Chapter 1: Chance Encounter
~~Tokyo, four years later~~
Muramoto jumped from rooftop to rooftop, his knapsack slung over his shoulders as he made his way through the bustling city of Tokyo. It had been four years since the incident with Momo in his stomping grounds of Mt. Takao and in those four years much has changed for his life. The first thing, and most important, was his nearly monthly visits to see Momo in her home in Tokyo. At first, her parents were not thrilled about having some sort of savage boy visiting their little princess, however, when Momo told her parents the truth of what happened that night their worries and mistrust were quick to fade away. They welcomed Muramoto into their home, saying he was more than welcome to stay with him if he'd like. Though he appreciated the offer, he told them it wasn't safe for him or his animal companions to live in the city. So, the Yaoyorozus instead welcomed him to visit as often and as long as he wished. This of course made Momo excited, and for the last four years she and Muramoto had met for an entire month on the first of every month. In those years the two got close, sharing their thoughts and ideals and understanding one another more. Momo told Muramoto that she wanted to become a hero, a hero that would save countless people and bring criminals to justice. This of course made Muramoto chuckle, and when she asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he told her out right he is happy how he was now.
Several times both Momo and her parents tried to crack the armor that surrounded Muramoto's past, but each attempt only resulted in him leaving early on that day. The understanding after the fifth attempt to stop trying to pry into his past, knowing he had his reasons why he used no last name or said anything about his family outside of his companions.
Speaking of companions, Muramoto had found and bonded with several other animals in those years. Originally he only had Tajima, Yoshida, Ozawa, and Torikku as his friends. But as the years went on, and he began to explore further and farther away from his territory, he found more friends to join his pack. The first to join him was a abused, and nearly starved to death Snow Leopard that was imported to a drug trafficker in the Gunma Prefecture. At first, the foreign creature was terrified of Muramoto, but thanks to his quirk he was able to help it understand he was no threat to it, and welcomed it to join him in his home in Mt. Takao. He named the leopard Yuki, and grew close to the female animal over time.
The next creature he found was something Momo brought to his attention. He told her that a man that worked as one of the leading engineers of her father's many companies was caught in the middle of an illegal animal smuggling ring. Muramoto was furious when she told him this, and when she told him that the engineer had an animal break free from its cage, he quickly made his way to Ibaraki Prefecture. It took him nearly two days to find the creature, and to his shock with a small, adolescent Tiger. The creature was terrified of its environment, its growth stunted from malnutrition and what seemed like abuse if the lash marks on its back were anything to go by. With a broken heart he befriended the endangered animal, and was thinking of turning it into one of the few heroes he trusted: Wild Claw. He leads a hero agency that specializes in animal care and other matters pertaining to it. However, Momo talked him out of it when it came to light that Wild Claw had a leak in his agency that often turned trafficked animals back into the market. This only gave Muramoto a headache, since hiding a growing tiger would be hell for him. But when the small tiger purred and layed itself over his lap, he couldn't help but want to make sure he stayed safe with him. He named the male tiger Seiya, since he was a shy but calm feline.
The final addition to his pack happened within the last year, and it was perhaps the sweetest and kindest thing Momo had done for Muramoto. When she found out about his birthday she thought long and hard on what to get him since she considered him his only true friend. This led to her having an idea that would either make him happy or be mad at her. She knew how passionately he felt about animals and nature, and how much he hated how many people abused and destroyed what he loved. So with that in mind, she convinced her parents to take her to one of the local rescue shelters near their home in Tokyo. She ended up leaving with a beautiful Akita hound. She, however, had no idea that the female dog was with litter. So when she grew larger as she took care of the dog to surprise Muramoto on his birthday, he ended up being greeted by a litter of newly born Akita purebred pups. Momo, of course, had no idea that they were purebred, but Muramoto explained to her that his quirk allowed him to see animals how they truly are, among other things. On that day, Momo and her parents proudly welcomed Yuna and her pups to their family, while Muramoto took the smallest of the litter. He named the dog Riki, since he had the feeling the young pup would grow to be a strong canine just like his mother.
Truly the last four years were amazing for Muramoto, and as he made his way to visit Momo he couldn't help but feel a soft smile on his lips. He was anxious to see her, and so was Ozawa and Riki who were sitting on his shoulders. He jumped to another rooftop, landing gently before hearing something. His heightened sense of hearing heard the soft crying of a girl not too far from him. He sighed, looking at Ozawa since she was the senior of the two animals with him. "What do you think, should I check it out?"
Ozawa purred and mewed in agreement, and Muramoto chuckled and nodded, changing directions and heading towards the crying girl.
It took him only about five minutes to find the girl, and to his surprise she looked his age. She had short purple hair with the bangs longer and leading down across her cheeks. She was slender, rather petite in stature. However, what had him concerned was the bruises on her face and the dirt covering her school uniform. She stood on the edge of a building, looking down the stories to see the busy streets. He acted quickly as he saw her moving to take a step over the ledge, grabbing her arm and pulling her back and to the roof before he looked down at her. "What are you doing!?"
The girl looked up at Muramoto, and with teary eyes tried to figure out who stopped her. He was tall, but his face was still young like her own. He wore what seemed to be some sort of fur that covered his shoulders and acted like some sort of vest while his toned, muscled chest was exposed. He wore worn denim jeans, and his feet were bare as well. All in all, she couldn't deny the guy was rather cute but had the weirdest sense of fashion. She sniffled, wiping the tears from her eyes before looking at him again. "What's it matter to you? Are you here to mock me too?"
Muramoto raised an eyebrow, looking down at her and shaking his head slowly. "No, I dont even know you. What's going on? Are you okay?"
He didn't expect his last words to break her, causing her to bring her knees to her head as she hid into herself as she sobbed. Muramoto knew this feeling, a feeling of dread of sorrow. He knew it all too well. He slowly knelt down to her level, waiting a few moments before speaking up again. "Hey, what's your name?"
The girl kept her head tucked to her knees, but he could hear her muffled voice though it. "Kyoka Jiro…"
He nodded, smiling softly as he looked at Ozawa as he felt her bat his cheek with her paw. He saw the look of worry in her cat eyes and he nodded, letting her get down from his shoulder and climbing onto Kyoko's head and purring softly. Riki barked in worry, bouncing off his master's shoulder and going to lay on her feet in an effort to comfort her. Kyoko looked away from her legs, giving Ozawa a chance to crawl into her lap and was soon followed by Riki as they snuggled into the distressed pre-teen. She looked at the pets on her lap, smiling softly as she pet them with both her hands before looking up at him. "Who are you?"
"My name is Muramoto, and I'm sort of someone who keeps an eye out for hurt or broken things." He chuckled to himself, sitting down on the ledge as he looked down at her. "I'm guessing you've been having a rough time huh?"
Kyoka nodded somberly, looking away and down at the pets. "My, uhm, dad and mom are going through a divorce and well…it's because my dad did some dumb ass shit."
Muramoto blinked at her language, but decided to keep smiling as he listened to her. He hoped he could help her, but if it came to things like this, then there was not much he could do.
"He was caught cheating on my mom, and when she dug into his phone she found out it wasn't just with one girl. I guess that comes with the rock star life he wanted huh?" She tried to laugh, but it only came out as a depressed sigh as she sniffled. "I hate him, and honestly it wouldn't have been as bad as it is now if it wasn't for the fact that my mom can't even look at me much anymore. When she sees me she sees the ruined life she had with him. Plus it turns out one of the girls he cheated with has her daughter at the same school as me. She told her daughter vicious lies about my mom to justify what she did, and since she is Mrs. Popularity no one questions her. She and her friends make my life an absolute hell in school. They bully me verbally all the time, and when the teachers are around it's with whispers to other people in the class and they all laugh and sneer at me. Words on my locker are written in permanent marker and the school says its my fault. I can't even eat my lunch in peace. So I had enough…"
She looked up at him, tears in her eyes still flowing as she told him her tale. "I decided to stand up for myself, and when I did they attacked me. They started hitting and beating on me and calling me a skank and trash and…" She looked down at the pets again, using them as the anchor to keep herself from going out of control again. Ozawa only looked up at her, showing her she was there for Kyoka. Riki was sleeping on her lap, his warmth keeping her anchored. She took a deep breath and spoke again. "And I used my quirk to make them go away. It's nothing much, my ears have jacks I can use to pulse my heartbeat through them. I can extend their length and I sort of used them to lash at them to keep them away. Of course the stupid ass principal saw me fighting back, but it seemed I was using my quirk to bully them. He suspended me! He called my mom and told him what he thought had happened, and when she came to pick me up she belittled and yelled at me. Saying I'm worthless, that once she can she was going to kick me out and…and I broke. My life is destroyed."
Muramoto, for his part, listened to every little detail. He heard her pain, and in truth, he could relate to her situation with her parents in a sense. So, before she could speak again, he pulled her in for a hug. When she felt her head be pushed softly against his shoulder, she broke down in tears again. She held him closely, letting her pain flow out of her while he rubbed her back and comforted her. They sat there for a while, never leaving the stranger's embrace even as her tears ended. After a few more minutes he pulled away from her, smiling as Ozawa jumped onto Kyoka's head and Riki went back to his shoulder. "Listen Jiro, I think I can give you a chance at a better life. A chance away from the pain without the way you were trying to do it. But I need you to trust me, because if you do I promise you that your life won't be so lonely and broken anymore."
Kyoko wiped her eyes with her sleeves, getting mud on her cheeks from the dirty clothes she was left in. She spoke in a raspy tone, her throat sore from the crying and pain. "W-why do you care so much about me…?"
Muramoto chuckled and put a hand on her shoulder, a hand to her own as he slowly helped her stand up. "Because as much as I hate people, I hate seeing pain so much more. And you are not like others in this world, and your sorrow is too great for me to leave you alone. So again, Jiro, I ask you to trust me." He kept a soft smile to his lips as he offered her his hand to hold, Ozawa staying on her head as she seemed to grow a liking to this girl.
"I-I…I trust you, I think."
That's all he needed to hear as she took his hand, quickly picking her up bridal style as he started to jump roof to roof to get to Momo's estate with Kyoka in arm.
~~Yaoyorozu Estate~~
Momo was worried. Muramoto was never late for their visits, not once. She looked over to the grandfather clock in her room, seeing it to be twenty past ten. We were always here exactly at ten. She got up from her room, going through the halls of her large mansion and going to the living room where she saw her mother and father sitting on the couch and talking. She told her parents the situation, and asked them if they had seen Muramoto at all. They of course told her no and told her that there was probably a good reason why he wasn't here yet. And as if on cue, there was a knocking on the front door. No one ever knocked to visit them since the gate prevented a typical person from approaching their home, so it was more than likely Muramoto. Momo ran to the front door, smiling happily as the small puppies chased after her and went to the door to see their friend and their brother.
She opened the door, smiling brightly to see Muramoto in his fur vest and with…another person? She looked at the girl who was looking down and unsure of herself. Muramoto cleared his throat and spoke up when he saw Momo looking at her. "Momo, this is Kyoka Jiro. She is, uhm, well she needs help. And I was hoping that your family could do that."
Momo blinked at him then back to the girl, seeing Ozawa the cat sitting on her shoulders like a scarf with her tail gently brushing against Kyoka's cheek. The heiress smiled and nodded softly. "I can talk to my mother and father and see what they say. But Muramoto, how do you know Jiro?"
For the next ten minutes he explained the situation to Momo and her parents, telling her how he found her, where he found her and her situation. Kyoka spoke up when she was asked a question, but all in all stayed silent as Muramoto talked for her. Muramoto turned to the couple sitting across from him, Kyoka and Momo. "Mr. Yaoyorozu, you told me before you'd find a way to repay me for helping Momo and being her friend all these years. This is what I'd like to ask for: Please, take Kyoka into your care. Enroll her in a good school, where she can start fresh."
Mr. Yaoyorozu thought about it for a moment as he looked at the young women and man before him. He saw Kyoka's tattered and destroyed uniform, the look of depression written into her eyes. He smiled softly and turned to his wife, who simply returned the smile and nodded. With a hearty chuckle he nodded his head to Muramoto, who smiled before standing up and looking at Momo and Kyoka. "Momo, I know today we said we'd start working on things for your training, but would you mind if we hold that off and get Kyoka cleaned up and some fresh clothes?"
Momo smiled and stood up, offering her hand to Kyoka, who only looked up at her unsure. "Come on, I can get a path running for you. While you clean up I'll get to working on some clothes for you."
Kyoka blinked and slowly spoke. "But…we don't seem to be the same size for clothes. How?"
Momo snickered slightly. Before she met Muramoto, she was a more calm, collected, and humble young lady. But after years with what she could only consider a primal personality like Muramoto, she grew a spine and a bit of a cocky attitude. She brought her arm out and with her Quirk, Creation, brought out a nice, soft purple towel for Kyoka to take. "My Quirk allows me to create anything that is not organic as long as I understand its atomic structure. So don't worry, clothes won't be an issue for you." Kyoka nodded, smiling slightly as she took the towel and followed Momo to her bathroom connected to her room. Muramoto chuckled, moving to get up and looked to Mr. and Mrs. Yaoyorozu.
"So, from what she told you, how hard do you think it would be to get her out of that situation?"
Mr. Yaoyorozu smirked, taking his phone out of his jacket pocket and snickering at the boy. "With everything she told us, it being true, she can be taken into our care by the end of tomorrow night. Don't worry about anything, Muramoto, I'll make sure she is safe."
Muramoto nodded, turning and scratching Riki as he played with his brothers and sisters on the floor. He moved to start making his way to the field just on the edge of the estate grounds he and Momo have been using for sparring. But before he walked out the door he heard Mr. Yaoyorozu speaks up again.
"And this isn't me paying you back for what you've done for my daughter, Muramoto. This is just us doing the right thing."
He turned and looked at the older man, seeing his and his wife's smiling faces before nodding and leaving the door.
~~Thirty Minutes Later~~
Muramoto was sitting cross legged in the middle of the training field he and Momo had created roughly two years back on her tenth birthday. He still remembered that day, when she openly told her parents that she wanted to be a hero. He remembered their reactions, and how she stood adamant in her decision. When her parents gave in, unable to tell their precious daughter no, he told her he'd find the absolute best private trainer he could find. However, to everyone's surprise, she denied that. She wanted Muramoto to train her. Her reason being that she trusted him with her life, and knew how he fought was more effective then what anyone else could teach them. After all, how many heroes could say they could fight and kill a grown Ussuri Brown Bear with nothing more than knives and claws?
He chuckled as the memory played in his mind, but his keen nose smelled the scent of fresh lavender and roses. He turned his head to see not just Momo coming towards him, but Kyoka as well. He was surprised he didn't smell her too, but he chalked it up to Kyoka using Momo's shampoo and soap to bathe. He stood up, taking off the vest and making both girls blush slightly at the fine, toned muscles he now had fully on display. He of course didn't pick that up and went to the other side of the field. "Alright Momo, make your staff and me some tomahawks. We will keep working on your close combat since your long range abilities with the bow and crossbow have grown over your melee combat skills."
Momo nodded, smiling as she walked forward and brought Kyoka with her. "Uhm, Muramoto, do you think we could train Jiro too?"
He thought about it for a second, thinking deeply as she handed him the two wooden tomahawks he asked for while she herself produced a simple Bo staff of the same material. He looked at Kyoka and asked one question. "Do you want to be a hero too?"
Kyoka looked at him, her face shining a bit more after being cleaned up and brought to a safe haven. "Yeah, that and a musician, but…I think wanting to be a hero is better."
Muramoto raised an eyebrow "What is a musician?"
Kyoka fell backwards in shock, eyes wide as she looked back up at him. "What?! Do you not know what the people who make music are called?"
He shrugged his shoulders, looking at her as he twirled the tomahawks in his hands. "I barely listen to music."
Kyoka got up rather quickly, shocking even Muramoto before Momo got infront of her and her friend. "Relax Jiro, you need to understand. Muramoto here doesn't live like me and you."
The purple haired girl raised her own eyebrow at this revelation. "What do you mean?"
"Well, he uhm…" Momo wasn't sure if she should tell her about Muramoto's life in the forests of Mt. Takao. However Muramoto spoke up for her.
"I don't live in the city. Or a town, or village. I live in the wilds." He said as if it was something normal to say. Kyoka's eyes couldn't grow wider as he heard this, though seeing the animals on him when he found her, the leather vest, and so on she figured that made sense. He cleared his throat before looking at both of them. "Momo, please make Kyoka a staff like your's. She will use that until we find a weapon she will like."
Momo smiled, creating the staff as instructed and handed it to Kyoka. The girl looked to the Bo in her hand, then to the two as Momo got into her stance and Muramto in his own. She gulped, unsure if this was a safer alternative to her previous day but tried to mimic what Momo was doing. Muramoto smiled, nodding and charging at the two of them.
~~Two Hours Later~~
Both Momo and Kyoka laid on the ground panting heavily, Muramoto standing above them as their staves were snapped into pieces after the last spar. He sighed, tucking the shafts of his tomahawks into his belt before kneeling down and putting his hands on their backs. Slowly roots encased the areas where they were injured, healing them to Kyoka's shock. She turned to the boy and blinked a few times. She was about to ask him about his quirk, but Momo cut her off by putting her hand on Kyoka's shoulder and saying "no" to her. She wasn't sure why Momo did this, but she nodded and looked at Muramoto. He was walking towards the house, stopping after a few steps and whistling. Not too long did Riki and Ozawa come rushing from the doggy door attached to the patio door. Riki jumped into Muramoto's arms, crawling up his body and resting atop his head. He turned to try and allowed Ozawa to join him, but smirked when he saw the cat going to Kyoka and resting on the girl's lap as she sat on the ground.
"Huh, so you want to stay with her?" Muramoto asked Ozawa, who wimpy meowed and wrapped her tail around Kyoka's arm. Kyoka wasn't sure what that meant, but she did feel some sort of connection to the cat. Muramoto sighed, turning towards the direction of the forest and smiling. "Looks like Ozawa wants to stay with you, Kyoka. Just like Torikku wanted to stay with Momo. I'll entrust her to you, Kyoka. I trust you, just like you trusted me."
Kyoka wanted to speak up, but before she could she witnessed Muramoto crouch down before leaping high into the sky and making his way towards his territory. Momo chuckled seeing the shocked look on Kyoka's face, helping her up before whistling and Torikku came pronouncing towards her master's arms. Momo leaned down and looked Torikku into her arms and walked beside Kyoka to the manor.
When Momo and Kyoka went to the kitchen, the two made themselves some lunch before sitting down in the great hall to eat their sandwiches. As they ate, Kyoka couldn't help but speak her mind. "So what the hell is his Quirk, Momo?"
Momo took a cloth to her lips and wiped them clean before speaking. "I really don't know what his quirk is exactly. Only what i've seen it do so far. Which is a lot."
"Okay, and what have you seen him do so far?"
Momo thought about it for a moment, smiling before looking at Kyoka. "He can heal wounds, like you've seen. Though I don't know what exactly his limit is. I've seen him take on aspects of the animals he says that are in his pack, changing his body to take on characteristics of the creatures. Like the night he saved me, he took on the aspects of his hound Tajima, and defeated the bear that was trying to kill me."
She spoke the tale as if it was nothing, though as she spoke, she had a smile curving from her lips as she thought about the night he saved her from certain doom. "Then there are the animals themselves. I'm not sure what his quirk does, but when he whistles the animals come out of almost nowhere. Like the one time he whistled and Yoshida came from the bushes in the estate. The large black bear scared my poor mother half to death."
She smiled and looked at Kyoka, who just seemed so lost and confused at all of this. "So wait, his quirk lets him morph his body to look like an animal's, pretty much summon his animals from anywhere with a whistle, and can heal? Don't you think that a bit, I don't know, busted?"
Momo chuckled at Kyoka's reaction, but shook her head. "No, not at all because we have no idea what the limitations are or if there are any. Not to mention, I have a feeling he has things he has yet to show me."
Kyoka leaned back in her chair, looking over to Momo again before speaking up. "So, is he training with you because he wants to become a hero too?"
"No, he trains with me to train me in combat for being a hero. Muramoto has no interest in being a hero. Though I have been trying hard to convince him otherwise."
Kyoka just nodded, looking at the fireplace in the great hall and smirked. "I bet we could convince him. I think he can save a lot of people. I mean, he saved us already, right? And he's not even licensed."
Momo chuckled, looking at the fireplace, smiling fondly just like Kyoka. Both were lost in their thoughts, neither knowing they thought of the same thing. A future with their hero.
((Author's Notes))
Hello everyone! Welcome to Wild Rumblings! I originally wanted to put this little AU at the end of Chapter 0, but completely forgot to. So, anyways, to what I wanted to say.
So this is a story based around Muramoto Yamamoto, clearly. I of course am going to add much of the OG cast to this story, since I do love the original MHA timeline and most of the cast. However, that being said I am saying now that Muramoto will -NOT- be getting OfA from All Might. I personally dislike the trope of the MC of most MHA fanfics getting OfA, so just getting that out of the way.
Now, I would like to invite any and all who read this to bring me up ideas for animals for Muramoto to cross and bond with. I simply ask to make the animal realistically able to be found in Japan. Other than that, have at it!
Thank you for reading, next chapter soon!
~Vermillion Clover
