Chapter 3: Snap, crackle, punch
Like the once great pop singer of her time, Miley Cyrus, had once said: Monday came at Tony fast like a wrecking ball.
Grumbling expletives not suited for minors beneath his breath, Tony finished putting on the last of his uniform, leaving the black and gray overcoat that all Musutafu Central Elementary students have to wear partially opened to reveal the white shirt blouse beneath it.
It wasn't a bad outfit all things considered. A bit too monochromatic for his liking though.
Checking himself at the mirror one last time, Tony took stock of his appearance. His hair had undergone a slight upgrade, having managed to comb through all the knots and trimmed the dead ends all by himself last night. He would still need to visit a barber to get it exactly the way that he wanted it to be but seeing that he was still currently a eleven-year-old with little money to his name, that would have to be done sometime later in the future.
Which meant he might have to find a part-time job.
His uniform had been meticulously ironed, not a wrinkle or loose stray thread in sight, and Tony prided himself on having tied his bowtie within a couple of a second, his hands going through the familiar motion as his mind wandered about on other such important topics such as how was he going to survive his (technically) first day back in elementary school.
The look of surprise he had received from Inko when she stepped in to remind him of his breakfast was well worth the awkwardness of having to explain how he was able to do it without her help.
It was a good thing that the Internet also existed in this world as well.
Satisfied for now, Tony swooped down low to grab at his large yellow bag filled to the brim with an assortment of books, textbooks and writing utensils that would help him navigate through the more tedious parts of his classes. It was a darn shame that Japan could be so technology advanced and yet still remain somewhat stuck in the stone ages with their love for fax machines, landline phones and beepers.
One of the first things he planned to buy when he got some sort of income was a freaking laptop .
He found Inko in the kitchen, staring at a coffee machine that was currently spurting out hot air instead of the rich delicious coffee that he desperately needed to get through the early morning. Muttering something quietly to herself, she pressed a button and watched with a growing frown as the machine made a low whining noise in response.
"Is something wrong?"
"Ah!"
Inko jumped nearly a foot off the ground. Clutching a hand to her chest, she whirled around to face him, nearly smacking him with a pan that had been quickly levitated to her with the other hand.
"Izuku, sweetie," she said through a rush of choked air once she saw him, "You nearly scared me!"
An apologetic look crossed over Tony's face as he bowed his head in shame.
"I'm sorry, that wasn't my intention."
He would have to be extra careful around her; given the state of the neighborhood they resided in, Tony had a weird feeling that break-ins were a common daily occurrence in the apartment complex. He made a mental note to add in a built-in security system on his already growing list of things he planned to do once he found a part-time job.
The frown and fear quickly melted away like sunlight onto a rainy dark cloud, and Inko gave him a tender smile that was only slightly strained around the edges of her cheeks and did little to alleviate the wrinkles creased around her brows.
"It's alright, sweetie," she insisted, placing the pan back into its proper place. "Just…next time let me know when you're here." At his promise, Inko continued, eyes directed now onto the coffee machine in front of them. "As for your question, this thing has been giving me nothing but grief all morning. I thought Mr. Watanabe had fixed it, but–"
She gave the thing a disappointed sigh like it had personally offended her and her ancestors.
"Apparently not. "
Tony glanced over at the machine, mind racing with possible solutions.
"I can take a look at it, if you want," the words came out before he could stop himself.
Inko stuttered, evergreen forest eyes widening in what he interpreted as a mixture of surprise and slight apprehension at his request before narrowing down a little in suspicion. He had seen that sort of look before, though in this case, he assumed the woman hadn't meant to not mistrust her son's own words.
"I saw some stuff on the Internet," Tony said in hopes that it would reduce some of the skepticism lurking just beneath her facial features. "I've been thinking of dabbling into engineering as a profession."
Inko blinked. Very slowly.
"You… don't want to be a hero anymore?"
Oh.
Internally, Tony cringed to himself, realizing that he might have made a grave mistake.
At least it explained all the All Might posters.
But from what he could infer from Izuku's own admission of being quirkless, the probability of him actually becoming a hero was already slim to none.
After all, the last time he had checked, Japan currently had no quirkless heroes in their roster.
"I mean…"
Bringing a hand up to nervously rub the back of his neck, Tony tried to think of a suitable response.
"I still want to be one, but I figured it's good to have options, you know?"
There wasn't any law that said he couldn't build himself a hero suit.
For some reason, Inko stared at him long enough for it to grow slightly uncomfortable before shifting her gaze onto the clock hung up above the television screen in their tiny joint kitchen/living room space.
"Okay," she said, tone devoid of any emotion he could decipher, "We still have some time before your classes start anyway. Breakfast is on the table, and you know where the tool kit is right?"
Tony thought of the most likely place one would store it.
"In the closet?"
She nodded, turning away to make her leave.
"I'll go and get ready then."
After she went into her room down the hall, Tony let out a quiet sigh of relief.
That was a close one.
He wiped the sweat off his brows. Now that he knew for certain that Bean-sprout had wanted to be a hero all his life despite not being blessed with superpowers was all the more reason Tony had decided it might be in his best interest to make another suit of armor.
He found the tool kit after a bit of searching, and pried the coffee machine apart, noting all the crisscrossed wires and bolts screwed in the wrong way. It was laughably easy how quickly he had finished fixing it all back together, his hands going through the repetitive motions as a smile grew a little on his face like a sunflower finding a way to blossom inside a desolate wasteland.
Just like old times.
By the time Inko had returned, dressed in a black loose blouse paired with a black skirt that reached past her knees, Tony had just finished eating the last of his breakfast, stuffing the remaining of his toast and jam into his mouth.
She paused as she was smoothing out the ends of her uniform, taking in the still steaming cup of coffee awaiting for her at her place at the table. Forest green eyes widened in a comical manner as she rushed over to Tony's with hurried footsteps that were cladded in a pair of bunny slippers.
"Oh, sweetie!" she exclaimed, glancing back and forth at Tony and the cup of coffee with her mouth hanging down low, "You actually got it working again!"
Grinning, Tony drowned the rest of his milk.
"Yep, just figured it was a couple of parts that needed some reworking." He moved his hand past the cup and patted the fully operating coffee machine that he had placed beside it. "Now this bad boy can fix all your coffee urges in a matter of seconds."
Of course, he failed to mention that he already had two cups of black coffee himself to stay awake for the long morning.
Blinking, Inko let out a soft giggle as she shook her head fondly at him.
"My sweet, smart, little Izuku," she cooed, and Tony would be lying if he didn't say that the praise had him preening a little, the tips of his ears flushed a bright red.
Trying to not show the full effect of her words, Tony aimed what he hoped could be interpreted as a casual shrug at the woman.
"It's nothing," he insisted with a tiny bit more force than necessary. "But if there is anything else that you think that needs fixing, then I'm happy to help."
She stared for a beat longer than normal, then seemed to have decided not to press any further, moving instead to take her seat beside him.
"Of course," she said, taking a small sip of her coffee and let out a surprise yet content sigh that it was to her liking (Tony had taken a guess based on Inko's personality, and had added a couple of spoonful of sugar and a good splash of hazelnut creamer and almond milk). "We should hurry though, otherwise we might miss the 7:01 bus."
They talk as she scoffed down her breakfast; the discussion was mainly more on the goings and comings of their fellow apartment residents, such as who was getting married or having another baby. The Tanakas from two doors down had experienced a terrible break-in that had left the matriarchy with a severe concussion that would take some time to heal. Inko expressed her desire to invest in a better home security system that fueled Tony's determination to create one himself for them to use sometime in the future.
He had already seen the number of locks and bolts that made up their front door.
It wasn't normal.
Eventually they got ready to leave, Tony stuffing his feet into a pair of well-maintained but obviously worn past Nike Air Force shoes dyed a deep red with black laces and thick white soles at the bottom. He could tell it had been a pricy purchase given how the rest of the shoes placed on the racks were nowhere near the same quality or brand as the ones on his feet.
Outside, the air was chilly but not to the point of being unbearable. The streets are semi barren with a couple of people also dressed in their business clothes or school uniform heading to their respective destinations as they stare at their phones or talk with their friends. So far no one had looked completely abnormal. Save for a High Schooler whose head resembled that of a King Cobra snake, their slit eyes shaded an eerie yellowish green, Tony had expected to see a wide array of characters that would put the Hulk to shame on his way to school.
Then again, Tony had seen his fair share of unusual people in his previous life: from a talking raccoon that spoke in a snarky Brooklyn accent, to a blue-skinned woman who was made with more metal and wires than blood and bones.
So, maybe he had sort of expected something along those lines.
The 7:01 bus came well on time by a minute, and the two boarded after a pair of Junior High Schoolers with bunny ears poking at the top of their heads. Japan's metro system was much better than what Tony had experienced back in LA and New York and used the window seat he had managed to grab in the nick of time with Inko as a way to gain better access to the world around his neighborhood.
A concrete jungle lined with family style restaurants and big-name brand stores such as Uniqlo and Mujilined the streets on both sides of the bus complete with a Starbucks and a Family Mart camped every other block. They stopped briefly three bus stops away, and a woman dressed in light blue scrubs entered and took a seat across from them. Tiny purple spikes cover every inch of her skin, most centered around her face and neck. When they made eye contact, the spikes puffed up in indignance and Tony quickly averted his gaze away.
Eventually they came to their stop, the large white and gray building that was Musutafu Central Elementary School was a sight for sore eyes with the only greenery in view being the semi spacious courtyard that housed a couple of cherry blossom trees and half dead shrubs.
"You'll be okay, sweetie?" Inko asked as she took another glance over at him once they exited the bus. "I don't see Katsuki-kun anywhere. Maybe he's inside already?"
Tony doesn't respond, too busy staring at one of the students whose neck is long and bendy like a giraffe.
I wonder if she has to bend her head every time she walks past through a door, Tony wondered as the student entered the courtyard with her friends.
"Izuku?"
Shit .
Tony glanced back up at the woman to find Inko staring down at him, a worried frown on her face.
"Sorry about that," he quickly said before she could open up her mouth, "I was just distracted, that's all."
How could he not stop and stare at all the fascinating things that capture his attention?
Inko pressed her lips together, a hint of doubt appearing in her expression as she tucked a loose strand of green hair away from her eyes to behind her ear.
"Okay," she relented, shrugging her shoulders. "School is about to start soon." And, as if on cue, a bell rang out throughout the courtyard, sending dozens of gray and black uniformed students clamoring up the steps in a rush to enter the building. "I will be working late today, so let me know when you are planning to head home or maybe staying over at Katsuki-kun's place."
The last part was worded almost like she was hoping that he might choose the latter option and Tony did his best to not show any visible reactions, only giving Inko his best dazzling smile. He remembered Katsuki —the blond spiky haired kid who was loud and obnoxious as was his God given quirk, Explosion.
And also apparently absolutely hated Izuku's guts.
"Of course, I'll inform you of my plans."
Another stare, this time longer than a full minute before Inko slowly nodded her head back in response.
"Okay…."
She reached over and pinched his cheek, eliciting a small yelp from Tony.
"Have fun in school, sweetie!"
He watched her head the opposite way, heading to her work in some insurance office for villain incidents somewhere in downtown Musutafu before turning to the direction of the school. As he headed up the stairs, a strange feeling stirred within his stomach like he drank a bottle of hot sauce for breakfast. Was it nervousness about starting school again?
Or was it something else entirely different?
His feet somehow had guided him through the hallway, up another flight of steps and up to the front of a wooden door with a plaque above reading: [GRADE 6]-Classroom A. Stifling a heavy sigh, Tony swallowed down the lump lodged inside the back of his throat.
Great , he grumbled to himself as he slid the door open and found more than a dozen or so faces peering back at him as he stepped through, and shut it closed behind him, I'm late.
"Midoriya Izuku," a tired irritating voice like nails over a chalkboard drawled up at the front, and Tony directed his gaze onto a tall man that he presumed was the homeroom teacher for his class.
He was not only tall, but sported a long pointy nose that did little to hide the sneer he was currently giving to Tony, with his greasy chestnut orange hair slicked back with the front ends parted to the side of his face.
"Is there a reason as to why you have decided to come into my classroom three minutes late?"
Snickers rippled across the classroom, but Tony pointedly ignored it. It would take more than a couple of snide comments to get underneath his skin of iron and metal.
The teacher arched an unimpressed brow, clearly waiting for his response, and Tony decided right then and there to let loose a little and have a bit of fun at the man's own expense.
"I'm so sorry, Sensei," overly exaggerating the proper title for his homeroom. More snickers erupted, and the man's sneer deepened. "But I just couldn't help but enjoy the scenery today. Have you taken a look outside the window? Not that I expect a man of your caliber to have time to do anything but grade papers and harass students, you know."
By now the homeroom teacher's brows were currently way up high above his wrinkly spotted forehead.
"Is that so…" he said, right eye twitching a little. "Then we can discuss more about your tardiness during Lunch hour."
Some of the students let out a couple of "oohs!" at his possible detention, but Tony knew when he had won a battle, and took the words as a final dismissal, weaving his way through the chaotic mess of students and strewn backpacks to find his desk several rows away from the front of the room and beside a set of clear windows that overlooked a construction site.
Annoyingly, a few late stranglers came into the classroom not a minute later and all the homeroom teacher did was give them a light warning to not do it again.
Favoritism at its finest.
"Now then," The teacher marked something on his desk before turning his full attention onto the classroom, instantly quieting down the chatty students without saying a word. "There are things you must know about this term if you are planning on getting into a good Junior High School next year. Try as you might, but I won't be surprised if most of you end up at Aldera Junior High."
As he droned on about the importance of one's grade and extracurricular activities, Tony zoned out, mind occupied with other important matters such as the delicious lunch Inko had graciously packed for him in a cute All Might themed bento box.
The hours flew by with relative quickness and before he knew it, it was already time for lunch, the bell ringing again to signal the change in schedule as the students started to stand up from their seats, chatting excitedly amongst themselves as they grabbed their own specialized bento boxes.
Some began to head over to the cafeteria which was located downstairs in the main hall or outside where the sun provided ample warmth and light to combat the brisk cold of April's capricious weather.
Tony moved to the rest of the students shuffling through the doorway when he was rudely stopped by a lanky brute with spiky blond hair and piercing red eyes. Said eyes stared at him with such disdain that Tony was momentarily taken aback at how much it reminded him of Thanos during their last encounter on his home planet, Titan.
Flanking on each of the blond boy's sides were two other boys, one short and round with red scaly bat wings on his back and the other long and skinny with abnormally elongated fingers that grew a couple of more inches within seconds.
"Oi," the blond boy said, a rough voice that easily cut through the chatter in the room, " Deku ."
The name does something funny in Tony's chest, and he scowls back in return.
Deku. Meaning useless, stemming from the word'Dekunobou' or 'someone who can't do anything.' A derogatory nickname given to him by one Bakugou Katsuki—his ex-best friend.
Who needs enemies when you have friends like him.
Tony's scowl deepened when he noticed the remaining students left inside the classroom had stayed behind to watch what they were hoping was going to be an inevitable fight between them. Even the teacher who had taught their English class from last period took one look at the both of them and headed out the door without so much as a second glance, their arms stuffed to the brim with essays and assignments.
Not wanting to wait any longer to eat his delicious meal, Tony made a show of looking around the room before pointing at himself.
"You're talking to me?" he asked flatly. "Cause I'm kind of in the middle of something here."
Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say as Bakugo's eyes narrowed sharply in retaliation to his words, the palms of his hands glowing dangerously bright with tiny orange sparks and black smoke.
Explosion was a terrible superpower to give to an elementary school kid.
"What the hell did you say, shitty Deku?"
Tony scoffed.
"Seriously? Don't tell me you're as deaf as you're as dumb? Not a good look for you, Porcupine ," taking absolute delight in the way Bakugo stuttered at the newly christened nickname Tony had dished out for him. "I don't like repeating myself twice."
It wasn't like it wasn't a bad choice of name—the kid's hair seriously reminded him of the spiky mammal.
Before Bakugo could resort to violence, given that he was now emitting black smoke from both of his hands, another voice roughly cut in, this one significantly older and sounding very much annoyed at their disruption.
"I suggest, Mr. Bakugo," their homeroom teacher appeared from the door, quickly approaching them with long strides as his face barely contained his disdain for them both, "that if you want to discuss something private with Midoriya that you do so outside of the classroom."
There was a hint of a potential discipline if Bakugo did not comply, and the blond brute was at least smart enough to not take his chances, his lips pressed down into a thin firm line.
He pinned Tony with a particularly harsh glare and hissed out in a voice low enough for only him to hear, "Meet me at the swings, Deku," before turning sharply on his heels and marching away.
The rest of his lackeys hurried after him.
Tony watched them go, debating internally if he was even planning to follow through with the Porcupine's demands before his homeroom teacher cleared his throat loud enough to gain the attention of everyone else in the room.
"If you are not planning on staying here for lunch, then I suggest you all leave before you have to explain to your parents as to why you had to stay late in school on your first day back in school."
That quickly got the rest of the students to evacuate leaving behind just Tony and the homeroom teacher.
"Now then," Tony turned to find the man's disdain had not disappeared, if anything, it grew tenfold the moment they had locked eyes. "About your punishment for coming late into my classroom today…"
15 minutes later, Tony left the room with a dark cloud hanging over his head, his appetite a thing of the past as he stomped through the barren hallway, uncaring about his surroundings.
He has cleaning duties for the next two weeks. And the damn homeroom teacher had decided it would be fine if he did it all by himself.
The man had started a war, and Tony intended on winning.
His stomach chose that moment to let its presence known again and Tony carefully weighed his options; he could eat his lunch in the cafeteria, but that meant finding a seat by himself and he had no friends to call on his own to claim a table with. The bathroom was out of the question due to sanitary reasons, and he certainly did not want to go back into the classroom where his homeroom teacher was no doubt still lurking about inside there.
That left him with one last place.
Sitting beneath the shade of a gnarly looking oak tree, Tony took another bite out of his bento box, savoring the delicious, crisped chicken Inko had graciously made for him for lunch. All around him, children of various ages played together or alone in the rocky field that was their playground. Some were using their superpowers to play soccer, kicking the ball far harder and faster than most athletes could ever dream of doing back in Tony's previous world. One of them kicked the ball hard enough to let out a tiny sonic boom as it entered the goal post with a distinct clank and bounced off the railing.
He was almost done eating when a dark shadow crept up on him, and Tony looked up to find Bakugo looming over him, his lackeys not far behind.
The boy clenched his hands into smoking sparkling fists.
"Shitty, Deku," he growled, red eyes zeroing in on Tony's face, "I told you to meet me by the swings."
Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Tony gestured down to the opened bento box on his lap.
"As you can see, Porcupine —" grinning triumphantly when the nickname caused said boy to bristle like the animal, "I'm kinda eating here. If whatever you want to say to me is so important, then I'm sure you can wait till after school is done."
Hopefully, Tony would have managed to have evaded them by exiting out from another backdoor entrance.
For some reason, Bakugo stilled, cocking his head at Tony like he had suddenly manifested two heads as his hidden quirk. Tony tensed in anticipation of an outburst.
"So that's how it is…" he muttered low to himself but loud enough for Tony to hear every single word. "One measly spring break and suddenly you've grown a damn spine the moment you get back to school."
Bakugo pressed a hand into the open palm of his other hand, a miniature explosive boom echoing loud enough to draw eyes onto them.
"Well, that won't do. That won't do at all, shitty Deku."
In the depths of his red gleaming eyes was the promise of something terrible, a promise of a world of pain and hurt and if Tony had been anybody else, he would have cowered in fear.
But he was anything but anybody.
He was Tony Stark.
And Starks never backed down.
Standing up, Tony calmly shut the lid of his bento box. The blond kid had a few good inches on him, but that didn't deter Tony from posturing up to his fullest height, forest green eyes hardening like cut pieces of a jade stone from the finest manufacturer.
If Bakugo had expected him to remain compliant and fearful, then he didn't show his shock, only deepening the scowl on his lips. The rest of his lackeys though, took a cautionary step back.
"I'm only going to say this once, Porcupine, so pay close attention," Tony said, his voice steely and carrying easily through the hushed silence of the playground.
Everyone was watching them.
"If you know what's good for you, you would back down right this instant. I'm not the same Deku that you think I am. I'm not going to take your bullshit anymore." The curse had Bakugo widening his eyes, his lackeys also dropping their jaws in surprise. "So, let's just let bygones be bygones and put this all behind us, uh? Be the bigger person."
Not really expecting a response nor wanting to stay any longer, Tony turned sharply on his heels and began to walk away, the crowd of students that had gathered around to watch parting ways for him like Moses did to the Red Sea to help his people escape Egypt.
He had only managed to get a couple of steps in when the sound of an enraged growl pierced through the air.
"The fuck you mean, shitty quirkless Deku!" Heavy footsteps quickly made their way over to him from behind. "You think you can tell me what to do!?"
Without any warning, a hand shot out and grabbed Tony from behind, and something hot was pressed roughly through the fabric of his clothes, burning past through the flammable material and burning his skin like he had gotten hit with a full blast of Thor's destructive lightning bolt from his hammer. The sickly sweet scent of burning flesh permeated his nostrils.
Tony yelled .
"Oi," Bakugo's voice was dangerously close to his ear and the sound of crackles was deafening. "Answer me!"
Something snapped inside Tony, something deep and primal, and full of rage as he turned around, pivoting smoothly on the balls of his feet as he landed with startingly accuracy a well-aimed and highly unexpected punch onto Porcupine's smug ugly face.
There was the satisfying sound of bones breaking beneath his fist and Bakugo howled , clutching his hands over nose as blood gushed out in waves down his gray uniform and staining the ground beneath him in a pretty shade of red.
The boy bent himself low onto the ground in an effort to not ruin his clothing any further.
"Didn't I tell you, Porcupine," gaining Bakugo's attention once again. There was so much hatred swirling within those dark red eyes that Tony couldn't help but smile, showing his once best friend a mouthful of his sparkly white teeth.
"I don't like repeating myself twice."
Chapter 4: Rage of the Quirkless
Tony was starting to understand why Bruce Banner was always angry.
People were idiots.
The taste of victory was still very fresh inside Tony's mouth as he and Porcupine waited in the small office that belonged to the Principal of the Musutafu Elementary School. They sat in silence as frustrated voices could be heard behind the closed glass door leading out to the rest of the staffing room.
His right shoulder was still throbbing something fierce—the school nurse, a genial middle-aged woman with a simple ice quirk that allowed her to create infinite ice packs for students coming in with nothing more serious than a sprained ankle—had done her best to alleviate his pain.
Still, she had insisted that he should go to a hospital after they had finished speaking with the principal and get it properly checked by a doctor. For now, she had given him some ointment for the worst of the burns that had Tony smelling like peppermint oil and some kid-size Tylenol for him to swallow down with a glass of ice water.
In a way, he had gotten off lightly compared to the boy sitting next to him.
According to the snippets of conversation he had managed to overhear between the school nurse and Bakugo, the blond boy would have to most likely go for surgery as the punch Tony had given to him had broken his nose cleanly in three places. If he wanted to be able to properly smell his own ass again (his words, not the nurse's), then he would have to do it quickly.
Tony hadn't stopped smiling since.
Ten minutes later and the door finally opened, and walking in was their disgruntled homeroom teacher who looked like he would rather be anywhere else than here and the principal, a short chubby man with long white fuzzy eyebrows that nearly covered his entire face.
Tony briefly wondered if it had any relation to the man's possible quirk.
The principal took his seat in his designated spot behind his desk while their homeroom teacher remained by the side of the door, enough to allow the man to see them both but also not allow them a chance to exit out the room without running into him. He had his arms crossed and leveled a sneer at both Tony and Bakugo, the latter of which grumbled, his brows scrunching around the copious number of bandages and gauzes that cover his broken nose.
At least he wasn't the only one their homeroom teacher was pissed about.
A few seconds continued to pass as the principal looked at Tony first then at Bakugo before clearing his throat, finally speaking out at last.
"It appears we have encountered a most peculiar situation."
Tony nearly snorted. Peculiar his ass.
The principal stared at him some more, thick fuzzy brows knitting together in a pensive manner before speaking again albeit in a slower and more careful tone than before.
"Well just to let you both know that both of your parents have already been informed of your fight and will be here shortly."
Porcupine cursed underneath his breath while Tony scowled; he didn't want Inko to be involved with this. She already had done so much in the short amount of time he had gotten to know her.
"Now then," the principal leaned back into his chair once he was certain they had both received the message, "I'm quite curious as to how this situation had come about?" Though Tony couldn't see the man's eyes, he could feel the heavy gaze set solely onto him first.
Tony shrugged, feigning innocence.
"I don't know, Principal…" he started, keeping his tone deceptively light despite the thick tension in the room. "Why don't you ask Porcupine over there why he decided it was right for him to intrude in my personal space?"
Said Porcupine shot Tony a nasty glare, the palms of his hands sparkling brightly with miniature explosions, ready to launch himself at him for round two.
Tony simply grinned.
It seemed the kid needed to be taught another lesson on what happens when you mess with a Stark.
A sudden but loud cough stopped them from going at each other and the principal leveled them both each with a deep frown on his face, shaking his own head in what was most likely disappointment. Meanwhile, their homeroom teacher looked as if he had swallowed an egg whole with the shell still on.
Once they settled back into their seats, the principal turned his attention right onto Bakugo.
"Is this true, young man?" he asked.
The blond boy seethed in his seat, dark red eyes flickering between the principal and Tony before averting down to the floor. A sign of defeat.
"Yeah…" he growled out through clenched teeth.
Humming, the principal stroked through a long strand of his brow as he considered the implication of Bakugo's admission of starting the fight.
"And because of that you had decided to…" angling his head toward Tony to elaborate more on his actions.
Grinning proudly, Tony had no difficulty finishing the sentence for the principal.
"And I have decided to give the Porcupine a piece of my mind in self-defense after he had attacked me. Horribly."
Then, as if to seal the deal, Tony carefully lowered the top of his shirt, revealing to the world the nasty wound Bakugo had oh so kindly had left for him.
Based on how the man had paled significantly and the way their homeroom teacher hissed underneath his breath that it wasn't a pretty sight.
"I didn't do shit!" The blond boy exploded in a fit of rage, no longer able to control his temper. Though the heat of his words came out slightly muffled due to his broken nose. "He's just a quirkless piece of Deku!"
" Enough."
The thick brows had parted ways to reveal a pair of cool blue eyes that shut Bakugo up in an instant. The principal pulled himself forward in his chair, creating an imposing look as he steepled his fingers together.
"I have heard enough," he said after a couple of moments of heavy silence, his voice low and warning of future punishments if another peep came out from the boy's mouth. Tony had to admit, this was probably the first time Bakugo had ever been told to shut up and he relished the way blond kid's eyes seemed to bulge out within its sockets.
Too bad he didn't have his phone on him to capture the moment forever.
Fifteen minutes later, both of their parents came in.
Like a tornado bent purely on sheer destruction, Porcupine's mother had burst into the room, barely able to contain her absolute rage as she set her sights onto her son. A loud smack on the back of his head along with some snark words was her way of greeting him, and Tony watched as the two started to bicker and snarl at one another like rabid dogs.
At least the father, a man with a decently muscular build and soft brown hair and equally soft brown eyes was at least more sensible than his wife and greeted the principal with a demure bow of his body. He adjusted the rectangular glasses on his face nervously as his family continued to argue in the background.
"Mitsuki…" he tried, only to be ignored by his wife. "Honey…we should at least wait to hear what's going on before we decide on how we should punish Katsuki."
"Doesn't matter!" the wife—Mitsuki—shrilled, grinding her teeth together. It was eerie how much Bakugo had inherited many of her features down to the same shade of dark red eyes that burned with inner rage and spikes of blond hair. "We know this will happen eventually, Masaru! We should have punished him sooner."
Then she swiveled her gaze onto Tony and her tone of voice softened considerably so much that he almost thought she had a split personality for a quirk.
"How are you, Izuku?" Mitsuki asked gently, a far cry to the screaming match she just had with her son. "I'm so sorry for what had happened and what my dumbass son had done to you."
"I didn't do shit!"
Another loud smack on the head.
"Quiet brat!" Mitsuki seethed, her full attention back onto her son. "Don't think you can weasel your way out of this one."
"Uhm…excuse me?"
Standing there by the doorway and shaking like a leaf was Inko, her forest green eyes wide with worry as she looked frantically around the room before landing onto Tony. The tears pooling around the corners of her eyes grew substantially once they made eye contact.
Tony stilled, feeling the breath knocked out from him.
Mom.
She all but launched herself onto him, gripping him so tightly within her arms as if he would disappear the moment she let go. Her uniform was slightly crumpled, indicating that she had rushed over from her office in a bid to get here on time.
"Oh sweetie," she sobbed, and Tony winced a little when her fingers had accidentally brushed up against the burn wound on his right shoulder, "are you alright?"
"Yeah…"
Tony did his best to smile up at her and she burst into another round of tears.
A cough, and everyone turned to find the principal peering at them all through the thickness of his brows, pity seeped deep within light blue eyes.
"I apologize that we all couldn't meet at better circumstances," he gestured for Inko and Bakugou's parents to take the remaining empty seats by the side of the room, "but it was imperative that you all come so that we can inform you about what had happened and discuss the best course of action to deal with it."
Inko's hold on him tightened immediately and Tony caught a flash of untold wrath past through her face as she eventually relented, keeping a steady and firm arm around his shoulders. She remained standing up while the other parents took their seats.
"Alright…" she said after taking several deep breaths to calm her nerves.
Tony was allowed to retell his sob story for a second time in one day and by the time he was finished, Inko's grip on him had become shaky, her lips pressed down together into a thin solid line.
Her gaze was fixated onto the burn wound on his right shoulder.
The sickening sound of a powerful smack broke through the heavy strained silence that had fallen after his story, and Porcupine's mother snarled, mouth twisted sharply into a displeased frown.
"You damn brat!" she all but screamed, "Why the hell did you do that for?"
"I didn't mean it!" Bakugo easily matched the harsh volume of her voice. "It was an accident, I swear!"
"Katsuki…"
If his mother was all rage then his father was nothing but sheer disappointment, shaking his head slowly as if he couldn't quite believe everything he had just heard a couple of moments ago.
"I thought we had raised you better than this."
Somehow, that had managed to strike through the boy harder than all the smacks had ever done, and Bakugo visibly flinched as if stung.
"I…I didn't…" the words came out weakly.
Another cough, this one sharp enough to gain the attention of everyone in the room. The principal waited until all eyes were on him before continuing, his expression grim for the situation.
"What's done is done, unfortunately. What matters next is finding an answer to this question: how do we properly ensure that this never happens again?"
Mitsuki's eyes went wide, and her domineering posture faltered in an instant, taking an actual step back as she darted her gaze between her son and the principal.
"Are you suggesting…" she choked on the words. "Do you mean to expel my son?"
The moment she spoke it was like everyone had collectively held their breath, the room far too quiet for Tony's liking.
Tipping his chair backwards, the principal let out a soft sigh, tentatively stroking the long length of his brows.
"Perhaps," he finally answered.
Bakugo let out a curse, a rare glimpse of pure fear undulating across the surface of his face. His red eyes were wide open, and the Porcupine looked close to literally exploding in a fit of uncontrolled emotions.
While both mother and son are shocked by the turn of events, the father—Masaru—tilts his head thoughtfully, turning his quiet intelligent gaze onto Tony.
"Shouldn't it be Izuku's decision on what should be done?" he asked, his voice soft enough in the silence of the room to draw attention to himself without realizing it. "He was the one that had gotten attacked first, after all," ignoring the way his son stared at him in betrayal for even insinuating that he was on Tony's side.
The principal hummed a noncommittal grunt, considering Masaru's words for a considerable length of time all while everyone waited with bated breath, most of all Bakugo.
"You are correct," the man said after a long minute of deliberation, resting his sights onto Tony. Tony met his gaze, unflinching. "Tell me, Midoriya, my boy," the principal asked, leaning forward in his chair, his expression hidden beneath the volume of hair around his eyes, "what would you suggest would be the best course of action to discipline Bakugo?"
It wasn't lost on him as to why they were giving him such an option.
After all, just like Porcupine had said, he was nothing but a quirkless worthless Deku. An invalid in Today's society. Having someone bully a child under the watchful eyes of teachers and staff members was already bad enough, but for the bullied to be a quirkless person—well, Tony could imagine the sort of news press that would undoubtedly gather in front of the courtyard.
Tony could honestly care less as to what happens to Bakugo. He was already a lost cause the moment he had decided to leave his mark on the back of Tony's shoulder, a wound that time would heal but he would never forget.
Nor plan to forgive anytime soon.
He felt Inko squeeze his uninjured shoulder and Tony glanced up to find the woman's expression somber, forest green eyes glistening brightly with unshed tears. But beneath all that was something lurking deep within the darkness of her irises, a strong conviction that she would be there to support what he ended up deciding, 100%.
Swallowing, Tony turned his gaze over to Bakugo, watching as the young boy stared mulishly down at the ground, tiny tremors wrecking his small body as he held back his tears. No longer was he the cocky kid who tried to use his quirk on Tony but now a scared little Porcupine.
Without his knowledge a new memory drifted in, of something that had happened long ago seen through the lens of rose-colored glasses. It was of him and Bakugo, both four years old and walking together somewhere in the afternoon sunlight with two small silver packages in their hands.
When they ripped it out at the same time, revealing duplicate trading cards of All Might in all his spandex shiny glory, both himself and Bakugo broke out into matching wide grins as they brought the cards up close to the setting sun.
"Look, Kacchan!" Tony heard himself say in a squeaky high-pitched voice. "We both got the same card! That means we're going to be hero buddies!"
Smirking, Kacchan looked back at him with dark red eyes ablaze with excitement. His laughter was bright like the sparks of firecrackers on the fourth of July festival and slung a casual arm around Tony's shoulders allowing Tony to catch a scent of his sweat—sweet caramel and baby powder.
"Just make sure you can keep up with me, nerd."
As the memory faded, Tony chewed on the bottom of his lips, carefully weighing the options that had been set before him.
On one hand it would do Bakugo some good if he was taught the severe consequences of his actions, however inconsequential he thought he might be, but on the other hand…
Tony made his decision.
"I don't know about expulsion, but I think therapy and anger management classes can work."
"I am such a terrible mother," was the first thing Inko said the moment they got back home.
Blinking, Tony balanced on one foot as he tried to remove the other with his uninjured arm. Once he completed the rather tedious task, he directed his gaze over to the woman to find her standing still listlessly by the doorway, eyes unfocused as she clenched a pamphlet that a lovely hospital staff had given to her after helping them retrieve some fallen items off from the ground with her telekinesis quirk.
It was for a nursing school program, one of those accelerated ones that catered to middle aged folks who still dreamed of achieving a degree in something with medicine without saddling themselves with the pricey life-long debt of medical school.
He quietly approached the woman with slow carefully measured steps, not wanting to scare her with his presence.
"You…You're not," he began softly only to have Inko throw up her hands, nearly knocking him over in her rage.
"Yes I am!" she lamented, unconvinced of his words as she shuffled over to the lime green couch and collapsed in a slump on one of the plush seats. Covering her face with her hands, Inko's body rocked sporadically with silent sobs.
Tony's heart clenched in two places as he made his way to sit beside her, tentatively placing a hand onto her shaking shoulder.
"You're not," he insisted, trying again.
Inko didn't answer, but she shook her head vigorously, the strands of green from her hair whipping across her eyes.
Silence enveloped around them, and Tony stared at nothing in particular as he listened to her cries, continuing to rub small circles onto her shoulder.
Eventually, she calmed down and then spoke, her voice pitifully low and broken from decades of unsaid suffering.
"I knew."
Tony blinked. He wondered if he had misheard her.
"Come again?" he asked.
Slowly, Inko lifted up her head from her hands to meet his eyes, and he was quite taken aback at how much emotions swirled within the depths of her green eyes. She wore her heart on her sleeve, and Tony was given a front row seat of the inner turmoil that plagued her deepest thoughts, that she had apparently hidden from her own son all these years.
"I knew," she repeated, clearly struggling to keep herself together.
Tony gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze and she took a long gasp of fresh air down into her lungs.
"I knew something was wrong, that you weren't as happy as you used to be. I knew that you and Bakugo had not been getting along well ever since your… ' diagnosis' ." Tony winced at the word—quirklessness should not be considered something so life-changing and yet in this world, it might as well be. Inko then swallowed deeply. "But I had never imagined that it would be this bad. That it would end up like this. I knew he was always a little rough around the edges due to his quirk and Mitsuki's upbringing…but to actively hurt you?"
Her expression suddenly morphed into something frantic as she twisted her body around to properly face him, startling Tony as Inko lifted her hands up to cup both of his cheeks, her eyes searching for something that only she could find.
"D—did he always do this, Izuku?" her voice broke as she asked. "Was Bakugo bullying you for so long and I was simply too blind to notice it? Whenever you two were out playing your little hero games in the park by our apartment, coming home with a couple of cuts and bruises, I would fret and worry about your safety. But you would insist to me that it was all from some friendly roughhousing."
Fresh tears pooled at the edges of her eyes.
"But that wasn't true, wasn't it, Izuku. You weren't telling me everything. You didn't tell me the whole truth."
Peering straight into her endless unyielding gaze, Tony found himself at a loss for words.
Because it was true.
However short he had lived this second life, the memories of the Izuku from before him still lingered in the back of his mind, playing out in an endless loop. He knew what it felt to be diagnosed as quirkless at the tender age of four. He knew what it was like to be the only student in his whole elementary class to not have a quirk. He knew the immense pain and suffering Bakugo and his gangs had inflicted onto him all these past years, every faded scar on his skin a testimony of his ex-best friend's relentless path toward destruction.
Swallowing, Tony slowly, but firmly gave a nod of his head.
"Yes," was his answer.
For a moment, the word hung in the blistering silence that followed after he had spoken, and Inko stared for an additional minute more before her expression cracked like glass and a horrible cry finally escaped through her lips.
Her body shook as a torrent of tears cascaded down her plump rosy face and all Tony could do was watch silently as Inko, his mother, went through the five stages of grief all within a span of a minute.
"I'm sorry," she reeled him in close, burying her face onto the fluff of his hair. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," she continued on mumbling, her voice hoarse from her cries.
She rocked their bodies together back and forth as if she was trying to soothe him despite it having the opposite effect for him, but Tony didn't dare to complain.
Instead, he simply wrapped his own arms around her, letting the aroma of her perfume—sweet melon, eased his aching heart as he closed his eyes.
"I'm so sorry," she said again.
I know, Tony whispered to himself, I know.
Tony was awoken by a splash of ocean water on his face.
Bolting straight up, Tony sputtered out an incoherent storm of curses as saltwater stung his eyes.
The fuck?! he grumbled as he vigorously tried to wipe his eyes.
"Why did you do that, Mr. Stark?" a familiar high-pitched voice said from somewhere close by.
Finally getting the water out of his eyes, Tony was greeted by the angry cherubic face of one Midoriya Izuku. The boy loomed over him, clutching a bucket of ocean water between his hands as an unnatural scowl formed around his lips.
Oddly, Tony thought it reminded him eerily of Bakugo.
When he took too long to answer, he got another splash of water in return.
"Seriously?" Tony growled, rubbing his eyes some more and ended up only getting sand all over his face.
"Yes!" was Izuku's childish response and there was the faint sound of more water being scooped up in the background.
Getting fed up with this and reaching the limit of his (admittedly) short patience, Tony scrambled up to his feet, using his full height to tower over the younger boy.
"Mind explaining to me why you decided to throw a temper tantrum, kid?"
Stubbornly meeting Tony's gaze with a tilt of his own head, Izuku pouted.
"You punched Kacchan!" as if that would properly explain everything.
Oh , Tony blinked, then widening his eyes in realization.
"You mean Porcupine?"
A scandalized squeak left Izuku's mouth as he tossed the bucket of water onto Tony who narrowly dodged it at the last second. "He's not Porcupine," the boy growled, stomping his tiny feet as the attack missed, the stars within his eyes glowing red in his anger. "He's Kacchan. My best friend!"
Tony couldn't stop the ugly snort from escaping his nose.
"Bean-sprout, I'm going to impart some of my infinite wizardly wisdom onto you. That brat you call a "best friend"", making sure to add in some additional air quotes to get his point across, "is a frenemy at best or a glorified bully at worst. Not the sort of person you want hanging around with you."
Not that I would know… Tony silently doesn't add.
Izuku took no head of his words, frowning deeply as he began to scoop more water into his bucket.
They were back on the beach again, this time the sun was setting, the sky a deep bruise colored purple. The waves of the ocean were choppy this time, high crests of dark water crashing onto the shoreline with ferocity. Tony flinched when he heard the distinct but faint crack of thunder somewhere in the distance, but try as he might, he could find no speck of rain clouds anywhere within their vicinity.
So distracted that he was, that he almost missed the splash of water Izuku had tried to aim at him, hitting his feet instead of his face.
"Alright, Bean-sprout."
Tony had had enough of this; it was like dealing with Morgan all over again.
He reached down and wrestled the bucket away from the boy's hands, and then scooped him up like he weighed nothing more than a bag of rice (which wasn't unusual given how little the boy was) over his shoulders. Izuku howled, banging his small hands onto Tony's back in protest, but he might as well have not tried as Tony felt nothing.
"You know I can do this all day, kid?" waiting for the boy to finally tire out with his temper tantrum.
He had done this before with his daughter whenever she got a little unruly, and it worked like a charm.
Sure enough, Izuku eventually stopped, the ragged breath of his actions filling the silence between them as he stilled. Tony took a cautionary peek over at him and found, much to his surprise, the tears streaming down the boy's face.
"Bean-sprout?" Tony gently placed Izuku back onto the ground. "You're doing okay?"
The boy sniffled, and then peered up at him through the curls of his hair with large wads of tears clear as day.
"Why?" Izuku bawled out.
Panicking, Tony quickly took the boy into his arms, rubbing small circles onto his back as he did his best to comfort the crying kid, his paternal instincts kicking into overdrive as he sat them both down on the sandy beach.
Okay, that didn't go as planned.
"Look, I'm sorry, Bean-sprout," Tony apologized after he waited for the boy's sniffling to die down. "I didn't mean to punch your best friend."
Not exactly, Tony would be a fool to not say he wouldn't hesitate to do it again if given the need to.
But Izuku didn't need to know that.
Letting out a sigh through his nostrils, Tony combed through the unruly locks of Izuku's hair, knowing that the small simple gesture would be more than enough to calm him down somewhat.
It worked, and the boy leaned in close to his touch.
"It's just," Tony continued quietly, "I just don't like people who feel like they can bully others that they consider weak ." He hated everything associated with the word—his father had seen through that. "Porcupine or Kacchan as you like to call him, needed to be knocked down a peg or two off from his high horse if he thought he could get away with hurting you. Us ." Tony corrected after a moment of thinking.
Izuku remained terribly silent within his arms.
"Does this always happen, Bean-sprout?"
Tony tried to meet the boy's eyes, but he mulishly kept his gaze downwards.
"Do you let the brat push you around and just take it? Never saying a word about it to anybody?"
More silence.
"Not even to your own mom?"
That finally got a response out of him, and Izuku gasped, snapping his gaze up, guilt spreading rapidly across his face.
"I made mommy cry," he half-whispered, more tears pooling around the corners of his eyes, the stars within a dim hue of green. "I didn't mean to make her sad."
Tony wiped the tears with the edge of his sleeve.
"Hey," going for his best soothing voice, "your mom is not sad. She's just a little… upset that she didn't notice everything that's been happening to you. Being a parent isn't easy. You make mistakes and sometimes it can be costly."
He tried not to think about his own mistake—the one that had ended up costing him his own life.
Pushing the thought aside for a later time, Tony gave Izuku an easy-going grin.
"Besides, we told her now. Now she knows what's been going on between you and your friend at school and won't be letting that ever happen again. So long as we let her know if something is bothering us, of course," chuckling softly. "That's a good thing, right, Bean-sprout?"
A sniffle, but the boy slowly nodded his head. Without any hesitation, he wiped his snot-riddled face onto the bottom of Tony's shirt, who tried not to grimace at being used as a glorified tissue.
They settled together on the sandy beach, watching the sun set as Izuku leaned his head against Tony's chest for comfort.
"But you didn't have to punch, Kacchan," the boy spoke up again, and Tony repressed an exasperated groan as he figured it would be better to let the boy scold him for his reckless actions then make him cry again. "You almost got him expelled!"
The boy pulled away briefly to shoot him a serious look, and Tony couldn't stop the slight chuckle from bursting out from his lips at how odd the expression appeared on his chubby adorable face.
"Sure, Bean-sprout."
"If Kacchan had gotten expelled," Izuku pressed on, pointedly ignoring Tony's little side comment, as if to ensure that his message was being taken seriously by him, "then he won't be able to become a hero. And he should be a hero, because he has such an amazing awesome quirk that is super strong and perfect for fighting villains."
Tony raised a brow at all the compliments the boy was giving to Porcupine and couldn't help but wonder if the adoration was a sign of something deeper.
"And…"
The boy suddenly looked away, rubbing his hands together in a nervous like manner as the silence stretched between them for a long second.
"And Kacchan can do pretty much everything I can't do."
"Like, be a hero?"
Izuku flinched as if burned, turning back to Tony with forest green eyes widening to astronomical proportions.
"Well, I call bullshit," Tony declared with a quick shake of his head.
The boy's mouth hung open, but Tony continued before he could say another word.
"Look, I think a hero can be anyone, so long as they have the heart for it and the determination to follow it through. Not everyone's cut out for it and that's okay. I was pretty terrible when I had first started out as Iron Man, but I got the hang of it eventually. You sometimes just need to keep on trucking and learn from your mistakes."
Izuku stayed silent, seemingly entranced by his words.
"And if that Porcupine brat is supposed to be a charming example of how a hero should be conducting in your world, then I gotta say, Bean-sprout, your society needs some fixing."
Shuffling his thoughts around, Tony wasn't sure how to end his little speech, so he came up with the next best thing he had overhead Peter once used during their Avengers Team Up meeting.
"So, Bean-sprout, what I'm trying to say is…"
Tony offered Izuku a dazzling grin that had earned him accolades back when he was only known as the infamous playboy billionaire, "Don't let your dreams be dreams."
Somehow, almost impossibly, Izuku's eyes grew even wider, the stars within a swirl of red, green and yellow. He stared for an indescribable amount of time, slowly chewing on the bottom of his lips in deep thought.
"But there hasn't been a quirkless hero in decades," the boy mumbled out loud, expression oddly somber. "At least not in Japan anyway."
"True," Tony agreed, he had personally checked the stats himself—baring a few special cases (namely vigilantes that toed between the line of legality and illegality ), all the heroes currently on the ranking list have quirks. "But remember, you have me ," pointing at himself, grin growing tenfold wider, "billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. The Da Vinci of his time. The World's Greatest Hero."
The last bit was one he was especially pleased to lord over Captain America with.
Izuku blinked.
Repressing a tired sigh, Tony tried to go about this another way in hopes that the boy would follow his line of thinking.
"Look at it this way, you know I'm Iron Man, right?" The boy gave a cautious but firm nod of his head. "But according to the rules of your world, I shouldn't even be a hero, since I don't have a quote, unquote 'quirk .'" He paused, waiting for the words to sink in. "But we all know that is bull— er …"
No need to curse in front of the kid again.
"Not true. I fought alongside some of the best heroes known to man: Captain America, The Hulk, Black Widow, Thor, War Machine, Spiderman ." Izuku's eyes sparkled at that. "I think I can say I am just as much of a hero (if not more) than those guys."
Tony then shrugged his shoulders.
"So, what makes you think I am any different from someone like All Might?"
Izuku stayed silent, contemplating deeply on Tony's rhetorical question. A flicker of hope ignited within his eyes only to snuff out a second later like candlelight in the wind.
"But…Mr. Stark."
A defeated sigh escaped the boy's lips as his shoulders drooped and it took a considerable amount of effort for Tony to not want to grab the kid and shake him out of his gloomy funk.
"I'm not as awesome as you are. I'm not super smart, nor super nice, or even really likable." Curling into himself, tears started to drip down his cheeks, tiny blots of dead stars mixed in the clear blue liquid. "I'm just Deku . A useless, stupid, quirkless Deku."
Tony gritted his teeth.
Right now, he wanted nothing more than to punch the living daylights out of Bakugo for being the main source of Izuku's grief and pain.
"B—but I really want to be one!" Izuku's pleas broke through his murderous thoughts of a certain Porcupine brat. The wind was picking up again, harsh bits of yellow sand whipping relentlessly across Tony's face. He could hardly see a thing. "I really wanna be a hero!"
"Bean-sprout!"
The wind was a vengeful tempest. Tony felt himself being propelled away from the boy, strong gusts carrying him effortlessly off from his feet. Trying to find purchase with his fingers deep in the sand, Tony screamed once last time, watching as Izuku's figure started to fade with the growing sandstorm.
"Bean-sprout!"
His eyes opened to the familiar All Might plastered walls of his bedroom.
Tony stayed like that for a long moment, his right arm still outstretched from when he had tried to reach for the young boy.
"I really wanna be a hero!"
He lowered his arm back down to his side, and Tony let out a frustrated scream into the air.
Damn it.
Turned out there was a lot one can do if given a weeklong vacation from school.
After the whole fight with Bakugo, it had been decided by the principal to have both him and the other boy 'suspended' for causing disruption inside their school with their impromptu. For Tony it was one week, and for Bakugo it was two weeks; enough time for him to slightly recover from the burn wound Porcupine had inflicted onto his right shoulder.
The friendly nurses and doctors at the Central Musutafu Hospital had done their best to help soothe the worst of his pain—but a scar will remain in the shape of an elementary school kid's handprint.
With proper care and copious amounts of ointment, it was starting to fade from a sear red to a light pink, and Tony had fate that it would be something that wouldn't be too noticeable unless one looked closely.
In the meantime, he spent most of his time in the study room, searching on the computer for more information about heroes and the way they operate in Japan specifically. The sorts of schools that bolster such a crowd were numerous, though very few could claim to be of the same prestige and height as Yueei High School , the school where All Might, himself, had supposedly been an alumnus.
For Yueei, they offer an array of tracks centered around heroics and beyond.
The first was the Hero Department, where students looking for the best education possible for their heroic careers with a stellar cast of staff and teachers. The next was the Support Department, where students with an eye for technology were encouraged to apply and hone their skills to help heroes out in the field. Another was the Management Department, a sort of catch all for students who enjoy heroics but neither had the determination nor talent to go into the first two departments. Those in this department work to create potential businesses with heroes looking to expand their reach to the general public.
And last, and certainly in some cases, least, was the General Department. Aptly named for how diverse the courses available are for those who were not able to pass the Hero Entrance Examination or had no desire to do anything with heroics. Those looking to enter a top university, or more, were often found filling the seats of that particular department.
Interestingly enough, Tony had found that there had been a few unique instances where someone from the General Department could be transferred to the Hero Department if shown considerable talent during the Sports Festival.
However, such cases were extremely rare given the immense difficulty it was to pull off such a task.
His searches yielded little information about what the Hero Entrance Examination consisted of, though plenty of secondhand accounts could be found on forums by would-be applicants who would tell their tale to anybody interested in listening. The general consensus was that it was randomized every year, with no two exams ever being exactly alike. The written portion was pretty simple if one knew what to study, covering an array of topics such as arithmetic and basic biology.
It was the practical portion of the exam that many had deemed most important, and those were kept secret up onto the day of the exam.
Further reading revealed an interesting tidbit—there was no barrier on whether or not a person had to have a quirk or not to apply for the examination and even better, handmade weapons were allowed .
Smiling brightly, Tony brought another empty notebook from a nearby stack and started writing the words 'Tony's Absolutely Brilliant Ideas: Number# 1' on the cover.
Time to get to work.