My Hero Automata

Summary: Momo and Izumi learn a bit more about Momo's unexpected new power, and the staff meet to settle on the final weighing of the brackets for the Day 3 1 vs 1 Tournament...!

Chapter 19: Meetings

While most of the other exhausted students had already left the campus, some of them barely seeming conscious as they did, a still fresh-looking Momo and Izumi found themselves in a familiar office. Specifically, Dean Nedzu's. Aside from the Dean, All Might was the only one present. They'd been informed of the need for this meeting literally the moment Momo was done with her run at the mountain zone. And neither of the younger pair was even a little confused about why. Momo, after all, wasn't supposed to be able to fly.

"Well now! Interesting developments abound! I'm sure I don't need to ask this. But you didn't happen to add flight capability to your suit, did you Miss Yaoyorzu?"

Momo, looking very confused, mutely shook her head at the Dean's entirely too cheerful opening question. Before Nedzu could say more, however, Yagi spoke up. He'd deflated from his All Might form the moment they'd entered the office, and there'd been a melancholic and conflicted expression on his face. It was such an odd look for the normally boisterous blonde that even Nedzu had seemingly decided ignoring it was the best policy. Now, however, his voice was firm as he interrupted whatever build up Nedzu had been working towards.

"That was Float."

Every eye turned to him at the absolute certainty in his voice. The Dean seemed to be the only one who actually knew what he was talking about, however.

"Your predecessor's Quirk? Are you certain? I admit that was my own conclusion as well, but I have no evidence yet."

All Might nodded, not a trace of doubt on his face.

"Yes. Not only would I know that Quirk anywhere…but I've suspected for decades that I had partial access to it. Even if I never knew why." Seeing the confused and demanding look on the faces of everyone else in the room, he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "No matter how much I have talked about 'managing' the damage of landings in class, the truth is that my All Might form weighed almost 280 kilos at one point. That amount of weight, coming in at terminal velocity, should cause a lot of damage. Except that it only does so only when I want it to. It was something that David Shield noticed as an oddity of my Quirk when I was partnered with him in the States."

Recognition had clicked in three sets of eyes, but it was Momo that actually spoke up.

"Why didn't you say anything about this before?! If you knew I should be able to use Float? Also, what is it, exactly?"

All Might sighed and slumped a bit.

"Because I didn't know if you could. I was never able to consciously control the ability, no matter how hard I tried. For me, it didn't do anything but soften landings and possibly grant me a bit more hang time than physics said I should have. Aside from that, the only other oddity I noticed with One for All was the ability to reduce other people's momentum with it, a little bit. Mostly that was only useful so victims weren't injured when I moved them at high speed. I showed you that one, remember? Or I tried, anyway."

Momo frowned. He had tried to show her that. But it hadn't worked properly for her, causing her to need some adjustment to his methods. With Izumi and 2B around, it hadn't been that hard to figure out, since All Might's basic technique was merely rough, not flawed. More importantly, Izumi had long ago needed to figure out how to move people safely at high speed herself.

"So, you thought that the ability wasn't manifesting in me?"

Her mentor shrugged.

"I honestly didn't know what to think. It's not like anyone really knows all that much about how One for All works. Nana was my immediate predecessor, so I thought maybe my version of One for All had been sort of altered or warped by that fact. Since I was originally Quirkless, the same might not have been true for you. But that obviously isn't it. You can consciously use it, can't you?"

Momo frowned, nodded, and displayed that fact by lifting off her chair, hovering for a few seconds.

"Right, I could never do that. It was all unconscious usage. But that brings a lot more questions than answers. Why can you use her Quirk fully while I couldn't? Was I only using Float? Or is the momentum arresting ability the side effect of an even earlier holder's Quirk? If the latter is the case, will you gain that Quirk fully, too?"

Izumi, looking excited but concerned, couldn't resist that opening.

"Do you know what the previous users Quirks were? Maybe that will tell us something!"

All Might shook his head, slowly.

"No. As I understand it, One for All was mostly passed on in or after battle. Usually in emergencies. Even with Nana, it was like that, very rushed since she knew he was coming for her. I know the name of her immediate predecessor, so I should be able to find out his Quirk. But beyond that…"

The Dean took that moment to interject.

"I've managed to identify one more, I believe. I looked into One for All's past when I first learned of it. Beyond the fifth user, however, I was unable to track it any farther. There was a period of nearly twenty years before that when All for One seemed to go nearly unchallenged. My best guess is that the user of that period never stepped up to try taking him on. For what reason, I'm unsure."

Everyone paused as they digested that. Predictably, given the subject matter, it was Izumi that couldn't contain herself for more than a few seconds, jumping back to an earlier question that had gone unanswered so far.

"So! We know of three possibilities! But we know of one for sure. Now, what is Float and how does it work?!"

Momo couldn't help but smirk at the half-fearful look All Might was giving Izumi. He'd had some experienced being the target of Izumi's thirst for Quirk knowledge once already, after all…

... ...

It was an hour later, with Izumi having finally been towed away from campus by her amused girlfriend, that another important meeting was held. Perhaps not as momentous as new discoveries with One for All in some ways, it was far more important to their students as a whole. Nearly the entirety of the UA heroics staff was in attendance, with large pots of coffee, unhealthy amounts of greasy foods, and dozens of printouts, looping holodisplays, and sundry other supplies littered about. Yagi and Nedzu had been the last two of the staff to join in, with Nedzu getting the meeting started moments after taking his seat at the head of the table.

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen. We have all the data we can get. It's time to decide the seed weight for the 1 vs 1 Tournament tomorrow. Based on what we've seen today, what adjustments do we need to make to the initial chart we created yesterday evening? Who, if anyone, displayed something that they didn't during the obstacle run?"

There were tired grumbles from around the table. Seeding the first years was always the absolute worst part of the Tournament. Enough so that, every year, they considered delaying the first year 1 vs 1 so they had more time to go over the data from the first two days, instead of having to do so as the Tournament progressed. Unfortunately, there were several legitimate arguments against doing so, such as the need for at least some public exposure for the students before they ended up out on internships. Those arguments always won the day, much to everyone's exhausted displeasure. Looking even more tired than usual, it was eventually Aizawa that spoke up. It usually was, though it was a tiny bit of a surprise this time, as he didn't have a class involved.

"I don't think there's any need to argue over Midoriya and Yaoyorozu. Despite the latter showing off a new ability, that ability is almost incidental. They still need to be put in opposite brackets, as the big fish on each side of the pool."

There were nods around the table, but some grimaces as well. It was Vald King that spoke for the grimaces.

"I still don't like the fact doing so leaves Todoroki loose. Those two, along with Bakugo, are probably his only opposition. Unless we outright rig the selection process instead of just weighing it, that might leave us with four students getting flattened in the opening round. That sort of defeats the point in weighing their strength for the randomizer at all. It's supposed to prevent that sort of flattening from happening."

Midnight shrugged, no sign of her usual persona present at the moment. Tiredness had worn away at it for the last few days and here, with only the staff around her, she was clutching a thermos of coffee with her hair already down. Her baggy hoodie and loose jeans couldn't be more unlike her hero getup. But that was, in fact, the entire point.

"I don't think we've ever had so many outliers. Usually there's only one, at best two. Even our current Big Three only actually has a single curve breaker. Hado's the only one of the trio that's set apart by sheer power output rather than utility."

There were nods all around the table at that. Togata and Amajiki might be comparable to her in some ways, but neither of them were actually 'outliers,' the term the school used for those students that broke the power curve completely. The two male members of the Big Three were known to be able to keep up with Hado, with all three expected to sweep the third-year Tournament tomorrow. But they kept up by virtue of an extremely difficult-to-counter Quirk in Togata's case and sheer versatility in Amajiki's. Hado was the only one of them whose raw power output broke the normal power curve. She was, in fact, the only student in that entire year who did so. Whereas this year that had at least three of them in Group A alone. With Bakugo being an additional, borderline case whose natural combat instincts were enough better than the others to bridge the gap.

"That's true," it was Snipe that spoke up this time, his voice it's usual drawl. "But it's also beside the point. 's Eraser said, we already decided yesterday what we had to do with those two, ev'n if some of us don't rightly like it much. We all just need'ta consider any adjustments to the others…"

That was true. Not to mention practical. Several people visibly wrenched their mind away from the issue and stared back down at whatever specific bits of data they'd earmarked on their own notes or displays. It was Power Loader that fully got them back on track a moment later.

"I think we need to tweak Kamanari Denki's seed weight. He showed mastery of more of the new gear Hatsume came up with for him today than he did Day 1. The Wire Arrows, in particular, he barely touched in the obstacle runs. But he showed quite inventive use with them today. Impressively so, given how little time he's had them and how much other gear he's clearly put time into training with. I suggest…"

From there, their long night started. Most of them would, as they did every year, end up sleeping in the extra teacher accommodations tonight. The Heroics Tournament was a sort of living hell for them every year, even if it was an effective hell. And between new security measures, the number of outliers, and the number of 'guest' heroes they'd invited in case of issues, this year was proving to be even worse than usual…