Chapter 11
Disclaimer: I do not own BNHA or any other fictional story that i my use in here.
XxXxXxX
"That freaking rat..." Was the first reaction of the black haired hero, Eraserhead, at the documents that mysteriously appeared on his desk after he returned from a small break. It was a really late afternoon, or early evening, and the sleep deprived hero was still going thru paperwork after the U.S.J attack.
"What's up Shota, you seem more pissed off at our Lord and Savior Nezu than usual." The voice hero, Present Mic asked his coworker. The sleep deprived hero looked to him with a face that said more than thousand words about how done he was with life.
"I just got another problem student..." Aizawa replied with a resigned tone of voice.
"Oh? It's rather unusual to add someone like that after the school year began, not to mention that it will be one place over the standard 20." The blonde mused.
"It's because of the new program from H.C.I. Vlad will probably get someone new too, but the one joining my class is a literal Juggernaut. I don't even know how to teach someone like him." The scruffy man replied, letting his head fall face first onto the desk with a soft thump.
"That won't be an issue!" The cherry voice of Principal Nezu caused the two to jump a bit. Looking to the door, the white furred chimera stood there with arms behind his back and what they assumed a smile.
"Mister Knight is a capable combatant, that's not even a question. Sadly, he suffers from memory loss and is unable to recall anything besides his name." The rodent happily stated.
"Knight? Isn't that a bit on the nose?" Aizawa asked, not really interested.
"Well, going by only his first name would be problematic. According to him it was a code-name from one of his memories that he could recall. It fits nicely into his background that we fabricated, officially he is a refugee from the good old U.S of A." Nezu stated, not even batting an eye after admitting that he committed a crime of forgery.
"And what's the real reason you are so interested in him?" The black haired hero asked, turning his face enough to see his employer.
"I'm worried about our youngest students. Sadly the war with M.L.A is unavoidable at this point, H.C.I started to actively prepare for it by creating the new defense program. It's only a matter of time when these children will have to fight, possibly for their lives. By adding mister Knight to their ranks I'm hoping to increase their chance of survival. At the same time I know that our new student needs help with acclimating to his environment. It's a bit manipulative from my part, but with his presence the survivability of his peers increases drastically." The principal stated, at last getting Aizawa to seat up straight.
"Wait, I thought that Yaoyorozu said he could be extremely old." The 1-A homeroom teacher asked, remembering his students talking about it at some point.
"That's rather complicated and simple at the same time, Aizawa-kun. Mister Knight's physiology for all intents and purposes makes his body ageless, for as long as he has a source of power he can live. But after talking with him, and Toshinori-san who was present when our new student changed into his big form 6 years ago, I concluded that his mental age could be closer to that of a late teen or young adult. By modifying his age a bit to suit our needs we can keep him safe more easily, in the eyes of the law Knight Izuku is an underage student from former United States. It will be impossible for black suits to come and claim him as the state property, his body is full of technological marvels that quite a few people would do anything to get their hands on." The principal droned out, with a lot of venom at the end. Sadly unethical experiments on quirked individuals were a thing, even if illegal.
"That makes a lot of sense... But do you really think that this war will be so bad that we will need to send out those youngsters to the front lines?" Present Mic asked, his tone for once serious.
Thinking about the answer for a minute, the small animal turned around. "War is a tragic and an unforgiving thing, Yamada-kun. It's better to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best, personally I really hope that those children won't need to fight." With those words, Principal left the two heroes to their work.
XxX
=New Arc Reactor core found.=
=Calibrating.=
=Calibration successful.=
=Ignition coils primed.=
=Arc Reactor starting.=
=Arc Reactor online.=
With those prompts from his meta ability, Izuku finished the most urgent repairs of his body. He felt a bit of relief when his power core came back to life with full capacity. Being reliant on a power cable was a bit irritating to him, the green giant nearly ripped it out a few times while moving about.
Now he sighed with content feeling when at long last he could disconnect from the power grid of the school, or more like he let out a sound of a sigh because his body wasn't physically capable of doing so anymore.
During his work, the green giant noticed that his feet were damaging the floor of the repair bay he was using. With the materials provided he created and attached rubberized soles to his legs, successfully solving the issue. It even made his steps much less noticeable which was quite good considering his weight and size.
Setting the thick power cable aside he was about to begin the more tedious repairs but a sudden message changed his plans.
=Incoming message from 'Princess': Hey Zuku, are you sleeping?=
Checking the time, it was slightly after 11PM.
=Message sent to 'Princess': No, I just finished the urgent repairs I had to do. Are you having trouble with sleep?=
His replay was nearly immediate, for the girl at least.
=Incoming message from 'Princess': Yes... Could you come here maybe? I know you are probably busy healing up but I really would like to see you again.=
=Messege sent to 'Princess': I'm on my way.=
With the soft thuds of his steps, Izuku made his way to the same gate he used to enter the workshop. Using his Nanites he interacted with too small for him control panel to open the doorway and slowly made his way into the dark of the night.
Following the signal from Momo's neural interface, he started to move along an asphalt road in the direction of his little friend. His big form could be easily spotted in the lights of the lamps along the road, but he decided that it shouldn't be a problem. No one asked him to stay in the workshop hall, so it probably was fine to travel on the campus grounds.
Observing the night sky his sensors found a few small birds flying by, for some reason it was really fascinating for him to see and witness so much life all around.
Getting to a building with large 1-A emblazoned at the front, Izuku made his way to the window that the signal was coming from. Stopping under it he sent Momo a message that he arrived.
He could see a bit of commotion inside, just before the form of his friend showed up on the small balcony.
"You really are here..." She said in slight awe, as if she wasn't totally sure it was happening.
"What sort of a knight I would be if I wouldn't respond to my Princess's call?" He asked back in a soft voice, causing Momo to blush.
After a short silence Izuku looked to the other windows. Not wanting to wake up other occupants he decided to move the conversation away.
"Do you want to go for a walk?" He asked the still blushing girl.
"Yea... Wait here a moment please." She told him, vanishing into her room for a few seconds. Emerging back she had a fluffy blanket with her, and was wearing a thick blouse. Seeing that only now Izuku checked the temperature, it was a rather chilly 14,6 Celsius.
"Could you... Carry me like before?" The girl asked shyly, the only response she got was a palm of his right hand raised up to her level.
The black haired girl made a small seat for herself from the blanket and sat down in his hand. After Izuku was sure she was safe, he moved his hand back to his armored torso. Shielding the girl from the slight wind with his other hand, the green giant slowly moved to a grassy hill visible nearby.
"I can't believe that you are back... I was searching for you for the last 6 years..." Momo started, holding onto his metallic thumb.
Looking down to his not so small any more friend, Izuku felt that somehow he disappointed the girl. "I'm sorry, I didn't predict that fight would have such an outcome." He said, still in a soft voice.
The black haired girl felt small goosebumps from the deep tone of the giant's voice, being so close to her friend when he spoke was quite an experience. "I know Zuku, I know..." She said, looking up to his only facial feature now.
"You sacrificed so much just to keep me safe, how I even could start to repay you for something like that...?" He heard in her voice that she was sad.
"Why would you even need too? Have you forgotten that it was no other than you that saved my life when I was dying by myself, forgotten by the world deep underground?" He started, bringing her closer to his big green eye.
"It was thanks to you I was able to move again, see Sun and the starry skies of the night." Saying that he stopped at the top of the hill they headed to.
Looking at the horizon, the lights of the city painted it in hundreds of moving spots. Cars, shops, city lights and even private homes together gave of a beautiful collage of colors.
"And look at you, puberty hit you like a truck. I didn't recognize you at all when I saw you for the first time." He said, chuckling slightly. Momo giggled with him, feeling the soft vibrations from his voice.
"If mine was like a truck, yours must have been a freight train." At her comment the giant's laughter raised in volume a bit, causing the birds on a nearby tree to take flight.
After a minute they slowly stopped laughing, with Momo suddenly sneezing. Looking her over, Izuku easily spotted that she was shivering from the dropping temperature. To the girl's confusion he moved her away from his chest for few seconds, with the thick boarding hatch opening just after.
"Your body temperature is dropping, seat inside I will warm you up." He explained, getting a blush in return.
The black haired girl slowly went inside, seating in the soft pilot seat. With the entry hatch remaining open, it was the first time she could look around inside.
From the old memories about the game, the cockpit of a Titan was full of switches and screens. Zuku's pilot seat didn't have any controls at all, it was just a comfy seat surrounded by something that looked like padding.
"Zuku... How did I even remain in the seat when we were fighting at U.S.J?" She asked her friend, curiosity winning over.
His mechanical hand reached inside to her. "Give me your blanket for a second and place your hands on the arm rests." He instructed.
Following what she was asked of, Momo sat properly. With soft hiss, a set of padded arms reached from behind her and crossing over her stomach locked the raven haired girl in place. Simultaneously each limb was locked in place by a similar mechanism, she even felt a collar forming behind her neck effectively rendering her completely immobile.
After few seconds the restraints retreated back into their places to release the girl. "It works just like that, your body is essentially unconscious when you control mine. You didn't see it earlier because you were locked in place just after connecting to me and released a few seconds before disconnection." Her big friend explained.
"Could you... Could you extend again the two arms that were holding me from the back?" She asked shyly.
"What for? Isn't it uncomfortable for you to be locked in place?" He inquired, not understanding her request.
"... It felt like a hug..." She mumbled, her face red.
"... Oh." He said, not knowing how to respond for once he slowly extended back the two safety arms, not locking then in place this time. The two of them stayed silent for a few minutes, not counting a soft " Thank you. " From Momo when she received her fluffy blanket back.
Moving slowly, Izuku sat down on the ground and leaned back on his arms. With the cockpit hatch still open, the black haired girl got a clear view of the night sky.
"So, why were you having issues with sleep?" Zuku asked, remembering why he met with her.
"I... I can't forget the face of that man who was killed by that monster at the U.S.J. I'm not blaming you in any way, but I guess that seeing it thru your perspective made it even worse. The way his face contorted in agony when he was being ripped apart... Laying in my bed I couldn't help but think that we could help him in some way. Even if he was a villain no one deserves to die, especially in such a gruesome way." Momo confessed, bundling in her warm blanket.
"That is a good thing, those feelings are what makes us human. It is a tragedy that those villains were killed by that beast, but I don't think we were able to do anything about that. Most of my systems were damaged or bypassed just to allow me to function properly, not to mention the state of my power core at that time. I told you once, that worrying about things that we can't do anything about won't help." Izuku tried to cheer his friend up.
"I know that you are probably right... It's just hard to forget. Can we stay like this for a bit?" The black haired girl asked, with her legs pulled up to her chest.
"Of course." Her replied, with a comfortable silence between them.
After a few minutes Momo started to doze off, not wanting to wake her up Izuku slowly closed the boarding hatch to keep her safe.
Still looking into the night skies he sat motionless at the hill for more than an hour. His sensors picked up someone approaching, but it looked more like a lazy stroll in their direction than an attempt at sneaking up.
"Knight, what are you doing here so late at night?" The same black haired man that Momo wanted him to save walked up to his side, Izuku even without making any scans saw that this person was heavily sleep deprived.
"Am I not allowed? No one said anything in this regard." The green giant replied in nearly a whisper.
"Indeed you are not. As a student here you are under curfew from 9pm to 4 am." Aizawa stated, looking over the now mostly repaired metal giant.
"I am your homeroom teacher, you can call me Aizawa-sensei. The principal told me you are suffering from memory loss, how serious is it?" The scruffy man asked.
"I would say that pretty serious. To this point I only remembered three things, all triggered by seemingly random word or action." Izuku summarized, still whispering.
"So, asking again, what are you doing here so late at night?" Aizawa asked once more.
Seating more straight, the green giant gestured to the man too stay silent. With a low hiss the upper half of the entry hatch to his torso opened up a bit, showing the sleeping girl inside. Momo was bundled in the seat like a cat on an armchair, with her legs pulled up. After confirming that the scruffy looking hero saw her, Izuku closed the cockpit back up.
"Princess asked me to come here, she had a problem with sleeping after witnessing the death of those people at the U.S.J facility." The green giant replied truthfully.
"Oh... Fuck. It completely escaped me that she was there." Aizawa had an urge to scream. With so much years of being on duty, he already saw his own share of brutal deaths. It wasn't something one should become desensitized about but sadly it was a reality of that line of work.
"Do not worry, I think that she is coping well for now. It would be good to let her meet with a specialist, someone she could talk and relate too." Izuku replied calmly to Eraserhead's outburst.
The black haired man looked to his new armored student. "What about you? Aren't you perturbed at all by what you saw?" He asked, seeing that the single eye of the giant looked down to the ground.
After half a minute of silence he replied, looking straight to the hero. "The safety of Princess and you took priority over them. With the damages I was suffering from and lack of energy there was nothing that could be done by me. It's not that I don't see the issue, all life is important, but there comes a moment you need to prioritize. The only thing you can do is hope you choose well."
Aizawa let out a heavy sight, looking to the lights of the city in the distance. "Tomorrow morning you will need to get to class, even with your stature there shouldn't be a trouble with that. Get some sleep... Do you even sleep?" The scruffy man asked in the middle of his sentence.
"I can, but don't need too." His new student replied.
"... Lucky bastard. I will let this late escapade of you two slide, because of what happened today. Don't make a habit out of it. The classes start at 8 AM, you can arrive around 10 minutes later if you want. It should be much easier to move around for you when the corridors are empty. You will be introduced to your peers then, Yaoyorozu is the class representative so she will help you with any problems." Aizawa finished with a yawn. Scratching his head lazily he started to go to the dorm building.
"I would ask you to not cause a commotion, but I don't believe in miracles." He said as a goodbye.
Following after the man with his sight, Izuku felt a bit of happiness that even with his body being so large he was still treated like a normal person. Moving slowly he returned to the position he was in, looking into to sky. With Momo sleeping peacefully inside his chest he followed after the slowly moving stars with his eye, patiently waiting for the next day to come.
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Waking up, Momo didn't remember when she was so relaxed for the last time. Her bed even if a bit small was warm and extremely soft, combined with the fluffy blanket she felt as if she was melting into it.
"Good morning, Princess. It's 6:30 AM, you should start to prepare for your day." The deep voice of her big friend sounded in her ear from the circlet, making her squirm.
"A few minutes more Zukuuuu..." She replied back, not wanting to give up the heavenly bliss. She felt her whole bed shifting and gently rock from side to side. Instead of being alarmed by that, she relaxed even more.
"You need to prepare for the day, please wake up." Izuku tried once more, miserably failing, with the girl mumbling something incoherently.
With a low hiss, she felt a cold breeze. Squeezing her eyes shut Momo tried to ignore the sudden sunlight trying to wake her up, but that fight couldn't be won. Looking around herself still in morning daze, it took the black haired girl a few seconds to recognize where she was.
"Did I sleep in you for the whole night?" She asked, rising her arms over the head to stretch.
"Yes, it is 6:37 AM right now. I didn't know how long your morning routine is, I'm sorry if I woken you up too late." Zuku replied, positioning his right palm near the open hatch to help his passenger disembark.
"It's okay." She said, allowing her big friend to lift her up to the balcony of her room.
"What will you do today? Do you have any plans?" Momo asked, not wanting to just leave her friend.
"I was asked by a teacher to meet him, there are also a few still damaged parts that just need a bit of time to repair." He replied, deliberately not telling the girl about joining the student body.
"Can we meet later then? I can visit you after classes, are you staying at the support course workshops?" She hopefully asked.
"For now, yes. You are welcome to visit me there, but I suggest consulting with mister Power Loader first if it's allowed by the school. I will see you later, Princess." He said, slowly moving back in the direction he came from yesterday.
Momo stayed on the small balcony until her friend wasn't visible any more. It was so unbelievable to her that he was back, but he really was. Going to her bathroom she started to prepare for the day.
After nearly 20 minutes she appeared in the common room, with nearly everyone seating all around. Some of them watched TV, others just sat at the table or were finishing their breakfast.
"Yaoyorozu-san! It's understandable after what happened yesterday but please don't make a habit of waking up late like that!" Iida welcomed her, with his right hand chopping air.
"Sorry, Iida-san. I just had an extremely hard time getting out of the bed today." She replied, going to the fridge for some water.
"Well, I would have too if I was sleeping in a Titan." Melissa quipped from the table, loud enough for most of their peers to hear.
Momo started to choke on her drink, Iida seemingly got an error report because his hand stopped mid swing and most of the class just started to stare at the black haired girl.
Melissa didn't have any mercy for her sister thou. "What kind of a knight I would be to not answer my Princess's call!" She exclaimed loudly with a dramatic flair, causing her black haired friend to flush red like a tomato.
"You heard that?!" Momo asked panicked.
"Girl, nearly all of us did. Your man can be as stealthy as he wants but being a 6 meter tall robot don't do him any favors in that regard." Hagakure began, waving her arms in an extremely animated way.
"That line was so cheesy but at the same time somewhat romantic. And his voice... Oh my god i could feel it even when he was just whispering to you." Mina laughed from her classmate's peril.
"I know, right?! That's insane, it felt like standing near a sub-woofer but more cool! I still have goosebumps when i remember his voice." The invisible girl continued after her friend.
"Yaoyorozu! As our class representative it's extremely unbecoming of you to break the curfew!" The speedster of the class reprimended.
"And he's back!" The pink-est of them all laughed.
"I had trouble falling asleep! When I asked him to come to me I didn't mean immediately, he just showed up a few minutes later and somehow we just started to talk and it was cold and he placed me inside to warm me up and it was so comfortable i must have fallen asleep and..." A stream of nearly incoherent words escaped Momo's mouth, the longer she talked the faster and more mumbled they become.
"Whoa, slow down Mo! Breathe!" Melissa seeing that her friend was shutting down from the teasing overload decided to stop. Weaving the other giggling girls away, she helped the still red Momo to seat at the table.
"Sorry, i couldn't help myself with how you react to that. Are you okay thou? Yesterday after that incident you were acting a bit strange." The blonde asked, remembering that her friend was unusually silent.
"It's a bit complicated, but after my talk with Zuku yesterday I'm much better." Momo replied, still quite successfully making an impression of a tomato.
"I can't wait to at long last meet the guy. You were nearly obsessed with him for so long, I wonder if it's a childish crush?" Melissa decided that she gave her sister enough of a break and started again.
"Mel! Stop that or I won't create anything for yours inventions for a month!" At long last managing to get a hold of herself Momo shouted, getting an immediate reaction. Falling to her knees the blonde inventor started apologizing profusely, not wanting to lose her main source of materials.
Huffing, the black haired girl went to the kitchen to make herself something to eat before the classes start, her blonde friend in tow still trying to get forgiveness. Even when she left, her big friend was the main topic in the room.
"How's that possible that even a giant robot have more luck with chicks than me?" The smallest member of the class 1-A wailed in the corner.
"Man... I'm a straight male and that guy makes my heart go. And he is much more cooler than you, not to mention less creepy and perverted from what we know." Kaminari Denki decided to go full savage on the guy.
"Yea! That robo-bro is so MANLY!" The red headed Kirishima exclaimed, making some the closer teens flinch from the volume.
"Well, he certainly was looking epic walking behind our teacher. I'm hoping that he will be able to heal up, or repair I guess. I know that he looks like a machine but you never know with quirks, some of them are bullshit. Even mine is strange, I could produce hundreds of liters of my acid and all I will feel is a little thirst. None of the doctors could deduce where all this liquid comes from really." Mina butted in, walking by.
"Yea, or how mine produces so much energy from basically nothing." Kaminari said.
Continuing their conversation the class 1-A slowly milled about, preparing for another day of lessons.
XxXxXxX
Author's Note: Hello! A really funny thing happened to me yesterday. I was listening to a bit of music on my headphones, a fan made 'When the mechs hit the ground' on YouTube and my 2 week old daughter started to cry. I got up and forgot that I had a cable because I normally use wireless headphones so it disconnected and started playing full volume. She immediately stopped crying and just flailed her little legs and arms around, small children are so weird :D