Chapter 38
The next morning, Tanya showed Izuku Ling's text about her father doing a complete 180 in his attitude. They knew it was just a front and warned the girl about him trying to create false sense of security. He would go back to his old ways if she wasn't careful. Ling promised to keep a close eye on him.
Tanya and Izuku dressed in the traditional male uniforms and went to school. Even after all that time out in the real world, it felt like they hadn't done anything as the classroom felt the same and no one seemed different from before.
“All right, settle down.” Aizawa said and everyone sat in under two seconds. He nodded and they smiled in return. “I know you're all excited to get back to your studies...”
That made a few of the guys laugh.
“...but, I'm not stupid enough to stop you from socializing about what you all went through during your internships.” Aizawa said. “You've got the entire morning to get it out of your systems and to prepare for your hero course this afternoon.”
“Thank you, sir!” Iida nearly shouted and zoomed right over to Tanya and Izuku. “I can't thank you enough for what you've done for myself and my family. The armor redesigns have made a huge difference to us all!”
Tanya chuckled and Izuku smiled.
“You waited until now to tell us instead of at the beach yesterday?” Tanya asked.
“Ah, well... I was a bit distracted... having fun and all that.” Iida said.
“We all were, I think.” Uraraka said as she sat on Izuku's desk.
“Hey, that's my spot!” Mina joked and lightly pushed Uraraka's shoulder.
“I'll flip you for it.” Uraraka said with a grin as she discreetly touched Mina with her hand.
“You're on! I call heads!” Mina said and looked at Izuku. “Lend me a coin.”
“You're not going to need it.” Izuku said as Uraraka picked Mina up and literally flipped her over several times and then released her quirk.
Mina dropped to the floor and landed squarely on her ass. “OW!”
“It looks like I got tails. I win.” Uraraka said, smugly.
Most of the class burst out laughing as Tanya held a hand down to the girl.
“Thanks.” Mina said and glared at everyone as she stood. “That wasn't funny!”
“That... was hilarious!” Bakugo said and laughed. “She told you she was going to flip you and you fell for it and agreed! Ha hahaha!”
Mina thought about it and smiled. “Okay, I guess that was a good joke.”
“Sorry, Mina.” Uraraka said and slid over a little. “We can share.”
“Thanks!” Mina said and hopped up to squeeze onto the desk with her and put an arm around her to keep her balance. “Who did you intern with again?”
“Gunhead.” Uraraka said. “I wanted to try out different things and also be able to use my skills.”
“How did it work out?” Izuku asked as the others gathered around.
“His workouts and fighting style are awesome!” Uraraka said. “I didn't really know anything about it and after the internship, he said I had learned so much that he would be proud to fight alongside me some day!”
“Awesome!” Mina said and hugged her. “That's the best compliment ever!”
“I know!” Uraraka said, quite happy.
“What about you?” Tanya asked Mina.
“I didn't get to do much. I was the only intern and the three heroes at the agency couldn't decide where I could do the most good.”
Izuku took her free hand and gave it a little squeeze. “I'm sorry that they didn't assign you to just one of them and you didn't get as much of the hero experience as you could have.”
“Me, too.” Mina said. “I learned some on my own, just from observing them.”
“No criminals to take down?” Tanya asked.
“Not for me. I was too inexperienced to get involved.” Mina said, sadly.
“Don't you dare believe that.” Izuku said, harshly. His tone of voice startled a few of the other students and Mina's hand gripped his tightly. “If they told you that, that's their fault for not seeing your potential. We all have to start somewhere, right?”
The others nodded in agreement.
“If they had been smart, they would have let you participate to help contain any criminals with your acid and to discourage the captives from resisting.” Izuku said.
Tanya nodded. “Your quirk is really good for containment and as a deterrent, especially because you can control the acid's strength from making someone's skin red to melting metal.”
Mina's sad face changed to a bright smile. “Thanks, guys!”
“I would have gone over there and kicked their asses if I'd known.” Izuku said, making Mina blush.
“You're such a hero's hero.” Tanya said with a laugh.
“Look who's talking.” Izuku said with a smile back.
“Now that we've got the extra time and we're not fighting to keep sand out of our sensitive places...” Uraraka said and made the girls laugh a little. “You can fill us in on what happened with Mr Brave!”
“It was all over the news and yet they didn't really tell us anything.” Momo said and put a hand on Izuku's shoulder as she leaned slightly against him. “Can you tell us without divulging secrets or anything?”
Izuku smiled. “It's not a secret; but, we didn't expect official help in spreading it around.”
Everyone glanced at Aizawa and he was already asleep behind his desk.
“It seems Eraserhead agrees.” Tanya said and everyone laughed. “Go ahead, Izuku.”
Izuku nodded and then told them all from the beginning about how they were treated that first day, what they had eventually discovered, and what they did to fix the problem. The gang fight and arrests and the blazing fire stories kept the other students interested for nearly half an hour. The follow up two weeks of only occasional criminal arrests seemed dull in comparison to their first day.
“Wow.” Mina said and her hand felt very warm in Izuku's. He had tried to let it go at one point and she wouldn't let him. “You guys are awesome.”
“Yeah.” Uraraka agreed. “You didn't just change the situation with the gangs, you changed the whole hero agency's viewpoint and their role in the area.”
“It's quite admirable.” Momo said. She had leaned slightly on Izuku the entire time. He hadn't tried to move away or push her away, either. He was a solid mass of muscle and steady as a rock.
“We even convinced the nearby agencies to change their policies as well.” Tanya said, aware of what was going on. “Anytime the gangs try to make a resurgence, they are slammed hard and sent away.”
“Even the yakuza?” The bird-like boy asked.
“That's the thing. Once they lose control of an area, even if the gang is still active, it's gone and it's very difficult to regain control.” Tanya said. “Once the shop owners and people living there realized that it's the gangs making their lives difficult enough to have to pay them for protection from other gangs, they've also adopted a zero tolerance for their activities.”
“It's like an unofficial informant network now.” Izuku said with a knowing smile. He and Tanya had discreetly given some of that tech they found to the shop owners and the new head of Mr. Brave's Agency to keep them in contact and it couldn't be traced. “Once they see any suspicious activity, they call the agency and heroes are sent over immediately.”
Tsuyu tapped her chin with a large finger. “You know, that would be great to have around every agency.”
“If only it were that easy to set something like that up all over the place.” Tanya said with a chuckle. “Bakugo? How was Endeavor's agency?”
“Fucking busy!” Bakugo said and crossed his arms. “He's got over thirty pro heroes as sidekicks and they patrol all over the place every damn day!”
“I don't think I've ever walked so much.” Todoroki offered, not wanting Bakugo to steal the spotlight. “I never knew Endeavor worked so hard to be out and about with the civilians all of the time. I thought he would be in meetings and too busy for that.”
“He was in meetings!” Bakugo spat. “It cut into our training time and I asked his secretary where he was.”
“That was smart, Kacchan.” Izuku said and Bakugo huffed. “Did you learn anything?”
“Not a fucking thing, you asshole.” Bakugo said and turned his head to look out the classroom's window.
Izuku laughed at his reluctance to admit it. “You got to use the howitzer move, didn't you?”
Bakugo let a smile appear on his face briefly and then hid it. “Nope.”
“I bet it was a lot more effective than we calculated.” Tanya said and Bakugo looked at her. “We made the same mistake when designing the pellet ammo for my air guns.”
“Mistake?” Bakugo asked, his fake anger forgotten. “What do you mean?”
“We over-designed them and they were really, really powerful.” Izuku said. “Like, scary powerful.”
Bakugo could hide his smile this time, because he liked what had happened. “It was powerful.”
“You're not going to scale it back, are you?” Tanya asked.
“What for? That's just hampering my growth. If anything, I want you to make me more stuff to get the most out of my quirk.” Bakugo said, surprising everyone, especially himself. “Forget I said that and fuck off.”
Everyone was silent for a second, then they all laughed.
“All right, it's my turn.” Toru, the Invisible Girl said, then she told them all about her internship and how she was instrumental in stopping a bank robbery by taking out the leader and the trigger he had for setting off the bombs he had on the hostages.
“Now who's the awesome one?” Uraraka asked and held a hand up for a high five.
“Me!” Toru said and completed the high five before she blushed. Her eyes went to Izuku and saw that he was looking at her face as he smiled slightly. She knew he could see her and she blushed harder.
“It seems a few of us had an exciting time.” Tanya said and wanted to keep them talking. “Tsu? What was yours like?”
“We caught smugglers!” Tsuyu said, excitedly.
“Then hop up here and tell us all about it.” Tanya said and pat the desk in front of her.
Tsuyu gave her a huge grin and hopped up, then she sat down and started her story. It was filled with intrigue, suspense, and a lot of excitement. The agency heroes she worked with were all sea-based and she meshed well with them. She also helped in the apprehension of the smugglers, even rescuing her boss when he was caught in a restraining net.
“You're all proving you're awesome!” Uraraka said and held a hand out to Tsuyu, who gave her a high five back. “Great job!”
“Thanks.” Tsuyu said and blushed a little.
Tanya nodded slightly at Izuku.
“Kirishima? Keep it going. How was your internship?” Izuku asked.
“It was manly!” Kirishima said and raised a fist in the air and activated his hardening quirk. He told them about it and how he liked that they had treated him well. Sero with the elbow tape went next, then Iida, and so on. They spent the entire morning talking and learning all about everyone's internships.
The lunch bell sounded and they all went as a single group to the cafeteria and ate lunch. After that, they went to retrieve their hero costumes and met up with All Might for their hero training course. Since it was the first class after their internships, All Might decided that a race to find him would be a great test of what they learned.
“I'm the hostage and you need to rescue me!” All Might said, almost happily.
Izuku and Tanya exchanged looks and knew that he was going to split them up.
“You'll be split into four teams of five and you'll compete to get to me first.” All Might said and held up the paper with the team splits. They were right and Izuku was in the first team and Tanya was in the fourth. “We're heading over to the facility and you'll have to fight hard to get to me first.”
“We're starting in different spots, right?” Izuku asked.
“Yes, it's not really a test if you all get to take the same route. That would only let the fastest among you to get to me first.” All Might said.
Izuku nodded. “What's the destruction quotient?”
“The what?” All Might and a few students asked.
“How much can we break looking for you?” Tanya asked.
All Might glanced at Bakugo with a sad face. “As little as possible.”
“DAMMIT!” Bakugo yelled and several students laughed.
“All right, let's load up on the bus.” All Might said and they all followed him outside and they rode the bus along a familiar route.
“Are you kidding, All Might? It's a joke, isn't it?” Tanya asked and everyone but Izuku looked at her in confusion.
“We're going to the USJ.” Izuku said and most of the students reacted negatively.
“That place is compromised.” Iida said and chopped the air with his hand. “It's not safe for us to be there.”
“The security has been upgraded and heroes patrol the area regularly.” All Might said to reassure them.
Most of the students didn't look happy about going back to the place that they knew the villains had entered to attack them.
“Nothing will happen this time. I promise.” All Might said. “We won't risk you like that again.”
The students went silent for the rest of the drive there. They filed out of the bus and entered the facility that they hadn't expected to enter again. They were gathered in the control room and waited for All Might to tell them the details of the race. After All Might was done, Tanya spoke to distract everyone from where they were.
“At least we have midterm exams in a couple of weeks and we'll be on break for the summer.” Tanya said.
“Summer Training Camp!” “The Onsen!” “Momo's resort!” “Hot springs, here we come!” Various students exclaimed at the same time.
All Might gave Tanya a very discreet thumbs up as thanks and she nodded back. “Group one!” He said and handed out little tracking devices to Izuku, Iida (the glasses guy), Mina (the pink skinned girl), Sero (the elbow tape guy), and Ojiro (the guy with the big tail). “Give me five minutes to be 'captured' after you get to your starting positions. I'll sound a horn and you can follow the signal to me.”
“Yes, sir.” They responded and watched All Might run out of there and disappear from sight.
“Let's go.” Iida said and the first group of students followed him.
Izuku waited until he was alone before speaking to Tanya. “Do we trust this device?” He whispered to her.
“No. He probably had them programmed to make you run all over the place.” Tanya whispered back. “Channel 8 has All Might's tracker on it.”
Izuku chuckled and changed his earpiece to the right channel and took out his cell phone. He hooked it to the GPS and he ran to his starting position to wait for the time limit to almost expire. He checked the device All Might gave him and also checked his phone. The places were different as Tanya suspected.
“Have fun.” Tanya whispered.
“I will.” Izuku said as he let the little green lightning bolts cover him. The horn sounded and he took off at his best speed. He knew exactly where to go, on a direct path and not the twisting one the device was showing him. Less than a minute later, five barricaded doors were destroyed and Izuku stood in front of All Might. He looked up at his mentor that was only a foot taller than him and smirked.
All Might looked shocked for a moment, then laughed. “Young Midoria!” He clapped his protege on his shoulders with both hands and grinned his trademark All Might smile. “Well done!”
Izuku handed him the tracker and stepped back to wait for the others. “I broke the barricaded doors.”
“That's more than acceptable.” All Might said. “I would have also allowed you to make your own doors as long as you don't compromise any structure's stability.”
Izuku thought about that and nodded. “Between support beams and not near any load-bearing walls.”
“Exactly, my young friend!” All Might said, quite proud. “How are you doing with the egg exercises?”
“I'm up to juggling the whole carton without breaking a single one.” Izuku said, also proudly.
All Might laughed. “Very good, Young Midoria! It's the perfect training for people like us with overcharged strength quirks and you've mastered it.”
“I'll keep doing it, just so I don't forget how.” Izuku said. “Even one lapse in concentration...”
All Might nodded. “I am very proud that you've adapted so quickly to your quirk.”
Izuku caught his breath and turned to look up at All Might's face. “M-my quirk?”
“It's already changed to fit you, my young friend.” All Might said and put his hand on Izuku's shoulder. “I can barely recognize the energy and I carried it for forty years.”
Izuku looked into his eyes and knew that he was telling the truth. “Are you happy about that?”
All Might grinned at him and then spoke in a normal voice and not his hero voice. “You're adapting even faster than I did, Izuku.”
Izuku was surprised to hear that.
“You've been making that power your own and I couldn't be happier. You've already exceeded my expectations and I've already heard from my old trainer, Gran Torino.”
“What did he say?” Izuku asked.
“There's nothing he can teach you.” All Might said, surprising Izuku again. “His techniques might actually hamper you if you try to adapt them for your own use. You actually move faster than him and can change directions with minimal force, which I assume you picked up from Tanya.”
Izuku nodded.
“Then he really can't give you anything new to help you.” All Might said and let Izuku's shoulders go when he heard someone approaching. “Congratulations on winning the race, Young Midoria!”
“Really?” Iida asked as he skidded to a stop. “I knew that last door should have been closed.”
All Might let out a laugh. “Young Midoria tackled it!” He said and pointed across the room at the remains of the crumpled metal door and the broken braces that had held it closed.
Iida looked at the door and at Izuku. “I've been thinking of adapting something similar by revving my engines and then whirling around to gain momentum to kick.”
“That could work, if you can somehow do it without anyone seeing it.” Izuku said. “How about you...”
All Might stood there and admired the young man that was going to be his replacement. He was doing his best to improve his classmates, their costumes, and their quirks. He really couldn't be prouder of him.