733One For All's Secrets
It was daybreak. The sun hadn't even peaked over the top of the mountains yet. The valley where they would commence their quirk training had been left in a state of darkness, and Izuku found himself vibrating in his bed. A shimmering excitement was boiling under his skin.
One For All.
The quirk had been brimming inside of him ever since the Final Exam had awakened the new part of his quirk. Black Whip had been such a new avenue to exercise his power, even if he was still currently struggling with it. But that wasn't all.
All of his new evolutions, all his additions to his quirk, while they weren't fully mastered, had been interesting to explore. It all just made him wonder of the depths that his quirk really had. How much more he could improve. How much stronger he could be. The door to the room slowly creaked open, and in the hazy light of the morning stood a shadow in the doorway.
"Class 1-A, meet me outside in five minutes." The familiar depressing voice of 1-A's homeroom teacher bore into the room before the door slid closed.
The students of Izuku's sister class jolted awake, scrambling to their feet, throwing on their UA sports uniforms and running outside. Surprisingly, none of the boys of 1-B had woken up to all of their noise. Probably because of how tired they were from the previous day. That said a lot about how Aizawa could wake up an entire class with just his voice.
The man was terrifying.
Still, Izuku was buzzing with excitement, ready to get a start to the day just like his sister class, and he couldn't wait! Izuku glanced at his classmates before rising out of his own blanket and throwing on his UA sports uniform. If he got a little bit early of a start, it wouldn't be too bad for him.
A little more than an hour later…
"Why're we up…already…?" Komori asked as she let out a yawn.
"The light in our teacher's heart burns as bright as his determination, yet that's too bright for such an early morning rise." Kuroiro winced as the sun was barely coming over the mountains.
"ALRIGHT!" Kan screamed, getting yelps out of his students, "Today is your first day of quirk training!" The man had too much energy for this to be so early in the morning was the general thought flowing between his student's heads.
Vlad King had woken them all up with a yell not five minutes earlier, rushing them outside for training before they even had a chance to properly get their minds rolling. Even the most training intensive of them, like Tetsu and Kendo, were still a bit groggy.
"Can we wait for that "day" part to be legit, teach?" Setsuna grunted.
Instead of the retort they were all expecting, the man huffed and crossed his arms. "It seems all of you want to fall behind." He spoke in his gruff voice. Before anyone could answer, he continued, "And, I'm not talking about 1-A, even though they started their own training more than an hour ago." His students looked confused for a moment, and it was those that he knew best that realized it first.
"Where's–" Monoma started.
"Izuku?" Reiko finished.
The class stilled and looked around, finally realizing— now that they were properly awake— that their class representative was nowhere to be seen.
"The kid's already started training." Vlad King uncrossed his arms and pointed to a section of trees. "He's sparring with Tiger as we speak." Just as he finished speaking, a dust cloud emerged from above the treeline along with a shout of "SMASH!" that always accompanied Izuku's attacks. A fire lit in the class, in their chests, in their hearts. They wouldn't fall behind their Class Rep.
"Well then guys." Kendo pounded a giant fist into an equally huge palm, "Let's get this training started!"
"YEAH!"
"Not quite, Midoriya." Tiger crossed his arms as the two took a break for a moment, "Are you sure you don't want to sit down for a sec? We've been at it for nearly an hour now." Tiger was amazed at the kid's sheer tenacity, but they hadn't had breakfast and Midoriya needed the calories and fuel. "Let's stop with the air bullets for now, I got some protein bars you can eat and then we'll get started after, alright?"
But Izuku wasn't listening, he was leaning on his knees with his hands and scanning the terrain around him, his mind was elsewhere. "Air Force requires a rapid change from a lower percent to a higher percent to be optimal for license usage, during the Stain Incident my shots were sloppy, but I had adrenaline to help me, since then I've been out of practice with everything else I've been doing. Shoot Style, Air Force, Black Whip, I've not mastered any of them…but if I can manage to get enough time between now and the end of camp, and hopefully after school with the help of Kan—"
"MIDORIYA!"
"Huh?!" Izuku looked at Tiger, sweat dripping off of him and his hair covering his eyes, "Y-Yes sir?"
Tiger chuckled, "Here." He tossed Izuku a protein bar, which the boy caught with his hand. "You need energy. Training is good and all but it won't matter if you're too tired to make proper use of it."
"R-Right, sorry sir." Izuku mumbled as he quickly devoured the snack.
The two sat together on a nearby rock, sipping water from bottles and talking about how they thought the training should continue. It was quiet, and a bit awkward if Izuku was being honest. Tiger just seemed so imposing, most likely because of how big he was— and his mask— and how contrasting his clothes and face were. It gave him a scary energy. "How'd you know I was going to be training out here before my classmates, sir?"
"Let's just say your teachers know you better than you think." Tiger chuckled, "They guessed you'd be out here earlier than your classmates. You're a workaholic."
"I've… got a lot of catching up to do is all." Izuku muttered.
"Seems like you've done more than catch up, though." Tiger looked at the destroyed trees that now littered the forest around them. "I mean with that kind of power kid?" All Midoriya lacked was control, fine and proper control.
"Maybe… but I don't just want to get by, you know?" Izuku raised a brow, "I want to excel, I want to master my quirk and show that I deserve to be at UA. And I want to strive even further and become something even greater than a hero."
"Like…" Tiger trailed off, only one word came to mind at Izuku's declaration, "A symbol?"
Izuku smiled to himself, "Yeah…!" He jumped to his feet, small sparks of lightning dancing off of his skin as he did so, "A symbol! For the people, you know?" Izuku's smile only widened, "Something so that people know they're safe once you arrive. So they know that they shouldn't have a single worry when they're in your presence!"
"That's a… steep goal, Midoriya." Tiger huffed. He had thought along the same lines too when he was a kid— just barely getting into Hero School, and the dream quickly left his mind once he had managed to actually become a hero. The idea of becoming a Symbol wasn't something that could be taken lightly.
But Izuku's smile didn't waver, "That's the best part."
Tiger quirked a brow before he instructed Izuku to get back to training. His mind had been made up, Midoriya was definitely a weird kid, but that didn't mean he was a bad kid. In fact, Midoriya might have been the best he had ever worked with from UA.
"You good, Aizawa?"
1-A's homeroom teacher groaned at the carefree tone and turned to the approaching Pussy Cat: Mandalay, "Something up, Shino?" He asked, keeping his annoyance very clear in his tone.
"You're just being as broody as usual, is it something to do with your students?" Mandalay grinned at him as they watched over the crowd of 1-A and 1-B students that were training across their grounds, though Aizawa was more focused on his batch of students.
"Just worried about Bakugo." Aizawa grumbled as he kept an eye on the blond, "He's not the most stable, and I tried barring him from the trip." A quick drop of eye solution made Aizawa pause for a moment, "But, Nezu insisted that the boy tag along for the trip in hopes that letting off some steam would help him out. Irrational really."
"Ah right." Mandalay sighed, "Tiger told me about the situation with Bakugo. On probation, and illegal quirk use, possibly even assault? Kid's not even graduated yet but he's already racked up a couple of charges." She shook her head, "How come charges have never been pressed?"
1-A's homeroom teacher didn't respond for a moment, "The main target— It was Midoriya."
"W-What?! That little ball of sunshine?!" Mandalay was, for the lack of a better term, gobsmacked.
"Yep." Aizawa drew the word out and ended with a sigh, "And that so-called "little ball of sunshine" is too good for his own good sometimes I swear. Anyways, Midoriya was quirkless, and you know how that kind of stuff tends to be overlooked by school officials and police officers."
Mandalay clicked her tongue, "Quirkist bastards. Wait what do you mean was quirkless, that's not something you can just change out of the blue."
"Apparently, the kid was a late bloomer, got it the day of the entrance exam…" Aizawa trailed off and let out a deep sigh, "…I regret that day…" Mandalay's gaze trailed over Aizawa and she tilted her head questioningly, "I made some judgments about the kid that ended up being wrong."
"Yeah…" Mandalay looked out towards the sea of training students, "You tend to do that. It's probably what I dislike about you most."
The Underground pro simply shrugged, "I'm not a teacher and hero to be liked."
"It doesn't hurt to be nice and have fun every once and a while, Aizawa. You should really take Emi up on her offer." Mandalay grinned down at him.
Aizawa only groaned, "And I'm tuning you out now."
"Oh come on! Don't be such a spoilsport."
As the two pros fell into small banter, the students around the training area were starting to feel the drain of the constant strain they were putting their bodies through. They had each been working hard since the start of the morning and it was beginning to approach mid day.
Monoma himself wasn't faring well, between rapidly shifting from quirk to quirk that he had borrowed from his classmates and having to fight multiple opponents at once to work on his multi-tasking abilities, he was drained.
Sadly, not everyone was as tired as he was.
"Neito~!" The cheery voice of Setsuna cut through the air as she practiced with her own quirk, replacing lost limbs as quickly as she could after removing them from her body. "Come on, what's up with you?! Are you tired~"
"Tokage! Quit it!" Kendo ordered as she sparred with Shoda, both trying to improve their quirk use in a combat scenario. She would have liked to have used Tetsu as a punching bag but he was currently busy pushing his quirk's temporal limits to its maximum.
Other strength types like Shishida were instead training other parts of their quirk, like retaining control while delving even deeper into his animalistic senses.
Everyone else was practicing quirk control or quirk power, such as Shiozaki and Reiko who were manipulating as much as they could with their quirks, vines and sand in each of their respective cases, to improve control which would compound their power.
Tokage pouted back, "Why won't anyone let me have some fun?"
"YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HAVING FUN!" Vlad King yelled into one of Tokage's floating ears, causing her to let out a scream that shook across the forest. While many of the 1-B students felt bad for the girl– after all they knew how loud Kan could be– they felt that she also partially deserved it.
Kan stepped back from the students and crossed his arms, his group was a little separated from the 1-A kids, and by extension Shinso as well, but they would be making their way back to the cabin in a bit for lunch.
He was proud of all of his students but also worried about their development, there was no lying about the current rise of villains following the attacks on UA and I-Island. If the current situation got any worse than he wanted all of his students to be able to protect themselves. Hell, Monoma was already attacked at a mall for goodness sake!
His students needed to be able to fight, but they were still just kids, they didn't deserve that kind of stress and pressure on them.
"How ya doin' ya big lug?"
A sigh escaped Kan's mouth as Ragdoll stood next to him, smiling up at him with her signature dopey smile. "I'm doing just fine, Ragdoll." His voice came out in its usual gruff tone, "Just worried about the kids— with how things are going right now…"
"You don't have to say it out loud." Ragdoll huffed, "We know it's gonna get bad…"
"We just have to make sure the kids can handle it if it starts sooner rather than later." Kan felt his age at that moment– and he was barely 30– but he could ignore that for now. "STUDENTS! IT'S LUNCH TIME!" The students of 1-B collectively let out a sigh before cheering and marching their way towards the cabin that the Wild Wild Pussycats were letting them use for their summer training.
Sadly, when they got there the tables outside were devoid of food.
"The fuck's going on?!" Awase yelled, and barely hid behind Tetsu before Kendo could lay a smack against his cranium, "Ah, come on Vice! You gotta admit you're pissed too!"
"Yeah, but I wouldn't be as disrespectful about it!" Kendo shot back.
"Kids, quiet down!" Vlad commanded, and both classes did so, "Today, and everyday for the rest of the camp, you'll be making your own food." The collective class stilled, "WE FORGOT!" The high schoolers yelled. Their looks of despair and sadness brought a creepy smile to Aizawa's face. "Now, you have enough supplies to make food for yourselves, we'll let you guys collectively decide on how you want to go about doing that."
The moment Kan stopped talking, the students set about making food, with Kendo and Yaomomo taking charge of their hungry and exhausted classmates. Todoroki helped ignite the stoves and melted his ice to get clean water for them to boil potatoes in.
As the classes started mingling and getting into the groove of cooking— Reiko, Monoma, and Tokage got together and discussed the only topic that was probing their minds at the moment.
"Where the hell is Greenie at?" Tokage huffed and she sliced potatoes into pieces.
"I'm not sure, but I am confident he will be exhausted by the time he comes back." Reiko added, using her quirk to transfer the pieces of potato that Tokage had cut into a nearby pot so they could soften.
Monoma meanwhile focused on stirring the pot, which wasn't that helpful but he was trying at least. "He's a ball of energy, I doubt he'll be that tired." It was only then that a familiar face came hobbling out of the woods, most of his body covered in grime and dirt, with an imposing looking Tiger behind him. "Aaaaand I take that back, holy crap what did Tiger do to him."
"Yo, Midori!" One of the girls from 1-A greeted Izuku, Ashido— if Monoma remembered right. "What happened to you? You looked like you had a fight with some pigs!"
"Nothing big really!" Izuku rubbed the back of his neck and smiled, despite the multiple bruises already forming across his body "Just some intense training with Tiger is all, he's rough!"
"I'm right here, young man." Tiger grunted before pushing him forward by the shoulder, "Have a large–filling meal, once you've had time to digest then we'll get back to training." The pro walked off and Izuku made to join his friends— only slightly swaying on his feet.
Once he had sat down alongside his classmates, none of whom asked him to help with whatever they had been cooking, thankfully, he was bombarded with questions.
"Dude, why do you look like shit?"
"Is Tiger really that rough?"
"You learn anything cool yet?!"
"Midori, Is it true that you're dating Yanagi now?!"
"Ah… okay." Izuku sweatdropped, looking at all the surrounding faces, "Well… how about we make the food first and I'll clean up too— I'm a mess right now?" Full Cowl sparked off of him and Izuku was gone in a bolt of lightning.
"That coward!" Mina groaned, "I need gossip!"
"Ashido, get to cooking, your "gossip" can wait." Yaoyorozu scolded.
"Fineeeee, Yaomomo…"
As Ashido went back to cooking— with a pout on her face— Monoma and Reiko exchanged a glance, "Why don't you go see him, Yanagi?" Monoma offered, "I think we've got everything settled here."
"Are you positive?" Reiko asked, "I can offer more assistance."
"Yeah, yeah." Tokage pitched in, "Go see your bubs, we'll finish this up here!"
Reiko didn't blush like Tokage wanted, but she did seem more joyful as she made her way off to follow Izuku inside. She caught him just as he was exiting the bathroom with a small towel in hand, already looking much more presentable compared to before. Though his hair was a tad damp now.
"Allow me." She used her quirk and took the towel before mashing Izuku's head with it. "Your head of hair really is like a bush." She teased, "I'm sure many things have gotten lost in there before?"
Izuku giggled, "Yeah, I've never really been able to tame it, whenever I try I end up losing a brush."
"I suppose I could attempt to do it for you." Reiko offered as she hung the towel around his neck so that it drooped off of his shoulders, "How is training with Tiger going?" She tugged on his hand with hers and led him back outside.
"So far, good. I just need to work on control. Being a decade behind you guys in terms of quirk mastery isn't fun at all…" He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand, "Especially since I've been doing so much at the same time, I really want to play around with what my quirk can do, but moving onto the next thing as soon as I get something down isn't that good for mastery apparently…"
The two arrived to plates already being set down, "Yo, Midoriya!" Shinso waved him over, "Saved you and Yanagi a spot."
"Thanks!" Izuku grinned and they both took their seats. The food was hot, and he was surrounded by his friends. Izuku couldn't help but smile.
"WHERE THE FUCK IS THE HOT SAUCE?!"
His friends groaned under their breath, and Izuku was inclined to do the same.
Bakugo was seated a decent distance away from everyone else, following the Final Exams not a lot of people were too inclined to be near him— not to be mean, but because Bakugo had been on an incredibly short fuse following the exam. The only one that sat near him was Kirishima, Tetsu's long-lost twin.
Kirishima's friend– Mina— was sitting with them.
"What are you doing here, pinky?" Monoma scoffed.
Mina only grinned, "Wow, what a professional, callin' me by my hero name and all."
Monoma clicked his tongue at his misfortune and Kendo apologized for him, "Monoma's a little… rough around the edges when it comes to healthy class competition."
"Those are just quirks!" Monoma interrupted. "How could you not appreciate the uniqueness of a friend such as I, Kendo?"
"Maybe because you talk a lot of talk and don't walk the walk?" Shinso spoke between bites.
Monoma looked aghast, "Even you, Shinso? After everything we've been through together?"
Shinso shrugged, "Say it how I see it, man."
While Monoma pouted— with Tokage trying to cheer him up by making him smile— the rest of the group entered and idle chatter. "Why don't we talk about why each of us wants to be a hero?" Mina offered– with food stuffed in her mouth, which Yaoyorozu chastised her for. "That's exciting, isn't it?" She grinned, "Like, I don't like bullies so that's why I've always wanted to be a hero!" She pointed her spoon at Kirishima, "You next, Kiri!" She pointed at the red head that sat just a tad away from them.
"Huh? What am I doing?" Kirishima babbled as he was— trying— to have a conversation with Bakugo.
"Why do you want to be a hero, horn buddy?"
"Oh, right!" Kirishima smiled and flexed an arm, "I want to be a shield to protect everyone that can't protect themselves! An unbreakable hero that can block any attack from any villain!" It was unknown to Kirishima but Bakugo had scoffed at the statement.
"Like a Symbol of Protection…?" Izuku wondered aloud.
Kirishima perked up, turned around in his seat, and thought about it for a moment, really wondering if that was something he wanted to be. Being a Symbol, something like All Might? That was a big task. He had known for a long time that he really wanted to be a hero, but to go that far? "I'm not sure actually. Being a Symbol like that is… huge."
Bakugo scoffed again as he ate, being a Symbol wasn't as important as being Number One.
But that's not how Izuku saw it. "Maybe." he smiled and took a bite of his curry, "But I think that's the best part!"
"Is that something you strive for, Midoriya?" Honenuki asked from a little farther down on the table. Izuku could feel his friends and classmates that were around him tune into the conversation, and it made him a little nervous— he wasn't used to having so much attention on him.
"Well— yeah." Izuku smiled honestly, "People always talk about being the number one hero, or being part of the top ten, but that's never really appealed to me in the same way it has others." Izuku gazed at the miniaturized full gauntlet on his wrist, remembering how he had saved not just his friends but everyone that was on I-Island. "Being a Symbol is something far greater to me. And trust me, I know it's a lot of work, but I'm willing to put in my all!"
"A very admirable thing to do, Midoriya." Yaomomo smiled at him, "Even if the goal is a steep one, as long as one gives their all then even they may be surprised by the results."
Izuku blushed at the praise before relaxing as a hand landed on his. His eyes shifted to meet Reiko's and he could tell there was something in her gaze, then she spoke as soft as a whisper and he could barely make it out over all the noise of everyone talking, "That's… really cool."
A new— much more intense— blush bloomed on Izuku's face, making him a one-to-one depiction of a strawberry. "T-Thank you!" He stammered before going back to his food. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the corners of Reiko's lips turn into a smile and her eyes glow with laughter.
On the other side of the table, Tokage silently squealed while repeatedly tapping Monoma's arm, "Neito, Neito! Did you see that? Did you see how cute they are?!"
"No, and I have more important things to do." He replied before shoveling a spoonful of food into his mouth. "Because unlike some people, I am exhausted."
"Tell me about it…" Shinso sighed, his bags even deeper than before. "Since I'm a late add on, Aizawa's just having me build muscles and instincts right now…"
"Sounds killer!" Tokage grinned
"Yeah— as in I'm gonna die if training keeps going like this."
"Serves you right." Monoma bit out.
"Come on, man. Don't be like that." Shinso groaned.
Monoma simply huffed again.
It didn't take long before their meals ended and the combined students of Class 1-A and Class 1-B went back to their training, somehow with even more vigor as they had in the morning. Strength, control, precision, were all things that the up and coming heroes focused on, to varying degrees of success.
Izuku himself was currently getting beaten into the dirt by Tiger, the man's elastic like limbs were hard to counter. But, slightly upping his percentage of One For All before a blow had helped a tad in cushioning the strike.
"KAH–!" Kidney shots still hurt like hell though…
The Pussycats and homeroom teachers had assembled outside the lodge, watching the gathered students train to their fullest extent. Pixie-Bob was calling dibs on some of the male students, which Aizawa would glare at her for.
Slowly but surely, the hours passed by, and the sun started to dip over the horizon. Baking the mountains of the Pussy Cat estate in a vibrant orange hue. "Alright!" Kan and Aizawa stood near all the training students and called them to a halt, which many were grateful for. As they all gathered around their homeroom teachers they entered hush conversations, wondering what would be happening now. "STOP TALKING!" Kan yelled, much to the dismay of folks like Jiro and Shoji.
Even Aizawa groaned, "Just as bad as Mic…"
"Now–!" Kan carried on, "The hot springs are open for you all now! But let it be known they're separated by gender!" His eyes swiveled to multiple of the more mischievous students they had this year, and the perverted ones. "And if we catch anyone trying to peep, then you'll have a personal session with Tiger tomorrow."
Some of the assembled boys gulped while Izuku shrugged, "It's not that bad." It was indeed that bad.
"With that said." Kan grinned, "After you guys bathe then we'll have another meal before bed. Now get going!"
"YES SIR!"
Izuku let out a sigh of bliss as he sank into the warm waters of the hotsprings. The bruises that had already formed from his training with Tiger were overjoyed at the sensation of the warm and relaxing water.
Sadly, most of the other boys weren't quite as relaxed as he was…
"CANNON BALL!"
"KAMINARI, TURN OFF YOUR QUIRK!"
"AH, YOU 1-A FOOL, YOU SPLASHED ME!"
"GUYS, JUST RELAX!"
Izuku simply let out a second sigh and dipped even further into the water.
Shinso, Honenuki, and Todoroki had joined him at some point, staring at all the chaos the boys were strewing up. Poor Iida was trying to control it all, with Shoda and Shishida trying to help. It was honestly funny seeing the three boys trying to control the chaos, with their heads turning here and there as they moved around, much like a tennis or volleyball match.
It wasn't until Mineta approached the wall boarding them and the girls that Izuku sat up.
"Men!" Mineta proclaimed as he stood at attention with only his towel covering his modesty, "It is our duty as males to see what is beyond this wall!" Mineta reached up to his head and popped off a ball, ready to start climbing towards what he considered heaven.
—only for a strange tentacle to wrap around his waist.
"Yeah, not happening." Izuku ground out, more and more of Black Whip coming out of his knuckles and even separating from the original strands. Mineta's cries of anguish were drowned out as he was wrapped in a cocoon of darkness. Izuku had half a mind to throw him, but simply looked at Todoroki and asked, "You mind?"
That's how Mineta ended up trapped in a block of ice while naked, staring as his classmates enjoyed the warmness of the hotsprings.
On the other side of the wall, the girls shared giggles as they heard Izuku and Todoroki deal with Mineta.
"Man, you picked a good one, Yanagi." Jiro grinned as she massaged her tired earphone jacks.
"Yeah, anyone that knocks that little perv down a peg is good in my books!" Mina smiled as she sat on the rocks around the hotspring.
Yanagi nodded, thanking the girls quietly. While she had already been prepared to deal with Mineta herself— as was Shiozaki, the girl did not like anything that had to do with sin— she appreciated Izuku.
He was always the first to step up and do something about mistreatment, or whenever there was trouble. Like when he had first befriended Komori when she was alone at the start of the year and blended her into their little group which had helped her and Kuroiro get closer together.
Actually… now that she thought about it.
"Komori." The mushroom girl who barely managed to break the water's surface startled at the sudden mention, "How are things going with Kuroiro?"
Komori blushed and sank the small bit into the water, "G–GOod! Good. Ehem… Good." She smiled, "We've been taking things slow but they've been nice. He's coming out of his comfort zone a lot slower than I have, but he's also very patient with me about things. It's… really nice."
"Man, why is 1-B the only class with tons of romance!" Toru groaned and wiggled her arms, though they only saw the splashes that it called.
"You can always ask Ojiro out, kero."
"What?!" Toru slipped and caused a splash, startling the other girls before she shot to her feet. "I can't do that!"
"Why not? I hear the way your heart speeds up whenever you're near him." Jiro shrugged, "Just go and talk to the guy, his heartbeat is the same way."
"W-Well! What about you and Kaminari!" Toru accused back.
"HUH?! W-What about us?!"
"You're always teasing him becasue you've got a crush on him, right?"
"That is soooo not true!"
"Is to!"
"Is not!"
"Is to!"
"Is–"
"Ladies, ladies." Kendo separated the two by making a big hand in between them, "Toru see about asking out Ojiro after the summer camp. Jiro—" The earphone jack girl blushed, she totally had a crush on Kaminari, "Why don't you try talking to Kaminari more after the camp to see if you like him?" Kendo tried to pacify her.
It seemed to work, as Jiro sank deeper into the water to hide a rather radiant blush.
Tokage and Mina bumped arms, rather happy with the level of drama, gossip, and romance happening in front of their eyes.
"This is going to be a much longer week than I originally thought it was going to be." Yaomomo sighed.
"Maybe, but that makes it fun!" Uraraka grinned.
Reiko agreed, even though she wasn't used to too much socialization, she rather enjoyed being to act like a normal kid for once following all the crazy happenings that had happened the rest of the year. She only hoped her friends would be able to enjoy acting like normal teens for once too.
After dinner, the ensemble males of 1-A and 1-B were laughing, fluffing pillows, and getting ready for bed. After a long day of training, a nice long sleep was all that they had been looking forward to. Most of all was Izuku, who had passed out as soon as he reached the room, fumbling onto one of the many pillows and blankets that were in the room.
"Awww come on Midoriya!" Awase grinned and tossed a pillow at his Rep, which Monoma caught, "We can play around for a bit at least before bed."
"Nah, bro. I think Tiger really did a number on him." Tetsu sighed, "Man, I wish I could be doing that too! Working on my temperature resistance is cool and all but I wanna fight something!" He clenched a fist and groaned.
"Hey, maybe I can ask Aizawa if we can go a round later!" Kirishima spoke up from his spot next to Shoji, "Maybe even Ojiro and Shoji can join in, eh? What about it guys?"
"I need to work a bit more on my tentacle growth before I put any of it into action, but after I'm done with that I'll take you guys on." Shoji agreed easily enough.
"I'd be up for it. I need to work on incorporating my tail into more of my martial arts, and work on its strength. Beating you guys up would help!" Ojiro grinned.
"Oh? Beating us up? We'll show you, Monkey Man!" Tetsu grinned back.
"It's Tail Man!"
"Oh ho! Big difference!"
"Save all the bravado for tomorrow!" Iida ordered, "Getting a good night's rest is imperative to being an excellent hero student!" He chopped his arm in his usual Iida fashion that punctuated every word he said.
"Aww come on, Iida!" Kaminari groaned, "Being together like this is pretty fun, isn't it?"
"Well, it is fun." Shoda smiled, "But we really should rest up, Kan-sensei was saying the training is only going to get worse the longer we're here, since we're cramming so much training into just a week, I mean look at Todoroki and Midoriya, they're both out."
Funnily enough, Todoroki was knocked out as well, even if his training wasn't quite as strenuous as Midoriya's. They all wondered how he was able to sleep so easily with Tetsu's loud yelling just moments prior.
"But alright, let's just—" Monoma stilled as the familiar sound of crackling lightning and the smell of ozone reached his ears, his eyes shot straight to Midoriya whose arm was crackling with growing power, he had only a moment to yell, "EVERYONE BACK!"
A half second later, a small eruption blasted everyone back, slamming into walls and creating a slight crater in the center of the room. The boys groaned as some of them went right into wood, others breathed sighs of relief that they escaped the blast. Monoma shot to his feet and ran to his friend, Izuku was on his knees, coiled over and looking at his hand as Blackwhip trailed out of his knuckles.
"Midoriya! Are you–"
"WHAT HAPPENED?!" Aizawa's yell echoed through the boy's room as he slammed the door open, his scarf wafting around him and his eyes already a piercing red.
"Sensei! Midoriya— exploded!" Mineta yelled.
Aizawa's hair dropped and his eyes returned to normal before landing on Midoriya, who was still recovering in the center, "I swear, it's always the problem child…" He cursed before kneeling next to the boy, "Midoriya, can you hear me?"
"Yes… sensei…" He breathed deep, "I… need to call Yagi…"
'All Might?' Aizawa wondered to himself but discarded the confusion for now, "Okay, come with me." He wrapped his arms around the boy and helped him up, Izuku stumbled on his feet before they made their way out, "Everyone else stay here until the Pussycats arrive, we'll move your room and everyone will go straight to bed."
Monoma stepped forward, "But sir—"
"Straight to bed." Aizawa enforced. "Now, come on Problem Child." Aizawa pulled the boy along down the hall. "What the hell happened to you?"
"Need… to tell… Yagi-sensei…" Izuku bit out, still gasping for air. "Need a phone—"
"Izuku!" Reiko entered the hall, having run all the way from where the girl's room was on the other side of the Pussycat's compound. She collided with the boy, easily holding him up by using her quirk and inspecting him for injuries. "What have the fates cursed you with this time?"
"Yanagi." Aizawa interrupted, "Please, go back to the girl's room, tell them everything is under control, and go back to bed." The girl didn't seem to want to back down from how intensely she looked back at him, not even with anger in her eyes but just with sheer will behind them. "I will make sure Midoriya is taken care of, now please go back to bed."
She looked away from Aizawa and back to Izuku, who— bless his heart— was trying his best to give her his class wide smile, "I'll be alright, Reiko, I just need to call Mr. Yagi and then I'll head to bed too!"
Something was going on, she knew it, and it had to be something surrounding his quirk— given the changes that had been happening since the Final Exams, and there was nothing she could do. He was trying to shut her out, but also so she wouldn't worry. She'd appreciate the sentiment if it wasn't so clear to her that he was going through something painful.
"Tomorrow, you owe me an explanation, is that clear?" She did her best to sound imposing. It seemed to work, because it made Izuku gulp and nod as quickly as he could. "Good." She grabbed him by his round cheeks before hugging him tightly, "Take care."
Aizawa rolled his eyes at the display of affection before Reiko made off. Izuku seemed to be a bit better, he could at least stand on his own now without having to be dragged around by Aizawa. This breathing was still a little off, but steadily improving, "Follow me, Problem Child."
The two made their way across the building, entering a large living space where the rest of the pussycats, excluding Mandalay, were located— all in pajamas. "Aizawa, did something happen?" Tiger stepped forward, "Kan went to go check on the boy and Mandalay the girls." His eyes strayed to the student behind the Erasure Hero, "What's Midoriya doing with you?"
"Who do you think the cause of all the ruckus was?" Aizawa drawled.
"That was you! You interrupted my beauty sleep!" Pixie-Bob was about to pounce on Izuku, but was lifted off her feet by the hem of her nightgown, "Tiger, let me go! I need to give that kid a piece of my mind!"
"No…" Tiger sighed, "Ragdoll, just take her back to her room, will you?"
"Got it, lug!" Ragdoll grinned with a silly salute.
After Tiger let Pixie-Bob down the two girls made their way back to their rooms while Tiger and Aizawa sat Izuku down. "We'll wait for Mandalay and Kan to come back to ask about what happened, but in the meantime, how are you feeling, Midoriya?" Tiger asked.
"I feel… fine? I think?" Izuku wondered, "I mean, my body feels good, I was just shaking off a lot of adrenaline earlier, and my legs felt like jelly. My breathing is better now, but…"
"Mentally, how are you feeling?" Tiger probed.
"Drained." Izuku smiled tiredly, "Oh, do you have a phone I can borrow? I need to call my mentor."
Tiger raised a brow, "Mentor? What mentor?" Before Izuku could answer, the sound of approaching footsteps entered the room, along with Mandalay and Kan. "Ah, Shino, Kan was everything alright with the girls and boys?"
"The girls were fine." Mandalay sighed, "Yanagi was a little anxious, apparently because of…" Her eyes landed on Izuku, "Midoriya." She smiled, "Aizawa was right. You are a troublemaker."
"Thank… you…?" He asked, perplexed.
"The boys were fine also, just needed to be moved because their room was a tad destroyed." Kan huffed. "And you would be the one at the center of it." Kan took a seat next to his student while Mandalay joined Tiger on the couch across from them. "What happened?"
"Well…" Izuku paused, "It was like the Final Exams all over again, except also like what happened after I fought Stain." At his teacher's confused expression he continued, "I had like— a dream? But it didn't feel like a dream…" He trailed off, knowing there were certain parts that he couldn't share with his mentor. But he did add, "I think that's when my quirk started changing."
"Changing how?" Aizawa stressed.
Izuku gulped— an idea, he needed an idea— "Have you ever heard of the quirk singularity theory?"
"Yes." Mandalay leaned forward, "It's a theory from a very advanced school of thought, centered around the idea that quirks will continuously evolve until they eventually become too powerful for the human body."
"Right, right." Izuku nodded, "Well, my quirk works by constantly stockpiling energy which I can then turn into power, and just recently can use to create a physical construct in the form of what I call BlackWhip." Little wisps of said power came out of his knuckles, "I think this is just the beginning of all the changes my quirk is going to go through, that with the more energy I gain, I think it's going to keep on changing— evolving if you will, until… well—"
"You go kaboom." Kan interrupted.
"I hope I can do something before that happens…" Izuku sweatdropped, "But basically yeah."
"And you need to talk to Yagi because…?" Aizawa asked.
"Oh well, he said he was going to be doing some research into quirks like mine and find ways for me to adapt to changes as quickly as possible, I'm already making a little bit of headway with BlackWhip, so we're hoping that if I can master things as soon as possible then it won't be too hard on my body." Izuku quickly lied. All Might was actually researching into the past users and seeing what quirks he may gain down the line.
"Okay, but that's a lot, kid." Tiger crossed his arms, "And you don't know when these changes will stop. Having to constantly be adapting to evolutions your quirk is going through will put a strain on you, mentally or physically or otherwise."
Izuku gulped, his roundabout explanation was really going to bite him in his behind, "Well—"
MEOW~ MEOW~ MEOW~ MEOW~
The group passed and exchanged glances as a ringtone of meowing cats echoed, settling on Tiger and Mandalay who both shook their heads and proclaimed it wasn't them.
All eyes landed on Aizawa, who slowly lifted his phone to his ear and answered a call, "Yes, Aizawa speaking." It took everything Izuku had to not burst into giggles, "Yes, I have him with me right now." He turned to Izuku, "Fine, talk to the kid." He handed the phone over, "It's Nezu."
"Ah! Principal Nezu!" Izuku held the phone in both hands up to his ear, "What's the occasion?"
"Hello Young Midoriya!" The high-pitched voice of the Chimera came out across the phone, "I've been meaning to contact you about your car's extended warranty!"
"...you serious?"
"Of course not!" He heard the principal chitter like a mouse, "In reality, Toshinori asked me for assistance in a certain matter, research into some old heroes." Izuku's eyebrows shot up, "And I've managed to get some information on almost all of them— the first three elude me I'm afraid."
"R-Right, well… thank you sir. Really. You're a big help."
"It's not all good news I'm afraid." Nezu's voice turned dark and Izuku heard the familiar clacking of a keyboard, "Some of the research I've conducted has painted a rather bleak picture for people like you…" For users of One For All.
"What… what do you mean, sir?" Izuku straightened up.
"Most of the heroes, as you know, were murdered by villains." By a singular villain, All For One. "But, one of the heroes was actually hospitalized and later died from his injuries." Izuku paused, it wasn't like All For One to leave a loose end like that, "A hero by the name of Hikage Shinomori."
"Hikage… Shinomori…" Izuku wondered aloud, and the rest of the heroes around him looked confused at the name, "Okay, but what was special about the way he died?"
"Well, from what it appears, his body was simply too old to recover from the injuries he had sustained." Nezu chirped.
"He was too old?"
"No, no, Young Midoriya." Izuku could feel Nezu shaking his head, "His body was too old, Shinomori-san himself was only 40…"
Izuku almost dropped the phone, "Oh my god…" He felt sweaty, was he going to die early too? Was that a… was his mom going to outlive him? Was he going to die before he even reached adulthood? "Am I…?"
"As of now, we're unsure." Nezu spoke with precision, "Toshinori is well into his later years, and we believe it could be due to… certain factors surrounding his genetics." Their… their quirklessness! That had to have been a factor— maybe? "And you have a similar background, we'll conduct research with Recovery Girl when you're back at UA, until then try to stay calm, your quirk will respond to your panic if you don't. Until then, have a good week with the Pussy Cats."
The line went dead, Izuku plopped the phone in Aizawa's hand, and sagged into the couch.
"Midoriya, are you okay?" Kan placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, "What happened, what did the rat say?" Tiger and Mandalay looked worried while Aizawa was a little unnerved.
"I might die of old age before I hit forty."
"WHAT?!" The adults looked startled.
"I… Nezu said it was just a possibility, and that he would be doing more research into it to see if anything concrete could point to that happening…but apparently he found some old heroes that had stockpiling quirks like mine, and it accelerated their aging…" He just had to hope it was because they already had quirks when they received One For All, and Izuku would just ignore the fact that he was currently developing other quirks…
None of the pros knew what to say, a kid hearing that he might die before forty was rough to stomach.
"Kan-sensei, can you just message Yagi and tell him about what happened…?" Izuku slowly rose to his feet, "I'm gonna go to bed."
"I will, Midoriya." Kan nodded and let the boy go, shaking his head as Mandalay stood to follow after him, "Give the kid some time, he needs to think things over right now. He bounces back quickly… I just hope he'll be able to bounce back after that."
Izuku stalked the halls of the PussyCat lodge, not quite knowing where he was going at this point since the boy's room had been moved, but he didn't particularly care about finding it quickly. Small wisps of the 5th user's quirk were drifting out of his knuckles, Izuku's hands were shaking.
"I can never… just have a normal time…" He muttered to himself as he slinked down a wall. Izuku tried focusing his breathing, and it— eventually— made BlackWhip recede a tad into his hand. He was just… tired.
"You seem troubled."
But he wasn't alone.
Familiar arms wrapped around Izuku's fluffy hair and pulled him down until his head was resting comfortably on Reiko's shoulder. "Talk to me, let me know what weighs so heavily upon your soul, Izuku."
Izuku grabbed her hand in his hair with one of his own, idly playing with her fingers. "Just me— learning the repeated fact that quirks are… stupid…"
"But, you like quirks. Your fascination with them exceeds my own interest in the supernatural." Reiko prodded gently, "What happened?"
"My quirk's just… changing. Fast— too fast for me to keep up, and—" He didn't want her to worry, if the end of Nezu's research pointed to him being able to live a long, normal life, then he didn't want to cause Reiko any more stress by telling her about how One For All would— could— affect his aging, " — I don't know if I can handle it."
"Whatever happens, Izuku…" Reiko leaned her head down on his, "We'll figure it out together. Like always."
Izuku felt warm, warmer than when he was even using One For All, a light exploded in his heart, quelling all of his negative thoughts. "Yeah." He wrapped an arm around Reiko too, "We will."
END
So, this chapter took a LONG time, around 5 months, and I'm very sorry. Starting college, on top of running in college, while also working is a lot of stuff to do at the same time and I've only been able to balance everything recently.
But, the chapter is here. I didn't want to get too into the fighting yet, so I created this chapter to give the story time to breath, Izuku is trying to round out on mastering all of his abilities that he's learned in the passed couple months, but learns about One For All's life sentence, though he doesn't know that it only applies to those with quirks yet- he has the idea but still his nerves are shot right now.
I also wanted to show Izuku and Reiko actually being a bit of a couple, so I threw some of those scenes in, and I added the girl's gossip scene while going through the final edit for the chapter becasue I felt like the girls didn't have enough "Screentime" in this chapter.
I've always liked Tiger as a mentor because he's both a rescue and combat hero, and his quirk is really interesting, while he really only beats Izuku up in canon and doesn't teach him anything (like seriously all of Izuku's growth with his quirks happens in the Bakugo rescue arc and the License Exams, the arcs RIGHT after the training arc?) I did want Tiger to help Izuku at least master what he currently has in stock, and maybeeeee teach him some new stuff in the next chapter.
I'll try to have the next one out before year's end, but with Nationals coming up in a month I'm unsure if that's possible, just know that I haven't forgotten this story- I actually think about it a lot. Do know, that I'm not going to be working on the Digimon story now though, following the ending of My Hero, I would like to do a full series rewrite, which I would most definitely do years down the line, but that would definitely be my main story once Class B's cinnamon roll is ended.
Again, just thank you for waiting and for reading my stories, it means the world to me.
With that, I'm out!