Takuma did indeed stuff himself sick, not sick enough to throw up but close enough. A full belly was a rare thing, and he enjoyed not feeling the hunger pang he had grown accustomed to over the years. Mei had left for her room after helping him change his bandages. Most of the bleeding came from a small cut from the glass pane he had gone through during his impromptu flight and landing inside the shop. His back suffered the most, but he was lucky it was mostly flesh wounds rather than the odd broken bone. Small mercies.

The moment his head hit the pillow, he was out like a light, and he woke up the next day sometime in the evening, alone. A cursory check of his surroundings with his Quirk revealed not a single human being. There were a noticeable number of rodents and small animals next to the house. He wasn't surprised, as in general, people underestimated the quantity of small critters running around. He was alone, then.

Takuma was getting increasingly worried about Mei. He would be eternally thankful she decided to save him, but allowing a man she'd just met to roam around freely in her house while she was away wasn't the safest idea she ever had. True, he was so hurt he would probably lose a fight to a puppy, but he still felt the need to point it out. His upper body was a stiff mess, and he couldn't move much of his left arm and neck. He was stuck moving like some kind of cheap doll. Sure, he could force the issue, but the pain was already more than he was comfortable with, and he didn't want to make his situation worse by popping a muscle or whatever else could happen. He had enough problems for some time without adding more to his plate.

Grabbing two of the same pills he had taken yesterday, he washed them down with some room-temperature soda. It would help reduce the pain he was feeling to a more manageable level, and maybe then he would be able to think clearly about what to do next. Because he sure as hell had no idea what his next move should be.

Going back to the street now was risky. The scavengers would be on him the second they smelled blood, and he very much doubted his ability to fight them off. He would probably have to leave his van and live on the outskirts of the city for a while. Takuma would also need to scrounge up a shirt from somewhere since he now couldn't even claim he didn't own the shirt on his back. Since he lost the last one he had. And the hoodie. And pretty much everything else. Joy.

Standing up was painful, and he took a few deep breaths after going through the motion. Now that he had a real night of sleep in him, he could take in his surroundings with a more critical eye. And it was still a mess. Gear, tools, and machine parts were strewn around the place in a way that didn't really make sense to him. He could see bottles, buckets, and various containers holding liquid he didn't trust anywhere near him since one of them was obviously boiling at room temperature, and Takuma was pretty sure liquids weren't supposed to work that way.

The kitchen was surprisingly clean. The center table was still a battlefield where, for some reason, a disassembled car engine just sat there. The sink, counter, and fridge seemed clean enough. Opening up the fridge, he found it filled with food. He could see some leftovers from bags much the same as the one that came with the food yesterday. Out of simple curiosity, he opened one to reveal a moldy, soggy mess of fries and fish. He closed the bag and immediately threw it in the trash. There were things even he wouldn't be caught dead eating, and that little feast of bacteria was one of them.

Takuma had to rummage around to find where the trash bag was so he could dump the bag in and the three others he found. He felt mildly sick at the waste, but he kept going through the different items in hopes of finding something to salvage. Most of what was inside was either past its expiration date for a few years or a few days, with close to nothing in between. In the end, he managed to salvage half of what was inside the fridge. He was surprised to find some fresh vegetables, cucumbers, and tomatoes.

Looking at the time, he learned he had been hobbling around the place for already an hour, and he hoped she wouldn't mind him rifling through her fridge. Since he was already at it, he thought that maybe making her something for dinner was a nice way to thank her for picking his broken body up from the dirty street he had taken refuge in. He was keenly aware she had spared him from a fate worse than death if the wrong kind of people had managed to grab him first.

So he was making her a meal, with her food, from her fridge. Yep, this couldn't go wrong.

His senses picked up on the flurry of feelings and thoughts he could assume was a human mind, and he quickly took a step back from his senses. He didn't wish to peek into her head more than he was forced to. At least she was in a good mood; hopefully, it would stay that way. The searing guilt from yesterday was nowhere to be found, at least. It seemed his sacrifice of a full belly had paid off. That was a sacrifice he could make any day.

By the time she reached the front door, he had washed, peeled, and cut the cucumber and tomatoes into a salad bowl he found in one of the cupboards.

The door slammed open. "Make a baby with me!"

Takuma blinked, took a deep breath in, and a deep breath out. "What?"

In the not-small amount of time it had taken him to process what she had just said, she was now right in front of him with a bright, maniacal grin. "You're famous! I want you to wear my baby."

'I'm dead, and whatever passes for a god in this place is messing with me.' It was the only explanation for whatever the hell was going on right now.

"Please tell me what a 'baby' is in this context," he begged her.

She started to vibrate in front of him. "Let me show you!" Then she ran straight into a room he hadn't seen yet and ran back as fast into the kitchen with some kind of weird-looking thing. She held it like a rifle, and he sure as hell hoped it wasn't one because whatever it shot, it wasn't small. "This is my air cannon baby."

"Alright, that is definitely something," he commented, aimlessly wondering if she was actively messing with him or if it just came to her naturally. "Why am I famous?"

"You didn't see the video?!" she shrieked as she hurriedly grabbed her phone before turning it toward him.

Takuma felt his stomach drop because what played in front of him was a video of his fight against the four-armed mutant from a day ago. Two days? He didn't even know anymore.

It started halfway into the heteromorphic rant and kept going, then the trigger, the car, and at some point, him. The angle was terrible, but it clearly showed him as he struck, dodged, and weaved between the arms and legs of a man thrice his size. Then his back hit a lamppost, and he was thrown into the shop the recording came from.

"The cashier was on his phone," he realized as it showed him in his fully torn hoodie and thin, scrawny frame getting back up, slamming back a broken bottle of whisky, and going back for more.

'I really wish I was drunk right now.'

The fight started again and kept going until the foot of Mount Lady slammed the mutant into the ground. Then the recording cut.

'Oh, this is bad.'

Mei didn't seem to agree with his internal struggle as she excitedly kept tapping on his non-bruised shoulder. "See, you're trending!"

'Oh, this is much worse.'

#NoQuirkNoProblem

#BasedBaseline

#Rnd2Ugly

#SlamItBack

The first two hashtags were where Quirkless people had rallied to share and talk about the video. It was mostly centered around the fight and what he had done well and what he hadn't. Also, the distinct lack of a flashy Quirk had some of them frothing at the mouth at the idea of a Quirkless person taking on a man three times his size. The third one was where the meme machine was going full steam ahead into an early grave. There were so many badly photoshopped images with text laid over them that his eyes glazed over at some point. And lastly, the last hashtag dedicated to the fight was, in fact, an advertisement for the brand of whiskey he had drunk in full view of the cashier recording him.

'So that's how it is, they think I'm Quirkless.'

If it stopped there, it wouldn't have been such a problem. But since he was homeless, it meant a few things for him now. The Quirk supremacists would take the first opportunity they got to stuff him in multiple pieces inside a dumpster, for being linked to the Quirkless. The more militant members of the mutant community would be on the prowl for him, the price for hurting one of their own. The heroes had a full description of what he looked like, and if a single video of his short spat with Mount Lady surfaced, a fame-hungry hero would lead them. Then there were all the ne'er-do-wells he knew who would be the first to tie him up and serve him on a silver platter to the side that would pay the highest amount.

In short, unless he was willing to shack up with The Creature Rejection Clan.

'I'm dead.'

"See, now I can totally make some babies for you. I don't think there's ever been a Quirkless hero, and I'm sure you use some gear. I've wanted to make a grappling hook for years. What about some jumping boots? I could totally make a pair—"

She kept talking, but he was suddenly too exhausted to even concentrate on what she was saying. "Mei," he said slowly, cutting her off on her rant, "I'm not Quirkless."

He wished he was. At least he could have some semblance of life. He wouldn't still be homeless if it wasn't for his Quirk.

Her eyes lit up. "What is it, is it some kind of enhanced reflex, or maybe precognition?"

"No, I can feel people's emotions, sometimes their thoughts when they feel something strongly or their pain," he told her, focused on her expression as she took in the information.

"That doesn't explain how you knew how to dodge," she remarked, tilting her head to the side.

"I can get into someone else's head. It helps me read their movements, and based on the surface thoughts that bleed through their emotions, I can more or less predict what they're about to do," he told her, surprised not to feel the mixture of anger and fear people usually went through when they learned about the part of his Quirk he was willing to share.

She gave him a determined nod. "I can make babies for that too."

"Mei, I can't pay you. I don't even own a shirt right now!" Takuma said, trying to keep his temper even. "And why would you even do that? I don't intend to be a hero."

"Because it's fun!" she claimed, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And you should totally become a hero. Just imagine how much you could do with just one of those!" she said while pushing the air cannon into his hand.

Who then fired. Takuma watched as the gust of compressed air nailed one of the windows, turning the glass into some sort of deadly grapeshot that then slammed into a random rusted car outside her home. At least it explained why there was no one around; her house was in the middle of a scrapyard.

Mei let out an embarrassed chuckle. "Yeah, I should probably go and start fixing that."

"Before that, could I use your shower? And if it's not asking too much, do you have any spare clothes I could use?"

"Right, I'll get you some of those, just one sec," she quickly agreed as she left the room and came back with a set of pink shirt, a yellow hoodie, and purple jogging pants that were probably her size more than his, but he didn't mind. Anything was better than nothing, and he was getting tired of walking around shirtless. "The shower is the first door on the left down the hallway."

He gave her a shallow nod and followed her instruction, closing the door behind him. He was relieved to find a lock, so he made sure it was still in working condition before stripping his pants and going through the bandages one by one. There wasn't much blood on them, so he probably wouldn't need them anymore. The shower was spacious in the corner of the room, with one panel of tempered glass and a single opening. He finally stripped off his boxer and stepped in, slamming the shower handle to the closest thing to scalding hot he could without actually suffering first-degree burns.

His wound burned under the warm water, and he had to fight back a shriek as he simply sat on the ground and buried his head in his hands. The water was comforting; it soothed him like nothing else. Crying also helped.

'I should have left that fucker pop my head like a grape.'

He stayed there for some time, just breathing, focused on the pain from his injuries. It felt good not to be there for a while. Then he stood back up, showered, cleaned, then dried himself before putting on the clothes Mei had given him. They fit oddly enough. Mei was easily a head or two shorter than him, and he had a broader set of shoulders. For once, he could thank the lack of meat on his bones for something.

He met his own eyes in the mirror, the first time he'd seen himself in ages. The dark hair, the gaunt eyes, and sunken cheeks. He heaved a sigh and left the bathroom. Walking through the hallway, he was greeted by the sight of his pink-haired host, finishing the last touch on the newly installed window.

"Do you have spare windows just lying around?" he wondered.

The girl sharply turned toward him, wearing her set of steampunk goggles with sight-like lenses. The design was a bit clunky with some red and copper colors mixed in. "Yes! I also have some spare material in case I blow out a wall again!"

'All right, I'm tired of being confused all the time, so I'm just going to accept what she just said as my new reality and move on.'

He walked to the kitchen; she seemed to have served herself some food, but her plate was untouched as far as he could tell.

She was still working, so he took his time to actually look at her. She was wearing a standard school uniform, something he should probably have realized earlier. It wasn't the one from the show, so she was obviously still in her senior year of high school. Now he didn't know if it was her last year as a senior before going to U.A. University, but that still told him enough. The amount of time he had to get the hell out of dodge was becoming shorter by the minute, and he needed to find a way out of the country soon.

Relaxing his grip on his mental wall to take in the emotion that seeped out of her psyche, he found out Mei was just having a grand old time fixing her window. Her excitement was infectious, and for the few seconds he allowed the barrier to fall, he found himself smiling. He didn't push into her mind, didn't play with her memory; he just sat there and let her emotions wash over him. It wasn't something he would typically do, but he was desperate for any feeling that would get him away from what was dancing in his mind, which could charitably be described as utter misery.

He couldn't entirely relax; he still had to make sure no memory seeped into his head, and he didn't brainwash her by mistake. It was the closest thing to a break he would ever have with someone around. So he enjoyed the moment; watching her work was a nice distraction. He wasn't entirely sure why she needed an exoskeleton to move around a pane of glass, but he couldn't say it wasn't entertaining.

In barely ten more minutes, she was done and was making sure the glue she had used to stick the glass to the pane of wood had set properly. "Well, if that lasts until morning, it will take more than my air cannon baby to brea—"

She turned and cut herself off as she remembered he existed, and he felt her get suddenly shy. Oh, he was still on the open channel. And staring.

Takuma felt physical pain from the recoil of suddenly propping up his mental wall. He grabbed the side of his head. "Sorry about that; I was just watching you working."

She shrugged. "Hey, that's nothing. Wait until I start working on my next baby; that's when the real magic will start. I hope the clothes aren't too tight; I don't really have anything else around, sorry."

"I've had worse things to wear," he chuckled with good humor. "Could you maybe tell me what day it is?"

"Monday, I think. Classes are always the worst on Monday," she informed him while taking a seat next to him and starting to eat the plate she served herself some time ago. "Haven't had vegetables in a while; where did you find those?"

"In the fridge?"

She nodded to herself. "I walked right into that one, didn't I?"

"You kinda did," he agreed. "I thought that would be a nice thing to do after, you know, saving my life."

"Hey, you saved mine first, and we would have been able to escape if the owner hadn't locked the only emergency exit and lost the key years ago."

"That seems criminally stupid," Takuma commented on the sheer idiocy. "They were children in there."

He felt Mei's gaze on him as he picked at the tomato on his own plate. "Is that why you did it?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, not sure what she was getting at.

"Well, if you can feel people's feelings, you must have felt the kids' fear, right? And when, after I first saw you, you didn't seem to be too surprised to see me, so that must mean you can also recognize people based on their emotions and thoughts. How much range does your Quirk have?" she asked him, finally.

'Oh wow, that's a pretty scary breakdown for someone I had like two conversations with.'

"Around a hundred meters around me, give or take thirty or so meters depending on the day. Also, I can't turn it off," he told her as honestly as he could be, given the nature of his Quirk.

"That's a lot of range for an Empathy Quirk. How do you deal with so much information?" she asked him, tilting her head to the side.

"I live every second of every day trying to keep people out of my head," he answered truthfully. "My upper limit is now around a few thousand people, and I've been working on expanding it most of my life, yet it's still not enough when living in a city of a few hundred thousand people."

"That doesn't sound great," she said with a frown.

"That's an understatement if I ever heard one, but yes, it's not great," he confirmed with a humorless chuckle. "It's not ideal, but I've managed to create a few tricks out of it."

"Those dodges were pretty cool," she agreed with renewed excitement. "It would have been easier if you had one of my babies. I'm sure I could revisit my shock-maul baby; you know how to use a pipe. I'm sure it would suit you."

"I wouldn't know how to maintain it, and even if I did, the material is not something I would be able to afford," he tried to turn her down gently.

"That's not a problem. I'll make it this week, and you'll have enough time to get used to it until I'm done making some armor to go with it," she said with a bright maniacal grin he was getting used to seeing on her face every time the mechanical type of baby was mentioned.

'Also, what?'

"Wait, Mei, you can't just let me stay in your home?!" he nearly choked on a cucumber for many reasons.

"I can't?" she wondered, perplexed. "But what if I want to?"

'I guess we're back in this weird place where life doesn't make sense,' he thought as he was now actively working on losing the only roof over his head he had the only real chance of keeping.

"You don't know me; I could be a villain for all you know. That's not safe for you!"

"Meh, it's fine. You've helped me once, and you did it for a bunch of kids too, so you can't be all that bad. I believe in you," she told him with a smile that cut any other argument he had from under him. "And also, if anything happens to me, this whole building is rigged to blow."

Takuma gave her a deadpan look. "Is this lie true?"

"Yep, it would have been funny if I actually did it. I haven't managed to rig the heartbeat tracker yet. Too much surgery required," she finished the last part of her sentence in a whisper that wasn't at all reassuring to Takuma's ears. "But, yes, you can stay as long as you want. I don't mind."

"I-wha-" he tried to say anything that would make sense in that moment, but his brain drew a complete blank. So he did the only thing he could do in that moment.

"Thanks."

She smiled brightly. "You're welcome!"