19.08.2022
I'm the Absolute Madman and you know what time it is don't ya?! That's right, it's Stranded o'clock! Or more like quarter past Stranded, but who counts? Not me that's for sure!
Since we're already a bit behind schedule let's take a quick detour to the review sections, shall we?:
TheRealShenron - Meanwhile in a parallel universe: Rules of Civilization, My Own Slave Now, The Only Thing I Know is Fake. Honestly, MGR:R is such a meme goldmine, I'm surprised it remained untapped for so long!
GUIPA - You do indeed remember correctly, both Tsu and 'Chaco are excluded from the ships.
echo482 - I'm glad you're enjoying the story!
lonealchemist - *insert giant_laser_ * Perhaps!
PhantomDark - I have no experience walking in a blizzard with a person on me back but that can't be easy, so I don't think he'll be making it to the second drop. This doesn't mean however that it'll just stay there mind you!
Drax152 - *insert giant_laser_ * Perhaps!
Squaretree - Maybe she was counting on it?
JesterGlytch - I have absolutely no idea if anyone in the canon knows how she looks honestly.
evilstatisctic19 - Your patience is about to be rewarded!
SonicMax - I could do that, but we would be out of girls at this point in time, so I decided to space them out unevenly and in a pretty chaotic manner - since I'm basically a spawn of Tzeentch and whatnot - to make the fic a bit longer and not as rushed.
n1ght4ury20 - *you_know_ * Perhaps!
MiseryWolf97 - Nope. That drop is already far gone. But where could it go? It's not like it grew legs and just wandered off, right?
solbandgus - You guessed incorrectly! But If I had to guess it was probably some nails and a rope or something like that. Besides, who needs supply drops when you have an omnipotent pile of stuff tucked into a corner that functions like a very handy 3D printer?
Alright, it's already half past Stranded so let's get this show on the road!
The way back was more challenging and taxing than Izuku suspected, but it was kind of his fault for underestimating the strain that carrying someone - even if they were so slim and petite as the girl on his back - would put on his stamina. Add to it the satchel filled with various bits and pieces he found at the crash site and the Tek Spear he now had to carry with one hand and you got quite the heavy burden. The worst part was that there was nothing he could do except tough it out as leaving anything behind was really not an option.
The only thing he had going for him at the moment was the fact that the blizzard had decided to chill out for a moment. Get it, cause it's a blizzard and snow and cold. Anyhow, this meant that at least his face wasn't constantly peppered by icy projectiles. Still, it was far from warm, Izuku honestly could feel his nose right now and he was pretty sure that his toes weren't responding already.
This all encompassing cold however did make him very sensitive to warmth, like the seemingly unaffected heat source on his back. Which made him equally suspicious and curious.
Getting to the crash site must've taken him at least an hour, probably more and he was sure that he'd already made it at least halfway to the cave, which added up to something like three hours. Three hours in a mild blizzard and a temperature surely below the freezing point in nothing but a skirt, shirt and a blazer and her skin was still warm and tingly to the touch.
Izuku was scolding himself for getting hooked on something so stupid as a warm thigh - which he had his hand on to support the girl and make sure she didn't slip off of his back all the time - even though he had to admit it was a really nice thigh and he had quite a bit of experience with those already so that was something coming from him. Nonetheless this little bit of skin on skin contact and warmth was what allowed him to keep a clear mind as he trudged through the snow.
He probably would've gotten lost a handful of times already if the blizzard kept up and covered his tracks with a fresh layer of snow as everything around him looked more or less the same safe for some weirdly distinct trees.
"I'm jumping into the hot spring first thing after I get back, consequences be damned!" Izuku exclaimed and with renewed vigor continued on his way.
Momo woke up way sooner than she expected and to her surprise - all alone in the bed. She sat up and wiped away what little drowsiness remained in her eyes before getting up and heading to the commoncave to see what the others were up to.
Surprises didn't stop there as she soon found Mina prodding a lit campfire with a random twig whilst sitting on one of their log-benches. She quickly noticed her presence and looked up at her with a smile.
"Couldn't sleep too?" The pink-skinned woman asked.
"I guess? What time is it even?" Momo wondered in confusion.
"Well, I don't know the exact hour since we don't have a working clock or anything like that, but it's still dark outside and Izuku hasn't returned yet so I guess you've been asleep for an hour or two at most." Mina explained as her friend sat down next to her.
"We could probably create some sort of a sundial to tell the time… Wait, we have two suns so there'd be two shadows… and it would still be useless at night…" Momo started thinking out loud before being smacked in the back of the head by Mina. "What was that for?!" She exclaimed whilst massaging her assaulted occiput.
"You were about to go off on a Midori-style mumbling spree and I don't have enough energy for that." Mina teased with a smug grin.
"I guess you woke up a while ago?" Momo asked after a moment.
"Nah, I couldn't fall asleep in the first place. You're hot and those pillows of yours look mighty comfortable but I'd still prefer to snuggle up with Midori, no offense!" Mina explained which took Momo a few moments to process, but once she did her face instantly lit up with a blush at the reference which did not go unnoticed. Yet before she had a chance to react and respond Mina continued. "So since I was stuck waiting for him to go back I figured I might as well welcome him here, wouldn't want to wake you up by accident!" This time she added a wink to her statement which made Momo subconsciously look for an underlying meaning to her words. It wasn't hard to figure out, but it made Momo's blush double in intensity in a moment. And Mina wasn't done just yet! "I've been sitting here for some time before I figured that he'll probably come back all wet and cold so I lit up the fire so that he can warm up as soon as he comes back. Yeah, I know lighting a fire in an enclosed space is not a good idea, but I think it's better than having him get down with the sickness tomorrow."
"Disturbed. I'm sure it'll be fine, we can always vent the smoke out in the morning or something. Come to think of it, maybe we should try and make a ventilation system for the future?" Momo proposed before her mind wandered off to the land of endless ideas.
"You're hopeless." Mina stated with a fond smile as she observed her friend dive deeper and deeper into the expanse of her own imagination.
The girls ended up hanging out around the fire for the next couple of hours, patiently awaiting Izuku's arrival.
"What if he's hurt? Or what if he got lost in the blizzard?!"
Okay, maybe 'patiently' was not the best word to describe Mina's current state.
"Mina, I've already told you like five times that Izuku will be fine." Momo said in exasperation, though a part of her couldn't help but feel amused at her co-girlfriend's antics.
"You've also said that he'll be back any minute and as you may already know, he is not here yet!" Mina continued panicking.
"Gimme a break…" Momo whined, about ready to give up and head back to bed.
Alas that's when her knight in not-so-shining not-exactly-armor returned from his voyage and with a plus one on top of that.
"Welco-" Whatever greeting was about to leave her mouth was cut short as one ballistic missile of a pink-skinned alien girl almost tackled Izuku to the ground the second he walked in. "I swear she could give Iida a run for his money with that speed." Momo idly thought to herself before walking over to her barely standing boyfriend.
"I knew you'd be back any moment! Momo was over there listing off awful things that could've happened to you but I was there to calm her down, ain't I the bestest friend there is?! I demand cuddles as a reward!" Mina lied through her teeth which only made Momo feel more and more amusement.
"I have a hard time believing that Momo of all people would act like that, but whatever, you'll get your cuddles as soon as I regain control in my extremities. I swear my hands are frozen in place at this point!" Izuku half joked with a small, tired smile.
"How was your voyage?" Momo asked, slightly worried at the substantial amount of frost that covered Izuku from hat to boot.
"Awful but fruitful." He quickly summarized and then moved towards their campfire.
"I can see that." The raven-haired girl said as she tried - and failed - to recognize the person on Izuku's back. "You're probably dying to jump into the hot spring, but that's not a good idea, unless you want to get a rewarming shock. Take your clothes off and I'll bring you a blanket." Her caring nature got the better of her and she ended up taking control of the situation.
Izuku had no problem with that as he was practically too tired and cold to argue so he gently laid the girl he brought down and propped her against a bench before slumping to the ground himself. It doesn't sound impressive, but Mina was still clinging to his front which made it a bit more difficult to move around.
Unfortunately for her she had to let go of him for at least a few moments so that he could follow Momo's orders and strip from his frozen solid clothes. They were frigid enough that he was afraid they might shatter if he used too much strength.
Thankfully nothing of the sort happened and soon Mina could start warming him up with some good old skin on skin contact.
"It looks like my help is not needed afterall…" Izuku heard Momo tease when she returned with one of the spare blankets that were laying around their bedcave.
"Even so, I still appreciate it." He assured her with a smile.
Momo could only shake her head with an amused smirk as she draped the blanket over her two friends before plopping down beside her boyfriend.
"So… who is she?" She eventually asked in curiosity.
"I don't know." Was the short answer she received. Before she had a chance to dig further however he offered an explanation. "She must be a UA student just like us if the uniform is anything to go off of, probably a first year since I'm quite well acquainted with the second years and I don't recall anyone like her. Besides, it's not like I could've just left her there to freeze to death."
"Yeah, I figured as much. Well, we just have to wait for her to wake up and then we can question her about everything." Momo stated.
"Great, I'm dying to get some sleep even more than a hot bath…" Izuku groaned and yawned.
"It's settled then." Momo said and then stood up before facing Izuku once again. "You and Mina go ahead and I'll join you as soon as I'm done tucking our guest in." She commanded with a smile and didn't wait for any sort of response as she picked up the sleeping girl off the ground and headed towards a dimly lit corridor that Izuku could've sworn wasn't there just a few hours ago.
"Welp, you heard her, let's go." Izuku addressed Mina with a small smile which turned into an amused grin once he realized that she was already asleep, the combination of a warm blanket and his closeness hitting her like an isekai truck and sending her straight into the land of dreams. "I guess I'm not out of the woods yet." He thought to himself before hoisting Mina up and carrying her to their bed.
Momo would find them cuddled into each other a few minutes later, a sight to which she could only smile fondly before joining her boyfriend and fellow girlfriend in the bed, opting to nest herself in right behind Izuku. She prefered being the big spoon anyway!
Izuku was the first one of the love pile to wake up and spent the first few conscious minutes simply enjoying the presence of his two girlfriends. As in plural. As in more than one. He can already feel the headache that conveying this news to his mom will bring. And if what Mina and Momo told him about not being against dragging others into this? He should probably wait with informing his mom until they find a way to confine the infamous Midoriya tear ducts, which to this day remains a problem not even the entirety of I-Island can solve. Maybe he should just tell her at a beach or something? That way at least she won't have anything to flood and they'll avoid unnecessary loss of human lives. Well, first they need to get back to Japan before they start worrying about breaking the news to his mom.
Back to the present then. The feeling of his girlfriends snuggled up against his front and back coupled with the comforting warmth they provided which easily dwarfed the frigid cold he felt last night was great and all, but as heavenly as those things were, Izuku was not used to laying in bed for extended periods of time after waking up, choosing instead to continue the not-so-rigorous-now schedule that All Might put together for him way before UA. Getting out of bed was going to be tough though, as I've already mentioned he was surrounded on both fronts. Thankfully after honing his skills with Spider-Sense- wait, wrong fic - with Danger Sense he had some of the instincts bleed into his mind that allowed him to refine his movements a fair bit. Never did he imagine that he'd have to use Forth's Quirk to slip out of bed!
Nevertheless he made it and left the room whilst making nary a sound. The commoncave looked much like he expected it to - a burnt out fire with his already dry clothes spread around it, probably by Momo on her way back to bed last night.
The sight of his clothes made him instinctively look down to check his state. He kept his underwear on, but that was it for his current attire.
"Better put on some pants at least…" Izuku mumbled to himself, making sure to not come off as a pervert, which visiting a probably still asleep girl in nothing but underwear would surely pin him as.
He was easily able to put on his pants, but the shirt put up a fight he was not ready for, so he ultimately decided to forgo it. Walking around shirtless wasn't that big a deal, right? He hoped the girl would be as understanding as his female companions during the heatwave.
Izuku made sure not to just barge into the room in case the girl was indeed still asleep, which quickly turned out to be the right call as she was in fact sleeping soundly on that stone slab of a bed, covered by a pale yellow blanket.
The bedcave she was in was practically identical to the ones that he, Mina and Momo used to occupy before whatever omnipotent being was watching over them decided to throw them into a single bed, not that they were complaining. Well, maybe a bit, but it was mostly about how bullshit everything around them was.
Having checked up on the girl like he planned to, Izuku was about ready to head out when she suddenly started fidgeting which meant that she was probably about to wake up. He knew from experience that waking up all alone in an unfamiliar place can give you one hell of a scare, so he decided to stay and react if the need arose.
The girl fidgeted for a bit before eventually sitting up in bed and stretching her arms over her head and releasing a sleepy yawn. The drowsiness she initially displayed quickly dissipated as she probably failed to recognize her surroundings.
"Wha-?" Her question was cut short when her eyes locked onto his form standing in the doorway.
Now, he knew he was pretty popular overall - and if what Mina told him was true, which it probably was, especially popular with girls - so there was a good chance she might know him even if he doesn't know her, so his presence alone would probably calm her a fair bit.
"Hi, how do you feel?" Izuku asked with a gentle smile on his face as he cautiously approached the girl.
"Aroused." She stated bluntly which made Izuku freeze in place.
"Wha-?" This time his question was cut short as the girl licked her lips whilst eyeing him from head to toe.
"This is probably the most realistic dream I've ever had, but I'm definitely not complaining…" He heard her whisper as she bit her lip lightly. "Those muscles look so delicious…" She breathed out.
"This is not a dream. At least I think it's not…" He whispered the second sentence more to himself but he was probably heard either way. "I know that this might be confusing and I won't blame you because there is a fair share of wacky stuff going on on a daily basis, so let's start with something simple, what's your name?" He asked politely as he sat down at the far end of the stone slab.
"I didn't know you were such a joker Midori~!" The girl exclaimed with an amused smile. "Or do you perhaps know another Invisible Girl? If it's the former then I'm all for it, if it's the latter I'm jealous. That name is trademarked!" She joked without a care in the world. Although her answer gave Izuku a good idea about who he was dealing with. Not many people called him 'Midori'.
"Hagakure?" He asked in pure disbelief.
"Unless, like I've already said, you know another Invisible Girl." She confirmed, the smile not leaving her face for a moment.
"But, I can see you right now…" Izuku stated with bated breath.
"Nonsense, I was born invisible you know?" She replied and waved her hand in dismissal which made it enter her field of view. As soon as she noticed the appendage she froze and began staring at the hand, her hand as if trying to burn a hole right through it.
"Tooru?" Izuku asked in concern as he observed her for a few moments.
Her head suddenly snapped up towards him before darting to look all over her body only to finally settle back on him.
"I'm visible…" She uttered. "I-I can see me… You can see me…" Her voice was now on level with a whisper and the tears were already welling up in her eyes. "How do I look?" She asked, sounding almost desperate, as if it could all vanish any second now, just like a dream.
"You're very beautiful." Izuku stated truthfully and the next thing he knew there was a crying damsel in distress on his chest. He was caught off guard by her sudden move, but he instinctively brought his arms around her to provide whatever comfort he could as she continued sobbing.
Izuku wasn't sure whether the tears trailing down his body were those of happiness or sadness, though he had his suspicions, but he didn't need to be. His classmate needed someone to comfort them and Izuku promised to always be there for his friends. That's why he simply sat there and let her cry to her heart's content whilst rubbing circles on her back and whispering calmly into her ear.
He'd need to tell Mina and Momo about what he'd discovered, but that was something he could worry about later. He had more important things to attend to at the moment.
Oh hey, would you look at that, it's the girl everyone pointed towards, who would've guessed?
Anyway, I was wondering how to approach Tooru being able to see herself, but I've eventually settled on something emotional but kind of vague so as not to ruin it with fancy words and my utter lack of knowledge and understanding of human emotions. I kinda figured that she was invisible all her life she'd be very emotional about being able to see herself in a mirror or something like that.
A quick disclaimer before I go - I've just recently found out that fucked something up like over half a year ago and didn't show me any notifications about Private Messages, so I had no idea that you guys were sending them... Yeah, I wasn't trying to be a dick by ignoring you, so a big sorry from me to those that I've left hanging for quite some time!
Anyways, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter! Have a great day and I'll catch all of you next Friday with the weekly dose of Stranded!