Chapter Text
Chapter 4: Even If Everything Changes, All Will Be Well. (For We Are Here)
Distorted/Loud/All Might
Recollection
Thoughts
[OfA speech]
-2 Minutes before Izuku beats Bakugou-
Mina Ashido smiled viciously, or well as viciously as she could while dodging pieces of the broken floor flying at her. Her plan was admittedly simple but very good, destroying parts of the room and floor to force and prevent her opponents from getting to her. Against most of Class 1-A this would've been effective, against someone who could decide to ignore gravity? Less so. Still she had hidden the bomb in another room, under debris as well so even if she was beaten all she had to do was hope that her teammate managed to not get captured.
Leaping backwards she shot highly diluted, but sticky acid at Uraraka who blocked it by grabbing a piece of the floor and using it as a shield. “You're running out of stuff to throw at me Uraraka-chan~” Mina taunted and ducked beneath Uraraka's reply. Which was a block of concrete launched like a fastball. Mina winced as she felt her bruised ribs ache, she hadn't expected Ochako to hit so hard.
“An’ you're running out of space to dodge.” The brunette huffed in more annoyance than anger. Early in the battle she had gotten tagged by Mina’s acid and had lost some of her costume. Thankfully the pink girl hadn't been using her more acidic concoctions, but it had been a pain to lose her boots and helmet.
“That so?” Mina replied with a smile, “Then I-”
That was the moment Bakugou’s explosion rocked the building. Despite Izuku tanking it and keeping the damage to a minimum, the building shook hard. Both girls were caught unaware and tumbled forward as the weekend ground gave way. Ochako reacted first, deactivating her quirk on herself to accelerate downwards and grabbing Mina. Mina launched up a rope of acid towards the wall as if to hang on as Ochako’s quirk activated. Both girls breathed a sigh of relief as the building didn't crumble.
“Hey, truce?” Mina asked her eyes looking down on the girl that was keeping them both from slamming into the wall.
“Yeah, truce. What was that Ashido?” Ochako asked, gulping as the floor beneath them crumbled a bit more.
“I don't know… Hey All Might, can you hear me?” She asked through the earpiece that she had, unlike Uraraka’s hers, was still functional. A few seconds passed. “Hello?” She asked again, this time hearing a bit of static as All Might said,
“Young Ashido, can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear All Might. Is the exercise over? What happened?” Mina replied slowly, rising from the hole alongside Ochako.
“No, the exercise is not over yet. Young Bakugou has been captured, however due to your current situation I am pausing this exercise. Don't move, I'll move the both of you to a safer room.” The #1 hero said calmly, though both girls could almost hear the stained tone peeking below the surface. In less than a heartbeat a gust of wind rushed across the building. And both girls found themselves on the other side and their teacher was standing before them.
“Right! Before I forget, Young Midoriya will not be moving for 30 seconds after I restart the exercise. Since he was around that far away from you both, the bomb is in the same place as you left it Young Ashido and the remaining time is 5 minutes.” All Might preemptively summed up the situation while carefully avoiding mentioning that Bakugou was being escorted to the infirmary. Izuku had been thorough with how he beat his opponent and while All Might wanted to strangle Atlas for underselling what was likely to happen, he couldn't afford to let his anger show at this time.
That didn't stop his students from noticing the tension that he exuded, but they assumed it had something to do with the explosion. Both girls nodded and Uraraka released her quirk. Breathing easily, All Might tossed another earpiece to Ochako.
“Here, since the one on your helmet was lost. I'll signal when you can begin.” He said before disappearing in a flash. Ochako breathed out and focused, she had a disadvantage here since her quirk did not provide her anything to leverage against Mina, but Mina was more tired than she was.
“Nothing to grab, but the room is smaller. She'll try to hold me down… This is going to sting.” Ochako thought as she braced herself.
“Exercise continues, NOW!” All Might announced and both girls rushed at each other.
-Inside One for All, same time-
“-And that's how we can copy quirks now.” I summed up with the diagram behind me only taking the space of several whiteboards glued together.
“So what you're saying is that One For All supercharged All for One and now thanks to you being more careful than the potato faced fuck that's the first’s brother, you now only need but a single piece of contact? How the fuck does that make sense?” Daigoro complained.
“Well-”
“Quirks being bullshit is a weak excuse.” Bruce interrupted me. I merely glared at him for a moment before continuing.
“All for One was always capable of grabbing parts off of quirks. The original was a greedy shit that couldn't help but rip out the entire thing. I can still do that, but it's not necessary. Although I'll ask Izuku for a few exceptions.”
“What exceptions?” Izuku asked, his eyes cautiously weighing my next words.
“Tenko, Kai and Nine. Part of me wants to say all Noumus but I think it's better to just end them rather than keep a single one alive.” I explained after a second or so of consideration. Tenko was self explanatory, Kai as well, but Nine? That one was to ensure as few copies of AfO exist in this world. 2 was far too many as is in my mind.
“Kai? You haven't mentioned him before.” En mentioned and I froze. I blinked and thought back, not a single time I've mentioned anything that wasn't directly involved with AfO… Fuck me, I'm an idiot.
“He's a problem for the future, talking about him right now without dealing with Tomura or Tenko would be bad for everyone involved.” I said, not mentioning Eri. A not insignificant part of me wanted to tell Izuku about her now, we had more quirks on hand and we could rescue her. But the reality was that if we rescued her now, where would she go? With AfO on the loose would we just be putting a bigger target on her head? And what about Izuku, could he even take care of her? Reality was the only thing holding me back, I needed to make sure that the kid would be okay.
But thinking of Kai always brought up a small problem, I hated him. I could feel my rage flare up, my muscles tensed and I could feel All for One's, the quirks, almost eagerly lapping around me. I could almost imagine getting my hands on Overhaul and ripping his body apart atom by atom repeatedly until he was a bloody wreck in the ground. I could imagine dozens of quirks ripping apart his nervous system rearranging it into a cruel mockery that’s barely functional, his screams filling the entire city… I closed my eyes for a minute and I breathed out, forcing my rage to simmer.
“Atlas… You okay?” Izuku asked, worry seeping into his tone.
“Yeah, kid. It's just some old rage I can't let go off. Don't worry about it.” I dismissed his concerns gently, “Now the time Toshi gave you is almost up, what do you want to do, search for the bomb or capture Ashido?”
“I trust that Uraraka can beat her. So I'll just search for the bomb.” He answered, not pointing out how abruptly I changed the topic. He was frowning, so I at least knew he would ask me about it later. Maybe once the USJ was done, though I should probably tell All Might about it, even if it’ll be awkward for him thanks to Nighteye. Regardless of the future, I needed to answer Izuku so I searched through the quirks inside All for One.
“Alright, unfortunately adding an X-Ray vision quirk to what you have at this time wouldn't be good.” I said and Daigoro added, “I'd check near where they were, 8th wouldn't move the bomb so I'm guessing it would be close.” I nodded in agreement and Izuku followed suit. As he vanished from OfA and into the real world, Yoichi approached me and grabbed me by the shoulder.
“Tell me who Kai is.” His tone was colder than ice.
“Why?” I asked, my own voice barely above a whisper.
“Because I wish to know why I had a flash of you beating someone within an inch of their life.”
I blinked, could he read my mind? No, that wouldn't make sense. Unless… Did he feel what All for One was seeing? I sighed and invited him into my own little section of One for All. And began telling him in full why I wanted Kai Chisaki suffering.
-Test building, Izuku-
Izuku blinked and breathed out slowly, using gearshift to accelerate his perception and thought speed was, as always, remarkable even if it was slightly tiresome. He stood up and headed towards where he thought Ashido and Uraraka had been fighting originally. As he blitzed through the hallway he looked around and saw that despite his efforts Katsuki’s blast had damaged the building, cracks lined the walls and floor, taking advantage of a hole in the ceiling he leapt up to the next floor and saw a lot of debris. WIthin seconds he lifted it and didn’t find the bomb. The next room was the same story and so was the one afterwards, part of him believed that the bomb had been buried in the rubble beneath where the girls had been fighting.
“Oh great… Think Midoriya, where would you put a bomb?” He thought with a furrowed brow and closed eyes. His steps were all he could hear as he paced around the room, he shook his head and decided to try another floor, one above him. Making his way to the stairs he heard static from the earpiece that All Might had left for him.
“2 MINUTES LEFT!” His mentor’s voice echoed in his ear as the static cleared and he decided to try and capture Ashido instead. Unaware that he did in fact just run past the room with the bomb. Something several of his classmates groaned about as they saw a green blur rush through the building. It took him 10 seconds to reach where Uraraka and Ashido were fighting, he crashed through the wall and saw Uraraka slam her acid-covered fist into Ashido’s midsection. The pink haired girl countered with a glob of sticky acid aimed at Uraraka’s face, but she barely missed her mark as Uraraka ducked under it and managed to grab her. Making the pink girl float harmlessly above her.
Izuku stared at the fight and before he could say anything Mina locked eyes with him and said, “Holy shit! You’re ripped as hell Midoriya!”
Gearshift activated almost immediately as Izuku could hear the laughter of the ghosts inside his quirk.
[Dammit Ashido, the kid will die of embarrassment.] Atlas laughed even as Izuku could feel a ghostly hand on his shoulders.
[He’ll have to get used to it. It’s part of the hero package.] Nana said with sympathy, even as a small smile threatened to form on her lips.
Shaking his head, Izuku grabbed the cuffs from his pockets and canceled Gearshift. His face was red with embarrassment and Uraraka was also blushing for some reason he didn’t understand. Izuku thought he heard the ghosts of One for All smack their foreheads at the same time. Using Blackwhip he grabbed Ashido and put the cuffs on her, he looked at Uraraka who was still blushing and said, “We-”
“THE HERO TEAM WINS!!!!” All Might’s proclamation interrupted him and he laughed.
-Later that day-
Izuku was standing outside the infirmary, after his exercise the rest of his class had a turn, even if they had to switch buildings twice since, surprising no one, freezing a nearly destroyed building and then thawing it was a bad idea for structural integrity. And it didn't help that Yaoyorozu had fired several cannons, down a hall, through the building. Kirishima however couldn't help but compliment how many it was to be blasted out of the building.
Shaking his head he entered and saw Bakugou's bandaged face and body and he felt… nothing. Sure there was some guilt there, but he remembered that anything less wouldn't have knocked him out. There was pride in there as well. He finally beat Bakugou but he never actually wanted that, Izuku just wanted to be able to hang out and play with his friend like they used to.
“He'll be alright.” Recovery Girl assured him, “My quirk takes a lot of out people.” The old heroine had suddenly appeared behind him and tapped his shoulder with her cane.
Izuku almost jumped out of surprise, he hadn't heard her approach or anything. Breathing out he said, “I remember. Uhm… Miss Recovery Girl? Would it be too much if I asked you for your autograph?” In his hands was a notebook that Recovery Girl could've sworn wasn't there before.
“Oh my… It's been years since anyone asked for one.” Her eyes widened as she took the notebook and saw an index, many hero names were there. Most of them faculty, but she found hers and turning the pages she found a rather simple, but accurate description of her quirk and its effect. As well as a drawing of her, which while not the best, was sweet in a way. Regardless, she signed her name on it and could've sworn she saw stars in Izuku's eyes.
“Grr…” Bakugou growled out sitting up, looking dazed. It took him a few seconds to realize what had happened, who put him in the infirmary, and who was with him now.
“DEK-” He began to shout as a black tendril silenced him with terrifying efficiency. Izuku stared at him with eyes filled with pity. “Kaachan, All Might asked me to tell you that he wants to talk to you tomorrow, during homeroom. He said he'll clear it with Mr. Aizawa. You're to head to his office first thing. And also that your gauntlets will need to go back to the support workshop.”
Bakugou, of course, tried to rip out the tendril that silenced him, but he found himself unable to even budge the thing. He opted to glare at his childhood friend who spared him one last glance at Bakugou, and removed the tendril before thanking Recovery Girl and leaving. As soon as he stepped outside his Uraraka was there alongside Iida and they all walked away.
Putting Bakugou deep in the back of his mind, Izuku focused on talking with Tenya and Ochako. The former was surprised to find that the latter was Izuku's neighbor, “That does explain why you two worked so well together though. Must come with being together for a good while, you will make quite the couple when on duty.” He commented as they approached the bus stop.
Both Izuku and Ochako blushed simultaneously, and Tenya continued, “Still Midoriya, your quirk is truly amazing. I've rarely seen such speed even from my own brother!”
“You have a brother Iida?” Ochako said first, almost sighing in relief at the blue haired boy's refusal to tease her and Izuku. Or perhaps he didn't realize the opportunity? Unlike Mina, who upon getting into the lockers hadn't stopped teasing her reaction to seeing Izuku's… “Nope don't think about that right now!” She forced herself to ignore any and all thoughts involving chiseled abs and muscles.
“Why yes I do!” He replied, ignoring how Ochako wasn't paying too much attention to him, “My older brother Tensei, he's amazing!” The pride in his voice, and the smile that adorned his face were brilliant.
“Tensei… Where have I heard that before?” Izuku muttered,
[Kid, think of quirks. What hero is famous for speed with engines?] Atlas hinted, even as Izuku's mind connected the dots.
“Ingenium!” He almost shouted and Iida looked around, as if expecting his brother to appear. “Your brother is Ingenium!” Izuku pointed out, literally as his finger poked Tenya's shirt.
“I had you pegged as a hero fan, but that's some amazing deduction. How did you guess?” Tenya could barely hide his shock, a small part of his mind wondered if Midoriya could also read minds given how versatile his quirk was.
“Your quirks. They're similar enough, plus the way you reacted when I said Ingenium.”
Tenya laughed as he realized that he did give away his brother's hero identity so easily. As the bus arrived, “You truly are amazing with your observations Midoriya. I see I have much to learn from you, my friend.” Tenya muttered as he waved the pair goodbye and headed towards the train station.
It was purely accidental, or so Tenya would claim when interrogated by his brother. He was going to the train station, as his usual route passed through some alleyways he took some time to pick up some litter, when he heard a sound. A pale white haired child with a single horn was shivering near a dumpster. She looked at him and whispered, “Help me.”
Tenya Iida's body moved without a single thought in his head. He didn't understand much about being a hero, he knew that there were many things that he needed to learn. And he also knew that he might be in trouble if he did this, and yet he still stretched out his hand to the child and carried her to his family home. Because he knew one thing, his friend Izuku and his brother Tensei would do this as well.
He never noticed the pieces of clothing that were next to her, nor how they had been soaked in blood. Kai Chisaki certainly didn't care that the caretaker had been rewound out of existence, so why would anyone else care? All he knew was that his specimen had escaped. And that he needed to find her.