Jack Redhawke - That depends on how sneaky everyone will be about it :V Knowing who is leaking intel allows you to feed them with lies to manipulate the one they are feeding with intel, after all.
Jpx0999 - He THINKS that charisma is his dump stat. I really think that Kirishima in this fic is struggling with something of an inferiority complex (or maybe impostor syndrome?) that he is clearly slowly overcoming.
Shahryar - Someone will certainly get redeemed :P
(***)
Izuku woke up late in the morning, with Mei still sleeping soundly right next to him, clearly exhausted from their lengthy late-evening talk yesterday, all the preceding nervousness and fears about him.
The same Mei that he just discovered was carrying his child.
Yeah, he still didn't fully process the concept, but he knew for sure that he now had a very serious reason NOT to make her nervous and worried, at least in the near future.
There was a telling lack of Tsuyu on the other side of him, but it didn't take him a long time to locate her.
Uraraka clearly wasn't in a mood or emotional state to join anyone (especially him) in bed, so Tsuyu demanded Izuku to move a couch closer so she could sleep on it, with less than an arms' length of space between her and the bed proper.
Which was pretty much sleeping together with them, just not LITERALLY with them.
Uraraka must have had a bad dream or Tsuyu simply decided that she needs some additional physical affection, since she was now (still in her frog onesie) being treated by sleeping Uraraka as pretty much a body pillow.
Och… Mocchan, was looking uncharacteristically relaxed. Then again, having Tsuyu to hug did that to people.
Izuku also failed to fully emotionally process that Mocchan was now his girlfriend. At least that seemed to have concluded the list of potential girlfriends for him, especially as he had absolutely ZERO interest in anyone more.
He would totally die if he tried, he can only make it work stamina-wise because he can't really imagine Mocchan being super into it, and Tsuyu is mostly about cuddles aside from the dreaded mating season.
He can only hope that Mei will leave the stage to her when that happens.
How did it all happen to him, a person that was almost dreaming of having one (1) girlfriend for himself and never even considered other options?! No one knows.
"Mmmm… what hour is this?" Mei seems to have woken up. Probably due to Izuku moving his head around too much. That's no good, she totally has to sleep properly now, and… wait, is Izuku getting too protective?
"Almost eleven o'clock." Izuku replies quietly. "I think we've overslept slightly."
"I just don't expect a lot of people to leave their beds early after… yesterday." Mei surprises him a bit by speaking words of wisdom. They are doubly smart because this is officially a free day (Principal Sasaki giving them those after major fights is a normal thing nowadays)
Then she yawns loudly.
Loudly enough to, clearly, wake up Ochako. Who blinks at them a few times, before deciding to do the most important thing.
Namely, she hugs Tsuyu closer (she ribbits quietly through her sleep and it's absolutely as cute as ever), before speaking over her head quietly.
"So, are we getting up, Deku-kun?" Thankfully, due to her circumstances, that's not an unspoken invitation to stay in bed and do something 18+, because honestly, uhm, no. Not the right time for that.
"Well, I kind of don't want to." Izuku admits. "But I think that I have a lot of work to do, and… I mean, you can stay in bed longer if you want and rest, if you want."
"Where's the fun in that when you're out there, working?" Mei asks. Uraraka surprises Izuku slightly by nodding to that. "So, bathroom. Who goes first?"
"I… really want to stay in bed a second more." Izuku admits. It might be some leftover quirk exhaustion but he is
"I have a frog." Uraraka announces with a straight face. Tsuyu ribbit-snores again, and Izuku finds it really hard to not go 'awwww' on that.
"Then I'm first." Mei announces before freezing slightly. "Wait, now that I think of it, I really don't want to leave the bed either."
Izuku sighs and flies her to the bathroom with his quirk.
As delicately as he can.
(***)
For all their 'what's the fun in X when you're out there working', Izuku ended up not being accompanied by anyone when he started doing the job he had planned for the day. Mei had some very important video conference about her inventions and their performance during the Raid.
With Maijima-sensei.
Uraraka in the meantime loudly announced her desire to have Tsuyu temporarily kidnapped to go eat something downstairs. She promised to prepare breakfast for Izuku as well, at least when he mentioned that he has something to do right now.
It was nice. Because for all his love for them, neither Tsuyu nor Mei counted as qualified cooks. And even Izuku himself was… well, his type of cooking was mostly heating ready meals and preparing tea.
First point of the plan for the day was meeting Rabbit. And having a very hearty conversation about their family ties.
His apartment's door was unlocked. Midoriya felt vaguely worried that something happened (or he left overnight) until he entered it and saw a big human pile sleeping soundly on the bed.
Rabbit was in the center. Edge was forming the upper line of a T to him, the back of his head on her belly. He was also flanked from both sides by Immortal and Deadshot, both of them hugging him as if their lives depended on it.
Wow. Now Izuku is REALLY seeing the familial similarities.
He also feels kind of bad about intruding, so he sneaks out and decides to return to the subject later.
Right at time, as a few seconds later he saw Momo leaving… Shoto's room?
"Before you ask, nothing happened." Momo announces, clearly having noticed his questioning look. "I just decided to take a page out of your book about sleeping with someone helping with potential nightmares. Speaking of…"
"I'm alright." He reassures her.
"I'm not buying that." She replies immediately. "At all. You lost your mother, I can, or to be honest I can't imagine how I would react to losing my own. You don't just snap back into normal behavior overnight after something like that."
Yeah, she is entirely, entirely correct about that. He is faking how alright he is, and he knows that he's in for a lot of crying, but… something changed. Deep inside. The building was still as shaky as it was before, but its foundations were much stronger now.
He just had to focus on fixing the rest of the building, and… he would get somewhere.
"Uraraka had some… good words for me." Izuku replies. "Also it turns out that Mei considers contraceptives to be a 'pointless activity completely contrary to the stated purpose of the machine known as human procreation system', so I now have one more reason to try to make this country slightly more livable."
Momo stares at him for a few seconds before realizing what he meant.
"She's pregnant?!" Izuku nods. Momo immediately switches into her slightly more childish self. "Omigosh, congratulations! Is it a boy? Is it a girl? Since when…" A bit too enthusiastic for him, so he waves his hands around.
"It's barely a third month, and I think she wanted to be surprised with the answer together with me, so she's waiting with those tests." He quickly replies. He can only hope that it's a girl, he doesn't want another eventual cripple in his family tree. Then he decides to change the subject. "Look, I don't want to sound like I don't trust you, but…"
"I'm staying." Momo, naturally, figured out what he meant. "This country is going to go down the drain, and if I can make it go down the drain slightly less, it'd be… great, really. I mean, my family is a part of this country, soo…"
This is giving him Guardians of the Galaxy vibes. "Why do you want to save the galaxy?!" "Because I'm one of the idiots who live in it!'. Yeah. It's still rather heroic, though, especially when it's changed to 'Because my family is among the idiots who live in it'.
Honestly, for all his desire to save people, Izuku is now in a big part motivated by the idea of making the country a better place for his child.
"That's great." Izuku sighs with relief. "I just hope no one leaves, we need anyone that we can get our hands on, especially with… certain new developments that are, I'm afraid, a bit confidential for now."
"Oh, great, secrets." Momo shakes her head. "Well, I assume you'll tell us if Principal Sasaki and Commissioner Aizawa permit you."
He will, yeah. He can only hope that Commissioner Aizawa is still Commissioner Aizawa, because if what Mei told him was true, he was told to visit Governor Yagi first thing in the morning.
"Speaking off, I have something to talk with you about." Meeting Yaomomo was one of the the short list of things he planned to do today. "It's about… reorganizations."
"Reorganizations?" She asks back. Yeah, they didn't really change a lot in their organization ever since Assistant Commissioner Mera's death, he had a lot of interesting ideas. Losing him was a major blow.
"There is a fair chance that we'll get governmental recognition soon." Izuku replies. He doesn't add that it's thanks to his uncle who is mind-controlling the government and most if not all of the legislative. "Unless Overhaul gives us all a present and does something incredibly stupid after losing most of his firepower very, very soon, I just… don't feel like staying for much longer in Musutafu is an option."
"Thinking about the 'official' central structure once we go public, huh." Momo looks interested in that. "How are you imagining it to work like?"
"Well, I'll probably end up as the head, even if I'm kind of not enjoying this at all." Izuku replies honestly. "I'd most likely be more of a figurehead, being the head of the Network and so on. I imagine having separate departments for different branches of heroics plus a separate department for the logistics and equipment. Mei could cover the last one, she is skilled in more than just construction and I'm not sure if I can stop her from going for that, even if her pregnancy would make things difficult for her in the meantime. Then again, she could probably use some office work instead of hanging around potentially explosive things, so…"
"Wait, wait, wait." Yaomomo intervenes quickly. "You do realize that it isn't going to work?" Izuku stares at her questioningly. "Look, we're all basically teenagers. You don't expect the government to be alright with handing so much power to teenagers, right?"
"I don't plan to give it a choice." Izuku replies. "We aren't going to be working for the government, but with the government. They either take us whole as is, or go look for another small army of pre-trained heroes."
Now she blinks at him. Yeah, it's a bit of a shock when you don't know the whole 'government is ruled by a worldwide conspiracy'. What if they all start working for the government, Hisashi tries to mind-control Izuku, Izuku resists it… so Hisashi just tells the prime minister to kick him out of the job?
The most powerful prefectural branch (namely, Musutafu) would follow him, but the rest? For the rest, he is just a name. Yeah, big no.
"You're planning to blackmail the government?" Yaomomo decided to vocalize her shock after all. "Isn't that a bit…"
"MLA, Yaomomo." Izuku lies. "They probably infiltrated the government already, but if they also did so to the Network, then we'd have noticed them with Hijack's mandatory loyalty evaluation. This means that if they have someone in the Network, it's no one even relatively close to the higher ranks. I do not plan to start working for the government until it manages to convince me that it's not leaking intel. We don't have enough superheroes and sidekicks to be able to shrug off casualties as if we were the JGSDF."
She digests his reasoning for a few seconds.
"That makes sense." She admits. "Another Gunga Mountain Raid would be… and we all know that it could be much worse but the police officers tended to do their best to keep us, the teenagers afters all, safe. But we still don't have the administrational skills to lead a more established nationwide organization, maybe aside from Mei."
Her CEO mode was a thing to behold alright.
"That's why I'm happy that Principal Sasaki exists." Izuku replies dryly. She gives him a questioning look. "How much do you want to bet that the second I mention the reorganization, he's going to pull out an expansive list of UA graduates that we can hire while being certain of their loyalty AND have them run most of the menial part of the job for themselves until we'll manage to get a hold on the job ourselves?"
He was probably carrying the list around just in case Midoriya finally mentioned it.
Realizing that Principal Sasaki probably pushed Uraraka to confess made Izuku realize a few more things. Such as Mirai Sasaki's subtle attempts at grooming Izuku Midoriya into a proper Number One Hero.
Teaching him, making sure that he recovered after what happened with his mother, letting him make decisions on his own (Hawks was probably helping in that as well) to build his confidence and so on.
Izuku, for the record, saw where it was coming from. And he realized that the country needed the person that Mirai Sasaki was trying to make him into. What's more, all the questionable ethics of this whole thing aside, he was going to be forever grateful to the principal for pushing Uraraka into this, as he really isn't sure if he would manage to patch himself up without that.
This didn't make it any less ethically questionable. Especially with how Izuku didn't exactly consent to the whole thing.
Then again, you play whatever cards you have in your deck, and they need Mirai Sasaki on their side. What could the Musutafu branch of the Metahuman Network do without Sasaki's information network, political influence and infrastructure?
Not much.
Izuku is certainly not naming his child (if it'll be a boy) after Mirai Sasaki, though.
"That… sounds like something he would do, yeah." Yaomomo agrees with him hesitantly. "So figureheads for the metahumans nationwide to identify with, while learning necessary skills in practice thanks to the more experienced people surrounding us. After all, it's not like we have a lot of older and sane metahumans, right?"
Aside from Commissioner Aizawa, they don't know of anyone fitting those criteria. And Izuku heavily suspected that his meta-ability was partially negating its own side-effects due to its negation aspect.
Izuku nods.
"So, a Department of Logistics and Equipment under Hatsume." Yaoyorozu decides to return to the subject, her doubts dispelled well enough. "Then a Department of Underground Heroics under Shinsou, right?"
"Right." Izuku admits. "We'll have to keep his past secret even more than usual, but, we really don't have anyone who would do better in that position. He can relate to and understand most rehabilitation candidates, not to mention being able to use his quirk to check how serious they are about it."
"It's logical, and it's a good way of making him not get snatched by some counter-intelligence agency the second they realize that they can use him for perfect and quick interrogations." Yaomomo replies. "What about the Department of Rescue Heroics?"
"I'm considering you for that position, actually." Izuku replies. Yaomomo blinks at him. "Look, you're smart, you have a backing of a zaibatsu, maybe two if you and Shoto get anywhere." She doesn't comment on that. "You also don't really have to hide your identity. Because I certainly do plan to keep my face hidden even after the official reveal, and we need at least some public faces in the leadership, especially with me and Shinsou hiding out. And with Mei being herself, having a public face that's actually good in public speeches might be an important thing."
"So head of the Department of Rescue Heroics and something closest to the spokesman we would have." Yaomomo summarizes. "I assume that overseeing our database and moderating the HeroNET would be taken out of my hands?"
"Yeah, you're awesome and diligent but you have to sleep at least sometimes." Izuku replies. There is something of a faint smile on her face. "This really isn't a position that we need someone super important in, so I assume that we would look for someone throughout the Network or ask the principal to find us some trustworthy non-metahumans."
"I think I could do that then, alright." Yaomomo nods. "That leaves us with 'official' heroics, any name for that?"
Izuku sighs. Yeah, good luck trying to fight a term that doesn't make the Rescue and Underground Heroics feel devalued.
"I thought about some sort of 'Department of Combat Heroics'." Izuku replies. "Not sure about its head for now. Technically I could be its head, on the other hand we've already said that we need some more public faces. I'll probably ask Repulse if he wants to get unmasked and if he is ready to do that, he's technically in Tokyo already either way. I just don't want to lose too many combatants to official positions."
"If it's you or Repulse then I can imagine you doing both your official work AND some occasional fights with powerful villains." Yaomomo replies. "Something to remind people that you exist and are scary, while spending day-to-day on both training and doing the administrator's job with some helpers. I mean, you're basically doing that already."
Yeah, but he had one less girlfriend and one less child back then. Ugh. His life was complicated. But he was going to do his best.
Besides, with Uraraka right now, he can just unleash her for some quality cuddles/hugs/spending time together with Tsuyu while he is focused on Mei. Or send her against Mei, because those two can tinker with things and talk about engineering for hours, so that he can focus on Tsuyu.
He just has to remember to focus properly on Uraraka too once she manages to get better.
"Am I correct to assume that you're going to leave the Musutafu Branch to Rabbit?" Yaomomo then asks. "He certainly has the brains to do it, just…" She pauses while giving him a meaningful look. Yeah, he knows what it is about.
"Honestly, after the stunt he pulled during the raid I have to either promote him or kick him out of the Network, and I don't really feel like kicking him out." Izuku admits honestly. "He'd probably have to be the man behind the man for Eclipse or Amplitude until he manages to get over his anxiety and medical issues, though. And I still need to make a serious talk with him about it." And about some more things.
(***)
The talk, in the end, lasted long enough for Rabbit & Co. to start emerging from their little lovenest. Rabbit naturally freaks out (although slightly) over someone seeing him leave the apartment with three girls.
Izuku embraces his inner troll and gives him a shit-eating grin together with a thumbs-up gesture. He also dodges all questions about 'how are you doing' and tells them that they need to talk after breakfast.
Which, by the way, is delicious. Uraraka is a good cook.
She also groans loudly when Mei doesn't show up and threatens Izuku with kitchen utensils if he doesn't immediately go deliver her share to her. Not like she had to threaten him, Mei needs to eat properly, just…
There are some 'holy shit you're back' reactions, some 'we've decided to stay' declarations, even a hug or two. Izuku faced it all properly. While thanking whatever god is looking over poor fools like them for Kirishima being there to deliver his speech.
Because honestly, Izuku failed as a leader, even if it was understandable considering the circumstances. If Kirishima didn't inspire the others to reconsider and didn't set up the mood, it might have been the last day of heroics for many of them.
A moment later, he ended up confronting Rabbit. Naturally, Rabbit Protection Squad/Rabbit's Battle Harem showed up with him.
(***)
Izuku got Mei to cut out a few really confidential stuff from the combat recording. Like things about the genesis of quirks, and how Yoichi's temper tantrum led to millions of deaths throughout the world.
Izuku wasn't sure how to process the fact that his father was a Well-Intentioned Extremist extraordinaire. Yoichi had a point - the concept of having someone rule the world with mind-control was utterly terrifying, and taking it down was a good idea, just the means for it… and that's without mentioning the whole thing about him helping set the whole thing up earlier.
But the part about 'worldwide conspiracy' led by Hisashi Shigaraki, and about Yoichi Shigaraki being Izuku's father (who died trying to stop the conspiracy) was left behind. Just without mention of OFA. So it was mostly just Yoichi destroying the Council's research wing and starting its downward spiral as a result.
Rabbit shrinks rapidly throughout the whole recording, despite his girlfriends' most sincere attempts to stop it from happening.
Eventually, the recording ends.
"So, I have only one thing to ask you about." Izuku then says, looking at Rabbit.
"Oi, it's not his fault that both of his parents were dicks!" Edge immediately cuts in. "Don't you dare hold it against him or I'm going to kick you in the face."
"Yeah!" Immortal follows right after her. "And I'm going to, like, die very nastily and freak you out!" Not a scary threat but bonus points for trying. Deadshot, in the meantime, is simply staring at Izuku quietly.
"I'm not holding it against him, just let me speak dammit." Izuku shoots back. Rabbit looks like he regained the ability to breathe after this. "That man might be his father but he's also my uncle. We aren't the only members of the Network with supervillain relatives, I don't really care especially as Rabbit didn't even meet the guy."
"So the hell are you here for?" Edge's eyes narrow.
"To nicely ask my cousin if he wants to officially ditch his asshole parents from his family tree and get promoted to my brother." Izuku states dryly.
Silence in the room. Surprisingly enough, it's Rabbit that manages to speak first.
"W-what?"
"Look, I know what my mother was like." Izuku replies, trying to ignore the slight pain when she is mentioned. "If a certain asshole didn't kill her and she would hear of what you went through and that you were my cousin, she would decide to adopt you, no questions asked. So you were basically a day out of getting adopted, whether you wanted it or not." Because Izuku WOULD confront his mother either way, and then she would learn of him. "So I'm just trying to fix that mistake."
"Oh." Rabbit looks down, but he seems to have stopped shaking and shrinking. That's good. "That would be… nice. I kind of look up to you either way and…" He realizes what he said and immediately freaks out a little. "I m-mean not in a c-creepy way, but…"
"...but you'll get a chance to measure up to me." Izuku cuts in, because seeing Rabbit freak out is slightly hurtful. Doing the reveal to him right after he managed to partially take revenge for Kendou and Tetsutetsu was bad, but… it was best to do that once and be done with it. Especially now that he clearly got so much closer with his Protection Squad. "Because I'm considering moving to the capital sooner or later, once we get governmental recognition, and I plan to make you the head of the Musutafu Branch. Although before getting over your anxiety and getting your treatment, you'd probably be doing that from the backseat behind Amplitude and Eclipse."
Izuku ends up being surprised - and so seems to be the Rabbit Protection Squad - when Rabbit seems to be overjoyed by it.
"G-great!" Rabbit announces, before taking a deep breath in. "I… well, I have Overhaul to get even with, right? I w-won't act without t-telling a-anyone e-ever again, I p-promise!" He then promptly freaks out again.
"Good." Izuku nods. "So, Asa Midoriya now?"
"I'd l-like to be Asa Shigaraki." Rabbit surprises him again. "It's y-our… it's o-our f-father's surname, and I d-don't want to leave it w-whole to H-Hisashi, r-right? W-wait, is that w-weird? I'm not sure if…"
"Asa Shigaraki it is then." Izuku nods. Would be nice to have at least a single hero with that surname in the whole family. He certainly doesn't feel like counting Yoichi into that category.
(***)
No matter the universe and their actual blood relationship, Izuku and Asa are always going to be brothers, ngl. Also, some fluff. Like, a lot of fluff. Gotta have you chill down a bit from the Gunga Mountain Raid before we once again jump into the fray.