Chapter 117: Reactions

Summary: A lot of people have opinions on the girls choice to pivot...for understandable reasons. Both good and bad.

Warning! Chapters 114-117 were all added back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss any!

Chapter 117: Reactions

Nedzu wasn't quite annoyed.

That said, he wasn't overly pleased either. Ms. Midoriya's solution was the right one, he still felt. The Guild System she had proposed was a neat answer to many of their problems, and promised to plug the single largest hole in their efforts against the Empire of Kurrick. Unfortunately, now that he had the final answers from all of the students back, he was also a bit stuck on making it work properly. In his original calculations of who he expected to go where, he'd never been overly concerned about the ultimate leadership of the Guild. Midoriya herself, along with her mate, were the blatant shoe ins for leadership. Between them, they had literally every skill required to lead a first Guild, from logistics management to command-and-control talent.

Then they'd completely surprised him by shifting gears away from direct combat entirely.

He couldn't, much as it annoyed him, fault their logic. Truth be told, when forced to zoom out and look at the bigger strategic picture with High Specs, he'd instantly agreed with them. For all their power, for all their leadership talent, direct combat just wasn't where they could have the most impact. He had little doubt they would need to be called on from time to time. Which was going to be a bit of a ticklish issue all on its own without them being in either the Heroics or Guild courses. But they truly were best utilized in fixing the larger scale issues humanity was facing.

Unfortunately, it left him calling a bit of an emergency meeting with his staff. They had all the names for who was going where, even the transfers. From those names, they had to figure out now who they were going to try to build up into suitable leadership positions. None of them had the sheer presence or ability of Midoriya or Yaoyorozu, but at least a few of them could possibly get there, given the right training and encouragement. At the moment, he was letting the staff sort over the files on the transfers as he stared at the lists himself.

… … … … … …

Heroes

Ida Tenya

Shoji Mezo

Jirou Kyoka

Mineta Minoru

Awase Yosetsu

Kendo Itsuka

Kuroiro Shihai

Shiozaki Ibara

Tsuburaba Kosei

Yanagi Reiko

Guild

Ashido Mina

Kaminari Denki

Kirishima Eijiro

Tokoyami Fumikage

Hagakure Toru

Bakugo Katsuki

Kaibara Sen

Kamakiri Togaru

Kodai Yui

Tsunotori Pony

Tokage Setsuna

Fukidashi Manga

Honenuk Juzo

Hado Nejire

Fuwa Mawata

Yo Shindo

Yoarashu Inasa

Utsushimi Camie

Shishikura Seji

Interi Saiko

Kusano Akane

Blanche Hikari

Research Group

Midoriya Izumi

Yaoyorozu Momo

Uraraka Ochako

Hatsume Mei

… … … … … …

They'd hit the numbers they were looking for, at least. It was admittedly painful to see his second year Heroics course slashed from forty to just ten. Normally, attrition did carve off around a quarter of the students between years one and two, but even in the years where Aizawa had been the most vicious they hadn't seen a drop off that sharp. Nedzu wasn't overly concerned about that aspect, however. The core that remained were solid, and they were going to have a higher intake than ever this year.

He'd poached several surviving teachers from collapsed or destroyed schools, and the crisis was driving many promising students that might have gone to other careers into Heroics. They'd have four full classes of twenty this year, not two, and they were intending on speeding up the curriculum a bit to get them on the streets sooner as well. A risk, but not a large one, as they were stripping out a lot of less critical things like advanced PR management. Things that had crept in as needed with the way the system had drifted, but which were currently rather surplus to practical purpose.

No, the single year of dip in Heroics graduates wasn't a big concern. More importantly, they'd hit a solid number for the first Guild experiment. Twenty had been the goal, and he was reasonably pleased with the twenty-two that they'd gotten. Some would vanish back to other schools eventually, but they'd also always intended to build onto the Guild group as it developed. These were just a core element, really.

Which, unfortunately, made it all the more critical that they get some leaders out of it. Well, his staff had been put to the puzzle and had been allowed enough time to review the files on their extras.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, you know the problem. We've lost our two obvious leaders and need to pick several to attempt to guide into leadership roles. Make your arguments and suggestions, please."

There was a beat or two of silence, before Midnight spoke first.

"Bakugo. He's leveled out a lot since the Invasion started. Not as a potential as ultimate Guild Leader, I think. But he could easily be trained as an tactical officer of some sort. Kaminari and Kirishima are also possibilities. But that's it from Group A and I wouldn't count on any of the three rising all the way to a top leadership position. Bakugo is the closest, but he doesn't have the people skills required and possesses no interest in gaining them."

Several people nodded at her suggestions, and Vlad King spoke up about his own students next.

"From my side, Tokage and Honenuki are the only ones I'd consider. I think both of them may actually have the ability to go the full distance on leadership, but both have some serious holes still. Complete lack of any sort of management or logistics experience being just one particularly important example. I had hoped Kendo would swap to the Guild, as she would have been almost as perfect as Midoriya or Yaoyorozu."

Nedzu hummed, that fitting into his own read of both students as well. Along with lamenting that Vlad was right. Kendo had been the strongest leader in Group B and Heroics really didn't need her with its smaller size and new, tighter focus. She'd proven to have the wrong disposition for fighting to kill, however, showing psychological strain that had nearly seen her drop out. Thankfully, she was still well suited to the less lethal field of Heroics.

"On that note, I think the only one who has that logistics sense is Interi. She's been working with me on that front during the invasion. Inflicting her tendencies on Tokage in particular may have some results."

So the meeting went, as the staff attempted to construct a solid future team out of what materials they had to work with…

... ...

"You shouldn't have given One for All to that stupid girl, now look what she's done!"

All Might froze, teeth grinding.

"She's going to use it for industrial purposes. Just to make her family richer! You need to demand that sh—"

Sir Nighteye completely failed to predict his old partner cold cocking him. He felt like a puppet with his strings cut, out cold from the precisely delivered blow. Gran Torino, the only other person in the room with them, snorted.

"That, the fool had coming to him. Can't say I'm overly happy to see two incredibly promising Heroes pull out and move to building widgets and gizmos, but their logic is sound."

All Might sighed, not even giving Nighteye the dignity of rearranging him from where his old sidekick had fallen with his ass stuck in the air. Sitting back down, he grabbed and took a pull of the American beer he'd so missed until little Eri fixed him, smirking slightly as Gran grimaced in disgust. Gran himself was looking a decade and a half younger, a 'victim' of Eri's continuing attempts to gain control. He was also abusing that fact to drink a saucer of sake, which he considered infinitely superior to Yagi's 'American swill.'

"It is sound, but you realize there will be a problem. Without staying in a Hero Course, even their limited licenses will expire. There are undoubtably times that we're going to need both the girls on the Front again, but if they are pure civilians it will be a problem. Nedzu is looking for loopholes, but hasn't had a lot of time for the effort just yet."

Gran Torino's eyes narrowed, then he nodded sharply.

"That's what you needed me for. You realized what the rat hasn't yet. That the fuzzy laws on the new militias are just that…fuzzy. A useful result of their hasty creation. There's even already a newly set precedent for deploying them outside their zones in an emergency. What with how Thirteen Hijacked the Osaka group for her operations in Toyama. If I officially load the girls into the militia, we can call on them. They'll need mandatory combat training hours, but it's unlikely they plan to let themselves get rusty anyway."

Toshinori nodded and tipped his beer bottle the old man's way. It was nice to see that Gran was still as sharp as always, even if it was still hard not to be reflectively terrified of him. He was working on it! It was sort of important, as Gran had somehow found himself leading first the Yokohama militia, and now both it and the militia forming out of the confused remnants of the MLA's territory. The fact he was now conveniently one of the leading militia authorities in the county had been why Yagi reached out to him today…

... ...

General Utsumi leaned back in his chair as he considered the information that one of his new staff officers had delivered to him. He had, prior to the Invasion, practically had one foot out the door and into retirement. Less because he'd really wanted to retire, and more because the JSDF just hadn't really needed him anymore, in a world that had been increasingly leaning towards peace. Pity that finally being useful had come in the worst possible way. Yet, at least he was useful. Even if he'd have never imagined ending up as the primary liaison between the military and a massive Heroics operation. Then, just to make things more interesting, he'd somehow ended up as one of the top shot callers in the entire JSDF. That original liaison position had resulted in him being the most experienced person in the JSDF for the odd direction they were all heading, even if he still felt entirely out of his depth, if he were forced to be honest.

Now, as he carefully and thoroughly ran down the logic chain of a rat and two ridiculously precocious nineteen-year-olds, he slowly drummed his fingers on the arms of his best thinking chair. Slowly, as he worked through all the extended implications, he nodded. It made sense. The part of him that had once been a field commander wanted to scream at losing two strategic field assets that could easily qualify as WMDs, yet who had the control to deliver that power in a way not completely devastating to the surroundings.

Well, usually.

His mouth twitched into an amused grin as he remembered watching and rewatching the various, darkly humorous, video compilations of Keystone brutalizing Re-Destro while cursing with ever-increasing volume and creativity. His personal favorite had been some sort of mildly unholy death-metal-orchestral-choir-thing, where someone had managed to sync up the music's calmer bits to match her cursing, and the rest of it to match the beatdown. Truly, he'd never imagined the rather genteel Yaoyorozu heir had that much rage inside, but he'd entirely approved of the target she'd used it on. As well as the reasons for the rage.

Smile dimming as he remembered what had set the girl off, he refocused on the information at hand. While the young field commander he'd once been was horrified, the more experienced General in him could see past the horizon and connect the same dots that the two young women clearly had. Yes, they could do a lot of good and kill a lot of the enemy on the Front Lines. But soldiers in pillboxes and foxholes weren't going to win the war they were facing. The sheer scale of the thing was enough to give every half-decent strategic planner nightmares, after all.

Their enemy wasn't just a terrorist cell, or even another country. Hell, it wasn't even another world. It was a multi-world Empire. One with entirely too much experience at the conquering game. Not to mention, if their strategic intelligence was guessing right, one whose total available population dwarfed humanity's own.

The Empire might have needed to start deploying strategically, rather than swarming everywhere, but as far as anyone could tell that was a logistics issue. Rather than lacking more warm bodies to throw into the fire, the enemy was running into the more mundane issue of having to physically transport those bodies to the 'front.' They simply didn't have the same level of mass transportation ability that humanity did.

At least, not that they were willing to use.

It remained entirely possible that such would change if the Empire of Kurrick ever decided to stop fighting this war like a grinding machine and started taking it seriously. As horrifying as the thought was, their best strategic Think-Tanks said that the Empire wasn't taking it seriously. Not yet. That for them, this was just 'business as usual' and that nothing they'd done or shown so far had really upset the applecart just yet.

Which is why Keystone and Resolution…no. Why Midoriya and Yaoyorozu. Why the two young women were right to make the call they had. Midoriya was the foremost expert on QE fields in the world. Yaoyorozu was the heir to a massive industrial company. Both of them were the geniuses that had created the HSN before they'd reached their age of majority. The place they could do the most good was, in fact, in developing the weapons that could hopefully make the Empire start to actually regret their invasion. Even if it meant two less major assets on the actual battlefield.

Nodding, he leaned forward again and unlocked his computer. He'd need to revise any current plans that had projected having them as available. He didn't think there were many, since they'd been pulled back to UA before this decision anyway. But he was virtually certain he remembered seeing a few strategic-level plans that had counted on having them on call for quick backup if things went wrong. Better nip that in the bud, if the two of them might well be off building them orbital death lasers or something, where they might not be able to return swiftly…

... ... ... ... ... ... ...

A/N 1: I don't like Sir Nighteye one bit. I admit I was very pleased to have a reason for All Might to cold cock him.

A/N 2: Yep, you're probably already expecting this bit. Once per release, I remind people that there is Early Access content available On My Page.  Note that NONE of my fanfiction works are paywalled permanently. If you don't feel like supporting me, that's just fine, it will end up here eventually :-). If you DO feel like supporting me, currently chapters 118-123 are available over on , adding another 16,000ish words to the fic! As well as similar amount of early access content for my other fics. All for just a single dollar a month! I'm not trying to be super greedy here, just trying to support the writing time I need to maintain several ongoing fics ;-).