ALRIGHT BOYS we got first chapter with some cast members! I am now announcing three things!
1. ALL CLASS 0 STARTING PLACEMENTS ARE CLOSED. If you send a kid for Class 0, they will be introduced later on in the story in a monster of the week formula after the USJ Arc! So if your kid isn't among the twelve you see next chapter, DON'T PANIC!
2. AFTER THE 10TH OF DECEMBER, I WILL ONLY ACCEPT VILLAIN/VIGILANTE SUBMISSIONS. I can't fill the class with more than 24 students, after all, and even that is pushing it for a standard UA class! So remember, after the 10th of December at 12AM AEST, ANY CLASS 0 SUBMISSIONS WILL BE TOLD TO BE CHANGED TO VILLAIN PATH AS EITHER A VIGILANTE OR "VILLAIN". Remember, the kids being classed as villains doesn't mean they're actually on the evil side! Just that they rejected the new lifestyle they'd been forced into or struggled to adjust to Deku's era!
3. THE FOLLOWING ASSIGNED BUDDIES AT UA ARE NO LONGER FREE, AND ANY SUBMISSIONS SENT WITH THEM LISTED AFTER THIS UPDATE WILL BE FORCED TO CHANGE: Yaoyorozu Momo, Tenya Iida, Todoroki Shouto, Todoroki Yayoi, Koda Koji, Midoriya Izuku, Shiozaki Ibara, Hagakure Tooru, Bakugou Katsuki, Shoji Mezo, Asui Tsuyu, Kirishima Eijirou, Ashido Mina. IF YOU SENT YOUR OC BEFORE THIS UPDATE, THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO YOU.
Thank y'all, hope you enjoy the glimpses at some submissions in this chapter, and I'll see you all after the 17th!
III.
Tsukauchi Naomasa was almost proud of the team for gathering so many displaced teenagers in such a short period of time. Sure, suspicions against Jijiwa Youdou were high, even for Naomasa, but the man was detailed and spared no information when it came to describing the kids he wanted them to find.
The small hospital built into U.A. Hero Academy's already existing nursing area was specially outfitted with cameras and microphones for Naomasa to check each room, almost habitually, and for the first time in two weeks, Takose Sumito and Jijiwa Youdou were permitted to leave their house arrest to peek at the children who were connected to IV drips and properly tended to for already existing wounds. Recovery Girl was working overtime with this handful, and his entire force was assigned in pairs to each room to oversee the children and how they would react. Some took interest in phones and the machines they were hooked up to—confirming Youdou was telling the truth about the lack of technology or even medicine in the very distant future—while others were apprehensive and shifty, withdrawing in on themselves and watching the officers like hawks.
In the teaching lounge, where the trio sat with Cathleen and a very disgruntled Eraser Head, they watched and waited for the right ones to approach first. Looker was on her way, having apparently slept in after working so hard to trace the Quirks of Youdou and Sumito, but from the sounds of things, finding origins for those two had been difficult.
Aizawa Shouta was in his usual hero costume, and Sumito busied themselves with investigating his capture tape and comparing it to their tentacles. A lot of testing and questioning had been done with Sumito about the nature of their Quirk, a lot of the theories proposed by Nezu being on the money. Sumito's skin was able to change colours to match things they touched despite their colourblindness, and the tentacles they grew could be altered to any length or thickness they desired. More interestingly, Naomasa found, was that layered over their arteries were also veins of ink that Sumito could expel from their pores at will. Such ink had trapped countless civilians in place when Sumito had activated that aspect of their Quirk by accident, and with some snooping, it was discovered that Sumito could control the density of the ink and how sticky it was.
They were a walking molasses flood waiting to happen.
"With Star and Stripe here as well, we should be able to stop any leaks if any of them try to run," Naomasa mumbled as they watched the monitors. There were ten monitors in front of them, small screens with the focus squarely on each teenager in their respective private room.
Cathleen nodded in agreement, hands planted on her hips. "I've studied the names and descriptions of each child. I've imposed a rule on the building, so there should be plenty of time for you to disable their Quirks, Eraser."
Shouta looked at her with tired eyes.
"Why are you here, again?"
"I'm the P.E. teacher, of course!"
He let out a defeated sigh. It was clearly not what he meant by the question.
Sumito gave the capture tape a slight tug and then whispered to Youdou, "This would be good for security at home."
"Get your licence and we'll see about getting some for you," Shouta cut in. Youdou didn't even have a chance to say much, politely smiling as he watched the other Pro Hero take the capture tape away from the teen.
On the ten screens in front of them, it was hard to pick which teen would be the best to look into first. But Naomasa rubbed his chin, thoughtful, as he looked at the calmer children among the rest of the crowd. Chikara Sen had come willingly, as had the boy they now knew was Satoukibi Shusa, but there was only a matter of time before they got anxious and tried to leave.
Naomasa turned in his chair and stood up.
"Jijiwa-san, you're with me. Sumito-kun, you go with—"
"I am—" A hulking figure burst through the door, stunning them all with the suddenness of the arrival. All Might was halfway through the doorway, dressed to the nines in his costume, and Shouta was notably the most displeased about his arrival. "—coming through the door!"
Sumito was on their feet, eyes wide and a stunned expression on their face. They jumped around Youdou and tugged on Cathleen's costume incessantly, clearly excited by the arrival of the first taste of Pro Heroes they'd ever been exposed to.
"Cathy-san! It's the little man in the phone!" they babbled. "He's here!"
All Might cocked his head curiously. Cathleen, similarly starstruck, was just as happy to see him.
"All Might!" she greeted loudly. "You're actually here!"
It all devolved into pleasantries with All Might as Naomasa sucked in a deep, steeling breath. They would have plenty of time for this later. He cleared his throat as All Might slowly began to recognise who Cathleen was—not just as a Pro Hero, but as someone he'd once personally saved in the past—and the room fell silent under Naomasa's authority.
"As I was saying," he went on. "Sumito-kun, you can go with Star. A familiar face will help them relax while we question them."
Sumito nodded, determined but nervous, and stepped away from All Might for a moment to add something else.
"Please, um… Don't get upset with some of the things we had to do," they asked Naomasa. Naomasa crossed his arms over his chest, prompting them to continue. Sumito's skin fluctuated between pink and white randomly. "We didn't have… anyone. Not like you all do with police and Pro Heroes. Without Jiji, a lot of us would be dead… Maybe worse…"
Cathleen patted Sumito on the shoulder reassuringly.
"You were already pardoned for that stuff, kiddo," she said with a wink. "Just don't do it here and you won't get in trouble."
Sumito nodded once.
Naomasa looked to All Might as Youdou walked over to his side. "All Might, you stay with Eraser Head and watch for any trying to make a run for it. Star's amped the security, but you two should be the most ideal to catch anyone in this scenario."
Naomasa's walkie sounded out. Looker's voice came through, uncertain, and they all listened to the woman as she insisted she was just around the corner. Naomasa gestured for everyone to stay put, and save for Sumito, all of the adults gave varying responses about having to wait even longer to speak with the teens.
Looker burst through the same door All Might had not even five minutes later. Her space-themed, sailor scout outfit and blue visor were hard to miss compared to the Pro Heroes with a more traditional look to their costumes, even if Eraser Head wasn't in line with the "traditional" theme. She was out of breath, wheezing almost, and she clapped her hands together tightly as though apologising before she managed to gather enough air to speak.
"P—Please forgive my tardiness!" she stammered. "I got so lost with Sumito-san and Youdou-san's Quirks, so I checked some other ones given as samples to see if maybe my Quirk was acting up, but—"
"It's okay, Looker—"
She cut Naomasa off with an accusatory finger pointed at Shouta.
"I saw a link! One of these kids is yours! N—Not yours-yours, like a father and child, but—" Looker held up her other hand, a small device projecting a screen for them to view, and it showed a root system of people connected to Shouta in his family tree with contributing Quirks that led to his own. Contrary to what everyone, even Shouta himself believed, a single line with frays riddled throughout it pointed downwards, indicating someone with a Quirk that came from Shouta himself at some point was out there.
Youdou let out a small, "Ah."
All eyes were on him in an instant.
"Start talking, old timer," Shouta seethed.
"W—Well… I never bothered to ask her how it was spelled, so I assumed it was just… A different name?" Youdou was sweating bullets as he felt the pressure on his shoulders. "Her Quirk isn't even the same as yours, either."
"No matter!" With a dramatic flourish, Looker grabbed the line from the projection and flicked it downwards. A soft blue light leading out of the room from her hand, like yarn in a labyrinth, gave the Pro Heroes pause as they looked to Naomasa for approval. "I think this is a prime opportunity to build a connection with one of these kids and ease them into their new world!"
Looker was enthusiastic, Naomasa would give her that much.
He sighed again and waved a hand dismissively. "Hold off on interviews for the time being and look into any family lines with Looker. Eraser, why don't you kickstart us with the touching family reunions?"
Shouta ground his teeth together as he followed Looker. There was no way this was possible, he thought as he walked; it was tough enough to accept that One Giant Leap was a time traveller, able to bring so many people to this era with him, but to believe he would have a descendant among them?
This was too exhausting.
"You're positive your Quirk isn't acting up?" he asked Looker again. She puffed out her cheeks, displeased by the constant questioning, and waved the thread of light in her hand incessantly. Half of it was pointed right at Shouta, and he knew if he reached out to touch it, it would wrap around his hand and confirm that the source came from himself.
"My Quirk is perfectly fine!" Looker insisted. "I expected you to be more open to this kind of situation, Eraser! You work in the underground and unorthodox missions all the time!"
"Hard to believe when I have no siblings, cousins, or even children of my own."
She whirled on her heel and stopped walking, white glove jabbing a finger in his face. "Thirty is not too old to start a family!"
Shouta let out a grumble.
"Besides, I think you're just worried." Looker gave him a helpful smile. "You only signed up to handle students, not descendants displaced through time. I don't think anyone is going to be ready for it. But I think you're going to do great!"
"Oh?" Shouta walked around her, hands in his pockets, and peeked at the rooms ahead of them. Each heavily guarded hospital room door, reinforced with New Order's effects, didn't give much of a view inside each room. "You sound like Ms. Joke."
Looker flushed a deep red and ran after him, embarrassed. "I'm not kidding around! Why are you such a bully!"
They passed by one room, and Looker let out a short sound of alarm. When Shouta turned his head to see what was wrong, he was treated to the sight of the blue light reaching for the door they'd passed.
Shouta let out a heavy sigh. Even the nameplate over the door said Aizawa.
"Think of it as meeting a student for the first time," Looker tried to reassure him. But she was quick to take the words back, adding, "Wait, no, don't do that! I've heard the horror stories with you as a homeroom teacher."
"I can very easily walk out of this, Looker."
She huffed her cheeks out again, but was silent. Finally, some peace and quiet, Shouta thought. Even if it wouldn't last long thanks to the likely stressed teen on the other side of the door, he was at least granted a brief moment of respite to clear his mind.
Just like a student, huh? If only things were that simple. The elephants in the room were large and numerous. There was too much to ignore about the situation overall.
Looker was peering at the nameplate, and she gave a soft laugh as she waited for Shouta.
"What?" he deadpanned.
"Oh! Nothing. It's just…" She pointed to the nameplate. "She has the same name as my grandmother. On my mom's side, I mean. It sounds kinda cute with Aizawa attached to it."
He let out a grunt and slid open the door. He was already sick of this nonsense.
The two officers currently in the room stood at attention when Shouta and his unwanted tagalong entered. The room was as quiet as he could hope, no signs of stress or resistance to be found, and one of the officers walked over to them as Looker shut the door behind her.
"Eraser Head, we didn't expect you," she said. "Sekinoyama-san—Looker. She said she was on her way over, but she didn't say you were coming too."
"Tsukauchi's decision," Shota drawled. He gave a single glance to the teen on the bed on the other side of the room. She wasn't hooked up to any machines or even an IV drip, instead sitting on top of the blankets with her legs crossed and a large book in her hands. Narrow hazel eyes were watching him for the barest of moments before her attention was turned back to the book, and she licked her fingers to turn a page.
Looker approached the teen with a smile, still holding the thread that tried to reach for both Shota and the dark-skinned girl.
"Hiya!" she chirped. "I'm Looker, but that's just my hero name. You can call me Sekinoyama Sakuji, if you want!"
The teen was quiet as she nodded in greeting. Looker was already starting to sweat bullets at the lack of verbal reply to her peppy greeting.
Shota turned his attention back to the officer next to him.
"She's been cooperative?"
"Ah, yes. She even explained how her Quirk functions. Recovery Girl said it wasn't necessary to keep her under further medical care like some of the others."
"And?" Shouta furrowed his brows. "Is it a nullification Quirk?"
The officer looked back at her colleague with a nervous expression. Even Looker, who already knew the Quirk thanks to the thread she followed the genealogy from, was reluctant to answer Shouta's question.
The teen didn't hesitate, though.
"Youdou-san named it Body Modifier," she spoke up. Shouta turned to face her, still dubious and distant, and she was equally guarded in return. "My molecular structure is mine to modify as I see fit, but within reason, of course."
Shouta inclined his head towards her. "Such as?"
The teen pursed her lips and, very deliberately, flicked her finger over the edge of the page of the book. A small papercut was likely left behind, and she held up the slowly bleeding finger as an example.
"Switching off pain receptors. Self healing." The cut, as she said it, began to close up. She wiped her finger with a tissue from beside her bed, and once the blood was gone it was almost impossible to tell she'd been cut at all. "Nothing fancy."
Shouta sucked in a deep breath and gave Looker a hard stare. The blue-haired woman bristled, shaking the hand holding the thread, and not for the first time she snapped at Shouta, "It's never a one to one handover and you know it! Imagine all the outside factors and diluting!"
The officers laughed nervously among themselves as Shouta groaned again. She was such a pain in the ass, with all these absolutes. So, what? Just because this kid had the name Aizawa, they were related? Hell, he might as well be related to Aizawa Chiyo while he was at it, in that case. But try as he might to call Looker a hack and doubt her capabilities, she was the Pro Hero best known for her perfect tracking of family lines and Quirks through the registry when villains disappeared from the spotlight. Her debut as a Pro Hero had been behind the scenes with the police commission, after all, and despite her knockoff Sailor Scout outfit, she wasn't a flashy hero by any means.
Looker was annoyingly earnest and confident in her Quirk.
Shouta stepped forward and grumbled to himself. Now that he could get a better look at the teen, there really was little to no resemblance between them. Sure, she looked Asian and had a Japanese surname, but there was undoubtedly something else mixed in that she leaned more towards. Dark-skinned with a smattering of freckles over her cheeks, her frizzy brown hair reaching her mid-back, and even her hazel eyes were different from Shouta's own. Frankly, the only thing they had in common was, as the kids would say, a resting bitch face.
He rolled his eyes privately and huffed through his nose. Might as well get this over with.
"You already know who Looker is," he said lamely. "I'm Eraser Head. But you can call me Aizawa Shouta."
The teen looked him up and down quickly. He almost felt offended.
"Aizawa Bonita. Nita is preferred."
It seemed Nita was thinking the same thing as Shouta—the likelihood of them actually being related, even with Looker's Quirk confirming the fact.
Looker jumped between them, peppy as usual, and chirped, "Your name is so cute, Nita-chan! Are you part-Latin American?"
Nita let out a slow breath and shut her book. Shouta could see the title, something relating to true crime and law, and it was obvious she wanted to get back to reading it rather than make small talk over this awkward situation.
"Brazilian. My mother's side of the family was a community who immigrated before Japan became isolated. Gao—the oldest of us—he wasn't even born when the community was trapped in the country."
"I see! I just thought it was so neat," Looker laughed. "My grandma had the same name. But she was from Portugal."
"I see."
Awkward silence. Looker was sweating bullets again.
"I—I'll let you two get to know each other a little more!" Looker announced a bit too loudly. "I have other kiddos to check in on! But I hope you both get along!"
The thread vanished as she scurried out of the room, red-faced and awkward. Shouta watched, dead-eyed, as she slid the door shut behind her and the room fell into silence once again.
The police officers sat in their seats quietly. Nita opened her book again, but hesitated to continue reading.
"Pro Heroes," she said, "do jobs pertaining to law and order, right?"
Shouta shifted on his feet. "Some are flashier than others."
"May I… hear about some of your cases?"
He sucked in a deep breath and trudged on over to the chair beside her bed. It wasn't the worst he could be asked, especially compared to the loaded question of parenthood and guidance. Maybe he should take Looker's advice and treat this as educating a student. Nita seemed eager to learn, anyway.
He ran a hand through his hair and mentally sifted through some of his cases. Finally, he drawled, "When I was around your age I did get involved in some underground work. We'll start there."
"Me? Me?" Star and Stripe jumped up and down in the spot as Looker held a strand of light taken from her. The screen on her wrist shoved Cathleen's name as a source, her sister beside her, and a line descending from the two of them towards the child whose room they were outside of. "I got one?"
Sumito peeked around Cathleen with wide eyes, curious and excited. This was a relieving contrast to Eraser Head's reaction, Looker had informed her, and Cathleen was just too jazzed to care. She had a descendant! Right here! One of her's! This was a little survivor! She was so fucking proud!
Sumito peeked at the door Looker had led them to, namely the nameplate, and before either adult even opened the door, they spoke up, "That makes sense, actually."
Cathleen whirled around and knelt down to face Sumito directly. "Yes? Tell me!"
"Kanee-chan was always good with words," Sumito said, startled. They took a slight step back, but didn't outright recoil. The time spent with Cathleen since their introductions had endeared the woman to them, after all. It helped that Youdou had put a good word in for Cathleen as well. "Her Quirk made her really… verbose, I guess. And the thing you did to the building—she was able to do something like that too."
Cathleen practically vibrated enough to emit a humming sound.
Looker shifted on her feet, still holding the light, and pursed her lips. "Then," she said, "if I have somewhere else to go next, you'll be okay explaining things to this one?"
"Absolutely!" Cathleen jumped to her feet again and made a grabbing motion at the thread. "I'll be completely candid and Sumito will help me out!"
Looker seemed almost conflicted. Perhaps Cathleen's reaction was a bit too different from Eraser Head's. But in the end, she placed the thread of light in Cathleen's hand and made her wrap her fingers around it.
"If anyone other than your Quik family tree touches it, it'll vanish," Looker explained. "So don't give it away carelessly."
"I'll treasure it with my life!"
"Ah, you don't have to go that far, Star…"
Cathleen didn't hear her. With her free hand and a newfound motivation in her step, she slammed open the door to the room. Sumito scurried after her, meekly calling, "Cathy-san!" as they left Looker behind.
She wasn't sure what to expect when looking at her descendant, but she could see the resemblance immediately—not just in appearance, but in build as well. While Cathleen's hair was dyed blonde to match All Might's, the exact shade still matched the bulky teen laying on her bed in the room. Just wavy enough to almost be the same texture, reaching her mid-back, and with the lightest of reds at the tips of her hair being the only deviation. Cerulean eyes flicked over to them, away from the window she'd been staring out of, and rather than linger on Cathleen for long, the statuesque teen spotted Sumito and sucked in a deep breath.
"Su," she mumbled. Sumito peeked around Cathleen, sheepish, and waved quietly at the blonde teen.
The teen jumped out of the bed and crossed the room in quick strides, uncaring that she knocked over the machines she'd been connected to. Cathleen looked between the two, eyes wide and a big smile on her face, and didn't do anything to stop the blonde as she grabbed Sumito and pulled them into a tight hug. Sumito, just as eager to hug her back, even wrapped some tentacles around her alongside their arms.
The teen's sudden movement had startled the officers in the room, but Cathleen waved them down and nodded for them to leave the room for a moment. She had this covered, she said with her smile, and no one was getting past her.
Moments of silence passed and Cathleen looked down at the strand as her body slowly relaxed, mellowing out some to keep from coming off as too intense. Yes, yes, she was excited—but excitement might be too much, like Looker had worried. This was her family, but she couldn't afford to scare family away. Even Cathleen's little sister had her moments of needing breaks from Cathy's larger than life attitude, a stark contrast from her old, fearful self when they were children.
Sumito finally pulled back after patting the blonde's back a few times, and they sucked in a deep breath as their face turned a very nervous pink. How small they looked next to the blonde and Cathleen, she thought endearingly. She could see why this girl treasured them so much, handling them like something precious.
"Kanee-chan, have you seen Jiji yet?" they asked.
"Youdou-senpai?" The blonde furrowed her brows. "Not yet. But I have a vague idea of what's happened."
Sumito nodded. "We're a long way away from our time. He made sure. And we're in the era of the strongest hero, so we'll be safe from now on. They'll protect us."
The blonde pursed her lips. She let out a soft huff and patted Sumito's head.
"I'll be the judge of that," she said to them, and Cathleen felt her excitement build up again. A studious one! Steadfast, too! She liked the spunk on this kid!
And then the blonde looked at Cathleen, wary and eyes narrowing to slits.
"Su, who's this?" she asked, voice low.
Cathleen planted her fists on her hips, still holding the light. The blonde glanced at the strand as it reached for her feebly.
"Star and Stripe, No. 1 Pro Hero of the US of A!" Cathleen boasted. "I'll be your PE teacher once you start classes! And—" She held up the strand. "—I'm your very distant relative!"
Sumito quickly whispered, "Star and Stripe isn't her real name. I call her Cathy-san."
"Hm." The single grunt the blonde let out was unimpressed. The expression on her face easily told Cathleen that her booming confidence was a little off putting.
"Kinji Kaminaga," she said curtly to the woman. "Kinji-san is fine."
Cathleen's excitement came to a halt. Ah, was she too much? She was probably too much.
"Sumito tells me your Quirk is similar to mine! I'm very impressed!"
Kaminaga's expression soured even more. And when Cathleen opened her mouth again to continue speaking, the blonde turned away from her and focused entirely on Sumito. Was she being ignored? Star and Stripe? This hadn't happened in a long time. Oh, this was awkward.
Sumito thought it was awkward too. They glanced quickly between the two blondes, panicked almost, and meekly tried, "Kanee-chan, we can't be rude…"
"Youdou-senpai's made sure they're treating you right, yes?" Kaminaga said instead, brushing off the other teen's concern. "He said you need a lot of amino acids for your ink. They have those here?" Two large hands reached up and pinched Sumito's newly plumpened cheeks. "You put on a lot of weight. At least they're feeding you right."
"Kah-nay—" Sumito tried. Kaminaga picked them up and carried them nonchalantly to the bed, setting them down on the edge before climbing back up herself.
"So whereabouts is this area? I imagine Youdou-senpai wasn't able to take a large area of people."
Cathleen stood awkwardly in the middle of the room. She still smiled, but there was nothing going on behind those eyes as she held the thread, still weakly reaching for Kaminaga.
"I haven't seen this much sunlight in a long while, either. Pollution mustn't be too bad, or else we'd be seeing Chihaya's flames all over the place. Have they found him yet? I haven't been able to overrule whatever they've done to the room with my Quirk."
Ah! A chance!
"That was my Quirk—" Cathleen began. But Kaminaga just spoke louder to drown her out.
"This room is so cramped, too. They let you go outside yet? How many people are there?"
Was this rejection? This felt like rejection.
Sumito's whole body and hair had turned a navy blue colour, the teen shrinking on themselves as they answered Kaminaga's questions truthfully. Every so often Kaminaga would ask a question about how they handled it all, and Cathleen could see this wouldn't lead anywhere for herself.
She crossed her arms over her chest and nodded to herself, humming thoughtfully. Alright, she thought; if her descendant wasn't a fan of her, then she couldn't help that. But Star and Stripe never backed down from a challenge, no matter what, and this was the biggest challenge she would have to face in her career so far. Politics and villains were one thing, but to earn the adoration and approval of her own descendant, even with no clue as to how long she had until she continued her own family line to produce a stunner like Kaminaga?
Cathleen left the room and shut the door quietly behind her. She let the thread go, and it fizzled out completely in midair.
She could pull this off.
This was a sight to behold: A descendant of Vlad King himself testing out someone else's glasses so he could see them all properly.
Sekijiro had his arms crossed over his chest, a scowl ever present on his face. Their entire half of the room was awkward, with Youdou and Noamasa having arrived before Sekijiro had with Looker, and it was no secret how many Pro Heroes in Japan that weren't All Might resented Youdou right now. Vlad King, also known as Kan Sekijiro, was one of them, even if Sekijiro had enjoyed himself during the New Year's broadcast where Youdou demonstrated his Quirk. Simply getting over all of these lies and this massive bombshell of a truth, on top of rushing to find almost a hundred people whose Quirks were beyond their comprehension, was hard for any of them. Even Naomasa, as much as he tried to make a show of being impartial.
"How's that?" the nurse asked. He took a step back from the boy on the bed—Hai Suiyoubi, a name nowhere close to Sekijiro's own—and held his hands up in a voila motion. "We measure how severe vision loss is with machines you can look into, and they put slides of glass in front of your eyes to see if it worsens or improves your sight. These glasses are for people with 20/40 vision, but they don't have to look like this."
Suiyoubi, a young man with his black hair in a neat bowl cut and his squinted eyes adjusting somewhat to the view his borrowed glasses gave, looked around the room with an almost awed expression.
"This is much better," he said, and when he looked down at his arm and the IV drip injected into it, he furrowed his brows as he began to reach for it.
Sekijiro loudly commanded, "Don't touch that."
Suiyoubi was startled as he finally seemed to notice the four adults on the other side of the room. While Naomasa and Sekijiro were stern as they watched the boy slowly adjust to the sight of them, it was obvious that Youdou and Looker were more appealing as sources of comfort.
Looker held the thread that linked the boy and Vlad King as relatives, however distant in the future that may be, and Youdou stepped forward with a soft smile on his tired features.
"I'm happy to see you, Suiyoubi-kun," he greeted. As though recognising him through voice alone, Suiyoubi sucked in a short breath and began to tear up.
"Youdou-san," he said. And then, just as touched, "You look so old."
Looker snorted a laugh and clamped her hand on her face. Naomasa coughed into his fist, and Sekijiro raised his brows. The filter on this kid was nonexistent.
Youdou, to his credit, laughed a little. "I'm almost fifty. I think I look good for my age."
Suiyoubi lowered his gaze again, still tearing up. It didn't look like relief, Sekijiro thought as he watched silently again. It looked like guilt, almost, and he looked at the IV again. At least this time he didn't touch it.
"This is to deliver fluids to your bloodstream," the nurse told him. "It's a solution called saline. It's a mix of various ingredients and sterile water to boost electrolytes and keep you healthy, even if you can't eat anything."
Suiyoubi let out a thoughtful sound. He left the drip alone after that, no longer bothered by it now that he could see and understand it. The kid at least seemed to be a fast learner, absorbing the knowledge the nurse imparted with ease and nodding along like he understood it all.
Looker stepped forward with the thread, and Sekijiro didn't make any motion to comment on it. He'd wait and see how this played out, especially if the kid's calmness would come to an abrupt stop over all of this. Time travel was stressful enough, but more shocking news on top of displacement? Yeah, recipe for disaster right there.
The thread was held out to Suiyoubi, and Looker smiled politely at him. "Here, Suiyoubi-kun. This is a thread that will respond to you."
Suiyoubi awkwardly adjusted the glasses on his face, still ill-fitted for the vision he needed corrected, and reached out to take the thread.
"Your Quirk?" he asked.
"That's right. My Quirk tracks the genealogy of Quirks through family lines. I found one of your ancestors, and it'll only respond to those in the family line, no matter how distant."
Suiyoubi took the thread, and as he looked it over in his hands, he said, "You'd be able to track down anyone with a Quirk like this."
"That's how I use it, yes! We don't have a lot of work that utilises tracking, but the threads always point in the direction of those connected to the Quirk I sourced it from. And if there's multiple members in the family tree that might muddy the waters, I can narrow the thread's search to one specific person." She beamed at him. "I've actually been handling a lot of kidnapping cases lately. Most children are hard to find after the first forty-eight hours of abduction, but I'll work around the clock to find them!"
Suiyoubi furrowed his brows. "Around… the clock?"
"Ah, she means as long as she needs to with minimal rest and distraction," Youdou told him. Suiyoubi nodded in understanding again.
"Is this my thread?" he asked Looker.
Looker giggled. "Actually, it's a thread of someone in this room. But it can be yours as well. If someone outside of the family line touches the thread, it vanishes—and since you're holding it, you're in the same boat as the person I sourced it from."
Suiyoubi looked up from the thread, finally acknowledging the other adults in the room. He seemed almost starstruck by the idea of having family right in front of him. Sekijiro could feel himself falter a little. Come to think of it, the way Youdou described everything to Naomasa in the interviews was bleak. Almost none of the kids he described taking care of had any parents to speak of. Hell, Sekijiro thought, the kid in the room next to Suiyoubi was a feral, wild animal by the time Youdou had found him, apparently.
Was there much of a point in beating around the bush, he thought? He wasn't outright adopting the kid, and Sekijiro definitely didn't have plans to have any kids yet, but there was nothing wrong with wanting to have a mentor relationship with him. Who knew? Maybe the kid had a blood-related Quirk like him, and Sekijiro could guide him on how to use it with ease. Or maybe it was something different, and Vlad King could use his connections to find the right mentor for the kid.
Okay, he was starting to see what Youdou had meant about wanting to give the kids a chance. If Project Zero was to go smoothly, these kids had to be treated as though they were already enrolled at UA. Their classroom was already built and the schedules they'd attend in tandem with 1-A and 1-B were already established; really, all that was left was outright treating them as their wards like the others who had been through the entrance exam.
So Sekijiro stepped forward, arms still crossed over his chest. He saw the thread in Suiyoubi's hand move in his direction, reaching for him, and Suiyoubi let it go to see where it went. The thread fluttered through the air, towards Sekijiro, and he outstretched one hand to let it land on his palm. When he grabbed onto it, it didn't vanish.
"The source would be me," Sekijiro informed him.
Suiyoubi looked him up and down, but nodded as he spoke. "We look nothing alike."
Sekijiro laughed once, smirking. "We'll bulk you up with some training soon enough."
The teen shifted uncomfortably in his bed. He nodded again, agreeing with Sekijiro's statement, but he still seemed a little hesitant as he looked back at Youdou. The middle-aged man caught on quickly, and he gave Suiyoubi a kind smile.
"What's wrong, kiddo? Everyone else will be here with you too."
"That's the problem."
Youdou's brows rose. And then he let out a short breath, realising what the teen meant. Sekijiro let the thread go, and it vanished with another flutter.
"What's the issue?" he asked. Youdou looked at him, hesitating for a brief second, and Suiyoubi took that second to reply himself.
"A couple of months ago, I attacked some of the kids in Youdou-san's group," he explained. "It was for my own survival—they were strangers I'd never seen before, wandering too close to a place I'd secured for myself to rest. I'm good at hiding, but they… noticed me. And I admit, I panicked and went too far. It wasn't until someone else from Youdou-san's group intervened that I noticed they weren't a threat to me. And… just before Youdou-san took us with him to this era, when he offered a place for me in his group, they all objected."
Suiyoubi looked up at Youdou, then, and he didn't look remorseful. He only looked concerned, if only for the sake of peacekeeping.
"Youdou-san. It might be for the best that I don't intrude on your wards more than I already have."
The adults looked at each other, lost for words. But Youdou himself was unfazed. Sekijiro was reminded of that same confidence he had while on TV during the New Year's broadcast, a charisma that drew people in as he spoke to Suiyoubi.
"Suiyoubi-kun, my kids know I only have three rules I ask they abide by." Youdou stood up from the chair he was sitting in and held up one finger, clearly determined to sway the teen to stay and follow the Pro Heroes' plans. "Number one: No fighting each other under any circumstances. Be it to best each other or even train your Quirks, I will never permit my kids harming each other. Number two: If you have a problem, you bring it up right on the spot. Our world doesn't have the luxury of holding grudges, and in order to function as a family, we must be open and honest with each other."
Suiyoubi pursed his lips, listening to every word. No wonder Youdou fit in so well with other Pro Heroes, Sekijiro thought. He already had the mindset of one.
"And number three," Youdou concluded. "There's always room for second chances. We've all done horrible things to survive. Sumito had to sacrifice their limbs so often to keep us fed before others joined us. I've had to pick and choose carefully who I can and cannot save from certain death. Even Sen, the strongest of my kids, bears the weight of destroying the last functioning city we had. But we all deserve a chance to balance our sins with some good. And you do too."
Yes… That right there, that wasn't Youdou speaking, but the great man they once respected—One Giant Leap. Withered and hated for all the lies he spun and the massive burden he carried, he still stuck to his convictions and only wanted the best for those he tried to save.
Sekijiro let out a slow breath and scratched the back of his neck. He shook his head and mumbled, "Make it so hard to stay pissed at you."
And Youdou was back to his meeker self, apologising with a laugh to his former colleague.
"He's right, though," Sekijiro agreed. Suiyoubi looked at him, surprised, but remained silent. "I don't say this with bias. I barely know you, so don't go arguing that I'm saying this because you're my distant relative. But you do deserve a chance in this era to make up for the things you had to do to survive each day. And if making amends with people you hurt out of fear for your own safety is part of that process, then learning at this school is the best place for you."
Suiyoubi didn't have much room to argue, it seemed. While he seemed to be the type of person to favour facts over sentimentality, it seemed this round of sentiments was a bit too strong to combat with hard facts. Especially when it was a fact that Youdou seemed to make all of his kids abide by those three rules, even if first impressions were a nightmare.
Finally, after almost an eternity of trying to find a reason to refute them, Suiyoubi let out a long sigh and fixed the glasses perched on his nose.
"Alright," Suiyoubi finally mumbled. "I'll… try to mend bridges."
"Trying is all I ask," Youdou said, grateful.
