20

Chapter 20

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Izuku looked up at the mountain's peak, ignoring the freezing winds against his cloak. High above the surrounding landscape, and with nobody around as far as he could see, it was the perfect place to train. 

Really, Izuku needed to start a travel agency. He'd seen and explored enough area for several lifetimes.

After so many years, Izuku finally forced Sekhmet to stop holding back, and evidently, he wasn't close to matching her yet. How could he change that?

Izuku fought by reinforcing his staff using the violet reinforcement magic Aurora gave him, and his air constructs.

He trained his physical body diligently, getting a bit more powerful every day. And his stances and martial arts were his own, practiced over and over again until a simple attack turned into a triumph card of its own. He could destroy entire cities with a kick, hold up the sky, and survive a punch from the second-strongest goddess.

But what about his magic?

The amount of mana he had increased many times over. He'd been proud of himself for creating his Void technique; something creative and useful. But despite all that practice, Izuku hadn't really improved his magic in centuries. Even after he became a teacher at Arcadia, there just hadn't been a need, and his entire life wasn't consumed by training himself anymore.

Izuku pushed reinforcement magic farther than anyone had before, but in the end, he'd just stopped just like everyone else, hadn't he?

Sekhmet broke through his air chains like they were nothing, and his reinforcement wasn't even enough to faze her with solid objects. The only thing that'd worked was...

Izuku glanced down at his precious staff, tossing it from hand to hand.

Scratches and dents lined the metal from centuries of use, and one end was visibly cracked after his fight with Sekhmet. The weapon was worn, old. Izuku slowly reinforced it, flowing more and more mana into the weapon like a river of energy.

The staff outlined in violet at the first stage, his mana surrounding it like a coat. Then he filled it up from the inside, the grey starting to change color. 

He stopped when the staff glowed bright, shining with power in his grip.

Izuku frowned. At a mere 50% of Izuku's mana, the weapon trembled in his grip. Any more reinforcement and it'd break. His no-longer-trusty staff had gotten too weak for him long ago, and Izuku hadn't even noticed.

If a physical staff didn't work, what about...

The frosty air solidified into a new bo staff, and Izuku adjusted the weight until it was just right. Then he reinforced the makeshift weapon even further. His air constructs were mostly held together through mana, so they could handle a lot more of it than metal. 

Hmm. Izuku angled himself so that his left side faced the mountain, the beautiful violet staff held parallel to the snowy ground beneath him, and thrust forward with all of his might.

"Stance Three: Pierce."

The rock in front of him exploded inward in a massive burst of force, drilling a huge hole through the mountain and clearing the snow and mist. The strike kept going, a shockwave slamming through smaller mountain peaks almost like collapsing dominos. 

But when Izuku glanced down, the air staff had completely crumbled into nothing, dissipating back into the chilling air around him. His mana couldn't hold up to the immense force yet.

But an air staff could still perform a single stance and meaning they had potential. Izuku had never even considered it before-too attached to his metal one.

Izuku created a second staff, stepping into another Pierce that devastated the icy landscape in front of him. Then a third weapon formed into existence, thrusting again. A fourth disintegrated, then a fifth, each one just a bit stronger than the last.

He could definitely use this.

"I'm done with them, Tooru!" 

"Hmm? Done with what?" 

Akari tapped the cover of Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire with a finger. "The books you gave me this morning."

"Oh, those-wait, you're already done?!"

"Yeah?" Why wouldn't she be?

"Wow, you read super fast!" The invisible girl exclaimed. "I haven't gotten anyone else hooked on my pre-quirk era books yet. What'd you think?" 

"I liked them a lot, but the magic's weird." Akari mused. "It does all sorts of different things, but I couldn't imagine having to shout strange words to a stick to do anything." It'd probably feel pretty ridiculous.

"True. But this was written over two hundred years ago, back before humans had any kind of powers! I doubt the author could have guessed humanity would end up like this." White sparks drifted off her t-shirt, flying up to the ceiling. "I mean, it's been five years and I still can't believe I have magic!" 

Their mana was the same color, Akari noticed. Tooru wasn't nearly as experienced at magic as she was(she'd only known that it existed for five years, after all) but her mutant quirk was essentially just a difficult application of magic. Akari could see Tooru's vague form when she squinted, the constant light manipulation poking at her mana sense. Hmm.

"I haven't seen anything like their magic items, though. Like, having the invisibility cloak sounds really fun." The pranks were practically endless. "Though you would know about that, Tooru. What's being invisible like?" Akari asked, curious.

The floating t-shirt froze.

Akari instantly regretted the rude question. 

"I'm sorry, you don't have to answer that-"

Tooru waved a sleeve at her. "No, no, it's fine. I get that question a lot; looking like...this."

"It's fun, sometimes. No one sees me, so I can get away with a lot of small, silly things. I made this bully think he was being haunted, once! That was fun."

"Wow."

"But the rest of the time? I hate Invisibility, so much. Some things are impossible when you can't see yourself, or get noticed." Tooru said quietly. 

Her voice was the only way Akari could tell what she was feeling without any facial expressions. That's why she moved her clothes so much almost every time she talked; Akari realized with growing horror.

Quirks came in when humans were very young, Akari knew. Could Tooru even remember what she looked like?

"You can't turn it off, can you?" Akari muttered. 

"Nope! Even if I try as hard as I can, or get knocked unconscious, I'll stay just like this." The t-shirt sleeves dropped, falling to her side. "Sorry for venting on you like this, Akari-I've only known you for weeks-but I really needed you to understand."

"I'm going to help."

"...I don't think anyone can, Akari," Tooru muttered bitterly. "My parents have taken me to so many-"

"I'm going to help," Akari repeated, determined, as she grabbed both of Tooru's invisible hands.

"I swear it."

Aizawa-sensei let out a long yawn. "So...why am I here, again? It's late."

The three of them stood in an empty Gym Gamma, Akari still holding her friend's hand in a death grip.

"I'm doing some testing with Tooru's quirk-" Akari stated. 

"Aizawa-sensei I have no clue what she's doing, help-"

"-and you're here for if, well, anything goes wrong." 

"So I'm insurance, then. Fine, but this better be worth ruining my nap." Aizawa-sensei said. (Yet Akari didn't miss how the underground hero tensed, ready.)

The demigod interlocked their hands, closing her eyes. "Okay, Tooru. Don't move."

Akari's mana flared up, a wealth of white energy that filled the space around her, and she focused it through Tooru like a circuit.

"Wow," Tooru gasped. "That tickles!"

"Careful, Tooru. This is kinda a delicate process." 

Mom had taught her this years ago: how to flow her mana through another person. It was usually a pretty important show of trust for gods.

Not that Tooru knew that, or the fact that Akari was scanning her.

Tooru's mana seemed normal, and the girl wasn't currently using any of it. Right now, Akari could vividly see how her entire body was constantly manipulating the light around her, making her invisible. 

But if her quirk was affecting her eyes, too, how could Tooru even see? And how could Akari see things behind Tooru?

Akari needed to understand exactly what Invisibility was doing before she messed with it. So carefully she pushed a bit of hardened light at her friend's arm, barely enough to be a poke, and observed the results.

Instead of being redirected, the ball reappeared behind Tooru's arm. Weird. The projectile never actually passed through Tooru. Did Invisibility move light around as soon as it hit Tooru, in some kind of transparent-like effect? 

Clearly, this quirk was a lot more complicated than she expected. She concentrated, building a mental image in her head before letting go of the scan.

"I'm going to work on this," Akari said, opening her eyes. "You and you-" She pointed at a confused Tooru and an exhausted Aizawa-sensei. "Meet me here in twenty-four hours. On the dot."

Aizawa-sensei sighed.

Akari marched back into Gym Gamma, dragging Tooru behind her. In her other hand, she held a bright green notebook.

Tooru watched, stunned, as Akari flipped through pages filled with writing. "H-Huh? Wait, when'd you get all of this information?"

"Yesterday, duh."

"Oh...that sparkly thing. But when did you have time to write all of this? Please tell me you slept, Akari."

"I did...totally. Anyway, Aizawa-sensei, come here." The man grumbled but complied, walking over to the side. Akari pointed in front of her. "Tooru, stand there." 

Akari tore out the last page of her notebook; a highly detailed diagram of Tooru's mana circuits and her Invisibility. Different parts of her body were labeled with varying levels of the quirk. Notes were scribbled all over the paper, arrows pointing out how the different levels of refraction worked, and how it'd all affect Tooru. 

The system she was planning had taken her all night, and she was pretty excited to try it.

"Uh...Akari? What exactly are you going to do?" Tooru asked nervously.

"If this is going to kill us, I'd at least want to know beforehand," Aizawa-sensei muttered.

"This isn't going to backfire...I think." 

"Very reassuring, Midoriya." 

Akari tried again. "Don't worry, Tooru, I'm just using a very intricate mana system I made last night to nullify your body's automatic light refraction, so you become visible again."

"What."

"That sounds scary, but also really cool! Do it!" 

Akari smiled at her. "Alright, then, I'm going to start now."

This time, Akari's bright green eyes were open, concentrating on what she was doing. She was about to do a lot more than a simple mana scan; she couldn't afford to mess up and hurt her friend.

Pure white mana drifted through their connected hands, flowing all the way down to Tooru's toes before rising up to her head. Her hair was tricky, taking longer to work with, but Akari got every last strand before moving on.

Once she had a firm hold, Akari felt Tooru's light refraction with her mana and then pushed in the opposite direction, as if she was stopping a river.

"Tooru, are you okay? Nothing hurts, right?"

"Nope, I'm fine. It just feels really tingly!"

Akari nodded, adding more energy. Keeping track of Tooru's entire body was starting to give her a headache, but as the minutes passed, she could tell it was working. Just a little more...

And then Tooru shimmered into existence. Her concerningly pale hands turned visible first, still held in Akari's own, before the rest of her came into focus.

She had long, opal-like hair that almost came to her shoulders, and colors danced in it like pieces of a rainbow. Tooru's wide eyes were a pure blue, and the rest of her face was blank from shock. She must've never had to worry about facial expressions before. 

Akari blinked, realizing she had been staring way too long. "Wow."

Tooru watched her hands move incredulously, curling and uncurling her fingers.

"Wait, I'm...visible?" Tooru whispered.

Akari grinned. "Yeah."

"No way."

"Yep."

"Oh my god, oh my god Akari, I'm visible. Look at my hair! It's so shiny! And-" Tooru poked her elbow. "-I have arms!"

"You do!"

"Legs too! Wow, this is so weird." Tooru giggled. "Wait, you can see my face, right? What do I look like!" The now-visible girl smiled, excited.

"...amazing. You look amazing, Tooru. Here, try to take a selfie-careful, don't let go of my hand, you'll break the connection!"

"Wow, is that me?! I look nothing like I remember!"

Aizawa-sensei stepped up behind them, hand cupping his chin. "Interesting. How long can you hold that with your magic, Midoriya?"

"As long as I'm touching Tooru? Around ten minutes, I guess. The mana usage isn't much, but the amount of focus I need is...a lot."

Aizawa-sensei nodded. "I can use my Erasure on Hagakure now that she's visible if you need a short break, but it won't last more than a minute-"

Arms wrapped around Akari as Tooru pulled her into a fierce hug. "Thank you thank you, thank you Akari, I don't even know how to-"

"You don't have to do anything in return for me, Tooru, you're my friend." Akari hesitated for a moment before hugging Tooru back. "It's not complete yet, you're only visible for a few minutes right now..."

"You don't get it. Being able to see me, even if it's temporary, means everything. I even have a picture now, so I can't forget my face again."

Tooru pulled away enough so that Akari could see her face, the no-longer-invisible girl still holding on to Akari's shoulders. "But uh, Akari? Can I ask you something?"

Akari tilted her head. "Yeah? What is it?"

"...Can I introduce you to my parents?"

And that was how Akari was here, sitting with the Hagakure family for dinner and having no clue what to say. Had she even processed Tooru's request before she said yes? Probably not.

"Your cooking's really good, Hagakure!" Akari complimented, breaking the silence-

Only for both of Tooru's parents glanced at her. Her cheeks reddened.

Right, that was not just Tooru's mother's surname...and she'd forgotten the honorific thing, too.

"Thank you, dear. Don't worry about surnames and all that here-if it's less confusing, you can just call me Okaa-san!" Hagakure Mari said brightly. It was pretty clear where Tooru got her personality from.

Akari nodded. "Sure...Okaa-san." The word was a little weird on her tongue, but if she was going to live in Japan she should probably get used to stuff like this. She couldn't call everyone their given names, after all.

And for some reason, Akari wanted to make a good impression on these two.

"The both of you are classmates, right?" Hagakure Takashi said. "How's U.A been for you two, so far?" Tooru's father seemed to be a little more reserved than the other two, yet he had that same energy around him.

Surprisingly, neither of Tooru's parents were invisible like she was. Akari desperately wanted to ask about their quirks.

Was that rude?

"I've been enjoying the classes so far. U.A University is an unique experience," Akari said thoughtfully. "And all my new classmates are all interesting."

"Akari's the strongest in our class!" Tooru exclaimed. "We saw her fight at the USJ, and it was so cool!."

"That field trip was terrible for us to hear about," Takashi said. "I'm glad you were there to protect Tooru, Midoriya."

Akari blinked. "How'd you-"

Takashi smiled. "Just a guess from what Tooru told us about the attack. And while the media doesn't know much about the incident, there are plenty of theories."

"Do you need to call your parents, Midoriya-chan?" Mari asked. "I know that Tooru probably troubled you, inviting you over so...suddenly." A glare and the floating shirt seemed to wilt.

Akari waved it off. "Don't worry Okaa-san, I told my mom where I was. Tooru didn't trouble us at all. And Dad's...away, right now."

"Away?"

"He's-" somewhere in Heaven, but she couldn't say that. "-out of country, right now."

"Isn't your father Atlas, Midoriya-chan? Hero work must make him really busy."

"Yeah."

What's having your dad as your Heroics teacher like?" Mari asked.

Akari shrugged. "Dad's a really good teacher, he's helped me train ever since I was little. Learning from him at U.A is just expanding on that."

"Atlas-sensei's really nice...though he doesn't go easy on us when we train." Tooru shivered a little, likely remembering Cloudy. "He kinda reminds me of All Might."

"Atlas reminds you of The Symbol of Peace? Really?" Mari repeated.

"Exactly! It's strange. You know how All Might goes-" Tooru made her voice several times deeper. "'I am here!'"

To her credit, Tooru's mother didn't even blink at the impersonation. "Yes?"

"With Atlas, he doesn't need to say anything like that." Tooru shrugged. "He's a lot more casual than All Might is, but reassuring all the same. He was making jokes when he was fighting the ringleader guy, too!"

"He sounds like a great hero, Tooru," Takashi smiled.

"Yeah, he is!"

"Hey Tooru," Akari asked. "Do you want to...do the thing, now?" 

"Oh, right, I almost forgot. Mom, Dad, we have something really cool to show you!"

"Hmm? A surprise?" 

Tooru jumped out of her seat, excited, and Akari took her hand in hers. It was easier to make her friend visible the second time; nullifying her quirk almost immediately.

The room was silent.

"...Honey? Am I dreaming right now?" Takashi whispered.

Mari rubbed her eyes. "I'm seeing the same thing, dear. Midoriya-chan, how..."

Tooru's mother stepped forward slowly, gently brushing Tooru's silver hair to the side. She framed her daughter's face with her hands. "It's been so many years since I've seen you...not that we love you any less for it! But wow. You've grown up so much, Tooru."

Akari almost felt like she was intruding on a private moment. But she couldn't go anywhere when she was the one keeping Tooru visible.

Tooru's blue eyes were shining. "Thanks, Mom."

"Midoriya," Takashi started, awed. "How did you..."

Akari smiled softly. "I'm pretty good at light magic. I wanted to help Tooru-"

"Tooru?" Takashi murmured.

"-so I found a way to do it. It only works while I'm touching her at the moment, but maybe someday, she'll be visible whenever she wants!"

Tooru gripped her hand a little tighter.

"I don't know how we can thank you for showing us our daughter-"

Akari shook her head. "I did this because I wanted to, Hagakure-san! You don't have to thank me. By the way, I can keep this up for ten minutes, so if the three of you want to take pictures..."

It was a little awkward, taking their group picture with one hand without letting go of Tooru. The Hagakure family's smiles, though, were blindingly bright.

And Tooru looked like she was having the happiest moment of her life.

"Now you come in too, Akari!" Tooru cheered. "You're tall enough to take the selfie, right?"

Akari blinked. "Wha-"

"Come on!"

Then Tooru yanked her forward, and Akari was stumbling right into the center of the Hagakure family.

Oh. This is happening now.

Aurora closed her book as Izuku walked through their front door, glancing at his snow-covered cloak.

"Were you training in the mountains again?" She asked, placing a hand on his cheek.

"Yeah-wow, your hand's warm." 

Aurora frowned. "That's because your skin's practically freezing, Izuku."

"Oh."

"How long were you there? I didn't see you come back after you fought Sekhmet, and that was hours ago."

Izuku blinked. "How'd you know about that?"

"Sekhmet passed by earlier before she checked in on you and...well, my sister starts a fight whenever she visits."

"That she does." Izuku agreed, his entire body still aching from that last punch.

"You avoided my question, I see. Let me guess: the second Sekhmet healed you, you went off to train."

"...No?"

Aurora's beautiful eyes narrowed, and Izuku instantly backtracked.

"Okay, okay, I did. But don't worry Aurora, I'm completely fine-" Aurora poked him in the chest. "Ow!"

"Fine, hmm?" The goddess sighed. "This is why I worry. Neither you nor my sister have any sense of self-preservation. How did you get this badly hurt? Sekhmet's healing magic usually has you as good as new in minutes."

"Actually, I finally made her use all of her mana! We were fighting for a while, and it was really fun. Though I was mostly terrified since she started the fight out of nowhere. But I was doing well and then suddenly she went all out like bam and I was flying- wait, where are you going? Aurora?"

Violet mana filled the living room as Aurora's armor formed around her like crystal scales, the princess marching towards the door on a warpath.

"...I just need to talk to her."

Izuku wrapped his arms around his wife's waist, barely holding the goddess in place. "No, wait! Don't kill Sekhmet." 

"Why not!"

"We like her, remember? And she's Akari's favorite aunt!" Izuku pointed out.

"...What? I don't have any other sisters, and you're an only child."

"Exactly!"

The armor finally dropped with a shimmer of light, and Aurora crossed her arms with a huff. 

"Fine. But next time we're fighting her together, alright?"

Izuku grinned, hugging her tighter. "Of course."

"Only after you're completely healed, Izuku." Aurora leaned back into his chest with a sigh. "And please be a little bit more careful."

"Sure."

"You got snow everywhere, too."

"My bad. But hey, Eri's never seen snow before, right? She'll love it."

Aurora hummed. "That's true. We should show her somewhere with plenty of it sometime.".

Izuku rested his chin on her hair. "That sounds fun, Aurora. I'll ask Akari when she gets back."

"I'll buy Eri a cute jacket and everything. It'd probably be easier to plan a trip if we went to Heaven, right?"

"Yeah, we can't travel across Earth without raising a lot of questions," Izuku murmured. 

"Speaking of Eri, she wanted to show you-"

Izuku lifted his wife up, zipping over at full speed to their youngest daughter's room.

"-something earlier." Aurora paused as the world around her blurred. "Izuku, you know I can walk by myself, right?"

"But this is more fun, right?" 

Eri's red eyes lit up, as soon she saw them. "Izuku, your back!"

They both bent down to her level, catching their unicorn in a hug.

"Hello, Eri," Izuku said. "Did you want to show me something?"

Eri nodded, turning to search through the piles of papers strewn all over the floor. Some were folded into various shapes, while the rest had all kinds of drawings on them. There were pencils littered throughout the storm of art.

"Here!" Eri proudly presented her creation to him, and Izuku took it carefully.

It was a paper cone, shaded light yellow by a colored pencil. The bottom was held together firmly with tape. Oh, it was a...

"What is it?" Izuku whispered to his wife.

Aurora rolled her eyes at him. 

"It goes on your forehead, silly!" Eri pouted. 

"Like this?" Izuku asked, reinforcing the hat(?) to make sure it stayed on. Eri squinted at him, judging it acceptable, before handing Aurora one too. 

Oh...that's what those were.

Eri beamed at them, and Izuku's heart melted faster than the snow in his hair. "Now you're both unicorns, just like me!"

Aurora smiled, soft, as she gently adjusted the paper horn on her head. "I love it, Eri. Thank you. How did you think of this?"

Izuku patted the girl on the head, and Eri smiled even brighter.

"I was thinking about how you and Dad-" Izuku froze.

"-don't have a horn, as I do. And Mom, you always say that mine is super beautiful. So I made horns for you two!" Eri finished, happily.

"That's really clever, Eri." Aurora's lip trembled.

"Mom, Dad...are you okay?"

"We're fine. W-We just love you, honey."

"Oh." Eri thought about this, then brightened. "I love you both, too! A lot!"

They pulled their daughter into a hug, sobbing into her unicorn onesie, and Eri's tiny arms wrapped around them tightly.

Notes:

I'm going to be honest, that Tooru thing came out of nowhere...do I ship her with Akari? I have no idea, but my brain clearly wants to.

Also, I've heard that there's been a concerning lack of Aurora, so I'll be fixing that in the coming chapters!

As always, feedback is welcome.

Discord: https://discord.gg/SVFFP5jXt5