Hello everyone and welcome back! It's been an interesting few months figuring out more minor details about the story, but I'm so glad so many of you enjoyed Orphan Nanny and Blood Oath! I hope this was worth the wait :)

(again please ignore any inconsistencies, I promise I'm working on it)

For a while, Julie just stood there. The wind from outside picked up as the storm raged, but she felt almost immune to it now. She tried tracking where Asuka had disappeared to, but she couldn't see more than five feet in front of her. The snow fell almost in a dream-like haze, but it felt all too real. Like a nightmare.

Cold raged inside of her, replacing any distress she felt, and she focused back on the little girl at her feet—Eri, if she recalled correctly from what little her mother had said about her pregnancy—still shivering from the wind. A voice called out behind her, asking her what was wrong, but Julie ignored it.

She had Eri in her arms in one swift movement and the door slammed shut behind her in another.

Eri was like a chunk of ice in her hold when she turned around, but for a moment all she could focus on was Himiko. The poor girl was stock-still, eyes nearly glazed over despite the tears gathering in them. She looked almost as distressed as Julie felt.

"Mama?" she whispered, but Julie knew she was lost in her own head.

Frustration brewing, Julie tightened her hold on the small girl. "Dabi!" she called, voice cracking only a little. There was a pause, Izuku panicked and trying to comfort Himiko as they waited for the older boy to respond, before his door creaked open and he stepped into the hall.

"What's wrong?" he asked, apparently having read the room (something he's always been good at). He frowned when no one immediately answered him.

Removing one arm carefully from around Eri, Julie gently pushed Himiko in his direction. The girl didn't seem to notice, even as she stumbled and the tears fell. "Take your sister and try to get her to calm down, and while you're at it, get Tenko. He should know he has another sister." Dabi's face went slack, seeming to reboot for all of three seconds, before he nodded, grabbed Himiko, and set off for his and Tenko's room. The door closed with a soft click. Not sparing a second, Julie grabbed Izuku's forearm gently before steering him into the living room.

"Julie, wha- what's happening?" he asked, face dangerously pale. It made his freckles stand out more than they usually did.

"I'm not sure," she said, voice clipped, "but I do know that—that that bitch just abandoned her own daughter on a stranger's doorstep, claimed it was her fault her husband is dead, and now there's a chance her Quirk is activated and unstable." True to her word, Eri was still crying for her mom as her horn sparked and glowed. It was getting longer, she noticed, and the tip pointier and curled. "I need you to tryta figure out what it is before something bad happens, or at the very least get her to calm down." Julie didn't wait for a reply before she set off for the kitchen after pacing the girl to him, clumsily pulling out various pots and pans until she found the tea kettle. She wasn't big on herbal tea herself, but she always kept some around for her kids.

She haphazardly filled the kettle with water and turned on the stove, pulling open various cabinets until she found the one she kept the tea bags in. When all was said and done and there was nothing else she could do but wait for the water to boil, Julie headed back into the kitchen to check on the two.

Eri had calmed down somewhat since Julie left, tears slowing and eyes half-shut with drowsiness. She was curled into Izuku's side under the futon, and even from here she could see the girl was starting to warm up. Her cheeks weren't as flushed as before and she looked calmer, so Julie would count that as a win. Izuku looked up at her approach, but didn't say anything as she got closer.

"…she's doing better now, I think," he said after a beat, sounding a little unsure of himself. "She's already feeling a lot warmer and stopped shivering, but I can't tell what her Quirk is. The only physical mutation I can see is the horn, which seems to glow and get bigger whenever activated or upset, but otherwise I-" He started fidgeting with the rubber band around his wrist. "…I don't know."

It was an odd thing to hear, of course, because when has Midoriya Izuku ever said he didn't know what someone's Quirk is, not even an idea? But Julie didn't have time to trip herself thinking about it, and instead called the rest of her kids into the living room. All the while, little Eri slept.

Himiko came out with her brothers in tow, face streaked with tears and more left to cry. Dabi seemed uncertain, lips tight as his eyes studied Eri closely, liking trying to figure out who she is and what her Quirk does. Tenko was completely clueless, eyes wide and hands clenched tight by his sides. All the while, they were silent, contemplating, watching as Izuku carded his fingers through Eri's thin wispy hair in an almost nervous tick- and, wasn't that a curious thing? Eri was almost identical to Tenko, her hair only shades lighter than his dull blue-gray, and she even shared the same ruby-red irises. Only difference was, her eyes were still innocent to the world they live in.

Finally, after what felt like hours, Himiko broke the silence. "Why… Who is she? Who was—who was that l- lady? Why did she…" Himiko's chin trembled in her distress, but she clenched her jaw determinedly. Beside her, Dabi looked pissed.

"What kinda fucker just—abandons—their own child like that?" he asks, eyes narrowed in his anger. Smoke seeped through his clenched fists, but he luckily had enough self-control to prevent them from sparking.

Julie's freckles tingled as they colored into that same nauseating black color before going back to the default gold. "…her name's Asuka," she said, the name tasting foul on her tongue. "Couple years ago, when I was new to living on my own in Japan, I was jumped by some low-level Yakuza assholes. Said I stole something or some shit; 'course it was bullshit, I was hardly in their territory as it was." She still remembered the day pretty clearly—she had just bought some really good ramen from a convenience store a few blocks away when they jumped her. "Asuka came outta nowhere and told them off, then apologized and bought me some tea. Turns out she was the daughter of that Yakuza's head." Her kids looked surprised, but she ignored it, finger tapping the kotatsu absently. "We've met up a couple times since then, y'know, causal stuff, but she was hardly more than an acquaintance, barely even a friend, but I've told her a bit about you two-" she gestured to Tenko and Dabi, "-over the years. Guess she figured I could handle another kid, since we stopped talking after she got pregnant."

A scowl pulled her lips, and she glared down at the girl, but the look wasn't directed at her, far from it. "…said Eri killed her husband, but she was gone before I could ask." Julie sighed a bit, running a hand through her hair when it fell in her face.

Her kids seemed unimpressed with her story, but she was far too mentally exhausted to deal with that right now.

For the first time, Tenko spoke up. "What're we gonna do with her?" he asked, but they all already knew her answer.

She grinned, but it lacked any mirth. "Adopt her, of course."

—

Tenko stared long and hard at…Eri…noticing how she looked quite a bit like himself. She could pass for his little sister, if he had a biological one. She was a small thing, couldn't be older than himself when he first manifested Decay so late in the game, and he couldn't tell what was worse.

His father, who had hated the very idea of Heroes and Quirks, who hurt Hana and him whenever they dared disobey, or Eri's mother, who hadn't even given her a chance before she made her someone else's problem.

He would admit, if anyone asked, that he had been jealous and resentful of Dabi, at least at first. How could he not? The last older sibling he had (the only sibling you had, his mind corrected traitorously) had belittled and tricked him, blaming him for every little thing she did wrong. Something in Tenko, the dark, doubtful side of him—the side he always tried to keep locked in the dark—had whispered all the ways the older boy would blame him, get him into trouble. He saw the signs—recognized them, even—of abuse and hate marring his skin, the self-loathing shining through tired eyes. He had seen them, and assumed, as anyone would in his position, that this boy, this scarred, half-dead teen, would try to hurt him too, however indirectly, and how he hated the very idea.

Yet…a week passed, and Dabi was still weak and hurting, movements slow and limbs brittle and skin an angry, raw red…and he didn't do anything.

He was quiet, and mindful, and even resented Tenko as much as Tenko resented him…and he couldn't find it in himself to hate him, hard as he tried. He noticed all the little tells; how he kept his feet light, even when there was nothing to be wary of, how he didn't usually speak unless spoken to with underlying streak of defiance, but he never once lashed out. More importantly, Tenko saw the way he reacted to Julie.

He seemed to gravitate towards her, like he longed for recognition and approval, but acted like there was something holding him back from hoping. Someone, he realized, not even a day later. Every time the three of them were in a room together, he noticed how his eyes seemed to stray to Tenko, subtle hate lingering, memories seared into his skin, before he would turn back to Julie and smile, something small and hesitant and so very hopeful. It didn't take him long to realize that, like him, he fought his sibling, or siblings, for attention.

Turns out, after getting Megumi, the two of them mellowed out, and they became brothers.

(Tenko always suspected Dabi missed his real brothers, but he never mentioned it.)

Then along came Himiko, someone Tenko detested from the get-go, but it didn't take him long to like her.

She was energetic and friendly, even a little crazy too, but she loved all the same junk foods as him and belittled people through their headsets with him when he gamed and she knew when to back off when he was truly upset, and it hit him, weeks later, that he missed having a sister.

(Hana acted like she cared, like she loved him, for a very long time, but he had been nothing more than an excuse, a scapegoat, to her. The way her eyes glittered with pity and self-preservation, the way she kept herself out-of-mind-out-of-sight, that she could have helped him too, protected him like a big sister should, but she never did.

"Tenko made me."

"I tried to stop him but he—he wouldn't l- l- listen!"

"Daddy said all that stuff, but…don't worry. I'm on your side, Tenko."

"What are big sisters for, Tenko? I'll help you, 'kay?"

"T- Tenko, w- wai-!"

And Tenko knew, despite everything she did, everything she blamed him for, she really did love him.

But that never seemed to matter.)

Himiko later told him, not long after that, that she missed her older brother, and Tenko knew she meant it when she said she was happy to be a Chiba too.

Tenko loved his siblings, even Izuku who quickly became another brother, and he decided he would love Eri too. He gathered she didn't have any siblings, never had the chance, so he promised that he would be the best older brother he could, so she never had to feel his pain that still lingered when he thought of Hana and his old house and family.

And when Eri rolled over in her sleep, cuddling closer to Izu, he couldn't help but smile.

—

The machines quietly whirred, a sickening green light emitting from the tanks and casting the room in an ominous light. The air was dank and cold, like it hadn't been exposed to the outside in a very long time, but neither occupants of the room seemed to mind. Dr. Garaki stood before a tank containing a Lower-Tier Noumu, checking its vitals on the monitor, humming a forgotten tune from centuries ago. All For One sat silently in his mock-throne, watching passively, eyes trailing each crack and dent in the walls, as if hoping to commit everything to memory. Mentally, he doubted himself, a feeling he has not known for quite some time.

Was it wrong to leave Shimura Tenko in the care of that woman? Should he have intervened sooner, stepped in before she had the chance to help?

But- no, that wouldn't have been wise on his part. The moment Julie Chiba saw him, he knew it was over. The woman was bright and outgoing, and unlike the boy, would have people noticing if she was missing. True, all the effort put into the boy was wasted, but there was no use dwelling on it.

All For One would admit, however, that not finding another successor was a mistake on his part, and there was no time to condition another. If he was not careful, his centuries of work could topple over with one wrong move like a precariously stacked tower of Jenga. Such a fragile game, wasn't it, that one misplaced brick, one foolish slip, and he could be dead in a heartbeat, no one but Garaki and All Might the wiser.

He sighed, almost unnoticeably, as he ran his hand through his hair in his sorrow.

It's getting long, he mused distractedly, feeling the urge to tap a finger against the armrest of his throne, but the action was for those with less control, less conviction such as his, so he ignored it.

"Something wrong, All For One?" Garaki asked, having turned to him without his noticing while he pondered.

"No," he said, almost absently. Garaki was kind to ask, someone of a lower psych would think, but no, the man was just worried over his position and funding for his project to truly care at the moment, so All For One did not see it fit to answer truthfully. Then again, was all this truly worth the headache? Surely such a small thing as a wasted successor was nothing to keep him up at night?

With that thought in mind, he settled back into his throne. Oh well, he thought, maybe the situation wasn't yet unsalvageable.