Okay, here's the next chapter, just like I promised.
But that aside, it has recently come to my attention that this fic was placed in an 'Omega Izuku fanfic' list. What the fuck, man? Believe me, I have no issues with that glorified BL/yaoi stuff, but don't get me or any of the shit I write involved with that. Giorno!Izuku isn't even anywhere near that.
I'm extremely insulted, not gonna lie.
But man, is writer's block an absolute pain. It really doesn't help that I've got some more fic ideas for other fandoms, plus the fact I've been grinding in video games, so there's that to deal with. But hey, if any of you wanna play some VALORANT or Overwatch, message me and I'll send you my IGNs.
XVII. From One Joestar to Another
For a good chunk of his life growing up, Toshinori had always felt a bit...off compared to other children his age, with a teacher of his once mentioning that he tended to act very formal around classmates and adults. Being Quirkless wasn't all that rare back then, but his attitude combined with this apparent disability led to several adults treating him with a strange, sort-of delicateness at times.
The fact that he hadn't had the best (or even the most stable) home life didn't help, either. While his parents were reasonably well-off, both of them were also workaholics and preferred instead to leave him in the care of babysitters, and then in the company of video games and reheatable frozen foods once he was old enough to look after himself.
While it almost led to him developing extremely poor social skills, his near-constant access to the internet also opened his eyes to the state of the world, and ignited a desire to do something about it, Quirk or no Quirk.
Which eventually resulted in him meeting Shimura Nana—the hero Blackbird, and the mother he always wanted (his true mother, he would think to himself, when he had finally given up on having a good relationship with his biological one, after his parents had divorced and remarried). He confided in her his desire to be the kind of hero that people could look to and trust to keep them safe and be someone who could always be relied on.
Apparently that had been enough for her to decide to give him One for All, and passed it on to him some months before U.A.'s entrance exam. However, at the very moment the Quirk fully integrated itself into his body, it also helped to uncover something locked within the recesses of his psyche: the memories of Jonathan Joestar, as well as all the emotional baggage that came along with them.
The excitement of finally having a Quirk was almost completely overshadowed by the overwhelming grief at the realization that his wife and child were long since dead. Hours were spent wallowing in his bitter sadness, wistfully thinking of the life he could have had with the two of them, and even wishing he could trade this new life for more time in his previous one.
By pure chance, he ended up coming across the existence of the Speedwagon Foundation, and as he read through the organization's history and everything it had accomplished over the years (centuries, actually), his astonishment at finding out his once-friend Robert had made such a name for himself very quickly turned into curiosity, and then a burning desire to find out what had happened to Erina.
But as he expected, he found almost nothing regarding her, or the immediate days since Dio's alleged attack and his first death, all those years ago. But he did, however, stumble upon the short biography of George Joestar II (his son), numerous articles and internet entries of Joseph Joestar (his grandson), and the theses and published research of Kūjō Jōtarō (his great-great grandson).
(It was only much later on, when he became All Might and eventually revealed himself to the SPW of the modern era, was he able to find out the truth of the Pillar Men, Dio's survival, and Higashikata Josuke's parentage).
So much had happened with his family and friends, and he was content with the fact that they all had lived fulfilling lives, as much as he wanted to have been a part of them. So he decided to put that life behind him and instead focus on the future ahead of this one, but the pain of what he never could have had always stayed with him, no matter what.
When Nana was killed by All for One, Toshinori wondered what would happen to her son. His willingness to respect and heed her last wish to stay away from him heavily conflicted with Jonathan Joestar's caring nature and virtuous morality, but in the end, his respect for his mentor won out over Jonathan's desire to have a large family, for better or for worse.
But it wasn't until years later after making a name for himself in the United States and returning to Japan, that Toshinori was forced to confront both of his pasts once again, when he found his friend David Shield in possession of a bizarrely-adorned golden arrow, on the same day one Kūjō Jōshirō was sent to I-Island to retrieve it.
"I...I don't know what to say."
"How many times do we have to go over this, Toshinori?" his companion sighed.
Currently, he and Jōshirō were currently reviewing all the information the latter had collected on Midoriya Izuku, who was currently letting loose among several training robots. From the one-way mirror, they watched as he dismantled each and every robot with a combination of what, to an outsider, looked like a combination of enhanced strength and telekinesis. But obviously, the two of them knew the most likely truth behind the boy's power.
"Okay, Midoriya, that's good enough for now," Jōshirō called out into the intercom. "You're free for the next hour or two while we figure out a couple things on our end." He watched as Midoriya-shōnen gave him a silent thumbs up as he stood there and stretched for a moment, before he sat down and quickly started downing a bottle of water.
The clacking sound of a keyboard forced Toshinori's gaze away from his student, and he turned to see Jōshirō clicking and typing away at his computer, before he moved his hand to a white, circular pedestal on his right. After pressing a button, the small lights decorating the pedestal lit up, showing a holographic image of a golden, humanoid being.
"Everything Midoriya's said about Gold Experience matches Giorno Giovanna's Stand, down to the smallest detail," he said. "Hell, even the names are the same. If you're still not convinced that kid right there—" He tapped the window with his pen, before pointing to a photo of Giorno standing with Kūjō Jōtarō and his family. "—and Giorno are the same people, then I really don't know what to do with you."
Toshinori said nothing as he continued staring at the two-dimensional image hand-drawn by Kūjō Jōtarō, with his eyes going back and forth from it to the monitor that was now showing a transcription of Midoriya-shōnen's verbal description of his 'Quirk'.
A helmeted, golden figure that appeared to have small wings on its shoulders.
Several purple, ladybug-like brooches adorned throughout its body.
The fact that it repeatedly yelled out the word 'useless' as a battle cry.
("Don't you see, JoJo? Your Ripple training is useless, useless, useless, useless, USELESS!")
If the kid really was a Stand user, then he was the second one Toshinori had ever actually met in person, but all signs pointed to him having naturally manifested it like a Quirk in his case. And if Stands were supposed to be the personification of the soul's innate fighting spirit, then two different people sharing the exact same Stand could only mean...
"But he's..." The words Dio's son went unspoken, and yet it was clear by the other man's slow nod that he understood.
"And him being born in the first place was because Dio used Jonathan's body to do it. Your body," Jōshirō retorted. "You know this."
...yes, he did. When he first found out about Dio's true fate, he cursed his former brother's name over and over for roping Joseph and the rest of his family into his schemes and nearly killing them, but all he felt now was nothing but pity for the man who sought for nothing but power, and for the children he had left fatherless and whose fates were left unknown.
All except for one.
Intellectually, Toshinori had no clue as to why he was still so opposed to all this—for as much as he tried to stay impartial between both him and Bakugō-shōnen, he had long since started to care for Midoriya-shōnen in a way he felt only a parent could. Like how his own mentor cared for him.
So why was it he was still struggling so hard to think of him like a son now?
He tried to get his hands on as much information on Giorno Giovanna as he could, the first time he found out. Over and over, he toyed with the idea of meeting the man in his head, of how they could have had some sort of familial relationship, and whether or not he would have turned out to be more like Dio...or more like Jonathan.
"How...how could this have happened?" Toshinori whispered.
Jōshirō snorted. "You tell me," he replied, leaning back into his chair. "How did Jonathan Joestar and Higashikata Josuke end up reincarnating into the same relative time period when they died centuries apart?"
...and wasn't that the million-dollar question? He had been denied the chance to live out his days with Erina and watch George and Joseph grow up, and now, hundreds of years later, he now suddenly had the chance to get to know some of his descendants and someone who could maybe be his son? Why? What reason was there for him to be so fortunate?
He had never once believed in fate, or of any sort of divine guidance. As Jonathan, he couldn't subscribe to Christianity the more he learned about what the other people of the world believed in, and even in the face of life-threatening danger, he dismissed Dio's vampiric tirades of fate and providence as the ramblings of a madman.
So all of that, combined with Toshinori's Shinto upbringing, led to something that could only be defined as confusion. And it was at this point, that some miniscule, traitorous part of his mind wished he had never reawakened these memories in the first place—that Yagi Toshinori was all he was and will ever be.
What even was his life...?
A loud buzzer rang throughout the training area, signifying the start of the next wave in the exercise.
With the cacophony of whirring sounds reverberating all around him, Izuku took a brief moment to quickly check his sides and back, confirming that he was being surrounded on all sides by the training robots. Wordlessly, he clenched his fist in anticipation as he watched them move closer and closer (even faster than he anticipated, since it was the fifth wave now), but he still stayed calm and kept waiting for the right moment.
Not yet...
His eyes narrowed when he saw several of the robots' arms split apart and begin spinning, which made for a pretty menacing sight. But still, he stayed put. Even when two of the robots that were hovering off the ground started moving faster than the rest, he stayed put.
Not yet...
More and more, the robots came ever closer to him, but it wasn't until they were within arm's reach, did he finally make his move.
NOW...!
"MUDA! MUDA!"
With its signature battle cry, Gold Experience's arms flew forward at faster-than-lightning speeds. Izuku watched intently as his ethereal companion made short work of the robots in front of him, only needing to punch each of them once to disable them, before moving on to the ones on his sides. Consequently, this meant that the robot behind him would be dealt with last, but all it took was a simple recall and a command to attack behind him in order to neutralize it, in the end.
Where some of the robots had been standing or hovering, all of them were now nothing but piles of scrap metal on the ground, doing nothing but shutting down as the bright glows where their 'heads' were dimmed out, and the whirring sounds slowed to a stop, with the holes in each of them occasionally spurting out bursts of blue electricity from the torn-and-exposed wires.
"Okay, Midoriya, that's good enough for now. You're free for the next hour or two while we figure out a couple things on our end."
Izuku gave a silent thumbs-up to the large mirror (but was also obviously a one-way mirror), before he took a moment to stretch out his arms and torso a bit, and then moving towards the benches by the other side of the large room, sitting down and eagerly downing the water bottle he had left there when he first came in.
To be honest, this wasn't a bad workout at all. Even if he did have to start with constantly stress-testing what Gold Experience could and couldn't handle for the SPW's records (according to Kūjō-sensei), at least he was finally able to let loose somewhat after all of that. Even if it wasn't tailor-made for pure combat training like what U.A.'s private Quirk gyms, he could see that a lot of the tech used was either state-of-the-art or not publicly released yet, if at all.
Still, though, he concluded, looking down at his legs—did he have to make him run on the treadmill that fast? Through all his practice over the year spent training with Katsuki and All Might, he hadn't once been able to break through the increase the upper limit of how much he was able to handle when wearing Gold Experience over himself like armor, and his legs ached at the memory of having torn through most of the muscles and ligaments.
(It really wasn't something he'd like to go through again. Sorry if the data was a bit skewed because of it, Kūjō-sensei.)
He would, however, admit that it was kind of funny, when it looked like he could lift hundreds of kilos of weights, all on his own.
Izuku took a deep breath and audibly exhaled, then brought the bottle up to his lips and swished the water around in his mouth for a moment, before finally swallowing it. He then stood up and wiped himself down as much as he could with the towel he brought with him, before walking up to the trash bin to throw the bottle away and making his way back to his assigned room.
First a shower, and then something to eat. All that moving around left him with a pretty big appetite. It was still too early in the day for eating a substantial amount of food, but he figured he could make do with a light snack, especially since he most likely had more training and testing to go back to once Kūjō-sensei was done with whatever he was doing.
After a shower and subsequently wolfing down some premade onigiri he brought from school, Izuku was now back in his room and passing the rest of his break time by flipping through his notebook and trying to write down anything new he could come up with...the keyword being try, considering how he gave up not even a few minutes later.
...this was going to be a rough week, wasn't it?
Sure, given what this place was publicly known for (and after all the weird things he had seen after stepping onto the elevator), then he had no real reason to doubt Kūjō-sensei's words. That said, however, he was still pretty curious on what else he could learn about Stands, even if he would still get to intern under a Hero.
Which reminded him—when exactly was he supposed to bring that up? He didn't want to come across as rude and impatient if he decided to ask about that so soon after arriving here, but like...hindsight was twenty-twenty, after all, and what exactly could he get out of this besides practice that didn't exactly push his limits with Gold Experience?
The lack of being able to use his phone was seriously amplifying his boredom, he finally realized. He already knew that he wasn't allowed to record or take pictures of anything down here, but that didn't mean he had to like it—his hands were itching for some entertainment, and he didn't exactly have enough time to ask Kūjō-sensei if there was a library and permission to go to the upper levels.
Say, how was everyone else doing with their own internships right now? He already knew Ochako wanted to work on her hand-to-hand with Gunhead, Fumikage went with Hawks, and Katsuki wanted to try out interning with Endeavor, of all people alongside Todoroki Shōto.
But as for Tenya? He wasn't sure. Ever since he brought up healing his older brother's injuries, his friend had continued to be oddly distant with the rest of them, like he was thinking about something. And when Izuku tried to bring up internships, Tenya had simply brushed him off, telling him that he hadn't made a decision yet.
("All Might...do you know anyone called Giorno Giovanna?")
And then there was that issue, Izuku remembered, clicking his tongue in annoyance.
He couldn't exactly remember the exact date when he started thinking about the foreign name, but after getting nowhere by searching it up on the internet, he ended up having to resort to telling All Might and Katsuki about it. Except that went nowhere, either—he tried to bring it up with All Might after the Sports Festival a few times, but he always either ended up being oddly evasive about it, or kept trying to change the subject.
And so that, combined with his Gold Experience actually never having been a Quirk in the first place, meant that there was another thing he wasn't being told about, but what? What else was there to himself that led to All Might starting to walk around tiptoes around him, and what did it have to do with 'Giorno Giovanna'?
He sighed. All of this was getting him more than a little irritated, to be honest. Maybe he should just go back to the training area until—
BWEEP! BWEEP! BWEEP!
...?!
Izuku's head snapped towards where he had heard the noise coming from: the small screen attached to the side of the door to his room. Once originally a sleek black when he first went inside, it was now repeatedly pulsing a bright red and displaying the words 'Emergency Call From: Lobby'.
With the rhythmic noises and lights only adding to his sense of urgency, he immediately stood up and quickly rushed to it, placing his finger on the green telephone icon and swiping right to answer it, and the screen changed to show the face of a woman, who he vaguely recognized as the main lobby's receptionist.
"Midoriya-kun!" she exclaimed. "There's been reports of a widespread Villain attack in the city! I was told to tell you to get changed and join the Heroes by the elevator, ASAP!" With that, she immediately hung up, ending the video call, and leaving Izuku to stand there dumbfounded as he processed what he was just told.
"...eh?! Under attack?!"
He only pondered the words for another second, before he finally shook his head to clear his thoughts so he could focus on the urgency of the situation and the fact that he needed to get changed. Immediately. Rushing over to the other side of the room, he picked up the briefcase containing his costume and placed it on his bed, before opening it and then taking his own shirt and pants off. Less than a minute later, he was fully dressed, and decided to give himself a quick once-over.
Boots fastened on tight? Check.
Bit of stretching to see if the new coat fit him? Check.
Jumping around and stretching to make sure he could move properly? Check.
The original design of his Hero costume had been too simplistic, and there was just quite too much green, because it was his favorite color. But right after the attack at the USJ, he wanted to add a few things to make it stand out more, even using a bit of inspiration from Gold Experience during the process. The result was something that was still the same general shape as what he was originally using, but now something that more closely resembled an archaic western military uniform.
With that, he opened the door and started jogging, using the directions of the signs on the walls to make his way to the elevator. Just as he made his last turn and slowed to a faster-than-normal walking pace, he suddenly stopped as he was met with the sight of multiple Pro Heroes (about eight of them) grouped up around the elevator and making conversation with each other.
He should introduce himself.
Izuku took a step forward. "Excuse—"
"Midoriya. You're with me."
A voice from somewhere to his right calling out his name stopped him in his tracks, and as Izuku turned to see where the (strangely familiar) voice had come from, his eyes widened when he saw who exactly called out to him.
Izuku could only do nothing but blink as he eyed the figure up and down. The person in question was wearing all black, from black military boots and combat pants, even to the black shirt, black gloves and something that looked like body armor (wait was that kevlar?). But when he saw the black mask with a thick, gray 'x' marked over where the mouth was, he finally realized the name of the Hero he was looking at.
"You're..."
Kūjō-sensei nodded. "Yeah. I'm Nostradamus." Without another word, he put the mask up to his face and fastened it, before moving forward and tapping Izuku on the shoulder as he kept walking. "Ask your questions later. Right now, we need to get going and help contain the situation."
Izuku continued to stare at him in shock for another moment, before he finally processed the words and blinked back into awareness.
"Uh, right!"
So the head researcher for the secret Speedwagon division was also a secret Underground Hero. Who'd have thought?
Without another word, he jogged forward until he was matching Kūjō-sensei in pace, and continued following the man as they reached the end of the hallway, but where he expected to go to where the elevator was located, they ended up actually going in the opposite direction, until they finally stopped at...
A wall.
A wall that Kūjō-sensei leaned into until his face was right up against it, to which he saw a faint but still noticeable beam of light shoot out and stay on his eyes for about a second or two, before it soon retracted. Almost immediately after, a large section of the wall seemed to just move in on itself, until it separated from the middle to reveal a small, rectangular room with built-in handrails.
Kūjō-sensei walked inside, making a gesture for Izuku to follow, and once he reached the end and turned around, was he finally able to see the panel of numbers and letters.
(Ah, so it was a wall that led to a secret elevator, probably even to a secret exit. At least that made sense now.)
Once Kūjō-sensei pressed a button (and the doors finally closed), the silence between them continued for a few more moments, before he finally said something.
"Since we're too far away from the main city to get there in time, we'll need to go by chopper. Also, you might want to hold on to those rails."
Izuku's eyebrows raised at the man's words. "What do you—woah!"
Whenever you went on an elevator, the usual experience was for a slight pushing sensation towards your feet since you were obviously being lifted up, and the same was true for the one they were in right now. Only, it was also lifting them up much faster than he expected. He even ended up almost losing his balance and had to use Gold Experience just to stay upright.
Kūjō-sensei, meanwhile, continued to stay calmly standing, and looked to be going through a last-minute check through his costume and gear.
(He would've asked if this was legal, but given the state of the entire floor they were just at, it wouldn't have exactly been a smart question.)
Around five seconds later, the speed felt bearable enough to where Izuku could now comfortably stand on his own, and after another five, the elevator quickly came to a stop, and its doors open, leading to the rooftop of the building. And true to Kūjō-sensei's words, there was a helicopter sitting right up ahead. The two of them walked out, and once they were stopped and stood right next to it, the two of them were led inside.
As the two of them fastened their seat belts, the slow thumping sound of the helicopter was now picking up, and before long, they were finally up in the air and racing towards downtown Hosu, and Izuku grimly noted how he could easily see the orange glow and the smoke rising up in the distance.
So does this mean I'm back to updating this story regularly? Probably. At least, I hope so. Ever since school started back up and I finally built a good gaming PC back in March of last year, I've barely gotten any motivation to continue my MHA fics (except for the Re:Zero xover), largely because I have my hands full with school, watching anime, and trying to hit GM 1 in Overwatch 2.
But since my plan is to work only on 2-3 fics for the next six months, then I should be able to go back to regular updates every 10 or so days.
And I know there are certain changes that are inconsistent with the previous chapters (lastname-firstname + Quirk/Stand name italicization), so I also need to retroactively go back and rewrite all the previous chapters a bit to match the change in my current writing style. That'll be done by the time chapter 18 comes out, hopefully.
I'll catch you later, I guess.