Chapter 6: Adjusting to New Homes

Midnight

Kayama Nemuri stood in front of the mirror in her room and sighed, "Nemuri, you got old." She hadn't wanted to admit it, but she couldn't fight the truth. She was closer to forty now, her hair was starting to go grey, crow's feet around her eyes were apparent, there were minor wrinkles around her mouth, and worst of all there were parts of her body sagging more than she liked. Now she had a choice to make, return to Hero Work with a new theme, remain retired and let the public remember her as the sexy Eighteen Plus Only Hero, or return to work as is and hope that people didn't bring her age up.

Her image as a Sexy Hero was her greatest asset to her popularity, one that many Heroines had to use when they were young. Unfortunately, when they weren't young anymore it was a double-edged sword, and if the Heroine couldn't adapt, then her career was as good as dead. She couldn't hide her age, and she didn't trust plastic surgery, she had heard stories of bad surgery and how certain chemicals messed up people's Quirks. Botox could get rid of the wrinkles, but it might also neutralize her Quirk if it was incompatible with her body.

She looked at herself in the mirror and thought out loud, "A mask might help, maybe a different corset style…" She stopped when she heard Joey returning from his morning jog and finished getting ready, he was moving into the UA Dorms today. Nemuri then got an idea and smiled, she might as well return to U.A. in style, see if she still had it.

She quickly got dressed into her old costume, and grunted as she finished lacing up her corset. I don't remember it being this tight… Joey got into the shower and Nemuri went into the living room and looked around at the pictures in her house. For the few years he had been in her life, Nemuri had watched her first lover's son grow from a frightened, traumatized little boy into a strong, capable, intelligent and kind young man, the kind that any mother would be proud of. And now his new life was about to begin.

Marie and Nemuri did all they could to prepare Joey to be a Hero, enrolled him in Karate classes, getting him books about Heroes and law that Joey had asked for, shared their experiences with him so he would know what it was really like, helped him learn how to train his mind, body and Quirk as best as they could, and yet, Nemuri was still nervous. Joey had witnessed his birth parents murder at the hands of his father's nemesis, and had to help Nemuri take care of herself after she was paralyzed trying to stop Gigantomachia; and she couldn't help wonder how he would act when the pressure was on.

Things were better now than then, but Nemuri supposed that any parent would be nervous at a time like this.

Joey emerged from his room dressed in his new school uniform, and Nemuri went to him and helped him straighten out his tie. They then went to his room and loaded his luggage into a waiting moving car sent from U.A and headed off to the school. They took a waiting taxi to follow the moving van and were soon in front of the Dorms.

Nemuri and Joey directed the waiting robots to the room they wanted, Thirteen was there directing students on where to go, boys on the second floor and girls on the third floor of the Dorm. Along the way they passed Eri, with Aizawa helping her move. "Hey, Aizawa!" Nemuri greeted him. "Kayama," he responded, then Nemuri saw that the eye he had lost during the war against One For All was healed. "Now I know how Eri-chan was able to heal us," Nemuri said with a smiled. Aizawa smirked a little, "You could say I was her first test subject with physical injuries."

Joey then asked, "Does this mean you'll be teaching us, Aizawa-sensei?" Aizawa surprised them by shaking his head, "No, not this time. You and Eri are in the same class with your friends. Because of that I can't be your homeroom teacher, it would look like nepotism. There's a new homeroom teacher for Class 1-A, but I'm not going to tell you who. Excuse us, we still have a few more trips."

"Later, Joey, Midnight-sensei," Eri said with a wave, and the two adopted parent and child pairs went their separate ways. Joey and Nemuri went to Joey's assigned room and passed Jougo along the way, "Hey, Joey, Midnight-sensei," the purple haired boy greeted. "Hey Jougo, you done packing already?" Joey asked him. "Yep. Also, I met the guy on your other side, he's kind of like a spider guy, only about this tall," Jougo dropped his hand down to about three feet above the floor, "Real nice though. You should meet him when you're done setting up your room." Joey nodded, and he and Nemuri headed into Joey's room.

For the next hour they set the place up, setting up Joey's bookshelves, bed, his small flags of America and South Carolina on the wall opposite the door, pictures of Joey, Nemuri, and Marie on the walls, and finally the shrine to Joey's biological parents, Joseph Freeman Sr. and Mysa Freeman. The shrine was set a few feet from Joey's bed and he looked at the picture of his parents.

This was a picture from their last anniversary before they were murdered, his father and mother were dressed in bathing suits and laughing as they splashed each other in the water. Marie had taken it on her phone, and Joey had printed it out. He sighed as he took out two incense sticks and lit them with a match. He placed the incense sticks in their proper place, and Joey and Nemuri kneeled before the shrine. Nemuri silently prayed, Joseph-kun, Mysa-san, look after our son in the times he has ahead. Give him the strength to overcome all challenges, and the kindness to make many friends here.

When Joey's room was done, they left the room and Joey went to meet his neighbor and Nemuri decided it was time to leave. Before they parted, Nemuri gave Joey and hug and held his face. He had grown so big since they had first met, and she gave him a warm smile as she said, "Have fun, Joey, and I hope you make plenty of friends here." Joey smiled back and said, "Sure thing, Mom."

Nemuri made her way out of the dorm, smirking as she heard the students noticing her.

"Is the Midnight?"

"I thought she was paralyzed."

"She's sexier in person."

"She looks older than I pictured."

Nemuri was about to leave the dorm when she heard a girl scream, "MIDNIGHT!" Nemuri turned and saw a girl only an inch shorter than her with long black hair and green eyes run towards her. The girl had the kind of curves that made the older woman envious, but she smiled as the girl handed her an old poster, "Please sign this, Midnight-sama! I'm a huge fan, always have been! It's such an honor to meet you!" Nemuri nodded and pulled a marker out of her corset she always kept for these situations. "So, who should I sign this to?"

The girl said, "Sakkie, Midnight-sama, Mine Sakkie." Nemuri nodded and wrote on the poster, 'To Mine Sakkie, you'll be a great Hero in UA.' And then signed her Hero signature. She handed back the poster, and the girl sighed, "Thank you so much, Midnight-sama." Nemuri chuckled and told the girl, "It'll be Midnight-sensei, dear. I'm your Art History teacher now." Mine Sakkie bowed her head, and Nemuri noted the girl had an enchanting smell as she said, "Yes, Sensei!" before she ran back to her room to hang her now signed poster. Nemuri chuckled to herself, "I still got it."

Chargebolt

The Hero Chargebolt flew over Charleston in his electric powered hoverboard. It was a nice fall day, the sky was clear, there was a nice but not overpowering breeze, and so far he had seen no signs of any criminal activity. The city was far different from what he was used to; by a centuries old law, no building withing Charleston's limits allowed non-religious buildings to be built taller than houses of worship. As a result, no buildings were taller than three or four stories tall, and the skyline of the city was distinguishable from the numerous steeples of the Christian churches in the city. It was not for nothing that it was called 'The Holy City'. It was a far cry from the monumental skyscrapers Japan's cities.

After taking one more flyover and seeing nothing that needed his attention, Denki saw on the clock of St. Philip's Church that it was half past twelve. His phone went off and he landed on a roof before answering it.

"You ready for our lunch date?" Marie asked on the other end. "You know it babe," Denki replied, and charged up his hoverboard to fly back to Marion Square, a large park in Upper King's Street where people often picnicked. Many folks watched as Denki flew down near the park near the fountain tipped a few dollars to some street performers, but most people didn't approach him for an autograph, just watched and some took pictures with their phone.

"That's the Japanese superhero, Chargebolt?"

"He's taller than I pictured."

"Looks kind of like a rockstar wannabe."

"He's cool, I saw videos of him, he's tougher than he looks."

Denki waved to the folks around him and some kids waved back and others smiled at him as he walked over to Marie, wearing a lovely red sundress and flip flops and with some food already set up on a blanket. "Slow day?" Marie asked him as he poured a cup of green tea from a thermos. "So far, so good," he told her in Japanese. The young married couple then talked about what had been going on with their job protecting the city; he with the days and her at night with her friends. The two of them were so comfortable with each other that they flawlessly switched between English and Japanese without realizing it, leaving many onlookers and attempted eavesdroppers confused.

Their talk inevitably led to the two men that Marie and Lilith, and Denki asked, "You hear anything about those tattoos?" Marie nodded, and she had a grave look on her face, "They're connected with some kind of conspiracy, that's all we know. There have been a growing number of attacks on people with mutant-type Quirks throughout America. I'm the first Hero that they targeted, I guess because we made the news. 'Local girl returns home to continue her father's heroic legacy' and all that, people really eat up those kind of human interest stories, I guess whoever they are decided they wanted some of the limelight."

"And they aren't saying anything?" Denki asked, surprised. "Nothing," Marie told him, "They ask for a lawyer and don't say anything to police, and their electronic devices are all erased by the time the police get them. There's definitely a serious conspiracy at work, but we don't know who they are or what they're after, they just seem to hate people with mutant Quirks."

Denki looked at Marie seriously then, she was a beautiful woman, and in his and a lot of other people's opinion her wolf ears and tail in her untransformed state only added to her appeal, but they also showed off her Quirk and that she wasn't a 'standard' human. He asked her, "Should we be worried?" Marie got a serious look on her face then and said, "Maybe. But I won't worry about it until something actually happens." She shrugged before looking at a statue on the East side of Marion Square of the Civil Rights activist Jesse Jackson.

"My grandparents used to tell me stories about our family, how my ancestors were slaves who took the name 'Freeman' after they escaped to the North so that no matter what, their sons would never forget that they were a 'free man'. Before my dad, none of us were famous, but we were there; marching, protesting, fighting, and dying to be free and equal. My family wanted me and Joey to always know how precious freedom was. It's not something you can take for granted. People will always hate others for any reason; who they love, who they vote for, their skin, their church, their Quirk, anything. All we can do is keep fighting the good fight," she told him.

They were interrupted when they heard a scream and Marie said, "It was west, that way!" and pointed it out. Denki strapped into his hoverboard and took off. In ten seconds, he saw a woman screaming as she was trying to fight a large man kicking a smaller man on the ground. "HEEEEELLLLLPPPP!" the woman screamed before the large man pushed her into a wall. "STOP RIGHT THERE!" Denki yelled at the large man. He was huge, at least twenty centimeters taller than Denki himself and ten kilograms heavier. The large man looked at Denki, and Denki pointed his hands at him, ready to blast him with his electricity.

The large man reached behind his back and pulled out a gun, and Denki immediately let loose with his electricity, shocking the man before he could aim it. The large man fell to the ground and Denki landed his hoverboard and took the gun. He checked on the man that was being beaten and saw he had a mutant quirk; he had an extra pair of arms. The four-armed man was bleeding from a head wound and was groaning. Denki called for an ambulance; and one arrived in five minutes as he did his best to stop the victim's bleeding while the police arrested the attacker.

The large man had awakened enough to yell as he was put into the police car, "WE WILL RISE! OCCIDERE ANIMALIA!" Denki watched as the police car drove away, he had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.