Master Control
Chapter 9
Bookshelves stretched down the halls, all filled with bits and pieces of collected knowledge from many centuries. The light from the outside world seeped through the windows, fluorescent bulbs only able to keep the dark corners watched. Each book was neatly placed in where they had to be, organized with a system used for many years. Yet what was the point if there was no one to read them? The library was empty, not a trace of any life with the texts.
No warmth.
No cold.
*patpatpatpat*
But something was disturbing the frozen world.
"Izuku!"
That something was Eri running barefoot in a large All Might t-shirt with pajama bottoms. Her hair had been dyed dark green to match Izuku's. She carried a picture book as she ran to where she knew she would find the boy. Turning around the corner she found him at a table next to a window with several books opened around him. Izuku was writing in one of his many notebooks when he looked to her. He wore one of his more casual All Might styled hoodies
"What is it Eri?"
She hobbled over some of the splayed books on the ground, being careful not to trip or rip any by accident. When she got next to him she showed him the book she had.
"Are these real?" Eri asked innocently.
The cover of the book displayed a whale. When she opened it more and more pictures of carrying sea life were shown.
"You told me that some books were real and others were made up, but these look really real." Without warning she hopped up into his lap, jolting Izuku at the impact. As he was busy recoiling she adjusted to sit in his lap and plop her book right on top of his work. She flipped the pages until one settled on the image of a beach.
"Like this! If there's really that much water, then why does Mom talk about how much it costs when you take long showers?"
Izuku chuckled, finding the wind in his lungs again. "That's a good question Eri. There is a lot of water on the Earth, but only a small part of it has water we can use to clean ourselves and drink." He ran his hand through her hair, stopping at the horn that was connected to her forehead. It had grown much larger over the last year, but everytime they asked about her quirk she would shut down. Hopefully this was supposed to happen, but more likely it was a stockpiling quirk or something that needed to be shaved down as it grew like hooves.
"Ok." Eri nodded in understanding, but flipped to another page featuring colorful creatures swimming in the ocean. "But what about these? Are these real?"
Izuku nodded. "Yes, they're called fish."
*gasp* "We ate them?!"
"Well, not these ones. There's certain fish we eat, just like cows or other animals."
"And pigs!" Eri smiled at him.
"Yep, we eat a lot of pigs." Izuku laughed along with Eri's antics. She had grown more and more open with him over the years. It helped when he took her to places like this, where she knew there was no one else but her and him. It felt strange talking so openly and loudly in a library, but when you have full access to Japan's largest library in the omnitrix it was hard not to take advantage of. He could even reset things to go back to before he arrived, never having to clean up his messes.
Ok, maybe he was developing bad habits for the library. Guess he should avoid real ones.
"Can we see the fsh?" Eri asked pointing to another photo of one.
"Fish, they're called fish." Izuku corrected lovingly.
Eri blinked, turned to the book, then back at him and gave him a wide grin. "Fsh!"
"I swear you're doing it on purpose." Izuku picked her up as he got up, making her giggle as he squished her sides a little. Setting her down he grabbed the notes he was taking. This time he decided to look over all the management revolving around hero agencies. From what he learned a lot of it stemmed from good publicity right away and getting recognized by pro heroes. It would lead to sponsors, internships, and many other opportunities to get a respected name next to the starting hero.
Then with the reputation, they would be able to get loans to get their own building and quickly hire along sidekicks. Most of the sidekicks would be either previous co workers or hero course classmates. Sometimes they would send immediate internship or work study offers to other highschoolers to help with busy work. Yet it wasn't a preferable option because of how little they could actually help out.
There was also trying to put forth a formal agency form to the hero commission who regulated who was stationed where. If they demonstrated in times past that they were capable of handling villains it would be a straight shot to wherever you wanted really as long as you didn't interfere with another more known hero's routes. That didn't matter if you were an underground hero but that was a whole different process. Eijiro and Mina were too loud and outgoing to ever be considered for underground work so he skimmed those areas.
His main concern with helping Eijiro and Mina start up an agency would be the competition with their generation. Quirks were growing stronger and more versatile over the ages and Japan had the world's most competitive hero market. When they got into school, Izuku would have to gauge just how likely other hero course students would make it into the field. If a good amount were going to, then they'd have to find other avenues to support their jobs. A big way would be merchandise, interviews to get more known, some heroes even had their own shows or movies to get money or reputation. If they were popular enough or known enough, people demanded to see more of them, which the hero commission would then either give them the option to do more tv time, or better hero routes to do big flashy fights on live tv.
Wow, it felt like the hero world was more entertainment than anything.
"Izuku!" Eri's pouting voice interrupted him. Crap he'd accidentally slipped back into his notes.
"Sorry, got a little sidetracked." Izuku grabbed his notes and stuck his pencil into his pocket. Holding out his hand Eri grabbed it easily. She was getting big fast standing a head smaller than himself. Was this how Mom felt? Of course he wasn't exactly the tallest boy in his class.
"Omnitrix." It beeped in response. "Take us to save point 37."
"Confirmed." The american accented voice spoke back. Izuku discovered he could change it to something else but he was used to it already.
With a brief flash of green around them, their newlandscape was of a large forest with plenty of pines and aspens all around them. The ground was covered in dirt and old decayed leaves with the occasional shrub. In front of them was a clearing right beside a small lake that could be argued it was a large pond. The sunlight was barely skimming the top of the trees, but with a quick press of a button and rotating the dial Izuku changed the time to be just about noon.
Eri had already ran forward, her feet squishing into the moist mud as she splashed in the water. Izuku would have warned her to be careful, but luckily there were plenty of safeguards for physically being in the omnitrix. For one, they didn't need to breathe, or eat. Just suspended in a state that allowed them to exist within the omnitrix. Another thing was they couldn't be hurt, or changed in any way. Even as he watched Eri search the water for the fish knee deep in the water didn't cling to her or soak into her clothes.
It was always safe in here, which he was thankful for.
"I can't find any fsh!" Eri called out, waist deep in the water.
Izuku searched the still water with his eyes. If everything was suspended in the omnitrix the fish shouldn't move unless they touched them. "Omnitrix?"
*beep*
"Are there any forms of life stored in the planetary walk around?"
"Two life forms detected."
Well, that answered that. "Eri!" He called out with his hands cupped. "Sorry! But I guess there aren't any fish in the omnitrix! We'll have to find them outside!"
"Ok!" She trudged back, no mud or wet clothes on her. That was probably the best feature that avoided them being yelled at by Mom. If she found out he touched magma to know what the texture felt like she would have flipped out.
"Ready." Eri announced grabbing his hand. Izuku nodded, then they were engulfed in another flash of green.
"Sooo, they're in there right now?" Eijiro asked sitting on Izuku's bed, Himiko off to the side on the computer catching up on her homeschooling. She had procrastinated a bunch, gaming and streaming to the point it was all she ever did when she was awake. Inko got an email with her current report card and grounded her from all video games until she got caught up in class.
"Yep." She simply replied, her mind numbed from the stupid tests she had to do.
Eijiro was looking at the mysterious watch that sat on his best friend's desk. He was always curious about it, hell it was probably one of the biggest secrets of the world. It hurt to think that Izuku didn't like to talk about it, but he would respect it. Though he seemed to let Eri know so much despite her being the youngest and them only knowing her for a year. He had known Izuku for most his life, but he only revealed a fraction of what he did with it. The only thing he knew about it was
1. Izuku could delete quirks and diseases revolved around it.
2. Izuku could grant new quirks but never called them quirks.
3. He could teleport.
4. There was apparently some inner storage space he could access, and he found that out from talking to Himiko.
Lastly, there was something revolving around the made up heroes he had and the watch. Izuku had so much detail about each one, and compared him to one of the crystal ones frequently and as a reference for his power. When they got into middle school he started to close off anything revolving around those super guys and keeping it to himself. He thought he'd be fine with it, that Izuku could keep his own secrets and it would be cool.
Then Izuku asked him and his family to not tell Mina about the "omnitrix" he called it. Inko was very supportive about the idea, wanting no one to know more than was needed or else it might bring unwanted attention.
"Hey." Eijiro said openly.
"What?" Himiko replied not looking away from the screen.
"What do you think about Izuku not telling us much about his watch?"
She shrugged. "Don't really care. If he wants to tell us more he will."
"He could take away your powers though."
Himiko rolled her head and gave him an annoyed look. "Izuku? You think Izuku would make us quirkless again?"
His heart clenched at that. "You're right, he wouldn't do anything like that."
"Then there's nothing to worry about." She rolled herself back to her assignments, stretching her lips to grab a small container of jello and slurping the contents within a second.
"Your Mom seems pretty worried." He grumbled.
"That's just how Mom is. I think she's got a lot of good reasons though."
"Like what?"
"Like when word gets out about someone who can delete quirks and give new ones that are arguably more powerful than the previous ones? Two things would happen." She held up her hand, stretching her fingers into little figures of himself, her, and Izuku. A cage formed around them all.
"We either all get locked up by either villains or the government and experimented upon as they contain the potential threat." Her lips stretched out to a nearby soda with a straw and took a sip of the contents.
The clay cage around the figures dispersed as lots of people with cameras were formed. "Or two, we're watched by the world and our private lives are gone forever, people begging for us to be sealed away or forced to give away the secrets to controlling quirks."
Both options, didn't sound very good. "Then why does Izuku let Eri in the watch? How come he's trusting the youngest of us with the biggest secrets?"
Himiko groaned, slinking her head back until it touched the floor. It then turned around to look at Eijiro. "When has Izuku used his fancy watch?"
"When someone tried to hurt him really bad?" Eijiro answered, but the look on Himiko's face said it wasn't the right one.
"Well, yes, but there's a bigger reason."
He raised one of his crystal eyebrows waiting for elaboration.
"He used it to help us, and Eri. You think she'd be fine the day after he rescued her from a villain?" Himiko pulled her head back up and squashed it in place.
Eijiro nodded, yeah, Izuku had helped out a lot with his watch. "But it's been a year! From what you've told me he's practically gone in there everyday with her. Remember when Mamadoriya called us during school asking where Eri was? Izuku had her in his watch while we were at school!"
"Took me about a year to ask for my quirk." Himiko then showed off her powers again, making her fist into his head and speaking through it.
"Hi, I'm Eijiro, but you can call me Eijibro. I'm super jealous of a traumatized little girl who's taken my best friend's attention even though we go to school everyday, work out mornings and afternoons, and visit one another almost every weekend."
"It's not that and you know it." Eijiro sighed flopping backwards onto his buddy's bed.
"Oh really?"
"It's keeping secrets! I'm not good at them and if someone's keeping something from me I feel like they don't trust me."
"Well can't help you there." Himiko then resumed ignoring his existence and typed away.
Eijiro somehow knew talking to her about it wasn't going to get anywhere. So he pulled out his phone to type to the one person who always wanted to chat.
CrimsonRiot: Hey Mina! What's up?
AlienQueen: Bored.
AlienQueen: Super bored
AlienQueen: Need Eri's squishy cheeks to pinch.
CrimsonRiot: Have you asked Himiko if she'd turn into Eri for you?
Alienqueen: Tried it
AlienQueen: Wasn't the same
AlienQueen: hby?
CrimsonRiot: Same, came by Izuku's place to hang out but the whole fam is busy.
AlienQueen: Get your cheeks over here and I'll squish em
CrimsonRiot: My cheeks are as hard as diamonds, there won't be any squishing.
AlienQueen: Does that include your butt?
CrimsonRiot: Haha
CrimsonRiot: Not letting you touch the butt
AlienQueen: Not yet :3
*SKREEE*
Eijiro closed his eyes to prevent being blinded. When he opened them Izuku stood there in his All Might hoodie with a matching Eri in his t-shirt.
"Eijiro?"
"Yo."
"When did you get here?"
Eijiro picked himself up and gave his buddy a smirk. "I live here now."
Eri seemed to beam at that. "Really?!"
"Yep!" The red chandelier got to his feet and ruffled her hair, getting a giggle from her.
Izuku stood there a little dumbfounded, so Eijiro placed a hand on the guy's shoulder. "Hey, I was just messing with you."
"Awww." Eri whined before investigating her sister's work.
Both boys laughed, seeing Eri already demanding Himiko to transform into various fishy things.
"Hey Eri, be sure to put on some outside clothes ok?"
"Ok." She then went to her drawers in Izuku's room and pulled out her own clothes. When they went shopping for Eri all she wanted were clothes like Izuku's. So at least half of them sported some type of All Might theme with a few other heroes thrown in. There were a couple other clothes that Inko and Himiko picked out for her, like some cat themed shirts with skirts but she hardly ever wore them.
"Going somewhere?" Eijiro asked curious. It wasn't often Izuku took Eri outside, given circumstances. The frequently dyed hair and emerald contacts she had available to her did help. Only someone who got up close could tell it was her, and they had to be looking for a while beyond what anyone would be comfortable with.
"Yeah, we're going to head to the aquarium so Eri can see the fish."
"Fsh!" She shouted as she was putting on some pants. Since Eijiro was practically family, it never bothered anyone if she changed in front of them.
Izuku chuckled. "Yeah, we're going to see lots of fsh. You wanna come see some fsh with us?" He asked his bro.
Eijiro smiled at that. "Of course bro! It's been a while since we've been there. You ok if I invite Mina?"
"Sure, hey Himiko?"
"Grounded."
"Ah, right. Anything from the gift shop you want?"
Himiko turned around and grinned at him. "Gummy fsh."
"Fsh!" Eri cheered, now wearing one of Izuku's old All Might hoodies. Her horn managed to fit inside one of the fake tufts of hair so it was a good way to hide it in plain sight.
"FSH!" Eijiro joined in flexing his rock hard muscles. Izuku copied his pose, but he was clearly not as built as his friend was.
"FSH!" All of them shouted together.
"Shut the hell up!" A distant muffled voice shouted. Himiko shot out of her seat, opened the window, and shouted back at the neighbor.
"MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS YOU OLD FART!"
"Himiko!" Izuku grabbed his sister and pulled her back in.
"Sorry Mr. Torino!"
The smaller grey bearded man waved his cane at them from his window. "If I have to listen to one more stupidly pronounced word yelling from over there while I'm trying to take a nap I'm gonna smack your asses until they're redder than a-!"
Eijiro shut the window, the yellings of the older man muffled away as all four of them were left in an awkward moment. "Well that happened."
"Come on Eri, time to put your contacts in."
"Heeeeey guuuys!" Mina waved over to the three approaching figures. Eri was enjoying her perch on Izuku's shoulders patting his head like a drum. Luckily Eijiro's constant nagging about working out on the daily has made tasks like this hardly tax the boy. The red head immediately jogged up to Mina to greet the girl.
"My man!" He said slapping his hand into hers.
"My girl!" She replied.
Izuku wasn't really sure when the ritual started, but it was too late to stop it.
Eri seemed just as confused, if not more. "Wait, I thought Eijiro was a boy."
"He is." Izuku could only hope he was right, not like he ever saw the boy naked or anything. But it's not like he could question the lad's testosterone levels that exceeded every other male in a one mile radius.
"Hey Izuku! Hey Eri!" Mina walked over, reaching out to grab herself a piece of sweet Eri cheek. The girl leaned back the farther that Mina reached out, Izuku struggling to balance the squirming.
"No!" Eri yelled, slapping the hand away.
"Come on! Just a little squish!"
"No!"
"Gimme them cheeks!"
"No!"
Izuku grabbed Mina's hand, ending the mini battle. "Please stop, my spine can only twist in so many ways."
"Fiiine." She sighed, but then grinned mischievously. "I'll have to settle for yours then!"
"EEP!" Izuku's whole body tensed feeling Mina's hand firmly grasp his cheek, and not the one on his face.
"Leave the cheeks alone!" Eri leaned down to swat Mina's head, fingers accidentally tracing over her horns.
Mina quivered as her horns twitched. "Eriii! You know how sensitive horns are!"
Eri's grumpy face showed the girl was willing to show no mercy to those who assault her brother.
"Come on, let's just go see the fish." Izuku spoke, earning a small smack from Eri.
"Fsh!" She corrected.
"Fsh!" Eijiro joined.
"Fsh!" Mina threw her fist in the air, not really sure what was going on but loving the energy.
"Fsh!" Eri's emotions turned a full one eighty as everyone joined her warcry.
"Fsh! Fsh! Fsh!" They all chanted as they went into the aquarium.
"Wooooooo" Eri watched the stingrays swimming over their heads. She lifted her hand to touch them but was halted by the glass.
Izuku smiled, seeing her enjoy another piece of the world for the first time.
"Hey." Mina patted his shoulder. He glanced over to her, curious to her sudden gentle tone that wasn't playful.
"Anyone ever tell you you'd make a good dad?"
"No." And he ended it right there, simple, sweet, to the point. "Sorry, I know that sounded a lot meaner than I wanted it too."
"It's..fine" She recoiled a little at his bluntness, but matched his seriousness. "I just wanted to know how you're holding up, I know it was a crazy day when we met and all that and you never talked about her..You think you're ready to move on?"
Izuku nodded, smiling up at Eri. "I moved on a long time ago."
"Yeah, no more meanies!" Eri nodded, hearing of the girl that used her brother from Himiko plenty of times.
A slight twitch of a frown came around Mina's face. "That's not what I meant." She whispered.
"Hey guys! Check out this shark!" Eijiro pointed to the great white swimming in a large tank. Eri leaned Izuku's head forward to get him to move closer to the tank. Mina followed, putting the thought of what happened away and focused on having fun.
Though a certain redhead dragged her back into it. "Pst, Mina?"
"..Yeah?"
"Did you talk to Izuku about, ya know?"
"He's..I don't think he's open to it. Not now at least." She gave a sad smirk to the boy.
"At this rate he'll never be." Eijiro sighed. It was bugging him how Izuku kept closing himself off more and more.
About the watch.
About his feelings.
About almost everything.
The only things he could keep the boy talking about were heroes and their future in the career, but even that was touchy if he approached the ones in his special notebooks. At this rate it felt like the friendship was becoming really one sided.
"Well, we're still in middle school." Mina said perking up again. "I bet things will change when we all get into UA. Don't you worry that rocky head of yours." She patted the red crystals atop the teen's head.
"Yeah." Eijiro smiled. "We're still going to be heroes together?" He held up his fist.
"Ha, totally." She bumped the held up fist.
"Yyyyaaawwwn." Eri attempted to stifle her yawn. Yet the three hours of tugging Izuku along to everything that caught her eye drained her batteries. Her head started to bob, her arms clutching the stuffed salmon in her arms.
Mina stealthily went to pinch those adorable cheeks. An exhausted possessed arm slapped it away, guarding her face. "No, touchy."
The pink girl kept her mouth closed as she giggled away. Eijiro snapping photos he knows Himiko would bother them about. "You got the gummy fsh?"
Izuku nodded, reaching into his pocket to grab said chewy delectables. Something else brushed his fingers in his hoodie. Taking it out revealed a letter.
"What's that?" Mina said instantly interested. Eijiro also not discreetly looking over his shoulder.
"I don't know, it must have been there all day." Izuku turned the envelope over, eyes widening when he saw what was written.
To Izuku
From Professor Paradox
"What's it say?" Mina bugged him, shaking his arm.
"You can't read it?" Izuku thought the handwriting was a little off, but it was definitely eligible.
"Hey, I was putting off my English courses until high school."
English? He examined the letter again. It looked japanese, or that's what his brain kept telling him. Izuku glanced at his watch, wondering if it was translating it directly in his head. That was cool.
"Izuku, what is it?" Eijiro asked with a concerned voice.
Izuku looked back to the letter, if the Professor was reaching out, this was a huge priority. "Sorry, I've got to get home, sooner rather than later."
From the look that Izuku gave his watch, the message was clear to him. Izuku quickly left the two, power walking to the nearest alleyway.
"Wait." Mina said confused. "Isn't his house the other way?"
*SKREEEE*
Izuku teleported into his bedroom, about to set Eri down but spotted Ragdoll sitting on his computer looking at him in shock. She slowly grabbed the headset, setting it down on the desk.
"Don't tell Mom."
Izuku just nodded, letting his sister transform back to her usual self and step away from the computer.
"I'll just..let Eri take her nap." She exited, leaving Izuku alone with his little sister.
Laying Eri back into their bed he put the covers over her. She hugged her salmon closer to her, enjoying the plushy fsh. Izuku patted her head, earning a sleepy grin from her.
Now to see what this letter was about.
Sitting back down at his desk he opened up the envelope and took the letter out.
Dear Izuku
Hello young one! I decided to check your timeline for any potential anomalies that might interfere with the cosmic currents. Not that the details will be explained, but it is something to address at some point.
Izuku wondered if any time travelers made sense.
Anyways, I ran into a lovely young lady that had plenty of good things to say about you. She informed me of a particular time that I should reach out and get you started in avoiding a potential disaster.
DISASTER?!
By this time you would have come to accept a new member of your family. Her quirk, as you've probably guessed, is a stockpiling one. If left unused for too long, the consequences could be devastating. Normally I wouldn't interfere in things like this, but the state of the omnitrix and anything regarding time are within my domain.
"Time? This was a time problem?!"
Yes, a time problem!
Is he listening right now?!
No I wasn't listening. But she was, or is.
His head snapped around to see what he was talking about. Right behind him was Eri, sitting up, not asleep.
He pulled the letter from behind him and read it with Eri in front of him.
Don't be too alarmed, otherwise she will be. As you've noticed her horn has been growing to a very noticeable point. It's the focus point of her quirk. Now is the time to begin helping her in training it. There's a list of steps to experiment with including things to look out for.
Have fun!
-Professor Paradox
P.s. Eri loves you very much, and you've been a wonderful influence on her life.
That last part was written in different handwriting, and didn't feel the same as reading the other parts of the letter.
"Omnitrix"
*beep*
"Is any kind of translator function active?"
"Affirmative, universal translator is active."
"Disable for fifteen seconds."
"Confirmed."
The English lettering became obvious, and much harder to read. Yes he took a course in middle school, and he watched plenty of All Might clips in America. For some reason though the last part was written in japanese, good japanese.
"Izuku?" Eri rubbed her horn, stirring Izuku's gut as he noticed it.
"Eri."
"Hm?" She stopped rubbing her tingling horn to listen.
"I love you." He said in the most gentle way he could.
She smiled right back at him. "I love you too."
One more chapter, and then UA here we come!
Credit for helping me make this story goes to Animeguy1101
Let me know what you think about it and if you want to see more! With the large amount of reviews on the last chapter I'll only be replying to ones that are asking questions or are pitching ideas.
duskrider:
Nighteye certainly has a lot of things to investigate, and who knows what conclusions he'd draw on his own.
FanfictionFanatic78:
We have yet to see Pony, but we'll see what kind of influence she has in his life. Eventually Izuku will use his transformations, but not yet.
Beast Boy:
True dat.
ProjectIceman:
I'm sure canon Izuku went through his own troubles, though it seems a lot of it was from Bakugo alone. There is certainly an investigation going on in the background, it's only a matter of time before they find something.
Creator of the multiverse:
That's the idea, with all these mysteries being brought to certain eyes many are starting to act. Let's just hope the right people see what's going on and make the right decisions.
Kobk:
I'm sure when Izuku figures out he can transform he'd know to avoid Alien X. Just because he doesn't know how to turn into aliens yet doesn't mean he hasn't learned everything he could about them.
D3lph0xL0v3r:
Yes, one year in universe. Not ours, theirs. In story timeline.
Mystic321:
Touya would have been gone by now.
CCSakuraforever:
Once he discovers the power to transform things are going to get very crazy very fast.
qazse:
He'll discover how to transform eventually, and he'll kick plenty of smug people around. As for All Might Izuku has to meet him first, plus, Izuku isn't planning on going the normal route. Who knows if he would even be offered One for All.
No, no harems. Hate them. Maybe a love triangle, but no harems, or poly relationships. Only one on one romance.
Lupine Horror:
So far Himiko only knows Shoto as a guy who donates money to her streams. He certainly wouldn't know what to do with his feelings, and may come off as a little stalkerish based off his viewing habits.
The Element Of Insanity:
At some point he will transform, but not until later. But yeah, if he got a hand on All for One he could just delete the quirks in him. There is the question if he'd still even live after that, given all the life sustaining quirks he's on.
