Chapter 10: Right Hand Man
"Boooooooy that shirt does not match those shoes."
"Those shoes don't match anything."
"Don't listen to them, sweetie, you look wonderful."
"Aw look at 'im, off to go fight people. These kids, I'm tellin' ya, they grow up so fast. Why, when I was a boy…"
"Dude, it's been decades, get over it already."
"Shut up, Greg."
"That's not...y'know what, I'm not even gonna try anymore."
"Is this how it's always gonna be with you guys?" Izuku asks, slinging his backpack over is shoulder. "Can you...c-can you maybe calm down? Let me have a normal morning, please?"
"Hey, the kid's right." Izuku breathes a sigh of relief and thanks his lucky stars that Nana is there as a voice of reason. "If we keep talking, we're gonna end up messing him up in class or something. Not to mention it'd be pretty awkward when he's talking to other people."
"Guess you're right. Sorry, boyo. We'll be quiet."
"Thanks," Izuku says, and he puts on his choker necklace and bell, snatches his Dissociate notebook off the desk, and heads out of the room.
Mom is waiting for him by the door, wringing her hands together. "Izuku, are you sure you should be going to school today?" she asks, concerned. "I mean, after all that happened...if you want to take a few more days here to rest…"
"She's got a point, dude, maybe--OW!"
"Shut up, remember!?"
"Oh, right, sorry…"
Izuku smiles and shakes his head, ignoring the voices for now. "I'm okay, Mom, I promise," he says. "I'll come home if I need to, okay?"
She doesn't seem completely convinced, and of course she doesn't. When he'd come home yesterday, she'd been frantic, asking him a million questions at once and only calming down after hearing that, yes, Recovery Girl said he was fine, and yes, he's sore but alright. She'd made him katsudon for dinner, a comfort food, and he'd thanked her profusely.
Now, she still has that same worry in her eyes, although there's no frenzied panic like there was yesterday, and he can't blame her.
"Mom."
Izuku takes her hands in his, and as soon as she meets his eyes, he smiles.
"I'm okay, okay?" he promises, and he means it. "I'll be fine, don't worry."
She bites her lip, then nods. "If you're sure, Izuku…"
"I'm sure." He pauses, thinks of something, then smiles again. "When I get home tonight," he says, "there's something I need to talk to you about, if you aren't too busy."
"Oh, sure," she answers, nodding quickly. "Is it...is something wrong, Izuku?"
Izuku shakes his head. "Nope, nothing at all," he says, beaming. "Just something about Dissociate and One For All that I realized recently. It's really cool, I'll tell you all about it after school."
"Ooooh, he's talkin' 'bout us."
"Awww, shucks, he thinks we're cool--"
"HELL YEAH WE ARE!"
"Shh!"
Mom smiles at him and nods. "Alright," she says, and Izuku bends down to let her kiss his forehead. "Good luck today. And take care of yourself."
"I will," Izuku says--and then, the voices of the past holders are talking again.
"No worries, Mamadoriya, we'll take care of that."
"Ya hear that, boyo? We now have full permission to motherhen ya."
"Hey, guys, aren't we supposed to be quiet?"
"Crap, Greg, you're right."
"Okay, now you're just being rude--"
"Well, I'm off!" Izuku says, turning towards the door. "Bye, Mom!"
"Bye, sweetheart! Good luck!"
Izuku heads out, pulling the door shut behind him.
He's a tad late; he'd slept in on accident (he only woke up when one of the ex-holders screeched, "HOLY CRAP YOU'RE FREAKING LATE"), but it doesn't matter. His teachers will understand, he hopes; even though Recovery Girl healed him, he's still sore and exhausted.
The U.A. has never looked more intimidating than it does at this moment, as Izuku heads up the front steps and continues inside, toward his classroom.
Well, either the U.A. has never looked so big, or Izuku has never felt so small.
His friends hadn't asked about it before, when he was in the infirmary recovering from his injuries, but there's no reason why they wouldn't ask now, and Izuku knows he has to tell them. He has to tell them the truth.
"Monster!"
"Creepy!"
"He keeps sneaking up on me, I don't like it!"
"What a weird kid."
"You can't become a hero with a coward's Quirk."
"You can't become a hero with a Quirk that scares people."
He doesn't want to. He doesn't want to tell them the truth, he doesn't want to tell them what he is--
"Kiddo, remember what Toshi said."
Izuku stops, one foot still in the air. He's nearing Class 1-A now; he can already see the door from here.
"What?" Izuku asks, once he's sure no one else is around to see him talking to himself.
"I don't know what you're thinking," Nana says, "but I can feel bits and pieces of what you're feeling. You're scared your friends will reject you, right?"
Izuku swallows thickly. His voice is small when he says,
"...Yes."
"They won't. Those kids adore you, Izuku, you're just as much their friend as they are yours. You saw how worried they were about you when you were hurt, and remember, this was after they watched you fight off villains as a ghost."
"But...t-telling them now," Izuku says, his breath catching in his throat. "Actually...a-actually explaining what I am--"
"Stop calling yourself 'what,'" Nana snaps, suddenly angry. "You are a human being, Midoriya Izuku, don't you dare degrade yourself like that."
There's a lump in his throat now and he can't swallow it.
"...Tell them, kiddo," Nana says, suddenly much softer, and he can feel her smile. "Tell them all about you. Tell them the things you can do, tell them all about your power. They won't reject you, I promise."
"H-How...how do you know?" Izuku ventures.
"Because I watched them barrel into the infirmary to see you," Nana answers. "I watched them barrel in there, and I watched them hug you like you were the most precious thing in the world to them. They aren't going to reject you, kiddo, I know it. They love you."
Izuku's eyes burn. He opens his mouth to say something else, but the other ex-holders come back, loud and resounding and drowning out the rest of his thoughts:
"Knock 'em dead, boyo!"
"Oh, but please don't knock yourself dead, sweetheart, you have to stop doing that--"
"Go, dude! Show them what you're made of!"
"YOU'VE GOT THIS, KID! I BELIEVE IN YOU!"
"You're all way too chipper for eight in the morning…"
"If they do reject you, well, you never needed them anywa--"
"They won't, kiddo. Just go in there, be yourself, and don't worry."
Izuku sucks in a long, deep breath. "Okay," he says, raising his head. "I'm gonna do it."
"WHOO!"
"AWESOME-SAUCE!"
"Please, never say that again--"
"Okay, y'all, time to shut up now and let the boy do his thing."
"Alright, sounds good."
"Good luck, kiddo! You've got this!"
"Talk more later!"
Their presences vanish within his chest, and Izuku covers the remaining distance between him and the classroom door. He waits for a long moment, his breath stuck in his throat.
Remember what Toshi said. That was what Nana told him. Izuku thinks back, searching--he doesn't have to look far.
"Please...I want you to promise me that you'll never call yourself a monster again."
Izuku swallows, raises his head, and pulls the classroom door open.
His classmates--all nineteen of them--are there already, leaning on each other's desks and chatting noisily with each other. He stares, watching; none of them look in his direction.
Oh, he thinks. That's right, I've got no presence.
He has his bell, sure, but everyone's talking too loudly to hear it. For a moment or two, he stands there, not entirely sure what to do. Should he say something? Should he go take a seat at his desk?
"Buddy, I know we said we'd be quiet, but you're staring like a deer in the headlights. Stop worrying, you've got this."
Izuku takes in a breath. He touches his bell, just for a moment, and remembers the day Kirishima gave it to him.
"Good morning," he says loudly--louder than he'd meant to, looking back on it.
The reactions are instantaneous and all at once; Kaminari lets out a shriek and topples backwards off the desk he'd been perched on; the shriek is echoed by a few other classmates, and they trip and fall and whirl around to stare at Izuku.
Izuku stares back, smiling embarrassedly. If there's one thing he hates, it's being in the spotlight.
"...Not dead?" he quips, and his smile feels forced and painful, even to him.
It doesn't take long for his classmates to get over their shock, and then suddenly they're all talking again, everyone at once.
"Hey, dude, you're back!" Kirishima says, grinning. "I'm glad you're okay!"
"Deku!" Uraraka smiles and races up to him; Iida follows with Tsuyu, walking. "Are you better now? I mean, your injuries?"
Izuku nods, smiling. "I'm fine," he says. "I'm sorry for worrying you all."
"Nah, it's fine," says Kirishima, waving him off. "We're just glad you're okay. Great to have you back."
"They were telling us all about what you did at the USJ!" Kaminari chimes in unexpectedly. "You taking on the warp-gate villain like that so Iida could escape and go get help? That's crazy!"
"Shigaraki," Tsuyu reminds, "don't forget Shigaraki."
"Oh, right!" Sero says, nodding. "You scared off Shigaraki, too! Well, I guess I shouldn't expect anything less from the dude who came first in the entrance exam, but I mean--man!" He shakes his head and whistles. "I really underestimated you! I thought, y'know, all you could do was break your arms, but…"
Here goes, Izuku thinks, taking in a deep, deep breath.
"That's...that's part of it," Izuku says, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'd hate to break it to you--"
(There's a long, collective groan, plus a couple cackles from Kirishima.)
"--But, yeah, that isn't all I can do," Izuku goes on. "I have, erm…" He's planned all of this out ahead of time, but he doesn't really know whether his friends will accept this as an answer. "...Ahhh...maybe it'd be easier if I just...showed you."
"Um...okay?" Ashido frowns. "Go for it."
Izuku sucks in a deep, shaky breath. He's dreaded doing this since the day of the Quirk Apprehension test, and now he's here, and he has to do it. He's scared and he doesn't want to, but he doesn't have a choice now.
He drops.
It's surprisingly easy; his nervousness makes leaving his body a remarkably simple task. His body hits the floor and his spirit hovers over it; Uraraka and Ashido let out a small shriek, and everyone else stares, shocked.
There's a beat.
And then the panic starts.
"HOLY CRAP!" Kirishima shrieks, leaping backwards. "Was that...was that supposed to happen!?"
"Midoriya!?" Iida kneels by his body on the floor and shakes him. "Midoriya, are you alright!?"
Sero and Kaminari run around in circles and eventually bash into each other. Ashido hollers that she's going to get Recovery Girl and makes a mad dash for the door. As for the rest of them, they're all screaming and talking and yelling at once, and Izuku can't make anything out clearly.
"W-W-Wait, no, I-I'm fine!" Izuku calls, and his classmates screech to a halt, everyone stopping what they're doing at once. Their heads snap up towards the sound of his voice, but of course they can't see him. "I-I swear I'm fine! Watch!"
He zooms back into his body; there's a jerk, and then he's back in his body where he belongs. He sits up; Iida's hands hover by him, and his classmates swarm around anxiously.
"Holy…" Jirou starts, then stops and breathes a huge, heaving sigh of relief. "Dangit, don't do that again. You dropped so fast…"
"S-Sorry, i-it's, ahh…" Izuku rubs a soon-to-be bruise on his head. He really needs to stop dropping so suddenly like that, it's not good for his health. "I-It's a part of my Quirk, s-see. I-It's the Quirk I was born with."
Kirishima comes forward again. He looks more relieved than shocked now. "So, wait--you did that on purpose? You have two Quirks?"
"Umm, b-basically," Izuku answers, pushing himself to his feet. Iida stands by him, ready to catch him if he drops again. "I was born with one, but the other one--the, ah, the one that keeps breaking my arms--that one's...ah...it's...it's complicated. I got it a couple weeks before I came to high school. It's some freak mutation, I-I think."
Not really a lie.
"So that explains why you can't use it without breaking yourself," Yaoyorozu muses, cradling her chin in her hand. "Interesting. It never had the chance to develop fully so you can't use it without inflicting bodily harm on yourself."
Izuku nods. "I-I know it sounds crazy," he says, "the whole...the whole 'two Quirks' thing, but--"
"Dude, our classmate literally has a bird head," Sero deadpans. "It's not that weird."
Tokoyami frowns at him.
"S-Sorry, but it's true!"
"He's right, Midori-chan, it isn't all that strange," Tsuyu says, tapping a finger to her chin. "Todoroki has two Quirks, too."
Izuku lets out a sigh of relief. Okay, okay, this is a good thing, no one's suspicious.
Wait. Todoroki?
Izuku raises his head, and Tsuyu points. At the back of the class sits a boy Izuku's only ever seen in passing, a boy with dual colored hair and mismatched eyes. He stares at Izuku with a flat, cold expression, and Izuku, for the life of him, can't figure out why.
"So, wait, this other Quirk," Uraraka says, and Izuku turns towards her. "The one you were born with, what is it exactly…?"
"Oh, my mom and I started calling it 'Dissociate,' or 'Dissociation,'" Izuku answers readily. Anything to get off the subject of One For All. "Basically, I can leave my physical body as a ghost and float around like that. I can usually control it, but sometimes when I'm overwhelmed I just…"
"'Tootaloos,'" Ashido offers, wiggling her fingers in a small, cheerful wave.
Izuku blinks. "...Basically, yeah."
"So, when you're a 'ghost'…" Kirishima puts quotation marks around the word with his fingers, "can you, um, do you actually go through stuff, or…?"
Izuku blinks again. Honestly, he'd expected fear and shock from his classmates, not this... curiosity.
"As a rule, yes," Izuku explains, fumbling only slightly, "but I can hold onto physical things if I concentrate. Like, watch."
He slips out of his body again and Iida surges forward to catch him before he hits the floor. Izuku, as a ghost, pulls a notebook out of his backpack and raises it for his classmates to see.
"I can hold onto stuff, like this," Izuku says, waving the notebook around; his classmates' eyes follow it, like he's hypnotizing them. "But I can't do it for very long or it makes me sick when I actually get back into my body."
He drops the notebook and enters his body again; Iida lets him go, and Izuku straightens up. His stomach churns, but only for a second.
"Nice," Jirou says. "That's pretty dang cool, Midoriya."
"Seriously, though!" Satou says, grinning. "Think of all the stuff you could do with that! Stealth missions, sneaking around places, not to mention a great 'element of surprise' for people who don't know it's coming!"
"Oh, I get it now!" Kaminari says, snapping his fingers. "So that's how you came first in the entrance exam! What'd you do? Did you, like, go inside the robots and tear them up from the inside, or…?"
"U-Um, yeah, that's exactly what I did--"
"COOL!"
"That reminds me, Midori-chan," Tsuyu says, turning to him. "At the USJ, when you went at Shigaraki...there were people with you."
Izuku blanches. Oh...I forgot she'd seen that…
"Wait, really?" Kirishima asks, turning to him. "I didn't know that. What happened?"
Izuku lets out a shaky laugh and rubs the back of his head. "I, erm, I may have accidentally...summoned some dead people…?"
There's a beat.
"YOU WHO WHAT!?" comes the explosion, and Izuku takes a step backwards, waving his hands back and forth.
"I-It's just another part of my Quirk!" he says frantically. "I-I didn't realize I could do it until that moment, but...yeah."
"Dude, that's…!" Kaminari's eyes are wide as saucers. "That's really cool! I mean, freaking horrifying, but also super cool!"
Izuku takes another step back, overwhelmed. "W-Well, I can't do it all the time. I-I mean, you all saw what it did to me, at least…"
"Yeah, that's right," Tsuyu says, nodding. "So don't do it again."
Izuku nods, but he isn't sure he means it. All of this still feels unreal to him, to be completely honest. He'd been expecting fear and shock and horror from his classmates, but instead, all he's gotten so far…
...Is curiosity. And maybe even admiration.
"You guys…" Izuku bites his lip, and all eyes are on him in an instant. "You aren't...freaked out at all…?"
"What?" Uraraka frowns at him, looking confused. "Oh, yeah, I mean, we're all freaked out, but it's just another Quirk, isn't it? And what you did with it at the USJ was super cool, too! Beating up Kurogiri like that...he didn't know what hit him!"
"Literally!" chimes in Kirishima.
"Like they said," says Yaoyorozu. "The Quirk itself may be unsettling, but that doesn't change how we see you. You don't have to worry about that."
"If you were using your power to hurt people, that'd be one thing," Iida says, straightening his glasses, "but, Midoriya...I've only ever seen you use this power to protect others. No matter what kind of Quirk you have, that fact alone is admirable."
"We're not gonna shun you just because your Quirk is creepy," Jirou says casually. "We're all aiming to be heroes here. And anyway, it's not like you have a say in what kind of Quirk you're born with."
"Hey, y'all, let's have a round of applause for my buddy here!" Kirishima says unexpectedly. "Fighting off the warp gate jerk and scarin' off Hand-Faced McStupid Looking!"
"Hand-Faced Mc--"
Sero's choked laughter is swallowed up by a round of applause, and Izuku stands there, staring, overwhelmed but oddly... okay.
"See? What'd I tell ya, kiddo," Nana's voice hums in his mind, and he can feel her smile, her joy. "You've got yourself some true friends, here."
"HERE, HERE! Cheers to Class 1-A!"
"TO CLASS 1-A!"
Izuku eyes are burning, and it takes every part of him to not let the tears fall.
"...Thank you," he says, rubbing at his eyes as his classmates clap and whoop. His voice cracks and breaks in a million different places, and a few tears run down his face. "T-Thank you."
Aizawa's face is mostly hidden by bandages, and his arms are in slings around his shoulders. Izuku is shocked at first, and so are his classmates; Iida in particular stands up and asks Aizawa why he's here teaching and not resting, to which Aizawa responds that he's fine and then continues with homeroom anyway. He says there's nothing to discuss and sends them off to their next class.
"Not you, Midoriya," Aizawa says, as Izuku gathers his things from his desk and prepares to leave the classroom. "Stay here. There's something I need to discuss with you."
"O-Okay," Izuku says, nodding. The others go on ahead without him, and he stays behind with his homeroom teacher. Alone with Aizawa, he feels suddenly intimidated.
"A-Are you sure you should be here?" Izuku asks hesitantly, the moment the door shuts behind the last of his classmates leaving the room. "I-I mean, your injuries…shouldn't you be resting?"
Aizawa gives him a look--or, as best a look he can give considering his face is covered in bandages. "You of all people have no right to ask that question, Midoriya."
Izuku bites his lip. Seeing his teacher now, covered in bandages even after receiving heavy treatment from a hospital...it leaves him with an empty, hollow feeling in his chest and sick feeling in his stomach.
Aizawa takes in a breath to say something, but Izuku barrels onwards.
"I'm sorry," he blurts, before he can stop himself. "I-I'm sorry. At the USJ, before...b-before the Nomu, before he did that--"
"Midoriya."
"--I knew something bad was going to happen, I-I could feel it, I-I just, I couldn't, I tried--"
"Midoriya."
"I couldn't get there in time, I-I wasn't fast enough, I couldn't--I'm sorry, it's my fault this happened to you, I'm sorry, I'm--"
"Midoriya, shut up."
Izuku's teeth snap together.
"It's not your fault," Aizawa says sharply. "The only thing you did wrong was charging into battle like some kind of madman. You're a child, you don't have to carry the world on your shoulders. Leave that to your teachers for now."
Izuku takes in a breath, but doesn't argue. He'll always feel guilty about this, he knows that; even though the logical, reasonable part of him knows that there was nothing he could have done, the closer, more sentimental part of him screams the exact opposite.
"I want to talk to you about the Sports Festival," Aizawa says, and Izuku raises his head and listens. "We're planning on holding it in two weeks, granted you're alright with that."
Izuku tilts his head a little, confusion momentarily replacing the hollow feeling of guilt. "Why ask me...?"
"You were most affected by the USJ incident," Aizawa answers, like it's obvious. "Usually, if there were no student casualties, we'd hold the festival regardless of the situation. However, in light of what happened to you, if you don't feel safe we'll postpone it for now. So? What do you think?"
Izuku barely has to think about it. "I-I think we should still do it!" he says, nodding. "I-I mean, everyone looks forward to it every year, don't they? Plus, backing down from such a big event now...the villains could see it as a weakness on U.A.'s part, right?"
Aizawa nods. "Alright, then," he says; he doesn't ask Izuku if he's sure, doesn't ask him for more clarification. "In that case, Midoriya, you might want to start planning your opening speech."
Izuku stiffens.
"...Aizawa-sensei?"
"Yeah?"
"How hard would it be for you to launch me into the sun?"
"Not hard, but it requires more effort than I feel like using."
"Darn."
"Oh, also…" Aizawa reaches around and grabs a slip of paper off his desk. He presents it to Izuku, who takes it immediately. "A hall pass. Recovery Girl asked me to give it to you after homeroom."
"O-Oh, thank you!" Izuku says, beaming. "I hope you get better soon, Sensei!"
Aizawa nods curtly. "Well, hurry up. You have other classes."
Izuku nods, bows briefly, and turns and flees the classroom.
"Ah, there you are. Did you bring the notebook?"
Izuku nods, already slinging his backpack off his shoulder and digging through it to find said notebook. He pulls it out and hands it to Recovery Girl, who takes it and studies its cover--it's a blue composition notebook with the word "Dissociate" written on it in black permanent marker.
"Thank you, Midoriya," Recovery Girl says, smiling. "This is very helpful. Also, how do you feel? As far as your injuries go?"
"Oh, I feel fine," Izuku answers. "And I've got you to thank for that."
"Just doing my job, boy." Recovery Girl sets the notebook on the side table, then turns to him again. "So, I'd like you to leave your body with me for now."
Izuku blinks. "What."
"We talked about this yesterday," Recovery Girl elaborates. "Leave your body here with me for a few hours so I can monitor your vitals."
"Oh, r-right," Izuku says, "so...I should just…"
"Lay down, dissociate, and continue the school day. Come back just before lunch, alright?"
"Alright…?"
It seems strange, honestly--he's never been asked to dissociate before, not that it matters. He hops onto the nearest infirmary bed and lays down, shutting his eyes. A second later, there's a tug at his chest, and he opens his eyes in the air, out of his body. He'd been sore and exhausted when he was in his own body, but now, he feels oddly refreshed and rejuvenated.
It's nice being a ghost sometimes.
"Thank you, Midoriya," Recovery Girl says, pulling up her stool and sitting down at the table where she'd put Izuku's notebook. "Go finish your classes. If I find out you're goofing off and not in class where you're supposed to be, I'll hit you."
"O-Okay," Izuku says, nodding, even though she can't see him. "See you in a few hours."
Recovery Girl nods, and Izuku heads off through the wall--literally. He doesn't like phasing through things, he never has, but it's better than physically opening the door and getting nauseous.
"I wonder what Aizawa wanted Deku for," Uraraka is saying when Izuku finally catches up to Iida, Kirishima and Uraraka; they're killing time before their next class, taking the long way to the classroom. "I mean, you don't think it was something bad, right…?"
"It's fine, don't worry," Izuku says.
They shriek and spin around immediately, their eyes falling on blank, empty space.
Whoops.
Even though he's hovering and not actually touching the ground at all, it is so dang easy to forget he's a ghost sometimes.
"SORRY!" Izuku says, waving his hands back and forth, not because they can see him, but because it's a habit of his. "Recovery Girl wants to monitor my vitals for a while so I left my body with her…"
"Oh, dear goodness…" Iida pinches the bridge of his nose, his glasses tilting slightly to one side. "Midoriya, is there...is there a ghost bell we can get for you?"
"Weren't you originally against the bell?" Uraraka asks, turning to him.
"Yes, however I am also very against heart attacks."
"I'll--I-I'll try not to scare you again," Izuku says. "I'm really sorry…"
"Don't worry 'bout it, dude, it's fine," Kirishima tells him quickly.
"He's right!" Uraraka adds, smiling. "It's not like you can help it, I mean, you are a ghost after all!"
She said it so casually it's almost comical, and Izuku smiles; it's nice to be accepted so...so quickly like this. Nothing's changed between him and his friends, nothing at all; they treat him exactly how they've always treated him, and…
...And he's glad.
"Uhhh…" Kirishima looks around. "...You still there, buddy, or didja skidaddle?"
"Oh, no, I'm still here," Izuku answers. "Sorry, just got lost in thought for a second..."
The school bell sounds, snapping all their attention to the fact that they're going to be late for their next class, and they sprint--three running and one gliding--towards the classroom.
He tries, really, he does, but he ultimately fails: he scares his classmates several more times leading up to lunch.
Chiyo doesn't quite know what to think of Midoriya Izuku.
The boy is self-sacrificing to a fault, and he won't hesitate to throw himself into any kind of danger when it comes to saving others. It's endearing, really; this boy has the truest heart of any hero-to-be she's ever met, but at the same time…
She flips open the boy's notebook. There are dates at the top of each page; the handwriting is messy, and a lot of it is scribbled out and replaced with new information.
Outdated, then, she thinks. He writes something, and if he finds out it's incorrect, he scribbles it out.
The first entries are hard to read; Chiyo remembers the boy telling her that he'd started the notebook when he was little, which means he probably wrote this when he was around six or seven. She flips a couple more pages, skimming; most, if not everything, is scribbled out.
And then she comes to more recent pages. The handwriting is steadier, easier to read, a bit more organized. Things are still scribbled out here and there, but it makes more sense than earlier entries. She decides to start here.
SUMMARY:
[I'm surmising this now because all the rest of my previous notes are either outdated or just...impossible to read. So here we go. My weird "doesn't make any sense" Quirk.]
For lack of a better term, my mom and I started calling this "Dissociate." I've done research online loads of times but apparently there's nothing else quite like it, so I guess I'm the first.
Yay.
Chiyo rolls her eyes, but keeps reading.
INFORMATION:
As a default, I can phase through everything. I hover anywhere between three five and nine fifteen ten inches off the ground.
Gonna test and see if I can fly. I cannot fly.
I can interact with the physical world but it makes me nauseous/ill if I do it for too long. Anti-nausea pills help a little but not by much. I think I immunized myself to anti-nausea pills. Oops.
BACKLASH:
Highest temperature: 38.4 39.5 39.9 40.2
Longest amount of days bedridden: 1 3 4 6 9
Concussions: None ½ [reeeeeeally mild concussion]
Bruises: 2 4 9 12 17 19 23 27 Hella
Sprains/fractures: [See "hella"]
OTHER STUFF:
1) My body doesn't heal from injuries/illness unless I'm in it.
2) Time limit: 12 hours. [Side-note: I don't actually know if this is a legit time limit. Whenever I try staying out of my body for 12 hours, I end up feeling really suffocated and weird, so I always go back. I don't know what happens when I stay out for more than 12 hours and I'm not going to fool around with it, either.]
Chiyo frowns at that for a moment. A time limit. The boy has a time limit. She makes a mental note of this before continuing.
3) I don't feel pain as a ghost, but I feel pain when I'm back in my physical body.
4) I have scars everywhere. Most of them are faint but they keep showing up for some reason.
Chiyo's frown deepens. Scars?
5) I can leave my body at any time. I can't leave my body if I'm in immense pain. Not sure of all the mechanics exactly but pain "grounds" me in reality too much to Dissociate. I dunno nothing makes sense anymore. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
He actually drew that, Chiyo thinks, shaking her head. This boy, I swear...
SCARS:
1) Two five twelve fifteen seventeen twenty twenty seven nevermind I stopped counting, just, "hella" again.
2) The scars only show up on my "spirit" and I don't know what they are. But then again I don't really know anything about my Quirk anyway so whatever, just one more thing I don't know and probably won't ever find out.
Scars on his spirit, huh. Chiyo has never heard of such a thing before. She wonders, briefly, if it has anything to do with Bakugou Katsuki.
For now, though, she puts it out of her mind and keeps reading.
EXTRA NOTES:
1) Injuries I receive while interacting with the physical world show up on my physical body. (Theory--haven't been able to find out which way yet, but I'm 99% sure this is true)
2) My Quirk doesn't make any freaking sense.
That's all there is right now, plus a jumble of other notes Chiyo still has to sort through. For now, though, this information is enough.
She gets to her feet and turns towards the infirmary bed. The boy's physical body is still here, and she has him hooked up with several monitors--specifically ones for his heart rate and oxygen levels.
She checks the monitors.
Her eyes widen.
Izuku returns to the infirmary just before lunch to retrieve his body and notebook (and his backpack, too--he'd left it there earlier, whoops). Recovery Girl is waiting for him by the desk, scribbling something down on a sheet of paper.
He doesn't announce his arrival, just slips back into his body and sits up.
"Mornin'," he says. "I'm back from the dead."
Recovery Girl jumps, but doesn't freak out like his friends had. "Here," she says, handing back his notebook. He takes it from her at once. "You're cleared to leave. Make sure you eat a good lunch, alright?"
Izuku nods, hopping off the infirmary bed and scooping up his backpack off the floor. "Did you find anything weird?" he asks.
Recovery Girl hesitates. "...That time limit you mentioned in the notebook?" she mentions. "Your twelve hour limit?"
Izuku blinks. "Yeah?"
"You might want to take it seriously," Recovery Girl says. "From this moment henceforth, I forbid you to stay out of your body for more than eleven hours."
Izuku frowns. "Okay…? I mean, I was planning on doing that anyway, i-it feels weird when I try staying out any longer than that--"
"Boy, I'm serious."
Izuku has half a mind to say Hello Serious, I'm Dead, but he doesn't. Now doesn't seem like the time, and despite his love for making fun of his own gravesituations, he knows when to stop.
"...Okay," he says, "I won't stay out of my body for more than eleven hours."
"Good," says Recovery Girl. "Now, go on. Like I said, remember to eat a good lunch, alright?"
Izuku nods, bows, then turns and leaves the infirmary.
Aizawa makes the announcement about the Sports Festival the next day during morning homeroom. Izuku's classmates are, of course, excited about it, just like he is. The Sports Festival is a huge deal, especially for aspiring heroes; it's a great way to throw yourself out there and show the world what you're made of.
Along with being excited, Izuku is absolutely terrified. He's tried and failed to write several speeches; they all come out sounding hollow once he's done with them, though, so eventually, he gives up and just decides to make it up as he goes along.
A week passes. He trains with All Mi--Toshinori, that is, on Dagobah, and he knows his classmates are training, too. One week down and one week to go.
The Sports Festival is almost upon them.
And then, on his way to his next class with his friends, only six days before the Sports Festival--
"Midoriya Izuku, please report to the teacher's lounge immediately," Recovery Girl's voice booms over the intercom, and Izuku and those with him jump collectively.
"Dude, what up?" Kirishima asks, frowning. "Something happen…?"
"I have no idea," Izuku says, already turning around to make a break for the teacher's lounge. "I'll catch up with you guys later, gotta blast!"
"Okie dokie!" Uraraka says, waving, and Izuku turns and takes off. Iida's call of "DON'T RUN IN THE HALLS!" echoes through his ears, but he barely slows down. It's extremely rare for a student to be called over the school's intercom. Something's wrong, that's the only explanation.
He runs the whole way there, and as soon as he arrives, he barely remembers to knock before throwing the door open.
There are two people there--Toshinori and someone else Izuku has never seen before. They both notice his arrival (the door smashing into the wall is hard to miss), but Toshinori is the first person who actually says anything.
"Midoriya, my boy," he says, rising to his feet, "this is Naomasa, a dear friend of mine and a detective on the police force."
"Hello, Midoriya-kun," the man, Naomasa, says, and he reaches out to shake Izuku's hand. "It's nice to finally meet you."
Izuku blinks, then shakes his hand. "It's nice to meet you, too," he says numbly.
"He knows about One For All," Toshinori says, answering Izuku's unasked question. "Feel free to speak freely."
Izuku nods, but his confusion isn't gone. "What's...what's going on…?"
"I came to applaud you for your bravery at the USJ," Naomasa says, smiling. "I would have liked to do it sooner, but you weren't exactly in the best condition at the time."
"O-Oh, it's okay," Izuku says, "I'm not...I mean, I didn't do anything special--"
"You bought time and saved the lives of your classmates," Naomasa argues. "I'd say that's praise-worthy."
"I-It's not, believe me," Izuku says, shaking his head. "I was scared out of my mind, there wasn't anything brave about what I did--"
"It's because you were scared out of your mind that what you did was so brave," Naomasa interrupts, and he smiles. "Thank you, Midoriya-kun."
Izuku's head is spinning, and his cheeks feel too hot. "You're...you're welcome."
"Also," Naomasa goes on, "I'm here to assure you that we will have officers as well as pro heroes stationed throughout the grounds of the Sports Festival. Toshinori here was pretty adamant when he said you'd most likely worry about your friends' safety the entire time, so I wanted to assure you personally that what happened at the USJ will not be repeated at the Sports Festival."
Izuku lets loose a sigh. "That's good. Is...is that all, or…?"
"Not quite," Toshinori says. "Recovery Girl wants to speak with you about something as well. She should be back any minute now…"
On cue, the door opens, and Izuku turns around towards the sound. Standing in the doorway is Recovery Girl, and…
And a dog. Recovery Girl has it on a simple leash. The dog is black and white--a border collie, Izuku thinks, he's seen them before. It's wearing a blue harness; words read "Not a Pet - Service Dog. Ask Before You Pet Me."
Izuku frowns, confused. "You have a service dog?" he asks.
"Not me," Recovery Girl answers, shaking her head. "You."
Izuku blinks. "I what."
"I spoke with a friend of mine regarding your situation," Recovery Girl says; the dog sits by her, waiting. "She works with service animals, and, well…they were going to drop him out of the service dog program, but I thought I'd give him a chance with you."
Izuku blinks. "A...service dog...for me...?"
Recovery Girl nods. "Lots of people with fainting disorders get service dogs," she says, "and your Quirk isn't unlike that. With recent happenings and new developments of your Quirk that are hazardous to your health, well, it seemed like a good idea. He'll be accompanying you at the Sports Festival and throughout your normal routine here at U.A."
Izuku looks at the dog.
The dog stares back at him curiously.
Izuku tilts his head.
The dog mirrors the movement.
"He's yours," Recovery Girl says softly, and she smiles. "I spoke with your mother regarding this, and she was all for the idea. He's already had quite a bit of training already, although there's more we have to do, but, for now…"
Izuku isn't quite sure how to respond or really what to think. After a moment, he kneels on the ground and stretches out his hand; the dog sniffs him, then licks his fingers.
Something clicks then, in that moment, and Izuku's face splits into a huge smile. The dog's tail swishes back and forth on the ground.
"Also, feel free to name him whatever you'd like," Recovery Girl says. "He is your dog, after all."
Izuku runs a hand over the dog's head; his fur is soft and thick.
"...Howler," Izuku says immediately, and he looks up at Recovery Girl, beaming. "I'm naming him Howler."
A beat.
And then there's a chuckle behind him from Toshinori, and Izuku turns his head.
"Of course," his mentor says, smiling and shaking his head. "Of course you'd do that."
Izuku beams. "I'll take that as a compliment!"