chapter 17
There is now 2 months until the entrance exams, Dabi was pretty much part of the family already, and let's say that everything in the cafe was doing great. Almost everything, since 1 week ago, with an special work in the cafe.
"With this, the cafe is paid." Izuku said as he counted the money from after the cafe opened, this extra works that Izuku does gave him quite the sum of money, "And with the rest I will be able to upgrade the cafe!" Izuku exclaimed, starting to daydream about the upgrades.
"Upgrade?" Aizawa asked, Nezu by his side.
Izuku nodded, "Yes! I want to get a training room in the back, in the empty space there is. The beach won't work anymore, since it was clean, by Kacchan and me, the government wants it back, making it a public place, meaning no use of quirks, and that means no training possible for Kacchan! I also wanted to use the place to train Eri's quirk!" Aizawa and Nezu nodded along, taking in the things that needed to be done, after all, if they did, Izuku would be obligated to pay by helping them on their missions, even though they knew that he would help anyway.
"I also would like extra rooms, I want to put some to rent and get more employees here, maybe a student would rent the place to be closer to school!" Izuku continued to daydream of his perfect cafe.
"That can be arranged!" Nezu happily exclaimed, "Of course it will cost more than what you have, but that can be paid as you have been!" Izuku nodded happy with the answer.
"They should be arriving by now." Aizawa stated as he started getting papers out of his sleeping bag, heroes were meeting in the cafe for a mission, where the objective was to capture quite a number of criminals that were part of a big organization, that dealt with weapon trading and drug dealing.
Dabi was happily setting the bakery of the next day in the cooling area, so that they could be served freshly made in the morning, when Endeavor stepped in, and a candy-cane looking kid besides him.
"Didn't I already said that I don't like this guy?" Izuku commented making Aizawa answer with a simple 'It's work. Deal with it.'.
On the other side, Dabi was not so happy to see the man, as he bursted in flames, destroying the little pastries he was carrying. "WHY IS THIS SCUMBAG HERE!?" The young adult screamed, his voice full of hatred.
Endeavor in response got his flames up, Dabi jumped over the counter making him stay face-to-face with the burning man. Izuku seeing how this was going to end, quickly grabbed the extinguisher, and started sprinting to the two.
He was too late to activate the extinguisher, being in the middle of two flame attacks, Izuku however was not bothered by the flames, he was bothered by the damage they were doing to the pace.
As they shoot their flames at each other, Izuku being in the middle, his anger was increasing, and instead of using the extinguisher as he should, he smacked it against Endeavor's chin, making it a surprise attack as the two were cursing and shooting flames at each-other to notice, and pivoted on his foot, making a swing hit against Dabi's face, knocking the two out successfully.
"DIDN'T I SAY BEFORE THAT THERE WOULD BE NO MORE FIRE IN THE BUILDING!" Izuku screamed at the two knocked out adults, all the while being stared in awe by the candy-cane guy.
Izuku then stopped the fire from spreading, thankfully only losing a table and two chairs in the process and needing to clean the burn marks, that were just light gray marks on the floor.
Toga arrived at the place shortly after, completely unaware of what happened, only to see Dabi passed out on the floor, Izuku with an extinguisher with a dented bottom, an Endeavor already getting up, and a white and red haired boy, mouth opened while staring at Izuku, obviously Toga had the most mature reaction one could have, she bursted herself laughing at the situation.
A few seconds later, Sir Nighteye, completely expecting the situation as he had already known because of his quirk, entered the place, and swiftly walked to the sofa, lifting an hand, and looking at Izuku, "Izuku a coffee please."
Izuku looked at him, "Right away." He gave him a polite smile, as he finished extinguishing the last of the flames. "Toga, please stop laughing and take Dabi inside, also get a new table from the storage please."
It was indeed a not very normal situation, Izuku also had the pleasure to meet, Todoroki Shoto, the youngest son of Endeavor, that would be seeing the heroes in action, 'for experience'.
And now Izuku had the upgrades in the cafe all done, thanks to the help of Cementoss.
Anyway, Izuku and Toga started going out twice a month to eat out, it was a simple coincidence that it was twice every month, but this was the first for Dabi, as for the reason, none of them had desire to cook that day.
The four of them, Eri included left the cafe to go to a nice family restaurant at another city, it was also a nice chance to get Eri more used to crowds.
They ended up in a place a bit further than Hosu, so it was good forty minutes by train, having a nice dinner at the planned place everything was going great, that is until they were on their way back to the cafe. "ₕₑₗₚ ₘₑ" Izuku stopped as he heard the voice, making everyone else stop and look at him.
"Did you hear that?" Izuku asked, only to receive 'no's for answers.
"ₕₑₗₚ ₘₑ" The muffled voice came again, now noticed also by Toga and Dabi.
Izuku acted fast, locating the source of the noise to a nearby apartment complex. Izuku knocked on the door, "Do you need help?" No answer came, but after knocking a second time a, 'Help me.' was more clearly heard coming from inside, still to confirm it was really needing help, Izuku asked again, "Do you need help?".
"ᴵ'ᵐ⁻ ᴵ'ᵐ ˢᵖˡⁱᵗᵗⁱⁿᵍ!" The voice from inside said, "ₕₑₗₚ."
"Dabi we will knock the door down!" Izuku said, a worried look on his face. Toga was holding Eri and Dabi approached Izuku, Izuku counted from 2 to 0 and both of them bashed the door, making it creak but not break, they tried again, successfully knocking the door down.
A man was tied to a chair, he was in a very bad condition, strange gray mud was on the floor. Izuku turned around, "Toga, call Aizawa and tell him to bring Recovery Girl!" He yelled out, receiving a quick 'okay' by Toga he headed inside to check on the man.
As soon as Dabi unstrapped the man, he quickly grabbed his head with his hands, "I-I'm going to split! I'm splitting!" The man cried out in pain.
Izuku and Dabi weren't even aware as Eri got into the apartment, grabbed a nice, gray and black mask from the ground, and placed it on the man's head, the man looked up, only to see a smiling Eri, she patted his head, "Now you won't split." She said happily as the man calmed down.
"I'm not splitting." The man started to get a bit of control, "I'm not splitting." His voice passed from shocked to amazed and happy, he looked at Eri, and patted the girl back, "Thank you little girl." Eri giggled at the act, and if Eri is acting like this to him, that means he isn't a bad guy, for her at least, Dabi and Izuku are still with their guard up.
As the man regained his breath, Aizawa and Recovery Girl arrived at the place, "Izu that happened?" Aizawa asked worried as he got inside, only to see a pretty panicked masked man, Eri happily talking about her day with him, and Izuku and Dabi relaxed sitting on a bed.
"Oh! Aizawa, you arrived, this man called for help, and he was not in a good state, since we didn't know the circumstances we called you and Recovery Girl." Izuku explained.
"Problem child." Aizawa sighed, "Why do you get in trouble every day?" His question goes unanswered as Recovery Girl goes check on the man.
After a quick kiss, "He is extremely malnutrition-ed, and un-hydrated, otherwise he is good." She said, and then giving him a look, "What happened?"
"I used my quirk. No I didn't!" The man gasped out, now much more calmer, "And used it to get various works, I can clone myself... I have no idea of what I'm talking about."
"Are you joking?" Aizawa rised an eyebrow, as he saw the man conflicting himself with every sentence.
Twice shook his head, "I-" He didn't get to continue as Aizawa rolled his scarf around him, locking his every move.
"Bubaigawara Jin, a criminal that uses clones to make robberies and thefts, I recognize you now." Aizawa said, as he gave him a tired look, "Now finish explaining."
"I- We- I didn't want to work anymore, so I- We- made the others do it, but we shared the same laziness, and a fight for the real one started, I got strapped while watching myself kill myself. I saved myself." Tears started rolling from Jin's eyes, "Am I the real one? Am I a clone? I don't want to split. I'm perfectly fine."
Eri was not liking the situation that they were in, giving Aizawa a glare, that just looked like a cute kitty's glare, she ordered him to stop. Toga didn't appreciate the situation, and Dabi was just quiet watching the whole ordeal.
"A cloning quirk... Can he clone other people? What would their abilities be? Experience in coordinated operations... Good for source of manpower, a great asset for the training room, for training against people, without actually causing injuries to other people, interesting..." Izuku was mumbling in the middle of the fight breaking out between Aizawa wanting to do his job and Toga and Eri taking pity on the man, that caught the attention of everyone in the room.
"No." Aizawa started, and Izuku looked at him, determined eyes on his face, a flame present on them, "Absolutely not." Aizawa shook his head, and Izuku's eyes were piercing the tired man, "No can do."
Izuku smiled, as he rised his finger, "He can work on the cafe! With the new employee the cafe would be fully running during school time, and I could have him clean and prepare the training room everyday, this way he could pay his fine, no matter how long it would take, and you guys could still keep an eye on him, either way, he is not psychologically fit to be in a prison." Izuku finished pointing at the crying man that was not able to move thanks to a scarf.
Aizawa's glared Izuku, but the green-haired kid continued to smile, "No." But Izuku didn't stop, he would just stare at the man and smile, Aizawa shook his head, "no." His voice was clearly weaker, but Izuku didn't stop, "That this one will be the last." Aizawa gave in.
Eri celebrated, Aizawa took his scarf out of the man, and Toga calmed down, "But he will go to an hospital before." Aizawa stated, as he turned around and started walking away.
"He is too weak." Recovery Girl sighed as she, too, started walking away, she stopped at the door, "You will go with us to the hospital, you four go home." Recovery Girl ordered around.
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3 days passed since then, and Jin's first day at the cafe came, he was officialy a member of the cafe now, and he had his own room, with his belongings from the apartment, Eri was more than happy to have a new play-mate too.
Izuku introduced Jin to his room, "Well, Bubaigawara, this will be your room. Your work starts at 9 am, until 6 pm, and after that you are completely responsible for the training room, it will be also your job to clean it daily." Izuku informed.
"Twice." He started, "Please call me that. No, that is a horrible name."
Izuku smiled, "Midoriya Izuku, you are free to call me Izuku, I will be counting on you from now on."
Twice looked at the kid in front of him, "Why- Why did you take me in? You should have done that sooner!"
Izuku smiled, "Did you start committing crimes because you choose to?" Twice shook his head, "Did you desire the life that lead to that?" Twice shook his head again, "Is it wrong for me to wish for a family and people to trust?" Izuku finished, stunning Twice.
"Family and people to trust..." Twice looked down, "I never had any of it. Everyone loves me!"
"Well, Twice, I'm quirkless. My daily life revolved on me being shunned by my peers, that's why this cafe exists now, I wanted a place to belong, and now, I'm giving a place for you to belong too, it's the same for everyone here, with time you will learn their stories, for now, you can start by being friends." Izuku's eyes told a thousand tales to Twice, and Twice understood every word, he decided to stay by his room and finish unpacking his stuff, as they were in boxes, as Izuku left the room.
Bubaigawara Jin stopped trusting people, and started trusting only in himself, ending in losing that trust in the end, and now he finally found a place to belong, as Twice he will be the one to protect that trust and work to strengthen it.