I started writing this mess on the same day as I uploaded the previous chapter (Feb 24th, 2022). And nearly… god, nearly 4 months later I finish writing this chapter. Haaaa….. Damnit… Life needs to stop getting in the way.
Anyways, I did a fair bit of worldbuilding and set up in this chapter, setting up for the Entrance exams. I also introduce someone in the end, partly to have Izuku talk to someone his age who isn't an OC. I'm going to try to use them as sparingly as possible, instead of using purely original characters, I'm going to build off of existing characters. That said, I really don't feel like having Bakugou show up just yet. He will show up, but just not yet.
I'll say some more at the end of the chapter, but for the sake of whoever reads this, I'll get right into the content. Happy reading~
Hisashi took a sip of his cup of coffee as he stared at the beach. Despite how early in the morning it was, Hisashi hadn't headed home from the night's patrols. Instead, he opted to go to the beach where his son was training to get some answers from the Symbol of Peace and his mentor.
The blond in question was watching Izuku haul the remaining pieces of trash off the surface of the beach. His presence there was less to offer guidance, and more to drive the trash to the junkyard. So far, Izuku had hauled a large oven and several other large kitchen appliances onto the back of his pickup truck.
Sipping the remains of the cup of piping hot coffee, Hisashi let out a world-weary and exhausted sigh. "Right, let me get this straight. You, the Symbol of Peace, have a quirk that can be passed down from wielder to wielder, and you intend to pass it to my son because he has the 'Heart of a Hero', am I getting it right so far?"
"Yes. The purpose of this training was to get your son into shape to handle the power of my quirk without any harmful effects. After all that's happened recently, I believe that his body is now ready to inherit it" Toshinori held out an open palm. It looked as if he was visualizing something floating over it. For a moment, his intense focus on his palm made Hisashi believe that something really would appear.
"Well, what else did he do?" Hisashi's question seemed to snap Toshinori out of his thoughts. "Don't tell me all you had him to was cleaning, if that's all-"
"Of course not! I also gave him some boxing lessons! He's gotten pretty good at it over eight months of practice."
Hisashi sighed in relief. "Okay then, next order of business. What are you going to put on the quirk registration file when Izuku does get it?"
"That's up to young Midoriya. Honestly, part of the reason why I keep so secretive about the quirk, apart from hiding it from the public, is because I have no clue what to call it other than One for All" Toshinori stopped leaning on the railing.
"Well, alright." Hisashi stretched and yawned, before looking back to the beach, and the horizon behind it. "I'm gonna get going, I need to take a nap, besides, the sun's almost up by now." As he turned to leave, he caught a glimpse of Izuku waving at him and raised his hand to wave back.
"Oh, before I forget," turning back, Hisashi looked at the shrunken symbol of peace, "Tell him his homework for today is to brainstorm creative quirk names."
He turned his back with a wave. "Cya"
"What to call it… what to call it…" Izuku had been in this state ever since hearing of his Dad's surprise homework at the beach. Since being released from the hospital, he had learned that his old school, Aldera high, was blacklisted from taking the UA entrance exams. It was no wonder that it had happened though, at least, It seemed like this was the obvious course of action for Izuku. UA's legal team was pushing to close the school for child negligence and abuse.
With nothing left to do for the rest of the day, Izuku had continued to clean Dagobah under the watch of Gran Torino, who for some reason stayed to watch him go through various boxing stances and give pointers on how to fight various opponents. For such a diminutive old man, Gran Torino certainly was scary, and that cane hurt.
"No wonder All Might is scared of you…" Izuku mumbled as he breathed out.
"What was that?"
"NOTHING!"
"Ahuh. Might as well finish what's left of the beach now, it's just that rusty old van that's left."
"Right!" Izuku cried as he approached the battered vehicle.
The van looked decrepit, as the course of time had worn down on it. The metal was rusted over and barely any traces of paint were left on it. Thankfully, the chassis wasn't buried too deeply under the sand, as with a few kicks roughly around the car, the front bumper was unearthed.
Apprehensively, Izuku squatted down in front of the truck, and slowly wriggled his fingers under the bumper, trying to gain a good grip on it. The metal groaned in protest as he tried to pull it up slowly. The bumper crumpled under his unyielding grip, as the van was slowly, yet steadily raised out of the sand. One foot… Two feet… Three…
However, it seemed that the van had other ideas, as the metal of the bumper tore off from the rest of the vehicle, and it landed on the soft sand with a dull thud. Izuku stared in judgemental silence as Gran Torino cackled off to the side.
Izuku shook off his stupor as he tossed the scraps at the neat pile of trash by the roadside. Gripping the bumper didn't work, and it probably wouldn't work a second time unless he wanted to get tinnitus. Underneath the bumper, however, was what looked to be a more solid frame.
"If at first, you don't succeed…" Izuku approached the van again and dropped to one knee. "Try…" His hands found purchase under the worn-down frame, and with a steady motion… "Try- Again!" and he raised the front of the van over his head.
Much to Izuku's surprise, he was able to lift the van despite it being nearly a tonne. As he repositioned his hands to better carry it to the pickup point, he wondered, 'What did those people put in me? Normal people can't carry this much unless they have a good strength quirk'
He sighed and shook his head. 'No use thinking about that now. It's already happened.' He put down the van a little more forcefully than he needed to and watched as it collapsed under its own weight. Izuku felt… disappointed. He had come so far all on his own, he had cleaned almost all of the beach on his own, but now with the serum coursing through his veins, his achievement felt… hollow.
"And that's the last of it" Gran Torino landed on top of the wrecked vehicle and crushed it further.
"Um… What now?"
"Well, there's still that task that your father told you to think about"
"Right… Thinking of a name for All-Mi-"
"Ah-uh, Not Toshinori's quirk, yours. It'll be your quirk after he gives it to you, you'll be the one to decide what to do with it. It will still have its original name, but it will also need a cover name for the records." Gran Torino motions for Izuku to follow him, and starts to walk down the road.
"R-right… A name… I was just going to call it Superpower and move on, but since my dad said to make it creative…"
"Well, what's his quirk then?"
"I'm sorry?"
The retired pro hops up onto the railing and sits down on it. "What's his quirk? You're gonna need it to come up with a name for yours. Oh, your mother's too."
"Uhm… My mother's quirk can bring small objects to her. The name changes a lot, but the essence of it is a weak telekinesis quirk. . As for dad's quirk…" he approached the railing and looked out at the empty beach. "He calls it Dragon's Breath. He can breathe fire, and his entire respiratory system is leagues stronger than normal human ones. He's also for the most part fireproof, among other secondary mutations. Oh! And he can also breathe out smoke too"
"Hmm, then a dragon quirk, and a telekinesis one. Plus you'll be getting One for All's strength when you inherit it."
"So I guess that means I should be naming it based on dragons?" the young man looked to his mentor's mentor,
"That'll definitely work, though you should do some research on it, and remember to leave it vague enough to explain One for All's strength, but enough of that for now. You finished cleaning the beach, you should go home and take it easy. It'll be basic combat from here on until the exam, so get some rest. That'll give you some time to think about a name." he hopped off of the railing and landed on the pavement. Giving a sideways look to the young successor, he simply smirked and waved. "Tomorrow, bright and early in the morning. I'll see you then."
"R-right… I guess I'll see you later then Gran Torino sir." Izuku turned away from the retreating hero and took a glance at the deserted beach.
Despite his hollow victory, the view of the open ocean was incredibly rewarding. After he admired the view for a moment, Izuku continued on.
Inko stared at the mirror as she observed the changes in her body. Thankfully, her law firm let her have a break because of the kidnapping incident. Whatever drugs they had doused her with, while it was different from what everyone else had gotten, it had made her more fit than she had been in years. Hell, she had a six-pack! She's never had a six-pack before! Mitsuki would have had a field day if they stilled talked with eachother.
'I should probably get into a healthy routine, I don't know if this is permanent…' the Midoriya matriarch sighed and left the bathroom. She had a lot of things to work through.
As she made her way to the study room, she heard the front door open.
"Tadaima!" 'Oh, it's Izuku.'
"Welcome Back Sweetie!" Inko walked into the living room to greet her son.
This time, she avoided stumbling into something on the way, but she saw izuku's thoughtful expression.
"Izuku, is something wrong?"
"Maybe? I don't know, it's not exactly that something is wrong, more like I don't know how to answer something"
"Let me guess, it's your father's 'homework' right?" Naturally, Inko was skeptical of what the Symbol of Peace had told her and her husband. She still had her reservations, but given what had happened when they were kidnapped, she felt like she had little room to object. To her, Izuku had already proven himself as a hero that night.
"Yeah, I need to come up with something that has both a mental and a dragon theme but also leave it vague or mysterious."
"Well, if you want something hard to define, why not use the term Soul?"
"Soul?"
Inko nodded. Before the kidnapping, her previous client had gotten into trouble with their quirk, soul link, and a whole week of the trial was used with comparing different quirks named Soul. "Even with the advent of quirks, the term, Soul is still hard to define. To be honest, I think it's gotten vaguer since quirks came."
"I guess that makes sense. Different cultures have different ideas of what a soul is, and different quirks that come about might challenge the current meanings or maybe even rewrite them-" Inko smiled as Izuku muttered out his thoughts while pacing. She was glad that her son had snapped out of whatever had demotivated him, even if it meant slowly wearing a hole through the carpet.
"Izuku"
Izuku continued muttering.
"Izuku?" despite calling his name, Izuku continues muttering.
Inko walked up and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Izuku."
"Huh- Oh right! How does Dragon Soul sound? Do you think Dad would like it?"
"That's a good one sweetie! But your father is asleep right now." She sighs as one of her hands finds its way to her cheek. "He would have arrived home sooner, but he had to push it and walk to the beach too," Inko honestly wasn't surprised with Hisashi for seeing Izuku before he returned home, but that was what she likes about him, that he always went the extra mile for those he cared about.
"It's nice having Dad around again,"
"It really is"
The two reminisce about the fond memories from early childhood for a moment, of how Hisashi would always treat them with nice gifts before he had to go away for his mission. Eventually, once Inko realized that Izuku smelled mildly of sweat, she sent him to shower and continued into their study room. She had some research to do, after all.
Blue eyes looked out at moonlit ocean waves as the girl wandered through Musutafu. She had just missed the last bus and was probably far away from her destination. She was lucky when she found out about one of UA's older programs. Heights Alliances, apartment complexes clustered a few blocks away from the school for potential students. They were built for entrance exam applicants with bad quirk exhaustion effects. Normally, she wouldn't have needed to book a room there, but with how her quirk evolved recently…
Anyways, UA's entrance exam was a week away, so even if she got lost in the ward, she could spend a night in a hotel without worrying about missing it. That being said, she would rather not spend what little was left of her evening searching for a hotel if she could help it.
Much to her surprise, there were still people outside despite the late hour. A man, or maybe a tall and muscly teen, dressed in running gear, looking at the beach and ocean. She had heard that someone had been clearing the beach recently, but nobody's been able to find out who it was.
'Maybe he's the one who cleaned the beach?' she thinks. It would make sense, rarely do news reporters work this late on foot. 'Maybe I should ask him for directions?'
As she pondered her next course of action, a hero clad in black and red armor dropped next to the runner. Odd, she thought, it was rare for a hero to be out this late, much less talking to someone.
To sate her curiosity, the girl tried to listen in to their conversation. It was a father and son, from what she heard, meaning the guy in the tracksuit was around her age. That was all she could figure out, however, as she heard the hero in question mention a lost girl looking at- Oh… He meant her. The hero pushed his son towards her as he shot a wired projectile at the rooftop above, and when the younger man looked back at him, all he saw was the open ocean behind the Dagobah beach. It was a grappling hook that dragged the hero to the rooftops. There's an awkward pause as she sees him standing still for a moment, before seeing both his hands hit his cheeks with a slapping noise, and he started approaching her.
The first thing she notices as he draws near is his curly verdant hair, shining under the street lamps. He walks up to her with an apprehensive expression, but asks regardless.
"Can I help you, miss?"
"... I'm lost…"
"Oh- Um, do you know where you want to go?"
"Nn. Heights Alliance…"
"Oh! You're going to try to get into UA, miss- uh…." he stopped suddenly and turned to face her, he looked slightly red under the street lights. " Im sorry I didn't ask your name… uh… I'm Izuku Midoriya." He looked embarrassed to have forgotten but then stepped into stride beside her.
"... Yui Kodai… Are you trying to get into UA too?" she looked closely at him, specifically at his arms. He looked well built, almost like a bodybuilder if she had to be honest, even under the almost undersized running shirt.
"Y-yeah, I've been training a lot for the past ten months. I just hope I'm ready for the test… UA churns tonnes of amazing heroes every year" as he led her towards the temporary dorms, he regurgitated all sorts of facts about the hero school.
Eventually, as they walked, they fell into silence. Not an uncomfortable one, or at least, she didn't find it to be uncomfortable. A glance at her companion showed that he looked nervous, he probably ran out of topics to talk about, even if knowing about all these heroes was interesting. She was genuinely interested in what he had to say about Mt. Lady, even if the hero seemed to abuse her sex appeal.
"Nn..." she nudged his arm to get his attention.
"Is something wrong?"
"... Can you tell me more about… Gigantification quirks?" There was something in that question that made Midoriya look at her for a moment. Did she say it weirdly? She didn't know. "... I mean how they work…"
"Gigantification quirks… I don't know much about the mechanics of how they work, because that changes from user to user, but a lot of the time, the user mentions either a size comparison or a dull burning sensation all over their body. I can only guess that the sensation is growing pains though. Usually, people with gigantification quirks can picture a lever they need to pull that goes with this, but sometimes it might not just be a lever." he looked deep in thought as he said this. His hand rose to his chin as he recalled one of the oldest cases of a gigantification quirk. "There was a hero, a long time ago in America. He was a shapeshifter, and one of the things he could change into seemed to have a gigantification quirk. There are a lot of stories about a giant dinosaur holding up the Empire State building, the story of the hourglass giant, but not a lot is left other than stories…"
"Hourglass… Giant?" While she didn't know much, if anything about American heroes, she did remember seeing the term when she tried to do her own searching. "Is there anything more about this hero?"
He shook his head. "The only thing that's left is stories that parents tell their kids when they can't sleep and old toys. I can remember my dad telling me about those on the phone." The building had come into view as they were walking. Despite it being quite a long walk, all the talk about heroes and quirks filled most of their time.
"By the way, why did you ask about gigantification quirks? Is your quirk similar to one?"
Yui paused as she reached for the door and looked back at him. Not knowing what to say, she only reached a hand into one of her pockets and pulled out what looked like a tiny suitcase.
"What?"
Ignoring his confusion, Yui placed the tiny suitcase on the ground and then brought her hands together. A faint, light-blue glow encased both her fingertips and the suitcase before it rapidly grew into a full-sized suitcase. "Does this answer your question?" she asked.
However, she was not expecting Izuku to start asking a barrage of questions. She tried her best to answer some, but a few of them went unanswered, either because she didn't know how or they were too weird. She didn't know or want to know if someone would explode if an item grew massive inside of them. Eventually, Yui entered the building, upon her companion realizing how late it had gotten. She waved a final goodbye to Izuku as she approached the receptionist.
She didn't realize that the time in her pocket opened the zip of the suitcase slightly, nor did she realize that one of her caps had fallen out.
Did anyone spot any easter eggs? I wonder who the size-changing dinosaur was? Or what the Hourglass Giant was about? If you need a further hint, the hourglass is a green logo~ But that's all you're getting from me.
Yui Kodai. I won't lie, a part of me introducing her here was to expand on 1-B in BNHA, much like I did by introducing Dr. Yanagi in chapter 1.
Please, tell me what you think about me introducing her now because I'm eager to know what you think.
Next time: Inheritance