I changed my name if you guys noticed.
Work is important, but even if you never get tired, a break every now and then is always a good thing. Taking care of yourself comes first.
Mei Hatsume has never really had an interest in relationships.
For the longest time, every boy or girl she's ever known usually stayed away from her as they were put off by her eccentric personality, and she didn't care all that much that they weren't interested. She always thought that liking someone would just distract her from her real passion so she was just fine with staying single.
But then she meets Izuku Midoriya and suddenly, everything had flipped on its head.
She didn't immediately think much of him as a person the first time they met, she was more laser-focused on the amazing baby he made at UA's entrance exam. ASIA was just an amazing piece of technology that could change the world of science, and it came from a boy her age.
She of course just HAD to meet him, to see what else could he know and see what else he might be able to build in the future.
Then they started to talk with each other about their inventions, they started to hang out more and more until it finally hit Mei, she has a friend now.
It was nice, she couldn't remember ever having someone to relate to at such a level other than her parents.
But then she started to feel a little… different around him. She finds herself hooked whenever he started to get excited talking about some new idea he's thought of, she could feel a blush erupt from her face every time he complimented her, and she feels incredibly giddy every time they're close.
These were brand new feelings that she's never had to experience before.
Having her first crush.
Unfortunately, all her knowledge of Support Items doesn't help her at all with dealing with her new feelings. Though she was at least sure that Izuku (she still feels butterflies in her stomach when calling him that) liked her back to some extent (maybe 60% sure? 50%?).
But again, she has no idea what to do with it, he was just so cool!
And smart!
And funny!
And confident!
And cute!
And-
"Mei? You ok there?"
She was brought out of her mild existential crisis at the sound of the boy in question. He was looking at her with an amused expression.
In the junk-infested Takoba Municipal Beach Park, if one were to look past all the trash that litter the once beautiful beach, one would find a large makeshift tent that's about 30 square meters that houses machines that were disassembled into pieces for parts. Several ripped apart blankets, towels, or curtains that are sewn together make up the roof of the tent and it's being held up by welded together poles.
Currently, Izuku and Mei were working on a robotic arm that's about 3 and a half feet long and bulky enough to contain other surprises inside, the internal wires being fixed in place by both students, but Izuku notices that Mei was a little distracted.
"Huh?" Was her intelligent reply.
He snickered at her response and she blushes in embarrassment (and because she likes it when he laughs).
"You seemed distracted about something, you thinking about the Sports Festival?" Izuku asks.
The Sports Festival?
Oh! The UA Sports Festival!
An Excuse!
"YES!" She answers way too loudly, seeing him flinch from the volume she lowers her voice back to normal. "Ahem, I mean yeah, just… excited to show off my babies on the big day."
And she wasn't lying about that.
The UA Sports Festival is an annual event held by U.A. High School where students from all grades and courses, from the Hero Course to the General Education Course, have the opportunity to showcase their abilities in different competitions to be scouted by Pro Heroes and support agencies.
And as an extra incentive to the students, any one of them from outside the Hero Course does well enough, they'll have the chance to join the Hero Course as well.
But that doesn't interest most, if not all of the Support Courses, they're just aiming to be noticed by the support agencies, Mei included.
"Well I can agree on that, I'm pretty excited myself." He responds after closing up the robotic arm.
He then looks at the spider-like drone on top of the table that was scanning the arm and asked, "ASIA, what do you think? Excited to show off at the Festival?"
Its camera points at Izuku and a familiar robotic voice responded. "I am not even known to the public father, so being in front of so many people will be a new experience for me." ASIA answers with a hint of apprehension but also excitement in her voice.
ASIA's been learning how to act more lively and how to feel emotions, at least that's what Izuku says to everyone.
"Speaking of," Mei looks at Izuku with excitement as ASIA continues with her work. "Are you really going to let me present the body at the Sports Festival by myself!?" She was thinking of showing it off then, but she thought he'll be the one doing it, ASIA will be controlling the body robot after all, and he invented ASIA.
Imagine her surprise when he said he'll let her have the honor.
Izuku just shrugs. "Yeah sure, why not? This whole thing was your idea after all. I think it's only natural you get to present it."
"But you helped too! And ASIA's going to be the one controlling it, and you invented her!" While she is excited about having the chance to show off one of her babies, it just didn't feel right for her to take all the credit.
"Oh, Mei, you shouldn't worry too much about me, even though I find it adorable." He lightly teased her.
Oh boy, the blush is back.
He probably enjoys doing that a little too much.
"Anyway, I have plenty of babies to show off on my own, I've been working on a lot of things for the Festival."
Immediately her blush vanishes and it's replaced with excitement. Every invention he's ever come up with has always blown Mei away, so she never passes up the chance to see what other items he's created.
Izuku had the foresight to make sure his hands were empty as Mei quickly rushed to him, grabbed him by the shoulders, and started to shake him back and forth in excitement.
"Really!? What did you make!? Can I see them!? Will ASIA control them too!? Or will you use them on your own!? What do they do!? How many!? Why didn't you tell me!?"
Izuku, seemingly unbothered by the rapid shaking, grabs her arms to stop her and answers. "It's a secret."
Mei then starts pouting. "Aww, come on! Just a peek?"
He shook his head. "Nope, sorry Mei, you just have to wait for the reveal just like everyone else."
She pouts harder as if her cuteness could convince him to change his mind.
He must admit, it's a very compelling argument, but not enough.
Suddenly, they hear the sounds of crashing in the distance, like a bunch of heavy objects been dropped from a great height. Izuku quickly went through everything in his mind that could've made that sound.
'Ah, so she's here then.' He thinks to himself before mentally shrugging. 'Eh, why not? No problem with meeting her now.'
At first, she thought it was just some junk falling from some of the piles, but realized that if that were the case, then they would've heard whatever that fell make a lot more sound as it went down the pile.
Izuku motioned his head towards the sounds. "Might as well see what that was."
+/+
Ochaco Uraraka almost threw up from nausea but managed to keep it down after a while.
Uraraka is a short girl with fair skin and a perpetual blush on her cheeks. Her eyes are large and round, their irises a warm auburn brown. She has shoulder-length hair about the same color as her eyes, her hair is bobbed and curved inwards at the ends, two longer clumps taking the same shape on either side of her face, and short bangs that reach roughly a quarter of the way down her forehead.
But her most prominent features are her hands, On the top inner segment of each of her fingers, she has a small, pinkish pad that's slightly darker than the rest of her skin, somewhat resembling the toe of a cat or a dog's paw, which she uses when activating and deactivating her Quirk.
A Quirk that's she's currently training.
"And release!"
Bringing her fingers together to deactivate her Quirk, the various junk that was floating suddenly drop from the sky. Some crashed onto other pieces of trash, creating loud sounds.
Her Quirk: Zero Gravity, allows her to nullify the effects of gravity on solid targets (living and nonliving) by touching them with the pads on her fingertips, causing them to become weightless and float. She cancels this effect by touching her finger pads together.
"Hurk!" She heaves as another wave of nausea hits her from overusing her Quirk, she swallows and then takes deep breaths to settle her stomach.
An unfortunate side effect of her Quirk is that whenever she uses it for prolonged periods, or when she reaches her weight limit, or she tries to float herself then she'll start to feel sick to her stomach.
But those side effects aren't going to stop her from training, nor will they stop her from trying her best to win the Sports Festival. She would need to give it all she's got.
Especially after learning that most of the other students will be targeting her class.
She remembers what the tired purple-haired guy said while students were blocking their classroom's entrance.
"If any one of us does well in the Sports Festival the teachers can decide to transfer us to the Hero Course, and what luck, your class has an open spot. Everyone here has a chance to get in this class with you, and what better way is there to prove that we belong here than to beat you? You guys survived a villain attack one classmate down, winning against you is a sure-fire way to get in. I'm not here to scout out the competition, consider this a declaration of war."
She sighs to herself as she thinks about what he said. The idea of being targeted by what could be over dozens of students already makes her nervous, add in the fact that she'll be performing in front of millions of people practically fills her with anxiousness.
But while she is afraid of losing, there's also a strong competitive drive in her, a need to win and prove herself capable in the competition.
She's not going to be quitting after a little scare, she'll go out there, and show the world exactly what she's capable of! She'll prove to everyone watching that she deserves to be in the Hero Course!
Then, she'll become a Pro Hero! A Hero that protects the people and keeps them smiling!
And maybe make some money on the way.
For her Parents.
So with that uplifting thought, she goes back to training. She confidently strides up to a thrown-away locker (who would throw this away?) and uses her Quirk on it. She lets it rise up a bit and-
"HEY!"
"EEP!"
In shock, she nearly drops the locker onto her foot, though she was able to move out of the way. She turns around to see who shouted at her and was instantly met with yellowish eyes with crosshairs inches from her own. She instinctively backs away into the locker.
"What're you doing to our stuff!? Are you a thief!?"
"A wha-?"
"Hey, you look familiar, do I know you?"
"I don't think so-"
"Ever been on TV?"
"Uh, actually, yeah-"
"Wait a minute don't change the subject!"
"But I wasn't-"
Uraraka was not prepared for this conversation at all. She just came here to train because she once passed by and saw all the heavy objects lying around. She wasn't expecting to run into a pink-haired hyperactive fast-talking girl that keeps cutting her off.
"Mei! Calm down would you?" Uraraka hears a young male voice sound out.
Like a switch being flipped, she goes from interrogatory to being a calm and reasonable teenage girl with a hint of… something else.
"Hey, Izuku! I found the source of the crashes!"
Crashes? Oh, she meant her.
The male voice's owner walked around a trash mountain and into view. "Ah, so you have Mei."
The first thought that Uraraka thinks of when she saw who was speaking, was the word plain.
She doesn't mean that in an insulting way, the boy she sees is honestly just best described as such. He was relatively short and unassuming, nothing in his appearance truly grabs the attention at first glance, other than maybe the hair or the freckles.
Still, he looked pretty friendly so she might as well talk to him.
"Um, hi, I didn't know there was anyone else here." She says to him with a friendly smile as he walks closer.
Though to be fair, she doesn't think that anyone could expect to meet other people hanging around a dump.
"The same could be said for us." He smiles back and gestures toward his pink-haired friend. "She's not much for conversation so I'll introduce us both, my name is Izuku Midoriya, and this loud girl you just met is Mei Hatsume."
"Loud? Pfft, I'm not that loud."
"The explosions you cause beg to differ Mei."
'Explosions?' Uraraka flinches a little at the word.
She… doesn't have the best association with it, not since her first hero class in UA.
"I DON'T NEED YOUR FUCKING HELP!" That was the last thing she heard before she sees a bright flash that forces her to cover her eyes, she then feels a searing heat, and a concussive force hit her hard, knocking her back over 20 feet onto the ground.
She was dazed, confused, and in pain. She feels her consciousness wanting to fade, but she tries to fight it.
"And you are?" The now named Midoriya asked her.
"Oh," She shook the memory off, wouldn't do her good to think about that now. "I'm Ochaco Uraraka, pleased to meet you."
"Likewise," Midoriya responded before Hatsume rejoined the conversation.
"Ok so I don't recognize your name, but I swear I've seen you before!" She asked Uraraka while again getting into her personal space. She doesn't know what the girl was on about, she was sure she'd remember meeting someone like this.
"Mei, seriously, you're scaring the poor girl." Midoriya thankfully pulled the excitable girl away. "Besides, you've probably seen her on TV, she's from the Hero Course, you know, the ones that were attacked by villains?"
'Ah, that explains it.' Uraraka thought to herself.
It makes the most sense, it was breaking news that was seen by people all over Japan, her classmates even talked about appearing on TV, though she herself wished that the first time would've been more positive than a villain attack.
"Oh!" Hatsume snaps her fingers. "Yes, that's it! I remember now, you must have a lot of attention on you now, don't you?" She then continues with a slightly ominous tone that the brown-haired girl fails to pick up on.
Uraraka bashfully scratches the back of her head. "Hehe, I guess so, sorry, I'm not used to being recognized."
"Don't sweat it, I'm sure you didn't actually want to gain attention that way in the first place," Midoriya reassured her. "We're UA students too by the way, from the Support Course."
"Oh, you guys are from UA too? What a coincidence, I didn't expect to meet other students here."
"Well, this place is a dump, and where else would we have better access to scrap?"
Can't argue there.
"But you never answered my question!" Hatsume points at her. "What're you doing here, messing with our future babies!?"
"F-Future babies!?" The poor girl's face lights up at the wording. "W-W-What do you mean!? What do you two really do around here!?"
"Oh boy." The freckled genius facepalmed. "Mei, what did I say about mentioning babies?"
ONE EXPLANATION LATER
"So you came here to train?" Hatsume asked the Hero Student.
They were all now sitting underneath the tent where the Support Students just were. After Midoriya explained exactly what it is they're doing (and what Hatsume means when she says, babies), Uraraka explained to them what she's doing here.
It seems with the Sports Festival coming up, all three just happened to be at the same dump at the same time.
Uraraka nods.
"Hm, that would explain the sound of falling junk then," Midoriya says. "That was a cool Quirk, by the way, some kind of Gravity nullification Quirk?"
She blinks in shock. "Um yeah, how'd you know?"
Hatsume giggles. "It's best not to question it, Izuku here is super smart, he can figure out a lot of things with a glance."
He just shrugs with a small smile on his face.
"So, training for the festival huh? I get it, after what Mei and I saw happening in front of your classroom, I'd train pretty hard too."
She sighs. "You both saw that huh?"
"Who at UA didn't?"
"Bah!" Hatsume exclaims. "Who cares what they say? They're somehow jealous that your life was threatened? That just means they don't know what it's like to be in danger. You should just ignore them and do your best when the festival comes, if you were good enough to get in the Hero Course, then you must be awesome, no matter what they say!"
Both of her company stare at her in mild shock for a while, before Midoriya chuckles and pets her on the head.
"Aww, look at that, I'm a good influence on you Mei!"
As Hatsume giggles giddily at the pets with a blush on her face, Uraraka also blushes a bit herself.
'Wow, they must be pretty close with each other.'
But she was glad at what Hatsume said, a weight feels like it was lifted off her chest with her Quirk.
And as she looks at the two Support Students smile at each other, she couldn't help but think that she's met some interesting people today.
So they talked the afternoon away, they both even introduces ASIA to her, who was a super cool advanced AI that Midoriya built, and when the time came for them to come home, Uraraka feels better after she left.
Her training time might've been cut a bit short, but she'd take making two new friends as a good substitute.
+/+
"I can't believe I let you convince me to do this." The adult Izuku flatly told his marksman partner.
Kaina was currently dragging him around by the arm inside one of Japan's most well-known theme parks that has the same acronym as UA's most famous location at the moment.
Universal Studios Japan.
They were both of course in disguises, Izuku's hair is colored completely black with slight bangs over his right eye, his eyes are changed to the color red, and his freckles are gone. He's wearing a white T-shirt with the words "Not suspicious" written in front of it and an All Might themed jacket over it, and he wears simple blue jeans with black and white sneakers.
Kaina on the other hand has changed her hair color to ocean blue, her eyes a distinct orange color, and she's wearing simple glasses over them (with her defense being "Who would expect a sniper to walk around with glasses?"). She's wearing a short-sleeved crop top that slightly exposes her fit stomach and skinny jeans with black loafers.
The theme park itself is surely a grand sight if the person looking is a big fan of heroes. A long time ago, before the existence of Quirks, the theme park was originally themed around famous movies, media, and places, now though, most of the attractions here are centered around heroes.
Ryukyu-themed roller coasters, All Might test of strength games, Gang Orca water slides, and custom-made snacks in the shape of one's hero of choice.
People with reservations come here pretty much every day to enjoy all the fun activities, plus, the security in this place is top-notch, having multiple heroes walking around both to patrol and to be part of the attraction.
Izuku had no plans to go here, but Kaina insisted to spend their day off from their work to visit. She even hacked the system to get the tickets.
Kaina, who was dragging him to one of the rides, stopped and gave him a knowing look. "I brought you here to have fun Izuku, cause I know you'd still be working on some other crazy invention on our day off." She wasn't afraid that their conversations can be heard, they already have a subtle device on their clothes that affects how people see their mouths move and the sounds they hear.
"Hey, I could've been working on something important."
"Like what, for something that's a thousand years in the future? I've seen what you were working on Izuku, what the hell are we going to do with a Dyson Sphere in the next century?"
"I could think of a few thousand things."
She sighs. "And there you go again, using that big brain of yours 24/7 without pause, it's just for one day Izuku, come on," She looks at him with a more serious and softer look. "When was the last time you even had some fun?"
'Too long, I already know.' She privately thinks to herself, as she does have a copy of Izuku's memories.
She's lived with the time traveler for months at this point, and one thing she always notices is that other than sleep, he doesn't even take a break. He's always either hunched down working on some kind of groundbreaking technology and improving his own inventions, or he's reminiscing, thinking about a time that doesn't exist anymore.
Izuku stares at her with a searching look, his extremely intelligent mind looking for any kind of lies or deceit on her face. He finds none, and that should've been obvious.
He sighs, and for once in his life, he admits defeat. "Fine, lead the way."
She smiles wide at her victory and grabs him again, but this time he walks beside her.
"I knew you'd come around, come on! I've always wanted to try out the Gang Orca slide. I mean it's relatively tame to everything else we could do but I need the satisfaction of knowing damn it!"
As she talks about the various rides and attractions she's wanted to visit since she was a child, Izuku couldn't help but crack a smile.
'Well… I guess one break wouldn't hurt.'
And to be fair, he did have fun.
He let his brain work on its own without the suppression effect of the nanites. They rode every ride they could get to and absolutely annihilated every game they could find (they both won nearly everything on display in shooting games and strength tests).
By the time they sat down at one of the American-themed restaurants, they have over dozens of prizes stacked up next to them in two large bags.
"Really?" Izuku asked with a flabbergasted expression.
"Of course I did! Every girl at some point in their life had a crush on All Might! Especially a hardcore hero hopeful like I was!"
He palms his face as he snickers out loud before a waitress comes by and delivers their meal.
"Hope you lovebirds have a pleasant evening!" The waitress says before walking away.
Surprisingly, Izuku doesn't refute what she says but he does give Kaina a smirk.
So," He starts. "Was this your latest plan to get me interested in you?"
She just smirks back. "If it was, is it working?"
"Still undecided on that."
"Well, I have the rest of the day to change your mind."
He chuckles again before they begin to eat. Chicago-style pizza, burgers, fries, and soft drinks.
Kaina moans in satisfaction as she eats. "Once again, thank you for the nanites, no weight gain, no stomach aches, and being able to use everything we eat as energy without any waste. Where have you been all my life?"
"In a dead future with me as a lone survivor."
She shrugs. "Ok, well at least that future will never come to pass now."
He hums in agreement, before asking her something. "Why did you really bring me here, to cheer me up?"
She merely raises an eyebrow at him. "Why would I do that? You didn't need any cheering up, you weren't sad or depressed in the slightest. In fact, you weren't much of anything, always having your nanites on full blast in your head."
He sighs. "And you're always so chipper, even without the nanites."
"And why do you think that is?"
"I'm sure you'll tell me."
"Because you gave me hope." She answers so quickly and bluntly that he's slightly taken aback. "I have your memories and Quirk with me because you trusted me, even when I didn't even know who you were yet. When you gave me your memories, I became something else, something better, but you also gave me a sense of hope for the future."
She leans on the table with her hand on her cheek as she continues. "I hated this world for what it did to me and for its hypocrisy. When I sat in that jail cell for years, I was very close to believing that nothing was going to change. But then, you came along, a man from the future, traveling here to fix it all. Heh, why wouldn't it make me happy? And it's not just me either. The younger Izuku, he isn't a complete clone of you, you realize that, don't you? Despite being his future's memories and consciousness being melded in, he didn't come out like you, that's because he was another person before he was changed."
"He wasn't happy with his life either, but you were aware of that. When you gave him power and knowledge, you essentially gave a kid the best assurance possible that his future's going to be alright, that he has control over his fate."
"And then there's you," She stares into his unreadable eyes with sadness in hers. "The man from the future who watched it all burn, you don't let yourself forget it, and all those years you spent in isolation. You're the exact same man who worked tirelessly inside that underground lab to make everything right, and you don't even ask for anything in return. But that man is alone here, with only his memories of the past walking around to keep him company. That man-"
"That man wasn't happy. I'm… still not happy." He finishes for her.
She nods slightly, it was something that she's known for a while now. Every joke Izuku's ever made was just calculated ones, a statement designed to be as humorous as possible in the given moment without really caring about if it was funny to him.
He uses his nanites on his brain much more often than the other two simply because he has nothing here. This isn't his world, it's just a copy of his own past that he's redirecting in another direction. Inko Midoriya isn't his mother here and All for One wasn't his teacher here, in this entire universe, he has nothing that's his, he's alone.
He doesn't feel sad about that fact, he already knew that's how it was going to be before he came here.
But as Kaina said, he feels nothing about it. Because nothing is better than the alternative.
They sit in silence for a while, just staring into each other's eyes.
Eventually, Izuku then gives a small, honest smile as he breaks the silence. "Thank you for this. I didn't expect to learn anything being as smart as I am, but… I guess I'd never would've seen it if you weren't here so, thank you."
"Well," She slightly shrugs with a smile of her own. "Even one of the three smartest minds on the planet needs help on something every now and again."
'You helped me Izuku, now it's my turn to help you.'
They finished up their meal and walked outside, carrying a bag each filled with their prizes. It was already dark out, the stars shining above the whole theme park.
"You know," Izuku then suddenly speaks from beside Kaina. "I might have to change my earlier answer."
She looks at him questioningly. "What answer?"
He smirks and stretches his arms wide. "If this is your latest attempt at getting me interested in you," Then he drops one of his arms around her shoulders and pulls her close. "Then I gotta admit, it's working."
She blinks at him, then bursts out laughing as she leans closer to him.
He smiles at her laughter as they continue walking.
He might avoid feeling emotions altogether, but he can admit, making Kaina laugh out loud like this?
It feels good.
Finally, I got this done, sorry again for the wait but you know how life is, it's hard, and unfortunately, we don't have a man from the future to help us.