Golden Drops on Rusted Bronze

Conversations With an Old Dude

Izuku Midoriya stared down at his phone with a look of confusion, his eyes locked on a message from an unknown sender.

[Meet me in the teacher's lounge after you finish your classes for the day.]

The message was similar to the ones All Might sent him when he wanted to discuss his quirk, but Izuku had his contact saved and favorited. Additionally, Izuku rarely gave his phone number out, meaning the person had gotten his number from somebody who knew.

Taking one last look at the text, Izuku switched to All Might contact and sent a quick message.

[I got a weird message from someone telling me to meet them in the teacher's lounge. Do you know anything about that?]

While waiting for a response, Izuku looked around the classroom. The school day was about to start so the majority of his classmates were present and interacting with each other.

As he watched, Izuku became acutely aware of the tension in the air. It was understandable of course, the USJ attack had happened only three days prior. He was still feeling the effects of the attack, the most prevalent being an everpresent sense of inadequacy.

All he had really managed to do during the assault was get Mineta and Tsuyu off the boat and distract Shigaraki for a few seconds. He had failed to save Tsuyu and had been saved by her twice. He was of little help during the confrontation with the Nomu. Despite all his power, he was useless.

The buzzing of his phone broke Izuku from his thoughts. Looking down, he saw All Might had responded.

[You can trust him.]

Izuku's brow furrowed. All Might was no stranger to being cryptic, but this was different.

As he was about to press for more answers, he was interrupted by the loud voice of his class president.

"Midoriya! Phone usage is strictly prohibited during classroom hours!"

"Iida, class doesn't start for another five minutes," Uraraka pointed out as she walked up to Izuku's desk.

"Being prepared for instruction includes mentally preparing oneself for learning," Iida responded passionately. "A task made impossible by phone usage!"

"Whatever you say, Iida," Uraraka said with a small smile before turning to Izuku. "You doing okay Deku? You look a little down."

Izuku shook his head slightly and gave her a weak smile.

"Y-Yeah, just thinking about a weird text I got."

"Oh, those are the worst! Especially the scam texts." Uraraka replied enthusiastically. "Anyway, I'd better get back to my seat before Iida starts yelling again."

Izuku chuckled to himself and waved his friend off. He liked Uraraka and thought she was a good friend. Her enthusiasm was infectious and often made him smile. Plus she was the first friend he'd made in a long time.

Not wanting to invoke Iida's ire, Izuku turned his phone off and slipped it into his bag.

Whatever that text was about would have to wait.

—-----------------------------------------------

"What does he know?"

Yagi wished to be anywhere than where he currently was. Facing Gran Torino would have been one hundred times more appealing than the conversion he was about to have.

"H-he knows O-one for All is old and that h-he is the ninth user."

"And?"

"That's all," Yagi said quietly, physically curling into himself.