It took not coming home one night for his mother to lose all trust in him. Instantly she assumed the worst, that he started doing drugs, that he was lying to her, that this was his rebellious phase, that he was hanging out with the wrong crowd, that he was kidnapped, and a dozen other make-believe scenarios that appeared in her head. And any excuse he offered was instantly disregarded as a lie.

 

Because it was.

 

The lie he repeated a dozen times was that he had lost track of time walking around because he was still upset, and ended up falling asleep on the train, by the time someone woke him it was already morning. 

 

It sounded logical.

 

It sounded like the most reasonable thing in the world. 

 

But his mother refused to believe him. 

 

“Alright.” Izuku adjusted the collar of his dress shirt. It felt strange no longer being forced to wear his school uniform, but since he was going to Tokyo U, it was expected that he at least dress the part. Besides, he thought he looked good in a button-down and a set of slacks. On the other hand, his bright red shoes were probably just an interesting fashion statement. “I’m going to orientation!” 

 

He honestly didn’t know how much sleep he got last night as, he kept getting woken up by random pains in his body, mostly on the bottom of his feet, sometimes his legs or arms. Nothing too bad, but it was just enough to wake him up. It had been like that for the past couple of days.

 

It wasn’t his first day of classes—those weren't for another month—but there was a lot he could get from orientation. Like a good dose of pressure in trying to figure out what the hell he wanted to do with his life. It wasn’t like U.A. was the only path to being a hero, there were other avenues he could take, they were just less than ideal. 

 

Still, it would have been nice to go to U.A.

 

“And where are you going afterwards?” Inko asked. She moved and adjusted his collar again, somehow making it feel ten times worse. She stuck out her hand and his tie floated over towards her. “And what about your tie?” 

 

“I don’t need to wear a tie, mom. I could just wear a t-shirt and it would be fine. It’s just orientation.” He pushed her hand to the side gently. “And I’ll probably eat lunch at campus, and then come home.”

 

Inko narrowed her eyes slightly. She still didn’t trust him. “Well, okay, but, text me if something changes, alright? Especially if you meet some friends there! Ahh, my baby’s growing up so fast!” Inko gave a light gasp, not from her being surprised or anything, but because she thought that was what was cute for moms to do. “You might even meet a girl!”

 

Izuku rolled his eyes and let out a sigh. “That’s not going to happen, mom, now can I go?”

 

“Yes, and remember to text me where you are!” Inko held up his phone and handed it to him. “Please?”

 

Izuku sighed. “I’ll try.”

 

He really needed to thank Katsuki’s mom for talking Inko out of putting a tracking app on his phone. That would have been way too much. It wasn’t even like he was even going to do something he shouldn’t! Technically, aside from going to a Yakuza place one time for an illegal quirk-based tattoo from a crazy woman that was the very definition of a hot mess, he hadn’t ever done anything remotely bad with his life. 

 

It was hard to believe that was over a week ago, but if he closed his eyes, he could still feel the sensation of Ori burning, ripping, shredding, and all-around inflicting a great deal of pain into his back for the sake of getting a tattoo. And it had been rewarded. 

 

Keeping Raijin a secret from his mother sounded like it would have been a monumental task that bordered on the impossible, however, Izuku quickly realized that he could freely move his own tattoos. That made it so much easier to just hide Raijin whenever he wanted, or where Raijin just wanted to be. Currently, Raijin was hanging out on his arm doing tattoo gorilla things. 

 

“Bye Izuku have a—”

 

The door was shut behind him and he headed towards the nearest station. Thankfully, Tokyo U. wasn’t terribly far from his mother’s apartment, but it was far enough that he might be able to justify moving to a student dorm close by. Things to think about for sure, but more pressing was the great ape currently hanging around on his skin. 

 

Having Raijin and not knowing what exactly he could do was killing him. He finally had a tattoo that could do more than just be a neat party trick. He wanted to take Raijin somewhere and just watch him go nuts on something, but the chance simply hadn’t come to him yet. He still had school, and now his mother was watching over him like a hawk, not to mention he couldn’t just bring out his quirk in public for no reason. 

 

He needed to get away, go somewhere where he could summon a giant gorilla and not be judged. Especially once said gorilla actually started to destroy stuff.

 

He didn’t get to ask Ori about what the lightning was about. Was that just aesthetics? Raijin’s base tattoo had those bits of lightning around him, so they could just be there for show, but, what if they weren’t? What if Raijin actually had some kind of thunder-based power? How strong was it? What could he do with it?

 

There was something he gleaned from his quirk after getting Raijin, like the connection he felt between him and his tattoos. It was loose, more empathetic than anything, but he could feel that Raijin was just as eager as he was to get out into the world and show off. 

 

What he didn’t know was whatever the boon was that Ori had mentioned. He didn’t feel any different, but she said the dragon on Tanaka’s chest was supposed to protect him. How did that work? If a dragon was protection, then what was a gorilla? And wait, wasn’t a dragon tattoo only for higher-ups? Wasn’t Tanaka just the muscle?

 

Or was that just some myth he picked up from something?

 

Maybe he knew absolutely nothing about Yakuza culture beyond the fact that Tanaka looked like a demon and Ori acted like one. 

 

XXXX

 

Orientation was boring as hell. 

 

It was just a giant welcome party that went over what the campus had to offer, like the food court, or the gym, or their arts program, or the fact that the college existed. They even had a few alumni giving a speech about how great they were for going to Tokyo U. 

 

It just felt hollow. He had dreamed so much about being a hero that he had completely tossed away any other alternative. He had a meeting with some counselor to help him out with that in about two hours. The meeting wasn’t expected to last longer than thirty minutes.

 

Thirty minutes to figure out what he was supposed to devote the rest of his life to. 

 

Izuku glanced at the mediocre food that he had absentmindedly devoured before he leaned back in his seat. At least the food at Tokyo U. was pretty good. With a heavy sigh, he leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling. “What am I going to—Ori?”

 

A pair of pale horns tipped with red and a piercing blue eye that could make the sky jealous greeted him along with a smile that reached her eyes and then some. “Yo! If it isn’t my favorite canvas!”

 

She swooped past him and took the seat across from him with an expert level of grace that had her long black skirt flowing like she was in a dance. She looked completely different and yet the same from when he had last seen her just over a week ago. Her long, snow-white hair was straight and loose, with some of it falling around her horn to cover her red-eye again, and part of her smile. She had on a loose white blouse with only the top button undone, and a black vest that hugged her curves tight. Her long black skirt was slanted to one side, showing off just a bit of her long tan boots. 

 

“You look like you’re trying to be a pirate on casual Friday.” Izuku tried not to get caught too off guard by her smile. He could still feel the pain of her quirk. 

 

“Ha! You’re the first one to get that!” Ori clapped her hands and put one boot up on the table. “Check out these new boots I got! I think they just scream ‘Yar, give me your booty.’”

 

“Yeah, they do.” Izuku blinked and then shook his head. “Wait, what are you doing here?” 

 

“What do you think?” She shot her arms out wide and gave a big grin. “I’m a student here, art major! Or at least I was, haven’t actually taken an art class in a while, but I am next semester! In the meantime, I hang out and eat the food. What about you? What’s your major.”

 

Izuku just shrugged.

 

Ori snorted and took a bite of her food and hummed before she pointed her finger towards him with a snap. “Mood. But hey, you’ll find something. worst case scenario, you go like, business or something. I don’t know, you seem smart, but not like computer smart. I think it’s the freckles.”

 

“My mom wants me to be a doctor.”

 

“Everybody’s mom wants their kid to be a doctor.” Ori snorted and waved her hand like it wasn’t any big deal. She leaned forward, one elbow on the table as she rested her cheek on her palm. He could nearly see the glow of her red eye as her smile grew again. “But enough of the boring stuff, have you let Raijin out? How is he?”

 

“I haven’t had a chance to let him out, but I guess he’s fine. I think he might be a bit bored.” Izuku shrugged and then tapped on the table lightly. “I remember you mentioning something about a boon? What’s with that?”

 

“Oh,” she stopped smiling and waved her hand like it was no big deal. She moved her hair for a moment and flashed her red eye at him. “I mean, apparently the tattoos I make with my quirk are more than just tattoos. I told you about my brother’s dragon, right? How it protects him?”

 

“Yeah, you mentioned that,” Izuku leaned forward a bit and then glanced around the food court, honestly he had no idea how much of this he should be talking about in public. “But, how?”

 

“No idea, I should have used a better example.” She tapped on her chin and then nodded. “Oh, right, you saw it right? The cherry blossom tree on my thigh?” 

 

“Yeah, what did that do?” 

 

“Make me tall.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“So, like, when I was fifteen, I was jealous that everyone was taller than me, and then one day I went a little crazy and then gave myself a tree tattoo. Right after that, I started growing, and then before I knew it I was the tallest and bustiest girl in my class. So yeah, cherry blossoms gave me puberty,” she finished with a light shrug and then pointed at him. “Though, I could have also been a late bloomer. There’s also the tattoo on my brother’s back, it makes him scarier than normal. But he’s already pretty scary.”

 

“So you’re telling me it might be useless?”

 

“More that it might do anything. I’m not even sure what boon a giant lightning gorilla might give.” She squinted and looked at a bit of fruit on her plate. “Maybe you’ll get more out of potassium or something. I dunno, do gorillas eat bananas? Or is that just like a Donkey Kong thing?”

 

Izuku could only shrug. “Alright, but, not that I’m complaining or anything, but why a gorilla?” 

 

“Hmm,” Ori hummed and took another long bite of her food. “I honestly don’t know, just felt like it. I felt like a giant thunder gorilla would look cool and look even cooler once it popped off your skin.”

 

“It’s hard to argue with the results.” Izuku nodded Raijin was more than impressive on his own. “I guess I should think about what I want my next tattoo to be right?” 

 

Ori’s smile grew and her eye flashed a bright red for a heartbeat. “Such an eager canvas you are Izuku. Well, I’ll be happy to ink you up again at some point. But before all that, do you want to see what Raijin can do?”

 

“Yeah! I’d love to, but I don’t know of any place that I can really—” He stopped when he saw Ori’s already massive smile double in size. She loved to hold knowledge over people’s heads, didn’t she? “You know a place?”

 

She nodded. 

 

“On a scale of one to walking into a Yakuza hideout, how dangerous is it?”

 

“Uhh, an arbitrary seven?” Ori shrugged. “I mean, it's normally not dangerous or anything. But what do you say? Come on, it’ll be fun. It’s not like you have anything else to do, right?” 

 

Izuku opened his mouth to protest, but the smile pulling on his lip and the sensation of Raijin pounding its chest forced him to stop. He wanted this. “Sure, but I’ll need an excuse for my mom.”

 

“Ehh? Why?” Ori looked slightly offended. 

 

“Because I’m on a short leash ever since I came home after spending the entire night out.”

 

Ori blinked. “Oh, that’s my fault huh? Well, mostly your fault I guess, you should have come earlier or something.” Eri spun around the table and sat right next to him. “Here, give me your phone.”

 

Before he could object she swiped it from him, opened the camera app, and pushed herself close to him. “Come on smile.”

 

He flashed an awkward and forced smile and Ori took the photo. 

 

“You suck at smiling, be more photogenic next time Izuku.” She slid back over to her seat and resumed eating. “But there, you can send that to your mom and tell her you’re going to hang out with this hottie you met at college.”

 

“That might actually go over well.”

 

It did.

 

XXXX

 

Much like Tanaka had done over a week ago, Ori had led him halfway across Tokyo and into the Amagi district, but this time they didn’t go to the compound.

 

Instead, he found himself following her as went into a large warehouse. From the outside, there was nothing but silence, but as they walked through the doors and went down several flights of stairs, Izuku began to feel it. 

 

A loud pounding bass that got his blood pumping. 

 

The cheer of a crowd.

 

And then.

 

The sounds of battle.