0018: Prelude to the start of Spring

Izuku stood in front of the mirror feeling a little antsy as he kept cycling through t-shirts. Looking at his clock in his room it was '11:30pm' and the night before he planned on hanging out with Melissa. She was his first friend after all and he would prefer to try and not scare her off. The current one he had was a neon green with the phrase 'Gym Top' stricken across it. Yet as he was about to put it on he was left flinching as a blast of sound rang his eardrums.

"Ow, what was that for?" Izuku rubbed his sore ears talking to no one else in the room.

In her familiar haughty tone the System huffed, "I am not having my host be a bumbling idiot who's fashion sense would be a legal crime. Neon green with the shade of red you have for shoes, you might as well brown pants to look like a christmas tree." Recently Izuku had been finding the System was taking the initiative in speaking and being rather upfront. "Host, I'm not saying you have to be like your predecessor but some sense of style especially around women would be good."

"You say that like my predecessor had some kind of harem of women throwing themselves at him." Izuku mused as he started looking through the clothing till he found a maroon top. 

There was a small bout of silence before the System spoke again. "You are not exactly wrong in that regard. Not that he really made a move on them but that came from his personal disconnect with the world around him I suppose. Anyways if you are going for the maroon top the black jeans might be nice with it and the black jacket. Red and green do compliment but too much and people will think winter came early."

Rolling his eyes he followed the System's advice and put them on. Oddly enough with his darker green hair it surprisingly worked well. "You're right this actually looks really nice on me."

Feeling satisfied he left the outfit onto his bed and decided to get some sleep. But as he shut the lights off and got into bed he heard a final beep.

"Enjoy your date tomorrow, Host." 

"It's not a date!" He protested as he tried to push the intrusive thoughts down, his mind excited to see Melissa tomorrow.

The blaring of his alarm dragged him out of bed as he sleepily sat up and hit the button, it was '05:00' but he was too nervous to sleep much longer. So he got out of bed and cleaned before having some breakfast. Just a fried egg on top of some rice and soy sauce. When he was done he glanced at the time and sighed it was only '05:45' when he finished everything.

"I think I woke up a little too early." Izuku sighed, slumping onto the sofa. It was just a hangout but at the same time it was just him and Melissa. His first friend outside of his online group and the first friend he made in person. I mean it was also technically the first girl he's really met, Setsuna didn't really count since she was so tomboyish it was kind of hard to even bother with that. But to him, Melissa was basically a girl girl. I mean she probably does not see it as a date so why should he. He will just head down to the cafe and play some games.

On the other side of Mustafu….

Melissa was currently awake at the same time but unfortunately she was still trying to figure out what outfit she wanted to wear. Currently prancing around she glanced at the weather and it was supposed to be sunny, what if it began raining. Did she need to carry an umbrella…wait would she get to have that scene of sharing an umbrella with Izuku like every shoujo manga she read? 

As she was blitzing around her room panicking, Toshinori leant against the door frame with his creaking bones and chuckled. "Mel, you're overthinking this. Besides, you're just meeting with this friend of yours, the one who runs the cafe?"

Melissa nodded as she began rifling through her wardrobe. "Yeah, he's funny, sweet, really intelligent and absolutely adorable being so small." She did not even realise she was raving about the boy.

"Sounds like a real catch. Kid reminds me of someone but I can't really remember who. But Mel just picked an outfit that is comfortable since you two didn't plan on going around Mustafu since you had been too busy training for that?" 

"Yeah, I was going to see if he wanted to go and look around the hero district. You know with all the agencies and the museum?" She grabbed a red plaid shirt and beige jeans to go with a pair of brown boots. 

"That sounds like a solid choice. Is he a hero nut like you?"

"Yeah, I saw his journals before when he was talking to Mei. He had all sorts of hero analysis."

Toshinori choked on the air with a sudden cough. "Hero Analysis?" 

"Yeah, are you okay uncle Toshi?"

"I'm fine Mel, just get ready for your date and I'll make sure to send you a few thousand yen for the day. Does thirty thousand sound okay?"

It was Melissa's time to let out a startled splutter. "Uncle Toshi, that's way too much. We are just going to check out a museum and maybe get some food. Not a five star dinner."

"Well I suppose that's fair. But you could buy some hero merchandise with that, I might keep merchandise based on me at a lower price because I'd like anyone that really wants one to get one. Afterall I remember when I was a kid, the pain of not being able to get the figure of your favourite hero because it was just too expensive stuck with me. Anyways I'll send you a little more and maybe you can get some of that hero fangirling out of your system before the entrance exams. Wouldn't want you losing focus over seeing some of Japan's most iconic." He chuckled, shutting the door to let her get changed.

Toshinori sat on his bed with a sigh, opening a pack of painkillers, grimacing at the sheer amount he had to swallow to just make the pain manageable as he looked to the ceiling. Thoughts came back to the day he met that boy with green hair, a quirkless boy who aspired to be a hero. It hurt him inside telling that boy to be realistic but at the end of the day he knew better than everyone what kind of hell it was to try and be a quirkless hero. Hell, he saw the death of quirkless heroes in his youth and how the media would attack their status as an excuse for them failing to survive. Even in situations where no quirk would make a difference they were always highlighted as being inferior heroes because of having no powers. Even then in order to be a quirkless hero outside of the underground and C-listers you would need an insane amount of technology and funding to even go toe to toe with the best. 

Getting up he picked up the picture frame it was of him at Takoba Beach with Nana ruffling his hair. He smiled at the picture, he remembered bitterly when she told him the same words he gave the boy. But unlike him she followed those words with an offering of One for All. That was another thing that ached at him, when he saw the boy run fearlessly at that monster helping to pull away the other boy he did it without hesitation. He would be a great hero but that recklessness would be dangerous. Grabbing his wound it was a bitter reminder that One for All did not make him invincible no matter how much people thought. Giving the boy the quirk may have given him the chance to become a hero but at the same time…. Should One for All go to another holder as reckless as him? Melissa showed her potential, a knack of technology, how she managed to save everyone from that fire in the I-Island and she was such a bright child. Was it fair to make a judgement without knowing the boy fully? Even though he knew it was not, he could just waste time learning to know if someone could be a worthy vessel or if he would make the same mistakes he did. A certain choice was already at hand so why bother with anything else. But if he had another chance he would have at least offered to sponsor the boy's education. 

Hearing a knock on his door he opened it to see Melissa grinning in her outfit. 

"How do I look Uncle Toshi?"

Toshinori chuckled; she really looked like Athy, David's wife. "You look wonderful. Now how about we go to that American diner down the road? I'm really craving some pancakes and bacon for breakfast."

Melissa nodded. "Sound's good to me, but Recovery Girl did say you had to manage your diet otherwise you might injure your stomach even more." 

Toshinori chuckled knowingly. "I'm aware but one cheat day won't kill me… probably. Wouldn't that be a headline? All-Might killed by Bacon for Breakfast. Hopefully the Diner at least uses the tagline their food is to die for after I pass." With a grin at his own grim humour they headed out to get some breakfast before he set his niece off onto her very first date, even if the poor lad she was going with did not know it was meant to be a date. Classic Shield mixed messages.