Chapter Text
“Oh jeez, kid, you can’t stay out here! You’re in pre-heat!”
“I know, I-”
“...Kid, do you need me to call someon-”
“NO! I… I-I don’t ha-have anywhere else to go!”
“Not even a heat hotel?”
“Those need money. I, I can’t even buy a candy bar.”
“Oh jeez.”
“...I… I’m sorry. For trying to steal from your coffee shop.”
“Given your circumstances kid, I’ll let it slide. Just this once.”
“Thank you.”
“On one condition.”
“...What is it?”
“I’m gonna book you in for a heat hotel-”
“What?!”
“And you have to accept. Don’t let anyone but staff in your room, not even me.”
“I, why?!”
“I’m not done with my condition! After your time in there is up, you either have to call someone to tell them where you are and go home to them. OR you come back to my coffee shop and I train you to run the place.”
“...”
“Well kid?”
“Y-you’d do something like that? For someone like me?”
“What do you mean, someone like you? What bastard would leave an Omega kid on the streets?!”
“No, I mean I… I’m Quirkless, sir.”
“And?”
“What do you mean ‘and’?”
“I don’t get what the hang up about Quirklessness is. Why wouldn’t someone help you because of something stupid likd that?”
“...”
“Look, kid, I don’t care if you’re Quirkless or have All Might’s Quirk, I’m not leaving you on the street just before a heat. Now, can you give me a name I can give the staff?”
“...Can it be a fake name?”
“Sure, what is it?”
“...Forest, sir. And your last name, if that’s okay.”
“Consider it done, kid.”
“Alright kid, why’d you call me out here at 3am?”
“...”
“Take your time. It’s not logical to make you talk before you’re ready.”
“...Sensei?”
“Hmm?”
“Can I go Underground?”
“...”
“Just tell me if it’s possible.”
“Anyone can go Underground, if they use their Quirk in smart ways. Why do you wanna go Underground though?”
“...I can’t do this.”
“...”
“Sensei, I don’t want to be a top Hero. I just want to help people. But, it’s…”
“...”
“It’s so competitive and it’s hard to breathe and I can’t escap-”
“Hey… It’s alright. Breathe.”
“...”
“I mean it. It’ll be okay.”
“...My father will kill me when he finds out.”
“Are you going to let him influence every decision you make?”
“...”
“I just have to know if you’re serious about this. Do you really want to be an Underground Hero? Once you make that choice, you can’t make up the years you spent there, not really.”
“...Yes, Sensei. I don’t want to be a top Hero, always stuck in some stupid popularity contest or with the media mobbing me. But I don’t know any other way to be.”
“Alright then. In that case, you’re joining me and Shinsou for training tomorrow after classes, Todoroki.”
“...Thank you, Aizawa-sensei.”
Forest peers over the ledge, eyes narrowed.
It’s a dark night in downtown Musutafu, as usual really. The streetlights are flickering and only a few feet into each alleyway is the typical vandalism of graffiti dicks on the walls and moldy window sills. It’s a relatively cloudie night, with the full moon poking out now and again. This place is just as poor and miserable as it’s always been and an easy place for villains and regular thugs to do whatever the Hell they feel like doing. A place where the Pro Heroes dare not tread unless they’re Underground.
Tonight, it looks like a small time convenience store robbery. No CCTV, he knows because this shop is one of the poorer ones that haven’t gotten around to replacing their last destroyed cameras. 3 petty thugs, all wearing black hoodies with a red cross stitched into the back, two sprinting in while one stays outside to be the lookout. They’re wearing black balaclavas with openings on the mouth and eyes, along with black jeans and sneakers.
It’s the Trigger Cross again. He’s been picking them off slowly, handing over the leaders of each branch to the police and then nabbing the leftovers. But this should be the last of them.
And once he has them dealt with, he can go home. To his little sister, probably waiting up for him again.
Forest’s eyes narrow.
He’s going home to her, no matter what.
So he jumps from the roof and lands on the lookout, hitting a pressure point on his neck to knock him unconscious.
Yeah, definitely the leftovers. This should be easy.
Forest pulls a ziptie from his belt and quickly binds the thug’s wrists together. Just in case, he leans him against the wall and binds his ankles together too.
One down, two to go.
He stands up and peeks through the broken door, careful to avoid shattered glass.
The store is eerie in the darkness, like the moment in a horror movie before the monster attacks. The two thugs are hard at work, obviously.
“Hurry up, before the Pros arrive!” The tallest man hisses, waving his gloveless hands around.
Now that’s just sloppy, who doesn’t cover their fingerprints when robbing a store?
The smaller one scowls. “Oh shut up and help if you’re in such a rush.” He goes back to breaking open the register. “Not like Ground Zero is gonna show up here.”
Forest scowls, just hearing that name.
So he steps in through the door and silently rushes them, keeping his breathing silent.
Taller turns around at the last minute. “Fu-”
Forest socks him in the jaw and he goes over the counter, falling behind it.
Shorter screams, grabbing the bag of money and making off with it. “It’s the For-”
Forest grabs him by the back of the hoodie and throws him against the floor, making him squeal like a pig. He sobs and whimpers, holding his head and curling up in the fetal position.
Now that’s just pitiful.
“Forest!”
He jumps out of the way of a blast of metal; Taller standing on the counter and pointing his right palm at him, metal spiking out of his skin.
“You’ve taken enough of us!” Taller screams. “AND NOW IT ENDS!”
He retracts the metal and Forest follows it. If he can’t send it out again until it’s retracted fully, then there’s a chance-
Taller holds up his left palm and blasts another blade at him.
Forest smacks it out of his way.
Taller screams and charges him, a shorter blade in his right palm.
Forest could do this in his sleep.
He socks the guy in the face again, making him yelp as he brings his blades back under his skin. Forest grabs his shirt and throws him over his shoulder, on top of his other buddy, who is still crying on the ground.
Taller snarls. “Forest, I’ll kill you-”
Forest kicks him in the face this time, hard enough to knock him out.
Shorter whimpers and lies down fully on the ground, holding his wrists behind his back. “Please don’t hurt me, I give up, please, please p-”
Forest grabs his wrists and holds them tightly together, making Shorter cry even harder. He grabs a ziptie from his belt pouch and binds his wrists together, then binds his ankles.
With that, Forest walks over to Taller and does the same thing. He picks up Taller and throws him over his shoulder, then goes to Shorter and picks him up the same way. He carries them outside-
“FOREST, YOU BASTARD-”
Forest barely dodges out of the way of the punch, dropping his two captives in favour of jumping out of the way, rolling and then turning around.
He looks to see the lookout got a little bigger; he’s got a mild gigantification Quirk. Not big enough to be taller than the convenience store, but big enough to break out of the zipties. Might be a resistance Quirk of some kind as well, since he got up pretty quickly after Forest landed on him.
Great.
Lookout cracks his knuckles. “I’m gonna rip you limb from limb-”
Ice suddenly encases his feet from behind him and Forest barely jumps out of the way in time, to avoid getting encased himself.
Oh no.
“You won’t be harming anyone else tonight.”
A Pro Hero.
Forest lands a little ways away from the icy ground and looks up at his enemy.
White and red hair, perfectly parted in the middle, with a dark blue eye mask and wearing a dark blue jumpsuit. His left arm is on fire and his right hand is covered in frost.
Underground Hero Touya.
Forest narrows his eyes. Not good.
Touya is a strong Underground Hero, someone he’s kept an eye one since he appeared about 9 years ago. He tended to work with Eraserhead and Siren in the beginning, but he handles things on his own a lot more these days. But they’ll still team up when the situation calls for it and out of the three of them, Touya has objectively the strongest battle Quirk.
Touya walks over to him, fire still lit up, illuminating his blue and grey eyes peeking through his mask.
Forest reaches into his back pocket for a stun grenade.
“Are you injured?” Touya asks.
Forest blinks.
Touya is looking him over, quietly assessing his person.
Oh. Touya doesn’t know who he is.
Forest shakes his head and gestures to the criminals near Lookout.
“I see.” Touya turns his head towards them, then turns back. “Good job on capturing them.”
Forest nods and hopes to God Touya doesn’t ask him anything else.
Then Shorter screams-
Touya turns to him-
Forest tackles him out of the way of a spray of acid, sinking into the street where they once stood. They spin for a bit, Forest landing out on top, covering Touya with his body, glaring at the thug, inhaling deeply to snarl-
Peppermint and campfire. Touya’s scent.
Shit, he’s an Alpha.
“Stupid vigilantes and their stupid-” Shorter goes on a rant, scowling him.
Touya’s eyes widen.
Forest gets up and runs towards Shorter.
“Wait!” Touya calls.
Forest doesn’t wait. He throws his stun grenade at the ground, covering his mask.
The thugs scream while Touya grunts and Forest takes that opportunity to knock Shorter out properly. Once he has a gag around his mouth and Touya is still rubbing his eyes, Forest makes his escape.
He sprints down an alleyway across the street, climbs one of the fire escapes, travels through an abandoned building and returns to his base.
Only once the window is bolted shut, does he take a minute to breathe.
Shit.
Oh shit, it’s been so long since he smelt an Alpha that close to him. God, why does Touya smell that good? Is it just because it’s been a while since he’s smelt an Alpha? Shit, he’s so hot, fuck.
What would Touya have done if he caught him? Would he cuff Forest where he stands and haul him off to jail? Or would he force Forest to submit to him, growling at him, grindi-
No.
No, he has to go back to his sister. He can’t stay here and be a horny mess just because he smelt an Alpha.
So he pulls off his mask, leaves behind Forest for the night and goes home.
Shouto stares at the street, blinking the spots out of his vision. Shit, what…
He can finally see clearly and it’s a fairly confusing sight.
Three villains dealt with before he even arrived on the scene, only one encased in his ice, the other two with zipties keeping their hands behind their backs and their ankles bound together. The one who attacked them with acid has a gag in his mouth and is unconscious too.
And the apparent vigilante is nowhere to be seen.
Shouto sighs and shakes his head. He should’ve been better than this. He needs to find out what happened here. And he needs to get in touch with the local police.
Shouto pulls out his phone and makes a call.
“ Hello? ”
“Officer Sansa, this is Pro Hero Touya requesting a couple of officers to come down to my location in front of the local convenience store. There’s three potential villains tied up and a frightened vigilante who should still be in the vicinity.” Shouto says in his usual monotone.
“ Understood, we’ll be sending a few officers with Quirk Suppressing Cuffs your way. ” Sansa confirms.
“It looks like we have someone with a mild gigantification Quirk, someone who can spit acid and the last purpatraitor’s Quirk is unknown, so be careful.” Shouto explains.
“ Thank you for your help. Just stay there and keep an eye on them until the officers arrive. ” Sansa says.
Then he hangs up.
Shouto pockets his phone and glares at the villains.
The only one still conscious, the one encased in his ice, huffs and growls. “Stupid fucking heroes. Stupid fucking vigilantes.”
Shouto lifts his hand and makes some fire, just for some light. He doesn’t say anything; as Aizawa-sensei said, how others react to silence can be very telling.
“Fucking Forest ruining our entire gang!” He continues to rant and rave. “I fucking hate him!”
Shouto goes to check over the villain with the unknown Quirk, performing first aid. He’s not badly injured though, given how violent vigilantes normally are.
“When I get out of this ice, I’m coming for you too, pretty boy.”
Shouto rolls his eyes and goes to check on the villain with the ability to spit acid.
“I’m gonna wreck Forest’s shit though. Little shit and his stupid fucking zipties and his stupid fucking sneaking and his stupid fucking bitching…”
Shouto sighs and ignores him, done with the acid spitter too.
Not much longer after that, a police van arrived and out came 4 officers, Sansa included.
“Thanks for your help, Touya.” Sansa says, coming over to him.
Shouto nods. “No problem.”
It’s much easier to deal with the police when he’s dealing with an officer he’s familiar with. He’ll always be thankful that Sansa gave him his number for professional reasons 7 years ago not long after he graduated.
Shouto looks at the villains as they get properly cuffed and escorted into the van. “Do you know anything about a vigilante who works in the area known as Forest?”
Sansa’s whiskers twitch. “Why do you ask?”
Shouto narrows his eyes.
So he does know something.
“One of the villains was complaining about him. I briefly saw him fight with one of the guys here, but when he realised I knew he was a vigilante, he threw down a stun grenade and ran.” Shouto looks in the direction he last saw Forest, curling his hands into fists.
He didn’t see much of Forest’s fighting style. But he must have been strong to be able to detain three villains this quickly with minimal damage to the surrounding area. He’d looked it too; he moved like he was meant to protect, as if that was all he focused on. His black hoodie, jeans and jacket along with the full face mask gave nothing of the Vigilante’s appearance away in the dark.
Sansa purrs. “I’m not surprised. He’s done a lot recently.”
Shouto turns to him. “Could you tell me?”
He hopes that won’t be asking for too much.
“Certainly.” Sansa nods. “He’s been active for a while, but his paper trail has been pretty thin, so we’re not sure how active he’s been in the long run.”
Shouto nods. That’s typical of new vigilantes, unless they’re sloppy.
“But somehow, he took care of the Trigger Cross gang.” Sansa looks at his clipboard, writing a few things down. “Bringing us the ringleaders and flash drives with evidence of their other crimes. These guys do the typical gang things, distributing drugs into the local area and robberies.” He looks up, smiling. “But thanks to Forest, they’re damn near non-existent now.”
Shouto blinks.
One vigilante took out an entire gang?
“How?” Shouto gapes at Sansa.
Sansa’s not the type to lie about these sorts of things, so it must be the truth. But it doesn’t offer an explanation.
Sansa shrugs. “We’re not sure. All we know for sure is one day he dropped off the ring leaders at various different police stations in one night and then for several weeks later, he started delivering us the leftovers, along with giving us thumb drives with information about their warehouses.”
Shouto turns to the police van.
One person took out an entire gang. Not just any person either, a quick witted vigilante.
Just who is Forest?
Shouto narrows his eyes and looks at the moon, bright and full in the dark night.
And why isn’t he a Hero if he’s so skilled?
Eri rubs at her eyes tiredly, stubbornly staying awake. She won’t go to bed until she knows he’s back. It doesn’t matter that he’s done this since before they even met. It doesn’t matter he’s got a base and a fully stocked first aid kit. It doesn’t matter that every single night he’s gone out for the past 104 days he’s come back just fine.
Because 1105 nights ago, he hadn’t been fine and that was the one night she didn’t wait up for him.
So she won’t go to bed until she sees him.
The front door opens.
Eri lifts her head from the wall she was resting it on, getting to her feet.
“Eri, what are you still doing up?”
Eri takes the moment to drink in his voice, pay attention to his scent, absorb the sight of him.
He’s wearing a blue hoodie, white jeans and his traditional red sneakers. His hair is as messy as ever, his eyes as green as his hair and his freckles as dark as usual.
He’s okay.
“Wanted to make sure you weren’t stabbed again.” Eri lets out the breath she was holding and smiles. “Welcome home, Izuku-nii.”
“Sorry I worried you, Eri.” Izuku-nii smiles at her and closes the door behind him. “I’m home.”
Eri walks over and Izuku-nii meets her halfway for a hug, falling to his knees. She buries her face in his neck and inhales the smell of forests and daisies, sweet and calming.
Izuku-nii kisses her hair. “Come on, kiddo. Bed time.”
Eri frowns at him. “Izuku-nii, I’m 15. I don’t…”
She yawns, body betraying her.
Izuku-nii giggles and kisses her forehead. “Now, now. Even I need to be in bed by 2am, Eri. Let’s get you settled.”
Eri doesn’t protest. She hugs his neck and lets him carry her to bed, like he did when she was just 6 and he was just 16. She knows she’s too old for this, but it’s a nightly ritual that helps bring her peace so she won’t say anything. He pulls the covers up while holding her in one arm and then settles her into bed, pulling them back down over her.
“Goodnight, Eri.” Izuku-nii murmurs, brushing her hair off her horn.
Eri holds his hand and pulls his wrist to her face, so he can scent her. “I love you, Izuku-nii.”
Izuku-nii looks at her, all choked up like he always does when she says that.
Then he smiles at her, tears in his eyes and gently lays his head near her. “I love you too, Eri. To the moon and back.”
Eri smiles and gently brushes her wrist against his temple, brushing her apples and cotton candy scent over him.
“I love you more.” She giggles and hopes her smells soothes him as much as his soothes her. “More than all the leafs on all the trees in the world.”
That’s what he used to say to her when she would cling to him and beg him not to go. He’d smile and whisper ‘I love you more than all the trees on all the leaves in the entire world, Eri’. Eventually, she’d been confident enough to play along, saying ‘I love you more than there are grains of sand in the sea’ and Izuku-nii would always laugh and giggle.
Izuku-nii giggles now and gently holds her hand, kissing her knuckles. “I love you that times two. Sleep well, Eri.”
Eri nods.
She grabs her All Might plushie, Izuku-nii’s plushie before he gave it to her, hugging it tightly while Izuku-nii goes to his own room. Mahoro may say they’re too old for cuddly toys, but she and Katsuma don’t care.
Eri sleeps peacefully knowing Izuku-nii came back safe from another night of being Forest.