Chapter 15: To Build an Aftermath

AN: WE LIIIIIVE! Sorry to keep everyone waiting, real life has been really busy this year, and unfortunately, this isn't some official return. We just managed to get this chapter mostly done over a break a few weeks ago and wanted to share it. Thank you to everyone who's been patient with us and welcome to everyone who showed up while we were away. We hope you enjoy the latest chapter.

Also, I have decided to try and respond to comments in the review section as that is easier for me to do, I still read all the comments and appreciate all of the positive feedback.

Once again, sorry that this isn't a proper return, but I thank you all for your patience and understanding.

Until Next Time,

Ciao!

*Crack*

She couldn't run from it, the sound would always find her again. She tried to over power it, screaming at the top of her lungs, firing her guns, the sound only got louder. As it got louder, it got closer, she backed up into the corner of their lab, ready to fire at whatever was making the horrid sound.

"Mel?"

She paused, it was Izuku, she called out, "Izu?"

"Mel, what's wrong?"

"It's coming, it won't stop"

"What's coming?"

"The sound, it's chasing me"

"Oh," Izuku said as he rounded the corner, his body in a familiar purple and red armor save for his exposed face, "you mean this sound?"

He took another step forward and as he did, he revealed his broken right arm, making that same horrific cracking sound. As he continued to approach Melissa, he spoke in a hollow, demented voice, "Why did you let this happen Mel?"

*Crack*

"Why didn't you help keep me safe like you promised?"

*Crack*

"You failed me Melissa"

*Crack*

"I almost died"

*CR̴҉̷̨̖̮̉͑ͯ̑̋͟͠A҉҉̦̣̤͔̟̩̋̿̏ͦ̈́̍͟͠CK*

"How could you let this happen?"

*C҉͓̟͇̼͕̻ͭ͌ͩ̒͘͜͡͞͠ R̴҉̷̨̖̮̉͑ͯ̑̋͟͠ A҉҉̦̣̤͔̟̩̋̿̏ͦ̈́̍͟͠ C҉͓̟͇̼͕̻ͭ͌ͩ̒͘͜͡͞͠ K҉̿ͭ͘͜*

Melissa woke up in a cold sweat, it was just a dream. She looked around, she was in a hospital room… Izuku's hospital room. She frantically looked around, until her eyes landed on Izuku's form, sleeping peacefully. She reached over and grabbed her glasses, as she put them on she saw that it was 3:37 in the morning. Her nightmare was just that, a nightmare.

She stood up, put on her slippers, and walked out of the room. She walked down the hall and bought a drink from a vending machine. As she made her way back to the hospital room, she opened her phone and examined a new weapon she'd been working on, finalizing the design, triple checking her calculations, and reviewing the code necessary for the nanobots. With her nightmare still lingering in her mind, she couldn't help but wonder what might have happened if this weapon was done a little sooner. Could Izuku's injuries have been avoided if he had this? Would Izuku have been here working with her on this if she had done more? Nothing she did would alleviate her fears, her thoughts plagued with what ifs, and unfortunately she knew that she was limited in what she currently could do. Her Hazard Level was stuck at 2.7, no matter how much she trained, it never seemed to go higher. It was frustrating, seeing Izuku out there risking his life, and being stuck back here rather than out there by his side. She looked up to check the clock on the wall, 6:43. Sighing, she put her phone away and prepared herself for when Izuku eventually woke.

Izuku sat in his hospital bed with his right arm in a sling, and bandages wrapping around most of his limbs. He was frustrated to have gotten hurt, but glad that he stopped Eraserhead and Vlad King from getting more injured than they already had. A couple more hits like what the two of them had received from Nomu, and their injuries would've been more damaging. Eraserhead was lucky he didn't get any more hits to the head, or he could've received permanent damage to his eyes and by extension, his quirk.

Releasing a sigh he listened to Recovery Girl's words as she evaluated his injuries, "You're lucky you know, that armor of yours is the only reason why your injuries are somehow the least serious. A clean break like you had is easy enough for me to heal, but don't go thinking you will be so lucky next time, Sonny"

Izuku nodded, "I'll try not to make a habit of it, Recovery Girl."

Recovery Girl sighed, "You better not! Despite having done this for several years already, you are only 18, Sonny. None of you should've had to deal with something like what happened yesterday in your first weeks of class. I'm just thankful that you were the only student who was seriously injured. Now if only I could get that blonde oaf to listen as well as you do" she mumbled the last part as she walked over to the next room.

Izuku shifted in his bed, his muscles still burning with each movement. A downside of using Dinosaur and F1 at the same time, but one he'd hopefully be able to minimize as his hazard level grew. His musings at his current aches were cut off by the door to the nurses office opening revealing Melissa. Izuku smiled at his partner, "Hey, Mel. Want to arm wrestle?" he joked gesturing to his arm.

Melissa chuckled, "Never change, Izu. Congrats, by the way, officially hit 3.5 on your hazard level."

Izuku's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh wow, I wasn't expecting a 0.2 increase this fast since starting at UA."

"Y-yeah, meanwhile I'm still stuck at 2.7 over here"

Izuku frowned, "Melissa, if we gave up when we were stuck, we never would've gotten here. We'll figure it out, and before long, you'll be right next to me in a suit of your own."

Melissa sighed before smiling, "Okay, now, let's get ready to head home."

"Yeah," Izuku agreed. Then as he slid off the bed, his phone buzzed. As he read the message he sighed, "Actually, go on ahead without me, apparently we have a staff meeting."

Izuku walked into the meeting room where he saw everyone save for Thirteen present, though Eraser and Vlad were both heavily bandaged. Additionally he saw a tall, skeletal man with blond hair sitting towards the head of the table. The skeleton raised an eye at him when he entered the room, while most of the rest of the staff waved, Nezu saying, "Ah, Midoriya, glad to see you're recovering well, and with you here, we can begin."

At this the skeleton spoke up, "Wait, hold on, you're letting a student sit in on this meeting?"

Izuku responded, "Nezu, who is this walking skeleton and why is he here?"

Nezu clapped his paws together, "Ah you're quite right, I forgot neither of you was aware of the other. Yagi, if you please."

The skeleton, now known as Yagi, balked, "He's a student, Nezu. Can he be trusted with something like this?"

If Nezu was irritated by Yagi's reluctance, he didn't show it. He simply nodded, "Oh, most certainly, after all, this is a staff meeting."

Izuku nodded, and Yagi sighed. The skeleton stood up, inhaled, and suddenly where the skeletal man had stood was now All Might. Izuku stood in awe, his mind ready to go into full analysis mode, when Nezu cut him off, "Yes, Yagi is All Might, please hold all questions until the end, Midoriya."

Izuku nodded, and sat down. All Might deflated and took his seat once again, then asked, "So… why is he here exactly? I don't mean to sound rude, but I don't completely understand why there is a student present here."

Nezu smiled, "Why it's quite simple, Midoriya is more than just a student here, he's also a member of UA's staff. Midoriya, if you please."

Izuku nodded, and put his driver and bottles on the table. He looked over at Nezu, "I was banned from transforming, but this should get the message across."

Yagi, or rather All Might, looked at the driver for a second, then asked, "Is that supposed to mean something?"

Izuku looked at Recovery Girl with a slight twitch in his eye, "You know what, I'm not gonna do anything strenuous, so… can I?"

Recovery Girl sighed, tapped her cane against the floor, and nodded. Izuku clapped his hand together in an expression of gratitude, and slammed the driver onto his waist. He shook the bottles and loaded them into the driver.

Rabbit! Tank!

BEST MATCH

Izuku cranked the handle quickly, then the driver called out

Are you ready?!

Henshin!

The suit encased Izuku and as the Best Match line was called out, Izuku struck an over dramatic pose, flicking his arm out in a finger gun

The Fullmetal Moonsault! RabbitTank! YEAH!

When Izuku was done, he pointed at All Might, and asked, "This jog your memory, Numero Uno?"

All Might's mouth dropped, "Young Midoriya, you're the Kamen Rider?"

Izuku nodded, and turned his attention back to Nezu, "Okay, with proper introductions over, can we begin?"

Nezu nodded, "Certainly, Tsukauchi, if you would?"

In the center of the U-shaped table, Tsukauchi nodded and spoke up, "Alright, we've had time to interrogate all the villains we captured. They were all pretty much cannon fodder, E and F rank villains, if they even had a ranking before this. Most of their testimonies indicate that they were brought in to take care of the students while the leaders took care of All Might using that creature, Nomu, they had with them."

Izuku frowned, and Nezu noticed, "Midoriya, something is troubling you. What is it?"

Izuku shook his head, "Something about the way that Shigaraki acted… he seemed more like a game otaku than an actual villain leader. He showed no tactics befitting an actual leader, moreover, he bragged about Nomu on multiple occasions casually revealing its quirks, he may have just been confident that Nomu couldn't be beaten, but we all saw how that played out."

Yagi nodded, "I agree with Midoriya. Shigaraki seemed more of a man-child than a villain. After Nomu was defeated he threw a massive tantrum before he was knocked through the portal."

Snipe nodded, "Well let's make sure we're ready for him whenever he decides to make his next move."

Nezu put his paw on the table, "Indeed we shall keep our eyes and ears open. And with that, let us adjourn this meeting. Yagi and Midoriya, please stay behind."

With that all the other teachers left, Eraser and Vlad being assisted by a couple other teachers, until only Izuku, Yagi, and Nezu remained. Nezu looked over at Izuku, "I'm sure you have inquiries for Yagi, Midoriya, but let him explain before you start firing off questions."

Izuku nodded and looked at Yagi, who cleared his throat, "Six years ago, I was in a fight with a very powerful villain and it resulted in a horrendous injury," Yagi opened his suit to show the mass of black flesh on the left side of his body, then continued, "I lost a lung and most of my stomach. As time has passed since the injury, I've only been able to do hero work for a very limited time… it's only down to around three hours as of now."

Izuku stared in disbelief, the greatest hero, All Might, was losing power. Then his mind began to do what it did best, overanalyze: damaged body, limited time for being a hero… and a long list of All Might sightings the morning of the USJ. As it clicked into place, Izuku clenched his fists and took a deep breath before speaking. "Yagi-san, was the reason you were late to the USJ due to your escapades that morning?"

Yagi nodded solemnly and Izuku continued, "Do you really think you were needed for any or all of those issues?"

Yagi gave a slower nod, and Izuku asked his last question, "Are you or are you not a teacher?"

Yagi hesitated but nodded, and Izuku looked over at Nezu, and asked, "Nezu, what I'm about to do is done by Build and not by Izuku Midoriya, the student of UA."

Nezu nodded, and looked over at Yagi and said, "Yagi… clench your teeth."

Yagi was confused long enough that he had only a second to brace before…

SMACK

Yagi looked back at Izuku and rubbed the side of his face, as he looked into Midoriya's eyes and saw what could only be described as a mixture of rage and disappointment. Then Izuku spoke, "You really burned your limited time doing a job that the other trained professionals who were on the scene could have handled instead of spending it at the location you promisedto be at. We know that they were there for you! They had a weapon made to take you down! Heck they broke down the front gate and took a staff schedule to know exactly where you'd be. Are you aware that any number of students could've died yesterday, including me and Melissa!"

Izuku noticed how mentioning his partner made Yagi flinch, then he continued, "You had an obligation to be at the USJ as our teacher, and you weren't there! That forced my classmates, your students, to fight for their lives, and only once both of us got there did the tides turn in our favor. I fought Nomu with my strongest form, and…" he clenched his fists "...I couldn't win. We needed you there. And. You. Were. Late."

Yagi took a deep breath, knelt on the ground, and assumed a dogeza, "You're right, Young Midoriya, I'm truly sorry for my lapse in judgement. I aspire to be a better teacher going forward. I hope to one day earn your forgiveness."

Izuku exhaled, turned to Nezu who nodded, before looking back at the man bowing before him, "You don't need my forgiveness here, what you need to do is be grateful that nobody was seriously injured and that you still have time to be better. Never stop trying to be better is all I ask, Plus Ultra and whatnot," he then nodded to Nezu and walked out the door.

Yagi then looked over at Nezu, who said, "If Midoriya hadn't done it, I would've, though with marginally less physical force."

Yagi nodded, "He's not wrong though, I need to improve as a teacher, will you help me Nezu?"

Nezu cackled, and Yagi shuddered, "Of course, All Might. After all, Plus Ultra and whatnot."

Eijiro was worried. He hadn't heard from Izuku or Melissa since the USJ, and neither had Mina. That is… until today when he learned Izuku had been in the hospital. So now he and Mina were on their way to see him. On their way to Izuku's house, they encountered Yoarashi and Tokage, who were also on their way to see him. The four of them walked the rest of the way to Izuku's house together, making small talk as they did, Mina asked, "So how do you think Midobabe hurt himself?"

Tokage shrugged, "Probably just some explosion in the lab, Melly did say one of their classmates has a tendency to cause them."

Yoarashi shook his head, "Nonsense! Izuku would never be felled by something such as that! Nay, he must've been caught up in a villain attack!"

Tokage wiggled her eyebrows, "How can you be so sure, that would only make sense if he got injured around the same time we were at the USJ. Maybe he and Melly just found a janitor's closet and had too good a time."

Mina giggled, "Nah, Midobabe and Melly wouldn't do something like that at school. But I do wonder how he got hurt."

Eijiro shrugged, "I'm sure we'll learn when we get there."

Once they did, Tokage asked, "So, should we knock?"

Yoarashi proceeded to slam the door open and shout, "IZUKU! MY FRIEND, ARE YOU OKAY?!"

Tokage removed her hands from her ears, "I guess not."

What Eijiro and the rest weren't expecting to see was Izuku sitting at the table eating Katsudon with one hand and tinkering with the Kamen Rider's belt gizmo with the other. He paused mid bite and went, "Uh… make yourselves at home."

Before anyone could ask a question, Melissa walked out with a drink in one hand, and a large panel in the other, "Hey Izu, I was wondering about recalibrating the… oh, hey guys."

"Hey Melly, whatcha got there?"

"A Smoothie." Melissa proceeded to take a very slow slurp.

Izuku swallowed his katsudon and asked, "So… I'm guessing you have questions?"

"IZUKU MY FRIEND IS YOUR ARM OKAY!?"

Tokage floated her head up, "Yoarashi, I really don't think that's the most important question."

Yoarashi held up a finger, "I… DISAGREE!"

Mina proceeded to shriek, "MIDO! YOU'RE THE KAMEN RIDER?"

Izuku gulped, "Would you believe me if I said we're just his support technicians?"

Tokage shook her head, "Not anymore."

Eijiro finally spoke up, "Midobro, you know it's not manly to lie."

Izuku shook his head, "But… I didn't lie, I just asked if you'd believe me."

Eijiro shrugged, "Still, why didn't you tell us?"

Izuku exhaled, "We appreciated the fact that we were only known as Izuku and Melissa, not the Kamen Rider and his partner."

Eijiro thought about it and nodded, "I… I don't understand, Midobro, why would that make a difference?"

Izuku exhaled, "Because, Kirishima, it would've created a gap between us and you."

"What do you mean by that?" Mina asked.

"Because," Tokage explained, "Midoriya is, in all but license, a trained pro hero. We're still just starting our path as students while he has years of experience at this point. Not even mentioning his popularity"

Eijiro started to understand and nodded at Tokage's explanation, but then Yoarashi shouted,

"THAT'S STUPID!"

Izuku looked over, "Huh, what do you mean stupid?"

"You were already the Kamen Rider when you became our friend! You haven't changed as a person all of a sudden! You're still Izuku Midoriya, My Brother in heroic arms! Who cares if you have a head start on heroics, we are all going to cross the same finish line in the end!"

Izuku started to laugh at Yoarashi's statement, "So that's how it feels to be called out for being too much in my own head."

Everyone else began to laugh too, and once that ended, everyone focused again on Izuku, who said, "Now, we seriously need you guys to keep this under wraps. We don't want people learning about it. So… you all need to sign an NDA. Our boss' orders, not ours."

Everyone gathered around chatting while celebrating Izuku's recovery and asking more about what he does. As they did, Mina looked over at Melissa who was looking slightly downtrodden following the conversation. She walked over and asked, "You doing okay, Melly?"

Melissa forced a smile, "Yeah, I'm all good, Mina. Don't worry."

Omake

As Nezu scrolled through his computer he received a call from an interesting number, the president of the HPSC. Naturally, he took a sip of tea, letting it ring a few times, before he finally picked it up, "Ah, hello, Madam President. To what do I owe the pleasure this fine afternoon."

The president sighed, "Nezu, chipper as ever I see, I'm fine, thank you for asking. Now, I believe we all know the outcome of the USJ."

Nezu nodded, "Yes, it was unfortunate what happened, but that's not what you're talking about."

"No, I'm referring to Build and his performance."

Nezu grinned slightly, "Then I believe we both agree about his limitless potential."

"Yes, it's something that has been obvious to me since the beginning, Midoriya and Shield have the potential to surpass even our current symbol of peace. However, their power is stagnating, something I'm sure you've also noticed."

Nezu chuckled, "Oh absolutely, which is why I soon hope to offer Build an opportunity that will help set him and his compatriot on the path to becoming two of the world's greatest heroes."

Nezu could feel the president smile over the phone as she let out a dry chuckle, "I am glad that we are, for once, on the same page. I look forward to the results."

Next episode preview:

Nezu: Build, be prepared.

Izuku: Prepared for what?

Nezu: Why, battle of course, after all yours isn't over yet.

Next Time: To Build a Training Montage

Notes:

Every time we write Inasa he starts to feel more and more like Aoi Todo, and we're both here for it.

Also, we don't hate All Might, nor is this meant to bash him, more Izuku (someone very impulsive in this fic) trying to vent his frustrations about All Might's poor decision making mixed with the benefit of hindsight.