35

 Chapter 35: Chapter #34 | Point of Contention

Chapter Text

Midoriya couldn't help but clench his teeth as he stared Mirio down over the barrel of his sidearm. It was only the man's head and hands currently poking through the wall, but his body had still jolted when Mirio had surprised him. Midoriya's pulse slowed, and quickly he shut down the combat data that was streaming into his field of view. His augments had reacted to his instincts, feeding him information, plotting, and predicting.

"So help me, Mirio. If you step out of that wall and you don't have on the clothes we designed for you, I will pull this trigger." Blithely, Mirio stepped from the wall, seemingly unperturbed by the firearm still pointed in his direction. The school uniform in question was indeed being worn, and Midoriya lowered his weapon before holstering it and observing. "Are the clothes still sticking to surfaces as you leave them?"

"Oh! I wouldn't worry about that. They already work so well, I couldn't possibly bother you guys with something like that." Midoriya eyed the black hexagonal underlayer poking out from underneath Mirio's uniform in several places as he shook his head.

"We're responsible for the quality of our product, Mirio. I'll relay the information to Mei when I see her next." Midoriya didn't want to talk to Mirio. He didn't mind the man, but what was assuredly going to come out of his mouth wouldn't endear the hero to him. He sighed, because as much as he'd like to tell Mirio no, he knew the man would have a reason for searching for him in specific instead of going to the support department. "Walk and talk. I need to get back to the hospital, and the campus is large enough to accommodate a conversation while we walk."

Midoriya didn't wait to hear Mirio's response and simply turned. The large man smiled and chased after him. Despite this, it was several moments before he said anything. When he finally did, his voice was soft and concerned. "I heard about what happened during the training exercise. Are you alright?"

Of course, that's why he's here. Midoriya groaned in his head, because he really doubted Mirio knew anything about it. "When am I ever? But in this case, specifically, I'm fine. Can't say as much for my classmate. All Might fucked up, and now I have one classmate who should have been brought up on criminal charges, one that got lucky with his injuries, and another who's alive purely by miracle."

Mirio's smile twitched, and Midoriya could practically feel the disapproval towards his comments. "I'm sure All Might didn't intend for anyone to get seriously hurt. Surely he couldn't have predicted that one of his students was unhinged. It was only the first day of class."

It was Midoriya's turn to twitch, as he could feel it starting under his right eye. Well, Bakugo's going to have fun with that rumor. "Mirio, I don't particularly care what weird cult worship your mentor has going on in his office, but do not stand there and speak of things you know nothing of. All Might is a walking disaster that shouldn't have ever been put in charge of a class of cade- students." Midoriya hissed under his breath.

Mirio in turn frowned now. He could put aside the All Might comments for now because Midoriya had reminded him of another question. His consternation was evident on his face and in his voice when he spoke. "What," Mirio paused and gritted his teeth before breathing out. "What happened between you and Sir? I know things got... tense after your first meeting."

"Are you referring to before or after he gave you the order not to interact with me?" Mirio jerked and his stride hitched.

"Wh- ho- I didn't." Midoriya merely rolled his eyes blandly.

"Oh come on, Mirio. I didn't even need to know about the order, thanks for confirming that by the way, you're terrible at hiding it. You found an excuse to leave the room every time I came into the lab. If you wanted to make it more obvious, you would have struggled."

Once again, Mirio gritted his teeth. "You didn't answer the question." Midoriya shook his head.

"Well, you obviously aren't getting any clear answers from Nighteye. It was probably either his failed attempt to use his quirk on me or when I broke his nose for it." Mirio sucked in air as his eyes went wide.

"That was you?! Wait, what do you mean, and when, why?!" Mirio's voice was practically strangled as he squeaked out questions.

"Truly, Mirio, one question at a time, please. About a year ago on that murderous doctor case he was working."

"The one where the doctor was harvesting organs from the homeless?"

"Yeah, that's the one. The police department finally broke down and pulled me in after the sixth victim."

"Why did they pull you in so late? If you could help with the case, why not use you from the start?" Midoriya laughed and waved his hand in the air.

"That would be the logical thought, Mirio, but nothing is ever so simple. I'm one of the heads of a major corporation that has the eyes of the world on them. I was also technically a minor at the time, and I'm quirkless. How could I ever help the real heroes?"

"That's not-" Again, Midoriya waved his hand as if dismissing the thought, but this time, he cut Mirio off.

"Of course not, but it's a complicated mess of bigotry, politics, and hurt feelings. As it is, that was the last case I got called in to help them with. Nighteye and I got into an argument regarding the case during one of the briefings. Long story short? He grabbed me and tried to use his quirk to settle the dispute and panicked when it didn't work on me. I decked him for trying, so he used his influence to get me removed from the case. He didn't like an unknown variable. Damn bastard got another three victims before Nighteye finally felt confident enough to take him down." Bitter resentment had leached into his tone at the thought of the needless deaths.

Mirio stayed quiet for a long moment before speaking again. "That certainly explains why he, uh."

"Oh, don't try to sugarcoat, Mirio. The man hates me. He considers me to be a volatile liability with a penchant for drastic actions."

"He wouldn't think tha-"

"Funny, since those were the exact words he used." Mirio was silent again, and even without looking, Midoriya could tell he was frowning at him. Midoriya sighed and this time was the one to break the silence. "Look, the man's not evil, nor do I hate him. I simply find him to be entirely too cold in his decisions. His cautiousness isn't even that anymore. It's just paranoia."

"Sir wants the best for everyone. I grant you that sometimes he airs on the side of caution, but he really means well!"

"I wish that's all it was, Mirio, but again, you don't seem to know anything about your boss or what caused this. You aren't thinking about the extents he's willing to go to in order to make things go to his plan. His utilitarian behavior is great statistically, I grant you, but as a hero, he leaves much to be desired."

Mirio wanted to say something, wanted to defend his teacher, but the bile rising in his throat was stopping him. A mixture of memories telling him that Midoriya was telling nothing but the truth as he saw it, and a wave of instinctual anger at his mentor being insulted. His focus on Midoriya let him catch the sudden flip as they arrived at the sleek, black motorcycle that Midoriya preferred.

A sly smile on his lips, Midoriya leaned against the nearby light post. "Let's play a little game, Mirio. It's one I played with your boss before things soured between us. I'm going to give you a scenario, and you're going to work your way through it."

Mirio's eyes narrowed, but he figured Midoriya had a reason for this. He'd play along for now. "Okay, what's the scenario?"

"Runaway train is bearing down on five individuals a villain has tied down to the track. You can run for the lever and switch the track, of course. You have enough time for that. But the villain has tied someone else to that track, as well. The train driver is desperately trying to fix the breaks, and you believe you're the only hero in the area."

Mirio's brow creased in disgust at the situation. "The trolley problem? Really, Midoriya?"

"Not quite, but close, you're right."

"No casualties are acceptable in our line of work. I try to save them all, obviously."

"Spoken like a well-trained dog of the system. Congrats, Mirio. You try your best and save three before the train plows into the two remaining. They die on impact while the train derails and slams into the other track, killing both the man on the other track and the driver. Four dead. Three alive."

Mirio gaped at the cold assessment of the situation and sputtered angrily. "Fine, I switch the track and run to save the one man."

"You switch the track but the switch is too far to get there in time. You get a front-row seat as he dies. One dead. Six alive."

"That's not acceptable." Mirio practically growled the words and tried again.

"Two dead. Five alive."

"Four dead. Three alive."

"One dead. Six alive."

"Well, congratulations, Mirio. You just managed to get every single person in the scenario killed and even some extra property damage." Mirio's eyes were furious, and the ever-present smile that he'd been trained to have was nowhere to be found.

"Oh fuck you, Midoriya. Fine. I do nothing. Because clearly you just want everyone to die." The remark was scathing, and Mirio knew he would regret it later, but all he could feel at that moment was that Sir was far warmer than the man in front of him.

Midoriya smiled an evil smile. All tooth and far too wide, a feral expression hungry for the conflict. He breathed out the words, all too happy to direct the anger at himself. "Congratulations, Mirio. Seven… alive."

Mirio froze, his brain grinding to a halt. "What?"

"You couldn't have known, but the train driver had been prepared for something like this. He knew how to manually stop the train. With a ninety percent chance of success, the train driver was the key here to making sure everyone walked away from this."

"But- but, WHY THEN-"

"Because, Mirio, he saw you. The driver of the train saw the enterprising hero jump into the situation and all panic left him. All training went away because he, like everyone else in this society, assumed that because a hero was there, everything was perfectly fine and that he could leave it all to you."

Midoriya sighed before properly saddling his bike. "It's an impossible situation, Mirio. You can't know that the solution is to do nothing, and you can't just do nothing in good conscience. This is a situation where someone is more than likely going to die because of the actions of another."

"That doesn't make it acceptable, Midoriya."

Midoriya just shook his head while he started his bike and idled it. "No, it doesn't, Mirio. But then again, it happens whether we like it or not, and you should know that by this point. But I will commend you, at least you didn't take the same route as Nighteye."

Mirio clenched his fists and released them, trying to calm himself, but went stiff again at the mention of Sir. He'd forgotten that Midoriya had said he'd played this game with him, as well. "What do you mean?"

"I posed this situation to Nigheye three times, Mirio. All three times, he pulled the lever without considering other possibilities." Mirio gritted his teeth.

"And you, Midoriya? What would you have done?" The residual anger inside Mirio froze and evaporated into dread as his breath caught in his chest. Midoriya stared at him now with eyes of cold, dead retribution.

"Mmm. I wonder. Let me ask you a question then, Mirio. If two have to die, then don't you think the one who caused the situation should be one of them?" Mirio was in too much shock to say anything as Midoriya drove away.

…

Midoriya came to a stop in his parking spot in the hospital's parking garage and, after turning the bike off, just sat there. His head pressed against the cool metal in front of him as the conversation with Mirio ran through his head yet again, just as it had the entire ride over. He hadn't intended to play games with Mirio, hadn't intended to intentionally provoke the man so that he could see what he would do, could see if Mirio was too far gone.

Why hadn't he seen the utter failure of their school system sooner? Had none of the teachers prepared their students to lose people in the field? Eraser wasn't that irresponsible, so why were there missing courses in the curriculum? Not everyone needed to know how to defuse a bomb, but why the hell were none of them trained to deal with something like an unwinnable scenario?

Midoriya pushed it down and boxed it up. He could psychoanalyze himself later, could find new ways he'd been messed up. He would certainly find new courses that he needed to cover and teach if he was going to be dealing with his class. Midoriya closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his mind was clear. Regardless of anything else, he had a job to do.

…

"Midoriya!" He chuckled as twin forms crashed into his legs. He'd decided to check in on the pediatrics wing and was glad he had. The two small forms of the Muto twins were a sight to see. A villain had broken into the children's elementary school and used the staff as hostages before coming unhinged and attacking the children.

"Haruki! Katsuro! What did I tell you two about running into people like that!" Midoriya chuckled as he waved their mother off.

"Don't worry about it, Mrs. Muto. I'm too sturdy to be knocked over by such small figures! Isn't that right, you two?" The children giggled, even as Midoriya picked up the young sister of the pair and settled her at his hip. "I take it you guys came in today for Haruki's check-up?"

The twins' mother sighed wearily. "Yes, we did. Doctor Takashima just directed us to wait out here. We were about to sit down when the kids went running towards you."

"Hmm. Well, let's see." Midoriya called over to the department secretary with a smile. "Sazama, could you tell Doctor Takashima that I've taken his patients back for him?" The secretary called back with an affirmative, and Midoriya gestured for the family to follow him. One twin on his hip, the other at his leg while they walked back.

Once in an examination room, Midoriya set the young girl down onto the table and gestured for her mother and brother to take a seat. Carefully, Midoriya rolled up Haruki's left sleeve and left pant leg before gripping the matte, flesh-toned, protective casings of the limbs. "Tell me if anything hurts, alright Haruki?"

The girl nodded, and with a twist, Midoriya deftly disconnected the two prosthetic limbs from their connection plates. The girl winced a little, and Midoriya looked up at her. "That hurt?"

"Nuh-uh. Just a bit tight, pinched a little." Midoriya smiled.

"That's good. Means that the systems are working as intended." Pulling a pair of goggles from a drawer and setting the limbs aside, Midoriya's eyes began to glow behind the lenses. The connector plates were at the girl's elbow and knee, and despite the prototype nature of them, it seemed the girl's body was showing no signs of rejection. Looking closer, Midoriya observed the connections in her nerves and on the bones. Luckily, no signs of deterioration lay there either. "You know, you're very brave for volunteering for this. Even a lot of adults weren't willing to try it out."

Haruki stuck her tongue out. "Those adults are just big wimps. Besides, if I do this, I can be a big help!"

"She shouldn't have had to help." Midoriya's eyes flicked to where Katsuro sat and hung his head before snapping back to his patient.

"And what a help you've been. Didn't you know? You've single-handedly pushed the project forward by years potentially! You've really saved the day." Midoriya handed back the girl's prosthetic leg. "Do you remember how to attach it?"

Haruki nodded, practically bouncing in her seat. "Yes! Hatsume showed me how the last time she made adjustments." Midoriya couldn't help a low chuckle. Of course she'd shown the child how to handle complicated prosthetics before she'd healed. Midoriya set the girl's arm against its socket and activated the connectors. There was a low hum briefly as electromagnets lined up the pins and the device reattached the prosthetic. Once again, Haruki winced but smiled when the fingertips of the fake arm wiggled.

"Alright, go ahead and put your leg back on and we'll walk back out to the lobby, okay?"

…

Midoriya watched the pair of siblings play around as he spoke with their mother. "Alright, the two MNSC's implanted in Haruki's limbs are doing fine. If anything, she's actually ahead of schedule. We estimated that full recovery from the surgery wouldn't be for a full year, and yet she's already back on her feet in four months. Just bear with the maintenance routine and you'll have nothing to worry about."

Relief was visible on the mother's face. "Thank you, doctor."

"One more thing. It's about both of your children." Mrs. Muto looked at him, mildly confused but attentive, ready for whatever Midoriya had to tell her. "Your daughter did a very brave thing and likely saved his life when she pushed Katsuro out of the way, but she paid a price, just as I'm sure he did, as well. No one really comes out of something like that unscathed. Trauma from an event like this can be both wide-reaching and, a lot of the time, not immediately evident. We have a number of counselors on staff here in the hospital, and you're also free to pursue a private practice, as well. But likely, they're both going to need someone to talk to."

The pain was evident in Mrs. Muto's eyes, but so was determination. A relief for Midoriya that the twins had someone to take care of them. She nodded. "Thank you, doctor. I'll be sure to do that."

…

Midoriya waved to the family as they walked out the doors of the hospital. Once they were out of sight, he turned to the nurse that had been following them for the last while. "What is it?"

"Mrs. Uraraka is asking for you, sir." Midoriya closed his eyes and breathed.

"Alright, I'll be right there."