Luckenhaft - Yeah. It's regretful, but we don't get a lot of intel about the way society works in-universe with exception of the Quirk Laws. That alone is... questionable though. Imagine being capable of flying, yet the laws forces you to spend hour a day in traffic. And I can imagine people having quirks like Momo (but to a lesser degree), and I can also imagine the laws including a ban on that if only because people didn't want to face a 'dishonest competition'. And then, when people eventually snap, they send heroes to beat them up for popularity. Canon!MLA has a good idea, but is downright cultish about it. I fixed it ;3
Detrametal - Otsu Kawauso is an OC from Endgame, a fic wrote by Grayashura/Monsieur Otter who is considered a part of my multiverse. She's Miruko's secretary, Rappa's girlfriend and an otter mutant that NO ONE crosses without being ready for a fight of their life. A bit of a shout-out to my bro :D
Naruto30 - Yep. Some things do not change.
MrMateusz - We all want to see Overhaul suffer ngl.
Shahryar - Geten did, indeed, suffer from a massive glow-up and it's beautiful.
Guest - Don't worry, Inko will do just fine :v
MonsterKing - Thank you :D
(***)
Izuku Midoriya's next month was mostly divided between analyzing the meta-abilities of the Meta-Liberation Army members (with Geten-niichan) and spending time together with Koshi and Eri.
Izuku was… actually quite happy?
It was still all a bit confusing to him. But somehow, they all seemed like they actually liked spending their time with him.
Yotsubashi-san decided that Izuku shouldn't spend a year missing out on basic education, but Izuku clearly hated it when the word 'school' was thrown around, so instead Re-Destro decided to get him a few private tutors (that he was of course willing to pay for).
The aforementioned tutors said that Izuku was extremely intelligent and talented, which left Izuku extremely confused over that because this is literally the first time that a school teacher had said something like this about him in his memory.
Is it because they are villains? Uncle Sako and Uncle Oguro said he was talented too when they were teaching him things, and they were both villains (if rather… vigilantish in the end). Izuku really feels like villains should be less nice to him, not more.
It's confusing, but it also makes him happy.
He doesn't notice it himself, but during the course of this month he slowly but surely began to stutter less and less, until his voice was only failing him in the most extreme moments of stress (so, almost never).
Except for Koshi.
Koshi makes him stutter a lot.
Like when (right after she made her father sign the papers making Eri her little sister) she decided to thank him officially for finding a way to heal her. So she asked him to sit on the chair, facing her, and leaned forward in her wheelchair, holding his hands.
That alone was making him very nervous. But then, there were the words she used!
"... so, in return, I'm always ready to suck you off. You just have to ask." Koshi says, smiling at him.
Izuku instantly blushes red, turning from broccoli into a strawberry. One that tries to talk, but doesn't do quite so well on that field (typical for strawberries and all other fruits, to be honest).
"W-w-w-what did you say?!" He lets out, because… wait, he didn't hear what he thought he heard, right?
"I said that I'm always ready to give you a hug." Koshi replies, looking at him while clearly being confused by his reaction. "Because you're nervous so often, and a hug might help calm you down."
Oh. Oh, well, that makes much more sense. Izuku must have a weird imagination, right? But if so… is he actually a pervert deep down inside?! Oh, nonono, he shouldn't be like this!
He completely misses Ko giving a smug smile to Hypothermia, who promptly rolls her eyes in the background.
Aside from her endless campaign of getting as much blushing and stuttering as she can out of Midoriya, Ko Yotsubashi also has a much sweeter and kinder side. The person that gets to draw most of it out of her is, naturally, Eri.
Izuku got to witness that up close when Koshi decided that she heard enough of Eri repeating Overhaul's words about her meta-ability being a curse. So, she took her for a very serious talk.
Koshi, theoretically, shouldn't touch Eri. If her Rewind went-off, there was a risk of Koshi losing her eyesight and (weak for now, but physiotherapy was supposed to help it) ability to control her legs.
Izuku speculated that it could be later on reverted. Eri's quirk rewinded the target back in time, but if it was interrupted or stopped, there was a possibility of rewinding the rewinding once more.
To use Curious as an example, Eri rewinded her from ~45 years old to 25 about a month ago. If she were to use her Rewind on her again, she would rewind 25 years old Curious for about a month before she would end up being 45 years old again (and then, Eri would continue rewinding her backwards again from then).
Naturally, even with Toxicity there, it wouldn't exactly be easy to rewind Ko back into the short period of time when Overhaul already healed her but Eri was yet to rewind it. Especially as multiple attempts to do so would muddle Ko's personal chronology beyond comprehension.
Koshi didn't care. She had a little sister (by law for now, Eri has not yet referred to her as her older sister, but Ko was patient with this), and she was going to cheer her up or die trying.
And for some reason, Eri didn't flinch when it was Ko that touched her. Which she quickly (but after asking for Eri's permission) used to pat her head a little, something that Eri was clearly enjoying (while being way too anxious to make it very visible).
"You silly girl, meta-abilities aren't a curse." Ko says softly, while smiling at Eri. She's still trying to learn to (instinctively) look at the people she was talking to, and at those that were talking to her. It was a bit confusing for her.
"B-but I m-made my d-dad d-disappear." Eri lets out and Izuku suddenly feels like he wants to either hug her on the spot or wrap her in bubble wrap and kidnap her.
"Eri-chan." Ko replies, her voice still soft. "Do you know why I have to use a wheelchair to move around?"
"N-no?" Eri replies nervously.
"It's because my meta-ability almost killed me when I used it for the first time." Ko replies, Eri's eyes shooting wide. "But do you know why I can use my legs now and why I will eventually be able to walk freely?"
"N-no." Eri replies, just as nervous as earlier. She didn't get to see the healing process.
"It's because Overhaul healed me." Ko replies, Eri's eyes somehow growing even wider in shock. "He made a lot of people disappear, but he also made me feel better. Do you know what that means?"
Eri stares at her curiously. Well, nervously curious, to be exact.
"Meta-abilities are like an additional hand." Ko replies. "You can use it to hurt someone… or you can do this." She adds, as she caresses Eri's cheeks lightly. "It's not a curse, Eri-chan. What happened was an accident. And guess what? You aren't the only person in this room who had such an accident."
"I-I'm not?" Eri asks, clearly enjoying the caresses.
"Yep." Ko says. "Toxicity, the lady that stopped you from accidentally injuring Curious, also accidentally hurt someone with her meta-ability. But see? Once she learned how to use it, she actually managed to stop someone else from disappearing!"
Eri's eyes move over to Miyuki. She was pretty much assigned to shadowing Eri, because the girl could still lose control of her ability and if so, Tagawa was the best way they had of stopping her.
Toxicity actually had to intervene two days ago, because Eri had a nightmare and activated her meta-ability accidentally. Thankfully, the big plushie that she got from Ko to be able to hug something when going to sleep (that was actually Ko's old teddy bear) was unaffected, and Tagawa (who was temporarily sleeping in the room right next to Eri, and with a child monitor in place to boot) put her unconscious safely a moment later.
Toxicity's eyes met Eri's, and she nodded. Yeah, Miyuki Tagawa can relate to Eri's problems. She is getting better nowadays, the theory about her hair being an antidote being confirmed. She even started looking around for a potential boyfriend (or a girlfriend, she wanted hugs, cuddles, and kisses after being touch-starved for her whole life so much that it really didn't matter to her what they were all attached to) nowadays!
"O-oh." Eri looks down. Ko refuses to allow that and slightly raises her chin.
"See?" Ko smiles. "Overhaul was a dummy. Most of the things you heard from him were lies that he made so that you would listen to him. Once you settle down properly, Midori will find a way to help you learn how to control your meta-ability so that you'll never make anyone disappear again. And that, if you decide to do so, you'll be able to make people's ouchies go away."
It wasn't apparent to anyone involved, but Izuku probably fell in love with Ko right there, when she finished saying the words and hugged Eri closely, the horned girl clearly enjoying it despite her general fear of physical contact.
Of course, it was going to take him a long time to realize that it was love, and then to get over that fact enough to not freak out whenever Koshi entered his line of sight.
Besides, it's not like there was a chance that Koshi saw him like this, right?
Izuku remained completely unaware of the fact that Koshi was, at this point, reading him like an open book and was actually completely enjoying his internal freak-outs. But, even before that, more things happened.
A few days after the talk with Eri (who was clearly still digesting Koshi's words), Izuku decided to have a big talk with Ko about something that he figured out recently. Because, eventually, they had to.
"U-uhm, Koshi?" Izuku asks. They were eating breakfast together. Geten was yet to show up and kidnap Izuku for more meta-analysis (not like he really had to, Izuku was all for it). Hypothermia was eating right next to them.
Eri ended up landing herself on Toxicity's lap, having eaten a bit of her hair to work as a temporary antidote. They somehow became surprisingly close during the past few days, ever since Eri found out that Tagawa 'made someone disappear' too.
"Yes, Midori?" Ko asks back. She has something of a hunch, so just in case she stops eating for a moment.
"I t-think that I know h-how to l-let you u-use your m-meta-ability safely." Izuku says the words. Koshi realizes two things immediately.
The first one is that it's great that she stopped eating, or she'd probably choke to death in an instant.
The second one is that if it works then she's going to give birth to Izuku's babies, and preferably as soon as possible.
They would be soooo adorable! Like their dad. Merely imagining their hypothetical children finding themselves their other halves and being as adorably innocent about it as their father made her go all warm inside! Not the pervy type of 'warm inside' either, but rather the wholesome one!
(***)
At this point in time, Inko Midoriya feels the same odd feeling of emotional connection with someone. Once again, it happens to her when she is extremely busy, and completely unable to properly analyze it.
Her ex-husband realized that Inko is tearing through his associates, forcing a lot of them to go underground. He retaliated just like you can expect All for One to react to having a disagreement with his wife (even if former).
He sent assassins after her.
It wasn't working awfully well for him, all things considered.
The forest is dark, the night is almost lightless thanks to the present moon phase. It's almost a romantic setting, if you exclude the dumbass calling in thunder strikes randomly and hoping to hit Mischief who was hiding among the trees.
To be honest, Nine is actually a danger to her right now. She needs to get closer for her quirk to work strongly enough to overpower his weak anti-telekinetic quirk that her husband dearest gave him to kill her.
She has a perfect plan for that. And she should probably hurry before Nine accidentally hits the tree right next to her and electrocutes her. Or if the heroes come to see what the fuck was happening out there at this time of night.
Nine came to the forest with his crew, but lost contact with them early into the battle. Just as she had hoped.
She pulls on a distant object, one that was on the other side of Nine. It hits his back lightly, Nine looking down on it to see what it was.
It was Slice's head. A distraction that Inko needed.
She let him hear the crack of some small twig under her heel. He turns towards the direction of the noise, Inko taking just this moment to switch on two lighters, one in each hand, on both sides of her head.
"Pekaboo!" She says. Nine can see her face in the faint light of her lighters, the woman standing less than two meters away from him in total darkness of the forest.
Then he sees nothing more, because she tore both of his eyes out of their sockets. His heart follows suit a moment later.
This time, Mischief doesn't bother with interrogations. All for One probably filled their heads with false intel, just in case she actually triumphed over them. Wolfram and the few major villains she took down afterwards gave her enough information to go on.
But seriously, what was this weird recurrent feeling that was plaguing her nowadays?
(***)
"H-How?" Ko actually stutters a bit as the realization hits. "It's way too strong, I almost killed myself when I was four years old, by now my stockpile has to be ten times stronger!"
"Y-yeah, but, err…" Izuku freaks out a little under her gaze. "T-the thing is, it wasn't y-you using it that c-crippled you, I think i-it was the way y-you used it."
"Elaborate?" Ko replies. They are sitting on the opposite sides of the table, because honestly, she doesn't want Izuku to freak out during dinners if only because she's seriously afraid of making him choke to death himself.
"I, errr, l-let's i-imagine a m-muscle." Izuku replies. He stutters, despite talking about a meta-ability, because it's Koshi's meta-ability. "Y-your power a-amplifies s-strength and d-durability, b-because y-your body n-needs the l-latter to survive the f-former, right? W-what d-do you t-think will h-happen w-when h-half of the m-muscle w-will be e-empowered a f-few t-times more t-than the o-other half?"
Oh. Oh.
"The muscle will snap." Ko says slowly. "Not to mention what will happen to the joints if I happen to strengthen them unevenly. And all the damage was in my legs, because I didn't strengthen the rest at all, which, to be honest, could have killed me on its own if I was unlucky."
What if her legs didn't shatter so much? What if she accidentally jumped on her suddenly super-strengthened legs just to ram her completely not strengthened head into the ceiling? It would be an instant death.
"Y-yes." Izuku nods. "I t-think that you can c-control your p-power if you t-train it well and o-once your m-muscles grow s-stronger w-with training. Y-you should start by lying completely still, y-your muscles relaxed, t-trying to f-fill your w-whole body with your s-stress energy e-equally, a-and as l-little of it as p-possible.." He pauses for a few seconds, before realizing something. "A-actually, t-there is a M-MLA soldier t-that has a meta-ability that l-lets him l-lock the movement of a-anyone that talked w-with him for more than f-fifteen seconds. He s-should m-make sure that y-you d-don't accidentally m-make any m-movements w-while training."
Ko Yotsubashi realizes something extraordinarily important after hearing those explanations.
It can actually work.
She might no longer feel useless. She might actually be able to help her dad properly!
"I…" She says softly to Izuku, a bright smile on her face. "... really want to hug you now."
Hypothermia, the only person in the room who understands her words correctly, sighs painfully.
(***)
Ko Yotsubashi trained her meta-ability for about a week before it suddenly occurred to her. Something that evaded her attention earlier, something that should have been completely obvious to her from the start.
Izuku Midoriya wanted to become a hero, despite lacking a meta-ability. B and A-Ranked villains would have walked through him (much less S and above), despite his self-defense training with his Uncle Oguro. There was only so much you could do against people with clearly superhuman levels of firepower while still being restrained by human limitations.
However, he had one of the brightest minds ever.
The All Might and Sir Nighteye duo came to her mind. If she managed to overcome her present limits, heal her body properly and control her meta-ability… she could become his All Might, Izuku being her sidekick, but one almost as famous as 'their' hero.
Ko Yotsubashi becoming one of the Top Heroes (with her sobbing heroic backstory about overcoming your own disability and her meta-ability's strength, it was possible), would help her daddy and the MLA as a whole sooo much!
She could already imagine that.
Ko coming back home from the Hero Billboard Chart announcement after discovering that she just became the Number One Hero, Izuku waiting for her at their home, having prepared a dinner for them to celebrate her new achievement.
Izuku asking her what she wants from him as a gift to commemorate the event, with his adorably innocent face, and Ko sitting on the chair, lifting her skirt and winking at him.
Or, hey, she doesn't think it's possible with such a cinnamon roll as Izuku, but if it goes the other way she's totally ready to accept… cruel and unusual punishments for not performing well enough for a promotion in the ranking!
Now that she thinks about it, helping her father might not be her main motivation. Oh, well, it doesn't matter all that much, she can help him and get what she needs from Izuku at the same time! It's a win win!
"Uhm, Koshi?" Izuku asks, Koshi waking up from her stupor. "I t-think you've s-spaced out a l-little."
That she did, damn it. She even started salivating openly at the mental images that her overactive imagination gave her. Ugh.
"A-are you hungry?" Izuku asks. She loves how caring he is. "Y-you've been s-salivating a little and…"
"More thirsty than hungry, Midori." Ko replies. Yes, that's how she is right now, sue her (and good luck winning against the Detnerat Company's army of lawyers, ha)!
"O-oh." Izuku scratches the side of his head. "D-do you want m-me to m-make you s-some tea?"
Oh. Oh god. Too adorable. Too bright. Too innocent. Her (regretfully) virgin heart can't take it. It's too much. TOO MUCH! Where was he her whole life?! Sure, she was barely sixteen years old (and still wanted to wait for AT LEAST A YEAR if not two before savoring that fruit), so he wasn't hiding from her THAT long, but…
She won't tell him about her idea to become a hero with him. For now, she isn't sure if it'll work because she isn't sure if his idea on how to help her use her meta-ability properly will work to a satisfying degree.
Ko doesn't want to sully the innocence of his smile by giving him false hopes over something so important to him.
But she'll keep it in mind.
In the meantime she agrees to the tea (he makes an absolutely delicious one), if only so that she can stare at his bottom while he leaves the room.
She is still learning how to use her eyesight properly but she's fairly certain that she's enjoying that one sight a lot.
Just as she's enjoying the fact that she invited him to help her with her physical exercises, because this allowed her to pick some properly 'loose' clothes that showed a bit more than they should during certain exercises.
The sight of Izuku Midoriya trying to do his best to look elsewhere while babbling at her that something's showing again and she should cover it was another one of her favorite sights.
Besides, she heard once that having your blood pressure raise occasionally is healthy for you in the long-term, improving the way your cardiovascular system operates. From that point of view, she is helping him! Right? She's completely and utterly benevolent here. Doing her utmost for Midori's well-being, with no alternative motivation whatsoever.
(***)
The third month of Izuku Midoriya's stay in Deika starts before something big happens again.
Of course, as in all other cases nowadays, Izuku Midoriya is naturally involved. As a main perpetrator of it, naturally. What's surprising is that, for once, he actually planned for it, although the exact scope of the resulting chaos was still beyond his expectations.
He was allowed to - conditionally - leave Deika to attend a hero convention. Under a quirk disguise and with Geten (in civilian clothes) right next to him. Surely that would be enough to make sure that nothing weird happens, right?
In the meantime, Re-Destro is busy with the day-to-day operations of the Meta-Liberation Army. He had a meeting with Trumpet concerning the big scandal that rocked Japan this morning (seriously, big wtf moment) when suddenly he received a text message from Izuku.
"Who was it?" Trumpet asks. He knows that scarce few people out there can just casually contact the Grand Commander himself, and since Re-Destro is clearly typing a message back…
"Notebook." Re-Destro replies. "Told me that he found a bird in need of help, and asked if he could bring it to Deika. I said yes."
Finding an injured bird and wanting to take it with him to Deika is a very Midoriya Izuku thing to do.
"Oh, a pet." Trumpet nods. "It's a bit of an odd choice of a pet, to be honest. I took him for more of a cat person."
Oh, right. Mischief, the thief in a cat-suit, she even wore a pair of convincing cat ears as a part of her villain outfit.
"Right." Re-Destro sighs. "He really is one of the nicest and kindest kids I have ever met. Only Ko and Eri are comparable."
Wow, he is so much into acting like Izuku's dad that he compares him to Ko. Trumpet is extraordinarily surprised with the speed in which Re-Destro was obtaining children (not by blood) nowadays.
Three hours later someone knocks on the door. Re-Destro actually ended up having two other business meetings, before deciding to have another meeting with Trumpet to talk about the developing political crisis in Japan.
"Yes?" Re-Destro asks, while heading towards the door. Trumpet looking after him.
"It's me!" Oh, it's Izuku. He must be back. "I brought the, errr, bird!"
Re-Destro decides that bringing the bird to him of all people is a bit weird, but… then again, when exactly was Izuku not weird? Knowing him, he probably found an odd way of employing Re-Destro's quirk to heal the injured bird he found or something like this.
Rikiya Yotsubashi opens the door.
Geten is standing by the side, his forehead on the wall, the supervillain clearly trying to not look in Re-Destro's direction. That's, somehow, the first thing that Re-Destro's mind notices.
He then sees oddly enthusiastic Izuku Midoriya, looking at Re-Destro with hope and happiness in his eyes. It's absolutely adorable to watch.
Somehow, he notices the 'bird' last.
"Uhm, hi?" Keigo Takami (wearing a very atrocious fake mustache and a long blond wig) says, waving his hand rather awkwardly.
Re-Destro's eyes shot back to Izuku.
"Can we keep him?" Izuku asks, stars in his eyes.
For all of his mental exercises, Re-Destro simply wasn't ready for bullshit of quite this magnitude so early in the day (while still oh so sober).
"Midoriya, what the actual f…"