Quirky, Noisy, Bizarre Town
Chapter One: A Mystery to Start the Day!
"GOOOOD MORNING YUUEI TOOOWN! IT'S EIGHT-THIRTY AM, AND YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS! IT'S ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL MORNING HERE IN YUUEI, AND THAT MEANS IT'S TIME TO GET MOVING FOR THE DAY! WHETHER YOU'RE WORKING, PLAYING, LEARNING OR FORGETTING, IT'S LOOKIN' LIKE A GOOD DAY TODAY WITH SUNNY WEATHER FROM DAWN 'TILL DUSK!"
Izuku yawned, rolling over in his bed and slapping helplessly at his alarm clock. His hand missed its mark once, then twice, before the third and final slap managed to shut off the voice of DJ Mic and return his room to its prior state in silence. He took a deep breath and yawned once, head sunken deep into his pillow, before forcing himself to sit up. He looked out the window to his left; sure enough, the sun was shining bright. It was looking increasingly like the last couple months of school were going to be about as idyllic as everybody said they would be.
He pulled himself from his bed, before pausing when he heard another yawn break the silence. His eyes went wide, before he slowly turned to see the covers on the left side of his bed shift a little, then a lot, as a small bump slowly expanded into a taller, narrower bump as somebody sat up underneath his blanket.
Then it shifted violently, and the sound of a high pitched sneeze saw him leaping from his bed completely. He staggered backwards, walking into his desk and thumping the back of his head against the shelf above it, jarring his various books and knocking a small tennis ball off its position at the end, sending it bouncing across the floor. The bump shifted again, two protrusions that must have been arms slowly pulling it off itself.
The whole affair came down, and Izuku found himself staring at a small girl with white hair and a tiny horn protruding from her forehead right above her brow. The girl smiled at him, a big happy smile. She couldn't have been more than four, maybe five at the most. She was wearing a ragged dress-like thing that was so battered and torn it was hardly identifiable, and her skin was almost alien in how pale it was. Her eyes were a bright red, and he blinked twice when he saw that. Naachan had bright red eyes too, was this a relative of hers?
Izuku ran some rapid analysis in his head. Strange, alien looking girl sitting in his bed, who was most certainly not in his bed the night before. Red eyes like his best friend's, but no other marked physical similarities. The girl seemed happy to see him, extraordinarily so, and she was clambering out of the bed to approach him. Izuku watched her walk forward, before she came to a stop in front of him and smiled again, eyes shut. When he said nothing, they opened again, and her smile turned to a look of confusion, and perhaps distress.
"Izu-kun?" Her voice was quiet, quavering slightly, and it pained Izuku to hear her sound even a little worried. "Is everything okay?"
Izuku blinked twice. He looked at the analog clock over his bed; if the clock wasn't working, that meant he was dreaming, right? That was the rule with dreams. The clock's narrow black hands clearly showed it was eight-thirty-two, and the second hand was slowly ticking away. Izuku swallowed. Not a dream. There was a little girl standing in front of him. A little girl he didn't know at all. A little girl who called him 'Izu-kun' and seemed worried that he had been silent for over a minute now.
"Ummmm…" Izuku decided to cut to the chase. "Who are… who are you?"
The girl blinked twice. He looked at her, and she looked at him, and then she giggled.
"Izu-kun, that's not funny!" she protested, running forward and hugging his legs. "I'm Eri, silly!"
Izuku stared down at her for a second as she held him tight, her head rubbing against his stomach. She was small, but so was he, and she was still giggling quite a bit. She looked up at him with a sugary-sweet smile, and he felt the strangest pang of something in his gut. Something like deja-vu, like the sensation that he'd seen this before, but… different. Almost like anticipation as well, like he was looking forward to this happening. But it was happening… and yet he felt like it was meant to happen.
Izuku's mind was a mess. But he also wasn't one for lying, so he touched a hand to her head and scruffed her hair gently because that was a nice thing to do, before he looked her in the eye, took a deep breath, and spoke his doubts.
"Ummm… Eri-chan?" he tried her name and she smiled. "I… I'm not joking. I… I don't know who you are. Or how you got in here, or where you came from before this. I've… I've never seen you before in my life."
Eri blinked. She stared up at him for a long moment, completely silent, red eyes staring deeply into his own verdant green orbs, and then she sniffled. Once, twice, a third time, before she buried her face into his shirt and started to cry. Quiet, muffled sobs, little whimpers and the occasional whine all escaped her throat, and Izuku went from feeling bad for telling her the truth to feeling awful for making her cry.
And just to put a cap in all of it, something loud crashed against his door before it suddenly swung open, the bombastic voice of his childhood friend Natsuki filling his ears. The blonde girl had kicked his door open, though thankfully she had opened it a little first, and now she was marching inside with her hands raised, already multiple words into what would typically be a long-winded rant on some topic that irritated her that particular Saturday morning.
"-and then the damn hag looks me in the eye and says 'because I'm the boss' and can you believe that shit?" she complained, slapping her hand against the doorframe as she rolled her eyes. "Just a bunch of fuckery, ain't my fault her hips are giving out 'cause she's so old or some dumb shit like tha-"
Natsuki stopped mid-sentence, taking a long look at Izuku and Eri, before blinking twice as the two of them had. Her fist, formerly raised high in outrage, slowly fell as she took in the sight before her. Then she perfectly summed up Izuku's view on the whole situation with three simple words she had uttered a dozen times before, but never before had encapsulated their shared opinion so eloquently before.
"What the fuck?"
[ACutBetweenScenes]
"What the fuck?" Natsuki repeated, once Eri had been sat next to Izuku's mother and the police had been called, and the elder Midoriya had encouraged her son and Natsuki to get out of the house for a while whilst she tried to figure out just what exactly was happening.
"I don't know, Naachan... " Izuku replied, shrugging. "I just… woke up. And she was in my bed. I'm as confused as you are…"
The two had followed Inko Midoriya's advice, deciding to go for a short walk while the police determined what to do about the little girl who had apparently materialized in Izuku's bed. Natsuki had suggested they go for a drink, something bitter and caffeinated and preferably piping hot, while Izuku just wanted to find somewhere quiet to sit and try to think through just what it was that had just happened.
And so they made their way down the street and toward Yuuei Town centre, where they could seek refuge in the Italian Passione Cafe, a small establishment that had been only recently founded but had already gained a very dedicated customer base, including Natsuki herself. It was said amongst more gossip-inclined social circles that she went at least three times a week, always ordering the same concoction from the same meek young man behind the counter.
Izuku didn't particularly care for coffee, but as they were already halfway to the cafe, he decided to relent to Natsuki's desires (as usual) and hope they had tea or something. The roads were quiet for a Saturday morning, only the occasional dog-walker or jogger out and about, as well as a policeman on his motorcycle, who Izuku and Natsuki both waved to.
"You don't think it's some kind of dumb prank, do you?" Natsuki asked, raising an eyebrow. "Like, some dick decides to mess with you by sending his sister to sneak into your room or something?"
"That… seems a little elaborate for a prank, Naachan…" Izuku noted, rubbing the back of her head. "And who do we know that would have a sibling that looks like that?"
"Probably that Kuroiro kid," Natsuki replied, rolling her eyes. "He's got white hair, right? And he's a massive asshole."
"I don't think Kuroiro has any siblings…" Izuku pondered that thought for a long moment, finger on his chin. "Maybe she's just… I don't know, a runaway? From some foster home or something?"
"Why would some foster kid run off and hide in your house, in your bed?" Natsuki asked. "Hold up…"
Natsuki stopped, turning to face him. Behind her, on the other side of the street, a young man with a purple pompadour was arguing with a much smaller boy with gray hair, the two of them fervently gesticulating their points at each other. Izuku glanced at them for a moment, before turning his attention to Natsuki.
"You don't think this has something to do with… Stand stuff, do you?" she asked.
Izuku swallowed. 'Stand stuff'. That had become a bit of a cursed phrase between the two; 'Stand stuff' effectively translated to 'weird shit' in Natsuki's words, especially when it came to already weird shit. The phrase was derived from the idea of Stands, strange semi-physical entities Natsuki and a few others they knew of could manifest, and the idea that whenever said semi-physical entities were involved with a situation, that meant shit was getting bizarre.
Stands, to the best of Izuku's knowledge, could do just about anything. Natsuki's Stand was basically an attack drone of sorts, while the man who had first introduced them to the idea, some friend of his father's, could manifest a large muscular purple man that was very good at punching things with exceptional speed and strength. This man, whom Izuku knew as 'Mr. Kujo', had told he and Natsuki of a variety of Stands; Stands that could affect time, Stands that control minds, Stands that could magnetize objects together. All sorts of strange and powerful abilities.
Izuku had no Stand, at least not one anybody could see. But he could see Stands, something that Mr. Kujo told him only Stand users could do. So it was possible Izuku's Stand simply hadn't yet manifested; nobody was quite sure.
"I really hope not." Izuku replied.
But now… now something strange was happening again. Something peculiar, odd, bizarre. A mysterious little girl who seemed to know Izuku, whom Izuku did not know. A mystery for he and Natsuki to try and solve, he figured. The two walked side by side, and as they neared the Passione Cafe, they could smell the thick, rich scent of Italian espresso. Natsuki audibly groaned with delight; she had become a big coffee drinker since the cafe had first showed up in Yuuei.
The two entered through the large wooden door, the floorboards creaking slightly. It was hardly audible through the morning crowds, the voices of various customers forming a comfortable blanket of sound. Natsuki took a long breath through her nose, grinning wide, and looked over to Izuku, who was just staring at the surprisingly small line. He had been expecting a massive crowd, but the whole place was comfortably quiet beyond the various chatter.
"Yo, Doppio!" Natsuki threw a hand up in greeting, walking up to the front counter where a tall, lanky boy with bright pink hair stood. He looked almost intentionally non-threatening, slightly hunched over as if trying to make himself smaller with the bangs of his hair falling over one eye. There were freckles right under his yellow eyes, quite like Izuku's four-freckle diamond-patterns under his own eyes.
Doppio, as his name apparently was, straightened up suddenly, looking at Natsuki and smiling nervously.
"H-Hi N-Natsuki!" he said, stammering slightly. "How are you d-doing today? Same as usual?"
Natsuki leaned over the counter, giving Izuku a very good angle from which to look down at her fit, shapely posterior, an angle he ignored with all his might in favour of walking up to stand beside her, smiling at Doppio. Doppio looked at him and blinked, seemingly confused, before glancing between Natsuki and Izuku and sighing as if in relief.
"Double shot, venti!" Natsuki smirked, though why she would smirk after making a drink order was a question for another age perhaps. "Whaddya call that?"
"A D-Doppio…" Doppio admitted, rubbing the back of his head and blushing slightly. "My d-dad is... Weird…"
He turned his attention to Izuku, who stared at the menu for a long moment in abject confusion. The Italian words were lovingly rendered in both Kanji and the Latin alphabet, but they were still about as inscrutable as hieroglyphs to the green-haired teen. He blinked twice, then looked at Natsuki, who shook her head.
"Do NOT say 'I'll have what she's having' or your head will explode." she warned. "Two shots of espresso is dangerous for anybody who isn't me."
"I'll have…" Izuku stared at the menu again. "Something cold. Ummm… surprise me?"
Doppio smiled an honest smile this time, free of any awkwardness, and gave him a thumbs-up before turning around. Clad as he was in a bright pink sweater and purple jeans under a white apron, he made for a peculiar sight, but when Izuku took a look down at his grey shorts and white 't-shirt' t-shirt, he decided he wasn't in any place to judge fashion sense.
He followed Natsuki to a pair of seats in the corner, after she said something along the lines of 'Doppio delivers', and sat down across from her. The two were set on either side of a small round table, made of some dark wood, in two surprisingly comfortable wooden chairs. Izuku wondered if the whole place being made of wood was much of a fire hazard, before silently concluding that it almost certainly was.
"So, your weird magically appearing girl…" Natsuki looked Izuku in the eye. "Stand stuff, or no?"
Izuku thought about that. The girl had shown no sign of possessing a Stand ability, no radiant glow or mystical ghostly figure materializing behind her, but it almost made sense for her to possess a Stand. That would go some way to explaining her strange appearance and habits, not to mention her sudden and inexplicable appearance. But as far as Izuku could actively discern, she didn't have one.
He shook his head.
"No." he declared. "But that doesn't mean somebody else didn't."
Natsuki raised an eyebrow, and Izuku took a moment to sort out his thoughts before speaking.
"It's possible this is the work of another Stand." he explained. "Somebody else's. A third party, trying to mess with me like you guessed, but instead of it being a prank… this could be some sort of… I don't know, I don't want to say attack, but maybe… a distraction? Something to keep us guessing?"
Natsuki listened to his mumbled and jumbled train of thought for a long while before shrugging, looking down at the table for a long moment. Doppio came by, quietly dropping off her coffee and Izuku's drink, a strange concoction of coffee, ice and cream that tasted vaguely sweet and only partially of coffee, something Izuku appreciated.
"Well…" Natsuki spoke, after chugging a third of her coffee in about four seconds. "Either way you figure it… it's weird. And it probably has something to do with Stands, which could be a problem. But who would want to attack us, or keep us guessing? We don't really have any enemies, do we?"
"Not yet, anyways…" Izuku mumbled, staring down at the table. "But Mr. Kujo said Stand users attract each other. Maybe we drew in something bad?"
Natsuki suddenly looked up when the door's little brass bell rang, staring at the figure who had just entered. It was a tall young man, about their age. He had dark hair and dark eyes, and a pair of thick-framed black rectangle glasses. He strode confidently directly up to the front counter and began speaking to Doppio in a low, serious voice, while Doppio quietly nodded. Natsuki and Izuku both watched the guy for a few moments, before Natsuki shrugged and looked back at Izuku.
"Could be…" she said. "But why would we attract any kind of bad guys? It's not like I actually use my Stand all that often; you know how much damage it can do if I'm not careful."
Izuku's chest panged softly at that, old wounds reminding him of their endless existence, and he nodded. He didn't need to say anything; Natsuki's guilt would run eternal, and his words would only intensify the flow. He instead looked back at the tall man, who was staring rather intently at them from his place beside the counter. He saw Izuku looking back and narrowed his eyes, before looking away, making Izuku raise his brow.
"Maybe it's more the principle than the deed." Izuku said. "You know, just because you have it people are going to become interested. You don't even have to use it to draw their attention."
Natsuki nodded.
"Is that weirdo staring at us?" she asked, looking down at her coffee.
"The guy in glasses?" Izuku confirmed. "Yeah. He seems interested."
"In you?"
"No. you."
Natsuki sighed. Izuku could tell she was looking in the reflection of her glass, carefully watching the guy without giving herself away. He took a coffee Doppio put on the counter, and then turned and walked out of the cafe with a single glance toward the two of them. Natsuki didn't look up until the door closed behind him, then stood up.
"I wanna follow him." she said, picking up her coffee. "He seemed suspicious."
"He may just think you're cute or something…" Deku sighed, picking up his own drink. "A lot of guys do, you know."
"Cute." Natsuki deadpanned, staring at him. "Really?"
Izuku blushed, and looked away. Natsuki laughed, before clenching a fist and looking at the door.
"Hurry up, before he gets away." she said, marching toward the door.
Izuku followed, and the two exited the building with all due haste. The situation changed rather rapidly, however, when something very fast and very shiny suddenly descended from above, splitting Natsuki's coffee cup in two and spilling scalding double espresso all over her hand. She grunted in pain, darting to the side, and Izuku ducked away from the thing and moved behind her.
Their assailant, Izuku recognized, was a Stand. A rather mechanical looking thing, with thin metallic arms and legs, covered in gleaming chrome plates with a knightly helm and visor covering a robotic face, with big round yellow eyes featuring pupils. Its right hand clutched a long, thin-bladed sword, its length bending slightly as it flicked the weapon through the air, taunting the two.
Behind it stood the tall young man from before, his gaze severe and accusatory behind his glasses and his body surrounded by an aura of purple light. Izuku blinked twice. Stand user, and Stand. Was this going to be a fight? Natsuki seemed to think so, gauging by the way she was pulling back her burnt right hand, fingers curling around her palm.
"Stand and present!" the young man called, his voice betraying his youth. "I am Tenya Iida, of the Iida family line! It is my duty to hunt down and defeat all villainous Stand users, and my quest shall begin with you!"
Natsuki's teeth clenched, and her right hand began trembling with pent up anger, her body surrounding itself with a soft pink glow. The boy's eyes narrowed, his hand coming up across his chest, and his Stand imitated the action.
"I advise against attempting any sort of attack," he warned. "My Silver Chariot possesses terrifying speed, as you learned just now. I will be able to strike you down should you try to counterstrike before you could even summon your Stand!"
"Naachan, he has a limited range," Izuk said, staring at the young man. "He hasn't moved an inch, and neither has his Stand. It's definitely powerful enough to warrant a decreased range…"
Natsuki swallowed.
"How many bystanders?" she asked, the most important question before deploying her Stand.
"Street isn't empty." Izuku looked around at the small number of people present; a few youths a couple years younger them gathered on one corner, a jogger making her way down the street toward them and an older man seemingly out for a stroll. He swallowed.
"Then we lead him away." Natsuki said, before nodding. "Run."
The two turned and made a break for it, the young man audibly calling out for them to stop. Izuku could hear him pursuing, but he and Natsuki had a healthy head start. They made for the outskirts of the town centre, and Izuku realized where Natsuki was headed a moment later. There was an abandoned lot out this way, a chunk of unwanted property choked with weeds and trash. The perfect space for her to use her Stand…
The two beat the young man there by a few seconds at the most. He was fast, very fast, and Izuku and Natsuki both had to duck under the broken gate at the entrance to the lot to get inside. He audibly struck it, his greater height no doubt throwing him off, before Natsuki slid to a halt and turned.
"Behind!" she shouted, and Izuku obediently ducked behind her. She raised her claw-like right hand, flicking her wrist as if throwing something, and the young man entered the lot just in time to see her Stand hit the ground.
It was a smaller Stand, blue and gold and steel, with a ball-like shape and two tank-treads for movement. It was the size of perhaps a soccer ball, with a skull protruding from the front and a green bubble coming from the top. The boy ground to a halt, his Stand appearing with flash of purple and taking a defensive position in front of himself. He raised his arms, blocking like a boxer, and then pointed a single finger at the two.
"And now you reveal yourself!" he said, just as Natsuki shouted her Stand's name. "I know your name-"
"SHEER HEART ATTACK!"
"-Natsuki Kira!"
Stand Name: ?
Stand User: Izuku Midoriya
Author's Note:
Is this a mistake? Eh. Maybe. Scratch that, probably. That's a better answer.
This story was born of a simple question; could I fuse my favourite part of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Diamond is Unbreakable, with one of my favourite Shonen, My Hero Academia? What you see before you is a desperate search for the answer to that question. This story will not follow the events of Diamond is Unbreakable, nor will it tell the story of My Hero Academia. It will be a mostly original plot, though obviously characters and Stands are both recycled, though remixed with new users, abilities and limitations because otherwise nothing would be balanced.
So, as a quick warning; this story is going to be weird. Strange. Crazy. Bizarre, perhaps, or Quirky. Take your pick. It won't be normal. The fact that Iida is assaulting a gender-flipped Bakugou with Polnareff's stand should be evidence enough of that, but in case that combined with what I feel only somewhat comfortable calling an 'ending twist' didn't clue you in to the fact that this is gonna be some wacky stuff, I hope this clarification ensures you know that.
This story's future is uncertain. I know where I want to take it, I even have an outline of sorts,I just don't know if anybody wants to read it. The more popular fanfics for MHA crossovers tend to mostly be 'give Izuku somebody else's power' so I have no idea how well this will be received. So… updates will likely be infrequent.
Reviews are super welcome, especially if they come with honest criticism. Or gushing praise. I won't lie, I really like both. Follows are cool. Favourites are cool too. But reviews are my favourite, since that way I can directly interact with you, answer questions and other such things. So please leave reviews. I appreciate hearing your thoughts and concerns.
None of my following author's notes will be this long. Some chapters won't even have them. I hope everybody at least passively tolerated this pilot chapter, and I'll see with you an update at some point in the future!
