章 58: Chapter 58: Sinking Into Darkness
"So what you're telling me, is that Kiba, who was already feeling guilty about the amount of property damage she might have caused since she's been here, asked you to show her physical proof of this, and you just...let her," Izuku asked, clutching his head as headaches assaulted him.
"Well, to be fair I didn't think she'd caused THAT much property damage," Shoto said, defending himself. "I thought it would motivate her to be more careful. I didn't think it'd cause her to react like that."
Even though he said that Shoto could see now that he'd made a mistake. He figured that out when while they were looking through the papers, Kiba burst into tears and ran out of the room.
"I'm so sorry for this Midoriya!" Momo and Iida were present alongside her classmate.
"I was aware that Todoroki was emotionally distant but I didn't know he was this out of touch!" Iida gave an apologetic bow on behalf of his classmate.
"We apologize on behalf of class 1A. We sincerely apologize for causing this!" Momo also bowed.
Izuku took a deep breath, trying to reign in his headache. "Okay, take me to her."
XXXXXXXXX
Izuku was in a wheelchair, being wheeled by Iida towards Kiba's room.
Outside of Kiba's room were Fu, Nara, Ken, Netsu, Shiruku, Eri, and Kei.
"Daddy!" Kei immediately ran over to Izuku and looked at him worryingly. "Daddy, Kiba is acting weird!"
"Yes, I heard." Izuku nodded. "I'm going to see her now."
Izuku looked at Iida. "I'll wheel myself now."
"Are you sure that's wise?" Iida asked him.
Izuku nodded. "I'll be fine. Please just...I think I'll need to talk to her alone."
Iida looked hesitant, but ultimately understood, and backed off.
With that, Izuku wheeled himself towards Kiba's door, looking at the concerned looks on his kid's faces.
As he approached the door, he took a deep breath, readying himself for what he might see on the other side.
He pushed the door open, and what he saw was...odd.
Kiba was just sitting on her bed, watching television.
"H-Hey Kiba," Izuku said, as he wheeled himself in and closed the door behind him.
Kiba looked over to him and winced with guilt. And it hurt Izuku, so much to see her do that. "H-Hi daddy."
After she greeted him, Kiba almost immediately looked away.
Izuku frowned and wheeled himself closer to her. "I know you looked at the files."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Kiba asked in a sad, low voice. "I destroyed so much stuff. I didn't know...I hurt you."
"No, sweetheart you-" Izuku tried to explain but she interrupted him.
"Don't lie to me!" Kiba suddenly shouted, looking tearfully at Izuku. "You told us you were ok! But you weren't! You didn't tell me I was giving you so much work, and hurting you! And now you're like this and it's my fault!"
"I…" Izuku was at a loss for words. He wanted to just say that it wasn't true, be clearly he had overused simple hand-wavy explanations like that. Meaning his only real option here was to be a bit truthful. "Ok...I can't hide it from you anymore. You did give me...a lot of work, with all the things you broke. But that's part of why you're here! Why you're all here! Your quirks are very powerful and destructive, that's not any of your faults! Kai gives me a lot of work to do just by living here. Netsu constantly makes small burns everywhere and sets things on fire occasionally. Fukunoko's room needs to be constantly inspected and maintained to make sure there are no leaks. And all the work that goes into feeding you all is far more exhausting than you could ever be."
"...But all that stuff can't be helped. Kai can't stop being big. Netsu can't stop being on fire. Fuku can't stop her gas. And we can't stop eating...but I can stop destroying things," Kiba argued. "I just need to stay in here and be very careful."
"You can't just stay in here all the time, Kiba," Izuku told her. "Are just not supposed to live your life because of-"
"You gave me my life!" Kiba argued, causing Izuku to pause. "I was never the queen of eternal darkness! When you found me I had nothing. I was a pathetic little girl, dying on the ground. And before that, I was a thief that hurt people just to stay alive. But you took me, and Fu and you gave us a home, food, and a family. I live in a super big house, getting everything I want, getting to order around super cool monsters, and play pretend with my brothers and sisters. All thanks to you! And I...I hurt you."
Kiba started crying now, still refusing to look at Izuku. "You gave me everything I could ever want, and all I did was make your life harder, and ask for more."
"I…" Izuku tried to find the words to reassure her, but he was a bit too busy fighting back the massive feeling of guilt. He did this. If he had just hired some help, this would never have happened.
"I can't hurt from in here. So I'm staying in here." Kiba said, sniffling as tears still rolled down her cheeks. "And I won't ask for anything."
"Kiba I…" Now Izuku was crying as well. "Kiba, you can't stay in here."
Kiba stopped responding entirely. Just sitting there with her back turned to Izuku.
"Kiba. Kiba look at me." Izuku tried to get to her, but she just wouldn't respond.
After a few moments of silence, Izuku just wheeled himself over to her, leaned in, and wrapped his arms around her, bringing her into a gentle hug. "I'll...give you some time for now...but I want you to know, you were never a burden to me, and I never thought for a moment that my life would be better without you. I can say safely, that if I never met all of you...my life would be so much darker."
Kiba flinched after hearing that but still didn't respond.
After a minute, Izuku separated from her, and slowly wheeled himself out of the room.
He took one last look at Kiba, hoping to see her looking back, but to his dismay, she was still turned away from him.
With a sigh, he left her room. Hoping that this would heal a bit with time.
XXXXXXXXXX
The next day had arrived, and things didn't seem to improve.
All of yesterday, Kiba had kept true to her word. Never leaving her room except to eat, and that's it.
When people came to talk to her, she would speak normally...not normal for her but rather how you would expect a normal person to speak. She had completely dropped her queen of eternal darkness thing, and now she was just...Kiba Midoriya...little girl.
And now halfway through day two of this behavior, people were getting concerned that this may not blow over.
So that is what led Fu to where he was, standing outside her door, ready to go inside.
A few others before him had attempted to cheer her up. Talk her into going back outside, sparing, or making a video. But nothing seemed to work. No one could do it. Not Eri, Kei, Netsu, Nara. None of them.
And so as the one who's known her the longest, Fu decided he had to give it a shot.
He went in, and saw her, on her bed watching T.V. when she turned and saw Fu enter the room. "Oh, hi Fu."
"Hey." Fu greeted her with a wave. I've never seen her subdued like this.
It's not like Kiba had never dropped her act before. She had from time to time, but never for very long, and never like this. She was almost like a different person
"So...do you really staying in here is better for dad?" Fu asked her.
Kiba turned away and nodded. "I can't make any more work for him here."
"Yeah, but you are making him and everyone else worry about you a ton." Fu pointed out. "You know dad blames himself for everything that goes wrong, so doing this only makes him feel worse."
That bit of logic hit Kiba, making her wince and her face scrunch up in guilt, as she thought about what Fu said. "But...he'll get over it. I-If I keep making him work, he might get even sicker next time! And then he might die."
"You know he has help this time right?" Fu asked her. "He has Ochaco's class right now, and he's gonna hire help after they leave. That's not gonna happen again."
"But what if daddy just does all the work himself anyway," Kiba argued irrationally.
"Why on earth would he hire employees just so he could do all the work himself," Fu asked her. Actually, that sounds exactly like something he would do, but hopefully, that doesn't happen.
"Why would he let us work him to near-death?!" Kiba countered. "Daddy's too nice."
Ok, I see what's going on. Fu thought. Kiba was always stubborn. If she got a thought in her head it was rather difficult to get it out. Especially when she is scared.
Because that's what this was. Kiba was just scared that she was the one who hurt Izuku, and was now overreacting. And now she was determined to stick to her guns, and stay in here because she was too scared of the alternative.
"Look, I get your scared," Fu called her out. "But-"
"I'm not scared!" Kiba refuted. "I'm being mindful! For once. All I do out there is cause problems! Why do you think daddy scolds me the most! Like that time I argued with you guys about colors. And that time I threw a car at All Might. All those times I broke things. That time I hurt myself in the greenhouse. All those times I spread your insides across the house. I'm always doing something wrong!"
Oh...she really remembered all that. Fu thought, slightly surprised that Kiba bothered to think of those moments. Perhaps she was a bit more aware than he had given her credit for. "Look, I get that you feel-"
"How can you get how I feel?" Kiba glared at him. "You can barely feel at all. And you are one of daddy's favorites. He always trusts you and praises you, and you and Yami are always helping him. And you can use your quirk without destroying anything or breaking anything. How could you know how I feel?"
Ok. Clearly, this is worse than I thought. Fu looked for a way to reach her. "So you're just gonna stay in here for the rest of your life? What about Kiba, queen of eternal darkness? How are you gonna be a hero if you don't train?"
"We both knew that was fake," Kiba said bitterly, and Fu detected a bit of hurt in her voice. "I just called myself that to make myself feel better about the fact that I was cursed with a quirk that meant to hurt people and my parents kicked me out because all I do is hurt the people who are supposed to take care of me. If daddy weren't so nice, then he would have thrown me out already."
"Well, what about your channel. And your fans?" Fu pulled out his last card. "You said you weren't gonna ask for anything, so are you not gonna ask for anything to do your streaming?"
"...I'm just gonna stop streaming," Kiba said in a very, very low voice. As if she was still unsure of herself. "I do a lot of stupid things while streaming. I hurt myself, I break things. I...I...I...I'll stop for daddy's sake."
That actually caused Fu's eyes to widen for a second. As he was really, really surprised by this.
Kiba adored streaming. She did it pretty much every day. And it was clear to see how much fun she had while doing it. To give up something she loved so much…but she clearly looked unsure of this. She was saying this, but he wasn't sure if she meant it.
But if it was affecting her deeply enough for her to say THAT, then she was beyond reaching...at least to just him.
"Besides, the queen of eternal darkness is gone," Kiba said sadly.
"...Well then I'll leave you to it," Fu told her. "But I know, that you know, that dad will never really be happy, if you're not. So while you're sitting in here, ask yourself...are you happy?"
Kiba paused, before turning away, and muttering. "I'm fine."
Leaving Kiba with that thought, Fu left the room. Coming up with a plan.
XXXXXXXXX
Kiba looked out the window at the starry sky in the night.
A part of her wanted so badly to go out, and do...anything. She wanted to feel the night's cool air on her skin, see the moon shining brightly in the sky, and just...run around and enjoy herself.
But she couldn't, she reminded herself. Because what would happen if she went out there, did some stretches, and broke twenty trees or something. Izuku would have to do a lot of work to replace each and every one of those trees.
Or maybe she'd throw a rock through the house and make holes in fifteen walls. Which Izuku would also have to fix.
Oh, actually Ochaco's classmates would fix those. Maybe she'd bring them to collapse too.
Izuku didn't mind if he got hurt. But if she hurts others?
Maybe then Izuku would finally have enough and kick her back out onto the street like her parents did.
That thought alone, was enough to make her sit still, and stay in her room, and watch T.V.
Although, being honest, this had gotten pretty unenjoyable a while ago.
After a few hours of just sitting in a room, she got this...itch. To go outside her room. To run around, spar a bit, play some games.
Not that she could do any of that. She could literally destroy a wall by pressing on it with a bit of effort. Creating hours of work for her father.
But here, in her room specifically made for her, reinforced to make it harder to destroy, she was fine. And Izuku would be fine.
Even if she was bored and sad, and more than a little bit lonely...she'd get used to it.
Fukunoko lived like this, so why couldn't she?
I'll get used to it. Kiba thought, curling up into a ball on her bed. Ignoring her urges to get up and do...anything. I have to.
XXXXXXXXX
In the cafeteria, a group of people calling themselves, the "Turn Kiba back to Normal Squad" had gathered.
This group consisted of kids such as Eri, Kei, and Fu, as well as members of class 1A such as Ochaco, Mina, Toru, and Kirishima, and of course, Izuku himself.
"And so that's how it was." Fu finished explaining what happened with Kiba.
"Damn that Todoroki I'm going to melt him so hard!" Mina cursed.
"Please don't." Izuku sighed. "This was clearly a long time coming...Kiba has always been...more problematic than the others. It's true I've had to scold her far more than any of the other children, and she caused far more property damage and destruction than all the children combined. And while I would have kept hiding that, Kiba isn't an idiot, and she is more observant than I gave her credit for. She would have come to this conclusion at some point...however my collapse just made things worse. If anyone should be blamed for this, then it's me."
Ochaco gave Izuku a conflicted look. On one hand, he should feel bad for letting this happen to himself, and the kids by extension. On the other hand, he was being REALLY hard on himself. So in the end she just put a comforting hand on his shoulder, not telling him that he was wrong, but providing some level of reassurance.
"I don't know if Kiba is gonna stay like this forever, but she is definitely determined to try. And that means this may last a while."
"But she's gonna hate that! Kiba hates standing still the most...actually Sansan hates it the most but Kiba's a close second!" Kei said.
"Yeah, and she's gonna suffer for however long she stays like this!" Mina pointed out.
"We need to find some way to make her realize she has to leave her room," Eri asked.
"I think...I can help."
Everyone looked to the source of the voice and found that it was Fukunoko, standing there in her hoodie.
"Fuku," Izuku said with slight disbelief. He'd never seen her walk into, and stay in a room with this many people...and she spoke up!"
"I...I don't like this new Kiba." Fuku admitted. "She reminds me too much of me! And I hate it! We need to get the old Kiba back immediately!"
"Wow Fuku! You really fired up!" Kei smiled at her, her snakes giving a pleased hiss.
"Yeah, girl!" Mina cheered on the normally shy child.
"So do you have a plan?" Toru asked her.
"W-well um...yeah." Fuku looked the other way, not wanting to see all of them looking right at her. "But it's...gonna take some time."
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