Chapter 27
IZUKU POV
"So I heard you had your first combat exercise today how did it go?"
Mama Joke, Pops, and I were all sitting at a table enjoying our dinner. Pops had his normal expressionless expression on. Apparently he hadn't told Mama Joke the real reason for coming over tonight. I was trying to remain as calm and nonchalant as possible, while Mama Joke was just excited to get to spend time with her 'two favorite guys'.
"It went alright. I know one of the guys isn't the biggest fan of me and I'm sure today's training didn't help." I let out a nervous laugh.
She looked at me confused. "What happened?"
"I think I shattered his confidence because he lost to someone who identifies as quirkless."
Pops let out a cough to interrupt. "Maybe it's because you put a blade to his throat."
"YOU DID WHAT!?" Mama Joke slammed her hands on the table catching me off guard.
"It was nothing serious. I tied a wire to the blade that was connected to his teammate that was lying unconscious in a tub of water."
She looked at me with a serious expression . "What was the kids' quirk?"
"Electrification."
"IZUKU ARE YOU AN IDIOT!? YOU COULD HAVE KILLED ONE OF YOUR CLASSMATES." She turned her gaze to Pops. "Shota, why didn't you stop this?"
He took a sip of his drink. "I wasn't in charge of that class today and besides, the kid wasn't in any danger."
She looked at him confused. "How exactly do you know that?"
"Because the wire was made with a teflon coating so it doesn't conduct electricity. It was all for show to give me the advantage."
She looked back at me before letting out a sigh. "Well I guess that's fine, but it's scary how much you're thinking like Shota in combat situations."
"Well someone has to think so it might as well be me."
Mama Joke let out a laugh from my statement. "That's true. Still don't you think you took it too far with the knife? What if he fought back and got seriously hurt?"
"That wouldn't happen, he's not the type to fight back when things look bad, well at least not yet. And besides, even if he did I wouldn't let that happen. I know better than anyone how much pressure a blade needs to cut."
The room seemed to become enveloped in a dark atmosphere after my last statement. It was obvious neither Mama Joke or myself knew what to say.
"Well since we're already on that topic, isn't there something you'd like to tell us?" Pops spoke up causing an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Mama Joke looked at Pops confused before a look of uneasiness spread across her face causing her to enter mother mode. "Izuku what's going on? Is everything alright? Did something happen? Is there anything I can do?" She leaned across the table taking my hands into hers as she looked in my eyes. I could see the look of worry in her eyes.
It had been awhile since I had seen her this deep in her mother mode. It was comforting but also made me feel a little uneasy. I shook my head and let out a sigh. "Yeah everything's fine there's just something I need to tell you?"
She kept the same expression as she sat back into her chair letting go of my hands. "Of course you can tell me anything."
I shot a quick glance at pops and he just nodded. Taking a deep breath I looked to the ground. "Do you remember the girl I told you about when we first met?"
She raised an eye at me. "Yes?"
I let out a nervous laugh. "Well it turns out we're in the same class."
A huge smile came over her face. "Really? I can't wait to meet her. Shota, why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"Calm down Emi there's more."
She looked at him with a smile. "Don't tell me that you two are back together already."
"Not exactly but I actually was invited to have dinner at her house tomorrow night."
Both Pops and Mama Joke looked at me surprised. "Well that's news to me. When were you two planning on asking permission to go off campus?"
"I… uh… I just assumed she had already asked for permission."
Pops let out a sigh. "No she didn't, but it's fine you can let her know that it's ok when you get back. Now can you continue, we keep getting off topic."
"Yes sir." I took a deep breath. "Mama Joke, do you remember how I told you about how her and I ended?"
"Yeah you said it was because you were leaving and that she didn't like it."
"Yeah… that wasn't exactly what happened."
Her eyes narrowed as she stared at me. "Go on."
"I kind of just left while only leaving her a note that said, 'I'm sorry goodbye'."
Mama Joke just took a sip of her drink, while not breaking eye contact with me. After she finished her drink she let out a sigh.
"Izuku."
"Yes."
"WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT!?"
I jumped a little because of her sudden outburst. "Look I think it's obvious that I wasn't in a good mental state back then and I'm pretty sure a landmine would handle pressure better than I did. I know it was a terrible thing to do and I know it hurt a lot of people but it was the best idea that came to mind at the time."
"STILL THAT'S NO EXCUSE FOR DOING SOMETHING LIKE THAT!" She slammed her hands on the table as she stood up.
"Emi calm down, I know you're upset about this but don't you remember what happened the night you met him." Pops shot a glare at her.
She sat back down in her chair taking a deep breath. "Yeah, I remember."
Pops looked over at me. "You do realize how much of an issue this could be for not just you and her but for the entire class."
"Yeah, we've had a few talks already and both agreed to keep it professional while we're around others."
"Look at you being smart for once." Mama Joke just huffed as leaned back in her chair.
I kept my eyes locked to the ground. I couldn't bring myself to look at them. "I'm sorry."
"Save it kid, you're just wasting your breath. We both know there's no apologizing to her when she's like this." Pops out a hand on my head. "Is there anything else you need to tell us?"
"Yeah."
I could hear Mama Joke shift forward in her chair. "Well what is it?"
"I told her the truth… I told her about my quirk." Both of them were speechless as they looked at me shocked. "I know I hurt her but I decided to put my trust in her. I'm not sure if it was my form of trying to apologize or maybe it was because I thought she deserved to know but she knows the truth."
"Well…that's one thing I wasn't expecting to hear tonight." Mama Joke seemed to have relaxed some after hearing what I had said. "Well how did she take it?"
"She kind of already knew I was lying about it since the first time I told her." I let out a nervous laugh. "I probably should have realized that after she told me she knows when people are lying because of her quirk."
"So what made you want to tell someone about your quirk?" Pops leaned back in his chair.
"Well Ms. Midnight said I should try and find one person to tell about my quirk to help with my trust issues. That and at some point I won't be able to hide my quirk anymore."
"Yeah that's rational thinking." He took a sip of his drink. "But I wasn't expecting you to tell someone in the first week of classes."
"She also knows that I was staying with you the entire time."
"God damnit kid, we had so many talks about not letting anyone find out about that."
"I know but I didn't have a choice and she said she wouldn't tell anyone about it. She understands the issues it would cause if that information got out before an appropriate time."
"Still know I'm going to have to talk to her about this as well." He let out a groan. "So much extra work."
"If it makes you feel any better I didn't tell her about Mama Joke."
Mama Joke stood back up. "Awww why not?"
I looked at her then back to Pops. "I already knew you were going to be upset with me tonight. The last thing I wanted was to piss off Pops as well."
He shot a glance at me and nodded. "Smart move."
We continued on the rest of our evening discussing how classes went for the week. It wasn't anything major but there was still a tension in the air from earlier. After a couple hours Pops decided that it was time for me to get back to the dorm. As I was gathering a few things I had forgotten to bring with me from my room I felt Mama Joke wrap her arms around me.
"Everything alright Mama Joke?"
"You know I want what's best for you right?"
"Yeah I know." I looked up to see Licorice curled up on my bed.
"I'm sorry for getting so upset earlier. I know you've been through a lot."
"It's fine, I deserved it."
"Still I shouldn't have exploded like that."
"Don't worry about it." I put my hand on her arm so assure her that it was alright. "I know you're still haunted by that night, you just don't want me to go back to that. I'm glad that you care that much."
She squeezed me a little tighter. "You really are a good kid you know?"
"Yeah, I know."
"You're also a dumb ass."
I let out a small chuckle. "Yeah, I know."
KYOKA POV
"Are you gonna be able to make it through the night?"
"I should be fine."
Midoriya and I were sitting on the train heading back to my house. Most of the walk to the station was in complete silence. Both of us didn't really know how to act with the other when we were alone. The small talk we had felt awkward and forced. I had a bad feeling that tonight was going to be a long night.
"You know you could have told them no."
He scratched the back of his head. "I don't think that would have been a good idea."
I stopped to think about it for a minute. "Yeah you're probably right about that."
Looking out the window I could see the faint reflection of us. It wasn't very noticeable but I could see his hand tense up and relax over and over again. It may sound bad but I was glad to see that he still had some of his nervous tendencies. I couldn't help but smile a little at that.
"Um Jirou… is everything alright?"
"Yeah, why do you ask?"
"Well you wrapped your jack around my arm."
"What are you…" I looked over and my face went hot after realizing that my jack had securely wrapped itself around his arm. I quickly unraveled my jack from his arm. "Please forget that happened."
He let out a small laugh. "Why it's been awhile since I've seen you blush like that."
I shot my jack out to his throat pressing it against him. "Don't push your luck."
"Alright, alright sorry. Consider it forgotten."
"Good." I withdrew my jack from his throat.
"So did Kaminari have anything to say after I left yesterday?"
I raised my eyes suspiciously. "What makes you think he would say anything about you after you left?"
He gave me a slightly annoyed face. "Seriously, this is the guy that gave me death glares just for talking to you."
I let out a sigh. "Yeah, you have a point." Looking back out the window I rested my face in my hand. "It wasn't anything new really, He was more upset that he lost. He swore that you cheated to win and that you violated the rules to give yourself an advantage because of your lack of skill." I looked back at him. "Honestly most of the class that was watching was impressed with how you handled the situation. Some even said they wished they had you on their team."
"That's not too surprising. I did think he'd have a few choice words for me." He leaned back into his chair. "What did you think?"
"I was glad to see him get his ass handed to him. He was seriously pissing me off so it was satisfying." I gave him a quick glare. "Was it your idea to use Yaoyorozu as bait?"
"Yeah."
"Oh well that's good." I relaxed into the chair before shooting back up. "Wait, you seriously wanted to use her as bait?"
"Yeah, she even agreed to it."
"Why?"
He looked at me confused. "Isn't it obvious?"
"No it's not!" I was starting to get annoyed.
"Well Mineta was the biggest threat for the test. So I told Yaoyorozu the plan I came up with and asked if she was comfortable with it. Surprisingly she said yes."
"Wait, what do you mean Mineta was the biggest threat?" Now it was my turn to be confused.
"Despite how he acts, his quirk is extremely strong. He can turn any landscape into a trap for enemies to be cautious around while increasing his mobility. Honestly if he had a different build and had more physical strength he'd easily be top of the class when it comes to potential."
I still wasn't buying it even though it made sense. "Yeah, but it's Mineta. We all know he's a perv. Half of the time he's just thinking about girls."
"He's a highschool guy we all think about girls half the time, he just doesn't try to hide it. And let's be honest I know the majority of the girls like to eye bang Todoroki when they get the chance so they're not much better. Besides I bet if Mineta looked like him all of you would think his perviness would be cute and say he's just being bold. Some may even like it."
I shot my jack back to his throat. "Shut up I don't do that and there is no way I'd think that!"
He raised his eyes. "I never said you did, you're too busy blowing off Kaminari."
"You're an idiot."
"Yeah I get that a lot."
I sat back crossing my arms while I retracted my jack. "You and Yaoyorozu sure have gotten close. I saw how you looked at her while you took Mineta out. Do you perhaps like her?"
"It's not like that at all, she's just fun to talk to and we just sort of clicked since the first day of class. She's quite interesting."
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah she has two really interesting things."
A slight blush spread across his face. "Don't get me wrong, just like any guy I'd gladly enjoy a trip to tig ol bitty city, but I am a man of culture."
I looked over at him again and noticed his eyes quickly looking down then back to mine. "You like legs."
"Yes, but specifically thighs."
I narrowed my eyes. "Why?"
He nervously scratched the back of his head. "I blame my therapist."
"What kind of therapist do you have?" I looked at him shocked.
He let out a chuckle. "Honestly at this point I don't even know."
We spent the rest of the train ride and walk to my house in an awkward silence. We had gotten used to it on the way to the station but ever since our conversation on the train things felt weird. Standing in front of my house I saw Midoriya's hand start to tense and relax again. Taking a deep breath I put a hand on his shoulder.
"Just relax, it can't be any worse than when we talked. All you have to do is tell them what you told me. I know my parents they'll understand."
He looked over at me and smiled. "Thanks Jirou."
"Why did that sting?" I gave him a nod as I approached the door. "Well let's get this over with."
I opened the door and was immediately met by my mom and dad standing and waiting for us.
"What the hell took you so long to get here?" My dad shot a glare at Midoriya. "I bet you decided to take your sweet ass time just because you were too scared to face us."
I walked past them and took my shoes off. "Intimidation won't work on him anymore dad, he's not the same as he was back then."
My dad looked at me shocked. "Come on Kyoka, at least give me one minute to try."
I rolled my eyes as I went into the living room. "Don't waste your breath. Yesterday he took down two guys without breaking a sweat in full combat training. One of them was unconscious before he even knew what was happening."
Dad looked over to him completely shocked while Midoriya just smiled at him. Mom decided to jump in because dad no longer knew what to think.
"Come on in Midoriya, I'd hate to make you stand the whole night."
Midoriya bowed as he made his way in. "Thank you Mika and Kyotoku."
"Oh wow so that wasn't just a one time thing?"
Midoriya looked at her confused. "What wasn't just a one time thing?"
"You used to call me Mrs. Mika, but the other night it was just Mika. What happened to the boy that could barely get a sentence out?"
"Oh… sorry I didn't mean to be rude."
"It's perfectly fine I did tell you to call me that. Well how about we take a seat and get the difficult part over with so we can enjoy the meal."
Mom, dad, and Midoriya all made their way over to the living room. We sat in the same order as the first time he came over. A sudden feeling of nostalgia came over me as we all got comfortable.
"So Midoriya." My mom narrowed her eyes as she looked over her glasses. "Why don't you tell us what exactly is going on here? I'm sure you realize we have a few questions."
Midoriya took a deep breath before looking her in the eyes. "Well Jirou and I already talked about this so she will already know most of this, but the truth is I left for my own selfish reasons."
"Obviously, but we want to know why. Why did you fake your own death?"
"Believe it or not, that wasn't my intention. I was hoping you'd all assumed I just ran away." Midoriya scratched the back of his head nervously. "I wasn't in the best mental state back then and looking back on it I see how it came across like that."
"Seriously kid, you expect us to believe that." Dad leaned forward, clearly upset. "How dumb do you think we are?"
As much as I wanted to side with my dad I couldn't. Midoriya was telling the truth. I was completely shocked.
"Calm down hun. As unbelievable as it is, he's actually telling the truth." Mom put a hand on dad's shoulder calming him down.
"Are you serious Mika?" Dad looked at her stunned.
"Yes I am." Mom shifted her gaze back to Midoriya. "However I am curious as to what kind of mental state you were in. Kyotoku and I both had a feeling something was going on but we didn't want to pry too deep after only just meeting you."
Midoriya looked at me for a moment and I gave him a reassuring nod. He took a deep breath before starting to unzip his jacket. Both mom and dad looked at him confused.
"I'm not sure how Jirou told you about my past or if she even told you anything about it, but it's something easier to show instead of say."
He finished taking off his jacket and he fell his forearms out so we could see them. My parents gasped seeing the scars covering his arms. Looking at his arms I could tell they weren't as bad as the last time I saw them and none looked fresh. However there was definitely more than I remember there being which left an unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach.
"Well… I can honestly say I wasn't expecting that." Mom shifted her gaze towards me. "Did you know about this Kyoka?"
"Uh… I… I knew about some of it."
"Is there any specific reason you didn't tell us any of this?"
"Well I didn't think it was my place to tell." I started to nervously tap my jacks together.
Mom let out a sigh. "Kyoka there are some things that you should always tell someone when you see it."
"Yes ma'am."
Mom looked back at Midoriya. "Well I hope all of that is behind you now."
Midoriya gave her a shrug. "More or less. I've been in therapy ever since I left so that's been a big help."
Mom smiled at him. "Well that's good to hear."
"So kid, where did you end up staying after you left? There's no way you were able to get by on your own for that long." Dad leaned forward with an intense look.
"I'm actually not supposed to talk about that… for safety reasons."
"Don't you think you owe us that much? We're just asking where you stayed."
It was very subtle but I could hear Midoriya's heart rate elevate. Even though he was keeping a calm expression.
"Dad cut it out! If he can't talk about it then he can't talk about it."
"Fine." My dad leaned back into the couch while my mom just gave me a smile.
"Midoriya, I don't know how hard this is going to be, but where exactly are your parents? The day we found out you left we met the Bakugo's and they told us that your parents weren't around at the moment." Mom put her hands together as she kept her eyes locked on Midoriya.
Midoriya let out a nervous laugh. "I had a feeling this question would come up. This is one of the harder things to talk about so please bear with me."
"Of course, there's no need to rush."
Midoriya took a few deep breaths to calm himself. "I honestly don't know where they are."
Mom looked at him surprised. "Did they abandon you?"
"That's one way to put it. I… I never knew my dad."
"He ran out on you and your mom?" I looked at Midoriya concerned.
"Kind of, my mom kicked him out because she caught him cheating. After that she never heard from him again."
"That must have been hard on the two of you." Mom leaned back into the couch.
"Yeah, it was rough to see."
I looked at Midoriya with a suspicious look. Something about how he worded that didn't sit right with me. "Did he actually see it? But he never met his dad, how could he have seen it?" My eyes went wide as I remembered what his quirk could do. "Did he use his quirk on his mom?"
"Well what about your mom, where is she?"
"She… she was sent to a mental rehabilitation center. I haven't seen or heard from her since my last year of primary school."
I was speechless, based on everything he told us it was a miracle he turned out the way he did. Swallowing the lump in my throat I finally spoke up.
"Midoriya, why did she get sent away?"
He let out a sigh. "It was because of me." My parents looked confused while my heart dropped. "I sent her there."
My dad shook his head. "What do you mean you sent her there? Did you personally make the call?"
"No."
"Then it wasn't your fault, you didn't send her away."
"You're wrong, it's my fault! I'm the reason she's gone! I took her sanity away!"
Both mom and dad didn't know what to say. This was the first time they had experienced Midoriya snapping on someone. I reached over and grabbed Midoriya's arm trying to calm him down.
"Mom, dad Midoriya has a quirk."
Dad was shocked hearing this while mom looked unfazed by my statement.
"But why would he tell us he's quirkless?" Dad still wasn't able to put two and two together.
"It's not that complicated." Midoriya had finally calmed his breathing. "I was born with a quirk I wished I never had. I thought it was a curse so I tried to pretend I was never born with it."
"Still that doesn't explain how you caused your mother to leave." Mom put her hand to her chin.
"My quirk let's me make whoever I choose relive their most traumatic memories and I can change their memory to make it worse." He took another deep breath before holding onto his arms. "The first time I used my quirk I made my mom relive the moment she caught my dad cheating on her. Ever since then she was scared of me. She lived everyday in fear of suddenly remembering something that she had tried to forget."
Mom raised an eye at him. "Wow, I can't even imagine what it would be like to live in a situation like that. But still that doesn't seem like it would be enough to rob someone of their sanity."
"Maybe so, but in all honesty I have a lot of gaps in my memory from those days. It wasn't until the first year of middle school I realized that I could edit memories. That in itself wasn't a bad thing, it was good to know what I could do. That way I wouldn't accidentally hurt someone again. The issue was one day I just woke up and knew how to do it perfectly on my first try. That scares me the most, for all I know I could have been changing both of our memories and not remembering it." He started to shake as he continued talking. "Can you even imagine what it's like to have your memory changed and not know it? Hell even now I don't know if half of my memories are what really happened."
The room was quiet and all eyes were on Midoriya again. Everything he said was a lot to take in. He had just opened up and showed us a piece of what his daily life was like. Tonight had shed a new light on Midoriya for me and I found a new respect for the strength he had to survive in a life like that.
"Midoriya you don't have to keep going, we've heard enough." Midoriya looked up to see my mom wiping a tear away. "You've been through too much, we don't want to bring up any more unpleasant memories for you."
"Thank you."
My mom stood up and put her hands together. "Why don't we go ahead and eat. I think it's time to lighten the mood."
"I'm sorry, but I'm not hungry so I'll just head back to the dorms."
"Are you sure Midoriya?" I looked at him with a bit of concern.
"Yeah, it would be a crime to not enjoy your mom's cooking." He gave me a smile.
"Well if you're sure." I stood up and bit my tongue. It had been awhile since I last saw one of his fake smiles. "Well I guess I'll be heading out too."
"You too Kyoka? Your mom put so much work into tonight." Dad tried to give me puppy dog eyes.
I just shook my head. "I'm sorry mom."
"It's ok sweetie. You two get back safely alright."
"Of course." We both grabbed our shoes and started out the door. Before the door finished closing I turned back around and poked my head back in. "I hope this goes without saying but what was said here tonight does leave the four of us." I shot a glare at dad.
"Why am I being singled out?"
"You know why." I closed the door and made my way back to Midoriya. "Alright let's get going."
The walk back to the station was a quiet one. There wasn't much to be said. I didn't know what to say. He had dropped two major bombs this week. There was no telling how emotionally exhausted he was after that. As we approached the station he quickly ducked into an alley.
"God dammit what now?" I turned down the alley he ran into. "Midoriya, what are you doing? We have a train to catch."
The sound of his dry heaving filled the alley before he stood up. "Sorry, I had a feeling this would happen. I just wanted to get it out before we got on the train."
"Holy shit dude are you alright!"
"Yeah all nerves for tonight caught up all at once." He let out a small laugh before bending over and throwing up.
I just shook my head while laughing. "Well at least this didn't happen after eating mom's cooking. She would never let you live this down."
He stood up and wiped his mouth. "Just like you're not gonna let me live this down?"
I stopped to think for a moment. "Hmm, the jury's still out on that one. Now come on let's go get that taste out of your mouth."
After stopping so Midoriya could clean up and buy some much needed breath mints we found ourselves sitting on the train. The train ride was peaceful. Even though it was quiet, the tension from the heavy conversations was gone. Even though I still was upset at him for leaving, I now had a better understanding of what he went through and why he made the choices he did. Of course I knew we still had a few more talks to have, but I had a feeling that before long we could be on good terms again. I felt a smile spread across my face as I plugged my jack into my phone. As the music filled my head I felt a weight on my shoulder. Looking to the side I saw Midoriya fast asleep using my shoulder as a pillow. I pulled out my phone and debated taking a picture. I shook my head and put the phone away.
"You really were pushing yourself weren't you? I'll let you get away with it just this once… Izuku."