Nedzu sipped from his cup of tea, waiting for the prey of today to make their appearance. Hellgray was lovely, but sometimes golden imperial tips just hit the calming spot. And there was the knock on the door he was expecting. "Come in." He calmly greeted her.
"Ah, yeah, hey." Hagakure Toru entered the room. An interesting case in herself. From the files on her, the doctors couldn't agree if she was a mutant type or an emitter type that never found the trigger, since her quirk has been active since near birth. He should really have Aizawa try and turn it off at some point to find the answer. "You wanted to see me sir?"
"Yes, I wanted to get a report on a little 'incident' in Hosu. The police informed me of an altercation and I would like to get it first hand from the students."
"Oh, you're talking about Nomu, right? Me and Iida ran away the moment they came on sight." Her voice was chipper and high pitch, really trying to downplay the situation. "One of them actually grabbed Iruma-kun when he was riding with Miriko on the train. I'm really considering Shoto's suggestion for a bell."
"As long as it doesn't violate the dress code, go wild." He shrugged. "So what happened after you ran away? There was a lot of distance between the spot he encountered the Nomu and the Manual Agency."
"We booked it really fast, encountered Iruma-kun who got free, got stalked by the Hero Killer, but luckily Endeavor found us and beat Stain." The girl spoke evenly, a little … too experienced at getting rid of tells in her voice. He should look into her at some point. "Is something wrong?"
"Not at all, I'm just glad that my students are safe and sound." He smiled. "I've been looking into files to make sure everyone gets the attention and needs they require." He gestured to the pile of papers, on top was the file of one 'Iruma Suzuki' sitting there. "As the principal, I make it my duty to learn everything about my students. Their well being is of utmost importance."
"Of..of course." She seemed nervous after he explained that, before starring, from what he gathered, at Suzuki's file. "Ev-everything about Iruma-kun is in there?"
"I believe so." He took a sip of his now empty cup. "Oh would you look at that, I appear to be all out of tea. I better get some before it goes cold." He leapt out of his seat and made his way to the door. "It might take a while. Feel free to stay as long as you want."
And with that, the invisible girl was free to create her own investigation far better than anything a detective could accomplish. And if she looked at other files … well they were filled to the brim with false information. Just in case, one could never be too careful.
==
Momo watched as the students chatted. "I can't believe you got to go with Kamui, the dude is super cool for a guy who's only been out for a few years." Ashido exclaimed to Sero.
"Yeah, he was really down to earth. Guy knows what it's like to be a rookie, so he was pretty cool with everything." Sero smiled, remembering his no doubt educational experience. "Really went wild with my quirk too. I gotta tell yah, there's nothing quite like swinging through the air from building to building."
"Yep, he got the lucky one. Death arms were super tense and strict. I mean it was fine but there were moments of regret." Jiro shivered. "I can never get enough bleach for my eyes."
"I have some if you want. I stocked up on plenty when I did the laundry for the entire laundromat."
"Iruma, it's a metaphor. It means I saw something I want to forget, like Mineta." She pointed at the boy in the corner.
"Women are demons … never to be trusted …" Well he was broken. "Kaminari, bro, please tell me yours went better."
Kaminari…looked significantly different. He had a slight tan on his face, likely from being outside the entire time with the Pussycats. "Yeah, it did actually. Mandalay was really helpful, and she even got Koda out of his shell." He pointed to their rocky-looking classmate, who was also significantly tanner and covered in squirrels for some reason.
"Aww, cute little guys." Iruma reached out his hand, only for every creature to violently hiss at him. "I don't have nuts!"
"Yeah, he's basically their king now. They don't allow anyone to touch him, or look at him…or breathe near him…" Kaminari went off. "At least he didn't bring the birds, those little devils are relentless." He turned around and started snorting. "It's better than whatever Bakugo has going for him."
"Shut it, Dunce face!" Their crass classmate shouted with his admittedly laughable hairstyle, combed down instead of having its usual spice.
"I gotta admit man, it's pretty manly." Kirishima joined in with the snickering.
"FUCK OFF!" His yelling caused his hair to return back to normal.
"His hair exploded!" Sero was laughing hard enough to fall out of his seat.
"There's just no keeping it down." Ashido laughed. "Just like the battle girl over here. She was flipping guys three times her size like every twenty minutes." She gestured to Uraraka.
"Come on Mina, don't call me out like that." She blushed, looking embarrassed. "What about you Yaoyorozu, how was the Class President's training?"
Momo paused her train of thought, thinking about how everyone but her improved. "It was … fine." She looked away. "I learned plenty." That was all she could afford to tell them.
"She was in a commercial with the 1-B president! They looked so pretty!" Hagakure pointed to the phone she was carrying. Damn it! Why did they have to release that ad so soon!?
"Speaking of, the Hero Killer has been pretty popular since you guys fought him." Ah yes … the fight of the hero killer … she could have been there. She could have done something. You would have been dead weight.
"Kaminari, don't be insensitive. They just fought for their lives" Jiro called out to the boy, but didn't stab him like usual.
"It's fine." Iida spoke up. "I admit that there is something about his convictions that can draw attention. But we have to remember that we're heroes. We can't afford to cross that line."
"Really? He just seemed really scary." Iruma once again simplified horribly complicated situations. "He didn't sound that different from the hand-man either, except I believed he would've tried to kill everybody around him. Don't see how anyone could like that."
So innocently unaware of the world, yet he handled the entire situation with hardly a scratch on him, saving his friends while stopping a villain. Iruma, the boy in class who didn't even WANT to be a hero, excelled and grew where she fell and stagnated. What good did her life of riches and luxury do for her when the boy with almost nothing surpassed surpassed every level?
Nothing. She was nothing… she was nothingshewasnothingshewasnothingshewasnothing.
==
Today's was a mobility trial. The goal was to make it to the person needing help (All Might) as fast as possible using any method one needed. Sero gave a wide grin when he realized what was going on. A race through pipes, buildings, and large structures, aka, the EXACT scenario he's trained his quirk on the entire internship! Looks like the sports festival paid off after all.
"Huh, this is definitely going to be a tough one." Momo looked at the group that was competing in the first race: Ojiro, Ashido, Iida, Suzuki, and himself. "Everyone in this group is pretty mobile in their own way."
"Right, Iida definitely has the speed advantage, but he's still recovering from all his injuries." Kaminari observed. "Ojiro's tail acts like a fifth limb and can allow him to cover large distances given the right situation, so I think he might win this one."
"I'm betting on Sero. This race seems to be right up his alley." He almost had to resist waving off a fake blush from Kirishima.
"Iruma-kun will win, because he's the best!" Hagakure continued her hero worship.
"Ignoring the obvious bias, Iruma does have a decent chance." Jiro shrugged. "He's pretty agile without his quirk, but if he uses it once during the race, he'll be out of it entirely."
"I say Ashido. She has a super athletic body, and that acid can melt through anything." Sero couldn't tell if Mineta actually made the choice out of logic or out of his perverted thinking.
"On your marks." All Might started, Sero stretching his elbows to help his mobility. "Get set." He idly checked on all the others, getting ready in their own way. "Go!"
Sero launched his tape up at the top of a building. Using the free time he has since his body had no momentum, he glanced at the other competitors. Ashido was using slime in an attempt to skate, Iida had the straightforward run set on land, Ojiro was leaping forward using that tail of his like a spring, and Iruma was crouching down on all fours for some reason. Eh, probably nothing to..
"Energy suit! ROCKET MAN!" The boy screamed as blue lighting covered his body, before jumping forward at a high rate, claws on his suit extended into grabbing the side of the building as he scaled the thing sideways, on all fours, like his wolf design showed off.
"What the heck?! Iruma, how are you moving like that!?" Ashido gapped as she was scaling the side of a building while Iruma leapt over her.
"Rabbit-sama taught me how to move fast with my quirk through the city!" He shouted, already creating much distance as Sero tried to close the gap with swinging.
"But shouldn't he be breaking bones or something?" Ojiro pondered.
"I stirred the pot all over! I'm cooking it all the way through!" Iruma said as if it wasn't the craziest thing that came out of his mouth, and to be fair, it was only like the third or fourth most insane sentence he's heard him say.
==
"Seriously, he was like a real life wolf, except if they could climb!" Sero shouted out. Hero class was done for the day, and everyone headed to the locker room. Toru idly listened as she tried to stay near Iruma-kun as long as possible.
"Yeah, he was like, super scaling man or something." Ashido agreed as they made their way to the locker room. "There wasn't anything I could do to even get close, only Ojiro was worse than me. The dude doesn't have a lot of options for speed."
"I just have a tail. It's a miracle I was able to keep up with anybody at all." The plain boy of the class sulked as the boys and girls separated into the rooms. It would be so easy for her to just waltz right into the boy's locker room, but someone in here was bound to notice if she wasn't changing with them.
"Uraraka was the clear winner of her match. She just floated straight to All Might … until she got way too high and needed to be saved." Jiro pointed out. Toru held a snicker.
"Yeah, I should look into support items to help with that." The girl accepted with a sigh. "I can't really control where I'm floating using it on myself. I can't believe Toru got so close to first in her race, I didn't even notice you catching up."
"That's the power of legwork … baby …" Toru trailed off, noticing something peculiar in the image of a boy band poster. "Hey, that eye looks funny." She got closer and noticed a small hole. "No way, there's a peephole over this!" She threw the poster off, and sure enough, a small whole in the wall was there.
"Don't tell me one of the boys did that." Momo rolled her eyes. "Even for Mineta, that's taking…actually this is exactly what I expected him to do by this point."
"Doubt they could do something that clean." Ochako stared at the thing. "Too solid and smooth, would have taken a whole year to do with a four inch carbide drill tip over a gradual period. They must have taken their time to aim for the eye while avoiding any pipes." … Everyone turned to the girl in question. "My parents do construction."
"So the boys don't know it's here…" Toru thought out loud. "Iruma-kun doesn't know about it…." Those muscles are just ripe for the peaking.
"Hagakure, for the love of god, don't be a Mineta." Jiro deadpanned.
"I'm not anything like that pervert! He goggles every girl without shame." She defended. "There's only one guy I want to google, and as his soulmate, I have every right to do so." She started peeking, waiting to see that beautiful glimpse of blue hair.
"Hagakure, Iruma told me he doesn't know the meaning of soulmate, he thought it was just a term for best friends to the afterlife." Ochako tried to ruin it.
"Exactly, I'm clearly his best friend right now, and sooner or later we'll be more than that!" Good thing she was there to correct him before he started throwing that word around willy nilly.
The last thing she needed was for Iruma-kun to call the hussie Shiozaki or the bitch Uraraka his soulmate. "Hey, this thing isn't fixed yet, all I can see is … an eye …" She quieted down with the rest of the girls, backing up and gesturing for Jiro to do her thing. A single stab and scream later confirmed it to be Mineta.
"MINORU! We need the first aid kit, disinfectant, and lots of tape!" Iruma-kun shouted out loud from their locker room. Even the horrible people he gave a shit about, clearly the kindest one on the planet.
==
"Well done Young Suzuki, you definitely have improved since the start of the year."
"Yeah, I went from cooking fried chicken to boiling chicken soup! It was so obvious!" The pro both laughed and groaned at the boy's choice of metaphors. They helped him overcome the bone breaking, so he would let it be.
"Despite your lack of decent metaphors, it works for you. How was the suit, I noticed you only had one arm in true working condition."
"Right, it started beeping when I was fighting Akugo and I threw it in his face and it blew up." The fact his successor actually knew the hero killer in his civilian identity was horrifying and just a bit too coincidental for his taste. It seems danger followed the boy with or without One For All.
"Oh yes, you did fight the Hero Killer." All Might spoke up. "He never drank your blood, right?"
"No, he cut my leg a little, but my friends beat him up before he could put it in his mouth."
"Good, you know even if he did consume it you wouldn't have to worry about the man taking your quirk."
"Why would I be worried about that? It's my quirk. I don't want to give up something I want to keep."
"Yes, I was worried you wouldn't understand, but you're simplistic enough to see the truth." Truly a worthy successor. "That's how One For All works, it can only be given willingly. However, you can also force someone else to take it, like a box of valentine chocolate."
"Oh, so basically if I tell someone to have a gift, they'll own it because they can't give it back."
"Well you'd still have to make them take in your DNA, but yes. One For All can never be given back to it's previous user." Toshinori stated. "It's a failsafe of sorts."
"Why would a quirk need a failsafe?" It … it was time.
"It's a long story, a story I hoped you never needed to learn about." He sighed, sitting down and meeting the boy at eye level. "Young Suzuki, I believe it's time for you to know the origin of One For All."
"Origin? You mean someone made the quirk? It wasn't something someone was born with?"
"Yes. You see, in the early days there was a lot of chaos when quirks were first around. No government, terrorism, quirkism, it was a truly a dark and chaotic time." He started. "There was a man who unified the danger; however, he collected every villain and used them for his own ends."
"Why?" The boy asked with innocent eyes.
"He loved having control over everything. To him, controlling people was a right for him due to the nature of his Quirk. He could steal and give as many as his hearts desired. For years, he stockpiled hundreds, maybe even thousands just for himself. By that point, he only went by the name of his own Quirk: All For One."
"Okay, a man can take and give Quirks. He must have been really liked, I've heard people complain about their own Quirks before." Wrong message.
"He was, and favors were always expected in return. One such case is of true importance. He had a sickly brother, who could barely stand on a good day, but had a strong sense of justice. He always opposed his brother the best he could. Eventually All For One gave the man a quirk that could stockpile power. If it was to protect him, or control him, nobody knows."
"So he forced a quirk on his own brother, something he didn't ask for." The kid was actually more understanding of the situation then the pro thought he would be. "Wait, if the Villain's name was All For One, then wouldn't the brother be…"
"Yes, for the brother who thought he was Quirkless, turned out to have a Quirk that could be passed on. It combined with the Quirk that could stockpile and formed the power known as One For All." He let silence rest. "From then it was passed on, cultivated, strengthened, until I became the eight user, all in an attempt to kill All For One."
"Wow, he must have really good eating habits to live for so long." The boy clearly still had some issues in comprehension.
"It's less a healthy diet and more due to the number of regeneration and anti-aging quirks he's stolen over the years. Each user of One For All for the past eight generations has given everything they could to bring the man down, and for the past five years, I believed the man was done for." He lifted his shirt to reveal the injury on his stomach.
"So he was the one … I always wondered what was strong enough to hurt Bunny-sensei. At the USJ you just seemed so strong." The boy stared at the wound, before clenching his fist. "But don't worry, as soon as I'm at a hundred spoonfuls of power, I'll punch All Forty One for you."
The boy was so naive and cheerful he wanted to laugh, but it was that same innocence that made Toshi aware Suzuki was far from prepared to face the vile man alone. "I'll make sure you'll master your power before then, Young Suzuki. You'll grow into a fine hero in your own right." A hero…that would have to fight All For One someday….all on his own.