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“Madam, we have something that you might want to see.”
The woman hummed, not quite listening as she typed away. There was always something that she just had to see. Everyone was useless. Why did she hire someone who could not just do their own fucking jobs and leave her alone?
Didn’t they know she had a hero society to run?
“Ma’am, it is about All for One’s son.”
She listened.
Izuku ran through all the things he could have done to piss the gods off and came off empty. He dried his tears as he frantically packed only the most essential things in his bag.
He would cry about this later.
Though the gods did give him the foresight to take his costume. Being allowed to tinker on it between heroics classes was a wonderful thing. Tying his bag together he slung on the outer, most armoured section of his costume, with his belt and a hoodie over the top before he glanced at the notebooks on his shelf that he would have to leave.
He hardly had space in his bag for essentials. There was no way he could fit them in his bag.
Why the fuck did it have to be him? Why was he always picked on, why was he the one they chose to attack? Izuku just wanted to be a hero, yet it seemed that that would not be on the cards.
His pack was heavy on his shoulder as he, as quickly as he came, ran out of his room.
If he couldn’t help people in the way he wanted, if he couldn’t force heroes and people to change from the light, then he would step into the shadows.
It's not like the Commission would now just let him live now.
He hoped he would be able to see his friends again, he hoped that they would understand.
Nedzu had been aware of the commission agents that have been watching the school for a while now. He could see them on his camera monitors that were dotted on the walls of UA. They were circling, pushing to try and get Hawks into the building for an event, a teaching experience, just for the heroics class to meet him.
It really did aggravate Nedzu’s prey instincts.
Not that the Commission didn’t always activate his instincts like that. Just for the reason that they were the ones who created them.
It had been happening for the last couple of weeks (17 days, 14 hours, 53 minutes). They had not opened any channel of communication between the branch of the government or the school. The only dialogue that had occurred was them trying to create interest for Hawks, for them to get him into the school.
There was no reason given to him for why a trap was being set. He had set up a dorm-wide lockdown, no student was allowed out without a group of other students and a teacher, and 1st years had to train with the 3rd years in the many gyms and fields.
It was a good thing in Nedzu’s opinion that Mikumo was practically glued to Mirio’s side.
Nedzu’s fear of being snatched up by a hawk, or maybe the Hawks, in this case, was being pushed onto his children. However, despite how much Nedzu respected Hawks as a fellow commission experiment and Hero, he did not trust him like one of his children.
Blaming what might have seemed like paranoia on the League of villains, who have not been seen since that mall incident with Akatani, had been easy. The press accepted it and lauded the school, even after viciously attacking them for the lapse of security during the USJ incident, students being injured at Hosu, the commission did not.
However, Nedzu did not have an intelligence quirk for nothing and was able to smooth that over, by suggesting to the press that the commission did not want to fund the dorms because they thought it was too expensive.
It was a win-win situation, the commission was forcefully pushed off of UA, for the time being, due to the press and people of the country thinking that they are endangering the lives of children. As well as allowing Nedzu to bring all of his children closer to him, where he could protect them.
Then the Commission president called him.
Watching his phone, the one connected only to the highest member of the commission, ring from the vents was an almost out of body experience. It wasn’t worrying that Nedzu would miss the call, he had done that before and he will do it again, what was worrying him was the reason why they were calling him.
“Akatani,” Aizawa said knocking his knuckles on the boy's desk. “Nedzu would like to see you after school. Hopefully, he won’t keep you for too long, I want to see how good you’ve gotten at your knife work.” He held his hand up playfully stopping the retort, giving him a look his face buried into his capture scarf lounging into his desk chair, “don’t even try to deny it I know you have been practising, if you have any bad habits I will be grounding you.”
“But Mr Aizawa,” Akatani who is sometimes known as Midoriya said playfully, as he moved out of the room to go to his next class “you can’t ground me, Nedzu won’t allow it. Anyway, where do I go for you to ground, I don’t actually live at UA you know, and before you say anything dorms don’t count.”
“I happen to teach Todoroki. I have everything I need to punish you.”
Izuku gasped dramatically against the door frame, “Mr Aizawa, Eraserhead, sensei, respectfully no. in the words of that one American vine, ‘ur not my dad’. Also, I don’t know what you're talking about I have never picked up a knife in my life. I eat my food with my hands you see.”
As Izuku (Mikumo) gracelessly flaunted out of the room he missed the small, “yet,” from Aizawa as he stuffed his face into his scarf. He just wanted Tsukauchi to give him the go-ahead to arrest Inko. Mikumo was not forthcoming enough to rely on him for evidence, so they have to rely on the old fashion detective work.
It would be nice to finally be able to adopt his problem child.
-
Izuku pulled Shouto Todoroki into a shadowy recess and threw his arms around his neck, dragging him down to pull their lips together softly, at first. Fingers twirling into his hair and pulling slightly while Shouto’s fingers cupped the underside of Izuku’s jaw. Before pulling away, giving soft chaise kisses, loving in their gentleness.
Shouto’s hand slipped from his jaw and smoothed its way down his body before Izuku pulled back again, breathing deeply and smiling up at his boyfriend. The taller boy, taking this in his stride rested his forehead on Izuku’s staring lovingly into his eyes.
Izuku stroked the scar on his face, brushing back the bangs covering the eye and smoothing a finger over where his eyebrow should have been. The glassy pupil staring sightlessly at him, the blue surrounding it bright despite the blindness.
The eye represented to Izuku exactly what was wrong with the world. That eye represented the negligence of heroes, and animosity bred for anything other and different. It represented his quirk, as well as Izuku’s quirklessness, it stood for the hatred for people with villainous quirks. And more.
Even if Shouto didn’t know, it represented a lot to Izuku. Even if Shouto didn’t know his real name, he knew who he needed to be. Shouto and Akatani, a duo who would be as formidable as All Might and Sir Nighteye. Izuku just needed to keep the charade of this façade up for long enough to ensure that it wouldn’t matter.
He would tear down the systematic oppression with a smile. He would destroy the system from the inside, he would be the light that guided the society to a new age of prosperity.
Izuku sometimes thought his dream was naïve, even if Mirio told him it was good to work for something.
“I need to go talk to the rat.” Izuku said,
“Mmmmm and what was that some sort of greeting, or possibly a way of trying to telepathically tell me through my lips. I'm not complaining, it was a very good effort if that was the goal.”
Izuku’s face screwed up as he started laughing, “God I hate that I taught you sarcasm, you’re funnier than I am now. Anyway,” he leaned up on his tiptoes and pecked on his boyfriend's lips, “I have to go now.” Slipping away from each other they head off, not suspecting anything was wrong.
-
“Hello! How are you?” Izuku said, opening the door knowing Nedzu would have known he was there.
“I am good thank you Akatani, or should I call you Midoriya? We need to talk, please shut the door.” Nedzu sat, face uncharacteristically serious, facing Izuku and watching over his desk. He watched the blood drain from Izuku’s face. He hovered by the doorway, as if now unsure that he was welcome.
“What?” Izuku said softly, heart beating in his mouth, his feet were frozen to the ground and he had a sick, feeling in his stomach. “i- I don’t understand.”
“I got an email several months ago from a Shiketsu high school student, from a boy by the name of Bakugou Katsuki, detailing and showing evidence of you being quirkless. Providing numerous documents and anecdotal stories on why he should be here and you should not. It would be easier if you sat.” Nedzu had turned his computer screen around to Izuku as he came and sat down gingerly on the chair. Nedzu scrolled through the numerous and explicit vulgar messages. Yep, that was definalty Kacchan.
“He said that he saw the UA sports festival and was confused how someone quirkless like you could get into UA and then when I said that there was no Izuku Midoriya here he explained that the name Akatani Mikumo was fake.”
He was sitting very still, stiller than Izuku whose back was so straight against the chair he was near vibrating in fear. But then the rat smiled, but it wasn’t a nice smile, it was pained. It showed his teeth and his fangs. “But I deleted that and moved on, I already knew you were quirkless, and I already knew you were called Izuku Midoriya.” And Izuku let out a brief sigh of relief. He had not angered his mentor.
Nedzu’s face grew tenser and he grew agitated, jumping onto his desk and marching across the top handheld against his chin.
“I allowed that deception to continue because you were and are amazing, and you can be one of the greatest heroes that I have had the pleasure of teaching. Don’t look at me like that it’s true, and I know for a fact that Eraserhead thinks so too.” The smile was wan and was more a show of teeth at this point, and while the commendation had soothed some of his worried, it had ignited fear in him. Nedzu wasn’t known for handing out praise. Something was going to happen; all he could do was wait for the other shoe to drop.
“The boy, that Katsuki Bakugou, I have to say is also very clever. After no news of you being expelled, he sent the details and evidence to the UA board and the HSPC. They are calling for your removal of this school, and” here was where the chimaera truly faltered, “they will most likely, to my calculations, arrest you for falsifying a quirk.”
Izuku nodded, pale, he knew that was what might have happened if it ever came out that he had faked a quirk. He just hoped he was more in the public eye when that happened. His breathing had noticeably gained speed.
“Also, Bakugou had detailed evidence of what might have been seen as signs of mental fragility.” And here was what Nedzu wanted Izuku to know, what had got him so agitated, “The commission are going to sign you into mental hospital and document you trying to be a hero as signs of suicidal tendencies, I’ve been informed that since you being placed there might cause backlash for the school, it will be in a commission controlled one, one out of the public eye. I don’t think I need to tell you what that means?”
Izuku sat there shocked. Bakugou truly hated him. He understood what Nedzu said and what he was not saying. That Nedzu does not think that they are taking him away just because of his ‘mental health risk’, but the tears blurring his eyes and the quiet sobs making his way up his throat made it hard to focus on any of the other things.
“They also informed me that you were not to know, they made me sign a non-disclosure form.” This caused Izuku’s head to snap to attention, his focusing not wavering off of the thing in front of him.
“However, since I am not a human and cannot sign a legally binding document so here. I will not pretend to understand human emotion, and the commission obviously have no desire to understand my own emotions, but I do not understand why they would think I would just give you away like that. I am rather well known for being protective over my students.” The chimera creatures were watching his student break down and knew he could truly do nothing about it. But they did not have long.
“I am not sure I 100% understand why they are doing this, to be truthful to you Mikumo. They have seemed to scramble their efforts the moment they found out you were actually Izuku Midoriya. I looked into it truly I did but I could not find anything. The information they had on you was small and unobtrusive. So much so that I know it must not be everything.”
Izuku nodded, a memory of the day when he went to the hospital, for the first time in his life, after getting to close to a villain fight. The first where he had not gotten himself home first, actually being knocked out by the fight and being taken by a first responder to hospital. The vague conversation of his mother and some men in suits.
Izuku crawled to consciousness slowly, it was a while before he was conscious of anything. Confusion and detachment made the restraints – that felt like what he imagined handcuffs to feel like – were heavy on his floating wrists.
The drugs and confusion were enough to remove any residual suspicion that he might have felt about them.
Then he heard the voices of men, men he did not recognise. Men that were not his father’s deep and comforting voice. A voice that he had only been able to hear through a phone for the last couple years. Especially after Mother had cut contact with the man. A business trip he says, but Izuku – who was always good at analysis and understanding people – could hear the pain in his voice.
Those first couple of phone calls after the months of radio silence sent Izuku into a panic attack when they ended.
“Inko, you said you could control him.” A voice said from his left, nasally and pitchy it was obviously a man’s voice, it sounded angry yet detached, like he was a failed book report, it took a while of trailing thoughts to realise he was speaking again, “I have seen his school records, do you really think that him getting into fights and disrupting class is a low profile. You have one more chance and then we will be taking him. I think you understand why we are letting him go this time, despite the plan that was put in place. The president has decided that he is low risk enough that she is allowing this slip. It will not happen again.”
He heard his mother weeping as she replied, well he assumed she was weeping. He had never not seen his mother cry while he was hurt. There was a cicadellid feel to the lights in the room as Izuku opened his eyes to slits. The sounds were going distorted as the lights moved around him.
The drugs in his system were wack as fuck.
“It’s not his fault, he gets bullied and none of the teachers do anything about it. If they see it is always his fault or him getting into fights. Please, be reasonable he – we have done nothing against the agreement. Especially since his father has gone into hiding. We have stuck to the agreement, we stopped talking to him when you said. We haven’t seen him in years. Please we’re not villains.”
Izuku was drifting off into unconsciousness as he heard the reply, or maybe this was all a dream anyway.
“I do not see why that is my problem Inko. If we cannot ensure he will not turn into another All for One, then I do not see why he should stay with you. One more chance.”
Then the lights behind his eyes slipped away as he fell deep into a sleep, his doctor – man with an impressive moustache and glasses came in fiddling with the IV line in his arm. Practically shooing the men in suits away the last thing he remembers was his mother’s tear slowly moving down her cheek before unconsciousness took him.
“Go on Kumo, go pack. Aizawa will be informed of this, and I will ask him to organise plans and phones for your use whilst you get sorted. I need you to understand this, we are not abandoning you Mikumo. This is no one’s fault but the UA board. We will be doing everything to prevent this from happening. Here take this,” he slid a small rectangular device over to the still crying child who picked it up and analysed it, fiddling with it.
He was looking at the rat questioningly.
“What did I teach you about evasion and keeping yourself ahead of people.” The boy froze his fiddling, hard gaze sliding down to the device in his hands. “Know thy enemy. Know their weakness and use it against them. Is this,” and he trailed off holding the device out curiously staring intently while the chimera nodded.
“Use it wisely. Add to it if you can. It is all I have on them. I ask you, just as a courtesy, to not watch and read all of it unless you need to. There is some information and files that are of a rather personal matter. But come on now, you need to get ready. Go pack.”
Izuku made it back to the dorms in record time, flying through the door and winding around his housemates. No one stopped him or questioned his frantic pace. He was rather renowned for his frantic energy and bursts of energy as his desire to document life burst within him.
He made his way outside of UA, tears long since dried.
(X)
Izuku had just made it to his dorm room when Aizawa arrived at Nedzu’s office, it was not a coincidence; the rat knew his teacher far too well to have told him prior to this. In the rat’s head if Aizawa had found out before the child had fled, then he would have been held by the teacher until the commission was able to take him anyway.
The man in front of him, unlike Nedzu, would have been bound to give the boy away. Especially since the man was on track to become his guardian. And it wouldn’t have been just Izuku being arrested then. Nedzu could not lose Eraserhead, not for only a few days of Mikumo being free. They had to play the long game.
Aizawa was a good hero and he deserved to keep his licence. This way both boy and man would be free to protect each other, in whatever way they could.
A small ding echoed through his office, hardly noticeable over the loud and pained sounds of anger coming from Eraserhead after Nedzu filled him in the situation. Checking his monitor he saw that Izuku had gone, had run. He switched his cameras back onto the dorms, no one looked suspicious and no one was questioning why he was leaving so quickly.
That was the last time the rat saw his child, until he was held in a secure room of the commission.
An hour after Izuku had left, a phone call from the president of the commission, cut through the same argument he was having with Aizawa and now Yamada. Who had been filled in the situation by a violently angry Aizawa. They were here, and both men seemed to realise the strength of a united front as they both agreed to continue this later.
It was just so useful that they were in the room to invite to the meeting, so they Izuku would have enough time to get away without his dedicated teachers on his trail.
The commission agents sent to UA high school were renown for capturing and subduing powerful civilians who had lost control of their powers. Or people on the Commission watch list of desirables who were being watched.
And they were standing in his office, in his school, demanding one of his students.
They were not the people that should have been sent to take into custody a quirkless teenage boy. They were not the people who would be able to look after a boy like Mikumo, Izuku or whatever he was called. They were humans but Nedzu understood human children better than they ever would. He would look after them better than they ever could.
“Unfortunately, my friends, it seems that Mikumo-”
“His name is Izuku Midoriya, don’t act innocent and ignorant it doesn’t suit you.” One of them interrupted, “Where is he? You were instructed to; you signed a form that meant that you had to keep him here.”
Nedzu’s face was genial as it hid his anger, but he could see Aizawa’s face in his periphery. Face buried deep in his scarf. That man could not hide his emotions.
“As I was saying, it seems that he is gone. Just left actually. It’s a shame. Really it is. However, section 66.89 of the quirk accords – the one that the commission follows – states that animals, ones that you can interact with, cannot sign anything that is legally binding. So yes, I did sign an agreement, but since it wasn’t legally binding I elected to ignore it. Maybe you should try for non-quirkiest reform before trying to come for me. And my children.”
The suits looked at him with carefully constructed facades, blank enough that Aizawa’s grip on his scarf tightened, and the look of disgust on his face deepened. When they hissed at Nedzu, he wasn’t particularly surprised.
“You have no idea what you have done. Who you have trained and then set free. You have set a plague upon the world.”
Catching Aizawa’s eyes the chimera hummed, “enlighten me.”
They showed him his genetic match, from blood work of the hospital visit from several months ago. A rather innocuous piece of paper. It was rather damning in the eyes of a government that wanted, above all, their populace to be quiet and comply.
This piece of paper, with the fact that Izuku was quirkless and intelligent and everything they didn’t want, was singularly the most damning thing for the boy. This was a threat to the current government. Significant enough that Nedzu finally, finally, understood all of the anti-quirkless Rhetoric and the start of the anti-quirkless laws that had been released recently.
The piece of paper read, Inko Midoriya, Izuku’s mother. A basic quirk, small telekinesis with a minor gravitational field element. A nurse, only minor note in the file was her relation to a man known as Midoriya Hisashi, and a note of filed against her of negligence. No one of importance.
This was counteracted by the next piece of information on the sheet.
A man who was born 200 years ago, and whose quirk was documented as being called All for One. Known alias, Hisashi Shigaraki, Hisashi Midoriya, and many others.
A man that Nedzu has in fact heard of, a man that was the archnemesis of one of his staff. A man who it was his prerogative to find as much information about for said staff member. There had been a rumour of him having a family. Yet the reveal of Shigaraki it was assumed that that was what the theory came from.
Obviously, this was false.
Yes, Nedzu thought, that will do it.