18 Chapter 18: Shorts 6

Naming

Yami was currently doing one of his favorite activities.

Eating.

Today's dish was strange, it was mostly white except for a small black stripe at the bottom.

If his memory served correct, it was called a...jelly filled donut. Yeah, that sounds about right.

Izuku had made him quite a few of these and gave them to him in a basket. They were snacks for him to eat while he explored the house.

Of course, exploring this enormous place on foot would be tiring, so he just created one of his wolves to carry him.

And so here he was, eating his jelly-filled donut on the back of his wolf while he looked around his new home.

He didn't honestly know what most of the rooms were for but he was sure he'd figure it out someday.

Then, as he passed the training room, he spotted two of his siblings inside.

Kiba, the vampire girl, and Fu, the zombie boy.

He was about to ignore them and continue on his way when they spotted him as well.

"Ah well if it isn't Yami!" Kiba called out to him. "Perfect timing, if you and your beast would please come in and assist us."

Part of Yami wanted to just keep going, but at the same time, he knew that Kiba was quite strong. And he did not have enough negative energy to create the kind of forces he'd need to oppose her.

Deciding it would be best not to anger her, Yami did as she said and mentally ordered his wolf to enter.

"Perfect. I've been looking for someone to spar with, but Shiruku is uninterested and if I keep turning Fun into a bloody puddle then he'll need to eat all our food just to regenerate." Kiba explained. "Please create as many of your strongest monsters as you can."

Yami frowned. "Not much. Little bad emotions."

Kiba didn't seem to understand, but Fu did and pulled out a notebook.

"If I remember correctly, Yami's quirk, Creatures Of Grimm, works by collecting negative emotions. If someone feels angry or scared or sad or some other negative emotion, he collects it and can use it as fuel to create his Grimm." Fu said reading out some of his notes. "He probably doesn't have much fuel being in a house where everyone is perfectly content."

That was mostly true. Back when he lived in the wild, he was able to collect lots of negative emotion from the animals he hunted. After all, you tended not to be too happy when you were being hunted down and killed painfully.

Now, none of the people here produced anywhere near enough negative energy to produce a Grimm. With the highest sources of negative energy being Izuku, Eri, and Kioku(whenever someone from outside was visiting.)

And the lowest sources being Kei, Sansan, and Fu. Fu not because he was overly happy, but because he was mostly devoid of any emotions whatsoever. It kinda creeped Yami out a little bit. It made it eerily hard to notice him.

"So how many Grimm can you create?" Kiba asked.

"Three," Yami answered, showing three fingers. "Or one big one."

"So I have to make a choice?" Kiba was annoyed but she quickly moved past it and started thinking. "What are all the Grimm you can make?"

Yami sighed. "Uh...wolf...bear...um big, wing."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait!" Kiba stopped him. "Are you telling me you haven't named your creation?

Yami gave her a confused look. "Huh?"

Kiba shook her head. "Your creations are clearly far different from normal animals! To call them by simple animal names is unjust to your creations! You must give each and every one of them an awe-inspiring name!"

"...Why?" Yami asked.

"Because...because I say so!" Kiba decreed.

The vampire girl then grabbed Yami and held him over her head. "Now let us go."

The wolf he summoned growled and went to defend him, but Kiba kicked him into a wall causing him to dissipate.

Guess I'm doing this now. Yami comforted himself, with another jelly-filled donut.

Gardening with Eri

Yami was spending his day as he normally did since his adoption.

Sleeping.

Now that he didn't have to worry about wild animal attacks or bad weather or starvation. He could sleep to his heart's content. And the bed he was given was so much more comfortable than anything he had ever felt before, that he doubted he'd want to do much of anything else.

Or at least that was the case, most of the time.

BANG BANG BANG!

"Yami!" Shouted Kei from the other side of the door. Pounding on it with her little fist. "Let me in let me in! Yami Yami Yami Yami!"

Yami growled as his peaceful sleep was interrupted. "Rah! Leave!"

"But I wanna play with you! You're my first new brother since Fu!" Kei argued. "I want us to get along!"

Yami snarled. He really just wanted to go back to sleep. But he remembered Izuku telling him to get along with his siblings, and apparently, that's what Kei wanted to do.

Given that Izuku had so kindly taken care of his food and shelter issue, as well as giving him so many other amazing things like all those new foods, and this cozy bed and blankets, it felt wrong to ignore him.

With a sigh and lots of hesitation, Yami got up out of his bed and opened the door.

"Alright!" Kei cheered as she entered the room. "So what should we do?"

"You don't know?" Yami asked, irritated she bothered him so much and yet didn't even know what to do.

"Nope! I just like to do whatever comes into my brain!" Kei said pointing to her snake covered head. "So, what comes into my brain today? Hmmmm...oh! I know let's go to the greenhouse!"

"You mean place where food grows?" Yami asked, his interest peaking somewhat. If there was anything he loved as much as sleeping, it was eating.

"Yeah! Eri and Kioku are trying to grow an apple tree! Maybe we can grow a egg tree!" Kei stated with excitement.

Yami gave her a confused look. Why would she want an egg tree? Eggs were those things that little birds came out of. You couldn't eat those...could you?

"Let's go ask Izuku!" Kei grabbed Yami's hand and dragged him to Izuku's office.

Izuku's office.

Izuku sighed as he looked at the dozens and dozens of people he could hire.

And he had no intention of hiring any of them.

Darn trust issues! Izuku cursed his own mental shortcomings.

Before Izuku could fall further down the hole of self-hate, Kei and Yami barged into his office.

"Hey! What did I say about knocking." Izuku scolded.

"Sorry!" Kei apologized and ran out of the room, closed the door, and then knocked.

Izuku couldn't help but smile in slight amusement. "Come in."

Kei barged back in, not losing a single bit of energy.

"Hey, Izuku! Can we grow an egg tree!?" Kei asked.

"An egg…tree," Izuku said, his voice not short of confusion.

"Yeah! Eri and Kioku are growing an apple tree! Can we grow an egg tree!?" Kei asked with stars in her eyes.

Izuku winced at having to crush her enthusiasm. "Kei, eggs don't come from trees. The eggs you eat come from chickens. The only things you can grow are fruits and vegetables."

"Oh." Kei deflated with disappointment, her snakes wilting downwards.

"Can you eat eggs?" Yami asked.

"Uh, some of them. Just the ones you buy. Don't go eating wild eggs." Izuku told Yami, before quickly giving his attention back to Kei. "We have more than enough eggs for you to eat. I know you don't like fruits and vegetables but you still do need to eat them to grow up big and strong. So why don't you help Eri grow her apple tree?"

Kei quickly perked up. "Ok! Thanks, daddy!"

The snake-haired girl ran out of the room calling for Yami to follow her.

Before Yami ran out as well, Izuku spoke.

"Thank you for going along with her." Izuku gave him a bright, genuine smile, as Yami saw his happiness increase.

Yami grunted with affirmation. At least he knew for sure he was doing what his father wanted. And that pleased him.

With that, Yami followed his sister.

At the greenhouse.

When the pair entered the greenhouse, they were met by the sight of Eri watering one of the plants.

"ERIIIIIIIIII!" Kei shouted, scaring the daylights out of Eri before the poor girl was glomped by her by her snake-haired sister.

"K-Kei! D-don't scare me like that!" Eri teared up slightly.

"Sorry, Eri!" Kei apologized by hugging her even tighter. "You're so cute I couldn't help myself!"

Eri's face turned red at the compliment and covered her face with the watering can.

After Kei gushed over her younger sister for a few more minutes, they moved onto why they were here.

"We've come to help you and Kioku grow an apple tree!" Kei looked around. "Hey, where is Kioku? I thought you two never ever were apart?"

Eri kept her face hidden by the watering can. "S-she got tired because she stayed up too late, so Izuku forced her to go to sleep. I wasn't tired so I stayed here."

"You should have told me! Don't worry Eri! I'll make sure you're not lonely!" Me and Yami!" Kei pointed out Yami who had been staying silent in the background.

"Y-Yami." Eri stuttered.

Yami noticed that after noticing him, the fear inside Eri increased by a not-insignificant amount. That combined with her slight trembling, led to one obvious conclusion.

"You're scared of me," Yami stated bluntly.

Eri jumped a little, as she realized she had been figured out. "I-I-I-"

"Eri!? Are you really afraid of Yami!?" Kei gasped.

"She is. I can see it." Yami continued. "Why?"

"I-um-I" Eri stuttered as she tried to answer.

"Is it because I look scary?" Yami asked. Izuku made him aware that some people would be...off-put by his appearance and by his quirk. As they were seen as scary. Which came as more of a relief to him than anything. Most of his siblings were extremely strong, so when he heard that they were apparently above average in terms of power. Which was comforting as he was starting to think he was weak.

However, if he was also scaring his sister as well, then that would be an issue.

"N-no!" Eri quickly denied.

"Is Grimm?" Yami continued his questioning.

Eri wanted to say no, but lying was bad, and she didn't like it. So she just stayed quiet.

"I think it's the Grimm," Kei said. "They are pretty scary."

Eri muttered something quietly.

"What?" Kei asked, not hearing what she said.

"I-It's the bird," Eri admitted, still hiding her face. "I don't like the bird."

Yami's face contorted in confusion. "Nevermore?"

"Is that what Kiba is calling it?" Kei asked, receiving a nod. "Why don't you like the bird Eri?"

"I...I don't like birds. They're scary. And his bird is really scary." Eri confessed.

While most of her worst memories were gone, she still remembered Overhaul. And the fear of him still lingered heavily inside her mind. Even now in her nightmare's she'd see a large monstrous blackbird with Overhaul's voice looming over her. Speaking words she can't quite remember, but that she knows in her heart.

"Oh. Then I just won't make bird anymore." Yami said casually.

"I-I don't want to bother you." Eri stuttered.

"Not bother." Yami shrugged. "Don't need bird anymore. Not hunting."

"Yeah don't worry about it Eri! Yami just likes to sit and bed and eat all the food! He doesn't need his giant death bird anymore." Kei said.

Yami nodded.

There was a moment of silence and Yami noticed the fear in Eri go down, very, very slightly. He wasn't sure exactly how to make it go down more. He'd need to ask Izuku about it.

"Well, now that that's done! Eri how do we help?" Kei asked.

"Um. I don't really need help. Me and Kioku already did everything so there isn't anything to do." Eri explained. "I'm sorry."

Kei frowned. "There has to be something...what if we grow another tree! Twice the trees means twice the apples."

"Twice the apples?" Eri's momentarily forgot her fears, as daydreams of apples brought drool to her mouth.

"Yeah! Do you have another seed?" Kei asked.

Eri nodded and pulled a seed from her pocket.

The three of them quickly planted and buried the seed.

"Now we just need water," Kei said.

Eri was about to get the water, but Kei had another idea.

"Wait! What if we used Yami's Grimm vomit!?" Kei wondered. "What do you think would happen?!"

Yami thought about that for a moment. He'd never tried something like that before. It'd be interesting to see what happens.

"I don't know if that's a good idea," Eri said quietly.

She was either unheard or ignored as Yami spewed out his Grimm fluid onto the ground where the apple seed was planted.

What was the worst that could happen?

Sometime later.

Izuku looked at the bizarre sight in front of him.

Never in his life had he expected to come face to trunk with an evil apple tree.

The tree had grown almost immediately after Yami vomited on it.

The bark was stark white, and it lacked any leaves. From its branches grew black apple's with yellow eyes, and mouths.

"Why?" Was the only question Izuku could ask the two children responsible for this abomination.

"We wanted to see what would happen." Kei shrugged.

"I think it looks amazing!" Kiba, who had come to check out the tree, said.

"Of course you do." Fu, who had come to make sure Kiba didn't destroy anything, said. "Can this thing even do anything?"

After he said this Yami decided to check and mentally ordered it to attack Fu.

The three then threw one of its apples at Fu, which proceeded to bite into Fu and eat parts of his head.

Fu tried to pull the apple off of him, but that proved to be easier said than done and in the end, Kiba had to pull it off of him.

"Never mind it's deadly," Fu said as he regrew most of his skull.

"Well, we can't keep it here." Yami's Grimm didn't have a time limit for how long they could last. They would exist until they were destroyed. "Eri spends a lot of time in this place and she's not going to be comfortable with this here."

"But I don't want it destroyed! Think about it, Caretaker! We could have this monster guard someplace like...the front of the house!"

"But if we have something like this in front of the house it'll scare people." Izuku noticed from the kids' looks that they seemed to think that was a good thing. "Even the people we want to come in."

There was a long pause as all the children and Izuku tried to figure out the best course of action.

And then Kei had an idea. "Oh! I know!"

The next day.

All the children and Izuku stood out in the front. Admiring their hard work.

Kiba had pulled it out of the ground and Shiruku and Sansan had brought it around to the front.

Kei's idea to make the tree look less intimidating was to add paper leaves to all the branches, hiding all the evil-looking apples.

Shiruku was happy to help make it look as pretty as possible suggesting they paint the leaves all different kinds of colors, giving it a rainbow aesthetic that worked well with the whitebark. Of course, Shiruku had ordered her spiders to attach all those leaves which helped a lot.

"This turned out. Very well!" Izuku smiled at the children. "Good job. All of you!"

Most of the children cheered, happy to be getting praised for their hard work. That, and it was just fun.

"Yami can you order this tree to protect the house and everyone in it?" Izuku asked him.

Yami nodded and walked up to the tree. "Protect, my family."

The children cheered once more.

"I mean I don't need protection, but it's nice to know I won't always have to get my hands dirty," Kiba said.

"Don't ruin the mood." Fu scolded her.

As the children proceeded to talk, Izuku decided to check on Eri.

She was staring at the tree with a cautious look in her.

To some that may be a bad thing. However considering her reaction to the three when it first popped up, that being yelling, running away, and screaming in fear. It was a big improvement.

Izuku was just happy there was another thing to help defend the kids. Maybe he should have a few smaller versions of these around the house.

I'll ask Yami more about that later, for now...I think I'll stay here and watch. Izuku smiled as he watched the kids climb and play on the tree.

Sansan vs clothes.

Izuku was just minding his business walking along the halls of his home when he suddenly heard a sound. Or rather, sounds.

SNAP!

CRASH!

BREAK!

"What the!" Before Izuku could get to the bottom of this, Shiruku and Sansan burst through the wall next to him.

Sansan tried to use her slimy body to restrain Shiruku, but her spider strength and multiple limbs made doing so difficult.

On the other hand, Shiruku couldn't really do much to fight back, seeing it's not like she could overpower a liquid.

So the two of them were in a strange unwinnable struggle on both sides.

That is until Izuku got over his shock, and immediately stepped in.

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING!" Izuku shouted as loud as he could.

The two froze and looked at Izuku, whose face was bright red.

"What is this!? Why are you fighting?! Why did you make a hole in the-" Izuku stopped when he looked through the hole.

It wasn't just the wall they destroyed, they had trashed the entire room! And not only that, judging by the other wall the was destroyed, this was not the only room they fought in!

Izuku was mad. Izuku was very mad. Not really about the property damage, although that did upset him, but because the two had been violently fighting across the house.

However he stayed silent for a while, he didn't want to yell at the children too harshly or say something he would regret, so he took a minute to calm himself down.

After about two minutes of Izuku calming himself and the two children waiting anxiously for his reaction, Izuku turned and spoke to them.

"Before I decide your punishment, tell me, how on earth this happened," Izuku asked with restrained anger.

"Um-" Shiruku looked at the destruction they had accidentally wrought.

"No Cwothes! Sansan said returning to her humanoid form.

"No clothes?" Izuku repeated getting a nod from Sansan affirming what she said.

"But she won't even try them!" Shiruku protested.

"NO CWOTHES!" Sansan shouted even louder.

"Enough!" Izuku shouted, causing the two to stop their bickering immediately. "Tell me, what happened?"

"Ok, so I made this lovely green dress to match Sansan's blue coloring, but she wouldn't even try it on!" Shiruku explained. "So I tried to get her to put it on, but then she started running away, and I kept trying to get in on her but then she started pushing me! And I started pushing back, and then this happened."

Izuku sighed. That was one of the disadvantages of having such powerful children. A mere shove fight between children that would normally result in as at worst a scraped knee now resulted in several broken walls and many destroyed objects.

The greenette thought about the best way to go about this, what to say, what punishments to give, etc. And as he thought, his thoughts leaked out through his mutterings.

The two children tried to listen to his muttering, to see just how much trouble they were in, but they could barely make out anything he was saying.

After a few minutes of muttering, Izuku closed his eyes, took a deep breath, before revealing his thoughts.

"Sansan, you should know better than to shove your sister." Izuku scolded her, making the slime girl melt with shame. "You could have come to me if she kept bothering you, you're made of slime, she can't stop you. You chose violence instead. Go to your room. And stay there. For six hours."

At this point, Sansan was just a puddle and slowly oozed away to her room. And Izuku turned to Shiruku.

Well, that wasn't so bad. Maybe it'll be the same for me? Shiruku hoped.

"Now I know you think that was a light punishment." Shiruku was shocked by how Izuku had basically read her mind. "But it's not. Not if you know Sansan well."

Izuku kneeled down, so he was face to face with her. "Have you noticed that Sansan is never in her room? How there's barely anything even in her room? That she's always moving around and changing shape? That even when she's technically standing in one place she's never being still?"

"I...guess." Shiruku hadn't really paid attention to it but whenever she thought of Sansan she always saw her moving around.

"That's because Sansan hates being still," Izuku explained to her. "Sansan is a liquid, like water. Water always moves around and changes shape, and only stays still if you force it to. Meaning she probably liked that before she got trapped in that jar."

"Jar?" Shizuku questioned.

Izuku nodded sadly. "The people who took care of Sansan before I did, didn't like her very much and wanted to get rid of her. So they trapped her in a jar and left her a pile of trash. She was stuck in that jar for a year before we found her."

Shizuku's eyes widened in shock and she recoiled back. "Wha-what!"

"She was stuck in the jar for a year," Izuku repeated. "It was only just big enough for her to fit in. She couldn't move around, she couldn't scream for help. She was stuck, doing nothing, for a year."

"H-how could someone do that!" Shizuku was horrified.

"It's easily the second worst thing to happen to any of the kids here," Izuku told her.

"Wh-wait. Second worst!?" Shizuku shouted.

"You don't want to know," Izuku told her. "But as I was saying, Sansan doesn't like being still, and she doesn't like being restrained. That's why she doesn't wear clothes. If she's wearing clothes she can't shapeshift as freely and she'll be forced to stay in her human form. Do you understand why Sansan doesn't like clothes now?"

Shiruku nodded sadly. She would still like to teach her sister the joy of clothing, but she can understand that Sansan really didn't want to, and she had been too pushy.

"Even if this wasn't the case, no means no. Just because you have power, doesn't mean you can use that power to make people do what you want. With great power, comes great responsibility." Izuku told her. "

Shiruku sulked in shame, as she realized the error of her way. "I'm sorry."

"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to." Izuku continued. "I'm grounding you. For three days I'm taking away your sewing supplies, and you're not allowed to watch T.V.."

Shiruku sulked even harder. Three days with no T.V. and no making clothes. She hated it, but she knew she got off easy. In the movies she'd watched, some kids got grounded for pushing some or breaking a vase, and they got grounded for like a week. She had broken several rooms, and she was getting off with less than half of that.

"And I want you to make up with your sister before dinner." Izuku finished. "The thing that makes me the most upset isn't all the stuff you broke. It's the fact that you two fought. Because even if neither of you hurt each other physically, that doesn't mean you can't hurt each other's feelings."

"Yes, daddy," Shizuku said sadly.

The spider girl scuttled away, and Izuku turned to the mess they made.

"I'm gonna need to ask a construction company to move nearby, I swear." Izuku sighed as he imagined how many times things like this were going to happen.

And then he remembered something.

A few minutes later.

Sansan heard a knock on her door.

"Sansan, it's me," Shiruku said on the other side of the door.

Sansan ignored it and continued to sulk on her bed.

"Can I come in? Daddy wants me to talk to you." Shiruku mentioned.

Sansan paused for a moment, before extending a part of herself and pulling the door open.

Shiruku walked in and closed the door behind her. "Thank you."

"Hmph!" Sansan turned her head away from her, crossing her arms in a huffy manner.

"I...know you can still see me." Shiruku pointed out.

"HMPH!" Sansan huffed even louder.

Shiruku sighed and approached the slime girl, before giving an apologetic bow. "I'm sorry I was so pushy earlier. I just love making clothes so much that I got really upset when you said no and tried to force you into doing something you didn't want to do. That was wrong of me. I know you don't like being restricted and I know what you went through. I'm really, really sorry I tried to force that on you so please accept my apology."

There was a small pause before Sansan turned her head around and brought it right to her face.

"K." Sansan said. "Sorry for pushing you."

"Wait, it's that easy?" Shiruku asked. "Usually this goes on for longer in movies."

"Sansan is tired of being mad," Sansan said, moving around her sister constantly. "So I forgwive."

"I'm tired of being mad too." Shiruku gave a slight smile.

The two of them smiled, their previous problems now water under the bridge.

The day has come!

Izuku sighed.

The day had finally come.

The kids had finally earned enough points for them to go to the amusement park, Mighty World! Izuku's favorite, and most expensive, hero themed amusement park.

So why was Izuku not excited?

Because when he made the point system and the reward, he had four kids.

Now, he has eight. Double that number.

Not even mentioning all the math he had to do to recalculate the number of points needed to fit having more kids. He would have to take eight kids to a packed amusement park and keep track of all of them.

Of course, he had bought a lot of things to help with this process, GPS trackers he'd put in their clothes and anti-predator alarms and such. But that didn't help Izuku's anxiety.

He'd need more people. People he could trust.

And the number of people he could trust was limited.

His mother was still overseas at the moment so she was out. And she was only one extra person.

All Might was a pro hero and probably had better things to do.

Mitsuki might bring her son along and he could not risk that.

And that left only, Ochaco.

It was a testament to their friendship that Izuku even managed to get to her speed dial page.

Of course, Izuku being Izuku he was hesitant to call her.

What if she was too busy? What if she doesn't want to go? What if I offend her somehow? What if she thinks I'm asking her on a date. Izuku thought about every possible way this could go wrong, almost like he was talking himself out of doing it.

However, fate had other plans. As while he wasn't paying attention, his thumb moved slightly and pressed down on the call button.

By the time Izuku realized what happened, the dial tone was already playing.

"AH!" Izuku gasped.

He was about to end the call, however, Ochaco picked up.

"Hello? Midoriya?" Ochaco's voice answered.

"H-hi Uraraka?" Izuku stuttered nervously. "Sorry, I-uh-I-"

Izuku was about to say that he called her by accident, but this could be his chance to ask.

He summoned all his will power and ignored his flustered blush. "I wanted to ask you something. I-If you d-don't mind!"

"Depends on what it is," Ochaco replied teasingly.

"W-well you see I'm going to take the kids to Mighty World but uh...you know I have a lot of kids and it'd be hard to keep track of them all by myself. S-so I was wondering if maybe you'd like to help me." Izuku asked her.

"Oh, Mighty World! I'd love to help and take care of the kids but uh...I don't have the money." Ochaco sounded embarrassed.

"Oh don't worry I'll pay for you! I have more money than I know what to do with now so I'd be happy to spend it on a f-friend." Izuku told her. "You could even invite some other friends...as long as they help with kids I'll be more than happy to pay."

"I couldn't," Ochaco responded. "But if it helps you out I guess I could do it. You said I could bring friends right?"

"Just so long as they're trustworthy," Izuku said nervously. "I trust your judgment."

"Aw thank you!" Ochaco replied. "I'll only bring my most trustable friends. Tsu and Iida. Tsu has to take care of a bunch of her little siblings herself, and Iida's brother is a pro hero so we can trust them."

"That sounds...good," Izuku said. They did at least sound trustable, and if they were friends of Ochaco they could probably be trusted. "I'm hoping we can do it on Saturday, that's when the fireworks show is going to happen."

"Great! I'll see if they can come and call you to tell you their answers." Ochaco said.

"O-ok. B-bye." Izuku said.

"Bye," Ochaco said before the call ended.

Izuku collapsed back into his chair, he felt like he ran a marathon.

"I did it." Izuku gasped. "I invited a girl somewhere!"

Now all that's left to do was mentally prepare himself for having to go outside and deal with people again...this might have been a mistake.