Most Icely Cafe

"Alright, Midoriya-kun. She always arrives right on time. We're here five minutes early, so that's how long we've got to get this down. Remember the story we went over?"

"I still think this is bad."

"Midoriya-kun, I know how you feel about this. I really do. I just need your help this one time, please."

Izuku sighed.

Minutes Earlier...

"Tsukauchi-san, no."

"But why not?"

"Lying is bad. Especially to your mom."

"It's hardly lying, just…"

"Not telling the truth."

"Exactly!"

"That's lying, Tsukauchi-san!"

"Nhg." The officer looked pained as Izuku stared him down, judgement present in his big green eyes.

"Midoriya-kun. Please. I've never disappointed my mother before. I always scored high on exams in school, I did my best to be a good example for my sister, I even graduated from the police academy at the top of my class. This is the only area where I've ever disappointed her, and that hurts. So please, Midoriya-kun. Please, help me."

The longer that Tsukauchi-san went on, the more Izuku's stare faltered. Yeah, lying to your parents was bad, but disappointing them felt even worse. His own mother had once given him a look that made him feel like another trash that had washed up on the Junkbeach, and all he had done was say a curse that he had heard his uncle say.

He couldn't imagine how that would feel for Tsukauchi-san, who put his all into making his mother happy. That's a good thing.

His uncle and Kiryu-san didn't always do the right thing, but they always did it to help someone, and helping was good. Right?

Lying was bad, but Tsukauchi-san wanted to do it to make his mother happy, and that was good.

He needed Izuku's help for the lie to work, and even if Izuku didn't want to lie, heroes helped people.

Therefore the right thing to do would be…

"Okay. The story is, I'm your adopted son who you've been taking care of for the past month. You took me in because my parents had trouble providing for me, because I have a special condition that means I require more assistance than your average child."

His time with his uncle had left him far quicker on the uptake than anyone would ever reasonably expect him to be.

"That sound about right, dad?"

Far more sardonic, as well.

"Yeah… sss- kiddo." He looked off to the side, awkwardly.

It seemed that Tsukauchi-san was just as uncomfortable with the situation as he was.

The cafe was pretty empty, supposedly because not a ton of people were interested in a little hole-in-the-wall cafe when there was a Smile Burger right down the street.

It was because the cafe was so empty that the dishonest duo heard the bell of the cafe ring when the door opened.

Izuku, being quite the curious child, turned to the door to see who had just entered and was greeted with the sight of an older woman with greying hair tied up in a tight bun. Her face was stern and somewhat familiar, but he couldn't quite place it until he turned to his companion.

He nudged the man sitting next to him, who hadn't stopped staring embarrassedly at a portion of the floor. The man looked up before shooting out of his seat and making a beeline straight towards the woman. With a cry of 'mother' fresh from his lips, he promptly began ushering her towards the table while chattering rapidly in her ear.

Subtle, Tsukauchi-san. Real subtle.

When they reached the table, the older lady(who seemed to have little trouble keeping up with her son's bombardment of words, if her prompt responses were any indication) noticed the young freckled boy sat across from her.

Turning to her son, who was sliding into his seat beside the young boy, she asked, "And who might this be, Masa-chan?"

"Mom, I'm almost thirty years old. Could you please not use the same nickname for me that you made up when I was two?"

The older Tsukauchi smiled and said, "I'm waiting."

The good son, knowing from years of pleading that he would be unable to convince his mother to let that particular issue drop, sighed and turned his attention to the previously asked question.

"Mom, this is Izuku. My s-." He stopped suddenly as if he lost his voice.

He cleared his throat, "Ahem. My suuuh-"

"S-s-s-s"

"Masa-chan?"

"My s-soo-oor."

This is… really sad.

Izuku was beginning to suffer from second-hand embarrassment and from the look of it, Tsuckauchi-san's mother was beginning to catch onto the farce.

Not like it's all that hard, what with Tsukauchi-san malfunctioning and all.

Deciding to save the lie before it died upon birth, Izuku stepped in quickly.

Tugging on the drowning man's sleeve, he waited for him to turn his way before he made his move.

"Tou-san? Is this my… Obaachan?"

His question caught two people off-guard.

"W-what? M-Masa-chan?"

Tsukauchi-san, it's up to you now. Please don't mess it up.

Part of being a hero was helping others save themselves, wasn't it?

And it seemed like Tsukauchi-san understood that, as well.

Giving the boy a small smile, he put a hand on his shoulder, looked the older woman in the eye and answered, "That's right, Izuku. That's your obaachan."

Addressing his mother now, he said, "Mom, meet Izuku. Your grandson."

"M-my-my-my-"

"I wanted to introduce you earlier, but he's just gotten used to being around new people and I didn't want to overload him."

It was as if a switch had been flipped.

Tsukauchi-san just went about selling his lie with all of his heart; a far cry from the fumbling he'd displayed mere moments before.

A fond smile on his face, he heaped praise upon praise onto his (fake) son.

All the while, and Izuku did assume that it might've just been the lighting, a silver ring lit up around the man's pupils, occasionally flashing gold.

Minutes later, after receiving food and drink(coffee for the adults, fruit tea for Izuku) Tsukauchi-san excused himself to head to the bathroom, leaving Izuku alone at the table with his 'grandmother'.

The older woman stared at him from across the table.

He stared back.

Stare.

Stare.

Staare.

Staaare.

Tsukauchi-san sure was taking a long time to get back to the table.

"Izuku-kun."

"Yes, Obaachan?'

"Thank you."

"Huh? For what?"

"Helping my son with his lie, of course."

Izuku's blood ran cold, if he wasn't making a conscious effort to look ignorant of any wrongdoing, he was sure his eyes would've widened to the size of saucers.

"I've got no idea what you're talking about, Obaachan."

"I think I should tell you a little something about Masa-chan's quirk."

"Tsu- Otou-san's… quirk?"

"Yes, his quirk. It's called 'Judge Eyes'. Anytime he's speaking with someone, he can see what they're saying and determine if they're telling the truth or not by examining their statements. Their tone, word choice, even the speed at which they speak. A rather useful quirk for police work, I'd say."

Rather useful would be a gross understatement. A quirk like that sounded invaluable as a police officer.

"There are several major drawbacks, however."

Of course.

"One, if the person that Masa-chan is speaking to is lying, but either doesn't know that what they're saying is a lie or believes that lie to be true, it will be perceived as a truth by Masa-chan's quirk."

Well, that made sense. Superpower or not, someone can't really say you're lying if even you don't know you are.

"Two, he can only listen and examine the statement of two people at a time. If he were to try and listen to more than that, the statements would become jumbled and he'd be left with a massive headache."

Again, another reasonable weakness. For the life of him, though, he couldn't possibly understand where she was going with this.

"And three, his quirk is always activated. Anytime he hears a statement, his eyes will flash gold for truth or silver for a lie, without his knowledge if he's not focusing… even for his own statements."

Oh then that's… oh.

Of course she figured out they were lying. If he noticed the ring of silver around the man's eyes, even if he didn't know what it meant, it would be impossible for his mother not to.

If he felt bad for telling the lie before, he felt even for being caught in it.

He opened his mouth, not quite sure if he was about to justify what he did or apologize for being complicit in it.

"I-"

"But even so, thank you."

Huh?

"I'm willing to guess that my son did this because he believed that I was disappointed in him. Is that right?"

Izuku nodded.

The mother sighed, "I'm not. Really, I'm not. He and his sister are my world. They've always made me happy, and I'd like to think I've made them happy as well as they grew up, even if I couldn't always be the fun parent. But I won't always be around, and I want them to, one day, feel the same joy that I felt with them. Mako-chan's always been good with people, so I don't worry that she'll settle down one day when she's older, but Masa-chan's always been a bit of a loner."

"Single, 29, and have no friends my age."

Yeah, that sounds about right.

"But… I think that if he made a little friend like you, he'll be completely fine."

The kind older woman smiled and took a sip of her coffee before turning back to Izuku, "And so Izuku-kun, I have two requests, if you'd care to hear them."

Izuku nodded again.

"Well first, I'd very much appreciate it if you'd keep getting along with Masa-chan. He's always been a fine boy, but I feel that he could use a good friend, even if you are quite a bit younger than he is."

A nod. He liked Tsukauchi-san, so as long as the older man would like him around, he'd stay.

"Okay, thank you. And second… could you call me 'Obaachan' one last time?"

As he saw Tsukauchi-san coming back from the bathroom, Izuku gave his 'grandmother' a smile.

"Okay... Obaachan."

Substories 2

The Good Son- END

Minutes after Izuku bid goodbye to both Tsukauchi-san's mother, who had said something about meeting up with some friends in the area, and Tsukauchi-san, who was extremely grateful for Izuku's help, the boy noticed that it was getting a bit too late to go play in the park and still be able to get any significant amount of work done at the Junkbeach.

So, he decided to forgo the former and move onto his 'civic duty' as his uncle would call it. He had called it 'Hero Training' when they were younger, but after Izuku became acquainted with his uncle's right-hand man Nishida, he understood that what he was doing was essentially community service.

Granted, he was alright with that. Nothing wrong with doing something good for the neighborhood and he was getting stronger too, so that was nice.

But Kiryu-san always said to call a spade a spade, so that's what he would do.

But I seem to have gotten off topic, this humble narrator apologizes.

Ahem...

It took a good ten minutes for Izuku to make his way to the Junkbeach and when he got there, he was met with an unexpected sight.

"...Jiji?"

Sorry this so late... and unfinished. Part 3 will be out really soon, I promise. My immune system just decided to go brrr this past week.

Anyways, if you guys like the substories or have any ideas for some, please tell me. I'm always open to stuff like that.