Chapter Text
The gates to Aldera Elementary loomed overhead as Izuku felt an overall sense of dread for the day, well, they always felt a sense of dread when school was concerned, but today felt like it was going to be extra awful. The rules of the school running through their mind as they stepped through the gates, feeling like they were stepping towards their own death.
Tripping on the outstretched legs, keeping their head down and somehow managing to make their way through the first part of the day without drawing attention to themself.
They had sat down to their maths lesson when things started going wrong for them, they had dutifully scrubbed out the hateful words on their desk, disposed of the spider lilies sitting on their desk. But then, then they got careless, the topic of discussion from the two students next to Izuku turned towards the latest hero fight, and Izuku, despite themself, had begun muttering without realizing it. They got yelled at by the teacher for disrupting class with their muttering, ignored the jibes and giggles thrown their way as the teacher continued teaching, and throwing glares and grimaces at Izuku. They felt so stupid, they were doing so well, why did they mumble, why did they break the first rule? Couldn’t they have just kept their mouth shut? Izuku sat glumly at their rooftop hideout as they watched the other kids play heroes or show off their quirks. They really needed to stop being such a nuisance in class, the other students needed to be focused, and how could they be focused when Izuku was sitting there muttering like the creepy, useless, Deku that they were.
Izuku was so lost in thought that they almost didn’t hear the school bell and had to scramble to class. In that scramble they ran into one of the other students, specifically one of the upperclassmen, Iwai-san, a student with a major mean streak as she would use her quirk on anyone that she deemed, weaker, which was a problem because her quirk let her grow stone spikes from her skin, and those spikes were, very sharp. Izuku froze as she turned towards them, anger and disgust clear on her face, they had only been put in their place by her a few times, and all of those times they had broken bones at worst and deep gashes at best, Izuku just hopes she’d go easy on them today, but it seemed that luck was not on their side.
”Well look what we have here” Iwai-san sneered “watch where you’re going Deku, a thing like you should be careful, or people might hurt you” her voice was a mocking sweetness, knowing that she was the exact kind of person she was talking about.
”I’m s-sorry” Izuku tried to apologize, even if they knew that it was futile, the least they could do was be polite.
”Sorry? Is that all you can say, and with that stupid stutter too.” Iwai-san laughed “that’s all a Deku can do huh? Well, you’re good for one other thing, quirk practice”. The skin on her hands suddenly split and hardened, spikes growing out of the back of her hand in a way that made them effective as knives. She loomed over them menacingly, hands ready to mercilessly stab and slice into flesh, the stone spikes seemingly hungry for blood, and Izuku braced themself for the feeling of tearing flesh and grinding bone that they knew would come once Iwai-san decided to stop playing with her food, like the cat stalking the mouse. And when she did, Izuku sat there and let it happen, and when she stabbed into their leg, they let it happen.
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It had been a few months since first meeting Wraith, and Shouta was slowly getting used to the vigilante, the two would run into each other on patrol almost every night, usually when one of them has a fight that goes on long enough for the other to notice. Shouta had a file dedicated to the things he knew about the vigilante, and although the file was still missing any identifying detail like age (the vigilante’s height would be explained away by a quirk side effect), as well as quirk, since they never used it. It wasn’t an enhancer, unless it was a mutation, because Shouta had tried erasing Wraith’s quirk while they were running from him and they didn’t even react, so most likely it was a non-combative quirk. The information that Shouta did have was about Wraith’s fighting style and behavioral patterns, like how they always focused on dodging and evasive maneuvers instead of offense, and in fact, the vigilante’s offensive capabilities were certainly underdeveloped, the one time that Shouta had seen Wraith throw a punch was when they had been backed into a corner and it looked like the most amateurish punch he had ever seen. Shouta wondered exactly how they had trained their stealth and evasive abilities so well without even thinking to train their offensive abilities.
The two of them had also communicated at certain points, with Wraith consistently using sign language, from those short conversations Shouta had learnt that Wraith was extremely good at reading people, usually able to identify sinister motives within criminals. Wraith only ever talked about the criminals in a very surface level, despite that, in battle they exploited weaknesses that could only be known through a deep understanding of someone’s quirk. Wraith was a complete contradiction, confident and friendly one moment, skittish and unsure the next, Shouta was starting to wonder if there was something more to that, but Wraith had successfully avoided every personal, or personal adjacent question that Shouta has asked. So he stuck to helping out the vigilante and hoping that he could gain their trust over time.
That’s when the vigilante themself landed on the roof next to them, but the sound was odd, Wraith was always near silent with their movements, it took all of Shouta’s situational awareness to hear them, but this time? Shouta heard the vigilante very clearly. The hero turned to look at them, half surprised and half curious about the change in pattern, when he noticed something concerning, Wraith was clearly favouring one of their legs over the other, they were very good at hiding it, which was somehow even more concerning than the fact that they were hurt in the first place.
”Hey Eraser” Wraith seemed otherwise unharmed even being their usual, slightly cautious but still somehow friendly, self. But even Shouta, who once fully ignored being stabbed in the shoulder to the point that Hizashi had to make him stay home under threat of hiding all the coffee, wouldn’t go on patrol with an injury that hinders movement, that kind of recklessness is what got people killed.
”You’re hurt, why are you on patrol?”
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Izuku was absolutely not freaking out, they were going to be calm and they were going to talk their way out of this. They tried to act nonchalant ”What are you talking about?”, ’great, just great, that totally wasn’t a dumb thing to say’ they almost slapped themself about how stupid that was. Eraserhead definitely looked annoyed now, then again, he always looked annoyed so it was difficult to tell, but Izuku was sure he was more annoyed than before.
“Wraith, you’re favouring your left leg, you’re clearly injured, you shouldn’t be on patrol”, Izuku tried to figure out what Eraserhead was thinking, but unlike most people he was incredibly difficult to read, they supposed that was a skill that came from being an underground hero.
”That’s alright, I’ve patrolled with worse injuries” Izuku was trying to explain that everything was fine, they could handle this, they once patrolled with third degree burns on their chest, it hurt like hell, but they survived, so what’s the big deal? Eraserhead clearly thought it was concerning however.
”You’ve what? That could get you killed!” If Izuku didn’t know better, they’d think that the hero was concerned for them, but that was impossible, why would anyone be concerned about a Deku like them? Eraserhead continued talking “you should go home, it’s dangerous for you to be out here with that injury, you could get killed, get some rest”. Izuku couldn’t understand the hero’s words, why would he be worried about if Izuku got killed or not? Sure he was a hero, and heros are supposed to care, but no-one needed to care about a quirkless Deku. And that’s when it hit them, Eraserhead didn’t know they were quirkless, he was treating them like a normal person, of course he would be concerned.
Izuku didn’t quite know what to do with this information, if Eraserhead thought that they had a quirk, the way he was treating them made sense, but what would happen once he found out? Izuku didn’t have to think too hard, the best-case scenario was that he would ignore Izuku, leave them like their parents did, worst case, he hurts them like the teachers at Aldera, Izuku doubted that a hero would try and kill them, but that option was also on the table. Izuku knew that they couldn’t let Eraserhead figure out that they were quirkless, that would only lead to trouble, and besides, the hero was concerned for them, no-one was concerned for them, and the thought of that kind of care being directed at them made them feel warm and fuzzy inside. Izuku knew they were being selfish, they didn’t deserve this kind of attention, but they couldn’t help themself, it was so nice to have someone care if they died or not, someone who didn’t actively want them to die, maybe they could keep up this charade for a little while longer.
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”Alright, I’ll go home, see you tomorrow Eraser” Wraith signed, then they turned and climbed down the fire escape, and while Shouta tried to follow to make sure that the vigilante got home safe, Wraith’s uncanny disappearing ability meant that they quickly escaped him. Shouta didn’t quite know what to do, the vigilante had mentioned that they had patrolled through worse injuries, and Shouta was just as worried about that as he was annoyed that Wraith didn’t seem to take their own safety seriously, it reminded him of some of his students. And that feeling again, like he was missing something really important.
Still, Shouta had a job to do so he continued with his own patrol, determined to ask Wraith some questions next time he saw them. If Wraith was consistently getting hurt to that extent, there was most likely something sinister going on, the vigilante was in danger somehow, and Shouta was a hero, he didn’t ignore people in danger.