Shockingly Healthy Ch. 3
Izuku gained an uncertain look and bit his lip. After a few moments he looked towards me. Seeing the question in his eyes, I shook my head and said "This is your decision Izuku, I can't help you make it. I'm pretty sure the only reason why I was even told this is because as the one working on healing All Might's Quirk and your best friend I'd be able to connect the dots and this keeps me from asking questions I shouldn't."
All Might confirmed that and Izuku looked down. It took him a minute of two of hard thought but at the end of it, he nodded to himself before he looked up with determined eyes and said "Alright, when it comes time I'll become the Ninth User of One For All."
Story Start
Izuku and All Might took off to the Midoriya Apartment to tell his mother about all of this. They kind of had to given Izuku was only eleven years old still. I told my parents as well, but only that a Pro Hero who asked me to keep his anonymity decided to take Izuku under his wing as an apprentice of sorts. Dad had given me a look and asked if this Hero was the same person who I'd been 'performing maintenance' on their Quirk for the last two years. When I confirmed that it was he simply nodded and that was that. Guess he figured anyone who Nezu allowed to be alone with me for half an hour before each lesson with my Master was trustworthy enough to help his son's friend with his training.
After that things returned mostly to normal, All Might just started training Izuku for an hour every other day after school. With our Parkour and Martial Arts classes Izuku and I had already been in rather good shape for eleven year old kids. But under All Might's tutorship, Izuku started to get strong as well as fast in a fight. Hell, he accidentally broke one of the other kids' arms in a spar three months into his new training. Naturally I had the kid healed as soon as it happened but our fellow students started to get rather nervous whenever it came time for our Sensei to choose someone to fight Izuku.
Over the next year and a half Dagobah Beach regained its former glory as Izuku worked to clear out all of the trash. I helped out by swinging around at the end of each day he worked on it in order to heal his sore muscles allowing them to recover faster. When Dagobah beach was clean All Might took him to a recycling center where he began dragging the remains of old appliances and small motorized vehicles around. And let me tell you, seeing a thirteen, almost fourteen year old dragging five zero turn lawn mowers chained together with their parking brakes engaged for a hundred yards was impressive, if not a little scary.
At the same time my own training with a Professional Hero progressed. Recovery Girl continued to stuff as much medical book learning and physical healing as she could and there was hands on experience as well, pardon the pun. All Might might have been the first Pro Hero that I healed in UA's infirmary, but he was by no means the last. Amputations, lost ears and eyes (and one unfortunate Pro who had their tongue cut off by some wacko), crush injuries, burns, all these and more were treated so that Pro Heroes could return to the field.
There were a few civilians as well, though almost all of them were children, whose parents had to wait outside the infirmary as I worked. Nezu was thorough in the process he had for if someone was trustworthy enough to get close enough for me to heal them. For good reason too given there had been two more abduction attempts, not that I actually knew about them when they happened, only after the fact. Eraserhead had apparently reached out to his fellow Underground Heroes to keep an eye on me when I was out from under UA's aegis. I was never actually able to identify them as such which probably meant the would be abductors likely didn't know about them either until they were apprehended, the first group by the Underground Hero in question (and no, Aizawa still wouldn't tell me who it was so that I could personally thank them) and the second time by Backdraft of all people. (Apparently he was the closest Hero with a capture capable Quirk.)
And so time passed until about six months before UA's Entrance Exam when the next major event occurred: the Passing of a Torch.
Scene Shift: UA, Gym Gamma
Ectoplasm had clones outside making sure no one would see what was about to happen. Not that he knew what would happen himself, he was simply following his Boss's orders, and as far as Ectoplasm was concerned, he didn't want to know. (Nezu's reputation was completely warranted after all.) Inside the large space was said Principal, Recovery Girl, All Might, the Midoriya mother and son, and myself, my right hand on Izuku's left shoulder.
The reason why I was there was two fold. It was hoped that since Regenerator was able to affect One For All's connections to All Might that it could in turn accelerate Izuku's body adapting to said Quirk. It would also allow me to watch how and where a Quirk gene added itself to a person's DNA which would probably be useful knowledge to have down the road. (Like Aunt Lissa, Recovery Girl was…hesitant…of me messing with genetics at this point in time. Today would be strictly 'look but don't touch' on that front.)
"Now, eat this!"
Izuku stared at the small fun sized Twizzler that All Might had cut the end off of in order to place a single hair inside the hollow middle. Inko looked slightly green as her son hesitantly reached up and accepted the liquorish and placed it in his mouth, quickly chewing twice before swallowing. It took a couple of minutes but then Regenerator showed me the DNA chain in the corner of my Quirk's HUD changing, a new link smoothly slotting itself into place as the body began changing on a cellular level, though incredibly slowly. 'Poking' experimentally at my best friends body with Regenerator, I saw the adaption increase just a little. Nodding to myself, I 'shifted into high gear' and cut loose with my electrical stores.
"Woah!" Izuku yelped, giving a full body twitch as his everything changed on a fundamental level, what should have taken hours to have noticeable effects and ended months (if not years) later happened within the span of ten seconds. The familiar star of energy I had been seeing for the last few years immediately sent out thousands of connector spikes into his body. His muscles briefly bulged before returning to normal as they became denser, something his bones did as well. His heart gained a slightly slower resting speed but pumped more blood per beat than before, just waiting for Izuku to shift into his own metaphorical high gear before ramping its pace back up.
"Oh man, that felt WEIRD." Izuku muttered as I took my hand off his shoulder and stepped away. As the teen flexed his hands, I looked to the rest of our group and nodded. Nezu, Recovery Girl and All Might all nodded back to me before All Might and Recovery Girl moved Izuku further into the gym to begin help him work out how to use his new Quirk.
Moving as well to stand next to me, Nezu held his paws behind his back as he said "Thank you again for your assistance today Young Kira, you've undoubtedly saved Young Midoriya several months of work and quite likely spared him from breaking any bones as well."
Inko twitched at the thought of her son breaking bones while trying to learn how to use One For All but remained silent as I nodded and said "You're welcome Principal Nezu, like I said before, happy to help." I then frowned and said "On the other hand though, the time All Might can spend in his Hero Form is going to start dropping even faster. He was already down to just nine hours and some change per day, with the Quirk transferred, I don't think it'll be long before he can't last an entire shift."
"True, but don't worry, we have a plan for hiding that from the greater public." Nezu stated as he lightly pulled at the left cuff of his shirt's sleeve. When it became clear that he wouldn't be telling me said plan I gave a mental shrug and went back to watching my friend. A friend who now had veins of red light going across his body as green lightning flickered around him.
Time Skip: Six Months Later, UA Gymnasium
Technically speaking, I didn't need to be here sitting between Bakugo and Izuku. (The Pomeranian gritting his teeth as we sat by him in our assigned seats but not saying anything.) As Recovery Girl's apprentice I more than qualified to have taken the Recommendation Exam last week. But Nezu being Nezu had decided that he wanted to see how I would handle a 'live fire' situation. Likewise Izuku could have also taken the Recommendation Exam but no one wanted to open the mega sized can of worms that would have come from Number One Professional Hero All Might showing up with a secret apprentice. And so the pair of us had entered the rather crowded auditorium and were now listening to Present Mic explain about the three types of robots we'd be fighting.
Or at least we were until a teenager wearing a blue suit stood up and pointed out that there were clearly four types on the papers we had been given and that if this was an error on UA's part it was disgraceful for such a prestigious school to make such a glaring mistake.
Rolling my eyes, I called out "Hey buddy!" When the teen turned around, I continued "Ever consider that it wasn't listed with the other three because it's a different variable to the test?"
The teen became embarrassed, growing even more so when Present Mic confirmed what I said, calling the fourth kind of robot a Zero Pointer, one that was more of a stage hazard and so to be avoided rather than fought. That appeared to be all we needed to know (or at least all that the staff would tell us) as Present Mic gave us a send off with a quote from Napoleon and an enthusiastic 'Plus Ultra'!
The mass of student hopefuls were sent to a set of locker rooms to get changed and I switched from my slacks and polo shirt into a pair of jeans and a white short sleeved shirt that had a pair of red crosses on the shoulders and the word 'MEDIC' written on the back in red. On each wrist I strapped on a windup generator, giving each one a quick test spin to make sure that the machinery inside was in proper condition and that the leads on the bottom were sending me their charge. Wishing Izuku good luck, and getting a wish of good fortunes of my own in return, I split off from my friend and headed to a bus that would take me to Testing Site D. Spotting someone familiar, I grinned and called out "Yo Sero!"
"Hm?" The tape roll elbowed teen hummed, turning around before grinning when he saw me and waved as he said "Hey Kira, long time no see man!"
Reaching the teen, I clasped hands with him and grinned as I said "I'll say, we missed you at the Parkour Complex when you didn't show up with your group last time."
Sero sheepishly laughed and rubbed the back of his head as he said "Yeah, family stuff came up and dad put his foot down."
I nodded my understanding then asked "So, you ready for this?"
"Oh yeah!" Sero said with a grin, the pair of us beginning to move with the rest of our testing group onto the bus. As we climbed up the stairs of the bus he continued "Getting a chance to act like Spider-Man taking down bad guys is going to be awesome!"
The pair of us caught up as the bus took us to Testing Site D. When we hopped out in front of the walled city simulator Sero let out a long whistle as he said "Man that's impressive, and UA has at least eight more?!"
"Yeah, and that's just for the urban settings." I said with a nod.
"Jeez, UA's really got the big bucks don't they?" Sero muttered.
A couple of minutes later the doors swung open and we heard Present Mic shout out "START!" Several test takers looked around in confusion but I immediately pushed forward out of the crowd and into the complex, Sero right on my heels. As Present Mic told the rest to get going I heard the pounding of many feet behind me but ignored them in favor of the pair of one pointers just ahead.
"Sero, take the one on the right!" I c allied out, angling for the one on the left.
"Gotcha!" Sero confirmed.
"Targets acquired, prepare to waah!" The right one pointer started only to let out a wail as Sero tagged it with tape then swung him into the wall.
I quickly reached my own target, dodging the rubber bullets it fired on the way before I grabbed the robots right arm and continued moving in a way that caused the intentionally weak shoulder joint to fail, ripping the right arm off and exposing wires. Wires which were quickly cut with a fold out knife I brought with me, the ends sparking. (Gibbs Rule #9: Always carry a knife.) Grabbing the wires, I focused Regenerator and pulled, rapidly draining the robot's power source of energy and adding it to my own stores. Five seconds later the bot slumped to the floor.
I took just long enough to locate the kill switch on the robot for the future encounters with one pointers before I took off, Sero already hauling ass down the street. Over the next eight minutes I took out any robots that crossed my path. Once I knew where the kill switches were for the two and three pointers as well I put my years of martial arts and parkour training to good use, making quick dashes to the robots while avoiding their attacks before hitting the switch and moving on.
It wasn't just taking out robots though, with the amount of chaos of so many combatants in the streets it was inevitable that some of the test takers would get hurt. Thankfully it was mostly just bruises (and a budding black eye that had promised to be an absolute beauty of a shiner before Regenerator got to it) but one poor kid had dislocated their shoulder after landing wrong and rolling when she was thrown away by a three pointer missile. Wincing, I quickly ran over. As I kneeled down next to the girl, I gave a sharp whistle loud enough to pierce the cacophony of combat and called out "Can I get some cover here?!"
"Got your six!" A voice called out in English. I glanced over in surprise at the speaker only to see Pony Tsunotori quickly sprint over, the Equine like American already launching a pair of horns at the three pointer that caused the injury.
Quickly shaking my head, I quickly focused back on said injury and said to my patient "Alright, I'll have you up and moving in just a bit, but I need you to stay still alright?"
"You sure you know what you're doing?" The girl asked nervously as I put my hands on her shoulder and wrist.
I gave her a reassuring smile and said "Don't worry, I earned these Red Crosses." A moment later I got to work, pulling her arm straight by the wrist to align the bone properly then pushing it back in, Regenerator working in tandem to finish the healing process so that way it was like the fall never happened.
Twenty seconds after I started, I stood up, pulling the girl up with the formerly injured arm and said "Alright, you're good to go." Looking to Pony, I nodded and said "Thanks for the cover." (She had taken out three other robots that had turned their focus on us during that quick bit of healing.)
Pony gave me a beaming grin and thumbs up before she started shooting at robots again and my patient and I started going after them as well.
Two minutes later though a loud rumbling filled the street as a massive robot taller than most of the surrounding buildings appeared. Test takers all around me began running away from the behemoth, several screaming about UA being insane and that that was too much. Me though? As the large robot lifted up an arm to smash a (thankfully empty) building, my eyes gained the small lightning bolt symbol to denote a device being charged, the display of anime world rules replicating someone gaining dollar signs in their eyes as a sign of greed.
And as the arm came down, I began sprinting forward with all of my not insignificant speed calling out "You're going to keep Regenerator juiced up for months big boy!"
Scene Change: Observation Room
As one of the test takers sprinted up the arm of one of the Zero Pointers, Power Loader ignored Nezu's cackling to give Recovery Girl a flat look and said "You know, normally the test takers run away from the Zero Pointers, not towards them."
Recovery Girl simply chuckled as she watched her apprentice find the hatch used to perform maintenance at the top of the Zero Pointer's head then hop in. A few moments later the behemoth ground to a halt as all of its power was stolen.
"There goes another one!" Thirteen called out and the other teachers saw explosions ripping through another Zero Pointer, its head caved in from the punch delivered by the green haired teenager now falling towards the ground. The teenager slammed down onto the ground with bent knees, creating foot long spiderweb cracks in the asphalt around his feet before walking over to a brunette pinned under a slab of concrete. The teen bent down and easily flipped the slab off of her before picking her up in a bridal carry and took off running down the street with his precious cargo, not even stopping when Present Mic announced the end of the exam.
"Whelp, I know who I'm tending to first." Recovery Girl said as she slid out of her seat and continued "Give me a lift would you All Might?"
"Certainly Madam!" Yagi said cheerfully as he shifted into his hero form and like his student carefully picked the elderly nurse up before vanishing in a burst of wind.
Time Skip: Two Weeks Later, Nezu's Office
I stood with Izuku in front of Nezu's desk with hands clasped behind my back, doing my best to remain calm. Izuku meanwhile couldn't stop fidgeting as his gaze went from Nezu sitting in his chair to Recovery girl standing at his right side to All Might by his left side.
Nezu finished up his summary of how we did on the theoretical test and where we could improve academically then leaned forward with a smile as he said "And now for the part I'm sure you two are more interested in, the Practical Exam. Both of you did magnificently when it came to dealing with the robots, with Young Kira obtaining thirty two Villain Points and Young Midoriya obtaining sixty nine Villain Points. However, that's not all. We also gave you a score based on a different metric: Hero Points! Decided by a panel of judges, these points are gained for helping others. Young Kira, for providing healing to others throughout the exam, you were awarded sixty five Hero Points. Young Midoriya, for aiding a number of students who were struggling against the Villains you have been awarded twenty five Hero Points. Furthermore, for your actions on stopping the Zero Pointer then freeing and subsequent evacuating Young Uraraka, you have been granted an additional twenty Hero Points, bringing your total to forty five Hero Points."
Smile becoming a wide grin, Nezu clapped his paws once before shooting each of us a thumbs up as he concluded "Well done you two, you have passed the UA Entrance Exam with flying colors! From now on, this school shall be your Hero Academia!"
As Recovery Girl and All Might both clapped for us, I let out a relieved breath before doing my best to match Nezu's grin. Izuku meanwhile had tears in his eyes as his lips quivered. A moment later though he jumped a literal foot in the air, punching his right arm up as he cried out "WE DID IT!"
END
Author's Notes: Sorry for the 'Radio Silence' when it comes to updating things. I'll be moving up to Michigan early October and these last few months has been a constant rush to pack up everything nonessential into boxes and get the house into proper shape to put on the market. (Rubs head sheepishly) That and a combination of some major length one shots I'm writing on my phone and how long it takes my laptop to 'wake up' means I haven't been using said laptop as much as I really should. I think this has been the first time I've flipped open the screen to use it in literal months. Hopefully once things settle down I'll be able to put more focus on writing, but for now, this is Tac, signing out.
