Chapter 3: Problem Child
Eraserhead is having a blast. Well, in his own terms. The best part of marrying Ms. Joke is that she knows when he is reaching the end of his patience and is ready to step in in order to deflect the attention from him.
So he is currently in the same room as Present Mic and Midnight (everyone is wearing their casual clothes, this is late evening and they aren't working right now), but somehow, just somehow, Emi has taken the attention of his friends off him and he is just existing there. In the background.
He filters the noise of the conversation out of his head, sets up a self-imposed mental command to wake up when he hears his name or his hero name (or if something explodes), and is doing his best to fall asleep with his eyes open.
But then he gets a phone call. And he hates those. He pulls out a phone and sees that it's one of the newest contacts he has on it.
All Might, the probably-in-a-few-months fellow teacher is phoning him. He is in the area, and Nedzu gave them each other's phone numbers (plus some general introduction) in case All Might needed some investigative help or Eraserhead needed some brawn. They didn't thus far, and so All Might was happily punching out villains in the area of the UA, with only some passing meetings while he was preparing to take up the job.
What happened now?
"Who is it, Aizawa?" Emi leans closer towards him, probably curious at who could be phoning such a cryptid as Eraserhead. Literally 90% of possible callers were in that very room (which happened to be the home of Eraserhead), drinking just slightly and… doing whatever people were doing when they were together.
Eraserhead stopped caring about that ever since he hit his daily human interaction limit.
"All Might is calling me." He replies and Emi makes an OMG ALL MIGHT face that makes Aizawa look just so incredibly tired.
"Turn on the speaker!" Emi says quickly. "I want to hear him!" Eraserhead groans and he sees Nemuri and Hizashi going silent and eyeing him curiously as well.
Alright. Here goes nothing.
"What is it, All Might?" Eraserhead does his best to not sound inviting at all. It's his time off, he could be taking a nap! Then again, he could be taking a nap at any point of the day. Which is why he dislikes being called by people.
"Aizawa, would you like to adopt a child?" All Might asks and Emi somehow does a spit take because she took just the right time to drink her beer. Eraserhead is staring at the phone like it grew horns, and said that it's a demon that wants to join Eraserhead's class to learn how to be a proper sadist.
"Sorry, that was a strange thing to ask." All Might corrects himself before Eraserhead says words that he would (or wouldn't) regret. "Could you do me a favour? I need the Recovery Girl with everything she needs to do a field medical check-up and an obduction, two or three liters of human blood of whatever blood type and probably some medicines for Hayes-Wilczak Syndrome. In front of the UA in… an hour. Just without Nedzu knowing."
"All M… Yagi." Eraserhead takes a deep breath. "What have you done?"
"It's… quite hard to explain, mmm...." All Might replies and he sounds almost apologetic. "But it might include an accidental kidnapping of the Number Three Hero." Eraserhead can feel himself going slackjawed. Present Mic stares at him from the other side of the table. Midnight looks like she just instantly went sober and was deeply regretting it.
"Well, good for you that I think that Thunderbolt is a dick." Eraserhead replies finally. "Can I come with Ms. Joke, Present Mic and Midnight?" He may as well make this evening actually memorable.
***
The Recovery Girl was less than happy as she was about to go home. But Eraserhead managed to get to her in time. Besides, they shared the opinion on Thunderbolt (although his involvement was something that she learned only after they left the UA, since the resident Rat God of Evil could overhear them on it).
Twenty minutes later a car arrived, driven by Detective Tsukauchi. Who, frankly speaking, looked like a soldier that had just emerged from the trenches after three years of gruelling and mentally taxing total war.
"Do I even want to ask?" Eraserhead says while he is loading into the car and taking over the front seat.
"No." Tsukauchi replies, while staring blankly into space in front of him. They both ignore the fact that the car (it's not a big one) ran out of seats and absolutely no one wanted to be left out on whatever was happening, leading to Recovery Girl landing herself on Ms. Joke's lap. Shuzenji was the smallest of them all, after all. "But you will find out soon enough."
His driving is way more recklessly suicidal than Aizawa remembers. It's like he wants to die, really.
***
They stop in front of a rather unassuming residence in an even more unassuming (if not straight boring) ward in Shizuoka. Eraserhead doesn't remember ever being near it, really. And he has no idea who might be living here.
Recovery Girl picks up her tools from the trunk, Midnight is tasked with carrying the bloodbags and the medicines, Present Mic is handed a stack of documents by Tsukauchi, and then they are all led by the detective towards the door.
The detective knocks, and after a few seconds it opens. Just enough to let them see All Might in his hero form (but civilian clothes) standing behind them, maybe a bit too large for them. But at least not noticeable by the neighbours.
"You are here!" He shouts and Eraserhead can feel his ears hurt. "Please, come in!"
They do so. They find themselves in an anteroom with All Might and an unfamiliar green haired woman approaching her forties.
"I'm sorry for calling you out on such short notice!" All Might thunders. His ability to keep the volume down diminishes even further in his hero form. "Please, let me introduce the owner of this residence. Her name is Inko Midoriya." She does a dignified curtsy. "She happens to be my wife." All Might looks like he is really proud about it.
"Wait, you have a wife?!" Midnight asks first. Of course that's what picks her interest. "I mean… everyone thinks that you are… uhm… alone?" It's almost hilarious to see how thoroughly NOT lewd she is off work. Especially the baggy clothes makes her look weird once you actually realize who she is.
"We've decided to keep that part a secret." Inko replies. "My husband has a lot of enemies, and besides, I don't exactly enjoy the attention of the press." Eraserhead's opinion on All Might actually rises after this. He managed to hide being married from the vultures? Despite his common… bumbling behaviour? And being the most popular person in the country? Hats off. "Now, however, we got into a bit of a crisis that we decided that we can't deal with on our own."
"It includes Thunderbolt, yes?" Eraserhead asks and Inko nods. "What exactly happened?"
"I think it's something to talk about in the living room." Inko replies. "Just… before we enter, you need to know something. This is a bit more people to find out than I thought, really." All Might shrugs with an apologetic look on his face. "But… one of the reasons for the secrecy of our marriage is that I'm actually a retired supervillain."
Eraserhead - and not only he - has a brief WHAT moment, but she doesn't let them vocalize it.
"As a result, we've made a decision that neither of us do any work in our home or anywhere near it." She continues. "It's a bit of a neutral zone for us and our acquaintances, and we expect you to respect that."
"Okay, that's just… something." Eraserhead replies and groans. "What sort of villains are we talking about?" There is obviously someone in the house right now, even if you exclude All Might's wife.
She doesn't have time to answer.
"Inko, my dear! Those cookies you made for the guests are absolutely deeeelightful!" They all hear a voice coming from the deeper part of the house. Right before they all get to see Mr. Compress, one of the most wanted men in the country and a double S-rank villain in his signature villain outfit, enters the anteroom like it is completely normal. "Oops. Am I interrupting something?"
"If you came in thirty seconds earlier, before I explained the neutral zone thing, I'd interrupt your heartbeat." Inko deadpans in the resulting silence. All Might looks just slightly intimidated. Mr. Compress lets out a panicked squeal and vanishes from the room. Eraserhead looks at Detective Tsukauchi, who, once again, looks traumatized.
"I was his best man." Is the entire answer for the unspoken question that he gets.
***
Three minutes later Eraserhead has to admit that the cookies truly are delightful. The only real negative is that he can see Mr. Compress sitting on the chair in the same room as Eraserhead without, apparently, the possibility for Aizawa to arrest him.
And he isn't touching the part where he can clearly see the Hero Killer as well. The man who beat up and ruined the careers of a two-digit number of heroes is in this room, clad in All Might's merch clothes (including a really atrocious T-Shirt and even worse glasses), and standing next to not just the unconscious Thunderbolt, but also two other heroes that he doesn't recognize. Drinking what looks like a strawberry smoothie from an All Might-themed cup.
He can feel his sanity slowly cracking and he realizes that if something isn't done, he will end up looking like Tsukauchi. Just how many unspeakable horrors did the poor detective see? Does Eraserhead even want to imagine the wedding? Especially after the off-handed mention that Compress organized it?
"So, can we please start the explanations?" Eraserhead wants to go home. And he is doing his best to ignore how thoroughly entertained Emi clearly is. Mic is mostly shocked, and Midnight is… Eraserhead has no idea what she is. Recovery Girl in the meantime is an enigma wrapped in secrecy and covered in a camouflage of mystery.
"I believe there is someone else we'll need to ask for those." Inko announces. They are all sitting around a coffee table. "Izuku! Please come in."
Few seconds later a kid (just slightly younger than the recruitment age for the UA, with messy green hair and freckles) runs into the room. His eyes quickly scan everyone sitting around the table and then…
"Omigosh!" The kid is absolutely beaming at them. "Eraserhead, Present Mic, Midnight, Ms. Joke and Recovery Girl!" Eraserhead stares at him, how did he instantly recognize them all?! No, All Might had to tell him who was coming, right? Kid's eyes took that moment to dart towards All Might. "Dad, can I… can I ask them for autographs? I know it's not the time, but..."
"We'll talk about it once we deal with the… situation." All Might replies, but not before exchanging glances with Inko and his wife nodding slightly. "Now, could you please tell our guests what exactly happened?"
"Oh, ok!" Izuku straightens up, takes two or three deep breaths and starts talking. "For a while now I was cleaning the Takoba beach from junk as a part of the training for the UA entrance exam. With my dad, and sometimes my uncles." Does Eraserhead want to ask who those uncles are? Probably not. It's bad enough that he just learned who is going to be his next problem child. "I at some point noticed that there was a child my age living in the junkyard. He was obviously a runaway, and a small-time villain but it really wasn't their fault, so I decided to try to help them, and…"
Eraserhead raises his hand to interrupt the stream of words.
"They were a villain?" He asks, and the kid loses maybe half a second to start answering that.
"Err, yes." He replies. "I suspected it so, I browsed the Hero Network data under my dad's supervision and I found a string of small robberies in the area done by someone similar looking, with some form of mind-control quirk. But it was never money, just stuff like food or medicines. I wanted to see if this is more of a necessity than anything to them, and the food thefts clearly ended after I began to leave food on the beach after training."
"I see, please continue." Eraserhead replies, hiding the fact that he was just kind of impressed. A fourteen year old kid identifying a villain (even if small-time) like that? Not bad. Not bad at all.
"I decided to get to know him better without calling the heroes or child services to figure out what or who he is hiding from." Izuku continues. "I… uhm… kind of figured out that it would be best if he actually asked to get helped? I think that it was going quite well, and I learned a lot of things and I think that he started to trust me, but then today happened. I was cleaning the beach with my uncle… uhm, Compress, acting as a truck driver."
Eraserhead is really not digging into the part where the son of the Symbol of Peace has one of the top supervillains act as their nanny. Who the hell is Midoriya Inko?! Judging from the occasional glances that Midnight is giving her, Eraserhead isn't the only one who wonders.
"That's when I saw the kid running back into the junkyard." Izuku continues. "Right after that I saw Nightshade, Red Wing and Thunderbolt enter it after them." The Number Three Hero and two other heroes following a small-time thief? That's… that's going to be pretty bad, isn't it? "I got worried, so I asked Mr. Compress to follow me and we went after them."
Eraserhead can only hope that Mr. Compress wasn't in his villain outfit because his assessment of Izuku (Midoriya? Yagi?)'s intelligence would drop significantly.
"When I arrived, I saw Nightshade trying to beat that child and another one his age to death with a riot baton, while Red Wing was watching and Thunderbolt was playing on his phone." Izuku says, and Eraserhead would have choked on air, but years of being an underground hero taught him how to deal with things both messed up and unexpected. Thunderbolt, the Number Three Hero, was doing WHAT? While someone was beating a kid to death over some small-time theft? "I tried to make them stop doing that by bluffing that I was recording the whole thing and it was streaming to my dad, who is All Might's personal assistant, and I think it was going quite alright, but Thunderbolt tried to attack me, and… my uncle, technically, ended up kidnapping him and the other two heroes." Izuku concludes his tale. There are a few long seconds of silence that clearly makes him uncomfortable and he decides to stop it by adding something. "We've… also brought those children here and patched their wounds, but they are not in good shape, so dad decided to involve the Recovery Girl."
"I'll leave you to deal with Thunderbolt." Recovery Girl announces. Despite three heroes lying unconscious on the floor, she has other things to do. Considering what they just heard, they should be happy that she didn't try to kick any of them. "I'm going to take a look at those children. Where can I find them?" Soon she, Inko, and a lot of blood bags disappear from the room.
"Alright, so let me get this straight." Eraserhead decides to take one for the team, since Mic, Emi and Midnight were just so unbelievably useless. "You, the son of the Number One Hero, were training on the beach, with one of the most prolific supervillains in the country acting as your nanny. You decided to save some runaway kid living on said beach, which led to you seeing three heroes, including the Number Three Hero, commit a blatant case of heroic brutality if not a downright murder attempt on two children. So you proceeded to intimidate them, and when it didn't work, you… kidnapped them?"
Izuku looks down, but he honestly feels more shy due to standing in front of the people than in remorse for what he did. Then he nods.
Definitely a problem child.
"And why didn't you tell anyone about the fact that you identified a villain responsible for a string of thefts?" Eraserhead asks and he can see Tsukauchi nod a bit.
"Well, I… did?" Izuku replies, scratching his head a bit. Is it some sort of a nervous tick? The movements are a bit odd. "I told my parents. Dad wanted to call child services, but after I pointed out what I learned, he decided to let me try to help."
The heroes in the room stare at All Might, who is just a bit startled by it.
"L...let him talk before accusing me!" He promptly shouts, and Izuku jumps up a bit. He feels… rather jumpy, in general.
"Errr, I found out that the kid I was seeing on the junkyard had a mental quirk from the police records." Izuku says quickly. "I knew that he looked like he hadn't slept in a few days, so I figured out that he has Hayes-Wilczak Syndrome, and…" Eraserhead once again raises his hand.
"Quick explanation for those who don't know." Aizawa says. "So, most of us. What is that Syndrome?" The Recovery Girl looked at him really strangely when he told her to bring the medicine for it. And he had never heard about it.
"Uhm, err, it's a rare quirk disorder when one's mental quirk refuses to fully shut down, and keeps the brain's activity up at all times." Izuku promptly stammers. "It makes you unable to sleep unless you eat up a lot of sleeping pills. There are dedicated medicines, but the disease is rare, so they are hard to get. Not something you can steal from a pharmacy. So I decided that if the kid from the junkyard was living there despite knowing he has the Syndrome, there was a high chance that he was hiding from someone. Most likely his own family. And considered it important enough to, err, risk his own life. I… wanted to find out before making dad phone the child services. If his family was abusive to him, I didn't want to be the one to make him return to it."
That was a rather thoughtful approach. Kinda unlike All Might, really? Izuku Midoriya spent weeks if not months trying to figure out how to help a kid that he met on the street, despite knowing that he was a villain. And then jumped in front of the Number Three Hero to save said villain (who clearly didn't deserve to be beaten up for what he did).
Eraserhead nods with approval. Just a bit. Not strongly enough for anyone to notice. He isn't going to play favourites, even if there is a chance that the child in front of him wouldn't pass the entrance exam and thus wouldn't be a problem to him. He does glance towards Tsukauchi though.
"I can confirm that everything he said was true." Tsukauchi promptly replies. "Which means that we are now going to have to deal with the fallout." He sighs. "We can't exactly make it public that Izuku is All Might's son, nor the fact that Thunderbolt was done in by Mr. Compress accompanying Izuku, and I'm ninety-nine percent sure that he recognized the quirk or will at least be suspicious of it."
"So, what do you propose?" All Might asks promptly.
"I can find a way to jail Nightshade and Red Wing." The detective replies. "They have no substantial backing, but unless we have an actual, honest-to-god recording of Thunderbolt standing there while a kid is beaten to death, the Hero Public Safety Commission WILL rescue him. Worst of all, if I try to involve all three at once, Nightshade and Red Wing might get rescued by association." He takes a few sips of the coffee and continues. "My suggestion is to have those two jailed, and let Thunderbolt go… after some proper corrective talk from All Might. Probably some 'you will retire or I will find you and teach you what the word pain means' thing?"
"Oh, I think I can work something out." All Might smiles in a way that Eraserhead had never seen. It's… intimidating, really. And slightly scary. "But we still need to figure out what to do with the children. We brought you here mostly for that." 'You' as in Eraserhead and the other heroes, obviously. Tsukauchi's usefulness clearly ended, and Recovery Girl was doing something else. "Izuku might have an idea to present to you." He motions his son to start, with a beaming look of paternal pride on his face.
"Yes!" Izuku straightens up a bit. "Err, basically, I knew his quirk for a while, and I learned what hers is like… today, and they are really, really cool and I think that they would make for awesome underground heroes! And they are young enough to try to apply to a hero school! He even mentioned that he wanted to do that, before… err, bad things happened to him. They just need someone to give them a chance, and… address their medical issues, and…" He looks at All Might for help, since he is clearly not seeing what he hoped to see on their faces.
"I agreed to involve Present Mic and Midnight because, frankly speaking, we might need some more teachers in that." All Might finally says. "Izuku has an interesting idea on how to deal with it, and I think that I'm on board with it, but realizing it might require some additional leverage in front of Nedzu."
***
They are still debating the proposal (mostly working out the details, because everyone in the room is on board, just with varying degrees of doubt) when Shuzenji returns to the room with Inko Midoriya tailing her.
Shuzenji shows not a trace of it on her face, but Eraserhead had known her for years. Recovery Girl is out for blood, and it's not for the transfusion. Midoriya Inko looks calmer, but something in her green eyes make Eraserhead's blood go cold.
"Aizawa. Tsukauchi." She announces. "I want you to do your absolute utmost to send Nightshade to jail for as long as possible. And then do the same with every member of those kids 'families' that you can find." She lands herself on the armchair.
"That bad?" Tsukauchi replies with a question.
"Worse." Recovery Girl replies promptly. "He has three broken fingers, two broken ribs and a concussion. She has second degree burns on a lot of skin. And that's just the most recent damage. I'll need to break and set her bones again properly, because she had her arms broken by someone, apparently Nightshade during an earlier meeting, and she clearly received no medical attention after that so they healed wrongly." Eraserhead can hear her fingers tapping on the table. "They are both malnourished, and that's NOT recent. They didn't eat even nearly enough for years. There are also the medical issues to consider - if Izuku Midoriya didn't decide to try to help them, neither of them would have survived the winter." There is a faint sound of her tongue clicking. "And considering what I managed to get out of them, they both knew about that but considered it a better option than returning to wherever they escaped from."
"Well, shit." Eraserhead says. "Looks like it's time to ruin someone's life." Emi nods furiously. Mic adds a (way too loud) YEAAAH, that Midnight promptly joins. "I think we're also in agreement about what we do about those kids, yes?"
Emi elbows him. Discreetly. It still hurts.
"Let's adopt them, Shou." She says, and he stares at her like he just met her.
"We haven't even seen them yet, Emi." Eraserhead manages to reply, while Inko, Izuku, All Might, detective Tsukauchi and Recovery Girl are staring at them weirdly.
"That's great! Think about it, no bias concerning their looks. Or quirks." She replies with a bright smile. Way too bright.
All Might clears his throat. Eraserhead decides to, once again, take one for the team. He is used to how useless Mic and Midnight are in moments like these.
"Honesty for honesty." He tells All Might with a blank face. "We got married a few months ago." Tsukauchi's look of pity is just sad. Aizawa turns to face Emi. "My answer is no. We aren't adopting them. I'm not budging on that."
(He unconditionally surrenders to her twenty minutes later.)
***
They are about to leave the building (with those kids clearly shocked by the gentle treatment and a promise that they will not be returned to whoever they escaped from), when they see someone else. Or, to be exact, Emi does. There is a six or seven year old girl with white/green hair, wearing a set of black pajamas, staring at the guests from the doorframe. With a Gang Orca plushie in her hands.
It's almost after midnight, so it's a bit late for her to not be in bed.
"Oh, hello there!" Emi coos just a bit, because that girl (despite her slightly intimidating glare) is just super cute. "My name is Emi. What's yours?" The attention in the room shifts to them.
"Aiko." She replies promptly. Emi decides that it's a cute name. It means love child, after all! Then the girl puts her hands up and shows her six fingers (while almost letting her plushie fall to the floor.
"Oh, so you are six years old." Emi replies with her brightest smile.
"No." Aiko shakes her head. "I committed six murders."
The silence in the room is total. Save for the sound of All Might coughing out a lot of blood. Inko goes pale in horror.
"Your birthday ends your previous year of life." Aiko announces, completely unshaken by the silence. "When my seven-year-old self was born, my six-years-old self died. I killed it to grow stronger and take its belongings for myself. That's murder. And robbery. And probably identity theft." Then she yawns. "I'm sleepy. Goodnight!" And she walks out of the room.
"What. The. Hell." They all hear Present Mic's terrified whisper.
***
Three days after the event, Thunderbolt suddenly announces his retirement in the media. He cites undefined medical problems, and says that he needs to focus on his civilian life. He uses his money to buy a small and generally unassuming countryside cottage. Where he promptly retires, after selling all of his belongings that didn't fit inside. And donating most of the money to the charity groups focusing on helping victims of quirkism.
Eraserhead didn't get to see whatever 'corrective talk' All Might gave him. So he grew curious. What had that much effect on the corrupt hero? What broke him so utterly, that despite being a gloryhound with a nice backing in the Hero Commission, he just RETIRED? Completely, thoroughly and irreversibly.
So, against himself, he phones All Might. He picks it up after a few signals.
"Aizawa?" All Might sounds almost cheerful. "What do you want?"
"I just wanted to ask what you told Thunderbolt." Eraserhead replies. "You clearly terrified him, and I want to know how. For reference, let's say."
"Oh, you know." All Might replies, sounding a bit surprised by the question. "I learned a lot of things in the United States. A hero needs to learn many skills, not just stick to one skillset, right?" Oh, Eraserhead knows that very well. "I'm skilled in tracking, trapping, survival, sewing, fishing, CIA enhanced interrogation techniques, cooking…"
CIA what?
"I might have mentioned to Thunderbolt one of the things from the list." All Might adds. "I might have also mentioned how furious I am at him attacking my de facto nephew. And that Star and Stripe, the United States Number One hero, owes me a favour. Oh, and also the part where it's really easy to just vanish mysteriously when you managed to irritate the Number One Hero AND the CIA. And that Star and Stripe is a drinking buddy of its current director." All Might chuckles into the phone. "Well, is there anything else you want to know, Aizawa?"
***
Twenty years earlier, in America.
"So..." A trainee asks. "Can I, like, give that training mannequin a white wig and paint his eyes red? For... reasons."
Seven hours later.
"Do I want to know..." The higher up visiting the training center asks. "...why is that trainee accusing the mannequin of killing someone named Nana while waterboarding and beating him up?"
"Probably not." The instructor replies. "But I like his enthusiasm and creativity."
Chapter 4: Rodent Overlord
Two months after the Thunderbolt's retirement, All Might found himself entering Nedzu's office. With, as always, the feeling of being deeply unsettled, probably in danger, and most certainly not wanting to be there.
Nedzu was tolerable for as long as he kept to less than two teas per hour. He was dangerous between that and four teas. Anything above that, and, well, if he was angry at you at this point, it was wise to consider suicide and spare yourself the pain. Principal Nedzu was legendarily vindictive, sadistic and cruel.
How exactly he managed to remain a principal of the most reputable hero school was anyone's guess. The rat was either too smart to be caught on anything, or he already managed to terrify everyone notable in the country beyond the point where they were willing to risk his wrath.
All hail our secret rodent overlords, to quote what Tsukauchi once said after he got a bit too drunk. Okay, not said. Chanted. On the street. Somehow, just somehow, Nedzu knew and sent him a 'thank you for your support' message to the detective's private number.
"All Might!" Rodent was sitting there, in his signature sneakers (were he and Izuku buying their shoes in the same shop?) and with a chamomile tea in front of him. "What a pleasure to see you today! What brings you to my office?"
Calm down, All Might tells himself. Inko is way scarier. He remembers her reaction when she finally discovered that her husband left her son on a rooftop after crushing his dreams. Frankly speaking, fighting All for One again didn't feel as scary after that scolding.
"I was chosen as a representative of the school faculty." All Might replies and puts some papers on the desk in front of Nedzu. "Despite not technically being a part of it yet. I was told to bring you these proposals in their stead."
There are two of them now. Only because Eraserhead decided to jump on the bandwagon and announced that he will give his support if he gets to put forward a proposal of his own. Aizawa was just kinda like that.
Nedzu quickly skims through the first file.
"Ah, changes to the entrance exam." Nedzu nods. "I can see Eraserhead's hand in it, though the reference links, bibliography, et cetera are certainly not his. However, I have my own reasons for using the robots. The sad part of Mankind is its overreliance on image, and the image of heroism is, more or less fortunately, based on you. At least in Japan. So direct firepower. With how the HPSC tailors the public opinion, I need to tailor the graduates of the UA properly in order to not be outdone in terms of public image. As otherwise we'll no longer be a number one hero school. This is why there is a backdoor in the form of the school festival - it allows people with less flashy quirks to show their skills to the world, and prove that they are the equals of the Hero Course students."
"Please, do not tell me straight to my face that my position as the Symbol of Peace is why many non-flashy yet still useful quirk-bearers are denied their chance to realize their dreams." All Might sighs painfully. "What about the argumentation for the changes in that proposal?" He is quite curious about it. After all, Izuku wrote it.
Okay. Asa helped. Inko helped. All Might helped. Even Mr. Compress and Stain (who had some serious beef with hero schools that All Might decided to not dig into) helped. Eraserhead helped as well, of course. But most of it was still Izuku's work.
"Well, I admit that it does raise some valid concerns that weren't brought up before." Nedzu nods again and caresses his fur for a bit. His equivalent of making a thoughtful face. "It is true that the option to switch courses isn't advertised enough, resulting in many prospective kids not applying to General Course after failing the Hero Course exam. It is also true that in order to make things more honest and give the General Course kids a chance, they should be offered at least a possibility of attending self-defense, quirk training and additional physical training classes. Since without that, even the relatively brief time between the start of the year and the first school festival is enough to widen the gap between hero course and general course. The idea of organizing a special exam for the potential transfer students is also interesting."
All Might didn't expect that.
"Really?" He asks. He is still in his skeleton form, so his brow lifting is rather noticeable. He always talks louder when in hero form, and from his experience, that doesn't sit well with Nedzu. "I expected you to disagree with it."
"The idea is interesting." Nedzu says again. "It is true that some students might simply have bad luck during their first school festival, and that such a failure can easily breed malice. The idea of allowing the homeroom teachers of Gen Ed courses to pick particularly prospective students and for the school to organize them a closed exam a few months after the school festival is interesting. Whoever wrote this paper certainly took notice of my reasons for the robots on the entrance exam, as he even states that passing the exam doesn't have to mean transfering courses, but it should mean being cleared to attend at least the foundational heroics lessons alongside the hero courses, in order to not widen the gap and prepare for another attempt at course transfer. I believe Eraserhead struggled a lot with making up for the lost year of heroics, since he managed to earn the transfer during his second school festival."
Nedzu goes silent and continues stroking his fur while lightly kicking his short legs in the air. Deep thinking, this time, really deep.
"Robots will stay during the entrance exam." Nedzu finally comes to a decision. "I agree that their regular presence during the school festival is an overkill, especially the zero-pointers, however neutered is their programming. I also believe that the rest of the proposal does raise some valid points. Points valid enough to justify testing the offered solutions in real life. I'll advocate for that during the school board meeting."
Considering the fact that when Nedzu said 'jump', the school board didn't even ask how high (instead it jumped as high as possible while wiggling their metaphorical tails in happiness caused by being able to please their rodent overlord), this meant that the proposal was accepted.
"The appetizer is behind us, now time for the main dish." Nedzu says, while putting the first file away. The second one is clearly a thicker stack of papers. It was Izuku's magnum opus that he spent every remaining free minute during the last two months on. While getting any help he could. Including many, many hours of technically illegal access to the hero network (under his father's supervision, but still).
"Oh dear." Nedzu says quietly midway through the file. "Oh. Dear." He adds a few more pages in. His speed of reading is inhuman. He is just taking a brief look at the page and continues on. Second per page? But unlike normal human speed readers, he has enough brain power to read and understand every single sentence, correct all typos, and cross-reference with previously possessed knowledge… while simultaneously plotting the downfall of Mankind or something. All during that single second.
"That's… an extremely interesting and bold proposal." Nedzu says after putting the file away. His whiskers are trembling slightly. Is it excitement? "I also enjoy the personal touch. Especially the point in the list of arguments that only states that, and I quote, 'The Hero Commission President will be royally pissed off, and that's frankly a reason to do it on its own'."
The feud between Nedzu and the president was… probably the second most intense feud in the history of Japan after the one between All Might and All for One, really. And Yagi Toshinori isn't sure if it wouldn't get just as intense if the two were allowed to publically murder each other without losing their hard-earned positions.
All Might is still going to have a serious talk with Izuku about sneaking swear words in official papers past his parental proofreading brigade.
"Frankly, it's a high risk high reward proposal, especially in light of the presented list of candidates." Nedzu adds. "We'll need to ramp up security, notify the PR department in advance, and probably expand the campus with one or two additional buildings. Not to mention fact-checking the data, screening the candidates on our own… Hound Dog is going to go bald from overwork. Then again, he clearly signed the proposal, so he is ready for it. Or expects to get some helpers."
He goes silent for a few long seconds. Even the whisker shivers calm down. All Might isn't going to interrupt him right now. It wouldn't be safe.
"Time to spill the beans, All Might." Nedzu finally speaks. "Who put this forward? I can see the signatures of Eraserhead, Present Mic, Midnight, Cementoss, Power Loader, Hound Dog and… pretty much the entire faculty save for Lunch Rush and Thirteen, which is reasonable enough due to their minimal involvement in the execution of this proposal. Even Vlad King is on-board. But the idea certainly came from none of them. So who was it?"
"My successor." All Might replies promptly. Nedzu is taken aback for maybe two or three seconds. All Might forgot to mention earlier that he has chosen someone.
"Certainly not Mirio Togata." Nedzu replies, it's probably just him thinking aloud. "He is smart and driven enough to put up such a paper, but this sort of an idea just isn't his style. You picked someone else, but… who could it be?" He is staring at All Might for a few more seconds. "Certainly none of the UA students. Some recent graduate? An older hero?"
"You'll meet him in a few months." All Might replies. "When he will attend the UA entrance exam."
All Might isn't sadistic enough to time that revelation with Nedzu's regular tea sips. It's probably an expensive tea, and he doesn't want to get hunted by the members of Inko's tea parties. He can (probably) survive Mr. Compress's rage, but Gentle Criminal and La Brava would hunt him to the ends of the world.
Nedzu still sounds for a second like he choked on air. All Might expects him to spit out a fur ball for a second, but no. The chimera isn't feline enough.
"A fourteen year old child wrote this?" Nedzu raises the file with his hand, while staring at All Might like he just met him and wasn't sure what to feel about the Symbol of Peace sitting in his office like it was no big deal.
"Well, he had help." All Might shrugs. "He is working real hard to prepare himself for the entrance exams, so he had maybe an hour or two per day to work on it. Took him almost two months to get it done. Then again, knowing where to find competent help is a useful skill on its own, isn't it? And I assure you that the others merely offered their input. He wrote, fact checked and prepared the bibliography and the footnotes on his own."
"That's true, yes, indeed." Nedzu is lost somewhere in his own world. That All Might feels comfortable NOT visiting. "What did he do to make you notice him and decide on making him your successor?"
"Despite being quirkless, he managed to properly analyze the villain's weakness in a heartbeat and did more damage to him by throwing his backpack than several pro-heroes on the scene managed to do with their quirks." All Might replies promptly, and with paternal pride that it's only slightly tainted by guilt of knowing what sort of absolutely stupid thing he told the kid earlier. "All because the villain was about to strangle his school bully, of all people, to death. Meeting his mother and discovering that not only is she my old acquaintance but also that I just offered my quirk to my own son was a cherry on top."
"Your s…" Nedzu blinks a few times. "Oh, that certainly had to be shocking. Discovering that he was your son after making the proposal certainly clears the suspicion of nepotism." He thinks for two more seconds. "We'll have to make some adaptations to not make you his teacher, provided that he passes the exam… then again, if we follow those proposals, expanding the foundation heroics classes with another teacher would have…" Nedzu's eyes trail off for a while. "You know, I might be willing to agree to the second proposal as well, if…"
"The answer is yes." All Might interrupts Nedzu.
"Excuse me?" Nedzu blinks a few times. "But you don't even know what I wanted to say." And All Might knows agreeing before Nedzu says what you are agreeing to is generally considered to be suicidal. But this time he knows what it is about.
"I don't." All Might replies. "But my son, after listening to some inside stories about you from Eraserhead, decided that there is a high chance that you will be interested in giving him some personal lessons if he passes the entrance exam. So he prepared accordingly." All Might pulled a scrap of paper out of his pocket. On it was one more benefit of the second proposal acceptance, written with the same formatting and probably explaining the oddly large open space at the end of that page in the proposal. "Here. Terms and conditions of those lessons. Written by my son, proofread and accepted by his mother and me."
Nedzu only glances at the paper before laughing in his most maniacal, disturbing way. The tea gets spilled en masse, and All Might immediately realizes that somewhere out there, Gentle Criminal is probably crying.
"Oh I love your son already!" Nedzu finally says. All Might sees way too many teeth in front of him. "I'm agreeing to the terms and conditions wholeheartedly, and the second proposal will also be accepted! It will require some changes, since I do happen to have access to some information sources that your son clearly doesn't… but the general idea is solid and sound. I can see the benefits if we manage to pull it off."
"At least make him overthrow a FOREIGN government as a graduation exam, alright?" All Might clicks his tongue in his irritation. Then he remembers about the bullying thing he mentioned earlier and he decided that now is a good time. Nedzu is clearly happy, and he agreed to the deal, so he won't try to twist around it by making this a part of it. "By the way, I have a question about your secretive covert wars of organizational destruction."
"Yes?" Nedzu, the rat/bear that once dismantled a criminal syndicate in twenty-three minutes without leaving the teacher's lounge because he felt bored during a faculty meeting, asks back. Obviously curious.
"Do you take requests?" All Might deadpans. There is a sadistic grin on the rat's face, almost matched by the one that breaks out on the face of the Number One Hero. Teachers from the Aldera High School are woken by nightmares that night. Oh if only they knew.
***
"The true hero has convictions." Stain, the Hero Killer, announces in the dead silence of the room. "They know when they have to risk their lives for the greater good. For others. They have convictions, and they are ready to stand by them even if it costs them their lives. Death, after all…"
"Stain, I'm begging you." Mr. Compress interrupts the Hero Killer. "Stop being a drama queen, we're just playing Uno and you are supposed to pick the card. Don't blow this out of proportion every damn time." He sounds relatable to Eraserhead. Because he sounds like he is having a migraine.
Stain - the man who has destroyed the careers of forty-seven corrupt heroes by unleashing the evidence of their corruption (La Brava and Gentle Criminal were extremely useful in obtaining that) right after beating them up in the alleyways, thus proving both their physical and moral weakness - snarls and picks the card.
"Can I borrow a knife?" Aiko Midoriya asks. Eraserhead, honestly, almost falls off his chair because he didn't notice her being there. She just somehow popped up right next to the table taken by two supervillains and a hero that was chosen by All Might to look over the kids that evening.
Because he and Inko are apparently out on a date.
Eraserhead calls bullshit, but at least it's a calm evening. Asa is napping on the couch (he even gave Eraserhead his wallet back) and Izuku is typing something on a laptop in the corner. All while Present Mic is with Aiko and Eri in another room.
He wanted to 'fight through the trauma' or something.
"Interrogation, combat or… problem-solving?" Stain asks back, without even looking at her.
"Problem-solving." Aiko replies. "Present Mic is too loud." Eraserhead can relate. Just not to needing a knife to solve that problem. Especially not when it's the kid that wants to do it, and especially (times two) when it's THAT kid.
Aiko Midoriya is giving him the creeps. Worst of all, she stated that she wants to become a hero. Like her 'beloved oniichan'. Eraserhead is going to retire right before she becomes old enough to apply to UA. There literally isn't enough coffee in the world to make him consider being Aiko Midoriya's homeroom teacher.
He can deal with problem children, yes. But demon children are outside of his area of expertise.
Worst of all, All Might is absolutely enamored with her. Almost as much as he is with Eri. Does he even have working eyes?!
"Sure." Stain pulls a small but surprisingly nasty looking knife from a pocket and tries to give it to a seven year old girl, but Eraserhead grabs his hand with his capture scarf.
"Are you insane?!" Aizawa says while glaring at the Hero Killer from across the table. "You do not give knives to children, ESPECIALLY when they ask."
"Well, you heard the man." Stain says with a shrug and pulls his hand back. This time he looks at Aiko. "You need to do it the old way, girl."
"Psychological violence, then." Aiko nods, her face filled with an expression indicating that she just came to a decision about something. Then she lunges under the table. Eraserhead bends himself to look under it as well, but… all he is seeing is three pairs of legs belonging to the two villains and a hero.
"What the hell?" He asks, his head returning to the surface of the table. "A warp quirk?"
"I have absolutely no clue." Mr. Compress replies. "And, frankly, I don't want to know. Her parents and siblings know what her quirk is, let's trust them that it's nothing dangerous and keep living in peace."
"The less you know, the shorter the interrogation." Stain ads absentmindedly while staring at his cards. The game isn't progressing in his favour.
Five minutes later, a thoroughly terrified Hizashi comes running through the living room, screaming something akin to "I CAN'T I CAN'T I CAN'T', repeated continuously like a madness mantra. He flees through the front door, without even taking his leather jacket.
Aiko and Eri step from the room he just fled. Eri looks saddened and goes after Present Mic (who is most likely right outside of home, panting heavily and trying to man up, but Mr. Compress still darts off after Eri just in case), probably to hug him and tell him that everything will be alright.
"What happened?" Stain asks Aiko.
"I drew him." The girl replies promptly. Then she shows them the drawing.
It's just a tombstone, with a PAST MIC written on it.
"He didn't like it." Aiko, somehow, sounds genuinely surprised by it.
***
"OH MY GOODNESS!" All Might positively beams. "I thought that it was going to take you ten months, but you've done it in seven!"
The beach is clear. Seven months of hard work paid off. Takoba Municipal Beach Park is, once again, a park. And there is a beach.
Izuku is tired, but happy. He is also way stronger than he was at the beginning.
"I'd have shown you the photo of yourself that we did at the beginning…" All Might says, eyeing Izuku curiously. "But you actually changed less than I thought you would? I mean, you are clearly stronger, we tested that, but you are still kinda… small?"
"Oh, uhm, that's normal on mom's side, I think?" Izuku replies. He did get some muscles, yeah, just less than he thought. He kinda hoped to get bigger, too. Was there still a chance of some last, final growth spurt? "They are all stronger than they look. She mentioned that a few times."
"Well, I can certainly attest that she is surprisingly strong." All Might replies. She was always more… flexible and agile than strong, but he still remembers that bar brawl. Misaki (okay, Inko) anesthetizing seven bar brawlers with a creative use of a coffee table that she swung around like a weapon was truly an inspiring moment to watch. "The point is, I believe that we've come past the minimal physical requirements for One for All inheritance."
"So, we're going to do it?" Izuku asks. He is clearly excited, because of course he is clearly excited.
All Might calculates things. No, let's not be that risky. He isn't one hundred percent sure if the One for All is based on natural strength or on the size of the muscles. He isn't having his son explode on him, right? He only just barely met him!
"Let's not be too hasty." He can see his mood drop a bit, and he curses himself a bit. "Izuku, this is a dangerous thing. We still have three months until the entrance exam. I'll figure out some additional training for the next two months, and then you'll get the quirk."
He should also invite Gran Torino to try to teach his child the basics. He learned a lot of things in the United States, but dealing with intricate details of a quirk as unique as his own wasn't among them.
They don't exactly have a manual at hand, thanks to a certain someone that's technically the stepfather of the kid in front of him (All Might still didn't figure out what to think about this, really). It's hard to maintain a line of inheritance of information when there is a semi-omnipotent lunatic pursuing you constantly with an intent for murder.
Gran Torino is old. He saw the entire history of two different One for All holders. If someone has a clue on how to deal with it, it's probably him. Then again, considering how wide Inko's contacts in the underworld were, All Might wouldn't be surprised if she could find out more than them both combined.
All for One kept his family mostly separated from the business, but Inko was still Mischief. She knew a lot of people. A lot of villains. Mostly the current old guard, but still. If there was someone who could find All for One's old stash of knowledge about One for All, it was probably her. But knowing All for One, he kept information about One for All in his head.
Explaining to Gran Torino that Yagi Toshinori is now a stepfather to All for One's children was going to be an… experience.
All Might shivers slightly. Inko will save him, right?
"One month should be enough to get some reasonable basics in when it comes to handling your quirk before your exam." All Might continues. He doesn't add that it was probably going to be the BASICS. Less 'be a mini-me!' and more 'be able to punch a robot in the face so that it breaks more than your arms do'.
Izuku still sulks a bit.
"Kid, you do realize that the worst case scenario of you inheriting the quirk is too early is your limbs coming off?" All Might decides to drive the nail home. He doesn't add that what would follow would be All Might's death at the hands of Inko Midoriya and probably a revenge rampage that would go down in history.
"I know, I know." Izuku looks down. "I'm just… kinda impatient?"
"I get it, son." He puts his hand on his son's shoulder and gives him a smile. Not one of All Might's, but one of Yagi Toshinori's. The private ones. "I felt the same when I was waiting for Nana to give me this quirk. Be patient for a while more, alright?"
Eri, Aiko, Asa and Inko are there, waiting for them with a picnic on the verge of the beach. To celebrate what Izuku managed to do.
("So, is he going to make it?" Nana asks. "Because I'm not going to survive seeing Yagi's son exploding into pieces in front of me."
"We all won't survive this, Nana." Lariat reminds her. "We'll explode with him, you know?"
"We won't." Yoichi replies. "He is strong enough, though he will have to deal with a high risk of damaging his limbs if he goes all out. He'll have to keep training to suppress the level of power used rather than the other way around. Getting some additional foundational training before inheriting us is a good idea."
"And since he is young enough AND we've finally gathered enough power…" En decides to add. "...we'll finally get to the true form of One for All. We should be able to communicate with him. Give him our quirks."
"Well, not like he has anyone to really use those against." Lariat comments. "We kinda geared it all up for an epic final confrontation, only for All Might to just cave All for One's face in and call it a day. Without One for All reaching the final form." He sighs. "Unless Aiko Midoriya decides to become a villain, because frankly speaking I don't get how she is doing ninety percent of what she is doing if her quirk is what Inko and Izuku claim it to be. She is seriously freaking me out."
"Why?" Aiko asks from her position right next to Yoichi Shigaraki, staring at Lariat with one of her signature glares.
"Well, she is kinda… WAIT WHAT THE F…" Lariat manages to - in the span of a few seconds - go through a sensible reply through the shocked scream to a barely avoided swear word in front of a minor. He still jumps back with enough speed to actually fall over an imaginary couch.
Nana realizes two seconds later that Yoichi Shigaraki was so freaked out by the sudden appearance of his niece that he actually jumped at her and she somehow grabbed him unconsciously. So she was princess carrying the First Holder, and she wasn't sure if he noticed that.
"You are weird." Aiko comments. "Funny, but weird." She doesn't specify who she is referring to. "I came to check if your music wouldn't hurt Izu-nichan, but it seems that things will be alright. You could change a few notes to fit him better, though. Are you sure that he needs so much strength?" She tilts her head, her eyes drilling through Yoichi. Then she vanishes.
"What in the fuck?" Lariat is still half-hiding behind the couch, but it doesn't stop him from voicing their thoughts.
Aiko is calmly eating the food in the real world, just in front of Yagi Toshinori. It's as if nothing has happened.