Chapter 19: To refine yourself (Find your footing)(Put the pieces back together)
Now that they're settled in 1-A begins preparations for their next step towards becoming pro heroes. But one among them is taking steps out of the dark for the first time in years. Chaldea's Master is becoming a known quantity to others. Secrets long kept are spilling forth. The great dam keeping Nathan Relnor from breaking down is starting to crack.
HI! I'M SORRY! I'm in medical school now so uuuuuuhhhhh... Yeah. I'll try my best to get chapters out when I can! I hope you all enjoy this one!
"So what did you need to speak to me about?"
Nathan sat on his bed facing Bakugo who was at his desk.
The Cu Alter and Viy plushes were not happy about the atmosphere in the room but they obligingly did not move.
"... What was that back at Kamino?"
"What was what exactly?" Nathan asked for clarification.
"You know what the fuck I mean! The dream and you knowing way too fucking much! That monster and you knowing exactly what it was doing all the time! Ordering Chaldeans around? What was all of that huh?"
Nathan remained still as Bakugo laid it all out for him.
"You're not just some random kid Chaldea picked up are you? You're a big fucking deal over there."
"That's a dangerous thing to say out loud."
Nathan had been fairly insistent they have this conversation in his room exactly for this reason.
Part of the decoration was magically soundproofing it so any conversation held within would not escape outside no matter what.
Bakugo's blood ran cold as Nathan affixed him with a one eyed stare.
"What does knowing if that is true or not bring you?"
"I don't know who the fuck you are! I saw like six of you in that fire and I just want-"
Bakugo took a deep breath and tried to center himself.
"I want to know… If I was in your way…"
Bakugo could not bring himself to make eye contact.
Nathan had told him to run several times during the fight, taking the first opportunity to latch onto a pro hero as soon as more arrived.
Despite the fact that he could barely stand on his own feet he'd been furious when Bakugo refused to flee.
Was it because… He wasn't strong enough to stand on the same stage as them?
All Might gave up everything short of his life to save them.
If he hadn't been a chain that held Nathan back… Could that have been prevented?
If Nathan alone had been captured, how would things have played out differently?
He felt like he'd been lugging Nathan around the entire fight but what if the opposite was true?
"Bakugo Katsuki."
Nathan wasn't sure what this boy needed to hear right now.
Especially considering it was more his fault than Bakugo's that things had turned out that way. If All for One hadn't been ready to fight Chaldea Huwawa would have never been summoned after all.
Regardless, Nathan would speak from the bottom of his heart.
"You and I survived. All Might survived. All of our friends made it out of that encounter unharmed. Not everything worked out perfectly but an ending where we all get to live another day is undoubtedly a good one."
Those words rolled around in Bakugo's head before anger began to boil up from his chest.
"That didn't… That didn't answer a damn thing! Listen you bastard! I just want a straight answer! Was it my fault!?"
Nathan thought for a moment.
"No," He said quietly, "Sometimes. No matter what, even when you've done everything you can, things still go wrong and people still die. Sometimes you're in a situation so bad that no matter what your best is, you're still going to lose something important." Nathan looked at his scale hand and clenched it as tight as he could muster. "Sometimes you only barely survive after losing chunks of yourself. But as long as you survive you can keep walking. You can keep getting better so that maybe next time you won't lose anything."
Bakugo looked at him.
This was the answer that kept him going.
The indomitable machine that he saw on that battlefield had lost so much but still powered forward despite everything.
"To answer your other question as best as I can… You're right. I am much more involved in Chaldea's command structure than I let on… But I can't say anything else without putting all of that in danger. I will protect everything I have left…"
Bakugo nodded. He'd seen all of those various versions of Nathan. Each of them missing something more than the previous… That was why Nathan could so effortlessly stand at the top of their class.
He had fought and lost and survived and grown through an impossible fire.
"Sorry."
"What?"
"I misjudged you is all. Thanks I guess…" Bakugo stood from the chair and looked Nathan dead in the eye, "I won't let your advantage loom over us forever, I'll blast right past you and Deku once I've gotten all of my answers. You hear me dragon bastard!?"
Nathan smiled at that.
"I hope so my friend."
About 20 minutes after Bakugo left, Nathan had changed into his pajamas and was getting ready to turn in, giving Cu, Apollo, and Viy some extra cotton as rewards for being so good while he had visitors. He made sure to plug in his perfectly ordinary cellphone that Minamoto no Tatemono gave him that has no transformation function whatsoever.
The cellphone let out a small beep indicating a proximity alarm.
Then he heard a knock on the door.
"Intruder Identified: Aizawa Shota." The small robotic voice said aloud.
"Come on in!" He called out absentmindedly.
"Excuse me," Aizawa said as he entered the room, closing the door behind him.
"Oh. Aizawa sensei, what brings you here tonight?" Nathan asked before sitting on his bed and facing his teacher.
"Well, there was something bothering me so I wanted to ask you directly…" He said, taking the chair at Nathan's desk.
"What about?"
"Chaldea. I didn't want to put up much of a fight while we were there but… I just can't accept it in my mind."
"It is a lot to throw at you guys with basically no answers. And I am sorry but it really is the best we can do." Nathan said diplomatically.
"Explain it to me again. Why do you have to do what you do? Surely the crisis that took the lives of your peers has passed, why are you still at the head of that operation?"
Nathan paused. He mulled over the answer in his head a few times. What was he supposed to tell Aizawa? That Chaldea existed as it is now because he didn't know if he could survive without them?
"Right now. Chaldea is in the shape it is for my benefit. Even after everything that we found out. Even after having to go back to the heart of the matter and uproot everything. They put the pieces back together to give me something to fall back on. That crisis is over, yes… But… I don't…"
"On that note too… What crisis was so dire that they couldn't call for help from other pro heroes? That doesn't make any sense to me either. Why did it have to be a child?"
"Well. It simply was that dire. There were no other options because of the sheer devastation-"
"Relnor, there have been no recent events of the scale you're describing"
"You call it by a different name than we do because you were on the other side of it, but there was a severe crisis that humans have just sort of had to accept as unexplainable."
Nathan's tone had gradually shifted back to the one he used in that meeting room.
Aizawa was speaking to Chaldea's Master now rather than his own student…
But.
What event-
Aizawa's eyes widened.
"The Lost Year…"
"We call it the Human Order Incineration Event. The way people think about it from the outside is that they blinked and suddenly a year passed but that's not really what happened. Humans were wiped off the face of the earth and a year only passed because a few stubborn holdouts in some dinky nowhere organization managed to restore everything."
Chaldea had operated during the Lost Year? That was…
That could certainly explain things…
It slowly dawned on Aizawa that this was what Arjuna was talking about when he mentioned that other side of the world.
Chaldea truly was operating on a different level.
"I do wish it hadn't taken quite that long but I was very young at the time and still getting my feet under me."
Wait.
Nathan was still talking but Aizawa was trying to process the truth he'd just learned of the Lost Year.
Chaldea defeated something capable of wiping humanity off the face of the Earth…
Suddenly Nathan's completely unimpressed reactions at USJ made sense.
Everything was clicking into place.
Nathan wasn't a combat prodigy.
Nathan wasn't unnaturally skilled with his quirk.
Nathan was a child soldier.
Fresh horror shot through his veins as he looked at that boy trying to delicately explain something beyond his comprehension.
"Relnor."
"Yes?"
"If you need to talk… With anyone about anything. We are here to help you. Just say the word and we can have you at a therapist the next day… Or even if you just want to talk about your experiences-"
"I can't really do that. And Chaldea already has an on site therapist I see regularly."
That's right. Their secrecy protected something larger than them that could crush them out of existence…
"Still. I can vaguely remember. And I can look at these portraits and think back on all the adventures I had."
Aizawa took time to scan the room. The paintings hanging on his walls depicted people, smiling and happy, from all walks of life.
"They never got the chance to properly wear those expressions so I asked a friend to paint them for me. That way I could at least try to remember them being happy."
A pain from a friend long gone pierced Aizawa's heart.
He stood from his seat and put a gentle hand on Nathan's right shoulder.
"Thank you. For being as honest as you could with me. I won't pry further. I just hope you can lean on me in the future if you need to."
"I will try my best…" Nathan said with that hauntingly familiar smile.
Aizawa nodded and turned to leave.
"Oh. I did have a logistical question… Would it be possible to ask for Chaldeans to lend their hand in some lessons from time to time?"
"Hm. Yeah probably. I'll make a list of people I think are suitable for it. You can ask me or call Sherlock and just let us know what the lesson is and we'll get you set up."
Aizawa nodded before opening the door.
"Alright. Have a good night Relnor."
"You too sensei!"
The next day they finally met in a classroom for the first time in what felt like months.
"As I mentioned yesterday, our primary goal now is to get you your provisional licenses." Aizawa said as he took to the head of the classroom. He was met with various shouts of agreement from everyone.
He went on to explain how difficult the exam was by its very nature due to the weight those licenses held.
"That's why, starting today, each of you needs to come up with at least two ultimate moves!" He said beckoning for three more teachers to enter the room.
"Hm." Nathan gave a small murmur as the rest of the class erupted in cheers.
He already had a few things that he could call ultimate moves, or rather a few moves that had been called ultimate moves by others. His railgun came to mind as well as his arc fusion blade and reinforced lightning.
The additional teachers began going over what an Ultimate move truly was, it was a finisher, a unique technique, an ultimate display of their particular strengths and a symbol of what they are.
The railgun was probably Nathan's signature move, it had only risen as an option due to pushing his scales to their absolute limit and then honing down the art of generating humongous amounts of electricity.
The class was moved to a room called the Training Kitchen Lab, or Gym Gamma, a facility designed to withstand the rigors of students perfecting their techniques.
Iida began the lesson with a question as was his way, questioning the need for ultimate moves in order to obtain a provisional license. This prompted Aizawa to go on about the requirements of being a hero and how combat prowess was one of the most heavily prioritized areas when it came to hero work.
Cementoss and Midnight emphasized that keeping a cool head and acting with decisive stable moves showed just how talented you were as a fighter.
Nathan did not miss the few glances that made their way towards him.
Ectoplasm produced a number of clones and the class broke apart, eager to start training.
Nathan stood at the top of a raised platform with his Ectoplasm copy.
"You are a bit of a special case young man," He said simply, "If I'm to understand all of the reports from your battles prior you already have several techniques that could be classed as ultimate moves."
Nathan just nodded in response.
"I can't really demonstrate them though… My quirk is having some issues ever since I returned from Kamino-"
"... I understand, that event was a horrific tragedy but if you wish to be a hero you cannot let it ruin your prospects. As such I would like you to demonstrate your abilities regardless."
Nathan nodded.
Maybe if he was fighting against a normal human instead of a Servant. Maybe then Sut Typhon would stay its hand.
Though this was still training, one small misstep could lead to his death.
He slid his left leg back.
At least if his leg exploded it would be less scales to grow back.
The very moment he built up a charge and began attacking with it, searing pain shot down through one of his nerves.
His magic circuit strained against Sut Typhon's power as his output skyrocketed.
His leg exploded with a thunderous crack, the bolt of electricity released from it instantly vaporizing 80% of Ectoplasm's body.
The arc of electricity continued, smashing into the opposite wall and leaving a massive oddly purple scorch mark where it struck.
Nathan toppled backwards from the force of the blast, nearly falling off of his platform but managing to catch hold of the rock with his left hand.
His ears were ringing from being in the center of that explosion but he still heard someone shouting after him.
"Are you ok!? Uraraka called out from below him. Her face went white when she saw the burned stump of his leg.
"I'm fine! My leg just exploded!"
"Relnor that is the exact opposite of fine!" Jiro called out, horrified at what she was hearing.
Nathan ignored the general alarm that was spreading through the class and assessed the damage.
The base of his leg was burned, it wasn't bad but it wouldn't be ideal to have to grow a new leg with preexisting pain like that.
"Let me take a look at you." Midnight said after climbing up to Nathan's platform before coming to a dead stop next to him.
"It's fine really, Recovery Girl will be able to fix it."
He was brushing it off so casually which further threw her, but the thing that was gnawing at her mind currently was the simple fact that Nathan really was missing his leg.
It was one thing to hear about it. Seeing him fight made it easy to forget that he had lost half of his limbs. But looking at him now, sitting there going over a leg that was severed just below the knee…
"Do you need help?" She asked, taking a knee next to him.
"I burned the base for sure but I can't tell quite how bad it is. I think it's only second degree. I'll need to get rid of the stragglers too." Nathan said, pulling a few of the remaining scales off with a wince.
"Let me get you down to ground level so we can take care of you." She hoisted him onto her shoulders and slid down the side of his platform bringing him to a concerned Aizawa.
They'd all been told Nathan's quirk was malfunctioning but seeing exactly what was happening was something else.
Nathan, out of all of his students, had the most refined control over his quirk.
After their conversation last night, Aizawa knew that it was because of his experiences fighting unimaginable threats alongside Chaldea.
The fact that he was acting like this was all no big deal was not lost on him but in a sense it probably wasn't actually that big of a deal to him as unsettling as that thought was.
He had to wonder if the issue was something from that other side of the world Chaldea resided in. If that was the case there was little aid he could offer his student.
It was truly frustrating. Somehow this was even worse than when Chaldea wouldn't tell him anything. At least back then he still had some hope that there was something he could do if he could talk to the right people and get the right answers. Now it felt like it didn't matter how many answers he got, he'd still never be able to bridge the gap between them.
"We'll get someone to take him to Recovery Girl- I can-"
"I'll do it."
All Might spoke up. He'd just finished making the rounds to the other students, giving small pieces of advice to those struggling to come up with super moves.
"Will you be ok? You're in pretty rough shape yourself," Midnight asked.
"I just need a crutch and I'll be fine to walk on my own." Nathan said dismissively.
"I can make you one Nathan! One second!" Yaoyorozu called from nearby.
"Still, you should be supervised. I could use a trip to her myself honestly," All Might said with a light chuckle.
It was a bit of a lie but people like he and Nathan had to be tricked in order to accept any form of help.
Ectoplasm approached with the crutch Yaoyorozu made, handing it to Nathan and watching with surprise how deftly he handled it. Although it really shouldn't have been that surprising considering…
"Keep an eye on him," Aizawa said gruffly as the two headed out.
They walked in silence for a moment, All Might had plenty of questions but in the halls of UA there was no telling who was listening simply because he was All Might. It was a little unnerving knowing that even people he trusted watched him carefully but that was the position he took as the symbol of peace.
Just one of the smaller sacrifices he'd made along his path.
"I'm honestly fine, you have no idea how often I blew these limbs off when I was first getting used to using my quirk this way."
"Young Relnor that in no way eases my concerns," All Might said as he imagined the scenario in his head. The more he thought about it the worse it got actually.
"Oh. Sorry I guess. How are you recovering by the way?"
"I'll survive. It's more than I could ever hope for honestly. I won't waste the chance I've been given…"
Nathan glanced at All Might's back pocket. It held a book about teaching with many many bookmarks sticking out of it.
"That's good! That's all you can really do, move forward and try harder than ever before to do better. It was so much easier the first few times I almost died so I'm glad you're still in that phase!"
He said it with such a genuine smile.
But his words carried a hopeless despair the likes of which All Might seldom heard.
What was the step beyond that? He was strong, sure, but there were many strong villains out there. He couldn't count the number of times he barely scraped through a fight alive.
He shook his head.
Something else was strange about this conversation.
Nathan's demeanor had changed considerably since the last time they talked alone.
He and Nathan both stood in the same position, their circumstances were different and they were on opposite sides of the world, but that did not change the fact that the two of them held the world on their shoulders in one way or another.
Nathan understood him, his path, his pain, his feelings, better than perhaps anyone else could.
But for some reason All Might could not offer the same. The scale was too different. That reverse side of the world Chaldea operated in had rules he did not understand and threats he did not want to comprehend.
Nathan Relnor was a boy that could understand but could not be understood.
All Might placed a hand on his shoulder as they walked.
"My boy. I can't imagine the pain you've endured to speak of it so flippantly, but if you need to unburden yourself further I will keep your secrets as you kept mine."
He felt the boy flinch under his touch, keeping his eyes straight ahead as they reached the infirmary.
Why was that an offer he was receiving so often now? Everything was fine. All of this was a small bump in the road. He'd figure out what was wrong and be back to normal in no time…
Normal?
He'd been struggling to hold himself together lately, everything he'd built up was starting to collapse on top of him. With all of that in mind it was really no wonder he'd been beaten and captured so easily.
He'd told 「 」he would try to do something about it soon, right?
"Ok… I'll take you up on that sometime," Nathan said with a small nod.
Relief so powerful that it threatened to knock him off his feet washed through All Might.
He'd been trying for so long to reach that distant boy and finally, finally he felt like he was a step closer to actually doing so.
Recovery Girl opened the door to the infirmary just as they were about to push it open.
"Oh it's you two- What did you do to your leg!?"
"I blew it off, I think it's got second degree burns that will need to be healed before I can regrow it."
"Get in here! Good grief!"
With that they were ushered into the infirmary and both put on beds. Nathan was evaluated first and quickly had his burns healed off.
"Thankfully they weren't too bad, I've had support students come in with worse burns than that."
"Were their names Hatsume Mei?" Nathan asked.
"How did you-"
"She built a flamethrower into her equipment."
The three of them together distantly recalled the sports festival before All Might let out a labored laugh.
That felt so long ago now.
"Let me check up on that hand of yours too while I'm thinking about it."
"I told you it's just kind of always like that, it's not going to get any better or worse."
"Relnor."
He was taking his glove off the moment she made eye contact.
"I thought so," She said looking at his hand.
Nathan opened his mouth but no words came out.
His hand had blackened considerably. It was just like he remembered it after getting through the sixth Lostbelt. No. Maybe even worse than that. It extended under the cover he wore over his wrist so there was no way to tell how much further it extended, but one thing was immediately obvious.
His hand had a few deep cracks running through it.
Cracks with a pale green light shining through them.
That light wrenched his mind back. He remembered standing on the storm border. He remembered the summoning spell. He remembered the genuine monster that called itself forth after Chaldea had spent everything trying to defeat it.
He could distantly hear people calling his name but they were being drowned out by the harsh static that came from that immeasurably powerful being.
One Radiance Thing…
The soft popping of a bubble snapped him back to reality.
Nathan blinked the vision of that unholy solar storm from his eyes and looked at the two concerned adults.
"Sorry I uh…"
"Were you having another flashback?" All Might asked. He'd seen the boy experience a few of them back when he'd first started teaching but he hadn't made any real mention of it beyond telling Aizawa about them.
He really should have been holding himself to a higher standard sooner but that was the mistake he was making up for now.
"Yeah I um… The um. The green is normal too. My hand does tend to get like this when I overextend myself but it can go back to what it was last time you saw it if I stop…" He explained slowly. He must have been hyperventilating because his breathing was difficult to get back into a proper rhythm.
"... What exactly did you do to yourself young man? You avoided my question last time but now I'm not taking no for an answer." She turned his hand over and saw the command seals emblazoned on the back of it. Bright red against ashen skin. "What are-"
"They… Mark me… As Chaldea's… As a Master."
He let that secret tumble out of his mouth yet again. He one hundred percent believed she wouldn't let him leave if he didn't explain himself.
He spoke briefly of his true role in Chaldea, of the marks and their significance and why he had to hide them at all costs.
And.
"The cracks are new… They'll heal, but the green is… That's just how it is now. Sometimes even when you're facing an opponent that is so much stronger than you that touching them will damage you, you've got to punch them anyway to survive."
The grin he spoke those words with did not sit well with Recovery Girl but All Might recognized it for what it was.
The determination required to overcome any obstacle.
Not everyone had that kind of grit, and he was glad to see that Nathan seemed to have it in spades.
Well. That was only natural. After all, he'd have needed that much and more to make it to today from what little he understood of Nathan's past.
"I can't see anything that would be hindering your ability to control your quirk," Recovery Girl said after a cough pulled their attention back to her.
"It's hard to explain. I used a technique from the hidden side of the world to survive my encounter with Dabi and Twice and it's having some unexpected aftereffects."
His hand fell to his shoulder. He was sure they'd figure out some way to properly coexist. Daybit had done something similar after all. He just needed to let Sut Typhon know that this sort of thing wasn't necessarily something he needed help with.
"Hai! Yes. We're working on a solution."
A new voice entered the fray as a familiar face pushed their way into the infirmary.
"Tamamo?"
All eyes turned to the woman dressed as a blue shrine maiden. She had most of her tails hidden so at least she wasn't taking up the entire room but her presence still demanded attention.
"That's right! Your adorable fox is here to check up on her wayward Master! Ah! It feels so good to speak plainly outside of Chaldea! Really, you should have opened up a little bit earlier just for our sake you know!"
"I'm sorry?" Nathan said quietly.
"There there, it's alright. We received an urgent call that you used your quirk and-"
She caught sight of his ungloved hand.
"... Was it that bad before?" She said with a tilt of her head. Surely they'd examined it after testing Sut Typhon's impact on their master hadn't they?
"If it was I didn't notice…"
"Sounds like that stuck up caster needs to get it together when it comes to taking care of you," She said under her breath before moving to his bedside.
"And you are?" All Might asked
"Hmmmmm!? I'm the ever lovable shrine maiden fox! Tamamo No Mae! At your service!~"
"She's one of my oldest allies, been helping since near the beginning of Chaldea," Nathan said with a smile as a few talismans fell on his hand, causing the cracks to close up somewhat.
"... I will admit, it is alarming to see that the damage you received from back then is still only just under the surface, but it goes to show you exactly why you should think before you punch something Master," She said with a sharp glare.
"I've never been good at that," He joked as she moved to examine his healed leg.
She merely shook her head, "You're still a boy at heart I suppose Master. Regardless, everything looks in order. I'll inform the others of the condition of your hand and we'll get that looked at later."
Recovery girl wasn't sure what to make of this new figure, knowing what she now knew about Chaldea's leadership made it seem relatively strange that she'd treat the boy so flippantly.
Tamamo grabbed hold of Nathan's hand as he steadied himself against her.
"If you've been with Chaldea since the start Miss, could I ask you a few questions?" All Might asked.
"Mikon~ You'll have to put a pin in all of those right now, we're going to go ahead and start the regrowth process, yes?"
"Yeah, let's go." Nathan said as he gritted his teeth.
All Might distantly recalled that Nathan had mentioned needing to replace his limbs but he'd only ever done so within Chaldea.
Getting to see the process unfold was uncharted territory.
A sickening crack sounded as scales began to grow in a rough lump from the stump of his leg, extending out and taking the crude shape of his foot as the rest of his leg grew in.
It was over in twenty seconds but Nathan looked like he'd just gone twelve rounds with a bear from the exertion.
That level of control over his quirk was frankly absurd.
He fell back into the bed, groaning in clear agony as he worked to keep his breathing and heart rate in line.
"Ok! Pain pain go away!" Tamamo said as she added another talisman to the base of his leg.
"D-Do you need painkillers Young Relnor?"
"Those aren't effective-" He said through still gritted teeth.
"This will be enough! Please get some rest here for now Master!"
"Right… Right…"
With Nathan recovering from regrowing his leg, Recovery Girl gave All Might a clean bill of health before rushing him out of the infirmary.
He hoped. He really hoped that Nathan was walking towards being able to unburden himself a little. He had no idea what struggles that boy had seen but the least he could do now was offer support.
As he walked the halls of UA he chanced upon an encounter with his star pupil.
"Ah Young Midoriya! Have you given what I said any thought?"
"Y-Yes actually! I was on my way to the support department to see if I could maybe get a foundation for something…" There was a brief pause before Midoriya jumped to another train of thought, "Is Nathan ok?"
"Recovery Girl is watching over him now. He's in good hands," All Might said with a nod.
"Good. I know he said he was having trouble with his quirk but I couldn't imagine it until I saw it. It reminded me a lot of when I first got my quirk to be honest…"
All Might mulled over that thought.
Midoriya had trouble containing One for All because his body was not suited for the amount of power he was capable of wielding.
Could Nathan be suffering from something similar? Was there something adding too much power to his system?
It had merit. Maybe he should try to follow up on that line later…
"I was thinking about stopping at Chaldea and asking around."
"I'm sure they're working harder than any of us to help Young Relnor. They care deeply for him."
Midoriya just nodded along. All Might must have visited Chaldea during the dorm talks.
"So did you meet him? The Master of Chaldea?"
"Y-yes- I did indeed." All Might coughed lightly, "He- He was just as mysterious as I'd imagined him to be."
"Was he well? When we spoke he came out of hiding just to comfort my suspicions about Chaldea… I just hope we're not burdening him by not helping Nathan enough."
All Might's mind began to struggle with the situation.
Midoriya had met someone claiming to be Chaldea's Master? Had they set something up to try and stop him from realizing that Nathan was the one behind the wheel? That had to be the case right? It was impossible to say who was being lied to.
Nathan being the true master was absurd.
It made a lot more sense that there was someone else hiding behind him.
But… The way Nathan spoke, the scars he wore, his presence when he was with people who knew the truth…
"He was… In good spirits… He was very agreeable to the dorm initiative."
All Might desperately did not want to lie to Midoriya, but Nathan had entrusted him with this secret in confidence…
"That's good. Kirschtaria seemed like a good man. I'm sure he was intimidating but he's actually very kind!"
"Kirschtaria?"
It spilled out of his mouth before he had a chance to stop it.
He hadn't been expecting the name Midoriya had given and had instinctively questioned it.
Midoriya gave him an odd look.
All Might looked like a deer in headlights.
It occurred to him that maybe he was actually terrible at keeping secrets and it was only through good luck that he'd managed this far until now.
"Um… All Might? Did we… Meet the same person?"
All Might just coughed and bowed out of the conversation, making up a flimsy excuse before almost sprinting away.
Midoriya stood in the hall watching as All Might ran away.
He had no idea how to parse what had just happened. If he didn't know Kirschtaria but he had met the Master of Chaldea… One of them was not being told the truth… He didn't want to pry into Nathan's personal life, he really didn't, but…
It took him a few hours but he was eventually back on his feet.
Recovery Girl was not a fan of how casually he treated losing a limb relative to how painful regrowing a new one was and how long it took him to recover from doing that.
He reassured her that really he was very used to this and that it wasn't that big of a deal to which she responded by hitting him with her cane.
Tamamo and All Might had left at some point, with Tamamo telling him he needed to swing by the support department for a few parts.
Apparently Chaldea was working on a new hero costume that would help him deal with Sut Typhon's influence and they needed a few of the spare parts from the original design to work with.
He arrived at a door with various bits of broken machinery and soot staining the walls around it.
He opened it with zero hesitation, that was just how inventors labs were, especially back in Chaldea.
"Oh! Nathan! You're ok!" Midoriya called out.
He was currently encased in some kind of mech suit that didn't seem to fit his style well at all.
IIda and Uraraka greeted him too as Hatsume continued to hyperfocus on Midoriya.
"Ah. I thought a Chaldean would swing by but I guess this stuff is for you." Power Loader said as he approached the young Master, handing him a hefty case of materials, "Here, this is all the stuff they requested. Make sure you all run the final design by us."
"Of course! Thank you!"
"What do you need all of that for Relnor-san?" Uraraka asked as Midoriya's suit began bending his body right up to his physical limits.
"Chaldea's helping me put together another suit that can help with my quirk problem while I'm sorting it out." He said casually.
"Ah yes… That certainly was a sight to behold. Are you sure you're ok?" Iida asked.
"Yeah I'll figure it out! Always do!" Nathan gave him a confident smile, "I'm already back on my feet aren't I?"
As alarming as it had been to see their classmate literally blow his leg to pieces he had in fact made a full recovery in a few hours. It really showed that his casual treatment of his scale limbs was warranted.
"You guys got anything figured out for your super moves?" Nathan asked.
"That's why we're here, we were going to ask the support class to make some modifications to our suits," Iida said as Midoriya was helped out of the horrifying mech exoskeleton.
"Y-Yeah. I need to reinforce my arms too, I've really done a number on them."
"Ah. Well. I'm sure you guys already have something on your mind, if you do need help though I can pick your brains if you want," Nathan said with a casual wave before turning to leave. "You're in a pretty good environment for this, just throw stuff at the wall till it sticks yeah?"
"Right. Are you heading back to the dorms Relnor-san?" Uraraka asked.
"I'll probably stop by the Shadow Border first, I'll see you guys later!"
"Oh um. Nathan!" Midoriya said as the boy opened the door to leave.
"Hm?"
"I uh. Had an interesting conversation with All Might and wanted to ask you about something!"
Nathan hesitated.
It could be about helping him refine his quirk, but it could just as easily be about how All Might somehow slipped up and gave Midoriya enough of a foothold to start questioning things about him.
That boy was too clever by half.
"Sure. I can make time for you. Later though. See ya."
And with that he was out the door.
The next four days passed in the blink of an eye.
Everyone was throwing everything they had into refining their techniques. Modifying their costumes accordingly.
Perhaps the one of the most drastic changes was Nathan's costume.
It had taken some time but they had finally worked out a way to stop Sut Typhon's power from escaping.
But they were quick to stress that this was a temporary measure. He still needed to figure out how to restrain the outer god inhabiting his body, this would just allow him limited use of his quirk.
"That outfit looks sick electricity bro! Is that the new design Chaldea came up with?" Kaminari called out.
"Ah. Yeah I guess? Although… I wouldn't call it new." Nathan said as his thoughts drifted back to the first time he tried it on.
—
"You based this off of Da Vinci's design from when we fought Solomon didn't you?"
"Yes well, we already had a suit on file that interfaced with your magic circuits so we decided to build on that for this." Edison said with some amount of pride. Being able to work on a design by the great Da Vinci was something he'd always dreamed of doing after all. Even Tesla butting in hadn't been enough to upset him this time.
"It's kind of nostalgic isn't it?" Nathan asked somewhat lost in his thoughts. It was almost identical, although now it covered both of his shoulders with a plug system rather than just his right. But that made sense, Sut Typhon was his left shoulder so if that was what they were restraining they'd need to cover both sides.
Plus he'd lost his right arm in that fight… That original suit was destroyed beyond repair.
He'd never seen it since.
"Instead of helping you convert your nerves into magic circuits, these act as blockers. They will absorb the power Sut Typhon is trying to lend you but do keep in mind that each slot only has one use before they need to be changed out. Sut Typhon's power is simply too vast that no matter what material we load in it will overcome it with a single burst."
"Not to mention," Helena spoke up as she looked Nathan up and down, "It will only work when you're using your quirk, if you try to use reinforcement on yourself the suit won't be able to block all of the paths it could take to distribute its power through you. The design will only work the way it's set up now because we know what routes it takes to enhance your quirk after monitoring all of your practice fights."
"So I still need to figure this out then huh?"
"Yeah. Can't cheat your way out of this one Master!"
—
His attention returned to the Ectoplasm copy in front of him.
"I assume your upgraded hero costume will help you regain control of your quirk?"
"For a little bit yeah. I'll at least be able to use it in a fight now," Nathan said as his hand split open, forming an arc fusion blade.
One of the plugs on his shoulder let out a burst of steam as it restrained the power Sut Typhon was trying to give him.
The force of it felt like a bullet had hit him without the resulting pain of it tearing through his flesh.
It was far from ideal but it was working.
"Good. Is this a permanent solution to your problem?"
"Not really. It's a stopgap. I'll get it sorted eventually though no worries," Nathan said with a smile as he swung the extended blade, cutting the Ectoplasm copy straight in half.
With his teacher apparently satisfied Nathan let go of the blade and reverted his hand back to normal.
He glanced down on the rest of his class.
They were advancing at a frightening rate.
Bakugo had vowed that he would catch up to him but it looked like everyone else was making their own strides towards becoming powerful heroes.
He looked at his scale hand.
This certainly wasn't his first stumbling block. He had no idea how he'd function after he lost his arm initially but he thankfully had a bit of time to recover and theorycraft a scale replacement before the Shinjuku singularity put him to the test.
He'd always had some nebulous goal to work towards, either going home or fighting through the Lostbelts.
But this time it felt different.
He heard a loud crack and saw a piece of rubble start falling.
All Might stood directly under it.
Nathan wouldn't be able to charge a railgun shot in time.
He dove off his platform and pulled himself to the ground to accelerate.
He'd make it in time but only barely.
He reached All Might just in time to see Midoriya shatter the boulder with a powerful kick, landing and skidding past them.
"Are you ok All Might?" Midoriya called back, seeing Nathan there even though the boy had been on top of his platform by the time Midoriya lept into action.
Brimming with pride, All Might nodded and smiled as a small group rushed to his aid.
Midoriya described the alterations to his suit and the fact that he was taking lessons from Iida to change up his fighting style.
"Hoh? It's simple but that'll give you a lot more options Izuku," Nathan said with a smile.
"Yeah! It's a step forward but it's nothing I'd call an ultimate move or anything."
"Don't sell yourself short, this will serve you well in the license exam," All Might added with a nod.
Aizawa and a few others urged All Might on, causing the man to pause for a moment.
Nathan watched as his fellow students dispersed and All Might's thoughts turned inward.
"It must be hard huh? Going from doing the protector to being protected?"
All Might's attention snapped to Nathan.
"Ah. I thought I was ready to accept it but it still…" He clenched his fist as he and Nathan began walking to the edge of the gym.
"Mh. I've got the opposite problem to be honest. I've always been protected but now that I'm in UA I'm doing a lot of protecting. I think someone mentioned that I was a normal sized fish in a pond the size of a continent."
That was hard to imagine. All Might's honest appraisal was that Nathan could take to pro hero work tomorrow and be in the top ten in a matter of weeks. Was that how vast the other side of the world was?
"Hah. I suppose we'll be trading places. Do you have any advice?"
"It's not a debt you're accumulating by being saved, people are saving you because you have already given them kindness and love." Nathan said simply, as if he was repeating something he'd heard a thousand times.
"... I'll take that to heart. As for you. People are always watching you for good and for ill. Because you are strong you can inspire others so think about what you wish to inspire in them and work towards that."
Nathan stopped in his tracks as he looked at All Might.
"Oh. I guess I… Thank you?"
He hadn't been expecting any advice in return.
What did he inspire when his fellow students looked at him? He'd never really thought of it. His instincts as a mage made him want to blend into the background and disappear. But if people were actually looking at him…
No he knew they were. He'd talked with 「 」 about that hadn't he? He'd brushed it off but now…
Was that why people were offering to let him unburden himself to them? Could they see that he was starting to waver?
"Do you need to get back to your training?"
"Ah um- Yeah- Thanks. Take care of yourself," Nathan said as he jogged off.
All Might mulled over everything that had just happened.
'Are you alright?'
'That was close!'
He was being protected by them.
But.
'Take care of yourself'
It was a different perspective for sure.
All Might simply chuckled.
"This class… They're something special huh?"
It was later that night. The girls of 1-A were sitting in the common room having a little get together before going to bed.
It was rude of her to intrude but she couldn't help it.
"Hello there!"
The girls turned their heads to look at the new arrival, and then they looked up.
She was easily 250 cm in height and on top of that she seemed to be floating on some kind of cloud.
She had oddly purple skin and features that brought to mind a classical Oni but she simply smiled and waved at them.
"They must be working you all to the bone. You look exhausted. You're working on your… What do they call them, Ultimate moves, yes?"
The air around her was constantly moving, as if she was a force of nature incarnated.
She brought to mind the thought of a deity first and foremost.
"Um- Yes- We're working very hard miss-" Yaoyorozu began speaking.
"Oh there's no need to be so polite. My name is Ibuki Douji! You're all so adorable, please, tell me of your efforts!" She said with a small squee as she took a large swig from the cask hanging at her side.
They went in turn with Yaoyorozu contemplating that she still had a lot of conditioning to do before she could actualize her ideas. Tsuyu chimed in that she'd been perfecting some more frog-like techniques.
"How wonderful! How wonderful! And you little one?"
Uraraka just let out a small grunt. Her mind was far away from the conversation at hand.
"Uraraka?" Tsuyu asked, poking her on the shoulder and prompting a startled outburst.
She lamented that her mind was all over the place lately but she was still pushing herself to the limit.
"It's love!" Mina blurted out.
"Oh yes. Blinding love. It's so cute!" Ibuki added with a chuckle prompting Uraraka to float herself while stammering objections.
The girls went about guessing love for who before Ibuki cut in.
"Hehehe, that's fine though isn't it? To love and be loved is a great thing. Indulge yourself and let it grow!"
She threw back her cask again laughing as the girl continued to struggle with her own feelings.
"I guess there's no sense in prying if she's not ready yet,"
"Don't you dare change the subject! Inquiring minds must know! Is it Midoriya? Relnor? Iida?"
"Oh my! It better not be dear sweet Nathan!" Ibuki said absentmindedly.
"H-huh? Is he taken!? Or is he you know-"
"Love flows freely to him just as much as it flows from him. It is a resource to be spent, a weapon to be pointed at his foes and a shield that protects him from pain and cushions his falls. Nathan can no longer view love as something one reserves for that special person in their life!"
That was certainly a sour turn, maybe Mina could stomach a change in conversation.
Uraraka, still grappling with her feelings, looked out the window.
She saw Midoriya outside, practicing his kicks with another Chaldean she didn't know. The man with long black hair stopped to give him pointers as he went back to one of his notebooks, diligently writing everything down.
Maybe that was something she needed to do too… Ask a Chaldean for help. Was that possible? Midoriya was a special exception, he'd been to Chaldea before and he'd known Nathan since before they started attending UA.
"Are you ok little one?" Ibuki asked, having floated up to Uraraka
"Ah- Um! Yes! I-I'm fine"
She canceled her quirk but forgot she was about 8 feet off the ground, she went to activate it again but found that she wasn't falling.
Ibuki had wrapped her long tail around her before bringing her down gently.
"O-oh um- thank you-"
"It's no trouble at all. Your big sister is here to help!" Ibuki said, a very slight blush staining her face.
It looked like the others had moved towards their rooms while she'd been caught up in watching Midoriya.
"C-Can I ask you a favor?"
"Hm?"
"Is there any possible way I can train with someone from Chaldea? Like Deku?"
"Of course! All you need to do is ask! Now- What are you looking for in a partner?"
"P-Partner!?"
Midoriya closed his notebook again before setting it aside.
Yan Qing and Iida had given him quite a bit of help when it came to constructing Shoot Style. He still wasn't confident in it but it was an amazing start.
"Hey Izuku," Nathan called out as he approached from the direction of the Shadow Border.
He'd been going there nearly every night as they put together his new hero costume, it probably needed extensive testing in order to do what it was doing to help him control his quirk properly so Midoriya never questioned it.
But Nathan's left arm was in a sling.
"Um. Are you ok?" Midoriya asked.
"Yeah. Seems like there's some problems with my new suit but it'll get me through the provisional license exam for sure. I just have to be careful." Nathan said with a casual smile.
"It's the same sort of thing as One for All is for me isn't it? Too much power is pushing through your quirk and it's destroying itself?"
Yan Qing let out a low whistle.
"And you saw him use his quirk once before we got it sorted out with his suit?" He asked with a laugh.
"I suppose it's easier to spot the problem when you've had to go through something similar," Nathan said with a chuckle, "Yeah, something like that. I used something I shouldn't have back in the forest and it's causing me a little bit of grief but…" Nathan paused.
He didn't want to say he was going to be fine. He was sure he would be but it felt too dismissive.
He looked around briefly before glancing to his shadow which rumbled quietly.
"Well. To be honest I used a Chaldean tool I really shouldn't have and it's messed with my quirk a lot. I didn't get a lot of rest for a while there because I was so busy trying to make sure I wouldn't lose myself to madness," Nathan said honestly as he reached for his left shoulder.
Midoriya's eyes widened.
"Does that have anything to do with how the forest was while we were all fighting?"
"How was it? I was barely conscious of what was happening immediately around me."
"It was very strange. Everything felt off, I couldn't trust my quirk to work like it should have, I couldn't entirely trust my eyes. It felt like something was pushing at the back of my mind the entire time…"
Nathan just nodded.
Sut Typhon had descended and the pressure it put on the world had warped everything nearby just from it exerting its power.
At least he'd talked it into not doing that on such a wide scale anymore.
"It shouldn't happen again. We've reached something of an agreement but I can't really get it to understand that I don't need the power it has to offer anymore."
He was talking like the tool he'd used was some kind of living organism.
"We can't really remove it from me because it replaced parts of my body that Dabi had destroyed and if we try I might lose my left arm entirely. That's just not really a risk I'm willing to take right now even if I'm having some problems because of it."
Nathan had been keeping all of that a secret? He'd managed to come out of Kamino relatively unscathed it seemed but from his retelling he'd almost died out there.
Midoriya felt a sinking pit in his stomach, he'd really almost lost one of his best friends just because they split up that night. If they'd gone together to either fight Muscular or back up Ragdoll… How different would things have been?
"But. It's not the worst injury I've had. It's not even the first time I've almost lost my left arm. I'll figure out exactly where our miscommunication is and come out the other end ok. It's just a lot to think about."
That was putting it lightly.
Midoriya just smiled at him.
When the doctors had told him he might permanently damage his arms by fighting the way he was he'd been rattled. He'd escaped severe damage because Chaldea was there to help him but they made it clear that that was nothing short of a miracle.
That they could repair such damage meant that whatever Nathan was dealing with now had to be orders worse.
Even coming clean he seemed to be leaving out vital context.
"Nathan's a tough customer. We've all had our series of close calls! I remember when we were climbing out of Mictlan. We spent just about everything and barely pulled a victory out of that fight."
"Don't remind me," Nathan said with a playful but pained laugh, "Oh. That reminds me, you said something about wanting to talk to me before?"
That's right. The conversation with All Might…
How was he going to word this?
He didn't want to come out as accusatory or anything.
Nathan and Chaldea were something of an enigma due to their partially classified nature so he didn't want to put Nathan in a tough spot.
But he wanted to know something…
"Kirschtaria-"
Nathan flinched at the mere mention of that name.
"He got to talk to All Might right? I was wondering what he thought of him?"
Yan Qing looked from Nathan to Midoriya.
Nathan opened his mouth but no words would fall out of it.
His thoughts were crashing into each other one after the other, piling up into an impenetrable wall.
But.
He had forced the secret of One for All out of Midoriya.
He had forced the secret of All Might's deteriorated form out of him.
He accumulated all of that without giving anything back.
Yan Qing looked like he was about to answer but Nathan held his hand up.
"To be honest Izuku."
Nathan, who had been avoiding direct eye contact. finally looked at Midoriya again.
"That was Yan Qing."
"Oi, oi… You sure you want to do this?" Yan Qing said, sending a nervous look to their surroundings.
"No one is around right, Gramps?"
Nathan's shadow bubbled quietly.
"Wh-What do you mean that was Yan Qing?" Midoriya asked.
"Well… I… We were worried that you… We didn't want you to be worried about us so we put on a strong face. Kirschtaria was a candidate for Master of Chaldea but he died before he got the chance… I've been… I've been filling in for him, and the other Master Candidates for a long time."
He could feel his mage instincts rushing forward.
If he let them swallow him, he would speak in half truths and disappear into the night before Midoriya could get much further than this.
But he wanted to answer his best friend.
Human to human.
Midoriya's eyes widened.
Kamino made a lot more sense now.
He'd been so absorbed in the catastrophe that he'd shoved all of the things he saw Nathan do during that battle to the side.
Nathan was a front line fighter in Chaldea's operation.
Their true leader had been his friend for months.
He felt like he was finally getting to see a true glimpse of what Nathan was actually like in this moment.
The Nathan that stood before him now.
The Nathan that rescued him so so long ago.
They were still the same person.
Midoriya swallowed hard.
"Thank you." He said, with the biggest grin on his face that he could manage. He was honestly on the verge of tears as he beamed at Nathan.
"What?"
It felt like.
They were finally on the same platform.
He no longer had to shout up to him.
They could just talk. Friend to friend.
"Y-you didn't have to. Just like you didn't back then. But you told me anyway. So thank you. I'll… Nathan. You're my friend. Chaldea's Master or classmate. That doesn't change anything!"
Nathan took a step back before his body froze in place.
His hardened instincts wanted him to flee under the nearest rock for the next five hundred years.
But this was it.
This was the hand he'd refused so many times before now.
He reached out shakily with his right.
Without missing a beat Midoriya grasped that scale hand in his own and nearly blew Nathan away with his smile.
Yan Qing smiled softly.
He glanced around him.
The air was thick with Servants in spirit form, just watching the two of them interact.
After all, they'd been waiting for this moment for a long time.
"S-So! Um- Your quirk! What's wrong with the suit?"
"Well. It can block the power flooding my system a few times no problem but as I keep using it-"
They began talking like they always did, but the air had cleared significantly.
Nathan was free to speak to a peer without hesitation.
He had been accepted.
Something vast shifted inside him.
It was small, but the weight bearing down on him felt a little lighter.
No cliffhanger this time. I thought of a way to do one but eeeeh this works better I think! You can only take so many emotional pulls at the heart before you just become numb to it right? Anyway! Next time we go straight to the provisional license exam! See you then!
PS: now that we've actually been in the dorms a bit I'll start working on those side stories! I got a lot of great suggestions so I hope you enjoy~