Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Unknown: Yo i got the deets you asked for last week

Unknown: firecracker.dox

Aizawa Shota: who is this. How did you get my number.

Unknown has changed their name to Songbird

Songbird: it’s ya boi

Aizawa Shota: Sparrow. How did you get my contact info.

Songbird: a little razzle dazzle

Songbird: and hacking

Songbird: anyway that’s the file on Firecracker, thought you’d like it

Aizawa Shota: I didn’t ask you for this. Also why did you leave coffee at my desk. No, HOW did you leave coffee at my desk.

Songbird: Mhmm, yeah, but you were complaining about it at the precinct and I decided to help you and Tsuki out. Also boi you need the caffeine.

Shota Aizawa: Not even going to ask how you know that.

Songbird: A wise decision. Anyway, that’s the file, also the dude’s normal persona Haiji Towa is a child abuser so have fun with that

Songbird has left the chat

Izuku Midoriya spun around in his chair. Another asshole caught and given to the most overworked man this side of the continent.

Poor Eraser, always under caffeinated and overtired. The coffee was an olive branch - “I will supply you with caffeine if you supply me with someone to bother.”

But it was late. He had another day of borderline unbearable mental and physical torment tomorrow!

He climbed underneath his plain black comforter - his All Might bedding was in the closet, behind some old shoes, after the...incident.

And yet it seemed like only an instant before the birds were chirping outside his window, letting him know with a beautiful tone that it was time for another terrible day of school.

But there’s one thing he should have learned by now, being so active in the underbelly of Japan - expect the unexpected.

Unexpected, of course, applies to finding a dumpster on fire on the walk to school, only to hear uncontrolled cackling and the wheeze of an overheated machine. Poor machine, being burnt up like that.

Oh wait. There’s a human in there. That’s probably going to be a bit of an issue.

Izuku Midoriya was no hero. Not in the eyes of society, his family, or even himself.

But out of the frying pan, into the fire he went.

Chapter Text

“Run that by me one more time?”

“Ugh, FINE! I was hanging out in my dumpster, minding my own business-”

“Doubtful.”

“And then my flamethrower activated randomly and set everything on fire. Do you get it NOW, Broccoli-kun? Have my words penetrated your hair?”

“And, pray tell, random girl i met on my way to school who has made me…” Izuku glanced at his watch, a birthday gift from his father. “...miss the entirety of first period, were you doing with a flamethrower in a dumpster? ”

“Making S’mores, duh. What else would I be doing?”

It was very, very difficult to surprise Sparrow. He’d heard things, seen things that are so fantastical, so absolutely unbelievable, that a crazy girl toasting marshmallows with a flamethrower in a dumpster in broad daylight on a school day.

“Hmm, Broccoli-kun, you have that look in your eye.”

“What look?” He really shouldn’t have asked, in hindsight, but his entire gig as an analyst was built on curiosity, so can you blame him?

“The look. You’re coming with me, we’re going to make a baby!”

Perdon? Escusez-moi? Che-cosa?

What the frick frack diddily dack patty wack snick snack crack pack slack mack quarterback crackerjack biofeedback backtrack thumbtack sidetrack tic-tac is she talking about?

“I-uh-bu-wh-ah?” Eloquent.

“Babies! Beautiful inventions! Fuego over there is Baby number 57! We are going to make one! You and me, Hatsume Mei, future CEO of Hatsume Industries!”

Alrighty then. Well, not like the teachers bothered to count him into class half the time. He’d be fine. Probably. Maybe.

-----

“And your parents trust you around a welding torch...why?”

“Broccoli-kun, I held my first welding torch when I was six years old. This stuff is in my blood. Now, hand me that doohickey.”

“What?”

“The doohickey! The one I'm pointing at!”

Mei proceeded to point at a large pile of tools. He picked one at random.

“The….lug wrench?”

“That’s the one! Gimme gimme, i’m almost done with Fuego 2!”

Izuku Midoriya was Sparrow. He was feared. He was revered as a king, nay, a god, by the scum of the nation.

And yet here he was, standing and handing off tools to a girl he met half an hour ago who he saved from a dumpster fire that her flamethrower caused.

“Yknow, I have some blueprints back at my place for hero gear I’ve thought up.”

Lies. Those were failed drafts of blueprints he’d given to who knows who for 52,000 yen. But she didn’t need to know that.

A crash, a bonk, and a worrying thud later, Hatsume had him grabbed by the shoulders.

“Did you say BLUEPRINTS? Oh, we are going to your place, Broccoli-kun.”

“It’s Midoriya.”

“Lead the way, vegetable man!”

Chapter Text

It was, in fewer words, a blur of a day.

The moment he'd let Hatsume, still sooty with a few burns, into his apartment, it had gone by in a flash.

She'd raced around his apartment, gathered up an astonishing amount of blueprints in the span of 30 seconds, and was out the door with a "Thanks, Broccoli-kun!"

Midoriya Izuku stood there, looking at the plain white door that had been slammed shut a few minutes prior.

Then it hit him.

"Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod I just talked to a GIRL! And she talked to ME! And she seemed nice? I think? I don't know what nice is but she didn't hurt me on purpose so that's a step up from Kacchan. But she doesn't know I'm quirkless, oh lord what if she hates me once she finds out? Aaaaaaaah!"

He was muttering to nobody in particular, except perhaps the door, but his head was racing.

A stark contrast to that night, when his head had the previous Tuesday playing in his mind like some demented pre-quirk film.

He could hardly feel the sheets when the thing overloading his senses was that phrase, that goddamn sentence.

"You cannot be a hero."

Sure, he kinda knew that, given he'd been indirectly responsible for several crimes, but he still had that shred of hope since his mom died in that car crash.

She was T-boned by a drunk driver six months ago. The offender was in prison, so there wasn't much else justice that could be (legally) served, and his father sent money to pay the rent, along with calling every week or so. Things were as normal as they could get, but he wanted to be a hero because even if nobody else did, she believed in him.

Well, that’s a bit of a stretch, but he knows she did, deep down.

He had been planning to apply for the hero course - try to balance his less than legal activities with trying to become a hero. But that didn’t seem very likely now, especially because his...sources... had let it slip that Ass Might himself was teaching the first year hero kids.

But U.A. was still a good school, with lots of equipment he could use. He could hack government servers quicker using the U.A. servers if he was a student.

The Support course? Maybe? Mei seemed excited about it, and he didn’t think that the course would care about quirk status. He’s never...built anything, per say, but he knew how to in theory, and had- Wait. Mei had stolen all his blueprints. He no longer had blueprints but at least he knew where they probably were. And he could analyze - hell, that was his job. That’s what made him a god in deep society.

But what if he was rejected from the school on the basis of his “disability?” In the eyes of the people, he was a mouse, either seen as meek and small or something to be exterminated.

But a small buzz of his phone interrupted his spiral.

R@T M@N: Hello, Sparrow. I’d like to speak with you.

Chapter Text

Unknown: Rat man

Unknown: Really

Unknown: You can do better than that

R@T M@N: It's R@T M@N, Sparrow. Speaking of which!

R@T M@N has changed Unknown's name to 5P@RR0W

R@T M@N: Much better.

5P@RR0W: why you do me like this

R@T M@N: I must admit, Sparrow, you intrigue me greatly. Your morals seem flimsy, if at all there. If I may, to satiate my own curiosity, why do you do what you do?

5P@RR0W: because what I do helps people most of the time

R@T M@N: I suspected as much. Is is that you give false information to more...unsavory parties?

5P@RR0W: ding ding ding you get a cookie

5P@RR0W: the death threats i get amuse me to no end. it's almost like they think they can find me.

R@T M@N: A foolish sentiment. My work here is done for now. Do reach out if you'd like to play a game of chess.

5P@RR0W: will do

R@T M@N has left the chat

Well that was an experience. Midoriya's heart was racing, a stark contrast to his blasé style of conversation while in his avian persona.

But he had work to do - a personal project of his.

He opened his dialpad and punched in the number that he knew oh so well.

Riinnngggg….Rinnnnggg...Rinnngggg…

"Detective Tsukauchi, 12th Precinct."

He steeled his nerves and put on a wide smile.

"Tsu-kunnnn!"

Chapter Text

Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa was having a good day. 

And a good day to him was a day that he could eat ramen and finally, finally have a breather. 

He was watching some live footage from the cameras near the station, amusing himself by trying to guess if they were criminals or not. So far he’d found two suspicious individuals, not like he was going to act on it or anything.

Because he was having a Good. Day.

And it had been so for hours, and it was almost time for him to clock out. So...close….

Until his goddamn phone rang.

"Detective Tsukauchi, 12th Precinct." He honestly didn’t care like he sounded extremely uninterested, because this caller had ruined his day.

"Tsu-kunnnn!"

Sweet mercy.

“Sparrow, what are you doing? Why are you bothering me?”

“Just checking to make sure my favowite detevtwive is taking care of the Firecracker case!”

“The bastard’s in custody. I should be thanking you, but I’m pretty sure that goes against every ethics code I had to memorize in the Academy.”

“Hmph!” He could hear the childlike pout on Sparrow’s face, most definitely mocking him. “Well then I guess I’ll take back the Excedrin I put in your upper left drawer.”

He perked up at the name of the medicine. “No no no! Don’t do that! I need those! Uh, thanks Sparrow, and how the ever loving hell did you put this in my drawer?”

“A little razzle dazzle. A few of the people there owe me a favor. Also, Hayori Sakado, the woman with the squid mutation, is completely innocent. She was falsely accused of a stage theft of the basis of quirk discrimination. Let her go please.” The informant’s voice had lost some of it’s signature childlike twang.

“Well, I’d have to verify-”

“Let. Her. Go.” Oh no, that was a serious voice.

“Will do, after i get through some protocol things. Now please let me go home.”

“Okay detective sir! o(≧∇≦o)”

“...How did you do that with your mouth?”

But the little shit had hung up on him, leaving the line beeping.

He popped open the brand new bottle of medicine and took one dry, because at least that kid supported the migraines they always caused.

Chapter Text

Izuku Midoriya woke up to a hand slapping his face.

At first, he was reminded of that hellish sludge incident. But the hitting didn't hurt as much, and it was accompanied by...a voice?

"Wake up Broccoli-kun. Wake up!"

Was that Hatsume?

"Hatsume-san...how the hell are you in my apartment?"

"Just call me Mei, no need for formalities. And I picked the lock. Also you have, like, 12 missed calls."

Crap, it's Saturday.

"Shit shit shit shit! Aaaaah where is my phone!" He grabbed it off his nightstand and quickly returned the calls.

"Hi dad! I'm so sorry, I stayed up kinda late last night and slept in!"

"Oh, it's fine, tiny." Ever since his father had found out his short stature, tiny had been a constant nickname. "As long as you're alright."

Mei huffed, tapping her foot impatiently. "Ok, you had your little meet-up, now can we please get back to what I broke into your apartment for?"

Unfortunately, his father heard her.

"Izu? Who is that?" He sounded very worried, which was quite understandable, given her bluntness about breaking in.

"Oh, uh…" He tried to come up with a reasonable alibi, but Mei snatched the phone before he could think another moment.

"I'm Hatsume Mei, future CEO of Hatsume Industries! Your son looks like a vegetable, and we are going to make so many adorable babies together!"

Sweet lord have mercy.

"INVENTIONS! She means inventions, dad." He grabbed the phone back, shooting an insincere glare at the pink haired girl. "She just calls them babies for...some reason. Believe me, it caught me off guard when I met her." 

"I- uh- ok then. And she...broke in?"

"Yep!" She had leaned into the receiver, dreadlocks bouncing. "I picked the lock! Don't call the cops on me, though, I just wanted to talk to Broccoli-kun!”

“Yeah, don’t do that dad.” He wasn’t thinking of Mei, not really, he was thinking more about if they found his notebooks. Although not technically illegal, it would open an investigation, and then Sparrow, and then…

“Ok. Ok, yeah, I won’t do that. Lots of love from up north, though!”

“Love you too, dad. Bye!”

He hung up the phone, then spun on his heel to Mei.

“Ok, if what you need to tell me is important enough to interrupt a call with my dad, who’s all the way in Wakkanai, then tell me.” He tried not to look pissed, but he was a bit pissed.

“Well, Broccoli-kun…”

“It’s Midoriya Izuku.”

“...your blueprints are pure genius! I came to get you so we can build things! The U.A. entrance exam is in only 9 months, we need to get started on our portfolios!”

“We? Our? Mei, I’m not applying for the support course. I have next to no clue how to build things.” This, actually, was true. He knows how to make almost every type of support item in theory, but he’s only ever made blueprints.

“Oh…” Mei looked...disappointed? “Well, you are now, and I’m going to teach you. To the workshop!”

“To the-” Mei grabbed his wrist and dragged him into the hall and through the still-open apartment door. “Mei, wait!”

“Waiting is for normal people!”

Chapter Text

“So you’re….Broccoli-kun?”

Izuku Midoriya stood in front of Hatsume Akiko & Yoro, both underneath what looked like an unholy amalgamation of a car, a tank, and an uncomfortable amount of flamethrowers (What is is with Hatsumes and flamethrowers?) The former had her head popped out, and gave Midoriya a quick look up and down.

“Well, I see the resemblance to the vegetable. Are you and my Mei-Mei screwing?”

Ok, so all the Hatsumes are incredibly blunt. Good to know.

Otherwise, what the actual heck was happening.

“No! No absolutely not, we just met the other day and she’s helping me get into the Support Course and she’s really nice but we aren’t doing anything like that i sw-”

A hand, Mei’s hand, clamped over his mouth. “Sorry, Broccoli-kun tends to ramble. We aren’t screwing, mom.”

“Is it that short redhead on the volleyball team that lives down the street?”

“No!”

“Ha! Yoro, you owe me 1,000 yen!”

“Damn it.” A deep, gravely voice came from behind the car. “I’ll give it to you later. Can you hand me that doohickey, dear?”

Akiko picked up a soldering iron and passed it over to her husband. 

“Thank you, darling.”

Ah, so the doohickey situation was a family thing. 

“M-my name’s Midoriya Izuku, by the way.”

“Well, nice to meet you, Midoriya. We don’t really use formalities here unless it’s a joke- I hope you’re alright with that.” Akiko raised a soot-covered brow at him.

“Ah, no, I don’t mind!”

They stood awkwardly for a moment, unsure of what to do.

“Well, I’m taking Broccoli-kun to my workshop, he only saw the little one we have in the back the other day. Bye mom, bye dad!”

And so he was again dragged off by the manic girl to her workshop, which was…

Enormous.

“Welcome to my workshop! I put all your blueprints that I stole up on the board over there, now go put on goggles. By the way, my quirk is Zoom, so I can see things up close or far away, so leave the really tiny things to me. The goggles do have a magnify setting if you press the button on the upper left, though. Oh, yeah, what’s your quirk?”

And so came the question that he had been dreading for oh so long.

This could really go one of three ways. Either Mei was disgusted and kicked him out, was mildly uncomfortable and treated him oddly, or was totally cool with it. The first seemed the most likely for someone as blunt as she - but the second option was usually the one taken. He’d met maybe...nobody outside of his father and late mother who was ok with it. 

That’s one of the reasons he’s Sparrow - as the bird, he’s respected, revered. And nobody gives a damn about his quirk status as long as they get the info they want. Or, what they think is the info they want.

Well, here goes.

“Uh, I’m quirkless.”

Chapter Text

“Uh, I’m quirkless.”

There was a beat of silence.

“Cool! Ok, I need you to test out this grenade launcher…”

...Cool? Cool? She responds to his quirklessness with cool ?!

Was this how nice people reacted? No, Mitsuki-oba was nice, and she treated him like glass when they still talked. Kaachan was nice, but after he was diagnosed, things changed.

Was Mei just weird? Oh wait, yeah, she was.

“Broccoli-kuuuuun…” he was vaguely aware of mei waving her hand in front of his eyes. “Anyone home? We have a grenade launcher to test!”

“You’re...ok with it? With me being quirkless?”

She looked confused. “Well, duh. Why wouldn’t I be? You can still make babies, I really don’t care.”

That was a shock, to say the least. If a human being could display a 404 Error message, Izuku Midoriya would have. A person? With a quirk? Being NICE? 

Impossible.

“Ok, stop spiraling and start launching grenades.”

A distant voice was heard. “Are you kids being safe?”

Mei, although it being a pointless act, snapped her goggles against her face. “Yeah, mom, we’re using protection!”

Oh, that meant something very different.

“Good! Have fun, you two!”

“We will, mom!”

Mei turned to Izuku with a manic grin. “Ok, so we’re going to go to the testing range and shoot some grenades!”

He opened his mouth to speak, but was overrun by Mei. “No buts, we’re going to do SCIENCE!”

And a manic cackle was released, along with a worrying boom from her parent’s workshop.

---------

Hours later, Izuku closed the door to his apartment, covered in soot and grime and the most exhausted he’s been in months. Grenade launchers are heavy.

But he got Mei’s number, and his phone was blowing up.

Mayday: hey broccoli-kun

Mayday: come over tomorrow, i want to talk about one of your blueprints

Mayday: the goggle design for that underground hero

Mayday changed Midoriya Izuku’s name to Veggie

Mayday: that had to be done. Anyway good niiiight

The eraserhead goggles? Well, that will be an interesting build...

Chapter Text

Aizawa Shota was tired.

That wasn't anything out of the ordinary - in fact, it would be concerning if he wasn't.

But this was a different kind of tired. Not the tired he gets after a patrol when he gets home at 3 in the morning. 

This tired was because a stupid kid wouldn't leave him the frick alone.

Well, he assumed it was a kid. His texting style screamed I have no respect for authority . 

And yet he stared, utterly exhausted, at a new pair of goggles - paired with a note.

Hewwo Ewaserhwead!

It’s me, your favorite informant! I come bearing gifts.

Fyi your goggles like...suck. A lot. Good lord, what were you THINKING?

These bad boys don’t have slits - your quirk works through transparent solids, what is with the slits?

It’s a one-way mirror, so people still can’t tell where you’re looking, and I kept that atrocious yellow you’ve kept for so many years. I thought you didn’t want to be seen, why the fluorescent? It’s also reinforced with some super thin, but super durable armor, and comes with a little compartment to put eyedrops in. It sprays them into your eyes automatically every 45 seconds or so.

Anyway, this is free of monetary charge. I might cash this in for a favor if I need it, though.

Enjoy,

Sparrow

There was a stamp of the silhouette of a small bird next to the signature, probably a sparrow. 

But there was something off, besides the fact that Sparrow had his address (if Aizawa bothered to ask, the response would most definitely be “a little razzle dazzle”), but it was the fact that it was one, free of charge, two, supposedly made by Sparrow himself, and three, how Aizawa didn’t catch the bastard.

The package wasn’t here when he went in to hang up his gear, but was when he went to check that the door was locked.

He unwrapped the goggles to find a brand new pair with the specifications mentioned in the note. Still that bright yellow Hizashi gave him 20,000 yen to implement into his costume. 

Though he was concerned that Sparrow knew about the major drawback of his quirk, the spray feature was much appreciated. Not like he’d ever admit that, though.

Either way, he still had to arrest him if he found him.

Did he want to? Yeah, of course, that’s his job.

He has to. He doesn't really have a choice.

Chapter Text

"Aaaaaaand…" Midoriya Izuku was putting the final screw in what looked like a cell phone. "Done!"

He beamed, looking proudly at his own creation - the HeroPod, an untracable cell phone with quadruple encryption, a code breaker, a translator for every language under the sun, a sign language dictionary, and anything else that popped into his head during the coding phase.

It had taken him months to make this - Mei had convinced (read: threatened) him into applying for the support course, and while the phone wasn't the most mechanically elaborate, his expertise lay in the world of code.

"It's done? Yay, you did it, Broccoli-kun!" Mei tackled him in a hug, which would have been an issue if the phone wasn't fall-proof. 

Mei definitely knew his nane at this point - It had been nine and a half months since they'd met, filled from top to bottom with shenanigans in the workshop as they focused all their time and energy into their work, aside from school.

Ah, school. It had gotten a bit better - once it became clear he wasn't trying for the hero course, Bakugo had resorted to simply insults and maybe a push down onto the pavement, which was infinitely more bearable than the constant burns.

But the fruit of his late nights and painfully short talks with his father had come to fruition - two weeks before the U.A. entrance exams, and his magnum opus was complete.

He looked over to Mei, back at her station finalizing the most suped up flamethrower he had ever seen, named Ultra Fuego. Apparently, it was also a sandblaster, a machine gun, a grenade launcher, and could be used to inflate balloons. 

He still was confused about the last bit.

But there was still work to be done - he had to at least outline his pitch, create a specs sheet, and put it through the final test battery. He had tested it already - the finalizations were for pure aesthetic purposes - but one could never be too sure.

"Broccoli-kun? Why's your phone trying to vibrate off the table?"

Shit. Shit shit shit, he forgot to silence his phone. Those were probably orders, death threats, or pings from a forum.

But Mei, in all her socially unique glory, took the initiative to pick up the phone for him.

There was silence so thick it could be cut with a knife. Or exploded with a grenade.

"Izuku? You're... you're Sparrow? THE Sparrow?"

Did she just use his first name? Well, this was going to be-

"Oh my god, I love your work! I've seen some of the analyses you've posted for general use, your skills are unmatched!" Her eyes were gleaming and the rest of her was vibrating at an alarming speed.

"You- what- but- huh?" Eloquent.

"Ok, so, now that we're blood brothers," She went over and took him by the shoulders.

"I~" She dragged it out, in almost a singsong tone, "...am going to be your partner in sort-of-crime! Don't worry, I've made tons of things that violate every war law out there, and my parents helped."

Well wasn't that a comforting notion. Wait, it was, she's cool with it. What? What ?

"And you're Sparrow, so I'll be…." She tapped her foot in thought, her thumb by her mouth as it always was when she was thinking. "Chickadee! I have to follow the small birds of North America theme, y'know."

But something had to be said first. If he knew anything about Mei, it was that she can't keep a secret.

"Hatsume-san, if this ever gets out, to anyone , you'll know what I'll have to do, right?" His voice was colder, darker, and much more reminiscent of his Sparrow persona. He didn't want to scare his friend, his only friend, but precautions had to be taken.

Mei, however, looked shockingly unfazed. 

"Oooh, there's your scary voice! I like it. Don't worry, I only let some things slip because I love the chaos a small, inconsequential secret causes when it escapes. This is much bigger - it's safe with me, Broccoli-kun."

Her eyes went from shining to dead serious on that last note, more serious and solemn than he'd ever seen them. 

She meant business.

And, he supposed, they were in business together now. 

Chapter Text

It was late. Very late.

But Midoriya Izuku was still hunched over his computer, much to the chagrin of his spine.

He was in the thick of a project he’d been working on for a while - trying to, in simple terms, ruin Endeavor’s life.

His personal vendetta against the man was simple - he was a bad person. He used too much force, caused too much property damage, and was feared by a lot of the public. His behavior also inspired a rabid fanbase that were seen as the undertakers of the internet.

He was finished with consolidating his data - he had a document filled with statistics and articles detailing how shitty of a hero he was. But now came the hard part - writing the essay and making it convincing.

He had to admit, writing was not his strong suit. His Sparrow persona used slang and bad grammar, that was his brand. But this? This had to be perfect. This had to make it clear as glass that Endeavor was a horrible person without destabilizing Japan.

That was a task for another time.

What he had found was absolutely disgusting, but not surprising - including several domestic abuse lawsuits that had mysteriously cancelled at the same time a sizable donation from the “hero” in question was made to the district attorney’s office.

Of course, he had statistics on property damage and civilian deaths, along with villains he “killed out of nessesity” who’s crimes would have warranted 20 years in prison at most. The use of excessive force against petty criminals who were doing nothing more than pickpocketing or a minor shoplift was also quite damning. 

Interviews with victims of his destruction, public opinion, the mysterious case of Todoroki Touya (that was a wild read), and the hospitalization of Todoroki Rei, who given all the facts together, had broken down due to Endeavor’s marital abuse.

Also, his flame beard was way too showy. Not an actual issue, but it still bothered Izuku.

Clicking out of his browser, he shut down his computer and sighed.

“I really shouldn’t be up this late....the entrance exam is coming up and i should be focusing on that.”

Nobody heard him, but saying it out loud was convincing enough to cause him to crawl back into bed at the totally reasonable hour of four in the morning.

His last thought before drifting off into a dreamless, short sleep was this - 

Would any of the Fuego models do anything against Endeavor?

Chapter Text

Izuku Midoriya, against the advice of everyone, didn’t get a wink of sleep.

Not that he wanted to not sleep! But anxiety can ruin every plan, no matter how crucial.

And, currently, it was ruining almost all of them.

“Mei! I’m going to fail! Or they’re going to fail me because I’m quirkless! What if the HeroPod stops working! Or explodes! What if i start stuttering or i fall over or…”

Mei, in her usual fashion, clamped her hand over his mouth - her preferred way of getting him to stop spiraling.

“Broccoli-kun, you’ll be fine. And if anyone says anything about your quirklessness, I will sic Fuego on them, ya hear me?”

“Yeah...ok....I can do this.”

“Yes you can!” She was beaming, and they stepped through the campus gates.

And all was well - 

Until his luck ran out and he tripped over a loose paver.

This is it, this is where I die, I’ll never- oh. I’m not on the ground. ”

“I’m so sorry for using my quirk on you! I just thought it would be bad luck to fall on exam day - here, let me put you down.” She put her fingers together. “Release!”

He stumbled onto his feet and saw Mei trying her damndest to not burst out cackling.

She failed.

“Oh-” she wheezed, “only you, Broccoli-kun! Only you.” She was starting to go red, clutching her abdomen. “Thank you, random girl!”

“It’s, uh,” She looked a bit concerned for the inventor, but a look at Izuku’s unsuprised face made the worry fade a bit. “I’m Uraraka Ochaco, and…” she looked at Izuku’s watch. “I have to go now! Bye!” she sprinted off towards the door to the Hero exam.

“Mei, are you done? We need to get going. The written exam is in a few minutes.”

“Yeah I...I’m good. Ok, let’s go.”

But another problem arose - another U.A. hopeful looking dreadfully lost at the signs. She had horns and shoes that looked custom-made, maybe for hooves.

Upon getting closer, she was whispering to herself in English.

“ Which one is it? Of all the days to get a blank on kanji…”

Izuku had learned English for his Sparrow activities, and also found the challenge a fun way to pass the time. He wasn’t fluent, per say, but if he met someone who spoke it, he could have a conversation about almost anything.

“ What exam are you looking for?” The girl looked delighted at her language being spoken.

“ Oh, thank god someone speaks English! I can’t find the hero course exam, the kanji doesn’t look right to me.”

Izuku pointed to the door on the left, and she beamed at him before running off.

“So, you know English? Nice.”

“Yeah,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck, “I picked it up a few years ago for fun, and it comes in handy. But we really, really need to go.”

“Onward, vegetable man!” Mei grabbed his wrist and ran to the right door, taking Izuku in tow.

----------

“And...start!”

Ectoplasm started a timer, and the written exam began.

If Izuku had learned one thing during his time as Sparrow, it was to always read everything before starting. And although the thick packet seemed daunting to read before he even started on the first question, he wouldn’t be able to relax at all until he knew all the content.

It started out simple, what you’d expect - different forms of math, chemistry, some japanese comprehension questions. It then went into logic problems and mechanical scenarios, along with the odd lab safety inquiry. 

It went to English, and then an analysis question for a retired hero that could blow air out of his feet. It took a lot of self restraint to not do that one, but he had to read everything first.

Around ten minutes had past, a sixth of the way through the hour they were allotted. But there was only one page left…

“Answer only the odd numbered questions.”

Looks like his seemingly futile actions payed off. He could only hope Mei looked through it first as well, although knowing her, she probably decided to do the test backwards just for fun, which would also mean she got the special instruction.

So he went, starting with one, then three, then five….

Until he reached question 59, with ten more minutes to spare. He looked over his work and stepped up to hand in his test, sparking gazes from other applicants still working. 

Ectoplasm pointed to a door in the back, and he went through to find a small lounge area, assumedly for people who finished early and for the break between written and practical.

He sat on one of the chairs and waited for someone else to arrive.

Soon after, his friend burst through the door and squeezed in next to him on the chair clearly built for one person.

“Broccoli-kun!”, she stage whispered, “did you-”

“Yeah, Mei. I did.”

“Good! Now, how long until we get to make and show our babies?”

The practical exam consisted of two parts: the first was to make a support item using materials given, write down its purpose, and quickly demonstrate. The second and more important part was a pitch in front of a group of teachers about a support item you made before the exam, with a more in-depth explanation and demonstration.

“Uh, about half an hour.”

She slid off the chair slowly and dramatically. “Ugh, I don't wanna wait that looooong!”

Another student walked in a few minutes after - a girl with light pink pigtails that reached her knees opened the door and sat down across from the pair.

“Hi. I’m Sakura Wato. My quirk is Prehensile Hair. I can control my hair in any way I want. Please do not touch it. Thank you.”

She didn’t show much emotion when speaking, but Izuku could see through that. She was just shy and was speaking robotically as a way to get through that.

Another student walked in, looking dejected. 

“I can’t believe I screwed up like that…I’m Hattomi Kyoko.” Her hair looked like copper wire pulled into a braid. It probably was copper wire.

“Did you not get the special instruction?”

“The what?” She looked worried. “Oh no, there was another direction? My parents are going to kill me…” 

And he’s made things worse! Wonderful. 

Suddenly, the rest of the students came in - maybe fifteen, given that the support applicants this year were a lot less than normal.

They all sat around, most taking out their phones or chatting amongst themselves. A boy with firetruck red hair and an air of confidence leaned against the wall.

“Sup, I’m Funai Hideaki. I can shoot lasers out of my fingers.” He turned to Midoriya, sitting only a few feet away from him. “You never introduced yourself.”

Crap. In all honesty, he didn’t really want to introduce himself.

“Uh, I’m Midoriya Izuku.”

Nobody ask, nobody ask, nobody-

“What’s your quirk?”

He asked.

“Uh….I’m quirkless.”

Chapter Text

Silence. 

More silence.

Mei looked at him incredulously, unbelieving that he just said that to a room of strangers who probably had their own biases.

Someone snickered. Then another. Then another. And then the whole room, save for two or three, was laughing hysterically.

“Oh my- you- U.A.? But- oh my god…” Someone with a shock of cyan hair was doubled over off of a couch, wheezing.

“Damn, I didn’t know your kind existed anymore.” Funai was looking at him surprised. “Good on you for trying here, though.”

“Is he allowed to be here? Don’t they keep quirkless people in like….armored rooms or something? That’s what my onee-san told me, at least.” That was a boy with black hair down to his shoulders, wearing gloves that covered three of his fingers. A five-point touch quirk? 

“MY onee-san told me that quirkless people usually die before they get to high school.” A girl with shiny silver hair looked at the other boy. Both looked confused.

This was worse than middle school. This was worse than kacchan. He could deal with people hating him, but this? People laughing at him? This was worse. 

“Everyone, stop. You shouldn’t care that he’s quirkless, I’d bet he’s smarter than all of you.” Hattomi, the girl with wires for hair, stood up and addressed the room. 

“But-”

“No buts! We all worked our hardest to get here, and you shouldn’t laugh at him for something he can’t control.”

“Yeah, but-”

Hattomi hiked up her pant leg, showing metal. “Would you laugh at me because I have a fake leg?”

Silence. Everyone looked sheepish.

“Yeah, I thought so. Laughing at him is just as bad as laughing at me. Mind your own damn business.”

She turned to him. “Sorry for butting in, but it was bothering me how bad they were treating you.” She stuck her hand out. “I personally don’t care, if that makes you feel better.”

He shook it. “Thanks, Hattomi-san.”

“Midoriya-kun, right? You could have said your quirk makes you look like a vegetable. I would have bought it, at least.”

Did...did he look THAT much like a vegetable? Really?

“Broccoli-kun here was super brave though!” Mei flung an arm around his shoulder, nearly knocking him off the small chair they were sharing. “I didn’t expect him to be so up-front about it, usually he’s a stuttering mess.”

“Mei!” 

“Sorry~” She did not, in fact, look sorry.

The girl with the pigtails, Wato Sakura, walked over, her hair fiddling in front of her nervously.

“Uh, I thought that was really cool of you, Midoriya-kun. My little brother is quirkless, and I’ve seen what he’s been through. I’m going to tell him all about you, if that’s alright.” Her voice was no longer robotic, it was now quiet but much more confident.

“Oh! Really? Well, tell him he can do anything for me, alright?”

Just then, a bell rang, and Ectoplasm walked in.

“Alright, children, follow me to the labs. Your practical exam will start in a moment.”

------

“Go!” 

Izuku rushed to one of the open lab stations and threw open a cabinet, looking at the chemicals, trying to figure out what to-

There. If he...and then….yes! That’s perfect!

He grabbed two choice chemicals and a test tube and set up his bunsen burner, making a small amount of the substance he was hoping it would create. He put it into a compression can and…

A small amount of foam sprayed out. He tapped it, and it was rock hard. Perfect.

He scaled up the amount, testing it at every stage, before adding the last few ingredients and testing the solvent. The foam bubbled and disintegrated.

Everything was going perfectly.

He grabbed one of the notebooks and a pencil and quickly scrawled an explanation for his creation. 

A beep went through the lab.

“Hands up! Part one of your practical is over.” Powerloader stood and walked to the first lab station, the one that Mei commendered next to him, with a small metal sphere resting on the table.

“...Hatsume-san, what did you create today?”

“This is the Fuego Sphere! It’s a cross between a flamethrower and a grenade, because when you throw it, it lights everything flammable in a 5 foot radius! Like this!” Before anyone could stop her, she threw the ball, which exploded into flames on the floor.

“Oh my god…” He grabbed the fire extinguisher on the wall and put it out. “And how, pray tell, would his help a hero?”

Mei cackled. “Makes a damn good distraction!”

He looked at the girl dumbfounded, then stepped over to Midoriya.

“Midoriya-san, what have you made?”

“Uh…” You can do this. “This is PolyFoam, which is a rapidly expanding and drying capture foam that is stored in liquid form in a compression can. It works like this.”

He grabbed the metal ball he found and put it on the table, before spraying a small amount at its bottom. The pale yellow foam instantly hardened.

“It’s non-toxic and doesn’t irritate skin, and can be easily dissolved with salt water.” He poured some on the foam, which instantly went slack, and picked up the ball.

“Very nice.” Powerloader moved onto the next station, the wire haired girl, who had made some sort of everything-proof rope.

After everyone was done presenting, they were given a few minutes to grab their pre-made inventions from the hall where they were stored. He saw several enormous boxes dwarfing his small project. 

He could only hope it was enough.

-----

“Midoriya-kun! You’re next.” The boy with laser fingers, Hideaki, stepped out of the testing area, his clothes suspiciously singed. “You might have some trouble topping me, though.” He laughed, apparently proud of how he performed.

He stepped into the testing room, his speech he had recited multiple times a day playing through his head. Mei had wrote a lot of it, trying to make it more effective, but he was starting to doubt that. 

Too late now.

He opened the door to find Powerloader, Snipe, and Principal Nedzu sitting at the large desk in the front of the room.

“Midoriya-san! Pleasure to have you. Please, show us your invention.”

Deep breaths…

He cleared his throat.

“Most people would call me absolutely crazy, and they are all absolutely right.” He threw the HeroPod between his hands carelessly, although he very much did care.

“I mean, who would bet their future on a tiny little thing? Well, this is the HeroPod, and it will change everything.”

He stepped close to the judges table and powered on the phone. “As you can see, this is no ordinary cell phone. It’s waterproof, fireproof, and super durable. It comes with an omni-translator, a voice-activated distress signal, messaging software that is encrypted four times over, and a sign language dictionary. It also comes with a codebreaker, and a self destruct feature that can be programmed with the code word of your choice. It also has a microphone that can reach volumes up to 110 decibels, perfect for evacuation orders.” He opened the applications as he mentioned them, acting as confident as he could while his heart tried to escape his chest.

He took a deep breath and put the phone down in front of them.

“Well, we’ll certainly look over this. Send Hattomi-san in here next, please.” Powerloader picked up the phone and turned it in his hands.

“Thank you for allowing me to take the exam. Good day.”

He spun on his heel and left, closing the door behind him. 

Mei ran up to him, taking him by the shoulders. 

“How did you do? Did they like it? Did you show them the self-destruct function?”

“I...I don’t know, Mei. I don’t know.”

Chapter Text

Mei had declared this a fire free day, which meant something very different than Izuku thought.

What he had expected was a day where he would not brush death due to Mei’s line of Fuego flamethrowers.

What he got is a day where Mei let him use the flamethrowers and set anything he wanted on fire.

“So I just…” He pulled the trigger, the gun aimed at a pile of paper. 

A stunning stream of flames shot out of the barrel, igniting the paper in a split second. It was...therapeutic.

Mei skipped over and plucked the flamethrower out of his hands. “Yep, that’s the original Fuego for ya! Isn’t arson so calming?” 

"I guess…it's just, what if I don't get in?"

"Then I'll burn their hair off." Mei didn't sound like she was joking.

"Thanks, Mei."

He didn't mean for the opportunity to burn things. He meant for everything - being there for him, giving him a new purpose. 

And, well, arson is fun.

--------

"Nope. Absolutely not. I'm just going to do Sparrow full-time, I'm not opening the damn envelope." 

He sat cross-legged on the floor of Mei's workshop, their U.A acceptance envelopes resting in front of them.

"Well then," Mei picked up his envelope, "fuck that noise, I'm opening it for you."

She ripped open the paper to find….a disc? It was a small black device, a bit larger than a hockey puck, with a grey button on the top.

They rejected him so hard, they sent him a bomb. That had to be it, they wanted to destroy his dreams in every sense of the word. This is the end-

"Oh, stop being dramatic. It's not a bomb." Crap, he said that out loud.

Mei pushed the button, and dropped it as a projection popped up.

"Hello! Am I a dog, a mouse, or a bear? I'm principal Nedzu, and I'm here to tell you, Midoriya Izuku, that you have been accepted into the coveted position of Class 1-H!"

Chapter Text

The projection stopped, and there was silence. 

"Oh my god I got in! Mei, I got in!"

He was crying now, hands rubbing at his arms to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

"Well, duh! Of course you got in." Mei, despite sounding dismissive, tackled him in a hug. 

A robotic voice broke the moment. "This message will self destruct in 5...4…"

The two inventors looked at each other, the disk, and back at the other.

"Run!" It was a unanimous decision. They sprinted away from the disk as they heard a boom. They turned around to see a small crater with little bits of tech surrounding it, billowing grey smoke.

"I told you they sent me a bomb!"

----------

"How did you mess this up so bad?"

"I don't know! I don't know," Izuku whimpered, poking at his sorry excuse for a windsor knot. 

Mei snickered, grabbing the tangled cloth and quickly fixing it. "There, much better."

They were in front of Izuku's apartment complex, psyching themselves up for their first day.

The train ride was uneventful. Mei was tinkering with... something, and Izuku looked around the train, analyzing people to pass the time.

Shark mutation. I wonder if the skin is covered in barbs like real sharks? What about gills? I don't see any, so probably no underwater breathing, but I'd bet money there's a super large lung capacity.

Before he could finish even one passenger, the train arrived at the station just outside U.A. 

It was swarming with students - some looking excited, others nervous, others bored. 

Mei dragged him through the doors, snapping him out of his nervous trance. Oh god, he was in U.A! 

They picked up a map from the pile and walked towards the support classrooms, specifically 1-H, the higher level and more advanced class. The labs were attached to the normal classrooms.

They found it eventually, but Mei didn't open the door. Instead, she pulled out what she had been toying with on the train and placed it in front of the door, pushed a button on the side, and stepped away.

"Mei, what are you-" 

Boom!

There was an explosion, and once some of the smoke cleared, a hole in the door, showing several gaping faces.

Mei grabbed Izuku’s arm and strutted through the hole she created with the tiny explosive.

“Your worst nightmares have arrived!”

Chapter Text

There were three familiar faces: Hattomi Kyoko, the girl with wire hair, Wato Sakura, the girl with pigtails she can control, and Hideaki Funai, the boy with laser fingers. 

A few new faces as well, though, or at least faces he didn’t have a name for. A boy with long black hair, covering one eye, the boy with cyan hair that laughed at him (oh joy), a girl wearing what looked like bluetooth earbuds, and sunglasses, and a boy with short white hair.

All of them, of course, were staring in awe at the demolished door and the terror twins walking in.

“Oh god. There are two of them.” Izuku looked to his left to see Powerloader’s face falling against his desk in pure defeat. 

“I’m Hatsume Mei, future CEO of Hatsume Industries, and this is Midoriya Izuku, who is smarter than all of you combined! We make lots of-” Izuku took a page out of his friend’s book and clamped his hand over her mouth.

“She calls her inventions babies, fair warning.”

She ripped his hand off her mouth. “Broccoli-kun, you’re no fun!”

They went over to the two empty seats, taking the ones labelled with their names.

Power Loader stood and sighed. “I don’t know if you know each other, but I don’t, so go around and say your name and something interesting about yourself. Or something boring, i don’t care. It can be your quirk, it can be something else, again, i don’t really care.” He sipped what looked like a red bull and went back to whatever he was doing.

“Um, I’ll go first! I’m Murata Sora, and I can manipulate the temperature of anything i touch!” Ok, that was the boy with the cyan hair. Good to know.

“I am Hoshino Masashi. I can control metal.” Goth boy, ok.

“The name’s Yano Juro! I can power machines based on my feelings!” He was loud, boisterous. His eyes seemed to glow golden, and probably did, if his quirk created energy due to strong emotions. Izuku wondered if his eyes changed with his emotions...

“I’m Yano Akira, Juro’s sister. I can create energy based on how much sensory input I’m receiving. A side effect is that I’m sensitive to loud noises and bright lights, so I’ll be wearing my glasses and earbuds most of the time.” She also had her brother’s white hair, although it was pulled into a bun.

“Hattomi Kyoko, my hair is copper wire. I have a prosthetic leg that I need to work on sometimes, so if you see a random leg on my work counter or see me on crutches, don’t panic.”

“I’m Wato Sakura. I can control my hair to do whatever I want. Do not touch it.” Ah, she was back in her shell. Understandable, given that she was addressing multiple people.

“And I’m Hideaki Funai, and I can shoot freaking lasers out of my fingers!” He laughed, and Izuku got the vibe that he was a jock in middle school.

“You know me, I’m Hatsume Mei, and this is my partner Izuku! We like to make babies! Can we go build things now, Majima-sensei?” It took the class a moment to remember Izuku’s warning, and they calmed down with a snicker or two.

Izuku gave a small wave, glad that Mei covered for him. He didn’t really want to reintroduce himself after the disaster at the exams.

Power Loader stood up. “Alright children, because it’s the first day and I don't have a lesson plan, go and build with the pipe cleaners at the front. Only pipe cleaners. Nothing else.”

---------

Later that day, one could find a teacher crying in the staff room, mumbling something about how pipe cleaners aren’t supposed to be explosive.

Chapter Text

Izuku and Mei were walking home after the first day of class. It was more of an introductory day than anything else, for teachers to sort out paperwork and students to become acquainted. Therefore, half day.

They were waiting outside the train station when they saw them.

People. Disgusting.

It was Hideashi and the Yano twins, speed walking toward the two. 

“Hey, Mido-kun!” Juro slung an arm around Izuku’s shoulders, much to his chagrin, although he wasn’t going to say anything. “So, you gotta spil, how the hell did you manage to make pipe cleaners explode? Seriously, that goes against several universal laws.”

“I don’t know, Yano-kun ask-”

“SCIENCE!” 

...Mei.

“Oi, crazy girl, uuuuhh, Hatsule, what’s with you and fire?”

Mei gave Hideashi the most crazed grin, sauntered up to him, and whispered.

“Burn, baby, burn.”

“Aaaaaaaaaaaooookay i need to go catch my train, see ya!” Hideashi ran off, clearly shaken by Mei’s antics.

“Well, our trains are on this station too, so I guess we’ll hang out for a bit!” Akira smiled, clearly genuine despite her covered eyes. “So...how did the two of you meet? You seem really close.” 

“He found me in a dumpster fire!”

“A...what?” Akira seemed very apprehensive to press the issue, but the curiosity was clear.

“I was testing out the original Fuego model and trying to make smores, and ended up setting the dumpster i was in on fire. Broccoli-kun here saved me!”

The twins looked at each other and back at the pair of mad inventors, but didn’t say anything more.

The train ride was uneventful, the four riding in almost complete silence, save for a few futile attempts at small talk.

But there was someone on the train that piqued Izuku- no, Sparrow’s interest. A man in a black hoodie with black gloves and what looked like, using the reflection of the sun, an absolutely ungodly amount of piercings. 

He’d have to look into that later. Maybe Mei could help him, as her first act as Chickadee. 

Although, he remembered seeing a lot of cut up magazines in the workshop….

Probably nothing of concern.

Chapter Text

A man in a black hoodie pressed himself against the wall of the alley, panting, as he prayed the heroes had lost track of him. He was scared, but the adrenaline rush was better than a drug.

He’d vandalized every Endeavor poster, mural, and piece of merchandise in a half mile radius and had never felt more alive.

As he came down from the high of danger, he picked at his gloves, covering his scarred hands and keeping his staples from coming loose.

He’d gotten some...questionable medical treatment a while ago, after he came out of his years of hiding under bridges and in the back rooms of old warehouses. He knew next to nothing about how to fix someone who’s 80% burn scars, so he trusted the weird guy.

They were itchy, though. Probably infected, but he didn’t exactly care. If he could commit arson and/or vandalise things with Endeavor on them, he couldn’t give less of a crap.

He found a scrap of paper on the sidewalk when he was crossing through a suburb at night, scrawled in near unreadable writing. It had two distinct styles. One more squished and small, the other scribbled to the point of illegibility. 

Fire….Essence….quirk….medicine…..Fire…..Fire…

Ah, young arsonists. Such an asset to the world.

He pocketed it and went on his way, intending to throw it away eventually. But it was interesting…

-----------------

No. Abso-fucking-lutely not.

That piece of shit nerd said he wasn’t going to be a hero! So what was he doing in U.A, being dragged around by some cackling lunatic with pyromania?!

But he couldn’t go and kill the shitty Deku, no, because these extras were clinging onto him! Shitty hair and that Pikachu looking kid especially, acting like they were on his level. Idiots.

But Bakugo Katsuki wasn’t an idiot. He knew that if he blew the nerd’s face off, he’d get his ass handed to him by the admins. He had to be smart about this, wait for his chance to get the Deku to stop looking down on him by daring to set foot in this school.

----------------

Tsukauchi Naomasa was, though he'd never admit it, a tad worried.

Sparrow hadn't bothered him in a week, and although he had significantly less migraines, he still was a bit concerned. Sparrow wouldn't go this long without making at least someone's life a living hell.

And fine. He missed the coffee. That son of a bitch got the good stuff, the beans you can only get online. 

And maybe, maybe, he missed the conversation.

Chapter Text

“Out! Just….go watch the hero kids, or something, just. Please, you’re following every safety rule, how are you blowing everything up! I’m done!” Powerloader gestured weakly to the door as he grabbed his coffee and downed it. “I can see how Eraser feels now...good lord.”

Wow, it was only the second day, and the Terror Twins (as they had overheard Powerloader mumble at some point) got kicked out of class. Izuku could see the snickers on his classmate’s faces, all of them doing frankly boring projects. Minus Hattomi, who was making yet another nonsensical addition to her leg. It looked suspiciously like a gun holster.

He had made some observations about the support course in his limited time, such as all of them having muscled arms and calloused hands, and all of them relying heavily on their quirks to make things. Of course, he couldn’t blame them, having an energy source built into you or freaking LASERS for fingers was a pretty sweet gig.

His notes on their quirks were extensive - he had bought a shiny new notebook for this year’s entries, and was fascinated by his classmates.

But there was no time to fawn now, not as Mei dragged him out of the studio, looking...excited?

They stepped out and closed the door behind them (or what was left of it), and Mei spun on her heel to face him.

“Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, we get to stalk the hero kids! I can’t wait to see what kind of babies I need to whip up for them, and you can fill up that notebook of yours to the brim!”

“Mei, we were still kicked out of class.”

“Killjoy. C’mon, we have hero hopelings to watch from the shadows!” Well wasn’t that a comforting and completely legal sentiment.

“We’ll have to be super quiet though, we don’t want to get caught stalking them.”

Mei’s eyes lit up, filling with stars. “We can be spies!!!!”

Chapter Text

“Ok, I don't think anyone will be able to see us, we’re in the clear. You ok with him being here, Broccoli-kun?”

Izuku had told Mei about what had happened a while ago, not that she had paid much attention, given that he brought it up when they were stuck in a flaming workshop. But that’s a story for another time.

“Yeah, it’s not like he’s talking to me. Oh, here they come!” Izuku readied his pen as he eagerly watched Class 1-A walk into the training grounds. He started writing immediately, accompanied by his muttering, a habit he can't seem to kick.

“The redhead probably has some sort of armor quirk, given how exposed he is. Most skin emitters don’t need that much space. But his skin looks pretty normal, maybe it’s a transformation? Oh, that’s the nice girl from the exam, still don’t know how she complies with physics- Look at that one! His hair indicates an electric quirk, combined with the antennas. I really, really hope that invisible one has custom clothes, and good lord! That is not a proper costume for the black haired girl, I am taking that up with Powerloader.”

Hatsume wasn’t really paying attention, clearly thinking up support ideas for all the students.

As All Might explained the exercise (quite stupid, if you asked Izuku), he tried to get a better view of the screen. They could hear perfectly from the vent, squished together like sardines. 

“Shhh, it’s starting!”

And so the analysis began. The redhead did have a transformative armor quirk, and good god, Bakugo’s gauntlets should not be allowed. Those things could kill someone! Not that anyone thought Bakugo minded.

He was very interested in Yaoyorozu’s quirk, mainly how many elements she could create, and how everything worked. Jiro’s quirk was also intriguing, but Kaminari-

“Zapper is an absolute buffoon to be using long-range attacks. The man’s a human taser.”

Mei turned to him (or turned as much as she could in the cramped air duct). “Did you just use the term buffoon unironically?”

“Yes.” 

“Alrighty then.”

Then, in accordance with all laws of Izuku’s luck, the duct ripped and the two support students fell in a heap to the floor with the Hero Course staring at them dumbfounded.

Chapter Text

"Uh….hi?"

Izuku was trying his best here. Faced with his second least favorite hero, his childhood tormentor, and a gaggle of strangers who were looking at them in confusion.

"Intruders!" Well fuck-a-doodle-do, now a large mass of muscle and quirkism was barreling towards the pair.

“Mei! Plan twelve!” Izuku could see Bakugo looking at him in shocked fury, which was not a good sign.

“Aye-aye!” She reached into her seemingly bottomless toolbelt and pulled out a few vials of what looked like glitter and water and wound back her arm.

“Hasta la vista, bitches!” She threw the small bottles on the ground which combusted into thick, sparkly blue vapor, distracting the pursuers and blocking their view as they bolted back to the support classroom, hearing hero hopefuls hot on their heels.

Kicking in the door, they essentially leaped over to Powerloader’s desk.

“Hi sensei! All Might wants to kill us and so do his underlings so we’re going to hide! Thank you!” Izuku gave a short bow before dragging Mei behind a lab station just as the number 1 hero caught up to them.

“Powerloader! I saw two young villains run into here! Did you see them?”

Their teacher sighed and stood, rubbing his forehead. “The little gremlins aren’t villains, they’re my students that I sent and are now cowering-”

“This is a tactical retreat, not cowering!”

“...Tactically retreating, then. They’re just headache-inducers with pyromania and a thirst for chaos. They wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose.”

“But-”

“Nope, I sent them there, it was my bad for not letting you know. Now please leave the workshop, my students are on a break and should be coming back any moment now.”

Reluctantly, All Might left, and Powerloader spun on his heel to look at their eyes peeking from behind the table.

“Explain.”

Chapter Text

“So you sent us to go watch the hero kids-”

“And we climbed into the vents to watch them.” 

Powerloader had never seen two people so in sync with each other.

“So I wrote some notes, the vent broke…”

“...and then we used our Glitter Smoke to create a distraction.”

It was most certainly an abridged version of what happened, but it was enough.

“Can’t you two just go one day, one single day, without causing trouble?”

“Nope!” Two voices chirped out before bolting out of the room.

Where did he put his Advil?

-----

Midoriya Izuku spun around in his chair, silently celebrating as Operation: Endeawhore was finalized. The document was 92 pages long, and his bibliography was another 4. He knew that people would find the smallest mistake to discredit his argument, but Sparrow doesn’t make mistakes. 

If all went well, the document would be posted at exactly 12:30 PM a week from today on a brand new account using loads of tags on every hero forum, social media platform, and most importantly, sent to every major news station. 

But his favorite part was that he managed to hack into the offices of JHN, Japan Hero Network, the top news station in the country, to make every screen show the time of the release at 6 AM the morning before.

Everything was going swimmingly….but there was one little thing left to do.

Songbird created a chat with Aizawa Shouta and Unknown

Songbird: Whaddup eraser, Tsu-kun

Aizawa Shouta: Look who finally showed up.

Unknown: And here I thought you’d maybe given up…

Songbird: bitch u thought

Songbird: nah i was working on something big, just thought i should warn you. Next week will be i n s a n e

Unknown: Oh god.

Aizawa Shouta: At least you’re not dead, Sparrow.

Songbird: :0 did you two...miss me?!?!?! im so flattered

Songbird: welp gotta go, see ya later 

Oh, it was so fun to mess with them.

He had one more person to message.

Broccoli-kun: Yo mei i got the doc done

Mayday: !!!!!!!! I’m so fuckin excited that bitch is going down

 But he had to sleep - he had a few days left of peace before shit hit the fan.

Chapter Text

It was cathartic, arson. 

They had gathered up every piece of Endeavor merch they could find without stealing and put it in a big open container on the garbage beach. The name had been lost to time, and in this context, time is the completely shot memories of two pyromaniacs who are causing fumes of questionable breathability, but lung cancer is nothing in the name of chaos.

It was almost poetic - the sun setting over the glistening water, surrounded by scrap and junk, with noxious black fumes billowing up from a hero memorabilia bonfire.

There were the two teenagers, covered in ash and soot and scrapes, standing satisfied as the fire roared. 

And then there was the tall man who was more scar than skin, slowly creeping up on them like a jungle cat, waiting to strike.

--------

There weren’t words to describe how absolutely, positively DONE Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa was.

Popping yet another Excedrin, he refreshed the forums and social platforms he had tabbed for the fifteenth time this hour. Stupid Sparrow and their cryptic messages…

A coffee was put down on his desk, a white paper cup with thin black liquid in it.

“Hey baby bro!”

-------

“No, no, Sparrow told us that the bastard would be here! I payed that son of a bitch half my checking account! We just have to wait.” A man with a lobster mutation and someone with a shock of lime hair waited next to a suspiciously charred dumpster that smelled vaguely of marshmallows. Little did they know, a man clad in black and neon yellow goggles (now with no slits) sat on the roof above them, waiting to strike.

The pair had been muttering about some person for the past ten minutes, citing Sparrow as their source. Looks like the little shit gave them some dud info.

He shot out his capture weapon, ready to make his first arrest of the night.

Chapter Text

"Mei, when I asked you to gain an appreciation for birds, I didn't mean...whatever this is."

Midoriya Izuku looked on in helpless confusion as his best friend's head poked out of a pile of bird manuals the size of a car.

"You've known me for over a year now, broccoli-kun. I don't half ass anything that isn't my homework."

She dove back into her literary cave, while her green-headed friend shook his head.

"Ok, you get half an hour more of whatever it is you're doing, then I explain to you what being my partner in sorta-crime means."

One of the books fell off the pile. Izuku took this as a yes.

-----

"Ok, so here's your hub that I made. You're mainly doing recon stuff and also helping me fuck with everyone. Just don't do anything that can be traced back to you."

Mei got that look in her eye - the look that promised nothing but hilarious carnage.

"So, hypothetically, if i stole all my mom's magazines and used letters from that to make a note to U.A. speaking of my arrival that I hypothetically placed on Eraserhead's hypothetical desk this hypothetical morning, would you, hypothetically, not like that?"

Izuku smiled, a manic, crazed smile that matched the gleam in his friend's eye.

"Hypothetically, I would love that."

-----

"They're-" Present Mic wheezed, clutching the edge of his desk. "They're LOVEBIRDS, Sho!" He doubled over cackling again as his friend looked over a note.

The colors made it nearly indecipherable, but he made out something about babies, Sparrow, and the clear sign off at the end.

Cheers,

Chickadee

"That's egg-egg-" Midnight was holding her torso, trying to make out the words through breathless laugher. "Eggscelent!"

Eraser, while he showed his usually stoic face, had a little bit of the small remaining part of his soul die.

----

Izuku and Mei sat in the park, peoplewatching, as birdwatching had gotten so boring that not even Mei could make it fun.

They noticed a few interesting personalities - a girl with black twintails speaking, exasperated, at a much taller boy with spiked violet hair and an interesting jacket. A short boy with violet hair throwing small balls at various passerbys. A sad looking girl with blue hair and a sunflower raincoat, even though it was clear and sunny out.

"So, how does it feel being associated with me in the underground?"

Mei smiled. "It feels like I'm going to, in short, fuck shit up."

Chapter Text

It was a quiet day in U.A. It would be the last true quiet day in a while - the Hero kids were doing rescue training in a few days.

Oh, and the fact that it was T-24 hours until the absurdly long document that would tear Endeavor's career into very small bits, then burn those bits, then shoving the ashes so far up his ass that he'd taste them.

But it was a quiet day. Until you entered the Class 1H lab.

---

"I cannot fulfill your request, the darkness refuses to allow it."

"Oh shut up you edgelord and give me the damn welding torch. You don't even need the welding torch, you can weld the metal with your damn mind!" 

Mei was making grabby hands at Hoshino, who reluctantly passed over the welding torch.

On the other side of the room, Izuku was itching to cause some chaos. His opportunity arose when Hattomi asked him a simple question.

"Hey Midoriya-kun, toss me that screwdriver."

He, in fact, picked up a 3-D printer and, given that there is only one word to describe the sheer beauty of it all, yeeted it at Hattomi's work station.

There was a loud thunk, and Hattomi looked at the bush-headed boy in confused shock.

"I said a screwdriver!"

Midoriya fought back a cheshire grin. "I thought you said printer!"

"Why the FUCK WOULD I SAY-"

"You're being really loud, Kyoko-chan!" Yano Akira and Hattomi had been getting quite close over the short time they've been in school, although Izuku had no evidence as to the extent of that.

Yet.

"Ah, sorry Aki-chan!" She looked back over to Izuku with fire in her copper eyes, and picked her leg up off her work table and pointed it towards him threateningly, mouthing "You're dead."

Ah, Izuku loved school. And that was a very, very interesting sentiment to him.

---

"Tomorrow will be a week since Sparrow sent us that cryptic text. What do you think he's up to?" Tsukauchi took a sip of his coffee and grimaced. The precinct couldn't even get the good cheap instant coffee.

"I don't know, but his... partner sure as hell has way too much free time on her hands.

There was silence. Aizawa felt as if he had forgotten something very important.

Oh.

Oh shit.

"I'm sorry, his WHAT?!"

Chapter Text

T-Minus 12 hours to release

Izuku and Mei were waiting in inpatient agony for the country’s phones to go off in sync. They hacked into all the Shibuya billboards, for christ’s sake - if that wasn’t national news, nothing was.

Mei was lightly tapping her foot against the train car floor, the noise drowned out by the hum of machinery. 

Izuku was obsessively refreshing the twitter trending page, waiting for anything about Shibuya or billboards or countdowns to pop up.

And then it happened. It was a glorious sound. The entire train car was filled with a short buzzing, and almost in complete sync, everyone went to check their phones to see what the notification was. 

The terror twins held their breath in anticipation, watching the eyes and faces of their fellow commuters.

There were gasps, there were quiet confused noises, there were cries of outrage. Well, one cry of outrage, from…

“Hideashi-kun! Did you-”

“Of course i saw the news! Who in their right mind would hack Shibuya? It’s really creepy, a white countdown on black screens.” He frowned at his phone, apparently texting someone.

“Yeah, wonder who that could be.” Midoriya tried to keep the snicker out of his voice. 

The train had arrived at their stop - time to distract themselves and wait for hell.

---

T-Minus 3 hours to release

The tension in the air was palpable. And to be honest, simply delicious.

Everyone was on edge - even the ever-positive Juro’s eyes seemed to be a panicked neon yellow instead of his usual rich, almost shimmering gold.

Hattomi Kyoko was chattering away with the female Yano twin, but her hands were nervously fiddling with some wire she’d pulled out of her scalp. The other girl looked calm, but one could notice that her sensory deprivation sunglasses and earbuds were at a higher power level than they usually were if they looked close enough.

Murata Sora was, in a word, angry. He had been hammering away at something or other since Izuku and Mei arrived, a scowl on his face.

Hoshino was sitting in the corner, blasting some kind of goth music into his ears. This was a common occurrence.

Hideashi, with his usual expressive tendencies, was yelling at nobody in particular about the events transpiring in Tokyo.

“What if some villain is going to bomb something? So many people will die!”

Well, Izuku thought, nobody’s going to die on the outside. Reputations and careers, however…

Wato was, surprisingly, the most distressed. Anyone with eyes could see she’d been holding back tears for a while, and her hair hadn’t stopped fiddling with itself for hours. She was staring blankly at a circuit board, her hands at rest beside it.

Mei sauntered over to her. “Hey Flower-chan, everything ok?”

Mei had given a nickname to everyone in the class, much to most of their dismays.

“My older sister works at Shibuya Crossing. I’m terrified that she might not come home tonight.” Her voice was monotone, robotic, as it was whenever the long-haired girl got upset. “Nothing you need to worry about, though, Hatsume-san.”

Well, there really was nothing to worry about, but Izuku couldn’t help the pang of guilt in his chest at how malcontented his classmates were.

----

T-minus 30 seconds to release

It was time. Everyone knew that it was - the majority of students sitting in the cafeteria were on their phones and talking nervously with their peers.

To fit in, Izuku tried to look nervous, but he was really looking at a certain Todoroki Shouto. He looked blank, as usual, but Izuku could read people. He was just as nervous as everyone else.

He checked his watch, the second hand inching closer and closer. 

He turned to Mei and smiled the most he had in weeks as the clock struck 12 and what he had lovingly dubbed The Todoroki Pamphlet hit the country like a sack of wet mice.

Chapter Text

Izuku wasn't an idiot.

He knew a single document wouldn't destabilize a large portion of the hero system - but one thing that he had learned from his pre-quirk obsession a few years back was that if enough people hate someone, it doesn't matter why.

This wasn't some silly fanfiction written by a bored high schooler, this was real life. Very real. The realest of realities. So, so real.

And yet the gasps and murmurs and exclamations of blind trust in some frankly suspicions document were simply melodic to him as he discreetly surveyed the cafeteria.

---

Aizawa Shota and Tsukauchi Naomasa were, in fewer words, panicking.

Sure, they were halfway across the precinct from each other, but most people were.

Aizawa had his reservations against the number two hero, but this? This was a bit much. 

But the problem wasn't the content, it was the writing itself. As he skimmed the atrociously long paper, it was well-cited and written in a cynical but respectful voice.

But there were far too many references. 

Pre-quirk culture was making a pretty big comeback, with many people being aware or even fans of musicals from hundreds of years ago. And the author of this was veru clearly a Hamilton fan.

But then he saw the sign off.

And when we meet again, I'll have more to share!

Lots of love,

Sparrow

He had figured out that Sparrow had written it - the crytpic texts lined up. But this...this implied the little shit wasn't done with his work.

His phone was blowing up, and he quickly opened the U.A. staff group chat.

Screm: are you guys seeing this

Man-eater: do you really need to ask that?

Man-eater: of course we are.

Gordon Ramsay: The cafeteria is way too quiet. Everyone's in some form of shock.

Westaboo: This is completely ridiculous! Nobody in their right mind would actually take this seriously!

Aizawa sighed and sent the only thing he could.

Insomnicat: All Might, with no due respect, shut up

He set his phone to silent, laying his head on his hand.

This was going to be a nightmare.

---

A man who looked like he'd made out with an Office Depot looked in shock at the screen in front of him. 

His coffee had long gone cold, the once warm drink now a sad, black puddle of bitterness.

Usually this café didn't show the news - it was always some soap opera, or maybe a new anime. But this was practically required veiwing at this point.

Endeavor: Friend or Fraud?

Todoroki Touya knew the answer to that question better than anyone else.

But he had an unexplainable feeling that the whole debacle was caused by those two manical teens that he almost talked to, but wisely ran when the girl whipped out a flamethrower bigger than herself.

---

Izuku watched with barely contained glee as the cafeteria reacted to the P.A. system announcing all of them were to go home. 

He grabbed Mei's arm, planning to go home and laugh at the fringe news stations for the rest of the day, eating american snacks he had gotten off the internet and drinking barely-legal energy drinks when he saw a boy split in half trailing behind the crowd.

Oh.

Him.

He looked over to Mei, asking a silent question with expressions and vigorous eye movements.

She nodded her head, and the pair turned to go speak to the boy who's world had most definitely been shattered.

Chapter Text

For exactly 5 minutes and 39 seconds, there was total silence.

Everyone had been watching the clock - most major news stations were broadcasting from Shibuya square, anxiously waiting for the countdown to hit zero.

But most everyone with internet access took exactly 5 minutes and 39 seconds to read the first few paragraphs of the scathing essay, riddled with pre-quirk pop culture.

This included Midoriya Hisashi, up in Wakkanai, who worried about how his hero-obsessed son would take the news.

This also included the Hero Commission, who quickly moved the name Sparrow from probable to definite threat.

This also included Todoroki Enji, who had been on patrol when he got an alert from the commission and noticed several civilians staring at him with reproach.

He'd been in his fair share of scandals before, so he didn't think much of it. He ignored the feeling in his gut that this was different.

But when he continued his patrol, he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable with all the furious eyes tracking him.

But when he was accosted by a very angry blue-haired teen with a very large fire extinguisher, he started to wonder what everyone was so mad about.

-----

The streets of Tokyo were loud. They always were, it was simply how things worked.

But today it was quiet, with a soft roar of whispers and murmurs to drown out the existentialism plaguing the populace.

But the general population was nowhere near the most shaken.

Chapter Text

Todoroki Shouto was always focused. He didn’t let his emotions control him.

And yet he stared at his phone in a quivering hand, rereading the same line over and over and over again.

Todoroki Enji is, in short, a borderline homicidal domestic abuser with more of an arson problem than a few villains I’ve met.

Someone said it. Someone put it out there and people were believing it.

He was vaguely aware of two voices on either side of him, but didn’t snap out of his shocked stupor until a finger poked his shoulder.

“Helloooo...helloooo...is anyone in there?” He turned his head to find a girl with pink dreadlocks and crosshair eyes poking him with a furrowed brow. 

“Uh. Hi.” Another first! Todoroki Shoto was not eloquent in this moment.

“Oh, good, you’re back in the real world. I’m Mei, that’s my friend Izuku, and we’re taking you back to his place. I would ask if that’s ok with you, but you don’t really get a choice. C’mon!”

She snatched his wrist and pulled him up, and he turned his head to the other direction to see a boy with an unruly mop of green hair and matching eyes looking at him with concern.

“Hmm. Yeah. This is contingency plan 23, Mei-chan.” 

-----

There was a knock on the door. Todoroki Fuyumi looked up from her student’s papers to see a frazzled co-worker that she recognized as Rakito Hana, swiftly walking over to her desk and placing a phone on it.

Fuyumi picked it up, confused, and read the most concerning article she had since those concerning reports from hundreds of years ago about american politics.

-----

His phone wouldn’t shut up. 

Natsu Todoroki pulled his phone out of his pocket, not even bothering to find a bench. This would only take a second.

But the 5 missed calls from his sister and the few dozen texts from various friends sent several alarm bells a-ringing. 

He opened the link a friend had sent him, which was followed by an unpatterned string of question and exclamation marks, and read what he had been waiting to read for the past decade and a half.

----

Todoroki Rei could feel it in the air. A shift. A disturbance.

Murmurs from the hallway. Nurses looking confused and conflicted. The street outside her window stopping, and then starting again with an air of discord. 

Something was afoot, and god dammit if she wasn’t going to figure out what it was.

-------

“So this is ‘Contingency Plan 23’?”

Shoto wondered how he’d ended up here. He didn’t remember much between being confronted and ending up wrapped in the fluffiest blanket known to mankind, a plate of soba in his lap, and some ancient american movie that he’d never even heard of playing on the TV. Something about a blue alien that caused chaos. Change the colors, and you’d have his captors.

“So...how ya feeling, Soba-kun?” That was apparently his name now. This is fine.

“I’m fine.” No, he was not going to elaborate and talk about his “feelings”. Disgusting.

“And that just won’t do. Broccoli-kun! Bring out the 2010s American standup comedy, if you would. That one guy that should be gay, but god forgot to flip the final switch and turned out to be a very interesting person? That one.”

“Ah, the high-waisted man with feminine hips. I know the one.” 

The green haired boy stepped out of the kitchen, a melonpan in hand, and pressed some buttons on the remote to a guy on a stage making nonsensical gestures. But it was funny enough.

Maybe today wasn’t so bad.

Chapter Text

April 19th

Izuku didn’t know what to do. How had he been so blind?

It was too late, too late, too late-

Backtrack.

Rewind.

---

One week earlier

Sparrow: Eraserrrrr

Sparrow: Eraserrrrrrrr

Eraserhead: I'm working.

Sparrow: like hell u are, your patrol doesn't start for another hour

Sparrow: the suns hardly down. 

Eraserhead: What do you want.

Sparrow: im borrreeeeddddddddd

Eraserhead: You sound like a child.

Sparrow: a child that made your brand-spankin new goggles

Sparrow: get it right

Eraserhead: So you’re a minor?

Sparrow: didn’t say that, just said if you’re going to call me a child you better respect my titles

Eraserhead: Like what, morally dubious informant who keeps giving tsukauchi migraine meds?

Eraserhead: By the way, he’s running low.

Sparrow: im not his pharmacist

Sparrow: ok maybe i sorta am but i’m busy rn

Eraserhead: With?

Sparrow: wouldnt you like to know, weather boy

Eraserhead: oh god not another one

Sparrow: owo wdym another one

Eraserhead: Nothing. I do have a question, though.

Sparrow: shoot

Eraserhead: Why do you stick to online vigilantism? You haven’t hit the streets once. 

Sparrow: o shit we gettin serious, huh

Sparrow: i have people i want to protect and i don't want to hurt them by getting hurt. 

Eraserhead: That’s more mature than I expected from you.

Sparrow: :0 i’m hurt Aizawahead

Eraserhead: Hold on you know my real name?

Sparrow: -_- sir i found your apartment, you think i don’t know your legal name

Eraserhead: ...that’s fair.

Sparrow: anyways, gotta go, its late

Sparrow: get some sleep at some point and tell your husband that his shoe sole is torn 

*Sparrow is Offline*

Eraserhead: ...I shouldn’t be surprised at this point. 

Eraserhead: Night.

*Eraserhead is Offline* 

Chapter Text

April 14th

Aizawa was not getting attached.

It was a fact, a logical one at that - the vigilante was nothing but a snarky, occasionally helpful headache.

And yet, despite that, he found himself...looking forward to their chats.

Feelings. Disgusting. 

And so what if he felt a bit worried if nobody heard from him for a few days? So what if he was just a bit concerned for his safety?

Aizawa was not getting attached.

He wasn’t.

-----

“Shoooouuuutaaaa!” 

He didn’t bother looking up from his grading, sipping on a jelly pouch as his husband, his loud, cockatoo husband burst in through the door.

“Zashi. How was work?”

“It was so boring!” Present Mic draped himself dramatically across the couch, a hand over his forehead in a ‘Woe is me’ fashion. 

“Isn’t a boring patrol a good one?”

“Yeah, but it’s still not very fun! There weren't even any children to say hello to! I hate getting the post-rush shift…”

After a dramatic sigh, his husband flipped on the news, trying to fill the silence of their apartment.

“...whispers of an informant by the name of Sparrow have gotten louder, so much so that, well, we’re mentioning them! We have almost no information on them, but they are on the rise. Anyway, back to the weather. Ishima-dono?” 

“Thanks, Tanaka-san. We’re going to see some scattered showers…”

Huh. The knowledge the public had (or lack thereof, but there was a small amount) was a bit concerning. He wondered how Sparrow was reacting to that. Aizawa hoped they were ok…

Wait, no, he doesn’t worry about the headache. Because he’s not attached.

-----

From a workshop in Musutafu, one could hear a high-pitched squeal and a panicked yell.

“Eeeeee, you’re famous now, Broccoli-kun!”

“Mei-chan….I don’t want to be famous!”

He really didn’t. Midoriya stared at the weather forecast, still reeling from the few second long addition to the normal news segment. His entire schtick as Sparrow was to be an enigma, even though in real life he was really anything but.

“Y’know….I may have made a little something something for you in preparation of this momentous occasion.” Mei had a sparkle in her eye, one that promised nothing but chaos.

“Oh, did you?” There was a slight tremble in his voice. A little something something was never good news.

“Yep! I’m still wondering if I should show you...but you seem like a bit of a buzzkill at the moment, so I guess I’ll just burn it!”

“Wait no. Show me! Show meee!”

Chapter Text

There was a briefcase. A sleek, black briefcase with shiny silver latches.

Izuku had seen enough movies to know that a briefcase put on a table with no explanation was filled with an obscene amount of cash, an obscene amount of firearms, or possibly both.

“Well, are you gonna open it, or are you gonna keep staring at it like it started singing Broadway?”

Honestly, the latter seemed like the safer option, but he opened it anyway. 

Or, rather, Mei grabbed his hands and forced them to undo the latches and shove the case open. 

Inside was….another box! A cooler looking box, a sleek forest green with a tempting silver button in the center, but a box nonetheless. He took it out and set it on the table.

“It’s a cool box.” This statement was met with a textbook of some sort making sweet love to his skull..

“Ow! What the hell!”

“That is not some ordinary box, you uncultured piss eagle! This is my magnum opus, second only to my three dozen fuego models! Now, press the button! Press it!”

“...Mei-chan. You expect me to press a conspicuous button on a vague invention that YOU of all people made?”

“Ok, I see your point, so i’ll do it!” She pressed the button with a squeal and-

The box started unfolding, expanding, until it was a...suit?

“This is the Sparrow Suit, copyright Hatsume Mei, 2197.” She picked it up with a flourish and held it up against Izuku, beaming.

“Yes! Now, try it on, try it on!”

“Would you mind telling me what this is first?” He looked at her skeptically, not wanting to be puppeteered by some sort of sentient supersuit.

“Your vigilante suit! I decided to make you one because I, as your partner in not-quite-crime, think you should hit the streets. You can only do so much behind a computer screen, cackling ominously and typing at a kilometer a minute.”

Well that was quite unexpected. Izuku wasn’t sure what he expected in the first place, if anything, but it certainly wasn’t this.

“It’s got everything you want, some cool one-way goggles that have night vision and infrared, it’s kevlar reinforced, the wrists have Mini-Fuegos attached, and the attacked mask has a sparrow printed on it! Pretty cool, right?” She looked a mix of smug and delighted, bouncing on her toes. “Now put it on already!”

“Mei..I’m not going out on the streets.”

Silence.

“What?!?!? Why? But...you could help so many people!” 

“I’m not risking getting found out, I have a lot of enemies that would take pride in being the one to off me.”

Mei sputtered, trying to form a sentence through her exasperation. “But- just- fine! Fine. Take the suit and go back to hiding behind your computer screen like a coward when you could be saving people!”

Chapter Text

April 19th, 6:00 A.M.

It had been two days since he and Mei had that argument. Ever stubborn, she hadn’t contacted him all weekend, leaving him to entertain himself with his inventions and the occasional american action movie from almost 200 years ago. Those Marvel people...they know how to make a movie.

His high-power work computer had blue-screened two days ago, so his informant work was on pause as he tried to figure that out. His old laptop could only handle so many programs at once.

The suit she made him was tucked in his backpack - he wanted to examine it further that day in class.

Even so, he opened his door to find his disgruntled friend tapping her foot impatiently, walking next to him as he left his apartment to go to the train station. 

“Do you want to-”

“No, let me sulk. I’m still mad at you.”

Well, that’s that.

It was a quiet trip to U.A., but the company of the other lifted Izuku and Mei’s spirits a bit.  

The hero students were walking towards some busses, decked out in their costumes (Izuku really had to talk to Power Loader about those, but it always slipped his mind) and chatting excitedly about some “field trip”. Interesting. They wouldn’t take them off of the U.A. campus, so some basic camera flipping would do the trick so he could watch.

“Yo, Midoriya-kun! Can you help me with this wiring?” Hideashi accosted the pair at the door, taking Izuku by the wrist and dragging him over to one of the work stations. “I can’t figure out how to work this capacitor, I’ve always been more for mechanical than electrical engineering…”

“You just have to attach this here…”

Mei was chatting to Akira and Sakura about something or other, but the pair didn’t seem to be paying attention to her. Mei, on the other hand, didn’t seem to care.

Izuku went to an empty table at the back and flipped open his laptop, going into the U.A. servers and quickly accessing the cameras. Nedzu put so much security on the files that the cameras were nearly unprotected, but knowing the small mammalian genius, it was intentional. An invitation for those bold enough to find it.

He got lucky on the first building he checked - the USJ, a rescue simulation area that the hero students had just set foot in. There wasn’t any audio, and Thirteen (ohmygoditsTHIRTEEN) didn’t have visible lips to read, but he could figure that they were explaining the concept of the rescue training. 

But the two teachers had their backs turned, and the students were either paying rapt attention or doing so while pretending not to. None of them saw the small blur that Izuku saw, in the center of the feed, an almost static looking spot that darkened and grew. 

He rubbed at his laptop screen, thinking it was just a glitch, a dead pixel, or maybe a bit of dirt or a bug, but the dot continued to grow.

He set down his circuit board and looked closer, as it grew larger and (finally) the heroes and hero hopefuls noticed the very clear issue. 

It was probably just the beginning of the exercise (why did dad Aizawa look so nervous?) or maybe Nedzu playing a prank (why did he have a pit in his stomach the size of Tokyo?). He would have heard if baddies were planning something. (he hadn’t logged onto the forums in a few days…)

He was in denial until the crowd stepped out and the blood drained from his face. And then the camera flickered a few times before displaying a “No Signal” screen.

“Midoriya-kun? Are you alright? You aren’t looking too good.” Juro was looking at him, a frown on his face and his eyes no longer gold, but a light brown that Izuku assumed was the color they turned to when he was concerned.

“Yeah, Juro-kun, I’m good. Just tired.” He gave the blonde boy a smile, taking his eyes off of the screen for a second. A mere second. 

When he snapped his eyes back to the screen, the USJ was a battlefield. He could see outlines of students in the far corners, but he was most concerned about the hand fetish man and…

Oh. Oh shit.

That was. A very large creature.

He shot a look to Mei that he hoped she understood as “I’ll explain later, please cover for me” and grabbed his backpack and raised his hand.

“Uh, sensei, I’m not feeling too great…” Which wasn’t a lie, but it was due to something far worse than a stomach flu.

“Yeah, go to the nurse. You do look really pale.”

“Thanks.” He sprinted off, the blissfully empty hallways echoing his fears. 

Aizawa was going to die. The hero students were going to die. He should have prevented this.

He grabbed his phone, fumbling with clammy, shaking hands as he ran in the general direction of the USJ. The camera feed had been under a folder labelled “south” so he figured it was around there.

Pulling up a conversation from oh-so-many moons ago, he clicked the dial button, leaving a small, shiny spot of sweat on the screen as he pressed it to his ear.

“Sparrow?”

“Hi yes it’s me there is an emergency at the USJ please don’t ask me how I know but there is and it’s really REALLY bad so please send over backup as soon as you can and I’m on my way there right now thanks bye sir.”

Not the most dignified phone call he ever made, but he hoped it would work. God, he hoped.

Any logical person would have asked a hero before they left, but one sentence from his best friend was ringing in his ears, a twisted backing track to his panic.

“Take the suit and go back to hiding behind your computer screen like a coward when you could be saving people!”

Mei was going to kill him for this. Or congratulate him. Or both! 

He didn’t even know how he ended up outside the USJ - his memories had a gap, probably caused by him spiraling while running faster than he ever had in his life. Way faster. He did lose his shoes a few weekends ago when Mei came over, with them reappearing the next day. She must have suped them up.

He pulled out the suit that he, thank his lucky stars, had brought with him. It seemed as if a writer was too lazy to make it more interesting than that. 

He pulled it on and, on instinct, tapped the silver button that lay at his chest, looking similar to the Arc reactor from those old movies. Did Mei watch those?

That was besides the point. Way besides the point. 

He ran around the building, looking for any sort of side or back entrance and-

Score.

He opened the side door, which was surprisingly unlocked, and led to some stairs. Wait, why was it unlocked?

Oh. That’s why. The baddie playing candy crush who had looked up from their game to stare at him in shock.

That’ll be an issue. 

Thank god he’d learned some street fighting from having to defend himself against muggers before. He wouldn’t defend himself against the school bullies because they’d get him suspended, but the odd mugger that decided to pray on a middle school kid got a few socks to the face. 

Apparently, it did something, as a (relatively weak) punch ended up knocking a few teeth out. And also knocking the person out. That was not supposed to- oh.

Mei put brass knuckles in the suit, didn’t she?

Thank the lord for his best friend’s slightly over-the-top design choices. 

He ran up the stairs, praying that the backup he called for was en route, bursting into what looked like a control room.

Buttons, switches, and wires. These, he could work with. 

He looked over to the simulation area and disabled everything he could. Probably not the brightest idea, but looking out the glass window overseeing the facility, it looked like it helped. But that monster was just standing there, menacingly. Eraserhead was holding his own well enough, but- 

The hand fetish guy said something.

The monster was moving.

Towards Eraserhead.

Hell to the fuck to the no.

He looked around the room for something, anything , that would help. Wait...was that...a toolbox! Perfect!

Ah, the familiar feel of a sledgehammer. Always a joy.

Bashing through the glass, he leaped out, the drop shorter than expected, but still sending a shock through his legs.

Slipping on his Sparrow persona, he spread his arms wide, yelling as loud as he could.

“It’s showtime!”

Chapter Text

Well, here goes nothing.

Izuku- no, Sparrow, sauntered forward with as much confidence he could pull out of the anxiety riddled knot that was his being.

The hand fetish guy turned, his eyes covered but shooting daggers at him.

"Oh?" This man needs a cough drop, good god. "A random encounter with an NPC?"

Sparrow put on a manic grin, although it was hidden behind the mask, and kept on moving.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance, ah…" He was right in front of the man.

"Shigaraki Tomura." 

See, if he had any shred of sanity left, Izuku would have not provoked him. He wasn't trying to die, honest, just save some people and stall for time. 

But that's just not his style.

"So nice to meet you, Tomu-chan~" he drew out the honorific, watching the blue haired man scratch his neck faster. "I'm Sparrow, and I'd like to ask you to, oh how to say this?" He tapped his chin, ready to drop the cutesy act. "Ah, yes!" 

He dropped the lilt and darkened his tone. "Get the hell out." 

Shigaraki, that bastard, turned his back. 

Bad move, sir.

"Turning your back on me, are you? Well then, we're doing this the hard way." 

Whap!

A solid...oh crap he knocked a tooth out. This was not planned.

"You…!" Shigaraki reached out a hand, fingers spread wide, which Sparrow easily caught by the wrist.

"A 5-point touch quirk, eh? Interesting!"

He threw the arm to the side to get another nice punch in, this time avoiding teeth, and bolting backwards to try and put a bit of distance between the two of them.

For all it was worth, that monster was still just standing there, and Shigaraki had clearly lost interest in Aizawa.

"Heh, is that all you've got?" 

He snapped his fingers, which apparently was some sort of summoning for a crowd of goons to move in.

 "A cheap trick and a cheesy one-liner?" Izuku couldn't see it, but he could feel  the smug smirk.

Izuku flexed his wrists, hoping that it would do something , and after a few angle adjustments, held back a squeal as his sleeve flamethrowers lit up.

"Sweetheart, that could be the name of my autobiography."

He did a quick 180 and burned a few baddies with his flames.

He really, really needed to apologize to Mei.

"Oh, cocky, aren't you?"

"You're one to talk, I-refer-to-people-as-NPCs-kun."

He went through his youtube martial arts lessons in his head. A kick, punch, another p- ohshitDODGE…

He wasn't 'winning' the fight by any means, but any minute now. Any damn minute…

The door flew in off it's hinges while Izuku was in the middle of a fairly painful roundhouse kick.

"I AM HERE!"

... great .

"Fear not, studebti! I have come to defeat the dastardly-"

"Jesus, get off your high horse, stop monologuing and HELP THE FUCKING CHILDREN." Izuku prayed that Ass Might wouldn't be able to pick out the face in the crowd that said it.

After a second of confusion, the hero launched off, followed by a horde of other U.A. staff members. 

Looks like Nedzu came in clutch after all.

Unfortunately, this meant that HandyMan's eyes were off of him and back on the heroes.

"Noumu! Attack!"

What's a… The huge beaked monster started moving. 

Oh. Shit.

It seemed confused, most likely as to what it was supposed to attack, until it's eyes landed on…

Eraserhead. Nope. Not today, Satan.

Chapter Text

In what was probably one of the stupidest decisions to ever be made, Izuku ran full speed at the monster, ignoring the beginnings of questions starting to form from the peanut gallery of heroes near the doors.

As he ran, he felt around his suit, knowing that Mei hid a knife somewhere.

There! Right on his thigh. Two serrated knives, ready to be used in the worst way possible.

He undid the snap and whipped it out, ready to climb the beast and turn that exposed brain into hamburger meat.

Looking back, he would wonder what drove him to such blind, murderous rage. Maybe he snapped? Maybe he was secretly a good person? Who knows.

He reached the leg of the noumu, who up close looked about 15 feet tall, and dug the knives in and used them like ice picks, hoping the noumu wouldn’t notice.

The noumu definitely noticed.

He continued though, one pull and stab at a time, and although the shaking and constant dodging of claws made it hard, he managed maybe 7 feet.

All Might, however, seemed to be intent on ‘saving’ him. Westaboo prick.

Time to start light-speeding up the monster. Hooray.

Luckily he was almost at the shoulders, of which he could-

Jesus are those BONES?

He risked a glance over to his side, seeing a very small, bald, pale man with a blue eye waving his hand around, summoning bones out of thin air. 

Izuku decided to ignore this person, as the bones really didn’t hurt much at all. Almost like someone pricking him with a toothpick. Huh.

At the shoulders. Ok. He’s being swung around but hot damn are those knives holding fast. If he can just jump up and get that brain...

Eraserhead was looking at Izuku incredulously, which was fair, given his ice-picking up a horrific monster that seems to be engineered to do nothing but destroy. His eyes landed on the gray sparrow silhouette, and his eyes widened. 

The small-time baddies were getting taken care of by both Explodey McGee and other heroes, but All Might looked like he was charging up to…

Oh god. Gotta stabby stab that brain up there.

He put the knife in and twisted, wincing at just the action of what he was doing. Repeat. Repeat. Don’t think about the possibility that this is sapient. Don’t think. 

He was able to not think until he was aware that the monster was falling. Rapidly.

He waited for just the right moment to jump into a roll and pop up, and before any hero could even see that he was vulnerable, bolted towards the door.

God bless those shoes, because he was flying. Or maybe god bless the adrenaline. Eh, there are enough blessings to go around. 

However, he was far, far too tired to run all the way back to U.A. That had taken way too long on it’s own when he was high on adrenaline and not emotionally exhausted.

So he dove into a bush and decided to just wait out the swarm of law enforcement that was gathering around the USJ like buzzards.

Chapter Text

In the span of an hour, Izuku Midoriya questioned all of his life’s choices.

How did he get here? How in God’s name did he, a quirkless teenager with a side gig of information dealing, end up hiding from the cops in a bush of questionable safety?

Either way, he sat as still as he could and watched cops and EMTs flock around the students and Aizawa like moths to a lamp.

Wait, did that cop have a moth mutation? Huh.

It was a painstaking hour, with a few students put on an ambulance due to concussions and lacerations, but most of them were unharmed besides for a few cuts and scrapes.

And the horrific psychological trauma that would stay with them until the day they died.

As the cars drove away from campus, he slowly emerged from the bush, covered in pricks himself. He really hoped that wasn’t poisonous. 

Maybe he could call an uber, or…

Wait. What was that noise? Was there a plane landing here?

He looked behind him to see- 

Oh god. 

Shit on a stick slow-roasting over hell, that was one Hatsume Mei wearing freaking JETPACK BOOTS, speeding towards him at a speed that would make anyone dizzy.

With a boom, she landed in front of him before he even had time to consider running. She was...smiling? 

“Heeeyyyyy, Izuku. Have a nice time?” She called him Izuku. Not Izu, not Broccoli-kun. Izuku.

He was fucked.

“Maybe next time you could, I don’t know, elaborate on what the hell you were doing bolting out of class like a comet and then not returning?”

“Mei-”

She wasn’t showing that angry smile anymore, and Izuku could see she was on the verge of tears. “No, shut up. You don’t get to talk right now. You run out of class and I cover for you, then I hear an announcement that all the heroes need to get to the USJ and we all have to get the hell out of dodge. Your backpack is abandoned by the school, the suit I made you nowhere to be found after you tell me to my face that you don’t even want it.”

He opened his mouth again, only for a tearful glare to close it again. He done fucked up.

“And THEN I check the tracker on your suit that I made because you always get into trouble and see you're in the place that all the heroes were called to. ” 

“Mei, I-”

“Stop talking and give me a hug. We are discussing this later but goddamnit I was so worried-

Whatever she was planning to say next was muffled by slightly grimy hair in her mouth as Izuku stepped forward and hugged her. Mei froze for a moment before wrapping her arms tightly around him, tucking her face into his hair. They just stayed like that for a while, basking in each other's comfort. Eventually, they separated, each looking at the ground. 

"Don't do that again, dummy," Mei choked out.

“I won’t.”

Chapter Text

Bakugo Katsuki was pissed.

Of course, that was not surprising in the slightest, given that he hadn’t genuinely smiled for the past 6 months. 

But that stupid...person stole his thunder and had the audacity to save the day when he wasn’t even training like he was.

It didn’t matter, though, he was still going to be Number One.

...But it just infuriated him that-

----

Todoroki Shoto was confused.

Who was that figure clad in green that took down that Nomu? And why did he talk to All Might like that? Even he, in his eternal stoicism (that was not a coping mechanism, Natsuo ) respected the hell out of him. 

The overall energy of the individual reminded him ever so slightly of that green haired boy (what was his name...Madara? Midory? Oh, Midoriya) who helped him out after the Todoroki Pamphlet was released. He’d been staying in Natsuo’s apartment outside his brother’s school, even if it was a long train ride away from U.A. He had yet to thank Midoriya, he should do that. 

But of course, he couldn't have been that green-suited fighter.

RIght?

----

Class 1-A was in awe. 

Either of the manliness, the meme potential, or the courage of the person, everyone was excited to see if they were a licensed hero that happened to be nearby, or...well, they couldn’t really come up with an alternative.

Waiting at home during their day off, they switched between their normal teenage concerns (such as pop culture, their social lives, and various conspiracy theories about several international governments) and concerns for their teacher, who although quite rough around the edges, still risked his life for all of them.

But things were looking up!

...unless you were one Midoriya Izuku, for whom things were just spiraling down into a hell full of phone calls, tears, and smashed plates.

Chapter Text

It was a normal day, all things considered.

Mei was already doing ungodly things to his toaster at...why the hell was she here at seven in the morning?

He scolded her without any meaning behind it, made his toast (which came out as a pile of ash that smelled suspiciously like bananas), gave up and just drank some juice, and checked his Sparrow email.

Apparently, word had gotten around that he made his first real appearance, but there was no actual weight to these claims. It was a one-time thing, and he could play the masses to think that it was a copycat.

Mei half-lived in his apartment at this point, and his father had no problem with it.

It had been a while since his dad had called him, almost...almost a month. Wow. That was a little concerning.

But he had mentioned the last time they’d called that he was working on something to bring a lot of money to the two of them, something that might help him move closer to home and not hours away by plane.

Izuku had considered looking into it, but decided against it. If one person’s privacy was sacred, it was his own flesh and blood’s.

But a month? 

“Hey, can you grab me a stick of gum, an egg, and maple syrup?”

“Why on earth would you need those?”

“For science!”

“Mei, I-” 

I like bananas, because they have no bones.

His phone was ringing.

I don’t like your peaches, they are full of stones.

“I need to take this, Mei!”

Don’t give me tomatoes-

“Midoriya Izuku speaking.”

“Hi, you’re the son of Midoriya Hisashi, correct?”

That was worrying. “Yes, who is this?”

“This is Wakkanai hospital. We have some bad news regarding your father. He was transported here by ambulance after being shot and was dead upon arrival. Due to the distance between Musutafu and here, we decided to call you. We will however pay for transportation if you’d like to come to the hospital.”

What?

No.

This...no! This wasn’t happening. Someone’s pulling his leg, or extorting him, or-

“Midoriya-san? Are you still there?”

“I- I-” Why wasn’t he speaking? Why werent words coming out?

“I understand this is difficult to hear over the phone. I’m so sorry for your loss.”

Click!

The phone slipped from his hand and clattered to the floor.

“Broccoli-kun? Are you- oh god, you look like shit. What happened?”

No words came out. No words could come out. How did this happen? Oh god, he should have checked up on him using his connections. He could have prevented this, he could have saved him, he could have-

“Hey, stop, whatever happened wasn’t your fault if you look so shaken. C’mere, I have Spirited Away on. And popcorn. And my minty syrup eggs, but you don't seem like the type to eat that.”

His feet moved over to the couch without him even thinking about it, sitting down ramrod straight until Mei shoved him into a strange leaning/lying down position.

“I’ll grab a blanket.”

He was wrapped in a fluffy white blanket he bought on a whim last year, and looked at the TV screen without really watching anything on it. 

“M-my dad got shot. He’s dead.” Oh, look at that, words. 

“Oh my god. Do you want to go to-”

“No. There isnt a point. Just...I just can’t really process it. How did he just die?” 

He was crying now, but not the tears he usually let out that were comically waterfall-like. These were quiet, sparse, almost angry.

“Hey, hey. God, I’m sorry. I can text my parents, I’ll tell them I’m staying the night. You clearly can’t be alone right now.”

He was going to protest, but he felt Mei’s glare on him. That’s that.

Minutes passed. Mei switched the film to Kiki’s Delivery Service.

“Do you need to go smash some plates, Broccoli-kun?”

“..Yeah, that sounds nice.”

Chapter Text

There were a lot of things Midoriya Izuku had to do.

According to Mei, one of them was to take time off and process everything, but that was unfortunately near the bottom of the list.

The first thing he had to do was erase all traces of his father’s death from public record.

Fortunately, his father was a no-name accountant at an office. He was, as much as it pained to admit it, pretty unimportant.

Unfortunately, Izuku was a minor, and if he didnt do this as soon as possible and if he didn’t luck out enormously, the feds were on their way to put him into the system. 

Hacking into the government wasn’t something he did regularly, but he knew what to try and what to avoid so he wouldn't get arrested.

It was depressingly easy - according to some achrived data, it had been changed only a few minutes ago. Given that he was listed as quirkless, he wasn't a top priority orphan (god, he was an orphan now…) so nobody would bat an eye at an apparent system glitch.

One task down.

---

Mei was worried. Like, really worried.

She knew that Izuku was an emotionally stunted workaholic but him shutting down and going emotionless was concerning.

She had already called her parents, claiming that she was working on a big project that couldn't be left alone, lest there be fire. Her parents were quick to agree.

It had been an hour of Izuku hunched over his computer, most of which was him (very concerningly) staring at random parts of whatever he was doing, eyes unfocused and hands still as a statue's.

The water and cookies brought to him lay untouched, as periods of silence and rapid fire typing switched out at random intervals.

Mei, ever the loud chaotic optimist, was silent due to something other than a failed invention. The irony.

---

Izuku Midoriya scribbled down a name, the tip of the pencil breaking at the last stroke.

Somewhere in Wakkanai, a man shrouded in darkness felt a chill go up his spine as he was congratulated on a job well done.

Chapter Text

Nitta Hiroi liked his job. Until he didn't.

Well, he couldn't say that he didn't enjoy work anymore, but it was still true. He was a math nerd, sue him. Being a financial analyst was much more interesting than being a hitman.

But of course, things happen (things being family emergencies and bosses who don't care), and now he's here, washing invisible blood off of his hands. 

He didn't know the guys name. He wasn't cleared for that, but the guy was apparently in major debt to the boss and he needed to "clean up the mess".

All bosses are evil, aren't they?

"Hey Nitta-san, Suzuki-senpai says our group can go out tonight. Wanna go hit the bars? I know yesterday's job did a number on you." His... coworker(?) Yamamoto popped his head into Nitta's small personal quarters.

Huh, that was an idea. Loosen up a bit, maybe forget the screams of the man he killed. 

"Sure, why not." 

---

Something was off.

The guys were happily chatting over sake, but Nitta knew he was being watched. Something was very wrong.

"Hey, uh, I'm gonna step out for some air. It's stuffy in here."

One of the men nodded at him with a smile and went back to discussing horse races with the others.

Stepping out into the spring night, he instantly felt worse. There was a pair of eyes on him here, and he needed to make them stop.

He briskly walked down the street, not feeling the eyes break from him for a second, until he got to a small lot used as an eating space. It was deserted.

He was dying tonight, wasn't he?

"H-hello? Who's there?"

"Oh," said a voice, "you've noticed me. Interesting."

The source didn't reveal itself.

"Why have y-you bren following me?"

"Oh, sir, that's an easy question to answer. You hurt someone close to me, and now you're going to pay the price."

The voice wasn't deep, but it was laced with venom. Like a single biting word could paralyze him.

"Tell me, Nitta Hiro, do you know who you killed yesterday?" Desperation. A cookie-cutter empathy quirk wasn't doing much in the way of protection, but it sure made things a bit clearer 

"No. I don't know the names of anyone I have to hit, I'm just given my orders." 

A pause. 

A longer pause.

A figure emerged from the shadows, clad in deep green, with a visor that shined in the moonlight and a solid black face mask.

"No matter. You killed the only family I had left and you're going to suffer for that."

Anger. But not the anger Nitta was used to. This was anger that was a thin mask for crushing, total despair.

"L-look, man, it wasnt a personal hit. I need to follow orders or it's my ass on the line."

The figure moved closer.

"Why do you do this?" A simple question, with a simple answer.

"My daughter got really sick and I had to take time off to be with her. My boss fired me, and I need money for her treatment. This seemed like the best option." He hated saying it out loud, but he was sure of himself. No lies there. All of this was for Miku.

The figure moved closer and came to a stop arms length away from him.

"Oh."

Confusion. Hesitance. Regret?

He pulled into a pocket and flashed a blade, but before Nitta could scream or run, it was tossed to the side, making a soft thud against the grass.

"I won't lie, I planned on killing you tonight. You took my last living family. But you have a child."

The figure sighed.

"You're going home tonight because I feel bad for your daughter. That's it. And find a new job, one that doesn't involve tearing families apart."

"But Miku-"

"Shut up. I'm being generous, so I'd appreciate if you didn't test me."

Nitta shut up.

The figure turned their back. "Tell nobody of this meeting. I'll know if you do, and I may not be so lenient next time."

The figure walked away, boots sounding on the pavement until they faded into the silence of the night.

Chapter Text

He was lucky it wasn't worse, they said.

He got off easy, they said.

A few days of bedrest and he'd be ready to go, with both his arms in casts and a medical boot, they said.

Yeah, fucking bullshit.

It’s not exactly “getting off easy” when your cockatoo of a husband is fretting over you to the point that the amount of blankets is probably harmful.

And that’s not even mentioning the fact that, hmm, maybe Sparrow fucking showed up in person?

That fucking kid (sure, Aizawa didn’t know how old he was, but he sure as hell acted like a child) turned up and ground that noumu’s pink matter into taco meat. 

Shockingly good reflexes for someone who, to Aizawa’s knowledge, spent their days behind a computer screen. Keep that thought tabbed.

“Zashi, please, I can take care of myself.” He tried sitting up, but was immediately pinned down by the hands of his husband, between what appeared to be 15 individual blankets.

“No! You are not doing anything until you absolutely have to! You’re going to stay on the couch and let me make you soup.”

“It’s two injured arms and a broken foot. I’m not dead.”

“But you could have been! Now shhhhh. Take some cats.” His enormous gray maine coon, Bastard, was plopped next to him, nearly falling off, along with their lanky calico named Baby. (Take a wild guess on who named which cat). 

As Baby headbutted his cheek, Aizawa sighed, still thinking about that vigilante.

(In a run-down apartment in Wakkanai, a man sobs with relief as he is informed an anonymous donor has paid for his daughter's treatment.)

Chapter Text

Hatsume Mei was a tad bit crazy.

She wouldn't deny that, of course not! She took great pride in being the wildest wild card there ever was, thank-you-very-much!

But…she was sane enough to see that her best friend was going through a time.

And everyone else did, too. 

Not even the news of the upcoming Sports Festival could help that.

Sakura kept glancing over, worried. The Yano twins kept looking at each other, and Juro's eyes were a blueish green instead of their usual gold. Funai seemed less pumped, Masashi seemed more emo that usual, and even Sora layed off the mean comments.

The lab was quiet, and it was boring . And Miss Hatsume Mei could not stand for boring.

She racked her brains for something, anything to lighten the mood. Akira and Sakura had been holding hands under the table. Funai had been blushing at his phone lately. 

No, no, that didn't feel right. A bit of teasing wouldn't dispell this dark cloud hung above the whole group.

No, they needed a common goal, something they could all get behind.

….Perfect.

But how to distract him? He was poking at some wiring, eyes glazed over and shoulders slumped. Whatever he had run off to go do the other night, it clearly hadn't helped much.

"Hey, broccoli-kun, if you're going to sit around and mope all class, can you go get us snacks?"

Izuku looked up at Mei, confused. "Uh.."

"Mei," Powerloader sighed, "No food in the lab."

She smirked. "Well, we do have some oil, and salicylic acid looks close enough to sugar…"

"No! No. Just...fine. Midoriya, go get some cookies or something from the cafeteria."

Success! Honestly, she didn't expect that to work at all, but Izuku waked out to go get cookies.

The moment the door shut, she spun on her heel, facing the rest of her class.

"I..." she paused for dramatic effect, "Have a plan for the support class to win the sports festival for the first time!" 

----

"Ok, repeat that."

"Again?! Fine. So, we all make some support items for the sports festival and give them to Broccoli-kun. Then, he wins and we get our names out there!"

"Hatsume-san, it's a good idea and all," Sakura fiddled with her hair, "But how do we know that will work?"

"Why should I help the loser?" Sora went back to his robot. (He'd laughed at Izuku back at the entrance exams. Someone needed to be scared out of their prejudice.)

"I mean, that's a cool idea, but my boyfriend is competing and he really wants to win…" Funai looked off to the side.

"An old friend of mine is in the same situation as Hideashi-kun's. I'm afraid i'll have to decline." Masashi didn't even glance up from his blueprints.

Kyoko looked down at her metal leg. "I've got something to prove this time around. Sorry." 

The Yano twins looked at each other. 

"Hatsume-san, we-"

"I'd love to help!" Akira was cut off by Juro, beaming, his eyes a blinding yellow.

The latter turned to the rest of the group.

"You don't need an empathy quirk to figure out that Midoriya-kun's been going through some shit lately. And you don't have to be principal Nezu to see that he's got the best chance of winning. You're going to look me in the eye and tell me you're not willing to help a friend, and that you aren't willing to help all of us, and yourselves? "

Akira shrugged.

"My brother put it more eloquently, but yeah, I'm in too, Hatsume-san."

Silence.

"I mean, if you're doing it, Akira-chan…" Sakura looked up, a faint smile on her face. "I'll help out."

Hatsume looked at the remaining three. A goth, a himbo, a girl with something to prove, and an asshole.

She took a deep breath.

"Hideashi-kun, if your boyfriend is who I think it is, he'd want you to help. Hoshino-kun, you're not willing to give your friend a challenge? Hattomi-san, Izuku has something to prove as well, and you of all people know what it's like to be looked down upon. And Murata-kun...we don't need your help, but it would be appreciated."

Three of the four shrugged, smiled, and nodded. 

Sora continued on his robot.

Chapter Text

Deep breaths.

Deeeeeep breaths.

Deeeeeeeeeee- fuck it.

"Mei-chan, why in the name of all that is bad and unholy are you eating that?" His voice was deadly calm. 

Through a mouthful of goddamn PIZZA FLAVORED ICE CREAM , she responded.

"Because it's tasty. Duh, Broccoli-kun."

He was so, so close to taking that godforsaken cone full of disturbingly yellow-orange ice cream and chucking it into oncoming traffic.

"It's a goddamn abomination , that's what it is."

"Says the loser with strawberry of all flavors."

" Fuck you strawberry is delicious-"

"Uh, hi, can you two leave," A cashier with black twintails and dead red eyes yelled from behind the ice cream cases, "You're disturbing the other customers and they won't tip me now."

They picked up their ice cream and left, but not before Izuku sent a glare towards Mei and her horrible, horrible ice cream.

---

"How have you never had pasta before? How is that possible?"

"In case you haven't noticed, Mei-chan, we live in Japan . And yes, the surge of Italian cuisine in the 1990s did happen but-'

"Shut up and eat your wafu pasta that I am so generously paying for."

Defeated, Izuku put some of the noodles in his mouth, expecting a sort of weird ramen.

He was very wrong.

"Uh, Broccoli-kun, you should...slow...down..."

Mei flagged down the waiter and asked for another serving for the "ravenous child". 

Half an hour later, a nervous looking waiter came to the table.

"Hi, so sorry to bother you!" A tall man with spiked purple hair and what looked like a space-themed necklace came up to the table. "My manager says that you two need to leave."

Handing over the money with a sigh, Mei grabbed Izuku's wrist and dragged him out of the establishment.

---

How they had gotten into this situation was a mystery.

They had just walked into a shoddy looking french café (after Mei had warned him there would be hell to pay if he got them kicked out), had some coffee and split a pastry, and were ready to leave.

Now, unfortunately, the door was blocked by a fucking mime .

"Uh, excuse me...friend, would you mind moving just a liiiiitle to the left? Please?"

The mime did not seem to hear them and continued whatever they were doing.

Izuku turned to the barista. "Is he supposed to be here?"

The barista in question, a lanky teen with blue eyes and blue hair hidden under a black cap, shrugged. "I'm new here."

"Oh, don't worry about Pierre! He'll tire himself out eventually." A blonde girl with music clips in her hair and shockingly pink eyes, slightly taller than her coworker, poked her head out of a back room. "Our boss hired him a while back, no clue why."

And so they sat there for an hour, watching a goddamn mime do his routine when they could have been doing productive things.

Ah, who were they kidding, the plan was to commit arson anyway. 

Chapter Text

Powerloader had seen a lot in his life.

Sure, he worked in support for the most part, but he had his hero license. He’d been an emergency call a few times into situations that were the worst of the worst.

But this? This was bad. This was bad .

Midoriya, a resident agent of chaos, had been quiet and withdrawn all day. After Hatsume pulled a stunt that was clearly meant to get him to leave (he had no clue why he played along) the class started discussing….a team up? 

Obviously Hatsume wanted to cheer up her friend, but there was more to this. For all the years that U.A. has done the sports festival, only 10 support students total had ever made it to the final round, and none of them ever made it onto the podium. 

And if there was anything he knew about that Hatsume girl, it was that her life’s goal was to take what was supposed to happen and put it through a paper shredder. And then burn the scraps. And eat the ashes.

In short, this year’s festival was going to be very interesting.

And that scared the ever loving shit out of him.

---------

“Alright gang, ideas! Ideas, gimme. What are we building? What souped up gear is Broccoli-kun getting?”

Mei was in her element, drumming her fingers on the desk and talking a mile a minute. 

Everyone was silent, uncomfortable. 

“Uh, Hatsume-san-”

“Mei.”

“Mei-chan, I was thinking about...uh…” Wanatabe Sakura ran her fingers through one of her twintails, clearly uncomfortable.

Yano Akira spoke up, adjusting her glasses so she could see the others better. “Sakura-chan has been thinking about making some sort of prehensile attachment, like an arm extension.”

Mei beamed. “Thank you, lesbians! Ok, any other ideas?”

The two girls blushed and the rest snickered. 

Hattomi Kyoko raised her hand. “I’ve drafted a lot of things for my leg that we could adapt to another form, like a gauntlet or boots.”

Nodding, Mei turned to the others. “Anyone else?”

“Maybe some flashbangs? Distracting opponents can give an edge!” Yano Juro’s eyes glowed a little brighter.

“Good, good!” Mei tapped her fingers together, full of excitement. “All of these are really good! Come talk to me if anything else comes up, we need to-”

“...I got the cookies.”

A very dull looking Midoriya Izuku stepped into the room, holding a plastic container of a dozen cookies.

He looked around, seeing all his classmates huddled around.

“What’s going on?”

“Oh, just talking about Flower-chan and Sunglasses’ budding romance!” Sakura and Akira blushed, everyone else giggling.

“I see.”

-----

Whispers are a dangerous thing. 

Carefully guarded truths can worm their way out of clenched hands, lies can burn people into ash.

A man of blue fire looked at a grainy video of the USJ attack (a laughing stock among the less-than-moral underground) and watched that greenish figure decimate that monster for the umpteenth time.

Who was he? Where did he come from? 

And when would he strike again?

Chapter Text

SODIFJASODFIAJSD HEY YALL

Soooooooooooooo, I'm rewriting this!

From the ground up, this time with actual notes, a plan, a full ass annotated plot diagram...

Its gonna be so cool! I want to develop a backlog of chapters before i actually post any of them, and given the chapters are going to be:

1. Longer
2. Better

It's uh. It's gonna be a hot second.

No, this isnt a fake-out like last time.

And before any of you panic! I am not abandoning this AT ALL! Hell, the first chapter of the rewrite is already written (although it needs some polishing) and it is miles better than whatever the hell I wrote back in February!

I even have a beta now! The wonderful Jumbletea, who has helped me so much and who I am honored to have working with me. They helped with a few chapters previously and they're amazing.

So...yeah! This has been so great, and I hope I'll see you all when this gets posted and is much, much better. Subscribe to my profile to get the update when it happens, or join the discord here!

Thanks for reading, and see you all later!

- Cat "Eurydice" MintyCrystal

Chapter Text

https://archiveofourown.to/works/42738507/chapters/107367840

enjoy