Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There was a villain no one seemed sure about what to do with. Spade, while prone to destruction, didn't really attack people so much as heroes. And restaurants. Spade's criminal record consisted mostly of dine-and-dashes, with the villain telling the owners to send his tab to the heroes. To Aizawa's disgust and the amusement of others, All Might seemed to be humoring the kid by actually paying said tab.

Honestly, that man...

But tonight, Shouta was sure he'd be able to corner the nuisance. Spade was clearly overconfident in his ability to shift into fire since he never dodged, unless water was thrown at him, and Eraserhead was going to capitalize on that overconfidence.

Or, he'd planned to. The little bastard was actually pretty confident even without his quirk, which was how the Underground Hero found himself laid out on his back on some rooftop, having been thrown there by his own capture gear. He was pretty sure he had a concussion. It was a miracle his spine hadn't snapped-

No. Not a miracle. Spade had intentionally hit him in a way that he'd be incapacitated, but not permanently damaged.

The oxymoron irked him.

The kid, and Aizawa hadn't realized exactly how young he was before the encounter, looked pretty beat up, but the problem child was grinning widely for some god forsaken reason.

”That was fun!” the brat chirped, chirped, bouncing with his hands behind his head, a big grin still on his face ”We should do this again! No one knows how to fight without powers, it gets boring.” the villain dared pout at him ”Especially Ende-bastard. Fucker can't even aim.”

The mentioning of number 2 hero sent Aizawa's thoughts down a different path, thinking of something. And maybe it was the concussion talking, but he had to ask ”That's right, you always run from Endeavor, but no one else... why?” he really wanted to know, it didn't fit the profile he'd created.

Spade's expression turned cold and he disappeared from Shouta's line of sight. The Pro Hero sighed, thinking he'd left, before he was lifted and dragged over to a wall and left there in a sitting position, the world spinning around him as he refused to puke. When he was able to focus, Spade was crouching at the edge of the roof, his yellow short-sleeved button-up blowing in the wind, revealing just a flash of a scar on his upper back.

The hero wondered fo only a moment if he should try moving again when the young villain spoke ”I hate fire... fire destroys, it consumes, and it leaves only ashes behind... when I see him fling it around like it's nothing... like he's not causing more damage than the people he wields it against...” the ravenette hunched over some more ”I hear the screams... I hear his screams... who is he? Who's screaming? I can't-”

It only takes a blink for him to vanish, but Eraserhead isn't sure if he'd just blinked or if he lost time. But he has some answers. He just doesn't like them.

Shouta could recognize a burn scar. He almost didn't want to have heard an explanation.

A kid with a fire quirk, saying he hated fire.

Problem child.

Spade had woken up in an alley three years ago. He didn't even know his name, though he knew he was supposed to be dead. His arms felt empty, like he should have been holding something, and his chest ached, the skin looking recently healed. He didn't know how he'd survived some sort of attack through his chest, but he knew he hated fire. The screams came in sleep and in the presence of Endeavor, his own fire... didn't help.

Spade found his place in society. Outside it, to be more accurate, but he had a place.

And yet, nothing seemed to fix the ache in his chest. He wondered whether it was the wound... or what he'd forgotten.

Sometimes, he wondered if he even wanted to know.

Chapter Text

Luffy didn't want to be a hero and he hated the Marines. But... the place he was in now didn't work the same. There were no Celestial Dragons at the top making the system shitty, so it wasn't that bad of a deal anymore to be a hero. The only people that were like Celestial Dragons were mostly villains, but Luffy didn't like the looks of some of the heroes. However, if he wanted to get rid of them, it wouldn't be enough to just beat them. He had to be one of them while he did it if he wanted them to go away.

So, Luffy would be a hero. He just wouldn't call himself that.

Nami wold be so proud of him, not causing trouble to get what he wanted.

It's not like he was strong enough, anyway, he'd shrunk and he had to train himself up to the strength that had made him Pirate King.

He did wonder where his crew was. Were they in this world too? Was Sabo? Dad? Gramps?

He didn't know. Right now he was alone, and he didn't like it. If he got into one of those hero training places, then... maybe he wouldn't feel like he was being eaten alive by the hole in his chest.

He listened to the world a lot, which was how he learnt things. He didn't have friends or family, so the world took care of him as much as it could. He was just glad he could still hear the Voice of All Things, even if this place's voice sounded different.

And then, one day, his dad found him.

His dad was awkward, Luffy thought. The man hadn't been around when he'd been a kid the first time, so he probably didn't know how to deal. Luffy was just so happy he wasn't alone anymore. And yet, he had never missed his brothers more than he did now.

Luffy keeps up the lie that he's not hurting and smiles like he's fine. Dragon is almost always at work so he doesn't notice, too busy doing what he had been doing in his previous life, making the world better. Only this time, he was doing it legally. Mostly.

Determination is something both Monkey D's have always had in spades, so when Luffy first brings up becoming a hero, Dragon supports him. Just like he had done nothing to stop his son from becoming a pirate back when he first set out, he would support his son in this endeavor.

He was just glad the old man didn't seem to have ended up here. Otherwise, believer in free choice or no, Dragon would have tried to convince Luffy to become a vigilante just to spite the man.

Not that he thought Luffy would have minded. In fact, the kid would have probably done it himself. He knew his son didn't really want to help people, not like All Might, for example. But wanting to protect other people's dreams was enough to become a hero in his opinion.

Now he only needed to create some slightly illegal paperwork in case his son's brothers had ended up here too. And report both of said brothers missing, just in case.

You never knew when details like that would come in handy.

Living together was odd, at first, but Dragon enjoyed it and he was fairly certain Luffy was also content. This time, the world wasn't so actively against him that taking care of a child would have been a death sentence. He may not be the best parent, but he was far from being the worst.

Especially if his suspicions about Endeavor were true... all he needed was solid proof and the man would be toast.

It was too bad neither Monkey D did much listening to the radio. Perhaps then it wouldn't have taken so long for Luffy to have his family back together. Yamada Hizashi, otherwise known as Present Mic, however, was willing to tear his hair out as he waited for the weekly call from the Fiery Villain: Spade. Or, as Shouta called him, ”Flaming Problem Child” or ”All Might's Stray Cat”.

Because in Aizawa's opinion, if All Might was feeding him, then Spade was his responsibility. Friggin' alley cat.

But anyway, the kid kept calling the show every Friday ever since he'd stolen Mic's Mp3-player. Hizashi had liked that thing! He had to re-create all his play-lists from scratch!

He remembered that day very well. The call, that is, not the encounter. He wasn't even sure when the kid had snagged the player, since he'd noticed it missing much later.

”We have time for one last call before we call it a night! Hello, listener! What's on your mind?” Mic had said boisterously, having had a nice enough day.

The crackling was normal enough, as was the slight delay between him speaking and the caller answering ”What's the name of song 21?”

The question had thrown him for a loop ”Song 21 of what?”

”Your Mp3-Player.”

There had been a brief pause before the Pro Hero had exploded ”Spade you little thief gimme back my tunes!”

”Never!” the villain had cackled on the other end, obviously enjoying the chaos ”I thought I could sell it for cookies, but I liked the songs so I'm keeping it! And I'm only asking 'cause the screen is cracked and I can only make out the number of the songs!”

Hizashi had groaned, already imagining just what Shouta would say about the situation. Probably something about a hungry cat causing trouble. ”For your information, you sneaky little sneak, song 21 is 'Hot N Cold' by Katy Perry. Oh. And I hate you.”

”Thanks for the music, and the show! But you really should work on your situational awareness some more! Eraser could surely help you with that!” the brat had laughed at him before hanging up, leaving Hizashi to grumble.

Hizashi had only been partially right. Shouta had told him in deadpan the very next day what he thought of the 'Lost and found story' in which 'The stray cat found a music player and as the cat was not fed, decided to keep it'

Worst thing was, he was starting to like the brat. Which left him asking the question: 'Just why was Spade a villain?'

Chapter Text

He'd found a blue jacket that reached his shins and had a hood that covered the upper part of his face. It didn't really fit his aesthetic, but Spade had found himself unable to put it down once he had it. It was a good disguise, since people mostly saw him in his black shorts, yellow shirt, a painted spade covering half his face and a red fedora. He didn't like the hat, but he wore it anyway. He didn't know why. For some reason, walking around with his head bare... made him feel anxious. Spade sighed as he weaved through the mass of people, side-stepping so that he didn't bump into anyone. He didn't like being touched.

Or, well...

Diving low to dodge and snatching up the ribbon-like capture gear thrown at him, the teen spun and used it to throw the Pro Hero onto the roof-

-dragging Eraserhead to the door and leaving him in a more defendable position-

-darting past Present Mic and snatching the little shiny thing he'd been eyeing out of curiosity-

-hauling some random kid out of the way of Edeavor's inferno-

He didn't like being touched by people he didn't trust. Kid's can't really hurt him, Mic's a dumbass but he's a nice one and Eraser-

well, he liked the old man. And-

Red hair styled funny, smiling widely and wearing a chef's outfit, laughing-

Blond guy kinda looks like a pineapple, eyes half-mast as if he's always sleepy-

They reminded him of people... people he couldn't remember, but his gut told him he trusted. Had trusted.

Slipping into an empty alleyway, the fire human leant back against the wall, tilting his head back.

He was getting so tired of the flashes of memories that did him no good. There was little substance and he could barely attach any emotions to them and yet-

”Shishishishi!”

Blond boy, missing a tooth-

Raven boy, scar under his eye-

-his back is burning-

-he's leaning on someone, holding, someone's holding-

He wakes up in an alley, his arms are empty.

Swallowing, Spade stood up and threw himself back into the crowd. He needed to keep moving before that portal weirdo found him again. He may be an outlaw, but he wasn't joining some Villain Club just because. What would he even gain?

Honestly, he preferred the Heroes company to the Villains he'd seen the last time they'd tried to recruit him, and he was usually fighting when he encountered Heroes, so that was saying something.

Their presence- it just-

”Zehahahaha!”

He just, he didn't know, but something about those guys rubbed him the wrong way. He'd rather stay as far away from them as possible.

But we rarely get what we want, don't we?

Luffy hummed as he kicked his legs inside the bus, letting the others' chatter wash over him. The class was full of really cool guys and the former Pirate King was sure all of them would become strong one day. 'Specially 'Zuku. The kid might be a crybaby but he was strong and not a coward, Luffy had seen as much in the team battle. He and 'Zuku had been paired together against Glasses and Bakagou and the Straw Hat Captain had immediately been able to see the pain and fear in 'Zuku and the rage in Bakagou. So when 'Zuku had come up with a plan, he'd refused.

”I refuse.”

”Eh? Wh-why?”

”Because. I'll take Bakagou, you take Glasses. Just 'cause you can match him, doesn't mean you should. So you take Glasses and I take Explody. It'll be super easy if he's really that keen on fighting you.”

In the end, the two of them had won because Explody-dumb hadn't been able to fight him seriously. Luffy had easily trapped him in a rubbery cage made of his fingers and Armament, giving the green-haired crybaby ample time to go after Glasses. Luffy wasn't sure how he'd done it, but 'Zuku was smart, so he'd probably done something smart. Luffy didn't care, he was just happy they won.

And more importantly, he'd made a friend. He wasn't alone anymore.

”Um, Monkey-san?”

Luffy turned to 'Zuku with a smile ”What, 'Zuku?”

The greenette blushed really heavily but only stuttered a little ”Um, w-why do you alw-ways wear that straw hat? I g-get your costume is made so that you can stretch without inhibitions, but-”

Luffy got it, he really did. He hadn't even known what to do about a costume, so he'd asked his dad for help. The former Revolutionary had designed something that looked like what Luffy had worn when he'd first set out, except that his sandals had straps around his feet and behind his heels so that they wouldn't fall off. He'd also heard him mention something about heat-resistance. But his hat was purely sentimental. It didn't fit. So he got it.

”It's a promise.”

The others looked at him when he said that, but the Straw Hat Pirate wasn't looking at them. He wasn't even looking at the person he was answering. Instead he stared at the hat, which he'd taken off his head and let it rest in his palm. It was too big for him again, but only a little. It would fit one day again, but not now.

”Someone important to me gave me this hat and told me to return it when I was strong enough to beat him. And I will. One day, I'm gonna be stronger.... stronger and stronger and stronger than anyone. So that I'll never lose anyone close to me ever again.”

The class didn't have much time to ponder his words as the bus came to a stop at a huge building.

They wouldn't have much time to ponder at all, what with the situation they were about to walk into.

Chapter Text

Aizawa was so done. In addition to a classroom full of teenagers, he also had to deal with ever-present thoughts of Spade. The Problem Child kept invading his thoughts no matter how much the underground hero tried to ignore the glaring issues he'd realized the teen had. PTSD, either partial or total amnesia, borderline suicidal tendencies- it was a lot and it irked him something fierce that he could do nothing about it. The damn brat also seemed to be spiraling, from what he'd managed to gleam during the few fights he'd managed to have with the flaming villain. The brat had muttered something about stalkers during their last fight (and he refused to call them spars, he was supposed to apprehend the brat, not teach him) and Shouta refused to say he was worried. Even if that was what he was.

At least he wasn't the only one being harassed. Mic kept complaining about the ”little troll listener” calling about ”his goddamn stolen tunes, Shouta!”

Served him right for laughing at the underground hero after his first encounter with the brat.

And now All Might wasn't where he was supposed to be, so they'd have to work around that during rescue training. Honestly, why couldn't that man keep track of his-

Something was wrong.

Shouta narrowed his eyes as he spotted an anomaly in the plaza, just as a warpgate materialized in the air.

”Huddle together and don't move!” he yelled at his brats- students, preparing for the inevitable confrontation.

13 would have to get the kids to safety while he engaged the villains, even as Midoriya summed up how bad of a match-up it was.

”No hero is a one-trick pony.”

He dove into the fray and as much as he hated to admit it, all his spars- encounters, encounters, damnit, with Spade had helped in his hand-to-hand. This was definitely easier than it would have been before he started running into the kid.

And speaking of the kid, he'd noticed a blue figure fall out of the warpgate and onto the floor, then stay there, unmoving. He hadn't really been able to look closer, but he had a bad feeling about it. It didn't take long for his suspicion to be proven right.

The figure sat up and started talking, as if continuing something he'd been saying before he was knocked out ”-I don't wanna join your damn club! Wait, where the hell are we? DID YOU KIDNAP ME INTO YOUR STUPID PLAN!?”

That was the voice of Spade alright. Aizawa had a sinking suspicion about the identity of that aforementioned ”stalker”.

The villain covered in dismembered hands sighed as he turned to the flame villain who was stumbling onto his feet ”You fell asleep during negotiations and we couldn't risk leaving you at our base, now could we?”

”Then you should have dropped me off in that alley you yanked me out of in the first place! I don't wanna join your goddamn cult for killing All Might! The guy pays for my food!”

Aizawa wanted to despair at the reason for refusing these people, but he was also relieved. The kid would not mesh well with these people. It was evident in the fact that his happy-go-lucky attitude was nowhere to be seen. In fact, Eraserhead was sure he'd never heard Spade use this tone of voice before.

Irritation, anger... no, Shouta couldn't say he'd ever heard these emotions in Spade's words before.

Spade was... pissed, to say the least. Not only had the creepy portal guy yanked him off the streets, but the weird handsy-guy had dragged him with them on some sort of operation. Oh, and Eraser was there. Why was Eraser there? They were inside some sort of simulator place, Spade was pretty sure- wait. Wasn't Eraser's day-job a teacher? Which would mean-

”Are you friggin' kidding me, you're attacking kids!?” the ravenette yelled at Shiragaki ”What's wrong with you?”

The white-haired bastard was scratching his neck aggressively ”All Might was supposed to be here. I bet he'll show up if we kill some kids.”

The bastard didn't get much time to dodge the fist Spade planted in the side of his face, keeping his flames to himself so that he wouldn't distract Eraser from his brawl. The fire user breathed heavily, temper flaring as Shiragaki flew onto the floor a couple of feet away. Oh, how he wanted to burn the bastard.

”You're fucking lucky that I don't burn you to a crisp right now, bastard. I want to, believe me, I want to. But if I start burning you all to a crisp, I might accidentally blind Eraser. And I like Eraser. A lot more than I like you. I can't even run away from here because portal creep would just fling me back here so you better leave me the fuck alone or I'll beat you into the ground.”

Spade wasn't sure, but he was pretty certain he could feel Eraser staring at him. There was a faint sound of water rushing, telling him something big was happening at the body of water a short distance away, but he didn't really care about that, he only had eyes for the creepy bastard who wouldn't even show his face. The grunts Eraser had been fighting were getting fewer in numbers, so maybe this entire thing would be over soon.

”Noumu.”

The weird thing with its brain out vanished. Then there was a huge gust of wind causing Spade's body to be uncorporeal and thus obscuring his vision and hearing. By the time he was solid and could see in front of him, it was already too late. There was a crunch and a shout of pain. Turning around, Spade saw the ugly thing pinning Eraser to the ground, holding one of the Pro Hero's arms. It was very obviously broken.

”The fuck is that?” the Fiery Villain asked, horror and disgust dripping from his words.

Handsy hummed, sounding smug ”The final boss, you could say. Noumu has the power to kill All Might. With its shock absorption and regeneration, there is no way the Symbol of Peace can win.”

So is it flammable? Spade thinks, but doesn't have time to say as a gigantic fist coated in black slams into the gross thing, sending it flying and away from Eraserhead.

He's not sure what possessed him to move, but Spade is by the hero's side in a heartbeat, using his fire to cut a slim pipe to a size he can use to brace the man's arm as he tears up his blue coat. He likes Eraser, he reminds him of someone he trusted, he's moving on some sort of autopilot as images he can't possibly recognize flit in front of his eyes. He's probably gonna get arrested because of this shit Handsy pulled, but he feels like he's already used to the feeling. It doesn't help when he hears those words, though.

”I don't care about your goals! I'm gonna keep you away from everyone else even if I die!”

Spade freezes. He can tell Eraser is looking at him from under all that hair and blood. But he can't help it. Those words... he's heard them before.

”-ce! I'm gonna save you even if I die!”

On another torn-up battlefield, he's heard them. He's heard them, and more.

”I'm your brother!”

Slowly tying off the makeshift bandage encircling Eraser's arm, Spade turns to stare at red, blue, and yellow.

Perched so high, he can see it all. His family is fighting, getting hurt, dying. Oyaji is leading, but they all follow. For him. He doesn't understand.

How could he have forgotten? The 18-year old stares blankly as the 15-year-old hits the Noumu. Shiragaki is getting angrier by the blow.

”Noumu, pin him.”

The black gross thing pins the rubber-man. The ground is cracked and the 15-year-old is partly submerged in water from where it's seeped out of the broken fountain and is barely ankle-deep. No normal person would drown in that-

But a Devil Fruit user definitely would.

Shiragaki is advancing, headed for the struggling raven-haired boy who's trying to keep his head above the water. He's in no hurry.

But the Fire Logia is.

Before Eraser has the opportunity to use his power, the 2nd Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates is already standing between the threat and his brother.

Looking into a pair of shocked eyes, Ace just knows his little brother is going to cry. But that's fine.

”Ace! I finally found you!”

Ace kind of wants to cry too.

Chapter Text

There was cursing as the villain with the decay quirk stumbled back, his hand burnt from Spade's flames, and why the villain blocked one of Aizawa's students was beyond the man at the moment. Worse, the Problem Child was ankle-deep in water. He didn't have much time to think about it either as Spade moved again.

In a second, the firebrat has grabbed the other villain's face, the hand that was on it flying somewhere to join Spade's hat, which the pro wasn't sure when or where it had flown to during the mad dash towards Monkey and the Noumu.

”If you don't call it off in the next five seconds, I'm gonna flash-fry your face, capische?”

There's something in his voice. His stance. Hell, his expression. It's something Shouta has never seen on this kid. As the Noumu released Monkey and Spade grabbed the kid, bodily throwing him to Aizawa, the Pro managed to name it.

Protective fury.

Strange. Sure, the Problem Child had been vocal about his attitude against attacking kids, but this-

He was missing something, had to be.

Monkey hadn't made a peep since his landing and was instead staring wide-eyed at the flame villain, who was challenging every grunt left while also burning the Noumu every time it moved. Aizawa would have chalked it up to the near-death experience, but-

The expression on the dripping kid wasn't that of trauma-induced shock. No. It was just plain shock. There was a difference, but Aizawa wasn't sure why Monkey was looking like that.

Glancing back at Spade, the underground hero narrowed his eyes. Those moves... were unlike what Aizawa had seen the brat use before. They were surer, smoother, more effective... more inventive. They were the attacks of someone comfortable in their skin, used to their power.

And they were completely different from what Spade had been using before.

Asui and Midoriya ran up to them, their wet clothes telling Aizawa they'd been sent to the flood zone by the warpgate villain, and Shouta couldn't help the feeling of relief. He let the two help him up and towards the entrance, the Pro leaning heavily on Asui as Midoriya tried to get Monkey to move from his spot on the ground, staring at the fight, tears running down his cheeks.

Something was very wrong with the boy.

Midoriya finally managed to drag the ravenette to his feet and slowly they started to retreat. Aizawa's pretty sure the kid is trying to say something, but the words don't seem to make it past his throat.

”Hiken!”

Aizawa refused to look back. His students were more important than the ever-evolving mystery of Spade.

And then the doors were thrown open.

”It's alright, because I am here!”

Toshinori... to say he was furious would have been an understatement. Words could not express what he was feeling at the moment. This was the reason he was not smiling as he entered the USJ building.

”I had a bad feeling, so I cut my talk with the principal short and rushed over. I happened upon young Iida on my way here and he explained the gist of it.”

The frightened look on the boys face, the states his students and kohai were in... it infuriated him.

He couldn't smile. At a time like this, there was no way he could smile.

Taking stock of the situation, the no 1 hero was surprised to note that young Spade seemed to have had a change of heart of sorts. A tattered blue coat was lying next to a pool of blood and he could definitely make out the blue tying Aizawa's hand to a length of pipe, keeping the appendage straight as he and young Asui, Midoriya, and Monkey made their way away from the all-out brawl Spade was in the middle of.

But why had Spade turned on his fellow villains?

What had happened before he arrived?

Discarding those thoughts, for now, Toshinori leaped into the fray, taking out a good chunk of the villains left. Spade barely glanced at him. Instead, his eyes seemed to stray to the retreating backs of his colleague and students- except young Monkey seemed to be staring straight at the flaming villain. All Might wasn't sure what to name the emotion on the young boy's face.

Spade's smirking at him, face devoid of his usual face-paint and his hat nowhere to be seen ”Yo, All Meal Ticket.”

It's the most genuine Toshinori has ever seen him.

Ace was feeling better than he had in a while. Sure, he was still reeling from the fact that he was not dead, but he could ignore that for now. The important thing was that Luffy was safe and he had people to beat up. Fighting beside All Might... not something he'd anticipated.

”Handsy over there can decay stuff, he'll probably focus on you since you can't really decay fire and as for the black thing with its brains out-” the Logia explained as kicked a few other grunts out of the way, thinning the ranks even more ”it was literally created to take you on, so don't.”

All Might looked skeptic and, yeah, Ace could understand why ”What do you mean, young Spade?”

Somehow, that name didn't really sit well with him anymore, but he ignored the sensation ”It's got shock absorption and regeneration. Basically, it was made to withstand you. I don't need to hit it to damage it!” he yelled, doing exactly that as he aimed a fire fist at the thing.

He hated the smell of burnt flesh, but he'd figured out the thing's purpose, so he had to stop it. He tsked as the gate bastard redirected his flames and was forced to snuff them out before he roasted the Symbol of Peace, absently putting out a few of the fires littered around the place.

”I did not know you could put out fires.” the bigger man mused, throwing debris at the burning Noumu, not attacking it directly and heeding Ace's warning.

Cracking his neck, Ace huffed ”Yeah, it's a recent development, figured out how to do it five years ago.”

He could practically feel the confusion from the Pro Hero, but he didn't give him time to inquire about the wording as he readied a bigger attack.

It had been a while since he'd used this one.

The ball of fire in his right hand grew and grew until it resembled a small sun. It was unlike anything anyone present had ever seen, Ace was sure.

Because there were none in this world who had seen it being used.

He grinned nastily, staring down the gross thing he'd already damaged some ”Entei.”

It really stood no chance, regeneration or no. After all, how can you regenerate if there's nothing to regenerate from?

If Aizawa hadn't known better, he would have thought Spade had been holding back for the past three years. But he did know better. And this fact made him think that Spade's memory-problems had just contributed to the way he was fighting. Spade fought with no fear for his element. Completely different from what he'd previously seen from the kid.

It went down pretty fast after that, the decay villain promptly had some sort of mental breakdown while the rest of the teachers finally arrived courtesy of Iida, causing the warp gate villain to take his now wounded boss with him.

Now the only problem left... was how to deal with the Problem Child.

Spade looked tired and Shouta wondered where that burning drive had vanished to. His shirt was ripped and the kid picked at it for a while before just taking it off completely, showing everyone the scar he himself had only caught a glimpse of.

”Huh? Isn't that Spade?”

”Isn't that kid a villain? Why was he fighting alongside All Might?”

”Spade you little thief, gimme back my tunes!”

Honestly, Aizawa thought as his colleagues all started talking over each other, had they no sense of professionalism?

”Young Spade-”

”Portgas.”

Spade's voice rang in the sudden silence, no one having expected him to speak.

”What?”

Aizawa agreed with Yagi on this one, just what was the kid up to now?

”My name. It's Portgas. Portgas D-”

”Ace.”

Everyone close enough to hear him turned to face Monkey, whose voice cracked as he spoke for the first time since Spade- Portgas had rescued him.

Portgas flinched and All Might raised an eyebrow at the kid, who'd shaken off Midoriya.

There was a hitch of breath before Monkey rocketed at the villain ”Aaaaaaaaaaaaaace!”

Instead of the expected hostile reaction, Portgas only braced himself and caught the living projectile, burying his nose into the loudly sobbing and wailing child's hair. The rubber boy had wound his arms around the fire user a few times and was embracing him tightly. Everyone who knew how his quirk worked knew he could have let Monkey pass through him. But he hadn't. He'd let the boy hit him, had consciously kept himself tangible, and was doing nothing to try and get the kid to let go.

”You're always like this.” the fire user said, sounding strangled from either the tight grip or emotions, no one could really tell ”Always getting into trouble... doing reckless things!”

Nope, emotions.

”You're one to talk!” the kid bawled, his words barely understandable ”Right in front of me-! Ace was, Ace was-!” the boy inhaled deeply before letting out the words he had to have been keeping inside him for a while.

”You promised me you wouldn't die!”

The heartwrenching scream from his student was almost more than Shouta could handle, but at least he had an idea of what had happened. Spade- or rather, Portgas, had received a life-threatening injury, possibly in the defense of Monkey, leading the younger to think the older had died, when in all actuality, the trauma had caused Portgas to have total amnesia.

How lucky, he dryly thought, that these villains had brought the kid with them, otherwise he may never have regained his memories.

He very much doubted the kid would go to jail. Even if he was legal now, most of his villainy had been committed not only while he was a minor but also under extenuating circumstances. There weren't many judges who would find him guilty, since it would put into question people doing things while under the influence of mind-altering quirks.

This was going to be interesting.

Now if only Monkey would stop crying.

Chapter Text

His arms were full of sobbing 15-year-old and that's how Ace preferred it. Not that he'd ever gotten the chance to hold his brother at 15, he'd left Dawn a year before that. And the last time he'd held his brother- well... this was preferable to that. At least neither of them was bleeding to death. He wondered what this looked like for all the heroes. Glancing around briefly, he could see a lot of suspicious glares, even more confused stares, and a few neutral deadpans. He didn't much care. So long as no one tried to pry his little brother out of his hold. Because then they'd have problems.

”The hell? Why's rubber bastard crying?”

Ace's somewhat happy bubble was broken by an annoying voice. Or, well, the voice wasn't actually annoying. Ace was just biased. He could admit hypocisy easily enough.

Speaking of which.

The logia leveled a warning stare at the blond who'd run his mouth. He was probably radiating murder, with the speed the boy turned away.

”Young Monkey, perhaps yous should let go of young Spa- ah, young Portgas.”

”Nooooooooooooo...” his brother whined at All Might's suggestion, snuggling deeper without pausing in his crying, even if it was now quieter.

”Come now, young Monkey, I'm sure Young... Portgas is getting tired-”

”Nah,” Ace blasely said, rocking slightly in a pretty vain effort of calming his brother ”I'm in my preferred state of being.”

He could feel Eraser's judging stare, even thought Luffy's hair was blocking his line of sight, so he couldn't be sure.

Present Mic, who'd come over to probably pester him about the Mp3-player, was the next to speak up, in a volume that was not appropriate for indoors ”Your preferred state of being is holding a sobbing 14-year-old?”

Ace paused at that, furrowing his brows, before coming to the same conclusion as before ”Fifteen.”

Mic wasn't the only one to draw up short ”Huh?”

”He's fifteen. Children's Day was like, a few weeks ago.” the Logia explained, confused.

Present Mic's ”What's that supposed to mean?” was mostly obscured by Eraser's ”And how exactly do you know that?”

Ah. Of course. No one knew.

Eraser seemed to know what the day meant, at least, but it was a good question.

Well, might as well answer.

Ace huffed as he closed his eyes, before tilting his head back and looking Eraser square in the eyes with a wry grin ”What kind of a big brother doesn't know his little brother's birthday?”

He had to admit, the minor chaos his statement caused was glorious to witness.

Brothers. That... wasn't as surprising as one would think, now that Izuku thought about it. It had been quite jarring, seeing Mon- Luffy-san cry. He was crying worse than when Izuku himself teared up. And hadn't Spa- Portgas called him a crybaby? So this was normal? At least to him? And why did they have different surnames anyway? Then again if they only had one parent in common-

”Midoriya, you're mumbling.” came the tired voice of their homeroom teacher, causing the boy to shut up as his face turned red.

The two brothers hadn't heard him, it seemed, Luffy-san was sobbing too loudly.

”Uh, Luffy, your teacher's shrinking?”

Huh?

It didn't take long for both Izuku and Aizawa to realize what he meant, but thankfully Cementoss erected a barrier between All Might and the students, so no one could actually see him turning back to his skinny form.

”Oh yeah, he does that.”

That... was concerning. How did Luffy-san know about that?

”That cannot be healthy.”

”Yeah. He feels like the moustache-ossan...”

Midoriya didn't know what that meant, but by the look of Portgas' face, it wasn't a good thing.

”Ah...”

At least Luffy-san wasn't bawling anymore. Instead he was just crying. Izuku wondered if he'd become dehydrated at some point, he was crying a lot.

The police got there a short while later and Luffy still hadn't let go. Or stopped crying. Ace was the only one not surprised by the fact. He had, however, retracted his limbs enough so that he was only encirclign the Logia once, rather than multiple times. It was much easier to breathe and move now. Not that he was moving. Ace had instead sat down on the edge of the stone encircling the decorative plants outside the USJ. The paramedics were tending to the surprisingly few injuries, though those who were injured... well, Eraser was lucky, all things considered. It was a miracle the man was the one with the worst injuries. Though he did wonder how the green-haired kid broke a finger. It looked self-inflicted, unless one of the sleazeballs had got their hands on the kid and tried to torture him before he got away. He wasn't sure which was worse, to be honest.

Kids, normal kids, shouldn't have to fight for their lives.

Luffy and him hadn't ever been normal kids.

He could see the kids were wary and confused, those that recognized him were more wary and the others were the ones more confused, save for the ones that had been close enough to hear his declaration of brotherhood.

That had been funny.

He would treasure his meal ticket and Mic's face forever.

The Fire Logia looked up at the approach of someone he didn't know, but wasn't setting off any warnings. Further scrutiny told him it was a police officer. Great. He wondered if he was gonna get arrested.

How difficult would it be to untangle himself from Luffy and book it?

…

… Not worth it.

Naomasa wasn't sure what he felt as he looked at the young face of Spade, free of the paint and looking skittish, unlike what he'd ever seen the young man look like in the media. Then again, if Eraserhead's theory held water...

Then the kid hadn't been himself for the past three years, and thus couldn't be held accountable for his actions during said time. His actions against the villain 'Noumu', though... well, that was a little more iffy. Then again, Toshinori had mentioned Spade calling the villain a 'thing'. Spade wasn't known for dehumanizing people he didn't like, so perhaps there was more to it...

”Don't look so worried, I just need to ask you a few things.” the Detective assured the young man who seemed nervous at his approach.

The older of the two ravens glanced at the student still clinging to him, patting his back as the kid still sobbed into his neck, something he'd apparently been doing for the last fifteen minutes or so ”Alright...”

Tsukauchi smiled gently, asking about his start as a villain.

Spa- Portgas looked away from him, eyes glazed ”I woke up in an alley with nothing but the clothes on my back and a suspiciously healed wound that should have killed me... I couldn't remember how I'd gotten there, if I'd even been anywhere else before that... I didn't even know my name.” the ex-villain drew in a deep breath before continuing ”All I knew was that my chest ached, my arms were empty, and that I hated fire.” he frowned ”Discovering... or re-discovering, I guess, my fire was... bad.” the fire user frowned, looking at his hand, before clenching it ”After that, I just did whatever I had to to survive and get stronger, while avoiding those creeps that wanted me to join their 'Killing All Might' Cult. They just always rubbed me wrong and I didn't know why... not back then.”

Naomasa nodded, already knowing the kid would get away from punishment, especially since he had actively avoided being associated with the more dangerous villains and the kid hadn't lied at all while telling him this ”How long have you had your memories?” this was the most important question right now and Tsukauchi was sure the fire user knew it too.

The young man took a moment to think ”I can't give you an exact time. Twenty, maybe thirty minutes?” he shrugged ”I'm not really sure how long the fight against that thing took, but I got all my memories back right before All Might busted the doors open.”

22 minutes then, give or take. The kid was definitely gonna walk free, going from total amnesia to remembering everything, while in the middle of a villain attack? No one would be able to get charges to stick.

Honestly, he was glad.

Spade had never been much of a villain, anyway. And watching a supposed villain being unable to escape because he was being cuddled like a big teddy bear and cried on? There was really no way to see him as anything bad.

Portgas would get to live his life from outside bars. The same could not be said for the other villains captured at the USJ.

Chapter Text

Ace was surprised when a man with a face tattoo came to pick up Luffy. He was shocked when Luffy called the man ”dad”. Ace had never seen nor met Dragon, but he did know that Luffy had never met him either. He wasn't sure what to feel about the man who'd essentially abandoned his little brother with Garp, of all people. He wasn't sure what to think of the fact that the man had filed a missing person's report on him. Or the fact that Sabo had been still alive when he'd died back at Marineford. He did find it kinda ironic that they'd both had amnesia. The Logia decided he could forgive the idiot... after punching him in the face if he had also ended up here.

Living with Dragon was different, to say the least. The man was essentially doing the same thing he'd been doing before, but less illegal and less dangerous... which was probably why Luffy even could live with him. The only reason Ace wasn't being difficult was because the man wasn't even trying to find gramps and had, in fact, implicated the shitty geezer in some pretty bad stuff in order to give him and Luffy a solid backstory. Sabo too, if he ever turned up.

According to the story, Ace's dad had been an underground hero. There had been a really obscure one around the time Ace would have been conceived whom Dragon had ”re-purposed” so to speak. He'd also managed to create evidence for a villain gang called ”The Marines” which Garp had supposedly been a part of. This would make it easy to talk about the marines without lying, which would have been a problem when talking to people with truth-related quirks. Dragon was really good at finding things he could re-purpose for his own gain. He'd been able to plant stuff about the Terminal Fire at the correct time, even. Sure, the place that had burned wasn't called Grey Terminal, but it was easy enough to plant the idea that some people had called it that, so again, Ace could talk about it without lying. It also wasn't so far fetched that a port town would have Pirates as slang for criminals, so even if they talked about pirate crews, people would just be under the impression they were talking about gangs.

Ace was starting to realize why the World Government had been so afraid of this man. Even if, in Luffy's words, the man had no idea how to dad. Still better than gramps.

Anything was better than gramps.

Ace had, in between ”catching up on his studies” (which was one of the only blatant lies in this whole situation, he'd never gone to school) and going to a therapist approved by Dragon, scoured the internet for any sign of his family. It took some digging, but he did find Oyaji. The man was on constant monitoring due to his declining health, in a secure establishment Ace wouldn't be able to break into without some thorough planning... if he wanted to. Ace wasn't certain he was ready to try and talk to the man.

Nor did he want to admit he was terrified of seeking the man out. Terrified of what the man might have to say to him.

The Whitebeard Hero Agency was a thing. Ace had not expected that. Further research revealed that Izo was the CEO of a major fabric company catering to everyone's needs. Many Pro Heroes used his fabrics due to the durability and affordability, but the best of it went in-house, so to speak.. Ace cried a little when he found Thatch was alive and well and the owner of the 4th Division restaurant chain. There were miscellaneous mentions of others, until Ace stumbled upon him. The semi-underground Pro Hero: Phoenix. It was Marco, had to be. No one mentioned being able to turn into a flaming bird, but the blue and yellow flames were proof enough, at least for Ace. What's more, after some really thorough digging, Ace had found rumors of more than one team-up between him and Eraser, so maybe... maybe he could get a message out.

He-

He really didn't have the guts to seek them out himself. If he sent a message through someone else- well... he wouldn't have to face rejection directly. Maybe it would hurt less.

UA was offering him a chance to acquire a Hero License. If they were back home, Ace would have refused immediately, but... he really wanted to knock Endeavor down a couple hundred pegs, and what better way to do so than to become a better Flame Hero?

It would be glorious.

If he couldn't get revenge on Akainu, he'd get revenge on the man's equivalent.

He wondered if he could help Dragon build his case against the man. At least get his kids away from him. And his wife. His wife really needed to be taken far far away from him.

Dragon was doing one of his consultations again, so he wasn't home all that much at the moment, meaning Ace and Luffy had the house to themselves. This somehow meant that Luffy was hosting a study session and Ace was faced with Midoriya Izuku's Quirk Otaku Mumbling.

And yes, the phenomenon needed the capitalization.

The kid stripped his Devil Fruit apart and came up with way more uses and attacks than Ace had during his three years of having the powers. And he wasn't counting his time as an amnesiac because he'd been too afraid of fire to even try making better attacks with it.

Eventually, the subject of his scar came up.

The Logia shrugged, slightly uncomfortable “I was against this bastard that could turn into magma. Magma fist through the chest, I stood no chance.”

And that would have been that, everyone agreeing that of course magma would win, if it wasn't for the green-haired Hero Geek.

“But fire can burn much hotter than magma, it shouldn't have been able to hurt you like that... besides, magma is dense, it would have counted as a physical attack and went straight through you.”

There was a thoughtful silence as Glasses and Gravity girl pondered on this revelation, while Luffy started paling at the implications.

Ace clenched his fists. Damnit... why did the kid have to be so smart! He knew Luffy had been feeling guilty enough already, but-

Well, nothing to it, the 2nd Division Commander sighed and turned his head as if to look through the window, but in actuality was looking at the reflection of the four kids sitting on and around the couch.

“It didn't go through... because, at that time... Luffy was behind me.”

He left the room before anyone could bring it up again.