60

 Chapter 60: Chapter #59 | Smoke and Mirrors Notes:

I swear every time I write one event another pops up between us and the Sports Festival. My editor thinks I go off on too many side quests. I think side quests are the way of life. Oh well. We'll get there eventually.

Yes, I am well aware Japan does not use the Imperial system but instead the metric system. I am an American writing this. This makes it easier. I've been using it the entire time. In this case, I do not care about realism. It makes my life easier.

There was a series of incidents that delayed my editor this week by several days. BUT they still got this done for Friday night. Thank you Editor.

Last chapter we had:

-Training Assignments

-A brief talking to with Yaoyorozu

-Some more assignments

-Tokoyami being a problem

Enjoy!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Koda was waiting for Midoriya when a majority of the class began stumbling through the front door to the dorms. Exhaustion marked them. Their faces were gaunt, their footsteps heavy. A few gave Koda a surprised glance before continuing. Others still barely even noticed the timid man standing off to the side. Some made their way towards their dorm rooms, some headed to the common area to collapse on the furniture there, and some headed for the dorm showers. They had forgone the facilities in the changing rooms, preferring instead the familiarity of their home for the next several years.

Midoriya was the last to trickle in, looking as energetic as he ever did, fueled by caffeine and spite as he was. Several burns were evident across his upper cheek, below his eyes. Midoriya's eyes roved across the room before stopping on Koda. A slight pulling of the skin on his cheeks was the only indication of a change in his expression. Several quick steps brought the imposing man to stand in front of him, towering over even Koda's own height. Midoriya's hand clamped down on Koda's shoulder, freezing the instinctual urge he felt to tremble.

"Let me get what we'll need from my room, Koda, and then we'll go."

Where?

"I have a facility that I believe may give you some answers as to what you would like to do. If it doesn't, then it should at least rule a few things out for you." Midoriya stepped away from Koda before disappearing up the stairs. Kaminari's head popped up over the edge of a sofa. Koda blinked at him. A chunk of Kaminari's blond hair had been singed black at the tips.

How did that happen?

Tired eyes blinked at Koda for a moment before Kaminari finally followed the man's finger movements. Not understanding at first, he reached up to touch the part of his hair that Koda was pointing at. He groaned as his fingers touched the crunchy strands. He hadn't realized that the explosion he'd caused had done anything but superficial damage to him. Why hadn't anyone- Kaminari thought about that for a moment longer and realized that the type of people he had been surrounded by in the support studio wouldn't have thought anything about a bit of burnt hair.

"Damn it. You going somewhere with Midoriya, Koda?"

Koda gave a short nod, but when he offered no additional context, Kaminari groaned again. "Have fun with that. You think Midoriya'd be fine with me tagging along? I wanted to pick his brain over some of the work that Powerloader sent me back with."

"No, I don't particularly mind." Both men jolted in place with Kaminari giving a slight yelp as they both turned their heads to the man standing beside them. Where had he come from, and how had his arrival eluded the both of them?

"Awesome, I'll just-" Kaminari slid off the couch in what was likely supposed to be a graceful maneuver. What occurred, though, was a faceplant into the carpet as his legs gave out on him. A muffled groan came from the floor. Kaminari rolled his head onto its side to stare up at the two men watching him with varying levels of interest. "On second thought, go on without me."

"Right. Well, we'll be gone for a couple hours. Write down your questions so you don't forget them and ask me when we return." Midoriya turned to a nervous Koda, who was already gesturing at him.

A couple hours? Do we have to go? Midoriya furrowed his brow before shaking his head.

"Koda, you don't have to go anywhere you don't want to. I'm simply offering you potential help. You don't have to accept it if you're unwilling."

Koda stilled before dipping his head in seeming resignation. Alright. Let's go.

…

The ride was silent, up until Midoriya's motorcycle stopped in front of the headquarters for Moonlit Industries, mostly owing to Koda's newfound fear of motorcycles and his inability to speak or use the hands that were wrapped around Midoriya.

Is this the facility?

Midoriya gave a low chuckle and shook his head. "We're not there yet. Come with me." The two made their way through the front door and into the lobby. Midoriya smiled as he accepted a clipboard of paperwork from the secretary at the front desk. He turned, letting the smile drop and the seriousness of the situation to show on his face. "Non-disclosure agreement. A number of the things you are going to see today are currently classified. Both I and the interested parties would like to keep it that way."

Koda hesitated before swallowing and taking the paperwork with a shaky grip. He left Midoriya to speak with the front desk as he sat down and read through the tidy stack of papers. Most of it had already been filled out for him, so after a quick skim to verify that he wasn't selling his firstborn child, Koda signed the agreement as needed. Midoriya turned as Koda approached him from behind.

Silently, he took the clipboard and handed it back to the man behind the desk. After another moment, and the sound of whirring machinery, Midoriya turned back to him with a copy of the paperwork he had just filled out. "For your own records, of course."

Koda accepted this but blinked in confusion as he followed Midoriya back towards the parking lot. He had thought that they would be going deeper into the facility, not back outside. Instead of heading for the bike as Koda had expected, however, they headed for what appeared to be a hangar bay, tucked away behind the main building and what was almost certainly additional security. Stepping through a door located at the side of the bay, Koda was immediately assaulted by a level of noise that had him flinching and nearly backing back out on impulse.

Midoriya glanced back briefly at this, clicking his tongue. He had forgotten about the sheer amount of sound produced in the hangar bay, especially before a launch like this. He jogged over to one of the racks on the side of the building, coming back a moment later with a pair of headphones. Midoriya handed them over to Koda, watching as he slid them on with a grateful expression. Midoriya's voice crackled through the speakers in them a moment later.

"Welcome to Hangar Bay One and home to Project Icarus." Koda blinked, and for the first time, looked past Midoriya towards the large, very large, aircraft resting in the middle of the enormous space. Men swarmed around the sleek gray aircraft, at least 100 feet in length and a little over half of that in its width. The aircraft had two short wings with what appeared to be vertical engines.

"Beauty, isn't she? Project Icarus started between Mei and me as an attempt to create a cargo aircraft capable of easily making round trips into space. We didn't realize it at the time, but this may just be the project the government was the most interested in. We were contracted to create a new troop carrier for the JSDF, so we rolled a few ideas into one. Still working on getting it into orbit, though." Midoriya gestured for Koda to follow him toward the back ramp of the aircraft.

"Heavy cargo transport and troop carrier, gunship and close air support. We don't do things by halves here at Moonlit Industries, and the engineers got really into designing this bad girl. You should have seen their eyes when they got the gravitic data from Uraraka's quirk. You would have thought that I had given them the keys to the kingdom."

"Yo- you gave your classmate's quirk readings to- to your scientists? Isn't- isn't that a violation?" Koda's voice was soft in the microphone, enough so that Midoriya didn't think Koda actually expected nor wanted Midoriya to hear it.

"Not at all. She signed off on the usage of the data when we were developing her heroics gear. Albeit, I don't know if she had this in mind." Midoriya laughed as he gestured to the aircraft they were approaching. "The engineers came up with something they're calling a gravitic assist generator. It won't do what Uraraka can do, but they are hopeful it can at least push our carry capacity on the aircraft up over 60 tons."

The two stepped onto the ramp, and Koda was surprised to find that, all things considered, the interior of the aircraft wasn't awful. He had always imagined military cargo planes to be all hard edges and uncomfortable benches. It's interesting, Midoriya, but I could have already told you I don't have any interest in being an engineer. As interesting as the job is, of course.

Midoriya quirked an eyebrow, chuckling. "No, I didn't think you did. We're just co-opting today's test of this aircraft to get us where we need to be quickly." Midoriya stepped up towards the cockpit, switching out his headphones for a new set as he leaned in to speak with the pilots.

"You guys about good to go?" One of the pilots glanced back, his eyes briefly flicking towards Midoriya and then back to the gauges in front of him, his helmet feeding information to him even as he ran through his preflight checks.

"Yeah, we're just finishing up the fuckin-" The pilot's head snapped to the side as his brain registered just who he had seen. His mouth slammed his mouth audibly. "S-sir!"

Midoriya gave the two of them a sardonic grin as he clapped the first on the shoulder. "No need for that, Lieutenant. The JSDF sent you guys over to be test pilots and give us honest feedback. You're not here to kiss my ass. We about ready? How's she treating you?"

The pilot opened his mouth for a moment, thought about it, then closed it again, shaking his head. "You are exactly how your employees described you."

"I'll take that as a good thing, Lieutenant."

"She's about ready for takeoff. The flight tests were good last time. Now the eggheads have supposedly made her faster, more maneuverable, and, god willing, fixed the fuel mixture this time. The targeting software has been updated so that the 70 millimeters should have their accuracy problem fixed. We're supposed to drop you off before heading for the weapons tests. We'll spin back around to pick you up after."

"How's she flying nowadays?"

"Like a drunken skywhale. But honestly? For this odd mixture of roles she's got going, that's pretty damn good. We're done fueling, sir. Take a seat and we'll get you where you're going."

Midoriya gave the pilot a couple of pats on the shoulder before returning the headset to its nook. Walking back, he took up the seat across from Koda. The man looked like he was going to be sick as he sat clenching the sides of his seat. "We're clear for launch. It'll take us about twenty minutes to get where we're going from the last test's speed."

Midoriya patted the frame of the plane beside him. "The fusion drives on this thing coupled up with the maneuvering thrusters were a nightmare for the programmers to get working. As it turns out, a lot of work goes into producing a VTOL aircraft. Luckily, they had plenty of help and a large budget to work out the kinks with."

Is that supposed to be comforting? Koda grimaced, his throat bobbing uneasily as his hands formed the words.

"It means, Koda, that we are past the plane crashing stage. Besides that, every single part gets examined and tested between every aircraft test. Right now, this'll be safer than most commercial flights."

That tidbit of information isn't going to help me on commercial flights. Midoriya gave an awkward shrug of his shoulders. He was trying. It wasn't helping, but he was trying.

The takeoff was smooth enough to have Koda relaxing a bit in his seat. His eyes naturally tracked to the windscreen in front of the pilot's nook at the front of the aircraft. He tensed back up when he saw the sky.

…

He stumbled off the aircraft paler than he had started. Midoriya patted him on the back conciliatorily. Getting them to their destination in six minutes, the pilots had surpassed his expectations and had broken their previous speed record with a blistering 960 miles per hour.

The hooping and laughter as they broke the sound barrier had been gleeful for Midoriya and the pilots, both. It had not been glee that Koda had felt as, in his mind, the only sane individual on that plane. The shaking had nearly made him catatonic.

Once he managed to catch his breath, Midoriya led him away from the landing pad and down a paved path toward the front doors of a sleek, modernist office. Koda couldn't help but marvel at all of the nature around them as they approached the building. Bird song and the distant call of wildlife, all of it sounding like a busy city vibrant and full of life to Koda's ears. Midoriya scanned his badge at the front door before sticking his hand on a pad to be scanned.

Where are we, Midoriya?

"This used to be known as the island of Miyake. It was abandoned during the Urban Wars. There are a series of these small islands out here that the government was happy to sell the land on if it meant something was being done with it. They don't have the time, budget, nor a fuck to give about the land out here."

Okay, why do you have a facility on an abandoned island off the east coast?

The door beeped and Midoriya gestured Koda inside the building. "This facility has become our head of operations for a number of our biological sciences. The ecosystem here was as dead as the island when we first got here, but we've spent the last couple of years terraforming it back to a healthy state. Somewhere over in that direction," Midoriya made a gesture with his hand, "we have a variety of carefully maintained gardens, hydroponics, farms, etcetera."

Midoriya made another gesture. "That way, we mostly have nature preserves and simulated biomes. We have just about every environment that you could visit from Mercury to Pluto. Of course, some of those are dangerous and the proper precautions are being taken, but tests are still useful in those areas." The pair stopped at a set of double doors, and Midoriya made a final gesture. "That way, we have genetics testing areas and labs. Diseases, animals, the literal creation of life, anything you could potentially do with recombinant DNA. Through here," Midoriya pointed to the double doors, "we have one of our control centers for the island. We monitor everything and track situations as they develop."

Koda stopped for a long moment, saying nothing. After a long pause, his hands came up as if to make words. He paused again, lowering them. The silence stretched as Koda warred with something inside himself before his expression finally settled, his mouth opening as if to speak.

"Why did you bring me here, Midoriya?"

Midoriya took in the set of Koda's features with a tilt of his head. He had a few options here, and he pondered for a moment on them. "You are leaving the hero course. It's no secret that I've looked at the student files before, and you had a biology degree as your backup. This place should give you a clearer idea of precisely what you want to do."

Koda narrowed his eyes at Midoriya. "That's not all of it, is it? By your own admission, this place, or at least parts of it, are cla- classified." Even with whatever courage Koda seemed to have dug up, he still struggled to swallow the classified nature of Midoriya's work. "Just because I'm in the hero course, as well, you wouldn't have brought me here. You- you're logical in class, and something about this doesn't add up. You barely know me. I could- I could be the type to break an NDA."

Midoriya smiled and shook his head. "No, no you wouldn't be able to break the NDA, I'm afraid. The government itself wouldn't allow that. Besides, there is a certain quality of students that are selected for the hero course at U.A. There is a reason it's one of the top three heroics colleges in the world. You wouldn't violate the NDA unless there were very good reasons to do so."

"An- and the reason you're helping me?" Koda's voice had grown softer after Midoriya's response. He hadn't lost his confidence, but Midoriya's easy answer had made him cringe at his own question.

"Well, you are correct. There is more to it than you simply being a heroics student." Koda's head snapped up. "It's one part heroics, as it is simply a good thing to do to help. It is one part selfish altruism, though. You are in trouble, I can help, that makes me feel good. Maybe a bit of reciprocal altruism, as well." Koda gritted his teeth. Pity wasn't something he'd wanted when he'd gone to Midoriya.

"But mostly, it's the fact that you have potential, Koda. You are intelligent, going by the scores on your entrance exam. It was tailored for the natural sciences, and you still scored very high. There are dozens of jobs and career paths even just within biology. You could be a ranger here on this island. A biological technician, research assistant, agricultural scientist, environmental scientist, wetland scientist, ecologist, or geneticist. I could stand here and list job titles all day, but I'd wager on you going into the veterinary sciences, and with your quirk? You'd be damn good at it, if you can stomach it. Pretty much any job you choose, we could use you here."

Midoriya let an easy smirk slip onto his face. "So yes, it is a bit selfish in nature. I'd prefer to be the first one to offer you a position. And if you maybe form some kind of attachment to the people and this place in the process? That's even better."

Koda stared at the floor for a long moment, working through what Midoriya had told him and looking for anything that he might have left out. There were a few places Koda thought that Midoriya might have done just that, but it wasn't a pressing issue. Koda could at least trust that Midoriya wanted to use him as an employee. For his own goals, he could live with a little nepotism. Finally, he raised his hands to speak for him.

Do you pay well? Midoriya blinked at the question before answering in the affirmative.

I'll be using you as much as you'll be using me, then. I can live with that. Koda turned towards the doors and pushed his way inside. Outside, Midoriya let a low laugh rumble in his chest, a Cheshire grin splitting his face.

Oh, he'll be very useful.

Notes:

Everyone has motivations to do things. Even if we never see them...

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