────────────────────────
[Reveal]
────────────────────────
| Nezu's office… |
…
Nezu sat at his desk, calmly dealing with some paperwork with one hand, while the other seemed to be messaging different people continuously on his computer.
-Knock, knock, knock-
Suddenly, someone called at the door, making Nezu stop what he was doing, and face the door with a smile.
"Come on in!"
The door opened and Taka stepped through, closing it behind him.
"Ah, the star student! Takahashi, what do I owe this visit? Has the mystery of my pristine fur finally prompted you to come ask me about it?"
Taka gave him a flat look.
'Does he like his fur that much?'
The principal sure had a habit of assuming everyone was staring at it.
That, or it was his way of breaking the ice.
"I received my offers today."
Nezu nodded as if this answered a great deal. "Ah yes, the rewards for your unprecedented performance at the festival. Quite an impressive number, wasn't it? You must be feeling very proud."
"Can you give me a digital copy of my offer list?" Taka asked, not entertaining the principal's antics. "I don't think I can get through eight thousand offers in just two days like that."
"Two days? Oh dear. No wonder you came here. There was never a chance you'd be able to check all of them. I wonder who thought it would be a good idea to hand them out in that format."
Taka lifted an eyebrow.
Was he genuinely wondering, or was Nezu implying with that passive-aggressive tone that this had all been part of a plan to get him here?
'No, that's almost certainly what he's implying.' He corrected himself, watching Nezu with a flat look.
"Did you… want me to come see you on purpose?" He tested the theory.
"Oh my, why would you think that? I'd never manipulate my students like that—but since you are here…"
He produced a sheet of paper from under his desk, as if it had been sitting there waiting.
He placed it before Taka and slid it forward.
"I'd like you to consider a specific hero for your internship. Of course, if you already have someone in mind, you don't need to follow my suggestion."
'How am I supposed to have anyone in mind when you handed me that absurd stack of papers?' Taka grumbled internally, picking up the paper and checking its contents.
Only to pause and stare, mildly surprised, as a familiar face came up again.
"Nighteye?" He looked back at Nezu.
The rat nodded. "Indeed. All Might's old sidekick—a very well-regarded hero, even if he isn't in the spotlight. His reputation runs deep… What do you think, Takahashi?"
"…" Taka mulled it over, brow creasing slightly.
Why was the Nighteye angle being pushed so hard all of a sudden?
He didn't have any particular problem with the man. His death in the show had actually pulled a tear or two from his otherworldly self.
But he wanted to understand why interning under him was being pushed onto him twice in one day—first through Mirio, now through Nezu. It was too deliberate to be a coincidence.
So why would—
'Oh.'
Taka blinked as his eyes landed on Nezu's patient expression.
"It's because of my precognition, isn't it?" He asked.
Nezu's smile stretched slightly.
"I see you noticed. Yes, Takahashi." He jumped down from his chair, walked to the window, and gave Taka his back as he gazed at the lake on the horizon. "There are several reasons I'm pointing you toward Nighteye. Most I can't disclose yet—privacy and secrecy considerations. But in broad terms, let's say I want to see how your two Quirks interact with each other."
"Interact?" Taka raised an eyebrow.
"You claimed to have seen a future in which Midoriya was the one to fight Overhaul and rescue Eri-chan." He murmured, before turning, his smile curling into something more sly. "… Yet it was you who did it instead. The girl is safe, and Midoriya's most dangerous fight so far has been with his own classmates—a future you saw, and then changed with apparent ease."
"…" Taka's brow twitched as he saw where this was heading.
"Nighteye's Quirk, on the other hand, is in stark contrast to yours in that regard. He too can see the future—but unlike you, he has never been able to change the outcome, no matter what he tried."
Nezu spread both arms wide.
"So I hope you don't blame me for being curious as to which future sight prevails. Will Nighteye see the future you changed—and thus remain an unalterable fate even to you? Or will you break the pattern that has never once been broken in his case, and shatter what has seemed to be an unbendable fate?"
"You're getting a bit too into this, aren't you?" Taka sweatdropped.
The rat was trying to farm aura right in front of him.
Pfft.
It was working a little.
Sighing, Taka scratched his hair.
"Well, I don't mind finding out—I'm curious myself. But…" His gaze went flat, brows drawing together. "Wouldn't that also mean Nighteye would figure out my identity as Rockinesis? The dots would be pretty easy to connect once I show him what I can actually do."
"Yes."
Taka nearly stumbled at the sheer simplicity of that answer, mouth twitching.
'Yes? You're just calmly accepting that my vigilante identity with a criminal record gets outed to a pro hero?!'
Before he could put that into actual words, Nezu cut him off, climbing onto the desk and patting his shoulder once he had the height for it.
"But don't worry. There are reasons I believe Nighteye won't move to arrest you once he learns about your other persona… at least not immediately."
"What do you mean, not immediately…?"
"Well, if you go down, I go down with you. So you're not facing it alone, my dear student."
"You can go down by yourself!" Taka exclaimed, losing his cool.
Nezu laughed merrily.
Then jumped back down from the desk.
"I'm joking. The probability of Nighteye actually reporting you once he sees what you're capable of is 3% at most. There are… larger stakes at play that will very likely lead him to cooperate with us instead."
"That sounds like blackmail." Taka commented, still not fully convinced.
"Unfortunately, the matter is too delicate for me to share more details right now."
In the end, Taka sighed.
It didn't seem like there was much of another option.
And there wasn't really any other hero he was particularly interested in interning under. At his current level, he was fairly confident about holding his own against anyone.
'I might be getting ahead of myself, but—I think I could even fight All Might as I am now.' He thought, barely keeping a smug expression from surfacing.
In the end, the clones weren't the only ones prone to arrogance.
Whether he was right or in for a rude awakening, he brought himself back to the matter at hand and settled on accepting Nighteye's offer.
'Hold on, offer?'
He turned to Nezu, eyes narrowing.
"… He already sent me an offer through the standard channel, and even had Mirio Togata hand me one personally… you didn't happen to have already told him about my abilities, did you?"
Nezu laughed innocently.
"I merely recommended you—and may have mentioned that you'd be one particularly interesting intern for the week. One he really shouldn't miss."
"…"
The two held each other's gaze for quite a few seconds, tense.
Then, Taka sighed.
'Well, what's done is done.'
It wasn't that serious in the end. Nighteye was a good man, and even if it came to it, Taka could simply go further down the vigilante path and farm aura even more relentlessly.
He might have trouble going home and spending time with Eri, though.
'Yeah, let's just make sure he doesn't start talking if he gets any ideas.'
With that dark and pragmatic resolution, Taka nodded and accepted his now-scheduled internship.
Which also, conveniently, saved him from having to wade through the paper stack that had been dropped on his desk earlier.
With everything settled, he let out a quiet breath and began to turn for the door.
"I'll let Aizawa-sensei know with a heads up—ah, right. I also came here for something else, didn't I?"
He stopped and turned back to Nezu.
"There's something I need to see All Might about."
Nezu tilted his head, looking curious. "And what might that be? He's currently… indisposed, so I wouldn't be able to bring him right now even if I wanted to."
"He's injured, isn't he?"
Nezu's smile dropped. A quiet fell over the office.
Only after a few seconds did he speak again.
"Well… that I didn't expect. You really are full of surprises, Takahashi. All Might's condition is a closely guarded secret, known only to the most senior members of society and those personally close to him… for you to know about it…"
Taka smiled faintly and tapped his temple twice.
"I saw it in a vision, of course."
Nezu smiled faintly too.
"What specific visions you have."
"Right?"
Watching Taka so easily sweep the revelation under the rug of visions like it was nothing, it was Nezu's turn to sigh.
"Well—is there a specific reason you want to see him, Takahashi?"
Taka raised a hand, and aura began seeping from his palm like a slow flame.
Nezu watched it curiously for a moment, unsure of what the display was meant to mean.
Then the flames changed.
Crimson, until that moment—they shifted to green.
"My Quirk has awakened another property."
The context of their conversation and the symbolism of the green flames were enough for Nezu to arrive at it immediately.
"Healing."
Taka nodded.
"The energy required is significant, and scales with the severity and location of the damage—but my pool has been growing considerably lately… so perhaps…"
"You could cure All Might." Nezu finished quietly, his smile gone, replaced by pure focused interest. "Truly, you become more and more difficult to predict the longer you're in this school, Takahashi."
A quiet snicker.
"All Might is currently resting after his morning classes. I could call him now, but first I'd like you to demonstrate the ability for me—and explain as much as you can about how it works—alongside Recovery Girl. She's exceptionally knowledgeable in this area and may help clarify things further."
"We sure are introducing my secrets to a lot of people today." Taka muttered, dry.
Nezu shook his head with a small smile. "All Might's condition is… considerable. He won't die given proper medical care, but the damage isn't reversible—at least, that's been the conclusion of every doctor who's seen him. Recovery Girl will be able to tell us whether your Quirk falls into that same category, or whether you might genuinely be offering something unprecedented."
"I'm not entirely sure myself at this point." Taka admitted, smiling wryly. "Or whether my current pool is even enough."
Nezu smiled softly and reached up to pat his thigh.
"You've been an unpredictable variable this entire time. Why would that change now?"
Taka snorted.
An unpredictable variable, huh?
He liked that.
"I'll inform your teachers that you'll be absent for the rest of today's classes."
He liked that even more.
...
°
°
°
| Hours later… |
...
All Might lay on the couch in the teachers' lounge, forearm resting over his eyes, a long exhale leaving him.
Who knew two hours of teaching in a day could be this draining?
Perhaps he'd overestimated himself taking this job. After passing One For All to Midoriya, he was destined to slowly lose the Quirk—to weaken, step by step, until he became an ordinary person. Or perhaps even less than that, given the scale of the injury he carried.
And yet, here he was, pushing his limits so he could lead the next generation toward a brighter future.
'I must endure.' He steeled himself.
It wasn't only Midoriya who depended on him. The students did. Society did.
He couldn't crumble just yet.
He still had much left to give.
And a certain someone to find.
"…" All Might's sunken eyes narrowed beneath his forearm as the thought of the Nomu surfaced. The creature with multiple Quirks that young Takahashi had taken down during the villain attack.
A creature with several Quirks.
A villain group capable of infiltrating U.A. and planning a thoroughly prepared strike.
With an apparent objective of killing him.
Although nothing was certain—the possibility existed now that that man had survived somehow.
And if that was the case—then it was his obligation to be here. To protect the students, Midoriya, and to finish what he'd started years ago.
—Cough, cough!—
Blood left his throat in a violent fit.
'… Although, that's looking less and less likely with each day that passes.'
He clenched his fist, feeling his strength thin out beneath his grip.
How much longer—would the symbol of peace hold out?
-Knock, knock, knock-
All Might was pulled out of his inner monologue as a knock came at the door.
Most teachers knew about his situation, so he didn't bother shifting back into his muscular form.
"Come in!"
Straightening up on the couch, he sat properly to receive whoever it was.
The door opened, and a familiar figure stepped through.
All Might blinked, offering a tired smile. "Recovery Girl. What is it?"
The old woman walked closer, tapping her cane against his knee. "You might want to come with me, Toshinori. Something's come up—and it turns out it may be rather important for you."
"Important for me?"
She sighed.
"That student of yours, Takahashi… he's quite the multitalent, isn't he?"
All Might tilted his head.
"I suppose so…?"
...
────────────────────────
-To Be Continued...-
────────────────────────
Join my Patreon to get access to more chapters, and you'll help me make ends meet while doing so.
pḁtreon.com/TheSynonym (Change the a)
─────────────
(A/N: The time has come for the somewhat big reveal.
Also, is it just me being paranoiac, or are some of the top ranked fanfics in the recent month category being boosted by bots? I checked, and strangely enough, the accounts that gave power stones were just random names with numbers, and most joined the platform at similar dates.
Suspicious indeed.)