Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
Toshinori's Choice
Chapter nine: The tournament rages on, conclusion
...And using momentum, swung Bakugo around, boosting his efforts with Full Cowling in the process, before kicking Bakugo in the back with a shoving kick that sent the explosive teen flying away, just enough so that he ended up stumbling off of the edge of the platform. The fight between Izuku and Bakugo in the final round of the fighting tournament for first years in the UA Sports Festival ended in Izuku's favor, and it barely lasted a few seconds.
The crack of Nemuri's whip resonated through the air as she called out, "Katsuki Bakugo is out of bounds! The winner is Izuku Midoriya!"
The audience went wild with cheers, although there were also shouts of displeasure with how short the match was. Even the Class 1-A girls who all wore cheerleading outfits so they could cheer on Izuku and Bakugo as they fought stopped short out of sheer surprise over how easily and quickly Izuku had won. Ochaco however was the first to recover from the surprise as she jumped up and down while cheering and waving the pom-poms she had. The rest of the girls followed suit, especially Mina as she was the (self-appointed) leader of the cheerleading squad.
A match to determine third place was held between Todoroki and Tokoyami, and it was Todoroki who won, thus putting him on the award platform. Todoroki used ice and fire against Tokoyami, but was using fire only to produce light which made Dark Shadow clink back a bit. Todoroki, although he knew he had to start using what all his quirk had to offer rather than spam only ice, was still not all that used to using fire thus he didn't wanna overstretch with it. Luckily for him, Todoroki was still able to use just enough fire to scare Tokoyami's sentient quirk with the light produced. An ice blast sent Tokoyami himself off the platform.
...
During the award ceremony, Izuku, Bakugo, and Todoroki stood on the platforms for first, second, and third place. Toshinori in his All Might form came out to award the boys the medals. "Your strength and skill are the real deal, Young Todoroki," All Might said in his famous baritone voice, "Just keep at it, and I am certain you'll become a fine pro hero your father will be proud of." Todoroki wordlessly allowed All Might to place the bronze third place metal around his neck. Toshinori could swear as he put the medal around Todoroki's neck that he could hear someone fuming in angered disappointment.
Toshinori also caught hints that something had struck a nerve with Todoroki, saw that glint in the eyes of the boy with two-toned hair, eyes that otherwise looked rather indifferent. Continuing on, Toshinori took the second place silver medal and put it around Bakugo's neck. Toshinori had half-expected Bakugo to be upset with not getting first place, but to the relief of the Symbol of Peace, Toshinori saw that Bakugo was calmly accepting his place. "You did excellently yourself, Young Bakugo," Toshinori said, "You ought to keep up with your training, for who knows how far you'll go?"
"I placed where I did because I had grown complacent," Bakugo spoke up suddenly, catching Toshinori's attention. "As much as I hate to admit it, I learned over the course of the matches I had fought in that there's multiple places where I need to improve," Bakugo went on, "I intend to tackle those issues, beat them as if they owe me money, and come out from the effort strong enough to never lose again." Toshinori was... honestly a little amazed that Bakugo was showing such maturity here, how he was showing that he not only knew he was lacking in certain areas, but what said areas were.
This was a far cry from the Bakugo of the alternate timeline that Toshinori recalled; there Bakugo was never really challenged to improve, at least until he faced All Might as an exam proctor during finals, as well as training under Gran Torino there to avoid using One For All without injuring himself or just using it to beef up the power of the Explosion quirk he already had. But Bakugo here, having been tempered over the years to smooth out his rough edges, saw that he was lacking, where said lacking was, and was intending to fix things.
Toshonori thought that the Bakugo here, even without One For All, would end up being a stronger hero overall than his counterpart in the alternate timeline who did have that most magnificent power. Speaking of having One For All, Toshinori then turned to face Izuku, and placed around his neck the gold medal for first place. "You have done phenomenally, Young Midoriya!" All Might said, "You ought to keep up with what you've been doing, as it's clearly working! But don't just limit your field of view there. You can learn a lot from your peers such as Young Bakugo, and they can learn a lot from you!"
Izuku nodded once in understanding. "Thank you, All Might." Toshinori could tell Izuku was actively putting in effort to keep from accidentally slipping and calling him dad, and figured that the boy's efforts there were another example of heroic strength. After having awarded the medals, Toshinori turned around and said a general speech to congratulate everyone for their hard work, and with that the UA Sports Festival came to a close for the first year students competing. The portion for all of the second year students was going to be next, but some clean up and organization was going to be needed first.
Toshinori, as the day went on, felt his heart filling up with pride in the students, feeling assured that the future was looking brighter and brighter. The Sports Festival here was a very big deviation from the alternate timeline, as it didn't occur there. But here in the current timeline, where the Sports Festival did occur and allowed the students of UA to show off their strengths and skills on the stage of heroic glory, Toshinori felt as if it will serve as a deterrent to keep the evil villainy lurking in the dark corners of society at bay.
And leading the heroic charge against the potential threat of Dabi's Crew would be Toshinori's own step-son Izuku.
"You all are getting the next two days off to rest and relax," Aizawa said to all twenty of his students in the Class 1-A homeroom after things wrapped up for the Sports Festival, "You all did well, some doing better than I had honestly expected. Sorry to those I had underestimated, and be assured that I'll be expecting more out of you as a result." The underground hero then told the students that he'll organize the nominations from pro heroes looking to take them on as interns, and hand the results back after the two day break.
As it turned out, it wasn't just Class 1-A getting the two day break; pretty much the whole school was getting it. As the classes were getting out, Izuku who looked to have a purpose in mind was heading out the door but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder from behind. Turning to see, Izuku saw that it was Tenya, and behind Tenya stood Shinso and a somewhat unsure looking Todoroki. "What is it, guys?" Izuku asked.
"Shinso and I talked things over with Todoroki," Tenya began to explain, a hint of grim seriousness in his tone, "And we got him to agree. Midoriya." Looking his friend right in the eye, Tenya went on, "...We need to report our suspicions about Endeavor to trusted teachers here."
Izuku suddenly remembered what Tenya was talking about; Izuku was planning to go after the girls in class (all six left as a group) as he planned to tell one of them something. But he remembered what all he and the boys here were talking about. "...You think Aizawa-sensei and the others will be willing to spare us time to listen to what we have to say?" Izuku asked.
"I'm pretty certain that Aizawa-sensei will be all ears if we tell him that we're suspecting that a classmate is suffering domestic abuse from a parent," Shinso said, "He's not the kind of man who will tolerate abuse to a student, especially to a student under his authority."
Turning to look at Todoroki, Izuku saw the hints of uncertainty in his eyes. "...Are you scared to do this, Todoroki?" Izuku asked.
Gently shaking his head, Todoroki said, "If I can do something that'll help to see to that bastard suffering, then I'm all in. No, what I'm worried about is that this will ultimately have no real effect. My dad has a lot of influence, not to mention clout."
"Well we have to do something," Shinso said, then he walked out of the classroom saying, "Come on, we can catch Aizawa-sensei at the teachers' staff room."
...
Izuku, Tenya, and Shinso leading a somewhat nervous Todoroki made their way to the teachers' staff room, where they knocked on the door first. They were surprised to see that the door was answered by Inui-sensei, but Tenya mentioned that they may need his help as well. Curious, the Hunting Dog Hero, with a voice in the back of his head telling him that there was cause to be worried, let the boys in when Shinso said they needed to report some suspicions to Aizawa.
Aizawa was seated at a table, taking a coffee break from organizing a few things. He expressed surprise when four of the boys in his class came to see him. Aizawa was suspecting they were interested in what internship offers they got, but Izuku, Tenya, and Shinso explained that they were solely there to report some concerns to Aizawa, as they had reason to suspect that Todoroki was suffering at home. The underground hero instantly sat his coffee down, stood up, and gave the boys in front of him his full, undivided attention.
Seeing Aizawa stand up like that caught the focus of other staff members in the room, such as Hizashi and Nemuri. Inui who was already standing joined the other staff members. With the attention of teachers on them, the boys proceeded to tell them what all Izuku, Tenya, and Shinso got from Todoroki concerning his history, with the two-toned boy himself chiming in every so often. They left no detail spared, and overall took a few minutes to share with the teachers what all they suspected Endeavor was up to in regards to Todoroki.
After the boys were done explaining things, the first thing Aizawa did was say, "You boys did good. All of you." Gently laying a reassuring hand on Todoroki's shoulder, Aizawa added, "Especially you, Todoroki. Don't think for a moment that you're in trouble, because your name is Shoto and not Enji."
"Yeah, we're going to have to deal with this," Inui declared, "Start an investigation. We'll also have to tell Nezu what's going on, and I'm fairly certain that we can get word of what we just learned to Yagi's boss over at Might Tower."
"You little listeners run along now, we got things from here," Hizashi assured the boys, "Because like hell are we gonna stand by and let some jackass get away with abusing a student of UA!"
Turning to look at Aizawa, Nemuri said, "Hey Shouta, didn't you say you have a contact you can call in a favor with? You think they can help?"
"Yes, although she'll be flirtatious with me to an extent that even what all you sent my way will look tame," Aizawa replied, "At least until I tell her what's going on. After that, I'm certain she'll be more than eager to join us in investigating our nation's number two hero."
Scoffing, Nemuri said, "No woman is as flirtatious as me."
"Emi has you beat," Aizawa said dryly, "As long as the guy being flirted with is me, at least. I still don't know what it is Emi sees in me." The teachers then let the boys go, but not before Nemuri hugged Todoroki out of sympathy for him. Hizashi warned Nemuri not to get too touchy as he knows how the Eighteen Only Hero works, but Nemuri assured Hizashi that she knows the difference between when to be flirty and when not to be flirty. With an underaged student, and one suspected of suffering from domestic abuse, Nemuri left all flirting outside and instead gave him as loving hug.
As Todoroki's mom would hopefully.
Part of the investigation against Endeavor saw Aizawa and Hizashi chaperone Todoroki on a visit to see his mother Rei in the hospital. A lovely looking woman who exuded nothing but the gentle warmth and love only a mother can exude, Rei actually got up out of her hospital bed, walked up to Todoroki, gently put her arms around him, and drew him into a gentle and loving hug as she softly sobbed into his shoulder, saying sorry to him over and over. Even with the bit in Todoroki's past abuse that Rei was guilty of, Eraserhead and Present Mic saw that Rei was still good, and said bad bit happened only because she had been driven until she snapped.
The two pro heroes proceeded to ask Rei a few questions, citing that they were helping police with conducting an investigation. To make things actually legit, they got Toshinori in on things and got him to bring his police detective friend Naomasa in to help run things. Speaking of, Toshinori when he was given the full story of what was going on with Todoroki became just a tiny little ittsy bitsy teenie weenie bit absolutely livid. Toshinori was no saint as a parent to Izuku in the alternate timeline, but compared to Endeavor, Toshinori there still earned a gold medal. It was a miracle from Kami above that Todoroki had no intention of going villain from the abuse.
Toshinori already had a lot on his plate, but another item was added to the menu just now. Just how many issues are there? And just how bad had Enji truly been? The Symbol of Peace was hoping that this was the full extent of Enji's vile actions, actions that made Toshinori feel Enji was not only unworthy of being a pro hero, but was at the same time also unworthy of being a parent. If it wasn't for needing to let things be done perfectly legally, the Symbol of Peace would have sorely been tempted to go find the Flame Hero and give him a United States Of Smash right to the face. All that Toshinori could do was hope for the best here when things were said and done.
It would have been terrible indeed if Enji's actions had driven his own son to villainy.
...
"Well alright, Stain," Dabi said as he and a few members of his crew met with the infamous Stain the Hero Killer in their bar hangout, "Glad to see that you accepted our invitation."
"What is it that you wished to talk about?" Stain asked.
Gesturing to the Hero Killer, Dabi said, "We were hoping that you'd be interested in partying up with us, or at the very least offer us some words of wisdom so that we can improve ourselves."
Behind the ninja mask he wore over his eyes, Stain arched a wry eyebrow. "...I'm more of a solo worker. However, you seeking what advice I have to offer does pique my interest. Tell me, what is it you wish to know?"
Dabi nodded once in a respectful manner to Stain before he began. "When you get right down to is, the goal that you have is the same as the goal my group and I have, that being to take down the overabundance of pro heroes that plague society. However, my group and I aren't entirely sure how to go about doing it. We were hoping that you could point out a few things, send us off in the right direction."
The Hero Killer gave a hum of consideration. "So it's a lack of knowing how to go about doing things, rather than a lack of conviction. Very well." Gesturing to Dabi and his fellows, Stain said, "This society has, as you put it, an overabundance of pro heroes, because this society is addicted to them. And like many addictions, this addiction had led to the development of a cancerous tumor. The best way to serve society, to save it from dying from its cancer, is to cut the tumor out, swiftly and without even a hint of mercy."
"So we just kill all of the heroes," Rappa remarked from where he stood behind Dabi.
Gently shaking his head, Stain went on, "Not ALL of them. There are still some pockets of true goodness, there are still a very select few who are truly worthy of bearing the title of hero. Those very select few need to be kept around, as they will be needed as the beacons for others to follow as society begins its painful, but necessary, path to recovering from its addiction."
Dabi narrowed his eyes. "...There are still some good heroes out there."
"...Well, there is one hero truly worthy to work the job," Stain replied.
"Please tell me you aren't talking about Endeavor," Dabi said.
That actually got an amused bark of laughter out of the Hero Killer. "You'd be an effective comedian if nothing else," Stain said, "But no, Endeavor is bar none the total and complete opposite of the man who I actually have in mind, that being All Might."
"So spare All Might but kill the rest," Spinner reasoned.
Stain nodded in agreement. "I cannot deny that even All Might on his own won't be enough. He is, after all, only one person. Efforts to educate future heroes to make sure they stay true to what it means to be a hero will also be necessary. The process that the hero academies of Japan has the right idea, but it needs to be refined and finely tuned, instead of farting out heroes at full force."
"Heh heh," Toga giggled from where she sat in a booth with Nagant, "Stain said fart."
Gesturing to Stain, Dabi said, "It... may be a while before we can keep the next generation of heroes from turning out like Endeavor. But the culling of fake heroes now is something that's more feasible for us to do in the immediate future."
"Indeed," Stain remarked, "And the grim duty there is seemingly never-ending, what with how often new fakes are produced and pushed out onto the streets so that society can get its fix and continue keeping up its addiction."
Nagant smirked from where she sat. "It's funny how you compared the production of pro heroes to drugs being made and sold on the streets."
Turning around, Stain said, "I'm ready to be sent back to Hosu. There's plenty of work to do over there."
"I don't mean to step on your toes," Dabi said, "But I would like to offer you something, if only as an act of good faith."
Stain turned his head to look at Dabi. "...Go on."
Gesturing to Stain, Dabi said, "What say you to the lads and I making something of a big show in Hosu? It'll draw in a good number of pro heroes, low level ones mostly who are looking to up their reputations. While our show distracts those heroes, you can pick them off at your leisure."
Dabi's offer actually got a hum of consideration out of the Hero Killer. "...A pincer attack is what you're suggesting. Alright, we'll see how it plays out." Kurogiri then used his quirk to warp Stain back to the area of Hosu. A few moments later, Kurogiri warped back into the bar.
Turning his head to a computer that was set up nearby, Dabi said, "Hey boss man, how many Nomus can be sent out into the field at the moment?"
"The good doctor tells me that three fine specimens can be made ready in time for your party, my dear Dabi," a male voice replied from the computer, sounding sinister and yet at the same time amused.
Dabi chuckled a bit in amusement. "Well alright, we're gonna have a party."
A few days later when classes resumed at UA, Aizawa had a private meeting with Izuku, Tenya, Shinso, and Todoroki. The underground hero let out a resigned sigh. "I got good news and bad news," Aizawa began, "The good news is not only was more than sufficient evidence of Endeavor's wrong-doings against his family gathered, but it's irrefutable. This is further backed by both Nezu's own methods he used to help with the investigation, as well as what All Might's detective friend was able to get. You boys, by reporting what Todoroki had been apparently going through, not only uncovered a horrifying truth that needed to be addressed but also took actions to help out a classmate in need. I'm very proud of all of you."
Izuku had a hint of uncertainty in his eyes. "...But I'm guessing the bad news you have is coming into play here."
The underground hero nodded in the affirmative. "The bad news is that we literally are not allowed to continue things against Endeavor. What's more is that if any of what evidence the investigation uncovered is made public knowledge, the hammer will be brought down hard. We have to drop everything and allow Endeavor to continue on his merry way."
"We're being forced to allow Endeavor to get off scot free?" Tenya said, "Sir, this is a major-"
"-I know it's a major violation of pretty much everything you can think of," Aizawa said, sounding just as pissed as his students and pissed for the same reason, "But we're being required to let Endeavor off the hook. Even All Might has been told to drop things against Endeavor."
That bit got the attention of the boys; even All Might, the hero who outranks Endeavor, was made to drop issues against the Flame Hero. That made it pretty clear who it was that was ordering that Endeavor be allowed to get away with domestic abuse. What would it take for Endeavor to get what he had coming for all of his wrongdoing against Todoroki, huh? Did Endeavor have to kill the family of someone not even the bosses of all Japanese pro heroes can defy? It was an injustice of the greatest sort that Endeavor was basically allowed to commit domestic abuse.
But it was an issue that can be addressed later. For the time being, the boys followed Aizawa to the Class 1-A homeroom. When they got there, the boys who came in with Aizawa sat in their seats as Aizawa himself took to the front of the room. "We'll be focusing on coming up with hero aliases," Aizawa said to the students, "These will be the names that people will identify you as when you're out in the field doing hero work. You can pick a new hero alias later, but for now you ought to come up with a name to use. Whether or not any of you got any nominations for internship offers, you will be doing workplace experience studies."
As the Class 1-A students got excited, Nemuri came in, followed by Hizashi who said he was wanting to see what the little listeners came up with. The students working under Eraserhead were permitted fifteen minutes to brainstorm ideas for what their hero names could be. Then, one at a time, they went up to the front of the class to show what they had come up. Surprisingly, Bakugo was the first to go, getting to the front of the class and turning around the card he was given to write his idea for a hero alias on. The teachers half expected Bakugo to come up with something inappropriate, such as a silly name like 'King Explosion Murder'.
However, Bakugo instead had written on his card 'Explosive Hero: Dynamight'. "This one girl from Class 1-B who saw me kick ass during the Sports Festival came up to me and suggested this for my hero alias when I got to pick it," Bakugo said, "It's a mix of dynamite which is an explosive, and the word might, as I intend to be mighty as a pro hero. I actually thought that girl's suggestion was pretty clever, to I figured I'd at least take it for a test drive."
"One of Sekijiro's girls suggested it?" Nemuri said, "Well it's very creative and I would certainly agree on giving it a pass." Bakugo was then prompted to return to his desk, his idea for his hero alias given a pass. Next was Tenya, who seemed a bit embarrassed, as he got up to the front of the class to present his hero alias to all of his classmates. Surprisingly, Tenya's idea for his hero alias was 'Whirlwind Sprint Hero: Brogenium'.
Sighing a bit in embarrassment, Tenya said, "Yeah, I couldn't come up with anything myself, so I decided to use something my older brother came up with for me if and when I got to pick my hero alias. I'll work on something else in the meantime, but for now this is a placeholder name."
"Your older brother is Ingenium," Hizashi said, "And you guys are brothers, so Brogenium is rather clever."
"And the 'Whirlwind Sprint' bit tells me that your older brother plays more video games than I would have expected out of him," Aizawa added, "Although it is a clever reference to your quirk, I will admit."
After most of the other students went, Izuku got to go. Surprisingly, he picked something simple; 'Pro Hero: Deku'. "Yeah, it reflects how it's always been my dream to become a pro hero," Izuku said, "And the 'Deku' part is an old nickname that I used to not like at all, but someone who heard it gave it a new spin so I'm using it." The class applauded Izuku, and a certain well-fed girl blushed a bit in embarrassment. After that the last two students went, those being Tsuyu and Shinso.
Shinso went first, and his card simply said 'Siren'. "Yeah, I don't really have a need for a fancy title before my hero alias," Shinso said, "I think just the hero alias itself will be fine."
"That's perfectly fine," Nemuri said, "And if you ever change your mind, you still have the option."
After Shinso went, Tsuyu was the last to go. She showed the class what her card said; 'Rainy Season Hero: Froppy'. "I had this in mind for quite some time," Tsuyu said, "At least since middle school kero. I wanted something that sounded cute and child friendly." Tsuyu looked down. "...I'm wanting to be child friendly because two of the people I most want to be proud of me are my still missing little siblings."
The girls all sympathized with Tsuyu, and Nemuri looked touched by how Tsuyu wanted to be a hero to the children, with two specific children in mind. "We actually do need more heroes in Japan that the children can look up to," Nemuri said, "I think your idea here is wonderful, Asui." Tsuyu received applause from the class as a whole, and as her alias got a pass, she was allowed to return to her desk.
After everyone was able to get a pass with their hero aliases, Aizawa proceeded to post the results of who all got how many nominations. "Things are usually more balanced than this," Aizawa said, "But as you can see, Midoriya, Bakugo, and Todoroki got the lion's share of nominations." It was true that, while everyone else got at most a few hundred, Izuku, Bakugo, and Todoroki got a few thousand each. Surprisingly, Todoroki got the most nominations overall despite coming in third at the Sports Festival. No doubt due to his heroic pedigree.
Izuku who had placed first got the second highest number of nominations, and Bakugo got the third highest amount despite coming in second. Aizawa then handed each student their respective lists of heroes interested in having them as interns. Izuku, when he saw he got Gran Torino offering him an internship, he immediately decided that he'd list Gran Torino as his number one choice. There's still so much about One For All that Izuku needed to learn, especially given what happened during the match Izuku had in the Sports Festival against Shinso.
It was something that Izuku was certain that Gran Torino was going to wanna hear about. Izuku also figured that he'll wanna let his dad Toshinori know about it as well, especially given that Toshinori had held One For All before passing it down to Izuku. Though it wasn't by blood, Toshinori and Izuku were still father and son. And now, they had a bond between them even more powerful than blood, the bond that One For All gave them.
The bond of heroism.
Izuku, when it was time for the students to take off for their internships, already knew where to go. The word was sent to Gran Torino ahead of time that Izuku chose to go with him for the internships; Gran Torino wasn't surprised, figuring that Izuku would pick him due to how he had worked with multiple One For All users in the past. But the green-haired boy also heard that some of his other classmates had gotten choice offers for their internships.
Bakugo, surprisingly enough, was offered an internship by Mirko which he accepted. According to Bakugo, he felt the two places he needed to work on were being able to do better in prolonged one-v-ones against tanky opponents, and being less predictable. Bakugo cited the former as something that Kirishima and Ochaco had made him realize, and the latter as the reason he lost to Izuku in the Sports Festival's tournament's final round. The explosive teen wants to tackle those issues, and he feels that the Rabbit Hero, out of all the heroes interested in him, was his best bet to get there.
Ochaco got an internship with the pro hero Gunhead, Tenya got an internship under his older brother pro hero Tensei, Tsuyu got an internship with Selkie, and Shinso apparently was going to be learning tricks of the trade from Aizawa-sensei, who implied he was going to try and find something condemning Endeavor so much, that even those who want to grant the Flame Hero a get out of consequences free pass will have no choice but to do the right thing and give to Endeavor what the sorry fiery sack of shit has coming.
As for Todoroki, he got an internship offer under Manual, a pro hero operating in the area of Hosu right now. According to what he got from Todoroki, Manual said that there was a high level villain in the area of Hosu, and as many heroes are headed that way as possible to try and crack down on said villain. The idea will be that the pro heroes will deal with the villain while interns like Todoroki stay back and assist by getting others in the area to safety. Izuku breathed a sigh of relief, and hoped like hell that nothing bad will come of the chaos going on in Hosu right now.
But what are the odds that something bad will happen in Hosu?
END, CHAPTER NINE
Author's notes;
This chapter covers the rest of the tournament in the Sports Festival, at least for the first years. Izuku wins pretty much a few seconds after his match against Bakugo starts, because Bakugo's right hook had become predictable to Izuku. Then things file out from there, including the UA teachers learning what all Todoroki had endured under daddy dearest. Although enough is found to bring Endeavor down and for good, the powers that be which run things pretty much tell those against Endeavor to knock it off. This will be coming up in a future chapter, don't you worry. Anyway, the internships start up and Izuku goes with Gran Torino. Todoroki goes with Manual who is in Hosu right now, and surly nothing bad will be coming out of Hosu, right?