Their Hero Academia – Chapter Forty: Answer the Call
Small computer monitors built into the desks had popped up, along with keyboards, so that Class 1-A could review their Internship offers. Everyone in the class had gotten at least two, though from how Aizawa had phrased it, Isamu guessed one of everybody's came from someone's parent.
And he had over thirty-five hundred. Not quite as many as Midoriya, but way more than anyone else in the class. How on Earth was he going to sort through them all? How would he know what the right choice was? There. Were. So. Many.
He looked down at the offers, currently displaying Hero names, agency names, and rankings. He recognized most of the names, though there were some he didn't. Quickly, though, he recognized that many of the numbers near the top were very small. High-ranked Heroes. His eyes fell on one a few lines down from the top. With a click, he opened it.
Turbo Hero: Ingenium – Number Six Hero – Team Idaten
Mister Haimawari,
Congratulations on your victory during the Sports Festival! You demonstrated a remarkable level of speed and skill during the course of the Festival and acquitted yourself with honor. As you may know, while we employ a variety of Quirks at Team Idaten, we focus primarily on mobility Quirks. As such, I believe we would have much to offer you should you chose to intern with us.
Though he refuses to provide specifics, my elder brother, Tensei, has insisted that I extend you this offer. I would have regardless, but it appears your name carries considerable cachet with him.
…Well then. That was off to an encouraging start. Dad spoke pretty highly of the former Ingenium. And the current one made the news pretty often as well. There was no denying he was a great Hero, if a bit on the stuffy side. It was a good offer and could probably teach him a few things about his Quirk. But he had a lot of other offers to consider.
He scrolled up the list and opened the next one.
Blast-Radius Hero: Ground Zero – Number Four Hero – Ground Zero Agency
Congrats on beating Deku's kid! I don't know why everybody's talking about you, but ditch those losers and come intern with me instead!
Isamu blinked slowly. "So… that was a thing that happened," he said quietly. He opened the next one again, without looking to see who it was. He never thought he'd be used as a bargaining chip.
Shoto – Number Three Hero – Hot and Cold Agency
Haimawari:
My apologies, I never expressed my thanks for your attempts to aid my daughter during the first week of school. You must know that she speaks very highly of you.
Your performance during the Sports Festival was nothing short of outstanding. It's quite obvious that have real potential and talent. If you'll allow me the opportunity, I would like to help further your growth and take you as my intern. We face a wide variety of challenges at my agency, and I think it would be an excellent opportunity for you to broaden your skillset.
"No… freaking… way!" he said, this time louder than he expected.
"Yeah, yeah, we get it," Kirishima-Bakugo growled, looking up from her screen. "You're still all wowed that you won. Give it a rest, Newb."
"I… I got offers from Ingenium, Ground Zero, and Shoto," he said.
That fixed her attention on him, then got a laugh. "Of course. Dad probably figured out Izzy's dad was gonna send you one and didn't want to be outdone."
Mineta leaned over from her desk to look at his screen. "I got one from Ingenium too! Something about "a week of discipline and thoughtfulness," blah blah blah." She pointed to his screen. "Hey, you didn't open the one from Deku yet."
"Oh," he said, "yeah, I guess I should check that one out."
He looked back at his screen before realization hit.
Can Do Anything Hero: Deku – Number One Hero – Mighty Agency.
"…What."
"…What."
True, earlier, Principal Nezu had told her that a Pro Hero had expressed interest in taking her on as an Intern. But that had also come in the midst of them talking about her potential future in the Hero Course and everything that had come with that. And even once she'd allowed herself to entertain that option, she definitely hadn't been expecting what she saw on the screen on the tablet All Might had handed her.
Can Do Anything Hero: Deku – Number One Hero – Mighty Agency.
Miss Kocho,
Wow! You did an amazing job at the Sports Festival! One of the best results for a General Education student ever! You should be very proud of your Third Place victory!
I talked to All Might and he says that you got knocked out during the Entrance Exam? Completely unfair! It's no wonder you were trying so hard! I'm glad to see you never lost your fire!
As you may know, I work closely with Hitoshi Shinso, a former General Education student just like yourself, and an Underground Hero known as the Voice. He was very interested in your performance during the Festival and in your story, and frankly, so was I. While he doesn't have the necessary credentials to take on an Intern, I do, and if he should just so happen to be around while I'm offering advice and tips to you and the other student I've extended an Internship offer to… Well, these things happen.
I checked the rules and there's nothing preventing me from giving an offer to a student who's not in the Hero Course, so I went ahead and put one in. I'm hoping Nezu and the other teachers will let you!
P.S. I have so many questions about your Quirk!
Deku
"You," Koharu began, "you're going to let me accept this, right?" She hesitated, then added, "Please." There was no way they would. She wasn't a Hero Course student. She had no training, other than what she'd taught herself. She'd sparred with friends, but prior to the Sports Festival had never really fought anyone. She didn't even have a costume!
Nezu smiled beatifically. "Yes… and also no," he said. "Have you heard of the concept of a "ride along", Miss Kocho?"
She shook her head. She could probably guess from context, but honesty here would be best.
The Principal continued. "Something from long before the days of Heroes or Quirks. Individuals interested in law enforcement would literally "ride along" with police officers on their nightly rounds."
He went on, "However, you do not have even the most rudimentary Heroics training, so placing you directly in an Internship would be inadvisable and potentially quite dangerous to yourself and your mentee. But we do believe it would be beneficial for you to accompany a Hero and see some of their action firsthand, as well as receive training from them. It should be quite useful in bridging the gap between where you are now and where you'll need to be by the time Summer Break and the Training Camp come along. So while you will be doing less than other Interns… We see no harm to deny this request.
"Besides," he added, "if the Number One Hero believes in you, who are we to deny such potential?"
Isamu stared at the top entry on the screen in front of him. He had to be imagining it. There was no possible way this was real, especially not with offers already from Ingenium, Ground Zero, Shoto, and countless others.
As though acting of its own volition, he clicked the message to open it.
Can Do Anything Hero: Deku – Number One Hero – Mighty Agency.
Haimawari,
Congratulations on your Sports Festival victory! I remember what it felt like to win in my second year; I can't imagine how great it must feel to have won in your first! But victory alone doesn't necessarily prove anything, instead it's having the heart of a Hero that truly matters, the willingness to Go Beyond and give it your all.
Based upon what I saw during the Festival and what Toshi has told me about you, I truly believe you have the heart of a Hero. You've shown incredible skill and heroic instincts besides. A great man once told me that part of what makes a Hero is when your body moves on its own, responding to heroic instincts before your conscious mind even has a chance to consider your options.
If you would like to be my Intern (and make a lot of bookies really, really mad), I'd be delighted to have you.
Deku
Still stunned, Isamu leaned back in his seat, numbly listening to the others discuss their own Internship offers.
"Who'd you get, Chi?" Mineta asked. "Any hotties?"
"I haven't even heard of some of these people," Kaminari said. "I guess there's Power Line…"
"Total hottie. And an electric music hero! Perfect for you!"
"He's, like, fifty, Mika."
"So he's a silver fox."
"…I'm getting you neutered for Christmas. Besides, Aunt Momo scouted me. She says she's got some ideas to help keep me from shocking my brains out. So I'm gonna go with her. You gonna go with Miser Iida?"
"Eh, maybe," Mineta replied. "Highest ranked Hero on my list, anyway. He is pretty cut, for a dweeb with glasses. And have you seen the yabos on his wife…"
"He's married, Mika. His children are our classmates. And you're fifteen!"
"Just because an item's not on the menu doesn't mean I can't enjoy looking at it!"
Isamu made a quick mental note not to go with Ingenium's offer. It probably would have been a beneficial Internship, but if it meant he had to be that close to Mineta for a week, he'd probably lose his mind.
"Guess I could do worse than hanging out with Autie Ochaco," Kirishia-Bakugo said. "She does know a thing or two about kicking ass…"
"Oh, wow! Oh, wow! Oh, wow!"
With a small smile, Izumi looked to her left, where Shota looked so excited she feared he might leap from his chair and run about the room. "Good news, Shota?" she asked. "Promising Internship offers?"
He'd gotten five, she recalled. She was happy with her own offers; she had honestly gone into the Festival not expecting to get any at all, a fear she'd maintained after her fight with Katsumi. But perhaps she had not done so badly at all.
He gave her a big grin, purple eyes shining. "Ground Zero sent me an offer!"
"I really gotta talk to Dad about his dropping standards," Katsumi said from the back of the room, but Shota did not appear to have heard it. Izumi would not repeat it.
Instead, she continued to smile. "Good news indeed," she said. "Will your accept it? Or are you considering any other offers?"
"Oh, I've got to take this one!" he bubbled. "Ground Zero is the coolest! He just blows all the Villains away and doesn't take nothing from nobody! He's got a ninety-five percent capture rating and his fights are always so extreme! And there was the time he fought Blast Master and he was all "You think your explosions are big, but mine are bigger and badder" and then…"
"Breathe, Shota," Asuka said, sounding a bit tired of having to remind Shota to breathe instead of talking a kilometer a minute.
"What about you, Toshi?" Shota asked. "You did so good! And you got so many offers! Was it your dad? No, wait, Uncle Shota said they couldn't do that, how about Izumi's dad? Or…"
Toshi laughed at that, making the little pink disks on his cheeks stand out all the more as his face flushed. "Uncle Kacchan did send me an offer, actually. Said "I can show you all the stuff your dad won't!'" Toshi laughed again. "But I'm going with Uncle Mirio. He sent me and offer and said he'd been planning this since my Quirk came in. And also that he'd be very sad if I didn't say yes,and I really just can't deal with that."
"And what about you, Asuka?" Izumi asked.
Asuka put a finger to the side of her beak. "I have several compelling offers, Shota. Several bird-themed Heroes, a few familiar-manifesting abilities as well, such as Raptor and Mob-Goblin. Though I'm not sure which one to take right now. Aunt Toru has made a fairly compelling case for offering to teach me some options for stealth."
"Your Quirks are rather different though," Izumi said. "Is that a good match?"
The bird-headed girl shrugged. "One of many reasons why I'm mulling it over. I suspect this is coordination on our parents' part, but since I also have many other offers…"
"You should do what is best for you," Izumi told her. "I am certain she would understand."
"Izumi's right," Toshi agreed. "You're got to be future-thinking here."
Asuka nodded at that. "Many good options to consider. And not all that much time to do it in."
"So who'd you get, Izumi?" Shota asked. "Polar Claw? Burnin'? The Maid of the Mist? No, wait, what about Thriller-Chiller? He's so cool! Or what about Smoking Hot? Mineta says she really likes her, but I don't get why…"
"All of them, actually," Izumi replied. Quite a few well-known Heroes with ice or fire Quirks had offered her an Internship, actually. Not completely surprising. Burnin' had even been one of her grandfather's sidekicks once upon a time. And yet there was one offer in particular that truly caught her attention.
The Stun Gun Hero: Chargebolt – Number One Hundred Twenty Hero – GrapeBolt Agency
Izumi,
Hey, kid. Great job! I didn't get to see things first hand—stuff came up—but I did get to watch the tapes afterwards and boy was I impressed! I bet your dad and Yaomomo are pretty proud of you! I sure wish I could have been there to see Bakugo's face when you beat Katsumi.
Anyway, I'm sure you're going to get a lot more offers than from your old Uncle Denki. Probably that Burnin' lady or maybe one of those ice guys, I can never keep track of all of them. But the one thing I do know? I know what it's like to have a Quick bounce back on you and I've gotten real good at figuring out how to avoid it. I only shock my brain maybe once or twice a month now.
So what do you say?
"Who'd you get, bro?" Takuma asked.
Kenta shrugged. He hadn't even bothered opening his yet. Two Internship offers. Some of the fewest in the class. He hadn't even been able to use his Quirk during the Quirkball stage of the Festival. And it's not like he'd have been able to take a bite out of any of his classmates, even if he'd made it to the Tournament round.
His Quirk was a strange mutation from different parts of his bloodline. His grandmother on his dad's side's Quirk to bite through anything, his mom's Quirk to absorb other materials into herself, and his dad's power to eat sugar for strength without any other harmful effects had all gifted him with the ability to bite through and eat anything. It was fantastic for web-content, great against robots in training, even great for a quick escape from cuffs. But not exactly the kind of flashy Festival stuff most of his classmates had.
"Hey, relax, bro," Takuma said. "Don't go getting all sad on me. Open up your offers! Nobody gets to be depressed when I'm around. Don't feel bad just because two is less than seven!"
In spite of himself, Kenta smiled. Takuma was a good friend. He looked over his offers. One from someone named Teppanyaki that he'd never even heard of (his tagline was The Tappan Hero) and… Suneater?
"The hell?" he said out loud.
Takuma leaned over to look at his screen. "Dude! Suneater? Nice!"
"Probably just because all our parents were talking to each other," Kenta said.
"Dude. He's a Top Ten Hero. All the friendship in the world isn't going to get him to stake his reputation on nothing."
Kenta frowned. "Maybe. Beats the alternative, I guess. Get anything good on your end?"
"Kamui Woods," Takuma said. "Dad did his Internship with him, learned a lot. But he's getting up there in years. Probably going to retire in a few. Tsukuyomi too, though. Which, I mean, he's got aesthetic coming out his ears, but I don't know if I can pull off dark and brooding."
He put a fist under his chin and squinted his eyes. "Darkness," he said in a growly voice. "Moonlight. Shadows. Revelry in the dark."
At that, Kenta couldn't help but laugh. "I sweat, I will give you five hundred yen if you manage to get a shot of you doing that with him in the background."
"You think I won't?"
Meanwhile, the Twins were engaged in discussion of their own.
"Do you think you can find a satisfactory Internship, Little Brother?" Sora Iida asked.
"Perhaps," Tensei Iida replied. "Turbo-Force and Veloci-Queen are respectable high speed Heroes, and Future-Force is extremely well regarded in the fields of action-science. The offer from Tentacole is somewhat more curious though, as I am not certain we have much in common."
"I have a similarly strange offer from Tailman," Sora replied. "And other offers to consider as well. Rocket Ranger and Fastlane would certainly be useful in refining my speed, though it is a shame there are so few actual flying Heroes for either of us to choose from."
"Indeed. That does make the decision more complicated. It will do neither of us any good if we can so easily outpace our mentors…"
"Cellophane? Really? That is the highest ranked offer I received? Qu'est-ce que c'est?"
Kimiko looked to her left, where Aoyama was boggling at the screen in front of him. "What's wrong with Cellophane?" she asked. "Uncle Hanta's nice!"
"Nice he may be," Aoyama said, turning to look at her. "But he lacks a certain je ne sais quoi."
"Could you please speak Japanese?" she whined. Her gossip buddy he may have been, but all the time he spent speaking in freaking French really grated on her. "I don't even know what that means!"
"I don't know what," he said.
"Why would you say something if you don't know what it means!"
"Non, no… It means, "I don't know what." He is lacking in… something. Something I cannot put into words."
Kimiko crossed her arms. "Well, now you're just being mean."
Aoyama shrugged. "These are the facts, I cannot help them. But still, he may well be my best bet for raising my profile…"
Yeah, she was bored with talking to him now. She leaned back to look around him. "Koda! Shoji! Anything good?"
Koda turned to regard her. "Aunt Tsu has extended me an offer to join her in protecting the waters for a week. The Safari Samurai has also been gracious enough to give me an offer of internship, though I confess my parents do not speak very highly of him. He drapes himself in the trappings of the jungle, while having no special love for it or the creatures hat live there. So I am inclined to go with the more familiar."
"Aw, Auntie Tsu's great!" Kimiko bubbled. "You'll have a fun time! …You can swim, right? No offense."
Koda laughed at that. "None taken, Ojiro. And yes, I can swim. I am surprisingly buoyant."
Shoji's handsome (Seriously, he had to be the best looking guy in the class. Voted on by all the girls and Takuma.) features stayed largely neutral, but she saw a small smile tug at his lips. "Real Steel is my most promising offer," he said, and she was hoping he would say more, just so she could listen to his baritone voice. "Power-Punch and Extendar for my other offers."
"You're going to go with Real Steel, right?" she asked. She checked her phone for a moment. "There's, like, one video each of those other guys on HeroWatch. Go where the action is!"
"Most likely," he said.
"And whose attention did you catch, Ojiro?" Koda asked. "You garnered a fairly impressive number of offers with your performance."
"Oh, well," she rubbed the back of her head. "I kind of had this figured out beforehand. Doc Clock—Doctor Izumi—she wanted to take me around with her anyway, 'cause of the medic training thing… But I did look at the offers."
She looked down, then back up. "Lots of offers from Underground and stealthy-types. Fade-Out, Night-Strike, the Reaper. People like them. Which would be great... but that's not who I want to be anymore. Just because I'm invisible doesn't mean I have to be defined by that. I want to help people."
Koda gave her a small nod. "Knowing yourself and what you want is often the first step to success."
At the front of the room, Aizawa gave Midnight a look. "How much more time do you think they'll waste?"
"Admit it," she said, not giving in to his withering glare in the slightest, "you're proud of them. They garnered a lot of attention. Takes you back, doesn't it?"
"Hn," he grunted. But she was right. He was proud of them, even Mineta. They'd worked together and worked hard. There wasn't a one of them he didn't believe it. Certainly, there were rough edges to sand down… Kirishima-Bakugo's anger, Aoyama's arrogance, Haimawari's lack of confidence, his godson's extroversion, Mineta's… Minetaness, and other things, but that wasn't anything he and their other teachers couldn't help mold.
"They're talking with Kocho too," Midnight told him. "Nezu's ninety-nine percent certain she'll want to make the jump to the Hero Course. He did some personality evaluations and thinks she'll be best in your class. As long as you don't think you're getting to old for a bigger class." She elbowed him in the side.
"We're almost the same age."
"Yes, but I'm in administration now. There's a reason most of our friends retired. Not an old person's game, Eraser. Even if the young persons are so… yummy."
"Hn."
"Speaking of our friends, do you and Emi want to join Mic and me for drinks this weekend?"
He gave her another look , this one suggested he'd rather be set on fire. "Generic excuse."
"You did not just say "generic excuse!'"
"I said what I said."
Midnight just shook her head and smiled. "I texted her before I got here and Emi already agreed to it. You're going."
"Betrayed again."
"Think of it this way, Eraser. The internships haven't been exciting since their parents were here. They'll work hard, but for us, it'll be a week to relax…"