Chapter 13

White ranunculus Ishi had decided, were her favorite flowers. She liked some of the other colors, but they didn't mean anywhere near as much to her as the white ones.

Tamaki had started coming over more often, both with the big three and alone. He often got even more nervous than usual when Eraserhead opened the door and glared at him in that scary way that he glares at anyone or anything that upsets him even the smallest bit.

The more Tamaki told Ishi about his quirk the more excited she got to make new foods for him to try out. The U.A. kitchen often got some interesting ingredients from various suppliers so Ishi didn't need to worry about finding anything that may ordinarily be difficult to procure.

"HEEEYYYY LUNCH RUSH!!!!! IS ISHI IN THE CAFETERIA!!!!????" Mic shouted when the Cook Hero walked through the door.

Lunch Rush replied simply with a thumbs up before Aizawa gave him quite the look which urged him to elaborate. "We got in some new ingredients and she had found a new Chinese recipe the other day, I'm excited to see how it turns out" he explained before continuing across the room to take a seat.

"I'm so glad the girl is making friends, I was worried about her" Recovery Girl comments from the kitchen door, where she stood with a tray of snacks and a pot of tea.

"I think he's too friendly." Aizawa grumbled from the floor.

"You're just too protective," Nemuri countered. "You're used to her depending on you for everything, so now you're upset she's moving on to other people". Everyone but Aizawa had to nod in agreement. Most of them had never been parents by any means; it was something that they had all agreed would be a bad idea, both because if they got hurt or killed then the child would be emotionally damaged, and because it was dangerous to be the family of a hero, villains always use family against them. So when Ishi came around and became their charge and they grew this familial bond they weren't expecting it to hurt so much when she grew up.

"Rinse jellyfish and put into bowl~"

"Whisk sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, chili oil, and ginger together~"

"Pour into jellyfish and let marinate for fifteen minutes~"

Ishi had put the recipe on the counter and was letting her snakes direct her on what to do, they had picked up reading probably faster than she herself had at first.

She looked at her phone while waiting for the jellyfish to marinate for the nine minutes before she had to start the next step. A little while ago she had traded phone numbers with the Big Three. She had a big chat with all of them and then one on one conversations with each in case they wanted to talk about something privately.

Nejire's way of messaging consisted mostly of her sending gifs, emojis, or little pictures that Ishi had to figure out the meaning of. It was kind of like playing pictionary all the time, but occasionally she would send a worded message. Ishi had figured out that oftentimes, the most complex and emotional messages she sent were through images. It was almost as if Nejire didn't quite know how to voice her thoughts, so she used pictures to convey it instead.

Messaging with Mirio was pretty normal, though he was often more energetic than she was used to keeping up with. Despite that, he always seemed to make her day a little bit brighter. He had a different way of looking at the world that she could appreciate.

Tamaki was a person who paid attention to detail. He appreciates the little things in life, and could probably be described as someone with a 'nature aesthetic'. Oftentimes he sent little macro-photography style pictures of rain drops on leaves, or any butterfly he sees. It was always calming to see a notification alerting her that he had sent a message. Ishi routinely changed her background whenever she got a new picture from Tamaki. She hadn't been outside anywhere in quite a while, and even then she always had her eyes covered; so whenever she got to see something new, Ishi was filled with joy.

Tamaki:

Mirio and I have a test the day after tomorrow, so we'll be studying after school and won't be able to come over.

(Attachment)

I saw this today and thought of you.

Ishi clicked on the attachment and smiled. It was a picture of small Mamushi snake; taken from a safe distance of course. Her phone dinged again.

Tamaki:

I think I'm getting better at handling them.

It let me get pretty close without getting angry.

She smiled, a light blush coloring her ears before the timer on the counter sounded and she got back to work.

"Roast sesame seeds on medium low heat for one minute or until golden brown~"

She grabbed the bag from the counter and poured out two tablespoons into a small skillet and turned on the burner. Stirring it every now and then, she watched as they changed color and then removed the seeds from the pan.

"Let sit to cool for five minutes~" one snake, Hebi, instructed; flicking his tongue at the end.

Ishi sighed, "Almost done; I hope he likes it."

Ishi:

Nice! So cute!

"Stir cilantro and green onions into jellyfish mixture~" Hebi instructed, drawing Ishi out of her conversation.

She turned around muttering, "yes, yes, cilantro and green onions" to keep in mind what she was doing before adding two tablespoons of freshly chopped cilantro and another two tablespoons of thinly sliced green onions into the larger bowl.

"Add in toasted sesame seeds~"

"Looking good!" she said, standing back to look at her freshly made sesame jellyfish salad. "Time to package it up."

Grabbing four thermos type containers from a shelf in the back, she parted the salad into the separate dishes. She had made the food the night before, which meant that she had to use Lunch Rush's new food warmer to keep them fresh until the next morning.

Afterwards, she hurriedly cleaned all the dishes and set them to dry on the counter before taking a final look around to make sure everything was in its proper place so she could put her bandages back on and return to the apartment building, where the heroes were likely waiting for her.

"I'm home!" she called when she walked through the front door. When nobody answered, she immediately started to panic. "Is anyone there?". Ishi's breathing started coming faster. She was shivering as she huddled into herself, continuing her cautious venture into the building. Her thoughts flashed back to Aizawa in the hospital bed after the villain attack. She couldn't bear the thought of something having happened to them while she was gone. Her nails dug into her forearms, close to drawing blood as she held them against her body.

In reaction to their hosts panic, Ishi's snakes grew increasingly hostile and guarded. Venom fell from their fangs in drops, burning the floor and leaving marks behind in her wake.

She could smell blood the closer she moved to the kitchen, and for a moment she thought that she might be mistaken; that nothing was wrong and her guardians were simply distracted, cooking some sort of meat for dinner. But, she knew how different kinds of blood smelled, and this one was unmistakably human. Ishi had nothing left to do but edge closer to the kitchen, hoping that everything was okay. Her head felt heavy and in pain, the cause being her snakes, which had grown in size to seem even more intimidating; as if loudly hissing and dripping acidic venom wasn't enough.

"Hello?" she whispered again, thinking she heard voices. The voices became progressively louder and more familiar the closer she got. She wanted to relax at this, but the iron tang of blood biting on her tongue wouldn't let her.

"Blood on the counter~" One of her snakes reported after taking a look over the room.

She heard the door on the other side of the room open, filling the room with even more voices; both familiar and not. The unfamiliar ones putting her more on edge. "Oh god!" #13's voice broke through her internal turmoil.

Ishi's head tilted, her up eyes watering and slightly bloodshot beneath her bandages. She was sweating uncontrollably; with blood leaking from the crescent moon shaped cuts in her forearms, where her nails had gouged through the skin. Ishi was shaking and her snakes were in attack mode. Curled into herself, she looked like the victim of a violent crime.

Though #13 had lived in the building for nearly as long as Ishi herself, they had never quite figured out how to respond to her outbursts of panic or her reactions to any number of other triggering situations. However even if they don't know how to handle the situation themselves they know a couple people nearby who do.

When #13 stopped in the door, everyone on the other side ceased their conversations. "Is it a villain?" one of the new voices asked, causing all of the heroes on the other side of the door to instinctively move into a combative stance.

"No, no it's not. I just, uh... I need a bit of Nemuri and Aizawa's help over here for a couple minutes... yeah that sounds good, and uhh, everyone else should just keep talking. There is just a bit of a situation here that needs their attention," #13 though for a moment, "Actually Chiyo should come too, I think her expertise might be needed as well..."

The aforementioned heroes were confused, but stood up from their seats and followed #13 towards the kitchen anyway. All Might, ever the curious hero who had to know everything that was going on, followed as well. Being of no further help due to lack of expertise, #13 pointed through the door at Ishi who stood, still as the dead, in the middle of the kitchen. Since she had halted her movement, bloody tears had begun slipping out from under the bandages, staining them in the process.

"Oh no," Nemuri breathed, rushing through the door toward Ishi, then holding back the second Hebi lurched forward to bite her. "What?" she whispered under her breath, confused. This type of reaction was rare; what could have happened for Ishi to be this far out of touch? The girl's breathing seemed erratic and she was swaying as though she could collapse at any moment.

"What's going on?" Mt. Lady asked from the other side of the door. Aizawa quickly shut her up, allowing Nemuri to attempt to talk down the nest of snakes that were on violently on edge.

Chiyo took in the girl's state from further back, her eyes quickly scanning over Ishi's erratic breathing combined with the red tears and bleeding arms, trying her best to come up with a theory on what was wrong. "Did anyone tell Ishi that the security team was coming over tonight?" she asked the group of heroes. She waited a moment, hearing a chorus of "No." and "I didn't." coming from various heroes, as well as a couple members of the security team asking "Who's Ishi?". That answered one question, but even if Ishi was scared, she shouldn't be breathing that hard. What would have caused her to be that scared?

Looking around the room and observing the snakes for a few minutes, Chiyo was able to realize that Ishi had been frightened by the blood on the counter from when Mic had tried to make dinner, but ended up cutting himself and letting Lunch Rush take over. "Tell her that the blood isn't from an attack but just Mic cutting his finger" she suggested to Nemuri and Aizawa, who was inching closer. The only question left was why she was breathing so hard and looked as though she was going to pass out. "Lunch Rush," she called.

"What's going on?" he asked.

She ignored his question in favor of asking her own, "What was Ishi making in the cafeteria earlier?".

He thought for a moment before he was able to remember "It was that new Chinese dish she found the other day, a sesame jellyfish salad" he stated with a thumbs up. "It sounded really good I hope there's some left over for me" his eyes glazed over and he drooled a bit at the fantasy.

"You guys have to get the snakes to calm down without calming her down, can you do that?" Chiyo ordered the two dark haired teachers inching closer to Ishi.

"What!?" Aizawa yelled.

"Is that even possible!?" Nemuri had to dodge yet another snake that seemed to be after her head.

"It doesn't matter if it's possible, you have to do it. She's having an allergic reaction to the jellyfish she was cooking with earlier, the adrenaline from her panic is allowing her to breathe, but once it goes away she won't be able to anymore." Chiyo hurried over to the opposite kitchen door, heading to the hallway where there was a small oxygen mask and cask, enlisting a shocked Toshinori to help her carry it back into the kitchen. "I don't have any adrenaline here with me and the nurses office is too far away, you need to hurry or she could go into shock." she commanded, leaving no room for argument.

"Fine." Aizawa barked, his own panic rising.

"Hebi, we really need your help" Nemuri pleaded, calling the name of the only snake she could ever remember, "Ishi is in danger right now and we need to help her, but we can't do that if you are going to hurt us." The snakes didn't stop, or even calm down in the slightest.

"Goddamn, it if you don't back down she's going to die!" Aizawa snapped. At this, the writhing mass of snakes froze, leaving enough time for All Might to rush in with the oxygen mask and tank that he and Recovery Girl had grabbed. The adrenaline was still allowing her to breathe, but it wasn't quite enough.

"Could really use that medication right about now." He said, looking at Recovery girl out of the corner of his eye while she rummaged through the medical kit that was stored under the kitchen sink.

"Got it!" she declared, pulling albuterol from the kit and rushing over to administer the drug.

Slowly Ishi's breathing evened out until it was average and she loosened up all of her muscles. Aizawa caught her as she started to collapse, while Chiyo pried her arms away from each other and gave each of them a big kiss to heal the scabbing cuts on her arms, before walking up to her head to kiss the spaces on her cheeks just below the bandages.

The sink hissed as a steady flow of water fell from the faucet as Nemuri wet a cloth and walked over to Ishi, wiping the remaining blood off of her cheeks and newly healed arms. "I'm so sorry baby." she whispered, fighting tears. The sports festival planning was in full swing for its arrival the following week, and one of the last pieces was the extra security that was being put into place because of the attack a few weeks prior at USJ.

The nest of snakes sagged on the floor in exhaustion as Ishi fought sleep herself. "The security team for the Sports Festival is here for a meeting. I'm sorry we forgot to tell you, you must have been so scared. I'll yell at Mic later for cutting himself and not cleaning it up" Nemuri murmured, directing All Might to take her from Aizawa's still bandaged arms. He hesitated, eyeing the snakes attached to her head in skepticism. Sure he had helped earlier, but it was more of an 'in the moment' kind of thing rather than him having grown to trust her. "Do it or I'll give you Bakugou duty for a month." Nemuri threatened, just loud enough for him to hear.

With haste, he slipped his arms underneath her knees and shoulders, lifting Ishi from Aizawa's aching body. He then worked his way toward the far side of the kitchen, intending to bring her back to her room.

"Where do you think you're going?" Nemuri interrupted.

"Her room." he replied shortly.

"I don't think so!" her commanding and sadistic side she showed to the public coming into full view. "You're going to bring her into the room with the rest of us." she demanded, knowing full well that while he was no longer openly hostile toward her, he was still on edge. Nemuri walked back through the door closest to them, followed soon after by Chiyo and Aizawa. Eventually, All Might begrudgingly turned around and trailed behind them.

"Right here." Nemuri patter her lap, telling Toshinori to place Ishi right there with her. He did as instructed before scuttling over to the farthest corner of the room away from them.

"What happened?" Vlad questioned, looking over at Nemuri and Ishi.

"Allergic reaction with an added bonus of us not telling her what was going on tonight, resulting in a panic attack. I think she'll be fine though, Recovery Girl already treated her, so all she needs right now is a bit of rest." the r-rated hero explained, looking down at her charge and petting the side of her face affectionately.

"Again, anyone gonna tell us what's going on here?" Mt. Lady asked, growing impatient. Her newly painted nails clicked on the counter-top, irritating PowerLoader. "Stop that!" he demanded, barely keeping himself from hitting the table.

"I'll stop when someone explains who the kid is." she countered.

Just as PowerLoader was on the verge of yelling at his former student, Nezu walked through the door. "Several years ago, U.A. adopted young Ishi. She has had a couple traumatic experiences, but she's a good kid; she was working on a new dish in the cafeteria and it seems that she was not told of your expected arrival tonight, and it caused her to grow concerned. Nemuri and Aizawa are closest to her so they often deal with matters that pertain to her wellbeing." he explained simply, calming down the young female hero with ease.

"Fine," she conceded, jutting out her lip a bit in frustration at not being in the loop. "Does that mean she was here back when I was a student?" she pondered.

"Hmm...I wonder..." Mic tried to think back, but couldn't remember. "Meh, not important." he gave up, shrugging his shoulders in indifference.

Aizawa held Ishi's feet in his lap and looked at Nemuri who was cradling her head and cooing soothing words to her and the nest of snakes on her head.

Eventually the meeting came to an end, and All Might was forced to carry Ishi back up to her, Aizawa, and Nemuri's room. The snake haired girl crawled over to the edge of the bed and plugged in her phone, making sure to enable her early morning alarm. "Grnite" she groaned, almost falling off the bed as she passed out. Aizawa reached into a drawer on the side table to retrieve another roll of bandages as Nemuri started unraveling the bloodied ones from around Ishi's eyes.

"Here" he whispered, handing the roll over to the other adult. He used his scarf to hold up the girl's body, allowing Nemuri to wrap her eyes with ease.

"Goodnight" he then said, curling up at Ishi's side after moving her to the middle a bit more and watching as Nemuri did the same on her side of the bed. "Goodnight" she replied, breathing out in relief that the unintentionally eventful day was finally over.

"WAKE UP! TIME TO START A NEW DAY LISTENERS! UP AND AT 'EM!" Ishi's alarm blared in her ears. Aizawa jerked awake with the irritation that was reserved only for whenever he heard Hizashi's voice. "I will murder you." he grumbled, with bloodshot and tired eyes.

Ishi crawled out of bed while Aizawa was distracted with her alarm. She snuck through the door, holding her finger up to her pursed lips; soundlessly signalling her snakes to be as quiet as possible. She then tiptoed across the room, slowly pulling her closet door open and grabbing one of her togas off a hanger, setting it over her arm before slipping out of the room and into the hall. She entered the bathroom not too far down the hall, swiftly changing before going back to the cafeteria to retrieve her hard work and bring it to the 3A classroom.

After the adverse reaction she had to breathing in the jellyfish the day prior, Ishi decided to grab one of the disposable cold masks from the box just inside the door before going out.

It was early in the morning and students weren't allowed into the building yet, which made this the best time to come out and deliver her snacks to her friends.

Lunch Rush was already in the large kitchen when she arrived, preparing breakfast for the expected students, who would likely be tired and hungry upon their arrival.

"Hello." Ishi greeted quietly, the sound slightly distorted by her mask.

He replied with a thumbs up and a quick "Good safety precaution". She then walked through the kitchen, her snakes directing her away from any objects that could impede her path until she reached the warmer that she had placed the food into the night before. Pulling the thermoses out and setting them on the counter, she grabbed the lids to keep them warm while they waited for their intended owners.

"This one is for...you!" she called to Lunch Rush, raising the remaining thermos into the air for him to see.

"Nice!"

The third year classrooms weren't that far away from the cafeteria so she was able to get there quickly. None of the classrooms were ever locked because of the exterior security measures, though she figured that may change soon with the other security upgrades that seemed to be going on. The podium at the front of the class seemed to be the best place for her little gifts since she didn't know where each of their seats were in the array of other school desks. She supposed that she could ask the 3A teacher home room teacher, but she didn't want to bother him with something so trivial.

Loosening her bandages a bit, Ishi was able to slide them down to the bridge of her nose, allowing her to see enough that she could write a note for the intended recipients.

The Big Three walked through the doors of U.A. with purpose, all of their studying planned out for that night with a slight alteration from their original plan, though they supposed it might be more useful than they would like to admit.

Their classroom was filled with chatter as it was every morning, though it seemed eerily similar to that of which had gone on several days before, so they looked up to the podium where three thermoses sat, a little note on each container with their names on them. They smiled as widely (or faintly in Tamaki's case) at Ishi's kind gesture.

"Oooo, look who's got a secret admirer..." one kid from the back of the class commented. Tamaki blushed in embarrassment, wringing his hands while muttering about going home despite only having just arrived.

"Ishi isn't a secret admirer! She's my friend!" Nejire defended, placing her hands on her hips and puffing her chest out confidently.

"Yeah, you're just jealous that you don't have any..." he stopped to open the thermos and examine its contents, "Jellyfish salad." Mirio countered. Their classmate stuttered at being caught in his jealousy but eventually quieted down.

"Looks good, eh Tamaki?" Mirio asked.

"Yeah." Tamaki replied distractedly, busy holding his thermos and trying to think of ways he could use it with his quirk. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and sent a quick message.

Tamaki:

Thanks for the meal :)