Chapter Text
Episode 1: Decisions
Musutafu, Japan
At certain points in life, one may come upon a cross road where they must make a decision. Said decision may be as simple as ordering katsudon over a sushi roll for lunch, or as dire as becoming a vigilante and running away from school to protect your friends and vanquish a centuries old evil boogeyman and his plans for world domination. In the case of Izuku Midoriya, he (unexpectedly) took the more dire crossroad.
As the Ninth holder of the Quirk One for All, Izuku was being targeted by the villain All for One in an effort to reclaim his brother’s quirk and vanquish the one thorn in his side preventing him from his goal of ruling over Japan and sending it back to the dark ages. Obviously, that was a no go for someone as selfless as Izuku, so naturally he ran from the U.A. hero school to ensure none of the people he had grown to care for in the last would become collateral damage in an effort to capture him.
Now, what may one do when in this predicament? The smart thing may be to lay low and hide to not drawn attention to themselves. Yet, Izuku does not have the best track record for making smart decisions. So, against his better judgement (and the pleads of his mentor All Might to rest and take it easy), he was exercising his quirk by being a vigilante, taking in Tartarus prison escapees and evading capture by All for One’s assassins.
“Here officers, he’s subdued” Izuku says, slightly out of breath from yet another exerting fight against another would-be killer. He holds the wrists of the thug together with Black Whip one of several quirks contained in One for All that he has managed to master over the past few months. The officers cautiously approach and put quirk suppressant cuffs on the thug, before relaxing slightly and bringing him the transport vehicle to ship him off to high security prison. Izuku nods to himself atthe sight, and then turns to continue his patrol of Musutfu before he feels a hand gently grab his shoulder.
“Midoriya, my boy,” Yagi Toshinori starts. The skeleton of a man is looking grim and inspecting Izuku with a paternal care that he had shown more in the past few weeks of Izuku’s vigilante campaign. “Come with me a moment, I have another bento for you.”
Izuku hesitates, and then lets out a small sigh of compliance, following former pro-hero to his car. Yagi reaches in his car and pulls out a large bento box, passing it to the young greenette.
“Please eat, it’s your favorite and you need your strength.” Izuku opens the lid, and true to his word, All Might has prepared a homemade katsuson bento box. Izuku carefully remove his metal mouth guard and mask, he says a quick “Itadakimasu,” and starts eating slowly. After one bite of the fried pork cutlet, he shudders in pleasure. It has been a few days since he last saw All Might and had the chance to eat one of the delicious meals he has made for his successor, but such is the life when you are on the run. He starts eating faster and savouring every bite, while All Might watches thoughtfully.
After the meal is complete, Izuku thanks All Might once more and hands back the lidded lunch box, and both men lean against the car in comfortable silence.
“Midoriya-shonen,” All Might starts, prompts, causing Izuku to look at him. “I think you should take a break.”
“All Might sensei–”
“Please let me finish before you object,” All Might continues despite Izuku’s protests. “You have done good work patrolling, more than any of us have asked of you, but you are running yourself ragged.” At this he gestures to Izuku’s costume. After seeing battle after battle for the past few weeks, his outfit is indeed tattered. His metal mouth guard is dented and has gashes on it, his costume has cuts, burns, and a few holes in the pant legs. “I understand your motivations, but if you continue with such vigor you are going to hurt yourself and make yourself vulnerable when All for One or another of associates comes after you again. Please,” he softens his gaze at Izuku and pleads. “Just stop fighting for a while.”
Izuku ponders for a few moments, genuinely considering his mentors words. “I can’t, All Might. You know I can’t. Not with what is at stake.”
All Might holds his thoughtful look at Izuku, not dejected yet. “I though as much, but I have an offer.’ Izuku looks up again, protest ready at his lips. “I would like to send you to America, like my master sent me.” At this, Izuku’s jaw drops, and he starts a rebuttal before All Might holds up his hand to stop him. “Please let me continue.” Izuku relents and stares back at him, now more tense like a stray cat ready to scurry away from someone trying to pet it. “If you stay here, I am worried that there are greater chances of All for One or the League of Villains finding you. If you don’t want to stop fighting, then there is a higher chance of that happening. If you stay in America for a while, then it will be harder for to find you and steal One for All.”
Izuku looks thoughtful for a few moments, and genuinely thinks about his mentor’s reasoning. “That is true,” he starts, “but what of the rest of the Tartarus escapees?”
At this, All Might gives a toothy grin. “Funnily enough, you have take a good majority of out of commission. There are only a few of them left, but the rest of the active pros can easily take care of them. Plus, Hawks has gathered intel that the League are not making any major moves for the time being, so there is no benefit for your exerting yourself and becoming more vulnerable for when they do.”
Izuku seems shocked at the fact that he has cleaned up a good number of the escapees. “That can’t be possible, can it?” he thinks in his head.
“Yes Izuku,” comes a familiar voice. He looks up at the smiling face of Nana Shimura, the 7th holder of One for All who is currently one of 7 and a half vestiges (All Might’s wispy figure is still forming, but hopefully it won’t be complete for a long, long time) living in his mindscape. She stands proud with her hands on her hips. “You have done a lot, and Toshi is right. You need a break.” There come a few murmurs of agreement, and Izuku sees the rest of the vestiges become visible around him and All Might.
Yoichi (the 1stuser) comes forward and smiles softly at him. “You need some time to rest, kid. If you keep this up you are going to start acting like that hermit.” He gestures to the 4th user, Hikage Shinomori, who was a hermit while he held One for All. Despite this truth, he glared angrily at Yoichi while the other vestiges giggled. Even wisp-form All Might let out a happy hum. “Plus, Yoichi continues, “I think Toshnori has a plan for you so you can stay active in hero work.”
At this, Izuku looks back to all Might who is still patiently watching Izuku with a small grin on his face, realizing he is listening to the vestiges. “What would I do while I am there?” Izuku asks curiously.
All Might, sensing that Izuku is buying in to his idea, continues to sell him on his plan. “There is a company called SDN-Super Hero Dispatch Network, where multiple hero teams tied to one agency are deployed to help citizens in need.” All Might pauses to ponder, and adds, "Admittedly, the “citizens in need” are mainly subscribers to the service who pay for the support of the heroes, but they also help in emergency situations. You can still be an active hero and help others in this way. Quirk usage laws are less strict in the U.S. than in Japan, so as long as you are working with SDN, you can use your quirk as you please. At the same time, you will be away from All for One and the League and have a little break for yourself.”
Izuku thinks on this to himself, and between All Might’s reasonable explanation, the murmurs of encouragement from the vestiges, his own logical reasoning, he comes to a decision. “Yes, I would like to try. But,” Izuku adds, “the second we find out if All for One is going to make an attack or the League tries something, I will come back!”
That is understandable,” All Might nods, mentally patting himself on the back for the small victory.
“When would I go?” Izuku asks. “I pretty much have everything I need on me.” Which was true. All Izuku needed was his hero suit, Gran Tornino’s cape, his air force gloves, his phone, and the mid-bracers (which All Might procured from Melissa shield before trade with the U.S. shutdown.) All of which he was kept on him for his vigilante work
At this, All Might gives his signature grin and says, “Leave it to me.”
Torrance, California, United States
Blonde Blazer sat back in her office chair, sighing at the flaming shit pile of documents in front her that was the Phoenix Program, or Z-Team. The SDN Torrance branch's one team that consisted of ex-villians rehabilitating themselves to be better members of society. Despite this vision she had for the team, all of its members were always the bottom of the Torrance Branch’s leaderboard, causing more problems than they were sent out to solve. Just an hour ago, Flambae, the resident pyromaniac, went out to help kids who had fallen ill at a local swimming pool. Despite said pool being filled with water, he somehow managed to set the fucking thing on fire! Thank goodness everyone inside of it has come out to watch and help those who had fallen ill, but how is Flambae able to break the laws of physics in the first place?!?!
The Z-Team has recently lost their most recent dispatcher, who had resigned just Monday and told Blazer they had lost their mind trying to manage people who simply did not want to be managed. Today was Thursday, and Blazer was trying earnestly to find a replacement dispatcher. Meanwhile, against his better judgement, Chase was managing both his own hero team and Z-Team, despite him telling her, “We might as well just fire them and throw them back into whatever fuckign cells the came from Blazer.” Blazer knew his frustrations, and while she wanted Z-Team to succeed, it was getting to the point where the board may just dissolve the team as a failed rehabilitation program.
The blonde hero massaged the bridge of her nose through her mask, pondering what to do.
“Well, there is Robert Robertson,” the heroine thought to herself. Chase had mentioned the hero (or rather, ex-hero) behind Mecha Man Blue to her earlier this morning. According to the older speedster (“Fucker I’m only 39”, Blazer could imagine Chase’s response), he was a smart kid despite his reliance on the Mecha Man armor for hero work. He would be in need of a job and had the right attitude to potentially pull one last Hail Mary on the Z-Team before it can be shut down. She just had to track him down and find him. At leats she knew he would be in the Torrance area after his press conference today where he announced that the suit was non-operable.
Suddenly the blonde’s mobile phone starts ringing. She glances down at the caller ID, and widens her eyes at the name: “Toshnori Yagi.” She stand up quickly nearly dropping her phone, and clears her voice before answering. “Hello Toshinori, hope you are doing well. I haven’t spoken to you for a few days.
“Yes, Mandy, good to hear from you. I hope you have been alright” the legendary All Might responses to her.
“Yes, I am doing fine,” Blonde Blazer lies through her teeth.
“I have an update on our conversation from earlier this week.” At this Blonde Blazer straightens, crossing her fingers for what she hopes is an affirmative. “My protege has agreed to come to SDN for a while and work for you.”
Blazer squeals internally and gives a small hope of delight, glad the shades are drawn in her office window so no one can see her. She was ecstatic. Izuku Midoriya, the Japanese hero student “Deku” had agreed to come work for their office! Toshinori had mentioned earlier this week that he wanted his protege to be out of Japan for some time, considering the recent increase in anarchy and prison break from the world renown Tartarus prison. The qurik stealing boogeyman was now at large, and Toshnori knew he would eventually come after Izuku. Yes, Blonde Blazer knew of One for All and All for One as Toshnori felt it pertinent for her to know what she was getting into before she accepted. Despite her saying they could protect the kid, Toshnori said that Izuku was more than capable of taking care of hismelf, though he appreciated that they would look over him.
The reason for Blazer’s excitement at the possibility of Izuku coming was also due to the Z-Team. After the phone call with All Might (who had admittedly called her out of the blue after a few years of radio silence from when he was last in the states and assisting SDN with team setup and best practices), she had immediately looked up the hero Deku. She saw his earliest performance from the U.A. Sports Festival a few months back (which was hard for her to watch as he was constantly breaking his own fingers to succeed in his matches, though his plan to use the mines in the earlier obstacle course as a literal explosive spring broad was cunning. She saw more recent articles and video clips as well, and got confirmation with a few messages from Toshinori. He took on the Hero Killer Stain (which while not publicly released as him having fought the villain, there were some dark web articles and leaks about his involvement; the attack on the U.A. summer camp; the Kamino ward incident; and he was involved in the takedown of the Shie Hassakai yakuza group.
There were also video online of him, taken by civilians in Deika city during the enormous raid and earth shaking battle afterward. More recently, there are videos of him as a vigilante of all things, taking down escaped villains and would-be killers with the ease of a professional. And his look: a tattered green costume with red and white accents, a yellow cape, and metal mouth card that looks like a ravenous grin, and green rabbit ears, all often surrounded the black-green ropes of energy (Toshnori explained that was part of his quirk).
All in all, Blazer was impressed and salivating at the thought of having some with such experience and know-how joining Torrance SDN, let alone the possibility of them joining Z-Team (which was just where she would put him if he accepted Toshnori’s offer.) Toshinori also took the liberty of sending her his grades from U.A., the top hero school in Japan and one of the best hero schools in the world, and she was again impressed. Excellent scores in base subjects, highly intelligent writing samples along with quirk and power analysis, and outstanding performance in hero practical exercises. She looked over his stats that Toshinori had compiled for her (he had assisted SDN with the hero stats that guided dispatchers into picking which hero was the best for a particular job. She had gasped in surprise at what she saw.
(10 point total scale)
Combat: 9
Vigor: 9
Mobility: 10
Charisma: 9
Intellect: 10
She knew the boy was All Might’s protege and that there was the possibility of embellishment on his part, but All Might would NOT be the type of person to lie about something like this.
After the half week of thinking to herself while awaiting All Might’s response, she had concocted a plan. “If he accepts, he will go to Z-Team. With stats and instincts like his, he would be close to a top performer on A-Team! He could assist the team with his hero knowledge, help them use their powers and abilities, it would help salvage the team before we end the program!”
These thoughts has been running rampant in her head for a while, so when all Might confirmed his protege’s agreement, she immediately reinforced her business professional tone and went into logistics. “Perfect, I am glad to hear. I have taken some time to have a room setup for him within the building’s hero dorms. He would have access to our gym and facilities for bathing as well as our lab. We do have a person with a repair quirk so we can see to it that his gear and outfit are repaired if need be. He will also receive a weekly stipend for meals and a little left over for personal shopping if he wishes.” She did not mention that said stipend would be totally separate from Z-team’s stipend which was based on the number of successes they had in the field, and had amounted to around $18.78 for the entire team. “How soon can we pick him up?”
“He is ready now,” All Might responded.
Blazer nodded to herself, and made her way back to her desk. “Alright, let me send someone. Can you please message me your exact coordinates?” A few moments later, her phone pinged indicating the message had been received. “Cool, one moment.”
She set on her headset and dialed into Z-Team’s call and ensured that the headset was set to 1-on-1 mode. “Hi Malevola, I need a favor. Can you please open up a dimensional portal at these coordinates in Musutafu, Japan?”
“Sorry Robert Robertson,” she thought to herself. “Looks like I will see you in a few more hours.”