A/N: I got the promotion woooooo. Updating every two weeks instead of every week seems like a smart move at this point now.
Longer note at the end but thank you so much for the support last chapter- it was bloody nuts and I've really appreciated it!
(***)
Looking in the mirror in his bedroom at the sight in front of him, Izuku Midoriya finally accepted for the first time since the Entrance Exam that he hadn't been dreaming, and had actually made it into UA to study as a Hero. The reality of what he was wearing had finally sunk in.
It had been just over a week since he had stood before Sir Nighteye in a Quirk Assessment, scared stiff that someone would see right through him and see his Quirk (or Quirks, depending on how you looked at them) for the truth. It had been a week since, to his great shock, he had been able to impress Nighteye and the teachers at UA, to the point where they felt they could offer him a place in this year's Class 1A. Since the whole of his squad of friends had made it in, despite Himiko's reservations about showing her Quirk off and Tenko's exam which he was still reluctant to talk about in any great detail.
He had just about managed to stop crying by now.
His mother had been beside herself when he and Tenko came through the door, Tenko withdrawn but still with a wry smile on his face, Izuku in floods of tears. She hadn't stopped clutching him and bawling her own eyes out with joy when Setsuna followed in behind them and just happened to 'slip' by mentioning what had gone on between him and Himiko before her exam. At that point Tenko had to pry his mother off of him to stop her frantic shaking of his shoulders from dislocating something, letting an embarrassed Izuku have a moment of respite before the maternal interrogation began. Setsuna hadn't been sorry one bit.
Still, though, they were all going to make it, and that meant none of them could afford to stop trying to improve. While the Yakuza visit had made their old secret training site in the abandoned warehouse a no-go, Izuku and Tenko had been given special dispensation by Aldera Junior High to use the school gym and train away from their classmates. Aldera didn't encourage its students to apply to Hero Academies anymore, and so the two of them had gotten more than their fair share of looks and whispers from classmates for what they were doing; whether it came from jealousy or incredulity that they had made it into UA despite the state of the world after Incident Zero, Izuku didn't know. He wasn't going to let it bother him, anyway.
Final tests had been and gone in a blur. It was bad for Izuku to admit that he hadn't given his last mathematics paper at Aldera as much attention as he usually would; his mind was well and truly on other things, and as much as he wanted to do the best he could, his mind was racing about being a Hero Course student to the point where he couldn't take in all of his revision anyway. He'd done enough to get through and be signed off by Aldera, who waved him and Tenko out the door and out of their hair without a backwards glance. Gone were the years of fanfare and celebration, claiming credit for the future success of the High School's alumni in the Hero world; now, it was almost as if the school didn't want the credit if something bad happened to them in the dangerous world out there.
There were too many bad memories tied up in Aldera Junior High for Izuku to feel sad about leaving. With everything that happened with Bakugo in the past, the panic among the students when his former bully Tsubasa disappeared, and with the years of being Quirkless and isolated to dwell on, Izuku was glad to leave it behind. There was a bright future ahead for him and his friends, and he was going to make the most of every second of it.
It was, of course, a bonus that now he had a new school uniform to wear. Even when his mother replaced the singed jackets with burn marks around the neck and on the chest, even when she sewed shut the ripped knees of the trousers, Izuku still felt the marks of years of bullying and being a target whenever he put on the black uniform of Aldera Junior High. Now as he looked in the mirror at the uniform UA had sent him, Izuku couldn't help but feel a sense of wonder. There was a time in his life he never thought he'd get to wear the famous grey jacket, when he could never have imagined the feel of the crisp white shirt, and it was taking everything in his power to not cry as he looked at himself in the mirror. It even still looked smart with his signature red trainers, the ones he would never part with, and it filled him with hope the more he looked at it.
If only you knew how to tie a tie properly.
Some things were beyond him though.
Izuku was shaken from staring into the mirror- he had no idea how long he had been there in a state of rapt wonder that it was actually real- by the knock at his bedroom door. "O-Oh, yeah! Come in, it's unlocked!"
He didn't even make it through explaining it was unlocked before the door handle clicked open and Tenko mooched into his bedroom, looking ever so slightly annoyed. "Please tell me yours doesn't fit either."
"What? No, I'm fine, I think? Why, does yours not..." Izuku trailed over as he saw the problem Tenko was referring to, and snorted, his line of questioning completely derailed by the sight in front of him. "Tenko, how did you-"
"Don't ask me," Tenko snapped, shaking his head as he reached down and tried to pull at the bottom of the dark trousers UA had provided them. Izuku had found his to fit like a glove, as if tailor-made, but Tenko's gangly and awkwardly-long legs were entirely different. The trousers came up to nearly two inches above his ankles, and it was clear from how Tenko was pulling at them he couldn't get them any lower. "Imagine getting to unlock the premium wardrobe option and they don't make it fit."
Izuku began to laugh, properly. "Tenko, you'll break them! Don't pull at them like that-"
"What am I supposed to do, dammit? I can't walk into class next week looking like this!" Tenko gave up clutching at the ankle of the trousers and collapsed backwards onto Izuku's bed, staring up at the ceiling. "Tell me why I don't just Decay them right now and wear my own shit to school."
"You can't do that!" Izuku was mortified at the suggestion. "They're UA uniform trousers! The school uniform for the school that made the world's greatest Heroes!"
"You're right, fanboy, that's a terrible idea." Tenko smirked. "Maybe I can sell 'em online instead. Collector's item, you know?"
"DON'T DO THAT EITHER!" As Tenko began to laugh his head off, Izuku shook his head, despairing at his best friend. "You don't need to get rid of them anyway, you just need to wear the right shoes."
"What shoes? It's not like I have any besides my trainers-"
"You do, though." Before Tenko could say anything, having opened his mouth in confusion, Izuku bounded over to the wardrobe and dug around in the bottom, looking for a box which he produced with a small laugh. "I... was gonna wait to give these to you until the first day at UA, but since your trousers don't currently fit maybe now's a good time."
"Heh, you got me shoes? Do I need to be worried that the guy who can't even tie a tie properly got me these?"
"Hey, you didn't even bother to put yours on!"
"And it's still smarter than you!" Tenko opened the box with a flourish before Izuku could retort back, and grinned at the sight of the red high-top trainers, in his size. "Wow, you're lame. You wanted us to match, huh?"
"J-Just put them on and stop complaining," Izuku replied, shaking his head and trying not to get embarrassed that Tenko had hit the nail on the head about wanting to match with his best friend. "They'll cover your ankle and now you won't look like you can't dress yourself."
"Bold claim from you," Tenko snarked, but a proper smile formed on his face as he slipped his feet into the trainers and tapped them against the floor as if testing the soles. "Thanks, Zu. Guess the shoes are like a party symbol, huh?"
"I... guess so." Izuku smiled faintly as he sat down on the bed besides Tenko. "What took you so long, anyway? I thought you were only going out to get food, you were gone a couple of hours."
"... Ah, yeah." Tenko paused, and laid back down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. "I guess I should have expected you to ask about that, huh?"
Izuku realised that his friend's body language had completely changed, and that the smile that had been on his face when he slipped the trainers on for the first time had now dropped from his face. "Tenko? Is everything o-okay?"
His best friend sighed, long and drawn out, staring up at the ceiling from where he lay. "It's... well. I did some stuff while I was out. It... was about the shit I talked about with Sir Nighteye on the Entrance Exam."
Izuku stiffened when Tenko said that. Overall his friend had bounced back from whatever had happened in his Quirk Assessment with the news that he gotten into UA, and it hadn't stopped him throwing himself into getting some extra fitness training in with Izuku, or secretly working away at a Hero Costume design to send into UA for the remaining Support Course crew to work on for him. That said, the mention of Sir Nighteye usually changed Tenko's mood completely as it brought back the memories of what happened; Izuku and Setsuna danced on eggshells to avoid bringing it up, particularly after Tenko had got snappy and stormed off on the couple of occasions they tried to ask about it. The fact that he was willing to say anything at all about it now... that was a big step forward.
Izuku swallowed, and tried not to look at his friend as if it was a big deal for him to start to talk about it. "Tenko, y-you don't have to say anything about it if you don't want to. I won't mind if you-"
"Nah, I... need to stop running away from it all the damn time. What happened at UA happened and there's nothing I can do about that, and I was on my own at that point, but I'm not now. I..." Tenko glared at him, but there was no malice. "I don't know how you do it, ya know."
"Do what?"
"Care. So damn much." Tenko snorted, humourlessly. "I don't like sharing everything all the damn time when I'm down, and the fact that you care so much and keep trying to talk me through stuff... it should piss me off. But I just know you. You don't stop until you've done everything you can to help someone, and the difference between you and other people is that you do help. You did when you saw what happened to me that day I lost my family, so... I guess when I've got a best friend like that, I shouldn't keep stuff from you all the time."
Izuku didn't quite know what to say in response to that, and gave a very sheepish smile. "Just... don't feel any pressure, okay? I'm here if you want to talk but I'm not going to make you say stuff you're not comfortable-"
"Don't make me change my mind, Zu. I've already committed to the dialogue choice, I can't go back and pick again." Tenko closed his eyes, still lying down on the bed. "Nighteye mentioned about my family... I knew other people would know that they'd died, but I didn't think he'd know so much."
"S-So much?" Family was a sore subject for Tenko, and Izuku was hesitant about pushing it too far, but he had to know more if he was to help his friend after all. "What do you mean?"
"He knew about other parts of my family... my grandmother." Tenko's red eyes cracked open and he met Izuku's concerned look. "She wasn't in the house that day. She died years and years ago, probably before I was tiny, but Father never spoke of her. Apparently she... was a hero."
"A hero..." Izuku's inner fanboy couldn't resist. "Did you know her name?"
"Nighteye told me her name was Nana Shimura."
That name!
Izuku shook his head at that thought, the overwhelming sense of familiarity flooding his head and clouding his senses for just a second. "I... I recognise the name, for some reason, but... I don't know who she is."
"See, that's the thing, I shouldn't." Tenko frowned. "But... Nighteye showed me a picture and I don't know why but... I recognise her name. I... remember her face."
"Remember it?" Izuku asked, confused. "How do you mean?"
"I... don't know. I... remember it from Incident Zero. From the day my parents died. I don't know why, and I can't remember why, but on that day... I swear I saw her face. There's parts of my memories of that day I can't get back, like I saved over the cutscene and now can't replay it." Tenko paused, and shook his head. "I don't know. I don't like thinking back about them, so I don't want to. But today... I went away because I went to the library to try and learn more about Nana Shimura. I didn't find anything in the archives, but I'm... gonna keep trying. There's something more to her name and I wanna know why. Is that... weird?"
"... Not at all." Izuku stood up off the bed and held his hand down to the lanky blue-haired boy sprawled on the mattress. "Do you want my help? We might be able to get more research done if we share it up together."
"... Of course you'd offer that." Tenko smiled wanly. "Thank you. I'm not sure what we'd find, and if we're going to the library together you've gotta accept we'll be called nerds, but... if you wanna help I'd like that."
"I'm p-pretty sure people think we're nerds already. I'm not worried about that."
"Ha! I'm pretty sure people know you're a Quirk nerd, Izu." Before Izuku could protest in vain, Tenko grabbed Izuku's outstretched hand with his own skinny hand and pulled himself upright with the handshake. "But you're a good friend. Thank you."
Izuku smiled and was about to say something, before he heard the telltale click of a camera shutter from the bedroom door and groaned, flushing red in embarrassment. "Mom... I thought you said we'd take pictures downstairs."
Inko Midoriya, leaning on the doorframe with a digital camera in her hands, took in the sight in front of her, of her son and his best friend shaking hands in UA school uniforms, and smiled the watery grin of a proud mother. "You can't beat a good candid photo Izuku. And you both look so handsome! I couldn't resist."
"Remind me why I agreed to do this with your mother," Tenko said, grimacing and turning away from Inko so his face couldn't be caught in another picture.
"Because you're as good as a son to me, Tenko Shimura, and I swear if you think I'm missing this opportunity to be proud of you both for one second, then you're not as smart as you look." Inko wiped away a little tear that had formed during the little affectionate rant, and smiled sweetly. "Plus Setsuna asked me to get some pictures of you for her before she comes over in a little bit."
"That damn girl..." Tenko tried and failed to hide his flustered face from Izuku at the mention of his cousin's name. "Come on then, let's get it done before she arrives and wants more-"
"Actually... that's not the only reason I came up to talk to you. I..." Inko took a deep breath, and Izuku realised he had never seen his mother look quite the way she did at that moment, determined and loving and scared she was going to say the wrong thing all in one look. "I have a r-request for Izuku."
"A request?" Izuku was confused. "What do you mean, mom?"
"It's... complicated, sweetie." Inko sat down on the end of his bed and patted the mattress, inviting him to sit beside her. "I was thinking... about your Quirk. About all those things we discussed before the UA Entrance Exam, about how much of a Hero you can be with it."
Izuku swallowed and took a seat on the bed, as Tenko frowned and leaned against the desk by the window. "W-What do you mean, mom?"
"I told you before you went to that Exam just how much I believed in you. Just how good I know you are and how big your heart is. You didn't let it hold you back and you showed UA that you deserve to be there, deserve to be the next Hero we can all be proud of. And yet..." Inko squeezed his shoulder. "I know you. You're my son. You're still afraid of showing everyone your true powers, and someone seeing through them, no matter much Tenko and I reassure you."
"Mom..." She was right, and really he could do nothing to deny it. "I just... I can't shake it. I thought Nighteye would see a gap between Air Force and Steal, and I don't know how he didn't, but what if someone else does? What if Freezeframe comes out around my new classmates, or I read someone's mind, or I take someone else's Quirk?"
"I know, and I get it. There's only so much I can say or do to reassure you that everything will be okay if your Quirk flares up, or you take Quirks in front of people. Some of that isn't within my power. But..." Inko paused, took a deep breath, and nodded, as if reaffirming to herself that what she was about to say was right. "I've been thinking. About things that are within my power. Or, well, really, things that are my power."
"I don't know what the depths of your Quirk are, Izuku. I don't know what powers are hidden in there, I don't know how much more you have yet to discover, I don't know what will happen to you that may lead you to end up with even more Quirks from other people. All I know as a mother is about what you have now." Inko looked at him, and Izuku saw a sense of pride in her green eyes that shone as bright as the beacon on Might Tower back in All Might's heyday. "You love Air Force. It's your Quirk, the one everyone knows. And you've got Steal, or whatever it's actual name was before Tenko changed it-"
"Improved it-"
"But you're worried there's a gap. We combined the two as Aerokinesis on your Quirk Registry papers, but Air Force lets you make blasts, Steal lets you take objects others are holding. You don't have the ability at the moment to properly pull stuff towards you, without another person holding it. It's not currently within your power at the moment to do that..." Inko moved one hand down to clasp his own, shaking despite there being no tremble in her voice. "But it is within my power to be able to fill that gap for you. To let you be able to draw stuff to you and not be bound by the limits of Steal, to plug the gap and let you live with powers nobody would have any reason to question. It's in my power, Izuku."
... Surely not?
"Mom... what are you saying?"
"I'm your mother, Izuku Midoriya. I'd move heaven and earth to keep your safe, and I'd do everything within my power to make sure that you can fulfil your dreams, to support you like I should have done all those years ago. With your power you can change the world for the better, you can make people feel safe, you can become everything you ever wanted. With my power... you can keep yourself safe."
Izuku felt her squeeze his hand, and suddenly he realised what she was about to say. "Izuku... I want you to have my Quirk."
"M-M-MOM?!" Izuku was stunned by what she had to say. "But y-you'd be left Quirkless! There's n-n-no way I could ever ask that of you-"
"You're not asking," she interrupted, her smile serene. "I am. I want to help my boy however I can, and this... this is how I want to do it.
"You're actually serious..." Tenko's mouth was hanging open, left blindsided by the offer she had just made. "Wow. I knew your mom was hardcore Zu, but this is nuts."
"But that's insane!" Izuku let go of her hand just for a second, feeling himself begin to panic inside his own head. "W-Won't you need your Quirk, mom, how could I take it-"
"You're being silly, Izuku." She took his hand back again and squeezed it tight this time. "Attraction of Small Objects, in my hands? What am I going to use it for that's of any good to anyone? My whole life I've used my Quirk to pick up your toys, grab the phone or the TV remote, fetch a coat if it's raining. Why would I hold onto that when it could help my son complete his powers, your powers which he wants to use to be a proper Hero? Believe me, I've thought about this ever since you left the house to go to UA, and I know right now I'm making the right choice to offer this to you."
"You'd... give all that up?" Izuku loved his mother, but he was dumbfounded by the lengths she was apparently willing to go to in order to drive his success forward. "For me?"
"Without hesitation. And the fact that you hesitate so much about whether it's right... makes me know even more that my son has a good heart. The heart of a true Hero. It lets me know my Quirk would be in good hands with you."
"I..." This was beyond anything Izuku had ever imagined, and the gravity of what she was asking made him uncertain even in the face of such a strong offer. "I don't know..."
"I... thought you'd say that." Inko paused, and something in her smile flickered, some sense of sadness which Izuku couldn't immediately place. "Do you want to know how I decided that I wanted to give you my Quirk?"
"Wh... why?"
"It's a scary world, Izuku, and I won't always be with you when you're out there trying to make it a better place. I'm your mother, and I want to look after you, but I know that you have dreams to achieve and people to save, and I can't be there if you have to face the worst villains of all. Just... let me give you this one thing. Please. Take it with you and wherever you go... I guess in some way a small part of me will always be with you." She smiled at him, the smallest hint of a Midoriya tear in the corner of her eye, and in that moment Izuku realised just how much she meant it to make that offer to him; as terrified as he was by the thought of her even considering it, his mother had made up her mind wanted nothing more for him. "Please, Izuku. I won't force you if you don't want to, I never would demand it, but for me and for you... let me give you a piece of me for the rest of your life."
She's... something else.
How could he possibly resist when she made that offer with such love?
Although his mind was swaying one way, Izuku turned to Tenko, just in case his best friend would have anything to offer either way. He didn't expect to see a brief look of panic on the blue-haired boy's face at being considered for his counsel. "What? Don't look at me, I'm not giving you mine as well."
There was a snort from Inko, and Izuku turned to see her chuckling wetly, trademark Midoriya tears now falling down her cheeks despite the smile. "You boys... the world is going to be lucky that it found you when it needed Heroes."
That pride in her shaking voice, the look of love in her eyes, and the conviction of what she had said to him about her reasoning... Izuku made up his mind there and then. "Never mind that."
"Huh?" Inko wasn't expecting him to wrap his arms over her shoulders and bring her in for a hug. "Izuku?"
"I'm lucky I have you at all, mom." He kissed the top of her forehead and broke off the hug, somehow remarkably containing his tears so that only one had broken out. "It still seems crazy, and I can't believe you offered it, but... y-y-you really do want me to have it. And if you want me to have it, then... I a-accept. I'll show you and the world what I can do with it."
Inko caught her breath, a huge smile spreading across her face as she heard her son's acceptance. "Y-Yes! Izuku, I'm so glad! It should really make the difference with your Quirks and how you're able to control objects, after all-"
"Before you two muttering Midoriyas get into a storm talking about Quirk combo moves," Tenko interrupted, noticing the trademark signs from Izuku in how Inko was starting to ramble, "does someone want to talk about unlock requirements? Like, how are we even going to do this? The last time Izuku took one he kind of did by accident."
"I..." Izuku had to admit, Tenko had a good point. "I guess... Mom, can you hold your hands out for me? I want to try something..."
"Sure, sweetie." Inko turned to face him on the bed, holding her hands out palms up, and she didn't even bat an eyelid as he placed his palms on top of hers, gripping her wrists with his fingers. "You have something in mind?"
"Every time it's happened for the first time... there's been that black lightning. I don't know if it's excess energy from my Quirk, waiting to be filled by another Quirk, or a sign that my Quirk is trying to take from around me. I... just think it's linked to the taking of Quirks. So... here goes." Izuku closed his eyes for a second. "Mom, I'm sorry if this hurts, I-"
"Do whatever you need to, Izuku." She gripped him with her fingers too. "I'm going nowhere until my Quirks is yours. I swear it on my love for you."
"... O-Okay." With his eyes closed, Izuku felt the hum of energy that he always got whenever he activated Air Force, and focused on that in his arms. With a gasp from his mother, and a flash of light through his closed eyelids, he could only assume that his arms had begun to spark, but now... now he didn't know what to do about the Quirk.
Visualise. What does mom's Quirk look like?
He didn't know where that thought came from, but suddenly they all flashed clear in his own head: the memories of her drawing plates of food to her from across the kitchen, the memories of her pulling his backpack to him as he left it behind on the way out the door for school, the memories of her picking up his All Might action figures from the floor whenever he dropped them. Attraction of Small Objects wasn't a catchy name, but it was effective, and he could see it now...
He could feel it too.
In a flash, Izuku felt the strangest sensation, as if he had tugged his fingers without moving them and drawn an invisible fishing line towards him. Something smacked his lungs and made him take a deep breath at the same time as a spark of energy seemed to have connected with Inko, making her jump as she held his hands but apparently not causing her any pain. With a gasp, his eyes shot open and he looked at his mother with concern. "Mom, are you- did you feel that?"
"I..." Inko looked down at her arm, and then at Izuku's, where the energy had completely dissipated. "Wow. That wasn't what I was expecting."
"Did that..." Tenko looked like he was struggling to form a sentence. "Did that not hurt? That was a big spark between you both-"
"I barely felt a thing," Inko replied, examining her forearms and hands and finding no marks. "I felt a little jolt like you'd get from static but... otherwise nothing. Izuku? Do you... think it worked?"
"I... felt something. It felt like something got pulled to me, and like something... hit me." Izuku stopped himself before he fell down a Quirk analysis minefield like he knew he could, and looked down at his hands, seeing nothing different. "Do you think..."
Demonstrations usually help.
Izuku's realisation came in an instant, and he cursed not having that thought sooner. Looking around his room for something suitably small to test the power on, and see if he could manage to replicate what he'd seen his mother do, he saw the All Might figure alarm clock which he still kept besides his bed and held out a hand. For a moment, the plastic figurine didn't budge, before with a curl of his fingers it leapt into the air and shakily, juddering as it flew at a lazy pace, the alarm clock floated to him and landed into his palm with a satisfying weighty thud. "... O-Oh wow. I... think it worked."
"It definitely worked." He turned to his mother, who was holding out her own palm towards the books on the desk Tenko was currently leaning on. She flexed her fingers, looked at her own palm, and smiled like a wave of relief had washed over her. "It's really your power now, Izuku. Attraction of Small Objects. Now you have a piece of me wherever you go, okay?"
Izuku grabbed her hands again and squeezed, trying not to cry as he saw the huge smile on her face. "... I love you, mom. I'll make you proud that you gave me this, I promise."
"I know you will." She laughed softly as she wiped her face on her sleeve. "My son, the hero."
"Well this is all lovely, happy family moment right here, but what the hell just happened, cousin?"
Izuku, Tenko and Inko all leapt in alarm at the sound of that voice, and Izuku's blood ran cold at the sight of his cousin Setsuna, standing outside his bedroom with a look of complete shock on her face at what she had just witnessed. "S-S-Setsuna?!"
"You're early," Inko said, hesitantly taking a step back from Izuku and looking alarmed at the sight of her niece. "I swear, it's not what it-"
"Zuzu... you just took it. How... how did you just take Auntie Inko's Quirk?"
Well. Good luck explaining this one.
Sometimes he really hated his inner voice.
(***)
"Well, what do you think? Does it suit me?"
Shuichi Iguchi, reptilian eyes wide with confusion, looked Himiko up and down as she posed in the UA uniform by flashing a peace sign at him with a big grin. "I... still don't know how you did it. Seeing you in that uniform is gonna take some getting used to."
Himiko bounced up and down with a spring in her step, before looking at herself in the cracked mirror they had in the living room and frowning. "Hmmm..." She grabbed at the tie she had shoddily tied around her neck and clawed it off with a triumphant laugh, undoing her top button. "Much better! Ties just don't feel right, you know?"
"... Sure. Why are you even making me go over this with you?"
"I just wanna make sure I look good in it! I want Izuku to like me in it, big bro. You think he'll like me wearing this?"
"Why the hell are you asking me that?! How should I know what this new boyfriend of yours likes?"
"Come on, Spinnerrrr! You're useless if you can't help your sis out like this-"
"Gah! You're impossible!" As Himiko laughed at him and threw her UA tie at him, Spinner turned with relief at the sound of the door clicking behind him, and sought out the new arrival in the lounge with relief. "Boss, please, I'm begging you, send me out on surveillance! Anything to get away from the lovesick menace over here!"
Stain, stooping to pick up the tie from the floor, chuckled at the pleading tone from the Gecko-man. "Your sacrifice to the cause of educating Himiko on life's lessons is appreciated as always, Shuichi."
"Hey! I can handle myself, you know! After all-" Himiko span on the spot with a flourish. "I did get into UA by myself, didn't I? Don't ya think the uniform suits me?"
"I..." Stain paused to look her up and down, an intense look on his face for a second. "I can't say I ever expected to see you in that uniform. Nor can I say I have complete faith in UA. If they've become anything like the other festering Hero Academies in this nation, then there's no hope for our future. But..."
"But?"
Stain paused, and a little smirk formed below the ridges of his face where a nose had once existed in the distant past. "Somehow, I still feel proud to see you in that uniform, Himiko."
"YAY!" Himiko jumped over and latched onto his bony arm in a hug, practically vibrating with glee as she heard words she had been craving from him for years. "You see, Shuichi! Mister Stainy gets it!"
"... See what I've had to deal with while you were out?"
Stain very slowly and awkwardly raised a skeletal hand to pat her on the head, and pry her off of him. "Thank you, Himiko. Although since you're in that uniform... I might be a little reluctant to let you get blood on it."
"Huh?" Something in the tone of her mentor made her react nervously, the way he sounded resigned and uncertain- Stain never sounded worried, and to hear his voice lacking his usual ironclad conviction caught her off guard. "W-What do you mean?"
"You know that Spinner and I... took action, while you were away at UA on the Entrance Exam. The fake Hero, Mount Lady, was little opposition to us, but she also proved useful. We found her files from her local Hero work, the unsanctioned surveillance off of the Hero Commission's books, and it helped us find out more about the Yakuza filth in this city."
"The Shie Hassaikai..." Spinner sneered as he pronounced the name like a foreign dish on a restaurant menu. "Turns out when you were near Tatooin Station getting intel on the Heroes, the Yakuza were right around the corner shipping Trigger out of a warehouse. They've got their own little place in the heart of town, and they're looking to move a lot of stock out next week."
"Not only that," Stain continued, "but I followed one of their thugs two days ago. They've got a new customer, someone big, which means they're moving a lot of production to another facility. The shipment that's leaving their warehouse in a week's time is the last shipment before they close down."
"So it's the last chance to get them," Himiko realised, eyes widening as Stain filled her in. "So we've gotta move now, right?! You've got a plan for us to get in there and stop what they're doing, and-"
"I've got a plan, sure," Stain interrupted, reaching out with his bony hand to grab onto her arm and stop her. "But Himiko... I have to ask if you still want to come."
"Why?" Then she realised what he was referring to. "Because I'm now going to UA, right? You don't want me getting caught out with you guys and losing you the chance to learn what's going on at UA-"
"I don't want you getting caught and losing the chance to become the Hero you want to be." Stain cut across her, as firm as he'd ever been with her, and she could tell he was close to losing his cool as he said that. "That boy got you believing you could be a Hero, but you were still the one who decided to that leap and apply. You've more than earned your chance to prove yourself, and if you lose that because I dragged you along to take down some low-life Yakuza, because you got associated with the Hero Killer, I wouldn't forgive myself-"
"You're not dragging me anywhere!" Himiko didn't mean to shout, but she could barely contain her indignation. "Don't you get it?! I don't wanna risk what I've got at UA either, but how can I be a Hero if I let bad guys carry on doing what they want, without doing anything myself? It's not right!"
"Himiko..." Spinner's eyes had widened, admiring. "You really don't have to-"
"But I want to! People get hurt if nobody challenges scum like that! And hey..." She flashed her fangs to them, running her tongue over the canines. "Aren't you forgetting my Quirk?"
Stain paused for a second. "... We'd be using our last blood bags for you. Risking everything for you by hoping it gives your Quirk enough to last the night."
"And I'm prepared to take that risk." Himiko flashed a fierce look at the man who had given her a home when nobody else would, at the man who trained her how to fend for herself and taught her how wrong the world was that people like the Yakuza could profit from misery. She wasn't backing down. "Please, Mister Stainy. Lemme come with you!"
"... It appears I couldn't stop you even if I tried." Stain shook his head, smiling ruefully. "Fine. We go together. Consider it an extra class outside of your Hero education. But the moment anything goes wrong and you need to leave, you are leaving. Do you understand?"
"Yes sir!"
"Good. Then it's settled." Stain stood up straight and looked at his two young protégés, and Himiko felt awestruck at the aura of righteous fury that came rolling off of her mentor, the fierce edge in his tone. "This isn't going to be easy. There's going to be a lot of scum in this hideout that we have to clear out, and they're not going to go down without a fight. They will do everything they can to stop us from exposing them or destroying their filthy products, but they won't stop up from bringing an end to what they're doing."
"In a week, the three of us hit the Musutafu warehouse, and stop the Shie Hassaikai in their tracks."
(***)
"Bubble Girl?"
Kaoruko Awata snapped to attention nervously, clicking the heels of her white boots together. "Y-Yep!"
"Centipeder?"
Juzo Moashi folded his arms behind his back and nodded, his white scarf crumpling like tissue paper as he moved. "Sir."
Sir Nighteye leaned back in his leather chair behind the desk in his office, put the papers he had been reviewing down, and fixed his two sidekicks with a look of determination. "The intelligence report you've gathered is good. Well done. We now have enough to make a move."
Centipeder's stoic face didn't move a muscle, but when he next spoke the pride at a job well done in gathering the intelligence bled through into his tone. "You propose a raid, sir?"
"In one week. We can hit them as they move their supply from the warehouse near Tatooin Station, and with any luck we will catch a lieutenant in the process."
Bubble Girl clenched a fist. "At last! It's been so frustrating not being able to make a move against them, when we didn't know where their supply hub was!"
"I know. With the products they've been producing and flooding into the black market, they've been allowed to become a major player in the underworld and they've been unchallenged for too long. It's frankly unacceptable." Nighteye brought his hands together under his chin, as if pausing in thought. "It's thanks to the work of both of you that we have an understanding of the Heroes they have in their pocket, the manpower they have, and where they propose to move their stock. And now we know their moving date; finally we can make matters right."
Centipeder's mandibles clicked in agreement. "I couldn't agree more. Will we be notifying the Police in advance?"
"They know we will move already, but this operation is best served with minimal external involvement. The more components in a plan, the more one is likely to fail." Nighteye nodded approvingly to his sidekicks. "I trust both of you to do the best we can, for this agency and for the people of Musutafu."
"In one week, we strike a blow to the insidious supply chain of the Shie Hassaikai."
(***)
A/N: Team Stain is going to raid the Shie Hassaikai. Team Nighteye is going to raid the Shie Hassaikai... something is going to go wrong there and you all know it. I cannot wait for the reaction to that.
Otherwise, Inko gets a big moment this chapter. Giving up a Quirk so willingly is one hell of a sacrifice, but I don't think it's totally out of the realms of possibility that if her son had this power and all his worries, that Inko wouldn't do something drastic for her son as she throws her support completely behind him. It's her way of being a caring and protective mother as Izuku struggles with different Quirk-related issues to canon. It's not been without issues though- now Setsuna knows. Oops.
On a serious note, I just want to flag quickly here since it comes up in reviews and PMs- I know some people reading this aren't necessarily fans that I chop and change character POVs, and have multiple POVs in some chapters. That's not going to change going forward- I love this series because of the strength in depth of its characters, the diversity of the villains and the varied focus of episodes and chapters. It feels right to me to give others the spotlight besides Izuku as my MC, and to worldbuild the whole AU by doing that rather than just a narrow view around Izuku (it wouldn't just be Izuku affected by the loss of All Might after all). I promise the narratives will start to close in, and I can't wait to bring some together, but for now please just accept that's how I'm rolling with this story and I'm having fun doing it.
Anyway, the support has been fantastic. We are nearly at 1000 followers which is frankly absurd and I had never expected that- I would have hoped and dreamed of achieving that after 100 chapters, but to be getting there around 25 is insanity. There are 800 favourites on this and over 450 reviews now- I absolutely love some of the theories and analysis in the reviews, it is my favourite thing to come back to after a post. Thank you so much to all of you.
If you've enjoyed this chapter, please feel free to review, and if you haven't already please feel free to favourite and/or follow this story. And feel free to chuck me a PM as well- I love a good chat about My Hero Academia and the fandom in general.
Ya boy, out.
