Masao was curious when Nezu first sent him a note.
The principal was not one to do things at random and he could not think of a reason for the principal to ask him to meet him in his office.
Masao was even more curious when Hado asked around their friends if they also got a message from Nezu to attend a meeting with the principal.
It turned out that all six of them had been asked to go to the same meeting, and in the days leading up to said meeting Hado spent a lot of time speculating on what the meeting could be about.
The most agreed upon reason being that all of them were going to try out for their provisional licenses.
Though Oswald made the point of why they would all be sharing a meeting with the principal instead of one-on-ones with one of the hero teachers.
Togota countered with the idea that maybe because there were so few of them going to be in the same testing facility rather than separate ones for each class like usual.
Masao did not see why that would cause them to need to be grouped up instead of having the individual meetings.
Masao suspected it was for something a bit more important.
He was tempted to ask Midoriya-Kun about the meeting, but he would not put the boy in that position.
So, he and the others waited for the day of the meeting to come.
Then when the end of the class came, he picked Hado up from where she was bouncing in her seat and would have made a break for the door if he had not grabbed her.
"Come on Masao-Chan! aren't you excited about the meeting we're gonna have?" Hado said, encouraging him to pack his things faster, not making any move to free herself, her hands were moving up and down in her excitement.
"Geez man-eater calm your shit," Oswald said swatting Hado on the head with the homework sheet they had been working on "It's a meeting with the rat principal, not Santa Claus." Oswald added, and Hado stuck her tongue back out at him.
Done grabbing everything for himself and Hado's things too since she would not remember to grab it later after the meeting.
He was quite certain the meeting today would be more surprising than they thought it would be.
Nodding to himself Masao wrapped his tail around Sunny's waist and pulled him close, letting Sunny keep from being overwhelmed and certainly let him ignore Oswald easier.
Then together they walked out, passing by 2-B to collect Togota.
The blonde boy eagerly jumping in to distract Sunny from anything other than their homework for the week.
Oswald and Haya were talking about their costumes on the other side of him, some upgrades they could add to them as they all walked over to the principal's office.
"Deku-Sensei!" Hado cheered when they turned the corner,
And indeed, Midoriya-Kun was standing waiting for them in front of the principal's office.
The boy shot them all a warm smile that did not reach his eyes.
Masao thrilled, that was not good.
"Hey guys, thank you all for coming, there is... a lot that we need to discuss." Midoriya-Kun said holding his hands together behind his back.
"Is this about our upcoming provisional licensing exam Deku-Sensei?" Haya asked with her hand raised.
"No, not directly anyways. We can about that another day though if you'd want to Haya-San." Midoriya-Kun answered.
"Oh? Then what are we here to talk about?" Togota asked, a hand coming up to mess with his ponytail slightly.
"That will be better discussed inside Nezu-San's office." Midoriya-Kun told them, opening the door to the office for them, motioning with his other hand for him to come inside.
With a few shared glances they all walked into Nezu's office and were surprised when the principal was not alone in the room.
Haruki-Sensei, Recovery girl, Nezu and... some random man that smelled of blood.
A concerning amount of blood.
Masao kept his eyes on said man, examining him from head to toe.
He had seen people whose quirks made them skeleton thin if not actually skeletons themselves, but this man clearly was not one of them.
There was a, 'give' or sag to his skin that showed his form used to be much larger.
His hair also reminded him of his landlord's son, all scrapy and jutting out in weird angles like a bunch of straw.
And mixed in with the scent of blood was that of rot, it was faint but the fact he could smell it at all.
"That man should go to the hospital." Masao commented pointing to the blonde man.
Midoriya-Kun hummed distasteful while the man bashfully ducked his head, rubbing at the back of his neck.
"I'm aware Miyake-San, unfortunately Yagi-San is too stubborn for us to wrangle him into seeing a doctor." Midoriya-Kun answered shooting the man a look.
Masao thrilled in understanding, some people were just far too hard to convince them to do what they needed to do, something that could be even harder to do when said person might be dying.
"So, why'd you wanna talk with us Principal Nezu?" Hado excitedly asked, still being dangled like a kitten from one of his hands.
"Are we being tapped for some super special mission? Are we?" Hado questioned giddy.
"In a, matter of speaking, one could say that." Haruki-Sensei replied, her hand covering the part of her face where a mouth should have been, like doing so would help cover up her wheezy chuckle.
"Wait, hold up really? There's a secret opt going on and you're tagging us?" Haya exclaimed, very confused, and already started to feel dread pooling in.
"I understand you may be concerned and shall have many questions, which is why we asked Midoriya-San to explain everything to you, since he would be the best person to do so." Nezu calmly informed the group, his paws pressed together.
Nezu then motioned for them all to sit down on the provided couch.
Masao eyed Hado before he set the girl down on the seating, and when she started bouncing Midoriya-Kun just picked one of the toys out of his bag, then tossed it over to Hado so her hands would have something to do.
Midoriya-Kun himself settled for leaning back against Nezu's desk.
The mammal leapt from his chair and away to some corner before metal coverings covered up the windows and doors.
"Before I explain why the six of you were asked to be here I need to debrief all of you on the mission were going to offer for you to join, and warn you that it is very, very deathly important that you do not share this information with anyone." Midoriya-Kun stated, all the playfulness stripped from him.
The others tensed under Midoriya-Kun's intense gaze.
"Normally, I would be against forcing minors to not talk with the people that they trust. But in this extremely specific case, I mean it. Absolutely no one can be told one word about this mission. For your safety and your family's safety." Midoriya-Kun firmly informed them.
Hado's bouncing stopped as the rest of them seemed to dawn onto just how serious this all was.
Haya had gulped and Sunny's gripped his tail much harder.
"There is a villain called All For One, you and many other in the general public know him best from the stories left behind from his work centuries ago, the stories of 'He who Takes'." Midoriya-Kun explained grabbing a file of pictures from Nezu's desk.
"Are fucking telling me the quirk boogie man is a whole ass real person?" Oswald interrupted from where he sat on the other side of Hado.
Midoriya-Kun nodded somberly pulling a picture out and showing the face of a man with red eyes and white hair, broad-shouldered judging from what little he could see from the man's headshot, but he was very plain looking aside from that.
"This is Shigaraki Aoi, he was born and grew up during the Dawning, his quirk allowing him to take and give quirks as he likes, including some sort of immortality quirk that has helped him live up to this very day." Midoriya-Kun explained.
"But how could someone like that remain hidden for so long?" Haya questioned, looking pale.
"By pretending to be someone else and staying very far in the shadows, with people in positions to re-write history however he wants it to be remembered, with very few people to call him out on it." Midoriya-Kun answered before quickly pulling out another picture.
This of a younger sickly man with pale green eyes and looked like Midoriya-Kun.
"Oh my god, don't tell me there's two of those psychopaths fucking the world up." Oswald said, and more than one of his friends' shoulders hunched, dread and horror flooded the air.
But Midoriya-Kun shook his head.
"This is Shigaraki Youchi, Aoi's younger twin brother, and his quirk was one that could be passed on and he opposed his brother, eventually dying trying to stop him and unintentionally passing his quirk onto another resistance member he fought with." Midoriya-Kun clarified.
"Aoi killed his own brother?" Togota questioned horrified.
"Physically yes, completely no." Midoriya-Kun cryptically answered.
"You see, Youchi's quirk: Inheritance, has a mental factor that preserves a, what was the word you preferred?" Midoriya-Kun asked turning the blonde man.
"Vestiges." the man replied.
"Vestiges of the past holders, and Youchi along with every wielder of Inheritance has continued to watch and help in the fight against Aoi, giving advice and their own quirks and memories to each future user in the hopes that they could finally kill Aoi." Midoriya-Kun further told them.
"And each of them had failed, only able to pass Inheritance on to the next wielder before Aoi killed them." Midoriya-Kun grimly recounted.
"That's horrible." Haya muttered, clearly looking the most shaken aside from Sunny.
"We have a plan to kill him in motion, ones with a high chance of success if all goes well, but there is a chance that it might fail." Midoriya-Kun warned them.
"And the current holder of Inheritance is too weak to fight him again and survive, so you want one of us to take Inheritance." Masao said, the blue eyes of the blonde went wide in his sunken sockets.
Midoriya-Kun looked at him with bitter pride for figuring it out.
"Yes, Yagi-San's body was too heavily damaged in his last fight with Aoi, where Aoi faked his death to make Yagi-San let his guard down over the last five years, because of this, if Yagi-San and Aoi fought again, Yagi-Sans and the rest of the past holders would die with him." Midoriya-Kun confirmed his hand motioning over to the blonde man he now assumed was 'Yagi'.
"However, there is a problem with passing Inheritance on without much thought, in fact there only two people in all of Japan we have found that could take Inheritance without dying immediately and would actually be able to use the quirk." Midoriya-Kun informed them.
"Those two people were Amajiki and Hado, and over the coming week we'd like the both of you to consider if you want to take Inheritance." Midoriya-Kun clarified quickly after.
Sunny paled even more, and he looked faint as well.
"W-what? Why would you want Sunny and Nejire-Chan to-" Togota tried to question holding Sunny's shoulders to keep him grounded slightly.
"I'm aware of Amajiki can copy quirks through cannibalism." Midoriya-Kun flatly told them, causing his friends freeze.
"Because of this, there is a good chance that Amajiki would be able to fully adapt to Inheritance since to be passed on involves consuming a piece of the current holder's DNA and leave him with no side-effects to speak of, with a diet-plan that would counter any damage if he does still face the side-effects." Midoriya-Kun detailed for them.
Then he turned to Hado.
"And you know why I think you would be a good candidate Hado-San." Midoriya-Kun said more quietly, thought Hado swallowed thickly all the same.
"That being said, we didn't want the two of you to feel pressured to take Inheritance. This is a very dangerous thing we are asking you to consider, and that isn't even taking into account the massive mental burden we'd be asking you to deal with on top of that." Midoriya-Kun solemnly told them.
"That is why we asked for all of you to come here instead of just Hado and Amajiki, so that regardless of your decision you can look to your friends for support without tiptoeing around them." Midoriya-Kun informed them.
"It will be hard enough for you all since we've already told you not to speak with your families about this, we couldn't ask you to keep this from each other as well at the risk of alienating yourselves from your friends." Midoriya explained further.
"Thanks so much for that Deku-Sensei, really makes us feel better about all of that bullshit." Oswald said hugging himself and without there being any venom in his words.
"This is all very overwhelming for you all, I understand and I'm sorry it had to come to this point at all." Midoriya-Kun told them, indeed looking miserable as he did.
"That is why we insist that both Hado and Amajiki take a full week to consider and think about if they are willing to take Inheritance, and if you have any questions about the drawbacks or the history behind the quirk, any of you can ask me, Nezu-San or Haruki-San at any time." Midoriya-Kun promised.
Masao raised his hand.
"Yes, Miyake-San?" Midoriya-Kun asked.
"What if, by the end of the week of consideration, they both wanted to take the quirk?" Masao inquired, a scenario that was not that likely given Sunny's nerves but should be asked regardless.
Nezu's ears perked, and Yagi-San looked puzzled.
"Given the nature of how the quirk is transferred, it is possible for both Amajiki and Hado to become holders, though I cannot say for certain since passage to two people has never been attempted before." Midoriya-Kun answered, after a moment of consideration.
"Yeah, speaking of that crap, how does this bullshit quirk get transferred?" Oswald questioned, his hair twitching irately.
"The method of transfer is via DNA, normally through consumption, the type is not limited, and Yagi-San is healthy enough for us to draw the blood needed for the transfer without complications." Midoriya-Kun explained waving a hand.
Yagi though balked "Wouldn't it be better to use a hair or something?" Yagi questioned.
Midoriya-Kun and he gave Yagi a look.
"No, the hair itself is dead and the only DNA that would be viable would be at the root and we might need to yank over a dozen hairs before we would get one good for transference." Masao countered.
"Not to mention, much less sanitary than a few drops of blood in a drink or something." Midoriya-Kun confirmed giving Yagi a look.
"Do you even use editable haircare products?" Midoriya-Kun questioned, causing Yagi to flush and shake his head then bashfully ducked it.
Midoriya-Kun did not say anything, but Masao was certain that Midoriya-Kun would be calling the man an idiot once they were all out of the room judging by the look he was giving Yagi.
"Wait that's a thing? Shampoo you can eat is a thing?" Togota asked surprised.
"Yeah, there are a lot of brands actually. Animal-based quirked people and especially kids need to groom themselves, and it was easier to make products that you could 'eat' rather than stop the behavior. Not to mention safer for everyone." Midoriya-Kun replied casually.
Masao nodded, trying to stop a five-year-old from licking their fur to clean it was simply futile, you could not keep an eye on them all of the time.
"Is there anything else you want to ask us about Inheritance?" Midoriya-Kun inquired.
Haya raised her hand.
"Would, would they gain the other users quirks? Should we be worried about Nejire growing wings or something?" she asked concerned.
"Yes, they would, but you shouldn't worry about growing any additional features since all of the past holders were Emitters." Midoriya-Kun answered, waving a hand placatingly.
"What would happen if someone, unsuited to Inheritance were to take the quirk?" Togota asked next, looking unsettled.
Midoriya-Kun looked down to the ground.
"They would be dead in minutes, and brain dead in seconds." Midoriya-Kun flatly replied.
"Ah, got it." Togota muttered swallowing thickly.
Most of them falling silent, his friends shuffling uncomfortably.
"I think it would be best to end the meeting now," Midoriya-Kun told them Pushing off from the desk.
"Please talk about this amongst yourselves and ask us every question you want answers for during the week. What we are asking Hado and Amajiki to consider is only supposed to be a last resort, please remember that as you consider taking Inheritance." Midoriya-Kun insisted.
"Yes, that would be for the best." Masao agreed, nodding his head.
Picking up both Sunny and Hado and walking out of the office once Nezu released the lock down he put the room under.
Togota, Haya and Oswald quickly stumbled over themselves to follow him.
"Did, is this really happening?" Haya quietly asked under her breath.
"Yes. Deku-Sensei would never lie about something of this magnitude, and he would never approach us unless he tried all other options before us." Masao told them.
"So, there is a quirk boogy man, whose been alive for centuries, and if the plan to kill him goes to shit, then either Jiki or the Man-eater have to fight him next? God this is fucked up." Oswald said, shaking his head.
Yes, it probably was.
As numbly dense as he was, tiny prickles of fear made his scales shift uncomfortably as he thought of All For One and either Sunny or Hado fighting him.
"At least we're all in this together though, right?" Togota asked, his tone half-hearted.
Masao nodded, wrapping his tail around Togota's shoulders and pulled him closer.
"Together." Masao promised.
He had not thought that he would find friends here at U.A.
But these five were his, a warmth coming from being with them like he was laying in indirect light, and he was happy to help them.
And if it really came down to it, he would join his friends on the battlefield against All For One.
Masao holding all five of his friends in his arms, shoulders and tail
Masao: I've had these people for a year now
Masao covered in death aura
Masao: And if anything happened to them I would burn this world down
Nejire: Can we roast marshmallows on the flames?
Masao: Yes