Chapter 3: Double Trouble

"Uno," Eri said as she put her second to last card on the pile.

"Darn it! Izuku we have to stop her! She's going to win!" Kesseki shouted out. "I put down a plus two card! Izuku, it's your turn!" Kei was now wearing a special visitor provided by the government, that would make sure no one turned to stone, while at the same time allowing her to see(Albeit barely)

"I uh...don't have a plus two. Sorry Kei" Izuku admitted, drawing two cards.

"I win," Eri said, putting down her last card.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" Kesseki or Kei for short, fell down dramatically, before immediately getting back up, cipher as always. "Ok. Nice work Eri!"

"Thanks. That was fun." Eri said, her lips moving upward very slightly into something that wasn't quite a smile.

"Well as long as you two had fun." Izuku smiled. Honestly, he had fun as well.

Most of the games they tried to play together suffered from the fact that neither Eri nor Kei had played a game, ever. So Izuku would beat them easily. But thanks to the randomness and simplicity of Uno, they were able to play on mostly even ground.

"Again again!" Kei chanted. "One more time! This time I know I'll win!"

Kei, despite the whole incident with the villain using her and being homeless before then, was an extremely positive ball of energy. Which was welcomed in Izuku and Eri's lives.

GRRRRRR

"Looks like we'll have to stop to make food," Izuku said, hearing Kei's stomach growl.

"Oh! Can we have eggs!" Kei said.

Kei loved eggs. Not as much as Eri loved apples, but it was easily the girl's favorite food.

"Hmm." Izuku thought about it. I want to make something for her but I don't want to leave Eri out…

Suddenly he got an idea. "I got it! How about Tamagoyaki!"

It was both sweet and made of eggs! So they should like it.

"Yay! I don't know what that is!" Kei cheered. "Does it have eggs!?"

"Yes. You should like it to Eri, it's sweet." Izuku said.

"Can I crack the eggs this time!? This time I'll do it just like you." Kei looked at him with pure determination.

"Sure." Izuku smiled at her. "You want to help too, Eri?"

Eri nodded. And the three of them went into the kitchen.

A little while later

The cooking went rather smoothly. Inko was a skilled cook, and Izuku had picked up on a lot of those skills. (He did have a lot of free time growing up due to his lack of friends.)

Eri and Kei didn't do all too much for the most part. They cracked the eggs, Izuku later had to pick the eggshell pieces out, and they popped the air bubbles while they were cooking.

They mostly watched him closely while he was cooking. And the look of admiration on their faces as they watched him made him feel better about himself then he had felt in years.

"This is great!" Kei shouted. "You're the best cook ever Izuku. This is...eggcellent."

Eri nodded as she stuffed her face like an adorable chipmunk.

"I guess I'm pretty ok." Izuku blushed from the praise. "Mom is a much better cook than me."

"Emmm! If new mom can make better food then this then I might explode from goodness!" Kei had stars in her eyes.

"Izuku's better," Eri muttered.

"Huh?" Izuku stopped eating for a moment.

"I like Izuku's cooking better," Eri said.

"I-um-uh." Izuku turned into a flustered mess.

"Hey, I have an idea!" Kei said. "We could cook a whole lot of food. And then sell it in the park and make lots of money!"

"Um...we don't really need money," Izuku explained to her. They had more than enough money from the "gift" he had gotten, plus mom's start-up company was doing decently well, and he was still getting money from the government for both Eri and Kei. They were rolling in the dough.

"Oh." Kei paused for a moment. "Then why don't we do that anyway! It sounds fun!"

"Emmm." Eri seemed uncomfortable about going outside to the park all day.

"I mean, we could do that," Izuku remembered he still had all the licenses to do that from the times he had tried to sell lemonade(Had to pay for those notebooks somehow). "But only if Eri wanted to."

Kei shot Eri, a puppy dog look.

"Emmm." Eri still seemed hesitant, but her resolve was breaking.

Then Kei's snakes gave her a puppy dog look as well. (Izuku didn't even know snakes could do that)

"We...we could do it." Eri caved.

"Yay!" Kei and her snakes cheered, before running over and hugging her. "Thanks, sis."

Izuku swore Eri almost smiled.

They then spent the next few hours talking about which foods they would make.

Two days later.

After buying all the food and cooking it, Izuku and his sisters bought some tables and laid out the food. Then they set up a large umbrella to protect both them and the food from the sun.

"All right let's make some money!" Kei cheered.

Eri nodded determinedly. They had used the tables to create a small square around them, and for some reason standing inside the square made her more confident than she normally would be when she was outside like it was some kind of barrier. (It could also do with the fact that she was holding a candy apple.)

Izuku smiled and shook his head. What the two girls didn't know was that Izuku priced these things in such a way that they would be operating at a loss. The cost to buy and make the food would be more than any amount of money they made from selling it. After all, it's not like they needed the money, and it would be more fun for the two of them if they felt like they were selling a lot, so he needed to lower the pricing.

Suddenly they heard someone breathing in heavily, they turned and saw a jogger running towards them.

The jogger stopped at one of their tables. "Hey uh, how much is-"

He stopped when he looked at Kei's smiling face. Or rather her snakes.

The jogger stopped and looked, uncomfortable at the snakes for a moment until Izuku spoke up.

"Is everything ok sir?" Izuku asked, wanting him to stop looking at Kei's snakes.

"Uh, yeah. H-how much is a watermelon slice?" He asked.

"One dollar!" Kei said, holding up one finger.

The jogger looked at Izuku as if to make sure the price was correct. Izuku nodded in confirmation, and the jogger handed over one dollar.

Eri handed the melon over to the jogger and he went on his way.

"What a nice guy," Kei said.

Their sales from that point on progress steadily.

One woman was on her cheat day and bought some of their candy apples and chocolate-covered bananas.

A nerdy looking kid talked their ears off about how he was going to get the top test score in his school, before buying some of their fish cakes and rice balls.

A group of delinquents bought some of their more filling dishes.

They made a big sale when a family decided to suddenly have a picnic with their kids, and bought a ton of food.

All and all things have been progressing well.

Except for one thing.

"I uh...I think I'll pass." A man said as he looked at Kei, before walking very quickly in the other direction.

Kei frowned, the snakes in her hair slithering down. "I think...I may be scaring some of the customers."

While having weird hair was not uncommon nowadays, having a full head of hair made up of living snakes was something else. Sure there was Uwabami who had three snakes in her hair, but that was only three and not dozens of them that were constantly moving and slithering. Also when people looked at Uwabami, her hair was typically not what they looked at.

People, not many people but a few of them, saw Kei and were scared off. Much to Izuku's dismay.

"Oh! Maybe I could put on a hat! Then people won't see my snakes!" Kei suggested. "And I-huh?"

Izuku started petting the snakes in her hair. The reptiles gave a pleased hiss while Kei blushed slightly.

"I-Izuku?" Kei said.

"You already have to hide enough of yourself," Izuku told her. "If they can't see how cute my little sister is then I don't want their money."

"Y-yeah!" Eri ran up and started petting the snakes as well. "Your snakes are pretty!"

"I-Izuku. Eri." Kei was stunned for a moment. No one had ever called her cute, or pretty before. They called her scary or ugly. She had learned to not let it get to her, but being complimented like this...it made her really, really happy.

Tears welled up in her eyes, and a big stupid grin appeared on her face. "I love you guys!"

Kei wrapped her tiny arms around Eri and Izuku and cried happy tears while laughing. Izuku started laughing with her and while Eri didn't laugh, the smallest of smiles appeared on her face. (Unfortunately, Izuku didn't notice this.)

Suddenly, a giant shadow loomed over them.

"Hey uh, am I interrupting something?" Asked a male voice.

Izuku turned to the sound of the voice, his eyes still closed as he wiped his face. "Ah sorry, sir what do you…"

Izuku opened his eyes, and in front of him was the pro hero Fatgum.

"F-F-F-Fatgum!" Izuku freaked out. "Oh my god it's really you it's such an honor to meet you, I've seen your work and it's really impressive honestly I think it's a crime you're not rated higher because of all the things you do the community and your really good with kids and wait! Didn't also help with the-"

"Woah kid slow down!" Fatgum said. "You're talking a bit too fast. Also, why aren't you kids in class?"

"Well um…" Izuku paused. "That's a bit difficult to explain you see-"

"Wait a minute." Fatgum squinted at Izuku and Eri. "Oh yeah! You're those kids from the Yakuza case!"

"Y-yeah," Izuku said. "You were one of the heroes that helped take down the Yakuza right?"

"You got right! Taught those children hurting ba-" Fatgum stopped and looked at the two children in front of him. "-ad guys a thing or two!"

"You stopped Overhaul?" Eri asked him, peeking out from behind Izuku.

"You bet!" Fatgum said.

"...Thank you." Eri muttered.

"It was my pleasure!" Fatgum smiled at her. "Now, what are you three doing out of school?"

"Well, Eri's not ready for school yet, and we just took in Kei recently so we don't know about her," Izuku explained. "And me...nothing good happens when I go to school...and uh, someone needs to watch these two anyway and I'll still be able to graduate anyway. The school wouldn't miss a chance to get rid of me."

"Why's that?" Fatgum frowned.

"I'm a...i'm quirkless," Izuku admitted, looking away from the hero as if he was ashamed of himself.

"Ah, those discriminatory jerks!" Fatgum said, angered that someone was being mistreated because of something they couldn't control. "I can't stand it when people look down on others because of their quirk...or lack of quirk in this case."

"It's fine," Izuku said. "I'm used to it by now."

"Well, you shouldn't be!" Fatgum said. "Quirk discrimination is illegal and wrong!"

"Technically it's not quirk discrimination if I don't have a quirk," Izuku muttered.

"That's not true." Fatgum dismissed. "Kid why don't you tell me what school you go to and I'll throw the book at em!"

"Y-you don't really need to do that!" Izuku waved his arms in front of him. "I wouldn't want to cause anyone any trouble and you're probably really busy anyway-"

"Not really, I was just finishing my patrol," Fatgum said. "Kid, being abused is not ok. If you're used to it then it must be worse than I thought. Are you getting bullied, kid?"

"B-b-bullied, no, no, of course not." Izuku started sweating profusely, looking away from the hero as he scratched the back of his head. Basically giving all the signs that he was lying.

Fatgum gave him a serious look. "Kid, you-"

CHOMP.

Fatgum paused for a moment Then he looked at his side.

Biting down on the hero's fat, was a small boy, about eight or nine. He was gnawing on Fatgum's fat as if trying to eat him.

"You know this kid?" Fatgum asked Izuku, receiving a no in response.

Fatgum tried to pull the kid off of him, but to his surprise, his bite was extremely strong, as the hero pulled all he did was stretch out his fat.

"Hey kid, you mind letting go of my fat? I probably don't taste so good." Fatgum said as he got a better look at the kid. "Wait a minute, you don't look too good either kid."

"Meaaaaaat." The kid groaned. His eyes were glazed over, and his skin was a rotted green color. He also looked like he had several cuts all over his body and something about the kid didn't look right. Like some of his flesh was starting to rot, like a zombie.

"It looks like he's in some kind of trance." Izuku pointed out. "And he looks hurt!"

"He needs meat!"

To the left of them, what looked like a small girl wearing a cloak made of rags.

"He," Huff, "Needs," Puff, "Meat." The girl was out of breath, by the time she reached them, she collapsed on the floor.

Izuku went out to go check on her. "Are you ok?"

"Thirsty. Need food and blood." The girl groaned. "Need to give Fu meat. Drink his blood."

Izuku was confused by her rambling, but he did understand that the boy needed meat.

He picked up a sausage from one of the food trays and put it in front of the boy's face.

The kid, Fu as the girl called him, sniffed the meat for a few seconds, before letting go of Fatgum's fat and chomping down on it, devouring it whole.

Izuku motioned for more meat, Kei and Eri started handing him more meat.

Eventually, after feeding him nearly all their meat dishes, the boy's eyes became less glazed and slightly more focused, and his flesh started to heal itself, the cuts closed up and the rotted flesh fell off. His body regenerated the missing flesh, replacing it with new, nonrotting flesh.

"BURP!" The boy let out a massive burp, surprising everyone around him. "Excuse me...where am I?"

"Looks like he's back," Fatgum said.

"Back...oh. Did I go berserk again?" The boy asked in a monotone. "Did I hurt anyone?"

"Nah, you bit down on some of my fat, but I'm made of pretty tough stuff." Fatgum punched his fat to prove his point. "Your friend over there seems like she's in pretty bad shape though."

Fu looked over at the fallen girl.

Then he did something they didn't expect.

He walked over to the girl, picked up her head, then held out his arm in front of her mouth.

The girl opened her mouth, revealing a pair of sharp fangs, before biting down into the boy's arm.

The rest of them looked on in a mix of confusion and concern as the girl seemingly drank the boy's blood. (Which seemingly didn't phase him in the slightest.)

After a few minutes, the girl stopped drinking, and then jumped back on her feet.

"Ahaha! I'm back! The great vampire lord Kiba has returned to full strength!" The girl proclaimed. "As has her loyal servant Fu! Together now we shall take over the world!"

The girl, whose name was apparently Kiba, looked at the rest of them. "It seems I have you to thank for our resurrection, lowly food merchants, and depressingly fat man!"

"Lowly food merchants?" Izuku repeated.

"Depressingly fat?" Fatgum said.

"For your act of generosity, I promise you will all hold power in my new world order and-"

GROWLL

The girl stopped as her stomach growled rather loudly. Her face turned pink in embarrassment, as she spoke again. "Um, lowly food merchants. Could you find it within your hearts to spare me some more of your lovely consumables? Particularly anything colored red?"

Many hours later.

After feeding them a significant amount of food, Fatgum had escorted them to the police station so they could contact the kid's parents.

Izuku had decided to wait at the station to make sure the kids were ok, letting Fatgum and the girls wrap up the food stand.

Izuku sat at the station for quite some time. He had been here for several hours and was starting to wonder what was taking these kids' parents so long.

Then a thought crossed his mind. What if they don't have parents.

He started to sweat nervously. No, no. I can't have run into even more orphaned children in such a short period of time! The odds of that would be low, to say the least. It's impossible...right.

Wrong.

Izuku heard the doors of the police station open, and a chill went up his spine as none other than Namae walked in.

She spotted him and gave him a cheshire cat-like grin. Like a predator that just found it's favorite prey. "Izuku! Man, you have some luck buddy."

"No! No!" Izuku almost shouted. "I can't take any more kids! Isn't there anyone else you know who'll take in these kids!"

"Not really. Nowadays fewer and fewer people want to be parents, let alone adopt children with dangerous or troublesome quirks." Namae said. "But before we get to that, let's have a little talk somewhere more private shall we?"

"If I run would you arrest me?" Izuku asked, seriously considering that option at this point.

"No, but I might taze you." She replied.

Izuku sighed. He had a bad, bad feeling about this.

Later.

Namae had brought them into one of the offices and the two of them sat down opposite each other.

"So the boy's name is Fuhai and the Girl's name is Kiba," Namae explained. "They're quite a troublesome pair with very troublesome quirks. Fuhai's is called unkillable. He's basically an unkillable zombie, he can regenerate any part of his body, however, he needs to eat a lot of meat in order to do this and his flesh rots naturally, and if he starts to rot too much or takes too much damage without enough meat to recover, he goes into a berserk state and starts trying to eat whatever meat he can. And I mean, whatever meat."

Izuku placed his hand on his chin. Processing the information he was given. That sounds like it could be seriously dangerous. Luckily Fatgum's fat was able to absorb his bite but if he hadn't been there…

"He's also really strong since his body doesn't have any limiters." Namae finished explaining his quirk. "He was hit by a car at age seven and his parents thought he was dead, but when he came back as a zombie and started smelling like decaying meat, they kicked him out."

Izuku wasn't even angry at this point. He was just disappointed. "How many bad parents are there in this city?"

"Now you know how I feel, every day," Namae said, giving him a blank expression. "Speaking of shitty parents! The girl's quirk is called blood boost. It allows her to significantly enhance her strength when she consumes human blood. The downside of this is, she also requires human blood to stay alive. Her parents-"

"Abandoned her." Izuku guessed.

"Yup. To be fair she did start trying to suck their blood and proclaimed she was the queen of the vampires, but still throwing your kid onto the streets is a pretty shit thing to do no matter the circumstance." Namae took a sip of her coffee. "Anyway, we've been trying to catch these two for years now, they've been causing trouble for a while, mostly stealing meat. They think we're trying to arrest them so they keep running away and the girl's quirk makes her really hard to handle. That boost she gets from blood is very strong, she's even been able to fend off some of the lower-ranked pro heroes."

"That's...amazing." Izuku took out one of his notebooks and started jotting down notes.

"So, I've explained their tragic backstories. Time to sell you on this." Namae prepared to make the kill.

She brought out her phone and started playing sad violin music.

"These two poor children have stuck together through thick and thin and now they might be separated if I can't find someone who'll take both of them in! They've been through so much strife! So much hunger! If only they could find someone, anyone, anyone with a lot of money, a talent for cooking and child-raising, and someone who could give them the affection they deserve!" Namae laid it on thick with the overacting, it was so bad that a child would probably be able to perform better. But it worked well enough to get Izuku thinking.

I've heard of siblings being separated because only one of them gets adopted so I guess it makes sense that these two could be separated. But that could cause problems if they really have spent a lot of time together, one or two of them might run away, and that would leave them back on the streets. Izuku started muttering.

"And that's only if they get adopted in the first place! They might just spend years in the government facilities, waiting for an adoption that will never come! Unwanted! And Unloved! Spurned by the world, they may turn to crime without the right guidance!" Namae cried. "Oh, won't someone think of the-"

"Stop!" Izuku shouted. He cringed at both Namae's horribly sappy acting and the fact that what she was saying may have held some truth. Many people turned to villainy because they were mistreated as kids. He may not have known these kids for long, but he didn't like the idea of that happening to anyone, especially kids.

Izuku groaned and laid his head down. He wanted to help these kids. Really he did. But he wasn't sure if he could handle four kids. Or if his mother would want to be responsible for taking care of five children. "It can't be that hard to find other people to take care of them, can it?! They're nice kids! And you're paying them to do it!"

"Yeah, they're nice kids. Nice, flesh-eating, body rotting, blood-drinking, kids." Namae said while she turned off the music."People who are willing to adopt kids at this age are not common. Now imagine you want to adopt a kid, are you going to adopt a lovely child from a regular orphanage that has a quirk that can...I don't know, change the color of their hair, or would you like to take a child from the government that might eat you. Also, sometimes, despite our best efforts, the people taking care of these kids just...die. Or they get injured to the point where they can't or don't want to take care of these kids anymore."

Izuku grit his teeth. He was in a bind. If he let these kids go, he didn't know what was going to happen to them. And he couldn't find it within himself to leave these children's futures to chance.

After all, he knew just how much your future could change by leaving anything up to chance.

Izuku pulled out his phone and quickly started calling his mom.

"What are you doing?" Namae glared at him.

"Calling my mom," Izuku answered.

A few seconds later, Inko picked up. "Hello? Izuku? Is something wrong?"

"No-not really," Izuku said. "But um...it happened again."

"What happened?" Inko thought about what her son could be talking about. "Izuku you didn't get hurt again did you?!"

"No, no I'm fine!" Izuku reassured her. "I...ran into some kids again."

"...Oh." Inko finally got what her son was talking about. "Is that lazy government agent trying to pressure you into taking them again?"

"Yeah, I don't know how she ever got employed." Izuku sighed.

"Are you two talking about me?!" Namae glared at him.

"And it's two of them this time." Izuku continued. "There wasn't a villain involved this time! But um...I'm not sure what's going to happen to them if I let them go. They might be separated or-"

"Izuku...do you want to take them in?" Inko asked him.

"W-well um...I...it's not about me," Izuku responded. "You'd be responsible for five kids and that's a lot to ask someone and-"

"Izuku. Do you want to take them in?" Inko repeated the question.

"I...I want...I want to help them." Izuku admitted. "But-"

"Then do it Izuku." Inko encouraged him. "Ever since Eri came into our lives, you've smiled more than ever. Even more so when Kesseki came. You love taking care of these children Izuku."

"But, mom you-" Izuku was cut off.

"All I've ever wanted is your happiness Izuku, the reason I'm trying to make sure our wealth sticks is so you can be happy doing whatever you want to do. If giving these children a home is what makes you happy, then I could never stand in the way of that." He could practically hear her smile on the other side of the phone. That kind warm smile that always made him cry. (Which of course he was currency doing.) "And I haven't been able to be at home as much as I would like anyway. So you're the one really taking care of them. Of course, I want you to think about your own future and the children you already have under your care but...if you want to take them in, then do it."

Izuku sniffed and wiped away some of his tears. "Thanks, mom. I love you."

"I love you too Izuku," Inko said.

The call ended and Izuku took a moment to compose himself.

And while he took that moment, Namae, not at all subtly, slid the contracts in front of him.

Izuku looked at the contracts and sighed. He always wanted to help people, this wasn't exactly what he meant, but it was something.

He signed the contract and Namae sighed in relief.

"Heck yeah!" She cheered. "I was getting nervous there. You've been a real help kid. So as thanks, I got you a little something."

Namae took two books out of her bag and handed them to Izuku.

He looked at the books in confusion. "Quirk counseling 101? Teaching for dummies?"

"Our files say you're a smart kid, probably smarter than the test scores you get reflect," Namae said. "I know you don't really need to get a job any time soon, but you should consider studying those two things. If you take a certain test, you can get a quirk counselors license and you'll be able to homeschool the kids. I'm sure they'd much rather have you teaching them then some stranger."

Izuku thought about what she said for a moment. I guess this could really help them.

"Thank you, Namae." Izuku thanked the woman. "But um...this isn't so that way you don't have to work to figure out a solution to the kids' education and counseling issues?"

"Ah, you got me!" Namae admitted. "But I have a point don't I?"

Izuku sighed in disappointment.

A few minutes later

Izuku walked into the room where the two kids were being held.

Kiba no longer had her raggedy cloak so Izuku could see what she looked like. She had long silver hair that traveled down her back. Her eyes were blood red and her skin was extremely pale. Her fangs were rather obvious and easy to notice whenever she opened her mouth.

Overall, she looked like a vampire.

"It's the food merchant!" Kiba pointed at Izuku. "Kind sir, would you please tell these two animals to return my cloak to me and allow me and my minion to leave. I would do it myself but it appears that my strength has not fully returned."

Izuku looked at the two officers who were also in the room for answers.

"Her skin is sensitive to the sun," Fuhai explained. "She needs her cloak."

"That cloak is made of dirty rags." One of the officers pointed out. "It's probably just as bad for her heath as the sun."

"And her smell." The other cop said.

Izuku glared at the officer, who put up his hand in a defensive manner.

Izuku turned towards the two children. "We can get you a new cloak."

Kiba pouted. "That cloak was crafted by me personally! I will not accept some cheap-"

"What about a red cloak?" Izuku asked Fuhai gave him an approving look.

"Ah, I never liked that old cloak I'm sure you could purchase one of better quality." Kiba did a complete one-eighty.

"How about we get some red cloth and we can make the cloak together?" Izuku suggested.

Kiba's eyes sparkled. "I knew there was something I liked about you food merchant! You really get me!"

"I'm not a food merchant." Izuku smiled at the strange title. "My name is Izuku Midoriya, I'll be taking care of you from now on."

The two looked at him with wide, almost disbelieving eyes. For a few moments, neither of them said anything, until Kiba's face broke out into a wide grin.

"I knew it!" She jumped up, now standing on the chair. "I knew that someday someone would recognize my greatness! That someone would provide me with food and shelter, knowing that I would one day return the favor twentyfold! All those fools who threw me out and tried to stop me will regret not aiding me sooner! Today is the day my life truly begins! AHAHAHAHA!"

There were a few moments of silence as no one really knew how to react to that before Fuhai got off his chair and gave Izuku a polite bow.

"Thank you for taking us in. We are in your care." He said in his usual monotone.

Well, this is going to be interesting. Izuku thought to himself.