KreadStornham - I enjoy providing my readers with rare feelings ngl :v
Jpx0999 - If Izuku dies, so does Uraraka (or, more like, vanishes with him as she's already dead).
LividlyVivid - Thank you ;)
Detrametal - It is. Then again, so is this world. Thankfully it's rare nowadays :P
Guest - Yes. And it'll be hilarious.
Shahryar - :D
Chaoscontrol85 - Slowly. Break it out slowly.
Yomunot - It'll be revealed, eventually.
Kilo8 - It's fluffy... because it's an exception for their nature.
(***)
Izuku wakes up to see Uraraka still in his bed.
It's now a very warm bed. Izuku is fairly sure that he just… changed a lot. He slept with someone (AND A GIRL!), even if non-sexually. He just… isn't sure if he can take a step back and not feel bad when sleeping alone.
It's surprisingly comfy.
Okay, more than that. He just never slept as good as he just did. Is it a part of his ancestry? Well, one half of it, and the one slightly less terrifying?
Maybe.
"Morning, Ochako!" He says after yawning loudly. She is clearly awake already, and she responds with a bright smile, before snuggling even closer to him.
That's truly the best way to start a day.
Kacchan is probably starting his day from exercising. Well, Izuku is really waiting for the moment when Uraraka will be officially alright with having sex, because then he'll also be absolutely alright with starting his own day from exercising.
Wink wink.
"How did you sleep, Deku-kun?" Uraraka replies with a question. He gets a close-up of her eyes, and… those are very cute eyes. Even if… a bit… bashful. Or maybe that's why they are so cute.
"Better than ever, Ochako." Izuku replies with a smile. "You're super comfy."
She lets out some shy 'eeeeh?!' and it's absolutely cute, especially with how much she was blushing the whole time.
"T-thank you, Deku-kun." Awww, now she's clearly having issues with looking at his face. How cute. "I-I'm happy that you m-managed to rest."
"Ochaaa, we talked about this." Midoriya replies, because yes, he's drawing a line there. "You gotta be at least slightly more selfish, alright? It's not healthy to be so one-sidedly focused on me, okay? You should be happy because you slept well."
"B-but you b-being happy m-makes m-m-me h-happy?" She lets out and… awww, isn't she the cutest little thing?
Izuku considers this a work in progress.
"So, I guess that it's time to get up." Izuku sighs. The bed is super comfy for him now, Uraraka smells super nice, and honestly… the idea of leaving the bed is super horrible to him right now.
"W-why?" Uraraka asks, her eyes finally on him and… nevermind, her eyes drifted away now.
"I mean, we need to prepare breakfast before school, right?" Izuku replies. "I have a tight schedule today. Prepare our new super secret weapons with Kacchan, then… uhm, honestly, the rest of my plan for the day is to pet the Frog of the Lake. Oh, and pick up the drugs and equipment from Ashido."
They did wake up a tiny little bit too early to have to get up immediately, but, like… It's like half an hour left, and… maybe they should just actually spend it in bed? But Izuku is pretty sure that…
Uraraka giggles lightly. Then she looks down a little when he looks at her questioningly.
"I, uhm, woke up a little e-early today." She replies. "Y-you were asleep, and I m-managed to l-leave the b-bed without w-waking you up and…" She gulps loudly. "I… k-kind of made the b-breakfast f-for us a-already? S-sorry for n-not a-asking you w-what you w-wanted f-first, but…"
He interrupts her with a kiss. She stops stuttering, and starts enjoying it. After a longer period of time, Izuku lets her lips go.
"I think that I'm really falling in love with you, now." He announces. "You're like a dream girlfriend, you know?"
Something flinches in her eyes. Something that put Izuku on edge for a moment. Something that was clearly wrong, and very out of place on her face.
"Ochako?" He asks, now sounding worried. "Did something happen? Did I say something wrong?"
"Wh-wh-wha?!" She stammers out. "You d-didn't say a-anything w-wrong, I just…" She is fidgeting slightly, her head resting right next to his shoulder while facing her fidgeting fingers. "I j-just f-feel like I don't d-deserve you sometimes?"
"What?" Izuku blinks at her. She, her eyes still on her fingers, clearly misses that. "Why?"
"I-I mean, y-you're cute, and h-h-h-h-h-ot and kind, and n-nice, and I'm, uhm, I'm a bit…" She is trying to figure out how to address the issue.
Oh, is it why she was reacting to him that way the whole time? Low self-esteem? Well, Izuku thinks that he can deal with that.
"Ochako, look at me." He cuts in. After a moment of struggle, she looks up at him. "If I didn't like you, I wouldn't, you know, do all of that. I wouldn't listen to Toga telling me that you have a crush on me and that I should address it."
Well, maybe. He was, well, very horny back then. Now he's just horny, and that's a large improvement that made him actually capable of more or less thinking.
"You look cute, you're super kind, you've almost died saving my life in the forest…" He continues listing it up. "... and you're always giving your best, you seem to be gifted at pacifying Kacchan like a pro and, well, you look absolutely super awesome in a maid outfit." Izuku concludes the list. "So you really don't have to worry, because you totally deserve me."
"Oh, uhm, t-thank you?" She managed to look at him for quite a long time this time, before her eyes started to dodge him.
She then hugs him even closer, and the silence reigns in the bedroom for a while longer, until they really, really need to get up.
Somehow, Izuku feels as if she dodged the subject rather than actually believing in what he said. He'll have to work on that more, she needs to build up some confidence when he is involved!
(***)
The long break. Bakugou appears out of nowhere, announces that he has to borrow Uraraka for a moment, and tells Midoriya to go meet up with Mina about the drugs. With Toga, maybe even Todoroki if they manage to find him.
Naturally, not a single name or surname is used throughout his announcement.
Uraraka is understandably worried, which grows worse when Bakugou pulls her into an now empty classroom before looking out of it through the door and deciding that no one is going to interrupt them for the next few minutes.
"U-uhm, B-bakugou, w-what did…"
"I know what you are." Bakugou announces while closing the door and turning to face her.
Uraraka goes pale.
Not in the right way.
It's as if most of the colors from her were suddenly drained. Not just from her skin, but hair, clothes even. That's it, the 'true' form of a stalker, the one they are in when they aren't putting up their old human appearance.
The same human appearance that, according to Todoroki, lets them walk through the warding glyphs. Because to them, they are still human - just with an 'altered state of mortality'.
Also, it turns out that Deku's cat has been completely fooled by her (he mentioned that as one more proof that Uraraka is a human), because a lot of animals - especially those that spend a lot of time with humans - can smell emotions. And get weirded out by the negative ones.
Uraraka, in the meantime, smells to them of pure love.
Stalkers, once you thought about them for a while, were just straight up terrifying as an enemy. Or as their bond, if they started to lose it.
Just a single glance at Uraraka's face makes it obvious that she wasn't losing colors because she was losing herself to anger and couldn't maintain her little glamor. She was just straight up terrified.
Bakugou now feels like the bad guy. Fucking great.
"I, I mean…" She manages to say, her arms up as if she hoped to hide behind them. Yeah, this is not going anywhere.
"Look, I'll be frank with you." Bakugou decides to take the lead. "I don't fucking care what you are, alright? The one and only thing I came here to tell you is that even if you supposedly can't die, I'm going to find a fucking way to kill you if you hurt him, got it?"
"I wouldn't hurt him!" Yeah, that very accusation was enough to wake her up from the stupor. "He's … he's everything to me! I would never…"
"From what I heard about your kind…" Bakugou cuts in. He really isn't interested in hearing the rest of that out. "... you tend to go too far with your love. That's what I'm talking about. Because I don't want to get stabbed in the back by you when he isn't looking just so you can get a bigger share of the nerd pie."
"I won't do that!" She actually stomps her foot a little. She must have recovered herself slightly, because the colors start returning. "I want him, I want him all for myself, but…" Her eyes drift downward, she is clearly ashamed of what she was just saying. "... he wouldn't be happy if I did any of that. And I want him to be happy."
So, it's the nerd's 'happiness' that keeps her 'grounded'. That's… a good thing to know. Because frankly, it's shaky as fuck, in Bakugou's opinion. All she needs is to decide that Deku will be happiest with just her around, and suddenly it's murder time.
Bakugou Katsuki is going to get to the bottom of this.
"One question." He says. "How the fuck did you meet him? How the fuck did you become his stalker? You don't just cheat death through excessive love without some sobbing fucking backstory."
He knows. Well, he knows some of it. But… she doesn't know that. And he is very curious about what she's going to tell him.
"The three of us were friends in Rozaryu." She surprises him with her honesty straight off the bat. She then immediately freaks out when she misjudges the stare he was giving her. "I k-know you don't remember that, but… the Censor erased your memories of me when I died, and…"
"I know that much." He cuts in, because, yeah, once again they are wasting time. "Library Freak, that freaking stalker, got curious about you, found your old house, broke in and got out with some leftover picture of us and your parents during your birthday party."
Yeah, he should probably expect that reaction.
"A pic… does he still have it?" She actually raises her voice on him. "Please tell me he still has it, I didn't find it back then and I don't have any picture like that left and…"
They still didn't figure out why the Censor left that one particular picture as 'merely' censored rather than straight up rewritten, yeah. No wonder she's reacting like that.
"I'll ask him to give it to you after the mental hospital." Bakugou decides to calm her down a little. Besides, it's kind of her property, right? "And how did the three of us become friends?"
That's, yeah, that's the one thing they are clearly missing from the picture.
He also realizes immediately that it's not going to be anything super fun, because the look on Round Cheeks' face goes gloomy. Very, very much.
"I… was bullied in Rozaryu." She manages to say. "There was this one girl in my class that looked down on me because my family's company wasn't doing very well and because at the beginning after moving here from Mie I had an accent and she said that I spoke like a peasant and… her family was wealthy and had a lot of influence in school, so she turned everyone from my class against me, and I…"
"... and you didn't say a word to your parents, because their company was doing badly and you didn't want to worry them with your problems." Bakugou cuts in. Uraraka looks to the side, scratching her arm nervously. Then she nods. "Round Cheeks, you're a fucking dumbass."
"I k-know." There is actually a faint smile on her face. "You t-told me that already. Several times."
Yeah, the experience of talking with someone who had years worth of memories with you - the ones that you were clearly missing - was a weird one alright.
"Good to know that my past self was as blindingly smart and empathetic as I fucking remember him as." Bakugou replies. "I can imagine what happened next. The nerd saw you being bullied and was like 'cool, free friend!', am I wrong?"
She smiles. She is still fairly… pale, but the smile is visible even despite that. Must be some really happy memory she just recalled.
"Y-yes, that's what happened." She quickly confirms his suspicions. "I thought that the bullies would scare you off, it wouldn't be the first time someone took pity on me only for that to happen, but… they didn't. And there were cases of people pretending to take pity on me, just to put a dagger in my back, but… you were actually serious about it, and it was you who scared them off instead, and…" She looks down on her hands, fidgeting intensively. "I wasn't very, uhm, social in Mie, so… you two were the first and last friends I ever had, and…"
That explains why she is so anxious, why she has clear problems looking people in the eyes, why she is clearly not faring well with anything remotely 'social'. Not a lot of occasions to train her skills on that field, not to mention probably having a boatload of trauma to boot.
Shit, now Bakugou is getting fucking sentimental about this.
"And then you died." He decides to skip to the point. "And you ended up latching onto Deku. So, let me make a guess. Something supernatural attacked us and he tried to save you but failed, and I dragged him away before he got to kick the bucket as well. Seeing him trying to save you even in such a set of fucking circumstances, after the whole live of self-doubt when the concept of friendship was involved over some bastards giving you trust issues, has ended up making you his stalker. Especially as you were probably crushing on him massively beforehand. Am I wrong?"
She is staring at him, slackjawed. For at least several seconds, before waking up.
"Well, yes, that's what happened, like exactly what happened, how do you… "
"Because I know that dumbshit Deku, and that sounds like exactly something he would do and also like exactly something that would make you fucking haunt him like some sort of stupid hentai ghost." Bakugou cuts in and, yeah, she would probably blush furiously if she was presently capable of doing that. He doesn't give a shit. "I also get the feeling that there is a lot that you aren't telling me about this, and I hate that fact, but you know what, you do you."
"Eeeh?" She is surprised, but… how much is it about being accused of something and how much about him hitting the nail with his accusation?
"You're clearly treating the idea of keeping his dumb ass alive seriously." Bakugou replies. "And let's be real, it's a work for more than one person, at least ever since he managed to stumble upon a fucking magic world. So personally? I'm wholly supportive of your never ending quest for his love. Just remember what I said at the beginning. You hurt him, you're out."
"I won't hurt him! I said that already!" Bakugou is almost certain that he found a potential berserk button. It's about the 'break-in', isn't it? She was probably feeling extremely guilty over getting quite close to killing him, and entirely accidentally at that. "I was… I was happy because of him, and… I want him to be happy in return and I know that you, and Toga and Todoroki are making him happy, I won't do anything to you! I'll even do my best to save you if something bad happens!"
Okay, that's… slightly less shaky of a reassurance. Bakugou is still going to keep an eye on her. Because honestly, something in her backstory doesn't add up, he just isn't sure what exactly. But he trusts his instincts.
He is still going to believe in her claims of doing her best to save the others when he sees them. And he is 100% sure if she faced a choice between Deku's health and their lives, she'll choose him. Even if he won't be at risk of dying, merely being injured.
"Alright, so we have that covered." Bakugou replies. "One more thing. I remember you once starting to refer to me as 'Ka' before switching mid-word to 'Bakugou'. So, a quick question. Were you trying to say 'Kacchan?'"
"Errr, yes." She replies, looking at him worriedly. "You, uhm, didn't want me to call you that way, but Izuku insisted to p-piss you off and at some point you stopped complaining, and…"
Yeah, that sounds exactly like something he'd do. So she probably wasn't just trying to butter up to him by pretending that they were almost as close as she was with his dumbass nerd.
He is trying to be reasonably paranoid nowadays, especially as he sure as hell can't expect Deku to do it.
"And I won't complain about it now either." He cuts in, surprising her. "Consider this a reward for saving Deku's ass in that forest."
That's enough investigation for now.
(***)
"Hello there!" Mina announces when she sees them appearing on the horizon.
"General Kenobi." Midoriya replies with a straight face.
Then they both giggle loudly, while Toga and Kirishima look at them weirdly. Todoroki, being himself, slurps his cola loudly with the eyes of someone who was simultaneously an emotional void AND in the process of watching their favorite comedy show.
His eyes were weird.
"So, I've been told to hand you the package." Mina gestures at Kirishima, who sighs loudly and grabs a large suitcase from the floor, before handing it to Toga. "And to tell you that we're looking forward to the fruits of your assignment."
Fruits, huh.
Is that an actual pun on Shiozaki's end or…?
"Awesome, but, uhm, can we get a quick rundown of what's inside?" Midoriya asks quickly. Ashido glances at Todoroki. "Yeah, we're trying to not rely on him too much."
"Oh, sure thing then." Ashido replies before giving a thumbs-up gesture and retrieving the suitcase from Toga. "Kiri, please be our lookout, I don't want the teachers to come upon us. It'll be, uhm, hard to explain."
Right. Very hard.
He realizes that even more after seeing the syringes inside.
"So we're supposed to literally inject ourselves with things made from spooky supernatural stuff?" Izuku asks, interrupting Mina's explanation of which drug is which. Thankfully, they are all signed, but…
"It's not that supernatural." Mina replies quickly. "It's pretty much the equivalent of modern drugs, just made from materials, mostly herbs, that aren't quite 'normal'. I mean, you remember how penicillin was originally produced?"
"Yeah, from a certain species of mold." Izuku replies.
"Yeah, so this one little thing…" Mina points towards a small bottle. There are actual pills inside. "... is practically the same thing, except the molds are, so to say, spicy. Supernatural. This means that they actually work better against bacterias that aren't from this world too. Even the production process is almost identical. The same with the rest."
"I was mostly having issues with having to inject something into myself." Izuku replies. "Especially as I'm not sure if I know how to do it properly."
"No problem, Izuchan!" Toga suddenly speaks. "I know how to do that! And if I fail, I can just heal you with my magic, so no problem, right? Right?" She looks pumped up about that. Mina looks vaguely weirded out by that.
…
Izuku glances at Todoroki, who nods. He probably knows how to do that. Because, uhm, Izuku isn't exactly sure if he wants to be at a syringe' range of someone who is so cheerful about their potential mistakes.
Toga probably just wants a reason to start wearing a nurse cosplay. Izuku is honestly all for that, just…
Mina coughs loudly.
"Well, it's mostly injections because those tend to work faster and stronger." She replies. "Sometimes, when you're hit by something strong enough, you just won't have the time to swallow a pill and wait for it to start working properly. It's especially important with the antidotes."
"How do you even make an 'universal' antidote?" Izuku decides to ask. "It feels downright ridiculous."
"It works by boosting your body's ability to deal with poison." Mina replies. "It doesn't eliminate the poison itself, it's more of a Kuppfer cells go brrr moment."
He remembers that name from biology lessons. Part of the liver responsible for filtering toxins out of blood.
"Sounds like something your liver won't like in the long term." Izuku replies.
"Yeah, it's super damaging to it." Mina admits. "Expect being mostly knocked out by using it and needing to eat a very light diet for a few weeks for your liver to rest properly, because it'll be in the state where food poisoning will probably damage it permanently. But it's a better option than dying in five minutes to some supernatural poison, isn't it?"
Yeah, hard to disagree.
"You also have a small assortment of more 'utilitarian' stuff here." Mina points towards the side of the suitcase. "Here is an instant smokescreen, acid that can eat through almost everything aside from glass, something to mask your smell, a very good lubricant…"
Izuku sighs when he hears Himichan's loud giggle.
"Shoto, bonk." He announces.
Two seconds later Todoroki karate chops Toga in the head from behind.
"OUCH!" She looks angry. "What was that for?!"
"Horny jail, we're having a super serious meeting about things that might save our lives soon." Izuku replies. Yeah, having a regular outlet of his urges makes him able to act in a reasonably non-horny way. Take that, Kacchan. "What's that lubricant even good for?"
"It's very concentrated and super slippery," Mina replies, shooting Toga a mildly worried look. Izuku winks at his ghoul girlfriend, non-verbally promising to make up for that moment. Himichan snaps back to being happy and stops pouting at him. "Good when you need to pull something out of something, when it really doesn't want to leave. Also, you can just spill it on the floor, it's super easy to trip."
Weird, but… he somehow can't imagine Shiozaki using it in a different way. Unless this rather strange gift was a… suggestion of sorts. Then it was a very interesting suggestion.
"How did you even get us so much stuff?" Izuku then asks. "I remember Tokage telling us that you're working up to capacity."
"It's mostly from our personal reserves." Mina replies. "No point being an alchemical cabal when you don't have products for yourself, right?"
Right.
"Well, it's a pleasure doing business with you, then." Midoriya announces (the presentation clearly over), while Mina is closing the suitcase again. "And I'm not going to let you down. If you could, please tell that to Shiozaki-san… verbatim. Both sentences"
Heh, two can play this game.
They still have to spread their new drugs (damn it it sounds so wrong) between themselves, grab some equipment improvements from Hatsume, come together with Bakugou to discuss their present ideas for getting some hidden trump cards (just in case) and discuss the strategy for tomorrow.
This is going to be a lengthy day. So much about spending most of it with Tsuyu.
