ARE YOU READY?

(ARE YOU READY?)

I'M READY, I'M READY, I'M READY…READY AS I'LL EVER BE!

(four points if you get both references there.)

But seriously, are you READY? For BRAZEN interacting with his OLD FRIENDS?!

BECAUSE I STARTED WRITING THIS AT THREE IN THE MORNING AND KEPT UP WITH IT UNTIL I FINISHED IT IN THE AFTERNOON A FEW DAYS LATER AND HAVEN'T PROOFREAD ANYTHING!

Don't worry, I slept in there…somewhere.

Enjoy the chapter!

"Hello, Oboro, it's been a while!"

"Ah, Principal Nezu!" Brazen said as he sat on the couch in the teacher's lounge-no other teachers were there yet besides Aizawa and Small Might. Aizawa was grinning, while Small Might just gave Brazen a wary look-good, he knew that he was from the Mind Palace and that it was the general flow there that All Might wasn't liked.

"I was surprised to hear that you were still existing around here as someone's familiar," Nezu said. "But it is nice to have you back at UA!"

"It's nice to be back," Brazen said. "All of us Sides-er, Izuku's ghost familiars, plus Izuku, too-are really excited to be here."

"Sides?" Nezu asked. "Is that what you call yourselves?"

"Yeah…" Brazen said. "We all help control some part of Izuku-I'm in charge of how reckless he is!"

"Have mercy on us all," Aizawa said. "How reckless is that kid going to be in my class?"

"Hey, I'm Neutral, so it's not that bad!" Brazen said.

"Neutral?" Nezu asked.

"Classification of the Sides," Brazen said. "Light, Neutral, Dark-Light Sides are the ones that have the most control over everything, like making Izuku care, his emotions, stuff like that. Then we have The Neutral Sides-we have to keep our levels around a middle amount, like he can be reckless, but not too reckless, anxious but not too anxious. Then we have the Dark Sides, who keep on the down-low-they're like Depression, Deceit, Insecurities. But I'm not here to just talk about Izuku's quirk, right?"

"No, sorry, I was just curious-Midoriya's quirk is unheard of, which makes it all the more fascinating!" Nezu said. "But how did you come up with these classifications?"

"Thomas Sanders was ahead of his time," Brazen said.

"Who?" Aizawa asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Pre-Quirk, awesome guy," Brazen said. "He made You-er, pre-quirk HeroTube videos, and this one series was about different parts of his personality called 'Sides.' Neutral wasn't a stated thing there, but there were Light and Dark Sides, which was really cool, but we came up with how each part is supposed to act otherwise." He shrugged. "Now, I want to hear everything about the past…geez, thirteen years? Time flies when you're a ghost-and so do you, so there's that!" He laughed-

-as the teachers began to walk into the lounge for lunch break.

"Hey, Shouta-waIT A SECOND-!" Yamada screeched as he spotted Brazen on the couch.

"Zashi, you need to not-IS THAT OBORO!?" Kayama yelled.

Brazen gave the biggest grin he could. "Long time no see, guys! What's it been, thirteen years or so?"

The two stayed dead still for a few more seconds before throwing themselves at Brazen, the force of the action having so much momentum that the couch actually tipped backwards, causing Aizawa, Brazen, Kayama, and Yamada to hit the floor as Yamada and Kayama began to speak over each other, saying that they'd really missed him, and they knew that there was a kid with a ghost quirk and all that, but it was still so good to see him!

Brazen laughed as a different teacher-Snipe, right?-walked over and helped haul all four to their feet as Cementoss and Thirteen helped put the couch back up.

"Well, nice to see you guys, too," Brazen said once they were standing again. "But you could've been a little better about that-aw, who am I kidding, we've toppled a couch before, too, but still!"

Yamada and Kayama chuckled, while Aizawa hid his face in his capture weapon, but Brazen knew that he was smiling.

"Well, so you know that Shouta's always loved cats, right?" Yamada started with a grin.

"Oh, don't you dare," Aizawa said, dropping that smile really fast.

Brazen, on the other hand, grinned. "Oh, I already love this story."

"Day one of you being back and of course the first train of thought is to tease me," Aizawa grumbled.

"No, first train of thought was, 'yeah, he's not gonna expel any of these kids,'" Brazen said.

"I expelled my entire class last year," Aizawa said.

"And re enrolled all of them-I do my research," Brazen said. "Or, well, Yumio does his research, the rest of us just piggyback off him."

"Yumio?" Yamada asked.

"One of Izuku's other Siiiii-ghost familiars," Brazen said.

"Just say Sides-that's your first reaction, anyway," Aizawa sighed.

"Indeed!" Nezu said. "I think we all understand that they mean the same thing by now."

"Sides?" Yamada and Kayama asked at the same time.

"Ghost familiars of Izuku's-we call ourselves Sides," Brazen said, then paused. "Uh…he can share Lifeforce with ghosts, and in exchange, he can use our quirks, and we help regulate his emotions…well, different parts of who he is, rather. Like, I can control how reckless he is! Mom controls how much he cares, Mama controls morals and emotions, Yumio controls intelligence, Dasu controls creativity, Duke controls insecurity, Darnell controls Deceit, Emory controls patience, Kamari controls sleep, Darlina controls innocence and fear, Hirah controls wrath, Dot controls sloth, Yuki controls our activeness, Paz controls how social we are, Hex controls depression, and Hinata controls anxiety."

"Um…a few of those are a little concerning," Yamada said.

"Some of us are supposed to keep our part on the downlow so he doesn't feel that way," Brazen said. "It's complicated. But seriously, we aren't here to talk about Izuku."

"Correct!" Nezu said, and the group looked at him-well, all the teachers did, this was an interesting conversation to watch, after all. "If you wouldn't mind me asking, Shirakumo…ah, you go by a different name now, right?"

"Brazen, but feel free to call me by my living name," Brazen said. "Well, not during classes or anything 'cause I'm technically a student again-a first year, too, that's so weird."

"Yeah, no helping cheat on tests since you already know what's on there," Vlad King said.

Brazen laughed. "Bold of you to assume I remember anything-Odin and I don't remember any school work from our time here."

"Odin?" Kayama asked. "Who?"

"Ah, she's the Mom of the group," Brazen said. "Caring Side."

"Ofa, correct?" Nezu asked, and everyone looked at him again.

"Wait, was she a student here, too?" Aizawa asked.

"Technically speaking, she was a student here, but at the same time, she was not," Nezu said. "She was never officially enrolled in any classes, and yet, she was still present for every single one."

"...that doesn't make sense," Ectoplasm said.

"Mom's an interesting person-she's been to UA twice, technically, as a Poltergeist of sorts," Brazen said.

"A what?" Snipe asked.

"Prankster ghost of sorts, and are you sure that is the best way to describe her?" Nezu asked.

Hey, Mom, can I call you a Poltergeist from your time here?

It's not like I didn't play the occasional prank on Seven and Eight, so go ahead!

"Aaannnddd…confirmed by Mom herself," Brazen said. "She was partially a Poltergeist against two very specific people that went here that she didn't like."

"I'm curious," Kayama said. "Who and who?"

Brazen glanced for half a second towards Small Might, but simply said, "That's between her and them-or, well, us and them, there's not a single ghost in the Mind Palace that wouldn't gladly fight them.." Or not-single ghost, either. ;)

Did you seriously just think semicolon, right parenthesis?

I wanted to make a smiley face, Yumio!

?

Don't question it! (point if you get the reference)

"...well, then," Kayama said.

"Now, I've talked about what I've been up to, tell me about you guys!" Brazen said. "You were saying something about a cat?"

..

"You'll come talk to us again sometime, right?"

"Yeah, of course!" Brazen said. "I'm literally in your classes, so I kinda have to see you often." He chuckled. "But seriously. If you ever wanna talk, just say something, or I have an email I check once a day." He grabbed a blank piece of paper and a pencil off Yamada's desk-he and Kayama had insisted on him calling them by their first names, as had Aizawa, but Brazen had said that it would be weird since he was technically one of their students and knew he'd slip up in class. Either way, Brazen wrote down his email address and handed it to Yamada-Kayama took out her phone and instantly typed the address in.

"No phone?" Kayama asked.

"There are seventeen of us in Izuku's head, including himself-Hisashi may make plenty of money, but he doesn't make enough to get all of us a phone-so, instead, Izuku has a phone, and the rest of us just have emails," Brazen said. "But that does mean we don't check it right away since all of us need a turn with the computer, and Yumio gets the most screen time because he's doing research."

"Research into what?" Yamada asked.

"Trapping quirks at the moment-he's really doing as much as he can to find anything on trapping quirks," Brazen said.

"Any reason why?" Aizawa asked, giving him an odd look.

"Gotta get rid of Dave somehow, and while it's not urgent yet, we still need to do something about him, and there's not really much we can do with what we know at the moment," Brazen said.

"Who's Dave?" Kayama asked.

"A b*tch, to put it nicely," Brazen said.

"...that isn't putting it nicely," Aizawa said as Yamada and Kayama snickered.

"Want me to put it into how I really feel about him?" Brazen asked. "Because I can swear up and down about him for days and go into incredible detail about how much I wish he was rotting in Hell or still alive and being tortured."

"What did he do?" Yamada asked.

"Nearly got us all killed," Brazen said, and the other three went dead (lol) silent.

"...oh," Kayama said.

"Yeah," Brazen said. "He used to be one of the Sides before Izuku had to get rid of him, but not before he did some really bad damage to all of us. We did manage to secure him in one location so he can't go hurting anyone else, but it's an abandoned neighborhood that isn't a long term solution." He sighed. "We need something to restrain him so we can move him to some abandoned island where he won't be able to hurt anyone, but it's been years and we aren't really any closer to a solution."

"Interesting," Nezu said, and the four jumped-hadn't he left a while ago!? When did he get back!? "Sounds like a challenge-I would be willing to help with this if I could trade for other information."

"...why does that feel like making a deal with the devil?" Brazen asked.

Nezu just offered to help with the whole situation around Dave…I feel like I'm being asked to sell my soul, Brazen said.

Do you want someone there with you? Yumio asked.

I'll see where this is going first, but probably, Brazen said.

Nezu smiled-oh hot belgium waffles, that's creepy. Wait, we're in high school…we can swear for real!

(cue where we left off last chapter-) (two points if you get the reference-)

Couldn't've said it better myself.

Brazen!

"What kind of information?" Brazen asked carefully.

"Ah, just some information from…Odin, you said her name was?" Nezu asked.

Mom, Brazen said.

Yep, I heard that, Odin said. Want me there?

"...should I bring her here?" Brazen asked.

"Of course!" Nezu said.

"Well, then," Odin said, appearing next to Brazen, making Aizawa, Yamada, and Kayama jump.

"Long time no see!" Nezu said.

"Only a few years or so," Odin said.

"Yes, but I never got to ask you some questions I have had, and I'm afraid I haven't found the answers to my questions yet," Nezu said. "Would you mind answering them?"

"Sure," Odin said, but glanced at Aizawa, Yamada, and Kayama. Nezu seemed to understand her meaning.

"Not right now, of course, but after I have done some research into this problem with…Dave, was it?" Nezu asked.

"Gotcha," Odin said, then tilted her head to the side, and Yumio appeared, holding a notebook that he held out to Nezu.

"Do you guys do that often?!" Yamada exclaimed, barely not activating his quirk.

The three looked at him.

"Of course," they said in unison. "That's the fun of it, isn't it?"

"...I'm suddenly terrified of English class," Yamada said.

"Don't be-we're fluent," the three said in English.

Nezu laughed. "Well, won't this be an interesting year!"

"Well, this is what we have on trapping quirks so far, and what we've tested and found hasn't worked," Yumio said, tapping the notebook. "Of course, we have also tried to keep enough distance as to make sure Dave doesn't attack us, and while that may be a factor of the situation, we are not willing to take enough of a risk to put our lives on the line-even we ghosts may get incredibly hurt in the process like last time, and we are not willing to put ourselves into that situation again unless absolutely necessary."

"Understandable," Nezu said.

"Have a nice day," the three Sides deadpanned, then Odin and Brazen snickered.

"Hmm?" Nezu asked. "Do you need to leave?"

"It's a pre-quirk meme, don't worry about it," Odin said.

"But we may want to leave soon," Yumio said. "While it isn't late, it is almost time for supper, and Hisashi said he would make food for all of us because it was our first day today-"

"Oh, dang it, I'm helping cook-gotta blast!" Odin said, then disappeared.

"Hisashi?" Yamada asked.

"S instead of a z-he's Izuku's dad," Brazen explained as Yumio disappeared. "He insists on us all eating together on special occasions, and first day of high school counts as such-same with Christmas and Izuku's birthday, usually-oh my nonexistent God, this year is not going to be fun for that-but otherwise…yeah."

"Why-" Kayama started.

Hey, Brazen, hold back that recklessness, please, we do not need to forego kitchen safety IZUKU YOU SHOULD NOT TRY TO FLIP THE MEAT- Yumio said.

"Ah f*ck, I can't believe you've done this-you can't go flipping the pork…without me," Brazen mumbled, a smile on his face as he looked at his friends. (two points if you get the first reference, two more if you get what I was referencing for the second part. :) "Whelp, I gotta go see what's happening and maybe make Izuku not be so reckless-or make him more reckless and see how angry I can make Yumio." He grinned, then disappeared.

I got really bored and decided to calculate how much Hisashi would need to pay for everyone in the house to have a phone. I looked up average cost of a phone per month and got $50 cheapest (going off smartphones here, I might backtrack and do a flip phone because I find the concept of them all having phones to be great, and I want to imagine this huge group chat with the class and someone saying "let's add all Izuku's Sides since they're part of the class too!" and Izuku goes, "trust me, you don't want to do that," and the classmate goes, "do it, coward," so Izuku does and it turns into where the Sides usually go to argue over stuff and ask for outside opinions and everyone regrets it, but I find it hilarious-) so if each phone was $50 per month, that's eighteen phones per month…$900 per month for phone plans.

Hisashi, making these calculations: …you guys good with emails?

The Sides, seeing the calculations: wE'RE GOOD WITH EMAIL!

Hisashi: Good, but just in case, Izuku gets a phone that you can all share, but it mostly belongs to Izuku.

The Sides: Sounds good!

But if each Side had a flip phone instead, I got that each one costs $30 to buy…plus some more to have a plan continue, but less than a smart phone. You let me know!

(I was trying to organize light vs neutral vs dark sides, so…yeah.)

Odin, the Caring Side, was Irene/Ofa, has wings/one for all/a vocal quirk, died at 17.

Yui, the Morals and Emotions, was Himari Monoma, advanced copy, was 16.

Yumio, the Logic side, Hajime, analysis, was 25

Dasu, Creativity, Saburo, can make tangible illusions, was 23, one of three triplets

Duke, Intrusive Thoughts/Insecurities, can make weapons, was 23, one of three triplets

Darnell, Deceit, Hai, Snake, was 8 (and he's afraid of fire), and speaks in lies

Brazen, Recklessness, Oboro Shirakumo, Cloud, was 17

Emory, Patience, Peyton, can see emotions, was 21

Kamari, Sleep, Remy, food & drinks, was 21

Darlina, Innocence/Fear, Hana Shimura, Float, was 8

Hirah, Wrath, Cheran, had horns/devil-demon form, was 13-ish

Dot, Sloth, Hope, makes others sleep, makes her sleepy in turn, was 8

Yuki, Health Nut, Midori, Endless Energy, was 13-ish

Paz, Social Life, Collin, Quirkless, was 12

Hex, Depression, Kimi, Quirkless, was 12

Rand, Anxiety (1), Dave, Disconnect, oldest (30 something)

Hinata, Anxiety (2), Choko, Occupy, was 6

Also…

BATTLE TRIALS! BATTLE TRIALS! BATTLE TRIALS!

And you'll have to see what happens there. :)

Don't miss me too much!