Restaurant – Main Room -

It was night, right after the closing hour, and only Izuku, Rumi and Momo were in the main room; Zephyr the Pheline, the new addition to the staff, was quietly sweeping the floor while humming to himself under the merciless eyes of Shiro that made sure the new arrival didn't dare do a poor job at keeping his Partner's Restaurant floor spotless clean.

Many customers were curious as to where Izuku had found yet another curious helper, but compared to Shiro and Blackie, Zephyr was deemed normal enough to no warrant too much scrutiny, and his being adorable, friendly and helpful helped a lot as well, now it was only a matter of teaching him sign language to help him communicate with others.

Blackie instead was quietly asleep under one of the Soul-Appeasing Trees while Eri was already asleep in her room after Izuku had read her a bedtime story, but the young Chef 's smile had dropped as soon as he had returned downstairs to face the two women sitting at the same table, he was now pacing restlessly back and forth.

"A polycule…" He would mutter from time to time.

"As insane as it sounds, yes, this is what Nejire was plotting for in the background. Ochako herself admitted it as soon as you left with Rumi." Momo answered while massaging her temples.

"Since the day me and her returned from Starlight City?" Izuku asked, his frown not giving any signal it was about to leave his face any time soon.

"Pretty much, yeah. She came to me the very next morning to offer me to become allies against Momo." Rumi answered.

"And you accepted?" Izuku asked, disappointed.

"I did. I was still treating this like an Ego Game when she asked me and I accepted even just to 'Win', I can't justify it. I did it for all the wrong reasons." She answered, sighing.

"I am already surprised you are not trying to guilt-trip your way out of this, but just admitting your mistakes." Momo admitted.

"Because I am better than that! Or at least I like to believe I am…"

"Rumi?" He asked.

"I am serious, Izuku. About you. About us! But I can't have a chance with you through cheating or lying or manipulation! That's...That's not how you build a relationship! Not one that lasts at least! And I want it to last forever if possible!"

"BUT HE IS ALREADY SPOKEN FOR!" Momo snapped.

"THEN MAKE ROOM FOR ME TOO!" Rumi yelled back.

"Stop yelling!" Izuku snapped, luckily silencing both.

"Why him, Rumi? Why?" Momo asked between clenched teeth.

"Because yes. Love works like it fucking wants! I see him and I am happy, I don't see him and I miss him! I like the sound of his voice when he talks and the way he falls silent when he thinks. I like the way his eyes sparkle when he is happy and I hate the frown he has when he is doubting himself because I want to make it go away! Happy?! And I KNOW there is some spark down there inside him about me! He can't deny it! You will always be the number one, I made peace with it, but I want to be his number 2." Rumi answered.

"It's very selfish." Momo said.

"Yes, but at least I am being 100% honest about it instead of working from the shadows." She answered.

"Rumi...I…" Izuku tried saying.

"You two keep asking me Why. And I think it's my turn to ask you two Why not. What is physically stopping you two from letting me in? I told you, I am not here to steal Izuku. Not anymore. I want to Join. Let me in, please." She said with a pleading tone, even grabbing Momo's hands in hers.

"…"

"Momo, I won't guilt trip you, lie, manipulate or whatever you may think. I am being 100% honest, I am opening-up as much as I can, more than I did in years about anything. Why don't you want to give me a chance?" Rumi asked.

"...Because you will betray me."

"No, I won't! Never." She answered.

"This situation is too strange, Rumi." Izuku admitted with a defeated sigh, finally sitting at the same table of the two young women.

"Strange, yes, but not wrong! We just need to be consensual about this. The three of us! Together!" One of Rumi's hands now grabbed one of Izuku's too.

"Why are you not backing down?" he asked.

"Because I Love you. And if I will need to repeat this a million times before you accept it, so be it. I will do it." She said, surprisingly, without any animosity in her tone.

"But what if he doesn't love you back, hn?" Momo asked, tightly clenching Izuku's free hand in hers for reassurance.

"Then I want to hear it from him. I want him to look me in the eyes and tell me I have no chance, then even if it will hurt a lot, I will step back."

"And then?" Izuku asked.

"Then I will just remember you fondly as that First Love that never could be. I believe that is a form of Love too, yes? Letting you go so that you can be happy with somebody else?" Rumi answered with a very shaky smile.

"This would resolve the YOU side of the problem. But Nejire? Ochako?" Momo asked, sighing.

"What about them?" Izuku added.

"Ochako is the same, poor girl is in Love with you, but she at least understands how wrong it is. Momo can't deny it: her classmate is tearing herself apart over this." Rumi answered.

"True. Out of all three, she was the one to be the first to admit she was doing a very horrible thing by going behind our backs. I am forced to give her that much." Momo admitted.

"Didn't stop her from trying it still."

"Unfortunately."

"…" As an answer, Izuku simply got up and started to pace around the room.

"I believe Ochako too will stop bothering you if you ask her." Rumi said.

"You are guilt tripping me. You are asking me to literally stomp on her feelings." He answered while tiredly rubbing his face with one hand.

"It's not guilt tripping, and only a moron would call it like that. I am stating a fact: she needs to hear it from YOU that she has not a chance. It is how it works in this case," Rumi answered.

"…"

"Izuku…" Momo muttered.

"I...I don't...I am not in love with you, Rumi. Or with Ochako." Izuku said slowly.

"…"

"...I understand." To Momo's surprise, a small smile appeared on Rumi's face at those words, even with a shy veil of moisture faintly in her eyes, but no actual tears came, at least that small slice of Pride still resisted inside the bunny girl.

"I am sorry." He said.

"Don't be, it's okay. It's normal." Rumi answered, forcefully enlarging that forced smile until it made a conscious effort to resemble her usual cocky one.

"At least I tried. Can I get a hug before going?" She said while walking up to him.

"Sure. And...Sorry…" Izuku answered, hugging her tightly as she asked.

"Stop apologizing, fool. You did nothing wrong. Quite the opposite in fact, you didn't string me along, but made it clear." Rumi answered, squeezing him tight in her hug and taking a deep breath of his scent once buried her face in his neck.

"You are an extraordinary woman, a truly amazing girl. I know you will find the perfect guy for you to Love and be Loved." Izuku said, patting her back before dropping the hug.

"God, I hope so. Am I still able to come here? Your food is good." Rumi asked with a chuckle.

"You will always be welcomed here, Rumi. I still want to be your friend." Izuku answered.

"Thank you…"

"Come on, say it." He said, chuckling.

"...God, the Friendzone sucks. You boys are right." She admitted, this time with an actual honest laugh that still sounded slightly wet.

"Hahahaha. Please never change, Rumi." Izuku asked, saddened.

"Of course I won't, I am one of a kind!" She answered, proud.

"True."

"Just promise me you will be happy." Rumi asked.

"I will. You too, please."

"Sure thing. See you around!" Rumi answered, taking her cue to leave and walking towards the door.

"…"

"Momo?" Izuku asked, finally noticing the strange look in the woman's eyes.

"...That's it, Rumi? You are leaving just like this?" she asked, making Rumi stop walking as soon as she opened the Restaurant door to leave.

"This rivalry is tiring, Momo. This constant fight between me and you helps nobody, makes nobody happy and is simply a pain in the ass. 'If you love somebody, let them go'. That's the quote, yes? That's what I am trying to do here if you would just let me!" Rumi answered, getting angrier and angrier by the minute.

"It is the short version, yes. So you are giving-up?" she answered.

"Even I know when to pull back from a Losing Battle. I am just sparing myself the pain now that he will still push me away gently, instead of going down the 'Angry' route that will ruin even our friendship. I am not Nejire, I do have some decency!" Rumi answered, voice getting harsher.

"So you admit defeat,"

"YES! Okay?! What? Do you want to gloat?! I already said I will drop this battle! That I will stop bothering him! What else do you want?!" The bunny girl spat back.

"I want a promise, Rumi." Momo said, marching up to the other girl and forcefully turning her around so that their eyes could meet...And see the very tears-full eyes Rumi was trying to hide from them.

"FINE!" Rumi yelled.

"I promise I won't bother him anymore, I won't talk to him anymore and I won't even look at him anymore! I will stop coming here too! Happy?!" She said with a roar.

"No." Momo answered.

"Uh?!" Izuku said, shocked.

"WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT!? WHAT?! WHAT?! WHAT?!" Rumi screamed while grabbing Momo by the collar.

"I want the second girlfriend of my Izuku to not be a wuss and promise to not stab me in the back. We will be Allies, not enemies." Momo answered, eyes narrowed.

"…"

"…"

"What?" Rumi asked with a small voice.

"You heard me. You want a chance? Then earn it. Show me I can trust you and I will concede you the chance to Join, as you so eloquently put it. BUT! Let me be clear: you didn't trick me. I gave you a chance of my own free will. Not out of Pity, but out of TRUST. Do not betray that trust, or I will DESTROY YOU with everything I have."

"…" Stunned silence was her only answer.

"So?" She prompted.

"...Is Izuku okay with this?" Rumi asked.

"That is indeed the right thing to ask, you are actually taking in consideration that he too has a say in this. Very well done." Momo answered, and not with a tone of mockery, and adjusting her clothes after freeing herself from Rumi's hold on her collar.

"…"

"Izu?" Rumi asked with pleading eyes.

"Momo...Rumi...I…"

"You really feel nothing for her? Nothing at all?" Momo asked.

"I...I can't deny she is a beautiful woman…And an amazing person, but this is insane!"

"I am just as afraid as you are." Momo admitted.

"Then, why?" He asked.

"Respect." She answered.

"Uh?"

"I respect the fact that she was honest enough to finally admit everything. And I respect that even after all that, and after coming clean about everything, she didn't try to use it as a leverage to STILL get what she wanted, she was ready to walk out of that door and out of our lives, just so that you could be happy, even if with me instead of her.

She had put your happiness and mine above hers, not as a ploy, but as somebody that had admitted defeat. And I respect that. She loves you enough to decide that she wanted you to be happy, even if with another woman instead of her...A-And I have to admit that...That I don't know if I would have been able to do the same in her place, to just leave you to her if I saw you being more happy with her than with me." Momo admitted.

"But I...I am not in Love with her." Izuku tried saying.

"You feel absolutely nothing? Nothing at all?" Momo asked.

"I...I don't know."

"Here…" Momo said, grabbing Rumi's hand and gently guiding her towards him, and making him grab Rumi's hand.

"…" Fingers entwined, Chef and Bunny Girl just looked each other in the eyes in silence.

"I do believe that there can be enough space in both our hearts for one more." Momo said.

"But...You…I…" Izuku was stammering now.

"Why are you scared, Izuku?" Rumi asked with a soft voice.

"…" It was a shame, they could see an expression of pure shame on the young man's face.

"Izuku?" Momo asked, moving even closer to him so as to put a hand on his cheek.

"I am a Chef, Momo. I don't come from a prestigious family, I don't have powerful friends or a big bank account or a collection of fancy cars. What can I possibly offer you? Saying 'I will give you all of myself' is okay in a romance novel, but reality doesn't work like that. And yet that is the only thing I can offer you, and I am just afraid that one day it won't be enough anymore, especially with another girl in the picture." he said with a sad smile.

"What can you offer...Me? I-I-I don't look for that!" She answered immediately, her scared eyes fixed on his as she turned frantic in an instant.

"Back in my other life I could have made a case, but Here a Chef is nothing to write home about, not unless one is world-famous, and I am not at that stage yet, and won't be for a long while. Every time I hear somebody say that I am with you just for the money I am afraid you will start thinking that too, and it hurts."

"I-I-I will never think that!" Momo was panicking now, and she hated it.

"You did, for a while. No need to hide it." Izuku said with a humorless chuckle.

"My mother told you, isn't it?! But I don't think that anymore! I swear!" she said, now in full panic.

"Momo, there are hundreds of better options for you out there, better men to-"

"There can't be hundreds or thousands or millions of better options out there! Because there is only one you!" she answered, hugging him tightly and burying her face in his hair.

"Momo."

"I am not holding you back! I am not a whiny baby! I swear!"

"I know you are not, whoever says that is very wrong. We are not holding each other back, I know this."

"Then say it! Say you want me! Say you want me to stay by your side and I will never leave!"

"...You promise?" he asked, and she felt him hug her tightly, desperately.

"How afraid are you to lose me?" she asked.

"My God...So much…"

"Then say it! Please!"

"…"

"Izuku."

"...Be mine, Momo. Be mine and mine only, forever." he asked with a whisper.

"I will! Now and forever!" She answered, and a short laugh of relief finally blossomed between the two as they stood there hugging as tight as they could.

"…"

"...I really want you to be mine only too, you know?" She admitted after a short moment of silence, she still had her face buried deep in his fluffy hair, and loved the feeling of his face being pressed hard in the small of her neck and the long slow breaths he was taking to bask in her scent.

"And I will be, forever." he answered.

"And what about Rumi?"

"Not hers, yours. Only yours."

"So you feel nothing for her? At all?" Momo asked.

"I...I can't deny I...That I did feel something when she kissed me."

"She kissed you? Again? When?" She hissed.

"We were in the middle of a damn apocalyptic storm and I thought I was about to lose him, and I wanted at least a kiss. Sorry about that." Rumi answered, sighing.

"I am trying to trust you here, Rumi. This is not helping."

"It was before this. I am not justifying it, but objectively speaking, that kiss happened before all this happened." Rumi answered.

"I will forgive you, this time, because we are here to try and resolve this. Do you trust me, Izuku?" Momo said.

"Yes!" He said immediately.

"And I trust you," she said, humming a little in appreciation at the small kisses he gave to her neck.

"I still don't understand what Rumi and the others see in me in order to do all this...I mean...You are obviously insane to find me attractive...But other THREE girls? That's very unlikely." Izuku admitted.

"I am not insane, you moron," Momo answered with a tiny smile, appreciating his trying to joke about the situation to help cheer her up.

"No, you are not insane, just so very cringe. 'There can't be hundreds or thousands or millions of better options out there! Because there is only one you!'...God, that was so corny." Rumi said, chuckling.

"Do you mind?! We are having a moment here!" she said, annoyed.

"Sorry, sorry."

"Just come here, this is what you want, yes?" Momo said.

"I-"

"Come here!" Momo said, and forcefully pulled Rumi closer to them both.

"W-Whoa!"

"Mo-"

"Now this." What followed then was her kissing Izuku, hard and deep like she knew her boyfriend liked it.

"May I?" Rumi asked, a bit bothered by the hungry kiss of the two.

"...Go ahead." Momo said, unsure, once released her man from the searing kiss.

"Ru-" Again, Izuku's words were interrupted by a woman kissing him.

"Hmm! Tastes even better doing it with permission." Rumi admitted, smirking.

"I-"

"Hmm!" Again, Momo took her turn, then Rumi again, then Momo once more, and then Rumi again.

"…" By the time Rumi and Momo finally stopped taking turns kissing him, the young Chef had fully lost the ability to talk.

"You definitely feel something for me, you kissed back too well for you not to feel a thing, then why do you keep denying it?" Rumi finally asked.

"M-M-Maybe I did...Maybe I do."

"Very well, this can't work if you are against it, after all." Momo answered.

"I just don't want to be called greedy, or perverted. Won't this put a strain in our relationship? What will others think?" Izuku admitted, now finally hugging both girls close to himself.

"You and Momo worry too much. Stop thinking about what others think about you, and focus on your own happiness. I do it all the time, and let me tell you, it feels awesome! Very liberating." Rumi answered, laughing in relief.

"And selfish." Izuku said.

"Eh! Yes, so what? We all are selfish people, deep inside. True selfless people don't exist, judgmental morons instead, there's plenty of them. It's all a matter of not overdoing or overindulging." She answered.

"Well said, actually. And there can't be any stress if every member of the trio walks and works towards the same goal." Momo conceded.

"So we are in a Love Triangle now?" Izuku asked, unsure and confused.

"It's pretty much a test run for now, if we don't like it, we will kick Rumi out and go back to how things were before." Momo answered.

"I am sorry, but I don't need to be kicked-out, I can recognize when I overstayed my welcome and can leave by myself, thank you!" Rumi answered, ready to once again argue with Momo and maybe even fight, but to her surprise Izuku was not letting go of her.

"Izuku?" Both girls said at the same time once noticed his tight hold on them.

"In two days I have to depart to go to America to face Matoi about his trying to bribe Food Critics to review me badly, and you both need to get ready for that Rescue Training Race thing, Momo especially since her Class will have Thirteen trying to cram in two days what she didn't get to teach them in the USJ...S-S-So I was wondering if I could sleep with you two...JUST SLEEP! N-N-Nothing Perverted happening…Since we won't be able to see each other for a while...As...As another Test to see if this Love Triangle can work." Izuku admitted, looking supremely ashamed of admitting that.

"I-I-I mean...I-It's only sleeping, yeah? I'll keep my hands to myself!" Rumi, face turning almost fluorescent-red, said.

"J-Just because he asked, but nothing lewd! I-I am not ready yet to share him like THAT!" Momo, blushing hard, answered.

"Okay! Le-Lead the way!" Rumi said.

"YES! THIS WAY, PLEASE!" Izuku yelled, mechanically guiding both girls upstairs towards his room.

"Atta boy! Good job!" Shiro, Blackie and Zephyr unknowingly thought at the same time in pride.

Two days later – UA University - Hound Dog Office -

The dog-headed Counselor was quietly studying the latest notes he took while his current appointment finished drying his tears, none of the two talked or even looked at each other, Hound Dog was just patiently waiting for the other to talk, at his pace, to not agitate him further.

"God...I cried again…" The patient said with a whisper of a voice full of shame.

"That is a good thing, actually. We made huge progress this time too." He said, humming.

"Uh-hu…"

"You are still scared of being kicked-out and even arrested."

"…"

"You still have nightmares? About Nezu coming to arrest you? Calling you a failure and saying that a quasi-murderer has no place between Heroes?" He asked, finally looking up from his notes to meet the boy's eyes.

"...Every damn night."

"Do you know why you are here?"

"To become the number 1?"

"That is your reason. But why do you think Nezu has decided to keep you here no matter the very dark marks on your record?"

"…"

"You don't know, don't you?" Hound Dog said, leaning a bit forward.

"No."

"This is a chance. A chance to break free of all the, pardon the french, Bullshit they fed you and your Ego.

A chance to be an actual Hero instead of a guy living his personal Power Fantasy fanfiction.

A Chance to become something more, Greater, than what you are now. "

"..."

"You have a powerful Quirk, that is a fact, and we will now make sure everything else about you catches-up to it to form a good and proper Hero, one people can look-up to and feel both inspired and protected by. And what we do here, for two hours and three times a week in what you used to call 'A fucking waste of time', is slowly but surely helping in that. Those tears, for example, how long ago was it since you shed some?"

"...A bit."

"Since your grandfather's funeral?"

"Yes."

"Tears are important, and admitting emotions is important. I will never understand this modern feeling that only some categories are permitted to cry and show emotions while others don't; if something upsets you, you have all the rights to feel upset about it." He said.

"I...I can't show weakness."

"And what did I say to you about this fixation of yours?"

"...That's stupid. Because acknowledging and overcoming fear and pain takes more strength and character than just having none of it, or pretending to not have them."

"Pretty much. I am glad though that you are actually showing remorse for your various Misgivings in the past," Hound Dog said, pleased.

"Misgivings...Three fourths of those are fucking crimes…"

"Yes, they are. Another reason why you are here. Your staying in UA hangs not just on your school grades, but on your attitude, mentality and your actions...I am literally your last hope, and you know it."

"I know, I know. It's part of the reason why I keep coming here."

The other part of the reason, the Inner Pain, was not something the young man felt strong enough still to admit to anybody else.

"Good. That being said, it's not like we have Police Officers waiting behind the corner at your first mistake. Relax." The dog man added.

"Easy for you to say, to me it feels like it, though. How many people tried suing me?"

"Oh! A lot."

"...Uh!"

"But Nezu found your situation a Challenge interesting enough to give it a try, God only knows what passes in that Rat's head, so he armed this small Rehabilitation Program you are going through since Day One here in UA, and this solution kind of appeased your victims. For now."

"Hurray…" There was less than zero joy and satisfaction in that answer, and the Counselor found it a good sign, somehow.

"That being said, this is actually working only because the only Bullying Victim of yours that you almost killed did not sue you fully, but was talked into just signing a restraining order, and that after a lot of humiliating begging from your parents."

"Hn!" That heavy, full-body shudder was not missed, but dutifully added to the notes.

"I have a question." He said, suddenly.

"Time's over, I have a History lesson to go to!" the young man answered, running, escaping, to the exit.

"One day you will have to face the truth, Bakugo." Hound Dog said, freezing the boy mid-way through the door.

"…"

"You are running away from the truth, and instead waste time chasing a version of it you would prefer because it is less painful."

"No, I-"

"You almost killed that boy. You, nobody else. Your explosion launched him away, your Quirk sent him flying until his head hit the wall, you sent him into a coma. And you keep dodging all my questions about it, you answer my questions about everything, except about that incident. Why?"

"Because it is between me and him! NOBODY ELSE!" Katsuki snapped.

"Then why are you avoiding him?"

"The restraining Ord-"

"Means nothing for somebody that acts like you do on a daily basis. That is just yet another excuse for you to avoid facing the truth you already know it's there waiting for you in all its ugly glory."

"I-"

"You want answers about him, but refuse to seek answers about yourself and childishly run away from looking back and recognizing that you did every possible thing wrong in your life ever since you got a Quirk, and not just about him, but about everything and everybody.

You are here out of OUR pity, because under any other circumstance you wouldn't have been able to even just cast your shadow on the entrance gate of UA.

We decided to give you a blank slate to start from to try and become a Hero! Because even Endeavor, that pulled a lot of shit in the last twenty years under the mantle of the 'Number Two Hero of Japan', now spends almost more time in and out of court in secret legal battles against his ex-wife to save his sorry ass than in the streets helping people, and we don't want an encore with a new version of him. People need Heroes, not super-powered Egomaniacs, they already have the Villains for that!"

"You-"

"These weekly meetings are your LAST Chance, both as a Hero and as a decent human being. Remember. NOW you can go." Hound Dog said with a tone of finality.

"…" Unable to utter a word, Katsuki simply ran away.

"I hate being harsh, but what they say is true: There isn't a worse deaf man than a guy who just doesn't want to listen…" The Dog man muttered to himself with a sigh of dismay.

He had chosen that career to be the sort of Hero that saves people from themselves, instead of from Villains, but it was not an easy task, most of the time.

With Momo – Dormitories – Later that night -

"So! Ochako still avoids you?" Rumi asked once seen Momo return from yet another failed attempt at talking with her classmate.

"...You sneaked into my room again?" Momo answered, eyebrows all the way up in surprise at seeing her unexpected guest sitting unashamedly on her bed like she owned it.

"Your window was open." Rumi answered, smirking and shrugging.

"...I knew I forgot something. And yes, she still avoids me."

"Not surprising, she knows she is doing everything the wrong way and is afraid of facing you or him."

"I just want to talk. I just want to talk and fix all this."

"Understandable, it's your right after all!"

"It is, but why are you here?"

"I just wanted to chill with you a bit." Rumi answered, chuckling.

"Chilling? You? With me? What does it even mean?" The young woman asked with a groan.

"You are too stressed, relax! It just means I wanted us to spend some time together while doing simple and relaxing things, to know each other better! We are practically sisters now, yeah? In a very loose term, so what's wrong in me coming here for a visit whenever we both are free?" She said with a smirk.

"You are on probation, Rumi." Momo answered, groaning again and massaging her temples.

"Meeeeeh! Probation-Shprobation! Don't hang on technicalities, and also, catch!" She said, chuckling and throwing a pair of panties, of all things, at Momo.

"These are mine...And they are slightly wet...Why?" She asked with a look of dread.

"That purple-haired midget from your class was climbing down the wall with those in his back pocket. So I beat the shit out of him, handed him to your very disappointed Homeroom Teacher and, just to be sure, I washed them several times. I sterilized them." Rumi answered.

"Oh. Thank you…" Momo muttered, grateful.

"Told you, the window was open. Sorry if they are still wet, the others needed the drier and I didn't want to have your stuff mixed-up with the other girls' unmentionables, so the last round of washing and drying I had to do by hand." Rumi answered.

"Thanks." The young woman said with a small voice, looking at the small thing with an unreadable expression.

"...You and Izuku think too much." Rumi said, suddenly.

"Hn?!"

"You both have this...How do I call it...This box you are afraid of coming out of! I am really getting worried here!"

"Excuse me?!"

"Have you ever watched Ouran Host Club?"

"I-W-What does it have to do with this?!"

"Pony talks about it all the time, that little weeb. So I gave it a look and saw somebody that now is REEEEALLY reminding me of both you and Izu." Rumi said, getting up from Momo's bed to walk up to the other girl and guide her to sit down where she was.

"There is this guy, Kyoya. A smart, filthy-rich guy, like all his friends, but that is not important.

He has two older brothers, so as the third child he is...Well, his life sucks, in a way.

He has a loooot of expectations piled-up on him because his older siblings are all big shots and stuff and he used to believe that if he wanted just a fucking hope to get noticed by his parents and get some recognition he had to 'Defeat' those two giants of his brothers, all this only to show himself worthy.

In an episode he described his life before joining the Host Club as him drawing and coloring a painting on a canvas that was already framed to the wall, so with set borders that he could not break free from at all. It kind of reminded me of you and Izu." Rumi said.

"How?"

"Well, come on! You are the heir of a filthy rich family and probably have dozens of people breathing on your neck about you having to be worthy of your family name, am I right?" She said,

"W-Well, kinda?"

"And dear Izu is so determined to show everybody that he can achieve his dreams even without a Quirk that he willingly accepted that deal with his Sponsor."

"Yes, but-"

"You both are so fucking afraid of failure that you are driving yourself insane to fill some fucking impossible criteria others forced on you; all this while willingly ignoring how those same bastards keep moving the finish line away from you every time you take a step forward! And that is putting even your relationship at risk, and I won't let that happen." Rumi said, surprising Momo by pushing her down on the bed while holding onto her shoulders, she was now straddling her and looking deep into her eyes with truly scary intensity.

"Eeek!"

"You both are fucking amazing people able to do a shit-ton of great things, gifted like nobody else and with a scary bright mind to top-off great Powers and Skills! You two have more than enough on your plate to be fucking SMUG about it, but you two still choose to have any Loser passing-by put you down again and again until you became shy little beans that are convinced they can't be anything more than 'Background Characters', and I am starting to get second-hand-annoyance from it!"

"Rumi, things are a bit more complex than th-" Momo tried saying, unsure.

"Complex? Then stop me if I say something you haven't heard before!" Rumi answered, clearing her throat.

"She is just a bimbo! Look at her, she must be damn spoiled! More money and tits than brains! Daddy's little Princess is playing Hero again, it must be easy being so rich you get everything you want!"

"…" The other girl just closed her eyes tight and shuddered.

"No Quirk? Shouldn't he just die? A Quirkless Student? Why? They should kick him out and let more Worthy People have a chance! Why does he have a Restaurant? That place should be run by a Proper Human, one with a Quirk! Not a Null!"

"Please stop…" Momo begged with a shaky whisper.

"You heard all this bullshit about you and then some, right? And I bet Izu too did. Good God, how can you stand it?!" Rumi asked, appalled and angry at the same time.

"...Enough years bombarded with those comments and many others, and deep down you start wondering if they are actually right." Momo answered, looking aside and sighing.

"Well, as an outsider, let me tell you this: They are wrong! Idiots and Ignorant fuckers should not be listened. Thank God I am here, so I can inject some self-esteem back into you two! I love it when you two show some sparks of strength, when you two remember that YOU ARE GOOD! You during exercises and him during our last sortie, you become two completely different persons as soon as you forget all the bullshit they try to pile on your back. Do that more, Please!" Rumi begged.

"Rumi…"

"Be free, believe in yourselves, show the world the strength I and you both know is there! And if that means that then you and Izuku won't need me anymore, then so be it! But at least I will leave knowing that I helped you two to finally show your greatness to every fucking naysayer out there!"

"Hn!...Rousing speeches don't work that well if you curse that much, you know?" Momo admitted with a small chuckle.

"That's who I am, take it or leave it!" Rumi answered, smirking.

"I'll need to get used to it first."

"Eh! I am going nowhere, you have plenty of time...Until...You know...You tell me to leave." She answered, maybe a bit more awkward than she planned for.

"I know, I know. I'll see what we can do about this,"

"Thank you."

"Hey, Momo! I heard a scream, is everything o-EEEEEEK!" It was then that Mina and Tooru opened the door to see Rumi straddling Momo in a pretty risque position.

"Don't you dare! There is nothing sexual going on yet!" Rumi screeched.

"Yet?!" Momo yelled.

"Threesomes mean that everybody is involved! F/M, F/M/F and F/F too!"

"Oh, my God, RUMI!" Momo groaned in disbelief.

"So there is no Hot Lesbian Action about to happen? Because I have no problem watching," Tooru admitted.

"I mean, me neither." Mina added.

"GET OUT/GET THE FUCK OUT!" Momo and Rumi yelled in chorus, and surprisingly, the one cursing was Momo herself.

"GOING!" The other two answered, scampering away and slamming the door closed.

"...Glad to see I am not the only one with nosy dorm mates." Rumi said, snorting.

"You have no idea." Momo admitted, sighing.

"You sound hot when cursing."

"Rumi…"

"Sorry, sorry…Want my help in hunting down Uraraka?"

"...Oh, please, yes. This is getting ridiculous and I really want to talk to her."

"Okay! Let's go catch her then! Together!" Rumi answered, greatly amused.

With Izuku – New York – LaGuardia Airport -

Contrary to UA where it was just about dinner time, with Lunch Rush wondering how come it was now 4 girls eating enough for 10 people each instead of just Nejire, for Izuku it was in the very early hours of morning that he left the American airport, and to avoid any issue, the young Chef simply used The System's teleportation array to just blink into reality inside one of the airport's bathrooms and then just walk out of the place like any other tourist.

Whitey and Shiro were already waiting for him outside the airport with the robot holding onto Izuku's baggage.

"Kyun!" The small Ancestral Taotie had already attracted several curious, and love-struck, eyes of the few locals around that were now looking at Izuku in envy for having such a cute pet wrapped around his neck.

"Aaah! America! It's been a while since I last visited it, this is the version I saw as Zaus counts." Izuku said with a chuckle, and took a huge breath of the early morning air.

"Such a big bustling city. They all look like over-excited bees." Shiro sent Izuku telepathically.

"It is, Shiro-kun! Too bad they get such a bad reputation because of the numerous and strong Villains they have, but it is still such a nice city."

Not too far away – Hiding in the shadows of an alleyway -

"Soooo! Who are we killing again?" A towering guy with a bovine-like snout on his otherwise human face asked.

"Not killing, we are supposed to just beat him half to death and kidnap him." The ugly, overweight green-skinned man next to the tall guy answered with a gurgling voice.

Bronze Bull, aka Steven, one of the Vigilantes at the orders of the American branch of the Hero Public Safety Commission, was a freakishly tall man with a Quirk able to turn him into a three meters tall Minotaur-like creature with a skin made of metal the color of bronze; and infamously known everywhere in America for his obsession for the Pro Hero Cow Lady, an obsession that was full-blown Stalking and deranged possessiveness. He was the personification of the Dumb Muscles trope as while he had titanic strength, he was also dumber than a sack of rocks.

With him was the man known as Venom-Demon Goblin, aka Honda, an ex-Villain that escaped Japan and ran to America to avoid arrest only to be enlisted into the American HPSC private forces as a way to not be sent back home and to prison; he possessed a Quirk that gave him the power of spitting a highly-viscous poisonous substance that could either paralyze for hours or downright kill the victim in a matter of minutes; in exchange of his body to be able to create those two toxins, though, his appearances took a very Goblin-esque turn: forest-green skin covered in warts and deformed body proportions, especially in the belly area that was rather large since his stomach doubled as storage for his mucus and thus needed to be way bigger than normal to do it. Nobody knew why his face was deformed to have that small head, tiny eyes and giant, uneven beak-like nose to complete the Goblin aesthetics, though, he probably had an ancestor with a Mutation Quirk.

Steven was there to capture Izuku while Honda was there to kill him 'by accident' at the orders of the League of Villains, the second Organization the goblin man took orders from; normally it could be considered pure dumb luck if Izuku was merely captured and brought to the Commission for some Reprogramming instead of killed...But unfortunately for all of the people involved, Izuku was Far from Normal.

"So? What's the plan?" Bronze Bull asked.

"You charge them and do lots of damage, I take care of the rest." Goblin answered.

"OOOH! I like doing that!" Steven answered, and immediately he gained an extra meter in height as he transformed into his metallic Bull-Man Form.

"Have fun!" Goblin said, smirking.

"MOOOOOO-THERFUCKER!" The giant metal bull bellowed while charging towards the Chef with his head down and horns pointed forward to skewer him.

"Troublemaker!" Whitey immediately intercepted the attack, grabbing the Bull-man's horns and instantly stopping his charge, not even bulging of an inch.

"What the fuck!?" Steven yelled in disbelief.

"You are attacking the Host. Cease at once or you will be stripped as an example to others!" Whitey ordered in English, and the bystanders looked at the white robot in shock for the absurd threat.

"NO!"

"Understood. Entering Battle Mode!" Whitey declared with his eyes flashing red.

"Battle Wha-" BOOOOOM!

"Holy Shit!" Goblin shrieked as the several tonnes of metal Minotaur went flying with a single punch hard enough to dent the guy's metal head.

"Barely here for two minutes and already in trouble...This must be a record." Izuku muttered while massaging his temples and groaning, unaware that alerting his Customers that he was about to close and go to New York meant that every Organization interested in him had more than enough time to organize their personal evil schemes against him.

"Well, beating or not, Steven is still distracting the Robot-" BOOOM!

"FUUUUCK!"

"Yeah, that's some distracting alright." Goblin muttered, wincing at the new punch that sent his partner flying again.

"Oh, well! Better him than me, now it's my time to shine! Sorry, boy, it's about time you leave this world: Death Vom-"

"DIEEEEE!" Before the hidden Goblin could actually vomit on Izuku a bellyful of pressurized lethal mucus, a guy wearing a black hoodie and with his hands leaving trails of fire at every movement came out of the back of a car to jump Izuku.

"Oh, fuck… It's PlasMaster...The fuck is that Edgy Weirdo doing here!?" The ugly bastard hissed in dismay.

With Izuku

"WHOA!" The Chef yelled with wide eyes as the weird guy with white-hot hands tried jumping him, and as a reflex, Izuku summoned not his knives, but the Star-Eating Turtle Wok.

CLAAANG! Fffffffsssss!

"THE FUCK IS THAT PAN MADE OF!?" The Villain PlasMaster, on Re-Destro's Payroll, asked with a shocked shriek at seeing the Wok not being damaged at all even if subjected to the several thousands degrees of heat produced by his Quirk.

His Quirk was not really about creating Plasma either, contrary to the Villain Name he choose for himself, he was only in possession of a very limited Fire/Heat Quirk centered only on his arms, but the guy actually liked the idea of one day managing to reach those absurd temperatures, even if that was indeed impossible. He was also an Endeavor fanboy, and so copied the man's infamous attitude whenever possible.

"My wok? It has been carved out of the scute of the shell of a super giant space turtle that feeds on suns to live, and apparently not even a Supernova or plasma can heat this thing up enough to make it usable for cooking, only a very specific, and way hotter, fire can." Izuku answered, honestly.

"...Really? Because that sounds Metal as fuck!" PlasMaster asked in wonder.

The Star-Eating Turtle Wok was a wide wok pan with the rim worked in a very faint wavy décor while the dome of the main body under it was completely covered in elegant carvings of frolicking animals circling all around a big turtle in the middle of the concentric circles of beasts, the inside of the pan instead had been finely engraved to have a delicate turtle-shell décor; the outside was golden and had been shined like a mirror to perfection while the inside was instead pitch black, unnaturally so.

The wok also possessed three retractable legs under it to help keep it in position over the fire, but those were at the moment folded and hidden as part of the animal carvings.

Indestructible, impossibly heavy (as only Izuku was permitted to lift and use it) and able to increase and decrease sizes following the Owner's will, the Chef could throw it and the Wok would just keep going forward, destroying everything daring to be on its path and stopping only when Izuku called it back to his hand...Too bad that at the moment it was unusable to cook without the right kind of fire. For now it was just a very ornate shield good for defense and a curious weapon to bash enemies' heads with.

"Feel free to not believe me, I hardly can believe this myself sometimes." Izuku answered, sighing.

"Dude, my hands are about two-thousand degrees hot now and this thing isn't even turning black! Where the fuck you found it? I want one!" The Villain said with a smirk.

"Sorry, only one in existence." Izuku answered before pushing him back.

"Then I'll kill you and take yours! Hell Shower!" The over-excited guy yelled in glee while fire covered his arms completely before shooting off like the exhaust of a flamethrower.

"Oh, crap!" Izuku yelled as behind him people shrieked in fear and tried escaping from the double streams of fire.

To everybody's surprise, the young Chef grabbed the rim of the wok and pulled on it, making the pan stretch and grow until it was several meters wide with the dome still pointed towards PlasMaster so to use it as a shield to protect Izuku and the bystanders from the flames.

"IT GROWS TOO! GIMME! I WANT IT! GIVE IT TO ME!" The Villain, by now starstruck by the wok's powers, yelled in greed while increasing the fire output to the maximum capacity he could muster.

"You are ready to kill innocents just like that?!" Izuku roared in anger.

"Fuck them! Gimme the pan!" The other answered.

"You want my Wok?...What about the Meat Mallet instead?" The cold tone Izuku used to answer actually surprised the Villain as the Myriad Manifestation Mallet appeared in his hand.

(Myriad Manifestation Mallet: Battle Form)

"The what?"

BOOOOOM!

Flying with immense speed, the meat mallet thrown by Izuku destroyed PlasMaster's nose and sent the Villain flying into a car, through it and through the window of a store nearby where he landed on a roll and unconscious.

"Psychotic idiot." Izuku commented and recalled the mallet into his hand in a manner rather similar to Thor, and then returned it into the turtle tattoo on his wrist, just like he did with the wok and its own rope drawing.

"Whitey! How are things on your side?" The young Chef asked.

"Stripping completed." Whitey answered, the robot was holding Steven by the hair after beating the guy hard enough it forced him back into human form, and then stripping him down to a rather cute pair of heart printed boxers, too bad the guy's appearance as a single giant bruise ruined the image.

"Dude, I'as jus' fol'wing ord'rs!" Steven said with a whine and heavy slur, thanks to all the slaps and punches turning his face into a misshaped balloon.

"Troublemakers are punished, this is not negotiable." Whitey answered, uncaring, and tossing him into a garbage bin nearby.

"'Kay, Boss!" The poor guy gurgled in answer before fainting.

"No No No NO! What the fuck is wrong with that kid?!" Goblin yelled with bulged-out eyes, nobody told him that kid was a living nightmare!

"SCREW SUBTLY! DEATH VOMIT SHOWER!" Seeing a savage beating in his future if he didn't run away, Goblin just puked-out all at once his stomach's entire load of lethal sludge and then turned around to run away while the foul-smelling thing was still about to descend from its flight.

"And where do you think you are going?" Only to meet Shiro's eyes thanks to the Taotie being perched on top of a fire hydrant.

"...Mercy?" Honda begged, already crying fat tears of regret.

"I am afraid this Esteemed Taotie has none of that for who tries to hurt his Partner." Shiro answered before pouncing on the Villain to maul him to shreds, but not killing him, as he knew Izuku wouldn't have liked his Partner murdering people just like that.

Once done massacring the man, Shiro refocused on Izuku to see the Chef fuss over a very tall and muscular brown-haired woman in jogging attire that had apparently takena shower of lethal poison for him.

"Kyuun!" Hurrying at Izuku's side to wrap himself around his neck, he watched his Partner help the woman to her feet no matter her being pretty much two times his overall size.

"Madam! Have no fear! Everything will be alright!" Izuku said in panic.

"It's okay! I can fix this no problem! Really!" The woman tried saying.

"Wasn't that lethal poison or acid!? It smells acidic!" Izuku shrieked in answer.

"...No? It just smells like shit, nothing dangerous. It was probably somebody that doesn't like tourists, it's full of those morons around here." The woman tried saying, pulling out that blatant lie just to not worry him further.

"God, it burns so freaking much! Next time I meet Goblin I will tie his knees behind his ears!" The woman also thought, forcing a smile on her face to hide the frown from the burning sensation caused by the poison goop covering her.

"Oh! Okay...Okay...As long as you are safe." Izuku answered, trying to sound like he believed her.

"Host, this woman will die in twenty minutes if not helped. Please save her Life." The System reminded him.

"GODDAMNIT!" Izuku thought in answer.

"It's fiiine! Stop worrying! I am a big tough girl!" The woman answered while slapping his back.

"Then let me offer you an early lunch, as a thank you." Izuku answered, frantic.

"Lunch? At this hou-"

"Oh, to Hell with it! Whitey! Carry her, this is getting us nowhere!" Izuku ordered while marching towards a nearby restaurant.

"Understood." The Robot said, showing its great strength by literally carrying the tall woman under its arm.

"HEY!"

"Stop playing the 'Badass Woman that doesn't need no help', that cliché died in the early 2100s when we finally understood that Gender Wars helped nobody! You are about to die and I won't let it happen just because you don't want me to worry!" The young Chef answered while opening the restaurant door.

"How do you- no, wait, what are you doing?!"

"Healing you, that's what I am doing! Whitey, set her at a table, then come with me. I need their kitchen." Izuku answered, donning his green Chef uniform over his clothes while walking behind the counter.

"You can't-" The woman at the counter tried saying.

"LATER!" The young man barked, silencing her and marching inside the kitchen.

A bit of ruckus later, mostly Whitey physically reminding them that he was programmed to strip whoever got in Izuku's way, and the young Chef was already cooking, all this while the woman at the table called her assistant.

In the kitchen -

Restaurant owner and kitchen staff had, at the beginning, loudly cursed Izuku for both his manners and his invasion of their kitchen, but they all had fallen silent as soon as the young man had started showing skills definitely not human while cooking.

"Only twenty minutes to pull-off a Healing Dish...Chicken, Celery, carrots...I will need to add some Ingredients of mine, but I got an idea." He said while heating some oil over high heat.

He also stealthily substituted every Ingredient he was supposed to use from that place's kitchen fridge with the special ones coming from his own Storage Room back in Green Cloud, so as to create the perfect Healing Dish, all with nobody of the staff or the Restaurant Owner even noticing.

"Your kitchen leaves a lot to be desired, by the way…" He also felt the need to say once stir-fried some strips of chicken breast with carrots and celery for a few minutes.

"We normally serve office workers...We are not a fancy restaurant…We actually are quite cheap." The owner answered with a shaky smile.

"The only cheap thing here is you, you Cheap bastard." The cook of the place muttered, and got a glare from his old-time-friend-and-boss in answer.

"Cheap" doesn't mean under-staffed, under-equipped and badly maintained and unclean. You are not giving your staff what they need to give their all." Izuku answered, summoning into the jars in the inner pockets of his Chef Uniform several spices, soy sauce, pre-cut green onions strips and even some cornstarch and some cashew cubes.

"I tried telling him for years, but he doesn't listen!...Hey, you travel with all that in your pockets?" The cook said, surprised.

"I like to be ready for everything, even surprise cooking done in a hurry in an under-equipped kitchen." Izuku answered, mixing together soy sauce, honey and ginger to the cornstarch he had dissolved with some orange juice, that too coming from his Restaurant Storage.

Thankfully, that bold answer surprised those people enough that theyshut-up long enough to let Izuku finish cooking.

"Ready: Stir-Fried Chicken with honey sauce and nuts." A short time later, the young Chef declared the recipe's name once finished plating the thing, and rapidly topping the dish with green onions' strips and diced cashew.

"Holy shit! He prepared all that in a flash!" One of the cooks said in awe.

"I took ten minutes to make a dish normally requiring twenty minutes between preparation and cooking. Nothing too extreme," Izuku answered, hurrying out to bring the dish to the woman that had pushed him away to take the poison vomit attack in his place before he could actually raise his wok to defend himself from it.

"Nothing too extreme...Wanna work here?" The Restaurant Owner asked with wide eyes of awe.

"No."

"If he has any dignity, he will never say yes, Bro."

"Oh, shut up!"

With Izuku -

The young Chef was watching in relief as the woman kept eating his Healing Dish with great enthusiasm, all under the surprised eyes of the woman's guest, her actual personal Assistant, who had reached them while he was still cooking.

"Boss, is it really that good?" She asked.

"Holy Hell, it is! And he made this in just a few minutes!" The Buff Woman answered with her mouth still full.

"I am glad! It should also help you with your little problem." Izuku answered.

"...UH?!" By her expression, that woman had apparently forgotten she had been poisoned.

"It should pass in a couple minutes, please don't tell a soul. Have a nice day." Izuku said with a kind smile and left.

"Hey! You don't want a thing in exchange? Not even money?" The assistant asked.

"Nope! Call it me Playing Hero, but I don't help others in dire need just for personal gain, but just because it's the right thing to do! She saved me, so I paid her back."

"I…"

"Goodbye." He answered, leaving the place rapidly to avoid the Owner asking him again to work for him.

"Margaret."

"Yes, Boss?" The Assistant said.

"Try to see who he was."

"Uh?!"

"You don't get three different Villains attacking you as soon as you walk out of an airport unless you are a target. Bull and Goblin especially hardly move unless a lot of money is on the plate, and our dumb Minotaur friend fully admitted how 'Somebody he can't say the name of' paid him and others to stay stationed in various other airports to attack and kidnap that boy as soon as he arrived in America. And you know what they say about PlasMaster,"

"That he is part of those nut-jobs working for that Re-Destro Japanese Villain. Whoever that Psycho is." The Assistant answered.

"Exactly. And their Target just healed me of Goblin's Poison shit with a plate of chicken he made in a hurry in a pathetic restaurant's kitchen." The buff woman said, cleaning her mouth and marching towards the door of the restaurant.

"They were waiting for him and attacked him as soon as he got out from LaGuardia. Re-Destro's friends and whoever is behind Bull's Attack must be very eager to put their hands on him if they were ready to stalk pretty much every airport of New York to get him." The Assistant answered.

"Exactly. Healing Quirks are too damn rare for some Villains to not hunt-down whoever has one, even if they need to use food as a medium to use it. That boy is in danger, and even if I could have healed myself with my Quirk, that kid could not know it and still helped me…" The buff woman said, unsure.

"What is the But I feel is incoming?"

"But that is what makes it strange...He knew I had been poisoned, but Goblin is too much of a small fry even in the Japanese Villain culture for a random kid to know him and his Quirk, so maybe this is not the first time he met that ugly bastard and his Quirk, that may be why he knew he had very little time to help me."

"They are hunting him down?"

"Very likely. But until we question him, we won't have all the details."

"I'll see what I can do. Starting by checking the passengers list of every flight from Japan and the LaGuardia security cameras."

"Thank you,"

Meanwhile -

While the two women plotted, Izuku and Whitey made their way through the busy streets of New York, with the young man marveling at the sights and looking for the hotel Momo and Rei suggested him to sojourn in for the duration of his trip.

"So, I healed her. There was no need to rush me that much, though, I would have helped her regardless." Izuku muttered.

"Trust the System, Host."

"You and your secret, manipulating tricks." The young Chef said with a sigh of dismay.

"…"

"Yes, yes. Keep quiet, that's enough admission of guilt." He said.

BEEEP! BEEEP!

It was then that a long limo stopped next to him.

"Uhu?!"

"HELLOOOOOOOOO!" And a very familiar woman opened the backseat door to greet him with a very melodious sing-song voice.

"Rei-san!" Izuku said, shocked.

"Welcome to America! How's it?" Rei asked.

"Bit eclectic since trouble followed me here too, but what are you doing here?"

"I have you know that my darling husband and I have branches of our respective businesses pretty much all-over the world, America included! Since Lawyers and Models are needed everywhere. So! Since I had to come here to check on a couple things for a future Gala AND my future son-in-law was about to come here for his own personal mission, I made the two things coincide! And I covered your teleportation here by adding you to the passengers list of my private jet that landed in LaGuardia just an hour ago." Rei answered, looking extremely proud of herself.

"Oh! Thank you…" He answered, shy.

"Still unused to the son-in-love thing?" She said, smirking.

"M-Maybe." He admitted.

"Huhuhu! Nothing too strange! Get in! You are staying with me, the penthouse I use whenever I come here is big enough for you and Whitey." Rei said.

"I-I don't want to bother y-"

"I insist!" Rei said, surprising him by grabbing his arm and forcefully pulling him into the limo to sit in front of her and closing the car door right after.

"O-O-Okay! Okay!" Izuku shrieked in surprise.

"We are ready, Takeda! Take us home!" Rei ordered.

"At once, Madam." The driver answered, and the limo rapidly moved away, silently followed by Whitey quietly jogging behind the car.

"Are you sure I can stay with you?" Izuku asked.

"Of course! But, if you still find it a bit too much, you can pay me with more cooking lessons! I do have a fully stacked kitchen in that big apartment," Rei answered, smirking.

"Oh! Yes, I can do that!" He answered, and both shared a laugh and a playful handshake to seal the deal.

Later that day – HPSC -

"So Bull and Goblin failed."

"Yes, Madam."

"Interesting. And you are sure Goblin was one of the Moles in our Hero Ranks?"

"Yes, Madam."

"Hn! That's a pity, easily-manipulated assassins with Poison Quirks are always hard to come-by. Deal with him and then look for a replacement."

"Of course. Anything else, Director?"

"Keep an eye on that Chef and Robot. We need more data to ascertain how useful he can be for us, especially his tools. Ask our HQ in Japan if they have more data they can share with us, otherwise this joint Operation will end in disaster."

"At once, Director."

"Good, now go."

At the same time – Japan – Green Cloud Restaurant -

It was getting late into the night when a man in a fur coat and with a beak mask reminiscent of a Plague Doctor's one made his way towards the closed doors of Izuku's Restaurant.

"So the kid is gone and took the robot with him...I can't believe I had to come here myself to deal with this." The man in a bird mask muttered in disdain.

"We can't break-in, Boss. And the ones we sent that, maybe, managed to get in...Well...We have no news of them." The big guy next to him answered, unsure.

"Oh, seriously! If you want results, you have to do things yourself!" The Mysterious Villain known as Overhaul uttered under his breath with a scowl, and marched by himself towards the locked simple glass-and-wood door of the restaurant.

"I can't believe you can't even break down a damn glass door! There isn't even a gate!" Overhaul hissed in contempt.

"God knows we tried everything, Boss. I think one of us even tried some C4, and the Guard Dog of the place took offense to the noise."

"Ah, screw that flea-bag! Whatever, I will do this myself. Ooooh, Eeeeri! Daddy's come to get you back!" The Villain said with a deranged, mocking tone, then removed his gloves and touched the door…

And nothing happened.

"...Uh?" He muttered, a bit dumbly.

He took off his hands for a moment and then touched the glass again.

Nothing happened.

"What the…" He tried again.

Nothing happened.

"Seriously." Once again, both his palms and ten fingers all went pressed HARD on the door, with the Villain making extra sure he was touching everything properly to use his Quirk.

Nothing happened.

"What is this door made of?!" Overhaul shrieked.

Nothing happened.

Nothing happened.

Nothing happened.

"Did I erase my Quirk by mistake?"

"Boss, as I said-" SPLAT! With a horrid explosion of gore that scared the civilians into running away screaming in fear, the lackey's body broke down as soon as Overhaul touched him.

"No, it still works...Then why is the door still there!?" The Villain roared while kicking away the dead henchman's head.

"Have you considered that maybe you are just not good enough?" Blackie asked with a mocking tone from the now open door, and behind him Zephyr was already brandishing a frying pan and showing an expression of fury on his feline face.

"Meeeow!" The Pheline hissed lowly.

"Who the hell are you?!" Overhaul yelled, whipping around to meet the eyes of the Lord Dog.

"This Lord is the Guard Dog of this Restaurant. And you are trespassing." Blackie answered, yawning lazily as he clearly didn't see Overhaul as a threat.

"Oh, really?! And what are you going to do about it!? That brat Eri belongs to me, and if I have to kill you and everybody else and destroy this place to get my asset back then so be it!" Chisaki answered.

"Please! You are no threat to this Restaurant or this Lord Dog, you are not even a main Villain, you are filler! Even just a lovely, friendly and playful pat of my Paw would be wasted on a nobody like you." Blackie answered, chuckling.

"Then what?"

Woof!

Overhaul regained consciousness from the near-death experience with the Lord Dog's "attack" only a month and a half later, having been found by his other henchmen naked and battered inside a dumpster several hours after that short bark of Blackie that had almost killed him.

The Villain will then show some common sense and intelligence by deciding that he will need a different approach to recover Eri from that accursed Restaurant; a bigger show of intelligence for Overhaul would have been deciding to just accept that Eri was now unreachable and to stop bothering her and her new Family, but Hubris always finds a way.

With Izuku – America – Yaoyorozu's Penthouse apartment – The next day -

It was during lunch hour, when Izuku was about to start a new cooking lesson with Rei during the women's free time that somebody started attacking the doorbell.

DRIIIIN!

"Who is it now?" Rei, wearing an adorable pink apron over her ridiculously-expensive Armani tailleur, said with a frown.

"Were you expecting somebody?" Izuku, in his green Chef attire, asked back.

Driiin!

"No? You?"

"I don't think so?"

Driiiin!

"What now?" Rei asked.

"I'll take it. Whitey and Shiro can protect us if things go south." Izuku said.

"Okay, just be careful."

Driiin!

"Let's see...Who is it?" He asked while checking through the door's peephole.

"An old friend!" The same tall and buff woman he had saved the day prior answered with a blinding smile.

"Oh!...How did you find me?" He asked, confused.

"I know several guys! Please open, we need to talk," she answered.

"Should I?"

"Troublemakers will be stripped as an example to others!" Whitey gave as an answer with his eyes already flashing red.

"Kyuun!" Shiro 'added' from the backrest of a couch nearby.

"May as well…" Izuku said, sighing, unlocking the door.

"Hi! Missed me?"

"...We met only once and you were about to die..."

"Still a good way to meet new faces if you ask me! But we didn't even introduce ourselves. Cathleen Bate, nice to meet you!" the Amazonian woman said, smirking.

"Izuku Midoriya...I guess…" The young Chef answered.

"Oh! Good evening! To what do we owe the visit?" Rei asked, joining them from the kitchen area.

"Sorry for the intrusion, but we have a couple questions we need to ask." Cathleen's assistant said with an apologetic tone.

"Questions? That is why you tracked me down?" Izuku asked.

"Yup! And even then, you had not been easy to find, buddy!" Cathleen answered.

"Quite a bit of a hassle, yes." The assistant added.

"I thought that we would have gone our separate ways after I helped you. About that, sorry for running away, but I wanted to avoid other Villain attacks." Izuku admitted.

"It's okay, bud! Pretty understandable!"

"Oh! That's her? The woman you helped?" Rei asked.

"She is." the young Chef answered.

"I am! And I have questions!" She said, smirking.

"Questions?" Izuku said.

"Questions!" the Buff woman answered while flashing her Hero ID.

"A Pro Hero? That is why you were so pressed about me helping her?" Izuku mentally asked.

"Correct, Host. Connections are just as useful as a Power as punching mountains to dust." The System answered, making him groan.

"Wait...A Hero named Cathleen Bate...Where did I hear that before?" Rei muttered.

"What questions do you have?" Izuku asked with narrowed eyes.

"Several actually: Why are you here in America, why are there were Villains waiting for you in every major airport of New York and how come you managed to heal me even if your Quirk Register's entry says you are a Quirkless? Oh, and many, many more!" Cathleen answered.

"…"

"I guess it would be better if they get inside, Izuku." Rei said with a tense tone.

"...Get in." Izuku said, moving aside to invite the two in.

"Thank you." The Assistant answered, unsure.

"I can answer most of your questions, probably. But I need your help in exchange."

"My help?"

"It's a very minor thing." Izuku answered.

"You aren't really-"

"Let's hear, I am still in your debt about the poison thing, so I will at least hear you out." Cathleen answered.

"Thank you." The young Chef said while the group took a seat on the big couch in the apartment.

A short round of Q&A Later -

"So you came here to challenge a famous Chef, that's all." The Assistant said, surprised.

"Pretty much. I have no idea why those people were waiting for me here. As for how I Healed you, I am sorry, I can't tell you. It's too...Too dangerous." Izuku answered, sighing.

"I will drop the issue of your Healing Powers for now. About your favor instead, you need my help in getting to that guy you are here for? What was his name?" Cathleen asked.

"Hidetaka Matoi, Boss. He is a Chef that has two Michelin Stars to his name and is expected to earn his third one sometime this year." The Assistant answered promptly.

"So he cooks well?" The tall woman asked, confused.

"We went to one of his Restaurants once, for a charity dinner, you asked him why he wrapped your steak in gold leaf and once he explained why, you went on a tirade against the thing," the assistant answered.

"Oh! That dude. Very unpleasant guy."

"Maybe she did rant against it because it is a useless thing that adds nothing to the dish and is just there to justify a higher price on the bill?" Izuku answered with a scrunched nose.

"See?! See?! Somebody else thinks like that! I am not the weird one!" the Pro Hero said with a wide smile.

"I am sorry, but he is a young Chef, he-"

"I AM a Chef, and I respect Ingredients. I know what I am talking about, you may be good at organizing appointments, but cooking is my territory and edible gold leaf hardly has any taste, and even then, a steak is not a flavor that can benefit from it."

"I am-"

"ZIP. IT." Izuku hissed, making her mouth snap close with a loud clack! Sound.

"Icchan is very proud of his skills, maybe a bit too much." Rei explained with a snort.

"Come on, guys! Make peace! He actually healed me, so we can be friends! Come on!" Cathleen said with a wide smile.

"...Sorry." Both the Assistant and Chef begrudgingly muttered to each other.

"A bit forced, but it's a good start. Now, why do you think I can actually help you?" the woman asked.

"You are Star and Stripe, if there is somebody able to get doors open, that's you." Izuku said with a cheeky smile.

"...Wha?"

"You probably use your Quirk to change hair and eye color when you go Civilian, but it was after healing you that I connected the body structure to the Pro Hero Name and recognized you," he explained.

"You and that robot of yours helped me before even knowing who I was?" Cathleen asked.

"You took a poison spit bath to protect me, I wouldn't have forgiven myself if you died because of me, with or without knowing you were a Pro Hero." Izuku answered.

"I could have healed easily with my Quirk."

"I had no idea you were Star and Stripe, I just saw a woman jump in front of me to protect me," he answered, smiling.

"Yeah I was not on duty and didn't wear my costume. In a sense, you taking me away to be healed helped cover my secret identity. I used that to get out without getting attention...So, thanks." she admitted, smirking and ruffling his hair.

"What I don't understand is why you want to Challenge that Chef." the woman's Assistant asked, confused.

"He has some dirt on various food critics, and has ordered several of them from here, Europe and locally in Japan to try to discredit me. I got fed-up and decided to Challenge him in a cooking duel: if HE wins I will close my Restaurant forever, if I win he will forget I exist and leave me alone." Izuku answered.

"...Why is he doing that?" Cathleen asked, dumbfounded.

"A bit more than one year ago he and his friends acted as judges in a cooking challenge for Amateurs, apparently what I cooked was so good that one of them, the Boss of the group of friends, had an existential crisis, and now Samui has set his precious friends against me as a revenge by threatening them with all the dirt on them he collected through the years...As unbelievable as it sounds, it is all a Revenge Plot I am just trying to defend myself from."

"That sounds like bull, no offense."

"I got the video proof, here. This is a small sample of what happened that day." Rei answered, pulling-out her phone and replaying the video from the cooking challenge.

'Taka Taka Taka Taka Taka Taka!'

"Holy shit! You were on fast forward, buddy!" Cathleen said with a loud amused laugh.

"Oh, no no! That is normal speed! My boy it's just that fast!" Rei said with a proud smile.

"Why do you want to be a Chef and not a Hero? I understand hiding your powers, but if your Quirk can really both Heal others and accelerate your movements, by using that you would be a damn good one!" the Assistant asked, amazed.

"Ah! About that, I really am Quirkless. A real one, no false reports and the like." Izuku answered, smirking.

"…"

"...What?"

"Icchan, you love that reaction, don't you?" Miss Yaoyorozu asked, giggling.

"Yes." he admitted, shameless.

"Maybe you didn't understand the question...Wait...Do you actually have a Quirk?" Cathleen asked while switching to Japanese.

"I am a pure Quirkless, I don't have one." he answered in Japanese.

"How?! You did all that! And you Healed her!" the Assistant asked.

"Natural talent." Rei answered.

"Natural- HE CAN CUT MULTIPLE THINGS IN SLICES MID-AIR! WITH ONE SWIPE!"

"I am that good. If you want, you can Test me and then decide if I have what it takes to Challenge Hidetaka." Izuku offered.

"A Test?" Cathleen said.

"Choose one Ingredient, and no matter what, I will make a Full Course Menu using that as the main piece." Izuku said.

"Any Ingredients?" the Assistant asked with narrowed eyes.

"Whatever you want...Except extreme stuff like Human flesh and feces. I DO draw a line on certain things." he answered.

"Very well, if you really are THAT SKILLED...Use some Cointreau." the woman said.

"Cointreau? I am afraid I don't have any here." Rei answered.

"It's okay, I will have it delivered from our Hero Agency." The Assistant answered.

"WOWOWOWOWOWOW! That is MY stash! You can't use it to play around!" Star and Stripe yelled in horror.

"Uh?"

"She is addicted to that liqueur, so she will gladly punch you if you ruin it." the Assistant said with a malevolent gleam in her eyes.

"I am not addicted! I just love the shit out of that drink! And if he ruins it, I will punch ALL OF YOU!" Cathleen hissed.

"M-M-Me too?!" the Assistant asked, paling considerably.

"Yeah! It was your idea after all!"

"L-Let me choose another Ingredient then!"

"No, it's okay. I will do it." Izuku answered, shrugging.

"NO!" both women yelled as one.

"Too late! How many bottles do you need, Izuku?" Rei asked, greatly amused by the two women's look of horror.

"NOOOOOOOOO!"

"Oh, don't be a baby! You are a Pro Hero, be adventurous! Be brave!" Rei answered.

"But that's my babyyyyyyy!" Cathleen yelled with a childish whine.

"Sorry, Boss." Her Assistant muttered.

"STFU!"

"I will treat it properly, I swear." Izuku said.

Sigh! "Call the agency...Have some Cointreau delivered here...Goddamnit." Cathleen said, looking hopeless and defeated.

"Way too dramatic." Rei said, chuckling.

A short phone-call later and a rather big case with a dozen bottles of the liqueur went delivered to Rei's penthouse, and Izuku had the rare chance of seeing the legendary Number One Hero of America look at him with frantic and overly-nervous eyes, treating his handling the bottles of Cointreau as if he was a Villain manhandling prisoners in a Hostage situation, all for his amusement as the buff woman was not missing a single movement he made whenever a bottle of her favorite drink left the padded case.

"I got the other Ingredients you asked for!" Rei said with a proud smile once recovered everything the young Chef asked for his small Challenge.

"Perfect! Thank you, Rei-san! Thanks to you, I have everything I need now." Izuku declared.

"I will record everything so I can save the dishes' recipes. One day I want to be able to replicate them by myself." She answered.

"I believe in you. You are getting better at cooking."

"Thank you!"

"What will you make?" Cathleen asked.

"A Full Course Menu, meaning Hors D'Oeuvre, Soup, Meat Dish, Fish Dish, Main Course, Salad, Dessert and Drink. The meat will need some seasoning before we start, and that will take an hour at the very least, so I will first organize that, and once ready, I'll start." Izuku answered.

"Sounds good." Cathleen's Assistant answered, impressed.

While Izuku went through the initial preparation of the Ingredients he needed to cook, Rei instead managed to set-up a literal small studio in the kitchen of the apartment thanks to her own assistants bringing there equipment from her Modeling Agency at her request, and forty minutes later, the young Chef gave a short exhale.

"I am ready." He said.

"Cameras are ready too. We are recording, you can start whenever you want!" Rei answered with a thumbs-up.

"Very well, I will start with the preparation of the instruments, like chilling the bowl for the whipped cream in the fridge, preheating the barbecue outside and for the Salmon dish instead...Whitey, I need a Grilling Plank made of cedar, please. The bigger, the better." Izuku asked.

"Understood." The Robot answered, and once plunged both hands inside the bottomless void that opened in the pocket in its chubby belly, the thing pulled out a stack of grilling planks made of wood.

"Multiple ones? Even better!" The young Chef answered with a wide smile.

"...Where did he keep those?" Cathleen's Assistant asked, confused.

"No idea." She answered.

Ignoring their stupor, Izuku simply left the grilling planks to soak in hot tap water for a bit.

"Since salmon and Pork will take the longest, I will prepare them at the same time. For now I will start with the dessert, the pears…" The young Chef explained while checking the heat of the grill.

"The Barbecue grill is hot enough, good. I will now build a smoke pouch: a pouch made in aluminum foil filled in both wet and dry wood chips mixed together, and once folded close, I will then puncture the bundle with a fork. Those holes will allow the smoke to flow through and infuse the pears while cooking." he said, rapidly building the foil pouch and positioning it onto a heat source on the barbeque.

"The stuffing instead is just some butter mixed with crushed gingersnap cookies in a bowl. Once the resulting mixture is smooth and without clumps you can add brown sugar, lemon zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, orange liqueur and vanilla seeds and mix." The young Chef said, and just like in a cooking show, each named Ingredient was carefully added to the bowl one at a time and diligently mixed together into a fluffy paste.

Zwiing!

Giving a fast twirl to the Sea Dragon Kitchen Knife, Izuku once again showed his supernatural speed and talent by seemingly peeling the various pears he had washed and prepped in front of him with a single slice, showing Cathleen and her Assistant that indeed the videos they were shown had not been manipulated in any way.

The young man then cut off a bit of the bottom of the pears so to let them stand up on the plate he was using, then he removed the tops and core of the pears, rubbed them with lemon wedges to stop discoloration and finally rolled them in white sugar.

"Now we use a blowtorch to melt the sugar, being extra careful to not burn them or the sugar itself." He instructed while passing the blowtorch on all sides of the pears until the sugar caramelized and turned them a beautiful golden color.

"If you don't trust your skills with a blowtorch, or you don't have one, just place the sugared pears on the hot side of a grill for 1-2 minutes and keep turning them periodically to achieve grill marks." Izuku added, winking at the camera.

"The camera loves you, Buddy! Rock on!" Cathleen said, smirking, and making him chuckle a bit.

"After stuffing the hollowed pears with the filling using a spoon, we check if the barbecue is producing the right amount of smoke thanks to the pouch, and if it does, we lower the heat and place the pears on a perforated baking sheet on the unheated side of the grill. This will smoke the pears over indirect heat for approximately 30 minutes." Izuku said.

While he waited for the smoking to be done, he mixed heavy cream with the orange liqueur and vanilla seeds in the chilled bowl and gradually added icing sugar while whipping until stiff.

Once ready, the pears were removed from the smoking, plated elegantly in four plates and topped with the aromatic whipped cream and sprinkled with orange zest, and finally set aside.

"Now that the dessert is ready, we will move to the salmon dish." Izuku said, combining syrup, Cointreau, and rind in a small saucepan he then moved on the fire for boiling until reduced to a thicker sauce, and once cooled down enough, he sprinkled a tiny bit of salt and black pepper over the salmon.

"Done that, we brush the fish with the Cointreau/Syrup mixture and place the salmon pieces on the grilling planks, skin down, remember." The young Chef said, placing the fish filets on the planks and then moving every one of them on a preheated grill with the lid closed.

"Why do you need a grilling plank?" Rei asked from off camera.

"Quite simple, actually. While on the grill, the plank will smolder, creating smoke. That's what gives the salmon it's wonderful taste. Don't get scared if you see flames, that can happen sometimes, in that case just douse the flames with a spray water bottle. It's just a matter of not panicking."

Whistling a little tune, Izuku occupied himself while cooking the fish by preparing everything for the Meat Dish, and once the salmon went cooked to his liking, he took it out of the grill and plated the four portions by sliding a spatula between fish and skin to detach them from the planks.

"God, this smells damn good." Cathleen admitted with a hungry look.

"Thank you! As a further condiment, I will mix together salt, black pepper, orange sections, avocado, orange juice, onion, bell pepper, chives, and lime juice in a side bowl. So whoeverwants to can add it to the salmon." Izuku answered, adding four small dishes with that sauce to the Salmon Dishes.

"Now the one that needed me to marinade the meat for at least one hour before we even started: The Pork Filet Mignon…" The young Chef muttered while recovering the marinating meat.

"What did you marinade it with?" Rei asked.

"A mixture I made by first peeling and grating some ginger, then I added to it some salt, five-spice powder, soy sauce, oil, honey and Cointreau. The marinade needs to be thick, not too liquid, so I covered the Pork with the mixture and put it aside to rest."

While saying that, they watched Izuku seal the meat on all sides in a cooking pot, cover it and leave everything to simmer, stirring it carefully and delicately and adding water if he saw the sauce caramelizing too quickly.

"...Perfect, this one is done too." Finally, after a long and agonizing wait, thanks to the amazing scent bombarding the onlookers, the young man took the pot off the fire, added to it a bit more ginger and pepper, and divided everything in four plates, with the ladies watching silently marveling at how rich and smooth the sauce coating the meat looked.

"Good! Almost done! If I consider the timing well, everything should still be the right temperature by the time I am done. Thankfully the Pasta Dish is pretty easy compared to the other dishes, but still very tasty. I will use some Linguine, it's the kind of pasta that goes better with this recipe…" Izuku muttered.

"Still don't know how Italians can come-up with all those different kinds of pasta...Isn't Spaghetti enough?" Cathleen asked.

"To tell the truth, there is a reason behind that, because each kind of Pasta is best suited to specific Italian recipes. That is why there are actually 350 different types of pasta out there." Izuku answered while setting the linguine to cook.

"Holy crap!" The Assistant muttered.

"They take pride in their cooking, even too much!" He answered, chuckling, and adding olive oil into a skillet together with two smashed garlic cloves to gently sauté the cloves until they became golden and then removing it from the skillet.

"The chopped anchovy filets?"

"Here, Icchan!" Rei answered, passing him a small dish.

"Thank you!" He answered while adding those to the skillet and carefully stirring them around until they melted into the oil.

"Now we add the orange slices, mixing them well with the olive oil and anchovy, with caution to not turn them into a pulp. Next come the breadcrumbs and finally the Cointreau," Izuku instructed while continuing to mix the sauce in the skillet with a wooden spoon and very delicate movements.

"Pasta is ready! I'll take it out of the water for you!" Rei said with a wide smile.

"Perfect! Just in time, the sauce has become creamy, so it's time to mix the two." The young Chef answered, pleased, and after having mixed the sauce with the pasta inside a wide bowl, he added some minced mint and proceeded to separate everything into four plates.

"Now it's the scallops turn!" Izuku declared happily once seen every other dish coming along nicely.

Taking a generous bowl of lardons, the young Chef used some butter to fry them in a large frying pan, and once the fatty meat lost the raw look, he added the scallops to the pan and gave them a rapid searing for just a couple minutes while stirring carefully and yet rapidly.

"Lemon Juice, some salt and pepper...And the Cointreau!" Izuku said, adding the liquor to the pan with wide swipes of the bottle.

"Careful!" Cathleen begged for the umpteenth time.

"I know what I am doing, have no fear!" He answered with a friendly chuckle, and to the woman's surprise once the Cointreau became warm enough he ignited the pan in a big flash of fire, enjoying the flames for just a few instants before pouring in the pan some double cream to extinguish the flames.

"Show-off," Rei said, laughing.

"Maybe a bit." Izuku admitted, simmering the dish for an instant before pulling it off the fire and sprinkling everything with parsley; he then plated all that as well in four portions and set them on a side, among the other completed dishes.

Needless to say, the Salad took him barely a few minutes to make, since he had already prepared the Cointreau Vinaigrette sauce he decorated it with before even starting the recording.

The soup as well was a simple recipe, but still extremely delicious: a fluffy sweet potato creamy soup topped with caramelized onions and a light drizzle of oil.

"And finally, for a drink...I think I will go with some gin…" Next came the shaker, a bottle of some expensive gin and a few lemons.

"Uuh! Fancy!" Cathleen admitted, chuckling, and watching Izuku add the gin to the Cointreau and lemon juice and then topping everything in the shaker with some egg white.

"First you dry-shake it, without ice..." He said while giving the metal container a vigorous shake.

SHIK! SHIK! SHIK!

"Then you add ice and shake again until well-chilled." The young Chef finished saying, adding ice and shaking again, before straining the drink into four chilled cocktail glasses.

"And with this, the Cointreau Full Course Menu it's done. Thank you for your patience, and please, let me introduce the dishes," Izuku said with a bow while indicating each plate as he introduced them…

Hors D'Oeuvre: Scallops with Cointreau (Works well with Grand Marnier too).

Soup: Sweet Potato Cream and Cointreau Liquor soup with Caramelized Onions topping.

Meat Dish: Pork Filet Mignon with Honey and Cointreau.

Fish Dish: Cointreau Glazed Cedar Plank Salmon.

Main Course: Spaghetti with Orange, Mint and Cointreau. (Italian Recipe).

Salad: Arugula, hazelnut, crumbled goat cheese, Parmesan cheese shavings, strawberries cubes and parsley. With salt, pepper and orange juice as dressing AND topped by Cointreau vinaigrette.

Dessert: Smoked pears with gingersnap and cointreau stuffing, topped with whipped cream and with a side of Cointreau-flavored custard.

Drink: White Lady Cocktail (a Gin and Cointreau Cocktail).

"Aaand cut! We stopped filming! You can relax now, Icchan!" Rei declared, proud beyond words of her future son-in-law.

"Thank God! I was so scared I was about to screw-up just because you were recording!" Izuku admitted with an elated chuckle.

The table was positively overflowing in plates, and Rei was once again glad her future son-in-law could cook that well, and at the same time sad that she will need to visit the gym more often to burn through the food and stay in shape, but that was a problem for Future Rei, now it was food time!

"Another amazing menu, Icchan! Godly as always!" She said, clapping a little in excitement.

As for the two Guests instead...

"…"

"…Holy shit…"

It wasn't even a simple feeling of shock what got the two women, it was way deeper than that! It was full-blown disbelief! Had they not sat there to watch, there was no way in Hell they would have believed a Chef that young prepared all that.

Not just for the speed he prepared all that at the same time with, the scent alone was mesmerizing, along with the gorgeous presentation each plate displayed, but Cathleen herself could still feel the faint scent of her beloved drink still present and taking center stage.

"You better eat before it gets cold!" Rei said with a smug smile.

"You don't need to tell me twice!" Cathleen answered, attacking her portions with no mercy.

"Holy shit!" The Pro Hero's assistant gasped in wonder.

"Hahahaha! Every time I eat your food, I discover you improved again from the last time, I really don't know how you do it." Rei said with a wide smile.

Everything was simply delicious, from the aromatic scallops, to the syrupy pork that melted in the mouth, to the salmon framed with a wonderful smokey fragrance and even an extremely faint trace of the wood's aroma from the planks, followed by the refreshing taste of the pasta, the perfect equilibrium of sweetness and saltiness of the salad, the pure silk feeling of the soup and finally the spicy, soul-melting sweetness of the pears topped with heavenly fluffy chilled whipped cream to counterbalance the warmth of the pears.

The cocktail especially actually became Star and Stripes' new favorite too!

"Fucking amazing. 10/10 I can get addicted to this stuff!" Cathleen said, slapping Izuku's back over and over.

"I admit defeat, you damn really won our bet," The woman's Assistant gladly conceded defeat with a laugh, way too satisfied by her overfilled stomach to find the strength to complain about anything.

"I am more happy that you enjoyed everything I made, sure winning the bet does feel good, but knowing I managed to satisfy my customer's hunger, now, that is more satisfying!" Izuku answered, proud of himself while collecting plates to wash them.

"I do kind of understand why you say those people don't like you, they are some big shots and a Nobody is suddenly shooting forward leaving them in the dust. But still, the response is way too overblown," Cathleen said, dropping the smile to show a more thoughtful expression.

"That is what is confusing me. You can't explain everything they are doing to me with just some 'Fantastical Racism', because other Quirkless are not hated this hard, put slightly aside to give Quirked a preferential treatment, yes, but attacked like me? No, that sort of persecution hasn't happened in decades. Nowadays Quirkless just comes second, they don't get hated to death." Izuku answered.

"Then why are they singling you out like that?" Cathleen asked.

"That's the thing! I have no idea! I was confirmed that everything started from Samui himself that got his old childhood friends to gang together against me personally, and this level of animosity, this has to be personal, somehow. For some personal reason running deep enough Samui decided to blackmail his friend to make sure they did their best to help him...And I don't know what that reason is! I didn't even know the guy before that damn cooking contest! I swear!" He answered, baffled.

"It is strange, if you put it like that." Rei admitted.

"So, who are those guys?" Cathleen asked.

"You want a list?"

"If you don't mind! This kind of bullshit is not something we need as a Society! So if I can help you put a stop to it, I will!" She answered, eyes aflame in determination.

"Fair enough, there are five of them and what I know about them:

Samui Arasaka, the Leader of the group and the one that started all this for some reason, apparently has some serious blackmail material on the others in order for them to do help along this insane Revenge plan of his.

Yamato Kurogawa, the one I already dealt with, is the Rector of Inoshiki Private University.

Matoi Hidetaka, the Chef I am here to face-off during the grand opening of his newest Restaurant 'The Symphony'. He used to be a big Food Critic and something he called a 'Food Influencer' for a little while, up to his forties at least, then he focused only on cooking and took over his father's first Restaurant and got to two Michelin Stars in record time.

Jun Sato, daughter of a big shot in the Import-Export business, especially by sea, and married to the heir of a Cruises Business Magnate. Her main restaurant is the 'Little Mermaid' and is actually located on the admiral ship of the 'Sato Cruises' fleet, the Queen of the Sea, the biggest and most luxurious Cruise ship in the world at the moment, she got her fourth Michelin Star just recently.

And finally, Ren Watanabe, Besides being a Chef, he hosts the Japanese version of Master Chef and seems pretty invested in cooking Live streaming, enough he helped Jun's own daughter to start her own streaming channel where she cooks Live whenever she doesn't help her mother in the kitchen."

"Uhm." The Pro Hero muttered.

"Yes?" Rei asked.

"You recorded him cooking...I think we can use that." Cathleen said.

"Use that?" Izuku asked.

"I believe we can use that video to irk both those Jun and Ren a lot, enough that if you openly challenge them, they will accept, even just to stop you from raining on their parade."

"Me? Attacking them? Directly?"

"Up until now you were on defense, but I think it's time you go on the offensive. Do you want them to stop? You gotta step-up your game and stop them for good yourself." Cathleen answered.

"Being on the offensive…" Izuku muttered, thoughtful.

"The American way!" Cathleen said with a smirk and a double thumbs-up.

"That's not exactly a thing…" Her Assistant muttered.

"I'll think about this."

"You do that, buddy. But, for now, a promise is a promise! You did deliver a Full Course made with Cointreau without ruining my baby's taste, so I will help you out." Cathleen said, chuckling.

"Thank you, Cathleen-san!" Izuku answered with a beaming smile.

"So...Ready to plan?" The Pro Hero said, smirking.

"Yes, Madame!" The Young Chef answered in earnest happiness.

Happiness that lasted until he received a phone-call that very same night.

Back in UA – Nejire's room –

The young woman was sitting on her bed and talking to the phone, but with how broken she looked, it was clear she had been hating the entire call.

"Stop, please Stop…"

"Izuku?" Nejire asked in dread, not liking his disappointed tone.

"A Polycule, Nejire?" Izuku asked, finally touching the core of the matter after Nejire spent almost twenty minutes actively avoiding the issue.

"I just...I just thought…" Nejire tried saying, already crying.

"You tried to manipulate things from the Shadows. You did not try to reason with the others," He said with a sigh.

"Please don't hate me…" She muttered, sniffling.

"I don't hate you. I just...I am just...It's all so wrong…"

"I only wanted us all to be happy!"

"Not like this, Nejire."

"I am sorry!" She said with a broken voice.

"I know you are, but I fear that at this point an apology is not going to fix things." Izuku said, sighing.

"I am sorry...I am sorry…" Nejire said, before dropping her phone, hugging her knees tightly to herself and letting go to her tears, crying and hiccuping loudly.

Right outside her door, Mirio had been about to try and knock on her door to try talking to her to see why she had been looking that distraught recently, only to hear her talk to the phone and turning sadder and sadder until she finally started crying, turning her words into a mess of babbling, hiccups and apologies.

"...What am I doing…" He muttered to himself, catching himself thinking her moment of sorrow was a good opening to enter and trying to win her back.

"Win her back...And then? Restart everything again?…" He muttered bitterly to himself.

Sigh! "Time to face the facts, and act accordingly. And at least salvage what remains." He muttered, looking at the closed door with resignation.

"...God...Good actions are painful."

"They always are. But I suppose that is part of the course of being a good person." Tamaki answered from behind him, he too had come to try to cheer up their friend.

"So it seems." Mirio answered, walking away.

"Where are you going?" Tamaki asked.

"I am going to talk with Miss Yaoyorozu. You...You try to cheer her up for both of us, I don't think I am somebody she would like to see at this moment. I don't want her to misunderstand why I came to see her. Not now at least." Mirio answered with a sad smile.

"Yaoyorozu? Why do you want to talk to her?"

"To do the right thing, of course." Mirio answered with a shaky smile and a thumbs-up.

"...This thing is far too complicated…" Tamaki muttered with a defeated sigh and watched him walk away.

"Romance is a pain in the ass." The young man said, knocking on the door before entering by himself.

"Ta-Tamaki…" Nejire said, sniffling, with blood-shot eyes and crying non stop.

"Hey." Tamaki said, softly.

"I am sorry…" It seemed like that was the only thing she was able to say at the moment.

"I know, come here." He answered, sitting next to her and hugging her tight, and listening to her wailing as soon as she hugged him back.

"It's okay, everything's going to be okay." Tamaki whispered, rocking her gently.

Omake

Dimensional Ingredient Hunt:

Izuku Midoriya and the Miracle Patisserie of Gotham!

The current Mission of the System was fairly simple, technically:

Obtain the so called Miracle Fruit and manage a Patisserie for seven days

Technically-speaking, it was straightforward and easy, and yet Izuku's own Instinct had started screaming the very instant his feet touched ground from the portal.

"I am sure this time things will go peacefully! Your curse won't last forever!" Ochako, his Companion for this trip, said while grabbing his hands in hers.

"I...I want to believe this." He answered, hopeful.

"I think things will go splendidly, my friend! You youngsters need to learn to see the bright side of things! Like I do!" The old man that had actually lent him the Patisserie said with a wide, blinding smile once finished loading his luggage on the back of the taxi.

"You are right, sir. I need to think positive." Izuku said, taking a big breath.

"You do that, in the meantime I will go visit my brother in Metropolis, it's been a while since we spent time together. BYE!" The old man said, jumping in the taxi and making the driver leave FAST!

Why the urgency? And why accept the strange proposal of Izuku? Simple! Insurance Fraud!

The old man was not as good as his father was at making sweets and desserts, so when his brother left to open his own shop in Metropolis, the old one in Gotham soon fell in disarray, with debts piling-up at blinding speed...But if an incident happens, the Insurance Company won't ask too many questions and just pay up, giving the old man enough money to leave Gotham for greener pastures! That is why he never told Izuku, somebody clearly not in the know, about all the psychotic Villains running about the city!

"Sorry, boy! But a scapegoat is a Godsend one can't turn away!" He thought in happiness while already imagining the smoldering ruins left behind by the Villains of Gotham; he had heard how Joker and Harley had broken-up AGAIN, so if he was lucky, his store will be between the ones the psycho woman will demolish in her tantrum fit! MONEY!

Oh! How absolutely wrong he was!

Three days later – Abandoned Labs – Greenhouses -

God of Cooking!

Deliver the fruits!

Cook us!

Elevate us!

Me! Choose me!

Chosen by the Ingredients!

Herald of True Taste!

Lord of Cooking!

Bring us to Him!

"WILL YOU ALL STAY QUIET!?" Poison Ivy, the infamous Bio-Terrorist of Gotham, shrieked in dismay while covering her ears.

Three days! Three entire damn days! A constant stream of feverish prayers and fanatical screams from every single edible plant inside the greenhouses Ivy had taken over from the Criminals that were experimenting on them, it was driving her insane!

...Well, Insaner, kinda.

And in the middle of all that deafening cacophony of zealous screams only she could hear, her recent addition to the family: a prehistoric plant the scientists of that lab had managed to clone, an ancient fruit able to change taste. Apple if boiled, Orange if frozen, Pineapple if left untouched and Strawberry if dehydrated. They called it Miracle fruit, especially since it had astounding de-aging properties, almost magical.

Too bad the thing had the shrillest voice Ivy had ever heard and kept acting like a horny teenage girl begging her idol to pound her like a drum.

"Even my beloved plants back in my old hideout are doing the same! What the hell is happening?!" She shrieked again, almost hoping to see the accursed Batman appear from the shadows like usual to arrest her, so to get a FUCKING MINUTE OF SILENCE thanks to the drab concrete walls of Arkham.

Meanwhile – Watchtower -

At the same time, from the computer room of a high-tech orbital base, a man in black hero costume sat rubbing his eyes in annoyance.

"I keep telling you that we have no clue why your foresight-able friends all started talking about Outer Beings casting their far too many eyes on our world." Batman said, growling again.

"Well, find out! They keep asking me for a solution, and I already lost four crystal spheres trying to divine the source! They keep exploding! AND THEY ARE EXPENSIVE!" Zatanna yelled back, growling just as darkly as the Caped Crusader, a thing that actually had a twinge of pride blossom in the man's heart.

"I am working on it." Batman hissed.

"Then work harder!" she barked back in answer.

"Nothing from Constantine?"

"The idiot? He asked a couple of 'Old Acquaintances' of his."

"...And?"

"Whatever it is, they are not saying a thing. Even the Arcane, the Diabolical and even the low and Mid-tiers of Hell said the same thing: I am not touching THAT THING's affairs with a ten foot pole. Whatever it is, they are Ancient and with a Reputation." Zatanna answered, rubbing her temples in annoyance.

"A threat or not?" Batman asked with narrowed eyes.

"Can't say. Nothing suggests Evil, though. Maybe some Outer Being is just frolicking about...I have no clue." Zatanna answered.

"Diana has gone to consult the Elders of the Amazon Island, hopefully they will know something since they called her back suddenly." Batman answered.

"I'll keep looking as well, keep me informed please. Zatanna, out." the young woman said and then closed the communication.

"This is getting nowhere." Batman said, rising from the seat at the computer to leave.

Munch! "Still no clue?" The first guy he saw once out was Flash, eating a muffin from a small mountain of them he held in his arms.

"Yes. Unfortunately answers don't fall in your hands by themselves, and for once, I wish that could be the case." Bruce answered, and caught one of the muffins that fell from Flash' hoard right into his hands.

"Oh! Thanks! These things are damn good, I would have hated to waste one." The super-fast Hero answered, grateful.

"Where did you get them? And why so many? The cafeteria doesn't have that many."

"Oh! I got them in Gotham! I was passing by there when I saw a HUUUUGE line of people clamoring to enter a patisserie and got curious. Damn if that kid knows his stuff." Flash said, chuckling.

"Hn. Hopefully he won't be swallowed by Gotham's darkness…" Batman said, thoughtful.

"Hey, you can keep that one, you look like you need something sweet,"

"I don't...fine." Batman said, grunting annoyed and walking away…

Though, he had to admit that yes, that muffin was good...And Alfred loved muffins.

Three days later - Downtown - Harley Quinzle's apartment -

The door to the fancy apartment went flung open by Ivy, now sporting frizzled red hair instead of her usual silky waves, she had used the spare key the harlequin-themed Villain gave her a long time ago.

"Harley! Can I crash here for a bit?! I need to sleep eight hours uninterrupted at least once! Without whining, or begging, or...What the hell is happening here?" Ivy asked once to see dozens and dozens of empty boxes of assorted sweets littering the ground.

"...Oh, God you broke up with Joker again!"

"Ye-eeees!" a long whine came in answer from the apartment living room.

"And you have been eating sweets nonstop since?"

"Six days!" Harley answered.

"My God, how are you still alive!...And slim?" Ivy said, expecting a fat pig to be lying on the couch under a pile of garbage food, like the other three or four times Joker broke up with her, and instead this time she found Harley still in her slim and athletic shape even while gorging herself in pastries by the handfuls.

"Uh?" face utterly covered in a mess of multi coloured frosting, Harley just looked at her while still munching.

"You only ate sweets, by the looks of it at least fifty-"

"Sixty."

"Sixty boxes of it...And you have not a belly either?" Ivy asked.

"OH! Didn't notice! Awesome, so like this I can keep drowning in sugar until my heart stops hurting from Mistah J leaving me!" Harley said, still eating.

"Harley, last time I found you in a diabetic coma and you had eaten far less than this...What have you done?" Ivy asked.

"Nothing! I just raided the patisserie down the street! The owner left management to a new guy for a bit, he is a cutie and is gentle and likes my jokes, and he makes some damn good sweets too! He offered me a discount and a hug when I told him I needed the sweets to recover from a break-up. He was so nice I couldn't rob him...So I robbed a store and used the money to pay for the sweets." She answered.

"Uh, fancy that, somebody nice still exists in this city. That's rare nowadays." Ivy admitted, surprised.

THE GOD OF COOKING! SHE MET THE CHOSEN!

"Oh God, you got a plant too?!" Ivy said with a groan.

"You like plants! So I wanted to make the place fancier if you came to visit!" Harley answered.

"Normally I would appreciate it, but I...Wait...Who did she meet?" She asked this to the very tiny, and slightly under-watered, cactus on the kitchen counter.

The God of Cooking is Here! He owns the Store!...Water please? I am thirsty.

"YES!"

"Wha?" Harley asked.

"Your plant gave me the answer to my woes! Now water it and bring me to that damn Patisserie! I need to speak to the Manager!"

"Are you a Karen now?" Harley asked, smirking.

"YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!" The other answered, face red in embarrassment.

Down the street – Patisserie -

Business was bustling on a legendary level, making Izuku wonder how come people seemed surprised a store like his actually offered good products, unaware that in Gotham only 1 business out of 10 actually did their job, the others were just covers for illegal Organizations, it was a miracle in itself if Gotham's Economy actually hadn't collapsed on itself yet.

"Why the long face?" Ochako asked.

"Besides having no clue where the Miracle Fruit is...I am just waiting for the other shoe to drop and the psycho woman that will chase me for whatever reason to pop-up." Izuku answered, sighing in dismay.

"Well, focus on the fact you are almost done with the first part of your Mission, done here we will focus on finding the fruit only. And just because it happened every other single time, it doesn't mean that one woman obsessed with you will just barge in here too!" She answered.

BANG!

"Lil' Mido! I am here again! Gimme sugar goodies!" Harley said with a wide smile while barging into the store.

"Miss Harley! Good evening! It's the sixth day in a row, are you sure you'll be okay?" Izuku answered, happy to see her again, but also worried about her health.

"I am okay! And I brought a friend!" She answered, signaling Ivy to enter.

"So you are the guy?" Ivy asked.

"The guy?" Izuku and Ochako asked.

"Is he the guy?" Ivy, to their shock, asked that to anearby potted plant.

"...Good! Here is the damn fruit! Now tell the plants to shut up, you God of Cooking or whatever!" Once heard whatever answer she was hoping for, Ivy made her demand to the young Chef while shoving the bowling-ball-sized fruit in Izuku's arms with a look that suggested she had it up there in the entire situation.

"Ehm...Thank...You...I guess?" Izuku answered, unnerved.

"God of Cooking?" Richard 'Dick' Grayson, also known as Nightwing when in costume, muttered, curious, and momentarily stopping before actually leaving the store with his take-away bag of cupcakes for Alfred Bruce asked him to get.

"God of Cooking? What's that?" Harley asked.

"No idea, that's what the plants kept calling him." Ivy answered, shrugging, while both sat at a table.

"The usual, Lil' Mido!" Harley yelled over her shoulder.

"I'll bring it to you in a moment. Your friend?"

"I barely can stand the idea of eating something plant-based, but I will close my eyes when I eat this time. So something filled in custard will suffice." Ivy answered.

"Sure!"

"So you have been coming here every day?" Ivy asked.

"Oh yeah! Lil' Mido is nice, and fun, and cute, and he has a really nice smile! He makes me feel all smiley when we talk, and-"

"Oh God...Here we go again…" Ivy muttered, face-palming.

"What?" Her dear friend, her dear, psychotic and yet big-hearted friend had the gall to ask back, but at least the sweets were good.

"I think we need to talk." She said, sighing.

"...See? Nothing bad happened! We got the fruit and the seven days time limit is almost over, everything is going to be alright!" Ochako said with a beaming smile.

The Next day – Ten Minutes after midnight -

Very few things could surprise Clark Kent, the man had seen and fought far too many strange things to get surprised by anything anymore, and yet here he was, watching the scene of every Villain of Gotham, every single one of them, beating the crap out of each other in a free-for-all brawl, with a dumbfounded expression.

"What happened?" He asked with a small voice.

"Approximately six days ago, that young man took over the Patisserie and started working normally, but it seems like he is not from around here." Batman answered.

"So he moved here?" Superman asked.

"No, he comes from another Dimension. While Zatanna could not discover who sent him here, she could still understand why, for most part. Diana supplied the rest."

"That God of Cooking thing." Clark said.

"Literal title. A literal God overseeing cooking, ALL OF IT. The Amazons warned Diana a Candidate was coming to our world and asked her to protect him from the forces of Evil. Lucifer told Constantine that there was no need to worry since a God of Cooking is one of the True Neutrals, so normally left alone by the forces of Heaven and Hell because, apparently, their domain/Restaurant is a Truce Zone of sort...So that left common Villains only to worry about." Batman answered.

"But it seems like that too was mostly a moot point. At least in part." Nightwing, in Costume this time, added, chuckling.

"HARLEY! BE REASONABLE!" They heard Joker, of all people, beg.

"NO! YOU DESTROYED THE PATISSERIE OF MY SWEET CINNAMON ROLL! YOU MUST DIE!" The former partner of the Clown Prince of Crime was heard roaring while chasing her former Love Interest with a big mallet, all in the name of avenging her current crush.

"I mean, he got the female Villains on his side, just thanks to his ability to make sweets that don't make you fat." The current Robin, accompanied by his friends 'The Titans', said.

"AAAAAAAARGH!"

"That was Ivy, snapping Bane's spine with her bare hands out of female fury, you can't get a more clear signal." Nightwing answered.

"Bruce? Are you smiling at Bane's Karmic misery?" Clark asked.

"No." Batman answered, schooling his features back into a frown.

"Where is the Chef now?" Raven asked.

"Down there, crying. Apparently women going after him is a common occurrence whenever he visits a new Dimension, so his girlfriend is trying to cheer him up." Batman answered.

"Uh, it must be stressful." Robin said.

"Seems so."

"So Harley has a crush on him now?" Superman asked.

"So she said, before starting a fight against Jinx, the latter is infatuated with the boy too. Then others got into the quarrel once heard about it: Joker just to cause Chaos, Bane because the Chef's robot bested him in a fight and stripped him after a savage beating, Penguin and Scarface because they could not extort him money nor steal the Robot; Freeze instead came to help the boy and defend him because the Chef Somehow cured him and his wife of their Illnesses/mutations with food...The Female Villains joined just because they want to back-up Harley in finding herself a better man than Joker." Batman answered.

"Not that it's hard to find somebody better than Joker for romance!" Nightwing added under his breath, making the others chuckle.

"This is a moot point, though. Even before Joker caused the explosion that destroyed the store, the boy was already about to leave our Dimension, so as far as we are concerned-"

"The boy just left, a big portal opened to whisk him away." Superman interrupted him.

"Good." Batman said.

"NOOOOOO! CINNAMON BUN!" Harley echoed, with way more despair in her tone.

"As I was trying to say. Good. Unless Harley finds a way to cross Dimensions, this situation is back to normal, now we just have to arrest them all."

"Want a hand?" Clark asked, as the only one actually able to ask that to Batman of all people.

"Fine. Come along." the other answered.

It took barely five minutes for the assembled Heroes to capture all the Villains fighting each other in front of the destroyed bakery...Except Harley, she had already left to fulfill some plan of hers.

As for the Store's original owner, his "scapegoat plan" failed as not only the insurance company didn't pay him a cent, but the male Villains learned his identity, hunted him down and gave him a savage beating for bringing Izuku into the picture, THEN the female Villains decided to beat the crap out of him the instant he left the hospital's entrance as a punishment for trying to set up their precious Pastry Maker, forcing the doctors to sigh in defeat and drag the broken man back inside the hospital.

Some time Later – Zatanna's apartment -

"Ooooh, Zatannaaaa!" A sickening sweet voice asked while banging on the door.

"GO AWAY, HARLEY!" The Magic user yelled.

"I JUST NEED A DIMENSIONAL PORTAL! OPEN ONE AND I WILL LEAVE FOR GOOD!"

"NO!"

"I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT! STOP GETTING IN THE WAY! MY CINNABUN NEEDS ME!" Harley yelled, battling her mallet against the magically-reinforced door without making a dent on it, only lots of noise.

"LEAVE ME ALONE, YOU MAD WOMAN!"

"I AM A MAD WOMANIN LOVE! YOU NEED TO HELP A SISTER IN NEED!"

"NO!" Zatanna yelled back.

"JUST A SMALL PORTAL! A ONE-WAY ONE! PWEEEEEEEASE!"

That was going to be a long week for the poor magician, she just knew it...