Chapter Text
Warbled pleas made themselves known through a foggy haze that seemed to encase the world.
A woman, pleading, for her son to be spared.
“Hisashi Please! I beg of you, take anything just not him, please— anything!!” A woman's sobs echoed across the walls of this unknown void like world. Her voice seemed contorted, drawn out, like honey.
“SHUT UP!” A much louder voice, it pierces through the air with a ragged edge, leaving only worry to bubble and bleed in its rubble. “You whore! That mistake is not mine!” a high-pitched cry of pain left the woman as the blurring effect of the fog seemed to dissipate slightly, allowing any onlookers to see minimal detail as a man dragged a woman by her hair towards a door. The woman screamed, she cried and fought, but it did nothing to cull his movements.
The woman screamed like a banshee, but never for herself, “DON’T HURT HIM HISASHI PLEASE, HE’S ONLY FOUR!!” The woman cried distraught over the man's intentions. Still, she could do nothing to prevent him from practically wrenching the bare door from its hinges, revealing a small, terrified child.
“You little shit!” The man roared, voice laced with venom that promised pain. He threw the woman to the side, attention solely on the trembling toddler. “…please..” the woman’s trembling voice disturbed the tension that was waiting patiently. Like a pool of potential energy, just waiting, anything could happen and it all would flow out into an uncontrollable spiral of pure chaos. The man lunged at the toddler. The woman screamed. The man laughed. The child screamed. 1,2,3, The hits kept going like some fucked up rythym.
Eventually, the man seemed to tire of this. The woman’s eyes widened in horror as she understood her husband’s intentions like he had said them outright. Her fatigue forgotten, she screamed and lunged at her husband, attempting to shield her son. She didn’t notice the flames that licked behind her. She blocked some but not all, she was too late. The damage had been done. But to her, the fight was still on.
“PLEASE HISASHI NOT HIM, TAKE ME INSTEAD, TAKE ANYTHING BUT HIM!” she finally screamed as her husband slammed her into yet another wall, kicking her in the side before he bent down to meet his wife's eyes.
“No.” He said as he gripped her chin, forcing her eyes onto his. He stayed like this, even when she screamed from the heat. He tortured her until death was a mercy.
Sparing a glance behind him he saw the useless body of his son. No breathing. Just as it should be.
“Happy Birthday, Izuku.”
Well, you could say this certainly wasn’t ideal.
Currently, Izuku Midoriya, a 12 year old vigilante (almost 13!!), and inventor, was bleeding out.
A lucky bastard managed to get a hit on him. He wasn’t really up to his game per the usual recently but didn’t think things were this bad. I mean, getting stabbed from a standard mugging? He had been doing this long enough to know what to do for your run-of-the-mill back alley mugging.
Still, looking back on it wouldn’t fix the blade shaped whole in his torso.
Gauging his options he decided he should try to get the right stuff from a convenience store that's around here. He was too far from Dagoba Beach to fix it up at home and he didn’t exactly have anyone to call for situations such as this. So, convenience store it is.
But it was so hard to get up, his entire soul felt like it had been drained from his body. Still, Izuku needed to decide if he was going to change into civilian clothes or risk a public sighting.
It’s kind of Ironic what happened next, Izuku, a nameless vigilante deciding whether or not he should go into public, is found bleeding out in an alleyway by a hero notorious for being heavily involved in the media. Great!
Could you sense the sarcasm?
Present Mic stopped at the mouth of the alley, Izuku could practically see the gears spinning in this guy's head. “Hey there listener,..” the blonde started, the attempt was appreciated but a little frustrating given the situation. “Are you all good here or do I need to come take a look at you?” he asked, slowly approaching.
Now, don’t get Izuku wrong, he loves Presentation Micheal. He’s a great hero, and has often fought against discrimination publicly, even going as far as to bash other heroes who were bigoted. Sometimes in front of said heroes. But Izuku is a vigilante, heroes try to capture vigantes. And to be honest, Izuku was perfectly fine just listening to the guys over the radio, he didn’t need to have a conversation with him in an interrogation room, thank you very much.
So, given the situation and his fading common sense, he stood up slowly and stared at Present Mic for a solid twenty seconds before making a mad dash for the fire escape on the back wall of the alley.
There were protests from both his side as he applied pressure while swinging from bar to bar and the loud hero at the base of the fire escape.
He stopped when he reached, looking down to find the voice hero had begun to follow his tracks upward. “Sorry Present Mic, but I don’t think your kind would wanna help the likes of me. It’s probably not the best for your public image.” He half-yelled down towards the hero.
He stopped for a second, almost like he was taking a breath to actually look at Izuku. It had been about a minute, Izuku didn’t judge, Present Mic is more of a day time hero, his eyes wouldn’t adjust as quickly as an underground or twilight hero. He almost grinned the moment the realization struck across blondie’s face.
“Villian or vigilante?” he heard the hero ask, using his quirk to amplify his words due to the difference in elevation.
Izuku thought for a moment, What kind of a question was that? Did it even matter?
“Vigilante, though it’s not like it makes much of a difference to you people.” He responded while turning on his heel. “Now if you don’t mind, I’m in a lot of pain and looking forward to collapsing in the comfort of my home, good day.” He said as he walked across the rooftop, preparing himself for the next jump.
He made it across four more rooftops before he was stopped by yet another hero, underground hero Eraserhead.
Well shit.
“You know you really shouldn’t be out so late at night, it’s not safe.” Eraserhead said with a cocky half-grin.
“Yeah you’re right, creepy men dressed in all black could try to talk to me.” Izuku replied seamlessly, enjoying the way Eraserheads eye twitched a bit at the smart remark. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to be headed home now, since it’s not safe out here for me.” Izuku teased as he began to walk towards the roof edge, only to be stopped by a demonic looking Eraserhead, who seemed to have activated his quirk.
“Sorry but-“ Eraserhead began before a very disheveled Present Mic cut him off.
“Eraserhead he’s a vigilante with some sort of agility quirk!” Present Mic yelled without much effort, his voice reaching them from all the way across the large rooftop thanks to his quirk.
“Is that so, thanks Present Mic.” Eraserhead replied, sounding rather annoyed at the blonde hero but also fond of him as well. ‘Well I guess they did go to highschool together’ Izuku thought as he was cornered by the two pros.
Now, mind you, Izuku didn’t really like many heroes. His love for the Pros that roamed the streets of Japan had dwindled through the years to a very select few, still he respected them. Especially the two that were cornering him on this roof. They were his two favorites. So he knew almost everything there was to know about the two, naturally. Like how they were married, where they live, they went to the same highschool, U.A., in the same class, and that they have multiple cats.
Still he fidgeted nervously as the three way stare down ensued. He knew their fighting styles, he knew how to take them down, but he really wanted to avoid that.
So, because the universe loves to solve his problems in the most fucked up ways imaginable, an even bigger problem, that Izuku would have no moral battles taking down, appeared. In a rather enviously flashy way might he add. Although that seemed to be a byproduct of being born lucky, with a flashy emitter type quirk.
He noticed almost immediately, the heat crawling up his back. The sensation of the water in the air turning to nothing, the suffocating heat. The memories it brought, the smell of burning flesh.
He noticed the two pros in front of him stiffened. He watched Eraserhead notice the source first, eyes flicking nervously towards Izuku and then the burning pile of shit behind him. He noticed as Present Mic did the same, only a second later. His breath quickened as adrenaline began to run through his veins.
You’d think that most pro heroes would be jumping with joy at the appearance of the number two hero, here to help with one vigilante. But no. This is because of the hero's impressive casualty rate. He has the collective most number of kills ranging from civilian, villain, vigilante, and hero. Yes you read that right. He kills his colleagues on a regular basis. And while he would probably face backlash if he killed such a public figure like Present Mic, Eraserheads death would be entirely overlooked. As would Izuku's matter of fact. Another alarming thing, Endeavor looks at vigilantes as if they are notorious killers, kinda hypocritical if you think about it. However, Izuku knows both Eraser and Mic do not share those views, they like to turn any vigilantes in the direction of reform programs. So as you can see, the arrival of such an enigma was a bit of a bump in the road.
Eraser tightened his grip on his capture weapon, Present Mic prepared to release a destructive yell if he needed, Izuku? He took a deep breath, flexed his fingers and counted. Endeavor spoke a bit, nothing much more than an explanation on why Izuku was likely about to die, it could be compared to a villain monologue. He waited patiently, letting the tension pool, like a calm lake of energy, waiting for the right disturbance to snap that barrier and release.
At some point he registered that Endeavor had asked him a question, he was waiting for an answer, Izuku absentmindedly thought as he eyed a bird. He loved birds, and as much as he dreaded to think of what might happen, he was pretty sure he found his disturbance.
The bird fluttered for a moment, then circled, then stopped to look at the scene, then Izuku. It landed on the entrance to the building from the roof and all hell broke loose.
Izuku lunged to the right just as Endeavor sent a burst of hellfire towards his head. Having narrowly missed Izuku, Endeavor decided to take yet another shot, one that would hit Eraserhead if Izuku dodged, so he decided to instead rush Endeavor and fake out last minute. He pivoted on his heel and made a hard right, turning to face the burning man. Izukus mind unhelpfully provided him with some rather bittersweet images as he ran at the hero, he reminded himself that he needed to focus on the now, he could relish in the past once he got out of here.
He registered panicked shouting from behind him but elected to ignore it as he prepared to weave through another set of fatally aimed blasts of fire.
He continued in a dance with the pro hero as he avoided the fire that shot out like liquid. He could hear it burn all the water away from the air as it surged in his direction, narrowly missing him once again.
Endeavor shot one more blast of fire that singed Izuku's side. Izuku bit back a few swears and continued to dodge without faltering, he couldn’t afford to stop and assess the wound lest he be burned to nothing but ash by the flames that were still blasting by him in every direction.
The constant streams of fire stopped as Izuku saw endeavor power up a move Izuku knew he wouldn’t be able to dodge.
He looked over to see both Present Mic and Eraserhead still watching from the sidelines, both wide eyed and panicked. He nodded in their direction before turning back to the current threat, assessing the situation.
He took a steadying breath before he ran towards Endeavor, shocking the bigger man, who was not ready to fire yet. He used the man as a ladder as he climbed up and above him to vault to the next rooftop, quickly running towards the next. He spared a glance back to see that Endeavor was having trouble dealing with the bundle of energy he had created only to have his quirk cancelled by Eraserhead who was accompanied by a nervous Present Mic, who was looking directly at Izuku in fact. He caught the man's gaze and sent him a quick thumbs up and a sign for ‘I’m ok’ as he ran off into the night.
“I never did get those meat buns.” he grumbled under his breath as he ducked into an alley and out of view. Oh well, at least he was on the way home now, food would have to wait for tomorrow, right now, sleep was calling him.
So, as he was saying. Izuku was bleeding out, but that was yesterday. Besides, he obtained another injury last night that seemed a bit more extreme than the stab wound in his side.
When Endeavor singed his side he didn’t hit the side with the stab wound, which would have been like free cauterization so Izuku was a bit pissed as he tugged on his uniform.
Izuku was almost 13 which meant he was still in junior high. He currently attended Aldera Junior High, the same school district where he went to both middle and elementary school. Safe to say, it sucked.
It was like a place where walking red flags all congregated to strike on the occasional minority or unlucky victim who just pissed them off.
Now usually this wouldn’t be too bad of a problem seeing as most people in Izuku's world had quirks which gave them an advantage and even if they did get picked on they could defend themself. Izuku however, because every divine deity in existence hates him, does not have a quirk, or parents, or a house, or anything really.
Most people in this world don’t like him, so he’s had to rough it. It’s not all that bad anymore. However some days, when his nightly activities leave him with a few lasting marks, can be a bit overwhelming.
That leads us to right about now. Where Izuku is seated at his desk, all too aware of the pain searing in both his sides as he tries very hard to focus on his desk rather than the students gathered around him.
It was a regular occurrence, the teacher would out him for something, he’d keep his head down to avoid a riot, Bakugou would say something, a riot would happen, he would be either physically beat or berated by everyone as they laughed and said mean things. Rinse and repeat. It was a bit annoying but he only
had to last out this year before he could officially leave school.
He’s already graduated through an online course, he only shows up to Aldera to keep up appearances. He doesn’t live with a mom or dad, the foster system was not kind to him, no orphanages wanted him. He just needs to make it through this last year then he can leave and focus on college and work. It’ll be lovely, anything is better than this.
Still, it’s hard to be optimistic about it all in times like this, and six months feels like an eternity. Especially down here on the floor, while he’s sitting with his face pointed at the floor, looking at all his things that were just dumped on his head by an overly loud and aggressive blonde. He used to be friends with that blonde, back when things were alright. But now he’s here, and Bakugous here too but they’ll never be in the same place. Bakugou makes that clear as he yells about Izuku being a disappointment.
“Honestly it’s no wonder Auntie killed herself, not when she had a son like you .” Bakugou said with a laugh, not noticing how Izuku's fist clenched, or how he was shaking from anger. “Not only that but your dad doesn't want you either huh? Guess you’re really pathetic. So pathetic that your dad left and your mom killed herself. Why don't you follow in her footsteps and take a swan dive off the roof. Maybe you'll get lucky in the next life and actually get a quirk so you won't be so pathetic.” Bakugou said as he launched another burst of explosions at Izuku. Laughing like it was nothing. Laughing like he hadn’t just cursed his Auntie’s name.
He was wrong, Inko didn’t kill herself, he was so wrong and stupid and selfish.
But before Izuku could say all that Bakugou left. And Izuku was left there to cry. He stayed there for a while, crying. He eventually left after picking up all his things and began his walk towards the abandoned apartment complex he lived in. It was close to his childhood home, so he had to take a cut through a few alleys and underpasses to get there.
He was thinking of what he would eat today since he didn’t get to eat yesterday as he walked under a bridge filled with graffiti. He was busy looking at the art pieces on the ceiling so he didn’t notice when the sewer water started to surge, he did notice when the grate popped off though. He turned just in time to watch as the green ooze gushed out of the gate and started morphing to something more sentient.
He backed up just as two eyes turned to him and a mouth appeared as the creature exclaimed with glee, “A perfect skinsuit!” he yelled as he lunged towards Izuku.
Izuku nearly got caught as he dodged to the left, his side protesting. He got up only to duck back down as another shot of green sludge came barreling towards him.
He rolled to the side as more tendrils joined the other. Cursing when the villain shot out more just as he stopped. He was caged in between the two walls of sludge.
“Now hold still, it’s a lot easier if you don’t struggle.” The sludge villain said as he closed in, as if it was comforting.
Izuku jumped up and grabbed hold of some of the bars running along the ceiling of the underpass they were in. Just as the villain launched his face into the wall where Izuku had just been standing.
“You brat!” the villain said as he came back, a little cross-eyed. “Come back here!” he yelled looking from side to side.
Izuku adjusted his grip as he tried to swing himself onto the bars as quietly as he could, watching as the villain slowly made his way out from under the bridge.
The villain looked like it was on its way out just as yet another person burst out of the manhole. ‘At least it’s an identifiable person this time’ Izuku thought with glee before immediately letting his smile drop when he realized who it was, All might.
He held onto the pole even tighter now, trying to blend in with the ceiling. From his vantage point he watched as All Might dodged sludge thrown at him from the mutant quirk, wondering what the hero would do. His question was soon answered as he watched in horror, the hero was preparing a Texas Smash. That would hurt Izuku and any bystanders on the bridge or around the underpass.
All Might was too fast for Izuku though, releasing the punch and tearing the villain to shreds before bottling up, not noticing Izuku who had been knocked into a wall just a few meters away.
Izuku remembers hearing the sound of the air around him whirling in all different directions as the hero took off, leaving Izuku bleeding in the underpass. He vaguely remembers wondering if he’d get to have meat buns before he lost consciousness.
When he regained consciousness he was still in the same place. He slowly regained feeling in his body and whined at the pain in the back of his head.
He stayed there for a while, just staring off in the distance. He eventually got up with many curses and a clenched jaw. Hobbling hsi way out of the underpass and to a convenience store he saw up the street.
As he got closer the bright lights made his head throb even more but there was nothing more he could do until he got what he needed from the store.
The front door opened with the jingling of bells making his ears ring as he swayed towards the baskets and down the aisles to one with burn cream, headache medicine, and anything else he was short on. After making his way to the snack aisle he noticed a rather heated conversation at the front of the store.
‘Oh fuck me’ he thought as he let out an annoyed huff, setting his basket down and creeping ever so slowly towards the front.
He saw a teen with bright yellow hair working at the front, frantically trying to open the cash register as well as stall for time. He noticed that there was a little girl who was also in the store hiding in a corner that was visible to the assailant, though he didn't think the robber had noticed her yet.
He motioned at her subtly, eventually catching her attention and attempting to calm the girl slightly from such a distance. She looked on the verge of a breakdown and had one hand over her mouth to try and not make noise and one hand on a stuffed toy. She didn’t look the cleanest and he noticed she also had a few bags of chips with her. ‘Goddamnit’ he sighed as he realized that not only was she stealing but she was also probably homeless.
He saw the teen and assailants' conversation getting a bit louder and then heard the cockking of a gun. ‘Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit’ he thought as he saw the teen go quiet and look towards what Izuku could only assume was a handgun pointed at him. Izuku couldn’t quite see the gun but apparently both other hostages could.
He spared a glance over to the doors and saw they were barricaded with a few chairs, ‘Well that’s not ideal’ he thought, looking between the scene upfront, the girl, and the door, a plan formulating in his mind.
He slowly rose from his crouched position, grabbing the broom next to him and quietly unscrewing the brush-like tip from the broomstick. The armed man's quirk was a weak mutant type quirk by the looks of it. He had a scaled tail and sharper nails but not much else could be seen that was out of the ordinary.
The girl looked even more panicked as she saw him approaching the criminal, frantically shaking her head for him to stop. The teen soon noticed him as well and tried not to make it so obvious but was obviously even more panicked when he noticed there was still another person in the store.
“EAT SHIT!” he yelled, watching as the guy turned around just in time to catch a face full of pole as Izuku slammed it right in between his brows. He grinned as the assailant dropped his gun and quickly pulled his forearms to his forehead, swearing and cursing Izuku.
“YOU FUCKING SHIT!” He yelled impressively as he prepared to shoot Izuku, only noticing now that he had dropped his gun and that Izuku had kicked it behind him towards the freezers.
Izuku allowed himself a smirk as the disheveled man decided to rush Izuku and failed miserably as Izuku made quick work of sidestepping and then hitting him on the back with the metal pole of the broom.
He heard a yell of frustration erupt from the man as he turned with one hand on his face, he was breathing heavily and his pupils were slits at this point. He ran towards Izuku again, hands outstretched like he only needed one swipe to end this fight. It was then Izuku noticed the venom coming from the man's mouth and nails. Quickly dodging out of the way just in time once again, he spun around viciously and swiped the man's legs, bringing the pole down on them both. He heard a sickening crunch as the man began screaming on the ground.
He took a quick breath and then used some rope he paid for to tie the man up, then paid for the rest of his load plus some, for the girl. He left without talking to the man except for a quick, “call the police but leave me out of it”. He then bent down next to the girl and nodded towards the door. She seemed hesitant at first but eventually left with him after some coaxing.
He asked her quirk and name, finding out she had a pretty strong emitter quirk. He found out her parents had died in a villaim attack but because her parents weren’t the best people themselves and were never supposed to be where they were in the first place, nobody came for her.
He gave her a quick meal, and attempted to make her as clean as possible before calling the police and then turning into a restaurant. He explained the situation to the cashier quickly who looked at him rather accusingly but accepted the girl otherwise. He then gave her back her stuffy, which he had attached his email to and one of his bracelets. Letting her know to email him if she ever needed help.
He fled the place before the police could get there and began to walk back to his apartment.
When he arrived back at his apartment without further issue he made himself a mediocre coffee and used the leftover hot water to make some slightly crunchy ramen.
“What a fucking day.” he said as he lay down in his bed after dressing his wounds at raking soem medicine. He had no doubt in his mind that he would not be waking up very early tomorrow. “Thank the gods it's friday.” he said right before slipping away into an uncomfortable sleep.