Masao woke up confused about where he was for a moment, the grey metal walls were not fully familiar to him but were not alien to him either.
He blinked, waiting for his mind to wake up fully before he moved.
Flicking out his tongue, the scents of people he was acquainted with but did not know very well filled his mind.
Then when he tasted and smelt sea salt he finally clued into where he was.
His room at Gang Orca's agency.
Standing on all fours he shook his body then yawned widely.
He stood on two feet then got in his hero costume, carefully glueing his crest back onto his forehead.
Turning up the heat so that he could wake up some more before he left his room.
Walking down the halls towards the mess hall, passing a few of the sidekicks on his way to get something for breakfast.
It was not as big as the cafeteria at U.A. but still larger than most he would assume, Masao grabbed up a bucket of shellfish and then sat down at one of the tables in the corner that was empty.
Popping a shrimp in his mouth as he pulled out his phone and looked through his messages.
Firstly, looking at his chat with Shuichi since he wanted an update on the situation between his siblings.
[Onii-Chan?]
[Onii-Chan has shared a picture]
[Masao: Did you both have fun?]
[Onii-Chan: Yes, she was very excited to finally meet my friends.]
[Onii-Chan has shared a picture]
[Onii-Chan: She's sleeping now and we're on the train back.]
[Masao: Are you doing better now?]
[Onii-Chan: We're... working on it still, but there's a good chance that Chase is going to try and look for Toga now... ]
[Masao: You told him that Midoriya-Sensei already dealt with her?]
[Onii-Chan: Yes, but he wants to take a bite out of her himself for stabbing me :(]
[Masao: Understandable.]
[Onii-Chan: Masao! You're trying to be a hero!]
[Masao: And?]
[Onii-Chan: {GIF of a facepalm}]
[Onii-Chan: Why do I even bother?]
"Hey Koi-Sempai, who are ya texting?" Yokino-Kohai asked, trying to look over his shoulder but was not tall enough to do so, so she stepped onto the bench to get a look.
"My older brother, he took our sister Kaori out with him to hunt for Pokémon with his friends." he answered moving his phone to see her the pictures Shuichi sent him.
"Awe... she's adorable, she doesn't look like you guys though, she adopted?" Yokino-Kohai asked as she sat down with him.
"No, Onii-Chan is adopted, Kaori and I have the same parents." Masao replied and Yokino-Kohai blinked then said a soft 'huh' before turning back to her plate of food.
Masao, not that close to her, did not try to keep up conversation with her and instead looked through the chat he had with his friends to see how they were doing at their internships.
Hado had already spammed the chat with pictures of her working with Ryukyu, she was incredibly happy working with the dragon hero.
Haya sent a few of her own though you could not tell where she was at because she was working with an underground hero.
Fatgum had sent a picture on Amajiki's behalf after he took his phone from him.
Mirio was also careful with the pictures he sent since Sir Nighteye was a Twilight hero.
Oswald on the other hand did not post any photos at all, taking his internship with the underground hero he managed to get seriously.
Masao thrilled as he scrolled through he chat for a bit, considering taking a picture himself but decided he'd need to talk to Gang Orca about it first to see if there was any rules about it, Gang Orca wasn't an underground hero by any measure but there might be things in the agency he didn't want him to take pictures around.
Masao placed his phone down and went back to eating his bucket of food, finishing off the seafood before returning the bucket.
Heading down to one of the training areas to get started on his day.
Gang Orca's agency was nice Masao decided after he finished his last lap of the obstacle course in the training area.
It was not as interactive as the obstacle courses at U.A. but the one Gang Orca did have was still immensely helpful for enrichment.
Masao stopped by the water fountain and began gulping down water, the chill helping to calm his heart, one of the sidekicks had also used the training room and the sunlight was more intense than usual.
Then dried his snout with some paper towels, he did not need to accidentally cool down too much and get sleepy or use his heating coils so frequently.
However, he stopped and flicked his tongue out, catching another mouthful of an unexpected scent.
Turning his head he scanned the room and then spotted the person he was looking for by the doors.
There was a young boy there.
He looked to be about Kaori's age, had black hair under his red cap with yellow horns, and was scowling from where he was standing on the other side of the glass windows.
Masao wondered what the boy was doing here, while there was a nursery/daycare in the building it was hard for a kid to get out of it, and secondly said place was on the other side of the agency for safety reasons.
Bring your kid to work day was also off the table, if Gang Orca even did allow such a holiday, it was not for another couple of months if he remembered the day correctly.
So Masao walked over to the doors so that he could get a better judge of the boy's scent, someone could have lost their child on the way to the daycare and the boy was just able to wonder far, it was a small chance but he might be able to pick a familiar scent of the boy.
The boy smelt... watery, Masao was sure it was freshwater of some kind, not a lake, pond, or river though, perhaps a waterfall but Masao was not sure since he had never been able to smell one of those before.
He was not able to get much more though since the boy decided to run when Masao got too close to him.
Not unexpected, but Masao still chased after the boy.
Allowing the boy to run himself out into one of the less traveled halls in the agency before he ended the chase and scooped the boy up in his hands.
"Put me down you dumb lizard!" the boy protested, kicking and squirming the best he could in Masao's hands.
"No." Masao replied turning the boy around to face him.
The boy then tried to bite his hand, while that might work on someone else Masao could deal with the attempts just fine.
Masao let the boy continue to fight and try to escape his hold, flicking his tongue again to get a better judge of his scent.
There was a lot of anger in the boy, but there was even more sadness and even some betrayal mixed in from what he could smell of the boy's emotions.
Ah... Masao knew this scent well.
"You don't like heroes, do you?" Masao pointed out after five minutes of holding the squirming boy, most kids would have called for help by this point, especially kids outside of the South Side that were in a hero agency.
"What's it to ya?" the boy venomously spat back, his fighting only being stopped since he was tired out.
"I don't like heroes either." Masao told the boy, which only made the boy scoff.
"The hell you do." the boy said back, clearly not believing him since he was technically a hero student, which was fair Masao supposed.
"Endeavour alone has almost killed my family twice over in the last four years." Masao replied and the boy stopped to gawk at him.
"He got too close to where we live and both times my family could have been killed along with my neighbors in the flames he let rage out of control." Masao explained further.
"And there have been more times before that where he, and other heroes almost killed me and my family before that as well in the disasters they let get out of hand." Masao added.
"I don't like heroes." Masao re-stated for the boy.
"But then why are you trying to become one then?" the boy spat the question, his brows pinched together from his confusion.
"Because someone I am very close to thinks highly of a few of them for being true heroes, people unlike Endeavour that do care and do their best to protect people. I want to be a hero like that." Masao answered.
The boy scoffed and turned away "What's the point if you're just going to leave everyone behind." the boy spat under his breath.
Masao tilted his head, that was an odd sentiment but he carefully thought the words over until he understood why the boy could think like that.
"Your parents were heroes, were they not?" Masao inquired and the boy shot him a scalding look.
"Did they abandon you somewhere?" Masao asked.
"What?" the boy questioned back, staring at him taken aback.
"Did they leave you behind? On a street corner maybe? Or at a friend's house because they couldn't be bothered with you anymore." Masao clarified.
"Wha- No!" the boy exclaimed.
"Did you wake up to them being gone from the house and a note that said they wouldn't come back for you?" Masao pressed.
"No." the boy said quieter this time.
"Then why do you think your parents left you for heroics?" Masao asked tilting his head.
The boy bit his lip to keep himself from crying.
"Because being stupid heroes caused them to be killed!" the boy spat back, his eyes tearing up.
Masao thrilled.
"I think you have misunderstood something then, if your parents died during their work as heroes then they did not leave you." Masao told the boy, and the child was going to argue with him, but Masao continued.
"Your parents did not leave you. They were stolen from you." Masao said firmly.
And the boy looked like someone punched him in the gut, his eyes wide.
"Regardless of if they were killed in an accident, like a collapsed building, or were purposely killed by someone else as they were just doing the best they could, they did not choose to die that day." Masao stated.
"I've known a lot of people who've died, parents and children alike and none of them wanted to die and leave their family but something, or sometimes someone else, never gave them a choice." Masao explained to the boy.
The kid's eyes welled up with tears.
"One of the hardest things about life is learning there are things you can't change, things that are so beyond you that you can't do anything but watch whatever happens and deal with the aftermath of it." Masao told the boy.
"It's horrible that your parents were stolen from you. My mother was also taken from me shortly after my little sister was born, and that pain can be suffocating." Masao sympathetically informed the boy.
He had not been able to feel the full weight of her death, but he had seen the toll it took on others.
And there was a slight twinge in his chest whenever he thought of her now so while he did not have the blackhole that consumed others and made them into a wreck he did somewhat understand.
The boy sniffed and Masao pulled the boy into a hug, allowing the boy to quietly cry into his chest.
"Why- Why does everyone talk about how good it was for them to get themselves killed?" the boy spitefully questioned, the occasional hiccup making him sputter a touch.
Masao thrilled again "Because people are morons that don't like talking about death. They don't want to think about how horrible it was when your parents died, they just want to remind each other about all of the good your parents wanted to do in the world." Masao told the child.
"That's stupid." the boy muttered.
"That is why I said people are morons." Masao pointed out and the child remained quiet aside from a sniff here or there.
"You said your mom died too?" the boy asked, and Masao nodded his head.
"Does it ever get better?" the boy quietly asked.
Masao paused, carefully thinking about what he should say, it was not the first time he had to comfort a child, most people in the South Side had experienced loss in one form or another so it was not unfamiliar territory for him.
"No, it won't ever be better, but as you grow older the pain will be easier to live with as you move on. It will still be painful whenever you think back to it, but the distance that time will bring shall help somewhat." Masao finally said to the boy.
The boy did not have anything to say in response and Masao let him take his time to recompose himself.
"My name is Koi in the field, what is your name?" Masao asked after a few minutes.
The boy sniffled.
"... Kota." the boy answered.
Masao nodded "It was nice to meet you Kota, would you like a tour of Gang Orca's agency?" Masao offered.
"Sure." Kota replied despondently.
Masao moved, pulling Kota on his neck and the boy held onto the crest looking surprised as Masao shifted to stand on all fours and then started walking.
"I'll show you the training rooms first." Masao told Kota.
The next hour was spent showing Kota around the agency, getting more than a few looks from the others when they passed but no one stopped Masao from his little tour for Kota.
Eventually they stopped in one of the semi-private sections of the cafeteria, some sandwiches for Kota and some more shellfish for him since he it was what wanted to have that day.
Kota brows furrowed when he ate a crab.
"Aren't you supposed to take the meat out of the shell first?" Kota questioned.
Masao shrugged "Most people do, they can't eat the shell and it would probably cut their mouths if they tried, but I can because of my quirk." Masao answered popping another crab in his mouth.
"But your quirk makes you a lizard." Kota pointed out.
"Yes, and the type of lizard I take after eats a lot of insects with hard exoskeletons or sting, like snails, wasps and scorpions. So, I have thicker skin in my mouth and gums, so I can eat things like this and cacti without hurting myself." Masao explained.
Kota's face became screwed up.
"You can't eat a cactus." Kota told him.
Masao was thrilled, then like Oswald told him to say if such a situation came up again, he said "Bet." then stood up and went to grab some pieces of cactus from the cooks.
And Kota's mouth dropped when Masao came back and ate them in front of him and then showed him his undamaged mouth.
Kota even got on the table and grabbed his tongue to examine it himself.
"Why is your mouth and tongue blue?" Kota questioned.
Masao waited for Kota to let go before he answered, "Shingleback lizards have blue mouths, I don't know the exact reasons, but I think that it might be because my mouth's skin is thicker like I said."
"That's weird." Kota replied.
Masao shrugged.
"You smell like water." he told the boy in response.
Kota tensed slightly, his eyes wide.
"You can smell my quirk?" he asked surprised.
"Sometimes, people with fire quirks smell like ash and soot usually but not always." Masao answered with a so-so hand motion, then ate some more crabs.
"Kota!" someone shouted and upon turning his head Masao saw one of the Wild Wild Pussycats running over to them.
Kota huffed broody took one of the sandwiches to eat it instead of reacting to the woman.
The woman wrapped her arms around Kota "Kota, thank goodness you're okay," the woman said then put her hands on the boy's shoulders to turn him towards her.
"Do you know how worried I was when they told me you weren't at the daycare? How could you run away like that?" the woman asked.
Kota ducked his head, the woman sighed.
"Kota is fine, I've been watching him for the last hour." Masao assured the woman, and after he flicked his tongue was certain the brunette woman was Kota's aunt.
Somehow, she did not seem to notice him and jumped, whirling around and her mouth opened and closed.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I hope he hasn't been much trouble for you." the woman apologized, and Kota bit his lip, his fingers digging into the sandwich.
"Kota isn't any trouble, he's a very nice boy." Masao corrected.
Kota's head shot up and he stared at him surprised, his aunt was not much better.
"Oh, I'm glad." Kota's aunt said relieved, pawed hand over her heart.
"Still thank you for watching him, you're Koi, right? Gang Orca told us about you on our way back from the search party and asked us to come over and help you, he mentioned you planned to get your provisional license this year?" the woman informed him.
Masao nodded "Yes, I hope to get it in September with my friends." Masao confirmed.
"That'll be a lot of work Koi." Kota's aunt said, "A lot of people don't get their provisional license until their third year." she warned him.
Masao shrugged "I didn't go into hero work expecting it to be easy." Masao replied casually.
"Well, I guess you need all the help you can get then, I don't think that we'll be able to come by tomorrow though, maybe in a couple days from now when Kota's babysitter gets back." she offered.
Masao tilted his head, making a sign of confusion "Why wait? I do not mind Kota being here." he told her.
"I'm sure you don't but Kota's a little…" she paused trying to find the right word for Kota's dislike for heroes.
"He does not like heroes, I'm aware." Masao stated.
"Oh! Well then you understand why Kota-" she began to say but Kota interrupted her.
"I want to come back!" Kota shouted, shocking his aunt.
"Eh?" she muttered, and Kota huffily pushed her hands off him.
"Koi's not as stupid as most heroes." Kota gruffly grumbled to her, with his arms crossed.
"I um... guess we can come by tomorrow then?" Kota's aunt said a bit uncertain, like she had not expected Kota to act like he was.
"That would be fine, I will look forward to seeing you tomorrow then." Masao told them.
"Right, come on Kota." Kota's aunt said picking Kota up and then the two left, Masao waving the two of them off.
Kota returned the wave after a moment.