we can't forget our main enemy."
"Speaking of said enemy, we have know idea how many heroes or villains he's been able to call back from the beyond." Nana noted.
"There's also the fact that others could have broken away like you and Destro." Izuku noted. "If they're heroes then that's likely fine but if not, we could have more factions popping up in the underworld."
"Even if they don't they can still join up with any of the other factions increasing their power." Nana noted. "However, without a hero license, doing most anything to investigate will put us on the wrong side of the law."
"Which is why we'll spend the next ten months training up for the Entrance Exam and make sure we're on the path to the provisional license as fast as possible." Izuku added. "Oh and one more thing."
"What's that?" Nana questioned.
Izuku placed a Go piece down.
"I win." Izuku stated.
"Darn it!" Nana exclaimed.
Ten months later…
The days turned into weeks which turned into months until the day of the UA Entrance Exam finally came. During that time Eri had become more comfortable with her surroundings. She began to heal not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. She now no longer had to sleep with Nana to keep the nightmares at bay. Because of this, the police thought it best to keep her with the Midoriya's. This lead to a very happy Eri when she heard she'd become Nana's little sister.
On the day of the Entrance Exam. Nana stood at the gates of UA confidently looking towards the hallowed building. This is it. Our first real step. 'Remember to stay on your guard you never know what UA might throw at us for the practical.' I know.
"Out of my way charcoal!" An all too familiar voice yelled.
'Well well look who's here.' We knew he'd be here, no need to sound so disappointed. Nana turned around and faced the ash blond who yelled at her.
"Good morning to you too Katsuki. Here to tell me how your gonna take the number one spot because ra ra, explosions explosions, I'm the best." She stated in a mocking tone with a deep voice towards the end.
Katsuki, for his part, looked like he was about the explode before turning towards the building.
"Tch… shut up you damn nerd. I'll crush you no matter what. No quirk is gonna change that I'm better than you." He declared as he marched a way, his face noticeably red.
'He soooo has a crush on you.' Every boy at my middle school had a crush on me. God I hope UA's different. 'So you want all the girls crushing on you?' I WANT NEITHER! 'I know.' Grrrr… let's just get going. Nana picked up her pace and made her way into the building.
First was the written exam. Which Nana felt she passed with relative ease. Before the practical, they were given a run down by the pro hero Present Mic on what to expect. They were told they'd have to destroy robots ranging from one to three points in value. They were also told, after some demanded their questioned be answered, that each battle center would have an obstacle worth zero points. Afterwards, everyone got changed and went to their assigned battle center, which for Nana was 'B'. For the exam, Nana had changed out of her school uniform and into a pair of green short shorts and a black tank top.
She did some basic stretches as she observed her fellow examinees. 'Wow, talk about a lot of people here.' Well UA is the top hero school in the country. It'd make sense that a lot of people would try and get in. As Nana looked around, she saw a girl with brown hair in a bob cut taking deep breaths to calm herself down. She seems nervous. Maybe I should give her some words of encouragement to help calm her down. 'True, if she's all tense like that it'll negatively affect her results.' Nana was about to head over to her before a strong hand came up and grabbed her behind the shoulder. She stopped and turned to see a tall blue haired boy with glasses glaring down at her. 'Isn't he that rude boy who practically demanded his question be answered by Mic.' Yep.
"That girl is trying to focus. Are you trying to interfere with her and ruin her result?" He questioned.
Nana sighed.
"Did it ever occur to you that my goal was to help her?" Nana returned in an annoyed toned.
"Oh uhmm… w-w-well…" The boy began.
"I thought so." Nana expressed with a nod. "Now listen here mister."
She leaned in and pointed her finger up at him.
"While I'll commend you for looking out for your fellow examinees you shouldn't go assuming the worst of them. We're all here to be heroes after." Nana scolded. "And if you must know, I was going to help her calm down and loosen up. It's not good to be so tense before a test like this, it can mess up your results."
"Oh… w-w-well I see then." Tenya expressed.
"Speaking of which you need to loosen up yourself. Your stiffer than a board. How do you expect to perform like that?" Nana continued to scold.
Soon everyone was now paying attention with mild curiosity and confusion as the blue haired boy was practically scolded by Nana like a mother scolds her child.
"Not only that but your not even focused on the exam. I don't know if you can prep your quirk like me, but even if you can't, you should still be ready to go the moment the exam starts. Even if your going to do something else, you should be ready to go at a moments notice." Nana continued. "After all you never know when…"
"And start!" Present Mic shouted.
In the blink of an eye Nana had already bolted towards the battle center.
"Sorry! And you might want to get moving!" Nana shouted.
The boy took a few seconds to register what had just happened. As realization dawned on him, he revved up the engines in his calves and shot forward after Nana. As Nana rushed towards the battle center she passed by the brown-haired girl, who had been paying attention to her scolding of the blue-haired boy.
"Hey you might want to get moving as well!" Nana shouted as she ran past her.
"She is correct!" The blue-haired boy exclaimed has he blitz past her.
It took the girl a few moments before the realization dawned on her. In a panic she too rushed into the battle center. Everyone else was slow to realize what had just happened.
"What are you waiting for there are no countdowns in real battles! Get moving!" Mic shouted.
In the moment everyone realized what had just happened and rushed to catch up. The UA practical exam had truly begun.
In the observation room…
The various staff and faculty members of UA sat and watched as the examinees fought for their spot in their prestigious academy. These included pro heroes such as Midnight, Cementoss, Ectoplasm, Eraserhead, Vlad King and the principle, a talking animal known as Nezu. Among them was a deflated All Might, who had Kimiko with him. Among all the examinees, his eyes were fixed on a black-haired girl.
"Quite the crowd we have this year." Midnight noted.
"Indeed it looks like we have a good crop to choose from this year." Ectoplasm added.
"Maybe that means Aizawa won't expel all of his students like last year." Vlad joked.
"We'll have to see how they do when the first day comes." Eraser returned dryly.
"Speaking of which check out that blond kid with the explosion quirk, he's tearing through these faux-villains." Cementoss commented.
"True, he'll be a force to be reckoned with." Midnight noted.
"Yes yes he'll be truly something, though we can't discount the others. What do you think All Might?" Nezu questioned.
All Might chuckled.
"I think you should have your eyes on someone else. Right Kimiko?" All Might replied.
"Yep, Nana's kicking some serious ass out there." Kimiko noted.
Glad she didn't use her quirk against me. That'd have been a tough fight.
"LANGUAGE!" All Might shouted.
"Yeah, yeah…" Kimiko replied.
"Ahh… you're referring to the examinee you met a few months back." Nezu noted. "The one involved with the… incident."
"Still can't believe this adorable little girl used to be in her twenties." Midnight noted.
"It'd probably be best if we talked to the Midoriya family about teaching the girl who caused her to be like this how to better control her quirk." Eraser noted.
"On another note, I see another reason to be interested in her." Nezu stated.
Everyone directed their gaze to the screen Nana was on. There they saw her kick the head off of a faux-villain sending right through another one. She then ripped off it's arm and threw it like a javelin taking out another two.
"I'll say this. Her combat skills are on a whole nother level." Cementoss noted.
"Indeed so why don't we bring out a real test?" All Might suggested.
"Oh… would you like to do the honors?" Nezu inquired.
"Gladly," All Might replied as he flipped away the case over a big red button.
He was about to push it when suddenly.
"Mine!" Kimiko stated as she slammed her hand down on it.
"Kimiko! I was going to it!" All Might exclaimed.
Kimiko snickered.
Battle Center 'B'…
Nana took out another faux-villain. How many is that now? '72 not bad Izuku.' Thanks though let's not let up. There's probably still more out there. Nana made her way into a more open area when suddenly the ground began to shake.
"Wooooah what's going on?!" She exclaimed as she looked around.
A shadow began to loom over her. She looked up only to see the giant robot towering over the buildings. Her mouth went agape.
"T-that's the zero pointer!" She exclaimed as the mechanical beast wound up a fist.
It slammed it's fist into the ground whipping up wind and kicking up dust. Nana raised her arms to shield herself. As the dust settled examinees ran as fast as they could from the zero pointer. Nana however remained where she was. She looked around for anyone caught be stray debris. Her ears strained to hear any cries for help from anyone.
"OW!" She heard someone groan.
Heard snapped towards the source of the groan. There she saw the brown-haired girl from earlier with her foot stuck under some rubble. The zero pointer loomed over her ready to crush her. Nana bolted into action, running as fast as she could. 'Your not gonna make it!' I know. I have to go all out and take it out. 'Make it quick then.' As she ran, a white light began to envelope her. Examinees and examiners watched in wonder at what she was about to do. Suddenly she shot forward in the blink of an idea. Before anyone could even blink she had already leapt into the air and smashed the giant robot, destroying it's head and causing it to fall back. Everyone looked on in amazement at the feat Nana had just pulled off.
As Nana was in free fall the light around her faded. She spread herself out to slow her descent. Okay so either 'A' I use another quick power up to land, 'B' I use [Float] to stop my fall and risk having to try and explain away why I can fly, or 'C'… She looked to see the girl she had just saved quickly trying to float up on a piece of rubble to meet her. Get some help. I think I'll go with 'C'. She leaned towards the girl as she floated up to her. The girl reached out her hand and Nana slapped it. Immediately she felt gravity's pull on her leave. She reoriented herself in the air.
"R-release." The girl strained to say.
Gravity returned it's hold on them. The rubble the girl was on landed with a plop, while Nana landed gracefully on her feet. The brown-haired girl struggled to hold in her stomach. Only for it to be in vain as she threw up rainbows and sparkles. Is that a side effect of her quirk? 'The rainbow sparkle vomit or the actual act of vomiting?' Both.
"Times up!" Present Mic shouted.
Nana breathed out a sigh of relief. She heard a groan from the brown haired girl. She walked over to her.
"Hey, let me help you to the nurses office." Nana offered.
"Thanks…" The girl muttered.
Nana helped the girl off of the debris. She had the girl lean on her shoulder as she lead them out of the battle center. The practical portion of the UA Entrance Exam had come to a close.
And that brings this chapter to a close. Hope you all like it. Til next time.