barrytrey0430 - Yeah, and let's be honest - does this Izuku feel like someone who isn't going to try go Plus Ultra on every relationship involved? Way to run himself into an early grave tbh. I decided to make stuff open-ended on this fic (so several girls clearly ARE interested, but Izuku doesn't really seem to be aware). So if you want poly/harem, it can happen post-story. But if you decide to go more realistic on it, it's Izuocha just with Izuku being very popular
TheGreatBubbaJ - No idea :P
The Archivist of Nyx - Aye. He is... pretty fast with thoughts, except occasionally not particularly cohesive.
InfinityMask - For harem, refer to barrytrey answer. For Togata's girlfriend - he actually complains in Cure to Evil that everyone thinks that he has to be dating a heroine, but he is actually dating a waitress from a cat cafe near UA. Might be canon here as well. Or maybe he just replied that way as a form of a joke? Who knows.
Dragonjek - ;) 1-A is strong but Togata is pretty much Top 2-3 Hero combatwise and we all know that.
AdrianVnz - A lot to answer, but I'll try. As you can already see, I'm not painting Endeavor as a simple abuser, because even canon makes the situation be rather complicated. Also, canon Dabi's a shithead mass murderer. Thank you for your words about QLF :P I get the feeling that Humarise stole a lot of spotlight on that field, at least in canon. I absolutely agree about the Nedzu part - the fun thing is that despite being ridiculously smart, he does shit in canon expect for making UA into fortress ;_; Nedzu pls. Also the HPSC president, well, let's just say that if masterminds were graded like football teams, Nedzu, Sir Nighteye, All for One and Re-Destro [at least in my fics] would be in the first league, while she would be at the top of the second league, maaaybe at the bottom of the first one. Still not someone to look down on. I also agree about the TV Tropes thing ;_: Cure to Evil got one, this one didn't and it's sad because imo it's better than CTE. Also yeah, dealing with 'Dabi' is rather interesting here. Especially as it's clear that it was worse than death for Dabi - Midoriya did that to give Endeavor a second chance, not to 'save' Dabi who at this point spilled too much blood to be saved (not like he even wanted to be saved). And I agree about Rei.
(***)
Mirio Togata does the worst mistake that one can do when you just issued a challenge to Izuku Midoriya.
He doesn't engage him immediately. Instead, he lets the 1-A make a quick strategic council, although obviously it's mostly Midoriya telling them what he knows, and then he and Yaoyorozu announcing their chosen list of countermeasures to Togata's quirk.
Few more seem to contribute to a degree. Most simply listen. Togata is smiling at them from a distance, completely unaware that he is already a dead man.
Of course, if nothing significant changed about him recently, he is still an equivalent of a Top 5 hero. And there are no handicaps here. He will take some down. Eraserhead is only curious how many before the assembly of problem children headed by a demon child will return the favor.
The fight starts. Midoriya leaps forward, while Togata promptly turns naked. Izuku's kick goes through (to the shock of everyone, c'mon Togata, they are only pretending to be surprised, don't fall for it) and then he disappears into the ground.
Jirou promptly slams her earphones into the amplifiers in her legs and smashes the ground underneath them. Everyone is having problems keeping their position.
Togata reemerges right behind her, except the floor is now uneven and he had no way of knowing that while underground (yes, Eraserhead knows his quirk).
What's worse, his incredible movement speed is mostly due to him getting ejected from the underground when he deactivates his quirk. He calculated the exit to attack one of the identified ranged attackers, except the floor was now uneven, so he was ejected with a different trajectory than he had in mind.
"I KNEW IT WORKED LIKE THAT!" The demon child yells with a childish joy in his voice. Eraserhead is so done with Midoriya that he can't even begin to describe it with any human language known to him.
Before Togata realizes what happened, Katsuki is at him. Sero's tape grabs Jirou by the waist and pulls her out of his range. Togata has Bakugou's attack phase through him, scans the area quickly and disappears underground again.
"Plan Two, now!" Midoriya yells. Of course he figured out that Togata can't hear them when he is underground, so they have three or four seconds to issue orders while keeping him out of the loop.
Uraraka uses her quirk. Sero uses his quirk. Eraserhead stares in quiet horror. Amajiki is looking at the battle right now, and he seems to have problems figuring out what was happening. Nejire, in the meantime, is laughing.
Togata planned to attack Mina this time. Since Midoriya suspected him to go for the ranged combatants first (and attack from behind to maximize the chances of successful takedown) he made a Plan Two to counter that.
When Togata was busy with his first attack, Uraraka promptly made a lot of shattered rocks floating. Then Sero used his tape to move them into their places - right behind three random ranged combatants of class 1-A. One of them was Mina.
Togata planned to use his displacement ejection mechanism to appear right there. Except, there were rocks there now, so he was ejected further. He thus found himself in the air, where he was immediately engaged by Todoroki and Yoarashi.
Yoarashi's quirk was a natural counter to Togata's in the air, because for as long as even a single part of his body wasn't intangible, his air current had something to influence. And with fire present in said air current, he was almost grilled before he went fully intangible.
"What… what is going on?" Amajiki mumbles to himself. Eraserhead failed to find the answer to it, and he is still unable to comprehend what's going on in his life. At least since his first date with Emi.
Togata, naturally, calculated everything perfectly. He fell underground, reemerged elsewhere and managed to knock out Aoyama with a nasty-looking blow to the stomach.
This was going to be a longer battle.
(***)
Eventually, Togata gets defeated. He managed to take out most of the 1-A before that… except, that was his undoing. With a lower number of potential targets, Midoriya managed to predict who was going to get attacked next. And he made sure to keep those he needed for his last plan to work from getting knocked out.
When Togata submerges, Shimura promptly disintegrates an entire chunk of ground around the predicted target (namely, Uraraka). Katsuki fires up a Stun Grenade (while Todoroki fires up an Exploding Fireball) into the hole where Togata is, a second before Mirio (who thinks he is still underground) goes tangible again.
He isn't ejected anywhere. Instead, he is surrounded by explosions. Enough of them to get knocked out of the fight before he has the time to reactivate his Permeation.
Amajiki looks like he is wondering if someone threw him into another universe. Nejire is laughing again, before slamming her hand into Togata's back in an universal gesture of reassurance. He immediately laughs too.
He has some nasty looking bruises and burns, but could probably still fight. Except, Eraserhead decided to call it off at this point. He needs to get a check from Recovery Girl. They don't want that wound on the cheek to not heal correctly.
"Damn it, First Years, you're certainly worth the hype!" Mirio is magnanimous in defeat (more like, a tie, really, he wiped out half of them before he got taken down). Yoarashi's respect for him seems to be skyrocketing. Kirishima, of course, mutters a quiet 'manly' while still holding his stomach. That was a nasty hit, even if it failed to kick him out of the fight.
Eraserhead tells them all to return to the classroom. He already shudders when thinking about the future, especially as he clearly saw Togata and Midoriya exchanging contact numbers right before this happened.
(***)
Internships are soon to begin. Theoretically this is something that the students are supposed to come forward with, asking this or that hero to let them intern at their agencies. But it soon becomes apparent that not all is going as the students expected.
Namely speaking, they are exceptions.
"What do you mean…" Yoshihiro Maki, son of now jailed Purity, the maniacal and extremely racist leader of the Creature Rejection Clan, asks Vlad King. "...by 'Miruko is offering you an internship'?"
Miruko probably refused to read the fine print about how internships worked. Or she didn't care.
It's not the weirdest of the resulting internships. Especially once Midoriya decides that it's time to end the stupid feud between his dad and Sir Nighteye. Or die trying.
Naturally, he forgets to mention that to his father. It will work way better if he isn't there to stop it from happening. So he promptly arranges a meeting with Mirio Togata, as of a few days ago his favourite senpai.
Sure. He relates to Amajiki the most. But he is trying to be like Mirio. That changes a lot of things.
(***)
"Sure, no problem with that!" Mirio replies with a smile. "I can arrange a meeting with Sir. Just, so you know, he can be a bit…"
"I know, I know." Midoriya has to brace himself for that talk. It's going to be a complicated one. Sir still didn't get the memo about All Might having a family now. And he probably hoped for Mirio to be the One for All inheritor.
In Izuku Midoriya's opinion, he would be a splendid One for All holder. It would require a lot of practice to tie his intangibility with physical power-up, not to mention other quirks. But…
How easy would it be to fight, let's say, Revenant? Sure, he had Shock Absorption quirks to counter One for All's primary damage type. But with Permeation, Mirio could literally do the same. But to a greater degree, and against many types of attacks simultaneously. And with his physique, his body would certainly be able to hold a bigger percentage of One for All right off the bat.
Izuku Midoriya feels vaguely inferior. It's nothing new to him. He should probably mention this to Hound Dog, but how to do that without mentioning One for All? Ugh. His life was way too complicated for his own good.
It always goes back to him being quirkless for years, wasn't it?
(***)
"Sir Nighteye, I've brought the first year that I told you about yesterday!" Mirio exclaims loudly as they step into Sir Nigtheyes' hero agency.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Bubble Girl is laughing maniacally, restrained in a tickling machine dubbed the Tickle Hell. It's literally written above it. Sir Nighteye is standing right next to what Izuku decides must be the tickling intensity control valve.
Okay, this is actually quite ho… RRENDOUS. Yes. Absolutely and totally horrendous. That was certainly Izuku Midoriya's first thought about it.
"Oh, she must have not been humorous enough in her report." Mirio comments, while Izuku is briefly thinking about Uraraka. His words wake him up. Is that a daily thing in this office? Oh no. This is the worst. In more ways than one.
Sir Nighteye turns his face towards Izuku. It's … a rather intense stare. Very, very judgmental. Or at least analytical. It's hard to say. But it does make him look a bit scary.
What follows is his best All Might impression. And then rather abrupt explanation of the whole vinegar suicide incident. Finally, he and Sir Nighteye are alone. He expects the serious part of the talk to begin now.
(***)
"What is your reasoning for wanting to intern under me?" Sir Nighteye asks. They are sitting on the opposite sides of a desk, with the internship papers and Sir Nighteye's Agency's stamp next to it.
The stare is still there. Honestly, all things considered, that's probably Sir Nighteye's normal way of looking at people. For all his talks about humour, he prefers to limit his interaction with other people.
He is a backseat strategist and investigator. Mostly. He is surprisingly strong in direct combat (Izuku suspected it for a long time, and his father confirmed it when he asked), he just prefers to leave potential attackers unaware of that.
"I have three main reasons." Izuku says, fidgeting slightly. Sir's stare is making him a bit uncomfortable. "First one is the fact that I know that you trained Mirio. And I know why. I think that, all things considered, you did a very good job. I believe that I need similar training."
One of his brows raises. Sir Nighteye didn't expect that.
"So, finer details of quirk control, and public appearances." Mirai Sasaki concludes. Izuku nods. He could deal with the former on himself, but… well, more quirks. He might need a hand, and he wishes to learn more about his favorite hobby from someone like Sir Nighteye.
Public appearances, yes. That might be extremely helpful. Much more than anything else. It's not that Mirio was a stuttering mess, but he was certainly not THIS outgoing before he started working with Sir.
Yes, Izuku checked that. Nedzu was happy to answer all his questions about that subject. Speaking of Nedzu…
"That, plus… I'm not sure if you know, but… Principal Nedzu decided to make me his personal student." Judging from the slight change in the look he is receiving, Sir didn't know that. "He believes that I have the potential to play in the same league as he and you do. I'm already learning from him, and I believe that learning from you too would benefit me a lot."
"Interesting." Sir Nighteye replies scarcely. Izuku is 99% sure that Nedzu will get a phone call after this. He is also 95% sure that Nedzu knows that as well and is looking forward to the call. "What are the other two reasons?"
"The first one is that considering what I know about you, I'm also certain that you are the main investigator when it comes to the Paranormal Liberation Front." Izuku replies. It was, honestly, rather obvious.
Nedzu was more of a general strategist, someone had to be gathering the intel for him. Nedzu refused to say who, but the way he said it… well, it was rather obvious that he expected Izuku to figure it out.
"Considering the fact that it has already threatened my classmates on more than one occasion, I wish to be more up to date about it." He continues. "And I do believe that I have something to offer when it comes to the investigation in question."
Namely, his contacts. The PLF, at this point, was more or less aware that Stain and Mr. Compress helped sabotage their operations in the Kamino Ward. But… Well, he had more contacts than those two.
Besides, he could always just ask his mom. She was terrifyingly well-informed thanks to her cooking club.
"I see." Sir Nighteye is unreadable. And probably dedicated to asking Nedzu about details first. Nedzu was, occasionally, way too secretive for his own good. Izuku was 95% sure that Sir didn't know about his involvement in the Kamino situation. It was… a bad idea, if he truly was the head investigator. "The third reason, then?"
"I… kind of hoped that I could somehow get you and All Might and bury the hatchet?" Izuku is suddenly fidgeting with a much greater intensity. Sir's stare is also growing with strength. Tenfold, at least. Or so he feels`.
"I mean, after Kamino it's rather obvious that you were right when you told him to take it slow and retire." Izuku says. Sir Nighteye looks vaguely surprised by the vote of confidence from All Might's successor. "It's just that he is a bit too stubborn to admit that he was wrong. And I think that he needs a slight push in the right direction."
Honestly, All Might figured out that he is getting old after running around with missing internal organs for almost five years. It was a bit of an eye-opener for the old hero. The pain was there constantly, and the age began to catch-up to him.
By the time he ran into Izuku, he was all but looking forward to retirement. He still wanted to get his son and successor as far as possible before Kamino accelerated everything a bit too much. He was literally doing what Sir wanted him to do, just a few years later.
Then again, he DID find his old love and son this way. On the other hand, the several years of his slow decline give the remaining post-All for One supervillains time to team-up properly. So by the time that All Might fell from his throne, they were ready to wage war.
If he did it right after fighting All for One, the supervillains wouldn't feel the continuous pressure that his presence exuded. Glassmaker, Mechanist and in a twisted way Overhaul were the survivors of All Might's large-scale organized crime suppression actions in the aftermath of All for One's fall.
All Might did it because he felt like he was running on borrowed time after his injuries. It was, all things considered, a strategic mistake. One that would probably not happen if he still had Mirai Sasaki next to him.
He wiped out all the major crime syndicates… but the smartest and most driven of their leaders survived. And began to promptly fill the void once All Might's time-limit began to decline and he could no longer suppress them again.
And then they developed capital A Ambitions. And things went ugly when they threw their lot with political revolutionaries and mad scientists.
"You actually agree with me?" Sir Nighteye asks and Izuku nods. "You also sound very close to All Might. Closer than I expected even from his successor."
It's probably the 'I'm trying to engineer his life for h… oh my god, Sir Nighteye doesn't know?! Why did Gran Torino forget to mention it? Why did Nedzu not phone him about it?!
Why is everyone around him hiding crucial information from people, only to make it hurt them in the long-te… damn, he did the same with Ochaco and his little mental break after Kamino, didn't he? And he is still kind of doing it with the Holders, wasn't he?
Ugh.
"I… y…you weren't told about it?" He manages to utter, and Sir looks utterly lost for a second. "Oh. Uhm. I'm not sure how to start answering the unspoken question, but…"
"With humour and drive." Sir Nighteye replies and it's decidedly unhelpful because Izuku has no idea how to start describing his relation with his father without triggering similar outburst of STOP MAKING FUN OF ALL MIGHT like his All Might's impression did earlier.
"Well, uhm, All Might actually married my mom a year ago." It's almost closer to a year and a half really. Damn, time sure does fly fast when you are actually happy for the first time in your life. "When he came to explain the issue of me becoming his successor it turned out that she was his old lover and… well, that he is actually my biological father. It was an… eventful evening." He adds as he scratches his cheek nervously.
Sir Nighteye stares at him for close to four seconds before he decides to speak.
"I'm going to need some proof to believe in t…" There is suddenly an A4 page with Recovery Girl-signed paternity test results in front of him. Sir Nighteye stops speaking and promptly gives it a read.
Izuku expected disbelief, so he did come prepared. Sir Nighteye is someone who was going to need some actual evidence to believe in such a claim, after all. He is paranoid by design, and nothing can really change it.
"I… apparently got most of my looks from my mom." He says, in an almost apologetic tone. Then he immediately chastises himself in his mind. Stop making it sound like you are apologizing for not looking like All Might!
"That's… unexpected." Mirai Sasaki admits. Izuku has no idea what is his opinion about it. "Why did he choose you then, if not for your familial connection?" At least he doesn't accuse All Might of nepotism, that would… get real bad very quickly.
"I think that it might be best if you ask him yourself." Izuku decides to be a bit pushy about it. Mirai Sasaki used to be his father's closest thing to a best friend, and he is going to get them back together, no matter what.
Their feud is, in his opinion, stupid. And he is ready to tell that to his father's face if needed. He can't exactly mend it for them, they have to do it himself, but he can certainly try giving them a push in the right direction.
"Perhaps I will." Sir Nighteye replies. With a loud thump, the stamp lands on the document. "In the meantime, I am going to examine you and your abilities thoroughly. We'll see if you are worth the blessing you received."
Izuku is alright with that. Having to deal with hostile figures of authorities looking down on him is something that he has years of experience in. He'll overcome this.
(***)
All Might has a brief moment of panic when he picks up his phone and recognizes the number that's phoning him. He conjures a random excuse to temporarily leave the school faculty meeting.
He doesn't want anyone to listen to him talking. There might be… private things mentioned.
"Yes?" Let's be cool about it. Cool. This is just your former best-buddy for life that you broke with over an argument. It's not important that you later on realized that he was right all along. It. Doesn't. Matter. It's not Inko or Gran Torino, you can deal with it.
"We need to talk." Mirai replies. His voice is just as expressionless as Yagi remembers. "About my new intern."
New intern? Who could potentially be Sir Nighteye's new intern? Who would potentially make him phone All Might of all peo…
Oh, God. Izuku, why?! What made you think that this was a good idea? And why didn't you mention this to your father?
"Oh… it's Izuku, right?" All Might asks with a voice of someone who was just betrayed by someone close to him and has no idea how to deal with it.
"He didn't tell you that he wants to intern with me?" Sir Nighteye sounds vaguely surprised by this. Is the concept of All Might son disobeying his father this alien to him?
"He is… how should I put it… rather independent." All Might replies, looking back to the transcript of Izuku's talk with Todoroki during the school festival. Especially the bit where he stated his goal to become a new All Might without relying on the old one's assets. At least, too much. And let's not dig into what he pulled during Kamino. "And when he really wants, he is very good at information security."
It's just that he doesn't want to when it's about his own secrets and his friends. Then he gets very, very lousy with his tongue. Chief among all, he wants to be accepted by them. In the entirety.
"Why did you choose him?" Sir decides to go directly for the throat. On the other hand, he at least doesn't accuse All Might of nepotism and… wait a second. Does he know about Izuku being All Might's son? Gran Torino certainly clued him in, right?
"Uhm… do you know about our… connection?" Let's try going this way.
"I'm acutely aware of it." Sir Nighteye replies. "Your son brought the results of the paternity test with him. But I assume that your familiar connections weren't the reason."
Oh. Well, there are two options. One, his son stole his blood sample to get some additional proof before confronting Sir Nighteye. Two, he managed to falsify the document well enough to fool one of the best investigators in the country. Yagi Toshinori isn't sure which option horrifies him more.
"No, it wasn't that." Yagi decides to leave confronting his son for some other time. "I was actually going to…" Shit, mentioning Mirio Togata sounds like a horrible idea, now isn't it? "I ran into him on chance."
He describes the whole encounter.
Starting from his rather hasty words said to his fan on a certain rooftop - somehow Sir Nighteye manages to radiate his disapproval at the way All Might handled it through the phone, despite not saying a word.
Then going on to the moment where he was reduced to a helpless wreck, forced to watch a teenager getting killed because a group of heroes had no idea how to use their quirks to deal with the villain.
And how a random, quirkless kid actually achieved more than they all combined, and while he only managed to buy the victim a few labored breaths, it actually inspired All Might to push through his limit.
He briefly skims through the discovery that the kid's mother was actually his old lover and that Izuku was his son. He doesn't mention said woman being Mischief. This really isn't the time.
He also doesn't mention Izuku's stepfather. He isn't suicidal. He could practically feel the future-Sir Nighteye judgmental and furious stare when he as much as considered it. Getting the actual thing would be way worse.
Though he does mention several siblings that he adopted, and that their father is dead. Let's leave it at this. He also doesn't mention the recent developments because Inko would have absolutely murdered him.
He decides to finish narrating the tale on the day the Thunderbolt made a step too far. Description of how Izuku (still quirkless) stood up to the Number Three Hero in order to save two of his victims (that really, really deserved saving and were exactly that - victims).
Though he does omit Mr. Compress participation in the event.
"I see." Sir Nighteye is unreadable. Especially through the phone. Not like seeing Sir Nighteye helps a lot in reading him, really. "I must admit that when I first heard of your choice, I had… doubts. Especially after the sports festival."
Yeah. This makes sense. There was a reason why Izuku didn't get a lot of internship offers despite showing incredibly power-level and creative tactics earlier.
"That was… ugh… well, Young Todoroki needed help." All Might replies. "And Izuku is ready to sacrifice a lot of bones to help his classmates, evidently."
He really isn't digging into what he had Tenko Shimura do to him during the Training Camp attack. Inko said everything that there was to be said about it, and he really isn't returning to that day.
"Not just his friends." Sir Nighteye corrects him. "One third of his reasons to apply for an internship with me was to have the two of us bury the hatchet. According to his words, you realized that I was right all along, but you are too stubborn to admit it. Care to elaborate on that?"
Yagi Toshinori decides that his eldest son is going to graduate from the UA before his house arrest ends.
(***)
So, Izuku Midoriya is still a normal teenager with normal teenager reactions under all of that chaos gremliness. Imagine my surprise. Midnight was probably right on the money, despite being muted for it, oh well.
[Also Mirio Togata is being Mirio Togata, the Cool Senpai Extraordinaire - some things never change]