Chapter 38: There's a Reason They Say to Watch Out for Pious Maidens! (R-17)

Melissa looked first at her Uncle Might and then at her father. Neither of them seemed to be joking.

She felt her eyes fill with tears and quickly wiped them away with her hand.

"But..." she murmured, still trying to process it. "I don't understand. This has to be some kind of bad joke."

All Might shook his head.

"It isn't, young Melissa."

Melissa pressed her lips together.

"I don't have a Quirk. How am I supposed to accept something like this?"

She lowered her gaze and clenched her hands tightly.

"There are hundreds of pro heroes out there. Heroes who've spent years training, who have experience... people born with incredible Quirks. Why would you choose someone like me?"

David stepped forward and placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder. His expression remained calm, but the concern in his eyes was impossible to hide.

"Melissa, sweetheart... no one expects you to carry this on your own." He turned to his friend. "But you have to admit it, Toshinori. What you're asking of her is enormous."

His voice hardened slightly.

"Do you really understand what this means for her? We're not just talking about an honor or a great responsibility."

"I understand it better than anyone, Dave." Toshinori kept his eyes fixed on Melissa. "Because I know that fear. I know exactly what it means to look at something that seems impossible and wonder if you're up to it."

He took a step toward her and slowly clenched his fists.

"But, Melissa... look at yourself! Your whole life, you've dedicated your talent to helping others. You've worked tirelessly so our heroes can do their jobs. Every support item you've created, every invention you've perfected... you've done it all thinking about how to protect someone!"

His voice gained strength without losing the warmth he reserved for the people he cared about most.

"How many lives have been saved thanks to your work? How many heroes were able to make it home because you gave them the tools they needed?"

Toshinori leaned slightly toward her.

"Power isn't what makes a person a hero!"

His eyes softened.

"One For All doesn't need someone who's already strong. It needs someone who, even when afraid... even when they feel they can't do it... steps forward when someone else needs help!"

A small smile appeared on his face.

"And you've been taking that step for a long time now, Melissa. You may not have had a Quirk... but you've never lacked what matters most!"

"A heart that wants to save others!"

Toshinori straightened his back.

"That, my dear Melissa... is what it means to be a true hero!"

Melissa held All Might's gaze for a few seconds. She still had tears on her cheeks, but little by little she stopped trying to wipe them away. Then she looked at her father.

She took a deep breath and lowered her eyes to her hands. Her fingers were stained with grease and marked with small nicks from working for hours with tools and pieces too small for anyone who wasn't used to them.

"Ever since I was a little girl..." Her voice trembled. "I always wanted to be by your side, Uncle Might. I wanted to be there with you when you were fighting."

"For a long time I thought my place was here..." She looked around the workshop. "Building the things heroes need... doing everything I could so they could protect others."

She breathed deeply and her eyes met Toshinori's.

"But if this can give me the chance to protect someone directly... if I really can use this power to help people the same way you've helped everyone for so many years..." She swallowed. "Then I want to try."

Melissa clenched her hands tightly.

"Yes, Uncle Might. I accept the responsibility of inheriting One For All."

For a few seconds, neither of them said anything.

David closed his eyes and his breathing quickened. He'd tried to prepare himself for many possibilities, but hearing his daughter accept brought a feeling that was hard to put into words. He felt proud of her... and at the same time, he couldn't stop worrying.

Toshinori smiled when he saw her. His shoulders, tense until that moment, finally relaxed.

"I knew you would."

The next morning, in Musutafu, Izuku woke up to a soft sensation against his cheek and, at the same time, an uncomfortable stab in his neck.

He opened his eyes slowly and could make out the outline of a pair of voluptuous breasts pressed against his face, along with a faint scent of strawberry. Still half asleep, he realized Yu's leg was wrapped around his waist, holding him against her like a clingy octopus.

"Huh...?"

He tried to pull away carefully, but Yu shifted in her sleep and hugged him a little tighter.

What a lovely way to wake up.

Who in their right mind would ask for anything better than opening your eyes with tits in your face and a girl with a succubus body squeezing you between her legs? If this is a punishment, then punish me every day.

It didn't help at all that a good part of his boss's purple bra was on display, showing warm, reddish skin around her chest. Izuku swallowed and settled his head, careful not to wake her.

We should sleep together more often. Closeness reduces stress, I read that somewhere.

Yu murmured in her sleep and pressed him even tighter against her. True to his habit of getting up before his boss, he used every ounce of willpower he had and managed to slip out of her embrace without breaking the spell of her sleep.

He stood next to the bed, watching her sleep with her mouth half open and a bit of drool threatening to fall onto the pillow.

This whole responsible assistant thing is turning into a nightmare... Ugh, makes me wanna just stay and sleep.

He decided a bath was exactly what he needed to clear his head a little. Still half asleep, he went in and closed the door behind him. The sound of the shower filled the room.

Huh? Did I already turn on the shower?

He didn't give it too much thought. If he spent another minute in bed with Yu, he'd probably end up waking up way later than he wanted, so he decided to get in the shower right away. He took off his underwear and, with his eyes still closed, pulled back the curtain to step under the water, not noticing that a naked girl with green hair was staring at him, petrified, from the corner.

Ibara didn't react right away either. Maybe it was the hangover, but her mind took a few seconds to catch on to the fact that a man had just gotten into the shower with her.

Izuku sensed someone next to him and turned his head.

"Huh?"

His brain took a few seconds to react. At first he thought it was something they'd left inside the shower, but the figure moved and looked up at him.

In front of him, Ibara stayed motionless under the hot water. She had a slender figure, with shoulders slightly defined by constant training and a narrow waist that curved down to firm, shapely hips. The water slid down her pale skin, a little reddened by the heat, tracing the path from her neck to the curve of her back.

The water slid slowly over her chest, defining the voluptuous curve without ever being disproportionate or exaggerated.

Her nipples, slightly erect, stood out with a soft pink tone that contrasted with the flush the hot water had left on her skin. Drops fell from their tips and were lost in the valley between her legs.

"Gulp."

Not even in his wildest imagination could he have pictured a girl with such demure mannerisms having such a tempting, lust-inducing body. His gaze was drawn to the leftover drops running down from her chest to her groin.

Wow... I didn't know it could look this pretty.

Where her belly met her thighs, a subtle variant of her Quirk revealed itself: instead of conventional hair, the base of her pubis was covered by a fine layer of velvety moss in a light green shade.

Short vegetation with a soft look to it, sprinkled with tiny curled fern shoots that molded gently, offered a subtle contrast between the vibrant green of the moss and the pale tone of her hips.

I never would've imagined a girl this modest was hiding a body like this...

The moment Ibara saw where Izuku's eyes were heading, she couldn't take it anymore.

"Kyaaaaaaa!"

Her vines reacted much faster than her head and, without her giving any order at all, they caught Izuku against the tiles, tying up his hands and feet.

Izuku ended up plastered to the wall, stunned, unable to grasp how he'd gone from responsible assistant to hostage in a matter of seconds.

This... this looks a whole lot like a hentai scene. It looks like when the octopus is gonna do dirty things to the damsel... Except for one important detail: I AM NOT A DAMSEL.

He clenched his butt on instinct. He wasn't into that kind of thing, nononono, he wasn't about to take part in his own student's weird fetishes, not even for overtime pay.

No wonder everyone on the internet says you gotta watch out for religious girls.

Ibara covered her chest with both arms. Her cheeks were completely red from the heat of the shower and the embarrassment of the situation.

"S-Sensei!" she exclaimed, backing up until she was against the tiles. "Please have mercy and don't look!"

"I'm not looking! I closed my eyes again, see!" Izuku turned his face toward the wall and tried to cover himself with both hands, no easy task while tied up by his student's vines. "What are you even doing in here?!"

"That's exactly what I should be asking you!" Ibara replied, her voice getting higher and higher. "I was bathing peacefully before heading home!"

"You...! You were supposed to be sleeping in Yu's room! Why didn't you shower in there? She has a shower too!"

"Oh, Lord...! Why did something like this have to happen?" Ibara curled in on herself while some of her vines moved around her, trying to cover her. "This is divine punishment. Punishment for having drunk... I knew wine only brought misfortune to this house..."

"It's not divine punishment, it's just bad luck!" Izuku protested from his captivity.

"The Lord does not hand out bad luck at random, sensei; He always has His reasons!"

"Then tell His reasons to loosen the vines, please, my arm is starting to fall asleep."

"Do not blaspheme in the middle of the bath!" Ibara squeezed her eyes shut. "We have quite enough of a scandal already without offending heaven on top of it!"

"Hey, I didn't start this scandal! You're the one who tied me to the wall!"

Ibara opened her mouth to reply, but she couldn't find a single argument. After a few seconds, she lowered her gaze.

"...That's true."

She joined her hands in front of her chest, still completely embarrassed.

"Recognizing our own mistakes is also a virtue. I shall try to remember that lesson."

What lesson though!

Izuku decided that continuing to argue theology while tied up and naked wasn't among his best ideas of the day, so he preferred to stay quiet for a moment and not make his situation worse.

When she finally looked up and realized she was still holding him with her vines, she froze.

"Sorry! Sorry, I'm so sorry!"

The vines pulled away and set Izuku free.

"I didn't mean to do that. How embarrassing...!"

Izuku got the use of his arms back and rubbed his wrists. The grip of the vines had left him with some small scratches that still stung.

"I'm okay," he said, though he made a small grimace as he touched them. "You just surprised me."

Ibara noticed right away. When she saw the small wounds on his wrists, she stopped thinking about her own embarrassment and worried about him.

"You're hurt..." she murmured, looking at the marks.

"It's nothing." Izuku waved his hand to brush it off. "I've had worse injuries training with Rumi."

Ibara frowned.

"You shouldn't say that just to reassure me, sensei. If I've hurt you, I must take responsibility."

I started the morning in the arms of a succubus and I'm ending it running from a saint with vines. What a day.

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