A Heart Made of Gold

"And he was just...launched into outer space? Just like that?"

"Yep!" Joseph Joestar laughed rambunctiously. "Didn't think it'd actually work, but everything ended up going exactly how I planned it."

"I call bullshit," Trish said bluntly, and Giorno couldn't help but smirk. His fiancée had such a way with words.

"Hey, I never said the odds weren't against me, but us Joestars usually get way more than our fair share of luck when we need it the most. Like with that, uh—" he snapped his fingers. "—Diablo guy you guys fought."

"It's Diavolo," Giorno said. "Diavolo. Diablo is Spanish."

"Oh. Right. Sorry," Joseph chuckled. "Getting senile in my old age, you know?"

"It happens." It wasn't the old man's fault Spanish was more widespread globally than Italian—at least the two languages were mutually intelligible, which made it infinitely more bearable in dealing with most tourists or Passione's foreign connections.

But come to think of it, what did happen to Diavolo? No matter how many times he tried to get an answer, Gold Experience Requiem never once told him how it used its 'return to zero' ability on the former boss, but based on his Stand's persistent silence, it was obvious that it wasn't anything good. There was no doubt it was fitting, but there was a chance that it might be comparable to Kars's fate, even.

He was suddenly interrupted from his brief musing by the sounds of laughter coming from outside, and turned to see two people—one a little girl no older than twelve, and a young sporting a very prominent pompadour who looked much closer to Giorno's own age. They were shooting water guns at each other, with some of the water having spilled onto his shirt.

"Irene!" Holly Kujo exclaimed in Japanese. "What did I tell you and Josuke about using those things inside the house? Now, what do you say to our guest for shooting water at him?"

Josuke not-so-subtly rolled his eyes and gave Giorno a low bow, with Irene following suit. "We're very sorry for shooting water at you Mr. Giorno. Please forgive us," the two said.

Giorno couldn't help but chuckle at the display. "You two are forgiven." Reaching into his pocket, he fished out a fountain pen and presented it to Irene, and with a thought, transformed it into a sunflower. "For you, signorina." Irene took the proffered flower with an expression of surprise on her face, and ran off to the kitchen where Holly and Jotaro were busy cooking dinner.

"Hey, where's my flower?" Josuke asked, cheekily grinning. Giorno raised an eyebrow, and reached into the pocket of his suit jacket to pull out a five-thousand yen note. Josuke immediately cupped his hands together in gleeful anticipation, only for it to turn to disappointment as the note changed into a yellow carnation, much to Joseph's amusement.

"If you behave, I might consider changing it back," Giorno added, and Josuke shrugged as he put the flower in his pocket.

"Gotta admit," he began, "That's a pretty damn useful ability you've got there."

"It has its uses," Giorno agreed, nodding, but then he sighed. "Though I can't express how much easier it would have been if we had your Crazy Diamond with us three years ago." The 'we could have saved everyone' part went unspoken, with Trish reaching over to squeeze his hand. They shared a brief smile, and Giorno looked back up when he realized that the mood surrounding the living room was quickly turn sour, and inwardly kicked himself.

"So! Polnareff!" Joseph exclaimed, breaking the silence. "What's it like working for the mafia?" On the couch, the ghost of Jean Pierre Polnareff emerged from the turtle he was possessing, and before he could get roped into their conversation, Giorno excused himself and made his way outside, and walked to the small bridge just ahead.

Instead of a traditional structure, the individual rooms of the Kujo household were divided up on the land, such as the living room and kitchen being in the center building, and the bedrooms in the surrounding ones. But what Giorno was mainly here for was what was outside—the sounds of the small river flowing underneath the bridge as well as the chatter of the various small animals in the area made it a prime location for thinking.

And think he did. He thought of how Mista and Sheila E. were handling things back home, and how Fugo was doing on his assignment in the United States. It was already now close to a month since he last heard from him, but truth be told it was starting to get worrying. Before he could ponder on it some more, the faint clicking of high heels to his right brought Giorno out of his thoughts, and turned to see Trish walking up next to him.

"They're...pretty lively," she said. "But I think I might've started pulling my hair out if I had to listen to Polnareff talk about building 'Polnareffland' one more time." Giorno smiled in amusement, and Trish sighed as she leaned on his shoulder. "This place is nice. We should get a house like this. Just for vacations."

Giorno gingerly took hold of her hand and brought it to his lips. "One day, amore mio. One day."

He might not ever be able to retire from Passione until his death, but he would be lying if he said he couldn't see himself and Trish living a comfortable life in suburbia, with one or two little ones running around the place. Maybe. Possibly.

He never thought he would consider finding a new family outside of his comrades (alive and otherwise) in Passione, and to be honest it was foolish on the Joestars' part for accepting him so quickly, but...it was nice, having blood-relations he actually didn't mind spending time around. Even if the circumstances that led to it was one of the strangest stories he had ever heard in his life.

---

Tenya didn't walk with them to school today.

It had to have taken the world's biggest idiot not to realize that it was because of the news of his brother's injury was affecting him. The news never said the extent of it, but Izuku knew it had to have been life-threatening enough if it meant having to leave the Sports Festival. As it was, he was ready to offer his help, just like he did with Yagi-sensei, and immediately made a beeline for his friend as soon as he spotted him in the classroom.

"Iida-kun."

Tenya turned around, and it was obvious just how forced the smile on his face was. "Good morning, Midoriya-kun. I apologize for worrying you guys yesterday. It turns out my brother was just—"

"I saw what happened on the news," Izuku interrupted. "Sorry."

"Oh." Tenya's face fell as he closed his eyes and breathed in, before opening them and looking back at Izuku. "He was...stabbed in the back while tracking down the Hero Killer. He might be permanently paralyzed." The silence that followed was beginning to turn uncomfortably deafening, but for Izuku, the situation was actually far from hopeless.

"I told you how my Quirk works, right?" he asked. "How it lets me create animals from non-living things?"

Tenya snorted. "It'd be a shock if anyone in the school didn't." Yeah, that was a good point. It was a shock finding out that him creating a bona fide European dragon had ended up making international news, and he even spent the better part of the night reading conspiracy theories on whether or not he was gonna try to take over the world.

(More than a few comments ended up disturbing him to the point where he just immediately turned off his computer and vowed never to look up anything referencing himself ever again.)

"Okay, so it's not just the animals themselves," Izuku continued. "I can make individual body parts and organs, including human ones."

It only took a second for understanding to dawn on Tenya's face. "Could...could you really...?"

Izuku nodded. "I've only ever made organs and other things like hands, but it wouldn't hurt to try."

"I..." He watched as Tenya visibly sagged in relief, before giving Izuku a slight smile. "...Thank you, Midoriya-kun. Even if it doesn't work...I appreciate that you tried. I couldn't ask anything more of you."

"It's no problem. Just let me know when the surgery is and I'll see what I can do." Tenya nodded in thanks, and Izuku made his way back to his desk right before Aizawa-sensei walked into the classroom to start the school day.

In the years that had passed since he first started creating and donating replacements organs and limbs, Musutafu General Hospital ended up becoming very popular in the international medical community, but because Izuku was a minor who (unofficially) also had connections to the top Japanese Hero, the hospital staff—and by extension, the Japanese government, were legally (and morally) obligated to make sure his identity was kept anonymous.

And because he may or may not have threatened to stop because of how much it put his mother at risk.

Normally, a transplant surgery would take at least two weeks to a month to finalize the schedule and paperwork, but for Pro Heroes, law enforcement, and first responders, their dates would get much higher priority. Izuku understood that it was because of how dangerous their jobs were, but he didn't have to like the fact that a six-year-old kid who desperately needed a heart transplant had to wait almost two months to finally get his surgery because of how the bureaucracy did things.

(And for some reason, a part of him wished he could 'go back to running things himself,' which along with all his other 'moments' made no sense at all.)

It was more than a piece of cake on his part to heal All Might and countless others, so what was reconnecting Ingenium's spine compared to that?

---

When Aizawa-sensei announced that they would be coming up with their Hero names, the entire rest of the class began to buzz with excitement, but for Tenya, all he could do was clench his fist and be reminded of what his brother told him just the night before.

"If you're up to it...I want you to be Ingenium..."

The words echoed in his head like a chant that never would never dissipate, and Tenya wanted to do good by Tensei and continue his work...but he couldn't. Not like this. Not when there was still a chance he could walk again and continue being Ingenium.

There was rarely a moment in his life where he even entertained the idea of being a hero when his brother couldn't. Sure, their grandfather founded Team Idaten decades ago, but the names Tensei and Ingenium were always synonymous to Tenya, and and for him to just take that away from Tensei...it was too much. His brother was more of a hero than he could ever hope to be, and if he had a choice, it would have been him who was paralyzed by Stain instead.

Until Midoriya-kun made the offer of reconnecting Tensei's spine. It still seemed too good to be true, even if Tenya witnessed undeniable proof of it himself when the other boy seemingly healed the gaping wound that came from being impaled by one of Todoroki's ice spikes.

"I want to be known as Goldstar—the Life Bringer!"

...The name was fitting, at least. Clearly based on the name he gave his ghost-Quirk, and it had a certain ring to it. Tenya clapped along quietly with the rest of the class as Midoriya-kun proudly displayed his Hero name. Bakugō-kun followed right after, with his name being 'Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight'. He had to suppress the snort that would have otherwise made itself known and very likely insult his friend, but it just seemed so much like something he would do that it was just too funny.

But eventually, everyone else had already gone and given their names, and Tenya was the only one left who hadn't given his. Kayama-sensei was looking at him expectantly, and he realized that he needed to make a decision now. With a deep breath, he opened the marker to write, and then walked up to the podium presenting the name he chose.

'I'm sorry, nī-san, but I can't. Not when you can still be Ingenium.'

Given how their family's Quirk made them eternally predisposed for car-themed Heroes, Tensei would always joke about how Tenya was basically a human racecar, given how much he loved running around the track behind their house, and from it, came the name his brother had originally suggested for him.

"Get ready for the newest addition to Team Idaten! Say hello to—"

"—The Racing Hero: Initial Drift, huh?" Kayama-sensei said, before smiling at him. "Well done, Iida-kun."

---

He had a lot of offers.

Obviously, Izuku knew that he had to have at least a few offers based on his overall performance in the Sports Festival, but the fact that he ended up getting a little over four hundred ended up throwing him for a loop at first. And yet it still paled in comparison to Katsuki getting over three-thousand, something he was just a little bit jealous over (not that he gave it much thought—there wasn't any point for feeling bitter over your best friend's hard work).

Part of him even expected for Yagi-sensei to send him an offer, but in hindsight, there wasn't really anything left to learn from him, besides inheriting One For All—not that it was still on the table, because it didn't really need to be passed on anymore.

At the end of the day, there was really only one choice that would get him the answers he was looking for.

'There it is.' The way the internship offers were listed in descending order based off of the heroes' individual ranking on the Japanese Hero Billboard Chart, and after skimming through the first hundred-or-so names, decided to skip all the way to the very end of the list. Just as he expected, the name he expected to find was dead last because it didn't classify on any Hero rankings.

409. The Speedwagon Foundation

"...What's a Stand?"

"Imagine a ghost-like being that can just appear in front of you whenever you want it to," Kūjō began. "You have the ability to control its every action within its limitations with just a single thought, from fighting outside of their physical range to wearing it like armor. And while you can see it clear as day, most, if not everyone else around you couldn't. Any of these ring a bell?"

Izuku didn't answer. How could he, when what the man in front of him described matched perfectly with his own experiences? Growing up, he and everyone else who tried to study Gold Experience always thought the way it functioned was unique to him, and here came someone who told him it wasn't all that special.

But how exactly could he have known about any of that? Did he have a 'Stand' of his own? In the span of a few seconds, Izuku decided to summon Gold Experience to get a reaction from the man, but when neither he nor Principal Nezu showed none whatsoever, he immediately recalled it.

Kūjō, however, continued regardless. "Have you ever wondered why it was that no one else could see your Quirk? How some kid from Musutafu could get a dual-aspect Quirk that wasn't the result of a Quirk marriage?"

Rhetorical the questions may have been, but Izuku answered with a question of his own. "How do you know about all this?"

"We've known about Stands well before you were born," Kūjō replied. "You could even say we were the first to document them. But what concerns me, is the fact that youof all people somehow developed one when there hasn't been a single record of any new Stand users for more than a century—not since Quirks first started showing up."

"So what, are you saying these 'Stand' things are a different set of powers from Quirks or something?" Izuku asked. Only a handful of the Quirk doctors he had been to over the years all told him he had the double-joint in his pinky toe, but that he also had the necessary genes for Quirk activation. So while he definitely wasn't powerless, did that mean he was technically Quirkless?

(For a moment, he wondered how Katsuki would feel about this information.)

Kūjō inclined his head. "You could say that. I could tell you more, but sharing extremely classified information."

Ah. He knew where this was going. "You want to run tests on me, and in exchange, you'll tell me anything I want to know about Stands."

"Precisely. To be specific, I'm personally extending an invitation for you to spend your internship week at our Hosu facility."

Izuku blinked. "...My what, now?"

"Oh, right, sorry," Kūjō said, chuckling. "Looks like I just spoiled you."

"Has your class been told about what exactly the Sports Festival was for?" Principal Nezu interjected.

"Um...scouting, I think?"

Principal Nezu nodded. "Yes. Specifically, they're scouting for student internships that will be taking place in two weeks after the Sports Festival."

...Huh. That actually made a lot of sense, come to think of it. But that didn't really explain what a Speedwagon Foundation researcher was doing here, or why it was he was telling him that his Quirk was actually something called a 'Stand'.

"Why are you so sure I actually have a Stand?"

"Because all the signs point to you having one," Kūjō replied. "I wouldn't make this offer to just any teenager with an invisible ghost, kid. And besides, no one but us would have the resources available to help you fully make sense of your Stand. It's in the Foundation's best interests to understand as soon as possible why exactly there's been a new Stand user after all this time."

He shifted the rim of his hat. "I understand we're not exactly anyone's first choice in a Hero internship, and in the very unlikely event that it's proven you really don't have one, we still have the resources available to improve your proficiency with your...Quirk." The way he said 'Quirk' showed just how absolutely sure he was that what Izuku had wasn't one. "And there are several Underground Heroes directly employed under the Foundation, so you wouldn't be missing out on building experience for the Hero course."

Hm...it was tempting. Like really, really tempting. But did he really want to go through with this? Was there really no one else who could help him understand why Gold Experience was the way it was?

"Can I think about it?"

"Of course. But if you need a second opinion, you can go ask my nephew, Tokoyami Fumikage. I'm told you two are friends."

Wait, what?

---

They asked him if he was sure. He wasn't exactly sure, himself.

Katsuki couldn't believe he never actually picked any of his offers. Ochako wanted to know more about why the Speedwagon Foundation wanted him if it wasn't for the Hero internship. Fumikage just said that he would have to go there sooner or later, so it was best to just go now. Tenya asked if there was something both of them should be telling everyone else.

"Don't tell my uncle I told you this, but there used to be another way to get a Stand without having to be born with one. It's how several of my ancestors got theirs."

Fumikage then told him about the Stand Arrows, about how it was apparently an alien virus that was in the meteorite itself that made it possible for anyone to awaken one...as long as they were mentally and spiritually strong enough to fight said virus. If they weren't, then they died. But if they lived, then that meant they had a power unique to themselves. And in a world of Quirks, an un-documentable ability meant going unchecked, and then it was all a slippery slope from there.

Or so he was told.

He wanted to tell his friends everything. He really did. But Kūjō-sensei and Fumikage stressed multiple times about how important it was that Stands (especially the Stand Arrows) remain a secret, which didn't exactly make sense. If basically no one's ever gotten one over such a long period of time, then what was the harm in telling his closest friends about them?

Nothing, really. He wanted to at least tell Ochako about them and see what she had to say, but for some reason there was something that was telling him that she shouldn't know yet.

All it would take was for some random passerby to overhear, or for him to speak just a little bit too loud, or for one of them to slip up in front of someone. All it needed to take was for the wrong person to catch wind, and all of a sudden it meant that there was a chance at . And if said wrong person managed to get ahold of an Arrow, then that was bad. You could easily gain traction and influence in the criminal underworld.

And while it did qualify as his secret to tell, Izuku knew there were much larger things at play.

(But surely someone would have already done so at some point in history?)

It was either he spent his week studying and determining Gold Experience's true nature (and if possible, further training in how best to utilize it), or spending the internship with a Pro Hero who would help him with something he wanted in regards to Hero work, he had a feeling very few would be willing to help him with how to use what he had as a Hero, which was how soon after arriving at the Hosu train station, Izuku found himself sitting across Kūjō-sensei in a limo on the way to an SPW facility.

"We're obviously not going to be running tests for the whole week," he told him. "It'll mostly be cross-referencing with the information we already have for probably about a day at most, and then experimenting with how else you could improve with yours. You'll also have access to the gym and training facilities on-site."

"Okay," Izuku said. "But who exactly am I gonna be interning with?"

"You'll find out when we get there. He said he wanted to meet you himself."

'Okay, then.' The rest of the ride passed by in relative silence, with Izuku texting his friends on how their own internships were going, and looking out the window at the scenery of the city. A side glance at Kūjō-sensei showed that the man was busy in a call. Some more time passed, and Izuku could see in the distance a building so large with a dome at the top, that it looked almost like a clone of the USJ.

When the limo finally stopped at the front of the building, Izuku and Kūjō-sensei got out and walked through an automatic sliding door into the main lobby. But instead of walking up to the receptionist at the end of the hallway, they immediately went to an elevator. He watched as the man reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a key, before inserting it into the elevator's control panel and turning it, then pressed some of the numbers.

The elevator started moving after that, and where he expected it to go up, it was actually going down, with the screen that displayed the floor numbers started going down from 1. When the number reached -4, the doors opened to reveal numerous workers, scientists, and other people bustling about the area.

"Welcome to the Research of Supernatural Phenomena level," Kūjō-sensei said. They continued walking, and Izuku saw how there were a multitude of things being experimented on and developed, from a group of people watching a chimpanzee playing the piano, to even someone shooting what looked like a laser rifle. But what really caught his attention, was one window near the end of the hallway, where he could see a blurred shape inside a metal box with a single dark-tinted window.

Curiosity ended up getting the better of him. With a thought, he summoned Gold Experience to manifest over himself, and used its eyes to get a closer look at the object. Now that the sight was much clearer, he could see that it was actually a stone head surrounded by multiple blue-colored lights all throughout the inside frame, and that looked to be...broken off, as if someone took a hammer and broke off everything else. And what was more, he could even feel it in proximity to himself—but it couldn't be alive, could it?

And what was part of a statue doing covered by all these lights?

"That would be good ol' Santana," Kūjō-sensei said, breaking the silence and answering his unspoken question. "Last of the Pillar Men. You ever heard of 'em, kid?"

Izuku looked at him in confusion. "Um, no...? I don't think so, at least." The 'Pillar Men' must have been the name of an old Hero group or something—but that still didn't explain what that bust was doing there.

"Well, depending on how everything goes, I'll tell you all about it." Turning around, Kūjō-sensei gestured for Izuku to follow him. "Now come on—we're kind of on a schedule here, and there's something you might want to see."