Chapter 56Summary:
Just some hero class training.
Notes:
Art!
Indifferent_Insomnia~(눈‸눈)
Memes!
X X X X X X X
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Tensei's smile was kind as he looked at Tenya, "Are you ready for this?"
Tenya took a deep breath, "No. I don't deserve a second chance at heroism like this. They should have expelled me."
Tensei nodded seriously, "They should have. But then again, they should have told me there was no way I could return to heroism and here we are. Whether or not you deserve another chance, Tenya, the important thing is what you do with it."
"I suppose." Tenya said tightly, rubbing his shoulder nervously. Even though the fabric of the uniform, he could feel where it transitioned from skin into cold metal. Hatsume had said it would take a while to get used to, but both he and Tensei had wanted to get back to...well, not normal, but to training as soon as possible and Recovery Girl had given them the go ahead, so here they were.
Tenya held open the door while Tensei rolled through and he swallowed nervously as he realized the entire class was staring at them. They were a few minutes late, which Tenya hated, but Aizawa had insisted that was the best way to make sure they only had to explain the situation once. That didn't mean Tenya was comfortable, but he was obeying the teacher, so he'd get through it. Hopefully.
"Perfect, you're here." Aizwa said, checking their names on the roll sheet. "Everyone, you all know Iida already, and unless you've had your head under a rock in this class, you should already be aware of his brother Tensei Iida, aka, Ingenium."
The class nodded hesitantly, some of them giving Tenya pitying or even wary looks. Tenya swallowed nervously and bowed, "I, uh, I apologize for my actions. Nedzu and Aizawa have permitted me to rejoin the hero course on a trial basis, provided that I can prove I have learned from my mistakes."
"For the sake of the rest of your limbs, I hope you do." Aizawa said dryly. "And before the rest of you ask, Ingenium is also here as a student, of sorts. With the help of some support items, he has decided to try to reenter the field as a hero, but that will require completely overhauling his entire fighting style, so for all intents and purposes, he's basically a first year again and he'll be tagging along with the class for a while as part of his physical therapy and rehabilitation. He's about as immature as most of you anyway, so I have no doubt he'll fit right in."
Tensei laughed loudly, "Oh, come on Shou! Give me some credit! My immaturity is completely intentional!"
Aizawa shot him a glare, "That makes it worse. Find your seats."
"That's ok." Tesei winked. "I brought my own."
That earned a few laughs from the class and Tenya hurried to his empty seat while Tensei just parked himself at the edge of the first row. This was going to be an interesting year.
Ochako giggled quietly as she caught sight of All Might frantically stuffing a pocket-sized teaching handbook in his pocket before striding through the door with a smile on his face that was obviously his attempt at hiding how insecure he was. Ochako was sure that he'd get more comfortable with teaching as the year went on, but for now it was oddly comforting to see the number one hero flounder and make mistakes, just like she was doing with One for All. It helped her feel more like a worthy successor, or well, helped her see that a perfect successor didn't exist and that all of them were just trying their best. It was nice.
"Hello children!" All Might boomed. "For today's training exercise, we are going to play dodgeball!"
"Dodgeball?!" Bakugo practically exploded and a few of their other classmates sniggered at his reaction. "I'm in the hero course to fight, not run away from a stupid ball!"
"Well, uh, you also need to know how to evade attacks, young Bakugo." All Might stuttered. "It is one thing to beat an opponent into submission, but it is another to survive long enough to do so."
"Come on, Blasty, it'll be fun!" Mina laughed. "Unless, of course, you don't think you can win."
"Of course I can win!" Bakugo yelled. "You damn extras, I'll make you pay for underestimating me!"
"Well, then, not that that's taken care of..." All Might cleared his throat. "Dodgeball. To keep it simple, we'll be playing last man standing, so once you're out of the game, you're out. Whichever team has the last player on the field wins. Teams will be divided as evenly with odd seat numbers on one team and even seat numbers on the other. Both Iidas will be on the same team, since they are still getting back into the swing of things. Any questions?"
Ochako bounced with excitement as her classmates shook their heads. This was perfect! She hadn't given out a whole lot of details about her new abilities and she'd been too nervous to really use One for All in a combat exercise yet, but this would be good because it shouldn't require too much accuracy on her part. She just had to dodge the balls and not get hit. She could do this.
They all got into position, eyeing the balls in the center. Ochako grinned at Hitoshi, who was on the other team and he returned with a smirk of his own. They both knew each other's weaknesses, so it should be an even match, but Ochako was confident. He was going down.
All Might blew the whistle and everyone rushed forward. Bakugo was one of the first to reach the center and Ochako anchored to him, her earrings beeping for a split second before she was at the center. Bakugo reared back when she suddenly appeared in his face. She smirked and grabbed the ball he'd been reaching for before anchoring to Mineta, who was still near the edges, and disappearing.
"What the fuck, Round Face!" Bakugo shouted. "We're on the same team!"
"Sorry Bakugo!" Ochako smiled and shrugged. "You were the closest person to where I needed to be!"
Bakugo grabbed another ball and launched it with explosive force into Ojiro's stomach, "Well, try to mess up the other team next time!"
"Come on, Bakugo." Hitoshi tilted his head to the side like some sort of creepy doll and didn't blink as he stared at Bakugo with wide eyes. "Can a little girl really mess you up that much?"
Bakugo screwed his eyes shut, "Nice try, eyebags, but I've figured out your quirk and it's not gonna…"
Hitoshi smiled as he took control, "Hmm, good idea, but not quite."
Shouji was using all six of his arms to throw balls in every direction and it didn't take long for one to hit Bakugo in the back, knocking him out of the brainwashing, "Oh, Eyebags, I'm gonna…"
"Young Bakugo! You're out!" All Might said. "Please come to the side until the next round!"
Bakugo glared at Hitoshi, "You're gonna pay for this, eyebags."
Hitoshi returned his glare smoothly, "I'm looking forward to it."
About half the class was already out at this point, the initial bloodbath making almost no time at all and Ochako hurried to remove the gravity on her ball and throw it at Jiro, who managed to dodge. Without gravity, however, the ball just continued forward and hit Tensei before he could wheel himself out of the way. Ochako winced, "Sorry!"
"I'm good!" Tensei gave her a thumbs up. "Nice hit!"
Ochako smiled proudly, "Thanks!"
Dark Shadow launched an attack at her, but there was a group of abandoned balls near Mina, so Ochako anchored to her and disappeared right as the ball would have hit her. The more she jumped, the better she was getting at recentering herself, so when she reappeared behind Mina, it only took her half a second before she had bent down, retrieved a ball and launched it. Mina turned around just in time for the ball to hit her in the stomach instead of the back and she laughed as she made her way off the field, "Oh, we are gonna have so much fun pranking people!"
Ochako giggled and shook her head as she grabbed another ball. On her team, it was her, Shouji, and Tsu still in. Hitoshi was still in for the other team, and they seemed to be doing a bit better considering that they had Tokoyami, Kirishima, Yaomomo, and most likely Hagakure, since her gloves were still lying on the floor. Yaomomo had created what looked like a t-shirt cannon and was using it to launch the balls with ridiculous accuracy. Shoji, however, could launch more at a time. He grabbed another six balls and managed to hit Hagakure by sheer luck, judging by the yelp, but Yaoyorozu used his split-second of distraction to hit him with her launcher. Ochako squeaked as another ball came flying at her courtesy of Kirishima and she instinctively teleported away and toward Tokoyami, accidentally stumbling as she reappeared and knocking right into him, which gave Tsu the opening she needed to get him out, but unfortunately Yaoyorozu returned the favor almost immediately. It was now Ochako versus Kirishima, Yaomomo and, of course, Hitoshi.
"You may as well give up now." Hitoshi drawled, tossing a ball between his hands. "Do you really think you can take on all of us?"
Ochako just smirked, giving Hitoshi a quick nod before using Kirishima as an anchor to warp across the field. She ended up way farther than she'd been trying for, probably overcorrecting for getting too close the last couple times, but she was still able to grab a ball and throw it at Kirishima, who was so surprised at her sudden appearance that he hardened instead of dodged. The best plan at this point was probably to keep moving. If she turned this into a game of wack-a-mole instead of dodgeball, then she might even be able to win this, especially if she could bait Yaomomo and Hitoshi into hitting each other.
She grinned and switched anchors every jump, never staying in one place for more than a few seconds until she got lucky and appeared right between them. She stayed put for almost five seconds, long enough for them both to take aim and let loose their balls, then disappeared just in time for both attacks to fly right through where she had been and hit the other person right as Ochako herself reappeared beside All Might, "How was that? Did I win?"
"Woo!" Mina cheered loudly. "That's our girl!"
"How did you do that?!" Kaminari's eyes were wide. "That's an awesome quirk development. I wish I'd learned that much on my internship."
Ochako couldn't stop smiling proudly as All Might put his hand on her shoulder and spoke quietly, "It seems as though you are doing quite well at making that power your own, Young Uraraka. The others would be proud."
Notes:
Next Update: July 7, 2021 (MDT)
Chapter 57: NewSummary:
Is this chapter just crack taken seriously? I don't know, but I love it.
Notes:
Art!
Indifferent_Insomnia~(눈‸눈)
|•Smoked._.salmoN•|
Memes!
X X
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Izuku watched the footage from the dodgeball match for the third time. Uraraka was progressing rapidly, which was impressive, but he still couldn't shake the nagging feeling that there was something off about the entire situation. People's quirks didn't just become ten times more powerful overnight! Quirk development and even quirk mutations were either gradual or in response to trauma and neither case was present here. And then there was what Uraraka had said about giving it back if he hadn't helped her. There was something weird going on and Izuku wasn't sure how he was supposed to give an accurate analysis off of an incomplete, or worse falsified, data set.
Hitoshi didn't knock when he came into Izuku's workroom and Izuku didn't turn to acknowledge him, but he did nod, "Hey Hitoshi, make yourself at home."
"Already done." Hitoshi sat backwards on an extra chair so that his arms were resting on the back and spun around. "Oh, are you watching the dodgeball thing? Ocha did pretty well, don't you think?"
Izuku groaned, "Exactly! She's doing great and I still don't know why! Why did her quirk get so powerful? Why did she have no control over it? It just doesn't make sense!"
HItoshi hummed thoughtfully, "I don't know. Aizawa was asking about her the other night and even referred to it as her new quirk, cause it's just so different from her standard gravity manipulation."
Izuku's brain rebooted, "Say that again."
Hitoshi frowned, "Teleportation is different than gravity manipulation? I thought that was obvious."
"No, before that." Izuku grabbed a notebook and almost broke his pencil from how quickly he grabbed it. "You called it her new quirk."
"Well, Aizawa did." Hitoshi shrugged. "But yeah. So what?"
Izuku grinned, "So what are the problems? All of a sudden, Uraraka can teleport, when she couldn't before. A new quirk would 100% explain that. She had zero control, but has developed it extremely quickly, just like a four year old getting used to their new quirk. And people don't just develop new quirks, which means someone gave it to her, which explains why she would be able to return it. No wonder she's been super vague about it! Obviously something like this is probably a huge secret!"
Hitoshi sat back in shock, "Izuku, this...this isn't...is something like this even possible?"
Izuku's phone buzzed and he checked to see a new message from Nedzu, "I think we're about to find out."
Mineta was tired of diner french fries, but small towns didn't have much to offer in the way of stake out food. All for one had assigned him to look into a few Stain fanboys and determine if any were worth recruiting. He wasn't quite sure what exactly All for One had in mind for the new recruit, and really wasn't sure why he was sending Stain's killer on this mission, especially because Mineta still had homework to do in the afternoons, but it seemed like Sensei had conveniently forgotten about that fact. Seriously, with all he did for the league, he should be the favorite, not the deadbeat gamer with a dandruff problem.
He stuffed another fry in his face and kept an eye on the street his target should be passing though, if Mineta had guessed his route correctly. Most of the others had been a bust. They were either too weak, too wishy-washy in their ideals, or just plain not cut off from society enough to be convinced to leave it all behind and join the league. Mineta wasn't betting any money on this guy being any different. He consistently liked posts about Stain or ones in line with those ideals, but hadn't made any of his own, and he was the classic definition of failure to launch, staying in the same small town after high school despite the almost nonexistent career opportunities here. Mineta might as well just save himself some time, cross Shuichi Iguchi off his list, and go home.
But he'd promised All for One he'd do the stupid mission, so he waited and finally, finally, the guy started walking along the street below him. The street wasn't busy, but there were definatly people around, and their reactions to this Iguchi guy were almost more promising than the guy himself. People stared at him while he passed and Mineta was 100% sure that some of them were whispering slurs as soon as they thought the lizard was out of earshot. A few even passed to the other side of the street to avoid him. It was a classic case of mutant-quirk discrimination, made even worse by the fact that, just like there was only one stop light, there was probably only one mutant in town, so all that prejudice and hatred from all those people got concentrated and projected onto him.
Mineta smiled and started bouncing along the rooftops, keeping in the shadows as he followed behind his target, always keeping him in sight. A guy with strong ideals in line with what Stain had believed and ready, oh so ready, to leave it all behind and screw all the people that had ever shunned him. Iguchi was exactly what All for One was looking for.
He slipped into the window of Iguchi's apartment while the guy himself took the stairs even though Mineta knew full well that he could climb walls. They'd have to get him into the habit of using his quirk more casually then, but that was a problem for later. For now, Mineta just stuck a few balls in the corner of the room and hung out as the lock clicked and Iguchi waked in, "You know, speaking from experience, it would be faster to just climb the wall and come in through the window."
Iguchi squeaked and Mineta almost thought he was going to do that thing where a lizard loses its tail when in a fight or flight situation, but all Iguchi's limbs stayed attached. For now. Iguchi lowered himself into a sloppy fighting stance and stared up at Mineta in a mix of fear and curiosity, "Who are you?! Why are you in my apartment?!"
"You can call me Trapper." Mineta smiled and dropped onto the floor into a couch before standing. "And I'm here to change your life."
Shouto was still figuring this whole homeless thing out. Maybe living on the streets was a better term, because he's already adopted murder alley as his second home long before his father kicked him out permanently. Luckily, he didn't have to worry about things like showers or food because UA had a gym and a lunch room, so he got a shower every morning and at least one meal a day, which wasn't that much less than Endeavor had been giving him anyway, so it wasn't too bad. The weirdest part of living on the streets, however, was definitely Shigaraki.
He was actually fairly normal, when he wasn't killing people, and was apparently a pretty big gamer. He'd brought his laptop and was trying to introduce Shouto to a video game, but Shouto couldn't even figure out how to pause the game, much less what he was supposed to do.
Shigaraki groaned for the fifth time, "Seriously?! It's just point and shoot! How do you mess that up?!"
"Very carefully." Shouto deadpanned.
The computer pinged a few times and a few notifications came up on the screen.
Nice burn
Dusty, you got a new streaming buddy?! poggers
New guy = comedic relief
Shouto frowned, "Um...is that part of the game?"
"What did you do?!" Shigaraki scratched at his neck. "What button did you press?!"
"I don't know!" Shouto panicked. "I...I was just pressing anything! I don't know what I'm doing, you know that!"
Shigaraki stared at him in disbelief, "I can't believe you're so bad at this that you accidentally started streaming!"
The computer pinged again with notifications.
Don't blame him for you being a bad teacher!
Keep the new guy!
An accident?! How?!
"You...you're a streamer?" Shouto blinked. "How do you even have time for that between attacking…"
Shigaraki slammed a hand over his mouth, thankfully with only four fingers, and pressed a button that made a large mute notification flash across the screen, "Ok, first rule: don't ever give out personal information online. This includes you being a hero brat or me being a villain. Got it?"
Shouto nodded nervously and Shigaraki took his hand off his mouth, "And yeah, I'm a streamer. It's...just something I do for me. Sometimes it helps to rage, ok? I'm not popular or anything, but since you're here and people are already watching, we may as well turn this into public humiliation."
"Hey!" Shouto said indignantly. "I'm not...ok, well, maybe I am that bad, but hey!"
"Next rule goes along with number one." Shigaraki didn't even bother to respond to his protests, but he was a villain, so Shouto didn't really expect him to. "Don't use your real name. My tag is Dusty, so use it. What's yours?"
"Uh…" Shouto shrugged. "Shouto?"
The look Shigaraki gave him very clearly stated that that was unacceptable, so Shouto started looking around. His eyes fell on Epurr, who was curled against his left side, which was heated just enough so that she didn't crawl across the keyboard. Again. She was the inspiration for stealing his life and his quirk back from his father, so maybe…
"Icy Cat." Shouto blurted out. "You can call me Icy Cat."
Shigaraki snorted, but unmuted the mic, "Sorry about that, my local idiot somehow managed to mute us both. But yeah, I found a new streaming buddy for everyone to laugh at, so if you don't make him cry, I'll be pissed. Icy Cat here grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth and has never played before, so give him hell, yeah? Ok, now unpause the game and let's get playing again. We've wasted too much time on this side quest already."
Shouto froze, "Uh...how do I do that again?"
Notes:
Next Update: July 14, 2021 (MDT)
Chapter 58: LegacySummary:
One for All and All for One
Notes:
Art!
Jess
RogueBEEctor
ThatsSo𝙔𝙞𝙠𝙚𝙨
Stormy Person X
Memes!
X X X X X X X X X X X X
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Hitoshi tried to shake the feeling that he was in trouble as he, Izuku, Mei, Ochako, Present Mic, All Might and Aizawa all crowded into the space across from Nedzu's desk. Izuku was practically vibrating with excitement next to him and after a hurried explanation in the hall on the way there, Mei was doing the same. Ochako and Mic just looked confused, but that was probably because nobody had had time to explain to either of them what this meeting was about. Aizawa just looked done with life and if he didn't know better, Hitoshi would have said that All Might was vaguely terrified.
Nedzu, on the other hand, looked absolutely delighted, "Well, Midoriya, it appears you have discovered yet another state secret and it's not even the end of the semester yet! I must say I'm impressed."
Izuku turned bright red, "I...it was...I wasn't trying to!"
Nedzu smiled a bit wider. "That makes it even better! I knew taking you on as a student would be fun!"
"Wait, what secret?" Ochako's eyes flitted about the room. "I can leave if you need to discuss something…"
"Don't bother." Aizawa sighed. "Midoriya just figured out One for All. It's a miracle it took him this long, honestly, considering that he somehow knew about All Might's smaller form before the school year even started."
Ochako sighed in relief, "Oh good. That means I can actually ask you guys all the questions now. It was getting really hard to remember that you didn't know!"
"Uh…" Hitoshi raised his hand. "What's One for All?"
"That must be the name of Ochako's second quirk!" Izuku piped up. "What are the mechanics of it? Does it make you teleport or did it just strengthen your quirk, which resulted in teleportation? Did you know it would do that? Did you even know about it before it manifested? How did it develop? Is it genetic or artificial? How did…"
Ochako cut him off with a giggle, "All Might gave it to me, so no, it's not genetic, but it did have to be transferred through dna, which is kinda gross. And we really thought it was gonna strengthen my muscles like it did for him, but the quirk kinda just latched onto my quirk instead, so no. We had absolutely no idea that I was going to start teleporting."
Izuku lunged to grab his notebook and Mei cackled, "Oh, this is gonna be fun!"
"Whoa!" Tenya yelped as he tripped and fell into the grass for the seventeenth time. He'd counted.
Tensei laughed as he wheeled up to him, "You need to loosen up, Tenya. You keep falling because you're too tense!"
"I'm falling because the ground keeps rolling out from under my feet." Tenya spat, tearing the roller blades off his feet. "This can't possibly be faster than just running!"
"Just calm down." Tensei put his hand on his shoulder. "Look, I know you're frustrated, but you can't let your anger get the best of you, ok?"
Tenya felt the anger rush out of him like a deflating balloon, leaving a familiar sense of dread and guilt in its place, "I...you're right. I'm sorry. It won't happen again."
Tensei sighed, "Of course it will happen again, Tenya. You can't just repress anger and expect not to blow up, that's what got you into this mess in the first place."
Tenya swallowed, "I know."
"Look." Tensei sat up and started rolling away. "You have to learn how to go with the movement, Tenya, otherwise you're gonna keep slowing yourself down. The problem isn't the roller blades, it's that you keep acting like nothing is going to move or change. You can't fight your own momentum, you have to just go with it!"
"I'm trying!" Tenya insisted. "But these things are impossible! I can't balance on them!"
"Then don't try to balance!" Tensei grinned. "Why don't you just...I don't know, lean into where you want to go and stop worrying so much? Stop being so tense and just…"
"Go with the movement." Tenya groaned. "Sure, fine. I'm just going to fall twice as fast, but fine, let's do it your way!"
Tensei smiled and gestured for him to continue and Tenya rolled his eyes as he pulled the roller blades back on, "This isn't going to work."
"Maybe not." Tensei shrugged. "But it's worth a try."
Tenya sighed and shakily stood up, holding his arms out on either side. Tensei said he was too tense, that he needed to loosen up. Tenya took a deep breath and tried to relax, forcing himself not to imagine the roller blades rolling out from under him as he started moving. Within seconds, he started falling again, but instead of freezing up he tried to go with the movement whatever that meant. Instead of falling over like he'd expected to, though, he just turned and gained momentum. It felt natural and almost freeing as he sped faster and faster...straight into the ground. He spat out a bit of dirt and glared at Tensei, who was holding his sides and would probably be on the floor laughing if he wasn't stuck in a wheelchair, "Stop laughing."
"Sorry!" Tensei gasped. "It's kinda my job as a big brother. But how did it feel? Well, before the epic crash and burn?"
Tenya frowned and looked at the roller blades, "I think you're right. Maybe it's worth a try."
Shuichi gulped before following Trapper through the misty portal. He didn't know why he was doing this, it seemed completely idiotic, but at the same time, it had to be better than staying here. He'd been in this same stupid town with teh same stupid predjudices for so long and sure, Trapper had been a bit vague on the how, but he'd basically said that not only could he help him get out of his dead end life, he could help him change the world and disprove all those prejudices that had been holding him back ever since he was a kid! Yeah, it was a little sketchy and was probably the exact opposite of a good idea, but at the end of the day...what did he really have to lose? Friends? He'd never had them. Family? Not the best relationship to begin with? Sanity?
...Ok, maybe that last one, but he had to be insane to begin with because he was now stuck with this kid he barely knew in an unfamiliar location and he didn't even know what city they were in. Oh, and there was a blind guy hooked to machines like some pre-quirk hero movie. What had he gotten himself into?
"Hello Iguchi." The man smiled, which was somehow creepier without eyes. "My name is All for One. I'm sure you're wondering what's going on."
Shuichi nodded hesitantly, "Yeah. Trapper said you were going to change my life...and the world."
All for One grinned wider, "Exactly. You are familiar with the work of Stain, correct?"
Suichi felt a steak of happiness spurt through him, "The hero killer? Yeah! He had such a vision! Getting rid of all those fake heroes! If only he'd been able to complete his mission..."
"I agree…" All for One nodded. "It's a pity that the heroes did not allow it…"
Shuichi frowned, "the heroes? But the news said it was a rival vigilante…"
"Do you really think that the corrupt commission would want society believing any differently?" All for One's voice was full of pity. "But you seem like a bright young man, Iguchi. You deserve to know the truth. Stain was not killed by a rival. He was killed by one of the fake heroes he strove to destroy."
Shuichi gasped, "What?! A hero killed him? And they just got away with it?"
"Yeah, they sure did." Trapper piped up. "It's so unfair isn't it? The heroes get away with everything and get all the support, while the rest of us are underestimated and left in the dust."
"So how do we fix it?" Shuichi grit his teeth. "You said you were going to help me change the world."
All for One nodded, "I'm glad you asked. Before he died, Stain was able to leave behind one final piece of himself...a torch to pass on, if you will. My quirk allows me to take powers from some and give them to others who can use them better. In his final moments, when Stain knew death was certain, he entrusted me with finding a new holder for his quirk. Someone who was worthy of continuing his legacy."
Shuichi felt like he could hardly breathe as All for One reached out for him, "Shuichi Iguchi, you are worthy. Will you carry on Stain's legacy and vow to take down those fakes that call themselves heroes?"
"Yes!" Shuichi didn't even have to think about it. "It's all I've ever dreamed of! Please! Let me change the world!"
All for One chuckled, "No hesitation, just as I expected. Well, come here and let me give you your gift."
It hurt. It felt like every cell in his body was being pulled apart and rearranged as what must be Stain's quirk was forced into him. It felt like an eternity and Shuichi was fairly certain that he screamed at some point, but a few seconds later, he was on his knees catching his breath as Trapper and All for One smiled down at him.
"How do you feel?" Trapper asked excitedly. "Powerful?"
Shuichi nodded, "It's...I'm carrying Stain's essence. A part of him is a part of me. His legacy."
"Exactly." All for One agreed. "But now that you are Stain's successor, you can no longer be who you were before. What should we call you?"
Shuichi took a deep breath and his expression hardened in determination, "Call me Spinner, because I'm the one who's going to spin the web that all the heroes will trap themselves in."
All for One grinned again, "Well then, Spinner, welcome to the league of villains."
Notes:
Next Update: July 21, 2021 (MDT)
Chapter 59: ImprovementSummary:
Cheat Code finally delivers the analysis packets.
Notes:
Art!
Sparks
CardinalCat
alejandrarubibuci
Memes!
X X X X X X X
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Today was the day. It didn't seem like that much of an unusual day in the morning, Shouto had just showed up early to be able to shower before class like he had ever since Endeavor kicked him out, but when he'd walked into class, there was a small packet sitting on every single desk besides Iida's and that was only because he had already picked his up and was reading through it furiously. Ingenium had parked his wheelchair in the back of the room and waved to him with the hand that wasn't currently leafing through a packet of his own. Shouto almost hesitated, but ended up shaking his head and walking to his desk despite how weird this was. When he got to his desk though and noticed Cheat Code's logo emblazoned on the cover, everything made sense.
That analyst probably still wanted him to use his fire, didn't he?
Well, it was high time he started showing his old man that his fire was his now and not some gift from Endeavor. Besides, Shiggy had been harping on him for using too many of the same attack. Shouto had no idea how they had gotten so many followers in a week, but apparently people liked to see him make a fool of himself and he got an unhealthy amount of enjoyment out of imagining his fathers face if he found out that over 100,000 people were watching his perfect masterpiece fail every single night. Even just thinking about it made him smile.
After that first stream, the new followers had started sending in requests for games for him to try and one of the most popular ones had been a game called Super Smash Bros. Shouto had never heard of it, but apparently it had been around since pre-quirk times and had gone through about a million different iterations, but all with the same premise of the players trying to beat the shit out of each other and push each other off a platform. Of course, Shouto hadn't understood the goal and immediately walked straight off it with a delayed oops that made the chat go wild, but it brought back pleasant memories from the sports festival.
Shouto thought he was almost decent at the game, but Shigaraki apparently disagreed, because he won. Every. Single. Time. He said that part of Shouto's probabem was that he tried using the same attacks over and over and it made him too predictable and easy to beat, but Shouto thought that was kind of unfair considering that those were the only two attacks he knew. The only way to get better, though, was to learn more attacks, hence why he was determined to master his fire.
The hero course wasn't too much different than a video game, all things considered.
If Shigaraki were here, he'd probably call this entire packet a skills list or something and tell Shouto to max out his stats, which he assumed meant something like being the strongest he could be. He looked through the analysis and suggestions carefully, mentally highlighting anything he hadn't considered before or felt like he could easily incorporate into an attack. Most of it wasn't new, but before he hadn't been ready to...how would Shiggy say it? Level up?
By now, most of the class had arrived and most of his classmates were yelling about what was in their packets and comparing them to each other. Some were pretty happy with the suggestions, like Ashido who had to be persuaded not to try some of the new techniques on her desk, while others were...a little less receptive.
"Why should I stop looking at the babes during battle?!" Mineta sobbed. "Boobs are life, not distractions!"
"Lactose intolerant?!" Aoyama's sparkle almost seemed dimmer, "No! Tell me it can't be true!"
"Consider avoiding daylight." Tokoyami muttered. "So the demon behind a screen wishes me to embrace the darkness."
"Oh, stop being so dramatic." Jiro rolled her eyes. "You don't have to take the suggestions, you know."
"But, I mean, that's why Cheat Code is giving them to us now, right?" Kaminari pointed out. "So we'll have time to incorporate them before finals?"
Shouto nodded. It made sense. He wasn't quite sure who Cheat Code actually was or why he was so interested in their class, but his old man never accepted help, so Shouto was going to take as much of it as he could get, then hopefully rub it in Endeavor's face.
Mina bounced over to Uraraka, "Ok, Miss Gravity Warper over there, what does yours say?"
"Uh…" Uraka flipped helplessly through her packet, which on further inspection was just a single page. "Nothing."
"What?!" Bakugo almost exploded as he ripped the paper from her hands. "Does that pencil pusher think you're better than the rest of us and don't need advice or something?! Come talk to me! What the fuck does that even mean?!"
Mineta gasped and stopped crying, "Uraraka! Do you know Cheat Code?!"
Uraraka's eyes widened and she started waving her arms, "No! I don't! Or...at least I don't think so…"
"Maybe he's hiding in plain sight." Shouto suggested. "Or maybe he isn't a person at all and is actually a concept."
Yaoyorozu nodded, "That would make sense…"
"No it wouldn't!" Kaminari pulled at his hair. "A concept can't make an analysis packet!"
Shouto just raised one eyebrow, "Can't it?"
His eye was drawn back to Uraraka when Shinso walked over to her desk and whispered something in her ear. Her eyes widened and Shouto heard her earrings beep a few times before she was gone. It was going to be difficult to beat her with her new quirk developments, but he'd find a way. Maybe Shigaraki could help him figure out a way to work around the glitch? On second thought, that probably wasn't the best idea. It was hard to remember that Shigaraki was a villain sometimes and not just some hobo he met in an alley sometimes.
Aizawa walked in a few seconds after the bell and by the look on his face, he was seriously considering walking straight back out again, "I see Cheat Code left your analysis packets this morning."
"Actually, I think he might have left them last night." Shinso grinned. "Pretty sure he basically haunts the walls of UA like some sort of goblin."
Aizawa glared at him for a second before sighing, " I'm looking forward to seeing how you incorporate his critiques, but don't forget that you have academics as well. Now open your books, we have a lot of work to do if you expect to pass the finals and earn the right to participate in the summer training camp."
The class exploded, "What?!"
Spinner wondered if this was what it meant to go mad with power. He certainly felt a little mad, but Stain had believed that a little insanity was the only way to save the world. Spinner felt him sometimes, deep inside his mind, whispering. He even swore that he could see the hero killer in his dreams sometimes, a shadowy figure vaguely almost-there, but not quite. It felt like there was something Stain wanted him to know, but their bond wasn't deep enough for any real communication to happen and All for One had told him that there was only one way to make that bond deeper: by carrying on Stain's legacy and following in his footsteps.
He had spent the last week killing as many false heroes as he could and for someone who had never killed a single person before, he was actually fairly good at it. Stain's quirk covered his weaknesses perfectly and with the way their quirks combined, it was almost as if it was destiny that Spinner continued the hero killer's work. He would use his birth quirk to climb the walls of alleys where the heroes would be passing, then strike. All for One had been kind enough to gift him Stain's Katana, so he used it often, but he'd found that with the addition of Stain's quirk, his teeth had shaped themselves into sharp points and whatever weak natural venom his lizard quirk gave him made Stain's quirk even more effective, so if he bit the false heroes, they would be paralyzed longer and it eliminated the middle man, since the blood could be ingested immediately, instead of after a delay.
He'd gone after smaller heroes so far, sidekicks and lesser known targets such as Native, who was currently frozen on the ground in front of him. Perhaps he should keep to operating mostly under the cover of darkness, but if Trapper could effectively move and avoid detection during the day, then Spinner could learn to do the same. He couldn't afford to sit around and waste time when there were fakes that needed to be eliminated and a legacy that he needed to maintain.
He licked the last of the blood off his lips and stalked toward Native, "You are a disgrace to the ranks of heroes. You're a fake and you don't deserve your title, much less your life."
Native was panting heavily, unable to move to stop the bleeding from either the stab wound in his shoulder or the bite mark on his hand, "Who...who even are you?"
"I am the hero killer's successor." Spinner answered. "The mark left by Stain's murder that can never be removed! I am the one who is going to rid society of fake heroes like you!"
Native's eyes widened in terror, "You...you're insane!"
"Maybe…" Spinner smiled, his newly sharp teeth on full display. "But I've done more for society already than you've ever done in your entire miserable career and I'm going to do so much more! "
He used Stain's Katana to stab Native in the leg, twisting the blade as he pulled it out, "I hope the heroes find you before you bleed out so you can spread Stain's message, but if not, it's no big loss. You weren't doing any good alive either."
Native's cries echoed in his ears as Spinner climbed up the wall and went off to find his next victim.
Notes:
Next Update: July 28, 2021 (MDT)
Chapter 60: GlitterSummary:
New ideas are developed.
Notes:
Art!
Jess
Sparks
Memes!
X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Izuku ran into class just before the bell rang and pretty much immediately his classmates turned to stare at him. He fidgeted awkwardly. He wasn't usually this late, but he'd gotten an idea about his teleporting tracker last night and had completely lost track of time before his mom ran into his room and practically cried as she told him he was going to be late for school.
Kohaku looked him up and down and whistled lowly, "Dang, Midoriya. No tie today?"
Izuku instinctively looked down at his outfit. He was wearing the UA uniform...mostly. He might have been in too big of a rush this morning to even want to deal with the idea of tying a tie, so he'd swapped the dress shirt for a black t-shirt, which had way better flexibility for crawling through the tunnels. He was still wearing the uniform! Just...styled differently.
He laughed awkwardly, "Well, I mean, none of you guys keep your full uniforms on either, and just cause I'm working at a computer doesn't mean I shouldn't be comfortable, right? Besides, Katsuki's in the hero course and he never wears his tie either."
"Speaking of!" Mei slammed her notebook down on her desk. "I have an idea! We should glitter bomb him!"
Izuku looked over her shoulder at the design she'd sketched out, "Mei, you do know that normal glitter bombs don't normally include C4, right?"
"They don't?" Mei frowned. "But then why call it a bomb? I mean, it probably wouldn't do too much damage…"
Powerloader cleared his throat and the class sheepishly turned to look at him, "Hatsume, if you're going to blow up the school, could you at least have the good grace to do it when I'm out of earshot? I need plausible deniability, not a migraine."
"Right!" Midoriya smiled apologetically. "It won't happen again, sir!"
Powerloader sighed, "Let's just get to work."
Mineta kept himself quiet and unobtrusive as he walked into the support labs. Only an idiot would draw attention to themselves before they got the lay of the land and at least had a sense of who they were hunting. There were several students spread out between the tables, welding and soldering away at their own inventions, but Mineta wasn't interested in them. Somehow he didn't think that a kid with a giant shark head was Cheat Code...it seemed like something that would have come up in conversation. Even though he couldn't be sure that the I-island incident was related to Cheat Code, it was still his best lead, which meant that he was looking for either Hatsume or Midoriya. Jiro had insinuated that he was only interested in Hatsume because she had big boobs, so..the one with pink hair. There wasn't anyone with her, but from what his classmates had said, the two were never far apart, so Midoriya must be around here somewhere, it was only a matter of when he would show up.
Now that he had his target in sight, Mineta let his stare linger a bit too long in the right places and ran toward Hatsume's station as quickly as he could, hardly even giving a glance to any of the boys in the room, not even the one with green hair who was leaning against the doorframe of a side room,looking at him suspiciously, most likely questioning his intentions toward Hatsume. Good. If the students thought he was looking at the girls, they'd never even guess that he was actually here to find Cheat Code.
He'd almost made it to Hatsume's desk before the green haired kid called out to him, "Hello Mineta. Are you here to modify your costume?"
Mineta jumped. How did this kid know his name? He recovered quickly, though, putting on a smile as he glanced at Hatsume, "Yeah! I, uh, heard some of the others saying Hatsume was the best girl to go to."
"You heard right!" Hatsume jumped to shake his hand, but the kid, who had to be Midoriya, was still looking at him suspiciously. "I'm the best inventor you'll ever find and the future CEO of Hatsume industries. Nice to meet you!"
Mineta grinned, "I'm excited to see what you can do, hot stuff. Cheat Code gave us a lot of good suggestions."
Midoriya's expression changed slightly when Mineta mentioned Cheat Code. Interesting…
"Hmmm…" Midoriya pushed himself away from the doorframe and walked over to them, subtly placing himself in front of Hatsume. "Your quirk involves adhesion, right? What did you have in mind?"
Mineta stood his ground, "I dunno? Something super cool, definitely! I need to look like a badass."
Hatsume pushed past Midoriya, "Then your current costume isn't gonna cut it. I've seen the designs and it makes you look like a giant baby. And the fact that you cry during fights doesn't help, so you're gonna want to change that. I'd take out the white and the diaper just gets in the way, but we can keep the utility belt. Maybe we should add some sort of ranged weapon? Ooh, maybe something that can adjust the stickiness of your quirk? And with DNA incorporated into the suit, obviously. I know I had some designs a while ago, where did I put them…?"
About halfway through her ramblings, Hatsume had pulled out a stack of notebooks and started sorting through them for ideas, spreading old drawings and crumpled notes across her desk as Midoriya helped sort through them, muttering about the specifics of Mineta's quirk under his breath. How did he know so much? He'd heard the guy was Nedzu's personal student, so a certain amount of mystery was to be expected, but they'd never even met before!
Something on one of the pages caught his eye and Mineta sucked in a sharp breath. Was that…? He glanced over toward Midoriya and Hatsume, but they had both gotten caught up in brainstorming new gear ideas for him that they weren't even looking his way, so Mineta subtly nudged the sketchbook the rest of the way open, his eyes widening slightly when he realized he was right.
Various versions of Cheat Code's logo were spread across the page, all slightly different than the one that had appeared on their info packets, but considering that some of them were crossed out and others were crammed in the margins, Minta assumed they must be in progress versions, which meant...Mineta glanced up at the duo, who were still chatting almost faster than any normal person could process. Which one was Cheat Code?
Quickly, Mineta grabbed one of the smaller balls from the nape of his neck and stuck it to the corner of the page. As soon as he was sure no one was watching, he tore the page and wrapped it around the ball before shoving it in his pocket. The page would be undamaged when the stickiness wore off, but if anyone questioned him before then, they'd inevitably try to tear the page off and ruin their evidence in the process. The timing was closer than he would have liked though, considering that Midoriya turned toward him as soon as the ball was safe inside Mineta's pocket, a huge smile on his face, "So? What do you think?"
Mineta squeezed the paper ball in his pocket, "I think you two are exactly what I need."
Somehow, being looped in on a secret as big as One for All was enough to break the ice between Hitoshi and his adults. Parents? He wasn't quite sure if he was ready to go that far, but whatever Shouta and Hizashi were to him, they were better than anything he'd ever had before. And finally hearing Shouta's real opinions on All Might was hilarious.
"I mean, seriously?" Shouta rolled his eyes. "There should be at least a committee deciding who gets such a powerful, not to mention dangerous, opportunity. Impulsivley putting a first year in a situation where she has to make a life-long decision and can't even really say no to the privilege was just idiotic, not to mention unethical, so no wonder she disappeared!"
Hitoshi grinned, "I'm pretty sure that has more to do with her quirk."
Shouta glared at him, "She didn't teleport for at least a week after getting that stupid power, which means she was probably repressing the power and it had no choice but to manifest dramatically. That wouldn't have happened if that blond oaf hadn't laid on all the pressure of a giant legacy. "
Hizashi smiled softly and rubbed his back, "Do you want to hide in one of the cupboards and jump scare him? That usually makes you feel better."
"I could probably have Mei-chan make a glitter bomb for you." Hitoshi offered. "I know she's building one already so they can prank Bakugo, but, uh...I should warn you that she's still working on the formula. Last I heard, her design is more bomb than glitter. "
"Oh?!" Hizashi perked up. "I could probably take a look over it! I made my fair share of glitter bombs and other pranks back in my days at UA. I'm pretty sure there's still glitter in 3A's classroom from that one time we…"
"That's not something to be proud of." Shouta cut in, but he was still smiling. "Your other pranks were much more effective."
Hitoshi glanced between the two of them, "Why do I feel like I should be taking notes?"
Shouta grinned, "Because learning from the masters is only logical."
"You?!" Hitoshi gave a shocked laugh. "Hizashi, I can see, but you?!"
Shouta shrugged, "There's nothing wrong with a few logical ruses. You have to battle burnout somehow. Plus Hizashi was a bad example."
"Hey!" Hizashi looked betrayed. "Do I need to remind you that the air horn tripwire in the cafeteria was your idea!"
Shouta frowned, "I thought that one was Shirakumo's."
Hizashi's face fell, "oh...I guess it was. It's been so long…"
His adults were silent for a long moment and Hitoshi was about to ask what was wrong when Hizashi shook himself out of it, "Well, little listener, I guess you're wondering why we're having your favorites for dinner tonight?"
Hitoshi looked at him suspiciously, "I thought you were just buttering me up so that I'd trust you or something."
Shouta snorted, "Good thought, kid, but no. There's more to it."
"We're celebrating!" Hizashi ran over to the counter to grab a manila envelope and shoved it into his hand. "Well? What are you waiting for? Open it!"
Hitoshi gave them a suspicious glance, but slowly opened the envelope and pulled out the piece of paper, "Is this….?"
"Our official foster license." Shota answered. "Until now, you've technically been under emergency custody, but now, it's official. Basically, it means we can keep custody of you without having to jump through hoops and call you a villain when you're obviously going to be a hero."
Hitoshi swallowed back some tears, his voice almost choking up, "...Oh. Ok."
"Plus, Nedzu even pulled a few strings so that our emergency custody of you will still count toward the minimum time before adoption!" Hizashi grinned. "That means we can adopt you, like, at the beginning of next semester! Isn't that so rockin?!"
"Assuming you want that." Shouta cut in. "If you would prefer we not adopt you, that's your right. You'll still have a place with us, even if you don't want to go that far."
"You…" Hitoshi looked up at them in shock. "You actually want to...but you'd be stuck with me!"
Shouta snorted, "More like you'd be stuck with us. Maybe it's best if we don't. I can't imagine having that cockatoo over there as a dad!"
Hizashi stuck out his tongue, "Well I can't imagine having a hobo caterpillar as one either!"
Hitoshi stifled a snicker, but smiled, "We...we'll see. But, uh, you'd probably have to fight my kidnappers for custody."
"What?" Hizashi flexed. "You think we can't handle a couple of kids?"
Shouta raised one eyebrow, "Speak for yourself. If those two attack, you're on your own. It's only logical to surrender in the face of undeniable defeat."
Hitoshi laughed. They'd almost definitely get sick of him before they were able to adopt him, but if they didn't, then maybe...maybe being a part of a real family wouldn't be too bad.
Notes:
Next Update: August 4, 2021 (MDT)