Hello All!
I'm not gonna lie, i honestly didn't expect it to take this long to update, yeesh.
I expected it to take a tiny bit long, if only because I had little ideas for this chapter, moreso for future chapters when we're further along and at UA. this one was kind of unplanned /as is most the story, but details, details!/
i sincerely apologize for the delay! and I shall defiantly be making the effort to prevent future updates from taking-
damn, has it really been almost a month?
s
Chapter 9.
"How long did you know?"
An hour and a half, that is how long it had taken for Izuku Midoriya to have calmed down from the initial shock. With another hour spent by Itsuka Kendo doing nothing but consoling the young viridianette. The entire time, the goddess had remained silent, hovering barely within eyesight from the corner of his left eye. The young Kendo would have remained longer, if not for the growling of both their stomachs some brief moments ago. With the promise of being back as soon as she could from the cafeteria, the orangette had run off to collect the both of them something to eat. Giving Izuku the chance to speak privately with the goddess at last.
Since the moment she took her last breath, I have known.
"And you didn't tell me?! Why?!"
Because you couldn't handle the news, even now, aware and with a companion, you can barely hold yourself together.
His fists clenched together, the force of which enough to turn his knuckles white, before a wave of calmness overtook his entire being. His eyelids became heavy as tears built on their edges, threatening to spill over at a moment's notice. Yet that did little to reduce the glare in his eyes as he stared at her.
"Stop that! I want to be angry at you!"
And why pray tell, do you want to be angry? Anger is a useless emotion- at least in my eyes anyways. It leads to little aside from regrettable actions later down the line.
"You hid my mother's death from me! Of course I want to be angry! How can I not be angry with you?!"
Hid? I did no such thing. All I did was refrain from mentioning it while your mind was still processing everything else. Had it been left to me, I likely would have mentioned it after you were released.
He turned away from her as his mind whispered its doubt at her words. That she wouldn't have told him, that she'd have hidden it until it suited her benefit, or until it was forced out by that other so-called God. It was her fault after all, though only by technicality. In truth he knew it was the fault of the other god, the one who sent his followers after them. He knew next to nothing about this other god, aside from his need to pay for what his minions had done.
She was in front of him as he sat on the edge of the hospital bed, his toes just barely touching the floor between them as she knelt down before him. His eyes couldn't resist wandering away from his knees, to stare directly into the eyes of the goddess straight ahead. Had she always been that tall? No, she was likely just manipulating her height- just like she did with her appearance.
Izuku, your anger is heightened by your grief, they will fuel one another until you either burn out, or you do something that you will regret in the future. You may not see the reasoning behind my decision, but if your grief had been taken care of first? You would still be angry, upset, perhaps even loathing of my existence, but you wouldn't be having those treacherous thoughts of escape, of seeking vengeance on my kin for their wrongdoings. That is not how a hero would do things, and as long as I am here, I will make sure that is not how you will do things.
Her hands took hold of his shoulder's midway through her speech, gently reaching up to guide his face back to her whenever he had turned away. His desire to hold onto his anger was strong, his grief stronger, but his desire- his dream to become a hero prevailed over the intense emotions. With the visible relaxing of his shoulders, Izuku leaned backwards until his upper body fell back onto the bed. An angry huff, followed immediately by tears streaming down his face, was how Itsuka Kendo found him when she next opened the door to the room.
She was quick to discard the small plastic bag in her hands, tossing it off to the side as she rushed forwards to the hurting Midoriya. She paused upon reaching the bed, uncertainty flashing briefly through her eyes before, with a shake of her head, she turned around and sat down beside him. She was quick to flop down onto the mattress alongside him, the fabric of the blankets faintly itching against her skin. Her head turned to lay on its side, facing Midoriya just as he turned to stare at her.
"K-Kedo? W-what are you doing?. . . You are the real one, right?"
"The real one?" her eyebrow rose before a teasing grin made its way onto her face as an idea popped into her head. "Why would you say that? Could it be that you've been dreaming about lil' old me, Mr. Midoriya?~"
She expected his face to go up in flames, for him to stutter out an apology and something about that not being his meaning. But when his face went crimson and he averted his eyes from her, she couldn't help the faint rush of heat to her own cheeks at the implications of his silence.
Without warning she sat up, with the slight tensing of the Midoriya's muscles being her only visible indicator of accidentally startling him. Coughing into her fist as the blush lessened and her awkward feeling subsided, she turned to look at him with a smile.
"Instead of cafeteria food, why don't we go out to grab a bite to eat? Mr. Yagi told me when I ran into him in the hallways that you're officially discharged," she gestured towards the plastic bag discarded to the side of the room. "That's a spare set of clothes he was able to buy for you on his way here, and I can leave the room if you need to change"
"N-No n-need! I c-can change in the bathroom!"
He jumped into action the moment his stutters slipped past his lips, quite literally as he pushed off the bed, using the forward momentum to hasty grab the plastic bag before bee-lining towards the door. He gently closed the door to the room, only to open the second door behind it that led to quite possibly the tiniest bathroom known to mankind. A toilet took up a good two thirds of the floor space, with the pipes to drain the sink taking up the majority of the rest. While a mirror sat just above the sink, stretched out to take up the entirety of its width- which really still left it no larger than a computer monitor. Toilet paper and a disposable toothbrush sat on the edge of the sink, threatening to take a nosedive headfirst into its watery grave below at the slightest provocation.
He was swift to turn around least he accidentally flash the orangette, only to sigh in mild relief at the sight of her head turned the opposite way.
Truly a shame that she didn't peak, alas it was not meant to be. . . Though there's always next time~
Changing into the attire that All Might had chosen for him was quick, taking no more than five minutes before the young viridianette was able to step back out into the open. It wasn't a surprise to him that All-Might had managed to get his hands on a T-shirt themed after his hero persona, his ever-present smile having briefly stared back at him with a thumbs up when in the mirror. The moss green cargo shorts that seemed extremely familiar were a bit more of a surprise, if only because they were one size too large for his build- something to be fixed in the wash, he supposed.
With a thumbs up from Itsuka and one last look around the hospital room, the two teens made their way out into the hallway. Only upon entering the elevator did Izuku realize two problems with this current scenario, three technically if one were to count his inability to socialize.
"Hey. . Kendo, where are we going to g-go to have lunch? A-and how are we going to pay?"
"Hm? Didn't I mention? Mr. Yagi gave me one of his cards, saying something about lunch being on him. . . And as for a spot, well, there's this nice little café over near my house that I think you'd enjoy!"
"Ah! Okay, that sounds great!"
A visit to a café before having to confront the reality of his familial situation, or lack thereof, along with the emotional hurricane that accompanied it, sounded lovely!
Was it a realistic hope that a café would serve Katsudon? Probably, right?
With your apparent luck, I guarantee that they will not.
/./././././././
Huh. . . I stand corrected
He sat at a small two-person table placed against one of the walls, though calling it a wall could be considered generous given how the majority of it was glass overlooking the street. Itsuka stood next in line at the front counter, waiting patiently for a pale woman with albino snakes for hair to finish discussing something with the customer ahead of her. Their arrival had been swift, with her pointing out the small apartment building she and her father resided in before the two continued on inside. It had taken him a moment to read the full menu, his eyes zeroing in on Katsudon the moment he found the meals section. That along with a small green tea were the bulk of his order, with the goddess having managed to convince him of a small slice of chocolate fudge cake on the side.
Itsuka had insisted on ordering for the two of them, thus it was up to him to find them a table.
When dining in at an establishment, regardless of its social status, a seat with a view is always far more pleasant than an interior viewing.
At least that was the goddess's advice when he initially tried to choose one of the booths clustered together near the middle of the café. It was with her advice /read, criticism/ in mind that the young Midoriya had then chosen their current seats.
Do not worry my Dear Vessel! In my many lifetimes amongst you mortals, I have perfected the art of this so called 'dating game'! With my guidance, you can rest assured that Itsuka will be head over heels for you!
'This isn't a date! And even if it was, I wouldn't need your advice!. . . Even though I've never been on one before, and admittedly I have a slight issue with talking to girls
Slight?
He could picture the way her eyebrow skeptically rose in his mind, he also visibly saw it too as she was just suddenly there, behind what was to be Itsuka's chair.
. . . If anyone was watching, he would deny the slight jump at the sight of her- if they would even believe him that was.
He sadly couldn't deny the faint squeak that escaped him as Itsuka set their plates on the table as she sat. And while her eyebrow faintly rose, she thankfully made no comment on it. A brief word of thanks, and the two hungry teens began eating. Though it was to the young viridianette's surprise at just how hungry he was as he devoured the bowl of Katsudon before him, with the slice of chocolate cake following soon after.
Did I mention that healing requires large amounts of energy? I did, right?
A quick glance across the table made him aware of Itsuka staring, chopsticks hovering just below her mouth with a small piece of beef trapped between. Her meal was hardly touched, barely anything visibly missing save for a hole in the middle of the plate where her current bite of beef would fit. He could feel his cheeks heat up from her stare, as his eyes were quick to look away, out past the window unto the street beyond.
"S-sorry, my. . . Quirk requires a-a lot of energy in order to heal me"
"Hey, don't worry about it, with how fast you healed it's not really a surprise. It was just. . A bit shocking to see how fast you ate all that"
An awkward silence hung in the air between them, at least, he felt it was awkward at any rate.
"Are. . . You still hungry? Would you like some of mine?"
He dared to glance back at her, to the bowl slightly pushed forward- more so to the center of the table than in front of her. Without another word she took the first bite of the meal, before her chopsticks went down and plucked another piece of beef from the plate. Her arm stretched out across the table, the chopsticks holding onto the chunk of beef just inches away from his nose, all but inviting him to take a bite. He hesitated, looking to her for confirmation.
Her bright smile, and a gentle shove from the goddess, had him pushing forwards to take the bite.
Slower than his own meal did the two take down Itsuka's beef bites, with the small bed of white sticky rice below next on their hit list. They hardly talked, instead opting for the now comfortable silence that came with the enjoyment of her meal. But like most good things, it came to a rather abrupt end as Itsuka took that final bite.
"T-thank you, Kendo. . "
He spoke without thinking, breaking the comfortable silence before it could descend back to awkwardness. It caught her off guard if the brief tensing of her shoulders and the blinking of her eyes were of any indication. It was only after swallowing her last bite of food did she address his thanks.
"If anyone, you should be thanking Mr. Yagi, he's the one paying for this after all"
"N-no, I mean. . . For everything, for coming to visit with Al- M-Mr. Yagi, bringing me clothing, t-taking me out for lunch. . ."
He chuckled nervously at his near slip up, though thankfully she didn't seem to catch it. Seemingly lost in thought as she stared out the window just to her left side. A frown decorating her lips.
His treacherous mind thought she still looked cute with one.
"Well, why wouldn't I? We're friends, aren't we?. . .Hey Midoriya, if it's alright to ask. . . How come me and Mr. Yagi were the only ones to visit you?. . Don't you have other relatives? Like your dad? What about friends?" a short pause was quickly followed by her teal eyes widening. "N-not that I'm saying you don't have any friends! But just. . ."
"Why hasn't anyone else come to visit?"
"Yes! That!"
"W-well. . . You guys were the only ones to visit because. . . I don't really have anyone else"
He took a moment to pause, to take a deep breath and steel his nerves in an attempt to not tear up at the plethora of memories that flashed through his mind. An attempt he knew would likely be in vain.
". . . After my dad separated from mom to work in the states-" After his father had come home the day after he had been diagnosed quirkless. " -my mom started to drift away from her friends, spending a lot less time with them to instead take care of me. Her last friend- Aunt Mitsuki, stuck around the longest, but we haven't heard from her in the last two or three years. . . As for why I don't have friends I. . . I was qui- q-quite a late bloomer! S-so for the longest time, they thought I was. . ."
"Quirkless. . ."
A slight nod of his head had Itsuka inhale sharply, the treatment of those considered burdens on society apparently known by his companion. How much she knew of their treatment he didn't know, but he could imagine she knew a lot less than he.
He didn't mean for the silence to linger, to let her thoughts fester and grow, but by the time he composed himself enough to continue, already a deep frown marred her rather beautiful face.
". . . By the time my quirk manifested-" some two months prior. "- I had already been ostracized by the rest of the school. It didn't matter to them that I had a quirk or not anymore, they just see me as what they've always known me as. To them I'm just a. . . useless Deku."
He didn't know at which point did the tears begin to freely flow, nor did he know at which Itsuka began to move from her seat. He felt her arms wrap around him from behind, he felt the wetness of the napkin as she dabbed it against his face. He could see her lips move, yet he couldn't hear her /presumably/ soothing words, his own sniffles mixed with a dull ringing in his ears were all that was audible.
He felt her arms tighten around him as he failed to respond, it was... comforting.
"You're not alone anymore Izuku, I'll be here for you"
"T-thank you. . .Itsuka"
/././././././
Katsuki Bakugo knew something was wrong the moment he stepped foot inside his classroom. A quick glance at the clock had his eyes narrowing, the digital wall ornament showing that it was two minutes before the final bell. With his eyes shutting tight he furiously rubbed at them with his uniform sleeves, only opening them once he was sure his vision would be crystal clear, yet still the wrongness of the classroom did not change. With a scowl worming its way onto his face he stormed into the room, ignoring the extras as they stopped in their meaningless conversations to wish him a good morning.
His mornings were always good, with or without their meaningless words.
The bell rang just as he collapsed into his desks chair, his backpack slung over his chair's backrest for easier access to what he needed. A quick glance to the chair to his side, just at the edges of his vision, had his scowl worsening. Miniature explosions akin to pop rocks went off in his enclosed fists, while the teacher in front of them began morning announcements. Conveniently skipping out on roll call the one day that Deku was missing.
The quirkless nerd never missed a class, not even the useless ones.
"Hey, Fingers."
The extra seated in front of him, aptly nicknamed 'fingers' due to his extendable fingers, and that he found less annoying than most of the other extras- turned around with a raised eyebrow. He gestured towards Deku's empty desk, his eyebrow risen as Fingers uselessly shrugged his shoulders. Equally in the knowledge as he about the resident punching bags disappearance. It was mildly infuriating, if only because he couldn't 'test' his quirk /and work off his morning frustrations with the old hag/ on Deku or one of his stalker notebooks like he planned. With a faint growl he instead tore open his textbook, his eyes glued on the words as he tried to drown out the useless lecture from the teacher.
Deku didn't show up to any of their classes the entire day, nor did he show up the following day for that matter. By the third day word had quickly spread that Izuku Deku Midoriya was absent for an unknown reason. Suffice to say, the majority of rumors had Deku running away for some reason or another, likely to a circus or the wilderness, his quirkless status being their reasoning. It was infuriating to Katsuki, if only because he knew the hero wannabe wouldn't skip school without a valid reason. Maybe he would ask the old hag?
It was only after the week-long mark of absence did a worm of worry manage to break through Katsuki's mental defenses. It was two nights ago when his rage had finally boiled over and he angrily shouted at the old hag on if she knew where deku was hiding. Her initial shouting retort was instead replaced with a demand for what he meant, a short explanation followed swiftly by his mother's frantic calls to the midoriya household left them with no answers. The old hag left in the middle of cooking dinner, leaving on the stove a still boiling pot of curry in her wake, he was swift to take over as the old hag went searching for answers. Where had Aunt Inko and Deku gone? Did they move without telling anyone? Did he finally realize his unobtainable dream was just that? Did he take his advice from all those months ago?
Her arrival home was announced with uncontrollable sobbing and the soft, soothing words of his father as they entered the house. A villain attack had occurred at the apartment complex the Midoriya's lived in some several days prior, with cleanup crews still repairing the damages leftover to the building. There were few casualties, with three bodies apparently having been discovered burnt to a crisp in the apartment that had once belonged to Auntie Inko. His mom was unable to further explain as she broke down further in the arms of his father, who with a promise of talking more about it later, disappeared upstairs with her in tow.
Katsuki Bakugo was to become the next number one hero, surpassing that of even All Mights legacy. He didn't care that a quirkless nerd had died, regardless of what his mother or the faint ache in his chest would say. He cared about Aunt Inko, he cared that she died at the hands of a villain.
He would hunt down the idiot who dug their own grave and he would make them suffer a thousand-fold for killing one of the kindest people on earth.
It was the least the next number one could do.
Personally I thought this was the best place to leave off, while I could have gone into better detail about Bakugo's reaction, he's not exactly the main focus of the story, I also could have done more reaction Povs and more misunderstandings such as this, but everyone who's important for now has pretty much been in or has been talked about in this chapter thus far for those purposes.
anyways! Next chapter we have a time skip, a bit more training, and more things to come! stay tuned for next time!