Chapter Text
Nedzu stares at him, something akin to a frown on his face.
“There are only 19 students listed?”
“Yes,” Shouta answers him. The more he looks at his boss’ expression, the more unsettled he feels. He almost doesn’t want to believe it, but the rodent seems confused , which should be outright impossible.
“Hm,” Nedzu nods his head, tapping his paw quietly against his desk. “Class 1-A’s list only consists of 19 students.”
“Yes.”
“The exact list we settled over two weeks ago, where we made sure each heroics class had 20 students.”
“Yes, that list.”
And then, as if his behaviour isn’t already startling enough, Nedzu slowly begins to chuckle. Shouta wants nothing more than to escape the office, but he knows he can’t. After five minutes the chuckling still hasn’t ceased.
Overwhelmed by how uncomfortable he feels, Shouta speaks up, “So, what should we do? Fill the spot up since we made a mistake?”
“Please, Shouta-kun. You don’t believe we made a mistake either.”
He doesn’t. They go over these lists extensively and review them multiple times with multiple staff members—the probability of them forgetting to fill a spot is almost unimaginable. However, there are still only 19 names on that list.
“There’s no need to fill that spot, Shouta-kun,” Nedzu speaks up, dragging the teacher out of his thoughts. Shouta freezes once he realizes what his boss has said. Then he frowns, narrowing his eyes at the rodent.
“People won’t be happy if we leave it open.” People, like the parents of many exam takers. Or most importantly, the school board.
Nedzu grins.
“Don’t misunderstand, Shouta-kun. There is no need to fill that spot, as you have 20 students in your class.”
“… Elaborate.”
“It’s simply not plausible that we made a mistake with the class lists. That leads me to conclude that the list must have been altered by someone else.”
“Another staff member?”
“No, I’ve checked the cameras and servers. No one changed the documents regarding the classes.”
Right. That omnipotent rodent would have been alerted the moment someone tried to do so.
Shouta sighs. “A student?”
“Probably our missing 20th student,” Nedzu confirms. “It’s most likely their quirk at work.”
“What kind of quirk could have altered the list?”
“I’m not sure, but it certainly must be a powerful one, considering it works over distance."
“… This 20th student is going to be a problem child, huh.” Shouta rubs his temple in annoyance before addressing his boss again. “You’ll be trying to track him down?”
Nedzu’s grin widens, showing his teeth. “I have already started, Shouta-kun.”
“… But you haven’t found them yet?” Shouta asks, dread building up inside him.
“I haven’t yet.” Nedzu outright cackles at him. “Isn’t that amazing , Shouta-kun?”
Shouta groans, closing his eyes before muttering, “Problem Child.”
May God save them all.
Hoax altered reality to back up whatever statement Izuku fed to anyone. Now, altering reality is a difficult job, even for a quirk. Because even then, Hoax isn’t invincible and fails in some aspects, just as much as other quirks do.
Small lies are the easiest ones to cover. Most times, Hoax doesn’t have to change much there and therefore, there’s a small to nonexistent risk of anyone ever breaking out of Hoax and uncovering the truth. For example, Izuku using Hoax on a classmate to make them believe he ate cereal for breakfast when he didn’t. The classmate wouldn’t know what he actually ate and cereal is a common breakfast food. His mother would be the only person to automatically have her memory altered by Hoax, and she wouldn’t find him eating cereal strange in any way. So, that’s one lie that’s never going to get uncovered.
But Hoax has restrictions.
The easier one to understand is that Hoax has a range. Izuku doesn’t know the exact range but he knows for certain that it stops altering reality four prefectures over. For example, he tells a classmate they didn’t do their homework when they did. Hoax immediately gets rid of all paper trail, so their homework is actually not done. Then it alters everyone’s memories. So, their parents who might have helped them with their homework will not remember that.
But.
Let’s assume that the classmate was on a video chat with their cousin, who lives four prefectures over. Hoax won’t cover that distance and the cousin will remember them working on the homework. (However, if anyone believes them when they say so, is another thing.)
The next restriction would be context. Izuku has to be careful about how he words his sentences, otherwise, Hoax will run with whatever or misinterpret what he wants and cause harm. Again, with the homework. If he tells the classmate they haven’t done their homework then Hoax will most likely turn the sheet blank. If he tells them their homework isn’t done, Hoax will do whatever it considers more convenient. So, either a blank sheet or the whole thing is missing. With little things, that’s not an issue. With bigger things like, for example, trying to erase someone's memory of one person, that ends up being a concern.
Izuku groans.
Hoax is a complicated quirk because the bigger the lie the more trails it has. If and how Hoax covers all the trails therefore often ends up indeterminable.
Izuku wants to groan and bash his head against a wall. He doesn’t even know if All Might told other people about him that might be too far away for Hoax to work on them. Of course, Izuku would like to think that All Might keeps his own self-imposed rules of not talking about the quirk to anyone, but hey, maybe one of his confidants is four prefectures over or in America or just too far for Hoax to work. All he can hope for is that All Might has never told them his name.
Either way, Izuku really hasn’t considered the full extent of the restrictions when using Hoax back then.
‘Yeah, those restrictions might have changed,’ a voice in his head tells him. A pause. ‘Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if they are completely gone. I remember Black Whip was suddenly capable of popping out of everywhere. Like, even down th—’
‘You better shut your mouth before I do it for you. That’s a wholeass child, Fifth!’
Izuku blinks, very confused. Is he going insane?
‘I’d like to say no, but you did erase Toshi’s memories for some stup—’
‘Hey, hey, hey, let’s calm down, alright? Seventh, Toshi would have done the same in Izuku’s position.’
Okay, he is clearly going insane. Is it because of guilt? Or because he didn’t sleep for over 70 hours.
‘Might be the second thing, sweetie.’
‘No, no. You’re fine, Izuku. It’s just us!’
“Us?”
‘You know,’ the voice echoes in his mind cheerfully, ‘the past users of One For All!’
“...What the fuck?”
It takes him a whole minute to calm down and to actually process the situation. Once he does, however, it all makes a lot of sense to him and he has a proper conversation with the vestiges.
“So, about the restrictions… you said they might not exist anymore?”
‘One For All has always amplified a quirk it merged with,’ First explains. ‘And after you used One For All that first time, it immediately merged with your quirk. We can’t tell how much stronger it is and if the restrictions are truly gone unless you test it out, though.’
“Hmm, alright,” he mumbles, going through the possibilities of how much more powerful Hoax might be. He frowns. “Hoax would be too overpowered if it didn’t have any restrictions.”
‘Oh? You don’t sound too happy about that,’ Sixth points out.
“Of course not,” he replies, sighing. “Reality Warping is too much power for a single person to possess. Also, no matter how strong a quirk is, it always has some sort of drawbacks and they usually tend to match the power level of the quirk…”
Truthfully, Izuku has always been a bit scared of Hoax. If he wanted someone to be gone, he could have simply hoaxed them out of existence. With the restrictions at least, there was some sort of consolation, that at least someone too far away for Hoax would figure it out and break it.
But then there’s also the fact that Izuku can’t allow himself to be careless with his words at all. He’s lucky All Might only forgot him, it could have gone a lot worse if he worded that sentence any less detailed.
“Such a quirk has a lot of responsibility,” he admits to the vestiges, breath hitching. “If the restrictions are gone, I could technically alter whatever I want. I could erase someone or something from existence.”
‘... I think,’ First eventually voices, ‘you worrying about all of this proves that you’re the right person to possess it.’
Izuku shakes his head, the frown never leaving his face as he looks down on the ground. "There is no right person. No one ever should have this much power."
Dabi is currently considering the option that maybe he should lie down and actually catch some sleep for once.
"There is just no way," he mutters, blinking.
The child sitting on the sleeping bag that he considers his bed gazes up at him. His face is covered in freckles and his eyes are bright.
"Oh! So, this place did have an owner."
"Yeah, I'm the owner. What the fuck are you doing here? Who the fuck are you even?" He asks, scowling.
"Okay, funny story," The kid begins, grinning at him. "So, I was out to buy apple juice. Y'know that little store right around the corner? It has the best apple juice out there."
Dabi nods in agreement. He occasionally buys the apple juice at that store and it's always a delight to drink.
"So, yeah, I was on my way back to the beach—"
"Beach?" Dabi interrupts, raising an eyebrow.
The kid nods. "Yeah, you know Takoba Beach?"
"The trash disposal beach?"
"Yeah, that one! Anyway, I live there."
Dabi freezes. "You what."
"I live—"
"No," he mutters, shaking his head. It's none of his business. "Just continue your explanation as to why you broke into my house."
"House?" The kid has the audacity to scoff at him. "That's barely a proper building."
Dabi groans. "I know, alright."
"... Anyway, on my way back three adult men tried to shove me into a van."
"What the actual fuck?!" Dabi exclaims. "What are you? A manga protagonist?"
The child just pouts at him. "... I didn't ask to be almost kidnapped."
Dabi sighs. "So, where are the men? How does that lead to you breaking into my house?"
"Oh. I beat them up and tied them to a pole. Then I called the police, but I don't wanna get arrested for vigilantism, so I broke into here to hide from them."
Dabi blinks. That would imply that this whole altercation happened outside his house. At that moment, he hears the sirens of police cars. Dabi blinks, before marching over to his window to take a look outside.
Three men are being handcuffed and led into the cars.
He turns to gaze at the kid, who is munching on a sandwich.
"... Stop eating on my bed and go sit down at the kitchen table," he tells him before halting in his steps. "Do you still have that apple juice, kid?"
"My name is Izuku," the kid tells him, as he moves from the sleeping bag to sit down at the table. "And the juice is in that yellow bag over there."
Dabi nods, before moving to grab that juice out of the bag and pour himself a glass of it.
Izuku never leaves after that day.
"Just a heads up, Dabi. I eventually plan to attend U.A.'s heroic course, so I need you to like tune down the criminal stuff," Izuku tells him one morning when he wakes up.
"What the actual fuck?"