A Sad Boy in a Tree house
Chapter 44
U.N.I.T.
What was she supposed to even say the next time she saw him? Was she even going to see him again? Ochaco buried her face into her blanketed arms, sitting just outside the house as she watched the soldiers running back and forth.
"These guys again?" Mina sat down beside Ochaco, taking a sip from a steaming beverage. "Does Midori have a personal military?"
The thought of the boy in charge of a bunch of guys with guns made her chuckle. But now that she thought about it Izuku's hero attire did have a military style to it. Huh, maybe he did get himself an earthly military to handle the aftermath.
Their eyes locked onto one of the armed men as he approached with a clip board, looking between the two before addressing them. "Uraraka Ochaco and Ashido Corinthia Mina correct?"
The pink one seemed confused, scratching her cheek as she glanced between a silent Ochaco and a patient soldier. "Um, I don't know about the Corinthia part but yeah."
"As the last royal member of the Pantorian Helis', we have your records note your royal status by including your birth mother's name."
"You mean like in the book?" Mina clutched her stomach, laughing hysterically over the fact. "T-he military thinks t-those are r-real HAHAHAHA!"
Wiping a tear from her eye, Mina tried to share her laughter with her friend. Only she wasn't laughing, or smiling. "T-they aren't real. You wrote them so you know that."
Her head swiveled between the man, and the author, neither of them treating this as a joke. "No way."
"Anyways." The man coughed into his hand. "I'm gathering the members of your class for a proper debriefing of the situation. If you would follow me please."
Ochaco got up, Mina hesitantly following as they were brought to a large truck with a small retractable staircase leading into the trailer. They expected some kind of strong, mysterious leader in charge of this secret organization. Maybe intimidatingly bald with an eye patch with computers all around with spy agents clicking away.
It was a clean, warm, and welcoming with carpet, wood lining the walls, and even a chandelier dangling from above.
*sip* "Welcome" Principal Nezu set down his cup of tea, sitting in his large cushioned chair at the head of a table.
Already present were Momo, Sero, Hagakure, Ojiro, Kaminari, Jiro, and for some reason.
"Thirteen?" Ochaco was surprised to see the heroine here, especially serving tea in a really nice place disguised as a military vehicle. Or was it really a military vehicle that had the interior disguised as a nice office, but that would just be silly.
"Have a seat." The principal held a paw forward towards the empty chairs.
Ochaco and Mina sat into the cushions, Thirteen coming over with a tray of various drinks. "Would you like any?"
"No thanks." The brunette turned down the offer, the space hero goin once more around the table before taking a seat next to Nezu.
"Excuse me." Momo politely leaned forward to get their attention. "Now that we're all here could we please get an explanation."
"I'm sure some of you have pieced it together a few ideas." The furry dogbearthing held up a book, sliding it to the center of the table.
"Not these things again." Ojiro put his face into his hands. "Ok, they're books, so what?"
"All stories hold some truth." The principal flipped open a page in it, a little girl and boy looking out the window to a dark city. "You just need a few more perspectives to see how the stories of a child are very relevant."
He then brought out a folder, pulling out a paper that documented a multi city level power outage. At the center of it, the mansion that was just outside.
"Holy shit." Sero whispered. "How much of the books are real?"
"All of them." Ochaco mumbled. "It's...all real. Well some of them we had to cut back because there were some really scary themes."
"Like what?" Toru asked.
"Giant spiders that hide in kids' closets to eat them."
"Oh...yeah that's scary."
"What do you think?" Sero asked the taller teen, who inhaled deeply as she stared blankly ahead.
"It, isn't an explanation that should make any sense." She held up her hand, conjuring a candle with her quirk. "But, after a brief discussion with my parents...I don't think there's a better one. Everything about it wasn't normal, how everything was wirelessly drained, candles, combustible reactions, even our quirks were drained. Everything Midoriya said were things that sounded like the fantasies of a well educated child. Yet, he still stopped it."
"Hey, where's Midoriya's girlfriend?" Kaminari asked, Jiro jabbing his side.
"Of course you would notice that." The girl huffed, keeping her jacks hovering in the air.
"Sir." One of the soldiers entered the room, holding up a small piece of charred concrete in a clear bag. "All students are accounted for."
"Thank you for your diligence." The principal gave a small bow to the man, who left without another word.
"Does that mean they found Midoriya and Hado?" Sero questioned.
"We'll explain everything." Thirteen folded her gloved hands. "But, we need to be clear that everything we discuss are real events, and each of us are either new to this." She gave a direct look towards Ochaco. "Or have known about this for years."
"He really is an alien." Mina fiddled with her horns. "Holy shit am I an alien? Am I really French?"
"No, no way." Ojiro shook his head. "If aliens existed, we would know about it."
"We do." Nezu tried to reassure the student. "And now, you know. Whether or not you've accepted it yet."
"Shouldn't Midoriya be a part of this conversation?" Momo questioned. "My parents would also like to talk with him about potentially restoring-"
"That's not happening." Thirteen cut the girl off with a raised hand. "All Torchwood resources are being confiscated, and their associates' assets being frozen until everything is thoroughly investigated. As for Midoriya..."
"We'd be lucky if he ever returned to Earth." Nezu finished.
A tree-house floated through the nebula, swirling stars creating a culmination of light and color that twisted in on itself as clouds of gas filled the space in between. Izuku sat on top of the wooden box in the branches, staring at the cosmos that stretched for nearly an eternity.
His hair was overgrown, a mess that hung over his eyes with no matching coat or bright bowtie on him. He just wore his wrinkled button up shirt, not even tucked into his slacks with no shoes.
Normally the sight all around him would be beautiful, but it didn't feel that way anymore. It was hardly anything compared to sharing it with someone. The vibrant energy, the endless curiosity, the wonder of it all wasn't here anymore.
He missed her.
He missed his family.
The TARDIS chimed, a gentle ring emanating from the inside of it. The Time Lord sighed, breathing in the air shield that kept him alive despite being in space. He needed to eat, even if he didn't feel hungry. Five weeks was a long time to go without food.
Moving out of his temporary coma, Izuku climbed down to the main door and entered inside the TARDIS. His feet dragged across the ground as he walked past the console, entering the corridor entrance as he aimlessly followed the scent of food.
He stood in front of the door that the scent came from, the sliding door opening before him. This wasn't the kitchen, it was Nejire's room with a bowl of soup in a brass bowl sitting on the nightstand. Izuku wasn't sure why it was here, some way to make him cope faster with her death? Or just think about her?
Whatever, he would just grab his food and get out. Carefully stepping over a pair of shorts left on the ground, and a spare hero costume, and a yoyo with gravity strainers from the year thirty twenty eight, a smile graced his face as he saw the mess of trinkets scattered over the floor from various adventures.
Even though he didn't turn on the lightswitch, there was still a purple light emanating from the large tank filled with bioluminescence as they shared wisps of flowing energy with each other. It was probably the race that was behind her quirk.
With so many wonderful, cherished memories swirling in his mind here, he indulged himself in nostalgia and sat down on the bed, taking the bowl of soup and drinking a small sip of it.
*Sksss*
Izuku glanced over to the doorway, seeing Dreamer standing there with a jar full of krill. "Sorry, I didn't know you were-"
"It's ok." Izuku softly whispered. "Did you want to feed them?"
She nodded, moving towards the large tank of alien jellyfish that took up one of the walls. With one hand she opened up a collapsible ladder to the side of it, climbing it slowly so she could feed them. Her hair was longer, that was one of the first things Izuku noticed.
He didn't forget about her, but he could have been more attentive.
"She called them jelly babies." Izuku got up, standing in front of the jelly tank as he watched the microbes float down in the water.
The Dreamer just nodded silently again, letting out a yawn as she stared in the gently swirling lights in the water.
"Are you tired?" Izuku watched her get down from the ladder. She gave another short nod, rubbing her eyes. Guiding her to the large bed, he opened up the covers so she could climb in. Once he saw she was comfortable enough, he was about to leave until a hand grabbed his sleeve.
"Are..you going to stay here? In the TARDIS with me?"
"I'm not leaving you." Izuku sat down on the bed, thinking about how exactly he was going to word his next sentences. "I might travel to places, maybe try to find my family again, but I don't plan on leaving you alone."
"It's dangerous out there." She shivered, grasping him more tightly. "Everytime I go out there, things go bad. People die. Just, stay here where it's safe. Nejire said she would be back but...she didn't."
The Time Lord scooted closer, sitting up against the headboard as Dreamer peeked from the blankets. "I wish she was safe here too. With us, but if she stayed in here, and I stayed in here, then a lot of people would have died."
"Weren't you scared?" She asked.
"Always." Izuku admitted. "I'm always scared of dying, of losing, especially those close to me. I'm sure she was scared too."
Dreamy scooted closer, resting her head on Izuku's lap as he rested a hand on her head as he continued.
"I know you're scared to go out there, and it is scary. But fear isn't a weakness. You can use your fear like a superpower. You could run faster and you could fight harder, you could jump higher than ever in your life. We can only be brave while we're afraid. So what's wrong with scared? Scared is a superpower." Dreamer adjusted, letting her see Izuku's face as he smiled down at her.
"It's your superpower."
Tenya tapped his foot away at his desk, waiting for a certain alien to arrive. No word had come of his brother yet, and the only person he knew that was handling the situation was Midoriya. His eyes kept snapping towards the door each time it opened, only to be disappointed when it wasn't the green head of hair.
He double checked the clock, class starting any minute now. There should be no reason a time traveler should be late to anything. Even if he was currently preoccupied with something, like that one girl who one the sports festival, then he could simply go back in time to catch up on his duties.
Unless, time travel didn't work like that.
The groaning of their teacher arose from his slumber under the desk up front. Unzipping himself from the sleeping bag, Eraserhead let his tired eyes glance over the class. "Alright, let's get started. First thing that needs to be discussed is-"
*click* Iida snapped his eyes to the door, thinking about what language should be appropriate for-
"Hello everyone." Principal Nezu came into the room. Calmly he marched up towards the head of the class with All Might following behind, not as happy as his usual self, Power Loader, and Thirteen.
This was, an unexpected development. For what purpose were all of these heroes here?
"I apologize for interrupting." The Principal gave a short bow to them. "But, I have some unfortunate news."
Tenya heard a few of his classmates shifting in place. Turning to steal a quick glance at his fellow heroes in training, he saw many of them unable to lift their gazes up.
Uraraka, Yaoyorozu, Ojiro, Jiro, Kaminari, Sero, Ashido, and presumably Hagakure all kept their heads down to themselves. Weren't they with Midoriya for a study session?
"Last night, all of us experienced a power outage." Nezu began to explain. "During that time, the source of it was caused by a new strand of technical based trigger. The device malfunctioned, and the villain's quirk began to absorb all of the energy in the area. At the immediate vicinity were some of our own students who responded to the phenomena. Thanks to their efforts, the world avoided being sent back into the stone age."
Bakugo grumbled in his seat. "You expect us to believe this shit?"
"Young Bakugo." All Might warned with little patience in his tone. "Refrain from making any such comments."
Nezy put a paw to All Might's leg, calming the muscular giant. "Please save your questions for later, and in private."
Thirteen stepped up, addressing them all in a serious tone. "This case is under Unit's jurisdiction, just like the USJ incident. So you all understand how serious this matter is"
That got Bakugo to shut up and listen, Aizawa already suspicious of the story. Each of them knew what it meant to have UNIT involved, Torchwood keeping a steady eye on the organization before Torchwood was shut down.
"Now then." Powerloader took in a shaky breath. "The reason why we came, is to let you know that one of the students passed away."
"Hado Nejire." The Principal shared. "She was one of the big three of the school, a promising hero student who was already working closely with The Dragon Heroine Ryuko in field work. From what we gather, she stopped the incident at the cost of her own life."
The walking mammal allowed them a brief moment to process the information, some knowing the precise details, others making educated guesses on what could have happened, others just lost at the news.
"Has anyone talked to Midoriya?" Asui, the frog girl asked. "He was really close with her."
"Yeah." Kirishima nodded. "They were dating."
Powerloader put his hands to his side, trying to hold himself in front of the students. "We haven't been able to get a hold of him. We don't even know if he'll be back."
"He promised!" Tenya threw a fist into his desk, his emotions all over the place. He wanted to be mad at Midoriya, so much for just leaving before finding his brother. Though what could he do about it? He had no way to contact him, no ideas on where the cyberman was, and no closer to finding his brother. The boy was so tired of feeling useless no matter how hard he tried.
"This is distressing news." Nezu came up to the boy, a small paw resting on Tenya's leg. "There are many emotions that need to be resolved. All of you are being faced with hardships that no other first year hero class has faced before. Yet this is just a fraction of the daily life of a hero's career."
The class stiffened at that news, reminding them this wasn't just a rare thing to happen. Those on the front lines were very likely to get hurt, or die.
"We are postponing the finals a week, and afterwards each of you will be given the option to transfer to a different course, or one of the many recommended schools Unit oversees. Your experience does not necessarily apply to only heroics after all."
The Principal went towards the door, pausing to give one last look towards the students. "I will be meeting with a few of you that have already gained Unit's notice, including you Mr. Aizawa. I'm sure we have much to discuss."
The teacher nodded, knowing it was inevitable this conversation would happen. Secrets were coming out, and glancing to his class practically half of them from what he could understand knew of life beyond Earth. So many people knowing and not knowing intermingled with one another, it was stressful.
Everyone watched as the heroes left, the teacher with his class once again. Powerloader paused at the exit, looking back towards the class one last time. "If any of you know how to get a hold of Midoriya, please reach out to him. Let him know, he's always welcome here."
Mei was laying across the workbench table with an impassive expression, watching as the pencil she flicked rolled back to her.
Flick.
Roll.
Flick.
Roll.
"Miss Hatsume." Nejire's voice spoke from beside her. Mei rolling her head to see Maid-A standing in her cute outfit, concern all over her facial features. Damn, she did a good job with those emotional translators. She looked human, she acted human, she thought like a human.
Now, her creation sounded like one. Ever since that blackout that nearly drained every last powercell in Maid-A's body, her speech drive finally managed to completely rebuild itself using her personal scans over others talking. The one Maid-A decided to use, the one that was no longer with them.
"You haven't made any new babies in over five hours despite permission to do so. I'm very concerned for you."
"No alien tech." Mei whispered to herself. "No alien tools, no pointers towards wiring mistakes, no moments in the TARDIS workshop for over a week and not missing any school, no teach."
Maid-A looked over the drawing that she had last made, a sketch of Izuku's new hero suit that held no purpose anymore. The android's internal timer went off, and with a quick scan of her creator's current body she deduced the girl needed nourishment.
"Does pizza sound good?" Maid-A inquired, only getting a mumbled response. Taking that as a yes, Maid-A digitally altered the meal schedule for the day. Lunch Rush already made several options each day, so a little change wouldn't hurt.
*knock knock*
Mei didn't bother to check, so Maid-A instead approached the heavy workshop doors. Upon opening them, she discovered Ochaco standing there.
"Hello Miss Uraraka, what brings you to the support department?"
"Well.." Ochaco fiddled with something in her pocket, Maid-A respecting her privacy and not peeking. "I, need to get a hold of Izuku, and I was wondering if you had a way to do that?"
Maid-A shook her head in response. "I apologize, but we have no means to communicate with him. Even with current technology, we are unable to transmit anything strong enough to escape the solar system or our time. At most it would be a shot in the dark, literally to attempt with our resources."
Ochaco pulled out a burnt pen, holding it forward. "Would this help-"
*yoink*
"Hey!" Ochaco shouted, running after Mei who had swiped the sonic contraption.
"Oooooh yes, this will work." The girl hunched over the device, running her finger over its casing.
"Miss Hatsume, it is considered rude to-"
Mei ignored her, already grabbing a tool set and carefully dissecting the components. "If we want to get a message out there to Midoriya I can use the already synched sonic relay to connect with the universal time space frequency in the base TARDIS encryption, which is already programmed into this beauty."
"Hold on." Ochaco was taken aback by the sudden shift in attitude. "Are you saying you can do it?"
"Of course I can!" Mei shouted to the ceiling. "I am the greatest inventor this world has ever introduced to the universe! Screw you Melissa! I made AI, I made battle ready androids that can serve in a domestic setting, I pioneered the hero industry into a new technological age! Now? I'M GOING TO SEND A BEACON ACROSS TIME AND SPACE JUST TO TALK TO ONE PERSON! HA! TRY AND TOP THAT!"
Ochaco stood there, watching the chaotic madness of Mei Hatsume getting to work. Maid-A smiled, seeing Mei's enthusiasm spring to life once more. The android happily went to her side, watching for anything that might potentially explode as her programming warned her of.
They were going to give Midoriya a message, to get his ass back to a planet that still wanted him.
The Dragon Heroine stood smiling towards the cameras outside her agency, another day saved and villains stopped. Someone had decided to try and hold a bank hostage. Too bad for the single thug with a kaleidoscope eye quirk, he decided to take her hostage in her civilian attire.
"That's all for today." Ryuko told the crowd, giving them one last wave to the civilians. "Unless some other villain interrupts my day off."
Leaving them with a joke, she closed the doors behind her to try and gain some peace and quiet. The agency was quiet, even if there were still sidekicks and others moving throughout it. They wisely let her be, the woman heading for once place that still had some work to be done. Her feet carried her though the hall, leading towards the temporary bedrooms that served as more for one girl.
Ryuko's hand hovered over the handle, resolving herself to go and finish the job she started. Entering the dark room slowly, the heroine looked over the half packed boxes of Nejire's room. It was sudden news, not even being there while Nejire was handling some triggered up villain. She hardly knew anything else, everything kept zip tight under this U.N.I.T. force.
The woman sat on Nejire's bed, running her hand over the bright colors swirling around the blanket. There wasn't even going to be a funeral, her parents deciding there was no point.
What bullshit. Ryuko showed up to their doorstep personally to try and talk to them about their loss. They didn't even know, and once she told them they hardly seemed to car. No wonder Nejire practically lived at her agency, and then at Midoriyas. Oh Midoriya, it wasn't hard to miss the relationship those two had. Mirio told her he didn't show up to UA, added the fact he didn't have a phone there was nothing she had to reach out to the boy.
No body, no funeral, and no photos from her family. Ryuko wished they had taken more photos together. The heroine sighed, moving towards the drawer to resume packing Nejire's belongings. Her parents didn't deserve them, but they had first rights to it.
Taking out the clothes and putting them to the side, she opened the second drawer and found a shoebox inside it. A note rested on top of it, written in sharpie.
For the mother she never had
Was this for her? Who snuck this in here? It wasn't a trap, the note was too personal for anyone to make up something like that unless Ryuko trusted them. Or someone Nejire trusted.
Opening the box, her eyes teared up as she saw dozens of photos inside of it. Nejire, so many photos of her. Picking up the first one, she saw Nejire as a child attempting to walk, and instead zooming across the floor with her quirk like a penguin.
Another had her smile brightly in front of her elementary school. Again, Nejire winning the school's track competition and more photos showing her still running despite winning five laps ago. More and more photos came to light of her life, when she came second in the sports festival, her first day at Ryuko's agency, and personal flying lessons over-
"Hold on." Ryuko checked the angle, right next to Nejire and Ryuko as they flew through the air. That was, impossible. They would have had to be flying right next to them, but there was no one else there. Double checking the photos, the camera managed to be everywhere in her life. Same quality, all of the photos made of the same printed material.
Goosebumps ran across her skin as she thought of one cameraman following Nejire her whole life, taking photos the entire time without her or Ryuko knowing about it. That was until she got to the last one.
Nejire was holding the camera, smiling brightly at it with Midoriya and herself in the background smiling at it. The photo was slightly worn at the bottom corners, tear stains across it. She was holding it, so at some point she was made aware of these pictures.
Picking up another one to try and get a clue towards the photographer, she selected a side shot of Nejire chatting with her friends Mirio and Tamaki in the halls of UA. Narrowing her eyes at the reflection, she saw the camera in the hands of someone around their height. The camera covered their face, and the reflection only went to the stomach, but the one thing that wasn't hidden was the curly green hair on top of their head.
Some are thinking Nejire is gonna come back, sorry to say but she is gone. Two more arcs are left for this story, and probably a special one for Christmas. It's crazy, seeing how close we are to the final moment. I almost don't want to stop but I've got plenty of other fics that need love. Maybe, if I still feel the need to write Doctor Who fics, I'll take our beloved Time Lord and put him in other stories like ATLA, Bioshock, or something else. He would have his own title and a new face so it wouldn't have any MHA connection. Basically an OC Time Lord for new crossover fics.
But we first have to figure out how we're going to finish this one together, and what other last minute decisions I might make.
If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, feel free to send them! That includes grammar mistakes. Please let me know and I'll fix them.
TheMillenniumWriter: It couldn't last forever, but it was shorter than either expected.
SplitsShot: That's fair, I felt the same and ended up making Back Before Bedtime.
Xyrothor: Yeah, I liked her too. I felt like even if she was thrown into the spotlight I put a lot of work into her to make her feel like she really belonged in the TARDIS. But overall I felt it was plot essential to remind Izuku that as a Time Lord he doesn't fit in as well with humans long term.
EnticingR: Yep, Doctor Who definitely has more tragedy, but I wanted to make the deaths seem more impactful in mine.
Kratsbroth: How would her death trigger a regeneration?
joeyginise: That was a good guess, and I thought about it but then I realized he couldn't exactly stick around at UA if he showed up with a new face and didn't go by Izuku around so many people who knew him.
GenericBoi989: Thanks! I rewrote that scene multiple times to try and be as accurate to the show as possible. Yeah, I never liked how they brushed over how quirks suddenly became a thing despite them doing all sorts of crazy things.
Izuku will need to shape up soon, otherwise trouble is going to be stirring for too long.
Geek-God of Speed: Possibly within six chapters I believe, give or take a few.
Banfan: Nope, she's permanently dead.
Harleking31: Maybe he won't explain, he'll just stay away from it all while UNIT cleans up after him again.
Isebas: I see this comment is placed earlier in the story, so by the time you get here you'll probably have read how Setsuna is the one who took Ochaco's memories, not Izuku.
I don't own anything except a bunch of fur covering my clothes.