Chapter Text
Sounds of the ever-moving city kept him awake, listening constantly, despite the lateness of the hour. He remained unmoving, staring at the front of the unassuming house across the street from his perch on the roof. Even in the dark, he kept his dark green mask with a demonic grin firmly in place. The rest of his outfit was black except for his red sneakers. He lifted his binoculars a few moments before a set of men emerged from the house. They were conversing in low voices and he frowned unhappily at how difficult it was to hear them. He wasn’t great at reading lips yet. He watched carefully as they rounded the corner, jotting notes down in one of his many notebooks as they did so.
It was getting too late. He set off across the city’s rooftops, his small frame going unnoticed. His journey brought him to the other side of the city, where he scaled an apartment building using the gutter and window sills. By the time he reached the top, his fingertips were aching, as always.
Izuku clambered into his room, the soft soles of his red shoes making his landing quiet. It was 2am, leaving him only four hours to sleep before he had to get up and pretend to go to school.
Even so, he lay awake in bed, staring up into the darkness. He had the names of approximately 25 members with descriptions of each. At least 16 of those, he had their quirks pinned down. The remaining nine were the problem. Izuku couldn’t dare infiltrate this Yakuza base without knowing their quirks. If any of them had quirks that could sense his presence, he would be dead in an instant.
But the little girl on the street, with her bandaged arms and legs . . . if she was still there . . .
Izuku rolled over in bed. No. He couldn’t think about her. Not until he was ready.
Izuku’s alarm went off. He rose from the warm comfort of his sheets and groggily readied himself for the day.
He could hear his mom getting breakfast ready in the kitchen. Izuku had considered multiple times over the past few months that maybe it would be best to tell her the truth, but each time he had decided against it. She had enough to worry about, keeping them afloat with her job.
Izuku slid into the routine of the day. After breakfast he left, pretending to head to the nearby high school, before switching directions and going to the library instead. He’d nearly finished the first year’s curriculum. The access to all of the materials also gave him the ability to research other topics, like the skills he needed for his . . . other work.
At lunchtime, he finished up his studying and headed to the beach. It was piled up with trash and debris, which was great as a work-out. There were actually a few bare patches now, compared to when Izuku started off months ago.
He ended his day working a part-time gig at a small gym. It wasn’t anything special, but in-between his duties, he was allowed to look in on the martial arts classes; sometimes the instructors would see Izuku watching longingly and beckon him over to teach him a few moves.
It also was a rather sleazy gym, where he could usually overhear a few low-life criminals discussing plans.
By the time his day was done, Izuku was always exhausted, and would head home to sleep until nightfall.
Once the city went dark, his real job began.
“What are you doing?”
Izuku froze, perched on the edge of a rooftop. He calculated the voice was only a few meters back, which should give him enough time to jump to the next building’s fire escape. He sprang forward . . . only to be yanked back by a couple bands of contact across his chest. He crashed down onto the roof with a groan.
“What the he—“ he looked up to see none other than the pro-hero Eraserhead, ribbon-like capture weapon extended around Izuku. “Aw, crap.”
Eraserhead looked unimpressed. “Are you a kid? Isn’t it past your bedtime?”
Izuku made sure his grinning demon mask was still in place. He sat up, rubbing his hip where he’d landed on it. “Shouldn’t you be fighting bad guys instead of harassing kids?” he retorted.
The pro-hero rolled his eyes. He muttered something about teenagers and flicked his capture weapon so that it settled back around his neck. “If you don’t want me to call the police, then you better tell me who you are and what you think you’re doing.”
He swallowed. It wasn’t going to be easy to lie to a hero like this, so maybe a blended truth would have to do. “My name’s Deku. I overheard some guys talking about robbing th-that store, but the owner wouldn’t believe me. So I was waiting to see if it would happen, and then I—“
A crash interrupted his words. So those thugs at the gym weren’t lying. Izuku dashed away before Eraserhead could react, jumping in his planned trajectory to the other fire escape and using it to swiftly get to the ground.
“—money in that bag, now!”
Izuku peered in through the window the criminals had broken. Three of them: one with some kind of weird metal in plates on his body, the second with what looked like extendable limbs, and the third with no visible quirk. The one without a visible quirk was holding a gun.
He thought out a quick strategy. He would have to take out the guy with a gun first. Given that his quirk was unknown, he could also be the biggest threat, so Izuku would have to avoid being touched by him just in case. The extendable limbs could come in handy, and would probably trip the guy up if he played his cards right. Plate-guy was a problem, as he would be difficult to knock out.
None of them saw Izuku jump through the broken window. The guy with the gun had started monologuing to the owner, his aim beginning to get sloppy.
Izuku grabbed a mop where it had been abandoned. The aisle was blocking him from their view. He waited until the villain was pointing the gun at no one before striking.
His hit was pretty decent. He had managed to snap the mop handle down with enough force on the guy’s wrist to make him drop the gun. Izuku shoved it away down the aisle.
“Hey! Nobody move!”
To Izuku’s surprise, it wasn’t the villains shouting, but Eraserhead.
He had forgotten about him.
The pro-hero was using his ability to stop the villains from using their quirks; the plates had disappeared from the man’s skin and the other one was obviously trying to extend his arm but was failing.
Izuku looked at the guy whose gun he’d knocked down and noted the man had started twisting his hand over to expose his wrist. There was a strange looking spot on it that made Izuku nervous. He might’ve had the quirk to use something from his wrists on him.
“You would pick a night that a pro-hero was patrolling,” the plate-man said to the wrist-man.
“Shut up, idiot.”
Izuku snagged the gun from where it had fallen, bringing it back to Eraserhead.
“What were you thinking, kid?”
He put the gun down in front of him. “Thanks for the help.”
Izuku knew when to book it. He ignored Eraserhead shouting at him to stay and sprinted away. Thankfully, his mask and hood had stayed up throughout the encounter, so Eraserhead wouldn’t be able to track him down. He checked his All Might watch as he ran. 10:30pm. Perfect. He needed to get over to the Yakuza building before the two he knew were on duty would start their patrol. They both had quirks he hadn’t been able to figure out.
The two of them emerged, arguing on the doorstep about something. Arguments were frequent among criminals, and had helped Izuku out time and time again.
“Would you shut up!”
One of them had long hair that reached out to the other and touched him. The one who had been touched began moving in slow motion until the other pulled his hair away.
“You’re so useless. Overhaul should get rid of you now.”
The other muttered something else and the two of them drifted off to finish patrolling.
Slowing time? Or maybe movements. Either way, Izuku had a good idea of his quirk now.
Izuku didn’t hear any tips at the gym the next day. He had a patrol loop that he kept up when he didn’t have any leads that avoided major pro-hero patrol routes, but even that was mostly quiet. Izuku sighed, swinging down from the metal beams in a construction site and dropping into the dirt. He froze as he caught sight of the construction site’s temporary office. The light was on, and the door was opening.
He expected security, or maybe some over-tired construction manager to emerge. A girl about his size emerged instead.
Not exactly suspicious, not exactly something that appeared dangerous, but Izuku found himself curious enough to shadow the girl. Why would a student be out so late, at a construction-site no less?
Without warning, the girl whirled, leaping towards where Izuku was crouched behind a dumpster.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Izuku didn’t move, putting his hands up. “Nothing, I swear!”
“I heard you following me.” Fierce brown eyes looked him up and down. “Why are you wearing a mask, if you’re not a villain? Do anything funny and I’ll use my quirk on you!”
“I—I’m not a villain, I swear. I saw you out so late and I wanted to make sure you got home okay.” He winced. It sounded dumb when he said it aloud.
“And I should believe you, why?”
“Uh, I guess you don’t have a reason,” Izuku stammered. “I’m sorry for assuming you couldn’t take care of yourself.”
The girl’s stance eased up a little, but she still had her hands out. In the dim light, he could see some kind of bumps on her fingertips.
“You didn’t explain about the mask,” she said.
Izuku sighed. “Well, I go around and try to help people. I just . . . don’t want anyone to know who I am.”
She cocked her head at him. “A vigilante?”
He tucked his hands in his pockets sheepishly. “Well, not exactly. But kinda.”
“Why not become a hero?”
Izuku stiffened. “I have my reasons.”
The girl dropped her hands. “I guess it’s good that Aizawa trained us on stealth a few days ago.” She grinned a little. “You scuff your feet when you crouch.”
“I’ll work on that,” he mumbled to himself. “Sorry again for assuming you might need help. I just thought it was weird for a student to be out so late at a construction site.”
“Pot meet kettle.” The girl said. “I’m Uraraka.”
“Deku.” Izuku could feel himself blushing. The first proper conversation he had with a girl and it was because she caught him stalking her and with a mask on. How lame.
“Well, I need to get home now.”
“I won’t follow, promise,” he said.
She raised an eyebrow at him with a smirk. “You better not.”
Izuku couldn’t help himself from swinging by the spot every few days. Usually he kept out of sight and just made sure Uraraka looked okay. Once, he accidentally fell off his perch and Uraraka laughed at him.
She probably thought he was a full-blown stalker at this stage. Well, it wasn’t like Izuku had anyone left with a high opinion of the quirkless kid, anymore. At least he could make sure she stayed safe.