Chapter 16: PotentialSummary:
Staff room gossip.
Chapter Text
Majima walked into the staff room after school and made a beeline for the couch, face planting onto it with a groan, "Eraser, never let me give you a hard time about your problem children again."
Aizawa snorted, but didn't even look up from the paper he was grading, "Serves you right."
"You have problem children this year?" Yamada grinned as he looked up from his own paperwork. "That must be fun! What are they like?"
Majima lifted his head off the couch just enough to look him in the eye, "You'll know soon enough. They've decided to use one of your students as an extra credit project."
Nedzu hid his smile behind his teacup, knowing full well exactly which students Majima was talking about. Of course, he hadn't had a chance to peek at the cameras for class 1-F just yet, he still had a school to run after all, but Midoriya and his friend Hatsume had so much chaotic potential that there was little chance that Majima was talking about anyone else. The only question now was which student had they chosen as their victim.
"I'm the homeroom teacher for 1-C." Yamada said slowly. "What would a couple of support course students want with a gen-ed kid?"
Majima sighed in exhaustion and sat up, "They've decided that one of your kids is getting into the hero course, and that they're helping him do it."
"...Can they even do that?" Snipe asked.
"There's nothing in the rules against it!" Nedzu said cheerfully. "It might have taken a few loopholes if they were teachers, but since they're all students, then they're simply helping their friend, correct?"
"Of course you know exactly who I'm talking about." Majima muttered. "You do know this is your fault, right? If it was just Hatsume, I could handle it, I've had plenty of students like her in the past, but whenever she's combined with your protege…"
"Wait, you have a protege?!" Yamada yelled, making Aizawa finally look up from his papers to cancel his quirk, not that Yamada noticed or even cared. "You never take personal students! What even is this kid?!"
"A hellspawn, probably." Aizawa said. "He has to be if he caught the rat's attention."
Nedzu simply smiled and let his faculty form their own opinions. Many of them already knew about Midoriya and some had even met him, but the few who hadn't were all listening to the conversation with a mixture of curiosity and fear. All Might in particular looked vaguely terrified after the...chat that Nedzu had had with him the other day. Not that the scolding had been undeserved, of course, but it meant that he was probably a bit more primed to be scared of Midoriya's potential and of Nedzu's interest in him.
Nedzu was honestly more disappointed that All Might had forgotten about Midoriya after accidentally showing him his weakness than he was about the whole telling him not to be a hero thing. Nedzu was still a bit upset, since heroism had apparently been Midoriya's lifelong dream, but the fact was that he was quirkless. As sad and terrible as it was, Nedzu couldn't pretend that Midoriya wouldn't be at a distinct natural disadvantage not just in combat, but in the flashy popularity contest that defined the industry. It probably didn't matter which hero he had asked, they probably would have given the same answer, so at least All Might had tried to be polite about it.
Forgetting about the boy, however, was a much more serious offense. If Midoriya had secretly been a villain or had taken All Might's advice badly, it could have been disastrous for all of Japan. Even if All Might had been 100% certain that Midoriya would never use his weakness against him, the boy's knowledge of it would make him an appetizing target for the many villains that had a vendetta against the number one hero. By not communicating the encounter to anyone, not even Tsukauchi, All Might had put not only himself, but also an innocent civilian in danger, which was idiotic no matter what ranking he held. Nedzu would have to keep an eye on him while he was at UA to make sure he didn't endanger a student like that again.
Which brought Nedzu to his next concern, which was the heroics exercise he had observed that afternoon. It had been...decent...but All Might obviously hadn't known when it was appropriate to stop a match to prevent undue harm. Teaching students combat was tricky, since they obviously didn't yet know how much force was appropriate for certain situations. Some tended to use too little, so afraid of causing harm that they limited their own effectiveness, while others like young Bakugo tended to go overboard and use too much. It was a hard line to balance, especially for someone like All Might who was perfectly capable of punching away all of his problems, but it was one of the most important things that their students would learn over the course of their three years there, which meant that it was something that All Might would need to improve on sooner rather than later. Thankfully, the other teachers would be able to pick up the slack.
Speaking of the other teachers…
"Honestly, as much as I hate to admit a man is right…" Kayama drawled, "I think Aizawa might be right about this one. It's the green haired one, right, Nedzu? Midoriya?"
Nedzu nodded and gestured for her to continue as the rest of the teachers leaned forward slightly in anticipation and curiosity.
"When I showed up to teach today, the kid was leading his classmates in a revenge plot against the hero students." Kayama licked her lips and smiled. "It was delicious."
Nedzu didn't know whether to be proud, concerned, excited or angry, so he settled on gathering more information before making that decision, "Do you know which student?"
Kayama shrugged, "Not quite sure. I do know he's a first year and apparently bullied the poor boy. I love their idea of revenge, though! The mischievous little imps are going to do a bunch of subtle things to make the kid miserable, so just look for which of the first years encounters more than his fair share of daily frustrations and you'll have your target."
There were easier ways to find the child, if one just hacked into the right records. If all went well, as it undoubtedly would, Nedzu would have this boy's name by the end of the night, "And he was a bully, you said?"
"Uh, Nedzu, sir?" All Might said hesitantly. "Please tell me that you're going to stop this rather than joining in…"
All Might visibly gulped at the sharp smile Nedzu gave him, "Now, All Might, one of the goals of a teacher is to help one's students accomplish their goals! What kind of a teacher would I be if I didn't give Midoriya any assistance.
"B-but…"
"Don't bother." Aizawa said. "That kind of pettiness is right up Nedzu's alley, so at least he's only going to be taking it out on one brat rather than the whole of humanity. The only thing he'll have to worry about is the conspiracy theorists trying to accuse the kid of being his secret love child or something."
"So!" Yamada grinned. "I get to meet the little listener? Which of my students has he adopted?"
"I think Midoriya said his name is Shinso." Powerloader sighed. "He has a brainwashing quirk."
"Ah! Good choice, I approve!" Nedzu chirped. He remembered Shinso from the exams, of course. It was a shame that he didn't get enough points, but despite his and Aizawa's best efforts, the school board had shot down every single one of the alternate exam ideas they had proposed, leaving Shinso in general education until he was able to prove himself during the sports festival.
"Brainwashing?" Aizawa asked.
"It's an intriguing quirk, I can see why Midoriya was drawn to it!" Nedzu chirped. "Young Shinso can control anyone provided that they answer one of his questions."
"And of course, it's useless against robots." Aizawa muttered and dragged a hand down his face. "Please tell your protege not to only focus on the kid's quirk. With a drawback like that, he'll have to be able to fight without it."
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that." Nedzu dismissed. "I do believe that Midoriya would be the last person to limit a person based entirely on their quirk."
"Oh?" Kayama asked. "And why is that?"
There was a moment of tense silence before All Might, to Nedzu's surprise, answered, "Because he's quirkless."
"That explains it." Aizawa said after a moment. "If he caught your attention, he obviously doesn't let it limit him. Good. Now let's see if the other problem child sees it the same way."
Chapter 17: AbductionSummary:
Shinso meets half of the chaos duo!
Notes:
Look at this beautiful little drawing Ro made of Izuku!
Chapter Text
Izukul leaned back in his seat after finishing up the list of theories he'd been working on. He'd spent the morning reviewing the videos he had of the hero students and making rough lists of potential ideas for improvement that he could clean up once he'd seen their quirks in action more, but for now, there wasn't much else he could do on that project, which meant that it was time for Extra-Credit-Kun.
Oh god, Mei really was starting to rub off on him, wasn't she?
Izuku shook his head with a chuckle as he grabbed the notebook he'd dedicated to their extra credit project and opened Shinso's file, only to realize that he was at a dead end there as well. At least with the hero students, he had some combat videos to analyze, but all Izuku had for Shinso was his student file and the video of his entrance exam, which obviously didn't show the full potential of his quirk because he couldn't use it on robots. If Izuku wanted his analysis to be of any use to Shinso at all, he needed more information.
The easiest way to get that information would be to simply ask and hope that Shinso wouldn't be too creeped out to answer him. Well, even if he was creeped out, he'd probably still answer if Izuku explained that it was to help him do better in the sports festival. Anyway, it didn't really even matter because he was probably in class right now...but it wouldn't hurt to check, right?
Before he could second guess himself, Izuku opened up the class schedule for class 1-C. Even if Shinso was in class, which he should be, it would still be helpful to know his schedule so he and Mei could track him down later.
Speaking of Mei, she chose that moment to burst through the door to Izuku's workroom without knocking. She didn't even wait for him to look up before she had draped herself over his shoulders, groaning dramatically, "Izu-kun, help! I can't make Shinso's babies!"
Izuku snorted, "Most girls have to actually meet a guy before creating his children."
Mei grabbed his shoulder and spun his chair around so he was facing her and could see the manic grin that had just spread across her face, "That's a brilliant idea!"
Izuku smiled and shook his head fondly, "Let me guess, you need more info on his quirk and fighting style before you can really get started?"
"Yep!" Mei picked an empty spot on Izuku's desk and sat down, "You too?"
Izuku nodded and turned back to his screen, "I was just looking up his schedule to see when the best time to meet him would be."
"Well, make it ASAP!" Mei said impatiently. "I want to start making babies!"
"You can't just rush these things, Mei-chan, it isn't polite." Izuku told her patiently. "We can't just take him out of class...or maybe we can."
Mei jumped off the desk and leaned over her shoulder, "Wait, what is it?!"
"He has a study period right now." Izuku pointed to the screen. "If we got Powerloader's permission, we could probably pull him out of class for a few minutes, since he wouldn't actually be missing any lessons."
"Let's do it!" Mei hugged him tightly before pulling him to his feet and pushing him toward the door. "What are you waiting for?! I have babies to make!"
Their classmates glanced up at Mei's declaration as the door opened, but they spared the two less than a second before shaking their heads and going back to work on their own projects. Izuku still thought it was a little weird how quickly the class had seemed to just accept their antics, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He had Mei and that was enough for him right now. He'd probably just manage to work himself into an anxiety attack if he tried to second-guess every interaction he'd had with his classmates looking for ways that they actually hated him, and honestly, he was too busy with his analysis projects to have any time for that right now.
It didn't take them long at all to reach Powerloader's desk, especially not with Mei still pushing him in her excitement. Powerloader simply sighed and looked at them as they approached, "Should I be concerned about what you two are cooking up?"
"No!" Izuku said at the same time that Mei shouted, "Yes!"
Unfortunately, Mei's voice was just a little louder.
"We just want to ask Shinso some questions about his quirk." Izuku said quickly. "I looked and he has a study period right now, so we were hoping we could borrow him and bring him here. We'd use my workroom so we wouldn't bother the other students. Please?"
Izuku had learned his puppy dog eyes from his mom, and honestly, he wasn't even aware that he was doing them until he caught Mei mimicking his expression out of the corner of his eye. Powerloader simply looked at them tiredly for a long moment before caving, "Midoriya, you go and get him. I'm not sure I trust Mei not to blow something up between here and there."
"Come on, it's not like there are that many explosive things between here and the general education department!" Mei exclaimed. "Just the wiring...and probably the fire extinguishers if you count foam as an explosion...Oh! And the security system! Izu-kun, do you know if there are any bombs in the security system?"
"Yeah, it's probably for the best if I just go…" Izuku said, ignoring the way Mei pouted at him as he turned back to Powerloader. "Could I have a note explaining the situation in case Shinso's teacher asks why I need him?"
"Present Mic should already be expecting you." Powerloader said tiredly. "I mentioned your little project to the other teachers and warned him that it was only a matter of time before you dropped by."
"Oh." Izuku didn't know if it was good or bad that the entire faculty knew about their plans to help Shinso. Honestly, he'd never had teachers care about what he wanted to do before, so this was all new territory. "That's good then."
Powerloader nodded, "Get back quick before Hatsume blows up our lab again."
Mei cackled and ran back toward her desk, "Good luck!"
Hitoshi tapped his pencil idly on his notebook as he reviewed English verb structure for the third time. Not that having a second language wouldn't be useful, but he couldn't help thinking that the hero students were probably training right now and getting more and more of an unfair advantage every minute that Hitoshi spent studying academics. There was only so long until the sports festival and his last chance to get into the hero course, so he didn't want to waste any time.
The silence of the classroom was interrupted by a quiet knocking of the door and a tiny-looking kid with tangled green curls and large eyes poked his head in, "Present Mic, sir? Would it be alright if I borrowed Shinso for a few minutes?"
Hitoshi froze as his entire class swiveled in their seats to look at him curiously, as if he had any idea why a kid he'd never seen before in his life was interrupting his class asking for him by name.
His classmates' curiosity was almost palpable as Mic-sensei looked up from his desk and gave the boy a mischievous smile, "You're one of Powerloader's gremlins, right?"
The kid sputtered for a moment at Mic's wording before apparently giving up on being embarrassed and letting out a sigh as he walked fully into the room, "Yes, sir. He said that he mentioned things to you…"
"Of course!" Mic grinned. "Shinso, go ahead and grab your things. There's no guarantee you'll be back by the end of class." As Hitoshi hurried to comply, Mic turned back to the kid. "Try to return him in one piece, ya dig?"
Hitoshi's eyes widened and he felt himself pale slightly as the kid returned Mic's smile with a small one of his own, "No guarantees. I'm not the one you need to worry about, but also I'm not responsible for anything Mei-chan does when she's excited."
"Oooh!" Mic laughed. "I can see why Nedzu likes you so much!"
The class erupted into whispers and Hitoshi was starting to wonder if he would have a better chance of surviving if he just jumped out the window. Mic-sensei wouldn't actually let this mystery kid, or whoever this Mei-chan person was, hurt him...right?
Hitoshi finished packing his backpack and gulped as the kid smiled at him. Normally, a bright smile like that would put him more at ease, but after hearing the kid basically plot his murder, it just looked vaguely terrifying. Reluctantly, Hitoshi followed his...kidnapper? Was that what the kid was? What was even happening?
His kidnapper didn't say anything as he led Hitoshi down the hallway to a part of the school he didn't recognize, not that that was helpful at all, considering that he'd been at UA for less than a week. He had no idea what was happening anymore and honestly, he was too afraid to ask. All he knew was that this kid might kill him and his teacher wouldn't even care. So much for the teachers at UA being different.
His kidnapper still didn't break the silence and as they got even more lost in the maze that was UA, Shinso eventually got fed up and decided that if he was going to get murdered anyway, it wouldn't hurt to at least ask this kid why he'd kidnapped him. At the worst, he'd just get killed a little sooner, right?
"Um…" Hitoshi's voice sounded too loud and he had to take a step back as the kid pinned him with those wide eyes, giving Hitoshi a strange sense that this kid knew everything about him and was simply dissecting him with his gaze, "I have a few questions."
The kid smiled brightly again, "Of course! I might not be able to give the best answers, but I'll try!"
"Ok…" Hitoshi took a breath, "Who are you? Where are we going? Why did you just kidnap me? Finally, who is Mei-chan and should I be writing my will?"
The kid looked at him in shock for a long moment before he started giggling uncontrollably, "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry! I didn't...and I completely forgot to introduce myself, so no wonder you're...and Present Mic called me a gremlin, which probably didn't help anything. This is probably why our classmates are terrified of us, huh?"
"Probably." Shinso said, not because he knew this kid's classmates, but more because he didn't really have any other response to that. "So…?"
"Oh! Right!" The kid jumped slightly and started walking into the labyrinth that was UA again. "My name is Izuku Midoriya and we're heading back to my classroom. Mei-chan is my best friend. She probably won't hurt you, she just gets really excited about her inventions and they don't always work the first time, which isn't that bad, you just need to be a little careful in case they explode unexpectedly. We're support students...obviously, since Mei-chan has inventions to explode. Um...what else…?"
Oddly enough, Midoriya's rambling was actually calming and made him seem less like some mysterious psychopath, so Hitoshi actually found himself feeling a little more at ease as he cocked an eyebrow, "Why you kidnapped me?"
Midoriya furrowed his forehead as his voice dropped to a mutter, "I didn't...why would I...well, I guess I did kind of steal you away unexpectedly, but that wasn't…"
"Midoriya." Hitoshi interrupted the kid's mutter storm and gestured for him to continue. "Why did you kidnap me?"
"Oh, um…" Midoriya chuckled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck, "I don't want to get into too much detail without Mei-chan here, but basically, we're going to get you into the hero course!"
...what?
Chapter 18: Starting LineSummary:
Shinso meets the other half of the chaos duo.
Chapter Text
Hitoshi's mind was still reeling by the time they arrived at a large door that obviously led into a support lab. What did Midoriya mean when he said they were going to help him get into the hero course? Could they even do that? How…?
He was knocked out of his stupor, quite literally, when the door blew off its hinges and threw him and Midoriya against the far wall of the wallway. It didn't hurt as bad as he would have expected, and honestly he was more dazed than hurt, but maybe that had something to do with the whole situation and not the fact that he'd just gotten thrown against a wall and was now sitting on the hallway floor.
"Mei-chan!" Midoriya yelled. "You could have hurt us!"
"Don't worry, Izu-kun, that was just a disorienting blast!" A girl with bright pink hair and coveralls tied around her waist appeared in the doorway, nonchalantly moving a giant pair of goggles from her face to her head as if she hadn't just blown up half the hallway. "They'll cause damage to things, but not to people! Perfect for hostage situations!"
"Oh!" Midoriya scrambled to his feet and grabbed a notebook from his pocket. "How does that affect people like Cemontoss who are, objectively, made from things? There's a kid in 1-A who can turn into rock and another in 1-B who can turn into steel, would they be affected? Would it only damage them when their quirks are activated? Or is the damage caused because the thing is non-living, in which case quirks wouldn't affect it because the person with the quirk is still alive? What about…"
"What the…" A hero that Hitoshi assumed was Powerloader appeared in the doorway, his hands going to his helmet as he took in the scene. "How? Hatsume, I literally looked away for two seconds!"
"Well, technically, an explosion takes only a fraction of a second to begin." Midoriya began. "But the actual chemical reaction can take several seconds to run its course, depending on the chemicals involved, but you wouldn't be able to stop it once it reached the activation energy…"
"Didn't you two promise to not bother the other students if I let you bring Shinso here?" Powerloader asked.
"Oh, it's a support lab!" Hatsume dismissed. "Explosions are normal! We're not bothering…"
"Shut the fuck up and go to your boyfriend's room already!" A female voice called out loudly from inside the classroom. Midoriya turned bright red and sputtered, but Hatsume apparently didn't care about whatever her classmate was implying, because she simply zeroed in on Hitoshi and leaned down until she was only inches away from his face. He instinctively pressed himself as far against the wall as he could, which unfortunately wasn't very far.
She smiled at him manically, "You must be Extra-Credit-Kun! Izu-kun's told me so much about you! We're gonna have so much fun!"
Hitoshi simply blinked at her as he waited for his brain to catch up and maybe, just maybe, make sense of her words, "E-extra-Credit-Kun?"
"Mei-chan!" Midoriya shoved her away from him and shook his head as he helped Hitoshi up. "You can't just call people by nicknames like that the first time you meet them! Shinso has a name!"
"Not important." Hatsume dismissed. "What's important is that I'm going to make his babies!"
Hitoshi choked on nothing and almost fell back onto the floor again as the crazy girl grabbed his hand and pulled him into the lab with Midoriya following close behind. He barely got a glimpse of the other students before he was being yanked into a small dark room lined with computers and the door shut ominously behind him, trapping him with the two crazy students who had just kidnapped him. Was being a hero really worth all this?
Yes. Yes, it was.
Hitoshi took a deep breath and looked at his kidnappers with a well-practiced bored expression, "So...are you gonna explain what's going on now?"
Hatsume turned and slapped Midoriya's chest, "Izu-kun! Why didn't you explain anything to Extra-Credit-Kun?!"
"I was waiting for you!" Midoriya defended. "I thought you wanted…"
"Don't waste time on my account, Izu-kun, we have work to do!" Hatsume turned back to Hitoshi. "You, Extra-Credit-Kun, are our new project!"
Hitoshi didn't think that explained anything except for the nickname he'd apparently acquired, but thankfully Midoriya was a little more willing to fill in the gaps.
"Powerloader has agreed to give us extra credit if we use our skills to help you." Midoriya sighed as he turned on the lights and sat down in front of the line of computers. "I'm an analyst and Mei-chan is obviously an inventor, so we're going to...well, be your support, I guess? I'll help you analyze and train your quirk and she'll make you a support item that you can use in the sports festival next month to give you the best possible chance of transfering into the hero course. Honestly, it's ridiculous that they wouldn't let you in the hero course in the first place, but at least now you can prove everyone wrong, right?"
Hitoshi thought about that for a long moment, "So you're basically going to train me to be a hero so you can get extra credit?"
Midoriya smiled awkwardly, "Yes? I mean, only if that's ok! We don't have to if you don't want us to, I mean, I get that we can kinda be a lot sometimes and…"
"Don't give him a choice, Izu-kun!" Hatsume exclaimed. "We're helping you and that's final! Ok, Extra-Credit-Kun?"
Hitoshi couldn't help snorting, "Well, I'm not exactly in a position to say no, but are you sure you even want to help a kid with a villain's quirk become even more dangerous? What if I go rogue like everyone's always told me?"
His kidnappers obviously hadn't missed any of the bitterness in Hitoshi's voice, because they shared a glance and when Hatsume responded, she sounded angry, "Ok, that's it. You're gonna win this and we're gonna prove those assholes wrong! I am so sick of people being rude to my friends just because of downright stupid prejuduces!"
"F-friends?" Hitoshi's brain went blank. Hatsume couldn't possibly be including him in that, could she? They'd literally just met! But then, she'd already talked about having his babies...whatever the hell that meant.
"It's best not to fight her friendship." Midoriya gave him a small, determined smile. "When Mei-chan gets something in her brain, it's best to just roll with it. So! Let's start with your quirk! It's brainwashing, right? Verbal response based?"
Hitoshi nodded, still reeling, "Yeah. But, uh, I can't control higher brain functions, just basically make the person into a puppet."
Midoriya had whipped out a notebook and was rapidly writing down everything Hitoshi was saying, "How do they snap out of it? Do you have to release your control?"
Hitoshi shrugged, "I can, like if they complete all the orders I gave them, but it's more common for someone else to jostle them, which can break my hold. That's how most of my classmates rescued anyone they thought I'd used my quirk on."
"Hmm," Midoriya ignored Hatsume's annoyed buzzing next to him, "Ask me a question."
"Why?" Hitoshi asked suspiciously
Midoriya grinned, "So you can brainwash me of course! I need to know how it feels to be on the receiving end and it'll help me explore your limits…"
His eyes went blank as Hitoshi took control, glancing over at Hatsume, expecting her to be creeped out at the very least. To his surprise, however, she just looked excited and grabbed Midoriya's notebook from his lax grip, flipping through some of the pages until she'd found what she was looking for, "Ok! Test time! Izu-kun already made a list of orders he wants you to give him, so let's start! Tell him to stand on one foot!"
Hitoshi hesisted, glancing between Hatsume and Izuku. He'd learned the hard way not to give anyone any functional orders without their express permission. "I...um, I should ask him first."
"Well then, just ask him now!" Hatsume said impatiently. "It'll be another experiment to see if he tells the truth under your quirk!"
"It doesn't work like that." Hitoshi griped and turned to Midoriya. "Tell me whether or not you're ok with me giving you orders."
Just as he'd expected, Midoriya simply sat and stared at him blankly. Hitoshi turned back to Hatsume, who looked vaguely disappointed, "See? Verbal responses count as a higher brain function. I'm just gonna wake him up and ask."
Hitoshi released his hold and watched nervously as the light came back into Midoriya's eyes. Sure, he'd said that he wanted Hitoshi to brainwash him, but what if he got angry? It turned out that Hitoshi didn't have anything to be worried about, because the moment Midoriya was in control of himself again, he just shook his head and grinned brightly.
"That was so cool!" Midoriya grabbed his notebook back from Hatsume and scribbled a few things down before handing the notebook to Hitoshi, "Ok, so this time I want you to tell me to do the things on this list, and if I haven't woken up by the end of it, Mei, could you jostle me to wake me up? I want to compare that to Shinso releasing his control voluntarily."
"Sure thing, Izu-kun!" Hatsume grinned and grabbed her phone to start recording the session. "Ready!"
"Do you think you'll wake up before the end?" Hitoshi couldn't help asking. He had to ask a question to establish control anyway, so he may as well as one he was curious about.
"I don't know." Midoriya said. "It'll depend on how your quirk deals with impossible orders."
"Ok?" Hitoshi was pretty sure that they'd already figured that out, since Midoriya had just done nothing rather than answer his question earlier, but apparently, he was no longer the expert on his own quirk.
He quickly took control of Midoriya and started going down the list. Most of the orders were easy things like stand up, sit down, stand on one foot, ect. The most interesting thing that happened was when Hitoshi ordered Midoriya to sit down on a stool. There wasn't a stool in the little room they were in, so to Hitoshi's surprise, Midoriya actually took the initiative to leave the room and go sit in the stool out by Powerloader's desk. Hitoshi almost died of embarrassment as he ran after Midoriya, frantically apologizing to the other support students, but he finally decided that their classmates must be used to their antics because the only response they gave to their classmate coming out practically braindead was a few curious glances and a few giggles to Powerloader's exasperation.
"Shinso, I'm assuming you're currently in control of Midoriya?" Powerloader asked with a sigh.
Hitoshi froze. This was it. This was how he got expelled from UA. He should have known better than to brainwash a UA student, even with their permission, and now he was going to get punished for his stupidity. He should have known this whole situation was too good to be true. He stared at the floor, clamping down on his anger and disappointment, "Yes sir. I'll release him from my quirk right away."
"There's no need for that." Powerloader said. "I'm sure you're in the middle of an experiment, right?"
Hitsoshi hesitantly nodded. Was...was Powerloader just going to accept that?! He wasn't going to expel him for using his quirk on a fellow student?! Apparently not, because Powerloader simply nodded as if this situation were completely normal...or as normal as any situation could be when Midoirya and Hatsume were involved.
"Shinso, please tell Midoriya to get back into his room." Powerloader said. "And make sure he doesn't run into anything dangerous on the way back, there are power tools in here."
Hitoshi nodded frantically, grateful that he had somehow avoided getting expelled, and ordered Midoriya to go back to Hatsume, who was currently rolling on the floor of the little room dying of laughter. With his luck, he could just imagine Midoriya trying to walk all the way back home completely brainwashed if he told him to go to his room.
After that minor blip, everything went smoothly. Everything, that was, until Hitoshi read the last order on Midoriya's list.
"Hatsume?" Hitoshi pointed to the page. "Does he really want me to order him to do this?"
"Don't call me Hatsume, Extra-Credit-Kun, Mei-chan is fine!" Hatsume leaned over and read the order. "That one's actually a pretty important experiment, so yeah, he definitely wants you to do it."
"O-ok?" Hitoshi took a deep breath and looked at Midoriya, who was waiting in the middle of the room. "Do a backflip."
Midoriya squatted and jumped backwards, only to hit the ground as his attempt at a backflip completely failed.
"Ow…" Midoriya groaned and rolled over, the impact more than enough to knock him from Hitoshi's control, "Ok, so the person will still try to complete impossible commands, but won't be able to if the task is outside their ability level. Nice to know."
"I am so sorry." Hitoshi ran to help him up. "I shouldn't have given you that order, are you hurt? Do you need me to leave? I'm so sorry, I should stop asking questions, I'm probably making you really uncomfortable…"
Midoriya just laughed with a wince, "No! I put that on there on purpose! It was the only thing I could think of that, while theoretically possible, wasn't a skill that I have. My first thought was that I would just wake up when given the order, or maybe my brain would subsciously know how to complete the task...wait, do you know how to do a backflip?"
"Do I look like I know how to do a backflip?" Hitoshi deadpanned. "And why would that even matter?"
"Because your quirk could be connecting your target's body to your brain instead of theirs." Midoriya explained as he took back his notebook. "Mei, make a note that we should ask Recovery Girl if she has access to some kind of brain scanner. We need to know whose brain lights up when tasks are being done, Shinso's or his target's."
"Will do, Izu-kun!" Hatsumei said happily. "I could probably build one myself if…"
Hitoshi couldn't help but feel like he was intruding as both of them dissolved into muttering and wrote down their observations in their respective notebooks. He was starting to wonder if he should just go back to class when one of Midoriya's more coherent mutterings caught his attention, "...and we know you can modify memories, so…"
"No, I can't." Hitoshi interrupted before he could stop himself and he leaned back slightly when both of his kidnappers stopped their notetaking to stare at him.
Midoriya frowned, "But in the footage you could."
"I don't' know what you think you saw, but," Hitoshi shrugged helplessly, "I mean, I've never actually tried it, I would've gotten in way too much trouble for something like that, but I can't even make someone answer a question, so I'm pretty sure I can't make someone forget something or anything like that."
"Hmm…" Midoriya tapped his cheek with his pencil a few times. "Mei, what color is Shinso's hair?"
Hatsumei grinned, "Purple!"
Midoriya nodded, "Ok, now turn and face the wall. Shinso, put her under your quirk so we can try something."
Wait, were they actually going to try to modify Hatsume's memories? It seemed like that shouldn't be something she should be ok with, but when it came to these two, Shinso didn't really know if any normal rules applied, "Umm, if she wants me to, I can, but she'd have to answer one of my questions."
"Ohh!" Even from the back, Hatsume's excitement was obvious. "Do I get to be the test subject this time?!"
"Are you actually crazy?" Hitoshi asked incredulously.
Hatsume simply laughed, "Probably!"
Hitoshi activated his quirk and shook his head in disbelief. These two had to be insane, "Ok, what now?"
Midoriya thought for a second, "Tell her to remember your hair being green."
Hitoshi still didn't think this was actually going to work, so he went ahead and gave the order, then released his control.
Midoriya smiled at him, then turned to Hatsume, "Ok, Mei-chan, before you turn around, what color is Shinso's hair?"
"Is this a trick question?" Hatsume sounded confused. "It's green, just like yours Izu-kun! I thought you guys were going to mess with my memories or something?"
Hitoshi's jaw dropped and Midoriya's face split into a bright grin, "Turn around!"
Hatsume turned quickly and did a double take as soon as she saw Hitoshi, "Whoa! That's so trippy!"
Hitoshi couldn't even think. He...he hadn't even known he could do that. Until he'd seen her reaction, he'd half-thought they were just being nice or something, but he'd actually changed her memories, "How...how did you know I could do that?"
Izuku smiled, "I watched your entrance exam. That other examinee you got in a fight with? I know him. He wouldn't have let something like that slide unless he actually had forgotten about you like you ordered. All that left was confirming the theory."
Hatsume grinned and leaned close to his face, "I'm gonna have so much fun making your babies!"
Hitoshi walked into class 1--C at the end of the hour shell-shocked and with a smear of soot on his cheek that he hadn't gotten around to wiping off after Hatsume's welcome explosion. The moment that Present Mic saw him, the corners of his mouth started twitching and it was obvious that he was holding back giggles, "So...how was it?"
"I think I just made a deal with the devil." Hitoshi said numbly. "Actually, two devils. Is that worse? It feels like that's worse."
This time, Mic-Sensei didn't even bother to hold back his laughter, "Yeah, the support course is like that. Go ahead and take a seat."
Hitoshi ignored his classmates' whispers as he made his way to his seat and took out his things for the next lesson. Yes, Midoriya and Hatsume were...overwhelming, but in less than an hour, they'd discovered things about his quirk that Hitoshi hadn't even realized after ten years of having it. If anyone at UA could get him into the hero course, it was his kidnappers.
So if those two really were demons, Hitoshi couldn't quite bring himself to regret signing away his soul.
Chapter 19: NoiseSummary:
The chaos duo runs more experiments on their extra credit project.
Notes:
Look at all this art!
I'm totally a fish
Sour Cream
Tegdirb
Chapter Text
"You rely on your quirk too much."
Izuku almost felt bad saying it, especially since Shinso was taking time out of his day to talk to them during lunch. His quirk was amazing, so of course he relied on it, and it was part of him, so Izuku couldn't discount that, but…
"Yep!" Mei piped up, shoveling a spoonful of rice in her mouth. "But don't feel bad! Most heroes do, but that's why you have us!"
Shinso looked at them skeptically, "And how am I supposed to be a hero without my quirk?"
Izuku waved his hands frantically in front of him, "Not without your quirk! We would never tell you to hold yourself back like that! It's just that...well, you see…"
"It's the activation requirements." Mei interrupted. "You're pretty good at making people respond to you, but eventually you're going to come across someone who has more self control than you have sass."
Izuku couldn't hold back a huff of shocked laughter, "Yeah. What she said. The fact is that once people know about your quirk, you have a huge handicap. It would be like if a villain immediately took Snipe's gun at the beginning of a fight. He would still have his quirk, but he wouldn't be able to use it."
"The only difference here is that Snipe can use his quirk to protect his gun, you can't." Mei thought for a moment. "He also carries an extra gun. Izu-kun! Let's give Extra-Credit-Kun a gun!!!"
Shinso looked at them in shock and a bit of fear, so Izuku figured he wasn't quite ready for that, despite the amazing potential the idea had, "Maybe let's start with something smaller, like how we can prevent villains from finding out about his quirk."
"Nice thought." Shinso pointed at them with his chopsticks. "But that's the thing about my quirk. If you fall for it once, you know how it works."
"Maybe…" Izuku flipped through his notebook until he found a page that he'd used to scribble ideas. "How long does your connection last?"
Shinso shrugged, "No idea. I've never been allowed to control someone for more than a few minutes. That experiment with you the other day was as long as I've ever gone."
"That's not what I…" Izuku had to take a second to gather his thoughts. "I mean, that's good to know, but how long can you wait between getting a response and taking control?"
Shinso looked surprised, then thoughtful, "I don't know. I always thought it was best to just take control as soon as I can, so I've never actually tried to wait or anything…"
Izuku grinned and flipped to a new page in his notebook, "Perfect! So, how do you know the connection has been formed? Do you have to try to brainwash then or can you just feel it?"
"I can feel it." Shinso said quietly. "It's like the person is inside my brain... I'm sorry, I shouldn't have told you that. I don't want to make you uncomfortable."
Mei responded by slapping Shinso over the head, "Stop that! Good experiments are uncomfy! You never learn anything interesting just by sitting on your butt! So embrace the awkward!!!"
Izuku laughed, then saw the shocked expression on Shinso's face and laughed even harder, "I didn't know you could give inspirational speeches, Mei-chan!"
"I'm a woman of many talents." Mei said cryptically. "You'll never discover them all!"
"And on that terrifying note," Shinso drawled, "Do you want to start?"
"Of course!" Izuku responded with a grin. "Do you have the connection now?"
Shinso nodded with a concentrated look on his face, but didn't respond. Izuku nodded, it must take a fair amount of focus to keep the connection without completing the brainwash, "Mei, start the timer."
"Already on it, Izu-kun!" Mei pressed a few buttons on her phone and the experiment officially began. "So... Izu-kun. How are the hero students doing? Any opportunities for me to make super awesome babies?!"
"They're doing well!" Izuku smiled and grabbed one of the many notebooks he'd created for the project. Each student had their own notebook dedicated to their quirks and ideas, and while some were still completely empty, others were already halfway full. The notebook Izuku happened to grab was for one of the class 1-B students with a really cool copy quirk, "Take this guy, Monoma, for example! He can copy any quirk for five minutes, but I think there might be a way for him to create...well, basically a stockpile of quirks. If he has to touch a person's whole body, then that won't work, but if it works with any dna…"
"Then he can incorporate different quirks into his costume and always have them on hand when he needs them!" Mei grinned. "I like the way you think, Izu-kun!'
Suddenly, Izuku's brain went foggy as the increasingly familiar feeling of Shinso's quirk washed over him. It only lasted a few seconds before Shinso released his control.
"I am so sorry." Shinso was a little out of breath and looked pale and slightly sweaty. "I...I held on for as long as I could, but...why is that so difficult?"
"Because your quirk wants action." Izuku said. "Instinctively, people want to either do something, or not. No one likes being caught in an in between place. But this is great! You don't have to take control immediately, which gives you a few minutes to disguise your real activation requirements. Mei-chan! How long did he last?"
"Two minutes, eight seconds!" Mei declared. "I'd prefer if it were a little longer, but.."
"But we can train for that." Izuku agreed. "Ideally, we could get him up to five minutes between response and control before the sports festival, but we'll of course have to see how things work and…"
"Wait, back up." Shinso interrupted. "What do you mean my real activation requirements? And shouldn't I be focused on keeping control of people longer or controlling more people or giving more advanced orders or something? What's the point of training to wait before taking control, which isn't easy by the way, when as a hero, I should be trying to resolve situations as quickly as possible?"
Izuku looked at Mei, who shrugged. He thought they'd explained everything pretty well…
Shinso sighed, "How about you two start again at the beginning, but this time pretend that you're talking to someone who doesn't have a single clue you're trying to say...because I don't."
"Oh…" Izuku glanced at Mei again before taking a deep breath to try to organize his thoughts, "Um, ok. So, the main problem with your quirk is that it's more effective if your opponent doesn't know what it is, right?"
"That's the basic idea, yeah." Shinso rolled his eyes. "But what does that have to do with the time between their response and my control? Because from where I'm sitting, it seemed like a non sequiter."
"It's a red herring!" Mei grinned.
Shinso didn't look any less confused and raised an eyebrow at Izuku after apparently giving up getting anything close to a normal answer from Mei.
"It's about distracting whoever you're fighting with and burying the truth inside a bunch of useless information." Izuku explained. "For example, sometimes in books, something important will be thrown out, but the readers won't realize it, because the man with the scar who turns out to be the villain was mentioned right alongside a woman with a large hat who was completely unimportant."
"If you take control immediately after you get an answer," Mei flicked Shinso on the forehead, "then it's like putting a big neon sign above your head explaining how your quirk works."
"Oh thanks." Shinso said dryly.
"But," Izuku said quickly, "if you wait a few minutes between establishing the connection and giving the order, and use those minutes to do things like make direct eye contact or establish physical contact, or...I don't know, jump up and down three times while singing nursery rhymes, then…"
"Then no one will know exactly which of those things established the connection." Mei finished.
"I don't sing." Shinso deadpanned, but Izuku could see the faintest trace of a smile in his eyes, and it looked like he finally understood what they were going for. "Ok, so when do I start."
"Well, technically you started today." Izuku said cheekily. "But we'll have a schedule for you by tomorrow if you come by after classes. Do you have anyone at home that you can practice your quirk with?"
Shinso's expression immediately closed off...interesting, "No."
"That's alright!" Izuku said, forcing a layer of cheeriness past his curiosity and, surprisingly, a little bit of anger on Shinso's behalf. "Then you'll just have to practice with us! I don't want you to do any more today, since this exercise is still so new and it's the first time that your brain has had to do it, so we should let it rest, but starting tomorrow, you should start practicing that waiting exercise we just did two or three times a day. For the sports festival, you also need to be able to complete distracting tasks before you officially activate your quirk, so we should focus on getting you to the point where you don't even have to think about it and have full autonomy on when you activate your connection!"
Shinso looked a little pale, but Izuku noticed that he also looked determined, just like himself when he used to say he'd be a hero despite his quirklessness. It didn't work out for him, but if he could still help people like Shinso who deserved to be heroes, then that was more than enough. Shinso would overcome every obstacle put in his path and save so many people and Izuku would have a hand in that! It was almost even better than his own old dream.
"Perfect!" Mei broke the tension by grabbing Shinso by the arm and dragging him back out into the main lab. "Now that Izu-kun's had a chance to do his thing, it's my turn! I'm so excited! I have so many awesome babies for you to try!"
"B-babies?!" Shinso looked nervous and a little shocked, but why…? Izuk felt a little bad, but he couldn't help laughing when he realized that he had never actually explained some of Mei's more... exciting eccentricities to Shinso. Oh well, better late than never he supposed.
"She means her inventions!" Izuku managed to gasp between his chuckles. "Mei-chan calls her inventions her babies because she cares about them so much."
"I made them, Izu-kun!" Mei cried indignantly. "If you poured your heart and soul into something you'd call them your babies too!"
"I do pour my heart and soul into something." Izuku grinned cheekily. "I call them my notebooks."
"So... we're just going to be looking at inventions," Shinso confirmed, "not experimenting with human children?"
"The only human children we'll be experimenting on are ourselves!" Mei said gleefully, grabbing a large cardboard box from her workstation. "Extra-Credit-Kun! Grab that box under the table!"
Shinso shrugged and went to pick up the box, only to stumble when the weight was more than he expected. "What's in this thing, rocks!?"
"Oh hush, it's not that heavy." Mei dismissed. "Izu-kun, grab the other one."
Izuku shrugged and ignored the way that Shinso looked at him knowingly as he tried to pick up the box, only to grunt and fall backwards onto his butt, "Mei-chan, seriously?! How strong are you?!"
"It's not my fault you boys are weak." Mei shrugged. "Come on, we need to steal one of the soundproof test rooms."
Izuku stared after her in shock as she walked away and for the first time noticed how much muscle tone she actually had. She'd handled that box like it was nothing, even though both he and Shinso had struggled. He supposed it made sense with how much heavy material she had to work with while inventing, but it was still really impressive...
"Are you just gonna keep staring at her butt all day," Kohaku asked dryly, looking up from her own invention, "or are you actually gonna help her?"
"I-I, uh," Izuku sputtered and turned bright red, "I wasn't...I didn't…umm…"
Deciding that it was best to just cut his losses, Izuku grabbed the box and hefted it as best he could before leaving his snickering classmates behind and following Mei and Shinso. Mei was already taking things out of her box while Shinso was catching his breath and leaning against the wall. Izuku set his box down heavily next to the other two on the table and started shaking out his arms.
"That was…" Shinso looked at Mei, "Is she actually human? Or is she just some robot that killed its creator and started updating itself while pretending to be human?"
"Oooh!" Mei grinned. "If I…"
"No, Mei-chan." Izuku said patiently. "You can't make yourself into a cyborg."
Mei deflated, then brightened and was about to say something, but Izuku interrupted her before she could say what he knew she was going to say, "You can't make Shinso into a cyborg either."
Mei pouted, "It'd be a great way to get around that stupid one support item only rule that the gen-ed students have. And how is he gonna beat the hero course if he can't even lift a box?"
"Hey!" Shinso straighted up. "I lifted it! I did better than Midoriya anyway."
"Izu-kun is an analyst." Mei-chan said. "He can afford to be a weakling."
"Thanks." Izuku deadpanned, then frowned thoughtfully. "But in all seriousness, it would probably be a good idea for you to take up some sort of physical training, Shinso. Your quirk will probably keep you out of most fights, but there's always times that a hero has to rely on their body more than their quirk. Take Eraserhead, for example! He's such a great hero because of his martial arts training, not just his ability to cancel quirks!"
"You like Eraserhead?" Shinso asked. "I've never met someone else who liked him. Most people I talked to before UA just thought I was making him up."
"Oh, he's one of my favorites!" Izuku grinned. "Did you hear he's one of the teachers here?! Have you seen him yet?"
"No, I've been looking everywhere, hoping to catch a glimpse of him in the halls, but I haven't had any luck." Shinso frowned. "I guess he's just that good at stealth, huh?"
"I mean, you kinda have to be to avoid the media as a professional hero." Izuku said. "What do you think…"
"Experiments now, fanboying later." Mei said, popping between them with a large metal mask in one hand and three pairs of protective earmuffs in the other. "Put these on!"
Izuku put one of the earmuffs around his neck as Mei helped Shinso into the mask, "If you want, we could probably use one of the school's gyms to work out and try to gain some strength before the sports festival."
Shinso raised an eyebrow at him, "We?"
Izuku shrugged and stretched out his arms, "I sit in front of a screen all day, I've been getting sore. Everywhere online says that adding some physical activity into my schedule will help with that. Plus, I can't just call Mei-chan every time I need to move something heavy."
"I'm sure she'd be more than happy to open all the jars for you." Shinso smirked.
"Nope, too busy!" Mei said. "Now Extra-Credit-Kun, stand on the other side of that plexiglass and yell."
Shinso's eyes widened, "Yell?!"
Mei grinned and nodded, "We need a baseline for volume!"
"Ok…" Shinso walked across the room and waited until both Mei and Izuku had put on their earmuffs before taking a deep breath and yelling as loudly as he could, shaking the room. Mei took a few notes, looking at an instrument in her hands that Izuku had no idea what it was or how to read it, but assumed it told her something about the decibels or volume or whatever.
She pulled one side of her earmuffs away from her, prompting Izuku and Shinso to do the same, "Ok, Extra-Credit-Kun, now try to brainwash Izu-kun!"
Shinso nodded and turned to Izuku, "What's your favorite food?"
"Katsudon."
Izuku waited for the familiar feeling of Shinso's quirk to wash over him, but instead, after a few seconds, Shinso just shook his head, "I can't make the connection. Is this mask electronically transmitting my voice?"
"Yes." Mei said. "Is that a problem?"
"It must be a problem with quirk transmission." Izuku said. "Whatever establishes the connection is carried on the voice itself, so having a speaker probably blocks that part. Is that right?"
When Shinso nodded, Mei took another prototype from one of the boxes and handed it to Shinso, "Ok! Mask baby 2.0! This should magnify your voice without need for a speaker!"
"And you just have this?" Shinso asked.
"We knew that might be a risk." Izuku responded. "And Mei enjoyed the challenge."
"It's not as advanced as my other babies." Mei said. "But for now, it should amplify your voice and I can modify it later to act as a voice changer! Now go yell!"
Shinso walked back behind the plexiglass and screamed, making Izuku wince, even with his earmuffs. Mei wrote something down, then gestured for him to do it again. When he finished, Izuku felt like his ears were still ringing...or wait, was that something else?
He held up a hand to signal Shinso to stop and took off his earmuffs, "Do you guys hear anything?"
"I'm wearing earmuffs in a soundproof room." Shinso deadpanned. "The only thing I can hear is my own thoughts."
Izuku frowned but listened closer, and, sure enough he could still hear something coming from outside, "Do you hear that, Mei-chan?"
Mei nodded, "It sounds like alarms."
The three of them hurried to the door and opened it, only to be blasted with the sound of blaring alarms and flashing lights. The classroom was already empty, and their classmates were nowhere to be found.
"They must have assumed we heard the alarm." Mei said. "Or they tried knocking on the door and we didn't hear them."
"Did we cause the alarm to go off?!" Izuku was panicking. "I didn't think we were being that loud, but if something went wrong and I mean, sound can cause damage, look at Present Mic! Are we going to get in trouble?! What if they never let us near a test room again? What if they expel…"
"They're not going to be mad at us for setting off an alarm, Izu-kun!" Mei groaned. "And I don't think this was us anyway. It would have taken at least twice as much noise to trigger the auditory attack defense system.
"Should we leave?" Shinso asked. "I don't want to be here if that's a fire alarm."
"But my babies!" Mei said. "I can't just leave them!"
"Mei…" Whatever Izuku was about to say was cut off by the alarms going silent. "Or not."
The PA system crackled to life and Nedzu's cheery voice filtered through the speakers, "Hello students, the threat has been handled! Please calmly return to class!"
"Alright, then!" Mei said, pushing both boys back in the soundproof room. "Back to testing!'
Izuku thought it was odd that there was an alarm in the middle of the day, and what had Nedzu meant by threat? He meant to look into it later, he really did, but then Mei started another round of experiments, and he completely forgot.
Chapter 20: AnomaliesSummary:
Izuku notices something odd on the cameras as he watches class 1A.
Notes:
Sorry this is a day late. I'm still alive, just suffering with writers block.
I've been looking forward to writing these next few chapters since before the beginning of the story!
Chapter Text
Izuku sharpened his pencils and separated the notebooks he'd dedicated to class 1A. He didn't really think he'd learn anything new about their quirks today, since they were just doing a special rescue lesson, but it would be interesting to see how they applied their quirks in an non-combat oriented situation. He was particularly excited to see how Katsuki reacted to being confronted with a problem that he couldn't punch.
Izuku glanced at the clock. The class would be arriving in just a few minutes, assuming that no one had any issues getting into their costumes or anything, so he went ahead and opened up the camera feeds to get a visual of Thirteen already waiting inside. Their quirk was so amazing! Izuku made a mental note that he needed to get their autograph sometime, maybe after the sports festival?
Since the students hadn't arrived yet, Izuku figured he might as well use the time to familiarize himself with the facility. It was so cool! There were all sorts of different terrain that simulated different disasters that the students would have to deal with as pro heroes, and from his place inside the system, Izuku could easily see all the different controls for each of the zones. At any point, Thirteen, Nedzu or whoever was teaching could easily turn off any of the disaster zones if anything went wrong, or even turn them up or control them almost like a video game to offer their students more of a challenge. They'd all been set to the lowest automatic disaster setting for the first years, obviously, but Izuku knew he'd be asking Nedzu if he could observe one of the third years' rescue exercises so he could see the building's full potential. It was so cool!
Movement on one of his screens caught his eye as the bus finally arrived and the students started to file off following a grumpy Eraserhead like a line of little ducklings. Izuku snickered to himself. Maybe there was a way he could make sure Katsuki heard that? It would be sure to piss him off.
The last student left the bus, Izuku checked the schedule. Wasn't All Might supposed to be there today? As Thirteen lectured the students on quirk safety, Izuku hummed thoughtfully and pulled out his phone to check the news. Mei had called him to ramble about a new idea, right as he was about to get on the train, so he hadn't had a chance to read the headlines that morning like he unusually did.
Sure enough, All Might was all over the news, which meant that he must already be either near or over his limit for the day. Izuku couldn't really fault him, since those people obviously needed to be saved and being their hero was All Might's job, but he had been really looking forward to seeing his favorite hero perform rescue exercises just like his debut! Even if he wouldn't actually be in the same room, it still would have been really cool to watch something like that live.
With the mystery of All Might's absence solved, Izuku turned his attention back to the screens in front of him, where Thirteen was finishing up their lecture as a blackish-purple ...something… started to appear behind them. Izuku frowned and zoomed in to get a closer look. He hadn't seen any obstacles like that in the system, but it was possible he'd missed something…
Suddenly, every single camera cut out at the exact same time.
Izuku immediately attacked his keyboard, desperately trying to convince himself that there was no reason to panic. It must just be a weird electrical glitch or something! There was no way that that purple thing was a villain trying to attack the students, right? But, even if it was an electrical glitch, there was a failsafe on another electrical system that would trigger the alarms if a certain number of cameras stopped working, and that alarm wasn't going off. No alarms were.
After a minute of trying to get the cameras back up, Izuku hesitantly stood up and left his desk. It was probably nothing. UA's security was the best of the best! But it still wouldn't hurt to have Powerloader call Thirteen and make sure everything was alright, right? It was completely unnecessary and would probably annoy them, because there was definitely not a villain attack happening right now, but just in case there was…
Izuku slowly approached Powerloader's desk, only to find him talking to Hanzou. He didn't want to interrupt him while he was helping another student, but there might be an attack happening right now!
"Um, Powerloader?"
"Hmm, Midoriya?" Powerloader nodded to him, "I'll be with you in just a minute."
Izuku took a deep breath. The longer he thought about it, the more the whole situation just seemed wrong. He familiarized himself with the USJ, and there was nothing that was like that purple thing. Now was definitely not the time to let his social anxiety get the better of him.
"Actually, sir," Izuku tried to inject as much urgency as he could, hoping Powerloader would get the message without making the class panic, "I need you to check something out. Now."
Powerloader looked at him strangely, "Hanzu, just keep working. I'm going to see what Midoriya needs and I'll be back in a minute…"
When Hazou shrugged good-naturedly, Izuku walked back to his workroom as quickly as he could without running, grateful beyond belief that Powerloader was so different from his middle school teachers and trusted him without asking too many questions. It was nice and he would probably be crying if he wasn't so worried.
A part of him half-expected the cameras to be working again when he got back to his computer, making his entire anxiety attack an embarrassing overreaction, but of course, all of his screens were still blank. Izuku waited for Powerloader to follow him in before closing the door.
"Alright Midoriya, what is this about?" Powerloader asked. "It's not like you to interrupt like that. Mei, yes, obviously. But not…"
"I lost contact with the USJ." Izuku blurted out.
Powerloader froze, "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"
"I was watching 1A over the cameras and everything was fine, but then there was this purple thing and the cameras just stopped working! I couldn't find anything like that in the system and there should be alarms going off but there's not and…" Izuku forced himself to stop rambling and took a deep breath. "I think it might be a villain attack."
Powerloader took a sharp intake of breath, "It's All Might, Thirteen, and Eraserhead there today, right?"
Izuku shook his head, "Thirteen and Eraserhead are there, but All Might's already at his limit. Um...is there any way you could call them? Just to make sure everything's alright?"
Powerloader was already pulling out his phone, "Why am I not surprised that you know about that? I'm sure everything's fine...this'll just take a minute."
Izuku held his breath as the phone rang. After a long minute, Powerloader took the phone from his ear and dialed another number, "Eraser sometimes doesn't answer the phone, you know how he is, he thinks it's a waste of time, but Thirteen should have their phone on them."
Powerloader's face grew more and more worried as the phone continued ringing with no answer until he finally put it away, "I need to report this to Nedzu."
Izuku gulped and sat down at his desk, pulling his keyboard toward him. So it was an attack then, "I'll try to reconnect with the cameras and keep you updated."
Powerloader nodded stiffly and left, only to return a second later with a small box that he set down on the desk in front of him, "Have you ever used a comm link before?"
Izuku shook his head and Powerloader took one out and handed it to him, "Ok, channel control is right on the side there, just tune it to channel three and you'll be able to talk to any of the teachers once they turn their comms on. It's an open line, so we should be able to hear everything. Do you understand?"
Izuku set up the comm like Powerloader had told him and put it in his ear, then nodded. Powerloader returned the gesture before throwing open the door to the lab, "Hanzou, as class rep, I'm leaving you in charge. Make sure nobody blows anything up."
There were some groans and exclamations, but Powerloader didn't pay attention to any of them as he closed the door to the workroom and left the lab as quickly as he could. Izuku distantly noted that he didn't run either. So they didn't want to cause a panic at the main school then. Ok, cool. His fingers flew over the keyboard as he started troubleshooting the cameras. He had only been at it a few minutes when the PA system crackled to life, but Izuku barely noticed the announcement.
"All teachers please report to the front office immediately. Again, all teachers to the front office."
There was a small string of code that seemed to be repeating and it looked almost like it could be a technology quirk of some kind that was blocking the signals. Izuku felt torn, on the one hand, having a quirk involved meant that it was almost definitely villains, but on the other, Izuku knew quirks. All he had to do was find the quirk's weakness and exploit it.
"Midoriya?" Powerloader's voice echoed in his earpiece. "Are you still there?"
"Yes, sir." Izuku didn't stop working, even as the other teachers started talking.
"Wait, the little listener's on the comm link?" That was Present Mic's voice, he knew it well enough from listening to his radio show for years.
"Young Midoriya's here?" All Might asked.
It seemed like Nedzu was ignoring all of them, since he addressed Izuku next, "Have you had any luck in re-establishing contact with the USJ facility?"
"Not yet, sir." Izuku said distractedly. "But it is a technology quirk and...Yes!"
"Do you have a visual?" Powerloader asked.
"What?" Izuku's brain took a moment to catch up. "Oh, no, not yet, but I figured out how the blocking quirk works. It seems to only be blocking a specific type of signal. I mean, that's obviously what our cameras are using, but I might be able to jury rig things from my side and use another type of signal to connect."
"Alright." Nedzu said. "Do that and tell us immediately when you get through."
Izuku felt a small surge of pride. Nedzu had said when, not if. He believed in him!
He shook his head. No time to think about that right now. Right now he needed to make sure that the teachers weren't going into this fight blind. It took him a few minutes to hack his way through, but he'd already tried hacking UA twice now, so he knew how all the systems worked and with the extra permissions that Nedzu had given him, Izuku had just barely enough experience and authority to do what he had in mind. He hit one final key, the cameras flared to life again, and Izuku didn't like what he saw.
Those were definitely villains.
"Nedzu, I have a visual."
"What's the situation?"
"Students have been scattered throughout the facility." Izuku reported. "Eraserhead is fighting, but he's outnumbered. There are dozens of them...mostly low level though, it looks like. Thirteen is by the entrance protecting some of the students. They seem to be in a stalemate with one of the villains, probably the one responsible for the purple thing I saw before the cameras cut out, considering they seem to be made of some kind of purple mist."
Izuku didn't know how he was so composed considering that there was a villain attack happening and oh god, people might die , but he supposed he was just too busy to panic. Or maybe he was channeling his panic into focus? That made sense.
Suddenly, the stalemate between Thirteen and the villain broke.
"Thirteen is down!" Izuku yelled. "I repeat, Thirteen is down!"
He heard several of the teachers swear over the line, but he was too busy starting at the screen to respond. Thirteen...were they even going to survive that attack? Is this what villains really did? Izuku felt so powerless. He wasn't even there! He couldn't even do anything to help them!
"There's a physical limit to how fast we can go…" Hound Dog growled.
All Might sounded worried, "Maybe I should…"
"No." Izuku started scanning the cameras again. "You're already at your limit. If you use what little you have left to get there, you're not going to have enough energy left to fight the villains. The students are holding their own for now. The one that hurt Thirteen has a warp quirk and turned their quirk against them. It was a lucky shot, and it won't work against most of the students."
"But…"
"Midoriya is correct." Nedzu said. "If there is a warp quirk, there might be other powerful quirks as well. The students need you to be as close to full strength as possible. Eraserhead is still there and the villains don't know that we know of the attack, so it's better to go as fast as humanly possible for now. Midoriya, let us know if anything changes."
"Will do."
Izuku felt so useless! There had to be something he could do! It might help the heroes if he could figure out why the heroes were there...and for that he needed audio. Izuku used the same hack he'd used on the cameras and started eavesdropping on the various villain's conversations, switching the microphones rapidly as he tried to overhear anything useful.
"...didn't tell me the plan, kid I swear!" One of the villain's was caught in Todoroki's ice quirk. "All they told me was that they're gonna kill All Might! That's all I know."
Izuku switched mics again as Todoroki started unthawing the villain. Not...the most hero-like, but then again, neither was hacking, so he couldn't talk, "They're here to kill All Might. I don't know why or how yet."
There was a villain near where Eraserhead was fighting, but he almost seemed to be supervising instead of fighting himself. Izuku switched to one of the mics near him as the villain started scratching at his neck. A stress response?
"When's the final boss gonna get here?" The villain's voice was raspy as he muttered to himself. "We're running out of NPCs!"
So...immature? It was hard to tell how old the villain was, but considering that he called his own men NPCs, he was almost definitely the leader. Probably antisocial, considering the video game references...final boss must be All Might. Did he know that the heroes were on their way? No, then he would have said something about final bosses or even mini bosses, but he didn't, so he was probably thinking that All Might was just late…
Still, the video game references gave him an idea.
Now that he'd done it twice, it didn't take Izuku all that long to hack into each of the different zones. Within minutes, he had the weapons of artificial flooding, earthquake simulators, flamethrowers and so much more at his fingertips. With Eraserhead slowing down, he had to do everything in his power to make sure that the students were safe.
"Alright villain, you wanna treat this like a game?" Izuku stretched his hands out in front of him, popping his knuckles. "Then let's play."