I promised releases on Fridays, but you have a bonus one this week. Both because I'm a bit too anxious to wait until Friday (TOO MUCH TIME) and I need some half-measure to get used to longer releases AND because next chapter of Ties that Bind is goddamn glorious and I need to get it out or I explode. Next one is even more glorious, but this time I can hold myself until Friday. Yay.
(***)
The meeting didn't last for much longer after that. Some decisions were made. Some information was shared.
Aizawa decides he has to find a way of informing at least the Assistant Commissioner Mera of the Aldera City Police Department about the existence of the superpowers. Hosu is a lost cause, but they can't hope to take Overhaul down if they only fight him in Takoba.
He is yet to figure out how to do it. Mera might freak out or send some half-forgotten governmental death squad after them. It will require some subtle probing before going in for the kill.
Mirai Sasaki informs them that there was a police raid on some yakuza clan in Shizuoka three days ago, with his sources indicating that both sides deployed metahumans. He will attempt to establish contact with whoever fought on the side of the police, but considering the fact that the Shizuoka police were rather secretive about it, it would not be easy.
It also confirmed the theory that Takoba city police wasn't the only regional police department to realize what was happening and trying to fight fire with fire. Comparing notes between the two sides could be highly beneficial.
Chiyo Shuzenji gives out her report about what she thus far established about the biological side of meta-abilities. It's not much. In fact, most of it can be summed up to 'I have no idea how they work, since even the DNA doesn't deviate from normalcy in the slightest'.
The only interesting thing is her confirmation that complex mutations are something else than simple mutations. For, unlike Earworm, both Carmilla and Kappa were actually genetically divergent from the human baseline.
"I do not know if they can have children with normal humans." She immediately announces. "It makes sense for the answer to be 'yes', considering the fact that otherwise they would be doomed to extinction, and most quirks appear to be… optimized, if you exclude the first generation ones. But that's all that I can say right now."
Aizawa at some point mentions that they need the SAT and more heroes on their side. Izuku knew acutely that recently they didn't get any new recruits, and they were mostly busy trying to make their present members fit into the police operations. But Principal Sasaki moves in.
"I actually located four potential recruits." Principal announces. "Two of them, due to me reinterpreting certain past inquiries. What I took for wasting my time or probing for other reasons was, in fact, their parents trying to find out if I know about meta-abilities. One more is currently a student in the UA. The last one has been admitted to a mental hospital in this prefecture. Certain incident that happened recently points towards him not being insane, but having a meta-ability."
That sounds… well, interesting. Counselor Inui is going to have a field day over this.
"As of now, I suspect that we're talking about three superheroes and one sidekick candidates." Sasaki continues. "I actually hoped to borrow the help of Defiant and Mr. Aizawa in recruiting them."
"Well, I'm ready whenever." Aizawa replies. Defiant nods. They really need some additional heroes. Overhaul is recruiting as well.
"I'd also like to extend a gentle suggestion to everyone present." Sasaki continues. "To not hound too many yens. Dollars are much more… foreseeably stable."
What?
"What?" Aizawa asks, clearly surprised. Then he remembers who he is talking with. "Wait, please tell me that this isn't what I mean it is."
"I most certainly do not have friends in government." Sasaki replies with a straight face. "And if some of them warned me that the government is going to significantly devalue our currency in order to make our exports even remotely competitive and ease our debt problems, I'd certainly not share that information with anyone. It also certainly won't be announced within the next two weeks."
Oh, great. Izuku almost forgot that the country was still collapsing out there. Mei mentioned something a while ago about exports going down the drain because every economy out there was growing increasingly closed-up after the war. 'My people go first' and so on. And that wartime damage and the high criminal activity increased the cost of Japanese products.
Apparently even the zaibatsu struggled. Truly, dire times.
The chances of this devaluation not spiraling into a complete collapse of the Japanese currency further down the line were rather low. It was bad enough already that most of the black market dealers only accepted foreign currency.
"I see." Aizawa replies. "I'd certainly not convert what's left of our rainy day savings into dollars then. While suggesting to my police officers to do the same."
"Same." Backdraft mumbles from his seat, suddenly shrunk.
Izuku would like to have savings to do the same.
(***)
"Very well." Mirai Sasaki announces an hour after the meeting. He is in his office with Chiyo, Maijima and Inui, the closest thing that he has to his own council of advisors when metahumans are involved. "Time for our own official meeting. First things first. Ryo?"
The counselor sighs painfully. He is a bit overworked recently. For a good cause, but he's still slightly out of his comfort zone.
"Detective's theory makes perfect sense." He eventually replies. "I re-evaluated the gathered data in its light, and it seems to explain a handful of peculiarities that I noticed during my examinations of the Special Course students. This is too small of a sample to make conclusive rulings, but thus far I believe it to be correct."
"I see." Principal leans back in his seat. "Any cases that might be… problematic?"
"Most of the 'special approach' students will require a lot of therapy." Inui replies promptly. "No one seems to be a direct security threat, though. Their reasons and intensity of beliefs vary, but they all appear committed to working with the police. As long as the police don't double cross them, they should be alright."
Sasaki nods. This more or less lined up with his assessment. Still, he needed clarification on certain fields.
"The underground heroes?" They worried him the most. Especially Carmilla.
"Complicated issue." Inui admits. "Hijack is clearly under mental influence of his quirk. He enjoys being in control. He head-butted a lot with Earworm over who gets to lead before joining the Network. Defiant no-selling his quirk frightened him a lot and shattered his confidence in his meta-ability. That's a potential source of problems. Working with police, however, seems to be a positive outlet for his control issues, as he can use his quirk on people while being applauded for it by others. His recent relationship with Carmilla, however questionable its healthiness is, seems to be a positive as well."
"Questionable healthiness?" Sasaki asks, one of his brows raising.
"Look, I really don't care what they do with each other for as long as they are both consenting to this and neither gets physically harmed." Inui replies. "But the real problem is that Carmilla is into this because her blood frenzies traumatized her to the point when she has panic attacks when she isn't, to any degree, restrained. She lost her restraining mask during a PE lesson and dissociated at the spot. And considering his ability to restrain her at will…" He sighs. "Well, it's really less of a relationship and more of a rather one-sided dependence. Still, I can guarantee that Carmilla is honest about not wanting to harm people, but other than that, consider her an extension of Hijack. If he stays loyal to Defiant and the Network, so will she."
"And…" Sasaki says. It's a question. Inui understands it.
"... and I'm going to do my best to fix her issues." He sighs. "It won't be easy, but she clearly wants to get better, so that's a plus. And Hijack's more or less supportive as well. At least partially because of having past family issues with an overly controlling and abusive father, whose footsteps he really doesn't want to follow. In short, for as long as she kept satiated to avoid another episode that would worsen her trauma, I think the prognosis is rather good. But getting there will take us a while."
"I see." Sasaki nods. "Keep doing that. Anyone else that's potentially worrying?"
"Ashido has a lot of work ahead to get better, but she is really putting in a lot of effort." Inui replies. "Her boyfriend is also… Well, let's just say that healthy relationships are always positive in situations like that. Tsuyu is adjusting very well, but let me put it that way. If something fatal happens to Midoriya and Uraraka, killing her too would probably be the most humane thing to do."
"That bad?" Sasaki asks. Inui replies with a scarce nod. "I see. Anything else to report?"
"Defiant is worrying too." Inui replies. Sasaki gives him a questioning stare. "I'm not worried that he'll betray the police or anything like that. The real problem is… well, I assume you read about his… past… issues with the Japanese education system?"
"I do." The principal replies. "And it's a disgrace for said system. Also, I consider Bakugou Katsuki to be a walking example of why we consider the moral formation of our students one of the core goals of the UA."
Inui nods. They both agree on that. Local high school found a gem among its students and tried to polish it on their own. Like a discount UA. Except, they forgot that not having a personality best summed up 'as a pile of trash set on fire' is an important part of it.
The gem broke. The results were ugly, to say the least.
Principal Sasaki couldn't tell if he was more horrified by it the way a normal human being is horrified after reading about an atrocious war crime or more disgusted the way a professional is when they see someone attempting their craft with no skills (and promptly ruining everything).
The fact that those incompetent excuses of educators ruined two more gems in the process (one permanently, the other one probably as well if he didn't develop superpowers suddenly) was simply a rancid cherry on a pile of excrements.
Sasaki wrote the names of some of those school teachers who avoided responsibility in his red notebook. Those who know him a lot know that this is a terrible thing for them. Because when Principal Sasaki has a really bad day, he opens that notebook, picks a name at random, and ruins the chosen person's life.
It always puts him at emotional ease. The fact that the targets of his wrath always deserve it (and he makes his punishment both tailored to the level of things they did and… deliciously ironic considering the reasons they were put in the notebook) makes it only narrowly more palatable to people.
"Midoriya didn't really heal from that." Inui says. "If I were to grade his self-esteem on a one to five scale, I'd write him down as 'No'. Even after Bakugou he had the intellect to pursue a lot of careers, but that asshole of a childhood friend beat any aspirations out of him. He was in a social equivalent of a vegetative state until his superpower manifested. The thing is, he basically values himself depending on how much he can be useful to others. Make him witness something bad happening to people in front of him, with him unable to do anything to help them, and…"
"... he'll break?" Sasaki asks back, taking advantage of the brief pause in Inui's lecture.
"I'm positively surprised that he didn't do that after what Dabi did." Inui replies honestly. "Or perhaps he did to a degree, but managed to more or less patch himself up. I'm going to try to give him some actual self-esteem, but I'll be frank. Something will happen eventually. Especially with Overhaul out there. What happens next is something that I can't foresee, for it will depend on the context and on how far I'll get him through therapy before it happens. He might break entirely, he might pick himself up… or he might break whoever was responsible for whatever happened." The counselor shrugs. "I really can't tell. Worst of all, I don't think that Midoriya is in any shape or degree replaceable."
"You mean because of his strength?" Shuzenji pipes in. She and Maijima were mostly busy listening to the talk while waiting for their own turn.
"No." Inui replies. "Look, I'm speculating here. But don't you find it weird that Izuku Midoriya suddenly began to amass followers and friends right after he developed a superpower that can be summed up by the word 'attraction of things'?"
"You're kidding." Shuzenji says, on her face a disbelieving frown. "This can't…"
"I'm not saying that his meta-ability directly influences others." Inui interrupts her. "If meta-abilities out there could passively influence others to this degree, the world as we know it would be doomed in the long-term either way. But I suspect it might… how should I put it… slightly enhance his charisma. Enough to make those already likely to do so look up to him, get… pulled closer to him, so to speak. 'Attracted 'has a bit of an incorrect connotation." He sighs. "Losing him will probably be a crippling blow to the Network in the long-term."
"He cannot know." Sasaki announces after a few seconds of digesting it. "Even a suspicion of something like that will make him second guess his every interaction with his friends under the assumption they might be influenced by something in his quirk against their will."
Inui nods. It's a likely scenario considering what they knew about that kid.
"Anything else?" The principal asks. When Inui shakes his head, he turns his head towards Shuzenji. "Anything to add?"
"They are all mostly healthy." She replies. "Some carry signs of long-term malnutrition, but we're working on that. There is one exception. And once again, that's Midoriya. He didn't exactly admit to it in front of me, but his DNA tests prove he has the Hayes-Wilczak disease. Kan confirms that Defiant knows about it and uses that as an explanation for not taking part in physical training. Although he didn't mention the name of the disease, merely some undefined medical problems."
"Explanation for those without a medical degree?" Maijima speaks.
"A rare genetic disorder." She replies. "To speak in the simplest terms, his skeletal muscles tear under stress much more easily than they should. Rendering most of physical training all but impossible. If that wasn't enough, they heal much more painfully and often wrongly. Because of the latter, they end up accumulating micro defects as time passes. He was never physically strong, and he will only grow weaker and weaker. Frankly speaking, if he won't require a wheelchair before his thirty birthday, it will be a miracle."
"Life really seems to hate that kid." Inui comments bitterly. Maijima nods with a frown on his face.
"Treatment?" Sasaki, in the meantime, was staring at Shuzenji, his face unreadable.
"Strong painkillers, pretty much." She replies. "Some surgical corrections if he has a major muscle injury. But it's just delaying the inevitable. Fixing the problem requires gene therapy. And that's not only cutting-edge technology but also the disease in question is rare enough that he would have to have everything custom made for him. We talk about several million dollars, at the least. And probably several months of treatment in the United States."
Sasaki thinks it over for maybe five seconds before arriving at the conclusions.
"Made preparations for the treatment." She gives him a questioning stare. "He will not agree to leave Takoba for so long with Overhaul still around, but once that issue is dealt with and he remains a superhero, I plan to pay for this."
Mirai Sasaki is more than just a principal of Japan's most famed educational facility. It took him a lot of work, but he was also among the wealthiest people in the country. He has no start to people like Hatsume Mei's parents, but he can still finance such a treatment from his personal funds. Without losing much.
Of course, his funds aren't endless. A lot of it came from stock trading. And the sad thing is that nowadays it's hard to profit from the stocks. So he doesn't earn a lot of money anymore. But he still has enough to invest them in students that he thinks have potential.
Mirai Sasaki isn't the gray eminence hiding behind his graduates that the sensational journalists make him to be. To begin with, UA worked that way before he became its principal. He merely expanded on that. What's more, trying to subsist on people's gratitude alone was a short-living idea.
Demanding things and expecting repayment for their education (that they paid for, to begin with - at least with exception of those that received a scholarship) would twist any positive feelings into chains binding them to someone else's will. And then they would break those.
Instead, he thrives on connections. He knows people. A lot of them. He knows who to ask about things. And the people in question know that he does, and he will ask questions for them. For as long as they are ready to answer questions when he comes to them. And occasionally offer a tidbit of information to him on their own.
The rest was just him investing into his student's futures. Both because it was a good thing to do, and because this meant that they could answer more interesting questions.
Who said that the good deeds don't pay back?
"Maijima?" Shuzenji clearly has nothing more to say, so Sasaki moves over to the last member of the talk.
"Alchemist is a genius." Maijima replies. "To a greater degree than I thought after hearing of her track record. So either Hatsume Industries was hounding some of her patents or she has now found her calling in assisting superheroes and she is going plus ultra on her work. I'd suggest doing your utmost to make her apply to the UA officially. For now, I'm giving her a laboratory with several of our best students as helpers. This should improve the speed of producing new gear, as she'll be able to focus on designing new things while letting them manufacture them for her. For now, she's doing this remotely from her Kyoto workshop."
"Great." Sasaki lets himself relax for a bit in his seat. There is clear progress on all fronts.
Too bad that he learned of this war so late into it. No information network is foolproof and you can't get answers when you don't know what questions to ask. Valuable lesson for the future.
(***)
Izuku has interviews with the prospective new heroes scheduled for the next four days. For now, he returns from the meeting to the Network headquarters. Really looking forward to resting a bit.
And, naturally, visiting Uraraka in the hospital. Alas, Shuzenji still didn't give them a green light. Still too much activity because of the Dabi's victims. Way too many questions that might have been asked. Besides, they want Tsuyu to visit her as well, and it's hard to do so stealthily when you look like that.
He also had a talk to have. So he retreated into his room, and video called Mei.
Alright, play it cool. You can do it.
The call goes through.
"I'M SORRY!" Izuku says loudly, only to immediately end up being majorly startled. Because Mei yelled the same words at the same time.
And yes, she was also startled by him saying that. Only the fact that Shino Sosaki wasn't there to witness the moment saved her from dying out of excessive laughter.
They just stared at each other for several long seconds, trying to figure out what to do now that their every plan for this talk was thrown out of the window. Eventually, Izuku arrived at the conclusion.
"You go f…" He decides to be a gentleman. But Mei cuts in.
"No!" She shouts back at him. "You go first. Please." She was clearly hoping to get some more time to rethink what she was about to say. Probably. Then again, who is he to question her decision?
"Alright." Izuku takes a deep breath. "I really shouldn't have yelled at you. Yes, I was angry. No, it doesn't explain what I did. And I especially should ask you what's wrong with you. That was some terrible wording."
Because let's be real. Mei is weird. Yes. She probably should get at least some therapy in order to be able to - if she wanted - interact with society. But no, there was nothing intrinsically wrong with her.
She was just… different. It's just that knowing how to buy food for yourself and how to not embarrass everyone in the vicinity during the meeting were useful skills to have. Even to zaibatsu heiresses. You never know when that changes. Especially in times like these.
"Oh." She blinks at him a few times. "I… uhm… didn't expect that? I mean, apologies accepted, no offense taken and so on." Izuku lets out a sigh of relief. "So, uhm, can I say my bit now?"
"Yes, of course." Izuku says quickly. She takes a deep breath in.
"I'm very, very sorry for trying to do anything to our relationship without asking you first." She actually bows in front of the camera. Literally the last thing that Izuku expected when he braced himself for this talk. "I'll never do it again."
He actually expected having to spend at least half an hour trying to explain to her why what she did was wrong.
"Oh… apologies accepted." Izuku replies. It truly saved him a lot of time! It looks like Mei is slowly figuring out how the relationships work. At least, if she genuinely realized that what she did was wrong rather than apologizing just in case.
She blinks at him a few times, clearly trying to think something over.
"Damn, looks like Sosaki-san was right." She finally announces. "You didn't break up with me, and all I had to do was…"
Okay. There was a lot to unpack in this rather short sentence. Izuku decided to go up in a reverse chronological order. And to interrupt her before she gives him even more to unpack.
"Wait, you thought I was going to break up with you?" Izuku says, and she makes that 'startled deer in front of the car lights' face. "Mei, I'm not breaking up with you over something like that! Look, I realize that you… uhm… lack common sense a bit, so I'm taking that into account."
"Oh." She says, looking at him with a surprising intensity. Yet somehow, he still feels like she is thinking about something. And that she really isn't putting her back into her stare. More like he just happened to be at the point where she froze her eye movements in order to focus on her thoughts. "So Shino was right there too, huh."
Aaand time to move over the second subject, as Mei so graciously helped him with that.
"I'm absolutely thrilled that you moved over from using romance manga for relationship tips." Izuku announces. "Sosaki-san sounds much more… uhm… grounded in reality. It's great that she is willing to help you."
In Izuku's opinion, Mei really needs a nanny. One capable of disarming bombs if needed.
"Oh, don't worry about the last part!" Mei smiles at him cheerfully. She is clearly relieved that everything was sorted out. "I blackmailed her, so she can't refuse to help me!"
Wait a second. By 'I blackmailed her', she doesn't mean an actual blackmail, right? Izuku forgot to inquire about details when Mei claimed to have blackmailed her to get to agree to her ward visiting Takoba, but…
"How exactly did you blackmail her, Mei?" Izuku asks. It's clearly not what he thinks it is, right?
"Oh, I compiled false but convincing evidence for her and the rest of her crew committing numerous crimes while in service of Hatsume Industries, enough to get them fired if I went to my parents with it." Mei replies, confirming Izuku's worst worries. She is actually beaming at him, as if awaiting praise!
"Mei." Izuku says slowly. "That's blackmail." She looks at him, as if not sure why he said that. She literally told him she blackmailed Shino, after all. "Mei, that's a crime."
She actually freezes at that.
"Shit, really?" She says, clearly shocked by the discovery. "I mean… I thought I was just obtaining arguments to strengthen my negotiation power and…" Of course she did. Ugh. Izuku should have asked earlier.
"Mei, please destroy the false evidence." He says, as confidently as he can. "And please apologize to Sosaki and her crew members for what you did."
"But… what if they…" She is probably afraid of them trying to cut her contact with her boyfriend. Which is, honestly, a valid concern.
"You realize you can just… give your workshop's coordinates to Mieko ahead of that, yes?" Izuku asks. Mei didn't think about that. "And still, you should do that. Heroes don't blackmail people, Mei."
She shrinks.
"Why is relationship stuff so complicated?" She asks. Izuku would like to agree with her on that, but… uhm, nope.
"Mei, it's not about relationships." He replies. "It's about not committing crimes. That's not the same thing."
She sighs.
"Fine, fine. I guess I should also finally have a talk with my parents about you." She says. And yes, Izuku agrees with her. And is quite proud of her for coming to that decision on her own. "And about meta-abilities."
Looks like Izuku won't be the only person to have a complicated week.
(***)
I'm gonna be frank with you. The scene where Mei talks with her parents about Izuku is a glorious clusterfuck.
Also, any guesses on who the four new potential members are? For some reason, only one of them is mentioned in the tags (I'll update them once the recruitment bits go through) :P