When all of them finally made it back to the U.A. dorms, there was a distinct air of celebration, since each and every one of them had been able to gain their Provisional Licenses during the exam, and the look on Kacchan's face told Izuku that his old friend had at least something planned for when they all got settled back in. At least after the feast that Sato-san was clearly planning, given how quickly Sato-san headed for the kitchen in their shared dorm building.
"Come on, nerd, let's get going," Kacchan said, once Sato-san had left for the kitchen and the rest of their classmates had all scattered to head off to whatever they wanted to do.
"What'd you have in mind, Kacchan?" he asked, as the pair of them fell into step with one another, making their own way out of the main room of their dorm.
Kacchan grinned, in that way that told Izuku that, while he was going to enjoy the plan that Kacchan had in mind, it was going to be kind of annoying getting it underway in the first place.
~MHA~
Raising an eyebrow as he heard the sound of a familiar ring-tone, Hisashi answered, feeling more than a little amused by just who it was that wished to make contact with him.
"Sorahiko-chan, what brought this on?" he asked, an amused smile tugging at his lips. "I thought you disapproved of me."
"Well, if you'd actually grow up I might have some actual respect for you, brat," Sorahiko-chan volleyed back, sounding about as disapproving as he ever did. "Before you get us too deep into this old song and dance, I wanted to let you know that I'm going to be taking a look at those successors that Toshinori and that useless Sidekick of his picked out for themselves."
He chuckled. "Nana-chan told you about them, then?"
"Well, someone had to," Sorahiko-chan grumbled, and Hisashi grinned as he imagined the expression of annoyance that would naturally have taken up residence on the wrinkled face of Nana-chan's old friend. "And Toshi's too much of an idiot to think about contacting me when something important comes up," there was another, lingering pause, and Hisashi had the distinct impression that Sorahiko-chan was narrowing his eyes at him; it was all so entertaining. "I won't even mention you, brat."
Hisashi didn't bother to hide his amusement. "Well, I'm certain Toshi-kun will enjoy spending more time with you, when you return."
~MHA~
Rubbing the bridge of his nose – dealing with this overgrown brat always ground his nerves; he didn't know how Nana managed to put up with him, even with the kids, and the fact that the brat had somehow contrived a way to become her son-in-law – Sorahiko firmly resisted the urge to grumble at the brat. He knew it wouldn't do anything, and besides the brat would probably make fun of him again.
"I'm also planning to invite that tyke of yours, so make sure that he gets at least some time off for the next couple weeks," he said, hanging up before the brat could drag him into another of the annoying arguments that he'd had more than his fill of during the time they'd spent with each other.
Sure, the Hero Work Studies were going to be coming up, so the tyke was probably going to end up working under that useless, stiff, fanboy of a Sidekick that Toshi had hired after being relentlessly badgered for so long by said fanboy, but he still wanted the tyke to be there. Not just because he happened to be a classmate of – if not actually friends with – the two-toned kid who was being offered up as the Ninth Holder, but because he was the only other one with a stockpile of multiple Quirks. At least the only one that Sorahiko could actually stand, anyway.
Still, there was also the kid that the fanboy had offered up to become the Ninth, so Sorahiko was going to take his measure of the both of them; depending on what he and Nana both made of the kids, one of them was going to end up becoming the Ninth holder of One For All. Toshi was getting on in years, and unlike the brat he wasn't constantly searching for ways to stay as much of a brat on the outside as he was on the inside.
~MHA~
Once he'd finished brushing his hair – the last of the one-hundred strokes that made up his morning routine – Jin looked down at his teaching assistant, smiling softly as he watched Ichiro fluffing up that curly, green hair of his. As the pair of them finished with their respective morning routines, Jin found himself thinking back on just how he'd ended up with a job teaching a bunch of brats. Really, it'd all started when he'd lost his family, and then that bastard had cost him his first job.
It'd been a simple mistake, something that could have happened to anyone else, but it had happened to him and because of that bastardhe'd ended up on the streets, wandering alone and forgotten.
He'd even gone so far as to use his Quirk – Twice, the real brains behind this operation – to create more of himself, just so he'd have someone to talk to, someone who understood him in a way that no one else really could. If he hadn't ended up crossing paths with Toshinori the Sunshine Man; the goof who pretty much loved everyone, and would gladly stomp the balls of anyone he didn't love Jin didn't know quite what would have happened to him. He knew what would have happened to Ichiro and the rest of the tykes, at least.
None of them would have existed at all, and that would fucking suck, because he loved those little brats.
Chuckling as he picked up Ichiro, holding the kid so he didn't fall behind with his short little legs, Jin made his way to his car. Strapping both himself and Ichiro into their respective seats, Jin pulled out of the driveway and made his way out onto the road. Smiling softly as he moved out into traffic, Jin found himself thinking about what he'd just been called in to do by the Hero Public Safety Commission, and Gang Orca in particular. And sure, his brats weren't the best behaved in Japan, but he hadn't really been expecting anyone to actually want them explicitly for that.
Shaking his head as he came to another stoplight, Jin smiled as he reached down to ruffle Ichiro's hair again; he was glad the tyke had managed to make at least some friends in the class they both taught, even though some of them still hadn't gotten used to the idea of his TA looking even younger than they were. It wasn't an issue he'd considered when making any of the others and it was funny to watch them all lose their shit when they met one of the tykes, and the other guys were doing well for themselves, too.
~MHA~
Once they'd all finished with the feast that Sato-san and Momo-san had fixed for them, he and Kacchan had invited the rest of their class to a game of Quirkball. In the end, Tokoyami-san was the only one who didn't seem to be interested in coming out to play with the rest of them, celebrating both the end of the Provisional License Exam and the fact that all of them had been able to gain their own Provisional Licenses, as well. All of the rest of them made their way out to the large, grassy yard, splitting up as Kacchan brought out the ball that they were going to be using.
Extending the wings that he'd inherited from Hayato-kun, Izuku took off into the air as Kacchan launched the ball into the air with a powerful explosion from his own Quirk.
Quirkball was nearly the only thing he'd actually enjoyed when he and Dad had gone to Deika city, and the only thing he'd actually chosen to bring back with him when he'd come home. The game itself involved tossing around a ball, but only being able to touch it with either parts of your Quirk – wings, tails, jets, horns, or other things like that – or something you generated with the use of your Quirk. It was a lot of fun, and he'd played it with more than a few of the other kids who lived there.
Both before and after Yotsubashi-san had found out who his father was; though after, Izuku had the feeling that most of the kids he'd been playing with had been trying to let him win.
Once all of them had finished their game, Izuku made his way back to his room, settling down on his bed to make himself comfortable after having washed up, he found that there was a message waiting for him. Checking his phone, Izuku found himself more than a little surprised to find out just who it was that had contacted him.
"Grandpa Sora, what's going on? Are you all right?" he asked, feeling more than a little strange; Grandpa Sorahiko had spend a lot more time talking to Uncle Toshi than he'd spent talking to him, Dad, or even Mom.
"Hey, tyke," Grandpa said, and Izuku could just about hear him grinning. "I heard your Work Studies are going to be coming around soon. You planning to take up with your uncle's Sidekick, or are you going to try someone new?"
"I think I am going to go back to Uncle Mirai's Agency," he said, listening carefully to not only the words that Grandpa Sorahiko was saying, but also the tone of his voice. "I'm glad you're doing all right, Grandpa Sora."
"Yeah," Grandpa Sorahiko said, sounding cheerful. "Anyway, Nana told me about those plans your uncle's been making around One For All, and I was hoping to get a look in on them before anything gets finalized. I'd also like to see how your training is progressing, tyke. Don't think you can rest easy, just because you've gotten your Provisional License."
"Right, sir," he said, feeling a bit sheepish.
He should have been expecting that Grandpa Sorahiko would have been keeping abreast of those kinds of developments; he also suspected that Grandpa Sorahiko would have been a lot less charitable if he hadn't managed to gain his Provisional License along with the rest of the class, so Izuku was glad that he'd managed that. Considering the way Grandpa Sorahiko had trained Uncle Toshi, and how his uncle still reacted to the thought of him, Izuku wasn't eager to have the same kind of experience, himself.
~MHA~
Once he'd let the tyke know what they were all going to be doing when they met up again, Sorahiko Torino turned his attention to getting things prepared for the kids he was going to be working with. Considering that Todoroki and Togata had both been put forward as the next holder of One For All, Sorahiko fully intended to test the both of them to their respective limits. And then to push the both of them beyond them, of course.
He was also going to have to think about just how he was going to test the tyke's limits, too; all those Quirks he'd collected would make things interesting, but the fact that the tyke still didn't seem to be able to stop himself from passing out when he used either too many of them, or switched between his stored Quirks too fast during a fight would mean he'd need something more than just himself to push the tyke. And, as much as he didn't want to call the brat in for any of this, he did have the same base Quirk as the tyke, in the end.
Settling back down in his favorite chair, Sorahiko moved his plate of taiyaki aside, pulling out a notepad so that he could begin making plans to determine just how he would begin to find out just which of those zygotes would made the most suitable ninth holder of One For All.
~MHA~
"Lay down, kitten," he said, directing Sensei's adopted daughter – the girl with the rather interesting Heteromorphic Quirk – to lay down on the bed he'd prepared earlier.
/All right,/ Sensei's kitten said, laying herself down carefully. /Did Papa tell you anything in particular, or is this just a normal check-up?/
"Sensei just wants to make certain that you're doing well, kitten," he said, gently stroking her head, the same way that he had often seen Sensei do when he wished to settle her down. "Just relax."
Settling a breathing mask over the kitten's nose, Daruma Ujiko – who had gone by that particular alias long enough that it almost felt more familiar to him than his own name: Kyuudai Garaki – wheeled over a cart of tools. Gently plucking a whisker from each side of the kitten's face, Ujiko preserved the long, stiff hairs so that he would be able to process them later. Taking a blood-sample, Ujiko preserved it alongside the whiskers he had previously harvested.
It truly seemed as though Sensei's concerns had been slightly overblown, though Ujiko could perfectly understand the root of them. Not only did Sensei wish to protect those he had taken into his care, but the kitten – as well as his son, which was why Ujiko had been given leave to look in on the both of them – was a necessary part of Sensei's own adaptation. The Quirk Factors that the both of them possessed, by their very natures of having evolved in this modern era, would naturally be useful for adapting Sensei's body to the new Quirks that had arisen as the Quirk Singularity drew closer.
Once he had harvested the materials he needed from Sensei's kitten, Ujiko turned off the anesthetic gas, switching it out for the purified oxygen that would serve to awaken her more quickly.
"All right, your yearly check-up is over, kitten," he said, beginning to turn away, more interested in the materials he had collected from her than in the kitten herself.
/Papa told me that you had some kind of life-extending Quirk,/ the kitten said, calling his attention back before he'd turned to leave the room. /He said it had something to do with your physical energy. Do you know how it works? I mean, it sounds like it might convert adrenaline into telomerase, given how Papa described it to me./
Raising an eyebrow, as he turned back to look at the kitten that Sensei had taken such an interest in, he found himself rather more interested in her than he'd previously been. "That is the general mechanism, kitten. I had no idea you were so interested in Quirks."
/Well, it's not Quirks per se, but biology is my second favorite subject,/ the kitten said, pulling on her shoes as she began to stand back up.
"Hmm, just after Astronomy, I suppose," he said, adjusting his goggles as he peered more closely at the kitten while she prepared to leave.
/Yeah, that's it,/ the kitten said, purring softly as she turned to leave.
Contemplating what he'd learned about the kitten, even as she returned to Sensei's side and the both of them departed once more for the home that his old friend had built for himself, Ujiko found himself more than a little intrigued. He hadn't expected to find out that he and Sensei's kitten had a common interest, having thought that she was simply interested in math, astronomy, and eventually learning to become a pilot. Perhaps he would invite her over again, to see just how deep her interest in biology truly ran.
And, perhaps to see if he could steer such an interest in a more fruitful direction; his old friend was hardly the only one who would benefit from cultivating a successor, after all.
~MHA~
He'd headed over to Grandpa Sorahiko's house as soon as school let out for the day, since he knew what kind of things Grandpa Sorahiko would try to do to them before he started training Togata-sempai and Todoroki-san. Uncle Toshi had warned him about those kinds of things, not only with the things he actually said, but also the way he acted whenever Grandpa Sorahiko's name was brought up, and especially when the old man would come over to visit them. Really, Dad seemed to be the only one who actually enjoyed having Grandpa Sorahiko around.
It didn't seem to work the other way, though.
When he made it to the old building where Grandpa Sorahiko liked to stay when he was aiming to train people – Uncle Toshi in particular, which was why he really didn't like coming into this area unless Dad was with him – Izuku found himself yanked up and off of the ground, whipped through the air and tossed into the bed in the room that Grandpa Sorahiko had set up for him for those few times that he'd ended up staying over.
"Well, tyke, I'm glad to see you made it here so promptly," Grandpa Sorahiko said, arms folded across his chest and a wide grin on his face. "But don't think you can go and spoil all my fun, just because you got here early."
"Grandpa," he muttered, feeling sheepish and really young in that way that only Grandpa Sorahiko could truly make him feel; really, even Grandma Nana didn't seem to make him feel the way that Grandpa Sorahiko did.
Uncle Toshi seemed to feel just the same, though, so that was one more thing that the both of them had in common. Yelping as he found Grandpa Sorahiko right up in his face, pointer-finger pressing into his nose, Izuku blinked in surprise.
"You just stay here and make yourself comfortable while I get things ready for those unexpected successors," Grandpa Sorahiko said, pulling back even as he kept grinning just as widely.
Rolling his eyes, once Grandpa Sorahiko was safely out of the room and he wouldn't get in trouble for it, Izuku began making his way down the stairs to the living room. Once he'd just started crossing the open door that lead to the kitchen, Izuku caught sight of Grandpa Sorahiko, leaping at him with some kind of… Before he could figure out just what it was that he'd seen Grandpa Sorahiko carrying, Izuku yelped, stumbling backwards as he found himself covered in whatever it was that Grandpa Sorahiko had been holding when he'd come out of the kitchen.
"Why don't you get some sleep, tyke?" Grandpa Sorahiko said, and even as he felt a sharp pain in his neck and his vision began fading, Izuku could see the old man grinning down at him.
~MHA~
"Togata-sempai," Shoto greeted, as the pair of them fell into step with each other on their way to the address they'd been given. "Have you heard of the Hero who seemed so interested in the pair of us?"
"He sounded pretty old, so that means he's probably retired," Togata-sempai said, sounding as cheerful as he ever did.
Shoto didn't know exactly what to make of Mirio Togata, someone who seemed to have been hand-picked in just the same way he himself had been, though the pair of them seemed to be complete opposites in every other way. He didn't know if Togata-sempai was the product of a Quirk marriage or not, but even if he was, it seemed that his parents had been happier than Mother and Endeavor had ever truly been. He supposed that now was hardly the time to ask, however, since the pair of them were going to be training and probably wouldn't have time to speak in earnest.
Or perhaps even at all, depending on just how far this retired Hero was planning to push them while they were working with him.
When the both of them came within sight of the weathered, old building whose address they had been directed to meet at, Shoto found himself staring up at the double doors that would take them inside. Knocking, Shoto announced himself, Togata-sempai not far behind him, waiting for a long moment before trying again when there was no answer.
"Well, I guess that's his way of inviting us in," Togata-sempai said cheerfully, as the doors in front of them opened slightly.
"I guess," he said, making his way into the darkened interior of the building, looking around for a moment, before he caught sight of- "Midoriya!"
He was at Midoriya's side nearly before he'd finished saying the name, cradling the bloodied body of the boy he hadn't quite realized that he considered a friend, not until this moment. Togata-sempai seemed to be saying something, clearly attempting to draw his attention, but all Shoto could find himself thinking about was just how he would explain what had happened – what he had allowed to happen – to Midoriya's father. Midoriya's father, who had shown him nothing but kindness, and now…
"Shoto!" Togata-sempai called, clapping his large hands in front of Shoto's face, snapping his attention back to the present, and all the horrible things that were currently happening. The grin Togata-sempai always seemed to be wearing on his face was still present, and Shoto couldn't help but wonder what was going on. "It's all right," Togata-sempai said, scooping up a bit of Midoriya's blood on his pointer finger. "It's just ketchup."
Not knowing what to say in response, Shoto looked down as Midoriya began stirring in his arms.