Chapter Text
Wind tugs at his curls, causing him to wince as the air makes his eyes water. A serious storm is rolling in, so he has to hurry. He didn’t want his mom to worry.
Umbrella open, he leaves his middle school quickly. Thankfully not even Katsuki feels the need to antagonize him today when the risk was getting caught up in such nasty weather. Very few people feel he is worth the risk. Running through the emptying streets, he can see his apartment building when all of a sudden the wind picks up and rips his yellow umbrella out of his hands.
Swearing under his breath he desperately reaches for the handle, only to miss. Tightening his hand into a fist, he pulls his hand back, disappointed.
He gets smacked in the face with the handle of his previously lost umbrella.
Confused, he sputters as he stumbles to catch it once more. He feels his face contort into a frown at the peculiarity of it, but ultimately brushes the incident aside. The wind sure is erratic today , he can’t help but think to himself as he tries to shake as much water from his hair and umbrella as he can before entering the lobby.
In his unit, his mother is quietly making dinner in the kitchen. The news is playing in the background, unusually loud from the living room.
“Breaking news! As Typhoon Perla moves closer to the mainland, storms nationwide pick up! Most seaside towns are in the process of being evacuated as a precaution. Some of the more powerful storms are taking down power lines and causing massive amounts of property damage, even in areas located more inland. Some of the affected areas include Musutafu and Hosu. In fact some believe that the storms in Hosu are being used to cover up the use of a dangerous superpower. For those of you who are unaware, many people have suddenly been showing signs of unnatural powers, like from comic books and old superhero movies. Anyone who comes forward with such powers, is immediately being detained until the Japanese government can figure out if the sudden appearance of these so called ‘Quirks’ is a threat-”
The anchor woman is cut off as his mother goes to shut off the television. She resumes cooking, leaving Izuku to hover at the door, staring out the window. His green eyes are focused on the heavy rain and the constant streaks of lightning coloring the clouds. He snaps out of his stupor and takes his shoes off, slipping into his house shoes but staying at the door.
“Mom?” His voice is quiet and thoughtful, making his mom turn to give him a quick glance.
“Yes dear?” The stove top turns of with a loud click, as his mother moves the pan full of stir-fry vegetables to go with the teriyaki salmon she has marinating to the back burner.
“I thought it was my night to cook?”
His mother hums at that, but doesn’t say anything at first. She has a small smile on her face. “Why don’t you clean up before dinner?”
He gives her a small nod, obediently going to shower after setting his backpack in his room.
The shower helps him relax, the hot water soothing his sore shoulders and making him melt a little when he feels a lot cleaner. He’s toweling his hair off when something strange happens. His elbow bumps into the toothbrush holder, knocking it off of the counter. He yelps, going to grab it with one hand as the other swings back.
The holder is suddenly closer to his hand.
He blinks down at the ceramic cup, confused. When had his reflexes gotten so good?
Hearing him, his mother comes to knock on the bathroom door. “Are you alright Izuku?”
“Y-yeah! I just knocked something over.”
“Oh! Well just be careful, alright?” she replies. His mother sounds relieved, even sighing a little as she heads back to the kitchen.
Izuku stares at the toothbrush holder in his hand, and then at his reflection in the foggy mirror. He can’t help but worry for a moment. Then he relaxes. He’s just plain, average Midoriya after all. Or below average Deku, depending on who you ask.
Setting the toothbrush holder back on the counter, he quickly finished drying his green curls.
Dinner is delicious, causing him to hum gratefully around his chopsticks. It is also quiet, his mother being oddly silent as she watches Izuku eat. She hardly even picks at her own bowl, until Izuku frowns at her.
“What’s the matter?”
His mother continues to stare at him, like he’s a stranger. “You know I love you, right?”
He sets his chopsticks down, tilting his head to the left a little, as if looking at her from another angle will help him figure out the puzzle his mother is turning into. She seemed fine that morning before she had left for work. Izuku feels his brow crease and his lips twitch into a confused smile.
“I do. You know I love you too, right?”
That gets him a small smile at least. However, she starts drumming her fingers on the table. “Yeah, I do.”
Finally she takes a bite of her food.
Izuku watches her momentarily before going back to his meal. They finish in silence. When Izuku stands, collecting dishes to get everything cleaned, his mother places a hand on his bicep. He turns to look her in the eyes, a frown coming back when he sees the worried expression on her face.
“Do you want to go to a different school?”
Izuku blanches, caught off guard. “What? Why?”
“Your teacher called earlier,” she pauses, shaking her head a bit to herself, before moving to take the dishes. She lets them sit in the sink, taking one of his hands in both of her. “I’m going to make some tea and do the dishes really fast. Why don’t you pick out a movie or something?”
“Okay…” He lets his mother usher him out of the kitchen and to their beat down sofa. Idly he flips through the different channels but doesn’t find anything interest grabbing. So he settles on an old episode of a sitcom. He stares at the screen, but doesn’t pay any attention.
Eventually his mother came to sit besides him, watching as he tucks his knees to his chest.
“Why do you think I want to move schools? The school year is almost over.”
“Well,” she starts, placing a hand on his back. “Your homeroom teacher said that you um… don’t get treated very nicely by your classmates.”
Izuku doesn’t really have anything to say to that, so he shrugs weakly.
“I think you should consider finishing middle school somewhere else?” She sounds unsure, nervous in the delicate area they’ve found themselves in.
“School will be done in six months, I’ll be fine.” Izuku shakes his head. “Besides, I’m applying to UA, it’s very unlikely that anyone from my class will even go to UA.”
Except Katsuki, but she doesn’t need to worry about that. UA is large and what are the odds that we’d get stuck in the same class for our whole life?
Well, with his luck...
His mother bites her lip, but doesn’t say anything for a long minute. They watch the sitcom blankly as the storm wages outside. The power flickers twice, but stays on thankfully.
“If you ever change your mind, I can have you into a new school in a couple of days.” His mother reassures him with a peck to his temple. “My precious baby boy, I’d do anything for you.”
She cups his face in her hands, gently guiding him to look at her. His hands covers hers, and he she takes the opportunity to turn his head back and forth as if to shake something from him. “I mean it, mister!”
Izuku smiles at that, big and goofy. “I know.”
He gives his mom a quick kiss, before telling her he was going to go work on homework. There wasn’t much to do, though, and he soon found himself staring out his window in boredom. He swiveled his chair around to face the small TV on his dresser. He snatches the remote up, clicking the power button. The news cuts to a broadcast of a building just as it explodes.
“-a very dangerous Quirk! Police are unable to detain-”
Izuku watches in horror as a dark figure jumps into the explosion.
“It appears that someone else with a water based Quirk have arrived on the scene. The person seems to be using the rainwater to help them… well… I’m not entirely sure what they’re doing.”
The screen shows the smoke clearing, and the dark figure leaps out of the hole in the building, landing in front of the officers on the ground. The person shoves the man that caused the explosion towards them, before quickly making a run for it.
They get away and the cops, confused and cautious, get the disoriented figure in a cop car. He’s soaked to the bone, and still sort of struggling.
“Some sort of vigilante perhaps? Maybe the start of a heroic era? Only time will tell-”
Izuku stops listening, his eyes wide as his heart beats in his ears. His chest feels light, full of air. He’s indescribably excited. His hands clench into fists as the feeling covers him from head to toe. A unexpected crash of thunder spooks him, though, just before the power does flicker off. He sits in his dark room for a second.
The word ‘heroic’ echoes through him.
When his mom swings by his room with an extra electric lantern, he’s beaming ear to ear. He’s only fifteen, but it feels as if a strong and unfamiliar yearning calls to him. It gives him a small sense of purpose when he thinks about it later that night, staring up at the ceiling instead of sleeping.
Gasping for breath, the dark figure grins. Despite the heavy downpour around her, she’s still dry. “Quirks are amazing.”
A deep chuckle echoes around her in the back alley. She whips around to examine her surroundings. Her short brown hair flicks her cheek. “Indeed they are… And my, my, my what a lovely Quirk you have.”
The young woman takes a step back, frowning. Very suddenly, and all at once she no longer feels safe. Lightning illuminates the alley, but doesn’t show anyone besides her.
“I’m eager to see how it works.”
She screams as a large hand covers the front of her face, dragging her back into a broad chest. The woman gasps, jolting and twitching as the hand glows. Something tugs at her lungs and at her chest before the feeling of something snapping sends her to the pavement.
She’s quickly getting soaked in the rainwater, her thin black jacket doing very little to protect her now. In a daze, she watches as the man who grabbed her calmly walks away. Unable to get a good look at him, she smashes her fist on the ground. “What did you do to me?”
The man pauses, before pivoting on his heel and kneeling down at her level. He roughly grabs her chin, angling her head up to his. Thunder booms, far too close for anyone to be out in the storm.
“I suppose I shouldn’t leave any evidence around,” he drawls, reaching into his pocket.
He pulls of a Heckler & Koch USP 9 Compact, aiming it to her forehead unapologetically. He fires, and instantly the woman slumps as her head splatters against the side of the alley. Disgusted, he drops the woman’s head as he stands, shaking his gloved hands free of any potential mess.
The cops that arrive to the scene later grimace at the gruesome scene, finding no leads. Unknown to them a duo stood on the roof of a nearby building. The woman of the pair wore a grimace, much like the officers below them. The expression was foreign on her normally cheery face. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, sea foam green locks clinging to her exposed shoulders in the rain.
A sigh escapes her companion, and he turns away and begins walking to the other end of the roof. His long and shaggy black hair is in his face, his mouth hidden under a soggy scarf. A pair of sunglasses hangs from the collar of his shirt, despite the late hour.
“We should get back to UA and report this,” he says.
“Yeah,” she agrees, but stays still.
He stops with another sigh, shooting the woman a look over his shoulder.
“We don’t know if whoever did this is still out here or not. We should hurry.” He says it dryly, but not unkindly. “We should tell Izumi what happened so he knows to keep an eye on the kid.”
“Right, let’s go back.” The woman whirls around, quickly catching up to her partner. They leap over to the next building, slowly and carefully making their way back to base.
The woman can’t help but think, How fitting that we’re all in black.