Chapter Text
They managed to find her gang in record time. She announced the arrival by making the best girl visible and received immediately excited waves. Instantly, the familiar presence made her less jittery.
"This is is Midoriya Izuku. The cool kid I meet today." Translation: I want to befriend that one. Already kidnaped and prepped him for indoctrination. Please help.
"Are we adopting him?" Translation: Does he get to have a word in this?
"Hopefully." Translation: Nope.
Hitoshi sagely nodded in response and Kieruko gracefully allowed others to take the lead as they moved towards the closest cafe.
In the meantime the rest of the group introduced themselves and began to describe their practicals. According to Mei, the Powerloader had already started to invest in blood pressure meds in preparation for the arrival of the pink prodigy. So she obviously crushed it.
The Sunshine Cafe was not ready for the kind of energy they were bringing, judging by the expression of the barista who took their order and with quite relief watch them sit far away from her.
"And how did my babies treat you during the exam?" Mei prodded with a grin.
Giddy Toru began to animatedly gesture. "Oh. My. Gosh. Hitoshi and me were assigned to the same arena. Working together really does wonders. And your tech one shot them every time they were even grazed! And! And, and, and we helped people! Hitoshi even got to use his med kit. I don't think I'll pass on villain points alone though. But helping a 'fellow examinee' should count for extra points."
"I'm really counting on rescue points here," Hitoshi took a long sip of his coffee, "because there is a snowball chance in hell of me getting in exclusively by taking down bots. But yeah, your stuff definitely saved me."
Mei beamed at that. "Amazing! With a working base, I already thought of a few upgrades you might be interested in. Actually, right now I could-"
"Rescue points?" A shaky voice successfully cut through the conversation.
Oh, there was one person at the table who was not on the whole operation. It was Kieruko's fault and she had to deal with it.
"Right. You know how practical exam theoretically checks your aptitude for heroic work?"
Izuku nodded with slight confusion.
"There is more to being the hero than beating up an opponent." Kacchan would disagree. "For example, I aim for the intelligence hero title. Meaning, info gathering and investigation are two things I should excel at. With my amazing skills and super secret sources, I found out about the other point system. The rescue points are awarded to those who help a fellow human at the cost of their own gain. Basically, given to someone who did good just not in a pure combat scenario. The clue was even in Present Mic's speech. You get Villain Points for beating bots instead of just Points. Meaning there was another system for gaining them."
This was a great explanation which she practiced multiple times in the shower because somewhere along the way she committed to the 'exposition guy' role. And words were quite a useful tool in directing the thought processes of the listener in the right direction.
Emerald eyes began to tear up "I still have a chance at getting in."
Like for example right now Izuku was no longer in numb despair.
"Of course you do." Kieruko patted his shoulder.
"About his chances!" Dark Shadow emerged making the sobbing boy jump in his seat. "You said he was Quirkless! There is no way that is true when Greenie destroyed the zero pointer with a single punch." Fumikage nodded to show his support for the argument. "It was crazy! One moment he was next to us and a second later he was twenty meters in the air smashing the robot into bits!"
"It was a maddening display of prowess," Fumi added tersely.
"Wha-what? I had a Quirk before. I-I just..." Oh no, Izuku was on the edge of a full-on panic attack. That wasn't the intention.
Quick, distraction! "Midoriya, did you figure out my Quirk?"
With wide and still teary eyes he began to mutter. "-with the change of eye color, it would suggest an Emitter type. The only thing affected was...Hagakure-san is your Quirk Invisibility?"
"For the sake of this analysis, yes," the temporarily visible girl replied.
More muttering "would suggest Erasure." For added dramatics, Kieruko pulled the hair tie off to show her hair in its full floating glory. Izuku gasped. "This is exactly like-"
"-Eraserhead's Quirk" chanted in unison the rest of the table.
And just like that Izuku set his anxiety aside in order to bombard Kieruko with all the questions she would ask someone about their fascinating Quirk if her brain to mouth filter was nonfunctional. Instead, like a good little supporting character she was, Kieruko answered most of his questions honestly while valiantly ignoring mystified looks the rest of the group shot in their direction.
Ten minutes of undisrupted rambling later Kieruko not so gently corralled the conversation back where she needed.
"Anyways, before the exam, I couldn't even notice you, that's how" nonexistent "inactive your Plus Alpha gene was. But now, let's see..." Kieruko activated her Quirk on Izuku before he could even protest. She was erasing something. A LOT of something. "Yeah, no. There is definitely a Quirk here." She switched Not Today once again to Toru. "Congratulations on your (very) late manifestation! Please allow me to buy you a slice of cake. As a congratulatory gift."
"Does that include all of us?"
"Why would I pay for you, Hitoshi?"
"I'm also celebrating Midoriya's manifestation. So proud of him. In fact, I'm crying tears of joy right now and need to rehydrate by ordering another cappuccino."
"How low will you stoop for free coffee?"
"You don't want to know. But I am genuinely happy for him."
"I'm sure you are."
"We all should celebrate!" Toru cheered in an upbeat tone.
As the rest of the table exploded in a sudden wave of opinions, Mei shot a quick glance at the newest addition to their group.
Izuku was sitting frozen with blown wide eyes. Poor kid was on an emotional rollercoaster. From being thrown into a group of chaotic personalities, finding out he still had a chance at getting into the UA to somehow being outed on how recent was his manifestation.
She watched as Kieruko with unusual enthusiasm pulled the shy boy into what became more of a banter rather than a genuine conversation.
Mei wondered if anyone would believe that less than a year ago Kieruko was blasé while talking about potential death of the same person as if it was nothing more than a joke.
They probably wouldn’t.
Sometimes Mei wonders what would it be like to live a life that’s not overshadowed by awareness of future tragedies. Judging by happy expressions all around her it was pretty nice.
A lull in discussion brought her attention back to the source of her musing. Kieruko tapped away at her phone, then turned to her newest victim.
"Midoriya, are you free tomorrow afternoon?"
He stuttered in the affirmative.
With that brunette happily went back to texting.
"Not anymore," she informed him. "We'll do all the fun paperwork and registration."
Hitoshi mouthed to himself 'fun paperwork' incredulously but couldn’t completely erase the fond look on his face.
Mei wished she could feel anything but rising anxiety towards the person puppeteering their lives behind their backs. She knew this was for the greater good, she knew it saved countless lives but it didn’t make her wish less she didn’t ask that question years ago.
Here's the truth.
Boku no Hero Academia doesn't have a good ending.
Abusers stay unpunished, villains broken by the system end up either killed off or locked up for life, HPSC and that thrice-damned popularity ranking remain unchanged, hero hopefuls grow up to become the exact same as the previous generation. Izuku, quirkless, keeps the hero name that literally means "useless" and gives up on his dreams. Despite all the implied character growth, it looks like the status quo has remained intact.
Stagnant.
Boring.
Uninspiring ending.
Every day is a trial for Kieruko’s impulse control as she convinces herself that taking on AfO and society isn’t exactly feasible.
Maybe that’s what stopped her from revealing her hand to heroes, the knowledge it wouldn’t do shit in the long term, except make her no longer special.
Or maybe not.
The next day the protagonist of this world and its unexpected interloper met in an unused room of a popular Quirk counseling center.
Kieruko patiently listened to Izuku's bogus explanation, writing truths, half-truths, and straight up lies in different rubrics as she labeled them; facts, speculations, and wishful thinking. They talked about his only use of his Quirk for a while, then spent twice as long brainstorming before Kieruko started wondering out loud about the obvious logical solution and two hours later Izuku arrived at the same conclusion he did originally with Gran Torino.
Considering results, channeling 100% of OfA to a single limb was not it. On the other hand, spreading a low percentage through the whole body had the potential to be a breakthrough in their brainstorming (*cough cough* guiding *cough cough*) session.
“Let’s test it.”
Uhm, what? Now? “Are you sure?”
Izuku answered with a decisive nod and boundless determination in his eyes.
All Kieruko could do was smile and pray this didn’t spectacularly backfire on her. Yes, they were here because of her own machinations and yes, she wanted him to associate her with safely using OfA…but weren’t they moving with this relationship a bit too fast?
He stood motionlessly and after a while began glowing then crackling with electricity.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold the breaks." Izuku stared at her with toxic green eyes. "You good?" A hesitant nod. "Great! Now, dial down the input," she recommended. "Preferably just under the glowing part." Light show subsided, now limited to occasional sparks and discoloration of skin.
"How are we feeling?"
"Tingly."
The corner of Kieruko's lip twitched. Legendary Quirk ladies and gentlemen. "Try walking five steps forward."
With expression of complete focus Izuku complied.
"Are you okay with trying to lift some weights?"
Suddenly, the boy looks panicked as his control slips and green energy surges around him. With the reflexes of a Western movie gunslinger, Kieruko latches onto him with Not Today and instantly extinguishes One for All.
"That is as good an indication we need a break as any," she throws lightly, politely not fretting over the now panicked figure kneeling on the floor. "For what it's worth, everyone's control is shaky at the beginning," she says in a relaxed cadence. "Even adults slip with that sometimes and you're going to learn more about it in UA, there's a reason half their teaching body has Quirks designed to subdue out-of-control students."
Izuku numbly nodded.
"How are you feeling?"
"Still good, I just need a moment." The determination in his gaze was daunting, knowing the context.
Kieruko nodded back, unconvinced. "Okay, now remember that I'm not, in fact, the Recovery Girl, would hate to take you to a hospital, there is a month before high school starts, and lying hinders mastering your Quirk." Also the collateral damage, they were indoors, holy fucking shit, she didn’t think this through, did she?
A beat of silence.
The boy slumped like a puppet with cut strings. "I think," his voice cracked, "I went a little overboard."
"Alright." She plopped down next to him. "Then this is the end of the practical part for today."
Izuku hunched, equally relieved and ashamed.
“I could go for longer,” he murmured.
"I’m sure you could,” Kieruko allowed. "Unfortunately, I cannot. Too much new information, too little time to analyze it.”
Izuku’s expression did a funny thing where he clearly wanted to say something but wasn’t going to.
”Thank you for believing in me,” he said instead, tear glistening in the corners of his eyes.
Nope, too much emotional intimacy way too soon.
”Ah, you don’t have to thank me for that, I mean- I’m sure anyone who gets to know you can see how much effort you put into things you care about. It’s clear you’re- uhmm, a great person and-"
The famed Midoriya waterworks were now working at full capacity.
Kieruko clapped her hands.
“Alright. It’s time to fill out the registration form.” Originally she wanted to strong-arm Izuku into at least one more meeting but this wasn’t worth it. Better to just talk over dramatics, pretending they never happened.
"And talk about the correct way to do so.
Let's be honest. The Governmental Quirk Database is unhelpful at best and potentially harmful at worst. Both law and medical sectors have easy access to it and statistics are presented to the general public. Quirk trafficking is actually a growing issue except now it's easier to track it than it was in the early days.
Other issue, dad mentioned a few cases where in court a person who gave incorrect information out of ignorance was penalized regardless while a criminal with an ambiguous synopsis ended up scott-free. As a rule, your information should stay honest but vague.”
Well look at that. Izuku listened with focus, earlier emotional turmoil already forgotten.
“The one difference between government-founded and private counseling is the former doesn't care and will cram the easiest most explicit description while the latter will do in-depth research for the client while giving as little as possible to the government."
Izuku stared at her.
"That's why I was thinking how we're going to register your Quirk. Luckily, since you were legally Quirkless before we have a lot of space to work in," Kieruko bit her nail, thinking out loud. "The fact that above a certain threshold, your Quirk produces a visible electrical current makes me want to utilize it. We could go with 'releasing stored energy to enhance physical abilities'," thus describing just OfA, "or go a step further and say 'releasing stored energy to produce enhancing abilities'," which would serve as a cushion when vestiges appeared. "It would be the most generic description with no lies regardless of specific mechanics of your Quirk."
It was at this moment that Izuku realized he had to lie about having All Might's Quirk to the government without getting caught. "O-oh," stuttered a rapidly paling boy. "Vague is good."
“Okay.”
"Can we go with the latter version?'
"I was only giving suggestions. Don't you want to make your own description?"
"I'll leave that for my private analysis."
Fair enough.
"Well then, that leaves us with one last thing."
Izuku looked faint at the prospect of enduring more emotional distress.
"What are you going to name it?" Kieruko asked sweetly.
All tension dropped. Instantly Izuku wet into 'thinking mode' muttering under his breath about countless possibilities, which Kieruko tuned out in favor of writing down the most important points to take away from the session. She filled out the form with the description they agreed to, leaving space at the top for a title.
"Is that why it's called Not Today?"
Huh? Kieruko blinked.
"Your Quirk," Izuku clarified, "because there is a danger to calling it what it is."
"Oh yeah," she admitted freely. "I'm pretty sure there were attempts at my uncle's life to either get him for Erasure or to remove the ability from the equation altogether.” She ignored protagonist’s horrified expression. “Currently there is no technology on the market capable of suppressing a Quirk. Meaning that from an already tiny pool of people having Quirks interacting with other Quirks, to people who can subdue them, to people who also honed their ability... We are left with almost no one and I know statistics a little too well to share publicly what I can do. Some would call it paranoia with capital 'P', for me it's Common Sense+."
She sighed.
"I derailed your train of thought didn't I?"
She received a startled groan as an answer.
“What about heroes?”
“What about them?”
“Don’t they work at dismantling trafficking rings?”
“Oh, they absolutely do,” Kieruko would know, this specific topic being the center of big chunk of her extracurricular activities, “but the truth is this kind of crimes are mostly investigated by underground heroes and police with few limelight exceptions.”
“That’s why there’re so few reports of it in the news,” green haired boy mused. “But you make it sound like they don’t do enough.”
Because they don’t.
“It would be nice if we could always trust authority figures to protect us. Though this doesn’t work in practice, does it?” Kieruko mada a vague all encompassing gesture with her hand. “Bullies, criminals often get away with their actions. Adults don’t always understand or are capable of assistance even if they want to help.” Gods know as much as All Might wanted to be obliging he didn’t really help Izuku with assimilating OfA. He acted suspiciously helpless despite being Number One Hero, never asked Nedzu for opinion, barely had one on one training with his protege after giving him his Quirk, and didn’t even consider letting Eraser know despite him being not only Izuku’s main instructor but also owner of incredibly useful Quirk in this particular situation.
Inefficient use of resources.
It left Kieruko to wonder whether Yagi Toshinori was incompetent or… well he wasn’t malicious. Maybe there was some kind of paralyzing fear factoring into All Might’s stagnant stance on mentoring the ninth.
“But good intentions don’t always make for positive outcomes. They make for excusable damages. Especially since it’s not like they have to live with the consequences of their actions and young tend to idolize their seniors.”
Well, judging by Izuku’s morose demeanor she definitely killed not only any memory of gratitude but also their original goal.
“On the topic of help, currently I lack the ability to offer proper guidance but like with Hitoshi I could find someone with similar enough Quirk to understand your situation and share their perspective on potentially similar experiences.”
That was an empty gesture of kindness she wasn’t expecting him to accept. Because secret Quirk origins and all that jazz. And who would she even contact to begin with? Hey, mister Shigaraki All for One, would you care to talk about the struggle of containing too much power and multiple Quirks? Yeah, right.
“No, it’s fine.” Called it.
“Well,” she began, uncertain how to stop herself from giving another obnoxious monologue. “In any case, feel free to ask me for help anytime if you need anything.” She handed him the mostly filled form. “For example, a name for your Quirk,” she quipped.
For some reason this triggered another round of tears. Izuku let out a hiccuping giggle. “I- I think I got it, but thank you.”
“That’s what friends are for.” They’ve known each other for less than 48 hours. Kieruko once again ignored disturbingly emotive expressions of green haired boy for the sake of her sanity.
Shortly after they ended their session and said their goodbyes.
The second she was alone Kieruko flopped bonelessly on the floor.
Woah, establishing herself as a support character was exhausting. Hopefully, this will minimize the future damage but just in case she still should ensure Izuku has a wider choice of people to rely on. Especially since currently that only was his anxious mother and a very busy mentor. She definitely should take care of that.
…yeah.
Kieruko shot Toru a very polite message with a ton of big eyed emojis asking her to do her friendship magic on Izu.
This should be enough.
Was she stealing a bit too much of All Might's role in the early story?
.
.
.
Nah.
She acted like a decent human being, something Izuku had experienced a severe lack of in his life so far. He deserved at least this much.
Besides, what was the worst that could happen?