The Emperor's Dragon II

Good, But Not Noble

Nezu looked at the Number One Hero as he took a sip of tea. Toshinori Yagi was a human who interested him. In his life, Nezu had encountered humans who were genuinely evil and those who were genuinely good. Most were in between, though they tended to lean towards one or other end of the spectrum.

The Number One hero was genuinely good and that intrigued him. While Yagi had been the Number One Hero for decades, UA's Principal had met the Number One's from other countries. He'd met the ranked heroes of Japan and he knew how unusual Toshinori was. That isn't to say that the Heroes weren't good, it was just they were more... they tended more towards neutral. He hadn't met any evil heroes, just the heroes he'd met, had been coloured by the weight of reality.

All Might had experienced that reality. He had seen the worst of humanity and somehow he still held on to hope. It was one of the reasons All Might was, to Nezu's thought, something somewhat special.

Right now, Toshinori was sipping his tea but Nezu could see that he was nervous about something. Maybe more pensive.

"Something happened?" he enquired.

Yagi nodded but was still lost in thought but after another sip of tea, he looked over at Nezu. "How much do you know about my quirk?"

"Mostly what you've said about it," Nezu replied.

Toshinori nodded. The Number One Hero had told him quite a bit about One For All and the Principal knew why he was at UA.

"You've found someone?" Nezu prompted. It was the main reason All Might had agreed to teach at UA.

The Number One Hero was silent for a few moments before he blew out a breath and nodded.

The Principal immediately began running his mind through what Yagi would have seen and the first conclusion he came to was that it probably wasn't one of the UA students. The plan to bring the other students in was to deal with Izuku but Nezu knew doing that would require passing on of One For All. There was really only one student it could be.

"That Shiketsu student?" Nezu asked.

Yagi nodded. "I just..." He sighed again. "I need to be sure he's not just acting."

"Acting?" The Principal prompted.

The Number One Hero gave him a disbelieving look. "They all know they are being tested," he pointed out. "Well, the smart ones do."

"And you think he's figured it out?" Nezu asked but he already knew the answer. Shiketsu's teacher, Koi Sasume had figured out that something was going on from before she even arrived at UA but she lacked the background to figure out exactly what. Nezu was not surprised that their students knew something was going on.

"Not everything," Toshinori immediately told him. "But he knows he's being tested."

Nezu nodded. It would take someone far smarter than him to put things together from what the Shiketsu students knew. They simply didn't have the background information to even begin to draw the right conclusions. He hadn't had it until All Might had told him. "So why him?" Nezu asked. He sensed Yagi wanted to talk about this and knew that he couldn't talk to Sir Nighteye about it. The other hero had already selected who he believed should inherit One For All and was not open to further discussion, unless it was about how to give it to Mirio. All Might had been disappointed with his sidekick about that but Nezu hadn't worked out why.

"He's strong," Yagi began. "He had good quirk control and he's not afraid of doing what is right," the Number One Hero finished. "At least, I don't think he is," he added.

The Principal nodded. He'd seen the incident Toshinori had. "Is that enough?"

The Number One Hero didn't answer for a few moments and the Principal didn't prompt him. Handing on One For All was a big decision. With All For One's sons active, it might be the biggest decision of Toshinori's career, while at the same time being a decision the public would never really know about. "That's what I'm asking myself," All Might admitted.