Page 12
What Lay Beneath The Cover Of A Book
REBOOTING…
…
DING
'Fox'!Izuku has been rebooted successfully.
After a deep breath, Izuku said with an extremely calm but exasperated tone, "Hold up, repeat that last part."
Nonchalantly Rumi answered, "You're going from pants to-"
"No, no, no, no, no, no…...right before that line."
"Oh, I walk around the house naked sometimes."
"Since when!?"
"This isn't news."
"To me it is!"
"How? I do it at least twice a week. If you catch me when I decide to take a shower right after waking up, sometimes I just forget my tower or was too tired to be bothered to take one."
"...HOW DID I MISS THIS!?"
"You're asking me?"
"I'm surprised you care so much to see me naked."
"Ugh-... no! It's-"
"Oh, so my body isn't good enough to be peeped on," the bunny told him teasingly.
"Course not but- wait no I meant- Not that I'll like to but just because there's a gold plated box on the top of the shelf doesn't mean I always want to see it but it's interesting to know that the producers took time-"
'WHAT THE HELL AM I TALKING ABOUT!?' he screamed, internally of course.
Breaking the bumbling mess that he was, Rumi groaned as she told him, "You can stop now, I know what you meant. You're not the kind of person who'll be like that."
Izuku wasn't sure but, hearing those words spoken in that way felt more like a wound was being inflicted on him than anything else. It was a compliment, right? Compliments from close friends are a good sign of a healthy relationship. Why does it only make him yearn as if he's being dragged far away from what he wants?
Rumi then suddenly states, "I really gotta put a bell on you."
…
Izuku gave her an exceedingly off settled look, he wasn't one to kink shame someone but at least give them a warning before you drop a bomb on them. She must get that from her father, well...adopted father.
Seeing his expression, Rumi quickly went to rectify her previous statement, "Oh no, not you Izuku! I was talking to the morbid sack of human flesh behind you."
Izuku looked behind him to see the green-haired Rideru there, who greeted him with a lazy hand gesture and a nonchalant, "What's up?"
"Oh I'm doing good, how are you- WAHA!"
Took a bit for it to hit him that time.
"When did you get here!?" Izuku shouted.
"Like, half a minute ago," the greenet replied, "I came in from the front."
"Oh...sorry I didn't notice you."
"Your response is like a grain of sand in an hourglass, definitely not the first nor will it be the last time that it'll be dropped. It happens more than I want so any repentance over it is meaningless."
The green fox stares at the older male with a deadpan look for his overly long response, thinking to himself, '...you could've just said it's fine.'
Rideru then nudged his head toward Rumi before continuing, "She's the only exception, mostly because she never lets her guard down."
"Damn straight. Oh, if you're here, that means you got it set up right?" Rumi asked him.
Rideru nodded as he told her, "The guy's match is in about an hour."
"An hour? Talk about lucky, that's plenty of time!"
"Are we waiting for a specific match?" Izuku interjected, "Who's fighting?"
"You are," the two said in unison.
…
"One last round of applause for that great act!" The stage announcer exclaimed, motivating the crowd to cheer louder, "Now let's try to end this junior-high talent show on a high note! Let's see, our last talent is… ah, Izuku Midoriya! Come on stage!"
A younger green fox spat out the water he was drinking when he heard his name.
"Why did my name come up," he shouted, "I never signed up as a talent!"
He remembered volunteering to help with the stage since his mom suggested it'll be a perfect chance to make some friends but he never dared think about actually applying to perform on stage. Right as he thought about slowly creeping out the back and pretend like he had to go home early, he felt a cold arm come around his shoulder. Izuku looked to his side to see one of his larger classmates next to him.
"Oh don't worry about that," his classmate said, "We took care of it so you can finally express yourself freely, you're always so quiet since Katsuki is always hovering around you. Since he's homesick, why don't you finally show the school what you got."
Without giving the green fox time to even object, the boy and a few other of his friends grabbed Izuku. Looking as if they were some cheer crew and they brought him toward the stage.
"W-wait! I shouldn't be on the stage, I don't know what to do!"
"Ah don't worry about it, do the first thing that comes to mind."
"No, stop it! Get off of me! Stop!"
"Are you kidding me?" Izuku asked after taking a deep breath, his voice was calm but his tone completely changed again. Chilling and stern, with eyes that matched the tone.
Mentally waving off the boy's abrupt inflection, Rumi tried to talk to him in her usual chaffed tone, "Don't worry, it'll be fun. All we gotta do is-"
"No!" Izuku shouted at them, "I'm not getting my ass kicked again because of you!"
Taken aback by his outburst, the bunny girl's voice unconsciously turned a bit softer as she spoke to him, "It's… not that I just-"
"Just what?" Izuku snapped at her, "Wanted to drag me by the arm without telling me anything and tell me to go fight someone just so I can get beat up again!? This time in front of a crowd of people and all your friends so now there's a new group of people that can laugh at my flaws! What am I, a clown to you!"
The meat-deprived hunger mixed with being tired of people doing whatever they wanted with his life was getting to him. Something like this that comes greatly and solely at his expense to this extent should be consulted with him ahead of time, not already arranged with him being the last person to find out what's being done to his own life. As if everyone else has more right to his life decisions then himself.
It reminded him of how Katsuki tried to shallowly convince him to stay home to train with him by just telling him to do it as if he'll just oblige and miss out on a wonderful opportunity. He only lets the situation with Lai slide because first off, it's a dream and by the way things look it seems more real-world events affect that D.R.E.A.M. world than vice versa. Second, it's a more private event in a world he has near zero understanding of, not a public event where literally dozens of people will see him get his assed kicked. Third, Lai actually started giving him some insight about the thing he wants him to do or what's to come despite being on a once a month meeting cycle. He couldn't imagine if during his last visit to his D.R.E.A.M. world he woke up inside Zaiaku Forest with the H-yokai being right in front of him, and then Lai told him 'Hey this thing popped up because you were horny good luck'.
Rideru looked more shocked at Rumi's reaction, her eyes lit up like a deer in the headlights, for once the confidence and vainglorious attitude melted off her facial expression. Almost as if the bravado she's been showing off since the day they met was made out of glass and got shattered in an instant. He only saw this side of her on a few occasions which could mean only one thing, but for a moment he thought it couldn't be with this kid.
Her usual brash way of speaking had begun to fade away as well as she spoke.
"I-i just wanted to help-"
"We had all day, you could've taught me something before we came here not an hour before I go into a match I didn't even know I was going to do," Izuku told her, swatting his hand into the air in frustration, "Your dad is already stagnating me with my training now you want to do similar by waiting till the last minute!? The hel-"
Of all people, Rideru was the one who stepped in between the two of them and raised a hand to cut him off before he could say anymore. Calmly, he states, "Sooo by my guess, there seems to have been a lack of communication here which led to a disagreement. So instead of a melodramatic argument how about I just skip over all of that and suggest a fair proposition."
He looks to both of them seeing if they agree. Rumi slowly nodded, looking away from them as she timidly held her arm. The short break Izuku got gave himself enough time to take a breather and calm down, he really needs to eat.
Right then did he see a chocolate bar being tossed at him, which he stumbled to catch the suddenly thrown treat.
It was something called a Snickers bar.
He looked up to see the stoic greenet offering the same kind of snack to Rumi, in a kinder manner, who accepted it with a low thank you. At first, Izuku just took this as him being naturally more considerate toward the friend he knew for longer, nothing to think longingly about. Then Rideru whispered something into her ear, which made the distressed bunny smile before playfully hitting his arm. She seemed to have been cheered up near instantly.
…
Why did Izuku's eye twitch seeing that?
As the two enjoyed their candy, Rideru suggested to the two, "I think it's fair that at the end of the day Izuku chooses whether he'll fight or not tonight. Though before he makes that decision, let's give him a few minutes to warm up and tell him who his opponent is. Then he can decide."
Everyone seemed to agree to that, the greenet then continued.
"You should be grateful to know that I managed to get an open slot for the 'No Individuality Boxing' ring, which means you won't have to deal with any of the other crazy setups they have here. It'll be a plain boxing match, even the use or activation of quirks are forbidden, perfect for beginners like you. I got some information about the guy you're fighting, IF you choose to, from Setsuna. He goes by the name Mezo, a spacian of course, and must have some confidence in his capabilities to agree to a fight on short notice."
"Wait, wait, wait," Izuku interrupted, confused by the terminology that was used, "Spacian? What's that?"
"You know those guys across the stage that looked like aliens?" Rumi reminded him, "Around here they're usually called Spacian since they usually look like they might've come from space. On the opposite side, we who appearances usually resemble those of animals are called Laguz."
"...Huh, I feel like I remember that phrasing from somewhere."
"It's probably from-"
"Save the worldbuilding for the guy who lived on this planet for over a decade after my exposition, we got an hour remember, and by the sound of it you're going to need as much of it as possible," Rideru told them, having no interest in watching the two talk. He had a feeling he wouldn't enjoy it, "As I was saying, Mezo is new as well in this community seeing as he doesn't have an epitaph nor much of a reputation. My guess is that this will be his first match as well. It's a tradition for everyone here to fight at X-Games' Arena at least once for initiation to being a part of Yasei Alley at age fourteen. If sources are correct, he should be fifteen which means he's completely new like you and hasn't had much experience fighting in these parts if he's doing his now."
Sinking in this information, Izuku thought to himself, 'Well at least it sounds like there's an age limit to who they get to fight here. Along the way here I saw a couple of people walking around who looked a bit young to be involved in activities that were hazardous to their health.'
"Unless you have shit luck, his combat skills should be no better than an average teen picking a fight on the streets," Rideru continued, as he was spoken he dragged out the drawing board that was in the corner to give them a visual as well. Surprisingly, his drawing skill wasn't the worst, it actually seemed pretty good in terms of visuals, "The most common mistake I see for first time fighters that joined after the age of fourteenth, like you two, is an over reliance on pure power. Most from that category come off of being 'the strongest' among their group of friends and never had to worry about anything else leaving their other stats unattended."
"So what do I do then to win?" Izuku asked him, Rumi looked at him surprised by his response which made him quickly add, "If I decide to fight that is."
"There's not much you can learn with the time you have left, but, you won't need much since you're battling a novice. Do you have decent strength?"
"It's alright," Izuku told him, being modest as always about himself.
Rumi wasn't having that and yelled out, "Yes! Last time you punched someone you sent him flying off his feet!"
Feeling a bit embarrassed, the green fox looked away rubbing the back of his neck as he replied, "Oh it wasn't that impressive I-"
"Just don't stand there after the first hit and get your ass kicked. Besides that, you were pretty alright."
The boy continued to be bashful to his [crush] friend's continued praise of him. Seeing them together made Rideru squint his eyes, he scratched his hidden right eye again before reminding them of their limited time.
"Then all you need to do is strike his vitals for critical damage," he draws attention to a human body's most famous weak spots, consisting of the liver, head, and groin, "So I suggest you be smart and see if you can cramp the basics of boxing in before the fight. If not, then...well you better sneak out quietly because nine-out-of-ten a riot might happen and if you're still around, you will wish you would've just lost the match."
'A...a riot!' Izuku repeated in his mind, in retrospect that shouldn't be surprising. The same thing would happen if this was a legitimate sports match. Curious he asked, "What happens if I lose?"
"Not much," Rideru replied, "Think about it for a second, around half of all first-time fighters here have to lose their first match. Can't really do anything about those odds so losing your first match ain't bad, most of this is for group pride anyways. As long as you show spirit and give a good match, no one would give you any trouble."
"Oh good."
"Though all your friends will hold it over your head for the next week or two….or five depending on how bad you lost."
"There it is," Izuku sighed, there was never an easy moment in his life. There's always that'll rattle his life, in many ways he liked it better than his old life of constant sulking, on the other hand, it can get old real fast without any breaks.
"If you really don't want to, you don't have to fight," Rumi offered, her eyes diverted its sight to everywhere except Izuku, scratching the back of her head to appear more casual, "We can do this another time or not at all if you're against this or whatever I guess."
It was clear to Izuku that Rumi still had some intention for him to participate but was still unsettled from his earlier outburst and was being more considerate of his well-being. If this was in some kind of martial arts dojo then he would've been fine with trying it out once, but with its location being extremely shady he feared he might be entering into a brutal underground match. By the sound of it, this seems to be a more light-hearted fight club a bunch of kids in their free time will create, but then again, this is a place Rumi seemed to love. She's a bit crazy...and excessive…and radical...and insane...and extreme with a lot of her daily activity. A deathmatch could look like a casual sports match to her for all he knows. With her only back-up being the phlegmatic guy who sometimes speaks weird he just met, it wasn't the most convincing deal.
But, taking wild chances when being around Rumi has been beneficial to his life multiple times, and now there's an established objective he was involved in that wasn't him just being dragged into something like a child.
"I mean, let's just see how quickly I can pick up the boxing ok?" Izuku tells her, rubbing his neck.
Springing into life, Rumi slammed her fist together declaring, "I'll be the best damn couch you can ask for then!"
"This is going to be more painful then productive ain't it," Izuku sighed, sweat dripped from his face seeing the girl's old enthusiasm propping up again. That's a sign of on-coming recklessness in the future.
"Nothing harvests the results of training better than pain, blood, and more blood."
"Wait, why are you double downing on spilling blood? Shouldn't sweat or tears be in there instead?"
"Meh."
There it is.
"Anyways, come on let's get started already. We got so much to learn that I gotta beat into ya!" Rumi states, fully prepared to spare in her black sports-wear, she tied her hair back into a ponytail as she stepped into the ring.
It was at that moment, Izuku realized, he chose the worst choice he could to express his discontent by literally putting himself in the ring of the person(who can completely kick his ass thirty-times over) he yelled at right after the occasion.
In other words, he fucked up.
'Better get to it' he thought, preparing himself as well to get into the ring with her.
Then, in that short time that Rumi wasn't paying attention to them, Rideru walked by Izuku and whispered an ominous message to him.
"It'll be easy to steal Rumi's heart from you, the way you are now."
…
Was that a threat?
That was the question that ran through his mind. He felt like he should've acted on it but, he didn't want to jump the gun too early, especially since it seems like the guy is close to Rumi. For the moment, all he could do was watch as Rideru walked off without another word and began casually chatting it up with Rumi.
Putting on the boxing gloves given to him, he got in the ring.
"Stomp that guy into the ground!" yelled Cassidy at one of the rings where a blue hedgehog was battling against a weird purple dragon-reptile thing on the alien's side. She thought she heard one of his friends call him Ridley or something like that, "And tear off his darn head off!"
"Oh my gosh Cassy," a wide eyed Merrie says.
"Yeah, it's just a NIB. They're not allowed to use quirks and they're just boxing, very little chance that we'll see something that gruesome," Setsuna added, mildly getting entertained by the fight, "Sadly."
"What do you mean by sadly? It's a good thing that these kind of matches are low risk or else Miruko's new friend would be in some serious danger for his first time here," Merrie stated, "Also…. where's your left ear?"
"Oh, you know….. Around."
"Nosey as usual."
"Ha ha! Though, violence might not be the Rumi's friend will have to worry about," the green-haired girl stated, "He seems to be fresh meat to this culture, the divisionism here might spook him off."
The cow girl then popped a question, "Yeah what's with that, I've never heard about it in my hometown."
"I don't need to snoop to figure that out," Setsuna mumbled to herself.
"What?"
"Nothing, just wondering if I made the right bet on this match."
Entering into the conversation, Simba asked, "Wait, no one told you yet? I'm pretty sure we explained it to you once."
Sitting next to all of them but still being able to watch the match comfortably because of his size was Yogi, who answered Simba's question, "Nope, never have."
"Are you serious? I remember telling someone this a few months ago."
"That was Tsu and she left midway because she had little interest."
"Oh yeah."
The blonde then barges back into the conversation to reask her question, "Sooooo what's the deal?"
Simba cleared his throat as he gave Cassidy a quick rundown, "It all started when quirks began manifestations. Obviously, people suddenly gaining amazing powers that came from genetics brought up a lot of….caused a great amount of stir about if they were humans or unholy creatures that infiltrated society. Luckily, due to their human appearance, the discovery that quirks are more of a genetic evolution if anything, and the fact that many people that once thought of them as monsters suddenly developed quirks later on in life or had children that did even though they were supposed to be 'pure-blooded'. The conflict didn't last too long and ended in less than a generation. For emitter types anyways."
"Oh?" Cassidy went, "Why only them?"
"Like I said, emitters mostly having regular human features made it a lot easier for the quirkless to accept them as humans. Not to mention it was a lot easier for them to hide who they were, so if they ever got discovered, the people they lived with for years might still accept them. Years of trust won't go away just because a kid can now shoot lightning or can make his fingers glow. Transformations had a similar path but it took a lot longer since when people discover their quirks, it's them turning into something people will consider a beast, but they were saved since they were born normal looking and their abilities were transforming into those things. It made a great case to prove their humanity."
"They used the claim of their abilities just being a more physical version of the emitter-type that were already getting some acceptance," Merrie added, "The term Emitter and Transformer didn't become separate types till way later."
"That's nice and all," Cassidy says, "But what does all that junk have to do with the Laguz and Spacians business?"
"It's called story-telling!" Simba exclaimed, taking a moment to call himself before continuing, "Anyways, as you can tell, the other types naturally had something that helped them be accepted into society. Mutations types didn't have that privilege. By nature, our quirks make us look less like what people considered 'normal' leading to us getting the worst of the ridicule. Not to mention that some people being born with their mutation attribute didn't help the case that we were just regular humans that gained a genetic evolution. Our conflict lasted for nearly a century."
"I ain't ask for a history lesson, I asked what's with the-"
"I'm getting there, I'm getting there!" Simba exclaimed, annoyed at her impatience, "Long story short, when it came to mutation-types getting accepted into society when we first appeared, those with animalistic traits got accepted first since people can understand where their mutations came from, and some even found our animalistic appearances to be physically appealing."
"Unironically," said Setsuna, "the love for catgirls helped end racism."
"I wouldn't go that far," Merrie interjected, nervously laughing at the bluntness of the statement, "I would say they just helped mend the prejudice that was going on in multiple areas. Making some spaces like certain parts of Japan safe havens for people that fell under the Laguz category."
"Then what about the spacians?" asked Cassidy, leaning on the railing as she continued to listen, "Shouldn't they have been accepted around the same time?"
"Those with traits unidentifiable to any animal on earth weren't so easily accepted as they had nothing to use that can connect them to even living on earth. Prompt the name spacians, aliens if you want to be offensive about it."
"What?" Cassidy questioned, confused about what he said, "Nothing connecting them to life on earth? The hell does that mean?"
Simba sighed as he said, "Alright look at Merrie, what's the first thing you think of when looking at her."
"A motherly figure."
"I'm not a mom!" Merrie exclaimed, quickly blushing when she realized how loud she shouted in a public place.
"True but no," Simba told her, much to the tanned girl's annoyance, "something else."
"A young woman with a lot of modesty?" Cassidy guessed.
"N-no," Simba says, facepalming himself, "Physically, what does she make you think of? Think of the physical attributes she has."
"..." Cassidy stayed silent for a while before saying, snapping her fingers at the realization, "Oh, I see! She's a tanned busty girl, I heard men really like that combination! I didn't see it at first but now that you point it out, and with that outfit, I can see why her popularity among the guys here skyrocketed like they're witnessing a girl back home tame a raging bull."
"Wait, what's wrong with my outfit!?" Merrie squeaked, instinctually covering her endowed top-heaviness in a mini-panic. Feeling like a hundred were all glaring at her, even though they weren't because they were all watching the two guys who were beating the hell out of each other, she slowly sank toward the ground to decrease her visibility. Her reaction makes people wonder why she constantly goes out like she was a regular at a nightclub.
Rubbing his temple, Simba told her, "Dear lord I don't believe in, what animal do you think of when you see her!?"
As if a lightbulb finally lit up in her head, she exclaimed, "Oh a ram!"
"Yes!" Simba cheered. Merrie seemed a bit rattled from the misnaming, prompting Simba to quickly correct her, "Well, actually no. She's a sheep but close enough. You've seen a sheep in your life right?"
"Yeah, I've seen those and a few rams before."
"And when you look at Merrie you get reminded of a sheep at times right?"
"Yeah."
A sigh of relief came over the lion man as he was finally getting through.
"Now look at that Spacian girl over there," directed Simba, poking over to the other side of the ring. Watching the fight was a pink-sized girl with black sclera, pink hair, and horns sticking out of the top of her head. She seemed to be enjoying her time here, having a similar reaction to the crowd at the spectacle in front of them.
"Uh-huh," Cassidy responded.
"Is there anything recognizable about her?"
"...I mean she's obviously got a good set of girls on her."
"Wha- no! Is there an animal or living thing on this planet that she's recognizable from."
"Oh, then I guess not."
"There you go, with Laguz, despite how often our appearance may devoid from being humanoid, we're still recognizable to get accepted easier rather than support their fellow mutation-quirk people."
"So from what I got, one side hates the other for getting accepted faster because of catgirls over some rumor hundreds of years ago that has very little information to go and no one could confirm if it was true or not?"
"Yeah, basically."
"I'm not the smartest chicken in the farm but that's the dumbest thing I ever heard."
"If you think that's dumb, just wait till you hear about how the Salem Witch Trials got started or The Football War."
'Why does my face hurt?'
Izuku internally asked himself this, feeling the stinging pain on his red cheek. He stared at the rusted ceiling of this shack in a daze, flat on his back and not knowing why he's here. Is that a sign of a concussion? He wasn't sure, it was a bit hard to think. Only the sweet echoes of what sounded like a caring angel called him back to his sense.
"You got knocked the fuck out!" exclaimed Rumi, resting against the boxing ring railings with a triumphant grin on her face, "You need to start avoiding my punches better before I bruise up that cute face of yours too much. I told you, duck and weave! You're only ducking, we need more weaves!"
Rideru then added, "From what that silvered-tongue lizard heard, Mezo only has great strength to his name but he doesn't display like a bozo. To have that much restraint in a place like this means he won't be swinging wildly and has enough sense to be more coordinated with how he uses his strength. All that means is getting better at dodging becomes all the more important."
Sitting up, Izuku took a much-needed breather. So far things have been going smoothly, with twenty minutes left before the match, he already had the offense down and only needed to work on defensive tactics.
Or in Rumi's words, he only needed to-
"Dodge!"
'Wha-'
An object then suddenly dropped straight on Izuku's chest, making him hack up from the force. He sat up and grabbed the item that slammed onto him. It was a water bottle.
"You're going to need better reflexes," Rumi called out to him, unscrewing the cap off her water bottle, "If that was a punch it wouldn't announce itself first...unless the person was stupid then they'll go on a monologue before throwing a punch. If that happens, you go in for a speedy strike, probably in the gut or balls if you want to be cowardly, they'll never expect it."
"Your punches are so fast!" Izuku responded after enjoying the cool liquid to refresh his body. His throat was getting parched from all the exercise, "It's hard to react to something that's like a blur."
"That's a good thing," Rumi states, leaning her body back far onto the railing that it looked like she might fall off. The buzzing light shone down on the bunny's sweat covered body, glistering her chocolate-colored body like a rare gem that was having all its value displayed, "If you train with something faster then what you'll be facing, then that thing you were going to face will feel like it's going in slow motion."
"...Uh-huh," was all Izuku responded with, his mind was slowly being drawn away to other distractions.
The attention to his blissful view was quickly disturbed by the presence of the other green-haired boy in the room. He dropped a towel in Rumi's hand, allowing her to wipe herself stainless once again and destroying the slimmer the young fox was enjoying. The half-sighted greenet made eye contact with Izuku again, noticing his reaction to Rumi's fading radiance. He didn't react, coldly staring at him before turning back to Rumi. He bent down and whispered something in Rumi's ear again, gaining a similar reaction as before gaining an extremely rare modest chuckle from the snowy-haired girl.
'What did he just tell her?' Izuku thought, he found himself peering at him again. A strange corrupted feeling began bubbling in his chest, it felt aggravating and spread fast. His breathing suddenly became unstable, speeding up without explanation. Yet, despite his whole body seeming like it's working itself up, he felt more down than energized.
The feeling only worsened with what followed.
Playfully, Rumi pushed Rideru back, almost knocking him off the platform. Trying to collect herself from a laughing fit, she manages to say, "Shut up already you fucking captious marauder."
"Oh, you getting wordy now?" Rideru replied, his tone still kept its firm but the vibe to it sounded different, "Weird flex but ok. I'll let it go since it's an infrequent occasion where you show that your mind isn't as thick as a bowl of oatmeal, a stark contrast to the rest of you."
"Oh my gosh, I'm so done with you," she says, walking away from her friend and heading back to the center of the stage. She looked back to jokingly tell the half-sighted greenet, "By the way, I want the key I gave you back."
"You gave it to me the spare incase your dumb ass loses the original. Which I'll remind you, No.02 is still in my possession. You probably burnt your way up to No.13."
"Guess again, the one I keep at home is No.05! Ha!"
"What number is the one you used today?"
"... No.09."
"Wow, I'm impressed you kept it to single digits."
"Whatever Riu, keep your comments to yourself or else some of the more aberrant ones will reach the wrong tympanum ear."
"Blackmail? How low."
Rumi rolled her eyes with an annoyed expression before attending back to Izuku, asking him, "Anyways, you ready to start again? You better be since time isn't exactly on your side to be sitting around since- uh... n-nevermind about that last part. You good to go?"
There was a more surly attitude in the green fox's voice as he answered, "Yeah… whenever you're ready."
"Alright!" shouted Rumi, knocking her gloves together to pump herself up, "Up and at 'em, try to remember to do what I told you to do."
"Can we focus on teaching me what you want me to do?"
"What you mean?"
"I'm not sure how effective your method is, I get what you're trying to teach me but all you're doing is hitting me yelling-"
"DODGE!"
"Eee!" Squealed Izuku, luckily his guard was already up which allowed him to block the straight punch that was sent toward him. Though blocked, the force still sent him stumbling back. Recovering, he says, "Like that! I don't think that's helping at all, I'm just getting beat up."
"I mean, of course you gotta get hit a lot, it's dodge training. You wouldn't be needing dodge training if you could dodge properly."
"No, I meant like teach me how I'm supposed to dodge first instead of just hitting me."
"There's not a book I can pull out on this stuff and I showed some weaving moves. With what time we got left it'll be best to let you relay on your guts and find your way of dodging."
"She, for once in her life, got somewhat of a point," Rideru interjected, lazily leaning against the rope, "Granted, it'll be better to understand the basics and rules before you break them but having your unique way of doing things can be helpful to make up for weaknesses at a novice level. If you ever experienced something weird your body does when it comes to this stuff, it'll be smart to put some investment into seeing how you can exploit that aspect."
Izuku caught himself giving a low groan hearing the boy speak, preparing himself to continue, he thought of something weird that happened in the past that could help, 'The last time I actually dodged something important was against that slime villain. What happened exactly?'
With so many months passing by since that day, a lot has stayed in his mind as feelings he'll never forget. At the same time, so much had happened that it was easy for some things to be under review in retrospect. With a bit of reviewing, Izuku was able to discover the treasure left behind among the sea of rubble.
'That twitchy feeling!' he concluded, remembering that tiny feeling that saved his life several times over that day.
It's been so long since he last felt it, or at least noticed it was happening. Would it work for him now? It's been nearly untrained since that day and it wasn't like he was in a threatening enough situation to force it to act up or become more noticeable. Then again, it was so useful even though that was before his fox attribute grew out due to One For All, maybe the enhancement might make it easier to use.
Only one way to find out.
As he inches closer to Rumi, waiting for her next strike, he closes his eyes. He was going to put all his concentration into waiting for that feeling again. Was it risky? Yes. Closing his eyes and hoping to get a small itch-base indicator to dodge a strike from Rumi who wasn't really pulling her punches was only a few staircase steps away from trying to get himself killed, but it's the madness he needs right now as it's his best shot at getting that feeling again without actually trying to get himself killed.
"I'll be nice and warn you ahead of time," Rumi announced, "Here I come!"
Taking a deep breath, he let the inner workings of his body take the steering wheel. All he needed was to be attacked.
Twitch
A spark of joy lit up in Izuku feeling this, claiming, 'It's right t-'
"THERE!" Shouted Rumi, landing a clean shot on the boy's face that made him drop to the floor.
…
…
He wasn't moving.
...
…
…
"Whoops."
Lessons that were learned that night by Izuku.
1. Just because you can anticipate an attack, doesn't mean you can always dodge it.
2. Rumi hits fucking hard
Add that to the list of things he won't be forgetting soon.
"That reminds me to ask," Setsuna tells the group, "First impressions on the new guy?"
"Yellow belly," Cassidy exclaims, "Gonna take a while to get him to be tough as nails."
"I wouldn't go that far," Merrie says, "Most people that come from outside Yasei Alley or don't rely on it as an essential place to live in often don't show a super aggressive nature this place is known for. Granted, only the ones who are aggressive usually stay here or keep coming back. It just depends on how he handles being here that'll determine if he stays."
"I hope he does," Yogi tells the group, "I like it when our group grows, they make meals taste better."
Simba chuckled, "If he does, it'll be entertaining integrating him."
"All good points…-"
…
"-Anyone else felt like petting him?"
Everyone else gave their own versions of agreement.
"DODGE!"
Another blow that blew the boy back.
Luckily Izuku didn't get knocked out from that earlier blow, the only thing that stayed down was his pride and self-confidence.
Having to take a quick breather, he held up a hand, signaling to his bombastic friend for a break.
"Hey Riu, you mind getting my bag, I need to see my phone," Rumi asked, looking back to the boy still leaning on the ring rope.
The ragged green-haired boy looks to the side before asking, "Which one?"
"The yellow one by the corner."
Izuku picked himself back up to prepare for another round. The twitchy feeling sense wasn't going so well, it worked, he just couldn't physically dodge what was coming at him. Yet he still wanted to try a bit more, each time the twitchy feeling got a bit better to notice without the need of utter concentration on it.
When he looked up, he saw the two had barely moved from their spots within the few seconds he wasn't paying attention, except for one thing.
"Here you go," Rideru plainly says, holding the bag next to her.
'What the?' Izuku was almost confused at what he witnessed, he was sure that Rideru didn't move an inch yet he still managed to grab the bag, 'I may have not been looking at him completely but he saw his feet, they only barely even shifted, and didn't even turn in the direction the bag was. Did he use his quirk?'
He shook his head, now wasn't the time for that. Regardless if he was going to fight tonight or not, this was good training in honing a forgotten skill he had.
With the short break over, they both prepared for another round. This time, Izuku noticed the twitch-sense with his eyes open and for a moment he thought he could-
Nope, the same result happened.
If the rope wasn't there to suspend his inertia, Izuku might've been blown out the door. His head was spinning as he recovered from the hit, he was surprised himself how many of these hits he was taking and getting back up from. These were strikes that were flying at a speed that he couldn't react to even with this strange advance sense and Izuku knew Rumi wasn't one who was a light-weight in strength. He remembered an occasion when she was so mad that a sports team she liked lost, it was surprising to see the least what she did to the things she punched. While he was thinking this over, he heard a voice by his ear.
"You probably now feels like that guy who blew up Hirozu Street."
Izuku almost jumped out of his shorts when he saw Rideru next to him, the green braided-hair boy was nonchalantly leaning against the rope again, peering at him with the one glistening ivy eye that wasn't covered by his scruffy hair. Unmoved by his jolted body, he mutters, "What was his name again? Oh yeah, Istoc Imperium. What happened to that guy again, he kinda just dropped off the map after a while?"
The entire time the stoic boy was speaking, Izuku was constantly looking between the place Rideru was and the spot he was at less than a few seconds ago.
"Ignore that, went on a mental tangent," Rideru told him, before whispering a strange statement, "Do yourself a favor and pay attention around her rack. Tell me what you see."
Rightfully confused and a bit flustered with his wording, he didn't have time to question those words as Rideru pointed toward a Rumi who was very eager to continue their session. Deciding to attend to her over dealing with whatever Rideru suggested, though, his mind still pondered over it regardless.
Pay attention around her rack.
Those words haunted him, terribly influencing him to direct, not just his sight, but his entire head toward the directions of Rumi's bountiful set of breasts. That black tank top revealed just enough treasure to be hanged in a museum while also leaving room for a little imagination to spice things up. A blissful sight that was quickly ended by a blue boxing glove colliding with his face.
With him being flung back to the rope, Rideru calmly asks him, "...sooooo, what you see?"
"Heaven covered in sweat," Izuku almost robotically answered with a tiny drizzle of blood leaking out of one of his nostrils, he quickly wiped it away before hiding his mistake, "I mean, just distractions!"
"I said around her rack you little pervert," quietly scolded Rideru, pushing the fox boy back to the center, "Now try it again and don't get distracted by her holy treasure. I know it's hard but you can worship them later, most likely in the sanctity of your room or later depending on how well you follow orders."
No time to reply, a wildly attractive bunny-girl who can kick his ass was fastly approaching him.
Twitch
There was the twitch, meaning he was about to get attacked. As dumb as it was, Izuku still followed Rideru's advice, not like anything else he was doing was working.
'Around her rack.'
Izuku repeated in his mind, making sure to focus his sight AROUND it and not at it to avoid his mistake from last time. It was hard but he did see something of note before he was blown back again.
"You'll make for a great pinball with how well you're getting your ass beat," Rideru said at the rope, lazily looking at him, "Oh and uhhh what you see this time?"
Coughing a bit, Izuku tells him, "I noticed her shoulder moved."
"Finally, invest more attention to her shoulders and elbows, they're an critical part of the human body for a reason like a dick for sex or breast for breastfeeding. In most scenarios, they give away where they're attacking and what type of move they're performing."
"Oh, that's going to be helpful to... Wait, what was that part in the middle?"
"Use that to increase your avoidance. Go!"
Once again the green fox was ushered in the direction where he can get his ass kicked.
Twitch
There it was and he could see her right shoulder beginning to move, which meant that she was going to come at his right side. This was amazing, he had some inkling of where she was going to strike at not just an indicator that he was going to get hit. It didn't matter if that sense was dulled from lack of honing, he had more of a chance, now all he had to do was d-
"DODGE!"
…
"It's still too fast!" Izuku exclaimed at the person who was apparently giving him 'advice', there was now a red mark on the side of his cheek.
Rideru scratched over his covered eye, "I mean, duh. Knowing where it's coming from before it was thrown doesn't change how fast it is."
Izuku was again hurried off only to get flung back again, in which Rideru casually continued his lecture as he pushed him forward again.
"It's like if a fucking bomb dropped on you-"
The older greenet took a break from speaking to wait for Izuku to be flung back again.
"-you looking up and going is that a fucking bomb that plane just dropped isn't going to make the explosive smaller or any slower-"
He started to enjoy hearing how the elastic stretch every time the boy crashed into it.
"-It just helps give you a few extra moments to dodge an attack-"
During this break, his mind wandered what kind of sauce he'll use for the barbeque tonight.
"-and can help with planning a counteraction-"
He then sighed to himself as he realized this barbeque was going to be a bit less enjoyable for him due to the absence of a few important things.
"-not to somehow allow you to do the same thing the same way but somehow succeed."
"Why didn't you just tell me that in one go!?" shouted Izuku, he was quickly getting covered with more bruises each time he came back.
For a moment, Rideru's eyes wandered around as if he was thinking of something before he said, "...good question."
Izuku felt a vein bulging in his head from hearing that. He was about to say something before Rideru cut him off with a statement of his own.
"The real question is why are you being passive about it?"
"What?" Izuku responded.
"You know what she's about to do and she isn't trying to be discrete about it. If you can't dodge her attack then why wait for it, pretty sure she already sorta advised on this."
"She did? When?"
"Something about monologuing. This is where paying attention to around her rack is going to be useful, go!"
Here we go again.
The entire time as the tense wait for the Rumi strike to come, Izuku thought about what Rumi might've said that applied to this situation. Rideru mentioned it was about monologuing but where did monologuing even fit into this sparring?
Then Izuku quickly thought, 'Knowing her, if someone was monologuing during this she would've…. That's it!'
Twitch
There was the cue, there was no time to second guess the results, he had to act as soon as he saw the opportunity or else he wouldn't be able to react to it. When the slightest movement of Rumi's right shoulder happened when she went to wind her punch, Izuku's body sparked into action.
The sound of splitting wind echoed through the room.
…
…
…
Boing.
In the silence, Izuku decided to open his eyes, he had closed them when he made his move as a here goes nothing reaction. The first thing he saw was Rumi's face, her once energetic expression was now staggered with surprise as her eyes seemed to be drawn downward. Slowly, Izuku widened his view to follow where she was looking, spotting where his red gloves were pressing against the black fabric of her top.
Right on the bullseye.
Rumi gave a few blank blinks at the fact that a hit landed on her that she didn't completely allow the boy to get. There wasn't much power in it seeing as she wasn't blown back by it but still and she wasn't even using her strongest or faster moves, but it was shocking that it happened nonetheless.
'I guess I shouldn't be surprised,' she thought, 'Riu was whispering advice in his ear, I probably should've just handed over the training to him. Among our group's great trainers like Simba or Yogi, if there was anyone who would have a trick that can close the gap of skill they need for this, it would be him.'
Izuku's eyes whited-out because his brain couldn't process that something which should only really be possible in anime just happened in his life.
Rideru looked unmoved as always, commenting a simple phrase, "I think he took my advice too literal. I meant to notice when she breaks half her guard to throw a punch and strike her chin. I guess his hands couldn't resist reaching for paradise's holy relic."
"What do you mean you haven't trained him yet!?" All Might yelled, slamming his cup on the table.
Nezu calmly stirs his tea before responding, "That's very expensive china you just slammed. I shared the usage of it as a symbol of our friendship but so help me if I find a crack in it later."
"The boy has been here for about two months and you haven't taught him anything?" All Might continued to shout, he was getting infuriated at this revelation, "After Izuku came to him with fear of what he might do, I was almost relieved when I remembered I was in your good graces Nezu. I thought I knew someone who could help him with his unique situation."
"Oh I am," Nezu calmly, "It's just extremely slow-paced and involves a lot of doing nothing."
"That doesn't sound any better! What have you done for him so far!?"
"Drinking tea, suggested some stretches he can do, made him go without meat for extended periods of time...and by that I mean none at all in this house, and he was already doing light exercise to keep himself fit so you should be very proud of him for his-"
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? THIS ISN'T A GAME!" Exploded the number-one hero, for a moment, his outburst had caused him to go into his Big-Might form.
"...Volume please, it's night time," Nezu tells him, rubbing his ear to help with the ringing, "Calm yourself, you shouldn't get riled up over this. You were the one who entrusted the boy to me as you lacked the knowledge for the task, now you want to scoldingly criticize my methods in something you so quickly passed on due it being too complicated for you?"
All Might winced hearing this, a burning coal of regret and inadequacy had dropped in his stomach. It burned deep, charring the very core of his being. Yet, like many other occasions when a troubling situation occurred and someone's good livelihood was put in danger, he pushed through it, "I'll admit it was my own incapabilities that lead to me asking you for help, that fault falls on me. Regardless, I had hope that the place I sent him off to, you, would provide him with what I cannot. I let you know that as soon as I requested it, if you had little intentions to help either but still took him in only to use him as a tool to assist Rumi then it's completely unforgivable!"
The dead silence of the night expanded between them as the last words of All Might echoed out to a tiny shimmer.
Despite it, Nezu still seemed unmoved by those words. He sighed, setting his cup down on the table next to him, saying, "I wish there was something that easy to deal with that girl, unfortunately, it'll most likely end in failure and if she ever found out I was behind it she'll never forgive me. As much of a handful she can be I can appreciate the fact that she still tries once in a while and I prefer things being natural over artificial despite the difficulty that comes with it. You can relieve your worry if you think I only accepted Izuku out of some sick game, trust me, I have other ways of entertaining myself."
"Then what's with the inactiveness? Allowing him time to settle in is one thing but why for two whole months with very little to even break him into his regiment."
"That's simple, his body is way too unstable physically, mentally, and emotionally to do too much with."
"...What?"
"Yeah, as you know, One for All is mixing with his body abnormally and quite slowly. Like cooking, he's not ready to be cooked. Instead, I'm choosing to simmer him and get the preparation going as his body ripens. So far I've been having him drink tea to dampen his fluxing emotions and rapid new senses as much as I could. Stopping him from eating meat, at least in this household, was just a pseudo form of something I plan on having him do later and to keep him calm as they finish up in there. Now all I need to do is sit back and wait, at least, that's what that masked fellow told me to do."
…
"A… masked fellow? All Might repeated.
"Hm," Nezu went as if he wasn't aware of what he said, "Oh, Izuku must've not informed you on the full extent of his special condition."
"The full extent… there's more to this he didn't tell me?"
"Not that I can blame him, that Lai might not have even fully told the boy himself."
"Lai? What are you talking about? You…. know of Izuku's special situation?"
"Of course I know, or at least, I know the origin of his mysterious features. They're not as unknown or random as you may think, I say they're more of a fabled trait, belonging to certain kinds of people."
"H-how!? How do you know that?"
Nezu smiled, picking up his cup and giving a toasting gesture to him before stating, "Simple, I am a part of that group."
'Why does my face hurt….again.' Izuku questioned himself, he looked down at the muddy ground beneath. A small broken object was on the ground in front of him, it had a metallic outer shell and was beyond saving, 'Why did I have this again?'
He had his answer when the piercing sound of nearly a hundred people's scream echoing in his ear, it felt like his eardrum was going to burst, and his ear would bleed at any moment.
'That's right….my earplug.'
How we get here again.
Izuku made the cardinal mistake of getting confident enough that he agreed to do the match. With Izuku having a life outside of this place, Rumi thought it'll be best to hide his appearance like she does so no one would recognize him on the streets afterwards. What disguise they decided to go with? Forgetting to get clothes for a disguise they had to go with what was lying around the shack resulting in Izuku now having a giant black afro with a comb pick, a devilishly evil mustache, black eyeliner for a sharp look, and a red, blue, and yellow trunks. Thankfully they had enough sense to have him wrap his tail with a cloth and then around his waist to make it seem like an accessory as well.
Did he look absolutely stupid? Yes.
Did he care? Yes, extremely. He almost felt like crying when everyone gave him a weird look when he stepped out.
Does he have regrets? Enough to make even the Buddha get tired of hearing them.
But will no one be able to guess who he truly was? Outside of Rumi's friend, no.
He sees this as an absolute win….. Only because that was the only win he can take from this.
His fight with Mezo has gone not as terribly as he expected. For the most part, they've been in a stalemate between Izuku dodging most of Mezo's attacks but having his strike not affect the silver-haired octopus looking person too much. While a good amount of the reason was the tall spacian's natural endurance, Izuku's hesitantly not putting his back into each punch he threw out contributed to it as well. He didn't want to seriously hurt someone just for sport, though he was assured that most of this posed little actual danger toward the fighters, it still felt off for him. He never had an interest in most contact sports.
He thought that light punches would make it so that little opportunities would happen where Mezo would get hurt but so far it seemed like half-assing things weren't going to get him a win. Though he knew that Mezo could only take so many blows without getting tired out, not like he had some Shock Absorption quirk, that would just be cheap.
Things were mostly going Izuku's way until something caught his eye. More specifically, he got distracted. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a certain pair chatting it up once again, almost as if the match they got him to accept wasn't at all of their concern.
Then he got punched in the face.
Now his face hurts again, his earplug is broken, and he's in intense pain from all the noise he's hearing through his fox ears. They had started working properly not longer after One for All changed his body, the only issue was they were working a bit too well, making everything being heard through them feel like a TV's volume being turned up to a hundred. He decided it was best to keep this little fact to himself since retroactively it didn't change from his current situation. It's basically going from being unable to ear causing a need for earplugs, to hearing too much so he needs to use earplugs.
Worst timing ever.
He could barely think straight when his ear felt like it wanted to explode. Instead of standing straight and continuing the fight, he was hunched over trying to cover his ear.
"Well, he's done," Cassidy calmly states, she tauntingly turned toward Rumi to purposely annoy her. She leaned on the metal fence that served as the outer shell, "Guess that means I win this round betting on the other side."
"Shut up, it's not over yet," Rumi told her, turning back toward the stage to cheer Izuku on.
"Sure looks like it, he got hit pretty hard, and he's not getting back up. The yellow-belly is done," she says with a smug smirk.
Rumi turned a ferocious eye toward her before declaring, "Call him a yellow belly one more time and-"
"Yellow…. Belly."
…
…
…
Suddenly Izuku witnessed both Rumi and Cassidy tossing the other into the ring, tussling over each other in the dirt. He didn't know how to react to what he was seeing, all he could do was blink blankly as he watched them fight. The crowd on the other hand, did know how to react, by cheering on the girls as they continued to beat the shit out of each other. Thankful, their friends quickly came to drag them off before they completely stole away the attention of the actual match, and before Cassidy took off her clothes again.
As abrupt and nonsensical that quick intermission was, it was exactly what Izuku needed. It gave him enough time for him to find some comfortable way to cover up his ear with one of his ears. It didn't completely block out the sound but it was enough where he could concentrate on the fight he was currently in. He needed this fight to end soon, and by soon he meant right now. Not only because he could only go so long covering his ear but also because his annoyance meter had spiked suddenly. Too many humiliating things at once, he was getting quite sick of it, this was supposed to be the time where he left most of that behind him, not having it increase tenfold.
It was going to end now.
A small growl escaped under his breath. Standing straight, he cautiously approached Mezo, waiting for the tall octopus-man to do another wide swing. Which came thankfully sooner than later. As the silver-haired boy's shoulder shifted as he winded up for a punch, Izuku's eyes sharpened.
"You're… one of them?" All Might repeated, "You're not explaining yourself!"
Nezu casually tells him, "I kinda have to. Got to be careful with what information you tell others on this stuff. You're already involved in one secret that puts a target on your back, you sure you want another?"
All Might gave a grave face hearing this, what did he just stumble onto. He was able to respond but Nezu stopped him by warning him.
"I must warn you, if you get involved, you're going to be entering a whole new world that exists alongside this one. The rules there can be extremely different than how it is now. Here, when you know a secret, you're typically safe as long as no one knows you might know a secret. Over there, the fact that you know a secret can have you hunted even though you made sure no one knew you knew the secret. Just knowing will always put that target on you depending on who you pass by on the streets, like blood on a blade, you can wash it off to where the entire sword is spotless but that won't remove the smell of blood. Knowledge can be an extremely dangerous asset to have, it's the same reason I'm guessing why Izuku's masked friend has kept him in the dark."
"How come you know it then, you're saying how dangerous it is to know anything yet here you are and most of the time you look like you don't have a care in the world."
"I'm… in a special position in all of this. With a role as a passive spectator, as long as I don't step on too many toes, I often fall under that world's radar and most know it's best to leave me be. You on the other hand, don't have that privilege."
"Can information like this truly be that deadly to have? What kind of secret can this be?"
"That depends on your definition. What would you think will happen over a secret involving the truth of the world?"
"!"
"Life is strange as the mysteriously unpredictable will always happen that'll be out of our control, but that doesn't mean there never is an explanation for some of them. People like Harold Holt don't just disappear without reason after all."
"What?"
"Oh my, there I go again," suddenly the darkness in the room seemed to be menacingly enveloping itself around him like a good old friend. He happily took another sip of tea before continuing, "I might be saying a bit too much again, you better make your decision quickly before you know enough to be hunted for one reason or another. So I ask again, you sure you want to know what we are. We can be quite the dangerous bunch without proper caution."
…
The crowd was silent for a moment as they all took in what happened.
The limp body of Mezo lay against the metal fence that was supposed to be the edges of the ring. The entire fence was bent out of shape and disfigured that one would think that someone ran a car into it instead of a human body. The blue mask that he used to conceal his mouth had been torn right at the spot he was hit, white steam still rose off his face.
The silence only lasted for a moment before the crowd erupted, the laguz cheered their kind's victory, while the spacians groaned at their defeat.
Izuku was lifted up and hauled off by his friends in a victorious cheer. While he enjoyed the sentiment he had to look back to see how Mezo was doing, he did not mean to hit him that hard, it just sorta happened. Thankfully, he seemed to be alive, but the silver-haired boy had to be dragged off by a pink-skinned girl, probably a friend of his.
Later, on the rooftop of the building where Izuku was introduced to everyone, the group as promised held their barbeque with a small campfire in the middle to enjoy the green fox's victory.
"Food will be done in about a minute," announced Rideru to the group as he manned the cooking, getting a cheering reception from the rest of his group.
"There we go," exclaimed Merrie, drawing away from Izuku after tending to the marks on his face and plugging his ear with her wool, "I tied my wool up nicely so you can reuse it until you can get another earplug."
"Thank you very much," thanked Izuku, "Sorry for the trouble."
"It's nothing trust me, I've treated worst with those two ruffians," Merrie told him, nudging her head toward Rumi and Caissdy who were chatting quite friendly with each other. Doing some kind of joint dance you'll see two drunkards performing at a bar when their team wins, you wouldn't think that these two had no issue punching the other in the face a minute ago.
"I can believe it, more of my injuries surprisingly were from Rumi with boxing gloves on than the guy who actually wanted to knock me out. Then again, what was the difference."
Merrie covered her mouth as she giggled, "That girl doesn't know how to hold back sometimes, guess that's why she gets along with Cassidy so well. They're like children, it's going to be up to you to make sure she shows some restraint toward you, everyone has a limit. A scolding or two can keep them at bay…. for a while."
"I'll… keep that in mind, I might need it later. I'm just happy it all worked out and I won," Izuku sighed, "I heard of last-minute cramping for a test but not for a fight, never doing that again, especially in that stupid costume."
"Speaking of which," Simba says walking over, "Not bad for your first fight here, didn't expect you to win the way you did. You may not be that big but you're certainly packing a punch! You fight often?"
"N-no!" Izuku stuttered, "I don't get into fights like ever, unless by a string of unfortunate events, and usually Rumi is there."
Chuckling Simba told him, "Sounds like you often find yourself in trouble then, it'll be smart to become better at handling them. You're a fox right?"
"Y-yeah?"
"Then I have a few moves you can try out, for Laguz like you who are based on a predator type of animal, there's a few interesting ways you can fight."
"That'll be helpful," responded Izuku, "I've been uh… having way too little to do and I've been looking for something to improve my combat abilities."
"I'm sure me and the others will be happy to teach you some techniques we know, ain't that right big guy?" the lioncalled out to his bear-y friend, who responded only with a nod as he continued to eye the cooking meat and vegetables, "See, so come back anytime and we'll see what we can do for ya."
"It's done." Rideru mumbles to the group, "Get your shit, I'm not going to stand here forever to serve ya."
Izuku never felt more joy eating than on that day when he finally tasted meat again. If he wasn't in public, he might've started singing again, that didn't stop a few tears from leaking out his eyes.
"Taste good?" Rumi asked, sitting down next to the green fox, "They say victory is the ultimate spice."
"You could've seasoned this with sand and it still would've tasted amazing," was what Izuku meant to say but it was between a lot of crying, chewing, and Izuku being himself.
Rumi couldn't help snickering as she got a basic concept of what he said, "Glad you're enjoying it and… I hope you're finding everyone… or at least most of my friends here to be pretty cool?"
"They seem nice. They offered me something interesting."
"You mean like… drugs?"
"Wha- no! They offer to teach me a few moves or something to fight better.."
"Ah, right, right. That's kinda why I brought you here in the first place. You've probably noticed but this place is quite rough by nature and most of these guys are not so bad fighters because of it, though compared to me they may as well be doing WWE wrestling but they know a few things that can help you out. Here groups are like another mini-family, so don't be afraid to ask them for help, they can be surprisingly reliable."
"I'll keep that in mind."
…
It's been quite a while since an awkward silence happened between the two of them, except this time it's not just Izuku who is being fiddly. The usually aggressive bunny girl seem to be hesitant to speak, rubbing her neck in an attempt to rid herself of the discomfort she was feeling.
…
"Fuck it," she mumbled.
Izuku tilted his head at her, wondering what she meant, "Hm?"
"I'm ssssssssssour."
"...You're sour?"
"N-no no, I'm s-ss-sssshore."
"You're a shore?"
"Fuck why am I like this?" the girl mumbled to herself before stating, "About before, with the whole dragging you around and making you do things that end up humiliating you. I'm s-s-ssshort-"
"Are you trying to say sorry?"
"Yeah that!"
"Right next to Kacchan, you're probably the only other person I know where it's somehow physically impossible to apologize."
"S-shut up, I'm trying! I barely ever make a mistake like this so this is new."
"Well, you were patient with me for a lot of things, so I guess I can let it go this time. Next time though, please at least try convincing me first before volunteering me for some extreme act."
"No promises."
Slowly Izuku panned his head toward her, giving her a slightly annoyed look as he did before. Her eyes comedically lit up like a deer before Rumi quickly continued, "Uh but I'll try my hardest to keep to it."
"...probably the best results I can get from this," Izuku teased, chuckling as he went back to his meat.
That comment struck Rumi different, the tiniest tint of pink appeared across her dark-skinned face, "Hey! You should be happy, my lucky kiss worked, you TKO the next person you fought."
"Wasn't that technically you?"
"A smart person will make sure their own attacks won't work on them, because you truly can't trust anyone, not even yourself. That's why I never let my guard down, not even when I'm alone."
"Except when you wake up in the morning apparently," Izuku slyly mutters.
Rumi's ears turned red at this, defending herself, "My guard is still up! I just don't pay attention to other things because they're not important. Which reminds me, if you start waking up earlier just so that you can see me naked I'm going to kick your ass thirty times over."
"I wouldn't dream!… I wouldn't think!…. I wouldn't consider….. It's not something at the top of my priority list… the chance of me doing it will not be happening soon."
"Ah come on, it's not fun if you don't try a little bit."
"Yeah but-... Wait what?"
"Ooooh nothing, just trying to keep things interesting."
"...Either way, thanks for bringing me here since they were nice enough to throw an entire event like this for me."
Simba then called out from across the campfire, "Oh don't mention it, we were going to eat good tonight anyways since Rideru happened to hit the jackpot."
"Yeah, some dumbass left a shitload of perfectly good store-bought meat on the street earlier today," Rideru casually adds.
…..
…..
…..
…..
Even Rumi's face changed hearing this, stuck between wanting to laugh and concern of the green fox's reaction. With wide eyes, Izuku calmly asks, "What?"
Oblivious to it all, Rideru continued to say almost tauntingly, "Yeah I think some dickhead got into a fight or something, not sure, didn't even get a look at them. That meat was free real estate and so I just took it like a-"
"YOU BASTARD!" Izuku screamed as he already pounced on Rideru, tackling him to the ground. With tears flowing down his eyes again he gave the older greenet quite a passionate scolding, "That was my meat you stole! Do you know how long it's been since I've eaten meat? Months! But I finally managed to buy some and you took that bliss away. It's like almost drawing in the ocean only to luckily come back up before you die just to get full nelson and have that people drag you back down!"
"Ey get off of me!"
"Never! You'll hear my complaints so you may know my pain!"
Watching them tumble around the rooftop, Merrie suggests, "Uh, should we stop them?"
"Nah," Simba chuckled, "They don't seem to be taking it too close to heart, besides, in the jungle a bit of roughhousing can do a lot of good."
"They remind me of us when we first met," Cassidy says to Rumi, "Except he didn't talk as much shit as you did asking for a fight."
"I'm pretty sure you started it," Rumi replied, brushing some of her hair back, "You barely knew the norms here and stepped on one too many toes, lucky I wasted time explaining it instead of just kicking your ass and leaving."
"Pretty sure that didn't happen but you can cook up whatever crap you want in that coo-coo mind of yours."
"Uh-huh, I will because it's usually the truth you west-country lunatics."
"Same to you ya overconfident carrot sucker. "
"Eat shit and die."
"Yeah fuck you."
...
The two stared at each other before bursting out in friendly laughter….. Followed by tackling each other, getting into another fight, this time with hair pulling.
"The energetic youth," Simba mumbles to himself, looking down at all of them with a smile on his face, "So full of potential."
"Hey Merrie, you wanna fight?" Setsuna asked, looking excited.
"No!"
Inside the D.R.E.A.M. world, Lai was staring out the window looking up at the stars, despite the mask he still looked disturbed.
"What's wrong?" Nana asked him.
Lai scratched the side of his face as he said, "Seems something had occurred that'll cause us to make a slight arrangement to our deal."
The raven-haired girl groaned as she said, "Are you kidding me? We were done!"
"Don't worry, we're keeping nearly everything the same. The only thing we're changing is the order we're doing things."
"Good!" Nana exclaimed laying back on the floor, "I swear you guys are purposely difficult to work with. What even happened anyways to cause the change? Something big?"
"It's nothing too important," Lai replied, shaking his head, "Seems that our little kitto just encountered another of his kind, at least, one whose abilities are partially awakened."
"Already? I thought not telling him everything was to avoid this?"
"No worries, this should be one of those freaky coincidences that happen," the masked man assured her, "Despite us being scarce compared to the rest of the world, us mythical creatures still have a decent population and can get around. Now if he ends up running into his specific kind of mythical creature then we might have trouble."
Lai then faced away from Nana, turning his attention completely to the stars above. As the voice that came from behind the mask changed again, a long black fox tail appeared behind him, "For now, let's decide what Izuku will learn first. Something fitting for a Kitsune."