The Bright Hero, Cobalt

Chapter Twenty-seven

A/N: Mostly gonna be downtime this chapter. It'll primarily be original stuff, a bit of the characters interacting and just being happy for the most part. Stuff will be slowing down here now, so for those who were here for my crappy fight scenes, thanks for sticking around this long, LOL. Thanks again to my editors, my readers, my friends, and all that jazz. Stay safe and healthy through this pandemic, and for Dog's sake, please wear a mask! Don't make pupper sad!

"Normal speech."

"AI/SHOOOOTOOOO/Kacchanese speech."

"Twice Prime speech. Into Other Twice's speech. Into Other Twice's speech."

"Telepathic speech."

'Thinking speech.'

'Sign language.'

Shortly After Internships Ended

Izuku sat happily in the common room with his newly-made niece, doing the girl's hair. He found he was surprisingly good at it, and spending time with Eri just made him smile when she was also in a good mood. She was still a little afraid of Fumikage and Dark Shadow, to the brothers' dismay, but they were working on it.

When the girl's grandfather, the actual boss of the Eight Precepts, had been brought out of his coma and learned the extent of what had been done to the girl, he readily released her into U.A.'s custody, knowing Eri could never be happy with him. Not long after that, Himiko made good on her vow, and adopted the tiny single-horned girl. It wasn't long after that that the short woman got married to Jin, having a small, private ceremony on Selkie's boat. Many wondered over her decision to do this, but it was simply so that Ao could be part of the ceremony without needing to worry too much about being caught. He surprised several of them by submerging when leaving this time instead of rocketing into orbit. Izuku, Himiko, and their partners were shown beautiful imagery from underwater later on through the boy's link to them.

All in all, things were very nice right now. All Might was retired, but he and Endeavor were confident in the next generation, and Endeavor was doing his best to be worthy of the number one spot until they were all ready. Izuku smiled down at the tyke in his lap. "All done, Eri-chan!" he said happily. He had done the girl's hair into a single, long braid, which she delighted in swinging around in front of her for a minute before turning to him shyly.

"Th-thank you, Unca Zuku," she said politely, bowing slightly. The boy found himself wrapped in a hug, the little unicorn suddenly attaching herself to him. He gladly returned the hug, patting her back gently. He couldn't wait until they coaxed a proper smile out of her. She could imitate one just fine, but the two empaths in her life could tell she was just trying to make them less worried about her.

The verdette released the tiny tot, who ran over to her mama and papa to show off her new hairdo. "That's so pretty, Eri-chan! Would you like to go outside and play a bit, or do you want to stay in here?" the shorter blond asked.

"Outside," Eri said softly, then began running to the door, only to trip. She did not fall, however, Izuku and Himiko both grasping her gently with their respective auras and setting her back down. The albino source of cuteness turned around and bowed to them with a tiny thank you. It was a bit worrisome that she was so quiet, but Recovery Girl assured them all that they're lucky she's speaking at all, the elder hero knowing exactly what such trauma can do to a child. Himiko simply reiterated her previous assertion, that her kid's a badass.

Izuku didn't need any sort of premonition quirk to know that the little girl heading outside with her new parents would make many people very happy someday. She already brought joy with her wherever she went, even if she herself was having trouble feeling it still.

From the dining area, Ochako had watched the whole thing, doing her utmost not to squeal with joy at the adorableness. She was so enamored with the sight of her boyfriend doing his niece's hair, she didn't notice Mina and Tooru sniggering nearby. "So, Ochako-chan. Good to know Midori-kun's so good with kids, am I right?" the horned pinkette teased with a grin.

"Yeah, that's prime husband material right there. You're lucky he's Ochakosexual, otherwise somebody else might have decided to grab him up," the occasionally-invisible redhead commented with a giggle.

Their current teasing victim rolled her eyes. "Apparently, and he's only just recently had this realization, he might be demisexual. His basis for this is that he hasn't exactly had that kind of reaction until after he met and got to know me," the girl admitted with a blush, before sputtering and crying out, "WAIT, WHY AM I TELLING YOU THIS?! CEILING JAIL, BOTH OF YOU!"

The teasing terrors laughed uproariously as they floated up to their incarceration, no feelings of regret in their hearts whatsoever. Uravity sighed in exasperation as she turned to the boy who held her heart, frowning as she managed to spot the grey at the base of his hair. Green aura floated around her in an empathic hug, her boyfriend turning to her with an apologetic smile.

A Few Hours Later

It had taken a lot of patience, and a few failed attempts, but Ochako had done it. It wasn't official, but she'd made what was probably the first piece of Cobalt merch that would ever be made. The tricky part had been keeping it from her boyfriend, honestly. The tiny plush looked up at her with button eyes and carefully stitched freckles, a smile on his face that didn't do the original justice, but made her heart melt at its resemblance regardless. She had made the body with green fabric, knowing he'd appreciate his mother's gift to him being featured in its making.

Now, the real question was how to give it to him inconspicuously. She loved Mina and Tooru dearly, but she really didn't want to deal with their teasing when she gave him this. She'd call him to come to her room, but that would involve him going over to the girls' side of the dorms, and her letting him in, which would draw the attention of the teasing twosome. Having somebody else hand it to him was unacceptable as well. She needs to see his face light up when he gets it.

She likes sweet things. So sue her.

The girl of infinity sighed. "I should just ask Tsu-chan," the girl said, before cleaning the mess left from making the plush and opening the door, only to find Tsu just about to pass her dorm room. "Oh, wow, that's some crazy timing. Tsu-chan, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure thing, kero," the Rainy Season Hero replied with a smile as she was let in. The two girls giggled a little as Kyoka walked past with an electrified Denki obediently following her, wheyying as he went. As soon as the door was closed, the frog girl asked her friend, "What do you need, Ochako-chan? It's not about girls' movie night or anything, is it?"

The brunette teen shook her head. "No, though now that I think about it, we should talk about adding Eri-chan to that later, and look for some kid-friendly movies," Ochako suggested, to which the black-haired girl nodded. "I made something special for Izuku, and I wanna give it to him, but I also really don't want Mina-chan and Tooru-chan teasing us about it, so I'm trying to figure out a way to give it to him in private, and soon."

"And you don't want to get their attention by letting him into the girls' side of the dorms," Froppy said simply, to which her friend nodded, and the amphibious girl stated the obvious. "Ochako-chan, just ask him to come to your window. He can fly, remember? Pardon the pun, but Uravity, you're a real space case, kero."

The brunette was about to thank her friend when a soft knocking was heard on the balcony door. The two girls blinked, and Ochako peeled open the window to spot her boyfriend by the door. "Um, sorry if I'm interrupting anything, but Jirou-san said you wanted to see me, Ochako?"

Uravity wasted little time letting the boy in, Tsuyu seeing herself out, keroing in a Froppy giggle. "I'm gonna have to talk to Kyoka-chan about listening in on the conversations of others after I'm done thanking her," the rosy-cheeked girl said with a roll of her eyes, quickly grabbing the plush and moving it behind her, where Izuku couldn't see it.

"Um, well, yer debut happened recently, and they're gonna be makin' Cobalt merch soon, I bet, so I was kinda on a time crunch when I made this…" the brunette said shyly, a silly smile on her face as she pulled out the mini Cobalt, which was almost as soft as the sweet boy before her. "If I'm right, this is the first piece of Cobalt merch ever...I was hopin' it'd make ya happy."

Izuku gasped softly as he gently accepted the plush, holding it like it was sacred. "Ochako...Thank you. I can actually feel the love and effort that went into this. It's...Oh wow...I can't even begin to top this with the one I'm making of you," the boy commented with a blush and a quivering smile, doing his best to keep from filling his girlfriend's room with water.

The flipper of gravitational forces blinked. "Wait, yer makin' me one, too? Seriously?" the girl exclaimed in disbelief.

The teary-eyed boy nodded, pulling out his phone and opening a page he bookmarked. "You weren't talked about as much since you didn't fight as long as I did, but Uravity debuted that day, too!" the boy said with a happy smile, holding his phone out to show a photo of the girl descending from the heavens, surrounded in pink energy as she whallopped Overhaul.

A Heavenly Hero Descends to Save Us All; Uravity, the Gravity Hero!

The brunette's eyes widened. "I look like a badass," she said with a bit of a grin. Her boyfriend nodded in agreement. She truly did look badass. Izuku smiled bashfully and reached out in the direction of her balcony, his green aura extending out beyond it.

A minute or so later, the balcony door opened, and in floated a partially-made Uravity plush. With a fond smile, the boy showed it to her. "I'm still considering whether to make plastic versions of your boots and helmet, or just make plush boots. I'm really proud of how your hands came out, though," the boy explained nervously, letting her know immediately why the bottom half of the plush's legs were missing, and showing off the mitt-like hands with ten tiny pink spots where her fingertips would be. "I still really like the feeling of holding your hands, so I had to put your finger pads on it."

The boy was startled when he found his world, or at least his gravitational pull, flipped on its head. He was pinned against the ceiling, with his girlfriend grinning at him. "You really know how to make me happy, Izuku," the girl said cheerfully, before slowly lowering (raising?) her head to his, giving him ample time to tell her no if he wanted to. However...he wasn't going to tell her no.

Their lips met, somewhat clumsily, and then parted, the two gazing in their partner's eyes. Green eyes sought padded fingertips, and sensing her boyfriend's desire, Ochako took his hand in hers, their fingers intertwining as the verdette moved his lips to hers, deciding to initiate this time. Brown eyes gazed into green ones, and for a moment, there was nothing but the two of them. Their feelings, thoughts, hopes and dreams, all flowed freely between the two, an aura of blue exploding from them and encompassing the building, causing some of their classmates to laugh at the silliness of it all.

Before long, though, the two came back down from their emotional high, as well as the ceiling. Picking both plushies up off the floor, Izuku grinned at his dear friend. "I'll talk to you later, Ochako. Thanks for...everything, really. Looking forward to more!" the freckled boy exclaimed as he zoomed out her window and into the sky with a shout of euphoria. Ochako ran out to the balcony and grinned after her boyfriend, who began writing a message in the sky.

Uravity is the best girlfriend ever!

The best girlfriend ever laughed at her corny boyfriend, before heading back inside. She'd need to thank Crust for preventing their almost first kiss. This one was vastly superior to what that would have been.

The Next Day, Around Lunchtime

Himiko smiled at her husband and daughter. The woman had requested a day to spoil the girl, and so she was excused from class for the day. It helps that Eraserhead was fond of kids, even if he'd only ever tell one or two people this fact in his entire lifetime. The family of three was having a picnic lunch at the Dagobah Municipal Beach Park, Himiko happily explaining the significance of the state of the beach to her little unicorn daughter.

The girl's eyes widened upon being shown through her mother's memories what the beach used to look like. "Unca Zuku cleaned all of that? Wow," the albino source of cuteness spoke in awe.

Himiko nodded. "Yeah. He was like a noodle when he started. A wimp with crazy determination and a heart of gold. Ten months later, and he's got muscles like your papa," the empath said with a grin as the man in question spawned four clones and did the Ginyuu Force poses with them, showing off his musculature with five mad grins.

Eri looked from her papa and his clones to her mama, a bit of confusion on her face. "Papa's silly," she said before going back to her meal, the clones all falling apart while the original fell on his face.

"She's so brutal. Brutally honest, you mean! Don't feel bad. You know she loves you," the man and two of his alternate selves said, making his wife giggle at him as she patted their kid's head. The nine-year-old in question reached out to her papa, the man complying and sitting down next to her as she did her best to wrap her tiny arms around him. "You're right, other me! This girl is just full of love! Told ya, you goof. Shut up and hug her back, dangit. You know she loves hugs."

The tiny tot let out a happy sigh as she was wrapped up in the arms of her parents. She looked back and forth between the two, and asked, "Mama? Papa? How did you meet?"

Himiko grinned at her daughter. "I'm really lucky you're as brave as you are. The story might have been too scary otherwise. It's not exactly long, but if you need me to stop at any point, just let me know," the shorter of the two blonds said. "It was about seven years ago…"

Seven Years Ago, In A Rundown Building

Jin Bubaigawara was not having a good day. 'This is definitely karma for all the things I stole,' the man thought to himself from where he was tied down to a chair while all of his clones argued among themselves, determined to figure out which of them was the real Jin.

"I'm the real one!"

"Shut up! It's obviously me!"

"Fuck all of you, I'm real!"

Jin sighed, and looked down at his lap. 'I feel like I'm the real one, but what if I'm wrong? What if one of them is the real one?' he wondered forlornly.

The debating doppelgangers were interrupted by a door quietly opening and shutting. A grumpy looking girl walked in. "One of you morons stole my mom's purse. Would you mind giving it back? I'd rather not fight you all when you're as agitated as you are," the little girl requested with a bit of a scowl.

"I'm not a moron! Don't lump me in with these guys!"

"Apologize, you rude child!"

"WAIT!"

The doppelgangers turned to the one in the chair, who had cried out. "She might be able to help us! A brat like her won't be afraid to lie to us, after all, as long as we don't scare her, so calm down, guys!" Jin elaborated, looking pleadingly at his clones, who began to calm down, realizing the merit of his idea.

"Yeah, she could tell us, definitely!"

"Sorry, kid. We're really high strung right now."

"Do you know which of us is the real one? Which of us is Jin?"

The girl sighed, then began walking from double to double, each waiting patiently for her to finish her rounds. Soon enough, she'd looked over all of them, then went back to her original position. "I'm gonna be honest, you're all the real one. No, don't interrupt me! I've got the ability to read minds and crap. You all have your own individual thoughts and feelings, you all fear death, and you all have hopes and dreams. Some of you share bits and pieces with the others, and some of you don't. As far as I'm concerned, you're all different versions of the real Jin-san. If you wanna know the one that came from a womb and not another Jin, though, it's the one in the chair," the girl explained, gazing at each of them at least once as she spoke, then with smirk, she added, "Also, I'm not a brat. I'm twenty-one, you mooks. Crazy bullshit experiments mean I age at half the speed of normal people."

Jin, all of him, gaped at her. "She's like an angel sent to save us from ourselves," one of them said, before another added, "She's here for her mom's purse! Show her the stash! If we're lucky, it's still here!"

Before long, the girl had obtained her mother's purse, and stood before Jin Prime, as she dubbed him. "That...was nice. I liked helping you," the young woman said with a smile, before she squeaked as the man got down to her height and pulled her into a hug.

"Thank you so much, small badass," Jin said with tears in his eyes.

The short, awesome creature giggled. "I have a name, Jin-kun. My name is Himiko," she said with a smile, then the two were startled when red aura flooded the area, and before they could properly react, it was gone.

"Huh, that was weird. You guys should skedaddle soon, though. The police know you're here. Leave the money and crap, though. My mom's a pretty important pro hero. I'll let her know you were considering turning over a new leaf so she can put in a good word for you," the shorter of the two blonds said with a smile.

"Thank you, Himiko-chan," every Jin said as one as they gradually merged with the original. The two young adults didn't know it then, but it was the start of something very special.

Present Day

"The next day, we woke up, and I had one more voice in my head than I had the day before!" Jin finished off, a grin on his face at the thought. "It was really weird for a bit, but the Bond thing is pretty neat."

Eri simply tightened her hold on her parents. "Thanks for the story, Mama, Papa," the girl said softly, before letting out a shriek of fear as a villain with a gigantification quirk exploded out of the water, frightening nearly everybody on the beach.

With a sigh, Himiko rose. "Jin, keep an eye on Eri-chan. Duty calls," the fanged girl said with a roll of her eyes.

The doppelganger deployer picked his daughter up. "Come on, Eri-chan. Let's find a good spot to watch Mama! KICK HIS ASS, MARIDA-CHAN!" Jin said as he moved away with the adorable tiny tot.

Kshatriya emerged from cloaking, having been nearby the whole time, and Marida suited up. "Before this is all over, somebody's gonna be screaming timber!" she roared as she flew at her opponent.

About Half An Hour Later, In Mei's Workshop

"So that's how seaweed got on it!"

"Yeah, I'm sorry. There's some sand in it, too. Do you mind cleaning it for me?"

Mei Hatsume waved her friend off. "Pfft. Don't worry about it. Nothing an acid bath won't fix. Just need to be sure I dry it thoroughly. Don't need it leaving weird footprints like last time," the goggled girl replied with a grin, then got a serious look on her face and asked, "More importantly, how did she like the gift?"

Himiko smiled softly. "I didn't give it to her," she said, then interrupted her friend's attempted shout with a finger to her mouth. "I think you should be the one to give it to her, honestly. She'll be really happy to get her first present from her godmother," the slit-eyed girl said with a fanged grin.

The rosette's eyes widened. "Wait...Y-you want...me… to be her godmother?" the Hatsume genius asked, tears forming in her eyes.

Himiko nodded. "Definitely. It has to be you, Meimei. After all, you found me when I was in the dark. I know you're someone Eri-chan will come to love," the fanged empath said with absolute certainty.

Mei leaped at her dear friend, arms outstretched. "Ko-chan! Thank you so, so much!" the girl exclaimed.

"Get offa me, Meimei! You're covered in machine innards and sweat!"

"NEVEEEER!"

That Evening, In The 1-A Common Room

Eri was sitting down with her mama and papa, several of her aunts and uncles chatting and studying nearby. The evening news was on, and they'd just gotten done reporting on Marida's swift victory against the villain from earlier in the day.

"Wow, Dagobah Beach looks so nice now. I heard it was a dump for a really long time. Good job, Midoriya-san!" Hanta said with a grin.

"Can we just talk for a minute about how badass Himiko-chan was there? That villain was all like, 'come get me, tiny hero,' and she just decked him in the schnozz! Her armor only got messed up because his dumb, unconscious self grabbed her when he fell!" Mina exclaimed with a laugh.

Izuku created a tiny stick figure out of green aura to reenact the scene. "Waaaahh!" he yelled with a bit of a laugh as he faked falling over when he was punched by his temporary construct, the rest of the class applauding his goofiness.

The door to the building slammed open, Mei entering with a box under one arm. "I heard some of you degenerates are into hand-holding!" she shouted as she let herself in, causing several of the students to blush as the others teased them. She quickly made her way over to the family of three, sitting down and setting the box down in front of Eri. "I made ya something, Eri-chan! I asked your mama to give it to you, but she insisted I give it to you myself, so here ya go!"

Eri looked at the colorfully wrapped box in confusion. "For me?" she asked softly, to which, Mei, Jin, and Himiko all nodded. Everybody quieted down as they watched with anticipation, the tiny tot meticulously unwrapping her gift, before discarding the wrapping paper. The box fell over away from her, and something green rolled out.

"Haro! Eri-chan! Haro friend! Eri-chan friend!" the large, ball-shaped robot chirped as it rolled over to its new owner, opening up to show a computer screen and keyboard and mouse interface. "Wanna play? Wanna play?"

Eri blinked at it, before patting the AI. "We can play a game later, Haro-chan. Thanks for being my friend," the girl said, before turning to Mei and wrapping her in a hug. "Thank you, Aunty Meimei," she said softly, the rosette returning the hug with glee.

"Oooh, you give great hugs, Eri-chan! Thank you!" the visually gifted mechanic exclaimed with joy, eventually releasing the little girl who ran off to the other side of the room to get to know her new friend.

As the day ended, a silent agreement was made by everybody in the room. Eri was to be treasured. Thus, the Eri Protection Squad was formed.