Midoriya would openly admit: it had been mildly entertaining to trail after Portgas—Ace, he would get it eventually—as he struggled to find the study his captain had spoken of. The pirate rambled on about this and that with no real purpose, but as a rambler himself, Midoriya couldn't find fault in it. Besides, it was more relieving than it should have been, considering the circumstances.

The chaos of everything falling to pieces around him was interrupted with this small dose of normalcy with a hint of nostalgia, as he recalled the days he spent struggling to find his way around UA alongside his friends.

When they finally located the study (which they had, in fact, walked by at least four times before, much to Midoriya's continued amusement), Ace had sulked about leaving him there to go fulfill his own responsibilities. He had finally left when the boy reminded him that they would see each other later, given that they were on the same ship and Midoriya would certainly be stuck there for a while.

Although his company was… nice, for lack of a better word, Midoriya was glad he left. Now he had the chance to find as much information about this world (assuming he was correct) without the supervision or suspicion of foreign eyes. The study was, in fact, relatively small. It was possible that his expectations were horribly skewed as a result of UA's absurd tendency to have the best and biggest (literally) facilities on campus.

The study itself was about half of the size of their dorm rooms at UA, most of the space taken up by a large, wooden L-shaped desk. The back wall, directly opposing the door, was entirely taken up by a built-in bookshelf. The structure was nailed and bolted into the wooden walls, floor, and ceiling, with little railings that he assumed were meant to keep the books in place in harsh weather.

With a tired, yet determined, sigh, Midoriya began sifting through the collection.

Most of the books were entirely unhelpful, journals tracking expenditures and catalogs of items and stolen goods lined the shelves in the small study. But in the corner, there had been a few incredible finds.

A collection of bound maps and some notes of political allegiances and countries, an encyclopedia of something called Devil Fruits, and a journal.

The maps made it clear that none of the landmasses were strange. They seemed to be more of a collection of islands rather than the continents he was used to seeing on world maps. The lists of countries were made up of names he hadn't recognized and the rulers were equally unfamiliar. But it gave him lists of things to keep in mind and potentially recognize later. Not to mention it revealed the many different races in this world. Races, as in different humanoid species.

Fishmen, for one. Midoriya realized fairly quickly that Jinbei was most likely one of these fishmen. Giants were also a thing here, but he wasn't sure if Newgate was a giant or if he was just freakishly tall. He was leaning more towards just tall, given how ridiculously tall everyone seemed to be in comparison to him. Even Portgas… Ace… seemed short in comparison to some of the people he'd seen in his short time here.

But, without any prior knowledge of this world, there wasn't too much he had been able to glean from those pages. The Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, on the other hand, was much more informative.

As soon as he'd opened the cover and read the introductory notes, he knew he'd found the explanation for the powers of this world. Or rather, the source, in absence of actual understanding of the mechanics, similar to how little they knew about the origin of quirks. Nuance aside, the boy must have spent hours absorbed in its pages, curiously investigating ones that sounded interesting, comparing what he'd seen in person to the explanations written in the book, and taking note of ones he assumed would be powerful.

But even as he learned so much about these powers, there were three things that stood out most to him and were arguably the most valuable information contained in its well-worn pages.

One, those who have eaten a Devil Fruit could no longer swim. Two, there were three main types of Devil Fruits effects: paramecia, zoan, and logia. And three, that there was a certain type of stone—Sea Stone—out there, harder than steel, that had similar effects on Devil Fruit users as water.

All of which were useful information when planning how best to hide the fact that a person may or may not be from a different world. The puzzle pieces fit together too neatly—although there were still a few details missing, such as how he wound up in another world in the first place. For now, he planned to continue on the principle of Occam's Razor: the most likely solution is usually the simplest. Although it was odd to consider traveling into a new world (or reality or whatever this was) the simple solution, considering all the differences he'd noted and the lack of familiar and presence of unfamiliar elements in this place. Therefore, acting as though he was in a different universe would likely yield the best results.

He could only hope that he wasn't actually in the past, because then he might run the risk of fucking up the timeline to varying degrees, depending on which time travel theory proved correct (or at the very least, most accurate).

Regardless, his ultimate goal was to blend in. As such, he'd also given a cursory glance at every power set listed in the encyclopedia's pages, in the hopes that there was a Devil Fruit similar enough to One for All or one of the previous user's quirks so he could pretend his power set was simple the result of a Devil Fruit. But of course, he had no such luck.

The last helpful find was an informative travel journal written by someone who was clearly not an outlaw. Or at least, the author hadn't been at the time of writing. He wasn't entirely sure why it was here, on a pirate ship of all things, but he wasn't one to complain. (He ignored the part of him that speculated about the possibility that the author joined this crew after the events described in the bound pages, simply because he wrote about the horrors sanctioned by the government.)

Nothing was… explicitly stated, but many entries that mentioned the shady practices of the World Government. Even without the explicit ties, even the entries that exposed the worst of it made the connection quite off-handedly and without context that would be required for people who weren't already aware of the government and the history of this world.

At first, it had taken a moment, but he felt that he'd been on to something so he read and re-read large swaths of text, cross-referencing with other details hinted in other entries. It was when he'd caught a glimpse of the slavery—and as he backread and double-checked he eventually realized: legal slavery—described in its pages and had to set the logbook down for a moment just to keep himself from throwing up. It truly felt as though he'd been thrown in the past. Because… what the actual fuck?

The entries made it clear how far the law enforcement was willing to go to uphold the law, which made the boy's gut churn. These people were meant to help people, but just within these pages lay hints of lands that were lawless and abandoned by the government entirely. It reminded him too much of Japan as it was now: without order and all cries for help ignored by international allies. Midoriya quickly realized that the thousands of men he had faced just days prior had been wearing white uniforms as described in the book.

It made sense, considering they had been trying to execute Portgas… Ace… for his parentage rather than because of his own actions. Actually, the fact that they would use a practice as barbaric as public execution was…

Midoriya shook his head and slammed the journal shut. With a sigh, he picked himself up off the floor and grimaced at the way his joints ached and creaked as he went to put the journal back where he'd found it. Just as it slid back into place, a knock resounded in the room.

The boy sighed in relief, pathetically grateful that whomever was at the door had the decency to knock and not simply walk in and scare the shit out of him. He hadn't had much of an issue back at the dorms, but in his defense, that was before he hit the streets and had assassins and villains and—though he wanted to cry every time he thought about it—civilians all out to get him at every turn.

"You can come in," he called out, flopping back on the desk chair rather than searching for another book to examine.

He assumed that he would be allowed to come back later given their open hospitality, but he wasn't so sure that he was welcome to remove books from the study. Midoriya had to remind himself that, despite their kindness, these people were pirates and he was already in a precarious situation. He couldn't act as though everyone was trustworthy or safe. It was better not to push their boundaries, lest they turn on him.

"Pardon my interruption," Jinbei called out as he swung the door open gently, "I have brought some soup. I attempted to bring some with more substance, as I'm sure you are hungry, but the nurses insisted that I give you something light instead."

"Oh, it's no problem, I just finished a book. And I'm sure the soup will be delicious, thank you."

Midoriya couldn't help but stare at the medium-sized bowl held in the man's blue (webbed) hands with laser focus. It was a bit… embarrassing how hungry he was, especially considering the fact that it was entirely his fault. Once Jinbei placed the dish down on the desk before him, it took all of the boy's willpower to refrain from chugging it down. Actively fighting against his instinct, he reluctantly picked up the spoon in his shaky hand and did his best to scoop the liquid into his mouth.

After a few spoonfuls, Midoriya peered up at the man (fishman?), internally cringing at the way his hair got in his eyes. He had expected the man to leave once he brought the food, but instead, he seemed content to simply stand and watch. Was he meant to be a supervisor? Or did he want to ask something? Or maybe he was just waiting to bring the empty dishes back to the kitchens?

"If I may ask," Jinbei broke the moment of silence, to which Midoriya paused eating to glance up at him, "No, feel free to continue eating, I was just curious is all. Why is it that you chose to protect Ace and Luffy—and Whitebeard as well—on the battlefield? You weren't involved in the conflict, yet you chose to fight against the World Government."

Midoriya was suddenly glad he had stopped eating his soup as the inquiry left him choking on air. He was left scrambling for a response, but he couldn't think of anything to say that would satisfy the question without raising further questions.

It wasn't like he could just say that he was from another world where he was actively hunting criminals and instinctively identified the people that needed to be saved and acted on that instinct. In this world, from what it appeared so far, there weren't any heroes. The concept of his entire internal motivations likely made no sense, especially without context. Context which he was unwilling to provide just yet, if ever.

And even if he wanted to tell the truth, it wasn't as if his answers would be satisfying to criminals, much less trustworthy.

Besides, he was not about to admit to a complete stranger—not that he would tell someone he knew, to be fair—that at the time, he had barely been able to see fifteen meters in front of him. That was embarrassing at best and downright problematic at worst.

Fortunately for him, and his budding panic, he didn't have to answer.

Just as he took a breath to bluff his way through the rest of their conversation, the door slammed open. Someone let out a loud cheer while another person shouted some kind of reprimand to stop. Danger Sense flared faintly, resembling a fingernail gently pressing into skin rather than the sledge-hammer to the head to which he had come to expect from the quirk. He leaned a bit to the side just in time to avoid a figure leaping towards him, arms extended as if hoping to latch onto him. Midoriya was unsure of how that was supposed to work with the desk in the way, but overall he was glad that whoever that was had managed to avoid the wooden furniture.

It had been a long ass day (a long ass few weeks, if he was being honest) and if his food had been spilled, he would have probably had a meltdown.

The figure crashed into the wall behind Midoriya and he immediately swiveled around to assess the threat. The crash was followed by an avalanche of books crashing to the floor, pages bending every which way, making the student cringe.

It caught him by surprise that, instead of a deep-seated glare meeting him as he turned around, he was met with a wide grin and giggle laughter from the teen who had been in his room just hours prior: Luffy.

"Jinbei! You're okay too!" the teen cheered, ignoring the pile of books now covering the floor and the grumbles of disgruntled adults (and startled huffs of Jinbei) in the doorway.

"Luffy, what did I tell you about rocketing like that indoors?" a man—Portgas… Ace, Midoriya recognized—chided.

Midoriya huffed, picking up his spoon as the two started bickering. Whatever brotherly quarrel they were getting into, he would respectfully stay out of it. As an only child, he had no idea what they were like. But given the mess on the floor, obnoxiously loud arguing, and the suspicious way that Luffy was currently eyeing his bread and soup, he would rather be safe than sorry.

Besides, he hadn't forgotten how difficult it had been to keep his food out of Luffy's grabbing hands when he was asleep. The boy didn't want to find out how difficult it would be while he was awake.

And if he was eating, that meant that he didn't have to talk. Kacchan had always told him he was a shit liar and he couldn't find it in himself to disagree. So if his long-term goal was to keep the fact that he was from another world a secret, his best bet was to simply avoid talking much, if he talked at all.

With a soft sigh, Midoriya took another spoonful of his soup and glanced back towards the door. Marco's gaze immediately locked onto his own and held him there.

Midoriya wasn't sure if he liked the odd look on the man's face as he nervously gulped the last bite of the broth, wondering if it was his nerves or the food that was making his stomach churn.


Marco was… uncertain.

In his many years as a pirate, there were many things that left him wary or concerned, but after so long on an Emperor's ship, there were very few circumstances that left him in this state.

That wasn't to say that this was a bad thing. In fact, he would actively argue to the contrary. After all, the cause of his internal conflict had saved his father, his brother, and his brother's brother directly and arguably the lives of many of the crew and their allies by covering their retreat.

It wasn't in the act itself, but rather the circumstances behind it and the effects that followed, rippling out like a stone that lands on the surface of the sea.

After their (admittedly haphazard) retreat, Marco had taken it upon himself to coordinate destinations to regroup and swap passengers through secure Den-Den lines. He took surveys of which ships had been completely obliterated and which had been damaged (all to varying degrees of severity) after the battle. He had to search for news of which of their allied ships hosted the other Division Commanders from the main fleet and find a way to set up a meeting between all of their lines without creating an opportunity for a leak.

Given how the Division Commanders had taken charge of respective allied groups, it wasn't a surprise that not a single ship had two of their commanders aside from the one they were on now.

He'd had a nagging feeling—a suspicion, a curiosity—and he couldn't help but check with every call he made to an allied ship. Marco asked each of the Division Commanders and Allied Captains he had been able to reach whether they had heard of Deku, though he hadn't known the kid's name at the time. Each time he had been given a resounding no.

The pirate had the feeling that even if he asked around about Deku, he would get a similar result. It put him on edge

Although it was impossible for them to know everything, even as one of the strongest pirate crews on the seas, Marco couldn't help but be concerned when no one that he had called had any idea how Deku had arrived nor recognized the boy himself. Powerful people like the kid didn't just appear out of nowhere. Especially not on a battlefield at the most crucial moment.

Marineford was far from an easy place to get to by accident, unless it was the work of a Devil Fruit, so there had to be something more to his appearance than they knew.

So while Deku's arrival had been a blessing—a miracle, really—it was much too convenient to be anything but suspicious. That said, Marco was sure that Deku meant them no harm. It wasn't so much that the kid gave off dangerous vibes, in fact it was the opposite. The kid didn't have a malicious bone in his small body. But the boy had also proven to them that he was far from harmless, considering how easily he fended off a Marine Admiral, hundreds of Marine Soldiers, and even Teach—no, Blackbeard—who had managed to defeat Ace.

Any of those on their own would be a feat in and of itself, but all three at the same time? It was impressive. Marco certainly couldn't fault him for fainting once he reached safety.

Of course, that then begged the question as to why he (a child) was injured, fatigued, and a bit malnourished before he had arrived. And then, how he managed to fight through his condition. It was… worrying, if nothing else.

It was a bit strange how attached he'd gotten to the kid in such a short time.

Honestly, it almost felt as though this was Ace all over again. The way the kid seemed to shy away from help, yet was kind and respectful in a way that Ace hadn't bothered with when they first met. Although he had to be fair to Ace, they had been enemies the first time they met whereas Deku was decidedly an ally from the moment he blocked Akainu's attack.

Marco could only hope that his wariness wasn't founded and turned out to be unjustified paranoia rather than a warning sign he ignored.

"Yaahoo!" someone shouted, the door opening with a resounding bang.

Marco sighed and turned to face what he could only assume was the pair of brothers.

And yup, he held back a grimace as he was met with the sight of Ace scolding the teenager, "Luffy! You can't just throw the doors open like that! You're going to break it!"

"But I didn't break it," Ace's brother helpfully supplied, looking to be the pinnacle of innocence.

"But you could have."

"Is there something you two needed?" Marco rolled his eyes, silently grateful that his wandering thoughts had been interrupted.

Ace sighed, "Not really."

The blonde held back a snort as Luffy sent Ace the dirtiest look, "Of course there is! Ace said that that green guy is here! I wanna meet him!"

Marco raised an eyebrow at the Second Division Commander, who eyed the wall and whistled innocently in lieu of a response.

These two really were brothers; he could see the resemblance.

"I see. And why is it that you need me? You are the one who led him to the study after his meeting with Pops earlier."

Ace blushed, "Ah well…"

"Ace said he doesn't remember where it is!" Luffy laughed, "He said that books were boring so he forgot the way almost immediately."

"Luffy, shut up!" the older brother hissed, "This isn't our usual ship, so I keep getting turned around… you know how it is."

Marco rolled his eyes, "Sure, if you say so. I was just finishing up here anyway and I need to show Deku to his room."

"Yay!" Luffy cheered, pouting when Ace leaned over to cover the boy's mouth with his hand.

The First Division Commander smiled at their antics, a wave of relief washing over him as he realized how close they had been to losing either—or even both—of the pair of brothers. And his Pops, for that matter. If it hadn't been for Deku, it was possible that all three of them or any combination of the three wouldn't still be here. It was only fair that the soft-spoken kid who had tried to deny how he'd helped their crew would get to meet the very people he'd saved.

He deserved so much more, in Marco's very biased opinion, but that was neither here nor there. Perhaps having someone closer to Deku's age would help him open up a bit. It had been painfully obvious how wary and untrusting the boy was. Luffy seemed to be the type of person to get anyone to open up, considering how easily he had managed to get on their Pop's good side despite smack talking the Emperor directly to the man's face.

"Ew, did you lick me?" Ace whined.

Or maybe not.

But either way, it was for the best that the two children met. At the very least, Marco hoped that Deku could reign in what was slowly becoming a streak of property damage from Luffy.

The First Division Commander said nothing as he led the brothers to the small study. He couldn't help but chuckle at the way they acted, the way Ace brought out the childish side of Luffy and Luffy brought out the responsible side of Ace. It was as though the two were made for each other in a way that even the found family bonds of the crew couldn't match.

And the two weren't even biological brothers.

Marco huffed in amusement as he realized that Pops would probably try to adopt Luffy, if not Deku as well.

"Well, we're here," he gestured to the door he stopped in front of, turning back to the brothers.

Before he could say anything, Luffy let out a cheer and launched himself at the door. Marco and Ace shouted out in unison as the teen slammed the door open and leapt into the room at full speed. The Commanders glanced into the room just as the teen slammed against the back wall—a bookshelf, they both realized as the books came tumbling off the shelves. Deku had clearly dodged the teen as he launched towards him, now leaning awkwardly to the side and staring at the boy.

Luffy didn't seem to notice the mess he'd made, instead greeting Jinbei while ignoring the kid who had saved him, whom he'd nearly body-slammed.

Without missing a beat, Ace immediately began repeating the same lecture that he had directed at Luffy earlier despite the fact that his younger brother clearly did not care and had no intention to listen to his brother's pleading. Marco let out a sigh as he shared a long-suffering look with Jinbei, who seemed to be the most startled by Luffy's sudden actions.

The two adults broke off their gaze in favor of glancing towards the youngest in the room. Deku seemed relatively unfazed by the other teen's appearance, easily choosing to pick up his spoon and finish his food rather than deal with the chaos around him.

Not that Marco blamed him. He was just confused as to how the kid took it all in stride as though it were normal. Perhaps it was, for him, but that brought up a whole other set of questions that Deku most likely wouldn't take kindly to answering.

Marco grimaced as Luffy stood up, making an even bigger mess of the fragile, bound books. The First Division Commander took a deep breath and glanced back towards Deku, catching the boy taking his last bite of whatever food he'd been brought. Their gazes locked onto each other and, while Deku seemed very anxious by this development, Marco couldn't bring himself to look away.

"You're the green guy, right?!" Luffy interrupted, dragging both Deku and Marco's gazes away from each other and towards the rookie instead.

Deku's face scrunched up in an odd amalgamation of confusion and exasperation as Ace stepped in once more to scold his brother.

"I told you, his name is Deku!"

Luffy jammed a finger up his nose, looking more annoyed than he had any right to be, "No you didn't. You just said: the guy in green that helped is us a kid! I think you'll like him, we should go meet him."

"That is not what I said!" Ace rebutted, a blush creeping up his cheeks.

"Ahem, regardless of what Ace did or did not say," Jinbei interrupted, ignoring Ace's squawk of protest, "You should introduce yourselves properly."

"Oh yeah," Luffy agreed easily, pulling his finger from his nose and wiping it on his shirt, "I'm Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm going to be the King of the Pirates!"

Deku—to his credit—just blinked at the introduction, seemingly in acceptance, and returned the introduction.

"I'm Deku."

"Do you not have a last name?" Luffy asked, tilting his head not dissimilar to a curious cat, "Oh and what Devil Fruit did you eat?! You're really strong! You might be even stronger than Ace!"

"Hey!" Ace complained.

Marco internally winced at the teen's blunt questions, noticing how Jinbei reacted much the same. Yet, despite his hesitancy, Luffy was only asking the questions that the adults were all too wary and concerned to ask. There was still no telling whether the questions were better coming from Luffy's mouth rather than theirs, but he supposed they were about to find out.

Rather than exhibiting any signs of nervousness, however, Deku simply looked Luffy dead in the eye. He sat still for a moment, holding his wide-eyed gaze for what would have been an uncomfortably long time if it had been anyone else other than Luffy (probably), and shrugged.

Marco felt his jaw drop against his will.

"I see," Luffy laughed, before pausing to think.

Marco knew that Deku didn't trust them, but to straight-up give no answer to two very-specific and easy-to-answer (and, for one of which, easy to falsify given their information network, he reluctantly considered) questions meant that it was a whole lot worse than they had realized. Not to mention he did it with a straight face and without much hesitation or anxiety. It was almost as if, in the moments he stared at Luffy, he was determining whether not answering was an option or if he had to bluff his way through.

"I see," Luffy nodded solemnly, leaving Marco to wonder if Luffy was smarter than he'd initially given him credit for, before: "So it's a Mystery Power!"

A loud smack echoed in the small room, drawing all of their attention to the source while Luffy laughed at his resolute conclusion. Marco stared at Ace in sympathy as his fellow Commander rubbed his head (where he'd smacked it in a rather aggressive facepalm). Honestly, Marco wasn't sure how Ace had managed to live with Luffy, but their bond was so strong that he couldn't deny the truth that—somehow—he had.

And Marco had only been around Luffy (awake, anyway) for a few hours at most.

"Hey, do you want to go explore the ship?" Luffy asked, his eagerness written all over his face.

Deku's lip twitched, clearly suppressing either a smile or a grimace, but he didn't respond. Marco frowned as he realized that Deku's eyes trailed over to him as if to ask for permission. Or perhaps he was looking for an excuse to not explore with Luffy. That was also possible. The former would be quite sad, considering that Deku was a guest yet he was acting under the assumption that he was to be supervised and monitored during his time here. The latter was entirely understandable, and Marco was keen to offer the poor kid an out.

He was no doubt still tired and recovering from his injuries. Marco doubted that Luffy would be very cognizant of that fact, regardless of his good intentions.

"Well, I think now would be a good time to show you to your room," he offered instead.

Deku blinked at him in surprise. Apparently, he had been expecting to be supervised while on the ship after all. He would have to remedy that assumption later.

"I see. It's a separate room…?"

Marco nodded, wondering where he was going with his questions.

He shifted a bit in place, clearly nervous about something, "I assume not everyone on this ship has their own room…?"

The adults in the room frowned simultaneously. Marco himself was confused as to why that was relevant. He glanced at Ace, who shrugged, and then at Jinbei, who valiantly did his best to keep his expression smoothed out.

"You are responsible for saving the great Whitebeard and the Second Division Commander of his crew. I believe you fail to understand the significance of your actions, especially to those on this ship and dozens of allied ships. Do not sell your actions short. You are an honored guest and you will be treated with the dignity and respect you deserve," Jinbei explained, making eye contact with Deku and holding it even as the kid's lips wobbled.

Clearly the kid had no idea how much he'd helped them all, even when it was blatantly spelled out to him.

"I-I see…"

Even Luffy pulled a face at the obvious lie.

They all cringed a bit at the half-hearted smile Deku gave them, likely with the intent to attend to their feelings rather than any real understanding of their perspective. Marco sighed instead of pressing further. He sent a grateful smile in Jinbei's direction despite the fact that his words were said in vain. It seemed that there was no hope of getting their genuine gratitude across to the kid.

The First Division Commander was almost afraid to find out what had happened to this kid to leave him in this state of mistrust. Mistrust or lack of self-worth. It was hard to tell, but he could only hope that they could correct this during Deku's time here. He was certain that they would all regret it if the kid left before they were able to do so.

"Anyway, if you're ready, I can show you the way. We can pick up your things from the infirmary. Someone will stop by with another change of clothes later, I'm afraid we don't have much in your size."

"O-of course. Thank you," Deku blushed, pink lightly dusting his freckled cheeks.

Was he embarrassed? Marco wasn't sure what he had said, but he ignored it in favor of leading the kid out of the small study. He paused for a moment out in the hallway, waiting for Deku to bid the others in the room goodbye and follow his lead.

He sighed as Luffy whined about having only just met him. Deku seemed reluctant to leave once the teen expressed his displeasure, but Marco continued walking in hopes that the kid would continue to follow.

The walk to the infirmary was a short one. It was silent, which felt out of place despite the quiet demeanor Deku has maintained since his arrival. He could almost imagine the kid boisterous and lively, much the way Ace was, but they had yet to see anything but the aura of muted determination the kid gave off.

Deku was very efficient in the infirmary, entering empty-handed and exiting with his (frankly heavy) backpack slung over his shoulders in under a minute. Part of Marco wanted to ask the kid why he was in such a rush, why his movements were all so silent and deliberate, but the other part of him knew to keep his mouth shut. There was just something about him that left him erring on the side of caution and courtesy.

When they finally reached Deku's room, he pushed the door open and ushered the kid inside. He pulled a metal key from his pocket and held it out to the kid. He paused and studied it for a split second before taking the offered gift.

Marco held back a frown, "Feel free to let anyone know if you need anything. I'll stop by later with a few things, until then you're welcome to come and go as you please. No need to go to the kitchens for food, I'll have Ace bring you some around dinner time."

"Th-thank you so much! I am grateful for your hospitality," Deku bowed deeply, nearly toppling over in the process.

Marco simply nodded, realizing that if he allowed himself to respond verbally, he would likely start a cycle of gratitude that would never end. They stood there awkwardly for a moment before the First Division Commander took a step back, waved, and began walking down the hallway. Once he was a few meters away, the door clicked shut.

Marco sighed.

Deku was as stubborn—and likely as powerful—as Ace. It felt silly to make that comparison, but the distrust and genuine kindness felt like deja vu.

Hopefully Deku wouldn't end up like Ace, alone with the whole world against him, convinced that he had to suffer the consequences of something outside of his control. Convinced that he deserved it.

But first, Marco had to find more clothes that would fit the kid.


Incorrect Quotes:

Marco: Deku is like Ace, but with better manners.

Whitebeard: No, he's Ace but far more skittish and less aggressive.

Jinbei: Perhaps gentle and courteous is the best description.

Luffy: You're all wrong. He's Ace, but without the generational trauma.

Ace: what the hell is that supposed to mean?!

Deku: Am I not my own person?

All Might: Have you or have you not been trying to imitate me since you were four years old?

Deku:

Deku: You're not even in this universe right now, stfu All Might.

The Second User: You're really going to tell him he's wrong?

Deku: Stfu, Kacchan wanna-be

Second: I WAS HERE FIRST! IF ANYTHING, HE'S THE WANNA-BE LOOK-ALIKE OF ME!

Deku: …LA LA LA LA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU! YOU'RE IN THE OTHER UNIVERSE, REMEMBER?