Chapter 86: Why Me?

The last location they'd be visiting tonight was the place Yami had been eager to visit.

A festival. A pretty sizeable one as well. Fill to the brim with games, art, prizes, and most importantly, food.

The moment Yami stepped onto the festival ground, and the aromas of all the different dishes, he was gone. Simply put he was on cloud nine and no one could pull him down.

And Amai was not far behind, standing beside Yami as the two of them just stood there with their eyes closed, taking in the smells with huge smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes.

"It's beautiful," Amai whispered blissfully. "So beautiful."

"Yes." Yami agreed. "Beautiful."

"I think you two like food a bit too much." Mina joked patting Yami on the head.

"Nonsense!" Yami and Amai said sharply.

Yagi chuckled a bit behind them. "I think enjoying food is a wonderful thing. Trust me, as someone who can't quite enjoy that aspect of life to its fullest anymore, I think these two should take every opportunity to enjoy all sorts of cuisine. So don't be afraid to eat up."

"We won't," Yami said, as he and Amai quickly moved towards the food stalls. Yonda. Leaving this to you.

Of course, you are you glutton. Yonda thought to herself as she rolled her eyes.

BEEP! BEEP! YOUR PHONE IS RINGING! YOUR PHONE IS RINGING!

Suddenly Yagi's phone started ringing.

He took it out and his eyes widened when he looked at who was calling.

Cathleen Bate.

"...Go on without me for a while kid. I need to take this." Yagi told them, as he walked away.

"Alright you two, looks like it's just the three of us!" Mina said to Yonda and Kioku. "So kids, where do you want to want to go first?"

I want to play a game first! Yonda said before she grabbed Kioku by the hand. Follow me, sister!

XXXXXXXX

The first game they decided to play, was goldfish scooping.

And Kioku looked like she was about to cry.

No matter how hard she tried, the paper bowl would keep breaking each time she tried to scoop a fish.

"Oh come on!" Kioku shouted in frustration as the bowl broke again.

"Heh. Your scoops are far too aggressive young one. The bowl is fragile, but your movements are too strong. Patience is needed to win this game." The old man who was running the game told her with a kind smile.

And Kioku responded in kind, with a heavy glare.

Man, she is a very sore loser. Yonda thought, holding up her own bag full of goldfish as she heard the onslaught of swears Kioku was slinging at the man in her head.

Seeing that Kioku was not having a good time, to say the least, Mina decided to step in.

"Alright, let's go somewhere else. Thanks, sir!" Mina told the old man as she lead the two girls away.

Kioku pouted as Mina led her away, not at all pleased, and her mood only worsened when something caught her eye.

It was a small family. A father and a mother, with their daughter in between them. She was holding both her parent's hands and had a huge grin on her face, her parents looked just as happy, with soft smiles as they looked down at their daughter.

It was a wholesome sight, that sent Kioku into a rage.

Lucky! Lucky! Lucky! You don't even know how good you have it! Honestly, Yonda didn't even need to hear Kioku's thoughts to understand that she was really, really upset. Her face held an expression of pure fury, and she looked even closer to crying than before.

For a second, Yonda thought she was actually was going to cry.

But then, she suddenly started to calm down, or rather she started trying to calm down, taking a deep breath and trying to calm herself.

Why does it hurt so much? I have a family now. I love them so much. But why does it still hurt!? Daddy loves us all so much. And I love him. So why does it still hurt!? Kioku was still trying to calm herself down, to little avail. She was trying to hold back tears and sniffling. It was upsetting to look at.

And of course, Mina took note of it almost immediately, her eyes widened when she noticed the state of the small girl.

She quickly kneeled down in front of Kioku. "Hey, Kioku what's wrong?"

"Nothing!" Kioku sniffled, looking away from her as some tears finally started welling up in the corners of her eyes. "I'm fine!"

"You don't look ok," Mina said, pointing out the obvious but in an obviously concerned way. "Hey it's ok, we can go home early if that's what you want."

"I said I'm fine!" Kioku shouted, attracting some attention from the people around them.

"Come on girl, we both know that's not true," Mina said in a somewhat comedic tone, smiling at her, hoping to lift the mood but once again, to no avail. "And that's ok."

"No, it's not!" Kioku cried, tears actually spilling out of her eyes now. "It's not ok! These feelings should go away!"

"Um, I don't know what feelings you're talking about honey, but if you want to talk about it-" Mina once again tried to reach out to her, but was once again turned away.

"Go away! I want my daddy!" Kioku shouted, turning away from Mina. "I want my daddy!"

Meanwhile, Yonda couldn't actually hear any of this of course. All she could hear was Daddy can fix this! Daddy, please come make this better And things like that.

Kioku just calm down. Yonda tried to tell her. Let's just go home and daddy will-

"NO!" Kioku shouted, forgetting that Yonda couldn't hear her, but she could read her expression well enough to get what she was saying. "Get out of my head! Go away!"

Kioku then turned and started running away.

"Oh crap! Kioku wait!" Mina started running after her, quickly turning her head to Yonda. Yonda please go find Mr. Yagi and tell him what's happing!

Ok! Yonda told her, before quickly running back towards the entrance.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Despite Kioku trying to get away from her, Mina stayed right behind her, easily keeping pace with her. This should be obvious as she was both older, and far more athletic. You couldn't be in the hero course if you got outrun by little girls who rarely exercise.

Still, she didn't really try to stop her, as that might be detrimental to calming her down. She figured it would just be better to let her run out of energy.

And so the chase continued, with Kioku eventually running into the forest nearby.

Kioku kept running through the forest, tears in her eyes, impairing her vision, so when a small rock appeared in her path, she easily tripped over it. "AH!"

She fell forward, skidding across the ground, scraping her knee, and getting dirt all over her clothes.

"Kioku!" Mina shouted, she quickly ran up to the fallen girl, who was now crying even harder because of the pain. "Hey, hey it's ok. It's just a scrape. It's just a scrape, you'll be fine. Here."

Mina quickly pulled out a bottle of water and a handkerchief. She poured water on the wound, cleaning it really quickly, before wrapping her handkerchief around the wound. "There you go."

Kioku watched Mina internally, torn between being upset, wanting to calm down, and wanting her wound attended to.

Once Mina finished cleaning her wound, the acid girl sat down in front of her and gave her the kindest smile she could muster. "Hey, it's ok. You can tell me what's wrong?"

Kioku sniffled, and turned her head away, refusing to answer.

Mina sighed internally, but on the outside, she remained calm and patient. "Alright. You don't want to talk, you don't have to. But I'm taking you home. Your daddy wouldn't be very happy if he knew I kept you in a place that made you cry."

"Hmph." Kioku huffed in dissatisfaction but has long since run out of the energy needed to argue, as well as the will to want to.

"You did your best, it's not your fault. We know what you think of people." Mina told her gently. "We're all just hoping one day, you'll know that people can be nice. And being around them isn't so bad."

"I KNOW THAT!" Kioku suddenly exploded, Mina's words having hit something inside her that caused anger to burst from inside her. "I ALREADY KNOW THAT!"

Mina flinched, her eyes widened in shock as Kioku's voice was so loud it resonated through the forest, carrying with it her anger and pain.

"I KNOW THAT! I'VE KNOWN THAT FOR A LONG LONG TIME" Kioku continued to shout as loud as her little lungs would let her. "YOU ALL KEEP SAYING IT OVER AND OVER AGAIN! I KNOW! I KNOW AND I HATE IT! I KNOW PEOPLE CAN BE NICE! I KNOW PEOPLE DO NICE THINGS! I KNOW PARENTS BESIDES DADDY CAN LOVE THEIR CHILDREN! SO WHY DIDN'T THEY LOVE ME!?"

After letting that all out, Kioku started breathing heavily, trying to regain all the air she just let out, her face now red and sweaty, and tears were still pouring down her cheeks.

There was a period of silence as Kioku took a second to calm down and regain her breath, and Mina didn't know what to say, or if she should say anything at all quite yet.

"If people can be so nice, then why did I have to go through all that?" Kioku asked, her voice now low and broken, sounding more like a sob than anything. "Why did my parents make me go hungry when other parents don't? Why did my parents never hug me? Or smile at me? Or-or-or love me at all?"

Mina could feel her heartbreak with each word coming out of the girl's mouth. She'd known this girl had been damaged by her previous parents, but now she finally got to see exactly how damaged she really was.

"But-but I should be fine now." Kioku sobbed. "I have a daddy that loves me a whole lot! And I have sisters and brothers and they love me too! A-And I play with them, and I have fun! I'm happy! But…when I see…when I see people being all happy, and families being happy and loving each other I feel…I feel like how I used to. I feel angry and-and sad and-and jealous! But why do I feel jealous? I have what they have now? What do I still feel like that? Why do I still want people to be bad, so I don't feel like that? I know it's not good. I-I should stop feeling like that. Like Eri and Kei. They're not like this. They don't get angry and sad, and jealous. They don't hate people. S-So why am I like this?"

Kioku looked up at Mina, with red puffy tear-filled eyes, and asked. "I-Is there something wrong with me? Is that why mommy and daddy didn't love me?"

And that's when Mina's heart shattered into a million pieces.

Her body moved before she could think, and she immediately brought the girl into a hug. Pressing her against her chest, and rubbing circles into her back. "No."

Her voice was firm. Strong. Stronger than she felt. Because honestly, Mina wanted to cry. She wanted to cry at the sight of the broken girl in front of her. That her monstrous parents had hurt her this bad and left wounds this deep. And on the inside, her heart sobbed.

But on the outside, she remained unshaken, because she had to be. What this girl needed was a rock. Something stable to latch onto for the moment. And since her father wasn't here, she would have to do. And so she summoned strength, she didn't know she had.

"I'm sorry Kioku. I'm so sorry you had to go through all that. But I need you to know, what happened with your old parents, was NOT your fault." Mina told her. "Sometimes…sometimes bad things just happen. And it's not about what you did. You were just born into a bad family."

"Why?" Kioku asked, sobbing into Mina's shirt, her tiny hands clutching it with all her might. "Why me!?"

Mina took a deep breath. There was really only one answer she could give. The truth. And it was gonna be really, really hard to say. "I'm sorry Kioku, there isn't a reason. It's just…bad luck."

That didn't make Kioku feel any better, it anything it made her feel worse. All that pain she went through, all the pain she was STILL going through. Over bad luck!

She knew that was the case already. But that's why she wanted to believe that people were naturally just bad. Because then it wouldn't be that she had bad luck. That she was unlucky and suffered for it.

But she knew that it was just a lie she told herself. And in the end, hearing Mina say it…she couldn't hide behind that lie anymore. She didn't WANT to hide behind that lie.

She had to let it go, and that hurt. It hurt so, so much.

And so Kioku did what most children do when they're hurt. She cried. And cried. And cried.

Mina just waited patiently, letting the little girl sob into her shirt for who knows how long.

It felt like hours passed until suddenly they heard a familiar voice.

"There!" It was Yami. He'd probably used his quirk to see the geyser of negative emotions coming off Kioku.

Mina heard the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching them until she saw Izuku running towards them.

"Kioku!" Izuku shouted. He looked tired, out of breath. But most of all he looked worried out of his mind.

Hearing his voice, Kioku perked up. "Daddy?"

"Kioku!" Izuku shouted her name again as he got closer and closer to the two of them.

"Daddy!" Kioku quickly moved to get out of Mina's embrace and Mina opened her arms to let her escape, knowing that now was the time for her to let go.

Kioku ran towards Izuku, who was already running towards her.

Izuku swept her into a hug, picking her up and holding her in his arms, and she wrapped her arms and legs around him, holding onto him like her life depended on it. "Oh, Kioku! I'm so glad you're ok!"

"Daddy I want to go home." Kioku told Izuku in a still very broken-sounding voice.

"That's ok sweetie, we're going home right now," Izuku told her. "It's ok. We're going home."

Meanwhile, behind him, Yagi, Amai, Yami, and Yonda all arrived, with Yagi, in particular, struggling for breath.

"Finally…we made it." The secret pro hero said as he tried to catch his breath.

"What's happening!? Why is Kioku crying?!" Amai asked looking quite upset. Here she was enjoying the food when suddenly something like this happens.

Well, it looks like our dear sister had a bit of a breakdown. Yonda explained, her expression being a mix of concerned and annoyed.

"Hmmm." Yami's expression was as usual hard to read. But he definitely looked upset.

Mina then walked over to them, and fell on her butt, looking more exhausted. "Oh my god, I'm so tired."

"Young Ashido, can you tell me what happened exactly?" Yagi asked.

"It's…a long story," Mina responded.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The trip back to the Midoriya household was quiet. No one really knew what to say, or if anything they said would be appropriate, so they just kept their mouths shut, the only sounds being that of the car, the city around them, and Kioku's sniffles.

By the time they got back, it was already nighttime, and given how physically and emotionally exhausted Kioku was, it was decided that Izuku would put her to bed.

However, given that Kioku didn't want to leave his side, Izuku decided that she would sleep with him tonight.

Kioku snuggled up to Izuku's side, as she laid in his bed, cozied up under the covers.

Izuku pet her head, trying to soothe her so she could go to sleep. "It's okay Kioku, just go to sleep. I'll be right here with you. I promise."

"Daddy. You love me, right?" Kioku asked a hint of desperation in her tone.

"I love you, and I love all your siblings, more than life itself," Izuku told her, his voice firm and absolute. "Never doubt that Kioku. I will ALWAYS love you."

"I love you too daddy." Kioku sniffled, somehow hugging him even tighter. "Daddy…why am I so weak?"

"Kioku your not weak," Izuku told her. "Why would you think that."

"Because I'm still letting the past hurt me." Kioku explained. "Eri and Kei had it much worse than I did. And they're over it. They don't have problems going outside, and being around people."

"Oh, Kioku." Izuku sighed. "It's not that your weak, Eri and Kei are…they have a degree of mental strength that most people just…don't have. I'm willing to say that 99% of people just don't have the strength of mind to endure everything they have and keep going like that. It's kind of absurd. Although I do think you helped Eri a lot by erasing some of those memories. Still, though, it's not fair to compare yourself to them. That'd be like me comparing my strength of All Might's. You're not weak, you're just normal. And that's ok. It's ok to not be able to let things go right away, it's ok to be upset that bad things happened to you. It's ok to be hurt. And I'm sorry if I haven't exactly been leading by example. And I haven't provided you all the help you needed. And I'm so so sorry that you had to suffer because of it."

"It's not your fault daddy you've been busy!" Kioku tried to defend him.

"No Kioku. My job, first and foremost. Is to make sure you're ok. I should have gotten you all therapist." Izuku told her, shaking his head. "It's my responsibility as a parent, to make sure you don't have to suffer like this. And I promise you. You will get help. You're going grow, and I will help you make sure your past doesn't hurt you anymore."

Kioku almost started crying again. The sheer love and affection in his words, all directed at her. His determination to care for her, to love her.

It helped her remember that in this moment, she is loved.

"I love you, daddy." Kioku said, her heart full and feeling like it was going to burst. "Thank you for loving me."

Izuku smiled. "No need to thank me. You made that easy."

That actually did make Kioku cry. She softly sobbed tears of joy, as she snuggled against Izuku's arm.

The exhaustion finally overtook her, and she almost instantly fell asleep, tears still streaming from her eyes.

Once Izuku was sure she was asleep, he turned his attention to the door. "You guys can come in now."

After a moment, the door opened and Mina, Yagi, Yonda, and Yami came in.

"Now, tell me everything that happened," Izuku told them before he turned to Yami and Yonda. "And you two. I thought you two might be up to something earlier, and I just let it go because I assumed it would be harmless, but now I'm telling you, what were you two doing?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

It took about half an hour to explain it all. Fortunately, Kioku was in a very deep sleep, so nothing short of the end of the world would be waking her up.

"Ok." Izuku sighed, having taken in all that information. He turned once again to his two children. "You two. I'm not upset, because I know you had good intentions. But for the future, do not, under any circumstances, perform psychological experiments on your siblings without them knowing…or on anyone for that matter, really. Don't mess with people's heads without consent."

"Yes, dad," Yami said dejectedly.

I'm sorry father. Yonda said, equally as dejected.

"Like I said, I'm not upset. I'm happy you two wanted to help her, but next time you have an idea like this. Tell me first, and we can talk about it. Ok?" Izuku said, getting nods from both kids. "Good, now go back to your rooms and get ready for dinner."

The two children left, still looking bummed about how things turned out, something Izuku would no doubt have to handle at a later point.

Izuku then turned his gaze towards Mina. "Thank you for handling that as well you did. I'm so glad I sent you to go and not someone like Todoroki."

"Heh, yeah that probably would have ended in disaster." Mina chuckled. "But you don't need to thank me, I'm doing my job. Both literal job, and my job as a decent human being."

Izuku smiled. "Well, I'm happy to have someone as capable as you working here. Even if it's only temporary."

"Aww shucks, you're making me blush." Mina grinned, although that only showed a fraction of how actually happy she was to receive this kind of praise.

"And with that said, you getting a raise," Izuku told her.

"Eh!?" Mina gasped, her eyes widening. "Wait-wait! I'm not opposed to getting more money but I don't really think what I did warrants a raise or anything. I mean, I'm already getting paid a lot."

"Mina, I didn't I asked if you wanted a raise, I said you getting a raise," Izuku told her. "I'm doubling what you were getting before."

"Doubling!?" Mina almost fell on her butt from shock. "Uh, I…is that really ok?"

"It's fine. I told you, it's not up for discussion. Your getting paid double, for going plus ultra when it counted." Izuku said firmly.

"Heheh. I'd suggest you just take the raise young Ashido. Young Midoriya can quite stubborn when it comes to things like this." Yagi told her, his voice filled with amusement.

Mina took a second to take that in, before giving a fake exasperated sigh. "Geeze. My boss is so unreasonable. Well, I guess I have no choice."

Izuku smiled. "Exactly. Now, you are free to go. I have some things to discuss with Mr. Yagi."

"Yeah um…there was kinda one more thing I wanted to talk to you about," Mina said. "I wanted to ask if I could work here part-time, like, after this whole thing with U.A. was over."

Izuku's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yeah, I mean…" Mina sighed, her happy-go-lucky expression melting into one that was more upset and frustrated. "It's not fair. It's really not fair that these kids had to go through all that. I always respected what you were doing here, helping kids that need help, it's a pretty great thing to do. And I really respect how much effort you put into it but…I don't think I understood just, how important your job was, or how much these kids needed help. The stuff with Kiba was a bit of an eye-opener, and after that interview and the stuff you said about Eri's past…ugh…but this was…I've never seen a kid so…broken. I never want to see a kid so broken! It broke my heart to see her that way. But, I'm glad I was there for her. Because I hate thinking about what would have happened if she was alone."

Izuku nodded. Kioku was very, very affection starved. So having someone who cared about her nearby when she was feeling like how she did, was VERY important, it's why he sent someone like Mina in the first place.

"These kids deserve to be happy, and loved, and get lots of hugs!" Mina said, sounding very determined. "And since you can only give so many hugs at once, I want to be there to give them even more hugs!"

"I see." Izuku turned his head up towards her and gave her a relieved smile. "Thank you. For caring so much about them. We can talk about the terms of your employment later, but you definitely have the job if you want it."

"Alright! Thanks, sir! I promise I won't let you down!" Mina swore, giving him a salute.

"After today, I have every bit of confidence you won't," Izuku said. "Now please leave me and Mr Yagi alone for a while. We really need to talk."

"Got it, sir, see you in the morning!" Mina said, before exiting the room, finally leaving Izuku and All Might alone.

"Now All Might, you mentioned something about someone wanting to contact me, asking about a job." Izuku inquired.

"Right, have you ever heard of Chole Bate?" All Might asked him.

"I…don't think so but, that last name does sound familiar," Izuku said, trying to recall where he knew that name from.

"Well, you're probably more familiar with her older sister. Cathleen Bate." All Might explained. "Or as she's more well known as, Star and Stripe."