We Be Monsters

By: Bubbajack, 'The Heart Of The Cards' Rodriguez

Beta: Heliosion, 'The Dandy Of Charleston'

(Nicknames are subject to Bubba changing them)

Disclaimer: We don't own MHA or anything else that gets stuck in there and MHA plus the stuff we stick in there doesn't own us. We got a free loving thing going on.

Ch.1: Thin line between man and monster.

Quirks, the next step in human evolution has been around for the past two-hundred-fifty-years. Eighty percent of the world's population had a unique ability while the remaining twenty percent were quirkless… or so it was thought until four years ago.

Four years ago Yokai, or monsters revealed themselves to the public at large after the return and defeat of their greatest foe, Alucard, thanks to Tskune Aono and Akashiya Moka. His reemergence caused much in the way of change to both the human and monster realms. Humans who were once quirkless spontaneously mutated gaining random powers. It was speculated by the monster community that these people were reacting to Alucards reemergence and sudden permanent defeat. Soon it was revealed that the number of 'normal humans' was much lower than originally thought.

Ten percent of humanity had latent now triggered monster DNA. The problem lay in how these people triggered their latent yokai DNA...

A rash of mass suicides.

Some walked naked exposed to the elements, others consumed by grief for lost loves found said lovers and killed them before taking their own lives, hundreds and hundreds of bodies were found hung in their homes or in forests. Some died via car exhaust, and others drowned themselves via various means. Some set their homes or just themselves on fire. Whatever the case, all of them came back as some sort of monster.

With the advent of monsterkind, they were quickly integrated into modern quirked society. It wasn't that big of change all things considered. The difference between people with Quirks and monsters was so thin, it hardly mattered. Monster integration was swift and in under five years they were fully apart of the human world. Some became Heroes, others joined various industries, and some of course refused to let go of the fact that monsters were naturally superior to humans, quirks or not and chose the path of villainy. This is the story of a boy who is neither a hero, nor villain, just someone doing what he feels is right is the right thing, even if the world thinks he's wrong.

Aldera Junior High had been abandoned for the day, and the place had an eerie silence to it. Like a tomb or a grave. The only sound that echoed through the entire place were the slow plodding heavy footfalls of the one lone student which yet walked its silent halls. He had messy green hair and a freckled face; his black school uniform disheveled. His name was Izuku Midoriya and if anyone could see him now, they would see a boy who was completely crushed in spirit. His eyes seemed lifeless, his frame all but hunched over a burnt and tattered journal as he walked. Ever higher into the school building. For he had believed even though he grew up quirkless in a world of people with quirks, those born with special abilities, that if he tried hard enough, he could still become a hero.

That was of course until today.

'No, I don't believe you can be a hero without a quirk.'

The words of the person who gave Izuku Midoriya hope all throughout his miserable childhood rang throughout his head like a judge handing down a death sentence. His hope and dreams were taken away from him by the very person he believed in most. The world's symbol of Peace, All Might.

'If you want a quirk so badly, maybe you should try jumping off the roof! Maybe you get lucky and get one in your next life!'

The words of Izuku's former best friend turned tormenter, Bakugo Katsuki, echoed through his head as he ascended the final steps that would lead to the roof. Izuku pushed the door open, it creaked open like it always did. Izuku looked around. The rooftop was as usual desolate, the perfect place to hide from his peers whenever he had the chance.

Now though, he would be using it for something else. Izuku approached the edge and looked down. Everything looked like ants from up here. Small, insignificant, their cutting words unable to reach his ears if only for a time. They were small yet at this moment he was the smallest of them all, the real bug that was ready to vanish, nothing like they all thought. Izuku's steps felt heavy, weighed down by the only time he had any real control over his fate as he went around to the side of the roof. He heard the footsteps pound with the sound of his racing heart, survival instinct warring like war drums with what his consciousness had chosen to the part of the building where they burnt the trash daily. Even Bakugo and his friends didn't hang out there due to the smell unless obviously they were on duty. Bags of garbage, the result of a lazy student were pushed off to the side leaving the stained pavement bare below.

It was Saturday today, classes were over and nobody was around to hear him hit the concrete. Just like they all wanted, this world filled with wonders were not content with letting him have a sliver of its many excesses and delightful...

It wasn't fair for him to be reminded that for some people the road was long and full of adventures. His life? He had been fucking with his own head since he was four years old and a doctor coldly stated that his life was over… He had been a stupid kid then and always a stupid little freak…

Izuku inhaled, squeezed the journal in his arms tightly. It was tatty, worthless like him but it made for a good companion in his final moments, a monument to his delusions that the world was fair to everyone. He swallowed a breath, taking in that sweet last breath of oxygen, air that he didn't deserve being just a failure in life. He smiled, remembering nothing that was good to motivate him before Izuku Midoriya took one step forward, then another until there was no ground anymore, no safety net to let him change his mind...

Smiling, brightly but with so much melancholy, the life beaten out of him, oblivion calling as it was ready to take him.

End of the road.

Izuku found himself doing something he never thought he'd do again… he woke up again. With a bone weary stiffness, felt only once before when he had been bedridden with a sickness for a week, the young suicide failure rolled over. Every bone in his body was stiff, cracking with loud, indulgent pops as every joint seemed to regain its stability. It was strange, like for a time they had gone solid like he had been carved out of stone then turned back. All this however came with its own ominous orchestra, a clattering as the teen rolled full circle on his back to get rid of some kinks while stretching and his nose became wet, his eyes opening to stare into a puddle of dried blood. He panicked, jumping away from it with a silent gasp, his lips moved anyway and more silent gasps came when this blood was in massive quantities and seemingly came from himself. He reached with one hand for the relative comfort of his blood soaked notebook, firmly gripping it for stability. Izuku felt around until he picked up some of whatever was scattered all over his back, he held it up above his head so he could get a good look at it.

'Bird bones?' Utter confusion went through his mind at the thought.

Sitting up he found himself in a six-inch-deep hole, devoid of grass as if something had sucked it up whole. It was laid out like a shallow grave, consecrated in blood that was most likely his own, dust that tasted like concrete on his tongue, and now that he looked closer, the bones were indeed the skeletal corpses of several birds. Alarmed at the rather ghoulish resting place, Izuku pulled himself out of the hole, continuing to cradle his journal in one hand.

He looked into the small pit he somehow found himself in and he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. His conclusions were rather morbid and full of self pity.

'I can't even die properly,' Izuku thought to himself bitterly. 'What kind of person can't even die right when they try? I truly am a deku just like Kaachan said.'

Sorrow filling him like the depths of the ocean, Izuku ran for his life, filled with emotions he couldn't even name. Sorrow, regret, self-loathing, and so many others. He wanted to run from them all.

So he ran...

Right into someone else that would forever change his life.

Destiny was a busy bitch today.

Destiny's bitch for today, also known as Mina Ashido, fifteen years old was for the third day in a row now having to take the long way to get to the train station. The normal street she usually went down had been cordoned off by the police as it had been blown to pieces due to some sludge villain taking some poor kid hostage and using his quirk for fun, destruction and other villainy cliches before All Might showed up like he usually did to save the day. Despite the slight alteration on her routine Mina didn't mind too much, this shit kind of happened a lot in a world of heroes vs villains as she enjoyed walking around Mustafu City exploring new places, finding new shortcuts or places to shop. It was bit nicer than her own hometown of Chiba, the capital city located in the prefecture of the same name. Compared to it, Mustafu was less crowded by comparison and very new meaning her extroverted sense of adventure went on regular expeditions to find new places to eat or shops to buy clothes. She was just a typical teenager with acid spewing powers as Mina strolled along taking in the sights sounds and the people. She stared off into the sky which was turning shades of caramel and a shade of pink rivaling her own skin, starting to think she should head towards the train station, since by now the clean up crews had to have finished for today when something caught her eye.

It was nothing too weird yet for some reason it started giving her flashbacks of that Hitchcock movie. Masses of seagulls were circling around behind a junior high school. Mina looked around and didn't see anyone else looking at the sight but something made her shiver. It passed a second later and she shrugged as if trying to drive away the feeling from her, telling herself it did not matter besides most people didn't look up at the best of times. This was an era where these days people were lucky not to worshipping their cell phones and the cult of celebrity heroism as they devoured commercials or watched news reports about heroes than actually observing their actual surroundings.

Her mother was a great example of this as she was prone to smacking into objects because the woman couldn't look away from her phone when her hero crush Present Mic (weird as it was) was on the news promoting his newest album or sonic blasting villains to jail.

Still Mina cocked her head to the side at the sight, that feeling just not going away. She couldn't explain it, like her gut or something mental was warning her away yet her curiosity was on a sugar high and egging her on.

'Huh that's weird.' In the end, her curiosity suplexed her fight or flight instincts and she was piqued. Mina Ashido was one driven by emotion, and right now curiosity had won the championship belt and was calling the shots..

She was about to head through the entrance to the school, hesitant because technically she was trespassing in a school not her own when she was all but ran over by someone who was leaving. His appearance caught her off guard for a moment. He had a greyish sickly parlor, and he was really gaunt looking, like his flesh was stretched taut over his skull. He had messy shock white hair making her think of the professor from that old movie, 'Back to the Future', and his eyes seemed to glow neon green.

Oh, and he was also covered in dust, blood, and bits of bone. Oh, he smelled like the one time someone had pulled the plug out of the fridge by accident just as they had gone on vacation for a week.

That as you would imagine all together really got her attention.

"Like dude, are you ok? Have you been hurt or something?" Curiosity was like 'boring' and left the controls to concern in an instant. Mina was controlled by her emotions, and right now, she wanted to make sure this boy in front of her, who looked like he just walked out of his own grave was alright.

Like any decent human being would.

He stared at her for a moment, his luminescent eyes widening in surprise like he was surprised someone was even acknowledging his existence. Mina found it hard not to when he looked like he could've been hurt.

It took him a moment, Mina got a front row seat to hearing his infamous muttering a little but finally he replied.

"I-I-um-I'm fine t-thank you." He bowed being all super polite which Mina found very endearing. "Thank you for your concern."

Mina pointed at him with one hand, her other on her hip. "You're covered in blood dust and… are those bird bones? You don't look fine dude."

He tried to wave his arms around but his body just acted like it hadn't had an oil change in years. "I-I-I'm fine really!"

Mina placed both hands on her hips, sighed before nodding to herself. Poor Izuku became a slave to her whims and destiny got her rocks off.

"I guess I have no choice then." She walked past this weird boy, grabbing him by the arm as she did so and noting he was ice cold to the touch, just another something that felt off. Though she supposed that could have something to do with his quirk. "I'll just have to take you home with me."

The boy's eyes widened as he was dragged away. "Eh?!"

It had taken a battle of attrition from her would be rescuee, the washed up bloated corpse like boy that he was perfectly emulating at the moment, babbling the entire way but Mina dragged the boy whose name she still didn't know for her attention had been focused on acquiring the boy's right to walk away from her (kidnapping if you wanted to be simple about it as any court would've put her in the joint from sheer appearances) but she had drawn some entertainment from how cute the babbling had been. People waiting for the subway gave the two of them a wide berth, probably since one of them was covered in blood and looked like an extra from a slasher flick, the other behaving like a rather incompetent kidnapper who had failed kidnapping 101 in night school because she had failed the 'keep it quiet that you are kidnapping someone' segment. The train going to Chiba arrived and again, everyone getting off went well around the two of them, one train guard muttering something on his radio, his segmented eyes staring suspiciously. The two sat down, Mina's abductee having long since stopped struggling, defiance flatter than a pancake and now simply going along with her whims.

Funnily enough, the other passengers flat out refused to even sit on the same seat as the two. Who would've seen that one coming?

Turning to her 'definitely not a hostage or a kid that needed an adult' Mina gave a goofy smile. With all her brain power redirected she actually remembered she was Japanese and manners were ingrained deeper than the words on the rosetta stone in her culture.

"Sorry I didn't introduce myself, did I?" She bowed slightly, Izuku relaxing for the first time since he found out he was inept at suicide… which was a rather sad gift. Then she utterly flipped her attitude 180 degrees and he was back to being blindsided by this most extroverted girl. "I'm Mina Ashido, what's your name dude?"

The boy seemed to find his concrete dust covered shoes interesting as he kept his gaze on them. He seemed to shrink in himself, confused as to why he wasn't you know dead already?

Izuku opened his mouth but with no trauma to hamper his realisation or Mina, the pink skinned kidnapper to distract him it was very clear to him that something was wrong when no sound came out. For the first time since his awakening, he realized he hadn't taken a breath once ever since he woke up. He started to mutter in his own thoughts. 'I don't need to breathe anymore, so how do I communicate with people?'

Mina put her hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "Dude, you ok? You started muttering to yourself."

Izuku was a smart boy, so it didn't take him long to put two and two together. Telepathy, he had somehow developed a telepathy quirk. Suicide had been a good thing? That utterly absurd thought led to his hero analysing nature and the consequences of being a mind reader… or was it just like that heroine Mandalay who could only transmit thoughts not receive them? He would need to be careful with his thoughts until he learned to control it.

There was going to be no recap of his suicide attempt to this girl until he knew just what the fuck was her deal.

Time for a little bit of bait.

"My name is Izuku Midoriya."

"Izuku Midoriya," Mina echoed, as if testing it on her tongue. "Can I call you Midori for short?"

That actually caused him to glance up at her. He was a bullied kid so looked for her angle in trying to assign him a nickname. Every time he heard Deku it was like some ass was stabbing him in the gut with a blunt dagger.

"Why do you want to?"

"I think it's cuter." Mina replied honestly.

'C-C-Cuter?!' Izuku thought to himself. Nobody had called him cute, not even his mom who carried a guilt trip the size of the Grand Canyon on her shoulders.

"Yep definitely cuter," Mina affirmed, folding her arms like it was her greatest accomplishment bestowing him this rather simple nickname.

He was alarmed at that thought escaping him. 'Okay, this is going to be harder than I thought.' He mumbled this so Mina wouldn't hear.

Mina cast him a sideways glance again. "Your mumbling again. You do that a lot huh Midori?"

Again, Izuku focused on his shoes. "I…I suppose so."

Mina patted him affectionately on the back. "Hey now, I wasn't making fun. I was just saying."

Glancing in her direction again, Izuku inquired, "Where are we going Ashido-san?"

"My house in Chiba City," Mina, his rather pleasant manhandler answered. "You need help even if you don't want it and my folks are the type who are good at this kind of thing." Meanwhile, Izuku wondered what her logic was in dragging him through the city where the train had passed at least three hospitals filled with you know people who were qualified in assessing his health. She added with a warm smile, "Also, no need to be so formal, call me Mina."

Izuku nodded so quickly Mina thought his head might fall off. "Right Mina-san."

Mina giggled behind her hand. "You sure are a jittery one huh Midori? Well don't worry! You've got me now! I'll protect you." Mina made a heroic pose, flexing her arm showing underneath that pink skin of hers she had some muscle.

Izuku offered his kidnapper the first small smile since his resurrection. Was this Stockholm Syndrome? Did he care right now? Nope...

"Thanks Mina-san…" It burned inside his belly like a stomach ache but he asked the question that he asked himself everyday. "Do you want to become a Pro-Hero?"

Mina gave a toothy grin. "Sure do! I hope to join Yuuei next year. How about you Midori?"

Izuku stared at his hands they were grey and emaciated like that of a corpse. He had no idea if he still wanted to be a Hero… He had a quirk now, he supposed, but he just jumped off a roof because his dreams were broken by not only years of abuse, but they were also put down by his idol.

Though Lady Luck had dropkicked destiny's bitchy ass and he now had a quirk he didn't know if he wanted to become a hero anymore. Rose tinted glasses had been metaphorically stomped on so hard, the boy hero wannabe was soaked by the downpour of reality he had walked into blindly.

"I… I don't know…" Izuku tilted his head like a puppy being told for the first time about the sit command. "Maybe? I don't know… It sounded like a good..." Izuku shut his mouth as nothing coherent was coming out of his brain unfiltered.

Mina noted he sounded conflicted and unsure. Concern filled her bumble colored eyes. What was his deal? Nothing made any sense to her. His look, the blood that was now dried into his school uniform and everything… Everything was suspicious! It was time to detective Mina to investigate. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Izuku shook his head. "No, not really… Sorry Mina-san, I know your just trying to help but…"

Mina put down her deerstalker and magnifying glass for a moment as her humanity felt sorry for her. "Don't worry about it, dude. Sorry for being pushy."

The awkward silence lengthened between the two. Izuku finally broke it with his standard question. It had been one so used that it felt like an old pair of shoes, comfortable, safe that the hero obsessed world was 99% of the time only happy to brag about.

"So… what is your quirk?"

The pink skinned girl grinned again. The investigation was going well! She glanced around, all the other passengers avoided looking at them like they had the plague or something. Taking advantage of this, Mina cupped her hands, allowing a bit of green transparent liquid to gather in them.

The wrinkling of her nose was not part of the act, Izuku just started to really smell.

Izuku looked at the liquid for a moment before questioning, "Some kind of liquid?" It wasn't very easy to work out what the hell she had made. For all he knew, she was making washing up liquid and her future career if hero work fell through was becoming the greatest dishwasher in history.

"It's acid actually," Mina corrected before dropping what little her body produced on the floor where it did nothing, the pH Balance not high enough to even scorch the metal of the subway train floor.

"I see," Izuku said, ignoring the familiar jealousy of someone with an actual quirk seeing as he now had one, an ingrained behaviour from before he was even in school. "Quite the interesting quirk. I'm assuming with practice you could control the acidity and viscosity of the acid you produce."

"Viscosity?" Midori was using words five letter words with her. This was why she only got C's and B's in school. Teachers always used big words and sometimes she just didn't get it.

"The thickness," Izuku explained promptly. "With practice, you could make your acid more like syrup or a jello mold. For example, say your falling out of a building for some reason, you need something to absorb the impact or you could end up hurt. So, you release your acid, making it thicker so it forms an impact cushion around you or another example is say someone is shooting at you with a ranged quirk. You could form a wall of acid with a thickness akin to impact gel police use to absorb bullets for ballistic testing..." Izuku noticed that Mina was staring at him with her mouth agape as he described how she could advance her quirk. His instinct was to go on the defensive, preemptive position for being bullied. If it was a badge in the Scouts he would've aced the test for it. "...Sorry…"

After a moment, Mina spoke. "Midori…" The calm before the storm that followed those words, the moment one waited for the jello on your plate to stop wobbling, nothing was said, anticipation pretty much making Izuku's bodily functions do its pre-punch in the face checklist like reminding the bladder not to pee and his heart to begin racing was aborted when Mina all but exploded… Just not in the way he was expecting. "That's incredible!" Positive remarks were so rare Izuku still flinched like the pink girl had punched him in the face. "I never thought of any of this stuff and in like five minutes you think up all these things I've never thought of before and it's my quirk, I've had it for years and didn't think like you did."

Izuku's timidity stuck its head out of its shell and a small smile was Mina's reward for her praise.

"You're welcome?"

"Is that what that is?" Mina pointed to his scorched, waterlogged, dust covered, and bloodstained notebook, so stained the title was obscured but with a few clues like Izuku had given her she had used her street smarts to figure it out. "You keep notes on quirks you've seen and how they can be used?"

Izuku nodded, not trusting his telepathy to do him justice.

"Can I see it?" Mina asked, genuine interest in her tone.

Tentatively Izuku handed it over for her perusal, a little embarrassed that someone besides himself was going to read his personal notes he'd taken on quirks. Mina took it almost reverently; she knew how important it was to her new acquaintance. Gingerly wiping away a bit of dust, she read the title.

Hero Analysis for the Future no. 13.

"Wow you've taken a lot of notes huh?" Mina said before she flipped the cover and began reading.

Mina quickly found herself enthralled. Izuku had taken detailed notes on all kinds of heroes not just the top ten, which he had plenty of info on, but even more obscure ones she had only heard of in passing. She would ask the occasional question which he would answer, and that was how they passed a two-hour ride to Chiba Prefecture.

While she did this Izuku's body went cold as ice, his heart pounding limply like it was a tired marathon runner. He felt very faint and had no idea why. In fact it was the first time since awakening from his grave that he felt at least something that be construed as normal. His palpitations seem to go as fast as Mina flicked through the papers, her fingers caressing the pages seemingly matching the cold chills that ran down his spine. Something, something, fuck if he knew what was wrong, really, really wrong.

Survival instinct seemed to say kill her for touching that precious, precious book. He couldn't take his eyes off her hands that held it with such care, searching for the moment that she would drop it, kick it into pieces… It was not like Bakugo who blew it up. That was sad but it didn't make him utterly terrified like this nice if not rather odd girl who treated it like a porcelain vase from the Ming dynasty doing as much as earmarking a page.

That urge to kill her never left him until that book was safely back in his arms, unmolested and with those terrible feelings gone.

From that moment on, Izuku Midoriya would never let anyone touch it again.

Izuku's head acted as if it was on a swivel as he tried to take in as much as he could of Chiba City. It had more people and so many different quirks it was making his head spin. He clutched his notebook for comfort.

For her part, Mina chuckled at how Izuku was looking around like a kid in a candy store, usually she had to zip and dodge her way around crowds of people but just like on the train people were giving them a wide berth.

'Are they afraid of Midori or something?' She scoffed at the thought. 'He may look a bit scary, but he has the personality of a shy teddy bear.'

She saw some passerby staring at Izuku and whispering. In response, she stuck her tongue out at them and picked up her pace.

Eventually, the crowds thinned out and the two found themselves in front of a nice two-story house. The lawn looked immaculately kept and there were pink rose bushes lining the front porch. As the two crossed the border to the house, Mina started chattering.

"This is my place. My dad's the police chief around here and my mom came from America on a teaching visa when she met my dad so you could say I'm thoroughly Americanized. It's why our house stands out so much."

As he walked across the lawn Izuku noticed something… he was leaving dead sod in his wake. Tapping Mina on the shoulder, he stopped her mid rant. "Mina-san, I think we have a problem."

"Huh?" Mina turned around and saw that half her lawn was dead. Her jaw dropped a little then she looked at the rose bushes that lined the front of the house. "Midori… When I was younger, I'd often burn things on accident due to my quirk and my parents never really got mad except for one time. Once, I was fooling around with my quirk in the yard when I spilled acid on my mom's rose bushes and… well let's say I was grounded for a couple of weeks and I've never seen my mom look so sad."

Izuku had no desire to kill anyone's prize plants. "What do we do Mina-san?"

Mina came to a quick decision. "We can go around back. C'mon."

Mina led Izuku around the back of her house where there was a paved driveway and a basketball hoop along with a garage. Taking out a key, Mina unlocked the back door leading him through the garage which was currently housing a wooden paneled Volkswagen. Mina unlocked the backdoor and kicked off her shoes, waiting for him to do so before leading him inside.

The house had plush white carpet with pastel yellow colored walls purple drapes hung in front of the window and a vase filled with roses was sitting on a coffee table between some overstuffed leather armchairs. From what Izuku could tell, this was a sitting room of some kind in the western style.

Mina led him by the arm down a hallway that was full of pictures of her and another slightly older boy in various ages, with which could only be their parents standing next to them in the pictures. Yet, at some point in the photos the older boy disappeared and only Mina remained. Izuku was curious about that but didn't pry.

He was led into a lavish bathroom. The floor was tiled in black and white, there was a large mirror overlooking a marble sink, and a whirlpool tub complete with water jets taking up the other half of the room with a small shower right next to it.

For the first time since awakening Izuku saw his reflection. He let out a silent gasp of both awe and fear as he beheld himself in the mirror. Tentatively, he reached out and watching as his reflection mimicked his movement not stopping until his withered hand rested against the polished glass.

"Midori?" Mina called out to him after he stared at his own reflection for a bit too long.

"I did not expect myself to look so ghoulish…" Izuku said to himself more than her. He looked at Mina with his eyebrow raised. "How exactly didn't you run away screaming when you saw me Mina-san?"

Mina gave him her cheesy grin. "I told you! You needed help, so I couldn't do nothing," She moved over to the tub and started filling it with water. Due to the fact he was still looking in the mirror when she bent over, Izuku got a pretty good view of her backside. He froze unable to look away or move. Mina carried on as she added some lavender bubble bath, noticing how stiffly he moved.

"If you just leave your clothes outside the door, I'll was them for you while you get yourself cleaned up, ok Midori?"

That snapped Izuku out of his daze. "My… My clothes?!"

Mina finally thankfully stood up as the scent of lavender started to fill the air, not that he could smell it. "Yeah I can clean them for you. It's no big deal dude."

"All… All of them?" Izuku stuttered out.

The moment Mina realized what he was referring to, she broke out into giggles. "Midori… I've handled men's underwear before… I do the wash around here all the time." She got out in between chuckles.

Izuku stuttered out a response. "R… Right!"

Mina shook the water off her hands. "I'm going to go start the washer, just leave your things outside the door ok?"

Izuku silently nodded, his head bobbing up and down like a bobblehead. Once Mina had left Izuku gingerly placed his Hero Analysis book on the bathroom counter, never taking the now incredibly precious item from his sight and began to strip out of his clothes. Even though they were stained, caked with blood and dirt plus they smelt like a cesspit had married a toxic waste dump and had a kid he still took the time to fold everything before placing it in a pile just outside the door.

He then got in the bath, eyes drawn forever in the direction of the book. A sense of relief washed over him as he laid in the water. He felt the kinks and stiffness in his body fade away as he laid there wondering what this new form of his was capable of.

'I do not breathe; I speak with telepathy… Can I even drown?'

Since being ghoulish was the theme of today, (actually, what date was it today?) Izuku decided to test it, allowing himself to sink entirely below the water level of the tub. He stayed there completely submerged counting in his head. One minute… then two… four… at the five-minute mark he finally sat back up not out of need for air, but the lack thereof. Seeing a button on the side of the tub, he pressed it, jumping slightly when the water jets activated. Deciding he'd experimented long enough, Izuku got down to the business of cleaning himself. Spying a washcloth Mina must've gotten out for him Izuku began to clean himself up. He used the shampoo he found and rubbed the soap hard into his flesh. Once he'd cleaned himself of filth, turning said cloth into a lost cause, the soap blacker than the black lagoon in a depressed mood, he decided to relax for just a bit longer.

He really was enjoying these water jets. It was nice to know he wasn't dead or this wasn't his brain hallucinating as it slowly died from massive head trauma…

Why did he start thinking like this now?!

When Mina came back for Izuku's clothes, she shook her head and giggled when she saw he had neatly folded everything for her. She had never seen such nicely folded flamethrower targets before.

'That guy, I swear. Next thing he'll do is offer to wash the dishes at dinner.'

Mina tossed all of his things in the wash with a healthy dose of detergent, and slammed the lid closed when she heard the front door open.

'Oh right… I knew I had forgot something... shit, mom and dad are home early… I have a naked half dead guy in our bath who brought in clothes that smell like ass wrapped around toxic waste and at the same time,' Mina took a deep calming breath before slapping her cheeks. It was time for sassy bitch mode! She could do this! 'Ok Mina, listen to your thoughts here, you can do this!'

"Mina," her father called from the foyer, "Honey, I'm not going to be mad with you but why exactly is half of our prize winning lawn dead? And why is our neighbor Sato-san saying the Grim Reaper snuck into our house?" The man made a groaning sound of disgust. "And why does it smell like a dead body was left in the foyer?"

"Honey, you promised to give her a chance to explain herself," a woman, her mother said with her accented Japanese, "Honey, we promise we won't ground you but your daddy's friend in the city said you were spotted kidnapping a half dead boy and brought him home. I know that your daddy's friend was exaggerating a bit as really I don't think you would…" She made a gagging sound, sounding like she wanted to vomit or choking on it. Mina blinked, tooka sniff and finally noticed the smell herself. Had she been so determined to help that she had ignored Midori smelling like a fart given physical form and it liked to wear dog feces aftershave? "Though the smell I agree with your father about. It smells like that rotting dog we found in my parent's house when I was a kid. Did you visit the dump or something sweetie?" Mina listened harder and was rewarded with something she was probably not meant to hear. "Do you think she jumped a hobo or something? It's going to take me hours to get rid of the smell!"

"I did not," Mina hotly defended, covering her mouth when it was loud enough that Izuku could be heard shuffling in the bathroom from fright. She had no desire to kill him again if he had indeed done what he looked like, a dead body left out in the open for a long time. Intending to cut down on how much Izuku could hear, she intercepted her parents in the living room. "Midori ran into me before I could even past the school gates of Aldera Junior High in Mustafu City."

Her father came into the laundry room then, holding a hand up to his nose with one hand while he had his tan trench coat tucked over his other arm. Her dad was tall, built solidly like a brick wall had a mountain for a personal trainer and his quirk was that of the two giant rams horns he had curling out of either side of his head, popping out of either side of his very shaggy black hair. He wore a white dress shirt, corresponding black slacks with his service weapon, Mina had disgustingly heard her mom making jokes about it in their bedroom holstered under his right arm. Due to working long hours, Mina noted her dad had three days' worth of facial hair, biting his lip when he was apprehensive about something and was eyeing his daughter with a keen gaze.

Seeing his daughter look so nervous, Gendo Ashido smirked, his fabled nickname as 'glasses of death' Ashido was well earned as his black aviator glasses catching the light from the sun atop his forehead, almost hidden by his incredibly messy hair. She'd seen grown men wet themselves when her father put them on. "If you didn't attack a hobo then why does our house smell like death?"

"Honey, you know we love you, but the house does smell like a morgue, and Sato-san said he saw you drag someone into the house. His wife swears he was a corpse but everyone knows she's as blind as a bat."

Mina's mother, Emma, came into view then, wearing a bright yellow summer dress which contrasted sharply with her pink hair that lit up the room and aided her bright cheery smile that together could light up a whole room where it felt like it was blinding you which really helped with her job as a Quirk and Monster Councilor. Kids just gravitated to her and even older children found her easy to open up to even the troubled ones.

Mina just looked like someone had cloned her using both parents, unique as she got her messy head of hair from her father, her small set of horns and it was easy to see that she had his strong sense of justice. From her mother, she got her pink hair and perchance her limitless exuberance.

Izuku would learn later that her pink complexion was a result of her body's natural high pH balance due to her quirk. No pink? She would have dissolved by now. Mina still had nightmares about that.

Her father crossed his arms expectantly, the fingers of one hand tapping against his shoulder. "Well young lady, we're waiting…"

Mina imagined as usual her father adding, 'Well punk? We're waiting.' Then pulling out his gun and shooting her...

Giving a sheepish grin, she ignored her love of Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry, one of her dad's favourite films, Mina admitted, "Well, I had to take a detour on the way home these past few days and today I noticed something odd."

"Odd?" Her father grumbled in his deep gruff baritone. "Where have I heard that before?"

His wife elbowed him in the ribs.

Mina nodded, continuing, satisfied her mother had extracted the right punishment, "Yep, a bunch of seagulls were flying around behind this junior high school. I thought it was odd since it was Saturday afternoon, the school should've been cleaned up so I decided to go see what had them so riled up."

Gendo ran a hand slowly down his face. "And decided to trespass onto school property, risking arrest..."

"Honey, you said you'd let her explain," Emma gently scolded her husband, punching him again in the ribs for extra emphasis as her husband did his cop thing before turning her gaze back on her daughter and enquiring, "Midori, dear?"

Mina frowned a bit clearly concerned. "Yeah he was wearing a school uniform and he was covered in blood, dust, and bird bones..."

"Dear," her mother coaxed, "I love you but I wish you would stop introducing people by their nicknames…"

"Oh, his name is Izuku Midoriya…"

Gendo waved his hands, causing his daughter to stop before he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a notepad he used for work. "For the love of god let me stop you right there. He was covered in blood you say? Was it his own or someone..."

Mina allowed herself to be led and gestured over to a set of rags they used for cleaning. "He was alone so I think it was all his." Her father groaned, mumbling about contaminating a crime scene. Her mother again attacked him into compliance. "Yeah, I had to use some of them to try and get all the bits of bone out of his clothes. Didn't want it breaking the washer."

Gendo went into the kitchen got pair of rubber gloves and a plastic bag before gingerly picking up the bloodstained and bone encrusted rags, placing them inside, and zipping the bag closed. He then turned back to his daughter who waited patiently for him to finish.

"Continue." Her father walked across the room and located a small flashlight like device. He ran it over the clothes, UV blue light and indeed there was a lot of blood that nobody could see.

Mina did so. "I saw he was a bloody mess no matter how much he stuttered and denied it. So since he looked like a mess and stank to high heaven I decided to bring him back home." Again her poor father muttered about procedure and how his daughter should listen to him more. Her mother did the right procedure for this situation at least, only her husband didn't even notice which was a very bad sign. "So he's getting himself cleaned up and now you two can get to the bottom of this. Midori looked like he could use some help, and maybe the cops."

Gendo didn't know whether to groan or chuckle. He blamed himself for instilling both a strong sense of curiosity and justice in her since she was young. Oh yeah, he blamed himself for not taking her for more than just one father/daughter day at the station so she learned not to contaminate a fucking crime scene! However, since she idolized them both to a fault, his little sugar plum often came to them with things that should've been handled by actual authorities or sometimes even heroes.

At least it wasn't like the time she saved those hamsters… God the apology letter to the poor boy's family when his righteous little daughter did a citizen's arrest would haunt him forever. Until he made captain he was known best as 'the guy whose daughter arrested some kid for losing his hamster for ten minutes.' Apparently, Mina, his precious little pink fairy princess thought that was neglect… Who the fuck taught his daughter aged five that word? Why didn't she keep those smarts growing up… Parenthood was a bitch sometimes...

"Did you think to take him to the local police station or one of the nearby hospitals to get checked out?"

Mina cocked her head to the side, confusion evident on her face at her father's inquiry. "Why? You and mom can handle anything that comes up right? You're a police captain and she's a counselor twice over and a doctor."

Emma gave a light sigh. Her husband shivered when she transmitted her aggravation at him. He wasn't getting any now after this. "While we appreciate you think of us so highly honey, it likely would've been best to take him to someplace a bit closer since he lives in Mustafu instead of dragging him onto a two-hour train ride just to come see us."

Gendo sighed and rubbed his head. "I swear, ever since your brother left Mina you've been…"

Mina's eyes flashed dangerously before she cut her father off raising her voice. "This has nothing to do with Nii-san!" Mina huffed, calming down but still sounding agitated. "I saw someone who needed help and I helped them just like you two taught me… maybe I should've brought him to the police station or the hospital, but I didn't think of them, I thought of you. Since we're here now anyway will you do something?"

Gendo pinched the bridge of his nose. "Alright we'll do what we can. I'll call the station and report this and…" He looked around, hearing nothing not even the bathroom so the victim of his daughter's 'help' was in the wind. "Where is the alleged victim anyway?"

Mina pointed her hand down the hall… to the bathroom… a naked young man… in his bathroom… alone with his daughter...

"Taking a bath." Her simple statement stirred her father's protective instincts.

'Must not show the boy my gun, must resist the urge to scare the first boy she brought home with her… He's a victim… Remember Gendo… That documentary we watched on how to handle this… We must not…'

Emma clapped her hands, breaking the tension in the air, sensing her husband's murderous uber killing intent and coming to a decision. Right now she was the only one who should have any sort of control over this. Her husband was biting his lip and rubbing that horrible facial hair of his. "Right then, how about I let the young man know we'd like to speak with him before putting the kettle on?"

Gendo grunted in reply. "That would be for the best." What wasn't said would've made the two women in his life furious.

Emma got her daughter's attention as her husband lumbered off into the living room. She caught his eye and the man was downtrodden as the secret signal to put his gun away was sent to him, on pain of not getting any.

"Did you think to get him anything to wear while his clothes were in the wash dear?"

Mina rubbed her head, eyes downcast. That pause made her father stub his toe on the couch as he was putting the combination into their safe where he kept the gun. "I was going to give him some of Nii-san's old clothes. He's kinda short so Nii-san's old clothes should fit him."

Emma smiled even though sadness reflected in her golden yellow eyes. "That's a very good idea honey. Which one were you thinking of giving him?"

Mina quickly backtracked. "Not giving. He'd just wear it till his clothes were clean knowing him."

Emma wrapped her daughter in a gentle embrace. "Mina-chan… I think it's time all of us faced facts. Your brother isn't coming home. He left and he doesn't want to come home."

"Yeah," Mina said sadly.

Emma knew her daughter's borderline compulsive helpful nature and kindness was a sort of front. She was boisterous yes and kind too, but deep down she was sad her brother was gone and used her overly happy nature to mask this. She also went out of her way to be helpful hoping to run into her brother one day. It was the exact same reason she spent so much time at the hospital and her husband at the precinct. All three of them hoping against hope to find their missing family member, whether he walk in one day needing treatment, or in handcuffs, just knowing he was alive would be something.

"The green one with the skulls," Mina said, breaking her musings.

"What dear?"

"I was going to give Midori the stuff when I thought he was a goth rocker," Mina explained.

Emma knew just the one her daughter was talking about. "I know just where it is, don't worry."

Emma opened the door to her missing sons' room it was as neat as ever with posters of bands taped to the walls, with a record player sitting silently in the corner next to a stack of vinyl. Yet the place was a stark and oftentimes painful reminder of her missing eldest child. Going to the closet, Emma pulled the sliding door open and began rummaging through her eldest's unique collection of clothes.

The Matriarch of the Ashido family quickly collected the attire needed for her guest and hurried out of the room, all but slamming the door shut behind her, before the memories of her son could overwhelm her. With the bundle clothes under one arm Emma retreated back downstairs before she gently wrapped on the bathroom door.

There was silence for a moment before a shy timid voice replied. Yet it didn't sound muffled by the door in the least. "Y…Yes?"

Emma called gently so as not to startle the boy. "Midoriya-san, I'm Mina's Okaa-san. You can call me Emma-san… My husband and I arrived home while you were getting cleaned up."

There was a painful pause. It made Emma wince, thinking all sorts about how much the boy was traumatised by her daughter's exuberant kidnapping.

Emma held in a breath.

"P…Pardon the intrusion."

Emma breathed out in relief and giggled. She could picture the poor boy bowing in the bathtub. "No need, my husband Gendo and I would like to talk to you once you're finished cleaning up. I've left some clothes out here for you since yours are still in the washer alright?"

Another pause, another breath held in. "Yes Ashido-san." She breathed out again. "T…thank you very much!"

"I told you already," the woman of the house, the pants wearing one too said in the tone all mothers could manifest to obtain compliance, "Please call me Emma."

The magic of the motherly tone, the codex to all naughty children to obey won out in the end.

"Emma-san, sorry." The boy came off as quite shy and introverted to the doctor.

Emma shook her head. "Don't worry about it, I'm making tea so hurry up and get dressed if you want to drink it hot alright?"

Another long pause. "Yes Emma-san."

Emma placed the clothes on the ground and made her way into the kitchen. It was going to be an interesting day to say the least. It was just a good idea to make some tea so she did humming to herself as she did so…

Hoping that somehow in all this chaos her husband didn't need to arrest their daughter.

Izuku felt a little silly standing and bowing in the tub like he did, warm water verifying that he was alive more than anything else but what's done was done. It was returning to the wondrous reminder that life still flowed in his veins where upon our hero Izuku examined himself in the mirror.

Izuku Midoriya looked like he had bought his body second hand from a very terrible first owner...

His skin was now grey, like soaked newspaper as pallours of black, darkest green and even a hint of mauve criss crossed his elephant like skin, rough and when he pinched it it took him physically pushing it back together as the pinched skin took an ice age to return to its original place. He checked his stomach, pinching the rubbery flesh and sighed. He had been chubby before, puppy fat from a life of studying and camping on his computer had seen to that but now his strangely stiff fingertips that for the average person might mistaken for calluses found very little purchase asides from his bones. Now he had a skeletal emaciated look, no love handles to grasp but in exchange he was like that of a mummified corpse ready for the pyramid. His finger tip prodded each rib, Izuku counting them seeing as every one of his ribs stuck out clearly on his torso like someone had put plastic sheeting on a fake skeleton like you found in classrooms. Even his hair follicles were pulling the long dead option despite his hair being soaked and sticking to his head. It was weak, easy to split in white wispy strands at the moment, making him think of an old person on his deathbed and his eyes, his fucking glowed an usually bright green like a stop sign as occasionally they would flicker like the bulb was about to blow. Privately, figuratively speaking as he ventured downwards, gulping at what might or might not be there anymore, (making a case for a special sort of phantom limb syndrome if it was missing) he was happy upon contact, knees buckling so his feet rippled in the water to see he still possessed a 'certain part' of his anatomy in between his legs. Feeling it twitch in response to his probing, he was happy to note it might still have its warranty. If that had been missing, Izuku would've kneecapped Death for being such a bitch to him and he might've preferred death just to punch the bastard in his bony face. Getting a side profile, flexing his starvation diet modelling picture, Izuku noted that even his spine pressed hard against his skin as if it wanted to burst from his back or it was the only thing to not change as if he was too skinny for his own central nervous system hub…

Damn, this shit was a little too real for his taste. This was his new look? The 'Failed suicide so ended up looking like an African starvation victim look?'. This was going to take a little getting used to and maybe a cheeseburger or two.

He pinched his ribs again and winced. Make that three cheeseburgers.

Wanting his tea hot and feeling the need to explain his presence in their home, Mina's friendly kidnapping aside, Izuku got out of the bath and dried himself off with the only towel with a 'dad' monogram on it in blue lace and opened the door a crack. He fiercely ignored the growing 'holy shit' in his heart at not seeing his stinking pile of clothes but his eyes found what a nose that had the cold could've smelt and seeing the bundle of clothes, pulled then inside like Gollum with a certain ring and snapped the door shut like someone would leap in the gap to take them away again.

The first think Izuku noticed was the 'uniqueness' of the attire presented to him. He held the underwear up to eye level. 'Flaming skulls?' He liked it. It was like what he dreamed to do to death for making him an extra from Game Of Thrones as one of the undead. 'Fuck yeah! Besides its better than walking around someone's house asking for clothes with a towel that clearly belongs to her father.' He sniggered at the imaginative image of a father figure planning to cut off his manhood until reality set in and he knew at least there was a mother present. 'You can fuck off imagination!'

His imagination had no comment to say to that.

Now feeling better that he wasn't completely nude, purple skull underwear with interesting purple flames aside, Izuku went through the rest of his attire that didn't smell of ass. He held up a black pair of jeans, studded everywhere that had numerous straps going down one pants leg for no reason and more much larger metal studs going down the other, making him think of how much of a hazard he would be if he tripped downhill on a packed train car. Izuku had never thought of wearing such a thing before, conformity was your middle name when you had the power of a blind, drunk slug and had no idea where to get such a thing seeing as he was best buy's poster boy.

He did think it looked interesting, seeing as many things today were new and Izuku was happy to find out they fit him nicely too if a little baggy in the pants but a studded belt soon sorted that potential disaster out.

Next on the chopping block was a black shirt with a slogan in English, 'Fuck the Police', with an middle finger gesture underneath. He saw that behind it was a police guy being battered by a metal bar. It was so anti-establishment, the conformity inside him finally just went 'Nope, fuck this, I'm outta here' and left forever, the final piece of him that was leftover from the suicide.

It would not be getting any good references as Izuku absorbed everything with a new light. There were also socks, old so the name on them was blurred by sheer use and ancient house slippers which he sat on the toilet seat to put on.

Then, there was the last item. It was the biggest change in attire in Izuku's small world but he'd already evicted his conformity and it could whine and bitch all it wanted, the damn thing was gone forever.

'Should I really wear this in the house?' Izuku wondered as he held up the metal studded and buckle clad trench coat. Much like the pants, it had leather straps going down the arms and a myriad of pyramid shaped studs near the cuffs. It also had a permanently popped collar. Shrugging, he threw it over his shoulders before looking at himself in the mirror.

If he hardly recognized himself before, Izuku surely didn't now. Gone, was the nerdy boy who analyzed quirks and in his place was… Who? Who was he now?

'Guess I'm still figuring that bit out.' Izuku liked it though, it helped him accept that he was Death's edgy little brother. "Heh, yeah, fuck the police." He could learn to like that.

Gathering his used towels and washcloth, Izuku finally left the confines of the bathroom but not before pulling the plug on the tub. Carrying a load of laundry in his arms, Izuku almost barged into someone.

"Oh, Midoriya-san, did you manage to find everything alright?"

Izuku's attire had changed but the interior was just the same as he locked eyes with a beautiful older woman with pink hair holding a tea tray and blushed. The way she smiled at him made his mind blank out for a second. Nope, the edge lord was not becoming his personality anytime soon. There was no doubt that this was Mina-san's mother though. The almost blinding exuberance she exuded was too similar for her to be someone else's mother.

Did she kidnap people in need too?

"Y…Yes t…t…thank you Ashido-san."

The woman seemed to sniff the air then sigh in relief.

"I believe I told you that it was Emma-san Midoriya-san, Emma-san." The older woman playfully chided, the tone of doom dominating her honeyed words like the guy with the binoculars on the Titanic seeing the huge lump of icy death going their way.

It ironically made him freeze up for a second.

Izuku nodded rapidly, not wanting to offend his hostess. "Sorry Emma-san. Where would you like me to put these?"

She noted the pile he was carrying and smiled warmly. For some reason Izuku sensed this had more significant than a simple request.

"Trade you?" she offered, raising the tea tray.

Another sign he wasn't becoming an edgelord was the overwhelming desire to be polite.

"I can…" Izuku began to protest, only for Emma to cut him off in that patient way someone in customer services fought off an angry customer.

"My husband has been waiting to speak to you, so go on go on Midoriya-san into the living room you go. Right past the kitchen. I'll be right in… go on scoot." She took his laundry from him, the towel being the only thing he had left with one hand and pushed the tea tray into his arms with the other, giving him a light shove when he didn't get moving.

Izuku made his way through the kitchen, a modern little piece of western architecture which had stained wood topped with polished granite and overhead cupboards of clear glass. On his left was a black stove with a matching refrigerator separated by some counter space and a little further on was a cozy looking dining room that consisted of a wooden table with six wrought iron and stuffed leather back chairs arrayed around them. There was a red and white checkered tablecloth on top of the table itself, with a vase of wilting roses in the centre.

Izuku turned the corner and stopped, the living room was full of plush leather furniture, like a cow's horror movie come to life with a wall television on the wall to his left that if it fell on top of him might've killed him again and a coffee table tucked away near a horizontal cabinet holding many dvd movies.

That was where the niceties ended as a stern looking man looked up from the paper he was reading. His self preservation instincts decided they were back from vacation, ignored the suicidal thoughts and went on red alert when Izuku took sight of the set of ram's horns curving from his head. Izuku immediately felt nervous as this man's gaze settled on him from behind his aviator glasses. Setting his paper aside, the man gave a gruff snort from his mouth before introducing himself.

He was so glad in a small way that he still felt like he could crap his pants in fear.

"You must be Izuku Midoriya correct?"

Izuku gave a short repeating bow like a Japanese white collar worker being told off by his irate boss.

"Y…Yes sir! I…I apologize for the intrusion."

The man took out a notepad and proceeded to write something down even as he shook his head. Just what the fuck in Neptune's name was he writing down there? 101 ways to kill nerds? Thankfully, his next words defused Izuku's rather exuberant nervous reactions to this lethal looking man.

"No, it's I who must apologize for my daughter's behavior. Even though it was well intentioned, Mina did kidnap you."

"Dad!" Mina whined, Izuku's head jerked as he somehow had missed the bright pink girl in the room… somehow… such was the power of the terrifying father and Izuku wasn't even dating his daughter for god sake! "Stop picking on me in front of Midori!"

The man gave a slight chuckle and promptly ignored his whiny daughter. Learning that trick might have prevented him being kidnapped, Izuku mused.

"Chief Gendo Ashido," he introduced with an inclination of his head before he motioned to the empty seat to his left. "Please have a seat Midoriya-san, we have much to discuss." Turning to his daughter, Gendo calmly ordered, "Mina serve the tea, will you? It's bad enough your mother made our guest bring it in here. I want to see if I can avoid having to bring you to the station for questioning."

Mina sighed, putting her current issue of Heroes Weekly aside before doing as her tou-san asked. Giving her acquaintance a warm reassuring smile she looked him over in her brother's clothes, she complimented, "You look good in those clothes Midori. They really suit you."

"Thanks." Izuku did like this new look, made him seem like a whole other person, personality not shifting an iota asides.

"Milk, sugar?" Mina asked, acting so demure it felt fake as she poured his tea. Izuku noticed it wasn't the usual green tea, but something darker, likely from overseas. He took a sniff and recognised jack shit. He was no connoisseur of tea, hell he barely knew how western tea smelt.

"What kind is it?" Izuku was only familiar with green tea and some oolong.

"English breakfast tea." It wasn't Mina who answered but her mother as the mother of his kidnapper reappeared. Wow, thinking that still didn't seem weird and awkward. "It goes good with milk and sugar."

Mina rolled her eyes and smiled. "You'll have to forgive my mom, she's a bit of a tea fanatic."

Emma pouted and retorted, "There's wrong with liking a good cup of tea."

Mina retorted; her tone dry, "You import some of yours from the Middle East though."

"Two," Emma held up two fingers, "Only two and I do that once a year!"

Izuku was looking back and forth between the two women as they bickered, over tea of all things. Couldn't they get to the point? Kidnapping was still kidnapping and his day(s)? It was already rather strange.

Mina refused to let that go. "Still, isn't that a bit ridiculous?"

Gendo clapped his hands silencing the two before glancing at his daughter over the rim of his glasses. "Mina wouldn't it be best to serve the tea to your guest while it's still warm?"

Mina had forgotten for just a moment that Midori was there and had fallen into an old routine with her mother. Rubbing the back of her head, Mina sheepishly apologized. "Sorry about that Midori. So, milk or sugar?"

The Japanese native was at a loss. Politeness filled the gap, like a favorite tune on the jukebox. "Both, I guess?"

Mina added a bit of milk and a cube of tea before handing it to her guest. Izuku took a tentative sip. Even though it had a both sugar and milk in it, the tea still tasted too bitter on his tongue. Mina must've seen his face for she added another cube of sugar while giggling. The mother frowned at her daughter.

The second sip was more palpable than the first.

"Is that better Midori?"

"Y…Yes thank you."

"So cute," Emma cooed as she used every ounce of her willpower to remain professional and not turn into an embarrassing mother who begins snapping pictures of her daughter whenever she came home with 'her friends who happened to be boys'.

"Mom!" Mina whined.

Deku in the middle of this was able to feel blood rushing to his cheeks… It was alive! Alive!

"Dear, now is not the time for that," the dad said politely, 'Or ever,' he thought to himself, his fatherly instincts rearing up again. Mina would be thirty if he had his way before a boy could say her first name in a familiar sense.

Mina all but pushed a cup of tea into her mother's hands. "Here, keep your hands busy with this and stay off your phone."

Passing her father, a cup with no additives, Mina took her tea with an almost obscene amount of sugar before she sat down next to her guest. Gendo took a sip of his beverage before he addressed the boy in front of him, notepad and pen at the ready.

Detective Daddy as his pink fairy used to call him was in control here now.

"Now Midoriya-san, I'm going to ask you some questions and I'd like you to answer them truthfully please."

The boy gave a jerky hesitant nod. "Yes sir."

Gendo fixed his glasses, causing light to flash off them briefly before he proceeded with his interrogation. "When my little princess found you," her father started, ignoring the embarrassed shout of 'Dad!', "She said you were covered in blood, dust and bones coming out of Aldera Junior High. Could you explain what happened?"

"I… I…" Izuku tried, he really did but to have to bring up how he jumped off the school roof and why after Mina and her parents have been nothing but helpful to him… He didn't know if he could do that to them. He absently noted Emma-san was already writing away on her own notepad, occasionally glancing at him.

Izuku get a hand gently grip his. He looked up to see Mina gently smiling at him. "It's ok Midori, we aren't here to judge you. We're here to help."

"Indeed," Gendo affirmed. "We need to know what happened so as to know if a police report needs to be filed."

If Izuku could've he would have taken a breath to steel his nerves. However, that didn't seem possible to him anymore. So, he gathered his courage and spoke clearly. Something about them made him think they would take him seriously and really, he was rather perturbed how so far his suicidal jump to oblivion hadn't reduced him to a shell already.

It, dare he say it felt like now that it was something meant to happen?

"I jumped off my school roof."

He felt Mina's hand tighten in his grip and heard her sharp intake of breath but he refused to look at her. Izuku had his gaze fixed on Gendo Ashido who stared back.

After a moment of tense silence that was only broken by Emma still scribbling away on her own notepad, Gendo spoke, breaking the staring contest by beginning to take his own notes. Finding out someone was trying to off himself could jar even the greatest of men. His daughter had actually found someone in need.

He had no idea if he was proud of his daughter or not. True, his daughter had found someone suicidal and reached out but the baggage of her newfound friend was something he wouldn't wish on anyone.

That was the father in him talking. Now the policeman had to take the wheel.

"I see, and what led you to do this?"

Izuku's mouth fell open. Wow, was this the first time anyone actually bothered to ask that question? Mom was oblivious but she was skittish when it came to reality since her child was deemed quirkless and anyone else… Everyone else just kind of rolled with it? What the fuck really? Something alien in his mind sputtered to life and told his rational, cowardly self to shut the fuck up and listen to it. Besides, where did he even begin to tell this man about everything he'd gone through over the years? The spiral of never ending words that would be spewed from his fractured mind. Maybe he could start with how he'd been quirkless for most of his life and constantly bullied by his former best friend Bakugo Katsuki, a lot of the time openly in front of the teachers who did nothing… That would be juicy for him or maybe the policeman would be more interested in about meeting his personal hero, All Might after being saved by him from a sludge villain and having his dreams being utterly crushed by the man after being told that no, he couldn't become a hero without having a quirk? It would go so well with the enthralling tale of how after a decade of bullies and being told the same thing by his personal idol Izuku had finally given up on the last bit of hope he'd held onto and finally…

Something ugly inside him choked the last words out of that line of thinking. He flinched until something else stole his attention.

Izuku heard sniffling next to him and looked over to see Mina with tears in her eyes, sniffling to keep herself from becoming a snot ridden mess. He looked over to see Emma-san looking at him sadly. Even Gendo-san, lord and protector of his daughter's purity had a stony disposition and was holding his pen so hard it looked like it might snap at any moment. It only took Izuku a few moments to figure out what had happened.

"I thought all that out loud didn't I?" Izuku asked.

Emma managed a half laugh half sob. "You did." She wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes before handing her daughter a tissue, from the box on the table next to her. Mina dabbed at her eyes and blew her nose, but remained silent still clearly shaken.

Gendo continued with his line of questioning, "You mentioned a sludge villain and a Bakugo Katsuki… that same villain was apprehended two days ago by All Might after he tried to take over a boy by the same name."

This was news to Izuku. "What?"

"It's true," Mina affirmed. "The street is still torn up from the sludge guy making that kid use his explosion quirk. That's part of the reason why we bumped into each other. I had to go around the reconstruction area."

"Is Kaachan… I mean Bakugo alright?" Izuku quickly amended. Something darker made him wince like a frightened animal but his inherent good nature won out.

Mina's usual smile soured. "He's fine got congratulated by the heroes for being brave and everything. Not sure why you care though…"

While Izuku was dueling with an aspect of himself that was learning to exist, the conversation he had been free falling from as everything in it was not meant to be broadcasted, a very pertinent part of that conversation reared its ugly head.

"You said two days ago… It's Monday?"

"Indeed. It's Monday, March sixteenth."

Izuku's mental scream echoed in all three Ashido's skulls causing them to grip their heads in pain.

"Midori! Cut that out!" Mina swatted at his arm.

Izuku wasn't listening though, he was in his own little world, still telepathically screaming loud enough to induce migraines.

"My… my mother… I've been missing for two… two days… she must be worried sick."

"Mina enough." Emma waved her daughter off her ineffective assault before she reassured the boy, "I'll call her if you give me your home phone number dear."

Izuku had never been more thankful. "Yes please!"

"We'll do it right after we finish our questioning alright?" Emma promised before she proceeded with her own line of questioning. "I have to ask Midoriya-san as a Quirk and Monster Counselor; did you acquire your quirk only after you jumped off the roof?"

Izuku saw no point in trying to hide it now. "Yes ma'am."

Emma muttered aloud to herself as she took her notes. "So, death could've been the trigger for its activation…" The older woman posed another avenue Midoriya hadn't even considered. question. "Or your death could also have been a trigger for a monster transformation. Have you noticed anything odd happen since your change?"

Izuku took a moment to think about it. "Monster? I could be a Yokai now? I hadn't even considered that Emma-san but now that you bring it up… anyway, I woke up in a shallow grave which wasn't there when I jumped, believe me I looked before I uh… you know... and I was covered in bird bones… also you guys said I killed half your lawn." He bowed in apology. "I'm sorry about that. I'll pay to have it replaced somehow."

Emma waved away his offer. "Don't worry about it dear. If I may state here I've noticed that you don't seem to be breathing and seem to be speaking with telepathy."

Izuku nodded. "Yes, ma'am I've noticed much the same. I don't need to breathe since my change. I tested it in the bathroom."

"Oh?" Emma looked ready to jot down his findings. Izuku was beginning to like Emma-san, being a person who liked to write notes a lot. "Could you elaborate for me please?"

"Yes, I was able to stay underwater for five minutes. I likely would have gone longer but I wanted to get cleaned up. As for the telepathy, I can only assume that since I no longer breathe, my transformation developed a different means of communication. I'm assuming there all part of what my change actually is though what it could be eludes me sorry."

"Yes, I assumed much the same with the communication and I have heard of a case before where a person became telepathic and lost his voice forever in exchange because the vocal cords were reorganised into these fascinating telepathic nodes… Oh pardon me I was rambling."

"It's quite alright Emma-san." She even rambled. Why was he born in the wrong generation? Mina's exuberance also had two lines of intersection and not just one.

"Do you have any idea what could've caused the death of plant matter around you?"

At that Izuku was at a loss. "No ma'am. Telepathy and not breathing don't seem to line up together, never mind this… uh..."

"I would argue it's some kind of touch based disintegration ability or maybe you can drain the chlorophyll in plants so they die… There's so many different ways this power could be causing all the plant life around you to perish." Emma glanced out into the kitchen at the vase of roses sitting in the middle of the dining room table. "Well, if you don't mind that is. We'll just have to test it then."

"I don't mind doing that Emma-san."

Emma got up and came back in with a vase of flowers placing it on the coffee table in front of her newest patient she prompted him. "Go on, see if you can replicate what you did on the lawn consciously this time."

He glanced at the woman; he knew from Mina just how much she valued her flowers. "Are you sure?"

"Go ahead Midori, if mom says it's fine, then its fine." Mina spoke for the first time since Izuku had accidently spilled his guts about his attempted suicide. She had been stewing in one corner, facial tics providing some worry for the young man. She looked like Bakugo if he had been using ketamine like sweets.

Mina was smiling true but she seemed less boisterous now. It was more restrained minus the orchestra of face muscle as if Mina was thinking something over. Izuku wanted to ask but he didn't want to pry. He also had a pretty good idea what was on her mind and didn't want to go over that again. So, instead he reached out and touched the plant.

Nothing happened for a moment then a green spark jumped from the plant to his finger. When that happened, the roses quickly withered and decayed to nothing. The strangest thing though was that Izuku felt as if he'd just eaten a small snack or munched on some fruit.

Izuku didn't know how to feel about that. His power not only killed all plant life, preventing him from choosing a career as a gardener in the future but it made vegetables taste nice? What the fuck was his power?

Emma blinked in surprise. She was clearly thinking the same as she had stepped back like Izuku had revealed a bomb vest and promised them a free ride to Heaven.

"Huh… that worked. Did you feel anything after that Midoriya dear?"

I feel…" He had no idea how to make it not sound creepy so went with the best one he could come up with. "... Fuller?" Seeing the perplexed look on both of the adults faces, he deflated knowing they weren't freaked out and elaborated, "Like I just ate a piece of candy or something."

"Your quirk sure is something else Midori… you're not planning on eating me next, are you?" Mina teased. She flinched at Izuku's horrified glance and she went back to brooding.

"I don't want to touch anyone until I know I can't kill anybody with my power."

Mina got up from her spot on the couch and squeezed his hand again, just like she had done earlier. She then squeezed tighter for emphasis. "You've been holding my hand almost this whole time and nothing has happened." She squeezed tight enough for it to hurt. "See?" Mina help up their intertwined hands as proof. Izuku froze at the sight. He'd gone from having no friends to talking with a girl and holding hands with one all in one afternoon. He would've fainted but his body didn't seem to be able to do that either. So, instead, he babbled out a response.

Truly was there ever a sign he would never become an edgelord was this moment when holding a girl's hand reduced his brain functionality lower than when he died.

"That… that's good. I would hate for you to… to get hurt because of me… Mina-san."

Mina gave him a peace sign. "You can't hurt me! I'm too awesome Midori… Even if you did, I'm sure it wouldn't be on purpose so I wouldn't hold it against you."

The last part had been unnecessary to say the least.

Gendo cleared his throat, gaining everyone's attention. He had a mug that said, dad first, cop second' at the precinct and this trauma case was holding his daughter's hand. "Midoriya-san, you named a Bakugo Katsuki and All Might?"

Izuku nodded hesitantly. "Yes sir… why?"

Gendo sighed. This was going to be hard for the both of them. "As a policeman, I am legally obligated to report what you've told me and arrest Bakugo, your teachers, and All Might for second degree murder."

Izuku's jaw fell so far it might've fallen off. He just stared at the man. 'Arrest Kaachan… arrest All Might? But… but All Might was the Symbol of Peace… could he even be arrested?' He knew that failed heroes became villains if they resisted arrest and became their former comrades' problem.

Gendo chuckled mirthlessly. "I assure you Midoriya-san, despite the pedestal the world puts him on, All Might is still beholden to the laws, same as the rest of us."

Emma spoke up then, "I too, as a Quirk and Monster Councilor am obligated to report this. Since your Transformation was active under duress for the first time and its means of activation were… highly unusual not to mention the unique abilities you've displayed so far, it is highly likly that you are a Yoaki. Thus, for your own safety you'll need to be monitored by a Yokai, and possibly a Pro-Hero as well."

Gendo nodded in agreement with his wife's assessment. "What do you make of the emitter part of his abilities?"

Emma looked at Izuku chewing on her lower lip, a nervous tick husband and wife had in common. "It's clearly lethal in design, that is not in question. I can speculate with some degree of accuracy based on your testimony that is somehow connected to Midoriya-san's body's need for nourishment. Best guess? It's as if he feeds on energy directly rather than the energy provided by the breakdown of food..." Emma paused for a moment as she tapped away on her phone. "This website says the closest match to your condition, is a Lich."

The room was silent for a moment at Emma's proclamation.

Izuku just slowly digested all of Mrs. Ashido's points and aligned it up with what he knew of Liches, which mainly came from game based anime. It was Mina who put it out into the open in layman's terms.

"So, Midori's what? An undead wizard who feeds on feeds on the life force of living things like some sort of vampire or something?"

Gendo's glasses flashed dangerously. "That's what we're thinking, yes."

Izuku became sullen at the thought. He didn't want to hurt people if he could help it.. "What do we do?"

"We'll come up with something dear," Emma assured him, turning to her husband. "I think it would be best if we called the Yokai helpline for Izuku-san. Also do you think Gū-san would be willing to help?"

Gendo stroked his beard in thought. "Hmm, possibly, but I would hate to impose upon him. He's so busy these days… What with his martial arts school, doing bounty hunting with his day job."

Mina brightened at that. "You really think Gū-ojisan would help Midori?"

Izuku felt lost. "Umm, who is Gū-san?"

"Gū Sandanjū is better known by his hero name Gunhead," Gendo elaborated. "He and I were good friends even before Yuuei. We've kept in touch. He might be willing to take you under his wing if I ask."

Izuku bowed in thanks. "Thank you, Ashido-san."

Gendo waved away the boy's thanks. "No need besides his quirk is similar to your abilities."

"Gatling, it allows him to fire shards of bone from his arms like a machine gun," Izuku quoted as if by heart, exuberance in his tone.

Gendo fixed his glasses to hide his surprise at Midoriya's knowledge of his friend's quirk. If this kid was a villain he would be a very dangerous adversary.

"Yes. It's a mutation type with emitter effects. So, if anyone could understand your situation it would be him."

Izuku nodded. It made sense to him.

"You never know you might even be able to get into Yuuei on a Hero's recommendation Midori." Mina cheered on his behalf.

Izuku's face twisted into a grimace at the thought of the prestigious hero school. For it reminded him of his dream and by proxy, All Might. He honestly didn't know if he wanted to attend the school even if he could get in at this point.

Seeing his grimace, Emma quickly changed the subject. "I think we've badgered you enough Midoriya-san. I'll go and make that phone call now, if you'd give me your number."

"It's 867-5309."

Emma chuckled before she wrote it down and made her way into the kitchen to make a very worried mother very happy.

Now that the interrogation was done Izuku was at a loss. What should he do while he waited for his mother to arrive?

Mina had the answer. "Wanna go hang out in my room Midori?"

"Umm, I… yes?" He gave a hesitant look towards Mina's father as he answered.

Gendo just waved the two off. "Go ahead just keep your door open Mina."

Mina's cheeks turned dark violet as she blushed. "Dad! Midori wouldn't do anything! He's too shy."

Gendo peered over his glasses at his daughter. "Who says I'm worried about him trying anything?"

Mina blushed even darker before she spun on her heel and ran for the stairs pulling Izuku by the hand as she passed.

"Let's go Midori."

Gendo smirked as his little princess stomped up the stairs all but dragging the poor boy with her. He turned on his cell phone and dialed a certain hero in his contact list, smirking to himself at seeing his daughter flustered. That was one way to get his work done. "Too easy."

On the phone line was a cute sounding male voice that answered from the other end of the line. "Hello, hello? This is Gunhead speaking."

Hello Gū, it's Gendo…" That was as far as Gendo got before Gunhead squealed like a preteen girl and started raving.

Gen-chan! It's been forever! How've you been? How is Emma-chan? Is Mina-chin still as cheerful as ever…" He paused for a moment before he took on a slightly serious tone. "Something hasn't gone wrong has it? Is everyone ok? Has there been news on Ichiro-chan?"

"Gū...Gū calm down! Everyone is fine and no, there has been no news on Ichiro… unfortunately. However, Mina brought a boy home today."

Again, Gunhead went into borderline hysterics. "Ehh! She's at that age already?! They grow up so fast! Do you want me to come over and put the fear of death into the kid?"

"No… well I do want you to come over and meet the boy but for a completely different reason. Now keep quiet and listen!"

Gendo resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. His friend was so focused when he was either on the job or teaching a class but any other time he was like a gossiping schoolgirl. That hadn't changed from their time at Yuuei.

"Sorry, sorry. Go ahead." Gunhead sounded genuinely apologetic.

Gendo cleared his throat before continuing, "You might want to take notes."

He proceeded to tell the Pro Hero everything he had uncovered. Gunhead would gasp at the proper moments and he even bit back a curse when he heard about All Might's contribution to the boy's attempted suicide.

When he finished explaining what he knew of Izuku's quirk, he took a moment to sip at his now room temperature tea. "Which brings us to my reason for calling."

"You want me to take Midoriya-chan under my wing, right?" Gunhead guessed.

"Only if it's not too much trouble. I'd hate to impose on you," Gendo said, Japanese politeness was ingrained into his every word.

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm a hero, it's my job to help people in trouble. Midoriya-chan sounds like he needs help, so I'd just be doing my job." Gunhead carried on. "Besides you're Gen-chan. Friends help each other."

"I know, I just feel like I'm taking advantage of that sometimes. You took a month off hero work when Ichirou went missing…"

"Gen-chan," Gunhead said sharply. "We. Are. Friends. Of course, I'd drop everything to help."

"You involved your hero agency and even your students showed up," Gendo pointed out. "The media was broadcasting his disappearance with that photo of you two fishing that one time."

Gunhead was quick to retort. "That was their choice in both occasions. I didn't even ask… I guess I didn't have to."

There was a companionable silence on both ends of the conversation for a moment.

Gunhead broke it. "Would you like me to come over right now?"

"I wouldn't want you to go out of your way plus Midoriya-san's mother is coming to get him and we haven't had dinner yet…

"You haven't had dinner yet? Emma-san's cooking?"

"Yes, as she usually does."

"I'll be right over!" The phone line went dead.

Gendo looked at his cell phone for a moment before he sighed. He'd forgotten how fond Gunhead was of his wife's cooking.

"Honey, we're going to be having extra guests for dinner!"

Emma poked her head in. "Sounds great I just got off the phone with Midoriya-san. She's very relieved her son is alright. I think I'll make a pot roast for dinner if that's alright?"

"Sounds great dear." Gendo glanced up at the ceiling where his pink princess and Midoriya-san were upstairs… alone… unsupervised… Damnation upon his very soul if he should as much as touch his little princess...

"Honey," Emma said warningly. "Leave it alone."

Gendo snapped his paper open. "Yes dear."

The woman of the house smiled before returning to her task. She wore the damn pants in this family.

Mina threw open the door to her room with a flourish. "Come in, come in!"

Izuku stood at the threshold to Mina's room and looked around. Movie posters from before the age of quirks lined the bright green walls. In particular, grabbing his full attention in this girl's room, a girl's room… a girl's room… Izuku shook his head as he returned his full mental faculties to one involving a sleek black alien creature that was radically out of place because it was in English. The curtains over her window were a dark blue, woven with pretty white thread patterned decoration like spider webs and in the middle of the room was a big fluffy looking bed. It was the only thing that was pink in this room, the comforter at least was bright, eye searing pink and plush, giving it a warm if very feminine touch. The rest of the theme was chestnut wood furniture, the majority looked overburdened, shelves full of manga but the rest of it, the most prominent was a desk on which an old computer sat.

All the colors clashed horribly yet somehow, Izuku felt this suited Mina Ashido to a tee. Like her energetic mind, it was all jumbled up yet made some sort of frightening sense. It fitted the room of a samaritan who in her spare time kidnapped strange people off the street…

...Wait that didn't sound quite right...

"You gonna just stare or come in dude?" Mina called from her place on the polka dot bean bag chair, breaking him out of his wandering gaze. "I don't bite."

Outwardly, Izuku played it cool. "Cool room," Izuku muttered as he crossed the doorway. Inwardly, he was making a mantra telling him to play it cool like a stuck cassette tape.

Mina grinned at him. "Thanks," She chewed the inside of her cheek for a moment, debating on what to say next. Izuku just stood there, waiting for her to finish, the room's transcendental warning system that Mina was very erratic was very prevailing on him. What she came out of was a contestant on 'What is the most obvious thing to say to a person you just met'. "You've… you've had it rough, huh Midori?"

Sighing, sensing this was not going to be a comfortable conversation, (like the one downstairs had been a party) Izuku eased himself into the rolling chair parked in front of the desk. "Yeah. When you're quirkless you get treated as a second-class citizen at best or trash at worst. More often than not it was the latter rather than the former with me."

Mina tucked her knees up to her chin. "You know, I never really thought much about quirkless people. Before I met you, I didn't know anyone who was quirkless."

Izuku nodded it was understandable. His former condition was becoming ever rarer as time went on these days. Espicially with half the human population turning into monsters four years prior. The genetic lottery was a whore to him and about ten percent of all humans on this planet… Fucking fate…

"There aren't many of us…" Izuku felt the lameness intensify after that statement. It was like saying Mina was pink.

Mina continued, ignoring his attempt at levity. The poor girl was actually not able to look at him and her fingers danced over her horns, one even catching the digit of her thumb, causing it to bleed. She looked glad for the distraction, picking at it with her tongue before she spoke further.

"That doesn't make it right though, what people do. Quirkless people at the end they're still people."

Izuku smiled morosely. "Sadly, not everyone thinks like you do Mina-san."

Mina snapped her eyes to his, fire burning in her bumblebee hued eyes. Something in her switched on. Frankly, the contrast made Izuku stumble back in his chair.

"Well they should. And let me tell you something, you're not alone anymore. You've got me now, got that?!"

Was this Mina's eccentric way of saying they were friends? He was scared he was reading too much into this and thinking she was his latest cause… Had she actually done this before? Bizarre imaginationative thoughts made the boy almost giggle even over how serious this had become. Izuku hadn't had anything resembling a friend in a decade and here his kidnapper was telling him they were friends now.

Where were the hidden cameras? Could the host please pop out of the ceiling now and tell him it was a lie so that what constituted as normal to him wouldn't be shattered by a ditzy kidnapper?

In the end, Izuku couldn't help himself. 'Fuck the police,' he thought, smiling. Mina giggled at him and Izuku realized that it had been projected outwards. It didn't deter him. He would rebel against all his ingrained behaviors. Fuck the police indeed. He would take a chance and reach out. "Y…Yes." Izuku said, before his courage gave out and looked around for something to talk about. His gaze landed on one of the many posters of the alien creature. "What is that thing Mina-san?"

Mina glanced at where her new friend was pointing. She seemed to get giddy. "You've never seen the Alien movies Midori?" Seeing him shake his head, Mina went over to her shelf which was loaded with DVD's, something that was as dead as the VCR in this modern ages of high spec computers, smartphones and Tv's and pulled one out reverently. "We'll need to fix that."

The next two hours were hard on poor Izuku's psyche as he sat through the original Alien movie which was bad enough with the special effects being extremely dated. Seeing an alien creature, a Xenomorph burst out of a man's rib cage was horrifying but having Mina there right next him on the bed…

He wanted to hyperventilate at being so close to a girl. A girl! A girl! One of the females of his species! A pink, horned girl of his species who had kidnapped him and… He was thinking way too hard on this… His head hurt.

By the time the movie was over, he was gripping Mina's arm for comfort, half covering his eyes with his other hand. "I…Is it over? Can I look now?"

Mina couldn't stop herself from giggling. Midori was just so cute right now. "Yes, it's over, and look at that you survived the whole movie and so did Ripley."

Izuku let out a mental sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. How did they manage to survive without quirks?"

He would've known this if he had looked for a second.

"You're so cute Midori," Mina couldn't help herself. "You've got this punk rocker look going on, and you wanna be a hero, but underneath that, you're this big softie."

Izuku stared at his new clothes. It was weird how easy an image change suited him. He wasn't classic nerd with a side of dork. It had changed to a guy you would cross the street to avoid.

"I… I only look like a punk rocker b… because of the clothes your m… mother gave me," Izuku defended.

Mina shook her head. "No, you looked like one even before then, with the hair and all. That's why the clothes suit you so well. Your personality doesn't match the look at all though."

"Oh…" Izuku didn't know what to say to that.

Suddenly, Mina pulled his head into the crook of her neck. "It makes me want to spoil you if I'm being honest."

M… M… Mina-san!" Izuku squeaked out. Was she hitting on him?

"Don't worry. I am here Midori. I am here for you." Mina told him gently. Izuku was not being hit on. All was good and she had used All Might's catchphrase but it was said with so much warmth and tenderness, all of which was directed at him.

Izuku felt himself relax. It was better than being hit on… not that Mina wasn't a pretty girl.

"Thank you, Mina-san…"

"Anytime," the horned pinkette replied.

Their tender moment was broken by a rapid knocking coming from the front door. The distant echo of someone answering it could be heard. From the sounds of it to Izuku, it was Emma-san. There was a pause and then she called up the stairs.

"Midoriya-san, your mother is here!"

He looked towards Mina. "That's my que."

"Our que you mean," Mina corrected. "I feel the need to apologize for kinda sorta kidnapping you."

You don't have to…" Izuku began but Mina cut him off, slashing a hand through the air to silence him.

"Yes, I do." She took him by the hand and all but pulled him off the bed. "Now c'mon Midori, I think your mom's waited long enough."

Word Count: 16,412 Number of pages: 37 Date Completed: 5/26/2019

AN: Hello all and welcome to to the first chapter of a new idea of mine We Be Monsters. It is an AUish Boku fic and I'll be adding some crossover elements to it as the story progresses...

The real star has hijacked the BoRiNg author's note to bring you the usual glitz and glamour from Heliosion! Stan Lee, your last cameo truly taught me a wondrous lesson on life. I shall never forget it! Worship our fallen deity! Worship! Anyway, this is another effort after much flamethrower action between Rodriguez and The Dandy (nicknames are subject to vote. Be sure to bombard Bubba with Pms… Psst just kidding he hates me enough as it is) But seriously we are trying for a really new tone in this. Expect nothing to be sacred if we can squeeze it in. If you are a canon follower with Izuku having a different quirk sort of fellow then by god run away. Run away as fast as your little legs will carry you! Avoid Twice Inheritor too as the CRACK stole the soul of that long ago.

On one last note, Excelsior and see you around Space Cowboys! Worship Stan Lee! Now back to the other guy, you know him… the guy who we sometimes think about when my glorious self isn't taking centre stage…

Next time on 'We Be Monsters…'

"The hamsters want human flesh!"

"What do you mean Katsuki needs an emergency sex change operation?"

"Helios! Get the fuck off this author note before I fly to Scotland and garrotte you with a set of bagpipes!"

… Okay Bubba will return in chapter 2: The Search for More Reviews!

I thank for your 'kind' words as always Helios. TL;DR this fic is what happens when I watch too many DnD lore videos and think to myself… 'Hmm I wonder what would happen if I tried this…'

Note as of 11/14/2019:

I've combined this fic with Rosario + Vampire from the jump. More to follow soon.

Anyhow, I hope you all enjoyed and till next time, Bubbajack and Heliosion the Inkblot Bros, out!

Peace!