Author's Note: Is 4:30AM...I have no excuse.
3: Birth of a Hero - 3: Eri
Izuku didn't know how long he had been out for, but he knew that it had been quite some time since he last moved. His joints were stiff, and his body felt heavier, as if he were being pressed down into the mattress. There was no buzzing at the back of his head this time, so he knew that something else was causing him to wake up.
It was a soft...sound...a voice...someone was singing. (AN: I picture her singing Dango Daikazoku for a little girl like Eri)
The sound was unlike anything he had ever heard in his life when he listened to music while working on his gadgets. No, this voice was husky...yet it was so heavenly that he thought that he was hearing the voice of an angel.
Cracking his eyes open slowly, he looked over to his right where the voice was coming from...and saw the very girl that had helped him to the clinic sitting next to his bed singing a soft tune to a sleepy little girl sitting in her lap.
He shifted his head a little closer so he could hear her better, but the movement must have caught her attention as she stopped singing a moment later and looked down at him with wide eyes. "Holy crap, you're awake!"
Izuku chuckled nervously as the little girl blinked sleepily in her arms, "Y-yeah, I guess I am, huh?"
Eri came wide awake at the sound of his voice and locked eyes with him, "Daddy!"
"Huh?" Izuku blinked before the tiny girl launched herself at him, hugging him as tightly as her bony arms would allow. "D-D-D-Daddy?!"
Kyoka smiled at the sight of the little girl looking so happy, even though she wasn't smiling, "Yup, it's what she's been calling you for the last week since you rescued her," she said as the boy tried to process everything.
"Week?" Izuku said in a high squeak, "I've been here for a week?!"
Eri sniffled, "You wouldn't wake up," she said, "We came every day, but you wouldn't wake up."
Momentarily forgetting what she had called him a minute ago, Izuku smiled down at the little girl and patted her hair, "I'm sorry I made you worry about me, Sweetie." He said, "But I told you that I wouldn't die, didn't I?" Eri nodded her head shyly, "You see? I kept my promise."
Kyoka smiled at the pair of them, "You know you had a lot of us pretty dam-er-darned worried about you, right?" She said with her hands on her hips, "That Bakugo guy comes by every other day, and your mom comes by every evening to see if you've woken up," she reached into her blazer pocket, "Speaking of that, I should probably call her and let her know."
A quick text, and the message was sent. "So, what did the doctors say was wrong with me?" Izuku asked as he held onto Eri. "And what about her? Have the police found out anything about her?"
Kyoka shook her head, "No. As far as I've been told by your mom, she technically doesn't exist." She counted off on her fingers, "No birth certificate, no medical records, and no information on who her parents might be." She frowned, "Your mom's been taking care of her for the last week, so she's in pretty good hands."
Izuku sighed, "That's at least some good news."
"Yeah, but you're the one that's got everyone's attention," she went on, "That Doctor Tsubasa guy gave you something that wasn't antibiotics or steroids. It was some kind'a spider venom laced with Devil's Breath."
Izuku looked at her in shock, "But I...I should be dead, then, shouldn't I?"
Kyoka shrugged, "Well, I'm not complaining about you not being dead," she said, "Besides that, from what I heard, you've got yourself a Quirk, now."
Izuku blinked, remembering something like a dream about the doctor standing over him, and telling him he had a spider's abilities. He sat up in bed and placed Eri down before he got to his feet, not the slightest bit dizzy, or even lightheaded.
"Hey! Don't push...it..." Kyoka trailed off as the teen suddenly jumped up onto the ceiling, and stuck their like a spider crawling across the tiles. "Ooo-kay..."
Izuku could do nothing but grin at her from his position on the ceiling. The possibilities of his new Quirk were running through his head like a bullet train. [I can't wait to analyze this!] He thought, thinking of how much he could fill up in one of his notebooks.
スパイダーマン
In the week that Izuku had been unconscious, the good doctor had had a great deal of time to analyze the blood sample he had taken from the boy. The master had been quite pleased with the results of his research as well.
"How is our newest subject doing?" The master asked over the static of a monitor in the man's lab.
The doctor chuckled as he turned his attention away from his project, "He's doing quite well, if I do say so myself, Master," he said, "Introducing the mutated blood to the Nomu's base form has given me quite the impressive little soldier to set loose." He smiled and turned back to the creature standing in front of him.
The creature itself was easily seven feet tall, with dark shaggy grey hair all over it's body. Six long arms hung from the body, ending in large three-fingered hands with deadly claws at the tips. The head was large and rectangular with six red eyes looking in all directions.
Below those wicked eyes were deadly mandibles with huge teeth behind them.
"It's quite possibly my best work, yet," the doctor smiled, "I think young Tomura will be pleased with this beast once we enact his plan to kill the Symbol of Peace." He chuckled, "With all of those arms, he's quite possibly as strong as All Might. And with the Rapid Regeneration that the boy's Quirk has, it's virtually unstoppable."
The master chuckled, "I see," he said, "Tell me, what else do you have planned for that sample you took?"
The doctor sighed and absently twirled his mustache, "Well, I'm not certain I'll be able to use this one," he said as he walked over to a containment unit, "You see, after I created this Advanced Mutation Nomu, I decided to do a little more in depth research into our little spider's DNA." He said as he turned the monitor toward the container, "I managed to isolate the most dangerous part of it." He said as the black substance inside the container lunged at him, "What you're seeing here is nothing short of pure, unbridled aggression. There's absolutely no controlling it, even if its host were to bond with it, this life form would ultimately dominate the host and become its own super being."
"My, my, what a magnificent creation," the master said with glee, "Whatever you do, Doctor Garaki, do not dispose of this entity. I may find a use for it, yet!"
スパイダーマン
It was only a day later that Izuku was discharged from the hospital, after having every test done to him to make sure that the Devil's Breath had left his system for good, the doctors even going as far as to give him a dose of the antiserum they kept on hand as a precaution.
"Mom, seriously, I feel fine," Izuku said as his mother fretted over him on their way home, "The doctors gave me a clean bill of health."
Inko sighed as they rode the train back to their district, "I know, Sweetie, but you can't blame me for worrying like this after all that's happened," she said as she smiled down at little Eri who was looking out the window of the train as the buildings passed by. "You'd be surprised at what I've had to go through just this last week."
"Kyoka told me that you'd been talking to some guy from U.A.'s scouting agency," he said as the woman smiled at the mention of the girl, "So what have they been bothering you about?"
Inko looked at her son, "Bother?" She frowned as she reached over and placed Eri in her lap, "Honestly, they've been quite helpful. There's this nice man, a Mr. Toshinori Yagi, who works as a scout for both the school, and for the All Might Agency in Tokyo." At the mention of the man, she saw Izuku's eyes widen slightly, "You know him?"
"I...yeah, we've met once," he admitted as he knew the man's alter ego to be All Might himself. "So - uh - what did he do?"
Ikno giggled, "Well, after that first night, when you were admitted to the hospital, he and the principle came to visit me." She told him with a look of surprise coming to his face, "Apparently he was there during the practical exam, and he said that you showed a great deal of potential for the Hero Course," she said. "He even said that you had earned enough Rescue Points to be admitted into the school!"
"I wha - ?!" Izuku gaped at her, "I wasn't told anything about that!"
"That's basically what I said," Inko nodded in understanding, "But the principle said, and Mr. Yagi was quite upset with him because of this, that it was a matter of safety on your part for not taking you into the Hero Course since, at the time, you didn't have a Quirk. So I suppose he stopped your enrollment because of that."
Izuku rolled his eyes, "Of course." He rolled his eyes resentfully. "The little rat said as much in his rejection letter."
"Yes, but as I said, Mr. Yagi was quite upset that he did something like ignoring the fact that you should have been admitted for those secondary points you earned," she said with a smile growing on her face, "He outright threatened to pull funding from the school and send All Might somewhere else to teach!"
"Teach?!" The boy's eyes bugged out of his head.
She giggled, "That's right, apparently All Might is going to be a teacher at U.A. starting this year."
"Gran'ma, I'm hungry." Eri mumbled.
Inko smiled at her and started asking her what she wanted to eat while Izuku's mind was racing. [If All Might's going to be a teacher at U.A. this year, the Hero Course is going to be insane! But why is he suddenly trying to help me?] He wondered, [Is it just because of my new Quirk? Or is he feeling bad about the last time we met?]
"Daddy's mumbling a lot." Eri pointed out.
"Yes, Sweetie, he does that." Inko giggled.
As the little family laughed and chatted, across from them sat a figure in a red hoodie. He took his phone out and took a quick picture before sending it. {Found the kid.}
スパイダーマン
A short time later, Izuku was at his desk for the first time in a week since his last time. It was just the way he had left it before being shot. Meaning that anyone that didn't know Izuku Midoriya would think it was covered in garbage.
"Okay, given how I think her Quirk works, something with a sound amplifying system would be ideal," he said, looking at a small set of speakers that had once been a pair of earbuds. "And since her Quirk is her earlobes, maybe something like a collar would work?" He frowned as he remembered that Kyoka had worn a choker around her neck every time he had seen her.
Eri sat on the bed while he worked, watching his hands quickly throwing together the piece of equipment while she munched on a nikuman Inko had bought for them on their way home. "Daddy? What's that?"
Izuku, having grown used to being called daddy by now, smiled and showed it to her. "This is my version of a miniature electrolarynx," the little girl cocked her head cutely as the boy-turned-father laughed, "Basically, if you can't speak, this little thing can give you your voice back." He told her, "But this one is special. I've made it so that when Kyoka plugs her jacks into it, her voice, whether she screams, sings or even just talks loud, it comes out as a sonic attack to knock bad guys out."
Eri blinked, "So it's a present?"
Izuku nodded, "Yeah, it's a present." He smiled fondly at the thought of the girl in question wearing one of his gadgets, "She was so nice to me that I thought about how I could do something nice for her." He finished with a small blush on his cheeks
The girl looked at her father-figure in confusion. "Do people do nice things for others a lot?" Eri asked.
Izuku shook his head, "No, not all the time," he said with some regret, "But some do, like me."
Eri nodded, "Daddy's really nice."
"That he is," Inko said as she came into the room with a plate of the steamed buns. "And I'm quite sure that he's famished after being completely out for a week." She smiled as Izuku cleaned off a spot on his desk so she could set the plate down, "And I have to say, Izuku, I wouldn't mind seeing more of little Kyoka in the future. She's been a joy to have around since I started taking care of Eri."
He grabbed a rag and wiped some grease from his hands before reaching for one of the buns, "Did she come around a lot?" Izuku asked in slight surprise.
His mother nodded, "Quite a lot, as a matter of fact," she smiled as she sat on the edge of his bed next to Eri, "Since I still have my job, that week you were unconscious was hard on me because Eri didn't trust many people. Kyoka was kind enough to offer to babysit her while I was at work."
[That explains why they were at the hospital together yesterday,] Izuku thought as he bit into his bun, offering another to Eri when she finished the one she had been eating.
"Miss Jiro is really nice, Daddy," Eri chimed in as she took the food, "She sang to me everyday, and read me stories!" She mumbled around her bun.
Inko giggled as she gave her son a look, "Better be careful, Sweetie, or she might start thinking Kyoka's her mother." She whispered loudly.
Izuku blushed and would have denied anything like that happening, except that Eri didn't look very pleased by the idea. "I don't want Miss Jiro to be my mommy." She said, sounding sad, "Mommies are mean."
"Mean?" Both of the Midoriyas echoed while Eri nodded.
"My mommy gave me to the bad people." Eri said, shocking the pair of them.
Izuku and his mother shared a look before the boy stood up and picked the little girl up. "Eri, you know that your grandma is my mom, right?" She tilted her head, "She's never been mean to me. Not once. It's probably safe to say I've been kind'a mean to her in the past." He gave his mother a sorrowful look. "I said some stuff that made her sad. But she's never hurt me. Ever." He smiled at his mother before looking back down at the little girl, "Has she been mean to you?"
"No." Eri said in that tiny voice of hers.
"You see?" Izuku smiled at her, "Not all mommies are bad...some are just different than most, and some of them might seem mean to some people."
Inko nodded, "He's right, Deary," she said as she stood up and patted her back, "I have a friend named Mitsuki who's nice, but she and her son fight a lot." She shook her head, "If you've ever heard them, then you'd think that they hated each other. But she loves him just as much as I love Izuku, and you, now, Eri. And nothing is going to change that."
Eri nodded, seeming to accept it before finishing off her meal, and started to nod off. Izuku laid her down on his bed and pulled the covers over her. He then lookedat his mother as they left the room. "Has she smiled at all since you've been looking after her?" Izuku asked as she shook her head.
"No, not once since I've been around her," she said with a watery frown, "Even Kyoka noticed. She thought she saw her begin to smile once when she was singing to her, but that's as far as it got. She hasn't smiled at all."
Izuku shook his head, "Who could take the smile from the face of such a sweet little girl like her?"
Inko didn't answer because she didn't want to know such an answer. Thankfully, the doorbell rang right then, and she bustled away to answer it while Izuku just went back to working on the support item. She peeked through the peephole, and smiled as she opened the door and greeted her guests. "Kyoka, Mr. Yagi! What a nice surprise!"
Kyoka was dressed in her school uniform, most likely because she had just gotten out, given the time of day, while holding a little teddy bear, and a small box of chocolates. Yagi himself was dressed as he usually was, a blue pinstriped business suit, and hat, but he was holding a breifcase at his left side.
He tipped his hat to her, "Good afternoon, Mrs. Midoriya, I hope we haven't come at a bad time?"
Inko shook her head, "Of course not," she smiled at the pair of them, "Izuku and I have just laid Eri down for her nap, but you two are always welcome." She said, ushering them inside, "Would either of you like some tea?"
"Sure," Kyoka nodded with a smile on her face as she presented her with the bear and the candy, "I hope you don't mind, but I brought these for her." She said, a sad smile coming to her face, "I thought that this might finally get a smile out of her."
Inko nearly teared up at the girl's gesture. "You're so thoughtful, Dear," she smiled as she accepted the gift, "Thank you."
Toshinori just chuckled, "I've have something to give as well, Mrs. Midoriya," he said, "The folks at the company just finished it this morning." He held up the case he was carrying, "I've made sure that the suit is bullet and stab proof, as well as fire resistant." He said as Inko's eyes widened, "The only thing that we couldn't do was insulate it to prevent electrical damage on account of Young Midoriya's supposed bio-electricity." Then he frowned at the woman, "And though I'm sorry to admit it, we did have to rearrange the color scheme to include less purple and more grey/black so that the connection wouldn't be too obvious."
Inko nodded in understanding, "That's very kind of you, Mr. Yagi." She said as she led them into the living room, "I'm sure that my baby will love it." She then called out softly, "Izuku, dear, Kyoka and Mr. Yagi are here to see you!" She heard her son stumble and swear quietly.
He came stumbling out of his room a second later, one hand holding onto the gift he had been working on for Kyoka, the other holding onto a rag that was attempting to wipe any grease or oil stains off of the device and/or his hands.
Toshinori chuckled as he saw the boy, "Back at it as soon as you got home, eh?"
Izuku looked at the man, stumbling for something to say to the man, but ended up only giving him a shy nod. Then his eyes landed on Kyoka, and Inko noticed that both of them held a small blush on their cheeks, more so on her son than Kyoka, which made her smile. Toshinori cleared his throat as he set the case on the table, "Erm, Young Midoriya?" He said as he took a seat, "I know that your mother has probably informed you of the situation with U.A., and that you have been accepted thanks to my...meddling, I should say." He sighed as the boy nodded slowly as he took a seat across from the man, "Though, given how you were treated by its faculty, I would fully understand if you decided to recieve your training eslewhere."
Izuku looked at him, seeing that he was not only talking about being rejected because of his former Quirkless status. He was talking about rejecting him when he pleaded with All Might about becoming a Quirkless Hero.
"When I was a kid, I wanted to go to the same school as All Might did, and that was U.A.," Izuku said, speaking for the first time since he had arrived, "I...I still want to go there, but it's not just because of that anymore!" He stated hastily, making the adults chuckle, "I want to go there because it's one of the hardest schools to graduate from. I heard an entire class was expelled the first day last year."
"Oh my!" Inko gasped.
"Seriously?!" Kyoka yelped, turning blue in the face.
Toshinori nodded, "The curriculum is, indeed, quite rigorous, and the teachers are as harsh as Villains at times," he said, smiling at the boy, "But I would dare say that you will have no trouble in graduating from such a school, because, as I've seen, you do not give up easily."
Izuku shook his head, "I get that from my mom."
Inko felt tears of pride and joy coming to her eyes again, "He get's all of his best features from me," she sniffled as the tears started streaming down, "Though my overly productive tearducts isn't one of them!"
Kyoka and Izuku laughed as she bawled before Toshinori cleared his throat, "Young Midoriya," he said, gaining the boy's attention again, "Does this mean that you are willing to be accepted into U.A.?" He asked with slight tone of sorrow in his voice, "Even after you were treated so poorly because of your former status?"
Izuku nodded with a determined smile on his face, "I just have more to prove than most," he said, then a look of concern came over his face, "But are you sure it's alright for me to be getting special treatment like this? Won't that cause some sort of favoritism issue?"
Toshinori scoffed, "Special my behind, kid, if it wasn't for the faculty's prejudiced meddling, you would have had more than enough Rescue Points to gain entrance to the school," he said with a bit of heat in his weak voice, "And...All Might wanted me to pass something along to you."
Izuku looked at him, as did his mother and Kyoka. Toshinori sighed, "He told me of his little run-in with you." The two women looked at him with a bit of shock, "And both of us saw your performance in the Practical Exam," he frowned at the boy as his eyes drifted down to his scarred up hands, "I've never seen anyone try so hard as you did that day." He frowned as the boy's mother fretted, "Recovery Girl said that your knuckles were broken, and your hands were fractured in several places, yet you were still willing to risk you life to help those around you."
"And then this whole thing with little Eri, and your powers happened." He chuckled as he shook his head, "When All Might heard about that, he said it was like someone had shattered his soul. Scorning someone that more deserving of being a Hero then even himself." He raised his head and saw the boy looking at him with tears in his eyes, "He told me that no amount of apologies, or favors could ever make up for the hypocrisy he commited."
"However," he continued, "All Might wanted to rectify something he said. You can't be a Hero without a Quirk." He shook his head, looking the boy straight in the eyes, "Young Midoriya, All Might told me that you, young man, are already a greater Hero than he ever could be." He smiled as the tears in the boys eyes overflowed.
Toshinori unlocked the briefcase and turned it around, "But no Hero goes without one of these," He lifted the top open while the boy choked when he saw the contents, "Welcome to the Hero Academia."
スパイダーマン
Eri had been sleeping soundly in Izuku's room, feeling safe and warm, unlike when the bad people had her. The room was always bright, and no one came to put needles in her arms, or cut her, or take her to the Bad Man.
So she was completely relaxed and off guard when she felt something being placed over her face, only recognizing the smell of ether when it's sickly sweet-scent was right in front of her nose. Her eyes snapped open just as someone clamped it over her face. "Don't struggle, kid, and this'll all be over in a sec." A harsh male voice whispered to her.
But she did struggle, kicking and flailing her arms as much as she could manage before the ether began to take effect. Then, taking one last breath, she let our a scream that had been heard two floors down.
The man must have sensed what was going to happen next as he dropped the little girl to the bed and dashed toward the open window before hurling himself through as the sound of a door being broken down came from behind. But something caught hold of his left leg just as he cleared the window sill. He yelped and fell, slamming against the brick wall of the building before looking up at what had grabbed him.
He only saw the furious green eyes of someone before he was hauled back up and dragged back inside.
スパイダーマン
Author's Note: One more part to the "Birth of a Hero" Saga before U.A. starts up. But as we can see in this chapter, most of it is about everyone's favorite little princesa, Eri. A little bit of the main pairing being played with here with some minor interaction between Kyoka and Izuku, plus him making her a gift out of...la basura :p It's the thought that counts there, right? AND Izuku get's his first Hero Costume! If anyone's gone back and read the update in chapter two, then you'll know that this suit has some history with his dad.
Anyway, some goon just tried to grab Eri, and then the goon got grabbed by Papa Izu! Wanna see how that plays out? Ya know what to do!
ADIOS AMIGOS!
