Spacetime Anomaly: MHA Fanfic

Chapter 11.2: Mother-Son Chat

Walking home, Izuku looked lost in thought as he contemplated romance from the ground up… He thought, 'Me and Hagakure? Well, I suppose it wouldn't be that outlandish. I have seen her n.a.k.e.d, after all, and usually even couples only get to that stage at the height of their affection. But even if she likes me, so to say… Do I like her?'

He hadn't even considered that as a viable option. As he had put it so eloquently, "A girlfriend is already impossible. A lover? Inconceivable!" It couldn't be stressed how awful his first life had broken him and after making his vow to never crumble like that again, he safeguarded himself from being emotionally vulnerable in this manner by simply believing romance to elude him on a foundational level.

To like someone else was to expose his heart, but to love someone was to rest his soul in the hands of another. Even if Izuku didn't think about these things consciously, over the course of a decade, his subconscious grew up building the perfect impregnable defense more than fought him over this basic human need. Now it wasn't a question of whether he liked Hagakure or not, but rather, whether he could learn to like someone at all.

…

Upon returning home, Izuku only stopped internally debating whether or not he liked Hagakure as she seemingly did for him when right after opening the door, his mother nearly tackled him unconscious.

"Izuku! Are you alright? A man claiming to be your homeroom teacher by the name of Aizawa called me during work and said that you were caught up in a villain attack!" Fortunately, he was fine and dandy, otherwise, her assault might have added to whatever injuries she imagined he had sustained.

"I'm fine mom," he said as he comforted her by patting her back as she hugged him. "Thankfully no one got hurt and I only had to stay behind because I was too tired."

"Oh, you can't just worry me like that! If not for the fact that they promised you would be home before the day ended, I would've rushed over to the school immediately; business deals be damned!"

Izuku sighed as he let his mother vent her frustrations on him. When she finally settled down he said, "Mom, I don't want you to lose your job over me. I know you care about me, but since I'm already entered in the Hero Industry, you're going to have to get used to people calling to let you know I've been hurt while on duty."

"I know, dear," she sighed as she separated from him, "Now, let's eat. I already prepared dinner."

Izuku accepted her suggestion and followed her into the kitchen countertop. Though as he sat down and continued to let his mind wander, Inko eventually picked up on his odd behavior. At first, she did nothing but serve him some soup with rice and fish on the side. But as time passed and she ate alone as Izuku nodded off in his own world, she couldn't help but probe him by asking, "Is everything alright, Izuku?"

Being asked when he wasn't expecting it, Inko could literally see her question register in her son's mind before he finally responded, "Uh… yeah, I mean, physically I'm fine even if I am a bit tired from using so much of my mental power during the fight."

As he instinctively moved to end the conversation, however, Izuku thought, 'Maybe I should ask her...'

Then, before his mouth and brain could form an agreement, he exposed his thoughts in the open as he asked, "Say, mom… How do you know when you like someone?" For some inexplicable reason, curiosity consumed any embarrassment a boy his age would have for asking such a question.

Inko's eyes widened as she took on her son's question, before they brightened up and she asked in return, "Have you found someone you like at school?!" Her joy could almost be seen.

Sighing, Izuku looked at his reflection in the bowl of soup before him as he carefully said, "Today, a girl confessed to me that she liked me, but I'm not sure if I like her back…"

"Do you like being around her?"

As Izuku thought about her question, he remembered that most of the time they had spent together involved her being n.a.k.e.d, so he quickly grew red in the face as he said, "Well… it's not that I don't like being around her, but..."

"Hahaha, you're so funny, feigning insecurity like that. You look just as I did when your father and I first got together~" She teased, though, at the mention of his father, the light in her eyes dimmed somewhat.

"B-but we've only known each other for two days! Isn't that a little to fast to start a relationship?"

"Izuku, for all the information you have crammed into your head, all your degrees, and medical licenses, you're just a teen. And not just any teen, but one who's grown up mostly devoid of social interaction. I'm not saying all this to be mean, but neither you nor anyone can tell say for certain what is right or wrong, fast or not, when it comes to romance. I know it's disheartening to hear, but you're just going to have to follow your gut for these kinds of things."

"So… I should accept her confession, then? I've never really thought much about entering this kind of relationship before today, so it's not like I have someone else holding a spot in my heart."

"So long as you enjoy her company, even if you don't decide to become boyfriend and girlfriend right away, you can still spend time sorting out your feelings as you get to know her. No one's putting a gun to your head and telling you to make a decision right away."

"I see… Thanks mom, I don't think I would have been able to sort this out myself." With that said, Izuku happily started eating the food before him that had started to grow tepid with time.

He might have even eaten it all before it became thoroughly cold if not for Inko quickly drawing him back to the conversation and demanding he share with her all the details over the girl that confessed to him. Needless to say, Izuku and Inko talked for longer than normal that night, only being cut short by Inko's circadian rhythm which dictated she needed to sleep by 10:00 PM, lest she wished to make an enemy out of her body tomorrow.

...

True to his word, after leaving his mother's grasp, Izuku sunk into training comparable to that which he forced unto himself after meeting All Might in this life. By the time Inko had left him to rejuvenate her body with sleep, several hours had passed and Izuku's mental power, though not entirely restored, had enough energy stockpiled to set up spatial barriers to cancel any noise he might make and a temporal barrier to dilute the rate of time he experienced.

Moreover, with the short exposure to rare and interesting Spatial Quirks he had been subjected to over the day, Izuku found many things he could improve upon. There was that advanced warping invisibility technique he had learned from Hagakure, the warp gate technique he had witnessed a couple times from Kurogiri, and even some clues as to how he could recreate Thirteen's Black Hole Quirk.

His body also wasn't above training as he was still nowhere near the peak of possible human performance; nor would he truly reach that level until he finished growing into an a.d.u.l.t. Also, there was that newfound weakness he had against true life and death battles. He might be powerful and capable in a fight to absurd degrees, but that would mean nothing if he froze again in the face of danger.

So, like a madman, Izuku crammed nearly a week's worth of physical training into the span of several hours until the sun rose over the horizon. By then, his nerves had calmed to the point where he could enjoy a break. He took a quick shower and cleaned his room before making breakfast from himself and his mother.

Then, until the time to train at the beach with Hagakure and whoever else showed up arrived, Izuku could be seen training his spatial skills. Pedestrians around near his house might have noticed a certain blackish-green afterimage flickering around as Izuku completed a ten-kilometer route with unassisted teleportation. Sometimes they might not have seen anything at all or just a floating tracksuit, as Izuku alternated between applying warp-based invisibility to himself and sometimes his clothes.

He found where Hagakure might struggle with learning to warp light around her clothes, as it was difficult for him to use the least amount of energy to cover himself as tightly as possible. Though he personally didn't have to do that, there was no guarantee that the same applied to his Light-Warping friend. Cloaking his body with spatial energy was easy enough as no one would ever know a body like their own, but clothes and accessories were unnatural and one's sense didn't extend to them. If even Izuku, who was being supported by virtue of his powers relating to space, was struggling, Hagakure's time mastering the technique could be imagined.

Sadly, by the time evening rolled around and it was time to head to the beach, Izuku hadn't begun mastering warp-based teleportation or black hole creation. For as reality breaking as his powers were, he was still limited to his reserves of mental energy and naturally needed to take breaks during the time he teleported himself for ten kilometers. To complete that kind of distance with his Instantaneous Teleportation, the likes of which would now barely cover three meters accurately, it could be imagined how draining the exercise was.

Still, Izuku was by no means put down by the fact as he was treated to several new faces when he finally arrived at Dagobah Beach. Kirishima and Hagakure he more or less expected, Mina could be explained as she hadn't showed up for the last two days, but the others…