There can be no greatness without a rival to measure against.
14 August 2170
Izuku stared up at Might Tower in front of him, its eighty-eight above-ground floors stretching over four hundred and seventy-five metres into the sky. It was the tallest building in Japan, a title it has held since its construction in 2147, as well as the fourteenth tallest in the world.
It was a mixture of residential, entertainment and commercial, with the top six floors, most of them double-height, for the exclusive use of Mighty Hero Agency. But All Might was far from the only hero to be headquartered here, with the most high-profile of them being Crust and Mantle, the No.7 and No.15 Hero respectively, who rented out floors 25 through 29 as the Shielding Brothers Agency.
Izuku felt his stomach churn a little, even though he'd been All Might's intern for over a year and a half now, this was his first time visiting Might Tower. Yagi had requested he come, without telling him why, only that it was a surprise.
Girding himself, Izuku walked forward, heading for the automatic doors.
And bounced off.
Izuku righted himself, clearly, the doors were not automatic. Grabbing the handle, Izuku opened the door and stepped inside.
"Woah."
The atrium was magnificent, ten metres in height, and in the centre of a fountain was a statue of All Might, wearing his Golden Age herosuit, the water shooting out of the statue's raised fist.
Approaching the turnstiles that blocked access to the elevators, Izuku produced his Mighty Hero Agency ID card and scanned it. The turnstiles beeped and opened, admitting Izuku past the first level of security.
I can't believe I'm actually here, in Might Tower, on my way up to the Mighty Hero Agency.
Izuku had been devastated when Mighty Hero Agency tours had been permanently cancelled when he'd been nine years old, he'd never gotten a chance to go on one of them before they were.
They said it was because of frequent villain attacks, but looking back at it now, that was right around when Yagi got injured.
The soft ding of the elevator shook Izuku from his thoughts, the door opening to allow a group of people to exit. Entering with a few tired-looking salarymen at his back, Izuku scanned the controls for Floor 83.
Izuku frowned, it listed every floor but stopped at Floor 82.
"E-Excuse me?" Izuku spoke, looking at one of the men in the lift with him. "There's no button for Floor 83."
The man snorted dismissively. "The public elevators only go up to Floor 82, you'll be wanting the central elevator, not that they'll let a random kid up."
Izuku bowed his head in thanks, ignoring the man's derision, just managing to get out of the elevator before the doors shut. Turning, Izuku stared back at the row of elevators, feeling foolish at the sight of the central elevator, the doors far larger than the others, painted blue, red and yellow in the style of All Might's Golden Age herosuit.
Approaching the central elevator, Izuku pressed the call button, the doors opening immediately. Entering the elevator, Izuku looked around for a panel of buttons, only to find none.
"Please present your identification."
Jumping at the synthesised voice, Izuku noticed a card scanner on the wall, quickly scanning his ID upon it.
"Accepted, please state the desired floor."
"Floor 83."
The elevator vibrated as it began to ascend, a tinny rendition of 'American Pie' playing through the speakers.
"Floor 83, we are here."
With a slight jolt, the elevator came to a halt before the doors opened a few seconds later.
"Good afternoon."
Izuku started, taken aback by a woman standing outside the now-open elevator doors.
"H-Hello." Izuku spoke, as he nervously stepped out of the elevator, the doors closing behind him. "I'm Izuku Midoriya, I'm here to see All Might."
"Yes, we were expecting you, if you'd like to follow me." The woman replied. "I'm Naomi Horikoshi. I'm the office manager here at Mighty Hero Agency."
Ms. Horikoshi led Izuku past the reception desk and onto the office floor, revealing it to be broken down into various departments, Licencing, Analysis, Financial, Dispatch.
"This is the main floor, the vast majority of those who work for Mighty Hero Agency can be found here when working in the office."
The tour took them on a loop of the double-height floor, returning them to the entrance area they'd started at.
"We could take the elevator up to eighty-four, but I find it too much hassle, let's take the stairs." Ms. Horikoshi reasoned, opening the door to the stairwell, inside there was a security door that blocked the downward stairs. "You could come up in the Mighty Elevator as you have a Mighty Hero Agency ID, true visitors have to come up to the eighty-second and then up the stairs to the eighty-third."
Ms. Horikoshi took the stairs two at a time, making Izuku hurry to keep up. Opening the door, she led the green-haired boy out into the eighty-fourth floor, which was also double-height like the floor below.
"I'll keep this one quick, it is mainly personal offices and boardrooms on this floor, quite boring really. On to the next."
After another race up the stairs, they came out on the eighty-fifth floor, which was only single-height.
"Right, this floor has the cafeteria, it's all free, just show your ID card, a gym, a pool, the lounge area and the mediation-come-nap rooms. But the pièce de résistance of this floor is that, the Might Gate."
Izuku saw it, down the corridor, opposite to where they stood, a wall of blue steel, patterned with red and yellow in the style of Golden Age All Might. A heavy gate stood in the centre of it, looking as imposing as the pictures Izuku had seen of it online.
"The Might Gate?" Izuku breathed.
The entrance to All Might's inner sanctum, supposedly protecting his personal apartment and offices. It had never been breached by a villain and the number of people said to have the clearance to pass through it could be counted on one hand, with fingers to spare.
"That it is, you fanboy." Ms. Horikoshi joked. "All Might's waiting for you up there, but if you need anything, don't hesitate to give me a ring, that's my number on the back of your ID card."
"You aren't coming?" Izuku questioned, suddenly feeling nervous.
Ms. Horikoshi chuckled. "I can't, even I don't have clearance."
"But I do?"
"Don't rub it in, kid." Ms. Horikoshi replied light-heartedly. "You've got access. All Might asked that I set it up for you at the same time as I issued that ID of yours."
Yagi gave me clearance to the Might Gate all the way back then?
Izuku felt a mixture of pride and a crushing sense of unworthiness at the level of trust and belief his mentor had put in him.
"Go on, it won't bite." Ms. Horikoshi quipped, before vanishing back down the stairwell. "You have clearance, others…"
Nervously, Izuku began to approach the Might Gate, unsure as to what he should expect.
I'm way beyond what the hero forums know about this.
Just as Izuku reached the Might Gate, a loud beep sounded, making him jump.
"Welcome, Izuku Midoriya."
With a mighty rumble, the blast doors split apart and retracted away from each other, revealing a platform, its massive size dwarfing even the comparatively large size of the Mighty Elevator.
Stepping onto the platform, Izuku turned around to look back the way he had come as the blast doors ground back closed.
"Please state the desired floor."
"Floor 86." Izuku breathed, in a state of total shock and disbelief that he was truly about to enter All Might's personal floors.
"Floor 86, going up."
The platform began to move, ascending the space of a single storey in less than a second.
"Floor 86, we are here."
The doors slid open, revealing a triple-height apartment, with an open plan foyer area in front of Izuku, which led to a balcony that was fully recessed within the outline of the tower. On the balcony was a large swimming pool with a bar and a dining area to one side.
The view out of the windows was spectacular, looking to the east, Izuku could see Tokyo Tower in all its glory, still there despite the horrors of the Darkest Days that had destroyed numerous famous buildings.
"All Might?"
Seeing no trace of Yagi, or All Might, Izuku turned to the left, the north side of the tower, glancing through the first door to see a large gym with a connected sauna. Continuing down the corridor, halfway along the length of the floor he entered into a large games room, with a snooker table, an air hockey table, and an impressive collection of gaming consoles under an 88" TV, a thin layer of dust covered them all.
"Yagi?"
Passing through to the corridor on the opposite side of the games room, Izuku found another door, this one to a home cinema room.
Coming out at the west side of the tower, he found himself in a massive open-plan kitchen-diner-lounge that went through to the next floor up, with stairs up to it and a mezzanine.
Izuku marvelled at the view, looking out over Shibuya.
"Young Midoriya, you're here!"
Izuku started at the sound of All Might's booming voice, coming from one of the giant plush sofas. Izuku had to double take at the sight of him, he was neither in his true form, nor his hero form. He appeared to be somewhere in the middle of the two, dressed in an All Might tracksuit.
"I had wondered where you got to." All Might chuckled. "I was about to send out a search party."
"All Might?"
All Might stood, looking abashed. "Oh, yes, I should have mentioned, I can do this with my quirk, doesn't use as much of my time limit as my other form does, but I don't have anywhere near my full strength."
"Woah, but why are you—"
"I'm expecting guests, one of them doesn't know about my injuries and this is about what my natural form looked like before I was injured." All Might explained. "So, what do you think of the tower?"
"This place is amazing!" Izuku gushed. "I can't believe I'm here. I can't believe you'd allow me in here, this is your inner sanctum."
All Might smiled, watching Izuku gush.
"I'm surprised it's taken this long for you to visit Might Tower." All Might stated, standing from the sofa. "And this isn't the inner sanctum, follow me."
Izuku followed All Might to the wall behind them, where he caught sight of a vault door set into the wall of the tower core.
"I am here." All Might spoke clearly.
With a hiss, the handle began to spin, the vault door swinging open.
"After you."
Izuku entered the vault, his jaw dropping open at the sight within.
The floors and walls were shining silver metal, the room was in the shape of a triangle, with the point opposite to the entrance.
At the back corner of the vault was a gigantic glass circular cabinet, within it was All Might's Golden Age herosuit. Down the left-hand wall it was lined with more cabinets, containing the rest of All Might's various herosuits, on the right-hand wall were cabinets containing Sir Nighteye's very mundane business suit, David Shield's armour and a number of others.
There were two herosuits that Izuku didn't recognise, a white and yellow herosuit with a matching yellow cape, and a dark, sleeveless herosuit with a high collar, yellow gauntlets, a red belt with a golden buckle and white knee-high boots, a white cape draped around the shoulders.
"This is the real inner sanctum." All Might explained. "And this one—"
All Might pointed to a cabinet, positioned at the Golden Age herosuit's right-hand side, it was empty.
"—is yours."
"M-Mine." Izuku stuttered, pointing at himself.
All Might nodded and smiled. "It most certainly is, and it's the reason why I invited you here today."
Any follow-up questions Izuku may have had were cut off by All Might's wristwatch beginning to beep softly.
"A-ha, my guests are here." All Might boomed. "I am going."
A hiss sounded as the main cabinet lifted into the air, revealing a back entrance into the platform Izuku had come up from the Might Gate on.
"Shall we?" All Might spoke, gesturing towards the entrance.
Izuku entered the elevator, followed by All Might.
"Please state the desired floor."
"Rooftop."
The platform rumbled into life, passing Floor 87, which Izuku surmised was the bedrooms, and Floor 88, which some rumours claimed contained All Might's massive classic car collection, others a private distillery.
A strong gust buffeted Izuku as the platform came to a halt in the open air, the metal flush with the rooftop.
The No.1 Hero pointed to a red speck in the distance, growing larger by the second. "I think I said it before, but, I should warn you, one of them doesn't know about—"
All Might gestured to the general area of his injury.
"—so I'll be staying in this form while they're here. I don't want her to know."
Izuku nodded in understanding, before his jaw dropped open.
"That's the Allmobile, isn't it?" Izuku gasped, watching as the red speck grew in size, a few more features becoming apparent to see.
Izuku frowned at the sight of something green and black, attached to the front of the Allmobile.
"What is that?" All Might questioned, the look of puzzlement on his face matching how Izuku felt, the No.1 Hero suddenly assuming his hero form.
"I don't know." Izuku asked, cocking his head. "It almost looks like a person—"
"—FUCKING DIE, YOU MANIACS!"
Izuku sighed.
Thirty Minutes Earlier…
"Have you double-checked the stabilisers?"
"Done."
"The dampeners."
"Done."
"Then let's do this." Airjet smirked, kitted out in his hero costume, his helmet under his arm. "Ascend."
With a shuddering lurch, the platform began to rise, the metal shutters in the roof of Buster Hero Agency grinding open to reveal the sky.
Katsuki tightened the straps of his jetpack, ensuring they were secure.
"You ready for your first flight?" Airjet queried.
"I've been ready for months." Katsuki barked. "I've aced all the damn simulations you've thrown at me."
"So you have." Airjet chuckled, donning his helmet.
Katsuki snorted, finishing zipping up his green flight suit and pulling on his own helmet. As much as he loathed to admit it, training under Airjet had made him realise he had more work to do if he was going to be the next No.1 Hero.
So he'd taken Airjet's suggestion, to build a jetpack like his to grant him sustained flight and make him an aerial hero. It had been hard and confusing at first, learning how to service, design and build support equipment. He'd waited over a year for this, months of painstaking work, designing and redesigning his jetpack, before finally getting to build the damn thing.
Firing up the jets, Katsuki ran it through the pre-flight checks.
"See you in the sky." Airjet spoke, lifting into the air.
"Oi!" Katsuki shouted, revving the engine and crouching down.
Releasing an explosion from each of his palms, Katsuki launched himself into the air, before the jetpack kicked in, continuing his ascent after the force of his explosions could take him no further.
"Catch me if you can, old man!" Katsuki jeered as he passed Airjet.
"Old man?" Airjet spluttered. "I'm twenty-nine."
"Like I said, old man." Katsuki retorted, coming to a halt, hovering above his mentor.
"You know I can terminate the training agreement." Airjet joked.
Katsuki snorted. "And pass up the opportunity to brag that you trained the future No.1 Hero once I make it big."
"If you make it big."
"Ain't no ifs about it." Katsuki declared. "I'm gonna surpass everyone, All Might, Endeavor, Deku, the whole lot of them, ain't nobody gonna stand in my way."
Airjet chuckled and shook his head. "Come on, then, your HUD's got the route mapped, a lap around Tokyo Tower and back again."
"Why not Might Tower?" Katsuki groused.
"Because that place has better security than most military bases." Airjet answered. "Do you know, on average, how many villain attacks are made on Might Tower in a month?"
Katsuki shrugged.
"Twenty-three." Airjet supplied. "That's why the Might Tower Hero Agency exists, they're on Floor 70, they defend the tower."
Katsuki grunted in dissatisfaction.
At least I'll get to see it from afar.
"Right, ready?" Airjet questioned.
"Hell yeah I am." Katsuki stated brazenly.
Without waiting, Airjet burst into motion, jetting off in the general direction of Tokyo.
"Catch me if ya can, slowpoke!" Airjet taunted.
Katsuki growled, firing up his jets and blasting off after Airjet. Turning this way and that, Katsuki manoeuvred between buildings and bridges, unable to catch up to Airjet at all.
As buildings gave way to verdant fields, Katsuki aimed his hands behind him, routinely firing off explosions to boost his speed and try to close the gap.
Within a couple of minutes, the skyline of Yokohama came into view, Airjet already weaving his way through the buildings.
Fuck this.
Igniting his palms and pushing his jetpack to its maximum sustained thrust, Katsuki began to climb, rising above the tops of the buildings, allowing him to start catching up with Airjet.
"Oi, Bakugo, don't go too high!"
But Katsuki ignored him, and continued to climb into the sky, exhilaration pumping in his veins.
"Bakugo, that's high enough, wait up!"
Katsuki ignored him once again, activating the boost feature he'd added a couple of weeks ago to propel himself ever higher.
Higher, I need to go higher.
Katsuki glanced behind himself and squinted, catching sight of a red blob appearing on the horizon.
It was at that moment that Katsuki's jetpack decided to make a loud bang and emit great gouts of black smoke.
"Shit."
Katsuki was falling, pulling out his hands, he fired an explosion from each, but they did little to slow him down.
The red object Katsuki had seen earlier had come into focus, now positioned directly in the path of Katsuki's fall.
It was a car. A red, flying car.
"The Allmobile?"
Katsuki panicked, blasting off multiple explosions to slow his impact with the vehicle, but before he could, the Allmobile dived, matching the blond-haired boy's velocity.
A panel on the hood of the Allmobile opened up, revealing an articulated claw that latched onto Katsuki around his waist. Slowly, the Allmobile slowed its descent before levelling off.
"Oi, fucking let go of me, you creep!"
Katsuki hit the hood with a gentle thump, quickly grabbing hold of it to secure himself.
"Stop driving, you mad fuck!"
But the driver of the vehicle paid no mind to him, continuing to fly.
Glancing round, Katsuki watched as the mountainous Might Tower came into view, growing larger by the second, he could see turrets raising themselves to aim directly at them.
"THAT'S MIGHT TOWER, WE'RE GONNA FUCKING DIE, YOU MANIACS!"
Finally, the Allmobile began to slow, descending towards the roof of Might Tower as the turret powered down. With a juddering stop, the vehicle touched down, skidding to a halt. Katsuki lost his grip, flipping over in mid-air, bracing himself to hit the rooftop, only to find that a pair of large, muscular arms had caught him.
Looking up, Katsuki saw his beaming smile, his iconic hairdo.
"All Might!"
Katsuki rolled out of the No.1 Hero's arm, landing on his feet, before straightening his flight suit to try and look at ease.
"Are you okay, Kacchan?"
Katsuki felt a vein in his forehead pulse, incandescent rage filling him.
"Deku!" Katsuki barked, turning his head to see the fucking nerd standing next to him, wearing one of his numerous All Might sweatshirts, bronze age. "What the fuck are you doing here!"
Fucking bastard, rubbing the fact that All Might is mentoring him in my face! It should be me, not him!
Katsuki pulled his helmet off, throwing it into the gravel on the rooftop, before tousling his hair.
Fuck this, I'll prove I'm better by beating the damn Deku, not even All Might can save him from mediocrity.
"Have you been involved in an accident that wasn't your fault?" Airjet quipped as he touched down on the roof of Might Tower.
Katsuki turned his head and glared at his mentor.
With a hiss, one of the doors to the Allmobile opened, revealing a tall man with an average build and short, tousled brown hair.
"David Shield!"
Izuku stood in shock as one of his greatest heroes got out of the Allmobile, specifically the Model IX, the most recent model, first used in 2157.
David Shield had been All Might's sidekick from his time in America until he retired from heroics in 2159. To Izuku growing up, he had been a lifeline to his dreams of becoming a hero. Unlike almost every other hero, David Shield didn't use his quirk, Squirmy Fingers, instead relying on his intelligence and his inventions.
"Are you okay?" Dr. Shield asked, looking at Bakugo.
Bakugo bristled. "Of course I am."
"Dave, it's so good to see you!" All Might greeted, pulling Dr. Shield into what looked like a bone-crushing hug.
"It's great to see you as well, T-All Might." David Shield groaned as he stepped backward, stretching his back. "First time back in Japan in, what, three, four years?"
"Five years." All Might corrected, sounding suddenly serious.
Another hiss sounded.
Izuku looked back to the Allmobile, watching the other door open to reveal a blonde-haired girl, maybe a year or two older than Izuku.
The girl stomped over to Bakugo and grabbed him by his jetpack, turning him around.
"You could have died." The girl spoke plainly, producing a screwdriver from her pocket and beginning to open the back panel of the jetpack up. "It was lucky my father and I were on our way past."
Bakugo snorted dismissively. "I had it in hand."
The girl looked over at Izuku. "Is he always like this?"
Izuku found his voice had abandoned him, choosing to nod instead.
"It's just one of the thrust generators, the fucking thing's overheated." Bakugo barked, trying to turn away, but the girl held the jetpack in place.
"Just one of the thrust generators? Overheated?" The girl questioned, her voice even. "Your thermal management unit is fried, the fuel delivery system is leaking and I can't see any emergency safety systems, just a botched booster system. What kind of utter cowboy built this thing?"
Bakugo again bristled, barely managing to rein in his temper. "I built this thing."
"Well then, I suggest you throw the thing away and start again." The girl answered honestly.
In Izuku's opinion, probably too honest when Bakugo was involved.
Bakugo was seething, about to erupt at the blonde-haired girl, only for Airjet to suddenly grab Bakugo by the ear.
"You removed the ESS?" Airjet questioned, his voice incredibly serious.
"So what? I've got my explosions to slow my fall." Bakugo retorted defiantly.
"And if you were knocked out in a fight, the ESS would activate on its own to save you." Airjet shook his head. "I genuinely enjoy mentoring you, Bakugo, but if you ever do anything like this again, I will end our training agreement."
Izuku didn't know how to process what he was seeing, apart from by his parents, Bakugo had never been chastised or punished by any authority figures, only encouraged. Instead of exploding in rage, Bakugo looked genuinely shame-faced for the first time since his quirk had come in.
He actually respects Airjet.
"I'm sorry for this, All Might." Airjet apologised, looking to the No.1 Hero. "Do you mind if we use—"
"Go right ahead." All Might replied jovially. "Just ask for Floor 1, it'll take you straight down to street level."
"Thank you." Airjet nodded his head, before tugging on Bakugo's ear. "Come on, you idiot."
Sputtering and hissing, Bakugo was dragged to the platform by Airjet, before they both began to descend a few seconds later.
Izuku shuddered, Bakugo's eyes glaring back at him before they vanished below the level of the roof.
"So, you guys know each other?" The girl asked, approaching Izuku. "Are you friends?"
"I, uh, we go to school together, I wouldn't say friends." Izuku stuttered out. "I mean, we used to be, but that was years ago, before his quirk came in, and then we kind of grew apart, and then m-my quirk came in and now he thinks we're kind of rivals. I'm rambling, aren't I?"
"A little." The girl smiled, before holding her hand out. "It's really nice to meet you. I'm Melissa Shield, by the way."
Melissa Shield? That must mean David Shield is her father!
"It's really nice to meet you, too, as well. I'm Midoriya, Izuku Midoriya." The green-haired boy replied, shaking her hand, hoping his palm wasn't as sweaty as it felt to him.
I'm talking to a girl, I'm shaking her hand. What do I do? Why are we shaking so long? How do I stop?
All Might gently cleared his throat.
Izuku and Melissa broke the handshake, both blushing slightly, the latter turning to the No.1 Hero, before running to him and tackling him into a hug.
"I thought you'd forgotten about me." All Might chuckled, before whispering something that made Melissa blush.
"Of course I haven't forgotten about you, Uncle Might!" Melissa denied. "It's so good to see you, it feels like forever."
"You've grown so much, Melissa." All Might spoke, a beaming smile on his face. "How's I-Island? How's school?"
"Going well, I've learnt a lot, especially since Dad gives lectures every so often." Melissa answered as All Might set her down.
"Going well?" Dr. Shield repeated incredulously. "She's skipped another grade, going back into her final year next month."
Melissa blushed at the praise. "I didn't mean to."
"Well, it's wonderful news. Have you thought about what you're going to do after you finish at I-Academy?" All Might asked.
"I don't really know yet. I had thought about applying to I-University, or maybe a Quirk Sciences course." Melissa offered, sounding unsure.
"Really, I've heard UA is adding a new Quirk Studies course from this next year." All Might replied, before looking over at Izuku. "Don't tell anyone I told you that, Young Midoriya, it's not public knowledge yet."
Melissa shook her head, laughing. "Never change, Uncle Might."
"I'm determined not to." All Might smiled back.
Dr. Shield turned to look at Izuku, suddenly making him feel very nervous.
"So, you must be the 'Young Midoriya' that Toshi has been telling me about." Dr. Shield spoke, holding out his hand.
Toshi?
"H-Hi, Dr. Shield, I'm a big fan." Izuku greeted, shaking Dr. Shield's hand, this time for a more normal amount of time.
Inside, Izuku was screaming, he was meeting David Shield, the David Shield, the man who held two Nobel Quirk Prizes, one for Quirk Remodelling and the other on binatism. He'd even been the one to introduce the theory that the first triumvirate was already born and the world just didn't know about them yet.
"So I've heard, Toshinori has said your quirk analysis is quite impressive." Dr. Shield replied.
"Wouldn't say that." Izuku refuted.
"Well, I'd like to have a look at some point, remind me at some point, and I'll give you my email address." Dr. Shield stated. "Plus, I do have some scans and documents that may help you with your project you're working on with Recovery Girl."
Well, that confirms who it is that doesn't know about Yagi's injury, although it was kind of obvious.
"That would be massively helpful." Izuku gabbled.
"Now, onto the reason for Dave and Melissa's visit, other than for me to get to see them, of course." All Might explained. "They're here, Young Midoriya, to help you design your first herosuit!"
What?
Izuku felt like his brain was crashing. David Shield was going to design his herosuit, the sole developer of all of All Might's known herosuits.
"Oh dear, I think we've broken him."
"I'd be honoured." Izuku breathed, breaking out of his stupor.
"So then, to the lab?" Dr. Shield questioned, looking to All Might.
All Might laughed, booming and bold. "Lead on, Dave."
With a wry chuckle, Dr. Shield moved to the Mighty Platform, now returned to the rooftop level. "Shall we?"
Izuku pulled nervously at the grey bodysuit that Dr. Shield had told him to put on.
When did I get so muscular? And why does this have to be so tight?
From the rooftop they'd gone down to Floor 86, the bottom floor of All Might's apartment, to a large laboratory, Dr. Shield's when he'd lived at Might Tower. That's when Dr. Shield had given Izuku this outfit and asked him to change into it.
Exiting the bathroom he'd changed in, located on the floor above, Izuku headed to the mezzanine and down the stairs. Walking round to the south side of Floor 86, he walked past a door he had learnt led to All Might's private office before entering a well-stocked open-plan library, mirroring the open-plan games room on the other side of the building.
Just after that, on the right was the entrance to the laboratory, a heavy silver metal blast door. Holding his Mighty ID to the scanner, Izuku waited until it beeped, the blast door rumbling open.
"Young Midoriya, you're back!" All Might boomed from where he stood behind Dr. Shield, who was sitting at a laptop.
"Does it really need to be so tight?" Izuku asked, feeling self-conscious.
"The final design? No, we can make it a little looser, or a lot looser if you want." Dr. Shield assured him. "Right, Melissa?"
A couple of seconds later Melissa appeared from behind a workbench, a bunch of cables in her hand, running to some kind of monitor on the workbench itself.
"I, yes, that can be done." Melissa answered stutteringly, her face red from exertion. "I didn't realise it would be so, form-fitting."
All Might chuckled, playfully elbowing Melissa. "His training is coming along nicely, isn't it?"
"Yes." Melissa replied quickly. "I mean, I'm sure you're training him well, Uncle Might."
Dr. Shield stood up, the corner of his mouth upturned. "So, what you're wearing is an advanced modular bodysuit, or AMB for short, it's made from adaptive nanofiber technology integrated with a responsive pigment matrix."
"Each fibre in the suit contains microscopic programmable cells that can dynamically alter their colour, pattern, and texture, all in real time." Melissa added.
"The system interfaces with the remote control software on here." Dr. Shield gestured to his laptop. "That allows us to trial a number of designs for the undersuit of your hero costume, and make alterations on the fly, all without having to physically change attire."
"All this means that we can evaluate the functionality, the aesthetics, the visibility of herosuits, under a wide range of conditions with an unparalleled ease." Melissa continued. "Despite what some heroes might want, the AMB is not suitable for general heroics usage, it simply doesn't have the durability or the protection required for a herosuit."
Dr. Shield finished. "Sorry, that was a bit of a sales pitch, wasn't it? At I-Island, we're all used to having to convince the I-Island Resource Allocation Board to fund and approve our projects."
"So this can turn into a herosuit?" Izuku questioned, looking down at the glossy material.
"Within reason, it couldn't do heroes who wear armour, like Wash or Yoroi Musha." Dr. Shield answered. "Want to try out one of All Might's herosuits?"
Izuku couldn't believe his ears, nodding his head vigorously.
"How about the classic Golden Age?" Dr. Shield spoke, pressing on his keyboard.
The bodysuit rippled, turning to blue, red and yellow until Izuku was wearing an exact copy of All Might's Golden Age costume.
This is amazing! I'm actually wearing All Might's costume. I mean, I know I've worn All Might tracksuits, or jumpsuits when I was younger, but this is actually the proper costume!
"Or what about something a little more retro?" Dr. Shield asked rhetorically.
The AMB shifted again, this time taking the form of All Might's Young Age costume, missing the gauntlets, boots and cape.
"And with this." Dr. Shield turned on the projector, a holographic X appearing in the air in front of Izuku. "I can add the missing accessories, the AMB cannot replicate anything that isn't part of the suit itself."
The X vanished, replaced by holograms of the Young Age boots and gauntlets, which quickly tracked his location and moved to project onto the parts of his body where they should be. Finally, a hologram of a cape appeared, wrapping itself around Izuku's shoulder.
"Woah." Izuku lifted his arms, waving them around, the gauntlet holograms seamlessly matching his movements. "This is amazing."
"So, do you have any thoughts on your herosuit?" Dr. Shield asked.
Izuku hesitated, of course, he doodled thousands of ideas over the years, but there was one design he kept returning to in the last couple of years.
Rushing over to his backpack and bending down, the cape realistically pooling on the floor, Izuku opened it and produced his latest hero notebook, Volume 17.
"It's on page 47." Izuku explained, handing the notebook to Dr. Shield.
Flicking through the notebook, slower than Izuku was expecting, Dr. Shield made noises of approval. "Toshinori was right, your quirk analysis is impressive. I take it you've not had any formal training?"
Izuku shook his head, his cheeks feeling warm. "No, I haven't, none."
"Aha, here we are, that's quite detailed." Dr. Shield mused, before placing the notebook in some kind of scanner. "Let's get this design into the system."
A few seconds later accessory holograms faded away and the AMB rippled, changing to a navy bodysuit, with red stripes of colour mimicking All Might's Bronze Age costume around the chest and shoulders, before travelling down in his flank on each side, making a D-shape, above his waist and then travelling down the outside seam of his legs to his ankles.
Introduced in 2165, after what Izuku now knew was when All Might was injured, the Bronze Age costume had been unpopular from the very start, with most people complaining that the mostly black suit didn't match All Might.
Within a couple of years, All Might had reverted to his Golden Age, which had been previously retired from service in 2158.
But Izuku held a soft spot for the Bronze Age costume, so he hoped changing the colours would allow his homage to his idol and mentor to go without criticism.
Next, holograms appeared, creating a yellow belt around his waist, with a steel coin dispenser on each side, allowing him quick access to yen pieces for his energy attacks. Red boots with white soles, just like his everyday footwear, came into existence around his feet, the only difference being that the tops of them came a little further up his legs, to his lower calves.
Then came the gauntlets, which were to be made of a reinforced plastic over a synthetic viscoelastic urethane polymer, which would absorb some of the shock of his energy attacks, allowing him to burn more material and create more powerful attacks. They were black with red stripes around the tops, directly copying the general colour scheme of the Bronze Age suit.
Finally came the kneepads, matching the construction and design of the gauntlets.
"Well, Young Midoriya, as if I needed any further confirmation that you're an utter fanboy." All Might teased.
Izuku blushed.
"I like the design, but I'm not sure about the colours." Dr. Shield murmured. "The darkness of the black was the issue with the Bronze Age design, I don't think the navy does enough to combat this, let's try…"
The navy shifted, turning to white.
Dr. Shield recoiled slightly. "Oh, that's so much worse, how about…"
The white gave way to red on the upper body, the legs returning to navy, the red stripes over the whole body turning white, mimicking the colour scheme of the Silver Age costume.
"That's better, but it's just not quite right." All Might mused. "Do you agree, Dave?"
Dr. Shield nodded absentmindedly, studying the costume.
"How about green and gold?" Melissa spoke up, before her cheeks flushed at the sudden attention. "Like his hair and eyes."
Dr. Shield shrugged. "Let's try it, I'll need to change the belt colour, though, I think."
Instantly the main colour of the undersuit changed, turning to a forest green that matched his hair, the stripes turned to a yellow-gold colour and the belt shifted to red, a black metal buckle identical to the one from the Bronze Age costume appearing at its centre. The only parts of the costume remaining completely untouched were the gauntlets, kneepads and boots.
"Now that looks like a real herosuit." All Might praised. "Looking sharp, Young Midoriya."
Izuku ducked his head. "Thank you, there was something else, though."
"Shoot." Dr. Shield replied, looking up from his laptop to Izuku.
"The gauntlets, is there a way they could store and dispense some coins into my hands? I use them to create my energy attacks."
"I don't see why not. I assume you use yen coins? What denomination do you want it to dispense?" Dr. Shield queried.
Izuku hesitated. "Ten yen?"
"Young Midoriya, the last time you used a ten-yen piece, you fractured your arm in two places. We can always upgrade the gauntlets to increase the denomination once we know you can handle it." All Might cautioned.
"I know ten yen is a lot of power, but the gauntlets themselves are designed to absorb the shock from the attacks, plus I can heal my arms if needed."
All Might seemed to be debating with himself before finally speaking. "A compromise, five yen pieces in the gauntlet, except for the last one it dispenses, that one can be ten yen, for emergencies only."
Izuku nodded vigorously, knowing that was the best deal he was going to get.
"How powerful are your attacks, compared to Toshinori's?" Dr. Shield questioned. "Just for reference."
"Uh, I haven't directly tested it, but a five-yen piece seems to match about a twentieth of All Might's full power." Izuku explained.
"Huh, five yen for five percent, that's convenient." Dr. Shield muttered, before nodding to All Might. "I should be able to make gauntlets able to take around fifteen percent, but that would probably break them after a few attacks of that power."
All Might clapped his hands together, making a sound like a gunshot. "Right, how about some lunch? Want to help me order, Melissa?"
"Can I pick?" Melissa asked, looking excited.
"Damn straight you can!" All Might boomed, picking up Melissa and putting her over his shoulder.
"Uncle Might!" Melissa exclaimed through laughter.
"I'll stay here with Midoriya and hammer out the last few details." Dr. Shield spoke.
"Haha, off we go!" All Might declared, racing out of the laboratory, betraying no sign of his injury.
The door hissed shut, locking in place.
"Now, we can talk about your project." Dr. Shield spoke. "Melissa doesn't know about Toshinori's injury, and I know he'd prefer to keep it that way."
"Yagi said before you arrived." Izuku replied.
"So, from what Toshinori said, your quirk is some kind of matter manipulator?"
Izuku nodded. "It's called Overhaul, it lets me disassemble, reassemble and transmute matter, but I can choose not to reassemble, that's how I create my energy attacks."
"So this works on organic and non-organic matter?" Dr. Shield uttered. "That sounds like it could be potentially horrifying in the wrong hands."
Izuku shuddered at the memory of Kai Chisaki standing over him, his fingers pressing into Izuku's cheek.
"It could be, but I'm never going to use it that way." Izuku declared. "I'm going to use Overhaul to heal All Might."
"That's what I like to hear." Dr. Shield replied, with a relieved smile. "So, how is it coming on?"
"Not as quickly as I'd like." Izuku admitted, the wind coming out of his sails. "In order to heal an old injury like that I need to have the structure of everything I want to change in my mind perfectly, if I mess up, I could potentially kill him."
Izuku returned to his backpack, protecting a USB drive and holding it out to Dr. Shield. "This is where I'm up to. I have some scans from Recovery Girl from before his injury, even some from when he was a student at UA, but it's lacking the detail I need to be confident it will work."
"I definitely think I can help. Toshinori comes to I-Island in secret every year for his physical, for his quirk that is, I'm not that kind of doctor, but the scans I do are medical grade." Dr. Shield continued to study the contents of the USB on his laptop.
"If they're that detailed, then the only barrier to me completing the healing is for me to memorise the target structure." Izuku breathed.
"How long should that take?" Dr. Shield queried.
"Maybe a year, I have to commit it all to memory, and routinely test my knowledge. I need to have it in my long-term memory. It's going to be a stressful process, I cannot afford to make a mistake." Izuku admitted. "I can't be the person who killed All Might."
"Well, you're doing better than me." Dr. Shield assured him. "When the time comes, I'll be there to help in any way you need me to."
"That would be amazing, thank you!"
"So, what are you planning on using as the donor material?" Dr. Shield posed. "I assume you need to transform the new organ from a similar material."
"I don't strictly need to, Overhaul lets me transmute any material to any other material. However, the more dissimilar the starting and target materials are, the more draining it is for me. Steel to iron is easy, but steel to gold is very tiring." Izuku answered. "So, we're planning on using pig flesh, Recovery Girl says it's very similar to human flesh, so the stamina cost will be fairly low."
"A noble sacrifice." Dr. Shield mused.
Izuku frowned, before realisation dawned on his face. "Oh, no, we're not going to be killing the pig. It will be sedated and I'm going to overhaul it into a smaller, but crucially, alive pig. The excess pig flesh will then be overhauled into flesh with All Might's DNA, before it is again overhauled into his missing organs, inside of his body."
"I think that is about as ethical as it could possibly be done." Dr. Shield blew out a breath. "The pig lives and Toshi gets his health back."
Izuku nodded. "I couldn't stomach the idea of killing an animal, that probably makes me a hypocrite because I'm not a vegetarian."
Dr. Shield leaned back against a workstation. "You know, I was working on a solution of my own, not to heal him, but to slow his decline, it didn't pan out, but I guess it's not needed now, and for that, I thank you."
Izuku didn't know what to say, his face turning beet red.
"Come on then, Midoriya." Dr. Shield closed his laptop. "Let's get out there before Toshi orders way too much food like he usually does, although maybe you should change before we eat, I have no idea how the adaptive polymer would react to food being spilled on it."
"I'll change, right, I don't want to ruin your invention." Izuku apologised.
"It's not my invention." Dr. Shield replied. "It's Melissa, I know, give a few years and she'll have surpassed me entirely. I can't wait to see how far she'll go."
Izuku nodded his head, leaving the laboratory and heading up the stairs two at a time, only to nearly go headlong into Melissa coming the other way.
"I'm so sorry!" Izuku uttered, his face burning.
"No, it's my fault." Melissa replied, her face equally red. "Your quirk is amazing, by the way, I wanted to say it earlier, but I was worried it might sound a bit weird."
"N-No, not at all." Izuku hurriedly replied. "Dr. Shield said you designed the AMB suit, that's pretty amazing too."
"Thanks." Melissa's face fell a little. "I actually wanted to be a hero originally, but I like support as well."
"Why do you not want to be a hero anymore?"
"It's not that I don't want it anymore, but, I'm quirkless." Melissa stated, a look of resignation on her face.
Izuku shook his head. "You shouldn't let that stop you."
Melissa released a bitter chuckle, the contrast to her previously bubbly disposition taking Izuku by surprise.
"That's easy for you to say."
"I was quirkless." The words tumbled out of Izuku's mouth without him really thinking about saying them. "I still would be, if—"
Izuku stopped.
"If?" Melissa prompted.
Izuku released a sigh. "I was attacked by a villain, and it turned out I had a quirk all along."
"That's when you awoke Overhaul then?"
Izuku shook his head, hesitating.
I can't tell her the truth, but I can tell her the cover story the HPSC gave me.
"Not quite, my real quirk, it lets me copy a quirk, permanently, but that quirk has to be used on me first, with deliberate lethal intent." Izuku explained. "Overhaul was the quirk of the man who tried to kill me, my core quirk cancelled his quirk before he could do so, and then copied it, but it's a one-time thing."
"That's horrible." Melissa blanched. "I'm so sorry for asking."
"I don't mind, though I have the quirk of a villain, I've decided I'm going to be a hero regardless." Izuku stated. "You can be too, without a quirk, if you want to."
"I think I do." Melissa admitted, staring back at Izuku.
The sound of a doorbell ringing snapped them out of their trance, both blushing.
"The food is here!" All Might boomed.
"I'm going to head down." Melissa spoke, pointing past Izuku.
"I, er, of course, I'll see you down there." Izuku replied, shifting to one side to let Melissa down the stairs. "I'm just going to change first."
"Be quick, Uncle Might might eat it all if you don't." Melissa teased, turning out of view at the bottom of the stairs.
No, he won't.
Izuku had seen how little Yagi ate, Overhaul had told him how little remained of his stomach.
I'm going to heal you, All Might. I made a promise, and I'm going to keep it.
-Origins Arc-
