Chapter 6: Shorts 2

Animal Frankenstein

"Hey, Izuku," Fu said to get his attention as they were eating.

"Is something wrong Fu?" Normally Fu didn't talk while he ate, or did anything while he ate for that matter. He normally just ate like his life depended on it.

"No, I just had a weird thought," Fu said. "So the meat I eat is used to replace my body when they rot or get ripped off right."

"Right?" Izuku wondered where he was going with this.

"So that means my body is made up of a bunch of different animal meats," Fu said. "I'm not a zombie, I'm an animal, Frankenstein."

Izuku paused. "Huh."

There was a long pause as the two continued eating.

"Frankenstein was the name of the doctor, not the monster." Izuku corrected him.

Fu looked confused. "Then what was the name of the monster?"

"It doesn't have one, it's just called Frankenstein's monster," Izuku explained.

Fu didn't seem to like that answer. "That's really dumb."

Izuku shrugged. "I haven't read the book, so I can't really say."

To Hold

"Just hold still. I'm almost done." Izuku said, holding up the last needle.

The government had provided him with a special chemical, that when inserted into Sansan's acid, would render it inert(And change it's color to blue).

How long the chemical would last depended on how much of the chemical he gave her. The least he could give her would render her outer layer of goop inert, meaning she could still walk around and touch things, while also being able to swap that outer layer with the acid inside her, that would last about ten hours. Or he could give her a full dose that would render all her acid inert, this would last about twenty-four hours.

They also still had the suit just in case, but neither Sansan nor Izuku liked that option.

The process of giving her the chemical was simple, however, it took some time.

First, he would put on a special safety suit, to protect him if he accidentally touched some of her acid. Then he would take a large needle and insert it into her repeatedly until he was done.

What made this process a lot harder, was that Sansan didn't ever like staying still, a part of her was always bouncing around and moving.

He understood why of course, she was stuck in a jar for a year and she wanted to move as much as possible, and being made of slime also made it so she could move around in a way normal people couldn't.

It still made it a pain to complete the process though.

Izuku watched as the last patch of green turned blue. "There we go. And we're done."

"Gooo!" Sansan jumped around, her entire body jiggling as she did so.

Izuku smiled. "Do you-ouph!"

He was interrupted as he was hit by a wet slept as Sansan burst onto his body.

COLD! Izuku thought as Sansan deformed and wrapped around his body, covering his entire torso, then he felt her squeeze, it was like getting hugged by jello.

"San? What are you doing?" Izuku asked her, using the shortened version of her name.

Sansan reformed her head on Izuku's chest and gave him a bright, cheerful smile. "Rwug!"

"Rwug?" Izuku tried to figure out what she was trying to say. Contrary to what they first thought, it would be possible for her to talk. Kind of.

Sansan was capable of changing her shape, a lot. She could potentially change or turn into anything she wanted, including altering the shape of her throat to change what noises she could make.

By doing this, presumably, she could one day speak like a somewhat normal person. That would take a long, long time though. She would have to master both her shapeshifting ability and her speaking ability.

Right now she could kind of string broken words in incomplete sentences. Her words were distorted by her slimy throat, making them even harder to make out.

Rwug? Rug? No there's no rugs in here...oh, a hug! Izuku realized. "You meant hug right?"

Sansan's smile grew even wider and nodded, her slimy "hug" grew even tighter. She seemed ecstatic like this was the best day of her life.

She really likes hugs...wait. She never hugged me before. Or anyone until now. Izuku started thinking, and then he remembered. Before this she was made entirely of corrosive acid, if she touched anyone, that could result in serious injury or death.

Meaning, she probably had never been hugged. Never been held. And never been touched.

"San," Izuku called to her. "Let's go get everyone, and give them the biggest group hug we can."

"Yaah!" She smiled brightly.

T.V. Time

Izuku walked into the living room and saw a...peculiar sight.

Sansan was in front of the T.V. trying to replicate what the characters were doing on screen, with her stretchy limbs. The remote for the T.V. encased inside her torso.

Kiba had her head through the ceiling and was flailing around while she stuck in the ceiling.

Izuku sighed. "San, can you get your sister out of the ceiling."

Sansan nodded, her head moving like a bobblehead. She extended her arm, grabbing Kiba's foot, before pulling her out of the ceiling, letting her fall onto the couch.

It's a good thing no one lives in the house upstairs. Izuku thought.

"Aha! Finally, I have been released! Now to enact my vengeance!" Kiba lunged for the remote inside of Sansan.

In response, the gooey girl increased the size of her legs, stretching her body up to the ceiling and causing Kiba to miss, crashing into the floor.

"Curses!" Kiba was ready to lunge again, but Izuku stepped in.

"Wait! Wait!" Izuku got in between the two of them. "What have I said about fighting!"

"This isn't a fight!" Kiba protested. "A fight involves two people bringing harm upon each other until one is no longer capable of standing! Seeing as Sansan is incapable of being harmed, one can not truly fight her!"

Izuku sighed. "Well, you're technically not wrong. Still, no punching or kicking or lunging or any type of attacking in the house."

Izuku pointed to the hole in the ceiling.

"But she has been hogging the television! I am currently not watching my favorite anime so she can watch the ten-thousandth Avengers movie!" Kiba protested.

Izuku understood what happened now. Kiba must have been trying to get the remote, and Sansan stretched her arm to the ceiling with the remote, Kiba tried to jump up to get it, and missed, which ended up with her head getting stuck in the ceiling.

He looked at the T.V. and the 567 Avengers movie, Avengers vs the Fantastic Four.

The two of them had rather different tastes in what they liked to watch. Most of the kids did.

Eri liked watching slice of life anime, comedies, and other light-hearted feel-good types of shows and movies. And hated things with lots of violence or negativity.

Kei liked basically anything but her favorites were comedies and mysteries.

Fu only really enjoyed in-depth, character dramas, and only the really good ones too. He also tended to nitpick any movie he watched, even the ones he enjoyed.

Kiba liked violent action shows, things that Izuku probably shouldn't be letting her watch, but considering she survived on the street for so long, she would probably be fine watching this. She was also particularly fond of anime, due to its overdramatic tendencies.

Sansan loved watching with lots of action, particularly superhero movies and shows. She especially loved characters that could stretch like herself.

Izuku thought about how to handle this problem. Should I do a T.V. schedule? No, we're going to move soon and they'll probably have more T.V. to use for themselves so there's no sense in doing that…

"Alright, you two should handle things like big girls. If both of you want to watch T.V. then you have to find a show you'll watch together." Izuku said.

"But the shows she watches are very different from the ones I watch." Kiba pointed out.

"No matter how different people's tastes are, you can probably find something they both like if you look hard enough," Izuku told them. "And you might find something you like that you didn't think you would."

Kiba seemed unconvinced but nodded anyway.

Sansan agreed with that smile she always had on. It's like she was always happy no matter where she was.

Although I would probably be happy to be anywhere after being in a jar for a year. Izuku thought. "I'm going to go make dinner. If I see you two arguing about this again, I'll take away points."

The two's eyes widened in fear, they nodded and immediately got onto the couch, Sansan took the remote out of her chest, as the two serfed the endless content of the streaming services.

A few hours later.

Izuku walked into the living room, ready to tell the two that dinner was ready. When he saw a familiar sight.

The two of them were glued to the screen, Sansan wrapped around Kiba as they watched One Piece.

Ah good! I love that show. And even better, by the time they catch up to the newer episodes, they'll be adults! Izuku thought happily.

Do it for them!

Izuku was sitting at his desk, hunched over and flipping through a book with one hand while lifting a small dumbbell with the other.

Today his mother was home and had offered to watch the kids.

Meaning he had taken the day to do some self-improvement. A lot of self-improvement.

Since he was going to be taking care of a lot of children, there were a lot of things he had to do.

Firstly he studied a lot of medical books. If he needed to care for kids then making sure to keep them healthy, especially in case of an emergency.

He also did a lot of studying on quirk counseling and quirk theory. Part of his contract required him to get his quirk counseling license sometime with the year.

These two subjects were actually really easy for Izuku, as a lot of it was just learning how quirks worked and how they affected the users, something that Izuku already studied beforehand.

He was also studying phycology. He wanted to understand the minds of the kids he was taking care of, so he could help them better.

There were also teaching books so he could properly provide an education for them. The contract said that how they were educated was up to his discretion and he wanted to do it personally. He felt it would make them more comfortable.

Oh and then there was cooking. The kids might get tired of eating from the wide, but still limited selection of what Izuku could make so he needed to learn how to make more food. He was also learning how to improve his cooking and how to find the best ingredients because these kids deserve the best.

Lastly, he was also looking at biology. Looking at the biology in people with quirks that didn't majorly alter their bodies, might help him figure out what to do with kids whose quirks do majorly alter their bodies.

And while he was doing all that, he also decided to improve his body. He was going to need all the strength, speed, and especially stamina to keep up with everyone.

I feel exhausted. Izuku thought. Maybe I should stop...no. I need to keep working. To give them a better future.

He looked at the clock. It was 7:00 at night. He started at six. Meaning he'd been working and studying for thirteen hours.

Ah crap! I need to plan out next week! Their education, their quirk training, what are we going to do for fun, what am I going to cook!? Izuku quickly put away all of his books and his weights and took out a bunch of papers with different templates on them. One was for planning their activities, the other was to list any supplies they might need and the last was a meal planner in which Izuku would plan what was going to be cooked and what he needed to cook them.

He needed these planners because otherwise, he would have to make these plans on the spot. And making plans that took into account the different personalities, tastes, and desires of six kids took time.

Of course, he didn't need to strictly stick to these plans, they were more of a guideline. One that he would follow if nothing else came up.

It took him another two hours to finish.

Izuku sat back in his chair. He was so tired.

"I have to keep working." Izuku's eyes were closing. "I have to..."

The green-haired boy fell into a deep sleep.

Minutes later, Kei walked into the room.

"Izuku can we…" She stopped when she saw Izuku was asleep.

She ran out of the room and into the living room.

"Guys! Izuku fell asleep at his desk again." Kei said.

"Did he overwork again?" Eri asked in concern.

"He really must learn to stop doing that," Kiba said, getting up off the couch.

"He's doing it for us," Fu said. "He really wants us to be happy."

"I know that." Kiba stopped her act for a moment. "I just wished he took better care of himself."

"Yeeh." Sansan agreed.

"Well, I can't argue with that," Fu said.

They all got up and walked into Izuku's room.

Sansan grew in size, becoming as tall as the room itself. Then she gently lifted Izuku off of his seat and moved him onto the bed.

Then the goo girl climbed into bed next to him, snuggling up into his side.

"You're going to bed so soon Sansan?" Kei asked, "We can still have a goo-d time."

"That was terrible." Kiba groaned.

"You're saying my puns, suck." Kei snickered.

"Why are you like this?" Fu asked.

"Oh, not you too! You're just jealous that I'm better at puns than you'll ever, zom-be." Kei laughed, covering her mouth so Izuku didn't wake up.

"I think they're funny," Eri admitted.

Fu rolled his eyes. "We should probably go to sleep now. I'll get the plastic sheet."

Kiba, due to her immense strength, couldn't sleep next to anyone because she would accidentally squeeze them to death. Fu was the exception to this because he couldn't feel pain and could regenerate. However, they needed to put a plastic sheet wherever they slept because otherwise, Fu's blood would get everywhere.

Kei and Eri crawled into bed with Izuku as they normally did.

Sansan wrapped her arm around all three of them, before extending her other arm over to the light switch, and shutting it off.

Notebooks.

Fu looked through Izuku's room, taking a bunch of his figures and posters and putting them into boxes.

They had been packing up slowly over the past week, seeing as their new home wouldn't be ready for a while, they still had plenty of time.

Today Fu had been tasked with picking up Izuku's hero merch. Seeing as he couldn't get tired, he was seen as the right person for the job.

I knew Izuku had a lot of hero stuff but now that I'm cleaning it I'm starting to think he bought all the hero stuff in existence. He thought.

After several minutes of taking down Izuku's stuff, he came to the closet.

Wonder how much stuff is in here? Fu thought.

He opened the closet, and to his surprise, there was no hero merch. Rather, a pile of notebooks, with the words, Hero Analysis for the Future.

Hero Analysis? What does analysis mean? Fu wondered. He was a smart kid, and he had read through some of a dictionary, but of course, there were still plenty of words he was unfamiliar with.

He opened up the notebooks and started reading. And reading, and reading.

Inside the notebooks were tons, and tons of notes about quirks. Theories, observations, possible uses.

Fu kept on reading for about an hour, intrigued by the content of the notebooks.

Izuku wrote all this? Why? I mean it's really cool but why did he write this? It's mostly heroes so did Izuku want to be a hero? Fu asked.

He was flipping through the last few pages. When he saw something odd.

All the notes were incomplete, and there were darkened spots littered across the pages like they had been wet by rain, or tears.

And the last sentence written in the notebook said: "I can't keep doing this it hurts too much every time I look at these things it hurts I can't be a hero Kacchan's right I'm just a useless, quirkless Deku I'm putting these notebooks away one day I'll throw them out I don't even know why I'm writing this."

This was very alarming to Fu. For one this proved that Izuku wanted to be a hero at one point, but it seemed like he thought that he couldn't for some reason. What's worse is that Izuku called himself useless, which Fu knew wasn't true and was a very harsh thing to call yourself, and apparently, someone called Kacchan was calling him this. This actually made Fu kinda mad, he probably would have been more upset if it weren't for the whole, muted emotions thing.

And then there was that word, quirkless. Now, Fu had never seen or heard this word before but it wasn't hard to figure out.

Homeless people had no homes. Penniless people had no money. So quirkless people must not have quirks.

But...that was impossible. At least to Fu. He had never seen a single person without a quirk, he had never even heard of someone without a quirk before, it'd like being born without a head...although now that he thought about some people were probably born without ahead due to their quirk.

Fu kept thinking about it. But what if there was a quirk that could take away quirks? That probably exists and if it happened to Izuku, then he wouldn't have a quirk. And it would explain why Izuku doesn't want to talk about his quirk!

Now everything was starting to make sense. Why he'd never seen Izuku use his quirk, why Izuku never talked about his quirk. It's because it was taken away from him!

Before Fu could continue his train of thought, the door opened up.

"Fu, what's taking you so long?" Kiba walked in, followed by Eri, Kei, and Sansan.

"We came to check on you!" Kei said.

"Are those Izuku's notebooks?" Eri asked.

"Yeah, I think I finally figured out the secret behind Izuku's quirk," Fu said.

One explanation later.

"Izuku had his quirk stolen!?" Kei gasped.

"I think so," Fu said

"And there is some friend called Kacchan who calls Izuku such degrading things!?" Kiba fumed.

"Even worse, it looks like Izuku believes it." Fu crossed his arms.

"But that's not true! Izuku's great!" Kei protested.

"Goo!" Sansan agreed with her. She didn't fully understand but she knew that something bad was happening to Izuku and she didn't like that.

Eri stayed silent as the other kids voiced their outrage.

Izuku had told her about him being quirkless and that he had been picked on for it, back when he was trying to get her to completely open up to him.

He had also instructed her not to tell the rest of the children. He hadn't told her why but to be fair, she didn't ask.

And now they were finding out by themselves. They weren't completely right, but they seemed to be catching on and she didn't know what to do about it.

"So what do we do?" Kei asked.

"Do about what?"

Their heads all spun towards the doorway, and they saw Izuku standing there.

He saw them looking at his notebooks and immediately got embarrassed.

"O-Oh y-you found those." Izuku stuttered, looking away in an attempt to hide his red face. "I-I guess I forgot to throw those out. I just stopped getting in the habit of writing in those."

"Why would you want to throw these out?" Fu asked, his face conveying his slight dissatisfaction.

"They…" Izuku didn't know how to say it. "They're not important anymore."

"Why?" Fu asked.

"W-well I wrote them back when I still wanted to be a pro hero," Izuku explained. "Now I don't need them anymore."

"You wanted to be a pro hero?" Kiba asked. Finally getting some information on her caretaker.

"Yes." Izuku winced. It still hurt to talk about.

"Why did you stop wanting to be one?" Kiba asked him.

Izuku opened his mouth, but nothing came out, as his mind searched for something to say. But he found nothing. He didn't like the idea of lying to these kids, but he couldn't tell them the truth either. If he said it's because he couldn't, then they would ask why then he would have to bring up his quirklessness.

And he really, really didn't want to do that.

His quirklessness is what got him bullied in school, what kept him from making friends, what made people look at him with disgust.

The hopeful part of his brain told him that the kids would accept him. That everything would be the same.

But the fearful, paranoid part of his brain made him worried. That they would reject him.

The thought of receiving those same mocking, disgusted glances from these kids.

He wouldn't be able to take that.

"It's not impotent!" Izuku said, nearly shouting. Alarming the kids who rarely ever heard him raise his voice. "It's in the past it doesn't matter!"

The kids looked at Izuku's face. He was sweating, and his breathing had picked up a little. And his eyes, they seemed...scared.

There was a long pause.

"I'm sorry." Izuku composed himself, ready to put on his, "I'm fine" act. "Let's just go and-"

"Is it because someone took your quirk?" Kiba asked.

Izuku froze.

Fu gave her a pointed look. He wanted to find out more as well, but it was clear that this was painful to talk about.

There was another pause, this one even longer than the last one.

Izuku gave them a pained expression. He couldn't hide it anymore. It was now or never. "No one stole my quirk. I was...I was born without a quirk."

All the kid's eyes widened, with the exception of Eri who looked ashamed.

"But everyone has a quirk!" Kei said.

"Not everyone." Izuku corrected her. "There is a very, very small amount of people in the world without a quirk. Most of them are old, but there is an even smaller amount of people my age without a quirk."

"So you just...never had a quirk?" Fu asked.

Izuku nodded, looking at the floor.

Everyone stayed silent. Izuku grit his teeth in anticipation. He hadn't felt so fearful of a response since he asked All Might if he could be a hero.

And the answer to that question nearly broke him.

After a while, Kiba eventually asked. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I-I...I was afraid of what would happen if I told you." Izuku admitted. "When people find out I'm quirkless...they don't treat me the same. They laugh at me, they hate me, they-they...I was scared that...if you found out...you wouldn't want to be with me anymore."

There was another pause. This time a very short pause.

"That's stupid!" Kiba shouted, alarming everyone. "Listen here, Caretaker. Your lack of quirk matters not to us! And anyone who would treat such a kind person poorly is an enemy of the great Kiba! You took me and my minion in! You gave us food and a home when no one else would! And you have done so to the rest of my siblings! You are our Caretaker! And we will forever respect you!"

"Yeehh!" Sansan agreed.

"We'd never want to leave you Izuku," Fu said. "Our lives have gotten a lot better since we met you, and not having a quirk doesn't really change that."

"You're just as great without a quirk as you are with one!" Kei said.

Eri gave him a determined nod.

Izuku felt joy and relief fill him. They hadn't rejected him. Finally, someone hadn't rejected him.

He fell to his knees and tears fell from his eyes. It felt like a weight had been lifted from his back.

Sensing this was the time for a hug, Sansan extended her arms, encompassing Izuku and all the kids before bringing them all together in a tight embrace.

"Thank you." Izuku sobbed. "Thank you all."