This took two weeks but it's done! O_o

Enjoy.

「「「・」」」

"Please, have a sip," Nezu gestured to the newly served cups of tea the waiter brought them. His companion, Midoriya Inko, hesitantly took her cup and blew on it. After some initial sips, she found it in herself to lose some of her nerve and smile in his direction.

"I'm sorry again for spilling your drink earlier. And now you're treating me to one." She looked at the dried stain on Nezu's shirt. Despite her outward calmness, she repeatedly tapped her fingers against her cup to distract herself. Perhaps Nezu was a bit cruel to have insisted bringing her here where she had to hide her figure behind the small cup in her hands.

"Nonsense," Nezu waved his hand dismissively. "Or rather, should I say that humans follow a set of sense I simply do not abide by? And thankfully I'm no human."

"Is... that so," Inko said more asking, concealed bewilderment hiding behind her polite mannerism. "W-well, still, I'd like to make up for this anyway I can if you don't mind. I would feel troubled otherwise."

"Then if you don't mind, would you care to spare your time with this bored ol' me here?" Nezu glanced up at the woman as he sipped his own cup. "I am in need of a company you see, and coincidentally the universe led me to you, howewer unfortunate it is to my shirt."

"I-if you insist," Inko nodded.

Yes, perhaps Nezu was cruel to have coincidentally ran into her and by happenstance stood in her way while loosely carrying his drink, all for the sake of his curiousity. Came all the way from his office in UA just to find an answer to All Might's recent behavior. He might or might have not violated her privacy and looked into her daily routines to do so, but that was not a necessary topic to bring up in a casual conversation now, was it?

"So tell me, are you married? Because I don't believe a woman as pretty as you wouldn't have eyes on you already." Nezu wiggled his eyebrows in an exaggerated manner.

His bad attempt at a flattery helped the woman lose some of that stiffness in her shoulders somewhat.

"Yes, I'm married." Inko chuckled. "My husband recently came back from America. The house is less lonely now with him around."

"Just the two of you?" He chanced.

"Yes, just the two of us." There was a slight longing look in her eyes when she answered that.

Nezu nodded interestedly as if he hadn't already researched all about her family before, in particular the dead son she seemed to not want to bring up up.

"What about you, Nezu-san?" She shifted the topic. "Any family? Do they look just like you or are they different animals?"

"Sadly, my look isn't from a quirk mutation. A sapient animal, if you may." Nezu shrugged. He then grinned. "Though I've been taken by the the cartoony monsters kids nowadays are obsessed with. Digimon, they called them. Who knows, maybe I can buy some rights and put myself on an official game card, huh?"

Inko laughed. "I hope for your success then."

As they emptied their cups and talked some more, Nezu eventually accepted that he wasn't getting anything relevant out of the woman. She was nothing more than a grieving mother, and prodding for a possible connection between her dead son and All Might would be crude of him. Nezu gave up on his quest and listened to Inko in earnest to make up for it.

"I'm moving in with my husband in the coming weeks," Inko said after explaining how her dear husband was lonely living all alone in the states. He didn't comment. "Before then, I'd like to see all Japan has to offer. I already went to Shinjuku yesterday."

"Shinjuku, huh?" Nezu's thought wandered to a certain boy he was overseeing.

"Tokyo is much more lively than Shizuoka, that I can say. Bought some souvenirs, but I like their bread the most."

Shinjuku. Bread.

"Oh you went to a bakery?" Nezu looked up from his cup.

"Yes. Matsuda Bakery was it? It was a nice local bakery."

Matsuda Bakery. Takato.

"Well, I'd be sure to check it out if I visit there someday." He smiled.

"You should."

When their cups were empty and their talk died, his companion excused herself after giving him her number. While Nezu studied the torn piece of paper in his hand, another number danced about in his mind. Before he knew it, he had already dialed for it and pressed his phone to his ear.

"Yamaki, when did you say Takato's headaches episodes started?"

"Since last month, the day you visited."

Nezu frowned, recognizing the date as the same one when Midoriya Izuku had committed suicide.

"Something the matter?" Yamaki asked.

Nezu's hand shook, though he kept his voice level. "Just a question that's been itching in mind. Thank you. Update me if anything unusual pops up."

He hung up on the man and turned his attention to his empty cup. He ordered for another cup. He emptied it again.

Nezu had come for a different answer, but now he had questions for an unrelated matter entirely.

He wondered...

「「「・」」」

Li Jenrya, nickname Jen, Takato's friend from the next class. Formerly a brute, he was now making up for his violent tendency by being a pacifist. His quirk, Sensitize, allowed him to simulate any physical sensations on anyone he touched. Its potential applications were something Izuku would like to explore one day, but for now, its main use was to fool Jenrya's tongue whenever the boy had any vegetable.

Katou Juri, Takato's classmate. Sweet but overly straightforward, she liked to tease her friends with her sock puppet. Jeri, an invisible five-year-old version of herself, was the manifestation of her living quirk called Connect. Jeri allowed her to form non-physical links between any two intagible objects, including but not limited to souls and consciousness. The interesting part about her quirk was Jeri's ability to become tangible and influence tangible objects as well, but the girl so far had mostly been using it to glue papers together.

And lastly, Li Shiuchon, Jenrya's first grader little sister. A ball of unlimited energy befitting of her age, she frequently sought troubles to rouse her curiousity. Her quirk, Cover, was a simple production quirk that allowed her to create adaptive sheets of any material, including flesh and skin. Shiuchon however mostly liked to use it to make fabrics for her dolls' dresses.

A pacifist, a jokester, and a troublemaker. These were the three children Takato had enlisted to help them with their "Project Digimon" plan. Theoretically, with the combination of all the three quirks, they could make a workable body that would become Izuku's new vessel.

Shiuchon's sheets would go around their proposed skeleton design, while her brother would give the finished product sensations through his quirk. And then Juri would bind the effect of said quirk into the skin to create artificial receptors. And of course, she would also be in charge of giving it sight, hearing, and speech like before with Izuku.

All in all, it was mouth-wateringly amazing how unrelated quirks could come together to make something new. If they succeeded, that was. But Izuku was optimistic. Even if they didn't— he made sure to block this thought from Takato– it was already impressive that the kids worked so well together.

He still felt bad though. The kids splurged so much to replace his broken camera with a pair of smaller ones now embedded into Impmon's eye sockets. At Takato's insistence so his plush wouldn't look so ugly anymore. That kid...

Speaking of the devil, Izuku could feel the boy ascending the stairs with his new pet in tow. The thin walls did little to soften the loud voice from outside.

"Takato, whatever animal you're hiding, it has to go! We sell food here, remember?" the boy's mom shouted from downstairs.

"Her name's Tsubasa!" Takato shouted back, but not impolitely. If anything he sounded quite whiny.

"Well, tell Tsubasa she has to go. The bakery isn't a place for a stray."

"But she's the one who followed me home. I can't just leave her to starve."

"Give her to someone else then. But I want that stray gone by this evening, okay?"

"But–"

"No buts, Takato. This evening, she has to go. Understood?"

"...yes, mom."

Takato entered the room with a pout, the aforementioned Tsubasa perched on his shoulder. The kitten looked better off than yesterday now that she was cleaned and fed. Her fur, a mix of black and white that was hidden under all the filth, finally had been neatly combed and trimmed. That the boy even named her spoke of his plan to keep her long-term.

"So this is Tsubasa?" Juri took her from Takato after he joined them on the floor and put down the plate of snacks he brought. She looked at him. "You said she was a bird?"

Takato nodded happily much to Jenrya's displeasure. Izuku couldn't feel the boy's emotion as he did Takato's, but surely the frown meant something. Thankfully it stopped at just that and nothing more.

"Just be more mindful of your quirk next time." Jenrya sighed and returned to his homework.

"But I was." Takato pouted but didn't argue more. Shiuchon laughed at his expression.

It was heartwarming to see the kids chatted and joked around while they filled in their exercise books. The science fair wasn't the only thing keeping them busy after all. School in general was a hassle.

That said, Izuku kinda envied the freedom they had compared to when he was in middle school. Even as the supposed smart kid, studying all day long and then some took a lot out him. He almost didn't miss it at all. Almost.

"Is school fun?" Izuku asked in his monotone voice, ignoring Tsubasa who'd found a new hobby in biting on Impmon's ear.

Shiuchon's reaction was immediate, disgust on her face. "I hate it."

Her brother snickered in amusement. "Well, I don't. Learning is fun."

"That's because you're weird."

Jenrya shrugged.

Takato tapped his pencil against his lips. "School gets boring sometimes, but I like hanging out with my friends."

Juri nodded. "I like physical education class. Ooh, and sports day!"

"I like maths," Jenrya chimed in.

"I don't," his sister wrinkled her nose. "But I guess music class is fun."

Takato hummed. "I don't think I have a favorite class. It's all the same to me."

Izuku laughed and wished his artificial voice didn't sound so emotionless. Even Tsubasa jumped out of her fur into Takato's arms when his voice boomed.

Night soon came and Takato's mom yet again made her case against the boy's decision to keep the cat. Izuku only offered his laughs when Takato locked himself in his room to not get scolded.

「「「・」」」

"Now, who can tell me about the taste buds on your tongue," Asanuma-sensei pointed at the blackboard with her ruler where said organ was drawn.

Hands rose in the air as Takato's classmates' voice overlapped over each other in varying volume. Even Izuku was in a heated mood at the back of his mind.

"There are different areas for each taste sensation," A boy said.

"Sweet is at the tip of the tongue." Another one, this time a girl.

"I thought it was at the back?" Her desk neighbor blinked.

"No, that's for bitter."

'No, no, no! The map's all wrong! There's no such thing as taste bud areas. They're all evenly distributed. Takato, tell them! Takatooo!"

While Izuku engaged in a one-sided argument against the other students, Takato listened to the lecture in slight wonder.

'Do you miss eating and tasting stuff sometimes?' he interrupted the boy mid-rant and received an image of a shrug.

'Kinda, but not too much. When you're a ghost haunting a child's favorite toy, you just get used to not needing to eat.'

Takato scrunched his brow at the mention of ghosts. Izuku had been bringing up a lot for some reason. He'd gotten good at blocking his personal thoughts too, so Takato finally understood what it felt like to be on the receiving end of Izuku's contextless shower thoughts.

'Still. Are you sure you don't mind?'

Izuku never answered.

The other boy cheered when Asanuma-sensei corrected the misinformation regarding taste buds and started lecturing them on how tongues worked in other animals. One of the facts even surprised Takato a little.

"Do cats really not taste sweetness?" Takato raised his hands.

Asanuma-sensei didn't smile. She never smiled. But she did nod in acknowledgement of his curiosity.

"Cats evolved to eat meat in particular, so their tongues are more equipped to detect meaty flavours and fat. If you feed your cat sugar, it'll be like giving it sand.

"And please don't feed it chocolate to test your hypothesis. It'll die."

Takato had never dashed out faster in his life when the recess bell rang. Juri followed close behind him in confusion. Impmon hidden inside his bag rocked alongside other stuff he'd brought along. She and Izuku reprimanded him for skipping several steps at once down the stairs, but Takato didn't have it in him to care.

He was only able to take his breath and sigh in relief when he reached the storage room in the far corner of the school compound. Shiuchon was already there, her class being on the first floor and all. The girl was sucking on a piece of chocolate bar, a confused expression on her face. On her laps lay a napping Tsubasa.

"Why were you running?" She said with a muffled voice before gasping. "Oh no, did the teachers find out?"

Juri sighed. "Nothing like that." She pointed her sock puppet at Takato. "Juri thinks Takato was scared you'd feed your chocolate to Tsubasa, wan!"

"What? No way! My chocolate is mine, hmph!" Shiuchon said and promptly devoured the rest of the bar to prove her point. Takato chuckled in both embarrassment and relief.

"Sorry, it's just Tsubasa keeps begging for food everytime she's with me." He said, kneeling down to pick up the softly snoring kitten and sat beside Shiuchon. "You always have chocolate on you so I was worried she'd beg for that too. Apparently it's poison to cats."

"Really?" Shiuchon looked at said cat in wonder.

Juri nodded, taking Impmon out of Takato's bag so Izuku could join the conversation.

"You should've seen Takato's face when our teacher said that. It was like he saw a ghost." She giggled and softly pinched his cheek much to his embarrassment.

"I'm just worried, okay." He pouted. "It's already not safe at home since my parents want her gone."

"And now you know school is not safe either," Izuku chimed, tone scolding but not unkindly. "You better find someone to take her in soon. You can't keep hiding her forever."

Takato was about to point out he'd been keeping Izuku a secret for longer, but was interrupted when Jenrya arrived.

"Keep arguing and the teachers are gonna find out for real." He pushed open the ajar door with his leg, his hands already full with several wrapped lunchboxes. He smiled. "Anyway, eat up. Our mom made lots."

If any teachers were to walk in now, they'd find two ravenous children devouring through their lunch. Izuku chided Takato to eat slower and it felt so much like his own mom that he obeyed on command. Jenrya tried the same with his sister but with less success. Juri just ate in silence.

While Takato munched on a piece of baby sausage, the meaty snd slightly sweet taste reminded him of the lesson in class earlier. He spared a glance to the still napping Tsubasa before turning to Jenrya.

"Say, Jen. Your quirk works on tongue too, right?" He pointed to the cat when his friend nodded. "Then can you make her taste sweet stuff?"

"Oh. I guess." Jenrya shrugged and turned to Juri who nodded and picked up Tsubasa. Takato could feel Izuku's excitement bursting at being able to see his friends' quirks working together.

It was just a simple procedure; Jenrya touching Tsubasa to give her the sensation, followed by Juri binding it to her tongue. When Tsubasa woke up from all the excited hushes and whispers, they put a piece of sausage in front of her, watching the cat intently.

Tsubasa started by sniffing it first before chancing a lick. There was a pause, as if she was confused by something. Another lick, this time ending up in a curious bite. And then she devoured the rest whole, aggressively biting into the piece of meat.

"Wait." Takato held up a hand to stop everyone else from cheering. Instead, he extended his hand to cup the cat's neck, the invisible tendrils of his quirk seeping into her skin. At once, a burst of headache flooded his head accompanied by the cat's unfiltered thought.

'Weird! Tasty! More!'

Takato laughed, pulling his hand back to nurse his pulsing temple. "It worked."

"This is... This is too amazing I can't." Izuku let out a high-pitched humming that would have been a choking sound had he a proper mouth. "You guys don't know how revolutionary this is, I–"

Takato cut his mumbling off by pulling him into a surprise hug, chuckling.

"Izuku," he muttered softly. "When we get you your new body, you can eat as much as you want, sleep as much as you can. And you can have your own thoughts to yourself again. I'm sorry you have to control your emotions just so you wouldn't hurt me. Just hang in there, okay?"

Izuku stayed silent but there was no mistaking the gratefulness radiating at the back of Takato's mind.

"Honestly, I'm more glad you haven't replaced me with Tsubasa. I almost got jealous," the boy said later on their way back to class after they said goodbye the cat.

"Wait, what?" Takato glanced down at his bag that he was hugging, the flap opened to let Izuku talk. Takato couldn't help the blush creeping his cheek at such a bold teasing. And from Izuku of all people!

"Hey, he's mine first." Juri unhelpfully came to his rescue by stepping forward and giving him a side hug.

"H-hey!" Takato's face heated up more when Shiuchon too joined in on the teasing by latching herself to his other side.

"I want a hug too!" The short girl wrapped her arms around his waist, innocently oblivious to his plight.

Takato glanced over his shoulder to his savior. "J-Jen? Some help here?"

To his dismay, the boy too was in on making him suffer and only grinned in response.

"You're cute, Takato." The boy chuckled. Jenrya, his own best friend...

"You–" Takato turned around, stomping forward and somehow still moving freely despite the two girls latching onto him. He huffed. "None of you are invited to my birthday party."

Jenrya laughed. "Moumantai."

「「「・」」」

The ghost was still there, harmlessly watching the ten-year-old's every movement. At the very least, they had enough decency to not follow the boy whenever nature called and politely stayed outside.

While Izuku contemplated whether he should tell Takato about his invisible stalker, Tsubasa made herself at home atop Izuku's plush body and munched away on its fabric. Takato himself was fast asleep, dreaming about bread-like fish swimming in the ocean. Nothing he wouldn't expect from the son of two bakers.

Now that his worry for Takato's safety was put at bay, he could finally relax and enjoy his time in the mindscape in peace.

"When we get you your new body, you can eat as much as you want, sleep as much as you can."

The memory screen floating in front of him was almost taunting if not for the sincerity behind those words.

Izuku smiled and switched to a memory of his own. There he was, sitting at the dining table all zombie-like no thanks to studying in cram school. Yet, it was as if all his exhaustion disappeared at the sight of the steaming tonkatsu his mom brought from the kitchen.

He switched to another memory, a precious one he kept close to his heart.

Izuku had been sick one day but refused to skip school. Halfeay through the day however he couldn't even keep his eyes open without his head spinning. He was sent home and mom made it a point to scold him until his ears bleed. But after that she took him to the couch and sang him lullaby until he fell asleep, her soft hands never stopping to stroke his hair.

He could just feel her gentle carress. Souls didn't need to sleep, but for now, all Izuku wanted was to forget about everything and just let himself be consumed by the comforting darkness.

When Izuku woke up, it was to another one of Takato's memory. Of waking up too, coincidentally. The boy was drowsy, yawning and rubbing his eyes to get the sleep out.

Usually every morning, Takato had the tendency to drop down to bed again while hugging his favorite plus to death. Izuku followed the motion and did the same.

Takato sighed at the exact same time Izuku felt nostalgic of his own bed back home. He pursed his lips in wonder when Izuku thought how funny that was. He frowned when Izuku realized how strange and coincidental this all way–

"There's no way," Takato laughed and said the exact same words Izuku had in his mind. "...oh no."

Takato– No, Izuku pulled himself up and looked around the bed to locate Tsubasa. Just like he thought, the cat was there still asleep. Izuku had stayed awake ever since Takato took her in so he knew this couldn't be one of the boy's recent memory.

He had to find a mirror! Fast! But before he could fall off the edge of the lofted bed, a tiny figure sitting at the corner of the room made him freeze in shock. It was a girl Takato's age looking at him strangely.

"You... can see me?" the girl spoke up.

Izuku felt shiver climbing up his spine at her whispery and graty voice. Everything about her was wrong. Black sclera, white pupil, black teeth and fingernails, gray hair...

With the exception of her skin, it seemed like every white and black part of her body was switched up.

The girl stood up impossibly quickly, her stride not humanly possible as she stomped towards Izuku.

"You're not Takato, right? You're the ghost that's been hauting his toy. That's why you can see me." The girl pushed her face into Izuku's as if studying him. "Amazing."

"I–" Izuku's mind blanked, still in the process of reconciling with the fact he was stealing Takato's body. "O-okay, back up for a moment. You know who I am. That means you know I shouldn't be in this body. I have to give it back to him."

Despite his panic, the girl looked nonchalant and only showed the barest hint of concern.

"I wouldn't worry too much," she said eith a shrug.

"And why is that?" Izuku almost shouted, unable to contain his frustration.

"Because Takato allowed it." The girl floated backwards and folded her legs while in the air, effectively assuming a sitting position. "It's his quirk after all. He has a say in what it does, consciously or not. I can assure you it's not permanent."

Izuku squinted his eyes, trying and failing to find deceit in her calm expression. But the way she spoke about it...

"You speak like you've seen this happen before."

The girl nodded. "My brother. He borrowed my body for a day when I was alive."

"And who are you again?" Izuku pushed, trying to make sense of the chaotic situation.

"Oh, my bad. I haven't talked to people in so long I forgot my manners." She floated downward towards the bed and extended her hand, smiling. "I'm Yagami Hikari, the previous owner of Takato's quirk."

Nothing made sense in that moment. His thought blank, Izuku silently climbed off the ladder and reached for Takato'd bag. The girl, Hikari, looked at him in confusion when he climbed back up with a notebook and pencil. Izuku sat across her, hand ready to write in liue of his missing critical thinking skill, if only because the situation was too absurd.

"Alright, start from the beginning." He looked at her straight in the eye. "What are you and what do you mean by previous owner?"

「「「・」」」

Every good kid needs a pet, and in this universe Takato finally gets one. Tsubasa will have some focus throughout this arc but she won't take the spotlight. However, she iis/i an important character in this arc for Takato's eventual character growth since we don't have Guilmon... yet ;)

As for the ending, yes. I'm incorporating characters from other Digimon seasons. It's gonna be awhile before we can see the main characters from MHA though since Izuku is in Shinjuku instead of Musutafu (supposedly in Shizuoka). However, at least four 1A characters live in Tokyo; Iida, Hagakure, Sero, and Ojiro. Might make them into a cameo :v