Chapter Text
‘If my handlers saw me right now, I’m sure they would be fuming,’ Keigo remarked internally, idly dispatching a few feathers to bring himself a drink as the pro-heroes mingled together before the debriefing.
As much as the commission would’ve loved him to participate in this type of chit-chat, start networking a little to establish a few connections that might help him with his hero debut in two years and some odd months, he didn’t feel like doing it today for a variety of reasons. One of them being that, despite his laid-back and out-going personality, he was a believer of actions over words and so he had no interest in playing nice with some of the heroes present just for some clout.
And two, the current uproar of enthusiasm surrounding the room was because the Number One hero, All Might, was right in the middle of the crowd, towering over most people gathered and his booming laughter echoing all over the high-ceiling conference hall. It was hard on the ears as is, but the vibrations his feathers were picking up because of this were positively excruciating, so currently, all of Keigo’s energy went into suppressing the urge to wrap himself in a tight cocoon with his wings.
“Nervous?” a pro-hero with a visible animal mutation, big, fluffy ears coming off of the tall and lean man’s head and a fiery red bushy tail tinted white at the tip, asked with a reassuring smile. Fox Hero, Trickster, his mentor for the internship and the current Number Eleven hero, mostly specialized in rescue work in forests in the countryside.
Why they were called in the middle of the night to the center of Sendai City, he has yet to find out. Whatever this mission is, it required not only a squadron of heroes to resolve, but even All Might to lead the charge.
An operation of this caliber really didn’t require any additional networking - just the fact that he, a first-year hero student, was invited to participate, was enough to boost his popularity significantly. Especially if he does well.
‘The commission is going to love this,’ he thought dryly, sipping on his canned coffee before replying, “Nah, not really. Just antsy to get to know what we’ll actually be doing.”
“No matter what kind of job it is, it does not excuse you from wearing your hat,” Trickster shot back with a smirk, making Keigo groan but under the scrutinizing gaze, he pulled out his dark navy uniform hat and reluctantly put it on, “That’s better. Can’t have your school complaining in case a video leaks out of the operation. Good publicity and all that.”
Keigo only shrugged, fiddling with the rim absentmindedly. He never liked that damned hat policy. But he supposed he should be glad he was allowed to go to an actual high school at all, instead of being sequestered in the commission’s top secret training facilities. Shiketsu was good, not the best out there as that title belonged to UA, but they would never send him there since the school’s principal, Nezu, was a well-known critic of the commission.
Meanwhile Shiketsu operated largely thanks to HPSC’s donations so really, it’s not like there was ever any choice for him in this matter.
“Attention, heroes,” a voice sounded from the intercom at the podium, directing the group’s attention to the front of the room where a few police officers were setting up a projector. ‘Finally, some information.’
“First of all, I would like to apologize for the sudden nature of your summons,” the officer at the microphone, a detective, judging by his long coat and overall lack of uniform ‘Lucky guy,’ exclaimed, “However, the case we are handling is of the topmost level of classified information and so it was decided that even the heroes called to the operation must remain uninformed until the last second, to avoid any premature media leakage. My name is Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa and I will present to you an overview of the situation.”
The lights in the room went out as the projector turned on, showing a photo of a tall, industrial-looking building full of straight lines and minimal decoration. The logo over the main entrance read “Sendai Hospice for Underage Quirk Misuse”.
“This used to be the psychiatric ward of Sendai City’s general hospital. However, about ten or so years ago, it was purchased by a private investor and turned into a children’s ward dedicated to quirk counseling, specifically for the most severe cases of uncontrollable powers. Virtually clean, nothing suspicious going on at first glance. However…”
The slide flipped to a few images of black transportation vans pulling in and out of a hidden garage entrance in the back, leading underground. A few more slides showed receipts detailing purchases of a lot of questionable substances Keigo couldn’t even begin to guess the usage of. An alarming amount of surgical equipment was listed too, which was particularly out-of-place for a hospital that was meant to provide hospice care and counseling.
It painted a really worrisome picture.
“We have been observing the facility for the past five months and through a network of trusted informants received information that there are unethical practices conducted in this hospital,” Detective Tsukauchi shot the room a loaded look before continuing in a grim tone, “Unregistered testing of medicine on human subjects, cases of kidnapping and human trafficking, all for the purpose of genetical experiments… conducted on children the age of 4 and upwards.”
Murmurs spread over the room, the gathered heroes turning to their companions on the side to voice their disapproval at such a heinous practice. Keigo looked around curiously and noted off-handedly that the only hero who didn’t appear surprised and appalled at the revelation was All Might.
‘He must’ve been informed beforehand. Otherwise, I doubt the police would’ve been able to get a hold of the guy for this raid.’
The slide changed again to show the plans of the building, a holographic model spinning around right next to it as the detective continued his explanation, “The infiltration will have to be handled quickly and swiftly. We suspect the villains responsible for running this underground operation are most likely present at the lower floors of the building. As such, it is imperative that we simultaneously evacuate the hospice patients upstairs as well as apprehend the staff and any other villains in the basement levels, together with saving the children trapped in the experimentation rooms. Now, I will announce to you the teams responsible for-”
***
Up until this point, All Might had only appeared as a character on TV for him. Now that he could see him with his own two eyes, Keigo was interested as to what kind of hero the man really was.
Needless to say, he was impressed.
The man’s aura was different to say the least. His presence alone exuded the unshakable feeling of power, washing away any of the fear in the hearts of the victims as well as the heroes assisting him on the mission.
‘As expected of Number One,’ Keigo thought, observing as the rest of the villain apprehension squad prepared a little to the right and behind them, hiding in the thick foliage of the biggest city park, conveniently located at the back of the accursed hospital. ‘He’s definitely a hero who shines like a beacon of hope in the darkness. Endeavor still gets more brownie points though.’
“Don’t go daydreaming on me now kid,” Trickster whacked him playfully over the head, skewing his hat off a little, which he straightened up with a huff, “It’s about to begin. You ready?”
“Yeah,” Keigo replied, readying his stance as an officer started the countdown over the comms, “Let’s get the kiddos to safety nice and easy.”
“Rescue squad, go!”
As soon as the command was uttered, Keigo released his feathers, manipulating them to fly up to the fifth floor of the hospital and slip inside through the cracks in the windows.
“Three patients at the end of the corridor, one in the middle and five people in the central reception area,” he relayed to his mentor and Trickster was off with two of his sidekicks, rushing into the building to begin evacuation of their assigned floor.
The building had five floors above ground and about the same amount under, but Tsukauchi had warned them that the maps were incomplete. The rescue squad was then split into small groups, each with one person with a quirk suitable for reconnaissance, allowing the other members to locate the civilians quickly. As soon as they had all the people accounted for, the capture squad had the clear to go in and begin their infiltration underground.
“Go!”
Having retrieved his feathers, Keigo took off after All Might and the rest of the heavy-hitters of the capture squad. Now that the patients and staff upstairs had begun to evacuate, he and the rest of the reconnaissance crew were to descend into the basement, locate the children and whisk them away above ground while avoiding the fight that will no doubt break out with the villains. All Might blasted the secret door located behind the reception desk, opening the passage to the basement right before the rescue squad from the first floor moved down to evacuate the first group of civilians.
And they were off.
It didn’t take them much running, or flying in his case, before the dimly lit corridor widened into just as dimly lit hospital hall, the majority of the light source being the machines blinking in multicolored flashes that reflected off of the polished glass of the floor to ceiling patient rooms’ windows.
It looked like a hermetic glass prison from a cheap horror movie rather than a hospital.
Keigo shook his head off of those thoughts though, flying around the first group of heroes that engaged in a fight and descending even further, skipping to the third floor. Then, he proceeded to sharpen his largest flight feathers into swords and smashed the lock of the nearest door, stepping in to retrieve the child inside.
Upon noticing the state the kid was in, he paused reflexively.
The girl was hooked up to various IVs and monitors, beeping loudly in measured intervals, but that’s not what gave him a pause. No, what horrified him was the sight of the girl’s face - malformed from countless experiments, with her front teeth large and crooked, pointing upwards out of her mouth. Her forehead had a large bump on one side and a dark horn protruding from the other, her hair missing in a few places and the only way he could really tell it was a girl was by a bracelet on one of her wrists.
‘Who would do that to a child?’
For the first time since receiving the debriefing on this mission, Keigo finally understood the gravity of the situation. Sure, he was obviously appalled by the idea of child experimentation, but he did not realize the implication behind that fact. He did not understand that he would find children just like this girl, their little bodies twisted and broken from the countless experiments.
Children that, even if he takes them out of this place, might die anyway due to the severity of the damage they sustained.
‘From the beginning, it was partially a lost cause,’ he realized as he unhooked the girl from the monitors frantically, hoping beyond hope that none of these machines were particularly necessary for her life support, ‘We can’t save all of the children, only ensure there won’t be any more children like them.’
He couldn’t afford to waste any second now. He knew the ambulances were likely already waiting by the main entrance to take the underground victims and transfer them to the nearest hospital. There’s a chance some of their mutations were not life-threatening and could be reversed. Either way, each second mattered and Keigo was nothing but fast, so this was something he could do.
He broke the locks to three more different rooms, picking up each of the children with a few feathers he did not need for flying and set off, rushing to give the kids over and pick up the next bunch from his assigned floor.
“This is All Might! I have discovered an entrance to a floor not covered by the plans, I am going to check it out.”
Keigo mildly startled by this revelation, ‘So there are more hidden floors after all. How many? Are there children trapped there?’
As if reading his thoughts, detective Tsukauchi asked over the comms, “Any sight of other victims?”
“Not so far. This floor seems entirely empty, but I see a staircase leading downward.”
“Proceed carefully and report any sight of civilians.”
“Roger.”
Keigo made about three more rounds, picking up 12 children in total, each in various stages of deformation that made him want to cry, but he put on a smile and reassured the kiddos instead, trying to soothe their worries as they were loaded into yet another ambulance, before all hell broke loose.
“This is All Might! The staircase led about 2 more floors underground. No civilians spotted. A villain sighted fleeing the location. I am engaging in combat.”
“This is Echo Chamber, floor -1 clear!”
“Floor -2 evacuated, three villains are still resisting arrest.”
“This is Hawks!” he shouted over the comms as he picked up the last child from his assigned floor, a boy who could not be more than 5 years old, “I am now taking the last victims out of level -3. No villains spotted.”
“Good job Hawks,” Trickster’s voice sounded in his left ear, utilizing their private agency channel he used for the duration of his internship, “Get the kids to safety and regroup at the front entrance!”
“Yessir!” he shouted just before an explosion boomed behind his back, followed by a series of more explosions, each getting closer and closer until he realized he would not outrun the blast as, based on the vibrations he was picking up, its source was somewhere in the walls.
‘Shit, the hospitals run their oxygen supplies through the piping!’ Keigo shouted frantically in his head, making a split second decision to stop in the middle of the staircase and rearrange the last three kids he was holding into his arms, covering them all in his hardened wings like a red steel cocoon, bracing for impact.
It never came.
The whole building shook, some rubble falling onto his wings with a loud CLANG before sliding to the floor around them harmlessly. A few more explosions sounded overhead, getting more distant as the oxygen in the pipes combusted all the way up to the highest floor and then, it was silent.
Keigo lowered his wings cautiously.
The floor was a mess, fire licking the sheets of the beds and spreading further into where they were standing, but it seemed no piping ran through the staircase so he was able to avoid the blast that tore through the middle of the patient area he was just in. Most of the individual rooms were now gone, having taken parts of the corridor with them and forming a giant crater in the middle of the room.
“Whoa,” he exclaimed unconsciously, looking into the open void of the lower floors and then up to see holes mirroring this one punched all the way up to the collapsed ceiling, ‘At least the way up would be now easier.’
Double-checking that all the children were unharmed and still secure in his arms, Keigo took off, maneuvering swiftly through the wreckage and emerging on top of the building. He swooped down gracefully at the main entrance and handed off the kids just as Trickster and his sidekicks appeared from behind.
“What happened over there?” the Fox Hero inquired, his tail swishing back and forth in agitation. ‘Right, he mostly does rescue work in the rural areas so he’s probably never experienced something like this.’
“The oxygen in the piping caught fire and exploded, tearing half of the building apart from within,” Keigo explained as he idly watched the members of the capture squad coming back out of the main door with the apprehended villains, looking worse for wear. It seems not everyone was lucky enough to avoid getting blasted to smithereens or singed by the flames.
“All patients have been evacuated. All heroes, retreat. The building is on the verge of collapsing,” as if on cue, Tsukauchi’s voice relayed over the comms, “I repeat, all heroes, retreat. All Might, what’s the situation?”
“The villain is trying to escape through the underground tunnels!” All Might shouted and Keigo could hear electricity crackling as the signal was being cut off, likely due to the distance or damages sustained in a fight, “I will continue the pursuit until the last possible second!”
“Don’t do anything reckless, the building will not last that long.”
The hospital groaned and shook ominously, the top two floors folding onto themselves, raining rubble to the lower levels. Keigo winced as he felt an itching sensation in his nerves, a sign of his feathers burning to a crisp. He had lost a few on his way up after the explosion, fortunately not enough to make a noticeable difference, but the pain was still somewhat uncomfortable, no matter how many hours the commission spent on training him to a high pain tolerance.
“This should be everyone,” Trickster remarked off-handedly, eyeing the few remaining heroes who had just filed out of the collapsing building, coughing up a storm no doubt due to the smoke from the fire, “The only one missing is All Might.”
Even now, Tsukauchi was shouting at the Number One hero to retreat, reminding him of the ticking time bomb that was the unstable construction. Paramedics were now checking over the heroes for major injuries, ambulance sirens still blaring, adding up to Keigo’s sensory overload. That’s why, when he heard it for the first time, he thought he was just imagining it.
A tiny voice weakly calling for help.
“Aight, let’s back off a bit further, I do not want to take a concrete block shower,” Trickster threw an arm over his shoulder, the other over one of his sidekicks and started heralding his crew back to the edge of the main square. Keigo listened only half-heartedly, letting himself get pulled like a puppet as he tried tapping into his senses that were tingling.
And then he heard it for sure.
“...somebody help, please…”
The voice was so weak, barely discernible but Keigo could swear he heard the muffled sobs, as if the child was trying desperately to silence themselves, despite needing the help so badly. Or perhaps, they were so quiet because they couldn’t raise their voice anymore. Weakened by their condition, choking on the smoke and losing consciousness…
Keigo wrenched himself away harshly and took a running start, ignoring his mentor shouting, “What the fuck are you doing?! Get back here Hawks!”, as he took off, cutting the distance to the top of the fifth floor and descending through the giant crater in the middle.
‘Where are you?’ he looked around frantically, maneuvering around falling pieces of concrete and columns of dark smoke as he dove in further, ‘Must be the underground levels, but where?’
“Hawks, return right this instant!” Trickster was shouting over and over again through the comms, to the point he couldn’t ignore it anymore and tore the earpiece off, throwing it away somewhere with a clatter. He needed to listen and think and he can’t do that with his mentor shouting straight into his ear.
‘I was operating on level -3, but the kid can’t be there, I checked. Even lower then? My feathers could’ve fallen through the floor.’
Keigo dispatched a few of his feathers to do the sweep of the fourth and fifth underground level, but got nothing, some of his plumage burning off as well. No signs of life on the known floors could only mean one thing.
The child was somewhere in the area that wasn’t covered by the maps they were given. Where only All Might had descended and couldn’t find anyone aside from a single villain.
“All Might, Hawks, report!” Tsukauchi’s voice sounded nothing short of panicked over the comms, but Keigo didn’t bother to listen, throwing this transmitter as well before swooping down to level -5 in search of the hidden passage the Number One hero had spoken of, seeing as the floor on this level seemed somewhat unharmed by the explosion.
‘The hidden levels aren’t directly underneath,’ he realized with a start as he discovered a narrow dark entrance hidden between two supporting pillars of the whole construction, which were groaning with protest under the weight of the unstable upper levels.
He had two, three minutes tops, before the entire hospital collapses on his head and buries him alive.
Without any more hesitation, he landed right before the entrance and took off running, seeing as the staircase was too narrow for him to fly through. Just like All Might said, there were about three more hidden floors underneath: one that looked like a giant archive which had the flames thriving, eating away at the documents and shrouding the room in a thick cloud of dark smoke.
Coughing into the sleeve of his costume jacket, Keigo sent a few feathers to scan the entire story but came out empty-handed. ‘Lower then.’
The next floor was full of toppled over shelves with all sorts of vials and containers, most of them broken on the ground creating a huge puddle of neon purple spillage shining in the dim light of the faraway flames. He leapt over those, not trusting the mysterious liquid in case it was some kind of acid or poison and flew over to the next level, having found no signs of life here as well.
He couldn’t hear the child anymore. The feather that had initially alerted him had burned in the aftermath of the explosion, which had likely occurred in the archive room, now that he thought about it. One spark to those papers and a nick to the piping was enough to send the whole building flying, which wouldn’t be hard to achieve if All Might had engaged the fleeing villain in a fight.
He skipped over the last few steps and ran through a dark winding corridor before emerging in the main area and halting abruptly.
The first thing that hit him was the smell. Sharp and pungent, it smelled like roasted meat, but worse, filled with the scent of decay and disease. The floorplan was similar to the initial five underground levels, but instead of high-tech glass doors and windows, the small patient rooms were separated by thick, iron bars. And instead of machinery, inside were piles, upon piles of small, lifeless and deformed little bodies.
This was a scrapyard.
And somewhere among those bodies, there was one kid who was still breathing, one that was overlooked.
‘Where are you?’ Keigo tried muffling his coughs, throat thoroughly irritated from the amount of smoke he had inhaled. He sent off a bunch of feathers to search each and every cell from top to bottom, but made sure he still had enough to fly out of here immediately after he located the child. He didn’t dare call out in fear that the kid would get scared and fall silent completely, but he needed something, a single sound, no matter how small. ‘C’mon kid, please, let me know where you are.’
He heard a sob.
He had never recalled his feathers faster as he ran down the winding corridors of the hospital floor. He only left the feather that had alerted him in the first place, which was softly vibrating with the sound of the child’s heartbeat - weakened, but steady, likely due to the smoke than anything else. He still had time.
‘There!’ Keigo zoned in on one of the cells in a corridor that ended in a giant chasm of an entrance, probably the villain’s escape route. He sharpened a single flight feather into a sword and hacked at the lock of the cell in a harsh motion, without pausing his run. The lock fell away to the floor with a loud clang, making him wince, but he had no time to be gentle.
Except he’ll have to be, because the pair of luminescent green eyes that stared back at him from the darkness were filled with pure terror.
‘Shit, I was too fast,’ cursing internally, Keigo opened the doors delicately and slowly crouched low to the floor, folding his wings tightly to appear as non-threatening as possible. He knew it wouldn’t do much, because his quirk made his golden eyes shine menacingly in the dark, slit pupils and all, “Hey, it’s okay kiddo. I promise I won’t hurt you. I came to get you out.”
He hated how rough his voice sounded, scratchy from all the smoke, but he couldn’t dwell on it right now. The small bundle of dirty scrubs moved, a head of matted dark curls and a smattering of freckles coloring the boy’s sunken cheeks. With a shaky whisper, he asked, “A-are you a hero?” Keigo nodded and then had the surprise of his life when the kid curled more into himself and said, “T-then I don’t want to go.”
“Why not?” he inquired frantically, feeling for the feather he left at the entrance to the hidden levels. The door did not yet collapse, but the time was ticking and now that he was this close to success, he didn’t want to consider the possibility of this terrified little kiddo being left here to die.
“A hero is…” the boy’s sentence got interrupted by a series of coughs that wracked his malnourished frame, pulling at Keigo’s heartstrings all the more, “...someone who saves p-people with a smile all the time. T-that’s what I t-thought. But then All Might j-just… walked away… What even is a hero then? If All Might d-didn’t think I should be saved, t-then you should g-go away…”
Keigo’s blood ran cold at the boy’s words. Truth be told, when he descended into the underground, he had a fleeting thought that there’s no way All Might wouldn’t notice a kid trapped in one of those cages. The boy would’ve cried for help. But now, he was standing here, in front of this child who looked so defeated, a child who silenced his own cries thinking he shouldn’t let anyone know he was here, despite wanting to be saved.
Because he was right next to the hidden escape route. And All Might had decided that chasing this villain was more important than saving a child right in front of him.
“Can I become a hero like him? A hero who shines brightly in the darkness?”
“What even is a hero then?”
‘Heroes only look perfect when they’re on TV… Reality is much more cruel and full of lies… If I can’t save this kid now, then what was all of that suffering for?’
This kid didn’t need a superhero now. He needed somebody who cared and damn if Keigo wouldn't try to be this person for him.
Throwing away all the years of strict training and brainwashing on just how he should behave as a hero, Keigo took a deep breath and cooed softly. It was pure instinct, but as soon as he saw the kid, he noticed the lump of bandages on the boy’s back through which he could swear he saw a few dirty gray feathers poking out and-
The child trilled back at him.
He seemed terrified at the sound he made, but Keigo saw that as an opportunity. He stretched out his wings, blocking the sight of the fire and ruin behind them, cutting them off from the world and said quietly, “I’m not a hero yet. But I know the kind of hero I want to become would never turn his back when there’s people to save. I can’t reach everyone, but that means I’ll hold on even more tightly to those that I can. Does that make sense?”
The kid’s bright brilliant eyes flooded with tears, making them shine even more like precious gemstones, but he nodded. Keigo smiled and asked, “What’s your name?”
“...Izuku.”
“Nice to meet you, Izukkun. My name is Keigo,” he opened his arms wide and looked at the little birdie warmly, “Would you let me take you somewhere safe now?”
Izuku sniffled once more before wiping his tears with his bandaged palms and shakily standing up. He looked extremely torn as he took the few steps necessary to breach their distance, but eventually, he stepped close enough to tentatively wrap his arms around Keigo’s neck. The teen brought the child a bit closer still, with one hand tucking Izuku’s head underneath his chin and the other supporting his backside, minding the injured wings.
He stood up as carefully as he could, but they had no time for caution, so he explained, “We have to get out of here quick, so I might jostle you a little. I’m sorry if it hurts too much.”
“It’s okay,” Izuku mumbled against the neckline of his flight compression suit, “I-I can take it.”
‘I’d rather you didn’t have to,’ he remarked derisively to himself, but without further ado, took off running the way he came from.
He was taking two steps at a time, trying to match his usual flying pace on foot in the narrow passageways. In the end, he managed to get back to the main building without losing any of his feathers in the flames seconds before the pillars supporting the ceiling collapsed.
Taking the rest of the building with them.
Keigo spread out his wings frantically, leaping into the air and weaving through the sudden shower of rubble falling from above. He performed barrel rolls, dives and spins in the air, trying to get as high as possible, but there was too much concrete falling down. Two pieces of the construction created such a narrow opening between them that Keigo did not notice the third piece above them and couldn’t dodge in time, taking a hit to his left wing that made them spiral out of course.
Izuku shouted at the sudden move, making Keigo grit his teeth as he proceeded to flap his wings unevenly to stay airborne, moving upwards at a much slower pace due to the pain shooting through his bones and flaring up in his spine, ‘It’s definitely broken. I won’t make it to the top like this. C’mon Keigo, think!’
They were only approximately at the height of level -1. If he could make it to the ground floor, he could try to break through the wall using his hardened feathers as an impromptu shield. The only issue was actually flying up to that point.
‘If I don’t even try, then what’s the point of calling myself a hero, huh?’
Letting out his pain and frustration with a shout, Keigo leapt up, dodging a few more projectiles as he slowly ascended one floor, two floors, three… On the first floor of the hospital proper, he saw a part of the structure that looked already worn down enough, so, using the momentum of his shaky flight, he curled himself and his wings around Izuku protectively and barrelled into the wall with his back turned.
He tore through the weakened wall like a bullet and fell on the other side, painfully skidding over the ground like a red feathered ball before a random tree was gracious enough to painfully stop his momentum.
“Hawks!”
“Send the paramedics!”
“What the hell were you thinking?!” Trickster shouted over the chaotic exclamations, rushing to his intern’s side with the rest of his sidekicks, “Do you have a fucking death wish?!”
Blinking the fog from his vision (he definitely had a concussion), Keigo shifted his better wing away, hissing at the pain the slight movement had brought (now he had both of his wings broken, just his luck) to reveal the mop of dark green curls belonging to a small kid clutching tightly at his jacket and mumbled, “I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
For once, the Fox Hero appeared speechless and merely shook his head with exasperation, stepping aside to let the paramedics get to them. The problems started when they tried to pry Izuku off of him - as soon as the unknown person touched the boy, he screamed, “No!” and clung to Keigo’s neck tighter, making him wince slightly as his back was sparking up in protest.
“Just take us together, it’ll help calm him down,” Keigo suggested, making the paramedics exchange a few uncertain glances between themselves before they acquiesced. Soon, one of them used their quirk to levitate Keigo onto a stretcher, ‘How handy’, and the others strapped him down, trying and failing to not jostle his wings in the process.
Unfortunately for him, Izuku noticed him flinching in pain and soon the teen felt tears wetting the neckline of his suit as the kid sobbed out quietly, “Keigo-san g-got hurt b-because of me.”
“Nah, it’s just a scratch,” Keigo rubbed the boy’s shoulders reassuringly as they were being loaded into the ambulance, “Don’t worry about me chicklet, I’ll be right as rain in a day or two.”
As the car engine started, he shooed away a paramedic who tried to get Izuku hooked up to an IV. It will have to happen eventually, but will no doubt cause the boy to panic. Keigo preferred that this particular fussing happened when he was actually in a position to better reassure the child. ‘I’ll probably have to argue with the doctors to let me keep an eye on him, but there’s no way he’ll trust any doctor after what he’s been through-’
Izuku’s chirping brought him out of his thoughts, throwing him into a mild panic as he realized how many people were around. Over the course of his training at the commission, he was instructed to hide his more bird-like features, to not let the public eye know about them as it could sway their opinion about him due to the overwhelmingly negative stance on mutation quirks. He would file down his talons, wear gloves at all times and never, absolutely never, make any sound that wasn’t natural to a human. So now, in an ambulance with a full team of paramedics, when this sweet baby bird chirped at him so sadly, he had only one choice.
He trilled back.
***
One uncomfortable ambulance ride later Izuku and Keigo were deposited in the hero ward at Sendai General Hospital. Like he suspected, the teen had to fight with the doctors to let him stay by the kid’s side, but they quickly got over the initial doubt as his presence was tantamount to getting Izuku to do anything.
He sat with him through a round of scans and checkups, shooing away any attempts at treating his own injuries, saying that, “The baby bird needs to get treated first, I can wait.” He was stubborn about it, making the doctors hurry with their procedures, but in less than 2 hours Izuku was peacefully sleeping in a hospital bed, no signs of immediate danger besides the smoke poisoning.
As soon as the boy’s tranquilizer made him snooze away, Keigo was rushed through a multitude of scans before getting wheeled to surgery, where a person specializing in bird mutations set the bones in his wings straight under minimal anesthesia.
And now here they were, together in a hospital room, laying on their stomachs to avoid putting any pressure on their wings. After arguing some more with the nurses, Keigo got them to put their beds so close together they basically formed a double, allowing him to hold the little bird’s hand and rub absentminded circles at the back of his palm as the doctor listed off his injuries in an admonishing tone.
Concussion. Two broken wings. Three fractured ribs and two broken. A twisted ankle and a mild case of carbon poisoning.
All in all, Keigo surmised he got out of the whole ordeal relatively unscathed. He only hoped Izuku would forget about his mention of “one or two days tops” and would forgive him for lying.
“The police would like to take your statement immediately, but if you’d rather rest now, I will tell them to come back tomorrow,” the doctor finished his speech, putting down the clipboard with his detailed medical description.
“Nah, I’m good. You can let them come in.”
The doctor merely sighed before sliding the door open and closed behind him. In just a few more minutes, the door opened again, admitting Detective Tsukauchi, an officer with a face of a ginger tabby cat and Trickster, still in his hero uniform.
“Hope you’ll excuse me for not sitting up properly,” Keigo, in full Hawks mode, drawled teasingly, gesturing vaguely at his sprawled position, cheek smooshed into the pillow as he craned his neck to see the newcomers, “I have a feeling I should not push it for a while.”
“Tch,” Trickster scoffed, pulling himself a stool and sitting down with a huff, “I'd whack you over the head if you as much as attempted to twitch right now.”
“I’m sorry for disturbing your rest, but your account of the happenings is one of the most valuable right now,” Detective Tsukauchi sighed, regret thick in his voice.
“It’s okay detective,” Hawks grinned to the officer, which, now that he thought about it, probably didn’t look as reassuring seeing as the entire upper half of his body and head were wrapped in bandages but oh well, “Fire away, I’m not going anywhere.”
“Right,” Tsukauchi said as the cat officer took out a portable recorder and turned it on with an audible click, “June 25th, 2128, 8:43 a.m. This will be the official statement of provisionally-licensed hero, Hawks, interning under the Forest Rangers Agency, of the Sendai Hospice raid that occurred on June 25th, 2128 at 1:30 a.m. Conducting the questioning is Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa and officer Tamakawa Sansa. I must inform you, that during the questioning, my quirk, Lie Detector, will remain active. Do you still consent to this interview?”
“I do,” Hawks replied steadily, shifting into the familiar rhythm of a debrief.
“Please begin by recounting what happened before the operation took place.”
“On June 24th, slightly before 10 p.m., I received an urgent summons to the agency from my mentor, Fox Hero Trickster, without stating the reason. I showed up about 3 minutes later,” he was nothing but fast after all, “and immediately proceeded to a nondescript car with the rest of the summoned heroes. We arrived at an undisclosed operation base in Sendai City at approximately 10:40 p.m., where we were given debriefing on the undergoing raid.
“I was assigned to the rescue squad, responsible for the initial reconnaissance of the fifth floor of the Sendai Hospice and then for locating and evacuating the victims from level -3 of the hidden underground facility.”
“How did the operation proceed?” Tsukauchi asked, writing something down in a small notepad despite the conversation being recorded.
Taking a deep breath, Hawks continued his recounting, “I located nine civilians on my assigned floor and relayed the information to pro hero Trickster, who entered the building with two other members of the agency. A few seconds after their entrance, the capture squad was given the go ahead, so I followed them into the basement and promptly arrived at my assigned floor, where I located and evacuated 15 victims total. Upon relaying this information to the coordinator, I was given a direct order from my mentor to retreat to the main entrance and regroup.”
Tsukauchi hummed to himself in thought, “Just for clarification for the sake of the report, how was this order relayed to you?”
“Through the private communication line accessed by the members of the Forest Rangers Agency.”
“And did you follow this order?”
“Initially, yes,” Hawks replied with a wince, this is where things get tricky. He would have to word his statement carefully to avoid any potential backlash he might receive for his insubordination, “Soon after the remaining members of the capture squad, sans All Might, retreated, I broke away from my mentor and dove back into the building.”
“And why did you do that?”
“One of the feathers I had lost during the skirmish caused by the series of explosions that occurred mid-raid had picked up the sound of a child crying. I decided to follow the signal while I could still hear it and attempt to retrieve the child.”
“Why did you not alert your mentor or any other hero of the situation?”
Even without looking, Hawks could feel the aura of anticipation around the room. This is what they wanted to know the most. Despite having a provisional license, what he did was a blatant case of insubordination that could be described as vigilantism if he did not provide adequate reasons.
“The building was already collapsing at that point,” he started cautiously, carefully gauging their reaction before he explained himself further, “Time was of the essence. Due to the nature of my quirk, I knew that I would be the fastest and had the best chance of locating the child and escaping safely before the hospital collapsed entirely.”
“Throughout your descent to the building, pro hero Trickster and myself had attempted to contact you through the communication line, yet you did not respond. Why?”
‘This is where I have to lie,’ he thought to himself, steeling his nerves and waiting until his heartbeat evened out to a natural rhythm, ‘If the detective’s quirk works like your average polygraph should, I’ll be fine, but if it’s not a polygraph…’ “All I was able to hear was static. I suppose my communication devices got damaged due to the explosion. I took them off as the unstable signal was distracting me from locating the child.”
“You said your mentor gave you a personal order though,” Tsukauchi stated calmly, even though the question was posed to make him stumble over his own words, “How would that be possible if, as you say, your communicators were broken?”
“My mentor gave me the order before the explosions occurred,” Hawks replied just as calmly, not even phased by the attempt at calling out his lies.
As a cherry on top, Trickster interjected, “I can corroborate that. I distinctly remember hearing Hawks’ confirmation and moments after, the whole building started shaking and the glass windows broke.”
“Noted,” Tsukauchi replied somewhat dejectedly, but didn’t press the issue, sensing his own defeat, “Please describe what happened after you returned to the hospice.”
“I did a quick check of all the basement floors, but didn’t find any signs of life. Thus I concluded that the child must be somewhere in the hidden levels where only All Might had gone and proceeded to locate the entrance. I was able to do it relatively quickly and found the boy three levels below what the plans we were being given had shown. I grabbed the boy and hastily escaped back to the main building seconds before the supporting pillars broke down. I managed to get out with relatively small injuries, if you consider the situation.”
Tsukauchi hummed to himself, tapping his chin with the pen he was using in thought, “Was there anything in particular that you can say about the hidden levels?”
“One was an archive, which I suspect was the source of the fire that then caused the series of explosions,” Hawks said, counting on his fingers for emphasis, “One was a sort of chemical storage, but I did not pause to check what the chemicals were. The last was…” he paused, suddenly assaulted by the mental image of the mountains of tiny mangled bodies and the smell of rot. His composure cracked as he shivered, only able to suppress the urge to gag at the last second.
“What was on the last floor?” Tsukauchi prompted, though his expression looked apologetic, as if he already knew what his answer was going to be, but needed him to say it, for the sake of the report no doubt.
‘Right, All Might had probably already made his statement about it,’ he thought to himself bitterly and finished in a small voice, “...a scrapyard. Full of bodies of children that were the results of failed experiments. There was also a different exit but I did not go there.”
“Did you encounter All Might at any point when you were at the hidden levels?”
“No.”
“Did you know the aforementioned child prior to the Sendai Hospice raid?”
“No,” Hawks replied somewhat unsure, confused by the weird and unrelated question, “Should I?”
“No, I suppose not,” Tsukauchi sighed, writing one more thing down before closing it with a snap, “This concludes the official recounting of the provisionally-licensed hero, Hawks. You can end the recording now, Tama.”
The cat-like officer clicked the device off and pocketed it. Both officers made a move to exit the room, but Hawks stopped them, “Wait, what was that about me knowing Izukkun? That’s way too random to be out of nowhere, why did you ask that?”
Detective Tsukauchi eyed him speculatively and exchanged a few extremely loaded glances with his fellow officer and Trickster, before conceding with a sigh, “Due to the test results of the boy and yours being handled by the same doctor, they had noticed something intriguing in your blood tests.”
Keigo furrowed his brows, slipping out of his hero persona as confusion ran through his brain in a million different scenarios, “Intriguing how?”
“You share a blood type, which in itself isn’t very strange. But what is unusual is that both of you also possess an antigen that is extremely rare. About ‘one in a million’ kind of rare. We will investigate the possible reasons for that, but wanted to ask you about the most obvious explanation just in case. We’ll get back to you in a few days. Take care, Hawks. You were a great asset out there.”
Keigo barely noticed the officers exiting the room as all his thoughts screeched to a halt.
‘The most obvious explanation?’
“Do you understand what he meant?” Trickster inquired in a worried tone, pushing his stool closer to the right of the double bed, so Keigo had both him and Izuku in his line of sight without having to crane his neck.
And speaking of the little boy, Keigo noticed him shivering, tears falling down his cheeks as he slept through a nightmare. Without a word to his mentor, the teen nodded and pulled the kid snug against his chest, adjusting the blankets and hugging him tightly in reassurance, “The possibility is not zero.”
Izuku looked to be at most eight years old, which would make them seven years apart. It was about the time that Takami ran away from their dilapidated house, then got captured and killed a few months later. Anything could’ve happened during that time.
The possibility of him and Izuku being half-brothers was not zero. And the fact that the little boy possessed some kind of wing quirk only solidified that idea.
“What are you going to do?” Trickster probed, expression stitched into a mask of perfect neutrality, but Keigo could tell the hero was trying to gauge his reaction.
He looked down at the child’s crying face, cooing at him softly to hopefully soothe him in his sleep. Keigo had not a faintest clue about this boy or what kind of life he had led prior to being captured. Fierce Wings was a powerful quirk even before it mutated into its current state due to Takami Tomie’s power. Anyone would’ve wanted to get their hands on a quirk like this, as evidenced by the Hero Public Safety Commission, who basically bought him off of his mother’s hands.
Neither outcome was good, but Izuku no doubt got off at the worst side of the spectrum of that greed.
“I don’t know,” Keigo mumbled, burying his face in Izuku’s now clean and soft green curls, “I’m not sure I have any say on the matter.”
Trickster winced, “Is there no chance that your guardians…?”
“I don’t have any,” he shot back, pupils narrowing as he leveled his mentor with a vicious glare, “You’ve seen my papers or rather, the lack thereof. I’m not a person, I’m an investment. And until I start bringing in profits, I have nothing to leverage in a bargain.”
“Maybe, but you have undeniable potential,” Trickster stood up and walked to the side table. The Fox Hero picked up a TV remote and switched it on, flipping to a local news station that was currently showing the report on the night’s raid.
“Tonight, the united efforts of hero and police force managed to uncover a grand-scale scheme,” the reporter in the studio read out from a script, flicking to the footage of the crime scene where a team of construction workers were now cleaning up the remains of the destroyed building, “Sendai Hospice for Underage Quirk Misuse has been reported to be a base for a human trafficking ring targeted at children with powerful quirks. Over 100 children were discovered and brought to safety while 27 villains, including some of the hospital’s staff, had been apprehended on the charges of kidnapping, child neglect and abuse.”
Then, to Keigo’s absolute surprise, the news feed showed a video that could’ve only been taken during the raid, showing him handing off the rescued kids to the paramedics. The children’s faces were mostly blurred for privacy reasons, but he had a feeling that wasn’t all there was to it, ‘They didn’t say anything about the experiments. Is the government trying to cover it up? But why?’
“A significant contribution to the rescue efforts was provided by a hero intern Hawks, operating under the Forest Rangers Agency,” the reporter continued, showing more footage from the raid, including the moment Keigo broke through the wall like a giant red bullet, “This 15-year-old Shiketsu High School student single-handedly rescued 16 victims, one of whom he risked his life recovering as the building had already started to collapse. Looks like we have a wonderful hero-in-the-making…”
“This was your first mission,” Trickster remarked, lowering the volume but letting the TV play on in the background, “and already, you have made such a huge impact. You have so much potential to become a great hero, more than I have ever seen in any other intern I had and now the public knows it too. It’s a bargaining chip like no other - use it, kid. Use it and you’ll accomplish what I couldn’t in the past 13 years of my hero career.”
Keigo’s eyes blew wide open as he took in what the fox hero was implying. Trickster was the first hero with an animal mutation to have made it to the top 20, which took him exactly ten years. Even so, for the past three years, he was practically stuck in his position - not falling down due to his accomplishments in the rescue heroics, but not rising by even a fraction due to the ever-present public distaste for heteromorphs.
All because he was unlucky enough to be born with one too many animal characteristics to pass off as something else.
Hawks was different though. His quirk is not obviously described as a bird mutation - the only non-human traits that he kept visible were his wings and eye markings, which could be written off as simply having angel-like wings and an odd choice of make-up. And if he made his image into what the media was showcasing right now, shape it into that of a guardian and protector… He could potentially accomplish what his current mentor couldn’t and break into the top 10.
Which was something the hero commission would not be able to overlook.
“Could you pass me the phone?” Keigo requested determinedly, staring at the little bird currently in his arms as his resolve was steeled.
***
“This is a difficult request, Agent Hawks,” the president of the HPSC stated over the phone, tone grim yet speculative, giving Keigo hope that maybe he still had a chance, “It requires a level of commitment that is likely to get in the way of your duties.”
“It is the only request I have made since joining the training program,” he replied, leaning against a wall next to the door of their room at the hospital, where Izuku was soundly sleeping. The little bird had been sleeping a lot, but the doctors assured him it’s a good thing - his body was trying to regain the energy he lost due to severe stress and malnutrition, “And this will be the only request I will ever make.”
“It is not pleading that we need, but concrete reasoning.”
“Okay, so how about this - the public loves hero legacy families,” Keigo listed off, growing slightly desperate, “A few carefully woven statements released to the press will have the public opinion swayed and offer a boost of popularity when I reach the top 10. By that time, I will also be earning more than enough to provide for the boy fully. All I ask is for the commission to cover Izuku’s expenses for the duration of my remaining schooling until I can take over and pay back the debt with interest.”
The director sighed, “You know that money is not the issue. What kind of compensation will you provide in exchange for the board taking on this gamble?”
“Whatever you deem appropriate, Director.”
Over the past few days, Keigo was on his phone almost non-stop, going through one handler to the other, climbing the HPSC’s management ladder while making his argument over and over again. He couldn’t hit the wall right now, Izukkun’s future was riding on this decision.
Izuku Midoriya, soon to be 8 years old. Born on July 15th, 2120 to Inko Midoriya, quirk: Attraction. Father unknown. He was pronounced missing at 4 years old due to a case of kidnapping from the park in Musutafu district on the 26th of August 2124. His mother died less than a year later in a house fire caused by a villain attack and the boy was pronounced dead due to nobody following up on the missing persons report.
Izuku’s quirk was never properly listed, only described as being born with a pair of white-gray wings that had shown no signs of other abilities. This record was made a few weeks after his birth and was not updated at any point after his 4th birthday. It was not named as well. Due to the fire in the hospice’s archive room, any data regarding the experiments on his quirk was unable to be found, thus forcing the doctors to move blindly in the dark.
His wings made for a truly sorry sight. The doctors speculated that the villains were attempting to alter Izuku’s quirk factor with other wing-related quirks to force its mutation into a stronger version of itself. It backfired horribly, the mutations not settling well and causing his wings to start growing deformed, branching out like a tree out of his own bones, breaking them and regrowing in strange places. The little bird was constantly in some amount of pain due to that fact and the avian mutations specialist didn’t have a clue where to even begin treating the boy’s condition.
The fact that he was still alive was nothing short of a miracle.
Izuku would require constant medical attention and a multitude of private quirk medical specialists, all of which cost a pretty penny. As a teenager and commission’s pet project, Keigo had no money to his own name, so he needed the HPSC to cover those expenses until he gets his foot in the hero business and starts earning money on his own. This was the only option he had of ensuring Izuku’s survival.
“Three years,” the director’s voice broke him out of his thoughts, sounding somewhat defeated as she laid out her deal, “You have three years to reach the top 10 of the billboard charts. If, within a year after your graduation, you do not achieve this goal, the boy will be disposed of.”
“Yessir,” Keigo exclaimed enthusiastically, reigning in the happy chirp at the last second, “I will not disappoint.”
“See that you do. In the meantime, you will handle all of the custody paperwork and negotiations with the child protective services,” the director laid out matter of factly, “The commission will only cover his medical expenses and nothing more.”
“I understand. Thank you, Director.”
The stern woman ended the call without another word and Keigo couldn’t help himself any longer. He started jumping up and down happily, fist-pumping the air as he celebrated his small victory. Now to convince the authorities.
***
“Absolutely not!” officer Tamakawa hissed, pacing nervously around the hospital room. Izuku was awake for once, eyeing the other occupants of the room warily from his blanket pile as Keigo stood protectively in front of the bed, his healed wings spread out slightly to partially shield the little bird from view.
Trickster was lounging in what over the past two weeks had become his usual seat. Out of his hero costume, he was even more mischievous and unruly than usual, red hair sticking in every direction and ripped jeans making him look like a rebellious teenager instead of the 30-odd-something-year-old adult he actually was. He was enjoying the spectacle greatly.
Meanwhile, the child protection service worker, a middle-aged woman in a pixie cut, was looking slightly uncomfortable, eyes flitting over all the occupants of the room unsure what to do. Suzuki-sensei, the doctor in charge of both his and Izuku’s treatment appeared just about done with his life but Keigo couldn’t blame him - he pushed a lot of the man’s buttons over the duration of his stay, starting with getting out of bed and walking around when he was supposed to be resting and ending on sneaking out of the hospital to grab some fried chicken, because the food at this place was just atrocious.
“You’re basically a child yourself, you can’t be assigned full custody of a brother you never even knew existed,” Tamakawa continued his tirade, pointing an accusatory finger at Keigo’s chest, “This boy needs parents that can take care of all of his needs and expenses, not a kid from a boarding school who’s not even past the drinking age.”
“I have been emancipated prior to entering high school,” Keigo explained calmly, crossing his arms, “Legally, I am an adult, therefore could technically take full custody. As for money, I have talked with my sponsors who agreed to cover all of Izukkun’s medical expenses, so it’s not an issue.”
“I can’t believe what I’m hearing,” Tamakawa groaned with frustration, pulling at the ginger fur around his ears harshly, “You think yourself a hero for something like this? Your duty to that boy ended when you pulled him out of that building, if you pursue this further you’ll ruin his life as well as your own-”
“What the hell are you talking about?!” Keigo shouted in frustration, startling everyone present. He has never lost his patience like this, but what the officer was saying really rubbed him the wrong way, “You think this is some sort of charity case? What duty? Do you seriously expect me to feel reassured by trusting some stranger with the care for my little brother?!”
Tamakawa’s eyes widened as we protested, “That’s not what I-”
“My parents never loved or cared for me!” he exploded, head hung low as tears pricked at his eyes, “I never had anyone to care for but myself. Izukkun’s the only family I have left so I just can’t… After what he’s been through, I will not trust his well-being to the system, I just can’t! Now that I have him, you can’t just expect me to let go of him, I promised I won’t do it, I promised!”
Silence fell over the room, interrupted only by his heaving breath as Keigo fought to regain his composure, until he heard Izuku sniffle, which made him instantly whip around to face the boy.
After two weeks of steady food income and rest, the boy was looking much healthier, his green curls shiny and fluffy. Thanks to a thorough bath or two, Keigo even discovered a single lock of hair behind Izuku’s left ear that was different from the rest, white and tinted gray at the roots. Personally, he thought that made his baby brother even cuter than he already was, but now wasn’t the time to marvel at Izuku’s cuteness. Because his brilliant emerald eyes were shining with tears that the little bird was trying to furiously wipe away and Keigo would do anything to get rid of that sadness from his face forever.
He rushed over to the little bird’s side, cooing softly as he wrapped him in a loose hug, careful not to overcrowd the child, “Shh, hey, what’s wrong? I’m sorry Izukkun, I shouldn’t have shouted like that, I promise I won’t do it again.”
Izuku shook his head still covering his eyes and Keigo was getting seriously worried the kid would hurt himself, as his talons had started growing out again, “W-why do you want m-me, Keigo-san? I’ll only b-be a b-bother to you…”
“What?” Keigo’s brain short-circuited at that but he tried to get over his confusion quickly, “No you won’t, you will never be a bother Izukkun, why would you say that?”
The kid looked up at him with those teary eyes, lip wobbly as he whimpered, “B-because mama said she d-doesn’t want m-me, b-because my quirk was weird, so she g-gave me a-away… And now my quirk is even m-more useless a-and I won’t b-be able to fly and would j-just b-bother you.”
‘Okay, there’s a lot to unpack here,’ was what his brain decided to fall on upon the revelation that perhaps, his and Izuku’s childhood wasn't that much different after all. They really fell on two different sides of the same spectrum of greed.
Fortunately for Izuku, he still had a chunk of his childhood left and Keigo had the power to make it worthwhile.
“Look at me, Izukkun,” he cooed softly and the boy followed his command, sniffling, “You will never be a bother, okay? The most resilient of birds can fly even on tattered wings if it means getting them to safety. You might not be able to fly on your own just yet, but it’s okay, I’ll do everything I can to make it happen eventually, do you know why?” Izuku shook his head and Keigo smiled at the little bird, “Because I love you very much and want to stay with you forever and ever. And nothing would make me happier than seeing you flying on those wings.”
Izuku blinked at him adorably in disbelief before something in his expression cracked and he lunged at Keigo’s chest, wrapping his shaking arms right below where his wings met his back and cried, “I want to stay with Nii-chan forever too…”
Takami Keigo was never loved nor had he ever loved anyone. He felt no sadness when his mother sold him to the commission, because at the same time, he was abandoning her for his dream to become a hero. He never cared for anyone but himself.
But here and now, with this green baby bird clutching tightly at his shirt, he felt something stir in his heart. Truthfully, it had already moved deep in the ruins of the hospital, when a scared child asked him what it meant to be a hero. He had no idea what the answer was still, but he wished to make finding out his new purpose.
As he hugged his little brother tightly to his chest, for the first time in his life, Takami Keigo vowed to care for somebody else’s happiness more than his own.
“If you won’t let me sign the paperwork now, I have no qualms about taking this to court. Just try me,” looking over Izuku’s head, he glared at the occupants of the room, pupils turning into slits in a threat, “I will not let anyone take my little brother away from me.”
‘Over my dead body,’ he growled internally as Trickster grinned maniacally in the background, looking forward to the chaos the Wing Hero Hawks will undoubtedly cause.