Author's notes:
This chapter is slightly shorter than the previous one. Sorry about that, I had so many things planned for this story and I haven't planned the entire story properly yet. Hopefully, by the time the next chapter is up, I'll be able to make sure that everything is going according to plan.
Thank you for your reviews! It's been motivating me to write more of this series.
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Chapter 4 : The Fat Is In The Fire
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All Might, All Might, All Might.
This entire thing started because of All Might.
This entire case is All Might's fault, no matter any way she tries to slice the situation. No matter how she tries analyse it piece by piece, the entire thing is because of All Might. The man has good intentions, that much she knew – but even so, for a charismatic man able to charm the entire population of Japan, he's so bad at communicating what he really wants to the public.
She may have or may have not meant that. Who knows? She's just being really bitter right now.
Arima Yuuki groans as she reminisces the conversation she had with Midoriya. This entire mess started from the moment All Might decides to enrol her into Primary School.
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"Huh?" Did she even heard him correctly?
"That's how it is, Arima-san." Izuku nods, reaffirming all of her suspicions. "A few days before you transferred to our school, All Might came to our school because he's on a tour. He said something about visiting the students and Senseis at various school, with the intention of informing us 'future heroes' on what it means to be a Hero. He even gave everyone his autograph! He also gave us a sort talk about heroes, and then, and then-"
She tuned out Izuku's rambling after that. Her mind only circulated to one question – Since when did All Might bothers with public visitations or anything of the sort? He's the Symbol of Peace – The freaking mascot of Japan's Hero Society! He's loved and worshipped by the entire population. He doesn't need to do any public tours considering his immense popularity, and yet he's now doing a public meeting with the elementary school she's enrolled to?
How in the world is this supposed to be a coincidence?!
"That's great, Midoriya-san, but what about this issue about bullying all come to about?" At that, Izuku flinched and flushed slightly.
"It's not bullying, Arima-san, it's just how Kacchan is." He answers sheepishly. "Kacchan's really amazing, and I'm just the slowest one among the group. Not to mention, I'm also quirkless, that's why Kacchan is like that–"
As if he said something wrong, he suddenly slapped his mouth close.
Why did he do that?
…Ah.
"You're quirkless?" She asks, mustering the most curious look she can at him.
"Ye–Yes." He stutters, his face flushed with embarrassment. "I'm quirkless."
"And this Kacchan, he's bullying you because he's quirkless." She states.
"We–Well, we are childhood friends, and I knew him since I was 4... but he's not always that bad! He doesn't always disturb me at school and he even lets me play with him at break time now!"
"Now, as in after All Might came to school and reminds everyone what it means to be a hero." Yuuki could already feel the headache growing in her already exhausted brain. She expects the butterfly effect working already, but what is this supposed to mean for Izuku who will inherit One For All in the future?
She sighs. As long as that boy does not done anything harmful, it should be fine for her to help Izuku out a little bit, can't she?
"Well… yes?" Izuku questions. "But it's alright, Arima-san, you don't have to worry about it too much, it's just how Kacchan is and–"
"–Yuuki." She cuts in abruptly, knowing full well that she will regret this decision so much later in the future.
"–he's always been like that since he got his quirk– Oh, eh, what?"
"Yuuki. You can call me Yuuki, Izuku-kun."
"O–okay!" He lets out a big smile that she instinctively knows Mallory will fangirl over if she's in her position right now. "Then, Yuu-chan!"
Yuuki held back a snort at that. 'Yuu-chan? So now we're in close terms now then? Oh… Arima Yuuki, just what have you done now?'
She wanted to curse, wanted to swear, or do anything that she could do to vent out this frustration and regret at her abrupt decision to talk to Midoriya Izuku. She's changed things again. At this rate, how much longer can she stay sane before she'll shout out to her entire plans to just screw the plot and let things go her way?
…Oh wait. But then she has to think about The Rubber Band theory as well. Okay, so instead of abandoning the plot completely, maybe she'll have to alter the course of events a bit then.
"If that's the case, then Izu-kun, then." She smiles. "Tell me more about All Might. What happened after he gave his speech to everyone?"
At his continued rant about All Might and his speech to the school, she listened with half attention to it. His eyes practically glowed at her question and goes off to teach her about everything that his idol told the entire school body before her arrival.
She nods and smiles to show that she's listening. In her mind though, she could only think of one thing –
'Just what in the world is the Symbol of Peace thinking, doing evident favouritism like this?!'
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The Symbol of Peace is most of the time busy with his hero work taking him to anywhere he can across Japan, but there is always that one time where he would return to Might Tower that would coincidentally match up with her arrival.
"Young Arima and Takahashi!" He greets, barging into Sayuri's private office in the middle of her lesson. Which he fully knows is something that he's not supposed to do, but will continue to do so anyways in the name of igniting Ruthless Teacher 1's wrath. "I Am Here… With some Mochi from Hokkaido for souvenirs!"
"All Might-san…" Sayuri is so close to igniting her wrath on him, Yuuki could tell, but the Lawyer held her anger back only because she knows that the pro hero will play innocent, and Nighteye will play innocent as well -He's the tattletale, always. Sayuri swears that his foresight is not meant to be used to see when Yuuki is coming to Might Tower for her lessons with her. Yuuki's lessons with Sayuri are always never constant, after all- only because it's for All Might. "Next time, please knock on the door instead of just barging in. And also when we're finished. Not in the middle of the lesson."
"A little break will surely help her." He grins, handing over the packaged mochi to Sayuri. "And I wouldn't know of it, wouldn't I? I just happen to see how she's doing when she's here while dropping of some souvenirs!"
"You shouldn't lie or else your reliability as The Symbol of Peace would drop drastically." Sayuri sighs, shooting him an exasperated expression to which the Hero decides to play the 'Who, Me? I'm innocent' expression. "Okay, we'll have to continue this another time, Yuuki-chan. Make sure to review your lessons, alright? I'll quiz you on that next time."
"Okay," She nods, shooting a grateful smile towards the Hero behind Sayuri's back. Just in time. Her head is getting cloudy too because of all that information Sayuri is making her read. The books on the tables look like it's lessons for middle school, but make no mistake. The books are just there because Sayuri changed all the books in the table in a matter of seconds from the moment she felt All Might coming to her office. "Thanks for today then, Sayuri-san."
'Ruthless Teacher 1 is not someone to mess around, note taken.' She thinks, seeing the evident lightning fast speed before her eyes as her teacher swapped all the relevant lessons in the table to something else in a matter of seconds.
She puts all her books away in her school bag, before walking towards the still grinning man, right after letting Sayuri knows that she's leaving. "So, where to now, All Might-san?"
"I heard a new cat café is opening nearby. Have you ever been to a cat cafe before, Young Arima?" He asks, as they walked towards the lifts.
"Nope." She shook her head, before beams him a sly smile. "Will Nighteye-san be there as well?"
"Sadly, he won't this time." He answers sombrely. "He has to keep up with all the paper work."
"The paper work that you make from all your heroic activities, I'm sure." She states, making the said hero flinch slightly in good old playful guilt. "Too bad, I wanted to see how Nighteye-san reacts to cats. He looks so stiff with all those paper work - maybe we should get him a kitten on his birthday."
"I don't think Sir will appreciate that at all, Young Arima."
At that, she shoots him a 'are-you-serious?' look, before stating, "Nighteye-san will appreciate anything you'll give him, All Might-san."
"That's not true, he didn't like that gift I got him last time."
"And which gift did you mean by that, All Might-san?"
"…Oh, fair point. At this, I concede."
If Yuuki is sprouting a rarely ever seen proud smirk on her face as she walked out of Might Tower with the Symbol of Peace next to her, nobody bothered to say anything. It's not every day that they get to see the small girl next to the Pro Hero making an open expression like that.
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Her relationship with All Might is a strange one. Heck, even her first meeting with All Might is already a strange one.
Where Izuku first meets All Might when he is saved by that sludge villain when he reaches Middle School, she meets All Might when she's having her weekly meeting with Shirai-sensei, a doctor which specialises in quirk development for children. It's been 2 years since her arrival into this new world that was once fictional to her, and yet her quirk has yet to show itself.
Sayuri tried to make her list down all the possible things that could lead her to activating her quirk. She tried to drill massive amount of information into her brain, hoping to prompt some sort of reaction to her adamant, silent quirk. She tried to question -If anyone asks Yuuki, it's hell. It's far too kind to call it an interrogation, it's far too easy to call it torture- 2 weeks after that, nothing happened at all, except for the fact that Yuuki then recognises her as Ruthless Teacher 1.
And Senri, the nerve of her stepfather, only laughs at her experiences while Hayami pats her back in a mock action of comfort. She's the only one who can sympathise with her, because apparently Yuuki is not the only one who's subjected to all of this treatment by Ruthless Teacher 1. Hayami is drilled with massive amount of medical information into her head apparently because it's her job to be a professional doctor when she came from a world that's not even as scientifically advanced as the one they're living in now.
But back to the past. Recognising that Sayuri is unable to accomplish the task of somehow trying to activate her silently, adamant non-existent quirk at this point, she turns to a member whom she affectionately calls is one of her last resorts.
Minamoto Reo. A high-ranked member of the JSDF. A member of their dysfunctional family, and also someone who Yuuki tries to avoid at all costs.
With Ruthless Teacher 1 telling him, and she quote 'Can you try to help her summon her quirk?' with a very warm smile, she's rewarded with a curt nod and a 'Sure. Let's do this.' before her trip to another floor of hell starts.
Hell is such a nice word for it, if she could truthfully post her opinion on it. Between being thrown to the padded mattress in the name of learning the right stance to counter, being punched and kicked all the time in the name of perfecting her technique and also being criticized harshly with the hopes of making her quirk somehow miraculously emerge–
–Let it be said that the entire month that comes after her first meeting with Ruthless Teacher 2, he's almost at his wits end as well because her quirk, still somehow refuses to emerge.
Falling onto her butt for the umpteen time, Ruthless Teacher 2 shouts for a small break to which she took it as a blessing straight from heaven. Gah, today is probably much worse than the last practice only because this time, the bruises and wounds from yesterday hasn't fully healed yet, even with Hayami's medical help.
She takes the drink handed by Ruthless Teacher 2 and drank it all down with a few quick gulps. She looked at the analysing face of her teacher, before deciding to say, "You're giving up on me."
"Giving up is a harsh word, but no." He sighs. He wipes the sweat from his face with a towel. "If anything, I would say that I don't understand. Your problem is not something related to anything intelligence or physical, that much we know. We tried to put as much stress as we can on you that would prompted your quirk, and yet – it stays stubbornly silent. It's almost as if your quirk is not meant to be activated that way."
At that, she blinks. She never heard of the mechanisms or explanations behind the emergence of their quirks. She knows that they are special cases, due to their relations and knowledge of a certain Administrator, which makes them different from the natural born people in this world, and yet…
"Has it ever dawned on you that I could just be quirkless?" She asks, only to which Ruthless Teacher 2 shoots her a glare.
"The day that we discover you're quirkless is the day we know you're going to die soon." He snaps. "Everyone has a quirk. We're all special cases, chosen by the Administrator himself. He won't let us be reborn into this world without any skills or weapons that would allow us to protect ourselves. Your mission is related to the heroes, so with your expertise with various languages, we thought that you would be playing something in the support items with the heroes. And yet, curiously, Sayuri failed to get you to activate your quirk. So she reached out to me, because your quirk may be something related to combat. And yet, here I am, trying to drill you techniques that normal kids your age would never be able to perform, and yet, despite of all the beating I drilled to you, you still show no signs of your quirk emerging."
At the long explanation, Yuuki could only nod. She remembers Sayuri saying something about her quirk playing an important role to her mission – but to think that her quirk is possibly not related to combat or support...
Now they're just making her curious just what sort of her quirk would she get.
"Perhaps… my quirk is something else? Not related to combat or intelligence? It could be a much more versatile one, for all we know."
"If it's versatile as if it's something that could be useful in daily life, then it would've emerged a long time ago. Remember, your quirk is supposed to be reflecting yourself, or your desire. With Sayuri, you've learnt what do you want for the future. That should've given you an image of what you need for the future. And yet… your quirk, it's still dormant. For two years straight since your arrival. That's just a new record. The last longest record before you came is 6 months, and that's only because his quirk turns out to be related to gravity, not temperature."
"How can someone not be able to tell the difference between gravity and temperature?" She knew that everyone came from a different world, but really?
"Synaesthesia." Ruthless Teacher 2 says, before elaborating, "They are just in need of adjusting their senses, that's all."
"Ah." She nods in understanding. That's a first time she heard of such case. "So, you think that I have that too?"
"I don't think so," He shrugs. "but I'm not the quirk specialist. Shirai is. But…." At that, he stopped, as if he's contemplating something.
"But what?" Yuuki prompts.
"…Shirai could help you out." Ruthless Teacher 2 declares, right after a few moment of contemplative silence. "Whatever your quirk is, perhaps the reason why it hadn't appeared at all because you know what you want for the future, but you don't know what you need to get it. It could be that, or something worse – like not wanting to change the future at all."
At that, Yuuki could already feel the imaginary arrow stabbing at her heart. Way to tell her the unwanted truth straight to her face.
If what Ruthless Teacher 2 is saying is true, then her knowledge that this world is a once a fictional one in her world is going against her. She's worrying about a lot of things – her future, for one. According to all the things Sayuri taught, avoiding the key characters are simply impossible to avoid. In fact, it's easier to just approach and befriend them instead of just straight out doing everything in their power to avoid them.
At the look of her momentary expression on her face, Ruthless Teacher gave her an unreadable look.
She responded with a confused smile. "What?"
He stares at her, before he sighs, before throwing her jacket at her.
"Get dressed. We're going to meet with Shirai. He can help us get to the bottom of this."
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Meeting with the supposed Quirk specialist filled her with dread, for reasons that Yuuki herself cannot identify. Perhaps it's because she feels as if he's looking at her as if she's an interesting case to dissect, or perhaps it's because he reminds her of those people who doesn't mean anything bad, but could simply make you feel bad because he's staring at you.
"My name is Shirai Takumi, nice to meet you, the youngest of the family." He politely greets, as he carefully dumps a bunch of papers on his hands onto the desk. "So, Reo, what's the case this time? The girl doesn't have anything otherworldly senses like magic or blessings, right?"
"None that I can tell. She's been here for 2 years now and despite of Sayuri's and My best efforts, her quirk is not showing up at all." Ruthless Teacher 2 explains. "Think you can get her to talk to it? We're at our last legs, and she's going to need her quirk fast or else she'll be left behind."
"Left behind? So she's heading for heroics?" Shirai inquires.
"That's the plan." At that, Ruthless teacher looks at Yuuki, as if waiting for her confirmation.
"Well… That's my plan B. My plan A is actually to go for the Support Department." Yuuki confesses, to which, both adults blink in surprise at her.
"That's the first time I ever heard of that." Ruthless Teacher 2 mumbles. "Did Sayuri know of this?"
"A brief of it, yeah." Yuuki smiles sheepishly. "I still haven't really planned for it yet, and Sayuri is still expecting my full thought on it."
"But why the support department?" Shirai asks, and to her surprise – did his eyes just glowed? "You're missions has something to do with the heroes, and while it is true with those support items you can help them be better heroes – there is nothing better than to ensure than the flames of heroism survives by becoming a hero yourself."
"But how do you know that I am meant to be the next leader to the next generations of heroes?" The thought of Midoriya Izuku and Bakugou Katsuki floats in her mind. They're the true leading heroes of the next generation, not her. "I don't think I'm suited to lead people. No matter how much I train myself to lead these new generations of heroes, I know I'm not the right person for it. I'm not charismatic or even a good leader. I'm just me, you know?"
She's just a protector. Not a leader. A protector, a keeper of secrets, and the messenger she would accept. The leader? The Alpha and the innovator to the packs of people to come? Are they crazy? Her experience of leading people are only limited to all of those group projects that she and Mallory would have to do together to pass high school!
"A leader can always be made," Shirai argues. "and the fact that you care is a sign that you can be a leader. There are more qualities to be a good leader, but I'm sure we can educate you on it just fine."
"An educated leader and natural born one is like comparing the clouds to space itself." She answers calmly. "It's not fair for me to try to be a leader when I know someone else can do it better than me."
At that, Shirai sighed, and shoot a look at Ruthless Teacher 2, which to my confusion, answered him with a grim nod.
A nod, she understands, that mean he's consenting to something. But the fact that she finds her teacher grimly nodding off at him as if he's sending her off to her death… just what the heck has Ruthless Teacher 2 sent her off to now?
"Ookay… so…" Does that means that she's done here, or does that mean she's going back to training, or what? For some reason, she's getting some sort of warning bells ringing in her head right now… "Can I go back now?"
At that, Shirai's eyes -and she kid you not- glows in a hot pink colour that made her wonder – just where in the world has she seen that shade of glowing hot pink colour before?
"Not yet. Yuuki-chan. I have only one advice for you – remember to treat it as you always do, okay?"
'Huh?' is the only thought that passed through her before soon she finds herself no longer in Shirai's office.
She lands herself on something soft, and upon seeing the very familiar homey-looking office with the piles and piles of paper on top of the mahogany desk and a very familiar bishounen man standing in front of her…
"Not even a decade and you're already here again?" The administrator took a look and her before he broke out a grin at her. "Well hello, Kelcie Crescent. Or better yet, it's Yuuki Arima, isn't it? What brings you into my humble abode so soon? Humans don't usually come back here as fast as you after their death."
She repeats. Huh?
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"That's very drastic of you to suddenly send her off like that." As soon as Shirai's eyes glowed, he has immediately braced himself from the light. Direct contact with the Seer's eyes will only lead their family members to meet the very being that has send them here. Minamoto didn't understand why his quirk functions like that, but he has a mingling suspicion that it has something to do with his supposed job to really act as a seer for the family.
With practiced ease, he ran up to her side, and caught he right before she could fall into the cold floor, which would only aggravate her injuries further.
"The faster she meets it, the faster she'll get her thoughts back on track and get her quirk." Shirai answers easily. "Besides, Reo, you caught it, didn't you?"
Minamoto Reo nods. "Yes. Her world… it must be quite special if she can say that she's not a leader to the heroes just like that. Most people would've jumped at the offer of power, and yet she declines with the conviction that someone else is meant to step up instead of her. The world that she came from… what sort of world is it if she can say that she only wants to be normal when in this world, normal is impossible?"
"We're already the living proofs that normal are overrated anyways~" Shirai hums in agreement.
At that, Minamoto could only nod. He lived through a life where normal is constant blood and war in his home, in his work, and in his own family. That was normal for him. Until he came here and was taught that there's more to life that living in constant fights and wars.
The administrator is a lot of things, but for someone who lived through his entire life not knowing the meaning of peace, he could only call the administrator the only god that he would be willing to have faith in.
"Put her by the bed so we can monitor her vitals." At that, Shirai points towards the medical bed on the edge of the room. "If meeting with it is anything like the last time, then we're going to expect a near death experience for our youngest."
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Author's notes:
Sorry for the many OCs in this chapter. I'll try to fit in more of Yuuki's interactions with Bakugou and Izuku next chapter. I needed to set some things straight first, considering the fact that Yuuki still holds the mindset that she doesn't want to change anything about the plot.
Please review! I would like to know more about your opinion about this story!
Thanks for your support and time ! :)