Chapter 41: Secrets
"Yo, sensei!" Kaminari greeted as he, Izuku, and Watanabe walked up to Yagi at Dagobah beach.
"Ah, you guys are finally here. Take a seat," Yagi smiled as he motioned to a bench on the opposite side.
"Um, sensei. Is there any reason you called us here before we head to UA?" Watanabe asked.
Yagi nodded, "I have something to discuss with you. About One For All and its origins," Yagi said. Immediately, the three sat straight in attention. Watanabe looked at Yagi with a thoughtful look, "Why suddenly out of nowhere?"
"Is it really that sudden? I did say I would tell you more about One For All after Izuku got the quirk,"
"Yeah," Izuku replied slowly, "But you could have told us at a more reasonable time instead of so early in the morning. It does seem suspicious,"
Yagi laughed, "Well, I guess it is stupid to try and hide it. I would have preferred to tell Izuku only, but he'd probably want to tell you two as well and I think it would be better if he had someone to confide in," Yagi declared.
"What is it?" Izuku gulped.
"One For All is a stockpiling quirk and was handed over from generation to generation, with you being the ninth user,"
Izuku nodded, "I already knew that,"
"Yes. But the reason it was passed on from generation to generation is because of the first user," All Might sighed and paused for a moment, "The first user had a brother. I don't know his name but his quirk is All For One, which is what we call him,"
"We?" Watanabe pointed out.
"Those of us who know about him," Yagi replied and turned to Izuku, "As you have probably understood, All For One's quirk allows him to steal other people's quirks. He can also hand them to other people, which is how he built up his army,"
"Wait," izuku interrupted, "He's dead right?"
"No, he stole a quirk that gives him longevity. I thought I killed him during our last fight... but seeing the Nomu at USJ and from what Tsukauchi has found out, we have reason to believe he's back," Yagi stopped for a dramatic pause.
Understandably, the three were stunned and shocked. Izuku was the first one to speak, "But it will be alright, right? I mean you can still take him down, and this time I'll be there too. With two One For All users, we can easily take him down!"
Yagi smiled, "Maybe so. But during both me and my master, Nana Shimura tried to go against him. We defeated him but at the cost of my master's life," Yagi said as tears welled up in memory of his late teacher.
izuku's face became horrified, "Wait, are you saying-"
"No!" Yagi interrupted, "I will try my best to stay alive and be with you, every step of the way," Yagi hid his tears and gave his trademark grin, "I'm only saying this to you to make you prepare yourselves. One For All is the deterrent to All For One and you need to prepare to make sure you're ready!"
Izuku stared but gave a determined nod but the conversation turned sour nearly immediately as Watanabe interrupted, "Wait a damn minute. Why do you make it sound like only Izuku is capable of defeating this All For One?" Watanabe demanded.
"Well, he's the one with One For All,"
"And?" Kaminari joined in with the questioning, "You make it seem like One For All is destined to be the one to end All For One,"
"Well," Yagi argued, "It has been passed on for generations,"
"So what!?" Watanabe demanded, "For now, all I've seen One For All do is grant the user enhancement of normal body functions. Meanwhile All For One can steal hundreds of quirks. Considering he has lived for so long, he probably has stolen hundreds. That's like saying all the pro-heroes against you, alone! Would that be possible for you?" Watanabe demanded.
Yagi stayed quiet, he didn't have proper reasoning to fight back with, "Exactly," Watanabe said, seeing the look on Yagi's face, "Izuku only has a chance if he has people backing him up. I know my quirk won't be too useful except surveillance," Watanabe admitted, "But Kaminari, Shouto, Bakugou, Shouji, all of them can help. Heck, Hitoshi can just trick All For One into getting brainwashed!"
Yagi smiled, "That's true but that would involve telling them as well..."
"Not really," Kaminari said, "Just because they don't know about it doesn't mean they won't train hard. When the time comes, they will want to help since he's such a notorious villain,"
"Still, I don't want to put you in danger,"
"And putting Izuku in danger is fine? Is that what you're saying? That he's a scapegoat?" Watanabe grew overprotective.
"No, no! Not at all!" Yagi put his hands up in defense.
"Good. I thought I might have to call Torino-sensei for some therapy," Watanabe grinned.
"What do you think, Izuku?" Yagi asked.
"The more the merrier, right?" Izuku gave a shaky smile.
Yagi smiled in response.
"Now all we need is for you to tell the teachers at UA!" Izuku said.
Yagi spluttered, "What?"
"Well, we won't be allowed to help you, since we're students but the teachers can! They already know about your injury so just tell them the truth!" Izuku exclaimed.
"B-but,"
"No buts. Either you do it, or I do it myself," izuku threatened, "Since you passed on your quirk, it's now my secret as much as it is yours,"
Yagi had a horrified expression, "You wouldn't!"
"Wouldn't I?" Izuku's eyes gleamed as he stood up, "Well, gotta go sensei or we'll miss our train. I'll give you a week before I tell the teachers myself!"
"I wonder who'll be our homeroom teacher today," Kirishima said to Jiro, "He looked really injured,"
Aizawa slammed the door open almost immediately, "Good Morning,"
"Sensei! Shouldn't you be at the hospital?" Sato asked, worriedly.
"This is nothing,"
"You're literally covered head to toe with bandages,"
"Hmph," Aizawa grunted, "I'm not going to be here for so long. I just wanted to let you all know that the sports festival starts next week,"
"But sensei!" Iida jumped up, "Is it wise to hold the sports festival immediately after an attack?"
"UA wants to hold the sports festival to ensure that the infiltration did not hurt us. You don't need to worry. The festival takes place in front of an audience, many of which are pro-heroes. On top of that, additional pro heroes will be dispatched as well,"
Iida sat down with the explanation, still unhappy but he was looking forward to the sports festival and didn't argue further.
"Finally, classes are suspended this week to allow you to prepare. You will still have to come to school because we don't want you to use your quirk outside of school and damage things. Cementoss will supervise you. You can go and warm up now until Cementoss collects you," Aizawa dismissed them.
The students filed out of the classroom but Aizawa stopped Watanabe and Izuku, "You two The principal wants to meet you,"
"The principal? Nedzu?" Izuku asked, concerned as to whether they had done something.
Aizawa nodded, "Yup. God knows what that chaos-obsessed rat wants now. Get going. I have to meet recovery girl,"
Izuku gulped and turned to his cousin, "Do you think we did something wrong,"
"Maybe it's because you broke your arms and couldn't use your quirk probably. And I already got a warning because of Mineta, so maybe I'm in trouble for scaring Jiro at USJ," Watanabe said in an anxious voice.
"Th-that's unlikely," Izuku said shakily but started to sweat.
Watanabe chuckled evilly in his mind. He had forgotten to tell Izuku that Nedzu had helped with their article. He had really meant to tell him but he was glad he didn't.
Izuku knocked on Nedzu's office, "Come in!"
"You wanted to see us?" Izuku asked nervously.
"Yes! Come in and take a seat," Nedzu motioned, "Tea?"
"Yes please," Watanabe replied calmly.
"No need to be so nervous, Midoriya," Nedzu sipped his tea.
Izuku nodded and sipped his tea quietly.
"I must say, I was pleased to hear about how you blackmailed All Might," Nedzu chuckled.
Izuku paled, "Oh god, is that why you're angry with us?"
Nedzu stared at Izuku in surprise and confusion until he heard Watanabe giggle, "You didn't tell him," he said flatly.
"In my defense, I did mean to but I forgot," Watanabe chuckled.
"Huh, what?"
"Nedzu is the one who proofread our article and published it for us!"
"Wait, really?"
"Yup," Watanabe said enthusiastically.
"You're so awesome sensei!" Izuku declared, "Can I have your autograph, please?" he fanboyed.
Nedzu was slightly taken aback. He had never really been called awesome by anyone, much less fanboyed over like All Might. People usually took everything he did for granted because he had an intelligence quirk.
"You do know he'll be the one to sign our report cards," Watanabe pointed out.
"That's a signature, I want an autograph!"
"What's the difference?" Watanabe sweatdropped.
Nedzu gave a nice and warm smile catching Izuku off guard. He had never seen Nedzu give anything other than a polite smile or chaotic grin. Nedzu tore a paper and signed the paper, personalizing it with a quick scribble of himself and put a paw print on it, "That's the difference my dear student," Nedzu said.
"Whoa cool," Watanabe had gleamy eyes, "Can I get one?"
"You can get the signature," Nedzu said with a grin.
Watanabe shrunk a bit. Nedzu was probably joking but he was too embarrassed to ask once more, "So, what are you teaching us?" he tried to change the subject.
"What makes you think I'll be teaching you?"
"You called us your students," Watanabe pointed out.
Nedzu chuckled, "That I did. I was seeing if you really are so observant. Today, we shall take down the Utunama school. You may also know it as the school Hitoshi attended,"
"Wait, why were you guys investigating them in the first place?" Izuku asked.
"I wasn't planning to. A tip, All Might's ears are sensitive so anything you say in class is heard by him," Nedzu grinned causing them to turn red. Evidently, they had done something which they thought was secret, "He overheard Hitoshi saying he was bullied and notified me. I plan to investigate all of our new admissions' schools independently once we're done with this,"
"But sensei," Watanabe interrupted, "We already took down Aldera. Do we have anything new to learn?"
Nedzu chuckled, "That is the thing. You were able to take down Aldera efficiently because you had inside information from Izuku. In Utunama's case, you will have to understand how to gain evidence from the outside. Hacking is illegal without a warrant so we will first be looking at public security cameras that are available to us," Nedzu said as he took to explain.
"Wait a minute sensei," Izuku frowned, "I get that you want to train us since you proofread our article but it doesn't seem fair to not let our classmates join in as well. They are just as smart. Momo even overrode your alarm!"
Nedzu stopped to face Izuku, a sly smile growing on his face, "Yes... I could. Having Momo to teach would be wonderful given her quirk and I would like to teach Koda how to use her animals as well. Yes... a very tempting proposition, Midoriya," Nedzu said as he thought over it.
izuku and Watanabe waited for his response and almost jumped out of their skins as Nedzu cackled loudly, "Yes, I will do that. I'll make a foundational study course and take classes for 1A and 1B together! I do miss teaching you see,"
"Soooo, are we going to postpone this class?" Watanabe asked.
"No. I don't think it's wise to use a personal example in class. We will complete this project ourselves. Think of it as a treat for a well-written article," Nedzu smiled warmly, "But we will not pursue this any longer today. I think it will be better for you to see the results tomorrow. It will take too long to give you a practical step by step,"
"Results? Do you mean you can take the school down within a day?" Izuku asked amazed.
"I most certainly can! Now, I assume you should head to training with Cementoss. I will make a schedule for my class,"
"Alright, goodbye sensei!" Watanabe said as the two left, closing the door behind them.
"What did Nedzu want with you two?" Aizawa suddenly appeared scaring the cousins.
"Oh, he just wanted to teach us," Izuku replied.
"Teach you? Like, take you as his students?" Aizawa's eyes widened.
"Mhm," Izuku nodded, chaotic smile ever-present, "But not to worry sensei, I know that wouldn't be fair SO I convinced Nedzu sensei to teach all of us!" He said excitedly. Nedzu's chaotic cackling coincided with the end of the sentence making Aizawa gulp with fear.
"You guys... DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!?" Aizawa asked horrified.
"But sensei it's educational!" Izuku defended.
Watanabe nodded along, "It allows us to grow to our full potential, right sensei?"
Aizawa stared at them indecorously before falling to the ground, "Oh shit, sensei are you alright?" Watanabe bent down worriedly, "This is why you need to rest instead of coming to work,"
"That's not the reason," Aizawa mumbled as he slowly drifted away to sleep. He was too tired for this shit. Sure, Recovery Girl would probably say, "I told you so," but he'd rather hear that than deal with Nedzu at the moment.
Watanabe sweatdropped at Aizawa sleeping off, "Guess we should take him to Recovery Girl,"
Izuku nodded, "We didn't do anything too bad right?"
"Nah, I'm sure it's fine,"
A/N: Yes, I am aware of the irony of Izuku's words but hey, he's not that hell-bent on revenge yet. If revenge is even the right word lol.
Also, I forgot to mention this but DukeOfDragons started writing a fic with Watanabe in it if you're interested. It's well written and quite literally, oozes chaos. FFN won't allow me to link it since it's on Ao3 but the name is Multiversal war if you're interested.
And maybe pray for Aizawa lol. This is the beginning of his hatred towards the word 'potential.'