Chapter Text
Mirio-senpai is waiting for him at the dorms when he gets back from classes.
They walk together to the entrance of the school grounds, and with a swipe of Mirio’s student id the doors open and let them through.
As soon as they’re through the door slams shut behind them, and his senpai leads him to a fancy looking car that’s parked a few feet away.
All of Izuku’s worries about having to walk or take the bus to Nighteye Agency disappear when they hop inside. One of Sir Nighteye’s sidekicks drives the car, and seems familiar enough with Mirio-senpai for this to be a common occurrence.
Not that he’s no longer worried.
It’s just Izuku and his senpai out here. He’s been accompanied by one or both of his dads every other time he’s exited the dorms, so it feels odd without them. Unsafe.
But Izuku is a hero in training, so this feeling is something he’ll have to get used to.
The ride to the agency is fairly short, so the uncomfortable feelings won’t be too bad if Nighteye accepts him.
The sidekick escorts them all the way to the doors before disappearing. Izuku isn’t worried. There are enough heroes here that he feels almost as safe as he does at school.
Mirio-senpai clearly knows his way around, and he even stops a few times to talk to some of the heroes. He introduces them to Izuku, and more than one of them express their excitement at having a new face around.
He really hopes he doesn’t disappoint them.
All too soon they’re stopping in front of office doors, and Mirio-senpai is pressing him to knock.
“W-wait, you’re not coming in?”
“Of course not! This is like a job interview. No help from your senpai allowed, no matter how much I want to.” Mirio gives him what Izuku would call a worried look if he knew him better.
The door opens before he can get another word in, and there stands Sir Nighteye in all of his glory.
He’s a lot taller in person.
He steps aside and Mirio-senpai practically shoves Izuku into the room, before whispering something in the hero’s ear.
A moment later and he’s gone, leaving Izuku to fend for himself. Sir Nighteye doesn’t say a word, just holds out his hand for Izuku to shake.
He bows low instead.
Izuku may be a little socially inept, but he knows better than to shake the hand of someone with such a higher standing. It has to be some sort of test.
Izuku also knows how his quirk works.
Back when he was still obsessed with All Might, Izuku did a deep dive on all of the heroes he ever worked with. Nighteye was one of the cooler ones, so to this day he still remembers practically everything about the man.
Sir Nighteye can’t use his quirk on someone without touching them first.
“Sit down.” Izuku startles from his bow, and tries not to frown at the man’s displeased tone.
Seems like he’s already messed up.
Izuku sits across from Nighteye at the desk, and waits for the hero to ask him questions.
“I’m going to be honest here. I’m not impressed.”
“W-what?” Izuku only remembers his manners when the man frowns at him.
“Mirio was a much better candidate for One For All. One I’d picked myself. To hear that Toshinori casually handed it off to some kid with no hope of becoming a hero annoyed me to no end.” Izuku is absolutely speechless.
He expected something like this, but he wasn’t expecting Sir Nighteye to be so harsh. Izuku’s still a kid, and the man is treating him as if he’s the one who made the decision, not All Might.
“Despite all of that, I still agreed to see you. Do you know why that is?”
“All M-might said because of m-my analysis.” Nighteye seems even more displeased at his answer.
Or maybe it was the stuttering.
“Well that certainly got you through the door, but that’s not it. I needed to see if you were worthy.” Izuku feels like he already knows the answer.
“And from what I can tell, you’re not.”
“B-but I th-thought-”
“That because you’re smart I’d let you in?” Izuku nods. That’s exactly what he was hoping for, but he also came here with the knowledge that Nighteye isn’t the most agreeable hero.
“I’ll tell you what. If you can get this stamp from my hand to sign your paperwork, I’ll let you do your work study here, with me.” Nighteye stands with an almost smug look on his face.
He holds a stamp in his hand, and Izuku knows that it’ll be much harder than simply walking up and grabbing it.
He’s not sure if Sir Nighteye knows he has access to the other users quirks or not, but he'll only have the element of surprise for so long.
With that in mind, Izuku focuses on activating Float. He’s been practising with his dad a lot, so he has some control over it now. It just takes a lot out of him.
Especially when he uses more than one of his quirks at once.
Nighteye’s face reveals nothing, but he quirks a brow when Izuku floats backwards instead of forwards.
When he’s nearing the wall behind him, Izuku snaps an arm forward. It’s similar to how he uses his capture scarf, but he’s not armed with that today.
Instead, he focuses on the tingling sensation of Blackwhip as it shoots forwards to the hero.
Nighteye moves his hand to the side and out of the path of his quirk, but Izuku had been planning on that.
A smaller tendril breaks off from the first. While the bigger one stays on it’s path and crashes into the desk, the smaller one veers right, and successfully wraps around the stamp in Sir Nighteye’s hand.
Izuku pulls his quirk back in, and drops to the ground, stamp in hand.
He can’t help the pleased grin that forms on his face.
Izuku has worked so hard on these quirks. It took him a long time to be able to grab something and actually bring it back to himself with his quirk. It may have looked easy, but it was quite the opposite.
He’s proud of himself.
Proud, but exhausted. Izuku sits on the ground at the end of the office. He needs a minute to rest before getting back up.
Nighteye turns to the splintered desk, and picks up a single piece of paper that Izuku hopes is his work study contract.
He did do as the hero asked.
“I wasn’t informed that you had access to the previous users quirks.” Izuku shrugs. It wasn’t his job to tell the man.
“I’ll accept you at my agency. You’ll come for patrol on the same days as Mirio. I’d also like you to come an extra day to work on your analysis. Mondays should suffice.” Izuku can only stare as the stamp is plucked from his hand and used on the paperwork.
“Th-thank you.”
“Oh don’t thank me yet. I’m still not convinced.” About Izuku being worthy goes unsaid.
Mirio-senpai chooses then to enter the office. Was he listening outside the door? The goofy smile on his face tells Izuku that he wasn’t, but he could be just pretending.
Them stopping for ice cream on the way back to the dorms tells Izuku enough.