Happiness.
That talk she had with her parents lifted a weight off her shoulders. A weight she knew she had, but wasn't brave enough to address. To think that it was relatively easy to talk about it...She was stupid. After they spent five years taking care of her, she should've known they wouldn't despise her for something that wasn't her fault.
Her father and mother treat her the same as always. They treat her like an intelligent and mature child, but a child nonetheless. She has a sleeping schedule, and small duties on the house. They still scold her when she says something rude, and praise her when she shows her intelligence. They didn't stop using sweet words to call her by.
There were changes, of course, but nothing drastic or bad. Now that they know some of her abilities, she doesn't need to hide her training. They sometimes seem uncomfortable with the thought of her training—she wishes to please them and stop, but she won't ever again make the mistake of doing nothing—, still they accept it as long as they are present when she does it.
Their conversation forced her to finally make the decision regarding her kosei. She hasn't used her Mangekyou to know the outcome of her decision—she isn't able to use it with this weak body and she is...scared—, but after thinking about it, she concluded the best thing to do was to say her quirk is a mutation. She didn't inherit any of her parents' quirks, and instead, she got the ability to “manipulate energy”. Since manipulation of energy is a very broad description, she will narrow it down a little saying she uses it to enhance her body. Still, it isn't a rarity that quirks have more than one use and their description may change with time, so if she ever finds herself in trouble and needs to use jutsus, she can simply say it is part of her particularity.
Even though they wanted to help her, Chieko's parents were unsure about lying to the government, so she had to convince them a little—“ It is practically the truth, to use chakra is to manipulate your energy and use it to do whatever you want ”—, and assure them she wouldn't let anyone find out anything—“ I can create illusions, and it may not work with you, but I'm a good actress ”—. They left the matter in her hands, yet still asked her to tell them if anything happened—“ We are your parents Chieko. We are supposed to and we want to protect you ”—.
Grandpa went to visit during that time too, and he made sure to explain everything he knew about her kosei. It turned out that part of her inability to control her emotions is indeed her body. After all, a child's brain isn't capable of controlling emotions as good as a teenager or an adult would. Daisuke told her to be patient and enjoy the time she may behave like a child. She might do just that—a part of her believes she will be able to have a civilian childhood this time around, just like she wanted before the Uchiha forced her to be a ninja. Another part of her tells her that she is being naive, that a civilian life will make her lazy and weak; that she isn’t capable of changing what she was...at least not completely—.
In spite of everything, Chieko felt content. The heaviness of the past doesn't leave her alone, but this new life... it's good. It might be the best thing that has ever happened to her. She has loving parents, an amazing grandfather, a carefree uncle, a silly little brother, and a cute best friend.
Sometimes it feels like before. It isn't. She knows. The people are too different. There is nothing alike between them, but sometimes she needs to close her eyes or she will see dead people.
She is happier than she has ever been, really.
But sometimes she wonders.
December 10th began with her parents singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to wake her up. They know she is an early riser, so it was a challenge for Hiroyuki(who hates to wake up early) to wake her up before she does it herself. After that, her father made mixed rice with ikura as breakfast while her mother made hot chocolate(yes, she loves chocolate).
Yua dressed her with new clothes. Looking herself in the mirror, she sees her hair is a copy of her father’s. She has spiky black hair, completely different from her straight hair in her past life. Chieko always wanted to have long hair, but that could be dangerous when fighting, so she never did it...maybe this time she can do it. While her mother fights with her untamed hair, pulling it and telling her that “beauty has a cost, so bear with it”, she thinks that it may be less problematic to just keep it short...well, that’s a thought for another day. For the first birthday, her mother doesn’t make her use a dress but jeans and a beautiful shirt with a howling wolf on it. Her hair ends up in a fishtail braid.
Father and mother left her at kindergarten—unfortunately, it wasn’t a weekend— where the teachers and classmates sang ‘Happy Birthday’ again. Izuku gave her a hug, and just when she thought he couldn’t be sweeter, he gave her a friendship bracelet made in a Candy Stripe form with black and green yarn.
Bakugou didn’t even say hi, but it’s not like she cares at all. She doesn't, really. She didn't stick out her tongue at him when he turned around. She didn't. That's not something she would do. Ever. She wasn't as careless either as to let Izuku see her do something so childish. No. (“You won't ever tell this to anyone, Izuku. Nothing happened”)
At the end of class, her grandfather surprised her at the school’s entrance. He took her to a dog cafe—why didn’t she know something like that existed?!—, and bought her a western board game called “chess”. She was no Nara, but she could hold her ground for a little while in the rare occasions she played shogi with Shisui or Itachi, so once she learned chess' rules, it wasn't that difficult to play. Still, her grandfather wasn't anything to scoff at either. They had fun.
She expected a small party with her family when she got home—Mirio was supposed to be on a zoo visit with his classmates—; however, the moment Daisuke and Chieko entered the suspiciously dark living room:
“Surprise!” her parents, Midoriya-san, Izuku, Kaito-oji, and Mirio jumped from behind the armchairs and threw confetti everywhere. Her grandfather laughed from behind her and ruffled her hair.
“Chi-chan!” she didn’t let Mirio’s tackle hug throw her to the floor, but it still destabilized her. (“If you try to tackle hug me again, I'm never going to share my chocolate with you again, Miio” “Nooo! I'm sorry, Chi-chan!”)
The living room was decorated with helium balloons and a sign on a wall saying “Happy Birthday Chieko!”. On top of the table, there was a big cake with the same words as the sign and a red heart enclosing those words. An edge of the cake had its white frost half squashed into the shape of a finger—a hunch told her it was Miio’s fault—.
They sang Happy Birthday yet again, and her mother sang Tegami(Haikei Jūgo no Kimi e)—a song that practically told her to be strong, smile, and live in the present—. Sometimes she thinks her mother could have been a singer if she really wanted it.
Everyone gave her gifts. Chieko received new clothes and English books from her parents—there is no way she won’t learn at least one foreign language, and they know it and encourage her—. Kaito-oji gave her a leather paste journal— “ You can use it for whatever you want. I just hope it will help you sort through your emotions'' —. Midoriya-san isn’t very close to Chieko, so she gave her a hand-made scarf(like mother like son). Mirio, the hyperactive sun he is, gave her a “1-month pass to play whatever Chi-chan wants with Miio”. In the middle of trying not to laugh at the sheer cuteness and absurdity of the drawing (a paper with the words written in colors and a stick drawing of Mirio and Chieko), her father stole a photo of her. She didn't look as if she was about to cry .
Every gift was accompanied by a hug and she felt...well, it is nothing unusual in this place, but she felt so happy—so guilty, does she deserve this?—. Yet again she promised to herself that she will protect these people with everything she has.
…
“All Might is the best hero ever, right?”
“Yeah! He is so powerful, and he always smiles. I will be just like him when I grow up!”
“Me too!”
She knew something like this would happen. She knew it.
Mirio and Izuku completely forgot about her—that might be an exaggeration—. As soon as they discovered they shared their love for heroes, there was no one who could separate them nor talk about anything else. The three of them are eating cake in her room, but only Miio and Izuku are talking—they tried to get her into their conversation...Chieko can be very bullheaded—.
It bothers her, obviously, to see them so excited about heroes. Still, there is an undeniable warmth that expands throughout her body when they laugh together. Chieko’s face may not express it with anything else than a small smile, but she is happy when they are happy.
“So, what is your quirk? My kosei is called permeation. It lets me become intangible! I would show you, but...etto...Otou-san doesn’t like it when my clothes fall off” Mirio’s laugh fills the silence until he notices Izuku’s sad face. Chieko is sure Izuku is about to cry, so she intervenes before he is forced to speak and acknowledge the terrible (for him) fact.
“Izuku doesn’t have a quirk” her tone is monotonous, but she forces her voice to say it as low as possible so it looks like it makes her sad too. It works, obviously, she is a professional.
Now, Mirio's face falls and he almost seems as if he is about to cry too. Kami. Chieko is about to panic. How does she distract them? The only thing that may take them out of this depression are heroes or...quirks!
“I discovered my quirk” her words automatically attract the children's attention. Izuku's and Mirio's faces light up, and they look at her excitedly. She has never been more grateful for the short attention span her two friends have.
“And? What is it? Is it your father's or your mother's?” while Mirio asks that, Izuku gets a notebook out of his backpack.
“I can control energy and use it to make my body stronger and faster” Izuku draws everything with stick drawings. Both Mirio and her observe him work.
“What? How is that possible?” incredibly—or not, depending on how you look at it—, the one who answers Mirio's question is Izuku.
The green-haired boy speaks passionately. It is obvious he has seen many videos about quirks. He doesn't exactly explain the science behind it—part because as intelligent as he is, he is still a child, mostly because there isn't much information about it—, but he speaks about mutations in general and how unusual they are. As he gets more and more excited, he introduces other topics. He speaks about double-quirks, which aren't really two quirks but a perfect combination of the parents' abilities. He tells them about Mutant, Emitter, and Transformation quirks. Somehow, in the middle of everything, Mirio and Chieko end up pressing against each side of Izuku, listening attentively to each of his words and observing his drawings.
“Can I see your notebook?” her words leave her mouth before she thinks them through, and Izuku's red ashamed face make her curse her lack of self-control “You don't need to if you don't want”
“It's okay! Here!” in the back of her mind, she thinks that between Bakugou's bullying and Chieko's bossy attitude, they may have been shaping Izuku into a submissive person… She will need to fix that. It's not bad to be kind, but to accept everything others say without putting up a fight… A hallucination of a green-haired boy with a challenging pout, eerily similar to Mirio's when he told her “I hate you”, flashes through her eyes... She shivers… Chieko supposes it's okay if he is only submissive to her.
She drags her attention to the notebook. Each page has drawings or photos, the titles are written in hiragana—Ms. Midoriya's handwriting—. They are childish and barely a sketch(if you stretch the definition), but she sees how each of the drawings gives an explanation. Information about heroes, about powers… Be it because Izuku did a good job or because Chieko is used to decoding information, she understands everything. There are pages that were erased so many times that the paper is very thin, but they still have lots of information in the form of drawings and newspaper photos.
“W-wait” maybe Izuku's request isn't fast enough or she simply couldn't control her curiosity, either way, she flips the page.
It’s a drawing, more detailed than any other in the notebook. The strokes were made with great care and the colors were applied in a uniform way—vaguely, she notices Ms. Midoriya helped here too—. The arm guards, the cape, the shoes...An obvious reference to All Might’s style, but he still didn’t lose his originality. She can’t decide if to grimace for his obsession or to smile in fondness of his childishness. As she passes her fingers through the drawing, her heart clenches painfully. By sight or by touch, there is no denying the small tear marks that cover the page.
She feels Izuku tensing. Fear because he knows her opinions or shame because of the tears? Probably a combination of the two. What she knows for sure is that the reason for his pain it’s not something she can fix, but maybe… maybe there is a possibility for him. There was a man in Konoha who had a lack of talent in ninjutsu and genjutsu and instead specialized entirely in taijutsu. Furthermore, she saw in her visions flashes of his apprentice...That little one couldn’t use chakra at all. If she trains Izuku, surely he will become strong enough to be a hero. Of course, she won’t leave Mirio aside. If she trains both of them, they will be able to protect themselves, to keep themselves alive and at the same time fulfill their dreams.
“Chi-chan?” when she looks up, a chill runs through her. The hallucination is horrid and makes her want to cry, but the only other reaction towards her friends’ empty sockets is a blank face. She won’t panic this time. In a similar way as she did with her parents, her chakra extends and touches the kids’ energy. The enthusiastic warmth of a sunny day and the kind earthy life force stabilize her and erase the nightmarish image.
“Your drawings are good! I’m impressed!” she doesn’t have the heart to demerit his notebook, but she won’t encourage his obsession more than that. She closes the notebook with a small smile and gives it back to Izuku. “Do any of you want more cake?”
“Yes, please!”
“Me too!”
There is no way she will train them just so they can fight against stronger opponents and get killed one day.
There’s no way.