Midoriya Inko glanced somewhat worriedly at the clock.
It was getting late, and yet her baby still hadn't returned home.
True, Izuku had sometimes stayed out this long, and her curfew wasn't before 20.00 so she still had a bit over an hour left before she had to be home, but… Well… This was the first time since she'd changed schools that she'd stay out this late.
Usually, when Izuku didn't come home until late in the day it was because she'd either been crying rather hard, or because she'd gotten some bruise or the like from Bakugo Katsuki, and had tried to treat it herself before coming home.
Sometimes she'd succeed, and come home with only minor swellings, or little trace of the injury at all. Sometimes she had not and had come home with a swollen eye.
Inko felt a strong pang of desire to reach out and get a drink, but she resisted it.
She'd been doing that a lot since Hisashi died. Drinking to deal with stress. But so far, she'd managed to keep it exclusively for the long nights after Izuku went to sleep.
She planned to keep it that way.
She had no plans of becoming a mother who spent the days drunk off her ass.
It was very easy to fall into that trap. A decent bit of wealth, lots of free time, and having been rendered a single mother with all that came with it.
It was not a good combination.
Still… She would manage it.
She had to manage it.
Her poor little girl had no one else in the world now. It was her duty as her mother to keep it all together and not spiral into alcoholism.
Finally, about 13 minutes left before the clock hit 20.00, the sounds from the entrance announced that Izuku was finally home again.
She let out a breath of relief she didn't know she had been holding.
"Hi… Hi Mom"
"Hi Izuku, how have yo-OH, MY GOD!"
Alongside her baby, another girl had entered their apartment, one with pink hair and golden scoped eyes, whose face was absolutely covered in black and blue bruises. Several of which were starting to really, really swell.
She also had two pieces of paper stuck up her nose, both of which were red, and a shirt covered in blood.
"WHAT HAPPENED!?"
Izuku winced at her reaction.
"Hi, mom this is… Mei-san. She…"
"Your daughter saved me from a vicious beating earlier today!" The girl, now identified as "Mei" exclaimed cheerfully, seemingly not too bothered by the fact her face looked like someone had tried to make hamburger meat out of it.
"I… I offered to let her stay with us until she healed…"
"Also, Izuku-Sama lost her wallet while rescuing me, so she needed someone to pay for her train ticket back home! So win-win!"
Inko's gaze, which had immediately been so focused on Mei and her injuries now went to Izuku as her mind took in the implications of that in a panicked flow.
Lost her wallet? Was it stolen? She'd need to immediately have her card canceled at the bank and-
"Wait! What are you wearing!?"
Izuku, rather than her white and green Gura uniform, was instead wearing a sailor uniform, with a color scheme of black and green.
It also had a strange metal piece with several holes in it in front around the neck.
"It's… A long story. We should…" she swallowed. "Probably tend to Mei-san's wounds before we go over it."
The girl's look was… Very hard to read. Which was extremely unlike her.
Usually, Izuku would either be ecstatic and cheerful with a bright smile on her face or sad and depressed with a frown that broke Inko's heart every time she saw it.
Now though, despite the fact she brought home a poor girl who had gone through a horrible beating, she looked like she could not make up her mind between being happy, worried, and nervous.
She was also constantly touching this strange new garment as if she was afraid that it would disappear at any time.
Inko ultimately did agree though.
Izuku seemed unharmed, which was in stark contrast with Mei.
Quite a fair bit afterwards, after ice packs, putting a band-aid and wool to keep the set nose in place, cleaning the wounds with alcohol, including several bruises and smaller cuts that Mei had been hiding under her shirt, and rigging up a futon for the girl to lie on in the living room, Inko finally found herself sitting opposite her child.
From down the floor beneath the TV, Mei was just as cheerful as she'd been the entire night.
"Thanks for the medicine Midoriya-Sama! It's much better than what I usually get for my wounds."
"Don't mention it dear. Any friend Izuku makes is welcome in my house."
That part was true enough, though Inko had not expected this being the way Izuku finally brought someone home.
"Are you sure you don't want me to call your parents?"
"Yeah, It's fine. They used to me being out for days at a time. This time though, it's probably for the best that they don't know I got a savage beating today. Probably gonna set off some warning bells depending on tomorrow's news back in Tokyo."
She… Really did not like the sound of that. Either the fact her parents were used to her just not being home, or the potential for news.
"I see… So Izuku, are you finally going to tell me what happened?"
Izuku for her part had found a bit of paper, and a pen, and was quickly writing something.
Inko noted she would not meet her eyes. Which usually meant she was ashamed of something.
"Well… It all began with a letter… A letter from dad."
Silence.
"From… Hisashi?" She said it with a longing in her voice that surprised even her.
"Y-yeah… I… Found it taped to our door when I came home from school earlier today."
"And you didn't immediately come to me with it… Because?"
Inko's eyes narrowed as she looked Izuku over. She could see the girl's hands beginning to shake nervously as she continued to write.
"Well… It was kinda a personal letter… And… I wanted to see what it said for myself… Probably not the smartest move in hindsight. As for the letter… Well, the original got disintegrated with my backpack, school uniform, and my other things… That said, that part is okay at least. I… I read the entire thing a hundred times on the train."
She continued to scribble for a while, before she finished, and handed it over to Inko.
Inko wasn't sure what to expect.
Some deep, heartfelt letter where her hubby laid out all his regrets? An affirmation of how much he loved them? Advice for the future that he had left behind before he died?
Instead, she got something completely ridiculous. An "I have left behind a great, secret work for you my child, and there is a terrifying foe you need to watch out for" right out of some melodramatic shonen anime.
Jep. This was written by Hisashi alright.
That was exactly the kind of thing he'd write in some letter to be delivered after he died.
She'd have believed it, even if she didn't read the last part, where he confirmed a phrase that only Izuku would have been there to hear.
In that case…
"So you wanted to see this… Gift he left behind before telling me about this letter?"
Izuku just nodded.
She sighed.
It was an understandable reaction on her part, even if it had been very, very stupid.
"I'm guessing the directions went with your backpack?"
"Yeah… Well… As for what happened, I got to the "abandoned" place…"
"And it turned out to not be abandoned after all, so you sneaked in?"
"Not… Exactly… It looked very well kept, but the front door was open and there wasn't a person in sight. At all… It was… Really kinda eerie as I went through it…"
"The current squatters don't have people openly there." Mei chimed in cheerfully from the futon that she had eagerly accepted.
"As far as I can tell, they don't actually own the place. They've been squatting there for the last two months."
"Mei used to use the place as a lab before… Well before the current batch of freeloaders took over the place."
"Really? So did you… Know what Hisashi worked on? Were you there when he was still… When he still worked there?"
"Well… I do now, Izuku found it down below. See there was this giant black and red wall in the basement. It always fascinated me ever since I moved in to squat there, and I tried so many things to break through and discover what was inside. It was for all intents and purposes impenetrable. Until Izuku-Sama came along anyway."
"Yeah… Turns out dad made the lock on the thing in such a way that it could only be broken by a sample of my blood and fingerprint. But I'm getting ahead of myself. After I went in there, Mei followed after me, having seen me enter."
"Yeah, I just wanted to warn her that people going in there have a tendency to get thrown out after getting the shit kicked out of them. I learned that the hard way when they came to squat there, to begin with, and kicked me out." She chuckled "As it turned out though, it was me who ended up getting the crap beaten out of me again, today."
Inko gave Izuku a glare, which the younger Midoriya looked down from.
"I'm guessing this is the part where Izuku saved you?"
"Yeah, she found me right after discovering the black door and opening it! Took out the guy kicking my face in with a single blow! Of course, he got back up again after activating a transformation quirk, but hey! Without that, I wouldn't have been able to escape."
Inko groaned.
"And… What happened then?"
"We… Tried to run the way out, but it was quickly cut off by some other men, so we were forced to instead head to the vault I had just opened."
She flinched.
"I… Well, I was knocked over the edge of a guardrail by the door into the room."
Inko felt a sharp stab of horror, at imagining that scenario, but she quickly forced it down. Izuku was fine right in front of her, so obviously she survived without issue.
"What did you land on?"
"Clothes. A mountain of clothes. Well… I didn't realize what it was while I was falling into them and tumbling down the side of the "mountain", but… Well, It was pretty easy to see once… Well…"
And there, her girl smiled. A true, genuine, honest smile.
"I found the gift dad left behind for me. And it… Well, it helped us escape."
She slowly, and dramatically tapped the suit she was wearing.
"A sailor suit," Inko said flatly. "THAT'S what Hisashi left behind for you? A sailor suit? Wait… How did that help you escape?!"
Izuku hesitated before answering, but Mei did not.
"It gave her massive superpowers!" She exclaimed cheerfully from the floor. "She sent a huge lightning strike of energy straight up into the sky that blew a massive hole in the entire bit of the facility right above us! Then she jumped back up to the railing, grabbed me, and jumped both of us out of there!"
Silence. Complete, utter silence.
Inko stared at Izuku, slack-jawed. Part of her found it too stupid, and absurd to be believed. That it was some dumb fantasy the two girls had cooked up. And yet… Izuku did not contradict her statements, instead blushing, and getting a small smile on her face as she glanced down.
And… Well, it WAS Hisashi.
That man… He had always seemed to be able to pull off the impossible.
"Is… That true sweetie?"
She'd expected Izuku to either fear answering the question or be absolutely giddy at the prospect of her greatest dream getting to come true instead, her face turned absolutely, completely, totally red in the most embarrassed look she had ever seen on Izuku, if not on any person ever!
"Well… Yeah… It is, but… Well… It's a transformation-based power…"
She buried her face in her hands.
Inko still wasn't sure she actually believed this at all. She probably wouldn't unless she saw it directly for herself. But she tried to be positive, putting an arm on Izuku's shoulder.
"It's… Okay, sweetie. I mean… This is what you always wanted, isn't it? There are tons of heroes who have made it with a transformation-based quirk. You'll do just fine."
Izuku's eyes peeked forth from between her hands as she looked her mom over with pleading, almost humiliated eyes.
"You say that… But It's… Well… I guess… You should see for yourself?"
Her voice was extremely high-pitched as she finished and then got up on her feet.
Then walked over to the center of the room, and took a deep, deep breath.
Then she suddenly bit her lip, easily drawing blood, making Inko recoil. Izuku then raised her arm, and… Spat at it.
The transformation was immediate from the moment the blood and saliva hit it.
The new sailor's suit exploded outwards, forming a bubble around Izuku, of teeth, glowing lights, and that strange metal piece on the front of her neck dancing in a frankly grotesque pattern… Before in a snap, all retracting into itself, leaving Izuku standing there, in a new suit.
As the green energy bolts began to fade, Inko had expected to find some ugly suit, or maybe something grotesque judging by Izuku's reactions to it.
She could not have been farther off from what her baby girl was actually wearing.
"WHAT THE HELL KIND OF SUIT IS THAT!?"
Izuku immediately buried her face in her hands again, now covered with a set of gloves.
"You know, Izuku-Sama had that exact same reaction, almost word for word." Mei piped in happily from the futon.
"Your father designed this thing!? I REFUSE to believe that Hisashi would have designed THIS kind of outfit for you to wear!"
Izuku squeaked again, but she actually disagreed.
"No, I… I talked to it, it made it… Very clear it was dad who-" "You TALKED to it!?" Inko said in complete bewilderment.
Somehow, the question of whether or not this thing actually had powers to give had been completely forgotten in favor of other things.
"Oh yeah, this baby is sentient Midoriya-Sama! It's a living, breathing, thinking creature. Of course, it has the drawback it can only directly talk with it's host, but we found out it's easy to communicate yes and no questions by making it blink it's eyes."
It was too much.
"It's… Eyes...?"
In response, the holes in the metal thing around Izuku's neck began glowing with a sharp clear light and began blinking in what was clearly some form of light-based morse code.
Also, below it, the metal part… Seemingly tore in half, diagonally, a sharp maw of what looked like horrifying metal jaws burst open.
The slammed shut with a loud, massive clank, and rearranged itself into an absolutely horrifying, and terrible grin!
It was too much.
The suit and it's downright scandalous design, the fact her baby had superpowers now, the fact that said superpower was a sentient, thinking suit that talked in morse code and with a horrifying jaw… It was too much.
Inko fainted from the shock, though Izuku immediately caught her before she could fall over.
I
Well… That went about as well as could be expected.
"Does she do that often?"
"Sometimes…" Izuku admitted as she laid her out over the sofa.
"She doesn't deal with shock, gore, and fear very well. Though, it's mostly something that happens when she is watching hero brawls on tv that unexpectedly turns bloody."
After having made sure her mom was well positioned as she lay, Izuku went over to the refrigerator and pulled out a couple of sodas, after which she sat down by the table.
"Well, that was not what we expected… We assumed someone who had married our creator would be used to horrible and terrible events unfolding before them! I would not have expected a friendly smile to knock her out."
"Is that so..? Did a lot of horrible stuff happen in that lab?"
It hadn't been a request for… The suit, to go into deep, deep detail, but he apparently took the halfhearted question fully seriously.
"Indeed. You saw my kin did you not? All the failed attempts at creating the perfect, flawless, absolutely brilliant piece of clothing that is yours truly!"
Izuku choked on the soda.
She coughed and had to wipe her mouth clean using her now transformed suit, something it very much did not enjoy judging by its annoying sounds inside her head.
"You mean… All those clothing pieces were… Alive at some point?"
"Yes… All of them were alive at some point… But not sentient. The creator told us that only our kind of perfect clothing was truly sentient."
Great…
"And… You were the only one in that lab like… Yourself?"
"Well yes… But there were others before me. The creator labeled me as number 3.27. The creator never specified, but I have always assumed that of my specific line, there must thus have been 26 others created in the process of perfecting my design."
"3…. You mean… You are from the THIRD line of your… Whatever your names are?"
"Oh, we do have a name. Our kind are called Kamui. And yes, I assume so. Again, the creator never specified, but I do recall seeing his designs for the penultimate versions of the two previous designs. The Senketsu and Junketsu lines. Those finalized versions ended at numbers 17 and 34."
That… Were a lot of potential similar suits to her running around. Or… Had they all been destroyed?
Those finalized versions though… What had dad's letter said? Those two, strange, mysterious girls she would one day meet… They had been given gifts similar to hers.
So… There were at least 3 Kamui currently in existence in the possession of these mystery girls. Why? What reason could her dad have to give these immensely powerful suits to anyone else?
She considered that. And then the other Kamui.
There were so many questions about THAT alone. These… Other Kamuis.
Kamui. Godrobe. What a name.
What had happened to them? Was hers the final version by design, and what her father had always intended, or was it simply that this version was the final one that he'd been working on before he took his gamble, and he'd decided to make do with what he had? What were the differences between the 3 different "Model lines" of Kamui?
And probably the biggest question of all… How had he created these in the first place?
Izuku knew the motivation behind it. She did not understand the means.
"Lots of questions to consider."
"Yes, and then there is the rest. Like this Ragyo person your letter mentioned. Who is she?"
"No idea. I had never even heard about her before today."
Yet another question her dad had left for her.
He hadn't been exaggerating that she would have tons and tons of questions.
She wasn't sure if her mom would wake up later tonight, or in the morning, but no doubt there would be a lot more discussion between mother and child.
That discussion was nowhere done.
Then there was the question regarding the power itself.
It was still there but… When she'd soared up, and out of the building, Izuku had felt like some sort of unstoppable juggernaut filled to the brim with power.
That feeling was… Blocked now. Ever since she'd let her own embarrassment get the better of her on that rooftop, it had felt like the power was… Well clogged was a good metaphor. It was like the bond between her and her suit, which in that brief moment she had leveled the building above her, and jumped half a hundred feet straight up with no difficulty had felt like a perfect pipe, pumping energy and power with abandon and no struggles, was now filled to the brim with… Stuff.
The good part was that it was a mental hangup. And one that she knew the exact problem with. One she should hopefully be able to deal with in time. All she had to do was get over her embarrassment, and become comfortable walking around with this new suit of hers where millions would be able to see her.
She felt her face be engulfed in red just by thinking about it, and dealt with it by taking a huge draught of Soda.
To her mind, the image of earlier today, with Mt. Lady's introducing herself on her first day on the job as an independent Pro.
The woman had not been shy in the slightest despite wearing a skin-tight bodysuit that left nothing to the imagination.
In fact, she'd… really seemed to enjoy the attention.
But that wasn't the thing that she remembered most vividly though. No, that was the reaction of the people around her. Every single person there had pulled out cameras, whether phone, or an actual camera if they had it at hand, and taken photos of her.
That… Would be her future as a Pro Hero. Many folds. She had no illusions of that.
God help her…