The thought of going to the sweetest soup kitchen she knew was very, very tempting, but no, she couldn't.
"Sorry, but I've kinda agreed to meet up with someone already."
...
Tomo got an annoyed look, but left it at that, as she returned to whatever it was on her phone that bothered her.
As Mina was finishing her meal, the youngest member of their family, her sister Mika came in.
While Mina and Mana were a mixture between their parents with varying degrees, Mika was as close to their mother in looks as could be imagined without sharing her quirk.
Like Mina she had long flowing hair, her's just as white as Mana's but with absolutely no hint of the big poofy hair of her father.
Her facial structure was also so alike to her mother that hadn't it been for Felicia's blonde hair in her younger days, she would have been a mirror image to pictures from their mom's youth.
The only area where Mika didn't share her mother's look was her build, as her quirk was nothing alike what either of her parents had.
Both her and Mana had quirks that related to luck, only in opposite ways.
Whereas Mana had supernaturally good luck that her mother had always compared to Gladstone Gander, Mika's quirk was instead one that allowed her to inflict horrible, horrible bad luck on whoever she desired, so long as she could see them directly.
Both potentially very, very powerful quirks though less straightforward and practical than Mina's.
"Morning Squirt." Mina said in an affectionate tone, her hand shooting out and ruffling the 10-year old's hair as she passed
Said 10-year old laughed and returned her cheerful greeting before heading out to the balcony, presumably to do whatever it was 10-year-olds did on Sundays.
As she finally finished up her food, put it in the wash, and went back to her room to go grab some clothes before heading out, she passed Mana, cheerfully whistling a tune as she was standing on a chair while putting back all the books in the bookcase she had toppled.
"Need help?" She offered, stopping right behind her.
"Nah, dad told me I had to do it myself." The 12-year-old turned around, looking at her curiously. "You heading out?"
"Yeah, I've got a meeting planned with some friends."
Mana's look got sly all of a sudden.
"So, just to hang out or is it-" "It's not a date" She cut her little sis off, though not harshly so.
"I'm just gonna hang out with Uraraka and some other guys."
Mana's face got a look like she was trying to remember something.
"Uraraka… That's the brown-haired girl, right? The one who's as ripped as mom? Obsessed with food?"
Mana had never had much tact. But Mina could hardly disagree with that last statement. Uraraka had almost cried from joy seeing their dinner the last time she was here, and she had eaten just as much as Mina had.
"Yeah, she's the brown-haired one. I'm gonna go hang out with her at the arcade."
"You gonna be out all day?"
"Yeah, I should be back around six-" She stopped immediately, and narrowed her eyes at Mana's innocent looking face.
"Why do you wanna know?"
Mana in response doubled down on the pure, innocent expression of a green-eyed maiden that had never done anything wrong in her life.
"Just wanna know when you come back, that's all."
"Uh-huh. Well, have fun with the books. Later."
As she walked away, Mana resuming her cheerful tune, Mina decided that she was locking the door to her room before she left. As in, she was both locking the door, then putting stuff so heavy Mana couldn't open the door, even if she managed to get the lock open.
She had no plans of coming home after a fun outing with her friends, only to get pranked as she set foot inside her own room.
She loved that sister of hers, but her love of pranks had made Mina want to throw her out a window more than once.
After getting herself dressed for the occasion, she moved the bed over with just a bit of effort so it blocked the door, then she locked the door. There, let's see Mana get past those!
After that, she opened the window and made sure to take some precautions so the window would remain open. She'd screwed that up once before and come home to a locked window, and no way to get inside other than destroying the lock on the door.
Mom had not been happy about that.
Then, having made sure the window wouldn't close, she jumped out the window out into the void of 3 stories above the ground.
---
When Izuku had decided he needed more experience in using his powers, he had thought the first thing he would be doing would be combat maneuvers, how to use his web, maybe wall-running, which Venom had said was a skill he'd need to work on to really be able to move as he'd like.
He had not expected his first new training exercise to be walking through a crowd with his eyes closed.
It was a… Bizarre experience.
It wasn't like he had some radar sense, that allowed him to "see" everything around him.
Rather, he was feeling the lives around him, their emotions, their souls.
It was an aspect of his powerset he hadn't really thought about, but he had realized how potentially useful it was. Sure, it wasn't perfect, but hot damn this thing would be useful in rescue work.
Being able to feel where people were located would be invaluable in say, a ruined building.
Of course, there were drawbacks. For one, this wasn't a passive power. Not for him at least. Venom felt like this all the time, but Izuku had to concentrate and focus to make it happen.
Then of course there was the training. His first lesson was to simply sit and take in all the people around him on this Sunday in Mustafa.
That had gone just fine enough. The feelings of sensing the emotions of the people around him was a truly emotional experience.
The next step was less so.
"OWW!"
This time he had slammed his head into a shop sign that was on the side of the road.
With frustration, the feelings of the people around him vanished, like a puff of smoke, and it wasn't until he took a deep breath, eyes still closed, that they returned.
Around him, the emotions came back, like torches in the night, if there had been absolutely nothing else existing than those burning flames.
Annoyance directed at something not here. What was it?
Two lovers intertwined, hand in hand. Happiness unlike any else he had felt.
Two other souls, also intertwined, but only one beaming with love, the other a hatred towards the other. Why?
Pity, directed in his direction, many felt it. It was a common occurrence today. He had long ago realized he must look like he was a blind teenager where he awkwardly tried to walk without hitting things.
Why didn't they stop to help, if they thought he was blind?
-You're doing well.- Venom said in his mind.
Izuku didn't answer. People might ignore a blind guy, but a blind guy who looked like he was crazy?
That was going to attract attention of the kind he didn't want.
-You're not the quickest we have seen, but far from the worst either. Generally, our hosts tend to have a talent for this, or they don't.-
He kept walking again, moving past the steel sign.
There were so many people around him. Lives. Human beings.
Old men, old women, young men, young women, children. It didn't matter. They all burned.
The only one who was different was Venom, whose soul was so, so different than any human soul around.
Souls.
God, Izuku had never believed in a deity before he met Venom, not really. He might have sworn by some vague God or spirit, but he hadn't actually believed in things like an afterlife, or a soul as a physical and real tangible thing that existed beyond some vague idea.
Like many things, it was a worldview that Venom had obliterated after their final bonding.
Souls were real, actual things. They burned, strong and true, and in them at least, the old saying that all men were born equal was true enough. All those who felt emotions had a soul.
Whether an afterlife of some sort existed for those souls to go after death, Venom could not enlighten him.
It was as he walked by a house, that he felt an entirely new emotion. One he hadn't felt before.
It was strong, powerful, a strange mixture between love, satisfaction, and that feeling that he was so hypersensitive to above all others, adrenaline.
What was it? There were tons of people with those feelings beyond the walls. What was that feeling?
He opened his eyes to look at this building, where this strange, strange feeling was so commonplace.
As Izuku looked up over the entrance, and read the words, he froze in place. Then, slowly, but surely, the blood once more rose to his cheeks. He felt like he was going to die of shame.
Above the entrance were large, red English letters spelling out two words that were innocent on their own, but taken together had a far different meaning.
Love Hotel.
...
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