Chapter Text
Nedzu sat back in his chair with a hum, eyes darting over the screen in amusement.
He had always found chess rather boring, simple in its complexity, and after thoroughly trouncing every opponent in Japan, he had moved on to other strategy games, those certainly less common than something as ancient as chess.
One such game he was rather fond of was Terraforming Mars. As the name suggests, you start with the red planet with no oxygen, low temperature, and no water or greenery to speak of. Through the course of the game, using cards and your corporate abilities and specialties, you make an infrastructure to hopefully terraform the most of Mars and claim dominion over the planet. It can play several people, up to 5, but Nedzu always preferred a single player or two player game, despite three players being the most popular.
It was a card based board game, which translated well to the online mode, and each game was different. Of course, certain strategies could be utilized in all games, but the corporation you represented changed every game, and each had its own specialty and abilities. There were more in the expansions, of course, but some of the basic corporations were very exciting. For example, Ecoline lets you start with 2 plant production, 3 plant resources in hand, and 36 MC, or the game currency, at the start of the game. Furthermore, when placing a greenery tile, it will cost you 7 plants instead of 8, like it would for most others. Since greenery tiles directly translate into victory points at the end of the game, this corporation will likely focus heavily on plant production and greenery. Another interesting one is Inventrix. You draw three cards for free at the start of the game, where otherwise you have to pay 3 MC per card, and you start with 45 MC. Whenever a card has a specific requirement, like having the oxygen above or below a certain level, or the temperature, or number of oceans, the requirements can be changed by +2 or -2 steps, your choice. Surely handy for cards that have explicit requirements, and you get starting cards besides.
All in all, the game was different every time, some things left entirely up to chance, and that was something that excited Nedzu like nothing else. Unlike in chess, where the most diversity you get is which side you play, Terraforming Mars is different every round. No two games will be the same based on the luck of the draw for the cards, even if the players played exactly the same way every time. It was simply fascinating.
Plus, Nedzu quite liked the idea of terraforming and owning a planet. Space travel had declined when quirks first came along, so it was not something he was likely to have happen, but it was an entertaining idea. In addition, he supposed that being the principal of UA was a bit like terraforming a planet. Cultivate the right environment, and all that.
He felt he knew many of the people who often played, finding himself playing at the same time every day in the hopes of meeting one specific player. More often than not, he did indeed find them. It was rare that people would end up in a match with him and not leave, at this point, taking one look at his username, “[REDACTED],” and disconnecting. Disheartening, sure, but there was one player, “Greenbean,” who always stayed, sending a “hi!!! :)” in the in game text chat.
In all honesty, he wasn’t that upset that people didn’t play with him, because it meant he could go a few games with Greenbean instead, which was always a treat. Even if Nedzu won, the games were very close, and the other player always gave fun reactions to actions in the chat, which Nedzu could not help but indulge. The person was very smart, and Nedzu enjoyed the time at the end of the day, when schools and most work got out, when he got to play with them.
After several months, Nedzu would posit they were friends, or at least friendly, having talked a few times about curious science topics, some related to the game, some not, when Greenbean asked a question out of the blue.
Greenbean: can I ask you a question?
[REDACTED]: of course!
Greenbean: how do I get my classmates to stop hitting me?
And Nedzu stopped.
There were a few things wrong with that. One, this was a child, someone still in school. He had guessed they were in late middle school or early highschool despite their intelligence based on their manner of speaking, but to have it confirmed in perhaps the worst way made his heart stutter, before he went into principal mode.
[REDACTED]: why are they hitting you? Are the teachers doing nothing?
Greenbean: I get in their way, I guess. And no, not really.
Nedzu’s face was carefully blank.
[REDACTED]: Green, them hitting you is not your fault, you know that, yes?
Greenbean: I mean
Greenbean: if I didn’t get in their way, if I was better at running, I’d probably be fine
Greenbean: it doesn’t even hurt as much anymore but I’m running out of things to tell my mom
His whiskers twitched.
[REDACTED]: why aren’t the teachers doing anything?
Greenbean: well
Greenbean: um
There was a pause, the game long since stalled, but Nedzu waited.
Greenbean: I’m quirkless…
Nedzu felt confusion first. Quirkless? Certainly uncommon, but that meant this child (and there was the anger again) was frighteningly intelligent all on his own. Anger came shortly after that thought. How ridiculous. Humans would try to find any reason to beat others down, even those of their own kind, and this child was kind, intelligent, and curious, all traits Nedzu was constantly looking for in students.
Greenbean: i understand if you don’t want to play anymore
Greenbean: honestly I should probably just keep to myself
Greenbean: I really liked the games we did play!
Nedzu pushed down his anger to reassure his gaming partner.
[REDACTED]: why would I stop playing with you because of something you cannot control?
[REDACTED]: in addition, you are one of the only ones who can go toe to toe with me, and that’s without an intelligence quirk like mine; very impressive, Green!
He knew the quirkless statistics. It was part of the reason he had lifted the ban on quirkless students, hoping that if UA led the charge, other highschools would stop the discrimination for a subset of people who were just as capable and arguably far less of a liability than most people.
His snout twitched in amusement as the child immediately latched on to his quirk. Quirks had been a favorite topic of them both, but they had thus far avoided talking about their own. Still, Greenbean had revealed their status, it was only fair Nedzu do the same (plus, it effectively got the child off the spiral of negative self-worth, no doubt enforced in their school).
Greenbean: oh wow, that’s pretty rare!
Greenbean: and it makes a lot of sense, you’re really good at this game :)
Greenbean: there aren’t many heroes with an intelligence quirk, but I know Nedzu, the principal of UA is one, and he’s really cool!
Greenbean: does it speed up your mental processes or make you better at retaining information?
Greenbean: oh! Does it give you multitasking abilities? I know current research says most people can’t actually multitask effectively, so that’d be a really cool quirk, but it would probably require multiple processing systems since the human brain isn’t designed to handle multiple thought processes simultaneously
[REDACTED]: there are actually other heroes with intelligence based quirks, but it technically does all of those things!
[REDACTED]: perhaps not the multitasking, as, like you said, it’s not very effective, but my thoughts are indeed very fast and I am rather good at retaining information.
Greenbean: that’s so cool! What do you call it?
Nedzu smiled to himself.
[REDACTED]: High specs, of course! :)
Greenbean: woah, that’s the name of nedzu’s! Do you have the same quirk as him?
[REDACTED]: I certainly hope so!
[REDACTED]: after all, I am him!
He chuckled, glad to have gotten off the topic of the bullying, even if he would likely go back to it eventually as Greenbean typed, then deleted, typed, then deleted, and Nedzu was more than patient with the response.
Greenbean: ?!?!?!?!?!?!
Greenbean: you’re nedzu?!
Greenbean: wait is this a prank
Nedzu’s heart fell.
[REDACTED]: I can assure you it’s not. If you would like, you can send me an email, and I will reply with a code word of your choosing!
Greenbean: wait, are you sure?
[REDACTED]: perfectly! Nedzu’s, or I suppose, my email is public knowledge on the UA website. Make the subject of your email your favorite corporation, perhaps!
Greenbean: uhhhhh ok!!
Greenbean: oh, the code word is um
Greenbean: katsudon!
Nedzu smiled and tabbed out of the game, opening his email and refreshing every few seconds until he got an email from one [email protected] , with the subject line “Teractor,” an earth based corporation. The message was a simple “hello” and nothing more, and he was quick to send back the given codeword with a smiley face, tabbing back into the game as soon as it sent.
[REDACTED]: sent :)
Greenbean: hoksdsdgfajhsdbc
Greenbean: YOU’RE REALLY NEDZU???
Greenbean: I’VE BEEN TALKING TO NEDZU?????????
Greenbean: I’VE BEEN PLAYING GAMES WITH NEDZU?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
[REDACTED]: and won several too!
Greenbean: oh holy moly I’ve beaten nedzu before
Greenbean: at a strategy game
Greenbean: ok I can die happy now
Greenbean: um! Thank you, Nedzu sir, for playing games with me! I know you’re probably pretty busy…
[REDACTED]: nonsense, I look forward to meeting you on the battlefield every evening :)
Greenbean: oh jeez, I play video games with the principal of UA almost every day
Greenbean: hang on I’m going to need a minute
[REDACTED]: on a different topic, Teractor is your favorite corporation?
Greenbean: oh, yeah! I like playing earth cards anyway, so getting a cost reduction on them is nice. Plus it’s like, an homage to home, right?
[REDACTED]: quite right! I imagine the 60 starting cash doesn’t hurt either?
Greenbean: oh, no, gives me flexibility early game
Greenbean: if not I like Ecoline
[REDACTED]: ah, that would have been my guess, from your name. You seem to favor greenery and oceans rather than cities
Greenbean: hehe, yeah, I guess I do
[REDACTED]: tell me, Green, you know who I am, what can I call you?
[REDACTED]: unless you’d rather I go with Green like usual, or perhaps Small Might ;)
Greenbean: aksjhakd I forgot that was my email address ;-;
Greenbean: um! You can call me Izuku!
Greenbean: if you want to
[REDACTED]: of course, Izuku! And of course, you can call me Nedzu :)
[REDACTED]: now, shall we finish this game?
Greenbean: oh, yeah! Lets!
Nedzu smiled, tabbing out briefly to put in a request with the police for any files they had on a quirkless boy named Izuku. He was not going to let the question from earlier go unpunished for whoever dared to put down this kind, smart child.
There would be hell to pay.
~~~~
Izuku was freaking out, even as he placed another greenery tile. Huh , he thought, Nedzu was right, I do place a lot of greenery . God, Nedzu . He had been playing with Nedzu all this time? Sure, looking back, [REDACTED] was a great player, the best he had ever found at his tender age of eight, having played this game for a few months by now, and the name fit the cryptid principal of the most prestigious high school in Japan, especially since no one really knew what he was, species wise, and he refused to confirm anything, seemingly revelling in the confusion.
He wasn’t sure what had made him ask the question. Sure, he was getting bullied at school, that was a fact he was slowly starting to accept. No matter how much Kacchan had been his friend not four years ago, as soon as Izuku was revealed to really be quirkless, that went out the window.
He guessed it was because Kacchan and the others had started using the quirks on him.
It hadn’t been as bad,before. Sure, it hurt, he had been lying when he told Nedzu it “didn’t even hurt as much anymore,” but he was running out of things to tell his mom. Cuts and bruises were one thing, he could pass those off as being clumsy, or playing too rough, but burns and minor stab wounds (the kid who could elongate his fingers discovered recently that if he grew his fingers really fast they had a chance to puncture skin, only about a quarter centimeter deep, but still enough to draw blood, like he was stabbed by a particularly vicious pencil) were much harder to explain away. For now he just tried to hide them, and the bullies were smart enough to avoid his face, but he had thought that maybe his smart and kind friend would be able to help him.
He should have known he’d ask questions, they always did before they found out he was worthless and deserved it.
But then Nedzu said he didn’t.
He said it wasn’t Izuku’s fault, which didn’t make sense. At the age of six, his teachers had inadvertently reinforced what Kacchan had been telling him - quirkless is useless, and he deserved it. After all, why else would the teachers look the other way, or even go as far as to scold Izuku for riling up the other kids. It was his fault!
But Nedzu was really smart, arguably the smartest person in Japan, if not the world, so he probably knew what he was talking about. He definitely believed what he said, for sure. Unless it was a prank…
But no, why would it be a prank? Nedzu had humored him rambling about his quirk when he knew Izuku was quirkless, had even finished the game and offered to play another one besides, that wasn’t something someone would do, right?
Sure, people had pretended to be his friend before, but he had proof that this was indeed Nedzu, because he doubted even the best hacker could pretend to send an email from Nedzu’s own, and he wouldn’t even get to see Izuku’s face when he revealed it was all a trick, since he didn’t know anything about him, really.
Wait.
He knew his name and quirk status.
Was that enough for someone to find him? Probably not just any random person, but this was Nedzu they were talking about, almost nothing seemed impossible for the principal of UA, so maybe he’d find him just to tell him what everyone else did. Sure, it seemed like a lot of trouble to go through for some random kid, but then again, Izuku had been playing TM with him for months at this point, time Nedzu was never going to get back.
But he had called Izuku one of the only people who could go toe to toe with him, which was insanely flattering. Sure, he didn’t win often, but he won every once in a while and he imagined the feeling was like what having friends would be like - pure euphoria.
Maybe he could actually get a friend this time, and if it happened to be the principal of UA and his gaming friend, then no one could really fault him for that.