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What makes a hero? The answer to that question is different depending on the person you ask.
Most will say saving people is the definition. Others say it's fighting evil. Bravery, a pure heart, your morals, your image, your job. Some will even go as far as saying that being a good person is enough to brand you the honorary name of 'hero'. Keigo Takami on the other hand was taught something very different. According to the committee, the perfect hero to the people is someone who has to sacrifice essential human desires, trust in others, relationships, happiness, and much more. He was groomed as a child to follow these beliefs, and for a time he did. For a long while he threw his name in the trash and nodded along as Hawks, one of their greatest creations.
After founding his own agency at the age of 18 and, more or less, being let wander a bit from the legal hand of the commission, he found himself watching those around him. The people he was supposed to protect, the citizens he was created to watch over. People. Humans with lives and emotions and goals and aspirations that were all their own. Children with dreams and sparks in their eyes eager for the future but focused on their blissful, ignorant present: something he couldn't quite experience himself.
Normal life; something he found himself longing for as he once again allowed himself to be Keigo Takami. Something he found himself wanting to protect for a boy he knew nothing of. A boy whose bright green eyes caught the young pros in a hopeful plea as the adult crossed the hall in the commission building. He was on his way to give a scheduled report and there, sitting on a chair outside a conference room he sat shifting nervously as the shouts of a woman were heard through the crack in the door beside him. He was small, weak, innocent, hardly in middle school it seemed, and already so worn out and scared. Something sparked in Keigo as the messy green curls bounced and the frown on the freckled boys face turned to a wary, almost apologetic smile as he spotted him, as his eyes betrayed that smile relaying a plea for an explanation and an out of the situation he found himself in (which no doubt couldn't be completely good if he was here, in this building, with his age). The report could wait. Keigo had something much more important to do now. Save the life of a child in a way no one would consider, and no one would know.
Keigo swiftly changed his course, watching as the boy seemed to get more nervous at his approach, "Hey kid," he spoke in a smooth voice portraying a laid back attitude.
"Ah, you… you're... uh, you are Pro Hero Hawks r-right?" he stuttered more than a kid his age should.
"Yup. Thats me," the caramel haired man nodded his head to the door, "so what's that about?"
The freckled boy seemed to panic, he shot up and bowed in apology "I'm so sorry. That’s my mom."
"Your mom?" He quirked an eyebrow.
"Yeah um… she got angry."
"What for?"
"I don't… well…. They said something about signing me over for a program and mom stopped them and asked me to wait outside so I did, then she started yelling, though I can't make out what." The pro watched the younger look down at his feet as he spoke. It was exactly as the feathered man feared, trying to create yet another 'perfect hero'. He wondered what this kid could do to warrant the commission's attention.
"I see. Why don't I head in? I'm sure I can clear things right up, OK?" He reached over to the greenette, not missing the flinch at his approaching hand or the way he tried to cover it up by shifting. Although he didn't hesitate, his touch was much gentler than intended. What was going to be a ruffle of the green curls was executed as a light reassuring pat on the head. Keigo gave the boy a warm smile and smoothly slipped into the room, leaving the kid to sigh and sit back down, unable to do anything but wait.
Upon entering the room, Hawks was met with a short, angry woman yelling at none other than the president herself. She tried bargaining with the small green haired woman only to receive a clipboard thrown her way. Hawks noted that if the commission was going through this much trouble to try and talk to her instead of outright kicking her out, then this kid had something they really wanted. He cleared his throat and all attention turned to him. With a polite smile he bows.
“What seems to be the problem here?”
The president stands up from where she had ducked under the table and clears her throat. “Ah, Hawks, a pleasure to have you here. I believe you can help us in this endeavor,” she adjusted the collar of her black coat and sighed. “Miss Midorya seems to be missing the opportunity her son would have with us. She is adamantly not willing to allow him to reach great heights a-”
“FOR GOOD REASON! I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK YOU CAN GIVE MY SON, YOU CAN'T TAKE HIM FROM ME TO DO THAT! I WILL NOT SIGN MY SON OVER TO ANYONE!” the other woman, the boy’s mother, cuts her off by yelling over her.
“Miss Midorya, this program will give young Izuku a good future and many opportunities to-”
“YOU ALREADY SAID THAT! I GET IT! WHAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND IS WHY YOU NEED ME TO SIGN HIM AWAY TO DO THAT!”
“You have to understand that the kind of work we do requires for us to do so in case of a breach.”
“Well I don't .” in the many years Hawks has faced off against dangerous villains, he doesn’t think he’s ever seen a glare that malicious. He felt a shiver run down his spine and suppressed the instinct to puff up and flap his wings.
Instead, he stepped in between the two with a smile, “OK, I see the problem here. Miss Midorya was it?” she nodded, still seeming less than pleased, “would you step out for a second while I get some more information? I promise I can get you a much better deal, OK?”
She didn’t seem convinced, but if she didn’t agree, Hawks was positive they would simply take the boy by force at this point, and that wasn't something Keigo wanted to see happen. It seems the angry mother at the very least sensed Keigo’s genuine want to help as she sighed and nodded, “Very well. I'll be outside with Izuku,” he gave her a reassuring smile and watched her leave, flapping his wings once to relieve the tension and also inconspicuously send one of the smaller feathers out the door with her to settle in her handbag besides the boy outside.
He waited until he heard the click of the door before turning and picking up a chair that had been knocked over in the commotion and taking a seat, “Alright, what's the kid’s quirk?” straight to the point, it was the best way to go about anything with the commission.
“He doesn’t have one,” the president spoke as one of her assistants picked up her chair and she settled herself in it.
“Excuse me, what?” Hawks leaned forward, eyes wide in shock.
“He doesn’t have one. Midorya Izuku is Quirkless,” she laced her fingers and sent her elbows on the table.
“So what did he do? Why do you want him if he’s Quirkless?” she sighs and unlaces her hands, holding one out to one of her assistants who rushes forward depositing a journal in her open awaiting palm. “I'm sure you’ve seen the news. Today there was a villain attack, the sludge villain.” hawks nodded, he vaguely remembered hearing that story in passing. If he remembers correctly, All Might was tailing that villain. “It attacked a young boy. A promising hopeful from Aldera Middle school, planning on attending UA in the following year, actually. It seems this boy was Izuku Midorya’s childhood friend: Bakugou Katsuki. He was present when Bakugou was held hostage. Due to the situation, pros on the scene couldn't risk getting close enough to the villain to save the boy. However,” Hawks found himself leaning forward in his seat eager to hear where this was going and what the younger Midorya had done to get the commission's eyes on him. “Izuku Midorya ran into the fray and tried to face the villain himself and save Bakugou.”
Hawks couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him. “Forget the fact he’s Quirkless, that kid’s got balls, but adding the Quirklessness to it just makes it all the more recklessly stupid. Gotta admit, I am impressed though.”
She lets out an exasperated sigh, “Yes. that is very true. His little stunt, while stupid, distracted the villain enough to allow All Might to get in and apprehend the villain while saving both boys. This was already impressive enoug,h but the really impressive thing is this-” she opened the notebook and flipped through the pages, “-when they were taken to the police station after the incident for some simple questions and reports, one of the detectives cleaning up the scene picked up the things Midorya Izuku had dropped in the chaos. This notebook caught their eye and we were called in,” she closed the notebook and slid it across the table to Hawks, who took the slightly burned campus notebook with a smudged number 14 on the front and opened it intending to only skim the pages. The detail and level of in depth analysis however made him pause and read through every page carefully, though the scorched edges, water warped, and smudged pages raised a few questions. “ I must say this is very, very impressive, someone with his eye and mind could do some wonderful things for us with the proper training. Even if he’s Quirkless, we might make a hero of him yet.”
Hawks closed the book, “But his mother won't sign him over to you legally and let you do what you want with him. Correct?”
She nodded, “Correct.”
He stood up, walking over to her side of the table, “Let me speak with them, I'm sure I can convince her, or at the very least her son. Less trouble on you if she agrees, right?” they would take him by force if they had to, but the paperwork was a nightmare on the president and he knew that. She took a deep breath and sighed, then stood, looking the Pro hero dead in the eyes.
“Hawks, if you can get that brain in our hands I don't care what you say, do, or come up with. I will take almost any conditions if we can get that skill in our pocket.” dehumanization, not odd for the commission.
“Understood, ma’am. I won’t fail you.”
“I don’t expect you to,” she nodded and turned to walk out, her assistants following close behind.
The feathered man took a seat and watched them go, using his feathers to set another chair beside the first, opposite him, then the other pair entered. They took their seats and Hawks waited a moment, stretching out his senses to make sure no one was listening in, despite knowing full well they foolishly trusted him, before starting. “Listen. I know you have concerns. Someone asking you to sign your kid over, no matter who they are can't be good.”
She gave him a worried look, “Are you telling me I was right in my gut feeling? This isn’t good?”
He took a deep breath, “I can't… legally say that. But I can say you did right in protecting your son,” they both let out a small gasp. “That isn't to say they were lying though. They really can do all of those things: better his skills, improve him, give him opportunities, make him a perfect hero. Their way of going about it just… isn't the best for a child.”
The small woman clutched her purse to her chest, “And why are you sharing this with us? This won’t make me want to do it. If anything it does the opposite. I'm more adamant now than I was before,” he had to debate saying this at all.
“I went through it.” he looked her dead in the eye and her small counterpart started mumbling. If it wasn’t for the silence that had taken over the room and his ability to pick out words through the vibrations in the air with his feathers, he wouldn't have heard the boy when the sentences left his mouth just behind his fist.
“Of course. That makes so much sense. He’s different from the other heroes, almost in another league, and he never attended UA, in fact he never attended any hero school. He just appeared, and he already had the complete backing of the government, which means he had to have been taught under the government from a young age in some way. How didn’t I figure this out before?” Hawks smiled and leaned back in the chair.
“Exactly. I was in a ‘program’ just like the one they’re offering you,” the boy gasped and covered his mouth turning red in embarrassment. The bird themed man chuckled and shook his head, then took in a deep breath and steeled his face again. “It was brutal. I got to be huge in the hero world and at such a young age. They gave me that. They gave me everything anyone could ever hope for, but they took my childhood, and many more things.”
The mother shook her head, “Then I won't sign, no matter what,” he shook his own head again.
“That won’t work.”
“What?”
“You don’t have a choice, Miss Midorya.”
“You tell me all of that, worry me sick, and then threaten me!”
“It’s not a threat. It’s a promise. And it’s not from me. Miss Midorya, this is the Hero Public Safety Commission. They are the government and they are specifically the government that looks over and controls the most important aspect of our society. Heroes. They don’t give you choices. They make it seem like they do in order to save themselves the trouble, but if you don’t sign him over they will take him by force, and he will experience exactly what I did, for the greater good,” she stared at him mortified, and almost in tears. “He will be signed over Miss Midorya, but it doesn’t have to be to them.”
Both green haired midoryas seemed to perk at this. “Then who? And why?”
“Me. they told me they would accept almost any conditions. Your son is very impressive, they really want to get their hands on him and, while I think he can do some amazing things, I don't want that at the same cost I had to pay. I can act as the middle man. I can oversee his training and make sure he still gets to be a child and they will take him being under my care good enough, based in this situation. Just ask for your conditions to be having him signed over to me specifically and ask for visitation and sustained contact. Say you would be happy with at least that, and I'll take care of the rest. I'll take care of him,” she stared at him long and hard, then sighed, once again picking up on the man's genuine want to help.
She nodded, “OK, if this is the only way, I accept the terms,” he gave a small, apologetic but relieved smile and stood up, heading to the door. He waved an employee down and asked them to get the president in. They nodded and ran off.
7 minutes later the president returned to see Midoryia Inko calmly sitting in a chair with her son quietly beside her. She was clutching his hand in on the armrest. Hawks stood to the side, leaving the head seat across the table open for her. She took a seat.
“OK, have you reconsidered, Miss Midorya?”
“In a way,” the president raised an eyebrow and Inko proceeded to lay out her terms. She glanced at Hawks once, the now calm green haired mother finished. A light tap on her knee had her lower her hand under the table and lay her hand open, palm up where one of Hawks's feathers relayed the sentences. I tried my best, this was all I could do with the state she was in. I'm willing to take him under my wing as it were if that’s what is needed, he slid the notebook still in his hand on the table towards her. She stared at it for a minute then sighed, and slowly nodded.
“very well, we accept your terms. If you would stay, we’ll get everything set up and have the paperwork done by tonight,” the green haired woman nodded solemnly, her son reaching over to embrace her.
It took a few days for everything to be finalized and for Izuku’s things to be moved over to Keigo’s condo across town. Three days actually, the commission is quite impatient. The last day before taking his last bag of luggage to his new home, Izuku spent a day with his mother and bid her a see you later. Keigo, as he had been asked to be called, had stopped him that first day as they were leaving the commission building and leaned in telling him that it wasn’t a goodbye to his mother and to never say that, he made it clear that if he was going to say any kind of acknowledging phrase to their separation, it would be one with a promise to see each other again. And so that's what Izuku did. Then, they took a drive to the commission building where his mother would sign over his legal guardianship and Izuku would be going to the condo with Keigo while she returned home.
Keigo had felt much worse about the situation, despite knowing it was necessary once he learned that the boy's father had disappeared a few years back and was pronounced dead, but this had to happen. He greeted them with a solemn smile at the door and walked them in. The papers were signed, Inko cried, and both males walked her out back to her car with a hand on her shoulder and back. Now Izuku Takami gave his mother one last hug and leaned down as she gave him a gentle kiss on the forehead. She then turned to do the same to Keigo, which took him by surprise, but he accepted.
He handed her one of his feathers hanging from a brown leather string as a necklace and asked her to keep it on her or near her at all times, just in case. She thanked him, slipping it on and reaching out to take one of his hands “Just….take care of him ok?”
He nodded, “As though he were my own,” he promised. as Keigo had said that, he watched her drive away, as he lead Izuku to his car and drove them to the condo, as he sat down for his first dinner with Izuku and then steered him to his room and bid him good night, as he stood from his desk hours into the night and made his way to the boy’s room to comfort the crying kid, as he gently removed the sleeping boy from his arms and tucked him in, deciding to stand watch over him in case he woke up crying again, even as he drifted off to sleep in the chair next to the boy’s bed, he had no idea how true that promise would be just a few months later. Keigo had no idea that just in a few months, he would find himself genuinely, truly happy and content with life for the first time since he was 9.
The realization of this would hit him as he and Izuku returned home from a ‘family tea date’ at their favorite cafe with Inko, who was now a lot like a mother to the older man himself. That a few minutes later Izuku would perk up after reading a message from his friends, grabbing his bag and heading towards the door shouting back “I'm heading out to hang out with some friends! Be back at 8, see ya dad!” and slipping out the door, leaving Keigo stunned and reeling in happiness.
This was it , Keigo thought as he looked at the picture his son sent him of himself smiling brightly amidst a group of friends at a park, Keigo and Inko sat on a large picnic blanket in the background with Inko mid laugh.
This was being a Hero.