Chapter 6

Chapter Text

"What was a first year doing with an untested, loaded weapon in the first place?" Maijima asked, trying to understand how the year had begun unraveling so quickly. It was UA so there was always going to be some major disaster each year, but it was only the second day! The first years hadn't even met all of their teachers yet.

"It wasn't identified as a weapon," Aizawa said in his deep, monotone voice. Probably the only one in the room fooled by his emotionless act would be All Might. The rest of them had worked together for too many years not to know each other's tells. Aizawa was very deeply affected by this tragedy. "Guns, knives, and other lethal weapons are held back for obvious reasons."

"That is correct," Nedzu said calmly. "It was listed as a receptacle to collect the user's sweat. Not as a weapon."

"And no one noticed that it was requested by a kid with a quirk called 'explosion'?"

"We would have," Aizawa said, glancing at Yagi in what seemed to be an involuntary movement. "The second lesson for first year heroics students is checking and assessing their hero costumes and equipment."

Mic grimaced. "We may have to review the company we contracted this year, as well. Most of the costumes seemed inappropriate for hero work."

"We always have a few that need tweaking," Maijima said, wondering why Mic would bring up the subject at this particular meeting.

"I'm not talking about tweaks," Mic said, sounding very disturbed. "I'm talking about…a lack of armor and protective materials, inappropriate footwear, missing hearing and eye protection. And don't get me started on how revealing the girls' outfits are. Yaoyorozu is barely covered, Floaty girl… Um…"

"Uraraka," Aizawa supplied.

Mic nodded his thanks. "Uraraka's outfit is skin tight with high heels, Kirishima is bare-chested, and I'm not even sure the invisible girl actually has a costume. I know for certain she was barefoot."

"Oh dear," Nedzu said, seeming startled. "Maijima, I would appreciate it if you could prioritize correcting the issues with 1A'a costumes. Do we have the same issues with 1B?"

Vlad glanced at Yagi the same way Aizawa had done earlier. "I'll be reviewing them myself after this meeting. I'll send you a report when I'm done."

"Thank you, Vlad," Nedzu said, his normally upbeat tone very much missing.

"I'll be doing the same with mine," Aizawa said, staring Nedzu down when he seemed ready to protest. Aizawa looked way more tired than usual, and considering that he always looked tired, that was definitely saying something. He clearly needed rest.

But Nedzu was smart enough to know when to back away from a fight he wouldn't win. "Thank you, Aizawa." He glanced around the room, making eye contact with each of the teachers. "You're all aware of the standard protocols that cover this situation. I would prefer not to publicize what happened today, so we won't be releasing an official statement to the press. I suspect, however, that we'll be dealing with the fallout for quite some time. Are there any more questions?"

"Just one," Mic said, seeming very, very angry. "Why the hell did All Might eat part of Midoriya's remains?"

"He did what?" The words echoed around the room, each teacher who'd been unaware of the so-called hero's actions voicing their alarm, Maijima included.

"As All Might explained to class 1A—" Nedzu began calmly.

"I know the bullshit he fed the kids"—Mic looked terrible. The poor guy seemed like he was about to hurl—"but I want the truth. Explaining his actions honestly is the very least he can do."

Nedzu opened his mouth to say something, but at a small movement from All Might he hesitated.

"What I'm about to tell you," All Might said, "is a matter of national security and cannot leave this room."

"Enough with the dramatics, Yagi," Mic said in a curt tone. "We're all licensed heroes. Just spit it out. Why the hell did you do that?"

Yagi nodded sadly. "Midoriya was my successor."

"You knew him before UA?" Aizawa asked, seeming surprised.

"I did," Yagi said sadly. "I trained him for the past ten months so that he'd be able to—"

His words were cut off by Aizawa's capture scarf.

"Ten months?" Aizawa asked, his voice dangerously low. "Ten months of training from a licensed teacher? What the fuck did you teach him? The kid had muscles in all the wrong places. He was stiff, slow, and clumsy. Hell, he could barely move without tripping over his own damn feet." Aizawa pulled the capture scarf tighter. "So tell me All Might"—the name was spat like poison—"what sort of training results in a kid with so many injuries? I've seen his x-rays! Two broken legs and a broken arm at the entrance exam were the least of his injuries. The kid was covered in scars, barely healed stress fractures, and burn marks. Not to mention that he had zero control over his quirk." Aizawa was angrier than Maijima had even seen him. "So explain it for me, Yagi. How did Midoriya Izuku get ten months of training from the number one hero and not even be able to dodge an explosion he saw coming?"

"The hallway was narrow and—"

"Don't even start with me, Yagi. That's just an excuse and you know it! Where the hell did you get your teaching license?"

"The um…HPSC gave it to me."

"The HPSC gave you a teacher's license?" Vlad asked, obviously as startled as Maijima. "Is that even valid?"

"With ten months of proper hero training," Shota said angrily, "Midoriya should have been able to avoid the worst of that blast, even in a narrow hallway with nowhere to go. Midoriya's scans after his injuries at the entrance exams showed a body so badly damaged it was a miracle he could move at all."

"Recovery Girl," Nedzu asked, obviously blind-sided by Aizawa's verbal attack on All Might, "is this true? The scars? The stress fractures?"

Recovery Girl looked uncomfortable, but nodded an affirmation. "In All Might's defense," she said, startling slightly at the sounds of disbelief that came from Mic and Aizawa both, "most of the healed fractures were from long before the child even met Yagi."

"So his quirk has been breaking his bones for years and no one in his schools noticed?"

"He was quirkless," Yagi said quietly.

"What?" Aizawa asked, obviously as confused as Maijima.

"Midoriya was quirkless until the day of the entrance exam."

"He was a late bloomer?" Maijima asked reflexively, cringing when attention turned his way. This was not a conversation he wanted to be involved in.

"Bullshit," Mic said, thankfully taking the focus of the group once more. "Late bloomers are five or six, not fifteen.

"No," All Might said, his voice raising in volume in an attempt to cut through the cacophony of sounds as the other teachers reacted in a similar fashion to Mic. "Midoriya was not a late bloomer. He was quirkless when I met him. I gave…" Yagi seemed to lose all energy as he fumbled for a seat to sit on. "I gave him my quirk."

Stunned silence.

"That's…um…" Mic said, glancing around the room. "That's not possible."

"There are rumors in the underground," Aizawa said, finally releasing Yagi from his capture weapon, "that talk of a villain who can give and take quirks."

"All for One," Yagi said with a nod, apparently confirming the rumors to be true. Yagi held up his hand to delay Aizawa's next question. "He was not involved in the transfer to Midoriya. My quirk is called One for All. It's a stockpiling quirk that can be passed to the next holder. I was the eighth, Midoriya the ninth."

"It's passed on by ingesting the host's DNA?" Mic asked, looking ill once more.

Yagi nodded. "Usually just a single hair, but I admit to panicking earlier." He took a shaky breath. "The transfer also requires the host to will it to the new recipient. I thought maybe Midoriya willed it back to me." He grimaced. "He didn't."

"Why were you so desperate to get your quirk back that you'd risk eating part of a dead student in front of the rest of his class?" Maijima asked, bewildered.

"One for All was cultivated over two hundred years to be strong enough to fight All for One. I fought him five years ago and the injuries it left me with were extensive. They're the reason for this skinny form and why I'll be retiring soon. All for One was also injured, but we don't know for sure that he was defeated. If All for One is still alive, we need that quirk."

"Fuck," Mic said, dropping into the chair beside Maijima as they all processed that disturbing thought. A villain strong enough to severely injure All Might was not a villain any of them were prepared to fight. Maijima silently agreed with Mic's summation. Fuck.

"So what now?" Aizawa asked. "Midoriya is dead and the quirk with him. What will you do now, Yagi?"

"No clue," the skinny man said with a wry grimace. "I think that we've established beyond doubt that I'm a lousy teacher."

"Of course you're a lousy teacher," Aizawa said, his voice back to that emotionless monotone but in no way derogatory. "You don't have a real license. You've never been taught how to teach. You don't have the necessary skills." He turned to Nedzu. "How was it possible to hire him? I can't imagine the education board is all that happy with it."

"They're not," Nedzu admitted, "but they were overruled by the HPSC."

"And the HPSC gets what it wants," Mic mumbled irritably.

"That they do," Nedzu agreed.

"So what now?" Maijima asked, despite his wholehearted wish to stay out of the conversation.

"Now we follow protocol," Nedzu said in a tone that dared anyone to disagree. "It is very important that the school appears to be continuing as normal. We will support our students as per protocols and, as we always do when a student drops the course or transfers schools, we will fill the vacancy with a student from general studies." He turned to Aizawa. "I believe that would be Shinsou Hitoshi."

"Shit," Aizawa swore, glancing worriedly at Mic before turning back to Nedzu. "I'll allow it, but only if All Might's lesson plans are checked and adhered to and any physical hero training classes are supervised by a second, properly licensed teacher."

"Acceptable," Nedzu said, turning his attention to All Might. "We'll also start working toward getting you properly licensed. You can be my personal student this year, Yagi."

Yagi winced. "You still want me to teach?"

"The HPSC set you up to fail," Aizawa said in his usual blunt way. "Whether that was their intention or not is anyone's guess, but the fact remains that it happened." He glanced around the room at all of the other teachers. "UA needs teachers with experience in hero work, and there is no denying that you have plenty of that."

"Correct," Nedzu said in agreement. "Studying for a teacher's license will give you the skills you need to pass your knowledge to the next generation without putting anyone in unnecessary danger."

"Thank you," Yagi said, his eyes glassy as he perhaps realized that he wasn't going to be crucified for making a mistake.