World Tree MUSH

    It's one of those rare nights where Yumi's classmates have been able to tempt her out for an evening on the town. Karaoke, to be specific. It went a little longer than expected, but she's been in contact with her guardian, so he knows she'll be home a little late. So she's not too worried that the sun's long been down when she finally leaves the karaoke parlor. After so long spent socializing with the girls her age, though, it's put her in something of a distant, thoughtful mood; the girl with the cream-orange hair will be quite fine with having a while to just be silent and ponder on the way home. "Hnh..." Still so different from her peers.

    Absently, Yumi looks upward - spotting the moon amidst the clouds, watching it for a short while while she walks. 'Well, it's not like the moon will give me any answers, huh?'

    "Hey!"

    His voice might be familiar instantly. He runs up to her, wearing a set of casual clothing instead of his school uniform since he went to track her down on his own time. He jogs like any normal kid was as he approaches her, though it's clear from his build that he isn't normal in the slightest. He stops before Yumi and smiles, and says, "Your world seems pretty peaceful compared to mine. I got distracted by how different it was..." He looks around at the relatively quiet landscape, eyes bright with the wonder of an inter-world tourist. And then he digs in a pocket and produces...

    "This is yours!" He holds out the device she handed to him back at that park. He brought her GPS back. He flashes her a warm, unassuming smile. He tracked her across worlds, somehow, just to give her the GPS back. Apparently.

    It is a pretty nice night, isn't it? Even though it's a school night and all, it looks liek Deku isn't alone in hunting Yumi down.
    Though the boy comes jogging, the girl with him walks at a lazier pace, simply taking her time, rather than share in Midoriya's generally excitable nature. But there's no mistaking that familiar vacant stare, slightly hunched posture, and bow-tied hair, as the frog girl comes right along after the heir to One for All as he catches up to the ordinary girl after a long session of karaoke.
    "Ribbit."
    No that's not her greeting, she just croaks as she shuffles up alongside Izuku, before holding up a hand. "We thought we'd stop by and give that back. Hi."
    She shows absolutely NONE of the wonder Deku does about visiting a new world. Not because she's been offworld a few times herself... But because that expression almost never seems to change.

    Lost in thought as she is, Yumi doesn't realize at first that the voice is calling to her - but it sounds familiar enough to tug her attention, prompting her to look away from the moon. "-eh? Oh, Deku, right? Hallo~!" she calls out, the surprise quickly giving way to a warm smile. She jogs a pace or two to meet the new arrival, settling to a stop as the trio comes into conversational range. "Yeah, it's really nice," she agrees, looking around. On the whole, Natsuto is a lot like a cleaner-seeming, sleeker Toyko; the technology level is mid-21st century rather than early, and on the high end of that besides. "I'd say there's nothing really remarkable that happens here, but..." Here she scratches her head, suddenly looking a bit embarrassed. "...well, it's complicated. There hasn't been much from the outside worlds, though." And up comes Tsuyu as well - someone whom she recognizes, but can't put a name to. "Oh, hello! I remember you, too. I don't think I caught your name last time, though..." she adds, feeling a tad awkward. "Thank you for your help, at least."

    Then Deku holds out her GPS. For a heartbeat, Yumi looks bewildered, then her eyes light up. "Oh-! Oh, you brought it back!" She takes the device back, hastily fidgeting around for a pocket to shove it into. Thankfully, her school uniform has one spare - though the pocket bulges a bit. "Wow, you guys came a long way just to return this. Here, let me buy you something to drink, there's a nice coffee shop just around the corner. They serve non-caff drinks too, so we won't be up all night." She's leading the way without missing a beat, though not walking terribly fast.

    Deku smiles and lets his hand lower again as Yumi pockets the device she gave him back before she immediately ran off to put herself in horrible danger. He smiles awkwardly at her because she brings up a coffee shop, and he can't see a natural opening to bring up that kind of reckless behavior... and he's keenly aware of how similar it is to how he behaved just before he met his mentor. He turns to follow, and murmurs a "Thanks," though he looks over at Tsuyu, whose frank personality was a strange comfort whenever she spoke up.
    He had already mentioned his intent to her on the way here: She wanted to figure out why Yumi goes charging into situations with a baseball bat and maybe convince her to lay off the heroics when it can easily get her killed or distract actual heroes trying to do their jobs. But somewhere along the way, he realized (probably because Tsuyu pointed it out) that the professional hero standards only really apply to their world, not Yumi's. So...
    Deku awkwardly places his knuckles to his chin and mumbles to himself, trying to figure out how he's supposed to approach this, while they walk to the coffee shop.

    It's true, Yumi didn't catch the froggy girl's name last time, and it looks like that's about to be corrected.
    "Asui, Tsuyu." She introduces herself plainly and simply. "Call me Tsu if you want to be friends."
    In full frankness, though when Deku had told her his intent, she also pointed out that Yumi doing such a thing is not much different from most heroes, except that most of the people from their worlds *are* their own baseball bats via quirks. But. It is still sound to try and convince her to lay off and let actual pros deal with things when they can. And yes. The Pro Hero standards and laws are home turf only for them.
    SO. Yumi offers to treat them to drinks. This is pretty amenable, and gets the amphibian girl following along as well. Before she puts a hand on Izuku's shoulder.
    "Midoriya. You're doing it again. And as usual it's really creepy."
    She means his mumbling.

    "Tsu, then," the redhead replies cheerfully as they turn to go. "Yumi is fine for me, if you like."

    At first, Yumi doesn't seem to have noticed Deku's distress - or Tsuyu's response to it. She steps into the coffee shop, holds the door open for both he and Tsuyu, and then follows the waiter obediently to the booth they're assigned. But once they've sat down, the look Izuku finds pointed towards him is one of concern. "Are you alright? It seems like something's bothering you..." The unstated offer hangs in the air; she doesn't know what it is, but if he's willing to talk, she's willing to listen. And there's a certain sincerity to her gaze that most girls her age would lack.

    Deku tenses briefly from the physical contact, having been drawn out of his weird manic inner thoughts. He looks off to her and just kinda chooses to overlook the 'creepy' comment, because he can't really help it when he does that sometimes. He follows until they're in their seats, and then his eyes widen at the concerned gaze, awkwardness boiling back up. There's about three seconds too long of a pause, because teenage boys of his type tend to find words hard to locate when girls display such a genuine tone to them, but he finds his stability soon.

    His gaze softens, and he gives her a natural question.

    "Why did you run toward that emergency the way you did? You seemed like you'd been in situations like that before," he muses, remembering his first time leaping into action and the way his terror numbed all sense of reason until only his objective mattered. She had a better head on her shoulders and all she had was a baseball bat, which impresses him. "... o-oh, I'm Izuku, Midoriya Izuku," he finally introduces, blushing slightly at his failure at basic manners. "'Deku' is my hero name," he adds as a late explanation.

    Into the coffee shop and Tsuyu settles in once Yumi and Izuku do, slouching into a seat and pursing her lips. Her tongue sticks out faintly from the corner of her lips.
    "Something is always on Midoriya's mind." She notes point blank. "Getting a good read on him can be tough sometimes because he's almost always a nervous wreck. ... Until push comes to shove, anyway."
    A pause.
    "It's super scary when he starts mumbling, though."
    For something she claims to be 'super scary', the girl displays zero change in expression, zero change in the inflection of her voice, and doesn't even blink. Instead she goes quiet to let Deku speak and ask the question that had been burning at him.

    "Well, you're right about that, at least," Yumi admits, looking a little chagrined. "It's a long story, but I've put my life on the line several times already, that I can remember. And proba... no, I'm getting ahead of myself a little, there." She settles back in her seat a bit, steepling her fingers together over her menu. "'Hero name'... so you're superheroes, then. I, ah..." Here she pauses. "...sorry, Midoriya. For yelling orders at you like that back then. It was presumptuous, but I know my limits. I'm not exactly suited to handling gun-toting thugs, but I can untie a knot pretty well. And you seemed... reliable, I guess."

    The waiter drops by again, this time to take their orders. Yumi puts in for a double-sized hot chocolate, and gives Tsuyu an amused look. "Overthinking things is a pretty easy thing to do. He seems dependable enough in a tight spot, at least." She turns to regard Deku again... or rather, both of them, now. "I should explain a little more, but let me lead with a question, first. This is going to sound weird, but... is there magic in your world? Like, actual, real magic? Not abilities rooted in physics or odd but useful mutations or whatever, but legitimate arcane powers?"

    Deku nods and seems to accept what she tells them. There's not much he can do without any sort of authority in her world, and considering the generally mundane feel of the world he's seen so far... Her apologies have him lifting his hands in a placating way, because he didn't and still doesn't think it's a big deal. Being called 'reliable' is ... embarrassing, making his gaze dip and his awkward, blushy face return. He's obviously not used to any sort of compliment, despite how true it is.

    "I'll have a hot chocolate, too," he orders from the waiter, since that sounded good. He doesn't address them talking about him like that, his awkward smile saying all that needs to be said. Her question catches him off-guard, and he looks around the room, and out a nearby window, as if looking for signs of what she's talking about, but then back to her.

    "N... no," he explains, "Even when someone says they do magic, they're really just using their Quirk-- their natural ability in a clever or tricky way. Stage magicians, with superpowers." He spreads his fingers out and does a lame jazz hands motion. "Are ... are you magical?" One can almost feel the uncertainty, the nearly manifest physical question mark in his tone. This is entirely foreign to him.

    "We're not heroes yet." Tsuyu interjects. "It takes a lot to be a Pro Hero. We're still in school. Technically we shouldn't be getting involved in that kind of stuff." She adds on matter of factly. 
    For the record she orders a soda. Simple frog with simple tastes.
    "Midoriya is one of the most dependable people you can have around though. Even if he doesn't look it at all."
    This girl's filters must be broken. Bur she lets Deku explain the lack of magic in their world and what a Quirk is.
    She just levels that stare right at Yumi when Izuku asks if she's magical. That intense, drilling, stare. ... Or maybe blank and vacant.
    It's really hard to tell right now.

    Yumi nods her head faintly. "Ah, so, still trainees... I'm sorry for getting the two of you swept up in all that, then." This time, the girl even lowers her head slightly. When she lifts it back up, though, the look she gives Izuku and Tsuyu is a serious one; but one also tinged with a hint of forlorn distance.

    "The honest answer to your question, Midoriya, is that I don't know if I am or not. I know I'm involved with magic somehow, at least. I know I can sense a specific kind of it. I know that I apparently have more than a little skill with a sword, but I don't have the body to properly back it up. 's why I carry around a bat," she adds. "I know most girls my age are thinking about boys, or the latest pop album, or what they're going to do for summer vacation, while I'm sitting there thinking about how to make sure they never have to fear for their lives. Or how I'll save hostages without getting myself shot. I know I'm pretty not-normal. But that's about all I know."

    She falls silent when her hot chocolate arrives, waiting until the waiter is out of earshot before continuing. Or rather, finishing. "I don't have any memories of who I was or where I came from, or anything before I opened my eyes at the bottom of a crater here in the city, back in January."

    Deku processes this the way that he does with most mysteries: With great interest, almost unblinking as he tries to analyze what she means, and what possibilities there could be. He shows great concern for what she's saying, and while she might be insane (he doesn't know if what she's saying is true yet) he does know her behavior is weird for a girl her age. She says something about a crater, and closes one of his eyes, then pulls out a cellphone from his pocket to try and look up the news story about the crater, if he can connect to anything in this world at all.

    "Amnesia," he muses, with an uncertain frown. "Well, if you sense magic, and you woke up in a crater, I'd say you probably caused the crater when you landed, and you don't remember because you landed too hard." He taps his own skull, a gesture to suggest she hit her head just right. "I don't want to assume anything here, but it does sound like there's a lot of gaps left by things like muscle memory, and this... magic sense." He struggles to accept the idea, but seems to be giving it its due.

    "Where did you land?" he asks as he scrolls on the touch screen of his phone with his thumb.

    Yumi watches Deku with interest, nodding faintly as he speaks. "I considered that, but I'm not sure. The crater wasn't something landing, it was a sudden explosion. You're looking for news stories about the 'Business District Blast'," she adds, inclining her head towards his phone. "The 'one survivor' they mention in the stories, that's me." She picks up her hot chocolate; the whipped cream has gotten rather melty by this point, but she seems to be lost in thought enough for it to not even register. They've hit on a topic that really bugs her.

    Deku's phone will be able to access the local net well enough (though he might have some roaming charges to deal with), and the news stories all corroborate what she's said. Early in the morning of January 17th, a skyscraper in the business district was engulfed in a bright blast that erased it without a trace. Authorities successfully recovered a single survivor (identity withheld for privacy reasons, due to Japan's laws regarding minors), but investigation was unable to uncover any obvious evidence of explosives, arson, or even a gas leak, and none of their leads seem to have borne fruit. Officials eventually settled on blaming the newly-discovered outside worlds and leaving it at that.

    Deku repeats a line that shunts the blame to other worlds, and seems visibly unhappy about the wording of it. "They shouldn't just write it off like that..." He locks his phone again and stuffs it in his pocket once he has everything he needs. He focuses on his own drink for a minute, looking up to Yumi while he again tries to locate his wits. What she says is clearly true, and he can't deny she doesn't act like a normal girl.

    "It was magic, then," he surmises, "If they can't find a source, then the source was probably you... or someone else nearby when it happened." He realizes what that implies: That she might be responsible, accidental or not, for untold destruction and death. He visibly hesitates, but then he goes on, "I think someone or something did that to you," and he gestures at Yumi vaguely, "You run into danger and try to save people without thinking. That's what heroes do."

    "I'm going to take a look at the area," he tells Yumi. "You should come with me. This seems important to you, and if you lost some kind of power to help people, you should at least know why."

    He shows a determined face, like when he was dealing with the gunmen. The boy's intent on setting right a perceived wrong.

    Yumi knows that look. She's worn it a few times herself. All she can do is answer it, with a nod. "I'll do one better - I know the path by heart. There's a shortcut or two the GPS won't show you." She goes to slide out of her seat- and then realizes she hasn't touched her hot chocolate.

    Pause.

    ...wow, she sure can make that disappear fast. The only trouble is there's a little speck of whipped cream on the end of her nose, which she hastily reaches up to wipe off. A card is swiped over a glowing card outline on the table - wireless pay, apparently - and then she's up out of her seat to lead the way.

    Once they're out of the shop, she speaks up again, though. "...To be honest with you, the authorities don't have a way to investigate further. I'm annoyed they're writing it off, but what else can they do? This world doesn't have any magic. The only way I know there were traces of magic on the crater is that a couple of offworlders happened by while I was staring at it, a few days later."

    There's a pause, hesitant and awkward, and Yumi's expression darkens just a little. "There's... there's a little more to it. A possible culprit that isn't me. Or at least someone who might have been involved. But that's... it's not something I can talk about with just anyone, I apologize. Dead-end lead anyway, the police didn't even have enough grounds to investigate." No wonder, with magic being involved.

    The crater itself is still fenced off, even now; winter snow and spring rain have worn away at it, but even despite that, it's a surprisingly even, rounded crater. As if things weren't so much 'blasted outward' as 'evaporated' or 'erased'. No residual scorching on what little grass remains around where the skyscraper used to be.

    Deku rises from his seat, and he brings his hot chocolate with him in a recyclable cup so that he can enjoy it on the go. He isn't in a rush. Investigations like these don't happen any easier if he's hurrying. He does smile uneasily when she downs her own drink, making a mental note of that... that's something done by people used to dropping everything mundane and running off to something important. She might see how he takes in the details of her behavior, in a way he didn't before.

    He suspects her of being some kind of amnesiac superhero. It's hard to shake the feeling even as she walks, and when she says she has a secret, and she can't just tell him, he looks a bit disappointed but doesn't say much about it. He's quiet all the way up to the crater, where he stops to get a look at it, getting as close to the fence as he's allowed to. He pulls out his phone to take pictures, meticulous about it.

    "This kind of damage..." he muses, and then he stands and looks around at the nearby structures, seeking signs of damage that repairmen might've missed. Debris, or obvious patch jobs, or... anything.

    "This wasn't an explosion," he muses, his hand going up to his mouth again. He taps his chin while staring intensely at the crater, as if it will just give him answers if he glares at it enough.

    He pulls his phone up to his face and begins to look up something else: Local events, large catastrophes of this nature that are hard to explain, perhaps even ones that have happened recently. He talks while he scans articles and pictures for anything especially unnatural.

    "When heroes first started appearing, they worked in the shadows as vigilantes," he tells Yumi, "It meant they had to keep their identities secret even from their friends and family. That might be what kind of world this is: Magic is real, but secret. It would make sense, since I haven't seen a single sign of it anywhere since coming here." He pauses. "N-not that I know what magic LOOKS like, b-but... It's felt pretty ... normal around here. But this," he points at the crater, "This isn't normal."

    He mutters as he slides the screen along, seeking a clue, "There has to be something else..."

    "Or at least, it wasn't a conventional explosive," Yumi replies. "Or a gas leak. Everyone saw it, a bright light and a cloud of dust, but when the dust cleared, there was just a crater, and me." Deku is right to be looking around at all the neighboring buildings; they show no signs of damage at all. They don't have the pristine newness of 'recently repaired', but rather the more general sleekness of the city, which is to say 'this was built shiny and new and is kept clean, but has definitely been here for a few years'. Not a hint of damage. Even day-of photos from news articles show no damage to the surrounding area. A crater like that should have blown out windows for blocks and leveled nearby buildings.

    As for other events? Nothing nearly so big or catastrophic. A few months ago, a hostile unicorn wandered in from offworld with some magical girl in tow, but other offworlders came in to help get rid of it. There was a big talk of banning offworlders after that. But that's about it, really.

    Yumi presses up against the chain link fence, and frowns. "I'd like to believe it. There's always the fringe crazies insisting there's really magic or whatever. But... well, like I said, I can sense magic. Only a specific kind - it has to be some kind of reality-warping magic. I think. It's only happened twice, and neither of them were on this world. And the other problem is... I know my name is Tachibana Yumi. It's one of the only two things I woke up knowing. I know it the way you know your name is Midoriya Izuku. But there's no record of me here. Not anywhere in Japan. The other person, the 'dead lead', she definitely exists here. But I don't. I'm pretty sure I'm not from this world."

    Izuku looks aside at Yumi, her words mending together in his head as she explains, and the mystery continues to remain a knotted mess as she shoots down some of his hypotheses. He kneels down and reaches out to grasp the fence, looking around with a thoughtful frown. Nothing jumps out at him as especially strange, but the damage is hard to ignore. What kind of weapon could cause this?

    "What if you are from this world, but no one remembers you?"

    It was like a lightbulb going off in his head. "Whatever happened here, it was powerful enough to wipe your memory, and I think you might've been pretty strong. How else could you survive something like this, if it was some kind of attack? But you fought things that warp reality, and that's why you can sense it. And when it hit you, it did just that: It warped reality. And now what's left is Tachibana Yumi, the girl with amnesia."

    A bead of sweat rolls down his brow. The kind of power that would require... he looks pale just thinking about it. It's not the kind of thing he could face off against by himself.

    "But if magic is a secret, no one is just going to step out and tell me anything," he realizes, standing up again. "And asking about it would make me look insane."

    "I might poke around on my free time, and see if I can find anything weird," he tells Yumi. He leaves out the part where he might have to ask permission, and he imagines the lecture he's going to get for even considering something so dangerous. But it's hard to overlook this. The more secretive the threat, the more pressing it feels to learn more to keep people from getting hurt again.

    Yumi's brow furrows. "...well, I mean... what you're saying is definitely possible. But it strains a bit against Occam's Razor. I don't expect much, but I'll definitely help you investigate if you come out here again." She turns and settles against the chain link, crossing her arms and wearing a vaguely sad sort of smile. "It's funny. Every time I uncover another lead, it just raises more questions. I'm already investigating every new world I learn about, where I can. 's why I asked about your world and magic, wondering maybe if I was from there."

    She shrugs. "I do know someone's watching me, at least. Don't know who, or where, or how. But they left me a note that directed me to another world. Found... some weird monster there. A magical one, one I could /sense/. Someone knew exactly where to find exactly the kind of creature I'm able to sense. It was preying on people. I brought along friends strong enough to destroy it. But I checked in on that world, as best I could. It wasn't my homeworld either. So... well, I guess at this point, any lead is a welcome one? I'd like to be from here, at least. It's a nice city."

    "Someone left you a note?"

    This is an important detail, and Deku looks surprised, because she hadn't mentioned it before. "Do you still have it?"

    "Everywhere I go," Yumi confirms. She slides her backpack off her back, digging around in it until she can come out with a simple, folded slip of paper. Unremarkable white, nothing distinguishing about it. The penmanship of the note is simple, nothing distinguishing about it. And the text offers no real clues, either.

'Tachibana Yumi,
    Go to these coordinates. Bring your friends.'

    The coordinates below the text are simple, inter-world notation; if Deku can read them, they lead to another Japan in a near-ish world. Yumi frowns at it while she hands it over. "Whoever wrote it, they know I have offworld friends, they knew I'd go to these coordinates, and they knew I could sense the... the /thing/ that set up shop there. I'd sure love to meet them, I've got a lot of questions."

    Deku leans in to get a look at the note. It doesn't tell him anything, but that tells him a lot. It tells him that whoever left it is trying to keep the secret, and has a vested interest in keeping her doing this heroic work of hers.

    He looks around again, but this time he's looking for anyone that might be watching them, and his eyes travel to spots where people could hide in the vicinity. He's pretty obvious about it, but he doesn't say why he's doing it exactly. He looks back to Yumi and tells her, "I have a feeling you'll meet them eventually." He lifts his hand up to look at the time on his phone, and pockets it again. "I have to head home." He digs into a pocket and produces a notepad and a pen, the pad scribbled with lots of notes. Is that a crude sketch of one of the skyscrapers around here...? He scribbles something down and hands off the note to her. It's his number. "I don't know how much I can do to help, but... here. If anything happens, I can show up in a hurry."

    Yumi reaches out and takes the paper with Deku's number on it, and nods - and then breaks into a soft giggle. "Oh jeez, giving a girl your number the first time you visit her world." It's a light tease, and she follows it up by producing her own little notepad and jotting down her own note. "Here, you'll need this and this. The inter-world phone system is kind of a pain. You're the first person I'll be able to call, though, my other friends are all from..." Here she pauses, as if something's finally hit her. "...all from magical worlds," she finishes with a laugh. "Wow, I never realized that."

    Her own notepad gets put away, and she bends into a grateful bow. "Thank you for bringing my GPS back, by the way. And thank you for helping me save those people, back then. I still think you're a little hard on yourself, using a name like 'Deku'."

    Izuku's face goes beet red, and he looks utterly horrified by the implication, but... she lets it go after the tease and it's like steam rolling off of him. He's not really the kind of boy that's got the confidence to deal with that kind of talk. He accepts the note and nods in confirmation.

    "It's a name a friend gave me a long time ago. He's... hard to reason with, even now," he explains, "Think of it like 'dekiru'. That's what another friend said. It made her think 'I can do it.'"

    He shines a smile at Yumi after that, and lifts a hand to wave, preparing to leave.

    "Think of it like 'dekiru'," Yumi repeats, musing on that for a moment. "...when you put it that way, I actually kinda like it. Alright, then." She gives Deku a cheerful wave. "Be careful out there, alright? Don't be /too/ reckless. And if there's anything I can help with, feel free to shoot me a text or a call." Granted, she can't think of anything she can do that Izuku can't, but the thought's there, right? And hey, you never know.