Chapter 11: Aftermath
Summary: The aftermath of the USJ is here! A talk with a mammal of uncertain origins...and some tests that finally give us a better glimpse at just how powerful Izumi and 2B actually are!
Chapter 11: Aftermath
Izumi was not normally slow to wake. Under ordinary circumstances, she woke quickly, more like a computer booting up rather than a young woman struggling out of the embrace of dreams. Which meant that, on an instinctual level, Izumi knew something wasn't right when she woke gradually, her body seeming to let go of its rest state only grudgingly. As more awareness crept in, slowly but surely, memories filtered with it…and when she got to the last memories before passing out she jerked fully awake with an adrenaline surge!
Only for Momo's firm hand to push her back down in the bed.
"Stop that. You're fine and so is everyone else. Only Midnight and Thirteen were seriously injured. Both are expected to make full recoveries."
Her adrenaline surge had come with an unconscious boost to her cognition speed, which meant that Izumi actually managed to process the meaning behind her girlfriend's words swiftly enough to relax into her touch and let Momo push her back down onto the bed. It did not mean, however, that she didn't have questions.
"Seriously injured? There were other injuries? And…what about the villains?"
A normal person might also have asked how long it had been or where she was. But Izumi had already reflexively reached out with her cyberpathy, getting the time and her location from the various smartphones around her. It had been four hours. And comparing her geo-location to the maps in her head, she knew she was in Recovery Girl's office. That made perfect sense, given that she'd passed out from QE depletion and shock, rather than injury.
"Bumps and bruises only, for the most part, for our side at least. A few mild burns on those that ended up in the fire zone. Nothing Recovery Girl wasn't able to immediately treat with her Quirk. The villains weren't so lucky…though there's two complications there."
Izumi grimaced, already suspecting one of those complications.
"That Nomu thing died, didn't it?"
Her girlfriend sighed but nodded.
"Yes. Given Midnight woke before you and attested to its bioengineered, mindless nature, they aren't planning to charge you with anything. Triply so since it was justified self-defense…and would actually mean charging 2B, which is a complicated mess from a legal standpoint." Momo smiled at Izumi's amused snort, but barely paused as she continued. "It will likely be noted in your file, however. A villain death so early in your career stands out. On the flip side, your actions are largely being considered exemplary, even if—"
A new voice made itself known, cutting Momo off.
"Even if, technically, you shouldn't have returned to the USJ after escaping to alert us. We convinced the authorities to mark that as use of your fully licensed first responder status. After all, now that the jamming is gone, we recovered full footage that shows your immediate action was to attend to an injured Thirteen. That makes your return, at least, somewhat legally justifiable."
The new, high-pitched voice had come from a very recognizable source. Dean Nedzu was standing in the entrance to her little cordoned-off area of the medical wing. There was a mix of sadness, anger, and interest in his eyes and expression. At least, that's what Izumi thought she was seeing. He wasn't as easy to read as a human. Still, that mixture was one Izumi was very leery of at the moment…
"Um…I hope I'm not in trouble for…you know…brutally hacking the UA servers…I'm really sorry about—"
The Dean actually laughed, waving her off, and the laugh brightened his expression a bit. Even that squeaking laugh was a bit difficult to interpret with how little she knew about him, but Izumi was fairly sure the laugh had been genuine.
"Not to worry, Ms. Midoriya. While I would like to speak to you about helping us prevent other advanced cyberpaths from being able to do the same thing, you are not in trouble for it in these circumstances. And it isn't the primary reason we came to speak to you."
He waved his paw at the man that had entered with him. Despite being dressed in plain clothes, something about the man alerted to Izumi that he was likely not a civilian. Something the Dean confirmed a moment later.
"This is Detective Tsukauchi. He works regularly with All Might and, given that All Might was both involved and apparently the target, has taken charge of the investigation into what happened. I have some other business with you as well, but he has some official questions for you about events, first."
Izumi nodded. Momo had already mentioned Midnight was awake. And there had been plenty of people to see anything Thirteen would have. But Izumi had been the only one present for certain events. Most importantly those in the plaza after Midnight was knocked out. It only made sense there would be some questions. Better yet, the fact that she recognized the detective's name from the list All Might had given them. The list which contained all of those he'd personally trusted with the secret of One for All. Meaning she probably had no reason to…filter…as much as she might normally, either.
"Of course, Detective. I'll answer anything I can."
The man nodded.
"First, as you were one of the only ones the leader of the attack spoke too, we'd like your impressions of him. Given he's still at large…"
Izumi blinked and raised her hand, causing him to trail off.
"Wait. What? I saw All Might take him down!"
Instead of the Detective, it was Momo who cleared her throat.
"Ah. Sorry. That was the second complication I mentioned. Apparently, Shigaraki, the villain with all the hands, and the warper you knocked out at the entrance…both of them were teleported out by unknown means during prisoner transport."
Both the Detective and Dean joined Izumi in grimacing. Though it was Izumi who voiced what they were all thinking.
"Two unknown warp Quirks in the hands of a single villain group? That's…frankly a bit ridiculous. And worrying."
Everyone nodded, but it was the Detective that spoke up.
"It is. Which is part of why I pushed for control of the investigation. I understand All Might has…told you about the villain that injured him some years ago?"
Izumi's eyes narrowed.
"Yes. He also said he was dead, though."
There was an uncomfortable shifting from everyone in the room, including Momo, who had also gone ever-so-slightly pale. Eventually, it was Nedzu who broke the silence, his high-pitched voice very serious.
"Unfortunately, there is evidence that he may not be as dead as we'd hoped. Initial autopsy of the Nomu creature turned up multiple Quirk Factors. Worse, the possession of more than one warp Quirk in a single group is not a good sign either. Nor is how easily a relatively childish, unknown villain was able to gather together 117 others. It's not definitive proof, yet. But it is concerning."
Izumi sighed. Great. So All Might had unknowingly made her girlfriend the target of the single most dangerous Supervillain ever known. Though…
"Is there any indication he knew or now knows about Momo?"
Thankfully, the response was immediate…and negative.
"No. Miss Yaoyorozu was never seen using One for All by any of those that escaped. In fact, it's far more likely that he believes you may be in possession of it. Which is something we will be talking about later. For now, let us get back to the Detective's questions…"
Nodding to the Dean, Izumi looked to said Detective. Who took the cue.
"Right. As I said, we'd like your impressions of…"
... ...
The official police interrogation hadn't lasted long. With the USJ security system still having fully recorded everything that happened, even if it couldn't reach the outside world, the only questions to be had were related to how the villains spoke or acted. As Izumi hadn't actually heard much from either villain, and could offload what she had heard and seen to video, there wasn't much to cover. That last was a trick she could only manage since she'd had her tactical visor summoned and 'recording.' Some quirk of her Quirk didn't allow her actual memory to be transferred that way. But anything 'recorded' by the visor or a Pod could be turned into regular video. In fact, 2B's perspective from the Pod during her and Midnight's fight in the plaza actually proved more useful than anything Izumi had seen. It had, after all, recorded Midnight's exchanges with Shigaraki.
In the end, Detective Tsukauchi had left barely twenty minutes after arriving. Nedzu, on the other hand, had remained. He'd wanted and gotten Izumi's agreement to help beef up their cybersecurity…but he apparently also had another point he wanted to address. Which he did after producing tea from…somewhere?
"I mentioned that there was some concern that, if All for One is indeed still around, he might suspect you of being All Might's successor, Ms. Midoriya. Given you already live in somewhat secured housing, and he has no actual proof yet anyway, I don't think there's any cause for immediate concern about that suspicion. However, I would like to address the reasons for his suspicion. Specifically, the power level you displayed in your fight with the Nomu creature."
Izumi blinked. Then shrugged. She supposed it was inevitable that the university would realize just how powerful she actually was. She hadn't been particularly keen on advertising that for a number of reasons. But many of those reasons, such as a powerful desire not to draw the direct interest of the HPSC, were less important now that she was at UA.
"I suppose I can see why. Though I assume you also realized why I don't use my full power often. In addition to attention it could bring from…certain people…I also currently have much the same problem All Might does."
The Dean nodded at that, setting his teacup aside on the cart that…when had that even gotten there? Izumi actually paused to play back her memory and realized that it had delivered itself. Some sort of tea-cart-robot the Dean could call? Her disbelief was, thankfully, not strong enough to make her miss Nedzu's response.
"Yes. A time limit, isn't it? Midnight had mentioned something of the sort after your obstacle course training. That, however, is somewhat beside the point. This disaster has brought it more fully to my attention that we simply don't know very much about your Quirk and its limits. While I can understand why you didn't want that information to be part of the public record, it will be somewhat difficult for us to help you grow properly without knowing your current limits."
Izumi shrugged, less concerned about that than he was. Not to mention completely certain that he mostly wanted to satisfy his curiosity. Still, she could let him get a baseline on her without giving away everything.
"There is also the fact that there was such a stark difference between yourself and Ms. 2B. I was unaware she could even take over your body like that?"
This time, it was a sigh instead of a shrug. But it was a question they'd known would come up eventually. And on this point, it was best to set the record straight firmly.
"Not take over. Swap. We, 2B and I, are effectively equal partners. Under normal circumstances, 2B acts as the A.I. that manages all of the 'digital' functions that come with Automata. That includes a lot of energy management, the inventory, and running any Pod that has been summoned. What happens when we Swap is that I take over those functions, while she takes over the driver's seat of our body. In truth, neither of us are completely suited to handle each other's roles. But for short periods, we can manage it, and 2B is a significantly more ruthlessly efficient than I am. The apparent power gap comes almost entirely from the fact that she's willing to use every bit of power, whereas I unconsciously hold back so as not to…break my surroundings."
The Dean nodded at that. He likely did understand. Izumi was far from the first person with a strength enhancer to fear breaking things, or people, around them. It's just that hers was a bit more…extra…than most. The consequence of 2B originally being built as a sort of human-shaped superweapon.
"In that case, perhaps we should let her handle providing the baseline? UA certainly has equipment that will allow you to get some hard numbers. All Might did attend our university, after all, and the university at the time had to essentially invent new ways to allow him to measure his power. We've improved on several of those original methods since then."
Izumi sighed…but agreed.
"Excellent! School has been canceled for the remainder of the week so we can revamp our security. But that also gives us a window in which we can set aside some time for testing. Could you come in the day after tomorrow…or will take longer than that to restore yourself?"
Even knowing he was fishing for information, she still responded.
"That's fine, I will be completely recovered by then. My issue is less about recovery speed and more related to total QE storage capacity…"
With just a few more minutes of back and forth, a time was agreed upon. Now, they just had to survive whatever their worried parents put them through…
...
A/N: The original note here was long and rambling, and basically amounts to 'Hey, I have a Page.' Which is true, I do have a Page, which provides early access to new chapters of all of my works (including this one). Currently, as of first posting to Scribblehub, 42 chapters of My Hero Automata are public, with 7 more (about 16k worth) currently in Early Access. ALL of my fanfiction content is ultimately free, with nothing stuck permanently behind a paywall. So, while I deeply appreciate anyone willing to help support my writing time...if you don't want to support me, don't :-p. You'll get the content eventually, one way or another, Patrons simply get it sooner.