Don't mind my tears, MHA: Vigilantes is making me cry and now I anxiously await the next updates. Also, MHA manga updates in 9 days which is fun. But anyways, this chapter's still pretty chill. Nothing much really happens until Yuudai starts attending U.A. also I'm not confident in my abilities to make a chapter about something casual/daily life without losing the main story just yet. Anyways, take the chapter and I'll see you on the 28th.

"Kojiko-kun!" Midoriya waves at Yuudai from across the field.

Yuudai doesn't seem to hear him...strange. Midoriya calls Yuudai again but a hand is placed on his shoulder, stopping him mid breath. It's the groundskeeper, Midoriya was a little surprised to see him but it made sense that he was there every day. The groundskeeper smiles at Midoriya and looks at Yuudai. Yuudai was sitting on a stone bench, looking at something in the distance.

The groundskeeper takes a breath and sighs deeply, "He does that almost every day but always on Friday. Today is Friday, right?"

"Uh...yes," Midoriya looks confusedly at the groundskeeper then back at Yuudai, "He just sits?"

The groundskeeper chuckles, "He's not just sitting. He's looking at something, far, far away."

"What's he looking at?" Midoriya looks at the groundskeeper's eyes, for some reason they look a little sad.

The groundskeeper shrugs, "Most of the patients here like the garden because they can sit quietly. Some of the older folks think about their children and some people think about their accident."

"Do you know everyone here?"

"No, just the garden visitors." The groundskeeper smiles softly, "Some of them talk to the flowers and then the flowers talk to me."

"Is that your Quirk?" Midoriya goes back to looking at Yuudai.

The groundskeeper nods, "I can talk to any plant or vegetation. It makes eating vegetables a little difficult but I've managed. Oh, there he goes."

The groundskeeper and Midoriya watch as Yuudai stands up and goes to the wall that signifies the end of the hospital's property. Yuudai looks up at the top of the wall, it's not exactly tall but it's taller than him. Yuudai whispers something and the ground below him rises and he climbs onto the wall.

Midoriya steps forward and the groundskeeper stops him.

"He won't leave." The groundskeeper whispers, "Most days he just sits there."

"And the other days?" Midoriya questions.

"He goes somewhere for a few minutes then returns." The groundskeeper sighs, "I never know where he goes but he doesn't go far."

Midoriya stays quiet.

Yuudai stands up on the wall and stretches then hops down.

"It should be fine to go to him now," The groundskeeper waves at Yuudai, who waves back enthusiastically.

"Kojiko-kun!" Midoriya shouts as the groundskeeper walks away.

Yuudai runs to Midoriya, he doesn't look stressed out like Midoriya thought he would be. The whole week had been catching up and getting headaches for Yuudai, Midoriya wondered if it was too much at one point but Yuudai insisted he could finish 9th grade by the end of the week. He did. He even managed to catch up part of the way on the stuff he missed at U.A..

"Midoriya-kun." Yuudai waves at him.

"How's everything going?"

Yuudai shrugs, "I've technically graduated junior high. Never thought I'd be able to do that in two weeks."

"Your Quirk came in handy."

The two of them start to walk inside, Midoriya had only gone to the garden to look for Yuudai because his doctor said that dinner was nearly ready.

Midoriya shuffles his feet on the dirt, "So you're actually able to attend classes now."

"Yup, I'm still going to lag behind a little because if I can't use my Quirk in class." Yuudai sighs, "It's back to a lot of repetitive studying."

"I can help you in that area too," Midoriya offers.

Yuudai shakes his head, "I can do this on my own. If I need help then I'll ask."

Midoriya nods and the silence is kept until they get back to Yuudai's room.

"Hey, Midoriya-kun," Yuudai says while chewing on a bite of pudding that Nezu dropped off earlier that day, "I was thinking-"

"Swallow first, Kojiko-kun," Midoriya laughs as pudding bits fly out of Yuudai's mouth.

Yuudai nods and gulps down the rest of the pudding, "I was thinking that it was a little strange that my targets don't need to hear my voice for my Quirk to work on them."

"What do you mean?" Midoriya looks up from his notes.

Yuudai rolls his eyes, "I mean, normally voice Quirks require the target to hear what you're saying. Mine doesn't."

Midoriya hums, "It could be that your Quirk is just different than everyone else's."

"No, no, no," Yuudai shakes his head, "I'm thinking something bigger. Like along the lines of my Quirk not even being a vocal Quirk."

"That's a little far fetched, Kojiko-kun," Midoriya goes back to his notes.

"But there have been incidents where Quirks have been misinterpreted!" Yuudai exclaims, "What if my Quirk isn't a vocal Quirk? What if I just use words for my Quirk as like a-a-a-what's the word?"

"Medium?" Midoriya suggests.

Yuudai snaps twice, "Right! A medium."

Midoriya completely closes his notebook, ready to have a full debate about this.

"Kojiko-kun, your dad's Quirk was imagining an object from his memories and making it come to life by drawing it out. Your mom's Quirk was hearing a wider range of soundwaves than a normal human. Your Quirk makes things you imagine happening come to life by saying them. Obviously your Quirk doesn't have anything to do with sound so it could only be a variety of your dad's."

"That's the thing, if my dad had Come to Life and my mom had Sense of Sound I feel like I would have at least something sound related if my Quirk relies on speaking."

"It could be that your Quirk just uses words instead of paper. It's got nothing to do with your mom's Quirk."

"But most vocal Quirks need the target to hear the words being spoken for the Quirk to work. Mine doesn't. Explain that."

"..."

"Exactly! My Quirk might not be a vocal Quirk!"

"But you use words to manifest what you're thinking. Therefore it is a vocal Quirk."

"What if something influenced me in the past and that caused me to automatically go with words for a medium as my Quirk. What if I could change the medium for my Quirk."

"Kojiko-kun, I hate to say this, but that's probably nonsense. I've never heard of someone changing their Quirk on purpose. That would be like saying Kacchan chose to have his Quirk come out of his hands instead of his feet or something."

"I understand it sounds crazy, but what if I'm right? What if I don't even need to speak to use my Quirk?"

"I think, if that's even possible, that your mind or body or whatever subconscious you have, chose to have words be the medium for a reason. It might be dangerous to try anything other than words."

Yuudai sighs and leans back, admitting in a monotone voice, "You have a point."

Midoriya nods his head, "Maybe that theory could be tested later on but currently, you're kinda weak."

Yuudai sits up at that, "Ha?"

Midoriya takes back his statement immediately, "What I mean is that maybe your body can't handle using your Quirk without talking. Right now it can't even handle it with talking."

"Right, so I'll master talking first then master no talking," Yuudai's eyes glow with determination.

"How about we just stick to talking first and not get ahead of ourselves."

Yuudai clicks his tongue, "I'm not getting ahead of myself. I'm just going at my pace."

"And your pace is?"

Yuudai smirks, "Doing everything at once."

"That's…" Midoriya can't think of anything to say.

"I can handle it, I've been able to graduate junior high in two weeks. That must be a record."

"It shouldn't even be something you should need to do in the first place," Midoriya exclaims.

Yuudai's on the wall again, he doesn't see anything other than what he's looking at and he can't hear Midoriya calling to him from the dirt path.

"What do you think he's looking at?" Todoroki whispers.

Midoriya shrugs, "The groundskeeper says that's between him, Kojiko-kun, and the plants."

The three of them watch quietly a little longer.

Midoriya breaks the silence first, "Maybe he's thinking about his family."

"What makes you think that?"

"Not sure," Midoriya says softly, "Just a hunch."

"You informed us that his father was the pro-hero Art. What about his mother?" Iida asks.

Midoriya meets Iida's eyes briefly before replying, "She's not dead, at least that's what I've heard from Art's fanbase online."

Todoroki speaks up this time, "Does she visit?"

"I've never met her," Midoriya says simply.

"Is their relationship complicated?"

"I don't think it's like yours, Todoroki-kun," Midoriya wonders in the back of his head if it was okay to mention Todoroki's mother with Iida there.

"There must be a reason," Iida decides, "Mothers are always there for their children unless there's a reason they can't be."

"He's only talked about his mom a couple times," Midoriya watches as Yuudai swings his legs while sitting on the wall, "Kojiko-kun says that she was gutsy and strong. Past tense."

"Maybe there was some complication when he entered the hospital? You said that according to Art's fanbase that she isn't dead yet he talks of her in the past tense."

"What's he doing now?" Todoroki sees Yuudai raise his hands to his mouth.

Midoriya nods, "He always does that, it's some sort of signal or call."

"There's no sound for a call," Iida notes.

"Maybe it's a silent call," Todoroki suggests, "Like a dog whistle."

Iida bends his arm in a 90 degree angle towards Yuudai, "Should we ask him?"

"I never ask him about why he's here, I just think of it as giving him his privacy."

"If he needs privacy then why are we watching him?" Todoroki asks.

Midoriya forces a smile, "I'm just a little worried, that's all."

"Kojiko-kun is our friend, I can understand why you're worried," Iida nods in agreement.

Midoriya shakes his head, "I'm worried about tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"Aizawa-sensei hasn't told you?" Midoriya tilts his head, he thought Aizawa would have spoken to Todoroki and Iida about Yuudai already, "Kojiko-kun is being put into the public roster on the school's files."

"Is that a big deal?"

Midoriya fiddles with his fingers, "It could be. U.A. is a popular school and the media is always waiting for something to happen. It's not the right season for transfer students so if a random kid pops up out of nowhere it might cause some trouble."

"The press might butt in?"

"Exactly," Midoriya nods, "And the press was already interested in Kojiko-kun before his accident. I'm just hoping the two years he went missing was enough for the press to cool down on the 'Art's son can become a villain' case."

"I thought that it wasn't known that Art's son is Kojiko."

Midoriya shakes his head in disagreement, "Everything was a secret until his wife got sick of pretending they weren't married and proudly stated their relationship in a press conference. Also, Art kept leaking baby photos of Kojiko-kun after he was born."

"Wow."

"If that's true then shouldn't there be more current information on her? Wouldn't the press be very interested in finding out that Kojiko-kun has been out of the public eye for two years?" Iida waves his arms with each question that he had.

They were valid questions, albeit a bit personal but he was concerned about his friend. Yuudai swings himself back to the side of the wall facing inside and jumps down, stumbling a bit when his knee almost gives out. He waves at the three of them and runs over.

"Kojiko-kun," Midoriya greets with a smile, "sorry if we were bothering you."

Yuudai shrugs, "It doesn't really matter to me."

"We were talking about your mom," Todoroki says bluntly, "If you also have a complicated relationsh-"

"Todoroki-kun!" Midoriya scolds him in a hushed tone.

Todoroki half understands the message of 'That's none of our business.'

Yuudai's smile doesn't fully reach his eyes, "It's fine, Midoriya-kun. I don't mind talking about my mom."

"Then may I ask why she hasn't come to visit you?" Iida asks as politely as possible.

"The simplest answer would be that she can't," Yuudai says sadly.

"Has she died?"

"Todoroki-kun."

"Sorry. Has she passed away?"

Yuudai shakes his head, "No, that's not it. It has to do with my accident and I've never really talked to anyone about it."

"If you'd rather not, we can talk about something else."

"It's not really a sensitive topic, I just don't talk about it," Yuudai huffs a laugh, "I'm actually surprised the media hasn't done more articles on it."

Midoriya is a little confused while Iida and Todoroki are completely confused. The media and Art's fanbase continually talked about Yuudai. Then Midoriya realized that none of what they talked about online was recent, nothing from the past three years. Sure, the fanbase and the press left the Kojiko family alone for a bit after Art's death, but there had actually been zero updates on Yuudai from Kojiko Hani's social media and the press hadn't magically snuck a photo of Yuudai either.

"What happened?" Todoroki asks flatly.

Yuudai forces a small smile, "My 'accident' is technically a Quirk accident. I lost control of my Quirk at the wrong time and two years later I'm learning of the consequences," Yuudai shoves his hands in his pockets, uncomfortable, "My mom doesn't remember me anymore."

They didn't know what to say. How was someone supposed to even respond to that? Sorry for your loss? Everything will be okay? That's too bad?

Yuudai waves his arms around, "You don't have to respond or anything. I get it's a little sudden to hear about…"

Yuudai's smile and voice fade away and he ends up staring at his spot on the wall. Midoriya takes a step towards him and scoops Yuudai into a hug.

"That's a good response," Yuudai says softly.

At one point, Midoriya convinces Iida and Todoroki to join to have a group hug. It only lasts a moment but Yuudai thinks it's nice...warm. The four of them walk back to Yuudai's room in silence.

"I don't get it," Todoroki says as Yuudai eats his pudding cup that now came with the hospital meals, "If the memory loss was caused by your Quirk then you should be able to use your Quirk to reverse the damage."

Yuudai swallows his bite, "That's what I thought at first but then Eraser Head mentioned that reversing the damages might cause me to go back into a coma," Yuudai takes a breath, "I don't want to put my mom through seeing me in a coma."

"But if you're going to start being on the news more because of the press, won't she realize that you're her husband's son?" Iida asks.

"That's what I'm thinking," Midoriya agrees, "If the press reports you as the son of Art and then goes and asks your mother for her opinion of you attending U.A., then won't she remember something?"

"I'm not sure," Yuudai shrugs, "I was told she wasn't even able to see the door to my room anymore. She probably won't be able to see me as her son either. And she was never one for hero gossip or news so she probably won't even look at whatever the press reports."

"Are you scared?" Todoroki asks.

Midoriya repeats his name in the same 'that's a little too blunt' tone.

Yuudai smiles, "I've had a few weeks to accept my fate. Plus, I got friends now and I can always visit her if I want to. She won't know me but I know her and I'm fine with that."

"Kojiko-kun, you're really strong," Midoriya murmurs, "If my mom ever forgot me, I'm pretty sure I would break down crying."

Yuudai chuckles, "You would flood the world with your tears."

"Right?" Midoriya grins.

"What made you guys even start talking 'bout my mom?" Yuudai asks through a very mushy bite of hospital mush. The hospital may have added a pudding cup but the main meal was still shit.

Todoroki replies first, "Midoriya was talking about how tomorrow your name is going to be added to the public class list."

"Ahhh, that," Yuudai says slowly, "I don't think it'll cause too much trouble."

"Maybe not at the beginning but surely something will cause the press to do a story on you," Iida says with confidence, "You'll have to be ready for anything."

"Trust me, you guys," Yuudai smirks, "I know how to handle the press."