Revelation

"On what basis is he even hiring you?! You're not QUALIFIED for anything! And this is how you repay us? Millions of tax dollars, hundreds of thousands of work hours! We raised you!" Shinji was livid, now.

"And just where does it say I have to repay you in that delightful hellscape of a contract, Shinji-sama?" Hoshiko stayed cool, you couldn't survive under the commission if you were prone to outbursts.

Shinji seethed, "It doesn't. I…FUCK just…when did you even meet Nezu? Or anyone from UA?" Since Hoshiko refused to answer the previous question, Shinji opened the offer as she spoke.

"You are not entitled to control my personal relationships, Shinji-sama, my mother did make sure of that when she realized her deal was with the…proverbial…devil. If you MUST know, I'm qualified as a quirk trainer."

"What." Shinji's eyes widened.

"You wanted me to take on sidekicks when I opened my agency. I can't receive financial aid from anyone other than the HPSC, so I couldn't go through online education to get certified as a teacher, meaning my only option was having Reiko push through the paperwork for a quirk training license. We drew up a contract that, when I had my agency, I would take on a number of HPSC recruits. It did not stipulate that I needed to make my agency within any certain time limit. So I'm qualified to train quirks, Shinji-sama." Hoshiko managed it all in a single breath, speaking quickly, but the woman clearly got it all.

Shinji was gaping again. "Those fucking…ugh…huhhhhhh-okay! Okay. You've officially played me, Hoshiko, I'm so proud ."

"I've never asked for your pride, Shinji-sama. May I be dismissed?"

Shinji opened her mouth to dismiss her then stopped. After a moment a small grin marred her aging face. "No. I've suddenly decided that a work study would be of benefit to you, we wouldn't want to embarrass ourselves, one of our esteemed wards is going to work for UA and we have reputation to uphold. You have your license now, yes?" Before Hoshiko could respond, Shinji cut her off, "For the next 5 months, you get to work with…ah. You get to work with All Might , how exciting!" Shinji's grin was positively disgusting.

Hoshiko groaned.

——-

Yagi Toshinori didn't know what to do. He had asked one favor of the HPSC in his lifetime, when he returned to Japan from his tenure in the USA. It had been a long time since then, he had forgotten it had even happened, but Shinji had clearly not. The HPSC was technically the land owner of the lot his Agency was built on…he had not paid them to be on that land, land he thought was his bank's now, ever. In his defense, getting land in Minato was damn near impossible for everyone . Thus, Shinji was calling in that favor.

"Madam…I can't take on a sidekick at this moment. Crime rates are rising, I need to be on active patrol so much more often-I-"

"I do not care, Toshinori. Your options are taking on Hoshiko for the work study or moving your agency so that she might put Hera in its place. I don't like to burden our symbol of peace this way, but our assets must be used carefully, we've ignored the lack of payment for so long…"

"I could easily repay that money, Shinji!", Toshinori cried.

"No, you couldn't. You see, for every day that you did not pay us back, a corresponding amount of yen was added to the bill, compounding. 1 yen for 1 day…2 for 2…2391 for 2391…on EVERY missed payment, which were monthly for the record, you haven't paid us in close to 15 year now, Toshinori. That's a LOT of yen…more Yen than is currently in your agency's account. Too much charity and you've been slowing down. But do not worry, all will be forgiven, the inevitable social upheaval will be avoided, if you just do this one thing for us. And it's only 5 months~"

Toshinori stared, gaping, at his phone. Horror slowly sunk into his mind, the gravity of the situation taking hold. He did the math.

'2.5 billion yen…I could pay it in theory, but things would be…too difficult for the agency. Far too difficult.'

"O-Okay…I'll take her…I guess." He spoke, hanging up.

This girl, whoever she is, AND young Midoriya…how am I going to do this?

——-

Hoshiko was pissed. Her hatred of the reigning symbol of peace could scarcely be called rational, but it was firm and present in her thoughts. Currently she walked through a mall in Minato, picking up some clothing before she checked in at her hotel.

Minato was not her favorite place, too crowded, even for a city girl like herself. Finding a UNIQLO, she went in and found some shirts she liked. She didn't spend long in the store, grabbing things that caught her eye, then went to the counter. The cashier fumbled with the American Express Centurion card, the HPSC did of course have a reputation to uphold, then she walked out.

'Japan's taxpayers! Paying for a 17-year-olds clothing with a ridiculously vain, foreign, symbol of wealth that should never TOUCH the hands of a government official. Fun.'

Once everything she bought was safely in her room, and seeing that she had a couple hours to kill, an idea formed in her head. Smiling, she threw on a blouse and jeans, and set forth.

Her hotel was six blocks from Might Tower, the appalling behemoth of an agency sitting near the sea wall. In civilian clothes, she moved relatively unnoticed through the city, it was always interesting to watch people just…being people.

It was hard for kids like her and hawks, who remained so far removed from the normal population, to connect with the people they worked so hard to protect. It made it easier, the pain, the training, and the loss, to know that the people around her were safer in her presence.

Without any real sense of urgency, Hoshiko waited until she was around 3 blocks from the agency, found an alleyway, and activated her quirk. Her world went dark, all light being redirected and pulled through her body. Once she was invisible, she sent a pulse into the surroundings, and she could see once again. Her world became black and white, her brain using input from her quirk to reconstruct the world around her in lieu of sight.

Hoshiko, now hidden, gently floated herself higher and higher, reaching the top of the skyscrapers around her in less than a minute, but she still moved slow. At any real speed, she would become visible on radar crosshairs, which was not what she wanted. Finally at the height she wanted to be, she moved towards All Mights agency.

—--

The golden globe opened underneath Toshinori, allowing him entrance to his private area within Might Tower. He landed with a soft thud, bending his legs slightly to handle the decceleration. Once the globe closed, he sighed out, shifting back into his smaller form. His lungs heaved, pain rocketing through his body from various sources.

'God damn I'm old.'

His insticts suddenly went on high alert, a moment after he changed. Something was wrong. Toshinori's eyes scanned his surroundings, looking for anything amiss in the landing bay. In a world of quirks, though, that meant relatively little. Then he caught it, a small glimmer of light, barely perceptible, but there. Shifting again, he leaped towards the threat, grabbing the interloper by what was presumably the throat and slamming them into the wall.

The mirage flickered, the invisibility dying, leaving a young woman gasping and writhing in his grasp, clutching at his hand around her throat, clawing at it, trying to escape. Toshi gently released pressure.

"Who are you." Toshi commanded the young woman to speak.

"F-fuck-*wheeze*- I'm Hoshiko, t-the new intern." Hoshiko then started violently coughing.

'Shit. HPSC girl.'

Toshinori dropped her to the floor.

"So-*cough*-the ever powerful s-symbol of peace has a d-dirty little secret?' Hoshiko spoke with a mirthful grin, still clearly in pain.

Toshi sighed, going 'skinny' once more.

"Why were you in my landing bay, where you shouldn't be?" Toshi was pissed.

"I wanted to see what my new boss was like." Hoshiko spoke with an edge to her voice.

"Paying zero mind to the impression you might make?"

"You shouldn't have been able to see me."

"With such an obvious mirage?"

"I don't…make a mirage. I'm completely invisible in that state." Toshi could see that the girl truly believed that.

"Well I clearly saw you."

"I…that's actually not possible without a quirk but we'll talk about that later. Why are you…small?"

Toshi sighed for seemed to be the millionth time these last few days, "I have an…injury. I can't stay in my more powerful state for more than a few hours at a time right now. It's a closely guarded secret."

"...Huh. So this is how the HPSC got you to take me on?"

"No. They do not know, they will not know. Shinji used…more underhanded tactics to blackmail me" Toshi ordered.

"Ah. She's rather good at that. What does this mean for me now?"

"Honestly? I have no idea."

——-

Hoshiko shifted uncomfortably in her seat, sitting once again across from a superior for a hard conversation.

"Well, Hoshiko…I probably shouldn't call you that, what's your last name?" The symbol of peace questioned with a small smile.

"No. Hoshiko probably isn't even my real name, but the commission decided against giving me one." Hoshiko responded without that much thought. Clearly that was a mistake on her part, though, seeing as his face dropped.

"…What do you mean 'gave' you?" His tone was grave.

He…doesn't know?

Comprehensión bloomed in the back of her mind.

'Of fucking course he doesn't know. Damnit, now I'm guilty.'

"I've…been a ward of the commission since I was 4. I'm a part of the Paragon program, like Hawks was." Hoshiko said a little weekly, thinking of the various unkind thoughts she's had of the man. His horrified expression alone was enough for her to realize that he was, in fact, not complicit in her education.

"The WHAT program? And hawks as well?" His face was stricken now.

"I h-had thought you knew…you sent in, like, half of our recruits." Hoshiko spoke again and once again realized she fucked up, seeing as All Might was looking at her like she killed his dog.

"That…THAT'S WHAT SHINJI DOES WITH THE ORPHANS!?"

'Oh…fuck'