Chapter 69: Surprise Unicorn Girl
Summary: Training and Cuteness
Chapter 69: Surprise Unicorn Girl
Izumi blinked in surprise a moment after walking through the doors of the USJ, and she couldn't imagine herself being the only one that did. It had been a while since they had been here, for some frankly fairly obvious reasons, but Rescue Training was still a critical part of the UA Heroics program, and this was their most advanced facility for it. It was, as such, not at all unexpected that they'd finally found their way back here for some general environmental rescue training and drills.
What was unexpected was the adorable little girl in a puffy sweater, half-hiding behind Thirteen's legs. A little girl she recognized. She was certainly looking far better than the last time Izumi had seen her in the aftermath of the Shie Hassaikai raid, but there was no question that this little girl was Eri. What on earth was she doing here? UA had taken over her guardianship due to the dangerous nature of her powers. Izumi knew that much. But it certainly didn't explain why she was here. Thankfully, an explanation was forthcoming quickly as the rest of the class filed in.
"Welcome back, students! It's been some time since our last meeting here, and there have been quite a few changes! For you, for me, and even for the facility!"
Thirteen's hand came down to touch Eri's shoulder, a smile visible on her face. A face which, in a very rare fashion, was visible due to the heroine having removed her helmet. That face looked remarkably youthful, one of many reasons the nearly-thirty-year-old heroine didn't normally let the public see it. The short blue hair that framed her face almost made her look related to Eri, whose own hair had darkened a bit nearer the roots, now that she wasn't being constantly taken apart and put back together.
"A few of you have already met her, but this is my newly adopted daughter, Kurose Eri. Say hello Eri!"
Eri looked uncertain, clutching at Thirteen's suit, but one hand did come out and tentatively wave at the class, instantly getting squeals at the adorableness from Mina and Toru. She appeared to recognize Izumi after a moment, her wave getting more enthusiastic at the sight of her, before she shrunk back in on herself and hid farther behind her adoptive mother's leg.
"Eri is still working on control of her Quirk. A Quirk which, very much like mine, has the potential to both save lives and cause quite a bit of damage. Something which a number of you have already encountered with your own Quirks as you've begun to more fully stretch your muscles as Heroes and Heroines. That discovery is also why you're all here today."
Quite a few people visibly perked up. Midnight hadn't actually told them what today was about. Nor had All Might, who was standing to one side with his usual Resting Smiley Face going. Thirteen gestured his way, causing him to wave, and brought his presence up to help her point.
"All Might is in much the same category. His Quirk can cause immense devastation if he gets things even a little wrong. Just as mine or Eri's can. For that matter, Midoriya and Bakugo are in the same situation with their Quirks. While many of you, be it Miss Yaoyorozu and Jirou, or Sato and Aoyama, end up in the same general category due to your equipment."
That was, indeed, a good list of the more destructive members of the class. All of whom were grimacing a bit at the call outs. There was no condemnation in Thirteen's voice, but every one of them had struggled to some extent with collateral damage and they each knew it.
"Others of you have similar capacity for destruction, and all of you may find yourself in the situations we're covering today. Specifically, all of you are taking a crash course in structural integrity. Be it buildings or unstable mountain terrain, a Heroine unaware of how to pick out the weak points in her environment can be the cause of more devastation than a Villain. Today, we'll start on the basics of both what to look for to not bring down a building or mountain…while at the same time looking at the flip side where that might be exactly what you want to do."
That elicited some noises of confusion from a few people, which caused Thirteen to grin…and stab out a finger to put Izumi on the spot.
"One of your class members recently demonstrated what I mean, when she deliberately brought down both a warehouse and underground parking garage in order to change the battlefield to her advantage. Miss Midoriya, would you care to explain?"
Trying not to blush horribly as everyone looked at her with wide eyes, Izumi did not stammer. No matter what anyone else said. Instead, she womanfully started to explain the circumstances of her fight against Overhaul…
... ...
Momo winced as she watched another one of her classmates hit the wrong spot on the artificial rockfall, causing the equally artificial rockslide to thunder down the 'mountain' and squish a bunch of ballistics-gel dummies filled with fake blood. The whole thing was somewhat gruesomely realistic, which made her glad that Thirteen had put All Might in charge of this particular section, keeping little Eri well away from the fake carnage. The fact that this was the fourth such failure made her mind tick over with plans to add some sort of 'structural point estimator' app to the HSN Scouters. It wouldn't be a perfect fix, and they'd have to be careful with the legal phrasing to make sure they weren't liable for someone relying too heavily on it. But it had to be better than nothing, right?
As a dozen bots industriously reset the rockfall, All Might took a pale-faced Asui aside. Given the girl wanted to be a Rescue Hero, the mistake was likely to shake her a little. But All Might was good at giving pep-talks. Which meant Momo was fine to focus on the next person up for attempting the Rock Fall. Mina was looking just as wide-eyed and pale faced, and she hadn't even gone yet. Then again, the pinkette wasn't exactly all that great with highly technical bits of work like this. Still, she had an advantage if she would only use it. Momo just needed to remind her of it. Mina half-jumped in fright as Momo laid a hand on her shoulder, making Momo want to giggle. She focused on keeping a straight face instead, for Mina's sake.
"Remember what we figured out about your acid generation, Mina. Quirks are, as my girlfriend is so fond of saying, bullshit. If you go super high into the viscosity index, your acids can become more like a glue. Even if that's the next best thing to impossible with real acids. If you think you can't get the exact point you need…"
Mina brightened as Momo trailed off, a lot of her paleness fading at the reminder.
"Right! I can reinforce points I think are weak first!"
Momo nodded but added a touch of caution to Mina's enthusiasm.
"You won't be able to reach all those points safely. Use your sprayers and be careful even so. But it will give you a bit of an edge."
Mina nodded gratefully, even as All Might returned. She flashed Momo as slightly shaky smile.
"Right! Thanks, Yaomomo! I've got this! Probably…"
... ...
"Kiri? You know I love you, right?"
Kirishima tried to look completely innocent. Which was really hard with his head shoved through a wall and the rest of his body dangling free on the other side.
"Of course, Mina!"
Mina leveled a deadpan expression at him, even as she carefully deployed an acid that could eat concrete but not her boyfriend. If it did a little costume damage? Well, he deserved it and she wouldn't mind the show.
"Then can you please explain to me how this happened?"
Kirishima looks extremely sheepish.
"Uh…it seemed like a good idea at the time?"
... ...
*Boom*
The entire class, plus both Thirteen and All Might, stared incredulously as Uraraka knocked out a wall…and the building didn't fall. Even Eri, ears covered in adorably cat-themed ear protection, was looking on with disbelief.
"She's not using her Quirk, right?"
Izumi shook her head in the negative, in response to Sero's incredulous question. She'd already checked her QE scanner just to make sure. Four walls ago. Surprisingly, it was Bakugo that spoke up with an explanation a moment later. He sounded a little chagrined.
"She said that it's a game called 'Demolition Jenga' that her parents taught her. How to take a building apart in such a way that each collapsing bit actually just makes it more stable. Right until you knock out the last bit. Then the whole thing collapses in a neat pile."
Everyone switched to staring at him and he actually blushed slightly.
"I might have challenged her to see if she was making it up? It sounded kinda badass…"
Looking back at the extremely determined look on Ochako's face as she picked out another wall, Izumi couldn't help but ask.
"Challenged her with what?"
There was a moment of silence. Then an embarrassed sounding answer.
"All you can eat Mochi on me if she could actually do it?"
There was a collective sound of sudden understanding from the entire class. Every single one of them knew what a Mochi Monster the girl was. Abruptly, her determination made complete sense. Toru, however, quickly seized on something else.
"Ooooh! Wait? Does that mean you owe her a date. Kats! I didn't know you had it in you!"
Katsuki spluttered, trying to deny it, even as Mina sensed weakness and joined in on grilling him. Izumi merely cocked her head and considered. It…wasn't impossible? Though she was fairly certain the two were just an odd pair of friends focused on acts of ultra-violence. Still, stranger things had happened…
... ...
Thirteen watched with visible approval and a little surprise as Toru concentrated the light from both the environment and her newest piece of support gear. While the miniature flood light couldn't be DNA coded to go invisible with her, it was small enough to easily discard and powerful enough to provide the light for what Toru was doing right now. Specifically, refracting and focusing said light into a tight laser beam she was using to make a clean cut through the debris blocking her way. Doing so would allow her to avoid having to risk collapse of the building during the simulated Rescue, even if it wasn't exactly what Thirteen had originally had in mind. A moment later, the piece of steel beam split and Toru was able to safely pull it out.
"Yes! Now I can just…"
Toru wiggled through the hole, and quickly returned with a pair of dummies marked as the civilians she was supposed to rescue.
"Very good, Hagakure! Not quite what I had in mind, but an excellent application of your Quirk for this scenario!"
Toru beamed and bounced back to the group, with Sero taking her place as Thirteen directed him to the next prepared scenario…
It was after the first half of class, during a break between groups, that Izumi felt a gentle tug on her costume skirt. She had, of course, sensed the little girl coming. But she'd waited for her to work up her courage so as not to startle her. Now, she smiled gently down at Eri, the adorable little girl looking determined but uncertain. Having at least a little experience in dealing with traumatized kids from her pre-UA disaster relief work, Izumi did one of the things she knew sometimes helped. She sat down.
The change in altitude put Eri at eye level to her, instead of looking up, and she could see that it worked a little bit. Not a lot maybe, the reaction tended to be a subconscious thing as far as Izumi could tell. But it helped a little. Enough, apparently, for the little girl to work up the nerve to speak.
"T-Thank you."
Izumi cocked her head and smiled. She wasn't going to make the kid work for it. She could guess why Eri had approached her specifically. And why her new mother was hovering not too far away.
"You mean for making Overhaul go away?"
Eri nodded roughly, then surprised Izumi by darting forward and hugging her. She oofed in surprise, but quickly returned a gentle hug to the girl.
"You are very welcome, Eri. I wish that the bad things hadn't happened to you at all. But I'm glad I was able to help make them stop. And I'm even more glad to see you've found a place for yourself. Your new mom is an amazing woman. One I look up to a lot."
Eri nodded into Izumi's shoulder, then drew back. Her expression wasn't quite a smile. But it was something close.
"She's teaching me how to use my Quirk! She says it isn't a curse. That I can use it to help people!"
Izumi smiled, even as she inwardly cursed at parts of that comment, wishing she'd hit Overhaul harder.
"She's right! You have the potential to do amazing things, Eri! You can help people in a way not even Recovery Girl can. And she's one of the best! If you want it, someday, a lot of people will know who you are, and they'll thank you just like you said thank you to me. For the same reasons, even. Because you were their Hero, when they needed one."
Eri actually did smile at that, even if it was a shaky thing. Uncertain.
"You…you really think so?"
Izumi reached up to rub the little girl on the head and smile.
"If that's what you want? Then I don't just think so, I know so. Anyone can be a Hero, Eri. And those who know what it is to hurt can be the best Heroes of all. Do you know why?"
Eri shook her head, looking arrested but confused.
"It's because those people, the ones who still want to help when they've gone through so much themselves, who will never look down on someone else for suffering. Whose instinct when they see someone else suffering is to reach out a hand and ask if that person needs help. The ones who know what it's like don't look away and ignore the suffering they see."
The little girl looked at her with serious eyes, seeming to understand on some level. Abruptly, she hugged Izumi again, whispered another 'thank you,' and scampered back to her mother's side. Somehow, Izumi thought Eri would prove her right. Someday, that little girl would realize that Izumi had told her only half the truth. That she hadn't mentioned the some of those that suffer became the problem all over again when they rose above the suffering. But for now, that ugly truth was a distant thing, unimportant to what a little girl needed to hear. And she was somehow certain Eri herself would end up as one of the good ones, anyway…
Besides, just perhaps, Izumi had needed the reminder too. It was a lesson she'd learned not from her own experiences, but from 2B's. It made it too easy to forget, and the little reminder never to let that remain the case was a good one, she thought. Shaking off the half maudlin thought, Izumi stood and brushed off her costume.
It was time to get back to work.
... ...
In the deep of night, in an abandoned warehouse next door to another that had been totally wrecked, a malformed canine slunk into a hidden corner and froze in place. It shuddered and shivered for a moment, before growling in pain…and imploding into a pile of salt. Hovering right where its heart had been, was a tiny spec of black void that seemed to suck in and devour the little light there was in the warehouse. If any with the eyes or sensors to see it had been present, they would have witnessed the massive and stagnant pool of QE that had yet to properly dissipate from a battle between behemoths begin to flow toward that void. As it did, the void grew. This time, there was nothing jagged, rough, or uneven about the hole in space that began to form…
... ... ... ... ... ...
A/N: So, in part this chapter is to show what happened to Eri. I've never been on board with the idea of her somehow becoming a teenager's responsibility. But her being made a ward of UA makes a lot of sense, given how dangerous her Quirk is. The idea it has to be Eraserhead or Izuku/Izumi is...sort of stupid, though. Eri's Quirk is only dangerous when it has built up a lot of energy, and her horn serves as a visual indicator of her stockpile. So long as she's encouraged not to let that stockpile build up, she can essentially be handled by anyone, as the worst that can happen is they get rewound a few minutes or hours, not out of existence. As such, that opens up the entire teaching staff as people that might be intrested...and I actually thought Anan (Thirteen) would be a perfect fit for her. Someone who understands dangerous Quirks and how to train them safely, and someone who's rather gentle of nature. Frankly, I think they are an adorable fit and hope I get to show them some more in the future...