UA's Immortal Teacher

Part 48

Around 200 years ago...

Izuku snorted from where he sat on the old couch, reaching for his notebook.

"That's ridiculous. No-I'm serious. Aki!" He rolled his eyes as his absolute traitor of a neighbor grabbed his notebook and held it above his head. One thing he really hated about the man sometimes was that he was incredibly tall. And Izuku was short, short enough that the other man could use it to his advantage.

"It is not! And this proves it!" He flipped through Izuku's leather-bound notebook until he found the entry that he was looking for, ignoring Izuku's repeated attempts to jump up and snatch the book away from him. "See? If someone has an ability to shrink things, even only a little bit, that completely messes with the conservation of mass law! It defies science itself."

"Not necessarily," Izuku argues. "They could just be changing the strength of the electric field around the object, and therefore just be acting on a higher level than scientists have currently reached understanding of."

Izuku finally managed to pry away his notebook, though he had to partially stand on a chair to do so. Aki was laughing at him, turning red in the face. Over the past year, they had grown closer, and Izuku realized that the white-haired man had a similar love for analyzing quirks. There were times where he could be a bit strange about it, almost like he wanted them, but he wasn't outright malicious, so Izuku looked past it. It was nice to finally talk to someone about this kind of thing.

"You two are nerds," Yoichi deadpanned from where he was sitting in the living room space. He had a book open on his lap, one from the university he was going to, but it was clear he was more focused on the show in front of him. "Why do I feel like I've heard this conversation before?"

"Because your brother refuses to accept truth," Izuku huffed, clutching his notebook protectively to his chest. "And because he's confrontational."

"True," Aki conceded without any argument. Progress. "But I'm not the one that rises to the bait every single time."

Izuku rolled his eyes, dropping down on the couch next to Yoichi. These days, he was just as often over at their apartment as he was at his own. Aki and him had grown closer ever since Yoichi started university, and they realized they had very similar interests. It happened after Yoichi had dragged him there for dinner at their place, and somehow the topic of abilities had come up. Aki had been vague with his own, but once the subject of others had come up, neither of them could stop talking.

"So..." Aki started. "That new quirk you were analyzing, it has the power to shrink things?" He was watching Izuku like a panther would watch a passing rodent.

Izuku sighed. "Only by a little bit, like a few centimeters. But just the implication of it were wonderful. Unfortunately, the father was very, very against him ever using it. They came just to figure out how to make him stop it. All of them looked miserable."

"Makes you wonder if they would be happier if the ability just went away," Aki said offhandedly.

"Aki, there's nothing wrong with abilities," Izuku frowned. "You know that. It's just something else that makes us us."

"No, no, of course there's nothing wrong with it," He quickly said. "I'm just saying that sometimes having an ability isn't the best thing for a person." He got a far-off look. "Maybe they would be happier if they didn't have it anymore."

"I don't think so," Izuku firmly said. "Plus, it's not like they can just walk into a clinic and get it removed. They're pretty sure it's a part of their DNA codes now."

"Hmm?" Aki snapped back. "Oh, yes."

Izuku noticed Yoichi giving his brother a strange look, one that confused him slightly. The two usually got along well, with most of their arguments centered around Aki being overprotective and smothering when it came to his younger brother. He would even go so far as to not let Yoichi out of the apartment when he had a temperature that was even slightly off.