Izuku: Variety (CH 4) (Patreon)

“Vampy nice, nice! Good person!”

Everyone’s eyes shoot upwards as they try to locate the owner of the voice, their eyes lighting on what seems to be another Midoriya Alternate. This one is at least wearing the same UA uniform as the rest of the class, though they wouldn’t be an Alternate without being different.

Case in point, their class’ cinnamon roll’s fluffy green hair -though the alternate’s has streaks of black- being topped by a pair of green cat ears, with a just as fluffy green tail poking out from a hole in his pants expressly made for that purpose. Ojiro has a similarly modified set.

He looks down at them with bright green eyes and a wide happy smile. He pulls one hand from the ceiling and gives everyone a wave. “Hi, same but different classmates! Look same, smell different.” They nod their head with closed eyes at their odd words while tapping their nose. “Eyes ok. Nose better. Always trust. Unless trick. Then go to Shadow Realm! Lesson from Shadow Mommy!”

“““...”””

The class and the other Alternates just stare at him in confusion for a few seconds, none of them knowing how to respond to the words nor the disjointed way of talking. Eventually though Midoriya starts off the introductions.

“Um, hi?” He waves, getting an excited ‘HI’ back and even more excited waving. “I’m Izuku Midoriya, and, well, so are you?” He says it like he’s not sure, which would make sense considering that neither of the first two Alternates had anything obviously different about them he could see. A far cry from the clear animal quirk Alternate hanging out on the ceiling.

But to the assembled surprise -no more so than Sunpo- the cat boy shakes their head. “No, no! Not name! Bzzz!” They cross both their arms, letting everyone see the claws extending from his nails, and a few students cry out thinking that he’s about to fall. But somehow he remains standing. “New name Broccoli Bush! Rabbit Mommy give after shot by mean man in uniform. Mean man not mean after Shadow Panic!”

A few people turn towards their resident darkness enthusiast in the hopes of figuring out what the Alternate is talking about only to get a shrug in reply. “Revelry in the dark does not mean one understands it. Darkness holds many mysteries which are beyond our understanding.” He nods his beak in Broccoli’s direction. “It appears that this version of our friend has delved far deeper than I.”

Suddenly Broccoli vanishes from the ceiling, getting a round of gasps, only to appear behind Tokoyami. “Bird Friend!” He gives him a hug, ignoring the squawk of protest before giving him a few sniffs. His tail droops as he lets go, vanishing again and appearing leaned across Mina’s desk and eliciting a startled shout from her.

“Smell more same but not. Not Vampy tricks. Where friends? Why strange?” He looks up at her with sad and confused eyes, causing her to be filled with the overwhelming desire to see the neko boy happy. She glares at Sunpo.

“You heard the cutey, he’s loney! Send him back!”

Sunpo stares at her with her jaw dropped, about to tell her that if she sends him back then all of the Alternates get sent back, only to jump when Broccoli appears in front of her with their noses practically touching.

“Not know! New smell! New friend?” He looks at her hopefully, and Sunpo is subjected to her own version of cuteness overload.

“Uh, s-sure. We can be friends, I guess?” She answers hesitantly while taking a step back to give her some more space, not sure how they’ll react.

They beam at her jumping up and down while clapping their hands. “Yay! New friend! Vampy gives good advice!”

Quirkless, the hero Alternate, clears his throat, drawing Broccoli’s attention. “By ‘Vampy’, you wouldn’t happen to be talking about Himiko Toga, would you?”

Broccoli gives him several big nods. “Yep, yep! Vampy nice Alley Sister. Burn Burn Alley Friend, less nice.”

“Sister? You have a big family, with two moms and a sister.” Midosagi notes, feeling that there’s more to the story than what they think.

“Many family!” Broccoli starts ticking off his fingers, shadow fingers appearing once he runs out of fingers on his flesh and blood hand. “Shadow Mommy. Rabbit Mommy. Dragon Mommy. Vampy Sister. Boom Boom Sister -not Boom Boom Trash Friend now!-. Unic-”

Before he can finish listing off the members of his family his eyes fall on Aizawa, who gave up on dealing with his class and the alternates and laid down in his sleeping bag to take a nap. He hisses at him, which causes Aizawa to jolt awake due to the instincts cultivated into all cat lovers to make their overlords happy.

Unfortunately for him this is one cat he can never get along with.

“Pain Eye Man!” Vanishing again Broccoli appears behind the door to the classroom, cautiously peeking his head out and staring at the confused teacher warily. “No pain eyes!” They yell while pointing at him with a shaking finger.

Aizawa looks at his class with a raised eyebrow and an irritated expression. This is exactly what he wanted to avoid by going to sleep! Lessons about how slight differences could change the entire course of their lives? They can learn it themselves! He didn’t realize just how problematic his problem child’s life could be.

When he gets confused shrugs instead of answers he turns to Sunpo, who throws her hands up in the air. “I’ve said this a thousand times; just because I brought them here doesn’t mean I know what’s going on in their lives or why they act like that! Ask them yourself if you're curious! I’m going to grab some food before the rest get here.”

And so she storms out of the room, pausing at the door to reluctantly pet Broccoli on the head as she goes. Broccoli leans into her touch with a purr, making a dissatisfied noise when she stops before turning his eyes back on Aizawa.

He sighs. “I have no idea what you mean by ‘pain eyes’, but I promise not to do whatever it is to you.”

Though still cautious, they step out from behind the door, slowly making their way into the classroom where they duck behind Quirkless, who chuckles. “I’m assuming that, for some reason, when he uses his quirk it causes you pain?”

They nod, standing on their tip toes as they peer at Aizawa from Quirkless’ shoulder. “Much pain. Many screaming. Shadow Panic.” They shake their head. “Shadow Panic not good. No fight. No fun. Others much pain.”

“Oh.” Midosagi blinks as something seems to click in his head. “Oh, you poor, poor boy. Do you need a hug?” He stretches his arms out, Aizawa doing a double take as he sees that his scarf has been undone. Even if he was asleep, he made sure that Midosagi was bound well enough that he shouldn’t have been able to get out. For now, he decides, he’ll let him be free. But the moment he makes a move out of line it’s back in the scarf.

Broccoli tilts his head before sniffing in Midosagi’s direction. Seeming to find nothing wrong with his scent he vanishes and appears in front of him, wrapping his arms around him as he becomes engulfed in Midosagi’s own.

Quirkless, along with everyone else, looks at them with confusion before he seems to make the same connections as Midosagi, causing him to wince. He looks over at the class and holds a finger to his lips, telling them to hold their questions for now.

After a few moments of silent hugging Midosagi pulls back, looking at Broccoli with a small smile. “Hey, it’s been an exciting few minutes. How about a nice power nap?”

He perks up, tilts his head while his tail tip flickers, then nods. “Sleep time good. Long day before broken air.”

He vanishes again and nobody can see where he went, causing a mild panic that gets cut short by Aizawa’s tired voice and a light kick at the wall. “He’s in the wall compartment.”

“””There are wall compartments?”””

He rolls his eyes at his class’ naivety. “This is Nezu’s school. Of course there are secret compartments, passages, and safety bunkers.”

Iida, Shoji, Tokoyami, Kodaa, and Kirishima nod their heads in understanding. They themselves had stumbled upon an old underground survival training area, with a hot spring at the end of it. Though they’d never been able to find it again afterwards.

In reality what they’d found was half storage for Mei Hatsume’s overabundance of inventions, half personal secret base for Power Loader to indulge in his antisocial, introverted tendencies.

But that’s not important right now. What is important is how both Midosagi and Quirkless are making signs at the class to remain silent, with pointed looks focused on Bakugou -who’s shown remarkable patience during Broccoli’s appearance.

Maybe being completely ignored triggered something in him?

After a few minutes of waiting in silence -followed by Quirkless accessing the secret compartment to make sure Broccoli is really asleep- they turn to the class to tell them what they realized.

“He’s a Nomu.” Quirkless says, getting mixed reactions. A few of them, such as Bakugou, scoff, not believing them.

“Nomu are always those bird fuckers. You expect us to believe that version of Deku is one? Fuck off, I’m not gullible.” Bakugou’s surprisingly calm words get an equal amount of nods in agreement and glares directed at him. Included in the glares are all the present Izukus.

“He clearly has a cat quirk, as well as being able to teleport. That’s already two quirks, which gives the claim substance.” Midoriya says pointedly, even a bit aggressively, getting the stares of his classmates to change to himself.

He hasn’t realized it yet, but seeing his alternates? How much more…confident?...they are? How much better they seem overall? Added onto their reactions regarding Bakugou?

Well. Subconsciously, he’s begun to wonder if his friends are right. Maybe the way Bakugou treats him isn’t normal. Maybe…he’d be a better person if he stopped letting Bakugou treat him as he likes?

“It was too fast for me to really see -perks of teleporting- but it seemed like his shadow lingered for a moment whenever he teleported.” Quirkless notes, getting a nod from Midosagi.

“Yeah, and just after he appeared in front of me his eyes, for maybe half a second, were completely pitch back.”

“It’s likely that his quirk has more to do with shadows, or perhaps darkness, rather than conditional teleportation. It would simply be one aspect of a greater power.”

The Izukus all nod, before realizing that they don’t recognize the voice speaking. They all turn to look, seeing another Izuku that has somehow managed to avoid notice. Do the portals only flash when Sunpo is here!? The class wonders.

Seeing that he’s the center of attention the new Alternate gives a half-hearted wave.

“Hello, everyone. I suppose given the situation, you can call me Analyst.”