Chapter 6 - New family

Hey y'all I'm so sorry for not uploading for a while. I haven't been feeling well lately and I'm still recovering from a stressful exam that I'm still waiting for the results on.

I have also thought of a new last name for Izumi: Izu Midori.

I need help deciding a new name for the cafe. Please help me by giving me ideas.

Hope y'all enjoy this chapter.

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At the Wild Wild Pussycats headquarters.

"Hey Mandalay have you found Kota yet?" Pixie-bop asked in her childish tone.

Mandalay sighs before turning around. "No, I've been searching for him with my quirk for an hour now but I can't find him. Just imagine what will happen when he finds out about his parents being killed." Mandalay says as she puts her hands over her ears and uses her Quirk once again only to be able to hear the other pussycat's thoughts.

"I sure hope that Kota doesn't shut everyone out after he hears the news." Ragdoll says while she is cooking some food for everyone.

"Kota has to be strong for his parents." Tiger says as he leans against the wall in the middle of everyone. "One day either he or someone else will show him that dying for something you believe in isn't that bad." Tiger says, receiving nods from the other pussycats.

"Everyone meows, dinner is done!" Ragdoll shouts out as she puts a bunch of cat-faced shaped foods on the dinner table. "Come and eat the catnip." She snickers to herself as everyone else rolls their eyes.

Tiger looks at the food and his stomach grumbles. "As bad as the jokes are I'm hungry so let's e-"

*Meow Meow. Meow Meow. Meow Meow.*

The headquarters phone starts ringing as Mandalay gives a quick glare at Ragdoll, who just gives a shit eating grin back at Mandalay as she picks up the phone. "Hello this is the Wild Wild Pussycats, this is Mandalay speaking."

"Hello Mandalay." A feminan voice days over the phone. "I believe we have one Kota Izumi here." This causes Mandalay to almost drop the phone and grab the attention of the other pussycats. Before Mandalay could speak up,the voice spoke again. "No need to worry, hero. Kota walked into my cafe before the fight with Muscular happened and he is now asleep in one of the bedrooms in our upstairs. So please come and pick him up. The location is at … in the … Cafe. Thank you and goodbye." The call stopped just as Mandalay was about to say something.

Mandalay looks at the phone for a few seconds before putting it back down. "Hey Mandalay what was that call about?" Pixie-bop asks as she takes a bit out of a big piece of meat.

"Someone found Kota and I'll have to go pick him up." Mandalay says as she puts on her jacket.

"That's fantastic. Want one of us to come with?" Tiger asks as he shoves some meat into his face.

"Yeah, Pixie-bop can you come with me?" Mandalay asks as she finishes getting ready to leave.

"Sure." Pixie-bop responds as she hopped up from her chair with a thick piece of meat in her mouth.

"I just hope that Kota will be safe until we reach him." Mandalay sighs as she and Pixie-bop get into one of their civilian cars and drive to the Cafe. (Please give me suggestions for the new cafe name.)

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At the Cafe

"Hey Izu, are you sure that you don't need me down here for when the pussycats come and pick up the kid?" Toga asks as looks to the side and sees Izumi stroking a sleeping Kotas head on one of the couches.

"Yes I'm sure I can handle Mandalay and whoever she brings with her here." Izumi says as her eyes don't leave Kota.

"Ok Izu. Good night." Toga says as she climbs the stairs.

"Good night Toga." Izumi looks over to Toga and gives her a soft smile, as Toga disappears up the stairs.

Izumi lets out a sigh as she looks over Kota and takes some mental notes on his physical form. "Hmm he looks like he hasn't eaten since yesterday. I'll go make some food." Izumi decides as she gently sets Kotas head down on the couch and moves to the kitchen.

Kota just lays there for a couple of minutes before he starts to move and lets out a groan as he slowly sits up and opens his eyes. "Ugh. . . Where am I?" Kota looks around and sees a somewhat familiar cafe. "Oh yeah I went here after escaping from the house and . . . I watched my . . . Parents . . . Die." Kota starts to have tears going down his face and it slowly evolves into a sob as he remembers the scene of his parents slowly dying under the villain Muscular. And for whatever reason that familiar warmth of someone holding him when he saw their deaths.

Izumi then comes out from the kitchen with 2 plates of food. "Oh I see you're awake." Izumi comments as she puts the food on a table near the couch and takes a seat next to it. "If you want to eat before the pussycats get here you better eat now kid." Izumi looks over at Kota before she starts to eat from her plate.

Kota flinches a bit when he sees that half of Izumi's face is covered with green cloth bandages and only has one eye showing. ". . . What happened to your eye miss?" Kota bluntly asks, causing Izumi to cholesterol on her food for a second before recovering.

"Jeez kid, you wake up in a cafe with no one recognizable around and a stranger with half of her face covered with cloth bandages tells you to eat and the first thing you ask is what happened to my face?" Izumi asks with a what the fuck face. Kota just simply nods in response. "Well if you must know this happened after a long series of events that led from common bullying to quirk abuse by my former friend to watching a similar thing happen to me that happened to your parents." Izumi coldly says as she continues to eat her food.

Kota takes a few seconds to process that before he asks another question. ". . . Did your parents die to villains as well?" Kota asked and immediately wished he didn't ask.

Izumi gripped her plate so hard that her plate shattered into hundreds of pieces and took a few seconds to calm down before looking at Kota again. ". . . No. My Mom was killed by a hero." Kotas' eyes widened as Izumi's anger grew as well. "Then the same hero blamed it on the villain he was chasing. And I don't even know where my 'dad' is. He left my mom shortly after I was born." Izumi clenches her fists and looks down for a couple of seconds before Kota speaks up again.

"So you're somewhat like me then?" Kots asks curious about who this person is now.

Izumi stops clenching her hands as she relaxes again and softly chuckles. "I guess you could say that."

Kota looks at Izumi with some admiration. She went from 'I'm going to kill you all for killing my mom' to 'laughing for the sake of distracting herself and others around her' in an instant. "Hey, what's your name? My names Kota Izumi."

Izumi freezes for a second before responding. "You can call me Izu for now." Izumi decides as she cleans up the mess she made.

While Izumi is cleaning the glass she broke, Kota looks over to the food that was made for him and his stomach growls. Embarrassed, Kota walks to the table and climbs the chair and starts to eat.

"Hey Kota how the fo-" Izumi starts to ask but stops when she sees tears streaking down Kotas face as he starts to eat the food really fast. "Geez kid, is that good or bad that you're crying over it?" Izumi asks as she starts to question if her food is that bad.

"N-no i-i-its j-just it tastes just like my p-parent c-cooking." Kotas tearfully says as he finishes the food in 30 seconds. "T-thank you Izu." Kota jumps off from the chair and runs toward Izumi and gives her a flying hug.

Izumi was knocked off her feet by the sudden hug, as she fell on her but with Kota hugging her waist as he held on tight. Izumi looks down at Kota for a second before she puts one of her arms around Kota and the other on the ground behind her to prevent her from lying on the ground.

They stay like that for a couple of minutes before Kota shifts around and quietly says. "Do I have to go back?" Kota asks as he looks up and sees a conflicted face on Izumi.

"Listen kid. If you want to stay here for the purpose of staying with people you want to stay with, then sure. But if you just want to stay here cause I remind you of your parents, then No." Izumi says and sees Kota looking at her with a confused face. "Listen Kota. I'm not going to tell you that your parents dying was a good thing like others might say. Instead I'll tell you that this world is unfair. If you have a weak, 'useless', or quirkless you will not last long in this world on your 'innocence'. Those people will be bullied. There's no getting around it. Some might get a bruise occasionally or others like myself will either die from injuries or have a life long injury." Izumi says as she puts her hand over the left side of her face, causing Kota to flinch and look at Izumi with a new perspective.

"Then there are those with strong or 'useful' quirks. They are treated like kings and are told when they get their quirks that they are always right and the weaker quirk people are nothing like ants or are to be treated like animals." Kota looks at Izumi in shock and wonders how in the world she is saying this all with a straight face. "Out of all of these people they always branch off into 2 sides: the side that rejects the quirk discriminatory society and fights to fix it, or the side that believes everything that people tell them and always gain a superiority complex or in more extreme cases a God complex. Those people don't care about others. They don't pay attention to how many lives are taken and how much more collateral damage they do just by fighting each other or villians." Izumi pauses for a second and hears a click in her mind which Izumi knows is Mandalay's quirk. Izumi smiles as she continues her speech.

"Your parents were on the good side of the spectrum of heroes. But with being a true good hero, death always gets them faster than fake heroes or villains. Kota, good people die all the time for no good reason. Just know this, no matter if your parents wanted to die today or not, they wouldn't want to ever abandon you. Unfortunately everyone has to die eventually, whether they want to or not. Until that time happens, it's your decision on what you want to do, Kota." Izumi says as she puts her fist over kotas heart.

"Your life. Your choices." Izumi says as she walks over to the front door and opens it revealing Mandalay and Pixie-bop standing on the other side. Both of their eyes widen at somehow being discovered so easily by Izumi. "Come on in Mandalay and Pixie-bop." Izumi says as she opens the door all the way and walks over toward Kota again.

"Do you really want to go in? It could be a trap." Pixie-bop nervously says as she takes another look at Izumi who is sitting at a table near the back with Kota.

"Yes we will. Even if she might be dangerous she called us and told us where Kota was, so that gives her some credit." Mandalay says as she enters the cafe with Pixie-bop shortly behind her.

"Please take a seat if you wish to talk for a bit." Izumi says as grabs a cup of green tea from her table, and takes a drink.

Mandalay and Pixie-bop look at one another before going over to the table where Izumi was sitting. "If you don't mind me asking, can you answer a question?" Mandalay asks Izumi who nods as she drinks more of her tea. "Are you the owner and if so how old are you?" Mandalay asks while she activates her quirk again, to peek into Izumi's thoughts.

Izumi simply smiles and responds. "I am 15 years old and yes I am the owner of this cafe." Izumi says as she looks Mandalay in the eyes. Mandalay tries to use her quirk, but her eyes widen when she finds Izumi's mind is empty.

Mandalay takes a few seconds to straighten herself out before she asks another question, but as she was about to ask her second question Kota spoke up. "I want to stay here. I don't want to go back there since my parents are dead, so I'll stay here with Izu." Kota says as he looks up and points at Izumi as she looks at Kota with a shocked expression.

'Even after I told you that staying here with us wouldn't be the best idea you still want to stay here. I don't understand you kid.' Izumi thinks to herself as Mandalay gives Izumi a curious look as she hears Izumi's thoughts as well.

Mandalay and Pixie-bop look at each other for a few seconds and speak through Mandalay's Quirk before they both nod and look back at Izumi. "It is possible for you to take care of Kota since he is underage and needs a guardian, but we will have to continue asking you some questions." Pixie-bop says as she looks at Izumi who is still looking at Kota.

Izumi takes a few seconds to compose herself before looking back at the 2 pussycats infront of her. "Alright I'll answer your questions." Izumi says as she puts on her poker face.

"Ok, the second question is mine." Pixie-bop says as she does one of her poses before sitting back down. "Why did you make this cafe a Grey zone?" Pixie-bob asks as she pays careful attention to Izumi's facial expressions while Mandalay uses her Quirk to peek into Izumi's mind.

Izumi stares at them both for a couple of seconds before taking a deep breath and looking them both in the eyes. (as well as someone who can do it with one eye) "That's simple. I wanted to open a cafe to everyone." Izumi responds as she softly smiles.

"Ok third question, how many employees do you have and do they have any criminal records?" Mandalay asks as she looks a bit concerned at Izumi.

Izumu again looks at them both for a few seconds before responding. "I have 2 employees and neither of them have any criminal records. I did a background check on them on my own time." Izumi says as looks at the stairs and sees a flicker of movement before turning back to the pussycats.

Mandalay continues to stare at Izumi who is still keeping her poker face on. "Fine then last question: w-"

"Actually I need to ask you a question first, Mandalay and Pixie-bop." Izumi interrupts and gives them both a dark glare. "You both know that this is a Grey zone so are you asking these questions as heroes or someone who is concerned for their cousin?" Izumi asks as she gives both Mandalay and Pixie-bop a death stare that makes them both flinch.

Mandalay takes a few moments of looking at Izumi, before glaring back and responding. "I'm concerned about Kota both as a hero and a civilian cause he wants to stay with someone who is basically a ghost to the hero commission." Mandalay snaps back this time causing Izumi to flinch a bit.

'So they consider those who appear out of nowhere and aren't villains 'ghosts' huh.' Izumi thinks to herself before looking at both of the Pussycats with her neutral poker face on. "Please continue what you were asking." Izumi says as she goes back to sipping her tea.

Mandalay and Pixie-bop give Izumi a weird look and they both think: 'First she is normal, then one second she's all 'I'll slit your throats' and now she's back to normal. . . This girl is really weird.'

Mandalay looks at Izumi one last time before asking her a question. "Our last question. What is your intent to do with Kota?" Mandalay simply asks.

"If you're asking if I'll turn Kota into a villain or Vigilante, the answer is no. If he wants to stay here then I might as well teach him how to interact with my customers since not all of them are cold blooded killers like most heroes see them as." Izumi immediately responded knowing that was going to be the last question.

Mandalay and Pixie-bop look at eachother one final time before they both sighed and were about to say something before Izumi pulled a paper from out of nowhere and put it on the table. "Something about signing for being Kotas legal guardian and you wanting to visit him. It's all on this paper." Izumi says as she slides it to Mandalay.

Mandalay and Pixie-bop both looked down at the paper before grabbing it and started reading. After about 5 minutes of reading all of the official stuff and the stuff Izumi added in (specifically about the Grey zone thing), they both signed the paper because they know that the Pussycats can't raise him properly with the amount of hero work they do. "Ok we have signed it." Mandalay says as she looks at Izumi who has her cup on the table and is putting a sleeping Kota on the couch.

"Alright then now if you want to add anything extra to these papers please do so and I'll look over them afterward." Izumi says as she puts her arms on the table and rests her head on her arms.

After a minute of writing stuff down, Mandalay slid the paper back to Izumi who took it and read the condition she wrote. "Once a week the rescue hero squad known as the Wild Wild Pussycats can come to _ cafe after hours to hang out with Kota Izumi and the Owner, Izu Midori." Izumi looks up at the 2 pussycats infront of her for a few seconds before activating her quirk and continuing. "Saturdays work best for me if you want to come to 'hang out'" Izumi says as she signs the paper as well and stands up.

"If you could please leave, it has been a stressful and tiring day so I would really like to fall asleep." Izumi says as rubs her eye and goes to pick up Kota. "Just please don't try to disturb the business. We the staff will kick out anyone who gets on our banned list." Izumi says as she picks up Kota and walks toward the stairs.

". . . Will you treat Kota the same way society treated you?" Pixie-bop asks, causing Izumi to stop walking and look at the ground. Mandalay and Pixie-bop both stand up and look at Izumi with a concerned expression.

". . . I don't know what you know about me but let me say this. I will never let Kota be a victim to this quirkiest society." Izumi coldly says as she gets to the base of the stairs, before stopping again. "Come on by for some drinks or food sometime. And please lock the door as you leave." Izumi then ascends the stairs and disappears from the pussycat's sight.

"I think that we can trust Kota in the hands of that girl." Mandalay says as she and Pixie-bop walk out of the cafe and toward their car.

"I agree. I sense that that girl has seen the dark side of society all of her life and that she wants to protect others from experiencing it too." Pixie-bop says as she and Mandalay both go to their car and drive off.

Back upstairs

Izumi walks to one of the unoccupied rooms and sets Kota down in there, and puts him to sleep while covering him with some blankets. When Izumi steps out of the room and into the main bedroom she is met with the concerned faces of Toga and Dabi. After a couple of seconds of them just staring at her, Izumi breaks the silence. "I know you both were listening in on the conversation so just ask your questions." Izumi says with her Pokerface on.

Toga and Dabi both look down for a second before Toga speaks up. "What did you mean about background checks and lying about having criminal records?" Toga asks with a betrayed look on her face.

"I meant what I said. I know pretty much everything about your backgrounds and both of you don't have any recorded kills on your real identities." Izumi says while moving to the opposite bed that they were sitting on.

". . . I think it's about time you tell us what you know about Toga and I and what your story is." Dabi says while he ignites his hand and points it toward Izumi, with the 'or else' implied.

Izumi Sighs before looking at them both with a serious expression. "I perfectly know about your true identities and what your pasts are."

"First off with Toga. Real name is Himiko Toga. Born to 2 neglectful parents who turned outright abusive when they learned of the downside of your quirk: Transform. Years and years of quirk neglect led to your quirk going on a rampage for blood, leading to you attacking your parents and draining them of all blood, killing them in the process. You lived on the streets for about a month, cutting, slashing, and draining people for their blood, before you eventually wandered into my cafe and I took you and here you are." Izumi summed up and looked at Toga who looked at her with shock before Izumi turned to Dabi who flinched hard.

"Now for Dabi. Because of the complicated situation due to your family I'll only explain the necessary parts. Your mother was forced onto a quirk marriage even though it's been illegal for years. Your father used your mother to create the ultimate child: a kid with a half and half quirk. You were the first child and you were given one of the most powerful fire quirks. Unfortunately due to the self-destructive part of your quirk, your father tried for more children. 3 children later He finally got a child with a half and half quirk. Due to you still wanting the attention of your father and not wanting your younger sibling to suffer you started to push your quirk limits a lot until finally your quirk 'malfunctioned' and you burned down the part of the house you were in and it collapsed in on itself. They never found your body so your father finally declared you dead, and the rest of your family was forced to believe that you were dead."

As Izumi pauses to take a breath, Dabi can't help but look at the girl in front of him and look at her in a new, fearful way. 'If Izu is capable of pulling that much information on me, what else is she capable of?'

"You go on to live your life as a dead man and you just go on with life, making a new name for yourself and burning people alive that you don't agree with or that just pissed you off. And well we all know the rest of that story." Izumi finishes up as she takes a deep breath and clenches her hands so hard that she ends up bleeding.

"Izu . . . Was your past as bad as ours or worse?" Toga worryingly says as she gets up and grabs some bandages and wraps up Izumi's hands as she calms her breathing.

"Yes, my past was that bad. But let me start with my real name. My name is Izumi Midoriya. Unlike Toga who faced how people were treated with 'villainous' quirks, I faced the side that treated people with weak or useless quirks. For years I was treated like dirt and trash, and my childhood best friend got a really powerful quirk and sended up as my main tormentor for all of those years." Izumi then starts to unwrap her face bandages as she continues.

"Until one day a series of events changed my life forever. My ex-best friend waited at the front gates of the school like he usually does to give me a daily beating until he started to take it way to far and I tried to stop him but he got pissed off and charged one of his most powerful attacks and launched his hand onto my face and let lose a devastating explosion that launched me across the school yard and out the school gates." Izumi says as she fully unwraps her face and reveals the burn to Dabi and Toga again who look at the burn again and see a hand shape on the more burnt part of her face and the fact that it does look like an explosion happened right on her face. After a couple seconds of them staring at her hideous scar, Izumi wraps it up again.

"Back to my story. After being blown out of the school, I decided to walk home. When I got close to my neighborhood, I saw a large amount of smoke coming from the direction of my house and . . . I saw Endeavor standing there with his foot on top of a badly beaten and unconscious villain, in front of my house that was burning down . . . With my mother in it." Izumi clenches her hand again, while Togas and Dabis eyes widen as they can tell the fate of Izumi's mother.

"Endeavor said something about pinning the blame of the fire that he caused on the villain, before walking away. I tried searching for my mother for about 10 minutes but the house was too hot and I knew that my mother was dead because of something I found that she never leaves the house with: this green hair clip." Izumi pulls out a green hair clip that is the same shade of green as her hair. She looks down and stares at it as she continues to speak. "I just wandered around town with my head hanging low until it was evening and I finally looked up and I saw this place and the rest is history." Izumi says as she looks up with tears rolling down her face. "I-i don't want either of you guys to die on me. Please don't die."

Dabo and Toga both hop off their bed they were sitting on and rush at Izumi and hug her tightly. Both of them start to tear up and start softly crying as well. "Don't worry Izu, we will always be there for you. We aren't going to die on you so don't worry." Toga sniffles out as she squeezes Izumi tighter.

"I'm sorry he did that to your mother, but we ain't dying to a fire caused by that flaming trash. We will be your family from now on so don't worry." Dabi quietly says as he and Toga softly hug Izumi.

"T-thank y-you guys. I w-wont ever forget this. I will always be your family as well." Izumi says as she continues to cry and hugs them both back.

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I spent an entire week just writing and rewriting that last emotional part before I settled on that ending. It's been stressful for me lately and I hope to get back to posting at least one chapter of a story every 2 week.

I went back and read the chapters I had written and thought to myself 'why did I do this to myself?' After the first chapter because of Izumi's quirk name at the beginning.

Only a few more chapters till I move into the first official arc of this story. I will somewhat follow the Canon timeline but with some minor changes to it.

. . . I messed up. I was going through all the plans I had for this story and I forgot something Important: the Ship. So please tell me what to do for it or if this should be shipless or maybe a mini harem.

Have a good day y'all.