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For a five year old, Midoriya had often been described as mature for his age. Of course, that didn't stop him from acting like the child he was, and it had no right to.
So when he walked in on his father cackling loudly whilst talking to himself about killing All Might, he figured he better tell someone.
And so, the child set out on a quest to find a hero to assist him.
Firstly, Midoriya packed a small bag to aid him on his adventure. Several drinks, a large amount of snacks, an extra hoodie, four of his favourite hero figurines (For emotional support) and several glow sticks; the essentials. Then he picked out a map from his father's study once the man had left. He had no idea what the little crosses on it meant, but by the gods would he find out.
By seven thirty in the evening, he was ready to head out. Slipping out of his window, Midoriya made a small squeaking sound as he hit the ground. Thankfully, the fall wasn't too high and the only damage was to his pride, but as a child that was easily fixed.
Looking blankly at the map (He had no fucking clue how to decipher it), he decided to head left. His short legs were fueled simply by determination and the latest edition All Might cereal (Now with extra calcium), but he'd made it pretty far before the beginnings of weariness were setting in.
He stopped at the next bench, pulling out one of his snacks. Just as he was about to take his first bite, he caught sight of a man sitting against the wall in an alleyway.
Now, as a child, Midoriya had been taught stranger danger too many times to count. However, as a child, he made the conscious decision to totally fucking ignore that and toddled over to the person.
"E-excuse me, sir!" He spoke, voice timid and shaky.
"I.. uhm.. I have these sandwiches if you'd like them!" He extended his hand with the food in it, (badly) shaped like a rabbit.
The man blinked once, twice, looking the child over.
"You shouldn't be out this late, kid."
Failing to withhold his pout, Midoriya pushed the food closer, emphasising his offer.
Sighing, the man accepted them, placing them in his lap as he slowly went to pick up the child, giving him every chance to step out of reach. (Blessed with the self preservation instincts of a cat loving mouse, Midoriya just smiled widely.)
"What's so important you have to be out at this time?" He questioned, lifting the child up gently.
"W-well, my dad was talking to himself, and he was all like 'I'm gonna kill All Might and drink wine over his grave! Mwahahahaha!!' And I thought I should tell someone about it." He blinked innocently, oblivious to the unadulterated shock plastered over the man's face.
"Alright, kiddo, I think I can take you to a hero, but on one condition, okay?"
Tilting his head in childlike curiosity, he prompted the older man to continue.
"The next time someone you don't know asks you to follow them, kick 'em between the legs."
Midoriya nodded enthusiastically before pausing slightly.
"If it's okay, could I ask you what your name is?"
"You can call me Akaguro."
As a murderer who looked the part, Akaguro wasn't exactly used to children approaching him, especially not to offer him food. However, something told him the kid that was currently wrapped up comfortably in his scarf after refusing to shut up until he had his hair pet wasn't the most normal child out there.
Of course, he was thankful he'd been the one to find the child instead of some weirdo, and it would be better if the green child didn't harass random people he saw on the street, but he had a feeling that asking for that was pushing it.
Akaguro looked at the child, narrowing his eyes as he attempted to come up with a suitable nickname.
It took him several minutes, but he just knew that Denshi was the perfect name.
The name, literally meaning electron, described the child perfectly (even though he'd only met Denshi that day, it wasn't like he was capable of not talking about literally anything.) The kid was instinctively attracted to any type of danger, and he was most certainly negative in the y-axis region (Yeah, Akaguro had no experience with children, but he was sure they weren't supposed to be that short)
Shaking his head, he laid down with his back to his temporary ward and forced himself to sleep.
Waking up to a child poking him was almost the worst way he'd ever been forced out of unconsciousness. (Second only to being stabbed.) Groaning, he blearily opened his eyes, blinking away the blur of his vision.
He was met immediately with green and the events of the past day flashed across his mind.
"What's up, kiddo?"
"Can we go and find a hero now?"
Akaguro blinked slowly.
He was calm and collected. Violence was only okay towards corrupt heroes.
Taking a deep breath, he sat up, cracking his spine violently.
"Of course, Denshi, let's see who we can find."
The child raised an eyebrow, "Denshi?"
"That's your nickname now. You can't tell strangers your actual name."
"Okay then, Akaguro-San!"
"How about that one?"
Akaguro shook his head, "Nah, they're one of the bad ones."
"How can you tell, Akaguro-San?"
"Well, their motives are corrupt, and some of them aren't good heroes."
"Are their motives really that important when they're saving people?"
Akaguro paused for a moment. "It depends." He responded, quickly moving on.
It was only a few more minutes until the pair stumbled across a hero with a white scarf and long black hair.
Setting the child down, Akaguro looked him in the eye.
"You can tell this hero what your dad said, okay, and if he doesn't believe you I'll be right here waiting for you. Please try not to tell the hero about me, okay, Denshi?"
The kid nodded with far too much energy for four in the morning and bounced off to speak to the hero.
Midoriya was excited. He could finally tell a hero about his dad, and they could talk about why All Might didn't deserve to die and then his dad would buy him loads of All Might stationary as an apology. Really, it was the perfect plan.
"Hello, Hero-San!" He called, looking up at the hero who looked quite a lot like Akaguro-San.
"Uhm.. my new friend told me I could talk to you about stuff, and my dad said something about killing All Might and, uhm, I thought you heroes might wanna know."
The hero raised an eyebrow.
"Who's your friend?"
"He told me not to tell you, but you both have the same hair."
The hero crouched down, "If you tell me, I'll buy you an All Might backpack, limited edition. How's that sound?"
Almost guiltily, Midoriya looked down, considering his options.
"He said his name was Akaguro, and he was really nice to me. He has a scarf like yours too, but it's red and cooler." He informed the man.
"What's your name?"
"You can call me Eraserhead."
Midoriya giggled, "Akaguro-San said something like that too! Maybe you're secretly brothers!"
The hero resisted the urge to rub his brow in frustration.
"Alright kid, let's get you that backpack."
He started walking away, but before he could take more than seven steps, Midoriya kicked him between the legs, surprisingly hard.
"Akaguro-San told me to kick people who told me to go with them, and I wanna show him that I can do it."
Midoriya subtly (it wasn't subtle in the slightest, and if Eraserhead wasn't rolling on the floor in pain, he would have seen it effortlessly) shot a look towards Akaguro, who was giving him a hesitant thumbs up and an awkward smile.
(He was doing so good)
"You couldn't at least try to hide your laughter." Aizawa grumbled, burying his head in his scarf to hide his embarrassed blush.
"You got kicked in the balls by a kid, if the situation was switched you'd laugh at me too!"
It was true, but Tsukauchi didn't have to point it out like that.
"How's the kid doing?"
"He doesn't seem to realise who Akaguro was, which is great, but-" The detective was cut off by Midoriya poking his head around the door.
"Oh, I know he's the vigilante Stendhal, if that's what you're talking about. The knives gave it away."
Tsukauchi blinked, turning back to Aizawa, "So, he knows who Akaguro is, which is great, but we still can't get him to talk about his dad."
Aizawa crouched down in front of the kid, suspiciously eyeing the way his leg slowly moved back in preparation for a kick.
"What can I offer you for information?"
"If you give me a notebook, I'll list my demands." He replied without missing a beat.
Aizawa made a gesture at Tsukauchi, who handed over his notepad hesitantly.
Whipping a pen from his pocket, the child began writing far too fast for Aizawa to keep track. Once he finished, the list consisted of hero merchandise and other assorted items, with a few odd things like 'Three free hugs per person' and 'A non-violent resolution to what my dad has said'.
"Yup, I think we can get this all for you. Is there anything you want us to call you?"
"Akaguro-San called me Denshi and said I shouldn't tell strangers my name."
"That checks out." Tsukauchi muttered sarcastically, "the murderous vigilante teaching children stranger danger."
Aizawa chuckled, and was about to ask another question when the wall was knocked in, rather rudely.
"Where's my son?!"
When Midoriya Hisashi first noticed his son was missing, his immediate instinct was to threaten people.
"Giran, I swear to Kami, if you don't find my son in ten minutes, I'll tear your eyes out and force you to eat them."
Of course, by the time he'd managed to hunt down the vigilante that had interacted with his son before, he was less than pleased to know that he'd gone with a hero.
"I don't know what you're going to do to him, but I refuse to help people who hurt kids."
"Hurt him? I just want to make sure he's safe!"
"Yeah, right. He's safe with the heroes, I made sure they could be trusted, and you can't preach about keeping your child safe when he doesn't know basic stranger danger! I had to teach him that shit, you asshole."
Hisashi recoiled in surprise.
"You.. you managed to teach him that?"
"Yeah, he kicked a hero in the balls."
Wiping a tear from his eye, Hisashi smiled. "They grow up so fast.."
Casting his sight back to the vigilante, he waved his hand dismissively, "I suppose you can keep your life and quirk for helping my boy. Now, time to go hero hunting."
As the unspoken king of the underground, Hisashi wasn't exactly used to being out during the day. (No, he wasn't a fucking vampire, he just had sensitive skin!) By the time he'd finally located his son, his patience for anyone who wasn't Izuku had run out like a broken hourglass.
Really, the wall was asking to be broken, it had nothing to do with the fact he was a whore for a dramatic entrance.
"Where's my son?!" He shouted, several, quirks activated and prepared to beat the shit out of whoever stood in his way.
"Dad! I was just talking to Eraserhead-San about you!"
All anger forgotten, Hisashi ran towards Izuku, picking the boy up in a bear hug.
"Izuku, Izuku, what have I told you about listening in on dad's monologuing hours?"
Glumly, the child responded. "That I shouldn't do it."
"Are you ready to come home now?"
This was when Izuku paused.
"What do you have to offer me? 'Cause Eraserhead-San said I can get three hugs each from him and Tsukauchi-San and Sansa-San, along with five whole cats!"
(AIzawa, who'd completely missed the line about cats frantically read through the list, wincing when he saw how many things he'd skimmed over.)
"Well, Izuku, I raise their offer by one cat and a week of All Might movie marathons."
Izuku pondered for a second before turning back to the law enforcers.
"Do you have anything that can beat that?"
"I can offer you weekly stranger danger lessons with Sansa and I could arrange a meeting with Nezu." Aizawa replied, having picked up on the child's love of animal features.
Izuku looked back at his father, an eyebrow raised.
"I can pay Sansa ten times whatever he currently makes to tutor you on stranger danger and road safety, and I can bribe Nezu into teaching you whatever you want and I can arrange meetings between you and Akaguro."
(Aizawa tactically ignored the twitch of Sansa's ears at the idea of a pay raise to hang out with a kid that looked at him like he hung the stars in the sky and gave cats whiskers.)
"And sold! To dad!" Midoriya cheered, "But only if I get a hug from Eraserhead-San first."
"Of course, Izuku." Hisashi replied, openly glaring at the hero, daring him to try something.
Aizawa barely had time to breathe before Izuku was wrapped around his torso tightly.
"Are you safe with him, kid?" He whispered.
"He would never do anything to hurt me." Izuku whispered back before slowly letting go.
As he skipped over to his father happily, beginning to walk off, he asked a question he knew he couldn't say no to.
"Could I have a brother too, dad?"
"Of course, Izuku, I have the perfect person in mind"
(And that was how Midoriya learnt that his father was literally unable to say no to him in the best way possible.)
