Izuku was pretty excited to have been able to make it to the final round of the U.A. sports festival without majorly screwing something up. After his team was given the go ahead from Nezu to head on up to the student booth so that they could observe the other teams running around.
"Man, I never thought I'd be here," Izuku chuckled while he watched the other students still trying to get the few remaining spots. It was almost surreal how his life had changed in just a year's time.
"Really, you?" Kyoka said with a smirk while giving her boyfriend a sidelong glance. She wondered why he of all people would think that he'd not have made it this far.
Tooru leaned over the railing to get a better look down below of the still ongoing event while also able to keep hearing the conversation. "I know right, you're super strong, brave and amazing, you would have gotten to the third round on any team no problems."
Izuku realized where the confusion was coming from. "Oh, I actually meant here at U.A., I wasn't sure if I should have come to this school or not. Sometimes I'm still unsure if I made the right choice," Izuku admitted as though he might be making a mistake trying to join the heroic lifestyle.
"Where did that come from?" Kyoka asked because she had pegged her boyfriend as the confident type and not as someone who second guesses himself.
Izuku twiddled his thumbs. "Before I came here, I kind of hid my powers. I didn't want people to really know I could do all this stuff." But after all the events today, there wasn't anyone who wouldn't know about him now.
"Wait is that why Bakugou said you were quirkless, because you just didn't want to show off?" Hagakure questioned, because she remembered the first day of school and how Bakugou acted like a huge jerk during the orientation. "Because that's really mean of him."
"Kind of," Izuku shrugged as that wasn't the whole story. "My parents were worried what would happen if people knew I was this strong." He fibbed as his parents were worried about that and the fact that he was an alien from another world, but he wasn't comfortable with sharing that information, since as far as he knew only his parents, the teachers and Mirio's group of friends were aware of his not so human origins.
"I can sort of understand that," Kyoka nodded. "I've heard rumors that some kids with super dangerous quirks get taken away by the government for experimentation," she chuckled at the crazy stories little kids would tell each other before she saw that Izuku looked upset upon hearing that. "But that was mostly just kids trying to scare each other. The government wouldn't actually be snatching up people with strong quirks," she nervously laughed, hoping to bring up Izuku's spirits.
"Yeah I guess," Izuku tried to find the humor in something he had a legitimate fear of happening to his family.
'Gah, I'm such a bitch!' Kyoka chastised herself for making Izuku feel worse, not better. "Um so," she said awkwardly as she tried to figure out something to talk about. "Do you um… want to… meet my parents this weekend?" She asked before she mentally screamed at herself for suggesting something that was likely going to be super weird.
"Oh yeah, I probably should," Izuku realized as he hadn't actually had a chance to introduce himself to her parents and they might be unaware that he was even dating their daughter.
"Do you want me to meet your parents?" Kyoka asked nervously.
"Well I already told my mom and dad about you and he works overseas, but sure." Izuku smiled as when he told his mom he took a classmate out on a date she'd cried for nearly an hour about how her baby boy is growing up and she was so excited to see any photos he had of her.
Finally after what seemed like a good long while the second event ended and the teams moving on to the third event were chosen. "Oh hey, you're up against Mei," Tooru pointed out as the bracket came up on the monitor while tapping Izuku's shoulder.
"Huh." Izuku took notice that he was put against one of his teammates, he was grateful that Kyoka had ended up on the other end of the bracket so he wouldn't have to fight her for a while with her being in the first half and him being in the latter.
"Looks like you got Tokoyami," Izuku commented on who his invisible teammate was slated to go up against.
"Aw man, I'm up against Bakugou." Kyoka grumbled as she saw that she had to fight the explosive quirk wielder in the second fight. Which would likely not be too much longer as Cementoss had just finished setting up the ring for the students to battle in.
"I could maybe give you some advice." Izuku offered. "I grew up around him so I know more about his quirk than anyone else but him. So you can exploit his weaknesses and stuff you know."
"Aww that's really sweet but no, I can win this on my own," Jirou smiled at Izuku. She was glad that he had offered to help her win her battle against the blonde but she was pretty sure she would emerge victorious against him on her own merit.
The first battle between Uraraka and Todoroki was an interesting one as she dodged the opening volley of ice by floating off the ground to not get frozen to the stage. "That's some good thinking on her part." Izuku commented as he figured that Todoroki would open with what others would classify as a finishing move. "This could really work in her favor since half the stage is now unusable unless he clears out all that ice."
Ojiro nodded his head. "If she focuses on floating over any ice he creates then she will have the advantage if she can land any hits on him." He saw what she was doing as a remarkable strategy that many people would be unable to use simply due to their inability to move around in three dimensional space as easily.
"Oh yeah and since she's floating any ice that is formed under her just pushes her up higher, she can't get trapped inside it," Mina gasped when she saw that Todoroki had attempted to do just that to Ochako but due to her having no weight the speed that the ice forms is actually a detriment to capturing her. Using that Uraraka began to close the gap between them.
The students hissed as they saw Todoroki slam his fist into Uraraka's stomach. While she had gotten close and was intending to scrap with him it suddenly became apparent to everyone that Todoroki didn't just have his quirk at his disposal. "I guess it makes sense that the son of the Number Two hero would know how to fight," Kaminari shrugged as they never saw him have to fight like that before since he always used his quirk, but they could see the boy's father having given him lessons on different forms of combat.
After they got into close range the fight was pretty much over, Uraraka's strategy of trying to land all her finger tips onto Todoroki was discovered very quickly and he made sure to not allow her to get a grip on him and he ended up pinning her to the ground roughly. Midnight sadly called out the winner since she had been really rooting for Uraraka to pull out an upset victory against the teenager with an impressive pedigree.
"I can't believe Uraraka almost won that," Momo said in amazement, being incredibly impressed by how the other girl's tenacity almost carried her through to the next round.
"He could have at least ripped her top off," Mineta pouted as he had wanted to see some more skin in the fights.
"There has to be something wrong with you," Sato said incredulously at the small boy.
"Alright," Kyoka stretched as she stood from her chair to head to the waiting room now that her fight was coming up. "Time to kick his butt," she said, leaning over and kissing her boyfriend on the cheek. "For good luck."
"Ye-yeah," Izuku stammered even as he watched Kyoka walk away from the student booth. But behind that nervousness was some dread about who she would be fighting.
"She's going to be fine Midoriya," Tooru said comfortingly to Izuku. She had been watching his features and could tell he was nervous. "It's a school event, they aren't going to be doing any real damage to each other."
"I guess you're right. But I just worry, Bakugou isn't the most level-headed person. Especially not when he's in a fight." Izuku sighed while he leaned back in his chair and tried to ignore his own concerns.
Midnight stood on her podium looking between the two competitors. Both of them had confidence in their abilities and neither looked as though they would be the first to back down. "And begin." Midnight shouted as Kyoka immediately unleashed a veritable wall of sound at Katsuki.
The explosive boy growled angrily, building up his quirk for an incredibly loud explosion. The burst's volume overpowering Kyoka's quirk for a brief moment. "You dumb bitch," Katsuki shouted as he stormed through the effects of Kyoka's quirk. "I practically detonate bombs only a few feet away from my head every single day of my life and you really think your quirk is going to do anything to me?" He reached her in less time than Kyoka had been expecting him to and he was quick to lay punches into her abdomen completely throwing her off her game.
An explosion from close range dazed her from the loud sound meeting her sensitive hearing. But even as Jirou stumbled back disoriented, Bakugou didn't let off the pressure.
"I would have figured that shit head would have given you a better strategy to beat me than this, so either you're stupid for not taking his advice or he's a fucking idiot for telling you to do this." Bakugou laughed as he slammed his palm against Jirou's head and detonated his quirk, enveloping it in smoke and sending her to the floor.
Kyoka's balance was shot, her head was ringing and she felt warmth running down the side of her face. Her eyes were stinging because of the smoke and she tried to look up at her opponent only to see him raise his fist once again before a blur moved into his path.
Bakugou didn't even see what hit him before he was thrown back across the arena floor.
"Kyoka, are you okay?!" Izuku asked as he watched his girlfriend bleed from the side of her head. "Right, stupid question," he said to himself while he moved to gently pick her up.
"Oi fucker I'm-" Bakugou's shouting was cut off as twin beams of red light cut through the ground where he'd been standing forcing him to jump out of the way. He was silent, like most of the people in the stadium were, as Izuku glared at the blond boy with glowing red eyes.
The threat was made apparent to everyone and Izuku didn't wait long before he flew off carrying Kyoka into the building heading for the nurse's office so Recovery Girl could help her.
"Well you won," Midnight nervously chuckled down at the arena from up on her platform. "But you went too far, this isn't a real fight, you don't need to go for finishing moves here." She in a way agreed with Midoriya's intervention, she was about to call the fight herself because if a student got an open head wound, then they shouldn't be allowed to continue fighting. But Midoriya was much faster than she was and had gotten there first.
Katsuki spit on the ground and stomped away. "Whatever, I'll fight him in the finals and beat his ass into submission." he growled as he returned to the student booth, able to console himself with the fact that he would be getting to fight Half & Half next.
Meanwhile Izuku was sitting next to Kyoka as she was laying in one of the beds set up for students to recover in. Even after Recovery Girl used her quirk on her, she was still tired, sore and her head still had to be wrapped up. "You didn't need to get in the way Izuku." Kyoka scolded her boyfriend for jumping into her fight, even if she knew it was pretty much over then.
"Sorry," Izuku looked at the floor sadly. "I just couldn't stand the sight of him getting ready to hurt you anymore than he already had." He wrung his hands nervously as he was waiting for her to blow up on him.
"Pfft, well that's what I get for not taking your advice on how to beat him so I ended up getting my own ass kicked." Kyoka chuckled feeling a little dumb for not at least hearing a few of his ideas that she could then steal and use.
"Well, it's not the end of the world, you're going to kick his ass if he manages to get past Todoroki," sitting up on her elbows as she turned on the tv to watch the next fight. "Gonna want to record that one."
The stadium was abuzz with conversation even as the other fights happened below, Izuku Midoriya had displayed that he not only had strength, speed, flight and the ability to freeze things with his breath but he was also capable of firing lasers from his eyes and people were starting to wonder why this is the first time they've even heard of him as someone with two quirks was rare enough that it tended to make local headlines when it happened, but someone having five and potentially more should have been world wide news.
"So why exactly haven't we heard about this before." Sensei asked the Doctor who was watching the sports festival with him while they looked for candidates to abduct and take their quirks for the nomu experiments. And Izuku Midoriya was looking to be the perfect candidate even if his acquisition would be rather difficult.
"I am unsure," the doctor pulled on his mustache. "He is intriguing, and I'll have to do more research into this student, because he seems… familiar." something about the teenager was tickling at a memory he had from a few years ago.
"So that's who Nezu has been hiding." Amanda Waller hummed curiously while replaying the footage of Izuku over and over. She and her staff at Cadmus were watching the U.A. Sports for any hints about what had been happening in Japan in recent years, their organization kept an eye on the country after the confrontation between All Might and All for One left a major security issue in that if the hero fell the villain might be too much for any one organization to handle, but they were also interested in getting their hands on the villain for his quirk potential as well.
"Ma'am," a secretary brought a folder over to the table. "We have the file on Izuku Midoriya… it's fake, just like you said it would be. Principal Nezu covered his tracks well but because there weren't any tracks that told us to start working to uncover that up until a little over a decade ago Izuku Midoriya didn't exist, meaning that he wasn't birthed in a hospital anywhere in Japan or else he would have been registered then."
Amanda Waller steepled her fingers with a grin on her face. "I wonder what secrets you hold Izuku Midoriya." He was definitely someone to watch in the coming years. Amanda was smart enough to piece together that a lot of the strangeness she'd been seeing in recent reports was likely tied to this young man.
"Well I guess it's my turn," Izuku shrugged as the fight between Iida and Momo wound down. He stood up and mimicked Jirou's earlier stretching before he planted his own kiss on her cheek. "For good luck." smirking as he hurried out to the stadium.
"If I have to come out there and save your butt like you did mine," Jirou said under her breath when she looked back up to the screen to see her boyfriend already out on the platform waiting for the pink haired inventor.
"Hi Midoriya," Mei waved excitedly when she saw Izuku.
"Hello Hatsume," Izuku greeted the girl with a smile.
"Are you two ready?" Midnight asked while skipping over explaining the rules because she wasn't too worried about anything in this battle. Seemingly nothing could hurt Midoriya and she knew he wouldn't be rough with the human girl.
"Yup," Izuku nodded as Mei quickly patted herself down.
"Um… do you mind if I turn on my gear first, it needs a moment to warm up and I don't think you'll really give me that if we start now?" Mei grinned innocently at Izuku who only rolled his eyes.
"Sure Hatsume, it's not a problem for me." he nodded for her to do that since he should be fair about this, she was after all only trying to show off her inventions to the companies and not really interested in winning the festival.
"Yes," she pumped her arm as she activated her devices that began to give off a steady hum as she slipped them all back on. "I designed the power systems myself, they use a-" she started to ramble and Izuku felt a bead of sweat drip down the side of his head as she was already over his head on the science she put into her devices.
After a moment of waiting Midnight tapped her foot on the floor. "Are you two finally ready?"
"Mhm." Mei nodded at the referee, excited to display her technical prowess to the many companies in the stadium looking for prospective people to hire and purchase from.
Izuku wiped a bit of sweat that was on his brow, it was actually beginning to feel a little bit warm to him, something that was pretty unusual since he'd never really noticed temperature before.
Once Midnight cracked her whip, Izuku lunged at a respectable speed, something he was sure Hatsume could react to when he fell to the ground gasping in pain only a few feet away from her. He never felt anything like this before and he was clutching his chest with the feeling that his heart was going to explode.
"Midoriya?!" Mei cried out in shock not having expected this to happen. "What's wrong?" she asked the boy who grunted in agony on the concrete floor of the arena.
"I think he's having a heart attack." Midnight shouted as she jumped down from her platform. "You need to get back, this fight is suspended." She commanded because she needed to clear a space for the medic robots to wheel away Izuku.
Izuku took a deep breath of air when he felt the pain start to recede. "What's… happening… to me?" He asked not knowing what was going on.
"We don't know, we're going to get you to Recovery Girl," Midnight assured Izuku, walking with the robots that were wheeling him away on a stretcher.
"Toshi, call his mother, if she's watching this she's going to be upset," Nezu ordered as he heard Aizawa announce that there is going to be a slight intermission. "I'll go down to see Ms. Hatsume. Higari, you'll come with me. I suspect that something she did was the cause of this."
"What makes you say that sir?" Power Loader asked, he wasn't saying the principal was wrong but he just wanted to know why Nezu thought this.
"He started to sweat after she turned on her gear," Nezu pointed out. "That boy is more durable than anything on this planet, so I doubt it was the February air that did him in."
Izuku was lying in a hospital bed looking pretty dejected. "I cannot run an IV nor take a blood sample young man," Recovery Girl said as she had a small amount of broken needles littering the floor as even the ones designed to go into students with hardened skin broke against his indestructible flesh.
"Sorry about that, I'll try to be easier to poke next time," Izuku offered a weak chuckle even as he felt his hand squeezed by his girlfriend who was sitting next to him.
"Of all the people I never thought I'd see in a hospital bed, you were one of them," Kyoka gulped down her fear. She had been terrified when she saw Izuku go down suddenly. She's seen him take punches to the face that would make All Might flinch and the pink haired girl didn't even lay a finger on him and he looked like he was on his last legs. "What happened out there?"
"That is what we are going to get to the bottom of Ms. Jirou." Nezu announced while entering the room followed by Power Loader and a sobbing Hatsume Mei.
"Midoriya, I am so sorry… I didn't…. I didn't know." she cried out as the feelings of guilt weighed on her heavily. The teachers had brought up that it was likely that her support gear was the cause of Midoriya's distress and that it was devastating for the inventor to hear that something she designed to help people was the reason her friend had been in incredible pain.
Izuku grunted as he sat up. "I'm fine now Hatsume," Izuku calmly assured the girl that nothing long lasting had been done to him. "Not sure what came over me but I'm certain it wasn't your fault." He couldn't stand to see a friend cry, especially for something they didn't have control over.
"That may not be correct Mr. Midoriya," Nezu coughed into his paw. "A little test might determine this though. Majima?" Nezu turned to his head of the support department who held up the main backpack that Mei had been using in the festival.
With a simple flick the device powered on and Izuku could hear the humming again before he started to sweat. "As I suspected." Nezu nodded for Power Loader to turn the gear off again.
"What is it?" Kyoka looked between the support gear and Izuku, it was obvious that something about that object was negatively affecting him.
"I believe it has something to do with her choice of power source." Nezu nodded, yielding the floor to Hatsume so that she could explain the situation.
She pushed some of her pink hair out of her face. "Well, I used these green rocks I found near Mt. Fuji as a kid, even after all these years they still glowed, so I just knew that they gave off some kind of energy but it's not…" Mei grunted as she tried to find the right words to explain how they were unlike anything she'd ever seen or heard of, seemingly they didn't fit on the known periodic table of elements. "They aren't... Hmmm."
"They aren't from this planet." Izuku stated, but it came off as more like he was guessing.
"No, that'd be…" Mei scoffed before Izuku shook his head.
"I mean it, they aren't from here," Izuku got out of the bed he was in and floated off the ground. "I was found near Mt. Fuji by my parents, which means anything weird found there probably comes from the same place."
"I… what… Izuku, what are you saying?" Jirou was not able to piece together what strange point Izuku was making.
With a heavy sigh Izuku looked at Jirou. "I'm not from around here… like around here here." pointing up at the ceiling. "I don't really know it all or anything really, just that my mom and dad found me one day in a spaceship that crashed and they took me in and raised me."
"Izuku, are you lying to me?" Kyoka asked even with her voice cracking into a nervous laugh. "If you are, say this is a joke, but if you want to keep telling a story about how you're an alien from outer space. Then you have to be completely honest with me."
Izuku floated over to Kyoka. "I mean every word. I'm not from this planet and I don't know much about science but I'm guessing those green rocks Mei is using to power her equipment aren't either since I've never found anything on Earth that affects me like this."
"I… hold on…" Jirou said to Izuku, quickly walking away from his bedside, her breathing changing to an erratic pace. "You can't just drop a BOMB like that on a girl Izuku!" she shouted as paced in the office angrily. "Aliens. Fucking shit, when the hell were you planning on telling me this?!"
"When it was the right time," Izuku hurried over to try and calm Kyoka down but she pushed against him to keep herself away from him.
"That was before you-" She screamed into her hands. "I need some space." Storming out of the nurses office. Izuku raced to the door as it shut just to see her barge through her classmates who were all waiting a few feet away to hear any news but being kept back by the other teachers so there weren't any people eavesdropping.
"Kyoka wait." Izuku said as the crowd parted for him to catch up to her, only for Jirou to stop and face him.
"I need space Izuku, so why don't you go up there and give me some!" she shouted just before she turned a corner out of his sight. He could have easily chased her down, but her anger at him made him hesitate.
Izuku stood in the hallway while his classmates muttered, their attempts at being quiet didn't matter when every word sounded like grenades going off next to his head. He found the nearest exit and rocketed into the sky away from the stadium, Japan, planet Earth. He'd found that he could spend a lot of time in the cold vacuum of space without any ill effects and since there was no sound he'd be alone with his thoughts.
"Ms. Hatsume, I don't think it needs to be said but I will do so anyway that what you just heard is strictly confidential and not to be repeated to anyone else outside the U.A. staff, am I clear?" Nezu looked up at the horrified girl who in the moment felt like she just imploded her friend's relationship because she forced him to expose that he wasn't exactly human to his girlfriend when it wasn't the right time.
"Yes sir." Hatsume nodded as she wiped the tears that were streaming down her cheeks.
"Come on we'll go study these rocks just to make sure there weren't any other surprises waiting for us," Power Loader gently patted Hatsume on the arm while leading her away.
"Where is my son Toshi and what happened?" Inko asked the moment she met the titanic hero outside the gates of the stadium after stepping out of the cab that brought her from her apartment.
"Well he got better once we got him away from the machines Hatsume had made, it's over my head but we think she used some space rocks as a power source and that was what caused Izuku to feel that pain." All Might whispered to make sure he wasn't overheard by anyone as he led her through the building to the nurse's office.
"He's not here." Inko said once she looked into the room, her son was a large boy so it was easy to notice that he had not stayed in the room where she had expected to find him.
"Ah Mrs. Midoriya," Nezu straightened his tie as he approached Inko. This was the first time he had a chance to meet the mother of the alien so he hoped to leave a positive impression on her given the circumstances. "Yes there was an… argument and well, how do I put it? Your son revealed to Ms. Jirou his heritage and that conversation could have ended better."
"So where is he now?" Inko questioned.
"Last anyone said is that they saw him going straight up, he's also outside the range of any of our satellites which makes me believe that he's not on the planet at this time," Nezu coughed into his paw. Technically Izuku was lost as they didn't know where he was but that would not be the right thing to tell the mother that they lost her son.
"And Jirou?"
Nezu looked nervously at the mother because he didn't want to sic the irate woman on one of his students, it just wouldn't be fair. "She is… coping."
"I'll find her myself," Inko said as she did an about face and exited the office to go look for her son's girlfriend. Having seen a few pictures of her that Izuku had shown her on his phone, she knew who to look for and it didn't take her long to see the girl sitting on a bench outside the stadium.
"May I join you?" Inko asked politely, motioning to the empty spot next to the girl who dated her son.
"Lady I don't want to talk to anyone right now, so can you buzz off," Kyoka snarled because she was still struggling to come to terms with what she had learned. "I just got some, really weird news and I-"
"My son told you what he is," Inko finished for Jirou, sitting down next to her anyway. "Hello, my name is Inko Midoriya, I am Izuku's mother," introducing herself to the wide-eyed teen.
"Wait, so are you also… you know?" pointing up at the sky and waiting for the mother of an alien to answer.
Inko smiled and shook her head. "No, I'm human. And so is my husband, if that is what you were going to ask next."
After that the two ladies sat quietly, because Jirou didn't know what to say and Inko was perfectly content to wait. "How do you… how did you, you know, react when you found out?" Jirou finally broke the silence between them.
"I think Hisashi and I were quite surprised to see the spaceship he was in, that's for sure. But he was just a baby and alone, I couldn't do anything but take him in." Inko answered with a smile. She fondly remembered the day she found her son. "He's been the joy in my life for the last fifteen years and I wouldn't trade a single second of it away."
Jirou let out an appreciative whistle. "I can't imagine what it must have been like to raise someone like him. I mean how weird must it have been to know that aliens are real."
"It certainly had its fair share of difficulties and quite frankly I've been scared more times than I can count by some strangers coming to our apartment." Inko chuckled. "I've been afraid that someone would find out and take him away from me. That they would do horrible things to my son to find out all they could about him. But it was harder for Izuku." Seeing the look of confusion on the teenage girl's face Inko went on to expand on what she meant. "I had trouble dealing with a super powered alien baby, the benefit is that it is a very similar experience for most first time mothers. I just didn't have parenting books that covered having a child like him."
"But my son, he's had to live on an alien planet with no one like him at all. He had to live in fear that he would be taken away from us if someone found out what he was. It is why I was so against All Might admitting him to U.A. because what could I do to protect my son once the whole world knows about him?" Inko was starting to see that his son's girlfriend was beginning to understand some of what her son lived with growing up.
"And today he was hurt twice," Inko quietly said to the young woman. "Somehow he felt physical pain for the first time which probably scared him. But what was worse was how after he confessed to you his deepest held secret you… rejected him."
"I didn't mean to, I just freaked out. How could I not, when he told me he wasn't human. What was I supposed to do, just shrug it off or something?" Jirou retorted in anger as if the mother was trying to paint her as the villain in this situation.
Inko shook her head sadly. "I'm not saying that your reaction was wrong. It would most certainly be shocking to learn this about anyone. But my son confessed to you something he's only told a handful of people and those are some of the top heroes on the planet who are there to help protect him. He was trying to be honest with you because he cares about you and you running away from him was unfair because you did not allow him the chance to explain."
"Yeah well-," Jirou sighed and slumped where she sat, resting her chin on her chest. "I don't know what to think. He lied to me about something really big."
"And now he's done something that I really wish that he didn't. He gave you power over him. If all things go well, then no one else will learn what he is, but you will still know this about him and could destroy his life." Inko warned about what this knowledge meant for the young girl. "He told you because he trusted you, I just hope that he didn't make a mistake."
Inko quietly left her son's possibly still girlfriend alone on the bench to have some space to think about their conversation.