Chapter Text
Kai was not having a good day.
Scratch that. He was having a horrible day - the Hero Killer, Stain had left another victim in his wake - right under Kai's nose, no less! Not only that, but the murderous villain had escaped as well.
Kai had kept up for quite a while, but the deceptively-nimble villain had managed to shake him, taking to the rooftops, before vanishing from sight.
The hero understood Stain's motives. For he too had similar disillusions with society. From the larger-than-should-be number of heroes that were selfish, or complacent, to those who seemed to care too much about merchandise sales, and photoshoots, not to mention the many that seemed to view being a hero as being all about fighting criminals - no matter the damage they caused.
Regardless of the Hero Killer's motivations, though, maiming or outright murdering less-than-stellar heroes wasn't going to make perfect replacements appear out of thin air.
And more importantly, taking someone's life, or livelihood, just for not being an absolute paragon was ludicrous. Murder was murder, no matter how you tried to justify it.
Regardless of his inner monologue though, one undeniable fact remained. Stain escaped once again and left another victim in his wake. Kai took solace in the fact that the hero was still alive, unlike others who weren't so fortunate.
Activating his comm link, he hoped there was a hospital nearby who could heal the carved-up limb.
"Soramitsu, he got away. He left his target after I showed up. The victim is still conscious, though he looks like he's lost a lot of blood. Can you get an ambulance over here?"
"I have you pinpointed Kai, the ambulance ETA is three minutes."
"Roger that, I'll be standing by until they get here."
Kai closed the communicator, glancing at the large wound in the hero's arm. Today just couldn't get any worse.
Eraserhead was right, he thought later in reflection. Thinking such thoughts was tempting fate - whether it existed or not.
Izuku was exhausted.
He'd been walking along, moping after Kacchan's latest demotivating lesson. After the blond had decided it would be interesting to see what would happen if he blew up part of Izuku's chair leg, causing him to be unable to sit for the rest of the day, he'd decided to take the long way home, hoping to avoid any confrontation. Unfortunately, he wasn't so lucky.
"Hey Deku! I don't care if you're a year older, there's no way any hero school would take you! Least of all UA! How about you do me a big favour, and go into gardening! Maybe you could help with the watering, with how you're crying all the time, you quirkless wannabe!"
Lost in his thoughts, he suddenly found himself being covered in a strange goo-like substance, a voice suddenly speaking up, asking him to stop struggling so much, and that it would all be over soon.
He was saved from the gruesome fate by the swish of a Cape, the number one hero appearing just as he lost consciousness.
After coming to, he was surprised to see what looked like the sludge villain that had attacked him, stuffed into a soda bottle.
"Young man, I hope you're all right!"
Izuku tried to answer, before he suddenly started coughing, his lungs aching.
Noticing his distress, All Might quickly ran over to him, hitting his back to help dislodge the slime, taking quite a few minutes after to make sure that there wasn't anymore slime sitting inside.
After the pro hero seemed satisfied that he wasn't going to dry-drown on some sludge, Midoriya worked up his courage to ask All Might the question that was burning in his throat.
"A-all Might?"
"Yes young man?" replied the large hero, kneeling down to not seem so intimidating.
"Do you think someone without a quirk can be a hero?"
"Not as you are, no-"
There it is. He thought. Not even the number one hero thinks I can-
"-But with training and the right support gear, I'm sure you can do it! Or if you don't feel comfortable with that, there's always the police, fire force, or becoming a professional analyst - your work is very good young man!"
"Wait, did you look at my notebook?"
"Yes, I hope you don't mind. I wanted to leave an autograph for you, and couldn't help but read it a bit."
"O-oh, it's no trouble. They're not that good though..."
"Don't sell yourself short young man, you are quite gifted - Quirk or not."
The hero had talked to him for about five more minutes after that, answering quite a few of Izuku's questions before rocketing off, his cape billowing in the wind.
- - -
Despite All Might's reassurance, the words of encouragement weren't of much help when he later came across Kachan, almost completely engulfed by the same villain that had almost killed him earlier!
Izuku wasn't quite sure what to do, and it seemed the heroes on the scene didn't either - standing away from the writhing slime villain, and their explosive captive.
Cursing his lack of a quirk, he almost considered just giving up and waiting for a pro to come who could help, before shaking his head. If he didn't do something, Kachan would probably die! Quickly deciding on a course of action; he came up with an idea, it was risky... but he had to do something!
Before he knew what came over him, he was pushing through the crowd; running toward the large green blob just past them.
Throwing his bag at the villain, he made a grab for Bakugo, before finding himself pulled from behind. Twisting himself around, he zeroed in on a young man in a thick well-tailored jacket, a mask on his face with a hooked beak, reminiscent of a plague doctor's mask. He was bent-over, hands spread out on the ground.
- - -
"Cease your attack, villain!" Kai yelled, before activating his quirk, forming a set of large hands out of the concrete, grabbing the backpack-wielding boy with one, and the explosive blond with the other.
After setting the two teens down near the edge of the crowd, he activated his quirk again, another mass of cement shooting up around the criminal - curving over, and closing at the top. Trapping the villain within a large dome of concrete. After contacting his dispatcher, Soramitsu, All Might soon appeared, shoving the sludge person into a soda bottle of all things, before rocketing away to the nearest police station, bottle in tow.
- - -
Izuku watched as the man who had just saved him and Kachan pulled a communicator out of his jacket, holding it to his ear, before speaking.
"Sora, it's me again." Izuku heard him say. "I just captured a villain. I'm somewhere in Musutafu though I'm not sure of the address."
"Don't worry Kai." (so that's what his name was!), Izuku heard the voice on the other end reply. "I already have a pin in your location. The police should arrive any minute."
As if to punctuate the voice's statement, Izuku heard the familiar whoosh of a Cape heralding the number one hero's arrival.
"Thanks Sora." the hero replied, before putting the communicator back in his pocket and narrowing his eyes at the heroes Izuku now noticed were walking towards him.
"Hey you!" One of them called out to Izuku, the irritation in his tone was clear. "You shouldn't go running into an active villain fight, you could've gotten hurt! Don't you know that using a quirk without a license is against the law? You could make things worse, or get yourself hurt!"
"I....I don't have a quirk. " Midoriya quietly replied.
"No quirk!?" Slugger (Izuku's brain helpfully supplying the information) exclaimed. "Then you really shouldn't go around acting like a wannabe hero! You could have been killed, or gotten in the way, or made things even worse-"
"Worse than what." the unknown hero challenged, the irritation in his voice clear to anyone within hearing distance.
"Y-you heard him!" Slugger stammered, evidently surprised at the strange-looking hero's reaction. "He ran in there, with no quirk, just to!-"
"Just to save the civilian you were ignoring, in favour of waiting for an easier solution than going in, and saving him yourself!" exclaimed the masked hero - clearly upset with Slugger's words and the inaction of the other pros.
Instead of giving the baseball hero a chance to speak, he continued, his irritation rising.
"You could have distracted the villain with one of your baseball's, gotten Death Arms to throw something at the villain, like this boy did, or asked Mount Lady to reach in, and grab the boy trapped inside the villain." he berated.
After taking a few deep breaths, he continued.
And you..." he began, turning back toward Izuku's direction, only he had already left, not wanting to hear the hero's inevitable criticisms...