Hey, everyone. I went on a little bit of a hiatus after the last chapter, which ended on a pretty big cliffhanger. As said cliffhanger indicated, this chapter is where things take a brief departure from canon in terms of timeline. I've been a bit excited to write it and it makes me feel sad that I've put it off for so long, but thankfully no more. I hope you all enjoy this latest chapter!
I do not own anything.
Chapter 9-Drifting Clouds
"Hey, Izuku?"
"Y-Yeah, M-M-Mina?"
"Don't ever stop blushing after I kiss you. Think you can do that?"
That was a request that Izuku was pretty sure he'd be able to follow through on. It was just a hunch, but he had a feeling that even if he and Mina stayed together, he'd still blush a little whenever she kissed him. He really liked it when she kissed him. Izuku didn't want to say that he was addicted, he at least hoped he wasn't getting addicted to her kisses.
"Well, Izuku?" He heard her say again. Based on the look on her face, Mina was in absolutely no rush for him to answer. Izuku still felt an obligation to, which resulted in his starstruck blabbing. His girlfriend responded with thinly veiled snickers that just barely rose above a whisper. At least she was keeping with the library's rule about keeping the noise down. At first glance, Mina would seem like the kind of girl that would violate that rule within minutes. In fact, Mina seemed like the kind of girl you'd be unlikely to find at a library at all.
Well, even "party girls" like her needed to study, and they certainly could do that with the right people at their side. It just so happened the right person for her also happened to be her boyfriend, who was still caught in something of a daze curtsy of her teasing. That was something else that Izuku felt that he wasn't ever going to get tired of, or stop being embarrassed by.
"Alright, alright. Sorry about that. I just couldn't help it." The pink-haired girl said once she got her giggles under control. "Don't worry, you don't have to promise me anything like that."
"Um, actually," Izuku stammered. "I…feel like I might be able to promise you that, Mina. This is…well, when I think of the future, I…think if you keep on doing this, I'll keep on getting flustered. To be honest, I really don't mind it." He explained. Izuku knew for a fact his cheeks were bright red. At least he wasn't looking away from Mina as he told her that. Looking back at the old him, he was pretty sure that he'd have looked away from her. It'd have been the only way for him to speak to her, but look at where he was now.
He had a Quirk, he was attending U.A., he had friends, and sitting right beside him, smiling at him was a girl who was proud to call herself his girlfriend. His words got a hearty laugh out of her, leading her to kiss him on the lips. Contrary to his acceptance of his continued embarrassment, Izuku kissed her back. It was the first thing that came to his mind the second he felt her lips on his. Her cherry-flavored lips. The smell of her lingering shampoo. Just…so many things about her, Izuku was able to recognize and accept. Especially her lips.
Izuku was left wanting when she pulled away, something that kept his cheeks ablaze. Mina's own cheeks had turned iliac, the color burn from her pink cheeks experiencing a blush. Even with his near encyclopedic knowledge of Quirks, he found himself looking up skin pigmentations online. Though some of that was the overly cautious part of him. If Mina's skin ever turned an odd color, he wanted to know why-he wanted to know that the girl he'd been crushing on was alright.
After their little kiss, they got back to studying, an area that he excelled in far more so than her. He excelled in many academic fields in contrast to her. Izuku would never call Mina dumb though; she was just one of those sorts of people who excelled in the field rather than the classroom. It was another way in which they differed, but here they were, complimenting each other, learning from each other. Albeit Mina would say at the moment she was currently learning more than him.
"How you do those calculations, I'll never know, Izuku. But hey, I'm super glade you can do them!" She'd once said after one of their study sessions. Mathematics certainly wasn't something that came easy to her. It hadn't came easy to Izuku either, but he worked at it, and he was more than happy to lend a hand to his now girlfriend.
Looking over her work, he could see his efforts were paying off. When he first began tutoring Mina, her school work was far from the best. Looking over it now, he saw visible improvement. So too had their teacher, who'd pulled him aside to quietly thank him for helping the acid-shooting girl raise her grades. And then, in true Aizawa-fashion, told him not to slack off on his own studies. Behind his half-scared façade, Izuku found himself laughing. On some level, he'd gotten used to his teacher's bizarre and at times frightening mannerisms. There were a lot of things at U.A. he'd grown used to, and a lot of things he was thankfully for.
In hindsight, his internal musing on that perhaps prompted fate to remind him of how he'd gotten to this point.
"Alright, history. Can't exactly say it's my favorite subject, at least not most of the time. Eh, I can't quite say that this is going to be one of those times. I really hate learning about the dark ages."
"…Y-Yeah, me too." Izuku affirmed. Despite his Quirkless nature, Izuku always considered himself lucky. The same went for his classmates and friends, and that especially went for his girlfriend. If either of them had been born a century earlier, Izuku knew that their lives would have been extremely different.
We'd probably have never met each other. Or worse, we'd have met…and probably hated each other. Maybe even been enemies, trying to-
Izuku stopped himself, like slamming the breaks on a car. The straw thought had totally came from out of nowhere, or at least that's what it seemed like to him. He had a nagging feeling that wasn't entirely true. It'd came from somewhere; it just wasn't a place he wanted to think about.
"Hey, Izuku?" Called twin-horned girl. "You don't have to answer me about this, but…do you know where your family was during all this? Mutation Quirks have always ran in my family, so…we were hit by this." Her finger jabbed at the picture of the Quirk riots going on. It wasn't a drawing or painting, but an actual live photo. It'd captured the anger, the heartache, and the general chaos was the emergence of Quirks into general society. It'd been, without a doubt, one of the most violent times in human history.
A solemn look overcame his face. "On my mom's side of the family, well…she tells me that they stayed underneath the radar. They could since most of their Quirks were telekinetic in nature."
"Really? Just like my family!" She exclaimed in excitement before getting control of herself. Izuku didn't mind it though. "Telekinetic Quirks, huh? Didn't you say that your mom has minor telekinesis?"
"Yep, not anything fancy, and apparently that's how it was for her parents, and her grandparents. My mom told me that my grandpa talked to her about how lucky the family was." Izuku had faint memories of his grandparents, fond memories. Before illness had taken both of them, they'd loved him as dearly as his mother and father. Like them, he wanted to think that he'd made them proud; the same went for his parental grandparents. "They had Quirks that weren't visible, not to mention they didn't have any physical oddities that gave them away." He swiftly turned to Mina, preparing to tell her he didn't mean any disrespect to her. His girlfriend had beaten him to the punch though, giving him an understanding smile as she shook her head. "T-Thanks."
"No need to thank me. I mean, Izuku, you'd never put me down or hurt me." She affectionately stated.
"T-Thanks, Mina. Thanks for trusting me that much." He said, his cheeks once more taking on the pigment of her hair and eyes.
"You've earned as my tutor and my boyfriend, Izuku." She cooed. "Anyways, you talked about your mom's side of the family, what about your dad's? Isn't his Quirk breathing fire? Could everyone in his family do that?"
"No, his dad could actually make duplicates of whatever he touched. My parental grandfather loved doing it with cards and other kinds of trinkets. Heh, it was a great Quirk for entertaining a little kid, like my dad when he was younger, and me too when he came to visit." The green-haired teen explained with a heartfelt smile. It caused a similar one to blossom on Mina's face, either from the story, his own expression, or a combination of both. "My parental grandma though, she could see in different spectrums of light, when she used her Quirk it caused her eyes to glow different colors. Pretty cool to think about how my dad came out with fire breathing in all that." He finished with a humorous chuckle.
Mina mirrored it. "Yeah, and here you are with super strength and super speed. It's cool to think about how Quirks work. Some are inherited, some kind of create a trend, and some are totally random, like yours!"
Oh man…I'm…I…I gotta tell her one day. One day. Izuku thought to himself. The thought was like a sleeping bear. When it was asleep, there was peace in his mind, but when it wasn't, it lumbered about. Sometimes it lumbered straight to the forefront of his mind and took a bite out of his psyche. This was one of those times. "Yeah, it is crazy to think about." Obviously, he hoped he'd one day be able to tell her the truth so he wouldn't need to keep lying to her. Especially since in times like this, he found he could do it just a tad easier than he could before.
"Hmm, so that's your grandparents, any further?" She asked, utterly blind and deaf to his inner turmoil, which he supposed was good. "What kind of Quirks did they have, or did they ever tell you?"
"Hmm, going back further than them…my great-grandma I think could harden her skin into metal. I was showed a picture once and I gotta say, she looked pretty cool. She'd have made for a pretty cool hero. With my great-grandfather, I think his Quirk was size manipulation. Just like Mount Lady." He finished with a smile. That smile dropped as he remembered a piece of history that his father had passed onto him in a seemingly nostalgic haze of his own. "My dad told me that he turned down a Quirk marriage to be with my great-grandma."
Mina went quiet, a contemplative look becoming her face. "A Quirk marriage, huh?" She laced both her hands behind her head. "Well, he totally did the right thing. If he hadn't…I don't think you'd be here."
The smile returned to Izuku's face. "Yeah, me too." He saw the brief return of a smile to her face as well. "Mina, you don't like Quirk marriages, do you?"
Her hands fell onto the table as she hunched over. She didn't seem surprised at his deduction, no doubt because she'd gotten used to how perspective he could be. "Nope, I really don't. Arranged marriages of any kind just suck to me. Unless the people getting married like each other, what's the point? To make their folks happy? To produce a kid with a super strong Quirk? To me, that's just wrong. What about you, Izuku? What do you think about them?"
Rather than immediately answer, Izuku looked up to the ceiling. He had a contemplative look of his own on his face. Given the subject matter, the face of his classmate, opponent, and friend, Todoroki, surfaced. He'd been the product of a Quirk marriage, one that had definitely…left its mark on all parties involved. "I…can definitely understand where you're coming from, Mina. Unless the two people involved actually love each other, I don't think there should be a marriage. Getting married just to create a baby with strong Quirks, likely some combination of both parents…" Slowly but surely, the image of Todoroki changed into an image of himself. With it came that ugly sense of self-loathing that he'd moved on from. Or at least, that's what he thought-what he might have told himself.
"Izuku, we can shelve this talk for some other time if you want." He paused and looked at her. "I'm getting better at reading people, especially you, Izuku." She sheepishly explained.
On some level, that worried him. Mina's words meant there might come a time when he might not be able to hide things from her. Then again, there was also a part of him that was genuinely happy. Not only was she learning how to read people, but he actually liked the idea of her being able to read him. She cared for him enough that she'd speak up if she saw something wrong with him.
Thankfully, for someone at least, she couldn't see all the way into the depths of his mind. Not yet anyway. "I'm fine. It's just…you know how I am with Quirks."
"Yeah, but you're also one of the kindest people that I know." She spoke. He blushed at the compliment. "Something like a Quirk marriage, forcing someone into something like this against their will, it just doesn't seem like something you'd be into."
"You're right." He admitted. "On those grounds, I can't really say that I agree with Quirk marriages. If anyone ever came to me with one, for myself or my children, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't agree to it. Not unless there were actual feelings involved." As soon as he said the words, he stood up straighter, a slightly aghast look on his face. It didn't go unnoticed by his girlfriend.
"Love's awesome, isn't it?" Mina questioned with a grin.
"Y-Y-Yeah, it is." He shyly admitted. It wasn't like he hadn't known that before beginning a relationship with Mina, but now, it was truly hitting him how awesome it was. Aware of his crimson-colored cheeks, he looked back down at the history books before them. "S-S-So, l-l-let's finish this lesson up. If we do, we might still have some free time left over for…just hanging out?"
"Sounds like a plan! Alright, where were!" She yelled with vigor. Luckily, it didn't dry any negative attention. A quick look around and Izuku could actually see some fellow library goers smirking.
Either they knew Mina wasn't the reading type, she was here on a study date with him, or both. Izuku found himself chuckling as well. In the back of his mind, rather than a potentially dreadful future, he thought of a rather dreary alternative one. If it weren't for one out-of-the-blue mix up, he and Mina wouldn't be here. He'd likely be one of the onlookers, potentially watching someone else trying to do what he was doing now. While he didn't break down in fear over the thought, he wasn't happy about it. He was perfectly happy where he was, and he was happy that Mina was as well.
Since the dawn of housing, it was said that one's room was their sanctuary. That had certainly been the case for Izuku. He also lived by the mantra that one's room was their personal shrine. For many, many years, his room had likewise been a shrine, but to himself. It'd been a shrine to his idol-his predecessor, his teacher. His mother knew that well, and for years had allowed it to go on despite knowing he was honoring a dream that would never come true. And then his dream literally dropped into his lap, and suddenly the shrine was no longer self-mocking.
"Izuku, just…just remember that you're you, dear. That's perfectly fine, that's all you have to be to the people who care about you, including Mr. All Might."
Those words had rested in the depths of his memory, like a half-buried but cherished treasure box. Izuku had been quietly shocked hearing those words. That shock slowly but surely gave away to warmth and acceptance. He'd admittedly teared up, which in turn got his mother to tear up as well. Being emotional was a trait that simply ran in the family.
He supposed the same went for posters in the Ashido Family.
It wasn't uncommon or a fan to have posters of multiple heroes, or only one. He'd been in the latter camp for many years, but thanks to his pink-haired girlfriend, he was making the jump to the former camp.
Dark Fire Hero, Onibi. When Quirks first appeared, some scholars suspected it wasn't so much an emergence so much as a reemergence. Stories of fantastical beings and monsters, including Japan's own Oni, were suddenly suspected of being Quirk-users, centuries-millennia-before the first generation's discovery. It was a theory that was still hotly debated to this day. Regardless, when searching for an identity, the first generation of heroes looked to myth and legend for inspiration; in the case of some, their search was quite meaningful since they had an appearance to match. That had been the case for one of Japan's first heroes, or heroines to be specific.
Onibi, aka Keiko Kawata, had manifested horns and red-skin that made her stand out amongst her peers. To go along with that were mysterious purple-colored flames that she could manipulate for a multitude of things. Her powers had came to her in an explosive burst that leveled a field. While there were thankfully no injuries, her abilities and appearance stacked the deck against her. She didn't let it stop her though.
Izuku stood in awe of the hand-drawn poster featuring the long dead heroine. While she may have died over a century ago, her legacy lived on, that included in his girlfriend.
"She's one of the heroes I really idolized growing up. She had a super cool Quirk, and a super cool appearance! Kind of like me, don't you think?"
"I can actually see the resemblance, on multiple levels, Mina. Alright then, I'll buy it for you!"
"Great! I…"
"Mina?"
"Izuku…I'd…actually like to buy this picture for you. I mean, I'd like it if you…hung it up in your room. I-If you want to or if you have any room for it!"
"I'd-I've got room for it. Mina, she inspired you a whole lot, didn't she?"
Given her usual optimism, one wouldn't think that Mina had ever been put down or harassed because of her appearance. Izuku was able to tell she had been, part of that was no doubt due to him having seen it happened before. While he may have been Quirkless, he still had a normal appearance. Some people preferred that over any physical abnormality. Such things had been another part of Quirk marriages, and why some of them were so reviled.
"Yeah, she did. I've had a lot of inspirations, but…sometimes when I think about how people might put me down because of how I look, I think of her. She even died rescuing a whole bunch of people from the first villains out there! If I ever had to choose a way to go out, that'd be how I'd like to go."
Izuku didn't say it, but Mina's words had been the genuine words of a future hero. As a fellow future hero, it was heartening to hear. As Mina's lover though…it made his heart shudder in fear.
Sitting down atop the bed, he thought of Kota and how the death of his parents had affected him. While they'd undoubtedly done their duties as heroes, they'd still left behind a young child who dearly missed them. He was just one of the many orphaned kids that the call of heroism had stranded. That was children, but what about spouses? Lovers?
What if Mina actually did die like that and left him behind? What if he was the one that died and ended up leaving her alone?
"Argh, I really, really shouldn't be thinking about all this stuff." Izuku muttered to himself. He knew his own mind well enough, and he knew that he could be a tad…pessimistic. It was definitely pessimism because his mind wondered off to potentially the worst possibility. When that happened, he preferred letting his mind wonder to the other extreme, if only to make himself feel better. "No, she won't die, and I won't either." The green-haired teen quietly affirmed. He held out his right hand and looked into it, picturing the spark of power that was always there when he called upon One for All. It was such an incredible power, but it came with dangers. Compared to the greatest of those dangers, the physical harm he'd endeavored was minimal.
If Mina were here, Izuku was pretty sure that she'd disagree with him on the physical trauma. Her and everyone else he knew-the people that cared about him.
Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring!
"Talk about a coincidence." He murmured looking at the caller ID on his phone. Upon answering it, a warm smile grew over his face. "Hey, dad!"
"Heh, someone sounds excited. Any chance it has something to do with this girl that your mother's told me about?" His blushing silence made his father chuckle. "I can't help but wonder if you thought you'd be able to keep it a secret from me, not that I would have held it against you."
"I-I-I fully knew y-you'd find out. E-Especially once I told mom." It was a day before the festival when he'd called his mother and told her that he was in a relationship with a classmate. The next half hour was spent trying to get her to calm down after nearly flash flooding the apartment with tears of joy. As he was experiencing now, his dad's reaction was far more subdued. "Even though you're on the other side of the world, you're still my dad."
"Izuku,"
"Her name's Mina, Mina Ashido. I can…uh, send you a picture if you want to know what she looks like. Mom hasn't sent you one yet, has she?"
"No, I've actually been holding off because I want you to be the one to send the picture. That is if you're comfortable with it."
"Of course I'd be! I want you to see Mina, she's…she's…she's an incredible girl." He finished, his voice dying down. Izuku could practically see the smile spreading across his father's face. He honestly wished he could see him in the flesh. It'd been almost two years since he'd been able to do that and it gnawed at him from time to time. "I'm sure mom told you about her. She's got pink hair and pink skin, and black and yellow eyes."
"A mutation-type Quirk." His dad summarized. "You know, I'm actually a little glad that you've found someone like that. You were always such a shy boy, but from what Inko's told me, this girl's a good fit for you."
"My opposite in so many ways." Izuku affirmed. "Despite that we…we work well together, literally." There was a laundry list of reasons he could have given for spilling the story of his encounter with Gentle Criminal to his dad. A big one was it was a major event in his life and his dad deserved to know about it, just as much as his mom did. Unlike her though, he took it with less…water works.
"That's…quite a tale, Izuku. I honestly can't tell if you were lucky or unlucky having all that happen the morning of the festival." He declared. "If things had been a little different, the festival could have been canceled…or you could have gotten injured." The touch of sorrow in his dad's voice didn't go unnoticed. Just like how Mina was the opposite of him, his dad was in many ways the opposite of his mom. Though both could be emotional, his dad was often far more subdued. "I'm glad that you're alright, and I'm proud of you, Izuku. The fact that this Mina Ashido stuck with you also makes me more comfortable with her being your girlfriend. Hehe, not quite a conventional date, but hey, that's what you kids seem to be into."
"D-D-D-Dad, I-I-I-I-I wouldn't call it a date." He stammered.
"Did you have fun with her, despite the situation?" The company worker plainly asked.
"Yes." The son immediately replied.
"Did you think to yourself, 'I wouldn't mind doing this again'?"
Again, he could practically picture the smile on his dad's face. "Honestly…yes. I mean, I'd prefer it if we didn't have something as major as the school festival hanging over our heads, b-but otherwise…yeah. Fighting alongside her against villains, doing what we can to protect the hopes and dreams of so many people. I…I'd like to do that with her again."
"Hahaha, Izuku, that's a date." His father plainly, and rather heartedly confirmed. "I'll admit, I do agree about the stakes. I'd rather neither you nor her were ever in that kind of situation again, but you're both U.A. students, so I've accepted it'll likely come with the territory." There was a short pause from the other end; it practically gave away his father's next words. "Especially if you two stay together…going into the future."
Coincidence was definitely a funny thing. Izuku preferred to think of it as coincidence rather than fate. "Yeah, you've…got a point there, dad."
"I hear you two have only been together for a few weeks. Izuku, you've been thinking about the future, haven't you? A potential future between both of you."
"It's…crossed my mind. I mean, i-it's not like I'm overwhelmingly thinking about it, but I-"
"It's what you do, especially when it comes to things you feel passionate about." His dad quietly finished. While he may not have been there for most of his childhood, he'd been there enough to know his habits. He'd been there enough to show Izuku that he cared. "I'd like to meet her, at some point. It won't be easy, but I'd like to try to come back home to see you and your mom in the next few months. I can try to make Christmas."
Again, coincidence was a funny thing. "Dad, I was…actually thinking of introducing Mina to mom. It's something I'd like to try to do before Christmas. Plus, I'd…like for her to at least hear from you."
"Well, sounds like we've been on the same page." His dad affirmed. "What about her family? If she meets us, it's only fair you meet her family."
"Y-Y-Yeah, I-I've…also thought about that."
"You're scared. She's pretty outgoing, and you don't know what to do if the rest of her family is the same way?"
"Well…kinda. N-N-N-N-Not that I'd have a problem with that! I-I mean I like Mina for who she is! If the rest of her family is that way, then I'll be perfectly fine with it!"
"Uh-huh, have you told her that yet?"
"Um…no. To be honest, neither of us have talked about it, I was…actually planning on bringing it up myself this week. Things are finally quieting down for me," Izuku said.
"I never would have pictured you'd have such a…chaotic school life. Then again, I'd honestly never thought you'd be attending U.A. after we thought that you were born Quirkless."
His father's words caused yet another ping of guilt to go off within him. It hurt lying to his parents as much as it did his girlfriend, but Izuku buried the guilt it brought him. Again, he knew it could only stay buried for so long.
"Izuku, how are you…handling things?"
"What do you mean, dad?" The green-haired boy asked in confusion.
"I know that you were watching the JP Hero Billboard announcement. I watched it myself."
"W-What? Really?!" Izuku practically felt himself jumping to his feet. His father had never been interested in the work of heroes, but that had subtly changed over the last couple of months…because of him. That said, he also suspected that All Might's retirement had played a factor. He'd checked the viewership; the latest Japanese Hero Billboard Chart announcement had the highest viewership in decades. Not only had most of Japan viewed it, but so too had at least forty-percent of every developed country. Everyone, even those normally disinterested like his father, were curious to what the "post All Might" era would look like.
In thinking about that, the realization struck him.
"O-Oh. D-D-Dad, I'm fine, really. I mean…I got to see him up close and personal, I was…I was…" He trailed off, memories of the catastrophic battle between his mentor and his archenemy returned to his mind. Their return was brief as he took a relaxing breath. "I want to be the one who's name is mentioned in that lineup, one day. I know it won't be easy, but…I'm still aiming for that."
"…Like your mother, a part of me wishes you wouldn't." The confession didn't come as a surprise to him. While his father may have had several differences from his mother, they still had a couple of things in common. Him for one big one. "A part of me wishes that, but I know that you're happy where you are, especially now that you've got someone to wake up to and see every day before, during, and after class. Just make sure that you two aren't getting too touchy-feely. You both still have your whole lives ahead of you, not to mention I don't think Sakamoto-san will appreciate your mom causing a flashflood if-"
"D-D-D-DAD!" Shouted the Quirk inheritor. His face was red enough it could have put Kirishima's own red hair to shame. It was only fueled by the light-hearted chuckling on the other end. Though of smaller volume and deeper pitch than his girlfriend's, it had the same effect of fueling his embarrassment. It took several minutes for things to calm down, and even then, he could still hear his father's faint chuckles on the other end. "D-D-Don't worry about anything like that. Y-Y-You don't have to worry a-a-and neither does mom."
"Just making sure, son." Responded his father in a joking tone. "So, any solid date in mind for that instance of meeting the folks? I'm still somewhat trying to work out some of the timing myself, but as soon as I do-"
"We'll be looking forward to seeing you, dad." Izuku quietly finished for him. He could practically hear the nod on the other end. What he definitely heard were a few yells, specifically mentioning how break time was over with. "Thanks for calling, dad. I really, really appreciate it."
"You're my son, and I like to keep up with what's happening with you." Came his rather affectionate reply. "Izuku, just give what we talked about some thought, and talk it out with Mina too. Oh, and give her some prior warning regarding your mother." Both men chuckled at that last one. They had a pretty vivid picture of what their mutual lady's reaction would be when she met the ball of pink sunshine that was Mina Ashido.
"Like I said, I'd like to bring her to meet mom before Christmas, and I'd…like to meet her family before then."
"It's the start of December, so I'd advise you to do it either this week or next week. After that, it's the start of the holiday rush." His dad advised. It was sound advice that he immediately took to heart. "As I'm sure you heard, my break's almost over with."
"I heard, thank you for talking to me. Oh, and thanks for the album you sent me! All the songs on it are great! Especially Ain't No Mountain High Enough, it's probably my favorite."
"Can't say I'm surprised hearing that. When I first heard it, I couldn't help but think of the type of man that you've been becoming, the type that I'm proud to call my son." Izuku picked up on what else his father planned to say based on the hearty chuckle that followed that statement. It gave him some time to brace himself. "And it made me wonder if you'd ever become that special someone to a certain lady. Glad to see that you have."
"I've…thought about…showing the music player and the records to Mina. She's always liked music, and I'm…curious if she'll like any of them." He shyly admitted. Even though he knew his father was running short on time, he couldn't help but want to keep on talking to him some more. It was a touch of selfish that he couldn't stop himself from indulging in.
Luckily, his father was also willing to indulge him. It could also be said that he was doing his job as a parent. "Go for it. It's something you like, and if this is really all that, she'll accept it. Besides, from what I hear, she likes music and dancing, so I'm sure she won't mind going a little…retro. You certainly didn't." Father and son shared a laugh. It was broken up by the call of the former across the line. "I'll talk to you later, until then. Izuku, I know this is futile, but try to stand out of trouble, and if it finds you…just keep doing what you've been doing. Oh, and be careful doing it!"
That last bit definitely sounded like his mom. He felt a little happy that he'd been able to coax that similarity to her out of his dad. While he was a touch more accepting of his choices, he still worried about him, just like she did.
Izuku moved over to the record player and put the United album on. Rather than any schoolwork, he plopped down on the bed and simply stared up at the ceiling, letting the music carry him off. This sort of relaxing wasn't something he did as often as he'd liked, but it'd been something he'd progressively been doing more of. As with many recent things, he had his girlfriend to thank for it.
"Mina, shouldn't we-"
"No, no. We're just going to lie here and relax. It's actually pretty nice, we've got time, and I want some cuddling."
One year ago, he absolutely would not have pictured himself being able to cuddle with a cute girl in a public park. Hell, by Japan's cultural norms, that sort of thing took daring! Which is a word that he would use to describe Mina in a heartbeat. It was also one of the traits about her that he loved. She said the same about him.
He looked up at the record player. For the third time, coincidence was a funny thing. If I Could Build the Whole World Around You was probably one of the best duets he'd ever heard. It got the message of pure love and devotion across. As he listened to it, he found himself wondering what Mina would think about it. Being the romantic she was, she might take a liking to it. He also had to admit that it was also a song that one could have a short dance to. Normally, Izuku didn't dance, whereas Mina loved to do it.
Sitting upright, he heaved out a sigh. He considered calling her, or maybe even going to see her so they could talk about this. They still had another two hours before curfew set in.
Izuku swung his legs across the bed, a look of steady determination slowly becoming his face. "Alright then, I'll do it!"
Asking her when he could meet her parents. How dangerous could that be? He'd fought supervillains out to kill him and his friends? A psychotic yakuza gangster! How bad could meeting his girlfriend's parents be?
"W-W-What the? H-H-Huh? Hello? Hey, is there anyone out there? Anyone?!"
His voice echoed through the darken abyss that he found himself in. In all directions lay darkness littered with fading trails of smoke. Izuku took several steps forward and found his bare feet touching solid ground. Curious, Izuku crouched down and felt it with his hand. It felt cold, not as cold as ice, but simply…lacking some sense of warmth. If anything, it reminded him of pavement, albeit incredibly smooth pavement.
Rising back up, he continued to call out, hoping he'd get some sort of reply. Izuku could just tell that this dream…wasn't quite a dream. Something in his gut told him that it wasn't. That though, opened the box of speculation-what was it then?
Second by second, minute by minute, he was finding out. Or that's what he would have said if he found anything meaningful.
"Hellooooo!" he called, angling his head upward to the abyssal sky.
P-Pa…i…n.
"G-G-G-Gah!" Despite hoping for a reply, he was still startled by the voice. "H-H-Hello? A-A-Are you out there?"
He…re. R-R-Right…he-re. Here… The disembodied voice sounded off. It was coming from all around Izuku. We…are here. We…are…we…
The emphasis on the word "we", caught his attention. He definitely wasn't alone, but who else was with him, he didn't know. Izuku was beginning to feel nervous, but he wouldn't say scared. For whatever reason, he didn't think that his life was in danger. It was just a feeling that Izuku couldn't put into words.
You're right. We're not here to kill you, we're not villains. But we are here to warn you. It's…something we feel like you have to be told.
His heartbeat racing, Izuku spun around. Brief as it was, he knew what he'd saw. The smoke had came together to form an image, an image of a person. Coupled with the voice, he deduced it to be a man. Whatever it was, whoever he was, Izuku sensed no lies in his words, but they did concern him. A warning? A warning for who? For what? Slowly, a dark thought began to take bloom within him.
"Is this…about All for One?" he called into the darkness.
The name caused the entire realm to shudder, in either fear…or anger. Izuku felt a jolt racing up his spine; it led him to lean toward the latter. He watched tight-jawed as the smoke around him swirled, no doubt in response to his question. Just like before, it took shape-humanoid shape. Izuku quickly looked around him in a full spin rotation. The smoke was taking the shape of eight silhouettes.
Eight silhouettes.
"You all are…you're all…All Might! Mrs. Shimura!" The green-haired teen impulsively called.
One of the figures surged forth. The finer details of it began to take shape, becoming that of a woman. He immediately recognized her-his mentor's mentor, the woman who preceded his idol, Nana Shimura.
She hugged him.
"I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. Don't let my story become your own, don't let it bind you."
The teary, heartfelt whisper hit him like a trunk. "M-M-Mrs. Shimura," he responded.
"It isn't easy…but it's worth it. Friends, family, lovers…it isn't easy, but please, believe me when I say that they're worth it." She whispered to him again in the same tone. He could practically feel the sobs that she was fighting to hold back.
"W-W-What? W-W-What are you…" the words died in his mouth as his confused mind suddenly began putting the pieces together. "Y-You…All for One, he…he killed them, didn't he?"
The figure pulled away from him. The silhouette had gone from solid smoke to more like a colored hologram. The color was purple.
"In a sense," the phantasmal representation whispered. "Don't let him do the same. Don't…don't let the fear of him…don't let it stop you."
"He must be stopped at all costs. He is pure evil."
They were like yin and yang, one voice soft yet pleading, the other cold and affirmative-they were even of different genders. The first was feminine, the voice of Nana Shimura, and the second was male…and deeply cold.
Everything around Izuku warped. The formerly solid ground gave way and he felt like he was free falling. Even the fearful yet comforting embrace of his mentor's teacher was lost. It vanished, just like the smoke her vestige had came from. Izuku called out for it, called out for an explanation, but he got nothing but the howl of the nonexistent wind. Amidst it though, came a voice, a collective voice. One was Nana's, while the others weren't hers. Still, they spoke in unison with her.
Don't let his fear block out the light.
With those words, Izuku Midoriya bolted upward, his heart pounding at a thousand miles a second. He raised both his hands, staring at the fading cracks of energy that marked his Quirk's activation.
"A-A-Active," he whispered. Subconscious Quirk activation was a thing. It'd been recorded over a thousand times, dating all the way back to the first emergence of Quirks. On one hand, this was nothing new. But on the other hand…most people didn't have Quirks like his-Quirks that had literally been passed down. Quirks that apparently possessed some piece of sentience. "…Mrs. Shimura," Izuku whispered into the night.
He hit the pillows with a soft thud. The world around him was serene, undisturbed by the events of his dream. Not surprising considering it was all in his head, literally. That said, what happened in his head could have dire effects on the future of the world. Based on the words that had been spoken, the same went for his heart.
Staring up at the darkness of the ceiling, Izuku began piecing together all the information he had on One for All's seventh user. That wasn't a whole lot, and what he did have…wasn't exactly going to help him get to sleep any time soon. Ultimately, his focus went on the words she'd spoken to him and what they could have meant.
She had a family, and apparently, All for One destroyed it; in the end, he'd ultimately succeeded in destroying her as well.
Was that to be his fate?
THUMP!
He raised his right hand, the glow of the energized cracks illuminating the darkness of his room. "…No." Izuku whispered. Closing his eyes, he ceased the flow of power and let his right arm fall to the side. "I won't…I won't let him. No way."
It took him another half hour to fall back asleep, and even then Izuku would say that it was more like a nap than anything. When dawn broke and the next day officially began, there was someone he was going to have to go see.
At least it wouldn't be the first time that he showed up at his mentor's door for an early morning talk, especially one regarding the Quirk he'd passed on to Izuku.
As far as winter mornings went, this one wasn't the worst. That said, Mina really did miss spring and summer. She missed the morning sunshine that made her more motivated to live the day to its fullest. That drive was a touch harder to get up looking at a gray sky that looked like any second it'd start raining. It was especially hard to do when she didn't have any idea where her boyfriend was.
With a sigh, Mina laid back in her seat, legs stretched out and a rather noticeable frown on her face.
"Um, Ashido?"
Intrigued by the voice, she sat up and looked straight at the voice. She was a tad surprised to see Todoroki staring at her. "Um, morning, Todoroki. How's it going?"
"Well enough, though sadly I wasn't able to find Midoriya." Mina's eyes widened. "I…heard that you've been looking for him all morning. Likewise, no one else has seen him, or…almost no one. I think he might have gone to talk to All Might."
"Huh? All Might? He went to talk to him?" It wasn't too surprising. She knew that her boyfriend and the now retired Number One had a close relationship. That said, sometimes it still surprised her. Izuku just getting up and going straight to his office? Something about this was strange. "How do you know that, Todoroki?"
"I heard some students talking about seeing him earlier this morning. Extremely early." He answered. "As for where he went, I suspect he went to see All Might, he is Midoriya's mentor after all." There was a short pause as the two brightly-haired teens stared at one another. "Their Quirks are…quite similar to each other."
"Yeah, I've noticed." She affirmed.
"When in activation, both of them seemed to glow with those particular cracks."
"Tota-wait, what? Cracks? How do you know that?" The horned girl asked while leaning forward.
This time, the pause was more on Todoroki's end. He seemed…nervous, nervous in a certain way that got Mina thinking. "Last night…Yaoyorozu and I-"
"You two spent last night together! Ooooh, I knew you two had a thing for each other!" She excitedly yelled.
Her voice went loud enough for a certain someone to hear her, and that she got an immediate response.
"W-W-W-We are not! I-I-I mean not in that way!"
With a grin, the acidic girl looked to her right where the girl in question was standing. Her cheeks were as red as her hero costume. Peering back to her left, she saw Todoroki sporting a similar, albeit slightly smaller blush on his face. It further confirmed what she thought.
Man…I'd love to tease them over this, but my boyfriend takes priority. Sitting up, she turned her full attention back to the fire and ice-user in front of her. "Thanks, Todoroki, I owe you one!"
Despite her own determination, she couldn't help but look back at the table. She did it quickly, making sure that neither of its two occupants noticed. Her place had been taken by Yaoyorozu, and quickly chatting it up with him. They both still had the residual red hue on their cheeks. It was more than enough to make Mina chuckle as she left the student dorms.
The school building was already buzzing, there was still at almost fifteen minutes before homeroom started. Mina never thought that she'd be looking for someone in the school in that short window of time. Sometimes she was still asleep by now. She was awake though, wide awake. She also had a clear destination in mind, so she wasn't aimlessly stumbling around.
Practically everyone knew All Might's office. It was honestly hard to miss it, but actually getting in was a bit of a different story.
Mina had heard that some students were still too awed by All Might to visit his office to talk to him. She couldn't blame them. Then, there was the other crowd, those who chose not to visit All Might, especially since his retirement. She'd heard the whispers of disappointment leveled at the now retired hero. While some weren't too bad, there were a handful that crossed a line with her. So what if he was now skinny and retired? He was still the man that had held the title of Symbol of Peace for years!
But that mantle had been passed on. It was cool to say that it'd been passed onto her generation, but officially, it now rested in the hands of Endeavor, Todoroki's father. Like the rest of her classmates, she'd eagerly listened as he made his simple declaration as to what sort of hero he'd be.
She wasn't here about all that though. Mina was here for her boyfriend, who she was ninety-nine percent certain was behind the door. Her hand was mere inches away from knocking on the door when she heard the sound of another pro hero teacher.
"Ashido? My, I never thought you'd be up this early, and knocking on All Might's door."
She turned to catch the amused glance of Midnight, one of the heroes and teachers that she admired the most. It was quite a coincidence that Izuku was no doubt in there talking about something with his idol while she was running into hers to meet him.
"Let me guess, you heard Midoriya stopped by All Might's office and you came to talk to him?" The seductive heroine deduced.
"Pretty much." Mina immediately admitted. "I know Izuku can get up pretty early, but coming here…some part of me can't help but think that something's up." She watched the older woman's reaction. The way she looked at the door, the slight look of concern on her face, it told Mina that she knew something. Alright, how can I get it out of her? Almost immediately, she bemoaned how doing that was close to impossible. Midnight had several years of experience on her, in multiple categories.
She realized that all in the span of seconds and decided to get it out into the open. "I can tell you right now, if he's in there, it's probably about something important."
Mina couldn't help but heave out a sigh. "And it's not something you can tell me, right? Seriously, this feels like something out of an anime, big secret that all the adults know but us kids can't know because it's too dangerous. Izuku's carrying it though."
"And you want to help him since you're now his girlfriend, right?"
"Yep! Totally!" Her eyebrows rose, though her lips curved into a smile. Smiling herself, Mina leaned against the door, temporarily shelving her desire to knock. "Izuku's the type of guy that'll go above and beyond, which can be a good and a bad thing."
With a warm smile, the black-haired pro hero stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Tell you what, feel like talking about it in my office? I promise, I'll give you a note if we go over a time limit."
Frankly, Mina didn't think this was that serious, but she wasn't about to turn down spending some time with one of her idols. Not to mention…just maybe she could use some advice from Midnight on a few things. Just to be on the safe side.
She'd been in Midnight's office once before, way, way back at the start of the school year with a couple of other students. It was a lecture for some light-hearted mischief they'd been let off with via a slap on the wrist. There hadn't been too many of those since. Looking back on it, she couldn't help but feel like so much had happened since then.
As she took her seat, she realized so much had. It'd been nothing short of an absolutely incredible school year. Granted, not all parts of it had been fun, but she couldn't help but note how it'd been wilder than she'd expected.
When she thought about it, Izuku was also a much more interesting guy than she'd expected he could be. Not to mention he seemed to be at the heart of several strange incidents. In particular, the rescue of Bakugo that nearly tore Class 1-A apart. It also preceded what would be All Might's last battle.
All Might. She thought to herself.
"Ashido? Still with me?" Called the bespectacled teacher.
"H-Huh? Y-Yeah, sure. Definitely." She half-lied. It was a lie that was easily seen through. Midnight looked at her with a half-sly smile that silently broken down Mina's walls. "Alright, alright. I was thinking about All Might, how close he and Izuku are. We've talked about it a couple of times, but…sometimes I just can't help but wonder about it. Especially since his Quirk seems to work like his." Deciding to be direct, she looked straight at her teacher. "Midnight, there's some kind of connection between the two of them, isn't there?"
She didn't outwardly react. If she was hiding something, Mina couldn't tell. All she could do was hope she'd get a smidgen of the truth out.
"You're…not off base. They're of an extremely similar type, and that makes them…shall we say rather unique." The aroma-using woman admitted. Mina could see some apprehension on her face, it told her this was some kind of secret that wasn't supposed to be public knowledge. "As I'm sure you've seen, it's also a Quirk that comes with certain drawbacks."
All too quickly, Mina was sitting up, her black eyes wide. "Drawbacks…you don't mean like…what happened with All Might during his final battle."
Her teacher's eyes darkened. "That's…one potential outcome. Ashido, I'm sure you know it can be possible to overexert one's Quirk. Yours is like that as well, right."
She nodded in silent confirmation. While normally she had resistance against her body's acid, that resistance could be worn down. Not to mention Mina knew if she was hit by a stronger douse of acid, she'd feel the pain. Applying that logic to Izuku reminded her of the lingering fear she had that one day he'd break every bone in his body overusing his Quirk. "Did All Might go through something similar before his final battle?"
"Yes, a few times. Super strength like theirs can come with some downsides. He probably went to All Might to talk about it. With as often as he used to break himself to pieces, it wouldn't surprise me if it crept up in his dreams." Cross her arms, the pro hero leaned forward with a wide grin. "It also sounds like the perfect opportunity for a certain someone to be there to give him a certain kind of comfort."
Her pink cheeks turned lilac. "Y-Y-Y-Yeah, I-I get the picture." If Izuku could see her now, she'd have sworn he was looking into a mirror. At least she knew a little of how she felt.
"Ashido, does it…worry you that he'll go that far one day?" She asked in a completely different tone, one tinged with worry.
Mina leaned forward, dropping her chin into her hands. "Sometimes, it nags at me. I mean, I'm glad he's not breaking himself now. Hell, I'm super glad that he found a better and safer way to use his Quirk. That said…I still can't help but think that Izuku will…overdo it sometimes." The smile that formed on her face was both warm and sad. "One of the things I love about him, but sometimes it does worry me."
"…Do you think if he were to ever do that, you'd be able to stop him?"
Mina looked up at the alluring teacher, her eyes slightly wide at the suggestion.
Midnight leaned back in her seat, a slightly amused smile on her face. "I won't say that I've know All Might for years and years, but I have known him for a while. I've definitely kept track of his personal life. He never had anyone like you, Ashido. In that way, I'd ay that Midoriya's done better than his mentor. Then again, I'm sure there's a girl out there who wouldn't mind-"
"Midnight-sensei!" Mina shouted. "We're talking about my love life here, not my boyfriend's teacher!"
"O-Oh, r-r-right, sorry about that! Got lost in my own thoughts there!" She apologized. "Anyways, back to my question. Would you be able to? Sometimes in a relationship, you've got to put your foot down for the sake of your significant other. Even if it makes them angry or sad."
Her brow furrowed. Mina couldn't exactly see Izuku being mad at her, granted she could hardly remember a time when she'd ever seen him mad. While she wasn't hot on the idea of making him angry herself…Mina realized she'd take that if it meant he wouldn't hurt himself. The thought of anyone hurting Izuku invoked a strong reaction within her. Now, that person being himself…it left her at a bit of a crossroad, but when she looked inside he found that she'd be willing to do it. For his sake, and maybe a bit selfishly for her own.
"I would. That's my job as his friend, and girlfriend." She declared.
Midnight nodded, but her grin deepened. "What about as his partner?"
Her eyebrows rose. "Really shipping me and Izuku that much, huh?"
"Hey, we teachers talk about you kids, especially you rascals of Class 1-A. Heh, we try to do it in private though since not everyone are fans of you guys."
"Yeah, I know. We know. It's not like we try to attract trouble every month." Despite her apology, Mina crossed her arms in a show of seeming defiant pride. "But we always manage to get out of it, one way or another."
"Hah! That's true, and it's a reason why we keep an eye on all of you." The black-haired heroine further affirmed. "We're sure that some of you will surpass us, especially as we've seen you all come along. Personally, I'm interested in seeing if any of you become hero couples. So far, you and Izuku are amongst my favorites!"
Hearing that caused Mina's cheeks to blush. It really was a reversal. She was certain that if her boyfriend were present, he'd have fainted from embarrassment. While she would tease him, she had nothing on the R-Rated Hero. Knowing a bit about her reputation, and being a flirt herself, Mina was ready for her-more so than her boyfriend could be.
Thinking about her relationship led Mina to quietly looking around the office, especially at the photos. Midnight made no secret how flirtatious she could be, but as far as serious relationships went, she knew little. At the end of her little search, she found herself looking into the older woman's calm blue eyes. She'd watched her, and she was ready for whatever persona question she might have popped.
As curious as Mina was, she didn't want to be too intrusive, especially since she was giving her a pep talk. With all that in mind, she decided to ask a different, but still somewhat pressing question. "Being a hero couple…it can be hard, right?"
"Yep. Relationships on their own can be tough, but throwing this job into the mix and things can get really hectic. That's not to say they're not possible, or worth it." That last part was added with such a beaming smile, Mina had a feeling she was speaking from personal experience. "One thing that both a hero relationship and a normal relationship will need is trust. You've got to trust Izuku, and he's got to trust you. You've both have to be willing to listen to each other too, especially when times get tough and you feel like you don't want to hear another word from one another."
"Geez, that sounds nasty." She remarked.
"Sometimes things can get like that, but hey, just like a hero, it's during the darkest hour you find out what you're made of. Or in this case, if you two can make it work." At the end of her statement the bell rung signaling the start of homeroom. Midnight chuckled while Mina let out a sigh. "Guess we couldn't quite beat the clock, could we? No worries though."
As she wrote up her slip, Mina found her mind heavy with all that the art teacher had talked to her about. She was surely talking to her from a place of experience. What was important was that she took it to heart. She wanted to because when she thought about her relationship with Izuku, she realized she wanted to make it work for as long as possible.
Maybe even into their adult lives, their going pro, and…whatever else came afterward. Thinking about it all caused her cheeks to turn lilac again.
"Thanks, Kamaya-Sensei, I appreciate it, and your advice.' She said as she took the tardy slip.
"Don't mention it, just try to make sure it gets point to good use." She waved off. Just as she was about to leave her office, the pro hero called out to her again. "Oh, and Ashido. In case you ever need certain…pointers, I'm always available."
The acidic hero matched the R-Rated Hero's grin with one of her own. "Got it!"
She got no more than several steps when her eyes fell on a certain someone, someone who made her heart thump in her chest.
"Min-"
"Izuku! You owe me a good morning kiss!" In two short bounds she wrapped her arms around him and planted a quick kiss on his lips. His freckled cheeks turned bright red as their eyes locked with one another. "Morning," she whispered.
"M-M-M-Morning." He replied. "W-W-We should, u-um get to class. A-A-And later on can we have lunch together. T-T-There's…something I want to ask you."
"Izuku, we're a couple, of course we can have lunch together. Plus…there's a few things I want to talk about with you too." Her right hand drifted down and intertangled with his. He immediately gave it a loving squeeze. "Alright, to homeroom we go!" She bombastically shouted.
Minor the little detour they both seemed to have taken, they were back on track. In the back of their minds, they both knew clouds of uncertainty still lingered in their future, but it wasn't something that impeded them. They kept on walking forward, hand-in-hand, confident that they'd be ready to face it, just as they were certain they could face another day of schoolwork.
Including a pop quiz that their fuzz-chinned teacher saw fit to drop on them to keep them on their toes. Supposedly.
Sorry I wasn't able to update this story before 2022 ended. I got swept up in a couple of other things and couldn't find my way back to this story for some time. In that time, I've followed how the manga has steadily progressed closer and closer to the final showdown between Izuku and Tomura.
As I wrote this chapter, I decided to have it be something of a reflection point for both characters while diverging from canon just a bit as I promised it would. As Izuku's giving some serious thought to his relationship with Mina, it's stirring up the residual memories of his predecessors, one of whom did have a relationship and a family, and we all know how that went. On top of that, I'm taking a stab at how Izuku is once again dealing with having to tell little lies to Mina, and how she's slowly but surely catching onto something being different about him. It's a cute little cat and mouse game that I decided to make the focus of this chapter along with the previous One for All wielders making their first, and early, appearance. I thought about a few different ways they could appear before I decided on what you all read. There's another and more coherent meeting in the works, but that will come later.
The story Awkward Energy-MinaDeku is where I first read and really got into the ups and downs of hero couples, and what really got me into shipping Izuku and Mina. Some inspiration from there has gone into a bit of this story as I've written Izuku and Mina's relationship developing. Oh, and I had a blast writing Midnight telling the latter she's totally shipping the two of them!
In case any of you are wondering about the cliffhanger in Chapter 8, don't worry, I haven't forgotten about it. Izuku's two unknown pursuers will be making their appearance soon, I've just got a particular idea about when and how they'll be making their appearance. Here's hoping you all enjoy the surprise when I drop it.
The next chapter will be up much faster than it took this one, likely toward the end of the month or start of March. Until then, let me know what you all think, and have a happy Valentine's Day!