Midoriya has an interesting first day for the internship, he officially starts his Apprenticeship along with Tokoyami.
I do not own My Hero Academia - it belongs to Horikoshi.
Chapter 3: Points of Departure / My Classmate is not a Lab Rat
Train Station: 7:00 AM
"Remember wearing your hero costumes in public while not under supervision of you mentor is strictly prohibited, but don't lose them," Aizawa stated. He noticed Tokoyami loitering, instead of walking towards a train.
"What are you doing?"
"Hawks texted that he'd meet us here...and there he is."
"Hey Eraser fancy seeing you up," Hawks commented nonchalantly.
"Well I needed to follow up on our conversation yesterday..."
Meanwhile, Midoriya had caught up to Ida. "Ida!"
"Yes?"
"Look we don't always see eye to eye, well a good portion of the time lately," Midoriya commented, "Anyways, I just wanted you to know that if you need someone to talk to."
"I appreciate the thought," Ida replied, "but I'm fine really. Looks like your chaperon is here, hello Mr. Kurinsumi."
"Hello Tenya," Rocky replied as Midoriya politely left earshot the Flying Squirrel hero lowered his voice so it was between him and Ingenium's younger brother, "Don't do anything stupid, your brother would never forgive himself if anything bad happened to you."
"You saw what happened to him..."
"Tenya, you and the Hero Killer aren't even in the same league, quite frankly, I wouldn't want to face him one on one."
"You were always the eyes in the sky for my older brother when you were interning, if you had been there..."
"I'm the one that found him," Rocky snapped, "If I had been there a little sooner maybe he wouldn't be in as bad of shape, I don't know. I could just as easily be dead as could he..."
"I apologize," said Tenya, "you're right my brother could have be dead along with you if you had been there sooner, and my brother wasn't too happy with the way some of his other sidekicks treated you, and how you were driven away. What I just said to you was unfair."
"Is there any chance he'll recover the use of his legs?"
"It doesn't look promising, but we're still looking into it."
Rocky looked saddened, "Take care Glasses."
"You too fluffles..."
Ida and Rocky walked away from each other, Rocky towards Midoriya; Ida towards the train.
"I'm worried about him," admitted Midoriya.
"Me too, but there are some things I can't talk about..." Rocky answered cryptically while they walked over to Hawks and Eraser Head.
"You shouldn't make your..."
"He was with me," Rocky jumped in cutting off Aizawa, "and it was something that I had already told Hawks that I needed to take care of. You ready boss?"
"Yeah, reason I'm here for you guys is because we have a few errands before we head to the agency, this way..." He continued talking as the four boarded the train, "We'll be dropping off your luggage at the first place we're going to and it will be delivered to where you'll be staying the night. So Eraser told me you're the class rep..."
"Vice Rep," both Midoriya and Tokoyami answered at the same time.
"Yeah kinda figured he was messing with me."
"Pardon for asking, but where are we going?" Tokoyami asked.
"The commission, we've got some paperwork to fill out," Hawks commented smiling, "Don't worry you two it isn't bad. So what hero names did you choose?"
"Tsukuyomi," answered Tokoyami.
"God of the night, cool name," Hawks grinned, "A lot better than Rocky's which is from a really old cartoon character."
"Hey!"
"Deku," Midoriya answered hesitantly.
"Really, I think you should have gone with something like Bolt or Gremlin," Hawks commented, "Bolt on the account of the green lightning and you're pretty quick, Gremlin on account of everything seems to go off the rails for villains when you're around... Anyways you've still got time to finalize names."
Rocky and Hawks then proceeded to engage into conversation while Midoriya thought about what Hawks said, 'Bolt sounded cool, but it's an awful lot like Charge-bolt. I think there is a hero named Gremlin in the United States, but I could be wrong.'
"Well here's our stop."
Hero Public Safety Commission Headquarters:
First, the two boys had their pictures taken while Hawks talked to a man that seemed incredibly overworked, after that he had them fill out some forms and sign some documents.
"What are these for?" asked Midoriya.
"Well, it makes the two of you officially my apprentices," Hawks answered, "What Eraser told you all is cool and all, but things will be a little different for you two." He motioned for the two of them to follow him towards a locker room, "Tokoyami, you suit up, Midoriya you're going to have a complete physical, so I believe you packed shorts and a t-shirt..."
"I don't think I approve of my classmate being studied like a lab animal," Tokoyami commented, "we've already had..."
"Actually he hasn't, particularly not since his quirk..." Hawks paused letting Tokoyami catch his meaning, "Don't worry I won't let anything bad happen to him." Hawks took Midoriya's hero costume suitcase, "So they don't take this on accident, you'll be changing into this later."
Exam Room:
Midoriya looked around nervously as a doctor walked into the room.
"Okay I'll need that shirt off," the doctor commented clinically, "We're going to be hooking you up to various monitoring devices to get readings on your heart and lungs. I'm also going to be checking reflexes and a few other tests."
"I'm not sure why?"
"Kid, for someone your age to suddenly develop a quirk it can often mean there is an underlying health condition or there could be some other shoe to drop," the doctor answered, "I know All Might's manifested late like yours, or let me be more specific now that I know why there was a sudden drop in his quirk factor, but there's always been readings that I've kept an eye on since I became his doctor eight years ago."
Midoriya pulled off the shirt and let the doctor place diodes on his skin to monitor his heart and lungs, and was put through various exams to measure his body's reactions to stress. After a test that Midoriya recognized from when he was first diagnosed as quirkless, the doctor looked at the readings, re-ran the test and looked at them again.
"So she wasn't kidding..."
"Sir?"
"It's nothing," said the doctor, "I'm going to give you a sedative and need you to lie down on this table here, so we can run a brain scan, since we need you to stay very still for this. I don't want to have to inject you with radioactive dye for this, this test is common practice when a quirk develops as late as yours does."
Midoriya reluctantly put up with the doctor's banter until he finally passed out. While the boy was out of it, the doctor looked over the scans, reran the scans, and said, "Well that concludes the tests." Though Midoriya was unresponsive as he pressed a button on the wall. Hawks opened the door, "Well there are some signs of a mild vitamin deficiency, along with sleep deprivation, and signs he's been injured multiple times some years ago only for a healing quirk to be used on him..."
"Is he alright?"
"Just let him sleep off the sedative, he really could use it, he should be awake in 2 hours," the doctor sighed, "I got some interesting results that you and the President will want to be briefed on." He wrapped Midoriya in a blanket so the boy would stay warm, and the two walked out of the room.
President's Office:
"So doctor what did you find?"
"Well I did find some signs of past child abuse, it was covered up by a healing quirk being used on him."
"U.A.'s courses are pretty rough and tumble..."
"The signs point to it being well before U.A., I'd guess around 4 years ago for some of them, some could be older, it didn't seem overly systematic though, if I hadn't been specifically looking for it, I would likely have missed it."
"Continue..."
"He definitely has the same quirk as All Might, the readings of his quirk factor are practically identical, except for the fact Midoriya's is much higher that All Might's, which leads me into the other oddity," he hit a few buttons to pull up various scans of individuals, "Since you wanted to see what stress factors there were on his brain, and you expected that it would be larger given the increase in power. You can see the Nomu that was recovered here, notice the brain activity is all over the map..."
"I see, so is this one with these oddities the kid's?" Hawks asked.
"No, that's Toshinori Yagi's, now that I know that he was born quirkless, these readings make more sense and I was worried for nothing over these readings... I'm going to really chew him out next check up..."
"Explain."
"Even if there isn't a difference in intelligence between a quirkless individual and someone with a quirk, the brain is wired differently to accommodate said quirk, and it is wired only for the quirk they are born with. It's one reason why I think the Quirk Doomsday Theory is overrated, because a child's brain is wired that they have the potential to control their own quirk even if they don't know how just like we don't know how to walk when we're first born. While these oddities in All Might's scan may look somewhat concerning at first glance, it really isn't, his brain is handling the load just fine, just in different areas of the brain than where it would ordinarily be processed. He didn't have a quirk to begin with, though his brain has compensated, but if you throw multiple additional quirks into the mix, especially with a preexisting quirk, we're going to have the results like the Nomu."
"Okay so is the kid one of those other two scans?"
"Yeah, if I didn't know better, I'd say that the quirk in his body was what he was born with and he genuinely suffers from Delayed Quirk Manifestation Syndrome," the doctor shook his head, "there's no mistaking the fact his brain was wired to handle a quirk, though it somewhat atrophied because the quirk didn't appear when it should have. Fortunately, with time and training that atrophy can be reversed to the point it will no longer be identifiable on scans."
Hawks looked through the X-ray that doctor had taken of Midoriya's skeletal structure, "Wait a minute he has the extra toe joint..."
"That's an indicator, but not a defining trait for quirklessness."
"I thought all quirkless people had that extra joint," commented Hawks.
"They do."
"Then..."
"Not all people that have the extra joint are quirkless, it is a defining trait that you are a carrier of the gene for quicklessness, in boys anyways, it only shows up in girls if they are quirkless; though quirklessness is far more common in boys than girls relatively speaking."
"He means the Double X chromosome vs XY, both parents would have to have the gene for a girl to be quirkless while just the mother would have to have the gene for a boy."
"That's one way, it can be passed down through the Y chromosome too, though it's more hit or miss in that situation. Only in his case, based on his blood sample, it comes from the Y chromosome, not from his mother. So his quirk factor would have been very weak."
"Getting back to the brain scan, could he have been born that way, his brain wired to handle a quirk, and still been born quirkless?"
"Possible, but unlikely..."
"Are you suggesting he has a hidden quirk?"
"No, all signs point to this One for All being the sole quirk in his body, otherwise we'd be looking at readings more like the beak faced village idiot's scan, though probably not nearly as severe," the doctor commented, "I'm speculating here, but if it were possible to steal or destroy someone's original quirk at an extremely early age, and they are given a new quirk sometime later, I would expect to see these kind of readings... For all intents and purposes, it is like this quirk was made for him."
"So his compatibility with the quirk is abnormally high. Any other abnormalities?" the President asked.
"Not really," the doctor commented, "He's in pretty good health, aside from needing more sleep and the vitamin deficiency that is easily treated, if he were a pro-hero, I'd say he'd be cleared for duty."
"Don't tell him about what you found at this time," the President stated, "Just give him the clean bill of health, we may tell him about this later."
"Well with that, I'm heading home, this was supposed to have been the start of my vacation..." he sighed, "And I missed my flight..."
"Don't worry, I've set up a charter for you and your wife," she assured him, "You still have to use standard airfare to get home, but it's the least I can do."
At that the doctor's mood brightened and after he left, Hawks looked thoughtful, "Just when we think we have this figured out, a new mystery crops up."
"At this time he shouldn't be told," she stated, "just say he passed the exam. It will just cause him stress he doesn't need, and this development only benefits him, no need for him to perseverate over it."
"Will do," Hawks commented as he walked out, "I'm not sure how I would explain that his original quirk may have been stolen anyways..."
Exam Room: - 1 hour 30 minutes later
Izuku Midoriya started waking up groggily and feeling a little cold, there was a tapping sound in the background.
"Good, you're finally awake," commented Hawks looking up from his cell phone, Midoriya noticed his costume's suitcase was next to Hawks. The pro-hero grinned and passed him the case, "Suit up, you've been given a clean bill of health, except for a mild vitamin deficiency, the case with the T-shirt and shorts will be delivered to where you're staying later..."
Midoriya hurriedly began changing, "That's a relief," he commented.
"Not quite, you were abused in school weren't you..." Hawks didn't phrase it as a question while looking at his cell phone again.
Midoriya stopped changing, "I don't know..."
"Midoriya, you're horrible at lying and even if you weren't, you can't fool someone like me..."
"What?"
"My father was a villain, a hit-man whom met my mother and the two of them ended up having me. My father was extremely abusive, and my mother well... I'm not sure how much she actually cares about me..."
"How'd you get out of it?"
"Endeavor caught my dad in the act of an attempted carjacking... Where All Might is your hero, Endeavor is mine."
"What about Shoto Todoroki, his..."
"I don't think Shoto has the full picture, I worked under Endeavor after I got my provisional license. He's hardly perfect, but I got to hear things from some of the senior sidekicks, Endeavor took the loss of Touya rather hard, he was in a panic that he would lose his youngest too, and fire quirks are notoriously difficult to train up your resistance for, but you're trying to change the subject."
"S-sorry!"
"Don't be, I sent Rocky and Tokoyami on, partially so I could talk to you one on one..." said Hawks, "Though, I imagine standing there in nothing but your undies is rather cold."
Midoriya's face turned red from embarrassment, he'd been so shook up he'd forgotten what he was doing, "Yes sir!" He hurriedly resumed changing, "So how did the commission?"
"I ended up saving a few people when my mom tried to have me steal some stuff," Hawks shrugged, "they put my mom in a nice place, while I got raised by the commission. I occasionally got to see her, but I just found I didn't want to be around her."
"I'm sorry," apologized Midoriya as he zipped up the suit and started getting on the new shoes with metal soles as well as the new utility belt and other padding, then threw the shorts and T-shirt in the suitcase.
"You look like a junior hero now, oh there is one thing missing," said Hawks pulling a pair of red goggles out of his coat, "These are yours."
"I'm not sure I follow?"
"I noticed that your eyes got targeted a lot during the sports festival, also if I have to go airborne and carry you while I fly, I don't want you to have an eye injury or it being poked out. Thus I had Rocky get you and Tokoyami goggles."
"Cool," Midoriya put them on over his head while keeping them on his forehead where they could be quickly pulled over his eyes.
"Leave the case here," Hawks ordered, while handing the boy his new learner's permit, his student ID, and his cell phone, "we're going to meet with one person here and then we'll be on our way."
"Why are you being nice to me?" Midoriya asked, suspicious of Hawks' intentions.
"Well aside from being a hero, I always wanted a kid brother," Hawks grinned, "it often got lonely being here, I wanted to be able to relate to other kids, "I never got to go to school, when the commission got me, I was totally illiterate."
Midoriya followed him out of the room and to the elevator, "You would have been really popular at my Middle School with a quirk like yours..."
"While you were shunned and treated as garbage, I imagine if Shoto Todoroki was at that school he'd be popular too."
"I guess..."
"Thing is, upon discovering a kid like you there being treated like garbage, Endeavor would have pulled you and his son out of there so quickly the place would have burned down," Hawks laughed.
"Why are you bringing up my Middle School?" he asked noticing the elevator was slowing its' ascent.
"Because it's going to be investigated," Hawks commented.
"Sir, I'm sorry about..." Midoriya looked at Hawks warily.
"It's okay, I essentially hit you with an emotional two by four and re-opened some old wounds. Also your ridiculous pain tolerance is another dead give away that you were likely abused," Hawks shrugged then grimaced, "Jeez, you really are wary of authority figures. Look, I'm not going to make any advances on you, I'm not into boys; I'm dating Rumi anyways, you know her as Mirko. She'd kill me if she thought I was cheating on her and we aren't even a serious couple... I really don't want to be kicked into orbit."
'That's a relief,' Midoriya thought, he had always been wary of adults, and Hawks had been right on target considering Midoriya's concerns. "I would say you could just go airborne, but I know how high she can jump," he said jokingly.
"Need to work on your delivery, but not a bad attempt," Hawks commented as the two entered a large office where an elderly woman sat at the desk.
"Hello Izuku Midoriya, I've been expecting you."
The door closed causing Midoriya to nearly leap out of his skin but Hawks put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Midoriya calm down. You know you should have turned up the lights in here, the vibe currently is just plain creepy."
"You're the HPSC President," said Midoriya, "I recognize you from various televised events, but they haven't given out your name."
"For good reason," she replied, "hopefully you'll grow out of that wariness, though I imagine you've had a harder life than my generation did."
"I don't understand..."
"Back when I was growing up, being quirkless was uncommon in my generation, but it wasn't exactly rare, it was like a 65/35 split in my generation, the majority of people at that time were quirkless, albeit a slim majority, but children with quirks were being born more frequently than those without," she smiled now that Midoriya was calming down, "You'd never actually met someone other than yourself that was quirkless."
"No ma'am," Midoriya admitted, "I'm guessing there was something that came up with the tests?"
"Yes, aside from a mild vitamin deficiency and you needing more sleep, both of which can be remedied, you're in good health," she stated, "it appears that your body is adjusting to One for All rather well, while you can't physically use your full strength, that isn't uncommon for someone with Delayed Quirk Manifestation Syndrome, but it looks like you'll eventually catch up."
"You mean?"
"The brain scan showed an identical result to what would be seen for someone diagnosed DQMS," she shrugged, "Given a few years, nobody would be able to tell that you weren't born with One for All or that it showed up when you were a teenager. In fact you seem to be more compatible with the quirk than All Might."
"Well that's good then," said Midoriya awkwardly, "So why am I..."
"Here? That's simple I wanted to have a look at the boy who was chosen by All Might to be his successor for myself. I'm honestly of the opinion you are different in many ways which isn't necessarily a bad thing."
Midoriya tried to figure out whether or not what she said was a good thing or a bad thing, as the HPSC President and Hawks discussed something that he was kind of over his head and it was almost like it was code. After they left, Hawks picked up Midoriya and flew to the train station.
Hawks' Hero Agency:
"Yo, the boss is back with the kid!" called out one sidekick.
"It's good to see you're okay," said Tokoyami irritably, "I've been dealing with orientation paperwork..."
"Where's Keito?" Hawks asked.
"He had to go to Hosu for some reason, he was getting some location set up, he should be back any minute now..."
"Well may as well get you two settled into using your hero names, "Tsukuyomi, Deku..."
"Yes.." Tokoyami acknowledge, followed by Midoriya going to full attention, "Sir!"
"Calm down I'm not a drill sergeant," he chuckled as Midoriya relaxed, "Okay, did you guys' stuff arrive?"
"Yes, even Midoriya's suitcase," Tokoyami acknowledged.
"Okay, tomorrow morning the three of us are heading to Hosu, for a stakeout," Hawks grinned as he saw Rocky walk in, "Good your timing is impeccible as always... So we good with the local authorities?" Rocky gave a thumbs up. "This is why I told you not to worry too much about Ida, we'll be in the neighborhood. So Rocky, who's the point of contact that Nighteye provided?"
"Mr. Centipede," Rocky shrugged, "He wouldn't give me the name of his source though.
"You would have preferred Bubble Girl," Hawks teased.
"Actually considering it is easier to tell what she'd thinking, yes."
"Okay you boys get some rest, we're going to be up bright an early to set up shop."
Ryukyu's Agency:
"You didn't do bad for your first day Mineta," Ryukyu commented, "Midnight wasn't kidding..."
"Thanks, so what's the current pro stuff we're dealing with?"
"Unfortunately your role is rather limited in this operation due to your lack of a provisional license," the Dragon Hero answered, "The only reason I can get away with adding you at all, is because your quirk is good at trapping or restraining without inflicting injury."
"That's cool," Mineta commented.
"Did you hear anything from your friend?"
"Finally did it took like forever, sounds like he had a long day today."
"Sounds normal," Ryukyu commented, "you better get some sleep, we're going to have an interesting day tomorrow.
Mineta walked up to the spare room that they assigned to him for the duration of the internship, 'She's right it has been a long day, and I can't wait to show off the alterations to my suit, no more diaper-boat.'
Notes:
I figured there is likely a medical explanation as to why Midoriya was developing those extra abilities and not simply a metaphysical one. I first saw the idea of Midoriya's quirk being stolen being the reason for the extra powers from Epicenter by downx2k, and figured the author was right.
Mineta's internship is not going to have as many fireworks as Midoriya's; also Hawks really does consider Endeavor to be his hero in canon.
