I was sitting in an office. Nezu's office. A few weeks had gone by since Hosu, since Stain, since the internship and Ryukyu. Soon it would be time for something I dreaded perhaps more than any villain, written exams.
I was not good at those. Never had been. Maybe because my only experience with education aside from U.A. was in elementary school. But I had to focus on that later. Right now, I had to focus on why I was here.
After our talk with Stain, the police had asked us what he had said. Standard procedure. Expected. Nezu had already given them a psychological profile, Stain's real name, his backstory, everything they asked, Nezu knew.
But he never revealed anything that had actually happened in Tartarus. Not the words. Not the accusations. Not the conspiracy that had been laid bare before us like a festering wound.
It made me wonder where he got all that other information from. The man or rather mouse was a walking enigma wrapped in white fur.
After returning to U.A., he had told me something that still echoed in my mind.
"What Stain said does not leave our ears."
It made me want to burst my head like a balloon.
The amount of secrets I had to keep was piling up by the week. One For All. All For One. The corruption festering in the Hero Public Safety Commission. The truth about how heroes were made and unmade by forces the public never saw.
In a way, it was exhausting. Still, I had had enough time to readjust, to compartmentalize, to lock away each secret in its own mental vault.
I still remembered our conversation in the dead of night in this very office.
I thought back to it.
"Nezu, if what Stain said was true-"
"Yes, I know, lad." His voice was heavy. Tired in a way I had rarely heard from him. "We can't be reckless with this though. We must take the Hero Public Safety Commission from within, otherwise this is for naught."
I plopped down on a chair in front of him, the leather creaking under my weight. I moved Excalibur and Avalon from my waist into a soft embrace.
"How are we going to do that?" The questions tumbled out of me, each one more urgent than the last. "And what about the people? Shouldn't they deserve to know? About the corruption? And what about the flooding of heroes? Could that be an actual possibility?"
The flooding. The deliberate oversaturation of heroes to create dependence, to drown out dissent, to make the system seem too big to fail.
"Verily," Nezu replied as he plopped into his own reclining chair, his small form almost swallowed by the cushions. "But give me some time. A few weeks, maybe a few months. I need to find concrete information and I need to do it discreetly, which is going to be hard."
He paused, and I could tell, he was frustrated. That didn't happen much.
"I don't like saying this, but they do have fairly smart humans."
Coming from Nezu, that was practically a compliment.
"Still," I pressed, my fingers curling against my thighs, "the entire Public Safety Commission. Did they really just grant me the pardons because they wanted to keep control over heroes?"
The pardons. My golden ticket back into legitimate society. The thing that had allowed me to walk these halls, to wear this uniform, to call myself a hero-in-training instead of a criminal. Had it all been a leash dressed up as a gift?
"It is a very real possibility," Nezu sighed. "I always thought it was weird how easily they accepted your demands to not apologize for your vigilante activity in and of itself. I thought that maybe a few had good hearts."
He paused. In the lamplight, his eyes seemed older than usual.
"Guess I was wrong."
The admission hung in the air between us.
"Just give me a few months. Until after Summer Break. I need some time. Don't do anything drastic until then. If we're doing this -" he fixed me with a stare that brooked no argument, "- I want the least amount of fallout possible. I repeat, don't do anything drastic."
"Now why would you say that," I replied, allowing a small smile to cross my face. "Weren't you the one who taught me restraint?"
I blinked, and I was once more in the office. But Nezu wasn't the only one here with me now. No, All Might and Midoriya were here too, seated in chairs that had been arranged in a loose semicircle.
Midoriya was skittish. His fingers drumming against his thighs, then stopping for a moment in his lap, before returning to drum his thighs, and his heartbeat—I could hear it clearly, raced like a startled rabbit's.
We had just finished telling him about All For One. Well, All Might and Nezu had done most of the talking. I had been brought into the loop because I already knew all of this, along with knowing Midoriya was All Might's successor.
But I had been brought in here for another reason as well. had healed Midoriya's nerve damage. All of it.
Over the past few weeks. I had also healed a few more people, Iida and his brother Tensei, a few patients at the hospital who had been sleeping sick for years.
All of them had been sworn to secrecy, by Nezu and myself.
The only one who hadn't sworn anything was the addict I had healed in the alley. But I was sure that he wouldn't say anything. Call it a gut feeling. I was pretty good at reading people, well most people.
"S-so, this All For One, he's gone?" Midoriya asked into the room.
None of us spoke up to ease his worries. The silence stretched, uncomfortable and heavy. The simple reason was that none of us were sure. The Nomus were something unexplainable, even considering All For One's quirk. The sheer bioengineering knowledge and material needed to create so many was something even Nezu would have a hard time replicating. And if Nezu couldn't do it alone...
Finally, All Might spoke up.
"We are not sure, young Midoriya." His voice was gentle but firm, not like in class and yet similar in a way. "That is why you must learn to control One For All as soon as possible."
Midoriya's eyes whirled in their sockets. His gaze landed on me, and I could see the calculation happening behind those green irises. I could tell what he was doing. He was comparing us.
"What about Arthur?"
"I will fight against any threat," I replied. "But having someone who can keep up would be helpful."
He nodded before looking back down at his hands. His now no longer scarred, healed hands. It was then that I noticed how similar Midoriya was to me in some ways. The weight of responsibility that had been thrust upon him. The legacy he carried. In some ways I pitied him, just as I pitied the eight year old version of me, who had thought the world would crumble if he couldn't hold it up.
I could see why Nezu would have wanted All Might to choose me. But I was glad, in a way, that he had chosen Midoriya instead.
Still...I looked down at Avalon at my side. When would I be able to share with the public that I could heal others? It was something I wanted to announce as fast as possible, to throw open the doors of hospitals and say I can help, let me help, but I also knew I had to restrain myself.
People knowing someone could heal almost any ailment or injury was not good. The demand would be infinite. The expectations impossible. The backlash to unmet demand, would have been hard to stomach.
I had learned that much. It was probably something I wouldn't have considered if I were still a vigilante, back when my only concern was the next fight, the next person to save.
It was hard to believe how much I had changed in the past months.
I rose from my chair, bowing slightly to All Might and Midoriya along with a short nod to Nezu.
"I'll be taking my leave now. I have nothing else to add." I met Midoriya's eyes one final time. "It will be nice seeing you grow, Midoriya. I hope to see you one day at my side."
I left the office after that, walking back to the U.A. dormitories. My footsteps echoed through the empty hallways. I just wanted to sleep. It gave me a pleasure like none else. Well, that was a lie, food got close. Really, really, really, damn close.
I rubbed my eyes, already putting myself in the mood to sleep, which was harder to do than it sounded. Since Avalon took away all actual need to sleep, I had to fool my senses into doing so.
But as I turned into the hallway that led to my room, I saw someone leaning against my door. Her hands were behind her back, her blue hair cascading over her shoulders in waves. She shifted her weight from foot to foot.
Nejire? What was she doing here?
My hand went up to greet her. She did the same, her smile brightening as I approached.
"Hey Nejire," I began. "What's going on?"
"Nothing, it's just that, well-" She scratched her cheek, and I could hear her heart racing faster for some reason. I could even see some sweat starting to form around her brow. The sight was unusual.
Had she run here?
"The first trimester is about to end," she continued, her words coming out in a rush. "We both have final exams in a few days and after that, we probably won't be seeing each other much. You know summer break first years spend it at a camp. So I was wondering, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, and wouldn't change your schedule too much, if you know-"
She twirled her hair around her index finger as she spoke. The gesture was oddly endearing.
"Well, would you be willing to go to the movies with me tomorrow?!" She asked the question almost yelling the last word.
"Sure," I smiled back. Social interaction was almost as good as food, maybe I'd invite the gang to go somewhere soon, maybe to the library, God, knew we needed it. "Tell me the time and place. It'll be fun."
"Awesome! Well then, uh, bye! It's a date!"
With those final words, she took off. Golden spiral energy appeared underneath her feet, lifting her into the air, and she shot away toward her own dormitory. I watched her go, the spirals of light fading into the distance.
I stood there for a moment, processing what had just happened.
A date? She hadn't told me what date it was, though.
A/N: We speeding up, vroom, vroom, let romance bloom, because Christmas is almost upon us. Also cause it's been a few months since I've been in a relationship and I fucking hate it lol, need to put myself out there again instead of writing fanfiction.
Hope you all enjoyed this. I know some people don't like clueless protagonists but honestly I was the same at his age, like I could not tell a girl liked me until she sat on my lap lol.
Either way, thx for reading. Send those stones. Author out.