Chapter 8: Memory Aftermath
Izuku found a good spot to make his call, thankfully it was within the time he could call All Might.
He called his mentor and took a breath when he chose the number.
IT only rang once.
"Young Midoriya! How was your day?" greeted All Might on the other end.
"Not good… in fact it was terrible." Sighed Izuku.
"What happened?" asked All Might.
"I'm not going to get into the morning…" said Izuku who didn't want to explain what he learned about the pair of witches he was staying with and how one of them transformed into a monster, "But school was okay… but on the way back home I was kidnapped."
"Wait… what?" asked All Might.
On his end he started to cough up blood, after all hearing that protégée was kidnapped was always distressing news.
"It was a member of the Emperor's Coven, he wasn't a human on his side." Said Izuku.
"That member knew you wouldn't join him right" asked All Might.
"He did… and there's a way to completely erase someone's memories." Explained Izuku, "And he did it to me…"
"You got your memories though…" said All Might.
After all they wouldn't be having this conversation if his memories were gone.
"There's a spell to fix memories, but it requires someone to go inside that person's mind and fix the memories manually." Explained Izuku.
He could tell All Might was paling at the unsaid implication.
"Who went in…" said All Might.
"Uraraka, Iida, Todoroki, Kacchan…" said Izuku.
"Wait Young Bakugo went into your mind?" asked All Might somewhat surprised.
"When I didn't have my memories I called him by his family name." said Izuku, "That set him off…"
All Might chuckled, he knew that the relationship between Izuku and Bakugo was complicated, but even he could tell that Bakugo probably liked the nickname more than he let on.
"Luz, Amity and Willow…" finished Izuku.
"I understand Luz but why those two?" asked All Might.
"Willow also had her memories at one point and Amity helped fix it." Explained Izuku .
"SO all of them found out." Said All Might.
"No… "said Izuku, "There was gatekeeper of my memories who ensured that only a few fixed the memories about it…"
"Who fixed those memories?" asked All Might.
"Just Iida, Uraraka and Todoroki." Said Izuku, "I'm sorry All Might but those are the Ones I trusted the most."
"Don't worry Young Midoriya I'm not upset at all." Said All Might.
"Really?" asked Izuku.
"They only found because they had no other choice. I would rather have a few people you truly trust find out about it than have your memories gone." Said All Might.
Izuku started to cry. He couldn't help it.
"Your bond with Young Todoroki and Young Iida were already proven when you fought Stain and I can tell your friendship with Young Uraraka truly something you truly cherish as well… I don't mind you picked them to know… I'm honestly surprised you didn't have Young Bakugo know…" said All Might.
"I didn't think it was a good idea to give him the whole story…" said Izuku.
"I see…" said All Might.
"It sounds like there is some more problems with that…" said All Might.
"The worst thing Kacchan ever did to me was something everyone saw…" said Izuku.
"what?" asked All Might.
"It's just something he did back in in Jr. High and it was something I know he didn't mean…" sighed Izuku, "Everyone's mad at him… though the rest of the class doesn't know what happened…"
All Might sighed knowing that Izuku wouldn't tell him what Bakugo did to him.
"Have you talked to your friends yet?" asked All Might.
"Not yet, I wanted to talk to you first." Said Izuku.
"That does make sense." Said All Might.
"They're not angry… well Todoroki was angry at one point but he was angry with you…" explained Izuku
"Was it because I didn't train you properly?" asked All Might.
"No it what you said to me when we first met…" said Izuku.
"Oh…" said All Might.
Neither one said anything.
"I'm sorry…" said All Might, "I know I should have apologized sooner but I shouldn't have said that…"
"It's fine… really!" said Izuku.
"You should really talk to your friends." Said All Might.
"I know." Said Izuku, "I'll talk to you to you tomorrow."
"Of course my boy." Said All Might.
Izuku hung up the phone and knew he had to talk to his friends about the quirk after all.
In the kitchen, Luz, Willow and Amity were all eating some brownies to get their minds of everything.
"These are good." Said Willow.
"Yeah. Rikido is an amazing baker, it helps with his quirk…" said Luz.
"Which one is he again?" asked Amity.
"The guy with the big lips." Said Luz.
Both of them nodded it made sense they didn't remember the ones that weren't going to Hexside after all…
"So…" said Amity.
"Izuku doesn't want to get out…" sighed Luz, "We saw some of the positive memories after all…"
"Like that one where he beat up the older kids…" sighed Willow.
"But that doesn't excuse it." Muttered Amity.
"You're right Amity…" sighed Willow, "But Izuku isn't me…"
"We all saw how selfless and kind he is…" said Luz, "He's not resentful at all."
"I was starting to like him you know…" said Amity.
She looked at Luz.
"Like a friend… just a friend… not like that all." Said Amity blushing.
"Okay… I don't know why you had to clear it up like hta.t" said a confused Luz.
Willow looked at Luz and sighed.
"Izuku even saved his life at one point." Said Amity, "It was actually terrifying with a man made out of goo trying to suffocate Katsuki…"
Both Willow winced while Luz winced and decided to google something on her phone.
She winced.
"It's a good thing he's famous." Said Luz.
She showed the two of the pictures.
"And Izuku saved him?" asked Willow.
"Yeah…" said Amity, "I thought I was seeing the real him… but turned out I wasn't…"
"You wanted a friend you could understand on a different level." Said Luz.
"Yeah…" said Amity.
"Maybe you'll make a friend among them later… who knows." Said Luz.
"I guess… but it still stinks…" said Amity.
The three girls sighed.
Luz decided to switch topic.
"Hey Amity… did you see any memories of Izuku in his All Might Onesie?" asked Luz.
Amity groaned, not because it was a bad subject change, but because well…
"How can he be so cute!" said Amity.
"He's the most adorable kid I've ever seen…" said Willow.
"I know right! I mean he's still adorable… but that's just even more…" said Luz.
The subject wasn't over for them yet… but they knew it was better to focus on something else at the moment…
Meanwhile Kirishima entered the living room from outside.
"He need to be alone…" said Kirishima, "I don't know what happened…"
"But Izuku doesn't want anyone who wasn't there to know…" said Lilith.
"Yeah…" said Kirishima.
"It's personal… so don't butt in if your friend doesn't want you too." Said Eda.
"I guess…" sighed Kirishima leaving.
Eda began to think…
"Say Lilith do you know the body swap spell." Said Eda.
"No…" muttered Lilith, "I mean yes I do know it… but I'm not go use it for whacky hijinks so that he and Izuku would get to know each other better…"
"Oh come on…" said Eda, "Why not…"
"Well for one reason I'm not letting you suggest that spell after the last time you used it." Said Lilith.
Eda blinked then laughed as she remember, "Oh right, last time I used it I switched you with a dog!"
Lilith growled out as her sister.
"And the other is that this is everyone but Izuku angry with him." Said Lilith, "And it's something terrible he did in the past not something he did recently…"
There was a silence among the two sisters.
"I don't want a bunch of teenagers with crazy powers ready to throw down." Said Eda, "If you telling him might calm things down a little I think you should tell him…"
"Thank you;…" said Lilith.
"Hey but only tell him if he's actually feel bad for whatever he did." Said Eda.
"I will." Said Lilith.
She left to fin Bakugo.
Meanwhile Izuku met up with three friends.
"We should talk about this outside." Said Todoroki .
"Yeah." Said Izuku.
They left the Owl House and found an area in the forest to talk.
"I'm sorry…" said Izuku.
But before he could continue, Ochaco lightly slapped him in the head.
"We know you had to keep it a secret." Said Ochaco.
"You don't need to apologize, after all I was taught at a young age that heroes sometimes need to keep something a secret for various reasons." Said Iida.
"He's right…" said Todoroki.
Ochaco looked at the three of them they had to talk about that as well.
"But still I lied about my quirk… everything about it… and I…" said Izuku.
"Deku…" said Ochaco, "I didn't become friends with you because of your quirk. I did because of your heart. You ran into save when no one else did… you saved me."
"I completely agree, the reason why I chose to be friends and why I admire you so much was what you did back at the Entrance Exam. You showed me what it meant to be a true hero… not to mention what happened in Hosu."
Once again Ochaco looked at them.
IT was still a topic for later but they had to still talk about…
But this one still came first.
"Midoriya… you were the one to show me that my fire is mine… everything you said to me was true. In fact what you said to me makes more sense than before, knowing about your past and the truth about your quirk." Said Todoroki.
Izuku looked at them.
"We're friends with you not because of your quirk." Said Ochaco, "We're friends with you because of your ridiculously big heart."
Izuku started to cry, a lot… so much so that tears were just pouring from his eyes.
Ochaco then pulled him into a hug.
Iida joined in followed by somewhat awkwardly Todoroki.
"Thank you so much…" cried Izuku.
"What you went through before… you didn't deserve any of it." Said Todoroki.
Izuku nodded. Happy that he had true friends who were going to stand by his side no matter what.
Once they broke the hug.
"So All Might… has he confessed?" asked Todoroki.
They all looked at Todoroki.
"Todoroki… he's not my dad…" said Izuku.
"He could have been pretending that he didn't recognize you." Said Todoroki.
They all looked at him… they honestly weren't if he still believed that fact or if he was still messing them.
"Besides there another thing we have to talk about… namely can you please tell me the real story of Hosu…" said Ochaco looking at Iida, "You went after Stain, didn't you?"
"I did…" sighed Iida.
The subject to the other secret… the one that most of them were in on and had no other choice to tell Ochaco.
About the time that Iida went after a serial killer in revenge, how Izuku by weird luck ended up in the same city and figured everything out and saved him, Todoroki was also in the same city so he was able to get his help so he was involved in the fight too…
They defeated the serial killer but there was a cover up so they wouldn't get into trouble.
Still, the three had gotten closer than before thanks to the secret of Izuku's quirk…
Elsewhere in the forest, Bakugo was breathing heavily, after leaving Izuku's mind he had changed to work out gear and left the Owl House to take out his anger out in the forest. Kirishima tried to get him to talk. But he refused to talk.
"Hey…" said Lilith.
"What did someone tell you what I did?" asked Bakugo.
"No…" said Lilith.
"How did you find me? A tracking spell?" mocked Bakugo.
Lilith pointed to a path of destruction that he created with his explosions.
"Fuck…" said Bakugo.
"I have a question for you though…" said Lilith, "Do you regret what you did?"
Bakugo said nothing, but he did flinch a little.
"Good you do regret it." Said Lilith, "Because I know what it's like to make a huge mistake as a teenager?"
"You?" asked Bakugo.
"I know it seems like Eda would seem like the type to screw up badly… but she was more of a prankster than anything." Said Lilith, "Besides with everything she did, none of them ever came to close what I've done…"
"What did you do something that would have gotten someone killed?" asked Bakugo.
"Close…" sighed Lilith, "I was the one that cursed Eda…"
Bakugo's eyes widened remembering what happened that morning and the horrible monster that Eda had turned into.
"I just wanted to weaken her magic for a just a day…" said Lilith, "But I ended up ruining her life instead… A young girls we wanted to join the Emperor's Coven together… but they only had room for one so it would be decided with a Witches Duel… she was the more skilled of the two of us… I cursed her so that I could win because being the Emperor's Coven was my dream but the worst part was that it was all both nothing. She gave up the duel because she knew it was my dream to be part of the Coven…"
Bakugo said nothing.
"I spent years trying to cure her… then the Emperor promised me that if I got Eda to join he would cure her… it was a lie… he just wanted the Portal to Earth." Said Lilith, "He was going to turn Eda into stone… that's why I betrayed him and took half of her curse."
"Wow you really fucked up…" said Bakugo finding his words.
"I wouldn't say it in those words… but yes…" said Lilith.
Bakugo sighed.
"You better not fucking tell anyone… but I told that if Deku wanted to be a hero he should take a swan dive of the roof." Said Bakugo.
Lilith's eyes widened not expecting that she would find out what he did.
She also didn't have much room to talk due to well… cursing her sister…
"I was just talking out of my ass." Muttered Bakugo, "I didn't mean a word of it… and you want to know the worst part…"
He chuckled but was a broken chuckle.
"Not only did he save my life that day… but he decided to protect me… making sure I was the only one who saw that memory…" explained Bakugo.
"Wait… then how did everyone find out?" asked Lilith.
"I blew up the memory! Because he didn't need that in his head." Said Bakugo.
"Katsuki… I learned a long time ago you have to take the good with the bad…" sighed Lilith.
Bakugo grumbled.
"And besides he would have still had damage if things were left with that memory destroyed ." said Lilith.
Bakugo glared at her.
"He knows you didn't mean it though…" said Lilith.
Bakugo said nothing.
"By the way, I don't plan to tell anyone about you did." Muttered Bakugo.
"It's fine… Eda, Luz and King already know what I did and how much I regret it." Said Lilith.
"Just come back when you're ready… and don't worry I won't tell anyone what I heard." Said Lilith.
Bakugo nodded., knowing that the two of them were now closer .
Later that night there was some tension, as Todoroki glared at harshly at Bakugo, while Ochaco, Luz and Tenya also glared at him, but not as harshly at Todoroki.
Everyone else just tried to ignore the tension as best as possible .
After dinner however, Izuku decided to do something.
"Hey Kirishima! Can we talk about something…" said Izuku.
"Sure man. "said Kirishima.
They found a place to talk…
"So what did you want to talk about?" asked Kirishima.
"You're Kacchan's friend." Said Izuku.
"Yeah I am…" said Kirishima getting that this was about what happened in his mind.
"IF what everyone found gets out… can you please still be Kacchan's friend." Said Izuku.
Kirishima eyes widened not expecting something like that.
"He never really had friends growing up, everyone else were just followers since he had a powerful quirk…" sighed Izuku.
"You mentioned that he didn't mean whatever he did." Said Kirishima.
"He didn't… he was just being Kacchan." Said Izuku, "And you know how he gets…"
"Yeah…" said Kirishima remembering the tutoring session was like.
"He was worse in Jr. High… until after an incident where he was attacked by a villain…" said Izuku, "But even then he didn't mean what he did… even if it was horrible. And I know when he destroyed the memory of it he was just trying to help in his own Kacchan way…"
"Wait he destroyed the memory of whatever he did." Said Kirishima.
"Yeah…" sighed Izuku.
Kirishima sighed, what he was hearing did sound really bad… like red flags bad…
But looking at the boy, he could tell things were very complicated.
"I can't make any promises Midoriya, because it sounds really bad." Said Kirishima.
Izuku sighed.
"But I'll try… we'll just have to wait and see what happens." Said Kirishima.
Izuku nodded… hoping that Bakugo's friendship would remain intact on the off chance that everything came out.
Still it was a rollercoaster of a day… with secrets revealed, friendships becoming stronger, distrust being sew and surprisingly bonds being made…
Even so… they knew that the Emperor's Coven was still a threat… especially with what they just pilled… and who knew was going to come next…
Next Time: Amity is sometimes used as a test dummy by her parents and after getting injuries, her brother and sister deicide to tell Luz... and it's overheard by Izuku and Todoroki. What will happen? Meanwhile Bakugo is finally free of the Detention Tract what classes are he placed in? Find out next time!