AN: I realized that I seriously neglected the more eldritch aspects of the fic, but honestly I've got no ideas what to do on that front.

Chapter 18:

It was time to announce the results.

He started by telling us how they counted the score in the first place, which was a welcome addition. He told us that we were evaluated based on how many mistakes we made, not based on what we did. So, it was kind of based on what we did, but in reverse.

After that, came the list with the names of those who passed, displayed on a giant electronic board in alphabetical order. I passed, and that was all I needed to know. Using that much void was hard, I was barely able to reconstruct my body. One notable exception from the list was Todoroki, which I only noticed because of the loud apology delivered by Yoarashi.

After a speech about responsibility, he told us that even those who failed can get their licenses still, by attending a three-month long course.

With that ended, my first thought was to call my favorite pro hero to share the news with them:

"Hey Corrosive, guess what?"

"You failed?"

"Of course I didn't! I won like a pro, I even injured Gang Orca with one of my fancy new ultimate moves."

"He wasn't taking you seriously."
"That's not an excuse and you know it! It was in one of your lessons "If the enemy underestimates you, correct them by killing them quickly." See? I learned it word for word, it's like my bible now."

"Good to see that you remember, congratulations on passing. If you would detail the events later I would be thankful, in the name of science you know."

"Sure, I'll send it to you later. Doppo out."

As I went back to the dorms, there was one thing in my mind that I thought about, one which has been there for a while: How to get full control? I knew, that with the fear inducing powers and just the general fluidity of the void whenever I'm not in control, I could be at least two, but maybe even three times stronger. I didn't know what to do, how to gain full control.

Maybe the masks in the dream had the answer. That was a logical conclusion given their previous cryptic messages, they might know more about the void than I do. But I had no way of contacting them, so that was another problem. It was just so damn frustrating, like stumbling around in the dark searching for a needle! It was like I had manget, but if I used it, the needle would fly right into my eyeball, so unless I wanted to injure myself I didn't have any options but to search pointlessly.

One thing I never thought about before, was the nature of the masks themselves. Were they just a personification of the void? Or, maybe, they were people? I knew, that the mask I got when I lost control looked similar, and it wasn't the idea that there were other void-users before wasn't so far fetched. This theory was supported by my other theory, one that I thought about a lot, in which I decided that my quirk isn't the generation of void, but the manipulation of it, with the void being summoned from somewhere. It was like with water or fire quirks, except void was much rarer, however it was entirely possible that someone else already had a quirk with which they could summon void and manipulate it.

It was pointless to think however, so I resolved to write some compact questions that I could ask next time I got into the black dream.

We didn't even have one day of reprieve, the next school day began with a school-wide announcement, made by the principal himself.

He started his speech with a couple sentences about the importance of sleep, which while was an important theme didn't fit to the category that would require such a grandiose announcement. He then spoke about how the villains will be braver from now on, so we should be more cautious during our hero activities. Nothing that wasn't already known. Overall, his speech was boring and unnecessary, but at least it wasn't long, so we could finally start our normal classes.

Aizawa never forgot to start with a couple words about how hard it'll be, how hard we should try, bla bla bla, nothing interesting. What was interesting however, was Tsuyu's question about what the principal meant in his speech when he mentioned "hero work studies", regarding the second and third years.

The answer that came was fairly simple, these were hero activities outside of school, like our internships previously. I hoped we were going to do more internships, I was sure Corrosive had a lot of ideas that could be tried with my quirk, with all the free time he had I imagine he would think about training for me at least a little. He also told us that it was unusual for first-years to receive hero-licenses, and so they weren't sure if they should allow them to do the hero activities that were usually reserved for the more experienced students. After he finished, came Present Mic, to teach us the first class of the day, English. The thing I always remembered about him as a teacher, was that if you weren't awake until his class, you were surely awake after it.

The next day, Eraser Head told us that since we were so curious about the hero work studies, he got a couple older students who already experienced it to come and tell us what it was like. They weren't just any students however, they were the top three UA students, all of them third-years, also called "The Big Three".

First, Mirio Togata, I already knew about him thanks to my research, he worked at Sir Nighteye's agency, and just from seeing him that once I already knew that I should move up the list, that smile was infectious. He had short blond hair, smart bead-like eyes in dark blue color, along with an impressive physique. It was clear he was a front-line fighter, one who uses melee, just like All Might. He went even higher on the list. One odd thing about him though, were the strands of ash blond curls in his hair, barely visible since they were few in number, but they were undeniably there. Maybe he was sick?

The second one, the girl in the group, Nejire Hado, I only knew her name from hearsay, but she also had the same positive vibe that was coming from Mirio. She had long sky blue hair, it was so long that it covered almost her entire back. Her eye color was a darker shade of her hair, and she stood the shortest among the Big Three.

The third one was the "dark knight" of the group, with dark blue hair which was in a distinctly Sasuke style. Unlike the smiles the other two wore, his face was set in a frown, certainly not commonplace on UA students, whose motto was "Plus Ultra (positivity)!". He didn't stand tall, instead looking at the ground and putting his hands in his pocket. He was none other than Tamaki Amijiki.

A negative aspect of their fame was that their quirks were almost as well known as themselves. Honestly, I thought some more simple and strong quirk users would be the top three, but almost all of them had ones that weren't as commonplace. Mirio's intangibility, Nejire's waves which were similar to Gang Orca, and my favorite, Tamaki's quirk which was similar to mine, in that it was transformation with a lot of freedom.

Their introductions however were just filled with untold details about them. Tamakiji's shed light on his insane social anxiety, while the other two's reinforced the positive attitude that I expected from them.

Tamakiji wasn't able to speak, and instead of saying a word he just turned his back to us, and looked at the wall like it was going to give him the answer to his problems.

Nejire asked blunt questions to everyone, which was a refreshing change of pace from how normal people inquired about anything, I appreciated that she didn't waste words and just asked what was on her mind.

Mirio was getting higher and higher on that particular list. He took the leading role, and after the introduction of the other two he started his own little monologue.

"Well, you guys look a bit confused right now. We're third years who suddenly appeared to explain about hero work that isn't even required.

You guys already have your licenses, right? So, you must be really energetic, right? Besides, it looked like my jokes didn't work earlier, right?" I didn't like where this was going, alarm bells were ringing in my head. "Why don't you guys all fight me at once?!" And there came the exclamation that I wasn't waiting for. I liked the part of my training that I did alone, developing my quirk and such, much more than combat training. On the other hand, this was an interesting challenge, trying to defeat the poster-boy of UA, since by far he was the most marketable out of the Big Three. Tamakiji's entire demeanour, not to talk about his unapproachable personality made him unfit for the role, and Nejire was a girl so he couldn't be the main advertised student. I'm not sexist, don't get me wrong, but the hero industry was still a male-populated one, and among boys hero work was more popular. In recent years this has started to change, but still not enough to risk your marketing by using a girl as an example. Mirio was perfect for this, with a loud and joyful personality he was ideal for the role of marketing UA with his achievements.

Eraser Head couldn't have cared less what we did as long as it wasn't lethal, so he allowed Mirio to do whatever he wanted, and so we went back to the same building that we used before the hero license exam, gym gamma.

I took a place in the back, I would wait until he defeated everyone else, all the while observing his tactics, since just by knowing his quirk I didn't know his exact fighting style all that well.

After we started, I turned into a puddle in order to avoid being knocked out by a surprise attack. He specifically said "Come at me!" but I wasn't going to take any chances.

The others were filled with determination and braveness, fueled by their experience against villains, believing that they had a chance against Mirio. The fools, their stupidity was shown by Kirishma by being knocked out first, the others quickly following. His tactics were easy to decipher however, get close enough to the enemy then become tangible for a couple seconds, just enough to get a hit in, then continue on in intangible mode.

He tore through everyone who had long range attacks in one go, the ones left were the one specialised in close combat. The most interesting thing I noticed was that he was able to hit through Momo's shield. This opened a whole new world of possibilities, if he was able to only make parts of himself tangible or intangible, not just his whole body at once.

Without missing a beat, he went and defeated the other half of the class, none of them being able to retaliate fast enough against his polished technique, and I still didn't have a plan, which was unfavorable in my situation.

I had snippets however, things I observed which gave me clues as to what to defend from. First off, he always used on strong hit on anyone, and that was the moment that he was tangible, the best moment to strike. Now, I could do two thins: Make my body as liquid as possible, in order to absorb the impact, or make it spiky like a hedgehog and just wait it out, and achieve at least a draw.

It was about time to do something however, since he successfully defeated every one of my classmates, and I was still in puddle form. But finally a plan came, and I took on the appearance of a walking hedgehog, with a round body covered in spikes, except the front which appeared like an unprotected tummy. My plan was to deceive him by making him think I could only turn to animals, so he would attack my stomach, and that was exactly what I wanted since I made it very liquid, so when he hit it his hand would come into my body, and from there it was going to be like a swarm of piranhas descended on his hand. I was rather about winning I admit, plus we had Recovery Girl so I wasn't worried about any injuries I might cause. I could always just say that I expected more from the face of the Big Three, the top student of UA.

Just as I predicted, Mirio came, and tried the same tactic on me that he used on my classmates. He hit my unprotected stomach area, but instead of the blow being registered, it was like he hit into mud, and his hand sank into my body. I didn't waste any time, and from the inside I immediately started puncturing it, but his surprise didn't last long and he was able to quickly turn intangible again, and that's where the match essentially stopped. From that point on, no progress was made by either side, since I was Mirio's perfect counter. I turned my body into one full of spikes, and he couldn't even touch me, his physical strength being useless.

After like ten minutes, Aizawa got bored and declared it a draw. A draw, I wanted to win damn it! No matter, at least I still had better results than any of my classmates. One interesting thing I noticed, is that at the end of the exercise, Mirio coughed, and before he managed to hide his mouth with his arm, I saw the red of blood. That was some very interesting information. After he was done, he gave us his speech, with Nejire and Tamakiji standing next to him.

"You kind of get it now, don't you?" I heard some murmuring from Kirishma "You just punched us in the gut you bastard." but I ignored it, and focused on what Mirio was saying "Did you think my quirk was strong?" To this, the answer was a resounding "YES!" by everyone else, but I didn't think so. It had potential, sure, but no inherent offensive ability, which was a big drawback with any quirk. Before he was able to continue his monologue, Nejire butted in:

"Oh! Oh! I know what his quirk is! Can I say it? Please?" she didn't even wait for an answer, and declared it "Permeation!" At that point Mirio took back control, and continued.

"That's right, my quirk is Permeation! What you guys called a warp was an application of that. If I activate my quirk on my entire body, then I can go through everything. Even the ground. That's right, I fell into the ground!

But if I release it while I'm falling, instead of dying horribly, I get repelled! By changing my pose or the angle of my body, I can aim the power of the repelling!" This just solidified everyone's belief that it was a strong quirk. "But, it's not a strong quirk, I made it into a powerful one! While my quirk is activated, my lungs can't take in oxygen." and there goes the stupidity again. Telling 16 teenagers your quirks biggest weakness, who can tell it to their parents, who can tell it to their coworkers, who then tell it to villains after a while, is a terrible, terrible idea. Your quirks weaknesses should be secret, the more invincible your quirk looks the better. "In the same way, light goes through my retinas, and sound through my eardrums, so I can't see or hear either!

That's why, if I want to go through a wall, I release everything but one leg, step through and release the other on the other side, then deactivate the first one. That's right, it wasn't because of my quirk that I became part of the Big Three, but because of hard work! I realized that I needed to be one step ahead of everyone else, both in combat and outside of it, and I can achieve that by predicting their actions. But you can only predict based on experience, and I got that from hero work!" and that's where the interesting part of the school day ended, everything after that was bland like tofu.

Mirio's usage of his quirk got me thinking though. He couldn't just make his entire body intangible, he needed to leave some parts activated in order to interact with the physical world, and I could apply that to my own quirk. If I completely lost control, then I didn't have any agency over my actions, but if I made my control go down to 50% then I would still have some control over my actions, but I would still have the uncontrolled part of me there, with it's fast reaction and instinctual control over void. So yes, the answer to my problem appeared to be not losing complete control, but enough to still have agency over my actions while gaining the advantages of instincts.

Another I couldn't stop thinking about, was Mirio's coughing. It was so random, and he didn't speak about how his quirk caused that, so I was on my own.

Okay, let's think, why would he cough blood? If he had some kind of medical problem relating to his quirk, since he did it immediately after he used it. Quirk, quirk, One for All is a quirk too. Let's make the assumption that he has One for All then. If he does, then that means that he has two quirks inside his body. What happens when a person has multiple quirks? Think, think! Did I see anyone who had multiple? All for One, obviously, but having multiple quirks was literally his quirk, so he didn't count. Maybe All Might? I remembered in his fight with All for One he generated smoke around his body. Wait, wait, All Might had One for All, and One for All was passed down through multiple users, I remember that. But what about their quirks? Were those passed down too? If yes, then he has at least a couple of them, since I'm not sure of the number of users it had, but let's assume that it was at least but probably more than 5.

Okay, so if Mirio has One for All, then it means that he now has six quirk inside his body. That seems unhealthy. Who had more than one quirk, other than the two I thought of previously? Maybe the Nomus? I remember during the USJ incident how fast it was when it tried to attack Aizawa from behind, plus it didn't die after I made a pin cushion from it, so Super Regeneration. And it didn't have free will, so making the assumption that a body can only have one quirk safely is a safe assumption. It would explain Mirio's problem, his body rejecting One for All, so I put him on top of the list. Maybe I'm seeing too much into it, but having knowledge about the world around you is the most important thing in my opinion, and I won't waste it by dismissing such things.

AN: This chapter took a while, but it's done, tell me what you think.