Inko, Toshinori and Midoriya all sat around the annihilated living room of the two greenette's apartments, on the only couch still upright and a stool the student had pulled from a closet. Inko sat chewing her nails nervously while the blonde pro massaged his head as he considered what had occurred.
"So, you came down to see how my first school day had gone and just happened to run into mom as she was looking for the pro's?" The omnitrix wielder asked as he looked towards the spot where his mother had almost died and shuddered. "And you didn't see any pro's at all?"
"Not one. Your mother wasn't particularly subtle about looking for one either." The gaunt man confirmed as the woman blushed. Midoriya groaned as he started to pace. "Whoever sent that robot, for whatever reason they waited until now and had the ability to get rid of professional heroes. What I want to know is how?"
"I…..He was obviously equipped to deal with me specifically, to fight my aliens. What pro's were patrolling, do you know?" The greenette asked as he looked to his mentor. It was his mother who answered however.
"Volcanic, Gravis and Whiplash. I get a letter through the door at the start of the week telling me who should be patrolling on what day." Inko explained and Toshinori quirked an eyebrow.
"Well, clearly i'm falling behind on keeping up with who my colleagues are. I used to be able to tell you every pro hero in a given city and now…..so what were their quirks?"
Midoriya sighed, the theory in his mind seeming depressingly more likely. "Gravis' quirk 'Heavy limbs' let him make each and every one of his limb weigh up to four times more than normal. Gave him super strength at a cost to his speed. Volcanic had 'Magma beams', she could fire concentrated streams of lava from her fingertips and Whiplash, she had 'Electric Whip', she could deploy a whip from the palm of either of her hands where a little holster is located and electrify said whips."
"Sounds like a strong collection of powers." Toshinori said as he nodded along and the younger Midoriya in the room sighed.
"Yeah, their strong in a relative sense but against a that robot, who had so many defenses against so many powers…I hope i'm wrong but I think they did fight…"
"And they lost…." Inko finished for him. The room was silent for a moment as that sank in before All Might stood up, steam starting to pour as his muscles grew larger.
"Young Midoriya, is your watch charged?" He asked and the boy nodded confused. "Get ready to turn into blink."
"Wait, wha? All Might? Isn't that technically illegal though." The boy questioned and the muscular man nodded.
"Under normal circumstances yes but if it is deemed necessary by a pro, they can grant a civilian the right to use their quirk, or in this case support item, temporarily." The pro explained as he turned and walked to the door. "Take your mother back to U.A., I shall call ahead to inform them of your imminent arrival and then, I shall do my best to find these pro's."
A green flash occurred behind All Might and a second later Blink stood in front of him, a notebook in hand. "Here, pages 37, 62 and 145. My sketches aren't professional artist level or anything but they should be good enough to help, especially if you have no idea what they look like."
"Thank you my boy. Now get to U.A., explain to the principal everything that has happened. Don't worry about sharing your part in fighting off the robot, i'm sure he'll understand."
"Yes sir." The raspy voice of the teens alien form said before he was suddenly in front of his mother, not even leaving the blur trail he usually did in that form. "Ready? This might be a bit nauseating after a couple of seconds."
The woman nodded, before suddenly being picked up into the aliens hands. It looked ridiculous due to the size difference yet Midoriya didn't seem to be struggling at all.
BWOOOSH
Then they were gone, and All Mjght left quickly after, pulling out his phone and calling up the principal as he leapt down to the battle site. Somewhere near by there had to be a clue….
Midoriya counted in his head, as buildings and cars appeared and disappeared in blurs while he zipped and zigged and zagged around oncoming traffic. No one even seemed to realize he was there with how fast he was going, something he wrote down in his mental notebook for later.
'16, 17, 18!'
Suddenly they were in front of the U.A gate which was closed, a camera above looking at them. The alien waved a claw at it as he placed Inko down but he doubted Nezu knew he'd be coming yet.
"18 seconds to get here at top speed. God I love blink."
"You've made that clear…..a lot…." Inko gasped out as she sat down on the floor, seemingly winded. Midoriya flinched, and briefly wished there was a water fountain nearby. Maybe he could put a suggestion in somewhere to get that done.
He tapped his watch and turned back to normal, sitting down beside Inko and supporting her while they waited. A couple of minutes passed in silence before anything occurred.
KHSSHHHH
Suddenly the barrier opened up, slowly sliding away. It took a couple of moments but soon the metal shifted away to reveal principal Nezu, a furry creature of some description smiling at them, with the pro hero Midnight beside him.
The younger greenette had already met the sultry pro earlier that day, in his first ever modern history course but he hadn't interacted with her much at all so he had no idea how she'd react to all of this.
In all honesty though, the boy was just glad it wasn't Aizawa.
"Ah, mister Midoriya, miss Midoriya! Please come in. All Might has already told me about what happened. A truly awful turn of events for you both. Let us talk in my office, as I think I have an idea about what Toshinori wants me to do." The furry principal said as he gestured for them to follow, turning and walking back in.
"Oh uhhh, can we get my mom a drink first? She could probably use one after everything." Midoriya asked and Midnight nodded, placing a hand on the womans back.
"I'll help her, and take her to the office once she's able then. The principal mostly wants to talk with you anyways." The pro said as she guided Inko. They split at the staircase. The women wandered off towards the cafeteria while Midoriya climbed the steps alone with the principal.
"It seems your already getting a bit of a reputation around here Midoriya. I suppose considering your status as the first 'quirkless' person at U.A., even on a technicality would do that. Getting Shota to change his mind about something though, now that might as well be a quirk in of itself."
"Shota, sir?" The greenette questioned, confused.
"Oh right, you humans and your double naming conventions. You're homeroom teacher mister Aizawa. He was quite insistent that he would end up expelling you by the end of the day. Of course, that didn't happen. In fact from what I hear, it was a bit of a role reversal."
"Ah…yeah. Honestly I thought would have been in trouble for that." Midoriya admitted, scratching his head.
"Well, i'm sure you were incredibly close to it. Regardless of how close you were though, something you said got through to him and you convinced him to let you stay. It goes to show, even the oldest, smartest and most experienced can learn something new, even if it is from a novice." Nezu laughed, as they stepped off the stairs into the hall. "Still, while I understand you may be inclined to hold a grudge for his attitude, I ask you give him a second chance. Shota is most certainly rough around the edges, but he is well intentioned. He only worried about your safety, as he didn't want anyone getting hurt or killed."
"Ok but see, that mind set is exactly what gets to me. No offense sir but it isn't right that he automatically associate quirkless with needing to be protected, especially after he saw my powers for himself." Midoriya explained with a scowl.
"Ah of course. The stereotyping must be one of the worst parts, and I apologize, as I'm sure even I'm guilty of it. Still, regardless of it all, there will be a second chance tomorrow. I hope you both will be able to capitalize on it fully." Nezu said as they walked into the creatures office, which turned out to be relatively plain.
A desk was in the middle of the room, and there was a couch off to the side with a tea set. Aside from that though the room was fairly empty.
"Of course, a part of his annoyance at the time probably also stemmed from his inability to use his quirk on you. He has his own flair for the dramatic, though he refuses to admit it."
"His quirk?"
"Ah of course, you don't know. He has the ability to erase other people's quirks He's-"
"The pro hero Eraserhead! THAT'S WHERE I KNEW HIM FROM!" Midoriya suddenly exclaimed, hitting himself in the head for not figuring it out earlier. Then he saw Nezu's amused stare. "Oh….uh…sorry. That's just been annoying me since I met him."
"I'm surprised you have heard of him, he does his best to stay out of the limelight. Considering what I've heard about your extensive note taking though, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised." Nezu said amused as he pulled out some documents from his desk.
"You know about my notebooks?"
"I know a great many things, mister Midoriya. I know the exact amount of sweets in a jar, I know the real origin of your Omnitrix, I know All Might's biggest, and your biggest secret because they ate the same secret and I know exactly how many individual strands of hair are sat atop your head right now."
Silence permeated the room, the teenager only able to blink in surprise before Nezu suddenly laughed, paw over his mouth.
"Oh dear me, I did get a bit carried away there. I guess that inclination towards theatrics is something we all have here." The creature said as his laughter died down. "Anyways yes young Midoriya, I know what you want to confirm. I know about One for All, as does our school nurse Recovery Girl. We're on your side, no need to worry. Now to the matter at hand?"
"Oh right, well how much did All Might tell you?" Midoriya questioned and the shorter, and furrier, of the two clapped his paws together.
"He only shared the basic details. He was sending you here, you were attacked and that you had been told to use your watch to get here. He then quickly hanged up before I could question him about any details. He did seem rather panicked so I hope you can enlighten me to the full story. I do believe a robot is involved though? I did get briefed on the original attack by Toshinori."
"Yeah, it was another robot. Well, too make sure I don't miss anything I'll start from when I was just leaving U.A. to go home…"
So the boy spent the next couple of minutes filling in the principal about the whole affair, from the relatively unimportant details of the trip home which the furry teacher was quite a polite listener about, all the way to the moment Midoriya blasted the robot into the stratosphere with a tornado of fire.
"That….does sound like quite the spectacle. Where it not for the whole danger to the general public aspect, I would've quite liked to see that." Nezu admitted as he wrote down some notes. Midoriya continued on, explaining what All Might was doing right now and the principals eyes seemed to lose a bit of the twinkle within them. "Oh, that is quite worrying. Gravis was a student here, only graduated two years ago. He was such a polite and hardworking student, I truly hope he is ok."
"Yeah….Well, that's about it. At least from what I saw and did anyways." Midoriya said as he scratched the back of his head. Nezu went to say something but before he could a knock on the door sounded, before Inko and Midnight walked in.
"Ah miss Midoriya, perfect timing. Your son has just finished relaying his side of the story to me. Do you think you would be able to do the same?" The principal asked and Inko nodded slowly.
"Well uh, there's not much to say I'm afraid. I was just cooking dinner, waiting for Izuku to come home when I heard this weird buzzing noise. I went to investigate, and saw their was this little hole in my door. When I opened it though no one was there. Then I turned around and…..it was right there, staring me in the eye. I'm not a fighter, not by any means and I don't really think well under pressure. If I hadn't of been panicking I should of ran out the door and tried to find some pro's." The woman muttered as she shook her head, taking a swig from the glass of water in her hand. "Instead I ran back into my house past the villain. I used my powers a couple of times to throw stuff at it but hardly anything worked and eventually it got its hands on me. I think it was going to just kill me on the spot but then Izuku walked in."
Midoriya's breathing hitched at that last part and he felt little tears forming in his eyes as he finally comprehended just how close he had come to losing his mother.
"There was a bang and I was pretty out of it after that. Once I was able to comprehend stuff normally again Izuku sent me off to find a pro. I didn't want to leave him fighting that thing alone, especially if it was after him but my son's much more powerful than me so…." The long haired greenette trailed off and Nezu nodded, writing down a few more notes with a frown. "I ran into All Might after that, and he rushed off to help."
"Ah yes. I hope he wasn't too close to his limit." Nezu muttered and Midnight sat up straight in surprise.
"Uh sir?..."
"Oh, no worries Nemuri, these two are already aware of our newest staff members limitation." The principal waved away the issue, paw flailing in the air. He then turned to face the two Midoriya's with a serious gaze. "I hate to potentially bring up any unpleasant memories but I read every new students files in detail to make sure we are as well accommodated as possible. I'm aware it's just you two."
Inko frowned sadly and a rare look of anger crossed Izuku's features.
"Judging by your reactions I suppose I can guess what occurred. That is besides the point, I only confirm it because of the offer i'm about to make." Nezu said and they perked up in surprise. "U.A.'s top priority is always the safety of the students who go here, and of course the safety of their families when it extends to that, as it does here. We know these attacks are liable to occur again, and currently when seems to be completely random. We also know the pro's who were assigned to you were unable to protect you, despite being some very promising up and comers from my memory, though mister Midoriya here was able to stand up to . Now, we do have two uninhabited cities for use in our own backyard…"
Midoriya's eyes widened. 'Is he offering what I think?'
"A lot of the teaching staff here live multiple cities away. Even after the day is over we have paperwork to file or have tasks to do before we leave. For some, like miss Midnight here, by the time she leaves, gets on the train and gets home, it will be time for her to come back again." Nezu explained and the long haired woman nodded. "The training cities we use, one of them has a quarantined off block the students never go near during the day. There is an apartment building the staff will sometimes sleep in and more than enough rooms to accommodate you both."
"That sounds great but i'm not sure i'd be able to pay the rent on that." Inko said before realization struck and she hid her face in her palms from embarrassment while the rest of the room chuckled.
"That would defeat the point of it being a safe house but I understand your concerns." Nezu said through his chuckling. "It is quite fitting that you bring it up though. It is quite a while from here to Musutafu. If you want, i'm sure we could find a position for you as part of the staff. For example I believe our 'chef', Lunch Rush, is looking for an assistant."
"That's….a really good offer, but the teachers do go home for holidays and that so the protection kind of goes away then." Inko muttered and Nezu seemed to make something akin to a chittering noise.
"Yes that's understandable, though not the case for us all. Recovery Girl, our nurse, pro hero and teacher Cementoss and yours truly all stay here pretty much all the time. Judging by our conversations, All Might as well will likely be staying nearby pretty consistently." The mammal amalgam explained before jumping off his chair and walking around the table to them. "And because no civilians would be in the majority of the city, we can allow you what so far has proven to be the best defense so far, letting your son use his watch freely. Of course, there is a catch."
'Of course, because there always is…'
"Miss Midoriya, you don't seem to be a specific target, just an unfortunate bystander, so you can leave and go to other cities to do shopping or meet friends or whatever you usually do. Mister Midoriya though, you'll have to stay within the two cities, or on school premises at all times, with limited exceptions."
The two greenette's looked between each other, considering it. Eventually Inko leant forward. "If it will keep my son safe, i'm willing to do it. Izuku?"
"So I have the whole city to use outside of school hours, with the ability to use my powers relatively freely?" He questioned and the mammal nodded. "Then to be honest, it's an improvement for me. There's nothing i'll really miss, aside from some nostalgia to be honest."
"Well, that is unfortunate but at least it will make this whole proposition easier for you." The principal said, shaking his head and walking towards the office door. "Allow me to show you what the apartments would actually be like."
The bus ride to the city was relatively quiet, the four only making small talk as they travelled. The stepped out after a couple of minutes and Midoriya recognized the entrance as the one he had been waiting at during the entrance exam.
Midnight opened up the gate and they took a left turn at the first block. After a couple of moments of walking they came up to a walled off area with a couple of buildings inside. They didn't go far into the area, walking to the entrance of the second building on the left.
Opposite was a building that looked identical and Midoriya realized these must be the apartment buildings. They stepped inside and went to the elevator in the main hall.
"Your apartment will be on the third floor. Both apartment buildings have a total of six floors with three rooms each. There's another building a little down the street but only Aizawa lives there. He does like to commit to his loner persona." Nezu mentioned with a small chuckle when the elevator doors opened, revealing a fairly small barren hall with a few seats, carpet and not much else. There were two doors either side of the elevator and one just across from the elevator. "The door to the left of the elevator is where All Might has set up and the right is where Nemuri here has slept for a while. This apartment straight across is where you both will stay."
Nezu pushed the door open and they walked inside as Midnight piped up from the back. "You're lucky to get this one you know. Both buildings only have one big apartment each, to save room."
The door lead into a larger hall with red carpeting and blue wallpaper. A coat hanger stood beside the door with an end table and a shoe rack. At the left end of the hall there was a closet that was left open for some reason.
There were five doors inside, and the younger Midoriya pushed forth, opening up the door straight across from the front door. Inside was a soft looking king sized bed, with bedside tables either side, a large wardrobe pressed up against the wall and a trunk at the foot of the bed. To the side of the door was a wooden desk with an office chair and a set of shelves behind it.
"This is the master bedroom where you will presumably sleep miss Midoriya. It has plenty of room and storage in case you need it, and the desk is a fine enough place to set up a computer if need be." Nezu explained and Inko blinked in surprise while the omnitrix wielder let out a whistle of content.
"I'm surprised it's already got some furniture, do you keep it ready for anyone coming in then?" He asked as he ran a hand over the wallpaper.
"Well partially yes. I also did call ahead after All Might called up just in case to get one or two necessary things put in." The principal explained as they stepped out Into the hall and walked to the room on the left of the elevator. "This room will be yours mister Midoriya."
They walked in and had to navigate a curve as the bedroom seemed to stretch around the edge of the building. When they did get in the teens jaw dropped.
The room was clearly initially meant to be a guest room as was evidenced by the two queen sized beds. Near the front was a divider between the bed area and what appeared to be a small office area with two desks, one of which had a laptop on it. An armchair sat just in front of the door with a little table and two wardrobes stood beside one of the beds. The room was a bit thin but otherwise fairly spacious and once one of the unnecessary beds was removed it would be a nice large room Midoriya would be more than happy with.
'I could fit twice my merch in here and still have room left over.'
They wandered into the hall again and Nezu opened the door opposite them but didn't walk in. "Your bathroom is a mostly standard affair, with one little difference. There's two baths and a shower in there, each hidden from each others sight. Also two toilets and sinks, we did it this way for efficiencies sake, so that you could save as much time as possible when in a rush. Now, if you'll follow me, the room on the other side of the master bedroom is the living area."
They walked in and looked around. It was probably the smallest room, next to the master bedroom funnily enough but it was still a nice room. A couch and two armchairs were set up, facing a television, a coffee table. Between them. There was a few cushions on the floor in the corner next to a pile of board games. The feature that truly caught Izuku's eye though was the pool table that was there. He raised his hand to question it but Nezu beat him too the punch.
"If you're wondering about the pool table, our designer had a bit of a phase when they were doing these buildings. I've considered removing them but I decided to keep them until someone moved in, and let them decide."
"….no comment." Was all the younger Midoriya could think to say. The went to the last room that was on the opposite side of the apartment, walking in too find it was a similar set up as Midoriya's room, curving around the side.
There was a normal kitchen with two cookers, a fridge, a few counters with cupboards and cabinets above. An ironing board and laundry basket stood off to the side and in the long hall where the room curved was an unnecessarily long dining table that could fit all of the boy's class without much effort.
"This is….so much. Your sure about just giving this to us? I thought we would have been in some little apartment, maybe a bit smaller than our current." Inko said as she looked around. Izuku couldn't help but laugh.
"Well from what i've seen this is the U.A. way. If it isn't over-board or over-the-top, it probably isn't U.A." The greenette said as he opened up the fridge out of curiosity and saw an alarming amount of soft drinks stored inside.
"Yes, well we have this apartment to spare, protection you need and a job to keep you sustained. It would be awfully rude and not very heroic of us to not offer you a safe haven when we have it. So, are you certain you want this?"
The two were silent as they thought. Inko spoke up first.
"I'm fine with it. Maybe hold off on the job part first though, so I can see if I can still maintain my old job please?" The woman requested and Nezu nodded while Midnight reached past Izuku, pulling out a drink for herself.
"That is perfectly fine. Mister Midoriya? This is mainly for your sake, are you ok with this?"
Midoriya was quiet for a moment.
"I have a single amendment, and i'll be happy with this."
"What would that be the?"
"Please, after the school day is finished may I have a two hour period where I can leave outside of U.A., just to make sure the rest of my friends get home? It's the only chance aside from during school I can interact with them and if today was any indication, we won't interact much during the day."
"Well, from my own experience you will be interacting more than you realize but if that's your only request, then I'm sure it can be arranged. So you are both willing to move to this?"
"If possible, yes."
"Then in that case, you both get comfortable around here. Midnight will show you where the rest of each of the staff reside while I go back and deal with the paperwork in my office. Don't worry about landlords or the like, U.A. will handle it all. If that's all then allow me to welcome you formally to your new home." The principal bowed before heading for the front door. "Toodles!"
Midnight downed the last of the drink she borrowed and Midoriya smiled as he followed her out to the other apartments.
A city to himself to use his powers, a new home and his dream school?
He should of gotten nearly murdered by an alien robot sooner!