LULLABY ARC PART 1: Sanctuary

Xiao-Long Temporary Household (Night)

"Care to tell me how this happened?" Dominic asked Indeedee and Hypno. As soon as he entered his home, he saw the unconscious child on the couch. The kid was a young girl, maybe 5 or 6 years old. She had black hair with pale purple highlights. She was wearing wrinkled clothes, and she seemed a bit cold.

Hypno walked over to the child, then rolled up one of her sleeves, revealing dark bruises and small scorch marks on her arm. The Hypnosis Pokemon looked furious when it laid eyes on this.

"Where did you find her?" the blonde asked, getting his phone out and turning on the map before handing it to Hypno. The Pokemon pinned an area, then gave it back to Dominic. It was a house located not far from his current abode, which explained how Hypno found her.

Since Hypno had to sustain itself on the dreams of humans and other Pokemon, it frequently left the house at night to feed. Of course, nobody was hurt in this process, only mildly disturbed during their sleep. This routine usually had it go around the block, so it likely found the girl during it's 'dinner'. But if the kid was found at her own home in this state...

"Comfey, come out." Dominic said, tossing a Poke Ball. It burst open, letting a small Pokemon adorned in flowers into the room. "Use Floral Healing on this girl." Comfey spun around, surrounding the child in a flower-like aura, healing her wounds. While she was now physically okay, he had no idea if she was mentally stable. "Indeedee, Hypno. Please return. I don't want to startle her when she wakes up." Both Pokemon nodded and were sent back to their Poke Balls. Sighing, the blonde sat down on the table, waiting for the child to awaken. As he waited, he thought about what this girl went through at home. Even if it was against the law, he was glad Hypno got her out of there. Considering it's own past, it made sense why it wanted to help someone escape from that kind of life.

The girl began to stir, making Dominic more alert. He took a few steps back, so he wouldn't scare her. After a few moments, her dark purple eyes opened. "Wha... Where am I?" she asked, looking around the unfamiliar space. She then laid eyes on Dominic. "Who are you?" she trembled a bit when she asked that, trying to push herself further into the couch.

"Well, you're in my house. As for who I am, just call me Dominic." The blonde smiled when he said this, trying to appear as non-confrontational as possible. "What's your name?"

It took the girl a while to respond, like she was unsure of her answer. "Hitoshi Amara." she said, still trying to make herself seem small.

"That's a nice name." Dominic complemented, making Amara crack a tiny smile.

UA (Day)

"Did you guys catch the news last night?" Kaminari asked the class.

"How could I have missed it? It ran for 16 consecutive hours, not counting the ad breaks for Crunchyroll." Dominic said, winking to the audience. "Why did I do that? They don't give me money for this." he told himself, confusing many of his classmates.

"It makes sense. The hero course that keeps pumping out pros was attacked by villains." Jiro said.

"Who knows what would've happened if the teachers hadn't come when they did." Sero said. After Dominic and Charizard passed out, the rest of the UA staff arrived to help the students that were scattered across the USJ. As for his Futuristic Monocle, it was turned to dust. Thankfully, he was able to get his old prosthetic back from home.

"Stop that, Sero! Just thinking about it makes me wet myself!" Mineta yelled, tears coming out of his eyes.

"SHUT UP!" Bakugo told the purplette, scaring Midoriya.

"Speaking of the teachers, which one of them took out that big bird thing?" Sato asked.

"Actually, none of them. I saw one of Dominic's Pokemon throw it out of the USJ." Asui revealed, making everyone who was not already aware of that stare at the blonde.

"How the hell did a mindless animal beat that thing!?" Bakugo asked loudly.

"It has a similar Quirk to Uraraka." Dominic said. "Mewtwo is a Psychic-Type Pokemon, so it utilized it's power to telekinetically lift Nomu and launch it as far away from us as possible. Many Pokemon that belong to this Type use telekinesis to perform attacks since they lack the muscle mass needed to throw an effective punch." Saying Mewtwo had enough strength to take down something as powerful as Zygarde with minimal effort was probably a bad idea. It would also be best if he left out how exactly it was born.

"Still, it was able to defeat something as powerful as All Might. That is certainly worthy of praise." Tokoyami said, making Dominic think to himself.

'Maybe. But Charizard and I were helpless against it, even after using Mega Evolution.' the blonde told himself, still angry at his loss. While he did technically win since Mewtwo was his Pokemon, it didn't feel like a legitimate victory to him.

"Everyone! Morning homeroom is about to start! Stop talking and take your seats!" Iida announced, marching into the room.

"We're all in our seats, though." Kirishima said, making Iida sit down with a scowl on his face.

"Tsu, who do you think is gonna teach the class now?" Ashido asked her classmate.

"Well, Mr. Aizawa is supposed to be in the hospital recovering from his injuries." Asui said.

Sensing a familiar heat signature in the hallway, Dominic turned his head to the door to see a bandaged hobo walk into the room.

"Morning." Aizawa said, shocking all of his students.

"How in the name of me are you standing right now?" Dominic asked, taken aback by the man's durability.

"You're too much of a pro!" Kaminari exclaimed, surprised.

"So you're all right, Mr. Aizawa?" Iida asked, raising his hand.

"Can you really call that 'all right'?" Uraraka said, almost terrified by her teacher's appearance.

"My well-being doesn't matter." he said, walking to his desk. "More importantly, the fight is not over yet."

"The villains again!?" Mineta cried, shaking in his seat.

After a minute of silence, Aizawa spoke again. "The UA Sports Festival is drawing near."

"Oh great. It's just a normal school event!" Kirishima exclaimed.

"Wait a minute, is it okay to have a sports festival so soon after villains snuck inside?" Jiro wondered.

"What if they attack again?" Ojiro asked.

"Apparently, they think of it as UA showing that our crisis management system is solid as a rock by holding the event." Aizawa explained. "Security will also be strengthened to five times that of previous years. Above all, the sports festival is a huge chance. It's not an event to be cancelled because of a few villains."

"But, it's still a good reason, isn't it?" Mineta asked nervously. "It's just a sports festival."

"Just a festival?" Dominic asked, his eye blazing. "This may be my chance to finally get some serious training in! Every student in the school all fighting for the gold, it's perfect for Charizard and the others to gain some more experience!"

"Of course, all the top heroes around the country will be watching for scouting purposes." Yaoyorozu added, making the blonde's internal flame burn brighter.

"Time is limited. If you want to go pro, then the path to your future will open up at this event." Aizawa said. "If you understand that, then don't slack off on your preparations!"

"For once in my life, I won't." Dominic declared, smiling ear-to-ear as his Aura glowed crimson.

Gym Beta (Day)

The sound of explosions rang through the small building as Charizard sparred against Regirock. "Use Stone Edge! Charizard, break through it with Dragon Claw!"

The Rock Peak Pokemon beeped rapidly before slamming it's arms into the floor, causing glowing shards of rock to emerge from the earth. Snarling ferociously, Charizard slashed at the nearest shard, tearing it apart. It repeated this process for a solid 6 minutes before getting tired.

"Good workout. We'll pick this up tonight." the trainer said as he walked up to his partner. He then turned to Regirock. "You were a big help too. Thanks." he said as he sent the Legendary Pokemon into it's Poke Ball. Hearing the door open, he noticed Jiro walking in. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought you of all people would want to know it's lunchtime." the girl said before looking at the gym. Almost everything was either ripped apart by Stone Edge or on fire from Fire Blast. "What happened here?"

"Just some intensive training with Charizard." Dominic explained, with the Pokemon helping itself to a few Tamato Berries. "We want to be ready in case something as powerful as Nomu comes around again." He didn't notice, but his fist was clenched when he mentioned Nomu.

"Well, the cafeteria's waiting for you when you're ready." Jiro said, walking away.

"Actually, we just finished. Charizard, return." The blonde turned back to his partner, sending it back into it's Poke Ball before joining his classmate. "Man, I am starving. I wonder if Lunch Rush can make me a Tamato Berry Pizza."

"Y'know, I've actually been wondering about something." Jiro said, turning to face Dominic as they walked back to the school building. "Why did you enroll in UA? What made you want to become a hero?"

That gave him pause for a moment. "This world is broken. Everywhere I go, I see something that could be fixed if people just used common sense." the blonde said, his body temperature increasing. "I want to become a hero so I can have the power to right those wrongs, to make sure nobody goes through what I did."

"What did you mean by that last part?" the punk rocker asked, confused.

"Nothing. Just old memories resurfacing." Dominic said quietly as he rushed past his friend, leaving a trail of burning footprints in his wake.