A/N: When I said in the last chapter that I had an exam coming up on 24 June, it appears my brain wasn't entirely engaged when writing the author's note. I meant August, and I can confirm that I can't time-travel- it is very much this Tuesday that I have my exams. That said… I couldn't just leave you all with the start of the USJ and go on hiatus, could I?
I'm very glad that as much as the hype has been built for Garaki and Kurogiri coming into the open, a lot of you also enjoyed Class 1A getting to interact more on the bus. I know I've said this before, but it's important to me that (like in canon) it isn't just a group of cardboard cut-outs filling scenes around Izuku and his group. I want to actually give a few of them the chance to shine down the line, have their own arcs like in canon, and be interesting enough to root for around the side of the Izucrew. I'd rather give them some good time to talk than end up with bland classmates nobody cares about (looking at you, Ojiro and Sato).
Let's pick up where we left off, shall we?
(***)
"Everything I do… is for my master."
It is the nature of disaster that it is unforgettable, that it leaves a scar on those caught in its wake that can never truly be erased. In the aftermath, memories remain crystal clear, no matter how shocking or chaotic the events at the time had been; trivial details stick in the mind, irrelevant in any other context. But it is also the nature of disaster that at the height of tension, time slows to the pace of treacle, practically stopping in its tracks as the universe takes a breath in anticipation for what comes next.
Izuku understood exactly what that felt like, the second that the man he thought was Doctor Tsubasa uttered those words, standing at the heart of the Unforeseen Simulation Joint. It felt like a showdown, the type of fight suited to Snipe more than anyone… and yet here they all were. Waiting for what came next with bated breath.
Looking around, the atmosphere was clearly registering with everyone. Midnight had taken the lead as their teacher, deliberately placing herself in front of the class to draw focus onto herself, but as much as she appeared to walk with the little sway that was her trademark from her Hero duties, the handcuffs attached to one of her wrists were clanking as they shook. It was understandable, in a way- nobody had expected to come under attack on the UA campus in the middle of class- but it did nothing to put Izuku at ease. Midnight was posturing to try to intimidate the villains, but clearly she had been thrown by the fact that the one named Kurogiri had warped several people into their safe training ground.
Midnight wasn't the only one with nerves jangling. The little ways in which Thirteen's helmet twitched told Izuku that her gaze was darting from villain to villain, clearly trying to gather any information from their appearance about what Quirks they'd be faced with. The hairs on the back of Izuku's neck had risen up with the tension, but that was nothing in comparison to Shiozaki, whose vine-like hair was writhing in discomfort and growing out; the look on her face betrayed her nerves at the unexpected development. Even among the usually steadfast members of their class, there were signs that people were bothered by not knowing what was going on- Tetsutetsu and Kirishima had already steeled themselves (literally, in Tetsutetsu's case) for action, and a sound like the tearing of cloth gave away that Shoji was feeling defensive, his gym uniform writhing as his Dupli-Arms began to multiply.
And then there were his friends. Tenko's face beside him was twisted into a grimace as he did the same, and Setsuna's usual wide grin remained plastered on her face, but the light didn't meet her eyes; it was clearly a facade, betrayed by the way her eyes briefly flickered with uncertainty towards Izuku and to the far exit. Himiko's eyes had narrowed, fingers dancing at her waistband in a gesture that told Izuku she was close to equipping herself with a blade-
She'll need the real thing, here. Not one of those training blades.
Izuku didn't know what dark corner of his mind had dredged that thought up, and instinctively a small part of him felt bad that he could hold such a view while training to be a Hero. A larger part of him, the part that knew what Himiko could do and had seen her stand up to villains with the real deal before, stood by it. It was hard not to, when he considered the group of villains in front of them.
For starters, there was the one named Kurogiri. Quirks could do incredible things, and some Quirks could even drastically alter a person's appearance depending on their nature; Mutant-type Quirks were the best example, but they weren't the only ones by any means. Izuku had never seen anything as unusual as the man of black mist in front of him, though. Kurogiri had taken enough shape now for Izuku to call him a man- was that a suit he was wearing underneath the inky shadows?- but the way in which the fog writhed, formed portals to drag people through? Izuku had never seen a Quirk like that before, and the power it emanated was incredible.
Those who had emerged from the teleporter's Quirk (Izuku's Quirk-obsessed brain briefly questioned whether it should be called a warp gate, before the part of him very much in the moment shut that train of thought down) were a worrying bunch too. Izuku barely recognised a couple of them from news reports where the Police had put their faces out, seeking information; two bull-headed men with blue skin, a woman with Medusa-like grey hair, a tall skull-faced man with a look of contempt who Izuku seemed to recall had a water control Quirk. Thirteen had identified them as E-Rank and F-Rank villains, and Izuku couldn't remember anyone being higher ranked, but he also couldn't ever remember seeing them reported as working together. They were clearly hired help, brought to cause trouble.
And that meant one person was in charge, the person Kurogiri deferred to, the man pulling the strings and the one they should all be afraid of… the Doctor. After several different people had recognised him under several different names, Izuku couldn't be sure that the name he had given was even the right one, and that alarmed him. This older man, hunched in his posture and clutching a cane, wouldn't register as a threat anywhere else, and yet Kyudai Garaki terrified him. It wasn't just the way he so calmly waited, unafraid of any of them, unfazed by his companions. It was the way he looked at Izuku while referencing his master… it couldn't be? The man from all those years ago?
Izuku's mind flashed back for just a second, visions of a man in a mask, of the fallen body of All Might. The phantom taste of blood, the iron tang, clawed at the back of his throat before he shook himself. The way the Doctor talked of a master, the fact he knew from his previous assessment of Izuku that he had been Quirkless, and the way that he stared through Izuku as he mentioned a master…
He knows. He knows the truth of who you are, Izuku.
Nothing terrified Izuku more than the thought of that being right. Although the monstrous creature that emerged from the portal at Kurogiri's side was becoming a close contender.
There were several gasps from the gathered class behind him as the head of the creature emerged, and for very good reason. Izuku had never seen anything living where the brain sat exposed on top of the head, and yet the titanic black monster with a terrible beak had one, shining under the floodlights. The contrast between the sickly pale flesh of its brain and the jet-black, leathery skin that covered it made it hard to miss, and yet this wasn't the thing that struck Izuku. Nor was it the size of the defined musculature across the creature's arms or chest, the fists like bear paws, or the tree-trunk legs it stood on, clad only in the most basic pair of pants.
No, it was the eyes that drew Izuku's attention, more than anything else. Even from some distance away, the being's eyes were utterly blank, unreactive to any stimuli as it stared straight ahead. It was staring straight at them, looking for all the world as if it was entirely disconnected from its surroundings. Somehow that made it even more frightening, the primal urge to flee making Izuku and several others take a step back. It was just… waiting.
A soldier. Needing orders.
"What is that thing?" Ashido sounded horrified. "Look at its head… that isn't human, surely?"
"More like a creature of the abyss than a man." The measure of how horrifying the creature was could be easily realised by looking at Tokoyami. The boy's interests extended to the gothic, but even he looked frightened as he tried to take in what was in front of him. "How could such a thing come to be?"
"We can both agree that thing is unholy." Shiozaki's voice was quiet, but the way in which it trembled meant that Izuku and several of the class shot her a sympathetic look. "Another villain… he looks the strongest of the bunch."
"Nemuri…" Thirteen's voice warbled, and it wasn't just because of her helmet. "That isn't a normal villain. We need to be careful…"
"I know." The fact that Midnight appeared (at least on the surface) to be undaunted stirred Izuku. He had always admired All Might's ability to keep a smile on his face no matter the situation- it was one of his own goals that he could do that as a Hero, after all- and so the fact that Midnight could hold onto that strength in the face of such a sudden and surprise attack was some comfort to him. "We may not be able to avoid a fight here."
"Impressive, isn't he?" The Doctor's voice called out across the facility, as the old man's cane waved to the creature's chest. It struck Izuku that several of the assorted villains had shuffled ever so slightly away from the creature as it emerged, some shocked looks on their faces; it appeared that the Doctor and Kurogiri were its handlers. "I figured that an occasion such as this deserved the presence of something special and so, here we are."
"So that's a he…" Himiko murmured, under her breath. "Izu?"
"Y-Yeah?"
"What do you think his Quirk is?"
"I… don't know." It was hard to get any indication of what the man (if that was really what he was) could do from the limited information they had before them. "I was going to say some sort of muscle enhancement or strength-based Quirk, going on how big he is, but that doesn't take into account his b-brain being exposed like this-"
"Or the fact he has a beak," Tenko supplied, in agreement. "Those teeth and that tongue… I was gonna say Mutant-type to take account of the custom skin, but-"
"What sort of base-level mutation is gonna do that to someone's brain?" Izuku finished, shaking his head. "There's something n-not right about him. I don't know what it is…"
"Yeah, I get you." Himiko's eyes flashed over to the creature. "It's… blank. He's not moved from the side of that creepy doctor the whole time. He's just standing there-"
"Menacingly." Three sets of eyes glared over at Setsuna for her timing, met only by a shrug. "What? It's true. It's not like these other goons, they're all taking us in trying to scope out the enemy. He's just… looming. It's like a dog waiting for its owner telling it to roll over or fetch a ball."
"Huh…" Tenko paused. "Yeah… I see it. The goons look like party recruits, but he looks like a special summon."
"Exactly. This Doctor Garaki, or whatever his name is? It looks like he's conditioned him." Setsuna shot Izuku a look, a thousand words unsaid. "You recognised him, Zuzu? He looked at you when you were younger?"
"Y-Yeah." Izuku swallowed, a thousand more silent words in his nod as an answer to her question. "He did."
Setsuna swore under her breath slightly, prompting a confused look from Himiko, before balling her fists. "So did everyone here, it seems. This guy is weird-"
Said guy had moved now, positioning himself between Kurogiri and the creature. "One of my finer pieces of handiwork, I must say. He's grown on me, ever since he was pushed beyond his potential."
"Handiwork…" Yaoyorozu whispered, her composure glass-like and nearly broken. "He… made him? Is that what he's saying?"
"That would mean… no!" Iida's voice remained resolute, but the way that his hand-chop wavered slightly as it came down showed Izuku enough about his emotional state. "That can't be! That would mean that he experimented on a human-"
Clearly Midnight had reached the same awful conclusion as the rest of them at the head of the group, and the sudden crack of her bullwhip brought everyone's attention to her. Izuku didn't know where she had pulled the whip from, given that her costume looked absolutely pristine, but she had clearly doubled down on the desire to try to intimidate the new arrivals. "You call that your handiwork, sir? You made him that way?"
"We improved him." The one called Kurogiri had been awfully quiet until now, the dark shadows of his body flickering like the flame of a candle, but there was something smug and cruel in his voice now. "Perhaps some of you may get to experience what Nomu is capable of first-hand."
"Nomu…" Izuku murmured under his breath, a horrible cold feeling down his spine as he heard the creature named. "Where have I…"
"Izuku?" Tenko looked concerned. "What's wrong?"
He hated the question that he asked, and how his blood felt like it was running cold as he looked over at Nomu again. "... Why does that name sound so familiar?"
Before any of them could answer that, Midnight took another step forward, down onto the stairs that ran to the central plaza of the USJ. Her voice cut across any conversation easily, authoritative and firm. "You brought him here to sic him on my students? Ignoring the part where you know I won't let you get anywhere near them, what possible reason could you have to want to do that?"
"That's far enough." Kurogiri's call was angry and commanding, and it actually made Midnight pause, one hand inching to the sleeve of her costume. "Did you really think you wouldn't be so see-through, Midnight?"
"You disrespect us, Hero." The Doctor shook his head, and what was disturbing was how he sounded amused rather than annoyed. "Who do you think I am? Some third-rate villain with a fourth-rate mind for detail? Some gutter trash crook with no foresight or awareness? I know what you want, Midnight. You don't know anything about why we're here, and you find yourself scrambling to gain an advantage over us, to no longer be in the dark. Ironic, that for a Hero whose entire public image is based on that of a dominatrix, you are so desperate when you aren't in control to take it back."
"Sir…" Midnight had gritted her teeth ever so slightly, but Izuku was impressed how much the poker face was holding. "I'm just trying to understand what my students could have done to merit you organising something like this-"
"Don't insult my years of experience by feigning innocence! You honestly thought you could get me to talk it all through, spilling all of my plans to you immediately upon our arrival?" The Doctor laughed, a caustic sound. "The monologue is a villain's worst enemy, a bombastic suicide pill taken by those whose ego overtakes rational decision-making, those who willingly ensure that pride comes before a fall. And you expect me to give you one for free?"
"Do you honestly think we would just relent and tell you our whole nefarious purpose because you asked nicely?" Kurogiri mocked her. "One act of charity, to allow you to formulate a proper plan to counter our every move, and buy you time to coax your students and your colleague who is so very ill-equipped for combat into action? Think again."
"Dammit…" Tenko cursed beside Izuku. "Just me who wanted some exposition?"
"Hey!" Thirteen clearly didn't appreciate the comment. "Take a step closer to the students and I'll make you pay-"
"Oh, this one is bold! I like her!" The Doctor clapped as he spoke, and Izuku could practically hear the angry growl from Thirteen in response. "See, I know what you're doing, Midnight. Your Quirk is famous, and so are your methods. When you're in the spotlight as much as you are, it is hard to not sit up and pay attention to something so exquisite as Somnabulist at work. I'm not monologuing my whole plan, because I know what you want… enough time to release your Quirk."
"And I'm afraid we aren't willing to give you that." Kurogiri's remaining portal flickered with movement. "That isn't the way we work."
"You see, the Master was one of the only few people who could wax lyrical about his intentions in front of his enemies and still come out on top. He was just that powerful." The Doctor adjusted his glasses as a shape began to form in the fog, several students breathing in sharply at the sight. "Me? I'd rather plan for every eventuality myself. Actions speak louder than words… so here's mine."
Whatever Izuku had been expecting from the portal, it had not been what emerged. After the arrival of the Nomu creature, part of his own head had been thinking that another similar beast would follow. This… couldn't be more different. "That's… wait a second-"
"Is that a kid?" Tenko asked, louder than anyone else in the group. "That can't be right, teach… teach?"
Midnight's face had completely transformed, the resolute mask slipping from her face at the sight of the new arrival. In the face of everything, she had remained calm, even as a spectre made of smoke broke through the UA security and warped a horde of villains into her class, even as the towering Nomu emerged in front of her. Just for a moment, as the newcomer emerged, a short and skinny boy wearing what appeared to be a middle school gakuran with a green trench coat over the top of it, Midnight faltered. "No… it can't be! Not you!"
The youngster's face was obscured by a gas mask, a complicated contraption set underneath a green soldier's helmet; it appeared to Izuku to have been custom-made to resemble those worn in the old wars of history. When the boy spoke, the mask played on his voice to make him sound like he was speaking into a funnel, but it did nothing to temper the hatred which oozed in his tone. "Hello… auntie."
"Auntie?!" There was audible confusion among the student ranks, as several heads spun wildly to look between Midnight and the young man who now stood with the rest of the criminals, to the side of Kurogiri. "You're related to this villain?!"
"It's… complicated." Midnight's voice faltered slightly as she looked at the villain. "I know you don't like me, but this is too far, Kidoku-"
"You don't get to call me that anymore! My name is Mustard, and you will use it!" The voice of the villain calling himself Mustard was petulant, and angry. "And really? I don't like you? I hate everything you stand for, you filthy witch. You and this pathetic school-"
"Woah!" Setsuna wasn't the only student who cried out, objecting to the venom in Mustard's tone. "What the hell did we do to piss you off, shortie?"
"Ask her that!" One green-clad sleeve shot out, pointing wildly at Midnight. "You were never around, were you? Whenever my parents needed you, you were nowhere to be found, doing whatever you pleased because UA let you-"
"I was saving people! Doing what I could to help the rest of the world-"
"So that's what you call it? You were helping?" Mustard cried, vitriolic. "All I saw was someone embarrassing our family, prancing around in front of a camera like some common whore in that costume of yours. You could have done so much with your Quirk without disgracing your family, but no, you just really enjoyed that attention too much to care what we would have to endure because of it-"
"You seriously wanna act like that's justification to become a villain?" Kendo was fuming, among many others. "Midnight is one of the greatest heroines of our time! She's a role model to us about how we can make it as Heroes, how we can belong too-"
"Oh, of course you all buy into it. You're all her students, aren't you?" Izuku knew that if he could see the boy's face, he would have been wide-eyed and ranting. "UA… you're the worst of the bunch for what's left. So entitled, so pampered by the world-"
"What the hell are you talking about, you little creep?" Awase shouted, looking completely bewildered. "How are we the worst? What have any of us ever done to people like you?"
"Of course you can't see it!" Mustard's hands went back into his coat pockets. "You're blinded by the bright lights of being the next best thing, aren't you? So much worship of this place and all of you, because of the two letters you get to put on your CV after you graduate! You're spoiled, allowed to do as you please in this perfect little bubble you get to treat as your playground, as the rest of the world struggles on by. And what makes it worse is that you get taught by people like her-"
"As touching as this family reunion is…" Kurogiri's voice could boom, and it did so, cutting across the furious hubbub and Mustard's belligerence. "I rather think you need to remember why we're here, Mustard. And who is in command."
"I was rather enjoying that spectacle, but you have a point, old friend." The Doctor shook his head at the sight before him, the outraged class and the grumbling boy on his side, before fixing his attention back onto Midnight. "You see, I know what your endgame is to any fight, Hero. Somnabulist is perfect for crowd control, and won't hurt a soul."
"Unfortunately for you…" Mustard laughed, underneath the mask, and Izuku could have sworn that some purple mist had coalesced around his feet for just a second. "That would be a death sentence, wouldn't it?"
Izuku's eyes widened, as he stared over at his teacher, and the uncertain look she shot Thirteen for just a second confirmed his worst suspicions. Midnight's plan had been a nuclear option from the start, recognising the threat of the Nomu creature and a villain who could warp in reinforcements at any time; she would have used it on the students and villains alike, ensuring that only she and Thirteen remained standing in the aftermath. It would have been a perfect counter to the increasing villain numbers, allowing her a golden opportunity to apprehend the ringleaders and evacuate the class. But now… "His Quirk…"
"Izu…" Tenko looked over, and his face was grim. "He has a gas-related Quirk too, doesn't he?"
"I see your students are working it out. So capable, these youngsters." The boys whirled, realising that the Doctor had noticed them conferring. "Full marks for the Quirk analysis. For those of you slightly less quick on the take, we'll be so kind as to spell it out."
"Your teacher wanted to put everyone here to sleep with her Quirk," Kurogiri said, mockingly. "Her Quirk would let her defeat us, while keeping you from harm ready to be evacuated. A perfect solution, given that her Quirk isn't lethal… but-"
"Mine is." Mustard didn't even attempt to disguise his glee. "Funny. My Gas is toxic, so I could never have been like you, but in a match-up between us… I always win."
"It's a simple choice, Midnight." The Doctor sounded slightly smug now, as Midnight's hand slowly moved away from the easily-rippable fabric of her costume. "You can use your Quirk, sure. You can put everyone except you, Thirteen and the boy to sleep. But the more you use your Quirk, the more he uses his, and given that it's poisonous in large quantities… you'd be signing a death sentence, on both us and your students."
"Midnight, my Black Hole…" Thirteen began. "There may be a way to-"
"We'd need to get you way too close to him for that to work. And I don't think that Nomu is going to let you anywhere near him." Midnight hadn't snapped at her colleague, but Izuku couldn't help but notice a little agitation creeping in. "And if you use Black Hole from any range, you'd suck up my gas as well as his. We'd be back at square one."
"It's hopeless to even try to mitigate this." Kurogiri's head twitched. "The cost of losing students by trying to save them… would be on your conscience."
"Here, this ain't right." One of the villain cronies suddenly spoke up, some strange blue-skinned guy with a shark fin and what appeared to be a scuba tank on his bank. "You're bringing us here, siccing the kid's poison on 'em, and not protecting us? What, are we expendable to you or somethin', doc?"
"Oh, didn't we make that clear?" What Izuku saw next from Kurogiri horrified him, and from the sounds of several screams around him, horrified several of his classmates too. The black mist on the top of the man's head flared, and suddenly a shadowy portal opened underneath the floor of the shark-finned man, making him scream as he fell. It became abundantly clear within a second where he had gone, as another portal opened just underneath the roof of the facility, and several people (Izuku included) had to look away as the screaming man fell. The sickening crunch confirmed all they needed to know. "You are."
"He called himself Sharkyonara, and still thought he was significant enough for us to value his presence? Clean your mess up, Kurogiri." Izuku risked a peek, just to see a broken blue body vanish through another portal into oblivion; several of the goons beside Mustard and Kurogiri stood a lot straighter to attention in its wake, and there were some unhappy whimpers from people behind him who hadn't been able to turn in time to avoid seeing the impact. "We can afford to lose people, Midnight. If people die to Mustard's Gas, then we can quite happily accept it. The question is… can you live with that when they're your students?"
Talk about putting her on the back foot. How does Midnight get out of this?
It was a very good question. Izuku had no hesitation in concluding that Midnight could, on any normal day, take any one of the assorted E-Rank and F-Rank Villains who were gathered below in a one-on-one fight. In any normal situation, she would have been one of the most capable Heroes at dealing with a group of villains like this, up there with the likes of Endeavor and Best Jeanist. This… wasn't one of those situations. The presence of Mustard, and the threat his Quirk provided if mixed with hers, was too much to ignore, and that meant she would be faced with a horde she couldn't shut down like usual. Even if the Doctor was passive, letting others do the fighting for him, that still left Kurogiri, and the beastly Nomu, to contend with...
This was bad.
After what seemed like an age, Midnight opened her eyes and nodded to herself, before looking over to Thirteen. "I'm sorry, but it looks like I'm going to need to lean on you in this fight to buy us some cover. Do you trust me?"
"U-Uhhh…" Izuku couldn't see the look in Midnight's eyes from where he was standing, nor could he see Thirteen's face beneath the space-suit helmet she wore. All he could see was the way that the Space Hero started, before her puffy sleeves moved into a fighting stance. "Right! Tell me what to do, and I'll do my best!"
"Good." Midnight turned now, and it was as if she hadn't been inconvenienced at all by the arrival; there was fire in her eyes, and the most sadistic smile he had ever seen on the R-Rated Heroine's face. Nothing he had ever seen on the news rivalled that look. "Well, dears? I don't think Thirteen and I have ever had to take on so many together, but there's a first time for everything. They're blocking our communications, so we can't call for help, but we should be able to buy you enough time to get out and call ahead yourselves-"
"But we'd be leaving you behind!" Tetsutetsu's steel fist clanged against his palm, and the boy looked nervous at the thought. "Don't you want our help taking on these villains?"
"We can take these guys, surely!" Hagakure said, fired-up. "We've had Combat Training, so-"
"One session of training you guys to fight within the class parameters is not enough for you to be ready to face actual villains," Midnight interrupted, firmly, as Hagakure's gloves (the only visible part of her) seemed to twitch and slump. "I don't care if they're E-Rank or F-Rank, real villains are a different breed entirely, people who fight without rules and won't stop when you go down."
"And that's just the grunts down there," Thirteen added, not looking away from the group down below. "There's the boy, and the Doctor, and that Nomu… we can't throw you in to fight against them. We won't. You need to get out of here, and get the rest of the staff to help."
Foolish.
"But you can't fight them on your own!" Izuku's head was so full of his own thoughts that he surprised himself by speaking up, and he gulped as Midnight's attention was turned onto him. "I-I mean, look at them, there's too many people down there for just both of you, and you h-heard what they said about if you use your Quirk. Even if you can use it, that boy Mustard will use h-his, and we don't know anything about what that Nomu can do-"
"Midoriya? Breathe." Midnight stepped in, and shot him a small smile. It was amazing how little he believed it, and yet how much it did to calm him down. "Trust me, we will get the situation under control. And besides… that's not the only plan I ever come up with. As a good friend of mine once told me, a good hero should never just have one trick."
"Heh!" Tenko laughed beside him, as their teacher moved to stand between them and the villains once more. "Two teachers, rushing the monster house alone, melee-only? Pretty hardcore."
"That's what it means to be a Hero, huh…" Himiko had a look of awe in her eyes, something Izuku's concerns held him back from sharing. "Midnight's awesome."
"So you want to play dirty, huh? Sorry boys, but when I bite, I mean it." Midnight ignored the hubbub of the class behind her instead to call down to the gathering beneath them; Izuku took a second to recognise that the villains had slightly spaced out, but didn't appear to be making any moves on the class, not least in the face of Midnight's vicious grin. "If you think that's the only way I'm going to fight, then you're sorely mistaken."
"Oh, good. I was starting to feel like maybe I'd overestimated how much resistance you might offer." The Doctor looked squarely up at Midnight. "You can never be too careful, can you? To avoid ending up solely reliant on your Quirk for an advantage?"
"On this we agree, old timer." Midnight flicked the whip down to her side, the sound of the crack punctuating her sentence. "That's why I keep plenty more tricks up my sleeve."
"Wonderful! Then again…" The Doctor tapped his cane twice on the side of the fountain behind him, a knocking sound echoing throughout the USJ. "So do we."
Bam. Bam.
Time stood still for the longest of moments, in the USJ, and seemed to crawl to a halt around Izuku. His horror mounting, his head snapped left to his friends first of all, their own eyes as wide and frightened as his, before his attention flicked back to the gathering of villains below. To the Doctor, moustache twitching into a grin. To Kurogiri, yellow eyes piercing in the black fog. To the Nomu, that hadn't moved an inch…
And to Mustard, arm out of his pocket and outstretched in front of him, an ugly grey revolver pointed squarely at their teacher.
"Gah!"
"N-Nemuri!" As Midnight went down with a scream, a bloody hole appearing in the left shoulder of her costume, Thirteen yelled. "Nemuri, no!"
He shot your teacher, Izuku...
"Sensei!" The second the gunshots went out, most of the class had jumped to the floor as an instinctive reaction, getting down and out of harm's way. Despite the danger of the boy with the firearm below, Yaoyorozu was the first up on her feet, rushing over with a ripping sound as a wad of bandaging began to erupt from the back of her gym uniform. "St-stay with me! I'm going to try to help!"
"Uh, yes, Y-Yaoyorozu!" Thirteen waved frantically at Midnight, Monoma and Shoji also descending on their teacher as Izuku rose as well. "S-Students, stay behind me!"
"What a wonderful shot!" The Doctor appeared to raise his hands and his cane in celebration, laughing as the students descended into panic. "Although, dare I say, you appear to have missed the second teacher. Mustard, would you be so kind-"
"Way ahead of you." Mustard began to move, gunsmoke still swirling around the tip of the barrel, before he hesitated as Izuku rose to his feet. "Huh? This kid-"
"No!" The panic in Thirteen's tone as she cried out bounced off the walls of the USJ, as Izuku slid to a halt firmly between herself and the gunman. "Midoriya-"
Boost.
Izuku had moved without thinking, but he had eyes for only one thing at that moment, and it wasn't his teacher, down on the floor and beginning to bleed. It wasn't his friends, no matter how concerned he was for their safety and making sure they didn't become the next targets. It was the short young man who had somehow got hold of a weapon; he didn't know how Mustard had come to acquire a pistol, and didn't want to speculate how far off the deep end someone had to dive in order to be willing to bring one into a school. All he knew was that Mustard had shot one too many people, and that he needed to do something to make sure he wouldn't shoot anyone else. "SMASH!"
The resulting windblast wasn't on the same level as what he managed at the Quirk Apprehension Test, but only because Izuku hadn't had any time to build up the power brewing within him before he unleashed Air Force in the direction of the villains. In that split second before firing off an air blast with a flick of his fingers, he had recalled the sensation of willing more power into his hands, in the hope that whatever Quirk had boosted him before would kick in. He had been lucky that it had, Air Force sending a wall of air ten feet tall straight at the group below.
Many of the villains had been way too slow to react, most still reacting to the gunshots from Mustard as Izuku pulled the trigger on his Smash. Several were sent careening like bowling pins around the fountain, one young woman only able to instinctively anchor herself by jamming her needle-like hair into the earth. Kurogiri's shadows writhed as the blast hit, but otherwise the spectre stood firm, as did Nomu; the fact that the creature barely even appeared to register that it had been hit by anything did wonders for Izuku's fears.
Mustard screamed as the brunt of the impact hit him, the force ripping the gun from his hands and sending it flying. It was surprising (and a relief) that it was solely a scream of rage, and not pain from something breaking as the gun went flying off; perhaps the young boy, younger than Izuku, hadn't been holding the gun properly at the time. "Dammit! This one's powerful-"
"Oh ho ho! What an impressive blast, Midoriya!" The Doctor had been blown backwards into the solid wall of muscle that was Nomu, but somehow remained standing despite his frail-looking body. "Although… you yell 'smash' like you're taking after All Might? That's a bad habit to get yourself into."
"I can remove him of that habit, if you like." Mustard appeared to glare up at Izuku from behind his mask, as Tenko and Setsuna bounced up into a defensive stance beside him, and Himiko turned up on his other side clutching one of her knives. "Just say the word-"
"That's not what you're here for. You deal with the teachers, and we'll deal with the student issue. Remember your place, boy." The Doctor's kindly manner was setting off several alarm bells in Izuku's head. "Now, where were we?"
"You leave us alone!" Izuku didn't know what courage he had dredged up to yell that, but there was something in the fact that he had his best friends beside him, and the fact that Kirishima and Tetsutetsu in their fully-hardened states had rushed up to hold the line with them. The six of them, standing at the head of the class? Even in the face of so many people, the adrenaline rush had just kicked in. "Get out of here!"
"Midoriya!" Thirteen appeared torn between jumping to Midnight and helping tend to the teacher, and the front line; Izuku realised that their teacher's lack of real combat experience was now showing. "It's not safe, you can't-"
"Your teacher has a point, Midoriya!" The Doctor tapped his cane on the floor three times, and suddenly the group of associated villains began to spread out and disperse; the weird part was that they weren't heading for the students, but appeared to be spreading out for the remaining zones. "You all know where you're going and who your targets are. They'll be fish out of water, but don't underestimate them, and don't hold back. They need the push."
"Where are they going?" Tenko muttered, taking a step back with one hand ungloved. "They're not… zerg rushing us? Isn't that the point of people like this?"
"Mustard, you take your group and handle the teachers. You named your price, and I'm happy to let you pursue your own goal. Just don't get in the way when we pursue ours.." The young boy nodded at the Doctor, before gesturing to a group of villains who fell in line behind him. "As for you, students, well, I suppose your lesson begins now! Your medical records were pitifully easy to acquire, and several of you appear to be woefully unequipped for some of the zones in this delightful facility. Between those, and our delightful associates… consider this a push from me to learn the hard way."
"Now… disperse them."
"No…" Izuku's eyes widened, as he realised that he hadn't paid any attention to Kurogiri until the spectre's black mist flared up, and thick tendrils of dark clouds began to shoot towards the group of students. "The teleporter! Everyone, look-"
"I know it's impolite." Kurogiri chuckled. "But otherwise, you'd all get in the way. Now scatter."
Izuku barely had time to react, the only thing he could do being to turn his back on the clouds and reach out to his group as the fog fell onto the rest of the panicking class behind them as well. One arm latched onto Himiko and wrapped around her in a hug, a desperate attempt to put himself between her and harm's way, and he felt the tug of him pulling her closer in turn, while the other hand finally managed to hit Tenko's gym top and grab onto the fabric…
Before darkness descended, and with a scream they all fell into oblivion.
(***)
Izuku hit the ground with a thud, along with several other people on top of him, temporarily making him blind at the bottom of a pile.
"Ow!"
"Ow, hey! Elbow to the ribs, what sort of friendly fire bullshit is this-"
"T-Tenko?! You're here?"
"No, who else, dipshit?"
"Setsuna? You too?"
"The one and only! Hey, Ten, that's not your hand on my stomach, right-"
"I… can feel scales. I think that's me, Set-"
"Right, that's Izuku. So the foot in the face, is that mine?"
"Ow! Hey, why would you bite that-"
"Nope! Hey guys, Himiko made it here too-"
"You bit her foot? What's wrong with you?!"
"Hey, Lizard Tail Splitter does some freaky shit, I just didn't know if it was mine! And come on, she bit me earlier-"
"That was for my Quirk! Eurgh!" There was a pause from Himiko, and her voice came back slightly strained. "Izu, where's your other hand?"
"O-Oh, I d-don't know…" Izuku pushed out with it, and met some resistance. "Wherever there i-is, I don't know?"
There was a sly whistle from Setsuna. "Smooth, cuz. Himi's got a nice butt, but I don't think now's the time-"
"G-Gah! I'm s-so sorry!" Brief embarrassment gave Izuku a burst of strength like nothing else, shooting upright and throwing his friends off of him to laughter from Setsuna. "I thought I had j-just grabbed you when we got warped-"
"It's fine, you idiot." Himiko stuck her tongue out at him, although her blush still remained. "Just didn't expect it, that's all!"
"Yeah, next time give us some warning," Tenko snarked. "I don't wanna be around for scenes like that. I'm pure."
"We all know that's some fine bullshit." Setsuna looked up, frowning a little. "Huh. Strange. Ruins Zone. Not what I was expecting. I thought they might separate us, and chuck me into the Typhoon Zone."
"Ruins Zone?" Izuku looked up to pay his surroundings some attention, and saw that Setsuna was right. They appeared to be in the middle of a main street for a ruined city, large towers clearly built by Cementoss leaning at perilous angles and looking like they'd been hit full force by the apocalypse. For a moment, Izuku was taken back to Musutafu all those years ago, the fight between All Might and the villain who claimed his life. Who gave him his Quirk. "This place… this is weird."
"Yeah, reminds me of Incident Zero, seeing it like this." Tenko shared his view, clearly. "It's realistic, I'll give 'em that much."
"Still, could be worse. We're not being chucked into fire or storms, and we all get to stick together." Himiko somehow found the positive spin to put on their situation. "We're kinda lucky, when you think about it like that!
"I wouldn't call it luck." The reply came almost cheerfully, jovial, and the four of them froze as they realised how close the speaker was. "Luck would have resulted in you teleporting here with those two erstwhile young men with the solid skin. Kirishima and Tetsutetsu, if I'm not mistaken from your class list? Instead, here you are, all four of you together and nobody else to get in the way. It's less luck, and more…"
"Convenience." The booming voice of Kurogiri finished the Doctor's sentence, as Izuku and his friends looked up with alarm and saw the pair of them standing right behind them, exactly as they were when Midnight had been shot. "You're the ones we need, after all."
Izuku felt Air Force twitch in his palms, but he couldn't immediately leap into action, not without understanding a little more about what they were faced with. It didn't stop him or his friends jumping upright and forming a huddle, various defensive poses taken with Setsuna detaching her arms and Himiko re-arming. "It's y-you! Doctor-"
"Hello, Midoriya." The old man's kindly smile was the creepiest thing Izuku had seen all day. "It's so good to get some time to finally talk."
"Yeah, yeah, 'talk'. We all buy that." Himiko glared at the man, and Izuku could practically feel the heat of it himself. "Where's your goons? Didn't you send them off to do your dirty work?"
"Oh, yes, I did. But they're not important today. They're cannon fodder, a distraction for your fellow students. Smoke and mirrors, if you like." The Doctor shrugged. "Even that charming hormonal mess of a young man Mustard is just a more significant distraction to occupy your teachers. I trust you have eyes on him, Kurogiri?"
"If he requires my assistance with Thirteen, then I shall lend it." The spectre laughed once, darkly. "If he struggles with a Rescue Hero in combat, then I shall question his worth, but I shall lend it nonetheless."
"Distractions?" Setsuna detached and re-attached her fingers as she talked. "You hired a load of villains, brought them into our school, and now they're not important to you?"
"What's important is what's in front of us." Garaki tapped his cane against the floor, the sound echoing through the Ruin Zone and bouncing off the walls. "We have all who we need, right here."
Izuku's brief relief at none of the lackeys being present was cast aside, as the hulking form of Nomu emerged from behind what looked like the wreckage of a bus. Far away, the creature had been disturbing, but up close it was even worse. The oily sheen of its skin, the absurd size of the muscles it had at its disposal, the way the exposed brain throbbed under the USJ floodlights… it was completely inhuman. "K-Keep that thing away from us!"
"GREEEH!" Nomu's screech was abominable, making the hairs on the back of Izuku's neck stand up, but what was worse was the way it suddenly paused, and fixed its full attention onto Setsuna. "Mrrrrrr…"
"Zuzu…" Setsuna sounded horrified, even without looking at her. "Why is that thing staring right at me?"
"Oh, this is interesting," Kurogiri rumbled, his own attention moving to Izuku's cousin now. "Doctor… I think Nomu senses a kindred spirit."
"Kindred spirit? W-What do you…"
What makes Setsuna different from Tenko and Himiko? It's simple… she has more than one Quirk.
Realisation hit Izuku with the force of an oncoming truck, as he whipped his head back to look at Nomu, the disturbing creature licking its lips with a tongue that looked far too long for its head. If Setsuna was a kindred spirit for more than one Quirk… Nomu had more than one as well. Which meant that this unassuming old man, who talked of a master, was familiar with the idea of a person holding more than one Quirk. "Oh no…"
"Oh ho, that face tells me all I need to know! You've worked out Nomu's little secret." The Doctor nodded his approval, moustache twitching with a grin. "You appeared to be such a bright young man before, but this level of analytical skill around Quirks… it shows promise, Izuku."
"GREURGH-"
"Nomu, heel." To Izuku's shock, the creature immediately stopped on the Doctor's orders, becoming motionless. "Good. Do you like my work? A powerful creature just like him… a perfect blend of so many factors coming together. If All Might were still around, well, I believe this one could take him on in a fight-"
"This one?" Tenko paled. "There's more than one? Shit, Izuku-"
"There's more where he came from. But don't consider him an enemy… consider him an offering." The Doctor chuckled. "He's actually from a lot closer to home than you think. You remember those Yakuza who came to fight you? That angry young hothead with the shark-head Quirk, and his cronies?"
Izuku's blood ran cold, looking at the creature, remembering that fight. Leaving the Yakuza behind. No trace of them being found. "Wait, no!"
"Oh, this isn't one of the ones you fought. Their friend standing guard on the entrance had a far more valuable Quirk for us to use." The Doctor patted the muscly black arm beside him, no reaction from Nomu. "You should be grateful. We ensured that the ones who came after you were never found, and the Yakuza were thrown off your scent. We protected you, Izuku."
"You handled yourself well in that fight, Miss Toga," Kurogiri added, nodding in Himiko's direction. "Not many people could have held off a strong Yakuza like you did, and yet you took him on with no hesitation. It makes me wonder who could have trained you to such a high level-"
"Keep wondering," Himiko replied, her tone biting. "So you've been watching us this entire time? Why?"
"We've been running to catch up for a while." The Doctor was carefree enough to make that admission. "But ever since we heard that somebody took the Quirk of one of the Shie Hassaikai's captains, we've been so desperate to find out their name. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be you, Izuku. When we saw you demonstrate your power to young Tokage over here, well… I knew we had to plan a reunion. There is so much for us to discuss about what you can do."
He saw that! Then he really does know!
"Wait, that's the second time someone has said something about this. Are you people nuts? Have you ever met Izuku? He wouldn't hurt a fly-"
"Oh, my boy. You haven't told her, have you?" Garaki's question cut right through him, like a knife through butter, interrupting Himiko. "She genuinely believes that you aren't capable of it."
"Told… told me what?" Himiko faltered, before she looked at Izuku, briefly biting her lower lip. "Izu…?"
"Foolish, I must say, but I'm going to give you a chance to fix it, Izuku Midoriya. You and I both know why I am here, and what I'm talking about. She will find out." The Doctor levelled his cane at Izuku, like Mustard's revolver, and Izuku flinched for just a second. "Would you prefer it came from me, or from yourself?"
The truth, at last.
Izuku swallowed, realising that everything he had feared had become true. This Doctor was after him, separating him and his friends from the whole of the class. This was someone unknown, with links to a villain so powerful that All Might had to sacrifice himself to defeat him. This was someone whose work over years had led him to Izuku, all the while working somehow on such things as the monstrous Nomu. And here he was, Izuku, so hopelessly out of his depth with the whole situation. Tenko knew, because he'd been there the whole way along, and his mother knew, and Setsuna knew because she'd found. Now Himiko was about to find out, and he regretted not trusting her sooner because of how it was going to come out.
He hated that a moment like this was what made him realise just how much he valued their relationship. "I-"
"Perhaps," Kurogiri interrupted, silkily, "it may assist if we provide some of the background, Doctor-"
"Himiko, my Quirk isn't Air Force." Izuku would be damned if he allowed the two villains to be the ones to spill his secret to her. She would probably hate him for not telling her before today, but he had no other choice when they would make the choice for him. It was time for him to face the music as he should have done some time ago. "I was… b-born Quirkless. The Doctor here confirmed that when I was y-younger. But then Incident Z-Zero happened, and I… I-I was there. Right in the middle of it. And right before he d-died, the villain who beat All Might… h-he made me drink his blood."
Izuku swallowed, voice trembling, as her eyes went wide at the revelation. His nerves were screaming at him to stop, out of shame and fear of losing her, but something inside him stirred him into carrying on. "My Quirk, h-his Quirk, it… it holds Quirks. Stores them. Air Force was the f-first I ever used, and the one I learned to claim as m-mine, so I've always been able to claim it as my power but… there have been others, stored away, coming out. Every day, I w-worry there will be more I can suddenly use, ones I can't explain away with Air Force. But that's not all…"
"Izuku…" Himiko sounded more uncertain than he had ever heard. "Is he-"
"He's right." Izuku blinked back tears, and nodded. Coming clean was all he could do. "I can t-take Quirks. I have never m-meant to, but… I took two Quirks from people bullying me with K-Kacchan, by accident. I t-took Toya Setsuno's Quirk when I panicked, and the Yakuza knew it was me, and now I h-have to claim it's part of Air Force so I can use it. I took another one from that Freezeframe guy by a-accident, and… my mom gave me hers. So I could combine that with Air Force too."
"And he can give them too." Setsuna chiming in was unexpected, but right now the company was appreciated. "I saw him take Auntie Inko's, and… well, I helped him find out he could give 'em too. That's why Nomu keeps looking at me like a 'kindred spirit', like that old creep is saying. Izuku gave me the Long Fingers Quirk from one of Bakugo's friends, so… I technically have two Quirks. If Nomu is a kindred spirit…"
"He has more than one Quirk too," Tenko finished. "Which means this old coot isn't just a hacker exploiting invulnerability glitches. He's someone who knows about taking and giving Quirks, which means his master… is the guy who gave Izuku his Quirk."
"Bravo! You're all, at least, quick on the uptake." The Doctor peered keenly at Setsuna. "I must say, I am impressed. Quirks are… fickle. Even when removed, a vestige of the Quirk's former user can remain. Most are incompatible with each other, resulting in any attempt to combine Quirks rending the user completely brain-dead, or driven mad by the remnants of the former user's mind. You… don't appear affected."
"Guess I'm just better than your toy Nomu, doc." Setsuna shrugged, seemingly unfazed by the suggestion that she could lose her mind as a result of holding an extra Quirk. "Sorry, cuz. I interrupted."
"N-No, it's fine." Izuku only had eyes for Himiko, her face wobbling slightly even as he sniffed to stop himself crying any further. "I'm… I'm so s-sorry I didn't say before. Y-You had only just joined our group, and I wanted to tell y-you the more we got close, b-but… with a power like this… I could take a Quirk from a kid by accident and stop the future Number One Hero from ever training. I could cripple a Hero in action today, be used to target rivals if some gang caught me. Even the Commission could use me to punish people by taking their Q-Quirks if they really wanted to tackle crime-"
"You're a target to anyone who wants you to use it, and people are gonna think you're a villain if you tell them what you can really do." Himiko's summary of what he felt made his mouth hang open for a second, for how accurate it was. "Trust me, Izu. If anyone here is gonna understand what it's like for people to fear your potential, it's the girl who drinks people's blood to turn into them."
"I…" Izuku scratched the back of his head, sheepish at how obvious she was when she put it like that. "I guess-"
"And come on, I literally just joined your group a few months before the start of school here. I get it. Even if we're dating, that's a big risk to take when I didn't even say anything about mine until the Entrance Exam." Himiko fidgeted, her eyes meeting his now, some sadness in them. "I… just have one question…"
"A-Anything!" He was probably coming across too strong, but if Izuku answering this would save his relationship with her, he would do his best with it.
"You could have taken my Quirk back when I told you how much I hated it, couldn't you?"
Her question threw him completely off-guard for just a second, but then it made sense. Of course she would ask about that. That was the biggest moment where their whole relationship had taken off… and he wouldn't have changed a thing about. "I… If you mean that I had the power to take it, then y-yeah. But… I never would have changed anything about what I said."
"Oh?" Her voice was neutral, giving nothing away, as she looked down. "You really think so?"
"O-Of course I do!" He had never meant anything more. "Your Quirk is a blessing, and… you could be something awesome with it. You already are a Hero to me, because of how you can stand up to people and wanna do what's right, but… you can prove that yourself to everyone else. Why would I take your Quirk from you when none of those people who hated it were right about you?"
For the longest of moments, Himiko's head remained bowed, before she finally spoke. "... That's my Izuku."
"H-Himiko…" He practically breathed his sigh of relief into her name, as he finally saw the look in her eyes as she looked up to stare at him. He couldn't quite read what was in her eyes, but… it wasn't anger. "You're okay with-"
"Why wouldn't I be? I mean, yeah, you're kind of a hypocrite when you told me not to be afraid of a villainous Quirk, but…" Himiko trailed off, and he could tell she wasn't being seriously critical as she said it. "You're you. You're the same guy who inspired me to start looking at doing something good, the Izuku who told me I could be a Hero before anyone else, the Izuku who made me believe in my own Quirk for the first time in my life. How… how could I not adore that, and why would I ever throw that away when you gave me so much?"
"A-A-Adore?!" Izuku felt himself steam up slightly, even despite the gravity of the situation. "Y-You're really okay to-"
"I'm staying, idiot. I'm not dumping you, I'm not leaving you and all our friends, and I'm not going off telling the world about your secret. Others are gonna find out, if these two idiots know, and it's your call who you trust, for sure. But I've got your back, always. You have mine, don't you?"
Izuku met her eyes, a thousand unsaid words passing between him and Himiko in just a second. "... All the way."
"How touching." The Doctor's voice cut across their moment, and both of them turned to look at him. "My master always took pride in his ability to forge strong connections with his allies. Perhaps you inherited that too, Izuku-"
"Don't tell me," Tenko muttered, "some bullshit charisma stat Quirk or something-"
"Maybe you just underestimated Izuku, old-timer." Himiko's rude reply was met with a cheer by Setsuna, as she turned to glare at the three villains. "If you thought making him spill his guts to me was gonna make me turn on him… you clearly don't know all that much about any of us. You wanna hurt Izuku, then I'll cut you good."
"I'm afraid you misunderstand me. I'm not here to hurt him! Didn't you hear me mention an offering?" The Doctor tipped his head back and laughed, full of way too much humour. "Don't you get it? How clear do I have to make it? Everything I do… is-"
"For my master, yeah, yeah," Tenko finished, bitterly. "So what? Some dead old villain hands Izuku his Quirk with his last breath, and now what, you think that somehow makes him special?"
"Oh, child. You really know nothing about the master's Quirk if you're asking that question." Kurogiri's shadows appeared to shiver, contempt dripping in his voice. "Our master… he was a villain of no peer. If All Might was the Symbol of Peace, our master was the Symbol of Evil."
"Quirks are chaotic. They are unique, myriad and unlimited. But the power to give and take a Quirk, to hold onto and command the Quirks of others… the master's Quirk was unlike anything that has ever been! That will ever be!" The Doctor shook his head. "I dedicated my life to writing about the Quirk Singularity. But my master's Quirk was beyond the singularity. It was the apex of what Quirks could be, one which he used to rule society from the underworld and change the world for years and years… he was a god, in human form. And then he died… taking All Might with him."
"We recovered his body, after Incident Zero, when we had the chance," Kurogiri continued. "And what did we find?"
"A body, Quirkless, not a single trace of Quirk Factor present. Not only were none of those which he had taken left behind, but his own Quirk had… gone. The question was…" The Doctor fixed his attention on Izuku. "Where? Something so powerful as his Quirk… it couldn't have been destroyed."
"And yet with no leads… we had to wait. Patience is, as ever, a virtue."
"Correct, Kurogiri. So we waited. Continued the work, as we always had, building in the hope that some news may come our way. And then finally, to my absolute surprise… news slipped through the cracks in the underworld. Some low-life Yakuza captain, stripped completely of his Quirk. It was then I knew… there was hope for the apex Quirk yet."
"It was only a matter of time from then, for us to learn more about who now possessed such power. When you fought those Yakuza… we intervened." There was something terrible in how Kurogiri said that which led Izuku to not want answers on how they intervened. "We learned. A young boy, from Musutafu, with green hair. They even gave us a name, or part of one. They called you Zu-"
"I have lived many lifetimes in many hospitals throughout this nation, had sight of so many records," the Doctor said, removing his goggles to wipe them on his shirt before putting them back on. "It was only a matter of time until I found you, Izuku. Imagine my delight. That poor little boy whose dreams were so very crushed when I diagnosed you as Quirkless… so insignificant, I thought at the time."
"Insignificant is the last thing you could ever be described as." Kurogiri, to Izuku's horror, appeared to bow his head in defence. "You, Izuku Midoriya, were chosen."
"Izuku, you are the successor, the heir, to a legacy unlike anything the world has ever seen. In your hands is the power of my master, the power to give and take Quirks, to rewrite a person and take their power for your own. You hold the power to reshape everything, to change, to rule… the power named for my master."
A single tear ran down the Doctor's cheek, escaping underneath the goggles and punctuating the emotion of how much it clearly meant to him. "Izuku Midoriya… you are the new holder of All For One."
… True power.
The gravity of what the old man said had not been lost on Izuku. Finally, the terrible power which danced at his fingertips had a title. Finally, he knew the name of the man who had changed his life, along with the futures of everyone else in the country. The secret he had kept from most of the world, the dangerous power which he feared the activation of around his friends and allies… naming it made it even more real, somehow. "All.. For One."
All yours… Izuku.
"All For One was my master. A man of vision, of craft, of intelligence. A man who could see people, and see what needed to be done." The Doctor's voice cut across his musings. "Without him, I would not be where I am today. So when I finally learned that All For One is in the hands of another, it is my duty to meet them. No matter how much I loathe showing my face, how much I despise the limelight, how afraid I am of being caught in the crossfire myself, I owed it to him to find you. And what do I find, when I do?"
"A Hero candidate." Kurogiri joined in now, and Izuku realised that if the shadow had a face, it would have been sneering. "All that power at your fingertips and you seek to follow the path of the Symbol of Peace. You limit your ambition to that, when you could do so much more."
"So when I said that I came here to make an offering, I really didn't lie, Izuku." The Doctor fixed Izuku with a look that seemed to pierce right through him like a sword. "Nomu is one of many, a taste of the world that awaits, if you will. Everything I have kept for the master, all the work I have done, every moment Kurogiri and I can dedicate to supporting you… it could be yours. Yours to use as you please, to fix this broken world, to take control and steer it towards a future that isn't infested with parasites scrambling to claim significance that was never theirs."
This… this couldn't be. No. The whole reason that they were here… was to ask this of him?
"You can stay here, Izuku Midoriya, at UA. You can work towards some childish pipe dream, lie to the world about what you really are, and stand on the sidelines as the world collapses around everyone. But I know you, Izuku. I know your power. I know your potential!" The Doctor banged his cane against the floor in excitement, moustache trembling. "I know what you could be, and I can help you on that path, to become what you always should have been! You, and your friends around you, with our resources and guidance? With all that power in your hands to reshape this wretched world… nothing would ever be the same again."
You could change the world, Izuku…
The cane clattered to the floor, an echo reverberating in the ruins around them, and the old man held out a hand to Izuku. Inviting him. "Young man… you could become a Hero. Or... you could be so much more."
"All For One… its legacy awaits you."
(***)
A/N: All For One… has been named.
This was… so much fun to write. I really wanted Garaki's clinical approach to come through compared to how Tomura ran the USJ in canon, an assortment of collective mooks with little planning besides "go in there and break stuff". Hopefully the cold way in which he dissected Midnight was fun enough to read, and hey! Mustard!
I teased him a while back as he met with Garaki and Kurogiri, and I loved him as a one-off villain in canon, so I had to include him this time along. In canon he's irrational and jealous, so I wrote him deliberately here as petulant and childish, because I love that side of his canon self and wanted his character to scream 'sits in his room behind a screen and complains that life isn't fair'. Hopefully Kidoku (meaning "yellow poison") was fun, and helped show I wanted to distinguish Garaki as being a string-puller in his master's absence.
And yes, All For One is named. Himiko knows about All For One. Himiko's knowledge is going to mean big things going forwards, and I really wanted to use USJ to bring the core squad together, united in the big reveal. As for what it means in Izuku's case, well, the offer stands… and will stand for a while, as his classmates are the focus of the next chapter (come on, it's the USJ! We have to see what goes on, don't we!). There's something nagging at Izuku in the back of his head, though…
We passed 1500 Fanfiction favourites on this story and you guys are being awesome and kind in the reviews and comments, so thank you so much! If you would be so kind, I would really appreciate hearing your reviews (just don't flame if you want to criticise, y'all), and if you haven't already, please consider favouriting and following. And check out my other work as well- I tried starting a "what if AFO found Touya Todoroki" fic the other week, so go show Out of Ashes some love if you fancy.
Thank you, sincerely. Ya boy, out.
