Archive of Our Own ^beta

"Do you ever wonder about UA's teaching?"

"Eh?" said Midoriya, who happened to be the closest to Kaminari as they filed into the Demonstration Hall with the rest of the school. "What do you mean? We're always getting stronger, and the teachers--"

"Not that," said Kaminari. "I mean, definitely, we are getting stronger, we killed it at the licensing exam. Ninety-five percent pass rate for the first year class, right? But I'm not sure how showing us hallucinations about our quirks is supposed to help with that, it just seems illogical--"

"What seems illogical?" asked Aizawa, looming up behind them.

"Nothing, sensei!" said Midoriya, recovering far more quickly than Kaminari. "I can think of dozens of reasons visualizing one's quirk might be useful for a hero student, especially if the visualization reflects reality well. Like if that student is having trouble activating their quirk, or if the quirk has secondary effects that aren't well understood, or if--"

Aizawa let Midoriya go on for another few list items, then cut him off with a heavy sigh. "Go find your seats, you two."

They scurried off.

Aizawa sighed again, but this time it was less exaggerated. The fact was, both of them were right. Higuchi's quirk was quite useful under certain circumstances, and they'd contracted with her several times in the past to work with students that were having trouble with their quirks. But today they were bringing her in to do the whole school, on the theory that quirks foreign to their bearers might be visualized differently from a native quirk.

Honestly, they were running out of valid leads on the suspected mole. The reaction Higuchi's quirk had on the captive nomu had been... interesting... but without a known, living person who had received a quirk from All for One to compare to, Aizawa didn't think any results from this were worthwhile. Might as well go by whose body was least suitable for their quirk, and if Midoriya was working for All for One, Aizawa would eat both his hero license and his teaching license. And his driver's license. And his fishing license. And his license to kill (which he didn't actually have, but a guy could dream).

Aizawa slunk off to his designated spot as Higuchi walked up to the front of the stage.

"Hello, everyone," she said in that casual air of hers. "I'm Higuchi Chie, nice to meetcha." She adjusted the microphone and put her hands in her pockets. "Any of y'all know what my quirk does?"

Dozens of hands went up. Higuchi pointed into the crowd and Midoriya sprang to his feet.

"Your quirk generates a wave that, when it encounters a quirked individual, produces semi-tangible holograms or other minor physical effects that correspond to the effects that individual's quirk has on them."

"That's-- actually right. Huh. Sorry. I'm just so used to people calling them illusions or hallucinations. Anyway." She scratched her eyebrow. "Effects of my quirk can range from duplicating your emitter side-effects to, like, your own personal Pokémon. Pokémon is still popular, right?"

There was silence in the hall.

"Okay, whatever," said Higuchi. She raised a hand. "Watch the birdy!"

She snapped her fingers and her quirk rippled across the Demonstration Hall.

Some of the effects were at least somewhat expected. Togata's skin became transparent. Harmless spirals appeared in the air around Hado. Sato and Koda both had lines on their bodies that converged on their mouths. Shinsou initially didn't seem to have undergone any changes, but when he opened his mouth to say something to a classmate, glowing lines radiated outwards from his mouth.

Others were stranger. Todoroki's quirk manifested as two beautiful (and admittedly rather Pokémon-like) birds, which immediately started fighting one another. Nezu was plugged into a huge computer chip that faded in and out of view.

The wave reached Aizawa, and he grimaced at the odd sensation of his eyes glowing and his hair floating when his quirk wasn't active. It was distracting.

But not distracting enough for Aizawa to ignore how things had gone unnaturally quiet near Midoriya.

He pushed past several rows of children who were standing and craning for a better view, including Bakugo, whose hands were wreathed in smoke and covered in ember-like veins, firecraker sparks in his palms, then he stopped.

"Problem child," he said, voice strangled.

"What?" asked Midoriya, both worried and defensive. "What is it?"

What "it" was, was hands. Hands that clung to Midoriya, to his shoulders, his back, his arms, even the top of his head.

It painted a disturbingly Shigaraki-like picture. Aizawa wasn't sure if the bright colors of these hands and the way they moved made the image better or worse. It didn't look like his classmates knew, either, from the looks of them.

It had to be a coincidence.

Aizawa really wanted it to be a coincidence.

Oblivious to the multiple crises he was causing, Midoriya poked curiously at one of the hands. The hand, one of two blue ones, started poking him back.

Aizawa wrenched his gaze away to pick out other strength quirks in the crowd. Almost all of them, including Sato, featured some kind of glowing pattern on their skin. Other than Midoriya, the only exceptions were a girl from 3-C whose strength was actually contact telekinesis and fit that pattern well enough, and Yagi, whose quirk manifested as a diffuse golden cloud swirling around his body like pale fire.

... One that was suspiciously similar to the color and aura around one of Midoriya's extra hands.

Hm.

Aizawa didn't like that.

He didn't like that at all.

"'Scuse me," said Higuchi, drawing attention to herself again.

Izuku attempted to refrain from fidgeting, but... there was just so much going on. So much new information about quirks, about his friends, about One for All... it was all he could do to keep from fidgeting, either with his own hands or with One for All's hands. He wanted to whip out his notebook and start writing, but the seats in the Demonstration Hall were close together, and Kacchan was nearby and some memories from junior high were deep...

One of the hands of One for All (Nana's, maybe?) fluffed his hair in a vaguely chiding way, and he muttered an apology.

"Okay," said Higuchi, "now that y'all've got that, some other housekeeping details. First off, none of the quirk manifestations will take much in the way of weight. More'n a few extra pounds per square inch, and they'll go poof. As long as it's within my three day time limit, they'll reform, but they'll take the energy to do that from you. In fact, y'all might be noticing that forming them in the first place took something out of you. Other things... don't try to feed them. Don't set 'em on fire - that always gets weird, even if they don't poof."

Izuku wasn't the only one to look at Todoroki's already-on-fire bird.

"Don't try to eat them... And don't try to get to far away from them. That can cause them to disperse and reform, too, and how far away you have to get for that is different for each person. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's it." She gave the students a little wave. "Have fun with your quirks, everyone!"

"Wow," said Izuku, "I wonder why she didn't become a hero with such a convenient ability."

"What do you mean, Midoriya?" asked Mineta. His change was subtle, just a moving ooze-like pattern over his hair balls.

"Well, it sounds like her ability could be used to create instant weak spots. Even for a quirk like Kirishima's, if you can keep making the manifestation, um, poof, then you can eventually wear down the person."

"It's because she wanted to teach elementary school," said Aizawa. Izuku jumped. He'd somehow forgotten he was there.

He blamed all of the fascinating physical quirk manifestations around him. Yaoyorozu, sitting just on the other side of Mineta, glowed. It really added to her image as a goddess!

"Oh," said Izuku, "I bet it's really useful there, too." Especially with early quirk counseling. Well... That assumed she had an occupational use license... not that the lack of one had stopped the teachers at Aldera...

Anyway! No time to think about that! He had quirks to study! Including, and especially, One for All!

Principal Nezu got back up on the stage. "Please take the rest of the day to familiarize yourself with your quirks," he said. "Starting tomorrow, we will be running special lessons that take them into account."

And with that, the were dismissed. 1-A naturally gravitated to Ground Alpha, where they were sure to have lots of room for practice... or just to spread out and compare quirk effects.

"Alright!" said Kaminari, grinning at them and holding up his quirk manifestation, a long, pale yellow creature with long ears that was otherwise somewhere between a weasel and a hedgehog. "Who else has a new little animal bestie?"

"Me! Me!" said Ashido, jumping up and down. "Look at this cutie!"

Izuku... didn't know if he'd call that cute, exactly, but it was visually interesting. Like a wide, flat sea slug that folded over Ashido's shoulders like a cloak.

Other than her and Todoroki... yeah, that was it, actually.

"Do you think we could battle them like Pokemon?" asked Kaminari.

"Hm," said Todoroki, glaring lightly at his two birds (which were still fighting). "Pass."

As Kaminari and Ashido tried to battle each other, Izuku turned his attention to his other classmates. Some hardly looked changed, but for others... Kirishima had patterns on his skin that were reminiscent of what he looked like when he activated Hardening. Jiro's showed lines leading from her jacks and ears that went all over her body. Aoyama had both glitter and sickly-looking cracks radiating out from his stomach. Tokoyami's Dark Shadow had become much more solid-looking, almost like a double following him around.

It was amazing, it was fascinating, it was--

A bit strange, the way that he wasn't able to get a closer look at anyone.

"Todoroki, do you feel like... people are avoiding us?" asked Izuku. One of the hands patted his shoulder in a reassuring way. Absentmindedly, he patted one back.

"No," said Todoroki, who was staring intently at One for All's hands.

"Must just be a coincidence, then," said Izuku. His eyes wandered over to Aizawa and All Might, who were supervising them. Both of them were looking at him.

Coincidence.

Maybe there was something unusual about his quirk manifestation? He hadn't even thought about that, really, and he should have. He missed too much when it came to this quirk, like when he hadn't realized that All Might had been quirkless. What if he gave away the secret of One for All?

Another reassuring pat made him take a deep breath. No. Surely, hands weren't that unusual.

He looked at them. Seven pairs and one extra, for a total of fifteen hands. He brushed his fingers over the golden extra, the one he was sure corresponded to All Might. The shape was right.

What would they do if he activated One for All...?

He pulled up Full Cowl, and the grip of the hands became firmer. He could feel them, ready to lend him their strength. All Might's hand wrapped around his right wrist, giving the aching bones just that little bit extra relief.

He smiled, and whispered his thanks.

He loved quirks, and he was going to make the most of this one.