As Midoriya still laid in his bed the next morning, he couldn't help but think of yesterday night, when he met Rapture. (Well, he met Rapture the week before on Friday, this was simply when they finally talked face-to-face).
Finally being able to achieve his dream of becoming a Hero made Midoriya feel giddy inside, he couldn't help but frantically move around and giggle in his sleep because of how excited he was. His life had truly-
"WAKE UP!" Rapture screamed at him, manifesting a tendril on Midoriya's chest and smacking him across the face.
"Ow! What the heck was that for!?" Midoriya responded, getting up quickly with an angry look on his face. He glared at the symbiote in frustration, its snake-like form already manifested. "I wanted to wake you up, the alarm clock hurts me, remember?" Rapture explained to a groggy and irritated Midoriya.
"Then can you at least come up with other ways of waking me up?" Midoriya complained, as he telepathically heard Rapture led out a slight groan of annoyed acceptence.
Midoriya was about to go to his drawer to get a fresh pair of clothes, but Rapture beat him to the punch, manifesting many tendrils and quickly dressing Midoriya from the clothes he retrieved. "Thanks, so… from what I remember from last night, you don't know much about Earth or humanity do you?" Midoriya asked, hoping to educate the alien. "Correct, and I demand you to tell me more!" Rapture said, its voice more commanding than friendly.
Midoriya sheepishly nodded, he hadn't yet gotten used to Rapture being inside his body, nor had the symbiote to a host like him.
Going into his bathroom, he began to brush his teeth, while talking to Rapture at the same time. "So, you mentioned last night that the bonding process wasn't complete, why is that? He asked, toothpaste all over his mouth. "I still have some growing to do…" Rapture replied, the deformed mouth on its bulbous head making its speech just as garbled as the first time.
"Growing? What does that mean?" Midoriya askedt, hoping Rapture would reply. "It means that I have not completely matured inside your body, nor to this planet. I have bonded to many other hosts on many other planets, but my symbiote body has never been accustomed to bonding with an animal like a human on a planet like Earth." Rapture explained.
Midoriya somewhat understood the explanation, Rapture couldn't use its powers properly because it was inhabiting a body it wasn't used to yet. Finishing his daily hygiene routine, Midoriya heard the call of his mother to come downstairs and eat breakfast.
Heading downstairs, Midoriya gazed at the delicious breakfast his mother had made, he sat down and began to eat. "Ugh… you call this food? Where's the animal flesh and sugary stuff!?" Rapture complained. "What? You don't like Japanese food?" Midorya asked out loud, his mother had left the house for grocery shopping, so he was totally fine talking with Rapture. He gazed at his ramen and dumplings, taking another bite. "What the hell is a "Japanese", is that a new taste bud?" Rapture asked, even more confused.
"No, it's food from Japan. Midoriya explained.
"Is a "Japan" what they harvest the food from?" Rapture asked, intrigued.
"What? No, it's the country we're in." Midoriya explained, confused.
"What's a country?" Rapture asked.
This back-and-forth went on for some time. In total, it took Midoriya about 2 hours to explain to Rapture about the basics of Earth life, humanity, and simple concepts. "Am I just going to have to teach you about literally everything?" Midoriya asked, annoyed yet understanding at Rapture, an alien, not completely understanding Earth.
"Yes… you'll have to verbally explain information to me. Normally, I would just access your memories, but in my current state, I cannot…" Rapture said, in a disappointed tone. "Wait, what's that supposed to mean? What's wrong with your current state?" Midoriya asked the alien, intrigued by its dilemma. "Both of us are in a completely new symbiosis, my case being a host of a species I have never encountered before, my powers just don't work like they usually do right now, it may be a while until I can manifest the full scope of my own abilities while linked to a human body."
Midoriya just shrugged, as he heard his mother open the door. Rapture withdrew into his body before Inko could see it, as she walked into the kitchen and put down the groceries. Midoriya helped her put it away, before telling her he was gonna go on a walk. Of course, he damn well knew he wasn't going for a walk, but it would be awkward to explain the situation, with Rapture and what all.
"So, I was thinking, mind if I test out your powers? If I'm gonna be a Hero, I need to learn how to use these powers you've blessed me with." Midoroya asked, hoping Rapture would give a quick and simple response.
"Fine… but get me some good food afterwards, and not the crap you eat. I'm talking about some good juicy meat!" Rapture demanded, manifesting its entire snake-form in the middle of an empty yet public road.
"Woah, woah, woah! You can't just talk to me in public like this!" Midoriya cautioned, alarmed at Rapture's recklessness. No matter what he could have said to any passerby, it would be impossible to convince them of the idea that Rapture is just a Quirk.
Grumbling, Rapture withdrew into Midoriya's body, instead forming a small tendril on the Quirkless boy's neck, which had a mouth at the end.
"Here's my idea, there's this huge beach with tons of garbage, we could train my new abilities there!" Midoriya said, excitedly. "I suppose, in your human mind, that this is a good idea…" Rapture grumbled, yet not fully against the idea.
After sort of agreeing on the destination, Midoriya sprinted to the titular beach. It was completely filled with garbage, lots of different materials and objects of different shapes and sizes, the perfect place to test out Midoriya's strange new abilities.
"So this dark green mass of yours, can it be manipulated to do anything?" Midoriya asked. Ready to test out the powers gifted to him by his new alien friend.
"It indeed can, but in my current situation, my power is limited to simple manipulation of my Symbiote mass." The symbiote responded, once again irritated by its limitations while bonded to a human host. "For now, let's focus on just using tendrils and basic shapes for our training." Rupture added, forming a short tendril to point at a decrepit car on the shoreline.
Midoriya got ready, he eyed the car about a yard away from him, this was it! He held out his arm, ready to shoot out some large tendrils and pick up the car, he could finally have a power to call his own! He got ready and shot his arm out!
"GO!"
Nothing happened…
"Uh… Go tendril go!"
He flicked his arm out, again, nothing… Despite this, he kept trying over and over.
"Fly… fly at the car! Pick it up!"
"Up, up and away tendril… come on!"
"Dang it, why isn't this working?"
Midoriya's pathetic attempt to shoot out tendrils from his arm made Rapture snicker, which Midoriya heard as the tendril with the mouth was so close to his ear. "What's so funny?" Midoriya asked as he kept trying to fire tendrils at the far-away car.
"Problem is, these are still MY powers, not yours. I'm the one who controls them, remember?" Rapture responded while snickering. "What is your deal with wasting my time?" Midoriya complained.
"Don't change the subject, what I want you to understand is that this is a team effort. You tell me what to do and I do it, I supply the power and you supply the plan. Understand?" Rapture explained to the Quirkless teenager.
"Alright… I understand now…" Midoriya said as he focused on the disheveled car yet again, but this time, with a new mindset. Desiring to use the power wasn't going to work, this was about displaying to Rapture on what to do. He focused on the car, imagining in his mind, large green tendrils. However, unlike the previous failed attempts, he instead called out to Rapture in his mind to execute his plan.
"Now!" Midoriya called out.
Like clockwork, the words were picked up by the symbiote and it manifested dark green tendrils on his arm, which shot out and picked up the car surprisingly easily. Midoriya laughed out of excitement, before the tentacles suddenly threw the car all the way into the ocean. Mdioriya looked on in shock at the obvious littering as Rapture manifested its snake-form from his shoulder. "Why would you do that!?" Midoriya yelled in shock at the symbiote. The two had a mini argument, Rapture unable to understand the wrongdoing of littering, let alone throwing a decrepit car into the ocean. After the argument, some more tests were conducted, littering-free of course.
Midoriya grinned at his accomplishments, it felt amazing to actually have powers in his life. He had been Quirkless for so long that it gave him an emotional rush, almost like a drug, it was addicting. Rapture then showcased to Midorya how the Symbiote mass could be used to do other things, like create weapons or heal injuries. To kill two birds in one stone, Rapture made a baseball bat-like object out of Symbiote mass, then picking it up with a tendril, broke Midoriya's leg. As the teen fell to the sand screaming in pain, Rapture used smaller tendrils manifested by his waist to painfully pull its host's leg back into place.
After a nice and long training session, the sun started to set and Midoriya started to head home. He was grateful for Rapture teaching him all these new skills, even if he couldn't directly control them himself.
Walking underneath an overpass, Midoriya took out his phone to call his mom. When she didn't pick up, he instead left a message for her.
"Hey mom, coming home from a walk in the park, I'll be back soon. I love you."
Setting down his phone, his smile turned sour as he felt bad for lying to his mother. He wanted to tell her about the new abilities, but how could he do that while omitting Rapture? Even if he told his mother about the symbiote, there was no way she could believe her son had manifested a Quirk that was not only completely different from his parents, but also way too advanced to be conceivable as a mere Quirk.
Nevertheless, he reached the end of the overpass and-
*CLANG*
Midoriya slowly turned behind himself, only to witness a massive dark green sludge monster forming out of a sewer drain. He could hear Rapture scoff from the tendril mouth on his neck. "Tsk, Copycat" Rapture said.
The sludge villain glared at Midoriya viciously, his yellow eyes and red pupils along with a clown-esque grin gave him a menacing energy. "Sorry kid, but I might need to borrow your body for a moment." The sludge villain threatened, as its comically massive body slithered towards Midoriya at a terrifying speed.
All Midoriya could think to do was run, but the sludge monster was fast and almost captured him, but Rapture manifested a massive blunt tendril which smacked the sludge villain back.
"This body ain't big enough for the two of us!" Rapture stated defiantly from its tiny tendril mouth, even though Midoriya was the only one who could hear it,
The sludge villain was about to attack back until someone else suddenly popped out of the sewer drain.
"Never fear young one…"
The sludge villain suddenly accrued a terrified expression on his face, he didn't even bother to turn around, he already knew who was there.
"Because I am here!"
It was All Might, the #1 Hero of Japan. His muscular body, slicked back blond hair and magnificently blue eyes elicited a heroic aura to Midoriya, and a horrifying aura to the sludge villain. Rapture however? Unimpressed.
All Might charged swiftly, getting ready for a big punch as the sludge villain regained his composure and also charged.
"Detroit…" All Might began to say.
"OH NO YOU DON'T!" The sludge villain yelled angrily as he charged and manifested a giant arm to slam All Might.
"SMASH!" All Might erupted, the power of his attack sending wind pressure like a tornado, blowing the sludge villain's arm apart and its pieces scattered all around the belly of the overpass. Thinking quickly, All Might then hastily took all of the pieces and shoved them into an empty soda bottle.
"Never fear citizen, I've captured the bad guy!" All Might declared triumphantly to Midoriya, who to him, was a complete stranger. To Midoriya however, All Might was his hero, an icon. All Might didn't know how much he meant to the boy, but Midoriya had a mini panic attack. First he actually gets superpowers, then he meets his lifelog hero? This was definitely the greatest day of Midoriya's life.
(Yep, that's right. Midoriya's life has peaked, this is either a good or bad thing depending on your viewpoint.)
"OH MY GOD! IT'S ACTUALLY ALL MIGHT!? Please! Sign my- OH NO! I forgot my notebook!" Midoriya complained in horror, but All Might was a glass half-full kinda guy. He quickly took out a marker and, turning Midoriya around, drew a massive insignia of his own head onto the back of the boy's hoodie.
"Believe me son, your hoodie is not the strangest thing I've signed, you can hear that story when you're older!" All Might declared in his usual heroic tone, as he leapt off using his superstrength, scaling miles in a single bound.
"This is the #1 Hero? Come on!" Rapture complained in Midoriya's ear. Midoriya seemed almost aghast at what the symbiote had said.
"Of course he is! Even outside of Japan, many Pros can't compete with him." Midoriya responded in protest.
"Izuku, Izuku, Izuku… how terribly unsatiated your human mind is, you think that big blond represents power? I'm over 80 Billion Years old, you don't even have the privilege or worth to know what I've seen, the mortal gods of the universe. Reality has a funny sense of humor making such incredible creatures… then never lets them live up to their potential. Humans are interesting in this regard, so weak yet so advanced, I personally have trouble figuring out your species' worth among the living gods the endless galaxies offer." Rapture said, going on a sort of tangent.
"Come on Rapture, give All Might some credit," Midoriya asked sympathetically, ignoring Rapture's comments on humanity, "He's the sole reason why the crime rate in Japan is at 7%. Even in other countries, crime has gone down thanks to All Might's influence on the Hero world."
"Alright… I guess that's a compelling argument, but my point still stands. Your idea of power is human, mine is galactic!" Rapture grumbled as Midoriya went back home.
Once Midoriya got back home, he noticed something strange, his mother had crashed on the couch, she never sleeps on the couch!
"Ok… this is weird, why is mom on the couch?" Midoriya said, thinking aloud.
"It's the butterfly effect." Rapture nonchalantly stated. "I-... It's what?" Midoriya asked, very confused. "The butterfly effect, when a single event influences further events down the line, even ones not related to it. Think about it, imagine what has changed in your future now that you've met me? Imagine what unrelated things have changed? That's the thing about the butterfly effect, you never know what you're gonna get. Like a bag of choco- Oh… speaking of…"
Midoriya noticed a big bag of chocolate candies, left over from halloween last Wednesday. He groaned, speaking out loud to Rapture. "No, absolutely not. I am not eating chocolate before bed." Midoriya flatly stated.
"Oh come on!" Rapture groaned, annoyed at its host's refusal. "I said no." Midoriya said defiantly.
The two unlikely partners bickered for a bit as Midoriya brushed his teeth and got ready for bed, the argument finally settled when Midoriya promised Rapture could have as much chocolate as he wanted, as long as it was not at a meal time, when Inko wasn't around, or before bed. As Midoriya fell asleep, he could only think about 2 things. Meeting All Might, and the inevitable scolding from his dentist.
TO BE CONTINUED…