Sorry for how long it took me to update, I'll explain at the author's note at the bottom.
Izuku didn't have to do much to convince his mom to let him get a teaching degree and she even encouraged it since he liked teaching in the red-light districts. He was given a round of congratulations from everyone in the South Side when he spilt that he had graduated, he had to actively dissuade them from quickly throwing him a party down at the community center.
Finishing up for the day he went to his apartment complex to meet up with Mezo-Kun, the two of them had grown tentatively closer as they spoke of how to test his quirk's capabilities, Izuku was consistently worrying about overstepping boundaries whenever he asked about testing his quirk.
But Mezo-Kun has been very reassuring throughout it all and he did tell Izuku when he was crossing a line, Izuku had only done so once with the dismemberment question when they first met and they reframed from touching that topic for now as neither was comfortable with "exploring" the idea.
That being said Izuku had found himself very fascinated with Mezo-Kun's quirk and what he could actually do with it, like right now he was sitting in Mezo-Kun's room examining a snout-shaped mouth full of long human canines " This is incredible work Mezo-Kun. Your ability to manipulate bone matter is getting so much better! Can you widen the base of your jawbones like a crocodile?" He inquired tapping one of the fang-like canines.
" I can." He responded and the snout-like mouth changed to be more V-shaped " That's great Mezo-Kun! Have you made any progress with your imitation?" Izuku said gently pressing on the base to feel the difference in the jawbones, the boy brought his hand mouth closer to Izuku " Sort of, I'm still working on it but I'm almost close to mimicking your voice." He explained, the voice coming from his hand almost the same pitch as his own.
" That's okay Mezo-Kun, don't forget to work on your inflections though. They're just as important as an accent." Izuku told him with a pat on the boy's shoulder " What about the other thing, have you been able to make your skin thicker or a different texture?" He asked since Mezo-Kun had mentioned he had been working on it in their latest text chain.
Mezo-Kun rubbed the back of his neck " I can make it thicker but I still haven't been able to make anything like scales or feathers." He admitted changing the mouth in Izuku's hands to another hand with visibly thick skin, Izuku hummed back and lightly pressed against the thicker skin to see if he could still feel the bones and joints.
" That might be too big of a leap, you might try growing your hair as if it's fur first," Izuku suggested watching as the skin became less thick and he started sprouting tufts of hair " Yeah, like that Mezo-Kun!" He encouraged with a grin, Izuku and Mezo-Kun continued talking for a bit before he left to stay in one of the other units for the night, while he was on good terms with the Shojis' Izuku didn't want to impose or make Shoji-San feel pressured to let him stay since he was her boss.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Izuku walked with both Mezo-Kun and Masao-San to the station the next morning and he was able to say bye to them both before he jumped on to his train to Aomori. Honestly Saturday was probably his favorite day other than Sunday at this point, hitchhiking across Hokkaido was a very active process and he enjoyed how hands-on he could get with it.
Hokkaido was still the best-looking prefecture red-light District wise and it was getting prettier as it began to snow, stepping off the train at Shibecha station Izuku was torn between taking a picture of scenery or a video so he can get everything he wanted to show his mom, leaning more towards a video he decided to give himself a few minutes to take a nice video for her.
Heiwa had some nice clearings right by the forest, it wasn't that much of a trek there taking half-hour at most and he had already taught his four hours in Otaru so it should probably be okay. He spotted one of many rabbit-quirked people he'd become used to seeing wherever he went and Izuku nodded to them.
It might have been two months at most since he helped Umeko but with how abundant the Vespa "family" was Izuku would probably be more worried if he hadn't seen them. The only times he didn't was when something happened in the area (big hero raids, firefights, etc) that resulted in quite a bit of damage. So Izuku, with all the wisdom that comes from hindsight found himself grateful when he saw them if only for his peace of mind.
And wasn't that an outrageous thought? Midoriya Izuku, a boy who has always dreamed of being a hero and having been bullied by just about everyone for being quirkless, finding comfort and relief from being not-quite stalked by a major mafia group? Maybe there was some truth to when some of his ex-classmates said his life was some kind of joke.
Moral quandaries aside, Izuku busied himself by hurrying over to the first clearing he could find and started getting ready to record himself in the field of snow. As Izuku tended to do when he spoke it was a touch awkward at the beginning as he didn't quite know where to start, slowly he fell into rambling about his work in the area or his classes that day. Near the end of the video he made some promises that he'd show her the spots he liked if they ever found the time for a trip together.
Izuku sent the video off to his mom and he went on to add Heiwa to the ever-growing list of "Places to bring mom", a list that had a life of its own as he never found a shortage of cool little areas that he thought his mom would love to visit and as smart as Izuku was constantly being told he was, he did not think he had an eidetic memory and needed to write the places down... He was fifty percent sure he didn't anyway.
Izuku had just put his phone away and was going to start heading back to the city when an... odd sensation suddenly washed over him. The feeling left him nauseous and his legs weaker making him shakily take a step back to better ground himself, it worked for all of ten seconds as a second wave of the sensation caused him to fall onto his bottom. As a dull ringing made itself known in his ears Izuku couldn't help panicking over what was going on.
* Okay, okay, okay! Don't panic Izuku! Do. Not. Panic. You need to get a hold of yourself!* he mentally told himself trying to force his breathing to become even again. Izuku was successful in wrangling his lungs into order but his heart just wasn't cooperating *Maybe a side effect of what was causing this?* he thought crawling over towards the treeline.
* But what is this? It can't be something I ate, I had the same thing for lunch I do every time I come here and it didn't taste off... A quirk maybe? Is that tree moving?* he mentally questioned watching the branches of the tree he planned to use to get back on his feet, Izuku's vision had to be affected as well cause that was the only explanation for the way the limbs were twisting.
* Whatever quirk this is, it is definitely mental. But why am I being hit by anyone's quirk? I haven't gotten in between any local gang fights and the Kitsune Fangs didn't have members or territory this far north.* he thought as he got himself to his feet leaning on the tree for complete support.
* Maybe I haven't been as careful as I thought I was with my work? Did someone accidentally let it slip to All For One that "Deku-Sensei" was a two-toes?* he fearfully wondered, his eyes darting around for any people-shaped figures.
He didn't see anyone but his eyes weren't completely trustworthy at the moment, Izuku would have tried to call for help but he doubted he could properly dial the buttons and he was about to risk yelling for one of the Vespas when he heard the snap of a branch echoing in his ears along with the ringing.
He whipped his head towards the noise and caught a glimpse of grey and dark green, Izuku stumbled after the figure falling over into the snow at least three times and the closer he got, the more his vision distorted and the ringing became sharper. After a few minutes he caught up enough to see just who the figure was, a small striped dark green young boy with grey hair, a tail, and brown horns stood across from him and unlike everything else, Izuku could see the boy clearly.
He could see the panic in the boy's eyes as he pressed himself against a tree that was bent in half and his chest practically heaving. Izuku's head started to throb as he stared at the kid and was barely stringing together that he had to be under the kid's quirk when the kid ran off again " W-wait!" Izuku croaked out following the boy through the twisted and warped forest.
Izuku fell a couple more times and the kid threw some snow in his face before he could reach the boy " H-hey, calm d-down-" he tried to say but the kid reared up and almost slashed Izuku with his clawed fingers " Let me go!" The boy screeched desperately trying to pull his other arm out of Izuku's hand.
Izuku released the boy's arm and raised them in surrender " O-okay, I w-won't touch you... But p-please d-don't run off." He requested watching the boy scramble away from him and the boy pressed himself against another warped tree, it was probably do to Izuku's previous "experience" dealing with being... Well, a mess that allowed him to function with his screwed-up senses as well as he did.
And while Izuku could stay on his feet he decided to conserve his energy and let himself sit down in the snow " Are y-you okay? W-why were you r-running?" Izuku asked having seen how scared the boy was. * Maybe he's scared of getting in trouble from using his quirk in public?* he considered because of the side effects of the boy's quirk.
" I-I just, I j-just want it t-to stop... " the boy mumbled body shivering as he hugged himself and as concerned Izuku was over what he said, Izuku could see the boy wasn't dressed for the weather, missing anything that could be considered a coat or boots. Izuku unzipped his coat and offered it to the boy " H-here." Izuku told him hoping he wasn't making a fool of himself by grossly misjudging where he was in relation to the boy.
The boy might've been out longer than Izuku could've thought as the boy hesitated for a few seconds before he quickly walked over to Izuku, the kid was around five to six so the coat that was big on Izuku easily swamped the boy and the cold nipped where it could leaving Izuku a touch more aware and helped him keep his lunch where it belonged in his stomach.
" Th-thanks... " the boy muttered burying himself into Izuku's coat " I-it's nothing. Don't w-want you to g-get sick. I-I'm Deku-Sensei." He responded and introduced himself hoping it would prompt the boy to tell him his name in return " K-Kaoru." He said back, Izuku nodded his head probably lopsided and asked " It's n-nice to meet y-you Kaoru-Kun, i-is this the first time... This has happened?"
Kaoru nodded moving to sit closer to Izuku " Do y-you know w-what triggered your q-quirk?" He asked since it was common for quirk accidents to happen at Kaoru's age, the boy blinked taken aback as he stared at Izuku confused, Izuku's vision became a touch less "murky" at the same time as Kaoru asked " W-what? This i-isn't my quirk, m-my quirk is a-a mutation."
Izuku looked back at the boy himself confused but quickly understood what Kaoru meant, the kid must've thought his odd features were the extent of his quirk and that wasn't an uncommon misconception, only one out of five mutation quirks have abilities considered "unrelated" to the physical mutations the person gained.
" K-Kaoru-Kun mutation quirks c-can have a-abilities that are s-separate from physical changes." He explained and the boy ducked his head, the tree branches becoming even more gnarled and twisted before he hesitantly looked around at how warped the world around them was " S-so I'm causing, t-this?" Kaoru timidly asked curling into himself and Izuku's coat.
Any doubt Izuku had before was quashed by how everything warped and changed with Kaoru's emotions " P-probably, but that's o-okay Kaoru-Kun. You're s-still young and a-accidents h-happen." Izuku assured his hand moving to pat the boy's head but he stopped halfway.
" I'm s-sorry. How- How do I make it stop?" Kaoru asked looking like he was about to cry, Izuku's vision getting so bad his own body was starting to also get distorted. " K-Kaoru-Kun you d-d-don't have t- to ap-pologize, t-this was just a-an accident. You'll learn h-how to control i-it eventually, l-let's focus on c-calming down a-and work from t-there." Izuku told him, using his hands to keep from falling over as he was losing his equilibrium.
" T-try to follow m-my breathing Kaoru-Kun." Izuku instructed making his breathing loud enough for the boy to hear then used a grounding exercise to keep Kaoru relaxed and the more they spoke the less warped and twisted the world became, after that Izuku went on to tell Kaoru about the places he's been.
A few minutes later the world was back to normal though Izuku continued for a few minutes before mentioning it " I think we're g-good now Kaoru-Kun. Do you think you can walk to town?" Izuku asked wobbly getting to his feet, feeling slightly lightheaded as he watched the boy trying to stand up himself.
Kaoru was able to stand up but Izuku didn't like how unsteady he was on his feet, likely due to quirk exhaustion as well as being cold " I can carry you Kaoru-Kun, you shouldn't force yourself to walk." He offered crouching down to the boy, Kaoru nervously shuffled a bit before nodding " O-okay." He muttered.
Izuku happily scooped the young boy into his arms " Alright, now where was I? I think I was telling about my friend Kiku-Kun right?" He asked following his large and obvious tracks in the snow.
I apologize again for how long this took to update, I've been busy with my new job and helping a family member with a non-critical medical issue. I also don't have as much time to write so updates will take longer but I will continue to only update when I have ten chapters ready so I hope that makes up for it.
I've also been working some drawings for this story so that has also taken up a chuck of my time, I plan on cross posting this story to Ao3 later on so I can add them.