Mirai groaned rubbing his temples as he closed yet another file about Deku-Sensei which might as well be a copy of the other twenty-seven he had read in the last half hour.
Nezu had emailed him for some help in an unofficial investigation to gather more information on an individual simply referred to as 'Deku-Sensei'. Mirai admittedly did not address the situation with the seriousness it deserved when the mammal first sent his request, merely keeping the request on the back burner as he was busy with his own workload and the various more critical requests for consultation.
He wouldn't give it another thought until six months later when he was digging into All For One's old network again because despite his and Toshinori's argument he still kept his feelers out for anything regarding that vile man just in case. Something that paid off as he discovered a previously unknown alias, Sensei was an alias that All For One would apparently use for his younger followers and while it might be just a coincidence All For One was far too dangerous to be left to chance and Mirai took a look into what he could find of Deku-Sensei.
And every report left Mirai sorely disappointed in how little he could find on the mysterious "broker" if that was what they really were, the various reports from heroes and informants could hardly be considered more than hearsay between criminals. A trend that he was slowly growing to hate even more as each report just seemed to be the same, with the only changes being names and the number of people involved.
What little he could verify had lined up fully with what Nezu had first told him in the email, a person that could get their grubby little hands on almost every faction of the criminal underground and could move seamless between groups without any of the usual ripples an outsider would face, and even more damningly that this Deku-Sensei could possibly aid people with their quirks… perhaps enhance them.
As much as he wanted to believe that this Deku-Sensei had nothing to do with Toshinori's greatest foe the parallels were impossible to ignore.
Mirai was hesitant to immediately jump to that dreaded man still being alive, Toshinori had almost certainly killed All For One from multiple full powered blows to the head, even if the man had acquired many different regeneration and healing quirks head wounds were the one thing those quirks couldn't fix and Toshinori certainly hadn't pulled any punches.
Still, he couldn't out right dismiss All For One, and he had to be connected in some form to Deku-Sensei.
Mirai currently was leaning more towards a descendant of All For One rather than the man himself, as difficult as it was to imagine All For One was once as human as a psychopath could ever hope to be and he likely had some romantic/sexual flings in the past. Perhaps one of them had accidentally or otherwise resulted in a child that shared All For One's genes existing out there.
Knowing the depravity that All For One easily relished in Mirai it wouldn't be surprising if the man had purposely knocked up women with the intention of gaining a stronger version of his own quirk. A child prodigy would explain the slight difference in M.O Deku-Sensei had as well as their ability to float across the island regardless of who the territory 'belonged' to, said child would've likely inherited an entire military militia in addition to all the clout All For One had collected over the centuries.
His child of All For One theory had very weak ground though and he only suspected it because he had spent years picking apart All For One's minuscule trail beside Toshinori, one that shared quite a few traits with this new comer Deku-Sensei, so he was hesitant to share it with anyone, least of all Toshinori, especially after taking their falling-out into account.
Toshinori hadn't bothered to reach out to him since he officially dissolved all ties to Mirai, something that stung terribly because he thought their partnership was based on something more than just business after all these years of working together, his dozens of unanswered calls and messages left on read though provided otherwise.
Toshinori didn't completely ignore him and he hadn't gone as far as to block Mirai's number so he didn't believe the bridge had fully been burned and they would talk during the few cases they were both assigned to though it was far more cold and professional than when they worked together, and Mirai knew his ex-friend would immediately drop everything if Mirai mentioned anything about All For One.
Leaning back in his chair Mirai rested his head on his hand and looked towards his posters feeling a touch morose that his merch was the only way he could see the man anymore. The temptation to use this as an excuse to force Toshinori to speak with him again was very present but Mirai didn't want to stoop to such low tactics and perhaps worry the man over something he wasn't fully sure of.
Standing up Mirai collected the files and set them aside on a shelf planning to arrange for one of his employees to get them stored away in the underground file room. He checked the time and sighed when he saw that it was 16:53, far later than he wished and cursed himself knowing he had completely missed this year's sports festival. His past self at least had the foresight to request Juzo to record the event for him to watch later.
Leaving his office, he strolled down the hall to the bullpen and found Juzo speaking with Kaoruko about some files the two were holding and he cleared his throat "Y-yes Sir?" Kaoruko squeaked, apparently not noticing him beforehand, turning about face with one hand up in a salute accidently throwing the file in the air in her panic sending papers flying everywhere.
Mirai waited a beat before he turned calmly to Juzo "I've finished with those reports, have Susan collect them for the file room as soon as possible and forward the copy of the sports festival to my email if you'd please Juzo." He requested, getting a nod from his sidekick "Of course Sir." Juzo agreed swiftly, leaving the floor to find the woman leaving him and the tense Kaoruko alone.
"Kaoruko, clean this up then get back to work." Mirai instructed, gently pushing his glasses up his nose and Kaoruko sighed letting her shoulders sag from her relief "Yes Sir, right away Sir." She told him as she knelt to begin picking up the scattered papers while he left to go back to his office, he would've offered to help his new intern/sidekick if he didn't know his presence would upset her. Mirai found himself scowling as he thought of the woman's previous employers but quickly dismissed the thoughts.
He had already dealt with those responsible and Kaoruko was making leaps and bounds as she recovered from her time working under those scum. Back in his office he settled by his monitors and brought up his emails and searched for the file for the sports festival footage, finding it relatively quickly Mirai didn't hesitate to open the video and began to watch the playback.
The opening wasn't anything special and the student speech wasn't all that moving though he supposed listening to Toshinori's for so long had ruined his ability to appreciate them from anyone else, his interest was sufficiently peaked however when he got to the rescue of Hado by her classmates and their continued progression through the 'yellow brick road'.
As Present Mic had said team ups of the hero course in the first round were almost unheard of as the students were usually more focused on trying to stand out to get their name out there for more offers and their group was quite an odd band in general.
It was second round of the festival that had him hooked though as he spotted a very particular looking student amongst the two groups the rescue team had split, a young blonde boy with blue eyes by the name of Togata that looked almost achingly familiar to what he had always pictured a young Toshinori would've undoubtedly looked when he was that age.
Quite frankly if Mirai didn't personally know better on multiple accounts he would be calling up Toshinori right now to ask how the hell he hid the fact he had a kid from him.
Unfortunately, Mirai didn't get to see this Togata do much this round as his teammates ended up doing most of the work though he considered it might be because Togata didn't have a quirk that would be suited for the task which was a fair assumption given his own quirk would've been utterly useless in such an event.
But Mirai did get to see how caring young Togata was as the boy saved Hado from being disqualified by rushing forward when she was knocked down and even after the event when he carried his pink teammate (Mineta he believed) to be checked out.
Mirai couldn't help remembering the hundreds of times Toshinori swept off his feet using his incredible strength and forced him to be checked out by the agency's medical staff, mainly because it was the only time Toshinori would willingly step foot in the medical wing of the building, the hypocrite.
The memories though bittersweet still brought a smile to his face as he patiently waited to see how the one-on-ones would turn out though he found himself oddly disappointed when he didn't see Togata during the recreational activities, but Mirai easily brushed said feelings off as the fights began in earnest.
The first battle had kicked things off on the right foot with Miyake dealing with the support student quickly without much injury to himself or his opponent but that was hardly anything compared to his anticipation for Togata's match, and he waited perhaps a bit greedily to see just what the quirk of this mysterious Toshinori look-a-like was.
Upon watching Togata slip into the ground Mirai felt his mouth drop as he wasn't expected a quirk that allowed the boy to go through things, sure the boy lost his clothes when he did, and he lost the match as well but that was hardly the point because Mirai was still hung up on the sheer number of applications this quirk would have.
He could see it now, if the boy learned to focus his control and honed his body… then Togata would be the perfect successor for Toshinori.
The boy had already shown a tremendous amount of promise as a hero being able to get all the way to the third round of the festival without relying on his quirk, a skill most hero students unfortunately need to be taught (himself included) and yet this Togata already had that down.
Then of course there was the boy's disposition, he had the same kindness and zeal Toshinori seemed to be dripping in and watching the boy's happiness for his friends' surpassing him was anything to go by he hadn't also wasn't bothered with the rating system, it still baffled him how Toshinori always looked surprised when he was named the #1 hero every year.
But most importantly Togata had the most perfect quirk imaginable for the next successor, One For All was truly a powerful quirk being the only counter for All For One's quirk since it was the only one that could never be stolen, something that granted the current user a degree of invulnerability to the multi-century old tyrant but adding in Togata's transparency would make the next user completely untouchable.
And having a young fresh-bodied successor like Togata waiting in the wings now would be especially useful given what he believed about there being a child of All For One being out there, someone that could possibly be even more deranged then their father.
While Mirai had been searching for someone to fill Toshinori's shoes he hadn't expected to find the perfect successor, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, or however that old pre-quirk saying goes, and he found himself pondering how he should go about aiding the boy with his quirk.
Though despite his excitement of beginning the boy's training Mirai forced himself to calm down and watch the rest of the festival with plans of getting to work on extending an internship to Togata as soon as physically possible.
The rest of the fights were rather predictable even without using his quirk, Miyake had overtaken the support student that had won against Togata early on and just threw the girl out of the ring. Haya, the girl with arrows unfortunately did not win against Kenranzaki and her machines, something the girl seemed to take personally.
While Togata's former teammate Mineta found a way to beat his opponent with only one arm even with the ability to uncurl and use his hair as a weapon. Amajiki to some disappointment didn't have a repeat with his miracle comeback and lost against the Smith girl from Gen-Ed.
And that lead up to the semi-finals where Miyake completely tore through Kenranzaki's support gear with far more relish then the other two times he faced the support students, Mineta had won by a hair against Smith and oddly when it came time for the final match Mineta chose to forfeit though he supposed the pink boy had gotten tired of fighting with just one arm.
Content at having watched the whole thing Mirai closed the file and hurriedly brought up the U.A. webpage and combed through the sports festival page to find the hero access portal so that he could get to the internship request page and find Togata's page on the site.
Afterall, the sooner Mirai prepared Togata for Toshinori's quirk the quicker his vision for the future would become a mere possibility.
Apologies for brushing off the finals but the arc was dragging on but we have Sir nighteye in the mix now.
And to clarify how the one-on-ones went here is the bracket
1st round
MIYAKE VS YAMAGATA = MIYAKE
TOGATA VS SONE = SONE
SASAKI VS HAYA = HAYA
HADO VS KENRANZAKI = KENRANZAKI
KIDO VS MINETA = MINETA
ICHIHARA VS TAKAO = ICHIHARA
NAGATA VS SMITH = SMITH
AMAJIKI VS UENO = AMAJIKI
2nd round
MIYAKE VS SONE = MIYAKE
HAYA VS KENRANZAKI = KENRANZAKI
MINETA VS ICHIHARA = MINETA
SMITH VS AMAJIKI = SMITH
semi-finals
MIYAKE VS KENRANZAKI = MIYAKE
MINETA VS SMITH = MINETA
finals
MIYAKE VS MINETA = MIYAKE