Chapter 5:
"… Annnd finally!" Izuku cheered a little as the emitter node lit up correctly. He gently place it down on his bedroom desk, which was doing double duty as his workshop bench, and reached over to make a note in his repair notebook.
His little stunt with the giant robot at last week's entrance exam had caused some decay in the fine filaments of the energy emitters. If left alone without repair, he would have still been able to maintain the functions of the Cosmic Staff, but would have lost some of the fine control over the lifting and energy blasts.
Fixing the damage was the easy part, the difficulty came in trying to devise a means to prevent the same thing happening again. The week that followed consisted of him having to go back to Dr. Knight's journal, and re-examine the first principals behind the technology.
And after that, he had to do something he'd never had to before. He had to take Dr. Knight's work, and improve it using his own ideas, the thought of which frankly terrified Izuku.
Sure, he'd added his own aesthetic to his Cosmic Staff and Cosmic Convertor belt, but the underlying circuitry followed his ersatz mentor's blueprints to the letter. Deviating from the instructions seemed wrong, somehow.
And yet, there was the thrill he felt when he went back to the basics and played around with the components. From that playing around, Izuku developed a greater understanding of the way it all connected together.
"Izuku!" his mom called out from the living room, "Your results are here!"
"Be right there!" he called back, pulling off the anti-static gloves he wore whilst tinkering. Whilst the chances of static discharges causing faults in the circuits was low, Izuku was trusting his life with his support gear.
He walked out of his room, and closed the door, the All-Might inspired name plate he'd gotten at age 6 swinging slightly. In the living room, his mom waited, looking slightly panicked and holding a thick envelope.
"Do you want me to leave?" she asked, worried. She was still concerned about the knowledge in Dr. Knight's journal, but still supported her son's dreams.
"No, stay," Izuku gave her a smile, and opened the envelope, revealing a puck like object. A couple of seconds puzzling over it revealed it was some sort of holographic projector, so the two sat down in front of the coffee table, and Izuku turned it on.
"I am here!" a squeaky voice called out, revealing a strange white furry creature, "Am I a dog, a bear, a mouse or a recording? Regardless of which, I am also the Principal of UA!"
"The principal?" Inko gasped, "Oh Izuku, it must be good news!"
"Indeed, it is very good news, Mrs. Midoriya," the hologram agreed, before picking up a cup of tea, and taking a sip.
"Wait," Izuku was confused, "Isn't this a recording?"
"Ho ho ho ho ho!" the diminutive mammal laughed, "Normally, yes, we'd send out pre-recorded messages, however, I felt your acceptance deserved a more personal touch!"
"So," Inko's face began to beam, "Izuku made it in?"
"Yes, let's get the results out of the way," the white creature agreed, and typed something on his computer, making a graphic display on the hologram, "Your written results were very good, top third result. In the practical, you gave a good showing for yourself with a score of 32 villain points, however we also had a secret scoring criteria, known as rescue points."
With a start, Izuku recognised his own voice muttering from the projection, along with familiar footage from his button cam. It paused, and shrunk down to show the principal once again.
"We took the liberty of including your own footage in our evaluations," Nezu grinned, "Since you barely secured the data-stream, after all."
"U-um," Izuku flushed, "It's meant for post-action analysis anyway, so …"
"Ah good," the principal continued the footage.
Izuku swallowed his embarrassment as his past-self muttered about the zero pointer causing destruction in the 'residential' area. He'd seen the footage before, but knowing that other people had listened to his stream of consciousness made things worse.
"It's good that you decided to treat the exercise as the real thing," Nexu cut in, pausing the video again, "Sadly, good intentions did not earn you rescue points, but what you did next did!"
The footage continued, and Inko grabbed her son's hand and shot him a pround smile when she watched him act so decisively in the face of danger. Apparently someone at UA had decided to cut the footage together in a cinematic manner alongside the CCTV footage from the battle-centre.
After a few minutes, the footage paused and closed, leaving the view of the principal.
"After discussion, it was decided that you earned 60 rescue points for both helping young Miss Uraraka, and for disabling the robot safely without causing additional collateral damage. This means your overall score comes to 92 points, taking you to the exam top spot. So we are pleased to offer you a position within our Hero course."
The eyes of both Inko and Izuku began to water simultaneously.
"We do, however need to address your quirkless nature, and the use of your support items," Nezu continued, "Normally, such devices would be strictly contained at UA, and only be allowed for use during authorised training or agreed school events."
Izuku's heart sank. He couldn't hand over his Cosmic Staff!
"Not to worry," Nezu waved his hands in a placating manner, "This is because civilians are not allowed to use support gear unless it is to assist them in their daily lives with quirk complications. Since you had the forethought to register your belt as 'personal protection equipment' and your fascinating staff as a 'micro-light VTOL aircraft' we can't actually legally ask you to hand them over."
A palpable sigh was released.
"Although we must ask you not to fly in urban areas, and that the other functions of the staff are locked down in public until such time as you receive your hero license, or you receive authorisation to use them. Any deviation from this will get treated the same as illegal quirk use, do you understand?"
"Yes, sir," Izuku nodded rapidly.
"Good," Nezu smiled, "I also wish to give you a few private lessons when the school year begins, if you are amiable, of course."
"Certainly," Izuku grinned, not knowing he was agreeing to a hellish time under the diminutive dictator.
"I'll make the schedule arrangements then," Nezu typed something on his computer, "A formal letter with all your student requirements was included in the envelope, so I'll let you get to celebrating. Was there anything you wanted to ask before I leave?"
Izuku glanced at his mom, got a slight nod, and then turned to the white mammal.
"I've been meaning to perform a long distance flight test of my Cosmic Staff, could you help arrange things?"
"Certainly, Mister Midoriya, where was it you were planning on going?"
***
"Flight UA-001, Ellsworth Tower, we have you on approach. Flight plan indicates you are an ultra-light and are to land at western helipad number 3, copy."
"Ellsworth Tower, Flight UA-001, on approach to western helipad number 3, over,"
Izuku was exhausted. It'd taken a good couple of hours to travel from Japan to Hawaii, were he'd stopped for lunch, and from there he hopped across to San Diego on the east coast of America to go through customs.
After getting his paperwork sorted, he'd been allowed to precede to his final destination, Ellsworth Airport, located in Maryland on the other coast of America.
All in all the trip had taken him six hours, but he was sure if he'd had access to a pressure suit and an oxygen tank, he could have significantly reduced that.
He dropped down on the helipad, and allowed his Cosmic Staff to power down. A cursory examination indicated that his more robust emitters were working well.
He had to take the shuttle from Ellsworth to Opal City, all the while irritated at the flight restrictions imposed on him that prevented him from just flying into the city.
Exhaling the irritation, he reached into the messenger bag, and pulled out the computer printout, and memorized the bus routes he needed to take from the bus depot to a junk shop his research had led him to.
The journey didn't take as long as he thought it did, the anticipation playing havoc with his sense of time. Before too long, he stepped off the bus and turned, getting a good look at his destination.
Jack's Curios.
Izuku swallowed his nerves, and pushed open the shop door, startling slightly over the bell that tinkled.
"Be right with ya'" a male voice called out, and before long, a tall man with black hair and a goatee wearing what seemed to be a bowling shirt walked up to the shop counter.
"Ah, how can I help, kid?"
"Sorry to bother you, but are you Mr. Jack Knight?" Izuku asked, his voice only slightly accented from his native tongue.
"Sure am," the older man gave an easy nod.
"W-well," Izuku swallowed, "When I was eight, I met your father."
Mr. Knight stiffened slightly, but then leaned on the shop counter, prompting Izuku to continue.
"I was diagnosed as Quirkless at four," he began explaining, and held up his Cosmic Rod, making it glow slightly, "But I wanted … I will be a hero. Your father gave me a journal with designs what he called his Magnum Opus, the …"
"Cosmic Rod," Jack breathed out slightly, "Although you've modified it to a staff. Snap, I guess ..."
And with that he pulled out a staff which looked more like a spear, clearly built from the same original designs. Izuku felt a bit of awe.
"Dad built the original for my brother David before passing, and my brother tried to have a hero career," Jack sighed, "But he was killed by a villain not too long into his career, and I inherited it. For a long while I thought it was cursed, but I decided to honour their memories by getting a heroics permit, and modifying it more to my style."
"O-oh," Izuku felt bad, "I'm sorry to bring up bad memories."
"Hey, don't worry about it," Jack grinned, "I'm kinda glad that I now know there's someone else out there using Dad's tech to be a hero."
"Ah," Izuku felt better, "Also, is a 'heroic permit' the American equivalent of a Hero License from Japan?"
"Not quite," Jack placed his own Cosmic Staff down, "Permits are for unpaid volunteers to act as heros in emergency situations, sort of like being a volunteer firefighter or coastguard."
The grandfather clock in the corner struck the hour, and Izuku jumped slightly.
"Oh!" he quickly dug his hand into his messenger bag, pulling out a familiar leather-bound book, "I came to return this! I've got my own notes copied, and I thought you might like to present your father's work for academic recognition."
"You came all the way from Japan to hand deliver my Dad's notebook?" Jack smiled jovially, taking the journal and leafing through it.
"And one other thing," Izuku wrung his hands, "Could you tell me where he's buried? I wanted to tell him some good news. I got into UA!"
"Heh," Jack took the journal, and walked over to a large safe which he opened and placed the journal inside, "Give me a minute, and I'll take you there myself. He would of given me a stern talking to if I didn't."
((AN: Jack Knight was the original owner of the Cosmic Staff that would later be directly passed on to Courtney Whitmore, aka Stargirl. He's sadly written out of more modern versions of the Stargirl lore in favour of Sylvester Pemberton))
