Chapter 111. Genealogy
I finished my speech with some heavy breathing from yelling too much. I had a smile thinking of what a great hero that this boy could be. Toga, still disguised as me, was breathing heavily at the sight of my speech. She seemed to like me being commanding. I looked back at Twice, who was almost ready to take my outstretched hand, but something was holding him back. “I… I… I don’t know if I can.” I looked at him for a second. “Why?” He looked down and just barely uttered. “I… Don’t know if… I’m me.” I started chuckling at that. He looked like he was about to start crying through his mask.
“I’m sorry, but your conundrum is kinda stupid.” He looked at me starting to get mad, but I cut him off before he could talk. “What makes us, us?” He started to get confused by my question. “Ok let me try this in a different way. Let’s say you make a copy of me. Now that copy takes a different path than I do. That path that we pick differently leads us further apart from each other. A year passes, and we both meet each other again. We are completely different people. Now, who is the original?” He speaks up almost instantly. “You would be.” I nodded. “Yes, I would be, but does that detract from all of the experiences the other me has taken?” He looked stunned at my next question, and I chuckled a little bit.
“That is how I see it. We both started the same place, but as time goes on he becomes just as human as I could have been. If you are really not the original, then ‘So what?’ is all I have to say. You are breathing, eating, wondering, human right in front of me. If you aren’t the original then you aren’t, but you are better than him. You are a version of him that is trying to learn from his mistakes. If it really bugs you that much, you could always take up philosophy. That is a whole field of trying to make sense of things. There was a famous one who had a great saying that I think will help you.” Twice was crying under his mask, but still looked up at me in wonder of what else I might say.
“I think, therefore, I am.” Hearing this really released the dam on his tear ducts. I continued on while he was blubbering. “You can rise above your past self, and be better than all of them. You just need the will to be in just as much danger as yourselves. You have to prove to yourself that you would also lift the weight of what you need. The more you do that the less you will have to wonder. You are you, and your copies are also you. You stand on equal ground with each other. If you are still too afraid to copy yourself, that is fine. We will work on your fears bit by bit. But right now… I just want to know… Do you want to help others?” He just nodded fervently as I stood up and patted him on the back.
“Welcome to the family.” I said while giving a gentle smile. Toga seemed to take notice of what was happening finally, now that her disguise was wearing off. She just looked at the crying Twice, and patted his back as well. Seeing Toga do that I petted her head as a reward. She got a giant smile after receiving it, and hugged me tightly again. We stayed like that for a while, unknown to me all of the teachers in the conference room were watching this live from a hidden camera that I didn’t know about.
“That kid really has a way with words. It is understandable that he really was able to talk Toga down in the field.” Snipe was the first to talk, his voice was radiating a slight bit of pride. President Mic spoke up next. “It is hard to know if he really is a spy or not. He shows the ability of words like ‘him’, and his quirk definitely is very suspicious, but the way he is pointing the other students to become better heroes shows he is against ‘him’.” The principal spoke up next with his cheery smile. “I believe I have something that may shed some light on a few of his mysteries.” He then pulled out a file, and put it under a projector for others to see. What they saw made them all open their mouths.
“Do you think he knows?” ‘Midnight’ asked, surprisingly serious. The principal shook his head. “It’s hard to tell, but I don’t believe he does. I have spoken to the class president, and he revealed a little of what Kaminari said to him on his ride over to Snipe’s agency. According to him, it seems Kaminari has either removed the memory, or never learned about the way his parents died on purpose. He most likely does not know about his own genealogy.” The other teachers nodded while Aizawa was asking a new question.
“That does explain some of the techniques that he has come up with, and his bouts of rage. However, from my knowledge his father was much darker. According to his friends, he loved his parents. How much do you think he has altered in his mind? And if so, is this just a bomb waiting to go off?” This caught the attention of the principal. “It could be possible that his father never showed his other side around the family. It would be impossible to guess, and the more we ask about his family the more he will dig into it himself. You know how much he likes to read in-between the lines. Keeping this from him is the best idea. I’m telling this to you all because I trust that you all, and that you don’t start something by accident later asking questions you shouldn’t. We leave this alone, and Kaminari will be none the wiser.”
All of the teachers nodded and looked at Aizawa. Aizawa sighed, because he knew what the looks were for. “I have no qualms about teaching him. Just because what his father did, doesn’t mean he is the same. I don’t care about anything other than what personality a person has, and if they have potential.” The teachers nodded while President Mic asked a question of his own.
“But how did that happen in the end? It just doesn’t make any sense. Did she really not know about him? Did she help him with words just like Kaminari can? Did he actually change his ways? We did lose track of him around the same time Kaminari would have been born.” The others nodded, but the principal reaffirmed his stance. “We may never know, just like Kaminari. It is better for everyone that way.” ‘President Mic’ nodded while a little disheartened at never unraveling this mystery. With that the council was over.
I was now inside the hospital after I got a permission slip from the principal for Toga to be allowed. The teachers were looking at me funny, but I shrugged it off as them wondering whether I would really pursue a relationship with Toga. I didn't really know. ‘The girls said they believed in letting others in, if they felt they deserved a chance to be with me, and if they really did love me as much as they did. Man, I miss them…’ I sighed as I was walking to the room they were keeping Kyoka and the other passed out students.
Toga was looking at me after I sighed. “You're sad that your other girls aren’t here?” She asked with slight abrasion in her voice. I sighed again. “Well that’s part of it. I just wonder if they find you worthy enough to have a chance. Although thinking about it, you would just try it anyway.” I chuckled a little at my conclusion and Toga smiled and nodded happily. “I want to see them again, and really talk about you, and yes, I do just miss being around them. I feel lonely without seeing them in a while. It’s not that you don’t measure up. If, and I mean if, I fall in love with you, I would feel the same way if I hadn’t seen you in a few days.”
She jumped into my arm and started to try and go for my neck again. I had to duck out of her way a little to stop her. She whimpered a little bit, but I had to be firm. “We can’t right now. I’m gonna run out of blood if we keep up this pace. Please just wait a little bit. Remember, love isn’t just about sexual pleasure. We also have to be at peace in each other's presence. A little like when you are just in my arms. Just you being you, and me being me. We are just ourselves together, and that is ok. Yes, love can also be about sexual things, but relationships built on that are toxic and will never last. You have to love me without needing your fetishes to keep it going. They can add spice from time to time, but if you can’t love me without it for a few days then you won’t be learning anything.” I finished my lesson and Toga looked dejected.
I sighed and embraced her. She was startled at what I was doing. Normally she always had to make the first moves after someone learned her real self. “You are like that, and that’s ok. You are making an effort to change and see things my way. I have to reward you for that.” I said while she was embracing me back.
“Not long ago, I had to explain what things a girl does that would make me fall in love with her. I can’t tell you what they are, because you might just change yourself for me. But because you are already doing one I’ll let you know. One of the things would be for the person to stop doing something they like for my sake. I’m not saying that you would never have my blood again, or like to transform into me, but just knowing that you would still love me without it, is what I would love. Do you get what I’m trying to say?” I looked down at her ruffled hair. She looked up at me with her yellow upturned eyes.
She was blushing, but it wasn’t as maddening as before. She looked like she wanted to check if I wasn’t lying. Like I was telling her a sweet lie. I smiled gently at her and nodded. “Those fetishes are a part of love, but they can’t be the whole. You have to generally love me without the need of my blood everyday. You have to love my personality and not my body. I know this is new territory for you, so we’ll do this slowly. You just need to be comfortable being around me, and I can see that you already are. You already have taken the first step into a more healthy relationship. I’ll be with you every step of the way, that is what love is. The idea of bettering yourself for the other person to be happier. I’ll try to get more comfortable with your fetishes, and you’ll get more comfortable with being around me without the constant need of my blood.”
She looked at me for a second, trying to process all of what I just said. I just smiled at her while waiting for her to think through all that I said. She then buried her head into my chest while talking. “You really won’t leave me? You really will love me if I can go a few days without your blood?” I just rubbed her back as I spoke gently. “Yes, I promise I will never leave you, as long as you keep our promise of never attacking anyone, but me with your sexual stabbing. And yes I can’t help but love you if you show me you care about me and what I want. I know that you really love my blood. If you can show me that you love me enough to abstain from something you like for me, then it will show me that you care about me more than just my blood. I can’t help but love people that show they love me back.” She just nodded while most likely crying in my arms.