Chapter 44: Fuku Steps Out

A new face.

Fukunoko was just having a normal day, minding her business while she read a nice book, with some small candies on the table in front of her.

The sun was beaming through the window, and the only noise was the birds chirping outside.

Overall, there was a nice, relaxing aura, filling the room.

And then someone knocked on her door, and all that comfort and relaxation immediately jumped out the window to make room for fear and paranoia.

"AHH! Who is it!?" Fuku hoped it was Eri or Kei or Mu.

"It's Izuku. May I come in?" Izuku asked her from the other side of the door.

The fear in Fuku subsided a bit. Her interactions with Izuku were...limited.

He would leave her alone for the most part, only really bothering her when he came to help her with quirk training. And she had generally gotten the impression that he wasn't somebody to be feared.

But since Fuku was Fuku she was still kinda afraid of him.

Oh my god, what does he want! It's too early for quirk training! Maybe he's finally gotten sick of me and wants to kick me out! Fuku still wasn't super comfortable with Izuku, and so she wanted to say no, but at the same time, Izuku was the person in charge of this entire place. If I say no, what if he gets mad! Or what if he actually has something impotent to tell me and if I don't listen I'll die!

After weighing her options for a few seconds, Fuku decided it was better to just let him in. "Come in."

Izuku entered the room. Holding a bag. "Hi. Did you...watch Kiba's Q and A stream?"

"Uh-huh." Fuku had made it a habit to frequently watch Kiba's streams. It was a great way to see more of what happened in the house, without actually leaving her room.

"Well...what did you think?" Izuku asked her, taking a seat on the floor, a good distance away from her, as not to scare her too much.

"W-Well K-Kai is less scary than I thought he was. His quirk makes him seem a lot worse than he really is. That Otoko boy too." Fukunoko admitted sheepishly. "But I guess you could say the same thing about me."

Izuku nodded. "That's why it's important not to judge someone based on their quirk. You always have to remember. Quirks are just based on luck. No one chooses their quirk...but besides that what else did you think?"

"Um...All those backstories were really sad." Fukunoko frowned as she remembered everyone talking about their past. She had actually teared up while watching that. "Kei was always so happy and nice. How can she be so...herself?"

Izuku smiled a bit. "Kei is just that kind of person. She's very strong-willed, and she's not willing to let things bring her down. No matter how bad they are. It's very impressive."

"Yeah, she's a lot stronger than me. Stupid Fuku can't even go outside." Fuku chastised herself.

"Hey, what have I said about comparing yourself to others?" Izuku told her.

"T-That's it's unhealthy and unfair to myself," Fuku repeated what Izuku had told her previously.

"That's right. Most people would react like you do after experiencing that much trauma. Kei is a special case." Izuku explained. "Eri was a lot like you when I first met her too."

"S-She was?" Fuku's eyes widened. "B-But she's so...nice a-and brave and kind! She's nothing like Fuku!"

"She's gotten a lot better since then, but when I first met her, she never wanted to leave the house," Izuku explained, remembering the extremely early days of what one could consider his career he supposes. "And she would always stay by my side. Whenever someone else came to visit, she would always hide behind my leg because she was so scared of everything and everyone."

"Really?" Fuku had always considered Eri to be like a ray of light. So to imagine that her light had once been so dim...it was hard to imagine, and honestly, Fuku didn't want to imagine it.

"Right. At first, I was concerned that it would take years to get her to where she is now. But then, Kei came into our lives." Izuku remembered the massive progress Eri made when Kei joined their family. "And she helped change Eri massively. For the first time in her life, she had someone her age to play with and talk to. And she started coming out of her shell even faster. She even agreed to go outside more. And as more kids started coming and Eri started interacting with them more, she started getting braver and happier, until she became how she is today."

Izuku took a moment to let that sink in, watching Fuku's expression of thoughtful wonder.

"I remember when she first told me about how she came to you and befriended you. I was so proud I actually cried." Izuku almost cried again remembering just how happy and proud he was at that moment.

But he could do that later. Now he needed to focus on Fukunoko.

"Do you get what I'm trying to say?" Izuku asked her.

Fuku thought about it for a moment, before giving her response. "No. Sorry."

"You don't need to apologize," Izuku reassured her before moving onto his point. "What I'm trying to say, being around others can improve your ability to be social. Yourself included, you've already gotten a lot better at talking to people thanks to Eri, Kei, and Mu. And I think you could get even better if you came out of your room and talked to people."

Izuku saw Fuku's eyes widen in fear. It looked like he told her that she had some incurable disease.

But he had anticipated this. And just as Fuku's mouth opened to shout some paranoid ravings, Izuku spoke first.

"Before you freak out, I'm not forcing you." Izuku clarified, somewhat calming her down, although she was still uneasy. "It's just something I think would be good for you...Look. I know how hard it can be to face other people after being hurt all your life. Before I started taking care of Eri I was practically dead to the world."

Izuku put the bag on the floor and started rummaging through it. "I got this idea from Kiba's Q and A. I wasn't ready to face the world again, so I decided to hide myself a bit."

Fuku's eyes widened, as she saw Izuku pull out a hoodie from the bag, that was her size.

The hoodie was mostly green, as it was modeled after a piranha plant. And the special feature of this hoodie was that it went over the face, obscuring it like a mask, with the head of the piranha plant being where the face would be.

"I thought that maybe this would help you," Izuku told her, handing the hoodie over to her.

Fuku took time to admire the hoodie, looking over every bit of its design. It was not a secret that she liked carnivorous plants. At least not among the few people she talked to. She had told Eri about her love of these types of plants, and she even had a venus flytrap she named Petey. After Petey Piranha. Which looked to be the inspiration for the hood. "It's...it's amazing!"

Izuku smiled and let out a tense breath he was holding. "I'm glad you like it. I asked Eri about things that you like and asked Shiruku to make them based on that. It took her a while, she said she wanted to get it perfect since it's her first gift to you. So I'm really glad you like it."

Fuku kept looking at the hoodie, thinking about what Izuku had said earlier. Could I really do that? Would it be easier to talk to people if I covered my face?

It actually seemed...possible. At the very least she was more willing to give it a try than just going out there with her face exposed.

Although she was still, VERY hesitant.

"I also got you another one in case that one gets dirty." Izuku pulled another hoodie out of the bag, this time it was bear-themed, being mostly brown like a teddy bear.

"That's so cute!" Fuku swiftly took the second hoodie, admiring it with starry eyes.

"Again, I'm glad you like it." Izuku got up and made his way to the door. "I'll let you think about what I told you, and if you want to do it. But just a tip, if you do want to go through with it, take Eri of Kei with you. They'll help you if you start to feel overwhelmed."

And with that, Izuku exited her room, leaving Fuku to consider what he told her.

She clutched the hoodie tightly, and brought it to her chest, as she made her decision.

Stepping out.

Shiruku was just relaxing in her room, watching some T.V. while eating a bowl of dead spider and human finger salad.

And then there was a knock on the door.

I wonder who that is? Shiruku thought as she swallowed down her food. "Come in."

The door opened, and in walked Eri and Kei...wearing gas masks? And behind them was-

Shiruku's eyes widened, as she saw a figure wearing the Piranha plant hoodie she finished, not too long ago. "Fukunoko!?"

Fuku clung to Kei and Eri's arms. "H-Hi."

Turn's out, Izuku was right. It was like she was hiding, but not really.

It was just something between her and the person she was talking to. An extra barrier that made her feel just a little bit better.

Of course, that didn't mean she wasn't afraid. Oh no. Another Izuku had been right about was that bringing Eri and Kei was a good idea. Because if not she wouldn't be able to move around because of how much her legs were shaking.

It's not just because she was now talking to someone she was unfamiliar with, it was also because said person was half spider, and eating a bowl of spiders and human fingers.

Shiruku noticed these obvious signs of fear and sighed disappointedly.

It wasn't like she didn't expect it. While she was isolated for most of her life, the rude comments of the D.O.C. workers were enough to tell her that she was quite scary-looking. And the looks she got while at the amusement park, affirmed these suspicions. Combine that with the fact Fukunoko was just naturally afraid of everything, it was a miracle that she came to her at all.

Her "snacks" didn't help.

"Hello Fuku. It's nice to finally meet you." Shiruku smiled gently at the girl and waved slowly, trying not to intimidate her.

"H-H-Hi," Fukunoko repeated, finding it hard to say anything else at the moment.

There was a few seconds of awkward silence before the other two girls figured out they were going to need to assist in continuing the conversation.

"Fuku wanted to say something to you! About the hoodie!" Kei prompted.

"She really likes it! So she wanted to say…" Eri left the sentence unfinished, so that way Fuku could continue the rest.

"T-T-Thank you!" Fuku managed to stutter out while bowing.

Shiruku was a bit stunned by the suddenness of it all and Fuku's sloppy delivery, but she quickly regained her composure. "Your welcome! I'm very glad you liked it! It's the first time I ever made something like that and it took me a few attempts. So I wasn't sure how well I did."

Fuku tried to think of something else to say, but everything was coming up blank. "Uh, um, uh."

"Well Looks like we're done here." Kei said, "Come on let's go!"

"Sorry Shiruku, Fuku can only take so much." Eri apologized politely.

"I understand. Good luck Fuku!" Shiruku waved goodbye as Eri and Kei brought her out of the room.

One in the hall, Fuku started breathing heavily as she felt conflicted between relieved and afraid. On one hand, she has just talked with Shiruku. On the other, Shiruku was the FIRST one she intended to talk to.

There were still eight more people she intended to talk to!

"Calm down Fuku! You did it!" Kei reassured her. "Don't worry. You'll get better at talking to people, even if right now, you're a bit green. Hehe."

Fuku decided to ignore the pun and focus on the reassuring feeling of her friends/sisters(?) next to her.

"Don't worry Fuku, none of them are really scary," Eri said as they approached the training room. "Kiba and Fu should be in here. Let's talk to them both at us so you can go back to your room sooner."

They approached the doors to the training room, and Kei pressed the button to open the blast doors.

And saw Kiba, standing over Fu, whose upper half was missing, presumably from being punched off, and his lower half was shooting out of a fountain of blood all around. Kyosei's tentacles were squirming out of Fu's torso stump, making the already nightmarish scene even worse.

Kei immediately closed the door again, and just in time, as Fuku passed out from shock and fear almost as quickly, and her fear gas erupted, filling the area around them.

"Maybe we should take things a bit slower," Kei suggested.

"Yeah." Eri agreed as she looked around the gas-filled hallway. "We should make sure no one comes up here and breathes this."

"Right! If that happened, they wouldn't have a real gas of a time." Kei punned.

A Grimm Pitch.

Izuku made his way through the forest, towards the place where Yami asked him to go.

He probably wants me to see some new Grimm. Izuku speculated.

This was something that happened every now and then. Izuku had made a rule that if Yami wanted to make any new Grimm around the house, they would have to be approved by Izuku first, and Izuku would also say how much of one type of Grimm there could be around the house.

Honestly, Izuku had been expecting this to happen sooner. Yami had gained, a TON of negative energy from his little drive around the city. And while he had used a lot of it to make the Grimm for the U.A. exercise, apparently he had only barely used half of his negative energy storages. And so he had been doing a lot of experimenting with Grimm, even more than he had already been.

Which Izuku found strange. When Yami first joined the family. He was very lazy. Which made sense. After living a life that was constantly about survival and vigilance, now that he could finally relax it would make sense that he'd do it as much as possible. So when he suddenly started being more active and experimented with Grimm it confused him a bit.

Izuku reached an opening in the trees and found Yami there waiting for him.

As well as three, new Grimm.

The first one was obviously based on an elephant. Mostly unarmored, except for a few spots on its body with some spiky bone armor, and a mask on its face.

The second one was a giant ape. About three times the size of a gorilla, with various pieces of armors on its extremely muscled body, and of course a skull-like mask.

The last one was a bit...strange. It was a mostly black orb with some bits of white bone on its base, with strange spiky tentacles coming out of its bottom.

"Dad." Yami greeted. "I have more Grimm."

"I see that." Izuku gazed at the new creations judgmentally. Already seeing various uses for each of them. "Well, would you like to explain more about each one of them?"

Yami nodded eagerly and went over to the elephant-like one. "Kiba calls this one the Goliath. I saw a video of an elephant shooting water out of its face. So I made one to water fires in the forest."

"Ah, very clever Yami!" Izuku praised him while getting a big smile on his face.

Being located so close to a forest, forest fires were a huge concern for him. And that was even before Netsu joined the family!

"I guess I could put a few pools of water around the forest and have these stand by them just in case." Izuku thought aloud. "Alright, I guess we could have about twenty of these. Is that too much?"

Yami shook his head. "Still have lots of energy. Get more every day."

"Ah right," Izuku said sheepishly. "It would probably take a lot to fully drain those reserves now I guess."

Yami nodded and moved on to the Gorilla. "This is a Beringel. Tried to let Grimm do more work, they don't have hands. This is big, strong, and has hands. Can grab things, lift things, and do a lot of work. And climbs very well."

Izuku nodded as he quickly followed Yami's train of logic. "Yeah, I remember you made these for the exercise at U.A. I guess they could do a lot more outside of just combat."

One would think having the ability to spawn a nearly endless amount of mindless minions would mean that manual labor shouldn't be a problem. And while the Grimm did help quite a bit with that, there was one, big issue they tended to run into.

They had no hands.

When it came to human achievements, their intelligence was often given all of the credit, and not enough attention was paid to the basic ability to grab things.

Having five fingers was very, very important. Thumbs especially. It wasn't really something people tended to pay attention to, but trying to go about your day without using your thumb would swiftly prove this point.

In summary, most Grimm couldn't do a lot of different tasks, because of a lack of hands.

These apes would be able to handle a lot of different tasks, although he doubted they could handle work that required a more gentle touch, given their massive hulking bodies. And of course, they also couldn't make any decisions that required any amount of brainpower. Meaning all the paperwork still fell squarely on Izuku's shoulders.

And he was sure they could also make for good security if it ever came to that.

"Alright. I say about...four of these should be necessary." Izuku judged.

"Only four?" Yami frowned. He'd have thought Izuku would have wanted more.

"They are a bit big to just have lying around the house," Izuku explained.

Yami thought about what Izuku just told him, and then looked at the absolutely massive beast behind him. "Ok."

Without saying another word, Yami moved onto the orb Grimm.

"This is a Seer," Yami explained. "I remember looking at cameras. So I made this."

To exemplify what he was talking about, the Seer's glowed, and an image was displayed on the orb.

Izuku stepped closer and looked into the orb. He saw Yami's room. It was like he was looking at a camera feed.

"They are connected. You can see what all of them see. And they can show you if something is wrong, and help you find things." Yami explained further.

Izuku's eyes widened, as he realized exactly what Yami had made. "It's like a bunch of sentient, floating security cameras!"

He was already imagining the possibilities with these.

With the Seer's he would be able to have cameras all around the forest, looking over it and telling him if any disturbances or intruders were getting close to the house.

He could also send them with the children whenever they left the house, so that way he would be alerted instantly if anything went wrong.

There were so many things he could do with these.

"Yami these are incredible!?" Izuku estacticly praised his son. "Honestly I could do with at least thirty of these!"

He'd have twenty around the forest, one in his office, and nine in reserve.

"Really?" Yami looked at him with a bit of shock.

"Oh is that too many?" Izuku didn't know exactly how making Grimm...worked. He doubted anyone did except Yami himself. And while these Seer's looked small, it's possible its abilities made it use up a lot of Yami's negative energy reserves.

"No. Fine." Yami honestly just didn't expect Izuku to be so excited about this specific Grimm.

In Yami's little boy's mind, while the ability to see everything going on around him was useful, the giant monsters were more useful.

Then again, Izuku knew more than most people, so Yami just took it as Izuku seeing something he didn't.

"Alright. Is that everything you wanted to show me?" Izuku asked him.

Yami nodded. And looked towards the Grimm. "Where do you want them to go?"

Izuku looked at the dark monstrosities and tried to determine where exactly they would go. There's already so many different Grimm in the house. At this point maybe I should build some kind of barracks.

Part of Izuku liked the idea of having a barracks. It's basically meant he had his own private army to serve and protect the kids. Although another part of him just felt like he really shouldn't HAVE a private army.

But at this point, he might as well fully throw normalcy out the window. If the kids hadn't done that already.

"Well, we'll figure that out later. For now, we'll just keep them outside." Izuku told him. "Except for the Gorilla, he can stay in one of the empty rooms."

Yami nodded and commanded his Grimm mental.

The Goliath laid down, and the Seer stayed where it was.

But the Beringel started moving towards them.

"Uh, Yami what did you-ahhh!" Izuku was startled, as the Beringel picked up Izuku and Yami, and placed them on its back, before hustling towards the house.

"Why walk?" Yami shrugged.

"Oh, ok. Just warn me next time." If Izuku wasn't so used to the Grimm, then the sight of the giant Gorilla coming to grab him would likely have sent him into shock.

Yami nodded, giving no verbal response as per normal.

There was a bit of silence until Izuku decided to ask something that had been on his mind for a while.

"What made you start experimenting with your quirk?" Izuku asked him. "You used to just like to lay around the house all day and sleep, so what made you start doing this?"

Yami shrugged. "Got bored. Wanted to help more...you're very stressed."

Izuku paused for a moment before sighing.

He then picked up Yami, and laid him on his lap, before starting to pet his head. "Thank you, Yami. You've been a lot of help. Now just take a break and let me handle the rest."

Yami looked at Izuku's reassuring smile and all the negative emotions behind it.

Part of him wanted to object, but he had stayed up pretty late, and the feeling of laying down on his father's lap while he stroked his hair was extremely soothing, and before he knew it, his eyes were closing and he was drifting off into a deep sleep.

Izuku looked down at his son, with an expression of disappointment.

He wasn't disappointed in Yami. Not at all, he was very proud that the boy was being so thoughtful and caring.

No, the disappointment, as usual, was aimed at himself. Because he was struggling so much at his job, that his son felt the need to step in. If he had just done better, then Yami could just laze around and enjoy himself, rather than staying up late making monsters to help him.

He'd just have to do better. And work harder.

And then he broke into a coughing fit.

After coughing into his hands for a few seconds, he felt something fly out of his mouth and hit his hand.

He looked down into his hand and saw that a bit of blood had come out.

"Oh," Izuku said, his eyes wide with shock. "That's not good."