Chapter Text
The sound of the humming neon lights in internet cafe only served to emphasize the awkward silence. Izuku stared at his cup ramen self-consciously. Across from him Sakamata shifted uncomfortably in his too-small chair, looking distinctly out of place. The only other person in the shop, a teenage cashier with pink hair and a few too many eyebrow piercings stared mouth agape.
“Ahem,” Sakamata cleared his throat pointedly. The teen blushed and hurriedly averted his eyes.
“So, you have something to say?” Izuku grumbled.
“Right. Yeah. I owe you an apology.”
“No shit.” Sakamata winced at the language. His little Izuku-kohai had grown up into an angsty teenager without him.
“I don’t expect you to accept my apology or forgive me. That would be an unfair ask. But I owe you an explanation none the less. You remember that I was still in training to be a hero when I last saw you at the clinic.”
“I remember.”
“It was my last year of hero school and I had a hero work-study with a hero named Big Red Dot. I don’t know if you know him, he’s in Singapore now, and he did a fair amount of undercover work since he doesn’t look like he should be a hero due to his lion mutation.”
“I know him. I did an analysis on him as a kid since he had a dual mutation and emitter quirk. Tidal Bore, right?” Izuku’s hero fanboy briefly surpassed his displeasure with Sakamata.
“Exactly. It’s why he took me in. I was a kid with a ‘scary’ mutation quirk and water emitter abilities, no one else could have trained me better.”
“And what does this have to do with you abandoning me?”
“I’m getting there. Like I just said, Big Red Dot did a lot of undercover work. As his only work study student, I trained for undercover operations as well. Shortly before, I last saw you I was informed that I would be going undercover with Big Red Dot for the first time. The mission was considered relatively low risk. We already had an agent with the Hero Commission in place who would be able to get us an in. It was supposed to be a short term recon of a new extremist organization, we’d go under for maybe a month.”
“And?”
“It was Humarise.”
“Oh.” Izuku breathed softly.
Humarise was not a well known organization among the general public in Japan, but it was infamous in the quirkless community. Humarise claimed that quirks were evil contaminations, and the quirkless clean and pure. They recruited among the quirkless, and it all seemed well and good for the quirkless community at first. But Humarise didn’t respect the quirkless, they fetishized them as objects of their idealism. It was a new form of anti-quirkless discrimination under a veneer of pretty words and promises. The quirkless people they recruited lost their freedom and autonomy, became lifeless dolls to be seen and not heard, and in the worst cases, became experimental test subjects. Meanwhile the organizations acts of global terror served to stir up anti-quirklessness across several government regimes in South America.
“Yeah. It became immediately clear that I would need to cut ties with the clinic and everyone associated with it a few months before going undercover. By the time I had found out about the pending mission there was no time for me to go back and tell you I would be out of contact for a bit. Humarise already knew about me, and any attempts I made at communicating with you would have put you in danger.”
“That doesn’t justify leaving without a word and never coming back!”
“I never claimed that it did. But it’s the only explanation for my actions I have to offer. At the time, I really did think I would be able to reach out to you once the mission ended.”
“And? So what happened.”
“The mission went wrong. Badly wrong. The whole thing was a trap. The Hero Commission agent had already betrayed us. There was a massive battle, and Red Dot and I barely got out alive, let alone with significant evidence. What little we did have ended up in the hands of a corrupt police officer and got destroyed. We suspected that the Shie Hassaikai may have had a hand in it but we couldn’t find a definite connection between them and Humarise. Between the lack of evidence, and the commission’s desperation to cover up the betrayal, the case was dropped.”
“Of course they wanted to cover it up,” Izuku snorted.
“The problem came from the fact that Big Red Dot and I were now known threats on Humarise’s radar. We had no way of knowing if they were monitoring us, but Red Dot thought there was a significant chance they were. I also suspected that the Commission would be keeping close tabs on us to make sure we didn’t spill the beans about their agent.”
“And so you couldn’t come back,” Izuku concluded.
“And so I couldn’t come back,” Sakamata agreed, “It was just too risky. I couldn’t put you or the clinic in danger like that. The only reason I am even able to speak to you now is that we have a valid excuse for knowing each other now that has nothing to do with the clinic.”
“I’m sure the fact that I’m no longer quirkless doesn’t hurt.” Izuku added ruefully.
“While I certainly am…shocked, by that development, I don’t think your quirk status would have really mattered at this point. If you were a quirkless hero student, I am sure Humarise would already have their eyes on you.”
“Then why didn’t you reach out to me after I became a hero student? Did you really stop caring enough to keep tabs? I mean hell, I was on national TV during the UA sports festival.”
“You forget Izuku. I was also a kid, and I couldn’t turn to anyone for help without putting you or the clinic in danger. So for both of our safeties, and to be honest my own sanity, I never looked back.”
Izuku stabbed his chopsticks into his now soggy noodles angrily, “And the sports festival?”
“I was patrolling. My sidekicks are responsible for forwarding the names of any potentials for internships to me.”
“I’m still upset with you,” Izuku frowned, “I get what you’re saying. I understand the logic. But now it’s your turn to listen to me. I was a kid. A significantly younger and less mature kid then you were. A quirkless kid who was ruthlessly bullied and only had one real friend in the world. And that friend, that older brother, just disappeared without a word one day and never came back. So yeah, I assumed it was my fault and that you abandoned me because I was a worthless, quirkless, nobody. And I never had another friend after that, never let anyone truly close because I figured I didn’t deserve to have friends anyways, and even if I did they would just leave me in the end. It took me years to start talking to people again, and a fucking quirk to feel safe enough to let some of them in. What you did broke me in a way none of the bullies or grownups ever had. Even if you had a good reason, even if it really was all for my sake, you don’t just get to come in here and erase all that.” And then Izuku burst into tears.
——————————————————————————————————————————
“You know what the suckiest part of this whole thing is,” Izuku sniffled into Sakamata’s embrace.
“Aside from the whole abandoning you thing?” Izuku let out a weak chuckle at that.
“Yeah aside from that.”
“No what.”
“I really want to hate you. I should hate you. But I can’t.”
“I think a lot of siblings feel that way.”
“Shut up, you have a lot of atoning to do if you want to get back to brother status. I’m still mad.”
“You can be mad at me for as long as you need to. This time, I’m not going anywhere.” Sakamata promised.
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep. You still have to go through mom.”
Izuku hadn’t known until that moment that it was possible for Orcas to pale sheet white.
——————————————————————————————————————————
“So how was your chat?” Inko asked her son softly over the phone.
“A lot,” Izuku sighed, “I said some things, I needed to say. And he had a really good reason for doing what he did. But it’s going to take a while for me to forgive him.”
“You’re allowed to take as long as you need.”
“I know. I told him he needed your forgiveness too if he wanted a relationship with me. I imagine he’ll stop by in the next few days.”
“I’ll be sure to be on the lookout then.”
“Don’t let him off too easy. He deserves to experience some of the consequences of his actions.”
“Oh no need to worry about that,” Inko smiled sweetly, “he messed with my baby boy. He will answer for that.” Izuku swore he could hear knuckles crack.
“Good,” Izuku chuckled nervously, “Now I need to get back to my shift. I’ll call you this weekend.”
“Alright sweetheart, I love you,”
“I love you more,”
“I love you most.”
Izuku hung up the phone and slid it into his lab coat pocket.
“What was that about?” Natsuo questioned nosily.
“None of your beeswax,” Izuku shot back, “now come on, before Takahashi-sensei starts yelling at us.”
“Yeah, yeah, work, work, work,” Natsuo rolled his eyes as they walked into the hall, “any bets?”
“Quirk accident?”
“That’s cheating. You’ve got to be more specific than that!”
“It’s not cheating! If I said car crash you wouldn’t ask what kind of car…” Before Izuku could finish his argument he was interrupted.
“Hey wait,” Yoshida blocked them from moving further, “Eraserhead just brought someone in. Don’t go into the ER if you don’t want to get caught by him.”
“Shit,” Izuku cursed quietly. This was becoming a semi-frequent occurrence.
“Well he already knows I’m here,” Natsuo breezed past Yoshida, “sucks to suck, Zuku-chan!”
“Don’t worry too much, we need to go prepare the OR anyways. The patient Eraser brought in has partial to full thickness burns that need debriding.”
“Coverage?”
“Hard to say, they’re finishing patient intake right now, but I’m guessing around 15%? The patient is conscious and is not showing any immediate signs of shock.”
“Ok, so major injury then. Have them send the patient and charts to the OR as soon as they’re done and we can do the full workup.”
“Rodger that!” Yoshida saluted and scurried down the hallway. Izuku pivoted and walked back towards the OR.
The patient arrived with Yoshida only a few minutes later. A young man with mousy brown hair, face screwed up in pain. Izuku took one look at the greenish-gray burns covering the patient’s chest, arms, and legs and turned to Yoshida.
“These are chemical burns, I’m going to get him to decontamination. We need to manually irrigate for at least twenty minutes. This is going to be an all hands on deck situation due to the extent of the burns, get at least one more nurse back here to help.”
“Right.” Yoshida sprinted out the door without another word.
“Hey, my name is,” Izuku paused remembering the patient came in with Aizawa, “Mido-Sensei. I’m going to take care of you, ok?”
“Ah,” the patient winced in pain, “alright.”
“It looks like you were burned by chemicals, right?”
“Yeah. Quirksist coworker with an acid quirk. How did you know?”
“Physical burns don’t usually turn green like that. Ok so what’s going to happen is we are going to take you to a special room and run water over the burns for a while. I’m not going to lie, it’s probably going to hurt, but it’s super important that we wash off any remaining chemicals before treating the burns.”
“I can handle it. Um, ah, the hero who saved me said that this was a special clinic that treats people like me?” Izuku smiled at the patient softly.
“Are you quirkless?” The patient winced.
“Um, yes?”
“Don’t worry, so am I,” or was anyways. “This clinic was originally created by quirkless people for quirkless people, though we treat anyone who comes through our doors.” The patient’s eyes widened.
“Really?”
“Really, really. Once we get you all taken care of, I will have our social worker come talk to you about how to contact us if and when you need help, and some additional non-emergency resources we offer. But first, is it ok if I take you to clean out your wounds now?”
“Um, ok.” The patient nodded.
“Excellent,” Izuku began to wheel the gurney over to the decontamination room, right off the OR next to the locker rooms, “what’s your name? Yoshida-san ran off with your chart.”
“Oh, um, Yoshinaga Kenshin.”
“Nice to meet you Yoshinaga-san. Do you know what kind of acid quirk your coworker has?”
“I can’t remember exactly. I think it’s organic though.”
“Ok, we should be safe to proceed with irrigation then. We are going to need to take a blood sample to make sure the acid hasn’t been absorbed into your bloodstream.”
“That sounds bad,”
“One step at a time. The likelihood is low, but we need to be safe. Now are you able to stand and/or walk?”
“Yes,”
“Ok, I am going to need you to sit on this bench,” Izuku gestured to a seat underneath a shower head, while he turned the water on. “The water is going to be cool, but please bear with it.”
“Alright,” Yoshinaga pulled the drape off of his legs and moved under the water, wincing at the droplets struck his open wounds.
“We’re back, Yoshida re-entered, pulling Michi behind her, “what do you need us to do?”
“First you are going to give me Yoshinaga-san’s chart. Then ,the two of you are going to stay here with Yoshinaga-san and irrigate his wounds. They need to be manually flushed in addition to the shower in order to make sure there’s no chemical residue. I’m going to go prepare for debridement. I’ll come check-in on him in twenty minutes.”
“Alright doc,” Michi sighed tiredly.
“I’ll be right back,” Izuku promised Yoshinaga kindly, “in the meantime, these two are going to take great care of you. I know Michi looks tired but he’s one of the best nurses on staff.” Izuku gave a conspiratorial wink.
“Hey what about me!” Yoshida cried out playfully.
“I guess you’re ok too,” Izuku teased.
“Meanie,” Yoshida rolled her eyes but gave a toothy grin. Yoshinaga let out a quiet huff of laughter. Izuku gave him one last reassuring smile before exiting into the anteroom.
After cleaning up, Izuku flipped through the patient’s chart. The information mostly matched what Yoshinaga had told him, though Aizawa had definitely filled in some of the missing details. The assailant, who had been arrested by another hero on the scene, had a Formic acid quirk. Izuku made a note to order a blood screen for systemic poisoning. Formic acid is the toxic intermediate in methanol poisoning, heightening the risk of significant organ damage if the chemical entered the patient’s blood stream. Izuku closed the file and reached for the phone on the wall.
“Nurse’s station, this is Umeda.”
“Hey, this is Midoriya. I’m calling to order a blood screen for the chemical burn patient, Yoshinaga Kenshin. Formic Acid, Serum. Also let’s run a metabolic panel, anion gap test, peripheral smear with reticulocyte count, serum bilirubin, lactic dehydrogenase, CBC, and haptoglobin.”
“Hang on, could you repeat the last two again?”
“CBC and haptoglobin,”
“Got it. We will send someone in to do the draw as soon as they are available.”
“Thanks. Also if you see Sakuma-sensei or Shinso could you flag them down for me? This was a hate crime. The patient is going to need counseling and resources once he’s out of surgery.”
“Of course, I will let them know.”
“Perfect thanks.”
“Before you go, I was meaning to page you anyways. There’s a patient here for you. Wont see anyone else.”
“I have about fifteen minutes before I need to check on Yoshinaga-san if that will be sufficient?”
“Sure, they’re in the waiting room, but we can move them to exam room three for you.”
“I can go get them myself,”
“Eraserhead-san is still here, so it’s probably best if we do it for you.”
“Still?”
“He claims he has to interview your patient for his records, but really I just think he cares.”
“Right. Do you know who the new patient is?”
“Um, let me check real quick, hold on. Oh here it is, it looks like a Shigaraki Tomura. He’s here with his guardian.”
“Fuck,”
“Midoriya-sensei?”
“Ok, ok. So you absolutely cannot let Aizawa see them or vice-versa. Shigaraki is the supervillain who lead the attacks against class 1-A. And neither of them can know who I really am.”
“Fuck,”
“Like I said,” Izuku sighed.
——————————————————————————————————————————
Izuku rapped his knuckles against the exam room door wishing he were anywhere but there.
“Can I come in?”
“Whatever,” came the muffled reply from within.
“Good evening, Shigaraki-kun, it’s nice to see you again,” Izuku outright lied, “what brings you in today.”
“I’m pretty sure he has the flu,” Kurogiri answered, “fevers, chills, aches, the works. Normally I’d let him sleep it off at home, but his quirk seems to be activating every time he sneezes.” As if to prove a point, Shigaraki let out a forceful sneeze, causing the chair beneath him to collapse into a pile of dust.”
“Ah,” Shigaraki hit the ground with a resounding thunk, “fix this bug in the system or I’ll murder you.”
Izuku blinked. Flabbergasted. So much so, in fact, that he forgot to reprimand Shigaraki for the death threat.
“Right. So I can honestly say that’s a new one for me,” Izuku pondered, “I mean I’ve heard of similar cases with quirks involving the user respiratory system such as fire breathing and the like, but as far as I am aware Decay is not connected to how you breathe in any way?”
Kurogiri’s eyes sharped. Had he mentioned the name of Tomura’s quirk at their last visit?
“Has this happened before?” Izuku continued.
“No,” Shigaraki sniffled miserably.
“And has anything changed with your quirk recently? Have you noticed it getting stronger or acting up in other ways?” Shigaraki noticeably hesitated.
“I…,” he then fell silent.
“Alright, I am going to assume it’s something illegal then, and I wont be able to get you to tell me.” Izuku frowned beneath his face mask, Shigaraki getting stronger was not a good thing, “I do need to know if you have consumed any trigger.”
“Absolutely not,” Kurogiri interrupted.
“But the quirk has been acting up?”
“I guess,” Shigaraki grumbled.
“Right. And has it been getting stronger? Or has it been having moments of episodic weakness?”
“Stronger,” Kurogiri answered after a few moments of silence, “and harder to control.”
“It’s fine,” Shigaraki whined, “I just have to level up in order to unlock my new powers.”
And that was the last thing Izuku wanted to hear. On so many levels.
“We don’t know that you’re fine,” Izuku finally settled on, “but I would strongly recommend getting a full workup to figure out what’s causing this. Rapid changes in quirks are not common and are usually a sign of a serious underlying problem. In extremely rare cases, like only two or three documented instances rare, quirks can evolve. But based on what little we know, that usually means that something traumatic has happened to permanently alter the body and force the change.”
“I’m fine,” Shigaraki insisted.
“Well I can’t force you to accept treatment, but the two of you should talk it over. In the meantime I will order a flu test and see if we can’t get this bug taken care of. Kurogiri-san, could I speak to you in the hall about paperwork?” Kurogiri leveled a piercing stare before slowly nodding. “Great. I’ll have a nurse come by to run the test soon. Shigaraki, you are going to let the nurse swab you without disintegrating her, ok? If the npc disintegrates you will fail your level-up quest.”
“Fine, I wont kill her or whatever.”
“Excellent. Kurogiri?” Izuku nodded and waited for the shadow to go out the door before following and shutting the door behind him. “I need the two of you to not leave that room behind you.”
“Excuse me?” Kurogiri blinked slowly.
“Once the consultation is over, the two of you need to teleport directly out from there back to wherever your base is these days.”
“Why?” Izuku bit his lip and debated for a second.
“Firstly, I want to warn you. Any violence that occurs on this property is immediate grounds for a lifetime ban. If you need us, and I think you do, you will not take action on what I am about to say next. And you will not tell Shigaraki because I don’t believe he has the self-control.” Kurogiri narrowed his eyes, before giving a short nod.
“Fair enough.”
“Eraserhead is here,” Izuku revealed, “he occasionally brings in quirkless patients. You hurt his students. I can’t guarantee that if he sees you he wont attack you, even if it means he ends up banned.” There was a long pause.
“I’ve thought this for a while now,” Kurogiri said slowly, “but you know us, don’t you.”
“I…I….I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Izuku denied in a panic, voice pitching far too high.
“You do. You know the name of Tomura’s quirk, even though I’m sure we never told you. You know about the fact that I can teleport. You know about the USJ. And you know Eraserhead. Well enough to predict how he is going to react to us. You were there. And you certainly weren’t on our side. So which is it? Do you teach at UA or are you a hero student?”
Well Izuku had certainly fucked that one up.
“This can not be happening,” Izuku breathed faintly, “nope, I’m definitely having some sort of nightmare right now.”
“You are going to tell me who you are,” Kurogiri replied calmly, “because if I can’t trust you, I don’t need you, and Eraserhead becomes fair game.”
“Silly me,” Izuku spat out sarcastically. Threatening his teacher and patients was a sure fire way to get him pissed, “I nearly forgot you were a supervillain and not my most annoying patient’s overbearing dad. You’re right. I’m a hero student at UA. And you probably wouldn’t trust me if you knew who I was exactly. But more than that, right now I’m a doctor. A doctor that works at a clinic that treats anyone, no matter who they are or what they’ve done. And I take my responsibilities to my patients seriously. If I was going to hurt you or Shigaraki I would have done it the first time you came here. And I certainly wouldn’t have told you a pro hero I care about is here. But as long as Shigaraki is my patient, I wont hurt him except in self-defense. That being said, if you attack this clinic or UA again, I will fight back. And I will win again, because you should know by now that I don’t accept losing as an option.”
“You’re Deku,” Kurogiri realized.
“Gee, no shit.” Izuku pulled the surgical cap off of his head, revealing bushy green curls, “now you have a choice to make. You can trust me and let me help my patient, or you can leave and never come back.”
Kurogiri fell silent.
“Well you think about that. I’m going to put Shigaraki’s labs in. If you’re not here when I get back I guess I’ll have your answer.” And Izuku spun around and ran straight into Shinso.
“Oof. Watch where you’re going.”
“Sorry,” Izuku mumbled, still overwhelmed
“Umeda-san said you needed a psych consult?”
“No shit.” Izuku snarked before taking a deep breath, “Sorry. Didn’t mean to snap at you. I’m about to perform a burn debridement on a quirkless patient who was the victim of a hate crime. Once he’s moved to recovery, could you talk to him? Make sure he’s got the supports he needs in place?”
“Of course. Are you ok? You seem…out of it.”
“Well my identity just got discovered by my patient’s dad-nanny-gaurdian figure, who is also a supervillain who has attempted to murder me multiple times but other than that I’m just peachy.”
“Yeah so that’s a lot.” There was a beat of silence. “Are you safe right now?” Shinso asked, concerned.
“Dunno, we’ll find out I guess. But I’m not going to give up on my patients in the meantime.”
“Ok. Finish up your shift and get back to the dorms where you’re safe. I will get someone to take over your arch-nemesis for you. And you will be seeing Sakuma-sensei for a psych consult before your next shift.”
“Right.Yeah. Ok.”
It really had been a lot. Izuku was angry. He was scared. And he was exhausted. It had been an emotionally draining and overwhelming night before Kurogiri discovered him. So perhaps Izuku could be forgiven for the fact that it completely slipped his mind to warn Shinso about Aizawa.