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Mage of Yuuei

Chapter 5: Set the Wards

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

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For the first time in a long time, Izumi woke up to her first alarm and she was well-rested and ready to begin her day.
“Izumi, turn the alarm off.” Yosei smacked her in the head with a paw. “That is alarm number three. You are going to be late if you don’t wake up.”
“Fuck that.” Izumi pushed the cat away. “I can start the wards tomorrow.” She rolled over and pulled the blanket back over her head.
“No, you are well-rested and I told your mom I won’t let you skip within the first month unless you got really sick.” Yosei walked around the bed and bit into the blanket and began to pull it off.
“Dammit.” Izumi sat up and glared at her cat. “You little snitch.” She tossed the blanket and it completely enveloped Yosei who gave an annoyed hiss.
Izumi turned her alarm off and began getting ready for another boring day and then hours of work prepping the warding ritual. After she was dressed and had coffee in hand, did she open the can of food for Yosei and walk out the door of her apartment. She let out a sigh at the hat her mother had made her sitting on the table with a collection of half-finished formulas, she had to abandon the spell weaving when she went over to her mom’s house for dinner and she never got time to get back to it.
The train ride to Yuuei was extraordinarily ordinary that morning, so she was not ready for the collection of reporters and camera people that were standing at the main gate to Yuuei.
Izumi let out a sigh and then did her best to skirt past the reporters and slip into the gates of Yuuei as they opened and closed for students. As she was waiting for the gate to open she felt a chill go up her spine and all the hair stood up on the back of her neck.
Izumi turned around and opened her magical sense to scan the group of reporters trying to figure out what had caused that feeling but she didn’t spot anything that may have stood out. Whatever set off her sense was gone and it took all traces with it.
Izumi made a mental note and started sipping on her coffee. She looked through the clear lid and noticed she only had about half a cup left and she wanted to rub her god’s given a drink in the overly tired face of Aizawa. She had a smirk on her face all the way from the gate to her classroom. She looked around and realized that the only person not there at the moment was Aizawa and the bell was about to ring.
“That was close.”
“Get inside and sit down.” the voice of her homeroom teacher echoed from the floor behind her. Izumi raised the tumbler to her lips and took a sip. Izumi made her way to the desk and then sat down just as the bell rang.
Aizawa moved to the front of the class and put a small pile of papers that he pulled from his sleeping bag onto the desk. “Good work yesterday.” He looked at the tense faces of his students who expected him to expel someone. “I’ve looked over All Might’s evaluations and grades and have a few comments of my own.” He let out a sigh. “Bakugo, grow up.” Aizawa turned a tired eye at the blonde. “You disobeyed orders and could have possibly killed someone.”
Bakugo let out a noise that Izumi thought was a curse but she wasn’t really paying attention.
“Midoriya, don’t get overconfident, you have potential, don't waste it by getting yourself blown up.”
“Yes, Sir.” Izumi raised the tumble and took another sip.
“Now onto other homeroom business” the entire class got even more tense. “You need to pick a Class Representative.” Aizawa sighed.
“THAT IS SO NORMAL!!” Ashido and Kirishima shouted out. Once the reality of what Aizawa settled into their heads, everyone jumped up and started volunteering themselves to be the class representative. In the cacophony of people yelling a single voice rang out in an attempt to calm the masses.
“If we are picking a representative then we must follow the democratic process and hold an election. That is the only way to be fair to all of the constituents.” Iida was sitting at his desk and had his hand straight up in the air volunteering.
“Iida-san, we barely know each other, how can we know who to trust.” Asui turned and looked at the blue-haired boy.
“Yeah man, everyone is just going to vote for themselves.” Kirishima pointed out.
“That is what makes it great the people with multiple votes are the people that have earned the trust of their classmates.” Iida brought down a hand in a chopping motion. “Aizawa-sensei, will you allow this?”
“Don’t really care, just get it done quick.” Aizawa had zipped himself back into his sleeping bag.
With that, the voting process began and everyone began to tear little bits of paper from notebooks and wrote names on them. The front person left their five votes on the desk in front of Aizawa. Once everyone had their vote in Iida stood up and began to count the votes writing names on the board as he opened the slips of paper. Once he had finished all the votes the tope people with multiple votes were Yaoyorozu with three votes and Izumi with two. Bakugo had launched into a tirade that he had only gotten the vote from himself and no one else voted for him while his punching bag got two. Iida had collapsed onto his desk in defeat without a single vote.
Izumi sat at her desk as Yaoyorozu walked towards the front of the room. As she passed her vice-rep she looked down and waited for her to stand up and join her in their walk of victory.
“Pass, Iida can be Vice.” Izumi finished her coffee and slipped the tumbler into her bag. “I have enough to do without having to try to keep people in line.”
“Thank you, for your kind words Midoriya.” Iida sprung up from his desk. “Are you sure? Even the Vice-rep is a prestigious position.”
“Yep, you have fun.” Izumi tipped an imaginary hat to him.
“Ok, it is decided. Yaoyorozu is the rep and Iida will be the vice rep.” Aizawa stood up and began to take off the sleeping bag. “Now we can get things…” Aizawa started off on school stuff and Izumi tuned him out. After a few minutes, the bell rang and Aizawa collected his portable cocoon and walked out the door.
After hours of boring class, lunch had arrived and Izumi was sitting across from Uraraka and next to Ahsido and Asui again like the previous day.
“So why did you pass on the vice-rep position, Midoriya-san?” Asui took a small bite of her lunch.
“Well Asui-san…”
“You can all call me Tsu.” Tsu interrupted. “I’m not all that formal.”
“As I was saying, Tsu.” Izumi started back up and she was happy to see that others didn’t care much about the formality even if her mother had beaten into her head. “I have a bunch of other projects to work on, not including the research for my quirk so I don’t have time to be a representative. I also don’t want to be one as it just isn’t what I want to do.”
“Wow, that is pretty serious Midoriya-san.”
“You can drop the ‘-san’ from my name.” Izumi took a bite of the katsudon that the Hero Lunch Rush had prepped and while it was good it had nothing on her mother’s cooking.
“Still it would look great on any applications that you would turn in to agencies when we graduate.”
“I plan on going solo out of High School,” Izumi stated. “Find a little area to protect and only make it the safest it can be.”
“But it’s a lot harder to make a name for yourself if you go solo right out of the gate, isn’t it?” Uraraka asked. “Wouldn’t being a sidekick help boost your ratings and get your appearance out there?”
“True, but that is making the assumption that I want to be some big-name like All Might.” Izumi reached over and grabbed the water she had and took a sip.
“You don’t want to be famous?”
“No, being famous is not on the list of things that I care about.” Izumi sighed. She had hoped it would be a while before the question on her ideals would come up and the major differences that she had from most of her peers.
“But what about making a living?”
“While I’m not Yaoyorozu level wealthy, I am well off.”
“That is your parents,” Uraraka stated.
“No, I have a large chunk of money saved up. It is being invested and turned into profits on a weekly basis.” Izumi was clear that money was the last issue on her mind. “I assume you want to make it big?” She gestured over to Uraraka.
“I want to make sure my family is taken care of.” Uraraka blushed. “We own a construction company and it can get a little tight at times.”
“I understand.” Izumi gave her friend a small smile. “Wanting to take care of your family is an admirable goal.”
The four girls went back to a much lighter conversation and enjoying their lunch when a blaring alarm started ringing out through the lunchroom.
LEVEL THREE SECURITY BREACH ALL STUDENTS EVACUATE IN AN ORDERLY FASHION.
All the girls stood up and began making their way to the exits but they were swarmed by people. Izumi saw Iida out of the corner of her eye talking to another student but she was caught up in the rush and pressed into one of the windows. Izumi grabbed her classmates and cast a group fly lifting them into the air and towards the window.
When she got to the window she saw the large group of reporters and other paparazzi had somehow broken through the gates of Yuuei. Izumi shook her head and then turned to Uraraka. “Get them back to the table, landing will only get you trampled.” Uraraka nodded and floated away. Izumi made her way to the front of the group and floated right in front of the exit sign. “Vox Magno. LISTEN, IT IS ONLY THE PRESS!!!! CALM DOWN!!!” Izumi’s loud voice rang through the lunchroom. “LOOK OUTSIDE AND THAN MAKE YOUR WAY BACK TO YOUR SEATS.” A lot of heads turned and the crowd of press people swarming into the gate and the tension died. Izumi shook her head and floated back to her seat where her classmates were waiting.
“Wow, good work Izumi.” Ashido grabbed her classmate in a hug. “That was totally cool and we got to fly.”
“It was no problem Ashido-san.”
“Mina and I will call you Izumi.” Izumi’s formality training was telling her to try and get her classmate to address her properly but Izumi shoved that into a dark corner of her brain.
“That works Mina.” Izumi smiled. “I guess you can all just call me Izumi.” She addressed the group as the rest of the students filtered back to their seats.
After that incident, the rest of the day was pretty boring and the day came to an uneventful end. Izumi watched the rest of the class file out of the classroom as she reached over and pulled a leather book from her bag. With a wave of her hand, the book grew to its normal size and floated to eye level. Izumi began to flip through pages as she prepared her mind for the ritual.
“Izumi, aren’t you heading home?” Tsu asked. “You are normally one of the first people gone.”
“Not today. I need to use the gym to test out a new spell.” Izumi flipped another page. “Have a good night Tsu.”
“You too.” Tsu closed the door and Izumi was left alone.
Twenty minutes passed when Izumi let out a sigh and then with the book floating next to her grabbed her bag and walked out of the classroom.
The door to the principal's office was propped open and Izumi could see Nezu sitting at his desk with a large Item next to him. Izumi knocked on the door and stepped inside where she was greeted by Cementoss and Recovery Girl.
“Recovery Girl there is absolutely no chance of this killing me.” Izumi smiled at the old woman. “You can go relax if you want.”
“Like I would believe that, knowing you, it will somehow drain you of all your mana again.”
“That is not how wards work and I’m not even activating them today.”
“Actually Midoriya-san we were hoping we could convince you to get everything set up today and get things running as soon as possible.” Nezu tapped the large object. “We rushed to get this so we could get things ready.”
“It is nearly ten hours of prep work and then another hour to activate the wards, then I have to test them, create the talismans that allow bypass, install the control ball, then explain to you how to work them” Izumi slumped her shoulders. “It is three forty-five right now, so doing this in one day would mean that I finish around four in the morning.”
“Well it…”
“And seeing as I don’t see the sleep-deprived face of my homeroom teacher I assume none of you want to be here that late.” Izumi walked over to the couch. “I was planning on…” Izumi stopped and looked over at the principal. “Why the rush?”
“We would all feel safer if things were done today.”
“So this has nothing to do with the break-in?” Izumi raised an eyebrow.
“No, that was an overzealous reporter.” Nezu gave it a wave of his hand. “Nothing to worry about.”
“Nezu, can we cut the shit and just talk like normal people?” Izumi leaned back on the couch and her grimoire floated over catching the eye of Nezu. “There is no way a member of the press got through the gates.” Nezu let out a sigh and nodded. “So the break-in was most likely a distraction or a declaration of war.”
“Yes, we believe it to be a declaration of war against us.”
“Us? The students? The Pros?” Izumi was ticking off things on her hand. “Society? All Might?”
“We don’t know.”
“Was anything taken or accessed during the time of the break-in?” Izumi’s face had creased.
“What do you mean?”
“Did a giant metal door get destroyed and you can only think of a single option?” Izumi was frowning. “I assume you have cameras and sensors all over the grounds and in the computers. Was there anything going on while people panicked?”
“Not that we are aware of,” Nezu stated. “It looks like the gate was a show of force.”
“But it could have been a distraction and allow someone to get in and get something.”
“Midoriya-san the school is very safe and unless you have a…” Cementoss watched as Izumi opened a gate and reached through and pulled a bag full of something through and put in in her lap. “How did you do that?”
“My quirk allows me to open gates and travel great distances instantly. It even bypasses the sensors of Yuuei.”
“That is quite impressive.” Cementoss gave a square smile.
“Are there any off-campus events for any years and courses in the next two weeks?”
“Yes, there are a handful.”
“Cancel them,” Izumi stated. “If they got a hold of something like a course schedule then an ambush could be planned.”
“Midoriya-san, the chances of whoever broke into the ground having a quirk that allows teleportation is very slim.”
“But it is a non-zero chance.” Izumi looked over at Nezu.
Nezu was looking down at the piles of papers on his desk and occasionally flipping through them.
“Goddamn stubborn old fools.” Izumi stood up and walked towards the door. “I’m not doing twelve to fifteen hours worth of work without some compensation. I get to sleep till noon and then I will come back to class, and I want free reign to use my quirk while I’m doing all things related to the setup and testing of the wards.”
“Fine.” Nezu gave a defeated groan. “I will write a note for your absence.”
“OK, I assume that the chamber has been prepared?”
“Yes, Cementoss will walk you down.” Nezu gave a nod to his subordinate. Cementoss stood up and then walked over to the desk and picked up the object. He walked through the door and shut it behind him. Once they were gone Nezu looked back over the plans that Izumi had given him the day before, “She is truly a smart girl.”
Cementoss and Izumi walked down the hall until they came to the teacher’s lounge and they opened the door. Once they were inside they walked to the center and Cementoss reached down and opened a hatch.
“You know I’m happy you’re a hero otherwise I would assume you are leading me to your murder dungeon.” Izumi took the first step down and then waved her hand and a ball of blue fire sprung up from her hand and lit up the passageway. “So this leads to the very center of Yuuei?” she looked back and saw her teacher nod. “And all the other supplies I ask for are here?”
“Yes, we made sure everything was just as you requested.”
“How the hell did you get a diamond that large that quick?” Izumi continued into the depths of Yuuei.
“Yaoyorozu-san was able to make it.”
“She can make diamonds and other gems.” Izumi rubbed her chin. “Note to self, talk to Yaoyorozu about getting materials in the future.” Izumi grinned.
The rest of the walk was made in silence as Izumi was more worried about not falling down the long and seemingly never-ending staircase. After five minutes of walking, Izumi watched as the stairs opened into a large circular room with a pedestal at the center.
Izumi smiled as she walked around the room, she saw the smooth concrete that met the walls without a seam.
“Ok, I’m going to begin to start the prep work.”
“Are you in need of anything else?”
“Yes, I need four passages leading to chambers build.” Izumi floated her book over and flipped to a page. “Venator sequitur Vestigia In,” A circle of floating orbs sprung from the center of her chest. Izumi walked to the pedestal and tried to push it out of the way. It didn’t budge so Izumi leaned a shoulder into it, still nothing. Izumi continued to try and move the pedestal with no luck. “I said to make it moveable.” Izumi turned to Cementoss.
“It is.” Cementoss walked over and with a single hand moved the pedestal out of the way. Izumi just glared as the large man gave a small laugh.
“Ok,” Izumi stood where the pedestal was and slowly began to turn. “I need one corridor right there, it needs to be four hundred feet long opening to a chamber of ten by ten.” Izumi pointed at a spot on the wall and waited for Cementoss to put down the diamond and make his way over. Once he was ready he began to create the passage that Izumi asked to be made.
The process continued and overtime four identical corridors were made and ready to use. Izumi marked the first corridor that was made and marked it with a large ‘N’ and then walked back to the center and stood next to the pedestal. She asked Cementoss to move the pedestal back into place and place the crystal into the pedestal. Once everything was set up Izumi told Cementoss that he could leave as her work would be boring for anyone how had no idea exactly what she was doing.
Once Izumi was alone did she begin to think about the best way to begin, looking over her notes the best was to begin with the formulas for locking down physical spaces as those had to tied to the north as an immutable fact. For about an hour Izumi used the chalks and powdered gem dust to create the magical circle that would lock down the area within the Greater Circle that would not allow any bending of the space within. Once that was done she began to create the power circle that would power the part of the ward that this section focused on. She reached into the bag and pulled out a crabapple sized ruby and placed it in the middle of the circle. Satisfied with her work she walked down the corridor and into the main chamber.
The Eastern chamber was the part of the wards that dealt with things that would be able to enter safely. Like with the north being key to the locking of space, the east was a place of entry because the sun rose in the east, breaking through the night allowing a new day to begin. While Izumi had not set talismans that could be carried by the students, teachers, and guests this part of the circle would be in charge of that. Like with the Northern chamber, Izumi placed a single ruby in the center of the circle and then walked back to the main chamber. It was then that she called Yosie and opened a gate for the cat to walk through.
“So they want you to do the entire thing today?”
“Yea, there was a break-in and they want to be careful.” Izumi looked over her grimoire and then reached down and scratched the cat and got a purr. “Can I get you to double-check the Northern and Eastern rooms while I begin work on the West?”
“Sure, want to cast fly on me, or am I using the book as a device?” Yosei looked down the dark corridor. “I also need some light.”
“I need the book to write them up originally, but if you have any questions let me know and I will bring it to you.” Izumi reached down and picked her cat up and then with a flash of green, Yosei was flying off with a ball of flame trailing behind her. “What time is it on the surface, I get no service down here?”
“Around seven.” Yosei’s voice echoed through the empty space.
“I’m on schedule at least.” Izumi shrugged and headed towards the western corridor.
The chamber to the west is for the denials on what the wards would keep out and was closely tied to the southern chamber so the circle was more complicated. As the mirror to the entry in the east, the western horizon acts as a barrier that marks the end and finality of the day. While the invention of electricity has extended the active parts of the day, the setting of the sun was always a sign of the end of things. It creates a barrier to the darkness that was once too impenetrable. Izumi looked over the circle and noticed a line of chalk that was out of place and quickly repaired it, a simple mistake while it couldn’t kill her it would waste lots of time. Once she was happy she placed a third ruby down and then proceeded to the southern chamber.
As she was walking through the main chamber she saw Yosiei floating there in the air with a look on her face that she couldn’t identify.
“Everything looks good?” Izumi pulled her familiar close to her chest.
“Yes, you know what you are doing, it is just really cold down here.” Izumi know understood why she looked strange, even with having fur Yosei was not a fan of the cold
“Want me to grab the cloak mom made?” Izumi gave a chuckle. The first anniversary of their bonding Inko had thought it was a good idea to make something that marked the celebration as it was eventually Yosei’s birthday as she was a stray kitten on the streets before she bonded with Izumi. What they got was a set of matching green cloaks, it was more for just laughs. Izumi had actually turned it into a part of her ritual outfit while Yosei’s was more a blanket that she slept on or under.
“Yes, please.” Yosei nuzzled up into Izumi’s warmth with a purr. Izumi waved a hand and opened a gate next to Yosei’s bed and began to dig through the pile of blankets and toys until she found a deep green piece of fabric. With a snap to get some of the fur of Izumi pulled it through the portal and let it close. Izumi pulled her cat out from the warmth and tied the cloak around her neck, unlike Izumi’s whose cloak had a hood, Yosei’s cloak had a collar to avoid rubbing her ears.
“Better?”
“Much.” Yosei floated back to the chamber she was checking.
Izumi walked down the southern corridor and began to skim her notes. This was one of the more difficult circles as it was a collection of punishments and who got what if they tried to breach the wards. The south has a lot of connotations to things going badly and in most cosmologies in the world going south meant punishment. Most of the punishments were nonlethal but she made sure to add one or two if the person who was trying to breach the wards was a real problem, those would require the approval of the Principal to activate. She would have to talk to Nezu to figure out exactly where the wards would drop people. She suggested building a dungeon under Yuuei, but she was a mage so she may be a little bias. Before she could put the final touches on the circle a voice rang down the corridor.
“Brat, food” Aizawa’s tired voice echoed. Izumi let out a sigh looks like it was going to be another annoying conversation.
“Give me a minute.” Izumi looked down from the book as she checked the formulas. Izumi was then drawn back into her work and more time passed. She didn’t even hear the footsteps coming down the corridor until the hand gripped her by the collar and began to drag her towards the main chamber.
“Stop, you are going to mess things up.” Izumi was hopping backward to avoid messing up the lines of chalk on the ground. “Dammit Aizawa, now I need to check the entire circle to make sure nothing got fucked up.”
“That is your problem.” Aizawa continued to drag her. “If you had come got your food when I said so none of this would have happened.”
“Sorry, I was a little busy.” Izumi waved a hand and cast fly on herself and just floated along with Aizawa’s pulling. “No need to get your scarves in a knot.” Izumi smiled to herself at the joke.
Aizawa refused to dignify that lame joke with a response and once they were back in the main chamber he tossed the green-haired girl towards the staircase and the large bowl of ramen. “Eat, so I can take the dowl upstairs.”
Izumi floated over to the bowl and picked it up. “It’s cold.” she glared at Aizawa.
“That is on you.” Aizawa glared. “I told you the food was here. You ignored me.”
Izumi rolled her eyes and then moved the bowl of ramen to just off the side of the stairs. “Frigus Flammarum” A circle of blue flames sprung up around the bowl. “That will warm it up in a minute or two.”
“Is having a fire down here all that safe?”
“Magic.” Izumi smiled and then floated over to a corridor and called out to Yosei telling her it was dinner time. She had to go to the western corridor before she got a response from a tired cat.
“Hey, Sleepy guy.” Yosei saw Aizawa and gave a kitty wave.
“Cat.” Aizawa was trying to fight his instincts of wanting to pet a cat he saw. “Why are you wearing a cape?”
“Why are you still surprised at the crazy thing you see us do?” Yosei shot back. She floated over to Izumi and landed. “Please tell me there is more than just ramen.” Aizawa shook his head. “Great, what every cat loves! Noodles.” she rolled her eyes.
“I’ll open a gate and grab a can of tuna for you.” Izumi stroked Yosei’s fur in an attempt to calm her down. “How about something to drink?” again Aizawa shook his head. “Fuck it,” Izumi waved a hand and one of her black portals opened and she hopped over to her apartment. There was a shuffling, a beep, and then Izumi came back with a bundle of clothes under her arm. “So caught up in the prep forgot I was wearing the stupid uniform” Izumi put the bundle on the ground and then walked over to the bowl of ramen and sat down. She lifted the bowl out of the flames and then opened the cat of tuna for Yosei. “Thanks Aizawa.” Izumi broke her chopsticks and dug into the ramen.
“Aren’t you going to close that?” Aizawa pointed over at the open gate.
“No, my coffee is brewing and since I have to be up until four I am going to need it.” Izumi shook her head. “It is more wasteful to close and open another portal each time I need a refill so I’m just going to keep it open.”
“I thought your plans would stop you from opening gates into the grounds.”
“They will, but they are still not active yet so better to abuse the system now.” Izumi smiled and began eating.
After a few minutes, she put down the bowl and stood up and walked through the portal and returned with a second tumbler and a bowl filled with water for Yosei. Izumi could see Aizawa glaring over his scarves and she smiled as she sat back down and continued eating.
Once everything was done and the bowl clean did Izumi stand back up and handed the bowl back to Aizawa. “Thanks again.” Izumi walked back down the southern corridor and began to recheck her work to make sure nothing got smudged when she was dragged out. She waited for Aizawa to leave and then changed from her uniform to a set of sweatpants and a loose t-shirt with the katakana for work clothes written across the chest. She slipped the loafers off and then stepped into a pair of bright red sneakers. She also draped the cloak over the shoulders as it was getting colder as the night progressed.
Aizawa glared at the girl and was tempted to steal her tumbler of coffee in retribution but thought better of it. He took the bowl and began the annoying process of waking up all the stairs that lead to the teacher’s lounge.
Izumi was then joined by Yosei when she was done eating and the mage and her familiar began to start the connections for each branch to the center chamber.
Around the pedestal, Izumi drew a simple circle as the base of her work and she then began adding formulas that would power the wards. She had written in a conversion spell that would take some of the massive amounts of energy that flowed around the school and converted it into mana. Things like explosions, the building shaking from earthquakes, construction all supplied minuscule amounts of energy that would slowly recharge the wards. They were powered by a month's worth of mana to start but it was nice to know that they most likely would never run out of power as long as people occupied the area above her.
The next part was the formulas for what the wards were supposed to do, while the locations took care of specific areas of the wards this would act as a control center where everything would be decided. The diamond was a switch box of sorts as people crossed the ward lines their information would pass through the diamond and then go to the respective chambers to get a decision that was made and then shoot back to the center and out the ward point. The diamond was also the Centerpoint and where the wards were originated from so it was the most important thing to keep safe. The reason that they were so far down was that the keystone was protected well and it allowed the wards to reach up and come it level with the main gate of Yuuei to keep suspicion away from the school for adding some unknown barrier.
Izumi and Yosei spent hours working on laying down the symbols and formulas that acted as the controls for the wards. Around two in the morning by the clock in Izumi’s apartment, did they finish the prep work for the wards and could activate them.
“So is it time to activate them?” Yosei let out a yawn and then draped herself across Izumi’s shoulder.
“Yea, we should probably go find whoever they left in charge so we can do some testing.” Izumi looked over at the work that she did and smiled. “Come on.” Izumi floated up the stairs and towards the teacher’s lounge.
Izumi pushed the door open and saw Aizawa laying in his sleeping bag on the couch in the back of the room. Izumi passed on waking the scruffy-looking hero up to see if Nezu was still here and made him suffer a little for all the work he was making her do.
She pushed the door open with a bang and the white-furred principal flung himself up off the couch in his office and onto all fours.
“Time to activate and test the wards.” Izumi stretched a little and let out a yawn. “Do you have the concept that you want to use for the talismans?”
“Yes, I had to dig this up as it hasn’t changed much over the years.” Nezu pulled a blank student ID from a drawer in his desk. He then pulled a bunch of bright orange badges on lanyards out with a bunch of print on them. “These will be the guest badges.”
“Those will work fine.” Izumi nodded and started heading back to the teacher’s lounge. “I advise redesigning the ID and badges each year as if that is the same template any student from years past can walk through with no problems.”
“I will get the support department coming up with new looks for the future.” Nezu smiled and walked behind the floating girl.
Izumi and Nezu walked past the Aizawa sleeping form and then down into the stairway that led to the ward chamber.
Once they were down in the chamber Izumi placed herself down on the ground and then grabbed her staff from the small pile of clothes that she had thrown through the gate. Once she expanded it to its normal size she allowed the gate to close.
Izumi with staff in hand walked over to the center pedestal and places the end of her staff on the large diamond. Yosei uncurled herself from Izumi’s neck and walked down the outstretched arm and on to the staff like she had done before.
“Come my Master of Mana, Binder of Thought to Reality. I, Yosei Bound to Your Service for All Our Lives I State Your True Name and Title… Izumi of the Family Midoriya. Last Mage of the World.” Yosei stated her master’s titles again and there was a pulse of energy and the runes that marked their bond lit up brilliantly, forcing most shadows from the room.
With a deep breath, she began to speak in a tone that Nezu had heard when she last performed the ritual to remove the infliction on All Might.
“Cum benedictione mundi, et potestas est ad astra, et rogamus, ut qui oriri et colligentes custodiis tegere post omnes terminos tuos. In nomine ultimo variae studii, consilii et virtutis do tibi.” Izumi’s eyes lit up a brilliant green and she continued to chant and like the last time her voice broke into multiple voices each going about their own lines. And this continued for fifteen minutes of nonstop chanting. The voice rang out and Izumi looked to the northern corridor, raised a hand, and intoned, “Per cubito verissimo Septentrionalis.” The lines of formulas and symbols lit up and at the very end of the hallway, the ruby began to float.
Izumi returned to the ritual, her voice separating into many again. This time as the fifteen-minute mark passed she turned east and repeated her action but spoke a different incantation. “Ab oriente praevaricationem.” Once the symbols lit up and the ruby began floating did she turn to the next corridor. This time to the west and the chant was “Quod ending per Occidentem.” Again the glow and float came without any problems. The final location was the southern chamber and Izumi was deep into her chants as she had cut most of the break time from between the directions and moved on.
As her voice calmed and she raised her hand she spoke the final empowerment to the gem, “A meridie repudiaret.” Once everything was glowing as it should have, Izumi turned back to the giant diamond in the center of the chamber.
“Gaia potest etiam rogamus, ut haec tibi verbis. Et petere praesidium eius ad omnia illa quae tuta sunt vincula soluta. Et nomen meum, et ego faciam eis erectis.” Izumi had placed both hands onto her staff and then began to feel her mana into the diamond. After a few seconds, the diamond began to float off the ground and began to shed a pale blue light. Yosei went back to her place around Izumu’s neck and Izumi took her staff and tapped the ground. When she did the lights faded from her eyes and bits of white began to creep up the tips of her curls.
“Are they activated?” Nezu asked.
“Yes, before we get to the assignment of talismans, I want to test them. Make sure everything is functioning properly.” Izumi took her staff and sat astride it. “Let’s go, want a ride?” Nezu gave a worried nod. “Relax, I am just tired no harm has been done.”
“Your hair has begun to lose color like when you performed the ritual with All Might.” Nezu pointed at her hair.
“It is the best marker of how low on mana I am.” Izumi dipped the back of the staff to the ground and Nezu climbed aboard. “It is only a problem if it reaches my scalp. The way it is not I am still running above eighty percent mana.”
“Did you supplement your mana with the supply from your staff?” Nezu gripped the staff tightly so as to not fall off.
“No, there is no point in touching the extra supply.” Izumi tilted the staff forward and they began to fly up the stairs. Once they reached the top she flew through the door and over to Aizawa as he slept on the couch. “Wake up. I need a test dummy.” She nudged the hero with a foot until she saw him stir.
“Go away.”
“Nope. I need to be on the inside and have someone else walk through the gates.” Izumi watched Aizawa turn over in his bag. “The hard way then.” Izumi nudged him again and cast ‘fly’ on the sleeping teacher. She grabbed the foot of his sleeping bag and then floated out towards the door hearing Nezu chuckling all the way. Yosei leaped off Izumi’s shoulders and found a chair to curl up on and fell asleep within seconds.
With a very grumpy Aizawa in tow, the three arrived at the main gates of Yuuei and Izumi lowered herself down to the ground and let Nezu slide off. Izumi reached over and gave Aizawa a push and the gates and the wards let him pass with no trouble. “Just think about where you want to be and you will fly back,” Izumi told her teacher. After a bit she watched the yellow bag begin to float towards them. Once he was back even with the two did he go upright and glared at Izumi.
“I hate you.”
“Good keep that thought in your mind and think about wanting to blow up the school.” Izumi gave the sleeping bag a pat. “The wards should bounce you out.”
Aizawa floated back outside the wards and glared at his student. As he was about to cross the gate line he was repulsed backward about twenty feet. “Hm.” Aizawa gave a grunt and then floated back this time completely fine.
“Ok, we have tested the wards and everything seems to be fine.” Izumi smiled. “Now I can start programming the control orb and the talismans. Then one more test and we should be good.” Izumi reached down a hand to Nezu. “Let’s get back inside.” Izumi and Nezu took off back to the campus leaving a slow Aizawa to come in on his own.
Izumi didn’t stop until she was back in the main chamber of the wardroom. When she was there she let Nezu climb off and then began to search for the large orb that would be the remote control for the wards.
“It was right here.” Izumi looked around the room and then her eye caught the small box that was partially buried by her uniform. “There it is.” She pushed her clothes to the side and pulled a large glass orb from the box. With the orb in hand, she walked over to the diamond and put a hand on it. “Proiectura et nexum.” Izumi watched as the glass orb began to glow the same color as the ward’s keystone and smiled.
“So what was that?”
“I created a connection from the main keystone to the orb.” Izumi than walked back to the principal. “We are done down here.” Izumi picked up her things and stuffed them into her backpack. “The talismans and everything else can be set by the control orb so we can sit on a couch and go through things.” Izumi slung her backpack onto her back and then grabbed her staff and began to float again. “Going up.” Izumi dipped the back again and Nezu climbed aboard. She scooped up her sleeping cat on the way out of the teacher’s lounge.
Once they were back in Nezu’s office, having passed an annoyed Aizawa, did Izumi plop down on the couch and let out a tired sigh.
“So what should we do first?” Nezu looked excited. “Change the Ward Master?”
“No, I am going to set the talismans, it is easier if I show you rather than trying to explain it.” Izumi took one of the pillows on the couch and placed it on the coffee table in front of her. Izumi placed a hand on the orb and tapped it twice with her index finger. “Command: Open and freeze wards.”
Nezu watched as the orb gave a pulse and then a small flat plane sprung from the orb. “So it is voice-activated.”
“Partially, it requires touch to input things like the passcode.” Izumi smiled. “I set it to be simple but that can change anytime you would like after we get things set up. I have the wards frozen right now to stop us from getting hit by the wards once we add the talismans.”
“So I have to keep a hand on the orb after activating it with the required passcode.” Nezu nodded. “What is the passcode?”
“Two quick taps with the index finger while having the palm of your hand on the orb.”
“Continue,” Nezu told his student. “We don’t have all night.”
“Command: Talismans.” Izumi stated and the screen blinked out and came up with a simple text, ‘No talismans set.’ “Command: Set Talismans.”
“I assume you need the badges and ID blank.” Nezu went back to his desk and pulled them from his drawer. “Here you go.” He handed them to Izumi.
‘“Are the guest badges identical?”
“Almost there is a number on each one.”
“OK, then I can scan one and use that as a basic model for all ten.” Izumi picked up the guest ID and held it out to the plane. “Command: Enter as a base for Talisman, ignore the number in the lower right, Max allowed ten.” The orb gave a faint purple glow and then rung like a small bell.
“That was it?”
“Yep, getting into the orb will be the hardest problem.” Izumi smiled again. “The command ord and the main keystone are beep behind the wards so they are well protected. Are the staff’s ID’s the same as the students?”
“Yes,” Nezu gave a nod.
“So how many people work and study here?” Izumi asked as she held up the blank ID card.
“Seven Hundred and fifty-seven, including staff teachers and students.” Nezu rattled off the number.
“Command: Enter as a base talisman. Max allowed seven hundred and fifty-seven.” (A/N: see bottom.) The orb gave the same response as before and Izumi put the blank on the couch cushion next to her.
“Ok, we are all set.” Izumi leaned back and lifted her hand off the orb. “We can change over the control of the wards, but I am too tired to completely run through the entire set up.”
“That is fine.” Nezu gave a nod. “So to transfer the wards over what do we do?” Izumi yawned and then placed a hand back on the orb. “The same start?”
“Yes,” Izumi tapped her index finger twice. “Command: Ward Master Transferal.'' The orb flashes orange three times and two planes pop up. “We recite the props and then the wards are transferred.”
“I place my hand on the orb?”
“Yes.” Izumi shifted her hand to give him room. “Command: Begin transfer.” the orb rung and the plane had lines of text appear on it. “I, Midoriya Izumi, Ward Master of the Yuuei Circle enter into this transferring willingly and with full knowledge of the repercussions of passing the wards to another.”
“I, Nezu, Principal of Yuuei enter into this transfer willingly and with full knowledge of the repercussions of accepting the wards from another.” Nezu read from his prompt.
“I offer the mastery of the wards to Nezu, Principal of Yuuei. Do you accept the wards?”
“I accept the wards, from current Ward Master Midoriya Izumi.” Nezu felt a pressure begin to press into his shoulders. “Command: End Ward Master transferal.”
“Congratulations, Ward Master Nezu.” Izumi gave a small bow which Nezu returned.
“Thank you, Midoriya-san.” Nezu then sat back on the couch and let out a sigh. “You didn’t tell me the wards would be so heavy.”
“It will grow easier over time as you grow accustomed to their presence, that is the weight of responsibility.” Izumi looked over at the clock on the wall. “I still think you should cancel any off-campus exorcises, but it is nearly dawn and I am too tired to list the reasons why not canceling them is a bad idea.” Izumi pushed herself up and headed for the door. “Just remember these wards are for the main buildings, don’t be reliant on the wards to keep you constantly informed if it is outside the radius.” Izumi then opened the door and gave Nezu a wave. “Have a good morning.” Izumi brought her hand down and opened a portal home and walked through with a smile on her face.
_________________________________________________________________________

I am going off the idea that Aizawa has been teaching for four years. Expelling an average of 38.5 students a year. That we know this is the only year crop of students at Yuuei with the full number of students as no one that we know of has been expelled. I and going with a rough guess because nothing is consistent over the information that we are given. There are two over headshots during the Sports festival arc that I can count stick figured from, the first is on page 129 of Vol 2 and the second is on page 185 of the same volume. The first is before class 1-A ic call onto the field by Mic so it may be a replay of the upperclassmen or just an out of context image. There are 131 figures that walk out of 7 tunnels so that would only count classes A-G but they are consistent at about 20 students a class. Now on 185 after the race but before the cavalry battle, we get another overhead. These show nine groups of students all standing around so that is only missing 2 classes. When counted it comes out to a total of 214 stick figures all grouped together in groups of an average of 25. We know that some management/business course students aren’t participating. So the number of students on average at UA is 20. Because even if you add in the full missing classes at 20 students apiece for the two missing, you are much closer to the 220 total that we get than the 440 with 40 students a class. I know the average number of students in a high school in Japan is 40 per my google search, but let’s also remember that Yuuei is supposed to be really hard to get into so the assumption that the classes would be smaller is a thing we can do.
So with the first years being the only known class year to have a full roster that means there are about so here is how the number of students at Yuuei. Classes A and B have 20 students and the rest of the courses C-K have 25. So the total number of first years is 265. Now Yuuei is a three-year program sot that means the MAX amount of students is 795. Now we need to subtract the 38 from the second years and 39 from the third years. So the total amount of students at Yuuei is 718. Now for staff, we know of 5 current staff members that aren’t classified as teachers per the wiki. We need at least one homeroom teacher for each class and year so that is 33 total. I am also just going to assume that all course teachers are also homeroom teachers, and the one extra heroics course teacher that is All Might that makes 34.
718 Students
5 Staff Members
34 teachers
757 people at Yuuei currently working or studying.

Wow, that was a rabbit hole that I went down. Sorry. Did you know there are two completely unnamed heroes who show up at the USJ, I assumed they were teachers.

Notes:

Ok, ONWARD BRAVE HEROES TO THE USJ. I was going to put the start of the USJ and than leave you on a cliff hanger but I wrote myself into a calm ending for this chapter so I decided against writing into a cliffhanger. Hope you all enjoyed it. sorry about the rabbit hole I went down.
Spell Translations
Booming Voice--- Vox Magno
Cool Flames--- frigus flammarum
Follows in the Hunter's footsteps--- Venator sequitur vestigia in

With the blessing of the world and the power of the stars, I beseech the protections to rise and gather to shield all behind the borders. In the name of the last mage, I give thee power and purpose.

Cum benedictione mundi, et potestas est ad astra, et rogamus, ut qui oriri et colligentes custodiis tegere post omnes terminos tuos. In nomine ultimo variae studii, consilii et virtutis do tibi.

By the truest North---Per cubito verissimo Septentrionalis
By the breaking East---Ab oriente praevaricationem
By the ending West---Quod ending per Occidentem
By the rejecting South---A meridie repudiaret

Notes:

This is the first of what I hope is many in the story of a mage Izuku. I have had this idea rolling around my head for a while and I decided that with the pandemic I finally had time to sit down and write again. Hope you all enjoy.
Ver 1.1 did some small edits