Capítulo 2262: 4
Chapter Text
"Alright everyone! Settle down, settle down!" the teacher announced. The gruff man slowly descended in his own chair in wait, having used his quirk to assess the situation. The classroom eventually obliged to the command - a whole minute had passed, just as predicted - and slowly began to break away from their conversations and settle into their respective seats.
The teacher nodded, continuing. "It may be the end of the day, but I'd still like to welcome everyone back for the new school year. Now, as you all know, this is your last year of elementary. A big time in your life, in fact — beginning to prepare for the transition from elementary to middle school. The change will be rather…"
Izuku tuned out his teacher, having already thought over the current topic. Instead, he pondered upon the last few months since he'd met Manga. The months were unlike anything he'd experienced in awhile — experiences that were a rarity ever since he had discovered he was quirkless. Ever since Bakugou had decided upon tormenting him all those years ago, he hadn't had a true sense of what friendship was. But with Manga… Well, it was still kind of strange; the feelings of having a friend, that is.
He and Manga couldn't hang out all the time, obviously. However, it was enough; the few days in the week he spent with Manga. On the days without him, Izuku spent time wandering the city, collecting bugs and watching out for any ongoing illicit activities.
He had avoided direct physical intervention unless it was necessary, not wanting to have a repeat of the guy with the knife. Instead, he defaulted to reporting crimes with his insect decoy. Its voice had grown more defined over the months, mastering the simple phrases he'd practiced for reporting crime. Izuku was now branching out to other words, coming around to being able to hold entire conversations with his bugs if he so inclined.
A loud explosion shook Izuku out of his thoughts.
"Yes, yes. Calm down, Bakugou," strained the teacher.
Ah, looks like it's just Kacch—Bakugou acting up again. Typical of him.
"What did you say, Deku?!?" His hands were sparking up again.
Oops, was that out loud?
"Yeah, it was! Now, wha—"
"Bakugou," it was the teacher stretched out.
Bakugou's eye twitched. But he relented, descending into his seat. He huffed, but didn't do anything after the fact. He seemed unwilling to continue. For now.
Seems like he knows not to start anything now. Well, not in front of the teacher, at least. Izuku made sure that one stayed unsaid and hidden in his mind, that time.
"As I was saying, you all—" The teacher was interrupted again, this time by the bell. He sighed, this time letting things run their course. "Alright, class. Looks like that's all for the day. We'll continue with this conversation tomorrow. You're excused." He packed up his things and walked out the door. He was faster than any of the students, almost like he was a relieved survivor who had finally found an oasis in a desert.
The class that followed suit was no different, making their way to the door like a gaggle of geese to a pond. Izuku stayed back, however; learning long ago that it was best if he waited for everyone to leave. He continued to stare out the window, thinking up other ways he could use his insects.
The sound of student gossip and drama eventually disappeared, leading Izuku to look away from the window. Unfortunately, fate didn't seem to want to be kind to him today. Bakugou had stayed behind. But he was noticeably alone, his sides devoid of his normal 'friends.'
At least his two cronies aren't here with him.
"Oi, Deku. What was that you said a while ago?" His hands crackled in energy, violent reds and oranges sprouting from his palms. The action used to scare Izuku, but after the encounter with that knife guy all those months ago the crackles of energy were nothing.
But Izuku still gulped. Just because he wasn't scared of the mini-explosions didn't mean Bakugou himself didn't pose a danger. "It was nothing B—Kacchan."
Better to stay under the radar, for now. Act as normal.
Bakugou's face scrunched up in anger. "Nothing, you say?" He stalked up to Izuku, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and holding him against the wall. Explosions racketed the other hand, dangerously inching towards Izuku's face. "You sure?"
Izuku took a deep breath. "I…" But something came to mind. He took a good look at the boy in front of him. Kac—Bakugou… He's really is nothing like that knife guy, is he? He's… he's just a bully. All he does is beat me up, every day at school. But why? Self-satisfaction? Popularity? No, that doesn't make sense. Nobody's here now to see him beat up the 'quirkless Deku.'
"Oi! How about you quit that creepy muttering of your's and answer me!"
A split-second decision accompanied by a crack in the facade, fueled by an unknown presence deep in his mind. It acted in his steed.
"Why don't you stop being a self-gratifying glory hog?" retorted Izuku.
Bakugou's eyes widened in surprise.
The connection faded from memory. Izuku blinked. Where did that come from?
Bakugou's eye twitched. "Wrong answer." An explosion blasted in Izuku's face, leaving behind a harsh reddening of skin. A couple of the bugs in his hair died from the heat.
Buzzing.
A moment of anger surfaced; again, the presence returned. Without thinking, Izuku acted. A fist came up to Bakugou's face, launching him back in surprise. Izuku fell to the floor, no longer supported by Bakugou's hand. The influence disappeared again, leaving no evidence of its interference.
Izuku looked at his hand. Did I… Did I really just do that?
"Deku!!!" Izuku looked up towards the roar. It was Bakugou, blood dripping from his nose. His hands were crackling in energy, almost looking as if ready to kill someone.
Buzzing.
"Ah, Ka—Kacchan! I'm sorry! I don't— I didn't—"
"Shut it, you— The hell?!" He was looking at the window.
Izuku turned as well, finding the outer surface of the window to be blanketed in bugs.
Shoot! What the heck are with all those insects? Are they responding to my distress? Need to focus on not doing that, then. Need to tell them to disperse, make sure they don't revea—
The door to the class swung open. Izuku flinched, but got the insects to disperse.
"What's with all this ruckus?!"
Izuku and Bakugou's heads turned towards the remark. A rather large man stood in the doorway, his stature emitting an aura of authority and attention. It was the principal. He looked at the scene before him.
"What the — ? Have you two been fighting? To my office, now!"
The two adversaries complied.
Izuku found himself seated outside the principal's office. Bakugou had entered first, grumbling and staring daggers at Izuku all the way there.
Why did I do that? I… I punched him. Punched Kacchan. I didn't even think about it. My fist just acted on its own. But there was something niggling at the back of his mind.
But…
It kind of felt good, finally acting back, defending myself for once. Is this how Kacchan feels whenever he beats me down?
The door to the office slammed opened then. Bakugou walked out, still glaring at Izuku. He walked away, though, seeming to know conflict wouldn't do any good at the moment.
A brief pause, and a scuffling of papers came from the open door. A voice rang out.
"Midoriya, my office, if you will," echoed the principal.
Izuku complied, entering the man's office. The room was rather dark, covered in wooden furnishings and dark leather seats. He found himself seated in one of those seats, a placard labeled 'Renjiro Isoshi' facing him from the desktop. The man in question was rather... robust, so to say. His large figure filled his chair. He was rather big around the middle, with his mustache hiding his mouth from view and producing a rather attention-grabbing voice that yearned for notice. He began to speak.
"It's come to my attention that you involved yourself in a… scuffle with young Bakugou." He looked at Izuku, as if judging his reaction, garnering his taking part of the event.
"I must say, Midoriya, whatever were you thinking? Starting that fight with him? He could have been seriously injured due to your actions."
What? I… But I…
Buzzing.
"But Mr. Renjiro, sir, I was just defending myself!"
"Oh?" One of his bushy eyebrows rose in question. "Do tell."
Izuku continued. "It was Kacchan that started it. I just— I just punched in response, after he blasted me with his quirk," Izuku said, motioning to the red marks on his face.
The principal tsked. "Midoriya, while I am tolerant of most things, the one thing I don't appreciate is lying."
Izuku blinked in bewilderment. "Lying?"
The concealed bugs on his head began to scurry up and down his hair in agitation.
"Yes. Young Bakugou already told me what happened. And seeing things as they are, you are quite obviously the instigator of the fight."
Buzzing.
The bugs began to gather at the window like before. Thankfully, the closed blinds prevented them from being seen.
"But that's not wha—"
"Midoriya. I'm inclined to only give you a warning this time. You are normally very well behaved, and I'm willing to label this as a one time event." He began to fiddle with his computer, as if the situation was already resolved, with nothing left to be discussed.
"But this isn't the first time this has happened!" yelled Izuku.
"Oh?" The principal looked away from his screen, looking back at Izuku. "Are you saying that you've started fights with Bakugou before?"
"What? No! You— But I haven't even shared my side of the story! You and Bakugou spent nearly ten minutes in here! You aren't even trying to see how things started from my point of v—"
"Midoriya!" A hand slammed down on the table, the principal's gruff voice echoing throughout the room.
Izuku jumped, his rant sputtering into nothing. He took a deep breath. Calm, calm. Be calm. Disperse… Disperse. The bugs outside complied. The ones in his hair relaxed.
The principal looked at him, as if expecting him to say something.
"I… Okay, Mr. Renjiro."
He nodded. "Good. You're dismissed."
Izuku rose from the chair and walked out. Calm… Calm...
He peered outside the hallway, looking for Bakugou. He began to sneak around the halls, hiding behind walls before turning corners. But by his third corner, he smacked himself in the face.
I can use my insects, duh.
A couple of flies scouted ahead, weaving through the halls of an empty school. Izuku hid in the bathroom in the meantime. He looked at himself in the mirror. The reddened skin began to subside just a bit, but the wounds were still noticeable.
Why? Why? Why? Why? The buzzing continued to grow.
Izuku relented. The static grew into a clarity, the view and sensations of hundreds of thousands at once. A few bugs began to filter into the room, crawling in through the vents and the open window. They scoured the walls and the floors. They continued to arrive from the sink drains, some even from trash cans themselves. Izuku began to calm. Izuku found long ago that he became more relaxed whenever he connected to his swarm. Whether it was anger or sadness, he always felt at comfort when he connected to his bugs, the emotions just fading away. He wasn't exactly sure why this was, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Five minutes passed by the time the flies came back. No Bakugou in sight. Izuku had the bugs disperse again.
Looks like he went home, then. Another deep breath. I need to clear my head, walk around for a bit.
Izuku walked outside of the school. But he didn't head home, instead going in the opposite direction. He began to think over what the principal had said.
Why did he believe Kacchan at face value but not me? There must be some reason he did? Right? But why? What exactly makes me less believable in such a situation? The blood running from Kacchan's nose with me only having near burns? Some sort of contrived reasoning that just discredits me?! Is it because it's my word versus Kacchan's? He's done more for himself at the school than I have. While I stand at the sidelines, he's made a name for himself, doing this and that an—
"Why does he always go on unpunished and unscathed, while you go home hurt and bleeding?"
Yeah! Why is that? Why does Bakugou always get away with what he does?!? He goes around hurting other people, and yet he still wants to be a hero! And everyone just watches! How could he? He —
Deep breaths... In... and out... Deep breaths.
He connected to his swarm again. He immediately calmed, his walking became noticeably slower, with Izuku focusing on his bugs.
Izuku entertained himself with the daily ongoings of bugs, trying to veer his attention away from his anger.
Have to take my mind of what happened for now. Investigate later. Figure things out.
He witnessed as the bugs scurried under floorboards, flew free in the open air, raided trash for food, and eve—
Izuku flinched. A whole bunch of maggots had all died in a fiery onslaught of heat and shrapnel.
An explosion?
Izuku found himself turning right, following the road to a rather compact scrapyard piled high with refrigerators and discarded appliances.
Why not?
He walked in.
The few insects he sent in (he didn't want more blowing up, necessarily) didn't see much. There were a few rats, a couple of things that seemed like makeshift robots, a pink-haired figure just to his left, and even a coupl—
Wait. Wha—
He felt a hand pull him to the side. He panicked. Bugs swarmed his position. He grabbed for his escrima sticks, planning to aim for th —
He was met with the face of a young girl, about his age. Pink dreadlocks strewn about her head, yellow eyes seemingly peering into his soul. Her face was mere inches from his, close enough that he could feel her breath.
He faltered. It's— It's… a girl! So close! Why's she so close?
"Heyo! What are you doing here?"
Izuku stood still in shock. Her face moved even closer. She bonked Izuku's head a couple times, goggles bouncing on and off her own head as she did so.
"Hello? Anyone home?" Her eyes — Wait, crosshairs?— appeared to grow by just a fraction.
Why do her eyes have crosshairs? Is it her quirk? Some sort of aiming quirk like Snipe? Ahh!! But that doesn't matter! She's still so close! A girl! I haven't done something like this before. What does she want? Maybe I'm trespassing? Is this her scrapyard? Maybe her parents'? But the—
"Why do you have bugs in your hair?"
Izuku snapped at that. "What?" he asked.
"Bugs! In your hair!" exclaimed the girl.
"I…" How did she...?
"You have a spider and even a house centipede! Is that why your hair's long? To keep all those creepy crawlies hidden from the outside world?"
"I… I… I don't know what your talking about!"
She blanched. And stared on. Inching ever closer. "You're weird." She backed away then.
Izuku let out a sigh of relief. "I, uh…"
"But never mind that! I've got babies to make!"
Izuku blinked. 'What?" He observed the strange girl, watching as she picked up a wrench at went to work on a… something. He wasn't really sure what the thing was. It was metallic, rectangular in shape, and seemed to have moving parts within the interior if the the vibrations picked up by the nearby bugs were correct.
Perhaps she's the reason there were a couple of messed up robots in all this junk?
"Oh, hey!" exclaimed the girl. Izuku jumped.
"I know! Why don't you help me?" The girl got in his face again.
"He—Help you do… what?"
"Why, help me make my babies, of course!"
What?! What kind of declaration is that!?! Just yelling that out into the open air! Does she even know what that phrase means? It's almost as if—
"Here, it's simple." She walked towards a hatch on the metal shape. "I put my head in here, and when I ask for a screwdriver, you hand it to me. A buzzsaw? Same thing. The chainsaw? Well, its under a few boards and a couple of things, and you may need to get creative with the cord reach, but otherwise, the same thing!"
…
...Oh! Oh, thank all that is right and mighty. She's just talking about her creations. Machines. Not actual babies. She just wants me to help hand over her tools… Wait, chainsaw?
She ducked back into the hatch, screwdriver in hand. Clinks and clanks reverberated the air, banging against the walls of the… thingy.
"So," she said, her voice echoing amongst the metallic interiors, "What brings you around here? Hmm?"
Izuku took a few seconds to organize his thoughts and create a story that wouldn't reveal the nature of his quirk. Or make him look like a stalker.
"I, uh, was sorta just curious, I guess. I saw the place and then I heard an explosion. Wanted to investigate, see if there was any trouble."
Izuku mentally sighed in relief. He got through that without a single stutter. I just talked to a girl!
"Well, it seems that fate has brought us together, then! I was just in need of an assistant, you know. In fact, you can start by co— Incoming!" Hatsume popped out of the contraption, hurriedly pouncing in his direction, tackling him into the ground.
The metal thing blew just seconds later. A gathering of flies disintegrated into non existence from the flare of steam and fire.
Oh. Well that solves that mystery. The machine sputtered and klunked, but otherwise seemed well held together.
"Aha! It's working like a beauty! Just need a couple more touches and we'll be done within the hour. What'd ya say? You in?"
The voice came from right on top of him. He was still on the ground, a strange weight strewn out upon his body. He looked up. Uh oh.
She was laying on top of him, her body pressing against his. And she wasn't getting off.
Ahh!! On top.. Physical contact… too much...
She seemed unperturbed by their position, however. Her head tilted to the side, face ever so closely nearing his again. "You know, I never did get your name."
"I… I… It's… Izu — Izuku! Izuku Midoriya!"
"Well then, Izuku…"
First name basis? Again!?!
"The name's Mei Hatsume. Pleasure to meet ya!!"
As it turned out, 'within the hour' actually meant two hours, as well as an added time slot for a super magnet in the works. Also, after some light prodding, Izuku discovered that the explosion thingy was actually… well, an explosion thingy. Hatsume said that she was experimenting with explosions, attempting to see how well they could be used to insta-microwave food. Results so far weren't too promising.
And so, there the two were, working on a handheld super magnet in the middle of a metal infested scrap yard, with Izuku hopelessly attempting to ensure neither he nor Hatsume died from any oncoming projectiles.
Still can't believe how none of those things have come near her. I've been dodging this whole time! And she wouldn't listen to anything I said as soon as she started fiddling with the magnetic field of the thing!
"And… done!" Hatsume announced. Izuku jumped again at the voice, barely dodging another metal rod. The third one in the past five minutes, to be exact.
"Looky here, Izu-kun! My baby is complete! It has a built-in on-off switch, a variable magnetic pull, and a basically limitless radius! Well, to this entire lot, at least. But that doesn't matter! What does is that it's complete! All thanks to you!"
Izuku sweatdropped, sort of overwhelmed by Hatsume's outburst. He looked on at the sky, noticing its reddish tint.
Wow, it's already evening.
…
Evening! Ah shoot! Mom must be worried! Again!
"Sorry Hatsume! I've gotta go! My mom will be worried!" He began to sprint off, but took a second to look back. "You'll… you'll still be here tomorrow, right?"
Hatsume looked at him. "But of course! I still have plenty of babies to make, after all." He head tilted again, her eyes seemingly zooming towards his direction.
Maybe it is a sort of binocular vision quirk? The past few hours have felt like she was zooming into my soul, after all.
"Can I count on my assistant on being here tomorrow?"
Izuku blinked out of his thoughts, then smiled — something that was growing ever more common since he'd met Manga. He thought about Manga, then, who said he wouldn't be available for most of the week. Perfect.
"You can count on it! See you tomorrow!"
He sprinted off toward home, thinking about the girl. Sure, Hatsume may have had no sense of personal space, and did seem a bit too steadfast regarding her inventions, but she was a nice person. Someone who was nice to him. Just like Manga was to him. Something he had been craving for so, so long.
He looked again at the nearing sunset.
Time sure flies by when your having fun.
Notes:
And there we have it! This story's fourth chapter out and completed. Chapter five will be out eventually, so just hold on to your seat 'till it comes around!
Anyways, signing off for now! 'Till next time!
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