Chapter 37: I-Island
"Look!" Izuku, face squished against the plane window, pointed out to Eri, "It's I-Island!"
The little girl took in the entirely circular island, the tall walls circling it, the colorful buildings, and the planes landing and taking off. "Shouldn't it be flying?"
Her Master chuckled at the question, "It isn't that type of floating island. I-Island was man-made, and the people who did it made it float in the sea like a boat. That way they can sail around with it to avoid bad people trying to attack it."
"Oh." She tilted her head aside, thinking it over, "Wouldn't making it the other type of floating island better?"
Izuku hummed, considering Eri's words. "I think it was a question of how hard it is making an island float in the air compared to making it float in the sea. It's a lot easier to make a boat than an airship."
From her seat by the window, Eri looked at I-Island again. She could make it fly.
"I know what you're thinking, missy. No making islands fly." Inko, sitting across from Eri, told the girl without even looking up from the pamphlet with I-Expo's itinerary. The woman knew her kids.
"Okay." The princess filed the idea for later.
The pilot chose that moment to inform his only passengers, those being the Midoriyas, that they would land shortly. Inko knew Toshi planned to touch down as All Might and later go as his civilian self to catch up with his friend, so she shook the man awake.
"W-what?" Toshinori blinked his eyes open, stretching and feeling his spine pop, "Are we there already?"
Inko giggled at the man acting like a cat and nodded, "We're about to land."
"Good." Toshinori stood and started to buff up, discarding his clothes in a single movement and showing his hero costume underneath, "It was about time to show I-Island that I am here!" He pointed at Izuku, who had watched his transformation with stars in his eyes, "Not only me but the up-and-coming hero Deku too!"
"Yeah!" Izuku hopped to his feet and mimicked his mentor, throwing his normal clothes away and somehow appearing fully geared up. Almost fully at least, "I'm surprised Mei could fix my suit so fast, but I would really like to have both my Magic Force Gauntlets." He flexed his uncovered right hand, feeling weird for using only one gauntlet.
"Did you two really need to throw your clothes up?" Inko gave her boys a flat stare while using her quirk to grab the strew pieces.
Eri giggled at both Izuku and Toshi acting shy at the scolding. They're so dramatic.
"Either way!" All Might tried to change the subject, to mixed levels of success, "When we land, we will need to pass through the automated security. The system will inform the management I am here, so you better grab our things and go make check-in in the hotel."
"Why that?" Toshinori gave Inko a very flat stare, cueing the woman, "Oh, right."
Nana aww-ed inside Izuku's mind, "Am I the only one that thinks her forgetting Toshi is a big deal now that they're together to be the most endearing thing ever?" Her comment made Izuku break into a fit of chuckles.
Shaking his head, the Master turned to his apprentice, "What about you, Eri? Do you want to go to the hotel too, or go with us?"
The unicorn used her best puppy eyes on Izuku, "You said you would teach me Flowmotion."
Sustaining heavy damage from the cuteness attack, Izuku held his chest in mock pain, "Okay, okay! I'll show you how to do it."
"Kids, what are you gonna do?" Inko gave her children a very unimpressed stare.
"High-performance parkour?" Flowmotion was basically that if you squinted.
Toshinori reassured her before she could scold the kids, "Don't worry, I-Island has a free quirk usage policy. As long as they don't break anything, they're fine." The hero gave the kids a look, "You'll be responsible, right?"
"Yes, sir!" They mock saluted.
Inko couldn't help but laugh, "You realize you started acting like their father, and you're really good at that, right?"
—
Shoto jumped in his seat, head snapping side to side quickly.
Enji noticed his son's sudden reaction and scanned their private plane himself, seeing nothing out of place, "What is it?"
"I had that validation feeling again." Shoto stared at his hands as if the answer to his most recent woe had just escaped by the cracks of his fingers.
"It must be the jetlag." Enji offered. Honestly, he still didn't understand what his son meant by an 'inexplicable validation feeling' assaulting him sporadically in the last few days, nor why he was so bothered by it. In an attempt to take Shoto's mind out of it, he asked, "What do you plan on seeing in I-Island?"
The boy stilled, quickly coming up with a suitable excuse that wouldn't differ too much from his goal in case he got outed later, "I want to give mental support items a look first. There are not many defenses against mental attacks, so something to help identify and heal it would be good."
The hero gave his son a long stare before questioning softly, "Is that a way for you to ask for therapy?"
"No?" Shoto had actually been in a great headspace since the Sports Festival Debacle, as his class called it. "I just want to look into something that can help with that in the off chance I need it." Which he did, to help Izuku.
"Ah, sure."
With their conversation trailing off, Shoto checked the other group helping him on his mission.
Shoto: I'll be landing soon. What about you?
—
Momo felt her phone vibrating, distracting the heiress from Mei rambling about every big name on I-Island they should look out for. Seeing it was Shoto, she smiled while tapping an answer.
Yaomomo: We are not far ourselves. An hour or two and we'll be there. See you soon.
Sparkly: You guys know you're saying that in our mission group right?
Momo shot Toru a mild glare, her friend responding with a wink from her now blue eyes.
Focusing back on the still-speaking inventor, Momo cleared her throat, "Mei, while it's good to know every avenue in case our initial search doesn't bore fruit, who do you think would be our best bet in helping Izuku?"
Crosshair eyes zoomed on Momo, "Good question! The top name in healing tech in general is actually David Shield. From some years to now, he went on a bit of a spree, creating new inventions focused on getting people back into shape after suffering grievous injuries." She snapped her fingers, leaning closer to Momo from her seat across from the taller girl, "You said Izuku was 'cracked', right? The first thing we can look into is if it's an actual physical condition that caused his head to get scrambled."
From beside Mei, Ochaco frowned quickly but smoothed her figures before anyone saw it. All Might owned her one, "Isn't he the chief scientist of the island? I think we'll have more luck trying to go after him in the opening gala than right off the bat."
Tsuyu leaned in from the other row of seats and ribbited to get her friends' attention, "She has a point. If we want to look into everything, it's best to cover the most ground we can."
Both made a valid case, "That's true." Momo thought it over, trying to come up with a plan, "In this case, we should check the exhibitions today while they weren't open to the general public, meaning fewer people on the way, and leaving talking to the scientists and researchers for the gala."
"Yes, boss lady!" Mina saluted Momo, winning some chuckles from the girls.
Their course was set, now they just needed to go through with it and find a way to help their friend!
—
"Isn't this a little much?" Inko complained about the treadmills carrying them from the plane to inside I-Island proper. She clung to Toshinori's arm in fear of falling on the unstable ground.
The man laughed while helping Inko keep her feet, "Just wait for the lasers."
"What?!" Just as the woman yelped the question, scanners came from the ceiling and swept over their forms, displaying their information in holographic screens.
"So cool!" Izuku and Eri watched the machines work with bright eyes.
The princess had taken her rightful place on Izuku's back, giggling as he crouched over and over in his excitement, "Izuku, your legs."
The young hero looked down, seeing the red rings of Fa Jin over his knees, "Oops!" He shook off the red glow while his family laughed. "Got a little too excited. But can you blame me? We're in I-Island!"
"I-Island!" Eri threw her arms up, cheering and making Izuku do the same.
"Good to see you're enjoying the trip!" Toshinori laughed at his kids' energy. "But remember, be responsible! We don't want a repeat of last time, do we?"
Izuku groaned, "C'mon, it wasn't my fault a city decided to go up in flames during my internship! It was Gran's fault, he was supposed to be the responsible one."
"Don't let him hear you saying that." Nana would bet the old grump would kick the kid through more than a couple walls if he did.
"I deeply admire your courage to say that, my boy." Toshinori was sure even Inko felt the shiver that went down his spine at the mention of his old teacher. "But my point still stands."
"We'll be careful," Eri promised.
Soon enough, they reached the end of the treadmill. Their luggage came from a different one and was promptly loaded onto Tesla's back, as he had volunteered to carry their stuff around.
"Thanks, dear." Inko patted the Electricorn's side, earning a content sound that sounded like static sparks and rumbling thunder. "I'll be going ahead then. You two listen to Toshi and stay out of trouble."
Izuku pouted, why were they being singled out? "All Might is the one that says getting in trouble is a hero's job, why aren't you warning him too?"
"He already has his plate full with you two to have any time to get into trouble himself." Inko shot the man a look, "Right?"
A mountain of a man straightening at a woman almost a meter shorter than him was quite the comical sight, that's for sure. "Yes, dear."
"Good. Now you three go have fun." With her piece said, Inko turned on her heels and followed the signs to their hotel alongside Tesla.
With the trio now alone, All Might started to guide the kids over the stairs leading to the main plaza of the island, "Come now, children. We will be heading to the main research building first."
Before Izuku could ask why, or say anything at all about the matter, someone shouted from further ahead, "Is that All Might?!"
"Ah, here we go." The hero straightened his posture, planting his signature smile on his face, "YES, CITIZEN! I AM HERE!" Just as he finished his catchphrase, dozens of fans rushed at All Might.
Izuku and Eri watched the tide of people with wide eyes. They knew fans tended to get a little crazy when All Might showed up, but seeing the mob hounding the man was frankly a little scary.
"Hey, you!" Someone called out.
The young hero looked at the source of the voice, finding a boy maybe three or so years younger than him running closer. The boy's arms were robotic, with gears and springs made of brass giving a certain steampunk look to them. Beyond that, the kid hadn't any other very distinguished features besides a smear of freckles on his pale face and a fringe of dark hair covering his right eye.
Looking from side to side, Izuku pointed at himself when he saw no one else close.
The boy reached him and smiled, "Yeah, you! You're that hero from Japan, Deku, right?" The boy patted his chest with his metallic arms, "My uncle works in Japan, and he showed me all the cool things you did!"
"He did?" Izuku wasn't sure how he felt about his fame (or infamy, depending on who you asked). To Izuku, he only did the right thing to do and nothing else.
"Yes! He even showed me that video of you saying everyone can be a hero." The boy suddenly turned a little shy, his earlier boisterousness gone. "You really meant that? You think I can be a hero too?"
"Ć̷̛͕̳͔̺̍̅͝a̶̡̝͖͉͈̿͂̕n̸͙̥̺̈̏̈́̾̃ ̵̡̡̺̗̮̆Į̴̗̰̗͕̽̿̅̕ ̶̙͗b̴͎͌̆̀̔̕ȩ̴̱̝͂̿̈́ͅ ̶̢̭̹͈̓͋̅͝͝l̴̹̗̻̙͉̈i̶̧̯͕͇̼͒̓̇̄k̷̰̔̾́́e̷̮̕ ̷̨̨͚̻̤̔̃̔̇͝ý̵͍̰̹͙͑͜o̶͓̼̖̬̊̍̓ͅũ̶̧͕̬̹̆̄̀?̴̡̼͎̍̋͒̊̚"
"Of course!" Izuku's answer was delivered without a shadow of a doubt. He believed, with all his heart, that every single person could be a hero, they just needed to do the right thing, "You can be a hero! Everybody can!"
The kid's light blue eyes lit up, "Really?"
Eri spoke for her Master, "Really really. I'm working hard to help people when I grow up, you can do it too! Right, Izuku?"
"Yeah!" The key bearer put his uncovered hand to his chest, "I bet you'll become a cool hero someday. When you do, I'll go get your autograph!"
"Right!" The kid pulled a notepad from his jacket's pocket, "But first I'll get yours because you're a cool hero already, Mister Deku!"
"Too bright, too pure!" Nana's drama went unnoticed.
Izuku, quickly using his scarf to dry his tears, looked at him with a big grin on his face, "Right, you're the first person who asked for it, that means you'll have a first edition, exclusive Deku signature no one else has!"
"So cool!"
"Now, what's your name?"
"Carlo, Mister."
The young hero picked up the notepad, pulling a pen from…somewhere he quickly inscribed his hero name in a stylized font. The points were sharp, the lines curved, and to top it all off, he pulled the lower right line of the 'k' in a long curve under the whole name, serpentining forward and back before ending in an arrowhead. He finished by writing a little something to encourage the boy.
"All done." Izuku passed the boy his notepad back, Eri having seen what Izuku had written and waiting for Carlo's reaction too.
The younger boy read the words out loud, "'To the future great hero Carlo, know that you got a fan already, signed, Deku'!" Carlo finished with stars in his eyes. He looked up at Izuku, "Thanks, Mister Deku!"
His voice drew more attention to the hero-in-training, causing more people to recognize Izuku. Soon enough, Deku had his own mob of hero fans mobbing him.
Well, that was also part of being a hero.
—
"You're the people the old coots put to this?" Vanitas' question was spoken in a condescending tone to the point of being offensive. He finished exiting the Dark Corridor and looked at the ragtag bunch of mercenaries the old man's buddy hired for his dirty work, "I'm not impressed."
One of the startled men jumped off the container he was sitting in, landing on the cargo bay's floor and lunging at Vanitas with his hand transformed into a blade, "What was that, brat?!"
The darkling smirked under his mask, hand twitching to call his Keyblade. Unfortunately, the leader of the circus stopped his clown before Vanitas could tear him to pieces.
The large man only held up a hand and completely arrested the blade hand momentum, making his underling stumble. He then ran his palm over his shoulder-length reddish hair, "You're the 'extra help' he sent?"
"They didn't send anyone else, so what do you think?" Vanitas's snark didn't get a rise out of the man. He clicked his tongue in annoyance, it looked like there would be no fun until the main event.
"I'm Wolfram." The leader of the band of mercenaries squared off, trying to intimidate Vanitas with his height. The younger, smaller, and leaner villain was absolutely unphased by the posing, being able to end the man before anyone could blink. "While you work with us, you'll be answering to me. Am I clear?"
Vanitas gave a single chuckle and Wolfram's words. Letting his Darkness out, pushing a chilling wind over the mercenaries, and making more than one stumble back, the masked boy spoke with a staggering amount of malice, "Listen here, Wolfy, I'll be doing my own thing while you idiots grab whatever the old man asked you to get. If you try to boss me around, I'll just tell them you had an unfortunate accident along the way." The Darkness pressed down on the men in the cargo bay, suffocating and overwhelming, "Am I clear?"
Wolfram could only grunt an acceptance, but that was enough for Vanitas to back off with a smug laugh.
The trip was already making up for the trouble. Vanitas couldn't wait for the main attraction.
He wondered what Izzy was doing.
—
Izuku had never been so happy and overwhelmed all his life. Having so many people coming to praise him made the boy a little uncomfortable, but when they asked similar questions to Carlo and Izuku began to tell everyone how they could make this world better a little bit at a time, the young hero found his footing and survived his first unofficial autograph session in one piece.
"That was exhausting."
"I liked taking pictures with people." Surprisingly, Eri took to her fame by association like a fish to water. Seeing her Master was still down, she patted his hair, "There there."
"If you think that's bad, wait for your first charity event." Izuku could feel Nana shuddering. "So many people, so many flashing cameras."
"Enough about that." Izuku perked back up, marching to his mentor, who was wrapping his side of things up himself. "All Might, you okay?"
"Just fine, my boy." The hero cracked his neck, letting out a satisfied sigh, "Since you two put me back together, I had little trouble with greeting fans! Could go without the flirting, though."
"Toshi." Eri used the tone their mother used when warning Toshinori that he better explain himself before ears started to get pulled, both Izuku and her giving the man half-lidded stares.
"Don't look at me like that!" All Might put his hands up in surrender, sweating profusely. Let no one say his kids weren't scary when they wanted to be. "I always turn them down politely, doubly so now I'm in a happy and fulfilling relationship! It's just that no one else knows that."
Eri responded to that in a sing-song voice, "They would if you had a ring~!"
Izuku poked the girl on her side, making her yelp, "You already made clothes for the gala, slow down a little." He picked his pouting princess and put her down, "Now! Let's learn about Flowmotion!"
Eri's pout instantly vanished in favor of starry-eyed excitement. She had wanted to learn how to use Flowmotion since the night that seemed so long ago when Izuku and the Dream Eaters saved her from her Nightmares.
Toshinori discretely picked up his phone to take notes, both of his successor skill and his method of teaching. What? Toshinori was still getting the hang of it.
Izuku crouched down and tapped the tiled floor they were standing on, "First things first. You know when you jump, when you land you feel a shock in your knees?"
"Uh-hum."
"That happens because the energy you generate while moving doesn't vanish when you stop. The shock you feel is you withstanding the energy recoiling back through your body."
"So when you hit someone, it hurts because they are the ones that have the energy going through them?"
Izuku was about to expand on her question when he realized it would take a little too long to really explain the intricacies of kinetic energy, impact, vectors, structural integrity, and what-have-you. "It's a little more complicated than that. I'll tell you all the nitty-gritty details when we have the time. The important part is that Flowmotion picks that energy and instead of letting your body handle it, it stores the energy to do something else. Most of the time, it's for moving to another direction instead of stopping, but you can also use it to overcharge your weapon for a strong hit."
"-strong hit, okay." Eri finished noting everything down in her notebook, which she also got from an undisclosed location very few people knew about. Meaning, her Pocket. "But how do I use it without having to jump?"
Izuku smirked, his unicorn always asked just the right questions, "That's the thing, Flowmotion can turn any energy into movement."
The dots connected, "Focus!"
"Right in one!" Izuku hopped to his feet, pointing at a distant flagpole further ahead of the plaza, "Use your Focus to aim at that flag, then just let the flow take you to it. From there, you'll know what to do."
Eri gave a determined nod, putting her things away and scrunching her face in concentration.
All Might stepped closer, "Uh, my boy, you sure that's a good idea."
"She'll do great." Izuku was sure of it. He never doubted his apprentice before, he sure wouldn't start now. "You better go ahead to lead the way, or we're gonna leave you in the dust!" The young hero laughed, his body lighting up with the green aura of Full Cowling.
All Might's smile widened, "IF YOU'RE SO CERTAIN. FOLLOW ME, ZYGOTES!" With a slight crouch, the hero leaped away, crossing most of the plaza and ascending higher than some buildings.
Izuku bent his legs and grabbed his knees, tensing like a knocked arrow. Or more accurately, seeing the speeds he could reach, a bullet about to be fired from an electromagnetic cannon. The green arcs of energy over his body leaped this away and that in anticipation, seeming as eager as Izuku.
He only waited for his unicorn to give the go-ahead.
Eri had no trouble utilizing Focus or grasping the concept of Flowmotion, she only needed a little more time to add the two together. It was like trying to put a block through a tube, and that would only work if the block was made of jelly- "That's it!" Her silly tangent gave the girl the answer. Focus was an energy. Flowmotion was a way to use energy. She just had to make the first go through the latter and point it at where she wanted to go!
The young Princess of Heart's form was covered by a pale yellow aura of energy, its edges wispy like sand floating in an unseen strong wind.
Time stopped again. Eri's eyes zeroed in on her faraway target, a post with colorful banners hanging from it. Far. Close. Closer. Eri stretched her hands and grabbed the metal bar that made the post's body.
Instead of stopping, Flowmotion wanted to keep going, wanted to maintain the flow, so Eri let it. Her body jolted to the side, spinning over and over around the post and leaving sparkling ribbons behind.
A loud whistle sounded and Izuku was under her, spinning on the pole himself with a big grin on his face, "You did it! Now keep going!"
Instead of answering, Eri let go and flew away. Flowmotion carried her, using the energy it got from her earlier movements to keep Eri going even while everything else told her to stop. She felt weightless, and tingly, and just so happy!
Eri was flying. She was also laughing and cheering the loudest her lungs could manage.
A sign to bounce off of. A wall to ricochet away from. A pole to grab. She flew, jumped, ran, and kicked. The flow kept pushing her forward disregarding all the things that tried to stop her, tried to make her heavy, tried to push her down.
Eri was flying, and she never wanted to land ever again!
Izuku overcame Eri, zipping by her side in a burst of speed. The little girl took that as a challenge and took after him.
They zoomed through I-Island, so fast that most people only saw two bright blurs chasing each other. Izuku was always a step ahead, always just a little faster, leading Eri in a merry chase. They leaped, spun, and flipped while blitzing through the air.
The apprentice got close, her Master almost at reach. They landed on a rail, grinding down it in a shower of green sparks and yellow sparkles.
Eri extended her hand to grab Izuku's, just for the boy to look back at her and smirk. His aura flashed, and Izuku wasn't there anymore. Eri was so startled that she missed the timing to jump off the rail, Flowmotion carrying her straight forward.
The energy brought her as far as it could, ending with her in midair. Eri plummeted.
Thankfully, Izuku was right there to grab his princess with a big smile on his face. "And that's why you shouldn't get lost in the flow." He hoisted her up onto her spot on his back.
"Oops, sorry. I was having so much fun I didn't even realize it." She looked from side to side, "Where are we?" They were close to a flowerbed at the bottom of stairs leading to another level of the central plaza.
Izuku shrugged, "Wherever All Might brought us to." He gave the girl a knowing look, "You didn't even see him or where you were going, right?"
"I could say I did, but that would be a lie."
"Don't worry, everyone goes a little bonkers the first time." Izuku sure remembered bouncing around like a pinball on a sugar high in his Mastery Exam. "Flowmotion is really fun to use."
While the kids were busy talking, Toshinori was looking around. The last time he had been to I-Island, David had shown him around, but that had been so long ago that Toshinori felt lost already. "Let's see- there's the restaurant with the good pork chops, there's the music center, so the main building should be-" Before he could finish figuring out where to go, a voice very familiar to the man called out.
"Uncle Might!"
Smile widening, Toshinori turned around and was greeted by the slightly comical sight of a person on a pogo-stick going right at him, "Melissa!" He opened his arms in time to catch the girl.
They spun around while hugging and laughing. Holding the girl away from him, Toshinori couldn't help but have his eyes watering some, "You grew so much." Gone was the little girl, now before him was a young woman. Blonde hair, a waterfall of golden locks that reached her lower back, bright blue eyes glinting behind glasses, creamy skin flushing from laughing too much. "You look just like your mother, my girl."
Her, Melissa, chuckles died down in favor of a soft smile, "Thanks, Uncle Might."
Eri's head poked out from his left shoulder, "Toshi, who's that?"
Izuku, also perched on All Might, hoisted himself up from the hero's right side, "Hi!"
"Oh, right." Toshinori put Melissa down, his kids jumping off his back. "Children, meet Melissa Shield. Melissa, these are Izuku and Eri Midoriya."
"Admit they're your kids already!" Nana's outburst was summarily ignored.
"Nice to meet you!" The three said at the same time, causing them all to chuckle.
Izuku perked up, noticing a little detail, "Hey, when All Might says Shield does that mean…?"
"Yes. My father is the one and only David Shield." Melissa's smile widened while mentioning her father, her eyes lighting up with pride.
Eri, now back on her perch (she wasn't lazy, she just liked Izuku's biggy-backs a lot), questioned with a head tilt, "Who's David Shield?"
"David Shield was All Might's first sidekick! He made all of All Might's costumes and invented hundreds of support items to help other heroes! He's the head researcher of I-Island and some people say he's the smartest man in the world!"
"Isn't Nezu the smartest?"
"Principal Nezu is the smartest person in the world."
"Oh."
"Don't worry, Papa doesn't like the praise all that much." Melissa waved it off, knowing her father well. "But what about you?" She looked Izuku up and down, "Are you a hero?"
"Hero student." All Might cut off before Izuku could say anything. "An unlicensed and still underage student that shouldn't throw himself into danger at every opportunity."
Izuku raised his finger, "In my defense…" He shrugged. "Yeah, can't think of anything."
"I smell a story there."
All Might gave Melissa a flat stare, "More like a track record. Some days I feel I see the name Deku more than I see mine."
Melissa's eyes shot open, "Deku?" She looked at the boy again, finally realizing why Izuku had felt familiar, "I know you! I saw your speech at the Sports Festival and your fight with the Hero Killer."
"You did?"
"Yeah! You're very inspiring, that I can say." Melissa measured the young hero again, noticing his accessories and uncovered right hand. "But I can't say I recognized your new look. Going for something more asymmetric?"
"Nah. I just punched All Might so hard my arm exploded, and my gauntlet along with it." Izuku's tone was like he was talking about the weather and not the hardest battle he had to date. At least from what he was aware of.
Eri pouted and poked Izuku's cheek, repeatedly, "Stop exploding."
"But exploding is fun."
"Is it?"
Toshinori chopped Izuku before he could answer, "And that's enough of your recklessness, my boy." The man turned to his niece in all but blood, only to see her staring into nothing, "Melissa, you okay?"
The young woman shook herself, "Sorry, just processing. What do you mean by punching Uncle Might so hard your arm exploded?"
"Young Izuku has a mean hook, that's for sure." Toshinori rubbed his jaw, remembering how much it had ached after his fight with the boys. "I'll say he will be even stronger than me when he gets full control of his quirk!"
Eri whispered to Izuku, "Will you get beefy like Toshi too?"
He deadpanned, "No… will I?"
"Relax, kiddo, you're already beefy enough."
Izuku pouted at the side, as he couldn't do it directly at Nana. 'I'm not beefy!' Turning his attention back to the conversation ongoing, he saw Melissa rebooting again.
"Uncle Might, I know you like praising others when it's due, but aren't you exaggerating?" Melissa gave out a slightly hysterical laughter.
"Not at all, my girl." Toshinori turned to his successor, "Young Izuku, how much of your quirk can you safely use in your base form?"
"Just reached a fourth of it this week! With twenty-five percent as a base, I can push it to thirty-five with Second Form and forty-five with Guardian Angel." Izuku scratched the back of his head, "I didn't try anything with Sky and Storm because I still think my bones are mad at me for the festival."
Eri squeezed Izuku while putting an ear to his back, "You're not making funny noises anymore."
"I'm not a squeaky toy." Izuku controlled his chuckles and turned back to a lost-in-thought Melissa, "I say that I can give All Might a good challenge when I reach seventy percent."
"Huh." That was… That was a claim no one else could make. Matching the Symbol of Peace? And with not even the full power of his quirk? Madness. But looking at Deku and Uncle Might and how they excitedly talked about it, Melissa didn't think it was all hot air.
A world with a hero stronger than All Might. Maybe… Maybe Melissa could help create such a world.
"Well kids, let's get moving! I'm sure Dave is waiting for us at the edge of his seat." Toshinori started to guide them away, only for Melissa to laugh.
"Wrong way, Uncle Might. And I'm sure Papa is carving a trench in his lab with how much he's pacing." She took the lead and waved then closer, "C'mon, I know a shortcut."
—
David rewatched another of the news feeds from the good old days he and Toshi ran around, saving people left and right. Glorious days, which only turned into sweeter memories knowing the Symbol of Peace was going to stay around for a long time. What, with Toshi in better shape than he has been in years.
The scientist glanced at the clock one more time. While the damn thing had felt like a sword over his head for years, each second bringing the world closer to its doom, now David could only give it excited glances.
All Might would soon be there. He always would.
A knock on the door sounded. Speaking of the devil. "It's open!"
For a moment, nothing happened, then the door of his lab burst open, and a towering figure rushed into the room, "DAVE! I AM HERE, TO SEE YOU!" All Might, in all his glory, possessed dramatically while announcing himself probably to the whole island.
"That you are." Approaching his old friend, David instantly noticed how Toshi wasn't favoring his wounded side anymore. All Might stood tall, like the pillar their world needed, "It's good to see you again, Toshi."
"Ah, come here!" The mountain of a man pulled David into a hug, making some of his bones creak. "It's so good to see you in person after so long!"
"I'm glad for the meeting too, but I kinda need to breathe." David managed to squeak the words out, somehow. Yup, definitely back to 100%.
"Oops, sorry." Toshinori put his friend back down. "Got a little carried away, hehe. Well, why don't I take all the greetings out of the way? David, I would like you to meet someone."
"Is it the mystery lady that managed to put a leash on you?"
Toshinori, All Might, the strongest man in the world, blushed like a teenager, "Later." He cleared his throat and got back on topic. "Meet one of my students and a student of his own. Izuku, Eri, you can come in now!"
A green lightning bolt zoomed into the room. Izuku was glowing even more than usual thanks to his excitement about meeting David Shield in person, something the scientist got a front-row view of when Izuku slid to a stop before him. "Hello! Nice to meet you, Dr. Shield! It's so cool to see you in person! I saw your interviews and your papers in quirk studies, and I based my costume on some of your designs, and I can't believe you finally managed to convince people to adopt a scale for measuring quirk effects after everybody pushed back against it for so long thanks to the variable nature of power expression-!" The boy's word barrage was stopped by another chop from All Might.
"Breathe, my boy."
"Sorry." Izuku smiled sheepishly.
David recovered from the… Let's say, energetic greeting, and chuckled, "Wow, I haven't met a fan of my work in a while. And you are very informed, Izuku was it? The metric class system has just gotten off the ground, and we are still adjusting it."
"I heard that without a definitive measuring for class six quirks, you're having trouble defining it as something like an earthquake or typhoon scale of magnitude." Izuku pulled out his notebook and passed it to the scientist, "I took a crack at it with my classmates' quirks and their progression along the semester we had at U.A. to try finding a sensible pattern, and thanks to the diversity of their quirks and the research you already had made, I think I found something."
David started reading the extremely detailed notes, his eyes widening at each line they went through until the man was frantically flipping through the pages, "This is brilliant! With U.A.'s constant tests and training regiment, you have a perfect test sample to analyze. And you even have someone with a sixth-class quirk!"
"Yes. I couldn't use mine as the class six metric because of personal bias and how hard it is to test without my bones exploding, so I kept tabs on Eri's instead."
"That's me." Eri, who had been watching over Izuku's shoulder as he geeked out with David, waved at the man. "Hi, Dave."
"Well, hello there." David shot Toshi a look, one that made the hero start sweating. They would be having a lengthy talk later. "Nice to meet you, Eri. Your…brother's?"
"Trying to put a word to it is kinda hard, but that works too." Eri felt like calling Izuku anything but her Master didn't really encompass everything he was to her, but most people also couldn't understand just what the word truly meant to her, so Eri just let them do their thing while she did hers.
Feeling a story behind that and not wanting to step in any landmines, David didn't comment, "Okay. Your brother's notes say you have a class six quirk, you know what that means?"
Eri pulled out her own notebook again.
Melissa, who had also entered the room and was watching the play-by-play, turned to her Uncle Might and whispered, "Is that just a thing that they do?"
"Yes. I learned not to question it." Toshinori learned how to not question a lot of things when his successor was involved.
The Princess of Heart found the right page and started to recite, "'Class six quirks, by the proposed scale, were naturally capable of negating the 'logic' of the world and applying their own.' That is kinda silly because you're not breaking the world's rules, you're just convincing it that your rules are better to do what you want to do." Eri tapped her horn, "I'm not saying to Time that it's doing it wrong, I'm just saying that it would be better if it did things my way, and we have a system going on that works."
David hadn't expected that. He hadn't expected that at all. "What do you mean?"
"Eri's horn stockpiles something we still couldn't exactly identify. She uses it to alter the time flow on a selected target." Izuku pulled the dedicated notebook he had for Eri and showed David his annotations. "The amount of time altered depends on the amount of the stock burned."
Melissa joined the conversation now, "So you have a type of, what, equivalent exchange with the laws of physics?"
"The laws of physics are dumb," Eri told that to the scientist and prospective scientist with a blank face. "I just convinced the fundamental force of the universe that is Time that it's funnier to do things my way." And to be fair, it was, most of the time.
Eri shot Toshi a look while remembering the sugar incident. If they hadn't figured it out until now, then it didn't matter, right?
"I don't think that is the right way to treat physics."
Melissa got the little girl's attention back, but Eri still stood by what she said, "The problem isn't the physics part. The problem is the law part."
"Izuku…" All Might drawled out, "What have you been teaching her?"
Not seeing anything wrong with it, the boy shrugged, "That the laws of physics are like the laws of society, which means that they are more like polite suggestions based on observation than hard rules set in stone."
"That explains a lot." Still, Toshinori couldn't blame his boy too much. Not when he also twisted rules around like pretzels in his old days of struggle against his old enemy.
"Anarchy aside." Melissa tried to pull the conversation away from whatever it had turned into. "Eri, how do you make your quirk work?"
The girl touched the tip of her horn, "I make the thing that's in my horn to go buzzzz and then Time goes shhhh. Then I just make it move the way I tell it to, like how you ask a puppy to do tricks!"
Izuku nodded along, the only one that made heads or tails of his apprentice's words, "Makes sense."
"It…doesn't." Melissa's deadpan was switched for a thoughtful one, "Maybe if we actually know what your horn stockpiles, then we could figure out the specifics of your quirk."
"That's a great idea, my girl!" Toshinori had been feeling a little left out, but that was the perfect excuse to send the kids away for him to talk with Dave alone. They had come on a mission, after all. "You kids can go take a look into that and then explore the expo. Me and Dave will be catching up while that, don't worry about it, just two old men remembering old times."
"You're not old, All Might!" Was everything Izuku was able to get out before Toshinori pushed them out of the room.
"Discrete as a truck crash." David chuckling died down quickly, knowing well why his friends sent the kids away, "That's about the 'Deathcon One' thing you want my help with?"
"Yes." Toshinori sighed, everything could be so much easier if they could just talk openly about it. But Nana made it crystal clear, they couldn't tell Izuku everything until he was ready. "And it involves Young Izuku. That's why I couldn't say anything with him here."
"Kinda weird that you brought him along then." It didn't make sense to David. Why not come alone if the boy couldn't know about whatever they were about to talk about? "What's the problem? And why does it involve him?" David grimaced, remembering Izuku's analytic skills, "Did he figure out about your weaker form? But that doesn't matter now, so what-?"
Toshinori clapped David on the shoulder, "It doesn't matter now because Izuku and Eri healed me." The hero let his hold on the embers of One For All inside him go, his muscles relaxing along with it. Unlike before, the transformation wasn't drastic. Toshinori barely shrunk, his muscle mass remaining for the most part and actually leaving him looking even a little younger.
David gasped, still unable to believe it. "You look just like you did before the-."
"The injury that I got, yes." And he felt even better than that, pacing himself and balancing his now happily personal life as Toshinori with the sporadic hero work he engaged in while not teaching his classes. "With how Eri's quirk works, it makes sense." Toshinori held his side, not feeling any scar under his suit, "They put me back together, Dave. Nothing fairer I pay back the favor."
"I felt there was a story there." David ran his fingers through his hair. Seemed like all the years looking into medical and healing technology weren't wasted after all, if he was reading the context clues right. "Come on, I'm gonna run a full scan on you while you put me up to speed."
"Dave."
"Shush!" David jabbed Toshinori's arm, grinning at the familiar sensation of punching a wall of muscle. "I'll only truly believe you're back when I ascertain it for myself, so into the lab we go. You'll have plenty of time to explain what mess you've gotten into this time in the meantime."
Toshinori let out a loud laugh. Of course, it wouldn't be Dave if he did anything different. "I remember you telling me that love was a mess worth getting into."
"Don't think I forgot about that too!"
The two friends started to talk and joke around, for a moment believing they went back to the past and were in America, fighting crime and saving people like the dynamic duo they were.
Not knowing what the future had in store for them all.
I'm cutting this short here because this damn thing is 7k+ words and I'm in the introduction part still. This arc will be long.
As you can see, there are a lot of moving parts in this mess that I will have to somehow make work. Put simply, everybody is trying to help Izuku, while the green menace is just having a good time all around.
Let's see how long it lasts.
Also, for those who want to support me, go to the P site and look for Bola8 to put some change in the tip jar, because that's basically what it is. Then you can have your name at the end of the chapter, like:
Guipa_, SilverZero90, CBN, and kennine a heartfelt thanks to you all!
Beyond that, my friends gave their seal of approval to ensure the quality of this chapter, so a shout-out to SilverBits and keeperofhounds!
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