My Hero Academia: Ruby and Emerald

Chapter 9: Younger Midoriya Izuku POV

The next few days were strange ones. Izuku and his mom had gone home after the adults had gotten Mikumo and Katsuma settled. Mikumo’s story about how he had drawn Yagi-sensei’s attention was so scary! He was glad he didn’t have to do that. The day after, Izuku and Kacchan had met with Yagi-sensei, Mikumo, and Katsuma at Dagoba beach.

It was unpleasant. A beach turned trash dump had to be the worst smell in the world. Salty winds mixed with rusty metal, rotting wood, and other garbage scents? Gross.

And Izuku. Had to clean it all up. Kacchan was helping, but Kacchan also spent half the time there using the trash as impromptu targets for his explosions, which Yagi-sensei and Katsuma encouraged as future practice for precision targeting and rescue work.

Izuku wanted to do that sort of thing too—the sort of skill that was directly applicable to rescue work!—but Mikumo had pulled him aside one day to explain why he wasn’t doing that.

“It’s really, really important for you to build up some muscles first, okay?” Mikumo had explained. “Building musculature and a sturdy frame is the first step. Because of how quirk-centric society is, you don’t get much encouragement to actively work on bettering yourself like this. You’ve only ever seen people be encouraged to make use of their natural talents, so you honed your mind—which makes sense!—because that was what you had. But to be a hero, you’re going to need a lot more than smarts. Even the heroes who have smarts have the muscles and agility to enact the plans they make. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do to avoid a brawl. So don’t feel bad just because Katsuki is ahead of you—you’ll catch up.”

It had made Izuku feel… seen, for once. Understood. Which made sense, because Mikumo was literally himself from the future. He had been through the same thing! Taken all the same actions! Cleaned this beach, even!

Whenever Izuku was taking a break from cleaning the beach (for water or food or to talk about workouts and schedules) he watched Mikumo and Katsuma. He hadn’t observed much about them on that first day, because there was so much happening so fast. He got swept up in it. But now that things had calmed down, he could categorize all the ways they were different from him and Kacchan.

Obviously, Katsuma was different from Kacchan. Izuku had noted when he showed up that he was willing to back down on Mikumo’s word. That he was strangely non-hostile. This was explained when it was revealed that he and Mikumo were engaged, as improbable as it sounded. Izuku couldn’t imagine Kacchan falling in love with him. Or himself falling in love with Kacchan! He liked girls!

He… was trying not to think about that too hard. More research was needed before he would be ready to analyze that. Anyway.

Katsuma was taller than Mikumo. Katsuma and Mikumo both had their ears pierced, but only Katsuma had double piercings. Kacchan scowled all the time, like he was scared that if he was seen enjoying something other than violence that he would be judged as weak. Katsuma laughed at Izuku and Kacchan’s mistakes and made fun of Mikumo in a way that made them both laugh and let Mikumo make fun of him and laughed openly and smiled fondly and scowled playfully. He had a resting angry face that was largely neutral and only scowled for real if he disagreed with something Kacchan said. It was strange. Kacchan would grow into this? It seemed… completely ridiculous. Katsuma was obviously the same person Kacchan was, at his core, but the changes he had undergone on the surface made him seem totally alien.

Mikumo was totally alien in different ways. He spoke loudly, and with confidence. He didn’t mumble as much, and when he did and Katsuma had to cut him off, he didn’t blush or get embarrassed. He made fun of Katsuma. He stuttered on Yagi-sensei’s name every time he said it, clearly used to a more familiar relationship with the man. He laughed when Kacchan insulted him. He sought affection from Katsuma fearlessly, and it was given to him easily. He didn’t even duck his head when Katsuma chastised him for recklessness, which was something that would have made Izuku want to melt into the ground. He smiled at Izuku like the two of them were in on a secret nobody else knew.

His pupils were white. That was one thing about Mikumo that didn’t make sense. Izuku’s pupils weren’t white. He couldn’t find any medical condition that would make the pupil of your eye turn white. Maybe it was a result of a quirk that had been used against him, once?

Izuku couldn’t find the courage to ask.

Katsuma and Mikumo weren’t at Dagoba every night after school the way Yagi-sensei was. Sometimes they would stay the entire time. Sometimes they would stay for about half the time, and then rush off. Sometimes they would come only for the last half, hair still wet from showering. Sometimes they only dropped by in minutes-long intervals, greeting them and checking up before rushing away again. Sometimes they didn’t show up at all.

Izuku noted this out loud one day, and Kacchan scowled at him.

“They’re underground heroes, dumbass! Their patrols don’t always start at the same time each night. Sometimes they’re busy,” he growled. It was nice of him to explain.

“Are they still living at your house, Kacchan?” Izuku asked.

“Obviously! I can’t wait until those pains-in-the-ass are out of my hair!” Kacchan shouted. Huh. Izuku thought they might have moved out by now. At this point, it was about two weeks since Katsuma and Mikumo had shown up.

It was surreal to think that a hero version of himself from the future was running around after dark, stopping villains and saving people.

Izuku wondered about the rings, sometimes. About what was engraved on them. Something that All Might had told them, Mikumo had explained. Save to win and win to save. He hadn’t explained why that specific phrase was important enough to be engraved on the inside of their wedding bands, though. And why split it in half?

Mostly, though, Izuku was excited. A version of him from the future had shown up in front of him. In the future, he would be a hero. How many people could say that with such certainty? He wouldn’t be just any hero, either. He would be the Symbol of Hope. That was crazy! That was unbelievable! Quirkless Deku would grow up to be the Symbol of Hope!

A version of Kacchan from the future had told him of course you can become a hero! Without a quirk! Future Kacchan!

That had been amazing. Maybe if Izuku asked really nicely, Katsuma would say it again.

The weird part had been that Mikumo hesitated. Mikumo was him from the future in a hero costume. Maybe he had hesitated because he thought the answer was so obvious it didn’t need saying?

Ugh. Izuku would talk himself in circles about this. He just couldn’t believe how crazy his life had gotten! His future self showed up with his future fiance and then got him hero training in the form of the man who handled All Might’s personal affairs! That was mega cool!

Yagi-sensei was nice, too. Even though he had to help Kacchan more, to make sure he didn’t hurt himself by accidentally knocking anything down or exploding anything he shouldn’t, Izuku never felt like he was being neglected. Yagi-sensei was very good about calling out encouragement as he worked, and giving advice when he started to become confused, and showing him different ways to lift things that would exercise different muscle groups. He also took lots of photos, for some reason.

Izuku had never had a teacher devote so much time and energy into helping him, personally. It made him feel strange inside. Warm and fuzzy, but there was also some kind of pulling sensation that seemed to try and drag his chest into his gut. Izuku didn’t like the pulling.

And yet, every time Yagi-sensei turned that smile on him, that bad sensation disappeared.

To be continued...