Chapter Text
The police officer did a double-take, his eyes traveling between her face and her ID picture.
Honestly, Yūka was far from amused. She was simply covering for her parents and came to pick up her little brother from primary school. Sure, it was the first time she came all by herself, and, yeah, she didn’t exactly look like the perfect Suzume family member, but come on . They could at least ask her sibling if he recognized her!
Wait, no, bad idea, the little bugger would lie to get under her skin.
She sighed and massaged her eyes. “Look, I know why you’re being so suspicious, but I swear I can explain.” It wouldn’t be the first time she had to, either.
The officer raised a doubtful eyebrow. “You have an explanation why you have blue skin in your ID picture but not in real life?” He scoffed. “Well, come on, explain yourself, young lady!”
Hey now, she might not be fully Smurf looking at the moment, but he could at least acknowledge the sky blue skin patches across her face. Maybe he was like the last douchebag who thought she was wearing terribly applied make up - she had to remove her mascara and eyeliner with wipes until her skin felt raw and purple for him to be satisfied. She truly hoped today's officer wouldn't do the same, she had several pimple pacthes and sensitive blemishes that would not react well with forceful wiping.
With a deep sigh, she raised a hand, asking for him to hold on a moment, and searched through her school bag. The galaxy patterned folder she handed to him looked well-worn, possibly from every single time she had to prove her identity for the same reason - the mess of candy wrappers and papers at the bottom of her bag. She didn’t feel like telling him it was the hundredth time she had to show those papers in the past year.
He eyed her suspiciously before taking the folder. “Well, can’t wait to see what kind of…”, he stopped in his tracks when his eyes skimmed the sticking label with hot pink, bold writing - SUZUME Y. / MEDICAL RECORDS.
All colors seemed to drain from his face as he read through the doctor's notes and diagnosis. Yūka bit her lower lip, holding a mocking laugh, as he discovered her parents' letter to attest to her identity and explain grossly her symptoms. He didn’t even bother to look at the pictures showing the progression of her skin since she was 10 and handed her the folder back.
A tiny smirk appeared on her lips as she put it back in her bag. “So, what were you saying, exactly?” Yeah, her brother might’ve taken his attitude from her, bite her.
The officer cleared his throat, avoiding her eyes, and turned towards the warry teacher at the gate: “Ma’am, you don’t have to worry, this lady is who she says.” If that tiny, plump lady had accepted to look at her folder, the ordeal would have been dealt with much earlier, but nooooo, she had to flag down a passing patrol for help.
The small lady visibly relaxed and offered her an apologetic smile. “Thank you very much, officer, and sorry for the bother”, she said while bowing respectfully. The man bowed back, nodded at Yūka and went on his merry way. “My apologies to you too, Suzume-san.” She bowed again, at Yūka.
“Don’t apologize, I understand,” Yūka retorted in a little sigh. “You work with children, you can’t be too prudent, especially nowadays. It’s fine.”
Yeah, she did understand, but it didn’t change the fact that it was getting tiring. They couldn’t see it, with her opaque tights and long sleeves, of course, but more than 70% of her body was still a clear sky blue, proving her ascendance.
She waited patiently for the teacher to use her pass to open the gates, then followed her inside the primary school. The colorful walls were covered in drawings, paintings with tiny green hands, and children's laughter could be heard through each door they passed. The overall mood seemed much brighter than her own old primary school, and that was honestly for the best.
“Here we are, the Sunflower Classroom!” The teacher announced in her cheerful tone. She knocked and opened the warm, yellow door once the other teacher inside allowed her. Instantly, ten pairs of big, round eyes zeroed on Yūka - or rather, ten heads turned, because one of the kids definitily had more than one pair of eyes. “Suzume-san is here to pick you up, Kazuya-kun!”
A tiny, blueberry colored boy, missing his front teeth, raised to his feet and scrambled around the room to get his things into his sparkly backpack. The other kids watched him and shouted their goodbyes, still seated around their teacher who was reading them a fairy tale. Said teacher didn't even bat an eye at her appearance, and that was likely thanks to the endless stream of family drawings Zuya brought home in which she was a blob of white and blue crayon with hot pink circles as her eyes. He was slowly getting better at imitating the exact shape of the white patches on her face though.
“Bye bye, Kazuya-kun! Don’t forget to bring your collage tomorrow!” The young teacher joyfully reminded him. “Class, let’s say bye bye to Kazuya-kun and his big sister!”
The entire Sunflower Class sing-sang in chorus, destroying Yūka’s eardrums: ‘Bye bye!'. She awkwardly waved at them, her hand firmly around her brother’s, and headed back towards the entrance, her head ringing. One of the kids most liekly had a voice Quirk, because no normal 5 year-old had so much power in their vocal cords. It was nowhere near Present Mic's level - she still had to watch recordings of his fights on low volume -, but still impressive from a toddler.
“Hey, why did you come today?” Kazuya asked as they got out. “Where’s mom?”
She bowed to the first teacher to say goodbye before answering. “She had an emergency at work, she asked me to come in her stead.”
There had been a Villain attack downtown in the morning. The Villain damaged parts of the bullet train rails before being apprehended, and their mother had to help repair it as quickly as possible so it could function in the next morning. Their father also had had a hard time in the morning because of the same attack and came home from his night shift really late. His voice was all groggy with sleep on the vocal note he'd sent her around 2pm to ask for her to pick her brother up, so she probably would have to handle snack-time with Zuya.
That was fine with her, at least she didn't have to handle changing his diaper anymore. Potty time was much easier.
“And dad? When mom can’t come, it’s dad, so why is it you?” Smart cookie just couldn't let her focus on remembering the way home, now, did he.
Her eyes went back and forth between two streets, not sure which one was correct. “Dad’s asleep, he worked really hard all night and all morning. We have to be super careful not to wake him, ok?” She pulled up her phone and the map app in a defeated sigh. Okay, left then.
“Yeah okay,” he accepted with a determined nod. His eyebrows were scrunched up like that was the most serious business in the world, copying their mom's Big Talk face.
Yūka muffled her laugh behind a cough. He really knew how to be cute when he wanted, didn’t he?
They stopped at a crosswalk, waiting for the red light to turn green for pedestrians. Kazuya started to ask all kinds of questions about the cars that passed them, as curious as ever. She did her best to answer them, even if her knowledge on the subject was atrocious. Their paternal grandma would be ashamed of her if she could see them - honestly, her half-hearted answers were partly because she was mainly focused on imprinting the squiggly green line leading to their house on her brain. She could remember it, she knew she could. She had it in her.
A tug at her hand. “Hey, Yuu, why are they running?”
Yūka put her phone back in her pocket, she could always check the path again, and frowned at the people rushing on the other side of the crosswalk. Why, indeed? They all seemed to come from the same direction, on the other side of the road. A few more emerged from the corner of a street block, faces white as sheets. The only scary thing she could recall from that place was a particularly ungrateful stray cat with mean left paw. What was happening?
Then, she heard the screams, a loud banging noise and what sounded like small explosion, and her blood ran cold.
Her eyes tracked fumes slowly darkening the sky. “No way”, she muttered, her hand avice around his small fingers.
The stickman figure turned green, cars stopped, but no one payed attention to the traffic anymore. Every head in the street was turned towards the runners and where they came from. A clamor raised from the group surrounding the siblings, a few younger ones pulled out their phones and ran against the current, eager to catch some action and gloat to their friends. They didn't stop when they bumped into others, barely sparing a word of apology, crazed moths attracted to light.
Yūka dropped at Kazuya’s level, holding him tightly against her, and something exploded a few streets ahead. A building caught fire and a small crowd formed around the alleyway. She could hear shouts, both enthusiastic and terrified, coming from them. Colorful figures hanged around the mouth of the alley, gesturing the crowd away, controlling the fire.
Heroes. Heroes were there.
A little head wiggled its way under her armpit to get a better look. “What’s that? Sis, what’s happening?” Kazuya asked, pointing at the thick dark smoke coming from the alleyway.
She tried to pull him back into place, but the agile little bugger kept avoiding her hold, eyes glued to the scene. “It’s nothing, Zuya, just an accident, don’t worry,” she tried to explain, a lump in her throat. “Heroes will come and help, we’re safe.”
Kazuya gasped loudly and wiggled twice as hard in her arms to get away. “I want to see Heroes! Do you think we’ll see Hawks? I like him best!” Her stomach dropped when she caught budding lights in his soft curls.
“Wait, Zuya, don’t-”
Her words died on her lips as her brother’s body dissolved into small pixels. She tightened her arms around him, but it was too late: he was gone.
“KAZUYA!”
Shit, shit, shit. He didn’t have a single Quirk accident in the past few weeks, they all thought it was over! Now, of all times? Seriously!
“KAZUYA!” She yelled, her eyes frantically searching for the tell-tale sign of his teleportation. “Fuck, where is he!”
Far, far away, close to the crowd facing the street engulfed in flames, a small blue light appeared, quickly replaced by a tiny body. Her eyes widened and she paled.
Of course.
Yūka stopped thinking, running on pure instinct. Her eyes landed on a middle-aged woman, running away from the danger. She was a few meters away, on the other side of the road. It could work. It had to. Yūka’s body shone in bluish hues, her pupils zeroing on the running woman. The stranger’s body was suddenly engulfed in cerulean light.
In an instant, Yūka exchanged her place with her. Still crouched on the ground, she looked for another anchor to switch with.
A teenage boy filming the scene. She took his place. A huge man with a reptilian Quirk. Switched them.
Kazuya was now in arms’ range. Her heartbeat drummed in her thorax, her eyes full of unshed tears. She extended an arm around him, taking him by surprise, and glued him against her, breath caught in her throat.
He turned bright, fuchsia eyes to her, his face radiating pure joy. “Yuu? Can you see? Heroes, real ones!” Not a single shred of fear, or even remorse.
She was seconds away from strangling him. She held him by his shoulders, frowning, squeezing a tad too hard. “Zuya! Did you teleport on purpose?”
His smile faltered and he tilted his head, like she was spouting nonsense. “What? I teleported?”
Thank Gods, it had been accidental. She hugged him again, her nose in his baby smelling locks, all tension leaving her body. Gods, he was safe. They had to schedule another appointment with the Quirk counselor in his school, but he was safe. That's all that mattered. His tiny hearbeat was music to her ears when she held him even tighter, fighting wayward tears, her face smooched against his pastel shirt.
She raised her back, pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a deep sigh before bending back to his hair. He was okay, she didn't lose another sibling. It was fine. “I was so scared, fuck,” she whispered against his skull.
He gasped loudly again: “You sweared! You’re not suppose to swear! I’ll tell dad!”
Bubbles of hilarity pushed against her anxiety, but she merely messed with his hair. “Swore ”, she corrected, “and you can tell him, but I’ll tell him about your teleportation first!”
The ground shook under them, and she instantly held him against her again, observing the scene with wide eyes. She couldn’t hear his protests, drowned as they were in the loud 'DETROIT SMASH' coming from the alleyway. She snapped her head right, eyes wide. Anyone would recognize that attack anywhere.
All Might? All Might was here? Since when?
Lifting her brother up in her arms, propping him on her muscular hip, she swiftly went through the crowd, approaching the yellow strips from the police. The sky rumbled and turned gray in mere seconds, before a light drizzle showered them. She pushed her way up a little more, slowly getting drenched and protecting her brother’s body as well as she could from the rain.
There he stood, in the middle of the rubble from the fight, his fist high in the sky. At his feet, two boys seemed to have lost consciousness.
“Oh gods, Zuya, Zuya look!” She murmured to his ear. “It’s All Might!”
He turned instantly, his whole face lightened up, and his small fingers dug into her shoulders. Yūka let out a shivering smile, still shaken by the whole ordeal, as her brother shook her and pointed at the Hero.
“It’s All Might!” He kept repeating.
“Yes, yes it’s him”, she affirmed, finally fully relaxed.
They had to stay a bit longer to give their statements to the police officers who apprehended who they called the 'Sludge Villain'. Paramedics also insisted on them to wait until they were checked up, and honestly Yūka could use a minute or two. Her knees kept shaking when she recalled the moment her brother teleported out of her embrace towards the danger.
Both boys who were previously unconscious came back to their senses, and she couldn’t help but notice their uniforms. Black, middle-school clothes - she was wearing the same outfit, in the girl version.
“Excuse me,” she started as she approached one of them. He was still trembling from the scolding the Heroes gave him, his wet dark hair seeming almost black with rain. He raised big, round emerald eyes to her face, like he was expecting her to scold him too. “Uh, are you from Aldera?” His sheet white face suddenly turned beet red and he stuttered vaguely, avoiding her eyes. Well, he wasn’t used to talking to girls, now, was he?
Kazuya hugged her leg and eyed the boy curiously, his thumb in his mouth.
“Yea-yes!” He finally answered, and he sounded parched. “I am! From Aldera, I mean!”
She nodded, then pointed at her own uniform. “Me too, but I don’t remember seeing you there. What’s your name?”
“You want water?” Kazuya intervened. “You sound weird.”
“Zuya!”
She honestly didn’t know it was humanly possible to get this red. He looked like a tomato, like this. She looked around a bit and saw the other boy glaring holes at them. “Ah, him I recognize. He’s the insufferable screaming machine, right?” She asked, pointing at the blond guy getting pampered by Heroes and medics.
Oh well. He didn’t look embarrassed now, but rather gobsmacked. “The insufferable screaming machine?” He repeated in a whisper, pale as a sheet once again. “Kacchan? That’s… Well, that’s…”
Yūka scoffed, still bitter from all the study sessions that guy's voice had ruined for her. “Incredibly accurate, I know. I can hear him from the library sometimes, it’s impressive.” She continued, ruffling Kazuya’s hair as she spoke. “I’m Suzume Yūka, by the way. What’s your name?”
“M-Midoriya Izu-zuku”, he stammered, cheeks pink. Sheesh, it looked tiring to go through all those emotions - but who was she to judge, really, when she was just as much of a trainwreck, if not worse?
Kazuya's loving nature decided it was its time to shine. “Are you alone? You look alone, do you want us to stay with you?” Yūka eyed her brother with utter disbelief. Really? Without even consulting her first? They didn't even know the guy!
She rolled her eyes, but nodded at Midoriya’s silent question. “Yeah, we’ll stay with you if you want”, she let out in a sigh. Honestly, she was starting to feel like the Big Bad Wolf with all the huffing and puffing today.
“No no! Don’t bother! It’s very nice of you, but really, I can go home on my own!” He refused, his arms flailing in all directions. “I don’t live that far, really, it’s okay!”
Well, there they had it. Now, if they could just be on their merry way… “Really? We’ll come with you!”
“Kazuya!” She tutted, crouching again to be at his level. “He already said it was okay, we don’t want to bother him, right?”
“But he fighted the bad guy! What if he’s hurt?”
Taken aback, she didn’t even correct him and eyed Midoriya. Scrawny and fidgety as he was, he still went against a Villain? Really? Then, a light switched on in her head. “Wait, is that why you got scolded?” That earned her a twitchy nod. “Wow, okay. Where do you live? I seriously can’t let you go alone now, you could be injured, or have a panic attack or something.”
The deadpan look he suddenly had on his face did nothing to appease her worries. That poor guy looked far too exhausted to stay on his own. She lifted a hand slowly, fatigue from stress caughting up with her. Midoriya eyed the palm with curiosity, looked at her face again dumbfounded when she didn’t move away, and brought a shaky hand to hers.
Yūka pushed on her knee to help getting up, pulling the scrawny guy along. Kazuya latched again on her leg, still sucking on his thumb. She clicked her tongue. “Zuya, stop doing that, you know it’s not good for your teeth”, she sermonned gently. “Now,” she said at Midoriya while detaching their hands, “where do you live? We need to get going.”
They followed the instructions he gave in a relative silence, lost in their thoughts. Kazuya still seemed very excited by the whole ordeal, their parents would have to explain how dangerous and reckless his behavior had been. Yūka didn’t feel up to the task. She might even dump snack time on them too, she felt so drained.
Beside her, Midoriya’s expression seemed to darken with each step they took. His gaze never left the pavement, and his hands were clutched at his bright yellow bag like a lifeline. Now that his hair started to dry, she could make out some green hues in them. Still, he looked really disheveled, between his crumpled uniform, the mud staining his red shoes and the few scratches he sported on his face. Yūka frowned and bit her cheek. The whole situation was… awkward, to say the least.
As they neared what seemed like his neighborhood, stomping steps quickly approached them from behind, freezing them on the spot. They only turned when they heard the hard breathing and the scream.
“DEKU!” It was the loud, bomber man. Of course it has to be him, of all people. Yūka was too emotionally drained to deal with his bullshit though. “I never asked to be saved-”
Yūka didn't even fully turned towards him, her eyebrows knitted in utter annoyance. “Oh, shut up,” she snapped, eyes narrowed. Kazuya squeezed her hand, no doubt to tell her she had sworn again.
The entire street seemed to be froze over. Both school boys gasped, one harsher than the other, at her. She raised a hand at the blond when he seemed ready to yell again. Nope, no, nuh-uh, she wasn't going to deal with any more screeching today, she was done. Done with the blond dude, done with the day, done with the fucking world.
“Can’t you speak in normal, human levels? You’re ruining the vibe ,” she grumbled while massaging her sinuses. There hadn't been much of a 'vibe' to begin with, but who cared, he was loud and a bother.
His face contorted like a festival demon mask. “The fuck are you, bitch?!” He still yelled; his wide stance was probably supposed to intimidate her or something. Tough luck for him, she didn't even bat an eye. “I’m talking to Deku!”
Her nose scrunched up. “Who?”
Her confusion only deepened when Midoriya pointed at himself silently, avoiding her eyes. Wait, she thought his first name was Izuku, what did that… Oh. Ooooh, the clever little bitch.
She turned to face the blond guy again, now pissed. “You’re a douche.” She spat, her hand clutching at Midoriya’s wrist as she stepped between them to hide him. Which, well, wasn't exactly hard to do, since she was a good head taller than him. “You know that’s not his name, and calling someone ‘useless’ is bullying.”
“What’s it to you, fucking extra!”
She blinked, confused at the odd nickname, then smirked venomously. He was that type of bully, wasn't he? A big fish in a small pond, unaware of the rest of the world. “Oh, I see how it is. You’re one of those guys, huh? The ones who think they’re better than everyone just because they never pulled their heads out of their ass,” she cackled, eyes squinting with glee when his palms erupted into small explosions. Could be powerful if handled correctly, and if more developed than those tiny firecracker sparks. “Ha. Let me guess, people loooove your Quirk because it’s flashy, right? They probably told you you’re gonna be a such greeeeaaat hero, right?”
Midoriya whimpered behind her, tugging lightly at her uniform. He muttered something under his breath, something that sounded vaguely like begging her to stop. But Yūka was not having it. She had had a shit day, and the boom-boom fucker shouldn’t have pissed her off.
“Newsflash, asshole,” she growled at him, eyes and skin lighting up slightly with her emotions. “I don’t see a great hero in front of me, I don’t even see a good person, just a fucking bully that’s too proud to admit he needed help. And I fucking hate bullies, so you can fuck right off!” She turned away from him, tugging both her brother and new acquaintance behind her.
Midoriya looked stunned, his face blank as he mindlessly followed, and Kazuya kept raising side-eye glances towards his sister. His face was bright, his cheeks a little purple from an excited flush. He kept repeating ‘a great hero’ under his breath, eyes sparkling.
As they power walked down the street, Yūka still pissed, Midoriya still lost in thoughts and Kazuya still awestruck, none of them noticed the skeletal form lurking behind a house.