Chapter 22: Choosing hero names

"Timestream!"

"Gentleman Hourglass!"

"Your hero name is stupid!" Aojikan said, adding fuel to the fire that was his fight with me.

"So is yours!" I replied, not believing what was happening.

I couldn't believe it, we were literally fighting over what hero name to pick. Sighing dramatically, I looked "outside" of our mental plane of existence. Bakugou had just suggested the name "King explosion murder". Somehow, that did not bode well with heroics.

"You probably should not use a name like this." Midnight said, taking on the cap of Captain Obvious for it.

"Why not?" Both of us were in shock. How could he be so oblivious to the glaring problems in his name?!

All of the class had the same reaction, and Kirishima suggested that Bakugou took the name, "Explosion boy", which he immediately refused. This homeroom class, where we needed to choose our hero names, had begun with weird names, but after the intervention of Tsuyu with her "Froppy", the names had come more naturally.

"Which is why we should Timestream." Aojikan insisted, answering to my thoughts. One of the weird things of being in the same body was that we could listen to each other's thoughts, which was sometimes unsettling. "It sounds a lot more natural."

"Fine, I'll give you that." I conceded, wanting to put an end to this fruitless debate. "How about a compromise between our two ideas? Most of the class have had a hero name in two parts."

"Like 'The everything hero: Creati'?" Aojikan asked.

"Yes, that kind of thing." I answered, nodding. "Your name sounds a lot more natural on its own, but we could add the gentleman or the hourglass part with 'hero' as the subtitle."

"Then it's decided." Aojikan said, as he wrote a name on our slate.

"Ah, Aojikan, you've finally decided?" Midnight asked, receiving a nod for our answer. "You were making a bit of noise back there."

We gulped – as in, we both decided to gulp at the same time – in reaction to what she had said. Was it that bad? Glancing around, we saw Kate shaking her head and disapproval, and Ochaco was scratching the back of our head in embarrassment. Deku and Iida weren't reacting, because they were still choosing their names,deep in thought.

'Darn it, if I had known, I would have tried to pay more attention.' Aojikan cursed in thought this time.

'Don't worry, I'm sure we'll get used to it.' I reassured him.

"The name w-I have decided on is: Hourglass hero, Timestream!" He said, almost without error.

"Ooh, fancy name! I like it!" Midnight said, winking at us.

As we got back in our seat, Iida went to the front with his slate. He had written 'Tenya' on it, his first name, baffling all of his friends.

'That's weird, I would have thought that he was going to pick the name Ingenium.' Aojikan thought/said. 'Perhaps it has something to do with his brother.'

I nodded, and suggested that we went to see him at break. Midoriya went to the front with his slate as Midinight asked him if he was ready. On it was written 'Deku'. I could see the anger in Bakugou's eyes. People in the class, namely Kirishima, were asking him if he really was okay with it. Izuku nodded, and started explaining:

"There was a time where I really didn't like this name." As he said that, he unconsciously glanced at Bakugou. "But, important people in my life have changed my perspective on it. I take pride in this name, because it's a reminder that I always need to do my best!"

There was, of course, a small feeling of pride in me, but I was mostly happy that Deku had gone so far. Aojikan hit me on the head, saying that it was also his idea, as we weren't separated at the time. I answered that he was probably right.

After about sixteen different variations on the same hero name, Midnight told Bakugou that he was to think about it over the weekend and find something that didn't contain a word from a list she had compiled while listening to him. Aizawa now told us that we needed to chose the hero agency that we wanted to be interns at.

Of course, those who had received offers after the tournament would have it easy, but for those who didn't, UA was partnered with 40 hero agencies that would accept interns.

'Guess that's another reason why they are top hero academy in the country.' I thought.

Of the people who had received offers, Todoroki had somehow received the most. I could hear him mumbling about his 'darn old man', and that did in fact explain it. After Shoto, I was the second one with the most offers, after which came Midoriya, Tokoyami, and then Bakugou, who was still very annoyed at having been beat by someone who wasn't even on the podium. At the tail-end, Ochaco and Iida had received offers as well, and the former was barely concealing her excitement.

After the morning classes were over, everyone kept talking about where they would intern. Ochaco admitted that she had already chosen Gunhead's agency, as they had offered. Izuku, once more revealing his incredible - and scary - amount of knowledge on heroes, asked if she was sure about it, seeing as Gunhead was a huge battle type. Indeed, Ochaco's plan for her hero career seemed to be more geared towards rescuing people.

"Thanks for the concern, but that's what I've decided!" Ochaco replied, bubbling with her usual energy. "My goal is to work in rescue, ultimately. But fighting Bakugou at the tournament made me realize something: the stronger I get the more possibilities I'll have!"

"That's a really interesting way to think, Ochaco!" Kate added. "I guess that's kind of true. It makes me think of 'Jack of all trades', you know?"

"Well, I do think that while ultimately, we must all specialize in the field that is most appropriate for us, having knowledge of all fields certainly can't be bad." I concluded, and everybody nodded. I tried to hide my surprise that Aojikan was letting me talk.

"Have you chosen where you want to intern yet, Aojikan, ribbit?" Tsuyu asked, tilting her head.

"Ah, well, I haven't decided for sure yet." Aojikan said, taking back control. "But I have been thinking about it before this class, and I guess I would really like to intern at Nighteye's agency."

"Nighteye?" Midoriya asked, his eyes turning into stars. "All Might's former and only sidekick? That's so cool!"

Everyone was kind of surprised by his outburst, but then again, it's Midoriya talking about All Might, what were you expecting? Anyway, I had more important matters to deal with, such as 'Why is Aojikan letting me talk?' and 'Did he listen to my ramblings about what hero agency we should be interns at?'

'Yes I did listen to your ramblings.' Aojikan said, looking at me without any ill will. It had been almost one week since we had switched. 'And as for why, it's the same answer to your first question. I've realized that while you can make errors, you are really smart and,' He marked a pause by sighing. 'wise, I guess.'

'Thank you.' I thought quietly – it sounds less weird when you look at it like it's a discussion – as I scratched the back of my mental head.

Then it hit us both that we hadn't talked to Iida yet! We managed to get out of the conversation with Kate/Ibara coming with us to confront him. He was currently looking at the internship form, deep in thought. Kate poked him to pull him out of his reverie, and he suddenly, with very robotic movements – that is to say, Iida-like movements – he turned his head towards us in surprise.

"Yo Iida, are you okay?" Aojikan asked, tilting our head a bit.

"Yes, I am fine. Why do you feel the need to ask, Aojikan?" Iida asked, still hesitant to call us by our first name.

"You didn't look too well when you presented your hero name to the class in homeroom." Kate said, eyes full of concern. "You've been awfully silent in class, and you seem lost in thought each time we look at you." She glanced at me, and I nodded.

"If there's something that's troubling you, we want you to know that you can about it with us." I said, pointing to Midoriya and Ochaco to add them. "It's not good to bottle up your feelings, and you can't act normally if you do. But we're not going to force you to say anything. We're just laying the offer on the table." I finished, smirking to make him feel better.

"Thank you very much, I will think about it." He said, smiling a bit.

"That's no good, Iida." I said, shaking my head. Kate sent a questioning look towards me before I began explaining. "Judging by the amount of thinking you've been doing ever since the beginning of this day, if you do any more, your head's going to explode!"

Kate broke into laughter, not expecting the joke. Iida started trembling, trying to stop laughing, before he started laughing as well. Aojikan was looking away in our mental plane, but I knew he was just trying to hide the fact he enjoyed my joke. I heard laughter behind me as well, and when I turned towards it, I was greeted by the faces of Izuku and Ochaco, trying to contain it to no avail.

"Ah, if I only I had known I was this funny… I knew I should have tried to become a comedian!" I said dramatically, provoking another outburst of laughter.

When they all finally calmed down, Iida looked much better, as if a part of the weight on his shoulders had been lifted. But I knew that there was still something troubling him, and we needed to do something about it.

The day passed in a breeze after that, and I barely had any time to talk to Iida before we had to go back home. While we had been in the dorms for a week now, an aftermath of the attack on the tournament, we still had the possibility to go back home every two weekends to see our family.

This was an unfortunate turn of events, because it meant that if we wanted to talk to Iida, we couldn't do it for very long. Aojikan agreed with me, but he said that we should probably try to talk with him anyway. Even if we wouldn't be able to talk about everything, just a little was better than nothing at all.

'Besides, didn't you want to give both him and Ochaco that new prototype for dying will gems?' Aojikan reminded me as he glared at me.

'Ah, how could I have forgotten! Aojikan, you're a life saver!' I mentally yelled, rushing to go find the gems.

He just nodded at me, and looked at me like I was the biggest idiot in history. I didn't say anything else, as I was busy trying to find the gems in my locker. Wait, I was searching them?

'Aojikan, there's something that's been bothering me for a while now.' I began, turning my head towards him.

'And what would that be, my dear tenant?' Aojkan asked, bothering me even further.

'See, you keep adding to it. "Dear"? Are you serious, Aojikan? Or are you just messing with me?' I asked, perhaps a bit too energetically, as he was taken aback. 'Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. What I really want to ask is… Why are you being so nice to me? Why are you starting to give back control? I can't wrap my head around it.'

'Our head?' Aojikan said, smirking.

'Oh come on, that's confusing and you know it.' I replied, involuntarily smiling. 'But, really though, why? Did you have a change of heart in one week? Seriously?'

'Perhaps, perhaps not.' Aojikan said, sighing. 'I've realized that what I was doing to you was not going to solve anything, and that practical exercise made me realize that we both need each other. And I know that you weren't doing what you did on purpose.'

'So you decided that cooperating with me would be for the best?' I concluded.

'Yes, that's what I've decided. I accept your apologies by the way. And I'm sorry for being a jerk.' He answered. And then he glared at me as if not to apologize any more.

'Well, let's go find Iida and Ochaco, I've found the gems.' Aojikan nodded, and we waited outside of the school to intercept our group of friends.

"Ah Aojikan, why did you wait for us here?" Midoriya asked, Ochaco and Iida besides him and Kate behind.

"Because that's how people in anime react when they wait for someone." I explained, and Aojikan continued. "I wanted to test if this was a viable strategy, though pressing my back against the wall seems to set all of the wrong flags to be honest."

"Ah, I see…" Izuku said, clearly not convinced.

"Just Aojikan doing something stupid. Just like usual." Kate provoked, smirking.

"Ridiculous, I'm not always like that." We both said to defend ourselves. "Anyway, there's something I need to give Iida and Ochaco. I'm sorry that I'm a bit late in delivering them." I said as I gave away the two gems, a thunder gem to Iida, and a rain gem to Ochaco. "You should put these in your hero costumes, and they will activate passively if you're determined about something."

"Thank you, Aojikan!" Ochaco said, beaming. Iida nodded to thank us.

"You're welcome." Aojikan said, turning his head towards Iida.

We didn't know how to talk to him without putting him on the spot, so Aojikan turned our head once more, this time towards Kate. She tilted her head in confusion, and then looked at Iida. He looked deep in thought, and he was looking at us without really paying attention. She cleared her throat loudly to get Iida out of his reverie, and started talking:

"Iida, we can all tell that something has been bothering you lately. And I think that we all can tell what it is. Because we do, we also understand why it would be hard to talk about it." She paused, looking very concerned.

"I've noticed you've already given your form away." I added, trying to have the most sympathetic look possible. "I have no doubt that you are usually calm and make very good decisions, but I'm scared that you let your emotions guide you this time around."

"Iida, if it's really bothering you, we want to make sure you can talk to us." Izuku said, and Ochaco nodded along.

"I thank you all, but you are concerning yourselves for nothing." Iida said, convincing basically nobody. "Well, I need to go. See you on Monday."

As he left, we all felt that we had somehow failed to convey our feelings to Iida. Izuku and Ochaco looked almost defeated, and Kate was looking at the ground. Aojikan and I looked at each other, searching for something to say. Then, an idea popped in my head.

"Iida, vengeance won't bring you anything!" We both said. Iida didn't turn back, but he did stop walking. "If you are ever in need of help or backup, just call us, OK?"

Iida didn't answer. He started walking again, not turning back once. Izuku and Ochaco left shortly after, saying that they were going to miss the train if they didn't leave immediately. We said goodbye, and I looked ahead, lost in thought.

"You're coming to my house with me." Kate said, dragging me by the arm.

"Excuse-me?" We both said at once.

"There are a few questions that I need to ask you, Paul and Aojikan. And I need you to try my new blend of tea. It will be a waste if you don't try it."

Unable to resist the offer, we walked with her to her home.

As we were drinking tea in Kate's room, she started asking us questions that had been troubling her for a while.

"Why is it that today, I couldn't tell if it was Paul or Aojikan talking?" She asked bluntly, sending us an accusatory glare. "I thought that Aojikan wouldn't be letting Paul out any more."

"I've changed my mind." Aojikan answered. "We've decided to partner up instead of fighting each other all the time. It's more efficient, and I admit that Paul is more intelligent than I am." I started scratching the back of my head in embarrassment.

"Oh, so that's why Paul just reacted, even though Aojikan was talking?" She asked as a smile started to form on her face.

"Ah, I hadn't realised I actually did that." I admitted, looking at my cup of tea as if it was the most interesting thing in the world right now.

"Seriously? That's incredible!" Kate said in between bursts of laughter.

"Hey that's not funny!" We both yelled, only to make her laugh even harder.

"Oh my goodness, I can see it now." She said, not laughing any more.

"What?" Aojikan asked, annoyed.

"You were both saying that together, right?"

We tried to contain the blush. We did, really. However, one quick glance at Kate's face was the only thing needed to see how badly we had failed. She was smiling and biting her tongue not to break out in laughter again.

"You should have really become comedians." She said after having calmed herself down. "But for some reason you chose the hero career. Bad choice if you ask me."

'Nobody asked for your opinion.' We thought, glaring.

"Well, if you are able to talk to each other, I guess that would explain why I have started hearing her."

"Her? As in the person who was supposed to live in this body?" Aojikan asked. "The real Ibara?"

"Yup, that's about right." Kate nodded, looking a bit sad. "As opposed to you guys' situation, I haven't done anything to anger her."

"Was it really necessary to remind us?" I asked, not really expecting an answer.

"Absolutely." Kate answered, not giving any reason as to why. "But, recently, she's been… calling me, I guess? I don't really know how I should say it. So I thought that since you guys seem to have patched up, you could probably help me to… talk to her, I guess?"

"Just answer. It's not that hard. It's all in your head" Aojikan said, and judging by the confusion on Kate's head, that was not very helpful.

"What he means by that is that if you want to talk with her, you need to 'think' it." I took over, as I mentally punched Aojikan in the gut.

"Um, that's a bit more helpful, but I don't quite get it…" She said, looking just as confused as before.

"I guess it would help to do meditation to begin with, so that you can completely focus on your thoughts." I said, remembering the many lessons that Gaster had taught me about it. "We could even try to do it together."

"What do you mean by that?" She asked.

"I'm suggesting that we both meditate together, and try to unite our thoughts." I explained. "Basically, it's like if I was in your mind, as well as Ibara and yourself."

"But how do you even do that? Your quirk clearly isn't about going into other people's minds." She said. Aojikan was also looking at me questioningly.

"No, you are correct." I admitted. "But while I can't go into your mind, I can have Edward serve as a sort of bridge between us."

"I'd appreciate it if you stopped calling me when it's convenient, master." Edward said, seemingly disappointed in me.

'Oh, you're not used to that yet? He does it all the ti-" I punched Aojikan to stop him from talking, because he clearly wasn't helping at all.

"Sorry, Edward. I've unfortunately been unable to converse with you recently." I apologised.

"It is fine, don't apologise further." He said.

"Touché, Edward." I said, scratching the back of my head to stop myself.

"Well, I will take over the explanations then." The creature said as I nodded in approval. "Master Paul, please begin meditating." I closed my eyes slowly, sitting cross-legged. "Master Kate, you can take the same position as Master Paul. Please close your eyes."

I started breathing slowly, and I searched for the source of my will. I had done this dozens of time with Gaster, so it was very quickly that I woke up before a massive pillar of lightning flames. Aojikan woke up besides me, whistling in amazement.

'Wow, I did not know that your 'dying will' was that impressive.' He complimented. 'And you're not even fighting.'

Behind us, we saw a flash of light, and Edward appeared behind us. When appearing in the real world, he used a sort of humanoid form, based on our body, that had some metroid attributes. However, when in a mental plane, he could take on his full form, which was that of an omega metroid.

When I had arrived in this timeline, and I was came to the metal plane for the first time, at about 2 years old, he was just a little metroid larvae, barely making it to my height. A little, jellyfish-like creature, with two fangs, and small red orbs. But now, he was standing proud at about 6 metres tall, though he was somehow still floating above the ground. Probably something about being an EM-wave being made it possible.

This metroid was also surprisingly polite, as Aojikan made me realize when he asked if that wasn't supposed to be a super-predator from space. I had no explanation as to where it came from, though I had a couple of hypotheses. Either Gaster had made a prank/experiment with me as the victim/subject, or somehow, general Legrand had implanted him in me during the fight. While the former was possible, the latter was downright ridiculous, and that left me with one hypothesis.

Gaster, after training me for about 5 months in the basics, had given me a relic from a very long time ago. It was an incredible piece of technology, that was called module E. It allowed me to fight at a level that was previously unreachable to me. In exchange, it was unbearably painful to use it. Like, stupidly painful.

One day, in a fight against an executive of the Order – namely, executive Smith – I was kicked out of my transformed form with the module. Now, this would have been the end of me, if it were not for the fact that after running away from Smith, and trying to do the most damage without dying, the module somehow reappeared when I was about to die. Except it wasn't the original one any more, this one was almost linked with me.

My hypothesis was that when the module had reappeared in me, it had actually changed my body somehow, and Edward was a consequence of it. I wouldn't have been able to see it at the time, as I was too focused on fighting the order to notice such a small baby metroid.

Now, this wasn't just a hypothesis, seeing as Gaster had told me that module E had some link to the super-predator species. However, neither I nor him nor anyone had ever been able to figure what it was. So basically, until I came back to my timeline, I would just have to accept the fact that Edward was staying with me.

In all that time I was thinking, Kate and Ibara had managed to make it on the mental plane. Edward announced that the link had been established, and that we should probably get on with it.

"So, where are we exactly?" Kate asked, seemingly lost.

"I guess you could call this your mind?" Aojikan answered, turning towards me for more information.

"This is actually a physical representation of your mind." I corrected. Kate and Ibara nodded. "The pillars you see behind us and behind you are the representation of your dying will, also called determination." Kate and Ibara turned around, and nodded to indicate they understood.

"So, you're the real Ibara?" Aojikan asked towards the girl who had vines for hair.

"Yes, that is correct." She answered, smiling. "I am a bit confused about all of this, but I understand that you two come from another universe?" She looked at Kate and me, searching for our approval.

"I guess you can say it like that. Right, Paul?" She asked, turning towards me.

However, I wasn't listening to the conversation any more. They all turned towards me with concern, but I wasn't paying attention.

"Master Paul, is something quite wrong?" Edward asked, and he appeared to have also noticed the problem.

"Yes, you would be correct." I answered, looking at Kate once more – or, to be honest, what I had thought was Kate since I had met her. Seeing her in her mind revealed that she was not the Kate I knew. She was someone that I had never seen before, with Gaster or anyone else for that matter.

This theory was solidified by looking at the pillars behind her. While there was a huge Sun pillar, just as I should have seen, there was also a very big Cloud pillar, and I could see that she was oblivious to it. That meant that she was oblivious to her flames, showing that before this timeline, she didn't have any experience of battle.

"Kate, what is Louis' speciality?" I asked, apprehensive of the answer.

"That's obvious Paul." She said, looking at me like I was silly. "How could you forget he specialises in illusions?"

I was stunned. Somehow, she had all of the memories of Kate. And she even believed herself to be Kate, judging by that time we had spent at her house after the UA entrance exam. Then it hit me. There was a contradiction in what I was saying. With a wavering voice, I asked her:

"Kate, you're my girlfriend, right?"

She broke out into laughter, as Aojikan slapped me and called me an idiot. I didn't care about it. I asked the question once more, asking that she seriously answered it.

"Of course I'm your girlfriend, Paul." She said. "Don't you remember? It's been like that since… Since…" I could see her starting to hesitate. "Wait Paul, I have a problem. I can't remember since when we're together." Tears were starting to form in her eyes. "Paul, why can't I remember? W-Why does it feel like I have fake memories? I-I…"

"Shh, it's alright." I said, as I hugged her and rubbed her back gently. Aojikan and Ibara were completely confused, and Edward was looking away. "It's fine. Everything is going to be OK."

After a while, she finally calmed down, and looked at me for answers. I had been thinking about it ever since I had seen her face, so the words came pretty easily as I started explaining my theory:

"I think I know why you and I have fake memories. Well, maybe not all of them are fake. Some are true, but they aren't your memories. They are the memories of Kate, my friend and perhaps crush, but definitely not my girlfriend."

"What you have said fails to explain the origin of your altered memories, Master Paul." Edward interrupted, a stern look on his face.

"I was about to get to it." I replied, not liking the interruption. "I think when general Legrand tried to teleport us to this timeline, he realized that he didn't have enough energy left to teleport both me and Kate. So he had to made a split-second decision. Instead of teleporting only me or Kate, he decided to teleport me and someone else – you – while altering our memories to make me believe that it was Kate and me that were teleported."

"But why did he bother doing this?" Aojikan asked. "Why couldn't he transport both of you to this timeline?"

"It was at the end of the fight." I started explaining. "We had forced him to use almost all of his stamina and magic. At this point, Kate and I were tired, but definitely not exhausted. He couldn't use the spell on both of us, because together we would be able to reject it. However, if he used it on either of us and someone who didn't have magic, there was no way we could resist it."

Aojikan nodded, and nobody asked questions for a while. Everyone was pondering what I had just said, including myself. I was even more angry at general Legrand, who had dragged someone who was completely innocent into all of this. I looked at the girl who I had thought was Kate, and she didn't say anything. She just stayed in the hug, without anything to say.

It was quite hard to leave her house after this. We stopped meditating, and she tried to convince me that she would be fine. I couldn't believe it, but I decided to tell her to call me if she wanted to talk. Even though the only thing I wanted to do right now was stay at her house and apologize to her until my voice was hoarse.

Aojikan was unusually calm as he took over to walk back home. I wasn't well enough to do it. I couldn't stop thinking about what I had discovered, and I couldn't care less about what happened in the outside world.

The first day of our hero agency internships finally came around. Everyone in our class was excited, except Ibara, Iida and myself. Paul had not come out since that evening at Ibara's home, even when given multiple opportunities to act. He was currently sleeping on the floor. In his mind.

Trying to ignore the possible repercussions on his mental health, I listened to Aizawa's blasé voice giving instructions on what we were and weren't supposed to do during this internship. I was intently listening to him because I wanted to stop thinking about what had happened that evening. In the end, Ibara/Kate never called us. Not that Paul would have been able to have a coherent conversation anyway.

I sighed as Aizawa gave his last instructions, and tried to remember what train line I was supposed to take. As I was looking around, I saw Iida walking away quickly, towards the line that would take him to Hosu.

'Hosu, Hosu…' I knew I had heard it before but I couldn't quite-

'It's where the hero killer Stain acts.' Paul answered my unspoken question.

I would have normally been stuck to the ground by the shock that Paul was suddenly talking again, but I had something to do.

"Hey Iida!" I called, and he turned himself towards me.

Ochaco and Izuku, having realized he was leaving, were walking quickly towards us. Ibara was snapped out of her thoughts, it would appear, but she didn't get any closer. Paul looked at the floor in reaction.

'Seriously?' I asked, more to myself than him to be honest.

"If you ever feel really desperate, call us!" Izuku yelled.

"We're your friends, and we want to bet there for you!" Ochaco added.

"Yeah." Iida replied, and he walked away.

I wanted to keep talking, but I didn't know what to say. Paul was unfortunately in no state to convince him, and Ibara was lost in thought. I cursed lowly as I realized we had failed again. Failed to comfort him, failed to stop him from doing something stupid. As I started walking away towards my train, I turned back once, just to see Iida's back.

A.N.: I hoped you liked this chapter! I'm really sorry for the lack of chapters, I haven't been able to write for a while because of homework and lack of will to continue this. I won't promise to publish chapters regularly again, because I'm not sure I can actually keep my promise. But I really want to finish this fanfiction, and I don't want to disappoint anyone following. And by the way, talking about followers, I want to thank all of the people who have followed this fanficton during the three months of hiatus. You're the reason I have come back to writing, and I tip my hats to you, dear friends.

In any case, I hope you have a fantastic day, and I'll see you next time for another chapter of The quirky adventures!

"And the crying will be a like a savoury soda for my soul!"