Their Hero Academia – Chapter Forty-Nine: Another Three Stories

Kenta Sato in Working Lunch

"Oh, who's that?"

The sound of Nejire Amajiki's voice made Kenta jump. He'd just closed his phone after checking his notifications—Takuma had somehow managed to upload a half dozen videos in three days and Kimiko kept texting him about how she was going crazy studying and needed him to make her work harder. While he'd also gotten a few hits on the video he'd uploaded at the start of his Internship, he was actually trying to take it seriously. No eating stuff for clicks this week. Plenty of time for that later (He wasn't completely immune to allure of fame). Assuming of course that Tokoyami's dad didn't kill Takuma for some of the stuff he was putting up online. Kenta swore he was half of Kimiko's impulse control and nearly all of Takuma's sometimes.

But when he'd closed his phone, it had shown his lock screen, with a picture of himself, Takuma, and Kimiko: himself on the left, Kimiko on the right, Takuma with his arms around both of them. He remembered the day they'd taken it, right after they'd gotten their UA acceptance letters. They all looked so proud (though Kimiko had claimed that she'd blinked). Takuma had his usual "this is a good idea, trust me" grin and he could tell Kimiko was smiling (he always could). But if you really looked closely at him, though, you could see the smile didn't entirely reach his eyes. He'd been too worried then, about whether or not his Quirk was good enough for Hero work. Even now, he was still pretty sure that he'd come in dead last in the Entrance Exam.

And yet here he was, interning with a Top-Ten Hero: Suneater (He was very sure there was some backroom dealing going on, even if they did both have eating-related Quirks). That also meant working with his wife, who made Kimiko look positively sedate. He wasn't sure how it was possible for one human being to be that perky or ask that many questions. At least, not anyone who wasn't Shota Shinso.

She'd apparently gotten a look at his lock screen. "Just me and my friends," he said. His best friends, really. As far back as he could remember, it had always been the three of them. Of course, Takuma was spending a lot of time with Tensei these days, but given how much time Tensei spent in the lab with his sister, it still left plenty of time for the three of them. Things changed in any friendship or relationship, of course, but he wasn't worried. They'd been together too long for that.

He showed his lock screen to her again and Nejire peered at the picture. "She's cute!" she said, speaking of Kimiko. "Is she your girlfriend?"

Kenta nearly dropped his phone. How could she think…? Why would she…? He didn't… Did he…? "What? Kimmie's not…"

"Are you suuuuuure?" she asked. "Do you have a girlfriend already? Or a boyfriend? Or a special friend of some kind?"

Kenta started backing away. Maybe he could run? This really wasn't a conversation he wanted to be having. No point to it. There was no way Kimiko thought about him like that anyway.

"Nejire, you're scaring him." He hadn't heard Suneater's arrival, but Kenta was very grateful for it.

"I'm just asking some questions, Tamaki!"

Kenta really didn't understand how someone as reserved and shy as Suneater had married someone like Nejire-Chan. Even now, he flinched slightly at her exuberance.

"Can it wait?" he asked. "We've got a call. I'll take Sato here and investigate. You stay on standby."

Just so long as it didn't end like last time, where the paparazzi had splashed a photo of them with a caption implying Nejire-Chan was interested in him. He could have gone his whole life without seeing it, but Kimiko had just had to share it with him and Takuma.

He was never going to live it down. At least he was pretty sure Suneater and Nejire-Chan hadn't seen it. Or were polite enough not to mention it.

Things went gloop. The Villain they'd been dispatched to stop had a Quirk which let him produce vast quantities of some kind of strange, vaguely greenish colored… gunk. There wasn't any better word for it. It wasn't a solid, not really a liquid, and it was sticky as hell. Kenta and Suneater were already buried up to their necks in it, along with most of the street.

The Villain somehow seemed capable of walking on top of the gunk he'd created. How that worked, Kenta didn't know. He was tall and skinny, with hair the same color was the gunk. No flashy costume, he just wore jeans and a t-shirt, along with a black trench coat.

"Imagine me, Yuck-Raker, taking down a Top Ten Hero!" he laughed. "I thought filling the streets with my gunk was performance enough, but winning a fight like this?" He pulled a cellphone from his coat pocket and snapped a few selfies with Kenta and Suneater in the background. "My hit count's going to skyrocket!"

Great. He was one of those. The kind of guy who gave Viewtube bloggers like Kenta and his friends a bad name. A Villaintuber. Someone who used their Quirk in villainous ways just for the hit count. A trend that had started ages ago, but had picked back up in the last few years.

"Chomp," Suneater said, using Kenta's Hero name. "I can't morph anything to break loose. Can you move at all?"

Kenta tried to move his arms and legs and struggled to move them at all. Not good. Only his neck and head were free. He could move that pretty good, but… Oh. "I think I can get us out," he said. The Yuck-Raker was still getting away, but taking his time with it, taking selfies, occasionally spraying more gunk.

This was gonna suck.

He lowered his head and took a big bite of the gunk. It tasted awful. Kenta's sense of taste was, by necessity, a little wonky. He enjoyed the taste of most metals, especially iron and steel and minerals like rocks were usually decent. Wood tended to be a little dry and rubber was way too chewy. And plastics were a whole mixed bag. He'd even eaten a battery once, on a dare. It had turned out to be a good thing his ability to eat anything meant his mouth and tongue were pretty much indestructible and that he couldn't be poisoned. Battery acid would have been a hell of a thing otherwise.

This gunk? Absolutely the worst thing he had ever eaten. And that included the time Takuma had dared him to eat his dirty socks and then filmed it. It was slimy and sticky, like old gelatin. Kenta had eaten actual dirt before and this made him want to throw up. But he powered through it, taking bigger and bigger bites, until his arms and upper body were free. That gave him the leverage to start eating Suneater free.

It didn't take long. And fortunately, the Yuck-Raker was still taking selfies. This time, Suneater launched a pair of tenacles at him, wrapping him up. Yuck-Raker tried to fire more gunk at them, but Kenta got in the way, opening his mouth wide and catching it in his mouth. So gross.

After that, Suneater had the Villain wrapped up and that pretty much took the fight out of him.

"Good work," Suneater told him. And for a moment, Kenta did feel a surge of pride. Maybe some of the others could have done something—Todoriki probably could have frozen her way out and he was pretty sure Tokoyami's Frog-Shadow wouldn't have gotten stuck—but he was just as sure that several of them would have been just as stuck as they'd been.

Maybe he Quirk had its advantages after all. Situations like this were probably few and far between, but he'd take the win today.

His stomach rumbling, Kenta let out of a long and loud burp. Suneater gave him an incredulous look. "Uh, excuse me," he muttered, weakly. He was going to need a mountain of antacids.

And then maybe he'd called Kimmie.

He was feeling lucky.

Asuka Tokoyami in The Sound of Silence

Asuka's Internship with Mob-Goblin (She was a dark-skinned woman with pointed ears, whose Quirk could summon up to a half-dozen small goblin like creatures under her control.) had been quite ordinary so far. A few small-time Villains stopped, a lot of training, and even more meditation. And while that might have worked for communing with her creations, it hadn't done nearly as well for Asuka. Frog-Shadow liked to hum show-tunes during meditation.

Or rather, it had been ordinary until now. They'd been chasing a Villain with some kind of powerful energy-blast Quirk. They'd both launched their familiars at her, only for the Villain to unleash a burst of power that had shattered windows, set off car alarms, knocked them both off their feet, and ripped Frog-Shadow, who was at virtual ground zero, to pieces.

There was a wave of pain unlike anything she'd ever known and then she screamed. And screamed and screamed and screamed until her throat was raw. Her world went white and even the sound of her screaming faded away into nothingness.

She became aware of being shoved back into consciousness by Mob-Goblin shaking her. Her goblins had been wiped out too, but they weren't as connected to her as Frog-Shadow was to Asuka. "Tokoyami!" she said. "Tokoyami! Speak to me…!"

Her vision cleared and Asuka found herself staring into Mob-Golbin's face. She'd wound up on the ground, somehow. The other woman's features were marred with worry. "I…" Asuka began, her voice weak from screaming. "What… what happened?"

"Bad guy got away," Mob-Goblin said. "Took us both down. Knocked out all of my goblins and our girl. You okay?"

Was she? Asuka took a moment to take stock of herself. She appeared uninjured, at least, other than some soreness from her throat from screaming. As for Frog-Shadow…

No. It wasn't possible. But it was quiet. Too quiet…

If you're pretending to ignore me, Asuka thought, your timing is quiet terrible.

Nothing.

Frog-Shaow? Frog-Shadow? Are you there? Speak to me!

She always felt a certain degree of warmth when Frog-Shadow took refuge in her body. She could always feel the glowing pulse of her familiar within her. There was always the sense that she was not alone, a comforting reminder of just how close they were. But now…

"I," she mumbled, "I can't hear her. She's gone!"

As far back as Asuka could remember, she'd never been alone.

Oh, certainly, there was a window from when she was born (not hatched, as some people might have thought) to when her Quirk manifested shortly before her third birthday, where, while she might have been in another room, there were always adults at most a few feet away. But after Frog-Shadow appeared, there had always been another voice, another comforting presence in her life. Whether that voice was only in her head, with a warm glow inside her body, or whether that voice was external, flitting about with a life of its own and embarrassing her, it had come to be one of the defining features of her life.

Both she and her father had been endlessly studied by and interviewed by Quirk researchers and counselors over the years. They'd all ultimately thrown up their hands in frustration, unable to fully understand how their Quirks and the symbiotic relationship they shared with their familiars worked. While the number of people possessing Quirks that could create semi-independent beings had risen over the last decades, they still made up less than one percent of the kinds of Quirks out in the world.

All anyone knew was that in their cases, defining what was "alive" and what was not when it came to their Quirks was all but impossible. They were two and they were one.

Which made the silence all the more deafening.

According to doctor that Mob-Goblin had called, there was nothing wrong with her Quirk factors. But with how poorly understood living Quirks like Frog-Shadow were, there was no telling how long it might take her to return. Mob-Goblin had suggested that it might be psychological, that Frog-Shadow was simply within her and too afraid to come out.

Which was why she was trying meditation again.

She remembers playing in the park, Father watching from the bench, Dark Shadow reading the paper over his shoulder and interjecting his opinion of world news, whether it's wanted or not.

She's not quite three years old, the feathers on her head soft and downy, more fluff than feather.

Asuka feels strange all of a sudden, warm. She thinks she's just been playing too hard when, with a slight pop and a lime-green flash of light, a tadpole shaped ball of light is floating next to her, tethered to her midsection by a glowing cord.

"Hi!" the tadpole says. It's a girl, somehow she knows that.

Asuka's eyes go wide. She stares at it for several long seconds. Finally, she lets out a shrill scream, starts running as fast as her little legs can carry her. "DADDYYYYYYYYYY!"

She runs to her father, who's already leapt up from the bench in a panic, Dark Shadow flying around him like an angry bird of prey. It's only as she gets closer than she noticed the tadpole still following her, and she grabs hold of her father's leg, crying.

"It won't stop following meeeeee!"

"Hiiiiii," the light thing trills. She locks eyes with Dark Shadow, then seems to glow a little brighter with excitement Asuka can feel. "Daddy!"

"What?" Dark Shadow gasps, surprised. He gives her father a confused, guilty look. "I'm not… I mean, maybe? Am I? It's confusing!"

Her father looks over the both of them, instantly assessing the situation. Carefully, he peels her from his leg and bends down next to him. The tadpole keeps trying to hug Dark Shadow, darting this way and that to try and catch him, while Dark Shadow dodges out of the way.

"Little Bird," her father says, putting one hand on her shoulder, "I need you to take a deep breath and listen to me. Can you do that?"

Asuka takes a deep breath, trying to still her tears. "Uh-huh…" She can't help but watch the tadpole now, she's managed to corner Dark Shadow and is snuggling up against him while he looks on helplessly.

"Fumi! Help!"

But her father ignores Dark Shadow to focus on her. "Asuka," he says, looking to the light thing, then back to her, "this is your Quirk. It may seem scary, but there must be light for there to be shadows, and every shadow needs the light. This is your light and your shadow. Do you understand?"

She shakes her head. Sometimes, her father talks too funny for her to understand. But she's not crying anymore.

Her father pauses for a moment, thinking. Then, "You know how Dark Shadow is Daddy's friend?"

This, she understands. She nods. "Uh-huh."

"I think this little one is meant to be yours."

He stands up and turns to Dark Shadow and the tadpole. She's settled down in Dark Shadow's arms now. "May I?" he asks. Dark Shadow nods and passes the thing to him.

Carefully, her father bends down again, holding the light thing in the crook of one arm. He runs a hand along the tether connecting it to her. "See? Just like me and Dark Shadow."

The tadpole gazes up at them, her eyes wide. "Do you have a name, little one?" her father asks.

She gives them a confused look. "I don't know!" She seems almost proud of this.

"Maybe you'd like to her give a name, Asuka?"

Asuka looks over the little tadpole, noticing how innocent it seems now. It's just a kid, like her. "She's a tadpole… so she's a frog! Like Mommy! So… Frog-Shadow!"

"Ooooh! I like that! I like that!" the newly named Frog-Shadow claps her flippers together happily.

"It's a big responsibility," her father says. "Mommy's going to have a new baby soon, and now this little one is here too. You're going to be a big sister twice over. Can you be a good big sister, to both of them?"

Asuka nods. "I can! I will! I will, Daddy! I promise!"

"Say, Fumi," Dark Shadow says, "do you think this is because of the time we…"

"SILENCE!"

Since then, Frog-Shadow had been her constant companion, slowly growing from a tiny tadpole to a powerful frog-shaped light being. And definitely into a being with a mind of her own. The number of times Frog-Shadow had appeared of her own volition, to embarrass her or just to insert her own thoughts on things… Asuka wasn't sure whether or not having all that out in the open was better than having to just deal with Frog-Shadow's voice in her head.

But right now, she missed it more than she had ever missed anything in the world. It was as though a piece of herself had been cut out.

Thoughts of her promise returned to her. Had she been a good "big sister?" She often yelled at and argued with Frog-Shadow, tried to shame her into behaving properly. Maybe she should have been more understanding? Maybe she shouldn't have tried so hard to make her fit her idea of good behavior?

"Please," Asuka said softly, "please, come back."

She felt a warmth growing in her middle, and with a pop, Frog-Shadow appeared! She looked weak, her glow very dim, barely floating, but she was back.

"Hiiii," she said weakly.

Asuka let out an unintelligible squeal and pulled Frog-Shadow to her tightly. "Never, never worry me like that again, you!"

"Hey! Hey! I just took a break, okay! No need to get so mushy! But… okay, if you insist…"

"Love you, little sister," Asuka said.

"Love you too."

Tensei Iida in a Flight in the Limelight

Tensei fired his Jetpack, doing math in his head rapidly. If he let the falling woman's velocity equal x and his owns speed equal y and the distance between them equal z, then he needed achieve sufficient speed to match hers and then reduce it so she would not become a greasy, crimson smear on his armor if he tried to catch her.

He applied another burst of speed, then immediately cut his forward acceleration, just in time to catch her in his arms. Her screams stopped, suddenly surprised at no longer falling.

"I'm… I'm not dead?"

"Please remain calm," he said, trying to be reassuring. Their teachers and his father had always insisted that reassuring the civilians was just as important as the physical rescue itself. "This may be somewhat jarring."

Carefully, he activated his Quirk again, slow bursts from his Jetpack to continue slowing them down, before shifting to a steadily decreasing stream of thrust to bring them down to the ground.

On the ground, he was met by the Hero he was interning with, the gold and black-armored Veloci-Queen. She was able to generate a frictionless field around her body, which combined with the disks built into her Hero suit, let her move at incredible speed. The perfect fusion of science and speed, which Tensei respected. She had a highly credible record as well, which he also respected. The only blemish, it if could be called such, was her insistence that he needed to "lighten up."

Of course, his boyfriend (He admitted, he truly did love thinking that word, even if they had only been able to exchange a few texts since the start of the Internship) occasionally said the same thing.

The fact that a mid-air rescue was how he had gotten his boyfriend in the first place was not lost on him.

"Good work, Jet-Blue," Veloci-Queen said. "You all right, Miss?"

The woman Tensei had caught—he vaguely recognized her from some Instaglam pictures Takuma had shown him—climbed out of his arms. Paramedics were waiting for her. "I'm fine," she said. "Thanks to this guy!"

She was blonde, with green eyes with vertical slits. Now that he looked at her more closely, he could see that she has small scale patterns on various spots on her body. Tensei was a poor judge of female attractiveness, but if this woman—Or was it girl? He now realized she was not much older than him.—was an Instaglam content producer, she was likely attractive by those who found women attractive.

"So what caused you to fall like that?" Veloci-Queen asked. Tensei knew she had little patience for so-called "internet celebrities." She had found him watching one of Takuma's videos during a lunch break and made some unflattering remarks about the kinds of people who made such videos. He regretted not speaking up more in his boyfriend's defense, but he also felt obligated to respect his mentor.

"Oh, I was up on the roof, trying to get the perfect picture! The skyline is to die for!"

Veloci-Queen pinched the bridge of her nose. "Of all the…! Just be careful in the future. You won't always have my Intern to catch you."

"Speaking of your intern," the woman said, "I haven't said thank you! Can you take the helmet off? I want to see the face of the guy who saved me!"

Tensei looked over to Veloci-Queen, who shrugged. He reached up and snapped the seals on his helmet, lifting it off his head and holding it in the crook of his arm.

Before he could blink, the woman leaned in and placed a kiss on his cheek, snapping pictures of the whole thing with her phone.

What was the word that Takuma had used to describe when something spread through social media faster than one could track? Ah, yes… viral. He hadn't quite understood it before, but in the last few hours, Tensei had come to see that the term was very apt. Like a virus, it first infected one social media platform and then another, spreading to various digital news outlets faster than he could blink.

Instaglam Star Akebono Hebi Kisses Rescuer and U.A. Student Tensei Iida – Is Romance On the Horizon?

There were so many inaccuracies with that he did not know where to begin! One, he was already in an established relationship! Two, romances resulting from rescues were highly inappropriate! Three, one kiss did not a relationship make and it very poor journalism to assume as such! And, of course, four, he was gay!

At least his boyfriend was being understanding.

Takuma Sero: You met Ake? Super jealous. She's got, like, a bajillion followers!

That is entirely beside the point!

Why are you not scandalized by these accusations of disloyalty?

Takuma Sero: Babe. I know you're gay. I'm not exactly worried here.

Nevertheless, this is all highly inappropriate!

Takuma Sero: First time going viral?

Takuma Sero: This can't be your first time being in the news, Tensei.

Takuma Sero: Your family's super-famous.

Takuma Sero: Mom, Dad, Uncle, like, everybody.

Yes, but that has only been in association with my more renown family members!

And furthermore, this has nothing to do with my own merits!

This is merely her using me for…

What is the word I am looking for here?

Takuma Sero: For clicks?

Yes!

This is her using me for clicks!

Takuma Sero: Didn't your mom use your dad as an advertisement

the first time they met?

Yes, but that is entirely beside the point!

Takuma Sero: Babe. Relax. Ake's a bigger attention whore than me.

Takuma Sero: By this time tomorrow, she'll be going viral for something else.

Takuma Sero: And you'll be yesterday's news.

Takuma Sero: Except to me.

You are much wiser in the ways of the social media than me.

I shall defer to your expertise in the matter.

Takuma Sero: Though if you did want to go

viral for kissing someone

Takuma Sero: I could always stream it

Takuma: Sero: Joking!

I should hope so!

Though I would not object to the non-streaming part of that.

Takuma Sero: Why, Mister Iida!

Takuma Sero: Did you just say you wanted to kiss me?

Takuma Sero: I thought your sister was the expressive one!

I am fully capable of expressing my own desires!

And please do not discuss my sister.

I have no wish to think about whatever she and Toshi may get up to.

Tensei hoped Takuma was right. At the very least, he was grateful that his father was not active or interested in social media. The last thing he needed was more reminders about upholding the Iida family name. That had been impressed upon him and his sister often enough. Father simply wanted what was best, but even Tensei could admit, his line of thinking was somewhat rigid.

Of course, Aunt Fuyumi was a significant follower of gossip columns and the like. The odds that she might see this, pass it on to Uncle Tensei, who would then pass it on to Father were not insignificant.

More importantly, though, he was even more grateful his sister seemed not to have noticed this. She would never have let him hear the end of it if she did.

His phone buzzed.

Sora: You now also have a girlfriend? You really must allow me to better vet your romantic entanglements, Little Brother!

Tensei just sighed. Some things, it seemed, never changed.