Chapter Text
In order to go to UA, Tsu needed to finish middle school. But if she went to class as normal, the police could just come get her and her siblings. It’d be too easy to find them and then force them into foster care. Maybe she could try online schooling, but then there was the issue of her name.
Asui Tsuyu. Asui Samidare. Asui Satsuki.
‘Asui’ would probably be flagged by the police. If they registered under that name, it would be easy to track them to whatever computers they wind up using. She could come up with a new name for them. Though, she had no idea how to forge the documents they’d need to sign up for schooling. They’d have to be good enough to carry over to UA when the time comes.
So Tsu had a tentative plan. She just didn’t have any idea where she should start.
Maybe with breakfast since Satsuki was asking for cookies. “We should have real food for breakfast and then we can have cookies for a snack later,” Tsu bargained with the 5-year-old.
She managed to talk the kids into instant miso soup and pre-packaged orange marmalade sandwiches. There were some pantry items she’d brought with them that could expire, like bread, so she would need to keep track of dates until those were all used up.
They checked out of the onsen carrying paper cups of soup and their wrapped sandwiches. Parks were free to hang out in, so they could have a little breakfast picnic there. The nearest park was only a short distance down the road.
After they’d eaten and Satsuki went to play on some nearby playground equipment, Samidare finally spoke up for the first time since they woke up. “So… Are our parents dead?”
“Yes,” Tsu answered honestly. He knew… He was just confirming.
“And we’re homeless now,” he concluded.
“Yes.”
“Why? Can’t orphans be adopted?”
“It was mom’s last request for us,” Tsu explained. “Before adoption, we would be put in foster care. We may never get adopted. If we do, they may want only 1 or 2 of us. They could split us up. They could split us up between foster homes too. Plus, the foster system isn’t regulated well enough to prevent quirkist people from getting kids they disapprove of.”
“Like the bullies?” Samidare questioned, obviously thinking about the kids that had mocked him growing up for his amphibious traits.
“Worse than the bullies. We may be homeless, but we are together and not being hurt by extra mean bullies. This is safer. It’s what mom asked of us. Of me.”
Samidare leaned into her, wrapping his arms around her waist. Tsu returned the hug as tears welled up in her eyes. “Okay. I trust you, onee-chan. I know you’ll keep us safe.”
Her tears spilled over in the face of such blatant trust.
“Stay down, Deku,” Kacchan-- No… Katsuki hissed.
“You wanna be a hero so bad? I’ve got a time-saving idea for you. If you think you’ll have a quirk in your next life, go take a swan dive off the roof.”
“Hey, Katsuki! We should lock him in the janitor’s closet again,” one of his lackeys laughed.
“No, no! We should dump his bag out in the garbage,” the other suggested.
Katsuki’s palms popped with the tell-tale sound of his quirk. “Nah. I think the Shitty Nerd gets it. I’ve got better things to do anyway.”
“Like studying for the UA entrance exam?” the first lackey questioned.
“Can someone without a quirk become a hero?”
“No, I should think not. It’s not wrong to dream. However, you need to be realistic, kid.”
“As if I need to. I’m the best,” Katsuki scoffed, straightening up with one last warning glare for Izuku to stay on the ground where he was. Where Katsuki had put him.
It didn’t matter to him that Izuku’s mom was sick. Izuku was still beneath him, beneath everyone. Katsuki believed he should act like it. Give up on his dreams of being a hero. And well… If All Might himself was going to agree that Izuku should be ‘realistic,’ who was he to argue?
Just a fucking Deku.
He probably committed too many crimes at this point to become a hero. Little crimes, but crimes nonetheless. Even if he’d never been caught, he’s sure he will be eventually.
But even though Katsuki didn’t care about Izuku, he did care about Izuku’s mom. She was ‘Auntie Inko’ to Katsuki. Sometimes, out of respect for her, Katsuki would make up excuses to convince the other kids to leave him alone. Physically, at least. All he had to do was stay down.
With the UA entrance exams coming up, he couldn’t afford to miss much more of his classes, so he swallowed his anger and stayed down. He’s not going to be a hero but UA is still the best high school that actually accepts quirkless students. Most others won’t even let him apply.
“Remember your place, Deku,” Katsuki warned. Izuku was pretty sure he’d never forget.
After going to the train station and slipping her phone in the bag of someone boarding a train to Hiroshima, Tsu started searching for somewhere to stay. They couldn’t stay in onsens forever. Their money would eventually run out. With their quirks, they needed somewhere warm or that they could safely start a small fire in. If they got too cold, they’d hibernate.
When they hibernate, their muscles contract and lock up. They fall asleep, but wouldn’t be able to move even if they were awake. It’s easy for them to freeze to death in that state. Even if the temperatures don’t get low enough to kill them, they can dehydrate or starve if they’re stuck like that for too long. With winter approaching soon, they needed to be very careful.
If they could find shelter earlier, then they could save their money to stay in the onsens when it was too cold to keep warm wherever they found to stay. Right now it was just warm enough at night that she was sure they could easily stave off the cold with a small, contained fire.
So far though, she wasn’t having any luck. Abandoned homes, apartments, or businesses would be best. There were a lot of those in Japan as a whole, though not a lot in her immediate area it seemed. Maybe because they didn’t have as many big villain fights as places like Tokyo.
She had found an apartment building that was half-crushed in a villain fight but it was occupied already. A kind woman warned her that some of the people living there weren’t good for children to be around. Another place was just foreclosed but Tsu found mold that she and her siblings would be sensitive to. There were issues with all of the handful of places she found.
The sun would be setting soon and Tsu figured they should probably cut their search short and go back to the onsen for the night. Unfortunately, a shortcut through an alley she tried to take back had a belligerent drunk in it. The man yelled about this being his territory and that they’d have to fight him for it. Tsu placed herself between her siblings and the man.
She tensed, waiting for the punch that was being thrown at her. THUNK!
One out-of-place sound later and the man was collapsing in a heap in front of her. What the…?
“Hey!” A boy with curly, green hair and a freckled face stood behind the man. A can of soup lay dented on the ground nearby. “So you seem new around here, but the homeless can be pretty defensive of their shelters and resources. We should get out of here before he wakes up.”
“Did you just knock him out with soup?” Tsu asked, a little dazed by the turn of events.
“Uh, yeah. He’s probably alive,” the boy said, casting an unsure glance at the man. “Seriously, we should probably go.”
Tsu nodded and followed the boy out of the alley, making sure her siblings stayed close. After a bit of walking, the boy came to a stop outside of a bookstore. The street was quiet but not entirely empty. The boy faced them with a smile. “Hi! I’m Izuku.”
“I’m Tsu. This is Samidare and Satsuki,” Tsu introduced herself and her siblings.
“Newly homeless, right?” Izuku guessed. Tsu just nodded. “I figured. When I first became homeless, I got into territory spats a lot too. Though they were more like one-sided beatdowns.”
“We didn’t know. We were just taking a shortcut.”
“They don’t care,” Izuku shrugged. “You need more situational awareness. Check alleys before you go down them. Learn to sense people’s presence. I could teach you if you want?”
“You would do that for strangers?” Tsu questioned. Didn’t he just say the homeless are defensive of their resources? Wouldn’t that include their methods of survival?
Izuku glanced at her siblings behind her. “I would for certain kinds of strangers. Some people really shouldn’t be out here.”
Children
. It was easy to guess what he meant. “Anyway, I have a place to stay if you haven’t found one yet. It’s up to you.”