Chapter 8
"You know," Naomasa said as he sat back in his chair, having paced around for quite some time, "despite how utterly ridiculous it sounds, most, if not all, of the things Haru has said fit in perfectly given our current situation."
"I can't believe there'd be a time in my life I'd doubt my quirk," Makoto grumbled as she stared at the notes her brother had made on a whiteboard they had borrowed for the time. "Really? This Midoriya Izuku is All Might's successor? All For One is alive? Not just that, but that he will attack heroes in the Kamino Ward and put Best Jeanist out of commission? All Might's real form will be revealed? Quirk-erasing bullets with Yakuza? And there's a traitor amongst the students? What was the name?"
"Aoyama," I supplied helpfully.
"I can't believe it," All Might muttered, seemingly exhausted after the discussion, we had had. "So many things happening right under my nose, and I am unaware. I'm such a failure of a hero. Symbol of Peace, huh?"
"I'd have been unable to believe if not for the fact that everything makes sense in the grand scheme of things," Naomasa said, getting up and resuming his pacing again.
"Don't forget about my quirk's drawback," Makoto reminded. "If he certainly believes his words, I won't be able to detect it."
"That doesn't explain how almost all things fit in the grand scheme of things," her brother replied. "If they had been delusions, there should have been some easy-to-pick issues in the story but there are none. At least, none about the things he knows."
"I'm not delusional," I said dryly. "Why do you think I asked for both of you before deciding to reveal all this?"
"I see the point but…"
"I see why you wanted it to be just us and no one else who knows all this," Nezu said at length. For once, he actually looked bothered. "Cooperation from the police will be necessary. And all this information is dangerous if it gets out at all." He looked us all in the eye seriously. "I know I have no authority but it must be ensured that absolutely no one must know about this. At all. If All For One gets even a whiff of what we know, we will be doomed."
"I'm pretty sure what I have told you will change over time," I pointed out. "Don't forget that your actions in my world were different from what you will do from now on. Don't come to me later complaining that I didn't tell you something in case things go wrong. I've told you all everything I know. And it's bound to change. Just be ready to deal with the quirks of the villains I have mentioned. Especially Chisaki and Tomura."
At the mention of Tomura, All Might deflated even further. "To think I failed my master like this…"
I could only shrug at his words. What else could have I done?
I got up from my seat, glad to be moving after sitting for almost four hours. "Just keep me in the loop if and when you change things," I reminded them. "More than anything, if you mitigate all the upcoming fights, don't forget that it will slow the new students' progress drastically and they won't be able to or have the drive to improve themselves quickly. There has to be some balance between both."
"Easier said than done," Nezu said. "It's one thing when we did not know. It's another when we know and still let it happen."
I simply smiled at him. "Once we are out of this room, no one knows anything."
The two weeks to the UA Sports Festival passed by in a blink, during which we played around and learned around like usual. It didn't help that the media was particularly persistent after the declaration from UA that the festival will happen, and no mere security breach was going to stop them.
It was a security breach and not a villain attack, thanks to my interference.
I wasn't sure if I should be happy. I never got to see the All Might vs Nomu fight in all its glory, and feel the shockwaves and steam and feelings and everything else of the fight. If I were to get another chance, though, I'd still do the same thing. Because, despite seeing them as characters at one point, I had grown to love them as people. They were my new reality and I didn't want anything to happen to them.
Unfortunately, there was only so much I could shield them from. If I kept doing that, they wouldn't improve. And so, much to my (weird combination of) chagrin and relief, Nezu let me know that they weren't planning on interfering unless it was dire. And they'd have heroes in place to act without delay. That was the best they could do given that they also wanted to preserve my ability to predict.
"Midoriya, Korai."
Breaking out of my thoughts, I looked up to see Todoroki walking up to us. I simply raised an eyebrow at him while Izuku verbalized the question. "Todoroki, what is it?"
Todoroki went on to declare that he will beat us despite All Might's eye being on us. I was surprised to find out that he thought All Might had an eye on me. But thinking back over the previous two weeks, I couldn't blame him for thinking like that. All Might—and Aizawa as well—had often called me aside to talk or clarify about the things we had discussed on that fateful day of interrogation.
Unluckily for me, I never really saw Makoto after that day. It would have been fun getting to know her. But she was a busy person despite being just a few years older than me in this world. I couldn't exactly force her to spend time with me for no real reason; we weren't that close as friends yet. Hell, I wouldn't even call us friends for the time being.
But I digress. I brought my attention back to the confrontation at hand, listening to Izuku declaring his goal of gunning for the top.
"Right…" Todoroki said, looking down at him. He then turned towards me. "Anything to say?"
I snorted at the condescension in his voice. Was he this bad in the beginning of the story? I barely remembered. But I answered his question nonetheless. "All I have to say is one thing," I said, a mischievous grin forming on my face.
Todoroki showed no expression on his face. "And that is?"
I grinned. "Make sure your daddy issues don't affect your hero work. Or you will have civilians' blood on your hands."
Before he could even process his shock, there was a quick announcement that we were to make our way to the stadium. Thanking my stars, all of us did exactly that. I resolutely ignored the whispers and mutters behind me.
We stepped into the stadium the moment Present Mic announced us. Kirishima felt quite nervous, while Bakugo was excited. Izuku, I was pretty sure, was a walking dead—a zombie because of his nerves.
"For the athlete's oath," Midnight started, attracting all our attention, "your student representative is from Class 1-A, Korai Haru!"
Damnit, really? I wanted to avoid that! But then again, I performed a bit too good during the entrance exam to not be the representative. Sighing to myself, I walked up on to the stage, still resolutely ignoring the mutters, and stood facing the audience.
"For the athlete's oath," I started, copying Bakugo's start from the manga and cringing at the flatness of my voice as I said it, "we promise to abide by all rules and regulations of this event. To the T. Good luck everyone!"
It was thankfully well-received if a bit short, judging from the whispers. But whatever. I had not wanted the attention on myself to begin with.
"Thank you, Haru," Midnight said, without missing a beat, ignoring my flat delivery of the oath. "Now, without any delay, let's get the first event started. The qualifiers this year for the first years is… Obstacle Course Race!"
I could only barely hold back my sigh. A sigh of relief. So, it was the same after all. It saved me a hell lot of trouble. Or at least that was what I had been thinking until Midnight said "Don't do anything off course." Then, I sighed a sigh of disappointment. I was hoping to skip out on the race based on the technicality of the rules. So much for that plan.
We all stood at the gate, waiting for the countdown to start. Unfortunately for most of our class, many stood somewhere in the middle of the pack or the back. Only Bakugo, Todoroki, Midoriya and Momo were near the front. And out of them, only Todoroki was up at the front. I sighed again, this time in exasperation.
He was going to be annoying to deal with.
The buzzer buzzed, and everyone ran. Except me.
I used my controlled air bursts to straight up fly in the air. I couldn't yet create solid air; that required too much concentration to create, but air bombs were my thing. Using those bursts, I scaled the entirety of the stadium wall from above while others were getting crushed at the narrow starting gate. Because, fortunately for me, they never stated an upper limit to the course. So as far as I was concerned, all the space above the course all the way till space was fair game.
As I scaled the stadium, I easily saw Todoroki icing the course and moving on ahead. Behind him was most of 1-A. Ahead of him, after a turn, were the giant robots.
Being in the air with an air control quirk is a pure blessing and an unadulterated advantage. As always, I removed all air resistance in my path, and bombed my way straight ahead, high above everyone else and pretty much out of range of everyone that didn't have long-ranged quirks.
Shamelessly enough, I simply flew above the robots, avoiding them completely. Why would I bother? Given the range of these robots and the way they were programmed, I could intelligently guess that they'd ignore the sole target above them for a bunch below. And that's exactly what happened.
I continued on like that and simply avoided all the obstacles completely. Talk about underwhelming!
The only thing threatening my lead would be my speed since I didn't want to hurt myself. If I didn't care about that, I was fairly sure my dead body would have had minutes worth of lead over everyone else, including Todoroki.
As it was, I ended up second behind Izuku. Mofo passed me just seconds before I crossed the finish line myself. He sure got lucky there. But well, I wasn't particularly annoyed about it. I mean, I avoided getting ten million points on myself.
Of course, I was assuming it'd be the same test for the next round. You know, analyze the past data and all.
Ha, I was right after all! Cavalry battle was next with Izuku having ten million points!
It happened like it had just like usual. Izuku was avoided; he found Uraraka and Hatsume, and Tokoyami. And teams were slowly forming like they had. The only difference this time around was that because the villains' attack had been unsuccessful and had been dealt with swiftly, there was no real antagonization of other classes towards 1-A. And that meant no Monoma bullshit.
I was saddened by that development. But I was going to make sure that his insanity got revealed somehow. MHA without Monoma bullshit? Please! That can't exist!
Presently though, team formation was necessary. I sought out Momo for her versatile quirk first; thankfully, I was fast enough that Todoroki couldn't get her. Next, I sought out Kendo Itsuka. Monoma came along with her as a free package. That formed our team of four. I was curious as to how that'd affect Todoroki's teaming strategy.
Surprisingly enough, it wasn't hard to convince the pair from 1-B. Because of the non-existence of any enmity, both of them were fairly agreeable, if a bit wary when I invited them. I could see the question mark on Momo's face.
Once we were gathered, the three looked at me for an explanation.
I held my hands up. "Don't look at me like that. I chose you three based on what I found out about your quirks."
All three looked surprised.
Itsuka, the beauty, looked even warier now. "You know about our quirks?"
I shrugged. "UA prides itself on its transparency. Can you fault me?"
"Wha-"
Their confused looks made me sigh. Really, couldn't they have explored their school's website a bit more? UA proudly proclaimed its new students as 'up and coming heroes' there. I wanted to explain more but given the limited time, I decided to talk with them about it later. For the moment, I shook my head and refocused my attention on the cavalry battle.
"So, now, let me explain my strategy to you," I said, getting their attention on to the task at hand. I nodded at Momo. "Yours is the most versatile quirk. I want you to keep an eye around us and see what item you can make on-the-go to make it difficult for enemies. Same with Monoma with his copy quirk."
"How do you know what my exact quirk is?!"
I stared at him in annoyance. "I will tell you later. Just make sure to copy Momo's quirk in intervals. I am fairly sure your quirk must have a time limit. Otherwise, it would be way too overpowered."
"Wha-"
I ignored him in favour of addressing Itsuka. "You will be the front horse for us. With your quirk, it will be quite easy to handle most, if not all, physical quirks like Kirishima's or Tetsu's. Your focus will be on leading us towards everyone but Izuku."
"Favouring Midoriya-san?" Momo asked, amused.
"Nah," I replied with a laugh. "It will be more difficult to attack him since everyone will be targeting him for those million points."
"That is true."
"Sure, that works for us," Itsuka said, narrowing her eyes a bit. "But what are you going to do? What's your quirk?"
I simply laughed aloud at my thoughts to her answer. All three looked weirded out, understandably, but we had to work with what we got. I smirked at the three of them. "Alright, I will tell you my quirk so you know what to expect."
Momo, having been interested in my quirk for quite some time, leaned in, as did the others so none of us missed anything.
"My quirk is Air Control," I explained to the three of them. "I call it AirCon to confuse everyone. Because the first thing to come in your mind when you hear that is Air Conditioning, not Control. Do you know what this means?"
It took barely a moment for Momo to understand the gravity of my power. Not long after, the other two also understood.
"Don't tell me you are planning to suffocate everyone to death?" Itsuka said, baffled.
I stared back at her, scandalized. "What hero acts like a villain to the villains?"
She sighed in relief. There was a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "I just confirmed."
I stared at her for a moment before bursting out laughing. "Now I suddenly feel bad I quit being the President. It'd have been fun hanging out with you."
Both of 1-B gaped at me. "You were asked to be one and you quit?"
"I was voted," I corrected them. "I didn't want the responsibility and the workload so I quit. I quite like the idea of having time for myself."
Itsuka made a face at my words. "I can understand. It's hard to find time to myself."
I finger-gunned at her, making Momo chuckle.
On the other hand, Monoma seemed to be thinking deeply about our strategy. At length, he looked up and said, "It would be better if I copied your quirk rather than hers."
I raised an eyebrow at him, curious. "Do you have something in mind?"
"I was thinking your quirk is even more versatile overall," he replied slowly, as if strategizing something in his mind. "And if I understand your words correctly, we should be able to form solid air walls… since we can control air molecules themselves."
I grimaced at his words. "Believe me, I've tried. I failed spectacularly. The sheer amount of pressure you need to create air walls is not something humanly possible. Still," I held out my hand, "if you think you can do it within the short time you'll have my quirk for, have a go at it."
My honesty must have resonated with them for they seemed to lose their wariness. Monoma grasped my hand, his quirk active. "It never hurts to try."
And so, during the last few minutes of the fifteen-minute team-forming period we had, Monoma tried out stuff with my quirk. Eventually and ruefully, he came to the conclusion that I was right and using my quirk the way I did was plain ridiculous.
In the meantime, I looked around to see what Todoroki had done given that Momo was with us. Unsurprisingly, his was a team of three without Momo. He hadn't replaced her with anyone else. I could easily imagine that he thought no others would fit into his team. I could also imagine he never checked for 1-B's quirks.
Well, sucks for him.
No way was I giving up the chance to win this round. And make friends with yet another beauty.
Really sucks for him.
Well, that was a fun chapter to write. I could have written the entire intervi- ahem, interrogation but that'd have been boring. Writing reactions is way more fun! Or perhaps, I am having way more fun after realizing reaction fics exist. Yes, reaction fics. It's plain ridiculous how much fun I find them. My current favourite is Re:zero - Watching him die again and again. If you find the idea interesting, please go and check it out!
Also, once again reminding y'all that this story is not to be taken ultra-seriously. It's supposed to be a fun read. If you find my OC-SI to be a Mary Sue-like character and you don't like those types, feel free to drop the story. It's called SI for a reason after all. Who doesn't want to imagine themselves being badass and shit? On the same note, if you think I could do better, I am always open to constructive criticism! Feel free to point out the goods, the bads and the uglies in my story!
Signing off!
