Firem78910 - Yeeee
Guest - An interesting theory, which MIGHT be (to a degree) true. In my generalized AU quirked do have some general bodily reinforcement when compared to quirkless, so it might include health stuff. Never really entered that swamp for real, so I'm leaving that to your headcanon.
Raw666 - Shit, sorry, somehow missed your earlier comment. Also Todorokis' were mentioned earlier as one of the four zaibatsu families, I'm afraid :P
Bamba12 - Really? Damn, I'll have to recheck it.
Trixuny - The baby's quirk won't be specified, because the plot will most likely be over (perhaps except for some distant epilogue) by the time it's born :P Feel free to theorize.
Wittyartificer - Makes a certain degree of sense, especially if she anchored herself to the ground and then shot him. But I'm really not sure if she can make herself heavy enough (without killing herself) to not be sent flying to some degree, at least. Inasa is... well, pretty op, even in canon. Here most quirks are stronger than their canon counterparts.
(***)
In the end, Mari Hatsume's business acumen ends up winning against his instinctual desire to murder the boy who not only dated his little girl behind his back but has also ended up making him into a soon-to-be grandfather.
Shino suspected as much. He was a CEO first, engineer second. And his business acumen was rather incredible, at least considering his company's track record. He could imagine what sort of boon to logistics Eclipse's quirk could be. Even if she was dedicated to being a hero, who said that there weren't more meta-abilities like hers out there?
He was also knowledgeable enough on the issues of advertising to realize how much of a boon outfitting superheroes could be in that field. Sure, it all had to be custom made, and for now, the market wasn't yet born. But…
But what company in the DC universe wouldn't benefit from being able to proudly announce that yes, Superman is saving people while wearing the hero uniform they made for him? Yep. Grade A marketing material, no doubt.
And thanks to his daughter's boyfriend, they had up to a few months to prepare for the inevitable Reveal Day.
Shino's inevitable end of bodyguard career turns out to be actually all but inevitable. Hearing Mei confess about the actual degree of 'false evidence' she amassed made her parents realize that yes, Shino had absolutely no choice in that. Because they would totally fall for it and probably end up having Sosaki and her crew members jailed.
Besides, Mei loudly announced that if they were going to fire Shino, then she is escaping from home, going to UA and asking Principal Sasaki to hire her unofficial older sister slash personal bomb handling expert slash relationship advice source as security guard there. With her friends.
Shino Sosaki honestly didn't expect that, but it certainly warmed her heart.
In the end, the day ends on a surprisingly positive note.
(***)
Izuku is still in the helicopter when the message arrives.
They are almost there, and Principal Sasaki told him he can ask Eclipse to warp him back once they finish the business. They are merely trying to hide warpgate quirk existence from Todorokis. At least for now.
Sasaki actually offered to help him with his homework a bit. The man looked vaguely bored over the long flight himself. He also gave Izuku a rather interesting stare when Izuku thanked him earlier for the 'atmosphere' comment. Izuku wasn't sure what that was about.
Alchemist: My parents have been informed about us, about the Network and the meta-abilities existing.
Uh-oh.
Defiant: The result?
Alchemist: My dad wants to kill you for having sex with his little angel, my mom wants to show you my embarrassing pictures and thank you in person for tolerating my personality quirks, my little brother thinks you are the coolest thing ever because I compared you to a Superman, and Sosaki-san is still my bodyguard.
Defiant: …
Defiant: Did she dictate you this summary?
Alchemist: How did you know?! D:
Defiant: Because unless your dad stated his desire openly, I really don't think that you'd realize what he has in store for me. And I'm almost certain that he didn't do that.
Alchemist: Oh, you're right.
Alchemist: Damn, you know me so well.
Defiant: Yes. That's true.
Defiant: so
Defiant: if you ignore the issue of me probably having to visit them at some point
Defiant: and somehow surviving your father's wrath and my social anxiety
Defiant: Are you going to drop by more frequently now? Eclipse can open a warpgate to your workshop openly now that your parents know.
Alchemist: Are you missing our little bedroom (and not just bedroom) fun? :3
Izuku does his utmost not to blush. He fails. Principal Sasaki appears to be amused by it, but doesn't ask.
Defiant: Well
Defiant: a bit?
Defiant: I mean, I mostly just miss you in general
Alchemist: Awwww
Alchemist: I miss you too. I never thought that it was possible, but it turns out that video calls aren't enough when it comes to communicating with others.
Alchemist: The point is, I'm rather busy, especially with how much behind we are in producing and delivering equipment to the Network
Alchemist: And I'm something like 99,999% sure that saving people is more important to you (like it is to me, really) than having sex, yes?
Defiant: Correct.
Alchemist: Then again, I need some rest from time to time. And visiting you proved to be a major positive upon my work.
Alchemist: And I now have an auxiliary workshop on the UA. Inspecting it regularly makes sense.
Alchemist: So… how about you having me from every Saturday morning to Sunday evening?
Defiant: :D
Alchemist: I'll take that as yes :3
(***)
Todoroki's residence is large. And very Japanese. In fact, Izuku feels distinctly out of place, despite being Japanese himself. So he merely imitates whatever Principal Sasaki is doing, while ignoring judgmental stares of the security and servants.
He is used to judgmental stares, to be honest. An experience that turns out to be useful at the weirdest of times.
Enji Todoroki is tall, bulky and would benefit from some lessons on interpersonal skills that weren't intimidation. Izuku does his best to ignore him and stay the part of the background.
Shoto Todoroki is there as well. Like his father, he has short black hair and blue eyes. Unlike his father, he feels… emotionally vacant. There isn't much life in his eyes, that's for sure. If not for the fact that doing so would either not do anything or start a small civil war, looking into those eyes would make Izuku phone child services.
Well, if they met a year earlier. Shoto Todoroki was eighteen and a half years old.
Izuku also didn't like the way Enji was describing his son in front of Principal Sasaki. It felt less like a father describing his son and more like a horse merchant describing a horse. It was… ugh.
Are Hatsume the only nice people among the zaibatsu or what? Then again, one of them apparently wants him dead for dating his daughter, soo…
Principal was busy persuading Enji Todoroki about entrusting his son to the UA. Mostly by pointing out that they were uniquely equipped to deal with meta-ability holders. Including both the ability to train their quirks freely (while having an 'enlightened' hospital right next to it) while in perfect secrecy and the fact that they can also give them a top-notch conventional education.
There is also the part where they will be allowed to interact with future elites of the country. Connections are important, especially for people like the soon-to-be heir of Todorokis.
Enji looks more or less persuaded. Shoto looks unreadable. Midoriya feels out of place. He wasn't even introduced. He is just standing there, in the background, while the people around him treat him like a piece of furniture.
At some point, the arrangements are made. The deal is struck. That's when the Principal decides to announce the optional superhero bit.
"Absolutely not." Enji Todoroki shoots the idea down instantly.
"Really?" Sasaki appears unconvinced. "In times like these, supporting the law enforcement in Japan is…"
"My Shoto has a role to play." Enji replies, glaring at the Principal. Despite his immense wealth and influence, he knows that antagonizing Mirai Sasaki isn't a smart thing to do. So he keeps his anger limited to his eyes. "He is going to inherit both the history and wealth of the Todoroki family. If he dies, Natsuo and Fuyumi will run the heritage of two centuries of my ancestors into the ground. The answer is no, and I'm not budging on that."
Izuku realizes why the Principal told him not to start a fight. Because he really wants to smash that nose in now. Who the hell cares about family wealth?! Losing your son should be the real problem there!
There is also the part where Enji Todoroki is completely ignoring Izuku Midoriya's existence. It's like Izuku is beneath his notice. The man in front of him resembles his childhood bully. Except for the violence.
"Very well." Principal Sasaki surrenders. "I believe that it's time for the demonstration of your son's meta-ability."
(***)
The demonstration occurs in the forest beside Todoroki's residence. Away from prying eyes.
Izuku whistles loudly when he sees the sheer size of the glacier that Shoto generates within several seconds. Hundreds of meters of ice, seemingly out of nowhere. Principal Sasaki looks shocked by it too.
This is certainly an incredible level of firepower. Except… probably too much for it to matter. What enemy might require encasing him in a glacier this big? Worst of all, doing that within an urban landscape would cause rather incredible collateral damage. And it's really hard to keep it hidden from the world.
His father is looking at the spectacle with a combination of pride and satisfaction.
Izuku is even more surprised when Shoto then promptly generates a lance of fire that melts a lot of the ice in front of him.
Ice from the right side. Fire from the left side. Interesting. Was Shoto Todoroki their first case of true dual-quirkness, or was it a single quirk which had two opposite functionalities? Fascinating, either way. Existentially dreadful, if it was the former.
"Your assessment?" Principal asks Izuku. Naturally, this requires some further questioning. Witnessing that power being used once doesn't tell him a lot.
"Can you manipulate ice and fire once you create them?" Izuku asks Shoto. "Or can you only generate them and give them some initial properties?"
"I can't control what I didn't create." Shoto replies. He is rather emotionless. "And I can only alter what I made when it's close to myself. About ten meters, but the closer to me, the better my control. So it's less control and more shaping of what I made."
Makes sense. He naturally has to control what he creates to at least some degree. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to, for example, form his fire into that lance-shaped projectile. Although once it was fired, Izuku saw no changes to its trajectory or shape.
Defiant turns towards principal Sasaki. He can offer him an honest answer now that he knows it.
"I'd win." Izuku replies honestly. And probably with a hint of personal viciousness. Enji Todoroki's victorious grin is pissing him off. Seeing it freeze suddenly is rather pleasurable. "I have enough mobility to avoid his long-range attacks and get close for a take-down. But other than me, I think only Tornado and Eclipse can have something resembling a fight with him."
The whole point would be to stay between ten and twenty meters away from him. Too far for the force choke, but just right for some manhandling. Which would be enough to interrupt his counterattacks.
Shoto would be able to use his flame to destabilize Inasa's air currents enough to keep the wind hero vulnerable to his ice attacks. And in case of Eclipse, she can slice through the ice glacier, while using a floating surface to fly around to a degree (she really learned a lot about the non-warpgate applications of her quirk). And…
Oh. Izuku has an idea.
"How dare you sugges…" Enji is trying to yell something rather nasty.
"Todoroki-kun?" Izuku asks, ignoring the patriarch of the family. Shoto looks at him with a hint of a question mark on his face. "Have you ever tried to cool down and then rapidly heat air?"
"What would that do?" Shoto asks back. This time, instead of question marks, there is a hint of interest.
Enji, somehow, shuts up. It might have something to do with some of Mirai Sasaki's gestures. The Principal realized what it was about and urged Enji to not interrupt it.
Principal Sasaki knows one thing. That it's a sign of a lack of culture to interrupt a master of a craft at work.
"Explosion." Izuku replies. "Probably a big one. If you want to check it out, make sure that the ignition happens away from you. You clearly have a resistance to both hot and cold, because of your quirk, but explosion is something entirely different. If you can heat and cool the air, you should be able to generate a weak wind. Then just concentrate the cold air somewhere, and follow up on it with heating."
Shoto tests it out immediately. It's a completely new technique, so naturally he fumbles a bit. The resulting explosion still shatters several meters of the glacier in front of him.
Izuku whistles again. That's going to be a source of some super cool things once he trains this technique well enough. Not like it will be used in heroics, but…
(***)
Somehow Enji Todoroki doesn't comment on Izuku ignoring him. The fact that his actions resulted in his ideal son becoming slightly more powerful in the long term seems to have excused the bug in front of him from a scolding.
The patriarch of the Todorokis' decides that wasting time is illogical. He tells his son to go to UA immediately. In Principal Sasaki's helicopter. While taking whatever he wants from home with him.
There aren't many of those things. It all fits in a large backpack.
The helicopter is airborne for maybe five minutes before Shoto Todoroki turns his head towards the now unmasked Izuku.
"I have a question." He says, his face still looking like one belonging to a robot who tried to imitate humans but failed miserably in the emotions department. Izuku replies with a questioning look. "Do you have any ideas about my hero name? Nothing satisfying comes to my mind, and I don't know if there are any naming conventions in place."
Izuku would have been less surprised by Enji Todoroki crawling out of Shoto's backpack and yelling at them for not singing praises about his masterpiece constantly. Even Principal Sasaki is staring at Shoto in shock.
"Uhm…" Izuku blinks a few times. "... I know you are legally an adult and so on, but your dad… sounds pretty… uhm… well, he sounds like he is rather adamant about you inheriting his fortune."
"He does." Shoto replies with a scarce nod. "The Todorokis are an ancient family with many traditions. The branch families and various companies belonging to us will accept no one who isn't a direct and confirmed blood descendant of the head of the family and his or her legal spouse. And my father will do his utmost to not let my siblings inherit it, due to disagreeing with them about the future of the family."
Well, that's an excellent summary as far as excellent summaries go.
"So…" Izuku tries to figure out how to proceed with that talk. "... uhm… your father is rather… I mean, if you die, your siblings will inherit. Your father will try to do his utmost to stop that from happening, right? At least until you get a child to keep everything from their hands."
"He might try." Shoto replies. His face, a glacier. "I'm asexual. Natsuo and Fuyumi are already preparing their 'to-do once we're in charge' lists. I'm planning to cede everything to my brother as soon as my father transfers it to me. I won't have any descendants to inherit things from me, either way. And I'm not really interested in being the family patriarch."
There are several seconds of stunned silence in the helicopter. Only the sounds of the helicopter engine are interrupting it.
"Does he know about it?" This time it's Principal Sasaki that speaks. Clearly detecting an occasion to get some grade A intel about one of the most important families in the country.
"It never came up in a conversation." Shoto replies. Then he gives them the most emotionally charged shit-eating grin that Defiant has ever seen in his life.
Izuku promptly falls off his seat in a fit of laughter.
(***)
Shoto Todoroki eventually settles for the hero name of Amplitude. Izuku already has some ideas for his gear, but this is something that he'll have to consult with Mei. There are only ideas. He needs his girlfriend to tell him how feasible they are.
The biggest problem will, naturally, be making him bulletproof. Izuku expects Amplitude to be another Singularity. Backline attacker, except less of a sniper and more of an artillery battery. Keeping his distance from bullets. Or, perhaps, hiding behind his ice?
They will also have to run some tests concerning how fireproof he was exactly. Can he hold against Dabi's flames? Even for some time? That alone would be a major change to the current status quo.
"So…" Izuku asks at some point of their flight back (he is having too much fun with the talk to have Eclipse warp him back). "... why did you decide to become a hero with us?"
Shoto makes a thoughtful face.
"... I don't have a lot of experience with interpersonal skills." He says. "Courtesy of my father, of course. But I have a feeling that saying 'because my dad forbids me to do that' isn't an acceptable reason, yes?"
"Well, I would certainly prefer that to not be your sole reason." Izuku replies. "But I'm reasonably alright with you having that in your repertoire. Your dad is a dick."
Principal lets out a slight sigh. He doesn't say whether he agrees with it, but Izuku wouldn't be surprised if he did. He is probably exasperated by one of his students saying things like that about one of the most influential people in the country. In front of his son.
"Tell me about it." Shoto sighs. "At least he isn't too bright. Or, more like, he is so certain that reality itself is bending before his will that he rarely tries to double-check things. And tends to assume that everything is going as he ordered, for as long as he isn't confronted with overwhelming arguments to the contrary. Makes hiding things from him much easier."
Izuku can imagine that.
"Well, I think that this country is going down the drain." Shoto announces after several seconds of rapid introspection. "I want to keep myself and my siblings alive. My power is an asset. But assets are something you need to improve upon if possible. Becoming a superhero sounds like a logical way of getting practical experience. While doing some good deeds and getting to meet some decent people my age, no less."
"Well, that's a much better motivation." Principal Sasaki admits while Izuku nods. "I noticed the lack of your father on that list."
"Oh, he'll be fine." Shoto replies. Once again, his face is utterly emotionless. "Cockroaches can survive a nuclear winter. Surviving a civil war will be a child's play for him."
Once again, there is a shit-eating grin blooming on his face. Once again, Izuku breaks into laughter. This time, he manages to stick to his seat.
(***)
Assistant Commission Aizawa is almost done with a meeting between the heads of the precincts in Takoba (that he had to lead, joys of getting promoted) when he receives a message.
Defiant: Two more superheroes.
Defiant: Amplitude and Tornado.
Defiant: Perfect counters to Dabi and Mustard, respectively.
Defiant: I'm updating the Network database once I get home.
Defiant: Though I will need some time with them to truly test what they can do.
Aizawa, against himself, smiles a bit. This is really damn reassuring. There is still a lot of work ahead of them, and there is no telling whom Overhaul got into his ranks in the meantime, but at least they have some progress on their own side.
"Good news?" Tsukauchi leans towards him and whispers. Aizawa quickly hides the tablet.
"Yes." He whispers back. One of the precinct heads is talking right now, so he has a few seconds to focus on himself. "I also have a meeting with Mera scheduled for the next week. We should finally make some progress on getting Aldera's police up to date with the recent developments."
That is, unless Mera already knows about the superpowers. But it was unlikely. Besides, neither Aizawa nor Sasaki found anything suggesting that they did.
Then again, Aldera was a rather calm city. Chisaki controlled its underworld, especially after his recent murder spree, but it was just that. Underworld. The police, to a varied degree, controlled practically the entire city. It wasn't Takoba, where Overhaul's word was the law in something like 40% of the city.
Not to mention Hosu. Aizawa prefers not to mention Hosu. He also prefers not to think about Hosu. In fact, he prefers to pretend that this city doesn't exist. The only reason the local human trafficking rings didn't 'upgrade' themselves to open slave markets was because they were too used to hiding from the police to figure out that this was an option now.
In moments like this, Aizawa hates his job. Alas, someone has to do it. Making Takoba into something resembling Aldera more than Hosu is important.
(***)
"How is your investigation into the priority targets going, Kurono?" Overhaul asks over his dinner. He is eating it alone. Then again, Hari Kurono has already eaten, just with Irinaka and Mustard.
Dabi fucked off for a date with his girlfriend. Good riddance, all things considered. Kurono can find a common language with Mustard. The gas user is kinda pleasant to have around, really. He got used to being a valuable part of the yakuza, and is reasonably respectful to his superiors but also knows his worth enough to crack a joke when they aren't doing business.
Dabi, though… Dabi is a pyromaniac psychopath who would probably set his own mother on fire and jerk off to the sight if he could. He was only kept on a chain by Overhaul's promises and his ability to heal his injuries. Kurono is acutely aware that if Overhaul turns out to be unable to fulfill his promise, Dabi will leave immediately.
After setting the Shie Hasseikai headquarters on fire. Simply because he could.
"I made some significant progress." Kurono replies. "I've confirmed the existence of a villain with an ability to teleport, but considering how… sneaky he is, actually establishing contact with him is time-consuming."
On the other hand, actually possessing someone like that in their rooster… breakthrough. Massive one. They would be able to simply warp drugs and other contraband from outside of Takoba (hell, from the ship at sea), completely circumnavigating the police.
Kurono was skeptical when Overhaul told him to look for someone with an ability like that. An ability to teleport somewhere, really? But it turned out that life was weirder than most of the fiction nowadays.
"Very good." Overhaul nods. "What about mind control?"
"I found someone." Kurono replies, and Overhaul gives him a questioning look. "However, the person in question holed himself up in some village in Nabu Mountains. I believe his quirk is strong enough to control every villager, something like a hundred people, at once. He changed the village into his personal fiefdom."
Overhaul seems vaguely pleased by the person in question already being a villain. Certainly makes the requirement easier.
"Since he doesn't seem to be interested in moving anywhere, I've taken the liberty of starting some covert investigation before telling you about it." Kurono replies. "Mostly to establish how his quirk actually works before you'll get anywhere close to it. You'll have the full report on your desk in a few days."
"Excellent." Overhaul nods. He approves of initiative when it's a logical one. "Correct choice of actions. What about the third one?"
They needed more heavy-hitters. Mustard and Dabi were everything they had when it came to having truly dangerous villains on their payroll. They needed more S-Ranks if they wanted to get anywhere.
Duststorm and Blaze have been training hard recently. Overhaul doubted that any of them had the potential to become supervillains, but they were certainly getting increasingly dangerous. The rest was mostly a riffraff that was good for various things, but not exactly for battling the superheroes.
"Our spy has informed me that Assistant Commissioner Mera is slowly cornering the Beast." Kurono replies with a smile on his face.
"That rampaging serial killer that has beaten an entire dojo of martial artists to death with his bare hands? Among numerous other atrocities?" Overhaul asks for clarification. Kurono nods. "Oh, that sounds promising. What is he doing in Aldera?"
"I think he tried to lie down for a while." Kurono replies. "I suspect that he had a run-in with a metahuman and was wounded in it. The point is, Mera has requested the SAT unit to be on the standby in Aldera. And since neither he nor the SAT knows about metahumans…"
"...they'll be slaughtered." Overhaul lets himself grin a bit. One less obstacle to worry about. "But probably not without wounding the Beast a little. Making him ripe for recruitment, especially if I promise him some interesting enemies to fight. All we have to do is be there when it happens."
Oh, this really looks promising.
(***)
There was far less extreme and forceful training involved, and despite everything, 'Endeavor' needed him to obtain some other skills. Not just academical. What's more, without a goal to obsess over, Enji Todoroki was - in general - far less cognizant and hard-working about things, resulting in... well, Shoto growing up to be a musician, with Enji Todoroki being his favourite instrument.
I regret nothing.
Also, F_ck Russia, people.