Shoto was initially nervous on his way to see his mother at Fuyumi's new apartment that they shared. He wasn't as nervous as he was when he finally visited her for the first time at the hospital, but he had only seen his mother sparingly since she was discharged upon his father's request. He just hadn't really had the time with training for the licensing exam and the start of the new semester. So, he made time after school ended to pay her a visit, which brought him back to his initial nervousness about the prospect that was somewhat soothed by Yaoyorozu offering to go with him for added support.
He really appreciated her.
He could not have predicted how quickly Yaoyorozu and his mother hit it off, however. Coming from pretty similar backgrounds, there was a lot of common ground between them. Granted, his mother's family didn't have the level of "fuck you money" that Yaoyorozu did, but she grew up pretty wealthy, nonetheless, and that common ground was explored within minutes to foster an easy camaraderie. Even Fuyumi was surprised at how easily the two bonded, but she was even more glad that Shoto found someone to bond with in general.
That brought them to their current activity of having tea and snacks in the living room while the TV was on in the background. What began with a rerun of a soap opera that saw tap dance instructor Shishido teach the dashing protagonist about the true meaning of fatherhood soon transitioned to the evening news. What caught the attention of the Todoroki family, Rei and Shoto in particular, was a story about an attack downtown involving a rampaging heteromorph that was thwarted by Mirko and the unofficially debuting Izuku Midoriya, otherwise known as Beacon.
"It doesn't surprise me that Midoriya already secured a work-study," Yaoyorozu commented fondly, then she grimaced. "Though, it didn't seem like he very much had a choice in the matter."
"What do you mean?" Fuyumi asked, as she assumed that work-studies were discretionary on behalf of the student from conversations with her father.
"Mirko barged into our classroom through the window and kidnapped Midoriya yesterday morning," she answered, drawing a look of amused shock from Fuyumi. "I suspect that his fate was sealed the moment he defeated her at the licensing exam."
"Right, I did hear about that," Fuyumi thoughtfully remarked. "I haven't seen any of the videos, but I heard it was a spectacular sight."
Yaoyorozu nodded her agreement, then the subject of their conversation appeared on screen with a field reporter.
"Well, Beacon, after this spectacularly heroic display alongside Mirko, the world wants to know: how are you so strong?"
Yaoyorozu found herself subconsciously leaning in closer to the TV alongside Shoto and his mother as the green head on screen thought over his answer. She had to admit that she was certainly curious about her friend's ridiculous strength and combat prowess, as well. It wasn't just his confusing quirk, either; if they were to face each other, he could probably take her down even without it if he really wanted to.
"All Might and Endeavor went out drinking one night, and I was the result."
…Well, she couldn't say that she didn't expect something of the sort from him, even if she was a touch disappointed.
"I knew it," Shoto and Rei said simultaneously beside her, and they turned and gazed at each other in wonder, almost as if they were really seeing each other for the first time. They had finally found a true kindred spirit within each other.
Yaoyorozu couldn't help the giggle fit that came out of her. She really adored her peppermint dumbass.
"The hero work studies are a more serious version of your internships," Aizawa lectured his class the next morning. "They entail helping pro agencies on the streets and with investigations. Your teachers and the principal discussed them at the faculty meeting, and we all agree: it's too soon. They should really be cancelled."
Before the class could erupt with their disappointed indignation, he continued. "But some people think we won't be able to raise strong heroes with that protective outlook."
"Some people," in this case, being Eri, who made the valid point of, "how will they know how to save people if they're not around people that need to be saved?"
"So, with that in mind, we reached a compromise," Aizawa continued. "Number one, we'll be selective about participating agencies. Choose one with a proven track record, otherwise you won't be taking part."
His gaze hardened, and he fixed everyone in the room with a challenging glare. "Number two, we'll be assessing each and every one of you to see if you're truly ready for the opportunity to begin with. Starting this afternoon, your heroics training will be done jointly with Class 1-B."
That elicited some shocked murmurs from the class that were quickly silenced when he activated his quirk. "At the end of the week, everyone in the first-year heroics courses will be tested. Think of it as a joint training exercise but with actual stakes."
"Mr. Aizawa?" Izuku raised his hand. "Am I participating in this since I'm already with Mirko?"
"Yes," Aizawa nodded. "Vlad King and I won't be the only ones in attendance to assess you. Several others will be, as well. I wouldn't even be surprised if Mirko popped in uninvited just to watch you in particular."
"Oh…" muttered Izuku, knowing that was a distinct possibility and that she'd use his performance as an excuse to fight him if she found it unsatisfactory. "Fantastic…"
"That's all for now," Aizawa concluded. "I'll see you all this afternoon."
"Guys, we're still trending!" Spinner announced to the other members of the League in the living room of their base. "The only thing that comes close is… #Endeavorisabottom?"
"Of course, we're still trending," Tomura replied, his concentration split between the 2D fighter he was playing and Spinner. "It only happened two days ago- wait, what was that about Endeavor?"
Before anyone could answer him, the doorbell rang, causing everyone in the apartment to freeze. No one was expecting anyone; they shouldn't have been, anyway. They were all at the top of every Most Wanted list. Tomura paused his game and slowly placed the controller down, then he turned to Kurogiri.
"Please tell me that we're not about to be raided again," Tomura growled. "This place has the best wifi of every place we've found."
"I'll have a portal open for everyone just in case," Kurogiri nodded, and Tomura got up and plodded towards the front door.
"It better not be a damn girl scout peddling cookies because if she doesn't have trefoils, I'm dusting her," he grumbled before checking the peephole.
When he saw a very diminutive redhead in a very elaborate and goofy-looking outfit holding a box, he momentarily questioned if he was hallucinating due to years of insomnia. When he looked away to wipe his eyes and she was still there, he cautiously opened the door, ready to attack if there was an ambush waiting.
"Why are you here?" Tomura didn't waste any time at all. This little girl's next words would determine her fate.
"Five Finger Death Touch?" she asked with a smile. "It's me, Power of Love!"
Tomura froze once again at the utterance of those two screen names. He stared down at the girl who maybe came up to his waist? Even granting her that much was probably generous, to be honest. He hadn't ever actually seen PwrOfLuv, but he certainly wasn't expecting someone so…
"You are literally a child," Tomura deadpanned.
"I'm 21, damn it!" La Brava huffed.
"Right…" Tomura skeptically muttered. "How the fuck did you find me?"
Her frustration quickly vanished, and her smile returned. "Oh, I just traced a few of the IPs of the stream and tracked you guys down. Nothing too fancy."
Tomura's eye twitched, and his head slowly turned to the direction of a sweating Spinner to shoot him a nasty glare. "I thought I specifically told you to host the stream from a server in a different country."
"I did, I swear!" Spinner frantically insisted. "I used a really good VPN!"
La Brava scoffed. "As if a measly VPN could stop me. Try doubling it up with a virtual machine next time. I mean, I'll still be able to find you, but it'll take a little longer. But that's not why I'm here."
She presented the box to Tomura with a bright smile. "Thank you for the shoutout in your stream! You boosted my darling Gentle's viewership by 600%! I had to do something in return, I bought you guys this Uncle Touchy cheesecake!"
The mention of cheesecake immediately brought Twice, Mr. Compress, and Spinner to the door. Mr. Compress swiftly accepted the box with a gracious bow and vanished into the kitchen alongside his reptilian and masked comrades.
"Oh man, I love Uncle Touchy!" Twice cheered. "I wonder if he has a puzzle basement."
"Uhh, thanks?" Tomura hazarded, not entirely sure what to say at this point.
"One more thing," La Brava continued as she retrieved a flash drive from her pocket, thankfully sparing Tomura from a potential awkward silence. "The founder and CEO is a pedophile that buys his victims' families' silence. Any attempts to have him prosecuted usually fall through because the complainants recant their statements and then vanish, and those are just the few that actually came forward to begin with. Just thought you'd like to know that."
Tomura blinked and dumbly accepted the flash drive. He no longer knew what to expect from this conversation by this point. "What's on here?"
"Bank statements, correspondences, copies of NDAs, and the address to his mansion," she saluted. "This one's on the house. Enjoy the cheesecake!"
With a final wave goodbye, she skipped away, leaving Tomura standing in the doorway with evidence to condemn what seemed to be their next mark.
When 1-A entered Gym Gamma, they were surprised to see 1-B already there and hard at work. Vlad King turned around upon hearing them enter, and he nodded at Aizawa.
"Good, you all are here," he welcomed. "I don't want my kids to get complacent. The competition will be good for them."
Many of the students in 1-B noticed 1-A's arrival, as well, but most of them returned to their training. A few of them lingered, though. Tokage and Yui both lit up at Izuku's entrance (Yui lit up a bit more than she probably intended, though it wasn't like anyone would be able to tell the difference). Even Kamakiri stopped to send a brief nod of acknowledgment Bakugo's way, which was returned. Monoma, on the other hand…
"Ugh, those megalomaniacal creatures of 1-A are here to encroach on our spotlight once again," Monoma groused, sending a dismissive glance to Izuku before scoffing and turning away. "Even the one who already has the media fawning over him is here. When our joint exercise comes, 1-B will finally expose them for the fool's gold they are-"
His rant was interrupted when a giant hand bonked him on the cranium.
"Knock it off and get back to work, Monoma," Kendo scolded.
Meanwhile, completely none the wiser to Monoma's ravings, 1-A surveyed the scene and picked their spots. For the first time since the training camp, they got to see their sister class's quirks in action, and there had been marked improvements in their abilities than what they displayed over the summer. 1-A weren't the only ones with their eyes on the ball.
One thing, or rather one person, stood out above all, though.
"Wait, is that Melissa?" Jiro pointed out, and several of those who went on the I-Island trip turned their gazes to see what she was talking about.
They were met with a sweating Melissa kneeling on the ground to catch her breath. Standing next to her and offering words of encouragement was All Might, which surprised them just as much. Then, before their eyes, Melissa tensed, and a power so intense that it could very well be compared to All Might's own began emanating from her, alongside a pale blue static field that had flecks of all sorts of colors interspersed within.
"Woah, I thought she was quirkless?" Kirishima voiced his surprise.
"Late-bloomer," Izuku answered, going into the cover story they worked out for her. "Powerful stockpile and enhancer quirk that would have blown her up if it manifested when they usually do."
"So, sorta like yours, then?" Sero asked.
"Or All Might's…" Shoto hummed with a hand on his chin.
"Something like that," Izuku noncommittally replied. After all he learned from Yoichi, he wouldn't confirm or deny their comparisons, not even the gears he could see turning in Shoto's brain. He'd let him cook.
Without any further distractions, 1-A dispersed and got to work. With the gym being twice as full as it normally would be, Izuku found a secluded corner away from everyone else to avoid anyone being caught in the crossfire. From there, he decided to try something new; he had spent a lot of time polishing his hand-to-hand, perfecting the use of each individual color, and exploring the limits of 2nd Gear, but he hadn't really touched color combinations in a while.
Using them in tandem was one thing; he did that rather frequently with green and yellow as well as orange and violet. Fusing them, however, was not something he had done much outside of 2nd Gear and those odd few times he fused white and yellow to supercharge his perception of time. He hadn't really played around with the concept much, otherwise.
He heard the soft scuffle of boots on concrete behind him, so he knew someone was approaching before he even heard her soft voice. "What are you working on?"
"Yui, hey," Izuku smiled, turning to face her completely and scratching the back of his head. "I'm toying around with some rough ideas I've had in regard to combining my flames, but nothing has really stuck yet."
Yui nodded and hummed. "Think big."
"Hm?"
"I suspect you're stuck because you're thinking too small. Your quirk is too versatile for you to be limiting yourself as much as you do. Think big."
Izuku was taken aback by that. "What do you mean?"
"From what I can gleam, your preferred combat style is close quarters, right?" she questioned.
Izuku nodded. "Yeah, but I've been trying to incorporate more long-range options into my arsenal. I've been neglecting it for too long."
"And area of effect?"
"Area of effect?"
A faint, amused smile broke through the stoicism, and Izuku swore he heard an even fainter giggle slip out of her. "You have the capacity to unleash large quantities of hell on a wide range. Capitalize on that. Think big."
Izuku thoughtfully stroked his chin in consideration of her words, then he hummed in acquiescence. "You're certainly on to something. I could project attacks to much larger areas, provided no allies or innocents get caught in the crossfire."
Yui nodded, then a flicker of excitement sparked in her gaze. It was so brief that most would have missed it, but Izuku knew her well enough to catch it.
"You can make anything with your purple flames, right?" she suddenly inquired.
"Yeah," Izuku carefully answered. "Why?"
"Have you tried making a titan?" she asked, subtly inching closer to him.
"…No?" he replied, acknowledging her approach but not moving.
"You should. It would be cool."
"I think that's just your fascination with large things talking."
"I don't just like big things; I like small things, too. Besides, am I wrong?"
Izuku couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Not at all."
"Mm," she smiled. She was about to turn away and return to what she was doing before, but he called out to her again.
"Hey, Yui," Izuku spoke up, grabbing her attention as he formed a small, violet ball of flame in his palms. "I never asked; what made you want to become a hero?"
Yui paused to consider the question while Izuku began trying to weave other colors within the ball to see what would happen. She pretended to not notice him inundate the ball with green fire, raising the density to an absurd degree that gravity took it out of his hands and dropped it straight onto his foot.
"It began with Ultraman, I suppose," she finally spoke, talking over the muttered, "fucking hell," from her friend. "I was hooked when I was really young, and I wanted to be like him, as you can tell from my costume. That sort of bloomed into a strong desire to help anyone in need."
Izuku stopped hopping on his uninjured foot to soothe the other one, and he sent her a smile. "Oh, that's really cool."
"I also want to solve world hunger, and I think you could help me with that," Yui casually added.
"How would you go about that?" Izuku snorted.
"Gather all of the food in the world and make it bigger."
Izuku blinked, staring at Yui for a lengthy moment to confirm if she was messing around. It was really hard to tell sometimes; expressionless dry wit was a dangerous combination.
"…I don't think that would solve much," Izuku hazarded, decided to take her at face value and just take the egg on his face if she was screwing with him. "I mean, from a quantity perspective, it absolutely would, but the issue is more in the realm of inequality of distribution than in supply."
"That's where you come in to beat the corrupt governments and institutions into submission," Yui added with a wink. "Bureaucracy was never my thing."
Izuku feigned hurt, placing a hand over his heart and the back of his other wrist on his forehead in exaggerated despair. "So, I'm just a tool to burn down corrupt, oppressive regimes, hm? Is that all I am to you, Yui Kodai?"
There was a brief moment of silence after he spoke that Izuku suddenly felt a faint inkling of danger shoot through his bones, and the source was the impish blues of her deceptively emotionless stare. The slow yet still slight tilt of her head put Izuku on edge.
"Do you want to be more?" she asked him.
There was entirely too much playful mischief in Yui's eyes for Izuku's comfort, but also too much sincerity for Izuku to miss.
"…You've been hanging around Tokage way too much," he settled on muttering.
Her victorious smile said all it needed to. "Mm."
"I hope I am not intruding…"
The two turned to see Ibara Shiozaki awkwardly standing a few meters away, both completely none the wiser to Mina and Toru having a ball observing the interplay from afar.
"Not at all," Izuku assured her. "Shiozaki, right?"
She nodded with a smile. "I could not help but notice in the videos of your battle with Mirko at the provisional license exam your use of purple tendrils with your intricate quirk. I came to request your assistance with some of my techniques."
"Well, I'm happy to assist however I can," Izuku nodded, though he was surprised that she'd come to him for assistance when he took inspiration from her quirk in the first place.
"Thank you, your graciousness is very much appreciated, Midoriya," she said with a bow.
Izuku glanced at Yui who was fighting off a smile at the interaction. She was used to Shiozaki's disposition, but it was amusing to see someone who wasn't experience it for the first time.
"All Might told me at the sports festival's award ceremony that I would need a more varied moveset," Shiozaki began to explain. "I've noticed that you can freely use the tendrils you create offensively in unique ways, whereas mine can often be unwieldy if I attempt to do similar things. Would you help me understand how to go about it?"
"Not a problem," Izuku smiled. "Funnily enough, I got the inspiration to use them the way I did from watching your matches during the sports festival. The way you're able to quickly and easily subdue and restrain people is really impressive. With that said, I think my violet flames have a bit of an advantage over your vines on account of being able to change their consistency to fit my needs."
Izuku's arm burned a bright violet, and a flame shot up along his forearm and sharpened into a blade. "If I need it to be sharp, I can do that."
Then, the blade softened and wilted, and Izuku grabbed and stretched it. "If I need elasticity, I can do that."
Finally, the flame fell completely slack, and Izuku twirled it around like a lasso. "And if I need rope, I can do that, too. See what I mean?"
Shiozaki nodded, and Izuku dispelled his quirk and placed his hand on his chin. "The biggest issue I see isn't specifically with your quirk's offensive potential, but rather your mobility. You're stationary when you fight, and that'll be a problem when you run into someone who is faster than you or can fight through your defenses like Bakugo did."
Shiozaki nodded again, though more solemnly this time. "Unfortunately, I'm not particularly mobile when using my quirk, as the weight of my vines can be a lot to bear when I'm actively wielding them. As it stands, using my vines en masse for both subduing foes and erecting defenses is my modus operandi."
"You should try the plant mech idea," Yui spoke up with a suggestion.
"Kodai, while I appreciate the creative suggestion, I'm not sure how feasible that endeavor is," Shiozaki declined with a hint of exasperation as if they've had this conversation more than once in the past.
"No, no, she has a point," Izuku insisted as he thought it over, capturing Shiozaki's attention. "You can carry the weight of multiple people with your vines, right?"
"Provided I grow them long enough, yes," she confirmed.
"Then they can probably carry your own weight," Izuku mentioned, and her eyes widened. "Have you ever tried that?"
"I… no…" she admitted. "No, I have not."
Izuku grinned, then he scooted beside Yui. "Give in to the Plant Mech. Let it carry you."
"Let it protect you," Yui added.
"Let it crush," they finished in unison, now standing on either side of Shiozaki before she even realized that they had moved.
Unbeknownst to any of them, Mina and Toru had been joined in the revelry by Tokage.
"…Erm, okay," Shiozaki muttered, unsettled by their behavior. "I will give carrying myself with my vines a try. Thank you, Midoriya. You, as well, Kodai."
"Any time," Izuku waved as she returned to her training area.
Izuku's arm burned violet once again, and he formed another dense ball in his palm. He pondered what had happened earlier; adding green flames to it basically turned it into a shot put ball. Perhaps the fusion of green and violet made his construct denser and possibly more durable?
His thoughts were halted when Yui placed five fingers on the violet ball, growing it to about the size of a bowling ball with her quirk. Rather than ask why she did that, he thought back to his battle with Mirko when he blasted his red flames into the sky to rocket them to the ground, then he hatched an idea. Feeding red fire into the ball instead of green, a crimson haze began radiating from the dark construct, and with it came a great deal of heat. Letting his curiosity run wild, he channeled a steady stream of both red and violet fire into the mass, continually growing it even more as well as turning up the heat with every second. The ball on his hand ballooned to the size of a basketball, then a beach ball, then to about half his own size.
The steadily growing mini sun had gained the attention of everyone in the gym by this point, but Izuku did not stop. The violet and crimson ball of pure heat continued to expand until it was more than three times the size of its creator, and Izuku had to hold his arm and palm straight up to keep hold of it. Yui had taken a few steps back due to the sweltering heat, but she was transfixed by the size of the thing, nonetheless.
"Mr. Aizawa?" Izuku called out to his dumbstruck and nervous teacher.
"…Yes?" he answered back.
Izuku wasn't going to launch this thing inside of the gym where people could get seriously hurt, and he didn't exactly know what would happen if Aizawa negated his quirk while the ball was in a state of flux; it would either dissipate entirely (the good ending), or destabilize and explode, potentially killing everyone in the gym (the bad ending). He could tell that his teacher was of a similar mind since he hadn't activated his quirk. So, there was only one thing for him to do.
"I need to make another hole," Izuku said, pointing up at the ceiling that had been repaired after he uppercut All Might into the stratosphere.
"What?" Aizawa balked.
"I'm gonna make another hole," he declared this time, igniting into 2nd Gear which only made the mini sun even hotter and vibrate with chaotic potential.
"Midoriya..." Aizawa warned.
"I'm making a hole!" he finished before blasting off toward the ceiling.
"Damnit, Midoriya, don't you dare-" Aizawa shouted, but he slammed into and through the ceiling before he could finish.
Izuku, meanwhile, flew as far above the UA grounds as he could before lobbing the massive, fiery ball of death into sky with all his might.
Mere seconds later, the ball detonated.
Within the gym, the students of 1-A and 1-B were struck silent. Those who could get a glimpse through the new hole in the ceiling saw a colorful figure push the giant ball of fire into the sky, then pause before throwing it. Shortly afterward, they witnessed an overwhelming explosion of violet and crimson illuminating the sky. Those that couldn't see it certainly heard and felt it, as the shockwave shook the gym… and everything else on campus. Then, moments after the shaking ceased, Izuku blasted back through the roof and cratered into the ground, leaving a second hole in his wake. The 38 students and three teachers (even All Might had forgotten that he was still there) looked on in shock and concern that quickly transitioned to relief when Izuku spoke:
"Mr. Aizawa," he called out, miraculously sounding barely any worse for wear. "I think I just created another ultimate move."
Aizawa was much too exhausted to facepalm, so he simply turned and left the gym without a word. Vlad King kept a calm front on the outside, but internally, he was cussing up a storm about not calling dibs on Izuku fast enough after the entrance exam. All Might could faintly feel the vestiges active inside of Melissa through his own incomplete vestige, but all that really amounted to was feeling his master bragging to the others about having impeccable genes.
"…Has Midoriya broken the power scale, yet?" Kaminari asked no one in particular.
"Ribbit, give it an arc or two."
Back up in the sky, Hawks wasn't entirely certain if what he had just seen was real or simply a hallucination due to a lack of oxygen. He didn't know if the principle of thinner oxygen even applied at the altitude he was at since he wasn't really that high above the hill that UA rested atop. That only meant that the other option, Izuku Midoriya having actually launched a giant death ball straight out of Dragon Ball Z that exploded in a brilliant display, was the likelier one.
Fan-fucking-tastic…
Madame President would want to know about this. He sighed. This was all for the greater good, right?
Having a provisional license was fantastic in Vanta's opinion. Going on patrols with Ms. Joke was practically a return to form from her vigilante days. Ms. Joke trusted her enough to investigate leads on her own so long as they maintained constant communication, and she no longer had to stay in the shadows and only be active in the dead of night to avoid run-ins with actual pro heroes.
What wasn't so fantastic, though, was the task she was embroiled in. They were investigating the rumblings of a small-time gang that was attempting to strike it big. That alone wasn't out of the ordinary, especially in a time of upheaval in the criminal underworld. It was the way they were trying to force their name out there and who it involved that worried her. Slaughtering a pro hero in an alley was quite the escalation from pedaling drugs and trigger in heteromorph ghettos.
Ugh, that was one thing that rankled her about urban areas in comparison to rural areas. Things were different… but not really.
That was a tangent she didn't need to go on, though. Her priority was the man she was tailing from the shadows (she loved that she could finally do it by choice rather than out of explicit self-preservation), Kajiro Akamoto. His shaggy, black hair made him a needle in a haystack on most occasions, but that was only because he wore a face mask to hide his mouth full of razor-sharp teeth while speaking. They tended to make him pretty identifiable.
Now that they had finally been able to track him down, they wouldn't lose him. Akamoto was a run-of-the-mill, drug dealing slimeball that would otherwise be left to the police to handle if he didn't turn out to be a link to their real target. She followed him down side street after side street, into and out of alleys, and eventually into rougher area of the city. Vanta stayed completely undetected all the while, but she couldn't help but feel in the back of her mind that he was intentionally stringing her along based on how long they'd been traveling.
That was until he cut into a final alley. When she emerged from the shadow of a post nearby, she approached the entrance of the alley expecting to see him making his way down the dark stretch, but he was nowhere in sight. Confused, Vanta nearly stepped into the alley to investigate, but she stopped herself. Something didn't feel right, and she couldn't determine if it was simply a diversion and he had lost her or if it was an ambush waiting to happen.
Fortunately, she had a way around it. Sinking into a nearby shadow, she re-emerged deep within the alley from the darkness surrounding a dumpster. Lo and behold, she saw him once again, meandering along with the same gait that he had before entering. That was beyond odd, but she could think about it when she was done. Creeping right along after him under the cover of darkness, she watched him finally stop at a door and knock six times.
Seconds later, the door opened, and a blonde woman with her hair falling over the right side of her face stepped out. Vanta could tell that half of her hair was shaved when she turned her head to glance in the direction he came from, exposing her four, spider-like eyes. The two exchanged a few words before a hand came down on the woman's shoulder, and another blonde head of hair came into view. The new arrival's hair was a little longer, but what struck Vanta was the combo of an orange and white snout of a fox and bright, blue eyes that poked through the blonde curtain.
The fox-lady whispered something into the ear of the other blonde, and they both grew tense. She said something to Akamoto, then the door slammed shut. Akamoto was clearly frustrated, but rather than pound on the door like Vanta was expecting he would if his supplier froze him out, he just kept on his way down the alley. She didn't know what spooked the two blondes inside, but whatever it was, Akamoto was leaving without whatever he came all this way for.
It didn't sit right with Vanta at all. There was clearly a transaction of some sort set up here. They couldn't have possibly seen her; maybe a sensory quirk detected her presence? There were too many possibilities to consider, but the fact was that something tipped them off. She sighed and sank back into the shadows, reappearing from under a parked car on the street Akamoto exited the alley onto. She'd keep following him just in case, then she would inform Ms. Joke about everything that happened.
Still, one other thing bothered her: why did the one with the fox mutation look so familiar?
As her thoughts raged, activity within the building she and Akamoto departed from continued with the two blondes hastily packing away their zoo trigger operation.
"You're sure?" Weaver asked the other woman as she carefully loaded dozens of vials into a case.
"Positive," Mirage answered, sealing up test tubes of multicolored liquids as well as containers of hormones and PCP. "I can feel it whenever anyone breaches the threshold of my illusions. Akamoto was first, then another one popped in afterward. Either he was being followed and didn't know it, or he was setting us up."
Weaver groaned in irritation and began massaging her temples. "Kitsune is not gonna like this."
"He'll hate to have any distractions so close to our call to action," Mirage muttered, packing up the last of the merchandise. "Akamoto is a loose end, now. There are plenty of other dealers. Big bro is gonna want him taken out. Too much of a liability."
"And Amaterasu wept," Weaver sardonically remarked. "Let's go."
When Inko entered Nezu's office, she was expecting to see him at his desk calmly doing paperwork, going through emails, possibly checking the hundreds of cameras peppering the cameras, or even plotting the downfalls of several powerful figures in the nation. She was not expecting to see him feverishly scribbling equations on a whiteboard while Eri sat on the ground with documents scattered around her, a pencil resting on her ear, and her tongue poking out in concentration. Nezu's waistcoat was off, and the sleeves of his dress shirt were rolled up to his elbows, exposing his furry forearms. Quirking an eyebrow at the scene, she cleared her throat and got the animal's attention.
"Nezu?" Inko addressed with a deceptively patient tone. "Care to explain?"
"We are this close to cracking time travel with young Eri's quirk!" Nezu manically responded, his paws vibrating with every word.
Inko's eye twitched. She turned her gaze downward to Eri on the floor. "What are you reading?"
"Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff," Eri answered without looking up.
Inko sighed. She knew leaving her with Nezu all day for him to handle her education was a bad idea, and it only took a week to present why that was. The girl was already smart… way too smart for her age. She wasn't at the level Izuku was at that age, but there was still more than enough potential for Nezu to pounce on.
Deciding to deal with it later, she moved right on to the reason she came. "You told me to come see you after I finished up with classes today."
"Yes, yes, I did," Nezu nodded, his excitement coming down to a reasonable level. "I'd like for you to observe classes 1-A and 1-B's joint training exercise."
That piqued her interest. "Any particular reason?"
"I have faith in our first-year students' collective acumen, but not all of them will be ready to take the next step into work-studies, either by their own choice or ours. However, I'd like for them to have the option to gain some added instruction and training should they desire it in-house."
"And you want me to scope out any viable candidates?" Inko surmised.
"I'm leaving it up to your discretion, if you do decide to go along with it," Nezu nodded. "Take on whomever and how many ever you feel would benefit from learning under you, assuming they opt not to pursue a work-study."
Inko mulled the idea for a little bit longer, then she nodded. "Alright, I'll do it. Couldn't hurt to see what we're working with for later years. It would even give me a chance to make good on my assurances to Mrs. Yaoyorozu."
"Excellent," Nezu declared before manically downing an entire can of tea and crushing it against his forehead. "Ground Gamma tomorrow afternoon."
"…Right," Inko muttered, not even bothering to put more thought into what was happening. As long as Eri was having fun and no one was rewound out of existence, she would leave them to it.
The breeze kissed Izuku's messy head of hair on his place at the ledge of a building overlooking a demonstration of heteromorphs. A small number of people had gathered to protest outside of a local news station in response to recent… controversial takes regarding heteromorphs. While covering the trigger rampage that Izuku and Mirko had quelled days prior among other similar ones happening across the city and several other areas, their pundits slipped in a few disparaging comments about heteromorphs, implying they were wild and uncontrollable. Unfortunately, they weren't the only news outlet to take a few jabs.
Predictably, many took to the streets and to social media to voice their discontent. The popular sentiment among them was that non-heteromorphs rampage with trigger all the time, and they're only referred to as idiotic criminals. However, when a heteromorph does it, it's consistently a crisis of dangerous mutants upending polite society. Izuku wasn't going to pretend that he hadn't seen that narrative pushed before; he had spent more than enough time on the internet growing up and has had enough conversations with Tsu since starting UA to see the difference in media coverage.
Of course, the appearance of a few hecklers and counterprotestors was an inevitability, so Izuku and Mirko found themselves watching over the demonstration to ensure that it remained calm and that no fights broke out between the two sides, ironically after having already put down another case of a heteromorph on trigger across town. This time, it was a man with a Komodo dragon quirk. Why someone with a Komodo dragon quirk felt the need to use trigger was anyone's guess; the average Komodo dragon could singlehandedly fuck up the beefiest of creatures on any given Tuesday. With that said, one on trigger was definitely a frightening experience, and he (and everyone spectating) was glad that it was Mirko by his side and not anyone else.
"Is this a regular thing?" Izuku asked when he heard Mirko take a seat beside him on the ledge of the building.
"Not in the past, but it's been happening more often recently," she mused, crossing her legs. "There's been an unsettling number of trigger-induced rampages lately. A few hot take artists are using it to push their shitty narratives to their brainwashed fanbase of bigots and conspiracy nuts."
"Does that bother you?" he followed up.
Mirko snorted. "I'm a tan-skinned, muscular bunny whose costume is a leotard. I'm every fetishist's dream. Being othered is something I leaned into a long time ago."
Izuku glanced at her for a moment, then he stared solemnly down at the demonstrators. "So, you're used to it?"
"Mhm. No one should have to be, but it's the sad reality. I just found a way to make it work for me."
Izuku had no response to that, so the next few minutes were serenaded by contemplative silence. He wasn't ignorant enough to assume that this all began with the trigger rampages; it'd been brewing for a long while. Still, something about the incidents was bothering him.
"You mentioned instant villains a few days back," Izuku spoke up again, causing Mirko to turn her gaze to him. "What were they, exactly?"
"An outbreak of trigger rampages in Naruhata a few years back," she replied. "Thing was, the trigger they used was altered, making the people who took it a lot more monstrous and destructive than standard trigger would. Sorta like what we're dealing with now."
"Did they ever catch who was producing it?" Izuku asked, his interest captured.
Mirko waved her hand in a "so-so" motion. "Kind of? They took down the organization that was putting it out there, the Villain Factory, but they never really found out who was making it. They only got the dealers and the villains running the operation."
"Huh," Izuku mused, absorbing the new information. "You think the same people are responsible for the recent outbreak?"
Mirko hummed in consideration. "Maybe, but the M.O. is different. They just handed them out indiscriminately the last time, but this time, only heteromorphs are receiving them. It feels targeted, but that's conjecture on my part."
"Villain Factory, huh…" Izuku quietly muttered, but Mirko heard it, nonetheless. "I'm surprised I've never heard of them. The name is so on-the-nose."
"That is surprising," Mirko mused. "It ended in a big battle in Naruhata with an army of mindless drones and explosions and shit. It was a whole thing. You'd think people would talk about it more."
"Yeah…" Izuku nodded, his brain already making plans to do an internet deep dive when he got back to his dorm. "I wonder why that is…"
Across town, the man with the Komodo dragon quirk groaned as he came down from his zoo trigger high in the back of a paddy wagon.
"Sleeping beauty's finally with us," a man with spiky, dark blond hair and fleshy horns on his forehead laughed.
"Took him long enough," a brown-haired man with long, skinny arms groused. "That moaning and groaning was starting to irritate the shit out of me."
The reptilian man wasn't really paying attention, however. He went to rub his aching head, but he found his hands and wrists locked inside of heavy duty quirk-suppressant cuffs. A mirthless chuckle escaped him.
"That rainbow kid really packs a helluva punch," he muttered. "So does the bunny."
"So, what are you in for?" the blonde man asked with a disarming smirk.
"Huh?" the reptilian man asked in surprise, but the blonde waved him off.
"Not you, we already heard about you," he joked. "The cops were talking about your rampage when they dumped you back here. I meant him."
He motioned to the other heteromorph beside him with his cuffs. The reptilian man looked to his right, and he noticed the tall, quiet man for the first time. He had the head of a wolf with pale, blue fur (excluding the black head of hair he styled into dreadlocks), leading him to believe that his quirk was canine in nature.
"Being a mutant on a Friday afternoon," he bitterly grunted.
The skinny brunette derisively scoffed and looked anywhere but at the two heteromorphs across from him, while the blonde beside him chuckled. "Come on, you gotta give me more than that. There's gotta be a killer story here to take someone as big as you down."
"Sorry to disappoint," he sarcastically replied. "I was minding my own business near a park until a couple pigs came up and told me that I was loitering and disturbing the peace. Some bullshit about 'scaring the children.' I told them to fuck off and leave me alone."
His tone lowered into a growl. "Of course, they didn't. They put their hands on me without cause, and when I jerked away, they became aggressive. Next thing I know, I'm being arrested for resisting arrest. How the hell does that even work?!"
The Komodo dragon-man felt that one in his soul. He was no stranger to being profiled, especially by some stuck up bitch in a park. He glanced down when he noticed something brush against his tail, and he was surprised when he saw the wolf-man had a reptilian tail of his own. It began to sink in just how bad this guy might have had it if his quirk was an even more strange mutation-type than normal.
Then, the van suddenly crashed, and three of the four occupants were tossed around in the back of it. Shouting could be heard outside, but a few more loud crashes accompanied by screaming followed. Within moments, the back doors of the van were punched until they were sufficiently loosened, then they were torn off the vehicle entirely, exposing a large, crocodilian man as the culprit. An injured cop tried to sneak up behind him, but another man covered in scales intercepted and stared into his eyes, paralyzing him in his spot before slitting his throat.
The sound of metal dragging against asphalt drew the four detainees' attention away from the two reptilian men standing at the back of the van. Stepping around the corner was a blonde fox-man with fur as golden as his hair. However, it was wild and shaggy under the transparent, red cloak surrounding him. Trapped in his tightly clenched fist was the front bumper of the police van. When he set his gaze upon the four, three of them flinched.
His irises were a deep crimson with his slitted pupils holding the purest of malice they had ever felt, though much of that was wafting off of the toxic miasma surrounding him. He dropped the bumper to the ground, then he pointed at the two non-mutants and thumbed in the direction behind him. After stepping aside, the two immediately took the hint and scrambled the fuck out of there as quickly as they could, completely forgetting that they still had their heavy duty cuffs on.
Then, he set his gaze on the two detained heteromorphs. The reptilian man shuddered under his threatening glare, but the wolf-man beside him did not move an inch, simply meeting his glare with one of his own. This went on for several seconds that felt like an eternity for the Komodo dragon, then the tension was cut when the edges of the blonde fox's snout pulled up into a grin, and most of the red cloak vanished alongside his eyes shifting into a bright cerulean with round pupils.
"Lemme do something about those cuffs," he said before climbing inside the van.
He raised his clawed hand that was still covered by the red cloak and dug his nail into the metal of the cuffs on the wolf-man's hands. They watched as the cloak practically corroded through the metal, allowing his sharp nail to tear through and free the man from his shackles. After doing the same for the other, he stepped back and sat down on the bench across from them while his two associates stood on either side of the entrance.
"You two got names?" he asked, his smile unwavering but no less unsettling.
The wolf-man huffed, but he didn't see any reason to not humor the man who had apparently just freed him. "Kon."
"What do you go by?" he followed up.
"Chimera," he answered.
"That the name of your quirk?" he asked, and Chimera's silence was answer enough. "I've been around the block. Wolves tend not to have lizard tails or eagle talons for hands."
"…Yeah," Chimera finally confirmed in a mutter.
He nodded, then he turned to the other newly freed man. "How about you?"
"…Komodo," he answered with an unconvincing coolness.
"You come up with that on the spot?" he chuckled.
Komodo sputtered, then he huffed and looked away. "Yeah, so what? I never had a cool nickname."
"I'm not judging," he assured with his hands up placatingly. "You can call me Kitsune."
Now that they had a name to place with the face, Chimera and Komodo analyzed the man before them. He was young, probably early to mid-20s, but the ease him his body after attacking and slaughtering a squad of police and the cool confidence he exuded sitting in the middle of the carnage suggested someone with power. He was either cocky enough to stick around and not fear being apprehended after such a stunt, or he knew he was more than capable of handling whatever army was thrown at him if one showed up. Considering the display upon his arrival, one that Komodo probably wouldn't forget for a very long time, it was likely the latter.
"So, Chimera, Komodo," Kitsune began, clasping his hands together with a fanged grin. "Let's talk business."
The day had arrived. Their training for this exam of sorts was just as rigorous as their training prior to the license exam. Everyone worked themselves to the bone in preparation for whatever hell their teachers would cook up to put them through. Even those who did not feel especially ready for a work-study were determined to prove themselves capable of at least having the option if they chose. Pride was on the line more than anything, and there was a wealth of pride to go around among the approaching classes.
1-A made their way to the center of Ground Gamma, as did 1-B opposite them. No one had been told exactly what they would be doing, but having both classes in a training ground at once for a single exercise let their imaginations fill in the blanks. An all-out battle probably wasn't likely (much to the shared chagrin of Bakugo and Kamakiri), but a team duel between classes certainly was. A few didn't want to think that the two classes would be pitted against each other for the right to take on work-studies, while others were salivating at the presented opportunity to assert their class's dominance and their own unrivaled ability.
"Now that everyone has arrived, let's get down to business," Aizawa began, commanding everyone's undivided attention. "This is where we'll decide if you're ready for work-studies."
"You've likely been speculating on what sort of exercise you'll be doing," Vlad King picked up. "Those that figured a team battle were right on the money. There will be a series of 4-on-4 team battles today."
"Vlad King?" Kendo raised her hand. "The classes are uneven. We have a two-person advantage over Class A."
Monoma wisely did not comment on why that was, and none of 1-A would, either.
"We accounted for that, so we brought in two people to fill the open slots," Aizawa was the one to answer. "They won't be fighting for a work-study, but they'll benefit from the exercise, nonetheless. Please, try not to embarrass yourselves if at all possible."
When a large collection of footsteps became apparent, those who hadn't already heard their approach turned to see Melissa Shield and Hitoshi Shinso in their gym uniforms. However, Shinso was also sporting a black half-mask around his neck under the same kind of capture scarf as Aizawa. Melissa, on the other hand, had on two familiar, red wristbands, a pair of metallic, red boots, and a bandoleer of the same color and material.
Accompanying them were all of their teachers: All Might, Present Mic, Midnight, Cementoss, Ectoplasm, Thirteen, and even Verdant in full regalia. That was a surprise to Izuku, as his mother hadn't mentioned anything about it to him.
"Joining you all are Hitoshi Shinso and Melissa Shield," Aizawa continued. "Shinso wants to transfer to the heroics track, and Shield plans on being a dual-course student in both heroics and support. They'll be joining your training; they're hoping to be one of you, so treat them as you would any other classmate."
"As you can see, your teachers will all be evaluating you alongside us," Vlad King said, gesturing to the assembled adults. "You have no excuses to not put your best foot forward today."
"And before your brains go any further, this isn't a Class A vs. Class B exercise," Aizawa added, throwing all of the students for a loop. "Like we said before, you'll be grouped in teams of four, but you'll all be mixed together. Two from Class A, and two from Class B. You're not always going to know the capabilities of who you're working with on the field, so you need to learn how to adapt on the fly."
Vlad King picked up where Aizawa left off once again. "The goal is to capture your four opponents. There will be an adorably decorated prison in each team's base camp. Once you put your opponent behind bars, that will count as a capture. Now, draw your lots."
Match 1
Itsuka Kendo, Kojiro Bondo, Tsuyu Asui, & Mezo Shoji
Vs.
Momo Yaoyorozu, Hanta Sero, Nirengeki Shoda, & Reiko Yanagi
Match 2
Fumikage Tokoyami, Shihai Kuroiro, Eijiro Kirishima, & Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu
Vs.
Toru Hagakure, Denki Kaminari, Juzo Honenuki, & Sen Kaibara
Match 3
Shoto Todoroki, Kinoko Komori, Ochako Uraraka, & Ibara Shiozaki
Vs.
Yosetsu Awase, Manga Fukidashi, Rikido Sato, & Koji Koda
Match 4
Neito Monoma, Togaru Kamakiri, Tenya Iida, & Kyoka Jiro
Vs.
Katsuki Bakugo, Setsuna Tokage, Hiryu Rin, & Mina Ashido
Match 5
Pony Tsunotori, Melissa Shield, Hitoshi Shinso, & Kosei Tsubaraba
Vs.
Izuku Midoriya, Yui Kodai, Jurota Shishida, & Minoru Mineta
Omake: Shoto's Breakthrough
"I've figured it out," Shoto manically declared as he slammed a tack into his cork board. "I've finally figured it out. It all makes so much sense."
His hand slid onto a picture of All Might. "All Might's quirk is so powerful… so unique… no one has ever had anything like it to anyone's knowledge. Even still, he always evades questions about it. He keeps it a secret. He keeps everything about his personal life a secret…"
His hand shakily shifts to a picture of Melissa. "Then, Melissa pops up out of nowhere with a quirk so similar to his own, and he's right there day one to help her train with it. It could be that he's just lending his assistance to a late-bloomer with a really powerful and dangerous quirk that is remarkably similar to his own, but what are the odds that a quirk takes 13 years longer than normal to fully manifest…"
Shoto vigorously shook his head. "No, it doesn't add up. It just doesn't. Midoriya's quirk is just as powerful as All Might's, and his own only took a few years longer than normal to unlock fully. There's something else here… there's more to this connection… a familial connection."
His hand moved to a picture of All For One's remains. "All Might keeps everything about his personal life a secret because anyone with a bone to pick with him would go after his loved ones if given the opportunity."
His index finger slammed onto a picture of David Shield beside a picture of an overhead view of I-Island "So, if All Might ever had a child, who better to go to than one of his closest friends and former sidekick, David Shield? And what better place to keep a hidden child than the most secure place on the planet, I-Island, where no one would ever be able to harm her?"
Shoto's pupils were dilated, and his body was vibrated. "Of course, All Might gave his daughter to David Shield, she took his last name, and she lived on I-Island under the guise of being quirkless. Then, when David Shield was arrested, she had to come back to Japan and live with her biological father, and now, since All For One is dead, she doesn't have to hide her quirk anymore. Melissa Shield is All Might's daughter!"
Breathing heavily, he turned to the audience of his closest comrades in his dorm room. Izuku (with Eri in his lap), Iida, Yaoyorozu, Ochako, and Bakugo sat in silence while Shoto manically presented his theory, shakily gesturing to the collection of pictures and red threads connected by tacks.
Then, without a word, Bakugo stood up and left the room.
Shoto's heterochromatic gaze swept the room. "Thoughts?"
"Oh, honey…" Yaoyorozu sympathetically lamented.
"It's… an interesting theory," Ochako supplied.
"Erm, Todoroki, I'm not sure about this one," Iida began before Izuku's arm stuck out in front of him to his left.
"Now hold on," Izuku interrupted. "Let him cook."
"Eri?" Shoto asked, wanting to hear the little girl's opinion.
She placed her hand on her chin in thought, scrutinizing the presented information with a narrowed gaze.
"I think it adds up."