Chapter Text
April 13th, 2257 (Monday):
"He'll never be a hero, better he finds out now than later, I guess."
"I'm sorry, Izuku. It's not going to happen, kid. Not without a quirk. Perhaps law enforcement."
"They get crap for not catching all the villains thanks to heroes, but it's a fine profession."
"Useless, Deku. Make sure you're dreams are attainable."
Too many voices echoed in Midoriya Izuku's head as he walked, flipping through his burnt hero journal. All Might telling him he couldn't be a hero without a quirk almost hurt more than when his mother did. It was only because All Might was his hero, while he conversed with his mother and had to listen to her fake enthusiasm for his dream daily. He could only imagine Kacchan laughing at him if he found out about Izuku being told he was stupid by All Might or his mom not believing in him.
Midoriya sniffled, trying to convince himself not to cry at the fear that everyone's words were true all along. And with that fear came the reluctant acceptance that he would never amount to anything other than a Deku. He needed to accept that he had just been avoiding reality, instead of trying desperately to prove himself and everyone wrong.
"Y'know if you really want to be a hero that badly, there actually might be another way. Just pray that you'll be born with a Quirk in your next life. Then take a swan dive off the roof of a building."
Frantically Izuku shook Kacchan's voice out of his head. He shouldn't be entertaining such an idea. His mom would be devastated. Kacchan would also be blamed for his death. It wouldn't be fair to ruin Kacchan's dream to be a hero, just because he couldn't be one himself.
"I can't be selfish like that," Izuku muttered to himself with a look of self-loathing.
When a loud explosion went off all of a sudden, Midoriya gasped in a moment of excitement as he turned to see a crowd gathering around the entrance of the shopping district. The excitement died quickly as he remembered he had no reason to take hero analyses anymore. He wiped the fresh tears from his eyes before they could fall as he tiredly stared at the crowd. The teen stood there wondering if he subconsciously wandered in the direction of a villain fight out of habit while his mind had spiraled in torturous thoughts.
It wouldn't be that big of a leap to say that he had. For years the only thing to have brought him joy had been analyzing fights. It was the only thing that made his dream of being a hero feel achievable. Now, it was pointless.
Even so, Izuku stared longingly at the growing crowd until he finally decided to have one last hoorah. With forced motivation, he walked to the crosswalk and waited for the light to change before crossing the road to the crowd. Once he joined the rat king of spectators he briefly considered grabbing his pencil in order to take notes. However, that thought fled his mind when he stood on his tiptoes to get a better look.
Time felt like it froze for him and he inhaled sharply when his mind registered that he was seeing the sludge villain from earlier. And for the faintest moment, he second-guessed his own eyes because All Might had captured him.
Izuku paled and fell back onto his heels in realization. He must have accidentally knocked the bottle loose when he had latched onto All Might's leg. That meant that this carnage was his fault. His mom was going to kill him.
"Why aren't the heroes doing anything?" a man in the crowd to the left of Midoriya asked out of the blue.
An older man turned to the male as he replied, "It looks like they met their match. Plus, the villain captured a kid. Things aren't looking good for him."
Midoriya gaped as the guilt doubled. There was a hostage because of him. Quickly, his guilt turned to worry for the hostage. He was concerned about how long the hostage was in the villain's grasp and how much oxygen they had left. Izuku knew from experience that when the sludge villain had him captive, he had honestly believed that he was going to die. And that was only after a few seconds of suffocating and struggling.
Shaken by the scene, Izuku covered his mouth as he whimpered, "Oh, man."
"Wait, I'm confused. Isn't that the villain All Might was chasing earlier today?" another civilian questioned.
A moment later, another person argued, "Wait?! All Might!? No way he lost. Where is he?"
"Well, can someone call him or something?" a woman asked hopefully as the man before agreed with her.
Midoriya covered his mouth with both of his hands as he began to shake and whimper more. He only had himself to blame for this. All Might had wasted his energy on him. All Might couldn't power up yet, and none of the other heroes had the necessary quirks to stop this monster.
He was the one to blame and he was sorry, so sorry as he squeezed his eyes shut to avoid seeing the horror. All he could do was hope someone would show up and save the day because he was only a useless, quirkless Deku.
Another explosion rocked the mall, making Izuku open his eyes and as a result, he made eye contact with the hostage. In shock, he dropped his notebook. He knew the hostage. Nothing else mattered because he knew the hostage and it was his fault. That's all it took for his feet to move on their own as he broke into a sprint.
He did not hear the complaints as he shoved through the crowd, he just knew he had to make things right. However, right as he cleared the crowd and was about to mindlessly throw himself at the villain, something clamped down on his right arm. Forcibly he was yanked to a holt and it hurt. Midoriya's eyes watered when he felt his shoulder dislocate at the force, but he didn't hear the audible pop over his desperate scream, "Kacchan!"
He needed to do something because no one else was doing it.
Like a wild animal, Midoriyal kept pulling with all his might with no regard for himself, not hearing the people talking at him. He had tuned them out, only focused on one thing. The only thing he could think of was that it was his fault that Kacchan was in danger and he needed to help.
Kacchan might be his childhood friend turned bully, but he didn't deserve to die for his mistake. "Let go!" Midoriya yelled, "He can't breathe! He needs to breathe!" as Kacchan began to stop struggling. Nobody was doing anything. Kacchan was going to die.
In a panic, Midoriya turned and looked in desperation, barely noting that Death Arms was restraining him. All he could do was plead to anyone who would listen, "Help him! Let me go, I need to help him!" scanning the crowd for help, but no one would look him in the eye.
That's when his eyes landed on a deflated All Might and he screamed in desperation, "Please!" for his childhood hero, for Kacchan's childhood hero to find it in himself to do something. When All Might didn't act, horror dawned on Izuku. The man stood unmoving and holding his side in agony as he stared at Midoriya with a grimace. Everyone was content in letting Kacchan die.
At that moment, Izuku lost all faith in heroes and felt something snap inside of him.
With a cry in pain, he managed to wrench his arm free from Death Arm's grip. "Hey, kid!" Death Arms cried lunging out to reclaim his grip on him.
Fortunately, this time he missed as Izuku made a mad dash towards the villain. The villain, who he realized was laughing. Kacchan's eyes were closed, but the villain's eyes were opened and gleaming in joy. It made him sick and fueled his determination.
Midoriya took off his backpack and was about to throw it at the villain's eyes when he was pushed to the ground. With zero grace, he hit the ground disoriented and cringed in pain at his arm. He barely had time to move before he heard, "Detroit Smash!"
What followed those cursed words was a huge shock wave that tossed Izuku into the building, making him hit his head.
Everything was dark for a few minutes and the heat of the fire that once littered the area was gone, but when his sight returned, he couldn't bring himself to focus on that. All he had was tunnel vision and ringing ears. The only thing he could see was All Might setting down Kacchan. Kacchan, who wasn't moving.
In his disoriented state, he didn't even register getting to his feet. He shambled his way over to Kacchan unable to hear himself begging for the blonde to be alright. All Might looked up at him and wiped the blood from his mouth and started, "My boy, you need-," to say, but his voice was unwelcomed as the first thing for Izuku to hear over the ringing.
"Shut up," Midoriya whispered, closing the distance between himself and Kacchan. He collapsed to his knees beside his friends and with a shaky hand, he touched Kacchan's neck. He needed to check for a pulse since he couldn't see his friend's chest moving, something All Might should have done immediately.
When he found none, Izuku's eyes grew wide as he gasped, "No," before he began to panic, "No. No. No! Please, no!" All Might went to try and move him out of the way, but angrily the teen slapped the hero's hand away.
"Get away! Get away from Kacchan! You killed him! You all killed him!" Izuku screamed as his hands flew to Kacchan's chest as he tried to do CPR. However, CPR felt like an impossible task when he couldn't feel his right arm.
Frustration and fear fueled the alew that escaped his lips as he tried in vain to bring back his friend. As the worst of his feelings grew he couldn't stop himself from whispering, "You were supposed to save him," brokenly.
All Might reached out towards him again to stop him from continuing CPR when suddenly from behind, he was yanked away from Kacchan. "No!" he screamed enraged as before his mind went blank. It was like his mind trapped in a glass coffin, he could see everything, but he couldn't move. All he could do was sit quietly and watch as a hooded figure with children's ballet slippers hung over his shoulder, take over doing CPR.
Izuku couldn't breathe as he watched with bated breath as the boy threw all his weight into each compression, muttering something under his breath until there was a gurgled gasp. The hooded male rolled Kacchan onto his side to help him cough up the sludge in his lungs. Upon seeing Kacchan alive, the dam of emotions broke with the relief and Izuku started sobbing. He crawled towards Kacchan in hysterics not noticing his restraints had disappeared in thin air or the figure had run off before anyone could stop her.
In the crowd of spectators watching the scene unfold was a young man wearing a black hoodie, of the name Shigaraki Tomura. He was an obsessive person with unquenchable anger. The main target of that obsessive nature and anger was the Number One Hero: All Might. In his eyes, All Might was everything that was wrong with society. He was something Tomura felt obligated to destroy.
Thus, when he heard that All Might was seen in Musutafu he had to see it for himself. As soon as he found a live video of All Might on YoTube, he had Shigaraki had Kurogiri warp him near the scene of the slime villain.
Upon his arrival, Shigaraki had jaywalked across the road and joined the crowd, only to see a truly unique scene. A green-haired teen slapping All Might's hand away as he screamed, "Get away! Get away from Kacchan! You killed him! You all killed him!" before trying to attempt chest compressions on the blonde kid.
The same blonde-haired kid, Shigaraki had seen the slime villain had hostage from the live stream.
For spectators, the movement of the teen's arms was painfully grotesque to watch, but Tomura was more entranced by the look on the teen's face. Behind his tears was a look of pain, betrayal, and surprisingly loathing. Tomura smiled to himself realizing he was looking at the birth of a kid who had his All Might-themed rose-tinted glasses ripped from his face. It was a shame that the crowd didn't share the same awakening.
"Why did he yell at All Might, he just now showed up?" a man whispered to someone in the group of sheep.
Another guy looked at the questioner and responded, "I think he's just using All Might as an outlet. I mean the others here were just standing around doing nothing and they're still doing nothing. That kid's the one doing CPR."
"Why aren't they doing something! That boy's hurt. His head's bleeding and he's the only one acting!" a woman exclaimed loudly in worry and disgust, which lead to the whole crowd griping. Tomura's smile grew into a satisfied grin as the crowd began to turn against the heroes that were just now snapped out of their grotesque shock.
To make it even better, Tomura watched the indigo-haired teen beside him pull a hood over his face and before shoving his way through the crowd. By a stroke of luck, he reached the distraught boy before any of the heroes and shoved him off the blonde.
Death Arms chose that moment to turn to the civilians to do crowd control. He started waving at them to back up as he demanded, "Give us some space! This is now a crime scene!" Pleasantly, this was met by an uproar of complaints but also prevented Tomura from catching the rest of what was going on as the crowd was pushed back.
This caused someone to knock into Tomura, forcing him to move to the side to avoid being pushed over. Tomura ended up stepping on something in the process and out of habit he looked down to see a not book labeled "Hero Analysis for the Future: No. 13". Curiosity getting the best of him, Tomura stepped off it before he knelt down and picked it up. He stood back up and moved out of the way as the crowd was corralled backward again.
"He's alive!" someone in the crowd cried out in relief. At that moment, Tomura decided to leave before the police and paramedics made it to the scene. As he walked away he flipped the book open and saw the name written messily on the inside of the cover. Tomura grinned to himself as he shut the book and pulled out his phone to call Kurogiri.
When his call was finally answered, Shigaraki ordered, "Call Giran and have him get everything he can find on Midoriya Izuku."
"Fuck, fuck," Shinso cursed as ducked into an alleyway to catch his breath. All Might had seen his face, he had used his quirk illegally, and he knew All Might's secret. He was fucked. He should have just bolted after he saw the blonde skeleton the green-haired teen had been pleading to in the crowd turn in All Might.
Instead, he froze and watched the train wreck unfold, only to do the stupidest thing afterward. He ran in and asked that kid if he was alright as he tossed him off the blonde kid. Albeit he was pretty sure the freckled teen heard anything he said, but All Might did and that's a problem.
He was so fucking stupid. The first thing he did after learning one of Number One's secrets was to draw attention to himself. He should have just left and head back to the train station to get home. It was already bad enough that he ditched school early to come to the mall in order to pick up his foster sister's late birthday present. Now, he had to worry about getting illegal quirk usage on his permanent record.
Looking at the repaired ballet slippers he had slung over his shoulder, he decided the least he can do is make certain little ballerina at home happy before his dream of being a hero was set ablaze by a misdemeanor.
Notes:
To be continued:
Thank you for reading the first chapter, whether it's your first time in the story or you're from the original work. Thank you for your time, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and you have a wonderful day.
When I first originally wrote this, Shinso's role as the person who resuscitates Bakugo belonged to an original character. This was because at the time I didn't think any canon characters fit the role I designed in the story. That original character was female and a ballerina, but is no longer prominent. However, I wanted to leave a homage to the ballerina girl role, so Shinso has ballerina slippers with him, but for an entirely different reason.
As a further change from the original, Shigaraki's point of view was originally from a separate chapter that covered his lerking in the shadows of three different points of time. I decided to split up those points of views and combine each one with the chapters that those things happened in.
Chapter Text
April 27th, 2257 (Monday):
It had been two weeks since the Sludge Villain attacked and Izuku has sat in Bakugo's hospital room every free moment he could manage since then. It didn't matter that he felt like he was a zombie as he moved throughout the day. He tortured himself by sitting in the hospital with Bakugo because he failed him. He failed Bakugo so terribly, he felt he lost the right to call him Kacchan.
To make matters worse, he was too much of a coward to tell anyone that this was all his fault. He didn't deserve his mom trying her best to make things easier for him when Bakugo had died because of him. Izuku didn't deserve the overbearing kindness from her or Bakugo's parents. Because despite their efforts, he felt numb. He felt like a dark cloud cast over his every step and his mind was filled with fog.
If one asked the doctors about why he felt like that, they'd chalk it up to the trauma, his concussion, or maybe even survivor's guilt coupled with shock. Hell, he wouldn't be surprised if they suggested depression. However, if someone asked Izuku, he'd say it felt like a reality check more than anything. His dream of being a hero destroyed his life and now he was paying the consequences.
Glancing down at his right arm, Izuku thought about how heavily damaged it got in a short time.
Death Arms had dislocated Izuku's arm when he caught him. More specifically it was caused by how fast he had been running before being yanked to a sudden stop. Izuku only proceeded to make the damage worse when he kept pulling his arm to get away from Death Arms.
He tore his rotator cuff and he sprained his elbow in his struggle. As if that wasn't enough, his wrist had also been broken by Death Arm trying to keep him from running into the crime scene to save Kacchan. The real icing on top, however, was that Izuku had broken his thumb when he finally yanked his hand free.
To say his mother had been horrified when the doctor told her all this was an understatement. Fortunately, the doctors argued that he hadn't noticed the pain because of adrenaline. The grim truth, though, was that they were wrong because he had felt the pain, he just brushed it off.
Izuku had built up quite the pain tolerance over the years between Bakugo and other kids in his school bullying him. He had used this to his advantage when he was trying to save Kacchan.
Furthermore, it might have been a good tool if he could be a hero, but that dream was dead. All Might and the others had made damn sure there was no redemption for that dream. He had decided that he didn't want to be a hero if it meant parading in public for good reviews then not doing his job when the going got tough. So, now that pain tolerance of his was only good for ignoring the throbbing of his shoulder after having surgery to repair his rotator cuff.
Tearing his gaze away from his shoulder, Izuku looked at Bakugo who was lying comatose in the private hospital room. He was quiet as he tortured himself with the details of his greatest mistake and greatest failure.
Bakugo had gone twelve minutes without oxygen to the brain after he drowned, that was six whole minutes after the brain begins to die after death. As a result, the doctors didn't know if Bakugo would wake up and that hurt Izuku the most.
It hurt more than realizing that, Death Arms or Kamui Woods could have used their quirks to grab Bakugo and yanked him out of the sludge. That the sludge couldn't produce the mass to snap Bakugo's neck as he had apparently threatened to do so, in order to keep the heroes back. It was obvious neither could think in high-pressure situations.
The other real kicker was that All Might was escaping the backlash of this event because of his secret form. He had looked Izuku in the eyes and did nothing as he pleaded for his help. All Might hesitated, so when he stepped in and Bakugo had been recovered it had been too late.
In the end, the real hero was the one who put him in a fog so he could perform CPR without his manic interference. To be exact, the boy had run in, shoved him, and he just stopped moving. Then once he resuscitated Bakugo he slapped All Might's hand away from him when he reached to help him up before the boy turned and ran, unfreezing Izuku in the process.
However, no one was talking about the boy and he should know. He had watched the viral video of his desperate attempt to save Bakugo and eventual condemnation of the heroes on the scene more times than he could count.
Izuku tortured himself with that footage nightly trying to figure out what he could have done better, what everyone could have done better. He read all the comments from every reuploaded copy of the video for suggestions, but it only consisted of people either outraged by the heroes or calling him stupid for trying to rush in.
There were even some memes on the situation, which Midoriya didn't find amusing. None of which addressed the real problems. No one talked about what the heroes should have done or who the boy was. Nobody cared that Bakugo's parents wanted him found so they could thank him for saving Bakugo, or he could thank him for not failing where he had.
Every hero who spoke publicly about the situation talked about their disgust of what happened, gave their condolences for him and Bakugo, and then stroked their own ego by talking about what they would have done. Fans would swoon, the press would report and make a paycheck off their misery, and the real victims were left hollow.
Staring at the breathing tube shoved down Bakugo's mouth, he whispered, "This is all so fucked up."
"You have a fucking nerve showing up here!" a sudden scream made Izuku jump and his head quickly whipped around to look at the door. Curiously, Izuku stood up and limped to the door, before opening the door a bit to spy without being noticed. With the door opened a smidge, he was able to see a man in a suit holding a suitcase.
The wiry man looked nervous as he faced down Bakugo Mitsuki's rage, with his mom and Bakugo Masaru backing the blonde woman. This set off alarm bells for Izuku. He honestly couldn't remember when was the last time he has seen stone-cold anger on Masaru's face and the expressionless look on his mother that was the calm before a typhoon.
"Bakugo-San, Midoriya-San, please, I-I just need you to sign these papers and I will go. You will get a hefty compensation for your troubles and the medical bills will be covered by-," the man began to beg, looking close to pissing himself.
Masaru interrupted the man with a deceptively calm voice as he responded to the man's request, "Compensation? Those hero agencies are trying to slap a gag order on us. They're trying to sweep this under the table, so we won't sue them for negligence and for what they did to those boys. You can take those papers and shove them up All Might's or whoever sent them's ass for all I care. Get out of here before I get security. We will see you in court to assure that responsibility and reform are taken."
Izuku felt as if he had been slapped once again hearing that the heroes were trying to put a gagging order on them to avoid bad publicity.
Had his outburst gone that viral that it was actually causing problems for hero agents?
The teen shook his head and returned to his seat beside Bakugo's bed, deciding that wasn't the case. He hadn't been the one responsible for that video, so they must simply want to silence them to keep them from adding fuel to fire he had accidentally started. A fire he started after Bakugo's flames were extinguished.
Izuku looked at the blonde and wondered what he would say if he was awake to hear this situation. He wondered if Bakugo would still want to be a hero.
It was two weeks later when Giran got back to Tomura and told him everything about Midoriya Izuku, which included photos of his daily routine. Seeing the pictures of Midoriya and finding out that he was the same kid that had yelled at those annoying wannabe heroes, made Tomura giddy.
Tomura had read through the journal dozens of times and always grinned at the treasure trove of information he could potentially be used in the future to defeat heroes. After he killed All Might, of course. To reiterate, finding out the mastermind behind one of several journals, was the same kid that just got wronged by those very heroes he wrote about, which was like a dream true.
As if it wasn't a sweet enough realization, according to Giran the kid in the coma from the slime attack was Midoriya's childhood friend. The Hero Commission was also trying to slap both the Midoriya's and Bakugo's with a gag order and force them into a deal so their precious heroes won't get sued or receive more bad publicity. Then finely the cherry on top was that Midoriya was quirkless and has been bullied for it his whole life.
To put it simply, Midoriya Izuku was just one bad day away from being a villain, something that Tomura awaited eagerly. However, he knew that he was going to have to wait patiently for that moment.
"What do you want to do with this information?" Giran inquired, reminding Shigaraki that the man was still here.
Tomura just smiled as he replied, "I want you to keep tabs on him and update me on any significant changes."
"Fine by me," Giran responded, knowing he was going to get a paycheck out of it.
Notes:
To be continued:
Another chapter is complete, I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you all for the reviews and 26 kudos. I hope you have a wonderful day!
There really aren't any changes in this chapter from the original, just editing and then I added another point from the Shigaraki chapter I dismantled.
Chapter Text
June 26th, 2257 (Friday):
All Izuku wanted was to get out of school as the final bell rings. Desperately, he scrambled to collect his notebook and pencil to make it happen. The fourteen-year-old had good motivation behind his desire to get out of there. It was painfully simple, really. He wanted to avoid his bullies.
Ever since the attack on Bakugo two months ago, his schoolmates have been either avoided him or had gotten more violent in their vendetta against him. The kids who avoided him wouldn't look him in the eye out of guilt, which wasn't anything new. While bullies went from manageable to ruthless. To make matters worse, the school administration continued to turn a blind eye.
However, if Izuku was being honest with himself, he hadn't expected that to change. In short, their negligence wasn't a surprise. What did come as a surprise was that the kids did worse things than Bakugo had ever done to him. The only way to describe their actions was villainous, and even then it felt like he was putting it lightly.
Which was exactly why he wanted to avoid running into them.
Hurriedly, he shoved his work into his bag before he slung it over his shoulder. He sprinted out the door while he had a chance, not caring that the classroom was still full and the teacher hadn't properly dismissed them.
As students began to flood the hall, Izuku weaved his way through the hall with practiced ease. He truly believed he was going to get out of there unscathed for once. His hope was ruefully short-lived when he pushed through the schools' stairwell door and was blindsided by someone who rammed into him.
Izuku tumbled down the stairs, the corners of the steps jabbing him in painful already bruised places. His skin burned from the steps scraping him and they continued to burn when he came to a violent halt. Metal bars rang as a result of him slamming his face into the stair railing.
In pain, Izuku inhaled sharply as he slid down the last two steps. Stunned, Izuku lied propped up awkwardly against his backpack as he gasped like a fish out of water. His breathing was heavy in wet from the blood pooling in his mouth and his nose swelling up from the blow it took. He was pretty sure he broke it.
Izuku wasn't able to dwell too much on that possibility, though, because Bakugo's former goons stepped into his line of view glaring down at him with contempt. "Trying to get away again, asshole?" Yamamoto demanded, with Aguni standing behind like a bodyguard.
"Yes," Izuku answered looking up at the bully with an apathetic expression. While Yamamoto and Aguni were more violent than Bakugo, they didn't instill the same fear as Bakugo had.
The more they picked on him the more he thought about how he shouldn't care about his perfect record, because it wasn't like he was going to a hero school. The only thing still holding him back was his mother, she has been stressed lately with the court case against the heroes responsible for his and Bakugo's injuries. Still, he couldn't help analyzing the situation and how he could fight to get out of it.
Aguni was the most dangerous out of the two and it was thanks to his quirk. He didn't have a physical quirk, but it was a useful, dangerous one. His quirk was known as location and he could track anyone as long as he knew their name and appearance. He was most likely how Izuku had been found and pushed down the stairs.
Any hopes of getting away from the two meant taking care of Aguni first. Then he could either fight Yamamoto or run.
Yamamoto had a quirk that allowed him to extend his fingers, which would benefit Izuku in a fight against him. Such long fingers were easy to grab and bend if the Yamamoto tried to give him one of his infamous bitch slaps. The only advantage Yamamoto would have was if he wanted to poke someone's eye out, but he couldn't legally do it in Aldera without getting arrested.
With Izuku's luck, however, he was sure if Yamamoto did gouge his eyes out the teachers would find a way to blame it on him instead. He wouldn't put it past them to cover up that level of assault if they were willing to cover up what he was currently going through with his arm indefinitely in a sling.
A swift kick to his ankle snapped Izuku out of his thoughts, making him hiss in pain. He looked up at them with a glare, he wanted to kick their asses, so badly.
"I don't know how many times we have to say this, Midoriya, but you should just die already. You're a disgrace, an international stain for the way you made those heroes and All Might look bad!" Yamamoto sneered at him angrily as he stepped on Izuku's hand making the teen cry out in pain.
The students passing by the scenes didn't care, though, and just kept walking, not wanting to get involved with a lost cause like him.
"Yeah, you should have just kept your mouth shut and left Bakugo dead. At least then he wouldn't be in the hospital brain dead and his parents and your mother wouldn't be as burdened with the backlash of your existence!" Aguni added in a boastful manner and Izuku gritted his teeth in anger. They just crossed the line. They could do whatever they wanted to him, but they were not allowed to wish death on Bakugo.
With nothing holding him back anymore, Izuku ripped his hand freed for under Yamamoto's shoe. He grabbed the bully's ankle before yanking Yamamoto's foot out from under him. Yamamoto fell backward with a gasp hit his head and back on the very steps he pushed Izuku down. He even grabbed Aguni on his way down, forcibly making the ravenette kid sit down, making Izuku's job easier.
Slowly, Izuku clambered to his feet as he glowered down at the two shell-shocked bullies. Without warning, he stumped down on Aguni's dick, making the boy scream in agony. Izuku turned his cold gaze to Yamamoto and threatened, "Say anything to a teacher and I will do worse to you," and he turned around to see a few kids had stopped to stare.
When he made eye contact with them, they startled and scrambled down the remaining flights of stairs. Knowing they wouldn't talk, Izuku began shambling down the stairs himself before a teacher came to possibly investigate the screaming.
Though, that was highly unlikely since they never did anything if he screamed.
Once Izuku opened his apartment door, he didn't announce he was home. He didn't want his mom to see him so bloodied, bruised, and scraped up. More specifically, she didn't need to see his bleeding nose, swollen lips, his limp, or bruises. And while he knew he couldn't hide all of it, he could at least clean up his bloody appearance and hide the worse of the bruises with some of his mom's discarded makeup.
Heaving with a labored breath, Izuku closed the door behind him while shrugging off his backpack. It fell to the ground with a soft thud, freeing him from the weight on his back and shoulders. With the easement on his muscles, he felt a bit of the stiffness and the ache in his back go away with it.
Sighing in relief, Izuku began to shamble his way to the bathroom to clean up when he noticed some papers on the table. Thinking it was some mail that his mom forgot to put in their document bin in the living room closet, he went to retrieve it.
However, when Izuku picked up the first stack of papers in order to straighten them out, he froze seeing what they were. He was holding a signed settlement agreement between his mom and the Hero Commission.
Izuku didn't know if he was holding a copy of the agreement or if his mom was even supposed to have this, but what he did know was were the terms. Considering they were highlighted, they were pretty hard to miss or ignore.
The agreement was that the Hero Commission paid for any medical expenses including therapy Izuku needed from the attack. In return, his mother kept herself and him quiet about the event. That meant they didn't sue or talk illy of the heroes involved with the incident.
He was even expected to give a public apology for his outburst. Izuku was supposed to lie and say he only said those things because he was hurt and traumatized, that he didn't mean them now that he was mentally sound. He was supposed to say he forgave them and thank them for their service.
Izuku felt sick as he took a shaky breath. He was unable to fathom why his mother would make such a deal. Even worse he wondered if the Bakugos had taken the same deal.
"Izuku, honey, are you hom-Oh, my god! Izuku! Baby, are you alri-," his mother began as she walked out of the hallway with her cellphone in hand. She had begun to panic upon seeing her son had been beaten to a pulp but was interrupted by Izuku.
His hands shook as he pointed to the contract and stuttered a demand, "Mo-Mom, why?" Horrified, he watched as she tensed up and her eyes widened at the blatant demand.
Quickly, she went to remedy the situation, "Izuku, you weren't supposed-," only to be cut off because he didn't want to hear excuses.
"Why?!" Izuku asked as assertively as he could with his voice cracking. Words could not describe the betrayal he felt. If he had to describe it, it somehow felt worse than All Might looking him in the eye and doing nothing as he begged for help and Bakugo died.
Inko began to tear up as she began to apologize, "I'm sorry, Izuku, I ha-", but she didn't get to finish that sentence either. Izuku knew what she was going to say "I had no choice", but he disagreed.
"You had a choice, Mom!" Izuku screamed angrily, surprising both himself and his mother.
When the shock between them faded, he couldn't hold back anymore and started to cry. He dropped the papers on top of the eviction notice he hadn't seen as he whispered in anger and defeat, "You chose to take away my choice in the matter. You-You gave up. You always give up, mom," before he began to sob.
"Izuku," Inko whimpered, her feet deciding to work again, needing to comfort her son. He was upset and had every right to be, but she hadn't gotten the chance to explain.
She hadn't given up because she wanted too. Inko had given up so she could continue to pay bills and provide for them. Never in a million years would she accept the settlement lightly, but she had too. It was the only way to afford a roof over their heads and continue to cover the cost of Izuku's physical and normal therapy.
Understandably, due to those words going unsaid, when she went to hug he yanked away. It didn't stop her from telling herself she deserved it and she stood nervously fiddling with her skirt as Izuku shambled towards the bathroom to clean up.
He needed time to cool off. Izuku obviously had a bad day even before he found the papers, so she would give him some space. It was her fault that he found those papers because she had been the one to naively leave them out and think they'd be okay in the open while she went to her room to take Mitsuki's frantic call.
Taking a shuttering deep breath, Inko calmed her nerves and decided to try to alleviate some of her son's troubles. Confidently, she went to Izuku's room and got him so clean clothes before she set them outside the bathroom door. She made sure to specifically set out the softest pair of clothes he owned, in case he had a sensory overload episode.
When he was done and he was ready to talk again, she'd make sure to explain everything. She would make sure to share the good news and bad news about the situation.
Until then, Inko decided to go to her room and try to get a hold of Hisashi. She hasn't talked to him in a while and despite hating to ask for extra money, he should be willing to help them financially and perhaps legally.
After Izuku got out of the showers and got dressed in the clothes his mom set out for him, he left the house while his mom was distracted on the phone in her bedroom. Everything was overwhelming and it felt like even the air itself was suffocating him. The pressure he felt from the world was crippling and it turned to one cruelly monotonous thought, "I can't take it anymore."
The building exhaustion, pain, and anger of the past two months finally hit a tipping point after the day he had. Izuku was pretty sure he cried out the anger and the pain in the shower, though, because he only felt the exhaustion now.
He could only think of how tired he was and how he didn't want to be tired. To be honest, he didn't want to be anything. And somehow that resulted in him sitting on the railing of the Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo. He didn't know how he got this far from home or even why exactly he was sitting on the bridge, but he was there.
Izuku stared down at the ocean below entranced and confused, as he wondered if he had subconsciously come here to jump. He hoped not. Izuku didn't actually want to die. His mother would be devastated and alone if he did that. No matter how angry and hurt by her he was, he could never leave her alone. He loved her too much.
However, a small part of him looked at the dark blue abyss below him with morbid curiosity, telling him that one inch forward and he could be free of everything. Ultimately, Izuku shook his head at that invasive, unwanted thought.
Carefully he figured out how to turn around on the railing he was seated on without falling, only to freeze in fear. Izuku's mouth went dry upon seeing an unkempt man in sweats and had unruly black hair pulled into a bun staring up at him in concern. Looking past the man, Izuku was able to see a parked car with a blonde man with glasses standing outside it. The blonde was on the phone, frantically talking, no doubt reporting a possible jumper to the police.
"Kid," the ravenette addressed him with a soft tone of voice, talking as if he was approaching a hurt, cornered animal. Izuku paled realizing there was no way out of this without his mom finding out.
Notes:
To be continued:
Another chapter is done, I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for the reviews and 29 kudos. I hope you have a wonderful day.
Only editing was done to this chapter.
Chapter Text
June 26th, 2257 (Friday):
Aizawa grimaced as he flipped another pancake on the skillet in the kitchen and saw it was a bit burnt. Contrary to the belief he was not a bad cook. He couldn't afford to be when he does most of the cooking in the apartment since his husband had three jobs.
The problem lied in baking, specifically pancakes, but he still attempted to make them for breakfast every once in a while since Hizashi loved the Western breakfast. His husband loved the English language and the English culture, both European and North American. However, what Hizashi loved the most about the culture was the food.
Due to this, once a month Hizashi will find an English dish he hasn't had before online. Then he would make time specifically to cook the new dish Shouta on their monthly date night.
It was during those nights, Shouta always made note of which dishes Hizashi liked the most so he could use them again later. That was how Aizawa knew pancakes were at the top of that list. Hence why he would try to make them whenever they had time to enjoy breakfast together.
Today they definitely had the time to enjoy breakfast together, despite it being a school day. The reason being was that some overenthusiastic support student's project blew up an entire floor in the school after accidentally being left unattended.
The upside to the situation was that the explosion happened after school was let out for the day. The downside was the headache it caused the faculty. Shouta felt bad for Maijima and the paperwork he had because of this mess.
Aizawa didn't feel too bad for him Majima. The accident has given Hizashi and him a rare day off where neither of them had work, papers to grade, or lesson plans to create. Shouta was planning to take full advantage of the day, which is why he dressed in sweats and was cooking pancakes.
Eagerly, he went through burning the last of the batter before finally fixing two plates. He put them on a tray with some syrup before he carried it to the back bedroom, planning to wake Hizashi up with a surprise breakfast in bed. When he pushed open the door he was disappointed to find Hizashi was awake in bed.
His husband was scowling at his phone, instead of sleeping in. Judging by Hizashi's expression, Shouta could guess what his husband was watching on his phone. "No matter how long you glare at your phone and rewatch that, it won't change the outcome," Shouta spoke up lightly, but he wished that it could, as he made his prescience known.
Hizashi turned his phone off with a sigh and put it on the nightstand before he sat up. Dejectedly, he confessed, "I know, but that kid...The desperation in his face and in his voice as nobody did anything. It's just frustrating, you know?"
"Everyone there should have their hero licenses suspended until they took remedial classes on the proper response to that situation," Shouta agreed as he walked over and set the tray down in Hizashi's lap.
Both of them agreed the kid shouldn't have run into that situation, that it was dangerous for someone untrained to rush into a hostage situation. Be that as it may, the kid at least tried to do something when the heroes sat around doing damage control while another child died.
The two of them had talked extensively off and on for the past two months about that video since it went viral. At this point, both of them were just reiterating points they made before and were venting frustration at an unfixed problem. Shouta hated how it always left Hizashi with a sad smile.
Knowing this Hizashi looked at the pancakes and praised, "These look great, Shou. I bet they taste even better," despite having said the same thing all the other times Shouta had served burnt pancakes for breakfast. Nevertheless, Hizashi wasn't deterred from complimenting the chef and eating all the pancakes without complaint.
"I think I'm starting to get a hang of the timing. They're not as dark as last time and some of them look a little darker than golden on one side," Shouta went along with the change in the subject as Hizashi moved over so he could join him in bed.
In response, Hizashi poured syrup on the pancakes according to their separate preferences on the amount of syrup on their respective pancakes. "I'll love them all the same," Hizashi promised him. Shouta looked at him unconvinced but didn't voice it.
Tiredly, he just grabbed his plate from the tray and Hizashi decided to feel the silence, "There's this place that I've been meaning to take you to across the bridge, we should go to today."
"Can't we do that another day, I just want to stay in bed for once?" Shouta asked. It was not every day he got to spend the day in bed with his husband and had the option to do nothing. Hizashi in return gave him a look Shouta knew all too well.
The blonde wasn't going to budge until they came to some sort of compromise. And it would be a compromise because neither one of them ever got their way completely. Not in their marriage. Definitely, not when Hizashi was the only person on earth who could match his stubbornness.
It was around the time in the afternoon they normally would leave U.A. when Hizashi dragged him out of the apartment. Shouta was promptly shoved into the back of the car against his will before Hizashi was driving to this surprise he wanted to show him.
As heartless as it was dragging him out of bed so soon, he was just glad that Hizashi didn't hound him to change out of his sweatpants. It assured him that they weren't going anywhere fancy. Wherever they were going, though, was far from their apartment, seeing how they've been in the car for twenty minutes and Hizashi was pulling onto the Rainbow Bridge.
Regardless, he wasn't about to complain, since Hizashi was always a gracious driver that never made him sit in the front seat with him and kept the music low. Hizashi understood that sitting in the front seat made his dry eye worse since it made him concentrate on the road ahead and the sun always got in his face. While loud music coupled with the fast-moving pace of the outside world strained his eyes, would give him a tension headache.
With the music playing softly, Shouta was able to look out the window occasionally to take in the scenery. Going over the Rainbow Bridge definitely garnered his interest enough to look out the window in order to see the ocean. If the music had been blaring, he would have never casually looked out the window. Consequently, he would have never seen a kid climb the railing of the bridge in the distance.
"Hizashi, stop the car," Shouta ordered, sudden anxiety spreading through his chest.
Caught off guard, Hizashi began to question, "Wha-," only be cut off.
"Stop the car! There's a kid climbing the railing!" Shouta yelled, not having time to humor his husband's inquiries. Hizashi's eyes widened as he jolted out of traffic and slammed on the breaks when on the shoulder of the bridge. The car came to a halt a little past where the kid was by some stroke of luck.
Relieved, he wouldn't have to run a mile to get to the kid, Shouta unbuckled and hopped out of the car. He could feel his heart hammer in his chest, as he kept his gaze on the kid unblinking as he made his way towards the kid, leaving Hizashi to call the cops.
Shouta analyzed the situation as he stalked closer to the kid, no a teenager. He didn't have his capture weapon so he could just wrap the kid up and yank him away from the ledge. Calling out to the teen wasn't an option either, because it may spook him and cause him to fall before Shouta could reach him. The best bet for all parties was for Shouta to sneak close enough to the kid to grab him by the shirt and pull him away from the ledge.
With his plan in mind, Shouta was about a yard and a half away when the kid unexpectantly twisted around to get down. Shouta watched with bated breath at the realization that the kid had talked himself out of jumping or was at least second-guessing himself. He kept still until the kid was completely facing him, not wanting to move and startle the kid into falling backward.
When the kid made eye contact with him, Shouta finally addressed him, "Kid," cautiously, not wanting to scare the teen that was in a delicate state of mind. Taking in the teen's appearance, Shouta immediately recognized him as the kid from the viral video, that Hizashi's heart bled for on regular basis.
Shouta didn't know the kid's name, unfortunately, because he was a minor. His identity couldn't be released when the press covered the events that happened to him and his friend because of it. Nonetheless, it was clear that life has not been kind for the teen since then.
The green-haired boy had bruises on his arms, an angry red nose, split swollen lips, and was favoring his right arm-the one Death Arms caught Shouta realized. Shouta suppressed a frown realizing he may be looking at a domestic violence case as he coaxed the teen, "Kid, come down, please." The kid grew paler than he already was in response, making Shouta afraid he may faint.
"It's okay, I promise," Shouta continued to reassure the teen, keeping his tone soft and nonabrasive. Casually he glanced to the right of him when he saw a pedestrian in a black hoodie that was obscuring their face, heading their way.
Shouta needed to get the kid down before a crowd came and started recording the kid on their phones for likes. The kind of scene was the last thing the teen needed when he was already skittish, scared, and probably beating himself up for a mental plague that wasn't his fault.
"Please don't tell my mom," the kid suddenly spoke up, snapping Shouta's gaze back on the teen to see him on the verge of tears and his bottom lip trembling. It was honestly heartbreaking and furthered Shouta's belief that the kid was being abused at home.
Due to this, Shouta didn't even hesitate to extend his hand towards the kid, subtly inching forward as he promised, "She doesn't have to know anything you don't want her to, okay?" meaning every word of it.
His mother would be under investigation and placed on a strict information diet regarding her son's health and location until she is either deemed innocent or in jail. He would be damned if he let a potentially abusive woman verbally assault a teen in this kid's condition.
The teen nodded, as Shouta painstakingly made his way towards the boy asking, "Will you come down?" and the teen nodded again. Shouta kept his hand extended as an offering for the boy to take, but right as the teen went to reach for his hand things went wrong.
The railing the teen was on suddenly lost support on the right of Shouta and fell back with a groan. Consequently, the teen lost his balance and his grip on the railing, resulting in him falling backward. Shouta lunged forward in a desperate attempt to catch the kid and to his horror, his fingertips only brushed over the kid's hand before the teen disappeared over the edge.
Shouta clashed into the railing that forsook the kid, he yelled, "No!" as looked down at the water to see nothing, but the unforgiving ocean below. There was no sign of the kid that decided to live, only to be taken by outdated construction. The same support he was putting all his weight into and would no doubt renounce him as well. Before that could happen, arms wrapped around his torso and pulled him away from the faulty railing, preventing him from being claimed as a casualty.
"Damn it!" Shouta screamed as Hizashi held onto him, neither of them noticing that the pedestrian in the hoodie was gone.
Notes:
To be continued:
Another chapter is complete, I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for the reviews and 34 kudos. I hope you have a wonderful day!
Like the last chapter, this one remains unchanged from the original; I just edited it to clean up the grammar.
Chapter Text
June 26th, 2257 (Friday):
Tomura has been actively keeping tabs on Midoriya for the past two months, watching as his life went from tragic to nightmarish. Every time something happened Tomura fought himself and told himself to wait until the perfect catalyst happened. He needed to be patient, so he can swoop in and be Midoriya's hero, just like Sensei had been for him.
Sensei had been pleased, to hear that he was closing in on a recruit that he would surprise him with. He was proud that he was taking initiative in growing the empire that would one day be his. As a result, Sensei had agreed to the surprise, but only after Shigaraki had Kurogiri send a few pages from the notebook to Sensei to reassure his teacher that he had a good recruit.
And as suspected, after reading just a few examples of Midoriya's works, Sensei was impressed and eager to meet Tomura's future recruit. Though, he was even more pleased with Tomura's foresight to hold off on using those notes against heroes until after recruiting the boy, to not deter him from joining.
After all, it wouldn't do them any good for Midoriya to hear the method behind a bunch of heroes' demises from the news. The realization that they're from his notebook could cause him to blame himself and damage his mental health further. The guilt alone would assure Midoriya wouldn't join Tomura against All Might's society.
Therefore, it was critical that Tomura had someone as delicate and young as Midoriya to work up the chain of crimes, in order to be compliant to murder. A strategist with Midoriya's intelligence was not something Tomura wanted his growing party to lose. Ergo, he couldn't risk rushing anything.
This was why Tomura was distracting himself by flipping through Midoriya's notebook again. He only stopped what he was doing when his phone buzzed a few times. Not having a lot of contacts, Tomura picked up his phone and saw he got two texts from Giran.
He has been getting a lot of updates about Midoriya today. Tomura has been made aware of Midoriya's mom and Bakugos thinking about settling in court due to their declining financial statuses. There was an update about that Bakugo brat finally waking up. A pleasant update that Midoriya finally stood up to his bullies. Then finally, Midoriya leaving his house shortly after getting home from school.
Not expecting anything else major, Tomura opened the texts only for his eyes to widen upon seeing a picture from a moving car. In the picture, Midoriya could be seen sitting on the railing of a bridge. The text under the picture was the location and telling him to hurry up or lose his prize.
"Kurogiri, take us to the Rainbow Bridge now," Tomura demanded as he stood up from the stool abruptly. Impatiently, he shoved the phone in his babysitter's face, so he could see the situation and location for himself.
"Us?" Kurogiri questioned not use to accompanying him on his outings when he wasn't being a shut-in.
Tomura gritted his teeth and answered, "Yes, us. If he jumps or falls I need you to warp him here," his impatience showing.
"Yes, Shigaraki," Kurogiri complied and set down the glass he had been cleaning before he opened a warp gate. Satisfied, Tomura marched through the gate only to be assaulted by sea air and the bright sun.
When his eyes adjusted to the brightness of the outside world he a car parked on the side of the road, not far from where Midoriya was located. Two men were outside of the car, one who was on the phone by the car and the other who seemed to be trying to talk Midoriya out of jumping.
Not wanting them to see his face, Tomura pulled his hood over his face as he continued to walk forward, observing the situation. The bum of a man that was talking to Midoriya briefly looked over at him, stopping Tomura in his tracks. He hadn't expected to be noticed by the man.
Nonetheless, stopping for a moment, allowed Tomura to realize that if they talked Midoriya down he would be taken to a psychiatric ward to get help. If that happened, Midoriya would be too drugged up on antidepressants and monitored for him to ever get close to the kid. Meaning it was now or ever if he wanted the kid on his team.
Looking at the railing Midoriya was on, Tomura smirked to himself. No one would ever question not finding a body if Midoriya were to fall in front of eyewitnesses. With that, Tomura reached out and touched the railing post that was supporting the horizontal beams Midoriya was sitting on. The post disintegrated under his five-point contact and as soon as it was gone the railing creaked and jolted backward, having lost half of its support.
As desired Midoriya lost his grip on the railing and fell over it with a look of terror, only to be caught by Kurogiri's warp gate. "No!" the ravenette screamed in response to seeing Midoriya fall and failing to catch him. It was a real shame too, the man was rather close to taking away Tomura's strategist.
Grinning in satisfaction, Tomura glanced around until he spotted Kurogiri on the beams above them and nodded. A warp gate opened below him and a moment later he was landing softly on his feet in the bar. Kurogiri joined him seconds later, not that Tomura was paying attention to that, he was too focused on his prize.
Laying on the floor unconscious was Midoriya Izuku. The poor kid most likely fainted out of fear when he fell. As unplanned as that was, it just made it easier to convince the kid he saved him. The only hiccup would be explaining to his strategist that the world thinks he's dead now. Fortunately, Tomura didn't have to figure that out on his own.
"Kurogiri, we need to prepare a room for our guest and inform Sensei of his arrival," Tomura ordered, happily.
Inko felt better after talking over the phone with her husband for a few hours. He assured her that he wouldn't let her or Izuku go under financially and that he was going to get her the best lawyer. Hisashi was adamant that his lawyer could beat the Hero Commission and that as long as she burned those papers she signed, they weren't legally binding. Especially since she hadn't filed them yet.
It was times like this that reminded Inko how much she loved Hisashi. Despite the fact he hasn't been home in five years because of work and his decline in health, he was every bit of the man who she adored. She just wished he wasn't so stubbornly, self-conscious about Izuku and her not seeing him when he was sick.
Not to mention she wished he would talk to Izuku at the least, even if his labored breathing would give away he was sick. Nonetheless, she thought it was a bit endearing that Hisashi was trying so hard to make sure Izuku didn't worry about him. Sighing, Inko pushed her thoughts of her husband away and walked out of her room. She decided she was going to go check on Izuku and share the news with him.
When she reached his door, she knocked on the door as she called out, "Izuku, baby. I know I planned on giving you space for a bit, but I have some good news." Inko paused and waited for a response, but when she didn't receive one she opened the door expecting to see her son asleep. Instead, she was met by an empty bed, which made her panic.
She knew her baby wasn't doing so well now of days and the fact he came home hurt reaffirmed it. Inko had been told by his school that the bullying that Izuku thought she didn't know about was being handled, but it apparently hadn't. She has seen it take a toll on her son's mental health. As a result, she was constantly scheduling meetings with the principal and the board of the school to fix it.
They had the gall to try and tell her it was Izuku was the problem the last time she met with them, but she had shut them up quickly when she threatened a lawsuit. She thought things were actually getting better afterward and that Izuku's lingering depression was because of the traumatic event. After all, she put her baby in therapy and he had stopped coming home with bruises. That is, until today.
Her son suddenly not being in his room after the fight they had, understandably worried Inko. She was scared senseless that her baby may try to hurt himself in the heat of the moment. Shaking, she retrieved her phone from her nightstand and called Izuku's phone, only to freeze in her tracks in the hallway.
Her eyes zeroed in on Izuku's backpack by the door where his ringtone was coming from. Inko began to tear up as she ended the call. Trying not to panic more, she reminded herself that her baby was stronger than her and that she was probably just jumping to the worst conclusion.
Still, she went back into her contact and pressed Mitsuki's number. Inko waited impatiently for her friend to answer, so when she heard the call accepted she demanded, "Is Izuku at the hospital with Katsuki?" She was trying her best to not sound as distraught as she felt.
"What? No. He's not here. Back up, Inko, explain what's going on?" Mitsuki requested the usual brashness in her tone was replaced with worry. It was supposed to be a happy day. Katsuki had woken it up while Izuku had been at school. They were supposed to be at the hospital celebrating, not her worrying about her baby's safety.
Tears finally began to fall as Inko explained, "He saw the papers from the courthouse and we got it a small fight. I decided to call Hisashi for help while I gave Izuku time to cool off. I talked for too long, Mitsuki, and now my baby's not home. I didn't notice he left and his phone's here! I'm so worried. He's not in a good place and if anything happened," she hiccuped, "I-I could never-I'm a bad mother!"
"Knock it off, Inko. Izuku is a strong boy. I will be right over. You should call the cops and let them know to look for him," Mitsuki informed her, being her voice of reason and strength, not for the first time.
Inko wiped her eyes and agreed, "You-You're right," and was about to end the call when there was a knock on the door.
Thinking that Izuku had forgotten his key, she rushed to the door and unlocked it before throwing it open as she wailed, "Izuku, don't you ever-," and her voice died in her throat. Standing in the doorway was a police officer and behind him were two pro-heroes. They weren't in costume, but she knew who they had to be, because otherwise, they wouldn't be here.
One of the men, she instantly recognized as Present Mic. Izuku used to love listening to his radio show before the incident.
"Midoriya-San?" the officer asked and she nodded numbly, confirming her identity, "Midoriya-San, I regret to inform you, but there has been an accident and your son-," and the world went stopped. She didn't hear the rest, she knew what he was going to say. Inko knew from the expressions of the three men at her doorstep that her baby wasn't coming home.
Her arms went slack and she dropped her phone. All she could do was sob, "No!" begging for it to not be real, as her knees gave out on her. Her baby was gone. Her precious baby was taken by an accident. Her baby had died thinking she gave up on him. That she gave up on everything.
The confusion was the first thing Izuku felt when he woke up. Stubbornly, he opened his eyes that were protesting to stay closed. He felt restless and his head was starting to ache as he became more aware of his surroundings. When his sight adjusted to the darkness, he found himself staring at a wall.
He suppressed a yawn as he tiredly peered at the wall trying to recall the last thing he remembered. Painstakenly, it took him a good fifteen minutes and him waking up completely for him to remember. Izuku's breath hitched as he recalled how he had been on the railing on the bridge before he had fallen.
He was about to panic when he realized that couldn't be right. Izuku was in bed and staring at his bedroom wall, not at the bottom of the ocean dead. The teen let out a nervous chuckle at the absurdness of the situation and mumbled, "It was just a dream." He had never been on the bridge or contemplated suicide, so his mom wouldn't be worried sick about him.
Thinking about his mom he remembered their last conversation. If that hadn't been part of his nightmare, he should probably go apologize and ask why she signed those papers. His mind made up, Izuku nodded to himself and rolled onto his back and sat up only to freeze.
The walls were white, but this wasn't his room. Sure he had gotten rid of all his All Might merchandise and his other hero paraphernalia after Bakugo's attack, but even then he had gotten used to his room being so bare. This was clearly not his room, the layout was wrong. As this sank in Izuku scrambled out of the bed he had woken up in, beginning to hyperventilate.
Had that scruffy guy used his quirk on him to save him after he fell from the bridge?
Was he in a mental hospital?
The room was certainly bare enough that weren't any objects he couldn't hurt himself with. His train of thought derailed when he looked up seeing saw the ceiling fan, then looked at the bed that had sheets and a blanket. Izuku pulled at the collar of his shirt finding it hard to breathe, realizing he wasn't in a mental hospital. A mental facility would leave a way for a perceivably suicidal person to hang themselves.
That meant, he didn't know where he was and that terrified him. He couldn't breathe. The teen gasped desperately for air his panicked mind could only think of how he wanted two things, to breathe and his mom. Tremors began to attack his body and they were hitting his legs the hardest as his anxiety began to rise.
Consequently, the next thing he knew, he was on the floor, staring at the ceiling. Tears began to assault his vision, blurring his sight, making the suffocating feeling worse. He heaved painfully gripping his shirt around his sides, wanting it to stop restricting him.
The door to the room opening did nothing to ease his agony, as someone cursed, "Fuck," before they slammed the door and yelled, "Kurogiri!" Horrified, his frantic mind realized that he didn't recognize that voice. Inevitably, his mind brought forth horrendous questions that only made things worse.
Had he been abducted?
Was he was suffocating to death in a kidnapper's house?
A sob forced out what felt like the last bit of air he had in his lungs at those thoughts. Tears streamed down his face as he tried to force down some oxygen, but it felt like he was choking. His lungs felt like fire and he felt like someone had punched him in the chest. If this wasn't his impending death, he didn't know what was.
The door to the room opened again after an eternity and his blurred sight of the ceiling was replaced by a purple and black mass. "Midoriya, breathe," the gothic mass instructed him, thankfully not touching him. He didn't think he could handle a stranger touching him right now.
"Ca-Can't," Izuku choked out not sure where he found the oxygen to spare for that strangled world.
"You are having a panic attack. You can breathe. Try to calm down some and then take a deep breath. When you recover completely we will explain why you are here," the man he assumed was Kurogiri informed him. Hearing that he wasn't dying coupled with the fact he was going to be told why he was in a strange room, relieved a huge part of his anxiety.
He was still hyperventilating, however, and felt as if everything was suffocating him so he choked out a request, "Sp-Space," and Kurogiri left his line of sight. From there it was all about him slowly increasing how much air he breathed in until he finally was breathing normally.
It took about thirteen minutes for him to breathe again and an additional ten minutes for the tears to go away and his limbs not to feel like jelly. When he felt good to go he slowly sat up and wiped the wetness from his face before he turned his head to look at the two people in the room.
He immediately recognized Kurogiri since he was purple and black. Now that he wasn't looking at him through what felt like fogged glass he realized the man's body was made of some kind of mist or fire. No, it had to be mist because he wasn't burning anything. The second person was completely new in appearance and looked to be in his early twenties, his face was scarred up, and he had long shaggy, white hair.
The man without a name scratched at his neck and stared at him with a calculating gaze. Izuku did his best not to fidget under it. Not knowing what else to do he averted his own gaze as he apologized, "Sorry," for being an inconvenience.
He has had anxiety attacks in the past, which he knew how to manage since he had inherited chronic anxiety from his mother, but he had never had a panic attack. His mom had told him once that the two were very different when he once referred to an anxiety attack as a panic attack. He hadn't understood then, but he understood now. Izuku never wanted to experience one ever again. He thought for sure he was going to die.
"We all get them in the beginning," the white-haired man replied suddenly, making Izuku startled back into reality. He looked at the man and felt dread at his vague remark.
He swallowed hard before he nervously inquired, "You said you would explain everything if I calmed down. So, um, will you tell me if I am in an outpatient facility or something?" The man stopped scratching his neck with frowned, making Izuku fear he had done something wrong.
"Perhaps it is better to show you, but first there is someone who wants to talk to you," Kurogiri explained which did not soothe any of Izuku's worries. Not sure what else to do, though, Izuku slowly got to his feet and nodded. It had to be a shrink or an officer waiting to question him.
Mutely, he watched Kurogiri walk out of the room with the white-haired man before he followed them out into a hall and downstairs. Once downstairs he was thrown off to see an entire bar and no one there to talk to him. As he took in his surroundings he didn't notice Kurogiri turn on the television monitor that was on the wall.
"Sensei, he's awake and ready to talk," the unnamed one announced and Izuku hesitantly shuffled into the room, looking around as he wondered if this Sensei had an invisibility quirk.
"Thank you, Tomura," a voice came from the television and Izuku whipped around to look at it, "Please, step in line with the monitor and introduce yourself."
Awkwardly, Izuku fumbled in direct view of the monitor and introduced himself, "Hello, I'm Midoriya Izuku," forgetting to bow due to his nervousness of the situation. There was silence on the other end of the monitor for a few minutes to the point where the only thing that could be heard was Tomura's scratching.
When there didn't seem like there was going to be an answer Tomura turned to Kurogiri and asked, "Did we lose the signal?" and before Kurogiri could reply there was an amused chuckle from the television.
Once the laughter died out the voice questioned, "Are you the one who wrote Hero Analysis No. 13?"
Izuku's brain flatlined at the question before it rebooted and tried to figure out what was going on. He was pretty sure he had fallen from the bridge and should be seeing a doctor. Instead, he was talking to a guy through a television who was asking about a notebook he hasn't seen since the day Bakugo had died.
He had tried to locate that notebook after he had been released from the hospital and his mom stopped smothering him, but he hadn't found it. Izuku had assumed someone picked up and threw it away after getting a good laugh from his poor attempt at hero analysis. Looking at the two people and the monitor in the bar, it was now obvious they had found it and it was part of the reason he was here instead of a hospital.
"Yes," Izuku admitted when he became aware of how long the silence had been drawn out. He couldn't wrap his head around what was going on and if he was in trouble or not.
The voice hummed in response and praised him, "I've only read pieces of your work and I was thoroughly impressed by it. You have a gift and I would love for you to continue to grow in that area. What would you say to a job where you write analyses on heroes for me?"
Warning bells rang in Midoriya's head when the voice asked him that question. His hero analyses were supposed to be only for him and they were the only thing he had kept from his stuff that was hero related. They had been too dangerous to sell and too sentimental to burn. As a result, he had opted to keep them and maybe gift them to Bakugo to use if he still wanted to be a hero.
Now some strangers had his work and wanted him to expand on it. The pieces finally fell into place and Midoriya realized he was standing with some very dangerous people, who were likely villains or soon to be villains. After all, if they were underground heroes they would have taken him to a hospital, not a bar.
"No-No thank you, I-I don't know you and I-I should go back to my mom, she's probably worried about me," Izuku politely denied with a nervous stutter, hoping they would let him go.
There was an intense pause of silence in return until the voice sympathetically apologized, "I am sorry, Izuku, I had not realized that Tomura and Kurogiri had not informed you of the situation. Kurogiri, please show Izuku the news." Dread filled Izuku as Kurogiri picked up the remote and changed the channel to the news.
"-Search is still on for the quirkless teen who fell from the Rainbow Bridge this afternoon. Gang Orca has announced that he and his agency will be sweeping the waters for the teen, but at this point, they will likely be looking for a body. Unfortunately, since the teen fell into the ocean the likelihood of finding him is unfortunately slim. The only hopes of locating his remains will probably be if they wash ashore," the reporter's voice announced over the footage of a helicopter looking over the ocean with a searchlight.
The television screen then went black as Sensei apologized, "I'm sorry, Izuku, but the world thinks you are dead. And you would be dead if it weren't for the fact that Tomura and Kurogiri were there to save you. Unfortunately, since society is not accepting of Tomura and Kurogiri's appearances and quirks, they would not understand that they saved you out the goodness of their hearts. They would label them kidnappers and charged them as villains for quirk usage and abduction. As it stands you are dead to the world and there were witnesses that can attest to seeing you fall. You cannot go home, Izuku."
Izuku's eyes began to tear up as he cried out, "But I'm not dead! I can go home! I won't tell!"
"I afraid that just isn't possible, Izuku. Even if we let you go home now and you didn't tell anyone where you came from, they'd just track where you came from security cameras or have someone look through your memories. Afterward, they would lock you away in a hospital and drug you until can't remember your name. The police would arrest Tomura and Kurogiri, then look into why you tried to kill yourself. They'd harass your mother and find out about your school," Sensei explained sympathetically.
Izuku could only cry in response as he felt the same panic from earlier start to creep back upon him. As he began to work himself into another panic attack, Sensei addressed the other occupants of the room, "Tomura, allow me to take over Izuku's care. He is in a fragile state and needs an experienced teacher to help him through this new transition in life. When he is settled I will return him and you can show him our world on a grander scale."
Tomura scratched his neck for a second before he agreed, "Yes, Sensei."
"Kurogiri," Sensei said and without a word, Kurogiri opened a warp gate beneath Izuku's feet sending him to his unknown fate.
Notes:
To be continued:
Another chapter is done, I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for the 37 kudos. I hope you have a nice day.
The only difference in this chapter from the original is that I added the part with Shigaraki. The first Shigaraki part is the last part of the Shigaraki chapter, which was once chapter six. Chapter six will be entirely new.
Chapter Text
July 6th, 2257 (Monday):
There was really no explanation of why he was doing this, except maybe misplaced guilt. He's been visiting every dance academy that offers ballet lessons trying to find the boy with gravity-defying hair. Toshinori needed to talk to him, say something, and maybe it'd ease his heavy heart.
The problem is that he hasn't had a lot of luck and the truth was he gave up looking a month ago, then last week happened. He found himself visiting more dance academies and broadening his search, to distract himself and donating money to each dance program to cover the reason he really was there.
Toshinori walked into the dance academy in his hero form and the receptionist startled. "All Might! What brings you back here?!" she inquired with a mousey voice.
Shit, he's already been here.
"No worries, I've seemed to misplace of mine and have been backtracking my steps to find it. I've been busy as of late, so I hadn't noticed it missing until as of late," Toshinori lied, when in reality he hasn't slept much since Midoriya Izuku had fallen to his death. And that lack of sleep led him to accidentally come to the same place twice.
The receptionist's eyes widened and stood up, requested, "Let me go get the lost and found box, and you can look for it," and eagerly left to retrieve the said box. He felt a bit guilty for lying and making her do unnecessary work, but he couldn't exactly say he came looking for a child it would make him look creepy.
Awkwardly, Toshinori stood in the lobby as the woman disappeared into a back closet. As he did he heard the door open and he turned his head to see who was coming inside. To his surprise, it was him, the kid with the gravity-defying hair walking inside, holding the hand of a little girl no older than four or five.
The teen glanced at him and averted his eyes, as he reluctantly walked up to the desk to stand beside him. The little girl stared up at him with a blank expression. It made him uncomfortable how doll-like her expression was so he offered his trademark smile as he greeted, "Hello, young one!" hoping to get a reaction out of her.
Her brow furrowed in confusion and asked, "What are you doing here?"
He almost sputtered at the unexpected, blunt question and barely managed to recover and answer, "I am looking for something I have lost," and subtly glanced at the teenager who was avoiding looking at him. He was wearing a grumpy expression that reminded him a little too much of one of his future colleagues at U.A.
"Well, good luck," the little girl deadpanned, almost sounding sarcastic. Toshinori didn't know how to take that, he's never interacted with a child not elated to meet him. Looking back at the teen, he saw the slightest smirk on the kid's lips, and he felt his ego take a blow.
The receptionist came back with a cardboard box labeled "Lost & Found" and set it down in front of him with a cheery announcement, "Here you go, All Might!"
"Thank you!" he responded with forced enthusiasm and began rifling through the box for show.
The lady with mouse ears turned to the teen and greeted, "Welcome back, Shinso, are you here to drop off Urayama?"
"Yeah. Please take care of her. I will be picking her up as usual after class," the boy now christened Shinso responded tiredly. The receptionist handed him a clipboard and Shinso signed in the name Urayama Yuri, and the name Shinso Hitoshi, along with a phone number.
Toshinori looked away before he could be caught snooping and "focused" on rummaging through the box. Shinso headed to the back with the little girl, probably to drop her off. While he was doing that, All Might stopped looking through the box and informed the receptionist, "Thank you for allowing me to look through your lost and found. It seems what I am looking for is not here, but no matter. Thank you for your time!"
"Of course! Thank you for keeping us safe!" the woman thanked him with a bow.
He offered another one of his trademarked smiles a bid her a polite farewell, "Thank you! Have a nice day!" and left the building. Toshinori walked out to the closet alleyway and looked around for people and cameras before he safely deflated. His hero form was starting to really strain on him, more so now that he was running on little to no sleep.
"What am I doing?" he asked himself with a sigh and leaned against the alley wall, feeling every ache he had in his bones. Doubt was creeping upon him and he was wondering if this half-baked wish was even worth chasing. Before he lost his resolve he saw Young Shinso walk past him.
He swallowed his doubt and inflated his hero form before stepping out of the alley. Briskly walking after the teen he yelled, "Young Man, wait!" and Shinso froze, before stiffly turning to look at him. He seemed a bit panicked, which wouldn't do.
"Young Shinso, I have been searching everywhere for you!" he exclaimed, keeping up the enthusiasm of his heroic act.
This made Shinso's indigo-colored eyes widen more with anxiety before he hesitantly asked, "Why?"
"To thank you! The day of that attack, you succeeded where I failed," Toshinori admitted thinking back to the kid that had temporarily died because of his hesitation. How he hadn't acted correctly and administered CPR himself, allowing that kid, Midoriya to do himself, in his grievously injured state.
Shinso stared at him incredulously, so nervously he rambled out, "It was quite brave of you, that day, and you did what every hero should do. If you aim to be a hero in the future, it would be an honor to one day work with you."
Kids liked praise, right? It was a good way to break the ice.
"No one gets to say that to me," Shinso unexpectedly retorted, sounding callous, but his expression was that of a kicked puppy. Like he was hearing something so profound that he was sure it was a lie. Toshinori hated how those eyes reminded him of emerald irises that had once looked at him with dissipating hope for a dissolute dream.
Cautiously, he inquired, "Why not?"
"Because nobody believes in the kid with a villain's quirk, nobody wants to trust the kid that can brainwash you by just talking to you," the teen clarified as if he was trying to convince Toshinori he should turn his back on him like the rest of society.
"Is it possible to become a hero, even if I don't have a Quirk?"
He had a chance not to make the same mistake twice. Toshinori couldn't live with another child's name on the news, two months from now when he could have done something to give them the strength to fight for their life.
Standing tall, Toshinori promised, "You can be a hero, kid, and if I have to help you get there, then so be it, I will give you everything I have to make that dream a reality." Because he couldn't do that for Midoriya, who he so tremendously wronged. A kid he might as well have pushed off that bridge himself.
Midoriya breathed hard as he leaned in the corner of the training room, staring at the zombies on the ground. They weren't the eat your flesh, horror movie zombies, but puppets that All for One sent after him. Every time he was in this room they attacked him, throwing themselves at him with everything they got sometimes mindlessly, sometimes with fighting skill. The only way to win was to knock them out or if necessary destroy the brain.
He got sick just thinking about how he has blood on his hand from trying to defend himself. All for One said he needed to learn to fight and when he refused, he found a way to make him learn to defend himself. It was cruel, thinking about how those mindless things were once human made him cry. They were the failed, as All for One called them, and he'd hate to see the successful ones.
Izuku raised a hand and tenderly rubbed his shoulder, but stopped when he heard the door to the room open. All for One doesn't like weakness, so showing that his shoulder was still bothering him was not welcomed here. No one came into the room and he knew no one would.
He pushed off the wall and slowly walked out of the room, only for the door to automatically shut behind him. "How was training today, Izuku?" All for One's voice echoed from the intercom in the hall. There were microphones everywhere, as well as cameras, so he had to be careful with his actions and response.
"I hate you." Nailed it.
A low chuckle carried throughout the hall, and he was chastised, "Now, now, you only have yourself to blame, Izuku. You were the one that decided to act up." Izuku glared up at the nearest camera and was met by an exasperated sigh. He still didn't know how that Deadpool reject could see him, but fuck him. Stupid, moldy avocado.
"Are you ready to start your analysis classes today?" he inquired, sounding like a tired parent.
Izuku looked at the camera unamused and remarked, "I'm not giving you anything."
"So, stubborn. I wish you would have answered differently, Izuku, but I guess it can't be helped," All for One retorted now sounding more like a disappointed father than a villain that was holding him hostage. A second later, the hall began to feel with gas and Izuku's hands flew to his face.
It was enough, he knew it wasn't enough, and he inhaled some of the gas. Izuku fell to his hands and knees coughing, feeling dizzy and tired. A fat, balding man entered the hall a moment later with a gas mask. Even with a mask, he looked familiar. Izuku squinted at the man.
Was that his pediatrician?
"He is all yours, doctor," All for One announced right before Izuku lost his fight and passed out.
Notes:
To be continued:
Another chapter is complete, I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for the review and 42 kudos. I hope you have a wonderful day.
Chapter Text
November 4th, 2257 (Wednesday):
"Damnit," Katsuki cursed in frustration when he dropped the medicine ball he had been tasked with carrying around the room. Clapping came from across the room and Katsuki looked up to see his physical therapist, smiling at him proudly.
Her name was Umemura Sumi. Her skin was grayish pastel indigo, her hair an inky purple, and she had smokey eyes that had no pupils or irises. Umemura's quirk was ink control and secretion. She would have made a great illustrator or writer with a quirk like that, but she had actually gone on to be an underground hero. That is until she broke her back at the young age of twenty-one.
She had regained the mobility of her legs, but retired since she couldn't do as well on the field as she used to. Eventually, she decided she still wanted to help people. Highly inspired by those who helped her relearn to walk, she became a physical therapist. Naturally, that was why she had taken on Katsuki three months and two weeks ago, to help him with rehabilitation.
"You did amazing, Bakugo. You lasted a whole twenty minutes carrying ten pounds," Umemura praised him, but he didn't get anything from it. He was disappointed in his weakness and wondered why Umemura insisted on him coming back and training with her. Katsuki had done his required appointments with Umemura. He should have stopped coming after he could walk on his own and could do other basics on his own like eat, dress and undress, talk, and use the bathroom by himself.
Katsuki had built up more than enough muscle mass and motor function to be independent. The only problem he could think she wants him to stick around for was his hands. He got muscle spasms in them frequently, but that seemed too minuscule for him.
"Hey!" Umemura called out suddenly and Katsuki looked up to see the woman walked towards him, "Don't act so down. The doctors said the spasms will most likely go away as you work with your hands more, so that's what we'll do."
Katsuki frowned as he took a moment to find his words before he inquired, "Why do you continue to...Damn, what's the word for when someone does something for someone else because they're happy-nice, nice. I meant nice, damnit."
He scowled at the ground ashamed of his inability to find the right words sometimes. The doctors called it a mild case of Aphasia or something, and it was frustrating. Thankfully, it another little thing he could fix with a speech therapist, but it was going to drive him crazy learning to correct it.
"Help?" Umemura asked patiently.
Katsuki didn't look up as he grumbled, "That's the fucking one," and looked up as he asked, "Why are you still helping me?"
Umemura pursed her lips before she inquired, "Well, you want to be a hero, don't you? That's what your mom told me at least. So, do you still want to be a hero?"
The blonde paused when he was asked that, he hadn't thought about it since he woke up in the hospital. A lot has happened in the four months since then and it was all because of heroes. He had died because heroes hadn't done anything and while he was alive now, but he would be affected by it for the rest of his life.
Heroes failed to save Izuku despite being right there and he died. Aunt Inko hasn't talked to anyone since then and has lost an unhealthy amount of weight. She was an actual skeleton of herself.
The Hero Commission had almost bled his parents dry in court and while his parents might have won thanks to Izuku's dad, the prize was almost not worth it. The heroes at the scene before All Might showed up had their licenses suspended until they took remedial classes on proper protocol. He got to speak about the incident and the Commission had to pay for all his medical/therapy bills pertaining to his health.
Regardless, it wasn't enough because his parents lost his childhood home and they had to move into an apartment, which unfortunately ended up being Aunt Inko's place to help her. His parents had planned to get their own apartment when he had been released from the rehabilitation center, but he's been out for a month and a half now.
They were still in that apartment and it was unlikely to change. It was only a matter of time before the apartment was in his parents' names instead of Aunt Inko's name.
That apartment itself was full of ghosts and they didn't have the income to go anywhere else. Because of it, he had to walk there and go to bed in the room that supposed to be Izuku's room. It was hard, especially since he couldn't remember why he had hated Izuku growing up. That room was a cruel reminder that he was missing memories and those just happened to be why he had been mean to his best friend.
Now Umemura was asking him about being a hero as if it was normal for someone to have such a dream. However, he didn't feel like telling her such, so instead, he scoffed, "As if I could get into U.A. in my state. I'm a twig and a charity case."
"Well, you have until February for that exam. How about we keep training until then and you think it over. That is unless you think you can't handle my training regiment any longer?" Umemura informed him smugly, hitting all the right buttons.
Katsuki gritted his teeth as he snapped, "I can handle anything."
"Alright, I'll see you every three days from now on," Umemura stated with a dangerous gleam in her eyes and Katsuki scoffed in response.
He looked at the clock a moment later and saw his time was up so he responded, "Whatever, Ume Sensei," and Umemura smirked. Katsuki rolled his eyes and walked over to his bag that held a change of clothes in case he had gotten sweaty during the session. Since he had been working with his hands all day, he didn't need to today.
He did grab his glasses from the bag, though, and put them on. Vision loss was one of those permanent things he was going to have to live with for the rest of his life. It wasn't that bad compared to his memory or speech, because he could get contacts if he got a job that required a lot of movement. He could live without his mom telling him how much he looks like his dad that followed with his cheek being pinched, though.
Katsuki put his phone in his pocket as he proceeded to leave the gym, only to find his mom waiting for him. She stood up upon seeing him and he walked over to her in a hurry to leave. Luckily, she didn't question his rush and just followed him out of the building after he walked by her.
Once they were outside, she inquired, "How was it today?"
"She says I'm doing better," Katsuki admitted as he shoved his hands into his pocket.
His mom nodded and paused before she tentatively asked, "I was thinking about visiting Inko at the hospital today, do you think you're up to it?"
"Take it back! Take it back! No! Tell me my baby isn't dead! Take it back!"
Katsuki could still hear Aunt Inko's screaming from the other side of the phone when she called the night Izuku had died. It seemed like yesterday, but it has been months. Aunt Inko had been admitted to the hospital a month ago after she started to refuse her meals altogether and mom deemed her suicidal.
Even before that, Katsuki hadn't gotten the courage to visit Aunt Inko when she was in the apartment and just sat in her room most of the day. It was too hard to look at the woman after she lost Izuku. He felt like his presence would be despicable and only remind her of what she didn't have, a son.
"No...I'm not ready," Katsuki admitted quietly, feeling like a coward.
His mom only gave a small smile in return and promised, "That's okay. We'll try another day," just making him feel worse.
His days have been the same for so long, he had been safe in the schedule that consisted of breakfast, training, lunch, analysis, dinner, see the doctor if he did something wrong, and go to bed and stare at the carvings in the wall. However, today his schedule had been uprooted right after lunch because Sensei wanted to see him. Now he was sitting in a chair in the dark, waiting for something to happen and it was making him antsy.
"Izuku," Sensei addressed him somewhere from the room or maybe through a speaker. Either way, he didn't answer because Izuku wasn't the name he was supposed to respond to. Though, the scratched message "Your name is Izuku" on the wall under his bed would beg to differ.
A moment later, Sensei greeted, "Mikumo," and he knew that was his cue to respond.
"Yes, Sensei?" Mikumo answered calmly, he learned to hide his nervous ticks very early into his training. The same nervous ticks, Sensei believed he had forgotten. Mikumo had figured out early on that he would forget things about himself after his sessions with the doctor if he didn't behave how Sensei wanted him to.
It was why the carving on his wall existed. That sentence was something about his past that wouldn't be significant to him if the mind wipes worked as they should. It was too bad that Mikumo started acting like he lost more memories than he really had and started being more compliant with each suggestion after "accidental" slipups to make his act convincing.
He could almost see Sensei's manic grin as he inquired, "Where's your home, Mikumo?" Using his name so personally, was making him sick, but he didn't react.
Instead, he adopted a confused expression as he replied, "With you. Home has been with you since you saved me," making it sound as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"And why did I save you?" Sensei pressed, going on with his test.
"The heroes let my friend die, rendered his family nearly homeless, and drove my mother to be catatonic. They let me die too," Mikumo responded and as much as he didn't want that part to be true, Sensei had shown him photographic proof. It was hard to deny what he had seen with his own eyes.
Sensei hummed in agreement before he asked his last question, "What is your goal, Mikumo?" Mikumo suppressed a frown at that question because he had not been tested on that topic before. He had, however, figured out that Sensei was a villain and that he preached that the hero society was wrong and he was the unwanted hero of the world.
Taking those ideals into consideration, Mikumo answered, "I want to rid the world of heroes like those who killed my friend and harmed my mother. I want my mother to have a society that will actually take care of her," hoping it would please Sensei and not send him back to the doctor.
"And would you be willing to do anything to achieve that goal, even if it means being seen as a villain?" Sensei inquired calmly, revealing the true last question to his test.
Without hesitation, Mikumo replied, "Yes, anything," like a trained dog.
"I think it's about time you meet my other apprentice," Sensei remarked, and if he hadn't been grinning before he was grinning now. Mikumo had passed the test and he honestly didn't know what that meant for him.
Notes:
To be continued:
Another chapter is done, I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for the reviews and 49 kudos. I hope you have a wonderful day.
This chapter is pretty much the same as it was originally written. 7-9 are essentially the same as they were in the original book, but with some omitted parts. 10 and forward will be new, with maybe some reused parts.
Chapter Text
December 13th, 2257 (Sunday):
It was surprising how much one could learn within a month. Izuku wasted a lot of effort to get back into the habit of mentally referring to himself as Izuku out of spite. He didn't like the name Mikumo, it was what Sensei called him and it left him feeling sick to his stomach.
Moreso, Mikumo was just something Sensei and the Doctor came up with to control him. Izuku hated that the most out of everything about his life, the false freedom. He wanted it for real, not just a perceived version of it given to him by a criminal. Which was why he has been pushing the pieces on the chessboard in his favor. He has been mentally studying Shigaraki Tomura and Kurogiri, personality and quirk.
Tomura was a man-child having been raised by Sensei who didn't guide him into adulthood, instead let his anger fester. He was found on the streets and ignored by society, wishing for All Might to save him until Sensei found him. Sensei twisted that until he got the overgrown toddler that Izuku had the dishonor of living with. Tomura, also, compared reality to video games, to the point Izuku gave up trying to translate. He was also impatient and prone to tantrums that could end up deadly thanks to his Discenteration quirk.
Kurogiri was the babysitter and his ability to be level-headed in the midst of the worst of Tomura's tantrums seemed robotic to Izuku. He was loyal to Tomura and Sensei to the fault, bending over backward to serve them. The man also seemed to genuinely care about everyone under his care. He would always make sure Tomura and Izuku ate everything he served, even the vegetables.
Often times Izuku had to remind himself that Kurogiri was a criminal thanks to his politeness and that his quirk was more concerning than Tomura's quirk. With Tomura all Izuku had to do was take his hands or fingers, but with Kurogiri he had a slim chance to get in a hit thanks to his warp quirk.
It was Kurogiri's quirk that kept Izuku from attempting to murder them and going on the run from Sensei. It was why he simply couldn't run away either because Kurogiri could just bring him back as soon as Giran found him.
Izuku also didn't bother running because he was paranoid that the Doctor tagged him in order to track him. All this considered, Izuku was content playing the long game to get out, even if it meant he had to screw over some people in the process.
"Shigaraki!" Izuku sang out in a cheerful tone he learned grated on Tomura's nerves as he bound down the hall with his laptop. When he reached the man's room he opened the door with force, making Tomura jump and get his player killed in an online deathmatch.
Tomura paused his game and turned around, mustering up every ounce of patience and restraint he had so he didn't slaughter his precious strategist. Izuku grinned maliciously as Tomura stated, "If it is to tell me to clean my room again, I will have Kurogiri send you back to Sensei for another month," while taking off his headset.
"It's not. And even if it was, you couldn't do it if you tried because Kurogiri is working and we're not allowed down there when the bar is open," Izuku responded while doing his best to ignore the empty bags of chips and empty soda cans that littered the room. A room that smelled like gamer funk.
Tomura narrowed his eyes at him and as soon as he opened his mouth to say something, Izuku cut him off, "I've been checking out why All Might has been sticking around in Musutafu lately, but I wasn't finding anything useful from the footage," which was false, he noticed the hero was only active three hours a day.
Patiently, Izuku waited until Tomura was about to say something, before he continued, "So, I asked myself, "What could be the reason he was in town?". After trolling some news articles I found the Heroics Teacher for U.A. is retiring after this school year. I think All Might's going to be the new heroics teacher there, so I'm going to enroll as a student to U.A.!" and adopted a shit-eating grin.
Izuku watched as Tomura scratched his neck in frustration until the villain said, "No. You're safer here than at some school where they'll bully you for being quirkless," or in other words, Tomura wanted him in arms reach.
"But, Shigaraki, I was going to spy for you and even if All Might doesn't end up working there, I would get wonderful information for my journals on future threats and the teachers, who are all pro-heroes," Izuku whined in a special way that would drive Tomura up the wall, and based on the way Tomura was scratching it was working.
Tomura stared at him with contempt before he responded, "Ask Sensei," and Izuku just turned around and left, proud of himself and happily ignoring Tomura shouting at him to come back and shut his door.
Shouta woke up with a jolt from a nightmare, breathing heavily as the remnants of the dream began to weigh on his mind. "Are you okay, Shou?" Hizashi asked from next to him, catching him off guard. Wearily, Shouta glanced around and realized he was in the living room, on the couch leaning against his husband.
He glanced at the clock on the DVR before he looked at Hizashi and deflected, "You're home early." This was true, considering how it was eight o'clock at night and Hizashi was usually still at the radio station until nine.
"And you're home late," Hizashi pointed out since Shouta was usually on patrol at this time, not sleeping on the couch. And based on Hizashi's expression, he concluded that they were both having an off day.
Tentatively, Hizashi changed the subject back to his nightmare and inquired, "Was it about him again?" Him. It was a harsh reminder that neither Hizashi nor Shouta could bring themselves to say the name Midoriya Izuku. It was as if the kid would haunt them for it, but if he thought about it, the kid did haunt them in a way.
Shouta had nightmares about not catching Midoriya before he fell and the kid telling him that it was his fault. His green eyes always no long vibrate and alive, but glassed over and lifeless. He had the same nightmare for a month after the kid's death and Hizashi...Hizashi was constantly checking the news hoping that the kid's body was found, even though it belonged to the ocean now and would never be found.
"It's the case I got assigned last night. It's Quirk Trafficking, Hizashi," Shouta shared what he was legally allowed to share with his husband about the case.
Quirk Trafficking was human trafficking, but when the people were specifically taken for their quirks. Sometimes they'd be sold to underground fighting rings like slaves forced be Gladiators. Other times they were bought for Quirk Marriages. However, the worst thing about Quirk Trafficking is that most of the hostages were children because children were easier to groom into obedient fighters or lovers. That thought alone made Shouta queasy.
Hizashi went uncharacteristically silent hearing this, probably trying to find a way to comfort him. Shouta didn't want it, though, so he changed the subject, "What brings you home so early?"
The blonde rolled his eyes dramatically before deciding the drop the former topic and answered, "There just wasn't a lot of material to cover tonight at the station nor a lot of callers. Just a slow night, nothing to worry about."
Shouta was relieved to hear nothing was wrong before he stood up, his neck popping in the process due to his previous sleeping position. He stretched and informed his husband, "I need to go over the rest of the information that I was given on my case, then head out for patrol."
"Dinner first," Hizashi told him with a smile, "I brought take out home, that we need to reheat and eat." Shouta nodded in acceptance, dinner with his husband on a night they usually spent alone sounded nice.
Notes:
To be continued:
Another chapter is finished, I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for the reviews and 53 kudos. I hope you have a wonderful day.
This chapter is relatively the same as it was originally written, the only difference being I omitted the part that usually contained mentions of Nanase since she's no longer relevant to the story.
Chapter Text
December 27th, 2257:
Sensei had approved his plan to infiltrate U.A. as a student and was proud that he was taking initiating action to help them. However, Izuku was sure it was only accepted as a way to test whether he was loyal or not. Well, jokes on Sensei because Izuku was not taking any chances. He was going to keep up his charade until he could get out without complications. Well, without life-threatening complications.
Izuku was currently dealing with one of those non-deadly complications. Despite the complication being pro-life, it was becoming one of the hardest choices he has been faced with since willingly giving up memories for his cover.
"If you don't pick any colors kid, I will do it myself," the Stylest informed Izuku making him internally cringe.
The Stylest was his opportunity to be reintroduced into society as Akatani Mikumo. The man's quirk allowed him to change the color of anything he touched to whatever color he wanted. To an outsider, it was a seemingly harmless quirk, but those who knew the Stylest found he turned it into something sinister.
The man used such a simple quirk to turned to a life of crime. He started out by giving criminals a fresh start by changing their appearances. This put a lot of wanted criminals in debt to the Stylist, which he eventually collected in order to kick start his criminal career. Now, the man was running a Quirk Trafficking ring using his quirk to hide his victims.
It was not surprising, that Sensei had someone who could change appearances and supply him with quirks on call. With the Stylist at Sensei's beck and call, it was easy to get him to help them for a small favor in return. And no man was stupid enough to pass up receiving a favor from the Symbol of Evil.
All the Stylist had to do was change Izuku's appearance and in exchange, Kurogiri will help him escape from the police that were supposed to raid his operation tonight. A raid where Izuku was going to be posing as a hostage, in order to be reintroduced to society with fewer questions than needed.
It was an uneven exchange in Izuku's opinion, but he wasn't going to complain.
What he could complain about was that he had to give up his green eyes and green hair. Izuku was missing a lot of memories, but the one that stuck with him the most was a childhood memory of playing All Might with his mother. The thing he remembered the most about her was her dark green hair and green eyes. He didn't want to give up that connection.
"Just give him white hair and call it a day. As long as he keeps his hair length the same, no one will recognize him," Shigaraki suggested getting impatient.
Izuku gritted his teeth and snapped, "No! Just give me a minute. It's a hard choice, okay?! This is gonna be my appearance for the rest of my life." Tomura grunted in response, allowing Izuku to think long and hard about his dilemma.
Ten minutes later, he decided, "Okay. Make my hair black and my eyes red."
His hair already had a black tent to it under certain light, so it would be easier on him if it was completely black. As for his eyes, he went with red because it's the opposite of green on the color wheel. Also, the surname Sensei chose for him, had the word Aka in it, which meant red.
"Alright, let's get this over with, kid, so we can get to the next phase of this damn plan," the Stylest griped and reached out to touch Izuku. To his surprise when the Stylist touched him, he was overwhelmed by a burning sensation that left him seeing black from the pain.
Eraserhead was positioned on top of a crate in a shipping yard, waiting for Tsukauchi's signal to move in on the target. The head of the Quirk Trafficking ring was named Saikachi Eto, who was better known as the Stylest. Legally, Saikachi owned barbershops all over the Saitama Prefecture and lived in Kawaguchi City. He could have had a comfortable life off that business alone, but instead, he chose to side as a criminal.
Illegally, Saikachi conducted his not so appealing business in ports located in the Greater Tokyo Area, which made it hard to track him down. Consequently, officers from several different precincts had been trying to track this trafficking ring and the Stylest's identity for months before they asked him and Tsukauchi for help last week. Not soon after, they received information on the man's identity and his usual hunting grounds from an anonymous tip.
It left a bad feeling in everyone's stomachs to suddenly get a break in a case this grueling from an anonymous source. While anonymous tips were usually welcomed, this one had been suspiciously specific. It was as if someone had listened in on their conversations to figure out what they needed before sending in the information.
Unfortunately, trap or not the Stylest was too dangerous, too disgusting to be let go because of a suspicious tip. Which was exactly why the police had brought in more heroes for backup.
"Eyes are on the suspect, he's talking with his guy, the captain in charge of the shipments," Snipe informed him from a secure line. He was up somewhere high giving them a bird's eye view with a rifle. Cementoss was no doubt closing in on the duo, reading to provide cover and to trap the subjects.
Eraserhead had made a few requests on which heroes were part of the sting. Thankfully since Tsukauchi knew him, he was able to bring in three of his colleagues, Snipe, Midnight, and Cementoss.
"Confirm their identities. Is it the Stylest and the captain?" Sansa questioned for sake of making sure they got the right men. No one wanted to jump in prematurely and miss their guy.
Snipe paused before he confirmed, "It is the Stylest and the captain. I do not see anyone else. Is there anyone else we need to wait for?"
"No. Based on the intel we received, the Stylest is arrogant. He only brings three men with him during shipment arrangements. His driver, an armed guard for the driver, and an armed guard outside the hostages. Tsukauchi and Midnight are in a position to take the driver and his guard. Eraserhead is supposed to take the guard securing the hostages. Cementoss has to give us a signal when he's in position, then I'll relay the signal to go," Sansa relayed.
A tense silence washed over everyone, waiting for Cementoss to sneak close enough to the duo in order to use his quirk to properly trap them.
After a few minutes parading as an eternity, Sansa ordered, "Go!" and Eraserhead stood up and jumped over the edge of the crate.
He landed directly on the guard below, making him fall forward and slam his head into the concrete ground. Eraserhead grabbed the gun from his waistband and took the clip out, before throwing the gun and the clip in opposite directions. He then knelt down and checked the unconscious guard's pulse, since he had hit his head rather hard.
With that, Eraserhead proceeded to use his capture tape to bind the man up, since there was no point wasting any of his binding clothe tonight. As he did that he heard Snipe shoot his rifle twice, no doubt hitting both the captain and the Stylest with quirk suppressing bullets.
Usually, Snipe would be using normal bullets, but the captain had a power quirk called Tidal Wave that allowed him to control the waves on an ocean. They also didn't need the Stylest changing his appearance if he escaped.
Eraserhead stood up once he finished securing his target and dragged the guard away from the shipping container, so he wasn't obstructing the doors. "My target is taken care of, he's going to need a paramedic to check out his head. He hit his head harder than expected," Eraserhead informed the others, "I'm going to check on the hostages now."
"Got it. Midnight and the others have secured their targets. Heading in your directions with paramedics," Tsukauchi responded as Eraserhead reached the shipping container. He grabbed the door handle and lifted the lever before he pulled the door open.
Inside was too dark to see, so he took an emergency glowstick from his belt and broke it, lighting up the void with a green glow that wouldn't hurt his or the hostages' eyes. Able to see inside the container, he was met by the faces of seven people bound in chains, all looking unharmed and well-fed. This would be a comfort if it were for the fact it was because their buyers wanted them in top condition.
Four of the hostages were children ranging from the age of four to nine, three girls and one boy. Two were women who looked to be colleges aged, probably in their early twenties. The last, however, was a teenaged boy in the very back that looked too small for his age.
"It's okay. Everything is alright, now, I am a hero. The police and paramedics are on their way now to get you out of these chains now and into medical care. You'll get to go home very soon," Eraserhead promised as he knelt down to be less opposing, keeping his gaze mostly on the kids in the crate.
It didn't take much for two of the younger ones to start crying, overwhelmed in relief. One of the women joined in on the sobbing at the thought of being rescued.
Eraserhead wanted to physically comfort them, but he knew better than to touch them when they were traumatized to this extent. They probably had strange people violate them in inhumane ways during one of the Stylest's virtual auctions. The last thing they needed was some stranger, claiming to be a hero touching them.
Fortunately, Eraserhead didn't have to sit around feeling helpless because the police and paramedics arrived, allowing him to step back and leave. He walked away from the scene and went to where the main sting took place. Eraserhead arrived just in time to see Cementoss undoing his dome only to find no one inside.
He stopped in his tracks with wide eyes, because that shouldn't be possible. There was no way out of that dome. There was no manhole below it or any doors or holes. The only way out was a warp gate. They knew for a fact that none of the Stylest's men had a Warp Quirk, that is unless they were given false information by their anonymous tipper.
"Search everywhere!" an officer yelled in a panic and Eraserhead turned on his heels, running back to the hostages, to make sure no one tried to take them as well.
When he arrived, the police were pulling out the teen with a vague, uncanny visible eye that reminded Eraserhead way too much of Midoriya Izuku's lackluster eyes. It did not help that, thanks to a paramedic shining a light on the kid's face Eraserhead could see the freckles, which didn't paint a good picture coupled with the kid's curly black hair.
Forcibly, Eraserhead tore his gaze away from the boy and made sure the other six hostages were safe and accounted for. Once he was sure they were all present, Eraserhead turned his back to them, feeling a bit sick.
"We had a deal! You can't do this!" Saikachi Eto screamed as he was rolled away along with the captain on stretchers by the helpers All for One supplied the Doctor with. He had never intended to keep his end of the bargain, not when Saikachi had been stealing money from him.
It was infuriating to think that he could give someone such an important job in his operation, to find him interesting quirks, and they'd betray him for greed. All for One could have given him everything for a comfortable life, but instead, this had to happen.
It wasn't a complete waste, fortunately, because now he had a new quirk for himself to play with and he had two candidates for nomu. Saikachi and his quirk were just what he needed to make a nomu with a camouflaging ability. It'd be interesting to see what will eventually come of that. Then Saikachi's captain will make an excellent blank canvas for a future project.
All for One smiled to himself, as his mind conjured up all kinds of things he could do in the future.
Notes:
To be continued:
I hope you liked the update. Thank you for the 56 kudos. I hope you have a wonderful day.
I know I'm updating fast and usually I never update like this, but things are about to get busy for me on the holidays. I have a nine-hour drive Saturday and then I'll have family sporadically showing up on different days after I return home. Due to this plan, I plan to publish up to chapter eleven, then I probably won't update for a few weeks.
Chapter 10
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
January 1st, 2258 (Friday):
Izuku could not stand hospitals, the smell of antiseptic and illness made him uncomfortable and reminded him of the doctor. He would shudder at the thought of his session with the doctor, how a hand would come at his face and it would be followed by pain if he wasn't paranoid about being watched. Sensei had an extensive network of people who owed him favors and Izuku wasn't stupid to believe that Sensei would agree to his plan without keeping an eye on him.
Sensei didn't like weakness and if he suspected Izuku wasn't as strong as he hoped or Izuku had an ulterior motive, he'd pull Izuku back for more sessions. Izuku couldn't have that, so he pretended he wasn't on edge for four days as he was tested by doctors and questioned by police. He must have passed without suspicion because his social worker had finally shown up to take him to his new residence.
His social worker's name was Katou Yusaku and was a very unassuming appearance for someone with a mutation quirk. He would look exactly like a satyr from Greek Mythology if it weren't for the fact that he was dressed like a businessman and his flesh was a sickly green. His personality wasn't very inviting for someone who worked with traumatized children.
Izuku was rather tempted to test if the man would faint if scared, like those goats in America. So, one could guess that their current conversation wasn't going very well. Things had been perfectly fine in the silence, but when they parked outside the foster home, Katou ruined it.
The man turned around in his seat to look at Izuku as he stated, "Akatani, we're here. When we go inside, I want you to be quiet unless you are spoken to. If you talk, be respectful. You need to remember you are extremely lucky to have gotten such a couple willing to take on someone with your condition."
Izuku's brow knitted as he asked, "Excuse me? My condition?" He knew very well what Katou was talking about, Sensei and Shigaraki had told him all about the Quirkism towards those not as evolved in society. Izuku himself was suspicious about how a home opened up for him so quickly and suspected Sensei had something to do with it, but he couldn't prove it.
However, for now, he was content with watching Katou's response to his "ignorance". The green-skinned man looked at him annoyed as he clarified, "Quirklessness, Akatani. Some people don't like your kind and believe you to be less than human. You need to remember to walk on eggshells so you don't end up homeless."
"It sounds like your the one with the problem against those who quirkless," Izuku pointed out with a sickly-sweet smile, "I wonder what your boss would think about prejudice in child protective services?" Katou's goat-like eyes grew comically large and Izuku got out of the car, feeling proud of himself.
Content, the black-haired teen bound up the steps to the small corner street house in Kawaguchi City. "Akatani," Katou called out in warning, but Izuku ignored his social worker as he knocked on the door.
A moment later, the door opened revealing a middle-aged woman wearing a burnt orange turtleneck sweater and a long black skirt. She had her blonde hair pulled into a tight, bun which allowed her yellow, predator eyes to stand out. The woman looked like she ran a strict household and was one of those matriarch types.
Katou had caught up to him at this point and greeted, "Sone-San, this is Akatani Mikumo. Thank you for allowing him to stay with you."
The woman regarded him for a moment before she remarked, "I take in the unwanted all the time, do not thank me for feeding another mouth," sounding short on patience. Izuku refrained from narrowing his eyes at the lady and figured either he was right about Sensei's involvement of getting him placed him or this woman took him in for a paycheck. She certainly dressed nice and looked like the type to enjoy expensive things.
"Thank you, for bringing him here. Do you need to do a house check?" Sone asked curtly as if she was short on patience.
Katou just smiled sheepishly and denied, "No. He is all yours," and he bowed before he stood and left for his car, with an all too hurried clip clop. Izuku watched his retreat in disdain and he turned back to the woman of the house. She opened the door wider for him and Izuku stepped in the house, the door swiftly shut behind him.
Wolfish eyes met his ruby ones and she instructed, "Take your coat off and remove your shoes. We only wear slippers inside this house, so do not let me catch you walking around in anything else on my floors," and he nodded.
Seeing the sharp look she gave him, he responded, "Yes, Sone-San."
"Are those clothes the only thing you have?" Sone inquired as she judged the clothes the hospital gave him from the donation bin.
"Yes, Sone-San," Izuku repeated his answer from before. He was positive that he was going to hate this woman.
She let out an annoyed sighed and she changed the subject, "You are the sixth child in this residence, and are now the third oldest. I do not like children inside this house until seven at night, so when the winter break is over and school starts up, you need to find after school activities. Dinner is at eight, no one gets to eat until everyone as the table. If you're late, you will not be allowed to eat and will have to sit at the table and watch as punishment."
"Everyone participates in chores and must mind their manners. You have a status to uphold, and if you diminish it, you will find yourself facing punishments. As a result, you must all dress pristinely if out in public with us. Grades must be at their best, as well. I do not allow anything, but perfection in this household, do you understand?" Sone questioned as she finished laying down the law of this home.
Izuku's jaw set with anger, not admiring this woman's look of a household. Sensei and Shigaraki may be villains, but at least they don't micromanage him. "I understand, Sone-San," Izuku assured her with a polite tone, to keep the peace. There were no upsides of being here, it seemed. He would tolerate it until he figures out a better place to stay.
"Good. Now, before we sit down and order your clothes, there two more things you must know. You are not allowed in my room and you're not allowed in the basement," Sone informed him. The first one was pretty standard, some people don't like others going into their room, but the basement one sounded sketchy.
Nevertheless, he responded like a broken record, "Yes, Sone-San."
Frustration was a daily emotion that Tsukauchi Naomasa felt and it never got easier to handle. At the moment, he was vexed about the Stylest case and was running circles in his mind on who or what sprung the Stylest and his captain from Cementoss' prison dome.
It had to be someone with a warp quirk, but after searching hours for days through the database there were no criminals with a warp quirk that could be their suspect. They all either could teleport small objects or had monitor bracelets to alert their patrol officers of quirk use.
That meant there was an unnamed warper that they had no description of, helping a quirk trafficker.
This put more pressure on the police department to work harder to find the Stylest and his men. They had no choice, but to ask for help from heroes higher up the ranks, meaning they would have to deal with the media. The entire case had turned into a clusterfuck if Tsukauchi was putting it nicely.
Tsukauchi bit back a groan at the migraine he felt coming on, his gaze landed on the new file on his desk labeled, Akatani Mikumo. Out of all the hostages recovered last night, only Akatani Mikumo didn't have a family to go back too.
The kid didn't remember anything about his past or his family, which was concerning. In fact, the last thing Akatani could remember was the Stylest taking him hostage. The doctors were split between a mind-wiping quirk to make Akatani compliant and repression since there were no signs of head trauma.
For that very reason, Tsukauchi had gone digging through old cases and found Akatani's name shoved way in the back of the archives, practically untouched.
According to the file, Akatani Mikumo went missing when he was four which was reported by his neighbor, an old lady of the name Nagasawa Otoha. Apparently, Akatani's parents were heroin addicts, and unbeknownst to Nagasawa had been squatting in the house next to her.
It also noted in the report Nagasawa gave on Mikumo's disappearance, that the mother was neglectful and the father would at least hit the mother. However, with Mikumo's quirkless status, it was likely he was beaten by his father as well.
Tsukauchi had made an attempt to contact Nagazawa for more information, but he had been informed by her family that she was at the end stage of Alzheimer's and memory quirks weren't helping her. It left the Detective at a dead end and only left to assume that Mikumo likely hadn't had a good life growing up and that's why he had never been reported missing.
He would keep looking for Mikumo's parents, of course, but the end result would stay the same. Akatani Mikumo would remain in a foster home until he aged out of the system or was adopted.
Notes:
To be continued:
Another chapter is done, I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for the reviews and 59 kudos. I hope you have a wonderful day.
Chapter 11
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Sone had not been lying about not letting anyone eat until everyone was at the table. It was about thirty minutes after eight and Izuku was sitting motionless at the table with Sone Chiasa and her twin sons. His food was in front of him and he wanted nothing more than to dig into it, but the look the woman was giving him stopped him. This was cruel. He was starving.
Sensei has done a lot of things to him, including psychological games and sending zombies after him when he least suspected it, like while he slept; but he never withheld food. Withholding food would mean he'd starve and if he starved, he would get weak. Sensei wouldn't like that, so Izuku was never starved and was encouraged to eat whenever he was hungry. In short, having to wait to eat was the worst torture he has experienced in a long time.
Izuku's stomach was growling viciously and he could feel it eating itself, just like he could feel Chiasa glaring daggers at him, for his stomach disrupting the silence. His hands twitched wanting to grab his chopsticks and just dig in. The steam had long since disappeared from the Yakisoba and Izuku was internally panicking that it had gone cold.
Glancing over at the twins across from him, Izuku hoped to see the twelve-year-olds would be close to caving and wanting to eat in spite of the strict woman but he was deterred upon seeing the look of resignation on Asahi and Kosuke's faces. Realizing there was nothing good to be gained from breaking the rules, Izuku's hope deflated. He glanced back at the stern blonde to see her callous stare daring him to disobey him.
Izuku almost wished he was back with Sensei when the front door opened and he turned to see a panicked teen about his age. He had indigo gravity-defying hair and was dressed in snow-covered winter clothes. With him, holding his hand was a tiny little girl with teal bobbed hair with a few wild strands of hair, covered in an equal amount of snow.
Chiasa didn't move from her seat as she deadpanned, "You are both late for dinner."
"A villain fight broke out on the tracks, so the train was delayed in a tunnel for a couple of hours. It couldn't be helped," Shinso reasoned as he helped the small child take off her shoes and coat. When the little girl was out of her winter clothes she put on her slippers and trekked over to the table. The teen followed soon after shedding his soaked clothes and claimed the seat beside Izuku, whereas the child sat between Kosuke and Chiasa.
Izuku felt uncomfortable as they all sat in silence, none of them moving. At first, Izuku thought it was because the mysterious sixth child hadn't shown up nor the husband in the pictures, but he was wrong. The little girl reached out to grab her chopsticks only for Chiasa to strike out like a snake and slap her hand.
"Rules are rules. You are late, you don't get to eat," Sone announced, not caring that the child's eyes prickled with tears before it went dead. That expression reminded Izuku too much of one he had to wear to hide the pain from Sensei. He glanced around the table and the twins didn't seem bothered by the outcome, but the teen looked pissed.
Chiasa picked up her chopsticks and began to eat her food with the twins following her example. Izuku, however, didn't dare pick up his chopsticks to eat. He was starving, but he was more stubborn. This no eating if you're late rule seemed like it was designed to create animosity between the children of the house. He wasn't going to play that game, so he was going to protest.
This didn't go unnoticed as he suspected and Sone spoke up, "Akatani, eat your food. We do not waste meals in this household."
"If that was true you'd let these to eat the plates of food in front of them instead of punishing them for something out of their control," Izuku countered, done playing the safe game, and openly called her out on her bullshit.
Those predator eyes narrowed at him and she began to say, "Akatani, eat your food now or-," but he wasn't going to listen to empty threats.
"Or what? You'll hit me like you hit the child? Take away my future meals? Use your Quirk on me? Let's see how that holds up in court if you try anything," Izuku pressed looking at her annoyed. He wasn't scared of her or worn down by her abuse to the point he felt powerless around her. Izuku wasn't going to be held under her thumb. She had no power over him.
Chiasa scowled at him and ordered, "Go to your room and expect consequences for your actions in the future." Izuku shrugged and got up from his seat before he went upstairs, to the room down the right hall and on the right.
The room was neat and had a few posters on the wall. There was a desk, a closet, and a dresser in the room as well. For beds, there was a bunk bed and Izuku suspected he was sharing a room with the teen downstairs. The house only had four bedrooms, three upstairs, and a master off the living room downstairs.
The twins shared the room across from the room Izuku was told his and he guessed the sixth child and the little girl downstairs shared the room to the left of the staircase and cross from the bathroom. It was the most logical assumption, Izuku didn't think he was incorrect. That if he was sharing the room with the teen, he should avoid sitting on the bed until he figures which one was his.
Izuku walked over to the desk and sat down in the chair with a sigh. He leaned back and looked at the ceiling, doing his best to ignore his protesting stomach. With nothing to do, he decided to rest and hope it'd distract him from his hunger. Izuku crossed his arms on the desk and buried his head in them.
This place was strange and he could tell he wasn't going to last long in this house. Sighing, Izuku closed his eyes and tried to let himself drift off to sleep.
Notes:
To be continued:
Another chapter is finished, I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for the reviews and 65 kudos. I hope you have a wonderful day.
Some of the lines are reused from the original chapter eleven, but other than that this chapter is new. I also apologize for the short chapter, I decided to keep it short and simple. And looking back at it, I could have made this part of chapter ten, oh well.
Chapter 12
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Waking up to seeing a pair of large, teal eyes staring up at him was unsettling. Izuku's first instinct was to attack, but he masterfully restrained himself once he realized it was the little girl from dinner. He sat up and looked at the small child that was eating a hamburger while watching him intently. "Uh...Hi," Izuku greeted, trying to ignore the fact his mouth began to water as he registered the smell of food.
A second person in the room snorted before a male voice chastised lightly, "Yu, we said we'd work on the staring," and the teal-haired child huffed, then shoved the remainder of her food in her mouth.
She turned away and Shinso stepped into sight and knelt, a napkin in his hand. He wiped Yu's hands and face clean before he instructed, "Go on to the bathroom. I'll be there in a moment to help you brush your teeth, okay?" Yu nodded and quietly retreated from the room, not making a sound.
With the little girl gone, Shinso turned to him and stated, "While I appreciate what you were trying to do tonight, it was stupid to do. All you succeeded in doing was painting a target on your back. When Akira gets back...Well, we'll handle that when the time comes."
"What's he going to do, hit me?" Izuku questioned flatly, he had already played that game with Chiasa and she lost. He wasn't about to let the husband come home with the same threat and win.
Shinso gave him a deadpanned expression as he answered, "Yes. He'll hit you and use his quirk while doing it; so, unless you have a cancelation quirk like Eraserhead, anyone's best chance against him is to run and hide." He then turned and snatched a bag off his bed before he tossed it at Midoriya.
Izuku caught it out of reflex and his eyes widened seeing it was takeout from a burger joint. "No more arguing at the dinner table. No one goes hungry in this house on my house," Shinso informed him as he sulked towards the door, "The bottom bunk is mine. The bathroom's across the hall, so when you're finished, brush your teeth. I need to go get Yuri to bed," and left Izuku alone.
The green-haired teen looked down at the bag of food and his stomach growled. He still didn't know what to make of this new home, but one thing was clear; Shinso was the real caretaker of the household. Sighing softly, Izuku rummaged through the bag and pulled out his dinner. He had a feeling he would need his strength for tomorrow.
January 2nd, 2258 (Saturday):
When Izuku was awoken at dawn he found he hated being correct about needing his strength last night. Though, as he sluggishly trekked into the train station after Shinso and his little shadow, that strength went towards his restraint to not kill the indigo-haired teen. Midoriya was not a morning person.
He used to enjoy the morning, but like many other things it was ruined by Sensei and he's come to covet sleep. The longer he slept the less he had to put up with everyone's bullshit, and there were way too many minutes in the day bullshit occurred when living in a house with villains--namely Shigaraki. In short, he was not happy to be up so early.
"Where are we going?" Izuku questioned as he glowered at the empty platform, insulted that the train hadn't arrived at the station yet. Maybe the conductor was sleeping like a normal person should at this hour.
Yuri let out a big yawn a second later making Shinso smile a bit before he responded, "I have a meeting with someone and after last night it's best to make ourselves scarce before Chiasa wakes up."
"What about the twins?" Izuku questioned as he shoved his cold hands in his jacket pockets. Shinso had at least been kind enough to let him borrow a heavier coat to wear outside. He also lent Izuku some gloves and a hat, which Izuku appreciated.
"They have other things scheduled for the day. Robotics class I believe and then a sleepover at a friend's house. They're smarter than me, they'll be fine," Shinso promised as lifted Yuri and placed her on the nearest bench before he sat down beside her.
Izuku moved over and sat down on the other side of the small child. Silence lapsed over them again, before Izuku realized none of them actually introduced each other. He only knew Shinso's family name because Chiasa mentioned and then the same thing applied with Yuri's given name. "Akatani Mikumo," Izuku blurted out and Shinso looked over at him with a raised eyebrow.
His face went red in embarrassment before he clarified, "That's my name. I didn't introduce myself last night."
"Shinso Hitoshi," the other teen returned the favor before he looked at the child between them, giving her a look. The little girl stared up at him and she took a deep breath before she turned to look up at him.
Izuku waited patiently for her to work up her courage. When she found it she stated, "Urayama Yuri, I'm four," her voice surprisingly blunt for someone that young. He didn't know if it came from having to hide her emotions at the Sone house or from her picking up on Shinso's speech patterns. Either way, it wasn't his business.
Instead, Izuku smiled welcomingly and questioned, "Four, huh? Have you gotten your quirk yet?" Teal hair whipped back and forth as she shook her head. She then looked down at her hands and picked at her nails with a small frown.
"The kids at her daycare have been picking on her and saying she's quirkless," Shinso confessed staring across the empty station with a resigned expression.
This caught Izuku's attention and he looked at the little girl as he informed her, "You don't know for sure you're quirkless, Urayama-Chan. Even if you do end up quirkless, it's doesn't make you powerless or dictate your future. I'm quirkless after all and I've kicked quirked people's asses just fine."
Yuri giggled at this as Shinso halfheartedly chided, "Language, she's four," thought Izuku could tell by his expression he was grateful for Izuku's little speech. A second later, the train could be heard coming down the track. Izuku stood up as the train rolled into the station. Maybe while Shinso was busy with his meeting, he could sneak off to make a call to Kurogiri to let him know he infiltrated society without any problems.
Notes:
To be continued:
Thank you all for the comments and kudos. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I'm sorry that it's short.
Chapter Text
The train ride was uneventful, as was the walk to a cat cafe in Naruhata, Tokyo. Midoriya was perplexed as to why they had to travel all the way from Kawaguchi to Tokyo for a cat cafe. "Shinso, I don't mean to be rude, but couldn't we have gone to a cafe closer to the house?" Izuku questioned, as Hitoshi put Yuri on her feet since he had been carrying her for the past fifteen minutes.
"No," Shinso answered bluntly and opened the door to the cafe. Izuku let Urayama walk in before him. Once inside, Izuku was surprised the place didn't smell strongly of cat urine and was surprisingly clean. Yuri had a huge smile grace her face which made her look her age. She giggled as she ran to go play with a cat, that didn't run at the sight of a charging four-year-old.
Izuku turned away from the child as a woman caught his eye. She stood up and waved, as she called, "Shinso, over here!" with a broad smile. Her hair was inky black, but her eyes were a bright green that popped against her pale complexion.
Shinso stalked over to her with his hands shoved in his pocket and Izuku followed. When they reached the table, Shinso sat in the booth across from the woman and introduced them, "Tsukauchi, this is Akatani Mikumo the new kid," prompting Izuku to wave meekly, "Akatani, this is Tsukauchi Makoto, a journalist. She helps me every once in a while."
"It's nice to meet you, Akatani," Tsukauchi greeted cheerily, "How has the Sone house been treating you?"
"Okay," Izuku responded, honestly, because compared to All for One's zombies and Shigaraki's tantrums, his time there was fantastic. Though, the food situation sucked.
Makoto smiled as she remarked, "Good," and pulled a manila folder out of her purse, "Are you going to join Shinso and me?" As curious as Izuku was about why Shinso was meeting some random journalist for a folder, he had more important things to tend to.
"Sorry, but I actually need to make a call. I have friends questioning where I am," Izuku turned her down.
Tsukauchi-San seemed to understand, while Shinso responded by telling him, "There's a payphone down the hall. They put it in for decoration, but it works," and pulled out some yen from his coat pocket.
He held it out to him, so Izuku took the coins with a sincere, "Thank you," and went down the hall. Hitoshi let his shoulders slump as he turned his attention back to Makoto.
"That was nice of you, Toshi," Makoto teased, "Did you at least save enough to pay me?"
Shinso gave her a deadpanned expression, causing Makoto to chuckle and put her hands up in false surrender, "Alright, alright. On a serious note. Is Akatani one of those kids they found being trafficked in Kawaguchi?"
"It doesn't matter, you couldn't publish his name or picture in the paper even if he was," Hitoshi retorted, annoyed that she was fishing for a story already.
Makoto huffed as she pouted, "You're no fun," as he pulled out folded up cash, and placed it on the counter. Tsukauchi took the yen and counted it. She was pleased to find all 4000 yen was present. Makoto put the yen in her purse and slid the manila folder over to Hitoshi.
"One of these days, you're going to have to tell me why your friend disappears off the face of the earth, only to come out of hiding once a month for frozen yogurt," Makoto informed him, causing him to glance up at her. Indifferent to her nosiness, he glanced down at the manila folder. Hitoshi opened it to check the photos out of habit.
Getting his confirmation, Hitoshi closed the folder and put it in his canvas bag as he responded, "Trust me, you don't want to know the answer to that."
This inadvertently caused Tsukauchi to worry, making her lose her smile. She no longer looked like the bubbly journalist who was easily approachable and possibly an airhead. Now she resembled something akin to a concerned older sister, something Hitoshi hadn't seen in a year. Frowning, Tsukauchi offered, "All jokes aside, Shinso, if something is wrong and you guys are in trouble, I can help you. My brother is a detective and has contact with heroes that specialize in just about everything."
It was a nice sentiment, but Hitoshi didn't want the police involved. He didn't know what his former foster sister was running from, but it wasn't something he should look into. It was hard enough he had to deal with the Sones because there was no proof of abuse to use against them. Not to mention, it'll probably end up with another mark on his file. The last thing, Hitoshi much less Urayama needed was Tsukauchi poking around why Nanase left, and it potentially leading back to the Sone house.
"Tsukauchi-San, you don't want to know because I don't want to know what is going on with her. If I ever think one of us is in danger, I'll call you," He brushed her off, making Makoto's hand twitched at his inadvertent lie.
She still wasn't pleased by his reply, but fortunately dropped it in favor of threatening him, "I will hold you to that. And if you fail to get help when you absolutely need it, you will regret it. I can be scary when I'm upset," while giving him a pointed look. Hitoshi smiled cynically because while her concern was nice, there was nothing she could do about his situation or Nanase.
The old payphone only ran three times before Kurogiri answered the phone, "Hello?" A knot formed in Midoriya's stomach. This was a reminder of what his mission was until he got the perfect opportunity to run.
Calming his nerves, Izuku side-eyed the man walking past him to head to the bathroom. A cafe wasn't exactly the best place to have a conversation with future super-villains over the phone. People were nosey and or possibly had superhearing. Taking this into consideration, Midoriya carefully crafted a reply, "It's Mikumo. I know I kinda disappeared for a while, but I just wanted to call the group to let them know I'm okay. I, uh, kinda got caught by the authorities, so, I'm trapped in a foster home."
Fortunately, Kurogiri, forever the godsend understood, "Master will be pleased to learn you are somewhere safe. You are safe, aren't you? You're no home is treating you right?"
"I'm safe for now. The house mom is a piece of work and is quite strict. I don't think she'll be a problem after we've gotten to know each other more. The other kids present are nice, though. My roommate is cool," Izuku mused darkly, because there was no way he was going to let Chiasa abuse him or anyone else, "Besides that, things seem pretty normal. I think I'll stick around for at least the winter so I'm not freezing my ass off and starving. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is the placement test I have to take for school in a few days. I hope I don't have to repeat the grade if they can't find my school records from my previous school."
"Of course. I will alert Sensei of this problem right away and get it all sorted out for your cover. I assume you have to go now, Akatani, so stay safe," Kurogiri advice him, genuinely worried about Izuku's wellbeing.
Izuku smiled a bit as he promised, "I will. Tell the others, I say hi," and he put the phone back on the receiver, ending the call. It was good that Kurogiri still cared for his wellbeing. He needed Kurogiri to play the caretaker in order to pull the wool over his eyes and Sensei's vision. Content, with how things are playing out Izuku walked out of the hall to see Shinso standing up.
"You ready?" Hitoshi questioned bleakly, as he rubbed his eyes looking more exhausted than he had on the train in.
Midoriya nodded, so Shinso called, "Urayama," and Yuri stopped playing with the cats. She ran over to Shinso, who took her hand and headed for the door. Izuku followed closely behind them and as they reached the door, a tall blonde opened it for a man with black hair. The strangers stepped aside to let them by, and as Izuku passed by he did a double-take because he recognized the one with dark hair--Eraserhead. What a small world, Izuku mused.
As he left, Shouta's eyes followed him, recognizing him as well. The uncanny resemblance to Midoriya Izuku didn't go unnoticed by his husband, who stood there gaping. "Is that?--Was that?" Yamada stammered, trying to get his question out.
"No," Aizawa answered, harshly, and headed inside the cafe not wanting to think about Midoriya Izuku.
Notes:
To be continued:
I apologize for the hiatus, but I'm back. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I did change Yuri's surname to Urayama because I decided to bring Nanase's character back, just for a different role in the story.
Chapter Text
January 3rd, 2258 (Sunday):
Chiasa was true to her threats, it may have taken two days, but she came through. Midoriya was minding his own business writing in a notebook that Shinso let him have while laying in the top bunk when Asahi came into the room. He learned quickly how to tell which twin was which, as they both looked almost like mirror images other.
The only differences were the eyes and personality. Asahi had wolfish yellow eyes like his mother and he was quiet and calmer. He struck Izuku as calculative. Kosuke had blood-orange eyes and he was rash and vocal, probably quick to anger and make decisions. Their quirks were probably different as well, but he hasn't learned them yet.
"What is it?" Hitoshi questioned from the bottom bunk where he sat braiding Yu's hair.
That was another thing, Izuku had noticed during his short time there. Chiasa didn't parent, she was more like an inattentive manager he and Shigaraki would read about of Readit in r/EntitledPeople or r/JustNoManagers. Shinso was the only one who actually parented in the house, example number one being Urayama. She copied a lot of Shinso's mannerisms and social queues.
"Dad's home, he wants to meet Akatani," Asahi informed them right before Kosuke walked by and slung his arm around, Asahi's shoulder and began subtly dragging him to their room. They were retreating, hiding from their own father.
Midoriya scowled and capped his pen before climbing down the bed. Yuri was staring at him with large eyes, while Shinso looked more displeased than usual. "Stay civil and agree with whatever he wants, and you'll be okay," Shinso advised before he turned his attention back to Urayama's hair.
"Got it," Izuku noted and left the bedroom. He walked down the hall and stopped at the top of the stairs. At the door standing with a huge smile and with his hands on his hips was the mysterious Mr. Sone. He was tall, and he seemed to get taller as Midoriya came down the steps. His smile was broad, but nothing about it screamed monster or even suggested he was putting on a show. A sociopath, Midoriya supposed, impossibly good at superficial feelings to lure victims into a false sense of security.
Sone outstretched his hand to shake when Izuku took the last step off the stairs, as he greeted, "It's splendid to finally meet you, Mikumo, I'm Sone Akira, you're new foster pops."
Deciding to play along, Izuku shook his hand and abide by Shinso's suggestions, "Nice to meet you, sir. I should apologize though. I disrespected your wife Friday. I was startled at dinner and unfairly lashed out at her."
Akira dropped his hand as his smile stretched, and Izuku watched in amusement upon seeing the sparkle in the auburn's blood orange eyes. He could see the satisfaction at the belief that Akira thought he suckered another poor kid into thinking he was trustworthy, more of the friend than the parent type. Izuku was just dying to see how Akira's grooming process worked. It was probably the carrot or the stick method and a shit ton of gaslighting the child into thinking they were at fault and deserved whatever was to come.
He found it pathetic that Akira took his baited admission to being at fault. Akira slung an arm around Izuku's shoulder and rubbed his other shoulder in encouragement, as he reassured Izuku, "It's alright, buddy, first nights in new homes are jarring. Unfortunately, the missus is upset so I have to do something to appease her. So, how about you go out back and weed the garden for a bit, then come in and apologize. Keep it simple and sincere, yeah?" Akira questioned, coming off as an ally, while also throwing his wife under the bus.
Sadly it was all textbook behavior, which really annoyed Izuku. Despite this, he smiled and thanked Akira, "Thank you," and let the man walk him to the back door.
"The tools and gloves are in the shed," Akira told him, so Izuku pulled away before he faced the man again and bowed, another thank you leaving his mouth. With that, he stood up and went to the shed to get the gardening tools and gloves. Once in the shed, he was pretty clueless as to what tools were needed for the job, if any at all. Due to this, Izuku just grabbed some gloves, sheers, and a bucket.
He shook the gloves out for bugs before he put them on and grabbed the bucket he put the sheers in. The garden was in a squared-out U-shape on the right side of the house, lining the house and the fence. It looked poorly managed and Midoriya couldn't even tell what had been growing there, as it all looked like weeds to him. Izuku resisted the urge to sigh, not wanting it to become a habit, and got to work.
He began pulling up whatever looked more like grass than flowery, herby, or like a vegetable. Izuku was out of his element, but he did his best. Whatever he couldn't pull up by hand, he cut with sheers and threw in the buckets. He started at the fence and slowly labored his way to the side of the house. Izuku was trimming away more vines when he noticed they were covering something.
"No way," Izuku remarked and dropped the sheers in favor of pulling the vines out of the way, uncovering a window. There was no question where the window led to--the sketchy, mysterious basement. Izuku was dying to know why it was off-limits and locked up. He wiped the grime off the window and leaned in to get a peek inside. Izuku's eyes strained to see something through the darkness. It was hard to make anything out, but after a few minutes, Izuku caught a glimpse of something. Whatever it was moved out of sight before he could figure out whether it was something living or a cloth blown out of sight by vents.
Izuku pulled away and was about to see if he could open the window from the outside when he heard the backdoor open. He pulled away from the window and got back to work as he heard multiple pairs of footsteps scuffle down the porch steps as the door closed. Izuku looked to his left to see the twins and Urayama had come outside, meaning Chiasa must have come back from the grocer and kicked them out.
Asahi and Kosuke began kicking around a ball, while Urayama was walking towards him with a glass of water. He stopped what he was doing and accepted the glass with a smile, "Thank you, Urayama."
"Yu," she corrected as he took a few gulps of water.
He set down the glass on a more level spot of grass so it doesn't tip over as he repeated himself, "Thank you for the water, Yu," and she nodded.
Wanting to take a break from weeding for a few more minutes, Izuku questioned, "Where's Shinso?" If Chiasa was home and kicked them out of the house, then Shinso should be in the yard as well. In the time that Midoriya has been here, which was only two days he could admit, Shinso hovered over Urayama like a hawk. It seemed odd that he was suddenly nowhere to be seen.
"Toshi went to the beach to be a hero with the bunny man," Urayama answered him as she began to bounce back and forth on her feet.
Midoriya was about to ask for a more in-depth answer, but Urayama's attention turned towards the garden. "Are you going to bring back Nana's garden?" Urayama questioned, her wide curious eyes turning to him. She looked very hopeful, which made him feel bad since he knew nothing about gardening.
"I don't know how to," Izuku admitted, before he got an idea, "But I can read up on it and try to learn how to manage it." In a few seconds, Urayama went from downcast to excitement. Her smile was broad as she decided to sit beside him.
"I wanna help," she decided, as she began to open up to him, "Nana had a lot of pretty flowers. I'm named after a flower, but she wouldn't grow those because they make kitties sick," and tried to grab a vine.
Izuku stopped her before she could touch the vine, which startled her. Urayama yanked her hand away and stared up at him with wide eyes. Her body tensed as she leaned away from him. Midoriya's jaw clinched and on the inside, she was seething, but on the outside, he gave a toothless smile. "Careful, Yu, some of the vines are prickly," Izuku warned her lightly as he took off his gloves and offered them to her, "Here. I know they're too big for you, but they'll protect you."
Urayama slowly relaxed and outstretched her hands, and Izuku helped her put the gloves on her. He then turned back to the vines and began to carefully pull them away from the basement window. There was no sign of what he thought he saw earlier, but there were more pressing matters he had questions about. "Yu...Did Nana live here, like us?" Izuku questioned, even though he was already certain that Nana was the sixth child that Chiasa living at the house.
He had miscounted Friday in his grumpy, hungry haze and tallied Shinso and Urayama as the fifth and sixth minor in the house. It was also partially because Chiasa said nobody gets to eat until everyone was home, and by the time they joined them at the table there were six people present. Embarrassing as it was, he didn't notice his mistake until they came back to the house yesterday after the cat cafe. He had then assumed that the sixth kid was with the father, Akira, but Izuku now knew that wasn't the case.
"She left. Toshi said Akira did it," Urayama explained with a small scowl on her face, that looked more like a pout thanks to her chubby cheeks and bottom lip sticking out.
Without further prompting, Urayama stood up and stamped her foot, "He's mean. I don't want to talk about him," and marched away to go join the twins. Izuku watched as Asahi and Kosuke stopped kicking the ball around to talk to Urayama. After a few words are exchanged, Asahi took the gloves from Urayama and Kosuke laughed while patting her on the head.
Midoriya readied himself for trouble as Asahi walked over to him. He could see the cold judgment in the kid's eyes the whole way over. When Asahi was beside him, he held out the gloves. "Thank you," Izuku thanked him and put the gloves on as he decided to cut to the chase, "I didn't mean to upset her, I just was curious as to who Nana was. The next thing I knew, she was mentioning Akira and got angry."
Asahi stared at him blankly, which unnerved Izuku a bit, but he swallowed his discomfort and asked, "Is she alright?"
"She'll be fine," Asahi finally answered and glanced at the partially uncovered window.
He seemed to decide something and made eye contact with Izuku for the first time as he informed him, "Dad's manipulative and defensive of mom when he's sober, but he's a monster when he isn't. Be careful and be quiet. You never know who is listening," and he turned around and walked away.
"Asahi, wait," Izuku stopped him and the yellow-eyed boy looked over his shoulder, "What are the appropriate steps to take when he isn't sober?" There had to be some secret protocol to protect themselves. Izuku had made one for himself when he was with Sensei and the Doctor. If Sensei were to bring in another kid into their life, Izuku would make sure they knew how to survive.
"Nana fought to protect us, but Shinso makes us run. There isn't a handbook for this household, Akatani. There's them and then there's us. That's it, so stop trying to treat this like a mystery to solve," Asahi retorted coldly and walked away, leaving Midoriya with a lot to think about.
Notes:
To be continued:
Another chapter is complete, I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for the review and kudos. Have a good day.
rubywings91 on Chapter 1 Fri 11 Dec 2020 03:34PM UTC
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blasted_bastard on Chapter 1 Tue 22 Dec 2020 07:31PM UTC
Last Edited Tue 22 Dec 2020 07:33PM UTC
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