Izuku POV, two months later

"Armaros!"

Hitoshi ducks to the ground just in time. The man soars overhead and lands with a roll. Hitoshi pulls his rifle up and empties a few rounds into the villain. The man dies on the spot, his limp body flopping onto the concrete with a wet smack.

"Thanks, Azazel!"

I give my colleague a nod. The raid was going well-

My phone starts ringing.

There's only one person who has my contact number. I activate Sound Bubble and bring my phone to my ear.

"Hello, Akatani Mikumo speaking."

I hear the smooth voice of my friend.

"Hello Akatani, it's Momo speaking."

Ah, she must have just finished her exams! UA normally has their exams last a full five hours, I'm surprised she is calling so soon. She must have completed them early.

"So Momo, how did the exams go?"

She lets out a soft hum.

"I believe I did well in the theory section. There were only a few questions I had any difficulty with. As for the practical exam, I ended up in second place. We had to do an obstacle course and race to the finish line as fast as possible. With any luck, I should be selected for admission."

A thug charges at me and I kick his kneecap inward. While no audio can penetrate through Sound Bubble, I imagine he is screaming right now. I should probably put him out of his misery.

I activate a low-level strength quirk and stomp on his skull. A splatter of spongy tissue and cranial fluids explodes out onto the concrete. Unfortunately, an annoying amount of viscera ends up on my shoes.

Thankfully, I collected Liquid Repel several months ago. The quirk was becoming more and more useful by the day. I activate the quirk and marvel as the chunky tissue slips away from my clothes.

"Akatani, are you there?"

Damnit, I'm getting distracted.

"Ah yes, I have zero doubt that you will be accepted! UA would be extraordinarily foolish to reject someone of your talent and tenacity. At the very least, your last name would get you in on pedigree alone."

She sighs.

"I just want to be judged based on my own merits. I do not wish to be granted admission merely because of my family name. I would loathe to take the place of a superior student simply because of institutional bias."

Her heart is inspiring. If every Hero had the mind and soul of Momo, villains would be extinct within a week. I learned very quickly that no one gets between Momo and her goal. Her tenacity is almost terrifying at times.

"Well said. Hero schools are unfortunately prone to bias and discrimination, mainly due to lobbying from the Hero Commission. The Commission wishes to field as many flashy Heroes as possible. Anyone who is unattractive or lacks an extravagant quirk is unlikely to ever be accepted, no matter how competent they are."

Momo is currently under the impression that I have a psychokinesis quirk. She is also under the mostly correct impression that Eva has a physical enhancement quirk. She of course had no idea how potent either of our quirks are, but she is well aware that we are not weak.

She was initially rather surprised that we had such strong opinions when it came to quirk discrimination. Most people with strong quirks could not care less about those who were weaker. She seemed to like us a lot more after that.

Momo lets out a long groan.

"It's unfair. It shouldn't be this way. Why does no one change the system?"

Ah, a question as old as time.

"Because the current system benefits those with power. Historically speaking, dictatorships have always needed to have an outside enemy to focus the population against. Without an enemy, the people have nothing to be distracted by and inevitably rebel. Heroes only exist because villains exist. Without villains, the Heroes would simply be poorly dressed police officers. People would lose all interest in Heroics and the profession would die out over night."

I can her tapping her pen against her desk.

"But what does that have to do with bias and discrimination?"

Okay, time to deliver a speech. I just have to remember not to lay it on too thick. Momo is a Hero, not a villain. Delivering a rant on how I wish to achieve world domination would probably not be very smart.

"Because discrimination allows those in power to create an enemy. The Commission discriminates against mutant quirks as a method to create low-level villains. Note that powerful quirks are almost always seen as 'Heroic', even if they are objectively rather terrifying. I imagine that a fire quirk like Endeavour's has far more potential for harm than any simple mutant quirk. The Commission wishes to stack the best cards on their side while giving the weaker cards to the other."

"So… they want societal unrest? Just so they can create an enemy? Surely there are already enough villains to deal with, what do they get out of creating more?"

"A key part of it is securing government funding. The Commission receives its budget based on its needs. They have a vested interest in keeping around the most amount of villains as possible, as this causes them to soak up more and more tax dollars. The Hero Commission takes up more tax money than healthcare and education combined."

She seems surprised at that little factoid. Most people are. Government spending is usually kept rather secret these days. Letting the population know just how much money goes into useless Hero parades would make people very upset.

"... Wow. That's… unsettling."

She sounds a little despondent. I should probably try to get her hopes up. I don't want to actually crush her hopes and dreams or anything.

"For what it's worth, I doubt that everyone within the Commission is involved in their more nefarious schemes. Many of them will simply be office workers who are just doing their jobs. Most of the shady actions are done by the few hundred people who are in important positions. It's really just the people at the top who are the problem."

"And there's nothing that can be done about them, is there?"

"No. The system is designed so that they cannot be replaced. They are not elected, they work however long they wish to. If they decide to retire, they decide who takes their position."

There's a long silence after that. I should bring the conversation back to how it started.

"In other news, how did you go with designing your Hero uniform?"

A thug dashes forward and I reduce him to ash. I zone back in just in time to catch Momo's reply.

"I decided to take Lilly's advice. I went with a sports bra and athletic shorts, combined with some elbow and knee pads. It shows off enough skin for my quirk to work but isn't overly revealing. It's both comfortable and practical. Far better than my original designs."

I wince at the memories of her original sketches. Her initial designs were rather… revealing.

"I'm sure it'll look great. Anything that you've personally designed will come out amazing."

"Mhhhhm. In other news, what are you up to right now?"

Killing a lot of people. I probably shouldn't tell her that.

"Ah, boring business stuff. One of our partners is causing trouble. They wish to have a larger slice of the pie. Obviously, we have little intention of entertaining their delusions."

The two of us had an easy agreement to avoid discussing work too much. Talking to each other was an escape from our day-to-day lives. We never went into more detail than was strictly necessary, and it made both of us happy. It also made keeping my cover story much easier.

I've managed to keep the other three members of The Elite from meeting her so far, but I will eventually have to work them into my cover story. I could probably just claim that Kurogiri is my weird butler. It's not an unfair description. He has a crazy quirk and has no memories prior to working for Father. He is very much an enigma.

Momo distracts me from my thoughts.

"In other news, I saw a fantastic movie last night. It was called-"

A woman gets too close and I erase the front of her torso. Her organs spill out onto the floor in a grotesque heap.

"-so I think you would very much enjoy it."

Ah crap, I missed what she was saying.

"Ah, that sounds excellent. Are there any other movies that you would recommend?"

Momo begins telling me about all of her favourite movies. I listen along and give my own thoughts. At the same time, I continue battling my way through the rest of the drug lab. Talking to Momo made the normally boring task far more enjoyable.

Momo is a great friend.


Mirio POV, one day later

Receiving One for All wasn't as exciting as I expected. When Toshinori suddenly thrust out a strand of his hair I almost burst out laughing. Then, I realised that I actually had to eat it.

Thankfully, Tamaki had some excellent advice on how to ingest disgusting things. Swallowing the hair was still a horrible experience (especially with all of the dirty jokes Nejire made) but I was ultimately able to get it down.

Toshinori's immediate advice was to "Throw a punch and see what happens!". Nejire promptly banned him from ever giving me advice ever again. I've never heard her swear so much in her life.

As a result, the four of us are now assembled at one of UA's training cities. There wasn't really anywhere else that I could test out my new quirk. For all we know, I could already be at All might level power. That sort of strength in an inexperienced fighter could get very dangerous very quickly.

Nejire places her hands on her hips and does that weird face she does whenever she's trying to act serious.

"Okay, Mirio. Do you feel any different?"

I close my eyes and try to envision what One for All would feel like. I feel the exact same as before.

"Not… really? I don't know what having a second quirk would feel like. Any ideas on this, Tamaki?"

My quiet friend immediately nods.

"T-think of it not as a second quirk, but as another extension of your body. Imagine that you just g-gained a new limb, or an extra finger on your hand."

I try to do as he says. I focus on my body and try to picture myself as having gained a third arm. After some soul searching I feel something click into place.

"I think I've got it! Now what?"

Nejire takes over.

"Okay, now try to imagine a central 'core' within your body. That core is where your quirk is. Now, try to grab your core, and then pull One for All's energy out from it. If anything starts to happen then you need to immediately let go and deactivate the quirk."

I grab onto One for All and pull. Absolutely nothing happens. I try my best, but I'm not able to get the quirk to budge. Nothing I attempt makes the quirk budge.

"I'm trying, but nothing is happening when I try to pull on it. It's not reacting in any way. It feels like I'm trying to grab onto a brick wall or something."

Tamaki grows a few tentacles from his arms and waves them around for demonstration.

"It may be a little d-different from what you are used to. It's not the same kind of quirk as Permeation, so it'll feel unintuitive to activate. Nejire, do you have any ideas on h-how he can actually activate it?"

She hums for several seconds before suddenly gasping.

"As a matter of fact, I do! With my own quirk, I need to pull energy out from my source, and then let it 'spiral' outward In order to let it build up power. I think One for All is a bit more simple in terms of mechanics."

She turns to face me.

"Instead of trying to pull out the energy, try to simply let it flow out on its own accord. Try to envision a floodgate holding back water. Now, try to slowly open it in the smallest increments you possibly can. Whatever you do, do not let it take control. A thermal runaway situation would be… bad."

I take a deep breath and close my eyes once more. I try to imagine letting loose the barriers that contain One for All. I clear my mind and slowly widen the pipe that connects the quirk to my body.

I open my eyes. Blue sparks of electricity arc from my skin. I immediately clamp down on the quirk. Nejire whoops in excitement.

"Good job Mirio, you now have two quirks!"

I clench my fists and strike a heroic pose.

"Now all that's left is to go Plus Ultra!"

Oh no. That was the wrong thing to say. She gives me a death glare and promptly begins yelling at me.

"No! No Plus Ultra! You need to be Minus Regular! For all we know One for All might just make your limbs explode and then you'll die horribly! Do you have any idea how sad I would be if you died? I would have to eat lots of ice cream to make me feel better and then I would gain weight! Don't you care about my perfect womanly figure?"

I can't help but shrug.

"To be honest, not really."

She gives me a look that threatens violence.

"Young man, don't make me come over there and kill you myself!"

Most people would assume that she is merely making a joke. Those people would be wrong. I hold my hands up in a placing gesture.

"Okay, okay, fine. I'll be super careful, alright?"

She seems satisfied by that. She takes a few steps back and then floats up into the air. She gestures for Tamaki and Toshinori to move back and then turns to me.

"Okay, Mirio. Stand completely still and activate One for All. Do not move or flex your muscles under any circumstances. If you need to move, do so very slowly."

Alright. Not ominous at all. I relax my muscles and stand still as still as I can. Carefully, I activate One for All.

I gasp as immeasurable power fills my veins. Blue lightning pours out in all directions around me. Every muscle in my body flexes as power beyond my comprehension courses through my veins.

"Mirio, how do you feel?"

I rotate my head as slowly as I can to face her. I feel the bones in my neck creak.

"I AM VERY SCARED!"

She folds her arms and gives me an uncharacteristically serious look.

"Don't forget that feeling of fearing your quirk. It's all too easy to get caught up in your own power. You need to remember from now on that if you ever go overboard, you can and likely will injure yourself. Use this fear as a reminder of what One for All is capable of. I don't want to see you with any broken bones."

I try my best to stop my body from exploding.

"OKAY, GOOD TO KNOW!"

She finally decides to grant me mercy.

"Alright, deactivate your quirk."

The lightning fades away. I look down at my body and spot a network of faint burn marks across my skin. I don't feel any pain, so One for All must have protected me from any actual damage. This is a truly awesome level of power.

My friend floats closer and inspects my skin for herself. She turns my hand over and trails her finger over a burn that runs the length of my forearm. She makes a sound of curiosity as she compares it to a few of her own bruises.

"Huh. If you had moved your muscles there, you would have definitely broken a few bones. Now, I want-"

Wait, broken bones?

"Woah woah woah, it would have broken my bones? I mean I know the quirk is powerful and all but I had no idea I was that close to ending up in the hospital! What do I do, how do I fix that!"

She rolls her eyes.

"C'mon crybaby, I was just getting to that part. Now, I want you to try to activate One for All and then lower the output level. Our goal here is to find a comfortable level for your body to operate at. I'll guide you along, just listen to my words."

She promptly flies off to a safer distance. I roll my shoulders and loosen up my muscles in preparation.

I activate One for All once again.

Power courses through me. Every muscle in my body contracts as excess energy is shunted from my skin. It doesn't hurt, but it is a terrifying experience. I grit my teeth and take a deep breath. I focus on listening to Nejire's voice.

"Good work Mirio, make sure to distribute it evenly throughout your body! Okay, now start lowering the output level. Keep going. Yep. Yep. Okay, keep lowering. Yep. Yeah good job, just keep going. More. More. Yep, still more. Moreeeeeee. Moreeeeeeeeeee. Keep lowering it. Yes. Mooooooore."

She narrates along while I struggle to take control of my new quirk. No matter how much I clamp down on One for All, there's still more energy rushing out. After another thirty seconds of lowering my output, she finally seems satisfied.

"Alright, now take a single step forward!"

I do as she says. I lift my foot and place it down on the ground before me. The concrete immediately develops a spiderweb of cracks, but otherwise, everything is fine. I don't feel any pain at all.

"It's working! I'm doing it, Nejire!"

She gives me a thumbs-up and then promptly flies around behind me. My best guess is that she is trying to get out of my way. I can see where this is going.

"Good job, Mirio! Now, curl back your fist and throw a punch at that nearby building! Ensure that you continue rate limiting your throughput at its current level, don't let the quirk scale its capacity to reach full theoretical saturation!"

I blink.

"What?"

She proceeds to ignore me entirely.

"Also, make sure to not lock out your elbow!"

Right. Might as well get this over with. I rear back my arm. I take a deep breath and throw my fist forward. A wall of air pressure projects outward in the direction of my punch. There's a colossal boom as my attack strikes against the building.

Concrete is reduced to dust. Bricks are torn from their mortar and turned into shrapnel. The building collapses as its foundations are cut. Nearby windows shatter as the shockwave reverberates throughout the city. The destruction is awe-inspiring.

I watch the dust settle and look over the empty space where an apartment building once rested.

"... Plus Ultra?"

I can hear Toshinori and the others celebrating behind me. I deactivate One for All and walk over to the others. Nejire gives me a big high five.

"HELL YEAH MIRIO! That was awesome, you're just like me for real! That was probably like, ten percent of what I can do, which is super impressive! How do you feel?"

Good question. I hold my arm up to my face and inspect it for damage. I can't see any visible injuries, so I seem to be okay. Nothing hurts at least. One for All's durability competent certainly isn't half bad.

"Yeah, I think I'm okay. This quirk is amazing. Thanks for helping me out guys, I couldn't do it without you."

Nejire gives me a big thumbs up.

"Don't worry, I'm well aware that I'm always carrying the team!"

I'm glad to have such great friends.


Izuku POV, one week later

It's Monday, four PM. Momo should have finished her first day at UA by now. I tap her contact icon and hold the phone to my ear. She answers the phone several seconds later.

"Hello, Momo Yaoyorozu speaking."

Her voice sounds notably more tired than usual. Perhaps a long day?

"Hello, Momo. How was your first day of school?"

She lets out a loud groan.

"UA is… intense. We did a 'quirk apprehension test' in order to assess the current limits of our quirks. Eraserhead threatened to expel whoever came last, which I assumed was some kind of trick to make us work harder. Then he actually did expel the student who came last! She expelled this girl with a psychokinesis quirk, but then didn't even expel the little purple pervert!"

I blink.

"The what?"

I hear her knock something over in the background. I get the feeling that she is rather angry right now.

"His name is Mineta and I hate him! He's a disgusting creep and says horrible things about everyone! He said that he wanted to grab my breasts and I wanted to knock that stupid little grin off of his face!"

I drop the crushed remains of my glass on the desk.

"He. What."

She sounds furious.

"I tried to tell our teacher, but he just said he would just 'look into it' and then went to sleep! He literally pulled out a sleeping bag like some kind of maniac and went to sleep right on the concrete. He only woke up once his twenty-minute timer went off. I was too shocked to know what to do."

Wow. That is… something. I should do some more research on UA. Clearly, I know nothing about whatever it is that is going on there. Did Nedzu hire an entire circus while I wasn't looking?

I should probably also look up this "Mineta" individual. While I did not wish to assassinate a Hero student, sometimes these things are needed for the greater good. I run a hand through my hair as I try to process what I am hearing.

"Okay… that's pretty bad. So, did you do well on the test at least?"

She lets out a noncommittal hum.

"Well, I came first. Endeavour's son came second, and then this violent boy with an explosion quirk came third. He was utterly unhinged and was screaming and threatening everyone the whole time. The teacher even had to restrain him at one point. Amazingly he just told him off and then let him go. The boy immediately went back to threatening everyone."

What the hell?

"Wait, your teacher had to restrain a student, and then he didn't expel him… even though he expelled someone else on their first day for having a low performance? What did this explosion boy do exactly?"

I can hear her pacing back and forth as her shoes tap on the floorboards.

"There was a girl with a gravity quirk and she told him to stop yelling. So, of course, he starts screaming about how she is 'looking down on me!' and then lunges at her! Eraserhead used some kind of special scarf to capture him and then told him to go back in line."

I scribble the name "Eraserhead" onto a piece of paper and sticky it onto my desk. I seriously need to look him up after this. There must be something else going on here. Why on earth would he let a violent student behave like that? Unless…

"Let me guess, the boy has a powerful and flashy quirk."

"His quirk allows him to create explosions from his hands. It's extremely powerful and very impressive to witness. He admittedly also has a lot of control and precision with his quirk. He's very talented and very much not afraid to show it. When he came in third place, he started screaming and declared that the test must have been rigged. I was utterly shocked."

Wow. I knew that Hero Society was in need of a rework, but this is so much worse than expected. For UA of all places to be so bad is utterly shocking. Maybe there is something I'm missing here and we are misinterpreting it? Eraserhead must have some reason for doing this. Perhaps he is just overworked and doesn't have enough time to care?

God, I need to change this conversation.

"Well. I watched that movie you suggested, how about we talk about that instead?"

The two of us spend the next hour discussing plot holes.


? POV, one day later

The abomination was imperfect. Primitive. But, it would serve as an adequate proof of concept for my future creations. The particular set of quirks I selected for this one would hopefully be sufficient for its needs.

All might was now teaching at UA. Killing him is ultimately unnecessary, but I might as well give my creation a target worthy of its ability. Anything less would be a waste of time and effort.

The original body was kindly donated by a villain by the name of Muscular. The subject was extensively modified into becoming the perfect host for the seven quirks it now possessed. The Doctor was unable to get past five quirks in his own testing, but he was unimaginative. With Overhaul, anything was possible. Fusing brains together was simply a matter of iteration until I had the process perfected.

I decided to name my creation Nomu. It was a name that came up often in the Doctor's work, and it was admittedly rather fitting. The Doctor had an interesting list of various high-level quirks that he intended to use. I was able to replicate something similar using various lower-end quirks.

Kinetic Redirection and Impact Nullification would allow Nomu to absorb hits. Tough Flesh would help its body survive its own power. Cancerous Regeneration would allow its freakish biology to hold together for some time outside of my lab. It's two enhancer quirks and one Muscle quirk would hopefully allow it to match All might in terms of raw power.

Muscular's quirk served as the basis for what the entirety of Nomu was built around. Simply put, Nomu's body is nothing more than a giant muscle. Even its head was wrapped in a cocoon of thick muscles that would not normally exist on a human. It was a rather grotesque thing to behold.

Muscular's original brain had been turned utterly brain-dead. The solution to this little problem was to slave all thought and motor activities to an additional brain. The brain was carefully selected as it belonged to a man who had a sensory quirk. This would allow Nomu to find its target, even while lacking sensory organs.

Unfortunately, the donor's brain ended up lobotomised due to an accident, but that was perfectly adequate for my needs. I had no need for it to think.

The body itself was three hundred centimetres and almost six hundred kilos of pure muscle. Every part of its body was optimised for the sole task of killing. There is not a single gram of tissue within its body that was left in its original form.

Nomu's bones were thicker than the entire limb of an ordinary human. The soft bone marrow within was removed, as Nomu had no need for an immune system. Cancerous Regeneration would allow it to survive long enough.

Its arteries and veins were reinforced with a sheathing made from the same connective tissue that tendons and ligaments are made of. This allowed for a blood pressure that was comparable to that of hydraulic fluid. This was especially useful as the massive veins had a rather extreme requirement for throughput. Its heart pumped blood faster than the hearts of two dozen men combined.

The respiration system was mostly removed as Nomu had minimal need for oxygen. Muscular's quirk had an interesting side effect of forcing his blood to always stay oxygenated, regardless of whether the blood passed through his lungs or not. It was likely the reason he was able to survive with so much exterior tissue in the first place.

The adrenaline in its body was so high it quite literally could not feel pain. It would tear its own muscles apart with every contraction, only to have them immediately repaired via its regeneration quirk. The durability quirk, Tough Flesh, was the only thing stopping it from exploding under its own power.

Nomu had no eyes, no genitals, and no skin. It lacked any sort of immune system or even a digestive tract. It had no liver and no kidneys. It had enough steroids in its bloodstream to kill an elephant. Nomu could not survive for more than twenty-four hours outside of suspended animation.

But, none of this was a concern. Nomu only has a single task. Whether it wins or not is ultimately irrelevant. Even if it failed in its task, my future creations would not. I will make certain of it.

No one will be ready for what is coming.

.

.

.

Author note:

So a few things:
Overhaul is a super genius in canon. He somehow made a serum that de-evolves humans from a little girl's blood within two years (probably the most insane feat of bioscience ever like wtf). Honestly making a jacked up Nomu is probably the least impressive thing he could do. Keep in mind that with Overhaul he can perform impossible surgeries in seconds. He can completely disassemble someone and put them back together again, and then repeat it however many times is needed for success. He is such an insane piece of missed potential In canon, and well, I don't like doing missed potential.

Second of all, I'm not trying to character bash Aizawa but DAMN he is such a bad teacher at times. The things he lets Bakugo get away with... My personal view on the matter is that Aizawa is just super overworked and is probably barely conscious most of the time. He's a genuinely good person, but he's so exhausted that he doesn't really handle his class. I mean frankly has he ever taught anyone in UA anything on screen? I'll probably write some stuff later on that redeems him, but for now I can't really pretend that he isn't doing an objectively bad job.

Third of all, it took 45k words, but here we are. Enjoy. Because the fic just got started :)