Chapter 4: The Apartment
"Mom, really, it's fine," Izuku tries to assure for what felt like the thousandth time, his mother hugging the near life out of him. Oh, the irony, survive a building collapse, but fall the constriction of a worried mother.
"Are you sure? I'm sure we could find someone to come and sit with you. Maybe Mitsuki wouldn't mind riding down to keep you company. I could call in, even! Just for the day!" Inko said frantically, rubbing her face into her son's hair and Izuku can't help but giggle at the ticklish feeling.
"Mooooom," he whines and his mother finally releases him, wiping at her face before deflating with a sigh, looking twenty years older.
"Okay. Okay, sweetie, I trust you," she finally says and offers a small, tired smile to her son, and Izuku offers one back. He follows her on wobbly but much more trustworthy legs to the front door. She's wearing her scrubs, looking worriedly over her son, but he just waves her on.
"Mom, it'll be okay. I won't be going anywhere. Just going to work on some of my ideas," he reassures and Inko nods, pats down her hair a little, then leans down and plants a loud kiss to Izuku's forehead that he whines about.
"I love you, sweetie," she says and he smiles up at her.
"Love you too, mom," he replies and she finally turns to head to work.
They had been adjusting to their new apartment the last week with Inko getting a few days off from work so she and Izuku can focus on that. It was a tiny place in a building that looked run down and drab with chipping paint, torn wallpaper, and antisocial neighbors. The apartments were small, but not as bad as they could have been.
The entrance hall immediately had a door to the right to one of the two bedrooms, a cramped little room that really only had room for the essentials with a bed, closet, bookshelf, and desk all shoved inside. That was Inko's room now. Across from that was a hall closet and further down hall, to the left, was an American style bathroom, built that way to save space.
The hall moves into a larger living space just at the bathroom door with the glass sliding doors that lead to the back porch at the back. They have set up their television in the back right corner with the couch against the right wall and a coffee table in front of it. Around the hall corner to the right as soon as one enters the living space is an empty doorframe that leads into their itty bitty kitchen and they've set up their kitchen table in the space in front of the wall there.
Finally to the left of the main room is the last door to Izuku's bedroom. It's a bit larger than Inko's to accommodate his wheelchair and his workbench, but essentially it is the same save for a smaller, glass sliding door, like the one in the living room, that also leads out to the back porch.
It is a lot smaller than the last apartment, rooms smaller and more tightly packed together, but Izuku wouldn't call it bad. He's a little excited about the courtyard, which is covered in dead or dying grass, surrounded by the apartment building on all sides, and that was about it, but to Izuku all he sees is a huge, empty space for bigger experiments.
Today, however, was Inko's first day back to work and since school had yet to begin again Izuku would be left home alone, which had led to Inko's momentary panic. Izuku couldn't blame her. Since the incident he had always been around someone, always had company, heck even before that his mother was always home with him, and this would be the first time in his life that he would be home entirely alone.
A babysitter had been mentioned and considered, but that just wasn't a logical solution. They had a caregiver now paid and scheduled to walk Izuku home from school, check over him, and make sure he's okay, but they would not be staying with him, they decided. With the way Izuku was progressing so quickly and positively, and with their limitations on money, that seemed like the best choice.
Now, with Izuku not needing to go anywhere, and Inko needing to get back to work lest she get in trouble, he was left alone in his new home.
Izuku moves carefully to the couch and sits down. He felt tired, but not as exhausted as he had when he had first started learning to walk again. It was a lot of improving, but he still had a ways to go, especially with what he had planned.
Izuku opens up his large sketchbook and corresponding notebook and begins going over some of his recent notes and ideas. While he had the very crude prototypes of a new arm, eye, and spine built and in his room, they were still just that; prototypes. There were all kinds of mechanics he needed to build, perfect, and just about invent to get them working for him and in shape for a hero's work.
The biggest issue he currently had was how to actually connect them to himself. Though he had upgraded his prosthetic a few times now, it was not at all what he needed. Not even the highest tech prosthetics were what he was going to need. While there were hero's that did where prosthetics, usually they could only get away with it because their quirk helped cover any new weaknesses the handicaps created. Izuku did not have a quirk, however, so he was going to have to really think.
He ends up pulling out his handmade laptop at some point trying to do research on how other prosthetics worked, but in the end he just felt frustrated and incompetent. He tried to tell himself that, despite all things, he was a six-year-old trying to invent a new technology that could, once perfected, change the course of medical history, but still he felt like a failure.
He's laying there, wallowing, staring out at the courtyard but not really staring, when suddenly a cat appears on his porch, or whatever one would call a flat slab of concrete.
Izuku blinks in surprise as the cat, an orange tabby with stumpy legs, trots leisurely across his porch then disappears off to the right. Izuku blinks again then is scrambling to get up without hurting himself and wobbling over to the sliding doors.
A cat like that, with stumpy legs and a rounded belly, couldn't possibly be a stray, could it? If it wasn't though, he would hate for someone to have lost their cat, so he slides open the door and pokes his head out. On the porch to his right, his neighbor's porch, he sees a number of mismatched bowls filled with cat food or water. The cat is sitting there, munching at some of the food, and Izuku feels relieved.
The cat is absolutely adorable, he thinks as he wobbles carefully out and towards the cat. He isn't a stealthy person, not before the incident and certainly not now, and the cat's ears flick back towards him before it's head looks back too. It has pretty blue eyes, and it really doesn't look like a stray, and it stares suspiciously at Izuku for a long moment before standing. The boy holds his breath, curious what the cat is doing, when it walks straight at him and rubs pointedly at his leg. Didn't act like a stray, either it seemed.
Izuku tries hard not to coo loudly and carefully sits down in the grass between the two porches. The tabby walks around him a few times, sniffs at his prosthetic, but eventually just settles for sitting in front of him and accepting his pets happily. Izuku feels suddenly like he may be in heaven when he hears a meow that doesn't come from the orange tabby. He looks behind him and sees a black and white cat that looks dirty enough to be a stray with green eyes trotting towards him. It seems more hesitant than the tabby's shameless desire for love, but it doesn't seem afraid of Izuku either, sniffing at him before finally plopping down by his side where Izuku can gently scratch at its side with his prosthetic fingers.
Then, suddenly there's another, a pure brown cat with a stump tail and mint eyes that curls up in Izuku's lap, and a black cat with brown eyes that rolls on its back and actually lets Izuku scratch its belly, and a filthy probably white one with folded over ears that rubs at Izuku's back, and Izuku may be dying from how unexpected this adorable turn of events is.
He's just about ready to just lay back and let the cats crawl on him, his smile wide, when he spots one more cat slinking out of the shadows and he pauses. This one is a long-haired tortoiseshell with very obvious battle scars and matted fur. It's big and muscular and glaring at Izuku with gold eyes and it is positively beautiful despite how scary it looks.
Izuku hesitates with this one but he still puts out his real hand, top of hand out, to let the cat sniff if it wants. He yanks his hand back when it hisses, which makes a lot of the other cats hop up and dart away. The tortoiseshell's fur is standing on end, tail swishing back and forth, and very slowly Izuku tries to scoot away. When he is back on his own porch the cat finally seems to relax then goes to one of the many bowls of cat food to eat. None of the other cats approach.
Izuku breathes a sigh of relief and finally tries to stand, back aching viciously, but he fights through the pain until he's up. He probably should do some of his exercises now, he figures, then glances again at the big, scary cat. Maybe if he did them outside, kept his distance but also was present, the cat could warm up to him. All the others had been so kind, maybe this one was just frightened.
He figures that that isn't true, just by looking at all the scars on the stray. This is probably just a full wild cat that knows it can get free food from this place and would never actually approach a human, but it could be worth a shot.
Which is how Izuku finds himself out in the dead, crunching grass, doing his stretches and exercises, often looking around for the feral cat. For a while it stays by the food, swatting at any other cat that comes near save for the orange tabby, oddly enough. Then it is over in one of the pathways between two apartments that leads directly out of the courtyard and to the front of the complex. Then, quite suddenly, it's just gone.
Izuku pouts as he sits again on the ground and stretches. Maybe he should just start coming outside for his exercises now? Win the cat's trust? It was also very nice outside in the fresh air. He probably needed more fresh air.
Suddenly, as he is bending over his legs to the best of his ability with his tight back, a weight suddenly lands between his shoulder blades and he looks back as best he can. Laying there, with its stumpy legs folded under it so it looks like a pumpkin, is the orange tabby, looking around like this is entirely normal. Izuku smiles.
"Yeah, you? You're definitely my favorite."
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Izuku tries to get in as much tinkering as he can before he has to go back to school. School was easy from an intellectual point of view for him; easy to get through and do his work, but the shear amount of time he was away at classes and the emotional strain of other kids usually cut down on his build time.
While he was trying to focus on his robotic builds for his arm, eye, and spine, he also knew that if he focused only on them he would go crazy. Lack of inspiration would be an issue, and sometimes stepping away and working on something else was the perfect way to find a solution to a problem.
In addition, if he had any intention to become a hero with these replacements, it made sense to give them some forms of weaponry. Nothing lethal, never lethal, but he would need some kind of advantage. An advantage most people had through their quirks, but Izuku would need to build.
He decided the best place to start was simple self-defense tools. He had gone onto sites that sold all kinds of weapons, mostly decorative, but also with a lot of ones with practical uses. This was his inspiration that would lead to his research.
The most effective one, but also complicated, for himself was a taser. He wasn't sure how he would implement it into his hand, he just knew it would need to be there. Not like a taser eye or spine made any sense. He would need to figure out how to get it to the specific charge and voltage of a professional level taser and figure how to make sure it didn't do damage to any other parts of his builds. It was a lot of variables to consider if he also thought of how far he still needed to go with the arm itself, but if he started early and worked hard he was sure he could do it.
At the current moment he was working on trying to recreate the exact charge he would need for the taser. Professional tasers, on a basic level, momentarily severed the brain's signals to the muscles, causing contractions, pain, and momentary paralysis, which usually caused them to collapse. It was the more intense option, and Izuku intended to also make a stun gun option, something less painful and more localized, but he needed to move one step at a time.
Izuku is leaning in close to a small box he has made, working inside of it with a soldering iron, protective goggles in place, his prosthetic holding down the machine while his left very slowly and carefully works on the circuits. Two prongs stand atop the box, a crude build for him, but good enough for the time being.
The prongs suddenly spark and Izuku looks up, moving his tools away. Oh, he didn't want that right now. He moves and turns a small dial on the box then goes back to work, his iron just making contact with a circuit, when…
Izuku yelps and falls out of his chair and under his desk when the box sparks even more brightly and the light above Izuku's station suddenly explodes. Izuku uses his prosthetic to pull the power cord for the box out of his wall and then sits there, under his desk, back aching and he just stares bug-eyed out into his room.
"Izuku??" he hears his mother call from outside his room followed by footsteps and he immediately calls back on instinct.
"I'm fine!" Izuku takes a deep breath. It looked like there was a lot more work to do.
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Izuku had been fine when he and his mother moved into the new apartment. Had been fine having to say good-bye to the Bakugous and the Hatsumes. Was fine every day he went out to do his exercises and that tortoiseshell ignored him or hissed at him. It was all sad and bittersweet, but he had been fine.
The first day in a new school, however, had him positively terrified. His mother had walked him to school early, him wheeling himself around in his motorized wheelchair. He had cleaned up the motor a little and it hardly made any noise save for a small squeak on turns while not moving forward.
While he was better at walking he had been advised to use the wheelchair still until he was entirely confident in his abilities. He really, really did not like it at all. These kids were going to already judge him on the arm and the eye and eventually on his quirkless nature once they found out, he hated having another thing to draw attention to him.
Add on he knew how the kids at his old school treated him. He knew their habits and which places to avoid and what not to talk about to avoid excess ridicule, but he didn't know these kids and that scared him. It scared him a lot.
The principal was at least a lot friendlier than his old one. A tiny man with a mane of fur running down his back and onto a tail that was so long he just flopped it over his shoulder. His teacher seemed the same as his old one, unfortunately, giving Izuku pitying looks and speaking to him like he was a baby. Izuku did not care for him.
When he was finally led to his room for class he thought, "This is it," as he stared at the classroom door. It was closed and the principal, who had been walking with him since he got there, opens the door for him, and lets Izuku wheel himself in. An immediate hush falls over the classroom. Izuku doesn't even know how loud it had been a moment ago, but he knows this silence is deafening.
He realizes he's shaking and quickly ducks his head, ears ringing. He can't hear what his teacher and the principal are saying anymore, but he figures it must be introductions of some kind. This is the first day of school, there's sure to be other students that weren't here the year before, but he gets treated differently because they think he needs the help. Because he's handicapped. He feels sick.
Izuku swallows and jumps in surprise when a hand touches his shoulder, he looks over to the principal, who is smiling kindly and bit apologetically, and Izuku appreciates that, but then he notices one of the students coming over to them from their seat.
"Midoriya, this is Haganehato Mashi. She will be here to help you on anything you may need as you get accustomed to our school," the principal says. Izuku feels like he's being treated like a new student in the middle of the year, and he knows they're just trying to help, but he still hates it.
He looks again to Haganehato, which sounds oddly familiar, and looks her over. She's short and scrappy with dark skin, green eyes, and a mess of blood red hair tied terribly up into mismatched pigtails. She looks like she doesn't want to be here either, helping out Izuku, and doesn't that just make him feel worse.
"Call me Mashi. It's better," she says in a grumpy voice and Izuku thinks of Katsuki and his eye falls, suddenly sad. He hadn't felt truly homesick until this very moment, missing his childhood friend.
The class itself goes by normally if Izuku ignores the stares from the other kids. He doesn't like where he sits, now, but it makes sense. He was used to sitting in the back, where he could get all his work done then begin writing in his notebooks and muttering in peace. Well, until someone would hush him, anyway. Now he sits in the desk closest to the door right beside a kid with blue scales covering their body and tentacles for hair.
For the most part Izuku does a great job ignoring everyone during the classes, but then it comes time for lunch. Mashi helps grab his bento from the pouch on the back of his wheelchair and he gets to eating, hoping that if he doesn't make eye contact with anyone no one will talk to him. All he has to do is get through lunch with no issue… For the rest of his elementary school and junior high life.
"Hey, Midoriya!" Yep, he should have suspected that it wasn't going to last, but he had really been hoping he could get away with at least a few days. Or minutes.
Izuku shrinks into his chair then slowly looks up. One of his classmates has pulled a chair up to the front of his desk and is sitting down. He hasn't brought over his food, but he's smiling friendly enough. He had no physical differences to him thanks to any quirk as far as Izuku could tell; his blond hair is in a bowl cut, the sides of which curling up from needing to be cut. Behind him are three more students, looking excited and curious.
"I'm Kaito," the boy in front of him says, bouncing slightly in his seat, looking every bit like an innocent looking kid. After all of the cruelty Izuku has dealt with, however, he knows that that could very easily be a ruse.
"H-hi…" Izuku greets slowly, ducking his head and glancing up at Kaito through his bangs. The boy doesn't seem too bothered, which Izuku really hopes is a good sign.
"So… we wanted to ask you how you like it here?" Asks one of the kids behind Kaito, a tiny boy with a baldhead covered in dark red spikes. A few of the kids nod in awkward agreement. Izuku swallows. Okay, at least they were being polite so far.
"It's normal," he says honestly, nodding, keeping his head and his voice down. "Nothing too different."
"You're the only new kid in our grade this year," says Kaito, cheerful and a little too much energy for Izuku. The green-haired boy looks around, trying to find something else to focus on. Anything, really. Anything at all.
He spots Mashi obviously watching him and the group of kids, not at all trying to be sneaky, and wonders what she knows that he doesn't. What are these kids like? Should Izuku be worried or not?
"So, yeah…" Kaito draws back his attention, tapping at the desk, looking up and around for a second, before, very suddenly, leaning forward across the desk, childish grin big, eyes twinkling as they meet Izuku's. "What happened to you, anyway?" he asks and Izuku sees the other kids smiling, excited and curious and with some kind of knowing look Izuku doesn't understand.
Izuku still shrinks back, opening his mouth to say that it didn't matter and he really just wanted to eat, but suddenly his mouth is moving like he can't control it. "A hero fight collapsed a building I was in, crushing my arm, destroying my eye, and causing severe damage to my spinal cord." The kids "oooh" in intrigue while Kaito nods, looking pleased and a little smug while Izuku's eye widens in horror and he raises his flesh hand to cover his mouth.
"Oh, sorry about that, I just wanted to know," Kaito apologizes too cheerfully for it to be real. The other kids don't look sorry either.
"Kaito's quirk makes it so if you make eye contact with him when he asks a question you have to answer it truthfully," says one of the kids, a girl with nails that are sparkling like crystal. Izuku can feel himself shaking, can feel the tears building as he stares in disbelief. What? Had he really just forced that information out of him? He felt like he was going to be sick, disbelief and disgust flooding his system.
Kaito evidently doesn't have any issue taking advantage of Izuku looking at him and catches his eye again as he asks, "That's my quirk, what's yours?"
Izuku's eye widens in even further horror, trying desperately to hold his hand in place, but an invisible pull makes it lower. He spots movement to his side, something red, as he opens his mouth. He sees Mashi marching past him towards Kaito as he says, without his control, "I don't have one." The kids don't have the chance to react to that, however, as Mashi reels back her arm and smashes her tiny fist into Kaito's face.
Izuku watches in open shock as Kaito falls out of his chair, hands clasped over his face, and the other kids jump back, looking at Mashi like she's a wild animal, and she may as well be with the way she bares her teeth.
"Go away you assholes!" Oh wow, she really was reminding Izuku of Katsuki if she cursed like that. "Leave him the hell alone or you deal with me! Got it???" she roars. Kaito scrambles to get up, looking furious at Mashi, opening his mouth to retort, but immediately the little girl jerks towards him, like she's going to lunge, and he squeaks and bolts away with his friends in tow, probably going to get a teacher.
Izuku stares in confusion and awe alike, not really sure what to make of what just happened. In his confusion he has somehow forgotten he was supposed to be crying and he quickly reaches up to wipe the one side of his face. Mashi blows a raspberry at the door then turns back to him, her hair even more wild and a crazy look in her eyes and Izuku shrinks away, terrified.
"I get why they made me look after you now!" she says in loud cheerfulness, nearly going a full 180, and it sends Izuku on edge. What was wrong with this girl? What could possibly be going through her head to think punching another kid was a good idea?
"Hey, hey, why are you scared? He was messin' with ya so I got him good!" she continues, stepping closer, grinning in a way that reminds Izuku oddly of a crocodile.
Yep, this woman was crazy and she needed to get away from him asap. He was already still emotionally fragile from what Kaito had done to him, still upset and broken and wanting to go home. He really didn't need this. He didn't need to be dealing with so much insanity. He had known he would have to be around new people at his new school but this was just too much.
"Haganehato Mashi to the principal's office. Haganehato Mashi to the principal's office," came the call over the intercom suddenly and Izuku wants to melt from relief. The girl looks up calmly, like it doesn't matter even though everyone knows why she's been called.
"That was fast. Called to the principal's office on the first day," she says thoughtfully then turns to give Izuku another frightening grin, "That's a new record!" Izuku wants to yell that that should never be something to be proud of, but he's scared she'll turn on him and deck him too, even if he is in a wheelchair.
"Aye, stop bein' all jumpy and shit," she says cheerfully as she walks to the door and Izuku just wants her to stop talking to him and go already. Then she calls over her shoulder and Izuku freezes, eye wide, "Me and you are gonna look out for each other! Us quirkless folk gotta stick together!"
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To Izuku's relief Mashi doesn't show back up to class for the rest of the day. He's certainly more curious of the evidently quirkless girl that has no issue reacting violently as if she had a quirk, but after everything, after Kaito and the staring and HER, he just wants to be left alone and get home.
The woman sent to pick him up and bring him home is waiting for him by the front gates when he gets out. He knows she's there for him thanks to the scrubs and the nametag on her breast pocket. It says her given name is Leanne and Izuku assumes she must be a foreigner, but when she speaks she doesn't sound like she has any form of accent.
"Hello there, Midoriya Izuku," Leanne greets as he rolls up to her. She's a tiny, pudgy, black woman with long hair tied up in a pony tail, straight cut bangs stopping just above her big, green eyes. "My name is Yu Leanne. I'll be the one looking after you from here on out."
"H-hello," Izuku mumbles, staring at her in confusion. Her family name was Yu but her given name was Leanne. That was odd, but Izuku really wasn't one to judge on someone's differences. Or at least he shouldn't.
"I really hope we get along. I have heard so many good things about you!" she goes on and Izuku can feel a blush coming on and he raises his prosthetic to shield his face in embarrassment.
"My mom was talking about me??" he asks, baffled, but then Leanne giggles cutely and is shaking her head.
"She did say you were a sweet boy, but no. My little sister actually was talking about you and suggested to everyone I look after you. You would know her as Sunny?"
Izuku blanches, mouth falling open and both arms falling limp. Sunny??? As in the mountain of a woman, the grouchiest human alive, his nurse, was this tiny, sweet woman's LITTLE sister. Before Izuku can ask what was going on or how this was true, Leanne raises both hands, staving off any questions, looking a little frazzled herself all of a sudden. "Oh dear, sorry, sorry, I should explain! She and I were adopted! Goodness, how embarrassing of me, just getting ahead of myself! I do apologize," she flails her hands for a moment before bowing a few times and, despite himself, Izuku is reminded of his mom.
And soon he finds himself smiling, some of his nerves from the past day releasing as he and the sweet woman go back to his apartment.
She lets him in first and comes in too. Technically her job is done now that they are here and Izuku is safe, but it seems she refuses to leave him just like that and wants to at least make him an after school snack to help stimulate healthy brain growth. Izuku sits down at the couch, trying to get a peak of Leanne through the kitchen doorway as she rummages about, but he ends up just giving up and getting to work on his homework. Only a few minutes pass when she returns with a plate of small crackers covered in different kinds of sliced fruits or vegetables, most of which have been designed to look like little animal faces or flowers. Izuku stares in awe at them, amazed that such a simple thing can look so yummy and cute, and Leanne finally decides to bid Izuku good-bye after she's assured he's okay, telling him to eat up.
Izuku does eat up, munching on the snack and finding it all so refreshing and flavorful. He is a tad confused about some of the slices, however, because he was pretty sure they didn't have some of these fruits and vegetables, but he wasn't going to complain. He would just have to ask his mother when she came home.
As he's finishing up on his homework, not taking long at all, he spots a shot of orange fur and looks up. After so many days the stray tabby had taken to waiting outside Izuku's back door for him to come out and pet him before it went to get its food. The young boy smiles, finishes up, and slowly stands and makes his way out.
After loving on the friendly herd of cats he goes further out to do his usual exercises, looking out for the angry tortoiseshell. As usual he does spot it, and as usual it avoids him like the plague. Izuku sighs. Oh well. Maybe one of these days…
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AllRightAllMight01001001: I met your female clone, today.
Izuku had later that day settled down in his bed, his laptop in his lap, chatroom up on the screen. It had taken a while to configure the computer to actually do other normal computer things, like download applications and run them, but it had eventually started working, much to Izuku's joy and pride.
Now he waits, the last of Leanne's snacks sitting on a plate to his left within reach, looking at the screen and waiting for the usual ding.
KingKill: THE FUCK??
KingKill: Nobody's like me, you hear?? NOBODY!
Izuku smiles at the expected response, munching on a cracker covered in apples and a little cinnamon, trying not to laugh as he just waits a little more, offering no reply.
KingKill: THE HELL'S SHE LIKE, THEN???
KingKill: What makes you think she could ever be like me??
AllRightAllMight01001001: Well, she does yell a lot.
Izuku has to wait a little extra long and he tries not to laugh, imagining Katsuki replying in all caps, realizing what he was doing, and forcing himself to delete it all and retype his reply.
KingKill: I don't yell that much.
AllRightAllMight01001001: I'm sorry to break this to you, Kacchan, but you yell SO. MUCH.
KingKill: Shitty nerd Deku come say that to my face.
Ah, that was probably supposed to be in all caps, too. Izuku does giggle this go round, but decides to cut Katsuki some slack and goes ahead onto the next subject.
AllRightAllMight01001001: Hey, I wanted to ask your opinion on the robotic prosthetics.
KingKill: Of course you do.
Izuku ignores the obvious sass and condescending tone behind the silent word and continues.
AllRightAllMight01001001: I'm focusing on the arm right now, it will most likely be easiest to manage, but I need to find a way to control it more easily.
There is a long, long stretch of silence. Izuku isn't surprised. He is just as stumped as anyone would be. They had talked about the issue a little bit back before March, but did not go into too much detail. It was an issue for another day, and honestly, it still was, but Izuku was impatient and he wanted to get ahead already. It was illogical as well as dangerous to think like that, he knew that, but he just couldn't help himself.
KingKill: You ever seen those weird board games where you wear a brain scanner and make a ball float with your mind?
AllRightAllMight01001001: No, but it sounds kind of silly.
KingKill: Stupid. It sounds stupid.
KingKill: BUT LIKE HELL ARE WE STUPID!!
AllRightAllMight01001001: Are you suggesting I create some kind of brain scanner to connect my brain to the arm?
KingKill: What else did you think I was saying???
Izuku leans back in his bed and looks up at the ceiling. A brain scanner could work, but not as a final product. He needed to use as few pieces as possible, and he couldn't imagine making one brain scanner for all the pieces he intended to use. He supposes he could try, but it would be too easy for a villain to break it or take it.
AllRightAllMight01001001: It's a good start, I certainly didn't think of it, and I'll look into it.
KingKill: I sense a but. THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH MY IDEA??? ITS BRILLIANT!!
AllRightAllMight01001001: *it's
KingKill: SCREW YOU!
AllRightAllMight01001001: And it is brilliant, just not the scanner part.
AllRightAllMight01001001: I need to focus on the "connect to brain" part. That's the ticket. I just need to figure out how.
It took a little time, but soon he had multiple books, theories, and research papers on an assortment of neuroscience studies on his computer. He looks over them, organizing them on his screen, and with a deep breath he gets to work.
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Mashi is waiting for Izuku the next day at school out in front and Izuku does not know how to feel about that. Inko kisses his cheek good-bye and they share I love you's and then he is all alone to deal with the demon girl.
He needs to go to class, however, he can't just skip the second day of school, he can't just run, so he forces himself forward and makes note to upgrade the wheelchair to have a turbo boost. It looks as if he won't be getting out of this meeting, despite his prayers she would just turn around, despite him keeping his face down, and it frustrates him and brings up the stress and panic from yesterday at lunch.
"Midoriya, hey!" she calls and Izuku feels the sudden urge to curse and blames Katsuki for such an impulse, but he's trapped and he sees her sneakers as she gets up to him, his head still low. "Hey… you alright? What's up?" she questions, energy still high and loud despite also sounding concerned. They're both a little early to class so they do have time to talk, Izuku just doesn't want to.
"I'm fine," he mumbles, looking to the side, and he knows he doesn't sound fine. He knows he sounds defensive and frightened, but he can't bring it in himself to care.
"No you aren't," Mashi says bluntly and Izuku flinches away from her, which she evidently notices. He sees her sneakers take a step back. "Are you mad with me?" She asks and finally her voice has lowered and she has the decency to sound hesitant.
"No," Izuku replies honestly, because he isn't. He doesn't think he's ever been mad with anyone before, not truly. Frustrated, certainly, but never mad.
"Are you scared of me?" and the way she says it has Izuku looking up curiously, like she almost expected it and the lack of hesitation in the way she asks makes it seem like she has asked the question before. She's looking at Izuku sadly and slowly, feeling suddenly vulnerable in a mutual kind of way, he nods. Mashi nods back at him, taking that in, and scratching at the top of her head, her pigtails in better shape today.
"I'm sorry," she says honestly and with a strong enough push that Izuku thinks she's trying extra hard to make him believe her. His brow furrows and his eye narrows suspiciously. "I was on my way to make 'em stop anyway, 'cause they were assholes, but when I heard you say you were quirkless, like me, I got really excited!" Her voice is raising with excitement and her eyes are twinkling as she looks at Izuku, fists up and out to her sides like she's ready to fight, but then she deflates. "I didn't mean to scare you, or make ass—uh… assoo, er… ascensions?"
"Assumptions," Izuku offers instinctively and Mashi nods, pointing at him for a moment.
"Yeah, that. I've been kinda on my own at this school my whole life. Only quirkless one in our grade, and all the kids are so mean and call me worthless or, or, or… useless! OR! Or…" Mashi trails off, obviously frustrated, and Izuku stares at her, feeling a familiar, painful pang in his chest at what she's describing. He takes a breath and looks at her more closely, sizing her up and trying to put these new pieces into the puzzle he was building of this new school.
Mashi was loud and swore and was ready to fight at the drop of a hat from the looks of yesterday, but she was also quirkless, like Izuku, and was alone, like Izuku, and was ridiculed and treated as nothing better than the gum under someone's boot, like Izuku. He stares at her for a long, long moment, just listening and thinking as she fumes. He wasn't sure that they would be the best of friends, he didn't think, with her attitude, that it was possible, but that didn't mean they couldn't be friends at all and look after each other.
He sighs and nods partially to himself, looking down at his lap, his flesh hand tapping on his armrest. He was going to do this. He was going to make a friend with yet another crazy person. What the hell was wrong with him?
"Hey, Haganehato-chan?" He cuts her off, and apparently she at least is listening because he doesn't have to repeat himself.
She looks at him with wide, surprised eyes and just instinctively says, "Use Mashi, it's better…"
Izuku nods absently and slightly apologetically. "Right, Mashi-chan—"
"No honorific please." Izuku gives her an exasperated look and she straightens, shoulders rising in embarrassment and she mumbles, "Sorry. Go on?"
"Mashi… Do you want to be my friend?" he finally asks, summoning all his courage to say it with a straight, confident tone and expression. Mashi's eyes light up immediately, but then she deflates, looking down and away, her emotions changing in blinks.
"I don't want you to feel obligated just because I gave you my sob story," she grumbles, seeming more irritated with herself than with Izuku, but Izuku is already shaking his head and waving her off.
"I heard plenty of sob stories in the hospital. Yours has no sway on me," he half jokes, although he isn't exactly lying. He really had heard a lot of kids' sad, terrible tales, but he had learned quickly not to allow them to use them to get something from him, because some of them were more than happy to try.
It seems to ease some of Mashi's fears, but she still tilts her head and asks, "Aren't you scared of me, though?"
"Absolutely terrified," he says immediately, bluntly, and it's such a surprise it makes both of them snort, "but you should have seen my best friend at my old school, or my rival in inventions. Being terrified usually isn't a great deterrent for me making friends." Had he just called Katsuki his best friend? He doesn't think they are anymore, but he was the closest thing Izuku had, and he didn't have time to explain the tentative parts of his relationship with his childhood friend.
Mashi is grinning, her energy coming back, and Izuku is happy he could do that, make someone, anyone, happier. "I would love to be your friend, then, Midoriya-kun!" she booms, hands on her hips, feet out in a solid stance, grin on her face. Izuku chuckles nervously, scratching at his cheek. "Also!" he looks up to her, sees she has a finger up as she takes a moment to consider something, "What is a deterrent? I thought that's what went in the laundry."
"That's detergent…"
"Oh, cool, thanks!"
Lord, what had he gotten himself into now?
----------
Three weeks later finds Izuku sitting at his work bench, protective goggles on, his door shut with the "warning, dangerous tools at play" sign up, and his welding pen, a small invention he made a few years back, zapping and crackling in front of him as he pieced together a new build.
He had decided he would be focusing on the arm invention first and had gotten to work on the next prototype, focusing on durability while also keeping the delicate pieces intact within. A blueprint of a headpiece also sits above his head on his hanging board, a few other blueprints and ideas tacked on around it. He would be getting to that next, to at least get a prototype going.
He had been studying neuroscience as often as he could these past three weeks. It was new to him, however, and complex in ways he had not anticipated. He knew hardware and machines. The human brain and nervous system seemed to be its own monster.
It would take time, how much he wasn't sure, but he would get it eventually. He just needed to work on it and not let up.
He sets down his welder pen and leans back in his chair, letting out a long, tired sigh. He had been working on the same build for weeks now, but there were so many pieces that he knew little about that could have an outcome he knew nothing about or how to pinpoint and fix. It was tedious work to say the least.
Outside there is a boom of thunder, making Izuku jump suddenly and look behind him at his own sliding door, eye wide. When had it begun to rain? When had it gotten so dark? Izuku glances at his clock and cringes. Oh, he had been in here for hours without noticing. That wasn't good.
Izuku sighs and begins putting up his things as best he can. It was probably a good idea to stop anyway and try to get some sleep, but a flash and another crack of thunder has him dropping some of his tools and cringing. He shakes for a moment, breathing the way his mother had shown him, before he can shakily lean down and pick up the tools.
Ever since the incident Izuku has not done well with thunderstorms. He doesn't know why, or maybe he does and he doesn't like to think about it, but he doesn't like them at all and each one was its own nightmare.
Another flash and boom and thankfully Izuku isn't carrying anything this time, deciding he's done with his tools, and is just about ready to go climb into bed with his mother when he hears a yowl from outside. He looks back to his door and spots it, the orange tabby sitting on his back porch, looking shaken and pathetic as it paws at the glass. Izuku shifts closer, hesitant, looking down at the cat's pleading eyes. When the thunder comes the next time Izuku does jump and whimper, but he also sees that the tabby seems to puff up in fright as well.
He can't help it. He opens the sliding door. The tabby doesn't bolt in like he expected but instead is slow and hesitant, unsure of the new environment, but okay with being out of the rain. "You don't like thunder and lightning either?" Izuku whispers, leaning down to pet the tabby, and he smirks a little, trying to calm his own nerves. "You aren't a very good stray, are you?" The tabby's tail flicks as if irritated but nothing more.
It seemed he would be harboring a cat tonight. He supposed if he woke up early and let it out before his mom came in to get him it would all be okay. Just tonight. So he goes to close the sliding door, just looking outside for a moment, when he spots it. The tortoiseshell sitting over on the porch with the cat food, just sitting and shaking and there's a small smear of red on the concrete beneath it that suddenly has Izuku's heart racing and he rushes to his closet to get an umbrella.
He hardly notices the next clap of thunder and lightning, reflexively flinching, but keeps moving back outside and over to the other porch, legs extra wobbly from fright, but working fine with his sudden adrenaline, everything moving so quickly.
He stops just shy of the cat, umbrella raised, and suddenly at a loss on what to do. The cat would never let him near it before, why would it now? From where he is standing the tortoiseshell is just sitting there, breathing heavy, like it's waiting for something, a gash on its right hind leg, shaking. It looks sharply back at Izuku as he approaches, gold eyes like fire, and hisses.
What was Izuku thinking? He couldn't help the poor thing if it never let him near it.
But something in him, something instinctive and loud and impossible to ignore, told him to try. That if he could do anything he should. So he tries, and he's slow, but he still moves forward, gentle and patient, his prosthetic hand raised as the flesh one holds the umbrella.
The cat hisses again and Izuku pauses. "It's okay," he whispers, gentle and just loud enough over the rain. More thunder and lightning has him flinching, but with every last nerve in his body he tries to control himself and focus again on the cat. "You know me. You judge my exercises and me every day. You know I would never hurt you."
Another step forward, another hiss, but the cat isn't moving away. The paw it had raised to attack a moment ago has lowered. Okay, good, that was good. This was working. He just had to keep going.
"Yeah, see? I'm Izuku. It's nice to meet you properly Mr. Tortoiseshell. I'm going to help you, don't worry," he's begun muttering instead of actually speaking, but it still seems to put the cat at some kind of ease and soon Izuku finds himself on his knees beside the hurt cat, umbrella now balanced against his right shoulder. It has its ears back still, glaring back at Izuku, but there is no more hissing. Izuku reaches out tentatively, palm out, when thunder, distant thankfully, has him flinch up and freeze, hand curling up.
He takes a few steadying breaths, feeling shaky and ready to cry, when something bumps his hand. He looks down and sees the tortoiseshell staring back at him, looking impatient, before it reaches its head up again and bumps it to Izuku's hand. Izuku hiccups, smiling despite his mounting tears, and after a few gentle pets, he slowly stands.
"Okay I'm going to go get my mom and we're going to get you some help real fast, I prom—" Izuku is cut off when a flash of lightning suddenly illuminates the area and something catches his eye. His neighbor's sliding door is open – has it been open this whole time? – and standing there is a person staring right back at him.
Izuku is so shocked that he doesn't even notice the boom of thunder.
The person there is older than him, taller, but still a young man, even if he looks scruffy, medical supplies in hand. He has bags beneath his eyes, his long, black hair a tangled mess, a deep frown on his face, a black one piece uniform, and one of the most bizarre scarves Izuku has ever seen in his life, the thin, white thing wrapping dozens of times around his neighbor's neck.
The man tilts his head down, his dark eyes narrowing as he glares at Izuku. When he opens his mouth a deep, exhausted voice comes out.
"What the hell are you doing on my porch in the middle of a thunderstorm?"