Chapter 1: Smile For The Camera

"For the last time, kid, I won't blow up the building just because you want me to."

Maijima Higari was annoyed and for very good reason.

As one of the teachers of UA and in the Support Department besides, he had quite a number of tasks to accomplish, especially as the year was set to begin. There were toolboxes to catalogue and replace, because students would definitely lose a random tool here and there if the teachers could. Several laboratories were scheduled to be retrofitted and commissioned in response to steadily developing technologies, and though this was meant to be used by students eventually, the teachers were always the first to benefit from these more modern facilities. There were many more besides, from busy paperwork to actual research and development, but most pressing was his duty as a Licenced Developer in that he had to manage the costumes of the incoming students.

The submitted designs notwithstanding, the teachers of the Support Department had to submit a workable prototype of a costume for each and every potential student for the Hero Department. That meant designing everything from the final look of the costume, based on submitted designs of course, analysing the feasibility of the functions requested by the students, procuring the materials, and ensuring that the prototype was at the very least, wearable. Doing that for more than two hundred potential candidates, compounded by the fact that there was a virtually limitless pool of potential Quirks they had to design around, meant they desperately needed the months between a potential student's application and the second day of class when they traditionally don those costumes for the first time.

Of course, he had to admit that most of the work was done by the companies they subcontracted, but that just meant they had to design the set of prototypes even faster, which did very little to curb his stress levels.

It was in the middle of this busy time that he was plucked from his own personal studio and practically tossed into one of the training grounds. At the very least Sekijiro had the decency to explain that he was hand picked for this job and that he really needed a break before leaving him with his new charge.

Apparently, someone's idea of a break was watching a small child for the rest of the afternoon.

If he was a gambling man, Higari would put money on Nemuri… and come to think of it, it would also explain why the heroine wasn't the one chaperoning

"But why not?" A girl, fresh out of kindergarten, not nearly old enough to be in a gym much less the deathtrap that was a UA, stomped her feet in petulant indignation. The aforementioned phone —A smartphone, because the attention span of an underdeveloped child wasn't short enough— dangled from her wrist and jumped out at him with the maddening glare of way too much neon. "I thought Pro Heroes blow stuff up, and you have friends when you do it too! It's gonna be fun, I promise!"

The image of an immature elementary schooler wasn't helped by the fact that she wore a sailor uniform and a large red backpack that weighed much too heavily on her shoulders. The pudgy face that seemed to be just the right proportions to deploy the fearsome pout did give him some pause, by the rational adult in him knew that if he capitulated now, there was no telling what she would ask of him next. He would say strong, though not because of the inefficacy of the child's most powers of persuasion, but because what she asked of him, when he really thought about it, was troubling.

What type of child would want to witness such wanton destruction?

Higari could understand if she was asking to play Hero with her, he did the same with the friends of his youth and he'd never say no to the opportunity to invite an actual Pro Hero to one of their sessions after all, but not this.

Before entertaining the idea of being a Developer, he would watch the Heroes and their exploits whenever he could, and he could say without hesitation that the Pro Heroes were always the focus of his adulation. To see buildings on fire, city blocks exploding every which way, the scars left behind by a Villain's rampage and a Hero's struggle to bring the former to heal added to his childish reverence but only because of the contrast it presented. Ever since the beginning, destruction was never to be celebrated. It was only because Pro Heroes braved each and every day despite the dangers to their own well being, much less that of the city and society as whole, that they commanded such respect, such veneration from the public. Children worshiped them because they were the light in the middle of shadows the Quirks of Villains cast, that amidst the worst of humanity, innumerable dangers, and the face of death itself. They were proof that there was hope, that everything would be alright even if it looked like — even if indeed— the world was falling apart around them.

Higari shook his head.

It wasn't fair.

She was young and she definitely looked the part. The sailor uniform, one with a palette that was distinct enough to be memorable but still escaped his memory, and the smartphone, a model he was sure wasn't on the market or at least heavily customized, told him he was dealing with a little princess. The way she was obviously used to having people bend over backwards to fulfil her whims all but confirmed that this was a sheltered little bird he was dealing with. Considering how much wealth some families could amass, Higari wouldn't be surprised if she was brought here on one of those same whims. It must have been such a shock to her then when he denied her request, and her face certainly played the part.

"You're mean." He would admit, he was more enamored than terrified at the way her face scrunched up and all the anger of a wet kitten as she whimpered menacingly. He almost didn't notice how she lifted up her smartphone, as if trying to take a picture of him, but the obnoxiously bright case was much too hard to miss.

He was almost about to taunt the little girl before she said her next few words.

"Mean people should just explode."

The last thing he saw was a flash of white.

"I didn't mean it."

Sitting at his office, Nezu couldn't help but sigh into his coffee. His niece was lying of course, and if her tone didn't give it away, the smile on her face was just too reminiscent of a cat that just ate the canary. The irony that he looked quite a bit like a rat wasn't lost on him, and those same violet eyes were staring right at him as she beamed.

Sometimes he wished she was more like her father.

"I don't know how you did it—"

"Of course you don't, I made sure that none of the cameras were running. All of the robots inside have also been dealt with, and any recording device within a two hundred meter radius from our general position wouldn't be working." The little girl, lying casually on the couch where so many heroes and heroines cowered before him, flippantly interrupted him before lifting up her phone. On a black screen, with big bold letters was two words: JAMMER ACTIVE. "You should really get that fixed, you know? Maybe install a secondary cutoff alarm or something. I also made sure no one was close enough to hear anything was happening and I even picked the most out of the way training ground for testing, well, at least relative to any other active faculty currently on campus. Do you want villains to be able to access the systems so easily?"

Nezu liked to think he had a good poker face, but even he wasn't foolish enough to be confident in it given certain select circumstances. His skill with keeping his thoughts to himself was largely thanks to his face being something more like a snout, and while his more animalistic attributes were generally a boon when it came to the realm of deception, there were still ways to read him. Ways that his sister must have taught her daughter before leaving the little girl with him, much to his chagrin, because at this point, the little girl was certainly egging him on.

"Be that as it may," he tried to be patient, tried to understand where the child was coming from, because at the end of the day, he was supposed to be the adult here. "You assaulted a Pro Hero, and for some trivial reason, I'm willing to bet. What, he didn't want to let you into the Development studio?"

All he got in reply was a grin, one that told him two things in quick succession. He was most definitely wrong with his guess, but now he was sure it was for an even more senseless reason.

"Don't worry too much, Ojisan. Power Loader is in perfectly good shape, other than the fact that he's unconscious right now." Nezu would have thought that the child was actually trying to placate him if he didn't have an inkling to what her next words would be. "Recovery Girl should be sending you the full report soon, as well as ask why you wanted an full examination in the first place."

He didn't need to check his phone then, one less thing to worry about. Though how he would explain to Ken that he'd need the entire Training Ground C rebuilt would be a conversation he wasn't particularly looking forward to. At the very least he knew where those last few pieces of missing equipment were, though he wasn't sure if he was more comfortable knowing that they were with his niece.

On one hand, they could have been in the hands of one of the hidden villainous organizations scattered throughout the country and he would be kept up at night pondering about how much damage such dangerous weapons would inflict on the public before a Hero could put a stop to it. On the other hand, they were in the hands of the daughter of someone who treated Tartarus like a hotel.

It would have been fine if it was just a normal bratty tantrum, Nezu knew a thing or two about keeping children in line, but this had gotten too far. Strangely enough, he was already accustomed to the massive amounts of property damage his niece had a penchant for causing but this was the very first time she decided to try and take whatever frustrations she had on a living being.

This could not stand.

"Natsumi, this has to stop." Nezu tried, really, really hard to appeal to whatever was left of the innocent child that was his niece, but he was firm. Natsumi was still young, much too young to be trying to do what she was doing now, and though he knew that being rough would further reduce his chances of getting through to her, he needed to nip this problem in the bud as soon as possible. "This has been going on for far too long and if you continue down this path, I won't be able to help you."

"Then let me go after him." Natsumi didn't even bother to look at him when she let lose the words he knew she'd say

And once again, it all goes back to this.

"You know why I can't do that."

"I know why you won't let me do that. But can't? We both know that's a lie." There was that smile again, the same smile he's seen only in his worst nightmares. "Come now, Ojisan, I won't lie to you if you won't lie to me, remember?"

And there was the once compromise he was willing to take when she adamantly withstood his characteristic verbal avalanche.

"Be a Hero then." Nezu smiled when, even as Natsumi turned her face into the back of the couch, he could see the makings of a frown tugging at her lips. "Show me you can take this, and use it for good. Earn your licence, graduate, prove to everyone that you can be a respectable Pro Hero, and then you'll have my blessing to hunt him down."

Natsumi took a moment to look at the image projected behind him. He could almost make out a whimsical grin when she examined her handiwork before the scowl surfaced and she turned back into the couch.

"I'm not going to be like them , Ojisan, you can't make me."

The hatred was still there, still as fresh as the day it was born, when they broke the news to her. It was still as frevid as it was when he told her that she was going to be living with him from that day forward. That overwhelming disdain for everything related to Heroes was as overpowering as it was the day he found out that she had nothing left to lose and exactly who was to blame.

The day she decided that she didn't need to be a child anymore.

"Then, at the very least, show me that you can do better, it's what…" Nezu paused, and characteristic of her mother, she looked at him with knowing eyes. For a moment, there was disbelief coloring her expression before wrath returned once more. "It's what your father would have wanted."

The glass behind him shattered.

So that's what her mother gave her.

A window specially designed by his sister for his protection, rated to withstand modern autocannon fire shattered against a little phone.

Or maybe it's better to slow that down, and though he didn't really see what happened behind him, he knew enough about what she threw to draw some conclusions.

The miniature laser cannon was a mechanical wonder, with the entire apparatus small enough to be initiated into the camera of a smartphone, and really he should have known that's what his sister would leave his niece. It must have slammed, emitter first, into glass and was thrown with enough force that it detonated upon contact, and destroyed the glass wall that allowed him to look out into the world.

What was a real miracle was that it didn't do more damage. A weapon with the potential to level cities before running out of power overloaded not a couple of meters behind him and all he heard was the shattering of the glass. There was no wave of heat, there was no wall of pressure, no deafening rumble, and no debris flying every which way. Likely, the only reason the explosion didn't do more than shatter the glass was her Quirk at work but he didn't dare show weakness when his niece was absolutely livid.

Nezu stared into glowing blue shards of glass and held firm, even as the silent threat of his Natsumi's Quirk loomed over him.

"And how would you know that?" Natsumi stood on her feet and spat over the blaring alarms. "How would you know the wishes of a dead man?"

"Because all he ever talked about was how his daughter would one day, in some way, save the world."

The tension in the air was palpable, and not even metaphorically. It was as if the air itself was forcing him down as she took a step forward, and that probably was the case. Natsumi's Quirk made sure that he couldn't move back even if he wanted to, but he knew enough about his niece that he didn't feel the need to flinch back even if he was allowed to. Step by agonizing step, his Natsumi approached looking for all the world like a child throwing a tantrum instead of a villain in the making with a Quirk with limits that even he didn't know about, because at the end of the day, that was what she was.

Oh, it looks like someone finally got to the door.

"What do you want for dinner?" Natsumi asked as soon as whoever was on the other side of the locked door started banging on it. It would take a while, his sister also made sure that no one weaker than Yu at her full size could open that door when the lock deployed. Natsumi had passed him at this point, probably standing close to where the panoramic window would have been if she didn't break it and probably looking out into the open air if her voice was any indication. "Something that goes well with salmon we still have left over from last night."

"I'll leave you to it, just as long as you don't put too much pepper in the tempura this time."

And after that, there was only silence.

Tabane, why did you have to be so stupid when it counts?

If only his sister was a bit less impulsive, then maybe his niece would still have a mother and him a sister. If only Natsumi's grandfather was more responsible, then he would have someone else to turn to instead of basically being stuck raising this girl alone. If only he could trust Maya with Natume then maybe he'd have to worry about his other niece corrupting Natsumi instead of the other way around. Maybe if the world was a bit more fair then he wouldn't have to be having to talk to his niece every year about why she couldn't hunt down a man long dead or would kill her in a heartbeat.

Too many ifs, too many possibilities, too many problems, and not enough time to go though every single one and look for solutions.

It was days like this when he wished he could have stayed a normal animal; ignorance indeed was bliss.

But there's no time for such thoughts when I have a school to run.

He was about to press the button that unlocked the door and disabled the alarm when he found that it was still flush against the bottom of his desk. Of course, the one that controlled the window indicated that it was open.

Clever girl.

Nezu stood from his place and made his way to the door, opened it, and confirmed that indeed, no one was there to knock in the first place. Then he took his tablet from his coffee table and walked towards the closing window, Natsumi having already disappeared from view before he looked down and marked his latest message from Chiyo-sensei as read. He wasn't at all surprised when he found an even more recent message waiting, one sent only a few seconds old.

I love you

Of course Natsumi would ignore the latter half of their conversation and Nezu was resigned that they would most likely revisit this conversation in the near future, but he didn't think about it as of yet. What was important was that it didn't take long to type out his own reply.

I love you too, Cub

Hello People! =))

This is crossposted from AO3, becuase I don't think OC's get enough love there.

I know it isn't the best time, but since my schedule suddenly cleared up, I thought have rewriting the one (Terrible) story I had on this site. Some things change, some things stay the same, hopefully everything gets better but down the rabit hole we go!

Any feedback will be welcomed and I hope to reply now that I know that's a thing =))

I hope everyone's doing well and hopefully chapter 2 comes out in a few days.

Stay Safe and Enjoy the Ride!

So that we'd avoid confusion, here begins a segment I'd like to call Crossover Notes, where I'll be discussing some stuff, from tech to Quirks, maybe even characters if they don't spoil too much.

Miniture Laser Cannon: Taken from Zannen Jokanbu Black General-San, seen in Chapter 26. Exactly what it says on the tin, it's a laser canon small enough to be mistaken as the camera of any typical smartphone. Don't let its size fool you, this weapon can pack quite a punch!