Chapter 1425: 13
Chapter Text
It was almost night when they left the Bakugous, Eri dozing off peacefully in Mom's arms.
Mitsuki had plenty of stories to tell of the past five years and reminisced with Mom about Katsuki's childhood with Izuku. It was interesting to hear about young Izuku, but Izuku also felt quite guilty for forgetting her now.
Masaru came out of his shell the longer the evening went, his well-meaning remarks slipping behind Mitsuki's words with ease. Despite their contrast, Izuku could understand their dynamic now.
Their son clearly took after his mother, but his pride was far, far greater. From the way Katsuki acted, the relationship between him and young Izuku was nothing like what Mitsuki had told him.
"Mom, can you go on ahead?" Izuku asked.
"Izuku? Is everything okay?" His mother spoke softly, careful not to wake Eri.
"Don't worry, I'll be there in a bit. There's just have something I need to do." Izuku smiled fondly, watching the slight tension leave her shoulders as she nodded.
Izuku was alone for a minute on the street, watching the stars above him. It was quiet now, spare the cars passing by and low conversations around him.
Angry footsteps broke him out of his thoughts, and Izuku looked at the approaching boy as his blonde hair reflected in the streetlight. Red eyes already fixed into a glare.
"Katsuki."
"Deku." Katsuki returned.
Izuku raised an eyebrow. "You do know that's not my name, right?"
"Of course I fucking do."
"Then-"
"I grew up with that shitty nerd, my entire life until I drifted. The only kid without a quirk, without any power . Yet he still wanted to be a hero, despite being so weak, so pathetically useless. That's why 'Izuku' is Deku."
"But you're right. You're nothing like Deku. That wasn't fucking teleportation, was it? You were faster than I could see ." Katsuki gritted his teeth as if the admission pained him. "You're even a hero, and your hair is fucking white."
Katsuki's fists were clenched at his side, tensing as his voice rose.
"You're not that shitty Deku, there's no way. So who the hell are you?"
"Right, I'm not Deku. I'm Izuku." Izuku stated simply.
Katsuki snapped. The boy lunged, his palm outstretched as the sweat sparked-
A purple sphere of air appeared in front of the charging boy, covering the large explosion inside of it as the attack nullified.
Even as Katsuki's eyes widened at the display of magic, his leg was swinging forward in a kick, foot covered in flame-
Izuku stepped past the flaming kick, too fast for the boy's red eyes to track.
With one leg still in the air, the boy was unbalanced; a targeted poke to the back and the blonde was knocked to the ground. Chains materialized, tying him to the asphalt.
"You-"
"Twenty years is a long time, Katsuki." The words were quiet but so heavy with meaning the boy stilled.
A thousand was even longer.
"Your right, I am pretty different from the Izuku you know." A hand drifted to his head, rubbing his white hair self-consciously.
"My quirk is called Titan. A simple mutant enhancer; the more I train and my body develops, the exponentially stronger I grow."
Katsuki's face shifted in realization.
"It makes sense, doesn't it? I didn't even notice the quirk until I had trained for a decade, and I was far stronger than I should be." A part of that was true, actually. Izuku hadn't realized how powerful he was for quite a while. "My 'drift' was enough time for me to find power and family; to realize things and change."
Izuku turned, chains vanishing.
"I'm Izuku, not Deku. Remember that when I'm teaching you next year, Katsuki."
The words hung in the air as Izuku walked away, leaving a stunned blonde to an empty street.
Izuku clumsily tapped the green button on his smartphone, raising it to his ear. Heaven's communicators were much easier, but unfortunately, this was just what humans used. They didn't even work sometimes...
"Hello?"
"This is Sir Nighteye." A stern voice said. "Can I assume I'm talking to Atlas?"
"That's right. Do you need something?" Izuku asked.
"I'm calling to set up a meeting about the Shie Hassaikai case. I couldn't find the number of your hero agency-"
"Oh, that's because I don't have one."
There was a pause.
"Then we should meet at my agency. Does Saturday work for you?" Nighteye asked.
"Yea-"
"I'll see you then."
The line cut off abruptly, the equivalent of someone dashing off mid-conversation.
Rude.
Izuku walked into the building, a little curious. Of course, he could go anywhere he wanted during the Drift, when there were zero humans to stop him, but the idea of breaking into a place like this was strangely uncomfortable.
A blue girl led him to Nighteye's office, bright with excitement, and gave him a brief tour on the way. Bubble Girl was nice, but her hero costume was just ridiculous. She was supposed to fight in that, right? It was like the girl was asking to be hit in the gut...
Izuku kept those thoughts to himself though, thanking her for showing him where it was. He would surely have gotten lost in the maze of hallways.
A man glanced up from his as Izuku walked in.
"You're an All Might fan?" Izuku couldn't help asking. The walls were filled with posters and merchandise, and there was even a life-size cut out of the hero.
Nighteye nodded seriously. He wore glasses and a suit and had green hair mixed with yellow stripes. The lean man pulled off a strict presence like he was observing you with complete focus.
"The biggest. He's who gave me your number, actually." Nighteye reached into his desk, pulling out a file.
"You know All Might?"
"We...go back a long time." Before Izuku could question that, the hero was moving on.
"My agency worked for months on the Shie Hassaikai case. But then we drifted, and as you can imagine, resuming cases from five years ago is...difficult."
Izuku winced in sympathy. Paperwork was annoying. Paperwork from years ago must be a pain.
"What's the Shie Hassaikai?"
"A powerful yakuza group that's mostly stayed under the radar, with almost no evidence to stick to them. After the drift though, their movements started to become erratic, traceable. And then one day, you came along-"
Nighteye held up a photo of a man in a bird mask.
"-and took out their leader, taking the girl that was with him in the process. The Shie Hassaikai are essentially headless chickens running around now, and we've almost captured all of them. I must thank you for knocking out such a dangerous threat."
Izuku shrugged. "It wasn't much."
"But currently, we lack information on exactly what operations the yakuza were running. I asked you to come here today to see if you learned anything from the girl you took in, and her time with the villain."
"I'm surprised you waited this long to call, Nighteye." Izuku commented.
"Anyone with working eyes can tell that Overhaul clearly wasn't treating her well." Nighteye stated. "An adjustment period is necessary, especially for victims in cases such as this."
Izuku noted the traces of emotion behind that stern mask. Good.
"Rewind, Eri's quirk, lets her reverse any living thing back to a previous state."
He met Nighteye's wide eyes.
"From what Eri has told me, he definitely wanted to use that ability for his own goals, and didn't mind disassembling and reassembling her to do so."
Nighteye nodded grimly. "Overhaul's quirk makes this picture a lot more gruesome."
Izuku thought of the wrecked street, massive with no care for the lives around them.
"Yeah, it really does."
The man stood, so Izuku did as well. "Thank you for coming today, Atlas. I'll inform you if this case has any urgent developments."
Nighteye held out his hand.
Izuku was a little surprised at the dismissal, almost as abrupt as he was over the phone. But seeing the man in person, he was must be quite a busy person.
Izuku shook his hand, and suddenly there was energy focusing into Nighteye's eyes as yellow turned to purple, pupils changing-
One of the man's hands started to go to his head, eyes shut in pain before he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
Izuku blinked.
"Huh."
Thankfully, the camera told the agency that he had, in fact, not knocked out their boss.
He carried the downed hero on Centipeder's(and hadn't that been an interesting looking human) instructions to a hospital bed before waiting in a provided chair, a bit of anxiety poking at him. Izuku had no idea what happened after all, just that Nighteye's ability failed somehow. So he just decided to wait.
Nighteye stumbled out of the infirmary half an hour later, hand on his forehead. His sidekicks fluttered around him, worried, until the hero raised a hand and shooed them away(except Bubble Girl, who was still stubbornly watching her boss.)
"Are you...okay?" Izuku asked.
"A headache, but that's my fault." The man admitted, slumping down in the chair next to Izuku. His perfect composure from before was missing.
"My quirk is called Foresight. With a touch, I can accurately see someone's short-term future." Nighteye said.
Izuku's face tightened a little. "And you tried to use this on me."
That was a pretty big breach of privacy, someone seeing some of his life without his permission.
"I apologize for using my quirk on you like that. But someone completely unknown, powerful enough to best our strongest hero, needed to be verified. Now that I trust you, I won't do so without consent or necessity."
Izuku had to admit that he was pretty suspicious, especially when he dealt with Overhaul so easily. But-
"You had to spy on my life with your ability? There was no other way?"
Nighteye looked a little uncomfortable. "Foresight is impossible to deceive."
Izuku rolled his eyes. "So, what did you see?"
"My quirk failed on you. I saw nothing but a blur, the film blazing over my eyes in an instant. I felt a piercing pain in my head before I lost consciousness."
Izuku tilted his head. "Wait, but if you didn't see anything, then why do you trust me now?"
"Centipeder told me how you carried me to the infirmary. Also, this experience has shown me that blindly using my ability on others instead of trusting my instincts and those of my coworkers is...inadvisable."
Nighteye pushed up his glasses. "But I am quite curious about something. Why did foresight fail? Is it because of your quirk?"
Izuku nodded. "My speed comes from a mutant quirk. Even now, I'm slowing down to a stop."
"That's why...a sudden burst in speed would be normal if a little disorienting. But you-your constantly moving at incredible speeds, needing to adjust yourself to a base level. No wonder seeing the world from your perspective caused that much backlash."
Not to mention how Izuku's sense of time perception was far, far different from Nighteye's. But the man was certainly smart, and despite this experience, Izuku could tell he had earned his role as an investigative hero.
"See you later then, Nighteye. I'm looking forward to working with you in the future."
Before Nighteye could reply the man was gone; dashing out of the agency faster than he could see.
The heroes stared at the spot where Atlas had stood in wonder.
"...I deserved that, didn't I?" Nighteye muttered.
"You sure did, boss!" Bubble Girl chirped.
Dad had left early for U.A, probably to set up the exam. So after getting ready(they were supposed to wear a school uniform, but Akari was 'homeschooled' so a hoodie it was) and armed with school supplies, she walked out the doorway.
Even though Dad had definitely made the physical part a challenge, she could do this...probably. Well, either way, she was going to try her bes-
"Good luck, Nee-chan!" Eri called out brightly.
Akari was going to destroy this exam.
U.A was impressive, with huge buildings that stretched straight up.
The auditorium wasn't nearly as large as Arcadia's, though. Akari took her seat near the back, next to a blonde with red eyes. He was glaring up at the front with some kind of intense focus, as a man walked up to the stage-
What the hell was that hair? It shot straight up, like the man had lost a fight with an electrical outlet.
"Hello, listeners!" The cockatoo boomed. Despite his lack of a microphone, it echoed throughout the spacious room.
"I'm the Voice Hero: Present Mic, your host for this practical exam! Who's excited? Can I get a YEAH?"
She was! Akari cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted back-
"Yeah!"
-then realized that not a single other examinee had responded. Almost every head turned to look at her, and Akari now wanted to bury herself into the ground.
Mic, however, grinned. "Thank you, listener!"
A board lit up behind the hero, three shadowed figures listed.
"This year's practical exam will be point-based! There are four different enemies you will encounter. Robots will count for one villain point, and you will find several throughout your zone. Fake monsters, stimulated through an ability, will be more of a challenge and count as two villain points each. And for the three pointers-" Mic's grin grew wider and next to him a familiar woman appeared, blonde hair with green eyes scanning the room.
Was that Loki-sensei?
"-Loki here will be helping out!" Mic stepped back, and the goddess took the stage.
In her hand, a microphone appeared.
"Hello everyone! My name is Loki, and I'll be serving as your three-pointer today." A clone of the woman appeared next to her, and they both bowed to the audience.
"There won't be too many of us around, but we'll definitely be a challenge. Good luck, students!"
With that, both Lokis winked and vanished into thin air.
"That covers your three enemies, listeners! Also-"
Mic paused, looking at a student waving his arm in the air frantically.
"Yes?"
A boy shot up from his seat(were those engines in his legs?). "Excuse me! I have a question-"
Mic cut him off kindly. "Then it should wait till after I'm finished, you dig? I could end up answering you!"
Engine Boy sat down, abashed, as the loud hero continued.
"There will also be an obstacle, worth zero points. The enemy is not worth defeating and is there to hinder your quest for points. You may all use your fancy quirks for this exam, but there will be no attacking other examinees whatsoever. Now, are there any questions before we begin? No?"
"Then let's get started!"
U.A. had a giant fake city to battle in, complete with roads and buildings for them to freely destroy.
Akari was starting to wonder just how bottomless their budget was.
She was moving as soon as the gates opened, Mic's loud "GO!" ringing behind her.
Akari raised her hand, a sphere of white light forming in her palm before splitting into her six colors.
"Prism."
She couldn't help but smile, no matter how many times she used it. Because Prism was hers, born and practiced through hard work. And now was one of the times she got to show off.
Akari controlled each of her lights, shifting them into weapons.
Red and Blue formed into twin blades. Akari blazed through the first swarm, agonizing slow robots not having time to fire before she sliced through them like butter.
This was going to be fun.
Orange, Yellow, and Green streaked through the air, cutting through anything not in her path of destruction. Akari kept Purple behind her, swirling around to take out anything she missed.
A giant green scorpion lunged, three stingers aimed towards her head. Akari ducked, kicking through its body with the same movement. Orange and Yellow turned into daggers, stabbing through a robot aiming at her from behind as she swung Blue to take out a flaming bull. Akari hadn't seen many monsters, but now that the Drift was over. she noticed most of them seemed like mutated Earth creatures-
Akari sidestepped as some kind of scaly thing with two heads spat poison at her, using Purple to stab it in panic. The poison seemed to eat away the ground as it landed.
But some of them were completely alien from what she knew. Curiously though, all the monsters were a bright green, the mana creating the beasts familiar.
The humans were starting to catch up. Akari forced herself not to stare as they used their abilities, especially when a girl with giant hands punched through a robot, and Engine Boy blazed past her to dropkick a robot. How did his quirk even work? Humans evolving extra limbs was possible, maybe even emitter abilities, but that was technology inside his body! Did that make Engine Boy a cyborg?
Red turned into a battleaxe, the extra power cleaving through a robot before it whacked a girl. Her eyes were wide as the threat was knocked into a building with excess force(well, it's not like U.A couldn't pay for that or anything).
"Are you okay?" Akari asked. She had horns, like Eri, curling off the top of her head.
"T-Thank you!" She bowed so low that Akari had to step back to avoid losing an eye before dashing off.
Akari ended up having to save other examinees quite often, the zone filled with chaos with lasers and monsters everywhere. She turned Green and Yellow into shields, blocking blows for humans pushing them away from debris as she kept up her rampage, the other colors wrecking any target in sight. She hadn't had this much fun in a while, a rush of adrenaline and a rhythm as she let loose a little-
A flash in the corner of her eye made her move, blocking a laser from hitting a guy in the face. He had weird elbows with...holes? and blinked in shock when he registered the glowing shield in front of him.
"Oh! Thanks!"
Blue sliced through the attacking robot, and Yellow turned into a spear to impale the lion behind it. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Weird Elbow guy cover the next robot with tape, spewing out from his elbows as he trapped the enemy before kicking it's head off.
"You're a tape dispenser? " Akari blurted.
Tape Boy winced. "Uh ye-"
Akari turned to him, eyes wide. Behind her, Green and Orange decimated a pack of green wolves. "Dude, that's so cool. You have like, unlimited duct tape."
He raised an eyebrow at her. "You're blazing around-" He taped the mouth of a beast shut before it could bite him, and she cut it in half. "-with weapons of light. Meanwhile, I'm just a knockoff Spiderman..."
Akari blinked in confusion, blasting a robot into pieces with a burst from her palm. "Who?"
Tape Boy sputtered. "W-What! You don't know who Spiderman is?!"
He didn't even notice the robot behind him, and Akari had to use Purple to stab through its head before it could fire.
"...Should I?" Akari asked, hesitantly. he turned green turned into a whip, striking out at a wolf before it could bite a downed examinee before dragging them out of harm's way. Akari wasn't exactly sure how far Loki's magic monsters would go, but she didn't really want to find out.
"You know what? The next time I see you, when we're not...fighting a bunch of monsters or whatever, I'm showing you what a comic is."
Akari brightened. "Oh! I've heard of those! Like Batman!"
Tape Boy sighed. "How-you know what, whatever, I'm not going to question the scary girl's taste in comics."
"Sca-"
A woman appeared suddenly, lashing out in a kick. Purple blocked the blow, the force on the shield making Akari wince, and Green and Yellow forced the new woman to leap back.
"Hello, Akari." The goddess greeted cheerfully, green eyes alight-oh.
"Loki-sensei...why are you here?"
Loki shrugged, even as two clones appeared behind her student, firing off blasts of green energy. "Izuku asked me for a favor, and I was bored. Here we are!"
Red and Blue flashed, cutting through both. She would probably feel bad for killing clones of her teacher later, but right now, she honestly didn't care.
Tape Boy was struggling against a Loki, but she couldn't help him without dealing with her own clones first as they came from every direction. Two more clones appeared with every one Akari dispelled, her six colors suddenly not enough against the onslaught-
"Hey, aren't you going way harder on me than anybody else?" Akari asked, forced to turn Blue into a shield for the extra defense. Each Loki clone was using all kinds of magic, toned down on the humans of course. But naturally, they were at full speed for her.
"Yep." A Loki replied, shamelessly.
Purple floated around her in shield form, Red and Blue a sword and buckler as she pushed herself to counter. Her concentration was stretched thin with the rest of her colors flying around in offense, keeping the Lokis from gathering together.
Red slashed at a Loki, but instead of slicing through the trickster caught it, aiming a powerful punch that slammed into Blue like a sledgehammer. The Loki raised both arms to fire-
-before they were completely wrapped in white tape. Loki's eyes went wide, and Akari used the moment to lunge through her with Red.
"Thanks, Tape Boy!"
"No problem, Scary Girl!"
Akari squinted at him. "I'm not scary."
Tape Boy stared at her, incredulous. "Are y-"
Every Loki suddenly vanished as one. leaving behind many confused students.
Akari didn't question the good fortune though, gathering her mana to leap back in.
With the abrupt gap in, Akari noticed the students hiding along walls or away from the fighting. It wasn't like combat was for everyone, after all, and better they find that out now than in an actual fight. That was one thing this crazy, unorganized exam was good for.
With the Loki's gone for some reason, reaping through the monsters and robots was easy. She left Tape Boy back there somewhere, but he would be fine. It wasn't like there was anything more dangerous her-
Then the ground shook, trembling like her very thoughts were an insult.
A huge robot stumbled into view, taller than a skyscraper as glowing red lenses scanned the ruined fake city. Its giant head rotated to face the now terrified examinees, weapons preparing to fire.
Right. The Zero Pointer. She forgot about that.
Well, that was...cool. But it was just that, a zero-pointer that would give her absolutely nothing but stress. Akari ran the other way, like a calm, reasonable person. She wasn't going near that massive thing, probably worth more money than their Earth apartment-
Mana pinged at the edge of her senses, especially since, unlike the other escaping humans, this light pink presence was right in front of the approaching robot.
And not moving.
Meaning they were stuck in front of the giant threat.
Briefly, Akari wondered how anybody could hold such an uncontrolled, dangerous exam. Then, she remembered her father and Loki were both here, and it all made sense again.
Akari turned, sprinting back the way she came to find a girl trapped beneath some rubble. Thankfully, the behemoth wasn't very fast, or this girl would probably be dead.
Carefully, she lifted the rocks of the brunette. She winced when she saw the girl's leg. There was no way she was running away by herself, then. She slung the girl over her shoulder, ignoring her embarrassed protests as Akari made a run for it.
Akari carried the brunette for around ten seconds before the exam finally ended, the deadly heap of scrap metal slowing to a stop. She sighed, watching a nice grey-haired woman kiss the girl she just saved on the leg, the injury vanishing in an instant, as the girl with giant hands from earlier carried a guy made of steel out of the testing zone, unconscious, while half of the examinees just stared around in shock.
This was going to be a long three years.
Notes:
Finally, we're at U.A!
Even the canon physical was kind of a chaotic mess -stuffing a bunch of kids with superpowers into a fake city and telling them to kill robots when most of them have zero experience using their dangerous abilities near others, especially when the debris and city damage is a factor.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone