"Alright, all set up," said Izuku, wiping away a small amount of sweat from his brow as he stood up. With a small smile of pride he took a few steps back in the mostly empty room he was currently in so that he was now standing next to Ryoko. The space teen had been waiting for the last half hour with a hand under her chin and a neutral expression on her face, watching her new young partner as he worked.. Slowly, carefully, Izuku looked over to her with hope in his eyes. "So, do you like it?"
"Hmm, no," said Ryoko, her answer almost making Izuku cry if not for her sudden teleportation. When she had reappeared, she was now laying in the hammock Izuku had just finished with her arms outstretched as if she were in the middle of a cheer. "I love it!"
Izuku let out a weak chuckle as he watched Ryoko place her hands behind her head, closing her eyes, growing more comfortable in her new room. Located at the end of the hallway, next to his mother's bedroom this room had, for the longest time, been nothing more than a place used for extra storage as well as a guest room. But now it had finally found a permanent resident in Ryoko as part of the deal Izuku's mother had made.
It had been interesting to watch as Ryoko seemed surprised when they had begun cleaning it out, taken aback that she wasn't just being given the couch by the smaller plump woman. Even more so when she was asked to bare with a traditional futon bed until she could go out and get one similar to the ones she and Izuku used. Blushing and waving her arms in front of her, Ryoko flat out refused, saying that she would get something herself. What she had gotten, from somewhere, was the hammock that Izuku had just finished installing.
"Are…Are you sure you don't want anything else?" asked Izuku.
"Nah, this is good." The answer made Izuku wince a little as he looked around what he could barely refer to as a bedroom at the moment. There was a desk by the window which had been his father's when he still lived here, but other than that and the hammock, there was nothing. There were no dressers for her clothing, which had just been dropped in a small pile in the corner of the room. No vanity mirror, pictures on the wall, or any personal possessions that Ryoko had brought with her. Like the place had no identity that said, like All Might, "I am here!" The lone exception was a small wicker basket with a pillow in it by the desk, a pet bed for Ryo-Ohki. The small alien rabbit/cat or cabbit, had leapt for joy when seeing this before running circles on the pillow as she happily meowed before finally falling asleep with a carrot held in its paws.
"Well if you're sure," said Izuku slowly. He watched for a moment before shaking his head. If she was happy with this, then he wasn't going to force her.
"Oh, Izuku, how's your mom holding up?" asked Ryoko suddenly, opening a single eye to look at him. "She looked a little out of it when I saw her last."
"She's fine," said Izuku as he sat down cross legged with his back against the wall. "Just nervous about going to the quirk registration office to, well, help me register your powers as my quirk. To be honest, I was nervous too."
Ryoko let out an irritated noise before closing her eyes. "Must be a big deal around here. I saw her packing her purse with a lot of money." Izuku blinked at that, having never noticed or seen his mother doing anything like that.
"…I guess she must have thought that she might have to bribe someone in the office," he said as he looked at the floor, head held low. "It makes sense. As far as I know, my mom's only been there twice. Once to register her quirk and the other when I found out I was quirkless. So we really didn't know how they would react to me suddenly changing my status."
"Is that so," said Ryoko, her voice now lighter. Happy even. Looking up, Izuku saw that Ryoko had rolled over to her side, head resting in the palm of her hand as she looked at the teen with a mix of playfulness and danger. "Well then, I have the perfect offer for you: I can break into this building no problem and change it for you. Why, I'd even be willing to find whoever tried to blackmail your mom and send him straight to-"
"No, no, no!" yelled Izuku quickly, waving his hands in front of him as he interrupted Ryoko. Sweat was pouring down his face. "It's fine, really! Nobody was blackmailed!" He then took a breath, relaxing a great deal as he looked at the alien woman. "It turns out stuff like this is pretty common. I didn't even need to use any of the fifteen cover stories I had prepared since my mom told me we were going. All I needed to do was fill out a form and explain what my quirk did. Didn't even give us a fine or anything. Well, this time at least. They said that the first change is free, but after this there will be a fee that increases every time I have to come back."
"Damn," said Ryoko with a pout, rolling over so that now she was looking up at the ceiling with her hands behind her head. "I was hoping to have a little fun. Oh well." She then glanced back at Izuku. "So, what did you register your 'quirk' as?"
"I thought a lot about it," said Izuku, his eyes brightening as he got on his favorite topic. Perhaps even more so now since it now included him. "There was a lot to go over. With all the various powers you have, I had to consider one that could explain all of them. But after going over all of my hero notebooks, checking the hero news over the years, and even looking up some older hero's, I decided that energy manipulation would be the most believable option."
"Oh?" came Ryoko's response, urging him to explain.
"The way I explained it is this: I manipulate my own body's energy in different ways. Like taking that energy to generate the blast that comes from my finger or gathering it into my hand in order to create a more powerful explosive force. It would also explain how I would be able to teleport or phase through objects. Simply turning my entire being into energy that vibrates at a different frequency than the matter around me would allow me to phase while dispersing that energy and recombining it at another location would explain the teleportation. As for flight, well, I guess that can be explained by either me creating a personalized energy field that allows me to defy gravity or something between teleportation and phasing. Oh! And if they had asked, I could have used this as the perfect excuse as to why my quirk took so long to emerge! That most of my body's energy was needed to help me grow and so it concentrated on that!"
"Not bad, not bad," said Ryoko, a small smile appearing on her face as she spoke in a slightly sing-song voice. "That might actually work out well for you. But, that explanation on how you got your quirk might come back to bite you in the long run."
Izuku blinked at that. "But…"
"Look, I don't get this whole 'quirk' thing but I heard you went to the doctor to see if you got a quirk," said Ryoko, her smile now gone and glancing over at Izuku with a single eye. "Your cover story might fool most people, but not all. There might be that one person who will ask why the doc didn't notice this." Izuku felt his heart stop when he heard this. He hadn't thought of that. "Then, you'll have to come up with another lie to explain that. Then another and another until the whole house of cards comes tumbling down upon you. Take it from me, these things always come back to bite you one way or another. Best to go with the truth. Or, at least, a modified version of it."
"That could work," muttered Izuku as he brought a hand to his chin, his gaze returning to the floor as he began to push out his thoughts. "Mom did say that she looked into gene therapy to see if I could get a quirk. Perhaps there are a few out there, just not getting the funding or attention that they used to get seeing as now eighty percent of the public has quirks. If anyone asked, I could say that I was part of a gene therapy and that I was the only one to get a quirk." Then Izuku frowned. "But, won't people still ask questions? Like who was behind this project? This feels like it would be some sort of major news."
"That's when you follow up with: I don't know," said Ryoko with a slight laugh. "Just say it was already poorly funded and you just so happen to stumble upon it figuring 'might as well give it a try'. Which, for the record, you did. Then just say that before your 'quirk' manifested, the project was closed. Again, true. You have no way of contacting the doctor though you wish to give her your undying thanks by going with her into space and living the life of a pirate!"
"…I don't think I'll say that last part," stated Izuku, a deadpan expression on his face. He then let out a tired sigh. "Both cover stories have their flaws. But it makes more sense than saying I'm just a late bloomer who got multiple quirks or something like that."
"Hey, you do what you feel like," said Ryoko with a wave of her hand. "I'm just offering my opinion as a known pirate."
Not long after this, Inko called the two of them for lunch. Ryoko grinned with giddiness at this, teleporting away without another word while Izuku got to his feet to walk out of the room with an excited Ryo-Ohki as his heels.
As he entered the kitchen, his eyes went to the calendar that would be dictating his life for at least the next ten months. On it, both his mother and Ryoko had placed in what they had agreed upon on the days prior. Izuku could clearly make out his mother's neat, legible handwriting in blue detailing the times when she wanted him to focus on his studies as well as what types of meals she had planned for the day. It honestly made him smile more than he thought it would, looking at the days labeled 'high carb day' or 'high protein day'. On the other hand, Ryoko's handwriting in red was done in a sloppy fashion, with multiple parts crossed off as she forgot to write down 'quirk training'. Something they needed in case guests came over.
Turning his head to the table, the green haired teen spotted Ryoko standing in front of the seat next to his own. In her hand was a tea cup with her name printed along the side which she stared at, as if trying to figure out what it was. Or was she trying to…
"Is something wrong with the cup?" asked Inko as she began to set the table, looking slightly worried at the alien girl. At her words, Ryoko jumped as if she had suddenly become spooked by something nearly tossing the cup against the ceiling in the process. Thankfully it didn't connect and Ryoko caught it with ease as it fell back down.
"No, it's…," she began, slowly looking confused for a moment as she looked at Mrs. Midoriya. "This is…for me?" Her tone nearly made Izuku trip. It sounded almost hopeful.
"Of course," said Inko, who blinked in confusion. "You're a member of this household now." With that, Inko went back to setting the table as if the matter was settled. As for Ryoko, she stared at the cup for a moment longer before sitting back down in an almost passive silence.
Something that didn't last long as food was soon placed before her.
"Oh yeah!" Ryoko cried, her chopsticks in the air after taking her first bite of the meal. Her eyes were closed, her face looking like she was savoring the taste of the food for as long as possible…before wolfing down everything in front of her like it was the first time she had something to eat in weeks. "I tell you, for a planet all the way out in the boonies, the food here is top rate!"
Inko smiled at the praise from across the table, eating her own meal with far more restraint than Ryoko or her son.
"Oh, you're just saying that," said the older woman with a light blush.
"No, no. I'm serious," said Ryoko, pausing to take a long gulp of her tea. "Now that I know about this, I can't tell anyone or else the entire galaxy will be parking up in orbit just to get some!"
"Well, my mom is a great cook," said Izuku after swallowing a mouthful of his own meal with a loud gulp. The comment made the older woman blush a bit more, but stopped when she noticed that Izuku was now looking curiously at Ryoko. "I've been meaning to ask: Is it really ok for you to be eating earth food like this? I mean…"
Ryoko waved him off, picking up more food with her chopsticks. "Hey, hey, don't worry about it," she said with a laugh. "We have rice and stuff like this all over the galaxy. Nothing I haven't had before." A curious look then appeared on Ryoko's face, a hand going to her chin as she used her chopsticks to bring up some of her meal closer to her face. "It's a bit strange though. I've had similar dishes on other planets before and none of them ever tasted this good." Ryoko then shrugged before tossing the food into her mouth. "Oh well! Let's get our fill and then we can start today's training!"
Izuku nodded as he went back to his meal, knowing that he would need all the energy he could get.
-x-
While Inko was more focused on the mental awareness of her son as well as his nutrition, Ryoko set her sights on the physical aspects that Izuku would need. This included training his body to make it as physically fit as possible, teaching him how to fight, and (the thing that excited Izuku the most) teaching him how to use his new powers whenever they showed up. In order to do all this, Ryoko had taken time out of the day in order to find the best spots for each type of training that they would need. Most of the time, they stayed in the woods where the terrain was versatile enough to get the results Ryoko wanted. But, for more specific types of training, she felt a change of scenery was needed.
Such as the case right now.
"What you have right now is the equivalent to a baby's first crawl," said Ryoko, her voice just loud enough to be heard over the crashing waves of the beach they were on as she set empty cans and bottles on top of a refrigerator that was on its side.
Her words caused Izuku to deflate almost instantly, his head lowering a bit as he looked around the area for today's training. It was a section of the beach that had, more than likely, been just another part of the seemingly endless blanket of sand and water that stretched on for as far as the eyes could see. But, thanks to the currents, this part of the beach had become the eyesore of it all. Trash kept washing up onto the shore seemingly from all over the world as he could spot the faded images of flags of other countries on some of the smaller items as well as words written in different languages. Izuku had also heard that some people took advantage of this, dumping their own trash here in the dead of night. Since nobody came here, it seemed like the ideal place to do target practice.
"But," began Izuku, only to stop himself as he looked down at his index finger. He stared at it for a bit as a bolt or two danced around the digit, but nothing more before finally looking up. Ryoko had finished setting up the target, moving back towards him with pure confidence.
"Yes, the beam can hurt, but not that much" continued Ryoko, holding up her own index finger and waving it. Now that she was closer, Izuku could now hear the tone of her voice all the clearer. It was firm, but in a way that told him that Ryoko wasn't telling him all this to put him down. Rather, she was bringing him back to reality so that he could improve. All with a slim smile.
"Most of the time, my people use it to scare off small rodents and destroy small objects," she continued, red sparks now appearing around her own finger. She then turned to face the targets, pointing at the first and firing a red beam of light. In less than a second, a bottle exploded sending shards flying upwards in every direction. "At best, that'll be all you can hope for."
"Oh," said a slightly dejected Izuku, shoulders slumping. He had hoped that he could make it more powerful, something that would be better suited for hero work. Since he had first awoken with this ability, he had been writing in a separate note book with theories on what he might be able to use it for. Now, he feared that most of it, if not all, were useless.
"Hey, don't look so down," said Ryoko, regaining Izuku's attention. "Sure, it might not pack a wallop, but it does have its uses. Like causing a distraction or just annoying your opponent. And with enough skill…" Her words trailed off, her wrist flipping so her palm was up and finger extended. The next thing Izuku knew was that a red beam had been fired at his leg. Feeling like he had received a powerful kick there, the green haired teen reached down to grab it only for his head to be met with Ryoko's fist half way down. The blow was strong enough so that Izuku was flipped backwards, landing on his back.
"…Why?" he asked, staring up and the blue sky above before Ryoko's smirking face filled his vision.
"I'm more of a hands on type of gal," she said, her face taking on a bit of a Cheshire grin. "Helps drive home the point I'm trying to make. Now come on, we need to start practicing!"
With a small groan, Izuku managed to roll over before getting on all fours. As he stood, a smile appeared on his face as excitement flowed through his veins at getting a literal first-hand look at how he could use this new power he had received. Sure, there was a part of him that felt indigent towards Ryoko for showing him that move in the most villainous of ways. Yet that part of him was quickly overshadowed by his drive to become a hero which rationalized her actions. When he became a hero, villains would take cheap shots like that at him all the time! So he had to get used to it now so he would be better prepared for it in the future. Plus, now that he knew what it felt like first hand, he could begin coming up with his own uses for it.
Also Ryoko was a space pirate so…
For the next ten minutes or so, Izuku went to work on target practice while Ryoko watched from behind leaning against an old, rusty car with her hands behind her head. During that time, Izuku's heart sank lower with each green beam that flew from his finger. Part of this was because, now that he had seen Ryoko using her own finger beam, he couldn't help but compare the two. It felt like she could fire them instantly without much effort, while he had to wait. While that was both annoying and frustrating, it was nothing compared to the other problem that no one on earth could fail to notice as the green streaks of energy flew through the air. He was missing his targets. Badly.
"What am I doing wrong?" Izuku mumbled to himself after a while, looking down at his finger with a frown. "Is it because my arm is shaking a little because I'm nervous? That is a possibility. But it could also be caused by a slight arm strain from holding my arm straight for so long while I wait for the blast to charge. Or is there some sort of recoil that I'm not seeing. Something so small that I'm not even realizing it?"
"You're right about the arm," interrupted Ryoko, silencing Izuku as his face turned red with embarrassment and his shoulders to scrunch up. "But I'd say your arm is swaying slightly, not shaking." He was about to turn around to say something, but was stopped when he felt Ryoko pressing her chest onto his back. The green-haired teen's heart nearly exploded out from his chest at this, his entire body turning scarlet. Sweat then began to roll down his face as he felt her hand touch his wrist and her breath close to his ear.
"We're going to try something a little different," she whispered, thankfully not in her playful voice. If she had, Izuku felt certain that his vision would have begun to spin. Instead, she used a more calming voice that snapped him mostly back into attention. "Keep your arm down while you charge up your finger. Then, when you are ready, point at your target and release." Izuku nodded, already feeling the lightning bolts dancing around his finger. He took several deep breaths as he felt the pressure in his finger grow. Once he felt like he was ready, Izuku lifted his hand with Ryoko still holding onto his wrist. He fired, closing his eyes as he did so and waited for the sound of a can or bottle breaking. But no noise came causing him to slump.
"Better," came Ryoko's voice, causing Izuku to quickly open his eyes. He looked ahead at his target, an old can that looked like it was slightly singed on its side. He had only grazed it.
"Not really," muttered Izuku as he turned to look at Ryoko just in time to see her cock an eyebrow. Quickly, Izuku began to wave his hands in front of him as he tried to explain himself. "I mean, it's just that…well you see…"
"Izuku," said Ryoko as she stepped in front of him, now standing between the green-haired teen and the targets. "You're still coming into your powers and learning how to use them. Remember, you just learned how to crawl so you're bound to fall on your stomach more than once. Just keep working on it and, eventually, you'll be able to do," with a sweeping gesture of her hand, Ryoko sent several beams at the targets which destroyed all of them, "that."
"That's amazing!" shouted a wide eyed Izuku as he took a step forward. "How were you able to fire so quickly? I…I have to wait several seconds before I can charge the beam, but you…you were able to do it instantly!"
Ryoko folded her arms across her chest, looking pleased with herself as she closed her eyes and nodded her head. "Yep, I'm pretty amazing," she said before opening a single eye to look at the younger teen. "Just another thing you have to keep working at. You'll get there."
"Right! Let me get some more cans!" With a mad dash, Izuku raced out into the dump to collect as many of the discarded cans and bottles as he could carry. Within a few minutes, he returned with at least a dozen or so of them cradled in his arms.
For the next half hour, Izuku continued to practice his finger beam with limited success. For the first dozen or so tries he went with Ryoko's method. Doing it like this, helped relax his arm a bit between each attack. It was nice, but didn't improve his aim as much as he had hoped. So Izuku decided to switch it up on his own. The green-haired teen spread his legs apart before holding his hand steady by grabbing it at the wrist as his finger charged. While doing this, Izuku found that he could steady himself better. Yet, the issue with his aim hadn't changed much. He was still either missing or simply grazing the targets. Once or twice he had hit them, but trying to duplicate the results ended in failure causing Izuku to wonder if he had just gotten lucky.
Despite the lack of progress, Izuku was, at the very least, thinking about his training. More specifically, making a comparison between what he was doing now and the method Ryoko had shown him. While he had managed to hit at least a couple of his targets like this, he was already feeling a slight strain on his arms that the previous method had not done. Not enough to cause him pain, but just enough to the point where he wanted to lower them for a bit. What's more, if he continued to train like this, wouldn't that make his moves more predictable? As soon as a villain saw him holding his wrist, wouldn't they realize he was about to fire something at them even if they didn't know what it was? Seemed pretty obvious now that he thought about it. But at least this way he could work on his aim until he felt more confident and then could switch to Ryoko's style. But how long would that take? Would he develop a bad habit, form a sort of tell that would give away what he planned to do? If that happened, the sneak attack aspect of what Ryoko had shown him would fly out the window!
"That's enough for now," came Ryoko's voice, cutting through Izuku's thoughts like a knife. Izuku blinked as he turned to face her, seeing the alien teen walking over to him with her hands behind her back. "We only have a few hours to jog back to the forest, get some fight training in, and be home in time for dinner. Your mom's making a hot pot!" Ryoko licked her lips at that. "So come on, let's get moving!"
As Ryoko turned towards the path that would lead them out of the piles of junk, Izuku raised a hand. "Ah," he began, causing the slightly older teen to pause. "Actually, I-I was thinking that…couldn't we focus on this for today? Or at least trying to get all of the other powers?"
"Well we could," said Ryoko as she turned to look at her potential partner in crime. "I mean, yeah, we could adjust the schedule so that we spend every single waking moment trying to develop all of the powers sleeping inside of you right now. But then, when the day of the exam comes, you'll end up just like the Rei'zenbara."
"The…Rei'zenbara?" echoed Izuku, blinking at the name. "What's that?"
"It was a ship developed by the GXP several years ago," said Ryoko in a sing-song tone. "Ah, I remember how much they hyped that thing up. For months, you couldn't tune into any news channel anywhere in the galaxy and not see another interview with one of the top brass praising its development. About how many state of the art weapons they had mounted onto it, the shielding that was second to none, or every idea that was just shoved in there because some nerd they hired thought it would be cool. Countdowns until it launched were put up everywhere, promising when it launched, its sheer might would stop space piracy forever. Well, you can see how well that worked." As she said this last part, Ryoko gave Izuku a wink.
"W-What happened?"
"Destroyed on its maiden launch," Ryoko exclaimed with a laugh. "Lost to a crew of pirates piloting an old freighter ship that was two generations older!"
Izuku felt his jaw drop and his eyes grow wide. "But…how?" was all he could say as his mind reeled with what Ryoko was telling him. It was just so hard to believe. It would be like having a modern day hero losing in a fight with a villain from back when quirks had just started to appear.
"Because," said Ryoko as she raised a finger, waving in the air as she spoke. "The pirates knew what they were doing. The crew of the Rei'zenbara were mostly recent graduates from GXP academy who were still learning their way around the ship. Even the captain was nothing more than a rookie who had never been in combat before except in a simulator! From what I heard, when the attack started they all began to panic! Sure, some of them were doing their best to keep a cool head. But the others, well, some of them were trying to remember which button fired the beam cannons and which turned on the laundry machine on the bridge. Meanwhile the pirates knew their ship wasn't the fastest, had the best weapons, or even the best shielding but worked with what they had."
Izuku found himself nodding at this. It made sense. No matter how powerful the weapon, even those equipped to a spaceship, would be meaningless if you didn't know how to use them properly. Had this GXP taken a bit more time to train the crew, making sure they all had a better understanding of the Rei'zenbara and its systems, then maybe things would have played out differently.
Ryoko paused for a moment as she began to float in the air with her hands behind her head. "Look Izuku, I didn't get to be the most dangerous space pirate in the galaxy on my powers alone. Sure they helped, but they never would have gotten me as far as I've gone unless I picked up how to fight with them as well as without them. And even less if I didn't have the strength and the stamina to keep going."
"You're right," said Izuku as he looked at Ryoko, a fire now lit in his eyes as he began to see something for the first time. Something that he had been blinded to for the last several days since gaining this new power. "If I want to go to U.A. and become a pro like All Might, then I need to cover as many of my bases as possible! Everyone else will have had ten years of training their bodies along with their quirks so I need to-" Izuku was suddenly cut off as Ryoko's shoe was pressed gently against his lips.
"Ok, I get it. You understand," said Ryoko, looking a little annoyed but still smiling. "You can give the motivational speech or whatever while you're running to the forest. Come on, times a wasting!"
Izuku nodded, taking off instantly as fast as he could while pacing himself. Though, as he did, he failed to notice the yellow eyes watching his feet as he was airborne for a few seconds longer than normal.
-x-
The one thing that both women seemed to agree on was that Izuku would need time off for himself. Time to rest both body and mind. While Izuku was thankful that they were looking after his well being, his own thoughts on the matter were very different. The entrance exam to get into U.A. was not something years into the future, but rather nothing more than a few short months! As such, he needed to make every day count!
So, on his first rest day, he had decided to exercise in his room for the first half and then head to the beach for some target practice. After all, this was supposed to be his day off meaning he could spend it however he chose.
"Hey Izuku, I just got my hands on this new ga-" began Ryoko, her voice causing the green haired teen to pause in mid push-up as he turned his head to look at the alien, eyes wide with shock. The only thing he could see of her was her torso coming out from the door from her waist, floating several feet from the ground with a video game disk in one hand. Her eyes, at first, had been wide in surprise and her mouth was hanging open slightly. Then it snapped shut, her eyes narrowing slightly.
"What are you doing?" The question was simple enough. But the tone in her voice, the lack of a smile, and the way she was looking at him all combined to send a shiver down Izuku's spine.
"J-Just thought I'd get a little extra work down," said Izuku with a loud gulp as he quickly changed position from a push-up to getting into a kneeling position. "Y-ya know, trying to make up for lost time."
"Izuku, we just had a workout day yesterday," said Ryoko in an almost monotone voice that nearly made Izuku yelp in fear. He had heard her scream, bare her teeth, and show so many signs of her rage. But somehow now, as she walked into his room with her eyes glowing yellow and her voice displaying no emotion, were far more terrifying. "Are you telling me you were half assing that?"
"What?!" yelled Izuku. "No! I'm giving it my all! Honest!"
"Oh really?" she asked, now a small bit of emotion in her voice. Anger. Frustration. He could hear it clearly as red sparks appeared on her hand. At the same time, Ryo-Ohki appeared on Ryoko's shoulder to look down upon him. It was weird seeing a cute bunny-like creature actually giving him a disapproving look. "That's funny. Because, the way I see it, if you really were giving it your all you should be too weak to even be considering this!"
"I'm sorry!" screamed Izuku, sweat pouring down his face now while rivers of tears appeared in his eyes. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Ryoko then reached out her hand, the sparks stopping as she grabbed Izuku by the shirt before pulling him up to her eye level. For a moment, she glared at him with those piercing eyes that just seemed to endlessly bare into his soul.
Then…
"Good," she said with a more cheerful tone, a smile returning to her face. "I hope we won't need to have this conversation again, right?" Izuku could only sputter out several clumsy attempts to agree while all the while nodding his head like a mad man as both Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki gave sage-like nods.
Five minutes later, Izuku found himself in the living room with a gaming console controller in his hands and Ryoko sitting next to him. For the rest of the day, Izuku stayed there playing games with Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki…losing every single time. While it was embarrassing to lose to an animal that didn't even possess opposable thumbs, the young Midoriya found it hard not to enjoy himself as he laughed at the little victory dances Ryo-Ohki made whenever she won. Or be awed by how into these games Ryoko got. It made him feel, for the first time in a long time, that he was just an average, everyday teenager living in Japan.
And it was good.