Chapter Text
The viewing room was completely silent as U.A's staff stared at the screens in front of them.
"Holy fuck."
Aizawa wasn't sure who said it, but he definitely agreed.
The new unknown had just taken out All Might , the Number One and known as the strongest hero. Every blow had been matched with ease, even when said attacks were completely wrecking the city around them.
Parts of the fight had been just too fast for the cameras to pick up, leaving behind nothing but a blur of white and blue. Titan obviously didn't just give Midoriya strength on par with All Might.
All Might's vast strength was probably the most popular thing about the hero; being able to finish fights with a single punch and shrugging off attacks with a smile.
But what Aizawa cared about was speed. It didn't matter how strong, or how skilled you were if someone could kill you before you could react.
So as soon as Midoriya showed that capability, he watched him during the battle closely.
"The fight was a slow escalation." Aizawa stated.
Kan nodded. "All Might would fight with a certain amount of power, and then Midoriya would force him to use more. And then more, and more-"
"Midoriya wasn't the one being tested. All Might was." Thirteen breathed, eyes wide in her helmet.
"All Might definitely wasn't holding back on that last punch." Ectoplasm said. "I've never even seen him use that much power before. And what was up with the red lightning? Magic?"
"And then Midoriya hit back just as hard without even trying." Nezu's voice cut through the discussion like a knife.
"We couldn't even see him do it though," Majima said. "One moment All Might is charging forward with his Super Move, and the next he's blown backward. The power too, that's got to be Midoriya going all out, right?"
One of the screen's changed, showing Midoriya walking back through the fake city.
"What do you all notice?" Nezu asked.
"He's completely unharmed?" Thirteen tried, confused.
Kan's eyes went wide with realization. "The staff. He was wearing it when we fought him too. It's still resting on his back."
"Meaning the Symbol of Peace wasn't enough to make him draw his weapon, or use his magic. And also-" The camera zoomed in on the white-haired man.
"He's not even out of breath."
Izuku pulled All Might out of the remains of a building, slinging the unconscious man over his shoulder.
He had shrunk a little, blue and red of his costume seeming little tighter around his form, but mostly looked the same. This was probably what the blonde looked like when his ability was inactive.
Izuku managed to fit All Might on one of Recovery Girl's hospital beds, wincing a little as he watched her fuss over the fallen hero.
"He's okay, right?" Izuku asked.
Recovery Girl waved it off. "Don't worry, that big idiot will be fine. He's been through far worse."
Izuku smiled. That human was kind of tough. "I knew he was the Number One, but he was a lot stronger than I thought! I wasn't really sure what his limit was. His last punch was pretty cool, so I dodged and tried it with twice the force-"
Recovery Girl's hands twitched.
"-but it may have been a little too much. So I'm glad to see he's alright."
"This was the last part of your exam, right? The rat and other teachers should be waiting back at the viewing room for you."
Izuku nodded. "Thanks, Reco-"
"Call me Shuzenji, please. I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more of each other."
The conversation in the room seemed to cut off as Izuku walked in, heroes stopping to stare at him with a mix of awe and curiosity. It reminded him of when he beat Agni, the champion of the Arena, and the looks of wonder he was given for years after.
Wait, Izuku basically had just beaten humanity's Agni.
Huh.
"Congratulations, Midoriya-san!" Nezu said, bringing him out of his thoughts. "You passed our little exam easily, exceeding all expectations. I'm delighted to have you as our Heroics teacher, and hope you'll take care of our students."
Izuku nodded. "Thanks, Nezu."
"You'll also soon be a fully registered hero. On that note, what are you planning to use as your hero name?"
Izuku blinked. Right, they all had aliases. He was used to gods, who only had one name, yet most humans had two; a surname added to their given one. A hero name would be something humans would call him, that he would be known for.
The heroes he had seen so far seemed to name themselves based on their quirks, but this wouldn't really work for someone like Izuku. Quirks were all unique abilities. That wouldn't work for him.
Instead, Izuku would pick a name that showed a part of how he had lived, how he had endured-
"How about Atlas?" Izuku said,
The Titan that holds up the sky.
Nezu raised an eyebrow. "That's a pretty interesting name. Is it based on your quirk?"
Izuku smiled.
"Something like that."
Izuku's hero license arrived days later, and he was now official.
Now, he could legally beat up people and kill monsters. Izuku probably would have done both of those things anyway, but the tiny rectangle in his hands would stop humans from bugging him about it.
Aurora lightly took it, reading the license curiously.
"The Enduring Hero: Atlas." Aurora's eyes narrowed with small hints of concern. "It's a great name, Izuku. But are you sure you want to be known for the greatest challenge you've faced?"
Izuku smiled. "More than that, it's the memory. I'm proud of being able to overcome that, and taking it with me means I'll always have part of it with me, even if no one else understands. Also, being a hero means I'll be holding up the sky again..not literally this time."
Aurora sighed, smiling back. "You never do anything by halves, Izuku."
"Not really, no."
Aurora stared down at the card for a few moments. "You got pretty unlucky with the picture though. Why didn't you change it?"
Izuku winced.
"You...you can't change the picture, can you?"
"They only take it once, and I wasn't really expecting the flash-Hey! Stop laughing!"
Izuku's first patrol was...uneventful so far.
As soon as he started looking for trouble, it was suddenly nowhere to be found.
His 'hero costume' was just his white cloak on top of his clothes. It could be considered a costume, and durable enough to go untorn after so many years. There was a sheathe on his back for his staff, runic designs matching his cloak.
No monsters had appeared out of nowhere, nor any villains he had heard about. Izuku did kind of want a fight, but no humans being attacked was great too.
It was peaceful, really, turning into one of his walks around the city. The weather was nice, and Izuku could see more humans around than he usually did.
His 'exam' hadn't been released, so no one really knew who he was yet. Unlike in Heaven, he could still walk down streets without much attention.
"Wow, you're really tall! Are you a hero?"
Izuku glanced down to see a small boy, his eyes wide as he took in Izuku's cloak.
He bent down so he wasn't staring down at the kid.
"Thanks. Yes, I'm a hero. Do you need help?"
The boy nodded vigorously. "My cat, Neko, she's stuck in a tree!"
Izuku blinked. Huh, so this kind of thing really did happe-
"Wait, what did you say your cat's name was?"
He followed the boy to a park, half-listening to him babble on about heroes and how cool they were. It was adorable, really, but it was also kinda concerning that he was letting a stranger follow him.
"-here! This tree!"
Izuku tuned back in to see the most gigantic tree in existence. The roots themselves were as big as Izuku himself, and the trunk stretched up into the clouds.
"What the heck." Izuku blurted, barely stopping himself from cursing in front of a child.
Izuku had been to this park thousands and thousands of times; there was no way he would forget something this huge.
"That's what Onee-san said!" The boy exclaimed, pointing. As they got closer, Izuku could in fact see a dark-haired girl, fingertips pressed together as she stood in front of the trunk, concentrating. Despite her efforts, though, nothing seemed to be happening.
The boy ran up to her, poking her arm to get the girl's attention. "Nee-san, look! I got help, he's a hero!"
She seemed to be around Akari's age, meaning she was around...19? 20? in human years. Her eyes were suspicious as he approached, but it seemed to fade a little when she heard he was a hero.
"I'm Yui Kodai. This is my little brother, Makoto." She stated simply. "Makoto has no control-" The mentioned boy looked a little sheepish. "-so when Neko got stuck, this happened." Kodai gestured at the behemoth in front of them.
"How did Neko get stuck in the first place?" Izuku asked.
"Neko has this really cool jump quirk, and can get really high! Which is why I'm supposed to be extra careful at parks..." Makoto trailed off.
"When I change plants, they grow really big and then go back to normal. If I shrink it now, Nee-san says that Neko will fall! But it's too big for Nee-san to use her quirk on..."
"So you need me to get Neko down first." Izuku nodded. "Alright."
He took a few steps back from the two kids. Then he leaped .
Izuku shot straight up into the air, watching the bark pass by him as he flew, Makoto's surprised shout barely reaching his ears. The houses shrank beneath him, the kids turning into small specks on the ground.
He broke through the clouds, covering his eyes from the sun. They stretched below him in a vast expanse, like a beautiful, fluffy blanket covering the world.
Izuku landed on a huge branch, gazing up at the forest of branches above him. That would take a while to look through for something small...
Izuku activated Void, his mana weaving into the atmosphere as his mana sense increased a hundredfold. He had to concentrate to ignore the tree itself, a huge mass of mana probing at his mind.
Makoto's quirk was amazing, and he really wanted to ask the kid how it worked. His sister too, since it seemed to resize things as well. If they increased the amount of mana as well-
There, A small amount of mana, slightly moving as well. Izuku placed one foot on the trunk, then the other-
and started walking straight up, the air around him twisting to support his body and anchor it to the wood. He ran a bit, until with a flip he was on the right branch, at last.
Neko seemed terrified, probably from being this high up. Izuku took a step forward, then hesitated; spooking her would be a bad idea right now. Neko saw him, inching a bit away from him and towards the edge of the branch.
It reminded Izuku of Kuro when he had scared the poor cat those first few weeks, and wanted to calm him down...
A small bundle of blankets formed out of the air, purple and fluffy. Neko blinked as they wrapped around her fur securely. Thankfully, she wasn't struggling and seemed comfortable.
"You ready, Neko?"
Blue eyes stared back at him, and he took that as a yes.
Izuku stepped off the branch with a grin, wind trailing through his hair and blowing at his cloak as he fell through the sky.
He kept firm control of the blankets, making sure Neko was safe. They broke through the clouds, plummeting fast as the ground rose up to meet them.
Izuku landed lightly, absorbing the immense impact with his legs. He grinned at the siblings, seeing the open awe on their faces.
The cat bundle floated next to him, Neko letting out a meow. Makoto moved to grab the cat, hugging her to his chest happily. Kodai was still staring at him, eyes wide.
"Got your cat. It's a good thing you didn't do this near the center of the park, that could have been...bad."
Kodai unfroze at his words, bowing slightly. "Thank you, for saving Neko."
Makoto smiled back at him, warm. "Thank you so much..."
Kodai sighed. "You didn't even ask for his name?"
"Atlas." Izuku said.
"-Atlas-san! You're so strong! Was that your quirk? You went whoosh into the sky all of a sudden!"
"Thanks, kid." Izuku ruffled his hair on instinct, and the boy beamed at him.
"Can I have your autograph!" Makoto asked, bouncing on his feet.
Izuku blinked. "My...what?"
The boy offered him a notepad and pen(where did he even get that?) "Your autograph!"
"He wants you to sign it," Kodai said quietly.
"Oh, sure."
Izuku wrote his hero name, watching the boy hug the notepad as if it was a present well wished for. Neko didn't seem to mind being squished against the boy, shifting slightly as the air blankets dissipated.
Makoto shrunk the tree, and the effort to do so seemed to knock the boy out completely. His sister caught him, twisting so Makoto and Neko were resting on her back.
"Do you need any help taking them back?" Izuku asked.
Kodai tilted her head for a moment in consideration, before shaking it in response. She waved as she walked away, her cat and brother slung across her back.
Izuku glanced back at the now normal-sized tree, feeling the mana resized down by the same proportion.
Quirks really were something.
"This is ridiculous." Akari huffed.
Izuku blinked, looking up from his hero guidebook. "What is?"
"Humans. You know the study guide for the U.A exam, right?" Akari asked, waving the paper at him.
"Yeah...?"
"U.A is one of Japan's top universities, or whatever. But most of the academics here are stuff I learned before I was even in school! The only new subjects for me besides heroics are going to be history and 'english"
"Isn't that a good thing? You'll have a break from how much you study in Arcadia, and you'll have more time to focus on heroics."
Akari slumped face-first into the couch. "But I'll be soooo bored! You know, there are only several thousands of years of recorded human history..."
"That's still quite a bit."
"Yeah, but humans only care about the last 200 years before the Drift, when quirks first started to appear. Two centuries, and that's it. I'm older than that!"
"Huh. That's pretty weird, actually."
"Right?! It is just three years, though, for their entire history curriculum..."
Akari stilled. "The other students."
"What about them?"
"They're twenty years old. Twenty. Dad, they're babies."
Besides the occasional robbery, most of his work was just saving people who lost control of their quirks.
Since the tree incident, Izuku had stopped a woman from flying into space, another from putting her neighborhood to sleep, and two twins from burning down their house.
Magic was something you learned to use over time. In contrast, humans had quirks almost as soon as they were born, and a lot of them really needed to practice more.
Izuku sighed, closing his eyes. It would be a while before humans had full control of their abilities again. The teacher in him badly wanted to fix that, but there wasn't much he could do. It wasn't like these people were his students.
Something small ran straight into him and Izuku stopped on instinct, arms curling around to stop them from falling back. Another child. Quirk related?
"Hello-" Izuku started, then froze as he got a proper look at her.
Her hair was long and silver, trailing down almost too long, and wide, terrified red eyes stared up at him. Combined with what she was wearing, old pieces of cloth, it was a clear picture.
"There you are, Eri."
Izuku looked up from her to see a young man, a bird mask covering the lower part of his face. His fingers danced a little on his coat, drawing Izuku's eyes to black gloves.
Izuku grit his teeth, hiding his growing anger behind a smile. "Is she your daughter?"
The man smiled back. It reached his eyes, but the contempt in them didn't fade. "Yes, she is, hero. I'm sorry she ran into you."
"It's alright. I am a little concerned, though. Was your drifting time hard? Your...daughter seems to be wearing rags." Eri shifted slightly in his arms, horn poking Izuku's chest. "And she's wearing bandages."
"Coming back after drifting is weird indeed. Eri is a little clumsy, and it's just terrible how often she falls. Eri, let's go home. No need to bother the hero more."
Eri gripped him a little tighter, and the man's gloved hands finally stopped tapping.
"You know, I haven't been a hero very long," Izuku said.
"Really?"
"Nope. So I don't have much experience with things like this."
Izuku bent down, picking up the small girl with one arm.
"I do have a daughter, though. And it's pretty obvious Eri's not yours."
The man's eyes narrowed. People around them were starting to stare at the confrontation, pausing on the street.
"This isn't any of your business."
Izuku held Eri closer, clenching his other fist.
"I think it is."
He glared, facade finally dropping.
"So this was your plan, Eri? Run, run, until you find a hero dumb enough to think they could stop me. Is that what you thought would happen? Even after this long?" His voice grew louder with every word, malice practically dripping from his tone.
"It's been a while since I showed you, after all."
The black gloves came off, slowly gliding to the ground.
" That you'll never be free."
The man pressed his palms to the ground, and the earth rose up.
Huge spikes erupted from the ground, taking up the entire street in a single attack-
About to kill every human around them, including Eri.
-Izuku sidestepped the attack about to impale him. At the same time, dozens of purple chains lifted every bystander high above the sea of spikes, dangling them in the air.
"That was fast, hero. How about thi-"
Izuku crossed the distance between them in an instant, eyes blazing.
" Shut up. "
Izuku barely held back in time, the uppercut hitting the man's chin so hard his head whipped back, mask shattering into a million pieces from the impact.
And Izuku found that he didn't mind much.
The villain flew up in an arc before crashing onto the ground, unconscious.
Eri gasped in his arms, and he could have sworn he heard one of the people above him cheer as he carefully lowered them to the ground.
The street was completely ruined, spikes filling the area and stabbing into the nearby buildings. But no one seemed to be hurt besides the villain, so Izuku counted it as a win.
Izuku realized he was still holding Eri, looking down at her.
"Um, do you have anyone to stay with that isn't...like that?"
Eri shook her head, and Izuku sighed.
Figures.