บท 26: Analysis and Training
Oni kicked the door open, very nearly sending it flying off its hinges.
He had a smile plastered on his face as he stepped into the tiny, unsuspecting building, eyeing the weapons that lined the wall. This was exactly what he needed after the day he'd had.
"Hello Oni." Someone greeted. "I thought I asked you to stop kicking my door."
Looking over at the owner of the voice, Oni saw a seedy little man sitting behind a clerk's desk. A rat's nest for hair, an upturned nose, and very nearly short enough for Oni to step on him.
"Good evening, Mayeda. It's good to see you too." He greeted. "And sorry about your door, I'm just excited is all."
"Well that's a fuckin' scary thought, isn't it?" Mayeda replied. "You get scary when you're excited. It usually means that people are about to get hurt."
Oni laughed. "You may have a point there. But that's not the case this time. I won't be hurting people, at least not until later. For now, I came to make use of your services."
Mayeda was an arms dealer. Specifically, he dealt in melee weapons and armor. On the surface, he ran an antique weapon shop, but underneath, he sold high-quality weapons and armor to anyone with the money to pay for it. He was technically a criminal, but Oni didn't care enough to do anything to him. Besides, Mayeda was the one who supplied his mask. He wasn't about to give that up.
The man shrugged. "Alright. What do you need this time? It looks like your mask is still in good condition, and from what I know, you aren't the type to use weapons."
"Actually, that's exactly why I'm here." He said. "I'm looking for weapons. Specifically, ancient-style weapons."
Mayeda quirked an eyebrow, but otherwise didn't question him.
"Alright, I suppose. Anything in particular that you're looking for?"
Oni hummed to himself as he looked around at the selection on the walls. "How about we start with a Kusarigama, if you have any. With the longest chain possible if you don't mind."
"Hm. I don't have any that are combat ready here, just shelf-quality. If you want one, you'll have to wait while I source it."
"Not a problem. I'd rather have something quality anyway."
The man nodded, pulling out a notepad. "Any particular chain length or style you were looking for?"
"The longer, the better." Oni responded. "Something in the area of twenty feet if you don't mind. Oh, and the more durable the metal you can have it made in, the better. Don't worry about the weight, I'll make it work. And don't worry about cost, either."
"Alright." He said, jotting something down. "Anything else?"
"A katana, a knife, with a straight edge a bit longer than normal if you can manage, and a more western sword. Like a bastard sword, if you have any."
Mayeda nodded again, already shuffling away. "Give me a minute."
A short wait, and the man was laying out the weapons on the counter.
"Is this what you were looking for?"
Oni picked up the knife first. It had a one straight cutting edge, with the other side left blunt and curving gently back down to the handle, which was a simple leather cord wrap. The whole thing was just under two feet long, just on the verge of being a short sword rather than a knife.
Oni pulled on the weapon mastery quirk, letting the knife shift in his grip until it settled into a familiar-feeling position. Twisting his wrist, he twirled the knife in his hand, watching as the tip spun through the air and come dangerously close to catching him more than once.
"A traditional Viking long seax." He said, halting the movements. "A wonderful choice."
He activated his newest quirk, for which he'd chosen to keep the old name 'Hotbar,' and smiled when he saw the blade vanish into thin air, before making it appear again an instant later.
"Perfect."
Setting it back on the counter, he reached for the katana next.
"Now, I assume you know that you can't just be swinging that one around willy-nilly right? Those things are fragile if you hit something wrong."
"Oh, trust me, that won't be a problem."
He held the sword in front of him, pulling on a speed quirk, and one other.
'Reinforce.'
It wasn't visible, but he felt the quirk take effect.
Just as he had with the knife, he let 'Weapon Mastery' guide his motions, spinning and twirling the weapon around him with such speed that it whistled as it sliced through the air. After a few moments of this, he activated 'Hotbar' again, only this time to pull something out.
The metal spike that had stabbed him through the chest two nights earlier appeared in his hand, still transformed. He tossed it into the air and, as it fell, delivered two quick slashes to it, dividing it into three pieces that clattered to the floor.
He held the blade up close, inspecting the edge for damage. His smile widened when he found none. 'Reinforce' had done its job, increasing the durability of the sword. It could do the same with most any small object, but its talents really shone through in situations like this.
He gestured at Mayeda with the blade, before laying it back down on the counter.
"See? Not a problem."
Mayeda just sighed. "Honestly at this point I'm not even surprised. Nothing ever makes sense when you're involved."
"I'll take that as a compliment." Oni said, picking up the last weapon, the western-style sword. He didn't swing this one around as he had the other two, just inspected along its length for a moment, before deciding he was satisfied with it.
"Yes. I think these will work out quite nicely."
"Alright." Mayeda nodded. "Anything else before I ring you up?"
Oni took a quick glance around the room, looking at the plethora of weapons that hung on the walls.
"No, I think that'll d-."
His words cut off in his throat as his eyes landed on a particular weapon, and his smile returned full force.
"That one." He said, pointing at it. "I want that one too."
Mayeda followed his gaze, then looked back at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Are you sure? It's not exactly cheap."
Oni just nodded, to which Mayeda just shrugged and went to retrieve the weapon.
A moment later, Oni was staring down at the glaive that sat in his grip. Roughly six feet long and with wide blade at its tip that added another eighteen inches. Essentially just a fancy knife attached to a stick.
"So why the hell do you want a glaive?" Mayeda asked, watching him. "The other weapons I can almost understand, if you suddenly wanted to switch up how you fight. But that thing there doesn't even come close to being suited for a normal fight compared to most anything else."
Oni shrugged. "I get the feeling that it'll be fun. Next to the kusarigama, these are among my favorite weapons from history."
"Fun? Is that really all there is to it?"
Oni looked over at the man. "Mayeda. If you had the ability and the know-how to do whatever you wanted, and the money to afford it, wouldn't you?"
He sighed again. "I suppose you're not wrong. Now, I do hope you actually brought money for all of this. It ain't cheap, and I don't see any money on you. You know that I only take cash for these sorts of deals."
"Relax, Mayeda." Oni said, leaning the glaive up against the counter. "I've always paid you for your services. I don't plan to burn this bridge anytime soon. Anyway, I do have the money, you just haven't been paying close enough attention."
He held out a hand, and a duffel bag appeared in his grip with a quick pull of 'Hotbar.' Dropping it onto the counter with an audible thud, he opened it to reveal it full of money. Enjoying Mayeda's look of exhaustion that almost matched up to Eraser – almost. Oni doubted that anyone could be as exasperated with him as Eraser – he counted out the necessary cash to pay for everything, including a down payment for the kusarigama.
In all, it wasn't cheap by any means. Five combat-ready ancient weapons, one of which being a special order, and the price rose pretty quickly. Not that it was a problem of course, being Deku afforded him the privilege of being able to spend money on such frivolous things. He had an entire stash of funds set aside specifically for anything he might want or need for his vigilante work.
It didn't take long for the money to be counted out, and the bag was deposited back where it came from. Picking up the weapons, one by one they were stored away in a slot of 'Hotbar,' along with the pieces of the arm-turned-metal spike he'd tested the katana on. All that remained was the glaive, which he picked up in one hand and went to do the same.
His brow furrowed down at the weapon as it remained in his grip. Trying again, he was met with the same result; the stubborn weapon refused to budge.
Actually, come to think of it, the rest of the items he'd stored with the quirk, and everything that had come with it when he took it, had all been objects that he could more or less fit in his hand. Maybe the glaive was simply too big?
Looking to his free hand, an idea made itself known, which he quickly put to the test. Placing his other hand on the weapon, he tried once more, and smiled as it vanished into thin air, occupying a free slot of the quirk.
He tried to reverse the action, pulling it back into a single hand, and was unsurprised when it didn't work. Then he focused on both of his hands at once. As soon as he activated the quirk once more, his hands seemed to move of their own accord, being drawn closer together. As soon as they reached their intended position, the glaive appeared between them, already settled into his grip.
"Interesting." He muttered. "Larger objects require two hands, and the quirk will automatically reposition your hands to pull it back out. I wonder if having more hands would continue to augment the effects?"
Shaking his head, he looked over to Mayeda, smiling as he waved his goodbye.
"Thank you, Mayeda." He said as he approached the door. "Your services never fail to disappoint. Shall I return in two weeks or so for the kusarigama?"
"Yeah, that should do it. My source is usually pretty quick with this stuff."
Oni nodded. "Alright. See you then."
The man grunted in affirmation as Oni exited the building, taking care to open the door with his hands this time.
Stepping out into the night once more, Oni looked down at his hands, mind returning to his newest quirk.
"Very interesting."
So far as he could tell, the quirk didn't actually store the objects anywhere on his person. Didn't shrink them or just remove them from his – and everyone else's – attention. No, from what he could gather, it was as if it truly removed the objects from normal existence. It stored them within its own space, in a pocket dimension.
That concept alone excited him to no end. This was a quirk that – assuming he was correct – altered spacetime to store mundane objects at the user's discretion. It was a quirk that disobeyed the laws of physics as humanity understood them.
Then again, quirks as a whole defied understanding in a number of ways, but that wouldn't stop him from being excited about this particular instance.
Since acquiring the quirk, he'd emptied out everything the previous user had been using it for. There were the keys and the gun he discovered right after taking it, then there were also a number of regular every-day items. A wallet, a knife, a cellphone, a sandwich bag of drugs, a lunchbox, and a bag of cat treats.
He'd taken the money from the wallet, discarded the drugs, the gun, and the phone by dropping them into the ocean – a distance from shore, of course – and gave the treats to the first stray cat he could find. Everything else had just been left in a dumpster, freeing up the quirk to use how he saw fit. Half of the slots were now filled after his shopping trip, between the money and the new weapons, with one more being taken up by the severed limb. He'd half to get rid of that at some point. Maybe he'd dump it into the ocean on his way home.
Dropping his hands and rolling his shoulders, his wings following the motion, he took a few more steps from the building, before crouching and launching himself into the air in one swift motion.
---
"What the hell are you even talking about, Oni?" Shadow asked as he tied a fallen criminal's hands together.
"I told you." Oni responded as he watched one go limp, his hand wrapped around their throat. "It's a new system for ranking and classifying quirks."
"And the reason your telling me is?"
"Because it's exciting!"
Oni heard a noncommittal grunt from Shadow's direction. "Sure. Whatever you say."
"It is!" Oni said, dropping the criminal. "Just think about it! For so long, everyone's been thinking about quirks as just transformation, mutation, and emitter. And while that's been good enough for the past hundred-and-fifty years or so that humanity's actually bothered to try to understand quirks, it's not the best way to do it."
Shadow sighed. "Why do I feel like I'm about to get a full lecture about this?"
"Because you are." Rei cut in. "Just go with it. He's going to tell you whether you like it or not. There's no point in resistance. Though, in fairness, it really is pretty interesting."
"Thank you, Phantom." Oni said gesturing to empty air. "See Shadow? Phantom knows what she's talking about. She thinks it's exciting."
"That's because I'm pretty sure you two are related, or dating, or something beyond just regular vigilante partners."
Another sigh, then, "Carry on, I suppose. Tell me about this new system of yours."
"Excellent!"
"So, to start off with, there are two main parts to this system. As I said before, it's used to both rank and classify a quirk, with the ranking part focusing on the overall power and usefulness of a quirk, and the classifying part being just that. The ranking half is the simplest, so I'll start with that one."
They started walking as he spoke, heading for a hallway that would – hopefully – lead to more opponents.
"There are seven ranks on the scale. 'A-Class' to 'F-Class' and then with 'S-Class' above it all. 'S' is where you would find the rare few quirks that are overwhelmingly powerful, such as All Might's, and 'F' is where you would find the equally rare quirks that aren't simply ineffective, but also directly harm the user. Everything else would fall somewhere in between. Most popular Pro Heroes would likely fall into 'A' and 'B-Class,' and then the majority of civilians would probably fall into 'C' and 'D.'"
"The scale itself is subjective, using loose subcategories such as combat potential, defensive capabilities, maneuverability, utility, and intel as its guidelines."
"What's the point in having a scale if you're just going to make it subjective?" Shadow asked.
"Because there is no single method of comparing every quirk equally." Oni responded. "You can compare the strength and speed output of enhancement quirks, or even the heat output of fire quirks, but then for every quirk you compare like that, there are a thousand more that wouldn't even apply. Besides, there's no way to measure the boost in intelligence that such quirks give, nor is there even a scale to begin with to measure the capabilities of most mental quirks. So, creating a singular, opinion-based scale to measure the overall effectiveness of a quirk is the only way to even come close to accurately comparing quirks. Or at least it's the only way I can think of."
Their conversation was interrupted as they came to a crossroads in the hallway, with a criminal charging at them from the side as soon as he saw them. Oni quirked an eyebrow at him as the criminal started shouting.
In an instant, Oni was behind him. He grabbed the collar of the man's shirt, yanking him to a stop. With his other hand, Oni grabbed the man's head, slamming it into the wall and letting him crumple to the floor.
"Anyways. As I was saying, the scale is loose and subjective, allowing it to be applied to all quirks."
"So, take Endeavor's quirk, Hellflame, for example. It has extreme combat potential, decent defensive capabilities, what with walls of flame being fairly useful for blocking off criminals' pathways and with it providing him with overall resistance to heat and fire, it also provides great maneuverability, and provides all the useful utility that comes with being able to generate fire. All of that together would put it strongly into the upper half of 'A-Class,' with strong arguments for 'S-Class.'"
Oni paused to peek through an open door as they passed, looking for anyone that might've somehow avoided 'Proximity.'
"By the way." Oni continued. "I would also put yours in 'A-Class' as well."
"I'm flattered." Shadow responded, with only the smallest hint of sarcasm. "Now what about the other half?"
"I'm glad you asked! Because that's where things get really interesting."
They paused again as they reached another crossroads, taking a moment to look down both directions before starting off again.
"It starts with how quirks are activated. Most quirks can be separated into two basic categories as far as how they are activated: Continuous and Trigger. Continuous-type quirks are those that must always meet whatever activation conditions they have in order to activate. This category might include quirks such as yours, where you need shadows to be present at all times in order to control them. Trigger-type quirks, on the other hand, are those that only require the activation conditions to be met at the time of activation, with continued use being governed by more specific limitations, such as stamina. Mine could fall into this category, the transformation aspect at least. So long as I'm meeting the 'requirements' at the time of activation, which there aren't really any, then I can maintain the transformation for as long as I so desire."
"Being so broad, however, those two categories aren't useful beyond basic understanding of a quirk, so I wouldn't really include them in an actual classification. Aside from that, there are a number of more detailed types of activation categories that quirks can be separated into, starting with three broad ones. There are focus-types, that require conscious effort to activate, like yours. Then there are passive types, such as mutations and most strength and speed enhancers, like the primary aspect of mine. And even automatic quirks, that activate as soon as its requirements are met, whether or not the user wants it to."
Satou's quirk, 'Sugar Rush' was a good example of the last category, though Oni wasn't about to say as much to Shadow. The boy's quirk took effect as soon as he ingested sugar, automatically increasing his strength. It was also a good example of the 'Continuous' category, as he needed to always have sugar in his system for his quirk to increase his strength.
"Adding in the more narrow categories, these can get quite specific." Oni continued. "Yours might only fall into the 'Focus' category, since you only need to be in the presence of shadows for it to work, but others might be 'Focus' and 'Visual,' requiring eye-contact to activate, or maybe 'Focus' and 'Proximity,' only working if the user is within a certain range of whatever their quirk affects. And then some might be even more complex than that, having both a 'Passive' element as well as a 'Focus' element. This is where my quirk would fall, with my strength and mutations being 'Passive,' and my transformation being 'Focus.'"
That was the explanation that he was using for his 'quirk' as Oni, not that he really needed one all that much. His enhanced physical capabilities, along with his horns, wings, and tail were all passive effects that were always active. His claws, on the other hand, were a transformation that required focus to trigger.
It was complicated system on the surface, but once it was boiled down it was an incredibly descriptive way to separate quirks. Focus, Passive, and Automatic served as the main categories for the classification, since every quirk that he'd observed to this point fell into one of them. Below that, there were subcategories that broke it down even further.
There was 'Contact,' that meant a quirk relied upon physical contact to function, like Ochako's. 'Proximity' meant that a quirk needed whatever it effected to be within a certain range, like his own quirk 'Proximity,' that shared the same name. 'Vocal' meant that a quirk was activated through the user's voice, like Present Mic, and 'Visual' was the same, but with eye-contact. There was 'Connection,' which relied upon a connection, forced or otherwise, between the user and a target, like with Stain or with 'Siren.' And lastly, there was 'Miscellaneous,' which was reserved for anything that didn't fall into any of the others.
"Holy shit, Oni. How much time have you spent on this?"
"Pretty much all of the past two days." Oni responded. "And that's only half of the classification part of this!"
"There's more? Do you even sleep?"
"Not usually! And of course there's more! Aside from classifying how a quirk is activated, you also have to define its functions. These categories are anything from 'Mutation,' to 'Enhancement,' to 'Transformation,' to 'Stockpile,' and then everything in between. This is the part that's really interesting, because it replaces the old system of transformation-mutation-or-emitter."
"Keeping with the previous examples, your quirk would fall into 'Kinesis,' for how you directly control the movement of shadows, 'Manipulation,' for how you can increase or decrease the sizes of shadows you control, as well as how you make them temporarily tangible, and 'Transportation,' for how you can move yourself and others through the shadows. Also, it could potentially also fall under 'Elemental,' depending on whether or not you consider shadows to be a fundamental aspect of the natural world, as most would with things like fire, water, or electricity."
There were twenty-four effect categories in total. As far as he'd been able to tell so far, every quirk fell into at least one of them.
"Interesting." Shadow said, sounding slightly less exasperated with the lecture. "And yours?"
"Mine would fall under 'Mutation,' 'Enhancement,' and 'Transformation,' for obvious reasons. Though an argument could be made that since I have wings as a part of my quirk, it would also fall under 'Transportation.' But personally, I think that category should be reserved for quirks such as yours, that can perform some degree of teleportation or warping, since those are separate effects, and not just the function of a limb granted by the quirk."
That was another part of the whole thing that was subjective, and that would likely lead to discussions when he actually started introducing the system to the world, which he full intended to do at some point.
And as complex and detailed as it seemed on the surface, it actually had a relatively simple layout when it was applied to a quirk. When actually listed out – as if for a quirk analysis - it condensed everything down.
It started with the activation categories, one for every different aspect of a quirk. So someone like Oni, who had his physical enhancements along with a transformation, it would list out 'Passive' for the enhancements, and then 'Focus' for the transformation.
Then, following that, it would list out the quirk's effects the same way, a new list for each different aspect. 'Mutation' and 'Enhancement' for just that, and then 'Transformation' and 'Enhancement' for his claws.
Actually, since his understanding of how to classify quirks had changed, what if-
Oni's eyes widened, and he turned to look at Shadow, straining them as 'Appraisal' activated.
[Name: Fumikage Mitsugu]
[Quirk: Shadow. Focus. Elemental/Kinesis/Manipulation/Transportation.]
[Allows the user to manipulate shadows, making them larger or smaller, making them solid, and allowing them to transport themselves or others through them.]
Oni smiled. So he'd been correct. 'Appraisal' might take the information from the target's mind, but it would seem that the format in which the information was displayed came from him.
"Well. I will admit, Oni." Shadow said as the two of them approached a door at the end of the hallway. "That was more interesting than I anticipated. I didn't realize just how much thought you put into it."
Oni opened his mouth to reply when the door suddenly burst open, flying off its hinges and directly at him.
He didn't react as it slammed into him, letting 'Shock Absorption' do its job. But as it fell to the floor, he heard Shadow grunt, followed by something that sounded suspiciously like a body hitting the floor.
When his view of the hallway was cleared, he saw a criminal standing over Shadow. The vigilante didn't look too injured, it just seemed as though he'd been knocked on his ass. Though he was obviously injured enough to not be retaliating immediately.
Oni took a step forward and kicked the offending criminal off of him, sending them flying into a wall.
"Hey Shadow." Oni called, keeping his eyes trained on the criminal. "Look what I can do."
He raised his hand to reveal the knife that had just appeared there out of thin air, the Viking seax.
With a quick activation of 'Reinforce' and a small grunt, Oni darted forward and stabbed the blade straight through the criminal's shoulder and into the wall behind it.
He clamped his hand over their mouth to cut off their scream, before leaning down until they were face-to-face.
"Maybe next time you'll think twice before you go and do something so rude."
A quick jerk of his wrist and the criminal's head impacted the wall, making them go limp.
Turning away, he walked back to Shadow, kneeling and offering a hand down once he was close enough.
"You alright?"
Shadow sighed as he took Oni's hand, pulling himself up. "Yeah. Bastard kneed me right in the chest. Knocked the wind out of me."
Oni pulled him to his feet. As he did, the vigilante's hood fell, allowing Oni to catch a very rare view of Shadow's face.
The man was fairly average looking for the most part, with short black hair and features that didn't stand out in one way or the other. His eyes were the exception, being almost pure white. Pupils, iris, and sclera were all a murky, cloudy white. If Oni weren't already certain that the man could see, he would suspect that he was blind from the sight of his eyes alone.
Aside from that, there was a scar that stretched from just above his left eyebrow, down his face to just below his mouth. It curved inwards slightly towards the bottom, so that it split his lips.
And just like that, Shadow's face was hidden once more as he pulled his hood back up. Hidden behind a wall of darkness. Oni suspected that the man utilized his quirk to hide his features, pooling shadows within the hood to keep his face a secret.
With Shadow back on his feet, Oni walked back over to where he'd impaled the criminal, pulling the knife out of the wall in one swift movement. The criminal crumpled to the floor with nothing to hold them up.
"Well then." He said, flicking the blade to remove some of the blood. "What do you say we wrap this up?"
Shadow sighed again, rolling his shoulders. "Fine by me. Let's do it."
---
"So, how did you want to do this?" Eraser asked. "Did you need All Might or I to do anything? Nezu said to let you take the lead."
"I've got a plan in mind." Izuku responded. "The next two weeks will be equal parts sparring and individual quirk training. I'll be handling the sparring, and I've already got detailed analyses written out for them to follow, which I will help with as we go. All I'll need from you is to ensure that no one goes overboard or gets themselves too hurt."
He and the two teachers were standing in front of one of Yueii's training sites, which Nezu had reserved for Class 1-A for the entirety of the two-week period leading up to the sports festival. They were currently waiting for the rest of 1-A to arrive from the locker rooms.
Speaking of Nezu, the rodent was currently settled on Izuku's shoulder, sitting there without a care in the world as they waited.
Izuku had been skeptical when Nezu first asked if he could do so. He definitely wasn't a fan of most physical contact, especially when it came to prolonged contact around his neck or back. But he'd been pleasantly surprised when he didn't feel any of the usual anxiety or discomfort. Now he was left enjoying the sensation of the weight and warmth on his shoulder.
If he wasn't completely aware of Nezu's penchant for chaos and his absolute dislike of being treated as an animal, Izuku would almost be tempted to reach a hand up and pet the principal. Almost.
He resisted the urge.
"Alright." Eraser said. "We'll keep an eye out. Let us know if you need anything else."
Izuku quirked an eyebrow, turning partially to look at the hero. "I must say, Aizawa, you're taking this much calmer than I was anticipating. I mean, just yesterday morning I was your student, and now I'm leading the class in their training."
"For the record, you're still my student, Etsumi. But that aside, it would be illogical to react to something so minor. It's happened, and Nezu's vouched for you, so there's not much else to think about."
Izuku shrugged, turning back to face towards the main building. "Fair enough."
"Besides, I always knew there was something off about you. Something about your eyes, and the intelligence behind them, and the way you held yourself. At first, I thought that you were just one of the regular overconfident students that had an overinflated sense of his own abilities."
"Come on Aizawa, when have I ever done anything to give the impression that my confidence is anything but completely warranted?"
"You haven't really, it was mostly just intuition. But I make a point of expecting the worst from my students until they give me a reason to do otherwise."
Izuku let out a half-amused huff at that. "Set the bar low. Avoid disappointment."
Nezu hummed in agreement. "I must say, Etsumi, I am quite excited to see how this all plays out."
"As am I. It's not very often that I get to see the results of my analysis in person. I can't wait to see how they improve."
They fell into silence as they waited for the other students to arrive. It didn't take long. A few minutes later and they were gathered in front of the site.
Eraser took the lead once everyone was present. It was still his class after all.
"Alright everyone. As you've been told, you have two weeks to prepare for the sports festival, for which Nezu has brought in Deku, who is apparently Etsumi, to help. He'll be leading your heroics classes until then, so listen to what he says."
Eraser fell silent at that, clearly leaving the spotlight to Izuku. He waited a beat to see if Nezu had anything to add, before carrying on when it seemed that he didn't.
"Well then." Izuku started, moving forward. "Who's ready for the next two weeks to suck?"
His classmates just stared back at him with varying expressions, some of them looking back and forth between Izuku and Nezu. Most looked somewhat disbelieving, but a few, namely Todoroki and Bakugou, looked somewhere between unsurprised and apathetic. Ochako was the sole person that didn't hold either, instead only seeming excited for whatever was to come.
"Dude. I still can't believe that you're Deku." Kaminari said, a few others nodding in agreement.
"You all already knew that I was smart. Is it that much of a stretch to take it a bit further?"
"Yeah but still… You're Deku. The Deku. I remember when my old school hired you to help a few students with difficult quirks."
Izuku hummed to himself as he thought. Then, "The telepath and the telekinetic, right?"
He ignored Nezu's quiet, "Oh. I remember that incident."
That did seem to ring a bell. It wasn't very often that someone came to him for a quirk that was proving difficult to control, even less so that a school was the one to do so. If he was remembering the correct incident, it was a pair of siblings with a telepathy and a telekinesis quirk that had undergone a very sudden growth just over three years ago. The two of them had simultaneously given everyone in the school a migraine and broken every piece of glass in the building in one disastrous incident. The school had contacted him almost immediately to help them regain control so that they could return to school as quickly as possible.
Kaminari's eyes widened. "It really is you."
"Of course it is." Izuku said. "I'm not in the habit of lying about such things."
It would almost be funny, how ironic that statement was, were he not actively lying about several major aspects of his life every single day.
"How come you never told any of us?" This time it was Ashido that spoke up.
"Was there ever any reason to? It wasn't relevant to anything we've discussed up to this point, and I wanted to keep it a secret from Nezu for as long as possible, to see how long I could last. Besides, one of you did know."
"Wait, what?"
"Anyways! I think it's about time we got started."
With that, he reached into the bag at his waist – he was still in his normal uniform, even though the rest of 1-A had changed into their gym clothes – and pulled out a stack of papers. He gestured Iida over, and let the vice president begin distributing them to everyone.
"Now, each one of these contains a thorough analysis of each of your quirks. I went from the ground up, including everything from functions of your quirks, to how they most likely function, to the ways you can go about improving them. In there is where you'll find your plans for the next two weeks."
He stopped talking once they all had their packets. He'd give them a few minutes to glance them over before he got started.
"My my, Etsumi." Nezu said. "That's quite a bit you've given them. You've practically written each of them a small book. Did you do it all just since our discussion?"
"I typed it all up since then, but I've been putting the notes together since the first day here."
"Impressive all the same."
Really, a good deal of it was rather simple. The functions of the quirk were mostly a result of his theorizing and what he'd observed from them so far. Beyond that, even the recommendations he had for improving them were simple for a few of them.
Some of them primarily amounted to needing to improve their own base physical abilities or to have more practical experience with their quirks in combat, such as with Ojiro, Tsuyu, and Jiro. Others though, had more specific advice. Aoyama could stand to improve the amount of time he could maintain his navel laser, along with his accuracy and altering the power output. Ashido could work of controlling the potency of her acid, and would need practice with it in combat, both against opponents and while in close proximity to allies. Kaminari could improve how much electricity he could release before frying himself, as well as altering his output, specifically in controlling volts versus amps.
The list went on and on.
Part of him had wanted to go the extra step and include his new classification system in the analyses, but he ended up holding back from that.
As excited as he was about all of it, he wasn't about to start showing impressionable students where their quirks ranked amongst their peers. He suspected it wouldn't do much good for someone like Ojiro, Satou, or Aoyama to see that they had a 'C-Class' quirk when most of 1-A sat in 'A' or 'B,' or when Todoroki and Yaoyorozu both had 'S-Class' quirks.
Honestly, a quirk that powerful, that counteracted its own limitations, and another that could create nearly anything with next to no limits. Those were easy quirks to rank.
He'd also taken a look at his own quirk, 'Soul Thief.'
To start off with its activation requirements, it fell under 'Automatic' and 'Contact' for its ability to feel quirks whenever he came into contact with someone, and then 'Focus' and 'Contact' for when it took or gave quirks with physical contact, and then finally just 'Focus' for its ability to activate or deactivate the quirks that were taken.
With its effects, the aspect that allowed him to see other quirks fell under 'Information' and 'Meta.' Taking the quirks was 'Manipulation' and 'Meta.' And activating the stolen quirks fell under 'Manipulation,' 'Stockpile,' and 'Meta.'
'Meta' meant that a quirk had some sort of affect on other quirks, stealing them, in this case. 'Information' meant that it had something to do with gathering or processing information; seeing quirks in others. 'Manipulation' had to do with altering an aspect of whatever the quirks target was, such as people, or shadows. And 'Stockpile' was just that. It meant that a quirk stockpiled something, whether it be food, energy, or quirks.
All of it boiled down to ensure that each and every quirk was described as accurately as possible.
Regarding his quirk's ranking, it was difficult to judge, and not just because it was his own.
On its own, it wasn't necessarily very powerful. It provided the barest amount of sensory information in whether or not a person had a quirk, along with roughly how strong it was and where it was focused. And then it could take quirks, dealing out intense amounts of pain as it did so. So, on its own it wasn't necessarily well suited for combat, not being very strong, or even useful in most areas.
However, once it had other quirks with it? Once its primary function had been utilized to steal and stockpile quirks? At that point it had the potential to be strong in every area, to match any level of power and perform any function needed.
For that reason alone, for its ability to be that powerful because of its primary function, he'd chosen to think of it as an 'S-Class' quirk.
A smirk appeared on his face as he thought about the new system. He couldn't wait to get home and start re-analyzing every single quirk he'd looked at in the past. It would keep him occupied for a week or two, at least.
And then at some point he'd have to talk to Nezu about it as well. The rodent would no doubt be ecstatic to hear about it, and Izuku would absolutely love to have a conversation about it with someone that matched up to him in terms of intelligence and understanding of the subject. Not to mention that he had the opportunity to officially publish something as Deku, and have it potentially become something that's commonly used, at least among other experts in the field.
But first-.
"Alright, now that everyone's had a chance to look things over, it's time to get started." He called.
Once everyone's attention was back on him, he continued. "For today, we're going to focus on individual quirk development. I'm going to walk each of you through what you ought to be working on and how you should go about doing so. But starting tomorrow, I'm going to pull some of you away each day for sparring."
"Don't we already spar with All Might and Mister Aizawa?" Jirou asked.
"Yes, you do. But this is going to be much different. This won't be slow, measured sparring with the intent of teaching you the proper way of doing things. This will be fast-paced, real fighting meant to improve your abilities as fast as possible."
"Not only that, but you'll have full reign of your quirks as well. Because as little experience as some of have in fighting at all, you have even less when it comes to fighting with your quirks. That needs to be fixed, especially since some of you have quirks that are dangerous if not used properly in a fight."
Ashido, Kaminari, and Aoyama – Bakugou and Todoroki too, though it seemed that they had an extremely good grip on their quirks – all had quirks that presented more danger to others than most. Ashido's acid, Kaminari's extremely high output of electricity, and Aoyama's laser. He would need to ensure that they knew how to properly utilize their quirks.
"If that were the case, wouldn't it be unwise for us to spar against one another?" Another asked. Iida this time.
"It would be. Which is why you won't be sparring against each other. You'll all be fighting me."
He watched with a slight amount of satisfaction as they shifted around, murmuring to each other. It was an understandable reaction, as they'd all witnessed each of his fights since the start of Yueii, mainly the two training exercises and the USJ invasion.
"Each day, I will pick out a certain number of you, and we'll spend the entire class fighting. Don't worry though, I won't necessarily be fighting to win. My main objective is to ensure that you all develop your skills as much as possible before the sports festival."
"Now then!" He called with a clap of his hands. "With that, everyone go ahead and split up and head into the training site. Find somewhere where you're separated from everyone else and get to work. I'll start coming around in a few minutes to make sure you understand what you're supposed to be doing."
He watched as they all moved past him and the other teachers to head into the site, with the exception of Iida, who immediately took off at a run in the direction of the main building. He'd be doing a great deal of running over the next two weeks to increase his endurance. That, and he'd be using his higher gears as much as he could to hopefully improve that limitation as well.
Izuku was pleased to see that a few of them, not just Ochako, actually looked excited as they moved. Excited at the prospect of developing their quirks.
As the last one went through the gate, he turned to the two teachers.
"For the most part, none of them will be doing anything particularly dangerous on their own, with the exception of Tokoyami, who will be spending a great deal of time in total darkness to get used to Dark Shadow, and Hagakure, who I've tasked with sneaking around the other students. So if you want to, All Might, you're more than welcome to spend the class in the teacher's lounge or in the site's observation room to save up your time limit as much as possible."
"I appreciate the offer, Etsumi." All Might responded. "I might just take advantage of that in the next two weeks. For today though, I'd like to stick around to see what all you have planned."
Izuku nodded, before sparing a glance at the other two. "Well, with that, I'm going to go ahead and start going around to each of them."
He looked at Nezu, who was still settled on his shoulder. "Did you want to accompany me? Or did you have matters to take care of elsewhere?"
"Unfortunately, as much as I would like to accompany you for a firsthand look at everything, there are indeed things I must take care of."
He gestured at Izuku as he stood. "If you wouldn't mind."
Izuku held a hand up to his shoulder, holding it still for Nezu to step onto. Once the rodent made the switch, Izuku carefully lowered him to the ground.
"Have fun, Nezu." Izuku said. "At some point, I would like to have a discussion with you though. There are a few things I'd like to talk to you about, and then I also needed to talk to you as the class president about support equipment in the sports festival."
"Oh? What sort of support equipment?"
"The sort that would allow students to properly use their quirk." Izuku responded. "Ashido's costume is acid resistant, which come to think of it, she ought to be wearing that to these training sessions. Hagakure's lets her actually utilize her quirk at all, as does Aoyama's. Then I'm sure that a few in Class 1-B are the same way."
"Hm. I'll certainly have to take a look at that. We usually keep a fairly short leash on allowing support equipment into the sports festival unless a student has prepared it themself, and even then it's rather stringent, as it would provide an unfair advantage. But I see your point about some of them not being able to use their quirk at all."
"Really, with that it's mostly about Aoyama, so far as needing it. But with Ashido and Hagakure it's a matter of modesty. They're going to use their quirks one way or another, so it would be best to make sure they're allowed to do so without worry."
"Of course. I'm sure we can work something out."
"I'm sure you will." Izuku said as he turned towards the training site, Eraser following suite. "By the way, you should consider letting Inferiority Complex use his rings, though admittedly there's less of an argument there."
Nezu let out a small laugh at that. He knew very well who Izuku was referring to. "I will consider it."
Izuku nodded as he entered the site, ready to start supervising. He knew that Monoma most likely wouldn't be allowed to use the rings, but part of Izuku hoped that it he would be.
It would make things so much more interesting.
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An explanation of the quirk classification system, straight from the hands of the mastermind behind it, NotMasonPines:
=General Quirk Notation:
The notation that's commonly used in the quirk registry and scientific experiments uses these categories and types to give a general overview of each quirk for categorization and potential comparisons to related quirks. For a quirk that has two separate aspects the general quirk notation formula goes like this: Quirk Name (Rank, base activation aspect A/requirement types aspect A, base activation aspect B/requirement types aspect B; effect types aspect A, effect types aspect B): Detailed description of the quirk's functions. If different aspects of a quirk have different activation types but the same effect types then the effect type is only shown once.
=Activation Requirement types:
Quirks have two fundamental activation categories: continuous and trigger. A continuous activation category requires the quirk to constantly fulfil the set requirements. A trigger activation category only needs to fulfil the set requirements during the initial activation, after which the duration of the quirk depends on other factors, such as limits, outside forces etc. A quirk can have three base activation types, which usually have further requirement types. A quirk can have multiple functions which have different base activation types, but the base activation types are always separate for each function.
-Focus type: Most basic of the three base activation types, needing conscious effort to activate the quirk, can have further requirements but doesn't always need them.
-Passive type: One of the three fundamental activation categories, is always active, needs no further requirements.
-Automatic type: One of the three base activation types, automatically triggers when requirements are met, even if the user doesn't wish for their quirk to activate at that moment, always needs further requirements.(edited)
-Contact type: Activation requires contact with the thing their quirk works on.
-Proximity type: Activation requires proximity to the thing their quirk works on.
-Vocal type: Activation is done through the user's voice.
-Visual type: Activation is done through the user's vision.
-Connection type: Activation requires a connection to the target, digested genetic material, blood, the target's consent (willing or forced), copied motions etc.
-Miscellaneous: Activation does not fit under the above requirement types.
=Quirk Effect types:
What a quirk does can be categorized in several basic effect types, these basic effect types can be combined in a multitude of ways to give a better general description of what a specific quirk can do (a person can usually guess what a quirk can do just from the listed effect types).
-Elemental type:
Quirk interacts with an element or elements (aspects of the natural world) in some way.
-Generation type:
Quirk generates a type of energy or matter.
-Absorption type:
Quirk absorbs a type of energy or matter, the absorbed thing can't be used and only released.
-Manipulation type:
Quirk can change an aspect or aspects of the target.
-Kinesis type:
Quirk can control and change the movement of a target.
-Stockpile type:
Quirk absorbs a type of energy or matter which can be used internally or externally later on.
-Enhancement type:
Quirk enhances an aspect or aspects of the target.
-Debuff type:
Quirk downgrades an aspect or aspects of the target.
-Utility type:
A more specific type of subtype (combination of main types) that makes specific useful actions/procedures easier to perform.
-Protection type:
Quirk protects someone or something.
-Transportation type:
Quirk allows for fast transportation through some process (usually teleportation/warping).
-Transformation type:
Quirk allows for the changing of someone's form.
-Sensory type:
Quirk deals with someone's senses in some way.
-Illusion type:
Quirk conceals what's really happening in one way or another.
-Summon type:
Quirk can summon a specific thing or things, unlike generation the generated things are usually the same thing and are transported to and from some sort of storage place.
-Sapient type:
Quirk has some kind of aspect that allows it to be aware of the world, come to conclusions and learn over time.
-Animal type:
Quirk deals with animals in some way.
-Mutation type:
Quirk provides large permanent alterations to the user's body that only have passive functions.
-Information type:
Quirk gathers and processes information in some way, requires inputs.
-Mental type:
Quirk affects the mind, its effects aren't physical.
-Empath type:
Quirk has something to do with emotions, not just seeing emotions (empathy).
-Healing type:
Quirk allows for the healing of someone.
-Energy type:
Quirk deals with energy in some way.
-Meta type:
Quirk deals with other quirks in some way.
=Some extra notes:
- A subtype of the Summon type is the Familiar type. The summon aspect here is either when the quirk first manifests if the familiar always stays summoned or when the user can summon the familiar from inside their body at will. Familiars do not have to be sapient but are sentient.
- An often occurring subtype is the Illusion type, this one usually consists of mental/manipulation and generation/manipulation effects.
- Quirks that make the target experience certain physical sensations as illusions are not sensory/manipulation types but mental/manipulation (illusion type) since the physical senses themselves aren't affected, only the way the brain interprets the signals.
=Quirk ranking:
F-rank: Generally useless and actively harms the user or makes a normal life impossible (no known examples but e.g. a quirk that gives you cancer)
E-rank: Mediocre in all categories, basically useless (The 'I can change my head into a clothespin' dude from Izuku's middle school class)
D-rank: Scores mediocre to great in one category or would be a higher rank but has a severe drawback or makes a normal way of life impossible (Nine's Weather Control quirk, the original user's Insomnia in WiaQ)
C-rank: Scores mediocre to good in a few categories but mostly average (Ojiro's Tail, Sato's Sugar Rush)
B-rank: Scores good to great in multiple categories, powerful and usually versatile (Chiyo's Heal, Mineta's Pop-Off, Jirou's Earphone Jack, Kaminari's Electricity, most of the 1st year hero course students actually)
A-rank: Scores great to amazing in multiple categories, powerful and versatile (Uraraka's 0G, Bakugo's Explosion, Monoma's Copy, basically all the remaining 1st year hero course students that didn't have lower rankings)
S-rank: Scores amazing in a number of categories, extremely powerful and versatile (All current canon S-rank quirks are: One For All, All For One, Half-Hot Half-Cold, Creation, Whirlwind, Double, Overhaul, Rewind and Overclock with Dark Shadow as honorable mention)
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