Chapter 34
XxXxXxX
Okay, today's the day. She was ready, or as ready one could get. With her hands trembling from nervousness she checked her purse once more if everything was in place.
The black and gold credit card to cover any bigger expenditures - check.
A bit of money in the case that she couldn't pay with the card - check. Was two hundred thousand Yen enough? She should take a bit more to be sure…
The double permit to leave school grounds for the day - check. She was really surprised that Principal Nezu gave it to her with no questions asked and with a smile. She really needed to thank him, maybe some more rare tea would be a good 'thank you' gift?
Her outfit - check. A slightly tight, white, button up shirt with frilly sleeves and a black design on it, paired with black jeans and red shoes. Her raven black hair loose from the signature at this point ponytail, falling over her shoulders and back. It wasn't anything fancy but her mother said over the phone that it was enough. Maybe she should change into one of her dresses? No, this was the plan and she would stick with it.
Taking one more glance over everything she mustered her strength, the last part of her plan the hardest to realize. She walked out of her room, nervous with anticipation.
Getting out of the elevator she directed herself to the main doors, thankful that Mina was occupied in the living room with a few of their friends. She liked the pinkette but sometimes she was a tad bit too overbearing with her enthusiasm about gossip and relationships, now being one of these times that she knew that Mina would ask a million questions that she didn't have the time nor will to answer.
Walking up to the doors they opened to her surprise, revealing a bandaged and battered form of her smallest classmate. His eyes widened after seeing her, the small pervert even had the gall to blush from the sight.
She saw that he was taking in air to speak, probably something as loud as it was going to be inappropriate. With a swift move she slapped her hand over his mouth, her palm glowing with creation before impact.
He recoiled a bit but his yell of indignation and pain never left his lips, the courtesy of the super strong adhesive tape that now kept it shut.
Momo slowly bent to be eye to eye with the little pervert, her grey ones piercing into his soul. "You make any sound, I'll tell Zuku that you tried to molest me on one of the combat training exercises. Do you understand?" She asked in a low and threatening tone.
Mineta's eyes widened in terror, his face turning paper white. He nodded his head so hard and fast that he fell over onto his ass, scooting away from the girl in fear.
"Good boy." She said with a smile that didn't fit the situation at all, walking past the terrorized teen and out of the building.
The morning air felt nice, maybe a bit hot but that was normal for the early summer. Walking to the workshop her big friend occupied she adjusted her headband a bit. A small red tinted visor showed up over one of her eyes, informing her that Izuku still was moving about in his personal work space.
Sighing she felt that she should do something about that, her titanic friend spent so much time alone and working that she didn't even have an opportunity to see him for a few days already. Thankfully their training ended, giving her the opportunity that she decided to use.
Going once more over her plan in her head she arrived at the support course workshops, greeting Power Loader who was milling about between students that were working on some projects. A few of them looked at her strangely when she approached the restricted large gate in the hall but returned to their work after getting scolded by the teacher for getting distracted.
Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, Momo pushed the button to open the human sized passage. A rather catchy and fast rock music played in the background, the room before her strewn with cables that coalesced into the center. Having a rather bad premonition she took a step inside, her eyes widening after seeing her friend in the center with all the cables connected to him.
"Okay, give me all the power you can, Hatsumei." Izuku said, squatting a bit into a more stable position. His body gave out a high pitch whine, the four emerald jets of energy roaring to life on his back. Momo was about to yell at him in objection but to her confusion the lights in the room dimmed significantly, making what happened next even more intimidating.
In the dark room it was much easier to see the red light starting to emanate from in between the Titan's joints and in the seams of his armor, a few small and red lightning arcs traveling across his form. The 20 ton body of her friend started to vibrate slightly and to her surprise lifted from the ground a few centimeters. It lasted only a couple of seconds, a loud crack of the breakers giving out causing him to slam back into the workshop's floor.
"God damn it!" He swore loudly, taking the ravenette aback. "If only I could spare a bit more power! I need to get this working!" He huffed in irritation, disconnecting manually all the additional power cables.
"I know that I'm the last person that should tell you that but this is a bit too reckless, Mechadaddy. This new baby of yours is spectacular and totally awesome but for it to strain the only thing that keeps you alive in such a way isn't good." Hatsume called from her workstation, surrounded by monitors and a few keyboards. Her eyes and hands moving separately, the slightly crazy girl somewhat able to operate all of this at once.
"The Arc Reactor will hold, I just need an external power boost big enough for it to not be working over max capacity. Maybe a power pack based on Timey's battery technology would work?" The Giant replied, taking a large step over all the machinery and looking at the screens that Mei was using.
"Maybe… but it would need to be charged beforehand. We can always try to design an additional reactor. It certainly wouldn't reach the outputs that your own does but it could act as a backup and a power capacity boost for things like that drive." The pinkette said, still working.
"I'll ask Luna for the schematics that she created with Mechadoriya, that could be a good start…" Izuku replied but was cut off by an angry sounding voice of Momo.
"Izuku! What are you doing?!" She asked, stomping to him with a glare firmly planted onto his green eye.
"Princess?! When did you get here?" He asked surprised, which was more surprising to the ravenette than anything else. The steel Titan always tracked her neural interface, for him to be surprised by her was as unlikely as sun rising in the west.
"For long enough. I asked you to not use that ability of yours, it hurts you every time!" She replied with a huff.
"Please calm down, Princess. I promise you that at the level I used it right now nothing was damaged or worn out. I made a few improvements to my cooling systems when Mechadoriya allowed me to tap into his own power source, you have nothing to worry about." Trying to appease the angry girl, the steel Titan took a few steps to get closer to her and kneeled to be at least somewhat on her level. His eye still was over a meter higher than her head though.
Looking up to the emerald optic Momo's nose scrunched a bit, causing her to look more cute-angry than intimidating-angry.
"I don't believe you." She said, jabbing him in his chest plate with a finger. "You clearly can't be trusted with your well being. I know for a fact that you wouldn't even tell me if you had any problems." She continued with a bit of sadness seeping into her voice.
"I… sorry…" He stuttered out, looking to the ground in shame.
"That's why we are going on a date!" She announced.
"On a date?" He asked unsure but slightly leaned away after seeing the glare she sent his way.
"Yes, a date! And we are going to have fun! And you are going to enjoy it!" She said once more, narrowing her gaze.
"What about the permit to leave the campus? We must…" He tried to protest, just for the ravenette to take out two plastic cards out of her purse.
"Already taken care of, we have time until 10 PM." She replied with a smile.
"Well…" He started unsure, looking back for help to Hatsume who still worked on her computer unperturbed.
"Don't worry about me. I'll finish compiling the data, do a check on the BattleMaiden and close the shop for you. I still have a few babies to work on when you are away." Mei stated, seeing the reflection of his begging gaze in one of the monitors.
"See? Let's go!" Momo happily said, grabbing one of his fingers and trying to drag him with her. Not seeing any way out, Izuku stood up and followed wordlessly after his friend.
XxX
"We shouldn't do this…" Izumi said to herself for the seventeenth time, her friends ignoring those words completely.
"You guys know that Izuku can probably detect us, right?" Melissa stated, using a small mirror to peek around a corner of the building they were hiding behind.
Mina didn't even bother to be stealthy, blatantly observing Momo with her titanic friend as the two were marching slowly away. The raven haired girl still held onto one of his fingers, happily dragging him along as the people gaped at the pair.
"How in the world can the two of them look so cute? I mean, Yaomomo is that hot-cute kind but Izuku is a giant badass…" The pinkette asked, not receiving any answers.
"How in the Lord's name did I get dragged into this?" Ibara groaned a bit. She adamantly tried to persuade her friends to not do something this foolish but together with Izumi they failed. Knowing their friends, the two greenettes decided to tag along to keep them from doing anything that would interfere with their class president and the Titan.
"Shoot, move gals! We are going to lose them!" Mina announced as she tried to go after the two but was stopped by Melissa's hand grabbing her collar.
"Hold your horses, Skippy. I know where they are going." The blonde said, calmly putting her hand mirror into one of her many pockets.
"How?" The pinkette asked with a pout for being denied an epic stealth chase section.
"Do you seriously think that Mo would be able to create any plans like this without any help? She may be brilliant but love life never really was her focus. Well… outside of the fantasy romance books with all those gag reflex inducing cheesy lines and other crap." Melissa replied, starting to slowly walk in the direction their targets vanished in. "She wouldn't leave my room until I came up with something. I barely stopped myself from laughing with how panicked she was when Luna suggested asking Izuku himself."
"You traitor! Why didn't you tell me anything?!" Mina exclaimed, an accusatory finger pointed at the blonde who just shrugged.
"I had a lot of work and at the end of the day Mo is like a sister to me. That doesn't mean I don't want to see how it goes, especially as Dagobah beach is next on the list."
"Oh, it feels like ages since I was there last time…" Izumi commented absentmindedly.
"Yeah! I was there with my family before I moved to the dorms! It's so beautiful there after the trash was removed." Mina butted in, happily typing away on her phone as they walked.
"You should thank Izumi then, she was the one that cleaned the whole place singlehandedly."
"Melissa-san! You don't need to tell everybody about that!" The greenette exclaimed, her face getting red.
"Remember what Uncle Might said, never be embarrassed because of the hard earned gratitude from the people you helped." The blonde inventor said with a laugh, trying to imitate the deep voice of the #1 hero.
"Melissa-san is right, Izumi-san. You did a great thing by giving back that wonderful place to the people and their families, not to mention the benefits to the environment." Ibara added, walking with her fellow greenette, slightly in the back of the group.
"Midori! You have the biggest milkshake on me whenever we go for some! Thanks to you I have a new favorite spot!" Mina turned around, glomping Izumi into a big hug that the blushing greenette didn't expect in the slightest.
After half an hour of walking, they arrived at the beach that was even now full of people. That didn't really pose any issues, as their titanic friend was sticking out like a sore thumb. Quite a lot of people were swarming around him, the flashes of cameras were numerous too with everyone wanting a selfie with the Titan.
"I completely forgot about other people!" Melissa exclaimed, facepalming with an audible slap.
"Yeah, Izuku can't even move a step from his spot and Yaomomo looks ready to murder…" Mina said, a bit more serious than normal.
True to her words, it looked like Momo just returned from the changing rooms as she was in a black and red bikini with a red, slightly see-through skirt reaching to past her knees. She tried to reach Izuku but was blocked by a group of girls that was trying to gain the attention of the steel giant, probably to get their own pictures with him.
"Zuku!" The raven haired girl called quite loud, as even the four girls heard her from the distance they were at.
The called Izuku turned slowly around, looking at Momo and stopping for a short few seconds. He said something but from this distance it was only visible by his eye flashing with the words. He gently moved to Momo, minding all the people and making sure that nobody was in the way. The steel giant extended a hand to her, which she sat in with a radiant smile, which turned into a smirk when she looked at the group that pushed her away earlier.
"Full speed ahead! To the ocean!" Momo yelled, pointing at the gentle waves with a laugh.
"Aye aye, Captain!" Izuku answered as loud as her, but contrary to the 'order' he still was moving slowly to avoid hurting anyone. That was until there was anyone in the way, because when there was only water ahead he launched himself into it, creating a giant splash of water that rained down even on the four still observing from the parking space.
"That looks like fun… I want to go too…" Mina whined, ignoring the fact that her hair became slightly wet.
"The summer break is like in a month, we can go with the whole class then." Melissa replied, taking out a set of small binoculars from one of her pockets.
After a few seconds passed the Titan rose from the water, nearly completely submerged by it. His eye was barely above the surface, with Momo 'floating' before him and laughing jovially. It didn't take too long for the blonde to realize that the raven haired girl had to be still seated in Izuku's palm because her density made swimming impossible without gear. To Melissa's surprise, her best friend turned suddenly to look straight at her with a playful smirk on her face.
"Aww… She knows we are here." The blonde inventor said to the small group without any hints of worry.
"How? We even moved separately from them!" The pinkest person in the group asked.
"I told you to not underestimate Izuku. He's probably scanning the environment all the time to ensure that nothing sneaks up on them."
Still observing the two on the water, Melissa let out a chuckle at what she saw. Momo created a tricorn hat by using her quirk and something that looked like a foam toy sword, climbed on top of her titanic friend and gestured with the sword onward. The steel giant immediately started to move, slowly at first but after a few seconds he was cutting through the water like a motorboat, a large wave in their wake.
"Well… It seems that fun's over for now. I don't have any idea where pirate Momo could have gone and there's no way we will keep up with them on foot." The blonde announced. "Anyone want some ice cream?"
XxX
"Are we done yet?" A slightly electronic voice asked, for the thirteenth time in the last ten minutes.
"Yes." A pink haired girl answered, her hands swiftly moving inside of the small robotic body of the BattleMaiden.
"Really?!" Luna asked happily.
"No, stay still for a few more minutes. I just need to replace your air intake filters and you can go prancing around again." Mei replied, internally marveling at the childish whine that the robot emitted.
"You are so mean, Meimei! I'll tell dad that you are making fun of me!" The AI replied with a huff.
"Yeah, yeah. I heard that one already." The pinkette said with a chuckle. "Aaaaand, here we go. A new set of filters for you to abuse." She continued, closing the robot's back and locking the panel in place.
"It's not my fault that Mirko-sensei destroyed so much of the concrete obstacles and made so much dust! It was so awesome to watch though …" The white and blue robot replied, a soft hum from its body signaling that Luna started her internal power generator.
"Yeah… Those tungsten coated leg protectors of hers are dope… I would love to be able to tinker with such a baby…" Mei agreed with a dreamy look on her face.
"According to the workshop rule 3774 paragraph 18 I'm supposed to spray you with water when you are like this…" The small robot said, reaching with one of its hands to the nearby spray bottle.
"Okay, let's get going then! I have a few babies to work on for school assignments!" Mei started to walk to the exit while getting away from Luna who decided that water treatment wasn't necessary… yet.
Luna walked out with her, waving to Power Loader who waved back with a smile, still walking between his students to supervise them and assist if any need arose. The teacher wasn't that happy though as he saw that Hatsume closed the giant's workshop and sauntered happily to her workbench that was at this point scorched with blast marks that were the results of the pinkette testing her 'babies'.
Most of the students paused their work to gawk at Luna, who didn't mind that in the slightest and walked out of the hall while humming a happy tune. She went outside, skipping down a walkway (something that Aunty Mina showed her how to do) that led to the dorm area of the campus. Quite a few students were milling around, even with the day being a free one, some of the teens could be seen training or doing exercises on the sports fields she passed by.
A lot of people turned their heads after her, some even stopping what they were doing just to watch the 1.5 meter tall, white and blue robot skip by while humming a happy tune from some anime.
Passing by the class 1-B's dorms, she paused for a second after spotting the orange hair of Itsuka Kendo who just went around the corner of the building in a hurry. Having nothing better to do, she decided to go and say hello. Resuming her happy song the small robot trotted alongside the building on a path that would guide it to the courtyard in the back.
She was just about to turn around the corner when she heard a rather heated exchange happening there. Peering around the said corner she saw that a few students from 1-B were glaring angrily at their classmate, one Monoma Neito.
Luna didn't really like that one, especially after he did so much to trouble one of her mothers. It looked like his class had a similar opinion of him, judging by the angry faces and the distance all of them kept from the blonde teen right now.
"Monoma, are you mental?! Why in the world would you even try to do something like that!" Kendo shouted at him, clearly infuriated by something.
"What's there to understand? I just want Momo to be happy, not be stuck with that junk heap. I'm just trying to fulfill my heroic duty." The blonde replied with a smirk.
"By trying to incriminate Knight? Do you even know what you just asked us to do with you?!" The ginger haired girl didn't seem at all pleased with his answer. "You call planting evidence 'a heroic duty'? I should report you to Vlad-sensei for even planning this!"
"Can't you see?! We would do a favor for everyone! It's clear that the trash can is working for the MLA, he even arrived by one of their portals! And what do they use as their main battle force?! More robots! Isn't that proof enough?! We should do something before…" The blonde ranted, turning just in time to avoid a sloppy punch from a small white and blue robot.
"Stop lying about Oni-chan! He would never do something like that!" Luna shouted enraged, flailing her arms like a little kid and trying to hit the blonde teen.
Taken off guard, Monoma activated one of the quirks that he 'borrowed' from his classmate. With his skin turning into steel he batted away one of the offending hands before anyone could react, making the small robot fall to the ground.
"Luna-chan?! Monoma stop!" Lunging forward Kendo tried to stop the angry blonde, together with a few of her friends that were watching the exchange to this point, but they weren't fast enough. With Luna sprawled on the ground he lifted his leg and stomped viciously on his assailant's knee, a loud crack of breaking metal resounding.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" A whirlwind of body parts roared, crashing into the blonde who was lifting his leg for another strike. Setsuna slammed into him with all the force she could muster, pushing him away a few meters.
"A… aah...Aaargghh!" The small robot shouted in pain, wriggling on the ground. Kendo immediately kneeled beside it, taken aback by the sudden yell. She used her quirk, growing her hands a bit to be able to turn the white and blue robot onto it's back.
"Luna-chan, are you alright?" She asked, wincing a bit at the mangled knee joint that whirred pitifully, a small stream of a deep blue fluid leaking down the leg.
"It… it hurts…" The AI whimpered, its robotic hands cradling the destroyed limb.
"Yeah right. That thing is faking it! It's probably one of those villainous robots, we should destroy this thing and report to the school! Get off me Tokage! Didn't you see that thing attacking me?!" Monoma shouted at the greenette that was pinning him to the ground.
"This is Knight's younger sister, you moron! You just attacked a twelve years old kid!" Kendo yelled back, helping Luna to sit back up. The small white robot didn't make any more sounds but its hands were still clutching the damaged area.
"Dude, that's so unmanly! And you used my quirk to do this?!" Tetsutetsu exclaimed, getting closer with the rest of their classmates.
Luna sat there motionless, in the middle of the commotion. The intense sensation of pain from her left leg was numbing her processes, something that she never experienced before. She barely managed to stop herself from calling for her Papa, remembering that he was out with her mother for the first time ever. Her second mother was also out of the campus, there was 93% probability that mother Melissa was trying to secretly spy on her father. And around 0,000031% chance that her Papa wouldn't notice that he was followed.
Now that she had a few seconds to process the sudden and certainly horrible feeling of one of her limbs getting destroyed, she was a bit regretting the fact that she asked Mei to increase the sensitivity of the neural system in her new body. At the same time she wanted to thank the pinkette for refusing to increase it past 50%, because the awful sensation could be so much worse.
"Luna-chan, can you hear me?" Hearing her name, the AI turned her head to the orange haired girl that was helping her to sit. Slowly looking around, Luna saw a few curious students from 1-B observing her, and a few standing near Monoma who was still restrained on the ground.
"It hurts…" She replied, looking down at her legs. Just as the diagnostic told her, the left knee was smashed open with the hydraulic fluid seeping out. She quickly cut off the power to the limb replacing the searing pain with numbness, another new feeling but this one was much easier to process.
"Tetsutetsu, go for Vlad-sensei. We can't leave this like that." Kendo ordered, the silver haired teen springing to action immediately. He sprinted into the dorm building, barely avoiding one of his smaller classmates that tried to see what was happening outside.
Monoma decided that he had enough of being pushed into the ground, his body splitting into parts and gathering a few meters away from the greenette that was holding him down.
"What are you all so angry about? It's just some stupid robot! It even attacked me without any reason!" The blonde copycat exclaimed angrily, seeing that his classmates started to send hostile looks his way.
"Of course she attacked you when you were trying to incriminate her brother! What else would you expect from a kid whose family you tried to hurt?" The ginger haired girl replied angrily, hugging the small robot a bit in a protective gesture.
"Open your eyes Kendo! That thing is just lying to you, to all of us! And now you are turning on me? A member of your class and a fellow human? Look for yourself! That thing isn't even reacting to that damage any more! It was just acting to get you on its side!" Monoma shot back, as angry as his class representative if not more.
Looking back down to the robot on her arms, she saw that indeed, Luna wasn't reacting any more to her busted leg. "You weren't acting, were you?" She asked, getting back the attention of the AI who turned it's head to look at her.
The two large 'eyes' blinked a few times, it's metallic head tilting in a cute way. "No, Kendo-san. This body is equipped with an artificial neural network that grants me the feeling of touch among other things. I think that when damaged it entered a feedback loop that I registered as pain… I'm sorry for reacting like this, I never felt something so… bad. I'm good now, I switched off my legs so I don't feel anything anymore in them!" She replied, looking back to her broken limb. "Oni-chan is going to be so mad at meeee…" The small robot whined.
Suddenly a pink blur impacted into the ginger haired girl, causing her to stagger away. Hatsume immediately caught Luna's body, the top of her face covered with those steampunk goggles of hers. The pink haired inventor inspected the damage for a few seconds, ignoring the questions from the irritated Itsuka.
"Okay, whose skull I'm caving in for damaging Luna baby?" Hatsume asked in a threatening tone, a strange flashlight/baton in her hand.
"Meimei! Can you fix this so Oni-chan wouldn't notice?" The artificial intelligence asked hopefully.
"I'll try." Hatsume replied, taking out a few tools from her belt and starting to disconnect the damaged limb. "What happened? It looks like blunt force damage from behind…"
"What happened indeed." The gruff voice of 1-B class homeroom teacher resounded in the backyard, the large man in a red jumpsuit stepping out of the dorm building with an angry grimace.
"That tin can attacked me out of nowhere, I just defended myself!" Monoma stated before anyone else could say anything.
"I'm not a tin can! And Oni-chan isn't one either! It isn't our fault we aren't organic!" The AI shouted back, flailing one of her hands at the blonde copycat that only glared at her.
"...Kendo?" Vlad King prompted the ginger haired girl to explain, after looking the situation over once more. His sight lingered for a moment on the small robot on the ground that gave out a mildly cute growling sound in the direction of Monoma, like one of those extremely small dogs.
"Monoma tried to rope us into planting some evidence against Knight. I don't know any more details because we immediately declined and started to argue. I think that Luna-chan overhead that and tried to punch Monoma who retaliated by tripping her up and destroying one of her legs before we managed to stop him. Then that pink haired girl showed up, with you following shortly after sir." The 1-B class representative quickly summed up the situation, causing her teacher to sigh deeply.
"Monoma, Kendo and you two. You are going with me to the principal's office, Nezu will decide what to do with this situation." The blood hero ordered, gesturing to Hatsume and Luna.
Just to be ignored by the pink haired inventor who hoisted the whole robot onto her shoulder and wordlessly started to go back to the workshop.
"Oh! I'm sorry for Meimei, Vlad King sensei! I'll be there in one of my other bodies, this one can't really move and needs to be repaired before Oni-chan returns from his date. He will be really really mad otherwise and I don't want him to kill someone!" The white and blue robot called back to the teacher, being carried with its head back to the small group. It's voice certainly too peppy for what she was talking about
"I'm too old for this…" The pro hero sighed once more, massaging his forehead.
XxX
"Well… that was a rollercoaster of emotions at the end there." Melissa tried to start a conversation. Her three friends were trying to gather themselves after the movie they just watched, with mixed results.
They were still in the area of Dagobah beach, near the newly opened drive-in cinema that played old, pre-quirk movies at the moment. To their surprise Momo and Izuku didn't show up, but with tickets already purchased they decided to just have some fun and watch the movie.
"I think that Midori nearly flooded the cinema at the end, not that I'm blaming her for that." Mina replied with slightly puffy cheeks.
"I couldn't help iiit… it wosh so sad hwen Eve had to watch her loved one get crushed." Izumi defended herself, still sobbing into a handkerchief.
"Well… I admit I didn't expect for them to show it in such a graphic way, even if the main characters were robots." Ibara agreed, her eyes and cheeks in the same state as Mina's.
"Speaking of robots, it's rather clear that our lovebirds ditched the plan I created for them. We should probably start going back to the dorms, I still have a bit of work to do today." The blonde inventor stated while stretching her arms over her head with an audible pop.
"Yeah… That's a bummer…" Mina mumbled, kicking a small pebble along the walkway.
"Don't worry, you can try to get some details out of Momo later today, we'll drag her to one of our rooms and interrogate her properly." Melissa replied with a cheeky grin.
"Melissa-san! We should respect their privacy! It's enough that they needed to alter their plans because of us following them." Ibara tried to reproach the blonde.
"Oh don't be like that, it's going to be a friendly, girls night interrogation as the tradition dictates."
"What tradition...?" The Christian girl asked but only got another cheeky grin in return.
"We're going to get all the deets from Yaomomo!" Mina exclaimed happily and with fiery determination.
XxX
"Aaa-choo!" A raven haired girl sneezed suddenly, nearly dropping her takeout meal from the harsh motion.
"Are you okay?" Her companion asked with worry.
"Yeah… I think that someone is talking about me. Probably those little spies from before." Momo replied with a chuckle, seating herself between the legs of her friend who in turn was seated on the sandy beach.
After their grand escape they found a small cove, away from practically everyone else's eyes. It was barely big enough for the Titan to fit in, but after clearing a few larger pieces of driftwood he was able to comfortably sit with his back leaning on the rocky walls that surrounded them from all sides.
At first Momo was panicking a bit, her plan going sideways after barely an hour. It turned out that Izuku didn't really mind, settling himself against the small cliff side and letting out a content sigh. They talked a bit about the school, then about the training that the crazy albino rabbit put her through, about his patrols with Ryukyu and other things after that.
They briefly returned to Dagobah beach for Momo's belongings and something for her to eat but returned to their little sanctuary after seeing how many people were still on the beach itself. The raven haired girl bought a few movies through her phone, Izuku acting as a projector for them both to watch it comfortably. The time passed quite quickly like that, with them both laughing and talking.
Now both of them waited for the sunset, the large red orb being barely over the horizon right now. Momo leaned her back on Izuku's leg, sitting sideways to her friend. She slowly munched on her food, observing the gentle waves. The steel giant was motionless, his half lidded eye looking into the distance.
"Zuku?" She called out to him, getting a soft humm of acknowledgement. "Why didn't you go back to your home?" She asked, causing him to shift minutely to look down to her.
"What do you mean?" He asked back, even if already knew what she was talking about.
"You know… with Timey and the rest… he probably could take you to where you really belong, to your home." The ravenette asked, setting aside her food but still looking into the horizon.
"I'm already home." He replied, also gazing into the distance.
"Aren't you even curious? What if there is someone waiting for your return? What about your family? I never asked before but you said that some of your memories were returning so I thought…" She fumbled her words a bit, for once not knowing how to express what she was trying to ask.
"I don't think there is anyone like that left." The Giant replied with a melancholic voice. "I have new friends here, I have family. I'm needed, so I'll remain until I'm not."
"Oh…" She softly replied, her eyes going back to her giant friend. He looked back at her, his large emerald eye somewhat expressing his wistful mood.
"Besides, I met quite a few familiar faces already. Even if they are not the same people that I knew, I still can see my old friends." The Titan continued, turning his gaze back to the sea.
"Familiar faces?" She inquired, happy that he was willing to share with her.
He remained silent for a short while, just when she thought that he wouldn't replay her giant friend started to speak in a soft voice. "Usagiyama Rumi, codename Tiger Rabbit. She was a reconnaissance specialist but loved to enter combat. I had to bail her out more times than I care to count." He said, chuckling a bit at the end. "Takeyama Yu. Codename Everest. She was a powerful front line combatant that used even heavier armor and weaponry than me. She didn't serve in my unit but I think that we did a few missions together." He continued, observing a large cargo ship emerging from beyond the horizon. "The only other person that I vividly remember would probably be my mother… I only remember a few flashes about her, and her last moments in the hospital bed. She died of old age, with me being by her side." He finished, falling silent once more.
Momo remained silent as well, a few of her unanswered questions being explained without her even asking. The two unexpected visitors from another world were proof enough that something like this was a possibility. The strange relationship that Izuku had with Mirko made a bit of sense now too, with the rabbit heroine being someone that constantly reminded him of home.
"I don't really remember that much." The Titan broke the silence, his voice soft. "I know that I was fighting in a war against an opponent that we barely could hold off, that nearly all plant life died because of them. I remember sitting on a rooftop and looking over a devastated city, nothing but rubble to the horizon… Meta abilities were a rarity, unlike here. Civilians lived in giant, walled cities called Arcs, mine was Arc 13… I can't remember much else, a few flashes and sounds but nothing coherent. I do feel a bit of familiarity with Kayama-san and with Ryukyu but I can't really tell what that's about."
"It must be hard… seeing the faces of your friends on complete strangers…" The Raven haired girl whispered out.
"There is nothing one can do but keep pushing on." He added, looking back to her.
"You are strong, Zuku… Not everyone would be able to do that."
"... I don't think of myself as strong. Maybe slightly above average." He said with a chuckle.
Momo smiled too, looking once more to the setting sun that was halfway beyond the horizon.
"I was thinking… if you can connect my mind to your body, can't you do the same in reverse?" She asked suddenly, making him look down to her once more.
"You mean me controlling your body? That's not a good idea really. Human brain is often referred to as an organic supercomputer but that's not really the truth. My own body and mind is able to process such amounts of additional information only because it was conditioned to do so. You don't have any way of cutting off your own control of the body too, so the central nervous system could be flooded with conflicting information and in the most likelihood cause a body wide seizure." He replied, observing how she was taking out a bowl from her food bag that she bought after they decided to stay on the small beach.
"Ouch… that's rather bad." She stated, seemingly in thought. "What about something on a smaller scale? Could you connect your senses to mine?"
"I think so?"
"Okay. Connect to me but don't peek." She ordered with a smile.
"What are you planning?" He asked, mentally connecting to her circlet and changing its shape into the combat mode that the girl normally used.
"It's a secret. Don't look!" She ordered once more, slightly startled that her headgear started to transform without her input.
Letting out an amused sigh, Izuku did as was asked of him and switched off all of his visual sensors. He still could 'see' her with a few of his other systems but she didn't need to know about that.
"You still can see me without seeing me, don't you?" She asked suddenly, making him lean slightly back from surprise.
"Busted." He once more chuckled. " How did you know?"
"You are nearly paranoid with all this constant searching for enemies… Can you stop looking for a few moments? I want to surprise you." She asked once more with a small smile.
"Okay…" He reluctantly agreed, running one more in depth scan of their surroundings before allowing himself to stop being aware of everything around. It wasn't that good of a feeling, his instincts demanding to start scanning his environment anew.
"Okay… are we connected?" Her voice broke through the darkness that surrounded him.
"Fully. I guess you don't want me to use your sight too?" He affirmed, consciously stopping his quirk from mapping the environment with echolocation.
It was so strange, a set of completely forgotten sensations ran through him.
The warm rays of the setting sun on the skin.
A soft breeze that felt refreshing and a bit salty.
The taste of deep fried meat melting on his tongue accompanied by soft rice and the sauce not unlike his mother made…
"Wha…?" He exclaimed in slight shock, his large frame shuddering. His large emerald eye turned on immediately, snapping to the girl who looked a bit disgruntled for some reason.
"Ahhh shoot. I knew I should have done this earlier, it's cold." Momo said to herself, stirring the bowl with her chopsticks.
"Is… is this K-katsudon?" Izuku asked, still reeling back.
"Yes! Oh it's such a relief that the connection works… I really hoped that it would…" The ravenette replied, sounding relieved. She looked up to her friend but his own eye was firmly planted onto the styrofoam bowl in her hands. Smiling a bit, she took another bite, chewing it thoroughly.
Izuku leaned back into the wall behind him, a soft hum of delight leaving his frame. Heavy nostalgia encompassed him, the memories of how he sat impatiently at the dining table while his mother was finishing the preparations for the meal flashed in his mind. He sighed contently once more when Momo took another bite of the food.
Feeling her friend shudder once more through her back, the raven haired girl giggled a bit. It seemed that her plan of making Zuku feel better somewhat succeeded, even if there were a few hiccups on the way.
She sincerely wished such times could last forever.
XxXxXxX
Author's Note : Fun fact! Babies can produce a sound louder than jet engine in the middle of the night when they are teething (MAY OR MAY NOT BE AN EXAGGERATION. my experience leans into the second one…) . Good times ahead! :D