ShuraZero
patreon
Chapter 71: Terms of Use
🕑 Added 2025-10-03 14:55:58 +0000 UTCIzuku's words—"the chest," "the butt"—hung suspended in the air of the principal's office, annihilating all sound and oxygen. All Might, the Symbol of Peace, the pillar of a nation, was choking on his own breath, his blue eyes wide in an expression of pure disbelief. Principal Nezu covered his mouth with a paw, his small shoulders shaking violently with a laugh that he struggled to keep from erupting into a cackle. The girls on the team, for their part, looked like they wished the floor would open up and swallow them whole.
It was Midnight who broke the silence. And she did so with the poise of a predator who has just found the most interesting prey of her life.
She rose from her chair with a fluid, deliberate movement and approached Izuku, who seemed to have shrunk to half his size from sheer mortification. The smile on Midnight's face was a work of art: a mixture of unadulterated amusement, genuine scientific intrigue, and a hint of appetite.
"Well, well…" she said, her voice a seductive purr that made the hair on the back of Izuku's neck stand on end. "Your Quirk is even more… practical than I imagined."
She stopped in front of him, leaning in slightly. Her perfume enveloped him.
"So, to confirm the hypothesis… for science, of course…" she continued, in a parody of academic seriousness. "What kind of data, what level of detail, would you obtain if you were to apply a maximum-level analysis on, say, a professional with years of experience and a Quirk as developed as mine?"
The question, so direct and laden with implications, was like a slap in the face. Izuku was on the verge of collapse. Ochako, however, reacted on pure protective instinct.
"Midnight-sensei!" she exclaimed, taking a step forward. "I don't think this is the time or the place to—!"
"One moment, Uraraka-san."
Momo's calm, analytical voice interrupted her. Her gray eyes, far from showing panic, shone with a light of intense curiosity.
"Midnight-sensei's proposal is… scientifically fascinating. Think about it. The opportunity to obtain a detailed, real-time analysis of a top-tier professional hero's Quirk… The data we could gather on the underlying physiology, power application, energy limits… it would be invaluable for Quirk research. From a purely investigative perspective, and for the sake of scientific advancement, I support the motion. For science."
Ochako's jaw dropped, feeling completely betrayed by her friend's logic.
"Oh, yeah!" Toru added with a mischievous grin, deciding to add more fuel to the fire. "And if you really want the best data and the most detailed manual, Izuku-kun has to touch her directly! With no clothes in the way! I'm speaking from experience. Fabric interferes with the surface energy reading! The signal is much more accurate skin-to-skin! Right, Izuku-kun?"
Toru's playful betrayal was the final blow. Izuku stared at her, horrified, as his face reached a new, legendary level of red. He was about to faint from sheer embarrassment.
It was All Might who finally decided that enough was enough. Not to scold Midnight, but to change the rules of the game.
"Enough."
His voice, now deep and solemn, lacking its usual boom, silenced the room. His gaze fell upon the team, and there was no longer confusion in his eyes, but a deep, heavy respect.
"Young ones. You have placed an immense trust in us by revealing your secret. A secret that, as the principal rightly said, could put you in great danger if it fell into the wrong hands. That trust… must be returned."
Then, with a loud POOF! and a cloud of steam that flooded the office, his imposing form vanished.
When the steam cleared, in his place stood a skeletal and emaciated man, with drooping blond hair and eyes sunken into dark sockets. His suit was absurdly large, hanging from his bony shoulders.
The girls gasped in shock. Toru and Ochako took a step back, while Momo’s hand flew to her mouth, her analytical eyes unable to process such a drastic transformation.
The man, Toshinori Yagi, lifted his loose shirt to reveal the horrific, cavernous scar that covered the left side of his torso. It was a nightmarish wound, a swirl of dead and scarred tissue that looked like a crater in his skin.
"Five years ago," Toshinori said, his voice now thinner, more tired, but no less powerful, "I fought a villain of unimaginable power. A being who could steal and bestow Quirks at will. I won the battle, but at this cost." He pointed to the wound. "I lost my stomach entirely and most of my respiratory system. The All Might the world sees now, the smiling giant, is a mirage. A trick based on flexing my muscles and an iron will. I can only hold that form for about three hours a day. The rest of the time, I'm this. A frail man on the verge of collapse, living on nutritional shakes and pure stubbornness."
The revelation fell upon them like a bomb. It was no longer a meeting between teachers and students, but a circle of confidants. He had given them a secret as big and as dangerous as their own. The trust had, indeed, been returned.
It was Nezu who, seeing that all the cards were finally on the table, took control with his usual strategic brilliance.
"Now that there are no more secrets between us, we can proceed on a basis of mutual trust," he said, his small black eyes gleaming. "From this moment on, both the true nature of the Quirk that we shall henceforth refer to as 'Synergy Trainer,' and All Might's physical condition, are U.A. Level S secrets. Their disclosure, whether intentional or accidental, will be considered an act of treason against this institution. Is that clear?"
The four of them nodded solemnly.
"Excellent," Nezu continued. "This brings us to the matter of your development. Midoriya-kun, a question to clarify something. Your ability to permanently assimilate the fundamentals of your teammates' Quirks… does it require this… preexisting trust you have all forged?"
"No, sir," Izuku answered, his mind now completely focused on the analysis. "The 'enhancement' and the 'manual reading' only require the proper physical contact. I can do it with anyone, in theory. But the permanent assimilation, the improvement of my own body, that only began to manifest after the USJ attack. After we fought together, after we saved each other. I believe the bond, the trust, is the catalyst that allows the improvement to become permanent in my system."
"Fascinating," Nezu murmured. "An emotional and biological symbiosis. This is far more complex than I imagined. Which brings us to your immediate future: the internships." He addressed the team. "Your decision to remain together as a unit is, from a strategic standpoint, the correct one. Your strength is not individual, but collective. Therefore, I will not give you a choice. I will give you a solution: you will accept the offer from Mt. Lady's agency. All four of you."
Ochako opened her mouth to protest, likely about the risk of them all being in the same place, but Nezu raised a paw to silence her.
"And I will handle her myself," he said, a cunning and slightly malicious smile on his face. "I will personally inform the hero Mt. Lady that your team is part of a highly secret and experimental Synergy Quirk Development Program at U.A., overseen directly by my office." He stood up on his chair, his small figure radiating immense authority. "It will be explained to her that Midoriya-kun's role is that of an 'enhancer' and that physical contact is part of the U.A.-approved training protocol. However, the… intimate… details of said protocol will be classified as sensitive information for security reasons. Her cooperation will not be a request, but a matter of high-level school security. She will be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement with clauses so restrictive they would make her tremble."
The strategic elegance of the plan left them speechless. Nezu wasn't just solving their problem; he was creating a perfect cover story.
"She is flamboyant, yes. And she seeks fame. But she is not foolish," Nezu concluded. "The opportunity to participate in an exclusive, cutting-edge U.A. program, to have access to a team with unprecedented growth potential… is something her ego and ambition will not allow her to refuse. We will maintain a low profile, but ironically, we will do so under the spotlight of one of the most media-heavy agencies in the country. Any objections?"
There were none.
The meeting concluded. The team, still processing the flood of information—All Might's secret, their new status as a secret U.A. asset, and their secured and controlled internship—rose to leave. They gave a deep bow, a gesture of mutual respect toward Nezu and Toshinori that was no longer from a student to a teacher, but from one ally to another.
As they were leaving, Midnight, who had remained in the background during the second half of the meeting, intercepted Izuku one last time. Her smile was now a mixture of amusement and a latent promise.
"So… 'skin-to-skin,' eh?" she whispered, in a purr that only he could hear. "What a fascinating and efficient training method." She leaned in, her perfume enveloping him. "Make sure to take good notes during your internship with Mt. Lady, my little prodigy. She is a very… 'gifted' woman. I will be very, very interested in reading your report on it. In exquisite detail."
She gave him a soft pat on his butt, a gesture so quick and unexpected that Izuku's brain didn't even have time to process it until she had already walked away, leaving him frozen in the hallway with his face on fire.
The team walked down the hall in silence, a very different silence than on their way in. There was no longer fear; there was a weight, a responsibility, but also a strange new sense of power.
"So… All Might…" Toru whispered, the first to dare break the silence.
"Let's not talk about it," Ochako interrupted her, gently but firmly. "It's his secret. And now, it's ours, too."
Momo nodded, her face serious. "Nezu is right. Discretion is our greatest weapon right now. Our training plan with Mt. Lady will need to be carefully protocolized to prevent any leaks."
Izuku, who had finally managed to get the blood to drain from his head, joined the conversation, his strategist's mind already at work.
"We have one week before the internships begin. We have to use it. Toru, we'll focus on your conscious control of invisibility. Momo, on your rapid-creation templates. Ochako, on fine control of high gravity. We have to arrive at Mt. Lady's agency not as students, but as a polished, functional team."
They had left the principal's office not as students in trouble, but as an elite, secret asset of U.A. The challenge of the internships had officially begun, with rules, secrets, and a potential that now, more than ever, seemed truly limitless.
