Chapter Text
“Jaune! I’m hungry!” whined little Aoko Arc, Jaune Arc’s younger sister.
“I’m finishing up—these things take time, okay?” the reincarnated blond replied, glancing at his sister with a grin.
Five years ago, Jaune’s parents had told his nine-year-old self that they were pregnant. It had come as a rather shocking revelation. They had taken their sweet time—especially compared to his original parents, who seemingly didn’t know what a condom was. But like many things in this new life, he simply promised himself he’d be a better brother this time around and rolled with it.
And now, here he was: a fourteen-year-old cooking Kakuni for his four-year-old sister. Normally, it would’ve been one of their parents doing the cooking, but his mother had run into some health issues and was currently in the hospital. His father was with her. While most parents wouldn’t dream of leaving their barely teenaged son in charge of the house and a toddler, Jaune had never made much effort to hide his maturity. His parents trusted him.
He finally pulled the food off the stove and served it onto plates.
“Itadakimasu!” they said in unison before digging in.
While they ate, Jaune’s mind wandered. U.A. was only eight months away. He was confident that both he and Izuku would get in. Jaune’s training had been effective for them both. Izuku had proven that the people of this world had some strange physiology, considering how strong he’d gotten. A part of Jaune doubted anyone would even believe the kid had been quirkless.
As for himself? He’d finally managed to replicate and even surpass the utility of his Disc Grenade. After all the time he’d had across two lifetimes, it felt good to admit he was easily better than Ren now. Sure, he had a quirk to push things further, but, details, details.
Thoughts of U.A. approaching brought something else to mind: Izuku had been acting strange lately. About a month and a half ago, Jaune had left school early for a dentist appointment. That same day, the news reported that some slime villain had attacked Bakugo and was apprehended by All Might. Since then, Izuku had been... different. He’d insisted on training alone, but also constantly asked Jaune to replenish his energy, like he was pushing himself too hard.
Normally, Jaune would have put his foot down. But something about Izuku’s behavior reminded him, scarily so, of how Pyrrha had acted while she was deciding whether or not to take the Maiden powers. And that bothered him. A lot.
Suddenly, a grain of rice hit his forehead.
“Jaaauune! You’re not listening to my story about the gross frog I saw!”
He looked at his pouting sister and sighed. “Sorry Ko-chan, what were you saying?”
She glared at him for a moment longer before diving back into her story.
Jaune decided that maybe he could let Izuku be, for now. At least until his parents got home.