Chapter 19: It Acutally Didn't Get Worse? Wow. That's Unusual
Izuku tries to turn invisible, or at least, squeeze himself behind the dumpster, but it's too late. Shinsou's already spotted him.
"Phantom? Is that you?"
"N-No, I am—I'm just a f-figment of your, ah, imagination—" Izuku stumbles over his words as another wave of pain hits. "P-pay no attention to the g-ghost behind the d-dumpster!"
"What the--?" Shinsou takes a few steps forward. "What happened to you? You sound like you're dying, do you need me to call an ambulance?"
"No! N-No ambulance! I am a-okay." Izuku forces the pain down, but he feels his transformation threaten again. This time it forms itself into a white halo around his midsection. That's new. "I'm okay and you can just go back to your house, random citizen I do not know."
A beat of silence. Izuku peers around the dumpster, and Shinsou is standing another step closer. He's in his PJs—they're cat-themed, very on brand, Izuku thinks, with pawprint patterned pants and a t-shirt with the outline of a cat head and whiskers. If Izuku was not in so much pain right now, he'd try and crack a joke, but the halo forms again and Izuku has to force it away.
"Yeah, right, Phantom." Shinsou deadpans. "Look, I don't know who you are, but you sound like you're hurt. And I want to help?"
"H-Help? So you can just t-turn me into the police?"
"What? No. I wouldn't do that."
"Y-You are a hero student." Izuku retorts. "I'm surprised y-you haven't gotten a—" Izuku whines as the pain hits him again. "—a class on "how to deal with vigilantes" yet."
"You helped my class out at the USJ. You saved me from that fire." Shinsou says. "Look, I have no idea how you knew what my Quirk is that day, it's a little freaky. But I promise I won't turn you in if you let me help you."
"Y-Yeah, but—" The ring appears again. Izuku forces it down, but he feels his transformation flash, suddenly—his heartbeat appearing and disappearing in quick succession cuts off his sentence.
If Shinsou helps him, he'll know Izuku's identity. Izuku can't hold onto his transformation for much longer. Turning human again might help ease the pain, but he's conflicted. On the one hand, if he had to trust anybody with his identity, it would be Shinsou. They've been online friends for years, and they've told each other nearly everything about their lives. Izuku knows how many fights he and his dad have been in, Izuku knows that Shinsou's mom is in jail for something (he's never explained what), Shinsou knows that Izuku's been bullied his whole life, his dad is dead, and that he's supposed to be Quirkless.
But he still can't help but fear—what if, what if, what if? What if Shinsou doesn't believe me? What if he calls the police anyway? What if he turns me into scientists? What if he tells his dad and he tells my mom? What if—
Another bolt of fiery hot pain explodes through Izuku, and he feels his body spark again. The switch between ghost-human-ghost-human-ghost is almost as painful as the first time, and Izuku tries to get it to stop, to stop, please, dear god, stop.
He has to remind himself that he isn't dying again, it isn't quite as strong as that initial flash in the portal all those months ago, but damn, is it close to that.
Unfortunately, it feels like he's out of options.
Shinsou is there, right at the end of the alleyway, and Izuku has a feeling that his friend is going to figure this out eventually. There's no going around it. Izuku slipped up already with his identity, revealing that Phantom somehow knows what Shinsou's Quirk is, so it's only a matter of time. No matter what Izuku wants, though, it seems like something is about to break. His mask. Well, the brief anonymity of vigilantism was great while it lasted--
He groans, trying to ignore the pain.
"S-Shinsou—" Izuku ignores another flash of pain. He can't see Shinsou, of course; he's at the end of the alleyway, only taken a few hesitant steps in. The quick transformations, the side effect of him trying to desperately hold onto his ghost form as long as possible, even though it's causing issues to begin with, are starting to give Izuku a bit of a headache. "—Shinsou, please, I need you to listen to me."
"Okay. What?"
"If you—" Izuku shudders as another bolt of pain explodes. They're becoming less common—further apart, at least, so maybe the attack is starting to wear off, at least. "—if you come closer, I need you to swear that you'll trust every word I say."
"H-huh?"
"I'll explain it all, I promise, I just—" Ouch, ouch, ouch. "—look, if you come any closer to me, you're going to have to promise everything I tell you will stay a secret, and you'll trust every word I say. Because I—who I am, what I am, is going to completely change everything you know about this world, a-and about Quirks."
"I, uh—"
"You promise?" Izuku feels his voice echo and distort on the last word a bit, ectoplasm shooting through him in a desperate attempt to help ease the pain, but hopefully it was all understood.
"I—Sure, I promise."
Okay. Okay.
Shinsou promised, so hopefully—Izuku finally stops struggling with his core, and the bright light flashes one last time before he hears his heart beating loudly in his chest. Izuku can hear Shinsou's footsteps echo through the alleyway as he approaches, and he can't help but bury his face into his legs, pulling his body close to him as the pain starts to subside.
It's better this way—now he doesn't have to look at Shinsou as he approaches. He can pretend to hide away. Pretend this isn't happening, for just a moment.
The footsteps eventually stop, and Izuku hears Shinsou take a sharp breath.
"M-Midoriya?"
Yep. That's the exact tone that Izuku is expecting to hear.
He groggily lifts his head. It feels like his mouth is full of cotton. His ears are burning a bit, and his scar is thumping with pain in sync with his heartbeat.
Okay, say something cool. Say something cool, because this feels like a really un-cool moment. Sure, you and Shinsou are friends, but you should try and impress him with something, here.
"H-howdy…?"
God damn it.
✨👻✨
Hitoshi sighs. "So, let me get this straight."
Midoriya is sitting on his bed, at two in the morning. He looks a little better than he did when Hitoshi had found him out in the alleyway by his apartment building an hour ago. And frankly, Midoriya should be lucky that it was Hitoshi and his irritating insomnia that had found him first, and not any other adult in the building. Any other adult would've called the cops, and Midoriya would've been arrested.
Because, he—Quirkless Midoriya Izuku—is the vigilante Phantom. The one who had saved him from a burning building, who had saved his class from the weirdos of the League of Villains, who had destroyed the monster-thing that they brought with them.
He.
Midoriya Izuku. Who has told him he is Quirkless, who has gotten bullied his whole life for being useless and Quirkless.
Is Phantom.
A quick cup of microwavable ramen noodles seems to be helping him recover his energy, at least, as he tries to not-too-loudly slurp it up, even though Hitoshi told him multiple times that his dad is out of town on a business trip to some Journalism conference.
"You're Phantom."
Midoriya nods, taking a large slurp from the instant noodles.
"Ghosts are real. And you are a ghost?"
"Half-ghost, technically." Midoriya interjects.
"Half-ghost…?" Hitoshi pinches the bridge of his nose. "How is that even possible?"
"Well, do you want the long answer, or the quick one?"
"You have two answers to that question?" Hitoshi wants to hit his head against the wall. Because of course this might as well happen.
It at least explains a lot.
The vague familiarity with Midoriya's voice when they first met in person—Hitoshi had thought it was just a voice he'd heard somewhere before on the streets, and that would've made sense, given they both live in Musutafu, they probably passed each other at one point.
But nope, apparently, the reason Hitoshi recognized his best friend's face upon meeting him in real life for the first time is because he had just been saved by Midoriya's vigilante persona!
And it explains how Phantom knew his Quirk at the USJ attack—which makes Hitoshi feel, at least, a little better, given how things can go with his Quirk. It isn't some sort of weird, underground secret. His Quirk isn't well-known in the vigilante world because of his ties to his mother, it's because Midoriya made a mistake and slipped up during a stressful situation.
"Might as well just give me the whole story." Hitoshi says. He's not going to let Midoriya out of his sight for a bit after he'd found him having that horriblereaction to the electricity Quirk used on him. Not to mention—he's very curious as well, sue him. His friend who has been Quirkless for his whole life has a Quirk? Even though he has the genetic mutation that makes Quirks impossible, and makes him wear those stupid red shoes—which he's currently in his PJs, so he doesn't have them, but Hitoshi can see that the pinkie toes on Izuku's feet do look different than Hitoshi's own.
Not that he's staring at Midoriya's feet like that, but it's like—it's like whenever someone has a mutant-type Quirk in public. The differences are strange to notice sometimes.
Midoriya stretches out his arm. Specifically, the one covered in the heaviest scarring. Hitoshi didn't want to pry about those scars (nowadays, scars are a dime a dozen due to how often people get caught up in villain attacks, or accidents with their Quirks), but he had been wondering about them. Midoriya had said he had a health scare a few months ago, but he said was fine—wait, was that it…?
"Everyone thinks I got struck by lightning, but that isn't true." Midoriya says, his voice dropping a bit. "I mean, yeah, it was storming heavily that day, but it wasn't from that. I ducked into an abandoned building for shelter. That was my first mistake. I ended up wandering into the basement of that building and finding ruins to something called a Ghost Portal."
"A Ghost Portal?"
"Yeah."
"To where? Ghosts?"
"Kinda? It's a place called the Infinite Realms." Midoriya explains. He sets the instant noodle cup—completely empty now— down on Hitoshi's nightstand.
He pulls his legs into his body a bit more. His PJs are simple-- flannel plaid pants and a T-shirt that has a horribly drawn ghost on it with the word "boo" scribbled in English. Very on the nose.
"It's kinda—well, I haven't been there before, but it's like… the place where everyone goes where they die. It's organized off into different afterlives and realms, enough to be infinite, given its name. The Ghost Portal is supposed to lead there."
"So there's a Ghost Portal, how did—" The scars. The powers. Oh. "Oh my god."
"Yeah, I got a little too curious, I guess." Midoriya laughs, nervously, showing off his scarred palm. "I got hit with a lot of electricity and ectoplasm at once from the portal opening on top of me. So, while it killed me, it also revived me, but not all the way? They call me a halfa—half human, half ghost."
Halfa… It's an interesting name, for sure. Hitoshi would think it would be too insane if it wasn't for the fact that it was Midoriya Izuku is explaining it to him.
"It's actually really interesting because I figured out where Quirks come from in the process!" Midoriya adds, and he gets a sparkle in his eyes—literally. So, Hitoshi hadn't imagined it the other day at the mall, when his eyes flashed a bright cyan for just a second. "There's a lot of debate on the true origin of Quirks, but I've been able to figure out that a couple of centuries ago, a ghost portal had been opened somewhere in America by someone like me. The ectoplasmic radiation spread all around the world and mutated people in the process, forming mini-cores in people that would develop into Quirks! Though, because of these mini-cores, people aren't actually forming ghosts anymore, unless they're Quirkless. Which is how I survived the accident. If I hadn't been born Quirkless, I'd be really, really dead, so my biggest weakness actually saved some of my life in the end, huh?"
All that information came out at a much faster speed, and Hitoshi is barely able to keep up with Midoriya. "Mido—slow down. What? Cores?"
"Oh! Yeah. For a ghost to form, it needs two things—a strong source ectoplasmic energy nearby, and very strong emotions. Or maybe three things, cause it also needs to be Quirkless, now, technically? Anyway, the emotions mixing with the ectoplasm forms a core, which is a ghost's brain and heart, I guess." Midoriya adds. "But for people with Quirks, there's already a mini-core in their system due to their Quirk Factor! It kinda varies between Quirk and Quirk Factor, but I've theorized that the mini-cores tend to be around 1/100th of an actual core."
Oh. Theorized. 1/100th. "So, wait, I have a core?" Hitoshi asks.
"Yeah! Every person with a Quirk has a very small mini-core, due to generations of ectoplasmic radiation mutating our bodies."
That fact doesn't sit well with Hitoshi. He leans back in his desk chair.
"This is a lot of information, I know. Sorry for just… Dumping it on you." Midoriya says, after a pause. "I haven't had anyone to talk to about ghost stuff since—well, for a while. At least, anyone who would believe me about this stuff." He pauses again. "You do believe me, right?"
"If I hadn't watched you defeat that Nomu thing, I might not have believed you." Hitoshi says. The image still replays in his mind—even though Hitoshi is far away from that action and violence, he can see, barely, Phantom reaching his hand up through the Nomu's chest and pulling something out, and then the Nomu falling to the ground.
Midoriya's face falls a bit, and he bites his lip. "Yeah, I—I don't know what the Nomu was. Someone had found a way to take multiple Quirk Factors and stitch them together into one being."
Multiple Quirks? Hitoshi hadn't really talked much to his classmates—other than Uraraka and Iida, and Tsu now, too—after the USJ attack. There were rumors, of course, that the Nomu was a genetically modified creature with multiple Quirks.
Hearing the confirmation from Midoriya so casually is a little chilling to Hitoshi, but he brushes it off.
"I now understand how my dad feels when he needs a drink." Hitoshi deadpans.
"Wh—hey! I'm not that bad! Okay, look, I'd offer to drop off all my notes about ghosts, but I started writing them in code in case anybody stumbled upon them, so they'd be kinda useless. This is the best I can do with no preparation."
"What could you do with preparation?"
"A PowerPoint, probably."
"A PowerPoint?!"
"I have had to make so many PowerPoints in my online classes, I'm basically a PowerPoint Pro now. I'm lucky that I don't have to present them live, and I just record myself. Do you know how easy it is to dispense information with a quick, PowerPoint presentation?"
"Midoriya, you're insane."
"Shinsou, I'm well aware." He smiles, and for a second, it looks like his teeth are just a little sharper than normal. It would've been unsettling, if it weren't for the fact that it's Midoriya Izuku.
They sit in the silence of Hitoshi's room for a bit. Midoriya does look like some color has come back to his skin now, at least. Not to say there was ever much to begin with, and now Hitoshi knows why. Half-ghost, huh?
It's a huge secret. Hitoshi can see why Midoriya was so hesitant to let him help. Sure, his "help" was just helping Izuku up to his apartment and getting some food in the boy, but still. Midoriya's secret is world-changing, and Hitoshi isn't quite sure he can wrap his whole brain around it yet. He's powerful. He's got strength unrivaled by other pros by miles in his puny, scrawny, twiggy little body. He knows the origin of Quirks, he's figured out the centuries-long question that has plagued scientists and researchers for years. If Midoriya's secret ever gets out, it could be such a huge mess.
Not to mention, what would happen if the HPSC got ahold of him? Or rouge scientists, like the ones that might've put that Nomu together?
It's not fair that Hitoshi knows all of this just because he stumbled into it. It's not fair that Midoriya wasn't the one who was able to tell him, and it all just happened like this. Life isn't fair, though, he thinks.
"Did I ever tell you why my mom's in jail?"
"H-Huh? Um, no?" Midoriya's confidence seems to only exist as Phantom, as he's back to stumbling on his words just like Hitoshi's used to.
"She, uh, she was an assassin."
"W-What?!"
"Yeah. Uh." Hitoshi never likes talking about his mom. He mentions off-handedly that his mom is in jail sometimes, it's his response if the question gets asked of him, but he never willingly shares it like this. "Her Quirk allows her to put ideas into people's heads. She'd get paid to get big politicians and powerful heroes to kill themselves. She turned herself in after I was born and confessed, basically."
"That's—uh. Not what I expected." Midoriya stammers. "Um, I'm sorry about your mom."
"It's fine. It's her own decisions that led her there." Hitoshi adds. "I get letters from her, sometimes. Dad visits her a lot. It's… weird, y'know."
"Y-yeah, I can't imagine what that'd be like." Midoriya pauses. "Um, why did you share that? N-Not that I mind, of course, I'm glad you feel like you can trust me with that stuff but I'm just curious—"
Hitoshi smiles and rolls his eyes. Oh, Midoriya…
"You shared your biggest secret with me. I thought I'd share my biggest secret with you."
Chapter 20: Things Are Happening Behind The Scenes
Shouta wishes that he didn't have to come back to work today. Because maybe he wouldn't have to deal with the news—
"What? We're still hosting the Sports Festival this year?"
-- being repeated at a louder volume by Hizashi.
It isn't unusual for Nedzu to call most of the staff in—at least, the teaching staff, not the staff that deals with the more mundane things, like administration or janitorial duties—for an early morning meeting before classes start. Shouta never likes them himself, but he'll go if they're important enough, and by the vocabulary used in the email he got when he first woke up this morning, it's a necessary and important one.
The email's subject line had read as following:
Important Morning Meeting Before Classes – Please Attend! That Means You, Too, Aizawa-san!
But Shouta wasn't expecting… this.
He's still a little bandaged up, but due to Phantom's quick rescue of him at the USJ incident, he isn't covered head-to-toe in bandages. His arm that had been hit by that villain's quirk is still wrapped (annoying), but other than that, he's just dealing with a bout of drier-than-normal eye from Quirk overuse that day. He's glad he can get back as soon as classes start; he can't imagine what would happen if one of the teachers who didn't have a homeroom (such as Nemuri) took over for him. Or if they just mixed with Class 1-B while he was recovering.
That'd be worse.
Vlad, dealing with his students?
Actually—it might be fun to witness Vlad try and deal with his students, namely Bakugou.
"We are going to be changing how the Sports Festival will work this year." Nedzu adds, though the tone in his voice is also… Annoyed? Melancholic? It isn't as cheer and chipper as normal, which means something else is happening behind the scenes. Shouta has been around the rat-principal of U.A. for long enough to tell when something is off.
Strange.
Nedzu clears his throat, before he begins the explanation. "For starters, we are not following our model of typical admission. In previous years, the general public has been able to purchase tickets to attend in-person, but due to the USJ Incident, we will be switching to a more limited model. Tickets will be given out to U.A. alumni, professional heroes and their agencies who request it, and the families of U.A. students who will be attending. I have left individual packets for each student for the homeroom teachers to pass out during their morning class today. Each student will receive three tickets, but they are more than welcome to share or trade if they need to."
That's not… the worst, Shouta thinks. He's never been a fan of the Sports Festival, for many reasons. The announcement of Quirks to the whole world was rather ridiculous; if a student wished to go underground, it might make it trickier if their Quirk was more unique or only had specific uses. Names and identities would be released, and while Shouta himself has gotten lucky that his case (of a general education student transferring to the hero course) was a rare case; it wasn't the first and certainly won't be the last, as long as he has something to say about it.
But limiting admission would definitely help; it would, at least, protect the students from the villains, if they dare to attack again.
"While we cannot break our contracts with several networks who will be broadcasting the festival, we have amended the details to limit the spread of the personal information of our students, especially including our first-year students." Nedzu continues. "While our live commentary will still be done by Yamada-san and Aizawa-san, the networks have all agreed to use their own talent for their own commentary, and they will be given the basic details of the attending student and their quirks."
Ugh. Shouta had tried to get out of it. He really, truly did—but all of his attempts failed. It's your turn, Aizawa-san, the rat had told him. But at least now, instead of his voice being broadcast all across Japan, it would only be done for the live event. Still sucked he would be stuck up in the presenter's booth with Hizashi—who always volunteers to do this—but it'd be better circumstances, at least.
All Might—or Yagi, as he is now, in his shrunken form—speaks up. "The Sports Festival is U.A.'s pride and joy, and the time to show off to the world what our students are capable of. Why are we going through this much effort to keep our students hidden away?"
"Great question. Yagi-san." Nedzu doesn't even flinch at Yagi's tone. Shouta can't even think of anyone who could intimidate Nedzu. "While it is, of course, an honor to have the number one hero teaching at our school here, we should not ignore the threats that we have been receiving lately, especially with the attack on our sister campus last week. If we host the Sports Festival open to the public as we usually do, it may encourage the villainous group to try again, or it may encourage copycat attacks." Nedzu pauses only to take another sip of tea before he continues. "While we could not cancel this soon due to contracts and sponsors that have already been lined up, this modified version of the Sports Festival ought to provide our students with the correct eyes on them while putting them in the least amount of danger from villains, for now."
Yagi blinks, before he clears his throat. "Ah, yes. I suppose that makes sense."
Nice to see him get humbled every now and then, Shouta thinks.
After that, the rest of the meeting goes as they typically do—it was Nedzu's only announcement, so most of the staff excuse themselves to get ready for their classes for the day. Shouta holds back, watching his co-workers exchange pleasantries on the way out, until it's just the two of them in the room.
"What's the real reason, Nedzu?" Shouta asks.
Nedzu's smile never falters—it's very rare when he bears a more serious look. But there's a twitch in his eye, and he audibly sighs. "As you are aware, every year the HPSC is one of our largest donors and sponsors. Due to their unfortunate size and influence, they were against a complete cancellation of the event. It took a while to convince them to even go through with that we are doing for this year, and even then, not all of them are supportive of the modified plan." He glances down at the paperwork in front of him, shuffling the papers together neatly.
Ugh. Of course. He resists the urge to roll his eyes. Shouta can't think of any hero like himself—that is to say, an underground hero, or a hero who doesn't care about the attention and notoriety of celebrityhood—that has had a positive interaction with the Hero Public Safety Commission. While the HPSC did have some good attributes about them, as they administered the hero licenses many pros use in order to get their job done, it doesn't mean they weren't shady as hell. Madam President—or, Sayaka Hidenka, though her full name is hardly used— seems too perfect, to good to be true in her position.
Nobody can be that perfect without hiding some shady shit.
Especially if the rumors about some of the top heroes are true.
"Well, no matter. While it might be risky to still host the sports festival this year, we have at the very least put in precautions for our students for the time being." Nedzu perks up, though with the constant smile he has on his face, it isn't clear that he ever was down. "Perhaps if this model works well, we can adapt it for future sports festivals as well. I always found it unnecessary to broadcast it live."
You and me both, Nedzu, Shouta thinks, nodding. You and me both.
"Now, Aizawa-san, may I ask about a case you have been working on for the last few months."
At that, Shouta perks up. He was about to walk to class, but—well his students are used to him being late, and while the lecture he would get from Iida would be a little annoying, being held up by the principal is at least a valid excuse. But the question is a little odd—during the year, Shouta finds himself juggling at least two or three cases at the time, but they tend to be smaller ones. Murder investigations, drug ring investigations, boring stuff. He probably knows which one Nedzu is asking about, but he still asks. "Which one?"
"Why, the one of the young vigilante, of course!" Nedzu says. "I myself am quite curious about him. While I haven't done too much digging myself, it is very interesting how his identity has yet to be figured out by any hero, this late into his career!"
"We have it narrowed down." Shouta replies. "A young teen who was probably not accepted into any hero school, with an unregistered ghost-like Quirk." I've seen his face, too, Shouta thinks, but doesn't add. He's young. He's as old as my students. Who could look at this boy and tell him no? That he couldn't be a hero?
"Yes, I am aware of what is on file." Nedzu replies, hopping off his chair and collecting his papers. "May I join you on your walk to your homeroom class so we can discuss this further?"
Ugh, of course Nedzu is interested. Though, the rat's help might be what finally gets Phantom locked down—and maybe they can engineer a way for Phantom to get into a hero school, preferably U.A., where he could learn to properly use his Quirk to be a hero the right way.
"You are usually quite detailed in your reports after patrols every night, though for the ones where you encounter Phantom, the details are quite sparse. Is there a reason for that?"
And, of course, he's already calling me out. Shouta thinks, as they step out of the room they use for their meetings. At least it's Nedzu who's noticing, and not any of the officers.
"The details of my encounters are usually irrelevant." And typically, they are—Phantom helped with a mugging. Phantom helped with a drug deal gone wrong. Phantom helped a cat get out of a tree. The details, past that, are usually—well, Shouta wouldn't call them personal, per say, but he thinks they give more information about who Phantom is as a person than Shouta would like to share with the police.
While he's working with the police—and he would trust someone like Tsukauchi with his life—he doesn't trust the police to do the right thing when it comes to Phantom. They'd arrest him, charge him. But while vigilantism is illegal—Quirk use is typically against the law in most places globally, except in instances of self-defense—Phantom hasn't fallen into any other criminal activities, as far as Shouta is aware. Arresting him and charging him would put an end to the good that Phantom is doing, and it would put an end to any career that Phantom could have as a pro.
He doesn't doubt Phantom's potential as a hero. His skills are weak, of course, he doesn't know how to hit right, but he seems to be good enough at dodging attacks to not worry about being hit too hard. But that won't be enough for him.
He belongs in a place like U.A.
He belongs in a place where he can learn how to be a hero.
"If you say so, Aizawa-san." Nedzu says. "Though, just between you and me, if you are able to convince Phantom to stop the vigilantism, there may be a position open here at U.A. waiting for him." He grins like a madman. Or maybe, a mad-rat? Eh, it doesn't matter—the grin is enough to send a shudder down Shouta's spine. "Oh, would you look at that! We are already at your classroom door. Have a wonderful morning, Aizawa-san, and I will see you at lunch!"
That damn rat… Shouta clenches his fist, before opening the door to his chattering students. He can already feel the headache threatening to form.
✨👻✨
Sayaka Hidenka has worked hard for her position at the Hero Public Safety Commission, though she never knew this is where her life would lead when she first graduated from U.A. High's General Education track.
Hidenka had always been fascinated by the world of heroes, but never saw herself becoming one. Her Quirk isn't the strongest. Track, the name she gave it, allowed her to place mental pins on objects or people that would share their location with her at all times, but she only could get up to four pins at once before she started to feel sick. But she wanted to work with heroes nonetheless and ended up getting a pretty decent job at the Hero Public Safety Commission following her graduation.
Working up to become Madame President was tricky. Taking on the name and iconography of a hero without actually being one was even harder—though, very few outside of the Commission knew that Hidenka never was a hero to begin with, and had been a civilian who donned the personability of a hero. It was necessary, to get things done with the Commission. There was much to be fixed.
Vigilantes ran wild. Heroes were turning left and right, lost without a sense of direction. Potential heroes were being left on the streets to suffer and starve while spoiled brats from families of means became the heroes instead. The world was a mess—and it was up to Hidenka to fix it.
She started programs, like the Potential Heroes Initiative (PHI, or Φ), to help those on the streets with strong Quirks become the heroes they were destined to be. Not all of them worked, of course-- Tsutsumi Kaina, one of their first potential heroes, rebelled and became a no-good villain—but the program was rather successful. Hawks is number-three, and if the rumors of All Might's retirement are true, he may soon claim the number-one hero spot.
PHI's success rate is through the roof. Some heroes were honest about where they came from—the HPSC is very known for helping people in tough times, of course—but there are heroes who do not share their connections to the HPSC publicly. They're not required to, of course—Hidenka doesn't mind what her heroes do, as long as they listen to her, of course.
But there's one small problem she needs to deal with, still.
"A-Ah, Madame President?" The voice of her personal secretary breaks her train of thought, as he nervously squeaks the door to her office open, and stutters on his words like an old-fashioned train.
"Yes, Klaus?" Klaus might be a foreigner—born and raised in Scandinavia—but he took to the Japanese language well, aside from, of course, his annoying stutter.
"W-Well, u-um." Klaus accidentally lets the door shut behind him loudly, and he adds an apology before continuing. "W-We got, u-um, the report f-from the Musu—Musutafu—polive department that y-you asked f-for."
Ah. Yes. The small problem.
Typically, Madame President does not pay attention to vigilantes. They're usually no-names, they come and go like the clouds in the sky. The trash tends to take themselves out—literally. Either by getting themselves killed, or falling too deep into the dark side of villainy to be saved. They don't last more than a few months on the street. There are a few individualized rehabilitation programs that the HPSC sponsors, of course, but that's nothing more than tossing a few hundred thousand yen towards the programs every year.
But there's one vigilante that has caught Hidenka's eyes.
Phantom.
Typically, Hidenka would not have even heard of him, were it not for the Hero Vlad King—one of their proud PHI heroes, though he was not public of his connection. The name drop was by accident in one of his meetings with his handler, a woman named Ryu; the investigation started immediately.
"Set it on my desk, please, Klaus."
"O-Of course, M-Madame President." Hidenka hears the shuffling of papers, and the dropping of a few, before they're unceremoniously dropped in the middle of her desk. "I-Is there anything, uh, anything e-else, M-Madame President?"
Hidenka turns her chair around to face Klaus. "Let Mera know I will be late for our meeting this afternoon. Actually, reschedule it for some time tomorrow for me, please. I need to take my time with this report."
Phantom. A young vigilante, with a powerful Quirk.
A perfect candidate for their PHI program, if you ask her.
✨👻✨
"Danny! Danny! Is it true?"
There are very few spirits in the realms that use Equinox's living name, still; he's not surprised when he turns around in his lair and finds Ellie has invited herself inside. She's a part of his Fraid, so she's able to get away with her unannounced visits, but even if she wasn't, Equinox is sure she would find her way inside.
Ellie is an interesting being. Because she was never born as a living person, she never died as a living being, and still has access to both a ghost form and a human form. She's a genetic clone, a chimera of Danny's DNA (mixed with a little bit of Plasmius', which, ew, gross, Equinox tries to not think about it) and ectoplasm. She's not a halfa, even though he is technically half-human, half-ghost, but how can one live and die when they were never born in the first place?
"There's a lot happening all the time, can you be a bit more specific?"
"Rumors are going around that the Realms chose a new Champion. Is it true?"
Ah, yes. Word gets around fast in the Realms, despite how large and—literally—infinite it can be. The fact that young Midoriya Izuku is the new Champion of Balance still weighs heavily on Equinox's shoulders. While he's lucky to be stuck in a time and place where there's very little anti-ghost technology and very little can hurt him, it's also a curse. He has no access to the realms.
Amorpho owed King Phantom one last favor, so Equinox sent him to Musutafu, Japan, to help Midoriya Izuku out with his powers just enough so that the young halfa wouldn't be entirely alone. Halfas are strong, he won't need access to the Infinite Realms for many years to come (especially with the ambient ectoplasmic radiation that had spread around the globe following Equinox's ascension into the King of the Realms, that led to the mutation of humans and the development of "quirks"), but he's still cut off from his people.
Midoriya Izuku, after all, is the Champion of Balance—for both the living and the dead-- so, he is of both realms. Just as Equinox used to be.
"Ah, yeah." Equinox sighs. "We had very little choice. The Alpha timeline would've destabilized, and that would've been an even bigger mess to fix." Thank the Ancients that the Realms only requires one Champion of Balance to survive, he thinks, biting down on his lip.
"Wow." Ellie says. She sets an arm on his shoulder gently, and Equinox can feel her core resonate with his. Since they've been ghosts for so long now, their cores don't even translate the feelings between them anymore. Just the feelings. "Are they okay?"
"Yes. For now, at least." Equinox perks up a bit. He isn't—he isn't going to deny the fact that he has quickly grown attached to the new Champion of Balance, but he isn't going to outright confirm it. Of course, his core sung out when he learned that Midoriya had taken on the name of Phantom, albeit unintentionally.
After a moment of silence, Ellie speaks up, again. "Are you okay?"
Ah. Equinox isn't surprised that Ellie picks up on it too quickly. Her core is resonating with his, still, of course, so of course she's picked up the feelings bubbling inside him that he can't describe in words. Resentment is too tough of a word, disappointment is too gentle. Something in-between perhaps, but even then, it's too rough to figure out.
"As okay as I can be." Equinox finally responds. "It is not in my control. The Realms need their Champion to keep the balance, after all. We would have had to cave to Her will eventually, or everything we've built would be at stake."
"Still, that doesn't mean you can't not feel okay. Or, wait. You can feel not okay. Uh." Ellie shakes her head. "Either way. You're allowed to feel upset by this all."
Equinox rolls his eyes. "Have you been hanging out with Jazz, lately?"
Ellie freezes, clenching her teeth. "I will neither confirm nor deny any association or recent visit to our sister—"
"Yeah, sure. How is she, by the way?"
"Doing fine. You know, you're not King anymore, so you can go visit her when you want."
"I—I know. A lot has happened."
"Maybe talking to Jazz, the former Princess of the Realms, and current Ghost Therapist, will help!" Ellie suggests. "Well, I mean, she can't really therapize you because you're related and all, but she can probably provide better sisterly advice than I can."
"You're right. Maybe I will stop by and visit her." Equinox nods, leaning on his staff. "Where have you been recently, anyway?"
Ellie groans, tugging on the hood of her cloak. "Well, Clockwork had me on a mission to fix timeline Beta D-C's sorcerer issue. That was a logistical nightmare."
"You're the one who decided to become their apprentice."
"Yeah, 'cause they said I would be able to travel more to different realms and timelines and stuff! I didn't imagine it would be so much fucking paperwork to be Time's Apprentice!" Ellie sighs. "But, well, they don't have anything for me to work on right now, so I'm free for a bit. I just picked a direction and flew, and then I ended up at your Haunt!"
The Haunt of the Ancient of Space isn't as easy to find as the typical Haunt. He made sure it was built far away from Pariah's Keep, but close enough to the central realms that he wouldn't be disconnected from everything like Clockwork could be, sometimes. It's not much—a floating island like many other haunts, a large observatory where he can observe the stars and planets of many different timelines and realms in peace. But it's his home, it's what he always imagined his home would be.
Equinox chuckles. "Well, I'm glad to see you back, then. Will you stay for long?"
"Maybe! Though, now that there's a halfa around, I might head to the Alpha timeline and check 'em out."
"Elle, no." Equinox interrupts.
"Elle, yes!"
"I don't think he could handle a ghost like you—"
"Ha! I wouldn't beat him up too much, don't worry." Ellie grins, all sharp teeth like a shark.
"At least explain the ghost customs before you fight, please?"
"Maybe I will. Maybe I won't."
"Elle. Elle, wait—" She's already flying off.
Great. Equinox sighs. His position on the council doesn't bind him to the observants, so nothing is technically stopping him from visiting the young new Champion himself, either; it's his own thoughts that are getting in the way. He's too torn on everything to decide—his first time meeting an Ancient was a rough one, and he doesn't want that for young Izuku. But at the same time, he does want to meet the new Champion, a little bit, and help guide him in a way he should have been guided long ago when he first became the Champion of Balance.
Do I mentor him?
Can he do it on his own, with the world the way that it is now? Or will he need help?
How do I help him without overstepping?
✨👻✨
Only time will tell what happens to young Midoriya Izuku.
And Clockwork is keeping their eye on him.
Chapter 21: How Can I Live, Laugh, Love in These Conditions
Izuku expected a lot of things to change when Shinsou learned his identity as Phantom, but in reality, nothing really changed.
Well, one thing changed. Izuku was now incredibly and irrevocably aware of his weakness to electricity. It made sense, in a way; the thing that killed him would be one of his weaknesses, wouldn't it? The threat of tasers on police officers, the danger of subtle or unseen electricity quirks on strangers, be it friend or foe—heck, even just getting zapped by a power outlet might cause a lot more pain than it would a normal person.
He knew that the obvious thing to do would be to find out a way to combat this weakness. Luckily, the electric quirk user who had been able to zap him before had been knocked out quickly after his initial attack and didn't remember Izuku's full reaction to the sensation of volts tearing his body apart again. Well, hopefully. Izuku isn't about to break into a prison—even if it isn't as high security as Tartarus—and talk (or: vaguely threaten as much as he could when he still looks twelve) to the guy and find out. Nope, no sirree.
But how? How would he go about doing that, other than wrapping himself up in rubber to keep the electricity away from him? It'd have to be something he thought on, for a while.
Other than the sudden awareness of his one weakness, his Achilles' heel, nothing changed. Shinsou knows, now, sure. No police officers have shown up at his door to arrest him, he hasn't gotten accosted in broad daylight as just Midoriya Izuku by any pro heroes trying to take him in. Nothing. Shinsou is keeping his secret, which is a weight off Izuku's chest that he did not expect to be as heavy as it was.
"Midoriya."
"Hm?" Izuku's blinks when he hears Shinsou call his name.
They agreed to meet at a local café this time; not a cat café, but just a small café, to get homework done together. Even though they go to different schools, some of the things they're learning—math and science and history—are still the same. He's trying to ignore the way that Shinsou has been not-so-subtle-y angling one of his notebooks where Izuku could see it. One about hero stuff from his hero classes.
I shouldn't read it but I'm so curious, he thinks, but he's trying to focus on his own homework, an essay for his Fashion History class, but he can't help but try and sneak little peeks at it.
"Can I… Uh, ask you something?"
"Sure."
"So, for the Sports Festival, I'm sure you heard how they're doing it this year."
Yeah, Izuku thinks, glumly. Hearing that it was not going to be broadcast live from U.A., but live highlights would be shared with a ten-minute delay with local sports stations instead, was a bummer. And tickets would only be offered to pro-heroes and the students families, too, bigger bummer. Sure, Izuku could probably just… sneak in and watch from the sidelines invisible and cheer Shinsou and Shinsou's friends on, but still.
He gets it, though—probably more than any other "civilian", given the fact he was at the USJ when they were attacked and helped fight back against the evil team. But still. A little sad.
"I, uh. I was wondering if you'd like my extra ticket. All of us got three tickets, but someone was asking for just one more, and since it's just my dad who was coming, I still have an extra one. Of course, you don't have to if you don't want to, but if you want to, and if you can, then, uh, it's an open offer?" Shinsou starts to ramble a bit, but Izuku's brain has already fried.
Ticket. To the sports festival. To see it. Live. Shinsou should have just gotten down on one knee and proposed—platonically, of course, Izuku doesn't really see anyone romantically like that—instead.
"Shinsou." Izuku hisses, bringing his voice down low.
"Ah—huh?"
"Yes. Yes, of course!" Oh my god, a ticket to the sports festival? To see everything live? To see all those hero students and Quirks, live and in person? To try that delicious looking food that people always talk about? Izuku doesn't realize how loud he responds until Shinsou flinches at the sound of his voice. He lowers it, quickly, ignoring the looks a few of the other café-goers are giving them now. "Who do you think I am? Of course I'd love to see the U.A. Sports Festival live!"
"Ah—well, I figured." Shinsou replied. "Didn't know if you already had plans to sneak in, though."
"What, me? Sneak in?" Izuku laughs, nervously, trying to ignore the fact that there was a very detailed plan of how to sneak into the Sports Festival, see all the different classes participating, and manage to find a way to annoy Eraser-san in the process, hiding under the pillow of his bed. "That's a… ridiculous… thought…"
"Mhm. Sure." Shinsou rolls his eyes, smirking a bit, the nerves from before all but gone. "The school is requiring background checks of everybody who gets a ticket, just a heads-up."
"I have never committed a crime in my life, ever."
"That's a lie and we both know it."
Oh, right. It's strange to remember Shinsou knows, Shinsou knows I'm Phantom, because of how tight Izuku keeps his secret to his chest. But of course, Shinsou knows. Izuku mends his previous statement. "I have never committed a crime that could be connected to me."
"Of course, of course, right. Midoriya Izuku has never committed a crime." Shinsou smirks a little wider. "The ticket will come in an email and you'll either need it on your phone or printed."
"Easy-peasy." Izuku's dad invested in a used laser printer before he was born and the old thing is still kicking in the corner of his mom's bedroom. "Also, call me Izuku now."
"W-What?"
"You're probably my best friend." Izuku pauses. "You're also my only friend so I don't have much to compare it to, but still. You're my best friend. You can call me just Izuku now."
"Okay, Mi—Izuku. You can call me Hitoshi, then."
Hitoshi. Izuku smiles wide, not even caring about the weird looks he's getting.
It's not so bad having a friend.
✨👻✨
"Eraser-san! Welcome back!"
Oh, god, please, no. It's only two in the morning. It's too early for this. He doesn't want to deal with the problem child this early.
Phantom swings out of the heavens to greet Shouta, landing on the roof that he's standing on. The vigilante has two travel mugs in his hand, and he holds one out to Shouta. Phantom looks as innocent as he can be—or as innocent as Nedzu can be, honestly, that comparison alone is too creepy for Shouta to dwell on—but Shouta hesitates.
"I don't—"
"Coffee with two creams, one sugar, and a spoonful of honey." Phantom interrupts, without a breath. "That's what you always get, right?"
He's right, but Shouta tries to not let the fact that Phantom somehow knows his coffee order perfectly phase him. He replies with a grunt, taking the cup from Phantom and taking a sip. It is, in fact, coffee with two creams, one sugar, and a spoonful of honey. The honey is always the strangest addition, Hizashi makes fun of him a lot when they happen to end up grading papers together at the café down the road from U.A. instead of in their offices separately, but it's good.
"You better not be drinking coffee."
"Oh, no, it's hot cocoa." Phantom replies, taking a sip. "Don't like coffee. Gives me a headache. Makes me hyper."
Shouta is an atheist, but he sends a prayer up to whatever god is in the heavens right now thanking them for that. He's experienced a hyper Phantom before, but the fact that he doesn't like coffee feels like it's a life-saver.
They stay there in silence, for a bit. Shouta has his earpiece in, tapped into the local police radio, but it seems to be a quiet night. Phantom is floating, legs crossed mid-air, slowly taking sips from his cup of hot cocoa. His hood and mask are down, and his white hair is floating in the slight breeze. There's still that faint familiarity to Phantom's face, but he can't quite put it together; though, that's not what he's thinking about now.
Shouta's been pulled up to date by Tsukauchi since returning to patrols. The main theory about Phantom now is that he is somehow related to one of the largest boogeymen of the underground villain network, a man known as All For One, who has lived for hundreds of years with a Quirk that supposedly could take other Quirks away. Did he believe the theory?
There was… Some credence to it, he can't deny it.
It would explain the multiple Quirks, but if Phantom was indeed related to this All For One, it doesn't explain a lot of things. Why would he be a hero? Why now? His Quirk is not like the one All For One is rumored to have. Rumored, because Shouta can't quite trust the words that come out of All Might's mouth sometimes, sure, of course, there's no way that Bakugou isn't aggressively violent to some of his classmates, that sure isn't a problem.
Phantom claims, up and down, to not even have a Quirk, either. Shouta doubts that's the full truth, the poor kid was probably raised to believe that his Quirk wasn't a Quirk, perhaps a deformity or curse. But even then, his Quirk doesn't match what All For One is supposed to have.
Phantom's powers make sense, together. The energy manipulation is strange, sure—but they're made of the same weird, green energy that seems to make up his blood, then how is that not just a Quirk similar to Vlad's?
Phantom cuts off his thoughts. "You've got a thinkin' face on. What's up, Eraser-san? Drug gangs to bust? Muggers to beat up? Villains to catch?"
"No." Shouta responds.
"Oh."
"Phantom."
"Yeah?"
"Why are you doing this?" Shouta asks. "Risking your life. Coming out every night to put yourself in danger. Isn't there someone at home who would worry about you doing this?"
Phantom pauses, mid-sip, before his arm slowly lowers. He looks away from Shouta, into the distance of the with its sparking lights and night life. The glow around him flickers, a bit; the bright cyan in his eyes fades, too.
"Eraser-san, I…" Phantom sighs. "For my whole life, I was told I couldn't be a hero, no matter what. That I was just useless, pathetic. People tried to drive me to suicide because of my dreams. I never gave in, until… I met my biggest hero, and he told me the same thing. That it's unrealistic."
No… Shouta stays silent, allowing the vigilante to continue without interruption, but he can't ignore the pit in his stomach that's starting to grow.
"I didn't want to give up, but it all felt hopeless." Phantom looks down at the cup, picking a malformed piece of plastic from the lid off. "I didn't—I didn't killmyself on purpose, if that's what you're wondering. It was an accident. But then, I found myself with these amazing powers, and I couldn't just stand by when I can make actual good in the world, you know? I didn't intend to become a vigilante like this, but it was helping people out one after another and the next thing I know, I'm here on a rooftop with one of the coolest underground heroes ever. I can't say I don't regret dying, but I can say that it did change my life for the better."
I didn't kill myself on purpose.
I don't regret dying.
An accident.
Shouta doesn't believe in ghosts—there's no empirical evidence to back them up. It's illogical to think about lives after death and what happens to people when they die when he has to focus on notletting people around him die.
But the familiarity with death that Phantom talks about—it makes Shouta wonder and pause. Not on the fact that Phantom could be a full, 100% ghost—but Quirks are weird.
Is it not impossible to wonder if a Quirk could mutate and only be activated after the body dies?
"Why not try to get into a hero school, then?" Shouta asks, after the silence stretches out for too long. With your Quirk, you could be a great hero, he could say, but that doesn't feel right. Instead, he settles for, "They could teach you how to use your… powers and teach you how to use them for the greater good."
Phantom lands on the ground, crumpling the now empty cup in his hands. He pulls the mask back up to cover his face. "I tried, but Eraser-san, I was Quirkless, before. No hero school would ever let a Quirkless person in."
U.A. would, Shouta wants to bite back, but he freezes. Would they? Would they ever let a Quirkless person into their school? Of course, there's no saying a Quirkless hero would be a bad hero. They would be able to do a great number of good, and their immunity to drugs such as Trigger would be a huge benefit for the underground drug rings. But they would need to rely on technology to protect themselves, weapons and support items a teenager wouldn't normally have access to.
They'd be overlooked. Overshadowed by their peers. They'd have to work more than twice as hard as their naturally blessed classmates for just a crumb of what others are easily able to do.
"A Quirk isn't what makes a person a hero." Shouta finally finds some words to say to the young vigilante. They feel a little clunky as they come out of his mouth, but he hopes that Phantom will find some comfort in them. "A hero isn't somebody with a flashy Quirk, either. How you were treated was wrong, Phantom. I hope you understand that, now."
Phantom looks at Shouta, his eyes filling with tears. After a beat, he flickers out of view, empty and bent cup of hot cocoa left behind.
I was Quirkless before.
Quirkless, huh?
That helps narrow down Shouta's list, though, in the seemingly never-ending hunt for the vigilante's identity.