My Hero Academia: Below Freezing

How We Met

Tensei Iida. Current hero Ingenium. One of the newest heroes to Japan, but by far one of the fastest. With all these titles, you would think he could handle just about anything.

And he can, most of the time! He put away quite a few villains for only being 22, and he's had Mic and Erasurehead to back him up. Therefore, he thinks of himself to be a pretty capable person.

None of that mattered when he took Tenya out on duty with him. Now, in his defense, the boy was only 7 and had been begging him to take him on one of his outings. He had finally relented this morning as he slipped on his hero uniform. The only downside was-

"Tenya! COME BACK HERE!"

He had made the mistake of giving Tenya orange juice. Now, normally that wouldn't be so bad, right? I mean, he's just a child getting a drink, a classic. However, for those of you unaware, orange juice tends to give the youngest Iida a burst of energy. Add that in with the fact that Tenya is still a hyperactive child, albeit an oddly "professional" one, and voila: the bane of Tensei has been born.

"Tenya! Tenya, please! I know it's your quirk, but stop running!" Tensei screamed.

He quickly apologized to civilians as he sped past, his heart dropping as he saw Tenya bolt down an alleyway. He sighed heavily before slowing his pace, grumbling something about never having kids of his own.

"Tensei! I need your help!" The youngest Iida yelled.

Tensei was going to ask why, but was interrupted by his little brother running out with a-

"....Tenya. Why are you carrying a child?"

*

When Katsumi Iida arrived home earlier that day, she was expecting many things. The first was for Tenya to come running up to her, begging her to tell him about her day. Another was to see Tensei cleaning off his Ingenium outfit.

None of that involved them bringing home an actual child.

So imagine her surprise when she sees a bewildered looking child with curly black hair, light brown skin, and shiny blue eyes. He had on an oversized white hoodie, and had frost covering the floor underneath him. He barely paid her any mind as Tenya ranted about how to take proper care of yourself.

She sent a glance to her oldest child before asking, "Did you kidnap someone's kid?"

Tensei did a chopping motion with one of his arms before saying, "Absolutely not! Tenya's the one who found him, not me!"

Not sure if that made it any better. She looked over the child and flinched slightly at his state. His hair was unkept and overgrown, he had bags under his eyes, and he seemed to flinch at every little sound of movement. He looked unbearably thin, and he looked rather small for a child his age.

Katsumi crouched down next to Tenya before saying, "Why don't you go help your brother with dinner? I'll stay with your new friend."

Tenya smiled innocently before saying, "Okay! I'll make sure it's something good!"

As Katsumi watched him round the corner, she settled her gaze on the boy in front of her. The look he gave her was a mixture of suspicion and fear. It unnerved her.

"Hey there little guy.", she began. "How are you feeling?"

The moment she lifted up her arm, the boy flinched. The frost patch underneath him grew, and a cold breeze seemed to radiate off of him. He shrunk down into his hoodie as his tiny body shook.

That was never a good sign. He shouldn't be so flighty.

"It's okay. I won't touch you if you don't want me to." Katsumi said softly.

The frost around the boy shrunk slightly, but that was about it. What did this child go through to become so tense?

Katsumi crossed her legs and sat down before saying, "Why don't we start with something simple. How old are you?"

The boy looked up at her before raising his hands. He shakily held up five fingers with one hand and his index finger with the other.

"You're 6, okay. That means you're a year younger than Tenya!" Katsumi said excitedly.

The boy flinched before putting his arms defensively. He let out a small whimper, before going dead silent.

"Oh, sorry! I guess you wouldn't like anything loud huh?" Katsumi questioned.

The boy lowered his arms as he stared at her, his blue eyes meeting her red ones. After a few moments the boy took in a break before muttering a single word.

"Riku."

Katsumi's eyes widened in surprise at how small her sounded, as if he wasn't sure if that was his name.

She smiled softly before asking, "Riku, how about I help you settle in?"

*

Why were people being so nice to him? How long before they would hurt him? And why was that lady trying to take care of him? Riku was left with more questions than answers. So far, they seemed like nice people, but he knew that wouldn't last forever.

It never did.

He hadn't spoken with the Lady in a for a few hours, though it wasn't anything he wasn't used to. The only one who interacted with him was the boy who found him, Tenya. Which explained why he was in his room right now, heavily confused about how nice it looked.

"Welcome to my palace!" Tenya said proudly.

Riku looked around and stared at all the posters of heroes. Most of them were of the man who brought them here, but he had never seen the other people before.

"Who's that?", he asked hesitantly.

He wasn't used to speaking much, seeing as how whenever he did, it resulted in a less-than-fortunate reminder about his purpose.

Tenya's eyes widened at his question as he looked up at the large poster. It showed a beefy hero, with hair in the shape of a V, and a large smile.

Tenya turned back to Riku and yelled, "HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHO ALL MIGHT IS?!"

Riku flinched at how loud his voice was, the ground beneath him freezing slightly. Tenya didn't seem to notice seeing as how he ran off giggling to himself. He came back a few seconds later holding up a phone.

"Here, look!", he said, playing the video.

It showed a bunch of flaming debris and smoke filling the air, people talking in concerned voices. Suddenly, one of the civilians pointed at a man in the distance. He had people hooked under his arms, carrying the to safety. Despite the chaos around him, he held a smile on his face, causing everyone to cheer.

"Isn't he cool?!" Tenya asked excitedly.

The frost around Riku's feet shrunk slightly.

"Yeah,", he said. "He really is."