Chapter 31: Chesire Tigers

After the explosive end to the last match, the crowd was still cheering for Kendo's victory, though it had dimmed a little as people started to discuss the fight itself. "I can't believe it. Todoroki was eliminated in the quarter-finals?" one of the spectators said, speaking to a friend seated next to them.

"I know, right? I was totally betting on him making it to the finals, but he just met his match earlier than expected." The woman shook her head in mild disbelief; even if he didn't use fire, Todoroki was still the son of the number 2 hero, yet he wouldn't even make it to the medal ceremony now.

"His match? She practically embarrassed him in that match. You saw it: She was taking everything he could throw at her and taking no damage." Someone else scoffed as they looked at the shattered, ice-covered field that three dozen robots and Cementoss were still cleaning, the fighters having long since left or been carried off.

"But why did she egg him on like that? Couldn't she have won sooner?" A pro scratched his chin, as they didn't hear what was said. Still, they could read enough of the situation from how they acted, and safe to say whatever Kendo told him pushed all his buttons and sent him into a rage that would have been fatal for so many if not for the barriers that U.A. had put in place. However, he wondered if Todoroki had the right mind to remember that.

"A message, maybe? That 'I can beat you even at your best?'" Another suggested.

"It still seems kind of unheroic to do that to someone, though, especially when this much damage was the result." That seemed to be a common theme among many of the pros. Sure, one needed to show off and make it clear one was strong, but one didn't do that by needlessly drawing out fights or stroking the flames of one's opponent.

One of the younger heroes, on the other hand, waved that off. "Nah, that was epic. When she goes pro, she'll have villains running at the mention of her name." Oddly enough, it was a similar idea about pros like Mirko or Endeavour, people who intimidated far more than inspired. But when villains thought twice about committing crimes when they could be kicked across the block or covered in burns, one couldn't argue with the results.

A pro with the appearance of a crocodile mused aloud, "But I do have to wonder if that was an upper limit? Todoroki was clearly running on fumes near the end, but she seemed fine."

A woman with a gas mask with a happy face thought otherwise. "I would guess she was, but her quirk probably doesn't have a similar tell to Todoroki's."

"She'll be a great sidekick to have; I'll call the agency and have them start putting in the offer for an internship." One pro smiled, but another sighed at his side, giving him a sad smile.

"You and everyone else here, but someone with that power is definitely going to go with one of the big names, especially since she's basically going to win this entire thing." He pointed towards the big man himself, one that, even from the other side of the stadium, they could see, thanks to the flames that came from his arms, shoulders, and face.

No doubt the man would be displeased that his son lost, but Endeavour was a man who sought out talent. He, along with other top pros, would be crazy not to at least consider sending offers to Kendo after that match.

"You're counting your chickens before they hatch there. She still needs to win two more matches." The woman from before waved her finger at him, her eyes inquisitive as a cat but as observant as an owl's.

"With the kind of power she has, Midoriya and Bakugo aren't going to be much. Though I admit that the former is tricky, I still can't figure out how that quirk of his works." One pro replied, the conversation being heard by the students below them. Bakugo seemed to be growing ever more insulted by being seen as lesser to man hands, all because he wasn't given proper opponents yet.

"Even so, this year's crop of first years is something else. Kendo might just be the best, but Bakugo and Midoriya aren't slouches either. They've gone great so far." Bakugo got up to leave for his match against the octopus. He'll prove that if anyone was the best here, it was him. He'll win this match and then finally beat man-hands at the finals.

Down below, Kendo had been walking down the dark path to see Recovery Girl about getting a fresh uniform when her mentor stopped her, the symbol of peace, neither frowning nor smiling as he addressed her.

"You won? Is that correct?"

Kendo looked at her hand, tightening into a fist. "I'm not sure."

All Might hummed but didn't comment on that. "I trust you had an ulterior goal for them in that match."

Kendo nodded, a part of her happy that he trusted her enough to give her that doubt, but she was mainly angry. Angry at Todoroki, angry at Endeavour, angry at herself. "Todoroki…he could be so much greater, so I tried to get him to do that, to be what. But I failed." She saw it; he was so close, so damn close near the end, but then whatever progress she made seemed to vanish when she approached. Maybe she should have stayed back, maybe tried goading him again. But it didn't matter now; she didn't get through to him, and while she won the match, she didn't feel like a victor.

"Yes, it would seem he and his father have a complicated relationship," All Might replied, though both knew that was the understatement of the year. Approaching her, he placed a hand on her shoulder, with Kendo looking up into his dark eyes, pools of black that housed blue orbs so bright and powerful that even in his weakened form, he projected strength and comfort, but right now, he was sorrowful. "But I must apologize to you, young Kendo."

"Sir?" The man sighed at her question.

"We, as his teachers, should have noticed something off about him sooner; his refusal to use his fire is as red a flag as one can get, yet we didn't act. It wasn't your responsibility to make him see reason." All Might explained as it was so clear, not in hindsight but in the moment. He even recalled Power Loader asking about it during a teacher meeting, but neither he nor Aizawa didn't consider it a problem, believing that he'd get over it soon enough.

Well, if they needed any proof of how terrible that choice had been, one would only need to watch that disaster of a match again. The public might not know, but they did, and it was shameful that it ever came to that. But there was a silver lining for him, as he gave his successor a smile and hugged her.

"But, I'm proud of you for doing that anyway," He told her, Kendo being confused but still accepting the kind, soothing gesture. "After all, it's a hero's job to meddle in things that don't concern them, right?" He asked, with Kendo smiling into his chest.

"Yeah." She nodded, finding her resolve as she broke from the hug, her teal eyes again bright with conviction. "I won't fail again; we won't fail. When this is all over, I will try again, and this time I will help Todoroki." All Might smiled at that, as it seemed like every chance she got, Kendo proved herself the perfect person to have inherited his power, not just in skills as a hero, but her compassion, drive, and convictions.

"Well, before that, you should prepare for your match against young Midoriya. He's a tricky foe, one different from any you have faced up until now." All Might patted her on the back as they started to move once again, but the mention of her next opponent brought up something she had wanted to talk about with All Might.

"About Midoriya, I was meaning to ask something about him," Kendo stated, with All Might frowning. He could see that she had steel in her eyes. She wanted answers to her questions, and he realized that it was time he gave them, at least the ones he had.

"What about?" He asked in turn, with Kendo looking around the area for a bit. While deserted, that could change, especially now that Bakugo and Shoji would be coming down.

"Not here, somewhere a little more private." All Might started to suspect what she wanted to know but agreed that it shouldn't be openly discussed.

"Very well, I'll take us to one of the unused viewing boxes," he replied, though Kendo didn't follow him when he turned to lead.

"First, let me grab a change of clothes," Kendo recalled that she was wearing a ruined shirt that showed off her sports bra. All Might realized that as well and immediately turned his back and nodded.

"Yes, you'll do that," the man promptly replied as he walked ahead of her to see the school nurse. They hoped the nurse wouldn'te too harsh on Kendo for putting down Todoroki so hard.

"So, your questions?" All Might asked Kendo as they two sat down; the booth they found was far from the rest, and that, along with the locked door, meant that they wouldn't need to worry about eavesdroppers. They could also take their time, as Present Mic already announced that it would take another 10 minutes to clear and repair the field, even with it shifting to just move around the debris to be handled later.

Kendo got straight to the point, leaning in as she asked, "It's about Midoriya's quirk. What is it?"

"Young Kendo, before I reply, I need to be sure that you won't tell others what I'm about to tell you. Is that understood?" Kendo blinked at All Might's response, as his eyes were the same as they had been when he revealed his injury to her and then the truth about his quirk. How could Midoriya's quirk status be considered similar to his?

Regardless of her questions, she trusted her mentor and nodded honestly. "Of course, All Might." All Might searched her eyes for any signs of deceit or hesitation but found none, so he told her.

"He doesn't have one."

"Pardon," Kendo asked, and All Might nodded, perfectly understanding what she was confused about. Frankly, he still struggled to comprehend it.

"Young Midoriya, he doesn't have a quirk, not one on the record." He replied, which seemed crazy as Kendo tried and failed to accept such an insane idea.

"That's…that's impossible. Have you asked him about it? Maybe his records are just wrong," Kendo suggested, which was a logical suggestion, a rational one if one used the rationale of the world they lived in and had lived in for over a century now.

"No, we haven't asked him, but we did conduct tests early on in the year. We masked it as just a simple health screening for the hero course, but it was really Nezu's attempt to learn what his quirk was." Kendo recalled those, as she found it weird that Recovery Girl visited her middle school and requested blood and hair samples. But with Midoriya's quirk such an unknown factor, she supposed it made sense.

"When the results came back, they were conclusive. He has no quirk factor." All Might frowned as he replied. They had sent the blood and hair to four separate labs, nearly sending it to I-island to be sure.

Despite that, Kendo wasn't ready to just buy that Midoriya could be quirkless when she had seen him run up walls, robots, and even over minefields without falling or triggering anything. Even his performance during the chariot race and his fight with Iida hinted at him having a quirk similar to Kamui Woods. "Maybe-maybe his quirk is different, like One for All but Aizawa-"

All Might raised his hand to silence her rambling. "We thought of that, and for the record, even One for All has a quirk factor that would be visible in your DNA, as it is with me." He clarified that part before he continued.

"But with Aizawa, he watched class B perform their quirk assessment after your class, and he used his quirk randomly as Midoriya took his turn, and not once did he seem to affect him. We're reasonably sure he didn't even notice that Erasure was focused on him, to begin with." Hearing him say that made Kendo's brain nearly shut down as he fell into the chair, her shoulders slumped as she tried to figure out what the hell was happening.

'Was…was that why he didn't refer to his power as a quirk?' She thought to herself, but that didn't make sense! Quirks were the basis of superhuman society, it was what heroes and villains used to even exist. If there was a alternative means to get power, why didn't something find it before, and how did a teenager even gain such?

"That's…"

"Insane? Impossible? Unbelievable? It's all those things, young Kendo, though I suspect more is at play here." All Might's words brought her back to some level of sanity as he looked grim-faced and worried.

"How?"

"I met with a woman earlier. She's a recent donor to the school and claims to have taught Midoriya before he entered U.A." All Might started, thinking back to that rather concerning encounter with Endeavour and Kenmikoto, the following meet-up she had proposed from them.

He didn't know how, but he suspected that she knew more about him than she should. The way she spoke, the way she looked at him, and the cadence of her words reminded him of Nezu and how he tended to act. How much she knew, and where and how she even found out what she knew, were mysterious to him.

"Do you believe her?" Kendo asked him, with the man tapping his fingers on the chairrest.

"I do; she gives off a similar presence to the boy but much stronger, though I suppose it would be better to say her presence is much more potent and lasting." Midoriya didn't have the same, one could call it, aura as a regular person, not even the same as most hero students. At least, he hadn't seen the school year start as while he hadn't spent much time with class B, he had done enough to notice that and know that it was different to what the boy had when they spoke last year, it is stronger, more…primal than the angry middle schooler he spoke with.

But where Midoriya's presence just made him stick out among his classmates, Kenmikoto's put him on edge, something only a few villains had managed to do in his decades of hero work. She carried herself like a queen, a top predator in her domain. It was akin to going into the wild, untamed forests of India or Siberia's vast, unforgiving frozen woods and having a wild tiger spot you. She hid it well with courteous smiles and honey-coated works, but he could tell.

Much like that tiger, she was a cold-blooded killer.

Kendo could pick up on his reservations about this strange lady. "Is she the source of his quirk? Perhaps it's like Uraraka's where she touches someone and gives them power."

"It's possible, but Nezu doesn't seem to think so. I brought her up with him earlier, and he seems to know her or know of her." All Might replied, recalling how the principal looked…surprised when he brought up the name. Then his smile got tighter, which might have fooled most, but All Might knew better. The principal was worried.

"Is she an important person?" Kendo asked, as perhaps she was just a wealthy person.

"Yes, but she's also a former U.A. teacher." All Might replied as he had spoken with Nezu again since his tea with the woman and Endeavour, the chimera having had the time to better look into their new donor, and what he found was disturbing.

"Wait, she is?" Kendo didn't pretend that she knew all U.A.'s former or even current staff, focusing mainly on her first-year teachers, but she wondered what could be so concerning about a former teacher. Were they fired for ethnic reasons? Did they turn out to be villains or criminals?

"According to what Nezu found in the school's employment history, she served as the homeroom teacher to class A for 12 good years, but the thing is, she looks the same as she does in her picture." All Might replied, as the principal had been shocked to discover that this unknown used to work there. After all, he might have been a very public face for U.A., but he had only been its principal for 18 years and a staff member for 26.

"Is…that an problem." All Might looked her in the eye to brace her for what the strange part was.

"Young Kendo, she taught for 12 years and retired the year before I got in, yet she looks the same as she did then." When Kendo heard that, he could see the gears in her head spinning rapidly as she did the math in her head before jumping to her feet in shock.

"She's ancient!" All Might liked to believe that her statement wasn't meant as an insult against him.

But he had to suck it up and accept that while hurtful, it wasn't inaccurate. "Okay, that hurts, but it's true. She was a teacher here well over 40 years ago, and despite being old enough to be my mother, she looks like she could be Midnight's slightly older sister."

Kendo sat on that, the same as he had when he had seen it. Though he had the means to look into other details as well, and while he could have asked Gran Torino about her, he had only taken on a teaching job in Toshinori's second year at U.A. and left soon after he was shipped to the States for his protection.

He had spoken with Recovery Girl about it, as she's been a staff member for 40 years. Sadly, she didn't have much to say since she joined the faculty in this Kenmikoto last year with U.A. Back then, she was the assistant nurse and didn't have many conversations with the infamous Jade Tiger, as she was known. A strange moniker for someone who was never a registered pro hero or even vigilante.

"Okay, so she has a background in teaching future heroes and seemingly hasn't aged a day since she last stepped foot on U.A. grounds. Did the file have anything about her quirk?" Kendo asked though she wondered what sort of quirk could do, among other things, keep someone young. From how All Might was acting, it wasn't like she was young, only in appearance. Her body had to be very much still in that prime of her life, something that All Might had long since passed.

"Her file claims she was quirkless, just like Midoriya."

"More than that, she left when U.A. had a change in staff mindset and requirements." All Might stated though Kendo was still in the dark about this, so was he till Nezu did his deep dive, and what he found wasn't something he was proud of when it came to his alma mater. "You know how all U.A. teachers are pros, correct?"

"That is one of its selling points." Kendo nodded but was worried when All Might looked…almost ashamed.

"It wasn't always like this. Around the time Kenmikoto was a teacher, being quirkless was still pretty common; around maybe half the population was quirkless. But there was a push both in the hero community and society that heroes should be taught by heroes." All Might started, though his grip on the armrest tightened, his form letting off steam as he nearly transformed out of anger and remorse. "More than that, there was a push to remove quirkless from positions of power over quirked people, with it being hardest in hero schools."

Kendo, upon hearing that, felt that same fury. What kind of world would be okay with that? Would you want that? What did someone's quirk status have to do with their skills. More than that, how could U.A. be okay with that? She hoped it wasn't the same now, but-no, she couldn't think about that now. This was a long time ago; she'll look into it later, but there was a lead there right now. "Wait, so if she hadn't left when she did-"

"She would have been fired. From what he found, another 11 teachers, all of whom had great records, either resigned with her or were fired." Nezu was furious about that decision, and so was he. It didn't matter that this happened long before Nezu was ever an educator and when All Might was a student, ignorant of such changes in the world as he focused more on mastering One for All.

Now that he knew, he couldn't help but think about his teachers. Not a single one of them was quirkless like he used to be. In fact, he recalled that some seemed to think the quirkless inferior, people who were to be saved but could never amount to much. He thought they were just a vocal minority, as no one else said stuff like that, but…was it merely an open secret he wasn't privy to?

When he thought about it, Gran Torino never had much nice to say about the bulk of the teachers; he just thought the man was just himself with his high standards, not helping that a few were pretty green when it came to teaching. But was it because they had such horrendous views? Did he just not tell him to spare his feelings? He had so many questions and wasn't sure he wanted the answers.

"I…I didn't know this," Kendo muttered, looking out the window towards the field, which was nearly done; U.A.'s greatest stage was probably the greatest for young heroes in the world. But now she couldn't help but wonder what had to be lost to create it; who was refused the chance to stand on it? Now that she thought about it, the U.A. even had a rule that barred the quirkless from the hero course, one that was only appealed recently yet was still in place in most schools.

Her heart squeezed as she wondered how the hell she had never questioned that until now; there was no doubt that such a terrible rule was put in place at that same time, and that meant that it stood—arguably still did 30 years later. How many people could have been told that they couldn't even try and achieve their dreams? How many potentially great heroes were told they couldn't even enter the gates?

Such injustice was perfect fuel for resentment. She recalled seeing resentment in Midoriya; could his master be the same? "You think that she holds it against U.A.?"

All Might grimly nodded, though he hoped it wasn't. "There is always the possibility, but I couldn't say. That woman's poker face was near perfect; I dare say she could claim to be your mother, and you'll actually consider it."

All Might wished to set aside, at least for now, the issue that U.A. had sadly been no different than the rest of the society during its troubling past and focused on the present. "But back to her quirk status, the records claim she was quirkless, but reports state that she could perform things that shouldn't be possible."

"Like?" Kendo frowned, though she suspected she had a good idea of what that was.

"For one, physically, she was the strongest staff member for her entire tenure, with her speed, reflexes, strength, and stamina outpacing everyone," All Might reported, only confirming her suspicions. "But also, she could walk on water, run up walls, or create and mend Jade to her will."

"Just like Midoriya." All Might nodded, as it seemed the only difference between the student and the master was the element they had control over. Why that was was anyone's guess. Blood relations was an idea, but one that neither he nor Nezu thought would lead anyway, especially since neither would have any reason to hide that. Yet she only referred to young Midoriya as her best student. "She…she found a way to do all that while quirkless?"

All Might felt the weight of that statement and what it could mean for the world if such an idea made its way to the general public. "She did but left no record of how or when she learned this. As far as it reports, she could do all that from her first day, but as for her life before them, it's a mystery. The records merely claim that she was previously employed by the Hero Association for around 13 years."

That was an effectively dead-end. Not because the Hero Commission was long defunct, but because it was reformed into the Hero Commission, and they'll never give away such information, and certainly not to anyone aligned with Nezu thanks to what Nezu said was a conflict of interests and methods.

"So, we have a mysterious woman who found a means to either get power without a quirk or pull off the greatest deception to mask what her quirk was, who then trained another seemingly quirkless person or used her quirk to grant him power. Both of which have reason to hate U.A and society as a whole?" Kendo asked, and when All Might nodded, she groaned into her hands, covering her face. Why couldn't things have been easy?"

Despite how serious things felt, All Might still cracked a smile. "That I can answer, and that is because to be a hero is to reject the easy path and take the right one, even if it's long and exhausting." He stated as they heard Present Mic declare that the field was ready for the semi-finals and that the fighters would be there shortly.

"We'll continue to look into it from our side; you just need to focus on Midoriya. If he's anything like his master, he'll be hard to knock down, and it would take a good hit to ensure he stays down." All Might advised her as Kendo got up and stretched.

"I got it," She turned to leave, stopping right as she grabbed the door handle to look back at All Might, a small smile and grateful light in her eyes. "Thanks for the talk. Not the whole conspiracy thing, just…you know."

All Might returned her smile with a much larger one. "Always, young Kendo. Now you should be off." She smiled before leaving; she could have gone straight to the waiting rooms, but she wanted to talk with her friends.

"The next match is gonna start any second now," Komori uttered as they lit up the screens with the faces of the final four, along with a highlight heel from each of their last two matches.

"Any bets on whose gonna win?" Tsuburaba asked.

"Bakugo has the advantage in firepower, but Shoji's much larger, and with those hands, he could easily overwhelm him if Bakugo tried to get in close." Tokage guessed, as it felt like a similar situation to when Bakugo faced off against Tetsutetsu, only much harder thanks to how many arms Shoji could use. Not to mention, he can make them into ears and eyes, so trying to blindside him would be incredibly difficult.

"So, ranged battle is Bakugo's best bet?" Awase asked as Kamakiri barked out a laugh. The boy was angry over his loss, but his respect for his opponent meant that he would defend his chances.

"That Shoji fella's got a good regeneration as a side effect of his quirk, so unless Bakugo can hit him with something that can knock him off his feet out of bounds or just knock him out, he'll just tank whatever that explosive asshole can dish out." The green haired heteromorph said, recalling how Shoji's wounds rapidly healed in their fight

"Should have kicked him in the balls when I had chance," Tsunotori muttered, still angry over her loss to Bakugo despite her best efforts.

"Tsunotori, that's a dirty move!" Tetsutetsu yelled back at her as she turned around and pointed at him with an angry pout.

"Oh, but he can go explosion on me, no! He can blast, I kick him in the balls." She returned with just as much passion, which got some laughs from the others, though the mood was already pretty high for them, especially with how confident their final fighter was in his chances of making it to the finals.

Asui decided to add to the conversation now they finished with the highlight heel to build up further anticipation than what already existed. "(Kero) Bakugo's not dumb, he'll know that Shoji is similar to Tetsutetsu, but that he can regrow lost limbs."

"But only lost limbs; his quirk doesn't have anything to do with his body, so if Bakugo can strike past that, he should be good," Sato added, having heard Shoji mention it once.

"Either way," Kendo walked around the corner, waving at her class. "It should prove to be a good match-up."

"Kendo! You're back!" Uraraka and others rose to greet her, pulling back in with words of congratulations and praise.

"We were getting worried; I thought you passed out off the field." Kaminari laughed, and Kendo chuckled in her toe. While she had done a lot in that fight, she had pushed her limits quite a bit. Lucky for her, it wasn't anything a couple minutes of rest couldn't handle.

"Not even. I just need to sort something out." She replied, keeping what she was doing to herself. While it was just Todoroki who asked if she was All Might's illegitimate child, it was best if she tried harder to downplay their connection.

"Alright, but level with us here, what the hell was that match?" Mina asked her.

"Yeah, it was super manly; it was like you were this unstoppable force!" Kirishima joined in, mimicking the pose she had struck when she busted out of the ice, which made her blush as she hadn't thought about that then.

"No kidding. We knew you were tough, but there's tough, and there's being a walking force of nature. You were buried in how much ice and weren't even moved by it." Jiro joined in.

"It makes me grateful I've never gotten on your bad side, since you'll hit me across campus." Sato laughed, though there was some fear in his words. Meanwhile, Mineta was silent as the grave as he realised that he had given her reason to want to smite him, him, and Kaminari after they pulled off that cheerleader stunt.

"Guys, please." Kendo pleaded with them to stop before all the blood rushed to her cheeks.

"Alright folks, we're down to just four fighters; each has managed to fend off all before and left their marks, but only 1 can stop at the top! But to fight for the crown, we must find out which 2 would have that honor!" Present Mic started as Bakugo and Shoji walked into the field, all eyes shifting to them.

"Be honest, you want Shoji to win, don't you?" Hagakure whispered to Kendo, though she still whispered loud enough for those around them to hear just fine.

"It'll definitely knock some wind out of Bakugo's ego," Sero mused. He didn't think the guy was unsalvageable, but he was a lot to handle most days.

"Or hell, merely double down on his delusions." Tokoyami's comment just made the tape user sigh before he decided to focus on watching the match.

And done! Now, if you can excuse me, I have to figure out how to extend my night-time data for another few days.

Next chapter should be out on August 9th.

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