Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Toshinori glanced down at the boy as rain fell down all around them. Yes, the boy definitely had a heroic spirit, but just being near the power of one of Toshinori’s full-strength punches was enough to practically knock him out. If he were to have that power inside him...his body wouldn’t be able to handle it, he’d break! Giving a weak body so much power would be irresponsible, no matter how strong his spirit was. Besides, Toshinori’s power was running out, he needed a strong successor. The boy would be able to find other ways to help people.

//

“You’re just a quirkless failure that wouldn’t even cut it as a rent-a-cop Deku!” Kacchan screamed. “You didn’t help me! You did nothing! I don’t owe you anything! You got that?”

Izuku nodded fearfully as Kacchan stalked off. He was right, Izuku really hadn’t done anything except get in the way. But at least he’d tried. It had been...weirdly exhilarating, that one moment of risking his life for someone else before giving up on his dreams forever.

If you wanna be a hero so bad, take a swan dive off the roof and pray you’ll be born with a quirk in the next life.

Izuku shook his head. No, Kacchan was just being mean, Izuku didn’t actually want to die, right? That’s not why he’d run in to stop that villain. The rush was just because he’d deluded himself into thinking he was helping Kacchan. And there were plenty of other ways to help people, just like All Might had said. He could become a policeman!

You wouldn’t even cut it as a rent-a-cop .

No, it would probably be best to do some research when he got home. There had to be other people out there that realized they couldn’t be heroes, right? Maybe he could do some digging online and find out what careers they went into?

He walked into the apartment and was immediately almost knocked off his feet as his mom ran to hug him, “Oh, Izuku, baby! I was so worried! What were you thinking?”

“I guess I wasn’t.” Izuku chuckled. “Sorry, Mom.”

After finally convincing his crying mother that he was, in fact, alive and well, he took a shower and then sat down with his laptop to look into alternate careers. The question now was what to type into the search engine. 

What to do when you can’t be a hero.

The search algorithm must be designed to search for any word in the entered phrase because the top results were all interview clips from various pro-heroes giving the anyone can be a hero speech. Lies. Halfway down the page, however, Izuku finally saw a result that looked halfway-like what he was actually searching for.

He clicked on the link and it took him to a thread on one of the hero forums. A user a few years ago had asked, “I just took the exams for several different hero courses and didn’t get in. Being a hero was all I ever wanted to do, so what should I do now that it isn’t an option.”

Well, Izuku hadn’t quite gotten to the point of actually taking the UA entrance exam, but the rest applied pretty well. He scrolled through the various answers. A lot of them just offered condolences and told the asker to talk to the career counselor at their school. Izuku didn’t think that’d help him much though, considering that when he’d met with his school counselor last year, the woman had told him to consider being a garbage man. Not that that wasn’t a completely valid career, but he knew she only suggested it because he was quirkless. 

Izuku wanted a job where he could actually help people. Hmmm, a few people suggested being a doctor, but Izuku didn’t think he was smart enough for that. His classmates were always telling him that he was a stupid deku, after all. Policeman might be a good option, but then again, Kaachan was probably right. If he didn’t have what it took to be a hero, why would he have what it took to be a cop? He was just about to close the browser and go to bed when a comment with a large thread caught his eye.

Well, if you didn’t get into the hero course, you can always be a vigilante.

Most of the replies to that were exactly what Izuku suspected they’d be, basically bullying the commentator for suggesting something so obviously illegal. Izuku shouldn’t even be thinking about this, he was in enough trouble for running into the situation earlier but...wait? Wasn’t that vigilantism too? They probably let him off easily because he’s a kid and it was obviously the first time he’d done something like that. But that thrill of almost dying to save someone else…

Izuku opened another tab. It wouldn’t hurt to do some more research on vigilantes, right? The more he learned, the more he’d understand that this was a completely stupid idea that he absolutely should not do . It was obviously stupidly dangerous and had a very good chance of killing him!

Right?

There wasn’t a whole lot of information on particular vigilantes, at least not as much as there was on the legal heroes. Heroism was often based on fame, but apparently most vigilantes didn’t get very popular. But popularity wasn’t very important to Izuku, he didn’t really need to be popular to be happy. Fame was for people like Kacchan who deserved it. 

Then, around midnight, Izuku read a research paper about a group a few years ago called the Nuruhata Vigilantes. It was by a college student who apparently hadn’t gone on to do any more serious research, but it did give a decent overview of vigilantism in general and how illegal heroes were seen by the general population. 

According to the Japanese government, Vigilantism is defined as using one’s quirk in an unauthorized act of heroism. The vigilantes of Nuruhata definitely fit the bill, but do people see them as evil, like the government proclaims or as good….

Izuku read the first sentence a total of five times before looking up the actual law. At least according to the government, quirkless people couldn’t technically be vigilantes...wait, he couldn’t be a vigilante! 

Izuku didn’t end up getting any sleep that night, since by the time he’d finished reading all the various laws on self defense and quirk usage, the sun was already rising. He should still probably find some way to conceal his identity, since he didn’t want to make his mother worry, but...well, there was no law preventing him from risking his life to help people.

Chapter Text

When Izuku arrived at school the next day, his classmates had already heard both about Kacchan’s invitation to jump off a roof and Izuku’s idiotic run-in with the sludge villain and they had apparently decided that the two must be related. 

“The loser, there are easier ways to kill yourself…”

“He was just being an attention hog. Can you imagine wanting to die on live tv?”

Izuku ignored them. He didn’t want to kill himself, that was stupid and would break his mother’s heart. Not to mention that if he killed himself, Kacchan would get in trouble for suicide baiting him. There were a lot of reasons why the teachers didn’t bother reporting Kacchan for his...more explosive tendencies, but one of them was that if Kacchan’s treatment of him were discovered, he might not be able to go to UA and Izuku wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he was the reason Kacchan didn’t become a hero. Well, he wouldn’t be living at all in that hypothetical situation, would he? Whatever, it was still the same concept. 

If he were to die doing vigilante stuff, on the other hand…

Izuku shook his head. He really shouldn’t be thinking about stuff like that, it wasn’t normal. He sat down at his desk and sighed at the flower someone had put on it. Apparently, there had been some sort of unspoken barrier against telling Izuku to kill himself but now that Kacchan had blown that barrier up, the other students were more than happy to follow his lead. 

Izuku glanced over toward Kacchan, who was very determinedly not looking at Izuku. No, Izuku should stop thinking everything was about him. Kacchan just thought that the view out the window was much more interesting to look at than a worthless Deku like him and he was right. Izuku grabbed the flower and went to throw it away amidst a chorus of giggles and whispers from his classmates. He could handle this, it really wasn’t that much worse than it had been and Izuku was used to insults and threats. Why should this new evolution be any different?

Izuku had been wrong. Suicide baiting was different than what he’d been through before. A few days ago, he definitely suspected that most people would be happy if he died, but now he knew it. Was living even worth it anymore? Maybe it would be easier...but Izuku still couldn’t be responsible for getting Kacchan in trouble or making his mom feel guilty. He frowned as he started to walk home. Being quirkless sucked. 

Maybe he should go out and do some vigilante stuff later? When he’d researched it last night, he’d originally planned on waiting a few months to go out so he could get in shape and maybe get some fight training, but after the day he’d just had...well, he wasn’t going to go intentionally put himself in danger, he was just going out to get the lay of the land, right?

He took a detour to a nearby shopping center on the way home, since he didn’t really have anything appropriate to wear for technically legal crime fighting. His mom would be so worried if he somehow got a cold because he didn’t dress warmly enough before going out all night, so he couldn’t just wear one of his t-shirts. The problem was that all his jackets and hoodies were hero merch, not that there was anything wrong with wearing hero merch, but there’d been another vigilante, the Crawler, who wore an All-Might hoodie. Izuku didn’t want people thinking that he was the Crawler because what if that guy got in trouble for what he did? Besides, it wasn’t very polite to steal someone else’s signature look. 

He ended up buying a dark green hoodie. It was thick enough that it would keep him warm and the dark color would be good to help him blend into the shadows. Black would probably be better, but the store was out of black and he was left to choose between green or navy, so he figured he may as well match his hair. 

There was a costume store next door to the department store he’d bought the hoodie at, so he decided he’d walk around and see what he could find to hide his identity. After looking at probably way too many different kinds of masks, he groaned in frustration. The simplest option would be to choose a simple domino mask, but one good punch and it’d be flying off his face. Not to mention that it might slide around and impair his field of vision, which wouldn’t be safe at all. He was about to leave when he walked past a display of different goggles. That might be useful if someone tried to throw dirt in his eyes or something, right?

The only problem was that he’d be going out at night. The goggles would need to be tinted to hide his face, but then they’d darken his field of vision. Izuku frowned, then noticed a sticker on one of the brands. 

Quirk enhanced, won’t color your vision!

That would work. 

Izuku tried on a pair and sure enough, even though he should be seeing everything in hot pink, the world looked completely normal. He shook his head a few times to see if they were secure. Alright, so the goggles weren’t just going to fall off like a mask would. But did he really want them in pink?

He ended up getting the goggles in dark green to match the hoodie and his hair. It was much simpler to have everything match rather than try to worry about accent colors and everything. And it’s not like Izuku actually cared about what his vigilante alter-ego looked like. He just wanted to help people. If he were going to be an actual hero, stuff like looks would be really important, but...he didn’t think he even deserved to look like a hero. So, Izuku really didn’t need his vigilante outfit to be anything special, he just needed it to be practical. 

The guy at the checkout had a unicorn quirk, which Izuku thought was pretty cool. Did he just have the horn or were there other aspects of his quirk? Could he run faster than the average person? How did the horn affect…

“Hey kid, are you actually gonna buy that, or are you just gonna stand there?”

“O-oh, um, s-sorry.” Izuku put the goggles down on the counter and the guy scanned them. 

“Nice goggles, kid. You making a cosplay?”

“Umm…” Planning out his vigilante outfit was kinda like making a cosplay, right? “Y-yep!”

The cashier nodded, “Cool. That’s where most of our sales come from, you know? But, by the way, if you’re going for Hawks, we do have yellow goggles in the same brand.”

“Um, no thank you. It’s, uh, for something else.”

The guy shrugged, “Gotta admit, I don’t know all the heroes, but good luck with your cosplay. Hope it turns out ok.”

Izuku nodded, “T-thank you. Have a nice day.”

When Izuku got home, he hid the bags in the back of his closet and got to work on his homework, which was deceptively easy as usual. He always got through it too quickly, so he had to go back and second guess all his answers because his classmates, even Kacchan, took twice as long and there’s no way Izuku was smarter than them. So, yeah, doing his homework didn’t make him any less stressed. 

Mom called him for dinner right as he finally finished. She kept glancing at him between bites like she was trying to check if he was ok. He didn’t know why she was so worried, he hadn’t had any negative effects from the villain attack last night, and it wasn’t likely he was going to be affected by it now. And Mom couldn’t be worried about the bullying because she thought it was a thing of the past. When Izuku was nine, he’d realized that the only one he was hurting by reporting his classmates was himself because he’d get detention for being a troublemaker, so he’d told Mom that it’d stopped and had taken up first aid as a hobby. So if it wasn’t the villain attack and it wasn’t the bullying, what was she so worried about?

“You’re quiet tonight, Izuku.” Mom said finally. “Is everything ok?”

Oh, so she was worried because he wasn’t talking, that made sense. But he couldn’t tell her about the vigilante thing, she’d be so worried! 

“Yeah, Mom, all good!” He smiled. “It was just a long day at school, so I’m pretty tired.”

Mom frowned, “Those teachers aren’t overworking you, are they?”

“No, they’re just trying to get us ready for high school and you know how much work that takes.”

“Oh, well that’s a relief.” Mom smiled. “So, have you given any more thought to what high school you want to go to? I know you’ve had your heart set on UA…”

Can you be a hero? Not without a quirk.

Izuku gave a strained smile, “I-i’m not really sure anymore. Don’t get me wrong, UA is a great school, it’s just...I’m not sure it’s realistic.”

Inko got a look on her face that was halfway between relief and pity, like she wasn’t sure how she was supposed to feel. Izuku could relate. He finished his food and stood to take his dishes to the sink, “Thank you for the food Mom, I think I’m going to go to bed early tonight.”

“Ok, baby.” Inko stood to give him a hug, “Just...know that I’ll support you, whatever you decide. Ok?”

Izuku smiled for real this time, “That means a lot, Mom. I love you.”

“I love you too, baby.”

Izuku woke up to his alarm at one a.m. and quickly silenced his phone. Mom was a deep sleeper, but that still didn’t mean he could be as loud as he wanted without waking her up. He used the light from his phone and rifled through his closet until he found the hoodie and mask he’d just bought, then quickly pulled on an old pair of black jeans that had gotten ripped when Kacchan pushed him down the stairs last month and a black long-sleeved shirt. He put on the hoodie, but held the goggles in his hand for a long moment before finally just stuffing them in the hoodie pocket. 

Even though he was technically going out as a vigilante, he wasn’t actually planning on stopping any crimes tonight. Sure, Izuku’s neighborhood wasn’t the best, but there were always heroes patrolling during the day, so there shouldn’t be too much crime at night either, right? Even if there was, Izuku didn’t actually have to get involved. He just wanted to go out and figure out what the streets were like at night. They were bound to look different than they did during the day and if Izuku was actually planning on being a vigilante long term, it’d be best if he didn’t get lost just because it was dark. 

Izuku slipped on his shoes and made sure they were tied tightly before slipping out the front door and locking it behind him. Then he started to wander. Without the goggles, he just looked like a normal, if slightly idiotic, teen on a midnight walk. He figured he could always slip the goggles on if he ran into any trouble, but until then they would just look suspicious. 

The city looked strange at night. During the day, the streets were crowded and Izuku was constantly being distracted by the sheer variety of quirks he saw, but at night, the streets were practically deserted. Most of the people he saw were either homeless or drunk or both, but they weren’t really harming anyone, so Izuku didn’t need to get involved. He made mental notes of where the darkest alleys were or where the streetlamps were burned out so that he could disappear quickly into the dark if he needed to, but there didn’t seem to be any danger yet. 

Izuku had been walking for twenty minutes and was starting to wonder if he’d even run into any crime tonight when he heard it.  

“This can’t be all you’ve got on you! What kinda guy doesn’t even carry a cell phone?”

“I-i swear, that’s all I have!”

Izuku ran to the mouth of an alley and saw a group of three large thugs ganging up on a smaller teen. He grabbed his goggles from his hoodie pocket and was about to run in when one of the thugs hit the brick wall with his fist and noticeably cracked it. Oh no, that guy was strong. 

Izuku ducked behind a dumpter and tried to calm his breathing. There was no way he could fight guys like them! He didn’t even have enough muscle to keep Kacchan from beating him up! If he ran in there right now, he’d die! And just because Izuku was kinda apathetic about the whole death thing at the moment didn’t mean he was ready to walk into certain death. Especially when that death was almost guaranteed to be extremely painful.

But Izuku couldn’t just do nothing! The kid was probably really scared, and he was starting to plead with the thugs, so Izuku couldn’t just leave him. He needed to be saved. But...Izuku couldn’t do that, could he? He really was a useless deku wasn’t he? What was he even good at?

You can’t do anything, Deku. Kacchan had said a couple weeks ago. Well, he said that all the time, but that was the particular instance that came to mind. The only thing you’re good at is running away.

Izuku froze. He was good at running away! Most of the time when Kacchan beat him up, it was because Izuku was trying to defend someone else, but if he was going after Izuku himself, he was usually able to run fast enough to avoid a beating. Izuku stood and ran, unnoticed by the thugs or their victim. 

It was a crazy plan and might very well get him caught on his first day as a vigilante, but he had to try.

Izuku peeked around the corner and sure enough, Amplifier was talking to a fan. He’d spent so much time watching hero fights over the years that he practically had every hero’s patrol route memorized, but he’d never thought it would come in handy for anything besides taking notes. Still, there were only a few heroes that were active at night, but Amplifier was one of them, mostly because she fit well into the bar and nightlife scene and was able to control most of the drunks. She was also the closest to the mugging Izuku had witnessed. 

Making sure his goggles were secure and his hood was up, Izuku grabbed a medium sized rock and chucked it at Amplifier, wincing when it hit her on the arm. He hoped he hadn’t hurt her.

“What? Who did that?” 

Izuku waited until Amplifier saw him, then gave her a shaky smile so that she knew his attack had been intentional. Then he ran. 

“Hey! Kid, get back here!” 

He glanced behind him and smiled in triumph when he saw that she was following him. He didn’t really know how fast Amplifier could run, but she had to be in shape if she was a pro. Izuku sped up both so that they could get to the mugging faster and so that she wouldn’t catch him. The alley was just around the next corner…

“Kid! Stop!”

“Help!” 

“Shut up!”

Izuku ducked into a doorway and watched as Amplifier looked torn. On the one hand, she wanted to go after the punk kid that had thrown a rock at her, but on the other, the kid being mugged was obviously in more immediate danger. She cursed then ran into the alley to stop the mugging. 

Izuku smiled, ran over to one of the buildings bordering the alley and started climbing the fire escape. Yeah, it probably wasn’t very vigilante-like to stay and watch the fight, but...well, it wasn’t like he was actually a vigilante anyway, right?

Izuku ended up watching the entire fight from the roof. His fingers twitched and he decided that he’d have to add a portable notebook to his vigilante outfit. Amplifier’s quirk was better for evacuation, since her voice quirk was all volume and very little power, but she was able to imitate some of Present Mic’s moves here since it was a small space and her opponents were in very close range. Mostly though, she used some form of mixed martial arts to take down the thugs. 

Hmm...Izuku stood and started imitating some of her moves to get them down in his brain. If he ever wanted to actually fight anyone, it’d be good to have at least some ideas of what to do, even if he didn’t actually have any formal training. He’d have to set aside some time to practice every day if he wanted to get better, but well...watch and learn, right?

Izuku smiled as Amplifier finished fighting the last thug and went to comfort the victim. He’d done it! He’d saved that kid! Well, he hadn’t actually done it, but he’d led Amplifier to the fight! After the thugs had all been subdued, Izuku climbed back down to the street and ran off to find another crime to stop.

He may not be as strong as Kacchan, but he could still save people by playing to his strengths. And what was a useless deku like him good at?

Running away!

Chapter Text

Izuku’s everything hurt. How far had he ended up running last night? It couldn’t have been more than a few miles, right? He’d come across two more muggings after that first one, so had to run to pick up a hero, then had to run back to the crime...okay, so maybe he’d run quite a bit, but still, he shouldn’t be this sore, should he? 

“Izuku, you’re going to be late for school!”

Izuku groaned and forced himself out of bed. He must be even more out of shape than he’d thought. He’d definitely have to change that if he wanted to keep outrunning heroes. Izuku smiled as he got dressed. He’d saved people last night.

After giving his mom a quick kiss on the cheek, Izuku was out the door and on his way to school. He had to walk carefully to avoid limping, but he’d had more than enough practice with hiding injuries that hiding sore muscles wasn’t nearly as difficult as he’d been afraid it would be. Hopefully Kacchan wouldn’t want to use Izuku as quirk practice before class, with how sore he was he might not be able to run away fast enough. 

Izuku frowned. Would he be able to go out tonight? He needed to be pretty fast to outrun heroes, so if he was too sore, he might get caught. But it had been so...satisfying? Izuku didn’t know if it was the rush he liked or if it was as simple as saving people, but either way, he didn’t want to wait to get back out there. Stretching helped with soreness, didn’t it? He’d have to start stretching every night before he left so he didn’t hurt himself. Maybe he should look up warm-ups too? 

Izuku was so distracted planning his new nightly routine that he didn’t see one of Kacchan’s lackey’s stick out his foot to trip him until he was already falling. He hit the ground hard and the contents of his backpack scattered all over the hall. The other students simply pretended not to see as they trampled his notes and Izuku felt his eyes start to water.

“Look guys! Deku’s clumsy and a crybaby!”

Izuku tried to blink back the tears as he scrambled over the floor, trying to pick up his papers before they were ripped beyond repair. There was a pair of teachers chatting a little further down the hall, but they didn’t so much as glance at Izuku even when he cried out as one of the meaner students stepped on his fingers.

“Oh sorry, Deku! I didn’t see you there.” The kid’s smile gave away his insincerity, not that Izuku had been expecting an actual apology anyway. He finished shoving everything back into his bag and stood to get to class, trying to avoid everyone’s eyes as he wiped away the tears.

“He’s such a useless weaking, why does he even exist?”

Izuku kept his head down and did his best to ignore the whispers as he walked into the classroom and made his way to his seat. Kacchan was still refusing to look at him, which Izuku understood. Kacchan hadn’t asked for Izuku to run in to save him, so he must still be mad about that. Izuku should probably apologize, shouldn’t he? But knowing Kacchan, that might make the whole thing worse. He should just leave it alone for now, right? If things got worse, he would apologize, but until then maybe Kacchan would just forget about it or chalk the whole thing up to Deku being an idiot. 

Though, it was strange that Kacchan hadn’t said a single word to him since he’d stopped him on the street after the sludge villain attack. Normally, if their other classmates tried to do something, Kacchan would come along and do it better to prove that he was still the best, so since everyone had decided to be crueler to Izuku...well, he just thought it would make a lot of sense for Kacchan to use this situation to assert his dominance. 

So why wasn’t he?

Izuku quickly silenced what he was mentally calling his vigilante alarm and rolled out of bed. His soreness had gradually decreased throughout the day, but it hadn’t completely gone away, so he’d probably have to pace himself tonight…

Still in his pajamas, Izuku leaned over to touch his toes and grimaced as his legs protested against the stretch. He then moved one foot back so he could stretch his calf better. He’d spent an hour that afternoon just looking up different types of stretches, specifically stretches that were good for people who did a lot of running. He’d never actually realized how important flexibility was to physical activity!

He spent the next half-hour just running through the stretches he’d researched until he was at least marginally less sore and stiff, then got dressed in his vigilante outfit just like he had the night before. This time, however, he grabbed a small green notebook that he’d bought on the way home and stuffed it and a few pens in his back pocket before heading out. He’d have to figure out how to notate the moves that the heroes used if he wanted to study them later, since there wouldn’t be time to do his usual detailed drawings in the middle of a fight. Would stick figures be enough?

As he walked, Izuku thought through the patrol schedules he’d memorized. It was a Thursday night, so who would be out? Well, Rock Lock often worked later during the week so he could take the weekends off, probably to be with his family if what he said in interviews was any indication. Then there was Enigma, but her gigantification quirk might allow her to catch him too quickly, so he should probably try to avoid using her if possible. He might be able to catch Death Arms if the hero decided to stay out later for whatever reason. Mt. Lady probably wouldn’t be patrolling at night if her media-mongering debut was any indication, so she wouldn’t be any help. Who else?

It was surprising, now that he thought about it, just how few heroes patrolled at night. If he was out walking at two in the afternoon rather than two in the morning, he’d be able to have his pick of at least five or six heroes on any given day, but...well he couldn’t get mad at heroes for getting tired. But from what Izuku had seen the night before, there wasn’t less crime at night. If anything, there might even be more crime at night, since there weren’t as many people out to be witnesses and there weren’t as many heroes patrolling the streets. If Izuku were a villain, he’d probably be completely nocturnal for those reasons alone. 

Izuku sighed, hopefully Amplifier wouldn’t get too annoyed with him if he had to use her again. He’d already used her twice last night and she probably had better things that she usually did during her patrols, so he’d have to try to spread it out as much as possible, at least until he got strong enough to start fighting criminals himself. But Izuku had decided that the running had two purposes. The first was obviously to get heroes to stop crimes in progress, but the second was to build muscle and stamina so he stood a chance when and if he ever felt confident enough to fight. 

Not that anyone would care if anything happened to you anyway.

Izuku shook his head. He didn’t want to die before he had the chance to save anyone. Besides, he knew that getting a bully to change his targets was temporary at best. If he died too quickly at the start of a fight before the real victim had a chance to get away, then he really wouldn’t have done any good. Not to mention that if he died too quickly it might just make the villain more angry and end up making things worse for the person he’d been trying to help. Not that anyone would really be surprised if that happened, he was a useless deku after all. 

Izuku caught movement in the corner of his eye and looked through the window of the 24-hour convenience store he sometimes bought snacks at to see someone threatening the cashier with an electricity quirk. Who was the closest hero to here? Rock Lock . 

Izuku ignored the burning in his legs as he took off running as fast as he could.

“So, how’s the wife?” Amplifier asked. “Getting ready to pop?”

Rock Lock shook his head, “She’s not due for another few months. She’s already complaining about how big she is though. I just tell her that means there’s more of her to love.”

“Oh, smooth, Romeo, smooth.”

Usually Rock Lock didn’t stop to talk to other heroes, but it was a slow night and Amplifier had been chasing down a drunk that had been harassing women where she usually patrolled. He’d helped take him down by immobilizing his clothes, and she’d stuck around after the police had picked him up. Who knows, maybe he’d run into a situation where he could use the extra help. 

“Well, there is a reason she fell in love...ow!”

Something hit him on his calf and he looked down to see...a rock? He whipped around to see who threw it and caught sight of what looked to be a kid in a green hoodie and goggles smile at him before running away. 

“Let’s go!” Amplifier started following the kid, but Rock Lock held her back. 

“Why? He’s just some hooligan, it’s not gonna do any good to run him down.”

Amplifier shook her head, “No, I saw the kid yesterday too and when I chased him, he led me straight to two different muggings. Don’t worry, we’re not gonna try and catch him, but if that kid throws a rock at you, he wants you to chase him.”

She started running again and Rock Lock shook his head as he followed. He still wasn’t convinced that chasing the kid was productive, but Amplifier had proven to be a decent hero, so he’d trust her for now. And well, it was a slow night, so if nothing else, following this kid was something to do.

Izuku stopped as soon as he realized that Rock Lock and Amplifier weren’t following him. Had Amplifier decided he wasn’t worth her time anymore? He hadn’t been trying to get her, but she’d been talking to Rock Lock and there wasn’t any time to go find another hero! Should he try to go find Death Arms? Probably, but by the time he got to Death Arms’ patrol route, the robber would be gone. He really was useless wasn’t he? 

He couldn’t even get a hero correctly.

Izuku startled as he heard footsteps behind him and grinned as he saw Rock Lock and Amplifier running toward him. Rock Lock looked skeptical about the whole thing, but that didn’t matter right now, what mattered right now was making sure that the convenience store robber got caught. 

Izuku took off and hoped that they weren’t too late. Situations like robberies could often take a turn for the worse extremely quickly. His breath was starting to get painful as he pushed himself even harder. They couldn’t be too late, they couldn’t!

Izuku didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as he turned the corner to see the robber leaving the store. Was the cashier okay? Izuku didn’t know what he would do if he wasn’t. Wait, how would the heroes know that the guy was a villain? 

Izuku didn’t stop running, but leaned down and scooped up an empty soda can that someone had tossed on the sidewalk. He only hesitated a moment before he lobbed the can as hard as he could at the villain’s head. Hopefully this wouldn’t be the idiot move that killed him. Imagine what the kids at school would say. 

Did you hear that Deku killed himself by throwing a soda can? Seriously, what a lame way to go, but what else did we expect from someone so worthless? 

The villain turned around in rage, then saw the heroes behind him and Izuku almost cried with relief when the villain decided to activate his electricity quirk and charged. Now the heroes wouldn’t have any doubt on who they were supposed to attack!

Izuku dodged behind a parked car and used the car’s rubber tire to shield him from the attack. He poked his head out and Izuku smiled as he saw that Rock Lock and Amplifier had engaged the villain. Now what? Oh, yeah! The cashier!

Izuku flung open the door and ran to the counter. The guy wasn’t standing at the counter like he should be, so where was he? Had he gone to a back room to recover from the stress or was he…

“Help!”

The voice was soft and laced with pain, but a dead person couldn’t talk, so that meant the cashier was alive! Izuku nearly panicked when he ran around the counter and saw the man lying on the ground, electrical burns covering most of his face and arms. Izuku was familiar with burns and those looked like they hurt. A lot. 

He forced himself to calm down, but wasn’t able to force a smile onto his face, “Sir, do you have a phone?”

“O-on the counter…”

Izuku hurried and dialed the police, “Yes, hello? There’s a guy here with electrical burns, at least second or third degree. Yes, it was a villain attack, somebody robbed the convenience store on Randamu street. Yeah, we’re still here, hurry!”

Izuku put the phone down and knelt beside the cashier, “Are you ok? Oh wait, obviously you’re not okay, you just got robbed and you’re hurt and…”

“How did you,” the man rasped, “know about the robbery?”

“Oh, I, um, brought the heroes. They’re fighting the guy outside. Oh, those burns look bad, let’s get...ok, yeah.”

Izuku stood and found the burn cream and bandages. It only took a few seconds, as he already knew exactly where they were kept because he bought them so frequently. Maybe he’d have to thank Kacchan when this was all over? No, Kacchan would probably just find that annoying. 

Izuku shook his head. He needed to focus. He grabbed a rag that was underneath the counter and ran over to the soda fountain to wet it with cold water, then started dabbing the wet washcloth on the burns, being extra careful not to rub so he didn’t do any more damage to the skin.

“Ice?” the man asked as Izuku set to work. “It’s so hot, wouldn’t ice be better?”

Izuku shook his head, “No, ice can shock your system or make the area so numb you can’t tell if further damage is being done. Don’t worry, once we get the burn cream on, it’ll hurt a little less. And I”m sure the paramedics will be able to give you something for pain when they get here.”

The man nodded and closed his eyes and Izuku started to apply the cream. He was just wrapping the burns when the door opened and he heard Amplifier’s voice. 

“Kid? Are you in here? Is everyone ok? I could’ve sworn I saw him come in here...”

“I’m here, Amplifier.” Izuku yelled. “The cashier got burned by that guy’s quirk.”

Amplifier walked around the counter and stopped when she saw Izuku treating the man’s wounds, “Wow kid, you look like you know what you’re doing.”

Izuku shrugged, “I’ve had a lot of practice.” He finished tying off the final bandage and stood. “I’d better leave this to you guys. I already called the ambulance, so they should be here any minute. You should probably stay with him until they get here though, I’ve heard electrical burns can be tricky.”

Amplifier nodded and knelt beside the man as Izuku hurried toward where he thought the back entrance was. Just because he wasn’t technically a vigilante didn’t mean it was a good idea to stick around until the cops came, especially since the heroes were a lot more qualified to deal with the situation than he was anyway. At this point, Izuku would just get in the way. 

“Kid.” Izuku turned back to see Amplifier staring at him, “Thanks.”

Izuku gave her a bright smile before he turned and left. 

Now to find someone else to save.

Chapter Text

Shota looked across the desk at Tsukauchi as he finished the paperwork for his latest arrest, “I heard you got yourself a new vigilante.” 

Tsukauchi rolled his eyes, “If you can even call him that. The kid hasn’t actually done anything yet. His MO is that he’ll find a crime, then go and find a hero.”

“Seems like he’s doing some good then.”

Tsukauchi looked tired, “Yeah, but it turns out that most heroes don’t take kindly to having rocks thrown at them.”

Shota snorted, “He throws rocks at them?”

Tsukauchi nodded, “At least he’s not actually hitting them with the rocks anymore. The first week or so, the heroes all came in with mild bruises. A few days ago he started just tossing the rocks at their feet, though, so that’s an improvement. ”

“His goal was always to get the heroes’ attention, not hurt them, wasn’t it?” Shota said. “The rocks were just a way to make sure they chased him. He was probably trying to get them angry so they’d pay attention to him.”

“That’s what we decided too.” Tsukauchi offered Shota a cup of coffee that he gratefully accepted. “Word of him has been spreading pretty fast though and heroes in the area are starting to recognize him. That’s probably part of why he’s stopped hitting them with the rocks. Once he’s got their attention, heroes know that they need to follow him. Apparently, he’s pretty good at sniffing out crimes too, and most of the heroes don’t mind the extra help, considering he’s not really hurting anything.”

“What’s he look like?” Shota asked. “In case I come across him?”

“Well, he’s kind of plain as far as vigilantes go.” Tuskauchi said, handing him a sketch of the vigilante. “He wears a dark green hoodie with matching goggles, then black jeans. The most flashy thing about him is his red shoes, but even those don’t appear to be a statement piece.”

“Hmm,” Shota looked at the sketch. There really wasn’t anything that special or eyecatching about him. “It’s strange, most vigilantes I’ve met try to go for something more distinctive. This guy kinda reminds me of myself, he doesn’t care what he looks like, as long as he gets the job done.”

“Yeah, most vigilantes are failed heroes, so they see themselves as heroes, but this kid is different.” Tuskauchi said. “He doesn’t even try to fight the villains!”

“You’ve said kid twice now.” Shota looked at the sketch again. “Just how old is he? Early twenties?”

Tsukauchi shook his head, “Amplifier’s the only one that has had any close contact with him, but she said that, based on his voice and the way he held himself, he’s a teenager, and a young one at that. She pegged him at around 12 or 13 because he was so short and skinny, but I think it’s more likely that we’re looking in the 16-18 range. Since most vigilantes are failed heroes, he's got to be old enough to have taken and failed the entrance exams.”

“But this kid doesn’t see himself as a hero the way other vigilantes do.” Shota pointed out. “Crawler, Pop Step, and even Stendall all saw themselves as heroes even without licenses, and they each came up with their own particular brand of dress and behavior. This kid doesn’t even fight. Has he even given himself a name yet?”

“No, even when he spoke with Amplifier he didn’t introduce himself.” Tsukauchi said. “But the heroes who’ve encountered him so far have taken to calling him the Green Guide.”

Shota snorted, “The Green Guide? Seriously? They couldn’t think of anything less obvious?”

Tsukauchi shrugged, “Well, the kid wears green and leads them to crimes in progress. I don’t know, the alliteration is kinda catchy.”

Shota rolled his eyes, “Yeah, sure, cause that’s obviously super important to the kid.” He sighed. “It’s just...I hope he keeps staying out of fights. If he gets in any deeper, he’ll only end up getting himself killed.”

Izuku wandered the now familiar streets in search of crime. He’d been doing this for two weeks now. Two weeks! He still hadn’t mustered the courage to get in a single fight, but the heroes were actually starting to recognize and trust him. He’d never realized just how lax heroes were toward vigilantes. Maybe it was because he wasn’t actually doing a lot of vigilante-type stuff but the heroes never tried to track him down after a fight or anything. 

And Izuku was actually starting to get stronger! The first few days had been terrifyingly painful just from the dramatic increase in physical activity, but his body was starting to get used to it now. Maybe he was just imagining it, but when he’d gotten dressed before going out, his calves had been noticeably firmer. And he was definitely getting more flexible from all the stretching he did before and after his patrols. 

He was also getting more familiar with the sounds that happened every night. There had been a few times in which he peeked into an alley expecting to find a fight, only to find that it was just a cat that had knocked over a trash-can lid, but now he was getting better at recognizing that sound, even if he still double checked to make sure since he didn’t want to miss anything. 

That familiarity with nighttime sounds was why a slight rustling accompanied by what sounded like muffled whimpers was enough to raise red flags. He rushed in the direction of the sound and his eyes widened when he saw a guy with some kind of mole quirk pressing a brunette woman against the brick wall using one of his massive hands to cover her mouth while the other wandered...to less innocent places. 

He should get a hero. Which ones were close to here again? But...Izuku had watched a lot of fights, not only over the last two weeks, but during his entire hero obsessed lifetime. He was familiar with battle stances and how to not get knocked down by an opponent and this guy looked like a strong breeze would blow him over. Probably, the only reason that the girl hadn’t been able to escape was because he was so much bigger than she was. The guy was completely off balance! 

Izuku should really get a hero, he was wasting time, but his mind couldn’t help running through how he’d beat this guy if he had to fight him. He had a mole quirk, which meant that he probably relied mostly on his sense of smell, since his eyesight was most likely poor. He also didn’t have good situation awareness, since Izuku had been standing there for almost a minute by this point and he still hadn’t noticed. Oh no! He’d been standing there for almost a minute! He needed to go get a hero!

Unfortunately, the woman had more situational awareness than her attacker and right as Izuku was about to turn and run, she caught his eye. Her muffled screams got more frantic and Izuku couldn’t help himself as he ran forward to save her. 

Crap, crap, crap! What was he supposed to do? This guy was so big and Izuku still didn’t know how to fight at all! Umm, ok, the mole quirk meant that the guy was mostly blind, but he could still probably smell Izuku if he wasn’t careful, so...Izuku glanced around and saw a half-full takeout container on the floor by one of the dumpsters. 

He picked it up and swallowed down his own disgust, “Hey Moleman!”

Oh, Kacchan would be ashamed of that insult. It wasn’t even an insult, it was just an observation that was phrased as an insult. Like deku. But even if it wasn’t very creative, it did the trick and Moleman turned around only to get a face full of half-rotten takeout. His heightened sense of smell would no longer be a problem. 

Moleman let go of the woman as he pawed desperately at his face to wipe away the stench, but Izuku didn’t give him much of a chance as he lunged for his legs. The guy was already off balance, so if Izuku could just trip him…

The man fell hard onto his back and Izuku smiled briefly before he realized that down did not mean out. Moleman grabbed Izuku’s leg and yanked him down as well, then let go as he scrambled to his feet and kicked Izuku in the gut. Izuku grimaced, but he’d been kicked before, so he just shrugged off the pain and got up. 

Okay, so plan A didn’t work, what was plan B? Who was he kidding, he hadn’t even had a plan A! Ok, so how did the heroes beat villains. Well, they beat them with their quirks, but that wasn’t going to work here. So what could Izuku...wait, Midnight had her whip right? That’s how she beat female villains or villains that could hold their breath for a long time. So if he couldn’t use a quirk to defeat Moleman, maybe he could use some kind of weapon?

He really should have thought this through. He had a pencil in his back pocket, but that was it. Moleman suddenly reached out and slammed Izuku against the wall, holding him a foot off the ground by his throat. Izuku struggled to breathe as the hand started to crush his windpipe and tried to blink away the black that was starting to encroach on the edges of his vision. Was...was he going to die? Had the girl gotten away? He glanced over to the side and saw her watching the fight with wide eyes. 

No! He couldn’t die yet! Izuku grabbed his pencil and jammed it into Moleman’s hand. Moleman screamed and let Izuku go. That trick probably wasn’t going to work a second time and Moleman was getting more angry by the minute. What else could he use?

Well, he’d need to knock the guy out. He wasn’t strong enough yet to do that by punching like All Might did, but some kind of blunt force trauma would probably be best. Oh, that sounded so bad, maybe it was for the best that Izuku couldn't be a hero. 

As Moleman recovered from being stabbed, Izuku glanced around the alley again until he saw a dented can of beans that someone had thrown away. He ran over to it as Moleman charged and grabbed his legs. Izuku slammed onto the cement belly-first, but managed to grab the can right as Moleman started to drag him backwards. 

Izuku twisted his body and slammed the can into Moleman’s hands with enough force to make him let go. His body was running on pure adrenaline at this point and it seemed like everything was simultaneously going too fast and too slow. Izuku managed to dodge another grab and used his can to bludgeon Moleman’s shoulder. 

Moleman aimed a punch for his head, but he was broadcasting his movements the way Kacchan sometimes did, so it was easy enough for Izuku to duck. The punch threw Moleman off balance again and Izuku hit him with some weird mix of a punch and a backhand, making him stumble back. 

Izuku didn’t wait for Moleman to recover before he launched his next attack. The can got slippery as Moleman’s nose started to bleed. Or maybe some of that blood was from Izuku’s knuckles? Izuku didn’t stop hitting though until his opponent was on the ground. He waited tensely for a long moment until he was certain that Moleman was knocked out, then turned to the girl he’d just saved. 

“Are you ok?”

She looked at him in shock, “Am I ok? You just fought a guy twice your size!”

Izuku looked down at the guy on the floor, “Actually, I think he’s probably more like three times my size, I’m pretty small, but I don’t think his size is just because of his quirk…”

“Earth to kid! Are you actually ok? He looked like he hurt you…”

Izuku shrugged, “It’s nothing I’m not used to, don’t worry about it.” 

The woman didn’t look any less worried, but Izuku decided that trying to reassure her probably wouldn’t do any good. He turned to leave, but almost tripped over Moleman who was still unconscious on the ground. 

“Oh! Almost forgot about him, um, hmm, I should really get some zip ties or something to bring out, I wonder...do you have any zip ties on you?”

The woman let out a stressed huff of laughter, “No? Are you telling me you ran into the fight without any way to tie the guy up?”

Izuku shrunk back a little, “I normally just run away and get the heroes. I’m sorry, I’m really bad at this. I’m not even a real vigilante.”

“No, no, you’re doing great.” The woman tried to reassure him and Izuku gave her a shaky smile. He wasn’t doing great. 

“Um, there’s got to be something around here we can use…” He muttered. “Maybe if I can find some rope? Oh, I can tear this old t-shirt into strips. Probably won’t stop him for long, but hopefully the police will arrive before that’ll be a problem…”

The woman stared at him as he tied up Moleman as tightly as he could, “Um, do you need me to do anything?”

Izuku shook his head, “If you could call the cops after I leave, that’d be great. I mean, you should probably stick around so you can explain what happened, cause otherwise they might not actually be able to arrest this guy, but if he starts waking up, you should probably run.”

The woman nodded and Izuku grabbed the fire escape. He didn’t want her to have to wait too long, which she probably would have to if he just walked out onto the street. 

“Wait!”

Izuku stopped with his hands still on the fire escape, “Yes? Are you hurt? Do you need me to give you first aid?”

The woman shook her head, “No, you just never told me your vigilante name. What am I supposed to call you, Green Guy?”

Izuku shrugged, “Sure, if that works. I don’t really care what people call me, I just wanna help people.”

With that, he turned around and scrambled up the fire escape. He saw the woman getting out her phone as he got to the roof, so that was good. He should probably try to take the rooftops home so he didn’t run into any of the cops as they drove to the alley. He’d never hopped from building to building before, but it couldn’t be too hard, right? 

Izuku backed up and got a running start as he prepared to jump, only the chicken out with a yelp as he arrived at the edge of the roof. He tried to calm his breathing down. That...was a lot scarier than he’d hoped it would be. He could try again, but...he really didn’t want to. It was probably best not to try again, anyway, since if he jumped and ended up falling then they’d think it was suicide and that would defeat his whole purpose of being a vigilante which was so that no one would get hurt when he died. 

He gave a determined nod, found another fire escape that led into the next alley over, and climbed down. Then he lowered his hood, put away his goggles and started walking home, grimacing as the adrenaline wore off and he realized how much pain he was in. He should call it a night, he wouldn’t be able to run fast enough to help anyone in this state. 

Good thing he already had practice treating his own injuries.

Hina Yu smiled as she watched the vigilante disappear and dialed her boss. She’d call the police in a minute, but they would ask her to stay on the line until someone arrived and she didn’t want to wait to make this call. 

“Yu? What are you doing calling me at three in the morning?”

“I have tomorrow’s headline!”

“What? What happened?”

She grinned, “I was just saved by a new vigilante, I’m fine, don’t worry. He seems to just be starting out, so I’m positive no other paper has talked about him yet. He said he often gets heroes to respond to crimes that would otherwise be overlooked and he’s super sweet and nervous. I think he might be a teenager.”

“Really?” Her boss sounded much more awake. “That is a headline, maybe not front page, but there’s definitely a story there. Get me a peice by morning and we’ll run it on the website. If it gets enough hits I’ll give you the go ahead to do more research and we’ll do a full piece by the end of the week. What’s your vigilante’s name?”

Hina frowned. He’d said that Green Guy was fine, but a name like that wouldn’t sell any papers. She needed something flashier, something that would make people curious when they saw it in the headline. Well, he was green, and he didn’t seem to care what people called him, so…

“Viridian.” she said. “Let’s call him Viridian.”

Chapter Text

Shota tightened his capture weapon and pushed the villain more firmly against the wall, “It’s illogical to resist, just tell me what I need to know.”

“Dude, it’s just some drugs!” The villain said. “If you have a problem with that then maybe you should get out more, I’ve got a couple samples that’d be good for a first timer.”

Shota rolled his eyes, “Yes, offer to sell drugs to the hero that’s arresting you. And honestly, if it were just party drugs, I probably wouldn’t care that much, but this is Trigger, so I’ll ask you one more time, where do you get the drugs.”

“Fuck you!”

Shota sighed, “Fine, have it your way.” He dialed Tsukauchi and waited until the detective’s half awake voice groaned over the line. “Could you send a car? I’ve got a perp to bring in for processing and interrogation.”

Tsukauchi looked up from his paperwork as Eraser walked in the villain he’d just arrested. The guy was probably a low level dealer like the others that Eraser had brought in, but there was always the hope that the next villain would know who was behind Trigger. 

“Interrogation room eight is open, Eraser. You can put him in there.”

Eraser grunted in acknowledgement and dragged the thug toward the back of the station as Tsukauchi poured them both some coffee. He’d have to go interrogate the guy later, since he was one of the detectives on the Trigger investigation, but that could wait a bit until this paperwork was done. Leaving the perps to wait for a few minutes helped establish control of the situation anyway. 

Shota finally sat down on the other side of his desk and grabbed the coffee, then grimaced, “Tsukauchi, you didn’t mention that the station had switched out their coffee for paint thinner.”

Tsukauchi just laughed, “Oh, you’re just mad that Musutafu doesn’t have your favorite cat cafe.”

“What can I say, the Hotta brothers make a mean cup of coffee.” Shota shrugged. “You got those forms? I want to get this over with as fast as possible.”

Tsukauchi shook his head, but grabbed the villain intake form from the drawer at his right and handed it to Shota, who started to fill it out with both annoyance and boredom. Paperwork wasn’t fun by any means, and Shota would rather be patrolling the streets looking for more info for the Trigger investigation, but bureaucracy was a part of life, so he had to put up with it. 

They kept working in companionable silence for a few minutes until the doors to the station flew open again and Amplifier came bounding in with a villain in tow and took him straight to the holding cell. 

“Why is she so loud?” Shota grumbled. 

Tsukauchi raised an eyebrow, “She hasn’t even said anything yet.”

“Exactly. Even her presence is loud enough to draw attention, it’s annoying.”

“Oh don’t be a spoilsport Eraser.” Amplifier grinned as she grabbed a chair to sit beside him. “You’re just mad because you wouldn’t be noticed by a rat.”

“That’s intentional, you know.” Shota said as Tsukauchi handed Amplifier the villain intake form. “People don’t notice me unless I want them to notice me.”

“Maybe that’s why you haven’t run into our little vigilante guide yet.” Amplifier said. “He just doesn’t know you exist.”

Shota rolled his eyes, “I think it’s much more likely that UA is out of his comfort zone, and since I always stick to that area unless I’m following a lead, we just haven’t had a chance to run into each other yet.”

“Sure,” Amplifier grinned, “whatever you say Eraser.”

“Was that villain one of the Green Guide’s?” Tsukauchi asked. 

“That depends on your definition.” Amplifier said. “If you mean, did he lead me to the guy, then yes, but if you mean did he take the guy down himself, then no.”

Shota frowned, “I thought the Green Guide didn’t ever take down villains on his own.”

Tsukauchi sighed, “He didn’t, at least until last night when we responded to a call about an attempted assault, only to find the perp already knocked out and tied up with pieces of an old T-shirt. The victim said the guy who did it was a kid in a green hoodie and goggles.”

Shota rubbed his temples to try and ease the coming headache. This problem child was going to be the death of him. “How? From what you told me, the kid is skin and bones, how did he take down an actual villain?”

“With a tin can.”

Shota stopped and stared at Tsukauchi, he had to have heard that wong, “...What?”

Tsukauchi nodded, “You heard me right. According to the victim, the Green Guide started fighting the guy, but couldn’t get the upper hand until he grabbed a can of beans and started beating the guy with it like it was a pair of improvised brass knuckles. It was pretty brutal, but also effective.”

Shota didn’t know whether to be proud of the kid for his quick thinking under pressure or angry because he ran straight into danger. Probably both.

“Ahh!” Amplifier squealed. “Our little boy is growing up! Taking down villains all by himself and everything!”

Shota scowled, “I don’t think that’s a good thing.”

“Yeah, I think I have to agree with Eraser on this one.” Tsukauchi said. “The victim said that he seemed in over his head. I’d much rather he kept running to get heroes rather than running into fights he’s unprepared for.”

“Oh, come on!” Amplifier groaned. “You guys gotta admit that beating a criminal with nothing more than your wits and a tin can is pretty impressive.”

Shota just shot her an unimpressed look, “Nothing more than wits, a tin can, and a probable speed quirk.”

“Come on!”

Shota sighed, “Fine, I’ll admit that he’s quick-witted and definitely good at using improvised weapons, but the kid obviously lacks the required training. I don’t want him getting in fights if he’s just gonna get himself killed.”

“Well, Crawler and Pop Step didn’t have any formal training either when they first started out.” Tsukauchi pointed out.

“That may be true, but they also had Knuckleduster to mentor them and get them out of any tough scrapes.” Shota argued. “The Green Guide doesn’t even have that.”

“Well then maybe you should fill that role.” Amplifier grinned.

Shota glared at her, “I have enough brats to worry about at UA, thanks. I don’t need to add teaching a wannabe on top of that.”

Amplifier shrugged, “Just a thought, Eraser, considering how protective you are of a kid you’ve never even met. Oh, and about the kid’s name, I don’t think he’s going by Green Guide anymore.”

Tsukauchi furrowed his brow in confusion, “What? Why change it?”

Amplifier looked between the two of them in shock, “Did you guys not see the article this morning?”

They shook their heads and Amplifier smiled and got out her phone, “Apparently the woman he saved last night is a reporter. Since he didn’t give her a vigilante name to call him, she’s named him Viridian. Kinda catchy, right?”

Tsukauchi frowned, “How did I not see this?”

Amplifier shrugged, “Probably because the keywords were wrong. You’ve most likely got your computer set up to ping you if the news mentions a Green Guide, but because this reporter used a different name, it didn’t trip your system. I like Viridian better anyway.”

“It is easier to say…” 

“Vigilantes gaining public notoriety is never a good thing.” Shota grumbled. “It goes straight to their heads and they end up putting themselves in even more danger to impress their fans.” He sighed. “The kid is probably soaking up his fame as we speak.”

Izuku was freaking out. 

He couldn’t get that article out of his head, even as he ran around the streets leading heroes to crimes. When Izuku had seen the article on his way home from school, he’d had to fight off a panic attack and he almost hadn’t gone out that night. He didn’t want to be famous. The more people paid attention to him, the more likely it was that they’d figure out that he was quirkless and the faster he could say goodbye to any positive reputation he’d gained. He wasn’t even technically a vigilante, so why did he have to have a name?

But apparently that woman he’d saved was a reporter? So she’d written about how he’d taken down the villain and she’d apparently done some digging to see that he normally stayed out of the fights himself. Izuku didn’t deserve to have articles written about him like the heroes did, so he couldn’t help feeling like he’d tricked that reporter somehow. He hadn’t been trying to fool her into thinking that he wasn’t worthless, but that’s apparently what happened since her article was so positive. He’d just been trying to help her. 

Which was ultimately why he was out on the streets again tonight. Sure, he wasn’t necessarily happy about the article, but he also wasn’t about to let that stop him from helping people either. And he was helping people! He was helping the heroes find the people that needed saving! He was doing good!

But he should probably start carrying weapons if he ever planned to jump into a fight again. Between tending to his injuries and everything with the article, he’d completely forgotten about adding weapons to his costume that afternoon, but it wasn’t a big deal. He was still covered in scrapes and bruises from his fight with Moleman last night, so it wouldn't be a good idea to get into any more fights so soon, so he didn’t need the weapons quite yet, but it was still a good thing to brainstorm.

He’d almost considered getting a baseball bat, but there were a couple problems with that. While it would be a useful bludgeon-type weapon, it was too bulky. He wouldn’t be able to easily run if he had to be constantly hefting the bat, so it would actually prevent him from saving people, which was the exact opposite of what he wanted. Not to mention the fact that he’d never been into any sports, so if he came home with a baseball bat, Mom would ask way too many questions that Izuku really didn’t want to answer. 

His weapons would need to be small. He needed to be able to fit them in his pockets so he could run easily and so he could go incognito if he needed to, so that meant that anything like a staff was out. Maybe a…

He heard someone calling for help and peeked in on the situation before running off to get a hero. He could worry about what weapons he needed later. 

For now, though, Izuku had people to save.

Chapter Text

When Izuku rolled out of bed and immediately started his nightly stretches before getting dressed in his vigilante clothes. Was it weird that the middle of the night was turning into his favorite time of day? It probably was. Kacchan would probably think he was crazy for wanting to go out in the middle of the night to bother heroes.

Izuku snuck out to the front door, but froze with his hand on the doorknob. Hadn’t he decided yesterday that he really needed to take weapons with him? He hesitated another long moment while he debated the merits of just going out weaponless again. He could always just rely on what trash he could find, right? It had worked just fine last time. 

But while he could do that, he probably shouldn’t. Mom would kill him if she knew he was running into fights without any kind of weapon or plan of attack and while he wasn’t planning on her finding out, it was the principle of the thing. 

So something small and easy to hide, but also something he could grab quickly so he didn’t cut too much into his vigilante time tonight. Hmmm...cut...maybe he should bring some sort of knife? 

He turned on his phone’s flashlight and went into the kitchen. Were there any knives that Mom wouldn’t miss? He obviously couldn’t take any from the knife block, they’d be missed immediately. He might be able to get away with taking a steak knife, but...it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to put a knife in his pocket without any kind of sheaf, would it? He’d just end up cutting himself as he tried to run get heroes and that wouldn’t do any good. 

He needed a knife with some kind of protection already built in. Izuku smiled as an idea occurred to him and he started to rummage as quietly as he could in the junk drawer. It took him awhile to find what he was looking for since they used it so infrequently and he was starting to get scared that they’d actually lost it when his hand closed around the old box cutter. Izuku practiced extending and retracting the blade a few times to get a feel for it. Yeah, the cuts wouldn't be very deep, but they’d be enough to distract a villain in a pinch so Izuku could run away or find another opening. It was a good start. 

Now onto a bludgeoning weapon. On a whim, Izuku went to the pantry and grabbed a can of soup. Running around with a can wouldn’t be good in the long run, since it was heavy and hard to hold, but he could always replace it with something more streamlined later. Besides, it had worked so well last time that he knew it was reliable. 

A can and a boxcutter didn’t feel like enough, though. Izuku was going to be fighting quirkless against people with quirks, so he probably needed a few more weapons than most vigilantes did. He wished he had something like tonfa, but he didn’t know how to use them and they were just a bit larger than he was comfortable carrying around in his hoodie pocket. Some kind of stick would work pretty well, though, if only...Izuku quickly went to the hall closet where Mom kept her old crafting supplies. Hadn’t she done a project with wooden dowels a few months ago? If Izuku was lucky, there’d be a few left. 

He grinned when he saw the dowels standing up against the wall. He grabbed two of the shorter pieces, each about twenty centimeters long and three around, but one was slightly shorter than the other. Izuku hoped that the difference wouldn't throw him too off balance if he had to use them in a fight. 

Now that he finally felt armed enough, Izuku turned off his flashlight and walked out the front door. He was ready.

Izuku pressed himself against the wall to make sure he was completely hidden in the shadows while he watched the thugs. He had heard raised voices, so ran toward the side street and was currently hiding in an alley, but the thugs weren’t actually doing anything. There were about ten of them and they were probably part of a gang or something, but they seemed to be joking around and roughhousing, not doing anything nefarious. 

“When did your friend say she was coming?” One of the thugs asked. “And why did we have to meet her here? There are flies everywhere, man!”

“Oh, stop being such a baby.” That guy seemed to be the leader. He had green skin and what looked like thorns on his face, which made Izuku wonder what his quirk was. “She’ll be here soon.”

Izuku shook his head and turned away. There were other people who needed his help, there was no point in waiting around here.  He was just about to leave when the first thug cried out in pain and Izuku whipped around to see him clutching a hand to his neck, “Damn fly bit me!”

Within a few seconds, each of the thugs slapped a hand to their necks and cried out. Those must be some vicious flies if they bit all of them, but why bite all of them at once? Izuku should run, those bites looked painful and he didn’t necessarily want to have to explain to his mom how he got an insect bite when he was supposedly at home in bed. He turned to leave again.

“You bitch! I’ll kill you!” 

Izuku watched in shock as the thugs all started powering up and attacking each other. What? And they all had such powerful quirks too! He thought quirks this powerful were rare, and the more powerful your quirk, the more likely you would be encouraged to be a hero, so a group of thugs all with powerful quirks was unheard of. But they were going crazy, like they were on drugs or something, but they hadn’t even been smoking!

Just then, one of the thugs caught sight of him, “Boys, look, we’ve got a toothpick to crush!”

Izuku froze and swallowed thickly as every one of the thugs turned toward him. Time to run.

Shota crouched on a rooftop overlooking the bar district. Normally this was Amplifier’s territory, but she’d come down with the flu and had to call in sick, so Shota had agreed to cover her shift. He would usually be trying to track down leads on the Trigger case, but he hadn’t gotten any new information recently. He was starting to get frustrated with the whole thing. Trigger had been in Japan for years now and so far they had only been able to arrest low level thugs and pawns and were no closer to finding the people behind the Villain Factory. 

He wouldn’t admit it, but Shota was scared. People didn’t do things for no reason, so there had to be some eventual goal to using drugs to temporarily turn normal people into powerful villains, but Shota couldn’t see it. Trigger on it’s own was bad enough, but the stuff it was sometimes cut with made the user violent and prone to attacking anyone in sight. And that wasn’t even counting the people who had been abducted and had their bodies modified to accommodate their more powerful quirks. 

Hopefully, the people behind the Villain Factory weren’t doing this to gear up to a major attack, but there was no way to know if they were. The dealers didn’t know anything about the production of the drug and even those higher up on the supply chain hadn’t known anything about the kidnappings. Shota was just ready for this case to be over already, he was sick of not knowing anything. 

There was a crash off to his left and Shota turned to see a kid running as fast as he could as he was chased by a mob of powered-up villains. The kid was wearing a green hoodie and goggles and kept glancing around as he ran like he was looking for someone. Was this the new vigilante Amplifier had told him about? It must be, but didn’t Viridian lead heroes to villains and not the other way around?

As the group got closer, Shota decided it didn’t matter much. He needed to stop them before any civilians could be injured, which in the bar district was a distinct possibility. Damn problem child, why couldn’t he have left the villains where they were?

Shota jumped down, startling Viridian, who stared at him with wide eyes that Shota could barely see behind his goggles, then tripped and landed flat on his stomach, making Shota snort.

“Stay away from the fight, kid.” He said. “I’ll handle this.”

He canceled the villains’ quirks, then started to wrap as many as he could in his capture weapon, knocking them into each other and into the walls to disorient them. He couldn’t see Viridian anymore, so hopefully the kid had enough sense to run away. 

Izuku watched with wide eyes as Eraserhead fought the thugs. Eraserhead! He’d been trying to get Amplifier, mostly because she was the closest and the thugs’ quirks were making it very hard for Izuku to stay ahead of them, but Eraserhead was even better. His quirk was so cool! Izuku could tell where he was looking just by seeing whose quirk could activate and whose couldn’t. And then his hair! Did he have a secondary levitation quirk or was there something about his hair floating that was necessary for his quirk. Maybe it was built into his quirk to make sure that the hair didn’t get in his eyes? If that were the case, if Erasehead was hanging upside-down and activated his quirk, would his hair float upwards like it was defying gravity, like it did when he was standing up, or would it obey the laws of physics and stay down so that it wouldn’t risk getting in his eyes? What if…

Izuku was so caught up watching Eraserhead’s quirk in action that he didn’t notice that one of the thugs had gotten out of Eraserhead’s line of sight and was looking straight at him. Izuku yelped as a tentacle wrapped around his ankle and started pulling him toward the grinning villain, who apparently had a squid quirk that gave him tentacles for hair. 

Izuku hurriedly reached into his pocket and grabbed the box cutter he’d brought, fumbling as he expended the blade, then slashed at the tentacle. The villain screamed and let go as dark blood started pouring out of the wound. He growled at Izuku, who was holding his knife in front of him like a lifeline, then launched several tentacles at him at once. Izuku slashed and dodged as fast as he could, thankful that he was used to dodging explosions. He managed to cut quite a few of the tentacles that were attacking him, but the box cutter wasn’t long enough to cut them off, not that Izuku really wanted to do that anyway. If he cut them off, would they grow back, or were they like an arm that once it was severed, was gone forever?

He really needed to stop getting distracted by interesting quirks because just as he was getting into a rhythm fighting the tentacle villain, another came up and hit him between the shoulder blades, throwing him to the ground and making him lose his hold on the box cutter. He looked up to see a villain with bulging muscles looming above him. This wasn’t good. 

Well, he didn’t have any ranged weapons, but his best option was the dowels, probably, since he’d lost his knife. Izuku’s heart sunk as he grabbed the wooden sticks from his hoodie pocket. They didn’t look like they’d do a lot of good against a strength quirk. The man lunged for him again and Izuku dodged around him, then brought both sticks down on the back of the man’s skull. 

They broke. 

“Uh-oh.” Izuku gulped as the man slowly turned around, and glared at him. This was it. This was how he died. Wait...was he deflating?

“I thought I told you to get away, kid!” 

Suddenly the man was wrapped in Eraserhead’s scarf and pulled out of the way to reveal the hero himself staring down at Izuku with an exasperated expression. Ok, this. This was how he died. 

“S-sorry, Eraserhead, sir. I j-just…”

A movement behind Eraserhead caught Izuku’s eye and he realized that the tentacle villain hadn’t been taken down yet and was going to grab Eraserhead! Izuku didn’t even have time to think before he was rushing forward. His dowels may be broken, but they had splintered when they broke, which made them more like stakes. He didn’t need to completely defeat the villain, he just needed to immobilize him for long enough for Eraserhead to erase his quirk. 

He ducked beneath Eraserhead’s arm and brought his stakes down on two of the tentacles, pinning them to the ground and making the villain cry out in pain. A few seconds later, the man was dragged toward him as his tentacles retracted back into his head. Izuku looked up behind him and could barely see a glint of red behind the gold goggles. Eraserhead waited a few seconds to make sure that the villain wasn’t getting up, he must have passed out from the pain once his quirk was erased, then turned his glare toward Izuku. 

“You must be Viridian.”

Izuku winced, “I didn’t ask for that article, I swear! I’m so sorry, Eraserhead, I was going to get Amplifier when these guys just started going crazy all of a sudden, but then one of them saw me, and then I…”

“Wait, did you say they went crazy all of a sudden?” 

Izuku nodded and shrunk a little when he saw the scowl deepen on Eraserhead’s face. He watched as Eraserhead knelt down and turned the tentacle villain over onto his back, then opened his mouth and took out his tongue. 

“Hmm, black. Figures.”

“Why is the color of his tongue important, Eraserhead?” Izuku asked hesitantly. “Couldn’t it just be a part of his quirk? Don’t some species of squid naturally have black tongues?”

Eraserhead looked up at him appraisingly, “True, but why don’t you check one of the other villains. I doubt you can justify them all having black tongues naturally.”

Izuku slowly made his way over to one of the unconscious villains and looked at his tongue. Sure enough, it was black, but, “The color’s fading.”

Eraserhead nodded, “It’s the drug. It’s called Trigger. You can tell who’s addicted because the tongue stays black. These guys must have just shot up the one time.”

“But they didn’t shoot up.” Izuku said. 

Eraserhead froze, “...what?”

Izuku fidgeted under his stare, “Um, I was watching them. They weren’t using needles or anything before they went crazy. They weren’t even smoking.”

Eraserhead frowned, “Strange…”

“Um, Eraserhead, sir?” Izuku fidgeted again. “I’m, um, I’m sorry for getting in your way.”

Eraserhead sighed, “Just call me Eraser, kid, and while I wish you’d hadn’t gotten involved, you managed to hold your own. Stay out of fights, kid, you don’t want to die.”

Izuku waited for probably a moment too long before nodding and running away.

Izuku tucked himself back into bed after tending to his injuries for the night and thought about those weird thugs. Eraser said it was some kind of a drug, but how did they get exposed to it? Izuku shook his head. He should leave the investigation to Eraser and the police, he would just get in the way.  

Right as he was falling asleep, he remembered what one of the thugs had said right before going crazy. There are flies everywhere. Weren’t flies supposed to be asleep at night?

Huh, weird.

Chapter Text

Izuku had never actually been to a hardware store before. It probably had something to do with growing up without a father, but Mom had always just hired a handyman for anything that need to be fixed around the house and that guy always brought his own materials, so Izuku had never really had any reason to walk inside a store like this before, which was why he was currently standing frozen at the entrance, unsure of where to begin. 

Some of the employees were starting to stare at him strangely, probably wondering why a kid in a middle school uniform was staring at their store like it was some kind of labyrinth that was going to eat him alive, so Izuku forced his feet to move and started aimlessly wandering while trying to look discreetly at the signs. It wasn’t his fault the store was so big and intimidating!

Alright, he’d had a goal when he’d walked in here, hadn’t he? Oh, right, pipe. After the fight with those drugged-up villains last week, he’d decided that he needed to...fine-tune his weapon selection. The dowels had worked great for the first few seconds, but they broke far too easily and just because Mom hadn’t realized they were missing from the closet yet didn’t mean he could just keep taking them until they were gone. What if Mom wanted to use them for another project!? 

So, anyway, pipe hopefully wouldn’t break as easily and it shouldn’t be that hard to buy, right? But what section was he supposed to...plumbing sounded promising. Plumbing used pipes, didn’t it? Izuku fought to not facepalm at his own stupidity, since he didn’t need to give the staff any more reasons to question his sanity. Of course plumbing used pipes, he really was as stupid as Kacchan said, wasn’t he?

He turned down the aisle and started looking around while desperately trying to pretend he knew what he was doing. Why were there so many pipes? And why were they all so long? He wasn’t looking for a quarterstaff, he wanted something he could fit in his pocket! Finally he found some copper pipe that looked short enough to be promising. He picked up a piece and started passing it between his hands. It was light, but felt comfortable enough…

“Is there anything I can help you with?”

Izuku yelped and dropped the pipe, which made a series of loud clanging sounds as it bounced on the floor. Izuku felt his face heat up and turned to the employee who was looking at him apologetically. The kid was around his own age and had yellow hair that was almost as bright as the red apron of his store uniform. 

“Sorry about that, dude.” The employee said. “We’re just supposed to offer help and expertise to the people who come in. Not that I actually have much expertise, I’m just a part-timer, but I could help you find someone who’s an expert if you want.”

“Um…” Izuku didn’t think that any of the employees were experts in vigilantism, “No thanks, I’m j-just browsing.”

 “If you tell me what your project is, I could probably point you in the right direction.” The kid offered. 

“It’s, um, it’s just a hobby…” Izuku glanced down at the copper pipe, which was still sitting forgotten on the floor. It seemed too conspicuous, like it was a physical reminder of how useless he was. He not only didn’t know what kind of pipe to buy but he’d also managed to loudly drop one within minutes of arriving at the store. He really was such an idiot, wasn’t he?

The employee followed his gaze downward and smiled sheepishly, “Sorry, dude, normally I’d grab that and put it back for you, but,” he chuckled awkwardly, “I’m not really supposed to handle any conductive materials.”

For the first time, Izuku noticed the black lightning bolt pattern in the employee’s hair, “Oh! You have an electricity quirk!”

“Yeah!” The employee smiled brightly. “My name’s Kaminari, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you!” Izuku leaned down and picked up the pipe, “It’s really smart of you to work here with your quirk, I’m sure you’re learning all sorts of stuff about circuits and electricity!”

Kaminari’s eyes widened, “Whoa, I hadn’t even thought of that, dude! I just wanted to save some extra money for high school. I wonder if some of the guys in the electronics section would be willing to teach me.”

“I’m sure they would.” Izuku smiled. “Good luck!”

“Thanks dude!” Kaminari smiled. “And good luck on your project.”

Izuku nodded and watched Kaminari leave before turning back to the pipe in his hands. He looked it over and frowned when he saw some small dents from where he’d dropped it. Copper was probably really good for traditional pipes, but it seemed like it was too soft for what Izuku had in mind. It would be really inconvenient to have to fix dents in his weapons every night. 

Which put him back to square one. If copper wasn’t going to cut it then what kinds of metal were there. There were a bunch of different plastics and PVC pipes, but those would probably have the same problems with breaking as the dowels did, so he didn’t waste much time in that section. Finally, he saw a section with black pipes that said they were made of iron. He picked up a shorter piece and it seemed like it was heavy enough to pack a punch. He almost wanted to drop it to make sure it wouldn’t dent, but the embarrassment had been bad enough the first time and that had been an accident! 

He chose two identical pieces that were thick enough for him to hold comfortably and around 30 cm long. They’d take some getting used to, but the store didn’t sell anything shorter than that in the iron, so they’d have to do. He put his pipes in his basket and started wandering toward a sign that said tools . He probably wouldn’t buy anything from there, but it wouldn’t hurt to look right? 

Maybe they’d have a larger box cutter or something similar? The one he had was functional, but it hadn’t been long enough to do any meaningful damage to that tentacle villain, so it’d be good to have something with a longer blade as a back-up. Looking at the box cutters, though, Izuku realized that they didn’t really have a lot of variety when it came to blade length. It seemed like most of the differences between different models were just the width and the handle, which wasn’t something that Izuku cared about. 

Displayed right next to the box cutters, though, were a few utility knives. Izuku hesitated before looking at them. Was he really ready to carry a knife? That seemed...more serious somehow. Like he was actually planning on hurting someone rather than just taking along a weapon in case of emergencies. But was a knife really all that different than a box cutter? They were both sharp and could do some damage, and the utility knife would be really useful…

He gave in and got a generic looking knife that was able to fold into its own handle so he wouldn’t accidentally cut himself. It’s not like he had to use it, right? It was just good to have. Between the knife and the pipes, though, Izuku was starting to get concerned about how he was going to carry everything. Sure, he had his hoodie pocket, but he’d already dropped his soup can three times while running and it had only been a week! Things just started to fall out from all the bouncing that running involved, so he should probably find a better solution. 

He wandered around the tool aisle a little longer before he saw a section labeled tool aprons . Some looked like actual aprons, like the kind Kaminari had been wearing, but others were more like utility belts. They had loops that were probably meant for hammers, but Izuku could easily modify them to hold his pipes, and some pockets that would probably be perfect for his knife and can. He chose one made out of a dark green canvas-like material that would match well with the rest of his vigilante outfit and added it to his basket. It was a little pricey, but he hadn’t bought any hero merch since...well, the point was that he had a little extra allowance saved up, so he could afford it. 

Izuku made his way toward the checkout section, but stopped when one of the displays on the end of the aisles caught his attention. Slingshots. Well, it would be nice to have something capable of long range attacks…

He gave into temptation and read the packaging. 

Slingshots, a fun, effective tool perfect for hunting and survival! Simply put your preferred ammunition (we recommend steel shot, marbles, or even smooth rocks) in the leather pouch and fire!

There were some packages of steel shot in the same display, which basically looked like metal marbles, but Izuku didn’t grab any. Firing metal at someone sounded really serious, like firing a bullet, and he really wasn’t a serious vigilante. Besides, other people were probably a lot better at slingshots than he was, and if they were planning on using them for hunting or survival then they needed the professional ammunition much more than he did. 

The cashier gave Izuku a weird look as he checked out, but he wasn’t really paying attention. He should buy some marbles on the way home. They’d be perfect for his slingshot, plus, they’d solve a problem he’d been having finding rocks. Normally there was enough rubble from past hero fights that Izuku didn’t have any trouble finding stuff to throw to get heroes’ attention, but there had been a few times when it had taken a minute or two to find something to throw and the heroes had almost been too late. If he had marbles to throw, he wouldn’t have to waste any time finding rocks! He wouldn’t use his slingshot on the heroes, that’d be rude, but throwing them would work fine. 

He chose a bigger toy store downtown, hoping they’d have a bigger variety of marbles. Thankfully, he didn’t get nearly as many odd looks here, but it did feel weird to be here without making a bee-line for the hero collectables aisle. It took him a few minutes to find the marbles, but when he did, he was glad he’d come here rather than a smaller store. 

There were a lot of marbles that were sold in small net bags that had ten or so normal marbles and a larger one, but what made Izuku grin was the large dispensers that sold marbles in bulk. He grabbed one of the canvas bags and looked at the different colors. Whoever was in charge of naming marble colors should help students come up with their hero names, because they were obviously having way too much fun with their job if the crazy names like tsunami or wild tiger were any indication. Izuku finally settled on a color called enchanted forest , which was a swirling mix of dark green and black, because it matched his vigilante outfit, and he bought about two pounds worth of marbles. Hopefully that would be enough to last him at least a couple of weeks, and there were a few pockets on his new tool belt that would be perfect for them!

For the first time since he’d met All Might, Izuku walked home smiling.

Chapter Text

Izuku kept an eye on the clock and put all his books away five minutes before school ended. He saw some of the other students shooting him looks as the seconds ticked away and swallowed thickly. Hopefully he really had been getting faster since becoming a vigilante because he wasn’t looking forward to what would happen to him if he didn’t manage to get away in time. 

The bell was like the gun at the beginning of a race and Izuku was out of the room before most of his classmates had even grabbed their bags. From there, it was just rushing to his locker, then out the door. The only one who could even hope to catch up to him at this point would be Kacchan, but Izuku hoped that his luck would hold and Kacchan would just go home like he’d been doing for the last few weeks. He didn’t know why Kacchan seemed to be taking it easy on him, but maybe he’d finally realized that Izuku didn’t have any hope of being better than him! Maybe if Izuku kept his head down, then Kacchan wouldn’t see him as a threat and he’d keep leaving him alone! It was almost too much to hope for. 

Mom was at work when he got home, so he sent her a quick text saying that he was going to go watch hero fights as he got changed, then grabbed his slingshot and a few dozen marbles and walked out the door. He needed to get used to his new weapon, considering he’d never actually used a slingshot before, and it might just be his poor self-esteem talking, but somehow he didn’t think that the middle of a fight was the best time to practice his aim. Hence why he was going to do some target practice. 

His first thought was to go to a park, but he didn’t want to risk running into any of his classmates. They tried to destroy his things on the best of days, but if they were to see him practicing with a weapon...well, Izuku didn’t want to have to go back to the hardware store so soon. Besides, it was probably better to practice someplace secluded anyway because if people saw him practicing with a slingshot and then Viridian started using a slingshot shortly after, then that might be suspicious enough to lead the police to his doorstep and he’d rather not make Mom worry. 

So, parks were out. He could go to the woods where he used to play with Kacchan, but he didn’t really know if Kacchan still hung out there after school and he’d really rather stay off his radar right now, so he couldn’t go to the woods. That, of course, left the beach. 

Dagobah beach definitely wasn’t as pretty as it had been a few decades ago, but that wasn’t really the beach’s fault, just like it wasn’t Izuku’s fault that he was useless. It was just kinda a fact of life. Izuku had been introduced to it a few years ago when he’d tagged along with Kacchan and his friends for an afternoon and they’d walked by it. 

Hey, that’s where you should live, Deku! You’d feel right at home with all the other trash.

He’d kinda been right. Yeah, the beach didn’t smell the best since the weird fishy smell of the ocean mixed with the rotting piles of garbage, but the ventilation was okay, so it only took a few minutes for Izuku to stop noticing the smell, but it was secluded and peaceful. There wasn’t anyone here to beat him up or tell him to kill himself, it was just him and all the other useless garbage that people had thrown away. It was nice. 

Izuku dug through the piles before he found a piece of sheet metal that wasn’t too rusted and set it up against an old washing machine, then stood a few meters back and got out his slingshot. It took him a few tries to figure out how to pinch the marble through the pouch so that he didn’t drop it, but soon enough he’d lined up his shot and aimed for the dead center of his makeshift target. 

Izuku took a deep breath and let go. Now, if he was right, the marble should make a sound when it hit the target and...well, either his target didn’t actually make a sound or he’d missed. Of those two possibilities, Izuku had to admit that the latter was much more likely. He looked in the sand under the target, but couldn’t see the marble, so his aim was obviously a bit off. He searched for a full two or three minutes before giving up and searching for a tarp to put behind his target instead. He didn’t want the trash piles to eat all his marbles before he even had the chance to practice! 

Eventually, Izuku found a tarp that didn’t have too many holes in it and draped it between his target and the washing machine, then put down another tarp on the sand underneath it. Okay, now as long as he managed to shoot in the general area of the target, he shouldn’t lose his marbles. Not that he hadn’t obviously lost his marbles a long time ago, considering he’d chosen to become a vigilante, so...dumb joke, he really should stop trying to be funny. 

He still didn’t hit the target on his next shot, but the tarp worked well and caught the marble so he could reuse it. His arms were starting to get sore by the time he finally heard the tell-tale metallic ding as he hit the target for the first time and Izuku couldn’t help himself as he whooped in excitement and started jumping around, startling a few seagulls that had been trying to find something to eat among the garbage. He flushed with embarrassment before he realized that no one would be annoyed at him for yelling because no one was around, and then he smiled. He’d done it! He’d actually hit the target!

By the time the sun was setting, Izuku was able to reliably hit his target and the sheet metal was covered in small dents. He was down a few marbles from when his shots had gone wildly off course, but overall, Izuku thought that the afternoon had been a success. He felt all warm and happy, and if he didn’t know any better, he’d almost say that he was proud .

If this was how Kacchan felt every time someone told him how awesome he was, then Izuku could see the appeal.

Katsuki didn’t know how he was supposed to feel. 

He really shouldn’t pity Deku. And he definitely shouldn’t feel guilty for how he treated him. The quirkless fucker deserved it for being so weak, right? So then why did Katsuki feel like he was going to throw up every time one of those extras at school told him to jump off a roof? He’d told Deku to jump off a roof! It should be any different if someone else was saying it!

But...was Deku really as weak as all that? When all those heroes had been sitting on their asses, Deku had been the only one to run forward to try and save him. Did that mean that Deku was strong? Or did it mean that Katsuki was weak? Was he even weaker than Deku if he had to rely on a quirkless weaking like that to save him?

No! He had to be strong! He had a quirk that let him make fucking exposions! He was going to be the number one hero and there was no way Deku or any of those other useless extras were going to stand in his way!

He was going to be even better than All Might, but would All Might treat Deku like he had? But, all his teachers knew that he was going to be a hero, and they would have told him if he wasn’t acting like a hero, right? They were always going on about how Katsuki had what it took, and heroes were better than everyone else, so he was better than Deku right?

So why did he feel so bad? At first he’d just thought that sludge must have just been making him nauseous or something because there was no logical reason for him to feel this way. He was strong, he obviously wasn’t doing anything wrong! 

But...what if he was?

Katsuki threw off the covers and went to his computer. He obviously wasn’t going to be getting any sleep anytime soon, he might as well do something productive. He found himself looking up how to be a hero. There were obviously the articles that he’d read a million times before about how to apply to hero schools, what it took to get a license and all that crap, but that wasn’t what Katsuki was really looking for. He frowned before typing something else into the search bar.

How is a hero supposed to act?

He clicked on a video of All Might and rushed to put the headphones in so that he wouldn’t wake up his dad. The hag slept like a rock, so he wasn’t worried about her. The interview was a few years old, and All Might grinned as he sat across from the host, the couch sagging under the weight of his massive muscles. The host looked like a baby in comparison, but it was always possible they were smaller than normal because of their quirk. 

“So All Might, I know that a lot of kids dream of being a hero like you.” The host began.

“As well they should!” All Might laughed. “It’s a difficult career, and it’s definitely not for everyone, but if you have what it takes, it is extremely rewarding!”

“Exactly! And we all know how physically grueling heroism can be, but what about emotionally? All Might, what do you think it takes to be a hero at heart, even for those that will never get a license?”

“Hmm, that’s a good question.” All Might paused for a moment as if he was thinking. “I think a hero is someone who gives others hope. They lift others up at every opportunity and encourage them to be better! The people we heroes defend will almost always be weaker than we are, if this wasn’t the case then everyone would defend themselves and heroes wouldn’t be the essential career they are today, but it is our responsibility to make sure they find their inner strength and become the best people they can be.”

“What about heroes like Endeavor, who have been known to look down on their fans?”

“I can’t speak for every hero, of course, but I personally wouldn’t have gotten to the number one spot if I spent my time and energy insulting my fans.” Katsuki froze as All Might turned to look at the camera and it felt like he was staring right into his soul. “A hero isn’t someone who insults others. A hero is kind and comforts people in the midst of disasters. My mentor once taught me that if a person is in need of saving, that means they are going through the worst day of their lives. If you insult them rather than saving them with a smile, are you really, truly saving them? Or are you making the worst day of their lives even worse? That’s why I believe a hero should always strive to be kind, make others happy, and give them hope. That is what truly makes a hero!”

The interviewer laughed and moved onto the next question as the studio audience applauded the nation’s symbol of peace and Katsuki was left to stare at his reflection in the screen as it went dark as the next video in the playlist loaded. 

Crap.

Chapter Text

Shouta had never really understood the appeal of bars. He supposed that Yamada or Shirakumo probably would have dragged him along when they got old enough if they had actually started their own agency like they’d always planned, but...well, Shouta just thought it was irrational to dull his senses with alcohol and loud music when there was work that needed to be done. 

Which was what brought him here, overlooking the bar district while partiers enjoyed the nightlife. Amplifier had only been out sick for a day or two, but since the last trigger incident had been in her territory, Shouta had asked for her permission to stick around and look for any leads. He’d been hanging around for almost two weeks and, while he’d managed to find a few small dealers, there hadn’t been another major incident. 

Shouta heard Amplifier’s voice echoing from a few streets over and he sighed and started running in that direction. It was probably nothing she couldn’t handle, but he may as well lend a hand as long as he didn’t have any of his own leads to chase. As he got closer to the fight, however, he almost stopped in shock. He wasn’t the only one who had shown up to the fight. 

Crouching on the rooftop, eyes glued to the fight below, was Viridian. The kid had a small notebook out and Shouta wondered how he could even see what he was writing in the sparse light. It couldn’t be good for his eyes. He could see the kid’s lips moving as well, so he was probably muttering something, but the words were drowned out by the sound of aplifier’s quirk. 

The kid had also gotten some more gear, apparently, which alleviated some of Shouta’s worries that Viridian wouldn’t be able to defend himself. He had added a belt to his costume, which held his tin can and a couple...sticks? Hopefully they were more durable than the ones he’d tried to use last time Shouta had run into him. There was also a slingshot hanging from one of the loops, and Shouta nodded in satisfaction. At least the kid had enough sense to cover his long range defenses. 

He decided he’d watched long enough, he should get Viridian to give him an overview of the situation, since he’d most likely been the one to lead Amplifier to the fight in the first place, “Does she need any help?”

Viridian yelped and clutched his notebook to his chest as he turned around with panic in his eyes. Shouta snorted, “Seriously kid? I would think a vigilante would have more situational awareness. How do you manage to sniff out crimes as well as you do if you couldn’t even tell I was behind you?”

“W-well, E-eraserhead sir, um, you are one of the most stealth based heroes out there, and Amplifier’s quirk is based on volume, so you probably used her quirk to cover your own approach, unless that’s not what you were trying to do, but then again, I guess I was kinda distracted watching the fight and…”

Shouta rolled his eyes as he went to the edge of the roof and looked down. Amplifier had stopped yelling and seemed to be comforting the victim as a group of thugs struggled weakly on the ground, “You lead her to this one?”

Viridian nodded frantically, “The guys were drunk and I didn’t want them to hurt that girl because she was alone and I really didn’t like the way they were looking at her and…”

Shouta cut off the kid’s rambling, “Good work kid.”

Viridian gave him a bright smile, like Shouta had congratulated him on saving the world rather than just one girl, and practically started vibrating with excitement, “T-thank you, Eraserhead sir!”

“Like I said before, kid, it’s just Eraser.”

“Oh,” Viridian’s face fell and Shouta hoped he was imagining the glimmer of tears behind his goggles, “I-i’m sorry, E-eraser…”

“It’s not a big deal, kid.” Seriously, he hadn’t been expecting Viridian to be so emotional. What was up with the kid? He hadn’t actually done anything wrong. Well, he hadn’t if Shouta ignored the whole vigilante thing, but there was nothing actually wrong with calling him by his full hero name. So why had a simple correction been enough to move the kid to tears?

Maybe he should change the subject, “So, what were you writing?”

Viridian quickly hid the notebook in one of the pouches on his belt, “Oh, um, nothing?”

Shouta shot him an unimpressed look, “Really, kid? If you’re going to lie, at least come up with a better excuse. Let me see.”

“It’s really nothing!” 

Shouta raised one eyebrow. 

“It’s just...my notes are silly and kinda embarrassing.” Viridian finally muttered. “It’s just some thoughts on the fight so I can figure out what Amplifier was doing and maybe do something similar in the future. I mean, it’s nothing special, I know it’s kinda creepy.”

Shouta raised an eyebrow at him, “You’re learning by example, that’s smart. I wish my students had half that drive.”

Viridian’s head snapped up and he looked at Shouta with wide eyes, “You’re a teacher?”

Shouta snorted, “Yeah, I expel brats at UA. Maybe if you actually stay off the streets, you could actually be in my class in a few years.”

Viridan looked at the ground and started fidgeting with the sleeves of his hoodie, “Do you teach the hero course students?”

“Yes…” Shouta looked at Viridian curiously. “I teach the first years.”

“Then I won’t be in your class.” Viridian shook his head. “I...I can’t be a hero.”

“Why…?”

“Bye, Eraser! See you later!”

Viridian started scrambling down the fire escape even though the roofs were close enough together that it’d be easier for him to parkour away. Shouta thought fast and wrapped his capture weapon around one of Viridan’s wrists. He stopped and Shouta could feel how hard he was trembling just from the way his capture weapon moved. 

“Kid, do you not know parkour?”

“P-parkour?”

Shouta rolled his eyes, “Yes kid, parkour. You know, running across rooftops without dying? It’s pretty essential in this line of work.”

“Um,” Viridan had started fidgeting with his sleeves again as soon as Shouta released the tension on his weapon, “I don’t...no? I mean, I guess I’ve considered it, but I’ve never really learned, so...no?”

Shouta sighed, “Follow me.”

He made his way down the fire escape, waving to Amplifier as they passed her and was pleased when he saw that Viridian had actually started following him. He really should be working on finding leads, but it didn’t look like anyone else was going to put in the work to make sure this kid didn’t die. 

It didn’t take them long to reach a skate park a few streets over. It was practically abandoned at this time of night except for a few homeless people and drug dealers, but as long as they left each other alone, Shouta wasn’t going to worry about them. 

He turned around, forcing Viridian to stop quickly to avoid running into him, “Alright, first thing’s first, you have to learn how to fall.”

“Um...I thought the point of parkour was to not fall…”

Shouta gave him a deadpan glare, “No. the point is to not get hurt when you fall. You’re always going to fall, especially early on, and that’s why you have to start small.” He gestured to the park. “Places like this are a good place to practice early on because you don’t have that far to fall. Tonight, though, I’m just gonna teach you how to roll.”

“You...you’re going to teach me?!”

Shouta rolled his eyes, “Yes, kid, I’m going to teach you. Why else would I have led you here?”

Viridian shrugged, “Catch me?”

Shouta sighed again, “Not tonight kid. Little known fact is that we heroes, especially underground heroes like me, often prefer to work with vigilantes than against them. If you get overly violent or turn to villainy, that’ll change pretty quickly, but for right now, we’re good. Just don’t tell the cops, they’re a little more uptight about the whole thing. Alright, now like I said, you’re always going to fall. Rolling is a good way to make sure that your momentum gets dissipated gradually so that it doesn’t hurt your body. You don’t get hurt by moving fast, you get hurt when you suddenly stop moving.”

That made Viridian chuckle, which Shouta decided to count as a win considering he’d made the kid cry earlier, “We’re not going to start from on top of a wall, you’re not ready for that right now, but just watch me.”

Viridian cried out as Shouta dove toward the ground, tucking his arm under him so that he rolled over his shoulder and landed back on his feet, “That’s a basic roll. Now let’s go slow and I’ll talk you through it.” 

Shouta spent the next hour coaching the kid on some of the basic movements of parkour and giving him some exercises that would give him a decent foundation. The kid was obviously unused to the movement, but he was a pretty fast learner, all things considered. Occasionally, Viridian would stop to adjust the tools on his belt so that the weight didn’t get in his way, or he would take out his notebook and write something down before putting it away again. Shouta couldn’t help but be a little curious about it, even though the kid had told him it was nothing.

“You should take notes on villains too.” Shouta said as Viridian reached for his notebook yet again after Shouta had taught him a new movement. “Taking notes on heroes is good, so you can learn what they do, but knowing what villains do is arguably more important.”

“Hmm,” Viridian finished writing what he was going to and put the notebook back in his belt, “but you don’t fight repeat villains all the time, and everyone has unique quirks, why does it matter how a particular villain fights?”

“Think about it, kid.” Shouta sat down on one of the low walls and gestured for Viridian to sit next to him. “Yeah, you might not ever come across that exact quirk again, but take Present Mic and Amplifier. Their quirks might not be identical, but…”

“But they’re similar enough that what works against one might work against another…” Viridian said slowly. “So the more I understand different villain’s quirks, the more strategies I’ll be prepared to fight with!”

Shouta nodded. At least the problem child was quick on his feet. Not that Shouta didn’t already know that, considering that he’d won his first fight with literal garbage. “You’ll also get better at looking for weaknesses. Right now, because you’re trying to emulate heroes, you’re automatically looking for people’s strengths, when what you really need to be focusing on is their weaknesses.”

Viridian had pulled his notebook back out and was apparently taking notes on everything Shouta said. Now he really wished the kid was one of his students. Shouta glanced at his watch and stood. 

“You’d probably better get to bed, kid, don’t you have school tomorrow?”

Whatever eagerness Viridian had been showing only moments before disappeared as the kid seemed to shrink in on himself, almost like he was trying to make himself a smaller target. Why…?

“Goodnight, Eraser. Thank you for your help! Sorry for bothering you!”

He almost stopped the kid from running off again, but by the time he realized Viridian was going to run, he was already around the corner. Damn, he knew the kid was fast, but seriously? He sighed and made his way back to the rooftops. He’d wasted some time, but he couldn’t bring himself to regret it. 

After all, an extra set of boots on the ground couldn’t hurt, right?

Chapter Text

How did Shouta get himself into these situations?

There had been a trigger enhanced next level villain attack earlier that day, so he was doing the rounds, shaking down any trigger dealers he knew to try to get some leads while the police tried to figure out the poor guy’s identity. The first few had been just what he expected, but this last one had shot up as soon as Aizawa started asking questions and now he was trying to figure out how to lead this guy away from populated areas. And he was a mutant type, so there was that. 

The dealer had a crab-type heteromorphic quirk, which hadn’t been a big deal when his skin was just a bit more durable and there was an extra pair of arms, but now his skin had hardened into an armored shell and his hands and turned into razor sharp claws and Shouta couldn’t erase it. So far, he’d just been dodging all of the villain’s attacks and waiting for the trigger to wear off. This batch must have been more potent than most, however, because they’d been doing this dance for ten minutes now and the guy wasn’t even out of breath. 

Sneak attacks were really much more effective, not that he couldn’t do drawn out battles, but he didn’t prefer them for various reasons. One of those reasons being that the longer he fought, the more likely it was for him to blink and miss something important, such as one of the claws reaching out and tangling itself in his capture weapon. Within seconds, the crab villain had managed to spin his claws in such a way that Shouta was tangled in his own weapon and his hands were pinned to his side. Dang it. If he made it out of this alive, Tsukauchi would never let him live this down. 

The villain was grinning down at him as he gradually tightened the weapon until Shouta couldn’t breathe, then tightened it some more. Suddenly, Shouta felt something whiz by the top of his head and hit the villain right between his eyes, making him stagger back and loosen his hold on the capture weapon. Shouta gasped for air and tried to yank his capture weapon back, but the villain had already recovered. Swearing, he reached for his knife to cut the weapon right as his opponent moved to tighten the noose again.

Suddenly, the villain cried out in pain and clutched his eyes. Shouta didn’t waste any time cutting the weapon free of the villain’s claws and stepping back to catch his breath. Now that he wasn’t about to die, he glanced to the side to see who had helped him, only to see Viridian trembling beside him with his slingshot still at the ready. The kid’s expression was frozen halfway between determined and terrified, a fact that Shouta probably would have laughed at in any other situation. 

“Get out of here, kid!” Shouta yelled. “This guy’s on trigger, he’s out of your league.”

Izuku knew that he should listen to Eraserhead. This guy was...a lot bigger than most of the small fry he’d managed to take down alone. Even Eraser was having trouble with him! But that was exactly why Izuku knew that he couldn’t leave! If he left, even if it was to go get another hero, then there was a chance that Eraserhead would be dead by the time he came back and he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if that happened. Besides, it’s not like he was taking a huge risk fighting this guy. Eraserhead would be able to save so many more people than Izuku could if he survived this fight, and he was a hero that would still be able to fight his way out even if the villain killed Izuku.

That was why Izuku didn’t hesitate to run forward, ignoring Eraser’s yells behind him as he switched his slingshot out for his pipes. If only one of them could survive this fight, Izuku had to make sure it was Eraserhead and not a useless Deku like him. Izuku just hoped he could distract the villain long enough for Eraserhead to beat him. 

He’d been aiming for the villain’s eyes to get him to let go of his victim earlier, but Izuku’s aim wasn’t very good yet and it had taken a few tries, which was why he’d decided to switch to close range. Besides, he didn’t think his marbles would do much good against the villain’s shell anyway. He didn’t know if his pipes would do much better, but at least they were easier to aim. 

He tried to review what he knew about crabs as he got closer, but he couldn’t think of any obvious weaknesses, except for maybe the joints. Even if the guy’s skin was hardened into a shell, there had to be breaks in it so he could move around and Izuku had had enough action figures break at the joints that he knew how fragile they were. 

He brought both pipes down on the bend of one of the villain’s arms, hoping he was right, and had to duck quickly as one of the claws was aimed toward his head. He rolled just like Eraser had taught him to and got to his feet to see the arm he’d targeted hanging a little more limply. 

“Eraser! Aim for the joints!”

He heard Eraser yelling something at him again, but focused on running forward again and hitting one of the villain’s knees. If he could just decrease his mobility…

He rolled away as the villain stumbled and he looked to see that Eraser had wrapped his capture weapon around one of the villain’s arms and used that as leverage to singshot himself and kick at the villain’s hips. So cool! The only problem was that even though the villain had collapsed onto the ground from the combined force of both their attacks, he still had a solid hold on Eraser’s capture weapon and was trying to tangle it around Eraser like he had been when Izuku arrived. 

Izuku dodged another hit from the villain’s flailing arms and switched to his knife. He was still nervous to really use it, but it’s not like he was actually using it on the villain, right? He just needed to cut the capture weapon so that Eraser could get free. He unfolded the blade and ran forward, trying to slash the cloth as close to the villain’s arm as he could. It took a few passes, since the cloth must be mixed with some kind of metal, but Eraserhead had gotten out his own knife and together they managed to get him free. Izuku hesitated only a moment before tossing his pipes to Eraser, who caught them with a confused look on his face. 

“Your capture weapon isn’t a good match for this villain. It’s only gonna keep getting tangled.” Izuku’s eyes widened as he realized he’d just told a hero what to do. “Not that you have to use my pipes! I mean, you obviously know a lot better than I do and you’ve been doing this a lot longer and…”

“Viridian, look out!”

Izuku only caught a glimpse of the freaked-out look on Eraser’s face before the blunt part of one of the villain’s claws hit him in the stomach and threw him hard against one of the walls. Good thing he’d already given Eraser his pipes. 

Shouta froze as he watched Viridian, a literal child, get batted against the wall and pass out. Or hopefully pass out. The kid was slumped over and had gone limp, but Shouta didn’t know what he’d do if the kid was…

He turned back to the villain with rage in his eyes, clutching the pipes Viridian had given him like a lifeline as he practically growled, “Big mistake.”

He ducked and dodged every attack the villain threw at him and used the pipes to bludgeon the joints. He wasn’t used to fighting with them, but he had to admit that they were much more effective than his capture weapon against this particular villain. Within minutes, the villain collapsed in a pile on the floor and started to shrink down as the trigger finally wore off. Shouta texted Tsukauchi to come pick the villain up and ran to help Viridian. 

“Kid, can you hear me?”

Viridian groaned, “Eraserhead? Are you ok? Did you win?”

Shouta looked at the kid in shock, “Am I ok? Am I ok? You just got thrown against a wall, problem child! You’re lucky you didn’t die!”

Viridian shrugged as he got to his feet. Shrugged!  

“Well, you beat the villain, didn’t you? So it was worth it.”

Shouta opened and closed his mouth a few times as he tried to figure out how to respond to that, “No! Kid, that was stupid and reckless! Don’t do that again.”

“...ok.”

He didn’t like the fact that he could tell Viridian was lying. If the kid kept putting himself in dangerous situations like this, which it sounded like he was going to, then he was going to get himself killed. Shouta needed to make sure that didn’t happen. And he needed to make sure the kid was actually okay after that blow. 

“Come on, kid. I’m taking you to the hospital.”

The kid shook his head frantically, only to stop with a wince, which meant that the kid most likely had a headache and probably a concussion as well. All the more reason to get him medical attention. He grabbed onto the Viridian’s arm, careful not to hold on too tight in case the kid was bruised there. 

“No offense, problem child, but I’m not giving you a choice. You need a doctor.”

Viridian frowned, but stopped fighting and let Shouta start leading him down the street toward the nearest hospital. Shouta sighed with relief and tore his eyes away from the kid so he could see where they were going, which was why he missed the way the kid’s arm wound up for a punch. 

The hit was sloppy, but Viridian actually managed to punch him right on the nose with a surprising amount of strength. Instinctively, his hands went to his face as his eyes watered and by the time he’d recovered enough to see again, Viridian had already disappeared. 

“Damn problem child.” Shouta muttered as he made his way back to the downed villain. “What am I gonna do?”

Chapter Text

Izuku had to pause in the middle of putting on his school uniform as the weight of what he’d done last night came crashing down on him. He’d been too tired last night to really process what had happened, but now the panic was back with a vengeance. 

He’d punched Eraserhead!

Eraser had to be so mad at him. He’d just been trying to get Izuku to a hospital but then he’d panicked about what would happen if they figured out who he was, which meant that Mom would figure out what he’d been doing, and she would be so worried and scared and he really didn’t want to do that to her, so he had to get away, but if he wanted to get away, he had to make Eraser let go of him, and he really wasn’t thinking that clearly, and the first stupid thought he’d had was to punch a hero in the nose! Whatever respect Eraser had for him was gone, not that he could’ve gained that much considering that Izuku was a quirkless middle schooler who couldn’t even aim his slingshot correctly, but that didn’t matter because it was gone now and he was never going to get it back. 

Good work, Deku, his inner Kacchan said, you managed to fuck things up even worse than you ususally do.

He didn’t want to have to face Eraserhead again. Maybe he would die before he had to see him! That would be good. Maybe he would go out tonight and there would be some villain attack, maybe even another trigger villain, and Izuku would just step in instead of getting a hero and then it’d all be over quickly and he wouldn’t have to deal with Eraser’s anger, or Amplifier’s disappointment, or Mom’s worry, or Kachan’s…

Izuku shook his head forcefully, he wasn’t supposed to be thinking things like that. Besides, with his luck that probably wouldn’t work anyway. Even if everything went well and he died, the fact that he didn’t go get a hero for such a big villain would be suspicious, and then what would happen if they realized he’d wanted to...and then they’d look into Kacchan and he wouldn’t be able to go to UA and it would all be Izuku’s fault!

Izuku shook his head again and winced as he realized he had a headache he’d been ignoring. His ribs hurt more than his head did, though. He knew he probably had a little concussion, but it was nothing compared to that time Kaachan had pushed him off the slide on accident and he’d hit his head, so Izuku wasn’t that worried. He shrugged off his shirt so he could put some cream on his ribs, tensing as the cold cream hit his skin. After that, he finished getting dressed and grabbed his backpack. He didn’t want to be late for school. 

Katsuki tuned out the extras that surrounded him as he ate his lunch. The old hag had packed the extra-spicy curry today, so he knew it was gonna be good. 

“Look guys, it’s Deku.” One of the extras at another table called out and sure enough, Katsuki looked up to see Deku walking into the cafeteria with his shoulders hunched. The extras sitting at his table looked to see how he’d react, but he just scoffed and turned back to his lunch. Heroes didn’t pick on their classmates, no matter how much they deserved it, and he was going to be the best hero!

“What’s up, Deku?” The extra with extendable fingers asked. “Still alive?”

A small group of their classmates had surrounded Deku by this point and even some of the extras at Katsuki’s table had gotten up to go join the fun. The extras were grinning and laughing like Fingers had just made the funniest joke on earth, but Deku himself was just staring silently at the ground.

“Why so quiet?” Another extra, this one with boulders for hair, asked. “Finally realize that no one cares what you have to say?”

Well, that might be true , but it probably wasn’t very nice to say. Katsuki knew he was acting like a bit of a hypocrite. It wasn’t like anything they were saying to Deku was new. Katsuki himself had always prided himself on being especially creative with his insults, after all, so in comparison, these extra’s insults were boring and almost as plain as Deku’s face. So it wasn’t like the extras were saying anything that Deku hadn’t heard before, or anything they hadn’t heard Katsuki himself say. 

But Katsuki wanted to be like All Might, which meant that he wasn’t going to waste his time insulting people anymore! His classmates didn’t have any hope of being heroes, though, so it was ok for them to insult Deku, right? Or was that wrong too? What would All Might do if he was here?

Boulders had taken that moment to punch Deku in the ribs, making him gasp in pain. Hmm, either Boulders had gotten stronger or Deku had already had sore ribs. Had some of the other extras given him a beating when Katsuki wasn’t looking? Thinking back, Deku had been walking kinda funny all day, like he was sore or something, and goodness knows that the nerd wasn’t athletic enough to be sore from exercise. 

“Hey, save some of that air for those who deserve it, nerd!”

Katsuki looked to some of the teachers who were eating at a small table in the corner. They had to know what was happening, it wasn’t like those extras were being quiet. So why weren’t they doing anything? Why hadn’t they ever done anything? Wasn’t it their job to keep kids from getting hurt or something?

What would All Might do if he were one of them. He’d probably tell those kids off for being unheroic. But the teachers weren’t doing that. Katsuki watched them as the extras kept insulting Deku and one of them even glanced over and chuckled before turning back to his lunch. That...well it was normal, but it didn’t seem right . Why wasn’t anyone doing anything?

Why wasn’t he doing anything? 

The thought made Katsuki stop. Was he supposed to step in? All Might probably would, but that brought him back to the whole hypocrisy thing. What gave him the right to step in and protect Deku when just a month ago, he was one of the ones...well, maybe attacking him wasn’t the right way to phrase it, but still. Even if he were to step in, Deku probably wouldn’t trust him at all, and all the useless extras might think that Katsuki was admitting that Deku was better than him, or that he was weak…

The curry turned to sawdust in his mouth, spicy sawdust, but still flavorless as Deku silently picked the remains of his lunch off the floor and threw them away after one of the extras had knocked it out of his hands. He didn’t really know how to describe what he was feeling, he just knew he didn’t like it. He was the best, he’d always been the best, and if there was anything the best wasn’t, it was a coward, so this annoying feeling couldn’t be fear. 

Could it?

Izuku walked through the hardware store much more confidently this time, now that he actually knew what he was looking for and how to find it. He should have just picked his pipes up when he left last night’s fight, but even though the concussion hadn’t been that bad, both it and the pain from being thrown into a wall had made it difficult to focus on anything besides getting away so Eraser wouldn’t tell Mom about his vigilantism.

Which meant that the pipes had been left to rot among all the other garbage in that alley and Izuku needed to replace them. He couldn’t bring himself to regret giving them to Eraser though. If he’d kept using his capture weapon, there was a good chance he would have gotten hurt, so the pipes were obviously the better option. Not that Eraser’s capture weapon was bad! It was actually really cool and worked against a lot of villains so that he didn’t hurt them any more than he had to and…

Oh, right, Izuku was here to get pipes.

He should probably buy a few backups to keep in his closet too, just in case he ever lost them again. Yeah, that’d be a good idea. And zip-ties. It wasn’t a big problem when he helped heroes, but Izuku had been having problems restraining the small-time villains he was able to take down on his own. Most of the time he was able to find some kind of rope or cloth to tie them up with, but it would be nice to not have to worry about that anymore. 

Izuku was extremely proud of himself when he managed to get to the checkout stand with only the items on his list, unlike last time when he’d ended up with a lot of other stuff too. To his surprise, his casier was the kid with the electricity quirk he’d talked to last time. What was his name again? Oh, right, Kaminari!

“Hey dude!” Kaminari smiled as Izuku put his basket down on the counter, “Nice to see you back here!”

“T-thanks.” Izuku said. “Um, how is your electricity training coming? Were any of the electricians willing to teach you?”

Kaminari nodded eagerly, “One of them actually offered to make a temporary apprentice! I’m learning all about the basics and how circuits work and stuff. I didn’t even realize that my quirk might not be effective against a flying villain, isn’t that insane?”

Izuku nodded. That was one of the main limitations of electric heroes, they couldn’t actually electrocute something that wasn’t grounded. But the way that he talked about villains specifically, “Are you going to be a hero?”

Kaminari shrugged and smiled, “That’s the hope. My quirk is flashy enough for it, so it’s just a question of if I’m actually smart enough to get in. Cash or card?”

Izuku smiled encouragingly as he handed over a handful of cash, “You can do it!”

Kaminari put the pipes and zipties in a plastic bag, “Thanks, dude! I’m sure gonna try! Hey, what are you making anyway? You were buying pipes last time.”

Izuku didn’t know how to respond to that, so he just shrugged. 

Kaminari laughed, “Alright, keep your secrets dude. Good luck with whatever it is though.”

Izuku nodded, “And good luck with your apprenticeship! See you later!”

Izuku had never really been lucky, in fact he’d been mostly the opposite, but he was grateful for Kaminari’s words anyway. He’d run into Eraserhead eventually, and then he’d need all the luck he could get.

Chapter Text

Izuku hesitated before grabbing a marble out of the pouch on his belt. Why couldn’t Amplifier be closer? Or even Rock Lock? He could have dealt with that. But why did it have to be Eraserhead? Izuku instinctively looked back even though the mugging he’d come across was a few streets away. Maybe he’d be able to handle it on his own...he could just go back, but there were five big guys and the victim didn’t look like he’d be able to run away fast enough if Izuku were to die, which was likely considering he was still injured from his fight last night. 

Izuku groaned in frustration, then threw the marble, which bounced off Eraserhead’s back. Izuku’s jaw dropped at his reflexes as Eraser whipped around and immediately grabbed the marble out of the air before it could hit the ground. He looked at it for a second in confusion before looking around. Izuku winced as he saw the ugly bruise spreading across Eraser’s nose. He was such a bad person. 

He froze as Eraser’s eyes zeroed in on him, but his expression was strange. Eraser should be really angry and Izuku had been expecting a scowl like Kacchan had when Izuku annoyed him, but instead Eraser looked...relieved? It must just be because Izuku couldn’t see his eyes, or he was just be terrible at reading facial expressions because there was no way that someone would be relieved to see the person who punched them in the nose! Eraser must just be hiding his anger. 

Izuku smiled apologetically and started running. This was so embarrassing! Eraser probably wanted nothing to do with him and yet here he was asking for help from someone who he’d hurt. He didn’t deserve Eraser’s help. He’d just have to stick around and help with the fight so Eraser didn’t have to work as hard! He couldn’t just punch him in the face, then expect him to do all the work. 

When they reached the mugging, Izuku ran right in, Eraserhead close behind him. The thugs were big, and at least two of them seemed to have minor strength enhancement quirks, so Izuku should try to handle the others first. He rushed toward a skinny guy who was manifesting short blades from his skin. He would probably get cut a few times, but it was better he got hurt than Eraserhead. He probably deserved some extra pain after what he’d done. 

Suddenly, the blades disappeared and Izuku glanced behind him to see Eraser glaring at his villain, “Viridian! You have a slingshot for a reason! Don’t just run in recklessly!”

Izuku’s eyes widened. He was right, he’d bought his slingshot so he didn’t have to get close to villains if he didn’t have to. And Eraserhead had had to cancel the knife villain’s quirk to remind him of that, which meant that he wasn’t able to worry about the others, which meant that Izuku had messed everything up again. Nice going, Deku. He quickly got out of the knife quirk user’s range and jumped on top of the dumpster so he had a good view of the fight, then got out his slingshot and a handful of marbles. 

He started pelting all five thugs with as many marbles as he could without hitting Eraserhead. Mostly he just distracted the villains long enough for Eraserhead to get a hit in, which honestly worked pretty well. It had only been a few minutes and Eraser had already managed to put two thugs out of commission! He was so cool!

Eraserhead was focused on fighting the two strength quirk villains and Izuku was focused on creating an opening for Eraser, so neither of them noticed one of the thugs literally melt into the shadows and make his way to the dumpster Izuku was standing on. Izuku screamed and almost lost his balance when a creepy smile suddenly popped into exitence in front of him, but before he could fall, the shadow villain grabbed his arm and flipped Izuku over his shoulder, slamming him hard onto the concrete. 

Izuku grit his teeth as he forced himself to roll to his feet like Eraser had taught him and grabbed his pipes. He lowered himself into a battle stance as he tried to keep his eye on the villain, but he simply melted into the shadows again, then popped up behind Izuku and kicked him in the back. This fight really wasn’t good for his still-bruised ribs. 

Izuku ran through what he knew about the guy’s quirk. Ok, so he could blend in with shadows. Was he using it as a disguise to make himself invisible, or was he actually changing the shape of his body? Maybe he was using it to teleport? As the villain started to disappear again, Izuku ran forward and grabbed at the air. There! The villain was still there, he simply became invisible in darkness! 

Izuku grinned and closed his eyes. If he couldn’t rely on his sense of sight, he’d just have to use his other senses. Kacchan’s explosions could get bright enough to temporarily blind someone and he’d gone through a phase in elementary school where his favorite past-time was to blind Izuku during recess, then have his lackeys attack him while he couldn’t see. Izuku had had to learn to  dodge based only on sound and movement and eventually he’d gotten good enough at it that Kacchan decided the game was too boring and he’d stopped. Izuku just hoped he wasn’t too out of practice. 

Izuku took a deep breath. He could hear Eraser fighting those other two villains a little farther away, but let that fade into the background. He only needed to worry about the sounds closest to him. There was a footstep off to his left and a slight breeze by his shoulder, so Izuku leaned right and felt the punch fly past him. Ok, he could do this. There were a few more steps, then a change in air pressure on his other side, so he dodged again. The next punch came quicker, since the villain was probably trying to be unpredictable, but Izuku ducked so that the punch only knocked his hood off rather than breaking his nose. 

The next punch was on his left again, but it was eerily similar to Kacchan’s right hook, so Izuku was ready! He grabbed the man’s arm and yanked as hard as he could, imitating the way Amplifier moved her feet when she judo-flipped villains. He opened his eyes to see the guy lying dazed on the ground, so Izuku hurried to flip him over onto his stomach and zip tie his hands behind him before he could disappear again. He’d done it! He’d taken him down!

Shouta was freaking out. He’d heard Viridian scream a few minutes ago, but he couldn’t afford to take his eyes off the two villains he was fighting. He just had to hope the kid would be alright. Viridian had been doing this for two months now, he knew enough not to die. It was just a question about whether he would actually use what he knew. Damn problem child. 

But for right now, Shouta had his own problems to worry about. These two couldn’t do too much in the short time that it took to blink, but he still needed to end this quickly. He used his capture weapon to grab one and toss him into the other, but that one was sturdy enough that he just grunted, then threw another punch. Shouta jumped into the air to dodge, and flipped to land behind the guy without ever taking his eyes off him, a trick he’d perfected in high school. He managed to kick him in the kidneys, but by that time, the first one was back on his feet and swinging for Shouta’s face too fast for him to dodge. 

Shouta flinched, but before the hit could land, the villain was hit on the side of the head with a soup can and went down. Shouta glanced back to see Viridian standing there with that same half-determined, half-terrified expression he’d had during their last fight together, having obviously just thrown the can. In the split second Shouta watched, Viridian grabbed his slingshot, which had somehow ended up on the ground, and drew it back. 

“Duck!”

Shouta didn’t hesitate to comply and a second later, a marble shot over his head and he heard the final villain swear. He turned and shot his capture weapon out in one fluid movement, catching the still swearing villain by surprise. He wrapped the weapon around the man’s ankle and launched him into the wall, then grabbed him by the hair and hit his head against the wall to knock him out. When that was done, Shouta looked around frantically to make sure Viridian was alright, only to find him already comforting the victim. 

Shouta looked around the alley and took stock of the situation. In addition to a zip tied villain that Viridian must have taken down, the floor was littered with marbles and...was that Viridian’s notebook? Shouta glanced over at Viridian, who was now making sure the victim called the police. It must have fallen out of the problem child’s pocket sometime during the fight. 

He picked the notebook up and, against his better judgement, started leafing through it. So he was curious, sue him. There were diagrams notating different fighting styles along with what heroes used them and Shouta smiled fondly when he realized that the kid had been trying to imitate some of his moves as well. He kept reading and was pleased to find that the kid had started focusing on villain analysis recently. 

He didn’t recognize most of the villains Viridian had written about, so he didn’t bother to read carefully, but there was one entry about a villain Amplifier arrested a week or so ago that caught his eye. She’d been complaining about how hard it was because the guy’s quirk let him see through solid objects, a skill he’d been using to peek inside women’s restrooms in the bars he visited. He’d managed to hide from her for a good while because he’d just hide behind something so she couldn’t see him, but he’d always been able to see her coming. Eventually, Viridian had apparently led her to him, but the whole chase had lasted several hours. 

Viridian’s notes were mostly stream of consciousness, and his handwriting got messier the faster he wrote, so it took a few moments for Shouta to get used to the style and figure out what the notes said, but when he did...whoa.

Guy seems to be an emitter type. Always runs away moments before Amplifier finds him, like he already knows she’s coming. Some type of premonition quirk? Probably not, those are super rare and highly regulated, if someone like that were a villain, the government would know and warn the public, that’s what they’ve done before when it’s happened. So other possibilities? Maybe he sees her coming? Some remote vision quirk? How did he get caught in a chase then? Limit? He doesn’t seem to run until she’s right around the corner, so x-ray vision? Then...there must be objects he can’t see through...lead? Impractical. But if he’s looking through objects, then he won’t think to look up!

Thinking back, Amplifier had said she was surprised because Viridian led her over the rooftops to find the peeping tom. Had he done that specifically to counteract the man’s quirk? He’d managed to figure out the villain’s quirk and how to work around it just from watching what he did, without knowing anything about him beforehand. That was amazing!

Shouta went back and started reading some of the other analyses more carefully. If he’d thought that the peeping tom analysis was the exception to the rule, he’d been wrong. Every analysis showed similar depth and thought, and could easily rival a professional analysit’s skill, even if Viridian’s weren’t as polished. Shouta had been assuming that Viridian had a mild speed quirk, but from what he’d read so far, an analysis quirk was more likely, and a powerful one at that. This kid…

“Eraserhead, sir?”

Shouta looked up to see Viridian staring at the notebook in his hands. Well, he may as well let the kid know what he thought, since he’d already been caught, “These analyses are pretty impressive, kid.”

To his surprise, rather than accepting the praise, Viridian shook his head, “No they’re not. I just write things down so I don’t forget them, it’s not like I’m writing anything special.”

Shouta’s eyebrows shot up,“You don’t think this is anything special? Kid, you figure out people’s quirks and how to beat them within minutes.”

Viridian shook his head again, “Anyone can do that, they’re just smart enough that they don’t have to write it down to remember it. I’m not smart like them.”

Shouta frowned. From what he’d read, the kid was probably a genius, so he must be joking when he said he wasn’t smart. Unless...but Viridian’s self esteem couldn’t be that bad, could it?

“Don’t kid yourself, problem child,” he held up the book, “I wish my students were half this smart.”

Viridan fidgeted for a moment before suddenly snatching the notebook out of Shouta’s hands and running off. Shouta groaned and considered chasing after him, but some of the villains were already starting to wake up and the police would be arriving any moment. Damn problem child. 

Izuku was already a few blocks away by the time he stopped to catch his breath. He’d have to be more careful with his notebook, that was so embarrassing! Eraser had to lie and call him smart just to be polite even though he’d probably been creeped out by Izuku’s stupid ramblings just like his classmates were. Because there was obviously no way he actually believed Izuku was smart, right? But...Eraserhead also didn’t really care about politeness and social norms, so he wouldn’t lie just to be polite, so...but he also hadn’t seemed as angry as Izuku expected considering that he had a bruise from when…

“Dang it!” Izuku muttered. “I forgot to apologize!”

Chapter Text

Shouta couldn’t help playing with the marble Viridian had thrown at him earlier as he sat by Tsukauchi’s desk after his shift. The kid was smart, making the marbles pull triple duty as a way to call heroes, ammo, and a sort of makeshift signature. Viridian would be a popular and effective hero if he’d just get off the streets and into a hero program, but first, he’d have to learn how to take better care of himself, because he really shouldn’t be on the streets the night after he was almost killed.

The kid must have an insane pain tolerance to be out and fighting so soon. The only indication that Viridian had been injured at all was a moderately slower running speed and a slight stiffness when he twisted, but he hadn’t let it hold him back as he fought. Shouta didn’t know if Viridian had broken his ribs, or just bruised them, but the kid shouldn’t be so used to working through the pain. He also shouldn’t be used to hiding his injuries. Shouta wasn’t even sure the problem child had been doing it consciously, because the way the kid had been doing it instinctively, like pretending he was fine was a habit he’d developed after years of practice. 

And wasn’t that concerning? Viridian’s obviously high pain tolerance and tendency to hide his injuries were just the latest entries in a disturbingly long list of concerns that Shouta had about the kid. He ran straight into danger when the most intelligent thing to do was run away, and if there was one thing Shouta knew, it was that Viridian wasn’t stupid. He’d known the kid was smart just from the way he’d memorized everyone’s patrol routes and that intelligence had only been confirmed by the way he targeted any weakness he could in his target’s defenses. 

But then he’d seen the notebook. 

The kid was probably a genius and Nedzu would be salivating if he’d had a chance to read what Shouta had, and yet the kid insisted he wasn’t smart. At first, Shouta had assumed he was joking, but the more he thought about the conversation they’d had earlier, the more he realized that Viridian honestly believed what he’d said. Shouta didn’t know if he even wanted to think about what must have happened in Viridian’s life to convince the kid that he was an idiot despite his obvious skills and that was even more true if he had an analysis quirk.

Which brought Shouta back to his list of concerns. If the kid thought he was stupid despite his intelligence, what other lies did he beleive? Did he somehow think he was worthless? Did he think that his life was worth less than the lives of the people he saved? Shouta thought back to the fight with the crab villain. Viridian hadn’t thought twice about giving up his weapons so Shouta could fight more effectively, and then the first thing he’d done after the fight was ask if Shouta was ok, with no regard for his own safety or well being. 

It was like Viridian had decided in that moment that it was ok if he died, as long as Shouta lived.

He stared at the marble again, seeing how the green and black swirled together. Was the kid….?

“Oh! You got one too!” 

Shouta flinched as Amplifier’s overly peppy voice practically yelled behind him and he almost dropped the marble. As it was, he fumbled it and only just managed to palm it before it rolled onto the floor. 

He turned to glare at Amplifier, who smiled sheepishly at him, “Sorry…”

“What do you guys have?” Tsukauchi asked as he walked up with paperwork and coffee.

“Viridian’s got a new calling card!” Amplifier grinned and dug around in her pockets before triumphantly showing Tsukauchi a green marble identical to the one Shouta had almost dropped. “He’s started throwing these instead of rocks so that we know it’s him.”

Tsukauchi frowned at the marble, then turned to Shouta, “And you have one too?”

Shouta sighed and showed Tsukauchi his marble. Honestly, he wouldn’t be surprised if the marbles became a badge of honor among the local heroes. He could see them turning into a sort of membership card for an exclusive club of heroes Viridian trusted even though Viridian went to heroes based on availability, not trust or competence. Still, he wouldn’t put it beyond his colleagues to start collecting them. 

“It seems he’s embracing his popularity then.” Tsukauchi said bitterly. “If he’s putting in the extra effort to have a signature.”

“I don’t think that’s what he had in mind.” Shouta said as he put his marble away. “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Viridian somehow got his hands on a slingshot, and the marbles are his primary ammo. As far as I know, he wasn’t actually planning on them being a calling card.”

“He has a slingshot!?” Amplifier bounced up and down in her seat. “Have you seen him use it? Is his aim any good?”

Shouta nodded, “He hasn’t mastered it by any means, but he’s good enough to get the job done. He led me to a group earlier and kept pelting them with marbles to distract them and make them easier for me to take down, and he didn’t hit me once. He’ll probably get better with it the longer he trains, but for now, he seems to be more comfortable with close range combat. He has some dual wielding pipes that he uses as bludgeoning weapons.”

“Pipes?” Tsukauchi asked. “Aren’t they considered an improvised weapon? Why didn’t he invest in something better, like tonfa? There are more than enough illegal weapons dealers that he wouldn’t have a problem finding something.”

“And yet the problem child chooses to use something that can be bought at literally any hardware store.” Shouta said. “It does make him harder to track.”

“Not that we’re going to bother.” Amplifier piped up. “He’s not hurting anyone.”

“He’s a vigilante.” Tsukauchi said sternly. “And we need to be prepared to capture him if he ever crosses the line into villainy. You both know how common that is.”

They were all silent for a moment as they remembered Stendal and the other vigilantes who had turned. Vigilantes tended to make extremely frightening villains. 

“Viridian’s still young.” Shouta said finally. “There’s still time to guide him onto the right path.”

“Yeah!” Amplifier agreed. “He’s just a kid, so go easy on him, Tsuky.”

Tsukauchi signed heavily, “Just keep an eye on him. If he gives any indication that he’s going too far, you need to bring him in. If we catch him quickly enough, he might even be a candidate for the vigilante rehabilitation program.”

“That dusty old thing?” Amplifier asked. “I thought it was just an artifact from the time when hero licenses were still getting started. Has anyone even gone through the program in the last few decades?”

“It’s not common by any means,” Shouta said, “because society expects heroes to start legally now, but the laws are still on the books. Since the program hasn’t been overturned, law enforcement can still petition the hero commission to allow a vigilante to participate, provided that they don’t use excessive force in their takedowns.”

“And since vigilantes like Knuckleduster, who routinely beat villains to a pulp, are more common,” Tsukauchi said, “most modern vigilantes don’t qualify. The hero commision isn’t likely to approve an untrained kid like Viridian for the program anyway, otherwise I’d try to get him approved now.”

“I guess that makes sense.” Amplifier pouted. “But I would still love to see Viridian as a legit hero. Can you imagine seeing kids with green hoodies and little marbles on keychains or something?”

“What makes you think he’ll even want merch?” Shouta said. “He might want to stay underground.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Amplifier waved away his concerns. “He’s a happy young teenager, of course he wants to be famous!”

Shouta frowned. The kid had only had one article written about him, but even that had seemed to make him uncomfortable. And Shouta was also worried that happy wasn’t the right word to describe Viridian’s mental state…

“What’s wrong, Eraser?” Tsukauchi asked. “Something’s nagging at you.”

“It’s just…” Shouta dragged a hand down his face, making him look even more exhausted than he actually was. “There’s a lot of little things that have been adding up and I’m not quite sure what to do about it.”

“Maybe we can help.” Tsukauchi said kindly. “What’s bothering you?”

“I think Viridian might be depressed.” Shouta said. 

“What?” Amplifier said. “He’s a teenage boy, why would he be depressed?”

“From what I’ve gathered, he doesn’t have the best life.” Shouta started rolling the marble between his fingers again, “Last night, he almost died helping me with a fight, but he was out again tonight, fighting like it had never even happened.”

“So he’s reckless.” Tsukauchi said. “That’s pretty common in teenagers. It doesn’t mean he’s depressed.”

“Yes, being reckless is normal in teenagers, I’m a teacher, so I know that better than most, but Viridian’s recklessness goes beyond what I see in my students.” Shouta said. “It’s almost like he believes that his life isn’t worth anything, which isn’t an attitude someone develops overnight.”

“You think he might be being abused.” Tsukauchi said in realization.

Shouta shook his head, “Not at home. Viridian’s never mentioned that, but when I mentioned school once, the kid completely shut down.”

“Bullies...” Tsukauchi said. 

Shouta nodded, “He acts like he’s used to hiding injuries and pain, so it’s possible he’s been trying to hide the bullying from his family.”

“That means he’s been treating his injuries himself, doesn’t it?” Amplifier said. “Remember that first time I actually talked to him? A store clerk got severe burns during a robbery and when I went to go check on the victim, Viridian had already given first aid. When I asked him how he knew how to do that, he just said he’d had a lot of practice. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but do you think…?”

Shouta sighed, “Unfortunately, yes, he most likely had to practice on himself. I don’t think the bullying is entirely physical, though. Psychologically…”

He trailed off. It was just a hunch, but he hoped he was wrong. He hoped that Viridian was emotionally resilient and had access to the correct resources to deal with the abuse he faced at home. He hoped that the problem child had become a vigilante because he thought they were cool or to annoy the heroes. But… 

Tsukauchi gestured for him to continue and Shouta sighed, “He doesn’t know his own worth. I got a peek at his notebook tonight and the kid is brillient, but he seems to genuinly beleive that he’s stupid. He runs into fights that he isn’t prepared for and he doesn’t seem to care about his own safety, despite the fact that he is almost excessively worried about the safety of the victims and even the heroes he’s fighting with. The first time I met him, I told him that he shouldn’t get into fights because he didn’t want to die and he hesitated! ”

Shouta rubbed the bridge of his nose in exhaustion and frustration as Amplifier and Tsukauchi stared at him with wide eyes. 

“I think Viridian might be suicidal.”

Chapter Text

A kick to Izuku’s shin woke him up. Had he fallen asleep in class again? He’d been getting a lot less sleep since he started going out as a vigilante, which of course led to him getting more tired during the day, but it only got worse now that he had a still-healing concussion. His teachers didn’t seem to care enough about Izuku to notice when he fell asleep in class, but his peers were apparently a different story. He looked up to see a few students crowded around his desk, but most of the class, including Kacchan, had already left for lunch.

“What’s the matter Deku?” That was the kid with extendable eyeballs that hung around Kacchan sometimes. “Busy night whoring yourself out or something?”

“No.” A kid with a minor glow quirk said. “Deku’s too useless even for that!”

Eyeballs laughed, “You’re right. Just do everyone a favor, Deku and die. Leave some oxygen for the people who actually deserve to breathe.”

Izuku stared at the floor and tried to ignore them as he gathered his books and stood to go to lunch. He was already halfway through the day, he could get through this. It was only another few hours. He made it all the way to the hall before his classmates started harassing him again. 

“Hey Deku!” Eyeballs growled. “Are you ignoring us?”

Izuku ran down the hall as fast as he could. If he could get to the lunchroom, then hopefully his classmates would get distracted by the promise of food and even if they weren’t, the beatings tended to be a little better if there were a lot of people around. Unfortunately, in his haste to get away, Izuku forgot to watch where he was going and ran straight into the kid in his class whose hair was made of boulders. 

“Watch it, Deku!” Boulders said. 

“I-I’m sorry!” Izuku stuttered. “I-I wasn’t looking where I was going and I just want to go to lunch, so….”

He tried to duck around him, but Boulders put a large hand on his shoulder and shoved him back before he could, “Do you think you can just run into me and not face any consequences?”

Izuku started shaking and turned around. If he could run before the other two caught up then he might be able to take a different route to the lunchroom and…

“There you are, Deku!” Eyeballs leered at him as he and Glow cut off his patch of escape. Izuku glanced behind him, only to see Boulders standing threateningly behind him.

“Were you guys looking for this nerd?” Boulders asked.

“Deku here thinks he can ignore us.” Glow said. 

“Yeah.” Eyeballs leaned into Izuku’s personal space. “He thinks he’s better than us.”

Izuku shrank, “N-no, that’s n-not it at all! I j-just really think we should be getting to lunch…”

“No,” Boulders turned both fists into rocks and slammed Izuku up against the wall, “I think maybe we should teach this quirkless loser a lesson first.”

Inko rushed to the school in a panic, almost forgetting her purse at work in her hurry to get to Izuku. The woman on the phone hadn’t said much, just that Izuku had gotten into a fight at school and that she needed to come pick him up. A fight? Her baby didn’t get into fights! He watched them, he analyzed them, but he didn’t get into them! 

What had happened? What if Izuku was hurt? What if he…Inko shook her head. No, she couldn’t let her anxiety get the best of her right now. Izuku needed her. She needed to be calm for Izuku. 

When she finally reached the school, she hurried through the front doors and followed the signs to the front office, “Excuse me? I got a call from you about my son, Izuku?”

“Mrs. Midoriya?” The secretary asked. Inko recognized her voice as the one who had called her telling her to come in. Inko nodded and the secretary gestured to a door off to one side of the office. “The principal is already waiting for you. Go right in.”

“Thank you!” Inko rushed through the door but stopped and put her hand over her mouth when she caught sight of Izuku. “Oh, baby!”

Izuku was huddling in a chair across from the angry-looking principal. His uniform was torn and would definitely need to be replaced, but that wasn’t what brought tears to Inko’s eyes. No, what brought tears to her eyes was the mottled collection of new bruises covering her son’s face and neck. From the way the bruises dipped below his collar, Inko had no doubt that his arms and torso were in a similar state. What had happened?

“Mrs. Midoriya, you’re here. Good.” The principal gestured for her to take the chair beside Izuku. “Now that you’ve finally arrived, we can discuss Izuku’s punishment.”

“Punishment!?” Inko looked between the principal and Izuku, who seemed to be trying to make himself small enough to disappear with no luck. “You haven’t even told me what this is about?”

“As my secretary explained over the phone, Izuku instigated a fight.”

“A fight!?” Inko looked at the principal incredulously. “Look at the state of my son! That wasn’t a fight, it was a beating!”

The principal’s mouth tightened into a stern frown. “He attacked a number of his classmates unprovoked and forced them to take defensive action. As I’m sure you are aware, Mrs. Midoriya, our school has a zero tolerance policy toward fighting and as such, I am suspending Izuku for two weeks.”

“S-suspension?” Inko shook her head. “What about the other students? Are they being suspended too for what they did to my son?”

The principal glared at Izuku, then at her, “We are not in the habit of punishing victims for defending themselves, Mrs. Midoriya. Your son was the one who started the fight, so he’s the one who will receive punishment.”

“What?!” Inko couldn’t help raising her voice. “But my son didn’t start that fight, I know Izuku, he wouldn’t do that. Those other children...”

“If you have a problem with the way I run my school, Mrs. Midoriya,” the principal interrupted, “then perhaps you should find a different one. ”

Inko stared at him in disbelief, “What?”

“That will be all Mrs. Midoriya.” The principal turned back to the papers on his desk. “Izuku will not be allowed back in school for the next two weeks. If he shows up on campus you will have to come pick him up and if it happens again, we will have no choice but to pursue legal action. Have a nice day.”

For the first time, Inko realized that the principal hadn’t once tried to ask her son for his side of the story or even allowed him to defend himself since she’d arrived. There was always the possibility that he’d given Izuku that chance before she’d gotten to the school, but with the way the conversation had gone, Inko didn’t think that was very likely. She’d been called here so the principal could execute punishment, not to resolve the situation or figure out what really happened. 

Izuku didn’t look up as they left and started walking toward the train station. What had been happening at that school? What had Izuku been going through? She knew that there had been a few problems with some kids being mean to him right after he was diagnosed quirkless, but he’d always told her so they could report the issue and then he’d said they stopped. Unless...

“It never actually stopped. Did it?”

Inko watched as Izuku froze, then seemed to physically force himself to keep watching. Her poor baby, he’d been going through all this alone for years! Why didn’t he tell her? They were all each other had! He should have told her, she could have…

Could have what? Gone to the principal? A fat lot of good that would’ve done. What could she have even done, if she had known?

“I’m not mad at you, Izuku.” She said quietly. “I’m sad that you felt like you couldn’t tell me, but I understand why you didn’t. You can be honest with me, baby. The bullying didn’t stop, did it?”

Izuku swallowed, then shook his head and Inko felt her heart break. Her baby was never this quiet. What had those boys been doing to him to force Izuku, who could hardly think without mumbling, to go completely silent. She wanted to...well, it probably wasn’t very healthy to want to hurt children. But they had hurt Izuku. They deserved it. 

“Thank you for telling me, baby.” Inko said. “I’m here. I don’t know what we’re gonna do, because the school obviously isn’t going to be any help, but we’ll get through this together, okay?”

Izuku looked up at her and smiled shakily, then winced as they started going down the stairs to the station. Inko frowned and looked at her son a little more closely. Sure, that wince could have been from any one of his numerous bruises, but...had he been cradling his left arm like that the whole time? How had she not noticed that? Well, she’d probably been distracted by the bruises and the jerk that called himself the principal, so she couldn’t blame herself, but from the way he was holding it, his arm had to be in a lot of pain. 

“Izuku, what’s the matter with your arm?”

Izuku froze and looked up at her with scared wide eyes before forcing a smile onto his face, “It’s nothing, Mom. Don’t worry about it.”

Inko frowned. The first words her son had spoken to her since this whole mess began, and he was trying to convince her that everything was fine. He obviously wasn’t fine, “It’s not nothing, Izuku, you look like you’re in pain. Let me see it.”

Izuku shook his head and tried to rush ahead further into the station. Inko didn’t know what possessed her to grab his injured arm to hold him back.

“Ow!” Izuku screamed and snatched his arm away from her, the tears he’d been holding back falling freely down his cheeks. 

Inko held up her hands calmingly, “Izuku, baby, you’re hurt, just let me look at it.”

He hesitated a long moment before extending the arm out to her and looking away in embarrassment. She gently rolled up the sleeve and gasped. The whole arm was turning an ugly shade of purple and Inko really hoped she was imagining the strange way it seemed to bend now that Izuku wasn’t holding it against his body. 

“Izuku, we’re going to the hospital.”

Izuku snatched his arm back again and rolled down the sleeve, “Mom, I don’t need…”

She shot him a look that shut him up, “Izuku, from the looks of it, that arm might be broken. You need to go to the hospital.”

Izuku went silent again as they switched directions and got on the train that would take them to the hospital, rather than taking them home. Inko didn’t like her son going silent like this, but it was preferable to him lying and insisting he was fine when he obviously wasn’t. What were they going to do?

Chapter Text

Izuku let Mom lead him into the waiting room and he sat down while she went to the desk to fill out the paperwork. When she was done, she came and sat beside him, but there wasn’t anything she could say to make the situation better, so they just sat silently until Izuku’s name was called. 

A nurse led them into an examination room and took Izuku’s vitals. She took in Izuku’s bruises, then looked at Inko suspiciously, “What happened?”

“Nothing!” Izuku said quickly. “I just fell…”

“There was a fight at school.” Inko interrupted. “He’s been hiding the bullying from me, so it makes sense he’d hide it from you as well, but you don’t have to do that anymore Izuku.”

Izuku stared at the ground again and the nurse nodded before she left to go get the doctor.

“Izuku…”

Whatever she was going to say was cut off by the doctor opening the door, “Izuku Midoriya?”

Izuku nodded and the doctor sat down beside the examination table he was sitting on, “Can you tell me what’s going on?”

“I’m fine!” Izuku said, “I can handle it, Mom’s just worried!”

“Izuku.” Inko was starting to get exasperated. Why wouldn’t Izuku let them help him?

“That’s ok.” The doctor smiled. “I’m sure you’re a strong young man. But why don’t you show me what your mom’s worried about, to ease her nerves at the very least.”

Izuku frowned for a moment before shrugging off his uniform jacket, then his shirt, struggling as he tried to undo the buttons one handed. Inko almost helped him, but one look was enough to tell her that Izuku needed to do that much on his own. She struggled not to gasp in horror when she saw the collection of bruises that had been hiding beneath his clothes, some already in the healing stages, which meant that this was far from the only beating Izuku had receieved. 

The doctor though, just took the injuries in stride and gently started prodding at his arm, “Does this hurt?”

Izuku winced, but shook his head. 

The doctor sighed, “I’d feel more comfortable getting some x-rays, ok? Mrs. Midoirya, you stay here, and I’ll walk Izuku over to radiology, okay?”

Izuku thought everyone was overreacting. Sure, his arm hurt, but it wasn’t broken. Probably. Honestly, Izuku hadn’t thought through what would happen if it was and they hadn’t gone to the hospital, but his arm didn’t hurt enough to be broken. After the x-rays were taken, he was expecting the doctor to lead him back to the room where his mom was waiting, but the doctor led him to a different one instead. 

The doctor closed the door and turned to face Izuku, “Midoriya? I just want to let you know that you’re safe here and we will do everything in our power to help you, ok?”

Izuku nodded. He wasn’t quite sure why the doctor was telling him this. Wasn’t that what doctors were there for?

“Good.” The doctor siad. “Now, is everything ok at home?”

Izuku looked at the doctor in confusion, “Yes? Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Well, sometimes when kids come in with injuries like yours…”

Izuku’s eyes widened, “You think Mom did this to me? No!” he tried to instinctively wave his arms in front of him, but winced at the pain the action caused. “No, Mom would never hurt me.”

“Are you sure?” The doctor asked softly. “You don’t have to protect her.”

“No! I just…” Izuku started crying again. “I love my mom! I didn’t tell her about the bullying because I didn’t want her to worry and there’s nothing she could have done anyways and I didn’t want to get anyone in trouble, but then it got worse and I still didn’t tell her and then today happened and then the principal called and I didn’t want to come here and now she’s gonna get in trouble and it’s all my fault and…”

“Breath, Midoriya.” The doctor sounded slightly panicked. “Your mom isn’t going to get in trouble. We just needed to make sure that there wasn’t any abuse happening and for that, we needed to ask without her in the room. I didn’t mean to scare you, I’m sorry.”

Izuku nodded shakily, “O-okay, that makes sense. Sorry.”

The doctor smiled, “It’s not your fault. I’m glad your mom’s taking care of you, just...let her know in the future. Make her job a little easier, okay?”

“O-okay.” He felt a little bad for lying to the doctor, but things would be so much better if Mom just thought this was an isolated incident. She wouldn’t have to worry so much. 

The doctor walked him back to the room where Mom was waiting and opened the file the radiologist gave him, “Alright, it looks like you have a break in your left arm, but your ribs are fine, so that’s the good news. I just need to set the bone and put a cast on it and you’ll be good to go. What color do you want?”

Izuku shrugged. A few months ago, he probably would have gone with All Might colors, but now…

“Green’s fine.” He decided finally. It didn’t need to match his vigilante gear, but green was his vigilante color, so it made him feel...useful? Not like a deku who got his arm broken at school and got his mother accused of child abuse. He was so stupid. 

The cast took longer to put on than Izuku had thought it would. It had to dry in-between the various layers, but by the end, he had a semi-comfortable cast that encased his arm from the elbow down. Now if only he actually had friends to sign it. 

“Alright, Midoriyas, you’re almost good to go. I’ll just send in the nurse who can go over how to care for the cast.” 

“Thank you so much.” Mom said. 

The doctor smiled, “My pleasure.”

Once they were alone, the same awkward silence fell that had dominated the whole afternoon. Inko looked over at Izuku and wondered how to bring up what she’d started thinking about while Izuku had been getting his X-rays.

“I don’t think that school is working.” She said finally. 

Izuku looked at her, “What?”

“The school.” She said. “I don’t think it’s a good fit. If they knew what those other kids were doing to you and blamed you instead of doing anything to stop it, then…” she sighed, “but I know how close you’ve always been with Katsuki. I don’t want to separate you from him.”

Izuku bit his lip and Inko could see his brain working overtime as he debated what to say. 

“I-I don’t think Kacchan would miss me.” 

Inko felt her heart break all over again. Had Katsuki…? She’d hoped that he had protected Izuku because he wanted to be a hero, but with how broken Izuku sounded, and how convinced he seemed that Katsuki wouldn’t miss him, then...oh, her poor baby.

“We could look into transferring you to a different school.” She said.

To her surprise, Izuku shook his head, “There wouldn’t be any point. I’m the problem and that’s going to be the same wherever I go. Going to a new school would just mean I’d be quirkless and the new kid.”

Inko frowned. Unfortunately, she saw Izuku’s logic. The bullying had started because he was diagnosed quirkless and Izuku was right, that wasn't going to change. She’d like to believe that a new school would be better and kinder, but...kids were cruel. There was a good chance his new classmates would be just as bad or even worse than the ones he had now. She couldn’t do that to him.

But she also couldn’t, in good conscience, send him back to Aldera. Not after how they’d had the audacity to blame him for being bullied. But what other options were there?

“What if we could find something online?” She suggested. “You can’t be bullied by other students if there are none.”

Izuku looked skeptical, “Does something like that even exist?”

Inko shrugged, “I don’t know, but if it does, would you at least look into it? See if it’s something you’d be interested in?” 

Izuku thought for a long moment and Inko was starting to get worried she’d somehow said the wrong thing when Izuku smiled, “Okay, Mom. I promise I’ll look into it when we get home.”

“Tomorrow.” Inko said. “When we get home, we’re not going to worry about anything except eating dinner and watching TV. deal?”

Izuku laughed, “Deal.”

There was a knock on the door and the nurse walked in, “Hello, Midoriyas. I’m here to give you some instructions, then you’ll be good to go. That cast needs to stay on for about six weeks to give your arm adequate time to heal. Keep it dry and don’t participate in any sports or vigorous activities that could irritate your arm until you get the cast off. Make sure to call us if you think anything is wrong and that’s about it! You’re free to go.”

Mom thanked the nurse and they left. Izuku felt his stomach twist as he mentally reviewed the instructions. He wasn’t allowed to do any physical activity that could jostle his arm for the next month and a half. If he did, he could reinjure his arm, which would just cause more trouble for everyone and put Mom through all this worry all over again, and he couldn’t do that to her.  

So what was he supposed to do about his vigilantism?

Chapter Text

Shouta looked over the file for the crab villain as he waited for Tsukauchi to arrive so they could interrogate him. Of all the trigger dealers he’d shaken down over the past few years, most just evaded his questions and a few tried to run, but no one else had shot up before he had the chance to ask a single question. In Shouta’s line of work, a reaction like that meant that the person had something to hide. 

According to his files, the crab villain was named Jun Hamasaki and some mid level dealers had pointed Shouta his way, saying that he sold them the drugs. He couldn’t be anywhere near the top, he didn’t have anywhere near enough connections to bring the drugs over from America, but he was the highest-level dealer Shouta had found so far. Everything pointed to Hamasaki knowing something. 

Which is why he had fought tooth and nail, even against a kid like Viridian. Shouta took a deep breath and reminded himself that trigger often induced rage, so Hamasaki probably hadn’t been thinking entirely clearly when he almost killed Viridian. Shouta tried to ignore the voice in his head that said that he’d been thinking clearly when he dosed himself, and he clearly knew what would happen. It wouldn’t do any good to punch Hamasaki in the face the moment he entered the interrogation room, but that didn’t mean Shouta had to like the guy. 

Tsukauki calmly walked through the door to the station and put his trenchcoat on the chair at his desk, “Sorry I’m late, Eraser. I was having lunch with an old friend.”

Shouta grunted in response, “Are you ready?”

Tskuauchi nodded and took the file, then led Shouta to the room where Hamasaki was waiting. They had to pass through the observation room first, which meant that Shouta got a good look at the villain through the glass. He had been expecting the guy to be defiant, considering how hard he’d fought to avoid being arrested, but instead Hamasaki was pale and jittery. He looked terrified. 

Tsukauchi saw him staring, “He’s been like that ever since you brought him in. We’ve tried telling him he’s safe here, but he obviously doesn’t believe us. It definitely lends credence to your assumption that he actually knows something.”

Shouta nodded and followed Tsukauchi through the door. They both sat down at the table opposite Hamasaki, who looked even worse close up. One of his hands was tapping at the table and a thin sheen of sweat coated his forehead despite the fact that the room was air-conditioned. He had information, that much was certain, the only problem now was getting him to talk.

“Alright, you know why you’re here.” Tsukauchi began. “Eraserhead picked you up a few days ago for trigger possession and assaulting a pro-hero, both of which have prison sentences attached. However, the law is willing to be lenient and take time off your sentence if you provide us with useful information.”

Hamasaki shook his head, “I don’t know nothing.”

“You fought tooth and nail to avoid answering my questions.” Shouta said dryly. “Who sells you the trigger?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Hamasaki glanced up at the camera and Shouta frowned. Was he scared of dirty cops? That couldn’t be. Sure, the trigger operation was growing, but villains had to have a significant amount of power to pull a cop to their side and that took time. Trigger had only been in Japan a few years, so he had to be scared of someone else. 

“We could try to find a way to sweeten the deal.” Tsukauchi tried. “Surely there’s something that would make your life more comfortable behind bars. Maybe protective custody?”

“Doesn’t matter how comfortable a cell is if you never live to see it.” Hamasaki muttered.

“We have the resources to protect you.” Shouta said. “Whoever’s behind trigger, they can’t be powerful enough to reach you in witness protection.”

“You’re underestimating him.” Hamasaki said darkly. “You think it’s just some guys in their mom’s basement, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. You don’t know what you’re dealing with.”

Shouta looked at Tsukauchi, who leaned forward, “Then tell us. Who are you so afraid of?”

“I…” Hamasaki hesitated, then slammed his mouth shut. “No. I’m not saying nothing else.”

“Well then I guess we’ll just have to learn the hard way.” Tsukauchi stood up. “Come on, Eraser. This guy obviously doesn’t want to tell us anything. It’s his fault if we die because we didn’t know who to avoid.”

Shouta stood. He wasn’t sure Hamasaki was going to be so easily manipulated, but Tsukauchi had already made his move and, well, it was worth a try. They certainly weren’t going to get anything by bargaining. 

To his surprise, they had hardly opened the door to leave when Hamasaki spoke up, “No one’s ever seen him.”

Shouta and Tsukauchi shared a glance, then closed the door and sat back down. 

“It’s just one man?” Tsukauchi asked. “Behind the whole trigger operation?”

“It’s bigger than you think.” Hamasaki said softly. “It’s not just trigger, but...just stop looking into it. He’s too powerful, you’ll never stand a chance.”

So the man behind the Japanese trigger operation had a fearsome reputation. It wasn’t the first time Shouta had run into a villain who used his reputation to make sure people didn’t fight back. Most of the time, those guys were all bark and no bite. They talked up their quirks and connections, but were b-ranked villains at the worst, not the s-ranked ones they made themselves out to be. 

“Do you have a name?” Tsukauchi asked. “So we know who to avoid.”

Hamasaki shook his head, “Nobody knows his name, but...they call him the symbol of evil.”

Shouta narrowed his eyes. The symbol of evil. Like a play on the symbol of peace? No wonder people were so scared of this guy if he made himself out to be All Might’s equal. He glanced over at Tsukauchi, surprised to see fear in his expression as well. He had to know that this symbol of evil was bluffing, right?

Suddenly, a piercing alarm split the air, making all three of them flinch. Sansa came running into the room not a second later, fur on end as he yelled, “There’s a villain attack right outside! We need all hands on deck!”

Shouta swore and ran outside, hands already on his capture weapon. There was a small crowd outside and civilians were screaming as they ran away from the dozen or so minor villains that were attacking at random, like they were trying to do the greatest damage in the least amount of time. The media vultures were already starting to pull up and film, though they at least had the good sense to stay away from the main fight. 

The villains were more like thugs, but there were still enough of them to be dangerous if Shouta didn’t take them down quickly. He activated his quirk and looked at the closest one, some guy will bullets shooting out of his fingers, then quickly wrapped him up and flung him toward the waiting police, then started in on the next one. 

Rock Lock had turned up while Shouta had been fighting, so he managed to take one of the villains down by locking a rope in place around him. Between the two of them, it only took them another ten minutes to round up all the villains and get them into police custody. It wouldn’t have taken so long if there weren’t so many of them. Gangs hadn’t been a problem since All Might beame number one, so how had so many thugs decided to attack the police station at the same time? They had to be pretty stupid to attack a place that they knew was filled with police. Even if they weren’t scared of the cops, pro-heroes were always in and out of the station, so why attack? It just didn’t make sense.

Slowly, they managed to get all the villains off the street and into the holding cells inside the station. There was going to be so much paperwork! Thankfully most of it would be done by the police themselves, but still, Shouta wasn’t looking forward to it. That could wait, however, until he and Tsukauchi finished interrogating Hamasaki. 

The attack had terrible timing. They had just been starting to get useful information when they’d both had to leave to handle the attack, so hopefully they’d be able to just pick up where they left off, though Shouta wasn’t getting his hopes up. It had been a miracle they’d been able to get as much as they had out of the guy, and the attack would probably have spooked him silent. It was annoying. 

He tracked down Tsukauchi and together they made their way to the interrogation room. Shouta almost didn’t bother looking through the window before entering, but when he did he had to do a double take. He looked to Tsukauchi to make sure he wasn’t seeing things before they both swore and barged into the empty room. 

“This is the same interrogation room, right?” He asked. “This is where we left him?”

“Yes.” Tsukauchi looked pale. “He was still cuffed to the table when we left.”

Shouta looked more closely at the room. The cuffs were gone as well, which wasn’t normal for an escape. Most of the villains who tried would pick the cuffs, then leave them behind so they wouldn’t be slowed down by the dead weight. If Shouta didn’t know better, he’d almost say that Hamasaki had never been there at all. 

Tsukauchi was already striding back out into the bullpen, “Sansa! What happened to the villain we had in interrogation room six?”

Shouta followed to see Sansa at the front desk looking through the log book, “It says here he was transferred, but that can’t be right. The villains were blocking the front entrance, so I suppose they could have taken him out the back, but the attack was taking up almost all of our manpower. The person who transferred him also forgot to sign their name.”

“Pull up the security feed.” Shouta said. “The cameras must have caught them leaving.”

Sansa grimaced, “One of the villains’ attacks missed their target and hit the power box. We just barely got the lights back on five minutes ago, but the station was in a black out for most of the attack.”

“So the cameras weren’t recording.” Tsukauchi clarified. 

“No, sir.”

Shouta looked at Tsukauchi and could tell he was thinking the exact same thing. The attack wasn’t random, neither was the power outage. The entire thing had been engineered by someone who didn’t want Hamasaki to talk to them. Shouta had been wrong. Whoever was behind the trigger operation was more powerful than he’d thought possible. 

And the only lead he had was the symbol of evil.

Chapter Text

Izuku had spent the entire day so far researching online schools while Mom was at work. She’d tried to stay home, but she’d had to leave early yesterday because Izuku was too useless to stay out of trouble, so Izuku wasn’t about to make her miss work again , just so he wouldn’t be alone. Thankfully, she’d listened when he pointed out that he wouldn’t be doing anything besides sitting on the couch all day, which he didn’t need two arms for anyway, and she’d left after she made him promise to keep the door locked. He was just happy that he wasn’t holding her back. 

In any case, if he was able to transfer to online school, he’d have to get used to being home alone during the day, since Mom obviously couldn’t afford to quit her job. There weren’t that many online schools, and those that did exist were mostly some sort of mixed format where students still had to show up once a week. That would probably be better than going back to Aldera, since he would only have to deal with bullies occasionally, rather than everyday, but something told him Mom wouldn’t see it that way. 

The whole point of him going to an online school was so that he wouldn’t have to deal with having classmates, so if he still had to attend classes, even infrequently, Mom would worry about how he was being treated. Izuku hated it when Mom had to worry about him. She didn’t deserve having a garbage son like him, she deserved a son she could be proud of, a son with a quirk. 

But that wasn’t going to happen, so it was Izuku’s responsibility to make sure she worried as little as possible. That meant that he couldn’t just put up with weekly bullying, since Mom might not believe him if he lied and said his classmates were being nice. That left him to find a school that was entirely online. There were only two schools that did not require in-person attendance. One of them seemed almost like a traditional school, where students showed up in video-chat classrooms at set times and turned in homework every day just like Izuku was used to at Aldera. There were two problems with that school, however. The first was that it seemed to include group projects, which might lead to Izuku being left out at best and cyberbullied at worst. The second was that it only accepted new students at the beginning of the semester, which meant that Izuku would have to stay at Aldera for several months until he was able to transfer. He couldn’t do that to Mom. 

That left Izuku with his final, and only, option. It apparently had options for everything from grade school until the end of high school and was entirely remote. According to their website, Izuku would just read articles and watch lectures associated with each lesson, then take tests and do assignments to test his learning. He would be able to work at his own pace, so he wouldn’t have to worry about how stupid he was, he could just go slower than average. He did have to complete each semester class within six months, but that sounded like something he could handle. And Mom wouldn’t have to worry about him having classmates that would bully him! 

There was only one problem. He would have to pass an entrance exam. 

He could take it at any time, so he wouldn’t have to worry about going back to Aldera while he waited for the new semester to start, but...was Izuku really smart enough to pass? Kacchan didn’t even get straight A’s and he was so much smarter than Izuku! What if he took the test and didn’t pass? Would he have to go back to Aldera? Mom would be so disappointed! He really was the worst son, wasn’t he?

He ignored the voice in his head that said that Eraserhead thought he was smart. Eraser had just been being polite when he saw Izuku’s notebook, there was no way he actually thought Izuku was intelligent. But Eraser wasn’t worried about being polite, so he could be telling the truth…

Izuku shook his head. That was too confusing. It was just easier to firmly remind himself that he was an idiot, just like Kacchan and his teachers always said, and leave it at that. That way he wouldn’t get his hopes up. When he inevitably failed out at the entrance exam, it would still hurt and Mom would still be worried, but at least he would already be expecting it. It was for the best.

Katsuki felt sick. The entire school was talking about how Deku got suspended. Boulders had been bragging about it all day, as had the other two extras that had been involved, so everyone already knew how Deku had been beat up so badly that the principal had to call Auntie Inko to come pick him up. Glow had said it was his idea to pin the whole thing on Deku, like he was proud of his creative thinking, and the principal had fallen for it hook, line, and sinker. 

But Deku couldn’t have started that fight. Katsuki knew that, Auntie Inko knew that, and the principal sure as hell knew that. So why had the school gone along with Glow’s story? Deku was a quirkless weakling who couldn’t even defend himself, so why would he start a fight with his classmates? Sure, those extras didn’t have awesome quirks like Katsuki’s, but their weak-ass quirks were better than nothing, and Deku had those stalker notebooks, and he obviously knew he couldn’t win, and even he wasn’t stupid enough to pick a fight, so what did the school get from blaming Deku?

Well, those three extras who had beaten him up had gotten off scot-free. But it shouldn’t matter to the school who got the punishment, right? They should be punishing those who were actually at fault, so that they knew they did something wrong. That’s what heroes did, at least. They put the bad guys in prison so they wouldn’t do anything bad in the future, even after they got out. Wasn’t that the way things worked?

If the principal was letting these guys get away with what they did, then who else had he let get away with stuff? Were there villains out there who were out beating people up because the school hadn’t done anything to stop them back when they went here? That was kinda messed up. It was a good thing that Katsuki knew better than to…

Katsku froze. 

How much had he gotten away with? He had already had to come to terms with the fact that he hadn’t been acting like a hero, but he hadn’t been acting like a villain ...right? The teachers all knew he wanted to be a hero! They all told him he’d be a good one! They wouldn’t just do nothing if he’d been acting like a villain, not when they all knew he was going to be the next number one!

But he’d hurt Deku, and it was villains who hurt people. Not heroes. Not civilians. Villains. Villains hurt people. He hurt people. He was a villain. 

Katsuki couldn’t keep himself from exploding his pencil, but the only reprimand he got was a stern look from the teacher for interrupting class. Katsuki couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened to Deku if he’d done something like that, obviously not exploding his pencil, because he didn’t have a quirk to do that, but if he’d been loud? He’d probably have gotten detention at the very least. 

Why had no one ever given him detention? The school hadn’t even done anything when he’d...when he’d told Deku to....Katsuki crushed the charred remainders of the pencil. The teachers heard those extras telling Deku to kill himself every damn day, but they still didn’t do anything. How long had Katsuki been a villain without realizing it?

He couldn’t trust his teachers, not anymore. How was he supposed to be the best if they wouldn’t even tell him what he was doing wrong? He had to be better! He had to change and actually act like a hero if he was ever going to be the best! And he was going to be the best. He was going to be the best hero, no matter what stupid challenges got in his way, no matter how much he had to change, no matter if those stupid teachers couldn’t be bothered to do their fucking jobs, Katsuki was going to be the best!

But how?

Jun Hamasaki woke up chained to a table. Immediately, he started pulling at the chains and even tried cutting them with his claws, but without any trigger in his system, there was no way he’d be getting out. What happened? He’d been at the police station, then there had been alarms and that detective had left alongside the hero who arrested him, then another officer had come in and opened a tiny bottle with a single mechanical...

He groaned. He knew the symbol of evil, whoever he was, was powerful enough to have some dirty cops on his side. He should have known that they wouldn’t leave him in police custody, he knew too much. It probably didn’t even matter that he’d said anything, they still would have dragged him back here anyway. 

Speaking of, where exactly was here? It would have been easier to just kill him, inject him with a poison rather than a sedative, but instead they’d kept him alive. Well, as long as this wasn’t the place they did their experiments, he’d be fine. 

The door creaked open and Jun craned his neck to try and get a better look at either the room or his visitor, but unfortunately, aside from a bright lamp over his head, the rest of the room was dark. There was some shuffling in the general direction of the door, then he heard a high-pitched squeaking that set his teeth on edge, almost like someone had forgotten to oil the wheels on one of those old metal wagons. 

The comparison wasn’t too far off, apparently, because his visitor finally stepped into the light pushing an old metal cart loaded with a variety of tools and bottles that Jun didn’t want to know the uses of. His blood ran cold as he realized the man was wearing large round glasses and a lab coat. The doctor.

The doctor took a voice recorder from his pocket and pressed a button, “Phase three, experiment two. Hypothesis: through a combination of mutation and trigger, an elevated quirk level can be achieved even after the drug is out of the system.”

“P-please, d-don’t do this.” Jun didn’t care that pulling at the chains hadn’t worked before. He couldn’t be turned into...it didn’t matter if none of the others remembered the actual experimentation, he didn’t want to...this couldn’t be happening!

The doctor didn’t seem to care about his pleas, though, since he picked up a thick syringe off the cart and moved to stand over the table, the light reflecting off his thick round glasses so Jun couldn’t see his eyes, “Time of first injection: 8:24 pm.”

Chapter Text

Izuku had spent the last week cramming non-stop for his entrance exam. He still wasn’t entirely confident in his ability to pass, but he’d reached the point in his studying where he was starting to forget more than he learned, which probably meant that he should just take the exam, even if he’d inevitably fail. At least then he’d be able to move on and put his eggs in other baskets. 

Mom was at work and had left that morning after giving him a kiss on the cheek and wishing him luck on his test. She had promised him Katsudon that evening as well, either as a congratulatory meal or as comfort food, it would depend on how Izuku thought he did. Izuku didn’t really see the point of her going through all that trouble for him, but there was a selfish part of him that was just so happy that she cared. He wished that part didn’t feel so good. It made the rest of him feel worse. 

Just before noon, Izuku finally put his books to the side and went to the school’s website, clicking on the tab that would take him to the entrance exam. He spent about half an hour filling out his basic information, like his name, what other schools he’d gone to, his gpa for the last year, etc, cursing the fact that his cast made it so hard to type. He could still move his fingers, but his entire arm itched and started to ache if he used it too much, so at least for the next few days, he’d be stuck chicken-pecking at the keyboard. It was annoying. 

Finally, he reached the welcome screen and read through the instructions. The test itself was 200 questions, and he had three hours to complete it. Izuku glanced at the clock. It was 12:00, which meant that he had until 3:00 to finish the exam. That would mean he had just under a minute to answer each question, but that didn’t count the time that he’d have to use to check over his answers at the end. Izuku took one last shaky breath before clicking the button that said: Start Exam.

The questions were deceptively easy. Izuku had assumed that he’d have to rush to complete each question in under a minute, but he was able to answer most questions almost instantly, which gave him more time on the more difficult questions, like the ones in the math section. If Izuku wasn’t freaking out about the fact that his entire future depended on him doing well on this test, he’d almost say it was...fun? Was that weird? He could almost hear Kacchan telling him that he was a damn nerd. 

Before he knew it, Izuku had answered every single question. He sighed in releif and looked at the clock, it was now 1:25, which meant he still had...wait a minute. Izuku felt a cold wave of anxiety wash over him. How long did he have again? Izuku knew it had a three in it, but did that mean he had three hours? Or was it one hour, thirty minutes? How long was he supposed to spend? He couldn’t have finished in under half the time, so it must have just been an hour and a half, which meant that he only had…

Izuku looked over at the clock again and started freaking out. It was 1:28! He only had two minutes! He didn’t have any time to look over his answers! But if he didn’t look over his answers, he wouldn’t have a chance to change any of his answers, which meant he had no chance of passing! Unless he really did have a full three hours, but if he didn’t have a full three hours and tried to go back and check his answers, then he’d miss the deadline and fail by default! But if he didn’t check his answers, then he wouldn’t pass! How long did he have? Was it three hours or an hour and a half?!

Izuku glanced at the clock one last time. 1:29! It was better safe than sorry, right? Wasn't it better to get half the questions wrong than turn it in late? Izuku flailed as he scrambled to press submit, then frantically froze as he realized what he’d just done. What had he just done?! This was terrible! He hadn’t even checked any of his answers!

His eyes stung as he tried to hold back his tears. It looked like Mom’s katsudon was going to be a comfort meal, afterall.

Shouta curled up in the corner of the staff room at lunch and scrolled through the obituaries. He vaguely knew that he was just making things worse for himself, but he couldn’t help checking every day, a sick sense of dread deep in his stomach as he desperately hoped that he wouldn’t recognize any of the photos. Not that he’d ever seen Viridian without the mask, but he knew that the kid was young and had green hair. Plus, the fact that suicide would be listed as the cause of death would be a dead giveaway. 

When the kid hadn’t shown his face for a few days, Shouta had hoped that he’d finally taken some time off to heal from some of his injuries. He’d thought that maybe the kid had actually grown a small sense of self-preservation, but that only went so far, and it had now been over a week since Shouta had seen Viridian. He’d even checked with Amplifier and Rock Lock, but neither of them had seen him, and Tsukauchi said that no one matching Viridian’s description had been found dead from a villain fight. Even some of the other nocturnal heroes were starting to ask about the missing problem child, and they didn’t even run into Viridian that often in the first place!

Shouta really hoped that Viridian’s sudden disappearance didn’t mean anything, that maybe the kid’s parents had somehow found out about his nightly activities and that they had forced him to stop, or maybe that he had just gotten bored, but deep down, he knew that wasn’t the case. The problem child had thrown himself headfirst into vigilantism to the point where he had become entrenched in the city’s hero scene in only a few months, and the kid seemed to enjoy it, so Shouta couldn’t imagine that he’d ever give that up, not unless...unless…

He shook his head and put away his phone. It wouldn’t do any good to worry himself into exhaustion. The most he could do was keep an eye on the obituaries and hope to every deity he knew that Viridian hadn’t decided that suicide by villain was taking too long. Maybe he was just reading too far into things and Viridian’s mental health wasn’t nearly as bad it seemed and he was just out of town. But if he was just out of town, then why hadn’t he given any warning before disappearing? 

Shouta groaned and stretched as he emerged from his cocoon to get ready for his next class. Thankfully, his current class had responded well to his logical ruse, and he hadn’t had to permanently expel that many of them, so he still had quite a few students who were actually showing promise now that they were taking things seriously. He just needed to remind himself that he had more than enough brats to worry about without fretting about the problem child. Didn’t make things any easier, but it was the most logical course of action. 

“Hey, Shouta!” Mic’s yell made him flinch and wish he’d actually gotten a nap. “You look like a mess, is something on your mind?”

“Doesn’t he always look like a mess?” Snipe asked. “What’s the difference?”

Shouta glared at him while Midnight struggled to hold back laughter. 

“I can’t explain it.” Mic insisted. “But Shouta has his normal dishevelment and his anxious dishevelment, and today, it looks like he’s worried about something. Is one of your students giving you trouble?”

“Not one of my official ones.” Shouta muttered, but it didn’t seem like anyone heard him. 

“Oh, are you gonna expel someone else?” Ectoplasm asked. “Dang, I’m gonna lose the bet.”

Shouta glared at them, “You shouldn’t bet about how likely I am to expel my students.”

“We’re not betting on if you’ll expel your students!” Mic yelled. 

“No, we’re betting on when you’ll expel your students.” Midnight added helpfully. 

Shouta groaned, “If you must know, I’m worried about something on my patrol. There’s just a vigilante that’s been hanging around and I haven’t seen him for a while. I’m just hoping nothing’s happened to him, that all.”

Midnight grinned, “Aww! I knew you had a heart! What are you gonna do?”

“There’s not much I can do.” Shouta grumbled. “Damn problem child.”

“Well,” Mic said, “when he shows his face again, ground him. That’ll teach him to mess with you!”

Shouta rolled his eyes and ignored the sick sense of worry in his stomach that just wouldn’t go away. He wished that he’d noticed Viridian’s depression sooner. Maybe if he’d caught it before the kid had disappeared, he could have convinced the kid to get some therapy. Even if Viridian refused to go, Shouta still could have found some way to help so that the kid didn’t feel like he had to...Well, he just hoped it wasn’t too late. 

But one thing was sure, if by some miracle, Viridian was still alive, Shouta wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

After changing out of his school clothes, Katsuki walked to the address he’d found on the internet. The building was plain, just a community center with a shitty playground off to one side and a couple of rooms for art classes and support groups, but he ignored them for right now and walked to the front desk. The lady behind it smiled at him as she waited for him to find the words. Stupid...why was this so hard?!

“Um, I was wondering,” Katsuki cringed, he was practically stuttering almost like Deku, “I was wondering if there was a hero named Amplifier here? I read on your website that…”

The receptionist nodded, “Sure thing! Amplifier!” She called back into the offices behind her. “You got a visitor!”

“Awesome!” Amplifier was a lot... bouncier than Katuski had been expecting. Considering the program that the website said she ran, he’d been expecting her to look a lot more intimidating. “What can I do for you kid?”

Katsuki’s mouth went dry and the only thing that kept him from running out the door was the fact that he wasn’t some shitty coward, “You’re the fucker that runs the rehabilitation group for villains on probation, right?”

Amplifier blinked a few times before she grinned, “That’s me! We meet once a week and focus on rehabilitation and personal development. It’s been really effective and we have a meeting starting in just a few minutes, but then you probably already know that, considering that you’re here. Do you have a note from your probation officer?”

“I’m not a fucking…” Katsuki forced himself to calm down, “I’m not on probation. Your website said you could use a couple extra hands, so,” he took a deep breath, “I wanna volunteer.”

Chapter Text

Izuku blinked rapidly, half-convinced that he was reading the words wrong. A 96% on the entrance exam? How...how was that even possible? There must have been some mistake, right? Izuku was too dumb to be able to ace the entire entrance exam when he hadn’t even had time to do it twice! But..there was Izuku’s name at the top of the email, clear as day, and the letter had arrived in his inbox, so it must be for him…

“Mom!” He yelled so that she could hear him from the kitchen. “Can you come here? I need to make sure I’m reading this right!”

Mom nearly slid down the hall in her hurry to open his bedroom door, “What is it, Izuku? What’s wrong?”

Izuku simply leaned back and pointed to the screen. He held his breath as Mom leaned over to read the email. He didn’t know what he was even hoping for. He didn’t want to get his hopes up, because there wasn’t any way he’d passed, but if Mom read the same thing he did…

“Oh, Izuku!” Mom turned to him with tears in her eyes that were at odds with the brilliant smile on her face. “Congratulations! You got in! I knew you could do it!”

Izuku continued staring at the screen in shock as Mom sank to her knees and hugged him, “I..I got in. I got in!”

Mom chuckled as he hugged him even tighter, “You did! This is going to be so good for you, Izuku! I’ll call Aldera first thing in the morning and do the paperwork. Oh! This calls for a celebration, do you want to go out?”

Izuku shook his head and held up his cast, “I, uh, don’t want to risk running into anyone.”

Mom’s eyes shone in understanding, “How about some ice cream, then? I can go pick some up while you register for your classes.”

Izuku nodded and Mom smiled and ruffled his hair before she left. Izuku turned back to the email and clicked on the link to sign up for classes. The first step was to make sure he was registered for all the required classes, such as science, math, and literature. Then he had to take one foreign language class, so he ended up registering for English, since that was what the school recommended. 

The problem was that he also had to take three elective classes, but...Izuku had never really had any hobbies outside of being a hero, which obviously wasn’t going to happen. He frowned as he scrolled through his options. Art might be fine, it would help make his notebooks more detailed, if nothing else, so he added that class before he could start to doubt himself. But that still left two classes. 

He was most of the way down the list of electives by the time another class caught his eye. Quirk Theory . That could be interesting! Analyzing quirks was one of his favorite parts of watching hero fights, and Eraserhead had mentioned that analyzing villains’ quirks would help him fight better, so it wouldn’t hurt to learn more about them! But, that still left one final elective. He should probably choose something to do with a hobby, but Izuku really didn’t have any hobbies outside of being a vigilante, and somehow he didn’t think that his new school would let him count that as an elective. 

Thinking of his vigilantism made Izuku restless. It had been almost a week and a half since he’d gone out and he was really starting to miss it. His body had gotten used to waking up in the middle of the night, so he was spending a few hours every night just staring at the ceiling and reminding himself that Mom would never forgive him if he somehow managed to re-break his arm, and that if he did, then he’d have to explain how he’d broken it again, and that would just make her worry too much. 

His only consolation about the whole thing was that he knew that none of the heroes were missing him. In fact, they were probably just grateful that he was staying out of the way, and he knew he was being selfish for wanting to feel useful again, but...he just wished there was some way he could still help while he was healing. It would be amazing if he had a quirk that let him see the streets remotely, then he could just call the heroes and send them to where they were needed. It didn’t even have to be a quirk! If he even had some sort of drone he could fly without being suspicious, or even just some sort of camera…

Izuku sat straight up. Security cameras! Why hadn’t he thought of that before? They were all over the city, and sure, they didn’t cover every alleyway, but they had to be better than nothing! It was probably completely useless, since there was no way that a deku like him would be able to become good enough at hacking to be able to access the city’s security cameras without getting caught, but...well, he needed another elective anyway and programing would be a good skill for the future. 

He found a class on programming basics and signed up just as Mom arrived with the ice cream. He knew he shouldn’t get his hopes up, it would only hurt that much more when everything went wrong again.

Shouta was struggling to focus on his investigation. Really, he hadn’t known viridian for that long, so why should he be this affected by the fact that he...disappeared. He just disappeared. Shouta didn’t have any evidence to the contrary and it was completely illogical to assume the worst possible outcome. But he also didn’t want to keep his hopes up, only for the kid to have been dead the whole time, just like…

Well, he should be getting back to work. There had been more and more cases of instant villains the last few weeks, and the last time this had happened, it had been followed by the next level villains. It was almost as though whoever was behind the villain factory was gauging potential for villains the same way he did for heroes. 

Which led to the next major mystery. Before his disappearance, Hamasaki had said something about the symbol of evil. The phrase tickled at the back of Shouta’s brain, like he’d read it somewhere before, but hadn’t paid any attention to it, but try as he might, he just couldn’t remember the significance of the epitaph. It seemed to have some significance to Tskuauchi, but when Shouta had pressed him for answers, he’d simply said that it wasn’t important. He’d said that it couldn’t be the man he thought it was, because that one was already dead and had been for years. Shouta just hoped he was imagining the way that Tsukauchi had gone pale during the conversation. 

It was frustrating. The biggest lead they’d ever gotten about the villain factory, and it was a dead end. So what next? It just wasn’t practical to put every single trigger user in protective custody in case the factory started abducting again, so they were on the back foot until the villains made another move. If only they knew what kinds of quirks appealed to the villain factory. Shouta knew that it wasn’t necessarily strong quirks, because they had a lot of ways to strengthen them artificially, but there didn’t seem to be any common denominator in the victims who got abducted and those that didn’t. 

If only the kid were still...of course, even if he was alive, it wouldn’t be fair to bring him into such a dangerous investigation. Even if he was a vigilante, he was still a semi-suicidal teenager who wasn’t prepared to deal with the danger that came from investigations like this. But still, the kid had a talent for quirk analysis. He hadn’t been able to spend a lot of time with the notebook, but from what he’d read, he had a sneaking suspicion that if anyone could figure out how the villain factory was picking their victims, it was Viridian.

If Katuski didn't know he was the best, he might be tempted to think he was an idiot. Seriously, how hadn’t he noticed how messed up Aldera was? Were their teachers secretly villains or something? Because that was kinda the only explanation Katsuki could think of that would explain how they willfully ignored kids getting beat up right in front of them. 

And that wasn’t even getting into the verbal bullying that happened right in the middle of class. The teachers didn’t ignore that, but Katsuki thought ignoring it would be preferable to what they were doing. They seemed to be actively creating opportunities for the students to make fun of the less popular students, and often joined in the mockery by publicly shaming students for tiny offenses that wouldn’t even get Katsuki a sideways glance. 

It was messed up. But what was even more messed up was that Katuski didn’t know how to stop it. He was supposed to be the best, but he wasn’t about to pretend that he had any sort of moral authority here. He’d bullied Deku and all those other extras for years, so he couldn’t just turn around and tell others to stop. 

Why had he even stopped? It had taken Deku literally saving his life to even get him to lay off the nerd, not that he’d ever forgive Deku for that, but still...he’d fucked up way too badly to say anything now. 

The best that he could do was stop acting like a villain. He’d thought it was pretty clever to volunteer at that villain rehabilitation group. Volunteering and shit always looked good on hero school applications, and maybe he’d even be able to learn something or some shit without jeopardizing his clean record. Not that he deserved a clean record, but...he needed to be a hero. He wasn’t about to let his idiot teachers ruin his chances at being the number one hero just because they couldn’t be bothered to do their fucking jobs. 

That Amplifier bitch had sent him home with some paperwork to do, but he’d be attending the next meeting. He’d just have to deal with being in the same room with villains without exploding them on sight. Katsuki glanced over at his teacher, who was correcting essays while Fingers scratched at that one kid who could make bubbles. 

At least he was getting some practice.

Chapter Text

Deku wasn’t coming back. 

That was what their shitty-ass villain of a teacher had announced at the beginning of homeroom. He said that Deku had decided to transfer schools, and Katsuki could only hope that was really what happened instead of it being a cover story for if Izuku had really…

Katsuki shook his head and forced himself to keep walking toward the community center. If Deku had killed himself, his old hag would have told him. Her and Auntie Inko had always been close, so if Deku was dead, he’d be one of the first to know. He had to be alive. Katuski didn’t know what he’d do if that damn nerd had really followed his messed up advice.  

The rehabilitation group met in one of the larger rooms of the community center. Amplifier was already setting up chairs in a big circle when he arrived. She looked up when she heard the door open and smiled as brightly as Deku did. Katskuki scowled, the last thing he needed today was more reminders of the damn nerd.

“Hey Bakugo!” She yelled cheerfully. “Right on time. Can you finish setting up these chairs while I grab some water?”

Katsuki didn’t bother responding, figuring that the way he moved to grab a few of the chairs stacked against the wall was answer enough. Amplifier seemed to agree, given that she immediately left the room and let him do his thing. He didn’t know exactly how many chairs to set up, but the group couldn’t be that big, so after there were about twenty chairs out, he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms to wait. 

Amplifier came back a few minutes later carrying a large water jug that she set on the table next to him, “Alright, that’s about it. Pretty low maintenance set up, don’t you think?”

Katuski didn’t really know what to say to that, so he just nodded. The villain extras were starting to filter in, so Amplifier left to go chat with them while Katsuki pretended to stare at the floor, even though he was really just observing the people he’d supposedly volunteered to help or something like that. He had a feeling Amplifier knew what he was doing, but he didn’t really care what that bitch thought. 

The people coming into the room didn’t match what Katuski had always been taught about villains, so that was just one more way his teachers had failed at their jobs, he guessed. Aside from the little tracking bracelets around their ankles, the villains looked relatively normal, nothing like the incarnations of evil that the news made them out to be. But maybe it was just because these were nobodies, not ranked villains. Or maybe they were just good at hiding who they really were, who knew?

One of them, some guy with weird little tentacles instead of hair, caught his eye and smiled at him, but Katsuki simply scowled and turned away. He wasn’t here to make friends with this scum, he was here to learn how not to be so scummy himself. Besides, villains weren’t good people. They couldn’t be nice.

Right?

It only took a few minutes before everyone was there and most of the seats were filled. Amplifier smiled and skipped to the front of the room, “Hello everyone, welcome back!”

“Who’s the kid?” Some big guy with horns and green skin said gruffly. 

Amplifier grinned, “Oh, this is Bakugo! He’s gonna be helping me out for the next little while.”

There was a round of nods and welcomes from the villains, which Katsuki mostly ignored. 

“Why’d you decide to volunteer to help a bunch of villains?” A weird girl with pigtails asked loudly. 

Katsuki made a face that would normally send Deku running as he stared her down, “None of your fucking business!”

There was a long moment of silence before the group erupted into laughter. The weird girl grinned, “Oh, I like him!”

“Yeah,” the big-horned villain slapped his knee, “he’s gonna fit in just fine!”

Katsuki stared at them like they’d gone crazy, then glanced at Amplifier, who was smiling at him like he’d done something great, which was what pushed him over the edge, “Shut up! I don’t need your shitty approval!”

“Where’d you find this kid?” One of the other villains asked. “He’s great!”

Amplifier’s grin got bigger, “He came to me. Don’t worry, you’re gonna have plenty of time to get to know him, but let’s get started. Anybody want to share how their week went?”

The cheerful mood dropped like a rock and the assorted villains became very busy looking at the floor. Katuski frowned. If it was just one or two that had a bad week, he’d get it, but all of them? Had there been something specific that happened, or…?

The big-horned villain finally spoke up, “My girl friend’s family came to visit for the first time since we started dating. They’re from a little town and I guess Hina didn’t tell them about my quirk because they...well, they’re the type of people that don’t like mutant types. It’s one thing getting called Frankenstein by little kids, they don’t mean anything by it, they just think it’s cool I’ve got green skin, but when adults say it, it’s malicious. I managed to keep things civil until they left, but their stupid passive-agressive comments really made me want to shoot someone.”

Amplifier nodded in understanding, “That must have been hard, facing disrimination from people who you were probably hoping would like you. I’m proud of you for holding out, though, and I hope things get better.”

“Fat chance.” Someone muttered. Katsuki frowned. Was...was discrimination really that big of an issue?

“I’ll go next.” The tentacle haired villain offered. “My mom was trying to get on my case about finding a job, even though I’ve told her there’s no point. No one will hire me until I complete this rehabilitation course and get my arrest record wiped, but she doesn’t seem to understand that. Normally, I’d just go out with friends and ignore her, but my old friends are part of why I’m in this mess in the first place, so…”

“That sucks man,” Weird Pigtails said, “I’m kinda in the same boat. If I really want to become an upstanding citizen ,” her tone was met with a round of laughs, “I have to find entirely new friends. It doesn’t seem worth it sometimes.”

Katsuki’s frown deepened as the villains kept sharing their stories. If they weren’t facing obstacles because of their villain status, it was because of their quirks or their gender. It was just so foregn to him. Was this what other people experienced? Katsuki hadn’t ever had anyone judge him like that. Sometimes they thought it was weird that he was so angry, but as soon as they learned what his quirk was, they just wrote it off. It just seemed wrong that their experiences were so different. 

After everyone who wanted to had had  a chance to share, Amplifier began talking about what the villain extras were supposed to be learning about this week, “Today we’re going to be learning to accept responsibility for our actions. There will always be circumstances beyond our control, but it’s helpful to realize that not everything is someone else’s fault.”

“Yeah,” Tentacles grinned, “Everything happens for a reason, and sometimes that reason is that you’re an idiot.”

That drew a laugh from everyone and even Katuski found himself chuckling. 

“Pretty much!” Amplifier said cheerfully. “But, really, recognizing that sometimes things are your own fault goes hand in hand with realizing that you can become better. This isn’t about beating yourself up, it’s about realizing that if you broke it, you can fix it.”

Katsuki thought about that. His teachers definitely hadn’t done him any favors in teaching him the right way to act, but they hadn’t told him to beat Deku up. They hadn’t done anything to stop it, but ultimately, it was his own decision to bully Deku and the other weak-ass extras. Katsuki swallowed the...was it guilt? Was that what he was feeling? But Amplifier said he wasn’t supposed to beat himself up, however tempting that seemed right then, so what now?

He couldn’t fix it. At least, he didn’t feel like he could. He couldn’t go back in time and be less of a jerk. He couldn’t erase the fact that he’d told Deku to jump off a roof. None of that was ever going to go away, no matter how much he changed. Was there even a point to this, or was he just going to be a bully and a villain forever? 

Eventually, the class ended and everyone got up to get water and socialize before heading home. Katsuki was so lost in his own guilt that he almost didn’t realize that the tentacle-haired guy had come to lean against the wall right next to him. 

“Hey, dude. I’m Aito Ogawa, nice to meet you.”

Katsuki simply scoffed and tried to ignore him, but the guy wouldn’t take a hint. 

“It’s pretty cool how you’re volunteering and stuff.” Ogawa said. “And I’m glad I’m not the new guy here anymore.”

Katsuki couldn’t help wondering how a nice guy like this became a villain, when an assole like him was on track to become a villain. Maybe he was just really petty and manipulative or something like that…

“If you’ve got something to ask, just ask it.” Ogawa grinned. “Don’t be shy.”

“I’m not fucking shy!” Katsuki growled. “I was just wondering what the fuck you did you get arrested. You don’t seem like the type.”

Ogawa chuckled, “Thanks for the compliment...I think?” He looked out at the room and sighed. “My sister started running with the wrong crowd a few years ago, and I always thought her friends were so cool, so I started hanging out with people like them. I got arrested a few weeks ago for going on a rampage with a few others after we got dosed with an experimental version of trigger. It wasn’t our fault, so normally it wouldn’t have put me on probation or anything, but,” he grimaced, “I happened to have an outstanding warrant for shoplifting when they took me in.”

Katuski scoffed, “Everything happens for a reason, huh?”

Ogawa smiled sheepishly, “Yeah, and I’m an idiot. I’m just lucky this program exists, cause otherwise I’d be screwed.”

“They’ll really wipe your arrest record if you come to this?” Katsuki asked. 

He nodded, “I think it’s supposed to be a way to limit the number of villains. If they try to rehabilitate those of us who aren’t too far gone, then it frees up the heroes to go after the real bad guys, right?”

Katsuki shrugged. It made a certain type of sense. 

“Well, Bakugo, it was nice meeting you, whatever your reasons are for being here.” Ogawa smiled and waved as he pushed himself away from the wall. “See you next week!”

Katsuki grunted and watched him leave. He had a lot to think about.

Chapter Text

Izuku was starting to wonder if maybe Eraserhead had been telling the truth when he said that he was smart. He had just been doing his assignments like he normally did, but because he could submit them multiple times, he’d decided that it would be best to submit the first time, get a preliminary score, and then correct what was wrong after, but...there wasn’t much to correct. When he was at Aldera, he’d been changing half his answers because he’d been convinced he couldn’t be right, but either his online assignments were way easier than the stuff he’d been doing or he needed to learn to trust himself more, because he was consistently getting higher scores than he’d gotten since preschool in less than half the time!

His favorite class was his quirk theory elective. It was really easy, since they were basically testing him on common sense, but they’d linked him to a lot of really cool articles that explained why quirks worked the way they did. Izuku had to keep himself from getting distracted and reading all the articles in the bibliographies of his assigned readings, because he really couldn’t afford to waste any time. He couldn’t help it! It was interesting!

He was also enjoying his programming class. It was a new way of thinking, but it was a fun challenge, like solving a puzzle! In the last two weeks since he’d officially begun online classes, his vigilante time had gradually turned into his programming time. When he’d wake up in the middle of the night, instead of restlessly trying to get back to sleep, he would get up and do his programming homework until he got tired. Most nights, he would spend an hour or two researching extra resources on hacking specifically, since that obviously wasn’t covered in depth in a beginning programming class, but Izuku felt like he was actually starting to get the hang of it!

He was currently in the middle of taking a test for quirk theory. It was taking longer than he thought it would, but then again, he hadn’t really paid attention to the introduction that said how long the test would take. It seemed to be cumulative, whereas most of the other tests he’d taken had only asked questions about the most recent unit, but Izuku saw the logic of occasionally testing old material. He figured that as long as he was done by the time Mom called him for dinner, it wasn’t that big of a deal. 

It was almost two hours later by the time he finally submitted the test and stretched out his sore muscles, ignoring the way his arm itched beneath the cast. At least he was healed enough that he was able to type again, his programming class would be much harder if he was still having to do everything one handed. Izuku glanced at the clock. He still had about twenty minutes until dinner, so he may as well get a head start on the next unit. 

Izuku scrolled to the bottom of the page and frowned when he realized that the next page button was nowhere to be found. That was strange. Normally, when he finished one assignment, he just pressed the button and it took him to the next one. Maybe he had to go back to the index page for the whole class? That seemed needlessly complicated, but Izuku didn’t want to question the website designers, so he clicked to the overview tab and scrolled past everything that said complete so he could figure out what unit was next, only to reach the bottom of the page. 

Izuku did a double take. 

Had...had the test he’d just taken been the final? That would explain why the whole thing had been cumulative and why it had taken so long, but...he really needed to pay more attention to what he was doing, that was so embarrassing! But, sure enough, there was a little checkmark by the final exam, stating that he’d completed it just a few minutes ago. Was he just really far ahead in that class, or....?

He clicked through his other classes, his eyes widening a little more every time he realized that he was only one or two a unit or less from completing a class. The only exception was art, but that was because it took him so long to draw every assignment. How had he finished them so fast?

Izuku closed his laptop and frowned. He supposed it made sense. He didn’t have anything else to do while he healed besides work on his homework, and he wasn’t too tired from running around as Viridian to stay awake in class. Or maybe it was because he wasn’t worried about his bullies stealing his books or beating him up after class? That had been a constant in his life ever since he turned four, so he hadn’t really realized how distracting it was until he didn’t have to worry about it anymore. It was kinda nice. 

He felt strangely guilty about feeling so grateful though. Maybe if he were stronger, he would have been able to deal with the bullying without letting it affect his grades, but instead he had just run away like a coward. He really was a deku, huh? It was a good thing he’d given up on being a hero, because heroes weren’t cowards. They didn’t run away. 

It was a good thing vigilantes did. 

Izuku shook his head and went out into the kitchen, where Mom was setting the table. She smiled as he came in, “Hi, baby! How were your classes today?”

Izuku shrugged, “I think I need to pay more attention, because I could have sworn when I registered that each class was the equivalent of one semester, but I finished one of them today, so they have to be shorter than that. I think they’re just quarter classes.”

“Still, it’s impressive that you’re already done, Izuku!” Mom said proudly. “I’m glad you’re doing so well, baby. You seem a lot happier.”

Izuku shrugged. He was still a deku, still useless, but at least going to school online meant that Mom didn’t need to worry about him, so it was worth it. If him leaving Aldera meant that she was happy, then it was worth it, no matter if it meant he was a coward for running away from his problems. 

The only thing that could make her happier was if she didn’t have to deal with him at all, but there was nothing Izuku could hope to do about that until he was able to go out as Viridian again.

Shouta was so tired. It wasn’t surprising, considering that tired was his default state, but the last few weeks had pushed his normal tired into exhausted. There had been at least two instant villains a week, and trigger sales were booming in accordance with the marketing, so Shouta was neck deep in problems and interrogations as he tried to make headway on the case. To make things worse, Viridian was still missing. 

At least he wasn’t the only one worried over the vigilante’s sudden absence. Amplifier and Rock Lock had promised to tell him immediately if they ever caught sight of him, and a lot of other heroes in surrounding areas were starting to keep an eye out just in case he’d just switched neighborhoods. Shouta still couldn’t help himself from checking the obituaries, but thankfully, that still hadn’t turned anything up. He just hoped that, wherever Viridian was, he was safe and taking care of himself. Actually, him taking care of himself was probably too much to hope for, considering the kid’s mental state, so Shouta would be happy to settle for him being safe. 

He was currently at home on his day off, doing an internet deep dive for anything regarding the symbol of evil. When he’d mentioned the lead to Mic the other day, he’d said that he’d seen it on some conspiracy theory message boards, so that’s what Shouta was currently reading. Most of the theories were completely insane, with mad leaps of logic, but each of them was based on small kernels of truth that could be useful eventually. 

Finally, he caught sight of what he was looking for. It was a post from a few years ago, but had a very substantial thread attached where other people had shared their evidence and experiences. Now to sort the evidence from the bullshit. 

The Symbol of Evil, also known as All for One, is widely considered to be an urban legend that was popularized around the dawn of quirks. The story goes that All for One was a man that could take one person’s quirk and give it to another person, a skill that he used to gain a cult following in the substantial chaos of the time. The story is often discounted as wishful thinking of quirkless people who wanted quirks, or of quirked individuals who experienced bigotry and persecution because of their quirks. 

But what if it wasn’t?

The assumption definitely makes sense! But most legends are based on real events that people just didn’t understand, or that got twisted by the years and countless retellings. Considering how widely known this “legend” was during the dawn of quirks and how quickly it spread, there had to be quite a bit of truth to it, truth that perhaps has been discounted or hidden by the hero commission to hide the truth of the nightmare that might still be in our midst…

Chapter Text

Izuku squinted in the darkness of his room as he slowly switched between different camera feeds. He was feeling more confident in his hacking abilities ever since he completed his programming class, so instead of just looking up hacking videos on youtube like he normally did during his vigilante time, Izuku decided to try hacking into some security cameras. It had taken just over half an hour to make his way into the system, but that was partially because he had to set everything up so that he wouldn’t get caught. If the police figured out that he was Viridian, then they’d prevent him from going out on the streets when he got better and that would mess up all of Izuku’s plans, so he needed to make sure the hack was untraceable to hide his identity. 

He was kind of worried that he would have to hack into each camera individually, but once he’d gained access to the city’s security system, it was pretty easy to just switch cameras around the city. He obviously didn’t have access to privately owned cameras like the ones stores put in, but baby steps. Izuku wasn’t really planning to do anything besides get into the system, honestly, but as he was getting some practice switching between cameras, he saw a woman get roughly pulled into an alley and he couldn’t just do nothing!

It was probably the adrenaline combined with the fact that he’d already made his computer untraceable that let him hack into the hero comm link so fast. He put in his headphones, grateful that they had a mic attached, and quickly double checked where the issue was. What hero was the closest?

Shouta scanned the streets below him, searching for any signs of the drug dealers he was supposed to be catching, only to come up empty. After Hamasaki’s capture and subsequent disappearance, most of the larger dealers had gone to ground. The only ones that Shouta had been able to find were small fry, but he already knew they wouldn’t be of any help to his investigation. 

It also didn’t help that he’d been distracted recently. It had been weeks now, and it was looking more and more like Viridan wasn’t coming back. Shouta knew that the problem child wasn’t one of his students, so he didn’t technically have any responsibility for the kid, but it still felt like he’d failed, or like he should have done more to help him. If only he’d realized that the kid was suicidal earlier, he might have been able to…

He was startled out of his thoughts by a soft click in his ear that indicated that his comm link had opened, followed by silence. Shouta frowned. He was an independent hero, so the only people who would normally talk to him over comms would be the police or sometimes other heroes requesting backup, but it would be nice if they’d actually talk to him! He could hear someone breathing on the other end, so he knew it wasn’t just his imagination, but who was it and what did they need?

“Hello?” Shouta couldn’t help the annoyance that found its way into his voice. “I can hear you breathing, stop wasting my time.”

There was silence for another long moment before a familiar young voice blurted out, “Imagine I’m throwing a marble.”

Shouta felt himself melt from sheer relief, “Viridian? Is that you?”

He hadn’t even realized how much tension he’d been holding until he heard the kid’s voice. The kid was alive. He was alright. He was alive.

Izuku was trying not to panic. When he’d decided to hack into the hero comms, he hadn’t thought of what he was going to say! Eraserhead was the closest hero to the alleyway he’d seen, but if Eraser suddenly heard a random voice in his ear, he would freak out and think it was a villain! Izuku wasn’t supposed to have access to the comm link! 

Apparently, it was at that moment that Izuku’s brain apparently decided that filters were overrated, because all that he could think to blurt out was something about marbles, since that was how he normally got heroes’ attention when he was out on the street. Eraser probably thought he was a complete idiot and was probably really annoyed with him for wasting his time and hacking into the comm link, but at least it had worked...right? Eraser had sounded oddly relieved when he said Izuku’s vigilante name, probably because it confirmed that a villain hadn’t somehow gotten access to the comm link. 

“I’m so sorry, Eraserhead, I know that I shouldn’t have hacked into the comm link and I’m really sorry for wasting your time, oh, and for punching you in the face that one time, and…”

Eraser cut off his rambling apology, “It’s fine, kid. Are you ok?”

Izuku frowned in confusion, “Yes? Why wouldn’t I be ok?”

There was a beat of silence before Eraser spoke again, “I thought that maybe…”

Izuku suddenly remembered why he’d hacked into the comm link in the first place, “There’s a shady guy that pulled a woman into the alley behind the boutique on Lake Street! Oh no! I’m so sorry Eraserhead, you were saying something and I interrupted you and…”

Eraser just grunted in response, most likely already running to the alley, “Did you catch sight of the guy’s quirk?”

“Um,” Izuku thought back to the footage and glanced at the camera in question again, no one had come out of the alley yet, “no. I didn’t get a good look at him and he didn’t have a mutant quirk, so it was a little difficult to tell what it was without seeing it in action. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, kid. Where have you been? We’ve been worried about you. You just disappeared without telling anyone.”

Izuku didn’t know how to feel about that. A part of him was amazed. People...actually missed him? Him? A quirkless deku that was of no use to anyone? These people, heroes who actually mattered, cared about him enough to miss him? It felt oddly nice, but it was quickly overridden by an insane sense of guilt. Stupid deku. He’d just made life so much harder for the heroes and distracted them from saving people and, yes, he’d decided to not go out as a vigilante so that Mom wouldn’t be worried, but instead he’d just caused so many problems for the heroes and he really was an idiot and why did he ever think that he could be useful? He should have just jumped when Kacchan told him to, but then Kacchan would get in trouble and…

Shouta cursed himself as the silence over the comm link stretched on. He had been so relieved that Viridian was alive that he hadn’t even been thinking! The kid was suicidal, which meant he probably felt like a burden on those around him, which meant that he would probably feel guilty to making them worry, which wouldn’t make him any less suicidal. Shouta jumped onto another rooftop as he ran toward the alley the kid had mentioned. Viridian was most likely freaking out on the other end of the line and beating himself up for something that might not even be his fault. How was Shouta supposed to fix this?

“Not that you really had to let anyone know, you are your own person, afterall.” Shouta grimaced at how awkward he sounded. “Basically, we care about you, kid, and we missed you these last few weeks, but I’m glad you’re ok...you are ok, aren’t you?”

There was another moment of silence, then a sniff, “Y-you care?”

Shouta sighed in relief, “Yeah kid, but you didn’t answer my question.”

“Oh…” Viridian’s voice trailed off, “um, it’s kinda stupid...I just...you should probably hurry, it’s been a while since they went in that alley.”

“I’m almost there.” Shouta decided it’d probably be best not to press the kid for answers. It sounded like he’d barely managed to avoid giving the kid a panic attack, so he didn’t want to risk that again. Right now, he just needed to make sure the kid could trust him. 

He finally reached the alley, and the villain went down surprisingly easily. Then again, that probably had something to do with the way Shouta snuck up on him and pulled him away from the woman, restraining him completely before he even had the chance to fight back. They guy started growling and tried to fight back, but Shouta simply glared at him with enough force that he shut up. He was about to turn to comfort the victim when he heard a muttering in his ear. 

“...alright, that’s suspicious, but probably not a big deal...oh no! Yeah, that’s definitely not good. They probably have a quirk that silences alarms if the jewelry store didn’t even have their lights go one when that guy threw a rock through the window….”

Shouta gave a small snort. The kid had forgotten to cut the comm link after Shouta took care of the situation, “What are you muttering about, Viridian?”

“Oh, Eraser, you’re still here! I’m sorry, that was probably really annoying, it’s just that there’s a robbery, but I think Amplifier’s closer, so I should call her. Bye!”

And with that, the kid was gone. Shouta shook his head and couldn’t help the small smile on his face as he turned to the victim. The kid was alive, at the very least, even if he wasn’t out on the streets. He was just about to call Tsukauchi when he froze. 

How had the kid known where to find this crime? And how had he gained access to Shouta’s comm? He seemed to have a bird’s eye view of the robbery he was sending Amplifier to, so had he somehow managed to hack into the security cameras? He felt a little swell of pride. The kid really was pretty smart, wasn’t he?

He shook his head fondly as he connected to Tsukauchi, “Hey Tsukauchi, I’ve got a villain and victim ready for pick up on Lake Street. Oh, and by the way,” Shouta couldn’t help the huge grin that spread across his face, “Viridian’s back.”

Chapter Text

Izuku wasn’t used to feeling proud of himself. He wasn’t used to feeling loved either, but Mom had at least exposed him to the emotion, so it was understandable that the past week had been pretty strange. He had been doing virtual vigilantism every night, and he was getting so much better at hacking! He’d been working up to hacking into all the cameras in front of stores and stuff so that he had eyes everywhere, and it was so much fun! 

Not to mention that in some cases, it was actually faster to get heroes to crimes by hacking into their comms. He still couldn’t wait to get his cast off so he could help the heroes fight, but...maybe he’d have to spend a few days a week doing it this way, even after he healed. He’d cross that bridge when he got to it, but for now, he finally felt like he was doing something right for once in his life. 

Which brought him to the other unfamiliar emotion: feeling loved. He’d thought that maybe Eraserhead was just the exception and only missed him because of his habit of adopting strays. If he stopped to pet stray cats, of course he’d remember an annoying vigilante, so it only made sense that he’d miss Izuku because he was just more caring than normal, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Every hero Izuku called seemed happy to hear his voice and said they missed him. They even asked if he was ok! No one asked if Izuku was ok, not Kacchan, not his teachers, not his classmates, but here were actual real life pro heroes who seemed to care!

Izuku knew that they only cared because they didn’t know he was quirkless, so he couldn’t help but feel a little bit guilty for lying to them. A part of him knew that he should just tell them so that they didn’t waste their time on him, and he felt so selfish for keeping his quirklessness to himself, but he...he didn’t want to lose this feeling. He knew he didn’t deserve to feel loved, but...well it wasn’t like he was actually lying to the heroes, right? He was just leaving out some info.

That was part of the reason why he’d been dodging all the questions about what had forced him off the streets. If they knew he broke his arm, or when he broke it, then they might be able to pull hospital records or something and then they’d know who he was and then they’d know he was quirkless and they’d force him to stop and they’d tell Mom and she’d be so worried and…

This was a problem with slow nights. Not that Izuku wasn’t glad that no one was out committing crimes, but it left him too much time to get lost in his head. He switched between cameras again, looking for anything suspicious. There were a couple drunks, like there were every night, and some other people wandering about, but no one was doing anything criminal as far as he could see. The closest thing to a problem he could see was a group of teenagers smoking, but they weren’t hurting anyone, even if they were loitering. 

He was about to switch cameras again and see if he could track down any of the heroes and see what they were doing when one of the teens jerked suddenly, slapping his neck. Within seconds, the others were batting at the air and slapping themselves as well, but beyond that, Izuku couldn’t see anything wrong. He really wished the camera he was watching through had audio so he could tell if they were just hallucinating from whatever they were smoking or if they needed help, but that was one of the disadvantages to doing his vigilantism virtually. 

It wasn’t until they started attacking one another with their powerful quirks that he called the heroes. He debated a minute about which hero would be best before deciding they’d probably appreciate back-up for a fight this big. 

“Um, Eraser, Amplifier? A-are you guys busy?”

“Nope!” Amplifier chirped, “We’re never too busy for you, cutie!”

Izuku blushed, but concentrated on the task at hand. The fight was going to start spreading soon, if the way the teens’ quirks were going out of control were any indication. 

“What’s up, problem child?” Eraser asked. “You normally only call one hero at a time.”

“Oh! Um, there’s a fight on Hill Street. I don’t know what started it, but...yeah it’s starting to spread. I think the teens are all friends with each other, or at least that’s how it seemed before they suddenly started fighting each other.”

“Alright, I’m on my way, kid.”

“Me too!” 

Thankfully, it only took a few minutes for the two to reach the scene. Amplifier got there first and started using her quirk to disorient the fighters, confusing them as she leaped from building to building to basically surround them in sound. Izuku kept up a running commentary on the quirks he could see being used as they waited for Eraser to arrive, pointing out any weaknesses that Amplifier might be able to exploit. 

“Alright, be careful of the guy with the backpack and try to stay behind him, but um, you already knew that, since he’s basically extending his tongue into a net. If he does try to go for you, stay close to the ground, because I can’t imagine the street tastes very good and it might buy you some time. Um, who else...wait, did that guy just teleport?!”

The villain in question suddenly appeared slightly behind and to the left of Amplifier, landing a hit to her back before disappearing again, only to appear a few feet away. Well, that was strange. With a teleportation quirk, he could have just left as soon as Amplifier arrived, so why did he stick around. Did he want to fight Amplifier? Or did he have a limit on how far he could go? The latter option seemed more likely, because what teenager would willingly fight a pro-hero?

He watched the teleporter for another minute. He definitely kept Amplifier on her toes, but after that first time, she was able to get a glance of him in her peripheral vision due to his habit of popping up either slightly to the left or right of slightly behind her. That didn’t make sense. Why wouldn’t he appear directly behind her...unless he couldn’t.

“Amplifier, try and bait the tongue guy into blocking the teleporter’s field of vision.”

He saw her nod and within a few seconds, the teleporter’s head was wrapped in his friend’s tongue. Izuku shuddered. Gross. But, as expected, he didn’t teleport to get out, instead punching the muscle until it let him go as Eraserhead finally arrived. Amplifier used that moment of distraction to knock out and restrain the tongue guy. 

“Sorry I’m late.” Eraser said gruffly as he took out one of the other fighters, a guy with a few too many eyes. 

“No problem, happy to have you.” Izuku grinned. It was so cool to be able to watch them fight.  “Oh, and the teleporter has a vision based quirk like you, Eraser! He can only teleport to places he can see, so try to blind him before you have to blink.”

Eraser didn’t waste any time wrapping his capture weapon around the man’s eyes and knocking him out. There were still a few other fighters still on their feet and they immediately charged the heroes with a vengeance. 

“Would’ve been nice to know these guys are hopped up on trigger, Viridian.” Eraser grunted.

Izuku’s eyes widened and he facepalmed, wincing as he accidentally hit himself in the face with his cast. Should have used the other hand, “I’m so sorry! I should have realized that they shouldn’t have all had such strong quirks and then you would have been prepared and then…”

“Be nice to the kid, Eraser.” Amplifier said as she punched someone in the face. “It’s not like he could tell they were high from all the way in his bedroom.”

Izuku shrunk in on himself. He was so useless! He couldn’t do anything right. Yeah, he was doing the best he could with a broken arm, but Amplifier was right, there were things he missed because he wasn’t actually down on the street. If the heroes lost this fight or got hurt it would be all his fault because he told them to go even though he didn’t have all the right info. 

Thankfully, the fight didn’t last too much longer, since between Eraser cancelling their quirks and Amplifier disorienting them, the fighters didn’t stand a chance. He heard Amplifier talking to Tsukauchi over the comms and was about to cut his own connection when Eraser started talking. 

“Viridian?” He said softly. “Are you still there? You went kinda quiet there for a minute.”

Izuku was tempted to not respond. Maybe then Eraser would assume that he left them alone like he should have been doing all along, rather than annoying them with his stupid marbles and stupid incomplete information.

There was a sigh over the line, “You’re not annoying us, kid. I’m sorry if I gave you that idea during the fight, I was just frustrated because trigger cases have been going up recently. It’s not your fault, problem child.”

“I should have been able to tell.” Izuku’s face burned as his voice came out choked. Why did he have to start crying now of all times?!

“No.” Eraser said firmly. “Amplifier was right, there wasn’t any way for you to tell they were on trigger just from the camera feed. It’s enough of an accomplishment that you were able to see the feed in the first place, so stop beating yourself up, ok?”

“...ok.” Izuku still wasn’t convinced, but he didn’t want Eraser to feel guilty just because he couldn’t control his stupid emotions and his stupid tears and his stupid muttering and his stupid…

“Are you ever gonna tell us why you switched to online, kiddo?” Amplifier asked. Izuku jumped, he’d forgotten he was still connected to her comm as well. 

“Oh, um, just...stuff and, you know...life.” He grimaced. Smooth. “Um, thanks. Goodnight!”

He cut the link before either of them could say anything else. Izuku frowned and rubbed at his arm, which had become annoying itchy as it healed. Maybe he’d half to start researching problems beforehand so he had more information to give to the heroes. It probably wouldn’t help with stuff like muggings, but maybe for drug busts? Maybe he could find some more info on trigger to pay Eraser back for today?

Izuku sighed and closed down his computer before crawling back into bed. He’d have to deal with that tomorrow.

Izuku rubbed his head as he tried, once again, to concentrate on his history assignment, but it was no good. He’d woken up a few minutes before his alarm this morning, gasping as he remembered the fight when he’d actually met Eraserhead for the first time. That had also been a group of thugs minding their own business who suddenly went crazy and started fighting each other for no reason, and Eraser had mentioned they had trigger in their systems. And there was also the thing with the flys. He hadn’t thought much of it last night, but those teens had been swatting at the air almost like there were bugs or something trying to bite them. 

Izuku sighed and grabbed his phone. He wasn’t being able to concentrate anyway, so he may as well take a walk to clear his head, right? And who knew, maybe he’d find something where the fight broke out that would be able to help Eraser’s investigation. 

He had to take a train to get to the corner where the teens had been smoking, and Izuku got plenty of weird looks, considering that most kids his age were supposed to be at school in the middle of the afternoon, but Izuku ignored them and most people just shrugged and continued on with their days. Izuku wasn’t surprised, people always looked away from him, he just wasn’t interesting enough to merit paying attention to. He was used to being ignored. 

The corner looked different in daylight, and Izuku looked up until he saw the camera he’d hacked into the night before. It was weird seeing the street from this angle, but a good kind of weird, and it made Izuku smile slightly before he went back to looking around for clues. He didn’t really know what he was looking for. After all, if there were insects or mosquitos or something, they would be long gone by now, but…

A metallic glint caught Izuku’s eye and he looked around briefly before walking toward it and kneeling down. He sucked in a harsh breath as he saw the crushed corpse of a tiny robotic bee, a cracked glass cylinder acting as its abdomen. The guy that slapped his neck must have managed to damage it enough that it couldn’t fly away, and the abdomen container could easily hold a tiny dose of trigger, which would explain why Izuku had never seen either group shoot up. 

Izuku grabbed a small ziplock from his bag, it had held carrots at one point, and picked up the bee, hoping there was enough of it left for him to hack into, then started heading back home. He still had homework to finish, after all.

Chapter Text

After dinner, Izuku finally had a moment to inspect the robotic bee he’d found. He’d have to give it to Eraserhead later, but he may as well find out as much about it as he could before then. It was the least he could do after all the trouble he’d caused Eraser last night. 

He took the ziplock out of his bag and looked at it. At first glance, it seemed to be made of metal, but the longer he looked, the more it seemed like that couldn’t be quite right. It didn’t seem as shiny as it should be, which could be explained by some sort of matte finish, but that didn’t explain the way that some parts of the bee seemed to be almost deteriorating, as if the bee itself were actually organic.

Izuku got out a notebook and jotted down a few ideas. He obviously didn’t have the tools to break down the chemistry of the robot in his room, but there were many quirks that granted control over technology. There were also quirks that created metal-like alloys from the user’s blood or tissue. Knowing that, it was completely possible that this bee was actually the result of a quirk, which would make it both organic and inorganic at the same time. And if it was the result of a quirk, there might be some mention of it in the news, especially if this quirk user had dosed people similarly in the past. 

Over the next hour, Izuku found quite a few similar quirks, including one that allowed the user to control any living bees they came in contact with through pheromones, which was super cool and had Izuku reaching toward his notebook, but the most noteworthy belonged to a villain that had gained the moniker of Queen Bee a few years in Naruhata. There were several conflicting stories, considering that the people who controlled the bees seemed to have multiple quirks, which just wasn’t possible. The most likely theory was that Queen Bee was actually some sort of parasite that infected a host. The host could still use their original quirk, but the parasite created a sort of hive mind that the Queen herself controlled. 

It was a fascinating quirk and Izuku wondered how the heroes would even counter that. Maybe if they destroyed the queen? But there was always the possibility that another bee would simply become the queen, so if that was the case, they would have to find some way to track down every bee and destroy them, which would be pretty much impossible. It was a shame that such a powerful quirk was being used for evil. Izuku could think of so many ways that it could help people. The bees seemed to be able to hold small amounts of any liquid, so they could administer life-saving medicine, or even antidotes if a villain with a poisonous quirk attacked. Considering the hive mind, the host could most likely use the bees to spy and gather valuable intelligence by being an almost literal fly on the wall because no one ever paid attention to bugs. It was such a cool quirk!

Izuku took the bee out of the bag and tried to see if there was any way to hack into it. It probably didn’t have a hard line, but since it had robotic elements, it most likely had had some way to communicate with it’s queen, which meant that izuku could slip in and hopefully get into the bee’s head. Of course, since the bee was quirk-made, there was a possibility that the robotic look was just a side effect and it was impossible to hack in, but it was worth a try, at least. 

It took a lot of experimentation and it was almost time for bed when Izuku finally managed to wirelessly connect to the bee’s...brain? Hard drive? Most of the files were corrupted, which was understandable considering how mangled the bee itself was, but Izuku did manage to find one called Directives. After quickly checking for viruses and trackers, which didn’t turn up anything, Izuku opened the file. 

If (Abdomen = full) {Inject any human}

Else {return to hive}

There were a few more commands, but that was the one that stood out to Izuku the most. That meant that the instant villains really were random victims, not simply using the bees as some sort of alternate injection method to get high. But why? What did Queen Bee stand to gain by turning random people into villains?

Of course, finding more information on Queen Bee led him down a rabbit hole of the instant villain craze that had happened in Naruhata. Just like what was happening right now, unsuspecting civilians were being dosed with trigger to cause chaos. On the surface, it seemed that Queen Bee was one of those villains that simply enjoyed causing senseless destruction, and that would have been the end of it, except for the fact that people called Next Level Villains popped up a little after that. 

The Next Level Villains had all been instant villains at one time or another, but then disappeared. They reappeared a few months later manifesting permanent changes from human experimentation and dosed with huge quantities of trigger. Thankfully, they didn’t have any permanent mental changes after the drug wore off and were mostly able to return to their normal lives, but none of them remembered being kidnapped or who had experimented on them. 

Izuku frowned. The people behind this operation obviously had some goal in mind. Their experiments were leading to something, the only question was, what? It couldn’t be the Next Level villains, because then the instant villains would have stopped after those appeared in Naruhata. Were they trying to find a way to make quirks more powerful? But trigger did that on it’s own. So maybe trying to find a way to make a quirk permanently more powerful?

That made a lot more sense. Izuku was sure that many people with weak quirks would be willing to go through a lot of pain, and probably pay a lot of money, if they could have their quirk become permanently stronger. It did provide motive.

But then why have the instant villains? If they wanted to make the stronger quirks permanent, then why go through the trouble of dosing random people with a temporary drug, unless...unless they were using these incidents to evaluate victims for their experiments. They would be able to see which people had promising quirks and see how they reacted to the drug, then kidnap them later. Queen Bee wasn’t creating instant villains to cause chaos and fear among the public and heroes, she was scouting out potential victims for the next round of experiments. 

Izuku jumped as his vigilante alarm went off. Had he really been doing this half the night? Izuku stood and stretched, wincing as his back popped. He’d been in front of a screen for hours and really didn’t want to spend another few hours sitting in the same position. He felt so selfish, because he was supposed to be helping people, even if it meant that he was in pain, but he just couldn’t bring himself to sit back down. If only he could go out on the streets again. 

Izuku paused and looked at his cast. The doctor said six weeks, and it had really only been around five, but...well, his arm was probably mostly healed by now. He should be fine to run around now, as long as he was careful to avoid getting into any fights. Izuku tried to talk himself out of going out, but apparently he’d been going more stir crazy over the past few weeks than he’d thought. Something about being homeschooled was making him even more restless to go out and run from the heroes. 

Izuku dug his vigilante outfit out from the back of his closet and put it on, making sure he had a few marbles. It probably wouldn’t be the best to use his slingshot until he got the cast off, so he didn’t need enough for ammo, but he did need enough to let the heroes know it was him! He also grabbed the robotic bee from where it was sitting on his table, putting it back in the ziplock bag. This would be the perfect time to hand it over to Eraserhead and share what he’d just found out!

By the time Izuku left the apartment, he was buzzing with nervous energy. As he took off toward his patrol route, he couldn’t help the wide smile that spread across his face. He’d really missed this.

Chapter Text

Shouta watched as some cops dragged away the mugger he’d just taken down, then used his capture weapon to pull himself up onto the rooftops to look for more problems. He wondered if Viridian would call him today before dismissing the thought. He didn’t have to talk to the problem child every night. It’s not like he was the kid’s dad or anything. 

He was just about to jump onto the next rooftop when he felt something small and hard bounce off the back of his head. Immediately, he activated his quirk and whirled around, gripping his capture weapon in preparation to deal with whatever threat had managed to sneak up on him, only to see the damn problem child, smiling brightly and waving at him with a goddamn broken arm!

“Kid, is your arm broken?!” Ok, so that probably wasn’t the best thing to say, considering that the cast was fairly obvious, but sue him, it was the first time he’d seen the kid in over a month and he shows up with an obvious injury. Of course Shouta had the right to be a little shocked. And what was the kid doing out with a broken arm?

At least the kid had the decency to look embarrassed, “Well, um, not anymore, at least I don’t think…” The kid tugged on his sleeve in a belated attempt to hide the cast from view. “It should be pretty much healed by now. But don’t worry! I’m not actually planning on getting into any fights tonight, but, um, we need to go so that you can get into a fight!”

Shouta sighed heavily, “Lead the way, problem child.”

The kid smiled and took off. 

In his defense, Izuku hadn’t been looking for a mugging. He'd been planning on finding Eraser first thing, but then he’d heard a scream and he couldn’t just leave it alone! Oh well, he’d just have to talk to Eraser about the bee after the fight. Thankfully, because he’d been looking for him in the first place, the mugging wasn’t that far from where he’d found Eraserhead, so it didn’t take long at all for them to reach it. 

He was about to jump down onto the street out of habit when Eraser glared at him, “Stay put, problem child.”

Izuku laughed sheepishly, “I, um, wasn’t going to join the fight?”

Eraser simply looked at him with a tired skepticism, and Izuku could almost feel him rolling his eyes behind his goggles, but he just sighed and jumped down to take care of the villain. Izuku got out his notebook and started scribbling down the different techniques that he used, most of which Izuku was familiar with from watching previous fights. There was only one guy, and he was obviously a little drunk, so it didn’t take long at all for Eraser to take him down and restrain him. 

Wait, now that the villain was restrained, the cops would probably be coming soon to take him in, and Izuku probably shouldn’t still be there when they came, seeing as how he was a vigilante and all. Izuku put his notebook back in his pocket and stood to leave, only to be wrapped in Eraser’s capture weapon before he could jump to the next roof. 

He looked up at Eraser, who was glaring at him with his quirk activated, “Go home, problem child.”

Izuku couldn’t help pouting like a petulant child, “I’ve hardly left my house in five weeks, Eraser! I”m going stir crazy!”

“Running around with a broken arm is irrational.” Eraser countered. 

“I’ve only been outside like three times in the last month!” Izuku pleaded. Now that he was actually out and running around, he didn’t want to go back home. “And one of those was to go to the grocery store, so it doesn’t even count! Please, just let me have this!”

Eraser simply tightened his capture weapon slightly, “Do I need to escort you home?”

“I’m a vigilante, remember?” Izuku pointed out. “I’ve got a secret identity to protect.”

Where was all this confidence coming from? Since when did he get so comfortable with Eraserhead to...was this sass? Or were they just arguing? Either way, Izuku wasn’t used to acting this way with anyone, much less with an adult. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Eraser had missed him when he disappeared or the fact that he actually seemed to care about what happened to him, even if that care manifested in a protectiveness for his broken arm. 

But, oddly enough, Eraser didn’t seem to mind it. He wasn’t getting mad at Izuku for back talking him like his teachers would. He wasn’t blowing up like Kacchan would. He was just...taking it in stride, like this was how Izuku was supposed to act toward him. It was weird. 

Eraser was still holding him tightly and Izuku knew he probably wouldn’t let go until he promised to head straight home. Well, Izuku could probably use the sleep, considering that he’d been up all night researching the...Oh! Izuku had forgotten that he still needed to tell Eraser what he’d learned about the bee! And he had so many questions about that rash of instant villains in Naruhata. If he was correct, Eraser had been involved with those ones too. 

“Fine.” He said finally. “I’ll go home and rest, but only if you answer some of my questions.”

Shouta rolled his eyes, but nodded and unwrapped his capture weapon. This kid was gonna be the death of him. Going out and looking for fights with a broken arm? He had zero sense of self preservation, which Shouta probably should have expected, considering that the kid was likely suicidal, but it was one thing to theorize about it and another entirely to see it in action. The only comforting thing about this whole situation was that, looking at the timeline of Viridian’s disappearance, he probably went off the grid because of his arm, not his depression. And he was acting more confident than usual, so maybe the break had been good for him. 

Viridian’s eyes lit up, “I want to know more about the instant villains!”

Shouta’s eyes widened, “Where did you learn that term? Did I mention it?”

Viridian shook his head, “No, I was just looking up stuff, because there have been a couple times that groups of people have gotten dosed with trigger, but I never actually saw them shoot up. I ended up going to the place where that group last night got dosed, and I found this!”

The kid dug in his hoodie pocket for a moment before pulling out a ziplock bag and handing over. Shouta looked at him in confusion, then looked at the bag and his blood ran cold. A tiny mechanical bee. He’d considered the possibility that Queen Bee could be involved in this, but he’d hoped that they’d succeeded in destroying all the bees after that whole fiasco with Pop Step, but apparently not.

“It belongs to a villain named Queen Bee, who was heavily involved with the instant villain incidents a few years ago in Naruhata,” Viridian frowned, “well, I don’t actually have to tell you that, considering that I’m pretty sure you were on the case back then. Wiat, were you on the case back then? I’m so sorry for assuming and…”

Ah, Viridian’s insecurities were back. Shouta cut him off before the kid could work himself into a panic, “Yeah, I was part of that investigation. In fact, I still am, that’s why I’m one of the heroes tracking trigger.”

Viridian sighed in relief, “Okay. Good. So anyway, once I found the bee, then it was pretty easy to trace back to Naruhata. Were the victims back then random, or were they picked for any specific reason?”

“They were random.” Shouta responded. “Well, some of them annoyed the host or bought the drugs to get high, but most of them were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“That’s what I thought.” Viridian pinched his lower lip in thought. “And of those instant villains, a few disappeared after the incident, only to return as the modified next level villains, right?”

Shouta nodded. 

Viridian sighed, “That’s what I was worried about. The bees have orders to target any random citizen as long as they’re loaded with the drug…”

“Wait, what?” The kid had managed to lose him. “How do you know what their orders are?”

The kid looked surprised, “Oh, I hacked it.”

Shouta had to have heard that wrong, “You... hacked the bee? It’s quirk created, how did you hack into it?”

Viridian shrugged, “Well, I knew that it had to have some way of communicating with the queen when it was alive, and since it seems to have the characteristics of a robot, I assumed that it was communicating wirelessly. Honestly, it was just a lucky guess.”

Shouta grinned. Knowing the bees could be hacked could be a game changer, “What did you find, kid?”

“Well most of the files were corrupted when the bee was destroyed.” Viridian frowned. “Or maybe it has more to do with being cut off from the hive? Well, anyway, I was able to view it’s directive file, which basically ordered it to target anyone. I’m just concerned because the last time this happened, well, you know, I don’t have to tell you because you were there and…”

The kid was mumbling again, “Problem child?”

Viridian flinched, then took a deep breath, ““The last time there was an outbreak of instant villains like this, whoever was behind it seemed to be looking for candidates for next level villains. But the thing is, it’s been months since this started in Musutafu and we should have seen at least one next level villain by now if they follow their old pattern. But what if next level villains aren’t their ultimate goal and they’re moving onto the next phase of their experiments?”

Shouta swallowed, “Then there’s a possibility that these victims are in danger. And when they came back…”

“They’ll be permanently modified and even more dangerous.” Viridian followed. “I have a theory that they’re most likely trying to permanently strengthen a person’s quirk, but it’s just a theory. I know that it’s probably not feasible to put every instant villain under police protection, but if we just knew the kinds of quirks they were looking for, then…”

The kid was digging too deep. Shouta didn’t know who exactly was behind the villain factory, he was still really skeptical of the whole All for One myth, but he knew they were powerful enough to kidnap a witness out of a police interrogation room. Viridian was a teenager. A smart teenager, a teenager with a death wish and zero sense of self preservation, but a teenager nonetheless. However valuable the kid’s investigation was, his involvement was going to catch the attention of all the wrong people and put him in danger. He had to put a stop to this. 

“Kid.” He cut off Viridian’s ramblings. “I need you to stop looking into this, ok?”

Viridian looked at him in confusion, “Why?”

“You’re meddling in things you have no way to understand.” Shouta said. “If you don’t drop this, you’re only going to put yourself in danger.”

“But if I can protect people…”

“NO!” Viridian flinched at his yell. Shouta cursed softly, he shouldn’t have done that. The kid obviously had some trauma, and him yelling wasn’t going to help the kid trust him at all. He forced himself to take a deep breath. “Viridian, you’re a kid. You should be worrying about going to the mall with friends, not about drug rings and kidnappings.”

Viridian was silent for a long moment, “I never had any friends to worry about…”

Before Shouta could apologize or ask what he meant by that, the kid ran and jumped onto the next roof, then disappeared into the shadows. 

Shouta could only hope that he actually went home like he’d promised.

Chapter Text

“You should go mingle.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes at Amplifier, “Yeah, cause a five minute conversation with an asshole is really gonna help these extras reintegrate into society.”

They were currently doing an exercise where the villains had broken into smaller groups to talk about what they’d done wrong, something about admitting their mistakes out loud or something to give them the power to fix them. Katsuki thought it sounded fake, but maybe that was just because he was too big of a coward to admit what he’d done. 

“I’m just saying,” Amplifier nudged his arm gently, “you’ve been coming to these meetings for weeks and still haven’t made a single friend.”

There were reasons for that. One, Katuski didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize his chances of being a hero. Well, anything more than he’d already done. Which was what led him to his second reason for keeping these extras at arms length: they were better than him. How shitty was that? A bunch of convicted villains with tracking bracelets on their legs were better than the great Katsuki Bakugo! Sure, they’d done bad things, but at least they had good reasons, be it discrimination, or money troubles, or even just bad friends, but Katsuki...he was just a jerk. 

Maybe this whole volunteering thing had been a mistake. These people didn’t need someone like Katsuki dragging them down. Hell if he was going to admit that though, and he had made a promise, so he was gonna fucking keep it. 

“Go on,” Amplifier smiled at him encouragingly, “if you go and talk to one of the groups for three minutes, I’ll let you brood for the rest of the time. Deal?”

“I’m not brooding.” Katsuki glared at her, but Amplifier just smiled. Damn, that face always worked on people at school, even the adults. Katsuki was gonna have to step up his intimidation game. 

Eventually, he sighed, “You’ll stop bitching at me to be social?”

She nodded, still smiling that infuriating little smile that meant that Katsuki had lost and she knew it. Still grumbling he made his way to the group with that tentacle-haired freak that kept trying to talk to him. What was his name? Ogawa? Whatever it was, it didn’t matter, because Katsuki was just there to get Amplifier off his back and then he’d be able to go back to...it wasn’t brooding, goddamn it!

Katsuki grabbed a chair and sat on it backwards so his arms were resting on the back. The villain who always wore pigtails, she said it had something to do with her quirk, was just finishing her story.

“So yeah,” she shrugged, “I robbed a couple places, what are you gonna do? They were insured, so it’s not like I hurt anybody.”

Katsuki scowled. Yet another way he was even worse than these scum. Even when committing crimes, they didn’t hurt people, whereas Katsuki had spent ten years hurting people for fun. He sucked. 

“I don’t think that’s really the point.” Ogawa said. “Just because no one ended up hurt in the end doesn’t mean that stealing was the right thing to do. Maybe it has more to do with what effect our actions have on us, you know? Like what kind of person are we becoming?”

Katsuki couldn’t help scoffing, “Never took you for the sentimental type.”

Ogawa grinned, “Haven't spoken to me enough to really make a judgement, have you?”

“Whatever,” Katsuki huffed, “so what about you? What kind of person did your actions make the great tentacle-haired extra?”

The other villains in the circle laughed at the nickname, but Ogawa simply frowned and thought about the question for a minute, “I think...I think it made me lost. My crimes were never very big, like, I never committed any felonies or anything, but...I don’t know, I was just obsessed with the thrill more than anything. I think my mistakes made me selfish.”

“And what’s wrong with being a little selfish sometimes?” The frankenstein-looking villain asked. Katsuki really needed to learn these people’s names...or at least come up with better nicknames for them. 

“Nothing’s wrong with it!” Ogawa said quickly. “It’s just not who I want to be, you know? I don’t want to be the kind of guy that only thinks of myself.”

“What about you, Bakugo?” Pig-tailed bitch asked. “You ever made a mistake?”

Too many to count, Katsuki thought as he glared at her, “You fuckers might be comfortable wearing your hearts on your sleeves, but don’t you drag me into this.”

“Technically, you dragged yourself.” Ogawa laughed. “Unlike the rest of us, you volunteered to be here.”

Yeah, well, how else was he gonna learn not to be so shitty, huh? There was only so much someone could improve from a google search and someone like him didn’t deserve to be a hero, much less number one. But again, he wasn’t gonna just say that, “Fuck off.”

“Oooh,” Pig-tails said, “looks like we hit a nerve. So what did you do? Cause with a reaction like that, it sure as hell wasn’t nothing.”

“Maybe I’ve never made a mistake in my life, you ever thought about that?” Katsuki snapped. “Or maybe I just don’t like you!”

Frankenstein gave a booming laugh, “Yeah, I’ll believe that.”

“Hey, lay off him for a minute.” Ogawa put a hand up to stop the teasing. “It takes a lot of trust to open up like we have been, and we can’t scare Bakugo off when he’s just gotten up the courage to talk to us.”

“Fuck you!”

“Give it some time, Bakugo.” Frankenstein said. “We’re not so scary once you get to know us.”

“I’m not a goddamn coward!” The lie tasted bitter on his tongue and he hated it. Why was he so fucking weak?!

Thankfully, Amplifier saved him from further pestering by calling their attention to the front. Katsuki was about to go back to his place standing against the wall, but before he could stand, Ogawa looked at him and cocked one eyebrow knowingly. Smug bastard. So Katsuki scoffed and settled back into his chair, determined to prove that he wasn’t scared. He’d already lost to Amplifier when she accused him of brooding, so there was no way he was about to let Ogawa win by saying that Katsuki was too scared to be social or some shit. He’d stick around, get to know them, still hate them, and that would prove that smug little tentacle-haired bastard wrong!

Katsuki already hated himself, so it’s not like he had any pride left to lose anyway.

Izuku picked at his dinner, not feeling hungry despite how good the food looked. Mom had somehow picked up on his mood and come home a little early to make him Katsudon, which only succeeded in making him feel even worse. First, he’d gone out with a broken arm, then he’d gotten in a fight with Eraserhead, and then he couldn’t even hide his guilt enough to keep his mom from worrying. He was the worst. 

“I think I’m going to save this for later.” Izuku said finally. “I’m not really hungry right now.”

Mom frowned at him, but nodded, “Is everything alright, baby? There’s not any problems with your new school, is there?”

“No, no! School’s great, I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed school more!” Izuku said frantically. 

“I’m glad.” Mom gave a small, genuine smile. “But you don’t have to hide things from me, baby. I know you hid the bullying because you didn’t want to worry me, but I want to know what’s going on in your life. I’m strong, I can take it.”

Izuku laughed as Mom flexed like All Might, pushing up the flab on her arms so it looked like muscles. After a moment, Mom couldn’t keep a straight face and started laughing too. It was moments like this that were almost worth living for. Almost. 

Izuku bit his lip. He couldn’t tell Mom about the whole thing with Eraserhead, because that would mean telling ehr about the vigilantism, which she didn’t deserve no matter how strong she was, but maybe he could hint at some of it…

“Well, there’s this guy who I run into online sometimes,” well, online was pushing it, but he did talk to him through the computer whenever he hacked into the hero comms, “we run in a lot of the same circles…”

“A boy?” Mom teased. “Should I be worried about someone stealing my baby’s heart?”

Izuku blushed and grimaced, “Ew! No! It’s not like that at all! He’s like...a grumpy old uncle or something like that. Gross, no!”

Mom chucked, “Alright. Still, you need to be careful about people you meet online, even if romance isn’t involved. I don’t want some creep showing up at our house all of a sudden.”

“Don’t worry, I’m very careful with my identity.” Izuku smiled briefly at his inside joke before letting his face fall as he continued, “But we kinda got in sort of a fight, and now I’m scared that he’s disappointed in me.”

Mom sat down next to him and started rubbing circles on his back, “What makes you think that?”

“He thinks I should be worried about having friends.” Izuku muttered. “But I don’t have any friends to be worried about.”

Mom’s eyes started shining like she was about to cry, “Oh, baby…”

“And it’s fine!” Izuku said quickly. “I mean, I haven’t had friends in years, and online school is great and like I said, I run in the same circles as this guy, and they don’t seem to hate me yet, which is better than I usually get, but I just can’t help feeling like I’ve disappointed him because maybe I just haven’t been trying hard enough.”

Mom was silent for a moment, still rubbing his back, “Well, you don’t have to do anything, but if you wanted to go out and try to make a friend, then I’d support you. If it works, then problem solved, and if they’re a jerk, then at least you can tell this guy you tried, right?”

“I...I guess that could work,” Izuku said slowly, “but who would I even…”

Izuku paused. He didn’t know a lot of people outside his middle school and anyone from there wasn’t going to work for this experiment. Who else did he...oh, there was that electric kid that worked at the hardware store who seemed kinda nice. He glanced up at the clock. Yeah, the store should still be open for a couple hours, so if he left right now, he might be able to run into him!

Izuku hopped, making Mom yelp in surprise, “I gotta go, I’ll text you if things work out!”

Mom blinked a few times, then smiled, “Alright, just don’t get home too late, I don’t want you walking around in the dark. Good luck, baby!”

Izuku grinned at her as he left, then closed the door and took a deep breath.

“Thanks,” he said softly, “I’m gonna need it.”

Chapter Text

All the confidence that Izuku had felt as he ran out the door with the intention of making a friend had slowly dissipated during his train ride to the hardware store. He didn’t even know if Kaminari was working today, and even if he was working, what was Izuku supposed to say to him?

Hey, sorry if this makes me sound like a stalker, but I’m not actually here to buy anything, I just wanted you to be my friend because I’m desperate and lonely. Wanna hang out?

Izuku grimaced. Yeah, that wouldn’t be creepy at all. Maybe if he had an excuse to be there...he could use this as an opportunity to update his gear, right? When he’d gone out last night, had his gear all been in good shape? His pipes were fine, he hadn’t needed his knife, but it was probably still sharp since he didn’t actually use it all that often, and his slingshot was still good. What else did he even need? 

Before he could even decide, Izuku was walking through the parking lot of the hardware store. Was it too late to turn around? He shouldn’t have told Mom about this, because now there were two people who would be disappointed in him if he chickened out. Could he make up some sort of story? It would probably be a lot of work to maintain a fake friendship, but he was already leading a double life with his vigilantism, so he could do it if he needed to, but then Mom and Eraserhead would be disappointed with him for lying to them. Ugh! What was he supposed to do?

He didn’t know if it made it more or less awkward that he didn’t even make it into the store before he saw Kaminari. His apron was thrown casually over his shoulder as he walked away from the store, so he must have just gotten off his shift. He was fiddling with his phone as he put some earbuds in, but what caught Izuku’s attention was the fact that he had the USB end of a phone charger stuck in his mouth. 

“Can you really charge your phone like that?”

Kaminari yelped and lost his footing as he stumbled back, wincing as he fell hard on the asphalt. Izuku ran forward to help him up, panicking even more than he had been the past a few minutes. He really couldn’t do anything right, could he? 

“I’m so sorry!” Izuku said frantically as he pulled Kaminari to his feet. “I didn’t even mean to ask the question out loud, it just came out and I was curious, but I swear I didn’t mean to scare you and now you probably think I’m really creepy because I just came out of nowhere and…”

Kaminari cut him off with a laugh, “It’s no problem dude, nothing’s broken and I wouldn’t be trying for the hero course if I couldn’t take a few hard knocks.” He rubbed his hip where he’d fallen and chuckled awkwardly, “Not that getting startled that easily is really hero-like, but…”

Izuku shrunk in on himself, “Sorry. Again. I mean, for knocking you over.”

“Like I said, it’s no big deal.” Kaminari shrugged. “How ya been? Is your mystery project going well?”

Izuku startled. Kaminari was talking about his vigilantism, even if he didn’t actually know that, “Um...I actually haven’t been able to work on it in a while.” He held up his arm to show Kaminari his cast, “So, uh, yeah, it’s kinda at a standstill.”

“Oof, dude,” Kaminari winced, “broken bones are no fun, but hey, at least you can get all your friends to sign your cast, so that’s cool!”

Izuku shrugged sadly. Yeah, he knew that other people had their friends sign their casts, Kacchan had almost the entire grade sign his cast when he’d broken his leg in second grade jumping off the top of the slide before he’d learned how to use his explosions to catch himself. Izuku had signed too because Mom and Auntie Mitsuki had thought it would be cute if his best friend was the first one to sign Kacchan’s cast, but when Izuku showed up to school the next day, his signature had been scribbled out with black sharpie and silver explosions had been drawn over it. He’d never tried to sign anyone’s cast after that.

Apparently, his silence was pretty telling, because Kaminari put his hand on his chest in exaggerated shock, “Are you implying that you haven’t gotten a single signature yet? That just won’t do! Come here, dude.”

Izuku took a few steps forward and his eyes widened as he saw Kaminari pull a sharpie out of his back pocket. 

“I guess it’s pretty lucky that they make us carry these things during our shift, right?” Kaminari grinned and grabbed Izuku’s arm to sign his cast, but then looked at him, suddenly insecure, “Oh, sorry dude, I mean, you might not even want me to sign your cast and here I am, acting like an idiot because I think it’s cool and…”

“No!” Izuku cleared his throat, “Um, I mean, I’d be honored if you’d sign my cast, Kaminari. It’s just that I don’t have a lot of friends, or really any friends, and I mean, you probably think I’m pretty lame and…”

Izuku trailed off as Kaminari actually started writing. He...he had a signature on his cast!

“Are you busy?” Izuku blurted out before he could second guess himself again, “I mean, um, do you want to hang out? You don’t have to! I mean, just because you signed my cast doesn’t mean that you’re obligated to like me or anything…”

Kaminari glanced between Izuku and the store a few times, “Aren’t you busy? Weren’t you about to buy some stuff for your project?”

“Well, actually,” and now came the awkward part, “um, like I said, I haven’t really been able to work on it because of my arm, but I have this...kinda weird grumpy uncle? And he wants me to try to make friends, because I don’t have any, obviously, because I mean, you can see that because nobody signed my cast and I don’t want to disappoint him, and you’re nice so…” Izuku winced, “I was wondering if you wanted to hang out?”

“So...you came here looking for me because your grumpy uncle made you promise to make friends?” Kaminari asked. 

“...yes?”

To his surprise, Kaminari’s face split into a huge grim, “That’s hilarious, dude! Where do you want to go?”

Izuku’s jaw dropped, “Wait, really? You’re not creeped out? And you’re not too busy?”

“Dude, I always have time to hang out.” Kaminari said. “Mom says I’m the definition of a social butterfly, but then again, that might just be the adhd.” He shrugged, “Either way, I’m not gonna say no to a new friend.”

“O-ok…” Izuku said. “Um, there’s a park nearby, if you wanna go there?”

Izuku had passed the park a few times during his vigilante hours, and at two in the morning it was a fairly popular spot for drug deals. Hopefully, it was a little different when the sun was still up. It wasn’t a very long walk, and Izuku didn’t really know what to talk about. It had been so long since he’d actually had a friend that he had no idea what he was doing, and just being himself would probably scare Kaminari away like it had everyone else, and now he’d been quiet for too long and talking now would just make everything weird, but if he didn’t talk then that was even weirder and…

Kaminari was apparently braver than he was, because he was the one to break the silence, “So what’s your name, dude? I don’t think you actually told me, and if you did, then I forgot it. Actually, that’s probably more likely, I’m kind of an idiot. I can keep calling you dude, but, you know, usually friends know each other’s names.”

Izuku chuckled awkwardly. Great, yet another way he’d completely messed this up, “Um, it’s Izuku Midoriya. Sorry.”

“Stop apologizing, dude!” Kaminari said, “Is Midoriya your real name? I mean, it’s a cool name and all, don’t get me wrong, but it seems a little too on the nose, what with your hair and eyes and everything, you know?”

“Um, yeah.” Midioriya said, “Green is kinda the dominant gene in my family, so I think that’s where the name came from, I really don’t know.” He needed to get the conversation off of him. He wasn’t used to talking about himself and it was surprisingly uncomfortable. “So, uh, with everything that happened earlier, you never answered my question. Can you really charge your phone by sticking the charger in your mouth?”

Kaminari laughed, “Yeah, it works pretty well. A lot of my friends at school will use me for that, so I’m pretty used to it. And it’s nice that I never have to worry about a dead battery.”

Izuku’s eyes shone as he thought about the possibilities, “Does that mean that your quirk is constantly producing electricity? Do you have to think about directing the electricity into the charger or does it just go there automatically? If you consciously direct the electricity, does the phone charge faster…” Izuku suddenly realized he was rambling and slammed his mouth shut. So much for not being himself. 

Kaminari, however, didn’t seem put off by his questions, just a little intimidated, “I don’t have to think about it, no, but I can’t actually direct the electricity I produce. It’s pretty annoying because it just builds up around my body and I can discharge it, but it kinda just goes everywhere.” he grimaced, “I’m hoping UA will help me fix that.”

They had arrived at the park by that point and found an empty bench to sit on. Thankfully, it was just a normal park during the day, no drug deals or other villains in sight. That would have been pretty embarrassing. Izuku couldn’t stop himself from grabbing his notebook, glad that he’d thought to grab his bag on the way out the door, “So you can produce and discharge electricity, but can’t aim it. Do you think that you would be able to with practice, or is that just an inborn limitation of your quirk?”

“I’ve been trying for years, so I think it’s just a natural limit.” Kaminari frowned, “Or one of them, at least.” 

That last part was grumbled under his breath, which made Izuku even more curious.

“One of them? What are the others?” Izuku’s eyes widened as he realized that was probably a really creepy question, “Not that you have to tell me, I just really like quirks and think they’re really cool, so I’m sorry if I’m annoying you or anything…”

Kaminari laughed, “It’s not a problem, it’s just kind of an embarrassing drawback.”

“Oh?” Izuku could think of plenty of heroes that had embarrassing side effects to their quirks. In fact, there had been a kid in the sports festival just that year that had to do most of it naked because of his quirk’s limitations.

“Yeah. Like I said, I can discharge electricity, but if I go over my limits,” Kaminari smiled awkwardly, “I kinda fry my brain and turn into an idiot for a while.”

Izuku’s mind turned over the possibilities. That drawback couldn’t be good for Kaminari’s brain long term. Did he get headaches from it or did his quirk include a healing component to help his brain recover? He’d mentioned that he had adhd, so could that be a result of going over his limits? Probably not, but the extra electricity running through his brain would make his mind work faster than the average person’s, which would result in adhd-like symptoms. Oh, Kaminari was waiting for his reaction.

“What’s your limit?”

“Right now?” Izuku nodded and Kaminari thought for a second, “Just under a million volts, but I’m working on raising that in preparation for entrance exams.”

Izuku’s eyes widened, “That’s really impressive Kaminari!”

Kaminari grinned, “You really think so? I’ve been kinda worried cause, while my quirk is flashy, it’s kinda hard to control. The electricians I’ve been apprenticing under have been helping me understand the whole electricity thing, but they can’t really teach me quirk control, you know?”

Izuku nodded, “Quirks are difficult like that. The only way to really know their limits is to try things out.”

“Speaking of quirks, what’s yours?” Kaminari asked. “I bet it’s some kind of intelligence quirk, right? You’re really smart.”

Izuku’s smile faded and he scuffed at the dirt with his toe, “Um, I actually don’t...have one?”

Well, at least he’d be able to tell Eraserhead that he’d tried. It had been nice while it lasted, and there was probably some way to get the marker off his cast in case Kaminari didn’t want to be associated with him anymore. 

“Oh.” Kaminari said quietly. “Um, what’s that like?”

Izuku looked up. Kaminari looked vaguely awkward, but in a curious way, like he didn’t know how to react, not like he was trying to figure out a way to get out of the conversation. While there was a little bit of pity, there wasn’t any trace of malice or hatred like Izuku was used to from the kids at school. Was it possible that Kaminari was still giving him a chance, even after knowing he’s quirkless? It seemed like almost too much to hope for. 

“It’s, uh,” Izuku shrugged, “I guess I just don’t know any different.”

Kaminari thought about that for a minute, “That makes sense. I can’t imagine having a different quirk or not having a quirk at all, so I guess it’s kinda the same for you, huh?”

Izuku nodded. Kaminari’s response was...refreshingly neutral. It almost made him afraid to ask his next question, “Do...do you hate me now?”

Kaminari just looked confused, “Ok, I know that I’m not very smart, but why would I hate you?”

“Because,” Izuku wished he had enough courage to say the truth in anything louder than a whisper, “I’m useless.”

Kaminari frowned, “Are you saying that because you’re quirkless or is it because of something else? Because I haven’t met many quirkless people, so I have no idea if that’s what you’re referring to, and I don’t know you well enough yet to figure out if you’re actually useless or not. But, hey, if you don’t hate me for being stupid, then I won’t hate you for being useless. Deal?”

Izuku smiled and nodded energetically, “Deal!” 

Kaminari didn’t hate him yet! He was giving him a chance! It took all Izuku’s self control to hold back the grateful tears that threatened to fall, but he didn’t want to ruin his chances at friendship by being a crybaby.

Kaminari smiled, dissipating the heavy atmosphere, “So, does this mean we’re friends now? Because if so, I’m gonna need your number.”

This time, Izuku couldn’t hold back his tears, making Kaminari panic, “Oh no, what did I say?”

Chapter Text

Shouta really wished he could just crawl into his sleeping bag and pass out, but unfortunately he had paperwork. Maybe Tsukauchi would let him finish it another day? No, he’d pulled that yesterday, so if he skipped out again that would just mean more work later, which was illogical. None of that meant he had to be happy about having to listen to Amplifier’s incessant rambling next to him, though. 

“Yeah, so I still totally miss that bartender. I wonder what happened to him?” She said as she finished whatever story Shouta had been ignoring, “He had the most awesome quirk, too. I think it was called Remote Vision or something. Basically, as long as he knew where something was, he could see it. No one could get up to anything in that club.”

“How’s your redemption group going these ways?” Tsukauchi asked and Shouta sent him a half-hearted glare. The woman had just finished a story and now he was encouraging her to start a new one? Couldn’t they just do their paperwork in peaceful silence?

“Pretty good, there’s some real characters this time around.” Amplifier said cheerfully. “We’ve also got this kid that volunteered to help out, which has been interesting.”

“Oh?” Tsukauchi even sounded interested, the traitor. “What’re they like?”

“He’s a…,” Amplifier sighed, “well, I can’t really say he’s a good kid, considering that I’m half-convinced the reason he wanted to volunteer was because he’s trying to be less of an asshole. At least he wants to change, but I just wish I knew how to help him more.”

“If he’s actually trying to improve, then at least he’s got some potential.” Shouta couldn’t help saying. “Half the kids I expel get kicked out because they’re not willing to put in that kind of effort.”

“Yeah, but he’s a problem child.” Amplifier whined. “It’s been weeks, and I just barely got him to stop just standing by the wall the whole time and actually talk to people.”

“Speaking of problem children, how’s yours doing, Eraser?” Tsuakuchi asked. “I don’t think anyone heard from Viridian last night. Do you think he’s going awol again?”

Shouta groaned loudly and dropped his head onto the desk in exhaustion and frustration, “Not unless he breaks his arm again.”

“Wait, the kid broke his arm?” Amplifier screeched so loud that Shouta had to sit up and cancel her quirk. “When did that happen?”

“Apparently, about five weeks ago.” Shouta sighed. “Kid didn’t tell me how it happened, but that’s why he’s been keeping off the streets. Well, until last night, when he apparently got bored and decided it was a good idea to go gallivanting on the rooftops in a cast.”

Amplifier snorted, “Yeah, that sounds like Viridian, alright. Reckless as ever.”

“Still, it’s good he didn’t go missing because of what we originally thought.” Tsukauchi pointed out. “Do you think you were overreacting about him being suicidal now that you’ve seen him again, Eraser?”

Shouta shook his head, “He was acting a little happier, but then…” He trailed off with a grimace. Yeah, yelling at a suicidal kid to stay alive hadn’t been his proudest moment. There had to have been better ways to get his point across without ruining what little trust the kid had in him, but there wasn’t anything he could do about that now except hope that he hadn’t ruined everything. 

“Then what?” Amplifier asked. “What’s wrong.”

Shouta sighed, “We got in a fight.”

“You’re a hero, Eraser, getting into fights is what you do.” Tsukauchi deadpanned. 

“Not with a villain.” 

“Hold up.” Amplifier looked at him incredulously. “Are you saying you got into a fight with Viridian? What were you trying to do, arrest him?”

“I was trying to get him to drop it!” Shouta growled. “He...look, long story short, Queen Bee is back, which means that the villain factory is making a move, and Viridian is knee deep in it. He figured out that the bees were the injection method for our recent rash of instant villains and went back to the scene during the day to recover one of them. Turns out they’re robotic and can be hacked, which is something I need to bring up with Nedzu, but it’s not something that a teenager should be poking around in.”

“He’s a vigilante.” Amplifier argued. “Sticking his nose into things he shouldn’t is pretty much what he does, you can’t get mad at the kid for that.”

“I know, I just,” he sighed, “when he disappeared, I seriously thought the kid was dead. I was looking at obituaries just to make sure he wasn’t in them! I don’t want to have to go through that again, or worse, worry about him getting kidnapped and experimented on, just because he ran headfirst into a situation he wasn’t equipped to deal with. Vigilantes deal with petty crime, not highly organized villain groups.”

“You think the villain factory is going to start running experiments again?” Tsukauchi sounded worried. “Should we be expecting more next level villains?”

“The kid thinks the factory is probably moving onto the next phase in their experiment and I’m inclined to agree with him.” Shouta said. “Whatever that next phase is, I can guarantee that it won’t be pretty.”

Tsukauchi let out a deep exhale, “Ok. I’ll let the police know to be on high alert. If we see anything that even seems like it could be the villain factory, we’ll let you know right away.”

“Thanks.” Shouta said. “Now I just need to get the kid to talk to me again, hopefully after he gets his cast off.”

“Did he say when that was gonna be?” Amplifier asked. “As fun as it is to have him hack into my comms, I kinda miss seeing him around, and I know I’m not the only one. Even Rock Lock was complaining that he hadn’t gotten an actual marble from him yet.”

“It should be sometime this week.” Shouta shrugged. “Kid didn’t give me an exact day. He was too busy insisting that he was healed enough to be on the rooftops and I was too busy trying to get him to go home so he didn’t break his arm again. It was a fun time.”

Amplifier giggled, “Be careful, Eraser, your inner dad is showing.”

“Actually, I think it’s too late for that.” Tsukauchi grinned. “He’s got his heart on his sleeve, already.”

Shouta glared at them, “I hate brats.”

“Sure thing.” Amplifier smiled mischievously. “Eraserdad.”

Shouta activated his quirk as Amplifier and Tsukauchi had the audacity to laugh at him, “Either get me coffee, or get the fuck out.”

Dr. Daruma Ujiko sighed as he looked at the feral...well, he couldn’t quite be called a man anymore, but the thing that was currently trying to cut through the bars to get at him. Despite their success in modifying the subjects’ bodies, the minds were another problem entirely. Or maybe it was just this specific subject. Crabs weren’t naturally the most intelligent creatures, after all. 

The doctor didn’t have any problems forcing mutations in his subjects, especially not in subjects like this one that had a natural mutative aspect to their quirks. It was a simple enough task with a high enough quantity of trigger and other drugs, all of which Sensi was more than willing to provide. No, the problem came from the natural limits of the quirk itself. As many experiments as they ran, the increased quirk strength immediately returned to normal levels as soon as trigger was no longer being introduced into the system, which simply wouldn’t do at all. Sensei wanted a tool that could showcase his prowess at a moment’s notice without the need for constant assistance from chemicals, so that was what he would get. 

To maintain the quirk’s strength without the drug, however, the quirk needed to be forced to achieve singularity. After his dismal failure trying to do this with drugs alone, however, Daruma had finally discovered a working solution making use of Sensei’s quirk. Sensei would take the quirk in question, then, making use of a multiplier quirk he had acquired a few decades ago, create multiple copies of the quirk all jumbled together and give them back to the subject. 

Theoretically, the body should already be equipped to handle it’s own quirk, especially with the extra modifications that Daruma had added. Theoretically, the fact that it was the same quirk, only stronger, should bypass that annoying little glitch that Sensei had discovered centuries ago that caused brain damage in those that had multiple quirks forced into them. Theoretically, this should have been the last experiment necessary to create the perfect superhuman weapon. 

In reality, theory only took one so far. While the brain recognized the modified quirk jumble as its own, it was still technically multiple quirks, which meant that the body attacked itself in an attempt to get rid of what wasn’t supposed to be there. The end result was that the subject was still capable of independent actions, but only those that were motivated by rage, since the emotional centers were largely undamaged by the experiments. 

Which brought the doctor back to where he was now, looking at the monster he had created. The rage itself was not a problem, in fact, it simply made the monster more destructive, which would fit Sensei’s goals well, but currently that rage was directed toward himself, which was far too dangerous. 

Daruma sighed. It lacked the fineness of his normal experiments, but training and pain had been used to adjust the behavior of animals for centuries, and it would mould what was left of the monster’s brain into what Sensei wanted. While not a complete success, the experiment was still useful, if only for how destructive this monster had the potential to be. 

Now to make it follow orders.

Chapter Text

Izuku couldn’t help flinching slightly as the doctor took a literal power saw to his cast. He was fully capable of running at a villain with nothing but a soup can and a pair of sticks with no problem, but he was scared of a doctor who wasn’t even trying to hurt him? What was up with that? Maybe it had something to do with adrenaline? Did people become less afraid during life-threatening situations so they didn’t shut down?

It only took a few minutes for the doctor to finish cutting off the cast, “Alright, Midoriyas, you should be good to go. Just be careful in the future, because I don’t want to see you back here, ok?”

“You really hate me that much?” Izuku couldn’t help giggling, 

“Doctors show they care by sincerely wishing they never see you again.” The doctor said dryly. “If a doctor is excited for the next time you end up in their office, find a new doctor.”

“Come on, Izuku,” Mom smiled, “let’s go.”

“Wait!” Izuku bit his lip, “Could I keep my cast?”

The doctor looked mildly surprised, but handed it over without any questions and opened the door for them to leave. 

“Thank you!” Izuku smiled and gave a little wave. He and Mom made their way back through the waiting room and Izuku couldn’t hold back a little sigh of relief as soon as they got outside. 

“Glad that’s over?” Mom said with a smile. 

“Yes!” Izuku said. “I’m so excited to have full use of both arms again!”

He was mostly excited because he would finally be able to be a vigilante again! He hadn’t had the courage to go out since his fight with Eraserhead, because he figured that the other heroes would have a similar reaction to his cast, and Eraser had probably told everyone about his broken arm by this point anyway, but he missed everyone. Sure, he didn’t actually talk to most of the heroes, but it was still nice to see them when he was running away. 

“Why did you want to keep the cast?” Mom asked. “I would have thought you’d want to put this whole thing behind you. The broken arm, the bullying, everything.”

Izuku looked at the cast, or more specifically the signature on it, and smiled, “I do, but Kaminari signed this. That makes it special. And if I hadn’t broken my arm, I wouldn’t have ever thought to try online school, so...yeah. I guess it wasn't all bad.”

Mom smiled, “I’m so proud of you, Izuku. You seem so much happier since we got you out of that school. How are classes going?”

Izuku spent the rest of the way home rambling about what he was learning in his classes. He was doing well in all his core classes, and his programming homework was really easy with all the extra practice he had gotten by hacking the cameras and comms as Viridian, not that he told Mom about that. But by far, his favorite classes were quirk theory. When he’d finished his art class, he’d ended up replacing it with a more advanced quirk theory credit so that he had two of them in his schedule. It was so much fun!

“...and there’s this theory that’s been gaining traction in the last few years called the quirk singularity theory, that basically believes that quirks will become more powerful and complex with every generation and soon, no one will be able to control them.” Izuku rambled. “I see where they get the idea that quirks will become more complex, there’s tons of evidence, but I think it’s much more likely that people’s bodies will evolve to control the more powerful quirks. That’s probably why it’s still a fringe theory, but it’s got a dedicated fanbase.”

Mom nodded along with interest even though Izuku knew that she didn’t really know what he was talking about. It meant a lot to him that she listened though. No one else did that for him. Izuku couldn’t help but wonder if Eraser or Kaminari would listen like this if he rambled around them. He knew it was probably too much to hope for, but...it would be nice.

“Hey, Bakugo!” Ogawa waved as Katsuki walked in with the water jug. “You should sit with us today! Unless you’re too scared or something?”

Katsuki wasn’t a coward. Or, okay, maybe he was, but he wasn’t about to let Ogawa get away with calling him one, “What did you say asshole? I’m not scared of some shitty extras like you!”

“Perfect!” Pigtails gestured to a chair next to her, “This is your seat.”

Katsuki huffed and dropped heavily onto the offered chair, crossing his arms in a way that he hoped meant don’t talk to me if you want to live. Unfortunately, something must have gotten lost in translation, because those stupid extras kept bothering him. 

“By the way, Bakugo, I don’t think I ever introduced myself.” Pigtails said cheerily. “I’m Haru Akiko.”

Katsuki filed the name away for later, “Don’t care.”

“And I’m Eiko Maki.” Frankenstein-looking Extra said. “How was your week?”

“It was whatever.” Katsuki grumbled. In truth, it was getting really annoying. He didn’t know how he’d ever been stupid enough to miss all the bullying that happened at Aldera, but now that he knew to look for it and wasn’t participating in it anymore, it seemed like it was everywhere and he couldn’t do a thing about it. It made him feel powerless, and Katsuki hated feeling powerless. 

“Yeah, mine too.” Akiko said, “My ex tried coming back into my life. I mean, he’s a jerk on a good day, don’t know why I ever dated him, but he showed up out of the blue a few days ago, acting all smooth with a bouquet full of my favorite flowers.”

“What did he want?” Ogawa asked.

“How do you know he wanted something?” Katsuki asked. Sue him, the story was more entertaining than standing against the wall. 

“Guys like that always want something, kid.” Maki said. “It’s one thing to genuinely try to be better, like we’re supposed to be doing here, but if someone that was rude to you all of a sudden starts being nice, they’re just trying to make things go their way.”

“My sister does it all the time.” Ogawa said. “She’ll offer to watch a movie with me, or do the dishes or something, and I think that we’re finally gonna get along, then before I know it, she’s trying to guilt me into taking the fall for something she did. As soon as a manipulator gets what they want, they’ll go right back to being an asshole.”

“Hmm,” Katsuki thought about it for a minute. Yeah, some of his teachers were like that with the bullied students. He’d noticed it once, when his history teacher had given a kid a higher grade on an assignment, as long as they didn’t report the huge burn Katsuki had put on the kid’s arm. At the time, he’d just thought the teacher was looking out for him, but he knew better now. “So what did the guy want?”

“Wanted me to break a safe he’d stolen.” Akiko gestured to her pigtails and Katsuki noticed that they were spinning like drills. “My quirk is called Hair Drill. Basically, I can harden and rotate my hair to the point where I can puncture almost anything, even metal. Super useful for getting into things...which is how I ended up here.”

Katsuki nodded along, wondering what Deku would think of that quirk. He’d probably start muttering immediately and write all sorts of gibberish in his notebook. Katsuki shut down that train of thought. He couldn’t think about Deku right now, about how the nerd had actually transferred schools because of how Katsuki had treated him. There was no point in thinking about it because he wasn’t ever going to see Deku again. 

At least, not unless he ever got the balls to apologize. 

“That sucks.” Ogawa said. “At least you said no, right?”

“It was hard.” Akiko grimaced. “As soon as I saw him at the door with a bright pink bouquet, I thought oh, he even remembered my favorite color, and I had to remind myself of all the ways he’d hurt me, even though he was acting so sweet that it made me think of all the reasons I’d fallen for him in the first place.”

“He sounds like a dick.” Katsuki said.

“Yeah, he kinda is.” Akiko laughed. “But hey, if I knew that all I had to do to get you out of your shell was talk about my ex, I would’ve done that earlier.”

Katsuki scowled, “Shut up, pigtail bitch.”

The three had the audacity to laugh at that, but thankfully he was saved by Amplifier starting the meeting, “Alright, everyone, today we’re gonna be talking about truly believing you can change, because it’s one thing to recognize that you’ve done something bad, but it’s another thing entirely to really know that you can change the habits and behaviors that got you arrested. That confidence is important though. Why do you think that is?”

One of the villains raised their hand, “If we don’t actually think it’s gonna do anything, we’re not gonna put in the effort to change.”

“Exactly.” 

Amplifier smiled and kept talking, but Katsuki ended up lost in his own thoughts. Did he actually believe he could become a better person? That was the whole reason he was here, right? He wouldn’t have volunteered for this sappy shit if he didn’t actually think it would help. 

But then again, he’d always believed he was the best, and look where that landed him. These villain extras might have made some bad decisions, but...they didn’t seem like bad people, not like Katsuki was. He was knocked out of his thoughts by Ogawa elbowing him in the ribs and looking at him in curiosity and concern. Katsuki responded by glaring at him, but decided he’d better actually listen to what Amplifier was saying if he didn’t want to be bothered again. 

“We’re gonna do a partner exercise for this,” she said, “so turn to the person next to you. You don’t have to say anything, but just think for a minute. Do you think that your partner is capable of becoming a better person?”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, but turned to Ogawa, who was looking at him intensely, probably deciding that he was a lost cause. Wasn’t the point of this lesson to believe in himself? Of course Ogawa could change, that wasn’t even a question. The guy may have made some stupid decisions and stolen some shit, but he was trying to be better and he wanted to turn his life around. He was a nice guy, so Katsuki didn’t have any doubt that after this stupid program was over and his arrest record was wiped, Ogawa would go straight to being an upstanding citizen, unlike Katsuki, who would always be a stupid bully. 

“Alright,” Amplifier activated her quirk momentarily so she could speak loudly enough to catch all of their attention, “so you might be wondering why I had you do that. After all, believing in someone else’s potential isn’t going to help you, right? Well, yes and no. The fact is that it’s often a lot easier to have patience and compassion toward someone else than it is to have it toward yourself. You and your partner aren't so different, and if they can change, you can too. And now you have someone who believes in your potential! Go ahead and talk to your partner for a minute about what that exercise was like for you.”

Ogawa laughed, “Man, did she just trick us into believing in ourselves?”

“What the fuck?” Katsuki was reeling slightly. It did make sense that he would probably be harsher on himself than he would be on the others in the group...but that was because Katsuki was supposed to be the best, right? The guilt and self-hatred he was feeling couldn’t be normal, could they?

“For the record, Bakugo, I think she’s right.” Ogawa said. “I mean, I think it’s pretty obvious that you can change, even if I don’t know exactly why you feel like you need to, but me? All I can see is me falling back into my old habits the minute all this is over.”

“Do you want to get punched?” Ok, that didn’t come out right, but it got the point across. “You’re a good person, Ogawa, so of course this stupid class is gonna work on you. If you think you’re gonna go right back to a life of crime, you’re a bigger idiot than you look.”

Ogawa gave a shocked laugh, “You’ve got an interesting way of giving inspirational speeches, man, but it works. Thanks.”

Katsuki huffed and turned away, “Whatever.” 

They sat in silence for a few seconds before Katsuki’s brain to mouth filter apparently decided that it wanted to nope out, “Did you mean what you said?”

Ogawa looked slightly confused, “What? What did I say?”

Katsuki ran a hand through his hair, “Ugh! You know, that shit about it being obvious I can change. Was that bullshit or do you actually believe it?”

Katsuki was beginning to regret saying anything. Of course Ogawa was just saying that because it was what Amplifier told him to say. Even a blind guy would be able to see that Katsuki would always be an asshole. 

“Of course I believe it, Bakugo.” Ogawa looked like he thought Katsuki was an idiot. “You’re what? Fifteen? You may be a little rough around the edges, but you’re not irredeemable. You’re even going out of your way to become a better person, so no, I wasn’t lying when I said I think you can change. You just need some time.”

If Katsuki was the nerd, he probably would have started crying, so it was a good thing he wasn’t Deku. Maybe, just maybe, Amplifier was telling the truth about it being easier to believe in someone else. 

“I want to be a hero.” Katsuki said impulsively. He’d said that so many times over the years, but he didn’t think he’d even said it once since Deku left, so saying it felt important somehow. He hadn’t felt worthy of it, but if Ogawa believed in him…

“Okay.” Ogawa shrugged. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Because I can’t be a hero if I’m an asshole, dipshit!’ 

Ogawa laughed, “So that’s why you’re here? You want a bunch of villains to teach you to be a better hero?”

Katsuki scowled, “No, I couldn’t give two shits about you extras. I just…” 

“You want to be a better person.” Ogawa finished. 

“I don’t…” Katsuki growled, “Look, I want to be like All Might, and All Might doesn’t hurt people for fun or to make him feel better about himself. Happy?”

Ogawa blinked a few times in realization, “You were a bully.”

“Don’t know if you can really put in the past tense,” Katsuki muttered, “I haven’t changed yet.”

Chapter Text

Izuku could hardly contain his excitement as he ran over the rooftops. Yes, logically, he knew that he had technically got out last week, but he hadn’t actually been able to fight, so it didn’t really count. He had gone to the beach that afternoon to practice with his slingshot and he had gotten a little rusty, so he should probably rely on his other weapons for now, at least until his aim improved again. 

It took hardly any time at all to find a group of four men cornering a woman in an alley just outside Amplifier’s territory and it took even less time to find the hero herself. She had her back to him as she walked her patrol route, so Izuku threw one of his marbles to get her attention. She looked around for a moment before she saw him, but when she did, her eyes lit up and she immediately started running for him. Izuku was so busy wondering why she looked so happy that he didn’t have a chance to turn around and run away before she had wrapped her arms around him. 

“Viridian!” she yelled. “You’re back! How are you? How’s your arm? Eraser said you broke it, are you ok?”

“Umm…” Izuku stared at her in shock. Again, l ogically he knew that Amplifier and the other heroes had missed him when he couldn’t go out, but it was just so strange to actually see it. Somehow, Izuku had thought that they wouldn’t really care if he came back back, or that his virtual vigilantism would count as his return , so no one would really make a big deal out of it when he finally got back onto the streets. It was...Izuku wasn’t ready to deal with this, especially not when there were people to save. “I’m fine, but, um, we need to go?”

To her credit, Amplifier let go of him immediately and let him lead the way to the alley he’d seen. Since he hadn’t been fighting for the past month and a half, Izuku let Amplifier take the lead. He was just planning on shooting a few marbles to distract the villains and let Amplifier take care of the rest, but then he saw the smallest of the four give her the slip and start to head toward the victim, stretching his arms like elastic to try to grab her.

Izuku ran to them and grabbed his pipes, bringing one down on the villain’s arm, then started twirling the pipe to wrap the arm around it like a noodle and trap him. He earned an elastic punch to the jaw for his trouble, forcing him to release his hold on the villain as he stumbled back. Izuku lowered himself into a fighting stance as he took a moment to regroup. Thankfully, the villain had taken his attention off the victim and was fully focused on him now, but that also meant that more attacks were going to be coming, and that first punch had hurt a lot more than a normal one, so the extra elasticity definitely gave his punches more power. So what could he do….?

Well, if the quirk worked like a rubber band, then there was a limit to how far the arms could stretch and they would turn brittle in the cold. He didn’t really have access to anything cold right now, but if he could find the limit…

The villain reached to grab him, but Izuku dodged and started climbing up the fire escape. It was a risk, but he hadn’t seen the villain use his quirk in his legs at all, so it was most likely limited to his arms, meaning that if he wanted to stop Izuku from getting away, he would have to stretch his arms to grab him. Of course, there was always the possibility that he’d think Izuku was simply no longer interested in fighting him, and he would try to fight Amplifier or hurt the victim, so Izuku would need to be prepared to get back down onto the street quickly if that happened. 

He glanced down and smiled when he saw the villain reaching for him. He started climbing faster. If he could get onto the rooftop, then the villain would be reaching for him blindly and he might be able to find some way to use that to his advantage. He had to dodge the moment that his feet hit the roof as the arms grabbed for him, but he kept dodging and looking around the roof as the villain continued groping for him blindly. 

There was a set of vertical poles with clothesline spread between them and Izuku’s brain immediately formed a rough semblance of a plan as he ran toward them, grabbing one of the villain’s hands as he did so and dragging it along with him. As he predicted, the villain immediately started reaching for him with his other hand, but Izuku was already prepared with zip ties. The moment that the second hand was in reach, he grabbed it and tied them together on the far side of the pole. Hopefully that would hold the villain long enough for Izuku to…

His eyes widened as he heard a scream coming closer to him and he whipped his head around to see the villain flying at him, which is when he remembered that when rubber bands were stretched to their limits, they tended to snap back. Oops. 

There was a loud clang and Izuku finched as the villain hit the pole. He ran over to check on the guy, who had obviously been knocked unconscious, but he still had a pulse, so Izuku hadn’t messed up too badly. He didn’t know what he’d do if he’d killed the guy. 

Well, it hadn’t exactly been the takedown he’d planned, and it wasn’t the cleanest, but Izuku wasn’t about to complain as he climbed back down the fire escape. Amplifier had taken down two of the thugs in the time it had taken Izuku to handle one, and she was currently fighting the last guy, who seemed to be giving her a little trouble. Every time she landed the punch, the villain didn’t even flinch. It was like she wasn’t hitting him with any more force than a love tap.

“Viridian! Get out of here and get Eraser!” She yelled. “This guy has some sort of shock absorption quirk.”

Izuku nodded and started running. The villain tried to run after him, but Amplifier got between them. He heard her getting thrown against the wall, so picked up the pace. He didn’t know how long she would be able to hold against a villain like that, but as long as she focused on dodging instead of fighting, she should be able to drag the fight out long enough for him to get back. Now, to get on the rooftops and find Eraser. 

He ended up being only a block or two away, thankfully, and as soon as Izuku saw him, he loaded a marble into his slingshot and fired. Hopefully Eraser would forgive him if he got a bruise, but they didn’t have time for Izuku to run across three extra rooftops to get in range to throw the marble manually. He didn’t look back as he ran back to the fight, knowing that Eraser would follow him and sure enough, by the time he could hear the sounds of the fight again, he could hear Eraser falling into step beside him. 

“What’s up, kid?” he asked. “You’re in more of a hurry than usual.”

“Shock...absorption….Amplifier...help…” Apparently, he was a little out of shape from his forced vacation, or else he was pushing himself way harder than he normally did, because he didn’t even have enough breath to make himself intelligible. Eraser seemed to understand well enough, however, because he ran ahead, following the sounds of the fight, and Izuku saw him disappear down into the alley with his quirk already activated. 

Izuku himself stopped at the edge of the roof to catch his breath, knowing that he wouldn’t be much use in the fight if he was this exhausted. He would just get in the way of the heroes, which was the last thing he wanted to do. He sat down on the edge and watched what was left of the takedown, which was basically just Eraserhead grabbing the villain with his capture weapon, then hitting his head against the wall to knock him out, which worked pretty well now that the guy couldn’t just absorb the impact. Izuku got up and stretched for a minute before turning to go find another crime. 

“Viridian, wait.”

Izuku turned to see Eraser pull himself up onto the roof with his capture weapon, “Shouldn’t you be waiting for the police, Eraser? Oh! I left one of the guys on another rooftop.”

“Amplifier mentioned something about that.” Eraser’s mouth was hidden by his capture weapon, but he sounded amused. “She said the guy literally launching himself into the air gave her an opening to take out one of the others.”

Izuku grimaced, “I really didn’t mean to do that.”

Eraser let out a huff that sounded suspiciously like laughter, “Sure you didn’t.”

“I was just trying to tie him up, I swear!” Izuku insisted, but he was smiling now too. “It’s not my fault he stretched too far trying to catch me!”

“Good work, problem child.” 

Izuku’s eyes widened as Eraserhead reached forward and rubbed his head, ruffling his hair under his hood. What? No one was ever proud of him! Well, maybe except his mom, but even that felt like a relatively recent development. Izuku couldn’t help the shocked little smile as he looked up at Eraser, who seemed as tired and grumpy as ever, but also seemed awkward, like he was about as used to expressing pride as Izuku was to receiving it. 

After a second, Eraser took his hand back and sighed, “Kid, let’s go somewhere where the police aren't going to try to grab you. We need to talk.”

Chapter Text

Izuku couldn’t help the pool of dread in his stomach as he followed Eraserhead across the rooftops. What had he done? Was Eraser really going to force him to stop vigilantism? But if he was going to force him to stop, then why didn’t he just hand him over to the police? Not that the police were actually going to be able to stop him, considering that he wasn’t technically breaking any vigilantism laws, but still, that would have been the easiest course of action and Eraserhead was logical enough to see that. So what was he doing?

When they were a few blocks away from where the fight had been, Eraserhead stopped and turned around, “I wanted to apologize.”

Izuku’s spiraling thoughts stuttered to a stop, “What?”

Eraserhead sighed., “Last week, when I saw you, I yelled at you trying to get you to stop. I was worried and scared, but that’s no excuse. I shouldn’t have gotten angry with you, and I’m sorry.”

“But…” Izuku was shocked, “But you didn’t do anything wrong! It’s me who should be apologizing! I mean, I was just being stupid and I really shouldn’t have gone out with a broken arm anyway, but I did what you said!”

“It wasn’t about the arm, though we will be talking about that later,” Eraser started, then did a double take, “Wait, what did I say?”

“Um, you told me to make a friend?” Izuku said, but then his eyes widened as he realized he couldn’t actually remember what Eraser had said, “Wait, maybe you didn’t actually tell me to make a friend...maybe you just said that you were worried I didn’t have any friends? I could have sworn, but...did you even say that…?”

“You...what?” Eraser seemed tired and confused, but not unhappy, “You went out and made a friend because you thought I told you to?”

Well, when he said it like that, it sounded silly, “...yes?”

Eraser snorted and Izuku blushed, “Hey! It’s not like it’s a bad thing!”

“Didn’t say it was.” Eraser sounded like he was smiling, “So, you get along ok?”

“Mhm!” Izuku grinned, “He doesn’t care about...well, he’s different than the kids at my old school, and he’s actually giving me a chance. His quirk is really cool too, though it has kind of a big drawback. I wonder if I could help him with that somehow…”

Shouta hid a small smile as Viridian started muttering unintelligibly. He couldn’t believe that the problem child had interpreted his trying to keep him alive as a challenge to make a friend, but he wasn’t unhappy about it. Seriously, the kid needed some more positive influences in his life, which brought Shouta back for the real reason behind this talk, “I’m glad I could help you make a friend, problem child, but that’s not why I wanted to talk to you.”

Viridian froze and looked up at Shouta, obviously frightened. He didn’t want to scare the kid, but it was a pretty heavy talk. Shouta sighed and sat down on the roof, gesturing for Viridian to sit down beside him. Actually, on second thought, a roof probably wasn’t the best place for this kind of conversation, but it was too late to change locations now. The kid hesitated for a long moment before sitting down, still obviously nervous and not taking his eyes off Shouta for a moment. Damn, this kid really was expecting to be hurt. 

He took a deep breath, “People would care if you died, kid.”

Viridian froze again, obviously not expecting that. Shouta sighed, “I know that this isn’t the easiest thing to talk about, and you don’t have to talk about it with me, but you should be talking about it with someone. I think it’s pretty obvious just by the way you fight that you don’t care if you die, but our argument the other day really cinched it. Viridian...you’re suicidal, aren't you?”

The kid stared at him for a long moment, then burst into tears. Oh no, Shouta had been expecting a denial, or a deflection, or even just sad acceptance. He didn’t know what to do with a crying kid! Maybe he should have left this to another hero? Mic was so much better with people than he was! Shouta awkwardly started rubbing the kid’s back. That was something people did, right? It was supposed to be comforting, wasn’t it?

After about a minute, a choked-sounding chuckle broke through Viridian’s sobbs, “That kinda ruins the plan, Eraserhead.”

Shouta’s hand stopped moving and he felt his stomach drop. The kid had a plan? Yeah, he knew that might be a possibility, but he’d been hoping that the kid wasn’t at that stage of things yet, “What plan, kid?”

“No one was supposed to know.” Viridian smiled sadly, “This whole vigilantism thing...If people knew I killed myself, it would cause too many problems. My childhood friend would get in trouble for suicide baiting me, my mom would blame herself…” he chuckled humorlessly, “Guess that’s kinda a stupid reason not to just take a swan dive, huh?”

“I don’t think any reason to stay alive is stupid.” Eraser said seriously, though he would have to ask more about that childhood friend if he could get the kid to trust him a little more. “So, the plan was that if you got killed…”

“When.” Viridian interrupted, “When I get killed, everyone will just think, oh, the useless deku was being an idiot and trying to be a hero again, no wonder he got himself killed, not oh no, why did he commit suicide. But, uh, you knowing the plan kinda ruins it.”

“What about me wanting you to stay alive?” Shouta asked gently. “Does that ruin the plan too?”

He heard Viridian’s breath hitch slightly, but when he spoke again, his voice was resigned, “You’re only saying that because it’s your job as a hero to save me.”

“I don’t say things I don’t mean, kid, you know that.” Shouta countered. “When I say that I like you better alive, it’s because it’s the truth. You’re a good kid. You’re smart, you pick things up quickly, and you’ve got a lot of potential. I’d be sad to see you throw all that away.”

Viridian shook his head, “You’ll move on, just like Mom will. It won’t take you long after I’m gone before you realize how useless I was, and then you’ll realize I made the right decision. You don’t have to feel guilty about that, though! I won’t blame you guys or anything.”

“You’re not useless, kid.” Shouta said earnestly. “You’ve helped a lot of people these last couple months, and even if you hadn’t, you’re still just a kid. You shouldn’t have to do anything to justify being alive!”

Viridian shrugged, “Agree to disagree.”

Shouta rolled his eyes, “Doesn’t apply in this situation, problem child.”

To his surprise, Viridian gave him a shit-eating grin and looked him right in the eye, “Agree to disagree.”

Izuku was surprised that he was apparently confident enough to joke around with Eraser, but now that the whole wanting-to-die thing was out in the open, it was like he didn’t have anything left to lose. It was like a huge weight had been lifted off his chest and he was able to relax. Not that he wasn’t still terrified that Eraser was going to abandon him, because he was, but it was like his reason for being a vigilante had been this huge wall between them, and talking about it had torn it down, somehow. Or maybe he was just using humor as a coping mechanism. That was a distinct possibility. 

Eraser muttered something that sounded suspiciously like teenagers before gripping Izuku’s shoulder and turning him slightly so they were face to face, “I would care if you died, problem child, and so would a lot of other people. What would your new friend think if you suddenly disappeared?”

Izuku bit his lip as he thought of Kaminari, “He’d get over it. He has a lot of other friends, he’d barely even notice I was gone.”

Eraser sighed, but let go of him and went back to staring at the skyline. They sat in silence for a few minutes before he spoke again, “I used to be depressed too, you know.”

Izuku looked at Eraser with wide eyes, “...what?”

Eraser nodded and kept looking out at the city, “When I was around your age, a close friend of mine was killed in action during a work study. I...never really got over it, at least, not completely. I cut myself off from everyone, even Present Mic who was close to him too. Nothing seemed worth it anymore.”

Izuku couldn’t believe it, “But...you’re so strong…”

“You can be strong and still be sad, kid.” Eraser said quietly, “A lot of heroes go through it. Sometimes there’s something that leads to it, like there was with me, but sometimes, things just don’t work right in your brain and that’s that. It’s not something you need to be ashamed of, but it is something you should get help for.”

“I don’t deserve to get help.” Izuku muttered. 

“Why not?”

Izuku looked at Eraser again to find that he had taken off his yellow goggles and hung them around his neck so Izuku could see his sincere expression. He couldn’t believe it, but Eraser seemed to genuinely care. It was confusing. 

Izuku took a deep breath. If Eraser could open up about his friend, maybe Izuku could open up too, just a little, “I can’t do anything.” He picked at the fraying threads around the hole in his jeans as a way to avoid looking at Eraser. “I don’t want to waste a therapist’s time when the world would be better off without me in it anyway.”

“‘Who told you that?” Eraser sounded slightly angry. “Who told you that the world would be better off without you in it? Was it that childhood friend you mentioned before?”

“It wasn’t just him.” Izuku said. “I mean, he was a part of it, but the other kids at school said the same thing and even some of the teachers. Only a few of them would say it to my face, though, but I heard some of their conversations when I passed by the teacher’s lounge. I even got yelled at by an old man on the train once.”

“Kid…”

“It’s fine though.” Izuku’s voice cracked, but he smiled anyway. “They were right, even if I didn’t want to believe it at first. At least this way, I can still help some people before I go, right?”

“Just because everyone believes something doesn’t make it true, kid.” Eraser put a hand on his shoulder, which made Izuku lose control of his tears and start crying again. “Sometimes, actually most of the time, people are idiots. No one deserves to be told to die, especially not a kid. How long has this been going on?”

Izuku shrugged. He couldn’t just say it was since he was four, because that would make it obvious that it was because of his lack of a quirk and despite his decision to open up to Eraser, Izuku didn’t think he would be able to handle it if Eraser abandoned him once it came out that he was quirkless. 

So instead, he changed the subject, “What did you do to get better after your friend died? Because, well, you don’t seem like you’re depressed anymore.”

Eraser glared at him, but Izuku just gave him a small smile, so he sighed and accepted the new topic, “I threw myself into saving people, just like you have. Living for other people works pretty well, until you learn how to live for yourself again.”

“You’re saying it like saving people is a crutch.”

Eraser shrugged, “Maybe it is. You’ve got other reasons too, I’m sure, but while you seem to be fighting villains as a way to kill yourself, it also seems to be giving you something to live for, at least for now.”

Izuku thought about that for a moment. He did wake up each morning excited for the next night, which wasn’t something he’d ever experienced before becoming a vigilante. He enjoyed spending time with the heroes, even if most of that time was spent fighting or running away, which was way different than his former classmates. He looked forward to saving people, and the extra exercise probably didn’t hurt either. 

“Let’s say your right,” Izuku said finally, “what are you going to do about it?”

“As much as I want to wrap you in bubble wrap and force you to stop, I’m not willing to take away the one thing you’re living for.” Eraser grumbled. “I just want you to promise me that you won’t do anything impulsive, ok? If you have a lead, especially about the villain factory, tell me. And if things get worse and you feel like waiting for a villain to kill you is taking too long...you can talk to me, understood?”

Izuku stared at him with wide eyes, “R-really?”

Eraser rolled his eyes, but rubbed Izuku’s head fondly, “Yeah, kid. Leaving a suicidal kid to fight his emotions alone would be completely illogical, not to mention dangerous, and I’d much rather read your notebook than your obituary. I like having you around, kid.”

Izuku sniffled and turned away from Eraser so he could wipe his eyes, “I, uh, I guess I’ll see you later then?”

It was dark, so maybe Izuku was just imagining Eraser’s smile as they got to their feet, “Sure thing, kid. Now go find another hero to pelt with marbles, some of the others are getting jealous.”

Izuku laughed and ran toward the edge of the roof before he remembered something and stopped, “Eraser?”

“What, kid?”

“Um, that friend you mentioned in high school, the one that was the catalyst for your depression, um,” Izuku hesitated, “how did he die?”

Eraser had put his goggles back on, so Izuku couldn’t read his expression as well, but he thought he looked sad, “I’ll tell you later, kid. For now, just focus on staying alive.”

Chapter Text

Izuku couldn’t stop thinking about Kaminari’s quirk. There was a familiar feeling of nostalgia that reminded him of when Kacchan’s quirk had first manifested, before they found out that Izuku was quirkless. He’d thrown himself head first into figuring out Kacchan’s explosions and imagining how they’d be useful for hero work. 

It made this whole thing with Kaminari bitter-sweet, because Izuku wanted to be overwhelmingly, deliriously happy that he was analyzing a friend’s quirk, but he couldn’t shake the dull feeling of dread that bubbled up in his stomach every time he thought of it, like he was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. And to make the whole thing worse, he felt guilty that he hadn’t been able to keep this dynamic with Kacchan, because it was his fault that they’d grown apart. If Izuku hadn’t been born quirkless, then maybe they would still be friends and Izuku would still be analyzing Kacchan’s quirk to help him get into UA. 

He pushed those feelings down again, determined to ignore them. Eraser had said it was ok to be sad, but Izuku didn’t want to waste whatever time he had left feeling sorry for himself. Instead, he went back to thinking about Kaminari’s limit. They’d texted a few times since they officially became friends a few weeks ago, and from those conversations, Izuku got the idea that Kaminari tended to think it was better to go over his limit right at the beginning of a fight in an attempt to end things early. His line of thinking was that his brain was going to fry itself eventually, so he may as well take out his opponent before that happened. 

Izuku didn’t necessarily agree. Sure, every hero had special moves that almost always ended a fight, but the key word there was almost always. There would always be villains who had quirks able to counter him and there would always be factors like civilians and hostages that prevented him from going all out. According to all the fights Izuku had watched and been in, Kaminari’s best bet wasn’t to end the fight quickly, but to figure out how to fight in an endurance match. But how was he supposed to do that when he couldn’t direct his own electricity?

There didn’t seem to be much point to him trying to shoot lightning at an opponent, because Kaminari had said the electricity would just go everywhere and hurt anyone around, but it was also a good thing the electricity went everywhere because his limit would be more than enough to kill someone if it were more concentrated, like, say, if he were in direct….contact….with...them…

Izuku’s eyes widened and he immediately shot a text to Kaminari to meet him at the park after school, then got out the notebook he’d dedicated to Kaminari’s quirk and started making a plan.

Denki was confused. He’d been at lunch when Midoriya had texted him wanting to meet asap, but then there hadn’t been any follow-up texts. The text itself wouldn’t have been that strange on it’s own, but it was strange coming from Midoirya. In the few short weeks since they’d started hanging out, Denki had slowly realized that Midoriya never asked for anything. He let Denki be in charge of when and how often they hung out, almost like he was afraid that he’d stop talking to him if he ever pushed for what he actually wanted, so an urgent text like this was completely out of character and more than a little worrying. 

What if something was wrong? What if Midoriya was in trouble? What if he needed Denki to help him get out of an abusive situation or something? Was he even smart enough to help him? What if he wasn’t? Oh, no, what if that was why this meeting was urgent? What if Midoriya had gotten tired of how stupid he was and decided that he didn’t want to be friends with him anymore? 

Denki didn’t know if he would be able to handle that. Despite what his mom said about him being a social butterfly, he didn’t really have that many close friends. Sure, he could make friends pretty easily, but most of his classmates didn’t have the patience to deal with his dumb jokes and short attention span or they thought he was too clingy, so they never really got past the casual acquaintance stage like Midoriya had. Denki didn’t want to think about what he would do if Midoriya said he didn’t want to be friends anymore. 

A part of him knew that he was being silly. Midoriya had asked to be his friend, and he’d admitted that he didn’t have any other friends, so he probably wasn’t going to voluntarily end things just because Denki was annoying. As much as he told himself that, however, it didn’t stop his brain from trying to convince him that Midoriya absolutely hated him and he was such a terrible human being that having zero friends was preferable to being friends with him. 

He didn’t even go home to change out of his uniform before running to the park, only to find that Midoriya was already waiting for him in casual clothes. How did he already have time to change out of his school uniform? Wait, did Midoriya even go to school? He was really smart, so he had to go, but he had never mentioned which middle school he went to. Denki shook his head. He could worry about that later, for now, he needed to figure out what was wrong with his friend.

Midoirya was practically vibrating with energy. Even as he waited, he couldn’t stop moving and he was either bouncing in place, or pacing back and forth. Denki’s first thought was that he must be nervous, but that didn’t seem right, because, despite his constant movement, Midoriya didn’t seem distressed. In fact, he seemed almost excited about something. 

As soon as he caught sight of Denki, Midoriya ran toward him with a huge smile on his face, “A human taser!”

Denki took a small step back, a little overwhelmed by Midoirya’s enthusiasm, which was saying something considering his own quirk and personality. But if Midoriya was smiling, then he probably still wanted to be friends, which was one worry crossed off the list, but Denki was still a little lost about what his friend had just said, “What?”

“A human taser!” Midoriya took a notebook out of his backpack and started flipping through the pages, “We’ve been thinking about your quirk all wrong! You’ve been thinking about it like a tesla coil or even a lightning generator, but that’s not it! You can’t shoot lightning like Electroplant, because your quirk isn’t like that! You’re a human taser!”

Denki blinked a few times to give his mind a second to catch up, only to realize he was still lost, “Midoriya, buddy, you are making absolutely zero sense.”

Now that he thought about it, Midoriya was probably one of those people who had problems communicating when they got excited. Their brains moved so fast that their mouths couldn’t keep up and they had no idea how to say what wason their minds without it getting jumbled around. Knowing that didn’t make him magically understand what Midoriya was trying to say, however. In fact, it just made him feel more stupid. If Midoriya was explaining this to someone of average intelligence, they probably would have gotten it by now.

Midoriya was still vibrating with energy as he attempted to explain, “You can’t shoot your lightning!” 

He said it like the conclusion should be obvious, and maybe to him it was, but Denki still had no idea what he was trying to say. Of course he couldn’t shoot his lightning, that had been one of the first things he’d told Midoriya about his quirk. 

“You already knew that, dude.” Denki reminded him, “It’s not new information.”

“No! It’s just...” Midoirya seemed to be getting frustrated by this point, but Denki didn’t know if it was from his own trouble communicating his thoughts, or Denki’s complete inability to understand them. Denki’s stomach sank as he realized it was probably the latter. 

Suddenly, Midoriya’s eyes brightened like he’d just had an idea. “Attack me!’

If there was a human equivalent of a bluescreen, Denki was it. “What?” 

Midoriya looked even more excited, if that was possible, “Attack me!”

“But,” Denki was so confused, “I’ll hurt you…”

“That’s the point, I’ll be fine.” Midoriya said dismissively, like he hadn’t casually just told Denki to injure him, “Now come on and attack me!”

Denki shrugged and charged up for his finishing move. At least the command was easy to understand, “It’s your funeral.”

“No, not like that!” Midoriya held up his hands for him to stop, “Hit me!”

“Um…” Denki looked down at his hands before deactivating his quirk, “Ok?”

He obediently threw a weak punch, but Midoirya redirected it immediately. He was a small guy, so Denki had just kinda assumed he didn’t know how to fight, but the way Midoriya reacted to his attack made it seem like he was almost bored, like he’d fought guys twice his size for fun. Oh, and Denki was still confused. What was the point of asking him to punch him if he wasn’t even going to land a hit?

Midoriya, however, was grinning, a manic look in his eyes, “Perfect! Now hit me again, but this time, electrify your arm slightly. You should only need a few hundred volts to do what I’m thinking, so don’t try to go over your limit just yet, ok?.”

Denki did what he was told and charged his arm with barely any electricity, or at least it felt like barely any in comparison to his finishing move, and threw a second punch at Midoriya. Considering that this punch wasn’t any stronger than the last one had been, Denki was fully expecting an identical result. This time, however, when Midoirya tried to block the punch, his body seized up and Denki was able to push past his arm and punch him in the face, which immediately launched Midoriya to the ground.

“Oh no, what did I do?” Denki knelt to help Midoriya up, stopping at the last minute with his hands hovering uselessly over his friend’s body as he remembered that his body was still charged with electricity. “Dude, are you ok? Please say you’re ok!”

Midoriya groaned and sat up with a dorky smile on his face, “See, Kaminari? You’ve only been thinking of your quirk in terms of long distance combat, so you’ve been blind to it’s real possibilities! You’ll be able to do the most damage in close range where you can touch your opponent! You’re a human taser!”

Denki stared at his hand, sparks arcing between his fingers, “Holy shit...”

“You’ve been focusing on raising your limit so you don’t fry your brain,” Midoriya said, “but if you can touch your opponent, you won’t even need your whole limit, because even a tiny bit of electricity will go a long way. The person themselves should act as a lightning rod of sorts and attract all your electricity to them, which means you won’t be wasting as much electricity uselessly electrifying the air around you.”

Denki’s mind raced as he considered the possibilities, “So...what now?”

Midoriya grinned and jumped to his feet, “Now I’m going to teach you how to fight.”

Chapter Text

After his stupid confession during the last meeting, Katsuki was fully expecting Ogawa to never talk to him again. It just made sense, since hanging around someone like him would only drag the others down when they were trying to be better. So Katsuki was understandably a little bit angry when that damn idiot waved him over with a giant grin on his face the moment he walked through the door. 

He stormed over to Ogawa, who was sitting next to Maki and Akiko just like the last few times, and barely avoided the habit of grabbing him by his shirt to be intimidating. Instead, he glared down at him, “What the fuck are you doing? After last time, I thought it’d be pretty clear that I’d just drag you down. Go find someone else to bother, you damn moron.”

Ogawa just laughed and stood, throwing a hand around Katsuki’s shoulders, “Man, you must have some wires crossed or something, Bakugo, because that wasn’t clear at all. Maybe you need to work on your communication skills.”

“What happened last time?” Akiko asked as she popped a piece of bubble gum in her mouth. 

Ogawa smiled cryptically, “We solved a mystery!”

“Ooh, I like mysteries.” Maki leaned forward in his seat eagerly, an action that was slightly intimidating due to his size. “What mystery did you solve?”

“None of your goddamn business.” Katsuki threw Ogawa’s arm off him, “Now leave me alone you stupid extras!”

He started to stalk away, but stopped in his tracks when he heard Ogawa’s voice behind him, “We discovered why Katsuki volunteered to be here.”

Katsuki froze. He didn’t know what he was expecting. Yeah, it wasn’t like he’d told Ogawa to keep it a secret, but he’d thought it was implied. Not that he’d actually said anything yet, but he probably would. How would the other two react? What would Amplifier think if she overheard? What if she told UA? What if his own idiocy ruined any chance he had to be the best hero? Katsuki should have kept his stupid mouth shut. 

“What are you so stressed about, Bakugo?” Akiko laughed. “We already figured you’d done something sketchy, so what does it matter if Ogawa knows what it was?”

Bakugo whirled around to glare at her, “Shut up! You don’t know shit!”

“Hey, calm down, man!” Ogawa put a hand on his shoulder, “I’m not gonna tell them anything if you don’t want me to. But I really think you should tell them. It’ll help.”

Maki nodded, “Take it from me, having people in your corner can make all the difference in a fight.”

“Yeah, and keeping secrets isn’t gonna do you any favors.” Akiko added. “If you go into a heist with incomplete information, you’re just gonna get people killed. If you want our help, you gotta be honest.”

“I didn’t ask for your help!” Katsuki flexed his hands, as much to ground himself as to be intimidating. Only weak people needed help, and Katsuki couldn’t be weak if he wanted to be a hero. He had to do this alone, even if it was impossible.

Ogawa squeezed the hand on his shoulder, “You may not have asked for our help, but even you can admit it’ll make things easier. This is a rehabilitation group for a reason. No one should have to go through this alone.”

Katsuki scowled. Maybe Ogawa had a point, but he still didn’t deserve their help. They were the ones that needed their arrest records wiped, and they couldn’t afford to get dragged down by a stupid, cruel gradschool bully. 

“Alright everyone!” Amplifier’s quirk-amplified voice echoed around the room, “It’s almost time to start, so go ahead and find your seats.”

Katsuki made to stalk off to stand against the wall, but Ogawa grabbed his arm and dragged him into the chair right next to his, then leaned over to mutter in his ear, “We’ll talk about this later, but just think about it, ok?”

Katsuki scoffed and rolled his eyes, then folded his arms and slouched in his seat as Amplifier began the meeting. He didn’t deserve their help anyway. He couldn’t say anything. 

“Today, each of you are going to be making a personal commitment to change.” Amplifier said. “It’s one thing to say you’re gonna change because the government is making you, but it’s another thing entirely to make that commitment to yourself.”

“Yeah.” Maki whispered to him. “Real change comes within. Nobody is going to force you to be someone else.”

“Shut up.” Katuski hissed back. “I don’t need your stupid help.”

Amplifier either hadn’t heard their whispered argument or, more likely, had decided to ignore it, “Alright, Bakugo would you help me pass out some papers?”

Katsuki grunted an affirmation and stood up, grateful to get away from the group of villains that had apparently decided to adopt him. He grabbed the stack of blank notebook paper that Amplifier had gestured to from the table and started handing everyone a few sheets as Amplifier passed around a cup of mismatched pens. 

Even though he was helping and doing the volunteer work he was technically there for, Katsuki still felt like shit. It wasn’t his fault that the stupid paper reminded him of Deku’s stupid notebooks, which reminded him of stupid Deku and all the other stupid extras he’d hurt over the years. All the more reason to not get too close to anyone here. If he didn’t get close to Ogawa and the others, he couldn’t hurt them. 

Once everyone had some paper and a pen, Amplifier gestured for Katsuki to sit back down. Unfortunately, she gestured to the same seat next to Ogawa that he’d just gotten up from, so he didn’t have any excuse to distance himself. He glared at her and she shot him a smile. That bitch definitely knew what she was doing. He huffed and slumped down heavily as Amplifier went to the front of the room. 

“Ok! So, this is an individual exercise, but you’re welcome to talk amongst yourselves if you want.” Amplifier grinned at Ogawa, who was grinning back. “You’re going to write a letter. This can be to yourself, to someone important to you, or to no one at all, but in this letter, you are going to commit to be better. Be as sincere as you can in your conviction. Don’t make any promises that you don’t actually want to keep. Everybody ready? Begin!”

“No wonder they always recruit her to announce stuff.” Akiko popped her bubblegum loudly. “She does it without even trying.”

“She might just be so used to being an announcer because of her quirk that she talks that way out of habit.” Ogawa suggested. 

“You’ve got a point.” Akiko admitted. “Ah, if only we lived in a world where we weren’t type cast based on our quirks.”

“I’ll drink to that.” Maki laughed. “So, kid, who are you gonna write to?”

Katsuki scowled, “Who said I was gonna write anything at all?”

“You’ll only be shooting yourself in the foot if you don’t, man.” Ogawa pointed out. “These exercises are supposed to help us all become better. You can’t just not do the work and still expect to reach your goals.”

“Why the fuck are you extras so set on helping me?” Katsuki griped. “I’m not a good person.”

“Neither are we, kid.” Maki set a giant hand on his shoulder. “That’s kinda the point.”

“Yeah, Bakugo, none of us are gonna win person of the year or anything.” Akiko shrugged. “That’s why we gotta be there for each other, right? We have to have somebody to trust in this crazy, messed up world, right?”

Katsuki scowled and glared at all three of them, but the most annoying part of all this was that they seemed so sincere. Like they actually thought he could be better or something. But, well, maybe Akiko had a point. Both her and Ogawa had become villains because important people in their lives had pushed them toward it, and Katsuki would have realized how horrible he was earlier if it wasn’t for his stupid teachers and classmates always telling him he was the best. Maybe if he had some people who were also assholes trying to be better, then that might not be the worst thing in the world, right?

He huffed and grabbed a pen, “Whatever. So who are you gonna write to?”

“My ex.” She grinned savagely. “It’s basically gonna be a giant screw you, you know?”

Katsuki found himself laughing alongside the others, “Yeah, fuck him, I guess. What about you guys?”

“I’m writing to my dad.” Maki said. “He died a couple years back and I didn’t get to see him while he was in the hospital cause I was in prison. Not cleaning up my act in time for him to see it is probably one of my biggest regrets. Obviously a letter isn’t gonna fix anything, but it just seems fitting, you know?”

“You guys all picked meaningful people.” Ogawa pouted. “And I’m over here just writing to myself.”

Katuski hit him over the head, “Shut up. You’re trying to be better because it’s what you want, right? So why would you write your stupid committment to anybody else? Idiot.”

Ogawa blinked a few times, “I hadn’t thought of it like that, man. I guess writing to myself isn’t as silly as I thought, huh?”

“Of course it isn’t.” Maki smiled gently. “It’s your conviction, isn’t it?”

“I guess so.” Ogawa laughed. “So what about you, Bakugo? Who are you gonna write to?”

Katsuki thought about it for a minute. His first thought was to write the letter to All Might, but that didn’t seem right somehow. Yeah, he wanted to be like All Might, but he was a celebrity that Katsuki had never met. If he was gonna write to someone else, it needed to be someone personal, someone that he wanted to be better for, someone like…

“Deku.”

“Deku?” Akiko frowned. “You’ve got weird friends, Bakugo. What kind of parents name their kid useless?”

“His parents didn’t give him that name,” Katsuki couldn’t meet anyone’s eye, “I did.”

“I don’t get it.” Maki said. “Is he your little brother or something?”

“No...ugh, shit!” Katsuki hissed. “You know how you guys were talking about being typecast because of your quirks?”

“Yeah?” Akiko looked at him strangely. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Katsuki sighed, “How do you think a quirkless kid would be cast?”

Her eyes widened as she put the pieces together, “Oh…”

“He was the kid you bullied, wasn’t he?” Ogawa asked gently. 

“One of them.” Katsuki grumbled. “But Deku got the worst of it. We used to be friends before our quirks came in, but mine was strong. Everybody said it was perfect for a hero, and I guess they all bent over backwards so I wouldn’t get in trouble for any of the shit I pulled. I don’t know what I was thinking, but he was supposed to be weaker than me, so for some reason I was convinced I had to put him in his place. He ended up dropping out of school because of it.”

“Whoa.” Maki breathed. “Nobody ever stopped you?”

Katsuki chuckled humorlessly, “Why would they? Deku was just a quirkless weakling. He couldn’t bring fame or honor to the school, so why would it matter if a kid like that got a few bruises or burns? Honestly, my teachers probably need these classes more than you guys do.”

“Have you seen him recently?” Akiko asked. “Since you started coming here?”

Katsuki shook his head, “I’m not gonna even try to seek him out until I’m ready to apologize and actually mean it. Anything else would just hurt him even more, and I feel like I’ve done that enough already.”

“So that’s what you write!” Ogawa smiled and clapped Katsuki on the back. “You tell this kid that you’re gonna become a better person so that one day you can make amends in person.”

He pushed a piece of paper toward him, and Katsuki glanced at everyone’s faces before he started to write. Their expressions were weird, almost like they were proud of him or something. He must be imagining things.

Dear Deku, 

I’m gonna be the best hero! You know that I’ve never let a little work keep me from being the best, so I’m not gonna let this hold me back, ok? I’m gonna become a better person so I can stand in front of you and apologize for all the stupid shit I put you through. I’m gonna work so fucking hard because I promised you that I was gonna be the best hero and I intend to keep that promise, got it? 

If I’m really serious about being better, I should probably get rid of that stupid nickname, shouldn’t I? I’m gonna be the best hero….Izuku.

See you as soon as I can,

Kacchan

Chapter Text

Izuku was trying his hardest not to hopelessly fanboy, he really was, but it was Ingenium! He was such an amazing hero, especially considering how young he was, and he had an entire team of sidekicks working for him! There were dozens! And Izuku had never seen him in this area before...well, he actually had, considering that Ingenium had come to Musutafu for a UA reunion and patrolled the streets to sign autographs, but that didn’t really count. 

He was curious as to why he was here though. Had he moved recently? Maybe there was some increase in villainy recently? Izuku thought he would have noticed if that were the case, but maybe with the whole breaking his arm thing it was possible some things had slipped through the cracks…Izuku shook his head and took off over the rooftops again. He needed to be looking for crimes right now, not geeking out over a hero, even if he was really cool. 

Maybe he’d have a chance to run into Eraserhead again tonight. He hadn’t actually seen him since their talk last week, something that was honestly freaking him out a little bit. Sure, Eraser had been really supportive and everything, but now he knew. Talking openly about his suicide plans had seemed really comforting in the moment, but now that Izuku had had a while to worry about it, he was starting to think that he should have just laughed  it off and deny the whole thing. Not that his midoriya tears would even let him do that, but he could have at least tried. 

What if Eraserhead was avoiding him and that was why Izuku hadn’t seen him? But if he was avoiding him, why hadn’t he started doing that before the whole suicide talk thing? It would havelet him avoid a really awkward conversation, so why didn’t he just do that? 

Thankfully, a shout from a few streets over knocked Izuku out of his thoughts, but then he immediately felt guilty for being grateful. Someone was in trouble! That wasn’t a good thing! He jumped down onto the next roof and peered over right as someone screamed. There was a group of girls that were seemingly coming home from a night on the town and cornering them against the wall was the big\gest villain Izuku had ever seen. He was almost tempted to say that the guy wasn’t human, but that would be incredibly rude. What was obvious was that the guy had a mutation quirk, though Izuku couldn’t tell exactly what it was from his current angle, just that he was huge, had multiple arms, and his hands didn’t actually look like hands. 

Alright, so Izuku probably wouldn’t be able to handle this guy on his own, so he should get a hero. Rock Lock should be the closest to where he was now, based on his patrol schedule. He needed to get him quickly before…

The villain let out a terrifying roar and slammed his claws into the ground. Wait, maybe they were pincers? Izuku shook his head, either way they were strong enough to completely shatter the concrete, which the villain was now starting to grab and throw at the girls, who only just managed to dodge the largest pieces in time. Even as it was, a few of them had been hit by the rubble and at least one had been knocked out that Izuku could see, which meant that he didn’t have time to go get a hero. He needed to engage the villain and distract him long enough that the victims who were still standing could drag the injured ones away. 

If this fight didn’t kill him, Eraserhead definitely would. 

The villain screamed in rage again as he ran out of ammo and started lumbering toward the girls again, and Izuku knew he couldn’t wait any longer. He grabbed his slingshot and loaded up a marble, shooting straight for the villain’s center of mass. There was a quiet ting as it hit its mark, but the villain didn’t even seem to notice. He must be wearing some sort of armor, but that couldn’t be right because he wasn’t even wearing a shirt...which meant his skin must be the armor. This fight just got a whole lot harder. 

The girls were screaming and dodging as the villain buried one of his pincers into the wall where one of the girls had been just a second before. The hit made the whole building Izuku was standing on shake, but rather than waiting for the building to stop moving, he just jumped off it, landing harshly in a roll that would definitely leave bruises, but he couldn’t afford to worry about that now. 

“I’ll distract him.” Izuku made eye contact with one of the girls who was still standing and trying to help one of her friends who was on the ground. “As soon as his attention’s on me, you all need to run!”

Her eyes were wide with fear, but she nodded and Izuku gave her his best shaky smile before he grabbed his pipes and ran toward the villain. Just like with his marble, there was a loud tinging sound the moment the metal came in contact with the hardened shell that acted as the villain’s skin, but  his pipes didn’t even leave a dent. The attack did, however, catch the villain’s attention. Izuku gulped as the villain stopped trying to hit the girls and slowly turned to face him. 

When he saw the villain’s eyes, Izuku felt like all the oxygen in the street had been burned away by the sheer fire of anger in them. Even Kacchan didn’t get that angry! What had happened to make him this way? It couldn’t have been something the girls did, they were just walking, so what was it? 

The villain took a step forward and Izuku realized that it didn’t matter why the villain was so angry, what mattered now was that every once of that anger was now directed toward him. Izuku chucked nervously and reminded himself that this had been the plan. Thankfully, he could see the victims dragging each other down the street.

“Um,” Izuku smiled breathlessly, “I don’t suppose there’s any way we can talk this out?”

The villain roared and Izuku had to roll to the side as one of the villain’s pincers buried itself in the concrete where he’d just been standing. The minute he was on his feet again, Izuku started running in the opposite direction that the girls had gone, shielding his head as chunks of rock and concrete rained down from behind him. 

“Hey! Throwing rocks is my gimmick!” Izuku yelled desperately. “You can’t steal my thing!”

The only response he got was another roar and a particularly large chunk of rock that almost blew off his hood as it whizzed past and shattered a few yards in front of him, which was when Izuku realized that that particular chunk was actually made of brick, not concrete. He glanced behind him and his eyes widened as he realized that the villain was using his pincers to tear at the streets and buildings as he ran, destroying anything that got in his way. It was like all the anger he was holding had made him go absolutely crazy. 

Izuku quickly turned his eyes back forward and pushed himself even harder, trying to push away the vivid image of himself being torn apart by the villain’s rage just like the buildings. 

“Ok, Eraser,” Izuku panted desperately, “I know you’re not here right now, but you win! I don’t want to die anymore...or at least not like that!”

He had to find a hero, or multiple heroes preferably. He was still closest to Rock Lock’s patrol, but the direction he was running was quickly taking him the opposite direction. Who else did that leave? Amplifier’s patrol was too populated for this destructive of a villain, there would be too many casualties, and Izuku had no idea where Eraserhead was. Was that it? Was this really the end?

Suddenly, he caught sight of a white Ingenium hoodie on display in a shop window and he almost started sobbing in relief. Ingenium was in town! Instantly, Izuku skidded down a side street and started to head in the direction that he’d last seen the hero. Hopefully he hadn’t strayed too far, because Izuku was completely out of options. 

The moment that he saw the white flash of Ingenium’s hero suit, Izuku shot a marble at him. Ingenium, however, had apparently already been heading his way and simply caught the marble and kept running. Within seconds, he was whizzing past Izuku toward the villain, something that in any other situation, would have had him geeking out about his quirk, but today he was just grateful for the hero’s speed. 

“Be careful!” Izuku forced out, hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. “His skin is some kind of hard shell!”

“Don’t worry, kid, that’s why I have armor!” Ingenium yelled back. “Get to safety, I can handle this!”

He launched a quirked punch at the villain’s stomach and Izuku winced at the loud clang as his metal armor met the villain’s shell. The armor, however, held up and Ingenium immediately launched another attack, his engines revving as he hit the villain with punch after punch. Izuku, for his part, hadn’t had any time to actually figure out the villain’s quirk, since his main concern had been making sure everyone stayed alive, but maybe if he could find the villain’s weakness, Ingenium might be able to beat him!

Alright, so the villain was a mutant type with a hard shell-like skin, multiple limbs and pincers. Now that Izuku actually got a decent look at them, they seemed almost exactly like a crab’s. He shook his head as he got a weird sense of deja-vu. Why did this quirk feel so familiar? Had he seen it before…?

Izuku’s eyes widened and he cupped his hands around his mouth to yell, “Ingenium! I’ve fought this guy before! He has a crab mutation quirk. Aim for his joints, it’s where his shell is the weakest!”

“Got it!” Ingenium instantly started aiming his punches and kicks at the villain’s joints, which made the villain scream in rage again, although this time laced with pain. “What’s up with this guy anyway? It’s like he’s gone completely berserk!”

Izuku was honestly wondering the same thing. He must have escaped after Eraser arrested him, but if that were it, he wouldn’t be this strong. Izuku hadn’t even recognized the crab villain when he’d first seen him, considering he was now twice as large as he had been during their last fight and ten times as angry. Even trigger wouldn’t explain the change because Izuku had seen him on trigger before and it didn’t have this much of an effect... 

“The villain factory.” Izuku whispered. “They made him into a next level villain.”

It was so obvious now that he’d realized it. However, it also meant that Ingenium was outmatched and needed backup, since the chase had made Izuku too tired to be of much use in this fight and the effectiveness of his weapons were limited by the villain’s shell. However, before Izuku could run to find another hero, someone who seemed to be crouched on the ground shot past him and barreled into the villain’s legs, making him lose his balance momentarily. 

“Ingenium, you alright?” 

“Yeah, this guy just has some anger management issues, nothing too much to handle.” Ingenium laughed. “Are the other side-kicks on their way?”

“Teams A & C are incoming.” The sidekick straightened, letting Izuku see his hero costume for the first time. It was mostly blue, but with red and yellow accents, almost as if he’d taken his main inspiration from All Might, but changed the pattern around so it wouldn’t be too obvious. He had a hood, but unlike Izuku’s, his was down. “The other teams remained on the original mission. They sent me ahead in case you needed help sooner.”

“Well then,” Ingenium sounded like he was smiling under his helmet, “let’s see if the two of us are fast enough to finish this fight before they get here.”

Watching the two heroes fight was honestly breathtaking and unlike the fights he used to watch from the streets, there wasn’t any barrier of police or media blocking Izuku’s view of the action. Ingenium and his sidekick were obviously extremely used to each other’s fighting styles, because there was zero hesitation in how they moved around each other at breakneck speeds. To Izuku, they just looked like blurs of white and blue as they gradually broke down the villain’s defenses. After a few minutes, the sidekick stopped attacking at close range and started providing cover fire with some kind of projectile...wait, was that air? Was it some kind of support weapon...no, it had to be part of the sidekick’s quirk! But he had a speed quirk, right? So how did that work? Oh, Izuku had so many questions!

Now that he’d gotten a chance to breathe, Izuku figured it was probably time to rejoin the fight. He followed the sidekick’s example and decided to keep his distance and attack using his marbles. Careful not to aim anywhere near Ingenium, Izuku quickly fired a marble, hoping to hit the villain's eye, since they shouldn’t have the same shell as the rest of the villain, assuming that whatever experiments the villain factory had done on him hadn’t changed that. 

The marble hit it’s mark and Izuku felt a swell of pride as the crab villain clutched his eye, giving Ingenium and his sidekick an opening to combine their attacks and knock him out. Then the two heroes turned to look straight at Izuku.

He froze and the small smile he’d been wearing melted off his face. Were they going to arrest him? But then he’d have to stop and Eraser would tell his mom about him wanting to kill himself and...could he run? No, they both had speed quirks, there was no way that Izuku could get away fast enough…

He was shocked out of his thoughts by Ingenium taking off his helmet and smiling at him, “You must be Viridian. Shouta told me I might run into you around here.”

Izuku was still tense, wondering if this was some kind of a trick to get him to let his guard down. But why would Ingenium have to trick him…?

The sidekick seemed to pick up on his hesitance because he laughed loudly, “Don’t worry kid, Ingenium’s actually pretty lax when it comes to vigilantes. Believe me, I know from personal experience.”

“Shut up, Crawler.” Ingenium griped good-naturedly. “Yeah, kid, don’t worry. As long as you’re not going around and killing people, we’ll be fine.”

“O-ok..” Izuku’s head was spinning. He was actually talking to Ingenium! And he wasn’t even going to try to arrest him! He just hoped he hadn’t been too annoying, “Um, are you sure it’s ok that I led the villain to you? It’s just that there weren’t any other heroes nearby and I didn’t know what else…”

“You’re kidding, right?” Ingenium laughed and held up the marble that Izuku had shot to catch his attention, “Everybody back home is gonna be so jealous that I’ve got one of these!”

“W-what?” 

The sidekick, Crawler apparently, looked at him in shock, “Wait, you mean you don’t know?”

Izuku was so confused, “D-don’t know what?”

“Your marbles are a collector’s item among heroes, kid.” Ingenium smiled. 

“N-no. That can’t be right!” Izuku shook his head frantically, “I just throw them to catch heroes attention, it’s not really anything special and…”

He was cut off by Eraserhead swinging down from a building and landing in front of him, “Kid, are you alright? You’re not hurt, are you? What happened?”

“Whoa, Eraser, calm down, the kid’s fine.” Ingenium teased. “You know people might actually think you care about the kid if you keep acting like his dad.”

Eraserhead glared at him, “Shut up, Tensei. But seriously, kid, are you alright?”

Izuku nodded, deciding it’d be best to ignore the confusing dad comment, “How did you even know about the fight, Eraserhead?”

Eraser looked at him dryly, “You do realize that people sometimes call the cops about disturbances, right? The villain wasn’t exactly being quiet. ”

“Oh…” Izuku said softly, “Sorry, I didn’t realize. People were probably really annoyed at being woken up, weren’t they?”

“It’s not your fault, kid.” Eraser sighed. “It’s not like you were the one screaming.”

“Speaking of screaming, do you have any idea what made the guy so angry, Viridian?” Ingenium asked. “You said you’d fought him before, so does he always go berserk like that or did something happen to set him off?”

Eraserhead looked between Izuku and the unconscious villain, his unspoken question clear just from his posture. Izuku understood why. The villain had changed so much that Izuku really wouldn’t have realized it was the same guy if he hadn’t recognized his quirk, “It’s the crab villain that threw me against the wall that one time.”

“The one that almost killed you?” Eraserhead asked in shock. He turned back to the villain, “Are you sure?”

Izuku nodded, “I recognized his quirk, but it’s stronger now. I’m pretty sure the villain factory got ahold of him somehow, because trigger alone couldn’t have done this to his body.”

There was a moment of tense silence as the heroes digested Izuku’s discovery before Eraser sighed, “We’ll have to do a blood test to make sure, but Jun Hamasaki went missing from custody, so it tracks. 

“So the villain factory has been active here.” Crawler said. “Honestly, I was hoping you guys were wrong. Last time was a nightmare.”

“Oh, is that why you guys are here?” Izuku asked, unable to stop himself. “Are you guys confirming the case?”

“Nah, we’re here on another mission,” Ingenium said, “but Tsukauchi asked us to keep an eye out, since we dealt with the whole instant villain craze in Naruhata a few years ago.”

“Oh…” Izuku felt some guilt bubble up inside him. “I’m sorry I distracted you from your mission.”

Eraser put a hand on his head, “None of that, Viridian. It’s the villain’s fault for attacking and a hero’s job is to protect people, no matter if they were planning to or not, so don’t try to blame yourself for this, problem child.”

Izuku felt tears well up in his eyes and was about to wipe them away when he saw movement down the street. Apparently, Ingenium’s back-up had finally arrived, because there were two trucks painted in his colors, but there were also a few other trucks with satellites on them...oh no.

“Ugh, the vultures are here.” Eraser complained. “Don’t they ever sleep?”

“You’re one to talk.” Crawler laughed. “Shouldn’t you do something about those eyebags?”

“Um…I think I’m just gonna go…” Izuku started backing away slowly, trying to keep the heroes between him and the media. That one article had been bad enough, Izuku didn’t know if he’d be able to handle it if he made the news.

“Aww, is the local vigilante camera shy?” Crawler teased.

“Viridian’s not like you and Pop Step were, Crawler.” Eraser said as Izuku started to run down the nearest alleyway. “He doesn’t want to be famous.”

“Ah, so that’s why you like the kid so much.” Ingenium said. 

Izuku was almost too far away to hear Eraserhead’s reply, “No. I like the kid because he’s got potential.”

Chapter Text

The destruction from Izuku’s fight last night was obvious as he walked to the park to meet Kaminari. Various damaged buildings were blocked off with caution tape and orange cones surrounded the various holes that the villain had torn into the ground during his rampage. Even after almost an entire day, anyone could have tracked the path Izuku led the villain just by looking around. It was terrible.

Why hadn’t he done something more? There had to have been some way to stop the villain or at least localize the destruction! Izuku had been so busy running for his life that he didn’t even think about property damage. It was a good thing that he’d never be a real hero, because a real hero would have been strong enough to prevent this. 

It took him longer than it normally would to reach the park, partly because he was rubbernecking at the destruction and partly because he was still sore from basically jumping off a roof to save those girls. He hadn’t even been able to prevent them from being injured! Why did the heroes even put up with him? It seemed like their lives would be a lot easier if he’d never become a vigilante to begin with. Maybe he should just get it over with and…

Izuku shook his head in an attempt to knock himself out of his spiral. He couldn’t kill himself just yet. He would at least have to say goodbye to Eraser, since he knew he was suicidal and at least pretended that he cared. Maybe he could have Eraser talk to Mom once he was gone. Having a hero come to comfort her would probably soften the blow. He would be able to explain better than Izuku could that it wasn’t her fault and that he never wanted to hurt her. He could help her grieve. Was that asking too much?

“Hey! Dude!” Kaminari waved his hand in front of Izuku’s face, making him flinch and knocking him from his thoughts. He hadn’t even realized he’d already arrived at the park. “You ok? You were kinda spaced out there.”

Izuku felt like he’d eaten a rock. He’d managed to make a friend, only to make them worry about him almost immediately. Kaminari would probably be better off if they’d never met in the first place. He forced a bright smile onto his face and laughed, “Yeah, sorry. I guess I just didn’t sleep well last night.”

“Mood.” Kaminari said with mock seriousness. “So are you still good to train today, or do you want to take a break?”

“No, I’m good!” No matter how awful Izuki felt, he’d promised to teach Kaminari how to fight and he couldn’t let him down...which meant that he couldn’t die yet. He could probably ask Eraserhead to either teach Kaminari or explain things to his mother, but not both. That would be leaving him with a bigger burden than Izuku already was alive, which was the absolute last thing he wanted to do. “Alright, so last time we focused on hitting, right?”

“Yep!” Kaminari’s face lit up with excitement. “I feel like I’m starting to get a hang of it. I’ve been practicing some of the moves on my own too!”

“Perfect.” Izuku thought for a moment about what they could work on that wouldn’t be too physical. He’d already made Kaminari worry by spacing out, so it would be really bad if they were practicing throws or something and Izuku failed to hide the bruised ribs he’d gotten last night. “Well, I guess the opposite of hitting is dodging, so we can work on that...Only if you want to, that is! If you want to work on something else, that’s totally ok too! It’s just that dodging’s important in a fight and it might be useful if you want to learn, not that you have to…”

“Alright!” Kaminari cut off his rambling with a cheer. “Let’s learn to dodge!”

Izuku smiled despite himself, Kaminari’s enthusiasm gradually infecting him and chipping away at his depression as they walked through some of the ways that Izuku had learned to avoid attacks as Viridian, “So, um, if the villain’s taller than you, then you’re going to want to bend down low. The tallest people I’ve fought tend to underestimate how low they really need to aim to hit me, so, um, you can use that to your advantage. Oh, and there’s going to be a second or two after they miss you where they need to recover, but you shouldn’t let them. You’ll already be down low from dodging their attack, so you should go for their knees if you can to throw them off balance.”

“Their knees?!” Kaminari’s eyes were wide and he let out a shocked laugh, “Woah, Midoriya. You fight dirty!”

“Do I?” Izuku hadn’t really considered that. He didn’t really think of his style as fighting dirty, not that he really had a style to begin with, but if he did, he’d mostly think of it as...well, as staying alive. The heroes he fought with hadn’t said anything about it, but maybe it was a bad thing? But then again, it was a big deal since he wasn’t a hero...but Kaminari was going to be. 

Maybe he should ask Eraser about it and make sure it was ok? Honestly, he would probably say that anything that kept him alive was a good decision, since, logically, a hero needed to be alive to save people. Come to think of it, a lot of his moves were based off Eraserhead and the other heroes he’d observed during his vigilante hours, so teaching Kaminari to fight dirty probably wasn’t the end of the world. They could always get him out of the habit once he got to UA.

Izuku realized he’d spaced out again and shrugged, “I guess I kinda do. Sorry about that.”

“Nah, it’s fine.” Kaminari grinned. “You’ve got this cool kinda street fighter vibe to you, dude.”

“I guess that makes sense…” Izuku muttered. 

“What did you say?” Kaminari leaned in. “I didn’t quite catch that.”

“Uh…” Izuku really meant that it made sense that he fought like a street fighter, considering that he’d learned to fight on the streets, but he couldn’t just tell Kaminari that. “Well, you have to use whatever you can to win. Yeah, big moves might be flashy and good for the press, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting to keep yourself and others alive and safe, so you can’t hold yourself back.”

“Plus Ultra!” Kaminari cheered. 

“Yeah,” Izuku chuckled hesitantly, “Go beyond, right? Um, do you want to practice?”

Kaminari nodded and got into a sloppy fighting stance, though it was marginally better than it had been their first training session, “So...are you just gonna attack me, or…?”

Instead of answering, Izuku punched him. Kaminari’s eyes widened and he stumbled backward, but wasn’t able to scramble away fast enough to avoid a hit, and ended up on his butt. “Ow…”

“Sorry.” Izuku reached down to help him up. “I, uh, maybe should have slowed down?”

“Nope.” Kaminari grimaced and rubbed the place Izuku had hit. “I’m good. But, uh, maybe tell me what I did wrong?”

“Oh! Right!” Izuku nodded frantically. “Well, for a hit like that, you’re going to have more luck dodging to the side rather than going straight backward. Let’s try it again, but this time, when you see the attack coming, roll to the side like this.”

Izuku demonstrated a roll that he’d picked up from Eraserhead’s parkour lessons and adapted to be more useful for combat, only remembering he was still injured when he hit the ground. He grimaced, but pushed through the pain and it was less than a second before he was back on his feet with a smile on his face. There wasn’t any reason to worry Kaminari when it was Izuku’s own fault that he was injured. 

“Just like that, ok?” Izuku said cheerfully. “Ready?”

Kaminari nodded, “Let’s go!”

Izuku waited a long moment before he attacked again, this time making sure he telegraphed his movements enough that Kaminari knew what he was about to do. There was still a moment of hesitation where he panicked, but he managed to roll just in time that Izuku’s punch only grazed his shoulder. He didn’t put in quite enough momentum to get right back to his feet like Izuku had, but it was a start.

“I did it!” Kaminari sprawled on his back and flailed his legs. “I actually did it, Midoriya! I dodged!”

“You did.” Izuku said proudly. “Now let’s do it again. You’ll get better at it every time.”

They kept sparring until they were both sweaty and tired, then they kept going. As Kaminari got better at dodging, Izuku started to mix up his attacks. Sometimes he hit high, sometimes low, he even threw in a few kicks! Each time, Kaminari struggled with the new attack, but after a few hits, he would get the hang of it. Izuku had managed to mostly push away his funk from earlier and everything was going really well. 

That was, until Kaminari decided to counterattack. 

Izuku really should have seen it coming. It was a sloppy attack and if he hadn’t been tired from sparring and distracted by his own thoughts, he wouldn’t have even had to think about dodging it. As it was, however, he was just concentrating on acting natural despite the soreness in his ribs that was getting worse every time he moved, so when Kaminari ducked one of his punches and dove for him, he didn’t have enough time to move out of the way. He tackled Izuku around the waist and they both went tumbling to the hard ground. Between the force of Kaminari’s tackle and the force of hitting the ground...Izuku blacked out. 

“Dude!” Kaminari’s voice sounded distant, and Izuku struggled to drag himself back into awareness. “Are you ok? Did I hurt you? Do I need to take you to the hospital?”

“No,” Izuku forced out a chuckle, but winced when it hurt his ribs, “it was just a really good tackle.”

The spottyness in his vision finally cleared and Izuku was vaguely aware of Kaminari hovering over him, “Seriously, dude, are you ok? Because you don’t look ok.”

“I’m fine! I just…” Izuku tried to force his brain to work well enough to come up with some kind of excuse, but was coming up blank. Before he could get his brain to cooperate, Kaminari was reaching for him and pulling at his shirt that had apparently ridden up sometime during their spar. They both reflexively hissed, Izuku out of pain and Kaminari out of shock at the mottled mix of purple and green that was currently his torso. So much for not worrying him. 

“Dude…” Kaminari stared at him with wide eyes, “What happened?! Did I do that to you? Why didn’t you stop me?!”

The fear of Kaminari blaming himself for Izuku’s stupidity was what finally kicked his brain into gear, “No! It wasn’t anything you did, I was already like this!”

“What did you do to get that?!” Kaminari yelped.

Izuku scrambled for any kind of excuse, “I...fell.”

Kaminari looked at him in disbelief, “Off a roof? Because you don’t get bruises like that from just tripping on the sidewalk.”

“Uh…” Well, it was technically true, but he couldn’t just say that.

Apparently he took too long to respond, because Kaminari’s eyes widened, “Wait, I was just saying that as a joke, but you actually fell off a roof didn’t you? Wait, how do you fall off a roof? Uh...uh-oh, uh, you didn’t...jump...did you?”

Abort mission! Izuku was in a blind panic, he couldn't burden Kaminari with the whole wanting to kill himself thing! They were just barely friends and he was so cheerful, Izuku couldn’t drag him down like that! His mind raced as he tried to come up with a plausible explanation and he laughed in relief when he remembered Eraserhead teaching him to climb roofs in the first place. 

“Don’t worry, Kaminari!” Izuku smiled brightly. “I was just doing some parkour last night and took a jump I guess I wasn’t quite ready for and fell right into a dumpster. So I guess I did kinda jump, but definitely not in the way you’re thinking! I know parkour is kind of a risky sport,” not nearly as risky as vigilantism, “so injuries are expected sometimes, you know? I just didn’t want you to worry, so I didn’t say anything.”

“Dude, worrying about each other is what friends do.” Kaminari scolded. “I could have learned dodging another day...wait, you taught me dodging so there wouldn’t be physical contact. Oh, I’m such an idiot, I’m so sorry!”

“No, it’s not your fault!” Izuku waved his arms frantically, “I just...I didn’t want you to know.”

Kaminari sighed, “I get that, believe me, I do. Why do you think I’m still frying my brain every time I use my quirk? But we’re friends, Midoriya. We can trust each other with things like this, ok?”

Izuku hesitated. He’d never told anyone about his injuries before. Not the ones from Kacchan, not the ones from vigilantism. He didn’t even think he knew how to be upfront about things like this.

Kaminari leaned forward, not satisfied with his silence, “Ok, Midoriya?”

It hadn’t been the end of the world when Mom found out about the bullying, had it? Yeah, it’d been stressful, but...if she’d never found out, Izuku would have never transferred to online school and probably would never have learned to hack. Maybe...maybe having someone to turn to for his... parkour injuries... wouldn’t be so bad either.

“Ok.” Izuku felt the tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. “That’s what friends do, right?”

“Yeah!” Kaminari’s face split into a sly grin. “So you really fell into a dumpster, huh?”

Kaminari laughed as Izuku hit him on the chest, a small, genuine smile on his own face, “Shut up, Kaminari!”

That’s what friends are for.

Chapter Text

“Are you sure?” Tsukauchi gripped the test results so tightly that the paper wrinkled. “There was absolutely no trigger in his system when he was brought in?”

“We checked three times.” One of the doctors confirmed, adjusting her glasses. “And even if there had been, it would have long since metabolized by now. If he was like the other next-level villains you’ve brought in before, he would have calmed down shortly after he was brought in. Whatever made him like this...it wasn’t just trigger.”

Shouta looked through the glass of the cell at who used to be Jun Hamasaki. The doctors were right, he had worked with next-level villains before and, aside from a few unfortunate cosmetic changes, once the trigger was out of their system, they returned to who they had been before, but Hamasaki...it had been days and the uncontrollable rage he’d displayed when he was arrested had only grown worse. It was going to make him extremely difficult to interrogate, which was why they had been waiting for the effects of the drugs to wear off like they always had in the past, but difficult or not, they had to try, if for no other reason than to make sure the monsters who did this to him were brought to justice. 

“There’s something else.” The doctor said. “With the police department’s permission, we were able to run a whole slew of tests to try to figure out what those people did to his body.The physical changes are similar to what we’ve seen from the villain factory before, but the brain scans…”

She trailed off and Shouta turned to the team of doctors, gesturing for them to continue. After a moment, one of the other doctors continued where the first had left off, “The only area in his brain that was functioning at anywhere near a normal level was the amygdala, the area that is responsible for emotions such as fear and anger. It’s no wonder that he tore up the city the way he did, considering that it’s almost as if his brain has been rewired to optimize rage.”

“When I arrived at the scene, Tensei said Hamasaki had gone completely berserk.” Shouta said. “We thought there’d been some sort of trigger, but you think that was biological?”

The head doctor nodded, “Almost definitely. The other areas of his brain have started to atrophy at a much higher rate than we’d normally expect, almost as if his body is attacking itself. Right now, the only conscious thoughts he can even process are those that are boosted by his anger, but from the way his brain is decaying, even those might disappear in the coming weeks.”

“Then there’s no point in waiting any longer.” Tsukauchi said with finality. “If we want to have any chance at getting any information out of him, it’s going to have to be now.”

The doctors looked hesitant and honestly, Shouta felt the same way. Hamasaki may have been restrained and mildly sedated, but they were in uncharted territory when it came to his body and quirk. Whatever the villain factory had done to him, it had made him stronger than he had any right to be, which made him unpredictable, which was more dangerous than ever because of his uncontrollable rage.

But Tsukauchi was right. It would be entirely illogical to wait any longer to interrogate him. He wouldn't get any less angry if they waited, and they might miss their chance if his brain atrophied any further. That didn’t mean  it was safe or that Shouta had to like it. 

Tsukauchi gestured for the doctors to open the door, and Shouta followed him inside. The moment Hamasaki caught sight of them, he started fighting against his restraints, practically growling as he lunged at them. This was why he didn’t understand why some of his students enjoyed horror movies so much. 

Real life was so much scarier. 

“Jun Hamasaki, my name is Detective Tsukauci and this is the pro hero Eraserhead.” Tsukauchi said, feigning calmness and hiding the slight tremor in his voice behind a thick layer of professionalism. “We’ve met before. My quirk, Lie Detector, will be active during the course of his interview.”

“Die!” 

Well, at least he was still capable of coherent speech, though Shouta wished his first understandable words had been something a little more useful. 

“Do you know who did this to you?” 

Hamasaki growled, “Kill! Kill everyone!”

Tsukauchi wrote something down, “Did they threaten to kill you?”

“Kill!” Hamasaki lunged at them again. “Kill! Destroy! Everything hurt me! I hurt everything!”

Everything? Why didn’t he say everyone? If it were Shouta, he would want to hurt everyone who hurt him, but attacking everything went beyond simple revenge, didn’t it? He glanced at Tsukauchi, who looked equally confused. 

Shouta thought for another moment, watching the way that Hamasaki fought against the restraints. When the next level villains recovered, none of them remembered the experimentations. The leading theory was that it was the trauma, but the next one was that the villain factory had someone with a memory modification quirk. If Hamasaki couldn’t remember who it was that hurt him, he might lash out at everything...or they might have conditioned him to turn his anger to other targets.

“Did they tell you to be angry at the world?” Shouta asked. “Did the people you were with make you believe that it was everyone else that hurt you, not them?”

“Everything hurt me!” Hamasaki yelled. “Sensei said so! Sensei don’t lie!”

Tsukauchi scribbled something else, “Sensei? That’s the one that hurt you? Do you know his name?”

Hamasaki shook, “Sensei help me! Kill you!”

Shouta glared him down, “Who is sensei?”

“Kill!” 

Hamasaki lunged again, and Tsukauchi and Shouta had to take a step back as one of his wrist restraints finally snapped under the continuous pressure. He continued struggling, apparently too far gone to think to use his free hand to undo the other bonds, but Shouta didn’t want to be around by the time he figured that out. 

“Get out of there!” The head doctor slammed the door open and gestured for them as she yelled to her team. “Prep the air filtration system for a tranquilizer.”

Shouta and Tsukushi ran from the room and the head doctor locked the door behind him. Shouta looked through the window just in time to see a cloudy gas flood the room. Hamasaki fought even harder, managing to snap another restraint before the tranquilizer took effect. His fighting grew weaker for a few minutes before he finally slumped down on the bed unconscious, prompting everyone outside to breathe a sigh of relief. 

“Sensei. Do you think that’s the symbol of evil that he mentioned before he disappeared from custody?” Shouta asked. 

“I…” Tsukauchi swallowed. “I don’t know. But why would he be so loyal to the person who hurt him?”

“The pain of being experimented on combined with whatever memory eraser they’re using would have made him extremely suggestable.” Shouta said. “They’ve effectively brainwashed him into being loyal to them.”

Tsukauchi gave a frustrated sigh, “Which makes things even more complicated, doesn’t it?”

They were interrupted as Tsukauchi’s phone rang. He took one look at the caller ID and answered, “Hello, Chief Tsuragamae You’re on speaker with me and Eraserhead.”

“How are things going with that next level villain that Ingenium apprehended?” The chief asked. “Have you gotten any useful information from him? Woof.” 

Tsuakuchi and Shouta shared a look. It might have just been a theory, but Viridian had been right when he said that the villain factory might be moving onto the next phase of their experiments, because Hamasaki was definitely not an instant villain. 

“Not much.” Tsukauchi said finally. “He mentioned a person named Sensei, but Eraserhead believes he’s been brainwashed into being loyal to him. Most of what he said were just threats.”

“He’s not back to normal? Woof?” Tsuragamae asked. “It’s been days, shouldn’t the trigger be out of his system by now like it was with the others?”

“That’s the problem, he’s not like the others.” Shouta sighed. “Hamasaki represents the next phase of the villain factory’s experimentation. He’s not a next level villain and, according to the doctors, he most likely won’t be recovering like they did.”

There was a long beat of silence on the other end as Tsuragamae processed the new information, “Woof...if he’s not a next level villain, then what is he?”

Shouta looked at Tsukauchi. They needed some name for this next evolution, because Shouta wasn’t naive enough to think that there wouldn't be others. But what to call them? This next phase was defined by the sheer amount of anger and rage they displayed, so something with that? Like Ingenium had said, Hamasaki had gone completely berserk from the experiments. 

“He’s something else entirely.” Shouta said finally. “He’s a Berserker.”

Chapter Text

Katsuki stared at his paper blankly with the sound of pens scratching on paper around him as a taunting backdrop to his most recent failure. According to Amplifier, for this most recent exercise, he was supposed to be writing a list to describe the kind of person he wanted to be, but he was at a loss. 

Nobody else seemed to be having problems with the assignment. As soon as Amplifier had said go, each of the villains had started writing furiously, making Katsuki feel even more ridiculous for sitting here ten minutes later with nothing to show for his work but a few scribbles and a headache. 

His entire life, he’d always known who he wanted to be. He was going to be the best and that was all there was to it. There was no point in worrying about being mean, or angry, or anything else because all that mattered was getting to the top, which was what had ended him in this whole mess, so it obviously wasn’t good enough. But if he wasn’t shooting to be the best, then who was he trying to be?

His first thought was that he could be like All Might. De...Izuku had always said he was going to be just like All Might and save people with a smile. Kids all over the place wanted to be like All Might, so it couldn’t be a bad goal. The only problem was that while a part of Katsuki wanted that, the bigger part knew it just wasn’t realistic. He wasn’t the kind of person who could save people with a smile. He was scary, so while his smile might be able to terrify villains, civilians would probably scream and run away. 

Which honestly made him more similar to Endeavor, but that didn’t seem quite right either. Endeavor wasn’t just harsh to his fans, he was downright rude, and probably more violent than he needed to be when taking down villains. In short, he reminded Katsuki way too much of how he’d acted his entire life so far, and staying a bully wasn’t an option anymore.

His commitment letter to Izuku felt heavy in his pocket as he made another scribble in the corner of his paper so it wouldn’t look like he was just sitting there doing nothing like an idiot. Amplifier said the letters were for them, and Katsuki honestly didn’t know how he’d explain the whole thing to Izuku and Auntie Inko, so he’d ended up folding up the letter and putting it in his wallet instead of delivering it. 

He wasn’t sure if he liked or hated having it with him all the time. It made his wallet feel heavier somehow. It was like the weight of all his actions was always with him as a constant reminder, but at the same time it was like putting the weight in his pocket had taken it out of his heart. Katsuki rolled his eyes as he made another scribble. That sounded too damn sappy, it was like...well, he didn’t know how to explain it, but it didn’t feel so overwhelming anymore. It was almost like he might actually be able to become better someday.

“Alright, everyone! Good work today!” Amplifier’s voice made him jump. “Be sure to remember what you wrote down today during this next week. That dream person you described is your goal from now on and I know that if you work hard, you can get there! See you next week!”

Katsuki crumpled the blank paper in his fist and shoved it in his pocket as he stalked toward the door, “Later, Amplifier.”

“Sure thing, Bakugo.” Amplifier said cheerfully. “Be good this week!”

Katsuki scoffed out of habit before pushing open the door and rushing to leave the community center before Ogawa and the others could try and talk to him. He really didn’t want to deal with them right now, not after his absolute failure during today’s exercise. 

The universe, however, apparently didn’t care what he wanted, “Hey, Bakugo! Wait up!”

Katsuki hunched his shoulders a little more and pretended he hadn’t heard Ogawa’s peppy voice behind him as he walked a little faster. Unfortunately, he was a still-growing teenager and the extras that had decided to adopt him for some reason were full grown adults with much longer legs, which meant that he didn’t get very far before he had to step backwards to avoid running into Maki’s giant body as he stepped in front of him. 

“Hey, kid, why are you running away?” He gave Katsuki a wide, lopsided grin. “Don’t you like it anymore?”

“I never liked you.” Katsuki said, rude out of habit more than anything else. 

“Oh, straight through the heart! I don’t think I’ll ever recover!” Akiko placed a hand to her chest dramatically. “But joking aside, that was a pretty cool exercise, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah.” Ogawa agreed. “It was like we were picking our avatar in a video game. A perfect version of ourselves.”

Katsuki scowled, but didn’t respond, which was apparently the wrong course of action, because Akiko leaned into his personal space, her interest piqued, “What did you write, Bakugo?”

Katsuki tried to push past her, but she braced herself against Maki, so he turned around and tried to go the other way, only to be met with Ogawa, “If you’re trying to hide it, then it must be pretty good, huh? Come on, man! Let us see the paper!”

“Fuck off!” 

Ogawa laughed, “Nah, don’t think I will. Where is your paper anyway?”

“I saw him stick it in his right pocket before we left.” Maki said helpfully.

Katsuki glared at him, but he simply grinned in return. Katsuki growled, but it wasn’t like he hadn’t physically trained his body as part of his preparation for UA, so he should be able to get around these extras easily. He dodged to the left, causing Akiko to move in an attempt to head him off. As she reached to grab him, Katsuki feigned right before continuing to the left.

He was almost home free when Ogawa grabbed his arm. Katsuki whirled around and twisted his arm, not enough to hurt him, just enough to make him let go, then tried again to make his escape, only for Akiko to block him again. It went on this way for a few minutes as Katsuki dodged and blocked their attempts to grab his empty piece of paper until they were all starting to run out of breath.

“Ogawa!” Akiko panted. “Can’t you use your tentacles to reach in his pocket and grab it?”

Katsuki tensed, preparing himself for a quirked assault when Ogawa shook his head, “No. Without trigger or some sort of other drug, I can barely stretch them to reach my shoulders without straining something.”

“Hah!” Katsuki crouched triumphantly, ready to take off. “I guess I win!”

“Not so fast.” He heard Maki’s voice behind him and before he could turn around to face the new threat, Maki had firmly pinned both his arms against his sides and lifted him a foot under the ground. He could still get out, probably, if he used his explosions, but...the last person he’d used his quirk against was Izuku.

Akiko smirked and grabbed the crumpled paper from his pocket. Katsuki struggled against Maki’s hold as she began to straighten it out, “I thought you guys were trying to be nicer and all that jazz? I hate to break it to you, but this isn’t nice.”

Maki dropped him and Katsuki immediately tried to grab the note back from Akiko, but Ogawa stepped between them to block his path, smiling cheekily, “Sorry, dude, but we’re not redeemed yet! Technically, we’re still villains, and I hate to break it to you, but villains steal.”

Katsuki glared at him as Akiko finally finished unwrinkling his paper and did a double take, “Wait, it’s blank? Did you hide the real one somewhere else?”

“Shut up, it’s none of your business!” Katuski used the opening to snatch the paper back and stuff it back in his pocket as he began stalking away.

“...You don’t know who you want to be, do you?”

Katsuki was already glaring at Ogawa as he turned around, expecting to find judgement, mockery, and condescension written all over his face. It was supposed to be a simple exercise, so Katsuki knew he deserved it if Ogawa was looking down on him. Not that he’d admit that out loud, but still, he was expecting to find...something. Instead, his scowl melted as he realized that Ogawa was looking at him with understanding, not contempt.

He scoffed, “Whatever. I’ve spent my whole life trying to be the best and look where that got me.”

Maki nodded calmly, “And now, you feel like you’ve been cut loose.” 

Katsuki shrugged. So, they weren’t mocking him, but that still didn’t make him any less of a failure. He was about to start walking away again, because there was no point just standing around forcing these guys to feel sorry for him, when Ogawa smiled brightly, “Then we’ll just have to help you figure it out!”

That more than anything else threw Katsuki for a loop, “...what?!”

“Oh yeah, this is gonna be fun. So…” Akiko drawled, “what do you want to be?”

Katsuki simply leveled a deadpan glare at her, “If I knew that, I wouldn’t have left the paper blank, you idiots!”

“Alright! Alright!” She laughed. “I’ll give you that one. Hmmm…”

“Maybe what do you want to accomplish?” Maki suggested.

Finally, an easy question, “I want to become a better person so I can apologize to D...to Izuku and actually mean it.”

Ogawa nodded, “Ok, that’s a start. What does being better look like to you?”

Katsuki glared at him, “If I knew that…”

“Then you wouldn’t have left the paper blank.” Akiko finished. “So what are you apologizing for in the first place?”

“For making his life miserable.” Katsuki looked at the floor. “For hurting him.”

“So, being a better person would mean…?” Ogawa trailed off like he was expecting Katsuki to finish the sentence.

“Not hurting people?” It couldn’t be that simple, could it? Katsuki had stopped going out of his way to hurt others and he still felt like a heaping pile of garbage, so that couldn’t be everything. 

“I mean, we should probably go a little deeper than that, because you’ve got a whole blank page to fill, but it’s a start. Write it down.” Akiko ordered. 

Katsuki rolled his eyes, but made his way to a nearby bench and sat down with the paper on the seat next to him so he’d have someplace hard to write and obediently wrote down don’t hurt people as the first bullet point, “Ok, what next?”

“Hmm…” Ogawa scratched his head as he thought, his tentacles wriggling aimlessly. “Well you said you wanted to be a hero, right?”

“Gee, thanks for remembering.” Katsuki said dryly.

Ogawa laughed, “Yeah, well, what do heroes do?”

It felt like a trick question, “They stop villains.”

“Yes, they do.” Maki seemed to have picked up on Ogawa’s train of thought. “But why?”

“Because villains are bad people and need to be stopped?” Katsuki thought that should be pretty obvious, but apparently not, because Akiko just scoffed.

“Are you seriously telling me you never learned the first rule of hero work?”

“What are you…” Katsuki’s eyes widened, “Prioritize the rescue.”

Ogawa smiled proudly, “Bingo. So…?”

“I can’t just avoid hurting people.” Katsuki said. “I need to stop other people from hurting them too...”

“Sounds like a good goal to me.” Maki smiled. “Write it down.”

Katsuki was almost tempted to smile as he write down his second bullet point, but then he remembered all the extras that were still getting away with murder at his school. Sure, Katsuki hadn’t actually participated in the bullying since Izuku left, but he hadn’t don’t anything to stop it either. That was a lot more intimidating...which led him to his next goal.

“I don’t want to be scared to do the right thing,” he said confidently, “even if that means admitting I was wrong.”

“You’re talking about the bullying, right?” Maki asked. “Admitting to something like that sounds really difficult, especially when you want to be a hero.”

“Yeah.” Katsuki said stiffly. “But the extras at school are gonna talk if I all of a sudden start protecting the nerds.”

“But you want to, right?” Ogawa asked.

“Of course I do!” Katsuki snapped. “But I was the worst bully in my school! Half the other kids probably started picking on the nerds because they were following me around! If I suddenly switch sides like this, they’re gonna call me out on it.”

“If they have a problem with you cleaning up your act, then that’s their problem.” Akiko said sternly. “You don’t owe you old lackies an explanation, just like I don’t owe my ex-boyfriend a call back!”

That made Katsuki laugh and he wrote down don’t be too big of a coward to own up to mistakes and don’t feel obligated to give explanations to extras. There were probably better ways to phrase all that, but for now, he’d gotten the point across.

Ogawa leaned on the back of the bench so that he was looking at the paper over Katsuki’s shoulder and whistled, “That’s a pretty good list you got there. Have anything else you want to add?”

Katsuki nodded and put the pen down on the paper before hesitating, “On second thought, maybe that one’s not a good idea…”

Akiko raised an eyebrow at him, “What are you thinking?”

He frowned, “I want to actually be worthy of being called a hero, but with all the shit I’ve done...I’m not All Might. I’m angry and cruel, and I don’t think it’s realistic…”

Ogawa cuffed him upside the head, “I’m gonna stop you right there, man. First off, nobody is All Might.”

Akiko nodded, “Sometimes, I’m not convinced that he’s not just some mass delusion we’ve created because, honestly? Nobody is that perfect.”

Ogawa laughed, “Yeah, what she said. You don’t have to be All Might to be a good hero, Bakugo. And second off, are you sure this is what you want?”

“What are you talking about?” Katsuki growled. “Of course I’m sure it’s what I want, I just don’t…”

“Then put it on the list!” He ordered. “You don’t have to be everything on the list right now, that’s what this whole redeptiomption group thing is all about.”

“It’s a goal.” Maki added. “You’ll get there.”

Katsuki hesitated for another long moment before Akiko groaned, “You screwball, I swear if you don’t write down your stupid goal right now, I’m gonna steal that pen and write it for you!”

“Don’t tell me what to do.” Katsuki griped, but wrote Be worthy of being called a hero at the end of the list before folding up the paper, nicely this time, and sticking it in his wallet alongside his letter to Izuku. 

And maybe it was just a trick his mind was playing on him, but as he said goodbye and started walking home, Katuki couldn’t help but notice that he felt a little lighter. 

Chapter Text

All for One was a simple man. He considered himself something of an expert on the subject of human nature, since an intimate knowledge of humanity and its weaknesses had served him well when building his current empire and, despite the rumors and legends surrounding his name, he was still human. As such, he was still susceptible to the same whims that plagued lesser beings, such as boredom, which was what had led to his current frustration.

He took great satisfaction in creating plans and executing them to perfection. In his opinion, a well constructed plan was like a well conducted symphony: all the instruments played their parts with few, if any, mistakes and followed the lead not only of the visible conductor, but of the invisible composer who sat silently as the orchestra mindlessly followed the directions he had given them so that every note was in its proper place at the proper time, just as the composer had envisioned. 

It was perfection.

Many younger people didn’t understand the complexities of symphonies. They lacked the wisdom and maturity that came with age and quickly grew bored and annoyed, then complained about the length of the production as if there was no reason why they should give their valuable attention to anything for longer than a few seconds. They didn’t understand that they couldn’t possibly comprehend what true boredom was until they had lived over a lifetime. 

He may have started with grand ideals all those centuries ago, but the truth was that half the reason he did the things he did at this point was because of that boredom. After a while, things like books and movies started to blend together as the same tropes were watered down and repeated so many times that they had become almost completely unpalatable, so All for One had been left with no choice but to compose his own entertainment with the world as his orchestra.  

A perfect symphony took time, which All for One had in over-abundance. The composer had to find just the right instruments and manipulate each musician in just the right way to create a peice that would be entertaining enough to satisfy him, which meant that much of the fun of the composition was playing the long game to create it. The time invested in the plan made it so much more satisfying when the unwitting and unwilling participants carried it out to perfection. It was enough to give him chills.

Which was what made it so annoying when people got in the way of his plans. Yes, he could easily recover from the loss of the doctor’s latest experiment, but it still irked him. According to his composition, Hamasaki’s part in the symphony was to cause chaos on his test run so All for One and the doctor could see the results of their experiment. He fulfilled that part of his purpose well, but All for One had hoped to recover their experiment before the police could so that it would be a marvelous surprise when he gifted Tomura with the perfect army of super soldiers. 

Meddling heroes and vigilantes, however, had been...inconvenient. They were like audience members who, instead of sitting quietly as the composer intended, had taken it upon themselves to start playing kazoos in the middle of the third movement. It took what was supposed to be a flawless symphony and gave the entire experience a flavor that was just slightly off. It was grating. 

All for One was nothing, however, if not resilient. As annoying as Hamasaki’s capture was, it was nowhere near enough to ruin his symphony. He’d have to keep an eye on those troublesome individuals who had led to this mistake, just in case they started playing their kazoos again, but there was no need to crush them just yet. They were inconsequential in the long view of his perfect symphony. 

He smiled as he thought of one of the players he had in reserve, waiting patiently under the doctor’s careful care. He had never intended to keep young Shirakumo. Cloud was not a particularly powerful quirk or one that All for One had any use for. The original plan had been to capture the UA student with the erasure quirk or, failing that, chalk the whole attack up to a failure and try again later. 

But then that student had soundly defeated the villain he’d intended to be unbeatable and All for one had known that the hero Eraserhead was going to be a major player in the future of heroism. It also didn’t hurt that his other friend, now known as Present Mic had shown incredible promise when it came to publicity. It reminded All for One of himself and All Might: one working hard in the dark while the other showboated for the public. 

Or maybe the dynamic between Eraserhead and Present Mic reminded him of himself and his brother, the original One for All. In that situation, the positions were reversed and All for One was the one that had been in the public eye while his brother had chosen to stay behind the scenes to fight him, sadly limited by his own shyness. Perhaps if he and his brother had been on the same side, they could have enjoyed the same dynamic that Eraserhead and Present Mic enjoyed today. They could have been allies instead of enemies and ruled the world with one controlling the shadows and the other controlling the light, like he’d always wanted. 

But there was no point in wishing for a ship that had long since sailed. His brother had continuously betrayed him, even after All for One had gifted him with a quirk, and despite his best efforts, they had ended up as enemies. It was fine, he’d mourned the loss, but the scar was still there, angry, red, and uglier than the ones he’d received from All Might. 

So, of course, when he saw the similarities in those two future heroes, he’d known he had to have a little fun with them. It was a simple pleasure, but when he was creating one of his symphonies, All for one took great delight in choosing just the right players with just the right identities to make an impact. Even if those identities never quite came to light, he could enjoy the delicious irony behind the scenes, so instead of leaving young Shirakumo to die under the rubble, he had warped him to the doctor and used the bribed paramedics that he’d intended to use for Eraserhead to have him declared dead on the scene. 

The boy had been quite a bit worse for wear when he’d arrived. He’d had two badly broken legs, crushed ribs, and a punctured lung that had already begun filling with blood. Still, even with all his injuries, even if he’d been left under that rubble for the duration of the fight, he undoubtedly would have survived and might even have had a quicker recovery with the use of Recovery Girl’s quirk. He would have made a wonderful hero if All for One hadn’t stolen him away.

It was enough to make him smile. 

The boy’s recovery had, of course, been difficult and was made more so by the boy himself constantly fighting him and trying to escape until All for One had finally grown tired of it and taken his memories. It would have made his betrayal much sweeter if he still remembered his old friends, but forgetting them completely would still be effective and after his memories were gone, he became much more docile. He had still seemed to understand that something was off, but he had stopped trying to escape. 

It was just a shame that All for One hadn’t had access to a powerful healing quirk at the time. The doctor had done his best, of course, but his speciality was in changing people’s bodies, not in putting them back to how they were supposed to be. The main problem was his ribs. They had been crushed almost into powder by the rubble so without a healing quirk, even when they’d healed completely, they were still too fragile for Shirakumo to fight the way he used to, which was why All for One wanted to give him multiple quirks. 

The other quirks could make him stronger and faster, so that he didn’t have to worry about getting hit, and All for One could call the broker to have him fitted with some kind of body armor, just in case. But he still needed to be able to think, which was still an elusive result. All for One wanted it to have an impact when Eraserhead and Present Mic realized that their old friend had become a puppet in his hands, so he wasn’t willing to waste Shirakumo on experiments that were just as likely to fail. 

But, the doctor was making progress, at least, so it shouldn’t be too much longer until the newest player in his symphony was ready to take the stage.

Chapter Text

Izuku stood tensely at the entrance to the alley, a marble at the ready in his slingshot which was pulled taut and trained on the collapsed villain who could potentially get up at any minute. Eraser was at the opposite end of the alley, his capture weapon floating ominously around him as they waited. After a few seconds which felt like a lot longer, Eraser blinked, then sighed in relief when the villain stayed put, the trigger-enhanced quirk that had made the fight already starting to shrink back to it’s normal state. 

“Good, he’s just another junkie.” Eraser said. “I was almost afraid he’d be another berserker.”

Izuku put his slingshot away as he looked at Eraser in confusion, “Berserker?”

Eraser glanced up at him as he restrained the villain, “Yeah. That’s what we’ve started calling the next phase in the villain factory’s experiments. You were right about that, by the way. That villain you helped apprehend the other day, Hamasaki, wasn’t a next level villain, he was whatever comes after. A berserker.”

“Oh…” Izuku said quietly. He hadn’t wanted to be right about that, especially not after seeing the destruction that him being right caused and how miserable the poor villain must be. “So you think there’s going to be more of them?”

Eraser sighed, “That’s the way the villain factory works. We’ll probably see at least a few of these guys, then they’ll go dormant for a few months or even years like last time before moving onto the next phase of their expirament. God only knows what they’re actually trying to accomplish with all this.” 

“Most likely some type of supersolider.” Izuku had been thinking about it more and more ever since Hamasaki had been recaptured. With many powerful heroes like All Might out there, most villains’ best best was to run and hide like the sludge villain had when it attacked him. If enough people had permanently strengthened quirks, however, they might even be able to give the number one hero a run for his money even without his secret weakness. “I’m assuming that Hamasaki’s alterations were permanent?”

Eraser nodded, “That was the main difference, actually. All the next level villains eventually powered down once the trigger was out of their system, but he didn’t even have any trigger in him to begin with. The rage didn’t fade either, hence berserkers.”

“Then they’re probably getting closer.” Izuku said. “Did you guys ever figure out why he was so angry?”

“The doctors said it was something to do with his brain attacking itself or something.” Eraser looked frustrated as he stood. “The rage center was the only part that hadn’t been turned into swiss cheese.”

“An autoimmune response?” Izuku frowned. “But the experiments didn’t trigger that in the next level villains, did they?”

“Nope.” Eraser clenched his fists. “Besides the extra mutative aspects they were fine.”

“So something new was introduced…” Izuku muttered, then looked up at Eraser, embarrassed. “I mean, obviously, since it was a new experiment, but, um, I mean…”

“It’s fine kid.” Eraser had tucked his chin into his capture scarf so Izuku couldn’t see his expression clearly, but he didn’t sound mad, so that was good. 

Izuku waited a long moment for Eraser to continue, but he’d apparently said all he wanted to say, so Izuku figured he may as well ask a question that had been bothering him, “So, how did Hamasaki escape custody anyway? I thought he was arrested.”

“He didn’t escape, he was kidnapped right when we were starting to get somewhere with the interrogation.” Eraser growled. “It was just so frustrating to see him again like that, since they expriramented on him in retaliation for talking, but the only clue we got from him was the symbol of evil, which doesn’t even lead to anything except for legends!” Erasers eyes widened momentarily as he seemed to remember he was talking to a vigilante who was still a child, “Don’t look into that!”

Izuku’s brain raced with possibilities. He felt like he’d heard that phrase somewhere before, probably on one of the various hero forums he browsed, but it was a pretty ominous moniker, especially with the way it played off the symbol of peace. If the person behind the villain factory was trying to be an equal to All Might it would make sense why he was trying to create an army of supersoldiers, so then…

“I mean it, Viridian, don’t look into that!” Eraser sighed. “Who am I kidding? You’re a suicidal teenager, of course you’re going to look into it. I don’t even know why I try.”

“At least you’re trying to protect me.” Izuku shrugged. “I don’t think anyone else really cared enough to try, except Mom, of course. So...the symbol of evil?”

Eraser glared at him, but Izuku simply gave him a bright smile, not really wanting to dig deeper into all the feelings that Eraser’s concern was starting to bring up. It’d be a lot more fun to have something to analyze, even if they were just old legends.

“We’re going to talk more about that later” Eraser said sternly.

“Sure thing, Eraser.” Only if Izuku couldn’t find some way to redirect the conversation next time it came up. “So about the symbol of evil…?”

Eraser glared at him for another moment before giving in, “Fine. From what little I could find, it seems like it was a nickname for some guy who went by the name All for One back at the dawn of quirks. I don’t think the legends are accurate though, since according to the stories All for One could give and take other people’s quirks.”

“If that were true, it would change everything we knew about quirks…” Izuku muttered. “So it can’t be true, but maybe they’re trying to use a drug to produce that effect? It might explain the autoimmune response. If they were trying to introduce a new quirk then of course the body would attack it, but then why did Hamasaki’s quirk just get stronger?”

“Of course you instantly start analyzing, problem child.” Izuku couldn’t see Eraser’s eyes, but he was 98% certain he was rolling them. “Promise me you won’t chase any leads on your own Viridian. That’s what official heroes are for, ok kid?”

Izuku nodded frantically, “I would never do that! If this symbol of evil is really behind the villain factory then I’d just mess everything up if I went after him alone!”

Eraser sighed, “Good enough. Now get going kid. And don’t die.”

Shouta watched as the problem child jumped away over the rooftops, his parkour still a little sloppy, but still amazing considering that he’d only been doing it a few months. The kid went at everything with so much dedication, it was just a shame he couldn’t direct that passion toward something that didn’t double as a suicide plan. Why couldn’t he direct it toward become an actual hero? Shouta was sure that Nedzu would kill to get his paws on an analysis quirk like Viridian’s. Maybe he could convince the kid to try for UA? They could probably make an exception for the age requirements if Viridian had already entered highschool, and they might be able to get the kid some counciling while they were at it. 

He regretted telling the kid about the symbol of evil, but sometimes it was hard to remember that Viridian was a kid playing vigilante instead of an adult hero, especially since he was just as involved in the trigger case now as any of the real heroes were. Once the hint had slipped out, Shouta knew that the kid would attack it like a dog would chew a bone, so at least if he told Viridian the basics, it’d keep him from turning to the dark parts of the internet to find them. It was probably the safest course of action, considering that the problem child was perfectly capable of accessing everywhere on the internet that he wasn’t supposed to if he was able to hack into the heroes’ secure comm system. 

Well, at least they’d be able to use Viridian’s expertise on the case. The kid was amazing at analyzing quirks, which would be necessary if there was any truth at all to the All for One legends, not that Shouta expected there would be. Still, if there were going to be more berserkers, Viridian’s ability to analyze their quirks could make the difference between a successful capture and an escape. 

And maybe if he stayed alive to help them, eventually Shouta could give him something else to live for.

Chapter Text

Izuku was about to close out of his most recent quirk theory lesson, but then frowned and hesitated before reopening his online textbook. For the past week, he hadn’t been able to get what Eraserhead said about the symbol of evil out of his mind. On the one hand, it should be impossible for someone to take and give quirks like that, but on the other hand, the one thing that was consistent about quirks was that they were unpredictable. It was part of what made quirk analysis so exciting! 

Which was why he couldn’t stop thinking about it. If All for One really did exist, or even just had existed at some point, it could spark so many new theories about how quirks work or even how they’d begun. Even if his research was ultimately a dead end, Izuku still couldn’t resist figuring out if something like that was even possible. Even if it didn’t help the case, it would make for an interesting afternoon and might even help him learn more about some heroes’ quirks. Not to mention that he’d be able to tell Eraser for sure that it wasn’t possible, rather than relying only on gut instinct. 

So where should he even start? If he tried to search his textbook for giving quirks it would probably just kick out a genetics lesson, and if he tried taking quirks he’d probably get something on emulator and copy quirks, or maybe a reference to Eraserhead if the textbook was up to date. After probably way too long thinking about it, he finally just decided to search the text for All for One and see if it brought anything up. It probably wouldn’t, but it was at least worth a try, and he could cross that bridge when he came to it. 

The page loaded almost intently, even though Izuku’s anxiety made it feel like it took forever, and when the results finally came up, he stared at the single reference in a daze for almost a full minute before he jerked awake and practically jumped out of his seat in his hurry to click the link. It was a passing reference in one of the appendices which was why Izuku had never read it before, not that it would have caught his eye if he had without Eraser calling his attention to it.

Transferable quirks, though theoretically possible (Schnider, 2308), are largely considered to be a myth by both the academic community and the world at large, which is why they will not be covered in any great detail here.

The fact that transferable quirks were a myth didn’t surprise him at all, that was both his and Eraser’s first thought after all. Even the fact that there were enough people that were interested in them to have research papers written on the subject, even though it was unexpected, still didn’t come as any surprise. No, what shocked Izuku was that one little line at the beginning.

...though theoretically possible…

He didn’t waste any time navigating to the bibliography and tracking down the article. It was a little dated, but it would be a good launching pad for the rest of his research. The article itself was a bit dated and had originally been translated from german, so there were a few uncommon or niche words that Izuku had to look up, but it actually provided a good overview of the theory behind transferable quirks. According to the article, the main basis for the transferable quirk theory was that quirks have unlimited potential. If it was possible to have a quirk that allowed a person to survive in space or to jump higher than skyscrapers, it also had to be possible that a person could have a quirk that could take away another person’s ability or even force an ability to manifest. 

Izuku rapidly took notes as he read, noting down quotes and citations alongside his own thoughts and theories as his brain raced around in circles trying to disprove what he was reading. If quirks like this existed, why didn’t anyone know about them? Were they just super rare? But Izuku knew about some quirks that only one person manifested and yet they still were still talked about and even taught about in schools, so it couldn’t be just the rarity. And if these quirks did exist, why weren’t they helping quirkless people? If they could transfer a quirk into someone quirkless, why wouldn’t they? Didn’t they realize how hard it was for Izuku to be the only kid in school without a superpower? Why couldn’t they have given him a quirk?

Izuku forced himself out of his spiral when he realized that he had somehow snapped the pencil he was using in half. He stared at it in shock for a moment before shaking his head and getting a fresh pencil. That must be a fluke, there was no way he was strong enough to break a pencil just out of stress, even if he had been getting more exercise as a vigilante these past few months. 

Izuku finished reading the article without any further incidents and was about to turn to the bibliography to find some more sources when he stopped and opened up a search engine instead. Using the bibliography would lead him to older articles than he really wanted, considering that the article itself was almost 50 years old, but if he were to look up reviews of the article, those would most likely cite more recent research as they attempted to either refute or confirm the original article’s thesis. 

Most of the reviews he found were attempting to basically bash the transferable quirk theory in general, and most of them cited the same three articles that supposedly disproved it. The problem was that when Izuku read those articles...they were biased. It was pretty clear that they were relying more on rhetoric than research and were letting the conventional wisdom of how quirks were supposed to work color their hypothesis. That didn’t necessarily mean they were wrong! Conventional wisdom was common for a reason, afterall! But in this case...it was just slightly suspicious, considering that there was actually plenty of evidence to the contrary. 

One article in particular that caught Izuku’s eye was called The Legend of All for One: A Quantitative Analysis of Transferable Quirks and their effects on the body. 

The article was by an American researcher a few years ago that ran in some of the same circles as David Shield, the support engineer that All Might was friends with when he studied abroad in America, but it had never been translated into Japanese, which Izuku thought was weird considering that eh article itself identified All for One as a Japanese myth specifically. It made him really grateful that his online English class was so fast paced! He still had to have a dictionary open as he read, but he was able to read the article without too much trouble, even more so because most of it was charts that showed the evidence in support of the transferable quirk theory. 

Izuku’s vigilante alarm went off just as he was about to dive into the charts and it startled him so badly he jumped out of his chair and slammed his notebook shut. Was it already that time? Izuku frowned indecisively for a long moment before canceling the alarm and sitting back down. This research counted as vigilantism, especially since it was looking more and more like transferable quirks were possible, and Izuku needed to know everything he could about them. 

Eraserhead would kill him if he went into a fight unprepared. 

Izuku spent the next several hours combing through all the evidence that the article provided. There were several people who lacked the extra toe-joint, but had still manifested as quirkless, while other people had it, but had manifested quirks anyway. Even once he considered that some of those could be explained by quirks with restrictive activation costs, mutation quirks that caused abnormalities in the feet, or even just people downright lying, there were just too many cases for Izuku to ignore. 

The most concerning section of the article had been the section on people who had the extra toe joint and should have been quirkless, but had somehow manifested quirks anyway. According to the limited research that had been done, those individuals had, with few exceptions, died remarkably young. Most of them showed signs of impossibly early muscle atrophy, as well as alztimers and dementia. From the brain scans included in the article it looked almost as if the brain was eating itself alive. 

It was practically identical to the autoimmune response Eraser had described in the berserker they’d captured. Which meant that somehow, the villain factory was trying to force extra quirks into these people and was trying to compensate for the body’s response by forcing mutations. The only problem was that the experiments weren’t working. Hamasaki was still going braindead, just like the naturally quirkless people in the article. 

As the sun came up and he finally went to bed, Izuku couldn’t help but feel grateful he’d never been offered a quirk that wasn’t his. It seemed like it would be really hard on his body.

Chapter Text

Katsuki was just stalking out the doors at the end of the school day, his shoulders hunched in a way that screamed talk to me and you die, when he heard it.

“Yeah, one of my friends said there’s this kid at his school with a villain quirk." Fingers’ annoying voice echoed behind him as he laughed with some of the other bully extras that still sometimes followed Katsuki around. “He invited me to come along and shake him down. You guys wanna join in?”

Katsuki felt an uncomfortable tangle of anger and guilt bubble up in his chest as the other extras immediately agreed and started talking about how excited they were for some fresh meat and how boring things had been ever since D eku had left. How had Katsuki never realized how messed up that was? These guys only felt bad for literally bullying a kid out of school because that meant they couldn't mess with him anymore. The only reason they even missed Izuku at all was because he'd been such an easy target.

Katsuki didn't know what possessed him to follow them. It wasn't like he was going to join in like he would have a few months ago, so why in the world did he find himself keeping an eye on them from a block away so he could take the same turns? Was he just trying to punish himself or something?

He half-expected the boys to notice him. It's not like he was known for stealth or anything. Katsuki’s entire life, he’d been known as the loud kid, be it from his explosive quirk or his explosive temper. He was used to being noticed the moment he walked into a room, but with everything that had been going on these past few months...well, for the first time, Katsuki realized  that he’d been fading into the background.

Or maybe that wasn’t the right way to phrase it. Katsuki didn’t think he was fading, per say, not that he didn’t deserve to disappear, it was just that he wasn’t pushing to be the center of attention anymore. His constant push to be the best had shoved him headfirst into being a bully, so now that he’d decided to leave that behind, he was a little more comfortable being quiet. 

It wasn’t something he’d ever thought he’d do, but it would probably be a useful skill when he finally became a hero. Being able to trail an actual villain like this might help him stop crimes or something. He followed Fingers and the other extras to a part of town he’d only passed through before. It wasn’t the worst part of town, but it wasn’t the best part either and his old hag had told him to avoid it if he could. Of course this was where these stupid extras would come to bully some kid with a villain’s quirk. Could they get anymore cliche?

The group he was following met up with a couple other students wearing another school’s uniform and they greeted each other warmly, but Katsuki was too far away to hear what they were saying, not that he cared. The bigger group then walked down a smaller side street until they came up behind a kid with purple hair that was wearing the same uniform as the newcomers. 

The group wasn’t quiet as they pulled the kid into an alley and Katsuki froze. Yeah, he’d known what was about to happen, he’d participated in stuff like this enough times that he wasn’t about to fool himself into thinking that kid was getting out of this without a few bruises, but for some reason it was different watching it rather than being a participant. Even watching the bullying at school wasn’t this bad, because he was used to it there for some reason, but this?

This was wrong.

There weren’t that many other people on the streets, mostly a few adults who simply glanced toward the alley and turned away, ignoring the yells and other suspicious noises like they were used to shit like that happening everyday. Maybe they were, but that still didn’t mean it was ok! Why wasn’t anyone doing anything?

Being a hero doesn’t just mean not hurting people, it also means stopping others from hurting them.

Katsuki moved before he could think. He ran into the alley, warning explosions already sounding in his palms as he turned the corner and saw the familiar scene. The villain-quirk kid had been pushed to the floor and was doing his best to shield himself from most of the damage by curling into a ball. The only difference between what Katsuki saw in front of him and most of his memories of Izuku over the years was that for some reason Fingers had completely covered this kid’s mouth with his hands and they’d always just let Deku scream. 

The group froze the moment he entered the alley and Katsuki didn’t miss the way the kid’s eyes zeroed in on his explosions like he was expecting to be burned. It was too familiar and that made him sick, but that wasn’t how things were going to go today, not if Katsuki had anything to say about it. 

After a moment, Fingers broke into a wide smile and relaxed slightly, “Oh Bakugo, it’s just you! You want in? Kid’s got a voice quirk, so you can’t hear him scream, which sucks, but hey, not everyone can be as fun to beat up as Deku, right? At least this kid has a hopeless dream of being a hero too, huh?”

Katsuki felt rage flood through him and he felt his hands grow hotter almost subconsciously as he glared at his former lackey, “Get away from him.”

Fingers looked confused for a moment before his eyes widened in understanding, “Oh, you wanna beat him up yourself?”

“That’s not cool dude.” One of his other old followers, the kid with boulders for hair, said. “You gotta learn to share.”

Katsuki almost just went along with it. He could pretend that Fingers assumption was right, then let the kid go once the other bullies fucked off, and he wouldn’t have to deal with all the drama and gossip that was inevitably going to happen the moment he officially switched sides. It would be so easy.

But that was the coward’s way out, and Katsuki was going to be a hero, not a coward, so he widened his stance and kept staring down the bullies, “No. Nobody’s gonna touch this goddamned extra, not if I have anything to say about it, so leave him the fuck alone.”  

There was a long moment of shocked silence before Boulders finally broke it, “You...you’re trying to stop us?”

Katsuki’s throat tightened and the only answer he could give was continuing to stare them down. Then came the moment he’d been fearing ever since he realized he couldn’t be both a hero and a bully. 

He saw the image his classmates had of him break. 

Almost immediately, Fingers’ face twisted into a snear and Katsuki felt a spike of fear as he realized that he was looking down on him. It wasn’t like Izuku used to do, just by being nice and offering help, no, he could tell that in that moment, Fingers had truly and completely judged Katsuki as weak. 

It took almost everything he had to stand his ground. All he could think about was that he had to do this to be able to stand in front of his friends at the redemption group next week. He had to do this to be able to apologize to Deku. He had to do this to be worthy of being a hero. 

“Dude, this is Bakugo!” Boulders whispered to Fingers, not that Katsuki couldn’t hear them anyway. “Do you really think you can take him in a fight?”

Katsuki deepened his glare and let the explosions crackle louder in his hands. He didn’t really want to beat up these kids, they could probably get him in a lot of trouble once word got around that he wasn’t going to stand for the bullying anymore, but he would still do what it took to be a hero. He had to. 

Thankfully, Fingers simply scoffed and took his hand off the kid’s mouth, “Since when are you such a killjoy, blasty boy? Whatever, come on, boys, let’s leave the nerds together.”

Katsuki didn’t relax his stance, “Just get out of here, extras.”

Rage flashed across Fingers’ face, but he still let go of the kid and started walking out of the alley, leaving only the now very confused bullies from the other school, who were looking between Katsuki and his classmates incredulously. 

“You too, extras.” Katsuki growled, accentuating his words with more explosions. “Beat it.”

The other bullies jumped into action and ran from the alley, finally leaving him alone with the kid they’d just been beating up. Katsuki watched them catch up to his classmates who had been waiting for them at the entrance to the alley. They started to leave when Fingers stopped and looked back at him with a condescending look on his face, “See you at school tomorrow...Blasty.”

Katsuki had plenty to be afraid of. He had no idea how all this was going to affect his social standing and life at school, this was completely unknown. All he knew was that it was going to be bad. 

He didn’t let the bullies see that though. Instead he channeled all of his fear into determination, “Bring it on, bitch.”

Fingers sneered and turned on his heel, taking his little group of lackeys with his as he left. Katsuki half considered helping the kid behind him up and checking to see if he was alright, but somehow he didn’t think that a bully victim would want someone like him trying to comfort him. 

He only made it a few steps away before he heard a confused voice behind him, “Thanks?”

Katsuki scoffed and looked over his shoulder at the kid, who had stood up and was dusting himself off, somehow looking bored despite what he’d just gone through, “Whatever. Just don’t fucking let them do that to you agian.”

He looked at Katsuki suspiciously, “Why’d you save me?”

“Why do you think?” Katsuki snapped. “I knew what they were gonna do, and I was sick of being on the wrong side of things, got it?”

The kid looked mildly shocked, “You responded to me.”

Katsuki looked at him like he was an idiot, because honestly he probably was, “What, did that beating give you brain damage or something? That’s what you’re supposed to do when people ask you questions.”

“Well, yeah.” The kid drawled. “But didn’t they tell you about my villain’s quirk?”

“I know real villains.” Katsuki sneered and looked the kid up and down. “Sorry, dipshit, but you don’t make the cut, no matter what your stupid-ass quirk is.”

That apparently surprised the kid enough to shut him and Katsuki turned to leave again when the kid called out to him again, “My name is Shinso, by the way.”

“Don’t care.” Katsuki responded, then stopped and looked back at the kid again. “They said you wanna be a hero?”

Shinso nodded.

“That isn’t gonna happen with your scrawny-ass arms.” Katsuki grumbled. “You gotta be able to beat people like me in a fight or you’re not gonna stand a chance.”

He didn’t wait for Shinso’s confusion to wear off before stalking out of the alley. He had to get home and get a good night’s sleep, because tomorrow was gonna be hell.

Chapter Text

“Dude,” Kaminari panted as he tried to keep up with Izuku’s jogging pace, “Your stamina is unreal!”

Izuku chuckled, “It’s just years of running away from bullies!” 

Well, that and six months of running away from villains, even though most of the time, he felt like it had been a lot longer than that. It was if he had always woken up in the middle of the night and gone out to help the heroes. Maybe that was just because he’d spent so long desperately wanting to be a hero himself, but vigilantism just felt...right. 

For Izuku, being Viridian almost felt like coming home, like it was something he’d always been meant to do. Not that he’d forgotten why he’d started fighting villains in the first place, it was always in the back of his mind, but somehow, his suicide plans seemed a lot less urgent than they had when he first picked up his hoodie and goggles. 

“Just go on without me!” Kaminari said dramatically, falling to his knees in the grass on the side of the road and immediately flopping down on his stomach. “Tell all the cute kids at school I’m sorry!”

Izuku giggled uncontrollably as Kaminari put on a show of pretending to die from training-induced exhaustion. Honestly, his friendship was probably another reason for the change in his mood. On his worst days, training Kaminari for UA gave Izuku something to live for and on his best days, it gave him something to look forward to. He hadn’t told Kaminari about his death wish yet. It seemed unfair to burden him with something like that when he had such an amazing future in heroics laid out for him. 

The only person that Izuku knew for certain that knew about his suicidality was Eraserhead. He’d been fully expecting the hero to abandon him and leave him to die in peace, but that still hadn’t happened. Instead, Eraser had become a constant. It seemed that they ran into each other on patrol at least once a week, though a large part of that was probably because Izuku couldn’t keep his nose out of the villain factory case instead of Eraserhead trying to check in on him.

It was weird having so much support. Just six months ago, he’d had no one, but now he had Kaminari, Eraserhead and the other heroes, and even his mom, who had been more supportive than he could ever have imagined after she’d found out about the bullying. He really only saw her in the evenings right now, since she worked all day and Izuku went to bed early so he’d be well-rested for his vigilanting, but during those few shorts hours, she always asked about what he was learning in his online classes and let him ramble about quirks, even when she didn’t quite understand what he was talking about. It was nice. 

“You okay, dude?” Kaminari had turned over onto this back and was weakly kicking Izuku in the ankle, probably so he didn’t have to get up. “You spaced out, but didn’t start muttering. It was really weird.”

Izuku smiled and shrugged, “It’s not really anything important.”

Kaminari looked at him skeptically and tapped the ground next to him, “Pull up some grass and tell Dr. Kaminari about your troubles.”

Izuku laughed, but sat down cross-legged next to Kaminari anyway, “You’re a doctor now? And here I thought you were going to be a hero. I hear those double careers can be difficult.”

“Did your grumpy uncle tell you that?” Kaminari groaned and sat up. “And no, I’m too dumb to be a doctor. I’ll stick with just fighting villains, thank you very much!”

Izuku frowned, “Why do you keep doing that?”

“Doing what? Passing out after training?” Kaminari asked. “It’s because I’m a weakling.”

“Yeah...” Izuku said distractedly. “Wait, I mean, no! I mean, you are weak, but you’re getting stronger! And that wasn’t what I was trying to ask about anyway. I’m sorry, I’m just putting my foot in my mouth again, I didn’t mean to call you weak, I just…”

“Midoriya, slow down, it’s alright.” Kaminari chuckled. “What did you mean to ask?”

Izuku bit his lip, “Why do you keep calling yourself stupid?”

“Umm...because I am?” Kaminari said it like it was obvious. “I have ADHD, it kinda comes with the territory.”

“But you’re not.” Izuku said. “At least I don’t think so. You’ve picked up on all the stuff I’ve taught you really quickly.”

“That’s probably because it’s physical, not mental, and you’re here showing it to me.” Kaminari shrugged. “I don’t know, the fighting moves and stuff is just fun.”

“Ok...” Izuku had almost thought that Kaminari was just parroting back what other people had told him based on a stereotype, and that didn’t seem fair to his friend, but the whole physical task vs. mental task idea made sense, not that Izuku really knew enough about ADHD to make any judgements. “Are you done for the day?”

Kaminari gave him a sheepish smile, “Yeah? I mean, if that’s ok! I don’t want you to think i’m ungrateful for your training or anything…”

“It’s not a problem!” Izuku waved his hands frantically. “It’s better to pace yourself anyway when you start out so that you don’t get hurt.”

Not that Izuku had done that at all when he’d started training, but he’d also been trying to get hurt, so there was that. 

“So…do you want to get a milkshake or something?” Kaminari grinned conspiratorially, “We can undo all the hard work we just did running across the city!”

Izuku stared at him with wide eyes before giving a shocked laugh, “Sure! Do you know any good places?”

“What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t?” Kaminari punched him playfully in the arm and started jogging away. “There’s this diner a few blocks from here and there’s this really cute waitress that works there. If we’re lucky, she’ll be on shift!”

Izuku followed a few paces behind him, unable to shake a weird sensation of unrealness. He’d...never really just hung out socially with anyone since his quirk came in. Yeah, there had been that first day when he’d first asked Kaminari to be his friend, but then he’d started teaching him how to fight pretty soon after that, so they usually trained instead of doing whatever normal teenagers were supposed to do. Not that a secret vigilante and a future pro-hero were necessarily normal teenagers, but whatever. 

Izuku liked it better that way, honestly, because he never had to worry about being enough. When he was training Kaminari, he didn’t have to wonder if he was fun enough to just hang out with or if his friend was just wasting his time hanging out with the useless quirkless kid. Even if Izuku wasn’t fun to be around, Kaminari was still gaining useless skills, but with sitting around and just being together...what if he got bored and realized that Izuku wasn’t as great and mentally stable as he pretended to be?

He shook his head as Kaminari held open the door to a small diner for him. Kaminari had proven that he enjoyed being around Izuku, even when he was too injured from parkour practice to do much physical training. He wasn’t going to abandon him just because they were going to get milkshakes rather than learn to punch. 

Probably. 

The diner was obviously American themed and had checkerboard floors with waitresses on roller skates bringing out the food. A hostess greeted them with an English hello and led them to an empty table by the window to look at the menu while they waited for Kaminari’s crush to come by. 

“I’m honestly floored by how graceful these girls can be on roller skates.” Kaminari said. “I’m pretty sure I’d break an ankle if I even looked at those things the wrong way, nevermind trying to serve food in them.”

“If you think that’s difficult, imagine doing hero work on them.” Izuku said. 

Kaminari looked at Izuku in disbelief, “There are actually pros who fight on roller skates!?”

Izuku giggled and nodded as Kaminari’s eyes grew wider and he shook his head, “No, dude, you’ve got to be pulling my leg. Like, ok, I know you’re like some crazy smart quirk expert, dude, but there is no way that anyone could fight villains on roller skates! It’s physically impossible!”

“Nope!” Izuku couldn’t help relaxing slightly now that he was more in his element and talking about heroes. “My personal favorite is the animated hero Artiste. Her quirk is really interesting! She’s incorporated roller skates into her fighting style so she can quickly draw these huge pictures, and then she brings them to life with her quirk! She actually patrols nearby, but because her quirk relies on her drawings, she’s really only active during the day when she had enough light, so I haven’t met her yet.”

“Wait…” Kaminari looked confused, “why wouldn’t you have met her if she goes out during the day? Isn’t that when you’re out? I mean, it’s daytime right now…”

Izuku tried to hide his panic as he thought of some sort of an excuse. He should have known better than to let something like that slip, it was just that he was feeling so comfortable with Kaminari and the only other person he really talked quirks with was Eraserhead, who obviously only knew about his vigilantism and nothing else. Maybe he could laugh it off and pretend it had been a stupid joke, “Well, um, you see…”

“Can I get you boys started with anything to drink?”

Izuku turned in relief to see a bored-looking waitress standing at their table with a notepad at the ready, though the eye-patch over her left eye made it slightly more difficult than normal to read her expression . Her name tag said her name was Kohaku and she had thick copper-colored hair that fell just past her shoulders...wait, no, it was slightly reflective, so it might actually be metal. Was that her quirk? What could she…

He realized he’d been staring at her hair for longer than was normally socially acceptable when Kaminari kicked him under the table and shot him a look. 

Izuku shook himself in embarrassment and gave the waitress a sheepish smile, “I, uh, I’ll just have a water...sorry.”

“Alright.” She turned to Kaminari and raised one eyebrow. “And you?”

“How about a shot with you?” Kaminari winked.

Izuku had to stifle a grin as he watched Kohaku roll her visible eye, “Nice try. I’ll get you a diet coke.”

She turned on her heel and walked away as Kaminari groaned and hit his head on the table, “Aww! I thought that was a good one!”

Izuku patted his head consolingly, “Maybe you’ll have better luck next time, Kaminari. At least we got seated in her section like you wanted. Unless that’s not actually the girl you have a crush on and you just flirt with all the waitresses.”

“Only most of them.” Kaminari shrugged. “And I don’t have a crush on her, I just...think she’s cute. And besides, flirting is fun!”

“From what I saw, she’s just been shooting you down.” Izuku pointed out. “How is that fun?”

“Because it’s a challenge!” Kaminari laughed and picked up his menu. “And she’s actually been a lot more receptive recently. She used to be really brash all the time, but then she had her accident and when she came back, she was different. Her personality’s a little more bubbly now, I think she decided life was too short to be abrasive.”

“Was that when she got her eye patch?” Izuku glanced over toward the kitchen, but couldn’t see their waitress. He had to admit he was curious about it, since most people who wore eyepatches did so because of their quirks and he was pretty sure hers had to do with her hair, not her eyes,  but he didn’t want to annoy her by asking. 

Kaminari apparently knew the story, though, because he nodded, “Yeah. From what the other wait staff here has told me, she got knocked down during a villain attack and...I don’t know if you noticed anything off about her hair?”

Izuku nodded eagerly, “That’s her quirk, isn’t it? Her hair is made of metal, most likely copper if the color is any indication of the actual chemical composition, but then again it could be different because of the introduction of human DNA…”

“Of course our local quirk expert already figured it out.” Kaminari chuckled. “But yeah, because her hair’s basically wire, it can apparently be pretty sharp, so she told everyone that when she got knocked down, it fell in her face and...well, that’s when she started wearing the eye patch.”

“Oh..” Izuku didn’t really know what to say to that. At least Izuku had done something to deserve all the bad stuff that happened to him, being born quirkless and still wanting to be a hero, but Kohaku hadn’t done anything to deserve losing her sight like that. That must have been so difficult for her!

“It doesn’t make her any less pretty, though!” Kaminari said pretty. “I don’t know, it adds like an air of mystery to her or something.” He glanced over toward the kitchen and panicked. “Oh shit! Dude, she’s coming back! Did you even look at the menu? And what am I supposed to say to her? Do you have any pickup lines you recommend?”

Izuku hid a grin behind his hand and shook his head, “Sorry, Kaminari. You’re on your own.”

Kaminari pouted for half a second until Kohaku got back to their table and he brightened. She sighed and gave Izuku an amused look that said something like do you see what I have to deal with?  

Izuku tried to hold back a smile as she turned back to Kaminari, “Do you know what you want yet?”

“Well, I have a little problem.” Kaminari smirked. “I want your number, but I couldn’t find it on the menu.”

Izuku giggled silently as Kohaku let out a short huff of laughter, “Nice one. Are you done now?”

Kaminari sighed dramatically, “I guess. Unless of course you want me to keep going?”

The waitress rolled her eyes, but Izuku could see a tiny smile too, “Just tell me what food you want.”

Kaminari laughed, “I want a grasshopper milkshake.”

“And I want a strawberry one, if that’s alright.” Izuku added. 

“Sure thing, boys.” Kohaku winked at them with her good eye and turned to leave. “Better luck next time.”

“Ugh!” Kaminari groaned, but was still smiling. “I felt like I was really close that time!”

“Not really.” Izuku’s cheeks were starting to hurt from how much he’d been smiling since they arrived, especially since he hadn’t had as much practice holding that expression recently. It was amazing. “I’m sorry, but as your friend, I have to be honest...you need better pick up lines.”

Kaminari laughed and took a sip of his coke, “Maybe. But, like, I’m probably going to have to stop being such a flirt if I get into UA, so there’s not really much of a point.”

Izuku frowned thoughtfully, “Well, not necessarily…”

Kaminari shrugged, “They’re probably going to want me to be professional, something I’m going to have a hard enough time with as it is. Being a flirt would just be the last straw and get me kicked out.”

“Not if it was a part of your marketing plan.” Izuku pointed out. “Midnight uses her sex appeal to make her more popular, and even if you didn’t want to go that far, flirting with fans would most likely add to your popularity, which would raise you in the rankings and help you be a more effective hero. Not to mention that people tend to get distracted when people flirt with them, so if you were to learn to do it more effectively, it would be a great way to throw villains off balance!”

Kaminari looked slightly shocked as Izuku finished speaking, but he also looked...nervous? Izuku didn’t know what he had to be nervous about. He obviously enjoyed flirting and thought it was fun, which meant that he’d probably be able to be really good at it and, as Eraserhead would say, it was only logical to take advantage of that. So what was he insecure about?

“Um…” Kaminari bit his lip. “I don’t know...it’s just...well, um, let’s just say that I don’t flirt with only the waitresses…”

Izuku took a second to process that, “Oh.”

“Yeah.” Kaminari looked like he was waiting for Izuku to judge him and tell him that they couldn’t be friends anymore. Izuku was way too experienced with that expression on his own face. 

He hated it. 

“I’m not actually sure that would be a disadvantage.” Izuku said seriously. “You’d obviously have to talk to the marketing department once you make it into UA, but like...I mean you’d be able to appeal to a wider audience, right? And stuff like that is becoming a lot more accepted anyway, so I think that if it’s something you think you would enjoy then there’s no reason not to, especially not when it will make you a better hero.”

Kaminari looked at Izuku with wide eyes before he started laughing, “So...you really think I can seduce villains, huh?”

Izuku laughed and rolled his eyes, “Not with your current lines you can’t!”

“Oh?” Kaminari leaned over the table and smirked at him as he lowered his voice to what was probably supposed to be a purr, “Does that mean you’re volunteering to help me?”

Izuku burst out laughing and Kaminari leaned back into his own seat and joined him. They probably would have kept laughing until their milkshakes came if they hadn’t been interrupted by an exclamation from a few tables away.

“Ew!” The woman was looking at her plate in disgust. “There’s a fly in my burger! Wait...oh, gross, it’s a bee! I need to talk to the manager. Now!”

The hostess ran up to the table, frantically apologizing to the woman as she waived one of the  waiters to go get the manager. 

“Huh, have they seriously not found the nest yet?” Kaminari frowned thoughtfully. “That sucks.”

Izuku looked at him in confusion, “This isn’t the first time you’ve seen this happen?”

Kaminari shook his head, “They’ve been having problems with bees hanging around for a few months now, they just haven't been able to find the hive, so they can’t get rid of them. I’d hate to be the manager right now.”

Izuku nodded in agreement, but he still couldn’t help glancing at his milkshake when it finally arrived. It was bug-free, thankfully, but this time, their waitress didn’t even give Kaminari a second-glance, much less respond to his flirting. She seemed almost angry about something, but it was probably just the stress of a customer finding a bug in their lunch, so Izuku couldn’t really blame her. 

It wasn’t like it was her fault that there were bees in the diner.

Chapter Text

Izuku almost hadn’t gone out tonight. It was New Years, so he’d been planning on staying up with Mom as late as she wanted, then maybe hacking into the hero comms after she went to bed. But then, Mom had had a long day at work, so she ended up going to bed at 12:02, about as early as possible while still being able to brag about staying up until midnight. So, with that plan out the window, as soon as he was sure she was asleep, Izuku had hacked into the city cameras and quickly realized that the holiday made the streets a lot busier than he was used to, which meant that the heroes could probably use some more boots on the ground, so Izuku had rushed to get dressed in his vigilante outfit and run straight out the door and onto the rooftops. 

Which was how he had ended up on the roof of one of the many apartment buildings with a direct view of the bar district where Amplifier patrolled. A few fights had broken out that either resolved themselves quickly or that Amplifier made it to before he could get down to the street, so Izuku had spent most of his night looking for girls who were just a little too drunk to be willingly going home with a guy and shooting his marbles at the sketchy dudes trying to force them into either alleyways or cars. It was actually a lot more fun than he’d expected it to be and almost always bought more than enough time for the girl’s friends to usher her away while the guy was busy storming around looking for whatever punk had just shot him in the leg with a marble. 

He felt a little bad for laughing whenever, but at one point, Amplifier had caught sight of what he was doing and he’d seen her holding back laughter of her own and wink at him, so he supposed he wasn’t doing anything too terrible, right? Whenever he wasn’t annoying the crime out of frat boys, he ended up trying to eavesdrop on the people who seemed to be having good luck seducing people the right way. What could he say? He didn’t know anything about flirting and he needed inspiration to help Kaminari become a better hero and add the weapon of seduction to his arsenal!

Izuku giggled as the most recent guy he was watching got definitively shot down by his target’s best friend. The guy just laughed off the disappointment with his buddies before going to find someone else to flirt with. It seemed like, as busy and risky as the night was, everyone was having fun and there wouldn’t be any major issues to ruin the party.

Until everyone started screaming.  

Izuku whipped around to see a small crowd of people running toward him, some tripping desperately to get away from the stretching vines that were reaching for their ankles as a large, mutated villain loomed behind them. Izuku’s brain immediately started racing as he analyzed what he could see of the villain’s quirk in the darkness. It seemed to be somewhat similar to Kamui Woods’ quirk, so there were probably weaknesses to things like heat, fire, and prolonged exposure to darkness, none of which Izuku was necessarily prepared to take advantage of right now. His top priority needed to be evacuation and letting Amplifier know about the villain. 

Izuku jumped down onto the street and ran toward one of the civilians who was currently being dragged backward across the concrete by one of the vines. They were desperately trying to grab onto anything to stop themselves, but the villain was moving too quickly for that to do any good. His marbles probably wouldn’t do any good here, not unless he could get close enough to the villain’s main body to target his eyes, and his pipes were a bludgeoning weapon, which weren’t going to be the most effective against wood, which could easily take the blows. Izuku didn’t stop to second guess himself as he grabbed the utility knife from his belt. He didn’t let himself use it that often because it just seemed way more harmful than his other weapons, but he was a vigilante! He had to do whatever it took to protect people!

He put on a final burst of speed and managed to grab the civilian’s hand. The villain didn’t stop pulling, but Izuku dug in his feet, grabbed the vine, and started hacking through it with his knife. The civilian started running away as soon as they were free and Izuku hissed as the vine snapped up and hit him in the face before trying to wrap around his neck. He quickly dropped and rolled away, hiding behind a car as the vine uprooted an entire mailbox and threw it across the street. Izuku felt a warm liquid on his cheek and reached to wipe it away in confusion, since he didn’t think he’d started crying, then grimaced as he looked at the dark blood on his fingers. Of course the vines had to have thorns.

Happy New Year!

Izuku was surprised that Amplifier hadn’t shown up yet, since the villain wasn’t exactly being quiet and the civilians were definitely screaming, and then he was even more apprised when he realized that some of the civilians were starting to run back towards him and the villain. He quickly climbed up the nearest fire escape to get a better viewpoint and looked around. 

A rose quirk. It was the only thing that made any sense. The villain had taken an entire block hostage and had used his quirk to grow a massive wall of thorns, vines and flowers to trap all the civilians inside. The wall wasn’t taller than the surrounding buildings, so it wasn’t like the heroes would be able to see it from a distance unless they happened to look down the correct street and notice something odd. The thick layer of roses was probably enough to muffle the screams too, so from outside the attack, it most likely just sounded like another rowdy party. The villain was trying to maximize damage while minimizing risk of hero interference. 

Izuku’s eyes scanned the street quickly as he evaluated his options. He had two things to worry about: getting the civilians out and getting the heroes in, so how could he…? Maybe he could use one of the buildings as a tunnel? Izuku grimaced as he realized that wouldn’t work. While some of the doors on the inside of the vine wall weren’t covered, the vines were growing quickly and were starting to cover entire buildings. If the villain was trying to minimize hero interference, he’d probably covered all the external exits before the attack even began. 

Which meant that the only thing he could do was contact the heroes for help, then do his best to take down the villain while they got there. He was trapped like everyone else, so he couldn’t run to get them, so how could he….?

Izuku jumped off the roof right before the vines covered it completely and he had to be careful to jump a ways out from the wall so he didn’t catch himself on too many of the thorns on his way down.. He immediately started running, forcing himself to ignore the screams as the people around him tried to escape the villain’s almost infinite attacks. He was nothing but a quirkless weakling, he wouldn’t be able to save all them on his own! As much as Izuku absolutely despised turning his back on people in need, he’d be an idiot not to see that their best chance was to get the heroes here as soon as possible, which meant that Izuku had to find a computer. 

He cursed under his breath as almost every door he passed was sealed shut by vines. It would take him far too long to cut through them all, so he just needed to find…. there! Izuku sprinted toward the first door he saw that only had one or two vines covering it and he sliced through them with his knife as quickly as he could. He ran inside immediately, leaving the door open behind him as an escape route, should he need it. 

He raced through a few dark hallways until bursting through the door of a large room with a loud bang that drew the attention of the entire crowd inside. Even the DJ stopped playing the deafening music with a record screech and took off his headphones. Izuku caught his breath and started looking around desperately, “I need a computer! Where can I find one?!” 

One of the bouncers came up to him, crossing his arms intimidatingly over his chest, “Kid, I don’t know what you think you’re doing here, but this is a bar, which mean you have to leave.”

Izuku looked at him in confusion before glancing around the room again. No windows. Loud music. They didn’t know about the attack. Yet. 

“Look, you’re all in danger.” Izuku said desperately. “I’m Viridian. I’m a vigilante and I need….”

The bouncer laughed rudely, “Yeah, you’re a vigilante and I’m the fucking easter bunny. Get out of here, kid, before I force you to leave.”

Izuku didn’t have time for this. He glared at the bouncer, who obviously had some sort of strength enhancing quirk, but the thing about strength quirks was that, with the obvious exception of All Might, that strength usually came at the expense of some speed. So when the bouncer moved to grab him, Izuku moved faster, ducking below his arm and using one of his pipes to hit the man in the crotch which should give him some extra time to find a computer before he came after him again.

“Computer, computer…” Izuku muttered to himself as the crowd parted for him in shock. “Maybe at the point of sale?” 

He hurried to the bar and, sure enough, there was a computer for the employees to use. It was pretty basic, but there was an internet connection and Izuku knew he could make it work. He had to. 

The bouncer had apparently recovered from Izuku’s blow because he was starting to advance again, not that Izuku really had time to worry about that, since hacking the hero comms took a certain amount of concentration, even with as many times as he’d done it. Maybe he should pull out his knife again? He obviously wouldn’t use it on civilians, but it might intimidate them enough to leave him alone. But more likely it would just escalate the situation and get him beaten up before he could get the heroes, which would doom everyone trapped inside the villain’s quirk. Why did everything have to be so complicated?!

To Izuku’s pleasant surprise, some of the patrons actually came to his aid and held the bouncer back so Izuku could hack the hero network in peace. 

“Come on, man.” A huge guy with stitched green skin and horns laid a heavy hand on the bouncer’s shoulder. “Let the kid do his thing, we’re all curious about what he’s doing here.”

“Yeah!” A woman with high pigtails popped her bubble gum loudly. “This is great free entertainment, right?”

“You realize this probably only sounds like a good idea because we’re all drunk, right?” Their friend, a young man with tentacles for hair that gave Izuku an odd sense of dejavu, laughed. “But, hey,  Akiko’s right, it makes the night more interesting.”

Izuku honestly didn’t care why they left him alone, just so long as he had enough time to contact the heroes, “Almost there...Amplifier?! Can you hear me?”

“Yeah, Viridian, loud and clear.” Amplifier sounded confused and the crowd erupted into whispers. “Hey, I thought you were out on the streets tonight, not virtual. Where are you? Are there other people there with you?”

“I’m at a bar.” Izuku blazed on, even though Amplifier tried to interrupt him. “No, I’m not drinking, don’t worry about that. There’s an attack...wait a minute, let me get the others on the call real quick, we’re going to need everyone we can get.”

Now that he was in the system, it didn’t take any time at all to add the other heroes Izuku knew were in the area to the call, “Okay, Eraser? Rock Lock? Death Arms?”

“Viridian?” Eraser sounded concerned. “You never call this many of us, what’s going on?”

“Who is Viridian?” Death Arms normally wasn’t active this late, he’d just taken an extra shift for new years, so Izuku hadn’t ever had to call him before. 

Izuku heard a crash in the distance and figured that the villain was probably on his way, “No time to explain, but you need to get here right now! I’m at…” Izuku turned to the bouncer. “What’s this place called?” 

The bouncer simply glared, so the girl with pigtails answered, “Club Ecstasy.”

“Club Ecstasy.” Izuku said quickly. “The villain’s blocked off the entire block and...oh crap.”

The crowd erupted into screams as a tangle of sharp vines emerged from the door, followed quickly by the villain himself. It was the first time that Izuku had actually gotten a clear look at him since the attack began and he felt his blood run cold as he saw the villain’s eyes and everything fell into place. 

The villain’s eyes held nothing but cold, crazed, rage. 

“You need to hurry!” Izuku yelled, already grabbing his slingshot and a handful of marbles. “It’s a berserker!”

Izuku hadn’t even stopped speaking when he let loose a barrage of marbles at the berkerser’s face. The villain screamed in rage and Izuku ran forward with his pipes, ducking beneath the vines as best as he could and body slamming into the villain full force, knocking him off balance slightly. The villain reached for Izuku with one of his vines, but the vines seemed to be part of his body, which meant he probably couldn’t easily detach them, so Izuku grabbed the vine and wrapped it around his arm before throwing himself to the floor and pulling the villain down with him. 

Izuku didn’t waste any time climbing on top of the villain and holding him down as best he could, which honestly wasn’t very well. He grabbed his knife and tossed it across the floor to the bouncer, “Hurry and get everyone out of here! Use the entrances on the south, not the north. They’ll be blocked by vines, but if you chop through them, there shouldn’t be any more in that direction.”

The bouncer nodded resolutely and ran away, followed by a large crowd of now panicking civilians. Those who didn’t immediately run away pressed themselves against the walls to get as far away from the fight as they could as the villain finally managed to throw Izuku off of him. 

To his surprise, the berserker didn’t immediately come at him again, nor did he go after the bouncer, which had been Izuku’s next concern. Instead, he seemed to be arguing with himself. 

“I’m sick of following your stupid orders!” He screamed. “I just want to destroy stuff!”

Izuku took advantage of the villain’s distraction to run back to the computer, “Eraser? Are you still there?”

“Yeah, kid.” Eraser sounded like he was running. “We’re on our way.”

“Good.” Izuku didn’t look away from the villain as he continued his argument with...whoever was strategizing this whole attack. “He’s got a rose quirk, so he’s going to be weak to both extreme heat and extreme cold if there are any heroes around with those power sets. Also, if you can find anyone to cut through the vines, make as many exits as you can. I already sent someone to try and cut their way out of this building, so hopefully all the civilians will be able to get out while he’s focused on fighting me. I’m gonna go distract him!”

“Problem Child!”

Izuku ignored Eraser’s panic as he turned his full attention back to the villain. His grumpy uncle could kill him later if he didn’t die. Well, at least Kacchan would be happy, right?

“No! You can go fuck yourself for all I care!” The villain plucked something small from his ear and slammed it on the ground before stomping it into pieces with his foot. “Stupid girl with her stupid orders and her stupid bees!” He turned to Izuku with a deranged smile on his face. “I don’t know why that bitch was so insistent I come after you, anyway. You’re just a pipsqueak. Choking the life out of you won’t even be satisfying.”

Izuku gulped and shifted into a battle stance. He could see the people along with walls slowly filtering out, which meant that the bouncer had managed to clear an exit. Now Izuku just needed to distract the villain and get him as far away from that path as possible. 

“Well, I mean, I’ve been told I can be pretty annoying.” Izuku said with fake confidence. “So maybe you just need to get to know me a little more?”

The villain’s face twisted in rage and he lunged at Izuku, who barely managed to dodge in time. As it was, the berserker rammed into the bar with full force, shattering most of the alcohol bottles displayed behind the counter. Izuku’s original plan was to lead the villain back outside, but apparently word had spread of the cleared exit and people from the street were flooding in to get out the other side, which meant that if Izuku lead the villain out the exit he came in, he’d be putting all the evacuees in danger. His only option right now was to contain the fight as best he could and focus all the berserker's rage on himself so he didn’t notice the civilians evacuating behind them. 

Izuku used one of his pipes to intercept another hit at the last second. He twisted the pipe to wrap the vine around it and pulled the villain close to land a kick to his chest. From that point on, Izuku did his best to stay as close to the villain as possible, which made it difficult for the vines to get a good hold on him. Every time that the berserker tried to turn around, Izuku landed another hit to distract him from the civilians who were still streaming past behind them. 

Izuku was vaguely aware that he was bleeding by this point, even though he wasn't really in any pain. He probably should be, considering that he was fighting close range with a guy whose every limb was covered in sharp thorns, but Izuku didn’t have time to worry about that right now when there were people in danger. For now, he was doing well at accomplishing his main goal of distraction, but his opponent had the benefit of whatever experiments the villain factory had done on him, so even though Izuku was starting to drag, the villain was acting like the attacks weren’t even affecting him. 

“Thank god, the heroes are here! We’re saved!” 

Izuku and the berserker both whipped their heads toward the door as they heard the evacuating civilians start cheering. Izuku was curious who was going to get here first, was it Amplifier because she was close? Or maybe she’d focus on getting another entrance open and leading civilians that way? Maybe Eraser...or not.

Endeavor glowered at him coldly and Izuku froze as the sheer hatred in the hero’s glare made it hard for him to breath. He’d never been in the presence of a top ten hero before, at least not as Viridian, and Endeavor didn’t historically have the best opinions on vigilantes, but his fire quirk would be a good match for the berserkers rose quirk, so Izuku couldn’t help feeling grateful that he’d arrived. 

At least, not until Endeavor started charging up a Prominence Burn attack. 

Izuku looked down at the floor in a panic and time seemed to slow down. The entire bar was soaked with alcohol, since their fight had basically broken every single bottle in this place. Even a weak fire-based attack would set the entire building on fire and even if Endeavor didn’t care about hurting a vigilante, there were still civilians around. 

Izuku held up his arms frantically, “Endeavor! Wait!”

He didn’t listen.

Chapter Text

Izuku was used to heat. He’d gotten burned by Kacchan’s quirk often enough that burns were about as common for him as stubbed toes or scraped knees for other kids . But still, Izuku couldn’t ever remember more heat in his life than there was at the moment that Endeavor’s attack hit the alcohol on the ground and the entire room practically exploded. Izuku desperately shoved himself away from the berserker and sprinted as hard as he could to get away but even with all his practice outrunning heroes these past few months, he still wasn’t fast enough. 

He screamed more in fear than pain as the flames finally caught on the alcohol that had soaked into his clothes during the fight. This was what he’d been hoping for, wasn’t it? He was finally going to die. His mother wouldn’t have to deal with having a quirkless kid. Kacchan wouldn’t have to deal with Izuku following him around. Eraserhead wouldn’t have to worry about him getting too involved in dangerous cases. Kaminari wouldn’t have to pretend to be his friend. 

This was exactly what he’d been trying to do...right?

The thoughts raced through his head within a fraction of a second, going through every emotion possible until they finally landed on determination. No! He wouldn’t let this be the end! Izuku may be nothing but a quirkless weakling, but he still had things to live for! He still had to tell Eraserhead what he’d learned about All for One! He still had to teach Kaminari parkour! He still had to finish his classes so his mom’s love and acceptance wouldn’t go to waste! He still had to watch Kacchan become the best hero!

Izuku wasn’t willing to die yet. 

Izuku hadn’t been to that many birthday parties in his life. He’d only been four when the kids at school stopped talking to him and he obviously didn’t remember anything from the birthdays he’d had as a baby. There was a vague memory, however, from one of Kacchan’s parties that Auntie Mistuki had insisted he be invited to when they were six. Uncle Masaru had lit the candles and then Auntie Mistuki had amazed them all by running her fingers straight through the flames! She’d laughed when they’d asked if it had something to do with her quirk before explaining that as long as she was fast enough, she wouldn’t get burned. Of course, Kacchan had immediately tried it and ended up exploding the whole cake when the flames ignited the nitroglycerin on his palms, but it had been fun while it lasted. 

Which meant that it was now a race. Could Izuku put out the flames before they built up enough heat to kill him? He immediately dropped to the ground, covered his face and started rolling to smother the flames. He spread a trail of flames as the alcohol on the ground ignited, but the alcohol burned away quickly, like that time their science teacher had poured hand sanitizer on on the desk and burned it away without even scorching the desk. Soon enough, Izuku had rolled to an area where either less alcohol had been spilled or it had burned away and he managed to put out the flames. 

Izuku winced as he got to his feet. He felt like he’d gotten a really bad sunburn, and he’d definitely rolled in some of the broken glass, but he’d survived...for now. He still had to get out of the building. The berserker was down for the count from Endeavor’s attack, but the remaining civilians, thankfully only a handful, were screaming as the flames burned tables, chairs, and everything else in sight. 

Ok, he could deal with his pain later. Right now, he just needed to get the civilians out of here.  

“Fire extinguisher..fire extinguisher...maybe in the back?” Izuku searched as best he could, grateful that his goggles were somehow still intact and protecting his eyes from the smoke. As soon as he saw a fire extinguisher hanging on the wall, Izuku ripped it off it’s hooks and sprinted toward a section of wall that looked particularly fire damaged. 

“If there isn’t an available exit...” Izuku grunted as he adjusted his grip and staggered slightly under the weight, “then I’ll just have to make my own!” 

He swung the fire extinguisher as hard as he could and the wall crumbled into ash as he crashed into it. Izuku continued bludgeoning the wall as hard as he could until the hole was hopefully large enough for people to crawl through. Praying to every deity he knew that fire extinguishers didn’t work too much differently than the movies, Izuku took a few steps back and pulled the pin and started spraying the base of the remaining flames around the exit he’d just made. There was a little kickback as the foam started shooting out, but Izuku held his ground and kept working until he’d cleared a path outside.  

“Come on! This way!” Izuku threw the fire extinguisher to the side as he ran to the nearest group of civilians and grabbed a woman who seemed to be having more trouble than most with the heat, probably because she had some type of quirk that made her look like a frog, just like the man she was with. How did that affect diet...wait! No! Bad Izuku! Fire now, cool quirks later! 

He dragged the woman along with him until they got out into the cool air and he handed her off to her date so he could run back inside to help the last of the civilians out, only to stop in his tracks when he saw Endeavor and Amplifier leaving the building with a final group of stragglers.

Amplifier used her quirk to yell to the paramedics and firefighters who were just arriving. “Evacuate the area, the building’s about to come down!”

Izuku considered running back inside anyway, but then he jumped a foot in the air as a loud crash echoed over the street and the roof of the bar collapsed under its own weight, making him extremely grateful that he’d gotten out of there when he had. Wait, what if there were still people inside?! 

He forced himself to take a deep breath in a poor attempt to stop the guilt and self doubt that was rapidly trying to choke him. He’d gotten the heroes and done all he could, so now he could only hope that it had been enough and take care of his own injuries.

“What were you thinking?!” Amplifier yelled at Endeavor, though she was apparently trying to keep her quirk from carrying her voice because there were still civilians around, in addition to the reporters and other media personnel that were just starting to arrive. “That attack was too risky! Were you trying to kill Viridian too?!”

The expression of contempt on Endeavor’s face made Izuku freeze in terror. Unlike most of the heroes that Izuku had come across, Endeavor would probably treat him the same as he would a villain and considering that Izuku couldn't see the berserker anywhere...well, Izuku didn’t want to think about what could have happened right now. 

“Why should I care what happens to an attention-seeking hooligan like that? From my perspective, I saw two villains fighting and I took care of it, just like I was supposed to do as a hero.” Endeavor huffed and glared cooly down his nose at Amplifier. “It’s not my fault that you can’t be bothered to do your job and instead let vigilantes run around unchecked.”

Ok, so he was definitely not letting Endeavor see him again tonight. The heroes knew how to do rescue operations better than he did anyway, and Eraser and some of the others should be on their way, so he’d just have to trust them to save everyone they could. 

Decision made, Izuku hissed in pain and ducked into an alley to take stock of all the damage he’d taken as the adrenaline gradually started to ebb away. His jeans were more ripped than they had been at the beginning of the night and were singed slightly in some places, but they were probably still salvageable. Same with his tool belt. He’d lost his pipes, and he’d obviously given away his knife, so all he had left was a handful of marbles and his slingshot. So...he’d have to replace most of that, hopefully at a time that Kaminari wasn’t working so he didn’t have to avoid the awkward questions about what he was building with all this stuff. 

His hoodie was practically totalled, though. It was made of a different material than his jeans were, and obviously hadn’t handled the heat nearly as well. Parts of it had melted or burned away completely and the parts that were still hanging on had been completely torn to ribbons by the thorns and glass. Izuku winced as he took it off and threw it in a nearby dumpster. Right now, it’d just call more attention to him than he really wanted, and it wasn’t like his DNA was in any law enforcement databases, so even in the unlikely event somebody found what was left of his hoodie, they still wouldn’t be able to use it to find him. Plus, he already felt like he was burning up, so he didn’t really need an extra layer to keep him warm. 

Now onto his body. Izuku grimaced as he looked at his arms. He looked...well, like he’d lost a battle with a rose bush. There were dozens of scratches and bruises layered underneath the burns and just from craning his neck to see as much of himself as he could, Izuku could tell that his chest, back, and legs were in a similar state. There were also pieces of broken glass that had dug into his skin, which obviously wasn’t great. Overall, Izuku knew he’d probably had worse injuries at some point, but he was having a hard time remembering when. 

This was...well, it was pretty bad. For about half a second, Izuku considered just hiding his tool belt somewhere and pretending to be a civilian so he could go to the paramedics and say he was another victim of the attack, but he threw that idea out almost immediately. His disguise wasn’t that great and there was a chance that Amplifier or one of the other heroes would be able to recognize him immediately, even without his goggles on. They might not say anything, but Izuku didn’t want to put anyone in that situation, especially not with Endeavor breathing down their necks. And even if he wasn’t worried about his identity, he was obviously underage! He didn’t have a single legal reason to be in that bar! And if he went to the paramedics, they’d call his mom and he’d have to explain that he’d left after she went to bed and she’d be so worried and disappointed and...well, he’d just have to come up with another option. 

Normally Izuku would just go home and take care of his injuries himself, but if there was as much glass in his back as there was in his arms then it would take forever to remove on his own. It would be a lot better if he had someone to help him, at least with that part, and then he could bandage the cuts up himself. But Izuku was a quirkless loser, he didn’t have any friends…

Oh.

He had never actually been to Kaminari’s house before. He’d given Izuku the address, because he said that seemed like something that friends should know, but Izuku wasn’t about to bother Kaminari by showing up or asking to come over. But the last time that Izuku had shown up to one of their training sessions injured, Kaminari had said that he was willing to help him out. 

Hopefully that offer still applied at three am.

“That vigilante has to be somewhere around here. Search the area!” Izuku heard Endeavor growl around the corner and he forced himself to push off the wall and start moving. A few voices, probably his sidekicks or daylight heroes that Izuku hadn’t met yet, responded affirmatively as Izuku stumbled off into the shadows and down the street. 

Thankfully, there was enough chaos on the streets that no one paid much attention to Izuku as he made his way to Kaminari’s apartment. Normally he would just run over the rooftops, since it was faster and much less likely to get him spotted, but then again, he normally wouldn’t be going over his only friend’s house to awkwardly ask him to take glass shards out of his back, so Izuku figured he could give himself a pass this time. Sue him, he was tired and he didn’t feel up to taking the risk of falling asleep halfway between two buildings. 

He spent the walk hastily coming up with a cover story that would fall under the broad category of parkour while still explaining all his different injuries, especially the burns and the glass. Thankfully there weren’t any thorns stuck in him that he could see, because that would’ve just added another unnecessarily complicated layer to his already convoluted lie. 

By the time he found the address Kaminari had sent him, the last of his adrenaline had officially worn off, which meant that Izuku was practically ready to pass out from the pain and exhaustion that had hit him like a brick wall. He let out a hiss that doubled as a wry chuckle. At least the pain was keeping him from falling asleep!

Kaminari lived on the third floor of an apartment building, and Izuku considered just knocking on the front door before looking down at himself and grimacing. Yeah...going inside the building wasn’t going to go well and Izuku didn’t want to risk running into Kaminari’s family looking like this if they opened the door instead of him. It shouldn’t be that hard to figure out which window was his right? It would be less weird and embarrassing than knocking on the door this late...

Izuku peeked in the first window, which turned out to be a living room, then moved onto the next, practically sighing in relief when he saw Kaminari lying on the bed reading a book by the light of the electricity arcing between his fingers. Izuku hid his tool belt and goggles under the windowsill and knocked softly, hoping beyond hope that his cover story was good enough and that Kaminari didn't just turn him away.

The minute that Kaminari heard the knock, he yelped and dropped the book on his face. To his credit, he recovered pretty quickly, rubbing his nose as he looked frantically around the room for whatever made the noise.

"Come on, Kaminari." Izuku muttered as he knocked on the window again. "Let me in!"

Kaminari turned to the window in shock and swallowed nervously before increasing the amount of electricity surrounding his hand, using it to both illuminate the room and defend himself from attacks and Izuku couldn't hold back a small twinge of pride. A few months ago, Kaminari would have immediately surrounded his entire body in electricity, which would have put him close to his limit and at a distinct disadvantage, but now he was instinctively using his quirk that was both functional and defensive, all while keeping away from his limit. He was so smart!

When Kaminari reached the window, it took him about half a second to see Izuku. When he did, he yelped again and fell back onto his butt before scrambling forward to open the window.

"Midoriya?!" He whispered loudly. "What are you doing here?!"

"Well, um…" Izuku winced, "you know how you said I could come to you if I ever got injured doing parkour…?"

Kaminari’s eyes widened as he took in Izuku’s various injuries and the electricity in his hand started buzzing as it reacted to his emotions, “What kind of parkour were you doing?!”

“Well, it’s a funny story actually…” Izuku chuckled awkwardly, careful to keep a strained smile on his face, “I really wanted to do a parkour run tonight to see all the fireworks that everyone’s setting off for New Years, right? So, um, I did! But, then, um, I guess I didn’t look where I was going and I accidently ended up on the same rooftop as one of the fireworks...as it went off.”

Kaminari winced sympathetically, “Ouch...is all that blood just from the shrapnel and stuff?”

Izuku went to rub his arm nervously, onto to stop with a nervous laugh as his hand caught on a piece of glass, “Well, about that…”

Kaminari looked at him suspiciously, “Midoriya, what did you do?”

“Well, um, it was a really tall building!” Izuku blurted out. “And I...might have jumped off the building to get away from the fire before finding a good place to land? There was a window! But, um, I guess it was dark and I didn’t realize it was still, um, still closed?”

“You broke a window?!” Kaminari whisper-yelled. “With your body?!”

 Izuku chuckled nervously, “Um...yes? The building was abandoned, so nobody else got hurt! I, um, I can put the bandages on myself, I just need you to help with the glass. Unless you don’t want to! You don’t have to, and I know I probably shouldn’t have come, but Mom doesn’t know I snuck out, so I can’t really tell her and...”

“Shut up Izuku.” Kaminari walked over to the door and turned on the light. “Can I call you Izuku? I feel like we should be on a first name basis if I’m going to be pulling broken glass out of your butt.”

“Uh…” Izuku blushed. He hadn’t had any friends to call him by his first name since Kacchan had started calling him Deku. “Sure! I mean, if you want, you don’t have to, and...”

“Cool.” Kaminari apparently just didn’t care about his nervous rambling because he walked straight out the door. Izuku awkwardly shuffled his weight back and forth as he wondered whether he should just leave. Maybe this was asking too much? 

Before Izuku had a chance to come to any kind of decision, Kaminari walked back into the room carrying a tube of burn cream in one hand and some kind of zippered pouch in the other, all while balancing a half-dozen towels under his arm. He closed the door with his foot and turned to Izuku with a smile, “And you can call me Denki, by the way.”

“Oh, um, ok. Sure.” Izuku cleared his throat nervously. Of course Kaminari... Denki... had only left to grab first aid supplies. He obviously didn’t keep them in his room like Izuku did, since he wasn’t a vigilante or getting bullied at school. Izuku shoved down the guilt he felt over his stupid anxiety attack and focused on his more reasonable reasons to feel guilty, “I’m sorry! I know I’m asking a lot of you and I normally wouldn’t do this, but…”

“It’s whatever.” Denki cut him off. “Honestly, it’s more interesting than what I was doing anyway. Insomnia’s a bitch.”

Izuku laughed, “Yeah. I wish I couldn’t agree from experience, but considering how late it is...um, mood?”

Denki snorted and started laying out the towels on the floor, “Yeah. Mood. Um, I hope it’s ok we do this on the floor, I don’t want to end up with glass...well, anywhere, if I can help it.”

“Yeah, of course!” Izuku took a towel and laid it out beside one that Kaminari had just set out. “And, uh, the blood too, probably. Sorry. I, uh, I can wish these, if you don’t want your parents asking any weird questions.”

Denki shrugged, “Honestly, that’d be great. Not that they’d really be surprised. I think they’re just too used to my weirdness, so they just expect me to be...well, illogical, rather than normal, but still…Um, did you want to start with your...well, um, your butt first? That way you can…”

Denki trailed off, and started grabbing things from the first aid kit and setting them out on one of the towels as Izuku watched uncomfortably, “Um, D-denki? Can what?”

“What?” Denki blinked and squinted at him. “Oh, I, uh, I’m sorry, I must have spaced. What was I talking about?”

“Taking the glass out of my, um, backside first?” Izuku said. “You seemed about to give a reason?”

“Oh, right! So that way you can sit or lie down while we do the rest of your body!” Denki blushed and clenched his fist a few times. “Um, I’m, um, really sorry about that. It’s, uh, it’s kinda late and, um, my meds are kinda a morning and afternoon thing, you know, so by this time...um, so if I randomly start rambling or just kinda trail off if I get too focused on a task, um, that’s why, I guess. I’m sorry, the meds just make the difference a lot more noticeable, you know? And I know it’s really annoying, so I’ll try to stop.”

“It’s fine!” Izuku waved his hands frantically in an attempt to reassure him. “I, uh, I ramble too, so it’s, uh, it’s not a problem, and like I said, I know I’m asking a lot, especially if it’s this late and stuff, and I’m sorry..”

“Nah.” Denki smiled sadly and grabbed a pair of tweezers. “It’s not your fault my brain doesn’t work as well as yours does, right? Oh, uh, that didn’t hurt, did it?”

Izuku winced as Denki pulled out another piece of glass, “It all hurts. At this point, the pain is all blending together, so don’t worry about it.”

Denki nodded and carefully yanked a piece of glass out of the back of Izuku’s thigh, “Are, uh, are you sure you wouldn’t just rather go to a hospital?”

“No, they’ll tell Mom.” And the heroes. “If you just do the stuff I can’t reach, I can do the rest when I get home.”

Denki rolled his eyes, “Nope. You’re already here and you’re not leaving until you’re officially glass free. No idea how you’re gonna hide all this from your mom, though.”

Izuku picked a piece of glass from his arm and carefully set it with the others Denki had removed, “That is a problem for tomorrow’s Izuku.”

Chapter Text

“He was a literal child!” Shouta subconsciously activated his quirk as he yelled, which only made Endeavor glare harder in return as the flames adorning his hero costume went out. “You launched a lethal attack at a goddamn kid!”

The crime scene was a mess. Vines and thorns were still everywhere, the city had had to call in tree trimmers to even begin freeing the survivors and dozens of rescue heroes had been woken up and called in to help despite the holiday. So far they had already found five casualties from the attack, and those were all people the villain had killed during his initial rampage. It wasn’t even starting on the disaster that was the bar fire. 

The flames had long since gone out thanks to the combined efforts of Backdraft and the local firefighters, but the smoldering remains of the building were like a mocking testament to Shouta’s failure. Somewhere under those ashes was a kid. A kid with a whole life ahead of him. A kid who was just barely learning how to want to stay alive.

And now he was dead and it was all Shouta’s fault. 

He should have insisted on going straight to the bar instead of going with Death Arms to clear another exit for the civilians. He should have told them not to call Endeavor despite his quirk being a perfect counter. He should have tried harder to get the kid to stop being a vigilante. 

And now it was too late. This wasn’t like when Viridian had disappeared because he broke his arm as a civilian. The kid wasn’t just going to pop up inside the comms one day like he had then. Endeavor had openly admitted to launching a full strength attack at both the berserker and the vigilante, either not thinking or caring about the fact that the fight was happening in a bar! Fuck doing what he had to, if the great number two hero had had even an ounce of respect for situational awareness and property damage, he would have found another way! 

“Eraser.” Amplifier put a strong hand on his shoulder. “Be careful, the media’s watching.”

“Screw the vultures.” Shouta growled, but he blinked and stalked away anyway. A viral video of heroes infighting would do more harm than good, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be going through the formal channels to make sure that Endeavor didn’t get off scot free for murdering a kid. Nedzu in particular would probably love tearing him apart. 

At least the principal’s sadism was good for something. 

Amplifier walked with him until they were far enough for the media to ignore them, “How are you holding up?”

“How do you think I’m holding up?!” Shouta hissed. “That...he was just...the kid was finally getting better.”

“I know.” Amplifier said heavily. “I know.”

“It’s just…” Shouta groaned. “I’m going to have to look this kid’s parents in the face and try to explain that I was just trying to keep him alive. Why did I let him…”

“Stop that.” Amplifier said sternly. “If you start blaming yourself or insisting that you could have done things differently, it’s just gonna keep you paralyzed in the past. Believe me, I’ve seen it happen often enough in my rehabilitation group.”

Shouta sighed, “And it doesn’t make the kid any less dead.”

“We don’t know that.” Amplifier said weakly. “They’re still sorting through the rubble! There’s still a chance…”

It only took half a glare to silence her. As much as Shouta would like to believe that the kid had survived, it was completely illogical to get his hopes up. Even if Endeavor’s initial attack hadn’t managed to fry him, the building had collapsed within minutes. It was only luck that Amplifier had managed to find a small portion of the wall that had collapsed, or else they’d be digging her out as well. Endeavor, the assole, would have of course survived based solely on his inborn fire-resistance. No wonder he didn’t care about bringing down buildings! If it didn’t affect him, he couldn’t be bothered.

“Eraser! Amplifier!” 

Both heroes turned sharply toward the shout and were surprised to see Rock Lock, of all heroes, running toward them. He was normally more composed than that, and Shouta was about to say something about it when he caught sight of the ragged piece of fabric in his hand.

Amplifier gasped, “Is that…?”

“Viridian’s hoodie...” Shouta breathed. “Where…? Was the kid…?”

“One of Ingenium’s sidekicks found it in a dumpster a street or two over.” Rock Lock grinned. “That stupid, reckless kid made it out of the building!”

Shouta felt himself practically melt with relief and instantly wanted nothing more than to find a quiet corner and curl up with his sleeping bag and never come out. Why did problem children have to be so emotionally exhausting? He silently swore he’d ground Viridian or something, just to get back at him for all the grey hairs he’d caused. Too bad he couldn’t just threaten to expel him, but oh well, he’d find a way to work around it. No good hero was a one trick pony. 

“What about Viridian?” Amplifier asked. “Was he anywhere around?”

“If the kid were smart,” Shouta responded, “he’d get as far away from Endeavor as possible. But then again, if the kid had one ounce of self preservation, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.”

“Aww, are you mad at the kid because he made you worry about him?” Amplifier poked his arm relentlessly and Shouta had to hit her with a quirk-enhanced glare to get her to stop, “You are such a dad, Eraser!”

“I’m not a dad!” Shouta grumbled. “I’m not qualified for that position.”

Rock Lock rolled his eyes, “Yeah, that’s gonna be my job.”

“So where’s the problem child now?” Shouta changed the subject.

“No idea.” Rock Lock shrugged, then looked around and waved at another hero, “Yo! Crawler! Slide on over here!”

A blue and red blur sped toward them, expertly dodging all the people between them. Crawler grinned at them when he straighted up, “Hey Eraser! You must be pretty proud of your kid, huh?”

“I’d be prouder if he could avoid getting injured every other day.” Shouta complained. “And he’s not my kid.”

Crawler’s grin just got wider, “You just keep telling yourself that, Eraserdad. And you can’t scare me with your expulsion glare, you know, I didn’t go to hero school.”

Shouta sighed and hid his face in his capture weapon, “So, you’re the one that found the hoodie? What makes you so sure the kid’s alive?”

Crawler looked at him strangely, like he was both confused and excited at the same time, “Haven’t you seen the video?”

Amplifier jumped in excitement, “What video?”

Crawler smiled and pulled out his phone, “There are actually a couple going viral right now, Pop would be so jealous, but I think you’ll like this one the best. The one with him hitting a bouncer in the nuts is pretty good too, though.”

“What?!” 

Whatever Rock Lock had been about to say was cut off as the video started playing and the three heroes huddled around the small screen to watch. 

At first, the video was just of the burning bar, which looked just as frightening as Shouta had expected it to. The person behind the camera was freaking out, audibly wondering if anyone was still inside the building when a second voice spoke up.

“Hey, what’s that over there?”

The camera panned quickly over to focus on a part of the wall that was being blown out...wait, no, knocked down by someone inside. After a few moments, the flames started to go down and Shouta narrowed his eyes. There was a chance that the white and grey mass spewing from the hole was just smoke that was catching the light at a weird angle, but upon closer inspection, it looked more like the foam that came out of a fire extinguisher. There was a long moment on the video where nothing happened and the girl recording was just starting to pan away when a small figure emerged in a bloody and torn hoody, dragging a woman behind him as he led a dozen or so survivors to safety.  

“Wait, Viridan made that hole?” Amplifier asked in shock. “We...we just assumed that the wall had collapsed with the heat.”

Shouta couldn’t help rolling his eyes, “Of course the problem child knocked down a wall to get everyone out. I don’t know why anyone’s surprised. Kid’s probably freaking out about causing property damage right about now, though.”

“The building came down right after, though?” Crawler pointed out, confused.

Shouta sighed, “Yeah. The kid might just find a way to blame himself for that too. It’s just the way he is.”

They watched as Viridian turned to go back inside, only to catch sight of Endeavor and Amplifier and freeze. Thankfully, they were looking away from him, so the kid, in a rare act of self-preservation, didn’t call attention to himself in any way. The building collapsed and the girl recording spun around to catch that instead. By the time she turned back to where the vigilante had been before, he was long gone. 

“He’s still injured.” Shouta grumbled, shoulders slumping with relief and exhaustion. “I don’t suppose any of the paramedics picked up a kid matching his description?”

“You’d have to ask him.” Crawler shrugged. “But the kid did good.”

“Yeah.” Shouta nestled deeper into his capture weapon to hide the small smile on his face. “Yeah, he did.”

“Can’t help but be a little sad though.” Amplifier remarked. “The Green Guide isn’t gonna be our little secret anymore.”

Vigilante Crashes New Years Celebration

The new year came in with a bang this morning in Musutafu as a powerful villain took a city block of partiers hostage with his quirk. Due to various complications surrounding the villain’s quirk, the heroes patrolling the area were initially unaware of the attack. Luckily, however, they were not the only defense in the area.

A formerly unknown vigilante by the name of Viridian, also known to heroes and police as “The Green Guide” or sometimes just “The Kid”, was caught inside the attack radius and was able to contact the heroes and hold off the villain until they arrived. According to one of the victims, the vigilante’s involvement saved a lot of lives, including his own, “Yeah, the villain had grabbed me with those crazy weird vines of his and I thought for sure I was gonna die! If that kid hadn’t sliced through the vines and let me escape, I don’t know where I’d be. I probably wouldn’t be talking to you right now though.”

Viridian’s attempts to save civilians, however, apparently caught the attention of the villain himself. 

“It was pretty freaky.” Aito Ogawa, who was attending Club Ecstasy with a group of friends, told reporters of the experience. “At first, it was just funny. This kid in a hoodie comes in claiming to be a vigilante and we’re all like...sure. But then he got a bunch of heroes on the phone and we’re all like...alright, man, that’s pretty cool, you got connections. That was when the villain showed up. Honestly, I thought we were all gonners. It didn’t look like a fair fight at all, but Viridian took out his slingshot and held his own. He kept the villain’s attention so we could all get out. It was pretty badass.”

According to our sources, Viridian, who witnesses initially believed to be newly debuted, has actually been an active vigilante for over six months! His first vigilante name, The Green Guide, was given to him by police for his tendency to lead heroes to crimes that normally wouldn’t merit much attention, and he graduated to his current name when he started interfering in fights personally. His quirk is currently unknown, but his main weapons consist of a set of metal pipes, a knife, and a slingshot. The green marbles that he uses as ammo are even rumored to be something of a collector’s item among the heroes that have tried to capture him. 

Viridian is still at large after this attack, though he almost wasn’t so lucky. The number two hero, Endeavor, has come under heavy criticism since this morning’s attack due to the excessive force with which he attacked both Viridian and the villain, heedless of the dangers posed by spilled alcohol and of the civilians who had severely limited options when it came to escaping the villain’s attack zone. Casualties from Endeavor’s attack are still unknown, but it is suspected that there were still multiple people inside the building when Endeavor’s fire caused it to collapse. 

According to the statement made by the number two hero’s PR team early this morning, the hero was acting on the assumption that both Viridian and the villain posed a clear and present danger to the civilians present but a few vocal critics are already arguing that isn’t good enough. In fact, some are going so far to call Endeavor’s actions this morning child endangerment. 

One of the protesters, who refused to give any name aside from Dabi, told reporters at the scene, “Whatever, I get that nobody knows how old Viridian actually is, but if you watch the videos, it’s pretty obvious he’s still a teenager. If Mr. Number Two Hero is willing to throw a lethal attack at a child like that, I hate to think what he’s capable of doing to his own kids.” 

It remains to be seen how this attack will affect the number two hero’s standing in the rankings, though analysts are predicting a significant drop in public opinion due to widespread outrage at Endeavor’s actions. 

Endeavor himself was unavailable for comment. 

Chapter Text

Today’s Izuku hated yesterday’s Izuku.

What kind of idiot thought it was a good idea to go from almost dying to passing out at home with only basic first aid? Maybe he should have just gone to the paramedics last night, secret identity be damned. At least then he wouldn’t be freaking out in bed trying to think of some sort of half-decent excuse for the mummy-like bandages all over his body as Mom frantically knocked on the door, worried about why he wasn’t up yet .

“I’m coming in…okay Izuku?” 

Izuku’s eyes widened and he had to settle for hastily pulling his blanket all the way up to his nose as the door swung open. He knew he had some scratches on his face from the fight, but his goggles should have protected most of the upper half of his face, so hopefully Mom would miss the rest of his injuries in the dim light of the room. Maybe. 

“Are you feeling ok, baby?” Mom asked quietly. “You’re usually up by now. What time did you end up going to bed?”

“Um…” Izuku winced as his voice scratched painfully. Ah, right. Smoke inhalation was a thing. He hadn’t even thought about that last night. “Probably later than I should have.”

Mom looked at him with loving concern as she hurried to his side and put her hand on his forehead making Izuku wince as she touched his burned skin, “Ah, baby, you’re burning up! Why didn’t you tell me you were coming down with something?”

Izuku grabbed the excuse like a lifeline, “I didn’t want to worry you.I’ve been feeling a little off the last couple of days, but I didn’t think it was a big deal and would go away if I drank enough water…”

Mom melted, “I already told you, baby, you can tell me things. I know you don’t want me to be worried about you, but I’m your mother. That’s my job.” She frowned. “Work called me in today, but maybe I should call them back and tell them I can’t come in. I don’t want to leave you alone if you’re sick.”

“No! Please don’t do that!” If Mom was around, it would make it that much more difficult for Izuku to find enough privacy to tend to his actual injuries and change the bandages that were probably gross by now. Mom tended to hover when she thought he was sick. “I mean, if work needs you, I don’t want you to stay home for my sake, right? Um, did they say why they called you in?”

Mom’s face twisted with both sadness and worry, “Apparently there was a huge villain attack last night. One of my coworkers got caught up in it.”

A flood of guilt rushed over Izuku, “Oh...um, are they alright?”

Was it the berserker attack he’d been involved in last night? Was Mom’s coworker someone he hadn’t been good enough to save? Was it his fault they were hurt?

Mom smiled sadly, “They were injured, but they’ll be ok. Apparently not everyone was so lucky…”

Izuku swallowed thickly. Not everyone was so lucky…? Had people…? He had done everything he could, but he was just a worthless quirkless kid, so of course it hadn’t been enough!

“Are you sure you’ll be ok here all alone?” Mom put her hand on his forehead again. “You look like you’re about to throw up.”

He felt like he was about to throw up, but it was his fault that Mom’s coworker was injured, so he couldn’t ask her to stay home, “I’ll be fine. I’m probably just going to take some nyquil and try to sleep it off.”

“Ok…” Mom still looked worried, but she tucked his blankets a little tighter around him and stood to leave. “Call me if you need anything, ok? I don’t want you to think you’re bothering me at work or anything, you take priority, alright Izuku? And I know you’re feeling nauseous, but don’t forget to eat. Would you like me to get you some toast or something before I go?”

Izuku shook his head, “You should just get going. I don’t want you to be late.”

Mom rolled her eyes fondly, “Of course you’re worried about me when you’re sitting in bed with the flu.”

She kissed his forehead and left him alone. Izuku waited until he heard the front door close before throwing his blankets off with a sigh of relief. His burns might make it easy to fake a fever, but the extra heat of the covers really didn’t feel good right now.

He considered getting up and changing his bandages before deciding that could wait until his body stopped feeling like he’d been hit by a truck. He was going to be alone all day anyway, so there wasn’t any rush, right?

But that left him in bed...doing nothing...bored.

Maybe Kaminari would be available to test or something? He shouldn’t have school today, right? Izuku grabbed his phone, grimacing at the way he had to stretch to get it off his desk, only to be assaulted by a barrage of notifications the moment he unlocked the screen. It seemed like every news site Izuku subscribed to had at least one article published about what was being called The News Years Nightmare. Why did people like alliteration so much?

Izuku didn’t know if he wanted to even read the headlines. His emotions were a complicated storm of guilt and leftover fear from last night, all made worse by physical pain, so he wasn’t sure he was in the mood to read a lot of articles praising Endeavor for his heroic takedown. 

Endeavor Under Scrutiny For Child Endangerment in Wake of New Years Nightmare

Izuku did a double take. There weren’t even any kids at the attack last night! Had something else happened yesterday that Izuku hadn’t heard about? He slowed down and started reading the headlines more carefully, then more frantically the more he read.

Vigilante Viridian: A Secret Hero?

Former Victims Share Stories of Musutafu’s Best Kept Secret

What is Viridian’s quirk?

Local Vigilante Minimizes Casualties in Nightmare Attack

Viridian Meme Compilation

Never Heard of Viridian? Neither Had We! Read Here About How This Crazy Teen Became One of Musutafu’s Most Effective Vigilantes!

Izuku numbly clicked on the article and sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes as he willed the words on the screen to change. They didn’t. They were talking about him! 

It seems like everybody is talking about Viridian in the wake of the New Years Nightmare, but just who is the vigilante that took the world by storm last night? And how long has he been on the streets? 

Since several videos went viral of Viridian’s actions last night, which some are going so far as to call heroic, hundreds of people have been coming forward to share their stories of being saved by the quick thinking vigilante…

Videos?! Oh no! What if someone recognized him! They’d find out he was quirkless and then they’d make him stop! Well, they would make him stop either way, wouldn’t they? But if they found out that he was quirkless, they would be so focused on protecting him that he wouldn’t ever be able to help anyone ever again!

Izuku didn’t know if it was a good of a bad thing that it was so easy to find the videos from last night. From what he could see, there were about four videos making the rounds, thankfully all low-quality cell phone cameras that were never quite at the right angle to catch any identifiable features and tended to blur slightly when Izuku moved, which was pretty much constantly, considering he’d been fighting at the time. 

One video showed him hacking away at some vines to save a civilian, another showed him knocking down the bar wall to create an exit for the remaining civilians, and one, that if Izuku allowed himself to truly enjoy any of the videos would have been his favorite, showed him fighting the Berserker and ended with him running toward the camera, wreathed in orange, blue and green flames as the alcohol burned off of him. By far the most popular video, though, which was quickly becoming a meme thanks to people who had way too much creativity, was of him hitting a bouncer in the crotch. 

Izuku groaned and fell back into bed. He was way too tired to deal with this right now.

It was a shame that they hadn’t been able to recover their most recent berserker alive and an even greater shame that the monster had failed to eject that troublesome kazoo player that kept interrupting his symphony. Oh well, All for One was nothing if not resilient, and the boy was not so much of a nuisance that a master composer couldn’t plan around him, so while it would have been convenient to have him out of the way, his meddling wasn’t a priority for now. 

What was a priority was the next stage in his grand experiment. 

Tomura needed an assistant. Someone loyal and powerful. A guard dog that could support him and be his right hand as he took his place and continued All for One’s Legacy. He had a grand variety of quirks ready and waiting at his disposal for this assistant, but a mindless drone simply wouldn’t do! Tomura needed a monster that would both do and think.

Which was why the growing number of failed experiments was getting increasingly frustrating. They were still useful, of course, if only as mindless monsters that followed orders perfectly once their programming was complete, which was why All for One hadn’t reclaimed their quirks yet. The doctor insisted they could be useful in Tomura’s conquest of hero society and had even given those failures a name.

Nomu. 

But it wasn’t enough. The most recent berserker had been the closest they had come to creating what Tomura truly needed, and the doctor was currently busy examining what was left of him after the flame hero’s vicious takeown, not that All for One had high hopes that they would find anything useful. But that was alright, that monster had already given them the key to the perfect experiment. 

The rose quirk that the villain possessed had been...troublesome. Something that All for One had noticed during his centuries of stealing quirks was that each power behaved differently based on it’s abilities. An air manipulation quirk would feel light when All for One stole it, almost like it could blow away at any moment, while a fire quirk had to be carefully watched so it didn’t burn out of control. It was an interesting eccentricity, but one that All for One had always dismissed as unimportant before their most recent experiment. 

The rose quirk behaved like vines, which meant that it had a tendency to tangle. After All for One had duplicated it and was attempting to insert it back into the subject’s modified body, the different copies of the quirk refused to stay separate. They kept wrapping around one another and knotting together despite his every effort to get them to lie in any sort of organized fashion. 

It was almost frustrating enough for All for One to give up on that subject entirely, but he was glad he hadn’t. It seemed that when the quirks were wrapped together, the body responded to them as if they were a singular quirk. The doctor theorized that as long as the holder’s original quirk was still present, they should be able to trick the subject’s immune system into thinking there was only one quirk if they weaved everything together sufficiently. 

All that was left now was finding the perfect combination of quirks for a dress rehearsal.

Chapter Text

Katsuki shoved the last of his classmates away from the first year that they had been trying to beat to the ground, “And just stay the fuck away from her already, dumasses.”

Fingers glared at him, but Katsuki just glared back harder until he gave up and turned away, gathering up his lackeys and retreating into a corner of the schoolyard reserved for the cool kids, a corner of the yard that Katsuki himself had been conspicuously absent from the past few weeks. 

He glanced over at the villains posing as his teachers, unsurprised to find them completely ignoring everything that had just happened. Katsuki had half-expected them to turn on him the second he started standing up to his own past behavior and was worried he’d have to have Amplifier write a letter to UA explaining a bunch of black marks on his record, but apparently they were too spineless for that. If they started reporting him for stopping the abuse, he could easily report them for allowing the abuse in the first place. It was mutually assured destruction. 

That didn’t mean they hadn’t tried to maintain the status quo, though. Katsuki didn’t think he’d ever forget being called into the principal’s office the day after he’d defended a kid in another class who could grow his fingernails faster than normal. 

“Really, Bakugo, I am sure that the other student appreciated you stepping in, but you really shouldn’t be wasting your time on such trivial pursuits.” The principal had said, a slick smile on his stupid little face. “Kids play around, I’m sure you understand, having done so plenty yourself, so don’t you think you should be focused on preparing for UA? The entrance exam is only a few months away, after all!”

Katsuki had simply given him a look that could kill, all respect gone from his voice as he responded, “I am preparing for UA.”

The and this is a part of it went unspoken, but from the fear that crossed the principal’s eyes, Katsuki could tell he’d gotten his meaning across. He’d left the office without being dismissed and none of the teachers had called him out on his changed behavior since. They hadn't called attention to him in any positive ways either, but he could deal with that. Their approval wasn’t what he was trying for anymore. 

That didn’t mean that losing his alpha dog status at school didn’t hurt, but hey, no pain, no gain. If heroes could keep fighting while injured and that shitty green vigilante could keep fighting while on fucking fire, then Katsuki could stop those stupid extras from bullying kids, even if it meant he had to be alone while he did it. 

Fuck, was this how Izuku had felt for all those years? It fucking sucked! Whatever, it was just one more thing that he’d have to apologize for when he finally got the balls to talk to the nerd again. 

“...starts at 7. Everyone who’s anyone is going to be there.”

“Keep your voice down! You don’t want Blasty showing up, do you?”

Katsuki scoffed and rolled his eyes as he stalked off. As if he hadn’t known for days that everyone was planning on going to the new All Might movie without him. What kind of idiots were they? It’s like they thought he was deaf or something. Well, some of them...Fingers seemed to be intentionally rubbing it in his face like he’d get extra clout for being an asshole or something. 

Whatever, it’s not like he wanted to hang out with those extras anyway. It was just that the old hag had been starting to look at him weird when he came home so early, like she knew that he didn’t have any friends and was worried or some shit and it was fucking annoying. Maybe if he could just find some other extras to hang with for a few hours it would get her off his back…?

Knowing he was gonna regret apparently wasn’t enough to stop Katsuki from pulling out his phone and texting Ogawa and those other villain extras and asking if they wanted to hang out. Ugh! They were gonna be so smug and unbearable, going on about breaking down his walls and…

Group Chat

Ogawa: Oooh! Are we finally breaking down your walls, little man?

And there it was. He was regretting this already. 

His regret stung a little less, though, when the next text that came was an address to meet them at. So what if everyone else was going to a movie without him? He didn’t need any of those extras to be a hero, he could find way better friends than his bullying classmates!

Katsuki shoved his phone back in his pocket and stalked off toward the address Ogawa had given him. He didn’t recognize the place, but he knew it wasn’t really on the right side of town. In fact, it was kinda close to where he’d saved that one kid a few weeks ago. Katsuki hoped that extra had taken his advice and started actually training for the hero course. Maybe even Izuku could have had a chance if he got rid of his noodle arms…

He shook his head as he saw Ogawa and Maki leaning up against a low brick wall that Akiko was laying on, seeing how big she could get her bubblegum bubble before it popped all over her face. They looked like a bunch of no good delinquents. Katsuki scoffed.And to think these losers were actually the safer option between his two “friend” groups. Life really was messed up sometimes, wasn’t it?

“Hey!” Ogawa gave him a wide grin when he saw Katsuki approaching. “If it isn’t the man of the hour!”

Akiko laughed, “So, something awesome must have happened to get the high and mighty Bakugo to hang out with us! What’s up, kiddo?”

“”Shut up.” Katsuki grumbled, but he had to fight to keep a small smile off his face. “So what’s the plan?”

The three exchanged a loaded look before Ogawa’s grin got inexplicably bigger, “We’re taking you on a tour.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, “I grew up in this city, dumbasses. I don’t need to waste my money on all the touristy shit the Americans come to do.”

“Oh no, we’re not taking you any of those places.” Akiko giggled. “No, what we have in mind is a little more exclusive.”

She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively so Katsuki shoved her off the wall. She lost her balance and fell to the street with a yelp, but managed to catch herself. It wasn’t like it was a very long fall. It took a second for everyone to stop laughing after that.

“Whatever.” Katsuki smirked. “So what are we really doing?”

“No, we’re being serious!” Ogawa caught his breath and put an arm around Katsuki’s shoulders. “We’re taking you on a back alley tour!”

Katsuki raised an eyebrow in question, and Maki crossed his arms and looked down at him, “You said you’re gonna be a hero, right?”

“Yeah.” Katsuki grinned up at him. “I’m gonna be the best hero you losers have ever seen!”

“Well, I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” Maki huffed, “but you’re not exactly like most hero hopefuls.”

Katsuki froze. He’d thought he was doing better. He was standing up to those useless extras at school. He was attending those stupid redemption meetings. He was even planning on apologizing to Izuku. Was...was none of it good enough?

Ogawa cuffed him lightly over the head, “That’s not a bad thing, man. You’ve got a little bit of a past, but in this part of town, that can actually be an advantage, if you use it right.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Katsuki growled. 

“You’ve got a unique appeal among villains, kiddo.” Akiko explained. “You’re brash. You swear. You’ve done things you regret. That gives you street cred.”

Katsuki glared at her and was about to say something when Ogawa interrupted, “You’ve been like us, man, which means that thugs and villains are going to respect and trust you in a way that they’re not gonna do for any other hero. A big part of the underground and stopping crime is gonna be the connections you’ve got and the information you can get from them.”

“Let’s be honest, kid, no one want to talk to a hero like All Might about the shady shit they’re involved with.” Maki gave him an appraising look. “But they might be willing to talk to you.”

Katsuki’s eyes widened slightly as he realized what they were getting at. Once he’d realized his past actions were wrong, he’d assumed they’d put him at a disadvantage if they didn’t stop him from becoming a hero outright, but if what Maki was saying was true, then he might be able to use those parts of him to be a better hero. He still wished he’d never been a bully, but…

“Good heroes use every advantage available to them.” Ogawa smiled. “So, come on, you ready to meet everyone?”

Katsuki shoved his hands in his pockets and followed his friends as they started off down the streets. He needed to pay attention, because somehow, he had a feeling that if Izuku was here with his stupid notebooks, he’d be cheering for him to exploit the hell out of his shitty past mistakes and Katsuki owed it to Izuku to be the best hero he could be. 

As they walked into a corner store to introduce Katsuki to the owner, none of them noticed the sharp eyes tracking their movements and judging every single one.

People had died. 

Now that it had been a few days since the New Years Nightmare and Izuku’s injuries were actually starting to heal, he had finally gotten the strength to read through the articles and statistics about the attack. There had been thirteen casualties, not to mention the dozens who had had to go to the hospital for various injuries from either the thorns or the fire. Izuku couldn’t help but wonder if he could have done more. Maybe if he had focused on saving civilians rather than contacting the heroes, less people would have died. Or maybe he could have separated the fight from the evacuation route so that when Endeavor arrived, there weren’t people trying to get out when the bar went up in flames. Maybe Izuku should have somehow checked whether the wall he was knocking down was load bearing or something, then maybe the building wouldn’t have collapsed. 

He had to make up for it. With his injuries and all the articles going around, Izuku had decided to lie low for a little bit, but that didn't mean he was just sitting around bored. He was researching. The berserker was linked to the villain factory, which seemed to be using Queen Bee to find good quirks for their experiment. Considering that she was key to their operation, she most likely had information on the rest of the group, which meant that all Izuku had to do was find her.

He already knew that the bees could be hacked, but it seemed that the information about the rest of the hive, and more importantly the queen, corrupted when the bee was killed. To find her, Izuku would need to hack one of the bees when it was still alive.

All he needed was a plan.

Chapter Text

It was late when Katsuki waved goodbye to his friends and boarded the train. Being introduced to the underground had been...weird. Kinda scary, but in a good way, like it was more intimidating than anything else. But still, it was weird to be around villains all day. The annoying part of him that still forgot that villains were people kept expecting to be attacked at any moment, which was probably why he still wasn't able to shake the feeling that he was being watched. He simply rolled his shoulders and ignored it like he had all day. There was no need to be paranoid just because some people had done some bad things. At the end of the day, he’d done bad things too, so being freaked out like this was dumb and hypocritical. Heroes needed to be better than that. 

It was a fairly short ride back to his own stop and the streets were practically deserted, which made the feeling of being watched that much more unsettling. Katsuki shook his head and huffed as he started walking home. Seriously?! He was back in the good part of town! There was no reason for his stupid brain to still be freaking out! It was fucking annoying!

Or, at least, it was… until he felt himself being pulled into an alley as he passed it. That’s what he fucking got for ignoring his instincts. 

“Fuck!” Katsuki swore and twisted to dislodge the grip of whatever extra was attacking him before blindly swinging his fist in the general direction of where he thought his attacker should be, only to hit empty air. Damn. They were fast. 

Katsuki contemplated using his quirk, but dismissed the thought almost as quickly as it came. He was already on thin ice from the sludge villain attack. The last thing he needed was a vigilantism charge three months before the UA entrance exam. He felt the next attack more than saw it, and only managed to dodge at the last second. As it was, the knife that was aimed at his gut ended up slicing through his jeans and he heard his wallet fall out of his pocket and hit the floor, but he figured he could worry about that later, like maybe after he’d taken care of the fucker trying to stab him. 

He caught movement out of the movement of his eye and aimed another punch, only for his attacker to dodge again, “Stay still and fight me, you goddamn mother fucker!”

“That’s not very hero-like.”

Katsuki hissed as something sliced his arm, “Shit! You’re gonna regret that you…” His stomach dropped like a stone at the same time his body did, “What the...why the fuck can’t I move?! What did you do to me?!”

Katsuki cursed again as his brain raced. What a stupid question. It was obviously the fucker’s quirk, but what was it? It had something to do with whatever sliced his arm, but he wasn’t Izuku. He couldn't figure out a quirk just by looking at a person and he still hadn’t even seen the guy attacking him.

Speaking of the devil, his attacker finally stepped into view and crouched in front of him, allowing Katsuki a first look at his attacker’s...well, not his face, because he was wearing a red rag tied around his head like a mask and he didn’t even have a nose. Actually, most of his outfit consisted of rags, which was what led to Katsuki’s next words leaving his mouth before he could stop them.

“Was there a sale at goodwill or did you just raid a dumpster?”

His attacker’s eyes filled with rage and Katsuki gulped. This. This was how he died. Why did he have to open his stupid mouth. He knew every other word out of his mouth was an insult, so why had he decided to say something anyway? He wasn’t even going to be able to apologize to Izuku, dammit! Why did it have to end here?! He was just starting to become better!

“Does society really expect filth like you to be the next generation of heroes?” His attacker sneered down at him. “No wonder there are so few true heroes left.”

Katsuki’s mind raced in confusion, “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Did this guy know he wanted to be a hero? Or did he just assume because every kid wanted to be a hero? Wait, was this who had been following them all day? Ogawa had introduced him as a future hero a couple of times, so that made sense, but why attack him just because he wanted to be a hero? There had to be something Katsuki was missing. 

Thankfully, his attacker was more than happy to explain, “You want to be a hero, yet you act like a villain and associate with criminals. You call them your friends and seek them out, which is why I cannot let you live, even if you are a child. If villains like you are allowed to live, you will sully the title of hero.”

Ok, Katsuki was actually starting to freak out now. Well, he’d been freaking out before, but he hadn’t been serious about it! Suddenly, his fear flipped the switch over to anger, thank goodness for terrible coping mechanisms, “Who the fuck do you even think you are to judge me?! You’re taking about fucking murder!”

“I am Stain. I stain myself with the blood of fake heroes to cleanse society.” His attacker said, grabbing Katsuki’s wallet from where it had dropped. “And who are you? Just another false idol begging for me to cull you.”

Katsuki snarled as Stain rifled through his wallet, grabbing his ID and holding it up to compare it to his captive, “Katsuki Bakugo. The world will be a better place without your villainy corrupting it.”

He may have already been frozen, but those words still made Katsuki feel like he’d been doused in ice water. Would the world be a better place without him? His first thought was no, but...but he’d suicide baited his own best freind. He’d bullied dozens of kids. He’d let his teachers get away with quirk discrimination. He was still letting his teachers get away with it. 

Maybe this Stain guy was right .

Katuski was jarred out of his thoughts by a faint rustling of paper, “Hey! Get your filthy hands off those!”

Stain, that fucking murderer, was reading his letter to Izuku. In his other hand was Katsuki’s paper listing the kind of hero he wanted to be. Both papers were practically falling apart at the seams from how many times Katsuki had folded and unfolded them during the past few months, constantly pulling them out of his pocket and rereading them every time he needed to remind himself why it was worth losing all his lackeys at school or getting into a war of the wills with his teachers. Having somebody that he didn’t even know read them, never mind the fact that this person was currently trying to kill him, was disturbingly violating. It was like he was looking deep into Katsuki’s soul and reading every single one of his insecurities. 

“S-stop! That isn’t for you!” Katsuki could feel a tear rolling down his cheek and he hated it. He hated feeling this fucking weak. It was like the sludge villain all over again. Trapped. Unable to move. Helpless. The only difference was that this time, Izuku wasn't going to come running in to save him. Katsuki wished he could move so he could wipe that stupid tear away, but then again, if he could move, would have been able to stop this asshole from reading Izuku’s letter. "Stop!"

"You…" Stain glanced at Katsuki, then back at the letter. "You want to be a hero."

"Yeah, asshole, and I'm gonna be the fucking best one you've ever seen." Katsuki tried to force enough anger into his voice to cover the wit was cracking. "So if you'd give me back my letter and go murder somebody else, that'd be great."

Stain looked at him oddly, and kept staring at him for what felt like forever before he stood.

"You're immature. You're brash and rude. But you have conviction, which is more than most of those fakes can boast of. Perhaps...perhaps this is simply your way of staining yourself to save others, just like me? I'll let you grow for now, but if you fail to live up to the seeds of true heroism that I see in you," he drew a katana from his belt and placed the point of the blade between Katsuki's eyes, "then you will be culled. Understood?"

Katsuki would have nodded, but he was still paralyzed from that fuckers quirk, so he settled for spitting at him instead. Stain, like the crazy bitch he was, simply grinned. That wasn't creepy at all.

"I look forward to seeing what you become." With that, Stain turned and began walking away. "Don't disappoint me...Kacchan."

Chapter Text

Izuku didn't like being famous. It made him paranoid. He ducked his head any time he passed someone, even though he knew that if the videos going around were enough to identify him, the police would have already arrested him. Or tried to. They probably wouldn't be very successful due to the whole no quirk thing, but it would make his mom worried and even though she s aid she didn't want him to be worried about worrying her, he was still worrying about it. What? It was worrying!

Anyway, he was paranoid. Every time someone glanced at him, he was convinced that they were going to come up to him and ask if he was Viridian. Logically, he knew that it probably wouldn’t be the end of the world even if he was recognized, but he didn't want to disappoint anyone. From what he’d seen online, everyone thought that Viridian was this bad ass vigilante who went around punching guys three times his size and kept his quirk a mystery to keep villains guessing. He knew it probably wasn’t healthy to keep count of the number of youtube theorists that had already made speculation videos about his quirk, so obviously he wasn’t paying attention to those. 

That number was three, by the way.

The most popular theories Izuku had seen were some sort of speed or analysis quirk, both of which were corroborated by police and hero speculation, which had almost thrown him into a full panic attack when he’d learned about it. Izuku didn’t know why it was such a shock to learn that the police had a file on him. It made sense, since he was a vigilante, or acted like one at least, even if he was using a technicality that no one knew about, but he just...he hadn’t thought he was important enough to make a file on. Eraserhead would probably be annoyed if he heard Izuku talking like that, something about the problem child not knowing his own worth again or something like that, but then again, Eraser would probably also be angry if he knew what Izuku was planning on doing right now. Oh well, he’d forgive him when it all worked out...hopefully. 

The problem with tracking down and capturing a live bee from Queen Bee’s swarm was that every time Izuku had seen them so far, the bees were already doing their thing and injecting random people with trigger, so Izuku didn’t really have any idea what they did when they weren’t injecting people. Where did they hang out? Did they just fly around? Or did queen bee make them as she needed them so that she didn’t have to worry about them being discovered while inactive? How did she make them, even?

Izuku was currently working on the assumption that Queen Bee made them with her quirk, rather than by hand, because that seemed standard for most quirks that involved creating other consciousness. The main hero he was using as an example for his theory was Ectoplasm. His clones were made from the ectoplasm his body produced, but they were capable of independent action just like the bees in the swarm were, but that meant there was a limit to the number of clones he could produce at one time. 

The bees seemed to function slightly differently from ectoplasm’s clones, though, in that there were many more of them, but there was still that theoretical limit that Queen Bee would run into, depending on what she used to make the bees. Whether she used the nutrients in her body, the metals she physically had access to, or even just her body fat or stamina, she would eventually run out, but since the bee he’d examined hadn’t poofed into nothingness when it was damaged, Izuku assumed that once a bee was created, it no longer took any input from her quirk to keep it alive. That meant that the smartest option would be to create them in small numbers and store them somewhere until she needed them.

Because the robots looked like bees and seemed to act like them for the most part from what Izuku had seen, it was logical to assume that there had to be some sort of hive where Queen Bee was able to keep the ones that she’d already made when she wasn’t using them. Bees were a naturally occuring insect and observers wouldn’t actually be able to tell they were quirk created robots unless they looked too closely, so the least suspicious course of action would be to have them out in the open like any other beehive so they could hide in plain sight.  

When he’d realized this, Izuku had, of course, hacked into all the exterminator services databases and looked at swarms that had been reported in the past several months. He only paid attention to the results where the extermination had failed, then prioritized the remaining hives based on how many times people had tried to get rid of them, since the robots were probably immune to the poisons that would kill real bees. Izuku had then spent the past three days wandering around, visiting each of those locations, and using his laptop to search for the wireless signal that the bees used to communicate with each other. 

Which was why when Denki had asked if he was healed enough to hang out, Izuku had immediately suggested going to the diner that they’d gone to a few weeks ago. He really shouldn't have been surprised to find the diner on his search list, considering that Denki had said that the owners hadn’t been able to find the hive and get rid of them, but oh well. At least with Denki he had a good excuse for hanging around the diner long enough to run his search. Some of the other places he’d tried had been...well, much more awkward, to say the least. There was one where he had resorted to just hiding on the roof, rather than having to talk to the residents of the apartment building. Thankfully those bees had been normal, just like all the others he’d checked, so he hadn’t had to hang around for longer than necessary.  

Izuku rushed into the diner a few minutes late and helplessly looked around until he heard the waitress who'd served them last time softly laughing at him.

"Oh, um, I'm sorry!" Izuku clutched his laptop bag closer to his chest and tried to look as small as possible, memories of Kacchan’s laughter echoing in his head. "Your name’s Kotaku, right? I'm just supposed to be meeting a friend, he's...well you know who he is, obviously, he comes here a lot, but…"

"I'm gonna cut you off there." Kohaku rolled her visible eye. "The flirt's over there."

Izuku looked where she was pointing and almost melted in relief when he saw Denki waving at him with a huge grin on his face, "Thank you so much! I'm so sorry to bother you!"

Kohaku snorted softly as he ran over to Denki, who pushed a milkshake toward him as soon as he sat down, “Hey, I already ordered for you. I hope you like raspberry, I wanted to get you something as sweet as you are!”

Izuku laughed and rolled his eyes, “Your pick-up lines are getting better. Not by much, but still, I guess it’s an improvement?”

Denki laughed good naturedly, “Thanks, dude. I, uh, ended up looking into what you said. You know, heroes using flirting as a weapon? It was a deep rabbit hole to fall down, but it turns out that way more heroes than just Midnight use it. I just can’t stop watching all their interviews and seeing how they interact with people! I don’t know how I’m gonna apply any of it in a fight yet, but it’s just so cool!”

Izuku grinned as his friend started talking faster and faster, which was often the best indication that Denki was really excited about something. It was a habit that Izuku had picked up on since they’d started hanging out. As much as Denki liked to joke about being stupid, once he found something he was interested in, it didn’t take him long at all to become an expert. Izuku thought that was so cool! It was kinda like how he was with quirks!

“So, are you healing up ok?” Denki asked. “Your injuries were kinda bad…”

“Not really!” Izuku denied. “I mean, they weren’t that bad, not that they aren’t healed. I mean, I get that it looked bad, but I mean, Mom bought that I was just sick, so…”

“I just think it’s kinda weird,” Denki said slowly, “that you got super injured doing parkour on the same night that new vigilante went viral…”

It took all of Izuku’s self control not to freeze like a deer in the headlights. Did he know? But if he did, would it really be so bad? Yes. Yes it would be. If Denki knew he was a vigilante, he’d be so worried and would try to get him to stop, but Denki was so much more open minded than his old classmates and he was preparing for UA, so he might try to convince Izuku to try the entrance exam and be a legal hero. Izuku...he didn’t think he’d be able to handle that. He was finally getting to the point where his desire to die was mostly quietly hanging out in the background most days, and some days wasn’t there at all, but if he were to get his hopes up, only to have them dashed again because he was just so useless…

He wasn’t strong enough to handle that. 

So he laughed, “Viridian? Seriously? Doesn’t he have a speed quirk or something? I mean, he runs from all those heroes…”

“That’s the thing though dude,” Denki said, “nobody actually knows what his quirk is, and you know that nobody’s just gonna assume a badass vigilante is quirkless.”

“Well I don’t know what to tell you.” Izuku tried. “I got injured from glass, not thorns. You know that. And besides, I saw those videos. Didn’t Endeavor set that poor guy on fire? He probably ended up in the hospital after something like that, not with mostly mild burns…”

Denki frowned, “I guess I hadn’t really thought about that...sorry.”

Izuku inwardly sighed in relief, but figured it’d be best to distract him from that train of thought before he could find the holes in Izuku’s excuses. Maybe if he brought up one of the topics that Denki tended to hyperfocus on…?

“So, are you learning a lot from the electricians at your store?” Izuku asked. 

Denki brightened, “Yeah! It’s really cool! I’ve been learning all about these different kinds of currents and….”

Izuku smiled slightly and took out his laptop as Denki started to ramble, “Sorry, I forgot to do this one assignment and it’s due today. Do you mind if I work on it while we talk?”

“No problem!” Denki gave him a thumbs up and Izuku booted up his computer as his friend started to ramble again. 

Izuku would occasionally add an idea for a support item or ask a question about what Denki was talking about, but mostly he was using it as a chance to look for the wireless signal that the bees gave off. He honestly wasn’t expecting to find anything. In fact, he was starting to think that this particular lead was a bust and he was going to have to find another way to capture a bee. 

Which is why it was such a surprise when he got a match. 

Izuku’s eyes widened slightly and he managed to pass it off as being surprised by something Denki had said, but his mind was racing as he looked around the diner. Now that he was looking for them, it was easy to see the slight movement in the upper corners of the room where small numbers of the robotic bees were hanging out, which wasn’t normal behavior for real bees. Izuku let out a slow breath.

He’d found the hive.

Chapter Text

Izuku may have looked calm on the outside, but inside he was panicking. On the one hand, it was super good to have found the hive because that meant that he could capture one of the bees and see if he had any more luck hacking them, but on the other...he hadn’t actually been expecting to find the hive!!! The first day he’d looked, sure, he’d been expecting to find something and so had brought along a bento box to hold the bee in, but then Mom had lost hers and needed something to put her lunch in and Izuku hadn’t even really thought about it before handing her his, which meant that even though he had written a program that basically acted as virtual honey to attract a bee, he had no way of actually containing one. 

But, well, he hadn’t actually ever had the tools to be successful as a vigilante, had he? He’d basically just gone out and figured it out as he went using whatever he could find, so...Izuku looked around the diner. What could he use? It needed to be strong, since the bee might try to escape and since it was quirk-made it was most likely quite a bit stronger than a typical bee, so anything plastic was out. He could trap the bee between the table and his milkshake glass, but then he wouldn’t be able to take it anywhere else, which wouldn’t be good if the hive somehow registered him as a threat. He wasn’t stupid enough to take it home, those things probably had trackers, but if he could at least put a little bit of distance between himself and the hive, it’d be better than nothing. So what…?

Izuku’s eyes caught on the small glass salt and pepper shakers sitting next to the napkins and he groaned internally. Mom would be so mad! If he did what he was thinking, he wouldn’t be a very polite customer, but if he didn’t, he wouldn’t be a very polite vigilante. Why did he have to make these kinds of decisions? And he couldn’t just dump it out all over the table! Denki, the waitress, everyone in this diner would think he was crazy. And however true that might be, it probably wasn’t the best idea to just admit it!

“Uh, you ok there Izuku?” Denki’s voice knocked him out of his thoughts and he glanced up to see Denki looking at him with concern. “It’s ok if I was boring you! You know you can tell me to shut up, but uh, you’re looking at the salt like it personally offended you….”

“No! You’re fine! I’m fine!” Izuku waved his hands frantically. “It’s just...uh...it’s not, well...it’s an experiment?”

“Looking at the salt is an experiment?” Denki cocked one eyebrow skeptically.

Izuku grimaced, “No? But uh...I was just thinking about how um, like you were saying, with the ions and because water is polar, it uh, the salt will conduct electricity? Maybe? I’m sorry, it’s probably really dumb.”

Denki grinned, “Nah, you’re good. Let’s try it! Wait, what are we trying again.”

“Um, I’m not really sure.” Izuku trailed off and grabbed his water and the salt shaker. “But let’s start by…”

He unscrewed the top off the salt shaker and upended it into the water, sending an apologetic smile toward the waitress, who thankfully wasn’t paying attention as she served another table. With any luck, they’d be gone before she noticed that he’d pocketed the salt shaker. Oh, he was such a bad customer, he’d never be able to come here again and then he’d have to tell Denki that he couldn’t flirt with the waitress anymore because he’d stolen a salt shaker!

Izuku shook his head. He could worry about that later, for now he had a mission. He turned to his laptop and started his virtual honey program on it’s lowest possible setting before opening up another window and frantically googling experiments with electricity and salt water. If he didn’t attract any bees, he could modify it so that the attraction was stronger, but since he was basically sitting inside the hive, as far as he knew, the last thing he wanted was to get swarmed by trigger bees. They probably wouldn’t affect him, what with him being quirkless and all, but it would draw more attention than he wanted. 

“Ok, um...according to this website, we would need a lightbulb.” Izuku looked at Denki “Do we have one of those?”

“Uh…” Denki glanced up. “Probably best if we don’t steal the one over the table, right?”

Izuku chuckled awkwardly and checked to make sure his program was running correctly before moving to the next experiment in the list, “Uh…maybe just see if you can shock me?”

Denki glared at him, but Izuku simply smiled back, “Come on! It’s not like you’ve never shocked me before!”

Denki chuckled and shook his head, “I guess you’re right! Let’s do it!”

“Perfect!” Izuku smiled and stuck one finger in the glass. “Now you stick your finger in too and make sure you’re not touching me, then use a tiny bit of electricity.”

Denki shrugged and Izuku felt the now familiar feeling of static running through him. It didn’t hurt, but Izuku knew his Mom would complain about how the electricity wasn’t helping his curls behave when he got home. Denki was getting a lot better at control at low voltages too, considering that he was able to just give a tingling shock, rather than a large one.

“It feels tingly, so the salt is definitely working.” If Izuku wasn’t currently concentrating on three different things, he’d definitely be scribbling in his notebook right now. 

“But, I wasn’t really trying yet.” Denki frowned. “Like, I wasn’t trying to not produce electricity, but I also hadn’t started putting electricity into the water yet.”

Izuku’s eyes widened and he caught movement in the corner of his eye. He glanced over toward the wall to see a bee, metallic body glinting in the light, crawling toward his laptop curiously. Keeping one eye on the bee as it got closer, he grabbed the empty salt shaker and forced his attention back to the experiment, “Uh, that’s actually pretty cool! I mean, it makes sense that your natural level of electricity is higher than the average person’s but it also means that the salt is probably slightly amplifying the electricity as well as conducting it. Does that make sense?”

“That’s awesome!” Kaminari said loudly. Izuku winced as the bee almost flew away, but thankfully the digital honey he was using to attract it was slightly stronger than whatever told it to mimic a real bee’s instinct. “Does that mean that if I had a bottle of salt water or something as part of my costume, I could use it to make myself stronger.”

Izuku glanced at the waitress, who was glancing around and looking at their table suspiciously, probably because their experiment and volume was starting to bother other guests. Time to wrap this up.

“It’ll probably be best to give you some range and set traps.” Izuku theorized. He hid his hands behind his laptop screen and carefully scooped the bee into the salt shaker as it crawled across his keyboard before quickly transferring it into his lap and screwing on the lid. “I, uh, think we should try some stuff at the park this weekend, but uh, we should probably leave before things get too shocking. Right? Don’t you have school tomorrow?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.” Kaminari pouted. “Alright, fine. I’ll ask the electricians at work about it too, see what experiments they recommend.”

“Good idea!” Izuku quickly stopped the program and shut down his laptop as he nonchalantly crammed the now vibrating salt shaker deep in his pocket. “I’ll bring a light bulb too!”

“That’s a great idea!” Denki laughed. “Actually, with all these great ideas, maybe we won’t need it. I mean, a lightbulb’s bound to appear above one of our head’s eventually, right?”

Izuku forced himself to remain calm as they paid for their milkshakes and left. The waitress hadn’t seemed to notice the missing salt shaker, but she definitely seemed to realize something was off, even if she didn’t seem to be able to tell that it was Izuku. He only breathed a sigh of relief once he had waved goodbye to Denki and made his way to a rooftop a few blocks away, taking out the saltshaker, complete with a now kind of angry evil bee, to assure himself that he had actually taken it. 

Mission successful.

Chapter Text

Shouta stared out over the city and scanned for any nefarious activity. It had been a toss up after the New Years Disaster whether villains would be discouraged by the berserker’s decisive downfall or encouraged by Endeavor’s publicity and, unfortunately for Shouta, it was the latter. Criminal activity had been steadily increasing since, especially once word got around that Viridian was actually out of commission. Shouta and the other heroes knew that Viridian was good at sniffing out crime, but apparently they had underestimated just how effective he was at deterring the local thugs. Just in the last two hours, Shouta had had to stop three different villains who had seemed surprised that a hero had found them without their “Green Guide watchdog” and it was starting to get ridiculous. It’s not like the kid’s quirk was finding villains or something!

Shouta paused. Maybe it was? Honestly, it wasn’t a ridiculous theory now that he thought about it and Viridian had never actually mentioned having an analysis quirk. He would have to have Tsukauchi check the quirk registry and see if a quirk like that even existed, but if he was right about this then it might explain some of the kid’s self confidence issues. With a quirk that was only good for finding trouble, Viridian probably wouldn’t have had the best relationship with his teachers and peers, and that’s if they didn’t simply write him off as having a villain’s quirk like they’d done to Shouta when he was a kid. Discrimination was so illogical, why did people…

He heard the faint whistle of something flying through the air and by this point it was second nature to snatch the marble out of midair. He smiled as he opened his hand, then frowned and looked toward the problem child himself, who was shifting nervously at the roof’s edge. The hoodie was obviously different, but it was definitely his kid, which brought up the question…

“Red? Seriously?” Shouta held up the marble. “Since when is your gear anything but green?”

“They were out of the green ones!” Viridian whined. “I went to three different stores and then finally just ordered some online, but they’re on backorder, apparently, because everyone’s been buying these stupid marbles as collectables which makes absolutely zero sense because I’m not a hero and even if I was, then they’re buying all the green marbles and there’s none left for the real Viridian , which kind of defeats the point! And then I couldn’t find any green hoodies either, because people are apparently cosplaying me, which is even worse! Don’t laugh, Eraser, it’s embarrassing!”

“Oh yeah, I’m sure fame is absolutely terrible.” Shouta said dryly, looking at the kid to make sure he was actually alright. The kid was physically alright, but when he reached the hoodie, Shouta did a double take and sighed, “Really, kid? Where did you even get that?”

“Amplifier gave it to me!” Viridian blurted out, tugging at the hem of a black hoodie with a grey hood, the words if lost, return to Eraserhead embroidered across the front. “I was just gonna make do with one of Mom’s cardigans and return them before she noticed, since she has a couple green ones, but you know how fights usually go for me and I didn’t want to ruin my mom’s clothes, so when I ran into Amplifier on the way here and she pushed this into my hands, I thought it might be better if maybe...ugh, I’m so sorry Eraserhead! I can take it off!”

While he rambled, Viridian had gradually grown quieter and curled in on himself and hidden his head in his hands. Amplifier had apparently gotten a few sizes too big to be safe, but all that meant was that the kid was almost completely swamped in fabric as he tried to shrink down into a smaller target and Shouta was brutally reminded of just how young this kid was. What had even pushed him to be a vigilante anyway?

“Um, Eraser?” Viridian tentatively interrupted his thoughts. “W-would you like me to take it off?”

Shouta tried to convey a week’s worth of exhaustion in a single sigh, “No, it’s still cold and it would be illogical to ask you to take it off. I will be talking to Amplifier about getting you a more appropriate outfit.”

“That’s really not necessary.” Viridian tried insisting. “I have one that I orderd online and I can just wear another color until it gets here! Or, um, I could buy another color and try dying it green…”

Shotua huffed in amusement, “I was talking about armor kid, not color. You do know that they make kevlar clothing, right?”

“No, those would count as illegal support items.” Viridian dismissed quickly. 

Shouta cocked an eyebrow, “And that’s somehow worse than what you’re already doing? Problem child, you are literally an illegal vigilante.”

To his surprise, Viridian gave him a shit-eating grin, “Ah, but I’m technically not…” suddenly, his mouth slammed closed and whatever confidence he’d momentarily felt was gone along with whatever he’d been about to say, “Oh, um, I had something I needed to show you!”

Oh no, Shouta had had enough students try to distract him that he wasn’t about to let that slide, “Viridian…” 

Instead of responding, Viridian reached into his hoodie pocket and shoved a salt shaker into his hands. The glass was blackened with soot and when he jostled it, there was a rattle of broken metal inside. He glanced curiously at Viridian, who was looking at him guilty, “Kid? What is this?”

Viridian groaned, “Well it was one of Queen Bee’s drones. I was trying to hack it.”

“I thought you already did that.” Shouta pointed out. “It’s illogical to try hacking a broken bee when you know that the connection to the hive is severed the moment it’s destroyed.”

“But it wasn’t!” Viridian’s voice cracked. “It wasn’t broken! I captured the bee alive and tried to hack it, but when I tried to follow the code and figure out where the queen was, I must have triggered some sort of anti-tampering mechanism and the bee self destructed before I could get any useful information from it!”

“Let me get this straight.” Shouta said, as calmly as he could. “You captured a bee, alive, after we told you to stay out of this case, and instead of, I don’t know, telling any capable adult so we could help you, you decided to try hacking it yourself.”

“I didn’t have any of my vigilante gear.” Viridian defended weakly. 

“Then go to a police station and give an anonymous tip as a civilian!” Shouta countered.

“Like they would have even believed someone like me.” Viridian replied bitterly.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Shouta asked

“Whatever.” The kid scoffed in frustration. “Do you want the bee or not?”

Shouta sighed again and pocketed the salt shaker, “Do I even want to know how you managed to get your hands on a live bee?”

Viridian shrugged, “It was pretty easy once I figured out where the hive was.”

That made Shouta freeze, “What did you just say?”

Viridian looked at him, still pouting slightly, “I said that it was pretty easy once I figured out where the hive was. I just put out some digital honey and the bee just…”

Shouta interrupted him before he could get any further, “Queen Bee’s swarm doesn’t have a hive.”

That made the kid’s face scrunch up in confusion, another thing Shouta was extremely used to as a teacher, though he preferred seeing that expression in the safety of the classroom, “But the bees base their behavior off of their insect counterparts. Real bees have hives where they gather when they aren’t out doing tasks for the queen, so I figured there had to be a place…”

“There’s not.” Shota said firmly. “These bees might act real in some situations, but they aren’t. They’re a quirk.”

“But…” Izuku looked between Eraserhead and the useless remnants of the bee. None of this was making sense. He’d found the hive. He’d been to it! There were bees! His digital honey had worked! “But then where do the bees gather if there’s not a hive?!”

Eraser groaned and rubbed his face tiredly, “Look, kid, this was never mentioned in the media to avoid hysteria, and we didn’t tell you because you’re not supposed to be on this case, but...Queen Bee isn’t a normal villain. She’s like a parasitic wasp more than a honeybee. She possesses a victim, usually a teenage girl from what we’ve seen, implanting herself inside the victim’s brain via the eye socket. The queen will sometimes keep living the host’s life or they might run away and form another life as a kind of cover for their villain activity, but their personality becomes a mix of the host and the queen. The bees live inside the host’s body, or sometimes around it if there’s too many, but there isn’t a hive like there is for real bee swarms. So believe me, you might have gotten lucky and found a bee, but there’s no way you found the hive, because the hive is...”

“Inside the queen.” Izuku’s stomach dropped as a million realizations clicked into place at once. The waitress at the diner, Kohaku, had an eyepatch from an accident that really didn’t make sense, considering that she said it was from her own quirk. Her personality had reportedly changed after this accident, almost like she had combined with someone else. She acted angry or upset whenever the bees were brought up. 

Oh no. 

“We need to go.” Izuku took a running start and jumped onto the next rooftop, running as fast as he could for the diner. Hopefully she was still at work, but if she wasn’t then the manager must have her contact information and they’d be able to figure out where she lived. “We can save the host, right?”

Eraser landed beside him and fell into step, “It’s been done, but the queen will only abandon a host when the body dies, from what we’ve seen, to avoid dying herself. The hosts that we’ve saved in the past have had to be resuscitated.”

Ok, Izuku had not been prepared for that when he woke up this morning. Actually, scratch that, he hadn’t been prepared for any of this! He hadn’t even been planning on finding a bee to hack and even after that he’d just been hoping to find the queen before she realized that he’d hacked…Izuku almost tripped as a new realization filled him with dread. 

“Eraser…” Izuku tried to keep his voice from trembling. “What would happen to the host if the queen felt threatened? Like if someone hacked one of her bees and possibly knows who she is?”

Shouta resisted the urge to curse as he kept pace with Viridian. He’d been hoping that the kid wouldn’t make that connection, but him stressing out would only make the kid freak out worse. The only logical option was honesty, for now, if only to avoid any unpleasant surprises when they arrived at wherever Viridian was leading him, especially if Shouta was right in suspecting that the kid had somehow discovered the queen when looking for the hive. If only the kid was actually a hero instead of an ill-supported vigilante, then he could have actually read all the files and been at the meetings rather than scrounging up whatever he could find on the internet, which was very obviously incomplete. Even for experienced heroes, working without proper information could lead to deadly mistakes, but that wasn’t something he’d wanted the kid to learn this young. 

“It will depend on the host.” Shotua said simply. “If there’s a reason why that host in particular was chosen and the queen feels she’s at risk of discovery, then she will probably remain in the host and simply go to ground. If the host was only chosen because of availability, however, then the queen will most likely...abandon them and move onto the next host.”

Viridian’s expression tightened, but he didn’t make any other response and Shouta didn’t know whether to be glad or not that the kid appeared to have picked up on what he’d said between the lines. On the one hand, it meant that Viridian didn’t mess up out of malice or obliviousness, which meant he had potential, but the emotions this kid must be going through...Ugh, why had Shouta let Nemuri convince him to go into teaching?

Shouta called Amplifier and Rock Lock for back-up as they ran, telling them to stay on standby in case they needed it. They had been running for about ten minutes when Viridian finally stopped and dropped to a crouch. Shouta knelt beside him and followed his eyeline to see an american style diner, lights still on and only half cleaned. The employees were nowhere to be seen. 

“It’s the waitress.” Viridian said softly. “Her name is Kohaku and she has copper hair, like the metal, um, that’s probably not actually important, but she checks all the boxes. Eye patch, personality change, surrounded by bees, everything. I don’t know if she’s still here, but…”

Shouta quickly gave their location to the other heroes, then glanced at Viridian. His first instinct was to tell the kid to stay put while he checked out the diner, but goodness knew that the kid wouldn’t ever actually do that, “Stay behind me kid, Doesn’t matter who she’s possessing, the queen is dangerous, so be ready for anything.”

They silently made their way across the street, Viridian shadowing his footsteps perfectly even though Shouta could feel the anxiety coming off the kid in waves. When the reached the door, Shouta activated his quirk and he could see Viridian loading a marble into his slingshot out of the corner of his his eye. They nodded to each other and burst through the door ready for a fight, only to be met with eerie silence. Shouta kept his quirk activated and gestured for the kid to keep quiet as they weaved around the tables, waiting tensely for any suspicious movement or sign of attack, but there wasn’t even a fly buzzing around as far as Shouta could tell. 

Finally, they reached the front counter and rounded the corner to go behind it, only for Shouta to freeze as he realized he’d been right and judging by the way Viridian sucked in a breath behind him, he’d been too slow to keep the kid from seeing. When the queen felt threatened, she had decided to abandon the host and had gotten rid of any loose ends, including the host herself, which meant that the only sign Queen Bee had ever been in this diner was the still-warm body of the waitress on the floor.

Chapter Text

Izuku felt like he was watching a movie, because there was no way this could be real. Maybe it was a murder mystery and Eraserhead was the daring detective that would ultimately save the victim and catch the killer. That had to be it, because Izuku obviously wasn’t the hero of the story and maybe that would explain why the body on the floor didn’t feel real. At any moment, the director would stand up from one of the tables behind them and yell cut and Kohaku would sit up and wipe fake blood from her face as she laughed at the stupid looks on their faces. Somehow, Izuku knew that wasn’t going to happen. 

This wasn’t a movie. 

The realization hit him like a truck and he felt a sick feeling of dread crash down on him. This wasn’t a movie. This was real, wasn’t it? Izuku stumbled backwards and turned to run, anything to get away and stop looking. A part of him knew it wouldn’t help, but somehow maybe if he wasn’t looking he could pretend that the weird numb feeling was telling the truth and that none of this was real. It couldn’t be real because if it was real then that meant that Izuku had…

Before he had even taken two steps, Izuku felt something grab his wrist and instinctively knew that it was Eraserhead’s capture weapon. This was it. This was the moment he got arrested and the fact that he was quirkless wouldn’t even help him because someone was dead now and it was all his fault and Eraser was going to take him to jail and his mom and kacchan would be so disappointed and All Might was right and he couldn’t be a hero because what kind of a hero got people killed?!

The capture weapon on his wrist pulled him back toward Eraserhead and Izuku didn’t even fight it, but instead of handcuffs like he’d expected, Izuku found himself being wrapped in strong arms. 

“Kid? Don’t...problem child, just…” 

It was like Eraser didn’t know what to say as he held Izuku in place, but his voice didn’t sound angry, just sad, which was somehow even worse because that destroyed the last barrier that was preventing Izuku from crying. He didn’t even really notice when the tears started flowing or when he started apologizing, he just knew that there was now a large wet patch on Eraserhead’s shoulder and the only sound he could hear was his own frantic apologies muttered on repeat. 

“I’m so sorry.” He whimpered again. “I’m...I didn’t..I didn’t mean...I’m such an idiot and I deserve...it’s all my fault…”

“Kid…” Eraser groaned in frustration. “Just...ok. I know you didn’t mean to, just let it out.”

Somehow that just made Izuku cry harder. Leave it up to a deku like him to mess up this badly. He should have just taken Kacchan’s advice and jumped. Sure, maybe Kacchan would have gotten in trouble and people would have gotten hurt but at least no one would be dead!  

A tiny bell jangled as the door opened and Amplifier and Rock Lock finally arrived, ready for a fight, not that there was any villains left to take down besides Izuku, who didn’t deserve to resist arrest. They took one look at Izuku crying in Eraser’s arms, but couldn’t see the body from where they were standing, so they just took in the scene in growing confusion.

“Hey Eraser, I thought you were gonna need backup.” Amplifier began. “What’s going on…”

Eraser simply jerked his head toward the body as Izuku sobbed harder. Amplifier and Rock Lock came around the counter and froze as they were finally able to see everything. Rock lock swore and started doing chest compressions, not that they would do any good, as Amplifier made the call for an ambulance.

“The kid found Queen Bee, but she abandoned the host before we could get here.” Eraser filled them in. “Looks like a purposefully traumatic exit to tie up loose ends.”

Amplifier finished up her call and hovered anxiously, her hand raised like she wanted to touch him, but wasn’t sure if that would be ok, which made Izuku feel even worse. He didn’t deserve to be comforted. Somehow, over the course of the past few minutes, he’d gone from trying to run away from the body to not being able to tear his eyes away, like he was afraid that he would forget what he’d done if he looked away. 

Maybe looking was the least he could do? If he couldn’t go back and fix his mistakes, then maybe the least he could do was sit with the consequences of his actions and take responsibility for them? He felt Eraser shift slightly, moving to block his view. He looked tired and worried, but there was a depth to his expression that Izuku wasn’t quite used to, maybe because he didn’t just look at the hero all that often. 

“Kid.” Eraser grabbed him by the shoulders and looked deep into his soul. “Promise me you won’t disappear again.”

Izuku didn’t get it. Why would Eraser want him to stick around? It would be best for everyone if he was just gone. Sure, maybe they’d miss him for a while and his mom would be sad, but then he wouldn’t be able to fuck up this badly again.

Shouta noticed the kid’s eyes flick to the side slightly, trying to look behind him, but he shifted again to block the kid’s view. What was done was done and he couldn’t change the past, he knew that all too well, but he’d become a hero to save as many people as possible. There was nothing he could do for Queen Bee’s host, but he needed to make sure there weren’t two deaths from this whole shit show. God knew the kid’s mental state was fragile enough already without blaming himself for a murder, but Shouta didn’t know if he could handle another month of searching obituaries for the kid’s face. 

Viridian still hadn’t answered him and Shouta almost growled in frustration, “Kid. There’s nothing you can do for her now, but you need to stay alive, got it? Heroism is...it’s dangerous, kid, you know this. You’ve almost died so many times…”

“Then why haven’t I?” The kid’s voice sounded so broken. “Why am I still alive? I can’t even die right!”

“Stop that kid.” Rock Lock came up behind them, apparently realizing that there was no point in trying to revive the old host. “You can’t blame…”

“It’s my fault, though!” The kid’s mental state shifted to anger and Shouta couldn’t help but be grateful that it was something. “I...I should have left it to the heroes…”

“Yes. You should have.” Shouta said bluntly. Lying to the kid was illogical and would only hurt him in the long run, since Viridian was smart enough to figure out those lies on his own. “But saving lives isn’t an exact science. People fuck up. People die. But you have a lot of lives left to save kid, starting with your own.”

“Eraser’s right.” Amplifier finally put a hand on his back. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but...we don’t want to lose you kid.”

Viridian seemed to think about that for a second and Shouta looked at him intensely, “Kid. I need you to promise us that you’ll stay alive tonight.”

If the kid didn’t promise, Shouta was going to take the kid in and get him help, no matter that it would probably destroy whatever hesitant trust the kid had in him. Honestly, he should probably do that anyway. Vigilantism really wasn’t a good coping mechanism and it definitely wasn’t a replacement for the therapy that the kid so obviously needed.

“Kid?” Shouta promised. 

Izuku looked into Eraser’s eyes. He was just doing his job, trying to save people’s lives, even if they didn’t deserve to be saved. Izuku took a deep breath and pushed all of his feelings down as far as they could go. He could deal with this later, but it didn’t seem like they were going to arrest him, so he needed to get home so he could break down in private. 

“Ok.” Izuku didn’t know if it was a lie or not. There was still too much going on, but… “I’ll stay alive.”

The for now was implied.

Chapter Text

Eraser hadn’t wanted him to leave, Izuku could tell. It was only logical, so he didn’t want to blame him, but it was still kinda annoying to have to focus on being stealthy and losing a tail when all he wanted to do was fall into bed and never wake up. Finally, after using every bit of stealth he’d picked up from spending nights around heroes, Izuku managed to get rid of that weird tingle in his spine that said he was being watched and was able to go home. 

He crawled in his window and barely had the energy to shed his weapons and switch his jeans out with pjs before he collapsed onto the bed. Izuku distantly realized that he should probably take off the stupid hoodie that Amplifier had given him, but he was tired and it was comfy! It wasn’t his usual hoodie, so it wasn’t like he actually had to worry about anyone seeing it and realizing he was Viridian, right? 

There was another part of him, buried deep at the moment, that was screaming as loud as it could that those were all just excuses and that the real reason he didn’t want to take off the hoodie was because it was a physical reminder that there were people that would miss him if he died. Izuku didn’t let himself listen to that part. If he did, he knew he’d just feel guilty, because he didn’t deserve to be wrapped in a hoodie-hug from one of his favorite heroes, so he chose not to overthink it, instead giving into the bone deep exhaustion and pretending that everything would be better in the morning.

Shouta really needed a drink, but the sun was barely even up, so having alcohol in his system right now would be the height of irrationality. Still didn’t mean that he wanted to deal with any of the paperwork from last night. 

At least they were almost done. It was one of the only positives of the whole situation. It had killed him to let Viridian leave like that, but he trusted the kid. He knew he wasn’t going to break his promise, which meant that they had at least another day where the kid would be safe and then they could deal with everything. Add that to the fact that Shouta was the one who first discovered the body and needed to be on site when the police arrived, and it basically led to the perfect storm leading to him, a licensed hero, letting a suicidal kid known to be relapsing, walk away alone. 

He hated it.

Shouta sighed in exhaustion as he signed the final page. Maybe he should get Nedzu to help him track the kid down. It seemed like a betrayal of trust, but if it would keep the kid safe, then…

His thoughts were interrupted by a kid in a middle school uniform pushing open the front doors of the police station with a tad more force than was strictly necessary. The kid slouched up to the front desk where Sansa was sitting, hands deep in his pockets, and Shouta would almost be tempted to think the kid was worried about something if he wasn’t acting like such an obvious delinquent. 

“Yo, fur ball.” The kid grumbled. “Amplifier anywhere around here?”

Shouta’s eyes almost widened with surprise, but he was dealing with a teenager, so it was only logical to expect the unexpected. Still, a kid with enough delinquent tendencies to call a cop furball walking straight into a police station and asking for a specific hero? Maybe he was just eager for a distraction, but it made him curious, which is how he found himself approaching the desk. 

“She had to run to the restroom real quick.” Shouta volunteered. “She should be back in a minute.”

The kid looked him up and down, looking unimpressed, “What are you supposed to be? A hobo?”

Shouta scoffed, “Try a hero, kid.”

The kid raised an eyebrow at him, “Seriously? How do you ever expect to get popular if you dress like that?!”

“Not every hero has to be popular, kid.” Shouta huffed. “Some of us don’t like dealing with the vultures.”

“...oh.” 

Shouta almost rolled his eyes. Apparently no one had ever told the kid that before. It was one of his least favorite things about the hero industry, that push toward popularity. It led to kids like this who just didn’t know that underground heroics were an option. It was frustrating, but if Shouta had the power to change it, he would have already done so.

They waited in somewhat awkward silence for a moment before the kid spoke up again, “So if you’re a fucking hero, what’s your name.”

“Eraserhead.”

Shouta said his hero name like it was a challenge because in a lot of ways it was. It was rare that even the students in his class had even heard his name, much less random punk kids who walked in off the streets, but he supposed there was always a first for everything. 

The kid apparently heard the challenge in his voice, because he glared at Shouta for a long moment as he tried to place him, then scoffed, “That’s a stupid name.”

“Yep.”

His blunt answer made the kid laugh and Shouta’s eyes nearly widened in surprise. With...well everything, he’d been expecting the kid’s laugh to sound cruel like a bully’s, but it just sounded tired. In fact, it was more similar to one of Shouta’s rare chuckles than what he’d expect based on how the kid presented himself. 

“My…” The kid hesitated. “This kid I used to know, he probably would have known about you. Probably could rattle off a dozen facts about you, too.”

Shouta was about to deny this, because he was underground for a reason, but they were interrupted. 

“Wait, was that a laugh from the great Katsuki Bakugo?!” Amplifier’s voice called from behind them in exaggerated shock and Shouta turned, rolling his eyes when he realized she was clutching her chest dramatically. “Did you break him, Eraser?”

“Shut up, Loud Bitch.” The kid, Bakugo apparently, said good-naturedly. 

That just made Amplifier laugh, which even though it was annoyingly loud, Shouta was oddly grateful for. After everything that had happened that morning, they could all use a little distraction. He looked more carefully at the kid. Amplifier seemed to take his rudeness and swearing in stride, and there didn’t seem to be any malice behind it, so maybe the kid wasn’t as much of a delinquent as he seemed? Either way, he was still a punk. 

“Ah, Eraserhead! How rude of me not to introduce you two!” Amplifier grinned. “This is Bakugo. I think I told you about him. That kid who volunteers with my villain redemption group?”

Shouta did remember. So this was the kid who was self aware enough to realize he needed to make changes before he could be a hero and was willing to take steps to make that happen. It made his behavior make a lot more sense. He was a delinquent or, at least, he had been, and now probably didn’t know any other way to act. He could probably use a little more work, especially if he wanted to be a popular hero, but the base was there.

“To what do I owe this visit?” Amplifier asked. “Shouldn’t you be in school?”

“Doesn’t start for another twenty minutes.” Bakugo grumbled. “And I...I needed to talk to you about something.”

“Alright.” Amplifier shrugged, clearly conveying that it wasn’t the weirdest thing that had happened all day. “Shoot.”

Bakugo shot a look at Shouta, probably wanting a little bit of privacy and Shouta was about to honor the kid’s wishes and walk away when he bit the bullet and just started talking, “You ever heard of some guy who calls himself Stain?”

Shouta and Amplifier shared a look. Was Bakugo really asking about the hero killer? How had he even heard that name? They’d been working to keep it out of the media as much as possible!

“Big guy?” Bakugo prompted. “Katana? Way too many knives? Stupid paralyzation quirk when he cuts you? Manic obsession with heroes being worthy?”

How did he know so much? Shouta knew Stain’s quirk had been written about before, but his motivations were still largely unknown, even to those investigating him, so how…?

“Well, if you don’t know about him, you should.” Bakugo ran his hand through his hair and huffed in frustration and...embarrassment? “He’s fucking insane.”

“You sound like you’re speaking from experience.” Shouta said slowly.

Bakugo looked at him like he was an idiot, “No, I just saw him on a billboard. Of course I’m speaking from experience! He fucking tried to kill me!”

Shouta and Amplifier both froze. Even back when he’d been Stendal, Stain had been known to go after anyone he had an issue with and while it was rare for him to go after kids, it wasn’t unheard of, which brought up the question of how this kid survived the encounter.  

“But...Bakugo….” Amplifier hesitated. “Stain usually goes after heroes or villains. You’re not either, so…”

“So he thought he’d nip me in the bud before I could become a hero.” Bakugo snarled. “I’m not an idiot, I know how I act. And before you ask, he changed his fucking mind and decided to spare me. Let me grow or some shit.”

Shouta raised an eyebrow curiously, “Do you know why?”

Now he was sure that the kid was embarrassed. Bakugo looked at the floor, “Guy’s fucking insane, nothing he does makes sense.”

Shouta looked at Amplifier and they silently agreed not to press him for answers. Yet. 

Amplifier placed a hand on Bakugo’s arm and spoke softly, “When was this?”

“A couple nights ago.” Bakugo grumbled.

Shouta crossed his arms, “And you didn’t tell us then because…?”

“Because I thought I could fucking handle it!” Bakugo snapped. “I’m gonna be a hero! I need to be strong and…”

“And rely on others.” Amplifier said firmly. “I know we’ve talked about this in group, but you don’t have to do everything alone, Bakugo. And you shouldn’t!”

“Whatever.” Bakugo adjusted his backpack and kept glaring at the floor. “I’ve gotta get to class, just...don’t let that guy Stain corner you.”

He looked them in the eye before he turned to leave, “He’s fucking terrifying.”

Inko knew that Izuku’s sleep schedule was messed up. Ever since switching to online school, he mostly slept at odd hours and she had a sneaking suspicion that he had several hours in the early morning that he did homework instead of sleeping, but there were days like today when she wondered if there was something else going on. Izuku hadn’t left his room all day, which was odd, especially because it was her day off and he usually at least came to eat dinner with her. His light wasn’t even on and she couldn’t see the light from his laptop, so she knew he wasn’t just getting distracted with his classes, which meant he was still in bed. 

She knocked a few times before pushing his door open hesitantly, “Izuku, baby? Are you ok?”

Izuku was curled up in his bed facing the wall, but he hadn’t been asleep. When she came in, he looked back at her and sat up quickly, giving her a bright smile that was obviously fake considering that she could still see the puffy eyes and tear tracks that meant he’d been crying. 

Her heart clenched slightly. She knew the rates of depression in teens and how those risks were increased in the quirkless, and she’d hoped that things would get better for Izuku after transferring out of Aldera, but apparently she’d been wrong. Or maybe it was just a bad day.

She hoped to god it was just a bad day. 

“Um…” She smiled awkwardly, hesitant to address the elephant in the room. Izuku would tell her if something was wrong, right? “I’ve never seen that hoodie before, um, is it new? Eraserhead’s one of the heroes you like, right? I remember you mentioning him when you were a bit younger.”

“Oh!” Izuku looked down to see what he was wearing and turned bright red. “Um, yeah! It’s, uh...custom merch? Yeah, custom merch! I just, uh, really like him?”

Inko didn’t really know how to respond to that. Izuku liked a lot of heroes, but this Eraserhead must really be something special if he was willing to spend his money on custom merch of the hero. Still, talking about the hoodie had given her an idea. 

Izuku was probably afraid of worrying her. He had always been a considerate child, quick to wipe away his tears if it meant he could comfort someone else who was crying. If he was in pain, he probably wouldn’t tell anyone. He would just keep it to himself so he’d be the only one suffering. But that brief moment talking about the hoodie, it had distracted him, so even if Inko couldn’t force him to tell her what was wrong, the least she could go was distract him from whatever was bothering him until he felt a little better. 

The first step would be getting him out of this dark room.

“I was just about to make a batch of cookies.” Inko smiled. “I thought I’d take them to my coworker. You know, the one who was injured during the New Years Disaster?”

An unreadable expression crossed Izuku’s face, but it was quickly replaced with a smile, “That sounds like a great idea, Mom!”

“She actually has a daughter around your age.” Inko said carefully. “I thought maybe you’d like to come help me deliver them?”

Again, that same expression passed over his face and Izuku looked briefly torn before he took a look at Inko’s puppy-dog eyes and crumpled, “Alright.”

Inko smiled and pulled Izuku out of bed, “Good. Now I was thinking chocolate chip, but maybe with their family’s quirks, we might want to add some extra ingredients…”

Chapter Text

Izuku was quiet and Inko hated that she didn’t know whether that was normal for him or not. Her Izuku, the one she remembered from when he was little, before he was diagnosed and everything went wrong, that Izuku was always talking. He was always rambling about something or another, usually heroes, and had this spark in his eye that Inko loved, but over the years things had changed. It was so gradual that she had hardly noticed, but looking back now it was obvious that he’d stopped rambling as much. Instead of talking for hours without hardly breathing, he would ramble for a few minutes, then clamp down and apologize for annoying her. Instead of that sparkle…

Inko never wanted to repeat seeing him as empty as he had looked when she picked him up from that school with a broken arm. 

Getting him out had helped...some. He’d thrived in his new classes, blowing through them like they were nothing and there had even been some times when he’d rambled to her without immediately shutting down. His new friend had helped too. Inko still hadn’t actually met Kaminari, but she was hoping that Izuku would be confident enough to bring him home someday soon. At this point, Inko probably knew just as much about Kaminari’s quirk as the boy himself did!

Quirks were one of the few things Inko had noticed that would reliably bring Izuku out of his shell, which was why it was so heartbreaking that Izuku was being so quiet today. He would normally be fascinated with a quirk-related challenge like this, but today he had only given short answers, and then only when Inko asked him a question, and he hadn’t started rambling even once. Inko hated it.

Izuku pulled at the sleeves of his new Eraserhead hoodie again. He had spent most of the short time since Inko had pulled him out of his room playing with the string or the sleeves, and any other day she would have been tempted to giggle and take a picture of the way he had cocooned himself inside it. Alright, she was still tempted, but if Izuku found the hoodie comforting, Inko was sure she’d have plenty of other chances to fill her camera roll. She was curious as to why, if Izuku had specially ordered the hoodie, he hadn’t gotten the correct size. The hoodie practically swamped him, almost like whoever made it had thought he was a few years older than he was, but it made it easier for him to disappear into the fabric, which seemed to be exactly what he needed right now, so Inko wasn’t going to question him on it.  She was just grateful that he had found something to comfort him, even if what he found was just a hoodie. If he would just trust her enough to tell her what was wrong…

Inko shook her head and finished tying a ribbon around the cookies. It was going to take time to rebuild Izuku’s trust in adults after what his old school had put him through and forcing him to confide in her would probably do more harm than good at this point, especially since she still haven't managed to get Izuku to open up about the details of how his teachers treated him. The best thing she could do for her baby was be patient and give him plenty of opportunities to come to her. Why was being a parent so hard?

Inko forced a small smile and turned to Izuku, “Ready to go?”

Izuku nodded quietly and stood. Inko’s eyes widened in surprise when she realized he was moving to take off his hoodie and she hurried to stop him, “Why don’t you leave that on? It’s a bit chilly outside. It’s just hero merch, right? It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, even if Eraserhead isn’t as popular.”

Izuku looked at her strangely and shrugged, but left the hoodie on, which Inko decided to count as a win. She had no idea why he’d tried taking it off to leave, but she wasn’t about to let him leave behind the one comfort item that seemed to be anchoring him though...whatever he was going through. And she wasn’t lying! Lots of kids wore hero merch, and if anyone had a right to wear merch from lesser-known heroes, it was Izuku. He’d been learning everything he could about them since he was a baby!

They were silent as they rode the train. Izuku looked out the windows and tried to keep his eyes from straying to the tallest buildings. He knew what Mom was doing. She was trying to get him out of the house, even though it was the last thing he wanted to do right now. After all, if he never left his house again then he’d never be able to accidentally hurt someone again. 

He wondered if Kohaku had had a family. She must have, right? Kaminari had said that she was a couple years older than them, if Izuku remembered correctly, but she was still a teenager. She still had parents, friends, classmates. Would they miss her? Or would they say that she had already been gone by the time she died, since she had been possessed by Queen Bee for so long? Did that even make a difference? Would they ever forgive…

Izuku shut down that train of thought quickly. He didn’t deserve anyone’s forgiveness, especially not the forgiveness of the family of someone he’d gotten killed, so there was no point in wishing for something he could never have. He’d learned that lesson the hard way after ten years of wanting to be a hero. 

Mom checked her phone before ushering them off the train and Izuku froze as they left the train station and he saw the cones and hazard tape cordoning off one of the buildings down the street. The diner looked different during the day.

“Hmm,” Mom paused and looked at the crime scene. “I wonder what happened?”

Izuku gulped and forced himself to shrug and keep walking. Mom sighed and followed. She’d probably been hoping to pull him into a conversation, like she’d been doing all day, but, Izuku hadn’t read the hero news this morning. Not that he didn’t know what had happened, but...he didn’t know why he was being so quiet today. Normally he was a lot better at faking it, but today there just didn’t seem to be a point. Sure he could pretend to be happy, but he’d actually been happy for the first time in his life and it had apparently upset some kind of cosmic balance in the universe, so why should he even try?

It didn’t take long after passing the diner for Izuku and his mom to reach their destination. It wasn’t a large house, by any means, but it put the Midoriya’s small apartment to shame. Mom had barely even knocked once when the door swung open to reveal a girl Izuku’s age with long green hair and a wide mouth. She looked them up and down, but Izuku couldn’t read her expressions well enough to tell whether she liked what she saw or not, which made him shrink further into his hoodie. Why had he let Mom talk him into this?

“You must be the Midoriya’s.” She said bluntly.

“Oh, um…you’re Beru’s oldest, aren’t you Asui-chan.” Mom seemed just as discomfited by the girl’s expressionless eyes as Izuku was, but she took it into stride, “I’m Inko Midoriya, I work with your mother. Is she here?”

“Call me Tsu.” Tsu, apparently, turned on her heel and headed back further into the house, leaving the door open for them to follow. Izuku shared a glance with his mom and she gave him an encouraging smile as they took off their shoes and went inside. 

“Mom’s doing a lot better, Kero.” Tsu said, leading them down the hall and into the kitchen. “She’s planning on returning to work as soon as she can. She gets lonely, kero.”

“I can understand that.” Mom said kindly. “It’s just Izuku and I at home, but Beru is always so kind at work. It just hasn’t been the same without her.”

Izuku nodded along politely with the conversation, but found himself getting distracted by all the windows. He hadn’t noticed from the outside, but the Asui home had far more windows than a typical house. Was it an aesthetic choice or…

“Why are you staring out the windows?” Tsu asked suddenly. “Do you want to leave?”

“Wha...no!” Izuku jumped and stuttered as he tried to justify himself in any way that would be more polite than yes I want to leave, but was looking at the windows for unrelated reasons. “I, uh, was just wondering about the windows themselves. Because, um, Mom said that your family all have frog-type quirks, so I was expecting things like water features...not that you have to have those! But, um, I guess frogs sunbathe?”

Izuku winced awkwardly, but Tsu surprisingly didn’t react to his word-vomit beyond a polite nod. Or maybe it wasn’t surprising. The frog-like features probably made it difficult for her to emote normally. If he were fighting someone with that quirk, could he use it to his advantage? Izuku pinched himself and forced his mind away from his vigilantism. After last night, maybe he didn’t deserve to save people.

“Izuku has always loved quirks!” Mom volunteered. “I even asked for his advice on how to modify the cookies to better suit your family!”

“Mom!” Izuku hissed, too many memories of people reacting...poorly to his analysis coming to mind as Asui blinked at them.

“Really?” She didn’t seem put off, but then again, Izuku didn’t know her well enough to read her yet. She turned to Izuku, who couldn’t help freezing like a deer in the headlights at the sudden attention. “What modifications did you make?”

“Well, um…” Izuku tugged on the ends of his hoodie again and glanced at Mom, who smiled encouragingly. “Nothing much. I mean, I know that most frogs are carnivores and that insects comprise a majority of their diets, but we didn’t really have any of those at home...well, not ones that are for cooking, and I know it can be a sensitive subject and we didn’t want to offend you if you don’t eat like frogs, which is entirely valid! But um…”

Tsu tilted her head, “So they’re just normal cookies?”

Izuku deflated, “Mostly? I mean, we added some nuts and protein powder because we figured that a frog quirk would require a little more protein in the diet than a standard human, so…”

“That’s so thoughtful!” A woman’s voice croaked behind them. “I mostly use cricket flour here at home. A little more robust than wheat flour, but still wonderful for baking.”

“Beru!” Mom lit up with a smile as she strode toward the woman and gave her a hug. “I’m so glad to see you up and about! How’s your husband?”

“Ganma’s fine.” Beru answered, gesturing for them all to sit at the table. “I was much more affected by the attack than he was anyway. Toads are a tad more resilient than frogs!”

She gave a croaking laugh. Izuku couldn’t breathe. He recognized her. There had been a lot of people that ran past him during the New Years disaster, but he distinctly remembered thinking that woman has an aquatic quirk, I need to to focus on getting her out of the fire, before dragging her out of the bar. The man with her must have been her husband. 

He’d saved them.

“So this is the son you’re always bragging about.” Beru turned to Izuku and frowned. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

Izuku’s eyes widened in panic and he clenched his teeth together to avoid falling into an incriminating mutter storm. He hadn’t even thought about the possibility that he would come across someone he’d saved in real life. And of course it had to happen on the day he was wearing his Eraserhead hoodie. He remembered Beru being pretty out of it when she’d saved him, so there was a good chance that she wouldn’t be able to place him, but her husband might be able to, unless he was too distracted with everything else going on to pay attention to the random vigilante. Would they tell Mom? How would Mom even react? She’d be heartbroken!

“Um...Mom probably has pictures of me in her office, right?” Izuku chuckled awkwardly and frantically thought of any way he could do damage control in this situation. “Like she said, it’s just her and I and I’ve been told I look a lot like her, so uh, that’s probably it?”

Beru looked at him for a long moment and Izuku held his breath before she nodded resolutely and took one of the cookies, “Yes, you do. That must be it.”

“So As...Tsu said you’re recovering well?” Mom asked. “I’m glad. I just can’t imagine being out on a date and finding yourself in the middle of a villain attack like that!”

“It was definitely not how I would have chosen to spend the night, no.” Beru said bluntly. “It was terrifying the way that a single villain could take an entire city block hostage like that. And then when Endeavor arrived…” Beru shivered. “Well, I almost wish he’d left the whole thing to that vigilante. At least he wasn’t a danger to those around him.”

Izuku sank down slightly in his seat. She might think that now, but she’d only seen Viridian in one fight. If she knew that the vigilante that saved her was just a quirkless kid pretending to be useful…

“He could have done better.” Tsu piped up.

“Tsu!” Beru scolded.

“What? He could have.” Tsu shrugged. “He used himself as a target, which made it harder for him to save people and get them out.”

Izuku hadn’t...he hadn’t thought of it that way before. He knew that if he died to quickly, then he wouldn't’ be able to save people, but...he wasn’t sure if he knew how to fight in a way that didn’t make himself the target. Wasn’t that the only thing he was good for anyway?

“I’m sure the kid is out there beating himself out over it and figuring out how to do better.” A man, Ganma probably, considering that Izuku thought he looked familiar, walked into the room and immediately grabbed a cookie and bit into it. “Shouldn’t you be more worried about preparing for the UA exam?”

“Oh, you’re applying for UA?” Izuku turned to Tsu. “My friend is applying too! Maybe you’ll be in the same class!”

“I have to get in first.” Tsu said. “But I’ve been training even harder since Mom got injured. The heroes arriving should always make the situation better, not worse.”

Izuku nodded frantically in agreement and glanced around the table, which is when he realized that Ganma had been staring at him like a puzzle that needed to be solved ever since he’d spoken up. Izuku shoved half a cookie in his mouth and tried his best to disappear farther into his hoodie. 

“Ah, Ganma, that’s Inko’s son, Izuku.” Beru said quickly. “He looks just like his mother, doesn’t he? That’s why I thought he seemed familiar at first.”

“But Dad hasn’t met Midoriya-san.” Tsu pointed out. “So it shouldn't matter that they look alike.”

Ganma’s eyes brightened and he gave a booming croak that was probably a laugh of some sort, “Nah, but it is interesting!”

Izuku wanted to disappear. It seemed like everything was just conspiring against him to make today the worst day ever and now the only thing he needed to make it even better was running into Kacchan or having Kaminari text him saying that he didn’t want to be friends anymore. He let mom engage the family in polite small talk for a half hour. Izuku had about a million and a half questions about the Asui’s quirks, but for some reason couldn’t find the motivation to ask them. Finally, they were interrupted when the front door slammed open and two grade-school age kids raced through the house. 

“Cookies?!” The boy grinned widely and grabbed one. “Awesome!”

“Samidare! Be polite!” Tsu scolded. “You can at least tell the Midoriya’s that the cookies taste good.”

“Oh yeah.” Samidare spoke with his mouth full as the little girl with him grabbed . “They’re amazing!”

Mom laughed, “Well, I think that’s our cue to leave. Thanks for letting us drop by.”

“Anytime.” Beru smiled. “You and your son are always welcome here.”

“I’ll walk you out.” Ganma offered. 

He slammed his palms down on his thighs before standing and walking them back down the hall to the door. He waited politely as the Midoriyas put on their shoes, but right as they were about to leave, he put a hand on Izuku’s shoulder to hold him back. Izuku finched and looked back, not knowing what to expect. Had he said something rude? Had they not liked the cookies? Maybe they were allergic to nuts? No, that was illogical, they would have said something. Still, there had to be some reason why Ganma was staring at him like that.

It seemed like his wide eyes were staring straight into Izuku’s soul as he spoke softly, “Thank you, son.”

Izuku froze, “...what?”

Ganma grinned widely and patted him on the shoulder, “You know, for the cookies! They were amazing! We’ll have to get the recipe from you sometime.”

“Of course!” Mom returned Ganma’s smile and Izuku numbly followed as she ushered him out the door.

Somehow, he didn’t think Ganma was just referring to the cookies.

Chapter Text

Katsuki really couldn’t tell how he had ended up here. If someone had told that little punk from his second year of middle school that not only would he be hanging out with people on a regular basis that didn’t think he was the greatest thing since sliced bread, but that he would actually know their names? He’d have laughed in their faces and probably called them idiot extras to boot, so it was just hard to wrap his head around the fact that a ragtag group of former villains had not only managed to pull him off his high horse, but actually managed to make him genuinely enjoy spending time with them. 

It made Katsuki sorta happy, not that he’d ever admit that out loud. 

Ogawa pulled him into a headlock and ruffled his hair as he led the group down another alley, “Hey Bakugo! What’s going on in that crazy head of yours?”

“Bold of you to assume there’s anything happening at all!” Akiko laughed. 

“Come on, Akiko, go easy on him, he’s just a kid.” Maki said. 

“Hey!” Katsuki shoved Ogawa off of him. “Who are you calling kid?”

“You are literally still in middle school, Bakugo.” Maki laughed. “That’s the definition of kid.”

Katsuki ran his fingers through his hair to fix whatever Ogawa had done to it and scowled, “Shut up.”

He was getting surprisingly good at navigating the back alleys of the city now that he’d taken to hanging out with Ogawa and the others outside of group. He could find his way to most of the popular hangouts on his own and even knew which bars were theoretically the best for finding people like info brokers or dealers who would be able to help him once he became a hero. That was how he knew Ogawa was leading them to one particular bar that was popular with people like vigilantes, minor villains, and even civilians who were a little more lax about things like legality. 

The place they were going, along with most other bars like it, was what was known as a grey space. Akiko had explained that they were like informal neutral spaces where people of all... moral stances could come together without being at each other's throats for once. Katsuki still hadn’t seen any underground heroes like Eraserhead in any of the ones he’d visited so far, but he figured that was probably because he showed up in the afternoon, not the middle of the night like that hobo. 

“Hey! Drill Girl!” The bartender grinned as they got to the bottom of the stairs, which looked super creepy, considering that half his face was held on with staples. “Come to give me your number?”

“You wish, Dabi!” Akiko laughed. “First off, aren’t you gay? And second off, you know I’ve sworn off dating deadbeats like you!”

“Ouch!” Dabi clutched his heart dramatically, but his smirk ruined his little show. “I’ll have you know I’m an upstanding member of society with a real job!”

“Uh huh.” Ogawa smirked. “Because being a bartender for a grey space is a completely upstanding career.”

“You know, I could kick you out for that.” Dabi threatened, not that there was any real heat behind it. “And for bringing the kid! Come on, Ogawa, this is a bar, not a daycare.”

“Yeah, yeah, as if you actually care.” Ogawa rolled his eyes and sat down at the bar. “You know Bakugo here is getting to know the grey spaces for when he’s a hero.”

“Sure...” Dabi looked him up and down, “I'm guessing you want a juice box, don’t you kid?”

Katsuki glared at him and slumped down into one of the bar stools, “Fuck you.” 

“If only my kid brother had half your backbone.” Dabi drawled. “Orange juice it is!” 

Katsuki rolled his eyes, but accepted the glass. He didn’t get why the bartenders at these places enjoyed giving him juice so much, but for some reason they thought it was funny to rub his age in his face. Yeah, he knew middle schoolers didn’t typically get dragged to places like this, but he was having to accept that he wasn’t really a typical kid. Most kids, for example, weren’t actively trying to take advantage of their former role as a bully to be a better hero, so Katsuki figured he could take a few jokes about his age.

“So…” The bar stool creaked ominously under Maki’s weight as he sat down. “Anything interesting happening lately?”

Katsuki leaned forward slightly and paid attention. From what he’d learned from Ogawa and the others so far, phrases like that were used to open conversations to trade info. Most of the time, a question like that would be followed by a vague conversation about what info or resources the person asking had to trade, but sometimes, like now, the contact wouldn’t have very valuable info, so they’d volunteer information and a price might be decided after. 

“Hmm..not really, honestly. The murder of that waitress has everyone spooked. According to some of my contacts, she was actually pretty high up in one of the trigger operations, so things are gonna be quiet for the next week or two at the very least.” Dabi stopped wiping down the glass he was cleaning. “Actually, I do have something that might interest you. Word on the street is that your brat here has a bit of competition.”

Ogawa glanced at Katsuki nervously, but he just shrugged. This was the first he was hearing about it. 

Ogawa turned back to the bar, “What do you mean by competition?”

Dabi shrugged, “I don’t know everything, but I’ve heard from a few people that Stain’s got his eye on this potential future hero who somehow convinced him not to kill him. All I know is that the kid apparently acts a bit like a villain, but he managed to impress the hero killer, so he must be pretty good. Oh, and that his name is Kacchan, apparently.”

Katsuki couldn’t control the groan that left him at that, which made the rest of the group turn and look at him curiously. His face got hot and he downed the rest of his juice as an excuse to avoid their questions. Considering that they were still looking at him when he finished, that plan had been a failure. 

Well, now he had to say something, or else these extras were never going to let him hear the end of it, “I was thinking that creepy freak would at least keep his mouth shut, but apparently not.”

“Wait…” Akiko gasped. “Is Stain talking about you?!”

“Who else acts like a villain but wants to be a hero anyway, you idiot?!” Katsuki growled. He was just ready for this conversation to be over. “The asshole cornered me in an alleyway last week and tried to stab me.”

“Ok…” Ogawa looked both impressed and skeptical. “But how did you convince him not to kill you?”

“And why does he think your name is Kacchan?!” Akiko added. 

Katsuki sighed and dragged a hand down his face. He could just leave, but he knew they weren’t gonna just drop it, so it was better to get it over with, otherwise it was just gonna get brought up again and again until he eventually gave in. “He knows what my real name is, he just likes being an asshole. You guys remember that exercise Amplifier had us do? The one where we wrote a letter vowing to become better or some shit?”

“Of course…” Maki said. “But, Bakugo, what does that have to do with the hero killer?”

“I’d written mine to the kid I used to bully. Signed it Kacchan , cause that’s what Iz...what that kid used to call me. I happened to have the paper with me when Stain decided to be a psycho and attack me.” Katsuki scoffed. “That motherfucker read it, which for the record, I’m more mad about than the whole trying to kill me thing. Something about me vowing to be better changed his mind about killing me or something. Said I had the seeds of heroism or some bullshit like that, so he wouldn’t kill me yet. Then, he decided to be a jerk and rub it in by calling me the stupid nickname I’d put in the letter.”

“Yeah, that does seem like something he’d do.” Dabi smirked at him. “He’s probably doing it intentionally too. Probably sees you as whoever you put in the letter, rather than who you are today, so he’s trying to mould you into who you promised that kid you’d be.”

“Oof.” Ogawa looked at him sympathetically. “That sucks, man, sorry.”

Katsuki shrugged, “Whatever. Just means I got one more reason to be the best hero, right?” He turned back to Dabi. “What do we owe you for the info?”

“Are you kidding?” Dabi laughed. “Knowing who the mysterious Kacchan is that Stain keeps ranting about is more than enough! Good luck you brat.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes and huffed as Akiko finally gave into her laughter, “I’m so sorry, Blasty, but Kacchan?! It’s just so funny! You’re expecting this wide-eyed kid with stars in his eyes, but instead...!”

“Instead you get an asshole with a swearing problem!” Ogawa gave a shit eating grin. “Oh my god! That’s spectacular! Just the irony of it!”

Katsuki scowled, “Are you trying to get an explosion to the face?”

“Oh come on, Kacchan, ” Maki, the traitor, joined in, “You gotta admit it’s pretty funny.”

Katsuki crossed his arms and went back to his glass, which had suspiciously been refilled, “I hate all of you.”

That didn’t do anything to make his friends stop laughing.

All for One did not appreciate meddling kazoo players interrupting his symphony. Once Queen Bee had gotten the feeling the one of her drones had been compromised, she had immediately cut ties with it and gone to the doctor with her concerns, who had ordered her to abandon her current host and move into the next target that they had already discussed. It was, annoyingly, much sooner than All for One had hoped to make that move, since he would have preferred a guarantee that the host would be going to UA, rather than Queen Bee having to take the exam in her body, but it wasn’t enough of a disadvantage to stop the plan from moving forward. The young woman that Queen Bee had suggested had a useful enough quirk that should keep her from being discovered again, which was unfortunately becoming quite important. Every time Queen Bee was forced to change hosts was one more clue that heroes and meddlesome vigilantes could use to track her down, so the best they could do was make sure Queen Bee trained adequately so that she could take her place as a spy within UA once the time was right. 

It was simply a shame that she hadn’t been able to point to who exactly had attempted to hack into her hive. She had pointed to a handful of patrons that had been acting suspiciously at the dining establishment her old host had worked in, but on further investigation none of them had any sort of quirk that would have allowed them to hack into such a complex system. One of them had had a promising electricity quirk that might have helped, but after looking up the boy’s grades, All for One had dismissed him as a possibility. An electricity quirk on its own wouldn’t be enough to successfully enter Queen Bee’s systems and the boy’s grades did not reflect the level of intelligence necessary for the task, which put them back to square one. 

All for One was fairly certain that it was, in fact, that troublesome vigilante, since he was known to hack into the heroes’ communication systems and must have a quirk that allowed him to control technology in that way or at least analyze weaknesses in their systems, which was why he had immediately ordered Queen Bee to leave her old host’s body visible at the diner and hang around while getting used to her new body. He had been correct in assuming that the vigilante would return there, but had been frustratingly wrong about how easy it would be to follow him home and discover his identity. Queen Bee had not been used to her new host yet and so had somehow managed to lose the boy. It was infuriating. 

He would almost be tempted to get rid of her entirely for her failures, but she still had a part to play in the next movement of his symphony, which would be ready to begin as soon as he acquired one final musician. He would simply need to ensure that she and the other players kept an eye out for pesky audience members and their troublesome kazoos. One couldn’t interrupt a symphony if they were safely tied up backstage, after all.

Chapter Text

Izuku scaled the wall of the alley, ignoring the growing number of scrapes on his hands as he left yet another criminal zip tied to a dumpster for the police to find. He’d lost track of how many criminals he’d apprehended so far that night. It had to have been more than five, but honestly he didn’t want to keep track. He just figured that it was easier to throw himself into fights than it was to face the battle that was raging in his head right now. The little imaginary Eraserhead on his shoulder was telling him to be logical. Yes, he’d messed up, but he’d saved more people than he’d allowed to die. Without him, the Asui kids might’ve become orphans, so he had to be doing at least some good, right? On his other shoulder, however, a little imaginary Kacchan was yelling at him that vigilantism was just one more thing he couldn’t do right. 

It was just easier to ignore both of them. 

Thankfully his online order for a new hoodie had come in sooner than he had expected, so even if he still had to use the wrong color of marble, he could pretend that things were back to normal. Kind of. 

“Busy night, huh?”

Izuku jumped as he heard a voice speak up behind him, and almost relaxed when he realized that it was just Eraserhead, but then tensed as he remembered what had happened last time they ran into each other. So much for pretending things were normal.

“Eraserhead…” Izuku forced out an awkward chuckle, “Fancy seeing you here…?”

Eraser rolled his eyes, “Because I’m obviously normally asleep at this time of night, problem child.”

He sat down on the edge of the roof and glanced back at Izuku in a silent invitation to sit down next to him, but Izuku hesitated. He wasn’t sure what Eraserhead had to say to him, but after everything, it couldn’t be good. He’d told Izuku to stay out of the trigger investigation. Izuku hadn’t. Someone had died. 

Finally Izuku decided that he deserved whatever lecture was coming his way, so it’d be less painful to just sit through it and get it over with right? They sat in semi-awkard silence for another long moment before Eraserhead spoke up, “We can’t keep doing this kid.”

“...I know.” Izuku wrapped his arms around himself. “I need to leave the investigating to you. I can’t just go off on my own and do things without telling the heroes.”

“Well, yeah, that too, but that’s not what I’m talking about.” He placed a firm hand on Izuku’s shoulder and looked him in the eye, “You can’t be a vigilante forever, Viridian. You know that, right? It’s not a good long term plan.”

Izuku froze, “I, uh, guess I hadn’t gotten that far? I never really intended it to be…”

“Be long term. I know.” Eraserhead nodded. “You weren't planning on living this long, were you?”

Izuku shook his head and shrunk in on himself a little more. He supposed it was just one more thing to add to the long list of things he’d failed at. Leave it up to a deku like him to not even be able to die right. 

Eraserhead sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “Kid...you know that’s not a bad thing, right?”

Izuku shrugged, but didn’t answer. Sure, he’d saved some people, but he’d also hurt some people. At this point, he honestly didn’t know whether the world would have been a better place these past few months if he’d just taken a swan dive live Kacchan told him to do in the first place. 

“You’re using vigilantism as a crutch, problem child.” Eraser said finally. “It helped you out when you were in a bad place, but now? You need therapy, kid. Actual therapy. Not just beating up villains until your brain stops screaming that you’re a terrible human being and should have done better.”

That...was a little too accurate to be comfortable. “How…?”

“How did I know?” Eraser scoffed. “You’re forgetting I’ve lost people too. That friend I told you about? The one who was killed during a work study? I was there when he died.”

“Oh…” Izuku didn’t know how to respond. “I...I didn’t know that.”

Eraserhead shrugged, “I never told you. I don’t talk about it a lot, for obvious reasons, but the fact is that Shirakumo and I went to fight a villain we were woefully unprepared for and he paid the price. I didn’t even know he was gone until the fight was already over. I can't tell you how many times I’ve wondered if he would have survived if I’d just been a little better of a hero.”

“How did you make those thoughts go away?” Izuku whispered. 

Eraser raised an eyebrow, “How do you think I knew you’d be out here? I threw myself into training. I kept fighting until I just couldn’t think anymore. That’s how I know it doesn’t help.”

“But…!” Izuku tried to interrupt, but Eraserhead stopped him with a look.

“I bet you’ve been cutting yourself off from that friend you made, haven’t you?” He asked. 

Izuku shut his mouth and stared at the scrapes on his hands. Denki had been texting him all day, asking him if he’d seen the news, but how was he supposed to face someone after he’d basically killed their crush? Even just talking about it made Izuku feel a phantom vibration in his pocket and he froze, “That’s...that’s different.”

“Oh really? Because it’s exactly what I did.” Eraser said. “Your friends are there for a reason, problem child. You’re supposed to be helping each other through stuff like this. What you’re doing really isn’t healthy, kid.”

“But what am I supposed to do?!” Izuku hated how broken he sounded and he wiped furiously at his eyes in an attempt to stop the tears. “Vigilantism is the only thing I’ve ever been even slightly good at! If I can’t be a vigilante, then what am I even supposed to be?”

“You can be a hero.”

Izuku did a double take. He was so shocked that he even stopped crying. Eraserhead said it like it was the simplest thing in the world. A logical conclusion, not something that could turn Izuku’s entire worldview on its head in less than a sentence. 

“Don’t…” Izuku turned away. “Don’t tell me that.”

No one had ever told him that. Not Kacchan. Not Mom. Not even All Might. Izuku wasn’t sure he could handle hearing it from Eraserhead. 

“Why not, problem child?” Eraser asked. “It’s true. You’ve got potential and experience.”

“Wouldn’t the commission have a problem with that?” Izuku deflected. “I’m sure they don’t want people like me getting hero's licences.”

“You’d be surprised.” Eraserhead said. “There’s actually an entire program designed to help people like you.”

“Who, suicidal teens?” Izuku joked. Maybe if he could just get off this topic, he could forget that Eraserhead wouldn’t even be bringing this up if he knew Izuku was quirkless. “I think I heard about that in an assembly one time…”

“Don’t try to change the subject, kid.” Eraserhead glared at him. “Vigilantes. Obviously, the commission doesn’t want a lot of you running around without licenses, so they created a rehabilitation program that would basically act as a sort of parole after you’re taken into custody. As long as you meet the requirements…”

“Requirements that I don't meet.” Izuku cut him off. “I’m not even a real vigilante.”

It didn’t even matter what the requirements were. Due to him not technically being a vigilante, he didn’t qualify. He was completely certain that the hero commission would never approve a quirkless kid to take part in a program like what Eraser was describing, not that Izuku deserved to be able to take part in it anyway. 

“And why not?” Eraserhead pushed. “Just because you’ve made some mistakes? Just because there were some people you failed to save? That doesn’t make you any less of a real vigilante, problem child, and it won’t make you any less of a hero either.”

“That’s not…” Izuku groaned and aggressively stamped down on the tiny spark of hope that Eraser’s words were trying to light in his heart. “People like me can’t be heroes, Eraserhead. It took me a long time to come to terms with that and this whole conversation isn’t helping!”

“Other vigilantes have done it.” Eraser argued. “You met the Crawler, right? He’s one of Ingenium’s sidekicks now, but that wasn’t always the case. He used to be a vigilante, just like you, so if he can do it…”

“No.” Izuku said firmly. He didn’t know how he hadn’t made that connection after meeting the Crawler, but it didn’t matter because even if Eraserhead thought they were the same, they weren’t. The Crawler had a quirk. A useful quirk that was perfect for hero work, but Izuku? He was nothing more than a quirkless kid desperately pretending that he had a place in the world. “I’m not going to be a hero Eraserhead.”

“And I’m sorry, but I’m not giving you that choice.”

Izuku’s head whipped up to look at Eraserhead, who had activated his quirk, “I want you to choose to take place in the program, Viridian, but the fact is that I’ve let this go along for long enough. You need help. Help that vigilantism can’t give you and I’m sorry, kid, but both as a hero and as someone who cares about you, I can’t let you keep destroying yourself like this. I have to do what’s best for you, even if it hurts both of us. So, problem child, you can either agree to participate in the program of your own free will or I can take you in and have a judge mandate your participation. What’s it gonna be?”

“I…” Izuku froze and looked at Eraserhead, who looked completely serious. That must be why he had activated his quirk, to keep Izuku from fighting back, which would have probably worked if Izuku had a quirk to fight with. He was actually planning on arresting him! “You..you can’t do that!”

“Unfortunately, I can.” Eraser said. “Well, I can’t actually force you to be a hero, but if you get arrested, it’ll be a choice between that and juvie, with the program being the logical choice. Please, kid. I don’t want to arrest you. Just...let me help you.”

Izuku stared at him in shock. For half a second, he actually considered just giving in and just going with Eraser but then his expression hardened and he shifted slightly. There was no way that a quirkless kid could be a hero. If he let Eraserhead arrest him now, the offer for the rehabilitation program would be taken off the table as soon as they looked at his ID. Sure, the vigilantism charges would also go away, but they’d tell his mom and she’d force him to stop and he couldn’t let that happen. 

“I’m sorry, Eraserhead.” Izuku smiled at him sadly. “But I can’t be a hero.”

Izuku jumped.

Shouta saw the kid’s decision in his eyes moments before he jumped and he shot his capture weapon toward him, only for the kid to drop off the roof and onto the nearest fire escape. He swore under his breath and jumped after the kid to give chase. 

He’d known there was a possibility would try to run when he’d decided to give him that ultimatum, but he’d talked it over with Tsukauchi and some of the other heroes that worked with Viridian the most and they had all agreed that it was the right decision. The kid had proved time and time again that he was capable of being a hero and Tsukauchi had assured them that there was no way that the hero commission would reject his application for the program, especially with all the positive media attention that Viridian had been getting. It was in the commission’s best interest to get him off the streets and legalized as soon as they could. 

But, of course, all that depended on the kid. Shouta didn’t understand why Viridian wouldn’t let them help him! He was already saving so many people, and becoming a hero was the next logical step. It would give him more resources, more gear, and more connections to be able to save even more people. He hadn’t wanted to break the kid’s trust like this. He’d been actively avoiding it, but like he’d told the kid, this had gone on long enough. 

If nothing changed, Viridian wouldn’t ever get better. 

Which was why he was willing to chase after the kid and try to capture him. Try being the operative word, apparently. He underestimated how much Viridian had improved over the past few months. He couldn’t help but think of how easily he would have been able to wrap the kid in his capture weapon when he was just starting out, but now he was giving him a run for his money. The kid had always been fast, of course. There was a reason that had been his original MO, after all. But now that he had months of experience with parkour and stealth under his belt, Shouta would have been almost proud of how hard it was to keep up with him if he wasn’t so annoyed. Why wouldn’t the kid just let them help him!

The kid dropped off another rooftop and Shouta skidded to a stop as he tried to figure out which way to go. He heard the clink of a marble hitting something and couldn’t help smiling. Viridian was still a kid, wasn’t he? He was probably trying to use the old trick of creating a diversion in the opposite direction that he planned to go. Shouta shook his head and headed in the opposite direction to the noise. 

It was only a matter of time before he tracked the kid down.

Izuku held his breath as Eraserhead took the bait, then slowly uncrouched from his hiding place behind a dumpster and ran in the same direction that he’d shot the marble, being sure to keep to the shadows as he made his way home. It wouldn’t take long for Eraserhead to figure out he’d tricked him, so Izuku didn’t waste any time taking off his hoodie, tying it around his waist to hide his weapons and switching streets, heading toward the nearest train station, wiping away the tears that were starting to flow again despite his best efforts. 

This was going to make things a little more difficult.

Chapter Text

Inko held her breath as she tiptoed back into Izuku’s room and put his phone back on his pillow. Sure, the shower was still on, so it was very unlikely she’d get caught, but still, it was better safe than sorry. Whatever funk Izuku had been in for the past few days hadn’t let up yet and Inko knew that she just needed to be patient and let it pass, but...she just felt so helpless. It was like when Izuku was diagnosed all over again! He’d just barricaded himself in his room and wouldn’t tell her how she could help! 

She hadn’t meant to invade his privacy. She hadn’t! It was just that when she’d decided to grab his laundry when he got in the shower, his phone had started vibrating. It was obviously a phone call, so she checked the caller ID so she could tell Izuku when he got out! That was it! That was all she was going to do! 

But then the phone had stopped vibrating and the screen had lit up with the missed call notification:

Denki Kaminari

3 missed calls

Izuku didn’t have many friends. Inko knew that. With what had happened at that school, it was a wonder he’d found the courage to make friends with Kaminari at all, but...had something happened between them? Even if it hadn’t, maybe Kaminari would know why Izuku was so upset? Inko would even take him just being there for Izuku at the moment, so that he didn’t have to feel so alone. 

...so she may have borrowed Kaminari’s contact information.

What Izuku didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him, right? And she could always apologize later! But Inko didn’t know what else to do and it couldn’t be healthy for Izuku to completely isolate himself from his friends like that! She forced her guilt down under a layer of determination as she shakily typed out the number in her own phone now that she was safely back in the kitchen. 

The phone rang quite a few times before someone picked up, “...Hello?”

“Um…” Inko winced. Was there a non-awkward way to introduce yourself to your depressed son’s best friend? “Is this Kaminari?”

“If you’re calling about my car’s extended warranty, I have bad news for you.” The boy said seriously. “I can’t drive.”

Inko snorted before she could help herself, shocked that Kaminari’s sense of humor was every bit as bad as Izuku had warned her about. When she finally managed to stop laughing after a few seconds, she gasped, “Sorry, I didn’t get the chance to introduce myself. I’m Inko Midoriya, Izuku’s mother, and I am definitely not calling to ask you about your car’s extended warranty.”

“Oh!” There was a scramble on the other end of the phone and Inko winced as something crashed. “Ow. Um, sorry! I could’ve sworn you were a spam call, so I was just trying to...well, kinda spam you back? It was just supposed to be a joke, but you’re not! Not that I thought you were a joke, just a robo-caller, but um…”

“Are you ok?” Inko asked, holding back a giggle before forcefully reminding herself that her son’s friend might be hurt. “Did you fall?”

“Um...no. My homework might need to be reorganized, but uh...I’m good.” Kaminari laughed hesitantly. “What about Izuku? Is he ok? I haven’t heard from him and he’s kinda been ignoring my texts…which is fine! I’m really not trying to be clingy, not that taking to my friend’s mom is really helping my case, but I’m just worried because I didn’t know if something had happened to him. ”

Inko sighed, “I was actually hoping you could tell me. Izuku...well he hasn’t been himself for a few days now. I’ve been trying to cheer him up, but haven’t had any luck. Did you two get in a fight or something?”

“Not that I know of…” Kaminari said slowly. “But, uh, I think...well, I might know why he’s been so...well, not a friend, but someone we know, she...she got caught up in villain attack and she, uh, she didn’t make it.”

Inko gasped.That poor girl! Of course that explained Izuku’s behavior! He was grieving! Why was he trying to go through it alone?! 

“I know I was pretty shocked when I heard the news,” Kaminari continued, “which is why I was trying to reach out to Izuku, to make sure he was safe and taking the news well, but uh, that obviously didn’t work…”

Inko heard the water turn off and panicked. She needed to wrap this up, “Would you, uh, would you like to come over for dinner? I just feel better if...well, neither of you should have to be alone right now.”

“Sure!” Kaminari answered. “I mean, if Izuku is ok with it. I kinda get the feeling he’s avoiding me right now…”

“I think he’s avoiding everyone right now.” Inko said sadly. “Which is all the more reason he should have a friend, right? Even if Izuku retreats into his room, I’ll at least get to meet you right?”

“Yeah!” Kaminari practically yelled, but he sounded cheerful, so Inko was going to count that as a win. “I’ll see you later!”

“Good.” Inko smiled. “I’ll text you the address. See you soon!”

She hung up right as she heard the bathroom door open and she set the phone down as innocently as she could and started cooking, despite the fact that she knew Izuku couldn’t see her and wasn’t even paying attention. She had a lot of work to do.

“Why are you doing so much for me?” Katsuki accused. “I’m just a little jerk who showed up at your stupid reform group one time. Why are you doing this?”

Currently, he and Ogawa were sitting on a wall overlooking one of the cleaner areas of the beach. Akiko had had work, a legal job this time she assured them, and Maki was on a date with his girlfriend, so Ogawa had insisted on getting icecream and sending pics to the others, just to rub it in their faces. The two of them had, of course, sent appropriately enraged responses and promises to get pizza the next time they were gone, which had made Ogawa and Katsuki laugh their asses off. Overall, it was a good day, which didn’t do anything to make Katuski feel better. 

He didn’t deserve any of this. 

Ogawa licked at his ice cream thoughtfully for a moment before humming, “Well, I mean you were there…”

“Haha, very funny.” Katsuki deadpanned. 

“No, I’m being serious!” Ogawa swung around to look at him seriously. “ You were there. You went to the reform group by choice, not because anybody forced you to. Akiko, Maki, hell, even me, we had to get kicked in the butt and faced with prison to even show up and yet there you were, showing up every week just because you knew you wanted to change. Do you know how rare that is?”

“It’s not that fucking special.” Katsuki grumbled. “If it’s your damn fault, it’s your fucking responsonsibilyt to fix it.”

“You see, that.” Ogawa laughed. “That’s what I’m talking about. Most people try to blame everything else, but not you. You take responsibility for the shit you’ve done and are trying to be better. I guess we just wanted to be a part of that, you know? Make sure you didn’t end up messed up like we did.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, “You’re not that messed up.”

“Yeah we are.” Ogawa’s grin faded and he looked out over the beach. “Look, my life was never easy. Dad has eight arms, and Mom’s quirk lets her change her hair and skin to match a bunch of different animals, but neither of them ever looked exactly human, you know? So we ended up on the wrong side of society before I was even born. It’s hard to get jobs with mutation quirks.”

Ogawa sighed, ignoring the way that melted ice cream was starting to run down his hand, “And then it somehow got worse when my sister and I were born. It wasn’t like we could just inherit one of our parent’s quirks, no! That would be too easy. Instead, our hair took on characteristics of animals that happen to have eight limbs.” Ogawa gestured toward the tentacles on his head. “I got a gross octopus and I was the lucky one. My sister? Imagine having spider silk for hair.”

Katsuki thought about that for a moment. He thought his quirk put him in a box, but having a quirk associated with octopuses and spiders? If kids were being nice, they’d call quirks like that gross, but most kids would straight up think they were scary. And if the kids were bullies, it wouldn’t take that much of a mental leap to go from gross and scary to villain’s quirk, just like that purple-haired kid Katsuki had saved from a beatdown that one time. 

Katsuki took a bite out of his own ice cream, “That sucks.”

Ogawa gave an amused huff, batting away a bee that was trying to eat the melted ice cream off his hand, “Yeah, you’re telling me. Arakune got the brunt of it, obviously. Kids on the playground would always run, saying that if they played with her, she’d summon spiders on them. She tried telling them that her quirk didn’t work like that, but…”

“But they obviously didn’t listen.” Katsuki finished. He remembered so many times that Izuku would try to make a new friend from another class or something, only for their classmates to warn them away because obviously Izuku would steal their quirks, since he didn’t have one of his own. Why were kids so messed up?

“The friends she did make were outcasts too.” Ogawa scowled. “And delinquents. It didn’t take long before smoking behind the gym moved onto shoplifting and petty theft and before long, I got dragged into it too. It wasn’t like I had a whole lot of other options, right? It was either hang out with Arakune and her friends or try to get along with kids my own age and what middle schooler wants to hang out with the sea witch .”

When he sighed again, he sounded frustrated, but tired too, “Maki and Akiko have similar stories. I know Akiko’s shared some of hers before. The point is, we’re all kinda messed up. And then in walks this kid, obviously lost, who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty?” Ogawa shrugged. “It’s like the golden opportunity we never got growing up. And then we learned you were a bully, and it’s like...a giant fuck you to all the kids that used to bully us, you know?”

“Huh…” Katsuki didn’t really know how to respond to that. “So it’s not that you think I’m special or something. I was just willing to put in the work.”

“Pretty much!” Ogawa shrugged and threw the rest of his forgotten ice cream in with the rest of the trash at the beach. “But, hey, don’t let it get you down, we still like you!”

“Yeah right, like I even care!” Katsuki griped. “Let’s get going. The old hag wants me home in time for dinner.”

Izuku was lured from his room by the smell of his mom’s cooking. He didn’t necessarily want to eat, he was still worried about how he was going to be a vigilante now that the hereos were actually going to try to catch him, but he was hungry enough to make up for that, especially once he remembered that he really hadn’t eaten since the day before. He pulled at the hem of his Eraserhead hoodie, hoping it wasn’t too wrinkled, but decided that Mom probably didn’t care, considering she seemed to like the hoodie for some reason. 

“Mom? What’s for dinner? It smells really…” Izuku froze, “...good.”

Denki was sitting at the table. Why was Denki sitting at the table?! Was he angry with him? Had he somehow figured out that it was Izuku’s fault that Kohaku was dead and he was here to tell him that they weren’t friends anymore? How was Izuku supposed to deal with losing his hero friends and his civilian friends on the same day?! It wasn’t fair!

“Hey sleeping beauty!” Denki grinned, bouncing over to him and pulling on his arm to lead him to the table. “Your mom invited me over for dinner! She’s the best!”

“...Mom?” Izuku looked between her and Denki in confusion. “You invited him? How did you even get his number?”

“That’s not important!” Mom said hurriedly. “What’s important is that dinner’s ready and I made enough for two growing boys, so you both better eat up, do you hear me?”

“Sure thing Midoriya-san!” 

“...ok.”

Izuku didn’t speak much as they ate, mostly letting Denki and Mom get to know each other. They got along well, which would be great if Izuku was sure that Kaminari wasn’t here to abandon him. He didn’t seem mad, which probably just meant that he didn’t know, which was...wasn’t that better? At least it meant that Izuku wasn’t going to lose his only friend. 

Not that he was sure he deserved a friend, but he couldn’t just tell Denki everything! Even though it felt like a betrayal and he hated the fact that he had to trick his friend into liking him, admitting that he was at least partially at fault for Kohaku’s death would mean coming clean about everything, including his vigilantism and he just couldn’t put Denki in danger like that. Maybe once he got in UA and was actually on his way to becoming a hero...but even with how much they’d trained Denki’s quirk and his combat skills, he was still a civilian and he hadn’t signed up for whatever powerful enemies Izuku had somehow attracted by sticking his nose where it didn’t belong. Izuku could live with lying to his friend if it meant that no one else got hurt. 

Or maybe Denki just didn’t want to end their friendship in front of his Mom. 

Soon enough, dinner was over and Izuku started gathering up everyone’s dishes, if only to have something to do so he didn’t have to talk. Denki would probably be leaving soon, which meant that Izuku would finally be able to retreat back into his room and stop trying to hide how guilty he felt. 

“Oh Izuku, don’t worry about the dishes! I’ll do them.” Mom said, grabbing the stack of plates from him before he had a chance to protest. “Why don’t you show Kaminari your room, since it’s his first time here?”

“Yeah man!” Denki grinned and gave him a thumbs up. “I mean, you’ve already seen mine!”

Izuku tried to calm his breathing as he looked between the two of them and nodded slowly, “...Ok.”

Izuku couldn’t stop his mind from racing as he led Denki down the hall. This was it. Denki was probably too polite to end their friendship in front of his mom, so this was just a ploy to get him alone and once they were in the privacy of his room, Denki would drop the bomb. Izuku shut the door behind them and braced himself for the inevitable. 

It never came.

“Whoa! You’ve got so many different heroes in here!” Denki’s smile didn’t fade at all as his eyes roamed over the posters and figurines filling Izuku’s room. “I mean, don’t most people keep to All Might and the top 10?”

Izuku shrugged hesitantly, “Um, yeah, I guess? I used to have a lot more All Might in here but uh...I wanted to give space to some of underappreciated heroes? Yeah! Um, because All Might can’t be everywhere and a lot of the heroes do a lot of work to keep everyone safe, even if they’re not really in the rankings.”

“Cool!” Kaminari looked at one of the posters that Izuku had behind his bed. “Amplifier? I think I heard of her once. She’s that announcer hero, right?”

Izuku nodded frantically, “That’s how most people know about her, because she volunteers at a lot of hero events because of her quirk, but she’s actually a really effective nighttime hero! She stops a lot of crimes near the bar district and keeps everyone safe!”

Denki gestured to Izuku’s hoodie, “And Eraserhead? Is he a hero too?”

Izuku’s smile faded slightly, “Um, yeah. I...he’s one of my favorites.”

And yet Izuku had disappointed him. Again. Eraserhead had looked so hopeful when he’d brought up that vigilante rehabilitation program, and Izuku had hated that he’d had to crush that, but then again, he wouldn’t have even made the offer if he’d known that Izuku was quirkless, so he didn’t feel too guilty. 

At least, not about that. 

There was a beat of silence as Denki continued looking at his collection and Izuku took a deep breath before hesitating. He knew he couldn’t tell Denki about the whole vigilante side of things, but was it weird to just not bring it up? Like, it was kinda a big thing, so it was weird that it hadn’t come up yet…

“Ok, um, I am so sorry, but uh, the elephant in the room is killing me.” Denki said suddenly. “So, like, how are you holding up? I mean, I know it kinda came out of nowhere and I’m sure you saw it on the news, cause your mom said you hadn’t really been yourself and stuff, you know? I’m, uh, I’m sorry, maybe you’re upset for some other reason, cause I know you didn’t know her very well, but then you weren’t answering any of my texts and I hadn’t known if something happened to you too…”

Izuku curled in on himself, “I didn’t wanna make you worry.”

Denki ran a hand through his hair and laughed sadly, “Yeah. Sorry, I just...I guess I don’t deal well with people disappearing on me, you know? It’s uh, kinda an adhd thing. I know you probably don’t but when you kept ignoring my calls, my brain just kept looping that you hated me for some reason. I know it probably sounds really mean, but I was almost relieved when your mom called and said you were just depressed. That’s...I’m sorry, that sounds really selfish, just forget I said that. Maybe I should start over...”