Hello all! Time for another chapter of Monster hunter Hero!
I know my update schedule has been... well, garbo these last few months, as real life and my job isn't letting me write as much and drain any sort of creativity.
So thank you for sticking with me, and I hope this.. albeit short chapter will be enjoyed; plus we get some nice Shoto and Toru moments!
Review time:
E3roa: Thank you, I was told about this on A03 as well, I'll fix it up later, but the mistake won't happen again.
SeraHawke: He's Mr. Conspiricy, after all. Plus this would be sort of his coping with Midoriya being gone.
ProjectIceman: Oh trust me, it will be revealed slowly, but yea... Monsters don't tend to just melt, huh? XD
nappatheloveabl: Thank you, I try and make this as appealing as I can for anyone that knows or doesn't know one of the main aspects of these types of fics.
SuperShadic2002: As I said before, he's Mr. Conspiricy.
[I do not own the rights to My Hero Academia or Monster Hunter, they belong to their respected owners.]
Chapter 5
Essence
Toru was softly dabbing away at the cuts along her husband's body while both she and Shoto were sitting on their living room couch, the number one hero currently shirtless and staring out into the air, though a wince from his unscarred eye had told the invisible woman he was at least still cognitive of her presence, "I take it you already asked where he was all this time?"
"Different world." Was all Shoto said, shifting slightly to rub his chin with the arm currently not being held by Toru, "Though he didn't go into specifics as to HOW he got there or came back, that was more to do with him fading in, and out."
"We don't mew, to be honest." Mochi had spoken up from the armchair close to them, surprising the young couple as they had forgotten about the feline, who had been quiet for this entire time and taking in the way the room had been styled.
Admittedly, it looked like one of the interiors of a Kugame household.
Feeling both pairs of eyes, though it could only see one set of them, the palico purred gently as it nestled into the chair, its big brown gaze looking at the pair, "Meowster will figure it out, though."
"Perhaps you can explain something to me," Shoto began to speak, staring hard at the cat as the distant sound of a shower reverberated off the living room walls between its three occupants, "What exactly caused Midoriya to act like he did?"
"What are you talking about, Shoto?" Toru asked; her invisible hand could be felt grasping his gently, turning the man's attention to his wife to give her a soft smile of comfort before looking back to the Palico.
"I remember how intense Midoriya used to be when he fought…." Shoto began to say, his mind quickly returning to the memory of the first year Sports Festival, where he and Izuku had fought so long ago, and how, despite how injured he had gotten, the green-haired boy was determined not only to go all out but also help break the moronic vow of never using his fire. However, the memories soon faded as he focused on the here and now, staring harder at the cat who seemed to flinch at the way he was being looked out, "But I have *never* seen Midroiya act almost like a reckless beast, even when he fought All for One."
Toru shifted in her seat as if to indicate how startled she was, and even though she was invisible, Mochi could feel her equally intense stare on him now. His little ears gently flattened to their sides in fear before quickly looking over to the pile of armor currently resting near the main entrance with its eyes, watching as the two pro heroes looked over to the mound, and the feline sighed heavily.
"I wish Meowster was here to better explain this…" the cat spoke softly before resting on the couch more and crossing its little arms over its chest, "He told me about his home, how everyone there has special powers called Quirks… He even showed me his!" It said excitedly, sitting straighter than before, "It was so neat to fly around the forest and not worry about getting mud or leaves stuck in my fur…."
A clearing of a throat caught the furball's attention, and it started to explain again, "Anyway! Armor, like what Meowster uses, is made out of parts of meow-nsters, and… well, I can't properly explain it, but the meow-nster parts affect him… and make his quirk-thing go crazy."
The two pro heroes blinked in silence, taking in that information before Shoto once again looked deep in thought for a moment, his hand on his chin before looking towards Mochi, "How crazy are we talking about? Midoriya has great control over his quirk, and hardly anything would make him lose that much focus."
"Well…" Mochi began to rub the back of its head, an act similar to how their green-haired friend would be when questioned about something embarrassing, "There was this one time Master lost full control, but it was because of what had happened and what he was facing."
"W-What was he facing?" Toru gasped in worry, holding Shoto close to her body.
"Fatalis"
The deep tone of a voice cut off whatever the Palico was about to say as all three turned towards the owner, standing in a set of relatively bright teal blue 'Acid Queen' sweater and a pair of matching bottoms that were little more than pajama pants was Izuku, toweling his hair.
Toru couldn't hold it anymore, lifting herself up from the couch and beelining towards the once thought-dead student and suddenly bear-hugged him tightly, which caused an escape of breath from the green-haired man who was not ready for such a thing, and doing his best to not winch from the pain of some of his wounds, "You can't believe how hard it was not to hug you when Shoto brought you in." Toru spoke with softness to her voice as Izuku very slowly and gently hugged her back. Once the invisible woman let go, she giggled when she saw Shoto come up and suddenly hug Midoriya, now beet red.
The dual-quirked man lingered momentarily before pulling back and smiling at Izuku, "Midoriya, it's good to have you back."
Izuku blinked momentarily, processing everything before smiling brightly at them, "It's good to be back."
"The others were called while you were showering; they should be here within an hour or so," Shoto began to speak, leading his friend back towards the couch while Toru made her way towards the kitchen nearby, "Your feline friend mentioned Kirishima, so I figured he and a few of the others knew of your return already."
"Y-yea... Ashido and Uraraka were the first after I appeared at the park, and then Iida, Kirishima, and Asui in the police station afterward…."
"Wait, that was you who trashed the memorial park?" Toru asked as she returned with a tray of glasses and a pitcher of water, giving everyone a small glass as Izuku nodded, sipping the cool liquid.
"Not deliberately!" Izuku spoke with worry in his voice, "I-We were hunting down a sick Yuan-Kut-Ku, and it had tossed me into the statue, then it brought its claw down on top of it trying to get me; I'm really sorr-"
"Midoriya, it's fine; statues and monuments can be re-built, but people cannot." Todoroki said with his usual stoic and emotionless voice.
"Says the guy trying to head out last night and freezer burn the culprit…." Toru offhandedly said before taking a sip of her water, Izuku looking towards Todoroki, who, while looking as he always did, seemed to sport a slight blush on his cheeks.
Ignoring his wife's comment for now, Shoto finished his drink and placed the glass on the table, "I have to ask, though, you didn't seem to be using your quirks while we were fighting that creature earlier, is that true for this 'Yuan-Kut-ku' you faced last night?"
Izuku held his glass in both of his hands, a finger idly running along the rim before he let out a small sigh, "I had used a few to get to you, 'Black Whip' and 'Float'... but when I faced the Zinogre, I was trying to limit my usage of One for All."
"Is that to do with what the kitty was trying to explain?" Toru asked, idly slipping her hand across Shoto's leg and entangling their fingers together, watching as Izuku put his glass down and went towards the heap of metallic armor he had been stripped of, picking up the helmet before making his return silently.
Sitting back down, Izuku took a deep breath, "Yes, to put it simply, most, if not all, of my armor and weapons are made out of the various monster parts and other materials from the world I was living in. Monsters have this sort of…' essence' to them, a primordial energy released when the creatures die, either absorbed back into nature or into their bodies." The green-haired man moved the helmet in his hand around slowly, as if studying it like he had done so many times while the others listened on, "Because we don't have that sort of energy in our world, I would become more agitated since… you know… my body hadn't been exposed to it like other people, and as I spent more time on a hunt… I'd start to be a little more… f-feral…."
"More like you were acting wilder than a meown-ster on a rampage," Mochi spoke up from his spot across from Izuku as all three humans looked toward the talking cat before Izuku chuckled lightly.
"You could say that, and for whatever reason, whenever I was using my quirk, it sped up the process, and the stronger the monster used in making the armor I was wearing, the quicker it happened. It was the battle with Fatalis when I lost all control."
"What happened?" asked Shoto, feeling the softness of his wife against his arm in evident worry for the other man.
Izuku was silent for a few moments, his hands clutching the helmet, and both pro heroes could see him struggling momentarily, "Y-you guys remember how you found me after I left UA?"
Toru gasped while Shoto's eyes widened, clearly remembering how their friend looked during his time as a 'vigilante' after the war. The way his black whip twisted and coiled behind him and how his hero suit looked after doing so much and becoming a sort of twisted 'rabbit' visage of their usually bright and friendly classmate. Toru was the first to speak as she shifted closer, "T-that bad?"
"Worse…" Izuku said softly, leaning back into the chair and placing the helmet on his knee with his scarred right hand resting on the top, "It was like I was a literal monster from what the Commander told me. Until then, no one knew I had a quirk since the people there didn't have them. I had to hide my powers for the most part."
"Me-row, scared me when black tendrils suddenly shot out to catch me after I fell from a tree…." Mochi said with a huff.
"Anyway, so long as I don't use my quirk while in my armor, the build-up is gradual. Even non-existent so long as I am not fighting a monster." Izuku said as he watched Shoto slowly bring his hand up to his chin and look deep in thought before looking back to the hunter on the other couch.
"So, if one of us wore the armor, then we would have to worry about the build-up of the essence as well?"
The heavy sigh from Izuku was not a good sign in Shoto's mind as Izuku was now staring at the helmet on his leg, "Considering I have no real idea how it would affect people with mutations, I'm just glad that everything is safely stored in my trunk back in my room at the agency."
"Well, I don't know about the both of you, but I'm hungry; how about I whip us up some brunch while you two catch up?" Toru exclaimed as she hopped onto her feet, walking towards the kitchen, pausing to look towards Mochi, "Why don't you help me, little guy? I have never met a cutie like you, so I don't know what I can make for ya."
A meow escaped the feline's muzzle as it, too, hopped off of its seat and waddled over to follow the invisible woman toward the kitchen. Taking one last look back to her husband and their guest, smiling brightly to herself at the gentle smirk her hubby had on his lips, one of the few (and public) ones he would give.
Usually, he would reserve them for when he was around Toru only or the odd twitch of a lip when he was hanging out with some of their old classmates. But now, she could see Shoto's joy with his once-dead friend, alive and relatively well, muttering up a storm as the two talked shop and caught up.
She giggled happily, remembering the last time she had seen him like this, and that was when they got married, and as she could feel the blush on her invisible cheeks, the other time was their wedding night.
Kinoko moaned softly as she stretched and slowly raised herself up, her eyes fluttering open as she released a gentle yawn, "W-Where am I-... oh." Looking around, the mushroom-obsessed girl realized she was in one of the spare rooms they had for any visiting guests to the agency. She sighed with a heavy blush, her mind running with various thoughts about how embarrassing it was to faint like that.
Admittedly, no one would blame her for fainting, considering her old high school crush suddenly showed up after being dead for seven years.
Placing her hat back on her head and moving off the bed and out of the room, she was about to head back down to the main hall when a peculiar scent caught her attention. Blinking and looking about, taking in a gentle sniff, Kinoko followed the scent until she came across an opened door to another guest room. Her breath caught in her throat at everything that was placed there. From tiny wooden figures to various types of weaponry leaning against the wall, however, what really caught her eye was the rather large trunk beside the bed, open wide.
Kinoko wasn't typically one to snoop around someone's personal belongings. But the scent that kept wafting over her nose was just too enticing. Given her experience and quirk, she knew it was some fungi, but the smell was nothing like she had ever encountered.
Slowly moving towards the trunk, Kinoko looked into it and gasped, her eyes sparkling with excitement as she reached in a pulled out a rather exciting mushroom, a soft blue coloration all over the cap and stem, turning it over to look at the gills to see it was a much darker tone of blue as well. Just what in the world was this?
"You shouldn't be snooping in someone else's stuff." A voice from behind caused Kinoko to scream suddenly, spinning around to come face to face with the smug smirk of one Mina Ashido.
"A-Ashido! Don't scare me like that!" Kinoko puffed her cheeks up in annoyance, and they were red once again in embarrassment as the pink-skinned woman came waltzing in, taking her time to look at the various knick-knacks around the room, "W-What are you doing here?"
"Oh, there was an emergency, but that ended about twenty minutes ago, so I decided to check up on you while everyone was coming back." Mina said, not looking at the other woman, taking one of the wooden shrine maidens in her hands and looking it over while she continued, "There was another monster sighting, thankfully Todoroki and Midori took care of it, and everyone was helping out with the clean up and evac."
"O-Oh, shrooms!" Kinoko said, raising to her feet and dropping the mushroom back into the trunk, "Was anyone hurt?"
"Some people had a few scratches and burns, but it was only superficial at the very least. It took about an hour to clean up and bring power back to the area after all the electricity flowed from the monster." The golden eyes of Mina looked to Kinoko as she waltzed up to her shorter coworker and the trunk, "Toru called to tell us that her man and Midori are at her place, resting for now. We sent someone in a company car to bring Midori back, but with traffic, it will take much longer."
"A-Ah… I'm sorry I couldn't help out." Kinoko looked down at her hands, fiddling with her fingers.
"No worries, girl! I was stuck on drone duty myself, so no biggie." Mina said with a bright smile, seeing how upset Kinoko was, possibly due to her being out while everyone else was being heroes. She was about to say something else when something inside the trunk caught her eye, "Well, well… what do we have here?"
"M-Maybe we shouldn't be going through the trunk…." Kinoko weakly chastised the other woman, who was oohing and awing at the things she was tossing out the trunk, some of which looked heavy to lift out, but Mina was on a mission, and within moments with a devious smirk on her face, her search had produced what she was looking for.
"Ah ha! Look at this!" She held up the pink scale bikini top towards Kinoko, who had brought up a hand to her lips in shock, "Now, I can tell that this armor was made for a woman, or they have REALLY interesting fashion for both sexes…."
As Kinoko took the armor from Mina, The pink-skinned woman dove back into the trunk to locate the rest of the gear with manic glee. Once she found what she was looking for (at least she hoped it was, given the matching scale patterns), Mina looked towards Kinoko with a bright smile, holding up the bottoms to the mushroom woman.
"I have a wicked idea… how about we surprise Midori when he gets back?"
Between the look on Mina's face and seeing some of the other items within the trunk, Kinoko gently sighed.
"I'm going to regret this… but sure, ok."
The squeal of joy inside Izuku's room could be heard throughout the agency.
[For context, the armor Mina pulled out was the Female Anjanath Armor from MH:World ... google dat shit :D ]