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Jade The Symbol of Peace
The Starting Line

The Starting Line

It was early in the morning, the festival fresh in everyone’s memories. Nezu had called in the teachers of 1A and 1B ,as well as the teacher of Class 1C, A class that has caught a lot of media attention recently. The first to arrive was Khan rushing in with 15 minutes to spare. The man is always punctual, freaking out if he is even 5 minutes early.

They chatted to each other as the clock ticked on. Mostly about Khan’s students, and how they are holding up after the festival. Nezu thought a Joint class Exercise would help mend the divisions between the heroic courses, which had become worse. Several students in 1B had become actively antagonistic towards 1A, whilst not unheard of, it was especially problematic this year.. He hoped to slot it in before their planned summer excursion, but he wasn’t sure it would be possible. Not without bringing his two teachers over the edge into complete exhaustion, since they have both taken over the role of heroics teacher for their classes, Increasing their already heavy workload. Although he’d talk to his other staff, I’m sure both of them would prefer a break.

Eventually, 20 minutes later a disheveled Aizawa, now finally out of his cast, and an apologetic looking Hizashi entered the room. “Sorry about that, I had to drag him into the car.” said Hizashi, looking worriedly at Nezu. Nezu nodded in response

Aizawa grumbled out an unintelligible response, Nezu assumed it had something to do with the man’s sleeping habits, Usually getting 4 hours of sleep on a good day. That was also why the man took so much longer to recover from the USJ disaster, due to Chiyo’s quirk only being able to heal him bit by bit without killing him. They had been lucky that he wouldn’t suffer any permanent injuries. Everyone sat down taking sips of the tea Nezu left specifically for each human, making sure to leave their favorite tea’s for them. Rose Hip for Khan, sitting in the singular chair, knowing the man didn’t want to sit on the couch, the man had learned the hard way what happens when he splits up a tired Shouta from his husband. On the far side of the couch sat a gyokuro tea for Hizashi who usually sat the farthest from Nezu, he assumed it was because the man found him unnerving, which was fine with Nezu.

And finally for his former student laid a cup of black tea, something that made the man less irritable during early morning meetings.

Everyone sipped on their tea, no one making a noise. Nezu enjoyed the silence, he rarely got to sit and drink tea with someone, there was always something to do. The only noise being the humans audibly enjoying their tea and the tick of the clock. Aizawa seemed to wake up more and more as he drank, eventually sitting up. He asked for seconds, which Nezu had already prepared for him, passing the steaming cup over. Nezu knew his humans well and knew Aizawa needed his time to wake up if he wanted him to use that brain of his. He watches as the man downed the second cup, humming pleasantly.. Eventually Khan, who had grown more irritable, who had been impatiently tapping his foot for 10 minutes as the time ticked on, took the bait.

“This is about those two boys isn’t it?”

Nezu imitated a smile, willing it to look closer to one of his human’s unhinged smiles. “Why yes, I suppose we should talk about them.”

All three men sat up as Nezu took another sip of tea

“As you all know, Students from the other courses are to be given an opportunity to move up to the hero department if they so desire after they perform exceptionally well in the sports festival. A privilege the Hero Public Safety Commission ‘allows’ me.” He had said that last part with an obviously fake sincerity. His staff nodded knowing how much the rodent hated the HPSC. They had forced his Entrance exams to be more physical, It had been part of their agreement for him being allowed to run it. He had only barely gotten them to change the entrance requirements, after some helpful blackmail involving an extramarital affair from one of the councilmen. which he used to allow those with less physically oriented quirks, but to ensure the HPSC couldn’t weasel their way into forcing him to deny a student, he made it so it didn’t require quirk status to be revealed at all. Of course he could collect their quirk information from their previous schools, who were more than happy too. Who wouldn’t want to help their students get to the most prestigious hero school after all. But this had meant he could feign ignorance of their quirks. And he was filled with joy at this last decision, because it allowed quite a few spectacular students, such as the two boys they were here to discuss. It would have been such a shame to lose them to the dredges of this society. He saw the statistics, he knew exactly what their chances were if they tried any other field.

He cleared his throat.

“And we have quite the unprecedented event, where two students qualify to be able to move up.” he said, letting loose a laugh. It truly was spectacular wasn’t it. This doubled the total students that had made it in through his backdoor.

“Right, but I don’t see why you invited me. Aizawa's class has two open slots, and My class is still at full capacity, it seems odd to even do this formality,” Khan said with a hint of irritability gesturing to his fellow teacher.

Nezu “While that may be true, we got to first decide if 1A is the best choice for both boys, if not we might have to move one of 1B’s students over.”

Khan slammed his tea cup down “My students have just settled in, separating even one could make irreparable changes to their mental state.”

Nezu decided to ignore the outburst pointing to the 1C teacher. “Hizashi you know the boy’s best, do you think Shouta would be the best fit to nurture these boys?”

Everyone looked to the blonde, who looked deep in thought. After several seconds the man gave a short nod “Shouta’s ability to get his students to go beyond would serve both boys well, Midoriya has an exceptional mind, although he tends to put himself into too much risk, not thinking for himself.” "And Shinsou is fiercely competitive, with a big drive to improve, however he is slow to adapt, and might do well under Shouta.”

Nezu nodded, clapping his paws together “Well then, it’s settled both boys will move in to

Class 1A as soon as all the proper forms” he pulled out two stacks of papers “Hizashi take these and head for your students' households when you get the chance, i’d like to get them into the hero courses before the weekend is up.”

He pulled up two folders “Shouta here are their student profiles, read over them, get acquainted with your new students and their needs”

All three teachers stood up, Shouta and Hizashi picking up their respective papers, with Khan exiting the room “oh and Shouta, don’t worry about the discipline records for the boys, I’m fixing that as we speak” he said full of glee. Shouta for his part didn’t even react to the rodent’s obvious malice, used to his schemes. “If you say so, although I’ll still read them, if that’s alright with you.”

“I trust your judgment.” Nezu said in return. Before turning to his computer, typing away at his current project. Both teachers took this as their cue to leave.

Nezu took one last look at some of the articles talking about the festival.

Upset at UA. How A school of heroes could lose to those with lesser quirks

Pushes for other hero schools to lessen restrictions on admission??

Quirkless boy dominates festival meant for heroes.

Why you might want to send your kids to Shiketsu next year, the tale of a fallen hero course.

The myth of quirkless stereotypes, and how one boy destroyed these assumptions

A joint win, a true victory for those with ‘villain’ quirks and those without a quirk to call their own.

UA proving their progressive reforms weren’t just for show

UA becoming a beacon for reform done right

UA has lost what it means to be a hero

Villains mock hero society after All Might’s death

He had found that last one particularly distasteful, Using his colleagues' death to further their agenda for a complete ban of those without ‘heroic’ quirks from even entering the field. To ‘ensure those meant to protect us are ones we can trust’ Nezu almost laughed at the irony of it all, Many of those with ‘heroic’ quirks coasted on that alone, and some even abused their perceived innocence to break the laws. Nezu closed the news tab for now, he had work to do.

Inko had the T.V on as she cooked breakfast, It was currently on a piece about the sports festival

A man and a woman sat at a table, clips from the sports festival playing on the wall behind them. The woman began, her hair glowing in a rainbow of bright neon colors. "Hello I am Warui Hitsuji and this is my co host Kanashii Karasu.”

“Hello everyone” he said whilst waving. A bird mutation visible from the beak on his face. Both seemed in their late 20’s

“And today we talk about the first year UA sports festival, and it sure is something”

“Make sure to stay and hear every bit, you won’t believe what happened.”

The guy looked at his co host. “Like Endeavor’s most recent outburst and his forceful removal from the festival after his son’s loss?” a Clip played of the moment behind them

The girl grinned a wide smile. staring directly at the camera “Yes it seems the new Number one has a few outdated beliefs on parenting, dare I say bordering on how they were back when quirks first became commonplace” her cohost jumped at the opportunity quite literally.“Not to mention his mean spirited comment to his predecessor, and some choice words about one of the winner’s quirk status.”

The woman's attention snapped to her cohost. Her hair appeared brighter. “yes let’s talk about this ‘quirkless wonder;”

The man continued “Yes he dominated every part of the festival, coming first in all three competitions. Quite impressive if you ask me.”

The lady butted in “Yes quite, despite the fact we couldn’t see most of his fights. not seeing him for most of the final fights, only seeing him viciously attack the explosive boy, getting horribly injured in the process” the man began speaking again “I wouldn’t call it vicious, and he did end up winning that fight, despite everything thrown at him. Not to mention his performances in the other two competitions.”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The women seemed irritated at her cohost snapping her finger He got carried in the team battle, and only won the first section due to UA not putting more oomph into their explosives, not to mention if he had not been allowed to use equipment like the hero students, he wouldn’t have stood a chance. Not to mention he only placed first due to his competitors pity” Her grin widened, her eyes seemed to sparkle. “For all we know, he could be faking the quirklessness, that’d explain why he obscured the audiences vision in most fights, and I mean, how many kids are born quirkless nowadays anyway,

“That’s not…” but before he could finish his sentence his co host cut him off, “We got some interviews to get through, We have Isogashii Girichina on the ground.”

She wore a piercing smile, her eyes appearing predatory. The man began to stand up, slamming his hands on their desk. The screen cut to the reporter on the scene.

The screen cut to a man in his late 30’s balding hair and no obvious signs of a quirk. “Yes, I am here on the streets of Mustafa, asking the people how they viewed the sports festival.” he walked over to a woman with ash gray hair, eyes gold. “Excuse me Ma’am but what did you think of the first year sports festival? And it’s winners?”

The woman beamed “I couldn’t believe my eyes. Those boys did an incredible job, I’m pretty sure the Midoriya boy is now my daughter's hero, she’s watched his performance 5 times already. Although I wish he had been more careful, I already had to stop her from jumping off the couch twice.” The man quickly moved the mic away from her moving on to an older man, his arms glowing a deep red. “How did you feel about the winners of the first year's sports festival?” The older man’s face twisted to one of anger. “I remember when UA had only made the strongest heroes around, Now they’ll accept anyone, even obvious villains and liabilities.” he barked out a laugh “I knew they had been in trouble when They got attacked in their own turf, Losing All Might in the process, but to then have this disgrace of a festival? I know no one from my family will ever set foot in their halls.”

The reporter prodded “Are you saying that UA is past its prime?” The old man sneered “No hero school worth its weight in gold would ever even give Null’s a chance to dirty their halls”

Sighing Inko turned off the television. “They’ll let anyone report nowadays.” she shook her head. “Honey breakfast is ready!” Izuku walked out into the hallway, yawning before sitting down at the table, a plate of steaming hot Grilled fish and rice sitting in front of him. He began devouring the food. As Inko sat across from him, eating her meal at a much slower place, watching her son. “Izuku I..” the doorbell rang, startling the duo. “Who could it be at this hour?” Inko wondered, mostly to herself. She began walking to the door. The doorbell rang twice more in quick succession, echoing in the small apartment. Inko Undid the first lock, a sliding hatch. Then she undid the lock above the door knob, as she twisted the door open, revealing a blonde man's hair raised up similar to a parrot, A pair of aviator shades over his eyes, and a wide grin on his face. He wore a suit and tie, and stood in an upright posture. Contrasting the wild look to his face.

“Midoriya?” the man said in a hushed tone. “Yes, who are..” The man immediately relaxed “Oh thank rockin, you wouldn’t believe how worried I was that I had gone to the wrong place again…” He said

“But that’s besides the point, I am your young star’s teacher, and I’m here about his enrollment, you dig?”

Inko straightened her posture “He isn’t in trouble is he?”

“Oh quite the opposite, mind if I come in so we can discuss it?”

Inko led the man in, directing him to the couch. Izuku is already cleaning up the kitchen, having finished his meal. “Morning Rockstar” said the man, startling Izuku who nearly smashed the plate he had been cleaning.

“Mic sensei, what brings you here?” Izuku said, fidgeting with the sponge in his hand.

“Come sit down, I need to go over this with the both of you.”

Both Midoriya’s sat down in the living room, the couch barely fitting the three.

“So, as you are probably aware, your son performed excellently in the sports festival, getting a first place spot. So UA would like to offer your son an opportunity.”

Izuku’s foot tapped excitedly on the floor

Inko “And what would that be?”

“We’d like to offer him a spot in our Hero course, we believe he has more than proven himself capable of it.” Mic said, nodding to the boy.”

Izuku jumped out of the couch “Yes!” before pausing mid celebration as both adults stared at him. He slowly sunk back down onto the couch.

Inko cleared her throat “Well it seems my son has already made up his mind” she took a deep breath “And I know this has been a dream of his for as long as he could speak. But how can I be sure UA can keep him safe?” Mic winced at that, remembering the USJ attack. “Nezu has beefed up our security, both on his own and through trusted contractors. UA won’t have to worry about warpers getting into the premises anymore, your son will be safe on our campus.” Yamada said in a completely serious tone, dropping his previous demeanor.”

Izuku looked pleadingly to his mother, “Mom, no one else will give me this opportunity, please.” Inko sighed, steeling her nerves. She knew exactly what her son had meant, she remembered looking through possible high schools with her son, and what they found had been.. Concerning. Only 4 schools in their local area even allowed quirkless individuals, and looking at hero schools had been worse. UA had been the only hero school to even mention quirkless entry, most directly requiring a quirk for entry into their halls. She knew Izuku had been so happy to make it in, even if it hadn’t been in the hero track. She couldn’t go back to how her son looked after the slime villain incident, leaving early and coming home late, a tired expression always on his face, His room bare, devoid of any Decorations. Even if it scared her to no end, she’d rather her son be happy than for her to have peace of mind, whilst her son lost his spark.

“Alright, what do we need to sign>”

Izuku hugged her “Thank you mom, you won’t regret this!” she hoped he was right, in spite of the sinking feeling in her gut. The man, Yamada, began walking them through all the paperwork.

Tsukachi sat in the car, yawning before downing another coffee. He was barely able to stay awake. But he pushed on ,he was staking out the next possible location for the LOV headquarters. A warehouse in the outskirts of Hosu. The group seemed to have connections everywhere, However they had yet to find anything besides trafficking rings loosely connected to them. He felt another headache approaching. The chief had told him to take the week off, apparently he was ‘so burnt out that I found you sleeping whilst hugging the coffee machine’ But Naomosa Couldn't just do nothing, He was determined to find these villains. A man with an ugly purple suit walked in, hands in his pockets. Followed by a man with a fish face that only extended to his ears, the rest of his body was human from what Naomosa could see. He waited for what felt like an hour, no movement in sight. Opening his door he readied his pistol, priming a distress beacon to go off in 15 minutes, If he hadn’t handled it by then, well. He hoped the responding officers would be more competent than him. He approached the door, peeking around the corner to see a dark interior. He was barely able to see 20 feet into the structure, mostly aided by what little moonlight filtered into the structure from the top windows. He took a few tentative steps into the building, hearing the door creak closed behind him. He turned on his flashlight, looking around the structure. He saw a bunch of boxes lying around with Detnerat logos on them, a support equipment company that seemed to be popular with criminals who got them from the black market.. As well as a few crates with a logo he didn’t recognize, Curik. He looked around the entire warehouse, there seems to be no one here. He walked up to one of the Detnerat boxes, opening it up to find vials full of blue liquid. He couldn’t place it as any drug currently in the market, legal or illegal. It seemed too bright for Scarlet’s poison .He pocketed one to be tested later., Wiping the sweat off his brow he opened the next box. It was full of high grade support items. Ranging from Items used to increase the accuracy of ranged quirks, to those that increased the damage of super strength quirks, All illegal to have without the proper licenses. But his eyes shifted to one in the bottom of the box. It was a mask filled with a green liquid he was all too familiar with..

“Trigger”

This drug was highly dangerous, the normal mixture increasing the strength of one's quirk, and this variant upped the power even more, with the side effect of putting the user in a blind rage. Detnerat had just moved to the top of his shit list, these were items a support company had no reason to store, much less sell. He looked in one of the Curik crates, only to find it completely empty, he opened another to find some papers and quirk suppressant cuffs. The distribution of these are heavily limited, only being given with specific permission to non government bodies. Usually only quirk counselors and very special cases outside of those were allowed to even borrow them. He made a mental note to investigate Curik, whilst this wasn’t damning evidence yet, it definitely made them potential fronts. He began heading for the exit, he had to get to the station to report this, holiday be damned. Before the criminals discovered his tampering and removed the evidence. He opened the door slowly, stepping outside into the hot air. “But..” “He’s got to die, there's no time to argue.” True he turned towards the voices feeling a sharp pain in his abdomen,An empty feeling was felt for just a moment before the adrenaline kicked in. He was facing the fish guy from earlier, his gun pointed at him, leaving a smoke trail. Shiit. He took cover behind his vehicle as more bullets sprayed towards him. He looked around for the other man, only to jump back as his vehicle got flattened under the man's boots, the man’s legs steamed even in the summer air. His distress beacon must have gone off as it got destroyed, at least he hoped it did. The man jumped at him again, soaring into the air to at least 20 feet. Tsukachi barely dodged as the road cracked under the pressure of the man’s attack. “You messed with the wrong people, now you’ll just have to disappear!” Naomosa waited for the man to jump, diving under him as he soared above him. He aimed a shot at the other villain's arm, the man had still been reloading after his last attack, his arms shaking. His shot hit its mark as the man nursed his fresh wound, backing away.

The jumping villain laughed behind him, he turned ready to shoot, but the man was nowhere to be seen. Thinking quickly he jumped back. He felt the wind leave his lungs as he tumbled across the street, the road caved in under the man’s feet, right where he had just stood. "You may be able to dodge me now, but let’s see how you handle me with some boost” The man injected his arm with Trigger as Tsukachi got his bearings. His body convulsed as he laughed maniacally. The villain's eyes glazed over as his legs became a searing hot blue. he jumped reaching towards the sky, going at least 100 feet into the air as Naomosa quickly ducked Into the warehouse. He heard a large crash behind him as the wind sent him flying into a crate full of support gear.. Half of the wall behind him had crumbled under the pressure. He heard several car alarms as his ears ringed. The streets looked like a warzone. The road all but rubble, He took aim for the villain's head firing his entire clip. His shaking hands and throbbing head made landing a clear shot difficult. He had missed most of the shots, but the last one in the clip had landed square in the villains forehead, The villain going limp, his legs still a searing blue, slowly eating through the rubble below the man’s body. He looked at the destroyed street, the buildings in tatters, he was surprised they were still standing. The road was a disheveled mess, most of it completely gone. He didn’t want to imagine what it would’ve looked like if this had been a populated district and not the near empty warehouse district. It seemed the only casualties would be the two villains. He looked back to see most of his evidence currently pooling onto the floor, green mixing with blue. He reached into his pocket, sighing in relief as he felt the vial of the mysterious liquid still in one piece. At Least he hadn’t failed completely. He stared at the corpse of the man he had just killed. His legs finally cooling down to a light red. It hadn’t been the first time Tsukachi had to end a life, but it seemed to hurt more every time . He stared out towards the night sky and wondered if All Might ever felt this way when he had killed a villain.The man had never seemed bothered by it, but it’s not like the topic ever really came up... “Shit the other one.” he looked around the rubble, finding the fish man hiding in an alley, nursing his wound. He entered with his gun drawn. “I am detective Tsukachi, you are under arrest for assaulting an officer and for the illegal distribution of Trigger.”

The villain looked over, His head moving as if it was made of lead. “You don’t know what you’re up against detective” something felt wrong, like he was missing something. wait something doesn’t seem right he wracked his overused and exhausted mind. Finally it hit him like a sack of bricks, something important was missing. my quirk.. His quirk wasn’t working

He walked slowly, edging closer to the man “What did you do to me?”

The fish man laughed, coughing up a worrying amount of blood, nearly doubling over, Tsukachi nearly threw up as he saw a piece of rebar sticking out of the man’s back. “Aww is the poor detective missing his quirk, poor thing. ” The man’s breaths were getting more shallow as he spoke. “I envy you” the man wheezed taking in a shallow breath “Must be nice to have one worth missing”

He put his gun away, looking around for his medkit. It was in the car. He climbed over the rubble that was once his car, but he couldn’t find the medkit in the mess of metal and asphalt. He saw an ambulance arrive first, flagging them towards the alley. He ran back towards the man, a medic stood over him, checking his wounds. The medic stood up slowly turning to the detective. “I’m sorry sir, this man is already dead.” Tsukachi couldn’t believe his ears, dead? But that’s impossible… “Sir. Siir…. SIIIR!” Tsukachi felt his body becoming more distant as the adrenaline finally left his system. He made one more step towards the villain. He needed answers…. Tsukachi passed out in the alleyway, the last thing he felt was a medic checking his pulse as he went into sweet, sweet sleep.