Chapter Text
Quirk exhaustion is one hell of a bitch, that’s all Izuku can say. He has a quirk now, but he didn’t stop to think about what exactly that meant.
It’s got a different flavor than regular exhaustion, if that makes sense. It’s sort of a soul-deep ache as opposed to just his muscles or bones. It’s weird as hell, but he couldn’t bring himself to regret getting the quirk.
Izuku curls himself deeper into the beanbag, reality in his mind palace bending to accommodate his desire to sink deeper, no matter what the thing actually looked like before he collapsed down on it.
He has privacy within the halls of his own place in the mind palace, but the trade off…
Izuku had never really liked what he looked like when he was younger. He used to be small, scrawny, with knobbly knees and elbows and too-big eyes and a bushy mop of hair. Short, weak, and naive.
And yet, the moment he steps through to his mind palace proper, that’s what he reverts to.
His horns, which he always has to be careful of, are nowhere to be found as he presses his face into the beanbag.
It smells like the sheets of his childhood home. The same detergent that his mom always smelled like-- ‘clean sheets’ and a hint of jasmine.
He’d searched for the brand after he truly settled in at the Shinsous’ home, truly understood their kindness, but he’d never been able to find it, even with the image of the bottle branded into his memory and saved in one of the books in his mind palace.
Izuku almost feels like dozing again-- or, well, dozing within his dream, since that’s where he is right now. He knows his body is unconscious, but he doesn’t want to leave quite yet.
The past holders had been understanding when he had slunk into his own space with a pathetic little half-wave.
It’s not like he was a stranger to violence, or even a stranger to fighting with his life on the line. (Perks of being a small, quirkless orphan, he supposes.)
What he was a stranger to was fighting with somebody else’s life on the line.
He runs the memories of the event back over in his head. What could he have done better?
For one, he shouldn’t have snapped at his classmates. He was stressed and his instincts were screaming at him, but it was no excuse for being a massive shitstick to them. If he had been more level headed and explained things better, he might have been able to get them out before the warp fucker had shown up.
He should apologize to them, but Kirishima especially. He shouldn’t have been so harsh on him, even if it was irritating that he hadn’t immediately listened to Aizawa. Izuku was in the unique position of knowing and respecting him as a hero; the rest of them only knew him as their teacher so far. Plus, they didn’t have as much experience or training as Izuku does.
On that note… he has to get stronger. Train more with Arel to better use her abilities. Train more with All Might to better use his quirk. Put his all and then some into the regular training in class to get better, be better.
If he’d been stronger, he could have taken out the nomu off the rip and then helped Aizawa to secure Handy. Since they hadn’t completed their objective and had gotten away, it was likely that they would be seeing more of the fuckers.
And… and-- he has to ask about that reaction the past holders had, when they swamped him in those emotions. Anger, resentment, and, most damningly, resignation . Toshinori had frozen up, even if it was just for a second, when Izuku had told him the nomu had multiple quirks.
Whatever the hell it was, One For All knows.
…though, it does make sense. If One For All is a quirk that could be passed on-- transferred between people-- it stood to reason that those who held it might know about how a singular person (thing? Monster?) could have multiple quirks. The method was the same, even if the outcome wasn't.
But, for him to do any of that, he has to get up. Leave his part of his mind palace. Talk to those people.
Eurgh.
It’s tempting to just stay here for a little while longer, maybe go through some of his older, fonder memories as a way to pass the time even if it wears them down just a bit more, like a river smoothing out a stone.
He’s sure that once he wakes up, he’s going to be uncomfortable, at the very least. Even if Recovery Girl had worked her magic, there was still going to be soreness and such. At least here, even if he was damnably small and tired, there was no real physical pain.
Even as he thinks that, though, he scoffs.
When has that ever stopped him?
It’s a few seconds’ work to extricate himself from the bottomless psychic beanbag, and, after a few seconds more of deliberation, he drags it out of the grand marble halls and into the landing area.
“Hey, greenbean,” Nana greets softly. “How are you doing?”
“Eh,” Izuku shrugs, tossing the beanbag behind where he usually drops in on them. He takes a second to readjust to the weight of his wings and tail, flexing them slightly. “Not too bad in here. Just tired, mostly.”
He walks himself over to the beanbag and drops down on it, this time dwarfing it.
“So,” he starts, fixing his gaze on the gaggle of seven. “Anyone want to tell me what that was about? Back there, in the fight?”
“What do you mean?” She asks, tilting her head. Izuku can still feel their emotions, though, so he can tell that she knows.
“The part where I thought that the nomu might have multiple quirks,” he starts, noting how First, Second, and Third tense while the rest go still, “And I got punched in the dick by a bunch of emotions that weren’t my own. You know what it was,” he concludes.
First sighs.
"This... is larger than you know," First says softly. "And I do not think it was Eighth's intention to saddle you with it. He thought he was free; he thought we were free."
Oh, Izuku can definitely smell a story there. It likely smelled like the back end of an alley on a hot summer's day about two and a half after the fish market dumped their unsaleable products there.
"And I said not to trust that the bastard was dead," Second rumbles. Izuku starts. He doesn't hear the man talk much, if at all.
First slumps slightly, looking extremely tired. His pure white hair against his pale face doesn't help, either, making him look even more washed out and paper-thin.
"One For All has a long history," First says. "And it starts back at the first instance of quirks. The Dawn of Quirks, I believe, in present vernacular."
It's really obvious that he absolutely does not like talking about this. His words come slowly, like he's prying them out.
"One For All was born from the union of two quirks. One, a stockpiling quirk. The other, unknown to me, a quirk with the ability to pass itself down. I had always believed I was quirkless. Unlike my brother."
Again, he pauses. Izuku can feel a subtle wash of pain at the edges of his senses, First's emotional state leaking out and into Izuku's mind palace.
"My brother," he continues softly, "Had a quirk. He had the ability to give and take people's powers as he pleased, and also keep them to use for himself. I was ill growing up, you see. He explained his reasoning as he wanted to protect me."
His face twists into a bitter frown.
"A few minutes before that, I had refused to join his criminal empire. A few moments after that, I was spirited away to a vault where I was sealed away from the world. It was only years later that I was let out. Not by him, of course, but these two."
First's expression lightens just a little as he tilts his head towards Second and Third where they stand close together and off from the group a short ways. They'd become less standoffish over time, which was nice.
"We were originally going to kill him."
Alright, ixnay on those warm fuzzies. What the hell?
"In those years, my brother grew in power. Substantially so. They were attempting a raid on one of his operations-- it was more luck than anything that they had chosen the one that I was hidden at. Bad luck, too, since he didn't store me with anything particularly useful to his larger operations."
"We busted in and ended up saving him once we realized he was a prisoner," Third says succinctly.
"I was still ill," First says softly. "The new quirk didn't make much of an impact on it."
"We didn't realize that One For All existed until after he had died in my arms after a fight with All For One," Second says gruffly.
Beyond that disturbing tidbit-- Izuku had to ingest Toshinori's hair to get the quirk, after all, so he doesn't really want to know what that implied about the battle-- the name mentioned at the end of the sentence casts a pallor over the group.
All For One.
The very air turns slightly oppressive, the combined weight of the seven's emotions at the mere mention of the name almost actually thickening and darkening the air.
"I carried the quirk and passed it on before I fought All For One and died. Then he passed it on and so forth," Second finishes.
"Alright..." Izuku says slowly. "Can you tell me more about All For One? His quirk is the ability to take, store, use, and give quirks. It's DNA based, obviously, since quirks are biological. Does he need skin to skin contact? How little skin does he need? Does he have any limitations on the quirks that he can take? Does he favor any quirks that you can remember? How many quirks can he use simultaneously?"
"Geez, kid," Nana grins. It's weak, though, and doesn't quite reach her eyes. "Putting those lessons with Nedzu to good use, huh?"
"Well, when you've been powerless for a long while and find a way to actually start winning, you tend to stick with it," he shrugs. "One For All is an amazing quirk and Arel is my beloved parasite, but... I was quirkless and on my own for most of my life."
Deku, dekunobou, the little empty, wooden doll. The weak good-for-nothing.
And then he put his analysis to work, leveraging every grain of advantage he had. And then he put work in on his body, becoming less thin and more wiry.
"Besides," he says, "I need to know what he's capable of before I can beat him, yeah?"
He might have become jaded and bitter since he was that weak, scrawny little kid, but that didn't ever stop that burning in his heart to go-go-go save .
Second and Third give him nods, approval swimming at the edges of his awareness. He gets hints of exasperation, fondness, and pure determination from the others.
"Right, then," First says. "Let's talk about it."
When Izuku finally cracks open his eyes in the real world, his head is swimming with information and a small amount of nausea.
Then real awareness settles in and the rest of his body aches.
"Ugh, did anyone get the plate of the fuckin' semi that hit me?" He groans out, eyes screwed shut.
"Izuku!"
Several sets of voices ring out, bouncing around the space.
Izuku peels his eyes open. Purple hair of varying shades against a white background.
"You're awake!" Mihoko has a hand over her heart, looking relieved. And wan, almost as bad as Hajime.
"How long was I out?" Izuku swallows around a dry mouth and throat, glancing around for water.
Shiori is the one to place a cup in his hand as she answers him. "Nearly two days."
Izuku very nearly chokes on the water that he's drinking.
"Holy shit, really?" He coughs, hand held over his mouth to block the droplets of water that try to escape.
"You got pretty beat up," Hitoshi says from his perch on the bed right next to Izuku. "Like, bad enough that they wouldn't let us see you for hours."
Izuku's eyebrows shoot towards his hairline. "I didn't think I was that badly injured? I mean, I remember my arm getting... broken, I think," he settles on, "But nothing else."
"Well," Hajime starts, standing up from one of the chairs against the wall with a groan, "It was more than your arm."
He picks up a little clipboard that's hanging on the end of Izuku's hospital bed.
(And isn't that a trip? He doesn't remember the last time that he was actually in a proper hospital. Mom was great, but the rest of the world was decidedly not . Maybe... when he was four? Five?)
"So, in no particular order... a greenstick fracture of your humerus. No surgery there, thankfully, since we have a doctor with an osteokinesis quirk. They're the one that helped out with the open comminuted fracture of your ulna. Open, here, meaning that bone fragments broke through your skin. Your radius was also a comminuted fracture, but that one was closed, if close to piercing through as well. You had minor surgery to sew you up in the places that your bone fragments pierced your skin. You had several fractured ribs and two broken ones. Again, no surgery needed. Several medium grade muscle tears across your body, one high grade muscle tear in your pectoral muscle. Plenty of strains and sprains, though none were especially severe. A few lacerations across your body, but only two were serious enough to need stitches. Plus, severe quirk exhaustion."
Hajime looks up at Izuku.
"What the hell happened, kid?"
Izuku winces. "Uh. A lot?" He's not looking forward to telling them about jumping down after Aizawa. Don't get him wrong-- he doesn't regret it for a second. But still, it was reckless and stupid. "Am I... I don't know if I'm allowed to tell you anything yet? There's police procedures and everything, I think."
Right? That sounds right. He thinks.
"You're right," Shiori nods. "We were supposed to call this detective dude when you woke up."
"Which I'll be doing right now," Mihoko says firmly. "Give me a couple minutes. Hajime, go grab a bite to eat already. Shiori, take your father and make sure he doesn't get distracted or called away on his day off. Hitoshi, can you get Izuku some more water?"
Hajime gives a token protest, but even Izuku can see his eyebags are worse than usual and Shiori manages to strong arm him out of Izuku's hospital room. Mihoko also steps out to call the detective, leaving just Izuku and Hitoshi.
"So, how bad was it?" Hitoshi asks.
"Bad," Izuku immediately answers. "Is Aizawa okay? His arm was pretty fucked up..."
"I'm not sure, sorry. But I do have your phone. Here," he says, proffering the device. "Text whoever you need to text. The thing was breakdancing on the table for hours, it was going off so much."
The first people he texts back-- to the tune of about 200 plus missed messages-- is the group chat between him, Uraraka, Kouda, Iida, Shouji, and Tokoyami. He snaps a quick photo of him looking tired and unenthusiastic but holding up a peace sign. Responses come rolling in nearly instantly.
Freaky Eyes Inc.
Demon Child: selfie.png
Demon Child : i lived bitches
SPAASE: MIDO!!!
Cultist: I am glad to see that you are alright.
IRL Disney Princess: !!!
Tentacool : Same as Tokoyami. If you need anything let us know
Demon Child: uhhh nothing like that but imma add someone
Demon Child has added user Shinsou Hitoshi to Freaky Eyes Inc.
Demon Child: foster bro
Demon Child: less micsommunication next time
Demon Child: *miscommunication
SPAASE: oh cool!
Tentacool : We can think up a nickname for him in a bit
IRL Disney Princess: hello! 😊
Demon Child: 👍
With that taken care of, he shoots off a quick text to the main 1-A group chat, also with the peace sign selfie. He also gets bombarded with replies expressing relief here as well.
He scrolls through, looking at the heartfelt, grammatically proper sentences interspersed with heartfelt keysmashes and emojis with amusement.
Right...
He clicks Kirishima's name and opens up a private chat with him.
Kirishima Ejirou
Midoriya Izuku: hey. i wanted to apologize
Midoriya Izuku: i was a little bitch to you earlier
Midoriya Izuku: i was tense and stressed but i shouldn't have cussed you out like that. shit's not okay
He's about to click away from the chat when the little bubbles pop up, showing that Kirishima is texting back.
Kirishima Ejirou: oh!!! no! it's all cool!! i definitely understand
Kirishima Ejirou: you were the first one who noticed, bro. the rest of us didnt really listen at all and we really shouldve
Kirishima Ejirou: and you were def right about being less likely to die haha!
Kirishima Ejirou: i basically did nothing and you were in the middle fighting with Sensei
Izuku frowns. He can basically taste the self deprecation from here.
Midoriya Izuku: hey. no. stop that.
Midoriya Izuku: just because i had a--
He stops, deletes the sentence. Trauma dumping on a classmate that's an acquaintance at best is not the play.
Midoriya Izuku: you survived, didn't you? and you weren't the one who landed their dumb ass in the hospital for two days
Midoriya Izuku: and while yeah, you guys probably shouls've listened
Midoriya Izuku: should've*
Midoriya Izuku: i get why you didn't. i can't expect everybody to have the same experiences that i've had
Midoriya Izuku: plus, we were at school. we should've been safe. villains shouldn't have been there. and we don't have any training for that shit- it was barely a couple days in. we're still first years
Midoriya Izuku: so i get it. don't be so hard on yourself, man.
The bubbles pop up again, then disappear. This happens a few times before Kirishima finally sends the text.
Kirishima Ejirou: thanks, bro. 😄
Kirishima Ejirou: we're gonna get stronger!! 💪💪
Izuku grins.
Midoriya Izuku: absolutely.
Midoriya Izuku: 💪
"Izuku, why?"
Izuku looks over to see Hitoshi giving him a plaintive look. In his hands is his cellphone.
Ah.
"Less miscommunications, like I said," Izuku replies with a shit eating grin. "Besides, they're your future classmates, yeah?"
"They named me Muppet. "
Izuku snickers. "That sounds like a you problem, bro."
He ignores Hitoshi's wordless shout of outrage and turns back to his own phone. He has one last person to contact.
Yagi 💪
Izuku: selfie.png
Izuku: I lived!
Surprisingly, Yagi replies almost instantly.
Yagi 💪: My boy! I'm glad to see you're alright!
He almost wishes that Yagi hadn't replied immediately.
Izuku: A little sore and tired still, but I'm good
Izuku: We need to talk, sooner rather than later.
Yagi 💪: Of course! School will resume on Monday. Would you like to meet then or earlier?
Izuku: Earlier. Could we meet at your gym sometime today or tomorrow?
Izuku: I'll text back when I know when I'm getting out of the hospital
Yagi: Of course, my boy!
With that squared away for now, he finally places his phone back on the little side table and turns his attention to Hitoshi.
He looks like shit, to put it bluntly. His eyebags are so much worse and his hair is less voluminous, held down by grease and sweat. Did he not take a shower for the last two, three days or something ?
Izuku runs a hand up his bandaged left arm, feeling the little sparks of pain where his stitches undoubtedly are. He still can't believe that the nomu broke his arm badly enough for bone fractures to pierce through his skin. He barely even felt it at the end, there. No wonder he passed out, holy fuck.
' We were trying to tell you, but you were already passing out, ' Nana says.
Izuku startles slightly. The past holders had been so quiet, he thought that they were back to their rooms or some shit.
No problem. I should probably figure something out, though, 'cause if I do that shit again I could pass the fuck out in the middle of a battle or some equally terrible place.
' You can take a lot of damage for sure. ' Sixth weighs in. ' It was probably just 'cause you were technically safe. Your teacher got knocked the fuck out, but like, the others were there already. '
Still. It's not great.
' That's f air. '
"You're zoning out again."
Izuku doesn't exactly jump when he realizes that Hitoshi's right next to him, hand hovering around his forehead, but he does let out a string of colorful curses.
"Shit! Really, gotta sneak up on me like that? Fucking hell," he mutters.
Hitoshi snorts and finally presses the back of his hand to Izuku's forehead. "No fever, at least."
Deadpan, Izuku brings up his right hand and wiggles his fingers. The one with the plastic dealie clipped onto it, leading back into a machine showing his heart rate and temperature.
"Shut up."
"Anyway," Izuku changes the subject, even as he still has a smirk on his face. "Did they tell you anything about Aizawa or Thirteen?"
He'd ascertained that his classmates thankfully weren't very injured at all through the group chat but none of them knew shit about either of their teachers.
"Nope," Hitoshi shakes his head. "Sorry. Once the detective dude gets here, you might be able to ask him?"
"Hopefully. Aizawa shouldn't be too bad off-- actually," he backpedals, frowning, "I almost forgot about Handfucker disintegrating part of his skin off."
"Handfucker? Disintegration? What?" Hitoshi sputters.
"Don't worry about it."
"I'm worrying about it."
"It'll come up in the interview," Izuku says. "Whenever that's happening."
Hitoshi frowns. "Actually, you're right. Mom's not back yet. Weird..."
It was only supposed to be a phone call; how long would 'yeah he's awake' take to tell someone?
'Ask your brother to go out and check, maybe?'
Just as Izuku's about to rip open his mouth and ask Hitoshi to do just that, the door swings open. Mihoko, Hajime, and Shiori are all on the heels of a man in a tan trench coat, a black fedora held in his gloved hands.
'Oh we know him! Right?'
'It's Toshi's detective friend,' Nana replies to her predecessor, sounding fond.
"Midoriya-kun, it's been a while," Tsukauchi greets him. "I hope you've been well-- ah." A grimace steals across his face.
"Aside from the obvious, right?" Izuku jokes, cracking a grin. "But yeah, aside from the recent bull."
"That's good," Tsukauchi says, taking out the same recorder from the last time Izuku gave the man his statement. "I was glad to hear you woke up, as well. It was lucky that I was close by."
"Sorry for the extra work, Detective."
Tsukauchi huffs good-naturedly, shaking his head. "Anyway. I'm here to take your statement about the events at the USJ on UA High School grounds two days ago. Would you like to give your statement with the others in the room?"
Izuku nods. "I was gonna tell them anyway, if I was allowed to. Might as well get it all out of the way at once."
"Alright," Tsukauchi nods. He clicks on the recorder. "Statement of Midoriya Izuku about the events at the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, given in the presence of his family. Can you run me through the events of the day as you remember them? Other reports say that you noticed the incursion before anyone else."
Izuku nods. "So we pulled up to the USJ and we all piled in the doors. Thirteen started to talk, and eventually-- they hadn't finished their speech yet, I remember-- something pricked in the back of my head as wrong."
Izuku shudders slightly. Remembering the oil-slick dread-danger dripping down his spine wasn't pleasant; he hadn't really paid attention to what it felt like in the moment. There were better fucking things to be paying attention to, in his humble opinion.
"I told Aizawa-- Eraserhead-- about it. I couldn't see anything then, but just a couple seconds later the mist ba-- dude," he amends, "The mist dude's portal quirk started opening up in the middle of the plaza. He can make the size of his portals variable and they expand from a fixed point. I'm not sure if it's coordinate or line of sight based, but I'd wager the former over the latter, 'cause, you know-- getting into the USJ, being an enclosed space, would've been difficult otherwise. Eraserhead ordered us to evacuate pretty damn quick, but no one really listened to him. I might've been too harsh trying to get everyone to leave, but I was stressed. I kept trying to physically push people towards the door, seeing as Iida was getting it open and people were getting out, but then Eraserhead jumped down into the plaza to hold off the fuc-- damn horde all by himself."
He reaches up his bandage-less arm and scratches at the back of his head.
"I may or may not have jumped down after him."
Mihoko's eyes just about pop out of her head at that, the others displaying different levels of shock and anger. Hitoshi just sighs and facepalms.
"I knew he wouldn't last for long, and I was already gone by the time the mist b-- dude," he amends once more, more firmly this time. Stop cursing a blue streak during the police interview, dipshit. "--the mist dude warped himself up to the top with the rest of my classmates. It was only after I'd taken out a few of the fodder that the mist dude scattered my classmates. I saw people falling into the flood zone, which is how I knew. Guessed."
He takes a second to take a breath. Talking about it is making him worked up again, heart beating more stridently in his chest. There's no point in getting pissed over it now, though. Shit was done and dusted.
'Bad choice of words, bud.'
Shush.
"I met up with Eraserhead after that. He attempted to take down the leader-- this dude covered in hands. I didn't catch his name, but he has a five point activation disintegration or decay quirk. It works on both organic and inorganic matter, so I'd guess that he was the mo-- person to bust the door down the other day. Eraserhead managed to disengage after activating his quirk, but his elbow was injured in the process. Despite his childish disposition, he managed to figure out Eraserhead's quirk's tell and injure him during the downtime. He's unfortunately smarter than he acts, even if he can be prone to raging and tantrums. After disengaging, Handsy became angry and sicced his monster on Eraserhead-- Nomu, he called it. I managed to pull him out of the way. At that point, Handfu-- Handsy became even angrier and sicced it on me."
The assorted Shinsou family members in the room pale.
"I could've flown away when the fu-- thing came for me, but I didn't want to redirect it towards Eraserhead. At that point, Handsy was only ordering it to catch me, not kill me, and-- well. I wasn't really thinking, but I know I was the better match. I was fast enough to dodge the thing. I attempted to disable it, but it had a powerful regeneration quirk. Eventually, Handsy got tired of me dodging it and Eraserhead trying to beat him up, so he called for the nomu to switch back to Eraserhead."
He's going to be so in trouble because of the next part.
"I tried to bait Handfucker to send the nomu back my way, but I pissed him off enough that he ordered it to kill me."
Oh, he was so right. Shiori looks seconds away from coming over there to throttle him. Mihoko and Hajime look disappointed in him. Oh, god.
"It managed to grab me. I didn't really feel it, but I guess that's when my arm was broken. I kicked at it as it hoisted me up by my arm. It didn't feel like I had even landed a hit..." He runs his tongue over the backs of his teeth, pushing up against his fangs. Tsukauchi is in the know about Yagi... should be fine, right? "...like it had a nullification quirk as well as the regen quirk. I think the nomu had multiple quirks."
By the way Tsukauchi's face pales, he knows exactly what-- and who-- Izuku is talking about.
"I managed to get away by tearing through it's wrist. At that point, All Might arrived. He engaged the nomu and Eraserhead and I tried to pin down Handsy and the mist dude. Right after All Might took out the nomu, more villains came out of the flood zone. At some point, Todoroki Shouto arrived and they were going right for him. That split our focus, and Eraser got taken out by a stray blast from the villains. The rest of the teachers arrived and I passed out shortly afterwards."
He lets out a bursting sigh after he finishes.
"Any other questions, Detective?"
"...can you expand on how you thought something was wrong?" Tsukauchi says after a beat. "You described it as 'something pricking in the back of your head as wrong.'"
Izuku shrugs. "Probably something to do with my quirk. I felt these... prickles, I guess, in the back of my head and down my spine and all my fight or flight buttons were pushed out of nowhere. I don't really know all there is to my, since I'm a late bloomer."
'Oh. Shit.'
Izuku tries not to startle as Fourth's voice unexpectedly rings out from inside his skull.
What?
'Focus now. I'll tell you later.'
Izuku can just barely hear the others pestering Fourth about whatever it is before the noise recedes and leaves him listening to just Tsukauchi once more.
"...ank you for your statement. You've given us really valuable information. It will be added to the ongoing case against the League of Villains."
A snort bursts out of him. "Is that really what they called themselves?"
"You didn't catch any of their names either, I gathered," Tsukauchi replies with a ghost of a smile across his face. "'Handsy' as you named him was identified as Shigaraki Tomura and the 'mist dude' was identified as Kurogiri."
"Gotcha," Izuku nods. Aliases, probably, but a good enough starting point.
"Well, that's it from me," Tsukauchi says. "Unless there was anything else?"
"Actually, do you know how Aizawa-sensei's doing?" Izuku asks. "And Thirteen-sensei."
"Eraserhead is expected to be able to go back to the classroom when school restarts," Tsukauchi says. "The injury on his elbow was easy enough to heal; the concussion he received from the stray hit is taking just a bit longer to treat. As for Thirteen, their injuries are more severe. Kurogiri managed to turn their own quirk back on them, injuring them fairly badly. That's all I know, apologies."
Izuku shakes his head. "That's enough. Thank you, Detective."
Tsukauchi smiles at him as he rises from his chair. "Hopefully the next time we meet is under better circumstances, Midoriya-kun. I wish you a speedy recovery."
"Thanks, and yeah."
Though, with the way that he reacted when I said 'multiple quirks' we might be seeing each other sooner than he thinks... depending on how the talk with Yagi goes.
'Oh... he'll have to get Sorahiko as well.'
Nana's voice is faint; she probably hadn't meant for him to hear that, so he doesn't reply.
"Well... that's about it?" Izuku looks over to the assorted Shinsous in the room.
"You are an idiot," Shiori says. "Never do that again."
Hajime nods. "Please, for our sake, have some kind of self preservation instinct next time?"
Mihoko's at his side by the time her husband finishes speaking. She opens her arms and--
Something in his chest rattles with the sigh he lets out as her arms wrap around him after he leans into her.
"We were so scared, getting that call. I'm glad you're alright, kid," she murmurs into his hair.
Izuku swallows. "I'll try not to be so stupid next time," he says, voice rougher than he would like. "I promise."
He ends up getting out of the hospital a short time later with strict orders for bed rest.
"I swear, it's just a quick over, chat, and back," Izuku says, hand raised to the air like he's swearing in for a trial. "No funny business, no detours, no bullshit."
Mihoko frowns at him. "Yagi-san really needs to talk to you so soon after you got out of the hospital?" The disappointment directed at Yagi practically oozes from her.
"Nah, I'm the one who asked to meet up," Izuku replies, shaking his head. "Partially it's to show him I'm okay-- he worries worse than anyone I've ever met, honestly-- and partially to ask him his opinion on what the hell's up with my quirk."
True on both accounts, technically. Mihoko doesn't exactly relax, but she does purse her lips and nod.
"And he's coming to pick you up, yes?"
Izuku shakes his head. "He's actually friends with the Detective from earlier-- that's how I've met him before. He's going to pick me up."
That had been a last minute idea from Yagi, especially since his mentor had heard that he was still in bandages.
Like he said, the man worries worse than anyone he'd ever met.
Fuckin' mother hen-lookin' ass.
Fifteen minutes later, Tsukauchi stands up out of his car and offers Izuku a raised eyebrow.
Izuku shoots back a grin and an exaggerated shrug as he walks down the front steps.
"I feel like I should have known," Tsukauchi says, glancing over at him once they get driving. "I got a feeling earlier when I was leaving."
"Another check in the theory that your quirk relies on microexpressions and vital signs like heart rate," Izuku says. "I know I was definitely fuckin' thinking of it."
Tsukauchi's hands tighten on the steering wheel. "So he told you about All For One."
"...how much has he told you about me with One For All?"
"Updates, mostly. How you made it your own, how you managed to knock him unconscious during a spar, et cetera."
"Well," Izuku says, drawing out the word a smidge, "Evidently the quirk stockpiled more than just power. I met Shimura Nana and the other holders in my dreams that first night and they've just kinda stuck around in my head."
The car swerves just slightly before Tsukauchi corrects.
"Excuse me?" His voice is faint. "It's not registering as a lie..."
"Yeah, so-- I already had something up in my gourd. Sentient quirks really are interesting. What I got going on gave a good jumping off point for the rest of OFA, I assume," he says, juggling the statements with the finesse of a fire dancer at the sideshow.
"So... your quirk... it's like you have an inner demon?" Tsukauchi seems to be recovering from the shock a little. That's good. Izuku really doesn't want to be in his first car crash with an officer of the law driving the car.
"Something like that. Though, she mostly just sits inside my mind palace and bums old editions of manga out of my brain all day. I don't usually like talking about her, but she's how I was able to figure so much shit out about my power."
Power, not quirk.
This is exhausting. Why did I think that having an extended conversation with the human lie detector was a good idea?
All he gets from his permanent peanut gallery is a sense of amusement and some laughter; the low, rumbling chuckle is from Arel herself.
"The rest of 'em are up there, too. It's like one big twenty four seven supernatural slumber party. I got a demon, ghosts-- all I need is a vampire and a werewolf and I've collected 'em all," Izuku jokes.
Tsukauchi manages a chuckle at that.
"But yeah, anyway... Yagi hasn't told me anything. I talked with the past holders when I was unconscious. They all got real pissed when I shared the thought about the nomu having multiple quirks. It's kinda memorable when you're kicked in the dick by a bunch of murderous rage and indignation that's not yours when you're in the middle of a fight, y'know? They told me about him."
"I... see."
Izuku settles back into his seat for the drive. The Detective asks him no further questions. It's not a long one; the commute by train to Yagi's gym isn't usually ever longer than 45 minutes. In no time at all, the two of them are walking into Yagi's gym.
"My boy! I'm glad to see you up and around." Yagi's thin face stretches as he smiles at Izuku.
"Thanks. I think we're gonna want to sit down for this one, Yagi," Izuku says.
His smile turns worried in an instant-- though, to his credit, he almost instantly starts shepherding both Izuku and Tsukauchi towards the back room-slash-lounge area. It's definitely more of the former than the latter, since the space has nearly nothing in the way of comfortable seating. Izuku settles into the metal folding chair, repressing his grimace as one of the crossbars digs into his behind.
I didn't think that I would ever regret not being a toothpick, but...
Well, if things dragged on for long, he could always sit on the floor.
He leans back in the chair as best he can, still-bandaged arm slung over his chest, as the other two look at him expectantly.
"All For One is very probably alive," Izuku says, not bothering to ease them in.
Yagi flinches, coughing up a mouthful of blood. His handkerchief comes out of his pocket quicker than a blink and he presses it to his lips. Tsukauchi shoots Izuku a reproachful eye, fishing another handkerchief out of his pocket and offering it to Yagi.
Izuku grimaces back at him. Okay, yeah, fair.
"My boy..."
"Sorry, Yagi. Shoulda been less blunt."
"No, no," Yagi waves him off, literally. "With Master and the other, past holders able to talk to you, I should have expected this... and besides, I was thinking much the same after battling the monster."
He leans back in his chair with a sigh, red-stained handkerchief balled in his fist.
"My boy, I would never have offered you One For All if I had known All For One was alive," he says grimly. "This burden should have been mine to bear and mine to finish. I thought I had. The target that the quirk is painting on your back..." he trails off, gritting his teeth, eyes hazy like he's looking off in the distance.
"Yagi." Izuku says it firmly, leaning forward in his chair and making sure that his mentor meets his eyes before continuing. "I understand. However, that's fucking stupid. Don't blame yourself-- you did enough damage that you thought you killed him. The cockroach should be dead. Beyond that, don't count me out of the fight yet. I'll tell you the same thing I told the rest of the peanut gallery: I'll kick his shit in if he tries anything."
Paraphrasing, but semantics.
He leans back in his chair, watching Yagi's now-wide eyes.
"'sides, I can't let the cockroach mess up your well-deserved retirement, yeah?" He cracks a grin. "You deserve a bunch of peaceful years gardening or baking or some shit as well after my generation gets unleashed on the heroics scene. You've done more than enough work for three lifetimes, Yagi."
"My boy..."
"Ah!" Izuku mock-yelps. "Don't go turnin' on the waterworks now!"
Yagi daubs at the corner of his eye with his red-stained handkerchief, even as he laughs. It's a little choked, a little watery, but there's humor in it.
"I've never seen myself as a baker, my boy, but I... growing some vegetables and a few types of flowers seems nice."
Tsukauchi has a smile on his face, though it's tinged with something that Izuku can't quite put his finger on, coming from the Detective.
Melancholy, maybe? Heroics is a dangerous profession; many, many heroes don't see it to retirement age. How many times did Tsukauchi think that his friend might die, being the number one hero? Especially with his injury just a handful of years before...
"Right, then," Izuku nods, picking the conversation back up before the silence can lapse into the 'long and awkward' type. "You've got your goal; I've got mine. I promise that I'm gonna help you get to that garden; you promise to help me kick his shit in?"
He leans forward in his chair, extending a hand curled into a fist.
There's a moment of hesitance, but Yagi leans forward, extending the fist holding the crumpled, stained handkerchief, and taps his knuckles against Izuku's.
"I promise, my boy."
"Great!" They lean back into their chairs once again. "Now, on the topic of shit-kicking, d'you have any free time next week for a training session?"
"I should," Yagi nods. He hesitates again, back straightening. "I do believe that I'm overdue in introducing someone to you, though."
"Oh, yeah?"
Yagi shivers.
"One of my mentors... and Master's friend..."
'Ah... Sorahiko, huh?' Nana laughs.
"Gran Torino," he finishes.
"If Gran Torino's name is Sorahiko, Nana-san is laughing at you," he informs his mentor.
Yagi coughs a bit more blood at that, eyes widening. "Master!"
"'Kidding, kidding,' Nana-san says. 'But he's going to'..." Izuku raises a brow. "'Kick you in the face for sure, good luck'?"
"Oh, no."