25/10/2022

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The Emperor's Dragon
Emergence 19 - A Faceted Quirk

"So what happened?" Hitoshi asked for them all.

Today they'd actually managed to pull Mei away from her babies, mostly because she was interested as well and even she'd noticed the media scrum at the front gate this morning.

Izuku had expected it after hearing the news. At least now though he knew what Tomura had been working on. An attack on All Might but one that had also impacted Class 1A. Thankfully the injuries sustained by the students didn't appear too bad. From the rumours going around, most of the students had spent the time running away from the villains. A few had attacked and got injured but the majority had tried to avoid fighting. Tomura would probably be disappointed. To him, they were hero students, so they'd put themselves in the line of fire. To him, it was different. Society had told them there was no other path to success. Society screamed that only heroes were successful, so he could understand why people wanted to be heroes.

That's why society had to change.

He'd gotten through the media scrum this morning by drawing himself up and projecting an air that he did not want to be bothered as he marched through them. That, combined with the three buttons on his blazer had been enough to get him through. The three buttons meant he was in the Management Course, and that wasn't the interesting course. He already knew both Hitoshi and Mei had taken similar stances, using their uniform buttons as a pass.

Ochaco had used the blazer he'd given her the other day to slip through as well, so that was a good thing.

"I don't know," Ochaco told them. It got her a reproachful look from Mei that was easily understood. They'd pulled her away from her babies for nothing new? "The teacher's aren't saying anything and 1A were told in no uncertain terms that they couldn't say anything either. Momo even tried talking to Todoroki, 'cos she's known him forever but he said nothing," she explained all the avenues they'd used to try to get information.

Izuku was pretty sure he could get a full run down if he asked Tomura, or better yet, Kurogiri. The misty man would probably give him a more realistic explanation of what happened but… Ochaco wasn't injured and… there was no point. The media was spinning that it was cowardly to attack a school but All Might was here, so he'd put the school in danger, and was it any less cowardly to attack a businessman in full daylight?

He pushed that thought aside, knowing it was coming, at least in part, from his dad. He'd have to think about that himself.

"Why can't they say?" Mei asked.

"They could compromise the investigation," Ochaco gave the reason.

That seemed fair, Izuku had to admit to himself. If he learned something and Tomura asked he'd probably tell the other teen 'cos if the class saw no reason not to share the information, he would see no reason not to. That was probably Eraserhead's influence. He seemed to be a hero who at least tried to do things properly. His stats were… it was difficult to tell with underground heroes but the few stats he had were genuinely good and he did seem as if he tried to care for people the way heroes did. He was one of the few heroes Tomura liked. And not in a 'I want to kill you' way. He was one of the heroes Tomura thought would have helped him but of course, Eraserhead hadn't been a hero then.

"So what do we know happened?" Hitoshi asked. He actually seemed interested.

They all looked at Ochaco expectantly. She sighed. "All I know is that Class 1A went to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint for an exercise and a group of villains attacked. They claimed they wanted to kill All Might." That news had gotten out, despite the best efforts to keep the details quiet.

"Nothing more?" Izuku asked.

"Nothing more," Ochaco confirmed.

Well, Tomura wasn't going to be happy about that. He wanted attention. And he wasn't going to think about that. It was Tomura's problem.

"How'd they get in?" Mei asked.

Izuku almost answered that it was obvious before he released to most it wouldn't be obvious. They didn't know about Kurogiri.

"They can't have gone through the gates," Hitoshi noted. They hadn't seen the security upgrades but at each homeroom class they had been warned against trying to sneak anyone in. There was a procedure for that if a parent needed to come to the school, or something like that.

"They could have flown in," Mei suggested, obviously thinking about how that might be achieved.

"Maybe," Ochaco agreed. "No one has said anything about it, just that they are investigating all options."

Izuku nodded at that. On this, the heroes definitely knew more than they were letting on, which was, he supposed, normal. Even if it was frustrating for everyone else. "There's not much more we can work out," he said. "We can speculate," he told Hitoshi and Mei who gave him looks at his first sentence, "but we won't know for sure," he explained.

They both nodded but he could tell they were curious and Izuku supposed that was just how the world was.

-ted-

"You want to what?" Izuku couldn't hide the surprise in his voice.

"Enter the Sports Festival," Mei said calmly.

He closed his eyes briefly and tried to think about it. Ochaco had to enter the Sports Festival. As a Heroics student, even one who wanted to specialise in rescue, she had no choice. Maybe that's why UA produced so few underground heroes? Heroics students were expected to do well in the Sports Festival. If they did too badly, they could lose their places to a General Studies Student. That put aspiring underground heroes in a difficult position. Logically they'd want to throw the Sports Festival, failing out of it as soon as they could but practically they had to do well enough, and get some notoriety.

Hitoshi had already told him he was going to enter. He'd been surprised but… His friend had something to prove. Not as much as he used to but Hitoshi still remembered the taunts from when he was young. The taunts he still got once he became Izuku's friend. He wanted… He just wanted to get his name out there, once, to show all those taunters what he was capable of. Izuku could understand that. Plus, even though Hitoshi hadn't gone in the practical exam for the Heroics course, he wanted to show UA that those with more passive quirks could become heroes, if they wanted.

Izuku knew why Ochaco and Hitoshi were going entering the Festival. He just never thought Mei would, so why was she? "Why?"

He opened his eyes to see the look she gave him and she held up something she was building and waved it in his face.

Oh… Izuku laughed. "Advertising," he suddenly understood.

Mei nodded. "We've got the company, but unless you've got a lot more cash, we are going to need backing and recognition from other companies to sell my creations," she said plainly.

He nodded again. He understood that. "Could you get Hitoshi to use one?"

Mei shook her head. "No. There's rules," she didn't look too impressed at the thought. "Heroics students can't use support items in the Festival. Which is dumb," she lamented.

Izuku understood that. Most heroes used support items for their work so why shouldn't they be able to use them in the festival? Apparently not though.

"General Studies students who enter the Festival are assumed to be trying for a promotion into the Heroics course, and so have to show their natural talent," she said, again looking frustrated before she smiled. "Support students who enter, on the other hand, are expected to use their creations," she concluded with a smile. Mei spread her hands. "We are practically required to be walking advertisements of what our babies can do!" she exclaimed happily.

"And what about Management students?" Izuku asked teasingly. He'd never heard of a management student entering the Festival though.

"Yes!" Mei screamed. "You could enter to show off my babies as well!"

"What?"

"Management students are listed the same as Support Students. So long as you can get someone to give you a support tool, you can use it!"

Izuku blinked. That wasn't exactly what he'd been asking for…

"I'll make you some good babies and you can show off your-" Mei stopped mid sentence. "Actually, what is your quirk, First?" she asked suddenly.

Shit, Izuku thought as he realised the complication this now represented. Mei thought his quirk had something to do with sunlight. Ochaco and Hitoshi knew his quirk was Fire Breath with Fire Proofing. He'd told Ochaco about that second facet, as if it was a given. It was along the lines of 'well of course I'm fireproof. I breathe fire and don't hurt myself!'. She'd accepted it since when they were younger that sort of nitty gritty detail hadn't really been important. And to a six year old, Fire Breath was far more impressive than Fire Proofing.

There was nothing he could do now, but try to bluff it out.

Izuku sighed heavily, ignoring the way Mei's face was expectant. "I have a multifaceted quirk," he said, almost grumpily. He was kind of thankful it was only Mei and himself here today.

Vlad had Class 1B running extra drills in preparation for the Sports Festival and Hitoshi was exercising… also in preparation for the Sports Festival.

"What do you mean?" Mei asked, looking up from her creation.

"56% of kids get a combination of their parents' quirks, 44% get a copy, and that's what we're all taught right?" He asked but didn't wait for an answer. "It's closer to 55.7% and 43.9% with the remaining 0.4 getting something new. But what they don't tell you about that 55.7% is that of them 0.0001% get a mish-mash of just about every quirk that's ever been in their family." Before she could say anything Izuku held up one hand. "That's about 1 person in every 20,000," he explained. "And you don't hear about them, or think they'd make great heroes because usually they don't get the whole quirk, just a bit of it."

"Usually?" Mei honed in on the qualification.

"Let's say someone has enhanced strength," Izuku gave the example, ignoring her question. "It's actually more than just being stronger, it means your bones, muscles, ligaments and everything can take more load. Now, if one of your descendants gets that mish-mash, they won't get enhanced strength. What they might get is far stronger than normal ligaments. It's not something you notice but that's the facet of enhanced strength they got. So you see how it's not really that noticeable, or useful?" He asked.

Mei nodded. "And you?" she pressed.

"What we call quirk marriages these days were actually a necessity in the past. Not because they wanted to make stronger quirks, but because a lot of the time someone without a quirk wouldn't marry you."

"First!" Mei snapped. "Just tell me."

He sighed. "I got lots of facets. And some of mine are usable by themselves," he added. That was probably the best way of explaining how he had what were multiple quirks. He'd sort of started that explanation with Inasa as well.

"Such as?" Mei pressed. Usually she wasn't interested in quirks but today was different.

"Sunlight conversion," he told her. "I can create some energy from the sun. It was my grandmother's quirk," he said, thinking of Saisho Kijo. He could still remember every detail of the kimono she wore and the way the sun had poured over her. He wondered if he should try and find out how she was or… He'd think about it later.

"I'm also fireproof, and pft," he blew out a tiny lick of flame as illustration.

Mei's eyes shot open.

Izuku nodded. "I got lucky but most people just get a mish-mash that aren't usable and are hard to determine. I actually got a couple I can say are my quirk."

She picked up on the hint. "So what do Space Girl and Control Freak think you have?"

He smiled. "Fire Proofing and Fire Breath," he told her. "Fire Breath is the first facet I found and we thought it was my quirk for a while. Dad has Fire Breath. Then we found out that I was fireproof and it was just thought to be part of fire breath. After all, I've never hurt myself with fire."

"And the sunlight?"

"That was my Grandmother's," Izuku repeated.

Mei looked exasperated. "No. How did you find out about it?" she clarified.

"Oh," he said, buying time to think for a few moments. "It's how we figured out I had facets," he said. He couldn't just say 'Saisho told me how her quirk worked.' "I used to completely crash after the sun went down." He still did, a little bit but he was better at controlling his energy now. "I mean really crash," he emphasised.

It would have had to have been obvious to get it checked out. "Dad took me to a variety of Doctors for tests and nothing was wrong so eventually we went to a quirk specialist, and that's how we found out I had facets," he explained.

"Do you have other facets?" Mei asked.

Izuku debated with himself for a moment. It would be best if he could say air control. Then all his friends would have the same understanding of his 'quirk'. He decided to downplay it a bit. A lot. "I have some very minor air control. Just enough to lift myself."

"You can fly?"

"It's a lot of work!" Izuku insisted. It wasn't but he could say he'd strengthened that aspect with practice.

"You have to compete!" Mei screamed. "You could show off so many of my babies!"

Izuku just stared at her. He could compete and he'd… He was fairly sure he could win but he wasn't sure he could do it while hiding multiple quirks. He didn't think the staff would be bought off with the facet story. Oh, maybe initially but they'd check and… he wasn't actually sure what quirk his 'mum' was meant to have.

And once he started competing would he want to win? Probably, he admitted to himself.

"You have to!" Mei begged, her green gold eyes wide.

"I haven't practiced, Mei. I know I can't use my quirk so I haven't practiced much. I probably still can't lift myself."

She waved one hand to dismiss that. "You can get through and then show off my booster boots!" She told him her eyes were fixed on him. .

He may have only known Mei for a little while in person but he knew that look. He knew she was going to hound him. "What about you?" he tried.

"I'll; promote them as well but you can show off others!"

Izuku sighed. "All right," he said. "But!" He yelled before she could scream agreement. "I will only compete to get you into the finals, where you can show off your babies! They are yours, so you deserve the recognition."

"And the others?"

"The other babies?" Izuku asked.

"No, silly! Control Freak and Space Girl? You'll help them into the finals too?" Mei demanded.

"I'll help them get through to the final rounds too," he agreed with a sigh. In for a yen, in for… well, a lot more.

"Yay!" Mei cheered, before she pulled out her phone and flicked something at him. "Those are the entry forms. Fill 'em out," she instructed.

Izuku sighed again. "Yes Ma'am," he said as his school tablet beeped. Mei smiled at him and while he knew he'd have to be careful, right at the moment, he couldn't bring himself to care.

-ted-

If you ever thought Izuku was lying before, this chapter should show off his skills… plus ultra style :D Probably not what UA is trying to teach with their motto but you have to take what you can!

So yes, no one died in the USJ though most of them were running around avoiding the villains, and then All Might, who still has his quirk, saved the day. And now we go on to the Sport's Festival but there's a few things that have to happen first.

My discord is on this code: ZX2R5h2cEm FFN will remove links but you should be able to figure that out. There's a heap of other authors there, so come along and chat to us all!

-ted-

Loved it? Hated it? Found a spelling mistake? Let me know please!