Chương 796: 21
Chapter Text2:48 PM, Monday
Quirks worked in the human body thanks to a special something called the 'Quirk Factor'. This mysterious extra gene turned humans into quirked humans, made superheroes and supervillains a reality, and completely changed the course of history.
Ochako's, like pretty much every other touch-based emitter's, were in her hands. Her factor gave her fingerpads that activated her quirks on contact and also changed her body in other more subtle ways to make Zero Gravity and Reset function. Mutant factors were similarly easy to find most of the time, while transformative ones could be present almost anywhere in the body.
There was almost no public information on Eraserhead, but from just what they'd seen in rare bits of video footage it was likely that Erasure worked by directly shutting down the target's quirk factor itself. That was the only explanation for how he could trigger it nothing but a glance, no sight of skin required.
Pretty much the entire class ended up struggling against Erasure, even the kids with mutant quirks. She'd thought that they'd have a huge advantage since they didn't need to activate their quirks to fight and already possessed extra features- yet it turned out that disabling their quirk factor still affected them a lot.
Ojiro found himself unable to lift his tail. Shoji couldn't make any new arms or move his stumps much. Jirou's earjacks lashed out in jerky, uncontrolled strikes to barely any avail. When Tsu tried to shoot out her tongue, it stopped short only centimeters away from her mouth.
Ochako couldn't even imagine how weird it'd be to suddenly lose control of your limbs.
Though despite the suppressing effect, Ojiro still had his extra tail under Aizawa's quirk, just as Shoji still had more arms than anyone else she'd ever met and Jirou still had her built-in whips to poke people with. And Shoji and Tsu clearly still wielded the naturally enhanced strength in their arms and legs, respectfully, while Sero and his weird duck-tape elbows weren't Erased at all.
Did Tooru's quirk count as a mutant one? Huh. Either way, her invisibility had remained perfectly intact, meaning that Aizawa did need to see at least something to activate his quirk.
She'd have to ask Izuku exactly how the science of it all worked later. He'd probably get super happy that she'd asked and jump at the chance to talk about something he loved, with some complex in-depth lecture that'd make her head spin. He'd be grinning wide with excitement the whole time too, his usual quiet manner completely gone as he broke down a subject that made actual scientists struggle with cheerful ease.
Speaking of Izuku, he was gonna be facing Aizawa soon. What would the man's quirk even do to him, anyway?
Perfect Recall was a mutant quirk with some emitter-like features. Ojiro, Shoji, Jirou, and Tsu had just proved that mutant quirk factors could also be temporarily turned off by Erasure.
Izuku's quirk factor was part of his brain. Ochako whirled to face her best friend, suddenly afraid-
"It doesn't hurt me at all," He answered quietly, squeezing her hand once. "My mind just feels a little kinda weird for a while, and I can't bring anyone else into my memories while his quirk's active."
"Oh," Ochako took his answer in. "Well, that's good, then!"
Wait a second.
Her eyes narrowed in on him. "How many times, Izuku-kun?"
Izuku held up three fingers and something deep inside her clicked into place.
2:50 PM, Monday(Third Reset)
" Aha! " Ochako exclaimed. "No wonder you had that tissue ready for me this morning before I sneezed!"
It hadn't seemed weird at the time, since they were mid-conversation and she was distracted by, y'know, sneezing at the time and all. But now that she knew they'd Reset, though, the moment was pulled to the front of her mind.
"I thought I was subtle about that."
Ochako snorted. "You? Subtle? Never."
She didn't need to ask him why he hadn't helped her with her spar. She was already happy with how well she'd done against Aizawa-sensei, and while she definitely wanted a rematch sometime down the line, messing with today's achievement wasn't something either she or her future self wanted.
And Izuku would've told her about anything urgent or Prophet related as soon as they'd Reset. That meant-
"How close have you gotten?"
"Not very," Izuku admitted sheepishly. "I really did mean it when I said I'd need every advantage I could get against him."
Ochako hummed.
"But I think I've gotten a pretty good read on him now."
A dozen meters away from them, Aizawa faced the final few members of 1-A. Even after fighting so long the man only seemed slightly winded, his movements no less fast or fluid compared to how he was at the start of class.
Kaminari failed to activate his Electricity before it was erased and took a quick loss. Todoroki showed off a surprising amount of hand-to-hand skill for someone who relied on his quirk so much before being eliminated as well. Koji put up a decent fight with his natural rock-like resistance before surrendering.
And then Aizawa glanced directly over at them, expectant. At the only student in the class who hadn't gone yet.
Izuku gave her a small smile and Ochako flashed him a bright thumbs-up in return. He let go of her hand and walked into the red circle with calm, even steps.
It looked as if Aizawa asked him something, but the question was too quiet for Ochako to hear. Izuku shook his head and only then did Aizawa shift his body into a combat stance-
A stance that was a perfect replica of the one Izuku was already in. Their arms were in identical positions and their feet were planted a similar distance apart. The two of them had their body weight lowered in exactly the same way, and even their hand placement matched up perfectly.
If it weren't for the height difference, Ochako would've thought Aizawa was staring into a reflection of himself. A reflection that had bright green hair, a more elaborate costume, and a focused grin that completely contrasted the blank stare on Aizawa's face.
She leaned forward where she stood, ready to catch every detail of the spar that was about to play out in front of her. This'd be a learning opportunity like nothing else!
Izuku didn't look the slightest bit anxious, actually, Ochako realized with an odd sense of wonder. Even though he was about to fight a teacher. This was the same guy she'd seen stutter himself into submission upon meeting a Pro Hero.
Hmm.
Aizawa had just sparred with their classmates for almost an hour. Izuku had lived through this class period four different times now, watching and observing and analyzing the hero. And when you added that to all the time he'd spent researching before U.A, well-
He had way more than just a pretty good read, didn't he?
"Go."
Erasure activated, casting Aizawa's eyes in a terrifying red and floating up his hair as Izuku drew two seals from his costume with his gloved left hand, balancing one on the base of his index finger and grasping the other in the space between his middle and ring fingers.
Wait, she'd seen him practice this move before!
Izuku first flicked up his first seal with his thumb so that it flew high in an arc, as if he were flipping a coin, and then whipped his arm back to launch his second one straight forward. Aizawa was forced to respond to the direct attack first, catching the seal in his palm with an audible smack - and almost leaving himself open to Izuku himself as the boy attacked within that same moment.
Izuku's right gauntlet crackled with electricity, flashing blue against Aizawa's all-black costume as the underground hero carefully dodged the strike. The student followed up with his left and the teacher gracefully stepped out of range-
Directly into the path of the falling first seal. It struck Aizawa in the shoulder from above, not doing much yet surprising him enough to make his eyes slightly widen. A hero as experienced as him would've instantly realized just how completely he'd been predicted.
Izuku used the opening to lunge in again and this time, Aizawa didn't retreat. The two of them clashed in a flurry of strangely similar punches and kicks, matching blow for blow and counter for counter in a dizzying dance that gave her a headache just watching it.
A perfect memory combined with an awesome talent for analysis and a frankly insane drive to train meant that Izuku really fucked up anyone who relied on hand-to-hand combat. He'd only memorize more and more of their attacks, movements, and habits the longer he watched them- without some kind of combat quirk or gear to throw at him you were quickly gonna get overwhelmed.
Ochako knew that better than anyone.
So despite Aizawa's years of experience, he was gradually getting pushed back by a first-year student using an almost perfect copy of his own fighting style- tweaked for said first year's smaller build and also filled with a bunch of stolen moves from other heroes. And it didn't help that Izuku's electrified gauntlets made his attacks extra annoying to block.
A minute of this passed before Aizawa's blank face finally shifted into that same unsettling grin from before. Only at the sight of it did Izuku tense up his body in anticipation, his emerald-green eyes turning narrow and alert.
"Interesting."
Aizawa's capture scarf whirled to life as that single word left his mouth, lashing out from his neck and just barely missing Izuku as he dove out of the way- only for the gray cloth to somehow loop back around and catch him by the ankle anyway. He was yanked right off his feet in the next moment and flung towards the edge of the ring.
The slight disappointment rather than surprise that flashed across Izuku's face told Ochako that this wasn't the first time this had happened, something made even more clear when Izuku casually twisted his body to free himself from the hold in mid-air to land in a smooth roll inside the red circle.
But that second of recovery was all the time Aizawa needed to close in. Izuku's gauntlets shot up to bat away two speeding strips of scarf before he ducked under a third, yet even he couldn't also deflect the kick thrown by Aizawa himself at that exact same moment. Bam! It struck Izuku hard in the chest and threw him back almost a meter before his iron-soled boots dug in to stop his momentum.
Izuku let out a startled hiss after that, seeming to put all of his focus into ducking and weaving through endless strikes of cloth in a frantic effort to not be caught.
Now that Ochako had the chance to actually see Aizawa's support gear in action for the first time, she could honestly say that the weapon made no sense at all. The scarf somehow floated off his shoulders in a set of concentric circles and then shot out its ends at high speed at the target like a mass of whips, but could also adjust said ends in mid-air to correct its own trajectory.
If that wasn't enough, the various parts of the scarf also twisted and turned around in different directions and at different timings, as shown in Aizawa's ridiculous attack moments ago, making the weapon nearly impossible to dodge. The hero controlled the wild thing with delicate flicks of his fingers and hands as if he were a puppet master, in an impossible feat of dexterity and skill.
And yet he still had the concentration to run around and fight Izuku close-up at the same time. It was absolutely ridiculous! Ochako couldn't even imagine how long it'd taken to master a fighting style like that.
No one could ever hope to beat someone like that in pure hand-to-hand combat, especially if they were alone. Anybody who tried would be ensnared by gray cloth from every direction and pummeled into the ground by Eraserhead in the literal blink of an eye.
Anybody but Midoriya Izuku, that is.
Even as he desperately dodged and deflected the hero's attacks, Izuku's emerald eyes rapidly darted across his opponent. They captured every twist and turn of the capture scarf, trailing along the edges of the special cloth and where it met Aizawa. They captured Aizawa's fingers, hand movements, and every flick of his wrist, and added it all to what Izuku had already memorized about the hero's fighting style.
A low swipe struck just a little too close and seemingly toppled Izuku over. He fell forward only to then push off the concrete with one hand to land back on his feet, catching another strip under his boot as he did. His gauntlets flew up to grab a third whip just centimeters away from his face.
With that, he had temporarily immobilized Aizawa's capture weapon.
Before a fourth one could be thrown, Izuku pulled hard on the scarf to yank the person attached to it towards him. Aizawa rose to the bait instead of pulling back, flowing with the momentum to throw a punch that was too fast to follow-
Only for Izuku to let go of the cloth and step right past the blow as if he'd already seen it coming. Aizawa reacted instantly, aborting his punch mid-lunge to aim a backhand behind him-
Izuku blocked it with his own hand and his right arm was thrown aside from Aizawa's superior strength. But that didn't matter, as his left was already reaching towards his opponent's face, the electrified gauntlet it wore gleaming bright with blue light-
Aizawa forced his head back and the crackling electricity just barely missed his face. But he wasn't the target, Ochako realized at the exact moment the hero did.
-and closed around the capture scarf that hung tight around Aizawa's neck.
Izuku stole the weapon right off of him, knowing exactly which direction to pull in to do so and exactly how to flick his wrist to perform the movement. Aizawa moved forward to stop him, of course, only to be stopped in that crucial second by Izuku's right palm as it shoved into the space between them.
That was all the time Izuku needed to take a step back out of range and sling his prize snugly around his neck. The two combatants paused there, facing each other once again.
"Did our class president just steal Sensei's..."
"I think he did."
"Holy shit, Midobro's insane!"
"...He is certainly far more adept at hand-to-hand combat than the rest of us," Yaomomo admitted from where she stood, though it looked like it hurt her a bit to say. Bakugou let out an audible huff but didn't protest. "But can he actually wield Aizawa-sensei's weapon well? Such an unusual, whip-like construction must require quite a bit of experience to use, no?"
"Yeah, if I tried to use that thing I'd accidentally choke myself," Kaminari said.
Jirou snorted at that. "Same here."
"Izuku-kun definitely can," Ochako claimed confidently.
Yaoyorozu glanced at her. "I assumed he had some sort of confidence in his ability to do so, given the fact that he stole it in the first place. But what makes you so assured?"
Ochako smiled. "You'll see."
Aizawa took advantage of the brief breather to pull a tightly wound ball of gray out of his pocket, unfolding it instantly to reveal a second capture scarf and attaching it to his neck. Because of course the man had a backup one. His eyes didn't leave Izuku's once.
"You've got some surprises, kid."
Izuku stared back as he settled into the exact same stance Aizawa was in, just like at the start of their spar. This one had them lean further forward to fight more aggressively, their feet placed wide to leap and their hands positioned on their capture scarves.
"Thanks, Sensei."
"Certainly a lot bolder than I thought you were," Aizawa said. "Never had a student successfully steal my binding cloth before."
"Do I get extra c-credit for doing it, then?" Izuku asked.
"Extra credit, huh?" Aizawa grinned. "How about this? If you impress me with that thing, I'll teach you how to use it."
Izuku's eyes lit up in adorable excitement at the challenge.
There was no warning or call to resume the fight. Both teacher and student simply lunged within the same moment and the space between them became a blur of gray.
The capture scarves met in the middle, lashing out at each other and tangling up into a mess as they canceled themselves out. Every time Aizawa's cloth twisted and turned to escape the deadlock, Izuku's was right there to match it.
But Izuku was clearly a step behind in every clash. He was just a little bit too slow controlling his new weapon and was forced on the defensive as a result. He could copy every one of Aizawa's attacks nearly flawlessly and execute them just as fast, yet his transitions between them were still delayed enough to see the difference. In a pure contest of weird scarf combat, Izuku as he was now would definitely lose.
Luckily, he had far more than just that. Izuku closed the distance and brought the spar into hand-to-hand once again, melding his new scarf techniques with his variation on Aizawa's fighting style, the threat of his electrified gauntlets, his seals, and his favorite hero moves-
"Smash!"
Aizawa crossed his arms to block the straight punch and actually shifted back with the force of it.
-along with the classics, of course. And with all of that, Izuku could just barely manage to hold his own against Eraserhead while the man was genuinely trying.
Her best friend really was amazing.
He couldn't keep it up forever, though. As the minutes passed and more and more blows were exchanged, Izuku was tiring noticeably faster. His face was almost completely covered in sweat at this point, the slightest fatigue shining through the calculated grace of his movements. Ochako could see a little bit of exhaustion on Aizawa now too, despite how well the guy hid it- he'd been fighting for like an hour now after all.
And then the two blurs of motion suddenly stopped, so abruptly that Ochako blinked at them in confusion. Aizawa's fist had frozen centimeters away from Izuku's face, and Izuku had stilled in realization as soon as the hero had.
"Fuck."
Huh? What happened? Ochako looked a little closer at the two of them, curious, until she saw it.
Izuku's back foot had stepped just outside of the red circle after his last dodge. Izuku, along with Ochako and the rest of their class, had been so focused on the fight that none of them had even noticed that he'd eliminated himself.
Aizawa chuckled, low and amused. She was seeing more emotion from the man today than in the past few weeks combined.
"Always be aware of your surroundings, Midoriya. That is one of the most important lessons in heroism I can teach you."
5:05 PM, Friday
The weather was perfect today.
No clouds. A beautiful blue sky. Golden sunlight that felt warm, yet not warm enough to not make her overheat in her dress jacket and uniform. And a dozen super soft cats around her to cuddle against.
Well, the last thing wasn't part of the weather, but it was definitely perfect.
Ochako let out a little sigh of contentment as she burrowed further into the bed of fur, and the cats shifted to accommodate. She was so, so glad that they'd learned to trust her.
This was pure bliss.
"It seems like our cats are getting along once again, Midoriya-senpai."
"Yeah."
"I've also noticed that yours has been a lot less stressed as of late. Particularly concerning that major event that you two are set to participate in soon."
"I've noticed that too. Maybe she's finally realized that she's more than awesome enough to tackle that event."
She felt her cheeks turn a bit red as she heard the smile in his voice. Must be the sun.
"I'm not sure," Nono replied, thoughtful. There was the soft sound of turning pages. "That is quite a complex thought for a cat to have, isn't it? As much as I love them, critical thinking isn't exactly their forte."
"I would've thought that you of all people would defend feline intelligence," Izuku said.
"On the contrary, it is because of who I am that I am perfectly rational about the subject- how would you defend your cat's intelligence?"
There was an audible pause. Hey!
Ochako peeked her eyes open, indignant yet unwilling to leave the soft blanket she rested on. "You two do know that I'm not actually a cat, right?"
The two of them were cross-legged on the shrine's stone path a meter away from her, a textbook laid out between them. Nono wrote in her notes as she talked, half-focused on her work, while Izuku peeked over to point out any mistakes she made.
"Cats do not speak, yes," Nono agreed, glancing over at Ochako. "But you do have fingerpads and enjoy lazing about in the sun just as much they do."
Ochako blinked.
"You also blink exactly like a cat would."
"C'mon, Nono-chan-"
A tap of pencil on paper. "This question's wrong, Nono. You missed a step."
Nono looked back. "I had a feeling. How am I supposed to do it?"
"Try the problem again first. I'll tell you if you still can't figure it out after that."
"...You are a harsh taskmaster as ever, Midoriya-sensei."
If Nono thought this was bad, she'd crumble like an underbaked cookie if he trained her to fight like he did Ochako. Mmm, cookies- now she really wanted to eat one.
Izuku just shrugged. "Thanks. And I told you that you didn't have to call me that, didn't I?"
"You did. But then you started helping me with math, and now it just seems terribly rude not to."
"Isn't it more rude to just ignore what I tell you to call me? And wait, isn't this worse than when you used to call me 'Midoriya-senpai?'"
Nono tilted her head to the side. Her mannerisms were more cat-like than Ochako's would ever be. "From my perspective, not much. And you only requested that I not call you Midoriya-senpai back then, you never specified what I should call you. The contract stands fulfilled."
Ochako snorted. "You'd make a great lawyer, you know."
"Thank you, Ochaneko-san."
"No problem, Yes-Yes -chan."
Izuku laughed. "I can't believe you just made an English pun. Mic-sensei would've been so happy to hear it."
"More like he'd never let me hear the end of it," Ochako said. She shifted slightly to get more comfortable as she talked, careful not to disturb any of the cats around her. "You're lucky that you tested out of basically everything, Izuku-kun- Mic's great and all, but if he makes us study one more meme I'm gonna lose it."
"Your English teacher, one of the most famous heroes in Japan...makes you study memes?" Nono repeated, puzzled.
"U.A. teachers get almost complete control over their curriculums, you see, so they have the freedom to do pretty much whatever they want. I told you about how Eraserhead kicked someone out of our class on the first day, right? Yeah. Present Mic thinks that having his students study American memes is a good way for us to learn English."
"It was funny at first, but translating a message from a language you don't completely know is hard, especially when said message makes absolutely zero sense at all and has a ton of weird slang in it."
Izuku frowned. "Nezu doesn't show me memes."
"You're fluent in English," Ochako told him.
"Still."
"And this is the school you both want me to attend next year?" Nono confirmed.
Ochako sat up a little and exchanged a glance with her best friend.
"Yep."
"Yeah."
"Of course. Do business students still have to participate in the events like the Sports Festival?"
"Sort of," Izuku replied. "They're there to analyze the Heroics students and scout out opportunities with influential people in the crowd, not compete. So most of them step out within the first round."
Nono nodded at that, visibly relieved. She didn't share Ochako and Izuku's burning desire to become heroes- she was more than content helping them as she did while aiming for her own kind of future. Nono wasn't much of a fighter, anyway, and definitely would've hated the attention that came with the job.
"It's gonna be so awesome when you get in, Nono-chan!" Ochako stretched her arms up at the sky, letting her padded fingertips trail through endless blue. "You'll be our kouhai for real and get to hang out with us all the time! We'll have lunch together every day, Team Prophet united at last. And when we enter our third-year sports festival, you'll be right there in the stands to cheer us on!"
"...That does sound very fun," Nono murmured quietly. "I think I'd like that."
Ochako smiled.
"Speaking of the festival, though- do you two have a plan for it? Are you going to use Reset?"
"Of course we are!" Ochako exclaimed. "We're gonna fight with everything we have, Plus Ultra style! How could I say that I've tried my hardest if I don't even use half my power?"
"We'll have to be a bit careful though," Izuku said. "If we Reset more than a few times my precognition might start to be a little uh, obvious to the millions of people watching..."
"You're not a very good actor," Ochako agreed.
Izuku's lips twitched up. "Good enough to fool you, though."
"Hey, that was only because-"
"I'll be watching you guys too," Nono interrupted, serious. "With Inko-san and the cats. I won't fall asleep, so please do your best. Good luck."
Ochako's smile widened. Coming from one Seika Nono, there was no greater honor than that.
"Thanks, Nono-chan."
"Thank you, Nono."
"Of course."
Notes:
Aizawa's binding cloth thing is awesome and you can't change my mind on that.
I got a little too carried away with Aizawa and Izuku in this chapter, ha, but it was pretty fun to write. And thanks to that, I have the perfect excuse to give Izuku a capture scarf(because I had the random urge to do it a while ago and have zero impulse control whatsoever)! Now the green boi can have even more weapons, since you can't go wrong with more weapons when you have the perfect quirk to master new ones. Unless you end up with too many to carry, I guess, but that's just a skill issue.
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