Phantom of a Hero (currently under 6 month rewrite as of March 21)

Chapter 24: The Inevitable Fallout

Author's Note: Hello everyone! If you thought that this would be the end of this arc, how foolish of you, their is still the aftermath to go over. I hope you all enjoy this even if it's simply post battle clarity.

Inko Midoriya had felt many things throughout the Sports Festival, a mess of worry for her baby boy (it doesn't matter how old he is, he'll always be her baby boy) crying tears of joy and pride at her son's success, and fearfully but hopefully anticipating her son's success as it came (watching him get so far in the tournament round had her screaming like a madwoman, though she'd never publicly admit that).

However, as the sports festival finally came to an end, the main thing that she could feel could at best be described as apoplectic shock.

Once the mic that seemed to be the main focal point for the PA system highjacking had been destroyed, she was only able to pick up bits and pieces of the conversation that occurred through the camera speakers that were recording the whole thing, unfortunately, that was enough to absolutely horrify her and at some points, feel an anger she had only ever felt before a couple of times.

Then, her son stepped in and somehow managed to stop the boy named Merrilson from taking it too far, something that both shocked and even scared her to her core but also filled her with more pride than ever before as she saw her son managing to save yet another one of his friends (the thought of him having good friends that he would constantly talk about being a reason behind making her absolutely giddy with happiness during her better moments).

As she let her tumultuous thoughts settle as the boy her son mentioned had been training him for the past two weeks and helping speed along his growth so that he wasn't breaking things as much (a fact she would be forever grateful for) finally fell to the ground and, after about a half-hour of stunned silence, was soon carted off the field, likely to Recovery Girl's office, two thoughts came rushing to her mind.

First, while she was indeed grateful that her son didn't get hurt, that Merrilson had enough control despite being in a rather obvious state of pure rage to not attack her son, she would not deny that watching that altercation had her almost wishing she could find a way to teleport to her son and get in between her and the (there was no going around this description of it) monstrous form of the kid that her son was trying to stop.

However, as her thoughts settled and she realized just how much this Merrilson kid must have suffered, her motherly instincts began to flare up and one thought took precedence in her mind, " I need to meet with him. If only to thank him and help him, if I can. "

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Principal Nezu was many things, he was pragmatic, highly intelligent and didn't give two flying figs what the HPSC thought of how he ran his school and whatever other institutes he happened to have influence in (never underestimate the abilities and charisma of a highly intelligent lifeform of indeterminate species) among many other things.

However, before all of this, he was a victim, a victim of some of the more heinous forms of experimentation that the world has ever had the displeasure of knowing about. He had honestly hoped that he would never hear of similar stories being played out ever again.

When Merrilson revealed nearly everything (he simply refused to believe that was the last of it, one must always prepare for the possibility of even more secrets after a first reveal after all), it brought back a few rather, "unpleasant" memories, resulting in a shattered tea cup which he couldn't even pay much attention to thanks to not only his own inner thoughts, but the growing gravity of the situation.

He wanted nothing more than to subjugate the man Merrilson had nearly pulped (a rather simplistic but effective choice of words in Nezu's mind) to one of his rather infamous "unpleasantries" but something told him that would be unnecessary.