Chapter 46: Revelations
Hisashi had been nearly ready to fall asleep when his cell phone lit up with a call from Katashi Oh. His personal cell phone, at that. Hisashi made a point of leaving his work cell phone on at all times, but Oh still felt the need to call on his personal line.
It wasn't the best start to the conversation.
From there, Oh had tried to convince Hisashi that his only son was, instead of a talented hero-in-training, a villain that had been recruited by the legendary quirk thief to infiltrate U.A.
Things went downhill from there.
Hisashi's first response was that this had to be a joke. Even if it made absolutely no sense for Oh to joke about something like this, let alone just past midnight, it had to be a joke. One very long, drawn out, not particularly funny joke. After all, Izuku might not be making the most of his quirk, but if anything, he was too softhearted to be a good hero, let alone a villain.
Of course, Oh was deadly serious about his theory. Apparently Izuku had had a particularly unusual quirk awakening during his final exam. The fact that his final exam had been against Endeavor of all people had not been lost on Hisashi, but he settled on dealing with that particular issue later.
On its face, a quirk awakening was not entirely unexpected during the sort of high intensity training that U.A performed. Beyond that, quirk awakenings were, more or less by definition, unusual, no matter what they were or how they occurred. They were rare enough that the quirk science community simply did not have enough data to determine what qualified as a 'standard' quirk awakening.
Hisashi did have to admit, though, that Oh's description of the incident was odd, even by quirk awakening standards. Then again, though, Izuku's own quirk was already odd, considering how late it developed.
To Oh, though, that was just further proof that Izuku had been corrupted by All For One. To hear Oh tell it, All For One gave Izuku his strength quirk and rewarded him for a job well done by providing him with two additional quirks.
Silly questions like 'what exactly did Izuku do for All For One?', 'why did Izuku kill All For One's protege?', 'why did it take Izuku so long to use these new quirks?', and 'what villainy is Izuku committing now that All For One is dead?' didn't receive any sort of answer.
Unfortunately, in order to convince Oh to hang up the phone and leave Hisashi alone for a moment, he'd had to agree to actively consider this absurd theory. Now, Hisashi could have simply gone back to sleep and called Oh in the morning, saying that he had considered the idea and found it lacking.
There were only two problems with that. First, Hisashi liked to consider himself a man of his word and felt inclined to seriously consider Oh's idea, even if it seemed patently absurd on its face. Second, and perhaps more importantly, Oh gave the impression that he wanted to put together some sort of announcement early in the morning. Hisashi knew that if he tried to go back to sleep, Oh would just call him again and wake him up.
That was how Hisashi found himself sifting through Garaki's files at one in the morning, room lit only by the glow of his laptop screen. Taro Yamada had been incredibly thorough in what files he had taken from the good doctor's computer, which had initially frustrated Hisashi. He had only really wanted the information on the creation of nomu and chimera and the information on the doctor's mental conditioning programs. Taro Yamada, however, had taken everything.
Now, faced with Katashi Oh's paranoia, Hisashi was glad to have this amount of information, even down to Doctor Garaki's personal notes to himself. There was too much to efficiently sort through, but searching Izuku's name provided a few initial interesting hints.
The first bit came from Garaki's laboratory notes from when Izuku was being held hostage. Apparently the doctor had subjected Izuku to a number of quite invasive tests and experiments, all with the goal of understanding the boy's quirk. Hisashi felt a wave of indignation roll through his body as he read exactly what Garaki had done to his son, but suppressed it. He needed to be calm and collected; he couldn't let him lose himself in anger.
On the one hand, the fact that Garaki was investigating Izuku's quirk was weak evidence that All For One had not provided his initial quirk, at least. On the other hand, Hisashi knew for a fact that Garaki and All For One did not tell each other the full extent of their plans. That much was painfully obvious when they had asked Garaki about any of All For One's plans or safehouses that might still be in use.
In this case, Hisashi was inclined to believe that Garaki was doing his research with All For One's knowledge and approval. However, there was a tone to his writing that implied that Garaki did not know anything about Izuku's quirk ahead of time, but that All For One did and wasn't sharing it.
And then there were the results. Garaki's excitement about what he discovered in Izuku nearly leapt off the page. It was only Hisashi's long-standing interest in quirk science that allowed him to follow the doctor's ramblings, as in his excitement, he left out a good number of the connecting details.
One of the main points, though, was that Izuku was, in fact, genetically quirkless. The story about him being an incredibly late bloomer was a lie.
Hisashi felt his stomach drop, just slightly, as he fully understood the implications of that.
Izuku had to have received a quirk from somewhere. There was no possible way that he had manifested one on his own. The only people that Hisashi knew for sure could distribute quirks like that were All For One and Doctor Garaki, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that it wasn't Garaki who had provided Izuku with his quirk.
Reading further, the cause for Garaki's excitement became clearer. Apparently the quirk that Izuku had been given had written an entire quirk factor into his DNA, something that was beyond even Garaki's biomedical achievements. Then there was the fact that said quirk factor was frightfully similar to All For One's own quirk factor, and the implication became clear. Any individual piece of evidence wouldn't have been enough on its own, but once Hisashi looked at everything all at once, he found himself beginning to lean towards Oh's theory.
For all that Hisashi questioned many of Izuku's choices, he still didn't want to believe that his only son was cooperating with perhaps the worst villain the country had ever known. Given how the current generation of children treated the quirkless, however, he could all too easily believe that Izuku might have gone to desperate measures to get a quirk, ending up in over his head.
Turning back to the video that Oh had sent over, Hisashi was hoping to find some evidence that Izuku's supposed new quirks were actually just a quirk awakening of his own, natural quirk. Hisashi was quickly disappointed to find that the new abilities that Izuku had displayed were completely separate from anything that his quirk had proven able to do earlier. Quirk awakenings, while poorly understood, still generally followed some sort of logic. Izuku's new quirks appeared to effectively come out of nowhere.
Sighing deeply, Hisashi realized that he had managed to convince himself that Izuku had received at least three quirks from All For One, and possibly more that had not yet been obviously used. While that didn't prove that Izuku had been in league with the supervillain, it certainly did not paint a pretty picture of the situation. While he did not want to throw his son to the wolves of the media unnecessarily, he also didn't want to allow a potential security threat to remain at U.A indefinitely.
Hisashi reluctantly pulled his phone back out to call Oh back. The man answered after the first ring, obviously waiting for Hisashi's return call.
"Well, Midoriya? What do you think?" The eagerness in Oh's voice was almost sickening.
"I think you're onto something." Hisashi sighed. "I'm not convinced that he's a villain, but I have some sources of information that show he very well may have received multiple quirks from All For One. Either way, that's something that we should shut down as soon as we can."
"What sources of information?" Oh sounded almost offended that Hisashi was doing his own research.
"You're not a spy anymore, Oh." The fewer people that knew about the HPSC's dalliance with Doctor Garaki the better. "There are some things I can't share with you."
Oh huffed in annoyance, but bounced back quickly enough. "I'm organizing a press conference for tomorrow morning. It will be much stronger if you and your wife could be there."
"Let me speak with her." Hisashi said. He knew that Izuku's kidnapping had ruined Inko's trust in the HPSC, even if Oh didn't want to admit it, but he thought he could pull the husband and father card one last time. Rescuing their son from an even deeper conspiracy might just start drawing her back. "I'll make sure she's there with me."
---
" A phone call is here! A phone call is here! "
Toshinori groaned as he rolled over, freshly awakened. While he had dealt with three am phone calls for decades as a hero, he had never enjoyed them. One of the few benefits to his declining health and his past few weeks of official retirement was that he no longer had to be on call at ridiculous hours.
However, he still had the reflexes that he had built up over four decades as the top hero, and managed to answer the phone before the third ring.
"Good morning, Yagi!" Nezu sounded entirely too cheerful for the middle of the night. Toshinori had never managed to confirm for himself that Nezu actually slept, and this was just one more mark against him.
"What is it, Nezu?" Toshinori's voice was gravelly even to his own ears and he was too tired to bother trying to be polite to the principal.
"Are you familiar with a freelance reporter by the name of Taneo Takuda?" If Nezu was upset at Toshinori's impoliteness, he didn't show it. The name was vaguely familiar to Toshinori, but he couldn't put a face to the name. There had been too many reporters to introduce themselves and attempt to ingratiate themselves with All Might for him to remember all of them.
"It rings a bell, but nothing more. Why is he important?" Toshinori was in no mood for Nezu's typical conversational games.
"Straight to the point, then!" If anything, Nezu sounded even more cheerful than before. "Taneo Takuda has worked with a number of media corporations over the past twenty years or so, but never settled down. As such, he has a large array of contacts in the industry. More importantly, he has agreed to keep me in the loop of media happenings in exchange for occasional information on how All Might is doing as a teacher."
There had certainly been a furor over All Might teaching at the beginning of the semester, but as soon as it became clear that U.A was closing ranks around its instructors, they had quickly lost interest. If there had been any news getting out about Toshinori's teaching skills (or lack thereof, he ruefully reminded himself), it likely would have reignited the flame of interest. Given that there hadn't been another mob of reporters storming the gates of U.A, it was obvious that this freelance reporter of Nezu's was not actually publishing any of the information given to him.
"But nothing has been published?" There was some obvious reason for this, but Toshinori couldn't access his higher order thought processes right now. He felt that if he had been given time to wake up for even twenty minutes, it would have been obvious.
"Indeed! It turns out that Mr. Takuda is something of a fan of All Might, more interested in knowing how he is doing as a teacher than he is in actually sharing that information with the world. All I have to do is give him interesting but unimportant information, and he is happy to share anything interesting that he might hear of with me." Ah. Toshinori should have known. Although he wasn't sure how he felt about a fan of his being used by Nezu as a spy.
"And what did he tell you?" Keeping Nezu on topic could be a monumental task at the best of times. At three in the morning, it seemed far more difficult.
"That the footage of some of our finals has been leaked to a number of reporters. I understand that reporters working for Shoowaysha, Hero News Network, and Parago, amongst others, were the first to receive that footage." Toshinori furrowed his brow. Hero News Network was deep in the pocket of the HPSC, Parago was mostly focused on heroes not living up to their heroic ideals, while Shoowaysha was primarily anti-hero in general, following the lead of the Hearts and Minds party. An odd assortment of organizations, to be sure.
Meanwhile, Nezu was still being somewhat cagey, so Toshinori asked the obvious question. "What was the footage?" Nezu sighed.
"It was footage from class 1-A's final against Endeavor. All of it, including the thermal views, was leaked. I trust all of my faculty here, which tells me that this leak came from the HPSC. Director Oh in particular was very interested in reviewing all of the first year final exams last night."
"He can't possibly be trying to overturn the results of a final exam through a media push." In his still half-asleep state, Toshinori couldn't see any other reason for leaking this footage. "And showing off just how close young Midoriya and Todoroki came to defeating Endeavor seems counterproductive to the HPSC wanting to stabilize hero society after my retirement."
"Something else happened during that exam, Yagi." For the first time in the conversation, Nezu's tone took a turn for the darker. "I would think you would remember your successor awakening some of the previous wielder's quirks."
"Of course, but Oh wouldn't know anything about that."
"Exactly." Nezu made his proclamation with grave certitude. "So imagine what conclusions he likely leapt to upon seeing Midoriya suddenly display not one but two completely new quirks. The quirk awakening explanation that we gave his classmates will not hold up under intense scrutiny, Yagi. You know this."
The pooling sensation of dread in Toshinori's dread was enough to fully banish the last remnants of sleep from his system. Even if he had wanted to, Toshinori didn't think he would be capable of falling back asleep at this point.
There was only one source known to the HPSC that was capable of transferring quirks in that fashion: All For One. If they suspected that young Midoriya had received entirely new quirks, it was only natural for them to assume that it had been All For One who had provided the quirks. Even though All For One was dead now, well, reports of his demise had been greatly exaggerated in the past. If the commission thought that there was even a chance that he was still around and working through Izuku, they'd put the poor boy through hell.
"They're going to paint him as a villain." Toshinori growled. "I will not allow it."
"Neither will I, Yagi." Nezu replied.
"You have a plan." It wasn't a question. Nezu always had a plan. "What is it? What can I do to help?" It was risky to offer unconditional support to one of Nezu's plans, but for young Midoriya, Toshinori was willing to bear any danger.
"The most straightforward solution would be for you and Midoriya to announce the truth about One For All. Mr. Takuda has let me know that there is an urgent HPSC press conference tomorrow morning, presumably on this very topic. If you could make your announcement before then, so much the better."
Toshinori swallowed thickly. He had spent so much of his life hiding the existence of One For All. To now just broadcast the full truth of his former quirk twisted at his insides. True, All For One was dead now, so one of the reasons for keeping the quirk secret was no longer there. The worries about people trying to force the quirk out of the holder were still just as relevant as ever, though.
Ultimately, though, it was no longer his decision. One For All was young Midoriya's quirk. The fact that he had manifested no fewer than three of the previous users' quirks at this point proved that more than anything.
"I understand." Toshinori replied slowly. "But the quirk is young Midoriya's now. What, if anything, we discuss must be entirely up to him. If he provides his consent, though, I will explain as much as needed."
Nezu hummed, considering this. "I believe that Midoriya will understand and agree. I will begin organizing a press conference for this morning. If I have guessed the HPSC's plan correctly," Toshinori was sure that he had. "Then our conference will start shortly before theirs. This means that we'll need to talk to Midoriya as soon as possible."
"Recovery Girl emphasized that he needed rest to deal with his quirk exhaustion." Toshinori pointed out. Even Nezu was wary of crossing Recovery Girl's edicts. "He only awoke yesterday evening and went straight back to his dorm room for more rest. What is the latest we could get a decision from him and still make the press conference?"
"Six am." Less than three hours. Better than nothing, at least.
"I'll give him a call then. He usually is up by then for training." Toshinori's behavior as a morning person had rubbed off on young Midoriya. If Toshinori knew the boy, he wouldn't deviate from his training even for the injuries of the sort he received the day before.
"Fantastic. In the meantime, I have some rather damning footage of Yoroi Musha to prepare for an eventual leak. Sometime once this Midoriya business calms down and I prime the media appropriately. And that is just stage one of this unpleasantness!" Nezu descended into some mildly maniacal laughter before Toshinori hung up the phone.
Hopefully Principal Nezu's plan worked and they weren't about to reveal One For All for no reason at all.
---
" A phone call is here! A phone call is here! "
Izuku shuffled under his covers, trying to silence his cell phone as quickly as possible. He'd awoken just a few minutes ago after a long and much needed night of sleep. Next to him lay Kyoka, and Izuku wanted to avoid waking her up for as long as possible. By the time the two of them had stumbled back to the dorms yesterday, she had been at least as tired as he had been. Izuku didn't know exactly how she dealt with her enhanced hearing while sleeping, but letting his phone go off for too long seemed like a bad idea.
Unfortunately, Izuku and Kyoka had been spooning in their sleep and his left arm was trapped under Kyoka's head. Now, in addition to having to worry about the phone alarm waking up Kyoka, he had to worry about being too abrupt in his movements and waking her up that way.
How could he best balance getting to the phone quickly without disturbing Kyoka's sleep? And what if the phone call was important? Should he leave the room to talk? Or would that be more disturbing than staying in bed and talking quietly? And what about…?
"Ugh, Green, stop muttering and just answer the phone." Kyoka's sleepy voice called out.
Izuku blinked, before pulling his arm out from under Kyoka and grabbing the phone. He thought he had been getting better about keeping his muttering habit under control, but apparently when tired he still slipped into old routines. At least he had been muttering about something thoughtful, and not his thoughts about how good Kyoka looked and how nice it was to sleep with her and be able to hold her all night and…
"Green!" Kyoka spoke again, sounding more flustered this time. Had he been muttering again? "The phone?"
Oh, right.
The caller ID read 'All Might', and Izuku yelped in surprise at having ignored his mentor for so long. After having ruined his career, the least he could do was answer the phone promptly.
"Ah, young Midoriya. I hope I did not wake you." All Might spoke as soon as Izuku answered the call.
"N-No, no, it just took me a minute to get to the phone." Izuku replied, cursing the resurfacing of his stutter.
"Fantastic. We need to speak, the sooner the better. It's about your quirk." That shocked Izuku straight into wakefulness. Was All Might going to ask for it back? Izuku wasn't even sure that he would say no if asked. "Principal Nezu and I are on our way to your room right now. Will you be available in five minutes?"
Apparently Kyoka was more awake than Izuku had thought, as she bolted up out of bed at that question. While it wasn't an expellable offense to be caught in Izuku's room this early in the morning, it certainly would raise questions that neither of them wanted to answer right now.
"Uh, I, uh, should be." Izuku was somewhat distracted by Kyoka trying to quickly pack up all of her things and change back into day clothes. Unfortunately, the only day clothes that she had were her school uniform from the day before.
"Good, good." All Might sounded somewhat winded. If what he had said earlier was true, he was likely walking towards the dorms at this very moment. The very fact that a brisk walk was enough to wind him, though, weighed on Izuku's mind. Endeavor's taunt yesterday must have gotten to him more than he had realized. "Oh, and one more thing. Let young Jiro know that she doesn't have to go anywhere. I believe she'll have some valuable input."
Izuku and Kyoka froze in place, Kyoka slowly turning her head to stare at Izuku's phone with a look of mounting horror. All feelings of self-recrimination went out the window. "Wh- wh- wh- wh-..." Izuku stopped trying to speak for a second and took a deep breath to recenter himself. "What do you m-mean 'd-doesn't have to g-go anywhere'? She's o-obviously n-not here r-right now, haha. I j-just woke up."
All Might chuckled in his deep voice. "I may be old, young Midoriya, but I'm not stupid. And you are certainly not slick." Izuku wanted to defend himself, but couldn't even bring himself to think the words to do so, much less say them.
"This conversation will be about your quirk, and if and how much to reveal to the public. Young Jiro's position in your life and knowledge of your quirk make her a necessary part of this meeting. Just make sure that she is decent and you are wearing your school uniform. We don't have much time." Just like that, All Might ended the phone call.
Even as the line fell dead, Izuku felt a blush explode across his entire face at the implication, and saw Kyoka suffering similarly. Here they thought they had been keeping things relatively under wraps, and All Might was just assuming that they had been getting up to things that would require them to be indecent.
Not that Izuku hadn't fantasized about those sorts of activities, of course. But there was a huge difference between fantasy and real life. He and Kyoka had had a conversation on the topic and, while it had been one of the most simultaneously thrilling and awkward conversations of his life, they had agreed to take things slow, at least for the foreseeable future. They knew that there would be progress in the future, but for now, kissing and cuddling was more than enough for them.
Izuku's room was silent as the two of them quickly got dressed, unsure of exactly when All Might and Nezu would show up. Not even three seconds after Kyoka had finished helping Izuku with his tie, there was a knock on the door. "Young Midoriya?" All Might's voice sounded muffled through the thick door.
After a deep breath and a reassuring kiss on the cheek from Kyoka, Izuku strode forward and opened his door. All Might stood in the doorway wearing a properly fitted suit for the first time that Izuku had seen since Kamino. For the longest time, he had been content to continue to wear the oversized suits that he had managed to fill out only in his muscle form. Having a suit tailored to his new proportions managed to make him look, for the first time since Izuku had met the man, something approaching healthy. His eyes were still sunken deeply into his skull, but there was a fire to them that Izuku recognized from his time as a hero. Izuku felt glad to see the man doing so well, but still had a nagging unease that he had forced him into this change.
"Hello Mr. Midoriya, Ms. Jiro. May we please come in? Time is of the essence, I am afraid." Principal Nezu drew Izuku's attention from his spot near All Might's leg. The principal was dressed slightly more formally than Izuku had seen before, but then again, he had never had much interaction with the chimera.
Izuku motioned the pair to come in, but before they did, Nezu added. "Oh, and Mr. Shoji, please do not mention hearing us for the time being. You'll know when it will be alright to speak of this." The mammal looked pointedly at Kyoka for a moment, and she squirmed slightly under his gaze.
"He, uh, he says ok." Apparently Kyoka hadn't thought that Shoji could or would listen in on what happened in the hallway. Thankfully their friend was generally quiet and kept things to himself. Izuku was equally thankful that Shoji was the only other boy up on the fifth floor with him. It would have been more awkward to have to explain things to some of the other boys in the class.
"Fantastic." Nezu strode into the room as if he owned it. From a certain point of view, he did.
As soon as All Might shut and locked the door behind him, Nezu turned to Izuku with a predatory glint in his eye. "While the details of One For All are only known to four living people outside of this room, there are a surprising number of people who know about All For One and what his capabilities were." That was not an introduction that inspired confidence in Izuku. Kyoka seemed to notice and grabbed his hand to squeeze it in silent support.
"Bearing that in mind, I'd like you to answer a hypothetical question: What do you expect the general reaction to your final exam against Endeavor would be?"
Thoughts flitted through Izuku's mind faster than he could follow them, on dozens of possible outcomes. Vaguely, he was aware that he was muttering again, but no one else in the room seemed inclined to stop him.
"Bad." Izuku's voice surprised even him. Nezu made a motion for him to continue, holding eye contact the entire time. "The assumption would be that I was a nomu. Or received quirks from All For One in some other way."
"Indeed." Nezu sounded pleased. "Another hypothetical: What would be the best way to dispel those misconceptions."
This time, Izuku didn't need to think long at all. "Detective Tsukauchi. Or some other truth telling quirk."
"Ah, but what truth would you be telling? Half-truths can be as damning as anything else depending on your audience. Even the full truth can be twisted into being misleading." Nezu's eyes bored into Izuku's very soul, pushing for something that Izuku couldn't guess at.
"This isn't hypothetical, is it?" Kyoka's voice broke whatever spell Nezu had had him under, and Izuku shook himself back to awareness.
"Unfortunately not, young Jiro." All Might supplied. "The footage from your fight versus Endeavor has been leaked to a variety of news outlets. The HPSC has scheduled a press conference to discuss it for nine o'clock. If we want to get out in front of this and put to rest any concerns about young Midoriya being an agent of All For One, willing or otherwise, we will need to act quickly."
"And so the question becomes, Midoriya." Nezu had never stopped staring at Izuku, intensity written on his face. "Are you willing to tell the truth that you need to in order to stop this in its tracks?"
"One For All." Izuku's voice was barely a whisper. "I'd need to tell the world about One For All." Nezu nodded, just slightly. Everyone would know the full details of how he had failed All Might, how he had ruined the man's career. If there were people like Endeavor who were willing to blame Izuku just for getting rescued, how would they react to knowing that Izuku had even taken the man's quirk.
"This is not a decision to be made lightly, young Midoriya." All Might interjected. "And it affects more than just you. Even with All For One dead, there are still people out there who would want to force you to give it up. You would become a target. People might try to get at you through young Jiro here. Or any of your classmates. Or your family."
"Don't let me stop you." Kyoka cut All Might off curtly, squeezing Izuku's hand in a show of support. "Being a hero was always going to be dangerous, and I knew you were a danger magnet before we even started dating. Everyone in our class is the same. This is your choice, Izuku."
"What if I say no?" Izuku could barely process what was going on in front of him as he descended into an internal debate. He could feel Kyoka flinch at the question, even though she tried to hide it, and could tell that All Might was of two minds on the topic.
Nezu, though, never wavered in his gaze. "We have Eraserhead and Recovery Girl on standby, both willing to speak to your character and quirk under truth quirks. While Recovery Girl knows about One For All, she is also experienced enough to make it sound like a single, natural quirk and have it pass muster." For a moment, Izuku blinked in surprise; Eraserhead speaking positively about him seemed far-fetched almost beyond belief. A morbid part of Izuku wanted to go with this option, partly to prevent further blame for All Might's retirement from falling on his shoulders and for Kyoka to stay safe, but mostly just to see what Eraserhead could say positively about him while under a truth quirk.
The more he thought about it, though, the more he came to the conclusion that it wouldn't work. No matter how many truth quirks they threw at the situation, anyone other than himself speaking about his quirk could be dismissed as having been fed wrong information, or being mistaken about the situation. No amount of praise from his teachers would dissuade those who wanted to believe something negative about him.
Beyond that, Izuku was already the subject of public scrutiny. He had won the sports festival, been kidnapped in a highly publicized villain attack, and saved in an even more publicized operation that led directly to All Might's retirement. Anyone who wanted to (correctly) blame him for All Might's retirement was already doing so. Adding on the details of One For All likely wouldn't shift that many people. Any hope of anonymity for him had gone out the window weeks ago. As such, Kyoka, his family, and his classmates would be under scrutiny as soon as their relationship became public, regardless of people knowing about One For All.
"I'll do it." Izuku whispered at first, hesitant to break the silence in the room before continuing more confidently. "I'll do it. When is our press conference? Do I have a chance to prepare?"
"Excellent!" Nezu smiled widely, a surprisingly human smile on his face. All Might sagged somewhat, a mix of emotions playing across his face. For Izuku to agree so quickly to share the secret that he had spent his life protecting must have deeply affected him. Izuku wouldn't let him know the tumult behind that decision; All Might had been so firm in his declaration that his retirement was not Izuku's fault that Izuku did not particularly want to recapitulate it right now. The conversation that he'd had with the vestiges yesterday was also forefront in his mind, further confusing his emotions.
All Might's own feelings didn't show in his voice, though, as he sounded as confident as ever. "We've called reporters here with promises that we would start at eight fifty. I'll be right next to you, so don't worry on that front, my boy. Right now, though, you need to go through a crash course in media presentation with Midnight."
"Do I have time to tell anyone else before the meeting? My friends? My mother?" Izuku didn't want anyone to be angry with him that they found out at the same time as the rest of the world.
"You have time for perhaps a single phone call." Nezu responded, already opening Izuku's door and ushering him out.
Izuku went to dial his mother and for the first time noticed the plethora of missed calls from her from roughly two in the morning. His call back to her, however, went straight to voicemail. Before he could call again, Midnight had shown up to instruct him in how to deal with the press, and he didn't have room for other thoughts.
---
Inko stared at the television screens in front of her, trying to reconcile the two very different stories that were being told.
On her right was a screen showing her what was happening just a few feet away from her. Director Katashi Oh had just finished informing the world of the existence of a villain known as All For One and his quirk. Part of Inko was horrified that this was the villain that had kidnapped Izuku so many weeks ago, while another part was even more grateful to All Might and U.A for going up against such a powerful villain to save her son.
Director Oh had then moved on to displaying footage of Izuku's final exam against Endeavor, an exam structure that he had bragged about coming up with himself. Inko had to remind herself that Izuku had, in fact, survived this exam, although watching Endeavor use his quirk with reckless abandon on her son made her skin crawl.
On her left was a screen showing All Might, in his new, shrunken form, sitting with Izuku on his right and Principal Nezu on his left, finally sharing the full details of his quirk. Or rather, sharing the details of what was now Izuku's quirk. Inko would not have been inclined to believe that a quirk like this One For All could even possibly exist, but after hearing of the villain All For One, from two sources now, it seemed somewhat more plausible. There had been a discussion of the origin of One For All, but Inko had only started paying attention near the end of that.
Two different screens, two different stories. Director Oh was aiming to paint Izuku as an existential threat to the country, even if he himself was unaware of it. One last attempt by All For One to destroy hero society even from beyond death. All Might, however, was praising Izuku as one of the most purely heroic people he had ever met, a fitting choice to usher heroics in Japan into a new era.
"Izuku Midoriya was diagnosed as genetically, medically quirkless when he was four years old. For a decade, nothing challenged that diagnosis. Then, within the span of not even six months, he develops no fewer than three quirks, two of them after he was in the clutches of All For One for days." Director Oh had reached the climax of his speech. "This cannot be a coincidence. It cannot be dismissed as a simple quirk awakening. U.A's failure to partake in even the slightest investigation of these unprecedented developments is a damning indictment of their educational style."
"While I have been here, protecting the hearts, minds, and bodies of the people of Japan for forty years, it was inevitable that my career would come to an end." All Might spoke from the other screen, his deep voice as full of confidence and assurance as at any point that Inko had heard. "I do not doubt for one second, however, that young Midoriya and his classmates will make me proud and continue on with my work keeping this country safe." Izuku looked up towards All Might with a combination of adoration, determination, and sorrow in his eyes, tears threatening to spill over at any moment.
In that instant, seeing that look of pure devotion towards All Might laced with despair for the man's retirement, Inko knew which screen was showing reality. Her son, her only baby, would never go so far as to seek out a villain to grant him quirks. And while Izuku had loved All Might his entire life, that look he had given the man spoke of something deeper.
Something like being given a quirk. Something like being his successor.
Hisashi pulled at her sleeve trying to get her attention, and she nearly bit his head off. Only once she remembered that they were backstage, about to go on live television in front of the entire country (well, the half that wasn't watching All Might) did she restrain herself.
Verbally, at least.
It was Hisashi's fault that she was here right now, after all. He had said that Izuku had possibly been affected by a villain's quirk, that Izuku's final exam was cause for concern. All she had to do, according to him, was show up and agree with the HPSC's arguments. Even after being there when Izuku woke up yesterday afternoon, she still wanted to help protect him however she could.
Inko didn't know why she had believed Hisashi in the first place or thought that he wanted anything even similar to her. After all, he hadn't shown any particular concern about Izuku ever since coming back to the country, preferring to focus all of his time and energy on advancing his own career with the HPSC. For once, Inko thought he might be using his connections to make sure Izuku was safe and healthy, that maybe the gravity of this situation would be enough to make him act like a real father, but no. This was just another scheme to advance Hisashi's own position, this time using his own son as just another piece on the game board.
It was the last straw. Inko wasn't sure when she had last been quite so angry.
Thankful that her quirk did not have any visual tells to it, Inko pulled firmly on several extremely sensitive parts of Hisashi's anatomy. Despite himself, he gave a small gasp as he felt the sudden tension.
"This whole press conference is sick. Did you even speak to U.A before putting this together to slander your own son?" She didn't give Hisashi a chance to respond. "Of course you didn't. So when we go out to speak, I will talk and you will nod and support me. Understand?"
Hisashi's glare was fiery and smoke wafted from his nostrils, but another firm tug with her quirk got him to agree. Just in time, too, as Director Oh was gesturing for the two of them to take the stage. While the plan had been for Hisashi to stand at the podium and share what details he could of his own investigation into Izuku, Inko confidently strode up to the microphone. In the corner of her eye, she could see Director Oh's confusion, but she ignored it. All she needed to do was focus on what she knew she had to say, and get it out before she lost her confidence.
"My name is Inko Midoriya, this is my husband, Hisashi Midoriya. Our son is Izuku Midoriya, and we have failed him as parents." The only sounds in the room other than her voice were the shuffling of feet and the flash of camera bulbs from the back of the room.
"Izuku was diagnosed quirkless when he was four. Everyone here knows the statistics on quirkless people. They may be twenty percent of the population, but that is very heavily weighted towards the elderly. Izuku was the only quirkless child in his grade throughout his entire education. He was not treated well. By his peers or his teachers."
"He went through a phase, when he was seven or so, where he was convinced that he had a quirk that simply had an obscure activation condition. He went to absurd lengths to try to activate his quirk. He would try to eat anything he could get his hands on, spin in circles, hop on one leg, anything he could think of." Inko had to word the next bit just right so she wouldn't come off as a mother just dismissing any criticism of her child.
"Every quirkless child goes through something similar, to my understanding. If this were any other child, the idea of them seeking out or stumbling upon a villain who could provide them with a quirk would make sense."
"But that simply isn't possible for Izuku." It was somewhat disconcerting to not have any feedback as to how this was being received. At this point, it was all she could do to press forward regardless. "He has been obsessed with heroes and dedicated to becoming one for his entire life. There is absolutely no way that he would consciously seek this out. If he thought there was anything off about his quirk's provenance, he would have told someone. While he wanted a quirk, he needed to be a hero." Hisashi stiffened at that, for some reason, but Inko tugged once again with her quirk.
"You don't need to trust me. You can trust All Might. He chose Izuku out of thousands upon thousands of middle school students interested in attending hero school as being worthy for personalized training. The criteria for this training did not focus on strength of quirk or strength of body, but strength of character."
"Beyond that, as Director Oh just explained, All For One was All Might's nemesis. If Izuku's quirk had truly been provided by the villain, All Might would have noticed. It would have been impossible not to."
"So I have a choice. I can trust Director Oh and the HPSC, or I can trust All Might and my son. Every time I have trusted the HPSC to keep my son safe, they have failed. They have made his schooling more dangerous and failed to even attempt to rescue him while he was kidnapped. It was All Might and the faculty at U.A that managed to save him." Even as Inko spoke, she realized just how much Director Oh had been lying to her essentially the entire time they'd been in contact. Izuku had tried to tell her how the HPSC was making things more difficult for them, putting in more combat training and trying to disrupt their training for the sports festival. How could she have missed it for so long?
"My choice is clear. I trust All Might. And I trust my son. It has been far too long since I've done that. Thank you." Ignoring the suddenly shouted questions from the reporters in the room, Inko walked away from the podium. This time, she didn't need to use her quirk once for Hisashi to follow her off stage.
Director Oh was glaring at her with rancor in his eyes, but Inko ignored him and Hisashi's immediate bickering. Instead, she continued to walk away from the stage with her head held high. She knew that she'd need to do more to earn Izuku's forgiveness back, but this was the first step.
---
President Takako Fujiwara was not happy.
No. That was an understatement. While those could be useful when dealing with political issues, they were counterproductive in self-reflection.
President Takako Fujiwara was absolutely, incandescently furious.
"Effective immediately, Katashi Oh is no longer Director of Education and Training nor an employee of the Hero Public Safety Commission." She announced in a clipped voice to the handful of members of the division she had been able to round up on short notice. Mostly mid-level managers, with Yokumiru Mera as the lone Deputy Director that was present. While he had already been on Takako's shortlist, the fact that he was here made what came next incredibly simple.
"I am promoting Deputy Director Yokumiru Mera to the position of Acting Director of Education and Training. A formal search for a replacement director will begin within the next week." While official searches for any director level appointments in the HPSC were required by federal law, everyone inside the commission knew that they were nearly always a waste of time.
Whoever Takako wanted to be the next director would be the next director. Simple as that.
And in this case, Yokumiru Mera was one of the few candidates with the qualifications, intelligence, and most importantly, political background to fill the role. Putting him in the acting role for now simply let him begin working sooner rather than later. Given how much utter shit Oh had just left them in, Mera would need every spare minute to dig them out.
"I will speak with the Acting Director now. The rest of you may leave. There will be an official announcement on the change in leadership in the next hour or so." Takako's voice brooked no arguments. A few of the more timid and academic-minded officers slipped out the door immediately, but some smelled blood in the water and milled about waiting to see if they could overhear anything on the way out. After all, if one director could be removed so quickly and easily, the next would be at their weakest right at the beginning. "That was not a suggestion!" Mera's face remained impassive at Takako's slight outburst, but the other members of the room paled and vacated the room immediately.
Sniveling sycophants, the lot of them. There was a reason that most of them were in the back half of their careers without having ever made it past their current posts. They had a desire to climb the political ladder but neither the ruthlessness nor the talent to actually do so.
Oh had had ruthlessness in spades, but his talent in actually running a department was sorely lacking. The one intelligent thing he had done had been appoint Mera to a Deputy Director role. Mera was the one making sure the trains actually ran on time in the Department of Education and Training, that the schools got the money they needed and that educational standards remained high. It was a testament to the man's overall organizational wizardry that he had managed to climb as high in the HPSC as he had given his extreme aversion to politics.
Takako was well aware of where Mera's preferences lay in that arena, however. It wasn't hard to look at the pattern of which schools, which administrators, received extra discretionary funding to figure out that his priorities were diametrically opposed to Oh's. In this political moment, separating from Oh and his educational plans was the only move that Takako could take.
As the door closed behind the last of the managers to vacate the room, Takako took the moment to size up Mera. He put on an impressive facade of being exhausted, so dead to the world from the amount of work that Oh heaped upon him that he couldn't be bothered to deal with nuisances like politics.
Even for someone like that, though, being alone in the room with a furious president of the commission, now his direct boss, should elicit some sort of response. Mera, however, simply kept his heavy-lidded gaze locked on her face, eyes just short of making eye contact. His posture remained relaxed, just a hair away from being casual enough for reprimand. There was a certain canniness to Yokumiru Mera, and Takako wondered just how much of what he presented to the world was an act.
"We have not had the pleasure to speak one-on-one before now." Takako began, carefully schooling her voice and her temper. If her suspicions were correct, that was by design on Mera's part. "Let me be the first to congratulate you on your promotion."
"Thank you, Madam President." Mera replied, apparently genuine.
"Before you begin, let me make one thing clear. Your act doesn't fool me." Mera's eyes widened slightly at that, finally meeting Takako's gaze head on.
To his credit, Mera only quailed slightly at Takako's hard stare.
The president had had enough beating around the bush with Oh. She wanted to make sure she started out with Mera on the right foot. "But, you are by far the most competent replacement for Oh, and what we need right now is a steady hand on the wheel. I want no drama from the Division of Education and Training, Mera. How you accomplish that is up to you. That's all for now." Mera bowed, slightly deeper than he had when he had entered, before leaving the room.
Mera was smart enough to understand the subtext in what Takako was saying. Oh had made a splendid mess of the division, and the president had just given him a blank check to clean it up the way he saw fit. If that meant that all of Oh's cronies and accomplices found themselves out of a job in the next few weeks, so be it. If Mera wanted to fundamentally alter the trajectory of the division to align it better with his own ideals of heroism, so be it.
Takako wanted to have a stronger hand in raising the next generation of heroes, but knew that attempting to clamp down further right now would only work against that goal. Hisashi's plan seemed likely to bear fruit soon, but if it didn't, they'd rely on existing heroes and their normalizing effect to push the zeitgeist in the direction that Takako wanted.
Well, all existing heroes except for one.
While the dueling press conferences in the morning had focused on the details of the exam that Endeavor had administered, Takako had been also led to understand that Yoroi Musha's exam had also gone off the rails. She'd taken a look at the recording, and been appalled at what she saw.
The level of brutality that he had displayed may have been appropriate when apprehending villains, but was completely out of place against high schoolers. It hadn't leaked to the public yet, but knowing Nezu, it would almost certainly find its way into the wild sooner or later.
Once it did, Yoroi Musha would have to take a fall. Implying that Yoroi Musha's level of violence was at Oh's direction would help with damage control, but they were still going to have to drop the man quite steeply in the rankings.
As long as nothing else too damning came out about him, he could keep his job.
Otherwise, well, they had procedures for cases like his. Procedures that were currently being put into action to deal with Katashi Oh.
---
Rikiya Yotsubashi had thought that he was having a good day. Detnerat stock had been climbing steeply and steadily across the day as consumers were looking harder at HPSC-adjacent support companies and finding their products somewhat lacking. Shoowaysha Publishing was getting some additional eyeballs based on their early reporting on the Izuku Midoriya situation. The fact that the boy ended up being the recipient of All Might's quirk rather than a villain in disguise set Shoowaysha apart from the other media organizations that had similarly early reporting in that they had been the most sympathetic to him by far.
Beyond all of that, the general pall that had fallen over the HPSC over the past twenty four hours provided a beautiful recruiting opportunity for the Hearts and Minds party. Their long-standing, well-publicized opposition to the commission was appealing to those who were disappointed in the commission for attempting to smear All Might's protege. Sure, the fact that Hearts and Minds radicals advocated for the dissolution of hero society as a whole put some people off, but there would likely be a statistically significant bump in the party's support in the next set of polls. Hopefully they'd even be able to maintain that lead into the coming elections and pick up some seats in the Diet.
Finally, and most importantly, though, was that the Meta Liberation Army itself could expect a significant tick up in recruitment for all of the same reasons that the Hearts and Minds party could expect a bump in support. The Army already stood at one hundred and fifty thousand strong, but every boost in support was still welcome.
So all things considered, Rikiya should have been having a good day. Three of the four major public arms of the Army had fortune shine in their favor, and the Army itself would be expecting more new recruits.
But then Katashi Oh had wormed his way into his office just before Rikiya was set to leave for dinner. There were very few people that Rikiya would have expected less to show up in Deika than the former director.
First off, as far as anyone outside of the Army knew, Rikiya was simply the CEO of Detnerat. While an important and influential position, it also likely wouldn't be the first place that anyone on the outs with the HPSC would go for refuge. Second, if Katashi Oh suspected that Rikiya was anything beyond just the CEO of Detnerat, then he would have expected a cadre of heroes to corner him at home at the very minimum. The former director coming alone and disgraced was the last thing that Rikiya expected.
And so, while the day had been going well, now Rikiya was missing some very expensive dinner reservations to sit and drink tea with a man who should not be here. Outwardly, Rikiya appeared as composed and confident as ever, but inside he was roiling with stress. Thankfully, his control over his meta-ability was fine enough to ensure that the outward signs of stress, the splotchy black patches of skin that erupted whenever he used it, remained hidden under his clothing.
The one difference between Rikiya's current demeanor and his standard mood when acting as Detnerat's CEO was that he wasn't smiling. There were only a few reasons why Oh would be here, and none of them were worth smiling over.
"Let's get straight to brass tacks." Rikiya said once the two were alone and settled. "Why are you here?" He wasn't going to come out and say that it was odd for a former HPSC director to seek refuge with the largest villain group in the country, but it was certainly implied.
Katashi Oh was not an intimidating man, all rounded edges and soft flesh. The way he puffed himself up in an attempt to project strength was almost laughable. The flush to his cheeks and nervous shifting of his eyes betrayed him, though. "I have been wronged. It only makes sense to seek revenge against those who wronged me. I merely did as asked, and they threw me to the curb without a care in the world."
If the man's demeanor hadn't been enough to amuse Rikiya, his overwrought language would have done it for sure. Still, he couldn't be dismissed without figuring out exactly how much he knew. "That doesn't answer my question, though. Why here? Detnerat makes fantastic support items. We are somewhat… less skilled at revenge." Rikiya laid a humorous edge on his last few words and adopted a sardonic smile, aiming to be taken as taunting. If Oh was frustrated and on edge already, a well-placed taunt might have him reveal something he'd otherwise prefer to stay hidden.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Re-Destro." Rikiya made sure his smile was still painted on his face, but hearing a former member of the commission use that name spiked his stress further. A keen observer would see a splotch or two of skin on his forehead, but Oh was not a keen observer. "I know that something big is going on here in Deika, and I want in."
So that's how it was, eh? Seeing the broad outlines of a movement and wanting in with no more thought than to his own profit? He would need to bring some very unique skills for Rikiya to even consider him. Rikiya let his voice drop lower in pitch to something suitably menacing and let his smile take a sinister cast. "Let's say that you're right, that some vast conspiracy exists that you've just scratched the surface of. What do you have to offer? Why should they take a chance on you ?"
Oh's eyes widened a hair at the sudden change in tone before reaching into his coat pocket and removing a small data stick. "Everything that the HPSC knows, every corner of their servers that I have access to, is on here."
Now that was interesting. Foolish, but interesting. Rikiya stood up, smile ever more strained, and held a hand out towards Oh. "May I?"
With a triumphant grin, Oh handed over his trump card. Rikiya quickly strode over, not to his desk, but to a side computer that he'd had specifically built by Feel Good Inc. to handle sensitive tasks. No alerts or warnings popped up when he inserted the data stick, although even if they had, the computer was not connected to anything.
The files that were contained covered all aspects of the HPSC's internal structure, focused on the most private and most confidential data. A quick glance showed that their information on the Army was laughably thin; the name "Re-Destro," a possible connection to Detnerat, and plans to keep an eye on Deika.
Oh had really gambled on this bet of his, and was probably riding high on his thoughts of victory.
Nothing on the drive immediately seemed falsified. Rikiya could have the technicians over at Feel Good Inc. tear the data stick apart to make sure though.
"This is quite an offering indeed." Rikiya turned back to Oh, and the relief that flooded his face helped Rikiya keep his smile genuine. As he strode towards where Oh was sitting, Rikiya held out a hand to help him up. "I promise you that you shall be rewarded for this gift as you deserve."
Oh stood, and grabbed Rikiya's hand to shake it.
In an instant, Re-Destro flared his meta-ability, and spun Oh around like a puppet, grabbing the man's head with his free hand.
"With a traitor's death, and an unmarked grave!" Re-Destro hissed into Oh's ear.
A flick of the wrist snapped Katashi Oh's neck and he fell lifeless to the floor.
In addition to analyzing the data stick, the techs at Feel Good Inc. would also have to scrub any evidence of Oh coming to Deika. Hiding a body wasn't enough to keep suspicion off of them. At least he didn't get any blood on the floor.
Rikiya adjusted his cuff links as he stepped over the corpse, out of the door, and on his way to dinner.
Hopefully they would excuse his tardiness.