Meeting up with Kacchan just outside Recovery Girl's temporary office, Izuku found his oldest friend waiting outside, occasionally looking toward the door as if he wanted to go inside. Still, since he probably wanted to talk to Ochako, the both of them knew that Recovery Girl wouldn't be happy if they went inside to talk to Ochako when she was probably meant to be resting.
"Hey, nerd, were you the one who thought up that plan for your girlfriend?" Kacchan asked, leering at him.
"No, Ochako figured that out on her own," he said, leveling a scathing glare on his oldest friend. "And she's not my girlfriend, Kacchan."
"So, she really is that much like you," Kacchan said, the amusement on his face not having diminished a single bit. "Only a matter of time, nerd; she just might be your soul mate."
"Kacchan!"
Shoving his first friend as he made his way to the waiting room so he could get some alone time before the fight he was going to have with Todoroki-san, Izuku rolled his eyes, grumbling as he heard Kacchan's laughter coming from behind him.
~MHA~
Well, that's one nerd successfully teased, now let's see about the other one, Katsuki mused, turning his attention to the door that Uraraka was just starting to make her way out of. Sure, he might not have known her nearly as well as he did Izuku, the both of them having basically grown up together, what with the way Auntie had already been friends with the old battleaxe before the both of them had been born, but she really did remind him more than a little of his nerdy friend. Mostly with how damn shy they both were around people they didn't know.
"Hey, Rocketeer," he called, as the both of them began making their way out of Recovery Granny's domain and back into U.A.'s sports arena proper. "Nice move, trying to drop the whole damn ring on my head."
"It didn't work," Uraraka said, sounding more beaten-down than he'd been expecting when he'd come down to see her. "I didn't manage to do anything."
"Hey, don't be so down on yourself," he said, punching her lightly in the left shoulder as the pair of them continued on their way through the halls of the arena. "I've just had more training than you."
"I guess," Uraraka said, and the way she had her head down reminded him more than a little of Izuku.
Really, that many Quirks and the little nerd still had confidence issues. Sure, Uncle Sashi had said that it was only a matter of Izuku growing into his own power over time, but Katsuki had to admit that he'd always had a hard time imagining Uncle Sashi acting at all like his nerd of a son. Sure, Uncle Sashi was just as nerdy about Quirks as Izuku was about Heroes and Quirks, but in every other way Izuku was really a lot more like Auntie than Uncle Sashi.
They both even had the same hair and eye color.
~MHA~
As he'd been making his way down the corridor to the ring for his fight with Todoroki-san, Izuku had sensed the sudden change in air temperature and found himself drawn up short before he could walk right into the human monolith that was the Pro Hero Endeavor.
"Endeavor-san," he said, looking up at the towering Pro, clad in his fiery costume; sure, Dad was a bit taller, but that was hard to remember when the pair of them weren't standing next to each other.
"You're Councilman Midoriya's son, aren't you?" Endeavor asked, though it didn't sound like he was really asking a question so much as stating a fact that he'd learned.
"I am," he said, wondering what Endeavor was getting at.
"Your father told me about the secret your family had been keeping," Endeavor continued, folding his arms as he stared down at him.
"I guess that makes sense, you are one of the Top Five Pros, after all," he said, knowing that Dad wouldn't have told anyone he didn't trust about All For One, its relation to One For All, and the history of both Quirks.
"You're going to be facing my Shoto in the next round, so show him what someone with true power is capable of," Endeavor said, leaving Izuku wondering just what in the world he was talking about. "Make sure he fully understands."
When Endeavor left him behind, striding down the hall and back to wherever it was that he'd been watching from, Izuku shook his head before he could wonder too much about just why Endeavor had said those kinds of things to him. It seemed that he was more interested in his progress, instead of Todoroki-san's, which was more than a little strange considering that Todoroki-san was his son and Izuku wasn't. Still, if he let himself get all tangled up in his thoughts before he had to go out and fight Todoroki-san, he wasn't going to do nearly as well as he could have otherwise.
Slapping himself on both cheeks as he continued on his way out of the hallway and up to the ring where he and Todoroki-san were going to be fighting, Izuku looked up to see Todoroki-san making his own way up into the ring, as well.
~MHA~
Finding himself staring down Midoriya across the ring where so many of their fellow schoolmates had fought, Shoto tried as hard as he could not to remember the kindness of all four members of the Midoriya family as he'd sat and ate with them. None of that would help him to defeat Midoriya now, and in fact it would make it all the more difficult to think of Midoriya – the kindest boy he'd met, outside of his family – as his opponent. Not even as an enemy, since no one like Midoriya could ever conceivably be an enemy of anyone but the worst sort of Villains, but just as his opponent in this last event of the Sports Festival.
When he made his first attack, using the Ice Quirk that was his last remnant of his mother – the last real connection that the two of them shared, the only one that Endeavor hadn't managed to take from him or poison somehow – he found that Midoriya was easily able to counter him with what seemed to be some kind of fire breath Quirk.
It seems like we're opposites even in this, Midoriya, he mused, even as he sent another ice barrage at his classmate.
~MHA~
What's going on with you, Todoroki-san? Izuku found himself wondering, as the stoic boy launched more and more ice at him. Coughing as the Dragon's Breath Quirk that he was using started to dry out his throat, Izuku broke off a nearby chunk of ice, chewing it up and swallowing the resulting and refreshingly cold slush. Leaping to the top of a nearby ice mountain, using the Quirk that Dad had brought him for his eighth birthday, Izuku called up a copy of the Telescopic Vision Quirk that Dad had given him, he focused on Todoroki-san.
His ice attacks were starting to come slower and slower, and as he looked closer at Todoroki-san, Izuku saw the ice beginning to form on the right side of his body, coating him in spreading patches from head to toe. Blasting another wave of ice with his Dragon's Breath Quirk, Izuku jumped down from the ice mountain he'd perched on in order to look down on Todoroki-san and see what was happening to him. Eating a bit more of Todoroki-san's ice to cool down his throat, Izuku hurried over to where Todoroki-san was standing.
~MHA~
Looking up as Midoriya came down to confront him, Shoto tried not to shudder as the cold from Mother's Ice Quirk stabbed through him.
"Todoroki-san, you're shaking," Midoriya said, an expression of worry overtaking his face; he seemed to be trying to stop himself from rushing right over to help.
He was so much like Mother; all of the Midoriya family seemed to be cast in the same mold, making it entirely too easy for Shoto to find himself wanting to become a part of them. To take up the Quirk that Hisashi Midoriya had created. Still, if he was going to remain his own person, if he was truly going to reject the path that Endeavor had laid out for him, he couldn't allow himself to take up One For All.
No matter how kind every member of Midoriya's family had proven themselves to be.
~MHA~
Narrowing his eyes as he watched Shoto-kun and little Izuku fight, Hisashi called up his Telescopic Vision Quirk.
"Honey, what's happening? Is something wrong?" Inko asked, turning to him with a look of worry on her careworn, beautiful face.
"Shoto-kun doesn't seem to have improved," he said, focusing on the boy's face and watching as it contorted in what seemed to be a mix of fury, apprehension, and what even seemed to be some kind of distaste. "I suspect he has been having trouble at home. It would certainly fit with what I've heard about Enji during my own work."
Returning his attention to the battle as a whole, Hisashi was hardly surprised to see his little Izuku had triumphed; using a blast of his own Air Cannon and what looked to be at least one enhancer-type Quirk to shatter the ice wall Shoto-kun had been attempting to shelter behind and literally blow him out of the ring. Perhaps it's time I looked into giving Izuku another support-type Quirk, Hisashi reflected. There were a couple of candidates that would be ideal for stacking with Air Cannon to offset the recoil that the Quirk would otherwise produce: Muscoskelular Coiling, and Springlike Limbs.
Perhaps he would even gift both to Izuku, since it was always more advantageous to have backups than not; still, the consideration remained that little Izuku was still growing into his own version of All For One, and while his son did have a greater carrying-capacity than anyone who hadn't been bioengineered for such a thing, it was probably best not to push him this early in life.
~MHA~
Once he'd made it back to the stands, settling down and fetching the half-filled notebook that he'd been working on, Izuku found that he couldn't quite forget the look on Todoroki-san's face when he'd been flying out of the ring… He'd seemed so sad, but also resigned, and he hadn't used even a spark from his left side. Izuku had been trying to talk to him about that, at least as much as he could when the both of them were still in the middle of a fight.
Todoroki-san had seemed to be listening to what he was saying, but only reluctantly and clearly only half.
Sighing as he turned his attention back to the ring where Iida-san and Ojiro-san were starting their own battle. Biting his lip as he watched Ojiro-san jumping around, Izuku blinked in surprise as he watched Iida-san suddenly rocket forward with the use of the engines on his calves. An engine-boosted kick to Ojiro-san's head, which Ojiro-san was only just quick enough to block, launched Ojiro-san out of the ring.
Using his Telescopic Vision Quirk, Izuku saw Ojiro-san laughing in clear surprise as he landed firmly outside of the ring, upside-down in a handstand.
Sighing again as he settled back down, Izuku watched as Tokoyami-san and Honenuki-san made their own ways up into the ring. It would be kind of interesting watching the both of them fight, since Honenuki-san's Quirk could affect the environment around him, and that kind of thing might have been one of the best matches that anyone with a single Quirk could be against Tokoyami-san's long-range Dark Shadow Quirk. Calling up his Telescopic Vision Quirk again, Izuku watched as Honenuki-san ran his Quirk all through the middle of the ring.
Tokoyami-san called out his Dark Shadow just as soon as Midnight-sensei had called for the match to start, slamming the bird-headed creature into Honenuki-san's torso and shoving him out of the ring.
Well, that match ended just like I thought it would, he mused, turning his attention back to his notebook so that he could finish recording what he'd learned about the Quirks of both of his schoolmates.
When Kacchan and Kirishima-san made their own way up into the ring, Izuku stood up and waved to his old friend as he made his way up the opposite set of stairs; he could see the grin that Kacchan returned him through his Telescopic Vision.
Kacchan was as quick to go on the offensive as ever, and with the explosions that his Quirk generated he was able to slowly chip away at Kirishima-san's rocklike skin until his Quirk failed and Kacchan was able to knock him down; Kirishima-san fell to the ground and didn't rise again.
Knowing that he was going to be called on soon enough for his own fight with Iida-san, Izuku put away his latest notebook with some reluctance; he could almost see Kacchan smirking at him, though his old friend hadn't quite made it back to the stands yet.
~MHA~
Looking over at Ingenium again, as the pair of them ran side-by-side down the road, Chiozome Akaguro found himself rather amused at how easily he'd allowed himself to be convinced by the earnest man's drive. Still, delivering food to a homeless shelter was something that he himself would have done, in between his work as a reporter and the work that he did as the Pro Hero Stendhal. Ever since the night that Rosaru had been burned to the ground, scattering its people and costing more than a few of them their lives, he'd worked tirelessly as both Chiozome and as Stendhal.
Chiozome Akaguro brought the hidden truth of matters to light, and Stendhal acted in the situations where Chiozome was unable to.
Once the pair of them had arrived at the Hosu Ward shelter, Chiozome turned his attention to the cart that he and Ingenium had been pushing. Just as they'd begun to unload it at the shelter, he and Ingenium found themselves called upon to help with the lunch rush; the both of them were quick to agree, of course, as true heroes would.
~MHA~
As he made his way back down into the ring, for his own match with Iida-san, Izuku couldn't help but notice the unsettled look on Iida-san's face as his classmate made his own way up. He'd have to remember to ask Iida-san about it, once the pair of them were done with their fight. Iida-san tried to use the same move that he'd used on Ojiro-san, what looked like some kind of super-move and ended up being called Recipro Burst, Izuku leaped out of the way and returned fire with his Air Cannon.
He didn't have more than six shots, at most, before the arm he was using it in – his right, in this case – would start cramping up and he would need to switch to a different Quirk if he didn't want to risk hurting himself and earning a lecture from Dad about not doing that kind of thing.
After four shots from his Air Cannon, he managed to knock Iida-san out of the ring, and once he'd been declared the winner, Izuku quickly made his way back to the stands, since he could probably meet up with Iida-san in the halls while the both of them were on their way back. Once he had managed to catch up with Iida-san, he waved to his classmate, calling out as he closed in.
"You were looking kind of worried while we were fighting, Iida-san, is something wrong?" he asked, falling into step beside Iida-san as the both of them made their way back to their places in the stands.
"I was trying to speak to my brother, but it seems that he's busy right now," Iida-san said, sounding a bit more settled than he had been while Izuku had been fighting him, but there was still something unsettled in his tone.
Izuku didn't think Iida-san was really as okay with everything as he was trying to seem.
~MHA~
Having left Ingenium – or Tensei Iida, as the man had introduced himself to Chiozome when the pair of them had been given the chance to rest for a moment; the man with sixty-five Sidekicks to his name, and an altruistic reason for bringing in each and every one of them – to speak with his younger brother, Chiozome made his way into the room where all of the people who stayed in the Hosu shelter were housed during the night. The child that he'd seen had been too young to have lived through the destruction of the Rosaru Ward, and the fact that he hadn't seen anyone who looked like the boy had brought up a distinctly uncomfortable suspicion within Chiozome.
He held to the hope that he would be wrong, but the sound of a child's soft, hitching breaths made such hopes increasingly fragile with each one that he heard.
Making his way into the room where all of the people staying in this shelter slept, with its row upon row of folding beds, Chiozome quickly located the child that he'd been following. The little boy was curled up on the bed he presumably slept in, messy brown hair shaking as he held the stuffed toy – the long, white flap of fabric on the back seemed to suggest that it was one of the Underground Hero by the name of Sensei – that seemed to be his his only source of comfort. Making his way over to the bed where the boy was huddled, Chiozome reached out to gently touch the child's left shoulder.
"Hey," he called softly, looking down into the boy's pale, silver eyes as he turned to look up. "Your favorite Hero is Sensei?"
"Yeah," the child said, sitting up slightly and revealing that he had indeed been made in the image of the Underground Hero in question. "See, I'm Quirkless, so I was wondering if he could fix me."
"You're Quirkless?" he asked, settling down on the bed as the boy he was speaking to moved back to make room for him.
"That's why my parents left me here," the silver-eyed boy said, shrugging; the numbness in his tone, as though the pain of being thrown out by those who should have loved and protected him had been with him so long that he'd actually become used to it… "They took me to Hosu as soon as they found out."
Clenching his jaw as tightly as he could, not wanting to startle the boy he was speaking by hissing through his teeth, Chiozome forced his attention back to the conversation that they were having. "What's your name?"
"My name is Niseko Sezu, what's yours?" Niseko asked, holding the stuffed effigy of Sensei closer.
"My name is Chiozome Akaguro; it's good to meet you, Niseko-chan," he said, gathering himself as he faced Niseko's sad, silver eyes. "And I know that Sensei wouldn't try to fix you, because there isn't anything wrong with you."
~MHA~
Looking up as he heard the heavy steps of Chiozome Akaguro making their way back into the waiting room where he'd been sitting, Tensei was just about to call out to him, when he saw the furious look on his fellow Pro's face.
"Hold on for a minute, Tenya," he said, covering the receiver on his phone as Chiozome came to sit down on the bench next to him. "What's wrong?"
"I met a young boy; Niseko Sezu," Chiozome all but snarled. "His parents left him here, as soon as they found out he was Quirkless."
Wait, the medical examinations that determine if someone has a Quirk or not take place- "What kind of people would leave a four year old at a homeless shelter?" he found himself demanding.
"That, Tensei, is precisely what I mean to find out."
~MHA~
When he'd managed to put Bird Brain on the ground, Katsuki had known even then that his upcoming fight against Izuku was going to be the one that he really had to worry about. Blasting the concrete floor underneath him, Katsuki lifted up another wall for himself to shelter behind; there was only one way that he would be able to knock Izuku out of the fight, and that was to keep his nerdy friend switching Quirks until the process of doing that kind of thing wore him out and he fell asleep. It was the same thing that'd happened back when they were kids and Izuku would show off the Quirks that Uncle Sashi had been giving him even back then.
There were times that Katsuki had found himself wondering if Uncle Sashi still had those kinds of limits, himself.
Blasting up more of the ring, trying to shield himself from Izuku's Air Cannon for as long as it would take for the nerd to wear out the arm he was using the Quirk on, Katsuki winced as he suddenly found himself and the debris from the ring starting to float. Looking down at the determined expression on Izuku's face, Katsuki smirked in response. Launching himself forward with the aid of his explosions, blasting aside the chunks of concrete that he'd been the one to break free in the first place, Katsuki laughed as he dodged through the maze that the Quirk that seemed to be one of Izuku's favorites had created for him.
Blasting his way through the debris, Katsuki yelled in surprise as the nerd sent a colossal blast from his Air Cannon right the fuck at him!
~MHA~
The sound of Papa chuckling made Bombalurina kind of wish that she could have smiled back in return, even though she was purring.
"Well, that ended just as I expected it to," Papa said, rising from his seat as the TV began broadcasting the award ceremony.
Once Papa had gathered them all together, he, Mama, Tenko, and Bombalurina herself all made their way down through the halls and back out to the arena where Izu, Katsuki, and their classmates were about to receive their medals. Wishing for a moment that she'd thought to bring her glasses – Papa had said he was looking for a Quirk that would improve her eyesight, as well as a way to give it to her that wouldn't hurt her somehow or other, but she hadn't heard anything more than that so far – Bombalurina shaded her eyes as she looked out over the expanse of the arena.
Even with the slight and not-so-slight blurring at the edges of everything she was trying to look at, which only got worse the farther she was trying to look, Bombalurina was able to spot the three podiums as they rose to their respective heights.
She also managed to catch Katsuki's good natured grumble of: "screw you and your million Quirks", which had obviously been aimed at Izu if her brother's immediate denial that he had a million Quirks was anything to go by. Izu was as quick to meet up with them as he'd ever been, and somehow Papa managed to carry them both out of the arena on his back. It was kind of strange, but also kind of nice, at the same time.
Really, it reminded her a lot of what Dad had done, back when she was little.