Last time you read how UA is preparing for Izuku's arrival, but what will Izuku do after receiving his admission notice.

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comments:

Brocole07: Trying to keep up. ;)

Flashyyyyyyy: Glad to hear. Characters are one of the more important/difficult parts of storytelling and trying to get someone else's character right in fanfiction in situations the original work didn't have is even more of a challenge.

Dsman: Well he needs to know what he is dealing with.

GreyMask 57: Sorry, you might need to keep shaking a little longer.

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Proofread by 3DPhantom

Chapter 18: Preparing For School

Izuku stepped through the dark mist into a familiar bar. Tomura was already there and by the time Izuku looked around Kurogiri was already behind the counter. Izuku dropped a small disk on the counter and a holographic projection appeared over it.

"I AM HERE AS A PROJECTION!" All Might's loud shout started the recording, just as annoying as ever. Izuku squeezed his hands into fists, resisting the urge to punch the projection.

"Izuku Midoriya, I have the joy to tell you, you did impressively in the written exam. As for the practical exam you scored an excellent fifty-five villain points. Only one person scored higher."

Oh, Izuku knew exactly who that was. He squeezed his hands harder.

"You would have had the second highest score, if that was all there was to the test. However! The exam was not graded only on villain points! A hero's job is to save people. That is no lip service. This is a job that requires risking one's life."

If they really did that Izuku would still have had his mother.

"Rescue points!"

The image switched to show a table of names and scores. "Izuku Midoriya, eighty-five points. Congratulations! You passed, with the highest score!" All Might extended his hand towards the camera. "Izuku Midoriya, welcome to hero academia."

Izuku didn't care about the man's gesture and went back to the scoreboard. Even on third viewing he couldn't help but smirk at seeing Bakugo on the second place. Unsurprisingly he didn't get any rescue points, despite amassing a massive seventy-seven villain points. Izuku's eyes moved to the side to find Tenya's name on the seventh spot, a clear pass. Though Izuku was a bit disappointed his friend had only earned nine rescue points.

Hitoshi hadn't been among the top ten results, but after a brief moment of fear Izuku called him and Hitoshi played his own acceptance message for Izuku to hear. It was the only reason he could tolerate hearing All Might's voice for the second time in one day.

"Congratulations," Tomura said mockingly, holding his hands up, "seems you might yet become a government dog and even have a permission to use the power you naturally have."

"Do you want to get information on All Might or not?" Izuku snapped back.

"Boys, boys," their father said, "this is a happy day. You should be celebrating, not fighting. We are all a family here."

Izuku turned to look at the computer screen where the voice usually came from only to find his father right there in front of a closing warp gate. He had his collar but not the top of his helmet. Izuku wanted to smile at seeing his father, but he had just listened to All Might and could not help but focus on his father's injuries. Thinking about sharing a class with both his friends, he sometimes almost forgot that his mission at UA was to help destroy All Might, rip One For All from the so called hero and help his father recover.

Tomura muttered something and sat by the counter, waving Kurogiri to get him a drink. The Nomu did so, but in the process also walked past Izuku and handed him a soft drink first. His father put his hand on Izuku's shoulder.

"Izuku's achievement is to be commended, even if it wasn't surprising. Placing first in the combat test wasn't a given, even to him. This only shows heroes aren't all they are made out to be."

"I might have gotten the top score because of the rescue points but I wasn't first in the battle. Bakugo… even after everything, all your training, he still was twenty-two points ahead of me."

"I am happy to see you haven't allowed your high score to make you cocky. Now, considering you have already defeated several Nomu, how could this regular middle schooler destroy more enemies than you?"

"I don't think Bakugo can be called regular," Izuku said, "but in terms of the battle… it was all about mobility. My fire quirks became more than powerful enough to quickly destroy the robots, but there were only so many I could reach. He has managed to apply his explosions like rockets to move at high speeds. I theorized he could do something like that when I was six, but he's already got more manoeuvrability than I thought possible. I can't compete directly with that no matter how much I train, and I doubt he went to even half the effort I have."

"That's true," his father confirmed, "without an appropriate quirk a normal human body has limitations that cannot be exceeded no matter how much it is trained. Those limitations do not apply to you. Anything he can do you have greater potential for."

"You mean I should get a new quirk to counter his advantage."

"And train to master it," he said in his fatherly lecturing tone. "Bakugo did not reach the highest villain points because of his quirk alone, but by the mastery he has achieved over it, whether it was by pure talent, hard work, or both, it doesn't matter. That is also the greatest weakness of our quirk. Possessing a hundred quirks is pointless if you wave them around like toddlers that just manifested theirs."

"I know," Izuku responded, not exited for the comparison.

"But the new power of your fire proves your own mastery."

"I will train whatever quirks I may have… Have you thought out any that would help?"

"Several, but I think you should think yourself what kind of quirks would serve you best. Consider what kind of fighting style different quirks would enable, and don't forget non-combat applications. More importantly you cannot use any quirk to publicly outdo Bakugo unless you can explain where it came from."

"Right," Izuku brushed his chin, on the brink of starting to mutter again.

"What's the point," Tomura said first. "Just kill him and be done with it. Wouldn't even be the first one."

Izuku stared at his brother and gulped, unable to respond.

"That is always an option," their father stated, "but why waste this opportunity? If Izuku needs to outdo Bakugo, that will simply motivate his training further. Whether Bakugo will ever become the hero he does not deserve to be or finds himself in a shallow grave, well that is also in Izuku's hands."

"To think they would accept him at UA," Izuku muttered. "Not that I am surprised."

"That is how this society works. It is why we are here doing what we do instead of living a more peaceful life, son."

Izuku quietly drank from the lemonade bottle Kurogiri had served.

"Speaking of which," his father continued. "Now that the admission is confirmed we must ensure you are ready for your mission."

"Isn't that what we have been doing for months?"

"Yes, but matching or exceeding other hero students in combat ability… and grades, is only part of what you'll need. From your quirk alone principal Nezu and All Might will be suspicious and afraid of you from the beginning. They will try to find out everything about you, they likely started to investigate you already."

"Do you think they are going to find out about you?" Izuku asked, raising his head to face his father.

"Unlikely. They might be suspicious about my absence as your father, but I have been building the identity of Hisashi Midoriya in multiple countries for decades. The question is if you can keep things secret."

Tomura laughed.

"Going to be a short mission then. I have to kill All Might before someone is rude to your little friends."

"I am not that bad," Izuku muttered.

"Not quite," his father agreed… partially. "There is, however, a greater concern than simple loose lips. If All Might and Nezu are investigating you, you might also need to worry about All Might's police friend, detective Tsukauchi."

"Is he dangerous?" Izuku asked, concerned at how seriously his father seemed to worry about this detective.

"In his own way. Even with his police training the worst he could do in battle would be to shoot you, it wouldn't take you a minute to kill him one arm tied behind your back," his father said, making Izuku shiver, "but his investigative abilities are nothing to overlook, especially with his quirk. He has a lie detector quirk. He cannot force you to say anything, but if you do, he can tell if you are lying."

"That's bad," Izuku said and rubbed his chin. "Even if I refuse to talk to him that would only make them more suspicious. They probably won't make too direct questions, but that just means they will try to trick me into saying something, probably just innocent questions about my family or something. I'd be exposed immediately… unless the quirk has some limitations… probably not mind reading, it wouldn't be called just lie detector… If it can read something in the body… possible to trick it… is it just technically true or..." He descended into a string of low mutters.

"Izuku," his father said, bringing Izuku back from his thoughts. "While I prefer for you to come up with your own solutions for the sake of learning, this time we should not delay and I already have the solution for you. As you noted the quirk cannot read your thoughts, as far as I know, but it comes close. While the lie detection isn't flawless you cannot rely on being able to talk around it."

"You have a quirk that can counter it," Izuku said. It wasn't a question.

"It is called Calm Mind," father said. "Think of it as a super meditation. It lets you calm your feelings and block stray thoughts to the point it affects your physiology. It is unlikely any lie could be detected in that state. It may also help whenever you let what happened to miss Yūi distract yourself."

Izuku breathed in deep.

"That would have been nice a few weeks ago," he sighed.

"Perhaps, but you needed to experience what you did."

"Experience killing someone."

"Yes. Considering how badly the experience incapacitated you for days, I couldn't risk that your first experience of killing a human happened during a serious battle. That happens in this world, especially when opposing the powers that rule it. Not that heroes are above it. All Might trying to kill me is only part of it. The Hero Public Safety Commission had one of their special heroes assassinate so many people she eventually killed the chairman of the commission. That is how this system stays in power and those in power aren't the kind of people you can face without being prepared to kill, and knowing how it feels."

Izuku looked away from his father, uncertain how to feel.

"To get back on topic," his father said and reached out his hand. Izuku slowly took his father's hand, instantly feeling a new quirk flowing into his body.

"Have you had to deal with lie detecting, or maybe mind reading quirks?" Izuku asked. "You said you had to reduce your number of quirks before and this doesn't look very powerful unless… Maybe it could help focus during fights. Is that how you used it?"

"Actually… I never considered that possibility. You should explore the idea. I used the quirk to better focus on my work longer," father said, "and kept it because it helped me endure my recovery after my fight with All Might. Calm Mind helped me focus on something other than the pain."

Izuku tensed, but the transfer was already complete.

"Are you still using it for that? I don't want to…"

"You will need this quirk more than I do. In my current state the dulling of my senses is usually as large of an issue as any pains. Remember why you are doing all of this. If you are concerned of my injuries, concentrate on taking down All Might. Now how do you feel?"

"Huh," Izuku was confused at first, but after only a moment he was able to understand the new quirk. There was a slight thumbing sensation behind his eye, but the quirk didn't seem to be straining him much despite it not being too long since the previous one had been given to him.

"It is a quite light quirk to have," his father said. "That is another reason why I kept it."

"Right," Izuku said.

"I can teach you how to use it during today's training."

"Actually," Izuku said, grabbing the back of his neck in a very Hitoshi like way, "I was going to ask if we could skip today's training. Since we all got in…"

"You want to celebrate with Ida and Shinso," his father concluded.

"Yes, Hitoshi's parents actually invited us over for dinner. I'll catch up to training later."

"That you'll do, probably twice over."

"So, I can go?"

"Have I ever forbidden you from meeting those two?"

"No," Izuku responded. A slight smile found its way on his lips.

"They have saved me a fortune on therapy after all," his father continued, a smile in his voice. "That Shinso kid is especially good to have around you. Despite sharing your quirk, I don't exactly share your experience of surviving in this society with it, and his quirk is truly something exceptional."

Izuku's eyes narrowed as he got up to face his father.

"HIS quirk, keep your hands off."

"Seems they can get you feral almost as well as Inko. That is something worth remembering."

A grin was audible in his voice. Tomura muttered something about the stupidity of volunteering for escort missions. Izuku didn't waver in facing his father, who raised his hands in front of himself conciliatorily.

"I am not going to steal quirks from those two. You have my word."

Izuku waited for a few seconds before relaxing.

"Of course that only applies to them specifically," his father continued. "I am still interested in that mention of a quirk copying quirk you overheard. That is something that took the doctor decades to do artificially, and the process has its weaknesses, as you have already experienced. Combining such a power with All For One could yield interesting results. Perhaps quirks copied by such a power could be taken by ours before the copy disappears. At the very least the doctor would love to experiment with such power."

He grabbed Izuku's shoulder, taking his son's attention before Izuku could sink into analysing the idea.

"If this copier is admitted into UA, I trust you to find out about his quirk and its usefulness."

"Shouldn't be too difficult a side mission even for him," Tomura muttered, "but who knows."

"Tomura," their father said, "will the League be ready to mobilize by the beginning of the school year?"

"Yes… but I won't tell them that is what our schedule is based on."

"That is fine. It would only increase the risk of Izuku being exposed."

Tomura stared at him and seemed thoughtful for a moment.

"Not a word to anyone outside this room," their father added. Tomura seemed disappointed at that. There was still a long way to go to for them to have a nice warm brotherly relationship.

"Is there anything else?" Izuku asked.

"Not for today," his father responded. "When are you going to leave?"

"I have to ask Kurogiri's help to get there in time now," Izuku said and nodded in the direction of the Nomu, which stopped what he was doing and moved to his side immediately.

"That's fine. You may go."

Izuku picked up the holographic projector and checked he had his keys, wallet, and phone. He nodded to Kurogiri and a warp gate opened in front of them before his head was back up. They had already mapped the area where Hitoshi lived, and the warp gate led to only a few blocks away from Hitoshi's home. The area was much denser than the wealthy community his father had bought Izuku's house in. Hitoshi's house was one in a row of identical apartment buildings. They even had numbers high on their walls to identify different buildings. There had also been a bunch of those near Aldera. Without the excessive amounts of money his father had sent Izuku and Inko would probably have lived in one of those.

Thanks to Kurogiri he had gone from being hopelessly late to arriving quite early, so after thanking the Nomu, he just strolled towards the building, wondering how to make the best first impression. Hitoshi's parents had been surprisingly trusting and willing to let Hitoshi come meet his friends and stay overnight and Izuku didn't want to do anything to risk that.

He took a small detour to visit a nearby store to buy a basket and some fresh fruits to fill it. It wasn't the greatest gift, especially when bought from the local store of the house he was visiting, but he didn't want to bother Kurogiri again. He did his best to make it look nice as he walked the rest of the way, fine tuning the position of the top fruit once he was already standing at the door. Once he rang the doorbell it only took some seconds until Hitoshi opened it. Izuku relaxed right away. He had probably been just overthinking things.

"Hey Toshi. Hopefully I'm not too early."

"Well, I…" Hitoshi held the back of his neck, "don't think you'll need to worry about details like that."

"Hitoshi, is it one of your friends?"

A woman stepped around a corner, followed by a man who looked deceptively like an older Hitoshi, except for a lighter hair colour. That was something Hitoshi clearly inherited from his mother. Both smiled and seemed to get exited when they saw Izuku. Hitoshi had the presence of mind to grab the gift basket and step out of the way before the two adults charged at Izuku. He was dragged inside and surrounded within seconds. He tensed at being manhandled like that. Both of the adults bowed in front of him.

"It is an honour to finally meet you Midoriya-san. I am Shizuka Shinso, Hitoshi's mother."

"My name is Hibiki Shinso. I am Hitoshi's father."

"Umh," Izuku stared, uncertain how he should react. It was unheard of for someone to be that exited or polite when meeting him. "It is nice to meet you too."

"You have no idea," Hibiki said as he ushered Izuku to the living room, "how grateful we are for all you've done for Hitoshi, and not just for saving him from criminals."

"We were so horrified and relieved when he told us what had happened," Shizuka added. "To think simply walking on the streets can be so dangerous, and still he was so calm, telling us about it and even helped capture the criminals."

"He has been like a different person for the past months, and now getting to UA hero course. I mean we always hoped he would become a hero, but…"

"His quirk isn't one that society considers heroic or designs entrance exams for," Izuku said with a blank expression, replacing his earlier nervousness.

"And yet he did pass," the mother said, "in no small part thanks to your help with Hitoshi's training. He won't shut up about it, it's kind of cute actually."

"Mom!" Hitoshi shouted in a very un-Hitoshi-like voice.

"It is true," his mother shrugged and focused back on Izuku. "Truthfully I didn't at first want to let him train with you, and especially not travel to a different city and stay overnight with people we didn't know."

"I guess that was a lot to ask," Izuku admitted. "At least he eventually convinced you."

"He tried… but to tell the truth that wasn't why we first gave the permission," she said. "It was because of your other friend, Ingenium's brother. We figured it wouldn't be some trick after confirming this."

"So, you didn't need to know any of us, just that Tenya is related to a hero," Izuku did his best to hold himself back from saying how the idea made him feel.

"At least it told us you probably weren't villains trying to drag Hitoshi into something illegal."

"Mom, do you have to talk about them like that?" Hitoshi interrupted. A concerned glance he gave to Izuku revealed he realized the direction Izuku's thoughts had been going.

"I only told how things were," she responded bluntly, but then her expression softened. "I am glad we let you go in the end. I think Midoriya has proven it is safe to let you visit. I can't imagine what we could have done if those thugs had attacked you here. It is just sad you needed to travel so far to find friends."

"True, and even that was only possible thanks to Toshi," Izuku said and reached his arm around Hitoshi's shoulder, trapping his friend into the conversation. "See, most people who know my quirk wouldn't even come within arm's reach even if I never gave them any reason to worry."

"And most wouldn't talk with me," Hitoshi said.

"They are stupid," Izuku said and paused for a moment. "It's not like you would do anything bad and getting brainwashed is soo relaxing. People should try it more."

Every word Izuku said was genuine and Hitoshi's father started tearing up. Soon both parents hugged, crying happily in each other's arms. Hitoshi sighed. Izuku tightened his hold and poked Hitoshi with his other hand.

"Be happy you still have both of them and they are both here," Izuku whispered, suddenly much more serious, "or someday you will regret that you didn't."

"R-right," Hitoshi stuttered. Soon his parents let go of each other. His mother walked to the kitchen but his father stayed, asking Izuku and Hitoshi to sit down on the couch while himself taking a recliner in front of it. Behind his happy tears however, the man's expression turned more thoughtful and tense, his attention focused on Izuku, who was well aware of it. He pretended to not notice and continued explaining the training he had done with Hitoshi and Tenya and how exhausted they were afterwards.

"We noticed. He could barely walk over the threshold when he came back on Sundays," Hibiki said.

"Oh, that happened already on Saturdays," Izuku said and gave Hitoshi a mischievous grin. "First couple of months I had to basically drag Toshi home."

"It wasn't that bad," Hitoshi defended himself.

"Yes, it was," Izuku responded. "The first time I had to carry you the last hundred meters."

"That was because you spent half of the afternoon kicking my feet from under me."

"And now it isn't as easy to do. It would be hard for you to use your quirk with a mouth full of dirt."

"That happened once!"

Izuku grinned at the pouting Hitoshi. Hitoshi's father sniffed then breathed in deep.

"Midoriya," he started, "you seem to have understood Hitoshi's problems better than anyone, since you've suffered the same things because of your quirk… Does it work like Hitoshi has told us, transferring quirks between people?"

"Yes," Izuku answered carefully.

"I told you it did," Hitoshi added to his father. "And yes, it is totally okay."

"I know, I just," the man fell quiet.

"Dad, don't tell me you…" Hitoshi spoke. His father's eyes widened, and he waved his hands defensively. After Hitoshi fell quiet his father calmed and held the back of his neck. So that was where Hitoshi got it.

"I'm not suspicious of you for your quirk, I was just wondering… Could you use it to transfer my quirk to Hitoshi?"

"What?" Hitoshi and Izuku said at the same time.

"I have been thinking about this since Hitoshi first told me about your quirk Midoriya. Hitoshi's quirk can be useful for a hero, but you know its limitations by now from personal experience from what Hitoshi has told us. My Surprise quirk can help him overcome those."

"Dad, that would leave you quirkless," Hitoshi protested.

"He's not wrong," Izuku added, still too surprised to be sure how he should feel. "It would make your life much harder."

"Perhaps," the man admitted, "but it probably won't be as bad as you think. I am already old with existing relationships. My generation has more quirkless people to begin with than yours. It isn't the same as growing up quirkless today. Either way, for Hitoshi it is worth the risk. It isn't like I need the quirk for anything. It is wasted on me. So… can you do it?"

"It would be easy," Izuku answered, glancing at the palm of his hand, "and the quirk would probably be easy enough on Hitoshi, since it's likely closely related to his. Parents' quirks are usually similar to the child's quirk."

"So, you will do it?"

"IF Hitoshi asks for it," Izuku said and leaned back on the couch. Hibiki turned his pleading look onto his son.

"Dad, are… you sure?" Hitoshi asked one word at a time. "You would do that?"

His father nodded.

"What parent wouldn't?"

"Probably many more than you think," Izuku remarked quietly, still leaning back to give the father and son a little more space. Hibiki grabbed Hitoshi's hand.

"You have wanted to be a hero since before you got your quirk. Now it is finally happening, and we are terrified your might get hurt fighting villains or even just in training. The possibility of being quirkless is nothing compared to that. I will do anything to make sure it won't happen. If my quirk can help…"

"It would," Hitoshi admitted. He looked at Izuku and nodded. Izuku smiled softly and reached to grab one of each of their hands, not separating the others.

"So," he started, "how does this Surprise quirk work?"

"It is a voice-based quirk that is difficult not to respond to," Hibiki explained. "If I focus on a single person I am talking to, they will experience my words… well, more dramatically. I haven't experienced it myself obviously, but people have described it is like I was screaming into their ear and even if they knew it was going to happen it always… jolts them like I caught them by surprise. Usually, people say or shout something when that happens. I have only used it for pranks when I was younger. It has never really been useful, for me that is."

"Wow, that is a really great match with Toshi's brainwashing," Izuku said, holding back the urge to mutter and take notes about the quirk. He smiled at Hitoshi. "You are going to knock out villains left and right."

"Y… yeah, maybe."

"Yes, he will. We are ready. Please do it," Hibiki asked.

"I already did," Izuku said and let go of them. Hibiki blinked but Hitoshi wasn't surprised.

"How are you feeling?" Izuku asked.

"My head feels a bit strange," Hitoshi answered.

"No pain?"

"No."

"None? The quirk really fits you, still tell me if anything changes."

"Sure."

"Good. Welcome to the multi-quirk club," Izuku declared. The doorbell rang. Hitoshi glanced back.

"I should get that."

He got up and headed to the door. As he walked out of sight Izuku leaned back and looked at Hibiki again.

"You surprised me," Izuku said. "The way people are valued for their quirks nowadays, most people wouldn't even consider giving away their quirks, even to their own children."

"I can imagine," Hibiki answered. "Truthfully, I've been thinking about this for months but kept hesitating. I tried to talk with some friends about it and they didn't even think it would be possible."

"Not surprising," Izuku responded. "Quirks are considered such an inherent part of a person; it is hard for people to accept it could be taken away or transferred between people just like that, and if they do believe it is possible, the idea terrifies them."

"Yes…" Hibiki fell quiet. "I would be lying if I pretended not to have felt both of those feelings when Hitoshi first told us… about you."

"At least you got past them," Izuku said. "That is more than most people I have ever met could do."

"How could I not. My own son has had to suffer the same fear from people for years, and we could do nothing about it." Hibiki sighed. "Even if things look better now, I can't help but worry if UA is going to be any better."

"It will," Hitoshi said from behind his father, having just returned with Tenya. "At least I don't have to deal with things alone there."

While Tenya gave overly formal greetings, moving tightly like a robot, Izuku moved to the end of the couch to make room for his friends with Hitoshi ending up sitting on Izuku's usual place in the middle. There were several quick snapping sounds. Hitoshi's mother was standing on the other side of the room taking pictures, a soft smile on her lips. Eventually she put down the phone.

"The dinner is ready… unless… Hitoshi would like to have my quirk too first?"

"No," Izuku said before Hitoshi could respond. Both adults in the room seemed surprised so Izuku continued. "There are limits to how many quirks people can handle, depending on the quirk, I think. Being so closely related your quirks probably wouldn't be enough to cause Hitoshi harm, but I won't risk giving him more than one, at least not at the same time."

"I see," Shizuka said. "Well Hitoshi, if your friend decides it is safe later, you only need to ask. My touch telepathy might not help with your brainwashing like your father's quirk, but if you can think of a use for it…"

The room was quiet for a moment.

"May I ask what you are talking about?" Tenya asked.

"I just expanded my list of decent people I know," Izuku responded, his friend notebook open on his hand as he added notes on Hitoshi's pages about his new quirk combination, and some about his family.

"Where was he keeping that?" Hibiki asked.