Chapter 4: Welcome to U.A. but Not Really

Aching. That was the first thing Mike woke up to. His entire body screamed to just be left alone, but his brain said 'Nah, get up'.

"Guuugh." He groaned. He wasn't aching when he was at Momo's place, or at least he didn't notice it. Now that he was in his own bed, in his own home, he felt all of that pain and exhaustion.

Mustering what little muscle strength he had left, he turned over to his nightstand to check his phone.

17 UNREAD MESSAGES

8 MISSED CALLS

He brought up the number that called him the most.

"Heeeeey dude." He groaned again.

"WHERE IN THE SWEET FUCK WERE YOU?!" The raised voice of Minato blasted his eardrums.

"So that's how you say it…" Excellent, another profanity for the vocabulary.

"I tried calling you for hours! There was a giant monster running around, I thought you got killed out there!"

"Um. Dude."

"Don't fucking scare me like that! Promise me you'll never do that again!"

"Dude. I WAS the monster."

"...What."

"Surprise?"

"Cut the shit."

"Allow me to quote thee: 'It looks like your mom, but if she was a dude instead'."

There was a brief silence on the other side of the line. "Nope. Nuh uh. There is no way you actually turned into that thing."

"Listen, if it makes you feel any better, I'm none too happy either."

"It really doesn't."

"Didn't think it would. So anyway, what's new with you?"

"You're not going to deflect this conversation onto me. How are you feeling?"

"My everything hurts. Feels like I just got hit with a steamroller."

"Well that sucks. Hope you feel better."

"Thanks. Later dude."

"Wait, no you son of a-!"

Mike hung up, plopped his phone screen down back onto his nightstand, and sat up in bed. He took a moment to look around his room, appreciating being back. Drawings and paintings littered the walls, hung up by various means. Two notebooks sat on his desk, and a handheld video game sat in a small box in the corner.

'Home sweet home.' He thought to himself with a smile. 'Alrighty, time to get up.'

He cracked his knuckles, twisted his back, and swung his legs out of bed. After another round of stretching and scratching an itch, he left his room.

The kitchen was livelier than usual. His dad wasn't just sitting around, and his mom seemed to have much more pep in her step.

"Morning son." His dad greeted.

"Mornin'."

"We have a guest today, so say hello." His mother pointed over to the sofa in front of the TV.

A white, furry creature in a suit and tie popped up to look over it. "Good morning young Fritz." It said.

Mike just stared in disbelief for a few moments, trying to process what he was looking at. Was it a mouse? A dog? Bear? Gerbil? He honestly couldn't tell.

"To answer the question you must be thinking right now," it said. "I am Principle Nezu of U.A. High School."

Mike just kept staring, even more confused. "Uuhhh…"

Nezu hopped off the sofa and walked over to Mike, hands behind his back. He was only about knee height, which made talking to him just a bit more awkward.

"I came over to say hello and brief you on what you'll be doing in a few days. Care to take a seat?" Nezu gestured to the kitchen table. Mike wearily took a seat at the table and held his head against his hand. He inwardly debated whether this was a really weird dream or not.

"Mr. Nezu," Mike managed to croak out. "One thing at a time please, I just woke up and my everything hurts."

"That is quite understandable considering all you went through." Nezu said happily. Almost too happily.

"So...What's the principal of U.A. doing in our house?"

"Ah, of course." Nezu lightly smacked his own head. "You will be attending U.A. in a few short days for therapy and quirk training."

Mike stared at Nezu for about a minute before giving a coherent response.

"When was this decided?! Did mom and dad know?!"

"Of course! They approved it. Your father will assist, since he knows the most about your quirk."

Mike looked behind him to his dad. Sure enough, his dad waved to him and smiled. Nezu coughed, grabbing Mike's attention. "Right. We'll be heading over now to give you your orientation."

"Wait wait wait, what? What do you mean heading over? Right now?"

"Yep! Onward!"

Mike shrugged and went to grab his shoes. His parents did the same and got their things together. Mike went back into his room and grabbed his hoodie off his bed.

"A LIMO?!"

Before them was parked a shiny black limousine with the U.A. logo painted on the doors.

"You got us a friggin limo?!" Mike was flabbergasted. He expected something classy, but this was just ridiculous!

"Were you not expecting this?" Nezu smirked. Of course he didn't. Nezu smiled to himself. It was always fun to mess with humans.

"I expected at least something fancy, but not like this!"

"Well, no time for gawking at it, in you go." Nezu opened the door and gestured inside. The family sat down on the comfy leather seats and buckled themselves in.

"This is all...wow. Just wow." Mike marveled at the interior.

Nezu hopped in the passenger seat and signaled the driver. "Next stop: U.A.!"

Happy with the situation, Mike pulled up his hood, and let the hum of the engine lull him to sleep.

Mike woke with a jolt to his arm. He sat up straight and lifted his hood, looking around. He saw his dad looking at him. "You started snoring."

"Oh." Mike blushed and pulled his hood back down.

"Don't go back to sleep, we're almost there. Look." He pointed a finger. Outside the window, the massive building of U.A. high towered over the street.

"Woah."

A few minutes later, the limo pulled up in front of the school, and everyone disembarked. "Geez," Mike mused. "It's a lot bigger than I expected it to be."

"You expected the most prestigious school in Japan to be smaller?" His father chuckled. "If I'm correct, we'll be training here for a few months, just you and me."

A surge of uneasiness filled him when he heard that statement. His dad was usually laid back, but seeing him talk rather enthusiastically about training their quirks was quite unsettling. "And you're training me why?" Mike asked.

"Because," his dad explained, dramatically holding a finger up. "Our quirks are nearly identical in mechanics. If I can do it, so can you. That should give you a good idea of what you can do. I'm your control group, in other words."

"As long as I don't have to turn into that THING again." He said, turning back to the towering school building. He never saw the worried look on his father's face.

"Right then, moving on. The other teachers are waiting for us." Nezu declared, marching onward.

The inside of U.A. was just as big as the outside. The halls had enough height to accommodate even the tallest of students. Some of the doors were just as big. Nezu led them to a room at the far end of the school and opened the door. It seemed to be a conference table with a number of other pro heroes seated and staring at them in anticipation. Some of them however really didn't look like they belonged at U.A. one of them looked like a sentient block of cement with clothes. Another was blonde with black eyes, and looked far too frail and thin to be doing hero work. Another had scraggly black hair, wore a scarf, and generally just looked like a hobo.

"Please take a seat." Nezu gestured to the open seats at the front. He went around to the far side of the desk and hopped into his own chair. "Mr. Yagi, if you would?" Nezu held an open hand to the thin man on the left.

"Thank you. As you are quite aware, Mr. Fritz, your son has dealt catastrophic damage to the city, and will take months if not years to completely rebuild. However, we are pushing that to the side for the moment and focusing on what caused it. That brings us to Young Fritz here."

Mike held his head low and scrunched up in shame.

"What specifically caused this was a lack of knowledge and control of his quirk. From his statement to the police, we can gather that he has virtually no control over his transformation, and has no idea what triggers it."

Mr. Fritz shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"And so it falls upon us to help this young man control his power so an incident like this does not happen again." Mr. Yagi finished.

"It's my fault." All eyes turned to Mr. Fritz. "I should have taught him how to use it, but I neglected that in favor of him learning on his own. Shows me how well that went." He trailed off, seemingly in thought.

"Mr. Fritz." The hobo man said. "You have a similar quirk, yes?" He nodded in confirmation. "Then you'll be responsible for training him and teaching him how it works."

"I was planning on doing that anyway. I suspected a training regiment was inevitable." He said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Glad to see we're on the same page." He spoke with no emotion and a straight face. "My name is Shouta Aizawa. I'll be overseeing your training."

"A pleasure." Mr. Fritz managed a smile. Aizawa didn't. Creepy.

"Michael." Aizawa turned directly to Mike. He nearly jumped out of his seat from the seemingly cold, indifferent stare. "In a few days, you'll be starting your training and therapy. Recovery girl will be overseeing the therapy, and I'll be present during your training to make sure neither of you go overboard."

"Y-yes sir." Mike gulped.

"Alright, you can go now." Nezu piped up from the far end of the table. "Someone will be with you shortly to show you around."

The Fritz family looked between each other, then shrugged, got up and left. After stepping out the door, they waited for a few minutes, and sure enough, someone came right up to them.

"Wazzup people!" The man said. He had a pair of shades, slicked up blonde hair, and a personality that just screamed 'look at me'.

"You're Present Mic!" Mike exclaimed with a smile on his face and excitement in his voice.

"Oh ho ho! A fan I see?" Present Mic held a hand to his chin in a dramatic pose.

"Hell Yeah! You're the first hero I saw when I moved to Japan!"

"Foreigner, Huh? American?"

Mike gasped. How did he know?! "How did-"

"Your accent." He pointed. "How long have you been here?" Mic switched over to English, albeit with an accent.

"Couple years, actually." Mike switched over as well. It felt weird speaking English to someone other than his parents so casually. "Moved here because of a horrible accident I caused back there. Heh. Heh heh...Hehhhh."

Present Mic shrugged. "Eh, I won't ask about it. Probably pretty bad if you guys had to move all the way out here. Anyway, I completely forgot to introduce myself." He held out his hand to Mike's parents. "Nice to meet ya! Hizashi Yamada!" They each shook his hand and introduced themselves.

"Now that that's taken care of, I'm supposed to give you the tour! Onward!" Hizashi spun around and pointed at nothing in particular.

The tour of U.A. was...Surprisingly boring. It felt like a normal school, except everything was jumbo-sized. That included doors. The gym was the main focus, as Mike learned would be the site of his training. It was absolutely massive, almost as big as U.A. itself. It was just as big on the interior as well. Big enough for his Titan form to move around if he guessed right. Not that he would want to use that abomination, anyway.

He turned around to look behind him, only to see Aizawa standing there with a cold and tired expression, silent as a mouse. Needless to say, Mike nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Where the hell did you come from?! How are you so quiet?!" He pointed at the scraggly man.

"I came to make sure Yamada wasn't making an idiot out of himself. Unfortunately, judging by his dialogue during the tour he already did."

"That doesn't explain anything!" Mike threw his hands up.

Hizashi grinned at his coworker. "Come on, Shouta! The kid's ecstatic! Give him a break."

"Fine. Finish up the tour and get out. I have shit to do today." Aizawa lazily rolled his eyes.

"No you-"

"Shut."

Aizawa left the gym, leaving the four standing there in silence.

"Is he usually like this?" Mike broke the silence, leaning closer to Hizashi in a half whisper.

"All the time. Chances are he's going to be your homeroom teacher."

"Oh no." He realized in horror.

"Oh yes." Hizashi's grin somehow grew even wider. "And during this training, you're going to get experience working with him before anyone else in your class."

Mike gulped. No way he could take scares like that much longer. That man was going to give him a heart attack. "Mr. Yamada," Mike slowly looked at his tour guide. "Pardon my language, but how fucked am I?"

"Language pardoned." Hizashi put a finger to his chin in thought. "Weeeell...Last year he expelled an entire class, so pretty fucked."

Mike's face paled. "Is he even allowed to do that?! What about protocols?! Paperwork! You can't just expel an entire class without repercussions!"

"Fortunately and Unfortunately, U.A. has a free form teaching method that allows teachers to conduct lessons as they see fit." Hizashi explained. "So that gives them a lot of freedom for teachers to go PLUS ULTRA with their classes!"

"Which also means they can expel their entire class?" Mike supplied.

"That's where the 'Unfortunately' part comes in."

Mike sighed. Great, not only was his training going to be rigorous and backbreaking, but his actual class was going to be as well.

"You should be fine though. You seem like a good kid, despite your reasons for being here. If Eraser is going to be coaching you, then he should see you have potential."

So there was a glimmer of hope after all.

"So what do you teach?" Mike asked.

"I teach English!" Hizashi exclaimed. "But since you come from America, you're probably already fluent. Those lessons should be a breeze! Anyway, we're not here to talk about the curriculum, we're here for a tour. Follow me!"

The rest of the tour lacked the energy it had generated in the gym. The only thing left to go over was the classrooms and layout of the school, which went in one ear and out the other for Mike.

It had been a while since Toshinori had been in the decorated halls of U.A. It certainly had some renovations while he was gone. It was still strange to think he'd be teaching here in a little under a year. It was stranger to think that his successor would be going here too. It was even stranger to think the boy who he hurt would be attending as well.

Strange and small world, it seems.

Speaking of, how the hell was he going to confront him about it? No, confront was a strong word. Approach was more appropriate given the delicate circumstances. One wrong touch could send the boy haywire. Without training, he was a ticking time bomb. That notion frustrated Toshinori to no end, because he had no experience in bomb defusal so to speak. As much as he hated to admit it, even if it was to himself, he couldn't do anything about it. By the sound of things, the rigorous training he had in store would help him wrangle that massive beast lurking under his skin.

That wasn't his problem anymore. His main concern was Izuku Midoriya- His successor.

Training for Midoriya would be even worse than what Young Fritz would go through. Toshinori already had made a training regiment for the green haired boy so he could build up a bit of muscle before inheriting One for All. When questioned why such rigorous training needed to happen, He explained how One for All is overflowing with power, and as such needed a vessel capable of handling it even the slightest bit. If that didn't happen, the person would likely explode.

Morbidly funny as that sounded, it was a very real danger.

If Midoriya was going to get into U.A. like All Might did once upon a time, he'd need to be capable of at least calling on the power of One for All. And for that, he'd need a bit of muscle.

'My boy, I'll make a hero out of you yet.' Toshinori thought. He said his farewells to the other teachers before heading home for the day. Tomorrow would resume Midoriya's backbreaking training.

Five Days Later

The week went by in a blur for the Fritz family. One day they had been living calmly, and now their lives had been flipped upside down. Mike of course was affected the most by everything. The memory of what he'd done would stick with him until the day he died. He vowed never to have an incident like that happen again as long as he could help it. The first step to upholding that vow was quirk training.

That would explain why he was standing in U.A's massive gym facing his dad.

The scraggly hobo of a teacher, Shouta Aizawa watched them intently, staring at them without saying a word. He was there on standby in case anything went wrong with the training. His quirk, Erasure, nullified the quirk of anyone he looked at, making it useful in all kinds of situations. He mentally groaned, remembering that he'd be watching the two train for ten whole months.

"So," Damien rocked on his heels idly. "You probably want some answers as to how our quirks work, right?" He asked Mike.

"Darn right I do. How the hell could you just keep that much power out of my knowledge?! Did you know that would happen?!" Mike snapped, suddenly changing the mood of the room. "Something like this happened before, and you didn't think to prevent it again? What were you thinking?!"

Hearing his own son snap at him like that left a nasty feeling in Damien's heart. Ouch. "I know, I know, it was stupid of me not to think about that!" He held his hands up in a placating gesture. "Hindsight is twenty-twenty, but let's focus on the here and now."

"Fine," Mike huffed. "I want to know everything." He sat down and crossed his legs. His father took the hint and did the same.

"Where do you want to start?" Damien asked.

"How the transformation is triggered." Mike responded.

Damien hummed thoughtfully. "The transformation is usually triggered by having a goal or belief in mind and being injured, Self inflicted or otherwise."

Mike also hummed in thought. "That makes more sense now."

"What?" Damien cocked an eyebrow. "What makes sense?"

"I wanted to go get an autograph from a hero across the street while I was walking home from school. Someone pushed me out of the way, and my face was introduced to the pavement."

"Huh." Was all that Damien said in response. After a long, contemplative silence, Mike spoke again. "Why did my giant form go berserk?"

"Now there's a good question, not one I could have answered myself back in the day. I had to refer to your grandmother for that." Damien recalled his early days of using his quirk, and how difficult it was to steer the thing and get a grip on it.

"Well, what did she tell you?"

"Okay, I'm going to explain it as simply as possible. Think of your Titan form as a flesh-mech. It needs you to act as a pilot and move it around like a puppet."

"That doesn't explain much."

"I'm getting there! So, you need to be conscious in order to control the Titan's movements. The 'pilot' is connected to a bunch of nerve endings in the nape of the neck. If you fell unconscious at the exact same time the transformation happened, the Titan would be operating entirely on its own."

Mike considered the implications of the new information. If he was conscious from the beginning, he could have controlled it! "I could have controlled it?"

"Not necessarily," Damien scratched the back of his neck. "The first few Titan transformations are always fuzzy and tricky to control. It's something you get used to, then the connection becomes a lot clearer. Your first transformation back in America would have been impossible to control."

"Oh. Well that's stupid." Mike pouted and crossed his arms. There goes that small glimmer of hope. "So either way, it would have ended in a rampage. Great."

"Yeah, It's a stupid thing that every titan user in our family went through." Damien chuckled. "When we officially start training your quirk, we should start with just simply transforming to reign in your control over it in an enclosed environment."

An enclosed environment...that might just work. Mike thought about the idea, and found it to be acceptable. "Alright, that sounds like a plan. Does U.A. have anything like that?"

Aizawa spoke out from the sidelines. "The mock cities are an ideal environment for simulating a real situation, so you could start there. Unfortunately, it's off site, and we don't have enough time to go out there today. Recovery Girl will want to speak to you though before you leave."

With plans made for the following session, Aizawa sent the two off to see the school's nurse, Recovery Girl. While Damien walked in relative silence, Mike's head was swarming with new information. How did his quirk work? How would he suppress it? How the hell had he not triggered it more often before now? Those questions plagued him, as the more he tried to answer them, the less sense the possibilities seemed to make. He broke from his thoughts when the duo arrived at the nurse's office. Mike knocked on the door, and a moment later, a little old woman answered.

"Uh, are you Recovery Girl?" Mike asked, scratching his head. She was a lot...smaller than he expected.

"That I am." She replied in a sweet voice. She looked rather old for being the 'Youthful Heroine', as she carried a cane with her. She certainly had the nurse aesthetic down pat; Full nurse styled hero costume, and her hair bun and cane were modeled after cartoonishly large syringes. "I know why you're here, but I want to hear it from you." She pointed her cane at Mike. "Come in and sit down, please."
Father and son stepped inside and took their seats. Recovery Girl took her seat in a swivel chair, and cranked up the height of it to be at eye level with the two. "Now, Nezu tells me you're here for therapy and quirk counselling. Is that correct, young man?"

Mike nodded in confirmation. "Yes Ma'am."

The old nurse nodded in return. "It's good you were brought here when you were. Some children go their whole lives without quirk counselling, and it causes irreversible damage. Regardless of your previous circumstances, you're lucky to be here now." It was quite saddening and also terrifying how children could be left to figure out their quirks on their own. More often than not, they lost control and hurt someone. In some cases, that harm was intentional, and those children became villains at a young age.

Mike sighed, remembering the events of days prior. "Yeah, I guess I am. I want to control my quirk so that doesn't happen again, but I don't want to be the giant monster that caused this problem in the first place."

"That's good. Over the next few months, I'll be giving you quirk counseling between your practical sessions with your father." Recovery girl explained. "You'll need to be mentally ready to use your quirk as well as physically."

Mike nodded in understanding. "It's really scary not knowing what might happen if I use my quirk without being prepared."

"I'm glad we understand each other. Michael, I need to discuss some things with your father. Would you step outside please?"

Mike did as he was told and stepped outside the nurse's office. He leaned against the wall, thinking about his overview of U.A. Not only would he be attending the school like any other student, but he'd essentially be getting special treatment due to circumstances. While in any other case he'd think this was a bit unfair, he had to agree with the decisions made. Having him run around on his own was simply too dangerous of an option.

On the bright side, he'd get to make a few friends here.

Mike was pulled out of his thoughts by the nagging feeling of being watched. He turned his head and sure enough, someone was watching him. It was the sickly looking blonde man from the conference room.

Mike looked around before speaking. "Mr. Yagi, right?"

The man waved and smiled. "You're correct. I wanted to see how you're holding up. This must be quite a shift in your life."

"That's putting it lightly…" Mike groaned. "I'm just hoping to get this stuff over with. Training my quirk probably won't be fun."

"You showed quite a bit of control there, so you'll probably be fine." Mr. Yagi said. That was evidently the wrong thing to say, because Mike raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "I-I saw you on the news! Yes. The news." Mike's brow lowered, apparently satisfied with the amendment to the statement. 'Dodged a bullet there, Yagi.' He thought. The skinny man wiped his brow, disguising it as scratching an itch.

"Thanks I guess." Mike shrugged. "What do you do here, anyway?"

Toshinori pulled out his age old excuse of "I'm All Might's secretary. I do things that he can't when he's out doing his hero work." Mike tensed at the mention of his swole alter-ego, but he seemed to have bought it. "So yeah, I'm here on his behalf essentially."

"Sounds like a good job. What kind of quirk do you have that got his attention?"

"Actually, I'm quirkless." Toshinori rubbed the back of his neck. "I know, I know, it's really rare. Not as much back in my day, but still uncommon."

"Huh...No kidding." Mike mumbled. "That is pretty rare."

The two shared a rather awkward silence while standing there. A few thoughts still graced Mike's mind, though. How did a meek, quirkless man like Mr. Yagi get the attention of All Might? And why? Surely there would be better career choices than a secretary for the man, right? There were over a hundred other opportunities, but he went after the big man himself instead? It didn't make sense. Furthermore, what was Mr. Yagi doing at U.A.? He was a secretary, not a staff member, right? Why did he attend the meeting with his parents and the other teachers?

Unfortunately, those questions would have to wait. It seemed his dad was done talking to Recovery girl. The door to the nurse's office opened, and his dad stepped out with said nurse in tow. "Alright, so we discussed scheduling." Damien clapped his hands together. "And we'll be doing half-and-half sessions. Half Titan training, half therapy."

Mike nodded slowly, processing that information. It sounded like a fair balance; Titan training to get the practical stuff down, and therapy to knock out any insecurities about that training. Clever. "Sounds like a plan." He shook hands with Mr. Yagi before being led out to the front of the school, a limousine waiting to take them back home.

Tomorrow would begin Mike's hell on earth.

End of Chapter 4