[The Fox and the Hare] Chapter 45 - Rewind (Patreon)

“He has my parents… I have to do what he says… but I can’t… I can’t doom so many lives…”

“What should I do… I don’t know what to do...”

A loud screeching sound was heard as Principal Nezu suddenly jumped up from his seat and the chair dragged against the floor. 

“W-What’s going on?!” Aoyama shouted when he was hit with a prickling sensation all over his body, and he saw several cracks appearing on his hands. 

Present Mic, who had come into Nezu’s office earlier, rushed at the principal. A bad feeling crept into his heart at the sight of the cracks that started appearing on the boy’s face, neck, and arms. 

“Principal!” Present Mic shouted as he grabbed Nezu by the arm and threw himself together with him through the opened door, out of the office.

“What’s happening to me?!?” Ayoama cried out in terror. 

At that moment, a deep, malevolent voice rang in his head. 

‘Aoyama Yuga. You have betrayed me.’

Eyes widening in realisation, the boy started shouting in desperation:

“No! PLEASE NO!”

‘I thought that holding your parents hostage would be enough to keep you obedient. You have disappointed me.’

“DON’T DO IT! PLEASE DON’T DO IT!” the boy begged. 

‘But I know better than anyone how fickle the human heart is. I knew you couldn’t be fully trusted. Nobody can. That’s why I made preparations in case you decided to betray me.’

As All For One’s telepathic message ended, the cracks extended over Yuga’s entire body, and a second later, the office was rocked by a powerful explosion.

Luckily, Present Mic and Nezu managed to escape in time, but the blast wrecked the room completely.

Alerted by the unexpected explosion, Midnight and Vlad King were quick to arrive at the scene, and many other curious students came to find out what happened too. 

“This is bad. No, this is terrible!” was the first thing that Nezu said when he stood up.

“Principal, what’s going on? What happened here?!” asked Professor Vlad as he stepped inside the office and saw Yuga Aoyama’s charred, lifeless body. 

“He was an agent of All For One, the leader of the League of Villains and the Meta Liberation Army. Goodness gracious… We’ve been compromised.”

Present Mic himself had watched it all happen with his own eyes, but he was no less confused than the other two teachers either. 

“He tried to come out clean and betray All For One, but it appears that AFO has a way of monitoring his subordinates. If that’s the case, then it means that he knows about our escape method and about this bunker too.”

At Nezu’s explanation, a grave look appeared on the three Pro Heroes’ faces. 

“We have to move out. And we have to do it fast!”

⁂

Although only two days had passed since her battle with All For One in Tokyo, Rumi was already up and able to walk by herself. Currently, she and Naruto were walking hand-in-hand on Jacksonville’s long beach, admiring the sight of the red and orange rays of the sun reflecting in the clear, blue ocean. 

The weather was warm, and a pleasant breeze was blowing. The two lovebirds couldn't take their eyes off each other as they walked, chatting and laughing together. 

Seeing as it was at sunset, there were not as many people on the beach as earlier in the day, but nonetheless, Naruto’s six golden fox tails were so eye-catching that many of the passing people turned their heads after him. 

Mirko was no less eye-catching either with her long white rabbit ears and her provocative outfit: a pair of white sneakers, blue jeans hotpants, which left her strong and long legs bare, and a loose crop-top pink t-shirt that somehow made her breasts look even bigger than they were already and gave people a peek at her sexy and ripped midriff. She was drop-dead gorgeous.

Then again, they were on the beach. Many other men and women were wearing even less than her. 

“They’re talking about you. You’re famous even in the United States now,” Mirko said, elbowing him teasingly in the ribs.  

Somehow, Japan’s mass media had gotten hold of a video showing him in the form of a 6-tailed fox demon grabbing Shigaraki-Nomu with his golden chains and repeatedly chokeslaming him into the ground until there was nothing but blood and gore left of his head. 

It was a short clip, but that savage display of brutality had been enough for the villain-controlled mass media to jump at the chance of showing Uzumaki Naruto in a bad light, trying to paint him as some sort of unstable and violent killer who was prone to start a massacre at the drop of a hat. 

Unfortunately for the villains, considering that the whole world was now having its eyes pinned on Japan after the villains’ coup d’etat, most people knew that the Japanese media outlets could not be trusted. Therefore, their poor attempts at vilifying and demonising him had backfired. 

Naruto had already achieved some level of notoriety overseas after the USJ incident two years ago when the world found out about the existence of a Japanese boy whose Fox Quirk awakened twice in quick succession. 

This new footage of him being transformed into a 6-tailed demon fox and killing a Nomu creature had reminded people of his name and raised his fame even more than before, to the point where even random people in the USA could recognise him on the street now.

“I can hear them too,” said Naruto.

The way his fluffy fox ears twitched as he caught all sorts of quiet talk and distant chatter from the passersby was so cute that Rumi found herself cooing at the sight. 

Throwing one arm around his neck, she raised herself on her tippy toes and pulled him down to press a wet and loud kiss on his cheek. 

“What was that for?” he asked in surprise, but his left arm was quick to circle her waist. 

“You’re adorable. I just couldn’t help myself,” she said, grinning. 

Before he could protest at being called ‘adorable’ (after all, he was a buff, strong-looking boy in his late teens and way taller than her now) Mirko hopped into his arms like a rabbit and wrapped both her arms around his neck, covering his lips with hers and muffling his words with her mouth. 

“What are you doing?!” he asked after breaking the kiss, torn between feeling embarrassed and scandalised as he tried to push her way. “Everyone is looking at us!”

He had grown up in Japan, where it was heavily frowned upon to display one’s affection in public. Even walking with his hand around Rumi’s waist in public would have been enough for people to give them dirty looks, let alone if they were to be seen actually kissing and embracing each other. 

When Rumi wrapped her legs around his waist too, prying her off him became an impossible endeavour. 

“We’re not in Japan anymore. The USA has no rules against PDA; I can kiss you in public all I want now!” Mirko said and stole another kiss. 

“I’m pretty freaking sure that jumping on someone in public like that isn’t allowed even in the USA! Gerrof me, you horny rabbit!” he shot back as he tried pushing her face away from him with his hand.

“No, I won’t!” she said, keeping her arms and legs locked around him like a monkey, holding on with her entire strength. “Come here! I want one more kiss!” she laughed in glee. 

“Rumi! Don’t make me do it!” he said threateningly. 

Her answer was to squeeze his waist with her thighs even harder than before.

“Let go, or I’ll really do it!”

Her eyes widened when Naruto’s hand came to her lower back and wrapped around her fluffy bunny tail. This time, her legs tightened so hard around his waist that it was physically painful. 

“Naruto, don’t you dare!” she said, having a hard time believing that he would really do something like that to her. 

He smirked at her panicked look. When his fingers clenched around her tail, it was as if all strength had left her body, and she became slack in his arms. Her cheeks turned red, and her breathing quickened. It was as if a switch had been flipped. 

Still holding the rabbit girl in his arms, Naruto quickly bolted away with her before the people watching them from the side could figure out what was going on, not wanting to make a scene. 

‘Shit, maybe I shouldn’t have done that,’ he thought when Rumi started kissing and biting his neck teasingly while running her hands up and down his back, groping his back muscles. 

Arriving in a more remote spot next to some palm trees, Naruto put Mirko down. The rabbit girl didn’t resist like before, but she was still clinging closely, looking up to him with what appeared to be a mixture between a glare and a needy look on her face.

Rumi headbutted his chest lightly, burying her face into his t-shirt so that Naruto would not see her embarrassed countenance anymore. 

He laughed quietly at her behaviour, but her rabbit ears weren’t just for show, so she heard him. 

“Yeah! Laugh it out!” she said in annoyance as she poked him in the ribs, making him flinch from the ticklish feeling. “You know how I feel about you and how hard it is for me to hold back, but you always keep teasing me!”

“You’re just too cute,” he cooed at her and blew softly into one of her rabbit ears, clearly getting back at her for how she had called him earlier. 

She pinched him in retaliation, but she still didn’t look up, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of seeing how red her face was.

“Hmpf! Just you wait! We’ll see who laughs best when I get my hands on you.”

Their flirting and teasing moment was interrupted when Naruto’s new cell phone rang. Swiping his thumb on the touchscreen, he brought the phone to his ear and answered:

“Yes, dad?”

“Hey, Naruto. Is Rumi-chan with you?”

“Yep, we’re together. We went out for a walk on the beach.”

“I’m sorry to cut your date short, but something urgent has just come up. It’s about the situation in Japan. Can you get back home quickly?”

Exchanging a look with Rumi and seeing her nod at him, he replied:

“Sure, we’ll be there in two minutes,” he said, terminating the call. 

Once he put his phone back in his pocket, Rumi was quick to jump on his back, making him give her a piggyback. While she may have recovered enough to walk, she was still not healthy enough to run at great speeds. 

He smiled softly as he felt the rabbit girl’s weight on his back and her long tresses of white hair tickling his face. 

Her large breasts squished against him, the fresh smell of her hair, and the feeling of intimacy that came with having her cheek close to his, her arms wrapped around his neck, and her long and strong legs around his waist made it one of his favourite ways of spending time with Rumi. He had carried the rabbit girl on his back so many times over the years that it had unknowingly become a special thing for both of them, as a couple. The fact that he could freely run his hands over her thick and strong thighs was another big plus in his books. 

Despite her state, Mirko pushed down her needs and feelings and didn’t bother or tease Naruto as he started running home. She only gave him a caste kiss on his cheek; she didn’t go any further because she could discern from the tone of Minato’s voice that something must have happened.

⁂

True to his words, Naruto arrived home no more than two minutes later. A few beads of sweat could be seen on his forehead from having sprinted on his way back, but Minato didn’t comment on it as he watched him place Mirko on the sofa on his left and then take a seat on his right. 

“Principal Nezu?” Naruto said surprised when he saw the rat man’s face on the screen of the laptop in his father’s lap. They were in the middle of a video call. 

“Hello, Uzumaki-san. I suspect that the villains have found out the location of our bunker,” the principal cut straight to the subject. “There was a traitor in our midst. One of your classmates, Aoyama Yuga, was a mole of All For One. He tried to come clean and tell me the truth, but AFO must have had a way of monitoring him because he exploded him.”

“Exploded him? Do you mean-” Mirko asked.

“Exactly what I said. His body exploded from within. It's probably one of All For One’s many quirks. The poor boy died on the spot.”

Naruto was reeling from the revelation. Aoyama had always given him a strange vibe, and he did seem like a loner amongst the rest of his classmates, but he had never suspected him to actually be a spy for AFO. 

‘The League of Villains’ attack on USJ, Mineta’s death, the attack on the training camp, and that poor kid’s death… were these all because of Aoyama?’

His right hand clenched into a fist. But he pushed down his anger and focused his attention back on Nezu, who continued speaking:

“If AFO had a way of monitoring Aoyama-san, chances are that he would have found out about our shelter too. Two days have already passed. I’m afraid that we have been compromised. We need to get away as fast as possible.”

“I see… but I’m not sure how we are supposed to help,” Naruto said. “I’m in the United States now, and I don’t have a passport or any legal way of travelling back to Japan. Mirko is also-”

“Naruto, he already knows about my quirk,” Minato interrupted him. 

“Huh? …How?” Naruto asked. 

“Considering that you were spotted in the United States so quickly after the Villains’ revolution, it wouldn’t take a genius to deduce the fact that there is some sort of relationship between you and the mysterious teleporter who saved Mirko and Best Jeanist from Tokyo… and Principal Nezu is a super genius with an IQ of 245,” Minato explained before turning his eyes to Nezu and asking, “Am I right?”

“That is correct,” Nezu confirmed. 

Naruto was quiet for a moment. 

“What exactly do you need us to do?”

“The underground system of tunnels that I have created is spread all over the country for hundreds of kilometres. We could pop out from anywhere, but I don’t know if Aoyama-san was the only spy that All For One has planted in our midst or if there is another one who can take on the appearance of other people-”

“Wait, what do you mean by that?” asked Naruto, a vague suspicion rising in his mind. 

“Ah, you probably didn’t know. All Might’s quirk wasn’t cancelled by your homeroom teacher, Eraserhead, but by a villain who could transform into other people and copy their quirks. Eraserhead was stabbed in the back and left to die. He is innocent.”

“It was someone like Monoma from class 3-B, but they could also steal others' appearance? Damn…” Naruto cussed, forgetting that he was having a conversation with a teacher. “Good thing that he’s dead.”

“Indeed. But we cannot rule out the possibility that they might not be the only ones. Therefore, I have a favour to ask of you. As ashamed as I am to depend on a student when we, the teachers, should be the ones protecting you, I cannot let my pride get in the way of keeping the rest of the children safe.”

“Of course we’re going to help!” Mirko said right away. 

Naruto took a few seconds before saying:

“What exactly do we have to do?”

“Your father has already agreed to help take the students to safety with his Teleportation quirk. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of students, and he cannot teleport them all at once. It will take some time to get them all out… I need your help to protect everyone until all students are evacuated. Your Adamantine Sealing Chains are the strongest Quirk I know when it comes to defence.”

“Naruto?” Rumi asked, turning towards him as if to ask what was taking him so long to decide. For her, it was a no-brainer.

“I will help. But you can’t come with us,” he answered. 

“What?!” she exploded. 

“You’re injured. You can’t even run!”

“Even with how I am now, I can still kick any random villain’s ass-”

“Rumi,” Naruto called her name out seriously. “It’s not the regular villains that teachers are worried about. It’s All For One. That’s why the principal contacted us. What would you do in your current condition if AFO showed up?”

“But-”

“I have to side with Uzumaki-san on this one,” Nezu told Mirko. “Focus on recovering for now. We will surely need your strength in the days to come.”

Nezu taking Naruto’s side made Mirko scowl and cross her arms to her chest, but she stopped insisting.

“Where should we meet?” asked Minato now that everything else had been decided. 

“If you don’t mind me asking, what are the limits of your Teleportation quirk?”

Minato showed a hesitating look before letting out a sigh.

“My Teleportation has three limits: first, I can only teleport to places I’ve been to or places of which I have a good mental image.”

“Second, I can teleport a maximum of 9 other people at a time.”

“Third, the number of teleportations I can perform varies from one day to another. It depends on how well-rested I am; it depends on my stamina. That said, I think it’s too tall an order to expect me to teleport several hundred students today. How many of them are there in total?”

“Roughly 700 people if you count the teachers as well,” said the principal. “But if a lack of stamina is what limits your quirk we may have a solution to that. Lunch Rush specialises in creating highly nutritious food. With his quirk and his expertise, I believe we can get everyone out to safety.”

“I see.”

“I assume seeing a place in a video is good enough to let you teleport there?” Nezu asked, remembering that Minato had teleported to Tokyo from America just by watching the news.  

“Indeed. I could teleport straight to your office if you give me a good view of it with your camera.”

“Splendid. I shall start organising the students into groups of ten, based on the region they’re from. They will need to be teleported as close as possible to their homes. I will give you a call again when we’re ready for you to come over.”

“Understood.”

⁂ One hour later ⁂

In spite of being unhappy and grumpy at being left behind, Mirko still hugged Naruto goodbye when it was time for him to go. 

“You better come back safe, you hear me?” she said while pouting. 

“Mhm.”

“Don’t ‘mhm’ me!” she raised her voice at him in annoyance. “You better come back safe and unharmed, or I’ll kill you with my own two hands if you had made me wait two years for nothing!”

“I get it, sheesh, calm down,” he said, chuckling at how quickly she lost her temper. 

But she suddenly pulled him down by the collar of his shirt and smashed her lips to his. 

Truthfully, Mirko was old enough for some people to call her that slur used for unmarried women in their mid- and late-20s, a “discount Christmas cake”. It was an insult that implied that they were unwanted and worthless and that nobody would marry them anymore at that age. 

However, what society thought of Mirko never mattered to Naruto. He cupped her face with his hands and caressed her cheeks gently, kissing her tenderly as if to convey his feelings for her. 

It was only after his father cleared his throat loudly that he broke the kiss.

“I told Izuku too, I ain’t dying till I marry you.”

“You better stay alive far longer than that,” she muttered. 

“Definitely! I promised we’d make a whole football team, didn’t I?” he said with a teasing grin on his face.

“F-Fool! What are you saying?!”

When Minato started laughing at the two of them, Mirko’s face turned bright red. 

“Just go already, both of you!” Mirko shouted at the father-son duo, who were snickering at her expense. 

Naruto just threw her one last teasing grin before Minato took him away, disappearing with a yellow flash. 

⁂ 

Unlike what Principal Nezu had feared, All For One and the rest of the villains didn’t attack the bunker. 

In all fairness, even if they were to assume that All For One knew everything that Yuga Aoyama did, Aoyama himself should have had no idea whatsoever where exactly Nezu’s secret shelter was located. After all, throughout the entire evacuation process, the students and the rest of the staff saw nothing but the interior of the room which transported them through the tunnels. 

As Minato had predicted, he ran out of energy after teleporting away less than 200 students. Fortunately, thanks to Lunch Rush’s special food and a short moment of rest, he was able to replenish his energy and continue evacuating the students from the shelter. 

Ten by ten, Minato teleported the students all over the territory of Japan, sending everyone to the prefectures where they lived, close to their parents’ homes. 

Eventually, he teleported the teachers out too, leaving only his son, Midoriya Izuku and his mother, Inko, whom Nezu had taken to the shelter as well, fearing that All For One might target her. 

The overweight woman looked like she was on the verge of crying every time she glanced down at her wheelchair-bound son. Even with Recovery Girl’s top-notch treatment, Izuku was bandaged from head to toe. He was so injured that he couldn’t even walk on his own two feet, Mrs Midoriya was pushing his wheelchair around. In addition, his left arm was in a cast, while his right arm had been amputated from above the elbow, leaving only a stump behind. 

As chance made it, Izuku’s father, who had been working overseas for years, happened to be in the United States, so Minato was going to take Izuku and his mom together with him on his way back home. 

⁂

“Thank you so much for your help. I’m so sorry to trouble you…”

As Izuku’s mother started repeatedly apologising and excusing herself, Kushina took her outside, in the garden, hoping that the relaxing mood of the night and serving a cup of chamomile tea would calm her down. 

“Don’t worry, Inko-san, and stop apologising. We’ve known each other for years, haven’t we? We have a guest room for you, and Naruto can share his bedroom with Izuku-kun for some time too. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind it. They’re best friends after all!”

“It’s just for a few days until my husband finds a larger place to rent and takes us to him,” Inko continued to excuse herself. 

[...]

Left alone with Izuku, Naruto took him to the balcony so he could have a private talk with him. 

“Florida Man came to Florida,” Naruto started off with a light joke, making Izuku smile weakly at his attempt to lighten the mood. 

Had it been any other time, Izuku’s answer would have been to flip him off or shout at him because he absolutely hated it when people called him that. His Hero name was “Vanguard”, not “Florida Man”. However, at that moment, Izuku looked dispirited, almost lifeless. The fire of ambition in his eyes was gone. His usually cheerful mood and optimistic nature seemed to have vanished.

“It still doesn’t feel real,” Izuku said, glancing up at the night sky vacantly. Although the sky was clear, with no clouds in sight, very few stars could be seen due to the city’s light pollution. 

Naruto remained quiet, letting him vent his bottled-up emotions. 

“I can’t believe that All Might is dead. I thought he would be next to me forever. I thought he was invincible. He was my hero and my role model… I wanted to be like him… but now I’ll never be able to do that. Even if I wasn’t like this,” Izuku said and moved the stump that remained of his right arm, “I could never be like All Might anymore. I killed someone.”

Naruto didn’t berate him or shout at him. Mentally, he was older and more mature, so he understood that what his friend needed at that moment wasn’t criticism but encouragement. 

“A hero doesn’t only save people. That is just a preconception you must’ve gotten from the old Western comics. Sometimes, killing one person can save the lives of hundreds, thousands, or more,” said the blonde. “As for All Might not killing anyone, that’s what the mass media let us, the public, know. You can see it now too how they’re trying to spin the narrative and portray us all in a bad light. The government has always secretly controlled the media. It’s always been like this.”

“All Might was a Pro Hero for decades; do you think that, with his enormous strength, there was never even one accident? Or what about his fight with All For One? How do you think that AFO became blind and disfigured? It’s because All Might had tried his hardest to kill him.”

Izuku perked up at his words, but his mood was uplifted for a very short while before gloom took over again.

“Be that as it may, my right arm was amputated... and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to use my left arm properly again. I don’t know what else I can do with both my arms missing. Yes, I could still defeat many villains with my legs, but I can’t rescue anyone without arms...”

Naruto smiled. “That’s why I asked dad to bring you here instead of sending you to some hotel.”

“What do you mean?” Izuku asked. 

“There is a way for you to get your arm back. To be healthy again.”

“What?! Don’t joke around with this kind of thing, man,” Izuku said with a shake of his head. “There’s nothing in this world that-”

“There is. BUT,” Naruto cut him off in a loud voice, “I need you to promise me that you’ll never reveal to anyone this secret.”

Izuku looked at him searchingly, as if to gauge if Naruto was serious or if he was pulling his leg. 

“I need to hear you say it, man,” Naruto insisted. 

“...You really have a way to give me back my arms?” Izuku asked hopefully, but at the same time, he was afraid that this was all just a sick joke. 

“I do. But I won’t say anything else until you give me your word.”

The green-haired boy didn’t need any further convincing; he quickly swore that he would keep everything a secret. 

Once he heard Izuku’s promise, Naruto said, seemingly speaking to the walls:

“Rumi? You can bring Eri out now.”

Despite being on the other side of the house, with several rooms separating them, Mirko heard his voice and took Eri with her to the balcony.

It was already dark outside when Naruto and Minato teleported to Japan to help the students of UA High; by the time they returned home, it was well past midnight. Now, it was close to 1 a.m., and little Eri was exhausted. However, the little girl had forced herself to stay awake at his request. 

All these years, Naruto had never asked anything of her, despite that he had saved her life and even given her a home and a family. Now that her big brother finally needed her help, Eri was resolved to do everything in her power to help him. Going to sleep much later than she was used to was nothing major for her!

“You know Eri-chan, right?” Naruto asked.

“Yes. Hello, Eri-san,” Izuku said, smiling at the young girl. 

“Eri has a quirk named ‘Rewind’. She can rewind the time of any living being… Do you understand why I need your word to keep it a secret?”

“Are you saying she can turn back time?” Izuku asked in disbelief. “You mean my arms would be as good as they were two days ago?”

“That’s right. All your injuries will disappear as if they had never existed."

Izuku became quiet for a few seconds, seemingly thinking about something. 

“Then… say… would your little sister’s quirk work on All Might too? Could she rewind the time for him and bring him back to life?” 

Mirko lightly squeezed Eri’s shoulder to prevent her from saying a thing, letting Naruto handle it. 

“That's some crazy talk," Naruto said with a laugh. "She is not God. She can’t bring someone who has already died back to life.”

It was a lie. Naruto had seen with his own eyes how Eri brought Overhaul back to life after he killed him with his Adamantine Sealing Chains. Furthermore, Eri didn’t just bring him back to life; she also de-aged him until he became a toddler, ultimately erasing him from existence. 

Eri’s Rewind Quirk was almost like the power of God. 

“At best, she can only fix his body... but what would be the use of that?”

Naruto decided to cut off that avenue from the start, not leaving Izuku any room for interpretation and speculation about Rewind’s ability. Other than his parents, he didn’t trust anyone except for Rumi with Eri’s secrets. 

No amount of security and vigilance would be enough to protect his little sister if the world at large found out that there was a Quirk who could resurrect the dead. Let alone criminals, entire countries would even be willing to start a war for the sake of getting her. As important as All Might was for Izuku, Naruto wouldn’t risk Eri’s safety for their sake.

“... I see,” Izuku said. 

Despite his dashed hopes and expectations regarding All Might, Izuku quickly regained his spirit, and his eyes were filled with enthusiasm when he saw the cute horn on Eir’s forehead starting to glow with a yellow light. 

“Midoriya-san, are you ready?” Eri asked as she walked in front of his wheelchair and prepared herself to activate her quirk. 

“Yes, I’m ready!” he confirmed. 

It wasn’t only Izuku who was shocked to watch his stump transform into a healthy right arm; Mirko was just as amazed too; she had known about Eri’s ability, and she had even seen her use it on bugs before, but it was the first time she saw Rewind’s effects on such a large scale.

In a matter of seconds, Izuku’s right arm was regrown, the shattered bones and ripped muscles and tendons in his left arm were restored, and all his bruises and tiredness vanished like a miracle. 

“I can’t believe it!” Izuku said in awe as he looked at his right arm. He broke the cast encasing his left arm with his great physical strength and started moving and rolling his wrist in fascination. If it hadn’t happened to him, he would have never believed it. 

“Remember, Izuku, you need to keep Eri’s involvement an absolute secret,” Naruto reminded him in a serious voice. “If anyone asks how you’re back to full health, feed them a different story. Tell them it’s one of the quirks of the previous wielders of One For All. I don’t know; you work it out. But nobody has to know anything about her.”

Standing up from his wheelchair, Izuku fell to his knees and gave the little girl a big hug.

“Thank you, Eri-chan. Thank you so much!”

Despite how tall and muscular Izuku had become now that he was nearly 18 years old, he was crying like a little child. But Eri didn’t push him away and just patted him on the back, all the while smiling as she looked at Rumi and Naruto on the side. 

Eventually, Izuku let go of her and wiped his face with the back of his sleeve. 

“Look at you! You’re almost an adult now and packed with muscles all over, but you’re still crying like a little kid,” Naruto laughed teasingly. 

But Izuku was so happy that he couldn’t even find it in himself to shoot back any retorts. He had thought that his career as a hero was pretty much over after the Nomu destroyed his right arm and after he sacrificed his left to deal with the one who caused All Might’s death. But now, he was healthy again. Eri performed a miracle and gave him his dream and his purpose for living back. 

Attracted by the loud bawling of her son, Inko came inside the house and went to the balcony in a rush. 

At the sight of Izuku standing on his own two feet and with both of his arms whole and uninjured, Inko covered her mouth with her hands, and her eyes started swimming with tears instantly; it was clear from whom Izuku got his emotional side. 

“I-Izuku?!”

She came to him and touched his arms and his body all over, as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. 

“Yes, we’re not dreaming. I’m all good now,” Izuku said, his eyes filling with tears anew at seeing his mother crying. “I’m healed and whole again.”

Mother and son started bawling on each other’s shoulders as they embraced each other. Kushina found herself tearing up too at the emotional scene.

“What? I just got some pollen in my eyes,” Rumi said defensively, quickly turning her head away when Naruto looked at her with a grin. 

But the rabbit girl’s beautiful eyelashes were very long and dense; there was no way for pollen to have gotten into her eyes. 

“Sure, sure,” he said, snickering. Rumi trying to put up a tough front always would never not be fun in his eyes. 

Once Izuku and Inko regained their composure, Naruto felt the need to add one more lie in order to protect his little sister. 

“You may have gotten your arms back this time, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that Eri’s quirk is all-powerful. Rewind is a stockpiling quirk, so it takes a long time for her quirk to recharge after use; that's why you can see I’m still bandaged from my stab wounds; I told her to save her Rewind quirk for you. It takes nearly two months for her horn to grow back.”

“Last but not least, her Rewind can only go as far as five days. If you get severely injured or maimed and her quirk happens to be on cooldown, she won’t be able to fix you. If five days pass since you got those injuries, you will remain with them forever.”

The fewer people knew the true power of Eri’s quirk, the smaller the chance for the secret to be leaked. He couldn’t risk Eri’s safety by letting Izuku and his mother know the truth. For him, nothing was as important as his family. 

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AN: If you're interested in joining my Discord server, you can do it at /nzxJcxsyrd.