Chapter 6: Chapter six: Precautions

 

Surveillance room - After exam

 

".... Did he really have to destroy the Zero pointer?"

Nezu couldn't help but sigh at the sight; sure the strength of Izuku was more than enough to impress the other teachers, but those things cost money.

And he wasn't a participant either.

"..." A stare sharper than knives carved its way into Nezu's head, the teachers were appalled by the entire circumstance.

Nezu only continued to shake his head at the thought of his school budget. He could definitely afford the entire area being destroyed, but that would be unconservative of him.

The techers could only watch the video one more time.

They continued to stare at the screen, replaying the quirks of each and every one of them.

Time again, Midoriya would disappear suddenly along with several students, only to appear helping injured to the nursing stations; Again, the fact that he had such control over his abilities was a terrifying thought.

Then there was the Zero Pointer. He used a single one of his abilities to take it down.

".. He used my quirk. He did so especially well. I understand the details of his capabilities, Principle Nezu, but isn't his power far too dangerous?" Cementoss looked at the principle, his head being wracked by the potential danger the kid could cause, "If he were to go out of control or use his abilities immorally, I fear the consequences"

Paranoia was a common thing with powerful people, no one would wonder what would happen if someone like All Might were to go against them, because they all knew. They'd loose. Now however, they were seeing someone who could be stronger than that grow, it was a sight to see.

Nezu only nodded, looking back to the remaining teachers, "Izuku Midoriya has gone through enough pain because of hero society to not give him the benefit of the doubt here, and the LAST thing we need is him becoming a villain because we failed to demonstrate the good of society, rejecting him for who he is or what abilities he holds."

"Evil is rarely born, often it is a byproduct of others inconsideration." All Might Interrupted, grin on his face. "The boy has a good heart, I assure you. Even though he may seem cold from time to time, he still is an aspiring hero."

All Might adds his view on Izuku's alignment, after all, his mother was eager to show both him and Nezu the various notebooks Izuku used and videos of the boy when he was younger; a kind child who had never given up on being a hero, even without a quirk.

A pity he suffered through all of his trauma without someone to save him.

All Might failed once, he would like not to repeat it again.

He wouldn't leave the boy that had admired him so much in the past, in despair and pain again.

But his words does little to calm teachers like Snipe, who see's the threat of Midoriya's power greater than the reward it may bring from nurturing it; "Does he have Aizawa's Quirk? If so, that would make him almost unstoppable with enough time." The gunman asks with suspicion, "I reckon without the appropriate counseling, Izuku would go in the wrong direction, worst case, his quirk inflates his ego, making him even more difficult to manage."

Aizawa becomes the center of the conversation for a moment, all of the teachers looking at him for a response; he gives a nod and speaks.

"He had gotten it when we first met. It's unlikely he would use his strength for any despicable intent, given research into his personality and ideals prior to his arrival at UA, but since my ability has no affect on him, we would have to possibility of retaliation should he attempt to fight us."

"Wait, you're "Erasure" can't affect him? How is that possible? He should have had some non-mutant quirks." Nemuri, or Midnight as the others called her, was shaken by the news; as was everyone else. The one person who could even weaken the boy had no affect on the boy.

"That's because all quirks Izuku has is a mutant type, the moment he makes contact with someone, they become a part of him." Nezu responds to the further shock of those listening.

A common confusion with quirks is that they follow strict rules or requirements solely for the balancing of power, rigid in their application. That is not true; While some may have requirements or prerequisites to utilize their ability, an individual who had an emitter type of ability could utilize it far more unrestrained, only having a cooldown as a biologically protective mechanism.

Say someone had an ability which allowed them to manipulate light, the prerequisite being they have to use their hands to do so, wanted to manipulate Infra red radiation. They could! Cooldowns and quirk restrictions were often only a matter of body capabilities and skill. The more stamina one had, the stronger their abilities, and the stronger their bodies, the lower the cooldown, it was all a matter of their ability.

Maybe mutation type quirks or emitters have a cooldown added, but cooldowns are often a protective mechanism used to ensure the damage didn't affect the user, Izuku could bypass them more often than not with the restructuring of his body!

Izuku's quirk, Integration, wasn't the gathering of quirks as it had implied; Nezu had found through several tests, that the cells of his body had copied the affects of quirks it came in contact with, the mechanisms and systems behind them, and integrated them as a bodily function.

Every time Midoriya coughed out after he made contact with another quirk, it was the minority of his cells rejecting the change, leading to their emission from his body. Every time he 'integrated' or gained a quirk, his body was changing its structure to add its mechanisms onto it, making every quirk Midoriya had a Mutation type. It was in a sense a part of him, a physical trait that could not be affected by Aizawa.

In a sense, evolution was the boy's ability.

The news was of course, not told to anyone there, only Izuku and Nezu truly knew about his abilities. Otherwise, the world would attempt to eradicate the boy, which was far too early to allow.

In theory, if two quirks had similar affects, Izuku could combine them to create entirely new powers! If he got his hands on an even stronger quirk, he could be greater than everyone here, everyone in the world; it was a exasperating experience.

"If he can gain quirks indefinitely, which he could from what we've seen, then we may have some trouble." Ectoplasm spoke to Nezu, which had just laughed. he wasn't worried about any ploy like that, not from Izuku, aslong as no-one started something with the young hero then the boy would be passive.

"Izuku is nothing we should be concerned about, he'd make a great hero, as long as we do our roles as educators to guide him down the moral path"

"Yes. Aslong as we do our part, Izuku can be a great hero!"

All Might laughed comically, his smile finally widened; Izuku had another opportunity, and everyone here was both a teacher and a hero in some way, none would stand in the boy's way with little reason.

The footage scanned and points tallied, Every single student was marked one by one and their acceptance letters sent to their homes.

With the exception of Izuku, who was already placed in Class 1A.

---

(POV)

It's not enough.

My abilities are growing steadily, but the gains from the exam were too minor.

I had gotten a total of 34 quirks, great in both quality and quantity, but nothing the could redefine my abilities. Nothing like superspeed, only useful combinations.

The quirks I got were as follows.

Steel body, flame manipulation, Stronger bones, Vacuum by contact, Laser beam by bellybutton, body color manipulation, Double targeting, Razor Sharp claws, Minor heat emission, memorizer, grooved claws, Gravity reversal, terrify enemy, reflex enhancement, crystal production, wings, engine on legs, stampede, Superhuman strength, glass distortion, flight, sonar senses, material replication, pressure resistance, reflective flesh, silk production, illuminate, electrical absorption, strong jump, intuition, explosive gel, water resistant skin, hair growth, bouncy body, trigger fingers, alcohol production.

Most of these are in the name, but for the others, It may need some explanation.

Vacuum by contact, allows the user to produce a vacuum on anything they touch, damaging or sticking to the object with vacuum force, even holding vacuum within their hands.

Laser beam by bellybutton, which allowed the user to fire a concentrated laser from their belly button. Which was strong enough to melt through the mechs.

Double targeting, allows the user to move the object after it was thrown, once.

Memorizer, allows the user to memorize any observed movement of action perfectly; useful for studies.

Gravity reversal, allowed the use of anti gravity by touch, that one girl used it throughout her fight.

Terrify enemy, would release electromagnetic waves causing any living entity around to enter a fight or flight response, often choosing to run. Not very useful against the robots.

Crystal production, allowing the user to make spiked crystals emitted from any outer region of the body, made out of biological salts.

Stampede, once enough kinetic energy is sustained, an individuals attacks are amplified.

Superhuman strength, lifting up cars with little issue.

Glass distortion, could manipulate glass nearby to melt and change shape.

Flight, externally manipulate ions around the user to propel them.

Material replication, one of the better ones, allowed the user to change their body into any material they made contact with, or switch existing materials if the individual made contact with multiple objects. The materials have to exist before hand, sadly.

Pressure resistance, resists extreme physical pressure like water or air pressure, useful, but vulnerable to a degree by using internal attacks.

Reflective flesh, mirror like flesh reflects all light when hit. Useful against light based attacks; which would be unreasonable to dodge due to the little chance of reaction.

Illuminate, allows the user to make balls of light or even project light from their skin.

Intuition, a small chance of observing a surrounding threat depending on the time of observation, which worked well for someone who could analyze hours of information in an instant.

Explosive gel, user can produce sticky like balls from their hands, which in turn detonated when lit. The candidate had knocked himself out with it.

Trigger fingers, allows the user to shoot bullet like objects from their fingers; useful, if they weren't made of rubber.

Alcohol production, allows the user to release pure ethanol vapor from their body, and it can condense on the surface of objects if need be. He got knocked out with the gel guy in a larger explosion; not a good pairing.

...

All of these are useful quirks, some better than others, but they didn't redefine how I fight, nor did they provide much with emergency combat situations.

I could asses using 'Anatomy' and my invisibility which was best at the time, but not many students required any assistance, and I couldn't risk disturbing students recklessly, I had to use my "Slime" and "Tracelessness" to make physical contact with some; Nezu may excuse my obvious disregards for rules, but I doubt the other teachers will, it would escalate if they saw me recklessly gather quirks.

Not to say I haven't seemed power hungry for a while, my quirk seeming to have a mental affect on me.

I need more though.

This could be me being obsessive, but I have- no, require more. What would happen if the HPSC decided to attack my family? Or what happens when I can't keep myself safe, my powers safe? It was something that needed to be avoided, it wracked my mental state, night after night.

I checked the student checklist with Nezu's permission and found a few potential game changers.Quirks that would no doubt make me stronger.

Mirio Togata, Nejire Hado, and Tamaki Amajiki.

The last two are out of school for now, still in their summer break, but Togata will be arriving in a day; it will give me opportunity, the chance to gain his 'Permeation', which would allow me the ability to shift through matter... I had to get it.

I requested Nezu to help me meet him, to which he readily agreed. Most definitely knowing about my intentions. The odd thing though, no matter how far I seemed to go, he never slowed me down or tried to stop me. A concerning thing when looking at it from the outside, I can't tell if it's sympathy, or something else.

Though we had to upgrade the school's security first, as I've mentioned before, and Nezu wanted to show me his latest work. A counter agent to sneak attacks.

---

Exam day - 4:30 pm, school outdoor areas.

Nezu had met up with Izuku after the exams, most teachers unaware of their partnership.

I met Nezu in the courtyard, where I had been reminded of a new variable that wasn't there before, birds.

Not just any birds, a combination of grey and black canaries loomed over us, while they sung their hymns and lullaby without a care.

"I assume you've noticed the difference? I spent a lot of money to make them functional." Nezu spoke, amused by my weariness. Though it wasn't very amusing to me.

You are reading story MHA: Stacked Cards at novel35.com

"UA never had birds, not before the assassination attempt, and they're too realistic. Organic?" Izuku spoke, wondering what Nezu had made to combat anti electronic quirks.

"The best way to counter quirks like the assassin's invisibility to technology, is not to use technology. These are synthetic birds, not really alive, but complex enough to be unaffected by most quirks. They've been modified to detect electro-magnetic radiation from humans, communicate using a network of frequencies, they map out UA and it's inhabitants constantly."

He spoke, proud, haughty.

Even if someone had an invisibility quirk, the network would alert the security system of any suspicious activity.

My new senses show a constant and almost silent pulsing pass through the ground. I look beneath me to which Nezu grins.

"They must have a defense mechanism against silenced attacks, I assume." I say as he widens his smile. He clears his vocal cords momentarily before pacing around me.

"Every ten seconds, a bird releases a sonar pulse into the ground, mapping the terrain. Just a precaution should anyone decide to step on UA's campus without invitation"

Something like this was difficult in many ways. Many students in UA could have invisibility or another similar quirk, which meant these birds, would have to account for students aswell. A pain to deal with when a multitude of students want to express their quirks freely here.

I use "Anatomy", checking the structures of both the birds and the chips within them. Since they act as a single coordinated mechanism, both the synthetic neurons, made using complex polymer chains and the artificial muscles, I can observe the objects inside their bodies.

The chips seem to have a small micro radio communicator aswell as an emergency system attached to a minor pacemaker, constantly checking if the birds are still 'alive'. A smaller brainwave controller ensures the birds cannot be affected by external manipulation like quirks, which seems to keep the birds awake, more so than they already are.

"I would claim animal cruelty, but you've already thought of that." I say jokingly.

"Of course, no matter what, I don't condone live testing" He said, in a much darker tone. "I've seen how far people would go for 'progress', Midoriya, and that excuse for scientific discovery is something to despise." He toned 'progress' with venomous fury. It seems his experience with animal cruelty was one that left a bitter taste.

A bird, the canary models, flies down to me. I allow them to rest on my hand, to which they sing a pleasant tune.

These birds did indeed cost a fortune, considering how little of them is electronic and how the body was synthetically produced.

"I assume that they can track me now? Otherwise this would have been a waste of effort." I say curious how they got arround "Tracelessness".

"Yes. To a degree. The electromagnetic pulses beneath the earth map out where your quirk silences noise, while tracking the minute change in terrain. Several hundred sensors make a sequence of both your affect of the surrounding objects aswell as the silenced areas, locating where you are."

A engineering feat. Nezu probably helped design everything here, even though they cost a fortune in just production; Perhaps he doesn't want to risk the students who may arrive to UA either, since he did all of this within the summer.

Well then; It's time to unveil my project's presentation.

"Truly remarkable, the design would ensure that no outside forces could touch a piece of UA without triggering the network, but you'll enjoy my design for the next half."

As I speak, several jet shaped drones fly onto the scene. All of them stood by my side like soldiers awaiting command.

Each equipped with a neural processor chip harvested from broken computers in the support department, facial recognition, UV scanning, Infrared scanning, cloaking fields, and the ability to reconstruct themselves into a shield like morph; It took me two days to build it, a week and a half to design it. Not that I was doing so constantly.

"I had used harvested parts from broken electronics and mild help from the support department to assist me in the manufacturing.

These drones are silent stalking drones, meant to trace enemies from afar. The woods in UA is frankly very concerning; the possibility of underground or air borne infiltration must have been covered by your design, so I made something that would detect impersonation quirks. Shapeshifting ones."

Shapeshifters were often the worst to fight, you'd never know who the enemy is until they've detonated an explosive beside you.

I designed these drones to deal against illusion type quirks, ones that could offset visual feeds or auditory trails.

Though they worked best in their second purpose.

"In each drone is a UV sensitive spray which emits a organically undetectable odor, which can be traced by the drones and mapped out via their UV sensors to run a complete scan on their enemy.

Though personally, they function best in their aggressiveness, where they would utilize synthetically made muon fields to generate propulsion stronger than ionic fields and greater explosive capabilities. They track down enemies alerted by the defense protocol, and apprehend them; The drones can form binding structures out of their body, restraining their enemies."

The chemistry wasn't hard, though synthesizing it was another story. I never had direct contact with the Heroics department, as I rather did the project myself. This was training, so I just sent letters to the support department on what I needed.

Nezu set up a spare cabin within the forest for me to work in aswell, just an additional area they had on standby.

If I'm being entirely honest, most parts were outsourced, which then need

Which was fine for the most part, but broken equipment already held most of the parts I needed. This only further pointed out my inabilities, if I had the quirk needed, I wouldn't need to scavenge for parts; perhaps I could search up synthesis quirks in the country, bt that would gather too many problems.

"The energy source is the only issue, thus I opted for a miniature thermo-nuclear battery, one that could facilitate the necessary reactions to produce the muons. Though I couldn't find any radioactive material without alerting you, I opted for stacked solid-state batteries, ones thankfully available in UA."

These drones were made not to surveillance, nothing like that. They were manufactured to ensure no-one escaped.

Nezu grinned wildly, he seemed happy at my endeavors.

"Good job, Midoriya! It's only been weeks, but you've accustomed yourself to using my quirk efficiently. Though, frankly, there are far too many flaws with your design. From what I can tell, it's material, thruster structure and aiming system are subpar.."

...

The next half hour was spent revamping my design.

It seems more effort is needed from me, quirks can only substitute so much.

---

Following Night - Alleyways

..

Late at Night, I walked outside UA's walls.

Again, searching for misfits and thugs to take from, either in quirks or information.

I had frequented certain areas several times, ensuring that local gangs would know I was targeting them, making them get stronger opponents who had better quirks.

So far it didn't work.

The gangs had just ran away, hid in the dark; as if someone would rescue them and I would just disappear if they ran.

Ironic.

These were not school gangs, not in the slightest. Some I've seen peddling drugs, thieves and crooks were all that was here.

My first time entering this area and I had the opportunity to get stabbed. It was when I knew this may be more dangerous than assumed, but the benefits were too good.

By that point, I didn't know how to disable mutation quirks, so I opted not to unnecessarily take quirks from others. There was also the risk of me taking too many abilities where I lacked the skill to use them. Neither was viable.

But now, my quirks can be easier controlled. Which is good. The only ones I cannot disable are ones that regenerate or protect me, which take too much effort.

....

Midoriya, in his black and grey hoodie, lurked around, searching for his new enemy, new abilities.

While had did have to train his quirks, the versatility of some simply outweighed the usefulness of others.

His quirks also had the potential to be used in entirely new ways if he had enough similar ones, meaning the more quirks he had, the greater he could use them.

His body no longer digested food in the same way as normal people, his stomach had dissolved everything he ate except himself, allowing him to eat without concern to his organs structure.

His slime quirk could just restructure his small intestines for greater digestion.

Though, among his bodily changes, it wasn't the only one. Stronger muscles, tendons, bones, elastic in their properties. Stronger leg muscles, which tied into arm muscles and total body strength with a few changes added.

He could manipulate heat now, mostly his skin cells, but could easily distribute them around his organs if need be.

His body could shift into anything he wanted, he could have terrifying claws made of any material he wanted.

Though, with all his abilities, it didn't diminish the two most important for daily use, "Body Color Manipulation" and "Memorize".

With memorize, he could be even faster than before, perfect memory added to his overall strategic capabilities made him a powerhouse; he only got this quirk after he saw someone mutter to themselves as he did in the past. Then finding out that the candidate targetted the weakpoints of the drones with precision.

Shame he didn't get enough points, at least from what Izuku had counted..

Then There was "Body Color Manipulation".

"Body Color Manipulation" along with "Sound Manipulation" and "Slime" offered Izuku the ability to shapeshift into anyone he needed to be. Sure, he had to copy the voice and body manually, but he could do it. All he needed to do was add some effort.

*Clank

The garbage behind Izuku fell over, he didn't even respond as his "Intuition" gave him no reply warning.

'The road is too quiet, obviously a group surrounding me, though I would need to be cautious either way. The quirks would be strong this time'

"Intuition" only worked depending on your senses, how much information you took increased its effectiveness, but he had "Sonar Senses" aswell, allowing him to map out the several people following him from afar.

Including a mouse boy who spilled the trash bags, likely the snitch from the previous group.

...

Soon enough, he was blocked by two larger adults. Each with different clothes, different styles of punk, but mostly wearing black T-shirts and jogging pants.

But unlike the last two, these were boxers, Izuku could tell by the way they stood. One foot infront of the other..

..And probably the brass knuckles, that also said a lot.

'It reminds me of fighting videos I watched when I was younger.' He couldn't help but smile at the memory.

He was happier at 7 or 8 years old. Him watching All Might, running around shouting "I'm gonna be a hero!", it made him smile.

But now he was here, infront of thugs, with opportunity he so wanted.

He stopped smiling at that.

 

You can find story with these keywords: MHA: Stacked Cards, Read MHA: Stacked Cards, MHA: Stacked Cards novel, MHA: Stacked Cards book, MHA: Stacked Cards story, MHA: Stacked Cards full, MHA: Stacked Cards Latest Chapter