My Hero Academia: Symbiosis
OneTrueKingOfWinter
Chapter 5: Pause
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Izuku had never been grounded before.
Technically, he still hadn't been, he hadn't been punished, but he was to stay home for the rest of the week to recover from the damage to his foot. His mom had put her foot down on that. Quite a bit more successfully than Izuku had with the log.
His mother had taken the sight of him filthy, wet, limping and with a destroyed shoe, as well as he had expected she would. However, it wasn't before he actually told her what had happened, that the flood works had really come, and she had embraced him in tears.
He had tried to downplay it by how quickly his injury had healed, but frankly, it was as if the moment he stepped foot inside his home, all the energy had gone out of him. This had added him feeling and looking like a drained and cracked battery on top of his other problems as he was talking to his mom and trying to calm her down.
In the end, she had ordered him to bed after a quick shower to clean himself(The hot water doing nothing to quicken him up.), to rest and recover.
It had made Izuku incredibly guilty to know he had worried her so much, because of his own stupid mistakes.
He hadn't even considered that he was supposed to have classes in a few hours before his head hit his pillow. Then it had been a fleeting thought in his head before he fell asleep.
When he woke the next time, the pain in Izuku's foot had dampened to a dull ache. At least while he was lying down. It would probably hurt more when he walked. The first thing that struck Izuku upon regaining consciousness was not his leg though.
Izuku felt DRAINED like he had been a wet towel that had been wrung again and again until all every single drop of water had left him. Then been thrown out to be baked in the sun.
He had to go and get something to eat. What time was it anyway?
He glanced over to an All Might wall clock he had owned for years.
It was 22.13. He had slept for around 16 hours straight. Wow, he had been tired. Well… He still was.
He forced himself to sit upright on the bed, then with just a bit of hesitation, he slowly put his legs out over the side, and fully expecting pain, he lowered them to the ground.
Well, he had been right, he did feel a pang of pain, but frankly, it was nothing compared to anything he had felt last night. It certainly wasn't anything compared to how drained he felt.
He had to go and eat something. Anything.
As he forced himself to his feet, trying his best to ignore the leg, he walked across his room and opened the door.
He could hear sounds from the living room, so his mom was awake. It sounded like she was watching tv.
His leg still covered in black liquid, izuku haltingly walked past the ugly door to their bathroom(Izuku had made it too short so it didn't fully fit into the doorframe, and without any paint, there wasn't any hiding how old and used it was, no matter how much he had cleaned it.) and opened the door to the living room.
As he had suspected, his mom was indeed watching tv, though she turned her head the moment he stepped in. Then she scrambled to her feet.
"Izuku! Sweetie, how are you feeling?"
He blushed, and awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
"I'm… I'm fine mom. Just a bit tired, and hungry."
She quickly guided him to the sofa she had recently been sitting on and helped him down in it.
"I'll cook something up for you sweetie. Just relax and take it easy okay?"
As she went to the kitchen and begun preparing something, Izuku asked "...What about school?"
"I called in and said you were sick sweetie, and that you wouldn't be attending school for the rest of the week."
"Oh."
Yeah, that made sense. He really was sick after all. Maybe not with the usual sickness of a middle schooler, but still sick.
After that, an uncomfortable silence arose, as Inko made food, and, Izuku absentmindedly watched tv.
--
Inko made food. It was what she did. It was what she had done for a decade now. It wasn't that she resented doing it, quite the opposite, she had come to enjoy the peace of the home.
But there were few times where she had felt as useless as she did now.
She had been useless last night too. The only thing she could do was wait for Izuku all night and constantly send him messages he didn't respond to.
She had been really mad about that, worried something had happened to her, yet all her rage had gone out of her the moment Izuku came home like he did, dirty, shaking, and with his leg like it was. All that was left had been worry and concern about his state.
It had been an eye-opener, as she sat her boy down and heard his story.
It wasn't like Inko hadn't understood the potential risks involved in Izuku's dreams. Heroes got hurt sometimes. Yet it was something completely different to hear about it than to actually have it happen to her boy.
And not even a villain attack, but a simple training accident. Something that could easily have happened at school, and could easily have crippled him for life, or at least given him a permanent limp.
Yet now he was walking relatively easily just a day after the accident.
Her father had once dislocated an arm, and he had taken a good half year to recover from it. Frankly, his arm had never been the same for the rest of her life. You weren't actually able to fully recover from dislocated limbs. It was a permanent injury that never fully healed. Unless you had a regenerative quirk or were healed by one.
Yet her baby was almost shrugging off a much worse dislocation after less than two days. It was a moment that really made things sink in for Inko, that her baby had a quirk, and was going to realize his dreams.
It was something that made her incredibly happy… And terrified.
"Food's ready sweetie."
Izuku turned his head and looked at her direction, his eyes zooming in at the food. God, he must be hungry.
After sitting himself down Izuku beginning to devour his food at an astonishing speed, with Inko just staring at him, still worried.
Izuku, bless him, noticed her worried look, and after devouring a fish, he asked "I'm fine mom. Honestly, I'm fine. I'm a bit sore and there's some pain in my leg still, but it's fading."
He was honest, her son always was. But the leg wasn't really the problem here, not really. She sighed.
"Just… Finnish eating okay? Once you're done… We've got some stuff to talk about."
Even before yesterday, she had been procrastinating with recent events. She should have discussed this with Izuku weeks ago. Yet she'd been putting it off.
She hadn't been sure why not before yesterday. Or this morning depending on how you looked at it.
She was afraid of change, of this little life she had been building up for herself and Izuku completely being upended. Inko didn't like her life being upended. She'd had it happen to her before, and it had never been a good thing. This time though, it would her herself who did it. Not something beyond her control.
--
Izuku wasn't sure what his mom wanted to talk to him about, but he had fears. Fears he wouldn't be allowed to train anymore. At least the Drained feeling seemingly vanished with the meal. That was something at least.
"I'm… not really sure where to begin Izuku. There's a lot of stuff I want to talk to you about. Both about… Well, yesterday, and the future."
She sighed.
"The first thing I want to ask, is why didn't you call me yesterday, instead of just sending me a message?"
"I… I didn't want to make you worry…"
"I was worried SICK Izuku!!!"
He winced.
"I literally sent you over a hundred messages, begging you to call me. I was TERRIFIED something awful and terrible had happened, like you had been kidnapped, or worse!"
Hearing his mom say it out loud just made Izuku feel even more guilty about screwing up.
"Did you honestly think I wouldn't understand if you had called and explained it to me? Yes, I'd be worried sick, but at least I would have known what was going on, and that is something you can deal with."
"I… I'm sorry… I just… I didn't want you to…"
Hearing her say it out like that, just made him feel like a moron. Like he thought his mom wouldn't be able to handle any bad news at all. God, he was a terrible son.
Inko looked at him, with a look that somewhere between stern, sad, pitying, and concerned all at the same time.
"But… The worst part Izuku is that if you had just called, I could easily have helped you out getting home, instead of just sitting here and worrying about you."
"But… But we don't have a car, and we don't have the money for a taxi."
"I have Friends, Izuku. Your father also has old friends in the city. Anyone of them would have been willing to drive to the park and pick you up."
Izuku's brain stopped working for a moment. Then he REALLY felt like a goddamn moron. Of course one of his mom's friends would have been willing to pick him up, he was just so used to them not having a car or not being able to take a taxi, that he hadn't even considered that as an option.
"You… Didn't realize that was an option, did you?"
"No…"
Inko sighed, tension visibly going out of her face.
"I am grateful that Stick-San helped you out in the woods, and then made sure you made it home safely once you could walk again. But it really would have been better if you had gotten home so you could have recovered in bed."
"Which was was very much an option, and you would have known that if you had called me."
He didn't say anything in response, just bit his lip and cursed himself for being an idiot.
"Just… don't do it again okay? If something happens and you need help, tell me about it. Don't hide it, thinking it'll go away. It never does, sweetie. Ever."
He looked up at her. Then, he start to tear up as he replied.
"Okay, Mom… I… I won't do it again."
"Oh, sweetie…"
She took his hand and gave him one of those comforting smiles he loved so much.
This time it was Izuku who broke the silence. He really didn't want to. Not now, anyway. A smarter move would have been to talk about it later down the week. But he had to get this out of the way.
"I… I have something I need to say too. It's not something I wanted to bring up so soon after… My leg injury, but… Well, like you said, pretending the problem isn't there won't make it go away."
Inko's look changed to more stern as if she was forcing herself to be calmer and more serious.
"What's the problem?"
"Well, Stick-san kinda laid out for me a huge problem in my thinking. When I choose the forest as my training spot, I thought it was far out of the way, and no one would notice. Except… I was dead wrong."
"As stick-san pointed out, that is literarily the first place people who want to be heroes goes to train. It's obvious for any pro hero with experience. If I go back to training regularly there, sooner or later, I'll be noticed by another pro hero. Quite possibly one who won't be as forgiving as Stick-san was."
Inko sat in silence as he spoke, only talking when he was done.
"So what do you plan to do then?"
"I… I don't know. I'll have to find another spot. Probably even further away."
Izuku winced at his mother's expression as he said that, but after a short inner debate, she sighed.
"If that's how it is, then that's how it is. You're still staying home for the rest of the week though. When you go out again, I want your foot to have healed completely with no doubt about it."
Fair enough.
He hesitated before he spoke next. It was a question he had to ask her, he had to know, even if it sounded like she had given her blessing.
"So…. You'll still let me train? Even after… well… this?
She stared at him for a while in silence, while Izuku fidgeted in place, then she sighed.
"Yes."
A weight was lifted from Izuku's shoulders.
She hesitated briefly before continuing.
"Also… regarding finding a new training place for you… I… I could probably get someone to drive you there. Though that would depend heavily on the day."
"It's… It's something to work on. There's more than enough time I suppose."
He chuckled awkwardly.
"Yeah… There is."
His mom didn't exactly go back to being cheerful, but her smile did return.
"Also, I have something I've been meaning to tell you for a while now."
"What?"
"About a month ago, I… I got a job offer."
"Really? As a lawyer again?"
"Yes."
That… was unexpected. Izuku wasn't exactly filled in about his mom's old career as he could have been(She hadn't been one since he was 6), but he knew her choice to leave the business wasn't one she had wanted. She had effectively been blacklisted by the legal firms, without technically losing her license, after her old firm had been shut down.
He didn't know why it had been shut down, but he knew his mom had been devastated by it.
It was also a moment that had marked the first financial change in his life, as they had moved out of their old house and into their current apartment. It was also the event that had lead to his dad working abroad to keep them afloat financially.
The second change was his dad being demoted for something, which had sharply reduced their amount of spending money about 2 years ago.
"It's… In Yokohama."
Oh.
"Well… It's not as bad as it could be. I mean, it could have been in Tokyo. That would have been three times as far away."
Inko looked at him kinda sadly.
"It still means things will change sweetie. I won't always be here when you come home."
Izuku blushed.
"I'm… I'm not a little kid anymore, mom."
"Aye, You're not. You're not quite an adult either though, as yesterday proved."
He winced, but he didn't argue.
"To be honest sweetie, I wasn't all that excited about taking the job. Not really. I… I was worried about leaving you home without me."
He blushed again.
"But then… After you discovered your quirk… You changed."
"I… I haven't changed."
"You have. A lot."
She smiled at him, a smiled Izuku didn't instantly recognize, but one he eventually realized was pride.
"Frankly sweetie, you've changed so much this last month. You're happy now. You go outside every day with a smile on your face. You've begun to take your future so much more seriously than you did before."
Her smile beamed even more.
It felt strange to Izuku. To be praised for just going out and training and doing his regular stuff. Was he really that different now? He didn't feel any different. Well, except for anything regarding Katsuki and his school. That was different. Really different. And during his training sessions he felt more alive in a way he never had before, and- and yeah, he was kinda different now wasn't he?
"So you're taking the job?"
"Yes. I've… talked about it with your father, and he agrees it's for the best. For one thing, Izuku, if you're really going to become a pro, it will help you immensely to have a more financially stable base to work from."
Well, that was true enough. Images of a punching bag crept through his mind. Also maybe not having a bathroom door that was literarily collected from a trash heap.
His mom then got a massive and happy grin on her face and looked for a moment like she was about to say something. Then she cut herself off and instead said.
"Anyway, we'll see how it turns out. It's still months away until I start working again in any case. We'll figure things out before then.
There was something more going on here. Judging by the way his mom was smiling to herself. She had been about to say something completely different, yet had stopped herself and just ended the topic prematurely.
Part of him wanted to dig deeper, but another part of him, the part that always told him to be cautious, told him to not push his luck more than he had with that training conversation.
If mom had something more to tell him, she would do it in her own time.
--
Izuku laid in bed reading through a long, long list of heroes.
As it was, he didn't really have anything else to do at the moment.
Unlike his mom, who had only slept for 6 hours after he came back home, and thus had a relatively easy time going back to the regular rhythm, Izuku felt as awake as he ever had been.
Which just meant that instead of sleeping, he was lying in bed browsing his phone.
He knew logically that he shouldn't be trying to figure out who Stick actually was, but his curiosity, and almost addiction level of trying to figure out everything he could about any hero he met drove his search for the red cowled man.
Not that he had any luck. For one thing, Stick wasn't Japanese, which meant searching through Japanese lists of heroes wasn't all that likely to find results. Unless he was an immigrant, stick would not be listed at all.
Even if he had been Japanese, there were still thousands of heroes in Japan alone. A rather large list to search through, given he didn't have a name.
He had still done so. After 4 hours he gave up the Japanese lists and went over the ones in America, the country with the largest superhero registry in the world.
If Izuku had had trouble in the Japanese list of candidates, that was drowned out by the sea that was the American candidates. Literarily hundreds of candidates who all fit the criteria of 1. Red and Black Armor. 2. Sensory quirk, and 3. Tall.
As the clock turned 08.00 he still hadn't found anything.
After that, it was China, the land with the second-largest hero population, then third India. Admittingly he knew it was kinda stupid to search the largest and biggest countries first. He had never thought of the U.S.A as a country that could be described as a land without peace.
Nor China frankly. It had been in America that the new world order post the societal collapse brought on by quirks had been founded, but few lands had rebuilt themselves with that order as quickly as China and Japan.
Still, it was either this or search through countries at random. He'd work himself all the way down from the top to the bottom, and pray he didn't accidentally miss Stick in the thousands of guys he looked through.
The rather sad truth was that it was fully possible Izuku had already missed him, and not realized it. If Stick had used another costume in the past, he could easily have seen a picture of him and not realized it.
But it was either this or give up on the search. If Izuku failed at this, it would not be for lack of trying.
After breakfast at 08.00, there was still nothing. He threw himself through the European countries. No result.
14.21, he moved on to Africa.
That took him literally the rest of the day, not counting dinner and an evening meal. Before he went to bed, he moved on to South America, and he was still browsing through Brazil as he fell asleep.
All in all, despite not having moved much, it had been one of the most active research periods of Izuku's life so far. It had also been one of his most fruitless.
As he would learn 2 days later, having literarily gone through every single official public hero list on the planet, it had all been a huge waste of time. He didn't learn anything about Stick.
What he did learn that week, was how long it took to fully repair a foot twisted 90 degrees sideways.
Roughly 2 and a half days. It went in his black book, and regarding his powers, it was the only thing Izuku learned that week. The irony he spent an entire week devoted to his healing powers wasn't lost on him.
The rest of the week was generally studies of more Heroes he might have come across at some point in his life.
His quirk returned to watching ancient movies once his foot was healed, and with it the usual emotions running through his head.
What it watched seemed to have no rhyme or reason. Sometimes it watched old samurai films, other times a random anime tie movie, other times foreign action stories. One time it had streamed the entire Dragon Ball film library in one go.
He really didn't understand it's tastes. Sometimes he wondered if it even understood what people said in movies. It didn't seem to care if the film was subtitled or dubbed.
That would line up with what he speculated in his black book. It only seemed to understand him half of the time.
Notes:
for anyone wondering how in the world izuku and his family wouldnt be able to pay for taxi, just know that japan has one of the two highest taxi rates in the world. it's really expensive to travel with taxi there. its one of the reasons why the train is such a popular option in the land of the rising sun.