Cubicity

Chapter 5: Raindrops

Izuku decided to send an invitation to Tenya and Ochako via text on Sunday. They both took up the offer and had no problem with Mashirao being there as well. At first, Midoriya wanted the two showing up to be a surprise for Tooru but eventually overthinking the possibilities to not telling the invisible girl; he changed his mind. She was upfront when she wanted to invite Ojiro; he should be as well. Luckily, Tooru was overjoyed to hear the news when Izuku sent the text. Izuku was tempted to make a shared text group between all of them but thought it would be better to wait and see how things went the next few days. He doubted anyone in his new group of friends would have problems with one another, but he also didn't want to rush things.

Speaking of rushed, as much as Izuku appreciated the small moment he and Tooru had shared the previous day, the brisk pace of their relationship was straining Izuku's heart and mind. To go from having no actual friends for over a decade to having multiple friends including the unique bond he had with Tooru in under a month was an ordeal. This was magnified tenfold because of how analytical Midoriya was with everything he did and felt. Sometimes he wished he was just a meathead so he could just focus on the now, not the whys, ifs, and buts. These thoughts, however, brought Izuku to ponder a possible answer to help alleviate some of his stress. Perhaps it was time to tell his mother about his relationship with Tooru.

Midoriya just couldn't blurt out he had conflicting emotions about a girl to his mom, especially a girl that his parent had never seen or heard about before. The teen knew his mother was even more likely to stress out, and possibly even faint, from over worrying. Perhaps the conversation could start with how Izuku had made a good friend that he wanted to introduce to her, which just happened to be a girl.

No this was wrong. Tooru was not a good friend; she was his best friend. Izuku felt he was totally honest with himself when he told Hagakure yesterday that they were best friends. Nobody had made him feel as good about himself than she did. Nobody had made him want to push himself socially and emotionally than she did. Nobody was more interested in wanting to know who he was, why he did things, and how he felt than she did. Izuku knew that he had a very small pool of friends to pull from to compare her to, but when push came to shove Tooru was truly his best friend. Tenya was a definite second choice to all these statements, and Midoriya greatly appreciated what Ida had done the previous day, but when it came to Tooru, it just felt different. Could he be falling in love? Was she falling for him? Was this relationship destined just to end at the level of best friends? Would he ok with that? Would Tooru? These questions continued to plague Izuku's thoughts throughout the day. Today wasn't the day he wanted to discuss the subject with his mother. But he did want to tell her soon before things progressed too much.

With Saturday's meet-up done and over with, Izuku could focus on other things, like the upcoming Hero Festival. All Might had asked him on Friday to stay after school to discuss the event.

Before going into the break room, Midoriya's plan was to not stand out at the Hero Festival. Drawing attention away from himself by placing in a middling rank seemed like the best route if he was going to be watched by the thousands that would be attending the event, and that was nothing compared to how many people would be watching it on TV. However, he began questioning himself as he left the office. His mentor was hoping for the opposite, the aim to win it all and wanting his successor's presence to be known to all. Popularity was All Might's drive; it made sense coming from him as he was the number hero in Japan. To be number one was to be a symbol for the people, and the symbol people saw All Might as was of peace. Izuku wanted to be this symbol eventually, so his teacher's proposal sounded logical. But the possibility of having himself linked to All Might's quirk still lingered in his mind.

But before the would-be-successor to All Might could even consider any of this he needed to find a way to control his quirk properly. During the villain invasion, there was another first for Izuku that day. The use of One for All not ending with himself getting injured. It puzzled the teen. Did it occur because, for the first time, he used his quirk on a person, even if that was Nomu? Or was it simply because of the absorption quirk the puppet villain had? Was it because of Izuku's instinct to save Tsuyu from the disintegration quirk the head villain possessed? Midoriya couldn't tell, but he had a strange feeling when he used his quirk at that moment. Perhaps if he could try to recreate that feeling, he might be able to control it. Regardless, he needed to continue his aerobic and weight training. Usually, he would take a break from it on the weekend, but until the Hero Festival, the boy decided to put in the extra work.