Chapter 38: I-Expo
"Let me see if I got this right." David gave his friend a flat look that came full circle to being exasperated. "You found a kid on the street, got impressed by his spirit, and adopted him, only for the said kid to pull a reverse and adopt you in his family instead?"
Toshinori finished putting his casual clothes back on, having been put inside a pod thingy full of medical goo for Dave's tests, "It wasn't… Oh, who am I kidding?" Nana already celebrated how she scored a whole family by proxy, it was useless to fight against it now. "Yes, that's more or less what happened. But in my defense, it's not like I had a chance, those three have such expressive eyes that I melt when they ask me anything."
"All Might, the most powerful man in the world, brought low by puppy eyes from his kids." David shook his head while clicking his tongue in fake disappointment. On the inside, he used everything he had not to guffaw out loud.
"It's not just the kids! Inko is just as bad. And it's not like Melissa doesn't have you wrapped around her fingers since day one!"
David wouldn't take that lying down, "Oh, let's not forget the lady of the hour." He chuckled at Toshi's panic-filled face. "My respect for this woman is immeasurable from the simple fact she got you to take better care of yourself, but did you two really need to have the most cliché romance story ever?"
The following squawk was music to David's ears, Toshi was too easy to rile up, "How is it cliché?!"
"Let's go in parts. A man who is overworked and stressed meets a caring woman. She nurses him back to health while offering understanding and companionship. He falls for her, she falls for him, and everyone lives happily ever after." He stared his friend in the eyes, "Did I miss something?"
"Yes, the fact the kids are little menaces." They broke down into loud laughter, both happy to be able to open up like old times.
"To be fair, that's every kid." David turned back to the monitor displaying the scans he just performed, his smile growing as each showed All Might in top health. "One moment they look like little angels that could do no harm, the next…" He trailed off, smile falling.
"Dave?" Toshinori got worried at his friend's sudden silence. "Everything alright?"
"No. No, that's impossible! You're healed, you're-"
"Dave!" Toshinori whirled the scientist around and grabbed his shoulders firmly, "Dave, breathe. What's wrong?"
Everything. "Your scans, they show you're in peak health."
"And that's bad…how?"
"Because your quirk is still fading! The energy signatures are still falling, they're the lowest they've ever been!" Which should be impossible. All Might was dying because of his wound, so how was his hero still slipping through David's fingers when he was before him looking better than ever? How?!
"Ah." Toshinori closed his eyes for a moment. He knew it would happen, he knew from the start, but that didn't prevent the pointed stab in his chest. Still, even knowing his arms couldn't hold the world up for much longer, the pain faded at the reminder he didn't need to.
Their world had a future brighter than anything All Might could create.
"It's fine."
David froze. No, he couldn't have heard it right. "It's fine?"
"Yes. It's fine. I made my peace with it already." Toshinori smiled, a little bittersweet thing that opened up, "I'm actually looking forward to retiring, believe it or not, now that I have something to do with all the free time I'll get." He was still a teacher, but having only one job would proportionate a lot more quality family time.
It didn't seem like David agreed with the sentiment, "Retire-? Toshi, the world still needs you! What will happen when the next disaster strikes, when the next big villain rampages?! The world needs All Might!"
Silence reigned after David's outburst, the man's soft panting for breath and machinery buzzing the only thing filling the room.
The Toshinori chuckled.
With wary eyes, David watched his friend, his hero, laugh at the idea of a world without him.
"The world doesn't need All Might. It didn't for a while now." The hero stopped laughing long enough to look David in the eyes. In those blue orbs wasn't the defeated gloom of a man who lost everything but the bright glint of a man who won, plain and simple. "Not when it has something much better."
"What could be better than All Might?" The idea of a person greater than the Symbol of Peace was inconceivable.
Toshinori let out another chuckle, "Let me tell you the story of a young hero named Deku, his friends, and how they will make a better world than I could ever dream of witnessing."
—
"And that's how I punched All Might so hard my arm exploded, and my gauntlet along with it." Izuku finished his story with a happy smile, not at all bothered by how said story involved him getting pummeled.
"Your arms weren't made to turn into meat noodles." Having been exposed to the Midoriya Factor (trademark still pending), Melissa took it all in stride. Her new friend just told her that he gave the number one hero in the world a run for his money, no biggie.
"Why do I smell denial?" Nana's comment was summarily ignored, making the Vestige pout.
The trio of Izuku, Eri, and Melissa were in the latter's personal lab. Cutting-edge machinery and equipment, piles of books and research material, and a computer more powerful than anything in the market by at least twenty-fold, a scientist's dream all for one person.
Said person had two electrodes connected to a six-year-old's horn, trying to glimpse into the universe's secrets through it. "Now, this should get us our answers in a couple 'minutes."
"It tickles." Eri giggled under her breath at the buzzing on her horn. She had been a little scared at first, not being completely comfortable with things that reminded her of the time before Izuku saved her, but he was right there so Eri made an effort. Now that she was going through it properly, it wasn't scary.
Just be careful not to dislodge the pads on your horn, okay Eri? They need to stay on until my computer beeps if we wanna learn how your quirk works." Let no one say Melissa had no bedside manners.
"'Kay!"
Izuku watched them with a smile, Floating with his legs closed and a notebook in hand like he usually did since unlocking Nana's quirk. It was nice seeing people being there for his apprentice.
"Your proud dad is showing~!"
He rolled his eyes, 'Give me a break.'
"Nah."
Melissa stopping before Izuku with a box broke him from his conversation with the voices in his head, or one of them at least.
"And for you, mister 'I punch things so hard my bones explode', I have this!" She handed Izuku the box.
It wasn't much smaller than a phone box, perfectly square, and seemed to weigh less than a paperclip. "What's this?" Izuku opened the lid, revealing a red bracelet with a tiny screen, like a smartwatch.
"Put it on and press the screen." While Melissa's giddy smile was a little bit suspicious, Izuku just shrugged and followed her instructions.
The moment his finger touched the glass(?), the circlet burst. It expanded dozens of times its original size, snaking its way over Izuku's uncovered arm until it was completely enveloped in the red cover of the newly formed gauntlet.
"That's so cool!" Izuku had stars in his eyes, taking in all the details of the wraps-like structure, pressing tightly over everything from his elbow down to his hand, only his fingers remaining uncovered. He tapped it, hearing a metallic tink, but not feeling the gauntlet impeding his movements. "How did you make it transform from something so small into this?!"
Melissa proudly puffed up, hands on her hips and soaking in the awe from her new friend, "Nanomachines, son!"
Whatever else Izuku was thinking of saying was interrupted by Yoichi's loud yell from the debts of his heart, both literally and metaphorically, "MY PEOPLE!"
Masking his surprised startle, Izuku looked back at his hand while questioning Nana, 'What was that?'
"Probably something we're both a century too young to understand. Just let him have it." The Seventh wasn't the only of his predecessors to watch weirdly as Yoichi started to rant about a senator, something about cyborgs, and memes.
Anyway, "How did you make it so light?"
"Got some exotic materials to mess around with. 'Don't know exactly from where, but the block I got my hands on was super light while tanking just about anything." She gestured to the apparatus, "So I decided to use it as a proof of concept. This bracer should handle three full-powered hits from All Might himself before breaking, all the while reducing the strain from exerting so much power basically nill."
"Woah." Izuku, somehow, got even more impressed with the piece of tech over his hand.
"Wanna test it?"
"You bet!"
Melissa brought Izuku to a testing range connected to her lab, closing the door after him and returning to Eri and her computer. With a few quick taps, she brought up a live feed of the other room, "We have visual and audio, you're hearing?"
"Yup!" Izuku answered in the vague direction of the ceiling Melissa's voice was coming from. Looking around, he saw that the room was like a shooting range without the booths. It was longer than it was wide, with test dummies close to the far wall, while on his side there were desks and lockers, probably to stash the equipment being tested.
Walking closer, Izuku saw a yellow line on the ground to signify the safe distance of ranged items tests most likely. Getting an idea, Izuku started to spin his arm, "Let's test how it handles twenty-five plus Fa Jin." He pulled his arm back but stopped when the red light from the Third's quirk hit the corner of his eye, "Oops, I think I got too used to Mines Style." The test didn't need the second impact, just the usual power boost.
Clenching his fist, Izuku forced the ring of accumulated kinetic energy back into Full Cowling. The result was a surprise.
The aura over Izuku's arm almost doubled in intensity when the red light fused back into the green. The strain wasn't much more than normal, and the excess energy was quickly bleeding out, but for a quick beefier hit? This was perfect. "I'll need to workshop this later. Now, Vacuum Cannon!"
The punch shot a pressurized air wave that rattled the dummies but didn't cause much damage otherwise.
Izuku slumped, "It's still too unfocused." He glanced at the red glove, "Still, I didn't even feel it, and this thing is still in one piece. Nice!" Putting his arm up, Izuku smiled at the support item. "Huh, I think it needs a name. What about… Full Gauntlet!"
"Really?"
Melissa's voice sounded from the PA system before Izuku could start politely explaining to Nana how the name he chose was great. "Cool name, I like how it rolls out the tongue. Anyway, I think I have a way to help you with your super move."
"You can?!" Izuku would admit that Vacuum Cannon was something he was struggling with, but he didn't exactly want to wait until the high percentages of One For All for it to become effective.
"Yeah, the update should fall in… Oh, it already did."
Izuku blinked as the Full Gauntlet shifted around. At first glance, it looked just about the same, but a closer inspection showed that the wrap-like structure had a second layer. He pulled on it, and the bind stretched a bit, "Flaps? That's it!"
Still in the lab, Eri got Melissa's attention, "Why flaps are gonna help?"
"The air Izuku is pushing with his punches will get guided by the flaps, the air streams will spin around each other instead of just being pushed away and that will help his move get more focused." Melissa tried her best to simplify the explanation so Eri could understand, not knowing exactly how to explain physics to a six-year-old.
"Oh, so it's like a rope. With the strings spinning and tying on each other to make it strong."
The young scientist blinked, that wasn't a half-bad analogy, even if being a little out there to the topic at hand, "More or less." She turned back to the screen, seeing Izuku already poised for another shot, "Now let's see if it works."
Repeating his trick with Fa Jin, Izuku shot his arm forward. The flaps caught the air currents and made them revolve around his fist, "Vacuum Cannon!" Instead of a wave, a single blast of air about a palm wide flew at the dummy. Such a concentrated concussive blast punched a hole straight through it and put a crater on the wall behind.
"Yeah!" Izuku's cheer and laughter were contagious. After getting stumped on that move for so long, he finally found a way to use it right. Now, to see how much Izuku could push it.
Nana was instantly in his case, "You are not gonna break your arm just to see if your fancy new glove works."
'I'm not gonna use everything, just see if it handles fifty percent. C'mon Nana, it's for science!'
"No."
'Pretty please with a cherry on top? In the worst case, I have some Hi-Potions with me. Pleeeeease?'
"Fiiiiiiiine. But not a drop more than fifty, am I clear?"
'Crystal!' With permission granted, Izuku pulled some more power from the well inside him. He focused 40% on his arm, then boosted it with Fa Jin again, and took another shot.
This time, the test dummy he aimed at had its torso annihilated, the arms and head flying away, while the wall had cracks slithering away from the massive hole that went into the concrete and dented a metal plate inside the wall, probably to reinforce it for cases like that.
Melissa had her eyes blown wide, Izuku had just put himself above most strength quirks out there by destroying a meter of concrete and tending a titanium plate with the air pressure of his punch. Her Full Gauntlet (Melissa really liked the name, she had to update her blueprints with it later) helped, yes, but the strength behind the move was all Izuku. "How much power was that?"
Eri was the one who answered, "Forty percent. When Izuku reaches fifty his hair puffs up a little, and the points get spiky."
"Like that?" The blonde pointed at the monitor where Izuku's aura intensified and his hair became like Eri described.
"Yes."
Izuku planted his foot forward and leveraged his whole body, arm sparking with 50% of One For All boosted with a concentrated Fa Jin charge, "Vacuum Cannon!" Even his voice was charged, his muscles buzzing. Izuku thrust his fist at the last standing dummy.
A blink, and it was gone. The manikin was torn into tiny little pieces that were then compressed into the wall behind it, which in turn got pieced by the spear of wind. The concrete, the titanium plate, the second layer of concrete, the second titanium plate twice as thick as the first, a third one of concrete, another titanium plate, and lastly the fourth concrete layer were breached, only then the air strike lost enough force to stop.
Izuku looked at the tunnel he made, leading to another test site, down to his hand, and back at the sight of destruction he caused, "Oops."
—
"Let me get this straight. Your Deathcon One emergency, which brought you here, to I-Island, an ocean away from Japan, was a broken phone?" David's incredulous stare at the blocky red device was accompanied by disbelief at his friend.
"When you say it like that it sounds ridiculous."
"Because it is."
Toshinori brushed off the retort, "But, Inko told me Izuku had this when she found him."
Having been put up to speed, David instantly realized what his friend was hitting at, "So it probably has some clue from where he came from and what happened to him."
"Right in one." Toshinori's dramatic pose, pointing at David like he had cracked the code, crumbled a second later, "But she also said no one she brought it to could make the thing work."
"So you decided to break out the big guns, meaning, me." The head scientist nodded, now seeing how everything fit together. "I fix the phone, we see what's inside, and help your kid with his memory problem."
"Hopefully."
David grabbed the red phone and brought it to his computer, "First, let's see if image recognition can tell me what model it is."
Toshinori grimaced. With his luck, and his successor's at that, the phone was an otherworldly piece of tech. The whole "other worlds" thing still made Toshinori's head spin, but he learned to stop doubting his successor when he somehow reunited him with his long-departed master.
"What?!"
"Oh boy. What is it?" Toshinori was expecting many things, but the answer he got wasn't one of them.
"How did your kid make two testing sites unusable?!" David watched the clip annexed to the report, eyes bugging wide at the display of power.
At that, Toshinori could only shrug, "Plus Ultra."
—
"Sorry." Izuku slumped in the air, sitting cross-legged while Floating, with a metaphorical dark cloud over his head.
"No worries." Melissa, in turn, was more than pleased with the destruction of her testing site (and from the neighbor one). Not only had she gotten a lot of useful data, but Melissa also had her invention stress-tested and saw where her Uncle Might was coming from.
Izuku was shorter than her but had more power in his pinky finger than Melissa had in her whole body a hundredfold. And that was only half of his full power.
Yeah, he could do it. And Melissa would most certainly help.
"There there." Eri did her best to pat her Master's head without shaking off the pads on her horn. "I can fix it after we're done here."
Izuku instantly perked back up, "Oh yeah, your Repair spell!"
"Spell?" Before Melissa could ask, her computer dinged with an alert. "Oh, the results are ready!"
The trio instantly piled in front of the monitor. Each of them had a different reaction to the contents displayed, Eri didn't understand what any of the colorful graphics meant, Melissa was confused because while she did understand the information, it didn't make sense, and Izuku had his eyes blown wide.
He knew what that was. Of course, he would, he used it to…
"̴̧͖̳̳̘̦̓̄̆̈̒.̴̛͕̻̝͛͐̈́̽̌.̶̨̛̹̩̹̜̳̀̋͂̎͐̇͘.̶̨̡̖̬̱͙̬̓͐̅͠m̷͇̘͈̮̑̔͠ä̸̭̪̺̜̘̻́̽̈́͊͂́͂͝ḳ̶̭̰͎͒́ě̷̘̼̀̕ ̵̬̬̗̜̑t̷̘̊͌h̷̛͇͕̖͓̯̠̰̬̚i̵̛̖̞̍̈́̈́̚n̷̡͈͉̦̞̻͇̔ͅg̴͚͉̭̾̄̚s̸̨͔͕͎̠̽͒ ̶̺͓̝̎̈́̉͘r̶̩̗͙̞͕̈́͌͑i̸̛̻̮̖̩̮͍̣̥̿̏͘͝g̴̗̾̇̍͂̔̓͘͝ḩ̷̧͔̻͓͍̲̺́t̸̨̯͖͉̬͔̀͘ͅ!̵͓̱̂̇͑"̶͖̯̬̂̂̉͌̆͑ͅ
"That's Chronum!"
The girls startledly turned to Izuku at his outburst. "What?"
The boy turned to Melissa with his face still in a picture of surprise, not in a million years would he have thought Eri's quirk would work with something like that. "Chronum. It is, how do I even explain it? It's like a film roll, in a sense. It's a moment in Time crystalized in Light in an actual physical form." He walked around the young woman to kneel before Eri, "Your horn is storing these moments, this energy you use for your quirk, as Chronum. You're not making Time run backward, you're going back to the moment stored in there!" Izuku chuckled, "I think the name Rewind was more on the nose than we thought."
The little Princess of Heart tilted her head from side to side, soaking in what her Master told her, "Wait, so how can I make things go back to how they were? I don't have their moments in my horn?"
"Chronum can be used as fuel, or more like a trading coin? Either way, you can give away one piece you have in there for others, in a sense. The universe takes away a moment and gives you the one you want, the longer it has been, the more you have to give."
Melissa jumped back in the conversation, a frown on her face, "That 'equivalent exchange' talk is looking less like science and more like alchemy mambo-jumbo to me."
"Magic usually is like that." Izuku shrugged, not noticing Melissa's frown deepening. He turned back to Eri, a smile on his face, "That thing you used to make this was Chronum too, right? Those stars you saw in it." He pulled at his scarf that was once Gran Torino's cape.
"I think so. Now that you explained, it does sound like the stars." So they were called Chronum? Well, at least she knew the name now. But what did that mean to Izuku?
Eri looked up at him, at the cracks that still spilled the Chronum inside him out. What had caused them, and more than that, what had he lost?
—
"I still don't buy it," Melissa grumbled under her breath, her sourness a stark contrast against the merry fairgrounds of I-Expo.
"I'm not charging anything, so you're really not buying it." Izuku shrugged, happily watching people go about the attractions and the foreign heroes greeting fans (better them than him).
"Very funny."
"Why don't you like magic, Melissa?" Eri couldn't possibly understand how someone could dislike it.
"Magic isn't real."
"Of course it is!" Both Midoriyas spoke at once, pouting at the older girl.
"It isn't."
"It is!"
"Isn't!"
"Is!"
"Then prove it!"
Izuku raised his hand, and in his palm, an orb of a Fire spell materialized. It quickly circled between it and a Blizzard, Thunder, Aero, and Earth, with Izuku crumpling the magical rock in his grasp and letting it fade. "Is that good enough for you?"
Melissa blinked, surprised by the display but still unwilling to bend on her worldviews, "That elemental manipulation can be a byproduct of your quirk."
"And what about this?" Izuku summoned Heroes Rising, the Keyblade appearing in a shower of green sparks.
"A different aspect of a multi-facet quirk."
The boy dismissed his weapon and gestured to the ground by his side, where Cotton appeared in a pop of bright-colored smoke. Melissa could only stare blankly at the weird sheep that teleported there, trying to come up with a sensible explanation for it.
Izuku grabbed his Spirit friend and basically shoved him into Melissa's face, "Accept the mystical word of the dream sheep." The grin on his face only widened when Cotton let out a cry that sounded like pure smugness.
"No." Melissa would need more than a ball sheep to admit that everything she believed in was wrong, or at least not completely right.
Dropping Cotton, Izuku shrugged, "Your loss. You could just join us on the cool side."
"We have cookies!" Eri marked her point with a bite of one of said cookies which she just got from Cotton. Where did the Tama Sheep keep it? No one would ever know.
Whatever comeback the youngest Shield would say got lost when a voice coming from right behind her made her jump, thankfully getting caught by Izuku before she could faceplant on the hard floor, "Friendship is inevitable."
"Gah! Who are you?"
"Hi, Shoto!" Izuku greeted his friend the best he could while holding Melissa up in a princess carry and having Eri hanging on his back, "'Came to see I-Expo too?"
"Yes." Shoto didn't elaborate more than that, not seeing a reason to risk his secret mission. "And you, to keep making more friends?"
"Of course!"
Another familiar voice came from behind them, "That's why you're holding this girl none of us have ever seen?"
Izuku turned and saw Ochaco, Mina, and Toru giving him teasing looks while Momo, Tsuyu, and Kyoka tried not to openly laugh, to mixed results. Mei, who was also with them, didn't even bother and was laughing so loud some people were staring.
"Hey everyone! This is Melissa Shield, we met at the fair and she helped me with some stuff." Izuku presented Melissa like a cat he just adopted, holding her forward without his arms buckling even a millimeter.
"Wait, Shield as in David Shield?!" Mei's outburst was followed by the girl invading their personal space with the subtlety of a train crash.
"Yes, that's my dad. Also, can you put me down?"
"Sure." Izuku deposited Melissa back on her feet. "At least someone likes to use their own legs." His jab at Eri was answered with a raspberry, which Izuku promptly returned.
Turning back to the girls, Izuku saw that Melissa was trying to make Mei slow down, for all the good it did. "Wait up, my Japanese isn't that good."
"Wait!" Izuku's outburst saved poor Melissa from more rapid-fire questions. "Which language had we been talking in until now?"
"Uh, English? You're speaking in it right now."
Mei tilted her head, "Uh, no. He just spoke in Japanese."
Momo joined the conversation, the rest of the girls and Shoto also approaching to form a group proper, "Let me guess, your Keyblade's universal translator?"
"Yup!" Izuku grinned, picking Eri up, "But more than that, Eri, you remembered the translator spell I taught you?"
"Yes."
"The one you cast on the way here?"
"Uh-hum."
"Well, you've been talking in another language until now!"
The little princess tilted her head, "Huh. Cool."
"Wait, back up a second." Toru cut the brief didactic moment to gawk, "You had a spell that lets people speak and read every language in your back pocket since ever and you never told us?"
Izuku shrugged, "You never asked. Also, Momo and Kyoka knew about it too."
Toru shot her friends a betrayed glare before turning back to their resident green menace, "Forget about that, hit me with it!" She opened her arms and made a 'pass it to me' gesture.
Mina also jumped at the chance, "Me too, me too!"
"Okay." Izuku booped their noses, a puff of sparkles bursting from the contact, "Boop!"
Both girls giggled, not having expected something so silly but not surprised by it with Izuku's track record of not doing what anybody expected of him. Mina pointed dramatically at Melissa, "Quick, say something in English."
"Uh, how are you?" The magic nonsense once again left Melissa lost and slightly uncomfortable. She didn't want to call Izuku a liar, but the subject of content wasn't something so small as to just be waved away as nothing. Still, she did what was asked of her, even for politeness alone.
Mina blinked, "That was Japanese just now." She traded a look with Toru, both girls gaining giddy smiles before holding each other's hands and hopping in a circle.
"Hey, if you're handing magic skills like candy, hit me too chief." Kyoka was quick to get in line, the others also getting into it. For heroes and support technicians, being able to speak and understand every language was a skill too good to pass.
Izuku didn't waste the chance and went around boop-ing everyone on the nose to apply the spell. Later he had to see about casting it on everyone in the hero course, and teaching them how to use it right, but for now, he just chuckled at his friends' reactions. It wasn't necessary to cast it like that, but it sure was funny.
Tsuyu rubbed her nose, feeling slightly ticklish, "So that's how being a polyglot feels? Nice."
"New magic aside, what have you guys been doing here?"
Making a conscious effort to not trade conspiratory glances with the others, Momo answered Izuku in the vaguest way possible, "We looked around some exhibitions displaying new technologies and managed to speak with some technicians and specialists. Many wondrous things are on display." Unfortunately, nothing that could help with their search for answers. "And what about you?"
Izuku hopped next to Melissa and pushed her forward, "Melissa helped me with figuring out Vacuum Cannon! And we finally discovered how Eri's quirk works."
"I just calibrated the Full Gauntlet a little, and the thing about Eri's horn was all you."
The little girl in question poked her head over Izuku's, "But you make the Full Gauntlet, and if you haven't shown us what my horn was made of Izuku wouldn't know it was Chronum. He didn't when I told him about the stars."
Unnoticed by the talking trio, the rest of the group missed a step in their wide-eyed surprise. A clue!
"You guys finally discovered what Eri uses to make stuff." Ochaco, knowing that tidbit better than the others, tried to fish for information.
"Yeah, it's-" Izuku was interrupted by his stomach growling like a starving beast. He looked down at it, then back at his friends, "How about we talk over lunch?"
"Sure, I know a place." Melissa took the lead and guided the group to one of the booths deeper into the fair. "How can someone so short make a noise like that?" She muttered a little louder than intended, causing the others to chuckle.
"He's a growing boy."
'Yeah. You'll see, I'm gonna be taller than you!'
"That's the spirit, kiddo!" Nana, bless her departed (but not really) soul, was the only one who believed in Izuku's dream of being tall. He couldn't let Riku and Axel keep looking down on him, literally.
Ignoring the pang on his chest, Izuku found a pair of free tables for the group and pushed them closer, "Sit down, everyone."
Eri considered the merit of it instead of just sitting on Izuku's lap, but before she could decide Ochaco grabbed her and set the girl down on one of the chairs. At her pout, the teen just smiled at her, "You've been clinging to Deku all day, and don't even try denying it. Stretch your legs and rest your arms for a bit and give him a break."
"But Izuku didn't say he's tired."
"He lifted a chunk of a building that fell on me in our entrance exam with both of his arms broken. We don't take his word for it."
"What?!" The duo's little moment was interrupted by Melissa's outburst. The young woman was staring at them and Izuku in shock, "How?!"
"With my help, I remember."
Ochaco waved Tenya off, "Not the point." She did a double take. "Wait, Tenya?! When did you get here?"
There, in all his uptight glory, was Tenya. He had taken a seat at the table beside Ochaco, a smile on his face, "I was passing by when I saw you all stopping by this booth. I have to say, it's most fortunate that I found you all just as I left my brother's company."
"And why that?"
Tenya traded a conspiratory look with Shoto that they usually reserved for talking about Hosu. That alone told them everything they needed to know. Seeing Izuku and Melissa busy getting one of the staff to come to take their orders, Tenya leaned closer and explained in hushed whispers, "My brother offered to bring me here as his plus-one as he had a VIP pass to represent the Iida family. I couldn't let the chance pass me by when we still have Izuku's visions as mostly a mystery still."
"We had the same idea, but not much luck until now." Shoto especially had nothing to show after following his father around and then checking all the mental recovery tech he found.
"Then you'll be happy to know I found something." Tenya had the complete attention of the table now, everybody giving him hopeful looks that made the speedster grin slightly, "My brother paid a visit to the medical development facilities in the hope of upgrading Team Idaten's on-site clinic and first-aid equipment to not have a repeat of what happened to him. There, we found a still-in-development apparatus that is responsible for locating brain wounds and diagnosing them. That could hopefully help with Izuku's memory problem."
While the teens brightened, finally having something to show for their troubles, Eri frowned and shook her head, "That's not it."
Seeing her troubled face, Ochaco took Eri's hand, "What's wrong?"
"The cracks weren't because Izuku hit his head. He explained to me what the stars are, it's called Chronum, it's a moment, a memory, that our hearts keep a hold so tight it crystalizes with its Light." She spoke slowly, as if in a trance. Eri's free hand raised to her chest, her own Light tickling softly under her palm like clockwork. It was there, it will always be there, it wouldn't leave, but Izuku's did, escaping through the cracks in his heart like sand on a broken hourglass. "Izuku's heart can't hold them, that's why it doesn't form fully, why the memories he had got lost. They slipped away, but Izuku's heart still hasn't given up, it's trying to fix itself and make the memories solid again, it's trying to hold them close again."
A stunned silence fell over the table. This escaped their knowledge and reached into the metaphysical, the fantastical, in a way their encounters with magic and Heartless couldn't prepare them to. What could they do? In a world where even the most impossible of phenomenons could be explained with science, where even quirks had something that grounded them in reality, what could a bunch of teens do to save their friend from scars that went deeper than his soul?
They could keep trying.
"Eri, sweety, you know what the stars are now, don't you? Then what about the cracks? There's something we can do to fix them?" Ochaco had lived with Midoriya Inko for a couple of weeks at most, but that was more than enough to channel the woman's motherly presence and care. By the way that Eri relaxed, she sure did.
"They are fixing themselves."
There was a collective moment where they all blinked in surprise. Mei leaned over the table and asked the little girl, not bothered that their source of information was a six-year-old and taking the words at face value, "What do you mean by 'they are fixing themselves'? Izuku is just…healing on his own?"
"Yes." Eri clenched the front of her dress, the green star kneading under her fingers. "Izuku's heart didn't break, so it started to fix itself. Izuku doesn't give up, no part of him does. He's putting himself back together so he can remember."
Ochaco blinked a weird feeling behind her eyes away. That sounded…
"̶̖̰̰̱̮̘̩͓̊͆́̈́̉.̶̬̯̦̹̬̦͉͔̣͂̐̓͝.̶̢̛̯̹̻̦͓͈̟̻̓̄̋͋̈͒̚͜ͅ.̵̻͑̇̍̈́̽̚͠j̵̼̙̮̣̪̖̽̈́͐ͅṳ̸̧͚̯̎̇̓̕s̶̽̀ṱ̸̢̧̗͇̄ ̸̨̧͇̼̤̙̜̌͗̃̍l̴̗͈͓̫̫̳̻̬͆̌͂͛͠ï̷̡̞̻̏͊͛̒͜k̸͍̪̗̱̿̅͂e̶̟̣͇̦̝̗̅͐̈̕͝ ̸̢̛̙͇̘̹͍̼̞̲̹̯̽͑́͆̏ḩ̷̭̟̓̅̋į̵͇̯̠͕́͂m̶̢̛̲̙̝̗͉̅̉̏́͊́͠.̵̬̪̯̫́"̴̭̜̺̞̺̣̰̐͐͌͜͜
…familiar.
"So we just do…nothing?" Kyoka grimaced. All that work for nothing, are they really that helpless?
"No." Shoto's tone surprised them, it was the most emotion the boy had demonstrated, ever. "Izuku is fixing his heart, okay, then we help him. We fix it and then he remembers whatever he forgot." From the intensity of his eyes, there was no other option. They would do it, and stars have mercy if someone got in the way.
"I can get behind that."
"Count me in!"
"Fixing things is half my job!"
Eri watched as their Hope didn't dwindle but instead shone brighter. The Light in her heart clicked louder, stronger, brighter still.
Hope.
It was-
"Hey guys!" Izuku rushed back to the table, a grin on his face, with Melissa following at a brisk pace, "Look who I found!"
"Hi, my dudes! What can I get you all?"
"You mean 'we', right?"
"Stop trying to be cool and note their order down already."
All three laughing, Denki, Minoru, and Hanta, wearing the booth's uniform that looked like a cafe's attendant getup just without the waist apron, walked into the scene.
"How did you three idiots get here?"
Denki gave Kyoka a shrug, not offended by the jab, "Well, after we lost the lottery All Might held for a VIP pass with all expenses covered, we improvised. Minoru found a job offer for this booth that paid for the flight here and back, and Hanta convinced the manager to let us walk around in our breaks."
"Huh, would you look at that?" Kyoka should have known better than to doubt those three ability to finicky their way around. "Out of curiosity and because we probably are gonna stumble onto them, who won the lottery?"
"Me." Fumikage's voice startled them all. Denki ended up jumping into Izuku's arms like Melissa accidentally did earlier but with a more girlish shriek. "Hello to you too." The raven-headed boy chuckled, having been sitting at the table adjacent to the group the entire time.
"Dude, are you a ninja or what?" Denki tapped Izuku's arm, "Thanks for the save, man."
"No problem." Putting Denki back down, Izuku went ahead and dragged Fumikage's chair, with the boy still sitting on it, to their table. "Let's order already, I'm starving!"
"In that, we agree. A coffee, please, black."
From Fumikage's back, Dark Shadow sprung up like a jack-in-the-box, "And an apple tart!"
Not even blinking at the giant shadow figure, Denki nodded and noted it down, "I gotcha, my dudes." He turned to the table, "Anything else."
As Denki went around getting his friends' orders, Minoru and Hanta talked with Izuku about his new gadget, Mei quickly joined them, and Eri started to play with Dark Shadow's cape.
Melissa leaned closer to the ghostly entity, trying to get a better look at the Dark Guardian. "What are you?"
"My other half." Fumikage was the one to answer, leaning back and watching his Darkness entertaining the class's princess. "My quirk let me manifest two sides of myself in the physical plane. With some help from our mutual friend, I learned how to harness the strength of my heart to achieve the form you now see."
Melissa grumbled, "More magic nonsense."
"'Science advanced enough is indistinguishable from magic.'" Fumikage quoted at Melissa, a serene smile on his beak. "If you understood it, what would make it different from what you see all around you in this exposition of technological wonders that push the boundaries of what was once thought impossible."
That gave Melissa pause. When put like that, "Is giving very effective motivational speeches a prerequisite to being a hero student?"
"It's more of an acquired skill, you'll see after you interact with Izuku for long enough." He grinned, "Just don't let our dear class president fool you with his lack of faith in his own aptitude in it."
They looked at Izuku, who was happily munching away on a croissant. Noticing the stares, he tilted his head, "Whaf?" The word came out muffled thanks to the baked goodness he was gorging himself with.
"Don't be tricked by his silliness too." Fumikage laughed while shaking his head in goodnaturedly disappointment. Way to ruin his own speech.
From that point on, the conversation became lighter and focused on the food the teens devoured with gusto. In no time flat, plates were emptied and bellies were stuffed.
Izuku leaned back with a smile, holding his stomach and sighing in contentment. What? Running all around and making friends is hard work, and hard work leaves you starving. Tilting his head back and watching the clouds passing by, he caught himself wondering, "Where's Kacchan now?" He gave his childhood friend a VIP pass too, so he should be somewhere around.
As if answering him, a loud explosion sounded out. While his friends jumped, startled, Izuku shot to his feet. He knew only one person who made explosions that sounded like that, "Kacchan! C'mon guys!
—
Katsuki fucking loved magic.
With a quick charge of Aero into the next set of explosions that sparked on his palms, Katsuki zoomed through rocky terrain, zeroing in on a group of robots. Thankfully, he was wearing his costume, so without even looking he grabbed a grenade from his belt.
It had no payload because Katsuki didn't need it. With an exertion of will, the grenade glowed yellow. Chucking it at the robots, lightning exploded and fried their circuits.
With a huff, he used another burst of wind to fling himself up a cliff. Those guys of I-Island made it too easy. With another burst to shoot him downward, palms shining yellow, Katsuki roared, "Thundaga Detonation!" Throwing his hands forward, Thunder magic exploded out of his palms, thick arcs of electricity jumping through the whole mountain and destroying the rest of his targets.
"Amazing! We have a new champion with a record of nine seconds!" At the referee's shout, the people watching cheered.
Katsuki rubbed his nose, enjoying the attention. The game was pretty simple, get into the pit, destroy every robot, and be faster than everyone else, but damn if it wasn't fun.
"Kacchan!" An annoyingly familiar voice called out. Katsuki sighed at the death of his peace of mind, and just when his sanity was recovering too.
Turning in the voice's direction, he saw Deku half-climbing the rail at the border of the pit and waving frantically trying to get his attention. Exploding himself up with another Aero blast, Katsuki grabbed Deku and threw him into the pit, "Go take a turn, fucking nerd!"
"Was that necessary?"
Katsuki gave Eijiro a dry glance, "It's ten more seconds of peace of mind."
"You say that like Deku won't beat your time, Kacchan."
Katsuki turned his eyes to Ochaco, a stare-off worthy of old Western movies occurring then and there.
Thankfully, it was broken by Eri, "Izuku's gonna win."
Katsuki changed targets, entering a staredown with a six-year-old in front of dozens of people, "And why do you say that, huh?"
Eri, to her credit, didn't back down, "Izuku's gonna win."
Melissa leaned closer to Tsuyu, "Are they always like that?"
"Yes, they get along really well."
"That's 'getting along'?
Inside the pit, Izuku cleared his participation with the referee after being forcefully volunteered. Skipping to the starting line, he was confronted with a choice. Izuku could try his new move and shoot all robots down, he could power up further and do it the old-fashioned way, or… With a flick of his wrist, Wings of Hope materialized in his grasp.
"Track reset!"
A new set of robots took their positions, all clearly in sight of both Izuku and the audience. With a deep breath, Izuku hoisted his Keyblade up, parallel to his body, and Focused. One by one, the robots were marked by golden glyphs similar to clockfaces in Izuku's bullet-time vision. The magic building up inside Wings of Hope buckled against his hold, the Focus marks guiding it also working as pulls.
"START!"
With that as his cue, Izuku whispered, "Fatal Frame." He let the magic free.
From his form glyphs burst out and the world stopped, becoming a strange green and yellow negative. In this frozen world, Izuku smirked.
A tick of the clock and time started to move again. Now, Izuku stood at the peak of the artificial mountain while every single robot was hacked into pieces. The young hero turned back with a brandish of his Keyblade before resting it on his shoulder, a smile on his face.
The referee snapped out of the silent shock that gripped all watching, "L-less than a second! We have a new champion, and it looks like his record won't be beaten!"
Izuku jumped from his perch all the way to his friends just in time to hear Katsuki grind his teeth and challenge the referee's words. "That was fun!" He dismissed Wings of Hope and slapped his best friend's arm, "C'mon, let's see what else the fair has before the gala."
"I'm beating you on the next game!"
"Bet!"
While the U.A. students messed around with the two boys for their rivalry, Melissa stared at the pit with unblinking eyes. If that was what Izuku was capable of with nothing even close to his full power, then the hero Deku truly could surpass All Might.
A pull on her hand broke Melissa from her thoughts. Eri looked up at her with a smile, "Let's go, the others are already going ahead."
Melissa looked at the hero students, none of them discouraged by the display of power they just saw, but instead laughing at how they could have done better than Izuku.
That sight made Melissa realize that there wasn't just one hero in the world. There wasn't a reason to, not when there were so many amazing people with good hearts, large hopes, and dreams to reach.
"Yeah, let's go."
Hand in hand, they walked after the next heroes that would keep their world safe.
DONE!
And in time for Christmas too!
As you all know, this year for me was a kick in the fucking nuts. But I'm still here, and I'm not giving up on my stories, so come the new year I'll still be here and I'll still bring to you all my form of madness!
For everyone reading this, I hope you enjoy my works, that life's kinder to you come this new year, and that you have good people to spend the holidays with.
If you want to support me somehow, go to the infamous site that starts with P and search for Bola8. It's purely a tip jar, but it has helped me a lot, thanks to these wonderful people:
Guipa_, SilverZero90, CBN, and kennine.
My most heartfelt thanks to you all!
Also, join the discord and be part of the chaos! (Remember to delete the spaces!)
discord . gg / stAGY4V
And of course, Happy Halloween! no wait-
Merry Christmas!