Chapter 14

Under normal circumstances, Izuku probably would have been freaking out about holding a girl so close by the waist. However, because he was in a hero-mode thought process, all that he really cared about at the moment was getting Alyssa somewhere where she could rest her ankle. Because most of the museum was largely walking-based, it was hard to find a proper place to sit down. Thankfully, the museum cafeteria was nearby.

"Alright, I've got it from here," said Alyssa as she pulled away from him to hop over to a two person table near a set of large glass windows. He took a seat across from her as she began fiddling with the wrap on her ankle. It had come undone twice since they had moved and she had refused his assistance both times to redress it, adamant that she could do it herself. He had a feeling that had she been more capable, she would have probably hopped the whole way here if she could.

After failing to keep the bandage from sliding down for the third time, she muttered something in English and sighed before reluctantly holding out her ankle for him to bandage. "Fine. Go for it." He nodded, eager to get to work as he expertly began unwrapping the ACE bandages around her leg.

"Let me know if I do it too tight, okay? I don't want to accidentally cut off your circulation."

"Okay." She leaned her head back and ran her hand through her hair before twisting it back into a messy bun. "Sorry about all of this. Competition kinda brings it out of me, and I guess I got a little too hyper-focused and in the zone."

"It's okay. I don't mind," he said, trying to be gentle yet efficient as possible. He noticed the plain socks she was wearing had holes worn through or were nearly worn through on the toes and heels of her feet. Other parts had indents where they had been darned together with clear and black thread.

"It's just that... I can take care of myself. I'm not some weak little princess that needs to be rescued. I am a-" she straightened her spine and puffed out her chest, proudly declaring something in English that he couldn't quite catch before finishing with, "-queen! I'm a strong, independent woman."

"I believe you," Izuku said cautiously before glancing up at her, not quite understand the 'queen' comment. "For the record, I don't think of you as weak, but I also think it's okay to ask for help if you need it."

"Sure, sure," she muttered with disinterest. Since that didn't work, he went for a different tactic.

"You did really well otherwise. I thought it was really smart of you using the ball to hit the buzzer. You probably could have hit the other player and sent him to the start of the obstacle course too, if you wanted to."

"I almost did," Alyssa admitted with a rueful smile, staring down at the hero medal that hung down from her neck as she ran her thumb over the cool surface. "Once I saw him shove his way into the lead, the thought definitely crossed my mind. Any other time, if I was younger, I probably would have thrown the ball at him. Then I realized that he was just trying to win like the rest of us. After that, I don't know, it felt mean to hit him while his back was turned. Not a very heroic move." There was something deeply profound in her expression that seemed so lonely and self-deprecating, a deep sadness that he felt like he couldn't reach, almost like she was about to cry. It didn't last long, any trace of her darkness fleeting on her face once she refocused her attention on him as he finished wrapping her ankle, pulling out the medical tape he had in his back pocket. "So you want to explain to me why you're so knowledgeable about binding foot injuries."

"Occupational hazard. I get injured so many times on the job, it just pays to have the stuff on hand. Plus, I get lectured a lot less by my doctor by limiting how many times I have to see them for broken bones." Alyssa's face pinched as she began scrutinizing him behind her horn-rimmed glasses.

"...the hell do you do that you get regularly injured that much?"

"Oh? Didn't I tell you? I work as a pro-hero." Her expression morphed from morbid curiosity to incredulous, her eyebrows shooting up towards her hairline.

"Really?"

"You didn't know?"

"No! This is the first I'm hearing about it!" she exclaimed, suddenly seeing him in a new light. Where there had been concern, there was now admiration and curiosity. She really had no idea who he was, did she? Then again, he was probably overestimating his popularity. Alyssa was an American and chances were she hadn't been around long enough to know ever single Japanese hero like he did. He figured that she must have been a fan, having bought his figurine, but her having no idea who he was settled it: she had to have been buying it for someone else. That was a humbling thought. At least he could go forward knowing that she wasn't hanging around him because he was a pro-hero. "Wow... so you're a pro-hero, huh? What's that like?"

"Honestly, it's amazing. It's something I've dreamed of becoming ever since I was a kid, and it's so rewarding helping people. The paperwork is a bit much though."

"I bet," she gave him a sarcastic smile and rested her head on the palm of her hand. "So what's your hero name?"

"It's Deku."

She tilted her head to the side, reminding him of a confused puppy-dog. "Deku? Like 'deck you'?"

"'Deck?'" Izuku frowned, not understanding the colloquialism.

"In America, to 'deck' someone means to punch them, usually in the face. Your hero name sounds like a portmanteau of that."

"Huh... I guess it kind of does, but that's not why I'm called that. Actually, it's a nickname from when I used to get teased as a kid. If you read one of the characters in my name, it spells 'Deku.' It's supposed to mean useless or be short for 'defenseless Izuku.'" The switch from her face going from shocked to insulted on his behalf was so abrupt, it was almost heartbreaking.

"That's so mean. Why would you call yourself a derogatory nickname?"

"Someone once told me that they thought it could be a good hero name. And the more that I thought about it, the more I realized that it could mean something different. Once she told me that she liked it, the meaning behind it changed for me, and I no longer felt hurt by hearing it."

"'She?' What? Was she your girlfriend?" she teased him with a slight smirk.

Izuku's cheeks suddenly grew hot, his nerves getting the better of him as his heart began going a mile a minute. "WHAT!? NO! Nothing like that! She's just a close friend of mine."

"Uh huh."

"Now I feel like you're making fun of me."

"Oh no, I wouldn't dream of teasing the almighty Deku. That would simply be unheard of," Alyssa smirked before adopting a joking, dramatic tone, "Riots would break out in the street. Governments would be torn down. Dogs would marry cats. It would be the end of days." She could barely keep a straight face before chuckling at her own joke. Izuku found himself doing the same. "That's very cool of you though. It kinda takes away the power bullies had over you. I don't think I could do that..." The smile she wore slipped into something bittersweet but it didn't last long as she continued, "Anyways, tell me more about what it's like being a pro-hero. Do you leap across tall buildings in a single bound, catch bad guys, and rescue damsels in distress?"

"It's nothing that grand- at least, not all the time. It's more like running an office and being on-call for emergencies that get called in or assisting other agencies when there's trouble. There's some down time where we have to log things into the computer, but mostly we do patrols, paperwork, or train."

"That's a bit more domestic than I was expecting. Sounds kinda like working as a firefighter- minus the whole patrol thing."

"We're sometimes on-call to put out fires and deal with other natural disasters. I know that Backdraft gets a lot of work because of it, since he has a water Quirk and works for the Musutafu fire department."

"That makes sense. My dad's like that too. He works with the firefighters a lot because of his water Quirk, but there's not a lot of work outside of being first-responders for 911 calls. Not in Indiana, at least."

"You mentioned something like that before. Is he a pro-hero too?"

"Not really. He's more like a part-time firefighter that just so happens to have a license to use his Quirk in public. He's actually just a supervisor for a pharmaceutical company. He's like my hero, in a way, when I have a flat tire or need maintenance done on the house. At least, before he remarried and we moved here."

"I see. What's his Quirk like?"

"I think he called it Moisture..? It's like he can pull tons of water from the air or nearby sources of water and store it in his body."

"Can he pull all forms of moisture in the air or just water? Where does he store it? Is it in his body constantly or is there a time limit? Is there a limit to how far away he can pull the water or does he have to be touching it? How much can he store in his body at one time? Can he-?"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down, Izuku! I can barely understand what you're saying! You're talking too fast for me to translate."

"Oh, sorry about that."

"It's fine. Anyways, from what I did understand, I think he can only hold his own body weight or maybe it has to do with how much fat he carries..? I don't know. I've never really thought about it that in-depth before. I'll have to ask him some time."

"What about your mother? Is she a pro-hero with a water Quirk too?"

"Nah, my mom's a school teacher- at least, she was before she retired -and her Quirk is something along the lines of dust manipulation. It's great for her hobbies like gardening since she can spread pollen around or when she's cleaning the house, but she still makes my sister and I do all the housework so it's basically useless, unless you want to irritate people with allergies or go into a sneezing fit," she said, her voice taking on a hint of admiration, "My sister, on the other hand, is the really amazing one. She can create clay from her body and use it to make pottery for her studio."

"That's so creative... and convenient. I bet she saves a ton of money, being able to create her own materials."

"Yeah, though she gets a little frustrated at the process because apparently, it takes a lot of concentration to create the right kind of clay. She has to have the right nutrients in her body and creating a pound of the stuff seriously dries out her skin, so she ends up stealing my lotion and moisturizers a lot." While Alyssa explained, Izuku had pulled out a pocket notebook and began quickly scribbling everything down while the words were still fresh in his mind. "...You're writing this all down?"

"Of course! I don't want to forget a thing."

"Yeah, but my family and I are nothing special."

"I don't think that at all. I think any Quirk can be useful if you find the right way to apply it, like your sister and her pottery business," he said with admiration, "With such an unique combination of Quirks, you must have a really amazing Quirk then."

"Oh, well, it's not really-"

"I'm sorry! I don't mean to pry. A person's Quirk is like a part of their identity, and I don't mean to insult you by asking about something so personal. I just enjoy studying Quirks and I want to learn all I can about them, and I totally didn't mean to offend you by asking so many personal questions like your family and how your Quirks work and-"

"You really do genuinely enjoy studying Quirks, huh?" Alyssa said with a thoughtful expression, interrupting his nervous tangent. "Maybe I should borrow your hero notebooks sometime and study up on all that you've learned, maybe trade notes with you." Years of having his property stolen or destroyed caused him to instinctively pull back his notebook from her grasp, snapping it closed. She lowered her hand, giving him a small smile. "It's okay. I don't like showing my artist notebooks a lot either. It's nice that you put all of that knowledge to good use and lived out your childhood dream. Can't exactly say that I've done the same, but then again I'm not really the same person anymore."

"That's true. Not all of us can grow up to become cowgirls or mermaids," he joked.

"I should have never told you that story..." Alyssa muttered with a scowl so minuscule, it could have been a smirk. "So anyways, enough about me. What about you? What kind of Quirk do you have? Is it something cool like x-ray vision or telekinesis?"

"Oh uh, well..." Having been asked this question a lot over the years, he had a mostly solid story of how to explain One for All without giving away its true strength. However, all of that planning went straight out the window once he started manifesting the usage of multiple Quirks, so every once in a while, he had to workshop it. It didn't help that he wasn't a very good liar and that his nerves were getting the better of him. "-it's a power type? It's kind of hard to explain. It enhances my strength and physical abilities in one part of my body or everything as a whole, plus I can shoot black energy whips with it as well."

"That's kinda vague."

"Y-Yeah, well, I'm not the greatest when it comes to describing it or giving it a name since I'm not really sure what it is myself, so I'm not really sure what to call it other than Super Power."

"Got any cool moves that you could show me? I could always use a few more reference shots for my sketchbook."

"Sure," Izuku sighed internally, relieved that they had moved onto a less touchy subject, and then paused, "Wait, reference shots?"

"Yeah. When I draw something in my sketchbook, I need pictures to make it accurate and proportionate, so I used a ton of photos as references."

"Was that why you had that picture of Man of Steel's chest on your phone?"

"Uhh yeeeaaah..." she rubbed the back of her neck, looking bashfully off to the side. "When I can't find an image or body pose I need, I take pictures of cool things I see in real life and use them instead. God knows, my sister Jo-Elle has awkwardly posed for more than half a dozen photos for me."

"Well, I have a few moves that I call smashes, where I punch or kick things with a lot of force behind it. I could show you, but I'm afraid if I did with my full power, I might accidentally break something or blow it away. By itself, it's not really that impressive compared to other hero moves," Izuku explained. "I actually named them after some of the states and cities in America, like Detroit Smash and Manchester Smash."

"Paying homage to All Might, I see? Very cool and very you," she gave him a nod of approval before her eyes lit up in excitement, "Oooh, do you have an Indy Smash? You know, for Indiana?"

"Umm no. Sorry to say, I don't have something like that yet."

"Aww man, my state never gets any love," she whined and pressed her lips into a pout before pointing at him. "Okay then, that settles it. You have to name the next new move you come up with after Indiana."

"Well I-"

"Promise me."

"A-Alright, I promise," he balked, her stare and tone so forcefully determined and in his face that he found himself unable to say no. Did he really want to though? It wasn't like him to show off, but she had shown interest in his abilities and even wanted to take pictures of him using them. They sat there in a comfortable silence for a moment before Alyssa stretched and took the bag of melted ice off of her ankle.

"Well, I should probably take off."

"Already? You don't want to stick around?"

"Nah, I don't want to waste your time by having to hang around me all day when you could be going to all the fun All Might inspired events. Don't they have some big support item of his that's supposed to be revealed today?"

"Yes but-" It was true that the rare support item that All Might had for a short time was supposed to be on display for the first time, something he was very much looking forward to finally seeing, but Izuku found his desire to see it secondary to Alyssa's welfare, "-are you sure you're going to be able to get home okay?"

"I'll be fine, Izuku. I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself. Look, I can use this as a walking stick." She unzipped her case, revealing a long, plastic saber with a milky white cylindrical blade and circular metal handle. The whole saber was almost a meter long, the handle being about three hands long, with various black scuff marks on the blade. "Might as well use it, since I'm not going to my actual class today like I thought." Testing the balance of her weight, she set the rounded tip down on the floor took a few experimental steps forward, leaning on it with one hand. "See? I'm f-" the plastic blade suddenly bent forward, throwing her off balance as she quickly caught herself. She winced, having landed on her bad ankle. "I'm okay!" she shouted back to him, adjusting her stance so that both of her hands were resting on the handle. "On second thought, I'll probably just call a cab."

While Alyssa whipped out her phone and began speed dialing for a cab service, Izuku asked, "Is that a laser sword?"

"Lightsaber," she corrected, "and yes. I... Hello, I would like a cab sent to the Kojimaji Hero Museum today at your earliest convenience? Uh huh. Great," she nodded distractedly before turning to whisper at Izuku, "hey, do you hear something? Like a ringing noise?"

He listened for a moment and frowned. "No?"

"Hmm... okay, must be my phone or something..." she shrugged and rubbed the other ear that wasn't pressed up against her phone. "..uh huh... Great! Yes, that will work perfectly. Thank you so much. I'll see you soon. Okay, goodbye."

"Not to sound rude, but why are you carrying around a lightsaber?"

"I... Okay this is going to sound super nerdy, but I go to this Star Wars themed sword martial arts class that uses lightsabers."

"Whoa, that's so cool! Does it make noises like it does in the movies?" Izuku wasn't very knowledgeable about things outside of his sphere of interest, but even he knew what a lightsaber was. Star Wars was such an icon in pop culture that it was more rare to run into someone who hadn't heard of the franchise than someone who hadn't. Even the person who was in charge of redeveloping Tokyo during its awkward restructuring period during the early days of Quirk use had been a fan, naming new wards and housing areas after iconic locations.

"Nah, this is just a stunt saber. All it can really do is light up because all of the physical contact would mess up the sound-chip." She flicked on the light, encasing her sword in a deep red light. "You should come by some time. It's super fun. We're always looking for new students and you don't even need to be a Star Wars fan to join. Plus, the first lesson is free."

"I'll have to check it out some time."

"Great! Classes are on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Sundays at 6:30- I mean, 18:30pm and 14:00pm on Sundays," she said before muttering something about military time under her breath, "although I recommend coming to the Tuesday class. Sunday is more reserved for intensive training and I don't think you're quite ready to handle that yet." She glanced down at her phone. "Figures. Looks like my class was cancelled anyways due to scheduling conflicts. Third. Time. This. Month," she sighed and leaned her head back. "Can't go anyways, not with this busted ankle-" She kicked her leg out for emphasis. "-but at least I'm not missing anything."

"That's good, I guess."

"Well, I should probably get a move on if I want to be at the front of the building by the time my cab shows up."

"I'll walk you out."

"Thanks, but I got this. You go have fun." Her hand went towards the pocket of her sweatpants and pulled out a red voucher and handed it to him. "Here. Go buy yourself something All Might related." Izuku stared at the five thousand yen gift card in disbelief.

"I can't take that. It's yours." Alyssa matched his refusal by adamantly shaking her head and shoving the ticket into his chest.

"Consider it a gift. I owe you one for letting me come and for the shoes. Besides, I have a feeling you'll put this to better than I will."

He stared at the voucher for a moment before reluctantly taking it, a small smile stretching across his face. "Okay... Thank you so much."

"See you later, Izuku. Be sure to text me all about how the rest of your day goes."

"I will." He said his farewells and watched her as she placed her earbuds back in her ears and limped towards the exit, probably staring a bit longer than necessary out of concern. Once she was no longer in his line of sight, his hand trailed unconsciously towards the hero medal that hung from his neck and stared down at it, surprised that the museum had gone all out and had given them ones actually made out of metal instead of plastic. The text of #1 Hero glittered up at him. It wasn't a real medal of heroism, but it gave him the same warm sentiments that he'd had as a child when he would play hero with his mother or with his friends before they had all grown apart. It had been so long since he had felt this way before, and today was the first time where he finally felt like a kid again. His job had considerably aged him mentally, having seen too much violence and death over the years to not be affected by it. Thankfully, it hadn't yet reached the point where he had become cynical or hardened like some of the older pros that he knew, and he was grateful that he could still feel child-like joy over something so trivial as a fake hero medal.

In his other hand was the gift voucher Alyssa had so graciously given him. Had she known that he had purchased those shoes with his own voucher? Was that why she had given it to him, out of obligation? The smile on her face though had been kind and generous, he couldn't imagine that was the case. Thinking that he would save it for something special, he instead pulled out his wallet to purchase himself a meal, the lunch hour being in full swing around him. He thought about buying a bowl of katsudon for himself while standing to order in the cafeteria line. Then everything erupted into chaos.


Author's Note: Merry Christmas, my followers and readers. I hope you guys are staying safe during this time of year and that this chapter was a good early Christmas present for you. I want to thank my beta-reader, Illeana Starbright, who's been a champ with my constant edits and pandering for story feedback. Also, a quick shout out to Yamajiiji, Ranger McAleer, and banana_m8, along with my other reviewers. I looked forward to seeing your comments almost every week.

Name: Douglas Blake
Quirk: Moisture
His Quirk allows him to gather and store moisture inside of his body. He is only able to carry his own body weight and requires a lot of strength to carry so many pounds of water (his 'water weight' of sorts).