章 8: Chapter 8: Shorts 3
Dad?
Getting used to a new addition to the family had become much easier for Izuku. It helped that Izuku still recalled many of the false memories Kioku gave him, giving him a general idea of how she was and how she acted, or at least how she perceived herself and how she acted.
However, there was one thing Izuku had not gotten used to.
"Aww daddy you're too good at this game!" Kioku pouted as her character in Super Hero Bash flew off-screen.
Izuku flinched slightly. And his body tensed up.
He still wasn't used to being referred to as a father. He was still fifteen after all, far too young for fatherhood in his opinion.
At first, he had just let it go, wondering if she would stop referring to him as her father if they lived together, but that wasn't the case it seemed.
Izuku's character was blasted off-screen by Sansan's character while he was distracted. They were all playing together as a family, even Inko decided to join in with the chaotic eight-player bash, and all the kids had teamed up against Izuku and Inko.
"Gat yah!" Sansan fist-bumped everyone, making several arms out of her body to fist bump everyone at once.
"Don't get too confident children," Inko said, immediately stopping their celebration by knocking out two of them at once. As Izuku's only friend and parent, she had gotten very used to this game series.
Most people were too wrapped up in the game to notice Izuku's behavior, however Fu, as one not to get wrapped up in things, did see him react. And wanted to try something.
As Izuku got in on his next stock, Fu decided to try something.
"Try dodging this, dad," Fu said as he moved his character to attack Izuku.
After being called dad, Izuku flinched and got hit by the extremely telegraphed attack.
This odd behavior caught the attention of the other kids and Inko.
"Izuku are you ok honey?" Inko asked him.
"I'm-I'm fine." Izuku stuttered.
"Are you really ok, dad?" Fu asked him.
Izuku flinched again, causing him to randomly attack the air.
Seeing the pattern, Kiba decided to try it out next.
"Dad I'm about to attack you!" Kiba shouted out loud.
Izuku panicked and dodged too soon, causing him to get hit.
"Ah, I see, referring to Caretaker as father seems to freak him out and cause him to panic," Kiba said, before realizing what she just said. "Wait what?"
"You don't like it when we call you dad?" Kei looked at him curiously. "Why?"
"W-Well I mean-you know…" Izuku began to nervously sweat. "I'm not really sure why you want me to be your father figure and I thought I was more of a big brother figure."
All the kids gave Izuku a confused look.
"But...you are our dad." Fu pointed out as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.
"As the man who takes care of us and provides for us, that makes you our adopted father," Kiba said matter of factly. "I'm not sure why this flusters you so much."
"Wha-what?!" Izuku was in shock. He knew that Kioku thought of him as her father, but all of them did?! "But wait only Kioku ever calls me dad!? The rest of you normally just say my name or call me a nickname!"
"I refer to you as Caretaker as it is your title, you take care of children. It is only respectful that I refer to by your title or as father. I simply choose to refer to you by title." Kiba explained.
"I wasn't fully comfortable thinking of you as my dad at first, but after I got used to it I had already been calling you by your first name," Fu said.
"Dada!" Sansan moved herself onto his lap.
"I thought you liked being called Izuku so I just called you that," Kei explained. "But I still always thought you were my dad now. You're a lot more like a dad then my other one."
"I..I always wanted you to be my dad," Eri said quietly.
"I just want a dad who loves me." Kioku said.
Izuku wanted to point out how he was too unqualified, too young, too...him.
"Well, I suppose that makes me a grandmother now." Inko gave a small giggle in amusement.
"Mom!" Izuku gave her a betrayed look. She was legally the parent here. Even if she wasn't around much.
Then it struck him.
He looked at the faces of the kids, his kids. He had been the one taking care of them, and while his mother did bring in lots of cash, he was also bringing in income and providing for them.
He taught them, made sure they were safe, comforted them when they needed it, and showed them in affection.
And at the end of the day. They just wanted a parent who would do all that for them. Not an older brother, a parent.
But...can I be that for them? I'm...I'm just a Deku. Izuku doubted himself. But...If I don't do it...no one will. Mom's too busy to be that parent for them like she was for me, and even if she wasn't I couldn't ask her to. I'm the one who agreed to take care of them! So I have to take responsibility! If they want me to be their father, then I have to do everything I can to be the best father I can be!
"Ok," Izuku said, taking all this in as best he could. The idea still made him uneasy, but he was determined now. "I guess I'm a dad now. I wonder if I can change some of the paperwork."
Soon enough the kids went back to the game, however, Inko was distracted by proudly looking at her son, trying not to cry.
My baby. Look at how you've grown. She thought.
A new life?
Izuku looked at the two children in front of him. Kioku and Eri.
"So…" Izuku wasn't sure how to propose this question. "Eri...do you remember that fake life Kioku gave you."
Eri nodded.
For the most part, the kids had forgiven Kioku after she apologized. Seeing as most of them could sympathize with her rather easily.
However, Eri had been...different after her memories came back. She had been quieter and a bit more out of it, staring off into the distance randomly and not hearing when someone was calling her.
It's like she was somewhere else.
"So...how do you feel about it?" Izuku asked.
There was a long, long pause.
"I-I wish it were real." Eri started to cry.
"Don't cry, big sis!" Kioku immediately got out of her seat to comfort her.
Kioku had immediately taken to Eri, mainly out of pity for the horrible, horrible life she lived. She always tried to comfort her and protect her and make her feel happy. It was very sweet in Izuku's opinion.
But with Eri, it was as Izuku feared. She didn't want her memories back. She wanted her fake life instead.
"Don't worry big sis! I'll just replace your memories again!" Kioku was about to put her hands on Eri's head to activate her quirk, but Izuku stopped her.
"Daddy?" Kioku gave Izuku a confused look.
"We can't just...replace her entire life with a fake one," Izuku told her.
"W-Why?" Kioku got a bit upset. She saw that her sister was suffering and wanted to help really, really badly.
Eri was also curious as to why Izuku stopped her.
When it came to tough decisions that involved his kids, Izuku had one way of doing it.
He thought back to his own life. And tried to either compare points of his life to theirs or put himself in their shoes. Back after All Might told him he couldn't be a hero. He hid away in his room, staying away from everyone else.
When life got tough, he ran away. Until life caught up to him and gave him a new purpose.
Now his life was much better. He had a goal, one he could reasonably achieve, he was helping people, All Might had even claimed they were friends.
But did that mean he should forget his old one? He could. He was moving soon and it's not like he would need to see any of his old classmates or teachers again. Even Kacchan.
If we wanted to, he could just erase his past and embrace his future.
But...if he did that, would he still be the same person?
In these kids, he saw a bit of himself. Someone who was rejected by others for something they couldn't control. If he forgot that part of himself, would he still look at them the same way?
Of course, he was sure he would still love them all, but would he be able to relate to them as well? Would he have felt the need to agree to take care of an unknown but almost certainly large amount of children, just because he knew how it felt to finally be accepted after years of being scorned by others?
Perhaps it was wrong to compare his life to Eri's considering the things he had been through paled when compared to the things she endured but...it was his only point of reference. He would make the decision he thought would best serve her. As he always would.
"I'm not a phycologist, but I do know that embracing a fake reality isn't healthy," Izuku told her. "People only become stronger after they've gone through bad things. And I know that Eri one day will become stronger than any of us."
"Y-You really think that?" Eri asked him tearfully.
Izuku smiled at her and embraced the two. "Of course."
There was a short pause before Izuku added. "But at the same time no one should have to deal with what Eri went through, so Kioku I would like to ask you to erase some of Eri's memories. Just some of the stuff that Overhaul did to her and a few other things."
Kioku seemed nervous. She had never done anything that specific before. "Can you...help me."
"Of course," Izuku told her.
Kioku looked at Eri. She didn't relish the idea of looking back into Eri's memories, it was dark and horrible in there. But her family accepted her in even after she used her quirk on them, so she had to do what she could for her family.
She placed her hands on Eri's head, and their work began.
Where does it go?
Has she always been doing this? How did I never notice this? Fu thought, his eyes transfixed on a peculiar sight.
Kei was eating. Or rather, she was feeding one of her snakes an egg.
It was mesmerizing in a way, watching that snake swallow the egg. But it brought to mind one question.
Fu got up from the couch where he and Sansan were watching T.V. and walked up to Kei. "Where does that go?"
"Where does what go?" Kei asked in return.
"The egg? If your snakes eat something where does it go? Fu clarified.
Kei looked at him, blinked, blinked again, and then said. "Izuku!"
The two of them ran towards Izuku's room and saw him studying with Kioku and Eri also studying in the room.
"Oh, did you two need something?" Izuku asked, looking away from his mental health guide book.
"When I feed my snakes where does it go?" Kei asked him enthusiastically.
"Well you see, all your snakes are connected to one tube in your body, and that tube goes down your neck, through your body, and into your stomach. So technically you have two ways of eating." Izuku informed her.
"Wow, Izuku you sure know a lot! You're a real...egghead!" Kei giggled.
"She was eating eggs wasn't she?" Izuku asked, giving the two an unimpressed look.
"Yes." Fu sighed. "I can't feel pain, but her puns hurt me."
"At least you weren't in her head, do you know how many puns I saw in there?" Kioku said.
"Well to be fair those were only for memo-me to see." Kei snickered.
"Kei, I'm going to buy you a joke book, please learn from it." Izuku deadpanned.
Bad words
"Fuck." Kioku said after stubbing her toe on the living room table.
Izuku, who was cooking with one of his mother's aprons on, eye's widened, and alarm bells rang in his head.
He immediately turned off the stove and ran towards Kioku.
"Don't say that word!" Izuku shouted.
"Eap!" Kioku was alarmed by how loud his voice was.
"Sorry!" Izuku apologized. "But you can't say that word!"
"W-why?" Kioku wasn't one to argue with her family and Izuku especially, she just wanted to know what about that word made him react like that. After all, she saw her parents use it plenty of times in their memories and he saw the evil blond-haired kid Kacchan say it a lot in Izuku's memories.
"It's...a really bad word," Izuku told her. "You just shouldn't say it. Ok?"
"Ok." Kioku agreed. "Am I in trouble?"
"No, I'll let it go this time since you didn't know. But I will be very upset and disappointed if you do it again." Izuku told her, seeing fear grow in her eyes. One of the things that made his job easier is that the only real punishment he needed to give most of them was just him being disappointed.
"And whatever you do." Izuku continued. "You can't let any of your siblings hear you say-"
"Fuck!" Came a familiar voice from the ceiling
The two of them froze. And looked up on the ceiling to see Sansan stuck to it, looking down and smiling at them.
"Fuck!" The slime girl repeated with a smile.
There was a short pause, before Izuku just sighed, and facepalmed. "Of course that's one of the words she's able to understand easily."
Secrets.
"No! Nuh-uh! No way!" Kioku refused.
Izuku and Eri had gone on a walk. With Eri being the most introverted child here, Izuku felt he needed to make sure she went outside and got some sun every now and then.
Kioku was going to go with them, however, the rest of her siblings insisted that she stay.
Why? Because since she looked into both Izuku and Eri's memories, she knew all their secrets.
"Why not!" Kiba stomped her foot lightly on the floor, still making the floor creak and bend with her strength.
"Daddy made me promise not to tell anyone about what I saw in your memories without permission." Kioku told them. "And even if I could, you don't wanna know what was in Eri's memories."
"Why? Is it really bad?" Kei asked, looking concerned. She knew that Eri's life before meeting Izuku was rough and that some bad men used her for something bad. Like that guy who used her to rob places. But was it that much worse?
"We've all been through a lot of tough times." Fu pointed out. "And we've all been through a lot of pain."
"What you've been through is nothing compared to Eri." Kioku said seriously. "It's bad. It's really bad. Even all the sad stories on T.V. aren't as bad as what happened to Eri."
That actually surprised them, characters on T.V.'s typically had really sad backstories. So if Eri's backstory was really that bad…
Kei frowned, her eyes growing anxious and concerned. Eri was the person who helped bring her into this family. The person who sympathized with her even after she used her quirk on Izuku. Her precious little sister.
"Izuku let me get rid of some of the bad memories, but she still has a lot of them. And a lot of the bad feelings." Kioku nervously played with her hair. "Izuku said that going through bad things can make you a lot stronger and that once the bad things are over you can make your life a lot better."
"Really?! But if it's really, really bad shouldn't she just forget it?" Kei asked.
"Yeeh!" Sansan agreed. She didn't like it when her siblings were sad, if bad memories were hurting her then the bad memories should go away!
"What a foolish question," Kiba spoke out, making everyone look at her. "It is clear that the Caretaker's wisdom is lost on you."
"What do you mean?" Kioku asked her.
"Simple. While my infinite resolve comes from countless eons of my everlasting life, the hardships I've been through have done nothing but harden my resolve! To forget those would be to lose a part of my own will!" Kiba declared. "That and it would lessen my gratitude for the things I have today! And that would be sacrificing today's happiness to forget yesterday's sadness."
"To put it in simpler, non-crazy terms, she saying all the bad things she went through are the reason she's so determined today," Fu explained. "And while I know it's kinda hard for me to relate to you, you know because it's harder for me to feel things. But I've felt bad about things before, really bad."
Flashback.
"Get out!" Shouted a woman as she threw Fu out the door of a house.
Fu fell to the ground. And while he felt no physical pain he was still crying.
"Mama no! Please! I"m sorry!" Fu begged for forgiveness.
"This is the second time you've bit someone! And you got your rotten body parts all over the floor!" The woman, Fuhai's mother, shouted at him. "I don't want a disgusting undead monster as a son! And are those tears! So have you just been pretending not to feel all this time! Get out! And never come back!"
Flashback end.
Fu felt a small flash of pain bubble up inside him as he remembered that. But it was gone as fast as it came.
"But I learned things about myself after those, and if I lose those memories then I don't learn anything," Fu said. "Sansan, if you forgot all that time you spent in the jar, would you enjoy moving around and being free as much."
"Goo?" Sansan thought hard about that question. She hated being in that Jar. It was so boring and not being able to move much was a nightmare. She had been there so long she thought she was gonna be stuck there forever. And she was so happy and thankful when she finally got released. Now she always made sure to move around with the energy of a nuclear reactor.
"And Kei, would you be able to take it as well as you do when we point out that your jokes are garbage? Fu asked.
Letting go of the insult to her punning wit. Kei thought hard about that. A lot of people insulted her. Like...a lot of people. And eventually, she just learned to roll with the punches and was almost immune to it. It didn't offset how terrible she felt back then, but it was something positive she carried with her to this day.
"Bad things happened to us. And those things are over now. We must use those bad experiences to carve out a better future." Kiba said.
After that rousing speech, the others started to understand a little.
"We should trust Izuku! Even if we don't understand what he's trying to do, we should trust he's always trying to help us!" Kei determined.
Kioku thought about that. While she had seen the horrors of Eri's memories, she had also seen Izuku's memories as well. She's seen just how brave he was saving Eri from that horrible man, how much time and energy he put into trying to help every single one of his kids. How kind and forgiving he'd been since he was young.
Immediately she felt bad for showing even the slightest bit of doubt in her new father.
"Hey if you can't tell us about Eri, what about Izuku?" Kei asked.
Kioku shook her head. "He said not to say anything. But…"
The pink-haired girl's fist clenched in anger. Remembering what she saw in his memories.
Eri's memories left her horrified and were the source of most of her current nightmares. But Izuku's memories just left her enraged.
Logically speaking Eri's memories should make her angrier, seeing as the things done to her were much worse. However, the small child couldn't view Overhaul as human. It didn't help that when she saw people's memories, she saw it through their perspective, meaning she only saw Overhaul through Eri's eyes. Making it easier to just think of Overhaul as a monster. A single monster that was stopped, and had gotten what he deserved.
The people that tormented Izuku were numerous and very human. She was infuriated that what seemed like the entire world hated Izuku, for no other reason then he didn't have a quirk. Not one, not a single person tried to help him, or do anything to stop the torment.
Eri's memories had taught her what kind of monster's lurked outside. Izuku's memories taught her the world was cruel, and her own memories, and that of her siblings, enforced this narrative.
"Daddy's strong too!" Kioku said in anger. "And he's gonna keep getting stronger!"
Meanwhile, with Izuku and Eri.
The two walked through the neighborhood, taking a route that would deliberately avoid Bakugo's house.
Izuku hasn't talked to Bakugo in a long, long time. And now that he was moving, it was possible that he may not talk to him for a while longer.
It wasn't possible that they'd never see each other again. After all, Inko and Mitsuki were still good friends and kept in contact with each other. And he knew Bakugo signed up for U.A. and had no doubt he was going to get in and become a hero, meaning he was probably going to see him on the news someday.
But, Izuku didn't have it in him to talk to him again. Every time he thought about it bad memories came up that he had been working very hard to repress.
One day he knew he and Bakugo would talk again. Hopefully, when he was ready.
"Eri," Izuku said suddenly.
"Hm?" Eri responded, still keeping a tight grip on his hand as they walked.
"You're doing really well." Izuku praised her. "You went outside with almost no hesitation this time."
"Em." Eri nodded. "Izuku?"
"Yes," Izuku said.
"Do you like going outside?" Eri asked him.
"Not...not really," Izuku answered honestly. "Before I met any of you I stayed inside almost all the time."
"Then why do we go outside a lot?" Eri asked.
"Well...there are a lot of things to do outside, you can go to the park, the arcade, go out to eat, and a lot more," Izuku said. "And it's important to get some sunlight and fresh air."
Eri paused for a moment to take in what he said, before responding with. "Then why didn't you like to go outside?"
"Well...I wasn't the best at dealing with other people." Izuku explained, downplaying how those other people treated him. "So I stayed inside to avoid them."
There was a short pause before Eri continued.
"Kioku said that everyone but our family are cruel and mean," Eri told him.
Izuku blinked, shocked for about a second before he realized just how much sense that made. After all her only experience with other people besides their family, was her previous abusive family, and all their memories, which mostly consisted of other people being terrible.
I need to find her some friends...actually, not that I think about it. I should probably find all of them some friends outside the family. Izuku thought. Actually considering my own lack of friends I may need some help with that.
"Well, Kioku has only really ever seen bad people outside our family. But there are good people. Like All Might!" Izuku told her.
Eri didn't respond.
"One day, you and everyone else will make friends, and you'll all play together and be happy." Izuku continued.
Eri kept quiet. If Izuku said that it would happen, then she had to believe him.
And try her best to be ready for that day.
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