A Nation's Hero

Nezu

"Correct me if I'm wrong Ivan, but you've been around long before quirks, haven't you?" Nezu asked the tall man.

"Oh, I knew you'd work it out eventually. Yes, I have been." Ivan told the mouse/bear creature.

"Interesting... So your power is different to the average quirk?" Nezu questioned, taking a sip of tea.

"You could say that. Can I ask what gave it away?"

"That man, Alfred, whenever you get into fights he mentions the Cold War. I'm guessing he is also like you?"

"Ah yes, the idiot. As much as I hate to say it, we are similar in the way you mention, although that is our only similarity as far as I'm concerned." Ivan kept his sweet smile on his face, but the dark aura surrounding him said differently. 

"Very well... Would you be interested in staying for some tea?" 

"Sorry, tea isn't really my thing." Ivan waved his hand. "But ask Arthur. He wouldn't mind having a tea party with you." 

Nezu nodded and watched as Ivan left the room, sipping his tea. The man's quirk, which Nezu silently named 'Nation', was an odd case, probably with less than 200 people around the world having the power, and Nezu didn't doubt that Ivan and Alfred and Arthur and the others they hung around with and had meetings with every few years were all similar, but very different at the same time. 

Alfred acted like all the stereotypes he had heard of about the United States of America, similar to All Might. Arthur acted like a stuck up Englishman who hated Francis, who was overly romantic and always smelt of wine and was striking up conversations with Aoyama in French whenever he saw him. Ivan was a little harder to work out, but the Russian accent helped a lot. 

And there was Kiku. Kiku visited him often, checking up on the heroes in training and Nezu's well being. He was a shy and reserved man, but sometimes bought along friends who acted nothing like him. 

His most regular guests were Wang Yao, and two others. Wang tried to act like an older brother to Kiku, but failed miserably at it. He was talkative for someone who looked to be in their late 30s, but was polite and enjoyed the tour of the school. He had a distinct Chinese accent (all of them had the accents of their country) and helped the support department with their machines. 

The other two guests Nezu had gotten used to seeing when meeting with Kiku, were Ludwig and Feliciano. One German, one Italian, they wouldn't have been the kind of people Nezu thought were compatible for each other, and even after seeing their personalities, Ludwig being very uptight and rule abiding whereas Feliciano was very open, and bouncy, and happy, they seemed to get along well. Kiku seemed closer to them than anyone else. 

Then there was people like Arthur and Alfred, Francis and Antonio, and Feliciano and Ludwig's older brothers, Lovino and Gilbert. Nezu didn't really understand the older brothers, but supposed it was probably something to do with history that led to the point of them still being nations even if they weren't, technically, a whole nation at the moment.  The others would join Kiku when they had a meeting, usually a G8 or a world meeting, that was being held in Japan. 

After he revealed, one by one, to each of the nations that he knew what they were, they started to visit more regularly. Alfred would come to Japan to meet up with Kiku on a regular basis, and asked to go to UA, claiming it was because it was where All Might studied, but spent a lot of time talking to Nezu about many subjects. Sometimes Arthur would tag along and drink tea with Nezu and talk about politics around the world. 

When Yao started appearing without Kiku, just to help with machinery and robotics, he started to bring along Ivan. The Chinese man seemed slightly uneasy around the taller man, but was still much more friendly with him than he was with certain others. 

Ivan liked to talk to Nezu about Russia and how Japan was different, or about how his scarf worked, or why he hated winter despite being surrounded by it since a young age. It was one time while they were talking in Nezu's office, a few years after Nezu had first asked him the question about his quirk, that Aizawa had met Ivan for the first time.

The boy said that Ivan scared him a bit once the man had left the room, but he liked the look of his scarf. A few years later, and Erasurehead's scarf was his part of his signature look. Ivan was incredibly pleased to hear that his scarf was the influence of the hero's capture weapon.

(Alfred complained about how none of his clothing was used as a hero's weapon.)

Nezu had thought that there were under 200 individuals in the world like that. In fact, there were just over 200. Even with Lovino and Gilbert, there were more.

He was made aware of this fact when Arthur walked into his office one day with a boy in his early teens, in a sailor outfit and with the same bushy brows as Arthur's trailing behind him. He looked like he didn't want to be there. After an awkward silence, Nezu decided to ask the obvious.

"Are you a country like Arthur?" And at that, they boy's whole demeanour changed. He went from looking grumpy to having stars in his eyes, until Arthur spoke.

"He's not. This is Peter. He's a micronation, Sealand. Berwald and Tino couldn't look after him today so I'm babysitting him." Then the boy, Peter, was back to being grumpy again.

"I don't want to be in this stupid office! I wanna explore the school! I'm not 40 anymore..." He huffed, folding his arms over his chest.

"Well, if you want to explore the school, I can have a tour set up for you! There's a boy in 1-B I know you'll love, he's called Togata Mirio! I'll have him here in a second." Nezu chimed with the most upbeat tone he could. In all honesty, the boy sounded a bit stuck up, like Arthur when Nezu and he first met. Nezu almost chuckled at the resemblance.

When the boy was out of the office, Arthur fell down into the chair for him in front of Nezu's desk, his face in his hands. He wasn't crying, but he looked tired.

"I can never figure him out... I'm trying to be a better big brother, but I don't think I'm cut out for family life." He sighed, accepting the piping hot tea when Nezu served it. Nezu hummed along, he wasn't one to give out advice on families.

"Tell me more about the micronations. I didn't know they were like actual nations, with their own person and accent and dress sense." He asked instead. It took Arthur's mind off Peter as a whole and let them have the type of discussion they would usually have over a few cups of tea.

When Peter returned, much happier and chatting animatedly with Mirio, who looked a little older than him even if he wasn't really, the air was much more comfortable between the two brothers. They left Nezu to his thoughts.

The world was strange, before quirks were found, but especially after. Nezu decided, as if he didn't already know this. But strange people have always existed, evidently.