Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The clouds gently rolled through the sky and over mountaintops as snow fell in Deika City.

A young boy with a poof of green hair poking out of a green beanie was crouched in the snow, scooping up armfuls and piling them together into a ball. His tan gloves kept the cold out as he worked. 

He quietly babbled his way through building his creation, his cheeks and nose red from the chill despite being thoroughly bundled up.

“Izuku! Pose for the picture!” His mother called from the porch of their home, her yellow plaid scarf wrapped snugly around her neck. 

Izuku looked over from his spot in the snow and waved to the camera as Inko took his picture. 

She smiled as she reviewed the photo. “Aww you’re precious.”

“Look at what I made!” Izuku pointed at the mounds of snow piled on top of each other, obviously trying to create some kind of animal. “It's a cat!”

“It looks very good! Do you want some coal pieces to give it eyes and a mouth?” At his excited nod she chuckled. “Okay honey, let me go grab them, stay in the yard.” 

Izuku watched her walk back into the house before turning back to his snowcat, adding some final touches before standing and brushing the snow off of his pants and gloves. 

“Ah that's a lovely snowman you made.” A voice called to him from the edge of the property.

Izuku looked over and saw a man in all black with a mask over his face. He smiled at the man. “Thanks mister! It's a cat.” He then watched curiously as the man approached.

“Do you like the snow, kid?” His voice seemed to soothe Izuku, lulling him into a sense of security as he hummed in assent. The man’s eyes crinkled in a smile. “I have some snow tools back in my house, why don’t you come with me, and I’ll show you?”

Izuku thought for a moment, he already trusted the man after only speaking a couple of words to him. “Okay! Mama is bringing me coal for the eyes so we gotta be fast.”

“Of course, she’ll never notice that you left in the first place.” The man extended a hand and took Izuku’s before leading him away from his house.

Izuku looked back at his snowcat and his house, not realizing the horror happening behind the front door.

Because he was facing towards his house, he didn’t notice the black and purple swirling portal that opened up in front of the two. 

Deika City News, Sports, and Weather Coverage

SUSPECTED HOMICIDE VICTIM FOUND DEAD IN HER HOUSE.

Sunday, 13/2/2231 at 1:13 pm: A young woman was found dead by police in her home this morning, being reported missing by her employer after her third no-call no-show.

Anonymous posters who claim to be in the neighborhood of the crime say that there was no sign of struggle and no suspicious vehicles or strangers. Some anonymous reporters guess it was a domestic abuse gone wrong and the murderer ran while others believe it was a hate crime due to the woman's child being diagnosed as quirkless two weeks prior. The authorities suspect foul play but have not disclosed her condition upon discovery, nor her name or place of work and have refused interview attempts. More information to come. 

QUIRKLESS BOY REPORTED MISSING BY CONCERNED NEIGHBOR

Wednesday, 16/2/2231 at 4:45 pm: A quirkless 5-year-old was recently reported missing by a civilian in the neighborhood the child resided in. The neighbor disclosed confidential content that can't be publicized until future investigations to a related investigation are released to the public. More information to come.

Chapter Text

A man in a white lab coat exited a room and walked down a long, white tiled hallway. 

The door that he left through stayed open for a moment longer than what you would normally expect, but no one else noticed. 

The barely discernible warped shape crawling down the hallways wouldn’t be noticed by anyone, either. 

A fast heartbeat, only heard by its owner.

Quick, shallow breaths, covered by conversations in adjacent rooms.

The slightest scuff of a foot touching the tile, undetectable by the residents of the building. 

Izuku watched his surroundings as he silently moved down the hallway.

Keen viridian eyes turned to every door and snapped over to any movement. 

His green hair was pulled back into a bun with bobby pins securing loose strands to further reduce any sound coming from the 14-year-old.

He wore a simple white t-shirt with black athletic shorts. 

Socked feet took measured steps. His shoes gripped in one hand and a small leather satchel bag in the other. 

His quirk was doing him wonders, even if he’d only had it for about 5 years at that point. 

Dark-Light is what Sensei had called it; he could grab, manipulate, and even solidify the concepts of light and dark. 

He learned how to bend light around himself and remove his shadow to effectively make him invisible, he did his best to keep it a secret from everyone else because that would reveal his plan.

He finally found the courage to get out of this hellhole 3 weeks after his 14th birthday, that would mean it was August 5th now. 

Sensei thought he had him wrapped around his finger, but he couldn’t have been more wrong. Izuku was going to get out and do the exact opposite of Sensei’s goal, just to spite him. 

The hallway was long, winding, and forked, but Izuku had its layout entirely memorized after years of living there. 

He was raised in a medical lab where most of Sensei’s pawns came to do their work; all of the nasty drug, human, and quirk experiments that don't fly legally happened here.

He froze just before a doorway as he heard someone about to leave the room. 

He watched as the woman exited the room, heels clacking against the floor. She didn’t even glance at him as she passed by. 

He slowly let the breath he was holding out and paused for a moment longer before continuing down the hallway. 

There was a staircase that led upwards, then another hallway into a lounge area, then another staircase to go up another two flights. Why did they have to put him five stories underground? He understood that he was supposedly high priority, but really?

Izuku finally reached the lobby that had one of the only exits in the building. 

Sneaking through the lobby, avoiding every passerby as he went, he finally reached the front entrance. He crouched just off to the side, waiting for someone to leave the building so he could inconspicuously exit.

He had maybe another 10 minutes before one of his caregivers was going to check in on him, so he needed to get as far away from this place as possible. 

Not too long later, he spotted someone getting ready to go home for the day. Izuku grinned roguishly as he followed him as closely as he dared, slipping through the double doors behind the worker and out into the open air. 

He adjusted his quirk accordingly as the evening sun shone down on the asphalt before straightening up and looking around. 

He was standing in a not very populated business district, other shops and restaurants lined the streets, and the occasional car or motorcycle drove past. 

He noted a sign with a train on it and booked it in that direction, thankful that Sensei’s training sessions taught him the art of stealth and speed. 

He didn’t stop his sprint until he reached the train station. 

He estimated that it had been about 7 minutes since leaving the building. That would mean that he had 3 minutes until they would notice he was gone and maybe another 5-8 before they would realize that he wasn’t in the building anymore and sound the alarm. 

He realized then that he never learned what city he was in, but a quick check told him he was in Sendai. 

He looked at the train boarding sign and scoured the very long list until he found which one he wanted. Much to his luck, the southbound train would be arriving in under a minute. 

He knew that he wanted to get to Musutafu because he loved the idea of living near UA and sneaking into the sport’s festival stands. 

He would have to move trains at least twice to get there. This train should take him all the way to Tokyo before he'd have to switch trains. 

He nodded once, determined to complete his plan. 

The train stopped and he got on without a hitch. There were multiple train stations around so it was very unlikely that they would know which one he took nor where he was going (Not that they ever had the need to ask what his plans were when he was independent, he was Sensei’s little doll who would do whatever he asked). 

As Izuku boarded the train, he felt a bit apprehensive about it. 

Sure, he was given computer and google privileges and went incognito to learn about public transport and how to do it but learning how and actually doing it was very different. 

The train lurched into movement, and he had to be very careful to not accidentally bump into anyone while invisible. 

He wasn’t sure how long he could keep his invisibility cloak activated for since he was rarely able to practice it, but he bet it would be safe to turn it off after he got to Tokyo. 

2 hours later and no sign of Sensei’s scouts, the train stopped in downtown Tokyo and oh boy, he was not prepared for how busy this city was. 

The sun was on the horizon and nightlife was starting to come out, he had maybe 20 minutes of sunlight left.

He glanced at the train boarding sign and couldn’t find Musutafu on it, which meant he’d have to go to a different station. 

With a sigh he turned to leave the platform, his stomach growling and reminding him that he left before he got to eat dinner. He decided to keep his cloak on for a bit longer so he could five finger discount something from a food stand. 

Wandering around for a bit, he eventually came across a street with multiple food stands set up on either side of the road. 

The area was crowded enough that it wouldn’t matter if he bumped into anyone, and they certainly wouldn’t notice if a meal was swiped. 

He managed to grab some takoyaki and a bottle of water from one of the vendors, starting to feel the strain of his quirk as he cloaked the food. 

He found a secluded alleyway and fully unlocked himself, sighing in relief. It looked like his limit on his invisibility cloak was around 3 hours. 

He dug in and realized how much he’d been missing out on being stuck in that lab. Street food in Tokyo was so good and takoyaki might be his new favorite food. 

He tossed his trash into a dumpster and exited the alleyway, sipping his water as he scanned the street signs to find a train station. 

It took wandering down a couple of streets before he found one and headed in that direction, speed walking to avoid stumbling drunks who were already on their 5th drink, and it wasn’t even 7 yet. 

He shot nasty glares at them as he went, though they didn’t seem to notice his disdain. 

The train station he got to had a straight shot ride to Musutafu that was arriving in about 10 minutes. He sat down at a bench to wait and finished his water. 

He noticed a busker setting up nearby, a guitar in hand and a small stool to sit on while he played. 

He relaxed back as the busker began to play an upbeat but not hyper song. He wished that he had money to give to the man but alas, him having to swipe a meal said it all. 

He sang along to the song quietly, humming the parts he didn’t know. 

He idly wondered if he should do that when he got to Musutafu. His initial plan was to just beat up bad guys and steal their money, but this was a more morally right way of making money. He didn’t own an instrument, he also didn’t know how to play any instruments, and he had also never performed in front of anyone... Maybe busking wasn't something he should do.

The train arrived and he gave a compliment to the busker before boarding.

He'd avoided researching anything about Musutafu for fear of being discovered. 

Hell, he even threw away his computer and phone just in case they had trackers in them. He almost cried when he did so, mourning the loss of his two best friends, Wilson and Plank. He wondered where he could find their replacements. 

Anyways, he knew almost nothing about the layout of Musutafu, so he’d need to find a library or a cyber cafe for a map. 

The train ride went by quickly as Izuku made his tentative plans. 

He hopped off the train and joined the crowd as smoothly as someone who had been out in public spaces a total of maybe 10 times throughout his life. 

He watched a ton of videos on how to navigate crowds and common public etiquette though, so he was practically an expert!

After he got out into the streets, he broke off from the crowd and down a street heading east. He was in an area with lots of restaurants and cafes as he jogged down the sidewalk. 

The sun had set by then and streetlights dimly illuminated the ground. 

Izuku had always felt at home in the darkness. He slowed down and explored the area, feeling marginally more relaxed. 

He wondered if there were any heroes patrolling here, maybe he should turn on his cloak… Nah, if a hero tries to catch him, he could pull a fast one on them and disappear after running around a corner.

The train comms said that he was on the east side of Musutafu, meaning he was fairly close to the coast. 

He could probably find a beach house or lifeguard hut to hunker down in to get a couple of hours of sleep. 

Izuku was a bit thrown off when he finally reached the beach. It was called Takoba Municipal Beach Park, but it looked like anything but a beach. 

Trash was everywhere, and not just from the occasional litterbug. People had intentionally left car parts, kitchen appliances, contactor sized garbage bags, and old electronics that now covered the once pristine sand.

He wandered past trash pile after trash pile, some smelled worse than others, and eventually reached where water met the land. 

He walked the perimeter of the beach, considering whether or not he wanted to stay here or try his luck somewhere else.

His mind was made up for him when he spotted a comfortably sized 4-meter-long camper that still had all four walls and a door.

He approached the camper and knocked on the door loudly, hoping that no one had already claimed it. 

When no reply came, he tried to open the door, huffing when he found it locked. He pulled one of the bobby pins from his hair and bent it into a lock pick. He didn’t have much practice with actually picking locks, but he’d seen enough videos about it that it didn’t take too long to unlock it. 

He was relieved when he found the inside wasn’t trashed. Everything had been cleared out of it prior to it being abandoned.

The interior had built-in benches on either side, a countertop, and a door that he found led to a bathroom. 

He was most likely not going to use the bathroom outside of emergencies but everything else looked pretty solid for a temporary home. 

He set his bag down on one of the benches and took everything out of it. 

He had packed a few granola bars, a reusable water bottle that he’d prefilled, some notebooks he’d been collecting, two changes of clothes, a black hoodie, a reusable mask, and an assortment of toiletries (He’d need to find somewhere that he could bathe at, maybe get a membership at a pool house or a gym, or just sneak in and forgo the membership). 

It wasn’t much, but it was a good start.

He bundled up his hoodie into a makeshift pillow before laying down on one of the benches, quite thankful that they were cushioned, and closed his eyes to get a few hours before the fun began.

Chapter Text

 “This one is called ‘Dark-Light.’ You will be able to grab, manipulate, and solidify the concepts of dark and light. You must use it strategically, Mikumo, the previous owner of this quirk did not, and that is why I took it.” Sensei had a mask covering the lower half of his face. Wires and tubes seemed to be everywhere on his body. It was unnerving. 

9-year-old Mikumo sat in front of Sensei, watching him demonstrate some of the ways to use Dark-Light. “Yes, Sensei.” He said, trying not to look directly at his face.

Sensei beckoned for him to approach, then placed a palm against Mikumo’s forehead. He saw red swirling mist coming from Sensei’s palm before he closed his eyes. 

The quirk felt cold, and then warm, and then nearly burning hot before changing to a soft pressure against his forearms and shoulder blades. Sensei pulled his hand away and the pressure remained. 

“You now have Dark-Light, your training will begin tomorrow.” Mikumo gave a polite affirmative before standing and returning to his room.

Scene Shift

A man laid on his side on the ground, hands bound and mouth gagged. Someone was crying but it wasn't the man.

“Please, Sensei, don’t make me do it.” A young voice begged. 

“You have to become stronger, Mikumo, more resilient. Stop hesitating, hesitation will get you killed.” Sensei stood behind the man, Mikumo on the other side. He was only 7, how could Sensei think he could do this?

Mikumo raised the knife he was given above his head, watching the man shut his eyes in anticipation. 

Scene Shift

“Very well done, Mikumo.” Sensei praised. “You have been taking leaps and bounds in your training.”

Mikumo stood with half a dozen people lying dead at his feet. Killed by his own hand. The blade he held was black as the night, and it dissipated after a moment, leaving nothing but a calloused hand in its wake. 

“Thank you, Sensei.” The 12-year-old responded, turning to the TV screen with a bright smile that could have fooled even himself. He saw his Sensei smiling back at him, non-existent eyes and marred skin and wires.

End Scene

Izuku woke with a start. He wasn’t expecting to be seeing Sensei so soon after escaping him, even if it was only a dream. He shifted onto his back, his hand resting on his forehead as he stared up at the ceiling.

Akatani Mikumo , the name Sensei gave him when he was first taken to him. 

Midoriya Izuku , the name he will never let go of or forget. He couldn’t forget, that would mean he was forgetting about his mother. 

He had found out about her death unintentionally. 

Izuku wanted to see what she had been up to since he left, but the only thing he found was a few Deika City news articles explaining the events that happened during the same time he was kidnapped. 

All of the times they threatened her life when he was still rebellious were lies. She had been dead the whole time. 

He was going to make them pay .

Izuku sat up and glanced out of the tiny window of his camper. The night was still new, meaning he had time to get his bearings on the layout of the area he was in.

Stretching and rubbing his eyes, he pulled his hair out of its bun and resecured it into a low pony. He unfolded his hoodie and pulled it on, switched his athletic shorts out for black jeans, and slipped his shoes on. He put on his facemask and his fit was complete.

He stepped outside and relocked the camper door before making his way towards the city.

Izuku started off wandering around the sidewalks, making his way in a 5-block square. 

Not really finding anything of interest he found a fire escape and climbed up to the roof.

He stretched his arms above his head, taking a deep breath as the wind hit him.

Parkour was one of the activities that his caregivers allowed him to do. They had an indoor gymnasium on the level above his room that he could use with supervision. He took full advantage of all of the amenities, including some aerial acrobatics rigs. 

Needless to say, roof jumping wasn’t too far off from what he’d done before. 

Shaking out his arms and legs, he crouched down in preparation. 

It had only been a couple of days since he had last practiced so he wasn't worried about falling. And even if he did, he could just make some hooks out of Dark-Light to catch himself before he fell to his early demise.

Running and jumping to the next building over, he tucked and rolled before popping back up and continuing to the next rooftop. Exhilaration fuelled his jumps as he continued on to the next roof. 

Outdoors parkour was a whole different experience from what he was used to and he was loving it. 

He had gotten across his 4th building before he heard a woman scream for help. 

Changing course towards the noise he crouched down at the edge of the roof, finding two men with the woman cornered and clutching a purse to her chest. 

One of the guys had a layer of black fur covering most of his body, his face slightly elongated and feet hooved. He also had a pair of horns on top of his head. 

The other guy didn’t appear to have a visible quirk, so he was a wild card.

Deciding that the mutation quirk guy would be easier to take down first, he formed a ball of darkness about the size of a grapefruit. 

He took aim, pulled his arm back, and threw the ball as hard as he could. 

Smack on target, he hit the bullman on the back of the head, causing him to stumble forwards and look around, slightly dazed. 

He took that moment of confusion to form two hooks around both of his hands before leaping off of the building towards the other side of the alley and hooking the wall to catch him halfway down before dropping the rest of the way to the ground. 

At the sound of him landing, both men turned their heads towards Izuku in surprise.

“And who the hell are you, little shrimp?” The normal-looking guy asks, taking on a defensive stance. 

The bullman took a more offensive position, preparing to charge him. 

He decided it would be best not to reveal the fact that he wasn’t even high school age yet. Opting to instead reform the hooks into a baseball bat, twirling it in his hand as he straightened up and took a couple of steps towards the men. 

“Oy, he asked you a question.” The bullman snarled. “You better answer before you regret it.” He walked towards Izuku, now a couple meters in front of the other guy. 

Exactly where he wanted him to be.

In the blink of an eye, he was a foot in front of the bullman and swinging his bat upwards at his head.

The bat makes solid contact against the side of the man's head and jaw with a crunch. Izuku cringed for him as he crumpled to the ground unconscious, jaw bent at an odd angle.

He turned towards the final man, who was standing frozen in place and staring at his bodyguard buddy. 

Trying to finish things quickly, he switched his bat out for a long bo staff before rushing the man. 

He swung the staff low to knock his feet out from under him, only to meet air as the guy suddenly disappeared. 

He heard gravel under foot behind him and whirled around, ducking to the side as he did so. 

He was able to avoid the man’s fist coming right at his face and went for a gut punch with the end of his bo staff. 

The man disappeared again and he realized he must have some kind of teleportation quirk. 

Quickly scanning the area, he spotted the man again. He turned to face him before he teleported away once again. 

Well, this is annoying. 

He heard the man step behind him and swing his leg around, landing a good hit on the man’s stomach. 

Izuku started to pull his leg away, but the man quickly grabbed his ankle and calf.

He didn’t even have time to think of a curse word before he was in the air overlooking the city. 

“Have fun getting out of this one!” The man yelled gleefully over the sound of rushing wind before disappearing and leaving Izuku alone. 

This definitely wasn’t something he thought he would get to cross off in his bucket list. Plummeting to his death from 3 kilometers in the air. 

He swung his arms around to try and stabilize himself and stop spinning so fast. He was gonna vomit. He was not prepared for this. 

He had maybe 30 seconds before he hit the ground. Focus, stop panicking. He couldn’t breathe. 

He put a hand over his nose and mouth, pulling it outwards while closing his fingers at the same time. A long, pointed black face cover forms, giving him a filter to breathe more easily. 

25 seconds left. He reached a hand up and took hold of the ropes of darkness that formed at his fingertips. He was able to slow his descent for a moment before the cords broke and dissipated. 

So it was possible for him to catch himself using Dark-Light in midair. 

20 seconds. He focused, putting both of his hands below him, forming a platform. His feet hit the platform and slipped, nearly causing him to faceplant into his own quirk until he caught himself with his hands. 

Sliding off the top of the platform and flailing his arms frantically to keep himself from spinning out of control again. 

Oh, flapping arms. Birds flap their wings to fly. Arms are like wings. Instead of trying to catch himself, he could make the wind catch him. That could work, right?

15 seconds. He spread his arms out above his head, slightly wider than a shoulder width apart. His fingers grabbed the darkness, letting it fall with him. 

10 seconds. He tightened his grip and pulled towards his shoulders, the darkness forming into long, jagged fabrics. 

7 seconds. The darkness connected to his shoulders and spread down to his shoulder blades. What a great way to learn a new aspect of his quirk.

5 seconds. He made his makeshift wings spread and he felt his momentum slowing down as he glided back towards the alleyway. 

He immediately spotted the teleporter guy who had tried to murder him holding that woman’s purse and trying to wake up bullman. 

Izuku cackled maniacally, causing the guy to look up and gape in shock. 

“I LIVED, BITCH!” He screeched before folding his wings against his back and planting his feet on the guy's face, pushing off in a backflip while the guy went sprawling to the ground with a shout of pain. 

He landed gracefully, barely refraining from kissing the ground in relief. 

He stepped towards the man, who was looking at him like he saw a ghost. 

“There’s no way.” He muttered as he crawled backwards and away from him until his back hit the wall. “I thought you could only make weapons!” 

He folded his arms, grinning despite the fact that the man couldn’t see it. “You guessed wrong.” His voice was slightly muffled, and he realized he still had the filter mask on.

“What are you, some kind of freak demon bird?” The guy was starting to regain his composure and started standing back up. 

“Demon bird?” Izuku asked, confused. 

His tattered wings were still folded behind him and his mask looked kind of like one of those plague doctor masks. Yeah, he could see where the guy got that idea from. He grinned from behind the mask, that wasn’t too bad of an idea, actually. 

“Call me Crow, tell your buddies to watch themselves because I’m here to stay.” Izuku quickly formed his bo staff again and smacked it across the guy’s head, knocking him out. 

He should probably invest in some zip ties or paracord to tie criminals up with. 

Putting that thought away to consider later, he picked up the purse and turned to see if the lady was still there. 

He found her crouched down behind a dumpster. She looked at him with hesitant gratitude as he handed her the purse. 

“Thank you.” She starts, taking the purse and slowly standing back up. “Are you a pro? It’s Crow-san, right?”

“I’m Crow but I’m not a hero. Have you called the police? I don’t have my phone on me.” He doesn’t have a phone, but she didn’t need to know that. 

She shook her head and pulled her phone out of her purse to dial the emergency line. 

After giving the location and details, he figured that it was probably a good time to go before the cops showed up. “I’ll stick around until the police get here, just in case those guys wake up, but I’ll have to dip right after that.”

“I understand, thank you so much, Crow-san.” She gave him a polite bow, which he waved off. 

“It’s what anyone else would’ve done, and you don’t have to refer to me so formally, miss.” He replied, slightly embarrassed at the respectful language she was giving him. 

They heard sirens on the way and he gave the lady a farewell before climbing his way up the building just as the first cop entered the alleyway.

He crossed a few rooftops before stopping and testing out the mechanisms of the wings. They seemed to be attached to his shoulder blades, and he could move them as though they were his own limbs. 

He stretched and folded them a few times, pulling them side to side and backwards and forwards. They felt sturdy and reliable. 

He got into a ready stance, preparing to take the leap of faith. Let’s see if he can actually fly or only glide with these things. 

He sprinted towards the edge of the building and jumped, letting his wings spread wide as he became airborne. 

Flapping his wings kind of awkwardly, he slowly ascended. 

Not being able to suppress his grin, he laughed again. How had he never had this idea before?

He made one wide loop, soaring over buildings before aiming to land on one. 

Realizing he didn’t know how to land was his first mistake. Already being in the process of landing was his second mistake. 

He folded his wings and unceremoniously crashed onto the roof, rolling a few times before coming to a stop, laying on his back. 

He stayed there for a moment before getting up and dusting himself off. He’d definitely need to practice that more before he used that in combat. Good thing the city was the perfect playground to do so. 

He let his wings and mask dissipate as he headed towards the fire escape before making his way home. 

This was a perfect first patrol. 

Not only did he learn something new about his quirk, but he also found his vigilante name right after!

Crow. He wondered what phrase he could put after it. 

All in due time.

Chapter Text

Two weeks had passed since Izuku started his patrols and, while he hadn't noticed a change in crime rates yet, there were more criminals and other undergrounders recognizing his name and signature black plague mask and tattered wings. 

While he did feel a tiny bit bad about it, stealing money from criminals and swiping the occasional food stand takoyaki wasn’t the worst crime he’d ever committed.

He hadn’t been approached or pursued by any of the heroes or police, but he knew that it was only a matter of time before it happened... That was probably foreshadowing, wasn’t it. 

He put on his usual vigilante outfit before stepping out of his camper. 

He reached his hands up above his head, threading his fingers through darkness before pulling the fabrics down to his shoulders. He felt the darkness connect to his shoulder blades and the sensation of his new limbs, then he formed his pointed black filter mask. 

Izuku spread out his tattered wings and took to the sky in two wing beats.

He flew towards south Musutafu before gracefully landing on a roof. 

Binge-watching all of those bird videos has really paid off, he felt way more confident flying and landing now. 

He started running across rooftops, using his wings to glide to buildings he couldn’t quite jump to. 

He got alerted to his first crime of the night via loud crashing and a car alarm going off. 

He jumped to the ground and headed towards the commotion.

Aizawa POV

Aizawa had been having a pretty mediocre patrol so far. 

He was almost a third of the way through his shift and had only taken down one attempted robbery where the girl had stupidly tried picking the lock of a jewelry store with no prior experience and choosing the jewelry store with cameras and outdoor lights. 

It was a quick and easy arrest; she didn’t even try to fight back when she realized she got caught. 

After that, it wasn’t until nearing 1 am that he heard a fight happening nearby.

As he got to the area, he spotted a man with a lion mutation quirk fighting someone with a hair quirk that allowed her to turn her hair into spear-like weapons.

They were on the sidewalk, but the woman looked like she was trying to lure the guy into a nearby alleyway, likely to close the distance and make it easier for her. 

The lion man managed to grab the woman by the hair, which was a big mistake as he let her go just as quickly as if he had touched a hot iron. 

She took advantage of that and kicked him square in the stomach, sending him flying into a car parked on the street. The car alarm started blaring and he decided it was time to intervene.

She knew how to fight against people twice her size and had a quirk unrelated to that aspect, making her his primary target. 

The lion man seemed clumsy and only focused on his brute strength and height to intimidate, so he was less of a concern.

Just as he reached the ground of an alleyway, grabbing his capture weapon and preparing to activate his quirk, he saw a small figure in all black glide to the ground with tattered black wings and land slightly behind the woman. 

The figure pulled a bat out of nowhere, taking aim and swinging it at the woman. 

It made contact and she unceremoniously collapsed to the ground. Her hands were bound using zip ties before the figure turned towards the lion, who was only just then standing and staring at the figure in fear. 

“You’re Crow.” Aizawa heard the man say. “It wasn’t my fault, she started it! Please, I didn’t do anything.”

So, Crow seemed to be such a greatly feared person that a man who was towering nearly a meter over the black-clad figure was cowering in their presence? How had he not heard about this person before?

Crow’s voice came out muffled and Aizawa couldn’t tell if they were a man or woman. “Puh-lease, I saw everything that went down. You both instigated, even if she threw the first punch.” With that, Crow actually threw the bat like a frisbee and it hit the lion man right on mark. 

After Crow had finished tying up the lion guy, they pulled out an old burner phone.

Aizawa decided to make his presence known so he stepped out, making his foot lightly scuff the ground to get Crow’s attention.

Immediately, Crow whipped around, phone in one hand and a long staff materializing in the other. 

He activated his quirk and watched in interest as Crow’s wings, staff, and beak mask disappeared. 

They had another mask on underneath, so nothing was revealed about their identity. 

Crow remained in that same offensive position, adapting quickly and moving their hand up for a melee attack while glaring daggers at Aizawa.

He raised his hands in truce. “You took out those two criminals with minimal damage, I’m not here to fight. You’re Crow, I heard?”

He saw Crow slowly rise and relax from their fighting stance. They nodded and clicked a button on their phone before pocketing it. 

He released his quirk on Crow and watched as they moved their hands around to reactivate the beak mask and wings but not making a new weapon.

Once that was done, Crow addressed Aizawa, their voice once again muffled through the mask. “What do you want, if not to attack? You a hero or a villain?”

“I’m an underground hero. Eraserhead.” He introduced. He saw Crow’s eyes widen slightly. So they recognized his name, then. “I haven’t heard your name before this, who are you?”

They both straightened up a bit when sirens started approaching.

“A vigilante, Eraserhead.” He saw Crow take a few steps back, keeping their eyes on Aizawa. “And I’m not coming with you or sticking around to wait for the police to get here.” They spread their wings and turned to fly off.

“Wait, Crow!” Aizawa activated his quirk on the vigilante again. 

Crow didn’t react aside from a slight stumble after landing from a couple meters up. 

They started sprinting for an alleyway nearby without looking back. 

He gave chase, losing sight of them for a split second, but they were gone without a trace when he rounded the corner. 

“Tch. That doesn't happen very often.” He turned back to return to the zip tied criminals just as a couple of police cars arrived. 

Detective Tsukauchi might know more about Crow or reports on a new vigilante. He made a mental note to visit his office as he gave his statement of what happened to the police.

Izuku POV

As soon as Izuku rounded the corner of the alleyway, he felt his quirk come back again and quickly activated his invisibility cloak. 

Ducking down as low to the ground as he could, he held his breath as he watched the hero enter the alleyway, take a quick look around and mutter something before leaving again.

He couldn’t believe that just happened. 

Running into a hero just hours after making the comment that he hadn’t been pursued by heroes yet. 

And not just any hero, the number one underground hero, Eraserhead!

He’d only ever heard tales about him online, he was silent and efficient and Izuku would be lying if he said he knew that Eraserhead was there the whole time. He really only noticed him when Eraserhead wanted him to know of his presence. 

That freaked him out, he was so used to being the sneakiest one that suddenly having someone even sneakier was weird. 

Was Eraserhead the first hero that he had ever met? Well, outside of the ones Sensei made him kill fight.

Revealing that Crow was a vigilante was hopefully a good move. He got that his costume looked kinda villain-like and he only went out at night, so if the number one underground hero knew that he wasn’t a villain, maybe they wouldn’t actively search for him?

He sighed as he took to the sky again. 

What a mess this will turn into. They probably know he was just a kid now too since he actually spoke to Eraserhead.

He got to his camper and faceplanted onto his bench-bed with a groan. 

He also didn’t get to pickpocket those criminals, which really sucked because tonight was slow, and he cut it off early.

Maybe he should look for alternative ways to make money, like some kind of underground job. 

He made a mental note to find places with informants. Those places would most likely be bars, but he could just sneak in to avoid an ID check. 

He was able to steal enough to buy a cheap old burner a few days ago to notify police of his catches but that phone lagged if he tried to do anything other than send emergency alerts. 

He really wanted a laptop, but good ones are crazy expensive, at least compared to his current income. 

He curled up and pulled the second-hand blanket he bought from a thrift shop over himself. 

He’d go out scouting for jobs tomorrow evening and hope for the best.

Back in Detective Tsukauchi’s office…

Tsukauchi sipped on his 4th coffee of the night, which was a personal record for least amount of coffee consumed before 3 am. 

He was distracted reading up on a chain of reports of similar attacks on criminals and villains. All of the eyewitness statements talk about how this person, who dubbed themself Crow, was shrouded in black and seemed to control darkness itself. 

They were described as having a short stature, a black plague mask, and black wings that looked similar to shredded fabric. 

The plague mask worried Tsukauchi, since a certain yakuza group they had been keeping tabs on also used a similar theme. 

He didn’t have any connections between the two other than the mask, though, so he couldn’t make assumptions.

He was interrupted from his research by a knock on the door before he saw Aizawa come in. 

Tsukauchi turned towards him as Aizawa sat down and sighed. “What can I do for you, Eraser? You don’t usually come in until after patrol.”

Aizawa rubbed his eyes. “Have you heard about the vigilante Crow? I ran into them earlier tonight, but they disappeared on me.”

Tsukauchi raised an eyebrow. “Disappeared on you, number one in the underground and an expert capture hero?” 

Aizawa rolled his eyes. “Yes. Crow took a sharp turn into a back alley and was only out of my sight for a second, but they were gone by the time I reached the corner.”

“Well… According to eyewitness statements, Crow is said to possess the ability to control darkness itself. As in, turn darkness into weapons and apparently wings.” When he saw Aizawa only nod, he had to ask. “Is all of this true, Eraser? If it is, it’s an incredibly rare quirk that we can trace in the registry. If Crow is registered.” He added quietly.

Aizawa took Tsukauchi’s coffee, which neither commented on. “Yeah, it’s true. When I erased Crow’s quirk, I saw their wings, weapon, and mask disappear. And no, I did not see their face, they had another mask underneath.” Tsukauchi closed his mouth again with a frown.

“Since you're the only hero to have seen and nearly captured Crow, how would you feel about joining me if a case gets started on them? I know that Chief Tsuragamae has mentioned Crow offhandedly before so it’s only a matter of time before he opens up the case and assigns one of us, most likely myself, to it.”

Aizawa gave Tsukauchi a pained look as he took a few big gulps of his coffee. “How long has Crow been active for?”

The detective made a few clicks on his computer before answering. “Their first recorded criminal capture dates back to the 6th of August, so almost exactly two weeks ago. They reportedly took down two criminals, the first one had a bull mutation quirk and was taken down in one strike while the other had a teleportation quirk.”

He continued reading the report. “The teleporter said that he was able to teleport Crow 3 km into the air and left them to fall to their death. It was less than a minute later that Crow reappeared with their signature wings and mask. The first thing they said since the altercation began was, and I quote, ‘I lived, bitch.’ They later introduced themself as Crow after being called a ‘freak demon bird.’”

“So, they have a childish sense of humor. Their name is based on an insult?” Aizawa commented.

Tsukauchi nodded. “That’s what it looks like. A lot of the other reports have them making similar snarky comments to the criminals but flipping on a dime when talking to the victims.” He pulled up another report. “Crow was always described as polite, respectful, and reassuring by the victims they have saved.”

Aizawa hummed. “Come to think of it, they weren’t snarky with me, but they also weren’t polite. I don’t think they saw me as an enemy nor as an ally or victim needing to be saved.”

“That would make sense. One of the victims said that Crow was fighting against his attacker but fled as soon as a hero announced her presence. It looks like they’re doing their best to stay off the radar and avoid confrontation, so you got pretty lucky that they didn’t run before talking to you first. However briefly.” Tsukauchi took his coffee back from Aizawa and frowned when he saw that it was almost all gone.

“They were distracted, likely sending a message to the station because they had a phone out. They didn’t recognize me or my quirk, but they seemed to know my name when I said it.” Aizawa paused for a moment as he thought. “Crow is either not from the Musutafu area or has simply never dealt with the underground before which, by the way they fight and talk, I don’t think the latter is true.”

Tsukauchi tapped his desk, downing the last of the coffee in the cup. “That’s a small lead. Having only heard of your name despite having experience in the underground. Did you notice anything about their voice? A different dialect, maybe?” Aizawa shook his head and the detective sighed.

“We didn’t talk for long enough for me to notice.” Aizawa stood and held a hand out for Tsukauchi’s coffee mug. “I’ll get you a new one before I leave.”

He handed the hero his cup. “A rare act of kindness from the grumpy cat man? I'm honored.” He said with an amused smirk as he got a glare in return. “Thanks, Eraser. You and ‘Zashi still on for game night on Friday?” 

“I’m tempted to say no because of that comment. You’re lucky Hizashi likes you.” Aizawa grunted in response as he left to fetch Tsukauchi a new coffee.

Once he returned the now filled coffee mug, Aizawa turned to leave.

“Have a good night, Eraser. We’ll figure out this vigilante sooner or later, none have lasted longer than 4 weeks in the past 8 years.”

Chapter Text

Trees turned into vibrant oranges and soft yellows as September rolled along. There was a certain crispness in the air you don’t get in any other season. 

The 5 weeks following Izuku’s first encounter with Eraserhead had been a bit stressful. He had been on constant high alert, waiting for the hero to try and catch him. 

Hell, he even modified his mask to include hearing amplifiers in the hope that it would help him not get snuck up on again.

So far, he had been able to avoid any and all contact with the underground hero.

On another positive note, he managed to buy himself a used laptop and could now start researching jobs in local underground hotspots. 

He decided to narrow down his search to just Southside because they were more likely to hire a 14-year-old without parental permission than any other part of Musutafu would. 

It didn’t take very long before he found a fairly popular bar that had been in business for nearly 20 years. 

It wasn’t the bar side that interested Izuku, but the fighting ring that he had found a few videos about. It was owned by some guy with the alias Giran who seemed like a big deal in the underground. 

From what he could tell, it was as simple as signing up with a fee for the first time fighting and he would be added to a bracket with the other competitors. If he won his first fight, he didn’t have to pay any other fees for signing up as long as he fought at least once a week. 

The only rules were no quirk use unless it was a quirk fight, no weapons unless it was a weapon fight, and no blows that would be considered fatal or causing irreparable damage. 

There was a schedule on the bar’s website that said when the fights happened and what type of fight it was. 

Satisfied with his find, he made a mental note to visit the bar after the sun set for the night. For now, though, he had a different task to complete. 

It was September 23rd, Autumn Equinox Day, and Izuku had been thinking about it since the chill of fall began to set in. 

The holiday celebrated the changing seasons and a lot of people held up the tradition of visiting deceased relatives, cleaning their gravestones and paying respects to them. 

He’d been on his own for almost two months and figured it was about time to visit his hometown and talk to his mother again; he found out which graveyard she was buried in, which wasn’t difficult because of how small Deika City was. 

Double checking that he had what he needed in his bag, he pulled it over his shoulder and made his way to the train station. 

Deika City was in the Aichi prefecture, right next to the Shizuoka prefecture where Musutafu resided. It was only a 45-minute train ride so he only packed what he would need for a day trip.

Locking up his camper, he lightly jogged to the station, noting the way the sky darkened with clouds.

He still didn’t have much experience regarding train travel, but it wasn’t hard to get the hang of. 

He took one of the open seats and held his bag close as more people piled on. Looked like other people had the same idea for the holiday that he did, and everyone was traveling. 

The train arrived in the city adjacent to Deika City. It was lightly raining outside and Izuku could feel a chill in the air.

Deciding that taking a bus the rest of the way was too expensive, not to mention crowded, he ducked into an alleyway to cloak himself before forming his wings. 

It was difficult to cloak the wings and still keep them solid enough to fly, but that’s what practice was for, right?

With a single, strong beat of his wings, he launched a good 15 meters into the air with ease. Soaring above the city, he continued his journey west.

Flying above the mountains was quite the experience. 

The view was beautiful, looking at the city from above. It was also freezing being in the air and he was very antsy about finding a place to land and warm up.

He swooped down quickly before lightly landing in a forested park. 

He uncloaked himself and pulled out his phone to check where the cemetery was before heading in that direction.  

He tightened the strings of his hood as he entered the cemetery. 

It was very unlikely that anyone would recognize him, but he wouldn’t take any chances. 

His clothes were slowly getting soaked as it continued to lightly rain. He wandered between the gravestones, reading the names and wondering if he would recognize any of them. He didn’t, but he did find who he was looking for.

In loving memory of

Inko Midoriya

July 4th, 2202 to February 10th, 2231

She lifted hearts with her quirk and with her smile

She was only 28 when she died, Izuku thought solemnly as he opened up his bag and pulled out incense and a lighter. He noticed that her grave was clean and well-kept.

He didn’t really remember his mother very well, but he knew that she was wearing a yellow scarf when he was taken. 

She loved spring colors and baking treats. She would let Izuku help her whenever she made cookies or pies, and they would deliver the treats to their neighbors. 

He hummed in wonder as he placed the incense down. How different would his life be if she had been the one who raised him?

He sighed and lit the incense with a steady hand. It wasn’t raining hard enough to snuff it out, so he didn’t bother making an umbrella with his quirk. 

“Hey, mom… I’m not really sure how to start this.” He paused, feeling a bit awkward. “I don’t remember much about you, but I know that you loved me very much, even when I was diagnosed as quirkless. For that, I couldn’t be more grateful.” He tucked his hands into his hoodie pockets, keeping them warm. “I’m sorry that I was the one who got you killed. You didn’t deserve that. Maybe if I had turned to go back into the house that day, you would still be here.”

The man who had taken him, Daiji Hirasago (Quirk: Calm. He can alter someone’s fear or anger response using his voice), was assigned as his caregiver along with a specialized nomu named Kurogiri (Quirk: Warp. He can warp to any location he has been to or has the coordinates to). They were the closest people he had to parents, but neither of them really knew what they were doing. 

They had been nice to him, though they tended to be the only two who acted semi-familial towards him. 

He kind of missed them sometimes, but he knew he would never go back to that place.

Everyone else treated him like what Sensei was raising him to be. He was Sensei’s ace and protege, someone to be respected and not someone who had a personality or wants of his own. 

Flashback… 2 weeks post-kidnapping.

5-year-old Izuku was sitting on his bed in his new room. 

It was fairly plain looking; he had a bed, a soft rug, a wardrobe, a kotatsu in the middle of the room, and a bookshelf and desk. Some nondescript posters hung on the cream-colored walls. 

Izuku didn’t like it. His room back at his mom’s house was colorful and filled with superhero posters and figures. 

He also didn’t like when the scary man with white hair told him his new name, ‘Akatani Mikumo.’ 

He didn’t want a new name or a new room, but they said that his mom would get in big trouble if he went back home. 

A sharp, professional knock on the door snaps Izuku back to attention. He looked up as the man who brought him here, ‘Hirasago-san’ he was told to call him, entered the room with a small lunch box in hand. 

“Hey, Akatani-kun, I brought you something to eat.” Hirasago said softly as he padded across the room to hand it to him. 

He felt secure around Hirasago. He was always so nice, and his voice helped calm his nerves. 

“Thank you, Hirasago-san!” Izuku took the lunch box and sat down at his kotatsu before looking back up to see that Hirasago had already turned to leave the room. “Um! Excuse me…” He said and Hirasago turned back to look at him. “Ca-can you stay with me?”

Hirasago blinked in surprise. “Sure, Akatani-kun, if that’s what you want.” He sat down next to Izuku. “May I ask why you want me to stay?”

“Me and Mama would always eat together.” He explained as he took some of his lunch and put it on the lid of the box before handing it to Hirasago. “But I can’t do that anymore now… It makes me sad.”

Hirasago took the lid. “Oh, I see. Well, I can have it arranged that we have meals together then. How does that sound?” 

Izuku nodded his head with a smile. “That sounds good! Thanks, Hirasago-san.” He saw the man smile at him.

Izuku watched the incense slowly burn, occasionally sparking when a raindrop hit it. “I miss you, I guess. But I feel like I should miss you more than this, or at least cry about you, you know?” He frowned and sat in silence until the incense burned out. “I’ll come back on the new year, ‘kay?” 

Giving her gravestone a smile, he shouldered his bag and stood. 

He heard someone approaching and pulled his hood a bit lower to hide his features. He waited, hoping whoever was coming would simply pass by. 

“Did you know her, too?” A woman’s voice asked. Her voice was soft, but he could tell that she wasn’t normally so soft-spoken. 

He took a step back as the woman knelt down to place a small vase of flowers by her grave. 

“My parents did.” He lied. He felt a small pang of guilt at lying to a woman who knew his mother well enough to visit her grave on a rainy day. 

The woman glanced up at him, moving her umbrella to see him better. She had short, spiky blonde hair and scarlet eyes. She had a small smile as she looked at him. 

“I didn’t know her as well as I wanted to.” She looked back down at the gravestone. “Our schedules clashed too often. But her son and mine were best friends at the daycare.”

He jolted in surprise. He didn’t remember going to a daycare or having a best friend so this must have been a couple of years before the incident. 

“Is that how you two met?” He couldn’t help his curiosity. Maybe he wasn’t as ready to move on from this part of his life as he thought he was. 

She chuckled a bit. “Nah, it was before our boys were even born. We were neighbors and she had brought me and my husband a loaf of fresh-baked banana bread. We invited her in and learned that we were both expecting, only a few months apart from each other. We bonded after that and made the plan of bringing each other’s kids over for playdates, even if they were too young to remember it.”

Izuku felt a pang of longing. He wondered if he would still be friends with her son if he hadn’t been taken away. “What's your son's name?”

She looked back up at him. “Katsuki, Bakugo Katsuki. He’s got a fiery personality, so much different from Inko-chan’s son.” She smiled fondly at the memory. “Yeah, Izuku-kun was far too sweet for his own good, he would cry if Katsuki fell down and hurt himself. He was such an empathetic kid.” 

He watched as she stood and tipped the umbrella so that he was covered by it as well. He had a mix of emotions that he wasn’t sure what to do with. “I’m Mitsuki, by the way.” She offered as a way of asking his name. 

“Mikumo.” He replied while giving her a polite bow, trying to hide the bitterness in saying that name. “Thank you for sharing your stories, Bakugo-san.”

She set a hand on his shoulder gently. “Of course, Mikumo-kun, it was nice getting to retell old memories.” He felt her fingers lightly pinch at his hoodie. “Geez, you’re soaked, kid! Do you need a ride back home or are your parents coming to get you?”

He smiled at her caring nature. “I’m okay! I don’t live far, don’t worry.”

Mitsuki pat his shoulder, seemingly satisfied by his answer. “Alright, if you say so. Take care, Mikumo-kun, thanks for visiting Inko-chan. Her personality always drew in the kindest souls.”

“Of course, I’ll be coming back on New Year’s as well.” He gave her another bow before turning to leave. “Have a good day, Bakugo-san.”

“Hey, if you stick around, you and your family are more than welcome to come celebrate New Year’s with us.” She said as she prepared to kneel in front of his mother's grave.

Izuku nodded, knowing he probably wouldn’t. “Thank you for the offer.” With that, he departed. Preparing himself for his cold flight back to the train station. 

Izuku slipped into the gymnasium, trying his best to be quiet as he shivered. 

He got that it was fall time now, but did it really have to be so cold today of all days? It was still an hour from sunset, too.

He hurried towards the back with the showers and locked the stall before turning the water on, peeling off his cold clothes while the water heats up. 

He had held off on thinking about the things Mitsuki had talked to him about until he was able to let his mind wander. 

He stepped under the hot water, sighing in relief as his frozen limbs regained feeling.

‘Bakugo, huh.’ He wondered. ‘Was I really best friends with whoever Bakugo Katsuki was?’ He had faint glimpses of a spiky haired toddler with a sharp smile. He remembered laughter and superhero figurines. 

A pang of sadness hit him, along with the familiar longing he’d been feeling on and off since visiting his mother’s grave. 

He frowned as he scrubbed his hair. It was no use wondering what his life could have been like because that wasn’t how it went. 

Maybe in another life he was happy, happy being a quirkless nobody in Deika City with a fiery best friend that he cried about if he got hurt. 

He cleared his throat to get rid of the small lump forming and rinsed his hair out. Yeah, he should probably stop thinking about that topic. 

Now that he considered it, he had been pretty lonely living by himself with no friends to talk to. 

He recalled seeing an advertisement for a cafe while he was searching for underground jobs. Maybe he could make some friends by working there. 

Drying off, he stuffed away his previous thoughts to keep himself from spiraling. He focused on what the process of getting an underground job would entail along with his trip to the fight bar later that evening.

Packing away his shower supplies and feeling much better, he headed back to his house to wait out the rest of the daylight.

Chapter Text

The sun had set on Autumn Equinox Day and night life came out as Izuku made his way to southside Musutafu. 

Stopping outside of a packed bar, he double checked that he had his entry fee for Giran’s fighting ring before heading inside. 

He didn’t get carded at the door, not too surprising considering the area he was in, though he was receiving a few stares from the patrons for obviously being a child in a bar without adult supervision. 

Taking a quick glance around, he spotted the door that led to the fighting ring and made his way through the crowd. 

He pushed past a man that smelled strongly of smoke but continued on until he was in front of a fairly attractive woman sitting at a ticket stand. 

She gave him a critical eye but smiled all customer service-like. “Good evening! Will you be participating in the bidding tonight, sir?” She asked cheerily.

He shook his head. “Not bidding, but is this where I sign up to fight?”

The woman raised an eyebrow but nodded. “You can, yes. Have you fought here before? If not, your entry fee is 3,000 yen.”

He pulled out three bills and handed them to her. “It’s my first time. Tonight is a quirkless fight, right?”

She took the money and cashed it in before holding out a hand for Izuku with a stamp in the other. “Yes, sir!” She replied as he took her hand and she stamped it with the bar’s fight logo. “They’ll explain the rules to you once you’re in there. Fighter seating is straight and to the left, there will be a sign for you to follow.”

“Thank you, miss!” He replied with a smile before turning and heading into the impressively large room. 

There were two floors of seating, and the room could hold at least 500 people in it.

‘This will be fun.’ He thought with a grin as he found his way to an empty seat in the fighter’s section. He’d never gotten to beat people up in front of such a large audience before. 

He took in the other fighters as they waited for the matches to start. 

Most of them were pretty averagely built, no mutation quirks due to the rules of quirkless fighting. 

While he preferred fighting with a weapon, he certainly wasn’t useless fighting quirkless. 

The announcer’s voice came on through the speakers as a referee entered the ring. “Good evening, everybody!” The man called, echoing through the stands. “Welcome to Giran’s Fighting Arena! Tonight, as you all know, is quirkless fight night. The rules are straightforward: No attacks with intent to maim or kill, and no weapons or quirks; if you have a passive quirk and haven’t done so already, please see Tsumugi at the reception stand and we’ll get you fitted with quirk suppressors. You can win in three simple ways: Knock your opponent out of the ring, out of commission, or force a surrender. Getting pinned for more than 5 seconds will also be counted as knocked out of commission. Matches will be 20 minutes long, if no one wins in that time, the competitor that took the most hits loses.” 

The large four-sided tv screen above the fighting ring lit up, showing the brackets. New fighters were up first, meaning Izuku’s match was the third up. 

Taking a breath, he let it out slowly. He didn’t know anyone’s names here, meaning he couldn’t strategize against his opponent until they were already in combat together. 

Since it was a quirkless fight, he really only had to focus on physical strength; pretty much all of the other competitors were bigger than he was, which also meant they would be slower than him as well. 

The announcer called up the first fight. Looking at the bracket, a number was listed next to each of their names. “Our first fight of the night is Ryu, with five wins under his belt.” A tall man with sharp features stepped into the middle of the ring while cheers sounded around the arena. “Versus Azuri, a new competitor!” A woman just as tall as Ryu joined him in the middle, she was muscular and had a couple of mean-looking scars on her arms and jaw.

“Competitors! Are you ready?” The referee called through her headset. Both competitors answered in the affirmative. “Begin!”

From what he could tell, they were using primarily street-fighting styles with some basic martial arts sprinkled in. 

Both were impressive to watch, the sheer power someone could have even when fighting quirkless always amazed him. 

It took 10 minutes before Ryu pinned Azuri with her arm bent awkwardly behind her. The 5 second countdown came and went. Ryu helped his competitor up and they shook hands before leaving the ring. 

The second fight went similarly. A worker came and brought Izuku to the area where he would wait for his own match to start. The second match took 15 minutes, and the inexperienced competitor yielded. 

“That brings us to our third match of the night and the last of the newbies!” The announcer called out. “Will we stick to the trend of the new fighters losing or will this fight break the streak? We have Nikko, with 12 wins under his belt, versus our final newbie, Izuku!” 

Izuku was 30 cm shorter than Nikko, who was looking at him with blazing pink eyes. He swallowed but offered a hand in good nature, his competitor took it, and they shook. 

The referee stepped up to them. “Competitors! Are you ready?” She asked as Izuku and Nikko backed away from each other. After they confirmed, she raised an arm between them. ”Begin!” She then hopped back to the edge of the arena. 

Izuku circled his competitor, studying Nikko’s movements as he ducked a high kick. 

He used more martial arts than street fighting and was quick and light on his feet. He wasn’t surprised that he had 12 wins. 

He dodged to the side as Nikko lunged at him, only to realize it was a fake lunge when a low kick attempted to knock him to the ground. He tuck and rolled over the sweeping leg before popping back up and closing the space between them again. 

They danced around each other for a bit before Nikko lunged forwards again and Izuku recognized the feint for what it was and reacted by also jumping in close. 

He must have caught him off guard as he kicked his opponent’s knee outward, bringing their heads to the same height, he cuffed Nikko on the side of his head just under his ear, and brought down his other arm against his jaw to deliver a precise knockout blow. 

He stepped back as Nikko collapsed to the ground, unconscious. 

It took a moment for the crowd to realize what just happened, but they freaked out when the referee called out Izuku’s victory. The match lasted 5 minutes, which he was pretty satisfied with.

He headed off back to the fighter’s section. 

Sitting back down, he noticed a few wary looks from some of the competitors while others were congratulating him on his win. 

If he won the finale, he’d only have to fight four times. He wondered if the quirked or weapon fights would be busier than this or not. 

His next two fights weren’t too different in the fact that he won them both. 

His second fight of the night was against a man with 20 wins, he was about his height but was built for wrestling. Izuku had to wiggle away from him twice before taking him out. 

His third fight was against a woman with 42 wins. She was wearing quirk suppressing cuffs and was an expert at street fighting; he got hit a few more times than he’d have liked, but he was eventually able to throw her out of the ring. 

Then it was the finale. He was against someone named Kemari. They were androgynous and most of their muscle power was in their legs. From watching their previous matches, he knew that they were fast and kicked hard. 

He had to watch out for grappling moves as well; even if Kemari hadn’t actually grappled anyone in the previous matches, he had seen them position their arms in certain ways that made him suspect it.

The referee called for them to start and, just like the previous matches they fought in, Kemari lunged forwards and twisted around for a precise kick to his side. He dodged the attack with relative ease.

He was pretty lucky that his fighting style was also speed-based or that would have really hurt.

Izuku swept a leg to knock Kemari off balance, but they must have predicted his move as they leapt away, putting distance between them. Oh, how he itched to use his quirk, he’d definitely have to come back for quirked battles. 

They circled around each other for a moment, looking for openings. 

Izuku ended up purposefully making an opening, which Kemari jumped at. 

They kicked out at Izuku, and he noticed the change in their arm position as a grappling move. He took the hit, blocking with an arm while wrapping the other around their knee and rocking himself forwards, throwing all of his weight against Kemari to knock them down. 

He felt a hand grab his shoulder and twist before they both hit the ground. 

Kemari scrambled to get on top of Izuku, knee pressing painfully into his sternum. One of his arms was pinned above his head while the other was squished under Kemari’s other knee. He squirmed, feeling the pin they have him in holding strong. 

They both momentarily make eye contact, breathing hard, before the referee started the countdown. He quickly shifted his weight onto one hip before swinging his leg up as hard as he could , his shoe colliding with the side of Kemari’s head and dazed them enough to loosen their grip on his hand. 

Taking advantage of his now freed hand, he took the side of Kemari’s neck and pulled them down onto their stomach. 

Copying what he saw in the first match, he pressed a knee between their shoulder blades, the other knee on their hips. He bent their arm back, twisting it uncomfortably as the referee began to countdown again. 

Once the referee called the match, Izuku released his hold and stood up, catching his breath. 

Kemari turned onto their back and sat up before taking Izuku’s proffered hand. The match took a total of 12 minutes. 

With that, the matches were over.

He was led back into the ring to receive his first-place prize. “Our newbie is the victor of quirkless fight night!” The announcer exclaimed. “Congratulations to Izuku for winning the grand prize!”

He won a solid million yen and some change. ‘Oh yeah, now that’s what I’m talking about,” he thought excitedly as he looked inside the bag they gave him. 

Checking the time, he realized that the fights took 4 hours, and it was already closing in on 1 am. The fight crowd had piled into the bar area, making it difficult for Izuku to wiggle his way through to get outside. 

Pushing the front door open, he took in a relieved breath at no longer being jostled this way and that by excited and angry audience members. 

“Saw your fights. You’re pretty good for a newbie.” A scratchy voice to his left said. He looked over and found a rather interesting-looking man. 

Snow white hair poked out from under a black hood as he pulled out a cigarette. Metal glinted across the man’s face and hands as he lit his cigarette with a blue-flamed finger.

“Thank you, sir.” He replied politely as he walked towards the man, going in the direction of home. “I’ll be coming back for the quirked and weapon fights too.” 

The man blew out a puff of smoke and hummed. “We might cross each other during the quirked matches. Izuku, was it?” Izuku stopped a little way from the man and replied in the affirmative. “Name’s Dabi.” He continued. “A lot of the regulars don’t take kindly to newcomers winning their first fights. Be careful out there.” With that warning, he snuffed out his cigarette and walked back towards the bar. 

“Thanks for the warning, Dabi.” He called back before jogging to get out of Southside. Already feeling the prickling of being watched as he went. 

He probably would have been fine whether he was told he would be attacked or not, but it was nice of the guy to tell him anyway. 

It didn’t take long before he got cornered by a group of eight. They were all obviously intoxicated, some still finishing off their drinks. 

“What’s your trick, kid?” One of them asked. He seemed to be the group leader, or at least spokesperson. “Ain’t no way you got to take down Kemari without help. Were you set up to do that?”

Izuku wanted to roll his eyes. Sore losers couldn’t help but try to find an explanation. “No, sir. I just like the thrill.” He said while holding the straps to the bag he was given.

“Well, you better give us back our bets. Tsumugi said you already had the money so she couldn’t refund us.” The group was tightening around him, forcing him backwards into an alleyway. 

“Nah, I don’t think I will. I won this pot fair and square.” He let one of his hands fall to his side, feeling his quirk ready to activate. “I suggest you leave, before you all regret messing with me.”

They laughed and pulled out a variety of different weapons. Knives, alcohol bottles, offensive quirks, but the one that actually concerned Izuku was the leader's weapon. A gun.

“Come now, don’t be that way.” The leader said lightly, clicking the safety off and continuing to force Izuku deeper into the alley. “Give us half your prize money and we’ll call it even. You can even come back and compete again, how does that sound?”

These guys had most likely heard of Crow before, and he thought he recognized one of the people in the group, meaning he couldn’t just make his usual weapons without outing himself. 

He pulled at the miniscule amount of light in the alleyway. It would be rough, but he could probably flashbang them and disappear.

Before he could do anything other than plot, he heard Dabi’s scratchy voice call out from above them. “Figures it was you who took the loss the hardest, Takeo.”

Everyone looked up but Izuku kept his eyes on the group as the leader responded. “Who the hell are you? This isn’t your business, chainsmoker.”

He heard a slight scuffing of a boot before Dabi landed in front of him. “Chainsmoker? That’s pretty mean, I’d be offended if it weren’t true.” His hand lit up, blue flames flickering. “Bet this could jog your memory on who I am.”

The leader’s grip on his gun tightens and his jaw clenches. “Dabi.” He growled out. The rest of the group shifted uncomfortably, two of them had already dipped back to the bar. 

“Bingo. What’s the verdict, Takeo? Backing off and moving on would be the smartest move, don’t you think?” He drawled, burning hand lightly waving around as he spoke. 

Takeo hesitated, clearly not wanting to let it go, but being roasted like a pig didn’t sound all that fun. 

He huffed and turned the safety back on before stuffing the gun away. “You got lucky this time, number one.” He snarled. “Looks like your guardian angel from hell was here to save you, this time.” He turned and left, the remainder of his group following suit. 

The fire in Dabi’s palm disappeared as he turned to look at Izuku. “You probably could’ve handled that yourself, but I like messing with Takeo. He makes the funniest faces.” He chuckled before walking out of the alley, gesturing for Izuku to come with. 

Izuku followed him. “I appreciate the help, Dabi.” He started walking northeast, the same way he had been going before.

“Where do you live, kid? I’ll walk you there. There were a few others talking about you in a not so pleasant light back at the bar.” He glanced back at the boy. “You sure pissed a lot of people off without even meaning to.”

“I'm out by Takoba beach.” He replied as they fell into step with each other. “I probably should have guessed that I’d have haters. I wasn’t really planning on winning the fight night, then I got sucked into the adrenaline rush and forgot.”

“You were going to fake lose?” Dabi asked, slightly incredulous when Izuku nodded. “Give it your all like you did tonight. Fuck what the others want.”

“Do you only fight in the quirked matches?” He questioned as they exited southside and made their way towards the shore. 

“Yeah, I don’t have a weapon I’m confident in using and my hand to hand isn’t all that great either.” 

He hummed. “Your quirk is pretty cool though, is it hotter than normal fire?”

“By quite a bit. My hands are the only part of me that can handle the heat.” He gestured to the scars on his hands and face. “Quirk accident.” He said by way of explaining. 

“Looks like it must have hurt.” He commented and the older man snorted. 

“You could say that.” He paused when Izuku veered into the trash beach. “Where are you going, Izuku?”

He turned around to look at Dabi. “My house is this way.” He said, pointing a thumb behind him. 

Dabi looked confused but followed him anyway, only speaking again when Izuku was at the camper and unlocking it with his bobby pin key. “Damn, kid. I thought you snuck out of your parents’ house or something. You live by yourself?”

Izuku invited Dabi to come inside. “Yeah, my mom died when I was a kid, and my dad is MIA somewhere in the United States.” He pulled out a lukewarm soda and tosses it to Dabi. “And like hell am I going into foster care, that sounds like a nightmare!”

They both cracked open their sodas at the same time. After taking a long sip, Dabi addressed him again. “I’ve got an old apartment I stay at that’s got two rooms, and I ain’t using one of them.” He offered.

Izuku tilted his head. 

It would be nice to have a working bathroom and to be able to take a shower or bath without breaking into the gym. And, with winter on its way, having a place with actual electricity would be a good idea. 

He doubted it would be very difficult to hide the fact that he was a vigilante from Dabi, considering the majority of his gear was his quirk. 

He shrugged and glanced around his camper. “If you’re offering, sure. I doubt winter would be very pleasant in this thing.” 

“I wouldn’t have thought the summer was pleasant either.” Dabi commented as he watched Izuku stuff his few belongings into the small bag, backpack, and now bar merch bag. 

“I would just go to the gym if it got too hot, so it wasn't too bad. Besides, it was already late summer when I moved in here.” He shouldered his stuff and looked at Dabi. “Where’s your apartment?”

“Southside, above Kimi’s Cafe and close to that generic convenience store.” He replied as they exit the camper again. 

“No way! I was planning on applying to Kimi’s Cafe, this works out perfectly.” Izuku exclaimed. 

He shrugged. “I’m sure you’d get the job. Kimi Toudou is the owner's name. She gives me baking rejects every once in a while, or uses me as her guinea pig when she makes something new. Some of those pastries are questionable.”

"Sounds like torture." He replied sarcastically as they walked.

"You can't say anything until you've tried her leek and peanut butter croissants." He stated dryly. Izuku made a face and the older man chuckled.  

Dabi’s apartment was quaint, but it had running water, air conditioning and heating, and working amenities. He showed Izuku to his new room before calling it a night. 

Izuku laid in his new bed that night. ‘Things are finally clicking into place.’ He thought. ‘An actual apartment to stay at and two new sources of income. Maybe that means I can stop robbing criminals. Or maybe just the ones who deserve it.’

Chapter Text

“Dabi!” Izuku shouted angrily. “Did you move my shit again?”

“You’re gonna have to be more specific than that, kid.” He drawled. 

“Did you move my-” The sound of rummaging is heard from Izuku’s room. “Never mind, I found it!”

Dabi rolled his eyes. “I’ve only moved your things like once and now you blame me whenever you can’t find something. I think you need a new pair of eyes.”

Izuku came out of his room, hair pulled back into a bun with bobby pins holding back loose strands. He was fastening the last few buttons on his dress shirt before making sure it was tucked into his pants. “You touched Wilson 2.0. I can never trust you again.”

“Wilson 2.0? Is that what you named your laptop?” He asked, amused. “What happened to the original Wilson?”

Fake tears welled up in his eyes as he recounted his story. “Wilson was my first ever computer. He was my pride and joy, taken away far too soon… Oh shit! I’m gonna be late for work, I’ll tell you the rest later!”

“You left me on a real cliffhanger there.” He replied sarcastically as Izuku raced out of the apartment and to the cafe. 

Izuku didn’t necessarily have to work at the cafe because of how much he made from his fighting matches, but being able to socialize like a normal person was nice. 

“Thanks for coming in!” He called out as his customer left. He glanced over when his name was called. 

“Hey, Midoriya-kun.” His coworker, Sayuri, started. “I’m all clocked in and ready to take over, have you counted down the drawer?”

Izuku nodded, taking off his apron. “Yeah, I did, thanks Sayuri-chan.”

She gave him a wave. “See you tomorrow! Friday mornings are always super busy, so it’ll be nice to have your skills on deck.”

“Ah, I’m not that good at this.” He denied. “But, yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow!” 

Midnight rolled around and he was so ready to go out patrolling. 

He’d been on the vigilante registry for 10 weeks now; he was currently the 3rd most wanted vigilante on the list.

He’d been slowly climbing the ranks; he was pretty sure that he was only this wanted because of how long he’d been a vigilante for and the fact that he’d managed to almost completely avoid the police and heroes. 

Izuku slipped out of his room quietly and puts on his shoes at the door before heading out. 

The night was crisp, the breeze blowing cold as he glided through the air.

He decided to wear a black cowl instead of his usual facemask to keep himself warm; it fit snuggly, and he wasn’t worried about it falling off his face when he moved around. 

He had been patrolling for a little over an hour when he saw another figure running across the roofs a few buildings from him. He couldn’t tell who it was, but they seemed to know exactly where they were going. 

Curiosity got the better of him and he changed course and began following the other person.

Maybe it was another vigilante? An underground hero? Or just some rando wanting to practice their parkour skills at ass ‘o clock in the morning. 

Izuku followed the stranger for a good 5 minutes before he saw them stop suddenly and peer into an alleyway below.

Keeping up his stealth, he managed to get to the same building the figure was on before he saw them jump down into the alleyway. 

There was a terrified scream moments afterwards and he made it to the edge of the roof.

Peering down he saw the figure pulling jewelry and other valuables off what appeared to be the side piece of some gang boss based on how decked out she is.

He was disappointed that the figure wasn’t a vigilante or hero, but rather a slightly more skilled criminal than he usually saw. 

Dropping down, he silently landed not far from the two.

Summoning his baseball bat, he cleared his throat to get the criminal's attention. 

The criminal looked over their shoulder at Izuku, hands full of expensive accessories. He heard them scoff in annoyance before turning around fully, the lady immediately bolted while yelling curses at them. 

“Kinda low of you to sneak attack a defenseless person.” He commented, twirling his baseball bat as he took a couple steps towards the criminal. “Did you know she was going to be here? You seemed pretty dead set on where you were going.”

“You’ve been following me?” They said, shocked. “Who are you?”

“You don’t know who I am? I’m wounded!” Izuku exclaimed, mock grabbing his heart. “Ever heard of Crow? That might help you figure out who you’re dealing with now.”

“Ah, I know who you are.” The stranger smiled widely. “You can try to catch me, but I don't think that you can even lay a finger on me.” 

“Pretty bold statement, there.” He replied, though he was switching to a much more cautious strategy, his bat lengthening out to a bo staff. “Let’s tango.” Izuku lunged forwards, swinging his bo to hit the side of their head. 

He felt his entire body freeze up as the criminal moves their arms out in front of them and clench their fists.

What the hell? What did they just do?

Before he could think up a counter, the stranger took a step forward and move their arms as though throwing something.

Izuku felt his body jerk to the side, and he was flying down the alleyway.

He caught himself with a couple flaps of his wings, landing gracefully a good 5 meters away from his opponent.

Was it some kind of telekinesis? No, it didn’t feel like he was being squeezed. It also didn’t feel like his motor control was being taken over. His muscles still responded to him, but it felt like he was straining against some invisible force. 

The criminal had already started leisurely walking towards him. “I can see the gears turning in that clever brain of yours. I’m sure you’ll figure it out soon.”

Izuku tried keeping more of a distance, opting to thrust the bo staff at them like it was a spear, making the staff lengthen.

Once again, the criminal reaches just below the bo staff, clenching their fists and he was frozen again.

He stared hard at their hands, noticing that as they moved them, his bo moved with them.

He got flung against the alley wall with a thump.

He landed and crouched. Invisible strings? No, they weren’t moving in a way that resembled a puppeteer. 

The criminal, who was moving slowly before, suddenly bolted at Izuku. He jumped to the side and swings his bo at them again. 

The bo made contact with their hand, and he watched in shock as his staff seems to break apart in their hand, his darkness liquifying and dissipating. 

“Hm. I was wondering what your quirk was. Guess my theory was correct.” The criminal said with satisfaction as they pull their hand back, remnants of Izuku’s bo staff slowly swirling around their fingers. 

“You have a shadow manipulation quirk.” Izuku breathed. Shit. This is going to be a lot more difficult than he thought. 

The criminal smiled widely again. “Correct! I am the villain Yamabito. Though, I consider myself more of an antihero than a villain.” 

Yamabito was a well-known name in the underground. They were known to attack local gangs and other criminals and villains, but their methods were too violent and careless to put them in the vigilante category. Not to mention that they didn’t care about taking criminals off the streets. 

Oh, boy. He was definitely in trouble.

He couldn’t use the light half of his quirk, since it was tied to his civilian persona and Yamabito would expose his true quirk to anyone who would listen.

But he also might not be able to rely on his dark half because they clearly have the ability to nullify his weapons. He should really start bringing actual weapons when he went out. 

“How did you know what my quirk was?” Izuku asked, stalling as he tried to figure out a solution. 

Yamabito started approaching him again, and he tried keeping his distance, paying close attention to where his shadow was. “The descriptions I hear about you, how your weapons would disappear into thin air was the first clue.” They started. “Your little vanishing act you’ve pulled on the authorities a few times was the other.”

They walked closer to the wall of the alley, shrouding in darkness and almost completely disappearing. 

He could turn fully invisible, but the villain didn't need to know that.

He was on high alert, keeping tabs on where Yamabito was as he backed away. “I see, you’re pretty smart.”

There were no makeshift weapons in this alleyway. Could he run and get them to chase him into a new alleyway? No, they probably wouldn’t give chase since Izuku didn’t have anything valuable on him. Yamabito was only entertaining themself. 

The villain unshrouded from the darkness. “Thanks, I try.” They lunged at Izuku again, who successfully dodged and threw a ball of darkness at them.

They caught and crushed it with a hand before rushing at him once again. 

The two of them continued this game for nearly 20 minutes.

Izuku found that he could, to a certain extent, fight back against the shadow manipulation by pulling and stretching the darkness. It was difficult trying to do, like trying to get denim to stretch. 

They were both out of breath and his head is really starting to hurt from straining his quirk. He had to end this or run, but at this point he didn’t think that Yamabito would just let him go. 

‘One last big push. They’re tired too.’ He thought as he rushed forwards again. He had to resort to his melee skills, actually managing a few good hits on the villain throughout their fight. 

He felt the now familiar activation of Yamabito’s quirk as they take hold of his shadow, freezing him in place and throwing him against the alley wall and releasing him. 

Before he could push away from the wall, he was frozen again, and the villain was in front of him. He saw the glint of metal before a searing pain erupted across his collarbone and neck.

Izuku hissed and grabbed at his own shadow, stretching it before it broke and he was free again. 

Stumbling back into the middle of the alleyway, he pressed a hand against his collarbone.

It wasn’t as deep as it could have been, thanks to his clothes, but the serrated knife that they used was going to be a bitch to heal from. 

Yamabito was already preparing to jump at Izuku again, grinning viciously.

He readied himself, annoyed that he might actually lose to a singular person. 

The villain lunged, knife fully brandished.

He tensed up, ready to counter their quirk, but then Yamabito was being wrapped up in a familiar-looking gray material. 

‘Shit, is this worse than almost dying to a villain?’ He thought helplessly as he felt the capture scarf of none other than Eraserhead close around his torso in a vice grip. 

He watched as the hero landed lightly between the two, keeping his eyes trained on Yamabito. 

Izuku gasped in pain as the capture weapon tightened uncomfortably.

He could barely breath, was he trying to strangle him to death? He glanced down, seeing his hand still covering his injury as blood slowly seeps into the scarf. 

There was no way he could get out of this, not with his currently raging migraine from quirk overuse.

He already had to get rid of his wings and plague mask in favor of focusing on countering Yamabito’s quirk. 

Deciding to just wait for the right moment, he saw down and watched as Eraserhead fit quirk suppression cuffs on the villain before turning to look at Izuku. “Didn’t think it would take a lengthy villain fight to finally catch you, but here we are.” He grunted. 

Izuku didn’t reply. Without his plague mask his voice isn’t muffled anymore, which he'd learned actually confused the authorities into questioning how old he was and what his gender was. He wasn't going to give that information up without a fight. 

His ribs were starting to ache from the constriction as the police finally arrived and took Yamabito away.

Eraserhead hauled Izuku to his feet and walked him over to an ambulance with EMTs ready and waiting. 

‘Huh, I guess he noticed I was injured. I could probably use that to my advantage.’ Izuku thought as he was made to sit down on the gurney. 

He immediately tried fighting back when one of the EMTs approaches him with a syringe.

Eraserhead held a hand up to the EMT. “If they don’t want numbing, that’s fine. Just do what you can.”

He was constantly facing Izuku, and he could feel his quirk occasionally turning off then back on. So, he can’t continuously use his quirk, then?

The EMT put the syringe away, instead grabbing a pair of scissors to cut away a part of his clothes. 

“You’re Crow, correct?” Eraserhead asked, obviously already knowing who he is. Izuku nodded, watching as the EMT asked the hero to let him go so they could treat his wound. 

He felt the capture scarf release him and he took a relieved breath when the pressure lifted from his chest. 

He actually physically growled when one of the workers moved to pull his hood down. Green hair was way too identifying. 

Finally, they had his clothing partially cut away to reveal his left shoulder all the way up to his neck. He held his shirt against his chest, so it didn’t fall down any further.

He was thankful for his cowl hiding most of his features as one of the EMTs tucked the cut part of his hood into it, respecting him wanting it to stay on while still getting it out of the way. 

They started working on the cut and Izuku made sure to keep his left arm from moving. He had to sell his ‘I’m hurt, underestimate me’ act. 

“Detective Tsukauchi will be coming by soon to ask you some questions.” Eraserhead continued after a moment, as if trying to distract Izuku from his injury. “You will have to answer them vocally. We’re going to bring you to the station after your treatment.”

He was purposefully not mentioning the fact that they were going to take off his hood and mask when he got there. They probably hadn’t done so yet because they were prioritizing his injury that needed his cooperation to take care of. 

Izuku nodded and the EMTs scolded him for moving around while they were giving him stitches.

Eventually, they finished up with a clean square of gauze secured with medical tape. They were probably avoiding pushing Izuku’s boundaries by making him lift his arms to wrap bandages around his shoulder and torso to properly secure the injury. 

Once the EMTs finished up, they hopped out of the ambulance, most likely signaling to the others that the treatment was finished. 

Sure enough, not long after the EMTs left, he saw a man in a trench coat along with a police officer holding a pair of handcuffs approaching the ambulance. 

“So, you’re the vigilante who’s been eluding us for so long.” The man in the trench coat said as they walked over. 

Izuku noticed Eraserhead turn to look at the man and seized the opportunity that gave him and activated his invisibility cloak.

He hated showing off a part of his quirk he never wanted to reveal, but this was pretty much his only way to get out.

He jumped out of the ambulance and crawled underneath it as he heard shouts of confusion and surprise.

Reaching the other end of the ambulance, he glanced around before standing and sprinting away. ‘That was way too close for comfort.’ He thought as ran. ‘At least I got free medical treatment out of it.’

Once he was back at the apartment, he took a couple extra strength painkillers and crashed onto his bed.

He groaned when he realizes he had to work in the morning; a turtleneck will hide his injury well enough, right? Does he own a turtleneck?

Eh, he'd worry about that after he sleeps. 

Shouta cursed at himself when he realized the vigilante disappeared yet again.

How did they do it? It was just like the first time he met Crow, but weren't people looking right at them this time?

"Crow just disappeared into thin air." Tsukauchi explained, shocked. "Were we wrong about their quirk? Can they do more than just manipulate darkness?"

The hero sighed deeply, rubbing his eyes after taking off his goggles. "It can't be a light manipulation quirk because they can make solid objects, but it also can't just be dark manipulation because they can disappear from a brightly lit ambulance. Could it be some form of teleportation?" He shook his head. "No, that can't be it. I'm too tired for this."

"Crow's quirk has something to do with their body. Could they be changing their physical form? That would explain being able to grow wings and apparently disappear." Tsukauchi suggested as the two of them hopped in his car to head back to the station. 

"What about their weapons? I've seen Crow throw objects they made using their quirk." Shouta sighed again. 

"We can sift through the quirk registry again. Did you get any more identifying features from them?" 

He looked over at Tsukauchi. "Yeah. Crow's eyes are green, I saw them pretty clearly in the ambulance. I also noticed that they kept a hand their clothes to keep them covering their upper body." He responded.

"Well, that's something at least. We should set up day patrols to watch for civilians with bandages on their neck." The detective replied.

Shouta nodded in agreement before stopping. "Am I going to be one of the day patrol heroes? Please say no."

Tsukauchi huffed a laugh. "I wish I could say you didn't have to, but you're the one who has spent the most time with Crow."

He rubbed a hand down his face. "But I haven't even had a conversation with them since our first time meeting each other." He argued.

The detective shrugged. "Sorry, Eraser, you're our best shot at finding them in their civvies."

"I hate this job."

Chapter Text

It was the morning after his little run in with Yamabito and Eraserhead.

Izuku rummaged through his closet, not finding any turtlenecks or anything that could cover up his injury without drawing attention. 

He removed the gauze to change it out, finding the stitches holding as well as they could.

The cut started at the front of his shoulder joint and curved a quarter of the way up the side of his neck. The EMTs had to put butterfly stitches on parts of the injury that they couldn’t stitch up normally due to the jaggedness that the serrated knife caused.

Sighing when he couldn’t get the bandage on properly, he decided to suck it up and ask Dabi for help.

Sure, his roommate had no clue that he was a vigilante, but couldn’t he just blame it on him being clumsy? Or maybe a drunk person mad about one of his previous wins?

He walked out of his room, finding that Dabi was already up and making himself some breakfast. 

“Hey, Dabi-kun?” He called when Dabi grunts in response, not looking up at him. “Could you help me with this? It happened last night while I was out.”

Dabi finally turned towards him. He looked at the injury then back at Izuku. “How the fuck did you do that, kid?”

Izuku scratched his cheek. “Got caught off-guard by some guy who was mad about my win a few days ago.” He replied, doing a pretty good job at acting sheepish. 

He heard him sigh as he shut off the stove and moved the pan off the burner. “Alright, get to the bathroom.” He waved his hands in a shooing motion. 

Dabi was surprisingly good at treating injuries.

After applying antibiotic cream and a new square of gauze, he wrapped it with bandages using deft hands. 

“Not too tight?” He asked as Izuku lightly plucks at the bandaging across his chest. 

“No, this is great. Thanks, I appreciate it!” He replied as Dabi packed away the first aid kit. “Actually, I have one more request.” 

“What now?” He said, mildly irritated at being taken away from his breakfast for so long. 

“Do you have any turtlenecks or something? I have to go to work in an hour and don’t want everyone asking questions.”

Dabi hummed, thinking, before walking out of the bathroom. “I might.” He replied over his shoulder. 

Izuku followed him and waited in the doorway to his room as his roommate neatly sorted through his closet.

He turned back, holding a light blue long-sleeve. “Think this’ll work?”

He took the turtleneck and awkwardly pulled it on, trying not to lift his left arm up too high.

He messed with the collar, making sure it was high enough up his neck. “Can you see anything?”

“Nope. Just looks like you’re dressed for the cold, even though you don’t even have to leave the building to get to work.” Dabi responded before pushing past Izuku to return to the kitchen. 

“Great! I won’t spill coffee on it, I promise.” He touched his hair, realizing it was still down; grabbing a hair tie and trying to put his hair up, he failed miserably without being able to lift his other arm up without risking tearing his stitches. “Uhh, one more favor? Last one, I promise.” He held out the hair tie, not saying anything else. 

Dabi, who was just about to take a bite of his omelet, sighed and set his plate down. “You’re lucky I take pity on the weak and injured.”

“Hey! I am not weak, I’ve won two out of the five matches we’ve had.” He retorted, handing him the hair tie and turning around. 

“Right, right.” He felt Dabi pulling his hair into place. “And I’m not doing that clusterfuck of bobby pins you always do, just so you know.”

He touched his bangs, they went down to his browline.

While he didn't like having hair in his face while he worked, it wasn't going to kill him. “That’s fine. Thanks.” He said as Dabi walked away to actually eat now, leaving him with a sloppy bun.

Izuku and Kimi were the openers of the day, Sayuri would be coming in about an hour. 

“Good morning, Kimi-san!” He yawned as he clocked in using his phone. 

She sent him a peace sign. “Hey, kiddo, ready to get this day started?” 

Izuku nodded, tying on his apron. “Yep, I haven’t worked a Friday morning in a while.”

“You’ll be on register duty for the first half of your shift, then you’ll be swapping with Sayuri-chan.” He gave his confirmation, and they started opening duties. 

The morning had been going quite smoothly, though it was a whole lot busier than what he was used to.

Having three people working made it easier, though, and Kimi was constantly making jokes and keeping morale up. 

It had been 3 hours and was coming up at 11 am when an unfortunately familiar man walked into the cafe.

‘Fucking hell.’ He thought as he puts on his customer service smile and greeting. Running into Eraserhead again after less than 12 hours of almost getting arrested was not something he needed right now.

Eraserhead walked up to the register, looking dead on his feet. Not much of a morning person, then?

“Hi, what can I get started for you, today?” He said cheerily at the man, who looked like he was going to wither away at his overwhelming positivity. 

“A latte with two espresso shots, please.” He replied tiredly, not looking at him. 

“Yessir! Anything else for you?” At the man’s headshake, he continued. “That’ll be 500 yen. What’s a good name? We’ll have your drink out for you soon!”

Izuku noticed that Kimi had gone on break and Sayuri was working on someone else’s drink. Guess it was up to him; he would love to purposely mess up the hero’s drink in retaliation for how uncomfortable the capture weapon was, but that would reflect badly on the cafe. 

After finishing the latte, he set it on the counter. “Aizawa-san!” He called out. ‘Never thought I’d learn his name, even if it’s just his last name.’ He thought as Eraserhead approached and took his latte. 

Izuku felt a slight chill when the hero looked at him for a second too long before walking away.

‘He’s totally suspicious of me. How did he find out? Is it the turtleneck? Do I talk too similar to Crow? No, I’m in my customer service persona, there’s no way that’s it.’

To his mild annoyance, he saw Eraser take a seat at a booth overlooking the entire cafe.

He must be on patrol, or just paranoid about being in Southside.

Izuku noticed that the hero would occasionally look his way, which he did his best to ignore. 

A customer came up to him about 20 minutes after Eraserhead’s arrival. “Hey! I’m so sorry. My son knocked over his chocolate milk, can I have a towel to clean it up?” She asked politely. 

“No worries, miss! I can take care of it, where is the spill?” When the parent pointed it out, he went into the back and brought out cleaning supplies. 

Walking past Eraserhead, he avoided looking at him. 

The spill was basically the kid’s entire cup, and it was everywhere. Sighing, he worked on cleaning it up; spoiled milk soaked in wood was not a pleasant smell.

Izuku thought he got it all but decided to show off his civilian side; he lit up the palm of his hand to act like a flashlight, checking for any spots he might have missed. 

After finishing up, he headed back, this time letting himself glance at the hero again. He was looking back at him but switched his focus somewhere else. 

Score? Did using his light side work and throw him off his trail? He hoped so as he watched Eraser leave a few minutes later. 

Aizawa POV

Aizawa was kind of annoyed at having to scour Southside to find Crow. It was like finding a needle in a haystack.

As he was walking down the streets, he noticed a fairly bustling cafe.

Realizing it had already been 3 hours since his last cup, he decided to stop by; maybe he’d spot someone in the crowd?

He barely glanced at the barista when he takes his order, but he did look up when his name is called.

After walking up and taking his drink, he looked at the teenager who made his drink. Fluffy dark green hair, freckles... Wait. Viridian eyes, and a light blue sweater that covered most of his neck.

His name tag said ‘Midoriya’ on it, he’ll keep it in mind.

That was when he realized he was looking at the boy for a moment too long and turned to find a seat. 

As he drank his latte, he watched the crowd.

No one else seemed like who they were searching for except for the barista. He looked over at the counter and noticesdthat the teen was also looking at him before turning his attention to a customer that had walked up. 

Midoriya went in the back and returned with a mop and wet floor sign.

He didn't look at Aizawa as he passed by; he stopped at a spill he had heard earlier but didn’t bother to look at. 

As he continued people watching, a light turning on caught his attention.

The barista was using what was probably some kind of emitter-type quirk to make a light from the palm of his hand.

Maybe he wasn't who they were looking for, then. Crow was not rumored to manipulate light, unless they can control the entire light spectrum and only focus on the darker side. 

He saw the teen glance at him as he headed back to the counter.

Aizawa decided it was time to head out after being in the cafe for half an hour. 

Aizawa ended up finding a few other suspicious people, but the only name he had was Midoriya. 

Coming into Tsukauchi’s office, he saw the man tiredly scrolling through something on his computer while sipping his coffee. 

“Find anyone interesting?” The detective asked when Aizawa sat down. 

“I saw four potential suspects, but I only got one name.” He responded, rubbing his eyes. “Look up Midoriya, would you?”

A few seconds of tapping around as he searches. “There are a few results for Midoriya in the quirk registry, are any of them the person you saw?” He asked, turning the screen for him to look at. 

Skimming the short list, none of them looked like the barista. “No.” He looked back through it, stopping on a young woman. She had straight green hair and green eyes. “She looks similar to the teenager that I saw.”

Tsukauchi glanced at who he was pointing at. “Midoriya Inko.” He clicked onto her profile. “From Deika City, her quirk is called Attraction of Small Objects which is basically a mild form of telekinesis, and it says she died all the way back in February of 2231 at 28 years old.” He read out. 

“Does she have any living relatives?”

“I’d have to get special permissions to look any deeper into her information.” Tsukauchi explained as he started typing on the computer. “But I can look into how she died. Maybe there are news articles?”

Finding his way to Deika City News, Sports, and Weather Coverage, he looked up her name. An article appears with a few older ones attached. “She died during a home break-in gone wrong.” 

Clicking out of the news station, he found an interview recorded by what looked like a high school student. It was dated two months after Midoriya Inko’s death, around when school would have started up again.

Most of the interview was fairly standard for a teenager, but one part did stick out to the two of them.

“Thank you so much for sharing your experience with Midoriya-san, Ria-san.”

Ria smiled. “Of course! I wanted to get some of her story out there. She was always the kindest neighbor, and her son was like a mirror image.”

“That’s very sweet. Do you know where her son is now?” The interviewer asked, a certain spark in her eye at the mention of a son, like he had never been mentioned before.

“Oh, you don’t know?” Ria asked. “Little Izuku went missing the same night that Inko-chan passed.”

“Went missing? Has he been reported missing?”

Ria looked at the interviewer sadly. “His investigation only lasted 2 weeks before it closed.”

“When did this investigation start? If he’s been missing for nearly 2 months, why didn’t his case start sooner?”

“He was diagnosed as quirkless, had the extra toe joints and everything." She explained. "The authorities here took his case after all of the neighborhood reported him missing and nagged them about it, but the case didn’t officially start until a month after the incident. He was declared dead not long later, but I think that they just didn’t want to bother with people they see as ‘less than.’” She made air quotes at the end.

“That’s terrible… If Midoriya-kun is still out there, I hope he’s doing well. I think that we are out of time, thank you.”

“What did she say his first name was?” Aizawa asked after the video ended. 

After a moment of scrolling through the transcript. “Izuku, his name was Midoriya Izuku.”

“Do they not have any other relatives? The barista Midoriya definitely had a quirk.” Tsukauchi shook his head and Aizawa leaned back against his chair, crossing his arms.

“Let’s not focus too hard on a 9-year-old cold case from a different city. If a child went missing on the same day his mother died, chances are he was also killed and moved elsewhere. If the police in Deika City are prejudiced, they most likely never searched the area because he was quirkless.”

Aizawa sighed. “So, the barista could be using a fake name, then.”

“It’s possible. Southside Musutafu isn’t exactly safe, especially for teenagers or younger.” Tsukauchi said, taking another drink of coffee. “Keep an eye on him, just in case.”

“Yeah, I will.” He levered himself up. “I need sleep before my shift tonight. I’ve been up for the past 36 hours.”

“Right, I’ll keep looking into Midoriya until my shift ends.” Tsukauchi responded, turning back to his computer.

Chapter Text

13-year-old Mikumo sat alone in his room, scrolling on his computer.

Having just completed his second computer science course, he had been itching to put his skills to the test; what better way than to hack into the lab’s system?

It took him a lot longer than he expected to sign himself in and cover his tracks, having to switch to a random video game he had open whenever one of his handlers came to check in on him. 

Mikumo was in!

There were a ton of folders saved in the cloud, but most of them weren’t of any interest to him. He did, however, find a file titled ‘Scouts’ which, if he was remembering correctly, was what Daiji was before he took Mikumo to Sensei. 

Double-clicking into it, there were seven folders with someone’s name on them. Daiji Hirasago was one of them, meaning that the other six were most likely scouts as well. 

After opening Daiji’s folder, large red letters in the top right of the page said “Top Priority,” he saw basic information about him, along with who his target was, Midoriya Izuku; it looked like Mikumo was the only one listed in the ‘Targets’ section, his basic information was also listed. It looked like he was a top pick because of how young he was when Daiji found him.

He skimmed the information before moving on to the next folder. Five of them had adult targets and the sixth was a kid, they were all diagnosed quirkless. The kid was also listed as “High Priority,” and he was seeing a trend. The scout’s name was Mifune, and it looked like he found his target barely 2 weeks into his job. 

The kid was diagnosed as quirkless at age 6 and Mifune found him when he was almost 8; checking the dates, Mikumo was about 5 years younger than him. 

It seemed that the scout took almost 2 years planning how to bring the kid to Sensei, but Daiji got Mikumo before he could make a move.

Why? It didn’t take Daiji more than a couple of weeks to take Mikumo in. 

The kid’s name was Shimura Tenko and, from a quick search, his grandmother was a popular pro hero.

She was said to have died in combat but none of the news articles said who did it.

After clicking around in separate folders in the database, he found a profile on Shimura Nana. Her quirk was called Float, but there was an extra note saying that she also had One for All.

‘She has more than one quirk, just like Sensei. Are they related?” He thought in wonder. Wait. It said that she fought Sensei, and he killed her? Maybe that was why Mifune took so long to come up with a strategy.

Mikumo hummed in thought and took one more look through the seven files. It looked like all of the scouts who found adult quirkless people were marked as completed, Mikumo and Shimura’s were marked as in-progress.

Curiously, he couldn’t find any other mentions of Shimura Tenko in the lab’s database. Did they forget to mark it as complete?

Deciding that was enough snooping around for the day, he logged off just as Daiji brought in lunch. 

Izuku yawned as he washed dishes and put away leftover pastries. He kind of liked closing the cafe by himself; it was a pretty slow Thursday night, likely due to the unexpected cold front in early February, and he had sent Sayuri home a couple hours earlier. 

It felt like 2241 rolled around so quickly.

He'd managed to visit his mother again on New Years' but decided to avoid running into Bakugo again, not wanting to politely decline her previous offer of a dinner with his 'family.' Might as well just eat with a gravestone because there was no way he'd be going back to the lab or flying to the United States.

It had been 3 months since Eraserhead had first come to the cafe, and he kept seeing the hero drop by every now and then. He seemed to be leaving Izuku alone, though, so maybe he just switched to the day shift or something? Did he live in Southside?

He pondered the likelihood of the number one underground hero living in a low-income area of Musutafu as he locked up and stepped out into the chilly night air, pulling his hood up to block out the wind. 

It was already 8:15 pm and he needed to buy ingredients for dinner tomorrow; he and Dabi decided to start having dinner at the same time and alternate who cooks.

It was a good life skill to have, but Dabi almost always made some form of soba. Izuku liked soba and all, but how could that man eat it nearly every day and not get sick of it?

Walking into a 24-hour grocery store, he pulled out his phone to check the list he had made. 

He was about halfway through his grocery list when the bell of someone else coming into the store chimed. He only half paid attention, always staying on guard because of where he lived. 

Footsteps made their way into his aisle, and he stepped a bit closer to the shelf to be polite. 

He hadn’t moved out of the way enough, it seemed, because whoever was in his aisle bumped into him while walking to the other side. 

Miffed, he glanced over at the other.

He frowned when he saw some guy with his jacket hood up; the man turns his head to glare challengingly at Izuku. “Mind your business, NPC.” He growled. 

Aaaand that was his queue to leave. He was not going to be in the same store as someone unironically using video game jargon. 

Another man walked into the aisle as he was leaving. “Did you find what you were looking for, Akatani?” He froze in his tracks. Akatani? Could the name just be a coincidence? Sensei was still all the way in Sendai as far as he knew. 

Izuku covertly turned back around, faking looking at something at the end of the aisle.

The guy who bumped into him, Akatani it seemed, had pale blue hair, blood-red eyes, and chafed skin. The other man was tall and had long ashy blond hair pulled into a bun, he was on the older side but under 50. They both talked like they’d known each other for a long time, maybe father and son?

Noting down their appearances, he decided it was time to check out and go home. 

Walking into the apartment with three bags of groceries, he locked the door and kicked off his shoes. 

“Welcome back, kid.” Dabi called out from the lounge. 

Setting the groceries on the counter, he walked into the lounge; Dabi was spread across the couch, his legs hanging off the shoulder as he scrolled on his phone. 

Dabi glanced up and sighed. “What’s bothering you, you have that look on your face.” 

Shooing his legs out of the way, Izuku sat down on the couch, not bothering to argue when Dabi laid his legs across his lap. 

He lightly tapped on Dabi’s shin, thinking about how to phrase it. “You go out to the bars fairly often, right?” At his grunt in confirmation, he continued. “Do you recognize the name Akatani?”

“Why?” He asked, bored. 

“He was rude to me, and I want to keep an eye out for if he pops up on the fight club roster.” He lied smoothly. 

“You have a vendetta against someone who was rude to you?” He snorted. “Yeah, I think I’ve heard the name Akatani before.”

He jumped at the chance for information. “Really? Where?”

“Chill. I don’t know much, but I’ve heard through the grapevine that a tiny gang called the League of Villains was recently taken over by some guy named Akatani Tomura.” 

The League of Villains, he was pretty sure he’d heard of them before, but they fluctuated in size and activity and usually didn’t do more than petty crimes that could barely be called villainous. “Huh. Okay. Could you keep me updated if you hear anything else?”

Dabi glanced at him suspiciously. “I’m not going to actively seek out information for you, I’m not a broker.” At Izuku’s pleading eyes, he sighed again and moved his legs out of the way for him to stand. “Fine. Now, go put away your groceries.”

Izuku beamed as he headed back to the kitchen. “Thanks, Dabi-kun!”

“Sure, whatever.” He grunted, returning to his phone. 

Making sure he was wearing what he needed to for his midnight patrol, Izuku exited the apartment. He stopped at the downstairs door that led outside, deciding it was a good idea to put on his beak mask and wings before he went out into the freezing night. 

Why was it -15 C this late into the winter? Wasn’t February supposed to be when it started warming up again?

Shaking his hands out, he prepared to head outside when a floorboard creaked behind him. ‘Shit.’

“Izuku?” He turned to see Dabi at the top of the stairs, looking at him incredulously. 

“Ah, Dabi, uh.” He pondered whether or not to tell a lie for a moment.

“What the fuck.” He heard his roommate breathe. “You’re Crow? How?”

“It just kind of happened? My quirk works really well for fighting crime.” He scratched the side of his mask.

“Your quirk? It’s not light manipulation?” Dabi was walking down the stairs towards him. For some reason, Izuku could see amusement on his face.

“No… I lied about that. I can still manipulate light, but it’s more like I can manipulate opposites sides of the spectrum?” To prove his explanation, he created a ball of light in one hand and a ball of darkness in the other before letting them dissipate. “What are you doing up so late?”

Dabi snorted. “I was going on patrol.” He flicked his beak mask curiously. 

He tilted his head. “Patrol? Wait, like vigilantism?" Dabi rolled his eyes and nodded. "Are you saying that we’ve both somehow been active vigilantes living under the same roof with no clue about each other for like 5 months?”

“Yup.” He grabbed one of his wings, it bent and warped like an al dente noodle. “You can actually fly with these? They seem kinda… Flimsy.”

Izuku raised an eyebrow as Dabi continued to look at them with fascination. He rolled his shoulders, flexing his wings. “Yeah, and they’re actually pretty strong. I’ve been able to fly against 100 kmh wind without them breaking apart.” He shuddered, remembering how cold January mountaintops were.

He hummed, impressed, before looking at the door outside. “Since we’re both here, we might as well patrol together.”

“I’ve never been on a patrol with someone else before but sure. Too bad it’s freezing out.” He complained as they headed out onto the streets. 

“Isn’t it supposed to blizzard in a few days?” Izuku stopped dead in his tracks and looked at Dabi with pain in his eyes. “Damn, you really hate the cold, huh.”

He sighed deeply as they made their way towards an alleyway that led to a busier street. “Not in the least.”

Dabi patted the top of his head with a gloved hand. “Cheer up, I’ll take care of picking up groceries if you pay for them.”

He snorted. “I guess that’ll work for me.”

The vigilante roommates started their patrol together, and if Dabi made Izuku fly them both back to the apartment, Izuku would never confirm nor deny it.

Chapter Text

Just as Dabi had predicted, a blizzard rolled in 2 days later and Izuku found himself bundled up in two blankets with his laptop and a hot cup of milk tea. 

“It’s not even that cold in here.” Dabi, fire wielder, blueflame quirk Dabi, said as he walked around the 18 C apartment in shorts and a t-shirt. 

“Easy for you to say.” He grouched, sipping his tea and dying in his video game for the fourth time in a row. “My fingers aren’t even moving properly.”

Dabi leaned over the back of the couch to watch him play. “I think you might just be bad at platformers.” He walked back to the kitchen after Izuku shot him a death glare. “I’ll make something hot for dinner tonight, how’s that sound?”

Izuku hummed noncommittally as he closed out the game and opened up a search engine. “Aren't high school entrance exams happening this month?” He wondered if he’d be able to sneak into the observation room of UA's entrance exam to watch it or not.

“You not going to high school?” Dabi called from the kitchen as he made himself lunch.

“I don’t even have a middle school degree.” He responded.

Dabi made a surprised sound before reappearing in the lounge with a sandwich in hand. “You never graduated middle school? How long would getting a degree like that take?”

Izuku shrugged. “I could probably get one pretty quickly. I’ve only ever taken online classes, but I’d like to think I know more than the average middle schooler.”

“When do high school applications close?” He asked, taking a bite of his sandwich.

Izuku clicked around for a moment. “It says February 15th for the majority of them, so in like 9 days.”

“That would be enough time to get an online degree or something, right?”

“Maybe.” He hummed, thinking. ‘I’m legally dead. If I want to be able to graduate from middle school, I would have to hack into government databases to get my living status changed first and foremost.’ 

They chilled for a bit, Dabi turning on the tv to watch some kind of soap opera.

Izuku started doing research into changing his life status after Dabi nodded off, finding a way fairly easily.

It didn't take too long before he successfully input the code he'd saved to create a backdoor into the firewall of the website. 

He found his profile in the Aichi Prefecture database, a few clicks later and he had successfully changed himself from deceased to alive. 

He noticed that he was still registered as quirkless on his profile.

No problem, a couple searches later, and he put in a request to update his quirk status. The AI walked him through the steps and, 30 minutes after starting the entire process, he is now alive and registered with the emitter-type quirk “Light Manipulation.” 

He finished his tea and stretched, glancing over to make sure Dabi was still asleep. He was very tempted to find a marker to draw on his face with. 

Amused, he returned his attention to his computer.

He only killed 30 minutes to change his life and quirk status, and weather reports said that it wouldn’t warm up until late next week. 

Quietly sighing, he looked into testing out of middle school.

To his misfortune, there were no online tests he could take to graduate, and the earliest in-person tests were too late to apply for high school. 

Frowning, he looked into middle schools in Deika City that he could hack into.

He decided on one of the biggest middle schools, they were less likely to notice the sudden appearance and graduation of a student that had been missing for 9 years. 

After navigating to the school’s website, he accessed admin privileges and opened up some staff-only sections. From there, it was a matter of finding the software the school used, downloading it, and creating a profile and graduation status for himself. Easy peasy. 

He has just closed and logged out of everything incriminating when Dabi stirred. 

“Aw, you woke up before I could draw on your face.” Izuku grinned when Dabi gave him a sleepy glare.

“If you did that, you wouldn’t be feeling cold anymore.” He warned, lighting up a blue flame in his hand. 

He raised his arms in surrender. “Hey! Don’t threaten me, I didn’t even do it!” Izuku glanced back at his laptop. “Oh, I thought about your comment about getting an online degree. I tested out of middle school while you were sleeping.”

“Damn, how long was I asleep for?” Dabi checked his phone before looking back at Izuku skeptically. “You’re saying you found an online test that accepted immediate applications and passed without previously studying all in barely an hour?”

Izuku pulled up the certificate pdf he saved and showed it to him. “Yeah.”

“That’s- Really fuckin’ impressive, kid.” He ruffled his hair as he stood up. “Good job, you know what high schools you’re going to apply to?”

“I was thinking about some that specialize in maybe computer science or medical technology.” He pondered.

“Not thinking of UA? They’ve got a pretty good support program.” Dabi asked, stretching and cracking multiple joints. 

He hummed in contemplation, pulling up UA’s website to go through it. “I don’t know if making support gear is something I want to do, but I could probably apply to all of the programs and see which ones accept me?”

He nodded. “It would be easier to go to a local school, plus you make my life more carefree by continuing to take on half the bills and rent.” 

Izuku snorted. “Glad to see it’s only my money that’s appreciated in this house.” 

He opened up the applications menu; thankfully, the application itself had the option to select multiple departments.

He submitted it and moved on, ending up filling out applications to four different schools. 

Monday rolled around and Izuku received notifications that all of his applications were processed, and he was approved for the entrance exams. 

He smiled as he left his room, UA was the first entrance exam.

He kinda doubted he’d join the high school if he got accepted, but getting the chance to check out the campus greatly appealed to him. 

“You seem pleased with yourself.” Dabi commented, drinking coffee before he had to leave for work. 

“I got approved for the entrance exams in all of the high schools I applied to!” He replied happily. 

“Nice work, kid.” He said, giving Izuku a grin.

Pocketing his phone, he went about his morning routine, entrance exams buzzing in his mind.

18 days later, Izuku found himself on his way to the north side of Musutafu, bright and early. UA entrance exams had arrived, and he had no clue exactly what to expect. 

He had never had formal schooling before, and there was only so much google and videos could tell you. 

Taking the stairs two at a time, he gawked at the school.

It was massive and students were everywhere, rushing to get to their exam rooms. 

Oh right, he was here to take a test, not sight see.

Checking the email he had received, he made his way to the room his written exam was going to be in. After the written exam, he was being sent to a fake city for the practical, and then to the basement of UA for a support practical exam.

‘That’s a lot of tests.’ He thought, mildly annoyed that he decided to actually do this when he didn’t have to. 

The written exam came and went, some of those questions were essay questions, which he loathed. Other than that, he didn't think he did horrible.

He watched Present Mic explain the rules of the practical, then some very serious looking teen stood and acted like a robot.

It was kinda funny seeing someone acting like that while having a pretty normal human face. 

Finally, he gathered with a group of students in front of the gate to a fake city.

He noticed a pretty cool-looking student with some kind of shadow or darkness quirk, his silver hair contrasting greatly with the rest of him. 

There was another student who had a permanent rbf, spiky blond hair, and scarlet eyes.

Wait. He looked eerily like Bakugo Mitsuki, not to mention he was the same age as Izuku. He made a note to keep an eye on him, curious to see what his previous best friend was like.

Ectoplasm made his appearance to the students and called for them to begin the practical. 

Racing in, he kept close to the buildings when he saw Bakugo setting off sparkling explosions, tearing apart robots before Izuku even had the chance to get close. 

He managed to take out a few scattered robots by focusing his light to a single focal point and incinerating the robots like bugs under a magnifying glass. 

Multiple times he had to pull students out of the way of flying debris as Bakugo continued his rampage.

He was putting the students in harm's way more so than the actual villain bots were. 

Ectoplasm's voice called the 6-minute mark through the speakers.

Izuku was pissed off that he only has 10 points because of how often he’d had to help other students get to cover.

Veering off to an adjacent street and sprinting past other students, he managed to incinerate a fair number of robots. ‘25’ he thought as he takes down another 2-pointer. He turned his head after hearing more explosions, immediately annoyed again. 

He grinned mischievously as he decided to try and steal some of the robots Bakugo was after. Unfortunately for him, Bakugo was standing in the middle of a pile of debris, catching his breath. 

A student caused a robot to explode not far from them and he saw a large piece of scrap metal flying towards Bakugo, who was turned the other way.

The other boy didn’t notice the deadly projectile and Izuku sucked up his pride in favor of making sure no students died during the exam. He sprinted towards the boy, who looked at him in irritated surprise, jumped almost high enough to clear Bakugo entirely, and twisted around, heel kicking the scrap metal away from its initial trajectory. It went clattering to the ground just as Ectoplasm announced the end of the exam. 

“What do you think you were doing? I don’t need help from extras.” Bakugo snapped while stomping back towards the front. 

“Okay, I guess you also don’t need a head because that metal sheet was about to decapitate you.” Izuku started jogging ahead of Bakugo, so he didn’t have to keep talking to him. “You’re welcome. Angry pomeranian.” He muttered under his breath. 

“Hah?!” He heard the other boy shout, but he didn’t pursue.

The support practical exam was kinda hard. He’d never actually worked with robotics or gear before, so having to dismantle different types of equipment and put them back together was confusing.

Yeah, he was probably not getting into the support course. 

Finally, he got to go home just as the sun was beginning to set.

He was tired, especially since he was made to see Recovery Girl over a small cut on his eyebrow and burns on his hands from using the light side of his quirk so many times. 

Flopping down onto his bed, he was ready to be done with the day and fall asleep when Dabi called for him to come and get dinner.

A few days later, he checked the PO box for their apartment and found the usual junk mail.

Sifting through it he saw what he was hoping for, a white letter with UA’s symbol on it. 

He ran back up to the apartment, dropping the junk mail on the counter, and sat down on the couch.

Dabi glanced over. “Is that it? That was fast, you only just took that exam like yesterday.”

“The test was on Friday, it is now Monday, that is not yesterday.” He said absentmindedly as he tore the letter open and looked at the contents. 

There was a letter along with a black cookie-sized disc.

Furrowing his brow in confusion, he pulled out the disc. “What is this thing?”

“Looks like a speaker to me, put it on the table.” He suggested, and Izuku did so. 

“Hello, Little Listener!” Came Present Mic’s cheery voice as a projection of the hero flickered on. 

Izuku clapped his hands together. “Oh! It’s Present Mic! He’s such a cool hero, I got to see him during the exam.”

“Shut up, you’re missing everything he’s saying.” 

He tuned back in just as Present Mic was telling him his scores. “You scored in the 90th percentile in your written exam, very well done! During your practical exam, you managed to get 25 villain points, even with the competition between examinees.” He could tell that Present Mic had very likely watched their exam and saw how annoying Bakugo was. 

“But! We didn’t only score you based on your power and skill with taking down villains. There is another point system we use that is calculated by a group of judges. They’re called rescue points! Depending on your level of care for other students and your actions that saved them from flying debris and villain attacks, the judge panel has awarded you with 45 rescue points!” That’s a total of 70 points? He watches in surprise as a score sheet pops on in the projection, he scored 4th best. “Your willingness to forgo collecting villain points in favor of protecting the other examinees truly shows your heroism. Welcome to UA!”

Pulling the letter out of the envelope, he saw his classroom was 1-A, along with a summarized version of events.

He obviously flunked the support practical, which he was kind of expecting to. But, looking at the other two scores, he felt a small swell of pride that he did that. 

Izuku got pulled from his thoughts by a hand lightly punching his shoulder. “Congrats, Izuku-kun. Think you’ll take the offer?”

If he did accept, that would seriously dampen how often he went out on patrols. On the other hand, he’d be working on becoming a legal hero. ‘One more thing to spite Sensei with.' He thought.

“Yeah, I think I’ll give it a shot.”

Chapter Text

It was back to a normal routine for the next month or so before school was set to begin. 

Izuku saw Eraserhead a couple more times during patrol but would disappear before he was seen by the hero. He and Dabi wouldn’t go patrolling together very often, but it was honestly pretty fun when they did; he got to annoy the other vigilante more than he does in their own apartment. 

April rolled around and with it came orientation day, and he found himself strolling through the gates of UA. 

Izuku was excited about living in Musutafu so he could sneak in to watch the sports festival, not to participate in it in only a few weeks. 

He slid open the door to 1-A and walked in to find his seat. Most of the other students were already there, and he recognized a few of them including spiky haired Pomeranian boy. 

Sitting down, he ran through what he was supposed to do as a high school student. ‘I should probably just follow what the other students do, be the sheep.’

Izuku watched with mild curiosity and confusion as who he assumed is their teacher inchworms into the classroom wearing a poofy yellow sleeping bag.

‘Shiiiiit that’s not good.’ He thought as their teacher stood and scolded them for taking so long to quiet down.

Eraserhead was his homeroom teacher, and he looked directly at Izuku for a moment too long again before moving on to telling them to put on gym clothes and hit the field.

He pulled the collar to his shirt up a bit higher, he had no clue if it fully covered his scar or not. 

Izuku managed to score some concealer from a very sparkly boy with a French accent in the changing room. ‘Now to just hope it doesn’t wipe off during the test.’ He thought, awkwardly letting the kid, Aoyama, apply the concealer at his own request. He really didn’t want to let him do it himself because he admitted to never using makeup before. 

The quirk apprehension test was more than just using their quirks. In pretty much all of the tests they were given he couldn’t use his quirk for.

He still ended up scoring 4th place, so he was pretty high up.

Looking at the scoreboard he heard Katsuki quietly mutter his name, so he glanced over and saw the boy staring at the scoreboard with a confused frown. ‘Ah, what luck, Bakugo-san must have talked about him and his mother to her son.’ 

He was thankfully able to avoid questions from the fiery blond, but he knew it would be inevitable.

What kind of an excuse was he going to make for this? What a headache…

The next day arrived and he thought he was doing pretty alright given the fact that this is his first time in a school setting.

It was kind of fun, if he was being honest, and the other students were pretty cool.

He couldn't remember any time where he was surrounded by kids his age, how weird.

Heroics came along and All Might announced the Battle Trial. 

Izuku was paired up with a boy named Kuroiro Shihai. He felt a bit of a kindred connection with him, sharing a love for the dark and mysterious. 

They stood next to each other, both dressed head to toe in black.

Izuku’s own hero costume was tactical in nature; slightly baggy pants with pockets and a hip holster strapped to his belt and thigh. Two belts, one with utility features and the other supporting the hip holster. A sheathed knife sat on his torso, secured with thin black leather straps wrapping around his ribs. He had a sleeveless athletic shirt with the collar going halfway up his neck and, finally, his overlayer was a cropped hoodie that didn’t close at the front and was secured with a silver chain at the neckline. 

“What’s your quirk, Kuroiro-kun?” He asked after a moment of silence. 

“It’s called Black. I can become one with dark things and shadows.” Kuroiro responded, giving him a glance. “You are the opposite of me, I saw you at the practical exam.”

Izuku smiled and tilted his head. “Yep. My quirk is Light Manipulation. I can move and pull light to myself as well as remove it elsewhere.” He saw Kuroiro process that for a moment before smiling widely at him in understanding. “I’ll back you up.”

“The void will lead us to victory.” He replied just as All Might called for them to begin. 

They were up against Bakugo Katsuki and Kirishima Eijirou. He didn’t know much about Kirishima aside from his hardening quirk. 

Izuku quietly followed his teammate through the hallways.

They were fairly lit up and the uniform shape didn’t cast many shadows for Kuroiro to use. 

They both froze and pressed against the wall when footsteps approached. 

‘One is on offense, the other on defense.’ Kuroiro signed to him. 

‘I can distract this one, I’ll make a shadow for you to slip past.’ He signed back and they both nodded. 

“There you are heroes.” Bakugo had just walked through one of the forks in the hallway, grinning menacingly. His palms crackled as he stalked towards them. Looked like he was in the villain persona.

Izuku tapped on Kuroiro’s shoulder to get his attention. ‘Get behind me and cover your eyes.’

He obeyed and Izuku grinned at Bakugo, cupping his hands into a ball shape. “Hey, Angry Pomeranian.” He heard him scoff. “I think you lost your leash.”

Before Bakugo could respond, Izuku was already opening his hands. He felt the strings of light glide across his fingers, gathering them in his palm before releasing in a flash. 

Bakugo exclaimed in surprise and covered his eyes with one hand while shooting explosions blindly with the other. 

Izuku took a deep breath, grasping as much light on the wall of the hallway as he could.

He held his breath and dragged light to himself, darkness flooding in and leaving a path for Kuroiro.

“Go now!” He yelled, feeling the light heating up in his hands the longer he held onto it. 

Shihai POV

He heard his brother in darkness order him onwards and obeyed.

Turning around to face the hallway, an entire wall was shadowed.

Shihai slipped into the dark with ease, zipping through to the other side before having to reappear and continue on foot when the road ended. 

“Let me know when you get to the room. I’m keeping him from following you.” He heard Midoriya laugh as Bakugo cursed and felt himself grinning. 

“Found a stairwell going up.” He informed, gliding up the spiral stairs using the shadows of the railing. 

He slinked through the hallways and up staircases.

He hit the fifth floor and heard a slight shuffle in a room ahead and crouched to the ground. 

Peering into the room, Kirishima was there and facing away from where Shihai was. 

He backed away and clicked on his earpiece. “Bomb room is five floors up.” He whispered. 

“I’ll keep you updated on my position.” He could hear explosions in the background and Izuku cackling. “I’ll be there in 5 minutes.”

Shihai crawled back to the doorway and peered in.

Kirishima was talking in his earpiece, and he could tell by the one-sided conversation that Bakugo was getting frustrated that Izuku kept stopping him from going back to the bomb room to help defend. “Just hang in there, I’ve got things handled here right now.”

The red head took a deep breath, then sets his face into a mean expression. “Villain mode, activated.” He said, doing something weird with his hands. 

He heard explosions closer than before. ‘They must have gone up a couple flights, I need to hurry.’

He stood up, keeping an eye on Kirishima. “I have to go in without the cover of the dark.” He stated, noticing that the only dark object available was the shadow cast by the bomb on the opposite side of him. 

Izuku didn't respond, he was likely preoccupied. He could swear that the boy was maniacally laughing while Bakugo yelled curses from the fourth floor.

Shihai composed himself and strolled in.

Kirishima was already facing him and trying his best to do a villain impression. “Ah, one of the heroes finally shows himself!” He exclaimed, his villainous grin morphing slightly into his usual toothy smile. 

He stopped walking and put a hand on his hip, smirking. “Your smile shines too brightly to be frightening.” He said, feeling amusement when Kirishima got flustered at the comment. 

He took the chance to strike while his opponent was off his guard.

Lunging forwards, he tried to jump into the red head’s shadow to dodge the inevitable counterattack. 

Shihai wasn’t quite fast enough as he felt a palm hit him in the sternum and he was stumbling back again, coughing. 

He watched for any opportunity to get past and to the bomb, but Kirishima’s defense was difficult to break through. 

They were going in a semi-circle for about a minute, Kirishima keeping himself between the bomb and Shihai. 

He clicked his earpiece. “The eclipse cannot exist without the sun and the moon.” He said cryptically, trying to convey that he couldn't handle this on his own. 

There was silence on the other end for a few seconds, and he was beginning to worry that Bakugo was still giving him a hard time. “Let the song of twilight descend like a curse upon our enemies.”

Seconds later, Izuku burst through the room.

His hands were covered in bright light, and he cackled in triumph at finding the right room. 

Kirishima had less than a second to make an ‘oh shit’ face before Izuku quite literally flung himself at the villain.

Shihai was quite impressed watching as his teammate started wrestling their opponent to the ground. 

He only watched for a moment before bolting around the two to get to the bomb.

He heard a loud thump and a yelp from Izuku before he touched the bomb, and the heroes were declared the winners. 

Turning around, he saw that Kirishima managed to throw Izuku off of him and slammed him to the ground. 

Shihai approached and crouched down next to his classmate, looking down at him. “We worked well together.” He held out a hand and Izuku took it.

“Yeah, we did.” They started leaving the building to head to the observation room. “Our quirks meshed in the way I was hoping.”

“Perhaps we can continue this allegiance?” He suggested. “You are the Sunbeam as I am the Nightshade.”

He grinned. “I like that idea.”

Izuku POV

Izuku got home later that day feeling quite drained but satisfied.

School took a lot of mental energy. 

“Hey, Izuku-kun?” He heard Dabi call from the lounge.

“What’s up?” He replied, pulling his shoes off and heading to where his roommate was. He looked mildly concerned, which was his first clue that something was wrong.

“You told me to keep an eye out for Akatani Tomura and the League of Villains.” Izuku’s attitude became more serious, and he nodded for him to continue. “They’ve been recruiting anyone and everyone recently. Hell, even I got an invite and I’m a known vigilante.”

“Do you know why?” It couldn't be something that was happening anytime soon, right? They’d need months at least to prepare everyone if they were recruiting left and right.

Dabi shook his head. “Not yet, but I’m bar buddies with a couple of people who agreed to go undercover to learn more.”

Izuku nodded. “Okay. Thanks for giving me an update on this, Dabi-kun.”

“Sure thing, kid. Looks like your vendetta might just help us uncover something.” He replied. 

He sighed when he got to his room.

He was glad that school today was good, he even managed to get the capture tape around Bakugo’s wrists after tiring him out.

If it hadn’t been as good of a day, he probably wouldn’t have taken the news of Akatani and the League of Villain’s activity suddenly skyrocketing very well. 

What were they planning? He highly doubted that Crow will be approached for recruitment, so he’d have to rely on Dabi’s bar friends for information. 

‘Can’t do much about it right now.’ He thought, though his anxiety wanted to protest that fact.

Chapter Text

“Hey, you!” Izuku found himself standing in front of UA on Wednesday morning, staring at a group of reporters. “How are All Might’s classes?” The lead reporter asked him, shoving a microphone in his face. 

He waved his hands around, backing away slowly. “Uh, excuse me, I have to go to the nurse’s office!” The reporter expressed her confusion just as he turned and bolted into the school. 

He spotted Kuroiro leisurely walking down the hallway ahead of him. “What’s with the All Might paparazzi outside?” He asked after catching up to his new friend.

Kuroiro glanced at him and shrugged. “Leaked info, I conjecture.”

Izuku hummed. “I guess the number one hero working at UA would be a pretty big deal. Could a student have been the leak? Teenagers kinda suck at keeping secrets.”

He nodded in assent as they walked into class together and took their seats. 

Eraserhead came into class not too long later, looking more annoyed than bored.

“Good work on yesterday’s combat training.” He started reviewing his notes on everyone’s trials, starting with Izuku’s battle. “Bakugo-kun, you are a skilled combatant, but you need to work on your pursuit and capture. Midoriya-kun, you handled the game of cat and mouse well, and utilized the capture tape you were provided, though you didn’t need to act like a wild animal during the chase, but you still did good. Kirishima-kun, your defense was rock-solid, if Kuroiro-kun’s backup hadn’t arrived, you could have won that battle. Kuroiro-kun, your use of code language in front of an enemy is a useful skill to have, however, you need to practice quirkless combat so you don’t have to rely on your quirk for evasion.”

Izuku was amused that Eraserhead didn’t like him acting feral, but he knew that wasn't something he was going to change. 

He finished going through the other students before continuing on with homeroom. “Now, let’s get to homeroom business. Class representatives.” 

A class rep? What do they do again? He thought he looked it up before, but he hadn’t considered the fact that they would actually have one. 

Iida called for an election to be held, which was a pretty good idea.

He has no clue who to vote for, though. He didn’t really know any of them very well, so he might as well just vote for himself.

Yaoyorozu Momo ended up winning with 2 votes and they let her pick the deputy rep, which ended up being Jirou Kyouka. 

His other classes were fine, he was getting used to the concept of being in a school and finding that he liked it, but lunch was still a nice break. 

The alarm and intruder announcement were a great way to ruin Izuku’s good mood as students started shoving each other to get out.

Wasn’t this a prestigious hero school? Why were people panicking? 

He was just considering dipping into a random classroom to be free of the crowd when Iida was flying through the air and crashing into a wall at the end of the hallway. He announced that it was just the reporters, and the students calmed down. 

Did they use their quirks to get onto campus? That sounded like hefty fines and even jail time.

At least the other students chilled out.

The rest of the day continued as normal, although Izuku was still curious on how the reporters got into UA. 

It was Friday morning and, to Izuku’s surprise, Dabi actually made breakfast for the both of them. 

He yawned, sitting down in the lounge with his bowl of instant ramen and scrambled egg. Dabi joined him a second later.

“Aren’t we like, kinda rich now?” He asked, taking a bite. “Why do we have instant ramen?”

“Are you complaining about this delicacy? It’s Shin Black, arguably the best there is.” He replied, almost offended. 

He waves his chopsticks around. “You could just say you don’t know how to cook.” 

Dabi raised an eyebrow at him before reaching for Izuku’s bowl. “Guess you won’t be wanting this then.” He laughed when the younger snatched his bowl and clutched it to his chest.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding!” He exclaimed, protectively cradling his ramen. “Thank you for the meal!”

“That’s what I thought.”

They ate in amiable silence for a bit before Dabi set his bowl down and looked at Izuku with a serious expression.

Izuku copied him and tilts his head. “What is it?”

“I mentioned a few days ago that I have a couple friends at the bar who joined the League of Villains to keep an eye on the group. You've met them before, remember?” Dabi frowned, looking at the boy. “The League is planning to attack UA, Izuku-kun.”

He gawked at Dabi. “Y-you’re joking, raiding a hero school? How are they even going to get in? When is the attack?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know anything else about it. They’re having a meeting right now, I’ll let you know what I learn.”

Izuku stood up and started pacing the lounge anxiously. “What do I do now? Do I tell a teacher about this? Eraserhead is already suspicious of me. Should I ask for a meeting with the principal?” He started muttering. Could this be related to the break in a couple days ago?

“Kid. Izuku-kun. Hey!” He snapped back to attention and looked at his roommate. “Relax. You can tell them about it after I have more information tomorrow, yeah? And I’m a well-known vigilante with credibility, I'm sure that I can find Eraserhead on one of his patrols and warn him.”

Izuku forced himself to take a breath, feeling relieved that Dabi knew what he was doing. “Right. Yeah, after their meeting, sounds good.”

He stood up from the couch and ruffled Izuku’s hair. “Go get ready for school, everything will be okay.”

He yawned as he took his seat in homeroom an hour later. 

Eraserhead walked in and everyone quieted down. “For today’s hero basic training.” He started. “It has turned into a class with three instructors. All Might and me, and one more person.”

‘Turned into? Is it special training?’ Izuku pondered as Sero asked what they would be doing. 

The hero holds up a card with blocky letters saying ‘RESCUE’ on it. “Disasters, shipwrecks, and everything in between. It’s rescue training.” He responded. 

The class broke up into conversations about the class, excited or boasting.

“Hey, I’m not done.” Eraserhead interrupted. “You can decide if you want to wear your hero costume or not this time.”

That was a pretty easy choice for Izuku. The collar of the gym uniform was just a little too low to fully cover up his scar, but his hero costume didn't have that problem. 

“The training will take place off-campus, so we’re taking a bus. That's all.”

Izuku stretched and glanced over at Kuroiro, who seemed excited about the field trip. He'd saved people before, obviously, but never in a disaster zone. 

Turned out, Thirteen was the other teacher helping out with the rescue training. 

The training building, Unforeseen Simulation Joint, was huge! There were six simulation locations, each mimicking a unique disaster scenario. 

Izuku was kind of spacing out, the entrance had a perfect view of the central plaza and everything surrounding it. 

Eraserhead was just getting ready to direct the students around when the lights cut out and Izuku noticed a purple-black cloud appearing in the central plaza. “What the fuck is… that.” He realized mid-exclamation that he knew exactly what that was and his blood ran cold. 

‘There’s no way. Absolutely no way.’ He thought as the other students and teachers started reacting to the appearance of none other than Akatani Tomura through Kurogiri’s portal, followed by more villains. 

Izuku felt frozen. Kurogiri was here?

Were they here for him? Did Sensei learn where he went? No, Akatani was talking about All Might. Wait, Akatani was the leader of the League of Villains. He pulled out his phone and saw that he didn't have connection, so if Dabi tried contacting him, he didn't get it. 

He made sure his hood was as far down as it could be. He couldn’t afford for Kurogiri to recognize him. 

Eraserhead jumped down there to act as a distraction while Thirteen got the students to evacuate, but it was all in vain as Kurogiri appeared behind them and Izuku felt the familiar cold rush of his quirk teleporting them.

He found himself dropping from a few meters up and landing on hard asphalt.

Looking around, it looked like he was in the middle of a destroyed city. This must be the ruins zone since the ceiling of the USJ was still above him.

He turned when he heard someone approaching, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw Kuroiro. “Midoriya-kun.” He said, glancing around. “What do we do now?”

“Get back to the entrance?” Izuku suggested and Kuroiro nodded in agreement.

They made their way towards where they thought the front of the USJ was supposed to be at. 

It wasn’t long before they encountered their first obstacle in the form of two villains.

They didn’t appear to have combat-oriented quirks, but they were definitely aggressive, and one had a crossbow aimed straight at them.

Izuku drew his knife and hurls it at the crossbow villain, but his buddy knocks it off course easily. “How disappointing for hero students!” The villain laughed before releasing a bolt at them.

He ducked as Kuroiro sank into the shadows and the bolt whizzed past them.

He watched his friend move through the shadows towards the villains and knew he had to back him up. 

“What are a pair of low-level chumps doing attacking a hero school? You won’t make a name for yourself by getting beat up by a bunch of 14-year-olds.” Izuku snarked, letting his fingers glide through a string of light and solidifying them in his grasp until he has two short staffs in either hand. 

“Ain’t doing it for the fame, brat.” The crossbow villain said, cocking a new bolt into place. “It’s all about the money.” 

The bolt came flying at him and Izuku grins as he swung one of his staffs, colliding with the bolt and sending it clattering to the ground.

He charged just as Kuroiro reappeared behind the villains holding a metal pole he'd picked up from the ground.

“Quit pulling cowardly ranged attacks and fight me for real!” He challenged, watching with satisfaction as his friend swung the pole and hit the other villain on the back of the head. He crumpled just as Izuku took out the crossbow villain. 

He can heard the laughter of more villains all around them and glanced at his friend. 

“The abyss doesn’t forgive hesitation. We must advance before it’s too late.” Kuroiro said and they both started running for the edge of the ruins zone. 

They were ambushed two more times, taking out seven more villains in a similar manner as the first time. Izuku’s hands were already beginning to burn from wielding the light side of his quirk.

Another group of two villains appeared and looked at them warily. He recognized them as Dabi’s drinking buddies and the ones who snuck into the League’s ranks.

Kuroiro was about to dive into the shadows once again before Izuku grabbed his shoulder.

“Wait, I know them.” He received a funny look from his friend, but he was already approaching the two people. “Itou-san, Aoki-san.” 

They both physically relaxed and met Izuku halfway. He didn't know them well, but Dabi introduced them when they started their investigation into Akatani and the League.

“Midoriya-kun, I’m so glad it’s you and not one of the other students.” Itou said, rubbing his face with a hand. 

“What happened? I thought there was just a meeting today, not a fucking invasion?” He asked, incredulous. 

Aoki shook her head. “We thought it was an informational meet, we didn’t even have time to let Dabi-kun know before we were warping here.”

“What’s going on, Midoriya-kun? Who are they?” Kuroiro asked quietly, tentatively walking over to stand next to him. 

“Oh! Sorry, Kuroiro-kun, these are my roommate’s friends.” Izuku motioned at the two. 

“We went undercover to keep tabs on this villain group, but we guessed wrong about this raid.” Itou explained and Aoki nodded.

“We should wait to talk about this.” Izuku said urgently as they heard more villains a little ways behind them. 

“Right. We know the way back, I don’t think that Akatani was planning to let anyone stay in his group after this.” Aoki replied and the two adults started leading them away. 

He started to follow but Kuroiro grabbed his elbow. “I’ll explain everything when we’re safe, do you trust me?” He said, watching the concern and confusion on his face. 

He hesitated, searching his eyes for deception, then nodded. “With every shadow I command. Yes, I trust you.”  

Izuku squeezed his hand and smiled before turning to catch up to Itou and Aoki. “Let’s go.” He could think about what all to tell his friend later, not right now. 

They successfully made it out of the ruins zone and to the corner of the central plaza.

A bunch of villains were gathered, and they could hear fighting going on. 

Izuku stopped and stared at the commotion.

Kuroiro stopped next to him. “Aizawa-sensei is by himself over there…” He said, looking over at his friend. 

“Shall we join the fray and tip the scales in our favor?” He asked, face set in determination.

Itou and Aoki glanced back at them. “You heroics kids have no sense of self-preservation.” Itou rolled his eyes but changed direction to head towards the middle of the plaza, unsheathing his sword.

“Let’s get this over with.” Aoki activated her quirk, and her nails and teeth sharpened and elongated.

They got to the fountain just in time to see Eraserhead take out four villains. He looked exhausted and his right arm looked like it was falling apart at the elbow. 

To Izuku’s horror, Eraserhead was focusing on Akatani and not on the monster right next to him. Was that a nomu like Kurogiri? 

“Aizawa-sensei!” He yelled, just as the nomu attacked, slamming his head into the ground hard enough to crack the floor. 

He saw Kuroiro sprint for the nomu and followed after him.

He watched as his friend merged into the creature, forcing it to stand and back away from Eraserhead. 

“Get him!” He heard Kuroiro yell and Izuku was diving past the nomu and grabbing his teacher, dragging him towards the stairs. 

“We’re here as backup, Aizawa-sensei, hang in there.” He tried reassuring as Eraserhead got his feet under him and stumbled, feeling worried when he responded with a slurred voice.

He definitely had a really bad concussion. 

“Look out, Midoriya!” Itou yelled and Izuku turned in time to see Akatani pointing and the nomu chasing after him, slowed by Kuroiro’s control. 

He generated a spear of light and launches it at the creature’s eye while dodging to the side. It hit the mark and the light dissipates; he watched in fear as its eye heals in seconds. 

Aoki appeared at Eraserhead’s other side, wrapping his right arm over her shoulder. “Let’s go, Itou-kun and your friend can hold them off.” Izuku nodded and they made their way as quickly as they could go towards the stairs to the entrance.

“Incoming!” He heard Itou call out from behind them, then the sound of a collision and grunt of pain. 

“Aoki-san, can you take him? I have to help them.” Aoki immediately shifted to take more of Eraserhead’s weight and Izuku turned around and formed a bo staff made of light. He hears her giving an introduction as she continued towards the stairs.

Itou’s arm was bent wrong, but he was still defending, Kuroiro beside him and looking worse for wear. 

Izuku raced back and went straight for Akatani himself. He was the one controlling the nomu, meaning he could stop the attack. 

Akatani readies himself just as Izuku swung at him. He caught the staff with a hand, and it dissipates in his grasp. The villain extends a hand at Izuku’s face, and he quickly formed a bat, smashing it into the reaching hand. “Call off the nomu!” He snarled.

Akatani hissed in pain and jumped back a few paces, gripping his hand. “Who are you to tell me what to do, brat?”

Izuku didn't let him get far, throwing the bat at him and running a circle around him while making a new bo staff. 

Akatani ducked under the bat but couldn't fully dodge the staff as it swiped the side of his face, knocking off the severed hand.

“Nomu! Get rid of this NPC.” He yelled in rage, glaring at him as he put the hand back over his face. Izuku glanced back to see the nomu turning and charging towards him. 

He felt a hand touch his shoulder and jerks away just as a burning pain shot through his arm, then the nomu was right next to him with a raised fist coming down towards his face.

He jumped back, but there’s no way he was going to get out of the way in time. He raised his arm, forming a sturdy dark shield and felt the nomu’s fist collide with it, sending him flying and skidding across the floor with a yelp. His shoulder definitely dislocated from that impact.

The doors to the entrance slammed open with a rush of wind. He looked up and saw All Might attacking the nomu while Akatani grinned in glee. 

Itou and Kuroiro ran over to him as he shakily stood. “Where are you hurt? Can you walk?” Itou asked, looking at his partially disintegrated left shoulder. 

“I think I dislocated my arm blocking that hit earlier and my shoulder took a hit from whatever Akatani’s quirk is.” He explained as they hurried back towards the entrance as the way-too intense fight between All Might and the nomu started.

Aoki and Eraserhead were already most of the way up the stairs and he saw that Ashido was on his other side helping. 

He watched with relief as a fleet of UA staff appeared at the top of the stairs; Cementoss, Snipe, and a swarm of Ectoplasms rushed down the stairs to aid All Might against the villains.

Itou walked on his right side, and he grimaced when he poked his arm to find the dislocation before popping it back into place. “Thanks, Itou-san.”

They got to the top of the stairs and saw Principal Nedzu and Present Mic talking to Aoki. Eraserhead was elsewhere.

“I should probably go over there, this isn’t going to be fun to explain.” Itou said with a sigh before walking towards the hero and his friend. 

Izuku and Kuroiro were approached by Midnight, who directed them to the medical team by the doors.

“Where’s Aizawa-sensei?” He asked before Midnight left.

“He was already taken to the hospital.” She replied, then gave him a smile. “Don’t worry, he’s going to be fine, thanks to you two.”

He felt relieved and he heard Kuroiro let out the breath he was holding before. 

“We need to talk to you about who those two are, though.” She continued, pointing towards Itou and Aoki. Izuku nodded and she headed off, letting them get medical treatment. 

Kuroiro didn't ask for an explanation right away, but he could tell that he was curious.

He pulls out his phone and handed it to his friend. “Put in your number, we can find a time outside of school to talk.” 

He took the phone and nodded, typing on it before handing it back.

Everything else went by in a blur.

Izuku and Kuroiro gave their statements to a detective who Izuku vaguely recognized from the time he was almost arrested. 

He felt a bit wary when Tsukauchi looked at him like how Eraserhead did during UA orientation day, but nothing else came of it.

After that, he was finally homeward bound. 

“I’m home!” He called out. “I also have some pretty big news.”

He heard Dabi’s door open and close, and his roommate appeared from the hallway. “I heard from Aoki-kun what happened already.” He looked at Izuku with guilt on his face. “I’m sorry that our judgement was wrong, you got hurt because of it.”

He waved off the apology. “It wasn’t your fault. No one expected the attack to happen so soon after they started recruiting.”

“Come and sit down, I know there’s more you want to say.” Dabi said, guiding the younger into the lounge. 

Izuku sat down and paused, worrying his lip between his teeth. “I knew someone who was there. One of the villains.” He started, glancing at Dabi as he sat down next to him. 

“Go on?” He replied. 

“I never really told you about how I grew up and why I was living in a camper on the trash beach.” He cleared his throat. “Truth is, I was kidnapped when I was 5… Because I was quirkless.”

He saw Dabi furrow his eyebrows in confusion. “But you do have a quirk?”

Izuku nodded. “I do now, but I didn’t used to. I know you’ve heard the rumors about the boogeyman still being alive, right?” Dabi blinked but nods. “He can give and take quirks, that’s how I got mine. I was supposed to be his successor of sorts, and he tried so hard to brainwash me into doing what he wanted.” He leaned back against the sofa and sighed. “It didn’t work, obviously, but I think he had a backup successor.”

Dabi was quiet for a moment before coming to a conclusion. “Akatani Tomura, that's his next successor.” He said, eyes widening. 

“I think so.” He replied, rubbing his sore shoulder. 

“Did you somehow know? Is that why you were so interested in him?” Dabi questioned. 

“Yeah… My name, the one that Sen- the boogeyman gave me… It was Akatani Mikumo.” Izuku said quietly. 

“Akatani… Who was the other villain you recognized? It wasn’t Akatani Tomura.”

He shook his head. “His name is Kurogiri. He’s kind of a specially modified human with multiple quirks mixed into one.” He frowned, wondering if he was in pain in that state. “He was created to be my caretaker.” Izuku looked over at Dabi with a serious expression. “I have to save him, Dabi-kun. I’ve seen who he really is, he’s still human.”

“I don’t know what I can do about it, but I’ll help you however I can.” He replied.

“Thanks, Dabi-kun, I appreciate the support.” They sat for a moment before Izuku stood. “Well, it’s my turn for making dinner tonight. I hope you’re prepared for something that isn’t soba.” He grinned. 

Dabi scoffed. “Your soba sucks, anyways.”

Izuku laughed as he walked into the kitchen. He pulled out the groceries he bought the other day, his mind full of the events a few hours earlier. ‘Kurogiri-san… I know you’re still human in there.’ He recalled seeing Kurogiri’s profile when he hacked into the lab files. ‘I’ll save you, Shirakumo Oboro.’

Little did Izuku know, but he wasn't able to hide his identity as effectively as he thought.

Chapter Text

The weekend was pretty quiet.

Izuku had texted Kuroiro late last night asking to meet up and was sitting in a cafe close to UA the next morning waiting for him to arrive. He'd decided to tell him about being an orphan and a vigilante, stretching the truth just a tad to keep his friend safe just in case. 

He saw Kuroiro walk in and raised a hand to flag him down and he watched his friend beeline for him and sit down at the table. 

“Kuroiro-kun.” He smiled. “How are you doing? I know you exhausted your quirk yesterday.”

“I walked too close to the void, but the darkness has returned to my soul again.” He replied smoothly. “How are Itou-san and Aoki-san?”

“My roommate said they got a slap on the wrist for playing hero but didn’t get charged with vigilantism for their actions.” He explained, relieved that they didn’t get arrested because of him. 

Kuroiro nodded in understanding before giving him an expectant look. 

“Right, so, I guess I should start with the fact that I’m an orphan.” Izuku started, scratching his chin. “I moved here last year and was living on my own in a broken-down camper until my current roommate found me. I… Compete in an underground fighting ring, which was where we met.” He laughed when Kuroiro’s eyes widened, but his friend just grinned back and nodded for him to continue. “Uh, I moved into the extra room in his apartment after he found out where I was living before. We live in Southside, so we hear a lot of things going on, not to mention that... Well, we’re both vigilantes…” 

“Revelry in the dark.” Kuroiro said, leaning back and crossing his arms, waiting for him to keep going. 

“My roommate goes to the local bars, where he met Itou-san and Aoki-san. I actually met Akatani Tomura, that lead guy with the hands on him, before the attack happened and I told my roommate about it because there was something weird about him. It kind of continued from there. They joined the League of Villains to keep tabs on Akatani and learned they were going to attack UA the day before they did, but didn’t know it was happening until they were already walking through the warp gate.”

Kuroiro hummed, processing the story. “Why are you a vigilante if you're also a hero student?”

“I didn’t want to wait to be a legal hero to help people in need.” He explained easily. It wasn't a lie, but it wasn’t the full truth either. “Aizawa-sensei has almost arrested me like three times now.” He snorted at the face his friend made. 

“You didn’t stop after learning he was our teacher?” He asked with an incredulous laugh. “Does he know who you are?”

“Probably, I’ll deal with it when it happens.” Izuku sighed deeply before switching tunes. “This is the first time we’ve hung out outside of school, want to grab something to snack on?”

They got up together at Kuroiro’s assent and ended up spending a couple hours at that cafe. 

When Monday rolled around, Izuku was surprised that Eraserhead was well enough to come to homeroom despite looking mummified.

He had a flashback to what he looked like when Izuku had pulled him to safety and suppressed a shudder. 

Near the end of homeroom, Eraser called him to his desk.

‘Just when I thought I was safe.’ He thought bitterly as he approached his teacher. “Yes, Aizawa-sensei?”

“Clear your schedule after school on Friday, I want to speak with you.” He explained shortly. 

“O-oh, okay.” He replied, feeling his stomach dip with anxiety. The bell rang and he headed off to class. 

When he got home that afternoon he immediately flopped down on the couch with a groan. 

“You good, kid?” Dabi asked from the kitchen. 

He whined something unintelligible into the couch cushion. 

“Yeah, I don’t speak that language.” He felt a hand tapping his head. 

Izuku pushed himself up to sit like a normal person before frowning at Dabi. “I think I should drop out of UA and go into hiding.”

He snorted, crossing his arms. “Oh, yeah? Your teacher know who you are now?”

He sighed. “I don’t know. He told me to make sure I was free on Friday. What if he arrests me? What if I get expelled? The whole reason I moved to Musutafu was so I could sneak into the sports festival, but if I get arrested and expelled, I can’t do that!”

Dabi raised his eyebrows at him. “That’s your biggest concern?” He huffed a laugh and shook his head. “Izuku-kun, you might be the number two vigilante in Shizuoka, but you’re still only 14 and you saved Eraserhead’s life last week. I don’t think you’re going to get expelled, and they’re probably going to try and reduce your charges to just fines and community service or something.”

“What if they ask me about my past? I was legally dead before, what if they saw my profile while that was still true?”

Dabi shrugged. “Detective Tsukauchi is on your case, right? It would be a pretty good time to warn them about what All for One and his protege are up to.”

Izuku hummed, contemplating. “I guess so, but I don’t really know his ulterior motives except that he really wants to find his younger brother.” 

He learned about the quirks All for One and One for All through the lab database, and Sensei later told him about his younger brother and how his quirk can be passed on from person to person.

He never told Izuku who had One for All now, and the lab database didn’t say either, which was quite frustrating. He only learned recently that it was his younger brother’s quirk that nearly killed him over 5 years prior. 

“That’s at least a lead that they don’t know exists.” He replied. “Just be honest if you have to talk to Tsukauchi, it isn’t worth it to lie to the human lie detector.”

“Right, right. Thanks, Dabi-kun.” Izuku was still feeling pretty worried about being found out, but he wasn’t going to risk missing out on the sports festival just to keep being a vigilante. 

The end of the school day on Friday arrived and Izuku found himself sitting in Eraserhead’s office. He’d always been a pretty good actor, so pretending he wasn’t internally screaming was pretty easy. 

“Okay, kid, I’ll just cut to the chase.” He said, watching the younger for any reactions. “I have been keeping an eye on you for almost a year, we are suspicious of you being a vigilante.”

Izuku blinked. Yeah, he really did cut to the chase, huh. “Oh, I remember seeing you at the cafe I work at.” He cleared his throat. “Why do you think I’m a vigilante?”

“Before I answer any of your questions, will you come down to the station with me so you can talk with Detective Tsukauchi? I am not your teacher right now, I am a hero investigating a suspect.” He was expecting that, but Eraserhead making sure he knew that he was in hero mode right now really doesn’t help his anxiety.

He decided to just agree and get it over with. 

It was a pretty awkward car ride and Izuku spent a lot of it texting Dabi and Kuroiro about what was happening. Dabi sent reassurances that it would be fine while Kuroiro made a couple of joking comments about being arrested by their homeroom teacher. 

Eraserhead left him in an interrogation room while he went to fetch Tsukauchi. 

He tapped on the metal table and glanced over at the one-way mirror, he wondered if there was anyone behind there. He could probably use his quirk to manipulate the mirror... He made a mental note to test that out later. 

Tsukauchi and Eraserhead came in and sit across from him not long later. 

“Okay, Midoriya-kun.” Tsukauchi started. “We talked on Friday, so you already know that my quirk is called Lie Detector, so I will know whether or not you’re lying. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Tsukauchi-san.” He replied, sitting still with his hands in his lap.

“All right, you have been a suspected vigilante since May of last year. Your records listed you as deceased up until February of this year, where you also changed your quirk status from quirkless to having a quirk. Can you please explain what your quirk is?” He asked, pen and notepad in hand.

Izuku cleared his throat, trying not to fidget. “My registered quirk is called Light Manipulation. I have the ability to create and control the concept of light.”

“Can you elaborate on why you specified it as your ‘registered quirk?’” Tsukauchi scribbled something in his notepad.

Damn it. Of course that wasn't getting past a detective. He hesitated, worrying the hem of his shirt. “My true quirk is called Dark-Light. I can grab, manipulate, and solidify the concepts of dark and light.” Dabi said to be honest, they already knew he was a vigilante so might as well try to stay on their good side, right?

He wrote something down before looking back up at Izuku. “So, you are able to create weapons using your quirk?” When Izuku answered in the affirmative he continued. “Are you the vigilante Crow?”

Izuku swallowed and glanced away. “Yes, sir.” He replied quietly. 

He looked back over when Eraserhead sighed. “Why did you become a vigilante, kid?”

“Out of spite, mostly.” He replied, picking at his nails after he realized he'd partially torn his shirt. 

The two adults exchange a confused glance. “Can you please elaborate, Midoriya-kun?” Tsukauchi asked. 

“Um, well.” He had tried thinking of a good way to start this before. “You probably already know that my mom was killed the same day I disappeared, right? The people who killed her were the same people who kidnapped me.”

Tsukauchi wrote in his notepad while Eraserhead looked more unhappy than usual. 

“Have either of you heard of All for One? He’s more likely to be known as the boogeyman who can give and take quirks.” Izuku glanced up at the two, watching for their reactions. 

“He’s real?” Eraser muttered, almost like he was talking to himself.

He nodded. “He has a lab in Sendai where I was raised as his successor of sorts. He gave me the name Akatani Mikumo, and then a quirk when I was 9. I learned everything there; the normal things like math and science, coding, gymnastics, and how to fight.” He frowned, noticing he made his fingers bleed from picking at them. “I had to kill people there.”

He heard Tsukauchi breathe “truth” and assumed it was to Eraserhead.

“So, you used to be quirkless until All of One gave you a quirk?” Tsukauchi double checked. 

“Yeah, I have the extra toe joint and everything.” He replied, pressing his shirt on his finger. “He’s the cause of that nomu at the USJ incident, too.”

Eraser straightened up at that and the detective lightly tapped his pen on the notepad. “Will you elaborate on that, Midoriya-kun?”

“Nomu are human experiments. Sen- All for One would give them quirks after their bodies were modified to accommodate them.” He paused, watching Tsukauchi’s pen write down what he was saying. “That one was a low-end nomu, not capable of thought and just a soldier who did whatever their commander asks.”

“Are there more?” Eraserhead asked. 

“You know the guy with the warp quirk? He’s a high-end nomu, he’s sentient but brainwashed into obedience.” Izuku looked at both of the adults with a determined expression. “I have to save him. He’s been a nomu for longer than I’ve been at the lab, and I’ve seen bits of who he really is.”

“Reversing human experimentation that severe is not an easy process, if it’s even possible.” Tsukauchi replied. 

“Can you give us any names of the people in the lab?” Eraserhead asked. 

Izuku sighed, he knew that Kurogiri might be too late to save, but he still had to try. “Yes. Daiji Hirasago was my other caretaker and the one who found me, his quirk allows him to change emotions using his voice. Kyudai Garaki is the lead scientist in charge of the nomu experiments. Kurogiri was one of his first ‘creations,’ they used a teenager named Shirakumo Oboro, something about his quirk being-” He stopped Eraserhead interupted him. 

“Shirakumo Oboro?” He asked sharply and Izuku shifted uncomfortably and nodded. 

“Sens- All for One found him in critical condition after a villain attack. The medical team at the lab revived him then turned him into Kurogiri.” He noted that he had picked another finger to bleed again, why is talking to authority figures as Izuku so hard but not when he was Crow?

He watched in confusion as Eraser put a hand over his mouth and leaned back.

He’d never seen his teacher show this much emotion before, it was off-putting. “He’s alive…” He breathed. “How do you know?”

“I hacked into the lab database and looked through their files.” Izuku replied easily. 

“Is that how you changed your living status?” Tsukauchi asked, glancing at Eraser with mild concern.

He nodded. “Yeah, Akatani Tomura was in the database as one of the quirkless kids being scouted. I guess he was a sort of backup plan, in case I didn’t work out?”

The detective finished writing something in his notepad before putting them both away. “All right, Midoriya-kun, Aizawa-kun and I are going to talk in my office briefly, just sit tight.”

Izuku watched the two men leave before pulling out his phone to update his friend and brother. 

Over in Tsukauchi’s office…

Aizawa didn't immediately sit down, instead opting to pace the small office. “Oboro is still alive… And he was turned into that, that thing?” 

“Midoriya-kun said that he was still alive and was revived before the experiment took place. If that’s true, then it might be possible to reverse whatever they did to him; if we can catch him.” Tsukauchi reviewed over his notes of the interrogation.

“And everything he was saying about All for One was true?” Aizawa asked, still pacing. “And here I thought just finding Crow would be the worst of our worries.”

“It all rang as true, he hasn’t lied a single time during the interrogation.” Tsukauchi said with a sigh. “If he’s still being searched for by All for One, then he’s not safe living on his own.”

Aizawa sat down in a chair, frowning. “His UA profile has his address set to a PO box in Southside, meaning he hasn’t had a secure living situation since escaping. UA has a vigilante reform program for teenagers, and we have empty rooms in the teacher’s dorms.”

“Is there a chance that the villains can get onto campus again? The attack on the USJ happened barely a week ago.” 

“No, we’ve already been implementing new security measures. Teleportation and warp quirks aren’t common, but we know how to counter them.” He replied.

Tsukauchi hummed, thinking. “So, you want to put him in the reform program and move him onto campus? He needs an emergency foster as well, you know.”

Aizawa sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I know. I’ll talk to Hizashi about temporarily moving to UA for the time being, I’d feel more comfortable knowing that we had custody of him.”

“Afraid he’ll disappear on you again?” He joked. “Yeah, I’ll get the forms ready if you make the calls. Principal Nedzu should still be on campus, right?”

He grunted and checked the time, seeing that it was only 4:30.

“Right, well, let’s make this fast so Midoriya-kun isn’t kept waiting.”

Back in the interrogation room…

Izuku had made himself a pair of sunglasses and was adjusting the lens until he could see through the one-way mirror. It didn’t look like there was anyone on the other side, but he still grinned to himself that he could successfully see through mirrors now. 

He looked over when the door opened, and Eraserhead walked back in; he let his glasses dissipate when his teacher gave him a look.

“Um, hey Eraser?” Izuku said, a little nervous to ask. “Am I getting expelled from UA? You know, for being a wanted criminal and all.”

Eraserhead shook his head. “No, we’re actually putting you in a vigilante reform program and moving you onto campus.” He replied. “Tsukauchi is getting the paperwork printed and filled out right now.”

He tilted his head, confused. “I’m… Moving? Why? My apartment passes health code every time, and I have a roommate.”

He sighed. “That’s not the point. You’re a 14-year-old without legal guardians living in Southside with one of if not the most dangerous villains searching for you. Consider it a sort of house arrest, we also need to make sure you don’t go out being a vigilante again.”

Izuku suppressed his huff of annoyance.

He’d been handling things just fine by himself, thank you very much. “What if I get my roommate to claim legal guardianship of me? Would that change things?”

While living on UA campus sounded like a dream come true, it also felt like he was going to be stifled. Not to mention the fact that he’d have to move away from someone he considered family.

“If your roommate is able to become your legal guardian, we can’t force you to move out without their permission.” He turned to see Tsukauchi entering the room with a stack of papers under his arm. “But that would also mean we could charge your roommate with child neglect and endangerment.” 

Izuku frowned, looking at the table when the papers were slid towards him. He sifted through them before stopping dead and staring at one of the forms. “Wh- An emergency foster form?” He looked up, incredulous. 

Eraserhead raised his eyebrows. “Yes. Like I mentioned earlier, you’re a 14-year-old without legal guardians.”

“Who would be fostering me? It’s not someone I don’t know, right?” He felt a tick of annoyance when Eraserhead just kept looking at him without answering. And then, “holy shit, it’s you?!”

He rolled his eyes. “And my husband. The staff dorms have family housing so we’re going to be moving onto campus as well.”

“But- You’re- My, my homeroom teacher? My arch nemesis? Kind of? Why you?” He stammered. 

“Arch nemesis...?” He shook his head with a sigh and Izuku could swear he almost laughed. “I’ve been on your case since the start, it’s easier to keep an eye on you this way.”

“Plus, we didn’t think it would be a good idea to have someone you didn’t know living with you in a new environment right off the bat.” Tsukauchi added in.

Izuku suppressed a laugh, knowing that was exactly how it was with Dabi and the apartment. A pen is handed to him, and Tsukauchi showed him where to sign each form. “Wait, so, what about my charges?” He asked, glancing at the forms again.

“Because you willingly accepted starting the vigilante reform program, and you didn’t lie during the interrogation, a lot of your charges are going to be dropped.” The detective explained. “The only ones that are going to stick will be fines from the city and community service for theft.”

That was understandable. He sighed and signed the forms. “When do I have to move?”

“I’ll be accompanying you to the apartment and escorting you to UA.” Eraserhead said. 

“I’m moving right now?” He gawked. “I thought I would at least have the weekend to prepare!”

“Not our fault you became a vigilante, problem child. These are consequences.” Izuku gave Eraser a glare, who returned the look with an amused smirk. 

Izuku sighed again. Why couldn’t he have suppressed his bored impulses? Was the winter really that boring? Yeah, yeah it was. 

Tsukauchi gathered up the paperwork. “Right, Aizawa-kun will get you signed out and you should be good to get your things.”

He frowned but nodded. “Yeah, okay. Thanks for dropping the charges.”

“Of course, Midoriya-kun. You did a lot of good things out there, even if it was illegal.” The detective gave him a small smile before leaving. 

“All right, kid, let’s go.” Eraserhead stood and motioned for Izuku to follow. 

He definitely had to call Dabi to warn him that the number one underground hero was coming to their apartment. 

Chapter Text

When Aizawa first walked into his class, he knew it was going to be a nightmare.

Firstly, two students were actively arguing, two were the angsty emo type, they took too long to quiet down, and, worst of all, Midoriya Izuku was staring at him with a shocked expression that he quickly schooled to neutral. He noted that Midoriya covertly adjusted his shirt collar. Suspicious x1.

The next day, he was reviewing their battle trials and noted that Midoriya was very efficient in combat and evasion. He also noted how he taunted Bakugo and laughed in his face during their altercation. Suspicious x2.

Another strike happened a few days later; it was Thursday, and he was in his sleeping bag behind his desk, waiting for the time to start homeroom.

Aizawa wasn’t really a ‘tea drinker’ and he tried to ignore Aoyama and Ashido’s gossip, but then Aoyama mentioned Midoriya’s name, and he tuned in. Apparently, when the students were changing into their gym uniforms for the quirk apprehension test, Midoriya asked Aoyama for concealer. Aoyama didn’t trust Midoriya to use his concealer properly, so the kid let him cover up a freaky-looking scar on his neck and collarbone. Suspicious x3. 

He was pretty much convinced that Midoriya Izuku was Crow just from that discovery, but his registered quirk was light manipulation, and he was also very young, so he held off on a confrontation until he had more evidence. 

And then came the memory that was a bit hazy from the fog of pain and blood loss. He convinced the villain spy, Aoki, to turn them around so he could help them in the fight; he didn’t have enough strength to physically fight, but he could at least erase quirks. He was a moment too late on erasing Akatani’s quirk, and he disintegrated part of Midoriya’s shoulder. The nomu charged at the kid and Aizawa could swear he saw a dark shield form just before the nomu punched Midoriya, sending him flying. Suspicious x4.

Aoki made him head to the entrance of the USJ after telling him he was losing too much blood to keep standing there. 

He spent the weekend in the hospital recovering and called Tsukauchi after he was released to give him the info he gathered over the past week. 

“Is there any way you could convince him to come talk to us at the department?” Tsukauchi asked. 

Aizawa thought about it for a moment. He had the address of a PO box but not a home address for Midoriya, so if he fled it might be difficult tracking him down. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Now, present day, Aizawa found himself driving Southside with Midoriya in the passenger seat. 

It was awkwardly silent for the first half before Midoriya spoke up. “How’d you find out who I was?” He saw Midoriya looking at him in his periphery. 

“The scar on your neck, and I also saw you make a shield to block the nomu’s punch.” He explained shortly, turning down a side street in Southside. 

The kid hummed before pulling out his phone to text someone shortly before they stopped outside the cafe he frequented last summer. 

Midoriya seemed mildly annoyed that Aizawa was accompanying him into his apartment, but he couldn’t risk him disappearing even if he didn’t think he’d do that now. 

He waited in the lounge while Midoriya went to his room to start packing; in the meantime, he took a look at the decorations around the room in mild curiosity. 

There were trophies and medals for some kind of underground fighting ring he was fairly certain he had heard of before, there was a beat-up Endeavor plushie being used as a pin cushion, and a few other hero plushies in much better condition. To his surprise, there was an Eraserhead plushie, which he was positive he didn't have basically any merch, especially not a plushie.

He picked it up and couldn’t find a tag on it. Was it handsewn?

“Izuku-kun has always had a knack for arts and crafts.” A familiar voice drawled and Aizawa glanced over to see Dabi leaning against a wall with his arms crossed. 

‘Wait, he’s Midoriya’s roommate?’ He thought incredulously, setting the plushie back down and turning to face Dabi. The number one and number two most wanted vigilantes in Japan have been living together this whole time. Great. 

“I can tell.” He considered the possibility of arresting Dabi but decided against it in the end.

If he tried to arrest him, Midoriya would most likely either flee or fight, and he’d rather not have the added headache. Not the mention that he was on fairly good terms with the vigilante, good enough terms that Dabi willingly exposed the fact that this was his apartment. 

Midoriya came out of his room with three bags of varying sizes and styles, looking very unhappy. 

Aizawa turned back towards the trophy wall when he noticed Midoriya and Dabi exchanging some kind of telepathic conversation that he’d only seen with identical twins before. He felt a bit bad about separating them when it was clear they were family to each other, but Midoriya’s safety was taking priority.

They left the apartment shortly after, heading for UA where Nedzu would be meeting up with them. 

Nedzu gave the two a smile, or he thinks it was a smile. He was holding a folder under one arm while waving with the other. “Good evening! Right this way, Yamada-kun has already gotten the family unit prepared.”

Aizawa faintly heard a sigh coming from the kid, but when he glanced over Midoriya was putting on a perfect poker face. 

The family unit had been filled with some of their home decor and furniture, making it feel more homey. Hizashi wasn’t in the dorm, meaning he was probably grabbing something else from their house; the cats weren’t here yet, so maybe that was where he went. 

Nedzu set the folder on the coffee table. “Here’s everything you’ll need to enroll in the vigilante reform program, Midoriya-kun!” He said cheerily as he went to leave the unit. “Go ahead and get settled in, there’s a schedule for the food court and recreation center there as well.”

“Thank you, Nedzu-san.” Midoriya replied as the principal left, opening the folder and giving it a quick glance. He noticed a small frown on his face as if to say, ‘more forms?’

“You don’t have to fill those out until Sunday, if you don’t want to do them now.” He grunted, taking a look around the unit. 

“Hey, ‘Raser? Er, Aizawa-sensei.” He asked with a hint of uncertainty. “Am I still going to be in class 1-A?”

Aizawa turned back to the kid, who was holding one of the forms and looking at him. “Yeah, you are. The program behaves like an extracurricular, so it shouldn’t interfere with your other classes.”

Midoriya nodded in understanding before taking the folder and heading to the bedroom that had his name on it to unpack and unwind. 

The weekend went by peacefully with the new trio getting used to living with each other. 

Midoriya adored the cats and was fairly on top of his share of the chores. Aizawa thought things were going pretty well.

And then, Monday came around and things went downhill from there. 

It started small, with Midoriya giving a snarky response to a question he asked but it slowly escalated from there. 

On Wednesday, Aizawa returned home from his office only to find nobody else home. Hizashi was doing his radio show, so that made sense, but Midoriya was supposed to be here. 

He opened up his messages and sent a text to the kid asking where he was. He replied semi-promptly saying he was at a park with Kuroiro. 

He sighed, knowing that setting boundaries wasn’t going to be a fun conversation. 

Hizashi got home not long before Midoriya did, which gave Aizawa the time to let him know the situation and come up with a plan. 

“Hey, Midoriya-kun?” Hizashi started after the kid was settled down in the lounge with them. “We wanted to talk to you about setting some boundaries and house rules.”

Midoriya blinked but nodded. “Okay, is our current chore plan not working or is it something else?”

Aizawa shook his head. “No, it's something else. When you want to go out with friends or to do whatever, can you ask one of us first?” He tried the gentle approach, copying how Hizashi would do it.

“Oh.” Midoriya seemed confused. “Why? I never had to do that at the apartment.” This was going to be harder than he thought.

“Since you’re still a teenager, it’s normal to have to ask a parent or guardian for permission before doing something. Setting a curfew is also normal.” Hizashi explained. 

Midoriya sat back in the armchair. If he was annoyed, he wasn’t showing it. “What about if I just text one of you guys when I go out, so you know I won’t be home?”

Aizawa and Hizashi exchanged a glance. “Here’s a compromise. You can do that during the weekends, but you have to ask us during school days.” He replied.

“I guess that works.” He said, worrying the hem of his shirt. “That reminds me, can I still work at the cafe? I can change it to just on the weekends, too.”

“While I don’t agree with a 14-year-old working a job, I won’t take that away from you.” Aizawa said and Hizashi agreed; it would only lead to more problems if they took everything away from the kid. “‘Zashi or I can drive you there and back.”

Midoriya shook his head. “No, that’s okay. I don’t need you to do that.”

“We aren’t going to negotiate on that one, Midoriya-kun.” Hizashi denied gently.

The kid let out a soft sigh. “Okay, that’s fine then.”

Things went smoothly, although a bit awkwardly, for the rest of the week and Aizawa was impressed when Midoriya started using his full quirk during training. He had already updated it in the quirk registry, not seeing a point in hiding it anymore. 

He could really tell which side of his quirk he preferred; apparently the light side of his quirk would burn him if he went too far, but he didn’t have that kind of repercussion using the dark side. 

He noticed that Tokoyami had joined Midoriya and Kuroiro’s friend group, and Midoriya was friendly with the goofier students as well. 

Saturday rolled around and Aizawa looked up when there was a knock on the bedroom door. “Come in.” He grunted in response, turning back to the quizzes he was grading. 

“Hey, Aizawa-sensei, I’m gonna go watch a movie with Kuroiro-kun.” Midoriya said after poking his head into the room. 

“At 8 pm, kid?” He questioned, seeing the time.

Midoriya nodded and Aizawa relented. “All right, don’t stay out late. And remember you aren’t a vigilante anymore, so no public quirk use.”

He gave him a smile and a thumbs up. “No problem! See you later.” 

It wasn’t until just past midnight that Midoriya returned. Suspicious x5. “What took you so long?”

“We stopped by a 24-hour cafe after and lost track of time.” He scratched the back of his head and laughed awkwardly. It was incredibly faint, but Aizawa could see a couple bruises forming on his arm along with the twitch of a muscle that meant he was hurt. 

“Midoriya-kun, what were you really doing.” Aizawa crossed his arms, watching Midoriya stiffen minutely. 

“I just told you.” He replied, his guard raising. “I was out with Kuroiro-kun.”

“Kid, lying has consequences.” He sighed. Were teenagers normally this combative? “I can tell you’re injured, and I doubt that would come from movies and a cafe.” Midoriya opened his mouth to rebuke the claim, but he wasn’t done. Midoriya looked down at the ground with a frown when he kept talking. “If you aren’t honest with me about what you are doing when you go out, I’m disqualifying you from the sports festival.” He probably wasn’t actually going to do that but might as well hold it over his head.

Aizawa almost immediately mentally took it back when he saw the kid's head jerk up in shock and he actually teared up at the threat. He quickly wiped his eyes and looked away. “I’m sorry. I’ll be honest from here on out.” It sounded bitter, but he wasn’t going to comment on it. Midoriya cleared his throat and turned away, heading into his room. 

Okay, he definitely felt bad about that now. If he’d known how strongly Midoriya felt about the sports festival, he never would have mentioned pulling him from the event. 

He sighed, going back into his and Hizashi’s room. Hizashi wasn’t getting back from work until 1 in the morning, and he doubted he’d be asleep by then. He’d talk to him about what happened and decide where to go from there.

The following morning, Midoriya came out of his room and walked over to Aizawa right away. 

He paused for a moment, glancing away before steeling himself and looking at him. “I’m sorry for the way I acted last night. It was rude.” 

“No, I should apologize for saying what I did.” He replied tiredly. “I was never going to follow through with the threat about the sports festival. If I’d known how much it meant to you, I never would have mentioned it.” 

He watched as Midoriya relaxed. “It’s fine, I get why you said it.” He gave him a smile before turning to make himself breakfast. 

Aizawa exhaled in relief. Finally, after over a week of false peace and arguments, he felt like they finally understood each other better. Midoriya wasn’t used to having restrictions and he was used to handling cats at home, not teenagers. 

Things ran much more comfortably after that, and Midoriya started taking the boundaries and restrictions more seriously. Aizawa idly wondered if Dabi or one of his friends told him to behave or if he just had a change of heart. Either way, things were moving in the right direction now.

The day of the sports festival arrived and Aizawa, Hizashi, and Midoriya walked together to the arena. 

Midoriya gave a farewell as he ran off towards the waiting area while he and Hizashi went to the announcer's station. He still couldn't believe that his husband actually convinced him to be a co-announcer, but here he was.

He listened with amusement as Hizashi cheerily introduced the classes, and Aizawa saw Midoriya in the crowd of students with his friends. He looked like he was going to explode from excitement.

He was curious to see how the festival will go this year.

Chapter Text

It was the Saturday before the sports festival and Izuku followed the guidelines that Yamada and Eraser asked him to. He knocked on their door and heard a grunted response before he opened it. “Hey, Aizawa-sensei, I’m gonna go watch a movie with Kuroiro-kun.” He said after poking his head into the room. 

Eraser glanced at the clock on his desk before looking over at him. “At 8 pm, kid?” 

Izuku nodded and watched him fight against refusing to let him go out this late before he relented. “All right, don’t stay out late. And remember you aren’t a vigilante anymore, so no public quirk use.”

He gave him a smile and a thumbs up. “No problem! See you later.” He left the house before Eraser could change his mind, heading out and immediately turning to go towards Southside. 

He was positive that if he told him where he was actually going, to compete in the fight club, he’d be told no. No harm in a little lie to keep at least a bit of normalcy in his life. 

Izuku sprinted through the streets before taking the stairs two at a time and practically bursting into the apartment. “Dabiiii, are you ready yet?” He yelled out, pulling off his shoes and walking further into the apartment. 

“Gimme a minute, kid, we still have over an hour before it starts.” Dabi drawled, strolling out of his room with his hair neatly wrapped up in a towel. 

“I know, I know, are you sure you don’t want to participate this time?” He replied, flopping backwards onto the couch. 

“It’s a quirkless fight tonight, my body can’t handle that shit.” As if to explain more, he lifted his leg and flexed his knee, making it crack a minimum of three times.

Izuku coughed out “old man” and was promptly smacked, making him laugh. “Kidding! Are you ever going to see some kind of underground doctor for that? It could be serious.”

Dabi snorted, sitting down next to Izuku. “Nah. This was years of quirk abuse, I doubt they’d do more than send me to physical therapy or something.” He ruffled Izuku’s hair reassuringly. “What’s it like living with two pros?”

He hummed, staring up at the ceiling. “It’s fine. Eraser kinda gets on my nerves but I think I do the same so we’re even. They’re setting all of these new rules for me to follow but at least I get to do whatever I want on weekends.”

“They were fine with you coming to a not-totally-legal fighting ring and even participating in it?” He questioned, skeptical. 

Izuku grinned, sitting up. “I might’ve told him I was going to the movies with one of my friends…”

Dabi sighed, shaking his head. “You’re going to get yourself banned from Southside one of these days, kid.” He stood up, pulling the towel off of his head, fluffing his hair. “Come on, let’s get going before the crowd arrives.”

“Right!” He hopped up, making his way over to the front door. “And Eraser just told me not to use my quirk publicly and this is a quirkless fight, so I’m technically not breaking the rules.”

“Whatever, I’ll be expecting that phone call when you get caught.” He replied, pulling on his shoes. 

There were sixteen fighters there tonight, and Izuku was already at the finale and standing in front of his opponent. 

It was Kemari, one of the first people he had fought when he started out. He was kind of worried that they had moved away because they disappeared for a couple of months before showing up again tonight. 

It was pretty obvious that they had been training, considering how efficiently they fought compared to before. 

The start of their match was called, and he was already caught off guard by a feint. Not a good start, but he recovered easily enough. 

Izuku lunged in for an opening he saw, getting a solid punch before jumping back. Kemari took the opportunity of his retreat to expertly yank his arm up and towards them before kicking his legs out from under him. 

He hit the ground hard, tucking his chin so he didn’t smack his head, before sweeping his leg to get them to back off. Kemari hopped over his kick gracefully, grabbing him by the hair and shoulder to turn him onto his stomach before bending his arm back awkwardly. 

Izuku fought against the hold before he heard his shoulder pop and pain exploded across his arm; Kemari didn’t let go and he ended up tapping out before his shoulder got any worse. 

Sitting up, he saw a couple people from medical run over. “Don’t move your arm.” One of them ordered as the other checked it. 

“Dislocation, come over to medical and we’ll get you patched up.” The other reported before guiding him towards the med station. He glanced over at Kemari, who was being handed gauze to staunch their bleeding nose and lip. Looked like they both got their fair share of hits in.

He sighed in annoyance, sitting on a stool as they kept him still before his shoulder was popped back into place. “Thanks, guys.” He said, watching as one of them, his name was Kohana if he’s remembering right, placed his hands on his shoulder; Kohana’s hands glowed blue and his shoulder felt hot. 

“There, I sped up the healing process a bit but try not to overuse that arm.” He ordered, taking a step back as he noticed Kemari approaching. 

“I’m sorry about that.” Kemari said sheepishly, gesturing at his shoulder. “I wasn’t aiming to hurt you that badly.”

Izuku smiled, standing up from the stool. “Me too, I busted your lip pretty bad. It was a good fight; you’ve really improved since before you went awol.” He held out a hand and Kemari shook it, returning his smile. 

“Yeah, good fight.” They replied before Izuku gave his farewell and left to collect his second-place reward and to find Dabi.

He was pretty easy to spot, what with the bright white hair and all. “That looked like it hurt. Dislocated shoulder?” He asked as they headed out of the fighting ring. 

He nodded. “Kohana-san patched me up though, I think they usually speed up the healing process by a week for non-severe injuries.” He gingerly moved his shoulder, it was a bit sore but manageable.

“Better hope that Eraser doesn’t spot it.” Dabi foreshadowed before checking the time. “You should scurry home, it just hit midnight.”

“Is it really? I didn’t even notice the time passing.” He said, surprised. “I’ll see you next week, are you going to watch the sports festival on Monday?”

“Of course I will. Can’t miss watching my gremlin brother beat the shit out of other students.” He replied with a grin. 

They split off, Izuku feeling like all the stress of the past week was finally shedding. 

It was around 12:30 am when he finally got home. Quietly closing the front door, he slipped off his shoes and looked up to see a rather annoyed Eraserhead standing in the lounge. “What took you so long?”

“We stopped by a 24-hour cafe after and lost track of time.” He quickly lied, putting on a slightly embarrassed act. He ignored the twinge his shoulder gave him, but he didn’t miss when Eraser’s eyes flicked to his arm and back.

“Midoriya-kun, what were you really doing.” He crossed his arms. 

‘Shit, why does he have to be so observant.’ He thought, feeling defensive to save one of the only times he got to hang out with Dabi. “I just told you.” He replied, lowering his arm and looking at Eraser a bit more challengingly than he was planning. “I was out with Kuroiro-kun.”

“Kid, lying has consequences.” Eraser sighed. “I can tell you’re injured, and I doubt that would come from movies and a cafe.” Izuku was about to say it was because of hero training but then bit his tongue when the hero kept talking. “If you aren’t honest with me about what you are doing when you go out, I’m disqualifying you from the sports festival.” 

He snapped his head up from where he was staring at the ground, furious at the fact that he would threaten something like that. He blinked, realizing he let his emotions get the better of him. There’s no way he was going to cry in front of Eraser, angry tears or otherwise; he wiped his eyes, looking away from the slightly shocked expression on the hero’s face. “I’m sorry. I’ll be honest from here on out.” He said, trying his best to not let any of his anger boil over into the sentence. 

They stood there a bit awkwardly for a moment before Izuku cleared his throat, wondering if he should say some kind of goodnight before deciding he was a bit too upset to want to talk to the hero. He turned and headed to his room, immediately pulling out his phone and texting Dabi to ask to call. 

A second later his phone buzzed and he picked up. “I don’t even have to guess to know what happened.” Dabi said with mild amusement. 

Izuku was quiet for a moment before groaning in frustration. “He said he might pull me from the sports festival if I lied to him again! That’s a wild overreaction, right?” He slung an arm over his eyes, chewing on the inside of his cheek. “I don’t know what to do! They’re stuffing me in a little box where everything that was normal to me is on the outside. It’s suffocating.” 

“I get it, Izuku-kun.” He replied. “Tell me what you think Eraserhead’s thought process was when he learned you didn’t actually go to the movies.”

“I mean, obviously he wouldn’t think it was fair.” He laid on his side on the bed, picking at a slightly frayed end of his pillowcase. “I lied to him because I was going somewhere he wouldn’t approve of, and he wanted to show me that he wasn’t going to tolerate it.”

“Exactly.” He felt a small twinge of annoyance that Dabi was siding with Eraser on this. “I don’t agree with him bringing up the sports festival to control your actions, but do you think he’s ever raised kids before?”

“No. I did my research on him, he’s listed as an emergency foster but has never had to take a kid before.” He replied, starting to relax. “He probably didn’t know how to handle it in a non-teacher way.”

“You’re a smart kid, you didn’t even need me to figure it out. You’re both learning, and I doubt the sports festival threat was legit, anyways. Isn’t that festival for heroes scouting students or something?”

“Something like that, yeah. No, you’re right, thanks.” He rubbed his eyes tiredly, wondering when the roller coaster that this new part of his life was going to end.

“No problem, kid. You should probably apologize to him, turn over a new leaf and shit.” Dabi yawned. 

Izuku huffed in amusement, it wasn’t even 1 in the morning. “I’ll let you sleep, have a good night, Dabi-kun.”

“Good luck on Monday, Izuku-kun.” He replied before hanging up. 

He set his phone on the end table, not looking forward to the awkward apology in the morning. 

The following morning, Izuku took a quick breath before walking out of his room. Eraserhead was drinking coffee on the couch; he glanced over when Izuku approached him.

He paused for a moment, knowing it’ll be easier once he actually says it. “I’m sorry for the way I acted last night. It was rude.” 

“No, I should apologize for saying what I did.” He replied, setting down his coffee. “I was never going to follow through with the threat about the sports festival. If I’d known how much it meant to you, I never would have mentioned it.”

Dabi was right then. It wasn’t always easy reading the hero, but he could tell that he felt bad about it. “It’s fine, I get why you said it.”

“See you guys later!” Izuku gave a small wave to Yamada and Eraser before bolting for the participant waiting area. The sports festival was finally here, and he was eager to meet up with Kuroiro and Tokoyami before they were called to the field. 

Poking his head into the 1-A waiting room, he zeroed in on Kuroiro and Tokoyami at one of the tables. Walking over to them, he noted that most of the other students were already there as well. 

He gave a short nod in greeting as he sat down. “It’s finally happening, I feel like years have passed since they first announced the festival to us.”

“The passage of time creeps as slowly as the shadows of the evening.” Tokoyami agreed and Kuroiro nodded. 

“We still keeping the promise to make it to one versus one event?” He asked, then glanced over when he heard someone approaching. 

“Hey, Glowworm.” The familiar voice of Bakugo barked out and Izuku had to actively focus on not rolling his eyes. 

“Yes, Pommie-chan?” He replied, grinning at the face he made.

Bakugo smacked his hand down on the table in front of Izuku, causing a lot of the students to look over and murmur to each other. “Just because you’re showing off a new quirk doesn’t mean you’re going to beat me. I’m still top of the class and better than you.”

Izuku blinked, glancing at Kuroiro and Tokoyami, who were looking between him and Bakugo. “Is that a declaration of war I hear?” He leaned an elbow on the table, lazily resting his chin on his hand. “Rather bold of you to assume you could beat me even if I was only using one part of my quirk.”

He returned the challenging glare with an amused smirk. This intimidation he’s going for wasn’t going to work on him like he was hoping. 

His eyes flicker over to Kirishima, who was walking over with a toothy smile. “Hey, Midoriya-kun! I also want to test out my skills on your new quirk, so you better make it to the final event so we can have a proper competition for whatever the one v ones are gonna be!” He said in a friendly tone, and Izuku realized he was trying to lighten the tension a bit. 

“Oh! Me too! I want to fight Midoriya-kun!” Kaminari called out, running over and sitting down next to him. “Your quirk is so cool!” 

One by one, over half the class also announced their friendly rivalry against Izuku. Why? He had no idea, but he can’t say he wasn’t enjoying the idea of getting to use his full quirk against people, because he hadn’t had much of a chance to before.

They were called out to the field then, so Izuku stood up. “I look forward to facing you guys, you better make it to the finals.” He said with a smile before turning and heading out of the waiting room. 

Bakugo was called up to do the student speech and he booed along with the other students at his ‘speech.’ 

Midnight announced that the first event, an obstacle race, was to weed out students. What better time to show off his skills than during the first event? He didn’t want anyone underestimating him, after all. 

He stayed next to Kuroiro and Tokoyami as all of the classes lined up outside of the starting line. The first portion led them out of the arena to the actual obstacle course surrounding the stadium. 

Once the countdown began, he shook his hands out before reaching above his head. The strings of darkness sifted between his fingers as he closed his hands into fists, pulling down and feeling his wings attach themselves on his shoulder blades. Man, he missed flying so much. 

He gave his wings a test flap, grinning at Kuroiro when he glanced over in surprise. 

He bent his knees slightly, watching the countdown like a hawk before the buzzer sounded and he pushed off the ground. He felt a thrill of exhilaration as he flew up high before diving down and swooping through the tunnel, listening to Yamada exclaim about his abrupt rise to first place within the first few seconds of the race. 

He could probably fly all the way to the finish line, but that sounded boring, so he tucked and rolled before the first obstacle, glancing behind him to see that Todoroki had frozen the ground and a lot of the students as he raced to catch up to him. 

He spotted the 0-pointers before the smaller robots; skidding to a halt in front of a few 3-pointers he reached his right hand out next to himself to form a longsword with a hilt of darkness and blade of light. It was unstable, so he couldn't keep a solid hold of it for long.

He jumped up and twisted in the air before bringing the blade down on one of the 3-pointers. The robot exploded, and he used the momentum to fling himself high enough to reach the top of the nearest 0-pointer. 

He raised the sword above his head, grasping the hilt with both hands before slashing down with all of his strength; the blade cut through the robot like a knife in butter, and he focused on lengthening the blade and nearly cut the entire robot in half. He landed on its shoulder as it began to topple backwards, pushing off and propelling himself towards the next obstacle. 

Todoroki had caught up to him and froze all of the 0-pointers as he went. 

Izuku stopped at the next obstacle, The Fall, and turned around to wait for the other students. He gave Tokoyami a nod as he stopped next to him, watching as other students slowly trickled through. 

Kuroiro came into view as he sprinted past other students, and Izuku spread his wings wide, silently communicating with his friend. Kuroiro grinned widely before altering his course slightly to head towards him, Izuku turned just as his friend jumped and merged into his wings. 

Tokoyami took off once again and Izuku ran to the edge of the cliff, jumping off and diving down before shooting back up and past the majority of the other students. 

He saw Bakugo giving him a glare as he flew past, taking second (and third) place as the final obstacle came into view. It was a minefield, which Todoroki was already a quarter of the way through. 

He heard a challenging yell and explosions behind him, turning his head to see Bakugo flying up to meet him. He whirled around all the way just as Bakugo tackled him and they both went careening towards the middle of the minefield. 

Izuku curled his wings around himself for protection as he hit the ground with Bakugo on top of him, setting off a minimum of five mines as they skidded across the field. He vaguely heard Yamada’s commentary as the last mine exploded, sending them both into the air again. 

Izuku beat his wings, ‘accidentally’ smacking Bakugo in the face before flying towards the end of the obstacle course. He heard something coming at him again and narrowly dodged an ice spike. 

“Kuroiro-kun, take this!” Izuku called, forming a large baseball bat. He felt his friend grab the bat and tried steadying his wings into a sharp decline. 

He heard Kuroiro cackle with glee and the impact of the bat against another ice spike before they were shooting through the tunnel and into the arena. 

Izuku landed lightly on the ground, turning to his friend after Kuroiro hopped out of his wings with a wide grin. They high fived as their first and second place positions were announced just as Todoroki, Bakugo, and Tokoyami ran past the finish line. 

“The second round of the UA sports festival first-year stage is…” Midnight called out, turning to the giant screen with a flourish. “A cavalry battle with the top 42 from the qualifier!”

Izuku exchanged a wordless alliance with Kuroiro and Tokoyami, already knowing they had to team up for this. 

“Those at the top will suffer more.” Midnight continued. “You’ll hear this many times as you attend UA. This is what Plus Ultra means!” She pointed her flogger weapon directly at Izuku. “Midoriya Izuku, who placed first in the qualifier, is worth ten million points!”

He glanced at the other students, who had all turned to stare at him with a greedy glint in their eyes. They looked at him like he was prey, not realizing that he has dealt with this exact thing many times before. Flashes of memories of fighting half a dozen people at once ran through his mind, and he forced them down when his blade of darkness slashed one of their throats without mercy. ‘Chillax. I don’t have to kill anyone this time.’ He told himself, turning to his two friends with a grin as they began to plot.

Chapter Text

It was pretty easy to find his first two members for the cavalry battle, considering he, Tokoyami, and Kuroiro had made a pact with each other to make it to the final event together.

“Midnight-san said that we had to have at least two people, right?” Izuku started, glancing around at the other forming teams. “We should be fine being a team of three, and I’m sure we won’t need a fourth member unless someone is desperate enough to join the 10-million-point team.”

He nearly jumped out of his skin when a girl he didn’t know appeared in front of him like she teleported. How did she do that?

The girl had pink hair, goggles, and hover boots. “Hey, Ten Million, team up with me!” She exclaimed with a bright smile, getting way too close for comfort. “You stand out, it’ll be perfect!”

He opened his mouth, then glanced at Tokoyami and Kuroiro, who both just shrugged. How helpful. “What can you offer our team, miss…?”

“Hatsume Mei, from the support course!” She replied, leaning away from him and adjusting her goggles onto her forehead, revealing yellow eyes with crosshair pupils. Fascinating. Now that he really got a look at her, he saw that she was decked out in support gear. She showed the trio a few of her support items. “I don’t know you but let me use your position!”

Izuku hummed, then nodded with a smile. “Sure, welcome to the team, Hatsume-chan.”

With that, they began to plot a strategy for keeping hold of their headband. 

10 minutes later, Izuku was standing by the edge of the arena, supporting Hatsume’s weight with Kuroiro at his side and Tokoyami in front. 

It made the most sense to have the one who needed both hands to man the support gear to be the rider. He could easily move his hand from Tokoyami’s shoulder to use his quirk, and Dark Shadow could defend the front and back from his position. 

The start of the event was announced, and they were immediately swarmed by every nearby team. He was pretty glad they were so heavy on defensive quirks, considering both Todoroki's and Bakugou’s teams were also after them. 

Hatsume and Dark Shadow were the ones who would primarily defend, but he would occasionally flash nearby groups to blind them and get them to back off. 

Todoroki’s team had hung back for a bit, letting other teams try to wear them down. 

“Half-and-Half incoming, hang on tight!” Hatsume called and the trio huddled in close while Izuku formed a dark rope to secure them together. She activated the jetpack on her back, and they jumped to boost themselves into the air. 

They flew over the heads of shocked students before landing hard on the ground, sending dust flying into the air. 

Izuku’s head snapped up when he heard Bakugou yell his name, and he saw the kid coming after him. 

“Pommie-chan!” He called out cheerily, snickering when Bakugou rolled his eyes at the nickname.

“This is where your sports festival arc ends, nerd.” He said as his group got closer. 

He grinned, letting Tokoyami lead them in a semi-circle around Bakugou’s group. “I’m not a nerd, I’m just smarter than you.”

Bakugou snarled in response, but Izuku noted that it didn’t seem as fiery as he was during the obstacle course. He didn’t have time to wonder why before he was working on helping with defense and evasion.

Other teams were getting distracted fighting each other and Bakugou’s group eventually got ambushed. They took that chance to get further away from him and start targeting teams with multiple headbands; their goal wasn’t to get more points, but it was a good idea to collect more to hide their 10 million headband. 

Izuku would form a ball of darkness on a string, hand it to Hatsume and have Kuroiro jump into it before she would throw it towards an opposing team. Kuroiro would partially pop out of the ball and grab a headband. 

The clock slowly ticked down and he was beginning to feel suspicious that their team hadn’t been targeted by Todoroki’s team since the start. A quick glance at the leaderboard told him that they were still at the top, obviously, with Todoroki’s team in second, Bakugou’s team in third, and someone named Shinsou was in fourth. 

Scanning the arena as he followed Tokoyami’s lead, he spotted a group that had both Ojiro and Aoyama in it; the rider was a purple-haired kid with eye bags as prominent as Eraser’s, which was pretty impressive, who had two bandanas around his neck and one on his forehead. 

“Watch our 10 o’clock, Candy Cane is in pursuit again.” Hatsume reported and Izuku glanced over to see Todoroki’s team facing them but not moving. 

“What are they planning?” Tokoyami muttered and Dark Shadow moved into a more defensive position in preparation. 

Izuku freed one of his hands and formed a bo staff, intently watching Todoroki’s group while keeping his other senses open for any sneak attacks. 

Iida yelled something he couldn’t fully make out and then Todoroki’s group was shooting towards them with an alarming speed. He swung the bo staff up as quickly as he could and felt it make contact; he tried not to cringe when Todoroki hissed in pain, holding his hand to his chest. 

Hatsume pulled out a strange-looking gun, pointing it at Bakugou’s approaching team before firing. A large net shot out and wrapped around Bakugou and Kirishima, causing them to curse in frustration. 

A couple of seconds later, the cavalry battle ended.

Kuroiro helped Hatsume down and she pulled off the headbands they had collected as the leaderboard was announced. 

“It’s lunch now, right?” Izuku absently asked, stretching. Kuroiro and Tokoyami had started following the rest of the students towards the cafeteria. He was about to go with them when he paused, Bakugou was walking over to him without his usual haughty attitude. 

“Midoriya, I want to ask you something.” He stated rather than asked before promptly turning and walking the opposite way to the other students. 

He suppressed an annoyed sigh, knowing that this was probably important considering the way he was acting. He quietly followed him, and they ended up in a large empty hallway.

Izuku leaned against the wall and put his hands in his pockets, watching as Bakugou stood across from him with folded arms. The blond looked him up and down but stayed quiet for a moment, making the greenette narrow his eyes. “What is it? Are you gonna confess your love for me now or…?” He jokingly said. 

Bakugou scoffed and glanced away. “No,” he replied bluntly, then “is your mother Midoriya Inko?”

“I was wondering how long it would take for you to ask that,” he hummed in curiosity. “Yeah, she was, but that was a pretty long time ago.”

“Where’d you disappear to?” He continued, his eyes straying to the scar partially visible on his neck then back up to him.

Izuku tilted his head, studying the boy. He was trying for nonchalance but was not good at hiding the fact that he was itching for an explanation. “Got kidnapped by the villain group that killed my mom, I just recently escaped.”

Bakugo blinked in surprise, obviously not really expecting that kind of answer. “Which villain group?” He questioned, relaxing his arms to his sides. 

“Can’t say.” He replied shortly.

The blond narrowed his eyes at him. “Why not?”

He gave him a small grin. “The villain group is still after me, it’s for your own safety that you don’t know who they are.”

He almost laughed at the incredulous look and slight disbelieving head shake. “You do know that the sports festival is streamed live and internationally, right?” He asked rhetorically. 

“Yeah, I know.” Izuku chuckled. “What took you so long to talk to me, Pommie-chan?”

He rolled his eyes and shook his head again. “You’re crazy,” he muttered quietly before speaking louder. “I recognized the name Midoriya from the start, but you also pissed me off from the start and I didn’t feel like talking to you. Only reason I’m talking to you now is because the old hag wants to meet you again, she recognized your name during the obstacle race.”

Izuku’s previously amused grin softened at the mention of Mitsuki, she had been so kind to him a few months back. “I don’t remember much about you or Bakugo-san, but I know that she and my mother were very close friends.”

“Meet me at the entrance gate after the festival, you can talk to her then.” Bakugou replied, turning to head towards the cafeteria. “Let’s get something to eat before the next event.”

It was a little too weird to see a more mellow Bakugou. Did he think it was a touchy subject or something? Whatever the reasoning, things felt a bit more relaxed and amiable between them, and he kind of hoped it would be more of a friendly rivalry than an arch nemesis kind of deal.

Aizawa POV

The sports festival wasn’t just for audience entertainment and hero scouting. To him, it was a chance to review his students’ progress on their quirk control, combat, and strategic abilities. 

Along with mentally taking notes on what his own students needed, it was also a good chance to see if there were any non-hero course students that were looking to transfer. 

Watching the obstacle race and cavalry battle, Shinsou Hitoshi seemed to be the most eligible to transfer; he also noted that it might be a good idea to talk to Vlad about switching some of their students around later on. As much as he liked his current class, he had some criticisms on how they were placed.

Midoriya Izuku was up against Shinsou Hitoshi for the first match of the final event. Aizawa was almost positive that Ojiro had told him about Shinsou’s quirk, considering how he didn’t speak even once during the short fight; Shinsou had potential, especially with his quirk, but he didn’t have any training when it came to physical combat. 

He made a note to speak with Yaoyorozu after the internships were over. She was a very strong fighter and used to be confident with her quirk, but her fight with Tokoyami seemed to show the exact opposite. 

He and Hizashi exchanged an exasperated glance with each other as Hatsume Mei’s voice projected out through the stadium’s speakers. She was smart, he’ll give her that, and this was a good opportunity to advertise to heroes and businesses. He did feel a bit bad for Iida, but it was also the kid’s fault for accepting support equipment from his opponent.

Kuroiro versus Bakugou was a fight he was quite curious about. They both had strong quirks, but Kuroiro had an obvious disadvantage at the start of the match, considering he couldn’t effectively use his quirk. His evasive maneuvers were quite impressive, and he even got Bakugou to target specific parts of the arena. By the end of the match, the arena was all rubble, creating plenty of shadows for Kuroiro to use. 

Bakugou had a lot of potential; he had a very strong quirk and a fairly good level of control with it, but his temper and pride had gotten in his way multiple times throughout the sports festival. Aizawa might have him talk to Inui to work through whatever those strong emotions were coming from. 

Speaking of strong emotions, Todoroki definitely needed to talk to Inui. He nearly hit audience members after he attacked Sero, ending the match in less than 10 seconds. He seemed genuinely remorseful about how he beat his classmate; he suspected issues at home were interfering with his performance.

Kaminari gave a valiant effort trying to beat Shiozaki, but he shouldn’t have repeated what Todoroki had done and used his full power during the first attack. He was immobilized without issue, making for the second fastest match so far. 

Aizawa sighed, glancing at Hizashi who was trying to make commentary on Kirishima and Tetsutetsu’s match, but it was a lot of the same attacks happening over and over. 

He made sure his mic was off before standing up. “I’m gonna go grab us something to drink.” 

Hizashi gave him a smile and a nod, signing a quick thank you before he headed out.

It seemed like Midoriya had the same idea as he did; he found himself standing behind the greenette in line at the mini cafe stand.

Midoriya turned to him with a small grin, “Kirishima-kun and Tetsutetsu-kun still fighting?” He asked, chuckling when Aizawa grunted in response. “Yeah, it’ll probably end in a draw, and they’ll need to do a tie breaker.”

“You think so?” He replied, moving to stand next to the kid. Midoriya seemed confident in his prediction as he nodded. “You’re doing a good job so far,” he continued after a moment, “I’m sure you’ll get plenty of internship offers.”

He got a bright smile in return, and they put in their drink orders, Aizawa paying for them all despite Midoriya’s protest.

“Thanks, Aizawa-sensei.” He sheepishly said after a moment. 

“Don’t mention it.” He replied, leaning against a wall and waiting for their order. 

Aizawa quietly shut the door and sat back down next to Hizashi, handing him his honey matcha latte. 

Hizashi clicked mute on the mic and took the drink. “Thanks, babe. You didn’t miss much.” He nodded towards where Kirishima and Tetsutetsu were now having an arm-wrestling competition. 

“This the tie breaker?” He asked, recalling Midoriya’s prediction. Hizashi nodded and started filling him in on what had happened while he was gone.

Kirishima ended up winning, and they had some kind of tender/brotherly moment before moving on. 

Aoyama and Ashido were the last to compete. Similarly to Kaminari, Aoyama overused his quirk which let Ashido take him out with an uppercut. 

On to round two and it circled back to Midoriya versus Tokoyami; he was curious about how this fight would go considering they were good friends and seemed to have teamed up specifically to get to the final round to fight each other. 

Tokoyami had started out by attempting the same barrage of attacks that he did to Yaoyorozu, but Midoriya was smarter than that and easily dodged and redirected Dark Shadow. 

At first glance, it looked like they were evenly matched, but Aizawa could tell that Midoriya was quite relaxed and in complete control of the situation. It seemed that Tokoyami had realized that as well, and not long after the greenette showed off the light side of his quirk in a dazzling display of surprisingly good yoyo skills.

Iida versus Kuroiro was an interesting match; Kuroiro’s evasive maneuvers were impressive, and the arena was slightly too small for Iida to truly use the full potential of his quirk. 

It was like Kuroiro was acting like Iida was a bull and he was waving the red flag. Most impressively, Kuroiro had created his own shadow at the end by pulling off his overshirt and tossing it into the air, dropping into the shadow as Iida zoomed past before jumping back up and wrapping the shirt around Iida’s head before pushing him out of bounds. 

The crowd ate it up as Kuroiro smiled and winked at the camera before leaving the arena. 

Todoroki was up against Shiozaki, with him having a lot more control over his quirk than before. He froze the ground first, making it more difficult for Shiozaki’s vines to penetrate the ground, then he froze her vines one by one until she was immobilized. 

Kirishima versus Ashido was a fight he was looking forward to, especially after the fight and tie breaker between him and Tetsutetsu. He wanted to see how his student would fair against an opponent who was faster and potentially more strategic than him.

Depending on how Ashido used her quirk, she might be able to break through Kirishima’s hardening. Alas, she didn’t move fast enough and ended up losing because Kirishima pushed her into a corner that she couldn’t escape from.

Getting into the semi-finals, Midoriya fought against Kuroiro. He primarily used the light side of his quirk until the end of the match, where he attempted to attack Kuroiro using his dark bat. Kuroiro jumped into the bat to avoid getting injured, but before he could jump back out and attack, Midoriya flung his bat out of bounds. They laughed about it and Midoriya teased his friend as they left the arena. 

Todoroki versus Kirishima was a fight that took a lot longer than he had anticipated. 

Kirishima’s quirk was strong enough that he could break out of any ice that Todoroki threw at him. He only ended up losing because Todoroki was able to launch him out of bounds with a well-placed pillar.

Finally, it was Todoroki versus Midoriya, the two half-and-half quirks. It was going well at first, Midoriya seemed to be taking this match extremely seriously, more serious than he’d seen the boy since meeting him. He was curious as to what had happened to make his demeanor change so much…

15 Minutes Prior… Izuku POV

Izuku wandered down the hallway towards the waiting area. He had left the stands a bit earlier than normal because he wanted to check his phone to see if Dabi had texted him or not. 

He froze in his tracks when he heard an unfamiliar voice coming from the waiting room. 

No one but students and UA staff should be here, who could this be?

He quietly inched closer to the door before pressing an ear against it to listen in. His eyes widened when he heard Todoroki talking. 

“I have already told you before, father.” Father? So, Endeavor is here? “I will become the number one hero, but I will do so without using your quirk.” 

His voice sounded so strained, how long had they been arguing for?

“You will grow from this rebellious stage,” Endeavor replied, “and you will use your full potential.”

He heard a chair move as someone stood up. “My full potential? You forced my mother into a marriage she didn’t want all so you could pass on your self-proclaimed destiny of surpassing All Might to me.”

Endeavor sighed and Izuku heard footsteps heading towards the door. He quickly backed away and pretended to have only just arrived as the hero left the waiting room. 

He was just debating on whether or not to confront him when the hero spoke up. “You’re Midoriya Izuku, yes?”

Izuku glanced up, narrowing his eyes before nodding. “I am. I don’t think you’re allowed to be back here, Endeavor-san.”

“You’re fighting Shouto next, I expect you to fight with everything you have so that my son can use his full power against you.” He replied, ignoring his previous comment. “Don’t let him down.”

Izuku raised an eyebrow. “You mean don’t let you down?” He crossed his arms, cocking his hip to the side. “I’d take your advice more seriously if it didn’t sound like an instruction manual for a machine instead of encouragement for your son, who has gotten to the finale while only using half his power.” He grinned when Endeavor’s flames flickered, revealing his annoyance or shock. “I won’t hold back, but I’m not helping you live vicariously through Todoroki-kun.” 

“Who do you think you are?” Endeavor growled. “I’m the number two hero, you better speak to me with more respect.”

Izuku snickered, turning away from the hero without replying and pushing his way into the waiting area; Endeavor didn’t pursue, which was a bit disappointing but at least he was smarter than to push the issue.

Todoroki was sitting at a table in the corner of the room, scrolling on his phone. He didn’t even look up when Izuku entered the room.

His jaw was tense, and his eyebrows were more furrowed than his usual look.

He was pissed off, which might not bode well for their fight if Sero’s match was anything to go by. He also had to consider the fact that he most likely broke his hand during the cavalry battle and also stole first place from him during the obstacle race… Yeah, this might be a tough match.

Back to the Present. Aizawa POV

Todoroki was back to overusing his quirk, but Midoriya was handling the challenge a lot more smoothly than he was expecting. 

In less than 2 minutes, the entire arena floor was covered in ice. That was when Midoriya began to talk after Todoroki made a comment about his father’s sour face. The audience couldn’t hear the conversation, but he and Hizashi could. 

“You know, Todoroki-kun,” he danced out of the way of an incoming ice attack. “Your father might be the number two hero, but he’s kind of a loser.”

Todoroki paused, confused about the comment. 

“You shouldn’t be basing how you live your life off of spiting someone you hate.” Midoriya continued, smashing some ice to free up some room. 

“What would you know?” Todoroki growled back. “If I were to use my fire side, I would be accepting my father and what he wants from me. I refuse to make the old man proud.”

“I never told you about my homelife before. Then again, this is maybe the second time we’ve ever talked, so…” Midoriya shrugged. They had both stopped fighting and were focusing on the conversation. The crowd had begun to murmur, curious about what was happening. “My quirk came from someone who I would never consider my father. I hate him with every fiber of my being because of what he’s put me through, but I’m not going to stop using my quirk just because I don’t accept him.”

Todoroki clenched and unclenched his hands, trying to break up the frost building on his skin. “How can you feel okay with using the quirk of a man who made your life miserable? Wouldn’t you rather reject everything surrounding him?”

“Wouldn’t that mean giving up on being a hero in your case?” Izuku retorted. “I use my full quirk so I can spite him. I am going against all of his ideals and living the way I have always wanted to. Tell me, why do you want to be a hero?”

“I am going to become the number one hero without using my father’s quirk.” He replied, and Aizawa could tell that he was starting to realize how much he was letting his father control his decisions. 

“And why do you want to be the number one hero if that’s what your father wants you to do?” Izuku tilted his head, watching the other. When Todoroki seemed to hesitate, he continued. “I think that becoming a hero despite how you grew up shows how strong you are. If you really want to spite your father, you should go into underground hero work. You’d be away from the public eye, but you would still be able to do everything a limelight hero could, and you could use the full strength of your quirk because Half-Cold Half-Hot is your quirk, and yours alone.”

Todoroki opened his mouth to respond then had to put his focus into blocking a sudden barrage of attacks as Midoriya lunged at him. “We both started out using only half of our quirks. I’m using Dark-Light with everything I’ve got, it’s your turn to meet me at my level!” He swiped at Todoroki with his bo staff then leapt back a few paces, staring at the student challengingly. 

It only took a moment of looking at each other before gold-orange flames roared to life. 

Aizawa only saw a glimpse of Midoriya grinning before a sizzling sound began, then the entire arena exploded in a rush of steam as ice rapidly evaporated. 

Hizashi exclaimed in surprise, falling back from his chair while Aizawa partially stood up to try and catch a glimpse of what was happening. 

The steam slowly dissipated, revealing that nearly all of the ice was gone aside from a pillar that Todoroki had formed behind himself in order to keep from getting flung out of the arena. 

A large ball of darkness was positioned in the center of the arena and looked partially embedded in the cement underneath. Both students were still within the boundary, and Hizashi had recovered enough to announce that fact. 

The darkness evaporated, revealing Midoriya with steam burns across his hands and face. He was still grinning as he formed some kind of lasso out of darkness and rushed towards Todoroki.

Todoroki seemed dazed from what had just happened, and he couldn’t react quickly enough before the lasso had wrapped around his waist, and he was thrown out of the arena. 

As soon as Midnight had called the match, Midoriya ran over to Todoroki. “I know it sounds weird coming from a classmate you barely know but…” He pulled the other into a short hug and Todoroki blinked in surprise. “I’m very proud of you for embracing your quirk.” He pulled back, keeping his hands on Todoroki’s shoulders. “We’re half-and-half quirk brothers who both started out using only half of our quirks. We gotta stick together in this.” With a small shoulder pat, Midoriya released him and took a step back.

Todoroki looked at the greenette curiously then gave a small smile, relaxing minutely. “I’ll try to use my fire side more often. Thank you, Midoriya-kun.”

With that, the sports festival came to a close. 

Aizawa and Hizashi exchanged a slightly worried look when Midoriya beamed at the camera, holding up his medal and flashing a peace sign. 

All for One was most likely still after him and they had debated with each other on whether or not to allow him to participate in the sports festival, but he was in the safest place he could be right now. The rest of the UA staff knew at least a part of what was happening, and All Might had been pushing to have a meeting with Midoriya as soon as possible. 

Aizawa had managed to convince him to leave the greenette be until after internships were over, just so he could focus on being a student before talking to someone directly connected to All for One again. His mind also kept going back to when he found out Oboro was still alive, but that also wasn’t something he could do anything about yet, not until they knew exactly what they were dealing with. 

He and Hizashi finished up the commentating and announcements that took another half an hour before heading downstairs to find Midoriya. Dabi was with him, wearing a hoodie and medical mask, and Midoriya was animatedly talking to him as the older huffed in amusement. 

“Congrats on the win, kid, you ready to head back?” He asked once they got close enough. Midoriya looked over with a smile, still holding onto his medal. 

“Thanks!” He chirped, glancing back up at Dabi when his hair got ruffled. “Yeah, I’m exhausted, I wasn’t expecting the festival to take so much out of me.”

“Get some rest, Izuku-kun, you did a good job.” Dabi said, and it seemed like that last comment had a deeper meaning to it. 

They said their farewells before turning to get to the parking lot, Midoriya waving at Bakugou and who Aizawa assumed was his mother in a strangely friendly manner. Had they become friends somehow? Bakugou looked pissed during the obstacle race, he wondered what changed. 

Chapter Text

Izuku jogged through backstreets and alleyways, heading towards Dabi’s apartment. 

It was only a Tuesday, but they didn’t have any school that day much to his relief. He wanted to visit him before school started up again and they had to get ready for their internships the following week.

He pushed the apartment door open after unlocking it, pulling off his shoes right away. “Dabi! You have a visitor!” He greeted, lowering his volume when he realized Dabi was in the lounge watching a show. 

Dabi glanced over at him as he approached. “Hey, kid, you get all of your injuries healed?”

Izuku nodded, dropping down next to him on the couch. “Yeah, Recovery Girl-sama’s quirk did the trick.” He held out his hands, turning them over to show that the burns he got from his fight with Todoroki were gone. “Do you have any news about Akatani?”

“No, but I’m working on getting into the League of Villains.” He replied, switching whatever show he had been watching to something else. “They went almost completely silent, so their group is either very small or very loyal. Or both.”

He sighed, a bit disappointed about the response. “Are you sure you’d want to join them? The League is connected to All for One. If they find out that you’re there to double cross them, I don’t think you’d see the light of day again…” Not to mention the fact that Izuku would single-handedly murder the entire League and Sensei if something like that did happen. 

“I’m a vigilante, Izuku-kun, it’s my civic duty to keep society safe even at the detriment to myself.” He ruffled Izuku’s hair, standing up from the couch with the crack of a joint before heading into the kitchen. “I’ll keep you posted if I hear anything.”

“Did you listen to my show last night, Midoriya-kun?” Yamada asked cheerfully, glancing at him through the rearview mirror. 

Izuku smiled and nodded. “Your segment on the sports festival was great. Thanks for the shoutout, Yamada-san.” 

Yamada beamed then continued to chatter about the things he’d talked about. 

It was Wednesday morning, and they were headed to school. 

Today was the day that internship offers would be announced, and he was pretty excited to see who wanted him in their agency, if anyone picked out any first years. 

He pulled out his phone when he got a few notifications.

Cemetery Circle

Darkling (Kuroiro Shihai)

Raven (Tokoyami Fumikage)

Shadowlord (Midoriya Izuku)

Darkling is online.

Darkling (8:00 am): The train ride was filled with people that watched the sports festival.

Darkling (8:00 am): I learned of many admirers of the abyss.

Raven is online.

Raven (8:03 am): Indeed.

Shadowlord is online.

Shadowlord (8:05 am): We gave them quite the show, I’m not surprised you’re getting attention for it. 

Raven (8:07 am): You don’t commute through public transport?

Shadowlord (8:07 am): Nope, I live in town and get a ride to UA. 

Darkling (8:08 am): You would be swarmed for placing first. 

Shadowlord (8:09 am): No thank you. 

He looked up when the car parked in the staff lot. 

Shutting off his phone, he pulled his bag over his shoulder and hopped out. 

He waved Eraser and Yamada goodbye as they headed for the staff office before homeroom started.

Iida Tenya was already there, over 15 minutes early as per usual. Seeing him now reminded Izuku that he saw that Ingenium had been attacked by the Hero Killer: Stain during the sports festival. 

He’d never really interacted with Iida much before, but he was acting a lot more preppy than he was used to; calling out formal greetings to everyone while also maintaining class order. 

Izuku walked over to Kuroiro’s desk and leaned against it. Tokoyami sat next to Kuroiro while he was stuck on almost the opposite side of the classroom. 

At 8:25 exactly Eraser opened the classroom door with more force than necessary. “Morning.” He said shortly as he walked in and Izuku noticed that the bandages he’d been wearing that morning were gone. He heard Asui commenting on that fact as he skipped back to take his seat.

“We’re having a special hero informatics class today…” He felt the class hold their breaths, terrified that it was a pop quiz of some kind. He wouldn’t give them a pop quiz right after the sports festival, right? “Code names. You’ll be coming up with hero names.” He finished, and the class exploded with excitement. 

Izuku exchanged a glance with Kuroiro and Tokoyami, who both had the same thought and were looking back at him and each other. He hadn’t given a whole lot of thought into a hero name before, but it shouldn’t be too difficult, right?.

The noise of the classroom went dead silent when Eraser’s eyes flashed red. “This is related to the pro hero drafts that I mentioned the other day. The drafts begin in earnest in the second and third years, after students have gained experience and can become an asset to the pros,” he continued, “in other words, for them to extend offers to first years like you shows that they are interested in your future potential. These offers are often cancelled if that interest dies down by graduation.”

“So, we’ll have to prove ourselves once we get picked, huh?” Hagakure piped up. 

“That’s right.” He replied shortly, turning to partially face the chalkboard and clicking a button on a remote. “And here are the totals for those with offers.” 

Todoroki Shouto - 3,471

Midoriya Izuku - 3,156

Kuroiro Shihai - 563

Tokoyami Fumikage - 360

Bakugo Katsuki - 342

Iida Tenya - 301

Kaminari Denki - 272

Yaoyorozu Momo - 108

Kirishima Eijirou - 68 

Ashido Mina - 20

Sero Hanta - 14

Izuku felt his jaw drop momentarily before he shut it with a click. That was a lot of offers, way more than he was expecting. 

“In other years, it’s been more spread out, but all eyes were on these two this year.” Aizawa pointed at his and Todoroki’s names. 

“That’s such a big difference!” Kaminari groaned, flopping back against his seat. Other students chattered amongst each other and Izuku glanced over when he heard his name mentioned. 

Yaoyorozu had been complimenting the two of them on their offers. Todoroki didn’t seem phased by the number. “Most of them were likely because of my father.” He said blandly. 

Eraser went on to explain that everyone would be interning, offer or not. 

“The hero names you’ll be picking out are temporary, but if you aren’t serious about it…”

The classroom door slid open. “You’ll have hell to pay later!” Midnight finished his sentence, strolling in and stopping next to Eraser. “Because a lot of hero names used by students become recognized by society, and they end up becoming professional hero names!”

“Well, that’s how it is.” Eraser said, looking rather bored as he unfolded his yellow sleeping bag. “So, Midnight-san will be making sure your names are okay. I can’t do stuff like that.” Izuku amusedly recalled that Yamada had told the story of picking out Eraser’s name for him. “When you give yourself a name, you get a more concrete image of what you want to be like in the future.”

Small dry erase boards were dispersed among the students, along with markers. 

He quietly hummed in thought. The name is supposed to reflect what he wanted to be? He hesitated for a moment before writing four neat letters: Crow.

He doubted that Eraser would be happy with it, but he had already hunkered down in his sleeping bag so… He grinned to himself. 

“Okay! Let’s start presenting names starting with those who are ready.” Midnight called after a moment.

Izuku cringed internally. He hated presentations and interviews and the like. 

To everyone’s not-surprise, Aoyama was the first up. A quick edit to his name and he was approved.

Ashido hopped up next, very excited as she displayed her choice of “Alien Queen.”

Midnight almost immediately shot it down, but Izuku and Kuroiro both called out their disapproval of Midnight’s decision. A few other students joined in and Midnight had to raise her voice to get them to quiet down. “Fine, fine! As per majority rule, you can keep the name.” She relented. 

Asui went next, then Kirishima, and Jirou. Izuku decided now was his time; he raised his hand and Midnight called him up. 

He glanced warily at Eraser, who seemed to be dead asleep, but he knew that there was no way. He quietly cleared his throat before turning the board around. “I’m the Yin-Yang Hero: Crow.” He said, feeling confident with his choice. 

Midnight made a slight face, obviously knowing about his vigilantism in the past. He noticed that Eraser also stirred slightly. 

“It’s not illegal for me to keep the name,” he muttered quietly enough so that only teachers could hear. 

Midnight sighed. “You’re sure you don’t have a different name you could use? I love the idea of the Yin-Yang Hero.” She gave him an encouraging smile. 

Izuku shook his head. “I considered it, but nothing hit home like this one does.” He glanced at the rest of the class, most of whom seemed pretty confused on why the name Crow was a hot topic. 

She looked like she wanted to argue more before changing her mind and nodding. “Very well, that’s a good name and easy to recognize.” 

He returned to his seat with a smile, glad that he was able to convince her to let him keep the name. Eraser hadn’t made a comment on it, so hopefully he was supportive too.

They went through the rest of the students before the hero agency offers sheets were passed out. 

Izuku felt a little daunted by the massive list of agencies he received. He had two days to make his decision.

“Aizawa-sensei, Yamada-sensei?” Izuku said as they were driving back home after classes. “Could I invite some friends over tomorrow so we can go over our options together?”

“I don’t see why not!” Yamada replied. “We’ve got plenty of space, and I’m sure the cats could use more attention.

Eraser just grunted in agreement, so Izuku sent a quick message to his group chat with Kuroiro and Tokoyami.

He switched to a different chat and paused, hoping it wouldn’t be too weird to send an invite out of the blue like this.

New Chat

Midoriya Izuku is online. 

Izuku (3:22 pm): Hey, are you busy tomorrow after school?

Todoroki Shouto is online.

Shouto (3:31 pm): I am free on Tuesdays and Thursdays. What are you thinking?

Izuku (3:33 pm): I’m having a couple of friends over to look at our internship options, do you want to join us?

Shouto (3:36 pm): I already have my choice picked out, but I can still help you and your friends decide, if you want the help.

Izuku (3:37 pm): That’d be great! Meet at the gate after school tomorrow? 

Shouto (3:38 pm): I will see you then.

Izuku (3:38 pm): See you then *Smiley face*

Midoriya Izuku has gone offline.

Todoroki Shouto has gone offline.

One more step towards friendship. He was actually a bit afraid that Todoroki would refuse at first. 

The next day, Izuku found himself at the gate with Kuroiro, waiting for the other two to arrive.

“Todoroki-kun said that he already had an agency picked out, which I bet a thousand yen it’s his father’s agency.” Izuku said, lightly bouncing on his heels while Kuroiro leaned against the gate wall. “I really want to convince him to pick someone else.”

“How come?” Kuroiro questioned curiously. “Wouldn’t learning from someone with a fire quirk benefit him?”

Izuku shook his head. “No. Not with Endeavor, at least. He was raised by the guy, didn’t he already get enough training from him?” 

Their conversation was cut short when Todoroki and Tokoyami made their appearance. 

He smiled at them, giving a wave in greeting. “You guys ready to go?” Immediately turning to start walking East. 

“Do you live close by?” Todoroki asked. 

“Yep! Maybe a 15-minute walk.” He replied, glancing back to make sure everyone was following him.

Izuku and the others sat around the table in the lounge, having their offer papers spread out. 

“I got an offer from Hawks’ agency,” Tokoyami said with mild surprise. “I didn’t think that he took interns.”

“Wait! I think I got one from him too!” He exclaimed, quickly shuffling through the sheets before he landed on the right one. “Yeah, here it is. What if we both accepted this one together?” He was the most excited about this offer because it gave him the chance to fly outside of the training grounds again. 

Tokoyami gave a small nod in agreement.

Kuroiro spoke after there was a small lapse of silence. “I might take the offer I got from Ectoplasm. He specializes in stealth and close-range attacks.” 

The others approved, which just left Todoroki. 

“Say, Todoroki-kun,” Izuku started, scooting around the table to check out his offers. “Are you sure you’d want to intern with your father’s agency? Didn’t he train you from a young age?”

Todoroki blinked in surprise, but moved over to let him look at the papers. “He did, but he’s the only agency with a fire-related quirk.”

Izuku hummed, skimming the choices. “But you can already use your fire at full power with relative ease. You should focus more on skills rather than relatability.” He stopped on a page and pointed at a name. “Here we go! Why not try out Edgeshot’s agency? His quirk requires precision, which I think you could benefit from.”

He glanced over at his almost-friend, watching him seem to debate his words for a bit as he looked at the offer. He leaned back slightly with a small sigh, looking up at him. “Do you really think that focusing on precision will strengthen my quirk? My father always had me work on power.”

“I don’t just think so, I know so.” He replied. “I’ll give you an example. I can remove all of the light in this room,” he held his hand up, twirling it slightly as he made darkness creep through the light before releasing it again, “that’s powerful on its own, but I can also control my quirk to a point.” He focused on his fingertips, forming sharp talons.

Todoroki absorbed his explanation, then glanced back at the offer list. “That does make sense. I’ll give it a try. Thank you, Midoriya-kun.”

“No prob, Bob.” He said, moving back to his spot. 

Todoroki looked up at him in mild confusion. “My name is Todoroki Shouto.” He replied. 

Izuku opened his mouth, then glanced at Kuroiro and Tokoyami before laughing. “I know, Todoroki-kun, it was just an old quote from a pre-quirk show.”

“Oh. I see.” He seemed a bit embarrassed at not understanding the reference. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll get you caught up on all the old and retro shows.” He reassured, amused.

His friends left around an hour later and Izuku leaned back against the couch with a sigh. 

“You and your friends figure out the agencies you’ll be interning with?” Eraser’s voice called from the kitchen, making Izuku jump. When did he get there?

He hopped up and headed into the kitchen. “Pretty good, I managed to convince Todoroki-kun to intern with someone other than his father, which I consider a pretty big win.”

Eraser pulled the electric kettle off the plug as it got to a boil. “It’ll do him some good to have a little diversity in his fighting style.” He replied, starting his tea and adding a cup for Izuku as well. "You understand the potential repercussions for keeping your vigilante name, right?"

Izuku hummed an affirmative and they had some light conversation on who he was interning with before they both retreated to their rooms to unwind from the busy day. He'll face stigma for being a vigilante, but he would have gotten discriminated against for being quirkless too, so.

Chapter Text

Izuku boredly walked down the empty school hallway back towards the cafeteria to find his friends. 

It was Friday and he just had to get through the weekend before he’d get to fly free once again. He’d been tempted so many times to just sneak out, but Dabi annoyingly kept him in line when he mentioned it. 

He yawned and stretched, then froze when his eyes landed on his next adventure; an air vent about 4 meters off the ground without its protective grate that looked Izuku-sized. 

He stopped under the vent and glanced around, making sure there would be no witnesses, before forming a sort of grappling hook out of darkness. He twirled the tool around for a moment then tossed it into the vent, tugging a couple times to make sure it was secure. He expertly pulled himself up, easily fitting into the vent.

Slowly navigating through the vents, he was a bit sad that all of the classrooms were empty, and the cafeteria was too crowded to find anything interesting. He had just started crawling towards where he thought the teacher’s lounge was going to be when a pair of voices in the hallway stopped him. 

He peeked through the grates of one of the hallway vents and found Uraraka and Iida having a conversation just loud enough for him to make out.

“-not a good idea, Tenya-kun…” Uraraka said, clearly unhappy. What wasn’t a good idea? 

Iida gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder. “I know that I must have scared you with how I acted at the end of the sports festival, however I assure you that I’m okay.”

“But to go to Hosu so soon after what happened… What can Manual-san teach you that would be better than Miruko-san?” She argued. 

Something happened in Hosu that affected Iida? 

Izuku pulled out his phone and a quick search later came up with multiple news articles about Iida Tensei, pro hero Ingenium. He had apparently been in pursuit of the hero killer in Hosu but was severely maimed in the process. 

“Manual-san is a great hero, I’m certain he’s a good internship choice for me, Ochako-chan.” Iida reassured.

The two fell silent when a couple of other students walked by and Izuku decided to complete his trip to the teacher’s lounge. Iida’s reassurances were not reassuring in the least, he had something planned that could very well get him killed. 

He stopped outside of the vent to the teacher’s lounge, peering in to double check that the people he wanted in there were there. 

Giant yellow caterpillar? Bingo. 

He pushed on the vent grate, finding it securely screwed shut. He debated for a moment before forming two dark talons and carefully taking out the screws, catching the grate before it crashed to the ground. 

A few murmurs of confusion rang through the room as he slid out of the vent, landing on the carpeted floor and setting the grate down. 

“Problem child, what were you doing in the vents?” Eraser said in a tired and annoyed tone. 

“Not important.” Izuku suppressed an amused grin as he walked over to the sleeping bag. “Aizawa-sensei, it’s probably not my business, but could I talk to you about Iida-kun?”

He blinked in mild surprise. “What about him?”

“Well, I was in the vents earlier,” Eraser suppressed an eyeroll, “and I overheard Uraraka-chan and Iida-kun talking about their internships.” He sat down cross-legged in front of him. “I think Iida-kun is taking an internship specifically to go to Hosu where his brother was attacked, like, to go after the hero killer for revenge or something.”

Eraser seemed concerned by his comment and sat up a bit straighter. “I’ll look into it. Thanks for telling me, Midoriya-kun.” Izuku gave him a smile, which he didn’t reciprocate. “Now, get back to lunch, kid.”

“Yes, sir!”

"And don't use the vents." 

"...Killjoy."

“Tokoyami-kun!” Izuku cheerily called out, waving so that his friend could see him in the crowd. 

Tokoyami walked over to him and glanced up at the train schedule. “I’ve never been to Kyushu before.”

“Me neither, I wonder if they have good takoyaki.” He double checked when their train would be arriving. “10 minutes until the train to Fukuoka gets here.”

They waited in relative silence with occasional people-watching comments on Izuku and Dark Shadow’s part, and then came the long 4-hour train ride. 

Fukuoka was busy . Not surprising considering it was one of the largest cities in Japan. 

Another thing that was busy: Hawks. His own sidekicks had trouble keeping up with him as he zoomed from one incident to the next. 

Izuku didn’t have as much trouble keeping up with the hero, thanks to his wings, but he felt a bit bad that Tokoyami wasn’t having that kind of luck. He swooped down and lightly hovered above his friend. “I’m strong enough to give you a lift, if you want?” He offered, already devising a plan to act like some kind of rescue helicopter. 

Tokoyami shook his head. “No, I will find a way. Thank you, Crow-kun.” 

He nodded in acknowledgement before turning and flying back up into the sky, probably going higher than he needed in order to find Hawks again. 

He spun around in a slow circle for a moment, not spotting the hero. 

“You’re pretty good,” a voice called from behind him. He glanced around, finding Hawks already diving down towards the streets. 

He quickly caught up to him, flying close by. “Am I?” He asked, fishing for another compliment from the hero. 

“Yeah, I’d bet you could be as fast as me some day.” He replied, giving him a grin before shooting off towards an alleyway they’d both heard a commotion happening in. 

Izuku dove down into the alleyway, managing to take out one of the instigators of the fight while Hawks took care of the other four. “I don’t know, I’m already pretty fast, who’s to say I’m not already faster than you?” He challenged, returning to grin. 

The hero raised an eyebrow at him, already taking to the sky again. “Pretty bold statement, kid. How about this, stick around after the patrol and we’ll have a race to see who's the top bird.”

“Deal.” 

It wasn’t until just past 11 pm that Izuku and Hawks found themselves on a tall tower overlooking the city. Tokoyami had gone back home already since neither of them were staying in Fukuoka for their internship. 

Hawks pointed down towards a large billboard. “We’ll fly over to that, touch it, then come back to this spot.”

“Right, sounds good.” Izuku stretched before dropping into position, waiting for Hawks to start the race. He most likely wasn’t as fast as the hero was, but getting to test his limits in open air was everything he’d dreamed of. 

“Three, two, one… Go.” 

He quickly took the lead in the first quarter, feeling the buzz of exhilaration at flying top speeds. 

Before he’d reached the billboard, though, Hawks breezed by. Even with maximum effort, he couldn’t catch back up again. 

Hawks circled around the tower once before landing lightly next to him. “You were only 3 seconds behind me, that’s pretty impressive. How long have you been flying for?”

“Thanks, Hawks-san.” He replied, sitting down on the edge of the tower and feeling the wind buffet his clothes. “I’ve been flying for a little under a year, I think.”

“Want some advice on how to fly faster?” Hawks settled down next to him, leaning back on his hands. 

Advice from the fastest hero in Japan? Hell yeah! “If you’ve got some to give, sure.” He replied, turning attentively towards the hero. 

“You started slowing down after the wind changed directions, that was one of the reasons you fell behind.” He started, holding a hand out in front of himself and letting it slightly sway in the breeze. “You also were trying to keep your acceleration constant, you gotta let the wind carry you more.”

Izuku hummed, also holding out a hand to feel the wind. “Change how I fly based on the direction of the wind, I’ll have to practice that…” He muttered, then glanced over when Hawks stood up again. 

“Come on, I’ll give you a free lesson.” Without another word, he took off, forcing Izuku to scramble to catch up. “When we’re flying with the wind, keep your wings positioned to catch it.” They flew for a couple of minutes before Hawks turned around to fly in the opposite direction. “Flying against the wind is a bit trickier, how well can you feel with your wings?”

He thought for a moment; he couldn’t feel his actual wings, but the darkness attached to his shoulders and shoulder blades gave him some kind of feedback. “Not a lot, but I think I can feel the wind.”

“Adjust your wings so you barely feel the wind hitting them, the path of least resistance.” 

It took a few tries, but he eventually got the hang of flying with and against the wind.

“Nice job, now try to keep up with me.” Hawks sped up, flying almost directly upwards.

It was easier to keep up with him this time, and soon enough they were almost as high up as when Izuku first learned how to fly. They straightened out, gliding above the hustle and bustle of night life. 

"I haven't really had the chance to fly with someone else before." Izuku commented, consciously adjusting the position of his wings as the wind changed. 

Hawks glanced over at him. "I get it, there aren't many people with flight-related quirks around."

They ended off the night with Hawks teaching him how to properly dive. New brother acquired.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Aizawa POV… 3 Days Before Internships

Aizawa took Midoriya’s warning into heavy consideration, which only doubled when he saw that Iida was planning on taking an internship in Hosu. Looked like histhe kid’s hunch was correct.

He had called a meeting with Iida to hopefully convince him not to go with whatever plan he had, but he was pretty stubborn when he wanted to be. 

“Good afternoon, Aizawa-sensei! You wanted to see me?” Iida’s proper voice called out as he entered the teacher’s lounge. 

Aizawa gave a nod before motioning for him to go to his office. “I wanted to talk to you about your internship choice.” He began, immediately noting that Iida seemed to go into the defensive. “I am concerned about you going to Hosu so soon after what happened to your brother.”

“I can assure you that my internship choice is not related to that.” He replied confidently, though his eyes flicked away from him for the briefest moment. He was lying to his homeroom teacher? 

Oh boy. Be patient. 

“Even if that is the case,” he said, pulling out a slip of paper and handing it to his student. “I want you to see Inui Ryo, the school counselor, tomorrow during the break period. I’m sorry if this cuts into any plans you had for your day off, but this is important.”

Iida blinked in surprise, not expecting to have a scheduled meeting with the counselor.

“Come and see me after, I’ll be in my office.” He finished dismissively. 

“Of course, Aizawa-sensei.” Iida replied, standing and stiffly bowing. 

Now to let Inui give the kid the therapy he needs.

The next afternoon, Iida came back to his office. 

He appeared to be a lot more sullen than before, which immediately sparked sympathy in his heart. 

“I went to see Inui-san.” He started, straightening up and showing his usual confident self. “I have decided to intern with the Miruko Agency in Hiroshima instead of Manual.”

Aizawa quickly noted the change down in Iida’s file. “She will teach you limelight hero work well.”

Iida nodded. “I know she will. Have a good weekend.” He turned to leave, then paused at the door. “Aizawa-sensei?”

He hummed in response, then looked up when he was quiet for a beat too long. 

“Thank you.” Iida gave him a short smile before turning and leaving. 

He sighed in relief. He wanted so badly to know what was said during the conversation between Iida and Inui, but that was a major breach of privacy. Not to mention that that would go beyond teacher work. 

The familiar ping of a HeroNet notification brought him out of his thoughts.

Nighteye Agency

Nighteye (1:45 pm): I apologize for the short notice of this message. I have discovered some concerning information using my foresight that requires immediate action. 

Nighteye (1:45 pm): *Attached summons with a brief description*

Curious, Aizawa pulled up the summons. 

Some kind of villain attack was going down in Hosu and he needed a hero party to handle the situation. 

He didn’t work with Nighteye very often, but if he was recruiting Aizawa, that meant it was detrimental. 

He sent off a quick confirmation that he would be at the debrief, then returned to his teacher work. 

Saturday afternoon rolled around and Aizawa found himself heading through the doors of the Nighteye Agency in Tokyo. 

He wasn’t a fan of big cities in the least, which was why he stayed in Musutafu after graduating from UA. 

Bubble Girl, one of Nighteye’s sidekicks, greeted him once he came in. “You’re one of the first to arrive, can you sign in here?” She handed him a clipboard with a list of heroes on it. 

He took the clipboard and wrote the time he arrived next to his name, taking note of the other heroes on the list. They were all heroes that weren’t taking interns. So, this was serious enough that they didn’t want students joining the fight. 

He was led to a meeting room shortly after, finding that Nighteye, Lemillion, and Rock Lock were already there. He gave them a short nod, taking his seat. 

After 15 minutes, everyone was gathered and Nighteye was beginning the meeting. 

“Thank you all for coming on short notice.” He began, standing at the head of the meeting table. “As you saw in the summons, I used my foresight on a hero recently and discovered a villain attack in Hosu. The reason I called you here is because some of those villains were what we have begun to call nomu.”

Murmurs broke out amongst the heroes, all laced with concern. None of them except for Aizawa had experienced the nomu firsthand, but the rumors he heard circulating were all true to what he had seen during that short interaction. 

“If they’re anything like what we heard from the USJ, how can we take care of them without All Might here?” Rock Lock questioned, among the most concerned. 

“They are not as powerful as the USJ nomu.” Assured Nighteye, though he didn't seem fully convinced. “It was hard to track what was happening, but there were more than three nomu in East Hosu City. If we all agree to raid the city, we can mitigate any personal and property damage done by these villains.”

There was a long discussion afterward, but Aizawa was ready to risk his safety if it meant saving even one civilian.

He wasn’t sure why Nighteye was bringing his intern Lemillion with them for the raid, but he was sure that the student wasn’t in danger if he was coming along. 

In the end, everyone decided to participate in the raid. 

As long as they knew where it was going down and who was going to be there, it shouldn’t be too much trouble, right?

Aizawa watched the city from the train he was on. 

He was alone on the train, heading towards East Hosu where the attack was supposed to happen in under an hour. 

Half of the raid party had already gathered, leaving the other half to show up in a staggered manner. He wasn’t sure why this was the method Nighteye chose for them, but he wasn’t going to question the man with future vision. No one was going to get severely injured as long as they followed Nighteye’s plan. 

It had been a fairly peaceful, if not boring, train ride when a large chunk of the side of the train seemed to explode. 

It only took a moment for the dust to clear, then the winged nomu made its appearance. 

The nomu had a civilian pinned to the ground as other people began to scream and shout their alarm. 

Without a second more of hesitation, Aizawa leapt into action. He wrapped his capture scarf around the nomu just as it jumped back out of the train, pulling him with it. 

The nomu was strong enough to carry Aizawa and he found himself hanging on for dear life 50 meters in the air. 

Grunting from the effort, he pulled himself up until he could reach the nomu. If he could get it to land someh-

As if reading his mind that he wanted to get to the ground, the nomu took a nosedive just as a massive explosion was set off in the distance. 

He couldn’t focus on the explosion, he had to trust the rest of his team to take care of it. 

He got a solid grip on the nomu’s leg, then nearly lost the hold when it began spinning, trying to get him off. It screeched and he prickled with annoyance. 

He was having a perfectly fine time on the train, he wasn’t asking for a free trip through the sky. 

Finally, he managed to grab one of its wings, tilting it off balance until they crash landed the remaining 10 meters. He thankfully landed on the nomu before being flung off from the impact. 

He rolled a couple of times before righting himself and bolting back towards the nomu, who had only just gotten back on its feet. 

It was semi-quick work after that, he managed to lasso the nomu once again, this time tangling its wings together as well. 

A couple of pros from his team arrived as he was getting quirk-suppressing cuffs on it and helped him out. They must’ve seen the crash landing earlier. 

The police arrived to take the nomu into custody and the chaos only continued from there. 

He and the pros that came to his aid ran towards the roaring fire, stopping when Endeavor incinerated a nomu in front of them. 

Not the most eloquent or moral hero, but he couldn’t argue with the number two limelight hero even if he was technically ranked higher. 

At one point, another flying nomu took off away from the civilians. The others were occupied so Aizawa gave chase, hoping it would fly low enough for him to wrestle to the ground. 

He could hear a voice coming from an alleyway up ahead. It didn’t sound like a normal civilian, it was too… Menacing? Creepy?

He skidded to a stop once he realized that the voice was coming from none other than Stain, who had found his next hero victim. 

Native was slumped with his back against the wall, but he wasn’t unconscious. Did he get hit by Stain’s quirk? His bleeding arm was what confirmed it. 

Stain himself was standing in front of the hero, talking about unworthy heroes. It was pissing him off. He’d heard that argument many times before, but none of the villains had made it their whole schtick like Stain did. 

Deciding that Stain was a more pressing matter than the fleeing nomu, he quickly made his way towards the alleyway. He activated his emergency signal for nearby heroes to assist. 

Stain almost immediately noticed him, taking on a defensive stance. “Eraserhead.” He stated, readjusting his grip on his sword. “What are you doing in Hosu?”

“Looking for you.” He replied smoothly, preparing himself for a fight. “You’ve taken this far enough.”

“Getting targeted by the number one underground hero? I’m honored.” He sneered, taking a step towards him. “You’re not a hero worthy of the title.”

Well, that was one way to piss him off even more. “Your fucked up morality won’t hurt anyone else.”

And with that, the fight was on. 

Aizawa made the first move, attempting to get Stain’s weapon away from him. 

Stain dodged the capture scarf and lunged forward, closing the distance between them. 

Quickly redirecting his capture scarf, he managed to wrap it around Stain’s wrist and pull his sword off-course. Stain dropped his sword, but a flick of his other hand led to a sting against his cheek. 

The metallic shine of a small dagger, now slightly bloodied, was gripped tightly in Stain’s non-dominant hand. Figures he’d have a trick up his sleeve. 

Aizawa activated his quirk just as Stain licked the blade. He was on a time limit now. 

The villain seemed thrown off for a moment when Aizawa continued the fight, giving him the opportunity to throw him against the wall. He recovered quickly, bolting at him and swinging his dagger again. 

Aizawa caught Stain’s arm before the dagger could hit him, then pulled the villain close enough to plant his knee into his sternum. 

Stain coughed and reeled back, snarling. He didn’t have time to react as Aizawa wrapped his capture scarf around his waist before twisting around and roundhouse kicking the side of his head. 

He hit the ground with a grunt. He thought the fight was finished until the villain started struggling against the capture scarf. 

“It’s over, Stain.” He stated, tightening the capture weapon and stepping on Stain’s chest to keep him from standing.

Endeavor had arrived just in time to see the end of the fight. 

It was just a matter of getting Stain into a police car and Native in an ambulance. The emergency responders told them that Native hadn’t sustained fatal injuries, much to their relief. 

“How’s the nomu situation? I lost the one that fled.” He asked once it was safe for conversation. 

“I got the flying nomu.” Endeavor replied, walking partially ahead of him. “The others were captured by the heroes on your raid team.”

The whole altercation from start to finish lasted less than an hour, thanks to the team Nighteye gathered. 

He hadn’t been expecting to run into Stain, but that was one more weight off of his shoulders.

What a night.

Chapter Text

“I’m home!” Izuku called out, shutting the front door behind him and kicking off his shoes. It was a Thursday night and he was sad that he only had one more day of the internships left.  

Tokoyami still hadn’t figured out a way to keep up with him and Hawks, but he was getting closer to having a breakthrough.

Nobody responded to his greeting right away, so he most likely had the house to himself for a while. 

Heading to his room, he tossed his bag on the ground before flopping onto his bed and curling up. 

He pulled out his phone and called Dabi. 

“Been a while, kid.” His voice drawled after it rang a few times. "Your internships ending tomorrow?"

“Aw, did you miss me?” He laughed, turning onto his back. He knew that he was making a joke considering Izuku had just called him a couple of days before. “Yeah, Hawks was really cool! He taught me stuff about flying.”

“Didn’t your friend go with you?” He asked. 

He hummed in confirmation. “He did but he doesn’t know how to fly yet. I’ve offered to give him advice a couple of times but he turned me down every time, saying he wanted to do it on his own.”

“Can’t do much about that, I should know.” 

He huffed. “Was that a jab at me? I feel like you just insulted me.”

Dabi chuckled. “You’ve been doing things on your own for so long that the first chance someone had at actually parenting you had you throwing a fit.”

“I did not throw a fit!” He said indignantly, sitting up. “He was threatening my wellbeing!... And it wasn’t parenting.”

“Yeah, yeah. Call it whatever you want. Guardian talk, boundaries, or some shit. Doesn’t change the fact of what it was.” He replied, amused. 

He sighed. “It’s just weird to think of him as a parental figure.”

“How are you and ‘Raser doing now?” He asked, curious. 

“We’ve been doing pretty good.” He ran through their interactions since the awkwardness at the beginning. “We actually haven’t argued in a few weeks.”

“A few weeks? That’s a new record.” 

“I feel like this whole conversation is about attacking me.” He said with a laugh. “But yeah, it’s been getting less frequent, which is nice. And Yamada-sensei is a great mediator. He can be so mellow compared to what he’s like in class.”

“That’s Present Mic, right?” He asked, and Izuku hummed in confirmation. 

He paused when he heard a key turn in the door. “Oh, they just got home so I should go.”

“Take care of yourself, kid.” He replied before hanging up. 

He pocketed his phone before hopping up, getting to the hallway just as the front door opened. 

“Hey, Midoriya-kun!” Yamada said with a smile, pulling off his shoes. “How did your internship go today?”

He smiled back. “It was good, but Tokoyami-kun is still having trouble…”

Eraser came into view then. He had a large bandage covering his cheek and was limping as he made his way towards the kitchen to drop off groceries. When did that happen? He knew that he hadn't seen Eraser the day before but he just assumed it was a normal patrol. 

He paused and glanced at Izuku when he hadn’t continued talking. “What happened?” He asked. Eraser never got injured on patrols, this was something bigger. 

“It was a routine raid.” He explained, continuing to walk to the kitchen as Izuku caught up to him.

“Routine? ‘Raser, er, Aizawa-sensei, you never get hurt on missions.” Why was he being nonchalant about it? “What was the raid for?” 

Eraser raised an eyebrow at him at being addressed by his hero name. “Injuries can happen no matter how skilled you are. I got called to Hosu by Sir Nighteye. I got a scratch and pulled a muscle, that’s all.”

His eyes widened. Why didn't he at least mention it before he left? “Hosu? What happened in Hosu? Was it Stain?” His brain started working overtime. Did Eraser have to fight Stain? Did he have backup? Who all went to the raid?

“Midoriya-kun.” His attention snapped back to Eraser. He hesitated, then sighed, obviously not happy about explaining what happened. “The League of Villains attacked Hosu, Stain attacked as well but was independent from the League.”

Images of Akatani, Kurogiri, and the nomu from the USJ flashed in his mind. He opened his mouth to ask another question, but Eraser wasn’t finished. 

“There were nomu, but less powerful than the one at the USJ.” He reassured, though Izuku still felt upset at the idea of him fighting nomu. “We minimized the damage they could have caused, and Stain has been arrested.”

“Nomu were there?” He said, staring at the bandage on Eraser’s cheek. “Did you already know there were going to be nomu? You said that Sir Nighteye was the one that led the raid, meaning he must have seen them. How many were there?”

Yamada placed a placating hand on his shoulder as Eraser continued. “Yes, we were informed that the nomu would be there. There were five nomu, I took one of them down before I found Stain attacking the hero Native.”

“Can you tell me next time you know nomu are involved?” He asked. The fact that he was in the dark for this whole ordeal didn’t make him feel good, especially when it involved people he cared about. 

He sighed again, but nodded. “I will. But, you aren’t joining the fight.”

“What? These nomu are directly connected to where I was raised.” He argued. 

“Yes, but you shouldn’t have to take on that responsibility. You are going to keep working on your studies and focus on being a student. The nomu aren’t your fight.” He said with finality. 

Still clearly unhappy, he eventually nodded. “Fine.” There was no way he was following that order, though.

“All right! Let’s get started on dinner, shall we?” Yamada said, deciding to end their argument there. 

All three physically relaxed as they agreed. 

“Wait, I thought that happened in 2063?” Kuroiro said, puzzled. 

Tokoyami shook his head. “That was The Heredity Act where stricter rules on marriages and births were put into place to control quirk evolution. The International Hero Consortium happened in 2123, not long after the Chromic Spore Plague in 2120.”

“And the IHC was… A global organization for standardizing hero law.” Izuku said, trying to memorize the flash cards that Tokoyami was reading to them. Tokoyami nodded to him.

“And the Chromic Spore Plague caused quirk mutations like suppression and late bloomers. It also caused neurological decay, right?” Todoroki added on. 

Tokoyami nodded again before moving on to the next card. “When did scientists find the breakthrough for Quirk Gene Mapping?”

Izuku jumped to answer that one. “It was in 2087. Researchers were able to fully map a DNA sample of quirk factor, it caused a lot of controversy because they could artificially replicate it in the lab.”

“How many more flashcards are there?” Kuroiro asked, rubbing his face tiredly. “We’ve been working on quirk history for 2 hours now.”

Izuku stretched, also starting to feel worn out. “We can probably pick it back up in a few days. Final exams aren’t for a couple more weeks.”

Tokoyami nodded in agreement, putting the stack of notecards back into his backpack. “Same time on Friday?”

“Yeah, that works for me” He agreed and the other two also confirmed their availability. “Thanks for coming over to study.”

His friends left and he cleaned up his scattered notes and study guides, stuffing them all back in his backpack. 

Final exams were coming up fast, and he knew there would be a practical that involved most of the teachers, but he couldn’t figure out if it would be individual testing or group evaluation. 

Only one way to really find out.

The 3 days of written exams seemed to fly by quickly, what with more than 2 weeks of studying and all. 

Izuku found himself walking next to Kuroiro and Tokoyami as they were led to the Center Plaza where the practical exam would be held. 

It was exciting to see all of the pro hero teachers lined up at the entrance to the plaza. 

Eraser waited until they were all standing in front of them before he began. “Now, we will begin the practical exam. Of course, it is possible to fail this exam.” He gave them all a serious teacher face. “If you want to go to the training camp, then don’t make any stupid mistakes.”

They ran through the details of the exam. It was a two versus one and the groups would be selected for them. 

“Midoriya and Yaoyorozu will be paired together, and they’re against me.” Eraser said with a challenging smile. He wasn’t surprised when he didn’t get paired with any of his friends, assuming that they wanted to challenge the students. 

Izuku stretched as they walked towards the testing area, feeling a bit awkward. 

He never really interacted with Yaoyorozu but was always impressed with her combat style and quirk. Not to mention the fact that she was ranked the highest in class with her skills. 

She also seemed fairly uncomfortable but hadn’t shown signs of that uncomfortable feeling towards him. What was bothering her? Was she nervous that they were going against Eraser?

Izuku cleared his throat, causing Yaoyorozu to look over at him. “Should we strategize?”

“Oh! Yes, let’s.” She replied with a nod, stopping at the gate to the practical and turning to him. “Did you have any initial ideas?”

“Aizawa-sensei will most likely go after me first, so we can use that to our advantage.” He pondered. “I can act as a distraction while you use your quirk to immobilize him.”

She fidgeted slightly, obviously nervous. “How are you certain that he will target you?”

He paused for a moment before shrugging. “He’ll probably assume that I’ll be the one trying to capture him, since I have experience with that sort of thing.”

“You have experience?” She murmured, looking at him curiously. 

He grinned at her. “I’m in the vigilante reform program.”

Her eyes widened, but she couldn’t respond before the bell rang for them to begin. 

They entered the practical area and found themselves in a massive warehouse-style building. It had multiple stories and plenty of hiding places made up of crates, scaffolding, tarps, etc.

Yaoyorozu immediately got to work creating flashbangs, rope, and tripwire. She handed them off to Izuku to set up around the building. 

They had maybe 60 seconds to get ready for Eraser to make his presence known, so he moved quickly to get some of the flashbangs and tripwire ready. 

Phase one was going smoothly, and right on queue, phase two began in the form of his quirk being erased. 

He whirled around, scanning his surroundings until he spotted Eraser. He was well hidden, but not well enough for Izuku’s keen eyes. 

As soon as Eraser moved, he bolted for the nearest tripwire. “Number five.” He informed Yaoyorozu, letting her know which tripwire he was running to. 

“I’m heading there now.” She replied. 

He jumped over the tripwire and whipped around a crate, ducking down. 

A loud pop and a grunt of surprise later, Izuku felt his quirk come back. 

He immediately cloaked himself at the same time that he saw Yaoyorozu bolt towards Eraser, rope in hand to catch him. 

Spotting some scaffolding close by, he climbed up to observe phase three. 

Yaoyorozu made it to Eraser before he had fully recovered and managed to get the rope around him, trapping his arms at his sides. With a strong yank, she got him to stumble to his knees. 

She pulled out the handcuffs just as Eraser fully recovered.

He twisted around, pulling the rope out of her grasp, then kicked her hard in the stomach, flinging her into some crates. 

She had barely made it out of the broken crates before Eraser caught her with his capture weapon. 

Thinking fast, he quickly replicated Eraser’s capture scarf using darkness. It wouldn’t work the same way, but he could at least lasso him. 

He pulled his dark scarf, commanding it to whip out towards Eraser. He managed to catch Eraser, pulling him into the air and causing him to release Yaoyorozu. 

Eraser looked around, trying to spot Izuku, who was still invisible at that point. 

Yaoyorozu didn’t react right away, causing a small surge of annoyance to well up in him. “Yaoyorozu-chan!” He yelled, revealing his location. 

Eraser whipped his head around and, in a flash of red, his quirk disappeared again. 

He bolted from his hiding place, noting that Yaoyorozu had managed to hide as well. 

Eraser gave chase. “Nice try, Crow.”

He grinned at being called his vigilante/hero name. Looked like Eraser was in hero mindset, then. 

“Catch me if you can, ‘Raser!” He yelled back before skidding down the stairs to a lower floor. “I’m heading down.” He murmured into his mic, quiet enough that Eraser wouldn’t hear his plan to regroup. 

He managed to outmaneuver Eraser, feeling his quirk come back and immediately going invisible again. 

Yaoyorozu nearly ran smack into him until he grabbed her by the shoulders, causing her to nearly scream in surprise. “Oh! I didn’t realize you were invisible again.”

He chuckled, pulling her to a new hiding spot. “We’ll need a new plan since this one didn’t work out.”

“I’m sorry, I messed up your idea…” She seemed to genuinely feel bad. He’d never seen her as the apologetic type. 

“Don’t apologize, it’s fine.” He dismissed, trying to think of a new plan. When she merely nodded, he sighed. “Stay focused, you can feel bad about it later.”

“R-right. You’re right, yes.” She replied, setting a more determined look. 

What was up with her? She was so confident at the beginning of the semester. 

“Okay. Here’s the new plan.” He continued. 

Aizawa POV

They’d been missing for nearly 5 minutes now, which wasn’t surprising for Midoriya to disappear, but Yaoyorozu wasn’t an overly stealthy person. 

He had scoured nearly the entire bottom floor before moving back up a story. How’d they get away? Could Midoriya make other people invisible too? He wouldn’t be surprised, really. 

A slight scuff to his right caused him to immediately bolt in that direction.

He caught sight of Midoriya once again, who immediately bolted away from him. 

Were they going with the same plan as before?

He gave chase, paying close attention to his surroundings, wary of any new traps that would affect his vision, while making sure his quirk was trained on the student in front of him. 

There wasn’t any sign of Yaoyorozu, so Midoriya was likely leading him towards her. 

Midoriya skidded to a halt and whirled around to face him, and he noted that he had cornered himself. “Take a wrong turn there, kid?”

He frowned, crouching down and seemingly looking around for a way out. 

A metal clinking behind him forced him to turn around, seeing what looked like a grenade rolling towards him. 

He jumped to the side, diving behind a crate just as the grenade began hissing. 

He looked over at Midoriya, who was still in sight, and felt dread as he saw the kid was now wearing a gas mask. 

No sooner did he make the connection that the grenade was a smoke bomb did he start coughing as his vision was clouded over by the high amount of smoke being released. 

He had to end this, and soon. 

He stood and ran towards where he last saw Midoriya but noted that he was no longer there. 

Shit. 

He coughed again, pulling the front of his jumper up to breathe more easily. 

His arms were pinned to his sides once again. What was this, the third time? This time, however, he couldn’t get out of it before he felt his wrist get cuffed.

He felt a gas mask get slipped over his face and the rope disappeared as their victory was announced. The mask was clicked on, and he could suddenly see very clearly despite the smoke. 

Yaoyorozu was rushing towards a window to clear out the smoke and Midoriya was standing next to him. “Good teamwork, kid.”

“Thanks! It took a minute to get the hang of working with someone new, but we made it work.” He replied, unlocking the handcuffs to let him go.

“You’ll get a list of things you did well and what you can improve on when your final grades come back.” He said, rubbing his wrist before leading the way out of the warehouse.

Yaoyorozu still had a long way to go, but her meetings with Inui seemed to have helped with the second half of the exam. 

He wasn’t looking forward to reviewing all of the final exams of his students in such a short time span, not to mention that he was certain Midoriya would try watching them too, but he was curious to see how everyone had improved. 

Chapter Text

Dabi POV

“You dick!” Aoki chided, smacking Dabi on the arm. 

Dabi shrugged, chuckling. “What? It’s true.”

She rolled her eyes, taking a long sip of her drink and partially spinning her bar stool to face him better. “Just because I can make my hair and nails grow longer doesn’t mean I want fucking talons for toes.”

Itou snorted, settling down beside Dabi. “What did I just walk in on?”

“Just asking her about her quirk, not my fault she got offended.” He replied, downing the last of his beer. 

“Freak.” She laughed. 

They were all distracted as a man approached them.

Much to his displeasure, it was the fairly popular informant Giran. He was looking directly at him. 

“Dabi-san, a word, please?” He said with a smile, glancing at the other two. 

Aoki looked like she was about to say something, so he raised a hand to stop her from talking.

Dabi frowned but stood, following Giran as he headed towards a private room. “So, what’s this about?”

Giran settled down in the booth, lacing his fingers together. “The League of Villains is looking to recruit.”

“Again?” His interest was piqued, he sat down across from him. 

He nodded. “Yes. One of the lead members asked me to find members to recruit.”

He narrowed his eyes, leaning back. “Are you implying that you want to recruit me into the League of Villains?”

Giran sighed, taking a sip of his whiskey before speaking. “I know a lot more than most informants and I don’t like what they’re planning.”

“What makes you think they’d accept the most wanted vigilante in Musutafu?” There was no way they hadn’t heard of him, he was even ranked 4th in all of Japan. 

Still... This was the opportunity that he'd been hoping for since deciding that he was going to pursue the League. 

He grinned. “I’ve been talking you up to the League, telling them you’re sick of doing good without reward. I even mentioned that you hated the number one and two heroes. Akatani seemed particularly interested in that part.”

“Well, the latter is true. Is their whole shtick really just to kill All Might?”

“Someone is working behind the scenes with ulterior motives, I just haven’t gotten close enough to them to know what that is. So, as far as we are aware, that is their only goal.” He replied, taking another drink. “You in?”

Dabi hummed, crossing his arms. “What will I get out of it? If I’m found out, there’s no way they’d let me leave alive.”

“Is taking down the League not enough?” He questioned. “I’ll give you a cut of the profits I’m making, how does that sound.”

“Deal. So, when do I get to meet the infamous League of Villains?”

Giran grinned, finishing off his whiskey. “Tomorrow, if everything stays on schedule. I have one other person who will also be recruiting, but she’s a wild card.”

He blinked in mild surprise. “That’s sooner than I expected.”

“Not my fault, they barely gave me a week to find recruits.” He shrugged. “And they wanted high quality members, not the grunts they hired for the attack on UA.”

He sighed, standing up. “Right, what time and where?”

Giran pulled out a business card, handing it to him. “7 pm, meet back here.”

He took the business card, glancing at it briefly before putting it in his pocket. 

He wasn’t sure how Izuku would react to finding out he was joining the League, but he did want him to keep tabs on them so he doubted it would be a big deal.

“You’re what?” Izuku asked, stunned. 

“I’m not gonna repeat myself, kid.” He drawled, watching as Izuku stood from the couch and started pacing. “Giran is one of the best informants around, everything will be fine.”

“But you’re joining them in less than 2 hours, after finding out you were joining them not even 24 hours ago. This is really dangerous.” He continued to pace, muttering under his breath. 

“Izuku-kun, chill. I've been planning for this for a while now. Do you trust me?” He interrupted, forcing the kid to sit back down. “I wanted to tell you so you can pass on the information I get to Eraser.”

Izuku thought for a moment before nodding. “If they don’t keep their members in the dark like last time.”

“Right. Giran said that they were taking recruiting more seriously, so I can only hope that they won’t do that.” He relaxed as Izuku absorbed the conversation. 

“I’ll keep ‘Raser in the loop, he doesn’t want me getting involved so this is the closest I’ll be able to get.” His phone buzzed and he jumped up. “It's Kuroiro, call me as soon as that meeting is over?”

“I will, kid, go have fun with your friend.” He replied, giving him a lazy wave as he skipped off to the front door. 

He arrived at the info bar not long later, finding Giran waiting at the bar top. 

As he approached, he noticed that there was a teenage girl standing by him. She had what looked like a permanent smile on her face as she observed everyone around her. 

“Yo, Giran, I’m here.” He stopped in front of the man, hands shoved in his pockets. 

He didn’t like the idea of going undercover considering he’d never done it before, but this was to keep Izuku and other people safe. 

“Ah, Dabi, good to see you.” He said with a grin. “Let’s leave right away, then.”

He was expecting to walk there, but after Giran merely pulled out his phone and sent a message, he assumed they would get picked up. 

Weirdly, though, Giran turned and led them into a private room. 

“We waiting for someone to drive us there?” He asked at the same moment that a dark portal appeared in front of them. 

“Kurogiri’s quirk allows him to teleport himself and others to a location he’s been to before or to a set of coordinates.” Izuku explained, reading through the notes in his notebook. “His quirk is even more powerful because it was modified through human experimentation.”

Dabi felt a bit sick to his stomach. Human experimentation? What kind of fucked up life has Izuku lived?

Giran motioned for them to enter, walking in behind them. 

When his vision cleared, he found himself just outside of a seedy bar. 

He didn’t recognize his surroundings, meaning he wasn’t in Musutafu anymore. 

Glancing over at Giran, he followed the man into the bar after he knocked a specific pattern into the door. Giran stopped and made them wait in the other room as he went to speak with whoever was deeper in the bar. 

They were motioned to come in a moment later.  

It was dimly lit but not unclean. He saw two people at the bar top, one who was most likely Kurogiri and the other who he assumed was Akatani. 

Akatani had a hand covering his face. Quite the accessory, he didn’t doubt that it was real.

“So, it’s you, huh?” He couldn’t help making a snarky remark. “I saw a picture of you, but you look gross in person.”

“Wow, the hand guy! You’re friends with the great Stain, right? Right?” Toga exclaimed excitedly. “Let me join, too! The League of Villains!”

He glared at the two judgmentally before speaking. “Kurogiri, get rid of these two. Everything I hate came together in one set. A brat, and a rude guy.”

So, he was terrible at insults.

“Now, now. They came all this way to visit, so let’s hear them out, Akatani Tomura.” Kurogiri placated. “Besides, the big shot broker brought them. They’re bound to be valuable assets.”

Giran exhaled a puff of smoke, turning to them with a grin. “I don’t care what you do to them, but make sure I get my commission, Kurogiri-san.” 

Well, that was comforting. He side-eyed Giran as he approached them. “Let me at least introduce them.” He motioned towards Toga. “First, the high school girl. Her name and face were kept tightly under wraps by the media, but she’s on the run as a suspect in a series of deaths by blood loss.”

“I’m Toga! Toga Himiko.” She said cheerily. “It’s hard to live. I want the world to become an easier place to live!”

She had a good goal in mind, but she was led the wrong way on how to achieve that. 

“Next, this guy over here.” He turned his attention towards Dabi. “While he hasn’t committed any villainous crimes, he holds fast to the hero killer’s ideology.” 

Well, that wasn’t very true. Sure, the hero system was corrupt, but he wasn’t just going to go around killing heroes for the sake of purging unworthiness. He didn’t outwardly react though, instead watching for Akatani’s reaction. 

“Don’t just stand there and stare, give me your first name at least. You’re an adult, right?” Akatani asked, returning the studying stare. 

“It’s Dabi.” He replied shortly. 

“I know that but that’s not what I want to know. What’s your real name?” Akatani pushed, pointing at him. 

Not even Izuku knew his real name, like hell this guy was going to learn. “I’ll tell you when it’s time. Anyway, I will carry out the will of the hero killer.” Might as well try to upsell himself to get in. 

“You don’t have to say what you haven’t been asked.” Akatani said snidely. “Geez, everyone’s so hung up on Stain, Stain… I don’t like it.” He pushed himself up from the bar stool. 

“You mustn’t, Akatani-” Kurogiri tried calming him. 

“I don’t feel good.” He felt himself tense up, realizing his life might actually be in danger. Akatani reached his hands out towards him, lunging forwards. “You’re all no good!”

‘Well, killing Akatani will be one less villain to worry about, right?’ He thought, raising a hand and feeling the flames begin to heat his palm. 

Then, faster than all three of them, Kurogiri acted. 

Small portals were scattered around the room, preventing anyone from attacking each other. 

“Please calm down, Akatani Tomura.” Kurogiri said firmly. “If what you wish is to come to pass, then we must increase the organization’s numbers. Strangely enough, we’re in the spotlight right now, so now is our chance.” His head stretched around to whisper something he couldn’t make out in Akatani’s ear. 

What he wishes? Was that just to kill All Might or was there more?

He pulled his hand back, taking a step back just as Akatani pulled back as well. “Shut up.” He pushed past them and towards the other room. 

“Where are you going?” Giran questioned, watching him walk. 

“Shut up!” He repeated before shutting the door behind him. 

Giran rubbed the back of his head. “I don’t want to complain about a client but… He’s young, too young.”

“I thought he was going to kill us.” Toga added on with a smile. 

He huffed, turning his head away from the door. “He makes me sick.”

Kurogiri interrupted them. “Would it be alright to give you an answer at a later date? I believe he knows what he should do. It’s because he knows that he left without saying anything.”

He mentioned something about Akatani getting humbled and Dabi nearly snorted. That guy was humbled? Right, sure. 

“I’m sure he will reach an answer that both you and he himself will be satisfied with.”

A portal opened up for them and Giran motioned for them to walk through. “Thank you, Kurogiri-san, I hope to hear from you soon.”

And with that, they were back in the private room of the info bar. 

“I’m going to be working for that guy?” He asked, slightly incredulous.

Giran nodded. “Yeah, I get it, not the most pleasant man, is he?”

“That’s one way to put it.” He grumbled, noticing that Toga was more chilled out now that they were out of danger. “What’s your motive, kid, aside from Stain?”

She looked up at him, giving him a smile. “No one understood me growing up, my quirk needs other people’s blood to use, so it scared people. My own parents hated me. I just want a place where I belong.”

Sad upbringing, it explained why she acted the way she did. “You have a place to stay?” He asked.

She shook her head, so Dabi motioned for her to come with him. “I’ve got a spare room, come on, kid.”

He’ll say it, it got lonely in the apartment without Izuku. He missed arguing with his little brother every day. 

Sure, Izuku still called nearly every day, but it wasn’t the same. 

She followed, though he could tell she was wary.

They arrived back at his apartment 10 minutes later and he kicked off his shoes. 

He showed her to the spare room before retreating to his own room to call Izuku. He doubted she’d try robbing him, not that there was much to rob, so he left her to her own devices. 

As long as he can keep a teenage girl off the streets, he was happy. 

Chapter Text

1-A Shenanigans

Izuku, Katsuki, Mina, Tenya, Eijirou, and Momo are online. 

Izuku (1:12 pm): Thought you said you were the best, @Bakugou Katsuki *Image*

Katsuki (1:13): Shut up. Present Mic’s English class was harder than I was expecting. 

Izuku (1:13 pm): Excuses. I scored higher than you in the finals because I’m better. 

Tenya (1:14 pm): Please, do not argue in the group chat.

Katsuki (1:14 pm): Just wait until the training camp, I’ll show you who’s the best in the class, Glowworm.

Eijirou (1:14 pm): Um, guys? You do realize that Yaoyorozu is top of the class, right?

Momo (1:15 pm): Don’t involve me in this argument, please. 

Izuku (1:17 pm): Momo is awesome, she deserves that spot, unlike some people. 

Katsuki (1:18 pm): Hah?! You wanna fight for real? You’ll be eating your words!

Izuku (1:20 pm): Go jump in a lake to cool off, Pommie-chan.

Mina (1:21 pm): *Facetime Video Call*

Izuku blinked in mild surprise at the group chat being called. He was having fun antagonizing Bakugou. 

Deciding to see whether it was an accidental call or not, he hit answer. 

Most of his classmates were already on the call, all talking over each other. 

“Hey, hey, hey!” Ashido called, waving her arms frantically. “I had the best idea!”  

“Everyone quiet down! What is your idea, Ashido-chan?” Iida replied, chopping an arm.

Everyone slowly quieted down. 

She grinned, rubbing her hands together. “Midoriya-kun gave me the idea, actually.”

He tilted his head, trying to figure out what it was before she said it. Nothing really popped into his mind. 

“We should go swimming as a class!” She said excitedly, grabbing a swimsuit on a hanger as if to prove her idea was sound. “Most of us already have swimsuits, and the training camp isn’t guaranteed to have a pool, so let’s go to the water park!”

“Um, which one?” Kaminari asked. “We all live in different cities.”

“The Kotehashi Onsui Pool here in Chiba? How about on Saturday?” She suggested, grinning wider as the other students began to accept the invitation. 

Would he be able to get the day off from the cafe to go? 

“You better be there, Glowworm.” Katsuki stated, giving him a challenging glare before hanging up. 

Okay, so he absolutely had to be there now. 

“Hey, Aizawa-sensei, Yamada-sensei?” He asked once he left the facetime call. 

The two adults looked over at him from the couch. “What is it, Midoriya-kun?” Yamada asked. 

“Ashido-chan just invited class 1-A to a swimming park in Chiba on Saturday, is it cool if I go?” 

Eraser raised an eyebrow. “The entire class is going? Those poor pool workers.”

He snorted. “We’re not that bad.”

“Need a ride there?” He asked and Yamada seconded the question. 

“I was thinking of just taking the train.” Aka, he wanted to fly there, but they didn’t need to know that part. “It’ll be easier than going through the weekend traffic, plus you’d be stuck watching the students.”

“All valid points. Keep your location shared with us when you go, alright?” They were still worried about Sensei getting to him. Understandable. 

He nodded in agreement, already retreating back to his room. “Will do! Thanks, guys.”

The flight to Chiba was pretty easy.

He kept himself cloaked the whole time, which also kept him from overheating from the summer sun. 

It had also been easy getting his shift covered, which he was grateful to Kimi for being so accommodating. 

The flight took 2 and a half hours, which was probably the longest he'd flown at one time. 

He arrived there about 15 minutes after the scheduled start time, lightly landing in front of the pool house and turning off his quirk. 

He went through the motions of getting a day pass and changing in the locker room before making his way to the pool itself. 

He spotted Ashido first, then Kuroiro, Tokoyami, Bakugou, and the majority of class 1-A. 

“Midoriya-kun!” Ashido called out with a smile, waving him over. “You’re late!”

He headed over to them, running a hand through his hair. “Sorry, I left later than anticipated.”

“Oi oi.” Bakugo called, immediately beelining for him. Ah, great, exactly what he was hoping for. “We didn’t get to fight during the sports festival, so let’s go.”

He abruptly turned and headed towards the part of the park that had a pool sectioned off for swim practice. 

Izuku followed, wondering about how well he’d do since he didn't really swim all that often. He noticed that a lot of class 1-A had also followed, obviously interested in the swimming showdown. 

They both stopped next to each other and looked out towards the pool. 

The pool was an impressive size, but not quite Olympic sized. 

He wasn’t a swimmer, but the park had a rule that no quirks that could dirty the pool were allowed. That wouldn't apply to him.  

He flexed a hand curiously, watching as the darkness created webbing between his fingers. He grinned, glancing over at Bakugou who was looking at his hands with a judgemental expression. “What? I don’t usually swim.”

Bakugou scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Whatever, I’ll still beat you, quirk or not. Hey, cheeks, give us a countdown.”

Uraraka blinked in surprise at being called out, then shrugged, figuring it was just because she was the closest to them. She gave a short countdown and the two were off. 

His webbed fingers definitely made swimming easier, though he was still a bit awkward in the water. When was the last time he’d been swimming? He actually couldn’t remember. 

He flipped around once he got to the end of the pool, kicking off hard to shoot himself through the water. 

His hand touched the other side, and he resurfaced, taking a welcoming gasp of air. 

“Very close match!” Uraraka called out. “Bakugou-kun won by a hair.”

He hoisted himself out of the water, letting the darkness dissipate. Yeah, he was expecting to lose. 

“Good competition, Pommie-chan!” He said with a smile before shaking out his hair. 

Bakugou was also grinning. “Told you I’d win. Good match, Glowworm. Who wants to get their ass kicked next?”

Kirishima was up next, then Kaminari, Ashido, and Todoroki. It wasn’t until Tsuyu accepted the challenge that Bakugou finally suffered his first loss. 

“Down goes his empire!” Izuku cheered from a pool chair next to Kuroiro and Tokoyami. 

Bakugou was a surprisingly good sport compared to when he’d first met him. Either he got humbled, or he just grew up. 

They spent the next few hours checking out the rest of the park, Bakugou always found some new competition to challenge them to. 

Izuku wasn’t going to back down from a challenge, and the other competitions didn’t require swimming. He won five out of the seven other competitions. 

It was fun. He didn’t have to worry about anything, not that he usually let his past get to him in the first place. 

Izuku took a bite of his popsicle, lightly kicking the water his feet were dangling in. 

Kuroiro joined him not long later, holding his own popsicle. 

“Hey, Kuroiro-kun, having fun?” He asked, watching as Kirishima did a backflip cannonball into the pool. 

He nodded, leaning back on his hand. “Midoriya-kun, you can call me Shihai, if you want to.”

He looked over at him in mild surprise, then smiled. “Okay, Shihai-kun, you can call me Izuku, then.”

“If we are on a first name basis now, you two may call me Fumikage.” Tokoyami’s voice said from behind them. 

He wasn’t expecting to take another step in his friendships. He’d kinda expected them to stay at an arm’s length like all of his other relationships had gone. It was a new kind of feeling, but he didn’t hate it. 

How strange. 

Yaoyorozu came and joined them not long later, finding that the trio was the only group not playing in the water at the time. “This is quite fun! I have never been to the public pool before.”

Izuku finished off his popsicle. “Me neither, actually.”

“Really?” Shihai seemed surprised at the confessions. “My family didn’t go often, but I’ve been to the one back home maybe once or twice every summer.”

“Where’d you learn how to swim, if you’ve never been to a public pool?” Fumikage asked. 

“The place I used to live at had an indoor pool.” He replied a bit vaguely. 

“Me as well, my family has an indoor and an outdoor pool at our summer house.” Yaoyorozu agreed. 

He was certain that he and Yaoyorozu had grown up in completely different ways, but it was nice to accept some of the normalcy that he wasn’t the only one. 

He assumed that Yaoyorozu had grown up rich, which wasn’t too far off from him growing up in a massive lab that had many different amenities. Maybe he should try hanging out with her more often. 

Izuku took the train back home, feeling a bit too tired to fly back. 

He unlocked the dorm room and stepped inside with a yawn.

“Welcome home, Midoriya-kun!” Yamada called from the lounge. 

He pulled off his shoes and walked into the lounge. Yamada and Eraser were watching a hero drama that he’d taken an interest in. “Are you watching Tower of Heroes without me?” He asked, mock-offended.

“You’ve been gone all day, and we wanted to know what happened.” Eraser replied, amused. 

He flopped down on the floor, leaning back against the couch. 

“Don’t worry, we’ll restart it where we left off last.” Yamada reassured, grabbing the remote. “How was the pool?”

He laid his head back against the couch cushion so he could see the two. “It was good. Bakugou kept challenging us to different competitions and I won five out of eight of them. I’m also on first name basis with Shihai and Fumikage now.”

“Good to hear, kid.” Eraser said, ruffling his hair for a moment before stopping himself. 

He didn’t mind it. Dabi would purposefully mess up his hair almost every time they passed by each other. He didn’t dare do it when Izuku had his hair up, though, not after the one and only time he tried. 

Deciding not to comment on it, he focused on the tv as the show started up again.

He didn't fully notice when he started nodding off, only that his eyelids had grown a bit heavier and words in the tv show started to blend together. 

He vaguely remembered relaxing back against the couch and possibly Eraser’s leg, but he was sleepy enough to not think much about it. 

He heard two voices softly talking to each other, then a small chuckle from Yamada. 

A hand lightly brushed through his curls, and he quietly hummed, content. 

He could get used to this.

“Not good enough, Akatani.” Sensei reprimanded him through the tv screen. 

The 11-year-old let his frustration get the better of him. “But I killed him! What more do you want me to do, Sensei?”

Sensei was quiet for a moment before speaking again. “Kurogiri, bring him to me.”

He felt his heart skip a beat as a portal opened up in front of him. He paused, staring at it unsurely. 

“What are you waiting for?” Sensei asked dryly. 

He swallowed, then stepped through the portal. He found himself standing right in front of Sensei. He felt nausea roil in his stomach at seeing what he looked like. 

He’d seen Sensei after his injury only once, but that was 2 years ago. 

The wires and tubes were still in place, and what skin he could make out was gnarled and scarred. It was almost too much to handle. 

Sensei raised a hand and beckoned him forwards. 

He felt his body move on its own as he was made to approach. He tried fighting against the quirk as he drew closer to his outstretched hand.

Sensei grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, his scarred mouth curling into a grotesque smile. “So, you don’t know what I want you to do?”

He dared not fight back against the hold as it tightened around his collar. 

“Follow my direction, or the next opponent you will face will be your own mother.” He said coldly. 

Izuku’s eyes widened at the threat. “No, no, I’ll follow you, I promise.” He whimpered as he was partially raised into the air before he was tossed back. He fell to the ground but quickly scrambled to stand properly again. “Please, leave my mother alone, she didn’t do anything.”

“Don’t give me orders, Akatani, you know better than that.” 

He quickly shut his mouth, feeling a lump forming in his throat. He was so afraid that Sensei would go through with the threat. “I-I’m sorry, Sensei.”

Sensei flicked his hand and Izuku was sent through Kurogiri’s portal once again. 

He was swallowed by the darkness. 

A hand gently shook him awake. “Midoriya-kun?”

He blinked a few times before quickly sitting upright and looking around. 

It took a moment for him to realize that he wasn’t in the lab, but when he did, he felt all the tension fade once again. 

“Are you alright?” Eraser asked. 

He touched his cheek, realizing he must have started crying in his sleep. “Yeah.” He replied, rubbing his eyes. “Yeah, just a bad memory.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked tentatively. 

Izuku paused, looking up at Eraser. Did he? 

He leaned against Eraser’s leg again, looking at the now dark tv. Yamada must have gone to bed. 

“Se- All for One would threaten my mother’s life if I disobeyed or didn’t do something exactly how he asked it. I didn’t know at the time that she was already dead, so I would try really hard to please him. I don’t know why that dream bothered me, they usually don’t.” He explained. He’d never told anyone about his dreams before. What was in the water at the pool?

“They can catch you off guard. I know I’ve had my fair share of nightmares like that.” Eraser’s hand lightly rested on his shoulder. “It gets easier with time and with therapy.”

He hummed, worrying the hem of his shirt. “Should I do that?”

“See a therapist?” He clarified, and he nodded. “We can get you on Inui’s summer schedule.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.” He replied. He’d never seen a counselor or therapist before. Hell, he rarely talked about his feelings to anyone in general. He never thought he needed to, but maybe he was wrong about that. 

“Of course, problem child.” He shifted, moving to stand up. “It’s late. I know it’s summer break and you don’t have to get up early, but you should get to bed.”

"Yeah, yeah." He stretched before accepting Eraser’s proffered hand and standing. He paused for a moment before giving him a quick hug, pulling away just as quickly. "Good night, Aizawa-sensei.”

He seemed a bit surprised about the gesture but ended up just ruffling his hair. “See you tomorrow, Midoriya-kun.”

They retreated to their rooms and Izuku curled up in bed. 

Chapter Text

Eraserhead

Dabi is online

Dabi (8:21 pm): Just got out of a meeting with the LOV, we need to talk asap. 

Dabi (8:23 pm): And everyone who is involved in the training camp should be there too. 

Eraserhead is online. 

Eraserhead (8:48 pm): I got an emergency meeting scheduled. Come to the station.

Dabi (8:50 pm): *Thumbs up*

Dabi POV

Dabi sighed, settling down across from the group in one of the uncomfortable meeting chairs.  

Not many people knew about the training camp. It was the Wild Wild Pussycats, Detective Tsukauchi, Chief Tsuragamae, and Eraserhead. 

The Wild Wild Pussycats seemed a bit put out by the fact that he was the most wanted vigilante and a member of the League of Villains, but they were keeping it professional. 

“All right, Dabi-san.” The detective started, lightly tapping on his notepad with a pen. “What did you learn?”

“They’re going to be targeting specific students.” He replied. “Midoriya Izuku and Kuroiro Shihai, to be specific. Midoriya for obvious reasons, and Kuroiro due to his supposedly villainous quirk.”

Tsukauchi scribbled on his notepad, giving a small nod. “How did they find out about the training camp?”

He shook his head. “They didn’t give much information about that part, but I can only assume that there is a traitor in the school giving them information on the students.”

Eraserhead’s scowl only grew and the WWP murmured amongst themselves. 

“How do you know that for certain?” One of them, Mandalay?, asked. 

“They don’t have a quirk capable of that kind of information gathering. The only way they could have learned any of this would be someone on the inside.” He said, leaning back in his chair. “If I were to guess, the traitor isn’t a teacher.”

“You think that one of my students is working with All for One?” Eraserhead cut in sharply. Damn, this guy really cares about his students. 

He shrugged. “It’s a possibility.”

“We can get back to that in a moment, do you know who all will be in the raid team on the camp?” Tsukauchi asked, redirecting the conversation. 

“As far as I know, only one nomu will be involved.” He replied. “It’s going to be the group that I’m in, the Vanguard Action Squad. There are 10 members in total.”

“Do they know where the camp is taking placing at?” Eraserhead asked. 

He shook his head. “Just like the USJ Incident, we won’t find out anything until the day of. That’s another reason why I think the traitor is a student.”

A pained sort of acceptance crossed Eraser’s face, sparking a bit of sympathy from Dabi. He hated giving bad news. 

“Should we cancel the camp?” Mandalay questioned, crossing her arms. “That way the students will be safe.”

Eraserhead thought for a moment before shaking his head. “No, they would find another way to target the students. If we aren’t careful, the traitor could gain access to student information.”

“So, you want to have the summer camp anyways, despite the fact that it is going to get attacked?” She seemed skeptical. 

It wasn’t ideal, but their hands were kind of tied. It was obvious that the League would only become more persistent until they got what they wanted.

“If I’m there, I can help make sure that students aren’t injured or taken.” Dabi cut in. “And I have an ally in the League who will also be there.”

“Are you going to reveal your betrayal at the camp?” Tsuragamae asked, giving a small woof.

Dabi shook his head. “Not yet. I’m still trying to find their motive on why they’re trying to recruit students.” There are so many better options than kidnapping hero students. What about the hundreds of grunts they hired for the USJ Incident? So many of them had potential and powerful quirks. “This is connected with All for One, who is known to steal quirks. They could be trying to weaken the hero system by getting rid of potentials.”

“They’re playing the long game.” Tsukauchi clarified, frowning. “Which means we have to end this as soon as possible.”

He nodded in agreement. “I’ll keep you updated on what I find out about who the traitor could be.”

“All for One has been One for All’s rival since the dawn of quirks.” All Might said, fingers laced together as he sat across from Izuku in the teacher’s lounge. “He has been trying to take my quirk for the past eight generations.”

“Who has One for All now?” Izuku asked. He had to have chosen one of the students for this. Such a heavy burden. 

“Togata Mirio.” He replied. “He was chosen by my sidekick, and I trust his judgement.”

He nodded in approval. He got to watch the third year sport festival replay and Togata won by a landslide. 

“What did All for One want from you?” He asked. 

He gave a small shrug. “He never specified. I was his successor, so maybe he wanted to give me his quirk like you did with Togata?”

All Might shook his head. “He has been alive for hundreds of years, I doubt he would choose to pass his quirk on to someone else.”

If he wasn’t going to give his quirk to him, why would Izuku be raised and trained for seemingly that purpose? All for One’s motives were hard to know, and it was frustrating that he didn’t know what they were. 

“Please, tell me about your time at the lab.” He continued, looking at him expectantly. 

That’s going to be a long story. 

Izuku POV

Izuku scratched out another name on his list of students. 

Dabi had told him about the meeting and the fact that the League was going to attack the summer camp. 

If one of the students was the traitor, he could give the least-biased opinion on who it could be.

He’d dwindled the list down to three students in 1-A. 

The first was Koda Koji, due to his quiet and observant nature. He had gotten better about talking to the other students, but he was still mostly just quiet. 

The second was Aoyama Yuga, because he did his best to get to know every student and was the most outspoken. If he wanted to move suspicion away from himself, becoming the center of attention was a good way to go about it. 

The final one was Hagakure Toru, solely for her stealth-based quirk. Her hero costume was made of the fibers from her hair, giving her complete invisibility. He knew she was stealthy immediately after meeting her, but he had to wonder how often she’d eavesdropped on conversations or even broken into different locations in the school without anyone seeing. 

He sighed, sending a couple of files to Dabi for him to review. 

He wasn’t allowed to be a vigilante anymore, but being an info broker was still on the table. 

It was a bit surprising to know that they still wanted to go forward with the training camp after this discovery, but Dabi’s explanation on why made sense. 

He frowned up at the ceiling. He was a target. Sensei still wanted him back despite having another successor. Why? Did he just want his quirk back? It was a powerful one, one of the most versatile quirks. 

Only time would tell. He didn’t want to get caught, but he couldn’t deny that he was curious. 

Akatani POV

Why did Sensei care so much about a brat who betrayed them?

He was nothing more than an NPC, an obstacle to get over. 

He could offer so much more than the brat could. He was stronger, smarter, more loyal. 

But no. Sensei wanted Mikumo back. 

Did he not even care about his achievements?

Akatani scratched his neck irritably. 

It wasn’t fair. Why did Mikumo still get special treatment despite having no sense of loyalty?

He never doubted his own loyalty. 

He would let the Doctor do whatever he needed to do to make him stronger, even if it altered his memory. 

It didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was what Sensei wanted. 

And what Sensei wanted was to kill All Might. 

If finding this brat would help make that happen, he would prioritize finding him. 

“Mandalay-san!” Izuku yelled, skidding to a stop next to her. “I know where Kouta is.”

She gave him a long look before nodding. “Go.”

He felt his arm snap under the pressure of Muscular’s punch, flinging him back against the cliff wall with a yelp. 

“You’re weak! I’d kill you here if I was allowed to.” Muscular yelled, laughing. 

He landed hard by the cabin, setting Kouta down before whirling around when there was a loud scream. 

“Izuku, don’t!” Dabi hissed, trying to stop him from pursuing the villain that took Shihai. 

“Don’t stop me, he’s my friend!” He snarled before bolting through the forest.  

“Midoriya!” Eraser called out. “Stop! You’re a target!”

Izuku ignored him. 

Sensei looked at him for a long time, waiting for him to speak. He simply glared back, ignoring the fear squirming in his stomach. 

“Your tantrum is over, Mikumo.” Sensei said coldly.

He swallowed, keeping a hard expression. “It’s Izuku, actually.”

If he had to fight, he would. He was ready. 

And then, a sharp jolt was followed was by darkness as he was hit by a quirk he couldn’t see. 

His head hurt. It felt like it was splitting, actually. 

He groaned, squinting his eyes open. 

He was in his room, was it just a vivid dream?

His room… His room?

Was this his room?

He glanced around, forcing himself to sit up. 

His mind was hazy, but he could swear his room didn’t look like this. No, he recognized the decorations. 

His memories were fading in and out. 

He gasped before throwing himself at his desk, pulling out paper and a pen. 

He knew what was going on. He had to let Eraser know before he forgot again. 

His pen froze on the paper. Wait, what did he just remember? Why did he have to tell Eraserhead something?

Right, focus. 

If he didn’t do it now, he didn’t know the next time he’d be lucid enough.

He finished writing and folded up the note and stuffed it in his pocket.

Chapter Text

Shihai jumped out of the shadow on the ground and pulled Ashido to the side just as the clawed arm of the earth monster reached for her. It was scarily similar to the nomu he fought in the USJ, but he couldn’t let that thought keep him from being a hero. 

“Scatter! Confuse them!” He heard Izuku shout, and the battle was on. 

What felt like days of fighting and dodging attacks passed and the class found themselves limping into the clearing. The Wild Wild Pussycats and Aizawa-sensei were waiting for them. 

Immediately, Izuku, Momo, and Shouto were bombarded with praise by one of the cat themed heroes.

Izuku’s facade was impeccable, even in his exhausted state, but Momo and Shouto both looked pretty done with the situation. 

He was glad he wasn’t on the receiving end of the praise, he was still pretty annoyed about how long they were out there for. 

But, a delicious dinner and long bath later, he found himself quietly exchanging jokes and laughs with Izuku, Shouto, and Fumikage as they were curled up in their respective sleeping bags. 

Day one was rough, and he could only hope that it wouldn’t be this difficult the entire trip.

Shihai winced as his quirk tried to reject merging with the minimal amount of shadow available in the mid-day light. 

Aizawa-sensei told him to practice merging with objects with lighter shades than the near pitch-black that he was used to. 

The lightest he’d been able to merge with was the dark wood of the forest surrounding them. 

Did their teacher not understand how his quirk worked?

“Kuroiro-kun.” He glanced up with a jump, not realizing that Aizawa-sensei had been watching him. 

“Yes, Aizawa-sensei?” He replied, shoving aside the critical thoughts he’d been having earlier. 

He approached the younger, glancing down at the large log he’d been trying to merge with in front of him. “You’re making good progress, but you’re still focusing on how your quirk only works on dark materials. You can merge with objects because your body splits apart on an atomic level. If you only focus on the shade of the material, you won’t be able to use your quirk effectively.” 

He picked up a dust-covered stone and held it out to him. It was a lot lighter than the wood was, which made him nervous.

“I don’t think I can use my quirk with that yet.” He admitted, looking at the stone warily but taking it when Aizawa-sensei’s hand remained where it was. 

“Think about what I just told you and try with just your hand.” He replied, looking at him expectantly.

He paused for a moment, unsure, then reached his other hand to cup the stone. He felt the now familiar sting of using his quirk on such a light material. It took over a minute before his hand slowly merged with the stone.

“Breathe, kid.” He heard his teacher remind him.

He slowly exhaled, feeling his hand attempting to rematerialize as he did. The stone was light, but he was still able to merge with it. 

Should he consider renaming his quirk?

He gave Aizawa-sensei a smile. “Thank you, sir.”

His teacher gave him a pat on his shoulder, grunting in response before turning towards the cave that Izuku was practicing in. 

He could see a dull glow coming from inside the cave, meaning he was practicing his light side in the dark cave. 

He tossed the stone aside and turned his attention back to the log, finding that it was a bit easier to use his quirk on it now.

Shihai grinned and exchanged a knowing glance with Izuku and Fumikage. The test of courage was right up their alley. 

He’d been having fun with the camp so far, but Izuku seemed strangely on edge. 

Maybe he wasn’t the camping type? But then he wouldn’t have lived in a camper van if he wasn’t. 

Then, Izuku returned the challenging grin, back to his usual self. Maybe he was just imagining things.

Class 1-B was the first to be the “scarers,” which was a little disappointing. He wanted to scare people, it was fun.

He got paired with Ashido Mina, which he was pretty happy about. She was funny, and he knew she was nervous about this test.

Even if he wasn’t the one scaring people yet, that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy watching people get scared. 

They were the 2nd group to go through and things went fine, though he almost got barreled over by Ashido as she practically leapt into his arms when someone’s head popped up out of the ground. 

“Shut up, it was a good scare!” She scolded him as he laughed, punching him in the arm. 

The fifth group was going through the forest when something felt wrong.

It started faint, the smell of a campfire. 

Did the heroes decide to get a midnight snack started for the students? 

Glancing around, he noted that all of the adults were accounted for, but they were all extremely on edge. Did they know something?

Aizawa-sensei spoke softly into an ear piece before motioning for Mandalay. 

That was when he noticed it. Bright blue light above the treeline. 

What was going on? Another test of courage?

He glanced over at Izuku, who was staring at Aizawa-sensei with narrowed eyes, as though he was deciphering what their teacher was saying.

“Shihai, Fumikage.” He said urgently, turning to them with a serious expression that scared him more than the test of courage did. “There’s a villain attack, stay together.”

Shihai opened his mouth to say something when Mandalay’s voice rang through his head. “Everyone return to the camp, villains have raided the area and are targeting students. The students they are targeting are Midoriya Izuku and Kuroiro Shihai.” 

His blood ran cold. He was a target? And Izuku? Why?

Swallowing thickly, he allowed himself to get shepherded towards the cabin. 

“Kouta! Where are you?” Mandalay shouted as she glanced around wildly.

And then, the first villains appeared. 

He saw Ragdoll get attacked before they were out of sight. 

It wasn’t until he was in the cabin that he realized Izuku wasn’t with them. 

A stab of panic went through him as he shot up from where he was sitting. “Aizawa-sensei, Izuku-kun isn’t here.” 

His teacher’s face darkened and he was out of the classroom before anyone could say anything else. 

What was Izuku thinking? Had he already been captured? 

Pacing felt like second nature, a bad habit he got from hanging out with Izuku. 

“Shihai-kun.” Fumikage’s soothing voice called to him. He looked over, seeing his friend looking tenser than he’d ever seen. “Don’t tire yourself out, we may need to fight.”

His legs didn’t want to stay still, but he forced himself to nod and joined his friend and classmates as they murmured quietly to each other. 

Around 20 minutes of tense conversation that paused when fighting was heard outside, the window to the classroom exploded. 

Three villains crawled their way inside. One was a young girl, one a man with a mask and hat, and the last one a man with a lizard-mutation quirk. 

“Calm down, everyone, we’re just here for Kuroiro Shihai.” The masked man called out as the students scrambled into a defensive position, pushing Shihai to the back of the room. 

His classmates were going to risk their own lives to keep him safe. He would’ve been touched if it wasn’t so horrifying.

“I suggest you leave before the heroes get here!” Iida said authoritatively, not doing his usual hand chop.

“Ah, that would be a problem, wouldn’t it.” The masked man replied.

“Too bad they’re all dead!” The girl shrieked cheerfully, giving a wide smile at the distraught looks the students gave her. She laughed. “Just kidding! Gosh, you’re all so serious.”

Shihai grit his teeth, wanting to snap something back at them. 

And then, the fight broke out. 

The lizard-quirk man lunged at Iida and was immediately intercepted by Ashido and Kirishima. 

They were easily thrown aside and another two villains jumped through the window. Where were the heroes?

Just as he was wondering that, Best Jeanist burst into the room. Was he backup?

His feeling of relief only lasted about 2 seconds before the student in front of him, Fumikage, was thrown aside and he was face to face with the masked man.

“You’re coming with me, Kuroiro-kun.” A small flash of light blue and his vision went dark. 

It was like floating in a dream. He couldn’t really form thoughts, didn’t feel emotions, he couldn’t even confirm if he still existed. 

Passing ideas that maybe he’d died or that none of this nightmare actually happened went through his mind. 

And then, with a pop, he found himself standing in the warm summer air. The smells of the burned forest greeted his senses first, then his eyes and ears focused. 

His classmates were shouting, the villain on his left behind him tightened his grip on the nape of his neck. His hand was too hot, was he the one that caused the blue flames?

He carefully glanced to the side, noting that Izuku was knocked out and being carried by another masked man. 

The villains… The villains won?

Before he could think anything else, he was being pulled through a familiar black swirling portal. 

When his vision cleared, he found himself in a seedy bar in front of most of the League of Villains, including Akatani. 

There was a click and his arms felt heavy. Glancing down, a pair of what he recognized as quirk-suppressing cuffs were tightly bound to his wrists. 

There goes his only escape plan. 

“Welcome, Kuroiro Shihai.” The black swirling portal said, now wearing a suit and appearing behind the bar. “This is the base of the League of Villains.”

He remained silent, waiting for the inevitable attack. Was the boogeyman going to steal his quirk? Were they holding him for ransom? He wasn’t a very important student, so that would be weird. 

They would have done much better taking Shouto or Momo. 

“Congratulations, welcome to the team!” The young girl said with a toothy smile. 

A man with scars over his face and body sighed, leaning against a wall. “You’re being recruited, kid.”

“Your quirk is so good for villainy, why would you want to be a hero?” The girl cut in, studying him. 

He opened his mouth, shocked, then closed it again and took a breath. “I will show the world that darkness can be good.”

The man with the scars grunted, though there was a slight gleam in his eye that seemed almost proud. He must be imagining things.

That was when Akatani approached him. 

“You don’t have to join us...” He said placatingly, though his smile said the opposite. “Willingly.”

What did that mean?

He noticed that the scarred man and the young girl exchanged a glance. The girl’s smile didn’t waiver but the man looked more unhappy than before. 

Akatani opened his mouth to speak again but was interrupted by the crackling of a tv. 

Everyone’s attention immediately turned towards the tv in the corner of the room, now lit up with a creepy silhouette on the screen. 

“Sensei, I have this handled.” Akatani said, smile fading into an annoyed scowl. 

“Akatani, you know better.” The voice said coldly, sending chills down Shihai’s spine. 

Sensei? So this was the man in charge of everything? The boogeyman?

“I wasn’t going to tell him!” He insisted, approaching the tv. “I’m not a child anymore, sensei.”

The tv was silent for a long moment, then it shut off abruptly. 

Akatani turned back to Shihai with a deep scowl. “You made sensei angry with me.”

He swallowed, unsure how to react. He hadn’t said a single word to Akatani, why was this his fault?

“Akatani Tomura.” The warp villain interrupted. “Don’t forget your meeting.”

Akatani barely glanced his way, keeping a hard stare on Shihai as he bared his teeth before turning away and leaving the bar. 

The scarred man growled something he couldn’t make out before making his way deeper into the bar while the young girl’s smile finally relaxed into a more neutral expression. 

“I apologize if he scared you, have a good night.” The warp villain stated shortly before disappearing.

The girl left not long after that, leaving the same way that Akatani did. And then, it was just Shihai.

He pulled at the handcuffs, trying to get them off to no avail. 

What was he supposed to do now?

He spun in a slow circle, examining his surroundings. 

The windows were too high up to see out of and he doubted they’d leave any kind of weapon for him to find. 

A hand on his shoulder made him jump and whip around. The scarred man was there, looking down at him with what could have been described as a soft expression. 

“Let me show you to the guest room.” He stated before turning and motioning for him to follow.

He hesitated, obviously not trusting the man. 

“Name’s Dabi, by the way.” He said over his shoulder, pausing to wait for Shihai as he finally started following.

Dabi? Wait, that’s Izuku’s brother, isn’t it?

“Why are you with the villains? I thought you were a vigilante.” He asked quietly, going up a flight of stairs.

Dabi was silent until they got to the guest room. It was plain, kind of run down and didn’t have any windows. “You’re safe here, kid, just stay strong.”

There was a certain level of comfort in his words. Maybe he wasn’t actually in the League.

Maybe he was like those two people at the USJ? A spy. 

He stepped further into the room, glancing back when Dabi had turned to leave. “Thanks, your brother speaks highly of you.” 

Dabi gave him a small smile. “I’ve heard a lot about you, too, Kuroiro-kun.”

He sighed deeply once the door was shut, sitting down on the edge of the bed. 

He didn’t know if he could put all of his trust in Dabi, but he was his only hope right now.