Chapter 5: Oozing In

Dagobah beach.

A dumping ground that people would poor trash onto for years.

It was proof of people's laziness in that they would rather dump their trash on a beach then do it the normal way.

And now it was time to take advantage of that laziness.

"Alright, today you're going to help clean up this beach!" Izuku said.

The two kids, Fu and Kiba, did not look impressed.

"I thought you said we would be training!? How is this training?" Kiba crossed her arms.

Izuku had told the kids that he had special training planned for them and that he would be taking them to a special training ground. Inko was actually home this time, so Izuku let her watch Kei and Eri.

"Well, a lot of this trash is really heavy." Izuku pointed out. "And others are really fragile, you two will be in charge of taking the trash to this garbage truck. And to help out with the training, I made something new."

Izuku pulled out a clipboard from his bag. "Today you'll and all your siblings will start earning points, the better you all do on your quirk training and studying, the more points you get. And when you all get a thousand points, I'll take you all to an amusement park!"

Suddenly Kiba's eyes widened in excitement. "An amusement park! You mean those places that are made purely to entertain the masses and bring delight and joy into the hearts of families."

I mean it's probably built purely to take your money but seems excited. Fu thought. Going to an amusement park didn't really excite him all too much considering he can't really feel the sense of adrenaline and thrill that the rides and other attractions provide, but he was sure everyone else would have fun and that was enough for him. He would probably get some good meat too.

"That's right!" Izuku smiled at her excitement. "For this training, you'll get points based on how heavy the trash is, and how intact it is. So try not to break anything."

While it didn't matter much if the trash was broken, it would help them in learning to control their strength. Fu was pretty good at that, but they'd had to replace a lot of things because Kiba kept accidentally breaking them.

"Well what are we waiting for Fu, we have points to get!" Kiba grabbed Fu by the arm and ran towards the beach. Causing Fu's arm to rip off and blood to go flying everywhere.

Fu sighed as his arm grew back. "I'm really glad she doesn't do that to anyone else."

Izuku gave a nervous laugh. "Me too."

After that, the two children got to work.

At first Kiba in her haste to gain points ended up breaking quite a lot of things. She almost destroyed the garbage truck by throwing a fridge at it from the beach. Luckily it missed, and Izuku gave her a stern talk about not throwing things.

However, it didn't take long for the two kids to make a plan.

Kiba would carry the really heavy stuff, fridges, couches, cabinets, cars, etc. While Fu would carry the other, more fragile things.

Kiba would still break some things and make some dents, but after a while, she started getting things to the truck mostly intact.

Izuku loved watching them make progress. His only source of fulfillment at this point was watching these kids grow. It made him happy in a way that nothing else did at this point.

Did that speak for how empty his life was that he relied on children to bring him a sense of purpose? One could argue that, but Izuku didn't like to think about such things.

So far things were going well.

And then something unexpected happened.

"Young Midoriya?" Said a familiar voice from behind him.

Izuku's eyes widened like dinner plates and his head spun around. "All Mi-"

Behind him was All Might in his skinny form, and a brown-haired girl walking next to him.

"I mean, uh, All Might! I could have sworn I saw All Might around here somewhere, guess I must have been hallucinating! Hahaha!" Izuku laughed nervously, sweating buckets as he nervously tried to play off his blunder.

"It's fine Young Midoriya, Young Uraraka is already aware of my identity." All Might said.

"Wait, they know about this form!?" Izuku and Uraraka said at the same time.

They both looked at each other and after a brief moment, Izuku looked away, blushing from embarrassment. "S-Sorry."

"It's fine I was just a little, shocked," Uraraka explained.

Oh my god, a girl is talking to me! Izuku thought as he blushed and fidgeted in place.

"Young Uraraka, this is Young Midoriya." All Might introduced her. "He is a friend of mine."

"F-f-f-f-friend!?" Izuku stuttered. "W-we're f-friends?!"

"Of course!" All Might gave him thumbs up.

Izuku stood there in silence for a moment, before passing out and falling onto the street.

"Young Midoriya!" All Might ran up to go check on him.

"Is he ok!?" Uraraka was both confused and very concerned.

"Yes he's fine, he's more than a bit of a fanboy and his self-confidence isn't...great." All Might told her. "He probably just passed out from shock!"

"Oh...good?" She wasn't really sure what to make of that.

Just as All Might was about to wake him up, Kiba ran upholding a car over her head.

"Caretaker I don't know why this bent-" Then she saw All Might holding and unconscious Izuku. "Gasp! You fiend! You knocked out Caretaker!"

"Young lady this isn't what it looks like!" All Might put Izuku down.

"Take this fiend!" Kiba threw the car in her hands at All Might, aiming just over his head in hopes of scaring him away.

All Might, however, saw a car heading at him and reacted. He transformed into his buff form and caught the car in his hands. "Young lady! You should not throw cars at people! Using your quirk in public is a crime!"

Meanwhile, Kiba was in shock. "All Might!? The real All Might!? What happened to that skeleton man?!"

"He uh...ran away." All Might weakly tried to lie.

"That doesn't make sense. Perhaps it was his quirk." Kiba shook her head. "No matter! Now that you're here, I may finally have my revenge!"

"Revenge?" All Might was seriously confused. "Revenge for...what?"

"For your unbalanced excuse for a character in Super Hero Bash Unlimited!" Kiba answered.

All Might looked at her, not believing what he just heard. "You're not...serious are you?"

"Have at you!" Kiba charged at All Might. "Blood kick of eternal torment!"

Kiba jumped in the air and dive kicked at All Might.

All Might, being All Might, caught her by the foot and held her in the air.

"Hey! Let me go!" Kiba struggled, flailing about fruitlessly.

"Now, now calm down young lady." All Might said. "I believe I'm going to have a word with your parents!"

"Well we only have one of those and he's currently asleep." Fu arrived soon after Kiba, holding a glass jar with pink slime in it.

"Wait, wait, wait, is...is young Midoriya your guardian?" All Might asked.

"Eh!?" Ochaco had no idea what was going on.

"Duh! Why do you think I called him Caretaker!?" Kiba pouted, still hanging upside down. "The fools who gave us life couldn't recognize us for the gifts that we are! But Caretaker has an eye for recognizing true power when he sees it and takes us under his care."

"...What?" All Might and Ochaco asked at the same time.

"Our parents abandoned us and now he's taking care of us," Fu explained.

"Ah." All Might understood now. "I'm...sorry."

"It's fine. You didn't do anything wrong." Fu said. "We got over it a while ago."

"As far as I'm concerned Caretaker is the only parent I need!" Kiba said proudly. "Which is why I will never forgive you for hurting him!"

"Yeah, why is he passed out?" Fu asked.

"He uh, fanboyed out after I said we were friends." All Might explained sheepishly.

"Your friends?" The two children asked simultaneously.

"Yes! Young Midoriya is a trusted friend of mine!" All Might said in his typical bombastic voice.

"Why didn't Caretaker say he was friends with the number one hero!? I could have asked him to fight you sooner!" Kiba said.

"Well, we don't actually know much about Izuku." Fu realized. "Or Eri."

"Eri?" Ochaco swore this was only getting more confused as time went off.

"Ah yes I know her! She is the young girl Midoriya saved from the Yakuza!" All Might said.

"WHAT!?" Ochaco shouted in surprise.

"What's a Yakuza?" Kiba asked.

"I think they're bad guys," Fu said.

To think there would be a day when someone would ask that question. All Might thought to himself. I'm happy, but I feel so old.

"Ohhh." Izuku groaned as he started waking up.

He looked around and saw everyone looking at him. All Might was still holding Kiba in the air, the car Kiba threw was destroyed on the other side of him.

"What...what happened?" Izuku asked in confusion.

A few explanations later.

Izuku gave Kiba a soft head chop.

"You don't throw cars at people!" Izuku said loudly, not quite shouting but saying it loudly enough to convey his disapproval.

"I wasn't going to throw it at him, just above him!" Kiba protested. "And with my incredible aim, there is no way I could have missed."

Izuku thought of the many things he could say to convey his point.

Instead, he decided to do something else.

He picked up a pebble off the ground and placed it in Kiba's hands.

"Throw this at the jar Fu is holding," Izuku instructed her.

Thinking this would help demonstrate her point, Kiba threw the stone, right at the jar.

The stone just missed the jar by about a foot, instead breezing past it and over the beach, eventually hitting the water.

"That was-that was just a fluke!" Kiba said denial. She picked up a handful of rocks and started throwing them at Fu.

"Isn't this dangerous?" Ochaco pointed out. Worried for Fu's safety.

"Oh, no Fu can regenerate from anything and he can't feel pain either," Izuku explained. "He'll be completely fine so long as he's well-fed."

Kiba kept throwing the rocks, sometimes she would get close but other times she would be way off. At about rock number nine she finally managed to graze the thing, leaving a crack in its side.

"Ugh! These are all flukes!" Kiba shouted, tears going down her face. "I-"

Izuku put his hand on her shoulder and gave her that disappointed look she hated so much. "We make mistakes, we all do. And you'll never improve if you never admit your wrong."

Kiba went silent. Taking in Izuku's words without any argument.

"If that person wasn't All Might and if you had missed, then you could have really hurt him." Izuku didn't want to say kill, she felt bad enough as it is. "And using your quirk to hurt someone, is illegal. We could have gotten in a lot of trouble, I might not have been allowed to take care of you all anymore."

That made Kiba's eyes go wide. The thought of being back on the street, as well as sending all her new siblings away...all because of what she did.

"I'm sorry." Kiba cried softly.

"It's ok, you should apologize to All Might for throwing a car at him. And for attacking him." Izuku said.

Kiba turned to All Might and gave him an apologetic bow. "I'm sorry for attacking you."

"I forgive you. Just make sure not to do it again." All Might said.

Izuku put his hand on Kiba's head, gently patting her. "I appreciate you trying to defend me, but next time be more careful, your way too strong for some people to handle."

Kiba nodded, subtly leaning into Izuku's comforting touch.

Izuku stopped petting her and switched back to his stern face. "I know you only meant to protect me and didn't mean to really hurt anyone, I'll only give you a light punishment. All the points you earned today are gone. Understood?"

Kiba nodded dejectedly. Understanding why but still being bummed out about it.

Izuku turned to All Might. "I'm so sorry about that! I know you're supposed to report stuff like this...but I would really appreciate it if you could keep quiet about this."

"Well, I've asked you to keep a few of my secrets, so I suppose I could keep yours just this once." All Might laughed.

"Thank you so much!" Izuku bowed.

"By the way, when did you come to care for two more children anyway?" All Might asked.

"It's um, actually three." Izuku sighed. "And it's...a long story."

Two long stories later.

All Might and Ochaco looked at him in disbelief.

"Well, you um…" All Might didn't know what to say to this. He'd had some pretty crazy coincidences in his life, but usually, they were spaced out between each other. To have such specific things happen all within such a short time span, it was rather...absurd.

"Do you have a quirk that attracts kids or something?" Ochaco asked, that being the only explanation for what she had just heard.

"No-no-no." Izuku shook his hands out in front of him. "I...nevermind. I don't attract kids to me or anything, it's all just strange coincidences."

"Hey, Izuku. What is your quirk?" Fu asked, still holding the cracked jar.

"That's uh…" Izuku really didn't want to tell them. He had told Eri awhile back and she was the only one who knew he was quirkless. Well...Kei knew technically, but she didn't know what a quirkless person was, and he had told her not to mention it. He loved these kids and he knew they at least liked him.

But he knew how quickly things could change when people knew you were quirkless.

And so did All Might. Who was giving Izuku a look of pure pity.

"It's not impotent." Izuku refused to answer.

That miffed Fu a little. And Kiba but she didn't feel like saying anything right now. They barely knew anything about the person taking care of them, and that made them feel rather...self centered. Like they had only ever been thinking about themselves.

"I mean if you don't tell us what it is I'm going to assume it attracts children," Fu said.

"It's not that!" Izuku protested. "I just...don't like talking about it ok."

Fu saw Izuku was getting really, really upset and uncomfortable, and felt bad that he had pushed the matter.

There was a short pause as no one really knew what to say.

Izuku looked for something to distract from the mood and his eyes landed on the jar of slime.

"Oh, um. Since I asked Kiba to throw stones at this I'll just give you full points for this anyway." Izuku took the jar from him.

"Points?" Ochaco asked.

"Oh yeah, I was kinda helping them train their quirks using the garbage on the beach. They have trouble controlling their strength so when they bring the garbage back I give them points for how intact it is." Izuku explained.

"You were using this place for training too!" Ochaco was shocked at the coincidence. "You're the man of coincidences I guess!"

"Huh?" Izuku didn't understand what she meant.

"Well, it just so happens that great minds think alike." All Might said. "Because I was using this beach to train young Uraraka."

"What really!?" Izuku was shocked. His life really was full of coincidences. "I'm sorry for interrupting your training then! I'll-I'll find somewhere else to train!"

"No, no it's fine!" Ochaco smiled at him brightly, making him recoil in shock. "All Might says I'm almost done! After all, I've been training to be a hero for a while."

"Your training to be a hero!" Izuku shouted. "Oh, wait. If you're with All Might I guess that was kind of obvious. Still, training with All Might. You must be pretty amazing!"

Ochaco gave an embarrassed laugh as her face turned a little red from the compliment.

Crack.

"Huh?" Izuku looked down at the jar and noticed that it was moving like there was something alive inside of it trying to get out.

Crack, Crack, Crack!

The jar shook more and more as cracks started appearing in it, and the pink goo started pushing itself out of the cracks.

"Uh, what's going on?" Ochaco asked.

Izuku had a bad feeling that this would soon be a familiar situation.

Break!

The jar burst open, and the pink goo flew up into the air.

It moved around, expanding and contracting, before taking shape.

When the goo landed back on the ground it was now in the shape of a seven-year-old pink goo girl with pig-tails, wearing the cap of the jar as a hat.

"GOOOOOO!" The girl cried excitedly, waving her arms in the air.

Everyone looked at the girl for a minute. Then at Izuku.

Izuku sighed and kneeled down. "Hey there. What's your name."

"Goo!" The girl said.

"Your name is...goo?" Izuku asked.

The girl shook her head. "Goo!"

"...Is all you can say is goo?" Izuku realized.

The girl nodded.

Izuku sighed. I guess it makes sense if she doesn't have any vocal cords. Her quirk doesn't seem that dangerous so hopefully, we can call her parents or-

SISSSSS

Izuku was shaken out of his thoughts by the sound of something melting. He looked at the girl's head and realized the cap was sinking into her head, melting and dissolving away.

Then he saw smoke rising up from the ground and noticed the girl was getting lower. She was burning the floor she was standing on.

Oh. She isn't made of goo. She's made of acid. Izuku realized. That's a dangerous quirk. And her being in a jar might have been someone trying to throw her away. Most likely her parents. Meaning that-

It was a good thing Namae had given him her phone number.

Later.

Izuku sat in one of the offices at the police station. Wondering what exactly happened with his life.

He had been escorted to the police station to wait for Namae.

They had managed to get the goo girl in a special containment suit to stop her from destroying everything she touches. She was very, very hesitant to get in it, her experience with the jar probably made her dislike being confined inside things, however, they managed to convince her after showing she could still move around in it.

She was also very hesitant to leave Izuku, not as hesitant as Eri of Kei when they first met, but she did seem attached to him.

How does this keep happening? Izuku wondered, trying to calculate the odds.

His thoughts were interrupted when Namae stepped in the room, wearing an elementary schooler's backpack and seemed very excited.

"Why are you...wearing that?" Izuku asked in confusion.

"To carry my stuff," Namae answered as she took her seat across from Izuku. "I like to use small bags because it's easier to carry around. Also, it discourages people from asking me to carry their stuff."

Izuku was pretty sure he was almost past the point of being surprised by Namae's laziness.

"Is she an orphan?" Izuku got right to the point.

"You know it!" Namae chirped. "Her name is Sansan, age seven. She was born with her quirk, Acid Body. Her body is made of special acid, capable of dissolving through a lot of things. She can also expand and contract herself at will. When she was born she killed her mother because...well you know, there was acid coming out of her. Apparently, her father blamed her for it and gave her to other family members, and those other family members couldn't deal with her because you know, acid. And she was tossed around inside her family until one of them got a jar made of special glass she couldn't melt through and tossed her into the beach. Where she stayed for about a year until you found her."

"She was stuck in that jar for a year!?" Izuku couldn't imagine what that must have been like, being trapped unable to move in a small space for a year. And doing that to a six-year-old.

It was easily the second worst thing to happen to any of the children under his care. Eri's backstory was still quite a bit worse.

"She can't speak due to not having any vocal cords, but our telepaths have been speaking to her so we got some information from her," Namae said. "She knows how to write but barely. She doesn't like being in her containment suit, and she's really grateful to you for letting her out of that jar. I think you know where this is going."

"Just give me the contract." Izuku sighed.

"Not so fast!" Namae said, making Izuku look at her with slight shock. "You see I've been thinking, this is fate. It must be. There is no other explanation for how this keeps happening. So I talked to some of the higher-ups and gave them a proposal."

"A proposal?" Izuku didn't know where this was going, and knowing Namae this could end either very well or very poorly for him.

"That you become the official caretaker of the O.P.C.C. children," Namae said. "Meaning that you'll be in charge of taking care of any children that fall under the jurisdiction of the O.P.C.C., meaning any child that's abandoned or given up by their parents or gardens and have quirks that would make them a hazard to take care of under normal circumstances, will go to you."

Izuku blinked, staying silent as he took in the information. Then when he was about to say something, Namae spoke first.

"I know what you're gonna say, I don't have enough space! Wouldn't keeping all those children under one roof be dangerous? Should you really give such an important job to a teenager!? I'm so conflicted herp a derp." Namae said in a mocking voice. "But we got you covered, as an integral part of our branch, you'll be given the support of the entire branch. You'll be provided with a huge home with a high-tech security system to keep you safe, to keep the children safe, and keep you safe from the children. The house will be provided with various means of entertainment and will be a good distance away from the general populace in the forest at the edge of the city. You'll be provided with means to deal with all of the children's quirks, and you can hire assistants to help you, provided they pass our screening process. And of course, you'll be paid rather generously, on top of all the money your family already possesses you rich bastard. And lastly, if you're worried about your age, we've given children to people much older than you and they fucked up in record time, don't worry about it, you're fine."

Izuku closed his mouth, and further considered the offer. Honestly, it seemed...too good. Aside from the chance of dying due to taking care of such dangerous children, he didn't really see much of a reason to refuse.

"Listen, people wish they could take care of their kids instead of doing their jobs, now you can do both!" Namae further tried to sell him on it. "I've read your file, Izuku Midoriya. You wanted to be a hero since you were born. But due to a cruel twist of fate, you could never hope to achieve that dream. You became depressed, mopey, and eventually just shut down and stopped going outside altogether. Then fate came back, knocking on your door in the form of a little girl needing help, you answered, and took her in, then came another, and another. Now you have the chance to help children all across Japan. You could be their hero. Put smiles on their faces."

"I-" Namae cut him off again.

"And, if this works out, our branch could be given an upgrade so to speak. We could start making our existence known to more people so they don't keep throwing their dangerous children out on the street, and we can get more funding to look for more children on the streets!" She continued. "We could keep those children from just bumping into people, like villains, who'll use them for their quirks and turn them into villains! You could literally turn the next generation of villains, into the next generation of heroes! Or bakers! Or whatever the fuck! You-"

"Alright, I'll do it!" Izuku shouted, having a feeling this could go on for a while if he didn't stop her.

Namae stopped her overacting and immediately pulled a large contract out of her bag. And when I say large, I mean large. The stack of papers was about as thick as someone's head.

"Since this is so big I know you probably don't want to read it so I'll just show you where to sign." Namae took out a pen.

Izuku took the pen and said. "I'm reading all of it."

Namae leaned back and sighed. "Yeah, I figured you'd do that."

She took out her phone and some ear pods, while Izuku got to reading.

Many hours later.

Izuku put down the pen, finally finished reading and signing the massive contract.

For most people his age they would have given up a few pages in or skipped over things. But Izuku was proficient at studying, reading, and analysis so he was used to looking through massive piles of words.

The contract explained a few things that Namae either glossed over or left out in her explanation, but none of it deterred Izuku from signing it.

It explained that Izuku would slowly receive the children they already had in their care, over a long period of time, giving both him and the children time to adjust, rather than just shoving all the children onto his lap at once.

He would also not really be considered a government employee. Rather he would work with the government rather than for it. Essentially he would be the boss of an organization funded by and had ties to the government but was still technically independent. This gave Izuku a lot of freedom in what he was allowed to do.

This surprised Izuku, he figured they would want more control over him but it seemed like they were content with him doing whatever he wanted. It was actually kinda worrying how much freedom he had.

Most of the contract was just making sure he didn't back out of any agreements or stop accepting children.

However, when Izuku remembered who wrote this contract it made more sense. Izuku had done his research on the O.P.C.C, and they were an extremely small and underfunded branch of the government, likely due to their inefficiency. They had difficulties finding people who would take care of the children they obtained, hence the children would spend most of their lives in a government facility with a growing sense they were rejected from society, and a small but noticeable percentage of children under their care had grown up to become villains.

And due to the underfunding, it makes it hard for them to look for more dangerous children and it makes it almost impossible to advertise themselves, which is why so little people know about them.

So it makes sense that they would desperately want Izuku to sign this contract. As it would get rid of one of the main issues they were faced with and allow them to produce better results, and likely obtain more funding. As well as reducing their workload.

Izuku looked at Namae, who had fallen asleep in her chair.

"Um...Namae?" Izuku said.

The woman kept on sleeping. Her ear pods kept her from hearing him.

Izuku wondered how to wake her up. He could just touch her, but it felt rude and perverted to just touch a woman while they were sleeping. Or at least it was to Izuku.

He found a nameplate on the desk and picked it up, before poking Namae in the shoulder with it.

"Huh?!" Namae woke up. "Where am I? Oh, right, the big deal...Oh right, the big deal!"

Namae looked at the signed contract in front of her, grabbing it and quickly flipping through it to make sure everything was signed.

"Haha! Fuck yeah!" She celebrated. "I am definitely getting a fucking promotion!"

She looked at Izuku with a crazed grin on her face. "The house will take a few weeks to complete and we'll notify you when it's done! Now if you excuse me, I'm buying drinks tonight!"

With that Namae ran out of the room, jumping and cheering as she went.

Izuku sat back and thought about what he just did.

This was his job now. This was his life now. He would be spending the rest of his life giving children the happiness and love they deserved.

He thought about the kids already under his care. He thought about them playing together, being happy.

Because of him.

He smiled slightly. If he couldn't be a hero, then he could settle for this.