Chapter Text
“God damnit problem child.”
Aizawa should have expected this really. His class could never do anything without being involved in some villain attack or major incident. And of course, whatever contrivance fate had decided to curse the underground hero with on any given day always seemed to revolve around Midoriya Izuku, from facing down S class villains during internships or training camps to breaking his body during his first Sports Festival. So why did he let Hizashi talk him into chaperoning a class shopping trip?
Eraserhead rubbed his temples in an attempt to assuage the incoming migraine he could feel coming on. He was hesitant to bring the class back to the mall where Midoriya had been held hostage by Shigaraki, it just seemed like tempting fate, but with Mic arguing that it would be best to keep an eye on him personally and Midoriya’s insistence that he was fine going back, he decided to go ahead with his class.
You would think he learned his lesson by now.
A child had been separated from his mother and panicked, and accidentally lost control of his quirk. His class had been near the child, specifically two, Midoriya Izuku and Jiro Kyoka, the former who moved closer to help the obviously distressed child, the latter placing herself as far from Mineta as she could. When the young boys Quirk activated, bright blue light began filling the area around him, blinding most in the surrounding area, with the two students unable to be seen through the effect. Aizawa was quick to use his own Quirk on the child, but the two had completely vanished with no sign of their presence. Nemuri Kayama, better known as the Pro Hero Midnight, began to search for the boy’s parents, both to prevent another episode as well as know exactly what Quirk he had, while Aizawa stayed back to keep his own class calm and keep the child’s quirk suppressed if need be.
The disappearance of the Midoriya and Jiro had obviously caused distress with their classmates, but to their teachers pride they handled it like the aspiring pros they were. Once it was clear the child’s Quirk was under control, Uraraka and Asui moved to keep the child calm and letting him know that Heroes were working to find his parents. Yaoyorozu and Todoroki coordinated efforts to keep civilians out of any harm, and Iida assured his class that their teachers would have the situation under control and find out what happened to their friends.
“Aizawa,” the voice of Nemuri drew the underground Hero’s attention, “I found the boy’s parents and found out what his Quirk is.”
“Good, I’m already regretting coming here, and I just want to get a nap in. So, what is it? I’m guessing some form of teleportation.” That was the most likely situation, if a tad annoying not knowing where the two students were.
“Not exactly, it’s a little more complicated than that.” Said the R-rated Heroine, before dropping her voice to a whisper to prevent the class from overhearing, “His Quirk is able to warp people, but not like the League’s warper, it warps them to, quoting the parents directly, ‘different worlds.’”
Well, that was new. Out of all the possibilities Aizawa thought of, including those that would necessitate visiting the parents of the two with condolences, this wasn’t one of them. “Ok, putting aside the implications that comes with a what you just said, is there anything we can even do? How do we get them back from… wherever they are?”
“Good news and bad news, good news is that two family members had been affected by his Quirk before, and in both cases, they both came back to the spot they were in five hours.”
Tension Aizawa didn’t know he was holding fell from his body, he wouldn’t have to be the one telling families how their children would never be coming back. “Okay that’s good, we just have to keep the area clear and wait it out. What’s the bad news?”
“The first person, the boy’s mother, said she only remembered being wherever she ended up for around 10 minutes before being sent back, the second, his older brother, said he was gone for a week. We don’t know how long it will have been for the two, even if they end up at the same place.”
“Knowing problem child’s luck, he’ll probably be on the longer side.” Aizawa let out a tired sigh. Why couldn’t anything involving that kid just end normally. “I’ll explain the situation to the police and get the area cordoned off and wait for the two. You explain this to the class and get them back to the dorms. Contact their parents too, they’ll want to see their kids after they come back.”
Nemuri gave a nod before gathering the class up to leave, while Aizawa made his way to the nearest officer, silently praying to whatever was listening that Midoriya and Kyoka come back with nothing more than a funny story and things going back to normal in a week. Something in his gut told him he wouldn’t be that lucky though.
Lewis sat at his dining room table enjoying the last of his breakfast before starting his day. Being the mayor of Pelican Town gave him several responsibilities to oversee, and the small size of the town gave him a personal obligation to carry them out personally. Sure, he could probably find someone willing to be his assistant, but he managed his duties over the years fine, and personally interacting with his neighbors built up the trust that had him elected mayor for 20 years straight.
He ran unopposed for 20 years, but that was probably just a sign of how well he ran the town.
Mayor Lewis was finishing his coffee when he heard a knock at his door, startling him. He didn’t have any meetings with anyone today, either professional or his more… personal dealings with Marnie. It was probably George coming by to complain about one of the younger residents doing… something that young people liked or Pierre complaining about the recent addition of a Joja Mart to the town. Both where semi-regular happenings and both he was tired of dealing with, as Lewis could neither control the will of the younger generation nor stop the Joja corporation’s recent move on their town, as much as he didn’t like the business giant encroaching on the small town.
Opening his door to see Elliott, out of breath from sprinting to his doorstep, was not what he was expecting. Elliott was far more concerned about completing his first novel than any of the goings on of the other residents, so clearly something important must of happened. “M-Mayor Lewis… Willy… two people… beach… Harvey’s…” The young man panted out in-between heavy breaths.
“Calm down Elliott, just get your breath first.” He couldn’t understand what Elliott was trying to explain to him with his breathing so labored. His cabin wasn’t that far from Lewis’, so if he was out of breath he must have been in a hurry. Eventually the writer managed to catch his breath and explain the situation with better clarity.
“Willy found two strangers, a man and a woman passed out on the beach, probably washed ashore. They where still breathing but weren’t waking up, so he had me come get you while he and Alex took them to Harvey’s clinic. Said you would probably want to see them yourself”
Well now that was certainly a reason for panic. Not much in the way of danger happened in Pelican Town, beyond the monsters in the mine but the Adventurers Guild took care of that. Two random people showing up in town needing medical attention was not something that happened every day. Or ever, to Lewis’ knowledge. “I appreciate you getting here quick Elliott, you can go back home, I’ll stop by Harvey’s and make sure they're okay.” Lewis closed the door behind him and made his way to the clinic, but not before asking Elliott some questions about the strangers, “Did you get a good look at the two?”
“Not really, Willy was carrying the woman over his shoulder while Alex was picking up the man. They both had fairly rare hair colors, purple and green, and were wearing a uniform similar to a boarding school. I didn’t see their faces, but they were on the smaller side so they might still be students.” That was probably as good as Lewis was going to get without seeing them for himself and begun to make his way towards Harvey’s clinic.
Alex was having an odd day. What should have been a normal day of training and gridball practice was interrupted when he begun his early morning training on the beach. Normally Alex was by himself, sometimes the old fisherman Willy was casting from the pier or Elliott was staring at random stuff on the beach for “inspiration” or whatever. But today Willy was bent over two bodies, thankfully still alive, and was roped into helping them to the Clinic while Elliott was told to go get Mayor Lewis. Not that Alex minded, he wasn’t just about to leave someone in need of help because he wanted to train. Plus, he even managed to get some training in anyway, as the guy he was carrying to the clinic was kinda short, but made of pure muscle, making him fairly tough to carry across town.
‘Maybe I should ask the guy for workout tips when he wakes up.’
Alex and Willy reached Harvey’s Clinic and placed the two on some beds to be examined. While Willy was explaining how he found them, Alex finally got a good look at the two. They both had unusual colored hair, the girl purple, and the boy green, and were probably a little younger than Alex. The boy had four freckles on each cheek forming a diamond below each eye, and a closer look at his right arm showed some serious scarring, the kind that came from injuries that ended pro athletes.
The girl was even weirder, as she had what looked like the end of headphones or auxiliary cords coming from her ears. Alex thought about tugging on one to see if it was real or if it would come off, but the good doctor ending his conversation with Willy and beginning his examination stopped him before he could. Weird ear things or not, Alex decided to stick around, wanting to make sure they where alright, but Harvey moved him out of the room, telling him the examination would be private. So, while Willy went back to his shop (he still had to make a living), Alex sat down and grabbed a magazine to pass the time.
The mayor entered the clinic not long after Alex sat down. After telling Lewis what he knew and being told he would be informed when the two recovered, he left and got back to his interrupted training.
“Well, they should make a full recovery, the only reason I can tell for them still being out is exhaustion.” The town’s local doctor Harvey told Lewis. His initial examination for any potential life-threatening injuries didn’t take too long, but after seeing the scaring on the boy’s arm and the strange protrusions from the girl’s ears, he took some X-rays and a nerve conduction test, which took up some time. Lewis was kind enough to bring the man some lunch after he lost track of time with his newest patients.
Harvey led Lewis to the room the two were recovering in, while going over what he had found. “They both seem in exceptional shape, suggesting a lot of physical activity, but I am rather concerned with the amount of scarring on the boys arm. Whatever caused that injury gave him some permanent ligament damage to the point he may lose function in that arm permanently with a few more breaks. In addition, they both have evidence of a concerning number of micro fractures over their body.”
Lewis turned to look at the two strangers. He knew better than to make assumptions based on appearance, but for the life of him he just couldn’t picture either one of them starting trouble and causing fights to receive that many injuries in their lives. Maybe the boy got injured often in some sort of full body sport, probably culminating in whatever happened to his arm. The girl might have gotten harassment from… whatever was going on with her ears. Pelican Town might be a welcoming community, but he knew not everyplace was so tolerant.
Harvey continued his diagnosis, breaking Lewis from his thoughts, “They both seem to have, for lack of a better description, ‘changes’ to their body.”
“Both?” Asked the Mayor. The girl’s abnormality was obvious, but he couldn’t see anything different about him. Even if green hair was fairly uncommon, it wasn’t that strange.
“Yes both. The boy might not have any obvious oddities, but his muscle and bone density are much higher than the norm. He could probably take any number of monsters in the mines with his bare hands. And I’m sure you have seen the cables coming from the girl’s earlobes.” ‘They’re fairly hard to miss.’ thought Lewis, but he didn’t want to interrupt the doctor. ”What is surprising is that they are not just continuations of the ear’s cartilage but contain nerves and musculature. I can’t tell until she wakes up but it’s likely that the cables are completely prehensile. I’d like to run a brain scan on her to see what changes the addition of two new limbs has caused, but I don’t have the equipment here.” Harvey began to continue with more information about the boy’s musculature that Lewis did not fully comprehend, so he simply nodded along to the doctor as he let his mind wander.
Both of them were clearly not from anywhere around Pelican Town, their uniforms didn’t match any sort of boarding school withing 100 miles, and surely some news about a girl with earlobe limbs or a boy with super dense muscles would have spread around, even if only as gossip. With the war between the Ferngill Republic and the Gotoro Empire, news from the later nation was sparse. They could have come from the Empire, but neither of them looked like natives to Gotoro. The last thing possible lead he had in mind was the wizard Rasmodius, who lived in the forest to the west of Pelican Town, but beyond the girl having purple hair and the two being odd, he really had nothing else to claim he was involved somehow.
Lacking any better option, Lewis decided to make a trip to visit the wizard latter in the day after making a post on the town bulletin board for a town wide meeting tomorrow. As he thanked the doctor for his help and made his way out of the clinic, he had barley walked ten paces before Harvey ran out the door and practically dragged Lewis back inside. The cause for the sudden retrieval was clear when Lewis was rushed back to the room he had just left, as the pair of strangers that had been lying unconscious were both slowly but surely rousing from their forced sleep.