Hello readers and welcome to my new chapter. So, thanks to those who answered my question regarding One for All. It'll help my decision regarding what to do with it, and perhaps enhance a few of my ideas. Anyways, onto the chapter. I hope you enjoy.

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Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia.

Chapter 3: The Second Bud

"What?!"

When Izuku and his mom planned on adopting Eri, the boy expected the process to be difficult. That due to her quirk, the authorities wouldn't feel too comfortable letting them raise her. At the very least, there would've been some conditions for that to take effect.

What he didn't expect was for them to just hand Eri over to them, with monthly paychecks to go with it.

And hefty paychecks at that.

Izuku could only stare at the check in his hand in disbelief.

"Don't act so surprised. We're asking you to risk life and limb by basically taking care of the girl." Sitting across Izuku was a suit-cladded woman, with long black hair and sunglasses. "There's not that many people in Japan willing to take that risk. It makes sense to compensate you for it."

"That… kinda makes sense…" Still mind-boggling for the fourteen year old, but he could see her point.

The day after the news of Overhaul's arrest, rather than meeting at the police station or somewhere else, the woman in front of them met with the Midoriyas at their apartment. Said woman called herself Agent Kimura, who's a member of an agency called the Overpowered Children Division (Or O.C.D., for short); a government agency created to deal with rare cases of extremely powerful children.

The goal of the O.C.D. is to ensure that any children with very powerful and uncontrollable quirks are placed with guardians that are willing and capable of taking care of them. However, with those kids having these powerful and quirks, there are very few willing to take them in. Even fewer that could adequately care for them.

That, ultimately, led to this, with Agent Kimura sitting at the dining table with both Izuku and Inko, basically offering the adoption papers to them; with a monthly check incentive to boot.

"We'll also give you the proper tools needed to help train her with her quirk." The agent continued. "Won't be too difficult; while it's dangerous, Eri's quirk is pretty simplistic, so no need for anything too fancy."

"Thank you for this." Inko then spoke up, signing the papers for adoption. "I'm glad we're getting help for Eri, on top of letting us continue to take care of her."

"Hey, you're making it easy for us by happily adopting the girl." Kimura remarked with a shrug. "Doing this saves us a looooot of work, trust me."

The process… was not what Izuku was expecting. This was a lot easier than it probably should be, at least that's what he felt. But, as he took the offered pen from his mother and signed his portion of the adoption papers, he certainly wasn't complaining about it.

And no doubt Eri will have little to complain about either.

XXXX

As soon as Izuku went into his room, he found himself tackled by a white blur. The boy stumbled a little, with a small yelp leaving his mouth, but he was able to remain standing as the tackler wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Hello, Eri…" Izuku greeted with a smile, patting the girl's head. "Thank you for waiting in my room while we were talking. I'll be sure to make a nice treat with apples, like I promise."

During the week of the investigation, apples became Eri's favorite food. She certainly wasn't picky about anything served on the table (Her first meal had the girl literally crying in joy, which got both him and his mother crying), but it was noticeable that apples were her favorite among the things served to her.

So when confronted with the girl's unwillingness to leave his side for even a second, the promise of an apple-based treat helped quell her into waiting in his room; on top of plenty of reassurance that he wouldn't disappear or anything.

"So, there's a few things that I want to tell you." Izuku said, causing Eri to look up from her hug. "Mind if we sit down while we talk?"

After getting a nod from the girl, the two went to his bed and settled there, with Eri now clinging onto his side. Stroking her hair lightly, Izuku continued. "Do you remember the nice detective we talked with, that drove us home? Well, he called yesterday; and told me that Overhaul and all his men got caught."

Eri looked at him with wide eyes, hope swelling in them. "Re… Really? He's… taken away?"

Izuku nodded, smiling softly down at her. "He'll be in jail for a long time, and far away from you." He reassured her. "So he won't be able to ever hurt you again."

Those words hit Eri like a truck. In a near instant, tears swelled up her eyes before trailing down her cheeks. The young girl then began to let out sobs of relief and joy, before burying herself into Izuku's side once more. "Th-Thank you…!" She sobbed out. "Thank you… so much…!"

The boy hugged her in return, feeling his heart break for Eri. "It's okay. I just did what anyone else would've done…"

The girl shook her head vehemently in response. "No one else did… no one else tried… only you did… you saved me…!"

Izuku couldn't find a suitable response to that. So he merely held as she cried her out, feeling his heart clench with a mix of feelings. Sorrow for what she had to go through; rage at what that monster did to her; and happiness that he was able to get her out of that.

Once Eri settled down enough, Izuku continued. "There's also one other thing…" His words caused her to look up once again. "Eri… what do you think about staying here? For good?"

Once again, the little girl stared up at him in shock. "You… you mean…?"

Izuku gave another soft smile. "The talk with the lady in the dining room… it was about letting you live here." He revealed. "And she was more than happy to let us continue taking care of you."

And yet again, his words hit the young girl hard. At the start, she knew that she was staying with Izuku until Overhaul was captured; however, after that, she wasn't sure where she would go. Deep inside, she was afraid to be taken away from Izuku, the first person to ever show her kindness; a fear that she kept inside, not wanting to upset or burden her savior.

But now she heard that she can continue to stay here… that she doesn't have to leave him…

When he saw Eri tear up once again, the boy pulled her up into his lap before bringing in a full hug. The young girl returned that hug as best she could, letting out tears of joy rather than relief this time.

And of course, that prompted Izuku to begin his own waterworks, tears now sliding down his eyes (He was honestly kinda surprised that it didn't happen sooner).

*2 Weeks Later*

Thanks to the first week of Eri's stay, along with the monthly paychecks given to them, adjusting to a third person was relatively easy.

They used the money to buy Eri everything she needs, from clothes to a bed of her own (With the guest room now being used as her room). And with Izuku being homeschooled, he could take care of her while his mom went out to work, so they didn't need to leave her by herself.

Eri herself was the happiest when spending time with Izuku; and the boy himself found his day lightened up with his new little sister. Didn't matter what they were doing, be it finding fun activities at home, teaching her things, or simply watching TV, both of them enjoyed whatever time they spent with one another.

However, there would have to be one issue he could name, it would be his pursuit of becoming a hero.

He hadn't given up his dream; far from, in fact. Knowing what Eri had to go through at the hands of Overhaul merely incentivised him further to save those like her. But now that she's in their care, he has to balance taking care of the girl and preparing for the career he's aiming for. Not an easy thing to do, considering that Eri doesn't like leaving his side for even a second (Her bed often ends up unused due to her sleeping with Izuku).

However, it was still more than do-able, and with some reworking of his schedule, he's able to find time to train and prepare himself.

"Alright, Eri. When you're using your quirk, imagine running water in a sink…" Izuku advised the girl. The two were in his bedroom, with Eri on his bed while Izuku sat across from her in his chair. In Eri's hands was an apple core that she previously ate. "Imagine moving the switch slowly, and the water slowly coming out."

One of the new daily activities was training her quirk, Rewind; the ability to rewind any living organism to its previous state. A very powerful ability, one that Izuku can see Eri using for great things in the future. However, the drawback is that it's very uncontrollable, and that she could rewind anyone and anything to a time before they even existed.

That made the quirk incredibly dangerous, and was the cause of the death of her father. Thus, training is needed so that her quirk doesn't remain out of control, and so she can safely use it in the future. To do that, Izuku took to showing Eri the water in the sink being turned on and off slowly. Give her that visualization in her mind for when she practiced with her quirk.

And it seems to be working. With her horn grown and glowing, and her face scrunched in concentration, the apple was slowly growing back into its full, uneaten form. About ¾ of it was restored… and the rest suddenly grew back in an instant. And before Izuku or Eri could do or say anything, the apple then shrunk and disappeared from Eri's grasp.

"Ah!" Eri clenched the empty air in frustration, a frown now across her face.

"It's alright. It takes more than a few tries to get your quirk under control." Izuku assured her. "Now, try turning it off. Imagine moving the nozzle slowly, turning the running water off."

Concentrating once again, Eri closed her eyes and did what Izuku told her to. Slowly, the horn began receding back to its regular form… before growing back once again, sparks flying from it.

"Agh! Argh!" Eri cried out in exertion and frustration, trying to wrestle control back into her hand. Unfortunately, her rising emotions made it even more uncontrollable, making her quirk more unstable.

Seeing this, Izuku immediately grabbed the dart gun on his leg and shot Eri in the arm. That got a yelp of pain from the girl, with her clutching the area the dart hit, before feeling droopy and then falling over on the bed; her horn now fully resetting itself into its base form.

'Well, at least the running water idea seems to be working…' Izuku mused, a tad sadly. 'That's more progress being made than last week, at least.'

But it's going to take a while before Eri fully masters her quirk. Even just turning it off and on took incredible effort on her part. Still, Izuku's confident that Eri will eventually get the hang of using it.

'I just wish I didn't have to shoot her every time…' The green-haired boy sighed, looking at the gun in his hand with a conflicted expression.

It was issued to him by the O.C.D for whenever Eri's quirk went out of control. He wasn't a fan of using it, for obvious reasons, but he understood it was needed so that no one gets harmed by her quirk. A necessary evil, as it were.

Shaking away the thoughts for the time being, Izuku placed the dart gun on the table before getting himself ready to go out. There's a few things he wanted to do, and with Eri out of it for a bit, he has the time.

XXXX

The first place he went was Dagobah Beach. He goes there early in the morning now, or whenever Eri is knocked out from quirk training, to further clear the beach out and find new material to scavenge.

Afterwards, he planned to go to the store to get a few extra items for his current main project, as well as a bag of apples for Eri. They just ate up the last few today, so he figured now would be a good time to buy some for Eri.

'Think today, I'm gonna see about converting the magnetic gloves into shock ones.' Izuku mused as he carried some of the junk in his hand. 'If I combine the gloves' usage, then it would be easier than just switching to whatever gloves I need. But I need to figure out what material I need for that. Well, perhaps some of the rusted cars here will help with that…'

How rusted cars ended up on the beach, Izuku could only guess. Likely have something to do with all the illegal dumping.

And that's how Izuku time went for the next half hour, cleaning up whatever he could in the form of exercises while occasionally taking anything interesting or useful.

Once half an hour passed, he took a step back to observe his progress, wiping a bit of sweat from his forehead. 'Well, there's less junk compared to last month…' Izuku analyzed as he looked at the large pile of trash. 'But I still have a lot more to go through.'

While the addition of Eri made things a tad complicated, Izuku is still confident he would be able to clear this place by the time of the U.A. entrance exam. And even if he couldn't, he would still develop enough skills, muscle mass, and support gear to have more of a fighting chance to pass.

"Alright. Now for a quick stop at the market, and then head home…" Izuku said to himself, as he turned around to head to the market…

…and was promptly knocked back by something colliding on him.

"Ah-!" Izuku let out a startled yelp, before falling on his butt. "Ow… what was-!" Opening his eyes, he was met with a green haired, green-skinned little girl in front of him. One that wore raggedy looking clothes, as well as a panicked expression.

The green-haired teen was hit with a suspicious feeling of deja-vu.

Then he heard loud, angry voices from the distance, and turned his head to see a group from afar, rapidly coming their way.

Yep, this was looking very familiar to the teen.

The girl seemed to also take notice of them, which got her to cling onto Izuku desperately. "Please, help!" She begged, the desperation very clear in her tone. "Don't leave… they'll hurt me… please…!"

It was clear that the green-skinned girl was very exhausted, likely meaning that she's been evading her pursuers for a while now. Which meant she couldn't continue running like she had been, not without collapsing.

He quickly gathered the girl in his arms, before leaping down back into the junkyard. He ran deep into the piles of junk, before hiding behind one of the stacks, trusting that the large piles around them could conceal them from outside view. He then peeked from behind the stack he's hiding behind, eyes narrowed.

It took a bit before the group he spotted got to where and the girl were at. From where Izuku was hiding, it looked to be a group of guys, either older teens or young adults, all of them having gangster looks and clothing. They also looked to be incredibly angry for some reason, likely due to whatever reason they were chasing the girl in his arms.

"I saw them jump in that junkyard!" He heard one of them shout, pointing at the beach. "Spread out and find that little brat!"

When he saw the group, likely a gang, coming down to the beach, Izuku quickly moved from his hiding spot. "Don't make any noise." He whispered to the girl, as softly as he could. "We're gonna hide from those guys here, keep them from spotting us, okay?"

"O-Okay…" The green-skinned girl replied back, clinging tightly to him.

Patting her head in comfort, Izuku focused on evading the group. 'You know this area; they don't. Keep far, keep eyes on them, keep from getting cornered. When you see a good opening, take it and go.'

And so the time was spent hiding and evading the gang after the girl. Whenever one or two got too close, he moved to another part of the beach. When it sounded like he could get cornered, he climbed on top of the junk with his gloves or distracted them by throwing something solid a distance away from him. We weaved around the beach, careful not to make any accidental sounds, and keeping far enough away from the thugs.

It helped that none of them seemed that bright; or that stealthy, judging from the sounds they make.

Eventually, Izuku and the girl found themselves close to the exit. The quirkless teen was currently hanging on one of the large piles of junk, one of the more unstable piles, with the green-skinned girl clinging on his front. On its own, it wouldn't fall, but a strong enough push will cause it to fall. So Izuku had to be careful not to do anything to make it fall.

"Argh! Where the hell is the brat and that punk at?!" One of them cried out in frustration. "They can't have disappeared, can they?!"

"Relax! This place is big, they are bound to be here somewhere." Another reassured the frustrated one.

"I can't wait to wring the neck of that little bitch…!" Izuku heard a third growl. "She's gonna pay for what she did to our boys…!"

That caused the girl in front of him to whimper fearfully, clinging to Izuku tighter. In response, the teen shushed her soothingly, using one hand to stroke hair to comfort her and keep her quiet.

Peeking from the junk he's hiding behind, he saw that all five of the gangsters were turned away from the duo and moving further into the beach/junkyard. 'Perfect. Now's my chance.'

He then began to climb down a few steps, planning to book as fast as he could while their pursuers were unaware…

And then his phone started ringing.

Both Izuku and the girl froze, dread quickly filling both of them. A second later, they heard five men talking.

"Huh?"

"Is that-?"

"It's coming from over there!"

'Plan B!' Quickly typing a few things on his forearm monitor, he faced the exit of the beach, bracing his arms and legs. "Hold on!"

Trusting the girl will keep to him tightly, Izuku pushed himself off the junk-pile, his booster pushing him far. As they flew in the air, the boy curled himself protectively over the little girl to absorb the damage. When they landed, the two rolled in the sand, before coming to a stop close to the stairs above. Izuku quickly got up, spitting out the bits of sand that got into his mouth, and took a quick glance behind him before booking it. He jumped high once again, sailing over the stairs, before landing and running.

As he ran, he heard large crashing sounds behind, as well as the cries of shock and fear. 'Hopefully, it doesn't kill anyone!' Izuku thought with a bit of worry.

That was his plan B. On the chance that any of the gangsters spotted him, he made it to where several of the junk piles were unstable enough to fall. That should lead to a domino effect, where the piles would fall on top of each other, and cascade around the gangsters. At the very least, it'll slow them down enough; at most, it'll put them to a stop in their chase.

However, he didn't allow himself to look at his handiwork, not wanting to risk fate by stalling.

The girl, however, was able to, and her dark purple eyes could only stare over Izuku's shoulder in amazement, as the piles of junk fell around her pursuers.

*Another Part of Mustafa City*

Izuku didn't stop until he felt clear from any of the gangsters. Once he was deep into the city, stopped in an alleyway to rest, leaning on the wall behind him. Heavy breaths left his mouth as he attempted to catch them.

'I know that I'm not in the best of shape, but I shouldn't feel this tired, should I?' Izuku was well aware that he's pretty weak, especially before he started training. But he's been exercising for close to two months now, and even before, he was often on the run for (Or from) something. So he shouldn't feel this tired, right?

"You… you saved me…" He was brought out of his thoughts by the voice of the girl in his arms. He looked to see her looking at him with watery eyed amazements. "They were chasing me, and were going to catch me, and hurt me, and you…!"

"Shhh… you're safe now…" Izuku comforted the girl, bringing her close and stroking her hair. In response, the green-skinned girl gripped onto him tightly once more, tears of fear and relief slipping from her eyes.

"You saved me…!" She repeated once again through her tears. "Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you…!"

"Hey, don't worry about it. I'm glad I was able to save you…" Izuku told her softly.

A part of him thought about asking why she was being chased. But with another glimpse at the state she's currently in, he decided to wait a moment before asking. So he pulled out his phone, taking the time to check who called him. Turns out, it was his mom.

'She must've got worried since I haven't returned home yet…' Before he left, Izuku told his mom that he would be back in around an hour; and judging by the time on his phone, it's been past that allotted time he gave himself.

So preparing for an overly-worried phone-call, Izuku called-back the missed number, trying to control his labor breathing. Said breathing caught the attention of the young girl, who looked up at him in concern.

"Mister…?"

Before Izuku could take notice of her concern murmur, his call was picked up; and he was met instantly with the worried voice of his mother. "Izuku, are you alright? Where are you? You said you'd be back by now, but-!"

"Mom, mom! I'm alright! I'm alright!" Izuku quickly spoke up, trying desperately not to sound weak or exhausted. "I just… got sidetracked is all."

"What happened?"

"Well…" It was getting harder and harder to speak now, his breath getting more and more labored. What's going on? Why does he feel so tired? So…

"Mister, are you okay…?" The girl called out, sounding even more concerned. When he looked down, he saw a fearful look from the child. "Did you… did I…?"

"Is that another voice? Are you with someone?" Inko, hearing the girl from the phone, questioned. "Izuku, are you sure you're alright?"

Honestly… no. No, he's not sure.

And just as he thought that, he found himself falling flat on the ground, dropping his phone and his grip on the green-skinned girl gone. Now, he realizes how sweaty he felt, how pale his skin was, and how weak his body was feeling.

His vision got blurry as the girl shook and called out to him, looking completely panic now. From his side, he barely picked up the voice of his mother from the phone, who sounded just as panicked and fearful.

Those were the last things he saw or heard before everything turned back.

And that's the end. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. So, the second child is now here. You can probably take a swing as to what her quirk is, as well as why Izuku passed out. Anyways, let me know your thoughts on this chapter in the reviews. Also, again, if you want to give monetary support for these fics and/or check out my original stuff, check out my Pat account; the link being on my Twitter page. Review, favorite, and follow and I will see you guys later.