Chapter 4: Progression
Inko did not waste any time withdrawing Izuku from his school come Monday morning. The principal put on a convincing act by wishing her son and herself well for the future, but she could see in his eyes that he was ecstatic to be rid of the "quirkless" boy. Apparently, Izuku's teacher did not inform his boss of the news after witnessing Izuku's healing act, or he hadn't had the opportunity to inform him yet. It didn't really matter to Inko; the school would burn and that teacher would feel her wrath all the same.
She did use that meeting as an opportunity to scope out anything incriminating in the principal's office, though. It was a little more spartan then her son had described, which was likely a result of her presence. The replica of Destro's mask was still present in a display case, though, so either he was too proud to hide that, or he was confident that a worrywart housewife wouldn't recognize it or pay it much attention. She'd have to make sure she got a picture of his face when everything came crashing down on him.
No one fucked with her son.
Speaking of, she still needed to call Mitsuki about what happened between their respective sons. She didn't know if Katsuki had mentioned anything about it to her, but she hadn't called or texted her about it at all, so Inko figured that Katsuki's pride was a little wounded. She didn't want to hold anything against her best friend's son; well, one of her best friends' sons, but that bastard Endeavor refused to let her help-
She killed that train of thought and took a deep breath. Exhaling, she promised herself that she wouldn't think about that right then. The Katsuki matter was more crucial, especially if he's being exposed to MLA indoctrination.
Finding her friend at the top of her contacts, she called her up.
"Hey, Inky, what's up? Ya don't usually call during business hours. Must be important."
"Hi, Mitsuki; did Katsuki tell you about what happened?"
There was a pause on the line, and Inko could tell that Mitsuki was hesitant to respond.
"Katsuki's been… quiet these last few days. He's been more irritable than normal, too, and he spent all of his time in his room and wouldn't come out, not even to eat. I don't know what happened on Friday. He wouldn't tell me."
"I think I know what's causing that. He and Izuku got into a bit of a scuffle, and Izuku manifested his quirk. A powerful one, too."
"Wait, that's it? The little shit isn't top dog anymore, and he's nursing his pride? HA! Serves him right. Hope this humbles him a little."
Inko sighed into the phone. "Yeah, but I wish that were the end of it."
"Did something happen to Little Izu?"
Inko's voice became as hard as steel. "No. The school, though, is a different story."
There was another silence on the line. "You're bringing out the hero voice. This must be serious."
"Izuku told me that Katsuki tried to viciously assault him in an alleyway after detention." After hearing Mitsuki gasp, she quickly continued. "He thinks that one of the teachers specifically influenced Katsuki to do it, and I have reason to believe him."
"Oh my god, Inko, I'm so sorry! I had no idea that it was this bad."
Inko filed that strange comment away for later. "It's fine, Mitsuki. I mean, it isn't, and I wish it hadn't happened, but I don't blame Katsuki, at least not entirely. It's the main reason I'm calling, actually. The school district is poisoned."
"What do you mean?"
"It's a rather long story, but let's just say that a collection of old school quirk supremacists are trying to amass a considerable following in the country, and they've got hands in a bunch of places, school districts included, to start converting impressionable people. Our school district is one of them."
"Holy shit… do I even want to know how you got that information? Oh shit, is Verdant coming out of retirement?"
"Mitsuki…"
"I know, I know, I'm sorry, but this sounds like really serious business. If there was ever a time for the Silent, Green Assassin to return-"
"Do not ever call me that, again."
"Still a sore subject, gotcha. I'm sorry."
Inko sighed once more. "No, it's fine. You're not even wrong, I just haven't accepted it, yet. Regardless, we're getting off-track."
"Right. Should I move Katsuki to a new district?"
"That would be best for now. We still need to figure out just how far this influence has spread, though. I doubt this district is the only one in the city in need of a purge, so keep an eye out for anything fishy, and I'll keep an ear to the ground for any further developments."
"I'll follow your lead, Pro." Inko's long-suffering sigh only vindicated Mitsuki's smirk. "I'll just tell him the principal's a pedo if he asks questions. What are you planning to do for Izuku?"
"Can't say. Better that I don't say, actually. Hero business, and all that."
"So you ARE getting back into the game, huh?"
"Reluctantly, and only in an educator's capacity, but yes." At Mitsuki's inquisitive hum, she explained, "I was offered a job by the principal of UA. Given current events and potential future events, it was better that I took it."
"Ominous statements aside, I'm happy for you, Inko." She hesitated. "I'm sure she would be, too."
"She's not dead, Mitsuki."
"I know, but I also know that you're not going to tell her any of this."
"Are you?"
"Only if ya want me to. I see her every month, ya know." There was another pause. "She misses you, and I know you miss her too. You should go see her."
A much longer silence fell over them.
"I'll consider it."
"That's all I ask."
"If HE shows up, I'll disintegrate him like I did to Hisashi."
"YOU DID WHAT?!"
Realizing what she had revealed, Inko facepalmed. "Right, you probably wouldn't have heard. Funny story, actually…"
Learning under Nezu was nothing short of exciting for Izuku. Not only was he being taught directly by an active pro hero, but, for what felt like the first time, he had seemingly met a true intellectual superior. He supposed he was smart (frighteningly so for his age if his mother was to be believed), and he would even agree that his unnatural intelligence heavily contributed to his ostracism in school because "quirkless kids aren't supposed to be that smart," but Nezu was on a completely different level.
The first thing they did when Izuku arrived at UA was play a game of chess at Nezu's insistence. The chimera had seen his analytical skills at work, but he wanted to see if the boy had any knack for strategy and if he could plan on the fly if necessary. Izuku had never played before, but Nezu assured him that he would learn as he went.
And he did. He didn't win, of course; they played six games and Nezu handily defeated him each time, but each game was progressively more challenging for the super genius animal. He would even admit to second-guessing a move on one or two occasions.
Nezu very much enjoyed picking Izuku's brain afterward, giving him hypothetical scenarios and mock investigations to work through. He also formulated a plan for continuing the informatics training that the boy's mother started him on and potentially getting him some practical experience in the field. Creating a general middle school curriculum for him to complete was child's play, and he'd be sure to have Izuku complete it way ahead of schedule just for the official documentation.
One thing that stood out to Izuku, however, was Nezu's insistence on him wearing quirk-suppressant cuffs during every session. Nezu had a theory that he wanted to test out, and the best way to do that was to gauge Izuku's unassisted IQ. What they found was that Izuku, even without the white flames, was still mentally exceptional; he was not as capable as he would be otherwise, but he was still well ahead of his peers.
It gave credence to Nezu's theory that Izuku's quirk was an emitter with qualities of a mutation, which fascinated the chimera. It potentially meant that at least a few aspects (if not each aspect) of his quirk came with a distinct mutation to handle the upper limits more easily. It made Izuku a natural quirk Frankenstein of sorts. He made a decision during one such session to outline the possibilities.
"Izuku, tell me each aspect of your quirk that you currently know of," Nezu instructed.
"Oh, alright. Do you want a full breakdown or just what I suspect the individual flames can do?" Izuku asked.
"Just the flames. I have a theory I want to test."
"Well, the base form of the quirk seems to be the conglomerate of all the flames. I registered it as 'Kaleidoscopic Fire" for simplicity's sake. They're colorful and hotter than average, and they burn rainbows into concrete when I'm projecting hard enough. My mom told me to keep it at that and to not go into detail about each aspect on the record."
"A wise decision. Continue."
"Well, so far, I know of red, yellow, white, pink, and green flames. The red flames have thus far been triggered by happiness or excitement when my quirk is active. It acts as a sort of supercharged version of the base form; they're significantly hotter than any other flame I've tried out so far. I have a natural resistance to fire, and even I can really feel the heat when the red flames are at full blast, and my mom has to stand at least ten feet away from me when we're training the upper limits of it. I've burned many outfits to ashes in the process."
"Interesting," Nezu spoke before taking a sip of tea from a cup he certainly did not have a second ago. "Please, continue."
Getting over his confusion at the phantom cup, Izuku moved forward with his explanation. "The white, yellow, and green flames, I've surmised, can be classified in the same group. The white flames enhance my brain power, the yellow flames enhance my speed in short bursts, and the green flames give me a pretty remarkable boost in strength. The downsides are that overusing them give me a migraine, strain my heart, and tear up my muscles, respectively. They all function like supercharged adrenaline."
"Fascinating. And the pink?"
"I can heal injuries at the cost of my stamina. I've only had one opportunity to try it out on someone else, and it was just mending a few broken fingers, but I didn't notice any scarring or anything to suggest advanced healing. In fact, his fingers sort of straightened themselves back to their prior state as if the damage was being reversed rather than healed. It's sort of like the inverse of Recovery Girl's quirk, I guess."
Nezu considered that point for a moment. "Do you believe it to be within your capabilities to rebuild organs?"
"Currently? No. It was a delayed reaction, but even healing those fingers took a lot out of me later on. Tending to the pain that the three other flames cause me takes more stamina than I'd like to admit, as well. I'd probably drain myself of everything I have and drop dead before I make any significant progress in an operation like that, at least right now."
Nezu nodded and hummed in thought. "I believe your quirk comes with a set of mutations that allow you to handle the strain of the individual flames better than most would. Pushing your limits and strengthening your endurance for each flame would be the most effective way to reduce the strain it causes you. I'll be sure to inform your mother about it so she can incorporate it into your training."
Izuku maintained a calm façade on the outside, but he was internally sweating bullets. If Nezu was able to see through the mask, he didn't mention it.
"On a similar note, I'll set up some time for you to shadow Recovery Girl during the day so that you get some practice with the healing aspect of your fire. There are not nearly enough field medics in heroics today."
"Is that because healing quirks are rare, or is it that those with healing quirks usually just end up going into medicine rather than heroics?" Izuku asked.
"A little of both. Recovery Girl is an anomaly amongst anomalies," Nezu chirped with a smile, and then his eyes flickered to a screen at the edge of his desk. "Ah, he's right on time."
Before Izuku could ask what the principal meant, there was a knock at the door. One enthusiastic "Come in!" from the chimera later, and the door opened to reveal a scraggly man with long black hair, a solid black outfit, and a long, white scarf. The man's eyes found Izuku immediately, and they narrowed in confusion.
"Aizawa, I'm glad you could make it," Nezu said with his trademark unsettling smile.
"You were expecting me?" Aizawa queried, and then he immediately deflated. "Of course, you were. Why am I even asking?"
"It's good to ask logical questions, Aizawa."
"There are never any logical answers when you're involved," Aizawa huffed before pointing to Izuku. "Who's the kid?"
"He's my newest student, Izuku Midoriya."
Aizawa narrowed his eyes even further at Izuku, seemingly trying to dissect him for everything he was worth. Izuku tried not to squirm under his gaze. He really did.
"He seems a little young to be a student here," Aizawa blandly pointed out.
"That's because he isn't yet. He still has a few more years until he can apply and become my official protégé," Nezu answered. "I doubt that's why you came here, however."
Sparring a final glance at Izuku as if he were trying to remember a vaguely familiar face, Aizawa turned back to his boss. "You hired a new teacher halfway through the year. I just wanted to figure out why. I haven't met them yet, before you ask."
Nezu took a sip of tea from a cup that Aizawa swore he did not have just a second prior. "Things are happening out in our small world, and it's important to prepare for potential worst case scenarios."
"Cryptic, and doesn't tell me anything," Aizawa grunted.
"Does the name 'Verdant' mean anything to you?" Nezu posed.
The sudden widening of Aizawa's eyes told Nezu and Izuku that it did. Now, Izuku was interested. His mom told him that she wasn't particularly popular publicly, but she was known well enough in the underground. Izuku didn't really recognize the man in front of him, but he knew that pro heroes taught at UA, so he assumed that he was an underground hero as well. Maybe they worked together in the past?
"She's part of why I even got into underground heroics. She dropped off the face of the planet a little over a decade ago, and a lot of people assume that she's dead. Why?"
'Ah, inspiration. It's cool that she inspired people as an underground pro. I wonder if she had merch…'
"I assure you that she's very much alive. Izuku can attest to that."
Aizawa's stare bored into Izuku even harder than before. Try as he might, the boy fidgeted under the intense gaze until he was saved by said gaze flickering to Nezu in suspicion. That reprieve was short-lived, however, as the man's eyes returned to him and planted him in his seat. Recognition soon blossomed within Aizawa, and he faced Nezu with more emotion in than the man thought possible.
"You've gotta be shitting me."
Over the following years, Izuku's training had ramped up considerably on several fronts. He had long since completed middle school with Nezu and focused primarily on improving his strategy and tactical acumen as well as his analytical prowess. When they weren't discussing potential wartime scenarios, Nezu was even getting Izuku's opinions on how to improve UA's security to avoid potential villain attacks or infiltration. Over time, Nezu found that he was running out of things to teach the hero-hopeful, and that made him positively ecstatic.
The feeling was not shared amongst the UA faculty whom all lamented in despair at the prospect of having two Nezus when Izuku officially started attending the school.
Power Loader in particular wanted to be as far away from Izuku as possible. The boy wasn't a support technician by any means, but when that cursed white fire made an appearance whenever he was in or near the Development Studio for whatever reason, the schematics for support items he'd whip up made the man both salivate and shudder in fear. Anyone who could conceptualize a pair of nail clippers that somehow managed to violate the Geneva Conventions didn't need to be anywhere near a support lab.
His experiences with the other faculty were varied; Aizawa (he still hadn't figured out which pro hero the man was) maintained a healthy distance from him out of respect (and fear) of his mother, but he was largely cordial otherwise. Present Mic, after hearing his best friend recount the story of Verdant ending a hostage situation by taking the villain's gun with her quirk and literally shooting him in the foot with it, decided to exercise the same amount of caution, but he still offered Izuku a bright and overly loud greeting when they saw each other.
Midnight, however, had taken to him the fastest, positioning herself as the cool aunt when she saw his analysis of her and her quirk when they first met. Izuku's idea of using her quirk to create somnambulist smoke bombs solidified his place as her favorite unofficial student.
Physical training had intensified the most. When he started to get older and began approaching the age in which he'd attempt the entrance exam, his mother decided that it was time to take the kid gloves off. Izuku didn't believe her at first because he never once got the impression that she was ever going easy on him. She quickly dispelled that notion in their next spar.
And the next one.
And the one after that.
And every spar after that.
That led Izuku, now 14 years old, to his current predicament:
"You're gonna have to be a lot faster than that if you hope to land a hit!"
Izuku huffed in frustration at his mother's taunt. They'd been at it for 15 minutes, and he had yet to land a single hit on her. They had been training in Ground Beta on a Saturday to ensure they had the place to themselves, and Izuku was tasked with landing 5 hits on Inko. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be such an arduous task. Over the years, Izuku had begun to catch up with his mother in height and strength, so with a simple application of yellow flames to even the playing field in speed, he could keep pace with her in a traditional spar.
This was not a traditional spar.
Izuku was instructed to only attack from a distance by using his kaleidoscopic fire in projectile form. He was allowed to stream it, launch fireballs, create colorful explosions, etc. He could use any techniques or applications of his flames at his disposal so long as he landed five hits. It was the reverse of the dodge training that still haunted Izuku's nightmares 9 years later.
The problem was that his mother was not holding back anymore. She didn't attack, sure, but she had decades of training and real world experience on him, and she was using every bit of it to remain just out of Izuku's reach every time. He'd launch a fireball at her and she'd dodge it with minimal effort. He'd immerse both hands in fire and unleash a barrage of fireballs in a single area to pepper her with burns, and she'd narrowly escape being tagged by the slimmest of margins by employing some, frankly, bullshit feats of athleticism and flexibility.
He'd engulf each arm in a brilliant blaze and launch twin waves of mosaic inferno that converge to create a violently colorful sea of fire for no other reason that to remove any places that she could escape to; in response, she'd kick through a car window and use the newly unlocked car door as cover from the inferno before ultimately escaping through the other side of the car and up the fire escape of a building, all without so much as a burn on her.
It was truly maddening for the teen.
"Think, Izuku! You're not using your head in fights anymore!" she shouted at him from atop a building overlooking the colorful sea of fire.
Her comments were also not helping matters at all. Izuku had no idea how to even approach a problem like that. He couldn't touch her if she only focused on evasion. His flames just weren't fast enough, apparently, and she can weasel her way out of just about any trap he tried to rope her into. What the hell do you do when you can't get so much as a glancing blow on your opponent?
"You certainly don't stand around and mutter while your opponent sneaks up behind you."
Izuku jumped out of his skin when he heard her voice next to his ear, unconsciously turning a bright crimson and nearly igniting the red flames in all directions. He got a hold of himself before he could actually do any damage, and he was stuck as a panting mess with his hands on his knees.
"Let's break here," Inko said softly. "You did really well."
Izuku looked up at her, his face practically dripping with incredulity. "I didn't land a single hit on you."
"You weren't supposed to." At his puzzled expression, she explained, "This exercise was meant to both humble you and gauge your current maximum. You're good; really good for someone your age, certainly, and the fact that I had to try as hard as I did only proved that. With that said, being around pros all the time that compliment your abilities and progress might have inflated your ego a little bit. What happened today was to remind you that there's a massive gulf between where you are currently and anyone with a decent amount of actual experience."
Izuku took the explanation with a constipated expression. He knew that, logically, she was right, and it was a bitter pill to swallow. She had been keeping away from every single one of his attacks and making it look easy; had she ever actually decided to attack, he wouldn't have stood a chance. That fact really ate at him.
On the other hand, he was specifically limited in what he could do by the rules of the exercise, but he supposed that she limited herself as well by never going on the offensive. As a pure test of his ability to hit a constantly moving target, it was a fair one… right? Had he been able to move in and attack from close range, he would have scored a hit and done much better, right?
Right?
He was pulled out of his spiral by a hand on his shoulder and his mother's concerned expression.
"Are you okay?" she asked with a hint of worry in her voice.
Izuku took a few seconds to gather his thoughts. He nodded, and his face became resolute with determination. "Yeah, I'm good. I just need to get better. I need to get stronger. I need to improve."
'I need to prove that training me wasn't a waste of your time.'
Unaware of his errant thought, Inko gave him a warm smile. "And you will. I truly believe that."
A few days had passed since the "reality check" training session, and Inko had been away in Mie to investigate a lead on a trigger operation for Nezu. Having the house to himself and given the day off by Nezu, Izuku found himself alone with only his thoughts. The training session and following discussion kept replaying in his mind, and each time, the conclusion left an even more bitter taste in his mouth.
"Almost a decade of training, and I'm still nothing in comparison to her… to any pro," he lamented while sitting on the edge of his bed.
Clenching his fists, he could feel the heat within him pulse in response to his emotions. It wasn't anything he was unfamiliar with since his quirk had periodically hummed and fluctuated with his mood in the past; however, something else was there. It was only for a moment, but Izuku felt a brief spark of… darkness? He struggled to find any other words to describe the sensation, but he felt a twinge of black within the spark. It was gone as soon as it appeared, and it did not feel particularly inviting to him, which made him wary.
With a huff, he decided to go for a jog through the neighborhood to clear his mind of any self-doubt and quirk-related nonsense. Not having any particular destination in mind, he set off into the cool, spring morning. He ended up slowing down near Dagobah Beach, and on a whim, he changed direction and entered the unofficial dumping grounds.
Meandering through the piles of trash for a few minutes, he took in the sorry state of the polluted beach. He then exited the garbage fortress and returned to the roadside, getting an overview of the place. Anyone wanting a nice view of the ocean would be sorely disappointed.
"Someone really needs to come clean this place," he muttered to no one.
"They really do," spoke a voice next to him.
It took everything Izuku had to not jump out of his skin. He turned his head and fixed the new arrival with a pointed glare.
"Either my situational awareness has really become piss poor, or you have experience sneaking up on young teenagers," Izuku said with a little more bite than was probably necessary.
The man proceeded to hack a concerning amount of blood at Izuku's statement.
"Oh my god, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to startle you so badly that I'd harm you! Are you okay?! Here, let me help!" Izuku frantically sputtered out while trying to apply a hand bathed in pink fire to the man's chest. The man tried to assure Izuku that he was fine, sparing curious glances at the strange fire in the boy's hand.
Izuku was finally able to get a good look at the guy that snuck up on him. He was a tall, rail-thin man with blond hair and sunken blue eyes. He had a handkerchief in hand with older bloodstains on it, so Izuku assumed that he had some sort of condition and was used to the occurrence.
"What's a youngster like you doing out here on this beach?" the man asked him.
"I was out for a jog to clear my head, and I just kinda ended up here, I guess," Izuku answered.
"Trouble at home?"
"No; well, not entirely."
"Would you like to talk about it? That usually helps."
"It's nothing major, really. I've just been training for a while, and I don't know if I'm living up to expectations."
The blonde man nodded and motioned for him to sit on a nearby bench.
"What are you training for, if I may?" the man asked as the two sat down.
A faint smile made its way to Izuku's face. "To be a hero. I've wanted to be one for as long as I could form complete sentences."
The man hummed approvingly, his blond hair billowing in his face with the breeze. "Why do you want to be a hero, young man?"
Izuku opened his mouth to answer, but he paused, and he remained silent for a few moments to really think about the question. His first instinct was to say that he wanted to be "the best damn hero to come out of Musutafu" like he declared when he was 5, but why?
"When I was really young, I idolized All Might." He did not notice the slight twitch from the older man at the mention of All Might. "Hell, I still kinda do. He's so ridiculously powerful and heroic, and I wanted to be just like him. I wanted to be a hero and save people with a blinding smile just like he does. Then, I was diagnosed as quirkless."
The man's eyes slightly widened and he raised an eyebrow. "And you're still training to be a hero?"
"Well, that's the thing; I was either misdiagnosed, or I was just a late bloomer," Izuku answered with a chuckle. "Either way, I have a quirk now, but even back when I thought I didn't, my mother was willing to train me to become a hero without one. She wanted to help me follow my dream, quirk status be damned."
"She sounds like a great mother."
"Well, I don't really have any other mothers to compare her to, so I'll have to agree for now," Izuku joked.
The man chuckled, and his eyes became somewhat vacant while he looked over Izuku, as if he was seeing someone else. Shaking it off, he allowed the boy to continue.
"I trained with her for years in everything she thought I'd need to know to become a competent hero without any inherent advantages. I learned how to defend myself, evade danger, investigate, and how to defuse situations, all without the use of a quirk. And then my quirk came in, and everything changed, I guess? I could no longer become the best quirkless hero ever, so I had to pivot to just being the best hero ever. But… why?
"I still want to save people with a smile and instill a sense of hope with my presence like All Might, but isn't that something every hero should aspire to do?" He paused. "I guess I really want to be a pillar for those at the bottom of society, like the quirkless and the mistreated, but can I really live up to a goal like that when I don't even know if I can live up to my own mom's legacy?"
'Legacy? His mom must be a retired pro, then. I wonder if I've heard of her,' the man mused to himself.
Izuku sighed. "What am I even training for, you know? Sometimes I feel like I'm making no tangible progress, while the end goal still feels as nebulous as ever. I don't want the effort my mom put into me to go to waste, and I want to feel like I'm doing all of this for… something, you know?"
"I do," the man softly replied. "I'm certain that your mother would be proud of you regardless of what kind of hero you become."
"Yeah," Izuku conceded with a chuckle, "she would. She always would. I just don't often feel like I deserve it these last few years." He stood up from the bench and started to stretch his back and shoulders. "Well, I have 10 months until the UA entrance exam. I guess I have until then to figure it out."
"You will," the man assured him with a smile. "I'm sure of it. You already have the makings of an excellent hero if you're asking these questions now rather than later on."
Izuku, for some reason he couldn't at all identify, momentarily felt weightless at the praise. It was strange, but he paid it no further mind. "Thank you, um…"
"You can call me Yagi."
"Okay, thank you Mr. Yagi. My name's Izuku Midioriya. Keep an eye out for that name in the future."
Feeling reinvigorated, Izuku waved a small goodbye and continued his jog back in the direction of his home. Yagi watched him leave with a small, fond smile.
"That boy reminds me so much of Sensei. I wonder if he's the one..."
Internally, Yagi could feel One For All seemingly hum in agreement.
…And longing?
Chapter 5: Interlude: Nezu and Verdant Do Japan
Inko stood with Nezu on her shoulder across the street from a school that was swarmed by a collection of police, curious civilians, and the media. The duo of retired pro hero and chimera watched as another set of teachers was escorted from the building in handcuffs, the reporters on scene scrambling to get statements from anyone they could about the developing series of school districts that had been "infiltrated by quirkist terrorists."
The two were drinking celebratory slushees (Nezu's being tea flavored) at another MLA scheme foiled. This school was the last of the 12th district (by their count) across Japan that had been seized, and they were beginning to realize just how insidious the issue had truly been. Once one went down, several more accidentally revealed themselves by going on high alert. Occasionally, some teachers that either weren't buying into the scheme or had suspicions of a conspiracy going on within the faculty sent in anonymous reports about their schools. The former led to a lot more indoctrination plots being revealed, whereas the latter still brought some to light but often unearthed even more unsavory happenings.
There was one particular school in Hiroshima that was discovered to not be a quirk supremacy racket, but it instead groomed those with decently powerful quirks toward the path of heroics, and then if they failed the entrance exam to their school of choice, they would be kidnapped and sold off to a mystery buyer. Nezu had yet to identify who was buying the kids, try as he might.
The two watched on as the media converged on another set of police with guilty staff members in tow.
"We're working our way up to Deika, right?" Inko asked, taking another sip from her slushee.
"Eventually," Nezu confirmed. "I don't doubt that attacking the small cells of extremists and the school districts they've infected have tipped them off, so it wouldn't surprise me if they've sequestered themselves in Deika and ramped up their timeline."
"Do we have to worry about any stragglers making their way over there to join their ranks?" Inko questioned.
"Not likely," Nezu began. "So far, interrogations haven't revealed anything about Detnerat or any modern iterations of the MLA. Those who have been questioned only revealed their connections to various quirk supremacy groups. Some even had ties to the Creature Rejection Clan of all things, and as such, the crackdowns appear as a nationwide move against quirk discrimination of any kind rather than a specific move against a terrorist group."
"And that's the story the media is running with," Inko sighed.
"It appears so."
"So, no great loss for the MLA either way. At least we took down their undercover immersive propaganda machine. Although, I'm curious as to what the point of it all was if they weren't creating soldiers with it."
Nezu hummed in consideration while taking a sip from his tea slushee. "Staging an insurrection and sparking an inevitable civil war for an antiquated ideology is one thing. Doing so with a population who are already sympathetic to the fundamental principles of that ideology is another thing entirely. These indoctrination camps were just set up to preemptively get the populous amenable to their cause for when they do decide to move. It makes it a much more difficult battle for the government to fight."
"Well, I suppose anti-discrimination isn't exactly quirk liberation, so they're no closer now to that goal than they were before our crusade," Inko concluded.
"Perhaps, but I'm not naive enough to think that they can't work with this. Fighting discrimination against mutation quirks is somewhat tangential to quirk liberation; there's enough of a thread there to latch onto if they have a competent PR team."
"Let's hope they don't," Inko slumped, finishing her slushee. "We all done here?"
"Indeed, let us return to UA. The entrance exam needs planning!" the chimera excitedly chirped.
"About that," Inko began and she started the trek back to UA with her boss still on her shoulder, "Is Izuku taking the recommendation exam?"
Nezu hummed in consideration once more at the question. "I considered it at first given his circumstances, but his admittance into the hero course is a foregone conclusion at this point. There are only 4 available spots for recommended applicants, so it would be wasteful to cut it down to 3 right off the bat and boot an applicant down to the general exam whom otherwise would have qualified."
"That's… strangely considerate of you," Inko replied with narrowed eyes and suspicion coloring her voice.
"I also wouldn't get to throw scores of robots at him in the recommendation exam," he joyfully added.
"Ah, there it is," she dryly replied.
Chapter 6: The Entrance Exam
Even though he had spent the better part of 5 years at UA, walking through the gates for the entrance exam was still a surreal feeling for Izuku. The first step to starting his pro hero career was upon him, and he was going to grab it by the horns. He was going to seize the moment. He was-
"Fuck outta my way, extra!"
Falling. He was falling.
So surprised by the shockingly familiar voice and ash blonde head of hair on the boy who shoved past him, he almost forgot to right himself to avoid eating shit before he even made it into the building. However, a hand hurriedly slapped his shoulder before he could stop his fall, and he felt gravity leave him. The end result was Izuku floating just above the ground in a perpetual loop of front flips due to the inertia he carried with him.
"Oh no!" a high-pitched voice beside him intoned before his steady path toward the building was halted. Izuku saw the upside down figure of a girl with auburn brown, shoulder-length hair attempting to right him. Upon doing so, she tapped her fingertips together, and Izuku felt gravity return to him.
'What a fascinating quirk,' he thought while appraising the girl.
"Sorry, I hope you don't mind me using my quirk on you! It would've been a bad omen if you fell, is all. I didn't notice you already had it covered, though," she nervously sped out with a sheepish smile.
"It's fine," Izuku absentmindedly responded. "Your quirk is so cool; how does it work?"
"Oh," the girl was a little flustered at the excitement she could see in his eyes directed at her, or, more likely, her quirk. "It's called Zero Gravity. I can remove the gravity of anything I touch with five fingers and then restore it by putting my fingers on both hands together. My name's Ochako Uraraka, by the way."
Ochako was not anticipating her day to begin like this. She was simultaneously pumped and cripplingly nervous about taking the entrance exam for the best hero school in the nation, and when she left her mostly bare apartment that morning, she didn't know what to expect. Obviously, she'd be taking a written test and some sort of physical exam, but she didn't know what it entailed, what kind of people she'd meet, or if she'd potentially make any friends.
She was certainly not expecting an admittedly cute boy to stare directly into her soul with childlike wonder as she explained her quirk and then mutter up a storm about the possible applications of her quirk in the field and how great of a hero she could become. It was actually pretty nice in her opinion, in a weird sort of way. She could feel some of the dread in her stomach diminish as he spoke.
He seemed to realize that he was muttering and quickly clamped his mouth shut, much to her slight dismay. "Sorry, that sometimes happens when I encounter something cool… or complex… or peculiar… it happens a lot, okay!"
Izuku was saved anymore embarrassment by Ochako's giggling. "We should really get going to the exam, we wouldn't want to be late. My name's Izuku Midoriya, by the way."
Ochako nodded in acquiescence with a smile, already feeling much better than she had been when she arrived. The two entered the building and registered, making light conversation along the way to the testing rooms which primarily consisted of Ochako carrying the brunt of the conversation with Izuku stumbling along as best as he could. If she noticed, she didn't mention it, and Izuku was grateful. She was bubbly enough for the both of them.
Along the way, Ochako noticed that he hadn't once looked at the map they were given to get to the testing rooms. "Have you been here before? You know your way around pretty well," she asked with curiosity coloring her already rosy cheeks.
Izuku was not prepared for that question, and it must've shown in his face because Ochako quickly tried to backpedal. "Oh, you don't have to say if you don't want to!" she said while frantically waving her hands.
"No, no, it's fine," he clumsily assured. He did not expect to have to reveal the fact that he was trained at UA already. Frankly, he wasn't planning on saying anything about it unless it came up, and he really didn't want to potentially scare away the first person his age that he had spoken more than a few words to in years, but he felt that taking the out she gave him and not answering the question would be a little suspicious.
'Eh, screw it.'
"My mom works here," Izuku simply stated.
"Really? That's so cool!" Ochako piped up, and they both left it at that.
Reaching the testing areas, they wished each other luck and parted ways. Izuku entered the room and found his seat, noticing Ectoplasm in the front of the classroom with a stack of papers. He held in his excitement over a pro hero administering the exam despite the fact that he had met Ectoplasm several times before, and he waited for the testing to begin.
They had 2 hours to answer 100 questions and an opinion piece essay on what they believed a hero should be. He figured that it would've been more challenging than that, but he didn't complain. When he finished, he checked the clock and saw that only 45 minutes had passed. He didn't even need to wave Ectoplasm over, as one of his clones appeared beside his desk to collect his test.
"Principal Nezu figured you'd finish early," the hero said in his deep, vaguely mechanical voice. Izuku still found it so cool. "You can hang out in the courtyard until it's time for the practical."
Izuku nodded and pointedly ignored the stares and glances he received as he left the room. Closing the door, he let go of the deep breath he had unknowingly been holding. Being around other kids was something he'd really have to get used to again.
Finding a bench to sit down on in the courtyard, Izuku decided to kill the next hour and 15 minutes by reading hero news. He saw the usual stuff: recent debuts, big takedowns of villains and other criminals, gossip surrounding heroes in the Top 10, etc. However, one particular headline caught his eye:
Sludge Villain Still at Large in Musutafu
His interest piqued, he read the article that detailed a criminal made of sludge who robbed a store and evaded capture from…
"All Might? All Might's in Musutafu?"
Continuing to read, the article went on to explain that the Sludge Villain, as they're calling him, escaped detection by entering the body of a civilian and disappearing into the crowd, likely killing them in the process. Since then, there was a string of robberies and murders that police were connecting to the Sludge Villain using the body of his victim and potentially swapping into others when necessary.
"Well that's comforting," Izuku sardonically said to himself. "I'll tell mom to be on the lookout."
He scrolled a little further and another headline caught his attention:
Is UA Parading Child Soldiers Rather Than Creating Heroes?
"…The fuck?" he questioned, skimming through the article for its author and publisher.
"Chitose Kizuki, Shoowaysha Publishing. Should I tell Nezu about this?" He considered it for a moment before shaking his head. "No, he's probably already seen this. If not, I shouldn't trouble him with some random hit piece."
Getting lost in the hero news for the next hour was easy enough, and the time for him to make his way towards the auditorium was approaching. Looking up from his phone, he unconsciously activated his quirk and lit his hand ablaze with the familiar rainbow of flame. Manipulating and fanning the flame in his hands to kill a little more time, he felt a pair of eyes on him, and he turned to the left to see someone else with him in the courtyard. She had black, shoulder length hair that was similar in style to Uraraka's but longer. She wore a stoic expression, but Izuku could somewhat make out a bit of curiosity in her gaze.
'I guess she wasn't expecting anyone else to finish early, either,' he thought as they returned each other's unblinking stare. Oddly enough, there wasn't any awkward tension amid the silence. Her eyes traveled to his hand, and they fixed themselves on the unique fire he wielded. Conversely, his eyes traveled to her right hand to see a handful of what he could make out to be sand. He noticed her eyes on his hand and she realized that his eyes were on hers, and they came to a silent agreement. Izuku fanned and brightened the flame, meanwhile the girl picked up a small rock with her left hand and enlarged it to the point where it barely fit in her hand.
Pocketing the sand, the girl shrunk the rock back to its original size and seemed to hesitate for a moment, then she nodded to herself and approached Izuku with her phone in hand. Curious about her intentions, he killed the flame and watched her make her way toward him. She stopped beside the bench, sat down on the edge with a measure of distance between them, and she handed him her phone with the "New Contact" page open.
Izuku was momentarily dumbstruck before everything clicked, and he gingerly took the phone and added himself to her contacts before handing it back to her. She silently took it, and then she flew into the fastest, most furious texting speed that Izuku had ever witnessed. His phone vibrated, and he saw that he had a text from an unknown number.
"Hi, I'm Yui Kodai. Sorry about all of this, I'm not great with social interaction. Your quirk is really cool."
Izuku was taken aback for the 4th time since he got to the courtyard, but he didn't mind it this time around. Rather than answering her verbally and potentially make her feel awkward or obligated to speak up, he responded to her text in kind.
"It's nice to meet you too, Kodai! Don't worry, I was pretty much homeschooled, so my social skills aren't the best, either. Your quirk is amazing! Is that what the sand in your pocket is for?"
Yui's phone vibrated, and a small smile broke through her stoic visage. She replied to his text within seconds; Izuku really needed to learn how the hell she typed so quickly.
"Thank you, and yes. I can enlarge the grains to create a barrage of projectiles, or I could just toss sand in someone's eyes. Depends on how I'm feeling."
Failing to fight back a snort at her text, Izuku checked the time and saw that they only had 10 minutes to make it to the auditorium. "We should start heading back to the building, the practical will be starting soon."
"Mm," she simply responded in agreement. She stood up to make her way back, but she stopped and appeared to deliberate something in her head. Making up her mind, she turned around to face him. "You can call me Yui," she finally said before turning away once more and walking back into the building.
Izuku stared in mild shock at the development before the same small smile formed onto his own face.
Upon reaching the auditorium, Izuku checked the notecard that had his seat number, and he found it in the back next to a boy with purple hair even wilder than his own and bags under his eyes to a level he had only seen on Mr. Aizawa. The boy spared him a lazy, cold glance before refocusing on the stage. Izuku thought about saying hi and potentially making a third friend that day, but the other boy didn't look like he was in the mood.
He kept his excitement in check when Present Mic showed up, and he made sure not to mutter aloud to keep from annoying the boy next to him. Pretty soon, the rules were explained and the examinees were loaded up onto buses to be sent off to the exam zones. Izuku was trying to keep the nerves at bay to varying degrees of success. He knew that he wasn't unprepared, but the idea of everything he trained all those years for finally coming to a head in the coming exam naturally put him on edge a bit. He hoped that Uraraka or Yui (he still hadn't gotten over being on a first name basis with someone again, and so quickly) were doing okay.
At the starting zone of their exam, Izuku was running through his stretches when he spotted Uraraka on the other side warming up as well. She was slightly trembling, so it was clear to him that she wasn't doing any better than him on the nervousness front. He elected to go over and attempt to ease her nerves, but movement in his periphery made him tense up. Certain that it wasn't a threat, he allowed the hand of a taller boy with glasses to clamp down onto his shoulder. Giving the taller boy a curious look, he saw the other boy looking down at him with a stern countenance.
"That girl looks like she's busy preparing for the exam," the boy started, his glare tightening on Izuku. "Do you intend to distract her and the other real participants here? Are you perhaps an impediment planted by the school to hinder us during the exam?"
Taking a moment to recognize the boy as the one from the auditorium that interrupted Present Mic, Izuku quirked an eyebrow at him. "Do you see the worst in everyone, or are you just really intense?"
At the taller boy's aghast sputtering, he continued, ignoring the many pairs of eyes that were watching the scene unfold. "I know the girl over there; she's a friend. She seemed nervous, so I was going to try to help ease her mind for the exam. Also," he pried the boy's hand off of his shoulder, "I saw you coming, and I figured you weren't a threat, so I didn't do anything to you when you grabbed me. Had I not seen you, I can't promise that the bones in your hand would still be in working order. Don't sneak up on people in a bid to intimidate them; it's bad for your health. Now, I'm going to go encourage my friend to do her best on this exam. Is that okay with you?"
Not waiting for a reply from the completely mortified boy, Izuku turned back around and walked away from him and the wide-eyed stares of the other participants. He had no idea where the hell all that even came from. He figured that he'd spent way too much time with his mother over the years.
"START!" blared the voice of Present Mic over the intercom as the gate to the training ground swung open. Izuku flew into action, darting toward Uraraka and tapping her on the back to snap her out of the shared stupor that everyone was in at the sudden announcement.
"What are you all waiting for?" Present Mic came over the intercom again. "There are no countdowns in the real world! Those two up front have the right idea!"
The collection of examinees looked to see Izuku blasting off in a vibrant blaze with Ochako hurriedly bounding in behind him before they all rushed in themselves.
Izuku, bathed in the familiar heat of his quirk, launched himself toward a group of 1-pointers and blasted each one with a fireball, quickly disabling them before bounding off again into the heart of the city. Scores of faux-villains attempted to intercept him in all manner of ways, but Izuku was ready for them. Pausing his base flames and igniting a bright yellow, he dodged and weaved through the rubber bullets, claws, pincers, and the occasional missile with Nezu's face on it. He'd be sure to have a talk with the principal after the exam about that last one.
Letting green fire overtake his arms, he launched himself toward the robots and cleaved right through them, not paying any particular attention to their point values. Without a moment's hesitation, he grabbed a large panel from one of the robots he'd taken down and batted another robot away with it, then he pivoted to block a third faux-villain's attack from behind with that same panel. Pushing the panel into the robot, the emerald flames engulfed his legs for him to jump and drive his heel into the head of the machine, disabling it in an explosion.
Reaching the ground, he let the green flames die down and swallowed the pain he began to feel in his muscles, igniting his base flames again to relax some of the pain away for the moment. It was then that he noticed that the other examinees had made their way into the city as well, attempting to keep clear of him and the carnage in his wake.
In a dark control room, a group of adults watched over the exam with careful scrutiny. The many screens showed different vantage points of each exam area, and they got to see the various approaches that the participants took. One screen showed a blonde blowing the robots to kingdom come while laughing maniacally and sporting an equally maniacal gleam in his eye. That boy warranted further observation.
Another screen displayed the tall boy who had the unfortunate run-in with Izuku kicking through the robots with ease. He then used the engines in his legs to blast off to the next one, though he seemed careful to stay out of the way of the trail of colorful fire ahead of him.
On another, a duo of 3-pointers had cornered a girl with pale grey hair covering one of her eyes until a barrage of giant grains of sand intercepted them and took down one of the 3-pointers, allowing for the grey-haired girl to telekinetically smack the remaining robot with the pieces of the former. The two gave each other a silent thumbs up and nod before heading off in different directions.
"Good crop this year," Midnight spoke up. "A lot of hot-blooded action around…"
"Behave," Aizawa tiredly commanded, also keeping a close eye on the screen, or, rather, one screen in particular. He wasn't the only one, either. Three other people had an eye on one particular screen, and that screen showed Izuku leaving a trail of mangled parts and whimsical fire in his wake. Nezu watched on with his usual smile, Yagi watched quietly and attentively, and Inko watched with an unmistakeable smile full of pride for her son. That pride grew even more when he seemingly bounced from building to building onto a light post before diving into the middle of a group of faux-villains that were ganging up on a short boy with purple balls for hair.
The boy was clearly being overwhelmed, and when one of them opened fire with rubber bullets on the boy's blindspot, Izuku leaped in and blocked the boy from harm with his own body. If that wasn't crazy enough, Izuku's colorful fire had become a solid orange and flattened out into a seemingly solid barrier that the bullets bounced right off of.
"That's new," Inko said loudly enough for the others to hear.
"Indeed," Nezu agreed, "I've never seen his fire become a solid orange. It must have manifested recently."
"You know that boy?" Yagi asked the principal. He hadn't been around for very long, so he was surprised that Nezu knew the boy he remembered from Dagobah Beach.
"Why, of course. He's my protégé," Nezu answered.
Yagi did not expect that at all. He considered Izuku even more carefully, now more sure of his feeling that the boy might be the right candidate to be his successor if he had already gotten the super genius chimera's attention. He watched as the boy stared quizzically at the wall of orange flames surrounding him for a moment before shrugging and rolling with it, turning to say something to the shorter boy that was staring back up at him with something akin to reverence.
They spoke back and forth before seeming to come to an agreement, and Izuku kneeled down for the short boy to hop onto his back. The orange wall dissipated, and the newly formed duo leaped above the robots onto a street light. The shorter boy on Izuku's back then started pulling the balls from his head and throwing them at the robots, sticking them to the ground and getting into their joints to stall them so that Izuku could launch a powerful fireball at the vulnerable group, destroying them.
Suffice to say, all of the faculty in the command center were pleased at the scene for both examinees. Midnight, in particular, had a few comments.
"Ugh, such a magnificent display of selflessness and ingenuity. It gets me hot-" she began before stopping when she felt death trickle up her spine. Looking over, she saw Inko side-eyeing her across the room, much too still for the R-Rated Heroine's comfort.
"Go ahead," Inko calmly said. "Finish that sentence."
Midnight did not, in fact, finish that sentence, and she fearfully shrunk back into her seat.
"I warned you to behave," Aizawa chided, the vindicated smirk he sported hidden behind his scarf.
Unbeknownst to Aizawa and Midnight, Yagi had shrunk into his seat as well. The aura of murder that Inko radiated reminded him too much of his former sensei's when she'd get angry. One For All seemed to agree as well, as he felt the quirk buzzing even more than when he encountered Izuku. He'd have to investigate it further later on.
"I think it's time to unleash the final obstacle," Nezu remarked and pressed a big, red button.
Izuku would gladly admit that he was truly having fun. He hadn't ever gotten the chance to cut lose like this before, as he didn't often unleash the full brunt of his flames while training with his mom, and if he did, they never hit their target. Now, however, Izuku could do all the damage he wanted to disposable targets and practically fly around the testing area without fear of an S-rank threat kicking him in the jaw. He even discovered a new aspect of his quirk; apparently, the orange part of his flames acted as a protective barrier that he only needed to concentrate on to maintain. That meant that he now had access to red, white, yellow, green, pink, and orange. It was such a fascinating development that he couldn't help but analyze the possibilities-
The ground began to shake, snapping him out of his muttering and toward the edge of the city. In the distance was a behemoth of a machine, dwarfing the buildings and completely towering over the examinees. Izuku took a long look at the Goliath ahead, and he turned to give a flat glare at the camera-bot "conveniently" standing beside him. He knew Nezu was watching him, and he hoped that he got his message across with the glare.
Before he could turn and leave with the other participants, he spotted something odd a good ways ahead. Under a pile of rubble, he saw someone struggling against the ground. Hurrying forward to help them out, he grew alarmed when he recognized that it was Uraraka pinned under the rubble. Igniting his yellow flames, he bolted past the fleeing participants towards the 0-pointer.
Arriving in no time, he assessed the situation: his new and one of only two friends was stuck, and she couldn't reach the concrete on her ankle to make it weightless. Without a second thought, he pushed the ever-looming 0-pointer from his mind and ignited in a flash of green, quickly grabbing and tossing the concrete off of her before picking her up into a bridal carry.
"Midoriya? What are you doing?" she asked as her usually rosy cheeks flushed with even more color.
"Getting you out of here!" Izuku answered, ignoring if she could walk or not before blasting off wreathed in yellow. The heat curiously did not seem to affect the girl at all, almost blanketing her alongside him. "Besides, I'm not dumb enough to fight that thing," he continued, feeling even more of the familiar strain in his chest as well as his muscles.
As if responding directly to his comment, the 0-pointer smacked the top of a building, sending chunks of concrete, metal, and glass directly in their path. Izuku stopped on a dime as the wreckage slammed into the ground rather harmlessly, only serving to separate the two of them from the rest of the applicants.
"Looks like I don't have a choice in the matter," Izuku sighed with a mixture of frustration and resignation. "Stay here, and don't put pressure on your ankle," he ordered the girl who stared back at him with wide eyes.
"You're not seriously going to fight that thing, are you?" she shouted.
"If we leave it unattended, it might harm the others," he responded with urgency. "Can you make me weightless?"
She reluctantly removed his gravity while also curious as to what he'd do with it, and then he ignited his kaleidoscopic fire and blasted off toward the head of the robot. This time, she had actually had time to look at and appreciate the unique flames. They were pretty fuckin' rad in her opinion. She had to remind herself to get his number after the exam ended.
Back with Izuku, he was practically over the moon to be simulating unassisted flight with the propulsion of flames, but got a hold of himself and refocused on the task at hand. He weaved through the swipes of the giant robot and projected his flames to full blast on his way toward the head. Lighting his right arm with as much green fire as he could manage, consequences be damned, he threw a punch with all of his might and slammed it into the face of the 0-pointer, blasting it backward and practically off the body of the robot. The rest of the machine soon followed suit, and it tipped over to slam into the ground behind it, luckily only flattening empty buildings.
Izuku, meanwhile, was running on the barest of fumes, and he just barely righted himself and slowly began the process of lowering himself to the ground until the last bit of strength left him and he passed out mid flight. He was left approaching the ground with his inertia carrying him the rest of the way until Ochako hobbled toward him and guided him back within arm's reach. She cancelled her quirk and tried her best to catch him, but he was heavier than he looked and his deadweight came crashing down on her right as Present Mic's voice blared over the city.
"AND THAT'S TIME! THE TEST IS OVER!"
The other examinees only barely heard him, as they were too focused on the sight they just witnessed. The tall boy was especially floored; the green-haired boy he had wrongly accosted before the exam had gone back into the heart of danger to rescue a fellow examinee from the 0-pointer, then he turned around and destroyed the giant robot with what appeared to be shocking ease. He had accused the boy of having nefarious intentions, only for the boy to have the most heroic heart and spirit of everyone there. He had a lot to think about when he returned home.
Recovery Girl was rather displeased with Nezu. The brutishness of the exam that encouraged reckless kids to be even more reckless was one thing, but she knew the chaotic gremlin had a hand in the destructiveness of this particular zone's 0-pointer. He wanted to make it entertaining for himself and for Midoriya, and it would certainly give poor Inko a heart attack. She just hoped she would make it back in time to see the mama bear throttling the chimera for his stunt.
Making her way through the crowd and healing injuries where they were present, she found the man of the hour himself. Or, rather, she found him passed out laying across another examinee who was practically dying from her blush. Shaking her head in amusement, the Youthful Heroine made her way towards the duo.
"Are you youngsters okay?" the old woman asked Ochako, who looked relieved to have literally anything else to focus on.
"I think I twisted my ankle under some debris. He passed out though, you should look at him first!" she worriedly fretted over the unconscious boy.
Kneeling to examine him, she noted that he was breathing normally but felt even warmer than usual. "Ah, don't worry, it's just quirk exhaustion. It happens when he overuses his flames. I can't do much for it, though. Hand me your hand so I can fix up your ankle."
The younger girl complied, and Recovery Girl kissed her on the hand, zapping her of whatever energy she had left while mending her busted ankle. Ochako would've stumbled had she not still been pinned under the unconscious Izuku, so she only laid her head back on the ground and absentmindedly took the gummies the medic handed her. Meanwhile, a team of medic bots came with a stretcher, and they lifted the boy off of her and onto the stretcher to cart him away.
Recovery Girl quickly followed behind them. Maybe if she was fast, she could catch the end of the beatdown.
"YOU FURRY LITTLE DIPSHIT! WHAT IN THE 9 LEVELS OF FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?!"
The faculty of UA were hiding behind the farthest table away from the livid mother unleashing hell on their principal, and rightfully so; he knowingly endangered her son with a giant robot to test him.
"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA JUST HOW BADLY HURT HE COULD'VE GOTTEN?!" Inko broke her throttling of her boss and comrade to allow him to respond.
His snout returned to its original white from the blue it had been previously, and he cleared his throat. "I wouldn't have orchestrated it if I didn't think he could handle it."
"But the other examinees could've been caught in the crossfire!"
"Unlikely, as the 0-pointer was specifically programmed to neglect the other examinees and focus on Midoriya when it spotted him."
"That doesn't make it any better! In fact, that actually makes it worse!"
Yagi, against his better judgement, decided to interrupt to take some of the heat away from the principal's… admittedly worrying decision. "Uh, if I may-"
"No, you may not!" Inko silenced him, and he quickly returned to his place next to an absolutely quivering Power Loader. He suspected that she would find out that Power Loader had been the one to actually program the 0-pointer under Nezu's direction any minute now.