Chapter Text
Izuku sat on his couch, flipping through the channels.
“Recent allegations against Endeavor and his agency…”
“Victims include 7 Japanese and 1 Korean…
“Takashi Arata, the head of the Hero Safety Commission’s Raid Operations…”
“Currently there is no information on the identity of the newly revealed Shadow Monarchs…”
“Assumedly a young adult male and a young adult female…”
“Many on-board the carrier claim that the dead were resurrected…”
“Three Villains were known to have worked with the military during the Jeju Raid and have not been seen since…”
“Families of the victims are demanding answers…”
“Two new National-Ranks…”
“A service is to be held two days from now for both the public and the fellow Heroes who knew the brave Top Ten. Among the dead was also Touya Todoroki, contracted as an American Hero. Thomas Andre had this to say on his loss.”
Izuku almost flipped away from that news station as well, but paused when hearing mention of Thomas.
“It was stupid for him to go to that island, too many S-Ranks have died there,” Thomas bluntly said.
“Do you blame Japan for the loss of one of your S-Ranks?”
“Japan?” The mountain of a man lowered his sunglasses to glare at the reporter with golden eyes. “Dabi was a big boy, he made his own decisions, I’m not gonna disrespect those decisions by throwing a tantrum at a country that didn’t even request him to be there. I’m mad as hell that he’s dead, but I’m not a child.” As if to prove his point, Thomas strolled into his Agency building, slamming the door.
Izuku smirked as the news continued on. There was way too much for him to absorb. And it was even harder for the un-Awakened Kei sitting next to him.
“Can you just stop on one instead of doing that?” She asked as he continued changing channels.
“Sorry…” He handed her the remote as he looked through Igris’s eyes on Jeju. The Shadows were really good for surveillance, as he was also monitoring the surviving Heroes of the Raid, even the Korean ones.
Sung Jin-Woo and almost all of his team were alive, but the man was ready to tear Japan a new asshole for allowing his friends to be endangered like that, and especially for the death of Euonseok. It wasn’t like he was just gonna start killing innocent people in Japan or anything, but Izuku was keeping a close eye on him regardless.
On the island, crews were gathering up the crystals, eyeing the Shadows suspiciously as they did so. A few times the men and women tried waving to the Shadows, getting no response unless they waved at Igris.
The noble knight, enveloped by his cape of darkness, would give a knightly bow in respect of the workers. It would be some time before they could even consider building Jeju back up, but Izuku would be ready to support them when that happened. It wasn’t a Heroic impulse to help with every construction effort in the world, it was just that he had also caused a great deal of damage and owed it to the Koreans. Not only that, but Japan had acted shamefully. And regardless of Izuku’s stance on nationalism or whatever, he wanted to help repair the damage done by Endeavor.
“Where’s Yaomomo?” Kei asked suddenly.
“Huh? Oh she’s off doing her own thing,” Izuku responded, not quite sure what exactly she was doing, but he figured it was important if she was so ready to rush off.
“Is that like… code for you guys split up and she’s with another guy?”
“What?! No!” Izuku eyed her with bewilderment. “What made you jump to that?”
“Well ever since whatever happened with her parents she’s been on your arm 24/7.”
Izuku rolled his eyes. “We don’t always have to be together.”
Kei shrugged. “Just checking. So what’s that thing gonna net you?” She pointed at the dark piece of magical energy on the coffee table. It was Beru’s Villain Core.
“Well…” He chuckled in disbelief. “Takashi said something of that magnitude could fetch… like 3 Billion Yen (20 Million USD).”
“Are you…” Kei stared at her brother for a good five minutes, her eyes searching for any hint of a joke. “Are you kidding?”
“Yeah,” Izuku nodded, watching her deflate. “It’s actually closer to 5 Billion Yen (About 34 Million USD).”
“WHAT?!” She jumped across the couch and smacked him on the back of the head. It didn’t do anything but it got the message across. “You dingus! Don’t toy with me like that! 5 BILLION?! Please be honest with me!” Her calm demeanor suddenly seemed like that of a rabid beast.
“I’m being serious,” He said, holding up his hands in defense.
“Holy. Shit. We are so rich…”
“Well not yet, I have to sell it first.”
“So what?!”
Izuku winced at the volume of her shouting. “So, if I sell a 5 Billion Yen Villain Core, people are going to know where that money goes. Even if I sell it under the Shadow Monarch persona, the people I sell the Core to will know who I am. There’s a paper trail.”
“Oh… could you sell it through Takashi?”
Izuku scoffed. “That man is already dealing with a lot, I don’t want to try and make his situation worse. Using him to hide my identity sounds a little fishy and I doubt the courts would look upon it favorably given current knowledge about him.”
“What about cash?”
“Who uses cash anymore? And wheeling 5 Billion Yen into a bank to deposit it is going to be just as crazy.”
“So we’re not rich?” Kei deflated like a balloon for the second time, sinking down in despair.
“Not yet,” Izuku corrected. “Just gotta figure out a way to do it discreetly and legally.”
The two went back and forth for a few minutes longer as the news continued.
“Furthermore, questions about the young Hero Mirio Togata are surfacing and many are wondering if he was involved in Endeavor’s scheme against the Korean S-Ranks. All Might himself, who was mysteriously absent for the Jeju Raid, has announced a press conference that will take place tomorrow to explain everything.”
“You know what happened with All Might?” Kei asked, looking somewhat despondent. She wasn’t as much of a Hero nut as Izuku was, but she was still a fan. After all, she went buck wild about meeting Nejire-Chan, who Izuku promised she would eventually meet. And All Might was everyone’s Hero. He was the national pride, after all. Japan loved bragging about him to all the other countries because he was possibly the strongest National-Rank in the world.
Izuku shook his head. “Takashi was stumped too. Apparently he looked into All Might’s Raid refusal before Jeju even happened, but got nothing. It’s like he’s locked himself in his Agency office and refuses to come out.”
“Wow…” Saddened by hearing that, and sensing her own brother’s sense of betrayal by his literal hero, she decided to change the topic. “So… Setsuna…”
“Yeah… I can’t believe that shit,” Izuku said, letting slip one of his rare expletives.
“She told you her family was no one special, right?”
Izuku nodded. “But if you don’t know what goes on behind the scenes, Takashi is a pretty normal guy, and wouldn’t have had that much power. And on top of that, her biological parents are dead. She probably wants to broach that topic as little as possible.”
Kei had to agree there. She avoided bringing up her own parents as little as possible. It wasn’t fun thinking about them as missing and comatose, with both essentially being dead all things considered.
“So you haven’t heard from her yet?”
Izuku scratched at his cheek awkwardly. “I expect her to try to kick my ass the next time she sees me. We didn’t exchange numbers so she probably thought I was purposely hiding this from her.”
“Well teleport to her then, you can do that now right?”
“Yes, but…” Izuku raised his index finger. “Number one, I can’t just find anyone that easily. I don’t know where she lives. I could look through darkness and shadow to try and find her address but trying to process even a city’s worth of darkness would be absolute hell.” While being able to use any patch of darkness in the world as a source of information was handy, it wasn’t easy and it did have its limits. “Number two, even if I could find her, this would not be the time to teleport in on her unexpectedly. She needs time to process things herself. Takashi said he’d get some time with her before everything spiraled out of control and he went to court, so right now it’s best to let him explain things and then be there to support her if she needs it.”
“So what you’re saying is that it's his problem?”
“Absolutely!” Izuku said with a smirk. “An angry woman is never a threat to be taken lightly, no matter how invulnerable you are. You’re a clear endorsement of that philosophy.”
She stuck her tongue out at him, but was smiling all the same. But just as she was about to open her mouth again, Izuku stood up.
“I have to go, sorry.”
“Wait-” But Izuku vanished before she could finish her sentence. She sighed. “I have a feeling I’m going to resent that soon.”
What had caught Izuku’s attention was none other than Lady Nagant. The Shadow he put on her had noticed her begin to stir from her slumber and Izuku teleported to the facility where she was being kept, housed by the Shadow Organization, who were still operating just fine, as Takashi had kept their names out of it.
“We’ve removed all cameras from that room,” One of the heads of the organization told Izuku as he appeared, fully obscured by his armor. “We won’t intrude.”
Izuku nodded in thanks as the woman put in a 10 digit code into the keypad that kept Kaina’s room locked from the outside. Opening it up revealed a second door, a sort of airlock. It wasn’t being used now, but it could be operational to turn the room into a clean room in the event of immunocompromising conditions.
“Man rich folk have everything… I wonder how legal it is to sell through them…”
The room was a sterile white, no different than a hospital. Lady Nagant, or rather, Kaina Tsutsumori, rested on a soft bed, her body hooked up to plenty of machines. It reminded Izuku of his mother, but unlike his mother, Kaina was awake, her deep-purple eyes laser focused on Izuku.
“I’m… sorry you had to get involved in the Jeju Raid. I should’ve been able to handle it on my own… I failed…” Her voice was strong, betraying the injuries she had sustained just a day ago.
Izuku held up a hand to keep her from demeaning herself. “No one expected Jeju to go so wrong. You did what you could and lived, that’s all I ask for. And really, you don’t owe me anything, you have no reason to apologize to me.”
“I do owe you…” She said, her eyes unwavering, drilling right through the dark helmet and into Izuku.
“Because of a dream?”
Kaina pursed her lips. It was quite the ridiculous reason, and being confronted with it out loud for the first time did really put things in perspective. But still, she nodded.
Izuku sighed and allowed his helmet to fold into his armor. Kaina gasped, her eyes glittering with light. “It is you…”
“And it is you,” Izuku responded. “You’re the same person I’ve been dreaming about. I just didn’t realize it until I saw you there on Jeju.”
There were no chairs in the room so Izuku conjured a seat of pure darkness to sit in, right across from her bed. “I’m going to ask the obvious question first. Do you know who I am? And if so, did you know who I was before you started having dreams?”
“I… know you… but I also don’t.” During her time in the public, Nagant was what many referred to as an ice queen. Focused, deadly, and unapproachable, even if she gave the occasional wave and smile to the crowds. So for Izuku, it was somewhat surreal to see her fidget like a schoolgirl. But she was still in her twenties, same as Izuku so he really shouldn’t have been comparing ages.
“I’ve had that dream since my childhood,” She admitted. “I always felt like I was missing… something. And right now, you seem so familiar that I feel I’ve known you forever. But at the same time, I know I’ve never met you before.” Her hands moved all over the place, unsure of what to do with the feelings stirring inside of her. “It’s just… I get the sense that this isn’t the first or even second time we’ve met.”
“Just not in this life,” Izuku concluded.
“Makes me sound crazy, doesn’t it?”
“30 years ago maybe. The world has gotten too weird to dismiss things like that. I’m not sure I personally believe it, but I don’t think you’re crazy.”
She smiled with relief. “So… what now?”
Izuku tilted his head. “What do you mean?”
Kaina’s forehead wrinkled as her eyes narrowed in confusion. “I… You had the same dreams as me, right?”
“I had a single recurring dream about you bleeding out on a battlefield. Some of the details changed, but that was basically it.”
Realization dawned on Kaina’s face. “So you only had that one…”
“How many did you have?” Izuku asked, anxiety growing in his chest.
“A lot. We were…” Her cheeks tinged pink as she stumbled over the words.
“Were what?”
“We were married…”
*******
“I didn’t even know how to respond… I just tried to change the subject…” Izuku said, standing in the middle of a white void, where Momo was working on some sort of display alongside Deep Blue. Because the Key into the Lux and Tenebris Dungeon could be stored in the Inventory, both of them could access it at any time.
“Well that’s normal,” Momo responded. “She seems to know a lot more about you than you know about her. Just get to know her first, then decide on what you want to do about that little fact.”
Izuku squinted at Momo, who didn’t even look over at Izuku; she was too focused on her work. “You’re not… upset by this?”
Momo rolled her eyes and looked away from the monitor with a smirk. “Izuku, what is the one thing I always wanted in life?”
“A family,” Izuku answered without hesitation.
“Exactly. I wasn’t going to be able to have kids, my parents sucked, and the apparent siblings I had were dead.” She walked away from the monitor stand and took Izuku’s hands. “You gave me someone I could trust, even a sort of adoptive sister in Kei, and I can have children now.” That last one was mostly because of the System, but Momo didn’t point that out. “The point is that I will never be afraid of, or feel threatened by, someone you love. Because I know you. I mean, it is a little crazy to think about, but I’m not opposed to making a bigger family.”
Izuku was so surprised that his brain misinterpreted the entire thing. “You… want me to date other women?”
“Pfft…” Momo laughed. “I’m not saying I want you to be with other women. I’m just saying I’m not opposed to it, because I know you’ll always be here for me, regardless of who else you bring home. And that’s not even the point I’m trying to make. Lady Nagant has been looking for the person in her dreams all of her life, regardless of your relationship with me or your intentions of her, you should get to know her and learn more about her life.”
Momo’s opinion on the topic of polyamory wasn’t completely out of left field. Ever since the rise of the Awakened Human, it actually became more common, mostly with higher Ranks of course, who formed their own harems. But usually these were because of the power one wielded over their peers and society in general. With Izuku, Momo wasn’t concerned about that. Not only did he not care for fame or recognition, but he constantly questioned the ethics of something before acting. The fact that he thought about those things at all, proved to Momo that he was a good person, and if something happened naturally, it wasn’t her place to stop it. At least, that was how she saw it.
“Don’t just go bringing any girl home now,” Momo quickly added. “There will be a strict vetting process,” She joked before letting go of Izuku’s hands and going back to the console.
Happy to have that uncomfortable part of the conversation over, Izuku turned to the laboratory, which Deep Blue was putting back together piece by piece.
“So what are you working on?” Izuku tried peering over her shoulder, but couldn’t make sense of the data.
“It’s a record of the Lux’s first appearance on planet Earth.” She pointed to a string of numbers. “They documented everything. Population, cities, diseases…” She lingered on that last word, glancing at Izuku with purpose.
“Okay… so they documented dysentery?”
Momo cringed but nodded, “Among other diseases… like the Eternal Slumber…”
“…” Izuku stared blankly at the screen. He was slowly starting to catch on to the database. The constant streaming of numbers had repeating patterns. It was like the Lux’s version of binary, each set of numbers corresponding to a letter or word. But still, he was struggling to recognize more than a few words here and there. Momo must’ve already deciphered it if she was reading the whole thing.
“In ancient times, the number of Eternal Slumber cases was higher.” She explained. “But as time went on, the number of comatose humans fell bit by bit.”
“Wait… you mean like… adaptation?”
“Evolution,” She responded with a nod. “The Lux had never seen anything like the Eternal Slumber before, so they studied it heavily. They dissected humans until they found the reason.”
“You’re telling me…” Izuku didn’t even want to say it, he didn’t want to indulge hope like that. He couldn’t, it would be too painful to have it ripped away.
“The cure to the Eternal Slumber. It’s somewhere in here. In these databases.” Momo turned her gaze back to Izuku, full of determination. “I will find it. I will be the one to wake your mother.”