Creation began on 03-26-21
Creation ended on 03-29-21
Neon Genesis Evangelion
My Hero, Shinji Ikari: Further Explanation
A/N: gunman thought Shado's Quirk renders those with Quirks Quirkless, but in this chapter, we'll receive an explanation for why Toru Hagakure is currently visible.
"Say, 'Ah'," Recovery Girl instructed Hagakure as she held out a tongue depressor.
Toru Hagakure, still visible after she touched Shado, opened her mouth in front of the heroine.
"Ah," she stuck out her tongue for Recovery Girl, wondering if it was really necessary for Aizawa and the principal to be in the nurse's office with them.
"Can you describe what happened in the dorm?" Recovery Girl asked her.
"It's as I said," Hagakure repeated, "I touched Shado Ikari on her face, and then I felt a jolt of electricity or something go through me. I fell down on the floor…and I was no longer invisible like I usually always am."
"Did you feel any numbness or pain?" Nezu asked her.
"No, sir."
"Can you try turning invisible?"
"I'm not sure I know how to, sir."
"That would make sense," went Aizawa. "Miss Hagakure wouldn't know how to activate her Quirk, due to it always being active. It was a Mutant-Type Quirk, after all."
"Hold on, you said that the girl's Quirk was called Regression?" Recovery Girl questioned Aizawa and Nezu.
"That was how Gendo believed it functioned," Aizawa explained, "but it didn't seem like he had much information about it. At least nothing he was willing to divulge to anyone before he was transported to his prison cell. He's not saying anything else as long as he's in solitary confinement, not that he's worth bargaining for more information."
"No, if he doesn't have any other intel on his granddaughter's Quirk, I doubt he'd have anything to barter with," Nezu stated. "He's a lost cause, anyway; he's going to be spending the rest of his life in prison."
"Um, there was something that happened for just a second after I touched the girl. I didn't really think much of it, but it might relate to my current visibility." Hagakure revealed.
"What did occur after you touched her?" Recovery Girl asked.
"I saw a woman," she answered. "It was only for a second, but it felt like a long time. She didn't say anything to me, but seemed very…lively."
"You saw a woman?" Nezu needed to clarify.
"Yes."
"Do you recall what this woman looked like?" Aizawa wanted to know.
Hagakure nodded that she had recollection of the woman she saw.
-x-
Shado awoke sometime later, finding herself in a room that she didn't recognize. She looked to her right and found her father asleep on the floor beside the bed.
"Daddy?" She uttered, and he slowly came to.
"Shado," he greeted her. "You're awake."
"How…how long was I asleep?"
Shinji checked the wall-mounted clock Shinji checked the wall-mounted clock and it indicated that his daughter was asleep for less than two hours, and he had only been asleep for less than half an hour.
"Just an hour and twenty minutes," he explained.
"What happened? Whose room is this?"
"Miss Hagakure touched you and then she suddenly became visible. This is Ms. Uraraka's dorm room; she was the only person we spent the most time talking to."
"The ghost girl?"
"Invisible girl, Shado. She's not…a ghost."
Shinji was going to say "dead", but then he would be reminding himself and Shado that her actual father was dead, and that he had taken his place among the living. But that was a strong word to use around her and he didn't want her to feel bad about anything that happened in the past that wasn't her fault. And the Hagakure girl was still alive, not dead, not hurt, just being seen by a lot of people now that only saw her as a empty space occupied by clothing and a voice.
Mineta even had something to say about seeing her, all of which further cemented his position as an obsessive boy that liked pretty girls.
"You mean…I didn't hurt her?" Shado asked him.
"Unless making an invisible girl visible for the first time in a long time is some kind of assault, I don't see anybody pointing an accusing finger at you," he told her. "She's getting looked at by the school nurse, but people are optimistic that she's fine."
"Where are Rumiko and Toya?"
"Rumiko told me that she and Toya would stay outside the room. They're probably trying to speak more to the students we haven't been introduced to yet."
"That boy with the bumpy hair. I don't like him, Daddy. He's… He makes me feel unsafe."
"You and Rumiko. He's an example of the type of life that I can't really get into living."
"What do you mean, Daddy?"
"Mineta is a boy that likes girls to the point where he can't stop thinking about them. You put him in a room with three beautiful women, he'll probably risk getting hurt just to ask them for their phone numbers or email addresses."
"Why?"
"He…he probably just saw heroines, hero women, at an early age and developed a liking to them over manly heroes."
"What makes a man a hero?"
"Being in control of their emotions and actions."
"Daddy, can you be honest about what I'm going to ask you?"
"Sure, what is the question?"
"You wanted to hit him, didn't you?"
Shinji sighed and had to be honest with her about his own feelings regarding the perverse teen.
"Only if he doesn't keep his distance from you and Rumiko," he admitted. "If anything happened to any of you, I'd…"
Shado got up and hugged her father.
"That's part of the reason you're going to be a good hero someday," she told him.
-x-
Facial recognition, digitized photos, video footage taken on every camera in every town or city in every developed country with educated people going back over twenty years…and nothing anyone could currently come up with could explain the result that was this one photo they were looking at right now.
Toru Hagakure, who had described the woman in every detail she had seen of her, pointed to the woman that resembled the one she saw for just a second after she touched Shado.
When the teachers and principal had eliminated all other women from the list of people with similar features, they had only one name for the mystery woman, and she was still a mystery to how and why: Yui Ikari, the wife of Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari, the mother of Shinji Ikari and the grandmother of Shado Ikari, missing, presumed dead, ever since she became a victim of Shado's Quirk activating and removing her from existence.
"Miss Hagakure," said Midnight to the girl, "are you absolutely certain that this was the woman you saw?"
"Yes," she responded. "That was her, exactly as she is in the picture."
"But Yui Ikari was presumed dead after Shado's Quirk was triggered and she was the first casualty of it," Aizawa stated.
"It didn't seem like some hallucination, and she didn't look dead at all. She was just…there, wherever she was where I saw her."
"Where exactly did you see her?" Thirteen, who was among the teachers present in the room, asked her.
"Hmm?"
"You said you saw her, but where did you see her? Do you remember where it was you saw the woman? A location?"
"It was…in a vast, white space."
"A vast, white space?" All Might questioned.
"What if…" Recovery Girl uttered.
"What if, what, Recovery Girl?" Nezu asked her.
"What if…what Ms. Hagakure saw… What if it is Mrs. Ikari? What if she's not dead, as the world was led to believe?"
"What, that she's alive somewhere and we can't get to her?" Midnight suggested.
"Yui Ikari had a Quirk that she wasn't really using, and she disappeared when her granddaughter used her Quirk unintentionally. Miss Hagakure touched Shado, and she becomes visible. What if…the girl's Quirk is triggered by being touched by specific individuals with Quirks that fall into two of the main categories?"
"Which would be?" Thirteen wanted to know.
"Quirks that can be triggered at will by their users…and Quirks that can't be controlled due to their lack of information on how to manipulate."
"Like Emitter and Mutant-Type Quirks," Aizawa said.
"Yes," Recovery Girl stated. "Emitter-Types basically have an on and off switch the users can decide when to flip. Mutant-Types, well, they…they don't have an off switch, so they're always active. What if Yui touched Shado when her Quirk activated and her own Quirk wasn't being used? She probably ended up getting displaced by the girl. Hagakure touched her, and instead of meeting a similar fate, Shado merely made her Quirk stop making her invisible. Maybe it's different with Mutant-Type Quirks. If so, then…"
"Then, what, like I have an off switch for my Quirk now?" The girl asked.
"It's just a theory."
But, if the theory was proven true, it could've meant that Shado Ikari was more invaluable if she ever ended up in the custody of people that viewed her Quirk as a means to change the way Quirks functioned. It would also mean her Quirk's name would have to be changed once it was confirmed that it was more controllable than suspected.
"Maybe if she were touched by another person with a Mutant-Type Quirk?" Nezu suggested.
-x-
"…Is she still resting?" Mezo Shoji asked Rumiko as she and Toya sat on the floor outside of Uraraka's dorm room.
Rumiko looked up and uttered, "Shinji informed us that Shado awoke a few minutes ago and they're just talking now. Is that (she points her left hand's index finger to his arms) your…"
"My Quirk?" He cut her off, his left arm developing a second mouth. "Yes. Dupli-Arms. I can duplicate other parts of my body at will. Eyes, ears, mouths."
"That's…amazing," said Toya to him.
"Thank you. Your friend, Ikari… Is he going to be alright, surrounded by so many people with Quirks that he doesn't fully understand?"
"What makes you say that?" Rumiko asks.
"Earlier, I was listening…and I heard his heartbeat was very…erratic."
"He's just cautious for Shado's well-being. Any parent or guardian would have an erratic heartbeat when they're overly concerned."
Shoji could hear the way Rumiko's heart beat with a feeling of unease, as though she was unsure of whether to be accepting of half the students here or concerned."
"Uh, just so you know," he stated, "I'm not like Mineta or any other guy that has seen you, Ms. Gaidoku."
"Thank you, even though I've only met seven of you today. Eight when you include Ms. Hagakure. Has there been any update on her?"
"Recovery Girl is still examining her, but it doesn't look like she's in any danger. Most of us are still talking about her appearance now that we can see her. I'm sure as you can see, nobody here knew what she looked like."
"It's a bit weird," went Toya. "I never understood Quirks very well. I haven't had much exposure to them because we were kept in captivity, but why does it look like some people can't turn their Quirks on and off like my mother and Shinji seem to be able to?"
"There are three categories for Quirks: Emitter, Transformation, and Mutant. Mutant is the only one that features an active Quirk. Some Emitters have a downside to their abilities. But…if everyone's Quirk were a Mutant-Type…"
"Then my mother and Shinji wouldn't be able to turn theirs off, either?" He asked.
"That's right."
"That's a scary thought."
"I take it none of you have ever met heroes with Mutant Quirks?"
Rumiko nodded that because of the combination of their unlawful imprisonment and their lack of heroes on Hokkaido, they hadn't seen much exposure to a variety of Quirks. The one Quirk that they had seen more than others was the one they just wanted to forget about as time passes by.
The door to Uraraka's room opened and Shinji came out with Shado.
Shoji bowed his head to the two and Shado looked up at him.
"Whoa," she reacted, not with fear or disgust, but of fascination.
"I just heard that you woke up," he explained his presence. "Are you feeling better?"
Shado nodded that she was feeling better.
-x-
"Well, little Shado has awoken from her slumber," Midnight informed them. "Other than being hungry and surrounded by people she doesn't know, she's doing fine."
"That's a relief," said All Might.
"I'm sending Ms. Hagakure back to the dorms for the time being," Recovery Girl informed them. "We can do further tests on her current state at another time. Her visibility might even be temporary and she'll return to invisibility in a few hours."
"But you won't know for sure if her Quirk Factor is still present until later, do you?" Present Mic asked her.
"No," she answered.
"Are we sure that having these four with Class 1-A is a good idea?" Midnight questioned. "Maybe Class 1-B, or 1-D, or…"
"When you factor in everything that has happened to these four and their abilities, who better than 1-A to be the first to aid in their recovery?" Nezu suggested. "They've been exposed to similar danger and have seen similar foes with immoral behaviors and intentions…and still manage to get to the next day with their sights set on reaching their own goals with what they have learned and experienced."
Not many of the other students have had such a dangerous luxury as Class 1-A. Some have gotten improved results and have had to strive for greater success than others, but this class has been in the thick of it all and were the most fortunate to get out of the worst of situations with the least number of injuries. With their most recent experience of dealing with the Shie Hassaikai being among their best of hero-related teachings and missions, they were outclassing the other classes by an astronomical margin.
"They've been held against their will by someone that failed to do right by them," went All Might, "treated with cruelty by a mind twisted by disgrace and resentment, and had to rely on each other's presence to survive and make their escape to whoever was around that wouldn't hesitate to do the right thing."
None of the other teachers and heroes could see any other class of students that these four could relate to. Although some had their doubts about this pairing, it was mostly because they were unsure of how some of the students, when not training to be heroes, were around this damaged quartet in their downtime and personal lives. It was particularly how the more straightforward students, the tenacious ones, tried to implement tactics that didn't do well to aid in their therapeutic recovery.
"It hasn't been a day, and it seems like the end is near," said Aizawa.
-x-
Bakugo didn't like this arrangement at all. Bad enough that he was looked at as being someone to scare the teen parents' children because he wasn't so social and friendly to be around, but he was to avoid being seen by their children until after everyone else was introduced. He found it ridiculous that he had to be on lockdown because of a pair of rugrats that recently escaped from a terrible situation with their parents that weren't even heard of much due to their lack of public disclosure. From what he had learned of the parents, the boy, Shinji, was barely fourteen years old, while the girl, Rumiko, was a year older than him. He couldn't understand how a girl a year older than the guy that bested his own old man could spend so much of her time with him…or what, if anything, she saw in him.
I doubt they'd even be good heroes, he thought, reading up on the previous iteration of the NERV organization that it seemed that Gendo had torn down. But the boy ruined his father, tearing up his arms so that he couldn't use his Quirk any further. How powerful is he if he hasn't used his Quirk since that day?
-x-
Sleep didn't escape the needs of Rumiko and Shinji. Despite the mild and typical behavior of a handful of the boys that didn't click with Shinji, he made a choice to see where this, whatever this was to help him and the others recover from their sordid time in his father's custody, was going. He wasn't sure what was more unusual than the other current issue: The fact that he, Rumiko and their children were laying in the common room on the first floor…or the fact that, despite feeling like he was supposed to be asleep, Shinji felt like he was on the lookout for whoever was likely to make their presence known to the four during their most vulnerable period in the silence of the night. Maybe it was the latter and not the former, because he felt like he was having an…what people referred to as an out-of-body experience.
"Shinji?" He heard Rumiko speak to him. "Are you asleep?"
Suddenly, he responded, "No, Rumiko. What is it?"
"Do you…feel like we're being watched?"
"No. I actually feel like I'm waiting for something to happen when I should be resting."
"I feel like that boy, Mineta, might try to sneak in here while we're asleep."
"If he does try something, I'll feel like I need to protect the people I don't want to live without."
Shinji then opened his eyes and looked over to the hallway leading to the elevator, glaring his eyes, feeling like there was someone nearby that didn't belong. His body started to glow like before, with his eyes and veins making him look like he was ready for a fight.
"Shinji?" Rumiko questioned as he got up.
"Stay down," he instructed her as he walked over to the hallway. "Whoever is hiding down here, you'd best rethink your next act, and I suggest you think quickly. I don't want to break any limbs unless I absolutely have to. I will hurt anyone that tries to harm my daughter and friends."
He heard a panicked breathing and whoever it was ran off. Looking down at the floor, he saw something that identified the potential suspect: A small, black sphere. Even if it was just Mineta, it made Shinji feel like he needed to set an example, but he needed to be an example. As his body ceased glowing, he felt the danger had passed; the threat was no longer present, so his Quirk was no longer active, and he returned to the common space.
"Did you see who it was?" Rumiko asked him.
"Yeah," he answered. "It was the little perv. He dropped one of his balls."
"I'm not going to sleep now."
"No, you can sleep. I can't seem to sleep now. I feel like I'm constantly aware of things when I should be asleep. I don't know if it's because of my Quirk or because of my paternal instincts."
"If I had to guess, it's a combination of the two."
Meanwhile, the attempted peeping tom shuddered as they hid under their sheets in fear of what they saw downstairs.
He looked like some kind of glowing demon, they thought.
-x-
As the sun rose the following morning, Midoriya came downstairs and found Shinji sitting on one of the couches. He looked as though he hadn't slept much of the night.
"Uh… Morning, Shinji?" He greeted.
Shinji looked over him and responded, "Morning. They're still asleep."
Midoriya looked at the open space where Rumiko, her son and Shinji's daughter slept, and got the impression that he had been up all night.
"Did something happen?" He asked him.
"The student that looks like a toddler with an obsession for pretty girls, he tried to come down here last night and dropped one of his balls."
"Mineta. He's such a… You get used to him after a while. He's more coward than perv."
"Maybe, but he's not someone I'd let around Shado and Rumiko and Toya. At this point, I'll need a list of people I perceive as threats based on their attitudes and behaviors. Mineta because he wants to ogle any girl he finds pretty. My father because he's just a terrible person."
"That's only two people."
"I haven't met anyone else here that has given me any reason to think negatively of them."
"You're being very cautious."
"Wouldn't you if you had people to protect?"
Midoriya had to give Shinji credit for that comeback. For all he knew, this guy could've been an angel brought back to life and not a stranger from another dimension where heroes were just figments of people's imagination. And then, there was how some of his friends and classmates tried to compare the two due to how their Quirks functioned. Not even he was sure how similar it was to One For All at all; they seemed to have similar highlights and improved abilities, but Midoriya had to suspect that Shinji's Quirk, Guardian, was different due to its development and how it's triggered and used.
"If it wasn't just my mother and I had a kid, I'd be protective, too," he told Shinji.
"What about your father?" Shinji asked.
"He's been absent for a few years. Not dead, just…not home as much as he'd like to be."
"Mmm…" They both heard Shado mumbled as she awoke. "What time is it?"
"Time to get up and face the new day," they heard Rumiko utter as she woke up. "Shinji…did you keep watch over us all night?"
"Yeah," he answered.
"Aren't you tired, Daddy?" Shado asked him.
"Not that much. Do y'all have coffee or anything with caffeine in it?" Shinji questioned Midoriya; since they had a communal kitchen, he had to know what they had to eat.
"Yeah," he answered.
"Good morning, everyone," they heard Hagakure as she entered the room.
"Oh," Midoriya reacted, seeing that the girl was still very visible. "Hagakure, you're still…"
"Yeah, but I'll be working on that today," she explained her current state. "I may end up owing your daughter my gratitude, Ikari. My friends can't take their eyes off me."
Rumiko looked at the girl and had to wonder if the Mineta boy would choose to look at her rather than herself; she didn't need to be ogled by every guy here and then gossiped about because she was probably the only one that would be permitted to bring their child to school with her. Even then, it was better some other girl than herself.
"I had a weird dream last night," Shado revealed to Shinji.
"How weird?" He asked her.
"I saw a woman in a white place. She wasn't moving, but it looked like she was looking at me."
Hagakure's eyes widened. Did the little girl see the same woman she saw after she was touched by her? Did Shado see her paternal grandmother?
"A white space?" Toya uttered as he woke up. "I hate the color white. It's an overused color."
"Same here, Toya," Rumiko agreed with her.
Shinji had taken notice of Hagakure's eyes widening and wondered if there was something Shado said that triggered her reaction.
"Uh, hey, it's Sunday," he told them. "It's the only day you get to enjoy before the week returns you to school. What does one do for fun around here when you're not training to be a hero?"
"Uh, pool?" Midoriya pointed out, and Shinji frowned. "Is that a problem?"
"We can't swim," Rumiko revealed; while Shinji might've never had much exposure or even an instructor, she had never gone near the water outside of a bathtub and didn't have any exposure after she had gotten pregnant five years ago.
"Maybe Yaoyorozu can make y'all water wings," Hagakure suggested.
-x-
Gendo hated these prosthetic arms he had in place of his original ones his son had destroyed. They had no trace of his flesh or bones in them and they left a subconscious irritation in his mind. And being unable to use his Quirk was like being unable to breathe or run around. If such a day came where he could escape from this prison that isolated him from the world, he would exact his vengeance against both Shinji AND Shado; the boy that stole his arms and his Quirk from him…and the bastard girl that stole his wife.
It hasn't even been a month, and I feel like I've been here for over two weeks, he thought as he looked up at the dark ceiling of his dimly-lit cell. Aaaurgh!
He kicked in his cot and one of his slippers came off and flew across the floor. And then…he calmed down and thought about something he hadn't thought about in years. It was something Yui had suggested to him when they had dated for two years.
"You shouldn't rely so much on your hands because they're the part of you that works best," she had told him. "You should learn to make full use of your Quirk by training your body to be more adaptable. A man my grandfather knew had an accident where he was injured and he couldn't move his body as effectively as he used to. He had given up on his body and almost wasted away…until he tried to elevate his mind…and he found a way to recover, despite his injuries. You should elevate your mind so that you have a more-versatile range of abilities."
For years, ever since he discovered what Wrath enabled him to do, Gendo had only focused on his hands because they were the part of him that served him best. But now they were gone…and he needed to reevaluate his handicap and elevate his mind.
I may be down, he came to his realization, but I may not be out just yet. Shinji Ikari, you and your daughter aren't safe from me. Not then, not now, not ever.
To be continued…
A/N: Shado's Quirk may affect people with Quirks that are inactive or don't have an off switch, Shinji is still adjusting to life in a world where people can be educated to be heroes, but he's finding how there are people that aren't that different from people he had seen in his world, and now the teachers have to come up with a list of people with Quirks that could be affected by his daughter. And now, there's a possibility that the villainous Gendo Ikari that is incarcerated isn't as broken as he was believed to be. Also, what are your reactions to any future happenings? What do you expect to see happen later on?