Chương 2036: 55
Shouto froze, literally, sending out enough ice to glue Shigaraki to the street as Epurr yoweled and hopped off his lap. Shigaraki was unphased by Shouto's attack. He just rolled his eyes and disintegrated the ice like it was no big deal, but didn't make any move to turn Shouto into dust, which was surprising. He leaned his head back against the wall, "Careful. Do that too often you'll piss off the cat."
"I think she's more concerned about me staying alive." Shouto responded dryly. "You're a villain."
Shigaraki scoffed, "Newb. It's the middle of the night. I'm afk right now, so honestly, I'm not sure much of anything."
Shouto hesitantly warmed himself up a bit, melting some of the remaining ice, "What do you mean?"
Shigaraki shrugged, "You don't do boss fights on loading pages."
"Oh…" Shouto said helplessly. "Ok."
Shigaraki shot him a look out of the corner of his eye, "What? Have you never gamed before?"
"My father literally just kicked me out, do you really think he allowed me to play video games." Shouto deadpanned. "I was too busy training to be his Masterpiece. "
"Your dad sounds like a dick." Shigaraki said. "But hey, at least the cat likes you."
Shouto smiled and extended a hand toward Epurr sighing when she hissed at him and turned away, "If she ever forgives me for suddenly freezing her like that. I'm sorry, Epurr! I panicked."
Epurr just flicked her tail and Shouto huffed, "Well, there goes another mother figure. I need to stop losing those."
Shigaraki frowned, "Your mom's not in the picture?"
"Mental hospital." Shouto explained. He probably shouldn't be telling a villain all this, but Shigaraki was letting him stay in his murder alley and didn't seem like he was in the mood to kill him at the moment, so he didn't want to be impolite. Besides, he'd said he wasn't a villain right now, whatever that meant. "What about yours?"
"No idea." Shigaraki scratched lightly at his neck. "Don't really remember much from before Sensei saved me."
"Oh yes." Shouto drawled. "The trauma."
Shigaraki snorted, "Like you're one to talk, scar boy. How'd you get it anyway?"
Shouto raised one eyebrow, "Did you miss the part where I said my mother is in a mental hospital?"
"She…?" Shigaraki whistled. "Whoa. I would've thought it was your old man."
"I blame him for it." Shouto found himself relaxing more and more in spite of himself. "In every memory I have of my mother, she's crying. She called my left side unbearable right before she poured boiling water on my face. All because I looked like him."
Shigaraki obviously wasn't quite sure how to respond to that, so they sat in relative silence for a while, only speaking to try to get Epurr to come back and sit on Shouto's lap. Eventually they managed it, but only because Shouto practically made his body into a furnace as an apology. It felt good to use his left side after so long, especially for things like this. His father hated the cat, so of course the cat got to benefit from the fire he'd stolen from the bastard. Served him right for being father of the year.
"I'm getting you some games." Shigaraki said suddenly.
Shouto blinked, "Why?"
Shigaraki grinned, "Just trust me, ok? You'll like them."
Izuku was only half listening to the chaos happening behind him as he brainstormed a list of ideas, but Mei was on a roll, so right now he was just letting her do her thing and keeping an eye out to make sure she didn't accidently blow up the entire school, especially since they were technically there after hours. Half the school was probably fine, Ingenium would be able to smooth things over with Powerloader. Hopefully.
"I...I do not think I am comfortable with a retractable knife."
Tenya, as Mei insisted on calling him since saying Iida for both brothers was bound to get confusing, looked politely overwhelmed as he tried to talk Mei out of adding yet another weapon. Izuku sighed, "Mei-chan, Tenya's still recovering and we also have the vigilantism charges to worry about. Why don't you set it as a personal challenge not to add any weapons."
Mei pouted, "But that's no fun?"
"Oh really?" Izuku gave a mischievous grin. "So you don't want to see how complete of a first aid kid you can fit in? Or figure out how to make a grappling hook that doesn't put too much strain on the arm or his body? Or experiment with different holographic projection systems so he can always have a map with the villain's location or…"
"Fine, fine, I get the idea!" Mei said, turning to a new page in her notebook. "Focus on support and rescue, not combat."
"I'm completely fine with weapons." Tensei interjected. "Just for the record."
Mei's eyes glinted with excitement, "Then I'll just give you twice as many!"
"Have you considered whether you'll be fighting as a team?" Izuku asked. "I know that your sidekicks are already taking charge of running the Iida-ten Agency, but you're basically going to have to learn to fight all over again, so you're not going to be heading up the agency for a while."
Tensei sighed, "I know. I already told the team that I want them to just move on. I don't want them waiting on me indefinitely while I recover... if I recover."
"Well, you're not going to get your legs back." Mei sai bluntly. "But we're gonna make this wheelchair baby the next best thing! Might be best to stick to urban heroics, though. We're gonna give you all the bells and whistles, but assuming that most surfaces are paved will streamline the design process and help me make a better baby for you."
"The best thing to do, at least from a marketing standpoint, is actually for the two of you to enter the field together and work as a duo." Izuku said. "Two brothers, injured by the same villain, who worked together to overcome insurmountable odds and be heroes? It's a classic underdog narrative, people will love it."
"Ooh! We could market them as the Cyborg Brothers!" Mei bounced up and down, grabbing Izuku's arm. "Cy-bros? What sounds better?"
"We can talk to the marketing department once they've trained a bit more with their new support items." Izuku interrupted. "For right now, we need to focus on changing their fighting style to accommodate for their disabilities and to coordinate well as a hero duo. Assuming you're ok with that plan?"
"I trust that you are the experts." Tenya said seriously.
Tensei shrugged, "I'm down. I've always wanted to fight crime with my little bro!"
He reached up and tugged Tenya down to his level so he could ruffle his hair and Tenya looked vaguely consternated, but accepting of his brother's affection. If these two could pull this off, they could open doors to hundreds of disabled kids that thought they couldn't be heroes. If a pair of brothers missing arms and legs could be heroes, maybe even a quirkless…
Izuku shook his head and turned to his list, tapping his pencil on a few of the ideas he'd put stars next to, "Tenya, you experience a lot of friction when you use your quirk, right?"
Tenya nodded, "Yes. It's unavoidable, however. I can run faster than the average person, but…"
"But you have to take a lot of steps, which slows you down." Izuku finished. "Have you considered rollerblades? It would match well with Tensei's wheelchair and would reduce the friction. You'd have to practice, of course…"
"But wouldn't that be rather difficult?" Tenya interrupted. "What if I run into stairs or...well, I'm sure fighting on wheels is very different than what I'm used to."
"You're still young, Tenya." Tensei encouraged. "Give it a try. I mean, I'm gonna have to learn wheelie fighting too! We can do it together."
Tenya took a deep breath and nodded decisively, "I will attempt to incorporate it into my fighting style then, but do not put them in my hero costume quite yet."
"Of course not." Izuku grinned. "Um, Tensei? Do you happen to know the pro-hero Artiste?"
Tensei frowned, "we've crossed paths, but we don't really work together that frequently, no. Why?"
Izuku grabbed his phone and started texting Nedzu, "She uses roller skates in her fighting. I want to see if she'd be willing to train you."
Hitoshi couldn't sleep, which wasn't that unusual. What was unusual was that he'd been given the permission to roam the house when that happened and no one was going to think he was up to no good. It was surreal.
He hesitated another moment before leaving his room and heading toward the kitchen. Aizawa was still up too, apparently, just grading papers, and he barely glanced up when he heard Hitoshi come in, "Are you going to make tea?"
Hitoshi nodded on instinct, then remembered he was actually allowed to talk here, "Yeah. I was."
Aizawa hummed, "Make me one too."
"Sure." Hitoshi grabbed the kettle. "Will Mic want one too?"
Aizawa glanced up at the clock, "No, he's not going to be home for at least another hour and that's if nothing weird happens at the station between then and now. He can make his own if he wants when he gets home."
It still threw Hitoshi for a loop every time one of his adults answered his questions without hesitating. Usually it was Aizawa, but even Mic didn't think twice about ansswering him. He'd be lying if he said it didn't feel amazing. It was almost as good as being around Mei and Izuku, so that was saying something.
When he finished the tea, he set a cup down in front of Aizawa and sat down in one of the chairs. Should he go back to his room? Was Aizawa going to get annoyed with him for interrupting his work?
Almost as if he realized Hitoshi's indecision, Aizawa started talking to him, most of his attention still on grading, "How has Uraraka been doing? Has she been adjusting well to her new quirk?"
"Uh, yeah." Hitoshi thought that was a weird way of putting it, but it was a pretty accurate way of describing her new mutation. "The earrings the kidnappers made her are working pretty well and I can stop her most of the time, but she's actually stopped herself a couple times now, and her accuracy's getting better, so that's promising."
"Good." Aizawa nodded. "We'll be starting combat exercises again soon, and I don't want her to be at a disadvantage."
"Don't worry, she can handle herself." Hitoshi said. "Do you, uh, mind if I watch tv?"
Aizawa nodded absently, "Just make sure the show isn't stupid."
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