Chapter 9: Izumi Miyamura: Xover - Chapter 9
June 11th 2xxx – Izumi PoV
It had been a little over a month since Taylor had started living with us, and there were some ups and downs, more ups than downs, the only complaint really was that Taylor was a girl, and that said it all, in my past world it was more than enough to say, he's a boy, when you lived with another man for most to understand what you meant, well here that was the case, she was messy, not dirty per se, but she didn't bother to put things back, and even though her schedule was more than busy, she was still a hormonal teenager and she was making that fact clear almost every day, that, adding to my mother who did the exact same thing and both thought that since I was the man of the house, it was my duty to clean up after them, I really didn't mind some chores, I was a functional and independent man in my past life, and doing it for my mother and me in this life didn't take up much of my time either, but now a third person did the exact same thing, it was a big no.
So I set my sights on a list of chores to divide up, there wasn't much to do and considering my mother worked most of the day during the week, it was more about dividing up the chores between Taylor and I, there were complaints, which I didn't hear, so she was forced to do them, besides that particular fact, it had really been a good coexistence.
My schedule doesn't change much from before, I get up at dawn to welcome the sun with Hinokami Kagura , after that when Taylor got up we would run together, just enough to build up Taylor's stamina, which, was like a warm up for me, I would prepare breakfast and lunch for the three of us, then I went to school all morning and a few hours in the afternoon, and came back to train or study with Taylor, there were some days spread out that I would go out with friends from school, but only for a few hours before coming home and preparing dinner at night.
In comparison, Taylor's schedule was packed, since she didn't have to go to school, she studied or trained her quirk on her own when my mother wasn't forcing her to go with her to the bakeries to work part-time.
And yes, there were several bakeries, my mother's bakeries were famous for their quirk, what she earned was enough that several years ago she decided to expand by opening a second branch, it went so well that she had about 5 stores throughout Musutafu, with plans to expand further.
Besides using her quirk to enrich the food, which didn't require her to go to each individual store, they had delivery people for that, my mother wasn't really needed in any store to function perfectly normally day to day, but she had paperwork to do, orders to take care of and reserve and a lot of paperwork, so while she took care of that, Taylor was forced to help out around the store, either serving customers or moving boxes.
Taylor didn't complain about work at all despite how tired she was most days, although she was extremely surprised when she received a rather generous paycheck from my mother, it seemed like she was under the impression that she was doing unpaid labor so she was more than happy to now have extra money to spend, which she decided was a good idea to spend on a date with me, sweet of her, not necessary but still, I let her spend her hard earned money in such a way, she seemed pleased by it.
The relationship between the two improved quite a bit, Taylor still couldn't seem to figure out whether we were actually dating or not, it didn't help that I would make fun of her, at most it was just flirting or showing skin on purpose or kissing her whenever I wanted, it wasn't something I would have done on purpose in my previous world but in this one it was more than normal and something to be expected and in fact, it was an incredible source of amusement, Taylor's reactions were wonderful so I didn't bother too much thinking about whether it was okay or not.
As awkwardly social and shy as she was and not knowing how to label our relationship, she was extremely jealous and possessive, nothing worrisome or toxic like she wouldn't let me socialize with the other people but was in a protective way, she seemed to always look for signs of anyone who looked in my direction in a less than friendly or respectful way which was basically all the girls and women so she was always clinging to me in some way, holding hands, crossing arms, one hand on waist or back, when she became comfortable enough with kissing, making out with me in public it was fun her attempt at claiming in public and I did tease her on more than one occasion though nothing that took it far enough like flirting with another girl, making out that I was expected to get more than one woman, in my eyes it was completely insensitive while you were together with Taylor to even flirt with another person and without their permission so we haven't even touched on that subject with a 20 meter pole yet.
In terms of training, Taylor had improved tremendously, this world was just ridiculous, between the abnormal physiology of the ordinary people of this world, my healing, Taylor's natural healing aura, and her determination to train for hours even though it surely felt like torture, she improved tremendously in just two months, it would seem like she had been training for at least 6~8 months in my previous world, it was insane, my own growth was much more exponential because of the templates so I really had nothing to calculate whether this growth was normal or not, but still, it was incredible, she had lost almost all of her baby fat and her muscles had started to define.
Taylor hadn't mastered the Total concentration breathing technique yet but she had memorized how to breathe properly, her lung capacity, stamina, strength, normal, explosive and reaction speed had greatly increased, and thanks to constant beatings from me, her fighting ability and experience had also increased. I wasn't an expert in any specific martial art by any means but I had joined a few dojos and gyms so I knew how to fight with my fists if necessary. Plus there was still low oxygen training thanks to the mask or we would go to a mountain with enough altitude by train, a good natural form of obstacle course.
She was a monster, there was no nicer way to put it, her ability to replicate my insect moves or her natural talent was basically cheating, I obviously corrected her mistakes which were mostly copying my exact moves which being a woman didn't completely work for her, so in just two months she learned to fight at a level that was beyond her, and I was fascinated, I could certainly still easily overwhelm her, whether by technique alone, experience, speed or brute strength, but the speed she was growing was exciting and I wanted to see how far she could go.
His practice with her quirk had also paid off, while we were in the extensions of the house it was a free pass to use her quirk, but even though there certainly wasn't much a swarm could really do in a fight without going from being a distraction to lethal in just an instant, in almost a month she had learned to see and hear, or at least interpret, clearly enough to be able to spy around her almost constantly and could actually fight without relying on her sight and hearing almost at the same level as with them.
There were a few little tricks she had come up with that could catch anyone off guard without extrasensory vision along with the tricks I remembered the canon Taylor using, she had quite a repertoire to use on her bugs, she had also taken over a portion of the woods behind our house and formed colonies of bugs that she kept at bay with her power, she had also practiced making cloth from black widow spider silk, the first few attempts were absolute failures, enough for her to give up and agree to go to sewing and knitting classes, which I also attended only because she practically begged me not to leave her alone, thanks to that, I could now make spider silk webs of enough quality for her to make clothes for both of us, it was still a slow but steady production.
"Well done Taylor." I smiled as I looked at Taylor sweating on the floor breathing heavily as she sweated profusely and worked hard to breathe.
"I-I hate you, I-I can't even hit you." Taylor moaned.
"Trying to hit on a boy Taylor, don't let anyone hear you." I scoffed, she just moaned annoyed.
"You know what I mean." I chuckled.
"Okay, your fetish for hitting guys will be a secret with me." The loudest moan she made was satisfying "now that you have a decent level of muscle, I wanted to know if you thought about adding any weapons to your fighting style."
"Well, thank you," she said dryly, I rolled my eyes amusedly, "and a gun? Why do I need one?"
"several things, a lot of villains will either use weapons themselves or are tough enough that using only your fists is a bad idea in most cases and the other, the gate monsters, almost all hunters, except for a few notable exceptions, use weapons against them, it makes the job easier."
"...and what weapons do you recommend? I doubt a police baton would be of much help." I hummed softly.
"It's actually not a bad idea, at least not for you to use against normal people, it's a good force multiplier and it's easy to use, on the other hand, I'm good with the sword, for example."
"Sword?" she asked as she sat on the ground, I nodded slightly.
"I'm like, really good with her."
"How good?" she asked suspiciously.
"I'm stronger using a sword than in martial arts," I boasted lightly, and it wasn't even arrogance, just Zoro's template or just Yoriichi's made me one of the best swordsmen in the world, having both was simply cheating, Taylor seemed surprised.
"Wait, you're still kicking my ass without much effort and you're telling me that you're stronger handling a sword?" she asked incredulously, I let out a laugh.
"Because yes, that's what I said." The smile I gave her made her pale, even so, she gulped audibly.
"Can you teach me?" My smile grew wider and I saw the panic in Taylor's eyes.
"Of course, but your tortu - ahem, training will be another day."
"You were going to say torture, right? Why torture!?" Taylor looked panicked, which I ignored, how rude of her.
"Now, we're done for the day, go take a shower."
"Huh? But it's only the middle of the morning?" she asked confused, I hummed in confirmation.
"Indeed, but it's your 18th birthday dear Taylor, there are plans made." I winked at her as I walked away, she looked surprised.
"Wait- what? Plans? My birthday?!" She seemed confused, and indeed she would be, I knew her birthday was in June according to canon, but I checked her documents to be sure of the date, which by the way, was the 11th, luckily it fell on a Saturday so we had all day.
"Start moving Taylor, don't make me wait!" I yelled as I continued walking away in the direction of the house.