The next morning, the press were all scrambling, searching desperately for the mysterious boy who took down the myth that was All For One, the Boogeyman, the Quirk Theif. Izuku was glad to not be living at his original apartment, because when they found the name and last known address, they swamped it. Unfortunately for them, it was explained that while yes, he did live there at one time, but he no longer did. And so, they were disappointed, left only to comment on the night's previous events. Meanwhile, he spoke directly with the chief of Police, a man with a dog head. "So, you had no alternative but to kill him, woof?" Izuku calmly explained, surprising himself by how detached from the villain he was. He sympathized with the man, but he was still a monstrous devil of a man who would manipulate when possible. He was the Andrew Fisher of a previous generation, who, unfortunately, refused to die. Even by natural causes. "Each amrita orb taken by the suit also takes a quirk. He had many, many of them. I must've taken his longevity quirk, and then he died after. He just said to me that Shigaraki went into the wind with Kurogiri, so there's nothing to really search for. Without connections, they will probably vanish in due time." The dog headed man nodded, before thanking him for his time. Izuku sighed in relief, glad to hear that Tokoyami and Ibara were safe. Apparently, the villains had witnessed their raw power, and sought to control them. But... Tokoyami was a good bird, while Ibara was steadfast due to her... well, the cult she worshipped. Izuku didn't have any faults with it, considering the first thing he did afterwards was read the whole Bible just to see what it was like... and for the most part, the section she believed in was not the vengeance and blood god, but the kind and noble one. If that was what she wanted to believe, he wouldn't stop her. She cared about that too much for him to do that to her. In the end, he did love her, and her strict devotion. To that, and to him. She hadn't wavered. And she only had eyes for him, even when that Dabi guy made a move. If Izuku were to guess, based on Ibara's testimony, the ravenette arsonist had a burning hatred for Endeavour, and wanted to make his son's school look bad in revenge. Turning his thoughts back to her, Izuku smiled as he walked home. I'll have to live up to her expectations, Izuku thought, opening the door, and into a pair of worried arms. Inko and Cathleen wouldn't lose him, not now... and not likely ever. Not if he could help it. Izuku was excited when he heard back from his publisher the next afternoon. Apparently him stopping a villain was great for publicity and gave him a fast pass for publication. He would be now releasing his findings in three days. One to print out the Japanese copies, another for delivery, and the final one to present and release. There was one snag, however... he'd need to advertise it. His face would be the best endorsement it could have. It's good that Izuku's artistry skills captured the majesty of the place, used in illustrations throughout and the cover... but his name was far more popular than that. So, he'd need to speak on TV. Cathleen was supportive, giving him advice, but this was something the greenette was currently unprepared for. And so, here he was, waiting outside an interview studio for a recorded talk show, nervous beyond belief. He wasn't allowed to wear the LEAF suit inside, so it was just him. However, when he was called forward, the hostess welcomed her guest. "And now, the boy of the hour, Izuku Midoriya!" Izuku entered the set, waving to the live audience and the camera, before sitting down. He wore the leather jacket and pants he would have with the rest of the suit. The interviewer beamed, "It's good to have you here!" "T-Thanks... I'm not used to public speaking, so you'll have to excuse me if I stutter at times." The hostess smiled warmly, "No worries! So, you actually defeated that villain three days ago, one that Allmight had trouble with." Of course... that first. "Ah, that. Yes I did. To be honest, it was just a bad matchup for him. His quirk is the ability to take quirks, but I don't have a quirk to take, so..." "You're quirkless?" Izuku was resolute with that declaration. "I am." "Most of us have no idea what it's like not having a quirk. Can you tell us more?" He looked into her eyes for any hint of hidden malice. This person didn't. That was why Cathleen had suggested her show to begin with. Nervous, he looked around the audience, trying to gauge their opinion, but it was too dark to tell. "Well... to be honest, it's not really a great story..." "You don't have to tell us if you don't want to..." "No, it's important that I do." He sighed. "In the past, when I first got my diagnosis... people treated me as fragile. But... then things got worse. I was bullied horribly. People would use their quirks against me and the teachers at that school would do nothing to help, even when I begged. People just treat you so much worse... it's almost as bad as the dawn of quirks... and I... I was even told to kill myself... as horrible as that was." His eyes turned resolute as he continued, "However, even with that, I did want to help people. But... even with that determination... I can never forget what was said to me: Take a swan dive off the roof, and pray for a quirk in your next life." The woman was shocked. "That's... that's... absolutely horrible! And there was nothing done to them?" He shook his head, "No. There wasn't. Quirkless in this day and age are treated like the first quirked individuals: Outcast and beaten for something they have no control over. Eventually, I stopped wanting to be a hero, so I looked for something new, a drive to do something. And I found it. Ironically, from a movie." That surprised her. "Oh, which one?" "Have you heard of Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark?" Recognition flashed across her face. "I watched that one when I was little. It was considered a classic." "Well, I turned to archeology. Most of it is not nearly as glamorous as in the movie." She laughed at that, then turned her attention to his choice of wear. "I notice you're wearing part of your outfit from the battle!" He smiled, knowledge spilling from his mouth, as he gushed over it. After all, it had saved his life multiple times, and he wouldn't forget that. "Right, this is the uniform of an important Pathfinder. My book, which hits bookstore shelves today, goes into further detail, but basically, in the prequirk era, a secret project created the LEAF suit, which I used in that fight. This was the uniform of Edwin hall, a commanding officer of the Pathfinder division, which used them in combat." She was appreciative of that fact, that the world's strongest villain was defeated by something so ancient. "Amazing! So that is prequirk technology?" "The cutting edge of the 1940s." "How did you find it?" Izuku explained as best he could without spoiling too much. "Well, I had been tracking something completely different. An artifact in the US Rocky mountains. I stumbled upon a hidden valley, full of ancient ruins, from both pre-american culture and World War 2 era. This was one of them." "What can it do?" He listed off the attributes he used in the battle, "It can jump twice in the air, run at 60 km per hour, and grapple from one place to another. It can also run along magnetic walls and run on water for 10 seconds." "What about that attack you did?" The greenette explained the situation gravely, "What that was, was the power source. Somehow, the scientists there had found a way to harness natural life energy to power the suit. They dubbed the energy Amrita, and it's found in all living things. Humans normally have one unit of Amrita in them, but those with multiple quirks have more. So, I had to strip the energy, and the quirks, from the villain in order to win. He didn't surrender." "I see! That's fascinating. So, what are your plans after this?" "Well, I had been teaching History at UA for the past semester. Specifically for the heroics courses. I planned to head back to the US to investigate the area more. There are ruins that are far older than anything we've seen before, and need to have their story shown. I've only really had a cursory glance, and want to study everything that valley has to offer." Surprised, she called out, "A teacher at UA?! At your age? Aren't you 14?" The archeologist laughed slightly, "Hehe, I am... but Nezu approached me personally, and it was a great honor to be recognized as such." "I bet! What's it like teaching at UA?" "It was... alright. I did have to overcome major quirk bias in the classes, but that's due to them not ever having met a quirkless person before. There were also the USJ and Summer camp attacks, which I was in the thick of as well." She nodded, before getting a mischevious grin on her face, "Interesting... were you... able to have a relationship while there?" Izuku's face went beet red. "Uh... st-strictly speaking, I wasn't allowed to have one while there, so that I could have an unbiased view on all students." "Is that so...? You didn't break that?" "No. Nezu would have a field day if I did." Both true and untrue, but what the Rat doesn't know isn't his buisness. "Are you still working there?" Izuku sighed, feigning dissapointment. Part of it was true, but he wouldn't miss Bakugo in the slightest. Everyone else was great fun to work with, once the... annoyances had been hammered out. "No. The release of my book means the end of my time at UA for the foreseeable future. Things may still change, but it's highly unlikely in my line of work." "If that clause wasn't there... would anyone jump out at you?" "Um..." She laughed again, "You don't have to answer, I just was curious, now there were reports of a creature rampaging three nights ago, the same night you took down that villain." "Ah, right. That was a Wendigo. The villain had brought one over to try to weaponize it, but I don't think they realized they didn't feed on meat, but on Amrita, turning it into eggs. From what I've seen, they reproduce asexually, but I'd need a biologist to confirm it." "So they're dangerous to people?" Izuku was emphatic as he explained the risks of dealing with one. "Absolutely. Without a pathfinder suit to purify them, that's the term I use for it, they cannot be harmed otherwise. For the most part, they stay in the Amrita rich valley where the Ruins are." "I see. I heard you were stuck in the Rocky Mountains for a few days... what's the story?" As he figured most people would have tuned out after the quirkless section of the interview, he was less reluctant to spoilers, "Again, I cover everything in the book, but I'll give a basic rundown. After I did all of the research to make me a qualified historian, I decided to chase down the myth of the Lifeseed. Like the Ark of the Covenant, or the Holy Grail, this was basically one of those legendary items. I honestly wasn't sure if it would pan out, but I booked a flight, acquired the gear, and went on my way to Denver. I then rented a kayak and tried to navigate around... only to then crash into an ancient cave by accident. Getting out, I explored the nearby area and found the suit amongst a crashed military vehicle convoy. It has a builtin speaker and tape player for orders on the go, and the convoy had tapes from two important individuals. Dr. Andrew Fisher, lead physicist and designer of the suit, and Dr. Virginia King, lead historian and anthropologist for the ruin exploration. As I pushed further, seeing all the different places, I eventually found it. The Lifeseed was real. I took it, but unwittingly disturbed the balance that was being kept there. Fisher had created a weapons factory, called Astra. It took life energy, of which the valley had abundance, and transferred it to Soma, which housed the Lifeseed. It amplified the energy, then sent it back to Astra for production. Now that the energy wasn't being amplified, it was drawing energy from EVERYWHERE. As I ran to try to shut it down, everything was dying, its life being siphoned away. If I didn't stop it, it likely would've impacted the world, perhaps even killing everything. The only way I could stop it was to destroy Astra. And I did. It's now completely inoperable, flooded through the emergency measures, and useless to go back to. If there are any doubts in my story, Stars & Stripes, the hero that saved me after I destroyed Astra, had her friend, a detective who could record memories, do so. I am working with a film company to properly edit and compile them into a documentary. But, for now, my book has the entire journey, plus everything I know about Susurrus Valley, what Virginia King named it. My book is called: As the Pendulum Swings, the History of Area 634. The first copies will be in Japanese, because I am, but I will be releasing it in all languages in most countries. I want to help us reclaim the history of the world." She, and the audience, clapped to that. It was a thrilling tale, and all true. "That is a noble goal! Unfortunately, we don't have any more time, but it was great to have you on. Everyone, this was Izuku Midoriya, the Hero of Kamino and the discoverer of Susurrus Valley!" The live audience applauded as the crew went to break. The interviewer asked, after leading him backstage. "Wasn't so bad, was it?" Izuku shook his head, before looking her in the eyes. "Uh... no... it was surprisingly easy..." "Yeah, heroes do this all the time. I..." She rummaged through her desk. "I got a copy today. Can I get an autograph?" He was both surprised and not, but leant more into the surprised aspect. "Sure? I still can't believe that people would." She, bubbly and chipper as she was, laughed yet again: "You've saved everyone here. I think you'd be surprised how many people support you." He quickly signed it, and gave it back. "Thanks." She looked over it, before closing its pages. "No problem."
