Capítulo 2318: 60
Chapter 60: Query
A/N: A couple occurrences this time around, and nothing all too blood-pumping for those of you searching for it. Action comes back soon, but for now Izuku's just enjoying the peace and quiet.
"You know, I'm still a bit confused by the ways that your world works, Izuku."
Izuku grunted, taking a hold of another one of his dorms' trash bags and starting off his trek for its disposal. "And what's that supposed to mean?"
"Take Twice, for example. That League villain? The duplicator?"
"What about him?"
"He clones other people. And his clones come with whatever 'quirk' belonged to the person he cloned. How does that work, exactly? Is his power copying whatever DNA made up his target? I mean, on my Earth we had a similar situation with someone we called Echidna—"
"Like the animal?" Izuku interrupted in question. "Or as in 'Queen on the Monsters?'"
"The latter. You see, she made monstrous clones of whoever she touched. The way she cloned people makes sense due to my knowledge of shards. She merely formed a connection and forced another trigger on her clones. It explains the similarities in the powers despite their differentiations."
"Uh huh."
"Another example would be your classmate, Tokoyami. His power is sentient. We had some people like that on my Earth too. Like Othello… I think. You see, it makes sense when you consider the intricacies of shards. But here everything just breaks the laws of science. Unless… hmm… "
"Yes?"
"I'm not the only one. You're aware of that. Jack, for one. But then we have inconsistencies like Acidbath— Wait, unless Jack and I are the inconsis—"
"Wait wait wait. Acidbath?"
"Right, sorry. Caustic, I mean. He—"
Izuku sighed. "You are aware that I still don't understand half of what you're saying, right? You still haven't gotten around to explaining these 'shard' things that you keep mentioning."
"Right… Sorry about that, Izuku."
"Mhm. If there's anything that we need to talk about, it's Nezu. I mean I like him, I really do. But, I mean, he's onto us. Or, well… you. Are you, uhm… are you alright with that, QA?"
"Hell if I know." QA scoffed. "I view him as an ally; at least I think he is. He has his own agenda that sets him apart from the Safety Commission and the police, that's for sure. But that agenda involves your own well being, so I think he's trustworthy for now. If he finds out… I'll let him figure out what he wants to do with said information before I do anything."
"Just… try not to be too rash, alright?"
"I'll try."
Izuku sighed once more. He turned another corner and began to dispose of the trash bag in his hands. He paused for a second — having sensed something approaching his position with his bugs — but he eventually went back to the task at hand.
"Midoriya! There you are!"
"Togata-senpai," Izuku said as he dusted off his hands. He then turned to face the third-year boy. "You know, I'm experiencing a strange fit of deja vu right now."
Togata blinked, right before a large grin appeared on his face. "You're right! Huh, what a coincidence we have on our hands. Still taking out the trash, I see? How's that going?"
Izuku grinned. "It's fine. Just part of Aizawa's eternal plan of punishment!" Izuku grinned. And then, with a much quieter tone, he added, "And Hound Dog's now too."
Izuku shook his head. "Anyways, how's training with All Might going? I mean, I can feel the shockwaves from all the way across campus whenever you end up training."
Togata's eyes widened. "You can!?"
Izuku withheld a laugh. "No, not really. But my bugs do. They don't really like getting blasted around by large and sudden gusts of wind, you know?"
"Oh! My apologies about that!" Togata bowed in apology. "I'll try to restrain myself more—"
"No need," Izuku interrupted. "It's fine. You're not doing anything to my main stash of bugs, so there's no reason for me to worry. You go off and do whatever with your newfound quirk."
Togata nodded. "If you're sure Midori— Oh! That reminds me! You're allowed to know! Watch this!"
A wide smile appeared on Togata's face. Suddenly, his body began to lift from the ground, almost as if some invisible force was pulling him up. Once Togata was around foot off the ground, he flexed his arms and yelled:
"FLOAT POWER!"
Izuku's all but eyes bulged out of their sockets. "You can fly?" he exclaimed. "But... but that means that All Might can fly! And— And that means— Are you telling me that All Might's been hiding something like this all this time?!"
Togata coughed, and he somewhat descended a little from his spot in the air. "What? No, no. Not at all!"
Izuku blinked. "Then… what?"
His demonstration over, Togata allowed himself to float downwards until his feet touched the ground. "Well, you know how One For All had been passed down from one person to the next, right?"
Izuku blinked. "You know, you should really be more discreet when you say things like that. You never know when somebody could be listening."
"You mean—"
"We're fine right now," Izuku waved away Togata's concerns. "Just be more careful, next time. Anyways, passing the torch. What of it?"
"Right. Uh, well… I actually learned about it from a dream I had last night!"
"A dream?" Izuku questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"Er, not necessarily a dream, per say. To explain it simply… Apparently One For All produces vestiges of its past users. I've actually talked to some of the past users in my head, almost like they're some sort of remnants of their consciousnesses. And—"
"And it also copies the quirk factors of previous users," Izuku whispered in realization.
"Like the Butcher, almost. Perhaps…"
"Yeah!" Togata nodded. "And as it turns out, the quirk I just showed you belonged to All Might's predecessor. Isn't that pretty interesting?"
"I'm... not that surprised actually," Izuku admitted. "Considering what All For One can do, and the fact that One for All is kind of like a brother quirk to it… Wait. How are you going to explain that?"
Togata tilted his head. "Explain what? What do you mean?"
Well, Nighteye already concocted up an excuse for your sudden super strength," Izuku explained. "How are you going to explain your sudden ability to levitate?"
Togata scratched the underside of his chin in thought, before he raised said finger in revelation. "That's because I don't actually have super strength! I have telekinesis! Yeah! I was just using it tactilely so far! Now, I'm branching out my horizons by learning how to levitate myself!"
"Mhm… And how about later when the other quirks manifest? Do you even have any idea what they might be?"
Togata gave a weary smile. "All Might's still looking into that—"
"What happens if the next quirk is something like, I don't know; a transformation quirk that turns you into a puddle of water?"
"Eh, It doesn't matter! We'll figure something out when we get there?" Togata said, his voice betraying the confidence of his words. "But what does matter is that— Well actually, it'd probably be better to show you! Come on!" Togata gestured for Izuku to follow as he headed straight for the UA main building.
Izuku followed along, falling into step with Togata as the older boy began to talk again. "There's another thing that you should know. Not the thing I'm about to show you, but something else."
Izuku took a second and filtered through his bugs' senses until he came upon a rather noteworthy scene. He turned an amused look at Togata's direction.
"You mean aside from the fact that Eri's here?" Izuku questioned. "I saw Aizawa come in with her an hour ago. And right now she's in the teacher's lounge along with the others who took part in the raid."
"I— Aww. Of course you would notice." Togata slumped in defeat upon hearing Izuku's blatant disregard for being caught up in the surprise.
However, after a few seconds Togata suddenly straightened up to his usual posture. "But I'm willing to bet that you aren't aware of the whole surprise, right?" he asked, hopeful.
Izuku took a second to respond, trying to recall all of the things his bugs might have noticed in the last hour. "I... don't think so?"
"Good!" Togata exclaimed, pumping his fist into the air. The action itself also had the side effect of launching Togata a short distance off the ground.
"Whoops," Togata muttered, forcing himself back onto the ground. "Still trying to get used to that. It's a bit like my Permeation, but not at the same time, you know?"
Izuku hesitated a bit before answering. "I… no?"
Togata chuckled. "Right, nevermind. Anyways, aside from accidentally spoiling you for half or a surprise, there's something else I need to talk to you about."
"And what's that? Something else I might be able to guess?"
"Maybe. I guess that I shouldn't be surprised if you say that you noticed Sir being here on campus?"
Izuku hummed in agreement. "It's kind of hard to miss a wheelchair. I've noticed that he occasionally comes and helps train you alongside All Might. I'd imagine that he's able to do so since he can't really go out in the field anymore. What of it?"
"Well," Togata let out a nervous laugh, "he said that he wants to talk to you."
"...What for?"
"No idea," Togata admitted. "He just told me to pass along the message." He suddenly shifted his eyes from from side to side, as if searching for an unknown threat. "Don't tell him that I told you, but I think he's watching you through the surveillance cameras."
Izuku furrowed his brows. "Surveillance? Like, through Nezu's systems?"
Togata shrugged his shoulders. "No idea. He does always have this tablet on him, though. He watches it from time to time, and I've only caught glimpses of it, but each time the feed had you on it."
"Strange."
No. Really? I wonder what—
Togata elbowed Izuku, a playful smile on his face. "What'd you do? Did you steal one of his All Might figurines or something?"
"Pfft," Izuku exclaimed, trying to play off his worries. "Of course not! I'd never steal from a fellow All Might fan!" Izuku chuckled. "Did he… did he say that he wanted to talk now?"
"Nope!" Togata answered. "Not now. He just wanted you to know ahead of time that he wanted to talk. It'll probably be after another one of the times he comes in to train me, so there's that to wait for!"
The duo had finally reached the teacher's lounge. Togata held the door open for Izuku. "After you," he said, "since half the surprise has already been spoiled."
Izuku walked in, and inside he found a small crowd of those from the Precepts raid gathering around Eri.
"Oh! Heyo bug boy!" Hado greeted with her usual cheer. "Eri's been looking for you, you know? You kept her waiting!"
Eri turned to face the door upon Hado's exclamation. When Eri's eyes met Izuku's, her small smile grew larger. "Izuku! Hi again!"
"Surprise!" Togata shouted from behind Izuku. The older boy eventually came around and leaned over the seat Eri was sitting in. "Eri's staying at UA from now on!"
"Really?" Izuku questioned. "That's great! But, umm… not that I'm not happy with it, but why?"
"Why?" Setsuna asked. "You still afraid of your responsibilities as being a co-father alongside Togata there?"
"My— my what?"
"Oh, oh! That's cute!" Uraraka said. "I was thinking that she was like a little sister, but her being an adoptive daughter to Midoriya is even better!"
All the while, Eri was blissfully unaware of the conversation being held, being busy with Hado's and Togata's machinations.
Izuku, on the other hand, just let the conversation trail on, letting Setsuna and Uraraka talk. He decided to turn his attention towards Aizawa, setting a questioning gaze on the man.
"We already went over the details," Aizawa said, seeing Izuku's expression. "Maybe if you weren't off disposing your classmates' waste you would've been here to hear it."
Izuku smirked, facing his teacher. "But that would have required me to have been excused from my duties. Normally, I wouldn't be able to avoid them. But unless—"
"You already know the answer to that."
"I know, I know," Izuku smiled. "Just saying."
Aizawa grunted. "You and the others should go back to the dorms for now."
"But Eri—"
"Will be here for the foreseeable future," Aizawa interrupted. "You'll have plenty of time to interact. Besides, you should be expecting visitors soon."
"WILD WILD PUSSYCATS!"
The four heroes were devoid of their usual cat-themed attire and were instead dressed in civilian wear when they shouted out their team name.
This, however, didn't stop them from positioning themselves like they usually had when they were in costume.
The four heroes had brought along Kota as well, and one of the first things that Izuju noted of the boy was his unusual company.
A duo of squirrels were perched on Kota's shoulders, for one. The both of them were chittering, their heads darting back and forth in examination of their newfound surroundings.
And, as if that wasn't peculiar enough, there was also a rather puffy badger following him by his feet, curling around Kora's legs and nuzzling him every so often.
The majority of the class shared their greetings with the quintet, sharing stories and catching up with various things. Eventually, that process rounded its way around to Izuku.
"Hello Midoriya," Mandalay greeted. "May I?" she gestured to the open seat on the couch.
"Of course!" Izuku said, prompting Mandalay to take the seat beside him. Kota followed not long after, trailing behind his aunt alongside his animals.
"Hey Kota!" Izuku said as the boy approached. "I see that you've been adapting to your new quirk. I suppose that it's been going well, given the three animals you have with you?"
Kota shook his head. "Mhm! And I have a lot of new friends now! I have Natto," Kota gestured to the squirrel on his left, "and Shippo!" he gestured to his right. "And I also have Kiba! He helps me find the safe tasty berries in the woods!"
Said badger squawked in response to hearing his name heard, nuzzling Kota's leg in response. Kiba then ran off, with Kota taking chase.
Izuku smiled, watching on as a few of his classmates joined Kota in the games he began to play with his animals.
"You know," Mandalay began, "he's become quite a fan of yours. Did you know that he got some new shows? He insisted that they be red, just like your own."
"Did he really?" Izuku used his bugs to check on the entrance of the dorms, and when he found Kota shoes Izuku was surprised to find shoes that were eerily similar to his. "Huh, he did."
Mandalay looked surprised for a second, before her face betrayed her realization. "Ah, right. Using your bugs to check, hmm?" Mandalay's smile strained with the words, and her eyes lingered on Izuku for a few moments. She eventually let out a sigh. "Look, Midoriya—"
"It's fine, Mandalay," Izuku interrupted. "It's none of you guys' fault that I got caught by the League. It's all in the past, and everyone came out of it mostly alright. I'm fine, really."
"But—"
"How's Kota adapting to it?" Izuku cut her off again. "Did my sources work out alright?"
Mandalay opened her mouth to speak again, but Izuku's expression — almost like he was pleading — made her pause. Her mouth closed not long after. Eventually, she took a deep breath and sighed.
"Miss Shield has been a wonderful help," Mandalay eventually said. "All of her information… honestly, it's a bit fascinating. The fact that these new strains of quirks are coming out is interesting."
She looked over to Kota. "I'm just glad that he's alright. I thought that Kota would have been devastated when he lost his original quirk, since it was one of the few things he had left to connect him to my sister and her husband. But, he came out of it a lot better than I thought he would."
"Because of his animals?" Izuku mused.
Mandalay nodded. "They're actually pretty smart. Much smarter than normal animals, at least. I mean, I found Kiba taking out a soda from the fridge one time. And he opened the can and drank from it too." Mandalay smiled. "They really helped him cope with things."
"That's good," Izuku sighed. "Does that weird dumbness aura still happen if he controls a bunch of them?"
"It does," Mandalay continued, "but it wears off after he cancels out his control. And… I think that we end up forgetting a few things from time to time. But it's all minor stuff. Like if we had two cookies or three the previous day, so we're not worrying about it. I'm leaning towards Miss Shield's theory that we're powering the animals' intelligence. And honestly, I'm fine with giving away some minor memories if it helps Kota get some friends."
"Yeah… it's weird, how some quirks are becoming, huh?"
"That's something that I can definitely agree on," Mandalay said.
A comfortable silence fell between the two, the duo watching Kota as he played. Eventually, Kota edged Izuku to join in too, and nearly an hour flew by the time the Pussycats announced that they needed to go and visit 1-B.
But before they left, Mandalay walked over to Izuku, giving him a nod. "Just make sure to take care of yourself, alright?"
Izuku blinked. "Yeah… I will."
Izuku somehow found himself alone at lunch the next day. 1-B had been doing some sort of training exercise that was supposed to have ended earlier, but some mess involving Monoma and Kinoko had the entire class covered in fungus.
Momo — as per her usual unyielding commitment in her position as vice representative — insisted that she be the one to carry out the meeting with the currently recovering Kendo. Iida was off telling off a couple of his classmates about some sort of prank they had pulled (and Izuku knew how long something like that could take), and Uraraka, Tsu, or anybody even remotely likely to sit with him were off in their own groups for the day.
All in all, Izuku was ultimately alright with being alone for lunch. He was having Katsudon today, and that combined with some mental practice with his bugs would be wonderful. And besides, if he really needed to he could talk to QA.
And so, Izuku separated his chopsticks, delved into the minds of his bugs, and dug into his food.
"Midoriya."
Izuku snapped up his head, his eyes meeting Todoroki's own.
"You really need to work on your situational awareness. He was standing there for a whole minute wondering how to get your attention, you know? Honestly, you're both horrible."
"Shut it, Q— I mean uh… Hi Todoroki!"
Todoroki didn't answer with his own greeting. Instead, he went on to stare at Izuku instead, his heading tilting slightly and his eyes taking on some look Izuku was unable to place. This continued for a few seconds, time going by with Izuku steadily growing more and more nervous and unsure.
Eventually, Todoroki ended the stare off. He didn't make a noise as he moved around the table. He plopped himself down in the seat right next to Izuku, taking out his own food and beginning to eat.
"So… Todoroki…" The boy in question still didn't respond, continuing to eat and slurp up his soba.
"Umm," Izuku continued, "So, you don't usually sit with me. Usually you're with, uh…"
"Whoever I feel like, really," Todoroki finally said.
"Right." Izuku rubbed the back of his head. "Don't take this the wrong way, but umm… You don't really sit with me? Or, well, my group, really. And it's weird with you being here? I—I'm fine with you sitting here, of course! And you can continue doing so! It's just, well, it can get a bit loud sometimes. And I don't really think that you'd like that. And you don't really know any of us besides myself and Momo, and she's not here all the time. You might be fine with Pony, and maybe Yanagi whenever she comes here with Setsuna, but—"
"Midoriya."
Izuku stopped his rambling mid-sentence, his thoughts interrupted by Todoroki's sudden utterance of his name. He was a bit flustered as a result, having realized that he had descended into another one of his mumbling rabbit holes. Still, this didn't stop Izuku shutting himself up and placing his attention on Todoroki.
Todoroki took one last portion of his soba in before he set his chopsticks down and faced Izuku. He took a breath, staring again at Izuku for a few seconds before he started speaking.
"It… may be a bit late. But... I've noticed, uh…"
Todorokui hummed, as if trying to decide the words that were supposed to come out from his mouth. Eventually, he ended up nodding to himself, his mouth opening up again to speak.
"You've seemed stressed lately," Todoroki said. "And worried. I assume that it's because of your internshipship? Yeah. Probably. You're more distant than you usually are."
"Oh. Uh, yeah. I guess?" Izuku slumped in his seat with a sigh. "Yeah. I… guess I am. It's just that… I have a lot going on right now. There's a lot. Like The Nine, this other Nine, the League and the police, Nezu… Uh… don't mind that thing about the police, please."
"Mhm."
Izuku sighed. "You aren't the only one whose noticed. I mean, Momo's said things. Setsuna said things. Manga's said things, Pony's said things. Mei's kind of noticed, Iida too… I, I know that I should— I can't really…"
"You can talk to me, you know. About your problems."
Izuku stammered, his eyes widening in surprise at Todoroki's proclamation.
"Only if you want too, I mean," Todoroki added. "Yeah. If you need it, you can."
Izuku eventually blinked, and he settled in his seat. "Huh."
Todoroki grimaced. "I said something wrong, didn't I? I probably should have just left things alone and—"
"No, no!" Izuku interrupted, effectively silencing Todoroki. "I was just… surprised, is all. I didn't really think— I mean, you don't really… Um." Izuku shook his head. He took on a smile, and nodded his head. "Thanks, Todoroki. This really means a lot."
Todoroki nodded, and then went straight back to eating his soba. That left Izuku somewhat in a doozy, a bit unsure with what to do next.
"So…" Izuku began, "you'll be staying then?"
Todoroki nodded. "Yes. I need to watch you to make sure you aren't being too destructive to yourself. And to stop you from talking to yourself. I don't really think that it's healthy."
"I— I'm not talking to myself!"
Todoroki raised an eyebrow.
"I— I mean I am! But, I—"
"Uh huh," Todoroki hummed.
Izuku pouted. "Todoroki…"
A/N: And there we have it! Todoroki shenanigans, the Pussycats and Kota's quirk, and Nighteye apparently wants something with Izuku. What, exactly? Well, that's for later!
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