Rise and Shine

Midoriya slowly rustled himself awake, he could feel the familiar texture of the bed sheets in his room as he did. Was… was he back in his dorm? With the lights off and the curtains closed, it was hard to tell. He couldn’t even tell if it was night or day, all the light that could be coming from outside was being cut off. He raised his right hand, using it to rub his face. Could it all have been a dream? Was the exercise just his mind coming up with a reasonable explanation as to why he would need to speak with one of the wielders? But that wouldn’t make any sense, when he’d seen them previously there wasn’t any sort of- “Oh, good. You’re finally awake,” a voice suddenly said from somewhere to the side of him.

“M-Mr. Aurdel!” Midoriya practically jumped out of bed, almost reflexively activating One For All from the surprise. He stood on his bed up against the wall, before eventually calming down and sitting back down on his bed. “What are you doing here? What happened?”

“After your team incapacitated the students from Class B, you fainted and dropped to the ground. I rushed you to the nurse’s office while your team finished the match. It was a five to zero win.” So they had won… He was relieved. He didn’t want to be the cause of his team losing the match, and as a result for the entire exercise for his class. “Once I’d gotten you to the nurse it seemed like you were at least half conscious, but you seemed delirious and were muttering to yourself under your breath. It was so quiet that even I wasn’t able to pick up on it.”

“Then… Did you bring me here? Back to my room?”

“I did. I got you bathed, changed, then put to bed. After that I told the others that I would be staying to watch over you until you’d woken up, though that didn’t exactly ease their worries.” His teacher slightly turned on the lights, keeping them dim so his eyes could properly adjust.

“...Doesn’t that seem like it’s overstepping boundaries a little?”

“You should know that I don’t do anything halfway, and if I just tossed you into your bed after you were knocked out then I wouldn’t be doing you very much help. Either way, you’ve been out for over a day.”

“Over a day?!” He stammered out.

“That’s right. I had All Might and Aizawa take over my classes since I was here watching you.”

“Have you been really sitting there, awake, for over a day?”

“I have, though I couldn’t fall asleep even if I wanted to during that time. In cases of extreme exhaustion and sleep deprivation, my armor automatically injects a powerful stimulant in small doses unless given an override in order to keep me awake. The latest dose was five minutes ago, so it’ll be about an hour before I’ll be able to crash and finally get some rest. ”

“Isn’t that a bad thing…?”

“If I made it a regular occurrence to begin actively forgoing sleep and actively relying on the stimulant to keep me awake? Yes, it would be incredibly bad. However I don’t have ‘dying from a combination of drug use and lack of sleep’ on my bucket list, so I won’t be making it a reoccurring habit.” He stood up, “A few people came by. Sato baked a batch of muffins so I stored them for you, Yaoyorozu brought you some tea so I kept it warm, Bakugo left a message saying ‘Tell him that if he doesn’t get better soon I’ll kick his ass,’ Uraraka wanted to ask you something but I told her that you would come by once you were up, your mother called and I told her everything that I could and All Might is sitting outside the room to your dorm, probably asleep having been waiting for you to get up.”

“You really have done more than I would have expected, almost like an overprotective mother than anything else…” He put on a warm smile, “But, thank you for making sure that I was okay.”

“It would be more unusual of me if I didn’t. Even if it didn’t happen to be what was morally right, it’s part of my obligation as a teacher, a Hero and a Spartan to help people.” He walked towards the door. “Anyways Aric, I really need to get some sleep. All Might is going to want to talk to you as well since you’re awake so I’m-“

“Did you call me Aric?” Mr. Aurdel stopped mid-sentence, remaining silent for a moment.

“Huh, guess I did. Well, I suppose that’s just proof that combining self-projection, sleep deprivation and a stimulant is bad for the mind and really getting to me. Put it short, I’m tired and going to leave you to talk to All Might. Get better.” He walked out the door and stepped out, leaving it open for All Might to step in. The two of them watched as he left.

“He really is something else,” All Might whispered, before closing the door. Then he sat down. “We need to talk about what happened.”

“Right, the training exercise,” Midoriya sat up in the bed. All Might unscrewed the Thermos and poured out the tea for him, handing him a cup. “I had those visions again, while I was asleep. This time though… They were different.”

“Different how?”

“Well, while I was inside of the dream I spoke with one of the previous wielders of One For All.”

“They spoke to you?” All Might seemed shocked by the revelation. “What did they say?”

“Well… It was more like he yelled at me. The one that showed up told me a lot about One For All that I didn’t know. The quirk that went off during the training exercise was his, but that his quirk is only one of six among the others from the previous wielders that had been mixed into One For All. He said that all of them were in my head.”

“That makes some sense at least,” All Might said with a sigh.

“What do you mean?”

“Just before your match, I was waiting on a call from Gran Torino. He ended up calling in the middle of the match. I’d asked him to tell me anything he could remember from his time working with my Master, and he had.” He stopped, “It was just after she’d inherited One For All, while they were on patrol. She’d brought up a dream she’d had the night before, where a man covered in black smoke appeared before her and said ‘It’s not time yet.’”

“Black smoke…?” He’d thought back to visions, “Then it must have been a similar dream. In all of the visions, there was black smoke. It was always obscuring something. Before it was hiding the faces of the previous users of One For All. But this time it made up the background and covered up my body. It meant that I couldn’t move or speak, though the person I talked to would still know what I was trying to say.”

“The wielder that you spoke with, what did they look like?”

“Well, it was a man. He was older, tall, muscular, wore a leather jacket without a shirt, had goggles on and was bald. He also had a personality that seemed like he got easily excited, or just generally overactive.”

“Hmmm…” All Might looked deep in thought. “Then he can’t have been the master to my master, he sounds like someone completely different. The way she described him was as a long black haired youth, one that was very reserved.” He sighed, “But again, I do suppose that this does make some amount of sense. Something that my master told me was that we would ‘Meet in One For All.’ I just didn’t expect that she would mean it quite literally, being inside of the quirk..”

“There’s something else that he mentioned though, about Mr. Aurdel.” All Might looked up, “The wielder said that they didn’t trust him, and to keep an eye on him since he was essentially chosen by All For One to receive his quirk for some reason.”

“The circumstances of why he was given All For One by himself are a significant mystery, that much is true. However I think it would be wrong to conflate the two with each other just because of a quirk. They are two men with very different sets of morals, standards and beliefs. One of them is the symbol of evil, the complete antithesis of a society of Heroes. He preyed upon the weak and sought dominance over the world. The other is a man with an old but strong sense of justice, one that visibly shows no fear but ultimately ends up looking like a doting parent out to their children. I’m sure you can see the difference.”

“Right, like night and day,” he smiled, “But it still worries me a little, especially since I’m having these visions. Is it possible that he is experiencing the same thing, but with All For One?”

“It’s possible, but there’s no way to know without asking him directly. Then again, I don’t think it would be right to bother him now.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“But besides that, how are you feeling?”

“Better, I should be able to go back to classes tomorrow.”

“That’s good. They’ll be a little different, but you don’t want to miss out on too much.”

Hawks looked around the room, another meeting with all of these crazies. “I’m sure that when I speak, I speak for the beliefs of all of us here. Bringing Spartan onto our side has gone from a high priority to our top priority.” Re-Destro sat at the head of the table, his hands folded and his eyes closed. The little stunt that Spartan pulled had caused quite the stir. Sure, normally it wasn’t a big deal that some Hero visited a hospital. They’d get the press time with their cameras, smiling for photos and making sure they were seen in as angelic a light as possible. He himself was guilty of doing that, especially in his earlier days. However there was a big difference in what the average Hero would do, and what Spartan had done.. He didn’t go to one or two hospitals, he went to every single one. He didn’t shake hands and grin, he literally cured anyone and everyone who was there. He didn’t stop for the cameras, in fact he actively tried to push away the media. It was really unlike anything anyone else had ever seen. And just like a forbidden fruit, it just kept dragging more people to him. That ended up slightly hurting the reputation of other Heroes, while also fanning the flames of those inside the Meta Liberation Army. “Hawks, it is your job to bring him over to our side. Have you made any progress on convincing him?”

“Not any more than I had before, he’s built like a tank and as stubborn as one too. I couldn’t get in contact with him during his meet and greet. I also tried to talk to him more recently, after it was done, but if it doesn’t have to do with a pressing matter or getting down to business then he was disinterested and left the conversation without a moment's notice or the chance to get another word in.” He shrugged, “Are you sure that we really want this guy? I get that he’s popular and strong, but he seems like he’s more trouble than he’s worth. Especially when it doesn’t even seem like his ideas line up with ours.”

“I’m inclined to agree,” Nine said, “When it comes to strength, we aren’t exactly lacking. It may prove more useful if we were to turn him into a martyr, and to implicate various members of Hero society in-“ Nine went silent as Re-Destro violently stood up and slammed his fist on the table, they were all taken aback.

“He will not be killed, I will personally make sure of that if I have to.” He calmed himself, before sitting back down. “Killing him would be a betrayal of all our beliefs, and I would rather end our movement right here and now before doing that.”

“You seem rather insistent upon bringing him to us. I would understand if he was more willing to join us, but as it stands it would cause more trouble than it’s worth.”

“It’s precisely because of that that we need him. We may all have an idea of what we want, but it’s small. He’s strong, steadfast and holds serious conviction, not to mention he is the only one that can truly bring about a change.”

“You’re not convinced that you can do that?” Hawks said, confused. “I thought this was supposed to be your movement, being the son of Destro and all that.”

“That’s what I believed, however I’ve been in contact with a counterpart in America and we had a long discussion. One about our goals and how they would be achieved-”

“Doesn’t America already have extremely lax quirk regulations compared to Japan…?” Nine muttered.

“-And we realized that we would not be the ones who actually caused our great change.”

“I’m not sure I follow.”

“The great man theory, the idea that pivotal moments in history have almost always exclusively been decided and swayed by the actions of singular individuals. These people appear seemingly out of nowhere, bringing with them great abilities, sweeping ideas, unique traits and a herculean effort to cause the changes they seek.”

“Sounds like you’re taking it too literally, since he really did appear out of nowhere,” Hawks joked, “Either way, it’s a flawed theory for viewing history. If you’re going to peg your movement to that then you may as well be relying upon the results of a pachinko machine.”

“You may laugh, but I am completely serious.”

“But I have to ask again, why don’t you think you can manage this yourself?”

“By virtue of being Destro’s blood, I’m connected to the past. And because of that I am of a similar vein to someone such as Napoleon the third. He followed in the footsteps of his uncle, and at first he did achieve great successes. But ultimately he lost, all that he had achieved was torn down and he was left to be remembered as a failure that doomed his own country.”

“So what, he needs to take over?”

“There are only two outcomes. The preferred outcome is that he joins us, and that he reshapes the Meta Liberation Army into a force that can pursue its goals openly. The alternative is that he refuses us, and in turn destroys us. In that scenario our goals of liberation would be dead, left to the dustbin of history.” Everyone went silent, “Now, I expect you to increase your efforts to convince him. Drastically .”

Face the Music

“I’m going to be perfectly honest with you all, I do not have any plans for what I was supposed to do for this class,” Mr. Aizawa said rather plainly, to the dismay of Class 1-A. “In fact I was supposed to be using this block to get some sleep myself. At first I was going to use Spartan’s lesson plans, but upon looking them over I felt that the safer solution would be to avoid using them.”

“Then what exactly are we supposed to do?” Kaminari asked.

“You‘ll be making an entrance!” The door to the class slammed open, two women stepped through.

“My dark past has come back to haunt me!” Mineta shouted, crawling to hide beneath his desk.

“Making an impression is an important part of your Hero work, and the first place you’ll make that impression is in the news when they come to interview you,” Midnight took over the conversation, “That’s why we’re going to teach you just what you should do when you’re faced by the press and put in the spotlight.”

Midoriya spoke up, raising a hand. “Wouldn’t it make sense to have one male teacher and one female teacher for this? The way Heroes meet the press is different depending on what gender they are.”

Mt. Lady balled up a fist, “Are you implying that I don’t understand men?!”

“N-No no at all!”

Midnight elbowed Mt. Lady. “You are right about that, but given the extreme ends that most of the male Heroes in this school fall on, it was hard to find someone that would one size fit all”

“Just what is that supposed to mean?” Mr. Aizawa glowered.

“No offense, you aren’t exactly a darling when it comes to taking the media spotlight. And All Might… Well, All Might is an entirely different breed of personality.” All Mr. Aizawa could give in response was a grumble.

“By the way,” Mt. Lady asked, “Where’s Spartan? I thought he was supposed to be teaching here.”

“He’s taking a break, just like I would have liked to. If you’re going to go and bother him, then do it once you’re done teaching the class.” Mr. Aizawa slipped into his sleeping bag, then laid down on the floor.

“Well, what are you kids waiting for?! Get your butts out of the classroom and onto the stage!”

Their new teachers herded them out of the main school building and onto one of the fields, where a makeshift stage had been set up.

“Since when did the school have a fake press pool set?” Kirishima asked.

“Actually, it’s not fake. It’s a real one,” Midnight explained, “The only time we pull it out is when we have to deal with major public controversies involving the school, but fortunately there haven’t been many recently so it hasn’t been used often. But just because it had an official purpose doesn’t mean that it can’t be used now!” She raised her whip, “Now let’s get this thing started! We’re doing practice interviews, and we’ll be going by seating arrangement. So that means first will be-!”

“It is moi! The Shining Hero: Can’t Stop-“

“Don’t interrupt me while I’m trying to get things started!” Midnight whipped Aoyama, “And wait until you get on stage before you introduce yourself, or else you’ll come off as a massive egotist.” Midoriya swore that he heard Mt. Lady mutter something after that. Aoyama did as she said, climbing up onto the stage.

“You did great out there Can’t Stop Twinkling! How about a word for all the people out there and telling them about what kind of Hero you-“

“It’s all in the name, I will be a Hero that cannot stop twinkling! My Navel Laser will be a beacon of hope to all that can see it, no matter where they are or however much trouble they’re in!”

“Sounds good, how about some super moves?”

“Of course! Be bedazzled by my Navel Buffet Laser!” Aoyama aimed towards the sky, firing off a flurry of lasers as quickly as possible. And it certainly was an impressive display “I-It’s still a work in progress.” He clutched his stomach, having clearly accidentally surpassed his limit.

“Pinky!”

“Any Villains that want to face me should know that their evil will be melted away the moment they try anything!”

“Bold and a pun, nice! Froppy!”

“I hope to put my talents to good use and become a Hero that others can aspire to. Ribbit.”

“Sincere and straight to the point! Ingenium!”

“As the Hero that moves at a breakneck pace, I will do all that I can to uphold the mantle of the name Ingenium from my brother!”

“Extremely genuine! Uravity!”

“There’s no situation that I can’t lift, so when I’m around there’s no reason to worry!”

“Reassuring! Tailman!”

“I will do my best to be worthy of your praise and respect, no matter the occasion nor struggle.”

“Generic and formal, but nothing’s wrong with that! Chargebolt!”

“Don’t let the electrifying personality fool you, when it comes to beating Villains there’s no one else better than me!”

“Bold! Red Riot!”

“I’ll barrel my way through any problem! When I’m around, there’s nothing to worry about!”

“Confident and inspiring, you go! Anima!”

“I’m n-not exactly sure what to say!”

“You’ve got to be more confident, don’t get hung up too much on what you’re going to say!” It went on like that for all of them, giving them a chance to say something and show off. But out of all the people in his class, there were a few standouts..

First, Todoroki. “Great work out there Shoto!”

“What are you talking about…?”

“Pretend that you just finished a mission against a strong Villain, and that we came to interview you afterwards.”

“Uhh… Thanks.”

“So Shoto, what kind of Hero do you want to be?”

“I want to be the type of Hero that will make people feel relieved when I show up… Sort of like All Might.”

“You want to emulate All Might and not your father Endeavor?” Midoriya grit his teeth, knowing that Mt. Lady had stepped one heck of an emotional landline. The entire class was silent.

“That’s right.”

“I see… Then what about some supermoves?”

“I have my Heaven Piercing Ice Wall.” Todoroki turned around, stepping off the stage for a moment to create it without a second of hesitation. It was something they’d grown to expect. “As a move, it fulfills a number of purposes. The primary purpose is to take out a group of Villains all at the same time, but it can also be used in crowd control to push civilians a certain way or be used to make temporary structures to support other Heroes. I also have a move called Flashfreeze Heatwave, but it’s a lot more destructive and and I still need to practice my control with it.” Even when he was being actively compared to his father, Todoroki managed to push through. But Midoriya knew he couldn’t put up that face forever. Something needed to change, sooner rather than later. He just didn’t know what that was.

Bakugo went up next after Todoroki, and he- “Now shaddup and listen well you bunch of side characters! I don’t care what you think of me, and I’m not going to be wasting my time on sound bites! If you want me to do my job then you need to stay out of the way and follow me!”

“You’re a real piece of work, you know that?” Mt. Lady gave him a look.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?!” He shouted.

“Sure you got the strength and power to back up the aggression, but not a lot of people go for the aggressive blonde chihuahua.”

“Why do people keep comparing me to small angry dogs?!” A few in the class snickered. “And what the hell are you extras laughing at?! I’ll kick your asses!” Mr. Aizawa, who’d just showed up, ended up restraining him. Eventually Midoriya himself went up on the stage.

“Deku, you did some amazing stuff out there!”

“R-really? That’s g-great.” Midoriya stammered over his words. Despite having seen all his other classmates go through the same thing, he himself really didn’t know how to handle interviews. It was especially awkward when it was related to him getting praise, he didn’t exactly expect or prefer to be the center of attention.

“Any thoughts you can give us on your performance out there?”

“I uh… I’m not too sure. I think I could have handled things better if I’d been more prepared, but that’s just hindsight.”

“And your moves, a lot of them seem to be inspired from those that All Might used as a Hero. Anything to say about that?”

“Of course! All Might was my inspiration to become a Hero!” Upon reaching a topic he had no issue discussing, he went on and on. “Sure I’ve taken some initial inspiration from All Might and his moveset, but I’m customizing it and adjusting it so that it works for me! For example, I took inspiration from his Texas Smash to create my move Delaware smash and its variation Air Force which weren’t in his own move set. It allows me to attack from a further range while also preventing any sort of collateral damage by targets I didn’t mean to hit. Ultimately I’m still trying to come up with more moves and variants as time goes one, though there’s only so much inspiration that I can take-“

“That’s great, but what about that move you debuted the other day with the black tentacles? What was that?” Midoriya froze up again, thinking carefully about what he could say without giving up the secrets of One For All.

“I’m still not entirely sure. I think it’s a similar situation to when I was first using my quirk, where my body was releasing too much power all at once and caused a lot of unintentional damage. But I’m working to make sure that I have it under my control, I won’t allow all the effort that I’ve put in so far to go to waste.” And after a few more interviews, they were done.

“You know, I wonder what Mr. Aurdel would be like if he was interviewed,” Ashido wondered.

“I am here!” All Might appeared, “With an answer.”

“You are?”

“I am!” …

“How did you manage that?”

“Well, I figured that you should know what kind of interviews all of us would give. So I took the liberty of dropping by and asking him what he would say, and luckily I caught him while he was awake. Surprisingly he took the time instead to produce an audio recording.”

“Then let’s listen to it!” All Might pulled out his phone and played the file.

“...I don’t do interviews, so I can’t give a straight answer to that question. If anything, the only public statements I would ever make is that all of my income is non-taxable and I already donate large amounts, I’ll use whatever force I deem necessary and that if anyone wants to complain about how I do my job then they can talk with me face to face or shut up.” The file stopped.

“That’s it?!”

“A man of few words it seems.”

“That’s one way to describe it, what kind of interview was that?!”

“I don’t get what the problem is, ” Bakugo folded his arms, “He’s just making his intentions clear.”

“Of course you’d back him up on this!”

David Shield was out of breath, his face battered and bruised with dry blood covering his shirt. He couldn’t feel his nose, several teeth were chipped or missing and his left eye was swollen. The glasses that he wore were discarded onto the floor near his feet, smashed to pieces by the boot of whoever had captured him. On top of all that he was beginning to lose sensation in his arms and legs due to the restraints that they’d placed on him. He was only given the bare minimum so that he would survive under these conditions. He didn’t know who it was that captured him, but he didn’t exactly care either. Whoever it was, he wouldn’t give in to it. “You’ve been with us for quite some time now Mr David Shield. So tell me, why do you continue to resist our efforts?” The man who was torturing him spoke through a mask, his voice distorted. “You know what we want from you, it is stupid to not give in and simply give us what we want. I assure you that as soon as you do, you will be released and you will be able to go back to your life.”

“I’ve already told you, I’m not the one who made the quirk amplification device! It was one of my colleagues who-!” Another man was next to him, taking a steel baton and driving it into his abdomen. He curled up, still lying through his teeth.

“Both of us know that’s a lie. It is admirable for you to be so resistant to our methods, not many men can stand up to torture for this long. But resisting against us will only bring continued harm to you. In fact, it will only make things worse.” His torturer turned around, facing the opposite direction and taking a few steps away. “You know Mr David Shield, I have a family of my own. A beautiful wife, a daughter and two sons. And if I were able to do anything to prevent something bad from happening to them, I would do it in a heartbeat.” David’s heart sank. “You are a smart man, I think you can follow what line of reasoning I’m presenting to you.”

“What have you done with Melissa?!” He tried furiously to stand up from the chair, but the restraints around his arms and legs kept him tied down.

“Nothing yet, right now she’s safe and sound away from any of us. In fact she’s heading to Japan, where she thinks she will be out of our reach. Now, what if I were to tell you that at any moment I could give the order and I could have her captured?” He turned back around, “The plane she was on would be hijacked, and all of the passengers would die except for herself. Then my men would bring her here. Or, I can give you an even worse alternative.” The man paced around the room, “We have countless contacts in Japan who could capture her themselves, and while they would ultimately bring her to us I cannot speak for their… Accommodations. Having worked with them a number of times in the past, I find most of their actions utterly reprehensible. Of course in this case, I would have no chance to intervene.” David lowered his head, unwilling to look at the man. “So, do we have your cooperation?”

“You don’t know what kind of power you’re going to unleash when it’s finished,” he muttered. Then he raised his head, “Fine, I’ll work with you. So long as it keeps my daughter safe.”

“Excellent!” The torturer signaled to the other man, who quickly produced a knife. He then cut through the restraints on the chair, freeing David. “Sergeant, take our comrade David Shield to the medical wing. He will need medical treatment before he can begin his work with us.”