Chapter 23: Imperative Discussions
A/N: Huge thanks to Babylonian king who showed me the plot hole on the teachers being too accepting. The explanation is given in this chapter. Parts of it will probably not make sense but I will try to fill those in as UA progresses.
"Sorry I am late. I wasn't expecting our meeting to be held so fast. I thought at least a week would be needed to finish checking papers and mark the students," Yagi said as he closed the door behind him.
"It's quite alright! Ectoplasm's clones really help us cut down on manpower," Nedzu chirped happily.
"I need a raise..." Ectoplasm sighed into his hand.
"For our first topic, some of you requested clarification on the purpose of the 3 stages of this year's entrance exam. For efficiency, I had only explained particular parts to you all. We will discuss the written exam first," Nedzu said happily.
Aizawa drooped slightly, this would be a boring meeting. "This year, we have our highest scorer in the written exam as of yet. Meet Midoriya Izuku!" Nedzu said happily. He is the first person to have scored full marks on the written exam." This got Aizawa's attention, "I thought most of the written exam was based around essays this year?"
"Yes, however, Midoriya's essays were spotless. The grammar and language were impeccable and all of his points were to the point yet explained properly. I saw no reason to cut marks," Ectoplasm replied.
Nedzu nodded. "Wait, I thought the written exam only had two essays? Did you change the question structure?" Mic asked.
"Not at all. We just added more essays and extended the exam time. With last year's events, the public has become more informed of what UA is looking for in future heroes. Many students might try to behave like model students in front of us. The essays were a way of weeding such people out. It is easy to catch those who are trying to lie about what they would do. For instance, one essay topic asked the candidate what they would do if they saw someone getting bullied. Bullies themselves would form lousy answers to this question. Hound Dog also checked the mental evaluation questions to determine whether a person might not have a mindset for being a hero," Nedzu explained.
"So the essays were a form of mental evaluation?" Midnight asked. Nedzu nodded, "That reminds me, this year we will be taking a total of 44 students,"
"Why?" Aizawa asked.
"It seemed to me that a total of 40 heroes graduating every year is a low rate," Nedzu replied, "In second place we have Lida Tenya, who scored 94 out of 100 in the written exam. In third place, we have Hattori Watanabe. He has scored 88 out of 100 in the written exam. However, he gained 5 extra points for using his quirk to cheat. In other words, information gathering, so his actual mark is 93/100,"
"Leave it to Nedzu to evaluate cheating," Yagi muttered to himself earning a small chuckle from Snipe.
Nedzu beamed, "Moving onto the Practical exam. The first stage was the same as last year. There isn't anything new about it. I trust I do not need to explain any further about this?"
The teachers shook their heads.
"Good," Nedzu replied, "First on the practical exam is Kaminari Denki with 83 combat points and 32 rescue points. Second is Bakugou Katsuki with 77 combat points and 11 rescue points. Finally, third is Tokoyami Fumikage with 72 rescue points and 15 rescue points,"
"No extra points?" Aizawa asked surprised.
Nedzu smiled, "No, this year, we only measured combat and rescue for the first phase of the practical exam. You see last year, aspects of our exam were released to the public. Therefore, candidates were likely to act like heroes, and marks for information gathering, sabotage etc. cannot be awarded as easily as the answers to our practical exam have been circulated on the forums. Hence, the second phase of the practical exam. In a short space of time as 10 minutes, the students would panic and since this was not supposed to be part of the exam, they showed their true behavior, especially some of the bullies," Nedzu explained.
Aizawa grunted in response, "Two to Nedzu," Mic grinned in his ear.
"For Phase 2, Midoriya Izuku is again first with 50/50 points along with Kendo who also obtained 50/50 points. Third is Asui Tsuyu with 40 points,"
"Why 50 points?" Midnight asked.
"10 points each for the marking
Information gathering: The candidate should have realized the exam would have been changed and prepared accordingly.
Teamwork: The basis of the second phase was working as a team. Individual marking was done so that an entire team wouldn't fail due to one person's incompetence.
Sabotage: Ripping out the wires next to the scanners would have also lowered the walls. Denki Kaminari used his quirk to fry the circuits so that also counts. Kirishima used his quirk to blast through the wall.
Perception: Heroes need to rifle through the information they gather. An easy task like this should have been noticed by even a novice hero. Information gathered will always have things hidden.
Lastly, 10 points were given if you were able to escape." Nedzu concluded, "Anything to ask?"
The teachers shook their heads. Nedzu smiled, "Powerloader, anything to add? You have been rather quiet,"
Powerloader sighed, "Well, we already gave out messages to those who passed and asked them to send their hero costume models. Most of them are pretty standard but one application has pretty much asked for everything he could think of,"
"And who is that?"
"Hattori Watanabe,"
Yagi almost facepalmed at that. Of course, he had done something again.
"Maybe so, but we need to ensure students' protection. Make the costume," Nedzu replied.
"It's not just that, I mean. Argh, you read," Powerloader passed the form to Nedzu. Nedzu's face slightly paled intriguing the teachers. It wasn't every day you saw the chaotic principal pale.
"May I see the form?" Yagi asked. Nedzu passed it to him. "Read it out," An amused Aizawa asked.
Yagi nodded, "It says here, he wants glasses that are blackened on the outside as his quirk is eye-based and he doesn't want to give it away,"
"Logical," Aizawa commented.
Yagi continued, "He also asked for a full body Titanium alloy armor with foam and rubber underneath as a shock-absorbent along with gray-black camouflage hooded jacket and pants fitted with armored shoulder pads and knee pads. He also asked for two swords to be placed on his back. He wants chains to be fitted under his hood with a pulley system on his back. Also wants a gas mask to be included in his costume to hide his identity and in the case of gas-based quirks. Specialized rubber gloves with built-in tasers and retractable claws. Hidden blades under the sleeve along with spiked shoes. Caltrops, ninja wire, daggers built to carry the wire and also to be fitted with the chains. Finally, a utility belt containing smoke grenades and guns: a tranquilizer, rubber, and actual gun," Yagi finished.
The staff fell into silence which was finally broken by Aizawa, "We aren't actually giving him a gun right?"
"Now hold on. Why shouldn't we?" Snipe asked clearly backing a gun enthusiast.
"He'll hurt himself and others too. He probably doesn't even know how to use a gun," Aizawa said.
"How do you know that?" Snipe asked.
"All Might, I know you train him and the other two. Can he use a gun,"
"Er, no,"
Snipe pouted. "Wait, you trained three of the students before the entrance exam!?" Mic shouted.
"He's allowed to do that," Nedzu interjected, "I monitored him, he didn't give them any unfair advantages,"
"You didn't tell them you are All Might, did you?" Ectoplasm asked slowly.
"Of course not!" Yagi replied, "Well I did tell Izuku but Watanabe figured it out by himself,"
"Should I give him the tranquilizer gun and rubber bullets then?" Powerloader asked.
Snipe shook his head, "No, those things have recoil too. Put it on standby. I call dibs on him for internships though, to teach him how to use a gun,"
"Ok, give him the rest of the costume, Powerloader. Kan and Aizawa here is your student list," Nedzu handed them the lists.
1.Kojiro Bondo
2.Togaru Kamakiri
3.Shihai Kuroiro
4.Juzo Honenuki
5.Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu
6.Jurota Shishida
7.Sen Kaibara
8.Yosetsu Awase
9.Neito Monoma
10.Kosei Tsuburaba
11.Hiryu Rin
12.Ibara Shiozaki
13.Itsuka Kendo
14.Nirengeki Shoda
15.Reiko Yanagi
16.Yui Kodai
17.Setsuna Tokage
18.Pony Tsunotori
19.Kinoko Komori
21. Kaido Madara
20.Manga Fukidashi
21. Kaido Madara
22. Kaguya Teach
"Seems ok," Vlad commented, "What about you Aizawa?"
"YOU GAVE ME ALL 4 PROBLEM CHILDREN!" Aizawa burst out at Nedzu showing Kaminari, Izuku, Watanabe, and Bakugou in his class.
"Well, we can't have you expel a third class," Nedzu replied smugly.
Aizawa frowned, "Those three and Bakugou will clash,"
"Not to worry, Orca has done his job properly I think. Plus, the student list has been given according to whose quirk will be most helpful. Not to mention as heroes, you need to set aside personal enmities and work together," Nedzu explained.
Aizawa sighed resignedly and read his student list.
1. Momo Yaoyorozu
2. Shoto Todoroki
3. Katsuki Bakugo
4. Tenya Ida
5. Fumikage Tokoyami
6. Mezo Shoji
7. Mashirao Ojiro
8. Eijiro Kirishima
9. Mina Ashido
10. Ochaco Uraraka
11. Koji Koda
12. Rikido Sato
13. Tsuyu Asui
14. Yuga Aoyama
15. Hanta Sero
16. Denki Kaminari
17. Kyoka Jiro
18. Toru Hagakure
19. Minoru Mineta
21. Watanabe Hattori
20. Izuku Midoriya
21. Watanabe Hattori
22. Hitoshi Shinso
"Now that the meeting's over, let's talk about these 4," Mic said pulling out pictures of Izuku, Denki, Watanabe, and Uraraka, "I expected these two to do better considering they stomped on Endeavour," Mic pointed at Uraraka and Denki.
"Clearly, power isn't everything," Aizawa replied.
"That may be true. This listener worked exactly like we thought," Mic pointed to Watanabe.
"We?" Yagi asked.
"Yeah! These four were pretty famous, even getting hits called out on them. Of course, they'd be applying to UA. We had a betting game on their performance. Denki did best in the combat as we thought while Watanabe did well in the written exam, working with sabotage and information gathering. Uraraka underperformed," Snipe explained.
"What doesn't make sense!" Mic shouted, "IS THIS!" he slammed Izuku's photo on the desk, "Midoriya Izuku! He wasn't supposed to have a quirk, yet he is one of the top scorers on the practical. Smartness might have allowed him to pass the written test and phase 2 but he used a quirk for the practical!"
"Mic, you do realize you sound prejudiced against quirkless people right now?" Snipe acknowledged.
Mic huffed, "Sorry,"
"However, he does have a point," Snipe finished.
"Quirks do manifest at a later age," Nedzu said with a sigh, sipping on his tea.
"That may be, but manifesting a quirk at 15 is quite unheard of," Nemuri said.
"Unheard of, doesn't mean impossible,"
"That is true," Aizawa said, "The thing is you aren't shocked at all with this new development. You should have been jumping in glee by now,"
Nedzu stiffened. It seemed lacking humane reactions had been his downfall. He noticed Aizawa smirking under his scarf and slightly smiled. Aizawa had coerced the other teachers into interrogating him in order to get an answer. He was proud that Aizawa was improving his strategic game but he was still smarter, "Yes, I should have. However, I already know how his quirk emerged,"
"Then tell us,"
"No, that is between me and Izuku,"
Aizawa gritted his teeth, "What if a medical problem requires-"
"Recovery girl knows too. So does his mother. The concerned parties all know,"
"As his teacher, shouldn't I know too!?" Aizawa demanded.
"You know what you need to know. A strength-based quirk. I will tell you this though, his body indeed does break if he uses too much of the power. That's all you need to know,"
"If I don't know, how will I help him!?"
"I already told you what you need to know,"
"But you know more,"
"And that is Izuku's secret. If he wishes to tell you, he will. You can ask him once he gets to UA," Nedzu compromised.
"Tch," Aizawa sat back. Nedzu had won that round. There was no logical reason as to why he needs to know anymore.
"I still need to know how exactly how his quirk works,"
"We are still waiting on those forms. The students themselves know best as to how their quirk works," Nedzu said. Aizawa nodded. "Anything to add?" Nedzu asked the other teachers. They quickly shook their heads.
Yagi sighed with relief.
"Glad to see you could make it Jozu," Ryuzen warmly greeted Denki's father.
Jozu gave a curt nod in reply, "We aren't early are we?"
"No, no. Yagi-san and Torino-san are running a bit late in traffic," Inko had invited the Kaminaris, Yagi, Torino, and Yoroi to celebrate Izuku, Watanabe, and Kaminari getting into UA.
"Ah, Mrs. Kaminari, have a seat," Inko said kindly.
"Please, call me Temari," she replied.
"Sure. You can call me Inko then," she replied receiving a nod from Temari.
"Watanabe, Yoroi-sensei is coming right?" Natsume asked.
"He better, I polished the entire dojo for him," Watanabe grumbled.
"Do I detect a disrespectful tone?" Natsume loomed over her son.
"N-no,"
"Good!" Natsume smiled, "Ah Temari, how are things going,"
"Could be better. Since Watanabe moved away, he has been coming over less and it has gotten so oddly quiet in our neighborhood,"
"Well, he has a new neighborhood to terrorize now, so," Natsume drank from her glass.
"Well, nothing too bad though," Inko defended her nephew, "He did stop the bullies from going after the kids and made sure they were treated fairly too. I'm pretty sure he chased away our newspaper man too,"
Temari sighed, "It's not that Inko-san, Watanabe just goes a tad too far with his plans. And with Izuku now, the stories I've heard from Denki," she shuddered.
"Really? I never heard of Izuku getting into trouble," Inko replied.
"That's because he is what you would call a silent partner," Watanabe butted into the conversation.
"How many times have I told you not to eavesdrop!?"
"Well not exactly eavesdropping when you pretty much yell it," Watanabe excused.
"Getting back, what do you mean silent partner?" Inko asked.
"That's for me to know and for you to find out," Watanabe gave a toothy grin.
"Is that so? Denki! What do these two get up to at school?" Inko asked.
Immediately Denki sat up straight and went off into a rant, "Well, Izuku made Watanabe sprinkle one of the bullies' hand with invisible ink and then used it as evidence when the bully slapped someone," Denki offered, "I have more examples but basically Izuku is more controlled and plans what type of chaos he wants to instill while Watanabe is a wild card. Although, both of them could do vice-versa," Denki said thoughtfully.
"Snitch," Watanabe said teasingly earning a smile from his friend.
"And what are you two talking about?" Natsume asked her husband.
"Important office work," Jozu replied.
"So the fantasy football competition at work?"
"Er, it's important. We get a price!" Ryuzen replied.
"Ah, Yagi-san, glad to see you. You too Torino-san!" Inko welcomed, noticing the two.
Watanabe rapidly breathed like he was having a heart attack, "Yagi-sensei and Torino-sensei in suits! Quick grab a photo!"
"You will do no such thing. I do not need Nedzu using the photos as leverage against my 'cool' reputation," Torino grabbed Izuku's phone and deleted the photos.
"Ah, Tsukauchi-san! I'm glad to see you made it too. I thought you had an important case to work on?"
"I do, but I managed to get off for half an hour. Ah Yagi, glad to see you. Surprised Torino has still kept you alive,"
"Say something brat?" Torino asked from his seat.
Tsukauchi gulped, "Nope," he had learned his lesson from that one training session. Although to be fair, Torino had also reminded him that being the number 1 hero, Yagi had a ton of money lying around, meaning he shouldn't be the one giving his friends treats all the time. He had leeched of Yagi quite a bit the past year, especially considering Yagi had somehow manipulated him into paying everything for him before he realized this.
"Yoroi-san, please have a seat," Inko welcomed and placed him between Yagi and Torino, "I'm surprised you passed the practicals," he addressed.
"W-what? Why?" Izuku asked.
"Your stances were sloppy, your quirk-usage while improved still seemed to be unsatisfactory. And don't get me started on Watanabe's weapon training. I only had faith in Kaminari,"
"Don't you think that's a bit harsh?" Yagi asked.
"Sometimes you need to be harsh. You must be their other trainer! I really am pleased with how fast you built up Izuku's body!" Yoroi commented happily and went off into a discussion of training methods with Torino and Yagi.
"Oh, man!" Watanabe whined and handed Izuku some money. Upon Kaminari's inquisitive look, he explained, "I thought Yoroi-sensei and Yagi-sensei would butt heads over training methods while Izuku said they would hit it off. Clearly, he was right,"
"Haha, I'm always right!" Izuku grinned.
Denki laughed, "Speaking of, any reason you have been quieter than usual?" He asked Izuku.
"Hmm? Oh yeah, some guy has been undermining us the past year on the forums saying that we are hero-commission's pawns who went after Endeavour to make hero commission look good by having them punish him. Doesn't make much sense but he tied us to some of other hero commission's dealings and made a really good argument that make us look like the bad guys,"
"Damn, that sucks. But I thought Hero commission waived off Endeavour's punishment to some extent,"
Izuku nodded, "Yes but not publicly, just behind the scenes. Publicly they issued an apology and reprimand,"
"Fixed it," Watanabe chirped.
"What? How?"
"Just wrote that we weren't aware that hero commission is so deep into evil operations and that we will be publishing an article soon to address it," he winked.
"That's a bluff right?"
"I may twist things, but I am no liar," Watanabe replied.
"Great, he's going to eat my head off again," Izuku groaned.
"By the way, you guys are coming over to ours for a sleepover right? Izuku hasn't been to my house yet,"
"Yeah, mom and Aunt Natsume allowed us. Aunt Temari is supposed to take us with you guys after dinner,"
"Great, I downloaded Naruto and One Piece to watch at night. We have been meaning to do that for a while,"
Nedzu spit out his tea when he saw Chaos promising an article against hero commission. On one hand, he was impressed with Izuku and Watanabe's insight and decision making but on the other hand, it was absolutely dangerous for them to try and pick a fight with the hero commission.
"Tsk," Nedzu thought. He has to introduce himself as soon as they get to UA. A week would be enough before he lets them know he was their editor. They were messing with things here that could blow out of proportion with one wrong touch. Allied heroes might also turn to the hero commission's side if the article was bad. Presently there were no issues of heroes being angry with Storm and Chaos. The ones that disagreed with them were also the ones that supported the hero commission from before. Nedzu sighed, bringing down hero commission would have to be brought up sooner that than he wanted.
All For One twitched as he stared at the forums, "It's got to be a bluff. They wouldn't dare,"
"I feel that they would," Kurogiri commented.
All For One growled, he had spent much of a year trying to discredit Storm and Chaos. Assassinating them didn't pan out and now no one would accept hits on them so he was stuck in an intellectual battle with them. The worst thing was that they had never addressed him but now, with one sentence promising an article against the hero commission, all the support he had gained on the forum had disappeared and had gone back to supporting Storm and Chaos. He couldn't even do anything that would risk letting the heroes know he was alive. The hero commission could cover up some things but not all of them were corrupt. Most of them were foolishly hero-minded. Fortunately, the ones in power were corrupt so it didn't matter.
All For One wanted to believe it was a bluff but he also knew that the two were capable of writing a devastating article that could cause more trouble for him. With a roar, he smashed the monitor.
"Careful. We don't want you to be spotted by the heroes. Imagine that the heroes trace back the stolen monitors to you. What a way for you to fall," Kurogiri joked.
All For One twitched, maybe he shouldn't have let Kurogiri keep his personality.
A/N: I have a poll set up on my profile for the battle simulation arc. Kindly fill it out to help me. In case it doesn't appear, here are the choices:
1) Izuku and Watanabe on the same team
2) On opposite teams, (i.e: team Izuku vs team Watanabe
3) Entirely different teams, (both face different teams and are not together)
Keep in mind Watanabe can use his X-ray to cheat and get his partner.