Judging from the reactions on AO3, the last scene is somehow the peak humour. Because more than 50% of comments there are about it killing people with laughter. I'm genuinely confused, but... I mean, as long as it works, amiright?
Xandarius - This is, coincidentally, my favorite All Might as well.
Dragonjek - Yeah, it'll take him a while to show up in his new hero uniform and under a new name, but... let's just say that it's going to be glorious.
The Archivist of Nyx - *slightly mischevious laughter*. And yeah, Kaina has a taste. Also, why no comments from you on last chapters of ETS? I kind of grew worried *slightly worried stare*
Ryuujin96 - He is already pretending to be Y'All Might, Texan cousin of All Might, in Hysterical. Let's not get too... overwhelming with the references, k?
Engineer of Epicness - First of all, cool nickname. Second of all, incorrect theory. Also HOOO-RAAAAH!
TheGreatBubbaJ - Look I'm not saying that AFO would kick a bucket if Lady Nagant just shot him in the head from outside of his attack detection quirk range, but...
Musicalwatcher99 - Aiko's quirk is still a big mystery, so I'm waiting for the reveal. As for Asa, he can give 'status conditions' (like poisoned, bleeding) to people he touched recently. But he gets very creative with status conditions so you get stuff like Powerful, Imperceptible and the likes as well.
AdrianVnz - Tsukauchi, Eraserhead, Inko and, soon, Sir Nighteye. They are the only sane people in the vicinity of the Midoriyas, ngl. And you're right. Re-Destro staying under the radar spells some very bad things for the Hero Society.
Detrametal - BETRAYAL! Also I agree about Knuckleduster/Nagant and Eri being cute :D
Trixuny - Nope :P
(***)
Hatsume Industries Chatroom
OSHA_Inspector: Also no, Mei.
OSHA_Inspector: Using a plasma torch to heat up your food is officially forbidden.
OSHA_Inspector: And so is developing a 'plasma torch oven'.
OSHA_Inspector: The instruction saying 'cook for 20 minutes in 200C' doesn't mean that you can cook it instantly in 25 000C.
Gremlin_The_CEO: Momo, don't do that to me
OSHA_Inspector: No.
Gremlin_The_CEO: But I'm the CEO here!
OSHA_Inspector: You won't save some time to spend on our babies, you'll incinerate your food. And probably trigger the fire alarm.
Gremlin_The_CEO: I'm sure that it's just a design flaw, I can work around it!
OSHA_Inspector: Shinsou, I summon thee.
NightGuard: I am here.
OSHA_Inspector: Timeout corner. Three hours. Have her take a nap AND take a shower while at it.
Gremlin_The_CEO: NOOOOOO
NightGuard: On it.
OSHA_Inspector: I'll phone Power Loader to let you in if she barricades her lab and rewires the Support Lab security system to display you as Overhaul.
OSHA_Inspector: Again.
NightGuard: Much obliged. Those turrets were a pain in the ass, even if they were set to non-lethal mode.
QuirkR&D: Momo, we have a problem.
OSHA_Inspector: What is it, Izuku?
QuirkR&D: Aizawa-sensei just officially forbid us from using Kirishima as a lab rat.
CrashTestDummy: AND THIS IS SO UNMANLY UGHHHH
QuirkR&D: apparently we were going too far
CrashTestDummy: And that's stupid! My hardening got several times stronger because of that training –_–
CrashTestDummy: We were just going Plus Ultra! That's literally the school's motto!
QuirkR&D: I KNOW RIGHT?!
QuirkR&D: Ghrrrrrrrrrrr
OSHA_Inspector: Any ideas, Iida?
Legal_Department: Yes.
(***)
Eraserhead was never as close to expelling his problem children as he was on that fateful day.
He told Midoriya to stop using Kirishima as his personal lab rat. Honestly the whole 'Hatsume Industries' artillery testing was only a small bit of what was happening around him, because he was repeatedly used by his classmates as a quirk training dummy.
That he apparently agreed to.
Because Midoriya and Yaoyorozu told him that he would impress Mina a lot.
Did it stop them? No. The day after that, Eraserhead followed the sound of shouts and explosions to run into Midoriya and Yaoyorozu (who was slowly changing into another demon child among his students, and of course Midoriya was to blame) technically following his newest ban.
Technically.
They and some of their classmates were training their quirks on Tetsutetsu.
They told him that it would impress Kendou a lot.
The only reason why he didn't expel them on the spot was because Nedzu would re-enroll them, as he found their hijinks hilarious and was treating Midoriya as the closest thing he had to a son.
And because if he somehow managed to blackmail Nedzu into not re-enrolling them, then pretty much the entire First Year would have followed Midoriya into exile. And that would be a massive blow to UA as a whole.
There was a reason why Lemillion referred to the demon child as 'King of the First Years'. Because that's what he was. Even if the king remained unaware of their power, that was still the truth.
1-A was his personal court. 1-B de facto joined it after he started giving them quirk development tips, with the Training Camp fight and the reveal of who his father is contributing as well. The General Course got converted into the Hero Course because of him. So they were fanatically loyal to him and were the closest thing that kingdom had to a standing army, really. They would absolutely kill for him, no questions asked.
The Support Course practically worshiped him for being (together with Yaoyorozu, but she was in second place) the only power capable of restraining Mei Hatsume. Practically as in literally. Power Loader showed him the shrine.
Eraserhead dreads the moment once they get in contact with Dark Shadow and Hitoshi. The last thing he wants is the Church of Green Lightning the Ever Merciful developing an actual theology. Or perhaps getting into a religious union with the Church of Aiko.
Only the Management Course was even theoretically out of Midoriya's realm, but let's be real. Those guys are business savvy. And they realized long ago that 'their' first years are a future goldmine.
They would have rather hired an assassin to eliminate Eraserhead than let him expel said goldmine. And yes, he knows that because he received an anonymous warning that they will do that if he keeps pushing against their beloved soon-to-be money printers. From someone in the Management Course.
The fact that said someone managed to cover their tracks well enough that Nedzu failed to identify them was actually rather intimidating.
Considering what classes 1-A to 1-D did during the provisional license exam, EVERY hero school out there would have been ready to enroll them. No questions asked. And would probably include the Support and Management courses as well, even if they had to go into debt to achieve that.
Eraserhead wouldn't be surprised if Midoriya persuaded All Might to open his own school, just to enroll them all and finish their education. Toshinori is absolutely enthralled by his son, and all that Izuku would have to do was just ask him for it.
Also, expelling them would be admitting that he lost.
Eraserhead will persevere. He can do it. He can do it. He can do it. He can do it. He can do it. He can do it. He can do it…
(***)
"I'm getting increasingly curious about the identity of the mysterious hacker that seems to be assisting Midoriya." Nedzu says. He and Power Loader were talking about improving the network security following the recent (successful) hack perpetrated by the Clockwork Tower hackers. Then, Nedzu suddenly decided to go off-topic.
"Hmmm?" Power Loader is a bit surprised by it, but decides to play along. "Wasn't that La Brava?"
He is vaguely aware by now that the All Might has a family, and it has some connections to some of the less nasty villains out there. He isn't going to judge. But he will contact the police if the villains turn out more nasty than he thought.
"Actually, no." Nedzu replies. "I'd recognize her handiwork. This is someone else. Eraserhead assumed that it was La Brava during the post-Kamino meeting and… well, I believe that Midoriya didn't refute this statement on purpose. To make us all think that it was La Brava, but without stating it directly. So that he didn't, technically, lie to us. In fact, I'm almost certain now that Gentle Criminal was involved in the Kamino Ward precisely to make us assume that La Brava is Midoriya one-woman hacking brigade. He is good, yes, but Stain and Mr. Compress would have done it on their own."
And it took Nedzu how much time to figure it out? A lot. Damn. Midoriya is growing up into one scary man. Which is only a relatively small improvement from being a scary teenager, something that he seems to have already mastered.
"Thus far we know of only two direct interventions." Nedzu says. "First one was during the mall incident. Second one was during the attempt to kidnap Eri. The real oddity is that this indicates that our mysterious benefactor is capable of penetrating both the PLF and the UA internal networks. Without leaving a single trace of their presence."
"So the real question is…" Power Loader says. "... why won't he just tell us where to find PLF leadership. Because they should know that much, considering how deeply they infiltrated them. "
Nedzu nods.
"And the most surprising thing is that I have never seen that hacker on the internet before." Nedzu says. "He or she is clearly either a hacking master to equal or surpass me, or have many, many hands to work with. So why have I never heard about them before? What a mystery."
Power Loader realizes what it is about. Nedzu just found a Mystery. Something to occupy his mind for more than twenty minutes. This is… well, at least he isn't the target of this mystery. That would suck big time.
"Can't you just ask Midoriya about it?" He decides to be the voice of reason on this.
"It's not how the game goes, Power Loader!" Nedzu chuckles. "Our special lessons are past the point where we tell each other things. Now we're hiding things from each other… and trying to find the truth for ourselves. And this little morsel looks particularly tasty."
Well, RIP mystery hacker. Nedzu will find you, sooner or later.
(***)
Yoshihiro Maki is knowledgeable enough about modern culture and society to know that there were people out there who would actually pay for the occasion to spend time with Miruko. He is also aware that there were people out there who would pay for the occasion to have her kick them around with extreme prejudice.
He is also aware that he doesn't consider himself to be a part of either of these groups. And this is a problem when Miruko clearly made it the work studies goal to kick his ass.
Once again he is sent flying. And once again, he raises up. Even if his quirk is only barely helpful in this, he still trained himself hard. Really hard. Plus, of course, he is rather certain that Miruko is going easy on him.
More than during the Provisional License Exam. Except this time it's her own decision, and not a handicap.
"Alright, it's break time." Miruko announces. Maki is reassured because honestly, he isn't sure how much longer he could keep taking it. Her kicks were… wow. Seriously, wow. He slumps to the ground, trying to take a breath. "One thing I can tell you, kid, is that you have a lot of talent. For being a punching bag."
Thank you, Miruko. That was… on-point.
Honestly, he has no idea why she wanted him to intern with her. It was… well, she was a Top Hero, and she wanted him. So, naturally, he decided to do it. The results were… he had no idea, really.
Alright. Fuck it. He can as well try asking. She won't just kick him through the window for this, right?
"Wh…Why did you choose me?" It's really bugging him at night. Miruko herself is incredibly hard to read.
If she doesn't answer, he's using the only alternative left to him. Namely, he's phoning Midoriya. He probably knows. He knows an awful lot of things.
(Maki still has no idea how the hell did he know about his existence and who his parent was, not that he is complaining about it. But it's still rather… intimidating? Surprising? Worrying? All of that equally, tbh)
"So, you finally decided to ask, eh?" Miruko is doing some additional stretching exercises while speaking to him. Once again - something a lot of people would pay to see, but the one person who does see it would rather not be in the same room with the Rabbit Hero. "Any theories?"
What is it now?
"Besides what happened to Purity, no." He isn't referring to her as his mother. That's over. She is in Tartarus. Considering the amount of crimes she committed, she is not leaving the prison ever again. She can rant to the jailers about how much her sons betrayed her for not wanting to commit ethnic cleansing with her. Maki doesn't give a shit about that woman anymore.
"That contributed." Miruko replies. When he stares at her questioningly, she gives him a shit-eating grin. "Kid, you arrested the biggest enemy of complex mutants like me in the country. And the closest thing I had to a personal nemesis among the villains. Of course I got interested in you."
Well, great. He has some mixed feelings about getting anything due to Purity, even if there is a word 'jailing' before her villain name.
He takes his eyes off Miruko for a second, he swears. When he looks at her again, she is squatting right in front of him. When did she even…
"Look, kid." She is oddly reserved for… well, herself. And serious. "The way I see it? You have the potential to be a Top Ten Hero. No fancy tricks, just hard training and physical strength. The way I like it. But there is a single glaring flaw that you have to fix, or it will get you and perhaps some civilians next to you killed. Do you know what that is?"
Well, he can answer that question easily enough.
"My strength depends on external circumstances." He replies. "My quirk gives me power proportional to how much I think that I'm in the right in the situation."
Thankfully, seeing himself as morally superior to the enemy isn't a necessity. He can use his quirk to save civilians when there isn't an enemy to fight (for example during a natural disaster) for as long as he sees using that strength as morally good. Though the strength still depends on how messed-up the situation is. Bonus points if the victims are children.
"Nope." Miruko surprises him. "That's actually a strength of yours, not a weakness." He stares at her in shock, so she grins at him. "Do you know much collateral damage Mt. Lady can cause while pursuing a pickpocket if she makes a single mistake? Your power has an in-born limiter that makes it so that you don't have to focus on restraining yourself when the situation isn't critical. You can always or almost always go all out. Any other idea what I'm talking about?"
Sometimes it's best to admit that you don't know shit. Like right now. So he shakes his head.
"Your problem is the fact that you're seeing complex mutants as something that they aren't." Miruko says and… well, he didn't expect that. "You see them as someone special. Newsflash, kid. Whatever bullshit idiots like Beast and his Inhuman Supremacy Party spout, we are normal humans, just like you. We deserve no special treatment. We deserve being treated like every other human being. And that's your problem."
Shit. The school festival. She had to watch it. Either before or after she found out about his ties to Purity.
"Ehh, I can see you're starting to figure it out." Miruko gives him an even wilder grin. "You can't half-ass it only because your enemy is a complex mutant. Your guilt is your weakness. I get where it's coming from, but you're going to have to kick it in the face and tell it to fuck off if you want to be a hero. You are already fighting at half of your potential strength when facing a hero during a training session. With me being a complex mutant, you have… what? Quarter of your total strength? According to what I got from the UA, even against a complex mutant villain you're still going fifty percent at best. This is going to get you killed."
She is right, isn't she? He hates to admit it, but… Then again, it's not like just making a decision that she is right will change anything. He has to actually feel. This is much harder to achieve.
Doubts are a weakness with a quirk like his. Crippling weakness, even.
"I'm not a fucking shrink, just so we're clear." Miruko continues. "So I'm going to do it my own way. I'm going to keep kicking you in the face until you start actually putting in some satisfying degree of effort into defending yourself. If it's going to make you see my face on every complex mutant villain in front of you, that's fine with me. For as long as it makes you actually not half-ass it like a fucking loser." This time the grin is downright nasty. "Break is over. Time for pain."
Fuck.
(***)
Most of his time during those work-studies was spent at the Nighteye Agency. With Sir Nighteye himself.
Izuku absolutely loved that. Sir Nighteye was intimidating, yes. He was also odd. But c'mon! He knew so many things! Learning from him was absolutely delightful! And Izuku had a lot of experience with spending time with people that were both intimidating and odd. And somehow getting along with them.
The biggest problem was explaining to him why Izuku has so many contacts in the widely-understood underworld. Thankfully, by the time Sir wanted to know the answer to it, All Might had already admitted to him that he married a retired supervillain.
Through a phone. Considering their past, All Might was probably ready to bolt towards the nearest airport and book a ticket to Europe. Or equatorial Africa. Or Cape Canaveral in order to hitch a ride on a space shuttle out of Sir Nighteye's reach. Doing this through the phone should have given him enough time to run.
Izuku expected Sir Nighteye to explode. Instead, the man asked All Might to give him a moment to digest it. Then he spent seven minutes and twenty-three seconds (Izuku counted) staring blankly into space.
Once the process of intellectual digestion was concluded, Sir Nighteye picked up the phone again, and said that everything is alright now. He also inquired for the best place to obtain one of the old Mischief posters to add to his collection of All Might-related merch.
His father was relieved enough that he somehow actually ended up blabbering out the truth about Izuku's stepfather. And the existence of his siblings. Turned out that it was a rather bad idea.
Thankfully, Sir Nighteye calmed down before he managed to get a UA visitor's pass and create a good enough plan to kidnap All Might, throw him into a bank vault, and then keep him there so that he doesn't do anything stupid enough to ruin his legend.
A major point of Sir Nighteye's calming process was Izuku pointing out that considering the fact that the One for All/All for One war started after his stepfather threw the First Holder into a bank vault, doing the same to All Might sounds a bit too… Well, the connotations really weren't nice. Especially for someone who was wearing a suit for most of the time.
"I am going to act as if All Might married your mother to get a last laugh over All for One." Sir Nighteye then told Izuku. "And that he is keeping an eye on your siblings, and that's why he adopted them."
That was rather obvious bullshit. Then again, Mirai Sasaki clearly knew that.
"I…" Izuku blinked at him a few times. "But that's not how it is."
"I'm acutely aware." Sir Nighteye confirmed his suspicions. "However I'm going to stick to that version, for unlike the truth, it lets me maintain my delusional belief that All Might is an adult human being."
Izuku should probably not mention his dad playing darts with the Hero Killer at their home yesterday. With the HPSC's president photo plastered over the dartboard. Or that one time when Auntie Nagant dropped by and his dad started to prank call notable HPSC members with her.
Does he want to know why Mera freaked out so much when they pretended to be Hawks' parents trying to reconnect with him after the years? Probably yes, because it sounded like good blackmail material against the HPSC.
Knuckleduster's vigilantes were already checking it out. That should be good enough for now.
Should he have stopped them from making those calls? Probably yes, but he was too busy trying to come up with new, more creative prank call ideas. Izuku Midoriya really doesn't like the HPSC. It should be reformed from grounds-up, and a lot of its upper ranked members should end up in Tartarus.
Meeting Thunderbolt up close (and getting to see pre-character development Endeavor) only strengthened his beliefs. And there is also the part where Auntie Nagant described her past as HPSC' enforcer, that lasted until the weight of being the Commission's assassin finally broke her metaphorical back.
Also, to quote their old home's wi-fi password, hpsc_delenda_est.
(***)
Sir Nighteye apparently was a great fan of the Symbol of Peace. And of the Number One Hero, All Might. But had some rather mixed feelings about Yagi Toshinori. It was something that he actually openly stated to Izuku.
He kind of dreaded the fact that Yagi Toshinori was now no longer tethered by being the sole pillar of society.
Sir Nighteye expected something like this when he argued for All Might's retirement. After his battle against All for One. He foresaw that they had a turbulent ride in front of them, and wanted this to happen while the world of the villains was still recoiling from losing their own central pillar.
Now the villains no longer had that central pillar - but instead had multiple, under the joint name of the Paranormal Liberation Front. Heroes, in the meantime, were at least several years behind them. With their central pillar broken, they struggled to adapt.
Making him not say the magical words of 'I told you so' into All Might's face probably occupied the majority of his willpower.
(***)
When Izuku isn't working with Sir Nighteye, he gets to patrol the nearby streets with Lemillion. That, of course, is all part of the 'job'. And one that he should consider his priority, all things considered.
Sir Nighteye decided that this is the best way of making him get some practical understanding of public appearances.
Lemillion was already rather popular. People were stopping by to get his autograph and so on. Mirio was always impeccably enthusiastic about it. Izuku was tagging along, clearly unsure what to do with himself.
He would rather die, tbh. But no one is letting him do that.
At least Sir Nighteye had a serious talk with Lemillion. Naturally, some people got interested in another hero accompanying Lemillion. Not many, but still.
Mirio knows that Valiant is supposed to get introduced into that, but without overwhelming him. His mentor explained that. So he is always there to deflect the talk when it's clear that Izuku is getting overwhelmed. But when Izuku is doing alright, Mirio tends to push him into the spotlight, at least a bit.
It's taxing.
And it makes him both admire his senpai and want to brutally murder him.
And then, there was the incident.
It started simply enough. A few rather disgruntled people decided to yell at the two passing heroes. Izuku had a rough gist of what it was all about. Especially when they referred to quirks as 'meta-abilities'.
He knows that the MLA sympathizers are a thing. Especially with the recent, disgustingly popular, reprint of the Meta Liberation War. He can roughly understand why people follow an ideology like that. Quirks are awesome after all, and he realizes why many people want the limits on their usage relaxed.
Except, he lived for a long time as quirkless. That makes you rather antagonistic towards the potential spread of that ideology.
Allright, Izuku. Be like All Might. You can do it. Reply to their attacks calmly, enough to diffuse the situation. Especially as Mirio somehow left that to you (the traitor).
Channel your dad.
"Are you sure that this is smart?" Izuku says to the head problem-maker, tilting his head a bit. "You wish to make free usage of quirks a right, to make the weak quirk users live in fear of those with strong quirks… and you antagonize a hero? Hero who, like most members of this profession, has the strongest quirks out there? We'll be liberated as well if that happens, you know? And I'm really looking forward to it now."
Izuku smiles. It's the smile of a predator toying with his prey. The metaliberationist crowd takes a step back, looks at him in sudden horror, and begins to run away. One by one. While Mirio is busy laughing his ass off in the background.
Shit.
Wrong dad.
(***)
Alright, so: two more chapters of pure fluff. Then by chapter 48 shit hits the fan big time, we get some combat scenes, and another (after Kamino Ward) case of several chapters in a row getting the same name but with numbers. Provisional name: End of an Era. That's all I'm saying. Oh and also the story will temporary switch from Big Smile to Big Sad. But, like... a somewhat good type of Big Sad?
[if you read a quote or two on Discord and you know what's coming, don't say it. The others are free to speculate].
I'm again writing a chapter a day of this fic, so the backlog is steadily growing. I actually begin to see the end on the horizon, surprisingly enough. Only a few groundbreaking revelations and massive plottwists that will made you understand how deeply I have bamboozled you the whole time left in front of you :D