It's been a month, but I finally got enough motivation to get this out, so here it is.

II. My Thoughts

Japan's so much different from what I remember telling you.

With all these people with wacky hair colors and their Quirks, you and Ram would've fit right in. I could just imagine you right now wearing a kimono during the summer festival, maybe even with your hair grown out.

I miss you. I miss you so much. I thought it would get easier after all this time, but it still hurts.

I'm sorry.

I've written this so many times, but it still feels like it'll never be enough. All I have left now are my sins and these words.

I still think about that day, about what would've happened if you took my hand and ran away with me. Would we have been happy, leaving everyone to die? Would you have kept on loving such a piece of shit like me?

I wish I still knew what you look like, Rem. All I can remember now is your hair, your kind voice, and your passion.

I wish I returned your feelings sooner.

"Hey, dad," Subaru greeted, setting down the flowers. Mom's not gonna be able to make it for a while, so it's just me today. She says hi, by the way." Today was supposed to be their monthly trip to the cemetery, but Inko's work schedule was still fully booked for the next few weeks, and he wasn't that tactless to not visit Hisashi's grave just because he was feeling lazy.

Very early on into Subaru's new life, he caught Inko talking to herself a few times while he was busy trying to re-develop his muscle memory, using the name 'Hisashi'. It took some time after that for him to conclude that was his (second?) father's name. But it wasn't until two more years had passed, that he found out that the man died some time before he was (re?)born.

Subaru tried to ask Inko for more information, but she would only ever lie to him and say that Hisashi died in an accident working for some foreign company overseas. When his body finally reached the age of thirteen, she finally admitted that Hisashi was actually involved in a not-so-legal line of work. She allegedly didn't know too many details, but the fact that Midoriya was actually her family name implied that he was better off not looking into it.

And given the fact that he hadn't heard of anyone who knew Hisashi hadn't bothered them after all this time, Subaru was inclined to just let sleeping dogs lie.

He just hoped it wouldn't come to bite them in the ass later on.

"I really wish I got to know you," Subaru continued. "I kinda miss having a dad." Inko never once mentioned anything bad about who Hisashi was as a person, and the pictures she had of him made it seem like he was at least a decent guy.

He wondered—would they have gotten on well with his previous parents? He hoped so.

There were times where Subaru wanted to just give up and just confess everything about who he was to Inko, but there was always that shred of doubt in the back of his mind, and the fear that she would end up rejecting him. By this point, he fully accepted Inko as his mother, but it felt like it was extremely selfish of him to tell her that her genius son was in reality an adult in his thirties.

Several more minutes passed in silence, with Subaru reminiscing about his old life with Kenichi and Naoko, and what it would have been like with Hisashi also being around.

"I'll try to force mom to come with me next time," he said, placing a hand on the headstone. "Tell Emilia-tan and Rem I said hi, yeah?"

Bakugō Katsuki was a pretty good kid. Most of the time. Had a bit of aggressiveness in him, but it was common for boys his age, and Subaru's presence really helped to temper that at least a bit.

His appearance and overall personality reminded Subaru so much of Garfiel that he tried to see if he recognized any Lugunican characters and would randomly mention Ram, Frederica, and Ryuzu's names in their conversations, but no such luck—he only seemed to think they were just names for the toys or imaginary characters in the games they were playing.

So overall, he seemed like a pretty normal kid you didn't need to worry about too much.

That was, until he got his Quirk.

After that day it first came in, no more than half a week would go by without someone complimenting Katsuki's superhero potential, patting him on the back and singing constant praises to anyone who would listen. Having a perfect combination of his parents' Quirks that made him able to ignite his palm sweat made it so that he had extremely high combat and mobility potential if he ever did want to be a 'pro hero' (and who didn't, these days?).

And sure, it was good to praise kids every now and then, but that was usually for things they did, not for how powerful their Quirk was and could be.

Apparently it was only Subaru who instantly noticed the signs of an ego forming, because he sure as hell didn't see anyone else at the daycare considering it. If this kept up and he didn't try to mitigate this now, then down the road, he had a very high chance of thinking he was unstoppable and end up getting himself or someone else hurt, or maybe even killed.

From what he saw from the Bakugō parents, they at least tried to do what they could in terms of actual discipline, but exposure to people constantly thinking you were gonna grow up to be extremely successful for three-to-four days a week didn't exactly do a good job for a growing kid's psyche.

(Subaru should know.)

Except there was still the issue of Subaru physically being the same age as Katsuki. Even if he had a knack for getting the kids to like him in Arlam Village, that was only because he had actually looked like an adult. But as another pudgy five-year-old? Not so much. By the time all of the other kids in the daycare had gotten their Quirks, almost all of them started flocking over to Katsuki just because he had the best one out of all of them.

And was Subaru just a little bit jealous? Yes, as much as he didn't want to believe or admit it. He hadn't had to truly act like a mature adult for years now, so it was an inevitability that he would get used to a few of the selfish tendencies that came with the high of everyone around him thinking he was some child genius. Not to mention that Invisible Providence still didn't have any more physical output than his own arm, even after all this time.

But as the years went on, Subaru eventually realized that he didn't even have to worry about the kid's upbringing nearly as much as he did.

"Freedom at last," Subaru sighed, as he opened his locker and changed out of his uwabaki shoes. Having recently started his 'final' year of middle school, his class's homeroom teacher brought up the topic of their career choices after graduating...before summarily immediately deciding everyone wanted to get into the hero course and throwing the forms in the air while his classmates cheered and raved with their Quirks.

Even after fourteen years, he was still having trouble getting used to the difference in how things were done in a Japan almost two hundred years removed from what he was used to. Even if the country got even more westernized since, whatever happened to social etiquette and showing discipline in school?

"Could use a drink right about now," he murmured.

With the last time he drank any meaningful amount of alcohol having been during the party after that impromptu bit of snowfall Puck releasing his magic caused, Subaru desperately wanted to just drown his sorrows every time he got homesick.

Except Inko almost never kept any alcohol in their apartment beyond a single bottle of wine at a time, and he obviously couldn't go buy liquor himself, leading back to the whole 'writing out letters to everyone he knew' thing.

"Yo." A clap to his shoulder suddenly brought Subaru out of his thoughts, turning to see Katsuki grinning at him.

"You up for the arcade later?" he asked.

Subaru shook his head. "Can't—Mom's still at work, so I gotta make dinner again." In reality, he just wanted to read that new isekai light novel he bought the other day, but he wasn't about to tell him that.

"Damn, that sucks," Katsuki said, leaning on the lockers. "Because a little birdie asked me to try to get you to go, wanted to see if she could impress you or something like that."

Subaru rolled his eyes. "You mean Kageyama from 2-B? I already turned her down. You sure she wasn't asking you out?"

Katsuki snorted. "Hell, no. She name-dropped you and everything. And even if she did, I'm not trying to be the rebound." He pushed himself off the lockers. "Well if you don't wanna, you don't wanna. Can't say I didn't try. I'll go tell her. See you tomorrow, 'Zuku."

"Yeah, see ya." With a two-fingered salute, Katsuki walked away, leaving Subaru alone with his thoughts again.

Ever since he started going to Aldera Junior High, Subaru very quickly cemented himself as the school's top student, because of the supplemental coursework Inko had him do over the years helping to strengthen and fill in the blanks from what he still knew since first dropping out high school.

Unfortunately, that, combined with his personality and the way he carried himself, led to more than a few girls in his class and even from upperclassmen asking to meet after school and giving him love confessions. Obviously, he turned them all down, but for some reason, that didn't stop more girls from trying to 'win his heart' (he could've sworn he heard some of the other guys he talked to placing bets).

It almost felt like he was the protagonist of a harem anime, believe it or not.

And as for Katsuki? By this point, the two of them were finally at a point close enough to Subaru's original age before he got un-isekai'd, that he started seeing the other boy as more of a best friend, instead of a volatile younger brother he had to look out for. He still had that cockiness to him, but Subaru felt like he managed to keep him down-to-earth when it came to thinking about everyone else.

"Should probably stop by the convenience store," he said to himself, pulling out his phone and making a checklist of what he was out of and needed for tonight's dinner.

"Need more furikake, mayonnaise, definitely some more panko..." He wrote everything down as he made his way through the underpass on his route to and from school, where the echoing of the sounds of the streets amplified a strange, almost sloshing sound behind him.

Turning around with an absent-minded 'hm?', Subaru could only react in shock as a giant mass of sludge suddenly accosted him.

"Hold still, kid," the sludge whispered. "I just need to borrow your body for a while, and then you'll never see me again. Don't make this any harder than it needs to be."

Subaru barely registered the words being spoken to him as he desperately tried to claw himself free. With a thought, he activated Invisible Providence, and a black, elongated arm shot out from his navel, where he willed it to do something, anything to stop what was happening to him. From sending a punch with everything he had to where the voice had come from, wrapping around his back to push himself out, to even scooping out the sludge that was quickly filling his airways.

His attempts did nothing.

His lungs were on fire, and each passing second made them even more so. He so desperately wanted to just breathe in, but it took every ounce of willpower he had left in him to repress that urge. It wouldn't take much longer now before he finally succumbed to the lack of oxygen to his brain, but with his fight-or-flight instinct in full overdrive, Subaru kept doing everything he could to keep resisting for as long as possible.

He would not be going down without a fight. He couldn't accept throwing away his second life like this.

Please...someone...help...!

And then, in the very moment right as he was finally about to black out, a booming voice echoed from behind him.

"Everything is all right now. Why? Because I am here."

A towering silhouette landed in front of Subaru, where he felt two large hands being placed on his shoulders, and found himself immediately pulled free as if it was the easiest thing in the world, unceremoniously set on the ground. His shock at the turn of events immediately disappeared as he was reduced to a coughing fit, his body doing everything it could to expel the traces of sludge still in his lungs.

He spared a moment to look up at his rescuer: a very tall and muscular man with blond hair that spiked up at the front to form a 'v' shape, sporting a never-ending grin as his arm was outstretched—a brief glance ahead of him showed the mass of sludge as a splatter on the wall, with two very noticeable red.

All Might saved him.

All Might, the number-one ranked hero in all Japan, and unofficially the world's 'Symbol of Peace', came to save him.

Subaru quickly scrambled to get on his knees, before placing his palms on the ground and lowering his forehead in a dogeza bow. "All Might-sama! Thank you for saving my life!"

"Uh...you don't need to do that, young...what's your name, by the way?"

"Midoriya Izuku, sir!" Subaru yelled.

"Right...you can get up now, Midoriya-shōnen."

"Huh?" Subaru looked up to see the man offering a hand to him, and sheepishly took it as he was helped up. "Sorry."

"It's no problem. I get that a lot," All Might said. "Now—are you hurt anywhere? Do you need me to take you to a hospital?"

Subaru blinked, before he suddenly started patting himself down. "Um, no...at least, I don't think so...?"

All Might nodded (seriously, what was up with this guy's facial muscles?), and reached into a plastic bag Subaru only now just realized was there, and pulled out a large bottle of soda, holding it out to him.

"You wanna drink this?"

"Uh..." Subaru began, before he mentally shrugged and decided to just go along with it. "Sure. Thank you."

It wasn't every day the guy who was basically Japanese Superman offered you a soda.

Taking the bottle, he twisted open the cap, and with a brief itadakimasu, started drinking down what he could. When there was about half of the bottle left, he stopped drinking and closed it, giving it back to All Might.

All Might nodded and walked over to the edge of the underpass to pour out the rest of the soda, before he started scooping the sludge guy into the bottle, eyes and all. When he was finished, he stood back up and waved to Subaru with the bottle.

"Well, if you'll be fine on your own, then I still need to do my job and take this guy to the police station. Take care of yourself now, Midoriya-shōnen."

"I will," Subaru replied, bowing low with his hand on his sides. "Thank you so much again for saving my life!"

All Might boomed out a laugh. "It's what any hero would do. Well, have a good day." With that, he walked back in the direction he came from, and once out of the underpass, squatted down into a low crouch, before launching himself into the air.

Subaru couldn't help but feel jealous for a moment since he couldn't even manage to save himself, but that moment was quickly replaced by a grimace from the sheer stench coming from himself.

Back to school to hit the showers and change into his PE clothes it was, then. Subaru took a deep breath, paused when he suddenly gagged, and made a run for the entrance to get some sweet, fresh air.

Should he tell Inko he almost died today?

It stands to reason that Bakugō being influenced by someone doing everything they can to make sure he doesn't let develop a superiority complex would end up in him being a bit more of a normal teenager with teenage problems.

I might have ch 3 up by Christmas, but I also need to go work on my JJBA fic before this, so it might be by January.