Creation began on 12-04-20
Creation ended on 03-26-21
Neon Genesis Evangelion
My Hero, Shinji Ikari: First Impressions
A/N: Why are first encounters with others that important to shaping bonds?
The plane touched down on the runway and Shado was stirred from her slumber.
"Huh? Wha…" She uttered as she looked around herself, seeing Rumiko, Toya and her father still sitting in their seats. "Are we there yet?"
"Only halfway, Shado," Rumiko told her as the plane slowed down. "We just touched down on where we're going to be staying."
"Nervous?" Shinji asked his daughter.
She nodded her head in the positive. If she had to be honest about their relocation from Hokkaido to this school where other kids her father and Rumiko's age or slightly older or younger, she was still troubled by the presence of others that she didn't know whether or not to trust. The primary detail they were told about this place was that it was among the safest places in the country where people with Quirks could learn more about them, to better control them and use them in ways they never thought they could. But she was still troubled by the mere possibility of seeing new people; her reaction to the doctors that were at the hospital to help her still fresh in her mind.
"Me, too," her father told her. "It's still somewhat exciting to meet new people, though."
"But…how do we know who's good or bad?"
"By way of the first impression," Rumiko stated.
"First impression?"
"When you meet someone new for the first time, it's how they make you feel that determines whether or not you want anything to do with them. If they show a measure of kindness that makes you see them in a positive way, that helps to install a foundation for a relationship to be developed later on. But the first impression is anything but positive…then…we'll figure it out from there."
"You mean, bad impressions," said Shinji; he was used to getting bad impressions ever since…
Well, ever since he lost his mother and was abandoned by his father.
"Bad impressions equals bad foundations for future relationships," Rumiko told them.
-x-
"…What's that supposed to mean?!" Bakugo demanded to know from Ochaco, hearing from her that he may not be able to be a friendly individual around the new quartet coming to the academy. "Come on! Out with it!"
"What she meant was that," went Midoriya to him, "is that when it comes to making first impressions… You're not exactly friendly, Bakugo."
"Like Hell I am!"
"See what I mean?" Ochaco reiterated. "Your attitude makes you difficult to be around. If that little girl sees you, and you're like this, you may as well bring up bad memories of her grandfather's abuse toward her. Not to mention that you could make her father get the wrong impression that you might become another villain of sorts, just like his father."
"Why should I care what he thinks of me?"
"The first impression is the one that decides whether or not they'll want anything to do with you," Todoroki installed in the conversation in the living room area of the dorm. "It's the same with heroes; if you get a bad impression when you're trying to ensure your future as a protector or civil servant to the masses, the reactions follow you throughout the course of your career. Gang Orca's impressions, for example, based solely on his appearance, make it difficult for most children to see him as anything but a villain, despite him being a hero."
Bakugo still saw no reason to think the little girl, this bastard child of the boy that had defeated his old man to save her, would see him as being difficult if they ever met. He aimed to be among the strongest heroes of the next generation, and that meant becoming an unbeatable one.
"Just how damaged is this girl expected to be?" He asked.
"Bakugo," Ochaco went, "the girl was physically and emotionally abused by her grandfather ever since her Quirk manifested. Based only on old reports and statements made, that's at least two years before anyone ever found out. Two years of feeling despair, complete and utter hopelessness. She hasn't even been out in the world for a month, and she's still recovering from what she and her father had to go through with their friends. Here (she points to her head) and here (points to her heart). That sort of recovery doesn't just happen overnight at a hospital just because they got medical help. Remember Eri? She's still recovering from her trauma, and it's a struggle for her, too."
-x-
The ride over from the airport was a quiet one. Not that Shinji cared much for it being quiet; the silence, with the exclusion of the engine running, allowed him to continue gathering his thoughts about his, Shado, Toya and Rumiko's meeting with the principal of the school.
"You don't talk much," he heard the woman that met with Aizawa at the airport say to him, "do you, Mr. Ikari?"
He turned to face the woman that went by the hero name Midnight. And then he looked over at his daughter, who was asleep beside him on his left side, and responded, "It's just Shinji, ma'am. I'm still adjusting to everything."
Midnight looked at Aizawa and then at Rumiko and her son, who was asleep beside his mother on her right.
"How are you adjusting?" She asked him.
"I honestly don't know what to expect when we get to U.A. Safe haven, I get. These days, one can never be too protected from some type of danger. But…what about the students that are already there?" He questioned. "I know that they all want to be heroes, have these Quirks and everything, but…what are they like?"
"They're, uh… That's quite the question. They're all different and yet not so different from students of the Quirkless generations, with their problems and attitudes."
"I'm not sure that eases my concerns, Ms. Midnight. Are they friendly? Are there bullies among them? Nerds, otaku groups, jocks or cheerleaders?"
"Who said 'cheerleaders'?" Rumiko asked, waking up when the car went over a speed bump. "I only ever hear of those in American films."
"You'd probably want to steer clear of one of the students from Class 1-A, which is the group that may be the most regular of students you might fit in with," said Aizawa to Shinji. "Minoru Mineta, a little smaller than the other boys, practically a small child, and a bit crazy around women that he finds attractive."
"Ugh," the teen mother shuddered; all she could do was hope that this Mineta guy didn't try anything around her. Then again, he might not have any interest in a girl with a kid. Still, if he's into attractive girls, he must be a hentai. They're just the type that either tries to get alone with you or snap a picture of you in an indecent situation, like bathing or dressing up. If I meet him, I'll probably want nothing to do with him.
Something in Shinji just made him think negatively about this Mineta; he didn't want any girl-crazy student training to be a hero around Shado, lest they want to receive a black eye or a bruise on their body.
"And probably this young man by the name of Katsuki Bakugo," added Midnight to them. "From what we've encountered from the classes and hero exercises, Bakugo is the most prone to violent fits."
The two teens became protective of their children.
"What kind of Quirks do they have?" Rumiko asked.
"Mineta has a Mutant-Type Quirk called Pop Off," Aizawa explained, raising his left hand to his hair. "His hair is comprised of these black orbs that have adhesive qualities. He pops one off, a new one grows back a while later, but if he pops off too many of them, he gets a bloody scalp. Bakugo has an Emitter-Type Quirk called Explosion, which allows him to use his sweat to create explosive reactions with his hands."
"What do you think, Shinji?" Rumiko asked her friend.
"Mineta sounds like a perv that may have less brains than balls, but this Bakugo sounds like…" Shinji wasn't sure if he should finish his opinion on the other student they had yet to meet.
"Like what, Shinji?"
"If he's prone to fits of violence, he sounds like someone that is going down the not-so-heroic path they're trying to take."
-x-
Gendo was hardly seen outside of his office after confirmation of the Third Child's death was made public to NERV. With this revelation, he made Rei the primary pilot of Unit-01, putting Unit-00 into stasis until further notice as he awaited the completion of the Dummy System. There wasn't even a memorial service for the boy, not that he would attend such a thing, anyway. The loss of any of the pilots was of no consequence, even when it was of a personal loss; losing anyone due to an attack by the Angels or just through some type of casualty was often always painful, especially if they were particularly close to the people that still lived.
But Gendo had no relationship with his son, and had no reason to feel as he did for the boy.
Except that he did feel something for the boy. He felt anger that he was dead…and grief that the only living connection he had to Yui was now gone. The Eva didn't protect him from the Angel or the N² explosives dropped into the Dirac Sea, and he couldn't do anything to change this fact.
"The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away," he recalled; except that he couldn't blame God for this atrocity, even though he wanted to.
God didn't force Shinji to pilot the Eva, God didn't tell him to leave his son alone after his wife got consumed by the Eva, and God didn't order bombs to be dropped into the Angel just just to salvage the Eva. No, he couldn't be held responsible for anything that people did; people could claim all they wanted that everything that happens is God's doing, but Gendo couldn't believe this, anymore. The blame was only for those that made choices that carried repercussions…and God was infallible to every wrong there was a fault for.
-x-
Shado stepped onto the grounds of the hero academy, looking around and seeing the dorms where the students resided when not in school. So far, she didn't show signs of being under any stress or intimidation by her new surroundings. But this was still a new setting for her, just as it was for her father and friends; only time would tell if she was likely to be okay with being here.
"It looks like a small neighborhood here," went Toya as he looked at the dorms and the academy. "What do you think, Shado?"
She didn't respond to his question; her thoughts were still to be determined by the most important aspect of their new surroundings.
"One step at a time, Toya," Rumiko told him; unlike them, Shado had been tortured worse than all three of them for longer, and thus required longer to recover mentally and emotionally from what Gendo had done to them.
She and Toya were just trying to be optimistic about being where they were.
Shado turned to face Shinji and gave him a look of needing his approval before she did or said anything to state her opinion.
"Daddy," she finally uttered, "what do you think?"
"I think it'll take a little more than a day to develop an opinion on anything, but it's best to keep an open mind. We haven't even met the students yet."
The students, people her father's age and over. That was what Shado had her concerns about.
It would be about a day before their temporary residence was ready for the four, so they had to be hosted by the dormitory of Class 1-A, perhaps the closest to regular people that these four would likely associate with and were likely able to help with Shado's social development.
"Shall we?" Rumiko asked Shinji.
"Uh, ladies first, please," he responded.
She led the way into the dorm house and rang the doorbell.
"We should be wary of two of the students here," she informed their children.
"Which two?" Shado questioned, and then the door opened, revealing a young girl with brown hair and pink cheeks.
"Hello, you four," she greeted them. "We were told you'd be coming here for the day. I am…"
Shado hid behind her father, clinging to his right leg.
Shinji looked at the female student in front of them and bowed his head.
"You've probably heard about us," he greeted. "Please, forgive Shado. We're still in recovery."
"Uh, right. Ochaco Uraraka. It is nice to meet you."
She led them inside and into the living room area.
"Everyone is keeping a little distance so we don't really crowd you or anything," Ochaco explained to them. "How are you four doing so far today?"
"The ride between here and the airport was long," Toya expressed, looking around their setting and noticing that someone was nearby in hiding. "Um…are there any other kids Shado and my age here?"
"No, why?"
"There's a little kid with a funny hat hiding in a closet over there (he points over where he saw the person)."
Ochaco looked over and sighed.
"A little boy with a funny hat? You must've seen Mineta. He's the only student here that's smaller than the rest of us."
"Mineta," said Shinji and Rumiko.
"We were informed of him and another student here," Shinji informed her. "I'd really appreciate it if he didn't try anything that could be misinterpreted as something problematic, please."
"Yeah," Rumiko added. "One day at a time means not everything all at once, including people that are a bit strange."
"Right." Ochaco agreed with the teen parents; even if it was only for a day, everyone had to be on their best of games in order to get these four to open up to the presence of other people. "And if you heard about him, then you've probably know about Bakugo, right?"
The teen parents grimaced.
"Oh, you have heard of him."
"They're both not people we'd like to see just yet," Shinji explained. "A guy that likes girls a little too much and another guy that may be rough are unsettling for now."
The broom closet opened up and the three teens saw Mineta burst out.
"I am so not unsettling!" Mineta gasped, speaking his mind. "And you (he points to Rumiko) are a cute hottie!"
Shado began hyperventilating at the mere sight of Mineta, something Ochaco noticed right away.
"I am so sorry about this," she apologized and used her Quirk on Mineta, causing him to float to the ceiling.
"Hey, come on!" Mineta shouted. "I was complementing her!"
"Complement unaccepted," Rumiko stated, looking at Shado and quickly giving her a paper bag to breathe in and out of. "Just breathe, Shado."
"Scary," she uttered between breaths. "Scary."
Shinji wondered if Shado would ever be over this at a later time. The mere fact that a teen about the size of a small child just comes out of hiding and makes a scene was not what they were anticipating from anyone. And worse was how this boy just tries to make a pass at Rumiko. He started feeling like he had to set an example or something. Looking down at his right hand, he saw that it was glowing subtly like before when he was facing his father that night.
"Is there a bathroom we can use?" He asked Ochaco.
-x-
"…I don't know if Class 1-A is the best fit for these four," said All Might to the staff present in the principal's office, "mostly the little girl."
In front of them was a man who had four glass panels floating in around him, displaying the interior of the 1-A dormitory, showing that Mineta had caused Shado to hyperventilate.
"The girl's father looks like he wants to hit the boy for making a pass at his friend in front of them," said Midnight.
One of the panels showed Shinji escorting Shado to a bathroom, both looking like relief came just in time.
"Are you feeling a little better, Shado?" Shinji had asked his daughter.
"Yes, Daddy," the girl responded, sitting on the countertop with the paper bag placed beside her. "That boy was not…he was not friendly. He was creepy."
"Yeah, he was a little creepy," Shinji agreed with her. "He is older than I am, though. His behavior is listed as being among the most typical of boy behavior."
"What does that mean?"
"Mister Mineta is among people his age that don't have that many problems with his sense of socialism. He probably has friends that are like-minded, have similar interests as he does."
"Daddy, you didn't like how he was trying to get to know Rumiko."
"What makes you say that?"
"You and Rumiko have been friends since before Toya and I were born. You're practically best friends. And Rumiko likes you more than she says she does."
"I feel like this is a complete misuse of my Quirk, ladies and gentlemen," the man told the staff.
Satoshi Kon, the Surveillance Hero. His Quirk: Spy. He is able to produce four screens of any location within three-mile radius of himself and observe all the happenings of wherever he desires to survey. Currently on loan to UA for his ability to observe the students of 1-A as they try to get their potentially-new residents to open up to them.
"You can rest assured that your service here is a necessity to making certain that these four are able to socialize with the student body," the principal expressed.
"So far," uttered Aizawa, "they clearly dislike Mineta. Miss Gaidoku and her son are uncomfortable with him, and they have yet to meet the rest of the dorm."
So far, the small goal was to introduce the quartet to the students that were the stereotypical (or rather, those that were the most human in appearance) before they met the rest that were the least human in their appearance. Because they had been held in captivity and isolated from society, the teen parents hadn't had much exposure to people with Quirks that altered their appearances and their children had never seen people that had horns or beaks or vines or changes in their skin texture or tones. It was hoped that meeting them one at a time would help the little girl warm up to others.
"I don't understand why couldn't the children be exposed to people their age?" Satoshi questioned them.
"Have you seen toddlers these days?" Present Mic asked. "The boy, maybe he could get used to children that seem to have less reaction to listen to adults, but the girl… She might be unable to see other children the same way as she sees her friend as a person like herself. It may be just as difficult for her to be around most adults."
"Most adults being men and women, mainly men," said Aizawa, "who are incapable of harming others with their Quirks or even their hands. Her grandfather was the very embodiment of unchecked, relentless hatred directed towards her. Just being in the same room with another person that can be violent may bring up bad memories that we're trying to put behind her so she can move forward."
One of the panels showed Shado and Toya being introduced to Midoriya by Uraraka, who kept his distance from the children and their parents, who bowed in respect to him. It looked as though the girl was opening up to him; his Quirk, despite being a combat-oriented one, not listed as dangerous due to the boy's friendly personality.
Until…
A rabbit hopped past Midoriya, and the girl saw Koda, whose presence caused the girl to hide behind her father.
Koda bowed his head to them and made a hand gesture to show them that he was sorry for scaring Shado.
"This is Koji Koda," Uraraka introduced him. "Despite his brutish appearance, he's actually the friendliest student here. That's his rabbit."
Shado looked around her father and at Koda, seeing that he was keeping his distance from them. She then raised her right hand up and waved at him.
"Hello, Mr. Koda," she greeted him, her voice showing she was still intimidated by his appearance. "Nice rabbit."
"Wow," they soon heard Toru Hagakure, and Shinji and Rumiko looked dumbstruck at the girl that entered the scene. "You have a very beautiful daughter, sir."
-x-
"…Please, tell me who or…just who am I having a challenging time looking at here," Shinji uttered, very confused about seeing a pink, short-sleeved shirt and gray shorts with yellow sandals in front of them.
"Uh," went Toya, "a ghost girl?"
Ochaco introduced her as, "This is Toru Hagakure. She's always invisible due to her Quirk. She's also friendly."
"A girl who is always invisible?" Rumiko questioned. "I am…uncertain of how to comprehend this. We've never met anyone that was always invisible."
Shado, uncertain about the girl herself, felt frightened by her presence. In fact, she felt more frightened by Hagakure than she had by Koda, and he was scary as is to her. Her hands tightened around Shinji's right leg, informing him that she was clearly bothered by the two surprise students that were older than her father and were among those that were supposed to be introduced much later in the day.
"Uh, maybe we should," he tried to suggest, but Shado became weak in her knees, falling onto the floor in front of them. "Shado!"
She was still conscious, but she was barely responsive. If she was feeling stress from being near new people, she didn't show it very well. Her father picked her up and set her back down on the sofa, worried that she was not up to this.
Maybe this was a bad idea, he thought as he checked her heartbeat. She's not coping well to new stress in a healthy way. Every time she sees someone that she's never met before, she'll react as though…her life were in danger.
We've rarely ever seen other kids with Quirks around Hokkaido, thought Rumiko as she looked at Koda and Hagakure. What's more, we've never met anyone with unusual appearances, either. Koda looks brutish and made of rock with a skin-like tone, and Hagakure is invisible, so we can't see her face…or anything. If I knew her better or considered her a friend, I'd probably be able to track her with my Quirk.
"Is she going to be alright?" Uraraka asked them.
"It's complicated," Shinji responded. "She's not used to being around people because of…what happened back then."
"We saw you on the news last week," Hagakure informed him. "You were…really impressive…and heroic, protecting your daughter from your father. We don't really see many people doing anything like what you did that night."
Shinji gave a slight smile and expressed, "Anyone can be a hero. Even the ones you don't ever expect to be anything more than what they already are to you."
Rumiko understood that Shinji was referring to past experiences that he picked up from the Shinji she knew and lost because of his father and his brutality. He had his three heroes that he wanted to be a hero to, so he wanted to be worthy of them.
"How," uttered Koda, sounding like a timid person, "did you manage to defeat your father the way you did that night? He was…almost untouchable."
"Nobody is truly untouchable, and he was just too obsessed with someone that was not entirely at fault for what was nothing more than an accident. He couldn't accept this truth and ended up paying for it with his hands. He will never be able to hurt or threaten anyone that he doesn't like or feels threatened by."
"You're kinda like one of our friends with your Quirk," Hagakure told him. "Except he wasn't very capable in the beginning. He kept hurting himself before he developed the means to handle his Quirk."
"There's someone here that is like Daddy?" Shado asked.
"Sort of. I mean, he's more of an egghead because he knows nearly everything about most heroes and how they use their Quirks…and he doesn't have a kid to look after."
Shado suddenly felt like something was touching her face on her right cheek.
Zap! Hagakure, who had simply touched Shado on her face with her left hand's index finger, felt something travel up her arm and across her body.
"Oh!" She gasped as she pulled her arm back and fell down onto the floor, her body aglow in greenish-blue light.
"Hagakure!" Uraraka gasped as she and Koda ran over to her. "Are you alright?"
-x-
"…Oh, no!" Recovery Girl uttered; the fact that they were unsure of how the little girl's Quirk functioned, they should've informed the students that touching her without her permission was prohibited after coming to the suspected conclusion that Shado's Quirk was triggered when her grandmother touched her as a baby, which caused her to disappear.
"I should've been in there with them!" Aizawa grunted; his Quirk served as a counter to the negatives of other people's Quirks.
"Wait a minute," went All Might, looking at Hagakure as her body continued to glow. "Is she…is she turning visible?"
On Satoshi's visual panels, the invisible girl started to look more visible, with short hair and light skin, with green eyes.
"What in the name of…" Midnight spoke, especially confused as everyone else was by this.
"Whoa," Rumiko went as she kept her son away from Hagakure as the glow ceased, and the girl was visible to all. "Are you alright?"
"I…I… You can see me now?" The girl questioned as she got up, looking at her arms and feet. "But…my Quirk is always active."
The teaching staff then noticed that the little girl had passed out, which surprised them.
"Okay, we need to check the safety of the students," said Nezu; the safety of the students had to be their top priority, and they still didn't know enough about Shado Ikari's Quirk beyond its name and what it did to at least one person over two years ago.
To be continued…
A/N: After looking at the list of Quirks on the MHA Wiki site and seeing that there was no such Quirk, I had leeway to create a Quirk like Spy and a bit character to have it. Hope from the Sky had Robin Williams, so this gets Satoshi Kon as a memorable person. I wanted to include Bakugo meeting the quartet and making a scene, but that will have to come later. I bet none of you expected that to happen. Until the next chapter. Stay safe and healthy.