Samuel Abrahams stood in the darkness of the dock, glancing between his watch and the open bay doors nervously. This was one of the many docks along I-Island's sea wall, that went into the structure and kept any visitors hidden from view. The dock he was in was technically listed as out of order, meaning everything from the crew to automated security drones didn't come done here.
Of course, the bay doors were usually sealed shut, meaning it would be impossible to enter from the sea. And you wouldn't be able to use the lift system without a key card either, meaning would be burglars would be unable to enter.
At least, not without a man on the inside.
A light flickered on the horizon, and Samuel let out a sigh. They had really come. Villains here to do who-knows-what within I-Island.
And it was all thanks to his own selfish plan. He couldn't even fall back on some pure motive like David apparently had. All he wanted was some money and recognition. And now he might go down as one of the biggest Villains in history.
He couldn't help but be impressed by the luxury vessel they pulled up on. It was doubtful that it truly belonged to anyone onboard though. It moved into the dock, and Samuel engaged the docking system.
As the automated system began to secure the boat to I-Island, he saw the group of Villains gathering on the deck. The three standing there looked to be nothing more than ruffians, and Samuel couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in disbelief. These were the master criminals that were threatening him? He had half a mind to disengage the system and let the fools float back into the ocean helplessly.
But then he appeared.
From the upper deck emerged another man, clearly the leader. He wore some sort of advanced bodysuit underneath his normal suit and held himself with an air of superiority. But unlike the braggarts nearby, this was the real deal.
This man had killed, and he would kill him if he screwed up.
He quickly activated the bridge as the head of the criminals walked down to join his compatriots. They stepped aside as he approached, and he walked up to Samuel without hesitation. Cold, calculating eyes stared down at him.
"N-Nine, I presume?" Samuel asked, and the man grunted slightly. The three thugs took this as the signal to follow, and they disembarked quickly after him. He glanced at the group nervously. "So, w-what can I do for you?"
"I am looking for one of the children that recently arrived from Japan." Nine said.
There was a moment of silence, and Samuel took that as his que to talk again. "I see! Well, if you know which one you need then we can simply have the security bots initiate their 'lost child' program, and he will be brought right to you."
"And how would we go about this?" Nine asked coldly again.
"It's quite simple! You won't even have to lift a finger." Samuel insisted, nervously noticing the other Villains begin to circle around him. "We can go from the lift here directly to the central tower. All the security is controlled there, meaning you'll be able to make the order without any interference. You'll be in and out of this place before anyone even realizes you're here!"
"I see. That is quite simple." Nine said satisfied, pulling out his phone and quickly texting someone. "I have no reason to waste my time with another pointless fight. Go on now. Lead the way."
"O-Of course sir! Please, follow me." Samuel said, turning towards the door, before halting and glancing back at Nine. He tried to keep his face from shaking in fear. "Oh, and a possible request. Could you please not harm Melissa? She's like family and-"
"And she'll be fine as long as you keep to your word. Now keep moving." Nine said, the barest of impatience leaking through.
"As you command!" Samuel quickly turned back towards the gate, walking briskly towards it, leaving the Villains a bit behind. As he tapped his key card to the door, he let out a shaky breath.
Everything would be okay. Him and Melissa would be okay.
As long as he did exactly as that man had said, things would turn out alright.
Izuku walked back to the hotel he had been staying at, trying to keep his feet from shaking with each step. After a couple hours of jumping, and even a bit of simulated hovering, he still wasn't able to get control of Float. He had kept the Scanner that Melissa had given him on the entire time, just in case he was missing something, but the AP usage for Float remained at 0 for all of the training session.
Now all he had gained was a far more realistic fear of heights. Feeling the rush of air had done nothing but terrify the hell out of him. It would probably take a bit more than extreme cliff jumping in order for him to figure out this Quirk.
He looked up at the dusk sky, trying to suppress a sigh. Wedge must have sensed his dissatisfaction, because he slapped a hand on his shoulder reassuringly.
"Hey kid, don't get discouraged just yet. No one learns to fly in a single day, whether it's with a Quirk or plane. It's a lot harder than it looks. Take it from an expert." Wedge said.
"Yeah! Now that you've gotten used to falling, it's time we start adding obstacles! Really get the blood flowing during training!" Mr. Oguro added, producing a tiny squeak from him.
As they approached the hotel doors they opened from the other side, and Melissa walked out. She was closely followed by Eri, along with Katsuma and Kota, the kids he'd saved along with her against Nine.
"Oh, Izuku! I knew you'd be back soon." Melissa said excitedly, running up and taking her hand in his own. "You're just in time. I was telling Eri about some of the sights you could see here, and with the sun about to set, I figured I'd show you all my favorite one."
"I've never seen a full sunset before. It sounds so pretty!" Eri said in excitement.
"That… actually sounds kinda nice." Izuku admitted. He had planned for a long bath and nap next but watching the sunset with a beautiful girl seemed to interest him just as much. He glanced over Melissa's shoulder at the two young boys that had joined them. "Did they want to see the sights too?"
Melissa stepped aside so that the boys could approach, as she leaned over and spoke in a hushed voice. "Nah, they just wanted to see you again. I think they're the first members of your fan club!"
"I'm no fan of him." Kota said, clearly overhearing them. "I'm just here to thank him properly is all and to keep an eye on Katsuma. Yeah, I'm just here because he's here! Nothing else!"
The boy nodded to himself, seemingly arguing more with himself than the others around him. and Izuku could hear the adults try and stifle a snicker behind him.
"Umm, Mr. Deku, what are you wearing?" Katsuma asked politely.
"What am I-? Oh, right, this is a flight suit." Izuku said, looking down at himself. He had forgotten he was wearing the thing if he was honest. It was an incredibly wind resistant jumpsuit that Wedge had provided him when they started training earlier.
"It looks cool! Not as cool as your Hero Costume, though, of course." Katsuma said.
"I'm glad you like it!" Melissa said. "I hope you like it just as much once I finish rebuilding it."
"Wait, you built that outfit?" Kota said in surprise, before scoffing. "Yeah right. There's no way a kid as young as you made a costume that cool."
Katsuma looked back at his friend in confusion. "I thought you said the costume was lame-"
"I changed my mind!" Kota quickly interrupted, shooting the other boy a pointed look.
"You're right, it would be unusual to build something like that at my age. But I grew up here on I-Island, and they have the best education for Support Items on the planet." Melissa began to boast. "And besides, I learned from the best. My dad made All Might's costume, after all!"
"Woah." Both of the boys looked at Melissa with awe. Eri merely nodded along, already having learned this before.
"I don't mean to interrupt you kids," Wedge interrupted. "But you all might want to get moving if you're hoping to catch the sunset. It won't be long now."
Everyone glanced up, and noticed the Sun was far closer to the horizon than it was just a couple minutes earlier. Melissa quickly turned in a panic.
"Ah! We have get moving if we're going to make it!" She ran over to a console at the side of the street, pressing a couple buttons frantically. A moment later a vehicle reminiscent of a long golf cart pulled up to the curb from nearby. "Everyone hop in! The automated transporter should get us to our destination in time. I'll just have to use that trick Dad showed me to get them over the speed limit."
"Uh, is that safe?" Izuku asked as the children rushed onto the self-driving vehicle and Melissa began to fiddle with the controls on them. He could see some sort of command line open up and Melissa type a couple lines of code.
"It's fine. It's not like there's anyone else on the road nowadays to run into." Melissa said dismissively, before glancing over at Mr. Oguro and Wedge. "Are you two coming or not? Train's leaving the station soon."
The two men glanced at each other, before shrugging.
"Someone responsible has to keep an eye on you kids." Mr. Oguro said as he climbed in behind them.
"And something tells me that person is going to have to be me." Wedge added as he followed suit, producing a snicker from the kids.
The cart lurched forward as soon as everyone was on board, speeding down the empty streets of I-Island at speeds that were certainly not legal. There was a ding as the map on the front console updated.
[Taking a right in 200 meters.]
The entire vehicle lurched. As it weaved around a left corner sharply, Izuku felt himself slide left across the seat into the door with a bump, followed by Melissa sliding into him shortly after.
"S-Sorry! I forgot how fast these things could get." Melissa apologized, still pressed right up against Izuku, who could only squeak in response. They continued to speed down the road, wind rushing past them.
"T-This is a bit scary." Eri said in the seats behind them, clearly unexperienced with moving at such speed. "Can we go slower?"
"Are you kidding, I want go faster!" Kota said, gripping the handlebar in front of him. "This is so exciting!"
"It…is?" Eris asked, looking at the two boys on each side of her curiously. "But I can feel my heart beating like crazy…"
"That's the point! It's all about the thrill of it, like a rollercoaster ride!" Katsuma assured, leaning his head out the side of the vehicle. "They said it wasn't dangerous, so just have fun and enjoy the ride!"
"Hey! Always keep inside the moving vehicle!" Mr. Oguro shouted, before sighing. "Seriously, have none of you been on a carnival ride before?"
"It's supposed to be exciting?" Eri asked herself in contemplation. She leaned back and tried to understand the feeling rushing through her. It was similar to what she felt whenever she had tried to run away from Overhaul, but there was a distinct lack of fear right now. Just the rush of excitement and the wind rushing through her hair.
It felt freeing.
Eri didn't even notice the grin that spread across her face as she began to engulf herself in the impromptu thrill ride with the boys, leaning into the turns and letting out laughs along with them. Melissa and Izuku looked back at the display with smiles of their own, but they were quickly interrupted by another ping.
[Taking a left in 200 meters.]
Melissa glanced to her right, noticing the empty space between her and the edge of the seat. She very quickly remembered the force that each turn had, and she would likely end up with a bruised side if left to slide across the seat into the door. But as she scrambled her hands up towards a handlebar, the vehicle lurched, and she began to slide.
She shut her eyes in a panic, but found her slide halted as a firm hand gripped her right side. As the vehicle straightened out, Melissa peeked her eyes open to see Izuku's arm snaked around her waist, holding her tightly against him. Her eyes wandered up to his and the two stared at each other silently for a few moments, before Izuku developed into a stuttering mess.
"I-I'm sorry!" He began to apologize, as his hand began to return, and he tried to pull away. "I didn't mean to grab you like that, but I saw you panic and I just acted on instinct and-"
Melissa quickly wrapped an arm around his own side, and she puled their sides back together. "It's okay. But it works a lot better if we're both holding on tight, okay?"
"R-Right." Izuku said after a second, and he brought his hand around her again.
Melissa could see his face turn a cute shade of red as he looked away, but she continued to lean into him, and eventually he leaned back. The two pressed together as their ride sped its way towards its destination.
[I-Island Central Tower straight ahead in 1km]
Kagome followed the instructions Nine had sent her on the phone, taking the elevator up to the top and turning down the many hallways of the Central Tower until she reached a door labelled Control Center. She adjusted her mask and coat to ensure any distinguishing features were hidden, and patted her back, ensuring the gun with the Quirk-Erasing Bullets was still there. She also checked the large coat pocket, ensuring that the Quirk of All for One was still inside.
With luck, she would finally be able to stop carrying it around and use it by the end of the night.
She banged on the door a couple times, and she felt her phone vibrate again.
[Are you at the door?]
"No, it's the janitor. Who do you think it is…" Kagome muttered as she texted back to Nine that she had really arrived. The big iron door slid open a moment later, and she walked into the control center to find Nine waiting for her.
"You got here rather fast." Nine noted.
He seemed to complain about anything she did. Either he had good intuition, or he was just whiney like that. Kagome couldn't tell.
"I figured that this would be the most likely place you'd end up at. Thought I'd arrive ahead of time." She explained, not entirely lying. If anyone wanted control or free access across the island, they'd have to come here. Meaning she needed to be in this very room to receive access to the restricted level that she had been guided to.
Now to find an actual excuse to actually get said access.
She glanced at Samuel Abraham, the only man who would know how to do so. He was busy typing away on the terminal in front of him. He appeared to be gaining control of the security system for the I-Island, to busy to humor her own request. It seemed that she would have to wait a bit longer.
"We've been here for almost 30 minutes." Komodo whined. He put a hand on Samuel's shoulder and leaned over it. "Hey, Egghead, how much longer will this take?"
"I-I can assure you, I've almost accessed the security system." The portly scientist insisted with a couple more clicks of the keyboard. The icons on the giant screen above changed color from red to green, and he let out a sigh. "There we go. Now, all I need is an image of the kid you are looking for, and I can have the system begin to look for him with its facial recognition."
"I've got it. Here." Kagome said through her mask, producing a photo of Katsuma from earlier. Nine had requested a photo of him back after they had first learned that he had the Quirk he was looking for.
Samuel gestured to a scanner on the panel in front of him, and she placed the phone photo-first against it. The image appeared on one of the large monitors a second later, and with a couple more clicks the screens began to speed through cameras across the island.
"And now we wait." Samuel said.
"Seriously?! More waiting?!" Komodo threw up his hands in frustration again. Dragon and Chameleon appeared to be equally antsy. Samuel quickly swiveled in his chair to calm the nerves of the Villains that held his life in his hands.
"Sorry, but this is a big place. He's guaranteed to turn up sooner or later, but there's hundreds of cameras on I-Island. It'd be impossible to guess how long this would-" The screen behind him beeped. "Take?"
"You were saying?" Kagome couldn't help but snort as he spun back around to face the screen in confusion.
"That's impossible." Samuel began to mutter. "There's no way it should have worked so fast. The only way was if they were… already in the tower."
One of the camera feeds enlarged to show a crowd of people on some sort of balcony, looking out at the sunset. The camera enlarged the faces of all present, showing not only Katsuma, but those around him.
"Well now, isn't this useful." Nine said as he looked between the faces. The boy was with the same children he had been with that night he had first attempted to take the Quirk. Not only that, the current holder of One for All was there as well.
"Hey, Boss! That's him! The bastard who beat us up before!" Komodo shouted out, pointing at the scarred face of the older man.
"Is that so? It seems fate is putting all of my opponents in one place for me to deal with." Nine said, looking down at Samuel. "What is that area?"
"I-It's the wind farm. It's directly under the control center here." Samuel revealed.
"Perfect. Lock it down. I'll deal with this issue myself momentarily." Nine said turning to leave.
"Wait!" Samuel grabbed the man's wrist, only to quickly withdraw it at the glare he received. "Melissa's up there too! Please don't hurt her. You promised, right?"
"Hmm." Nine stared down with cold eyes. "As long as she doesn't get in the way, I suppose I could let her live. If you do as I ask."
"Of course! Just one moment." Samuel quickly pressed a few buttons and locking down the elevators out of there. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out-
'Key cards!' Kagome recognized. Half a dozen of them in fact.
"But now that it's locked, you will require key cards to access it yourself. Fortunately, I thought ahead and grabbed some spares to reprogram." Samuel began to explain. "You don't actually need to bring the cards here to update them but considering you're recent arrivals I had to procure some ahead of time."
"You're… remarkably well prepared." Chameleon said, and Kagome couldn't help but agree.
She wasn't complaining though. This was exactly what she needed. Now to find an excuse to get some time to herself.
"Well, your satisfaction is very important to me, after all!" Samuel said cheerfully, as if he was talking to shareholders and not deadly Villains. He quickly got up from his seat to hand out the new key cards. As Kagome went to take the final one from him, he looked her in the eyes and winked.
'Wait, what?' Kagome stared blankly at the scientist in confusion as he turned back to Nine.
"Now that you have everything you need, I wouldn't recommend sticking around for long. Once the tower is locked down, people are sure to notice and come running. My knowledge of the systems hasn't given me control over the robots, so if someone places the right order this place could be swarming." Samuel explained as he finished locking the towers many bulkhead doors. "You may not have known, but the U.S. arrived recently, and I doubt even your Quirks can take on a top of the line fighter jet."
"Maybe most can't, but I'm different." Nine said smugly. "Even the greatest planes are at whims of the winds. I could handle a few iron birds."
"Err, but we couldn't. And neither could our getaway boat." Chameleon reminded their boss. Kagome let out a cough, turning everyone's attention to her.
"How about the Oni's go and prep our ride while you, 'do what you need'." Kagome suggested casually. "You get what you're after, leave immediately, and we're all halfway to Japan before anyone even knows what happened."
"Oh? And what will you be doing?" Nine asked with a squint.
Kagome moved herself behind Samuel, pulling out a scalpel and putting it near his neck. The man immediately began to sweat at the sharp blade inches from his vitals. "I'll be cleaning up any potential leaks. I happened to find a nice quiet place earlier where I can dispose of any potential… issues that may arise in the future."
"Why do you get the fun job?" Komodo asked annoyed, and Kagome couldn't help but roll her eyes.
"Do you want to drag this lug around?" Kagome replied. "Besides, you are the ones who already know how to use the boat, and I've been on the island longer. It's just quicker this way."
Nine seemed to consider her for a few moments, before shrugging. He just seemed happy to not have to deal with the man himself. "Fine. But be quick about it."
"Of course." Kagome agreed, silently letting out the breath she had been holding. She took the hand that wasn't holding the scalpel and began to lead Samuel out of the room. But as soon as she turned around to leave, she felt something tug on her waist. "What-"
"What do we have here?" Komodo asked as the gun she had prepared with the Quirk-Erasing Bullets slipped out of her waistband telekinetically over into his hands. He began to look the gun over without any care of firearm safety. "You didn't tell me you were packing! What kinda model is this, anyways?"
'Shit.' Kagome thought.
"Hey, I recognize this thing." Chameleon added as they reached over and pulled back the hammer, showing the dart-like projectiles inside. "It looks just like the one that rat used to remove my Quirk for a bit."
'Double shit.' Kagome thought as Nine's apathetic eyes suddenly focused back on her. 'Explain! Explain immediately!'
"One of the kids had a dangerous Quirk. Nezu gave me it when I took care of her after the attack. It's why he had them on him during the first battle." She spat out immediately, not caring to hide her closeness to the U.A. students from Samuel. She was planning to 'kill' him after all. "I kept it in case that one boy with the strength Quirk ever discovered me."
"Is that so?" Nine wandered over to the Oni's, who dutifully handed the gun over to him. He looked over to her as he tucked it away in his suit pants. "Then considering I am the one fighting that boy now, you wouldn't have any issue if I took it for myself?"
"Of course not." She replied, as she began to panic internally. Those bullets were the only thing she had that could deal with Nine in case she failed to find what she needed, and they had ended up in his hands himself! But there would be no way to get it back without coming off as suspicious, so she just kept playing along. "Now, are we going to get to work? Those kids are bound to notice the elevators are locked eventually and get suspicious."
Nine's eyes eventually lost their edge, and he nodded slightly at her words. He let out a chuckle as he walked past her towards the door. "Of course. We all have work to do, don't we? Try not to take too long with yours, because mine won't."
"You heard the boss, it's time to get moving." Dragon said, and the Oni's all headed in a separate direction, towards another elevator.
Kagome tightened her grip on Samuel's arm again, and began to walk him out of the control center towards her own elevator. After they got a distance from the others though, Samuel stopped in his track, glancing around nervously. She nearly bumped into him at his sudden halt.
"Do you have a death wish or something? Keep walking and I won't actually kill you." Kagome said, pointing her scalpel at the man again. She didn't plan on killing the man, of course. He might even prove useful at finding what exactly she was looking for.
"Floor Negative Fifty, Six hundred, zero." He said, and Kagome froze.
'The elevator destination?!' Kagome immediately pushed Samuel against the wall. "How the hell do you know that? Were you the one who planted that note? Spill it!"
"I'm just a fellow person hoping to get the recognition they deserve." Samuel said through a nervous laugh. He looked back at her with more determination than she had seen in the control room. "You didn't tell Nine or the others about my device, did you? You didn't want him to gain any more power, right?"
"What does it matter to you?" Kagome asked as she twisted his arm more. Of course she had modified the message. A device that could boost the power of a Quirk without any potential drawbacks? Nine wouldn't even need the boys Quirk to become unstoppable.
"Without those bullets of yours, Nine will be able to defeat anyone who stands in his way. The only hope is that boy with One for All, but only if he uses my device!" Samuel explained.
'He knows about One for All?! Who told him?' Kagome was slowly feeling her position as interrogator slip away. He had known where she was heading the entire time. Was that why he even had those key cards in the first place? Just so he could give one to her? "What are you playing at? What do you want?"
"I want you to let me go, so I can release my device to give to the boy. With luck, he'll be able to use it to defeat Nine and people will finally see the true value of my genius!" Samuel said excitedly. "And without the fight being so one-sided, you'll have more time to find what you need."
"And why is that so important to you? Do you even know what I want?" Kagome asked again.
"I don't know what you want, honestly. But I know that the only way we can both get what we want is by working together." Samuel said. "So, what do you say?"
Kagome wanted to just ignore the scientists pleading as desperate nonsense, but it was clear this plan of his was anything but on-the-fly. Not to mention he knew things he shouldn't, like the elevator destination and One for All. Everything about this screamed a trap, but he was also right. Without the device, Midoriya and the rest would be steamrolled by Nine, and she wouldn't have a chance to find… whatever I-Island had hidden away down there.
"Fine!" Kagome said against her better judgement. She let go of the man and pushed him away. He began to run towards the vault near the control room. Right before turning down a corridor, he looked back at her with a smile.
"Thank you, Kagome Mirai. I look forward to seeing you after all of this."
"Wait, how-!" The bulkhead between them shut as Samuel tapped his card on a side panel, and Kagome was cut off from her question. 'He even knew my name? Who told this guy so much?'
She shook her head, turning away to the nearest elevator in a sprint.
'No, it doesn't matter. If he's crazy enough to try and delay Nine's plan, then who am I to get in his way. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, after all.'
She reached the elevator, tapping in the destination provided to her by that mysterious benefactor, and pressing her newly acquired key card to the scanner. The longer she went over recent events, the more it looked like she was walking into a trap. Things were too far along to change course. She would reach whatever was at that destination, consequences be damned.
The elevator stopped moving down after a minute, and she felt it now begin to move north. She could see the number for her location begin to change until it reached that magic number.
F -50 (600, 0).
There was a ding as the elevator doors opened. Kagome walked out into a circular hanger, staring at the large object in the center with confusion as the doors closed behind her. It was an odd disc-like shape, and there was a ramp that was lowered that led into its interior. Lying around it were dozens of pieces of equipment, all seemingly monitoring it.
She had expected something smaller, like a singular device. But whatever this thing was, it was almost 300 meters in diameter in a perfectly circle. It was crazy that I-Island was able to hide something of this size for so long. It was a good thing she had sent Samuel to help delay Nine, because she was going to need the time. Where would she even start?
Walking up to the open ramp, she looked around at the structure more closely. There were characters lining both the ramp and interior that she had never seen before. They didn't appear similar to any language she had seen before. Was it code?
So engrossed in her observation, she missed the small ding as the elevator doors opened again, as well as the repeating sound of dress shoes clicking across the hanger floor, ever closer. It wasn't until a voice spoke out behind her that she became aware of the intruder.
"What do you know, it really was down here." A familiar voice spoke out, and a large arm wrapped around Kagome in a sleeper hold.
Her scalpel dropped to the floor at the sudden assault, and she clawed at the arm tightened around her through its fine sleeve. As she felt consciousness fade, she just barely caught a glimpse of short white hair behind her.
"You've done well to get this far, Kagome Mirai." Reiji Shigaraki said with a smirk, and Kagome's vision faded to darkness. "But I'm afraid it's time I take back what is rightfully mine."
As the final beams of sunlight disappeared over the horizon, Izuku let out a satisfied sigh. This was truly a relaxing experience after all of the adrenaline-pumping training of the afternoon. The view from the Wind Farm at the top of the Central Tower was really incredible.
The others had already began walking towards the elevator to leave, but he had decided to watch for a few more moments with Melissa. They were close together, huddling for warmth in the strong night wind.
"I'm glad you brought us up here." Izuku said to Melissa. They were both leaning against the guardrail and looking out over the view of I-Island's city.
"And I'm glad you liked it so much." Melissa said, leaning over onto him gently.
Izuku froze as she did so. Despite their closeness on the ride over, he had mostly chalked that up to just keeping her safe. He just wasn't used to anyone being this close to him without wanting to do something bad to him.
But Melissa had never done anything like the others did. Whenever she got close to him it was to help with his tie, or inspect her equipment, or just because she wanted to be close to him. But why would she want to, when Izuku was… himself?
"Did you say something, Izuku?" Melissa asked.
"Oh sorry, just… mumbling to myself, like usual." Izuku said sadly.
She probably thought it was creepy. Why couldn't he just keep these ideas in his head where they belong. Instead, he kept saying weird things about everything, or writing obsessive amounts of notes on other people, like a creepy stalker. Who wouldn't think that was weird?
"Well, what were you thinking about?" Melissa asked simply.
"Huh?"
"What were you thinking about?" She asked again. "I know that you like to get your thoughts out, so what's up?"
"I… I just don't get it." Izuku hung his head, leaning away from Melissa.
"Don't get what, Izuku?" Melissa asked in concern.
"Why you like to be around me!" Izuku said in an elevated voice. "No one liked to be around me before. What changed?"
He wasn't just thinking of Melissa. There were plenty of people who started hanging around him happily now. Eri clung to him like a little sibling, and Nezu was willing to personally teach him. Not to mention adults like Mr. Oguro and Wedge being willing to set aside time to help him.
What had changed between then and now that made people so willing to be around him? What was the difference between him before and after the Rapture?
'I got a Quirk.'
Izuku gripped the guardrail tightly as he came to the realization. Was that it? Was that the only reason people were around him nowadays? He just 'special' and 'worthwhile' now?
"Do you," Izuku felt himself shrink in on himself as he tried to ask the question, afraid of the possible answer. "Do you all only hang around me now because I have a Quirk?"
"What?" Melissa was shocked by the accusation. "Izuku, why would you think that?"
"Because that's the only good thing about me! Everyone always said that my mumbling was creepy. That my obsession with Quirks was stupid and stalkerish. T-The only thing that's different now is that I'm not Quirkless anymore." Izuku said, sinking in on himself further with each sentence. "Is that why you hang out with me? Do you just put up with all my weird habits because I have All Might's Quirk?"
Silence hung in the air as Izuku awaited his answer. The only sound was that of the wind howling around them. He felt his shoulders dip as the silence stretched on. He was right, wasn't he.
"Izuku," Melissa finally spoke. "Do you remember what I told you the night we met, when you asked about All Might?"
Izuku looked up at her in confusion. "Y-Yeah, but what does that have to do with-"
"I said it was your actions without a Quirk that impressed All Might, and that impressed me too." Melissa reminded him. "It wasn't your Quirk that drew me to you. Eri and Nezu neither."
"But then what did?" Izuku asked in confusion. "My mumbling is-"
"Kind of cute. And shows that you're incredibly smart."
"B-But my notebooks!" Izuku added. "They-"
"Show you have an eye for detail and analysis."
"M-My personality!" Izuku cried, desperately searching for a fault. "I'm nervous and insecure and a crying wreck-"
"And yet you were willing to throw yourself at a Villain in order to keep others safe, multiple times." Melissa interrupted for a final time. "And from what I've heard, it's happened while you didn't have a Quirk more than once."
Izuku tried to find more reasons, mumbling to himself aimlessly, but Melissa put a stop to it by simply taking his hands in hers.
"The reason people want to be around you is because you're a joy to be around. It's that simple." Melissa looked embarrassed, trying her best to look him in the eyes. "I want to be around you because I like you. All of you, and not just your Quirk."
Izuku was still struggling to understand. "You like me? As in…?"
"Oh god, you're really going to make me spell it out for you." Melissa pinched her brow in exasperation. "I mean romantically."
'Oh…'
"Oh…" Izuku's eyes widened when the words finally reached his brain.
Someone was confessing to him. For real. This wasn't some sick prank or a glorious misunderstanding. Melissa actually liked him and had confessed.
He had not been prepared for this today.
'C'mon, stop staring at her like a fish and say something!' His brain had shouted to him, and he quickly focused on the girl in front of him, clearly waiting for an answer nervously. He swallowed his own nerves down, trying to summon up what little bravery he could.
"Melissa, I-"
A dull pain appeared in the back of his head, and the words froze on his tongue. It was mild, but familiar, and was growing slowly in intensity. He began to look around wildly for the source.
"Izuku, what's going on?" Melissa asked in concern.
"Danger Sense!" Izuku shouted as he continued to search the platform they were standing on. He couldn't yet determine the source, but someone clearly wanted to do harm to him. His eyes met with the rest of the group, who were still standing near the elevator.
'Wait, shouldn't they have left by now? Why are they still standing there?' Izuku realized, and he could see Mr. Oguro tapping his key card against the scanner, only for it to buzz red. It was locked? But Melissa said that the key she gave him had access to this area. It's how they got up here in the first place. How would it have changed unless…
The light indicating the elevator had arrived suddenly dinged, and Izuku felt Danger Sense focus to deadly precision.
"Get away from the door!" He shouted out, just as the doors opened to reveal a familiar face. The kids all ran way towards them as Mr. Oguro and Wedge jumped back taking fighting positions.
"Hello, One for All." Nine said, ignoring them to look straight at Izuku. "I believe it's time for me to finish what I started back in Naruhata."
Next Chapter: Fight or Flight