After the short flight back, Izuku and Nejire landed softly in front of the dorms, on their backs were Eri and Yuki respectively. Blackwhip uncoiled from Eri, allowing her to slide off his back. Nejire was tapping on Yuki's forearm that was clutched around her throat for purchase.
"Next time, Yuki flies with you," Nejire said, sucking in air once Yuki had hopped off her back.
The rest of the polycule, along with Fuyumi and her kids, weren't far behind. Now that he thought about it he wasn't sure why Fuyumi and her kids were coming back to the dorms with them. Izuku turned to Nejire while they watched their daughters excitedly retell how their flight over was.
"Nejire, would you like to go out to dinner or something tonight? We haven't really had a chance to go on a proper date yet."
Nejire floated up on her Quirk to give him a peck on the lips before answering, "Sorry, but I already told Fuyumi I would babysit for the night so she and Ryuko could go out for a date. They want to ease Shoto into babysitting alone."
As she said this, the rest caught up with them and overheard.
"That works out well, ribbit," Tsu said in her usual monotone. "I promised my parents that I would watch my siblings for the night, it's their anniversary."
"Sleepover!" Mei added.
With that, they proceeded inside only to halt wide-eyed when they saw the state of the common room. There were balloons in the hundreds with different messages, they read: 'Get Well!', 'Congratulations!', 'Mazel Tov!', 'Happy Retirement!', 'Happy Birthday!', etc, etc. There were also strangers in odd costumes from All Might to a mime standing around holding bouquets, there was even a mariachi band. In the center of it all was the biggest cake Izuku had ever seen. The rest of 1A was standing around looking just as confused as he was. Momo was sitting at the table eating the leftover breakfast with Kyoka. Momo still had bags under her eyes as she blearily looked around in a daze, as if trying to decipher if this was a dream, hallucination, or reality. She blinked rapidly when she saw him.
"Mydor-Izuku, do you know what is happening?"
Before he could answer, a member of the mariachi band spoke.
"You are Midoriya?"
Izuku nodded, confused.
Fuyumi covered her mouth with a hand.
"Oh no…"
What happened next happened fast. The mariachi member who had just spoken belted out an ear-ringing, boisterous yell known as a grito as the band began to play. The other strangers in costumes began to sing and rhyme poems, the mime was doing…something. Confetti cannons exploded, air horns trumpeted, and the huge cake exploded upwards in a shower of sparks. Rising to stand on top of the cake was none other than Shoto in a Las Vegas showgirl outfit, feathers and all. Then, he began to dance.
Rumi was literally on the ground laughing, Himiko was clutching Yuki to her chest while they both hissed at the sudden surprise, and everyone else was standing there mouths agape as the discordant cacophony went on. An eternity later, the sound died down and Shoto wiped sweat off his brow as he stopped shaking his hips.
"I'm sorry," Shoto deadpanned, still conveying sincerity as he made eye contact with Tsu, Toru, and Izuku.
Stunned silence went on for long seconds until Momo pulled some syrupy pancake out of her hair.
"I am certainly awake now ."
It had been over an hour and 1A was still cleaning up confetti and glitter. Himiko, Rumi, and Ochako were grumbling to each other about Shoto making it difficult to stay mad at him. Izuku could sympathize, it was very difficult to stay mad at someone performing a forehead-to-the-ground dogeza while wearing a Vegas showgirl outfit. Toru and Tsu were still trying to get him off the floor. Fuyumi was still sighing in exasperation as she helped clean. Izuku was watching over the kids as they slapped balloons at each other when Ryuko and Tsu's family arrived. Tsu had told Izuku about her family so he wasn't surprised to see that they all shared the same frog Quirk. Her ten year old brother, Samidare, tried to put on an indifferent air, his hair styled to cover one eye. For all appearances, he appeared much older than ten, but Izuku could sense the nerves of a child in a new environment. Tsu's little sister, Satsuki, was six years old and had her green hair in pigtails.
Ryuko sighed immediately.
"I told him not to overdo it."
"Is this normal, ribbit?" Said the person Izuku could only assume was Tsu's father.
"No," Tsu monotoned as she met her family by the door.
Ochako was quick to rush over and grab the kids in a hug.
"You've gotten so big!"
Taking a second look, Izuku could see that Satsuki still had a small tadpole tail. The way it wiggled, like a dog with a short tail would, was almost too cute. His imagination drummed up a vision of Tsu cradling a newborn with a longer tail and a combination of their features. He swayed, the image nearly causing him to blackout from an overdose of Serotonin.
Izuku and the rest of Tsu's partners introduced themselves next, followed by Yuki and Eri. Had Izuku not been able to read their emotions, he would have been worried about whether or not Tsu's parents approved of their relationship. As hard as Tsu and her family's facial expressions were to read, Izuku could sense positivity from them all. Tsu's mother did have a thin layer of worry over the top of her positive emotions, however.
"Grandpa Ribbit!" Yuki said excitedly when Tsu's father, Ganma, allowed the precocious child to hug him.
"Isn't this happening a little too fast?" Tsu's mother, Beru, asked nobody in particular. Izuku could sense her well meaning worry coating her in a thin layer.
Ganma hugged Eri next when Yuki practically threw her at him, then answered his wife.
"I have been dubbed Grandpa, ribbit. It is done."
"Grandma Ribbit!" Yuki and Eri double intoned as they made to hug Beru.
Izuku could feel the worry that layered over the top of Beru's positive emotions melt like thin ice.
With the matter apparently resolved, everyone carried on with introductions. Izuku was watching the youngest kids already becoming friends when Ryuko approached him and pulled him aside.
"Since you're the strongest student here, I am going to ask you the same questions I asked Nejire when she first watched my brood," Ryuko said in a low tone, edged with a deadly seriousness.
"Strongest? I don't know-" Izuku tried but was cut off when Ryuko interrupted him, her voice still low.
"Modesty's just a polite lie, so knock it off. You ARE the strongest here, don't deny it. My first question is this; are you willing to watch over and protect my whelps as if they were your own?" She asked, signaling to the children with her chin.
"Of course," the answer came easily.
"And what are you willing to do in order to keep your children safe?" She asked next, the intensity in her golden eyes growing.
"Anything," He answered easily again.
Ryuko pressed into his personal space and fixed him with an intense stare.
"If that Shigaraki villain suddenly showed up with another pet monster? What are you willing to sacrifice?"
"Everything," Izuku answered easily yet again. He'd lay down his life without a second thought and he was certain his partners felt the same.
"Even your own morality? I know you're willing to die, but would you kill to keep them safe?"
Izuku hesitated. The idea of killing someone went against everything he ever envisioned for himself as a hero. He looked at the kids again as they laughed and played. The question terrified him, but not because he didn't know the answer. On the contrary. Images flashed through his mind of Nejire lying broken in a crater formed by her own body meeting concrete, of Rumi barely pushing Himiko and Momo out of the way in time but not fast enough to avoid the collision that left her twisted into a heap, of Ochako with a deep gash on her thigh that left her pale with blood loss, of Tsu lying unmoving and cold in a fetal position. The images then morphed so that his girlfriends were replaced by Yuki and Eri, their small bodies broken, bleeding, and cold. His blood ran freezing cold and boiling hot in the span of a second. He remembered what he had done to the polar bear villain when he thought Tsu had died. Izuku remembered the way his face had broken under blows that shook the mountain, the way his flesh and fur stuck to his knuckle dusters. He remembered crushing Shigaraki's arm as he pulled him out of the portal, the fingers of his other hand poised to plunge into Shigaraki's chest. The other wielders of One For All may have influenced his emotions at the time, but they didn't take control of his body. There had to be a part of him that wanted the same thing they did. Izuku knew his answer...
He wouldn't just kill to keep them safe, he would burn this world down if that's what it took.
Izuku looked back to Ryuko, viridian energy arcing within his irises like lightning in a bottle. The intensity of his gaze made Ryuko pull her head back and examine him as if she were seeing him for the first time.
"Yes," Izuku finally answered.
She clapped him on the shoulder and grinned, dispelling the heavy mood.
"Then I trust you with my whelps! A few things to note. They like to rough house pretty hard with each other, just don't let them bite. They're allergic to persimmons-weird, I know. They're good kids, but they can smell weakness so if they aren't listening to you don't be afraid to put some bass in your voice. And another thing-"
Izuku scrambled to pull out a notebook and pencil.