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When Hizashi opened up his own little segment on a radio show, he was so excited. This had been a dream since he was a little kid. It took a while for it to really take off, but when it did, he managed to get his own radio station where he could talk about whatever he wanted, and air music that people requested. After a couple months of this, he decided to be more interactive and have people call in for a couple minutes and ask questions, or just talk about how their day went.
After the first couple of calls, who had all either been teenagers or young adults asking a couple questions about his quirk, he got a call from someone much younger than he expected.
“Hi! This is Present Mic! What would you like to talk about today?” Hizashi asked with his usual cheery tone.
After a couple of seconds where no reply came, he thought it might be a prank call. He hadn’t had any of those yet, as this was his first time answering calls. But what he thought was wrong, as he heard a small voice answer from behind the phone.
“Hi,” the voice said. It was so small, they must not be any older than 6! Hizashi's heart warmed at the thought that kids as young as that listened to his show.
“Hi Little Listener! What’s up today?” Seeing as the kid wasn’t talking very much, Hizashi thought he would try and ask questions first.
After a quiet scuffle around, he heard the voice speak again,
“Nothing much.” After a pause, he thought the kid was gone, but he spoke again.
“Are you really Present Mic?” The kid asked, barely above a whisper.
Hizashi chuckled.
“Yep! I sure am! What would you like me to call you? Remember, don’t use your real name.”
“M-my name’s Iz-, er, call me Izu.”
“Hi Izu! Can I call you little listener? If you’re ok with that.”
“Y-yeah. Is it ok if I ask a question about your quirk?”
“Of course! Shoot.”
“U-um, well, I was wondering how loud your voice can go? And can your quirk be used like a bat's voice? Like echolocation? Or can it go super low ‘cause if it can you can use your quirk to rumble the ground and even cause avalanches with snow! Can you make your voice louder than humans can hear? Can it be used like a dog whistle? Can-”
“Hey, hey, that’s a lot of questions you have there. You’re pretty smart, aren’t you?”
“Oh, sorry I started rambling.” The kid answered quickly.
“No need to apologize, little listener. I love answering questions! Yes, I can use my quirk like a bat! But I have to be very precise, so it’s harder.” He continued to answer his questions.
The Little Listener made a noise in understanding, and asked another question. This went on for a couple of minutes. Hizashi couldn’t help but develop a soft spot for the kid. He was exceptionally smart from what he could tell, and was very sweet. Shou, who was definitely listening no matter what he claimed, was going to tease him later.
After a small conversation of how the little listener’s day was, it suddenly got interrupted by someone’s footsteps in the background of the call, and a door opening.
The kids' breath hitched.
“-ku? Where are you?”
“I need to go now.” The kid said, quickly hanging up.
“Ok, bye little listener!” He said, but the Little Listener hung up before he got the chance.
That interaction at the end seemed a little strange, but it was probably fine.
Just someone coming home.
. . .
This becomes a regular occurrence. Izu calling in, talking about his quirk or other heroes, and sometimes even just talking about his day. He even found out the kid’s favourite heroes. He said he couldn’t chose his favourite, so his top three are Eraserhead, himself, and hawks! The more he did though, the more he got concerned. Right before he hung up, there was almost always screaming. Most of the time it was at him, for using his parents phone, or for something else. Luckily they haven’t doxed him yet, but they got close a couple of times.
Hizashi tried bringing it up with his little listener, but he brushed it off as “that’s my dad. He’s just like that.” He didn’t push any more than that, although he did grow more concerned the more it happened.
He also tried bringing it up at home with his husband, Shou. He also seemed concerned, but said they couldn’t do anything until they had more evidence.
So he waited.
He wanted the Little listener to come to him for help, but he knew it was unlikely as there were thousands of people listening.
And after a couple months of this, he decided to ask his Little Listener again. Some really concerning things have happened over the phone call. He hear what seemed to be his “dad” yell at him and call him names, accuse him of things that shouldn’t be that big of a deal, so he was at least verbally abused by what he heard.
And this was just what he heard.
Things might be happening off mic too, and that wouldn’t be good. He couldn’t straight up ask the kid if he was abused, that might scare him off. Instead he should try and ease his way into the subject, to get more info on the matter and see if they can get him somewhere safer. He also has to be safe as to not seem like he’s prying into the Little Listener’s private life. That might even be worse. So during the middle of a conversation, when there was a pause in between talking, he decides to try and bring it up.
“Hey, Little Listener, I was wondering, what are your parents like? I hear them in the background a lot, and was wondering.”
After a slight gasp of air and silence, Hizashi was about to change the subject when he heard the kid speak.
“Yeah. M-my dad doesn’t like it when I t-talk on the show that much. I don’t know why. But I a-almost always find his phone when he tries to hide it! He s-says that he can’t take his phone to work, s-something about “bad stuff” people might find and people tracing his location, so I talk to you when he’s g-gone. Sometimes he leaves for a couple weeks for work, and he doesn’t say where he goes, just on a “business trip”.” Izu pauses. “Sorry if I rambled, and sorry for stealing his phone, but I really like talking to you.”
By now, Hizashi got used to his ramblings, and honestly it was kind of cute. He’s getting better with his stutter, too! But some of what he said there was concerning, and he decided to bring it up.
“I’m not mad at you for stealing your parents phone. It'd be good if you didn’t take it, but I can’t really stop you! Also I really like talking to you too. You always think of things to talk about even if it feels like we’ve talked about everything!” He chuckles.
“Does someone else take care of you when your dad’s gone?” He tests the water, seeing if he can get an answer from that. There’s a pause.
“Y-yeah, my mom does. Though she’s usually in the hospital.”
“The hospital? Is she ok?”
“Oh, yeah! No, she works there. A lot. S-she needs to work hard so she can help us afford our f-food! I haven’t seen her in a while, though. Her shifts are a-always when I’m at home and not at school. I can’t wait till I’m old enough t-to get a job so I can help!” Izu says, enthusiastic.
“Oh yeah? What do you want to be when you grow up?” He asks. Though after a moment of silence and hushed breaths, Hizashi thought that maybe he said something wrong. But instead he hears, “W-well, I want- no, I-“ but before he could continue, there was a loud bang and thundering footsteps ran upstairs.
“-ku?! Oh my god, did you steal my phone a-fucking-gain?!” A loud booming voice yells out.
There were a couple red flags there.
“S-sorry, Present Mic, but I gotta go. My dad’s here.”
“Wait, Little Listener,” he tries, and it seems to work as the line hasn’t been disconnected yet, but after hearing a bit of the conversation that happened, Hizashi realizes that the kid had thought he hung up.
“S-sorry father, I-I just really wanted to speak to P-Present Mic! We-”
“Does it look like I give a damn about Present Mic?! You talk to him, like, every day! How do you even talk to someone that much?” His so-called father yelled at him.
Quietly, Hizashi pulled out his phone and asked Shouta if he could try and trace the call. They had concrete evidence that the kid was at least verbally abused. He received a quick response back of on it
“S-sorry, father. I w-wont do it again, I promise.” The sound of shuffling and then a loud smack could only be assumed as someone hitting the other, likely the Little Listener’s father hitting him.
This was worse than he could believe.
Hizashi heard a soft sniffle on the other side, closely followed by more footsteps and what sounded like the phone being moved.
Then there was a pause.
A long pause. No one dared speak, even though they both knew that the other knew.
“Izuku.” Shit, he thought.
“Y-yes?” A meek voice answered. Hizashi’s heart broke. Hearing one of his favourite little listener’s like this was painful, knowing that he could be helping but he wasn’t, also knowing full well right now he couldn’t.
“Look at this.” The phone got shuffled around as he heard a soft gasp from the other end.
“Look what you did. You-” before anything else could be said, the phone cut off.
Another long silence came, not knowing what to say after that, until Hizashi broke it being the only one that could, trying to act as if that had not just happened.
“I think we’ll be ending the talking period a bit earlier today, and just play some music. Please, don’t go looking for the Little Listener, we’ve got it, and remember to text 555-515-6655 for a chance to win two lottery tickets for the next jackpot! See you…” Hizashi finished his outro, not thinking about what he was saying, only about his Little Listener and how he was going to get him back.
. . .
Hizashi sits back in his chair, processing what just happened. Whatever was happening at home was definitely not good. They needed to get to his Little Listener fast, as his dad was probably trying to get them to leave, if he was smart.
Just as he was about to text Shouta about the update on tracing the call, Shouta texted him instead.
Shouta:
We traced it. It was fairly easy. I want you down to the police station now. We’re working on a plan.
Hizashi didn’t have to think twice before he grabbed his coat and bottled it out the door. He needed to get to his Little Listener so he could give him the biggest hug ever.
It didn’t take too long before the tall blond made it to the station.
By then, a plan was already formed, and he was back up in case anything went wrong.
“But Shou,” he dragged out the name, “I need to get in there and help the Little Listener,” Hizashi protested. They were already on their way to a house in the nastier parts of Musutafu, where the call was traced, and hopefully the Little Listener was still there.
“That doesn’t make sense. Plus, he knows me, so it won’t be as scary for him.” Shouta argued. The angry blond pouted, but didn’t fight it. He knew it was better this way, but he wanted to see Izu as soon as possible.
It didn’t take too long before they all arrived at the destination. Eraserhead and some other heroes and police went in, leaving Hizashi and some back up forces outside as well as an ambulance.
He really hoped it didn’t come to that.
As Shouta walked in, he already knew what he saw wasn’t going to be good. There were bottles of what he assumed were beer lying around, no pictures of family hung up on the walls which are normally there in households with children, and it had a very unwelcoming aura.
As the other police officers searched the living room and kitchen, both of which you can see into when you enter, Eraserhead went further down the hallway. It was as if the place had been abandoned. There was dust everywhere, garbage scattered across the floor and-
Wait.
Oh no.
At the end of the hallway, which Eraserhead was nearing, there was what looked like a giant red splatter.
Blood.
Even though it had dried, it was unmistakably blood.
He needed to look faster to make sure the kid hadn't been left out to bleed somewhere.
Eraserhead backtracked and went into one of the rooms. It seemed to be the kids room, as there was a single bed and All Might posters everywhere. It would have been funny to see so much of that one guy everywhere if it weren’t for the fact that there was blood splattered all over him. It also seemed as if some of the posters were singed.
That wasn’t good.
This was just more evidence for the fact that the kid was being abused.
Now if he could only find the kid. That would be nice.
Eraserhead knew as soon as Izu was out of here, Hizashi would be begging to adopt him and he wouldn't argue with it.
After a quick check over the room, he decided that there was no one else in here, and headed into the other room, which could only be one.
His father’s room.
Eraserhead hopes what he finds won’t be too bad, but there is no use getting his hopes up based on what he already saw.
With a shaky hand, the hero turns the doorknob into the bedroom.
Eraserhead has seen some pretty fucked up shit with his line of work, being an underground hero and all. What he saw was not the worst, but definitely not the best. There was normal bedroom stuff, like a bed and desk, but also some other stuff. Like a wall filled with weapons like guns, knives, whips. Not stuff you would usually find in bedrooms.
That being said, if the person who owned this, as long as they had a licence for it all, it’s technically legal.
This wasn’t what scared Eraserhead.
What scared him was the very obvious hiding spot that Hizashi’s little listener and his father were in.
At the back of the room, there’s a closet. This closet had little slits in it, and a beam of light was clearly shining into it. On the other side of the door, from what he could see, was a little green haired kid being restrained by what was probably his father, with a giant hand over the tiny kid’s mouth.
Eraserhead was not ready to deal with this.
Quietly, the black haired man made his way closer to the closet. He knows the people inside see him, as the hand tightens. Cursing under his breath, Eraserhead flings the door open with his quirk activated. The man, who was taller than him, and had a lot of muscle built up, stood up with the Little Listener in tow. The father opened his mouth pointedly at him, seemingly trying to use his quirk, only to be brushed off by the fact he couldn’t use it.
“What the heck?! Why can’t I use my quirk?” The man mumbled under his breath.
Eraserhead smirked under his scarf, then threw a punch at him, forcing his hand away from the kid. Really, he sucked at close range combat. The Little Listener looked up at the hero, looking astonished. He was still frozen still though, probably from shock.
“Y-you’re Eraserhead!” The kid shouted, point-blank.
“I am. Now’s no time to talk about that, though. We need to get you out of here.” He quickly scooped up the kid, as the police rushed in to take care of the man, who was still recovering from the punch.
Once they were out of the room, Eraserhead just started to notice the state the kid’s in. He was severely underweight for his age, and small. He said he was what, 5? The kid was lighter than a sack of potatoes. He also had a ruff back, either indicating an injury or scar, it would be best not to touch it anyways in case it still hurt. Izu clung onto him like he would die if he didn’t, which to be honest, if he wasn’t there he might have. Whoever hurt this kid would be dead. Just from the radio show, he knows that this kid does not deserve whatever he got.
Soon, they both got outside, where Present Mic was waiting for them. When he saw the Little Listener, he rushed over to make sure that he was ok.
“Oh my god, Little Listener are you ok? What happened? Are you hurt? Do-”
“Mic, give the kid some space.” Eraserhead interrupted, continuing his way over to the ambulance with the blond trailing behind.
Once the kid saw him, his mouth dropped.
“A-are you Present Mic?! Why are you here?” Before he could respond, the kid interrupted him again.
“This doesn’t seem like a mission you would be a part of. Don’t you try and help with larger scale things? Like villain attacks? Why would you be out here for me-”
“Hey, hey, Little Listener, you sure do talk a lot, don’t you?” The kid shriveled up into himself.
“S-sorry. My friends at school say it’s annoying.”
“Oh, it’s not annoying, Little Listener! That just means you have a lot to say, and try to get it out all at once!” Izu looked up at him, doubtfully. Before anyone else could say anything, the paramedics swept him away, telling him and Shou they were going to the hospital. The Little Listener looked up at them from the ambulance, scared.
“One of us is going to ride with him.” Shou said.
“Unfortunately, only family can ri-”
“We’re pros. We can go with him.” Eraserhead said in his no-nonsense voice. The woman stared at them tentatively, but moved out of the way to let one of them through.
“O-only one of you, though.” Shou sighed, but nodded.
“Mic, do you want to go? You’re better with children, and you know him better.”
“You sure? I’m sure he’d be thrilled to see you.”
“Maybe, but, again, you can talk to children better. He needs someone he knows to keep him calm.”
Mic nodded, and headed into the ambulance, where the nurse was checking up on Izu.
“I’ll meet you at the hospital!” The voice hero called out, before the doors closed.
. . .
After the short check up in the ambulance and the trip to the room he was being held in, the doctor came into the room.
“I’m here to give a proper check up on…” the doctor looked over to Mic to give him a name.
“What would you like the doctor to call you, Little Listener?”
“I-Izuku is fine.” The kid stuttered out.
“Ok. Hi, Izuku. My name is Dr. Takahashi. I’m going to give you a little check up. Is this ok?” The doctor asked, knowing that he was going to no matter what. The kid did not look good.
“Y-yeah. That’s fine.” Dr. Takahashi walked over to the bedside opposite Hizashi, giving him a quick glance.
Dr. Takahashi did a quick couple things to check up on his eyes and ears, simple things. Then he asked if it was ok to have Izuku take off his shirt, to see if there were any injuries. This is when the kid froze, but also started trembling.
“Izuku? You ok?” Hizashi asked.
“I-I can’t.” The Little Listener said, voice barely above a whisper.
“Why not?” The blond’s concern was growing rapidly.
“B-because he t-told me not to.” Present Mci turned his Little Listener’s head to face him.
“He’s gone now. He can’t hurt you. The police are taking him away and he’ll be locked up behind bars.”
“But what if he escapes?” Izuku’s voice was louder now.
“He won’t. The guards won't let him. And even if he does, I’ll protect you.”
“You will? But we won’t be together after this.”
“Oh, well,” Hizashi didn’t want to bring up the choice of adoption right now. It wasn’t time, plus he hasn’t even spoken to Shouta about it.
“I’ll always be here for you. You'll always be able to call me.” The kid thought, and after a minute or so, nodded.
“Ok,” the doctor noted, “I’ll let you do it if it makes you more comfortable.”
His Little Listener, hesitantly, lifted his shirt over his head. The sight underneath it left both the doctor and himself stunned. No person, let alone a kid should have that many scars and burns. On his shoulder, he had a starburst shaped scar that looked older, other various burns all over his body varying in size and severity, it looked like the kid had been branded, there were bruises coating almost every inch of skin, and wounds that seemed to have been dressed by someone who has only seen how to dress wounds. It was probably the kid himself that tried to cover them up. After a few seconds of just staring at Izu, he grew uncomfortable and wrapped his arms around his torso. The doctor snapped out of it and went to redress the wounds and jot all of this information down, while Hizashi just mindlessly stared at the kid wondering who could do this to a person. The blond wanted nothing more than to just scoop up his Little Listener and hide him from all the misery in the world, but the wounds on the kid would hurt even more if he did that. So all Hizashi could do now was wait and give Izu reassuring smiles when he glanced over at him.
After a couple minutes of the doctor bandaging up the wounds, there was a sudden knock on the door. The kid jostled, turning his head towards the door.
The hero quickly sat up to see who was on the other side, only to find Shou standing there with two cups of coffee in his hands.
“Oh, hi! Come in, I’m sure the little listener would be excited to see you!” His husband nodded, walking into the still room. Once the kid saw Shou, his eyes lit P like christmas lights.
“You’re Eraserhead! The hero that saved me! You’re here! Why are you here?” The kid expressed.
“Yeah. I came here to see you, to make sure you’re ok.”
“Of course I am! You saved me!” Eraserhead snorted, covering it up with a cough. The dark haired hero went to sit by Hizashi adn the kid.
“So, how’s he looking?” The question was directed at the blond.
“Physically, not so good. Mentally, I don’t know. He seems pretty happy you’re here though. He hasn’t talked this much yet.” The kid looked between the two, as if they were both blind. He was right there, why were they talking about him like he wasn’t? He hated when people did that.
After a minute of awkward silence, Izu spoke up.
“Where am I going to go after this? Am I going to be put in the system?” The kid asked, his eyes showing he did not want to go there.
“Well,” Shouta started, “we both have emergency foster licences, so you could come home with us for a bit until we get things figured out.”
“Really?” The kid gushed. “You sure? You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I don’t want to interrupt your life by barging into your home.” The kid said in a quiet, somber voice.
“You won’t be barging in, Little Listener! We invited you in! We’d love having you!”
“You sure?” Izu said, still weary.
“Of course.” Hesitantly, the kid smiled a little and nodded.
“Ok then!”
There was a small pause, before the kid whispered, “I knew you two were married. Looks like someone owes me 500 yen.” Hizashi couldn’t help but laugh, as Shouta tried to hide a snort.
. . .
“Hello! This is someone from A Helping Hand!” Hizashi starts. “Is there anything you want to talk about? Or would you like me to talk?”
“U-um,” a small voice is heard from the other side. Shit. A kid’s voice is never good.
“Is everything all right?”
“W-well, no. M-my mom brought me to this place saying it would be better for me, to help me control my quirk, b-but I don’t like it here and they hurt me and the others and they left this phone unlocked and so I called you and I was wondering if you could come and help us? Or send someone? Please, it’s scary and they're not nice.”
Double shit. This call was probably from an organization called Quirk Controllers, QC for short, who basically say they’re going to help kids with out of control quirks, but all they end up doing is torturing the kids. Hizashi pressed a button that lets someone know to send heroes out. He also presses one to get someone to try and trace the call, to see if they have any clue where the kids might be.
“Of course. The heroes are on their way. Do you have any clue where you are?”
“Kinda, but also no. I live at 2543 Moonlight Street, and my mom took me to this place. It was only about a twelve minute drive. I don’t know which direction we went though. Sorry.”
“It’s fine. That’s more than enough information to help narrow down where you are.” The blond hero jotted down the info on his computer, sending it to the people who will help find these kids.
“Can you describe what your location looks like?”
All he heard were staggered breaths on the other end.
“H-he's coming back. I have to go now.”
“No, wait, hide the phone in your shirt or your pants. Don’t hang up. I’ll be quiet.” Hizashi hears a shuffle on the other end and takes that he understood. A message came back that they traced the call, and pros were being sent out now to find these kids and save them.
When Hizashi opened up his own radio show, he was so excited. He could play music, talk to fans, answer questions, he loved it.
Then Izuku came.
That's when Hizashi decided to start a different line called a Helping Hand, where people could reach out and talk to someone with experience about things. It could be as simple as talking about their day, to marital problems, to things like this. He would admit, it did get exhausting sometimes, but it was all worth it to b able to help people over the phone. It took a couple of years before he could really start it, having to go through the learning process of what to do and having to hire people, but he had his husband and son by his side throughout it. Now, people could call in and vent, without anyone judging them. He was living his dream. Living with caring people, two cats, and being a hero, Hizashi could say he was proud.