Musume

Chapter 34

After a second treatment, her father’s arms where almost completely healed, but he still had to wear the bandages on his right arm.

She wasn’t happy at all when he decided to go out in the night to meet with Izuku, but she didn’t complain too much as he’d been sly enough to leave her with Tsukauchi.

As her uncle and her prepared dinner ―a simple curry with rice and steamed vegetables― they worked in a friendly silence.

“How are you really?” finally asked Tsukauchi as they sat down to eat, her father’s plate kept in the microwave for when he arrived.

She didn’t even contemplate lying; Tsukauchi’s quirk allowed him to tell when someone was lying, which was part of why he was such a formidable detective.

“Would you believe me if I said that I don’t know?” she asked instead.

The man nodded slowly.

“I… I was scared. When I woke up I was blindfolded, so I couldn’t use my quirk at all. And then I heard All For One and I knew dad was coming and… I don’t know, I was just scared.” She whimpered, the emotions washing over her again as if she was feeling them again for the first time.

Tsukauchi got up, worried, and wrapped her in a warm hug. She couldn’t help sobbing against his chest.

“When I saw All For One… he tried to steal my quirk, but somehow it didn’t work and he got angry so he threw me and then Keigo was there, but dad got hurt and everything was… it was just…”

She knew she wasn’t making much sense, but she couldn’t help it. She’d been bottling her emotions up for the whole day, trying to be strong for her dad, but now it all came out at once.

“…scary?” suggested the man, listening intently.

Yumi nodded.

“Well, you were very brave anyway, Yumi-hime. No, listen, one cannot be brave if they’re not scared, and you won’t convince me you weren’t brave. You did well, even if we all would have preferred you were never in such a position. But now you’re safe and your father, grandpa and me will make sure we do everything in our hands so that you remain that way. I’m sure even your uncle Dave is working on some kind of support device for you.”

Yumi laughed at that.

“Well, Melissa is already one step ahead. When I called her today and shared my thoughts, she had so many cool ideas. She will be sending me prototypes soon enough.”

Tsukauchi smiled at her and she realized that she felt much better just because of sharing her burden a little. It did not make everything alright, but it was a step in the right direction.

When her father got home and found her with reddened eyes but a brighter smile on her face, he simply wrapped her in his arms and held her for a long time.

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Yumi still wasn’t comfortable separating from her father, so she went with him to the meeting with Director Nezu, but she waited in the teacher’s room to give them privacy.

There, Present Mic and Midnight babied her a little more than she was comfortable with, but she withstood it. They meant well, after all.

When the meeting finally finished, Director Nezu, her father and Aizawa-sensei walked in.

“Problem Child, I want to speak with you about something.” Said Aizawa looking at her.

Yumi pouted. It was not her fault that problems seemed to follow her wherever she went.

“What is it, Aizawa-sensei?”

“During the fight against All For One,” he begun taking a seat on the comfortable sofa in front of her. “you created healing fire, didn’t you?”

Yumi blinked. She’d forgotten about that.

She looked down at her right hand and focused for a few seconds, managing to have a small blue flame dancing around her hand. She looked back up to her professor and showed him her hand encased by the healing fire.

Aizawa hummed.

“Interesting, since when are you able to do this?”

“When All For One tried to steal my quirk…” Yumi hesitated, seeing her father wince from the corner of her eye, probably remembering her screaming. “well, it felt like something snapped inside of me. Suddenly I had an influx of information in my mind and I just knew I could do this.”

As she explained, she let the flames slowly vanish until they disappeared completely.

“It’s possible…” hummed Aizawa. “It’s just a theory, mind you, we’ll have to have Recovery Girl check, but… it’s possible that instead of stealing your quirk, he managed to awaken the dormant genes in your blood. Is there something else you just know you can do?”

Yumi didn’t even have to think about it.

“Yes.” She nodded and explained. “I’m stronger, I could easily lift things that I wasn’t capable of before. I do not know the limit, though. I can also see pretty well in the darkness now. As for the fire, well, I’m not sure about this, but I have the feeling that, eventually, I will be able to use it to move from a place to another, but that’s just a feeling so I don’t know…”

Aizawa-sensei nodded at her explanation.

“Well, I guess a visit to Recovery Girl is in order then.” Clapped the small director happily. “I’m sure your newly discovered powers will be useful to you as a hero.”

Nobody saw Toshinori’s face darken a little.

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That very day, after Recovery Girl confirmed that her dormant genes were indeed awakening, Toshinori sat down with her in her room and did something he’d never thought he would do.

“Yumi-hime… are you sure you wouldn’t rather be something other than a hero?”

Yumi was obviously stumped at the question.

“What?”

“I… are you sure you want to be a hero?”

“Dad, what brought this on?”

“Well, you see… there’s a few parents who don’t want their kids to go back to UA. They’re worried it would be like sending their children into danger and… truth is, I feel the same way.”

“Dad…”

“So many things have happened since you started school… and I know it’s not the school’s fault, but I cannot change how I feel and…”

“Dad, I understand but… I really want his. And even if I didn’t, I have a feeling that nothing short of changing the past would be enough to stop us being targets of the villains.”

Toshinori sighed. Rationally, he knew this, yet being a parent had nothing to do with reason and all to do with the heart. And his heart…

“Are you sure?” he asked with a sigh upon seeing her stubborn look.

“Yes. I… I want this, daddy. I want to be the best hero I can be and help people. Like you. Please, don’t take this away from me.”

“Worry not, I’m not going to pull you out, I just needed to be sure that this was really what you wanted.” He sighed.

“Thank you, daddy.” She answered simply, giving him a hug.

Later, Toshinori admitted it was only a moment of weakness that overcame him and he promised himself to help make it as safe as possible so neither he nor any other parent would have to be constantly worried about their children’s path in life.

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The next day, Shinso’s birthday arrived and Yumi found herself knocking on the door to his house. Luckily, as usual, his parents weren’t there and he opened the door to the sight of his best friend holding a white shopping bag.

He blinked at her slowly for a few seconds and then he launched himself at her, hugging her with a ferocious strength.

Yumi felt a little guilty for not having called him before, but she hadn’t had much free time since her rescue.

When she felt something wet on her shoulder, though, she started to grow concerned.

“Shinso?”

The boy shook his head, still hiding his face in her shoulder, and pressed her tighter to him. Understanding what he needed, she simply returned the hug and stayed silent for a few minutes.

Finally, the boy drew back with red eyes and an embarrassed blush in his cheeks, but Yumi simply smiled at him.

“Did you come alone?” he asked looking around suspiciously, as if a villain was about to jump out at them any minute now.

“No, my father brought me.” She said pointing back at a new silver car. “But he has something to do now. He’s waiting for us to go inside, I believe.”

Shinso nodded and waved his arm at the car before signaling for her to go in. She did and soon she was leaving her bag on the counter of his kitchen.

“Happy birthday, Shinso.” She half-sang as she took out a box with a cake and a small wrapped package.

“I didn’t think you’d remember, with everything that’s happened these last few days.”

She narrowed her eyes at him.

“How could I forget my best friend’s birthday, kidnapping or not? Did your parents not remember?”

“They’ve been busy since the… incident at Kamino.”

She frowned, but Shinso distracted her by reaching out for the small package and lightly shaking it.

“So… what’s this?”

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Shinso stared at his best friend as she stuffed her mouth full of cake. He still couldn’t believe that she was here for his birthday, and alone at that.

That Toshinori trusted him to be alone with her after how he’d failed to protect her once already…

“You’re having heavy thoughts.” She pointed out breaking off another piece of the cake.

Shinso looked away. She knew him too well.

Yumi stopped eating and gave him her full attention.

“What is it?”

“At the forest, I… I couldn’t keep you safe. I even needed to be rescued.” He admitted ashamedly.

“Shinso…”

“And then when we went to Kamino to rescue you and Bakugo… I trusted in Izuku’s plan and then he told me… that you had slipped off… I…”

“Shinso…”

“I wanted to go back and rescue you, but Todoroki stopped me. I think he also wanted to go, but he saw you and All Might on TV and we thought we’d be a burden more than any help…”

“I’m glad you didn’t come back. And I’m glad you weren’t taken by the villains. You’re my best friend, so of course I don’t want you to be in danger. You did everything you could to help me and more, Shinso. I do not doubt that. But this time… this time the villains were out of our league. So you don’t have to worry, I don’t blame you at all for what happened.”

Shinso felt like crying again at her words, but he felt like he’d done too much of that already, so he simply nodded and rubbed at his nose.

“Besides, you won’t believe what new trick I’ve learned…” started Yumi with a mischievous smile.

He was just glad to have his best friend back.