Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A rude awakening would be a gentle way to describe what Izuku was faced with upon opening his eyes. 

With a kick drum in his head, a sticky film covering his skin, and a dull powerful pain in his gut, he felt as though he was ready to keel over and die not even three seconds after he half opened his foggy eyes. Add the putrid smell overpowering his nose to the list of tragedies inflicted on his body.

  What on Earth is that smell?! Thought Izuku as he shot to sit up, bones creaking under him and… Oh. He thought, befuddled. I’m in a dumpster. Sirens wailed in the distance as he sat upright, looking around while he sunk into sticky, damp, black garbage bags. Rats scurried along the alleyway the dumpster was crudely hidden in, ducking in and out of cardboard boxes lining the side which were discarded and stained with the strange liquids that tend to cover alleyway grounds. The alley was narrow, encased between two towering buildings, and as Izuku looked up, he could only see a sliver of the night sky.

Slowly, the cogs in his brain started turning as he sat there in a trance. Slowly… slowly he closed his gaping mouth, and snapped into logical Izuku. 

  Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh. WHAT AM I DOING IN A DUMPSTER??? ITS THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT WHERE AM I OHHHH MY- my mom. SHE MUST BE WORRIED SICK! Was I attacked and dumped? I should… call the police??? Yeah-yeah they’d know what to do! Okay, okay, Izuku. BREATHE. The young teen scrambled for his phone, still sitting in the dumpster as he patted down his body, then around him, checking restlessly in the deep dark of the night. After scrambling for a while, hyperventilating, and checking again, Izuku realized his phone was nowhere to be found. In fact, he wasn’t even in his own clothes. Now not wearing his middle school’s uniform he would usually be in, but in a tattered old cream shirt and cargo shorts he definitely didn't own. He could panic about the prospects of that later, but for now, he had to find a way to inform the police about this. He needed to call someone, anyone, and let them know he was alive. 

Well, I can’t do much sitting in here… I guess… any phone would do..? Thought Izuku as he tried to dull his panic. He stood up on the trash, wobbling a tad, and leaped over the side of the stained dirty dumpster, transitioning into a roll before he stood up tactfully. That… was new. I guess getting mugged(?) refines your reflexes… He reasoned. The boy walked off in a daze, following the light at the other side of the alleyway as it glared into his eyes like a camera flash into his brain. Walking out into the streets, the boy saw they were deathly quiet, and maybe it was just the night’s darkness talking, but…

I have no idea where I am.

A tight fear coiled itself around Izuku’s lungs, as the panic he’d suppressed in turn of logic found him. The roads and buildings around were dilapidated, with paint peeling and brick crumbling everywhere Izuku looked. Graffiti lined the walls like a sick colorful mockery in an attempt to cover the spoiled buildings. Lights were on in every few windows, some from flickering TVs, some from warm lamps he imagined in run down little apartments, but they all hurt Izuku’s eyes in the dark. He could feel bile crawling up his throat as he started to quickly walk down the empty roads, just wanting a pay phone, a recognizable place or face, anything.

Izuku’s mind spiraled as he walked down the cool desolate road. Did Kacchan leave me here? No… I mean he’s mean, but he’s not stupid enough to attempt to do… whatever this attempted to do to me. Izuku muttered as his mind raced. Was I mugged? Why the change of clothes, and why me? I don’t exactly look rich. Trafficking? What for? I don’t even have a quirk for them to want to traffick me for! I don’t feel like I’ve been assaulted, physically or otherwise. Izuku sped up, realizing he didn’t have any shoes on as the cool pavement scraped against the bottom of his feet. Last I remember… I was walking home. It was a little later than usual since Kacchan and his lackeys were brutal…

The sky set an orange glow along the horizon as Izuku walked home from his rough day at school. Every day was rough for a quirkless nobody at Aldera, and things hadn’t gotten much better, even with his newfound status as a fourth year. This time, Katsuki and co. had waited for Izuku outside of the shoe lockers, wanting to ambush him at the right time. They’d been making his life hell for years, what was another day? 

“Deku.” Sneered Katsuki as he rounded the side of the lockers, revealing himself and his two ‘friends’ to Izuku while he went to put his shoes away into the cool metal case. Izuku jumped, feeling fear crawl up his spine. 

“Look, Deku, let’s make this painless, you nobody.” Katsuki mocked, his lips tilting into a snarling smile. “We just want you to see things our way, so be a nice little loser and let us teach you a lesson.” He preached. 

“Yeah!” Jumped in a rough looking chubby boy. Katsuki rolled his eyes at him, clearly unamused with his dull company.

“Alright.” Katsuki huffed. “ Grab the nerd, we’re just gonna leave a few marks where nobody will believe him.” Izuku tensed up, eyes wide like a deer caught in a pickup truck’s headlights. The two snickering boys at Katsuki’s side stalked towards Izuku, reaching out to grab him with one pudgy and one spindly hand. He felt frozen, unable to move…

Until he could.

“Don’t try to escape, Deku!” Hollered Katsuki as Izuku turned around and sprinted. His shoeless feet pounded on the floor as he ran, cold sweat beading on his skin as primal fear turned into adrenaline based energy. He ran through the halls, slipping and sliding on the shiny linoleum floors as he turned corners to rush up the stairs, hoping to lose the three boys trailing behind him as their footsteps and pants mingled in his ears with his pounding heart. Tripping on his feet and gasping for air, all he could think was run, run, run, run, run.

Izuku grasped the corners, using them to speed himself up, turning each hall he could until he’d found a shining light, a piece of hope, or as any normal kid would see it; a janitor’s closet that he knew locked from the inside.

 Izuku bursted into the tiny space, nearly slipping and slamming the door shut behind him while twisting the lock with shaky hands. Pounding resonated from the other side of the metal door, Katsuki’s yelling and his lackey’s grunts all rang in his ears as he sank to the ground, backed against the wall on the farthest side of the dark room. After what seemed like eons of yelling, pounding, bargaining, and barrages of insults hurled at the shaking boy on the ground, Izuku’s heart beat evened out, and he could feel his lungs working at a normal speed.

The yelling stopped, but he wasn’t so stupid as to leave just yet, even if it had been a while since it stopped. That was when they would get him. He knew not to leave until…

Scuff… scuff… scuff.

There it was, the sound of retreating footsteps nearly an hour after the boy’s yelling had ceased. Izuku waited until the walking sounds were completely silent to his ears, and stood up in the dark, padding over to the locked door. Pressing his ear to it, he heard only the sound of the faint aircon blowing outside in the halls. Now or never. He quietly opened the hefty door, the faint glow of the near setting sun streaming in through the windows on the other side of the hall. Izuku left the confines of his dark, cramped, saviour (janitor’s closet) and proceeded to quietly walk back down to put his shoes on, and leave.

The setting orange glow of the sun as he walked home was the last thing Izuku remembered, turning down an alley that held a shortcut to his home before…

Black.

And now… Izuku muttered bitterly, I’m shoeless, in somebody else’s clothes, having just woken up in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night in a dumpster. His stomach growled and groaned. Also, I’m starving.

The angel of convenience must have blessed him, as when he’d gotten a little closer to a light he’s been following at the end of a strip of old beaten down homes, he saw a bright white glow light up the night. After walking aimlessly in an attempt to find… really anything, there sat a perfectly preserved and open 7/11. 

The store’s stark contrast to the awful area it was in left it completely empty at this time, save for the cashier at the checkout who was on her phone. Wait… Thought Izuku, squinting at the light as he stood outside. SHE HAS A PHONE! He practically sprinted into the store, excited to finally connect with anything he knew.

Ding! The door beeped as Izuku entered in a flurry. “E-excuse me miss!” Izuku yelled, startling the girl and causing her to jump. She puffed up like a cat, eyebrows scrunched and eyes wide. “Do you- uhm, I’m super lost, would you mind… lending me your… phone…” Izuku trailed off as the girl looked at him, horrified. 

She narrowed her smokey eyes, still wary with her shoulders high in fear. “Okay just… Stay right here.” She pointed in front of her. Izuku padded up as she handed him her phone, eyeing him warily while he looked down at it in relief. What is she so nervous for? Bad area, I guess… He wondered. 

I’m fine so… would the police really care? I’m just some quirkless kid who woke up in a dumpster after a few hours unharmed. I guess… I mean, really, I should call mom. He stared at the keypad. Yeah, she’s probably already got the police looking for me anyways. He punched in her number, the phone beeping at each button.

The phone barely rang before it spoke out, “The number you are trying to call is currently out of service! Please check that you have the right number, or…” The message continued on, but Izuku hung up quickly.

Huh, must’ve mistyped. The cashier looked at him in suspicion. Izuku reread the number he’s punched in and… No… thats… definitely right. A dull drop in his stomach made him feel as though something was terribly wrong. A chill spread throughout his body. Had his mother changed her number in a day? Had he forgotten it? No. No way. He knows that number like the back of his hand. He looked up to the girl, meeting her scared gaze with an even more horrified one. 

It couldn’t be…

“Miss…” Izuku spoke slowly, deliberately. “What’s the date?” The woman looked confused, carefully taking her phone back out of Izuku’s shocked and unsteady hands. 

“Are… you okay?” She asked, taking a step back and holding her phone to her chest. Izuku must have looked as horrified as he felt, not responding, just staring blankly. “Oh boy… uhhh. It’s the fifth I think?” She said, looking away nervously. Izuku’s last day of memory had been closer to the end of March. Had he been missing for days? The woman looked down at her phone’s lock screen. “Yeah, okay, it's the fifth of October.”

➵

Izuku burst into the 7/11’s bathroom. Fifth of October fifth of October fifth of October. It swirled around in his head, taunting him. Six months, Izuku had been missing with zero memory for six months. His mother had turned off her phone and he had no idea where he was. He swiftly crashed onto his knees, hugging the toilet bowl and began to dry heave into the clear liquid. His knees touched the dingy ground, and his stomach reeled as his panic swallowed him.

Curling up, Izuku was huffing, feeling his vision close in around him while his thoughts reeled. He was sweating, yet he was cold and clammy. His clothes all hung off of him in the worst ways and scraped against his skin like small knives. He felt his heart hammer throughout his body, pushing blood too quickly in and out of all of his organs. His head beat like he was being punched repeatedly, and he was muttering nonsense as his hands shook and pulled his knees into him. He found himself thinking, not for the first time that night, just what on earth had happened to me?

He couldn’t calm down, he wouldn’t. He just didn’t know what to do, and in an ache to see a familiar face, he shakily stood, gripping onto the walls like his sweaty hands would adhere him to it if he were to fall, and tripped over to the sink, gasping. He splashed his face with cold water, practically vibrating out of his skin with pure unease. Tears streaked down his face, searing into his skin and mingling with the smelly bathroom water. Finally, Izuku dared to look into his eyes in the stained mirror. His heart stopped. The pounding stopped, the aching stopped, he even stopped breathing as he looked into his eyes.

His cold, dead, eyes stared back. A poor imitation of the vibrant green they once were, clouded over and dull. His pupils shined red like an animal, and his face was worse. His freckles were almost gone against his skin, paler than he’s ever seen it. He had eyebags that would lead anyone to believe he hadn’t slept in years, blacking bruised purples that hung greasily under his dead eyes. He looked… older, if that was even possible. Like he’d lost all of his face’s baby fat, and adopted the structured look of a young man. His hair crowded his face, longer than his mother had ever let it get, and even it was dulled from its normal dark viridian, now a sickly swamp grayish green. He dared to look down at his body, well more so his chest in the sickly bright lighting of the gross bathroom. His shoulders had broadened, and his arms were lined with tightly packed muscle that was definitely not there before. His arms were scarred with cuts and lines that he’s never seen before, and his hands were broad and calloused, clearly having been utilized in ways he hadn’t before he’d gone missing. 

The growl of his stomach snapped him violently back out of his stupor as he examined his face slowly. Why… who… I mean… I’m… There was no point stressing now, he could figure this all out when he actually got home, or to a police station. He just needed to stay calm. Freaking out wouldn’t help.

 Izuku forced himself into a false sense of security, tucking all of his bad thoughts to the back of his head like he always did. He couldn’t bare to think of just what had happened to him yet… he wanted, no, needed to get out of this bathroom. Out of this town. Back to his mother, to his life. That all started with tucking this away to the recesses of his brain until he found help.

Izuku walked back out to the main area of the 7/11, greeting the lady at the front with a nod. No wonder she was scared of me. I look undead. He had to admit, he looked like shit, sweat staining through his tattered clothes, making his gray washed out hair stick to his pale forehead. He walked up to her again, watching her watching him, she tensed. 

“What town am I in?” He asked innocently, not breaking eye contact though she was looking away.

“Noroki.” she responded, voice wavering a bit as the scary young man looked at her intently.

Oh, thank god. I’m still in the same prefecture. Izuku sighed in relief. If I could just get to a train station, I could make my way home, and this nightmare will be over. Mom must be worried anyways… but… I really need food. His stomach growled on cue.

“U-um…” He looked away shyly, then back to the confused lady. “WouldyouletmeworkhereforafewhoursuntilIcanaffordtobuyfood-?” The deathly looking boy sputtered out, wincing. The cashier panned at him, slight surprise reading on her features as she stared at this… nervous weirdo. 

She let out a long loud sigh. “Look… Kid.” She started. “Ugh just… just wait here.” She sauntered to the employee’s only back section, annoyance reading in her tone through nervousness. Izuku felt a stab of guilt at making this poor woman do anything for him with how untrustworthy he looks. She quickly walked back out to the front, something in both of her hands. 

She set the items down at the front with a huff, and as Izuku peered closer, he saw a set of dusty old brown sandals and some hundred yen onigiri. He had to physically grab onto his arm to stop himself from lunging at the cheap food, digging his broad fingers into his forearm like his life depended on it. 

“If I give you these… will you just leave as soon as possible?” Her eyebrows tilted up and she cocked her head forward and to the side. “Oh, and I won’t call the cops. I don’t know what you’re on, but I don’t want to deal with it.” She assured.

Oh, she thinks I’m on drugs. Izuku took the sandals and slid them on his feet. A little small, but will have to do. I would think the same, honestly. He took the onigiri, and practically swallowed it whole, shoving the whole thing in his mouth like he meant it right in front of the woman, who looked half horrified and half amused. 

“One more thing…” Izuku spoke, licking some rice off of the side of his face. “How do I get to the train station?” His eyebrows tilted up in embarrassment at his lost demeanour. “I-I just need to get back to Musutafu…” he stated shyly. 

The woman’s tense and horrified facial expression drained off her face, looking at this lost kid who was clearly in… well for lack of better words deep shit. She worried her lip for a moment, sighing. “Walk down this road to the left, take your first left, keep walking, take a right by the high school, and walk straight until you see it…” she crossed her arms. “Be safe.” She stared at Izuku. This was clearly her telling him to get out as soon as possible. With all of the courage she could muster. 

“T-Thank you so much miss. Have a nice…” Morning? Was it morning? Izuku had to have been in that dingy bathroom for at least an hour in a panic, and the dawn was breaking outside. “Morning.” He smiled shyly, cheeks bunching up his sickly eye bags.

And with that, Izuku left the safety of the bright beacon of a 7/11 with a door ding, and out into the world that had just left him with a six month gap in his brain, and a new body. 

Grururgrurugurgr…

God… He was starving.

Chapter Text

The train ride home in the dark of the morning wasn’t fun, nor was it easy with the countless stares of the locals, pitying or annoyed, all trained on Izuku. Of course, he looked half dead, homeless, diseased, and probably smelled it too, but that didn’t make it any less humiliating. Feeling like vermin wasn’t a great way to start your already awful morning.

Stepping onto the familiar roads of Musutafu was a welcome rush of familiarity that seeped into Izuku’s bones like warm honey into a sponge. Gone was the scenery of 7/11 lights glowing off of broken brick buildings, long cracked roads, and alleyway dumpster gunk. He was back to his element, quickly weaving in and out of the morning crowds and down roads he once knew to his local police station. He could just imagine the uproar they would be in upon seeing his face, a young boy returned after months missing, now strange and different. It might make headlines… or not. I mean really, who was he kidding? A quirkless kid going missing wouldn’t even make a few pages deep, but it might mean something to some police officer who was unlucky enough to be placed on his case. 

With how long he was gone, he wondered if they had even tried. What, a week of looking? A few days? His brain supplied, unhelpfully. I just want to go home… his heart ached at the thought of today being over. Curling up in the warmth of his All Might covered room, having his mother caress his hair like she always did, whispering sweet hymns to her ‘brave boy’. Finally eating something, something that filled his stomach. As if it knew it was being thought of, his stomach gurgled again. 

Izuku walked up to the large Musutafu police department building, his feet aching in the gross sandals he wore. The building stood gray and menacingly, tucked a bit away from the hustle and bustle of the city . Izuku sucked in a breath, gulping it down into his lungs, and forced his wobbling legs to walk inside. Places of government had never been too kind to the quirkless, Izuku knew that. He just hoped, prayed, that they would at least let him go home. 

Stepping inside the police building, Izuku was greeted with the gray-blue walls that stretched up to the tiled ceiling, with a black wooden counter sitting in front of him. A man who looked like a cat sat in wait at the front, dressed like a simple detective. A pristine button up shirt sat on his furry body, which Izuku could only see the top of from his angle with the high desk. He looked to be doing boring paperwork, shuffling, reshuffling, and glancing over occasionally to his computer screen with his green eyes. Izuku suddenly felt very dirty and very foreign in this pristine place, desperately wishing he could curl up like a potato bug into himself. What a great quirk… watch out for potato bug boy…

“E-excuse me sir…” he said, voice pitching up at the end of his greeting. “I… need to speak with someone. Really- any police officer.” He put his dirty hands up on the desk. The cat officer turned his head slowly, not wanting to pry his eyes away from the screen he was looking at. 

“Name?” He asked, unceremoniously.

“Izuku. Sir. Izuku midoriya.” Izuku picked at his nails, waiting for the uproar. Waiting for the greeting, the urgent calls, the excited welcome. Maybe he was just waiting for the recognition. Instead, the officer looked him up and down, distrust written on his furry face.

“Uh huh… sir, have you been on any substances in the past twenty four hours?” The man asked in a monotone voice of disregard. Izuku was stumped, confusion bounced off of his deathly features. He knew he looked rough, but being asked if he was on drugs based on appearance alone in the past two hours stung a tad. 

“N-no! Would you just listen? I think somethings wrong- maybe a misunderstanding- I’m- I’ve been missing… for a while.” He pointed at himself, still waiting for the surprise to set into the cop’s face. “I- I mean at least six months , I’ve been gone, and- and I just woke up in a dumpster an hour or so from my house a few hours ago…” Izuku rambled without pause. “I mean- I just want to go home, but I felt like I should… report this? I-I know quirkless cases seem pretty unimportant, I mean I know you might not… care… but somebody must know about me!” He was frantically and loudly rambling at this point. 

The cat cop simply reached slowly over to his phone, picking it up and dialing a few numbers while it beeped. He kept his eyes trained on Izuku, and Izuku kept his eyes trained on him. “Yeah, hi. We have a 7787 on our hands…Yeah, just at the front… no, no he’s not violent. Just… yappy.” Izuku recoiled slightly. “Yeah, just might want to sit him down.” The man on the other end spoke in an amused tone. The cat cracked a smile. “Yeah, the kid thinks he’s Izuku Midoriya… I know…Yeah that’s the one.” Izuku looked around to make sure that anybody else was seeing this. Nobody in the lobby moved or cared. Was he going insane? 

“Alright, see you in a sec.” The phone was set down with a light clang. “Would you mind waiting in the seats to my right for a second? Someone will be out to help you in a minute.” The cat man said as he folded his hands in front of him and sat back in his chair. He was unimpressed with Izuku, and Izuku felt as though he might throw up. Why… is he acting like this? 

Walking over to sit down, his thoughts ran wild, yet stayed painfully stagnant, stuck in his head like a traffic jam. They were all there just… not moving. He felt like he was floating, but not in a fun light way, more like he was falling to his death but at that perfect point where he could only feel wind rushing by him and had no concept of how close the ground was. He plopped down quietly in one of the ugly black waiting chairs in the lobby. All he could hear was blood gushing through his body, the occasional grumble of his upset stomach, and the methodical typing of the cat cop at the front. Am I … really that useless? That forgettable? To have no reaction I mean… Just what happened while I was gone? Izuku put his head in his hands, wringing his fingers through his long, unkempt, swampish hair. Did my mom ever call me in? She must have! They knew my name but they seemed to think I was joking! I know I look different but I’m still Izuku! I’m still alive! Please! His ears rang and tears clouded his vision, stinging his dead eyes with their salt. 

“Morning, kid.” A low voice spoke up in front of him. Through his panic, Izuku failed to realize anybody had walked up to him at all. “Why don’t you come with me? We can get this mess all sorted out.” Izuku looked up suddenly, hope washing through his features as large salty tears ran down his pale cheeks. The man was older than him, much older, with gray running through his hair and bushy moustache. He would look in place in an old western film, the kind Izuku would watch when he tired of the same six All Might DVDs his mother had bought him from the bargain bin. 

Izuku shot up to follow the man, who silently turned away and started walking to the area of lined desks behind the cat officer’s desk. Izuku wiped his eyes, which continued to sting from the bright white light from the ceiling. Each desk looked more or less the same, a bulky computer, some paperwork and files on it, maybe a small succulent or a photo of the person’s family. Everyone was on hushed calls, or typing something in a spreadsheet with a sort of dead fish look in their eyes. Izuku knew it, everyone knew it, police stations were where almost-but-not-quite heroes came to do the best they could. Almost obsolete in the hero society, but useful for petty crime nonetheless. Izuku huffed. Petty crime, that’s exactly what his missing persons case would feel like to most. 

After passing the rows and rows of desks, Izuku was eventually brought to the very back of the station through two or three doors, and sat down at the other side of a desk in a small, cramped office. Large shelves lined the walls completely stacked in papers, and each wall had to have two or three filing cabinets. He imagined those would be packed too.

“Good morning, Izuku, was it?” Greeted the man, his moustache moving up and down as he talked. “I’m detective Yoshida, and I was hoping to speak to you about your… issue.” He sat back in his seat sighing. “So, tell me, what brings you here today.”

Izuku stared at his nonchalance wide eyed, a dryness creeping down his throat as he prepared to speak. “I told the guy at the front already- I’m… I’m Izuku Midoriya, you said it yourself!” He took a deep breath. “Look, I don’t know what happened to me, or if you even know what’s going on, b-but I’ve been missing… for months.” He paused. “Last day I remember was March of this year- late March.” “I’m fifteen years old now, I was.. A-Actually I should still be… in my last year of middle school. I woke up around four or five hours ago in a dumpster, in clothes that a-aren’t mine, over an hour outside of Musutafu… I look totally different, I have no memory of the past six months and- and…” Izuku’s eyes welled up with tears from stress, his skin prickling and begging to be anywhere but on his body. “I just want to go home! But everyone I speak to, they all look at me like I’m crazy! W-Why won’t anyone help? Sir… please…” Izuku folded over in his seat, shaking and caving in on himself. I should have just gone home, look at the crazy quirkless kid,they won’t believe me. They aren’t listening. Was my case discarded the minute it was brought up? 

Detective Yoshida got up from his desk, and casually walked over to Izuku. Izuku listened as he wrapped something around him. Peeking between his fingers he saw… A shock blanket? Does he think I’m hysterical? Izuku looked over at the man returning to his seat. “Son, I wish I could help, but the Midoriya case has been closed for months.” He sighed. “ I don’t know who you are or what’s happening, but I can’t do much for you right now, so why don’t you tell me what’s really wrong? If you’re running from something, I can help. There’s youth support programs across the city and-” Is he joking? Izuku sat, stunned and hunched in on himself as the man continued to preach about the anti drug programs in the city, about the normalization of mental health issues in youth, and rage bubbled up in Izuku’s gut. Ever so quietly, the hot fury creeped up from his stomach, to his chest, to his head. Standing abruptly, Izuku was desperate.

“I have been telling you sir- I-I don’t know why my case is closed but I am Izuku Midoriya! Do you want fingerprints? DNA testing? I-I don’t know what to do, just please, I’ll go home if you let me I just-” 

The detective interrupted. “Son, we can’t send you anywhere. You come in here claiming a false identity and clearly need help-”

“Why won’t you believe me?!”

“Please refrain from yelling in this office, we can help-”

“I can’t call my mom, please just let her know I’m okay! Please, Please!”

“Sir, we-”

“Why is my case closed?! Why, why, why won’t you help me?! Why?”

“The Izuku Midoriya case is closed! Now sit down and we will not have to restrain you. I don’t want to call security on you kid, just cooperate and nobody will get hurt-”

“Well if the case is unsolved, reopen it! I’m right here- I’m-!”

“Izuku Midoriya was pronounced dead in late March!” The detective slammed his hands down on the desk, shouting in a low tone over Izuku’s childish pleas. “His body was found after commiting suicide by jumping off of a building! Sir you are delusional and we cannot let you go out without proper assessments to your physical and mental health! Now if you-” His words fizzled out, silence collapsed onto Izuku's mind as he tuned out the officer, staring blankly ahead at the detective’s angry moving moustache as he yelled. 

.

.

.

I… died?

.

.

.

Izuku felt as though he was float-falling again, right before his body felt as though he was dipped in cool water, a chill spreading throughout each tendon, each bone, each cell of his body. His hands and feet were numb, his vision was blurred, and his ears were unresponsive. He was now dipped in the icy cool fear of mortality, and his heart stuttered and leaped in his chest, pulsing the cool blood that now filled him through his entire being. How had he died when he was right here? Just whose body was claimed to be him? He could vaguely sense the man in front of him becoming exasperated as Izuku gawked at him like a fish trying to understand physics, a blank unmoving stare and slightly parted lips adorning his face for much longer than they should have. He vaguely knew when the detective dialed numbers on his phone, he vaguely knew when he started lightly shaking Izuku as he stood there, and he vaguely knew when two men entered the room, decked out in proper police gear behind him. 

Slowly as he was led out of the room, back through the two or three doors leading to the back, and out through another door to a hall filled with interrogation rooms, all metal and no familiarity of the office, he started regaining his senses. First, his eyes unblurred, next his blood warmed, and finally, his ears ceased their silent mark on the world. 

“...ell..”

“Hello…”

“Hello? Sir?”

Izuku shot up straight, now realizing he was sitting in a cool and hard metal chair in the cool and hard metal room. 

“Wh- wh- huh?” He looked around in shock, unable to form any proper words.

“Sir, we just want to ask you a few questions.” Stated the man in front of him. He was in full police uniform, unlike the casual office wear of the detectives in the lobby. “Is that okay?” Izuku was still stunned enough to continue staring at the man attempting to talk to him like he had a second head. Confusion ran straight through his bones. “We would just like a few answers on your well being, and whatnot. So, how’s life at home?” The man sat down across from him. Izuku attempted to stand, but quickly found his hands bound together tightly in cuffs behind his back, the metal pulling deep into his skin. He winced, still unable to talk or blink. 

The cop waited patiently for Izuku to answer, but the longer he was in this way-too-bright room with these strange men, the less he wanted to answer, even if he knew deep down that the police wouldn’t hurt him… right? Still reeling in shock, the animal part of his brain was taking the reins while his trauma response muted every logical thought he had.

The animal in IZuku screamed one word, and one word only. 

Run.

Izuku bolted upright, his leg muscles tensing as he lifted his cuffed hands over the back of the chair he was sitting on. The cop in front of him immediately pounced into action, diving towards Izuku to settle him, but it was too late. Autopilot took over Izuku’s scared brain, and he leaped up onto the metal table crouching, before diving at the cop, his outstretched foot rocketing into the officer’s face, knocking him to the ground. He swiftly crouched down onto his knees on top of him and headbutted him, standing back up as he felt the cop go limp beneath him. With his hands still tucked behind his back, he sensed two or three cops run in the room in an attempt to subdue him, batons in hand. He bent forwards, crouching low again as he felt a baton swipe at where his head was, the other two cops circling to the other side to get in front of him and corner him. Poor move on their part, that left only one cop by the door. 

Izuku’s blank mind suddenly kicked into overdrive as he swerved sideways on his foot,using his legs to spring him upright, launching a powerful kick right into the doorway cop’s head. He then used his same kicking leg to immediately jab him in the side, knocking him off balance and causing him to fall. He tread carefully over the unconscious headbutted cop and immediately kicked the second cop charging at him in the groin as he wound up his baton to hit him. The cuffs burned into his skin, and the final cop ran after him. As he approached Izuku, Izuku didn’t have enough room or time to kick, his animalistic instincts making him feel trapped. He needed his hands, and he needed them quickly. He felt his arm muscles tense as they tried to pull him out of his tightly locked cuffs, and finally, he felt pops of pain in his hand, but he ignored them in turn of his own freedom. He had dislocated his thumb joints to free himself, putting his hands up to defend himself from the incoming baton blow. 

The baton ricochet off of his skin, leaving a painful ache in Izuku’s arm, however, as the cop wound up to hit him again, he ducked low, stepped forward and mustered all he could into a bleakly offensive punch to the gut. He felt the man’s organs against his knuckles as he dug his fist into his stomach, and the man spat blood and spittle up over Izuku’s head, but all he could think was run. 

He heard shouts and feet scuffling coming down the hall he had been in to get to this interrogation room, and he quickly acted, running straight out of the room he was kept in with a trail of police bodies behind him. He quickly sprinted down the bleak, white hall, keeping low to the ground and moving at impeccable speeds for a man in sandals. As he rounded the corner to where a gaggle of police officers were, he thought quickly, running straight at them as they prepared for combat. He then immediately shifted his weight as he got closer to them, pushing his gravity to the side and using his momentum to run off the wall on his right, avoiding the police all together and storming past them in a flurry they couldn’t hope to catch.

He was fast, god he was fast.

He sprinted out through the lobby, he sprinted out through the front door, he ran and he ran and he ran, his lungs burned, and he wasn’t sure if the echoing footsteps he heard were his, or police officers still chasing him. He’d left bodies in his wake, and yet all he could think was how glad he was to be free. 

He ran to the only place he could think to run to. Back through residential streets and into a middle class area, streets lined with normal houses and normal parks and normal roads that didn’t fit Izuku at all anymore. The streets he grew up in looked back at him as a stranger, and he ran until his eyes blurred with tears and he fell over his feet. Laying on the cool pavement, Izuku cried. He sobbed until his lungs stopped burning, he huffed and hyperventilated until his face was hot and heavy with tears. He felt his burning wrists, his burning thumbs, his aching forehead, his bruised and splintered forearm. He felt the shock of his death, the shock of his awakening, the shock of his body. Who was he? Why was he here? Where had he been? Who was killed in his place? Was this even his body? He sobbed on the empty road in the middle of the day, just outside of a small park out of the way he once played at as a more hopeful child. He sobbed until he had no more tears, and even then, he lay there gasping and sobbing.

I just wanted to be a hero… I don’t understand why anyone would do this to me. A sob escaped his lips. What the hell was that anyways? That animalistic off switch… How could I do those things? I mean, I've never even been athletic on normal standards! Oh, Izuku, what did you do…? Jumping off walls and kicking cops in the face and junk… what a way to get the police to trust you. Still, he knew deep in his heart, he would fight like that a million times over to escape that metal room filled with men who wanted nothing more than to send him off to some repair program and label him another ‘quirkless loser.’

Eventually, Izuku stood on wobbly legs, ready to face what he had wanted for so long. He had no idea how long it had been since he’d escaped the station, but he assumed he was safe enough if he had time to cry on the side of the road. The blistering heat of the midday sun scorched his pale skin, even in the autumn. He looked up over the treeline, and slightly past a few more small suburban homes, and there he saw it, standing like a tall white beacon. His old home. He lived in a small apartment near the top floor with his mother. He felt his heart swell at the prospect of getting back to his life, back to a place he knew, where people loved him. 

Izuku walked over, his feet stuttering and tripping every so often in his exhaustion. He was in an eerie state of calm after crying his eyes out at his situation, ready to see his mother and forget this nightmare.

God, after attacking the police I’ll really never have a life again, huh? I’ll probably have to change my name… or something… do online school. He thought of Katsuki. That might not be too bad…  

I mean I don’t even have an identity right now. Who are the police gonna come after? Young boy with dark hair who thinks he’s Izuku Midoriya? Yeah, good luck finding me on the streets. He huffed a laugh.

Walking up the old dusty stairs to his apartment, with the open concept halls that were windowless with just a ledge and a little concrete railing, Izuku remembered his childhood in this hall. Drawing with chalk on it when he knew he wasn’t supposed to, waiting in it with bugs trapped in cages that would surely scare his mother half to death, zipping up his prized yellow raincoat when the weather got just dreary enough for him to warrant it. He walked down this hall feeling the nostalgic ache resonate through his body… or maybe it’s the broken bones… he couldn’t tell at this point. His dead gaze fell upon his unit, stopping in front of it and staring at his shadow stretching up the wall. Would his mother remember him with his changes? Would she cradle him and open her arms to her sweet boy? Or was he too tainted, too rough and unbearable to look at?

He sucked in a breath of hope, raising his hand.

Knock

Knock

Knock 

Never had he felt more nervous and comforted.

The door cracked open, just a smidge. 

“Mom?” Izuku croaked, his voice sounding like glass scraped his throat from all of the crying. 

The door swung open and…

There sat a little old lady with wrinkled skin and a short black bob haircut.

Most definitely not his mother.

Chapter Text

Izuku stared down at the little old woman, and she stared back, squinting with her small beady eyes. She was short, maybe five feet tall at the most, and a round little thing. Wrinkles dented her skin like rivers on a map, and her pitch black hair hung in a short bob that curled in. It was much too youthful for her obvious age. She was in house wear, comfortable long skirt, sweater, and slippers. She was the most grandmotherly person Izuku had ever seen. Silence permeated the air, piercing Izuku as she examined the strange boy. He glanced at the number on the door… this was definitely his apartment but…

“Who are you?” The old woman said curtly.

Exactly what I was wondering…

“Ah- I’m… Izuku. Izuku Midoriya, miss.” Izuku wringed his hands nervously, glancing away from the woman’s intense stare. “I thought… well I thought my mother lived here but-”

“AHA!” The woman snapped with shaky haggard hands. “You’re Kinto’s boy. The crying woman.” She looked up expectantly, standing in the doorway. Izuku was confused.

“No- not Kinto, Inko. Inko Midoriya, miss.” The woman paused. “Green hair… Green eyes… Small.” Izuku mimed a height with his hand, showing where she stood up to on his body. “Um… Does she… Does she still live here?” His heart picked up in hope, rising in his chest and ending up in his throat.

“What? Kinto? No, the green lady hasn’t lived here since I moved in.” The woman waved her hand in dismissal, looking away and looking back as Izuku awkwardly stood in the hall. 

Izuku felt his heart break in his chest, his last hope of normalcy fading right out of his grasp when he was so close. He sighed, and slumped down into a crouch, feeling his eyes attempt to well up with tears he didn’t have.

“Of course…” He muttered sadly. “Couldn’t have had anything easy, could I?” He chuckled wetly. The elderly woman looked down at him, pity flooding her stoic features, and she sighed. 

“Alright Inoko,” Not his name, but those clearly were not her strong suit. “Come inside, Get, get, get.” She swatted lightly at Izuku’s hunched frame. Izuku sniffled a tad, before he stood up, deflated, and walked inside. He hoped to see any remnant of his past, yet desperately ached to not see anything that reminded him too much of the mother who had abandoned him. 

I wonder how long it took her to just leave this place… leave me… his brain supplied bitterly.

The apartment walls were the same, the floors hadn’t changed, and god, the kitchen was just how he remembered it, but everything else changed. Different couches, Different drapes. New carpets, new appliances. All average, all undoubtedly not his mother’s. Izuku still ached when he saw glimpses of his life he remembered like yesterday. This apartment was a mirror of him… everything superficial changed, and it was obviously different, yet the structure. The heart. The parts that are hard to change. Those were left the same. Remnants of the Izuku that Izuku knows were flooding back to him. Scrapes on the floor from when he drove his All Might themed truck over the ground, small drawings on the wall from when Izuku was a toddler that Inko just couldn't scrub out. 

Izuku was seeing his mother through the pieces of a life he used to live, even if she wasn’t there. That was enough to break him. He curled up on the woman’s couch and caved in on himself, collapsing on his side into the plush light purple material covering it. His head landed on a throw pillow, and he only briefly thought of the stench he would undoubtedly leave on this poor woman’s couch. 

“Life hasn’t been easy on you, has it little one?” Said the woman, her elderly voice wavering and shaking with the simple strain of speaking. Izuku cracked his eyes open to stare at her, and immediately he felt all the fight left in his body leave him. Nothing was left in his soul but a sharp stab of longing. Maybe that was for the better, he didn’t know, but he did know that he was more exhausted than he’d ever felt. He closed his eyes, and the shuffling behind him faded into nothing while he drifted. He swore he could almost smell his mother still in this room… and that alone was more comfort than he could have hoped for just hours ago. 

Sitting in a strange state of thoughtless half sleep, Izuku came to, snapping back into his body like a slingshot had thrusted his soul back into him when he heard a shrill whistle sounding from the kitchen. He could feel his dry throat, his painful stomach, yet all of his bodily pains seemed to be entirely gone. He sat upright, glancing around before immediately staring at his arm. 

The place where the baton had hit mere hours earlier was… fine. Absolutely nothing. No ache, no splintering pain, not even a bruise, bump, or faint mark. He swiped at his skin, trying to test the pain that had plagued it earlier, yet he felt nothing but the soft touch of his fingers. Looking down at his hands, there sat his thumbs. Normally. In place, no throbbing, no pain. He immediately whipped his head over to the elderly woman. She must have a healing quirk! That’s so useful, I wonder if she was a hero. His head reasoned. 

As if on cue, the little woman waddled out of the kitchen, her short steps scuffing her soft slippers across the floor. She was shakily holding a tray with a traditional tea pot and cups. They were simple and cute, matching the comforting greens and purples of her home. As she padded up to Izuku, he suddenly realized he was very dirty and very untrustworthy looking, shooting up from his place on the couch.

“Ah- l-let me help you with that!” He said, nervously, taking the tray from the old woman’s hands and swiftly walking over to the small mahogany kotatsu in the center of her living room. As he set it down, he swiftly turned back to her. She was standing where he had taken the tray, looking at him with a still face. “Uhm….” Izuku trailed off, thinking of something to say. “Thank you for- you know…” he held up his unbruised arm and tilted his head towards it. “It doesn’t hurt at all anymore.”

The woman looked at him, then his arm, and huffed. “We’ll dear I have no idea what you’re talking about, but why don’t you sit down. You look like you’ve seen a ghost, all tight and straight like that.” She walked around him as she spoke, sitting down on a plush chair across from the purple couch. The chair was just a few shades off from the couch, but that made it even more charming in Izuku’s eyes. 

“Y-yes! Um…” 

“Tachibana.” She spat out.

“Miss Tachibana…” Izuku sat down awkwardly on the couch, vaguely aware of how out of place he looked in this place. “M- my mother… the green one.” Izuku started, nervous under the woman’s still glare. “Can you… tell me anything about her?” Izuku could feel his heart crumple under the weight of his yearning for any semblance of his mother. 

“Kinto… I could tell you a lot about her.” The woman sat back in her chair, her tea warm in her hands. “She was… very upset. I wish I could remember why. She clearly missed something. Left something… or otherwise.” A puzzled look crossed the woman’s face, before she swiped it away. “She was always sad, always looking. It was quite depressing!” Izuku felt guilt and relief mingling in his gut as he knew his mother had in fact missed him. Stupid, of course she would…  

“Every day I saw her, which was only a few times when we met up before she sold me this place, she would simply stare off into space. She was clearly unwell, and I just wished she could be better.” She took a long sip of her tea. “She loved heavily, and while it was a quality in any sense, loss is just love in mourning clothes. Her loss clearly weighed her down past her limit.” The woman looked down at her tea cup. 

“She had nightmares, she told me.” Izuku’s throat tightened. “She would cry at the drop of a hat. Silly really, but I always wanted to cry with her. Maybe it was how big her eyes were.” The woman thought for a while, staring ahead at nothing.

“… Izuku…” she muttered. Izuku’s head shot up, staring at the woman in hope. The woman seemed lost in a trance, her petite body rigid in her chair. “She wanted her ‘Izuku’.” Her eyebrows drew up in confusion, clearly missing something from her mind, desperately searching for it. Izuku felt his tired emotions stir in his chest. “I had one of those too… I think.” She looked ahead at the tired mangled boy in front of her. “I had an Izuku, the way she talked about it…” she looked away, past Izuku. “She must have lost hers… mine was lost too… It's incredibly tough holding onto things like that. Things that mean so much.” The woman set her cup down and folded her hands in her lap. 

“You never want to lose them, and you become so confident you never will. You think, ‘I love this thing so much, I can’t think of my life without it. I won’t.’ And then one day…” Her hands lifted off of her lap, attempting to mime the words lost in her head. “Your Izuku is gone.” She looked up into green eyes.

“My Izuku will never be found… maybe she found hers.” Miss Tachibana looked into Izuku’s watery eyes, searching in their deathly exhaustion for any clues as to what she was talking about. She knew what she knew, but enough pieces had fallen through the cracks of her old brain that she seemed to only hold an idea of what she might mean. Izuku knew what she was feeling. Izuku had slipped through the cracks for himself too. The life that was ‘Izuku Midoriya’ was gone. As he realized that, he looked down at his broad and calloused hands, seeing a stranger’s body attached to his brain.

“I hope she did…” he stated solemnly, unmoving as his tea got cold. Minutes passed by, interrupted only by Miss Tachibana’s occasional sipping. Until she finally spoke.

“She wanted me to wait for something, you know.” Izuku looked up. “Kinto asked me and asked me to watch over this apartment… I think the grief got to her. Her loss pushed her out of this place. I don’t know why . It’s lovely here.” She looked around proudly. “She sold me this place within a week, dirt cheap too.” The woman smiled under her breath. “She pleaded with me to watch for someone… someone she knew would come back.” She fiddled with the rim of the cup, eventually looking back at Izuku’s tired frame.

“Inoko… are you all she was waiting for?” Izuku shot up, looking the small wrinkled woman in the eyes. His mom… knew? She knew he would be okay? She was always smarter than anyone gave her credit for… Izuku felt a wide smile creep up on his exhausted face, the feeling foreign to his tired eyes and shaking lips. 

“I hope so.”

Miss Tachibana smiled. 

She sipped her tea.

“I know loss when I see it. That smile… you really are her son.” She closed her eyes, clearly lost in nostalgia for the green woman. “You lost everything, as she did, didn’t you?” Izuku nodded, smiling bitterly while sadness creeped up on his features. His gray hair bobbed into his vision.

 “I have a feeling… now this might just be the crazy old woman in me talking…” Izuku huffed a dry laugh “… but your Izuku still lies out there.” She pointed at his chest. “You are much, much too young for this loss… you have so much time yet.” She set her hand down again.  “Your mother and I… making a new story takes time. We both know that. She left to make hers, I may have left to make mine a long time ago, but you?” She smiled sadly. “You are back in the same spot that chewed you up. You aren’t turning the first page of your story.” 

Her face became deathly serious. “Inoko, look at me.” Izuku locked eyes with her once again, not wanting to face the truth he knew she would sear into his skin. “You must move forward.” 

Izuku knew that. He knew he couldn’t keep hanging around in the remnants of his old life like a ghost trapped in a home. Maybe he didn’t want to admit it, he ached to just forget everything that happened to him-not that he even remembered it- and go back to his old life like nothing had happened. 

But something had happened. 

His Izuku was still in him. He’d never left. But if the current Izuku didn’t adapt to the world he was placed in, he would surely fade away with his old self. 

He nodded stiffly, new inspiration burning in his gut from this wise woman’s words. “I understand.”

Izuku would adapt.

He had to.

➸

Izuku and Miss Tachibana talked for a while longer, drifting between conversation and silent tea sipping. Izuku stayed for hours, eventually quenching his dry throat and worried thoughts with soothing herbal tea and light conversation with a woman much wiser than him. 

Miss Tachibana’s thoughts were scattered at best, incomprehensible at worst. She was clearly quite old, and her age was getting to her brain. Izuku could see through that though, he knew Miss Tachibana had a youthful soul behind all of her wrinkled skin and fading memory. It showed in her affinity for cute pastels, her absolute love for dramatic soap operas- Izuku could go a while without ever needing to watch an episode of a doctor show she liked so much, she recited it like it was her own life- and her smile that, while rare, folded all of her skin tightly across her face, showing the rosy glow of her cheeks and the childlike twinkle in her eyes. 

Izuku knew she may be the first step into his new chapter, and maybe selfishly, he thought he could just sense his mother through this woman. She was just as caring, maybe in a harsher way than his mother’s fluffy hugs and crying sessions, but she had the same golden hope shine through her that his mother always seemed to radiate. 

As the door clicked shut to his- Miss Tachibana’s apartment, Izuku walked out into the setting sun, vowing himself to remember this woman, and to visit when he could. She seemed to live alone, and she didn’t have the strongest mind he’d seen. He could really use the company… Who else did he have to lean on?

Izuku’s stomach felt like it was folding in on itself. He had managed to ignore his hunger at Miss Tachibana’s, not wanting to seem rude or like a beggar, but he needed food. With no money, the options were limited. 

I can sleep it off, I guess… I mean I don’t even know where I would sleep without money, unless I sleep on the streets… yeah, no. Then I really will be dead. Izuku felt a vague sense of dread creep up on him the second he latched onto that train of thought. Too soon… Too soon…

I would need to research where I could go… I think I might need a computer for that, nobody exactly gets anything out there by newspaper. I haven’t even seen a newspaper in forever. Do they still make those things? I mean it’s kind of-

“Hey kid.” A calm voice yelled out. Izuku turned in the direction of the voice, only seeing the shadows cast by the alleyway he was in. He had decided to take a short cut out to the main city in hopes of finding anything he could eat, his feet following his gut before his head. The voice piped up again. “What’s with all the muttering? You a spaz?” Izuku looked over, silent and  confused at the man. He sighed.

“Not much of a talker? That’s smart, I get it. Can’t trust anyone on these streets.” The man stepped out of the shadows and into the dim light of the alleyway. “You’re a creepy looking fucker, you know that? You look half dead.” The man was probably a half a foot taller than Izuku with dark red hair and eyes. He had a long scar that stretched across his face, and a menacing look in his eyes. Izuku took a step back, dropping slightly lower. 

“Woah, bud, don’t get all feisty with me. I just need a favour.” Izuku didn’t trust the man a bit, narrowing his eyes, he was prepared to fight back at any sudden movements. The man spread his hands out, walking towards Izuku in the empty alley. God, why is it always alleys?

“Just a bit of cash will do…” The man shot a knife up through the skin of his hand. That must be his quirk . “Nobody has to get hurt.” He smiled, showing off two or three golden teeth on his top row. Izuku slowly backed away, preparing to run. “Just stay…” The man got closer, ever so slowly creeping in on Izuku like a caged animal, holding up his hands to signal peace. Izuku wouldn’t bite.

When the man lunged at Izuku, knife quirked hand thrusting towards him, Izuku barely batted an eye. He quickly shifted to his right, dodging the attack. The man retaliated, swiping his hand he shoved sideways. Izuku dropped to the ground, effectively dodging that attempt on his life. He ran up behind the man, bolting around him as he tried to follow him with his eyes. Izuku tried to kick the man in the back, but the man caught his kick, turning around in time to hold his ankle tightly. Izuku ripped his leg back out of the man’s grasp, ducking under another attack from his knife palms. The man slashed at his crouched form, Izuku swayed, ducked, and avoided each thrust, sweep, and slice. He was being backed up against the alley wall, so he quickly shifted his entire weight sideways, leading the man in a circle as he dodged.

The man’s grunts filled his ears as he couldn’t quite move fast enough to catch the slippery boy. “Stand still you brat! It’ll only hurt a bit!” The man smiled wildly as he slashed at Izuku’s face. Izuku bent in half like a contortionist, back arching half way to his knees before he stood back up to counter a knife blow aimed at his torso, pushing away the man’s knifed hand with his palm to the man’s wrist, redirecting the blow away from him.

How… am I doing this? Izuku felt like a fish in water, he was in an element he didn’t know he had. All of the dodging, sweeping, fighting, it all felt like muscle memory. He was barely thinking in these moments, he just knew.  

It was like this back at the police station too, he thought as he shifted away from the man’s knife. The minute I feel cornered, my brain shuts off and my body’s response is to attack. Though this time, since Izuku felt less imminent danger, he hadn’t harmed the man. He knew he needed to so he could eventually escape, but he really really didn’t want to. He didn’t want to flip off that switch of conscious thought in his brain, but he could feel his body aching to do so, his limbs needing release from the knowledge of what to do, yet not being able to do it. 

He took as deep a breath as he could while the man slowed down, and flipped that switch. Suddenly, his senses heightened, he could feel the air around him, hear the whizz of the knife, feel each muscle fiber under his skin. No panic dulled his senses, and his eyes clouded over. True autopilot had taken the wheel. 

The man recoiled at the look on Izuku’s face, a blank sheet. Intimidated, he stuttered in his movement. That was all Izuku needed. He wound his arm back, feeling energy burn through his skin. Twisting his body, he shot a punch straight past the man’s knife hands, and blasted into the middle of his face. The man shot backwards, hitting the concrete wall behind him and sliding down to the dirty alley ground, unconscious and bleeding from what was undoubtedly a broken nose.

As Izuku stared down at the man, his knuckles aching, he was stunned. When did I get so strong? Is he… dead?  

The stench of blood wafted up to Izuku’s nose as the man bled profusely. He immediately backed away, covering his mouth and nose, eyes wide in fear of what he had done. The man slumped over, and Izuku’s stomach groaned. Hunger flooded his senses.

To Izuku’s horror, his mouth salivated. He had never felt the urge to eat anything stronger than now, as his senses reacted to this criminal like a five star meal. The blood gushing from his nose and mouth drew Izuku in like a drug, and he found himself yearning, wanting, craving to have his hunger satiated. He held his muscles in place as to not run over to the man and surely devour him, acid flowing through him as he shook in self control.

 Izuku’s brain fought as he pressed himself into the alley wall across from the man. He stared at the unconscious slumped figure as his thoughts ran.

Eat. I’m so hungry, I just want to feel full… It aches. He’s right there, Izuku, he wouldn’t know. You could make it painless. Rip out his insides and feel full. That’s all it would take, you could do it, I know you could. Izuku, eat.

Eat.

EAT.

EAT.

Izuku turned his head away from the man, saliva dripping down his chin in waves as he panted with wide eyes. He caught movement rustling from the corner of the alley… A mangy mouse scurried out from under the shadows, and Izuku saw a lifeline. Food. He pounced on the mouse, grabbing it by its tail as it squealed and squeaked. It must have alerted its friends, but Izuku didn’t care. His mouth watered as he tried to stay away from the man most certainly half dead in the corner. Judging by all the blood, Izuku may just have driven his nose bone into his brain. He didn’t care. His stomach growled. 

Holding the mouse above him, sickly green eyes glowing in the deep dark of the alleyway, Izuku took a bite, pressing his canines through the small creature. Finally, something tasted of real food. The mouse ceased squirming and squeaked as he bit through flesh and bone. Izuku felt his body release endorphins of pleasure as the organs popped in his mouth, iron tasting blood and gamey meat flooded through his senses, coating his tongue in red hot innards. 

This was what he had needed. No 7/11 onigiri would have possibly filled him like this. He needed flesh, blood, and moving organs. That was what his body had craved all these hours.

As he swallowed the mouse greedily, and his stomach finally felt half full, Izuku began to let large tears stream down his face, their salt burning and combining with the rodent blood smeared on his face like a child. He had never tasted anything so satisfying, and he had never been more pleased to consume. Guilt riddled his stomach, yet the feeling of being full filled his senses with a warm pleasure.

Izuku was mortified as he cried on the alley ground, looking up towards the thin strip of illuminated night sky hanging over him. 

“I’m a monster.”

Chapter Text

Izuku could taste the metallic tang of the mouse’s blood coating his teeth as he ran away from the alley. Spiraling, tripping, and gasping for air, he stumbled away from the bloody scene he’d left. 

Monster

Monster

Monster

Izuku’s thoughts were crowded with shock. The cool night air whipped around him, making his bare limbs feel numb and prickly as he held onto nearby walls of shabby buildings for support. Izuku barely knew these roads, only having gone through them once in a blue moon when he was adventuring for hero analysis in his free time, so his panicked brain barely registered where his feet were taking him. 

The boy stopped suddenly, backing himself up against a wall. His head bumped into the cool concrete before he slid down onto the ground. He looked off in a daze, staring across the street at a dark building. He could just see enough around him from the distant glow of a streetlight that was swarmed by bugs. 

I… ate it. Izuku’s hands quivered. He was horrified, no, not by organs, blood, or the final crying squeak let out by the mouse, but by the fact that he wasn’t horrified at any of those things. He felt perfectly fine, which made him feel worse. Of course, he was reeling from the fact his body had desperately craved to eat a man, his stomach clawing and lurching at the opportunity to sink his teeth into semi warm flesh, but he was now full. Unaffected. With his hunger dulled, Izuku couldn’t bring himself to feel anything towards the small life sacrificed for his pleasure. 

What’s wrong with me?  

He curled in on himself, replaying the images of the man’s bloody hunched form over and over in his brain. His hands did that, and while he felt horror, a part of him buried deep in his gut knew what strength like that brought in a world like this.

Money.

➸

Izuku had to wait a while until the local library opened. Its modern slopes and sweeps hung over his head, shadows changing as the morning sun rose. The minute he saw the grand doors unlock from the inside and the lights turn on, he was sweeping past the morning staff and speed walking straight over to their public access computers. 

The good thing about publicly funded places like the library was that they weren’t too up to date on what places on the internet to block. Maybe they could censor out buzzwords, but Izuku knew the underground didn’t work like that anymore. Most illegal advice was obtained from the most legal of places, simply placed under encryption for the right audiences. Izuku was undoubtedly a child of the internet, spending most of his time as a reclusive tween on his computer, scrolling through forums, even ones that didn’t have the best sources of information. Hero forums were his shtick, but he couldn’t say he didn’t dive a little deeper sometimes.

The seedy underbelly of the internet didn’t lie in websites coding secret codes with locked message boards, it was usually out in the open, like one of his old favourite message boards to peruse for some less than legal information on heroes. This website let him know things like heroes' entire scouting schedules months in advance, highly private information, or even weak spots known from personal experience fighting smaller time heroes in the Musutafu area. The people on this site were clearly shady at best, but man was the information useful.

Sitting down at the clunky cream computer, Izuku loaded up the highly popular messaging board website, heroezinformatix.com, and scrolled down to the very bottom of the home page to find the small link that lead to the seemingly innocent chat board called “Meet n Greets.”

This was where his money maker was. This board hosted all kinds of information about the underbelly of hero society, boasting meet up times for things like illegal weapon trading, assassination promotions, or any other nefarious and morally gray societal deeds. When Izuku first found this site, scared and confused as a little boy, he wanted to report it. Now, he was incredibly thankful this site was there for him. Ironic, huh? I really did want to be a hero… now look at me.

He washed that thought away.

Izuku’s mouse clicked noisily in the silent library as he shuffled through the forums, scrolling down and down through today’s posts on the message board. As Izuku watched the site grow while he did, he got to know some inside terms. There were code names for big heroes, like ‘Eagle’ for All Might, or ‘Dante’ for Endeavour. But there were also code names for the ‘Meet n’ Greet’ board specifically.

‘Metal Party’ for knife trading.

‘Tea Party’ for non quirk related drug trades.

‘Honey Pot’ for anti hero meet-ups. Izuku avoided looking at those messages too often, they still sent shivers down his spine.

Scrolling through posts from this week, Izuku found exactly what he was looking for.

RadixalRed0029 says:

“Copper Bath at 23:30, Wednesday. All Metal valid. Meet at…”

Bingo.

Copper Baths were places where Izuku knew the money flowed from. The stronger you were, the stronger the money. He’d seen the boasted success of others who had joined the copper way of life, sending in forum updates about the next meet up and how they would ‘pummel’ this and that. All he had to do was follow the path. 

‘Copper Baths’ were a simple concept. The strongest enter the ring, the weakest come out. The longer you last and the more bets you gain, the more money you make. All you have to do is stay strong. And boy was Izuku strong.

He swallowed a nervous lump in his throat.

I’m really gonna head to an underground fighting ring for some cash…huh? He snickered dryly at the turn his life had taken

It wasn’t funny.

➸

Izuku had spent the rest of his day in the deep recesses of the library, sitting among the books. He thought about everything that had happened in the past forty eight hours. He’d lost his life, went through hell, ran from the police, and was about to enter the lion’s den of the underground. He had no idea what he was in for, every piece of information he’d ever scored from the ‘heroezinformatix’ message boards on ‘Copper Baths’ were painfully vague and downright threatening.   

He sighed, feeling exhaustion seep into his bones.

Actually, how long has it been since I’ve slept? Izuku wrestled through his unpleasant memories of the time since he’d woken up. I mean… I guess I kind of slept at Miss Tachibana’s but… He wondered. Was the last time I slept really in that dumpster…?

Izuku had been continuously feeling like he was in some horrific dream, a waking nightmare that had taken over his life. He almost couldn’t believe he was awake, let alone that he needed sleep. He slumped down sideways, sliding along the bookshelf in the silent library. He landed on the ground with a ‘fwump’, curling up into a fetal position on the scratchy carpeted floor under him.

Sleep wouldn’t be too bad… 

That was Izuku’s last thought before he was snapped awake.

“...IR!”

“SIR!”

A nasally voice yelled out towards him. Opening his eyes, he blearily saw a woman standing in front of him, hands on her hips.

“Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave.” The woman said, her stern face pulling her eyebrows down and scrunching up her nose. She looked like an angry hamster to Izuku.

“Huh?” Izuku sat up and rubbed his eye, yawning.

He immediately tensed up at the realization he was still in the library. On the ground. Having passed out in a public space.

Geez, so much for a good rest. I must have been out for a few minutes. 

Such a quick and heavy sleep made Izuku feel like he was back in the dumpster, having woken up from what very well may have been a coma with how deep in the recesses of sleep he had felt. 

He looked around the library, the wooden bookcases cradling him in their knowledge. 

Wait… why is it so…Dim?

The sunlight that streamed in through the windows lining the library was gone, leaving black voids that looked out onto well lit streets. Izuku was stunned. He had wondered how he had slept that long in what felt like the blink of an eye.

“Sir?”

Izuku stood up, practically jumping out of his skin as he realized the intrusion he had placed on the poor workers of this place. He must have seemed like he was ignoring this woman’s requests, Say something idiot!

“I-I’m so sorry miss! I had no idea that I was- for that long- I just- I’m sorry umm.. I’ll go now.” Izuku squeaked by the end of his embarrassing half- sentence.

He bowed and quickly sped off through the isles of books. The librarian simply huffed a sigh at the quick exchange, unimpressed but glad she didn’t have to deal with a  hooligan who refused to leave. 

Izuku ran out onto the streets, looking up at the moon slowly rising across the city line. The night life was bustling across the city, with cars and mopeds whizzing by on the street, their bright lights lighting up the area. Many stores were just starting to close, many were just starting to open. Workers smoked outside, squatting along the side of the road with cigarettes in between their fingers or lips. 

Izuku slowed his run as he walked along the bustling streets of the city he grew up in. Being so young, he was unfamiliar with the night life, but the laughs of women and drunk businessmen stumbling out of bars gave him a good idea of it. He saw neon signs light up that he had never seen before as he walked.

 ‘XXX PARTY THIS WAY!’

‘GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS!’

‘Blue Rose Host Club’

He tried to feel wonder at the life he saw blooming around him, now immersed in crowds of people and culture, but he still felt so unbearably alone. No matter the hustle and bustle, the fear of what he had to do next gnawed at his guts like a rabid wolf gnawing on a carcass. He was going to have to fight, to tap into that scary place inside of him that he never wanted to touch. The new Izuku Midoriya that clung onto him since that day in the dumpster.

As his steps evened out and he walked further and further into the mouth of the city, Izuku saw the streets empty. The glow of the signs dimmed, and the bars became less lively, more aggressive. Red hues lit up the district, and the buildings became lined with graffiti and littered with half dressed women hanging out of windows, waving at Izuku as he passed. This was the area of Musutafu that even heroes couldn’t tame. He tucked his hands in his pockets and stayed light on his feet, his hairs all stood on end across his body. Keeping his head hunched and swerving around the swarms of shady looking people, Izuku kept walking until he saw it. 

On the left side of the bustling street, an eerily lively staircase was lit up in dim warm lights. Men and women of all quirks sat and stood along the stairs, some smoking, some laughing and chatting, many glancing around. They all wore tough clothes, from all black studded outfits to what looked to be full fighting get ups, all had one thing in common. An unmistakable air of excitement floated around them. Lively music pounded from around the stairs corner. 

Izuku ducked his head and trotted down the stairs, getting weird looks under the LEDs. Everyone there must have been at least five years older than him, and many had much more muscle than him, almost all looked like they had experienced more than him. They scoffed and rolled their eyes at Izuku’s passing, causing his guts to squirm uncomfortably in his body while his heart lept.

Am I making a mistake? Probably. Do I care…?

Izuku thought for a second.

Screw it.

He needed that money, and maybe selfishly, he needed to test his strength. He had held back each time until now, he just hoped he could push past the fear that controlled his fighting and control it himself. 

Izuku pressed his hands against the cool, rusted metal of the large entry door at the very bottom of the stairs. It was lined with posters, some half torn, some old enough to have been his mother’s age. He pushed.

Loud thumping music blasted into his ear drums, filling up his head with a rhythmic noise. If there was one word he would use to describe the space, it was crowded. At least five hundred people had to be there, and the room clearly wasn’t meant to house that many. The walls were a deep red, and the floors were sticky with unknown liquids. It was pure black, and with the poor lighting, Izuku felt like his feet might melt into it. The only source of light came from an obnoxiously bright center light that hung over a massive stage which was lined with a cage. Nobody stood in the cage just yet, but Izuku knew they would soon. He would soon.

The ceilings were high, and the noise of the loud laughter, shouting, cheering, and taunting filled the room along with smoke. Izuku’s lungs shuttered and wheezed at the thick air. He’d never smelled smoke like that before. People shoved into him and pushed around him, but before he could knock over, he was thrusted into a tall man.

As he looked up at the goliath, he saw he was less of a man and more of a… lobster? The lobster headed man began talking to him, his little mouth pieces moving as he yelled over the music.

“You, boy. Why are you here?” His voice was deep and gravelly.

“I-I’m” Izuku cleared his throat, desperate to not show any weakness in front of this suspicious crowd. He yelled louder, with his chest this time. “I’m here to fight. You know, the listing?” He looked up into the lobster’s soulless black eyes. 

The lobster man broke out into a loud laugh.

“Why didn’t you say so?!” Izuku could hear a grin in his voice, but had absolutely no idea where it could possibly be coming from. “Here, come with me. Fighters go to the back before the show.”

As he followed the broad back of the tall lobster man, shoving through the crowd of onlookers, he felt his heart pick up in his chest. This was his opportunity, he could actually see what he could do now. Excitement mixed with his dread at the thought of getting in that bright ring and letting himself go without guilt.

Izuku was led in through another large metal door, this one swung open to reveal a large area filled with what looked like martial arts equipment. Men and women with all varieties of quirks were scattered across the room, all sticking to their same quadrant. Some were throwing knives, the lights glinting off of them in a flash before they hit their mark with a thud. Others were throwing punches at punching bags, rocking the bags back and forth with intensity Izuku had never seen before. Some were sitting around the room simply chatting to each other. He even saw a man with a snake head wrestling a man with spiked black hair to the ground in the corner.

Izuku gulped, all of these people looked to be experienced fighters, rippling muscles lining their bodies. Tension filled the air, and conversation and grunts almost drowned out the loud thumping music from outside. 

“Ladies and gentlemen,” The lobster started, a grin filtering his words once again.

“We have a newbie.”

All eyes immediately snapped over to Izuku, grunting and chatter stopped, as did the movement that flooded the room.

“This little one has never been to a ‘copper bath’ before!” The lobster man chuckled. Izuku was very certain he never told him that. He could feel jitters running through his entire body with all of the attention, every set of eyes were trained on him like a slab of steak being lowered into a piranha bath. Nobody dared move, especially not him.

“Everyone please be nice to him.” The lobster man fake pleaded. “Don’t rookie-crush too hard…” he swerved on his feet, turning around and leaving, ruffling Izuku’s pale hair on the way out.

Rookie huh-what-now?

Everyone’s eyes stayed trained on Izuku. He stood like a statue.

“So…” A woman with purple hair piped up.

“What’s your quirk?”

Izuku’s heart stopped in his chest, sinking to his feet.

“I’m… strong.” He mumbled out. An uproar of laughter came from the fighters.

“They all say that!” A man piped up from somewhere in the gym, extracting more laughter from the group.

Izuku burned in shame. This feeling of helplessness, the sourness that lay coating his stomach, he was all too familiar with it. He felt bile burn in his throat.

“Well, kid. Can’t wait to see what you’ve got.” The purple woman spoke.

Izuku looked down, clenching his fists. He couldn’t wait to either. 

Suddenly, a shrill ring sounded out across the gym. Izuku’s head lurched up in preparation, his nerves tingling at the sound of an escape from this situation. 

“Ah, the first rounds’ starting!” Somebody excitedly piped up. All heads turned to a screen that was hung up on the wall of the gym. The screen flickered on and showed everybody’s pairings. Up first was two people named ‘Calico’ and ‘Maroon.’

A woman and a man both whooped, excited to head out to the ring. Izuku read down the list, at the very bottom of the starting fights he saw a name that clearly stood out.

“NewB”

Yeah, that’s gotta be me. 

He breathed in through his nose, mentally preparing himself for the upcoming trials.

His body trembled with sealed energy.

He hadn’t felt more alive in a long time.

➸

Grunts, shouts, cheers and panic could all be heard through the thick metal doors to the gym.Every few minutes or so, the shrill ring would sound and applause and shouts could be heard shaking the building before the two fighters would hobble back into the gym, one in clearly worse shape than the other. This happened five times before Izuku knew it was his turn. He was quickly ushered out of the comforting dulled confines of the bench in the corner of the gym and into the blinding lights and loud cheers of the main area. His blood pumped under his skin as he walked up to the ring, the announcer's voice echoing in his ears.

“EVERYBODY PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER FOR OUR FINAL FIGHT OF THE FIRST ROUND!”

Applause rocketed up across the room, loud vulgar shouting and cries of “Fuck yeah!” Echoed off the tall ceiling.

“NEXT UP IN THE CAGE, WE HAVE A LITTLE TREAT FOR YOU ALL.”

Izuku paused at the base of the cage, waiting for the large guard in front of it to open up the door on his cue.

“WE HAVE A SWEET LITTLE NEWBIE ON OUR HANDS!” The crowd burst out into whoops and laughs. “LET'S SHOW THIS GUY HOW ACCOMMODATING WE ARE AT THESE COPPER BATHS!” A roar overtook the crowd.

“UP AGAINST OUR LITTLE NEWB, WE HAVE A REPEAT CHAMP IN THE HOUSEEE! PLEASE WELCOME TO THE STAGE, OUR FIGHTERS, NEWB AND JACK RABBIT!!!” The crowd roared again, suddenly bursting out into a chant as Izuku and the man across from him stepped onto the stage. Izuku could just barely make out their words, even with their volume.

“CRUSH HIM! CRUSH HIM! CRUSH HIM! CRUSH HIM!”

Thanks for the vote of confidence I guess… 

Izuku cracked a nervous smile as he felt sweat bead on his skin.

“ANNNND WITH THAT, LET THE FIGHT….”

The room became quiet on cue, tension hanging in the air almost as thick as the smoke that permeated Izuku’s lungs.

“BEGIN!”

Izuku wouldn’t hesitate, he couldn’t.

He sprinted up to the man, holding himself close to the ground. He felt the muscles in his legs constrict and push off of the ground at impeccable speeds. His mind fought to put him in a dulled out trance to fight, but Izuku wanted to feel every second of this. He wanted to learn, and to learn he had to be in his body while he threw punches.

The man, Jack Rabbit as the announcer called him, swerved away from Izuku, shock forming on his face at the young one’s bold move. Izuku made a beeline to knock the man out, pulling a punch back with everything that he had, and bursting it out away from his body. Jack Rabbit narrowly dodged, swerving his head sideways as the air pressure from the punch cut open a slit on the side of his face. 

He fearfully looked into Izuku’s eyes as he evaded.

“You really are somethin’” He murmured to Izuku. “Too bad I’m something too.” He pushed back with mock confidence, leaping off the ground feet above Izuku into the air, clinging onto the top of the cage.

“WHAT’S THIS?” The announcer gasped out in a theatrical voice. “JACK RABBIT IS USING HIS FINAL MOVE SO SOON?!” 

Oh, he jumps. Izuku thought, dully. Explains the name, I guess.

Jack Rabbit tensed his legs beneath him as his fingers wrapped around the wires of the cage. Izuku could read his movements before he could get around to them. The man’s red eyes were open wildly, ready to pounce on Izuku and end things. 

Jack Rabbit pushed himself off of the top of the cage, arm wound back in preparation for a punch, soaring like a bullet towards Izuku’s face. With his mind not clouded by panic, it was almost too easy for Izuku, seeing the man moving in slow motion as he rocketed toward him.

Izuku shifted his foot back while the man came at him from the air, shifting his weight backwards before spinning and ducking, shooting his leg up into a roundhouse kick. Izuku’s face read of no emotion, and even as the crowd cheered in slow motion as he launched his leg out, he felt nothing, and showed nothing. His weight shifted and spun him around, giving incredible momentum to the kick. It landed directly against Jack Rabbit's head with a loud crack, sending him flying to the other side of the cage as he ricochet off of Izuku’s leg like a pinball machine. His punch never landed, his final move failing in his panic to defeat Izuku.

Jack Rabbit slammed into the metal cage, denting the side outwards with the sheer force of the kick that had sent him there. His face was bleeding and bruised, turning purple and red under the harsh lights overhead. He laid there like a rag doll, Izuku stood with his leg still hovering in a follow through stance from his kick.

The fight had lasted under thirty seconds. 

The crowd was deathly silent, as was the obnoxious announcer.

Was that…it?

The shrill ring sounded as staff walked on stage to drag off Jack Rabbit’s unconscious limp body. The crowd roared louder than Izuku had ever heard it. Bottles smashed off of walls, people let their quirks go in the space.

People must have bet against me… that sounds like a lot of angry patrons.

The announcer sounded out over the chaos, “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN I DON’T KNOW WHAT JUST HAPPENED… BUT IT APPEARS OUR ROUND ONE WINNER IS NEWB!!” Izuku smiled slightly as he walked off stage, weaving through the angry swarm with ease.

If all of my fights are that easy, making money will be a breeze.

When Izuku walked back into the gym alone, no injuries whatsoever as the chaos sounded outside, to say all eyes were on him would be an understatement.

Chapter Text

Izuku’s next round was mere minutes away as he waited in the gym back room. Half of the original people in the gym remained, many scuffed up and nursing wounds. They all swapped weary glances over to Izuku as he sat, unmoving, in his corner. Jack Rabbit wasn’t weak. He wasn’t the strongest fighter they had that returned to local copper baths, but to lose in the first round to a new child… that was something none of the fighters in the copper bath business had seen. All minds in the room wondered how that match truly went, and though none would admit it, they all feared being placed against the unmarked boy. 

Izuku’s mind wandered, as it tended to do, blissfully ignoring the glances sent his way as he observed. 

There are twelve left. Five women, seven men. I know two of the men have knife based skills based on their training they’re doing, the one with black hair is right handed while the one with blue is left. Black always leads with a jab. He’s done it six times now in prep spar… I would imagine he fights similarly in the ring. 

Three of the women have mutant quirks, but they all tend to have weak spots surrounding anything sudden. They all pack heavy punches, what with one having thick forearms, one with hardened lizard skin, and one with bendable limbs, but none of them could match the speed of the knife throwers. I imagine they didn’t get placed against them in their first round or else they’d be gone. If I could just catch them off guard, I could dance around them and end the fight early like the last one. 

I can’t quite tell what the quirks of the rest of the women are, one appears to be packing a switchblade though, I can see the outline of it under her boot. Shouldn’t have worn such thin ones, I guess… 

I can just see where some of the people are injured… weak spots in their movement, lack of flexibility, wincing when they step. I could use that…  hit them where it hurts. Is that allowed? I mean anything goes… 

Izuku’s endless muttering was quickly cut off with the shrill ring of the bell, and soon after two men walked back in. Well, one walked back in. The other came in on a stretcher. 

The walking man was large, much larger than Izuku, and held dual wielding daggers with jagged edges. His eyes were deep set and dark, and his hair was short and spiked. He looked as though he could have been in the army, and if anyone would be a challenge to Izuku, it was him.

Izuku had watched him spar. He had no limp, no wincing pain in his ankles. His movements were fast and powerful, and his knives would counter any real damage Izuku could do with his mere punches. He was much taller, and his reach alone would overpower Izuku. Izuku prayed he never had to face him.

Like the universe heard him, the man immediately locked eyes with Izuku.

Oh ffff….

The giant walked over to Izuku.

“I saw that dent… in the cage. You do that?” The man menacingly looked down at Izuku’s sitting frame, eyeing him up like a shrimp. 

Izuku gulped nervously, swallowing his nerves in front of his greatest threat.

“S-so what?” Curse that stupid stutter.

The man smirked, pointing at izuku. “You better go all out on me, because I’m going all out on you.” He clenched his fist until it shook with tension. “Rookie crushing is my specialty.” His eyes filled with wild mania, locking into Izuku’s.

He dropped his fist, shoving his hands in his pockets, and walked to sit on the other side of the gym. Izuku’s heart beat wildly. If he wanted the whole cash prize, he would need to take him out eventually. Nobody else in this gym could, Izuku knew that.

He sighed, watching the man through his bangs with his head hung.

I need one little miracle… that’s all. Just one.

The shrill ring of the bell sounded, and Izuku’s head jolted up to the screen where his name was placed against a ‘piercer’.

What a bad name…

The scaled woman got up at the same time, vague fear glazing over her features. She had determination set in her brow, yet her bottom lip wobbled. Izuku watched her face in hope, and he saw that fear through her facade. 

I can use that.

The bright white light hanging over the ring swarmed Izuku’s vision as he weaved through the crowd again, lining up at the stairs again, hearing the announcer's funny quips again, waiting for the release of his pent up energy. 

This one, he knew he could win.

That money’s mine.

“STAAAAART”

Piercer ran up to Izuku , sticking low to the ground. She burst up in front of him and sent a well aimed kick straight past Izuku’s head. She worried her lip as she fought, eyebrows pinched in insecurity. Izuku dodged her second blow as she jumped up and swung her leg to the side midair. Izuku slid under her, twisting on the ground onto all fours and pounced at her as dust flew up under his feet. Izuku lunged to grab her arm, attempting to throw her into the side of the ring like he had with Jack Rabbit, but she slid her arm between his grasp before he could clamp onto her. 

She was slippery, Izuku had to give her that.

She dodged a punch he aimed at her head, shifting her body to the side as it whizzed past her.

“C’mon kid, let’s talk this through.” She dodged again, ducking under a punch and sliding between Izuku’s stance. ”Why are you even here?” She taunted. “You a run away? Mommy not give you enough love?” Izuku cracked a smile at that.

If you only knew. 

“Look, I need the money. What, you gonna buy more toys? Let the adults handle cash.” She sent a punch straight past Izuku, and as Izuku dived forward, side stepping the punch, he aimed a side kick at her stomach.

She quickly moved her eyes away from Izuku, locking them onto his imminent kick to her gut and violently reacted. She leaped back hastily, putting a couple meters distance between her and Izuku, fear reading in her features at the realization of her action. 

Bingo.

Izuku had seen her in sparring, her movements were lacking something in her core. That was it. 

An abdomen injury.

Izuku smirked, and sweat beaded along Piercer’s face. He had found her weak spot. 

Izuku slowly stalked around her, and she treaded to match his pace. Their eyes were locked, fear and deathly focus mixing into a toxic pool between them. The crowd cheered, yet Izuku’s brain was eerily quiet. He analyzed her, taking in split seconds of every opening, every stutter, everything. Her eyes flickered down for a moment, and there we go.

Izuku ran back in, tensing his legs beneath him as he bolted upright towards her, shifting sideways, he aimed a killer kick towards her right kidney.

He threw his body sideways, attacking with the heel of his foot in an oblique kick straight to the side, shifting backwards and readying himself to transition into a kick straight to the head, a knockout, if you will.

Piercer caught wind of his action, immediately throwing her arm out, when a loud bang resonated through the club. 

Piercer’s arm had stopped Izuku’s kick, shaking with the force of the action. Izuku’s eyes widened in interest, watching the pulsing scales on her arm as they slowly hardened against Izuku’s skin. 

Piercer… like armor piercing. Izuku huffed. Nope. Still dumb.

He retaliated quickly, backing off slightly, but the woman quickly switched into offensive, running at him while he hopped backwards. Izuku readied himself for another kick from the woman, but as he ducked, she leaped up into the air and onto him, locking his head in with her hardened arms.

She used her momentum to swing around Izuku’s neck, pinning him to the ground, her legs wrapped under him and around his sides with her arms around him in a chokehold. He was wriggling, but the awkward positing he was placed in under her twisted and ground his bones together. 

Wrestling? Wasn’t she all kicks earlier? 

Izuku wheezed and huffed as his airway was cut off, his heart pounded in his ears and his vision went black in the corners. He was stuck, with her arm around his neck, he may have passed out before the match could end. 

No… it can’t end like… this. He wheezed as the crowd roared. I won’t… LET IT!

He pushed his head backwards against her arm, getting just enough room to push his mouth down into her scaled arm. He could feel the scales hard surface against his lips as he breathed heavily through his nose, sweat trailing down his face.

He opened his jaw as wide as he could, and clamped his teeth down onto her skin. Piercer couldn’t react in time to harden her scales, focusing on keeping the wriggling boy down for the count, and as she struggled, Izuku bit with all of the force he could muster, jaw tensing and burning under the pressure. His teeth pushed back into his gums, and as a yelp of pain erupted from Piercer, Izuku bit until he felt his teeth meet each other, the woman pouncing off of him and screeching in pain.

Izuku felt blood fill his mouth, pleasant and warm as he had hoped it would be. 

“You little bitch!! Argh! What the fuck?!!” Piercer screamed out in agony, clutching her arm. “YOU JUST FUCKING BIT ME!” 

Izuku coughed and wheezed on the ground, regaining his vision and centering himself. He slowly and shakily stood as the crowd roared. Blood ran down the woman’s arm in waves, dripping onto the white stage. It coated Izuku’s teeth and mouth as he eerily looked into Piercer’s eyes, face red and streaked with tears. He swallowed the woman’s flesh caught in his mouth as he locked eyes with her, unblinking, chest wheezing heavily. 

The announcer was too stunned to speak, and the crowd roared at the blood bath. 

Piercer clutched her arm in disbelief and horror.

“Are we not fighting anymore?” Izuku rasped out. His voice sounded like death. Was his trachea broken? Why did it hurt so bad?

Blood continued to drip onto the stage in waves, and Izuku dropped down into his fighting stance. Piercer’s eyes widened, her eyebrows pulling up in shock, wrinkling her forehead in stress. Izuku’s eyes glowed red like an animal, his body tensing in preparation to end this fight. 

“I’M-“ before she could yell out, Izuku practically teleported up to her, after images being left behind him as he ran up. He spun his leg sideways, pulling his knee inwards before he launched a kick. Straight into her right side.

Piercer immediately coughed up blood, a painful grunt leaving her as she fell to the ground. Her head hit the floor of the ring with a loud bang, and she seemed to twitch a few times before she was still, silently bleeding out on the ground. 

Izuku stood above her, his face neutral and his wheezing in control. Blood stayed smeared across his face, and he looked down at her in pity.

I’m sorry miss… but I really need that money.

“AND YOUR WINNER… FOR THE SECOND ROUND IN A ROW, IS NEWB!”

There was a pause for cheering. 

“ALTHOUGH… THAT DOESN’T QUITE SOUND AS BADASS AS THIS LITTLE GUY IS.” The crowd cheered in delight. 

“LITTLE MAN, I DUB THEE….” The crowd fell into a hushed quiet, awaiting the dramatic reveal of the bizarre boy’s new name. 

“BITER!!!”

Cheers erupted around the room, quirks went off in excitement and rage at the money lost.

Izuku awkwardly smiled at the praise, bloody teeth showing through his lips. 

Well, maybe I don’t feel too bad. 

➸

Izuku stared off into space, trying to ignore the deep unsettling feeling in his stomach as he waited for the final round to start. The other contestants were slowly obliterated one by one, the screech of the bell buzzing through Izuku’s nervous system like a call to action. Izuku could only see one person come back each time from that bell, spiked hair and heavy combat boots sauntering back to the gym each time to sit across from Izuku and stare straight at him.

What..? I must still have blood on my face… dammit.

He swiped the back of his hand along his mouth, watching a deep red streak across his knuckles. That lit a strange excited fire in his stomach, but his guilt quickly smothered that flame.

The minutes of others fighting seemed to take hours, and the warped time slowed the cheers erupting outside of the room into strange distant noises to Izuku’s ears. All he could feel was the icy glare of the man across from him, and the burning excitement- maybe nervousness- in his veins. Izuku could feel the matches dwindling away, with only him and the man now left in the gym.

Time slowed even further as the bell rang, his hearing muffled with sounds as horror curdled his gut. 

I can’t beat this guy. He’s got no weaknesses. Aghhh… THINK Izuku! You can’t punch away a knife fight like the alley guy… His stomach dropped as memories of blood and brick filled his senses. He was a subpar fighter at best… This guys’ got hero level skills. 

Izuku looked up through his bangs at the man, locking eyes and immediately being caught in a stare off. Izuku’s eyebrows creased in worry. The man simply tilted the corners of his mouth up into a smile, sick satisfaction playing his features. 

He couldn’t wait to pummel Izuku into the ground, and Izuku knew he could. 

“See you out there, Biter .”

The bell rang for the final time. The crowd cheered, but all Izuku could hear was the toll of the bells of the underworld. He may just die here tonight.

As he walked out into the crowd and up to the stage, Izuku felt hands ruffling his hair, slick with sweat. He couldn’t react if he tried, stuck in a state of analysis and dread, his thoughts cycling through his head like tickets being funneled into the machines that counted them. A million thoughts a second, all being sucked into a void. 

His stance is wide, he must have been professionally trained.

Could I…? No that wouldn’t work.

Maybe if… but when would the opening..? 

If he… when he… but he wouldn’t…

ARGHHH!

Izuku slapped his cheeks and shook out his limbs, trying to free himself from the panic of this enemy.

If I want a life again, I’m going to have to fight for it.

He bounced on his feet, preparing himself and shaking out the nerves. The man on the other side of the ring sat menacingly still, daggers outstretched by his thighs. 

I had it easy up till’ now. I’ll have to figure things out on my own from now on. 

He looked at the man’s spiked hair and crazed eyes, and suddenly, just for a moment, he was back in Aldera, looking forward at the boy who was once his greatest personal hero. Izuku felt the flicker of dormant betrayal light up in his heart, before he was violently thrusted back to the present.

The announcer was yelling something or other, cracking jokes and making a big deal over the “BIG FINAL MATCH!” And what-not.

“ARRRRRE YOUUUUU READYYYYY?!?!”

The crowd cheered louder than Izuku had ever heard it, shaking the walls and making his eardrums feel as though they would pop. He lowered his stance, and spread his weight out evenly for movement. In this fight, he would have to be fast before he was dead.

“FIGHTERS…”

“GET READY.”

Izuku’s heart beat.

Three

Two

One.

“STAAAAARTTTTT!!!!”

Izuku ran up to Pyobeom, as the announcer had called him, and the man sprinted straight at Izuku, his arms flying behind him in a wind up to jab at the boy. As he swung the knife out from the side towards izuku, his long arms covering a great distance, Izuku hopped up into the air, dodging the knife as it swiped below his tucked feet.

 Izuku landed low to the ground, quickly dropping flat to the ground and swiping his leg outwards to knock the large man over at his ankles. Pyobeom leaped backwards, saving his ankles from the blow, before quickly regaining his place near Izuku.

The spikey man swiveled his knife around in his hand, placing the blade downwards to stab down onto Izuku’s crouched form. Izuku jumped off of his feet backwards as the knife barreled down towards him, he arched his back, landing on his hands, and used his arm strength to boost him upwards back onto his feet.

“Nice moves, twinkle toes.” The man flipped his dagger around in his hand again. “But when are you going to come at me?” He laughed, stalking towards Izuku. With every step he took forward, Izuku took one back. They never broke eye contact, and Izuku broke out into a vicious cold sweat. He was being cornered like prey. 

Run run run run….

The man pointed one of his daggers at the dent in the cage Izuku caused. 

“I want you to do that to me.” A malicious smile creeped up onto the man’s face, curling his eyes into creases. He stalked mere inches away from Izuku while Izuku’s back was against the cage. The crowd roared.

This guys’… really weird. 

Izuku moved in a blur of action, quickly latching his fingers between the cage links above his head, using his arm strength to lift himself up, and pulling his knees into his chest before bucking outward. His feet blasted away from him and straight into Pyobeom’s gut. The man spat out and coughed as he creased slightly from Izuku’s attack. 

Izuku used this opening to kick himself off the cage and move himself behind Pyobeom before he could respond. 

“Awe kid, don’t be so rough on me!” The man giggled.

Creep.

Izuku sent a kick at the man again, but he grabbed Izuku’s ankle and immediately threw him off of him. Pyobeom’s overwhelming strength had Izuku flying away and tumbling down onto the ring ground. He transitioned into a somersault and rolled himself back into a standing position, recoiling slightly backwards from the momentum of his roll. 

“Why don’t you talk?” The man sent a jab towards Izuku that Izuku danced around, narrowly avoiding his stomach. “I think you’re so interesting, yet you won’t even speak to me.” Izuku bit his lip in concentration as he dodged. “It really…” Izuku took steps backwards as he dodged the quick swipes. “Pisses me off.”  

Pyobeom’s eyes darkened, and his face suddenly took on a menacing tilt to it. His mouth arched downwards and his eyebrows drew in to reveal what looked like a predator tired of messing with its prey. Izuku stuttered at the man’s face, slowing while Pyobeom sped up. Izuku dodged slightly too slowly and felt a sting of pain erupt across his arm he had to block with. 

Blood spurted out from a small laceration on Izuku’s forearm. It slowly beaded and dropped down his arm like a red waterfall as he continued to dodge. Pyobeom’s attacks increased and became more and more intense, leaning into Izuku and challenging his speed. Swipe, jab, cut, slice, swap, push backwards, lean in, don’t stop. Izuku couldn’t catch a break, and his reflexes may have been the only thing keeping him from being minced meat. 

This guy is too fast…

Izuku’s vision went dark in the corners, as he was running out of breath and stamina from the continuous dodging.

I can't fight back, he’ll cut my arm if I get too close… There's no way I can level the playing field. Izuku felt disparity creep up in his heart.

I’ve come all this way…

He let out a choked sob as he dodged another blow aimed at his head. His breathing sped up, and his heart desperately pumped blood to all of his overworked organs. He could feel panic seeping into his body, and his movements became slowly sloppier and sloppier.

 Izuku suddenly made a fatal mistake, Pyobeom faked him out, shifting to stab right, and Izuku dodged left in his panic, not reading the man’s movement enough. A sly smile creeped up on the man’s face as mid movement, he switched sides, thrusting his weight behind one of his daggers as his stabbed right towards Izuku.

Izuku felt a sharp stab of pain, and the room went silent.

His heart slowed.

His vision went back to normal.

Pyobeom took a few steps backwards, huffing and puffing after his attempts to catch Izuku. 

Izuku tried to speak, to ask what had happened, but he felt his voice unable to come. 

He looked down at the throbbing numbness and pain, and there he saw it.

Pyobeom’s dagger was sticking straight out of Izuku’s chest, deep red blooming through his tattered old shirt. He could feel the knife embedded deep in one of his lungs, and his sputtering wheezes and gasps prevented him from speaking. Otherwise, he surely would have screamed.

He couldn’t move, bright blood dripping down in splatters onto the floor from his wound, slowly running down his abdomen. The knife burned and serrated his insides, the notches on it grinding against bones in his chest. Izuku coughed up blood.  

“You were fun to play with. Say goodnight, Biter.” The man had a wild look on his face, and as Izuku’s silent and shocked eyes looked back up to meet Pyobeom’s, he felt immense terror.

What… Do I do…?

Izuku’s eyes glazed over. His face went slack. His brain shut off, and the sharp stabbing pain turned into a memory of a dull ache in his mind. He was back in that space of his brain reserved only for his panic. Autopilot .

Pyobeom’s face quickly turned sour as he watched Izuku’s non-reaction take over. 

“What?” He let out a quiet sound of confusion as Izuku’s dull deathly eyes stared straight into the man’s .

Izuku’s hand drifted up towards his chest, his fighting stance dropping low again. Pyobeom chuckled, fear lacing his tone. 

“Fuck. You’re insane.” Izuku gripped the handle of the knife in his chest, unblinking, unthinking. He felt the cool grooves on his skin, his senses heightened to everything around him. 

With a quick burst of energy to the sore muscles in his arm, he swiftly yanked the knife out of his own chest, holding it up slowly at his side. Pain erupted through his lungs, blood spurting out of him like ribbons out of a party popper. It soaked his entire shirt, and he winced even through autopilot. He saw the dark red liquid run down the knife and onto his hand. The ring floors looked like a blood bath, dark red gore staining everywhere, streaked along the ground from fighting with his arm cut. 

Izuku tensed his legs, horror swarmed across Pyobeom’s features, and Izuku pounced forward, knife outstretched behind him in preparation to slice at Pyobeom’s face. 

“What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck.” Pyobeom dodged his blows backwards as blood continued to fly out of Izuku with every movement, irritating his deep stab wound. “Ah- no-“ the knives clanged together as the man blocked and dodged, having lost half of his fire power to Izuku’s chest cavity. He was mortified. “HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU STILL MOVING, JUST LAY DOWN AND DIE ALREADY!” 

That reminded Izuku of someone.

Izuku thrusted his knife upwards and towards Pyobeom, aiming for his neck every single time, a kill shot desire taking over his senses.

I never learned how to fight with knives before this…

Izuku continued his jabs and thrusts, the clang and bang of the knives sending sparks flying at their speeds. 

I wonder just what happened to me.

Izuku jabbed his knife forward, aiming straight for Pyobeom’s heart at Izuku’s eye level. The crowd was hushed, in awe at this exchange. Nobody knew how this boy was still moving, many questioned his humanity. The announcer had gone completely silent, and the room was filled with clanging and desperate grunts from Pyobeom’s tired form. 

Pyobeom blocked, his knife shaking with the tension of Izuku pushing deeper and deeper towards the man’s chest. 

“Fuck…. Off….!” The man grunted as Izuku pushed his weight into the knife. 

Izuku backed off from his attempt, the daggers ricocheting away from each other in a loud clang as he gave away. Izuku immediately tensed his legs and shifted his weight backwards. As Pyobeom stumbled backwards from the knives crashing into each other, Izuku rounded his foot towards him, using the momentum of his push back to transition into a kick. Izuku sent his foot flying upwards straight into the center of Pyobeom’s face, landing with his heel to the man’s nose. 

A crack resonated through the ring as Pyobeom immediately went flying backwards, crashing into the cage lining the ring. His nose caved into his face, and he immediately crashed, a large dent being left in his wake as he hit the bloody ring floor with a BANG. 

The crowd was silent as Pyobeom was left on the floor, an unmoving pile of limbs and blood. He was slumped in an awkward position, clearly knocked out. Izuku stood, panting and bloodied, a few feet away from him in the middle of the ring. Bright lights overhead cast shadows onto his face, but the neon sickly green gleam of his eyes shined through the darkness from his bangs. He was hunched, prepared to pounce, eyes locked on Pyobeom’s unmoving form. 

He was…

Feral.

The entire room could hear his breathing, a pin could drop and sound like an atomic bomb.

A voice erupted over the speakers.

“Ahem… ah, ladies and gentlemen.”

An awkward little man with a large moustache walked out onto the ring, his bald head gleaming in the light.

“We have our winner.” He walked over to Izuku, fear running through his features as he looked up at the terrifying boy. 

He went to grab Izuku’s bloodied hand, recoiled, before slowly grabbing it again as if he were dealing with a caged animal.

He raised Izuku’s arm in triumph, and Izuku finally took his eyes away from Pyobeom’s slumped figure, shifting his eyes across the black faceless sea of people. 

I …. Won?

“Biter! WINS THE COPPER BATH! THAT IS SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND YEN TO HIM!” The man’s voice slowly slipped back into announcer mode as he yelled out over the crowd.

They erupted into fits, whether the screaming and hollering was good or bad, Izuku didn’t know, but his brain finally registered something. 

Six… hundred… thousand.

Izuku looked out at the loud crowd, then up at his raised bloody hand. He immediately burst into tears.

“I WOOOOOON!”

.

.

.

If Izuku had been a little more observant, maybe he would have noticed his chest and arm had stopped bleeding. 

.

Maybe he would have noticed the red eyes trailing him across the stage.

.

Maybe his life would have been completely different. 

Chapter Text

Izuku had palmed the cash given to him by shaky hands after the crowds dissipated at the copper bath venue. The hosts looked absolutely mortified as they handed their good earnings over to the bloody half-awake boy, eyes shifting wearily away from his stone cold eyes and stab hole in his shirt.

Izuku felt as though he was in a trance as he walked out of the venue, up the steps, and back into the cool night air of the streets. The sun was just threatening to rise, a light blue fanning out across the horizon. Bar lights were flickering off as Izuku walked aimlessly like a villain in the night, getting not much more than second glances as he looked like a horror movie monster. The deep red had crusted into his hair and skin, leaving streaks of blood stretched across him. The tatty cream shirt he was wearing was almost entirely soaked in a deep red , and his shorts weren’t doing much better either. 

The stab wound in his chest had completely sealed, the skin there having a faint pink hue like a fresh scar. I was stabbed…I was stabbed… I was stabbed… The images of his own blood streaking out of his chest, the awful feeling of a knife in his overworked lungs, Izuku felt as though he had never left that ring, as though he was still in it, hairs on end as he watched a non existent enemy lunge at him. The sharp serrated edges clanging along his ribs as he pulled the dagger out…

I’m gonna be sick…

Izuku ran over to an alley behind a bar, immediately retching and vomiting. He spewed up blood again, and he wasn’t sure of how much of it was his own. He watched the saliva filled red streaked vomit cascade down into the corner of the building. Panting, he leaned his head against the cool concrete of the building, sweat building on his skin. Am I running… a fever..? Izuku’s pants were laboured. 

Izuku palmed at his chest, feeling where the stab wound should have been. Nothing was there but cool, clammy skin. He didn’t understand, couldn’t understand. 

So… that time at Miss Tachibana’s… My thumbs…Can I…? 

Izuku’s thoughts ran wild. His super strength, super agility, ability to use all kinds of weapons… and now he could heal his own injuries in a matter of minutes? Izuku avoided the thought, dancing around it like he was playing tag with his own brain. 

Do I… Have a quirk?

Izuku retched again, spewing up more gore onto the building. 

There’s just no way, that’s impossible. There’s absolutely no way I could have a quirk. I’m quirkless, through and through. I have the toe joint and everything! I mean there isn’t even a quirk that can give quirks, it's entirely genetic! There’s absolutely no way… so why?

He looked down at his bloodied hands, smooth skin caked in the fluids of many.

“What… Am I?” 

Izuku stared, bewildered, down at his hands. Down past his hands and to his feet. Down past his feet and to the trailing vomit. Izuku stared and stared as his brain searched for answers, hunched with his head against the building. 

A quiet thump sounded behind Izuku, his ears could barely pick it up. His dazed brain immediately reared to fight, jumping straight to turn around, but in his sluggish state, he could only barely catch the shadowy figure behind him before a loud crack resonated within his skull, and his whole world faded into darkness. 

➸

Izuku was starting to really hate waking up, it seemed every time he did it brought him a lot of issues. As he cracked his eyes open, he quickly recalled what had happened. His head shot up before a burst of pain nearly blinded him. 

What- agh- god my HEAD!

A splitting headache pierced his brain and thoughts, and he could feel the dizziness spread throughout his vision while it focused. He had to have a concussion, the ache droning out all of his senses.

By the time he snapped back, wincing from the movement of simply holding up his head, he quickly realized he was in an all metal room. A brightly lit all metal room. He went to move his hands, but they were tightly bound behind his- Oh, I’ve been here before.

Izuku’s thoughts slowly came through, the cogs in his brain running on extremely low power. Izuku shot straight up, the pain lessened this time.

I’m at the police station. 

Izuku looked around, eyes wide in panic, desperately flailing to get his hands out from the constraints he was held in. He didn’t want to have to break his thumbs like the last time, trying to constrict his hands out of the cuffs. It was no use, the metal simply dug into his wrists. He tried to stand, desperately looking for an escape, but quickly noticed he was strapped to the chair in what seemed to be a metal-like belt. 

I’m stuck.

They… found me. Theyfoundmetheyfoundmetheyfoundmetheyfoundmetheyfoundmeshitshitshitshitshitshit!

Izuku’s thoughts spiralled as he panted, feeling like he might vomit again.  The blood on his shirt was stinging his nostrils, the lights were all too bright in this room, and all of the silver and gray surfaces made Izuku feel like he was in monochrome hell. He couldn’t move, he was utterly trapped. 

He took shaky calm breaths, opting to check his surroundings. They do that in hero manga all the time… yeah… scope for… stuff. He coped. 

He was seated at a long table, harsh lights hung overhead that emitted a sickly white light that didn’t leave a shadow in the room. There were no windows, and even when he listened extremely closely, Izuku couldn’t hear a single noise from inside or outside of the room. 

He noticed one of the walls had a slightly strange look, the metal all too reflective for Izuku’s liking. A one way mirror? Izuku stared into it, looking for any sort of movement behind it. He saw nothing. The chair he was in was rooted into the ground, bolted down, and the cuffs his hands were aching in were much thicker than when he was first here. He definitely couldn’t pull what he pulled last time, bolting and just maybe committing a tad of aggravated assault. 

Izuku obviously knew why he was here… Just not the specifics. Not at all. 

Maybe it was aggravated assault on the officers… Ah no, it might’ve been that knife guy, I don’t even know if he survived. Izuku felt his brows crease at that thought. Maybe the police shut down the copper bath operation a little late, and they ratted me out. God knows those aren’t exactly legal. He huffed a dry laugh. Maybe they found out I’m a dead boy walking. Izuku liked the sound of that one best. He hoped it was something as mediocre as that.

Izuku stared back through the slightly shinier wall. He stared until he could just hear something… almost like a sense… 

Badum

Badum

Badum.

There were at least three people behind that wall. Izuku couldn’t believe it… 

I can… hear their heartbeats. Izuku stared harder through the wall. He must have been listening to the faint thumps for a while, because he was quickly snapped out of his trance when the metal door to the front left of Izuku swung open. As his head whipped away from the reflective wall to the door, the light thumping he heard was drowned out of his head. 

In walked two officers, fully armed with tasers at the ready.

Welp, there goes the dead boy walking theory.

They quickly guarded either side of the metal door, and after them, two others walked in. The first was a shabby man with long unruly black hair and tired eyes. He had a disastrous five o’clock shadow, and the posture of an elderly man, though he couldn’t be older than forty. He was wearing all black with a thick white scarf-like device wrapped around his neck. It clicked in Izuku’s mind that this man was the figure that had unceremoniously knocked him out cold in the alley earlier. 

If he had the authority to take me in like that he must be… A pro hero.

Izuku felt sweat bead on his skin. This wasn’t looking good for him.

Behind the tired man, another slightly less disheveled man walked in behind him. That man was undoubtedly a detective, with a blue collared shirt and a simple waistcoat, standing much taller than the hunched pro. He had short cropped brown hair and calming brown eyes. Izuku wondered just what got such a nice man into the business of speaking with him.

The kind man sat in the chair across from Izuku, as the long haired pro remained standing, back hunched and arms crossed menacingly.

“So…”

Izuku’s hairs stood on end. 

“Do you mind if we ask you some questions?” 

Izuku stared up at the man, silent.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

“I’m detective Naomasa, I head the investigation team here at the Mustutafu police headquarters.”

Izuku balled his fists in the cuffs behind him, not a sound leaving his mouth. His fingernails dug crescent moons into his bloodied palms. 

“What’s your name?”

Izuku stared blankly.

The scruffy pro huffed, “Kid, if you don’t respond we could lock you up just for obstruction of justice.” He droned tiredly.

“Eraserhead-” Naomasa warned.

Eraserhead..?

THE Eraserhead? Izuku redirected his eyes, peeling them off of the detective’s face to look up, awestruck, at the homeless looking man.

Izuku had heard of Eraserhead, how could he not have, he was massive in the Musutafu underground communities. His name would occasionally pop up on ‘HeroezInformatix’ , but absolutely no information about him could be found online. That was… unless you were Izuku. Izuku had a whole page on him in his notebook at one point. That was saying a lot for a man with so little released information. He was an underground pro, deep underground, and mostly busted large scale criminal operations, if Izuku remembered correctly.

So what is he doing messing around with me?

Even with all that Izuku had done, he couldn’t have possibly made up the top one hundred worst things to take down on Eraserhead’s list, even if Eraserhead had known absolutely everything Izuku had done.

Naomasa simply placed a soft smile on his face, and looked at Izuku’s eyes widened in what appeared to be a glimmer of wonder. Naomasa had always loved kids, and he couldn’t stand the state of this boy. 

“What’s your name?”

Izuku looked down away from the pro, shying away from his gaze, and looked back up to detective Naomasa. The only name he could possibly think to use, and the only name that seemed to fit the person he had become popped into his mind.

“Just… call me Biter.”

It was still a rude name in Izuku’s eyes, but it would have to do.

“Right. Biter.”

Naomasa inhaled a sharp bit of air before beginning.

“As of twenty-three o’clock last night, you were engaged in illegal fighting rings in the northwest area of Musutafu. You went on to win the night after sustaining major injuries, all of which have seemed to disappear within the span of a couple hours.”

Izuku gulped, eyes burning with shame. At least he didn’t mention the last time I was in this place…

“You should know that illegal fighting rings are… well, illegal.” Izuku lowered his eyebrows at the thinly veiled sarcasm. “People like Eraserhead have found them extremely useful within their lines of work, so we keep a few of them up and running under certain protocols.” 

Izuku paled. Had he walked into a police run fighting ring…? 

“We normally turn a, for lack of better words, blind eye to the non-threats within that system. They don’t bother us, we leave them to their devices.” Naomasa’s eyes flickered with something Izuku couldn’t read.

“What’s your quirk, Biter?”

Izuku nearly bit his tongue in shock. He hated this question. Nobody looked at him the same after it. He looked down at his lap.

“I’m quirkless.” The words came out in nothing but a mutter.

Naomasa looked confused as Izuku watched him through his bangs. Naomasa shifted his eyes to Eraserhead’s with concern reading through them. Eraserhead met his eyes and the concern transferred into his.

“Alright.” Izuku looked up, shocked the man had believed him.

Didn’t he just say they knew about my fight..?

“How old are you?”

“Uhhh…” Izuku thought about it for a moment, it was October, so…

“Fifteen.” The detective was staring at him with an unreadable expression. 

“Thank you.” The detective let his soft smile seep out of his features, putting a hardened mask over his face. The shadows seemed to drag his eyes downwards, deathly seriousness reading. Izuku might have jumped at the change if his nerves weren’t already as strung out as they could be.

“Where were you on April twenty fifth?”

Izuku paled, at that point he was gone, but that might seem suspicious for whatever case they were building for him.

“School, probably.” Izuku tried to sound casual, sweating through his blood drenched clothes.

“Please try not to lie.”

Izuku’s eyes shot open. How did he..?

“Then… I would have been at home.”

“A lie again.” The detective’s face became even more serious.

“I-I don’t know!” Izuku rattled against the metal chair he was in with his outburst. He watched Eraserhead tense his hand around the scarf he was wearing, clearly preparing for the worst. 

“Alright.” The detective sat back in his chair.

“June second?”

“I don’t know.”

“Poor memory?”

Izuku looked away, his stomach dropping to his feet.

Something like that…

“Let’s do more recent then, October third.”

Izuku looked up into the detective’s eyes. That was only around five days ago, but it was two days before Izuku woke up in that dumpster.

“I…” Izuku searched the eyes of the detective, glancing up to look at the pro hero whose eyes were trained on him more intently than Izuku had seen him look until now. Izuku was frozen.

“I don’t…know.” Naomasa shot him another strange look, then met his eyes with Eraserhead’s again. They seemed to communicate something dire within their glance, something Izuku was not privy to.

“Where did you learn to fight like that?” Asked Eraserhead in a bit of a frazzled voice.

“I… don’t know.”

“Where did you learn to fight with knives?” His voice was more frantic.

“I don’t know!”

“Why don’t you know?” Naomasa cut in.

“I…” Izuku looked down. 

I can’t believe I’m doing this.

“I… don’t remember. Anything. Not for months.”

Naomasa and Eraserhead were shocked into silence, both staring at the hunched boy.

“Which months..?

Izuku looked at his thighs, stained with blood.

“M-March until… maybe three or four days ago.” Izuku winced.

The men both shared another concerned glance. Naomasa shifted uncomfortably in his seat, leaning forward with his hands linked on the cool metal table. 

“Biter…” Naomasa started. Izuku almost flinched at his tone. 

“Have you heard of the Dusk Hunter?”

Izuku looked up in confusion, shaking his head from side to side. 

The name doesn’t even sound familiar. I don’t think I’ve seen any name like that on Heroinformatix either…

Naomasa’s brows creased his face as he stayed silent for a moment, mulling over something within his head. 

“The Dusk Hunter…”

“Is a villain we’ve been searching for.” 

Izuku cocked his head in confusion. A villain? What am I here for then?

“Well, he’s more of a vigilante, but we can’t blur the lines too much with him. He appeared around a month after your supposed memory lapse. He took down villains and pros alike with power and efficiency like nothing we’d ever seen in the Musutafu area. Nobody knows what he worked for, all of his crimes couldn’t be linked in the slightest. He was… an enigma.”

Izuku looked confused.

Eraserhead spoke up “You, though. You fight just like him.” Izuku looked up to Eraserhead in shock. “I only fought the guy once… but he fought like he wasn’t scared to die. Throwing punches that were worthy for a final battle. Life-or-Death, all the time. I’ve only ever seen that kind of fighting in him, and now you.” Eraserhead looked at Izuku, an intense and unreadable emotion burning in his dark eyes. “He’s killed countless, made countless go missing, yet there’s nothing on him. No quirk info, no networks of information, and I’ve been on his case for months .” The man sounded almost bored with frustration.

Does he think I know this guy? I… don’t remember anything. 

“You are the closest we’ve gotten to him. You fight like a mockery of his style, yet you have no idea where you got it from…” He sighed a deep sigh. “My luck.”

Izuku wringed his hands anxiously behind his back, trying to squeeze his bones inward to get out of the cuffs.

I really don’t like the sound of this.

“You fight…” Naomasa sent a weary glance over to Izuku as Eraserhead spoke. “…Like you learned it from him.”

Izuku paled. Horror seeped into his skin, not at the words themself, but at the undeniable truth in his mind that there is a chance, however slim, that that is entirely true. He couldn’t rely on himself to say otherwise, so he pressed his teeth together in his mouth, feeling them grit against each other in discomfort, and looked down at the shiny table in front of him. 

“Biter.” Naomasa spoke up. “The Dusk Hunter was active just a few days after you went “missing” For the first ever time. If Eraserhead is accurate in his analysis- which I’m sure he is- you very well may have been in contact with one of the most dangerous vigilantes to ever exist in the Musutafu area.” Naomasa inhaled. “And we can’t let a lead like you go, especially at your age and in your condition. 

“We’re going to have to hold you in custody for just a little while longer while we sort this out.”

Izuku paled, sweat streaking down his bloodied skin. 

Hold me…? Not send me to jail? Not court…? Not a relief program? 

An active investigation?

“Guards, would you mind helping him out?”

The two large guards lumbered over to Izuku, unlocking and releasing the metal chair bar before taking his scrawny arms in their massive grips. 

Izuku wriggled half heartedly, heart beating in his chest in a mix of relief and dread. He had no clue as to what the detective might want from him, but at least he wouldn’t be thrown in a cell immediately. 

Izuku was brought through a heavy glass door to a short, bleak hall. The same nauseating bright lights hung overhead in this hall, but they were warmer, painting the cream walls in a glow. Izuku was suddenly jolted to a stop and turned to face one of the many doors in this room. The door was… heavy duty to say the least. Large, clunky, and only a small window into it left a pit forming in Izuku’s stomach. One of the guards shifted away from Izuku to punch in a code to unlock the door. Izuku couldn’t see the numbers, but his brain thought to supplement the information anyways. 

Straight up, right, right, down, far left, center… 

The door beeped open, the guard twisting the knob to reveal the drab secluded room. Izuku realized quickly that this was no normal holding cell, this had to be engineered for maximum security threats. No vents, no bars, no windows, just a sink, toilet, and bed. He really was being thrown into jail. His heartbeat picked up in his throat as he scanned the room looking for anything he could use to escape. Nothing jumped out, even the bed was bolted down. Izuku couldn’t hide, and he couldn’t run.

Why on Earth am I being placed in one of these..?

The guards unceremoniously threw him onto the bed, the springs bouncing under his body as he landed. Izuku looked up at the tall men in confusion, his eyebrows scrunching as he watched one uncuff his hands from behind his back, then both leave without a word. The heavy door made a loud metallic locking noise a few times as the men closed it, and there Izuku was, left in his silence.

He immediately went to palm around the pockets of his cargo shorts, checking desperately for the money he had just made. There, miraculously, sat a thick wad of cash in his upper pocket. 

They didn’t take it…? Izuku tried not to look a gift horse in the mouth, placing it gently in his pocket to focus on the burning pain around his wrists. 

He rubbed his sore wrists, red lines forming where the cuffs had cut into his pale skin. Izuku looked around analytically, his cold eyes scanning the room for anything he could use to his advantage, bolting at the chance to escape. The cream walls and white lights made Izuku feel sick to his stomach after a while of looking, reaching the same dead end conclusions. 

He huffed a sigh, eyes falling to his lap as he sat on the uncomfortable bed. 

Dusk Hunter, huh?

It was incredibly strange that this villain had been active around the time of Izuku’s disappearance, that there was a chance Izuku had learned everything he knew from a villain. He shuddered at the thought. Izuku ached to know what had happened to him, an unease that remained in his gut from the last couple months plagued every emotion he had, curdling it and turning it sour and spoiled. He was being dragged back to his old life. 

Miss Tachibana’s advice rang in his head, that he needed to turn the next page in his life. Izuku knew he should turn to the next chapter, but finding context for this chapter of his life would be extremely hard, considering he had a massive chunk of his memory missing. 

Izuku was already active in some crime rings of Musutafu, legally dead, had assaulted cops, and was being held in a local police station for the consideration that he had been mingling with a notorious villain in the area. Izuku let out a chuckle at the situation, the humour not reaching his heart. He had always had rotten luck, but boy do these past few days take the cake.

Izuku had been lost in thought for a few minutes, staring down at his wrists now, he saw the marks were gone. He closed his eyes and thought back to the gentle heartbeats he heard through the walls of the interrogation room, the metallic walls failing to block the soft thumping of pulsing blood. 

I wonder if I could do that again…

Izuku interlaced his fingers, closing his eyes and attempting to relax his face. He tried to forget where he was, tried to get lost in the trance the beats had put him in before. He could no longer feel the bed under him, the crusted blood on his skin, nor the vague ache in his temples. He felt as though he was in a cold, distant space away from himself, entirely focused on his hearing. Suddenly, as quiet as a raindrop, he heard it.

Thump,

Thump,

 Thump,

Izuku could just barely make the noise out through the silence, until it got ever so slightly louder.

Thump,

Thump,

Thump,

Izuku could hear it right outside of the room now, his eyes opening to watch the giant metal door in silence as the thumping resonated through his ears. Izuku heard some quiet beeps before the door was clanging and banging while the interior mechanisms unlocked it. Izuku had his eyes trained on the thick metal, his heart mixing with the thumps on the other side of the door. He watched in seemingly slow motion as it unlocked, and swung open.

There stood the scruffy pro hero he had come to know as Eraserhead, who looked surprised to see Izuku’s eyes trained on him so intently. Though he was focused on Eraserhead’s slumped form, he saw something extremely interesting. The door had a weakly engineered blind spot right behind it.

When Izuku was a kid playing hide and seek, he would occasionally open doors and hide between the space between the open door and the wall. It was an amazing blind spot for a skinny kid, and would often lead to him being found close to last. People can’t see you when they open the doors themselves, and they don’t think to check, often leaving the door open to look around in haste.

Ah, opportunity. Izuku felt a giddy feeling rise up in his chest.

Eraserhead ceased his temporarily locked gaze with Izuku, gently walking in and closing the door behind him. He had something tucked neatly under his arm, a metal folding chair. As the door clunkily clicked to lock behind him, the man unfolded the metal chair slowly in front of the bed Izuku was sat on. Izuku kept unnervingly still, simply following the pro with his wild green eyes.

“Hey, kid. How’re you holding up?”

Izuku gritted his teeth. How am I holding up? You knocked me out and threw me in a holding cell. That’s how I’m holding up. Izuku couldn’t stay too mad at Eraserhead, the fight draining from his body.

“Fine…” He muttered.

Eraserhead huffed a sigh. “Look, you’re young, so even if we wanted to, there’s not too much we could use against you to have you face any real consequences, don’t look so tense.” He droned tiredly. “We want to help you, if you help us. I understand your memory is gone and you might feel like you don’t have all of the answers we need, but trust me, you’ve already helped this case in a few ways.”

Izuku’s eyebrows pulled inward for a split second in confusion before he forced his face to relax. Eraserhead caught it anyway.

He looked the small boy up and down, taking in his appearance in good lighting for once. Izuku’s clothes were stained in a deep red, all extremely tattered and worn underneath the layers of blood. A gaping hole was punched in the front of the boy’s shirt, undoubtedly where he had been stabbed in the fight. His feet were bare, Izuku had unknowingly discarded his tattered sandals at some point, he didn’t quite remember when. His hair was matted and disgusting, and his eyebags hung low. The boy smelled like the sweet tangy metal of blood, and though he had no bruises, bumps, or scars, Izuku’s eyes had deep pain and mistrust radiating from them. Eraserhead let out a quick huff. 

“We want to get you help. Do you have a guardian in charge of you, or anyone we can call?” Izuku looked down at his hands, eyes shifting.

“...no.” He softly spoke.

Eraserhead looked at the boy, a somber and slightly sad look ghosting over his emotionless features. Izuku knew the pro had most likely been trained for rescue operations and had seen kids like him time and time again. Discarded, abused, possibly dead. Izuku still wondered if he would feel half as much pity for a quirkless child like Izuku that he did for children with potential.

Stupid. Eraserhead’s not like that. Don’t think like that.

“Alright, well we have a lot of great programs for kids like you in place. Rehabilitation programs, before we can integrate you into the foster system.” Izuku shot up to look at Eraserhead like he was crazy. He wants to… help me..?

“We can get you away from all of this, you know.” He looked Izuku up and down, shifting his eyes across the boy’s sad appearance.

I could… find a home? Go back to normal? Izuku closed his eyes, flashes of the past few days lit up behind his vision. Knives and blood splashed behind his eyes like a sick gore movie trailer. No. I can’t go back to who I was… I’m different now. I know that. I’ll never live a life like that again… 

“Kids like you come through all the time, don’t sweat it.” He paused. “I’m actually a teacher myself.” Izuku stared at the man, wide eyed. Eraserhead was… telling him about his personal life? That was incredibly stupid for an underground hero to do, and yet…

“UA. Heard of it?” He quirked a slight smile. “I’ve taught countless kids, watched heroes grow, rise, and fall, and kid… You’re just like them. Nervous, unsure, scared. The world is confusing, hard. God do I know it… but, you don’t have to do this alone.”

You don’t know what I am… What I’ve done.

“So, do you mind if you let me help you?”

Just leave me alone, I’ll never be a hero like those kids.

“There’s a teen program for street kids I’d like you to join, and if you don’t mind, I’d like to keep you around. You’re a real help on this case.”

No… I’ve got to do this my own way. Izuku felt the thought settle in his mind, seeping into his nerves, down into his bones. I’m not a stray, I’m going to be something better than a rehabilitation case. I mean… I’ve got power. I can’t go back to the little Izuku of my past who had fluffy feelings and a loving life of hardships… He clenched his fists in his lap. 

I won’t. Even if I want to. 

Next chapter.

Izuku put on a sweet and considerate mask over his hardened features, looking up into Eraserhead’s surprisingly soft eyes. 

“Could you… let me think about it..?” He muttered out weakly. Like he would give me a choice anyways.

Eraserhead huffed a sigh. “Sure. I’ll be back in twenty, just… I want to help, Biter.” Izuku flinched slightly at the use of his new name.

You don’t know me… He thought, bitterly. That’s all I am now. A  fake name.

The door clanked noisily behind Eraserhead as he left, Izuku watched the cold door until he couldn’t hear the faint heartbeat anymore. 

Right, it’s go time. 

Izuku felt a strange sense of being watched as he was speaking to the pro, so he quickly lifted his head and scanned the room. As he tracked his eyes along the walls and up to the ceiling, he saw a suspicious small circle peeking through the ceiling. Izuku knew a hidden camera when he saw one. The hidden camera didn’t move, and was simply angled ever so slightly away from the toilet on the other side of the room, mainly facing the bed and supposedly capturing the rest of the room, Izuku assumed. 

That could be a problem for my hiding…

Izuku had to cover the camera somehow, make him have radio silence for just a little while until he could effectively get out of this stuffy room. He casually stood up and walked over to the toilet area, wanting the people monitoring the camera to have him just out of view. He stood on top of the toilet rim, his back pressed against the wall to the side of it. He prayed he was right about that camera angle. He shuffled as close to the blind corner of the room as he could, and proceeded to slowly and awkwardly take off his tattered and bloodied shirt. 

Free show, Izuku giggled slightly . Not funny. He focused again.

Izuku balled his shirt up, praying years of mandatory gym classes had at least taught him how to properly throw a ball-like piece of fabric onto a hanging camera. Izuku thrust the material out of his hands and… Bingo .

It precariously hung off of the slight jutted out part of the camera, effectively blocking the view. Izuku would have a minute or so until Eraserhead was back in the room, and likely just a little bit longer than that until someone noticed to fix the camera. 

Izuku closed his eyes and tapped into his hearing, heightening the search for the pro’s specific heartbeat he had heard earlier. Izuku faded away from what was around him, before suddenly the thumping reared its head again.

He’s in the hall.

Izuku quickly hopped off of the toilet, untangling his position from the corner of the room. He headed over to the corner across from him and squeezed himself in there, standing straight as a board. Adrenaline pumped through his limbs while he waited, tension building up in his stomach as he focused in on the nearing heart beat. A few feet away, a few feet closer, right outside the door.

The keypad beeping sounded, Izuku sucked in his breath and his gut. The door creaked open.

“Hey kid-” Eraserhead began, walking through the door slightly before looking around, quickly stopping in his tracks as he realized Izuku was entirely gone.

Izuku quietly closed the door slightly in this moment to quickly jump out of his hidden spot. As Eraserhead stuttered in his movement for a split second, Izuku had already jumped around the door to the hall. Eraserhead quickly realized what had happened, turning around to restrain the boy, but just as he made eye contact, Izuku had already slammed the metal door shut in the pro’s shocked face, the auto locks clanging and turning inside the heavy metal as pounding resonated from the inside.

Sweat beaded down Izuku’s face, his heart leaping in his chest. Now for the hard part. He was half naked, looked entirely too much like a criminal, and was stuck roaming around in a maximum security area in a police station.

I… may not have thought that far ahead.

A loud “Hey!” resonated from the end of the hall, a pewny policeman was running up to Izuku, very different from the guards that took him to this area. The man had his taser pulled and at the ready, but Izuku acted faster than the man could, quickly leaping past the shot taser stickers, pouncing off of the wall and quickly kicking the young officer in the head. He had a sort of full body gear on, with his face and hair mostly obscured. He must have been Izuku’s height, if not a few inches shorter, and he quickly hit the other side of the wall with a loud bang. 

Ah, this makes things a lot easier. Izuku thought as the man quickly slumped to the ground.

.

.

.

Izuku had to admit, after being in bloodied cargo shorts and an old tattered t-shirt for days, being in new clothes felt amazing, even if they were heavy duty police gear. 

The big blue hat covered his hair, and the cop had a sort of face shield on that obscured Izuku’s recognizable features. He looked somewhat like a casual version of a riot police officer in the gear. The bulletproof vest was slightly heavy on his weary bones, but Izuku could live with it. The combat boots he wore were nice, and the whole get up made him a lot less suspicious. He looked very close to an actual cop working at the station, and if he kept his head low enough, he knew he could make it out of the station.

Izuku’s heart beat heavily in his chest while he walked out through the rows and rows of interrogation rooms that he had come from, and out past that he knew (from the last time he had busted out of there) that there was the general office area, which led out to the front. He could easily sneak through that, he hoped. 

He walked through the door to the office area, some people in desks gave him a quick glance away from their computer, but never said anything. Izuku walked with false confidence in his step, as though he was supposed to be there. 

Please nobody stop me please nobody stop me please nobody stop me please-

“Hey, what are you doing here?” God dammit. Izuku was a wimpy few meters away from the front door, but a familiar voice spoke up. He turned around slowly to face the accusatory voice from the front desk.

Oh damn, it’s the cat guy. The same furry feline was sat at the front desk as the first day Izuku had busted out of this place, his green eyes narrowed in on Izuku’s obscured face.

“You’re supposed to be guarding the back rooms, why are you up at the front?”

Izuku cleared his throat and attempted to drop his voice to sound a few years older. 

“Ah, I was asked to go out for something.”

“Who’s covering the back rooms?”

Izuku blanked, thinking of the most bland name he could say. “Satou…” If there is a god, please let a Satou work here.

“Oh, it’s not his shift yet though? Who sent you out anyways?”

Izuku had a quick name on file for this one, someone who was definitely the officer’s superior. 

“Naomasa.”

The cat man clicked his tongue.”Gahh, what’s that guy got you doing this time? He’s great, don’t get me wrong, but if there was a scatterbrain award…” The cat trailed off into grumbles, looking away before locking his eyes back on Izuku’s face.

“What’s with your voice?”

“Cold.” Izuku huffed out a pathetically weak cough.

“Awe, ew! Better get going. Don’t get me sick, I have my nieces party this week.” The cat waved his hand- paw? -  signaling Izuku could leave.

Izuku bowed slightly, scampering out the front door in record speed, his hand darting into his pocket to hold the wad of cash he had taken with him.

He giggled out loud as he darted down the streets and out into the Musutafu crowds, away from the police station. 2/2 On escaping that place, gotta make you worry about the security…

Izuku was quickly swept away into the crowds, and back at the police station, a frantic and disgruntled Eraserhead was busted out of the metal enclosure in the unguarded back rooms while a rookie cop was dragged away on a stretcher.

“Biter… you suck.”

Chapter Text

Izuku could distantly hear the roar of the crowds he had recently dodged out of fading behind him as he walked deeper into the back streets of Musutafu. He was trying to be as casual as possible, but it was difficult not getting stares in police riot gear a good hour walk away from the police station. The heavy combat boots he wore made loud steps beneath him as he walked, and he did his best to tread lightly, not trusting the streets. 

People hung out in this area, smoking out back the tall concrete buildings, some businessmen, some scruffy looking line cooks escaping the sweltering heat of the kitchen out back their hole-in-the-wall restaurants. Izuku got strange stares as he walked in his gear, but he nimbly dodged any people he did run into. 

Izuku continued to walk, searching for a place he could reconvene and gather his plan. He stopped out front of an old Japanese style building with a small wooden door out front. It seemed to pull Izuku in, ringing a bell he must have misplaced somewhere in his head. He was sure he’d never been in there before… had he?

He calmly sauntered up to the door, swinging it open with a little chime sounding overhead. He looked around and… woah. 

The store was modeled after a dojo, with walls that appeared to be made of traditional paper and sliding doors. The room had mock tatami flooring, and the room was bathed in the warm glow of an overhead lamp with a paper appearance and floral design. 

The walls and floors were not barren by any means though, large swords of all kinds lined the walls, throwing stars, metal bats, even daggers of all shapes and sizes. Those caught Izuku’s eyes especially, thinking back to his own fight using one. 

Switch blades were littered under glass casing, and Izuku saw something he really could use. Combat clothes lined a section of the surprisingly large store, with movable pants and hoodies next to spiked heavy duty combat boots. 

What the heck is this doing in the middle of Mustutafu??? Izuku walked around the store, excitedly taking in everything he saw. Holy, that sword has to have the finest edge I’ve ever seen! Who would need all this stuff? Oh and look at the wood crafting on that knife! That looks like a Yamato blade… but I thought they were manufactured on the other end of the country! Wow and these boots- they’re just beautiful! I haven’t seen quality like this in any other store- this stuff is good enough to be hero support gear! I could totally see someone like Edgeshot using those kinds of throwing stars for his whole ninja shtick- oh wow this is just…

Izuku heard a nervous squeak behind him. He quickly turned away- snapped out of his muttering frenzy. Facing the squeak, one of the sliding doors was opened to reveal a young boy. He couldn’t be older than ten, and Izuku wondered just what he was doing here. The boy bristled as he looked at Izuku, his eyes blown wide in surprise and his mouth pulled into a straight line. 

“H-hello sir. How can I help you…?” The boy’s voice shook. Izuku was confused for a moment before swiftly realizing how this must look. A heavy duty police officer is in your weapons shop that doesn’t look too board certified- that might be a bit tough on the nerves. 

Izuku didn’t lift the face shield, but he looked away from the boy and back to the walls of products, continuing to shop like nothing happened. The boy sensed he was a non threat, walking up to the counter and stepping onto a step stool, shakily ready to check Izuku out, and ready to bolt if things go south. 

Izuku huffed a dry laugh. I’m more of a threat to cops than an illegal weapons shop. Izuku quickly turned back to the racks of clothing, picking out a fitted black hoodie and compression shirt with a pair of long, dark shorts. He would like to keep the police boots- they worked well enough. He just needed enough clothes to get him to the next time he could afford more. Izuku also chose a heavy duty backpack he could use to carry his belongings in the meanwhile. While he was walking up to the counter, something glinted in the corner of his eye. Izuku stopped dead in his tracks, turning to the shine that called out to him. There he saw a set of twin daggers, both a dark black with emerald green detailing. They were serrated and sharp, with beautiful criss crossing leather handles. 

Izuku already knew he could do some serious damage with daggers after the copper bath fight, and after a moment's hesitation, he caved. He stalked over to the weapons, gently picking them up and tossing them in his hands, catching them at the same point in the leather handles. The grip felt amazing in his hands, and he could already feel a rush of energy just from holding them, so he excitedly added those to his pile on the counter. 

The boy checked out his items with slightly shaky hands, his bottom lip quivering as Izuku stared down at him. The boy added up the total, reading the number out to Izuku. 

“That’ll be s-seventeen thousand four hundred and thirty yen….” The boy’s eyes flicked up to Izuku’s masked face, looking back down almost immediately in fear. 

Thank god I’m not actually a cop, this poor kid would have been toast. Izuku took the money out of his pocket and realized very quickly that the bloodied, massive stack of cash may look… a tad bit suspicious. He flicked the bills back and forth in his gloved hands, pulling out the needed cash from the large stack and put the cash down on the counter, slightly caked with blood. The young cashier looked as though he may pass out as he grabbed the cash off of the counter. 

Izuku grabbed his new items, ready to walk out of the store, before he turned back to the boy for a final message. 

“I’m not a cop, by the way.” He spoke through the muffle of the mask he wore. “Thanks for all your help.” Izuku let a smile light up his words, and he watched the young boy physically relax, the tension dropping from his shoulders and eyebrows. 

“Th-thank you sir! Have a nice day!” The door chimed behind Izuku as he walked out.

He quickly stuffed his belongings into his backpack, keeping it tight on his back in these shady areas. 

Now… I just need a home base. 

Izuku had an idea.

A few blocks down from this area, there was a nasty part of town. Izuku had only been there once or twice in his feeble attempts to capture heroes in action for his notebook, chasing after their blinding displays of power against major criminals. The roads were usually littered with prostitutes and junkies, and it wasn’t too far away from the Copper Ring he fought at just a few hours ago. There were many tall buildings and motels for rent in that area that Izuku could use to set up his own sort of agency. Izuku couldn’t be too great of a hero without an agency, and it would be a great place to start his crime stopping patrols with his new found powers.

A giddy feeling rose in his chest at the prospect of helping others. Cleaning up a neighbourhood. He couldn’t wait to lay his abilities down and prove to the world the good that would come out of his misfortune. 

He bounded down the streets, a new found pep in his step at the prospect of having somewhere to sleep at night.

.

.

.

“Twenty thousand yen a night.” The scruffy old man stated, his hunched eyebrows overshadowing his eyes in the sickly light of the motel lobby.

“S-sir, ummm. You couldn’t go any lower?” Izuku bargained, wringing his hands with nervous energy. This was the fifth motel he’d gone into in the area, all had prices absurdly too high for him to consider staying at at the moment. He had cash, but he could think of a million other things he would need to spend it on. 

“Sorry. Not easy making a buck out here.” The man crossed his arms sternly, his rough voice taking on a taunting tilt in Izuku’s ears. “You won’t find a place cheaper than this in the area. Swear on it.” Izuku sighed deeply, the man was probably right, and the night was seeping into the corners of the sky. He had to find somewhere to reconvene before his first patrol.

Walking out of the shabby building and into the cool evening, Izuku felt the breeze sweep across his face. He had long removed the stuffy police gear, shoving it into his backpack and changing into the dark fitted clothes he had bought in the weapons shop. He moved around the buildings in the area skillfully as neon signs began to slowly light up the night. Izuku’s stomach growled… The last time he ate was…

Organs filled his senses, blood smeared his teeth.

Izuku swallowed the feeling back with a sigh. He saw a sign light up a couple meters down the road he was walking on that caught his eye, a warm and flickering old style neon sign that could have been pre quirk dated, with simple white light up text.

‘The Horumon Hut’. 

Izuku’s gut rumbled, his vision becoming fuzzy momentarily in his hunger. He could smell something delicious coming from inside, and he just had to get a closer look. 

On any other occasion, Izuku would normally be extremely apprehensive to grab a bite to eat in an area this shady, this dense, and this… well, gross. The walls were stained, the people blew strange vapours into his face, and the streets were echoed with booming bass from local bars and motels, yet eerily quiet in all the wrong places. Izuku was too hungry to remember basic survival skills though, and he headed inside. 

The large sign he read outside entailed something magnificent to Izuku’s senses: Grilled organs. He could smell the meaty aroma filling the cramped building, but he could also tell they had fresh, bloodied organs in the back. The smell filled his senses and made his mouth water. He scoured the inside of the diner, three or four people sat inside, a few in one booth, a few alone. The interior had a comforting and poor feeling, the splintered wooden sliding doors opened to a quaint interior with a few wooden tables pressed against the wall. The lighting was warm and low, with some hanging lanterns adorning the entryway and a few small lights on the inside. The walls were also a tall, dark wooden paneling, they reminded Izuku of the seemingly ancient buildings littered around Musutafu that housed all sorts of hero goods that he would occasionally wander into. Posters hung around the restaurant, all faded, some peeling. They advertised new sauces to try, new cuts of meat offered, all with dramatic hand-written messages with impressive kanji littered throughout the building. Izuku could reach every corner of the dining area in ten steps, so the smell entering his nose was even more potent. 

As he scanned the room, he was able to follow the smell. All customers continued loudly-possibly drunkenly- talking over Izuku’s arrival. Nobody acknowledged him as he walked past all of the tables, and out through a doorless doorway covered by hanging strips of cloth. As he pushed through to the back, he saw a middle aged man working in the back, chopping up organs, swiftly darting across the space to flip some meat over on the grill, before skillfully placing them on the plate. Izuku stood in the entryway, mouth watering and eyes blown wide. 

The working man suddenly caught Izuku’s eyes, jumping back in surprise when he did.

“Jesus christ! Knock next time!” He put his hand over his heart in mock terror before his face shifted to a guarded and sour look. “Hey, the fuck you staring at? And what are you doing back here? The sign says wait to be seated.” Izuku stared for a little while longer, paralyzed by the amazing smell of blood from the fresh horumon. Izuku snapped back into his senses as the man menacingly walked up to him, ready to shove him out. 

“A-ah! Sorry sir!” Izuku bowed a couple of times. “I was totally overtaken by the smell of your cooking. I didn’t mean to walk back here- I’m just-” Izuku was cut off by a loud growl from his stomach, silencing the entire room. The man stopped in his tracks, a slightly happy look taking over his bitter face. 

“Overtaken by the smell, eh?” A small smirk lifted the man’s cheeks. “Haven’t heard that one in a while. Sit down, kid.” He led Izuku out to the main dining area, taking a plate of horumon with him over to a lone man at a table. He quickly returned to Izuku’s table, while Izuku noticed the sun had fully set outside. 

“Okay, what do you want to eat. You look scrawny as fuck, so some cow intestine would do you well… the stuffs all fresh, so you better eat like you mean it.” The way this man spoke sent a nostalgic feeling back to Izuku’s childhood with Katsuki, but he quickly brushed the feeling away to look at the man in front of him, going over his options with the menu in front of him. None of this cooked stuff sounded appetizing to Izuku… 

This guy’s gonna think I’m so weird… but I’ve gotta go for it…

“C-could you do the intestines…raw?” Izuku flicked his eyes back and forth between the man and the menu he placed down on the table, slightly embarrassed. Silence filled the restaurant.

Suddenly, the man burst out laughing. “You want me to make you raw meat?! What, is it your quirk or something? Man, that’s wicked!” He slapped the table heartily, causing Izuku to jump. 

“Alright, alright. You’re weird as fuck, kid.” He quickly walked into the back, before popping his head through the cloth doorway. “You’re still paying full price though.” Izuku nodded vehemently, embarrassment creeping up his spine at the man’s loud outburst. 

The man came out soon after holding a very large and slightly bloody plate with little pieces of pink organ adorning it. It was stacked extremely high, and the fleshy smell made Izuku want to pass out with excitement to sink his teeth into it. The organs slightly jiggled as the plate was sat down in front of Izuku, towering up to the height of his neck off of the table. It was almost comically large, but Izuku couldn’t bring himself to laugh, or really move as he looked at the perfect meal in front of him.

It doesn’t beat fresh blood but… 

He looked up at the man, and the man looked down at him with a smile playing on his face and a sort of morbid curiosity playing in his eyes. Izuku gulped, and picked up his chopsticks, saying a quick prayer before eating. He wearily picked up the first piece, excitement humming through his bones. As he put it in his mouth, the flavour of flesh, blood, and gore filled his senses again. Much more dulled than the alley mouse, but undoubtedly still one of the best things Izuku believes he may have eaten in his life. He picked up another piece, shovelling it in his mouth. Then another, and another, and another. He was eating with such fever, barely making a sound as he scarfed down the plate like his last meal. 

As he scooped the last pieces into his mouth, lifting the plate to drink the leftover blood on it while he did so, Izuku felt a deep satisfaction. This had to be the most he’d eaten in a long time, and he felt absolutely alight with energy. He placed the plate down gently, wiping his mouth with a provided napkin on the side of the table. He turned to see the man was still watching him, a few steps back from where he originally was, an amazed and shocked look playing on his features. Izuku felt shame colour his face crimson. 

“Uhm. Sorry.” Izuku looked down at his clean plate shyly. He must have eaten it in under five minutes, shocking the man into silence.

“Oh. My. God.” The man said slowly. “You are a riot man!” He let out a hearty laugh, mixing with the laughter of the drunkards in the booths behind him. “I’ve been working here since fourteen. I've never seen someone eat like you! You’re a monster!” He let out another smaller laugh. “I mean, seriously? Where does it all go in that scrawny body of yours? And raw? You must be crazy.” He clapped his hand on Izuku’s back, eliciting a large “oof!” from the weight. 

Izuku laughed politely. “Thank you sir… Umm… I can pay now.” Izuku pulled the cash out of his pocket, handing the man three thousand yen and bowing to trot off before the man stopped him, pulling on his arm. 

“Hold up.” The man looked across Izuku’s face wearily, holding his bloodied money. “Come to the back.” The man turned around, and Izuku slowly followed behind him, tucking his hands in his hoodie pockets. The back still smelled of fresh blood, but a satisfied and full Izuku felt his hunger curbed and dulled, his senses letting him move past the cooked meat smell filling the room. The man stopped in his tracks. 

“Look, I can tell you have nowhere to go tonight.” The man scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably. “There’s no reason for a kid looking like you to be in a place like this otherwise. I’d know.” A clouded look of memories crossed the man’s eyes. “There’s actually an apartment above the restaurant. It’s cramped as hell and kind of… smells a lot like meat, but it’s something. You’re just so scrawny and kind of clearly homeless and I don’t know if I see me in you but… Look, I’ll offer you the room for ninety thousand a month. Just… I don’t know. Keep eating my food like that, deal?” The man was clearly not one for feelings, awkwardly holding out his hand for Izuku to shake. Izuku could feel a warm feeling swimming around in his chest, the feeling of someone expressing any genuine care towards him. Izuku nodded shakily, a surprised yet joyous look smothering his features. 

“Thank you so much, sir.” He said, breathlessly. 

“Ah, call me Mr.Landlord!” He said, proudly puffing his chest out. Izuku snorted. 

“Got it.” 

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The room was indeed cramped, but Izuku knew he could make it his. It had a bathroom and a room that could fit maybe three queen sized beds before it was literally too packed to move. That was it. The tatami flooring was tattered, and the room felt surprisingly warm compared to the temperature outside. There was a small window that hung out over the front of the restaurant, displaying the street lined with bars and suspicious people. Izuku didn’t mind. He didn’t mind at all after night after night of harsh life on the streets. Izuku clenched the key in his hand excitedly. He knew exactly what he needed to start his journey into heroism.

Izuku shoved on the bullet proof vest from the police gear he had stolen, placed his daggers in the police holsters that he hooked around his dark shorts, and pulled the mask that was under the face shield over his nose. He felt like a ninja as he climbed out of the window on top of the sloping roof of the restaurant. He climbed up a pipe on the side of the building, using his arms to scale along the side of the taller building next to him, hooking onto windowsills and locking his fingers around juts in the concrete. Just like everything else he now could do, this felt as natural as walking. 

He reached the top of the building, backing up to the far side of the concrete roof. Steam billowed out from pipes lining the roof, and Izuku felt energy tense in his legs, the lasting effects of his full stomach making him feel like a million bucks. Izuku breathed in the crisp, cool air through his mask, it stung his nostrils, and he locked his eyes onto the roofs ahead of him. He took off in a start, running with all of the effort he could muster while dulling the sound of his boots against the concrete. As he reached the edge, he pushed all of his energy down into his legs, bursting off the side of the building. He soared through the air, wind whisking through his hair as he dove. He landed in a roll onto the next building, continuing running as soon as he sprung up from his action. His heart pounded in his chest with excitement as he darted across the roofs, climbing onto pipes lining the sides, leaping, and bounding into the night of the city. He felt hot blood moving through his system, he could jump extremely high with all of the energy, and he had to be running much faster than the average man.

I’m gonna be a hero.

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Izuku couldn’t believe the lack of crime in the area. It was like criminals didn’t do their work in shady alleys anymore!

  Where are the stabbing maniacs when you need them? Izuku had only managed to stop an alley scrap between two mangy cats in the two hours or so he’d been patrolling the shady area. He almost got scratched, too. He huffed a sigh, wanting to simply find the action while his full stomach lasted.

 Suddenly, he heard a faint clatter in the alley below him. 

“Give me the money, you bitch! I’ll bite your head off!” A man with a very large set of teeth spoke below as he cornered a small young woman. 

“As I said, no.” The woman stood relaxed and stark still, speaking in a stern yet relaxed voice. 

Izuku immediately jumped into action, swinging his body off the roof he was sitting on and landing on a small awning overhead quietly. He scoped out the situation quickly. 

No weapons. Teeth enhancement quirk. Unknown abilities. Wants money. Small time crook, I can deal with this. 

He yelled in her face again, before she cut him off, staring directly up where Izuku was hidden. 

“Oh. He’s here.” Izuku felt a shudder run down his spine as he jumped out from behind the awning, diving his feet straight into the criminal’s head. 

“OW! FUCK!” The man cried as he collapsed to the ground. Izuku wound up a kick, and the man gnashed his teeth at Izuku. He swung his leg at the man’s head, but he dodged, shifting under Izuku and going to bite his arm. Izuku dodged backwards, swiftly pulling out his dagger and slicing the man across the face as he lunged with his teeth. 

The man spurted blood out, screaming as the slice narrowly avoided his eyes. He almost immediately passed out as he hit the ground with a loud thud. 

“Thank you so much, Biter!” The woman piped up. Izuku looked at her, eyes blown wide at his identity being known. She covered her mouth in surprise, as though she wasn’t supposed to say that. 

“A-ah, sorry. I already knew you were coming. I have a future vision quirk. I wasn’t worried about the mugging, since I knew you’d get him in the end!” She excitedly pumped her hand. “I was a big fan before I even met you, haha!” She beamed a smile at Izuku. Izuku couldn’t help but smile back at the praise. 

“Oh, thank you miss.” 

“You know, you have such a strange get-up for a hero, but I’ll be looking for you in the underground scene.” Izuku paled slightly, this woman’s quirk was powerful, but she still mistook him for a real hero. Well, that was his goal, but he almost felt like a liar. 

“OH!” She quickly rummaged around in her large purse, items clanging together as she looked. “My vision said I would give you this.” She suddenly pulled out a screwdriver with a little yellow handle. It looked like nothing special, and Izuku flet confusion pull at his features under the mask. 

Why would I need this?

“My quirk can seem silly in the moment, but trust me. This will be super useful.” She put it gently in Izuku’s hand, excitedly huffing. “That’s where the vision ends, so I’ll be out of your hair now! Thanks for everything!” She quickly and excitedly strode off into the night, ducking behind an alley alight with lights and music. Izuku stood in the back street, poignantly confused, and now holding a screwdriver. He sighed, and tucked it into his hoodie pocket before swivelling on his toes to walk in the other direction. 

As he walked out of the alleyway, he heard a murmuring noise echoing loudly through the narrow street. Izuku ducked for cover at the voices, hiding swiftly in the cast shadows of the tall buildings in his dark clothing. The murmuring got louder, and as he approached, he could make out some words.

BEEP”Heading three nine nine south, armed and threatening a code seventy two.”

BEEP “Possible code nineteen at K South, over and out.”

If Izuku hadn’t watched an absurd amount of hero television as a child, he may not have understood the sounds he heard. Being a full fledged hero otaku, he recognized that background chatter anywhere. 

Oh my god, a police radio. Izuku peaked his head out to get a good look at the sleek police car sitting in the dark of the night. The interior was lit up, but there was nobody inside. 

There’s probably a cop nearby that left their car idling… I could really use one of those radios, would help me find crime a whole lot faster. 

After looking around to check nobody would find him, Izuku snuck up to the car to look inside. The window was cracked slightly down, just enough to let the sounds escape the interior and ring out across the tiny street. As he examined the type of radio, he noticed it wasn’t a part of the car, rather a wire connected screwed in add on.

Izuku looked at the screws.

Izuku felt the screwdriver, heavy in his pocket.

Oh the police must hate me.

He quickly smashed the window in, the shards of glass bouncing off of his well adjusted combat hoodie. Swiftly climbing over the shattered glass and into the car, Izuku hastily unscrewed the radio. He heard the noise slowly stop as he unhooked the wire connections behind it, and felt the hefty weight of it in his arms. A maniacal grin played on his features. 

He cackled as he ran off into the night having stolen highly classified police equipment, lugging it back into his room for another day. 

This patrol was a success, I’d say. 

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If Mr.Landlord noticed Izuku now had a fully operational police radio hooked up to the wires he had strewn across his room in the morning, he didn’t say anything about it.

Chapter Text

A week had passed since Izuku had started patrolling the neighbourhood around the shabby horumon restaurant he lived above, and he had started to set up some basic routines. He would sleep like a rock through the day, only getting up in the evenings to eat raw meat of his choosing while Mr.Landlord watched him like a television program, and quietly suit up as the restaurant got busier, sneaking out along the roof to test his abilities on the streets. He would listen in on his police radio to hear about any small criminals they failed to apprehend running around Musutafu, and he’d track them down and deal with them. He had added a pocket on his outfit specifically for zip ties for these criminals. It proved fairly effective. 

Izuku had spent all of this time honing in on his skills, even buying a notebook like old times to document all that he could do. The first few pages were on his abilities, limits, constraints, etc. 

Izuku found he had a few key components of his new body through testing: enhanced strength, enhanced speed, enhanced stealth, enhanced healing, and enhanced ability to use weapons. 

Izuku tested his strength a few nights ago, finding a small disgustingly polluted beach nearby that he tested using. He could safely hide away from any people who could see him using these abilities in the night, surrounded by decades of trash build up. He found he could not only lift heavy objects with ease, but the more he ate, the stronger, faster, and quicker he got. This only applied to raw meat though, as when he tried to go a night on ramen alone he nearly fell off the side of a building from jumping short. 

The heaviest thing he found he could lift was a truck. It had blocked a small animal trapped behind it, and in a moment of sincere emotion, Izuku lifted the entire thing over his head, shaking with the weight. The animal scurried out, and Izuku dropped the truck with a loud exhale. The alarm went off in the night, and he ran away, amazed at the strength of his body. 

He documented all of this in his notebooks during the wee hours of morning daylight he was awake for, and continued testing the next nights to come. 

Izuku tested his speed on an empty street in the better area of Musutafu that had a speed camera that displayed how fast cars would go by. Izuku stopped in his tracks as he saw it lighting up the road in the night. He checked both ways, stepping out into the road, and ran right past it in a casual jog.

Twelve kilometers.

He swivelled around on his feet, calmly walking back to where he had originally ran from, and bolted past the speed camera as fast as he could, pumping energy down into the soles of his boots as he quietly sprinted. 

Forty kilometers. Almost.

Izuku pumped his arm childishly, letting out a little “sweet!” As he celebrated in the middle of the road. He was snapped out of his celebration as a car horn blasted and nearly hit him.

Wearing all black in the middle of the night is incredibly useful when I’m not on roads. Noted.

Izuku added that to his notebook, listing other pieces of information he could gather from his speed. He could jump across rooftops in the city, which were usually around seven feet apart or more when they had winding alleys beneath them. Izuku also found he could land jumps that were around as high as his head from a still position. He felt… a bit like a rabbit when he tested those, whooshing up into the air to do a bunny hop onto a dumpster. 

This must look so lame.

Izuku tested his stealth every time he ambushed a villain in the area, and to sneak into places he… wasn’t exactly supposed to be in. He had no qualms about stealing from corporations in his situation, so maybe he broke into a giant tech store in the night and stuffed a couple of computers and some equipment into his large backpack, crawling back through the vents over security guards to leave. 

I mean, do I have brand new state of the art computers in my room that I didn’t pay for? Yes. But nobody can prove anything, so nothing happened.

Izuku loved his three monitor setup on the floor of his room, the sleek tech mixing with the tatami mats in a strange fusion of new and old. 

He tested his stealth as well to sneak around the night, narrowly avoiding patrolling heroes. A lot of the pros in the night were underground heroes, but no matter how normal a hero may look, with Izuku’s intense knowledge on heroes, he could always sniff them out in a crowd. Someone in a place too convenient scanning the room too intently. Izuku made sure to run right away from any cloaked figures in the night with a sense of justice. The police really don’t like him, and he wasn’t looking forward to meeting Eraserhead ever again. The man would definitely have him on his naughty list, and Izuku couldn’t handle pro hero drama like that. 

His least favourite thing to test was something he knew was inevitable. Healing. 

The problem with testing a healing quirk is that you have to have something to heal first, and Izuku didn’t get injured naturally nearly enough to test the full limits. Sure, he was nervous to go too far in his attempts to test his abilities, scared that he would cut a little too deep, jump from a little too high, and not get back up again. The only thing preventing him from crossing this off from testing all together was the fact that he had conveniently survived a stab to the lungs, and possibly his heart. He was pretty sure in the past week he’d broken around five bones, and yet his pain would be gone in minutes. 

Izuku needed a way to test it with maximum efficiency in a way he could recover from fairly quickly, so he spoke to some less than safe chat rooms online, wondering how he could do damage without a chance of dying. Izuku only wanted to test if it was a fluke.

That night when he pressed his dagger to his throat, heart hammering in his chest as he crouched down the side of a brick building, he thought that maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t ready to live like that. He buried his thoughts, then pressed and dragged the blade swiftly, feeling the sharp pain dig through his pale neck . Blood spurted out of him, spraying and diving out in waterfalls. The world went black, and Izuku tried to scream out for help, but simply drifted under the dark coat of the night.

When he gasped back to consciousness, he quickly felt around his neck, heart pounding in his chest. Nothing was there, not even a scar that he could feel. 

I thought I hit something vital there for a second… a shiver ran through his bones as he glanced at the bloodbath he was sitting in, coating his surroundings, hands, and face. Yikes. 

He shrugged and stood, strangely dazed and tired, and promptly went home absolutely covered in his own blood. He took a warm shower and felt the faint warm glow coming from his smooth neck, blood pumping under the surface.

I think… that’s enough testing that one. 

Izuku was giddy to test the next ability he had woken up with; his uncanny skills with weapons. Izuku had always been a bit of a nerd for support gear in the hero scene, always paying close attention to up-and-coming support gear makers from schools like UA. Their work was interesting to Izuku, and always seemed so intricate and continually changing. Izuku knew he could use daggers like second nature, but he’d never actually tried any other weapons. He did some research online, checking Heroinformatix for any weapon trade spots near him. Of course, there was one around a thirty minute walk from him by the abandoned shipping facility a little bit outside of the main area of Musutafu. Izuku knew that area was shady at best, but it was his most accessible and best bet at getting his hands on any real weapons. 

He looked over some of the weapons previous clients listed on the forum for the new meet up, boasting their bow staff collections, large swords, massive tech collections of things that made them float, blast, and explode anything in their way. Many of these people were simply collectors, but Izuku worried about what they could do with that firepower anyways. 

Izuku had stayed up the whole day, his body not getting any rest wearing on him as he researched. He had found out everything he needed to know about the meet up, and had his eyes set on a very specific girl who would be coming. Her username was simply “TechGurlX3” on the site,  and she seemed leagues more invested and earnest in the way she typed than every other shady dealer promoting their content on the site. Izuku guessed she was pretty new to the scene with the way the others interacted with her, sniffing out new meat to trade with. Izuku looked at some of her content, and it seemed she was making hero grade stuff. 

Colour me impressed…

Izuku glanced over at the time in the bottom corner of his monitor, quickly seeing his research had led him hours behind, now almost an hour late to the meet up he had so desperately wanted to go to.

Dang, dang. Aghhh It’ll be totally picked through when I get there! 

He threw on his gear, trying to look casual enough, but putting on all the protective layers he could manage under his everyday clothes. He only wanted some simple weapons, and wasn’t looking to draw any attention to himself. 

He turned his light off, quickly scurrying out onto the sloped rooftop outside his window above the horumon restaurant. The meaty smell made his mouth water as it drifted through the crisp night air, but he persevered and pushed through his hunger. He was too busy researching to actually get any organs in him, and he didn’t have time to stop now. 

Oh well… I’ve gotta get going anyways. Shouldn't be a problem.

He leaped across the rooftops and into the darkness of the night, his knives hidden in his boots and his heart thumping in his chest.

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Izuku quickly ran up to the looming warehouse in the night, a thick fog covering the area around it. Neon signs hanging off the side of it weakly flickered , and there was a faint glow coming from the inside of it. Graffiti lined the outside, and if Izuku looked hard enough, he could see people hanging around the outside, smoking, chatting, trading. He quickly swept his hood over his hair and headed inside the massive crumbling archway open to it. 

The inside was nearly pitch black, with a single source of light coming from the top of a rusted metal staircase. The light was warm and unnatural, casting a faint sickly glow down onto Izuku and the few other people chatting and mulling about in the area. He quickly leapt up the stairs, his boots making little clanging noises against the metal that matched with the pumping music that came from above. As he got closer to the light, a cacophony of voices became louder. When he got to the top, he saw what looked to be a similar layout to a hero convention, stalls of people lined across the massive interior of the warehouse. The crumbling, defaced structure was held up by massive steel pipes, with shattered windows adorning corners, yet Izuku could barely see the building through the hordes of people adorning the inside, selling everything from whips to shields. Suspicious people flitted past Izuku, yelling, laughing, bargaining, and pumping music blasted through his ears in the echoey hall. The light that Izuku had seen came from lanterns that lit up each of the stalls' wares, casting shadows across the building. It looked like he had stumbled into a renowned illegal night market, since he saw way more than just a few odd sellers like he had expected. 

Izuku kept his head down as he pushed through the encroaching hordes of people, tracing his eyes along the wares. Everything caught his eye, but he trained himself to stay as stone faced as he could, not looking at anything for too long as to not cause the seller to be alerted that he was interested and start hounding him to purchase whatever they were selling. 

Izuku realized, as he saw a man brandishing one to show off his skills, he really wanted more knives. Something about them drew him in, as though he was most familiar with them. He quickly bought some throwing knives. He had seen people using those at the Copper Bath, and they were extremely effective in fast takeouts. Those were ideal for him, he really hated prolonging fights on the streets, unknowing of when a hero could creep up and catch him in the act.

Speaking of heroes, there seemed to be a few heroes here, from what Izuku could tell. His superior ‘hero senses’ tingling when a few people walked by with their heads held a little too high to be on the wrong side of the law. 

I know pros sometimes deal with the underground for information… I wonder if they deal for other goods too? Izuku felt a small smirk creep on his face, imagining the shock of himself a few months ago at that thought. 

As he was lost in thought, staring at a pair of brass knuckles in the low lighting of the lantern, Izuku heard a loud booming noise, and saw smoke pool at his feet. Suddenly, a girl was whirring through the air with what appeared to be a pair of rocket boots, a large speaker connecting from her back. 

“Come to the booth under me for all sorts of hero grade support gear! My babies are waiting for tasty buyers!” People in the crowd ooh’d and ahh’d at the girl’s show, marketing all of her tech with a booming salesman personality that wowed the crooked crowd. Izuku zeroed in on her face. She appeared… very young. Her tan, youthful face surrounded by wild pink hair with bright yellow eyes. She was smeared with grease, and clearly extremely into her craft, still promoting as Izuku and many other members of the crowd all made their way over to her booth. A few other kids were running the booth while the pink girl’s voice boomed over the speaker, echoing through the hall. 

That has to be TechGurlX3…

The people on cash looked panicked, as people shoved money in their face, demanding the next product. Shouts of “mine!” and “back off!” erupted from the stand, and Izuku couldn’t believe the chaos!

I just wanted a peak…

He tucked his head lower, jumping up onto the sign above the stand, and staying crouched as he looked out over the crowd of people bargaining for the wares. People were about to start climbing over the stall in desperation to buy the impressive machines. Rocket boots sold like hot cakes, sticky wall climbing pads were being fought over like pieces of meat in a famine, and Izuku couldn’t begin to fathom the mosh pit that started over the ‘punchy punchy’ gloves (Which, unsurprisingly, made the wearer punch harder). Izuku watched as the chaos unfolded, simply perched up above the two cashiers. Few noticed him, nobody cared. 

Ever so slowly, the crowd started to dissipate, with more of the weapons and gear being sold overtime, and more people feeling satisfied with their purchases. Barely anything was left by the time almost everyone had left, and even more stalls had entirely packed up. Izuku simply sat atop the stand sign, his legs swinging over the edge. When the place was nearly empty, the pink girl loftily drifted down with her rocket boots, landing with a small burst of smoke pooling out beneath her. 

“Well gang! My babies sold pretty well, huh?” She still spoke in a loud tone, even without the speaker amplifying her. Izuku was pretty sure he heard some other stall vendor mutter a curse under his breath at her comment, but the pink girl didn’t mind.

“Y-yeah! We’re gonna have enough to buy more parts for the club!” A smaller boy said, even more excited. All of the kids shared high fives all around, before the pink haired girl swiftly turned her head, her smile wavering on her face. She caught Izuku’s eyes, and a smile lit up her face again.

“Customer! Hello! What are you doing up there?” Izuku’s eyes widened, surprised the girl could sense him above her.

“I’m waiting on a good product. Thought I’d… get out of the crowd.” He spoke loudly down to her, the distance causing a bit of an echo.

“Waiting on a good product?! What, none of my babies interest you?!” She said, an excited smile raging across her features.

“No way! They were super cool!I noticed the cooling system you had in place for the tech system on the fire breathing mask when I checked out the interior, it was genius! Oh- don’t listen to me-actually. Y-you probably already know you’re good at what you do.” Izuku felt his face flush slightly under his hood as the girl looked at him quizzically.

“Wow! You into tech? I didn’t take you for the type! Get down here, shady guy. I have some leftover products for you.” She yelled back, swinging her arm to signal Izuku to come down. Izuku pushed himself off the sign, leaping down into a roll and walking over to the group of inventors smoothly.

“The name is Mei, I’m hoping to go pro.” She smiled up wildly at Izuku.

“Biter. And you sure you wanna deal here if you plan on going pro? There’s a lot of bad people in this area, not the best for rep.” Izuku asked with a playful tilt in his voice, as if he wasn’t one of those ‘bad’ people. He took the crazed girl's hand and lightly shook it. 

“Weird name, and I’m sure I don’t mind dealing my prototypes to these people. Half of them barely passed the safety test. They’re almost definitely going to explode at some point, but that’s not my problem. The good stuff hasn’t sold yet, I was waiting for the right customer. I think you might be my candidate!” She leaned into Izuku, her arms on her hips as she proudly inspected him. Izuku leaned backwards, inexperienced with all of this attention from a girl his age. “Wow, you’re young!” She said brightly. “You have an older aura. Have you ever been told that? Anyways, I know just what you need.” 

She quickly turned on the balls of her feet, rummaging behind the counter in the dim lighting. Loud clangs and banging noises sounded as she threw stray wires and metal scraps out of a suspiciously large duffle bag.

“AHA!” She yelled excitedly. “These would be great for you.” She hoisted an armful of mechanical things up onto the counter of the stand, pushing off some other bits and pieces hastily.

Izuku looked at the laid out tech, seeing what looked to be a few small bombs, a gas mask, and a pair of sleek gloves. Izuku looked quizzically up at Mei, extremely confused at these items. He tended to go for weapons, not expecting much more than interesting knives. He felt excitement pool in his guts as he looked at the cool black designs. She was right, her other stuff was child's play compared to these. 

“What do they do..?” Izuku asked, thinly veiled awe peaking through his voice. 

“Well, these babies…” Mei held up the small bombs, around the size of a plum and a deep red colour. “Are harmless, yet deadly. They release a suuuper thick smoke that totally obscures the vision of any threats! They’re high spec with a three seventy ratio on high heat!” Izuku nodded along, pretending he understood her lingo. “All you need to do to start them is push this big silver button at the top, and toss them around five feet away. Otherwise the smoke explosion may possibly ever so slightly render you blind.” She smiled toothily up at Izuku, before putting the little bombs to the side and picking up the sleek black gloves. 

“These babies are some of my favourites!” She took her own gloves off, putting the chunky black ones on. She contracted her fingers in the glove, and long, sharp, black talons shot out of the ends, curving into a point so fine it glimmered. “Claws!! Rahhh!!” She fake slashed at Izuku’s face as he chuckled at her antics.

“These can be used to scale walls, since they can hold body weight like a breeze. Made out of quirk enhanced metals, the atoms are closer to each other, making them extremely hard to break! You can use it by triggering a muscle in your hand that the gloves sense, releasing and retracting the claws at will. I think those would totally fit your ultra spooky vibe.”

“Spooky?” Izuku tilted his head, surprised.

“Oh, and this one-!” Mei moved on, disregarding Izuku all together. “Is obviously a gas mask, but…” She quickly fastened it onto her face, flipping a switch that lit up the sides slightly. “ It has a few more assets. ” A mechanical voice rang out, nothing like her own.

Izuku’s eyes widened at the impressive tech. He could most definitely use those smoke grenades to help in fights against crooks who can move faster than him. If he can ambush people with those, he could also use them to escape heroes in pursuit of him in the future. The gloves would be very useful for getting around the town, especially if he can climb walls with them like Mei said. The mask would help a lot with obscuring his identity, and combat against any gas quirks that could be used against him. Izuku knew his voice was fairly recognizable with how young he sounded being a fighter on the streets, but with the voice tech he could just pass for short! He quickly pulled the cash out of his pocket. “Alright, Mei. H-how much for it all?” Mei looked up at Izuku, stars filling her eyes as she quickly unclipped the chunky mask.

“All of it?! I knew my babies would catch your eye!” She laughed heartily, the loud sound echoing around the place.

“Well… We already have enough money for the club times three…and I think you’re a riot… so you get a ‘Biter’ discount! Special to you! We’ll make a deal.” She leaned into Izuku again, propping her hands on his shoulders, and began to shake him wildly, a mad smile on her face. 

“Twenty five thousand and you become my new equipment tester!” She was still aggressively shaking Izuku back and forth like a ragdoll.

“OoOoKaYyY sToOp ThE sHaKiNg!!” He yelled out, his voice wavering as his head was whipped back and forth.

“Be my friendddd!!!!!” Mei shouted noisily.

“Deal!” Izuku grabbed her arms and forced her to stop the wild assault on his body. “Just quit the shaking!” He cried dizzily. 

“Okay!” Mei smiled up at him. “Cough up the cash! Oh-” She rummaged around the pocket of her baggy pants for a moment, pulling out a slightly smudged card and shoving it in Izuku’s hands. “My business line! I’m gonna test stuff on you, be prepared, and call me this weekend!” She cackled. 

I think this girl is genuinely insane!

Izuku handed her the cash, taking his equipment in a smaller version of the large duffel bag Mei had in the back. She let Izuku borrow it for free, so Izuku didn’t argue. 

As Izuku waved the girl and her associates goodbye, she shouted a very ominous “If you don’t call me I’ll find youuuu!” and waved her arms over her head wildly. Izuku blushed under the cover of his hood. 

A friend… huh?

.

.

.

Izuku held onto his duffel bag tightly as he traversed the dark, shady night life of Musutafu. He was thrumming with both excitement and hunger, his stomach growling as he ached to try his new tech. 

Man… I can’t wait for some leftover horumon…  

Suddenly, on a lit up street, Izuku stopped dead in his tracks, nearly being knocked over by people passing by him. A stench wafted to his nose that was so deathly familiar, he could almost taste the tang in the back of his throat. 

Fresh blood.

Izuku’s stomach lurched and shuddered inside of him, aching and groaning with the force of his hunger multiplied. He felt his mind glaze over and his body started moving on its own. He shoved through the crowd, following the intense stench into a dark alley off the side of the road. He faintly heard a whisper of sinister laughter that echoed through his soul, yet he pushed forward, leaving the light of the busy streets behind him. His limbs felt cold and clammy, while his heart beat in his chest like a kick drum, drowning out any reason as his hunger controlled his body.

He slowly walked around the corner of the dim alley, the world seeming entirely quiet save for the sound of his heartbeat in his ears and his shuffling footsteps. The smell of death hit him like a wave, and his mouth watered, eyes blown wide, hair standing on end. He was ready to pounce. 

Don’t look Izuku don’t look Izuku get out get out get out GET OUT.

Izuku opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw were two bloody tracks leading down the alley, the smeared blood leaving a gorey trail like something out of a nightmare. As Izuku followed the trail, he saw a mangled body laying limp on the ground, seemingly paralyzed as blood pumped out of their stomach in waves. In the dark, Izuku could just barely see but the body had… Hero gear on?

Oh.

It’s… A hero.

From the shadows, Izuku saw the glint of something. He wanted to move, to leave, but he was locked in place, fighting his limbs to not go and devour the sweet treat laying limp in front of him. 

“Should’ve been a hero…” A sinister, scratchy voice sounded from the end of the alley. Red glowing eyes suddenly locked onto Izuku’s pale face. “Hm? How long have you been there? Should’ve noticed a shrimp like you…” The creepy voice cooed. He saw the glint of a knife shine from the dark of the alley, and slowly, footsteps began to get closer to him. 

Izuku couldn’t move, he could only take strangled, heavy breaths as the figure stalked closer. A very large man was revealed in the dark of the night, bandages covering his face in a makeshift mask. He was dirty, and in scuffed up hero-esque gear that hugged against his menacing figure. He stalked over to Izuku, hunched, licking what looked to be the injured hero’s blood off of his own cheek. 

“You scared?” The man asked. Izuku was terrified. His hunger kept him locked in a strange trance. The demonic man circled Izuku, looking at him like a fresh cut of meat, before following the young boys eyes across to meet the figure of the hero, limp and most definitely dead on the ground. The man scoffed. “Were you a fan? That faker was a deadbeat, don’t feel bad.” 

Izuku didn’t budge, his pale face reading of no emotion while he watched the blood pour out of the wounded hero like a gusher. He was torn between running to the body and running from the villain in front of him. 

“Hm? What’s wrong with you?” The man walked directly into Izuku’s line of sight, pushing a bloodied knife into Izuku’s neck. Izuku stared right through the man, he could smell the blood so intensely, he had to fight his limbs from bolting in that moment. Suddenly, something clicked in the large man’s head. 

“You’re like that one time… hmmm.” He calmly took the knife away from Izuku’s neck, letting it lazily fall back to his side. He hunched down further, towering over Izuku. “You can eat, if you want. I don’t care.”

Izuku was so shocked, his eyes left the body for a mere moment, flicking up to meet the crazed red ones staring down at him. Something inside of him bursted at that comment, all of the reason leaving his body. He slowly stalked over to the dead hero, every movement he made deliberate and slow. He desperately tried to hold himself back, pushing against his urges with all of his might. 

He dropped to his knees, hovering over the body with a crazed look in his eyes. He wasn’t breathing, his vision tunneling in on itself as he stared down at the lifeless figure. Izuku leaned down to pick the hero up, aching for a taste, unhinging his jaw like a snake to finally feel release. All at once, he snapped back into himself so violently he jumped five feet backwards, stumbling away from the hero hastily. He clambered on his hands, shuffling away from the body. Silent screams left his mouth.

I nearly… I almost…

Izuku turned to the side, and promptly threw up everything he still had in his stomach from days prior. Nausea flooded his senses, and he hacked and gagged for a while longer, sobbing as the stench of gore filled his nose. He pressed his head to the cool ground, hiccuping and sobbing in the night. The villain was gone as far as Izuku knew, and he laid there, gasping for air for as long as he could.

I almost ate him.

.

.

.

Izuku didn’t remember getting back to his home that night, but he knew he was only left with restless dreams filled with a metallic stench and sinister red eyes. 

Chapter Text

As Izuku walked down the grimy steps, bathed in sickly green LEDs and pushing through thick clouds of smoke, he felt his new tech weigh heavy on his face and hands. Hungry jolts of adrenaline coursed through his veins, lighting his eyes up with a sickly glow of anticipation.

Izuku had been restless with nightmares the morning before, not being able to think too straight that night, he failed to realize that his rent was due in around three days time. He would hate to disappoint the man who had so graciously given him a place to rest, yet he had spent a large portion of his money on all of his new tech and knives, as well as some extra horumon to satiate his impeccable hunger. He felt a drop in his stomach by the time he had thought to check his cash supply after his fitful sleep, realizing he was a couple thousand yen short.

 Izuku knew money flew out of people’s pockets like it had somewhere important to be, but the freckled boy truly didn’t realize just how quickly he was going to lose all of his cash on setting up a home base. For god's sake, he didn’t even have a pillow. 

Izuku knew he still needed to test his equipment, but didn’t have time to mess around the city with no money left before rent was due, so he settled for a way he knew he could make money. A miscellaneous tip on a drug bust.

Izuku couldn’t test his weapons in just any place on the streets, he did have some morality left, after all. Using high grade weapons like the ones he had bought so excitedly on some petty criminals wasn’t exactly heroic, yet he had found a perfect way to get any money.

After scouring his online sources, checking chats and blogs across the web for any sources on upcoming fighting rings, he found a golden opportunity on a frequently visited forum for miscellaneous tips on active crime in the area.

BbBbBbooOx says:

“Pill party, official meet up for trades at Angel Bites Club…”

And a few other bits of information listed. Izuku worried his lip in excitement. He finally had the chance to stop something big. The seedy underbelly of hero society was full of old and new age drugs from both pre and post quirk era, both having dramatically different effects around the world. Japan had an extreme epidemic of quirk enhancement drugs, similar mostly to steroids from pre-quirk era trading. Izuku knew exactly how drug trades worked . They were all dirty blood money trades in cash, he had seen enough hero interviews after stopping those sorts of rings that were meant to inform the public on how to stay out of them. It was extremely ironic that Izuku was walking into the mouth of it all.

Now, as he pushed through the crowds of people, he realized they were deep underground in what looked to be an abandoned subway station turned into a nightclub. Graffiti lined the walls, bright green lights lighting up everything around. Thick smoke hung in the air, and there was a similar cage in the center of the room as his last copper bath, but much, much bigger.

If it was even possible, there seemed to be more people here than the last place he had fought at. A legitimate bar was open to the side, handing out shots of foul smelling alcohol in gallons at a time, and very scantily dressed women curved their toned bodies in cages hanging from the ceiling. Izuku averted his eyes from those, blushing under his gas mask. 

The music playing was so loud Izuku felt it reverberate through his bones. People grinded up against each other around him to the beats, their sweat and cologne stinging his eyes while he pushed past them. He felt as though he was going to be swallowed whole by the room, the strobe lighting and smog not helping his journey through the crowd. 

I need a higher vantage point… I can’t see anything down here.

He walked over to the large concrete wall he saw, praying Mei hadn’t lied about her tech, and unsheathed his claw gloves in one flexing motion. Their weight pressed into the ends of his fingers. Izuku pushed energy down into his arms, channeling all of the strength he could muster into his tensing muscles as he lifted his hands to the wall. Pressing deeply with his claws, slamming them into the wall, their black tips dug into the concrete, slicing through it like a saw to wood. Izuku’s eyes widened, he didn’t want to know how sharp they were. He hooked his other hand in, the claws leaving divots that held his weight impeccably well as he climbed. He scaled the graffitied wall, the music pumping and his heartbeat in his ears being the only things he could hear. As he neared the extremely tall ceiling, he looked backwards to see all of the crisscrossing support beams holding the building up. They were rusted, yet Izuku knew they could get him where he needed to go. He slowly unhooked one of his hands, his remaining arm shaking with the force of holding his entire body weight dug into the concrete, and shifted his body towards the beam.

Leap of faith, Izuku. Leap of faith.

He swallowed, tensing his legs beneath him, before bursting off of the concrete wall, unhooking his claws at the same time. As he leaped over the sea of sweaty people below, the smoke obscuring the world around him, he felt as though he was flying, his stomach in his throat from the thrill. Izuku’s hair whipped around him, and his body outstretched, reaching for his landing position. If he didn’t make it, he was sure he would die. He landed on the support beam with a small bang, rolling into a standing position as he balanced himself many meters above the cold, concrete ground. 

That could’ve gone so, so wrong. 

Izuku huffed an excited laugh, his body jittering from adrenaline under his skin. He travelled along the support beams, leaping from one to another with the grace of a butterfly flitting and floating around in a gentle wind. As he looked down from the middle of the room, standing above the brightly lit massive cage that nearly reached the ceiling, Izuku scanned to find where the most suspicious and richest looking people were stationed. This was an underground official trading system he had found tips on, after all. Izuku suspected they had a mole.  

Izuku knew what he was looking for, he’d seen these types of people standing around at night. Leaning on nice cars as they smoked, full suits and wildly offensive energy that would assault Izuku. They were always too relaxed, too keen, too dulled down and hyped up. Izuku knew these big league drug trades were trouble, that getting mixed up in these could be his death, but he couldn’t bring himself to pull away at the thought of making his home streets any cleaner. He’d seen the people affected by these drugs, too. Washed up, dumb with chemicals, hunched in alley ways, or hyped up and wreaking havoc in the streets. Each time, he’d intercept them, try to help. Calm them down or put them in a safer place for when they woke up, wait for them to clear their systems for a while as he dodged their punches. It made him sick to his stomach to watch people live like that, and he wanted to put it to rest. 

Bingo.

A very large spiral staircase led up to an upper area, massive guards in suits lined the entryway, their faces obscured with what looked to be black bandanas and sunglasses. They all had their arms crossed as they guarded the main area, but from Izuku’s spot above them, he could see a bird’s eye view. Two men sat across from each other, beautiful women sitting at their sides as they idly chatted, smooth alcoholic drinks in their hand. One man was fat,middle aged, and quite hairy. He had a round belly, and he smoked a cigar with one hand, occasionally huffing out thick puffs of smoke. Sitting across from him, a young, attractive man with a pretty face and long hair. They were both surrounded by guards, half of the guards in red suits, the other half in deep blue suits. There had to be at least twenty of them, excluding the ones blocking the only exit and entry point. Izuku gulped. 

The upper area looked to be an issue to fight in, its lounge setting placing multiple obstacles in Izuku’s way, with plush, leather seats everywhere. The tables were laid out in a way that had towering dividers for privacy put between them. Running swiftly and unnoticed through that area would be a problem. Izuku hadn’t expected that many guards, either. He wasn’t entirely confident he could take them all out before some form of concealed weapon was turned on him.

Izuku watched as one the men's casual conversation continued, conniving smiles lighting up their faces in the shadows. Izuku keened forward, desperately trying to catch their conversation over the echoes of the music blasting below him, but he couldn’t hear anything. 

Damn. I need more information before I dive in. I really need to stop taking random forum information, this is seriously a sticky situation. 

Suddenly, the young man snapped his fingers, the women that were hanging off of them scurrying away. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table in front of him, putting his drink to the side. He said something slyly, and one of his smaller guards quickly pulled something out from behind them, a large briefcase Izuku hadn’t caught.
The air seemed to become stagnant, as the hefty briefcase was lifted onto the table between the two men. Nobody seemed to move or breathe, both of the men’s eyes lighting up in excitement as the briefcase was unlocked with heavy clicks.

It was slowly opened, the sleek designing giving way to what looked to be vials of bubbling green liquid. It had crushed particles in it that glinted, all stuffed inside jars upon jars, baggies of powder, and more. Izuku had never seen drugs before, and he felt the air whoosh out of his lungs at the amount in there. He knew what was in that case could kill thousands with its potency.

The man with a large belly smiled, leaning forward to ghost his eyes over the goods, letting out a sly chuckle. Izuku scanned the room as the two men continued talking, until he saw something extremely interesting. While the large bellied man looked over the drugs, he saw one of the pretty men’s guards and the older man’s guards meet eyes. In a split second, behind their bandanas, they communicated something nobody else caught. Izuku caught it. 

The guard on the big man’s side looked away, pulling up a briefcase from his side, and opening it to reveal what had to be millions of yen in cold, hard cash. Izuku felt his throat go dry. He could really use that money.

He watched as the deal was sealed, the large man laughing boisterously as the young one smiled thankfully. The two guards Izuku had seen act differently then took the drugs and money briefcases in their hands as they walked out, each taking them in individual directions. Izuku followed them, swiftly crawling along the beam he had stood on above their swiftly travelling bodies, staying low in the darkness of the ceiling as to not be spotted. 

They suddenly changed directions, walking back over to each other, as a man from the main guard on the stairway swiftly and quietly left his post.

Now this is interesting. 

Izuku saw what was going on, his mind understanding the situation in a split second. There was a joint inside job on either side of the drug deal operation. These men were clearly working together, and that was proven correct as he watched the two meet up, swiftly sliding the briefcases under one of the tables obscured from the main trade. Izuku saw them take two identical briefcases out from the same place, walking away. He realized they had replaced the real briefcases swiftly with fakes, leaving the real ones out of view for the man from the staircase to pick up and channel out some other way. Izuku belatedly wondered how long this inside job had taken to perfect, gaining the levels of trust needed to pull it off, and how he could ruin it in a split second. 

Izuku had to get to those real briefcases fast. 

The loud thumping of the music echoing around Izuku seemed to slow as he saw the guard swiftly and casually walking over to the cases to grab them. Izuku knew he had to intercept. He quietly leaped off of the beam he was standing on, his loud thump from his landing roll covered up by the pounding music. He stalked, staying low as he weaved around the channels of the lounge area, following closely behind the rogue guard. He already felt lost in this labyrinth, he didn’t know how any of the guards knew where to go. 

Suddenly, the guard seemed to have sensed him. Izuku swiftly ducked behind a seat, his heart thundering in his ears as the man aggressively turned around, anxiously eyeing the area around him for the presence he had felt. Izuku blended into the shadows, the man missing him in the smog of the room.

I’m gonna have to take him out.

Izuku calmly unhooked a special little knife he had hidden in the side of his boot, flicking it around in between his fingers. He only wanted to knock the man out, and the throwing knives he had bought back before meeting Mei at the weapons trade would be perfect for that job. As the strobe lights overhead flickered, Izuku’s eyes zeroed in on the man swiftly walking up to the briefcase, his face tense beneath his mask.

Izuku breathed in slowly, lining up his shot, and threw his knife. He made it twirl in the air, spinning around like a throwing star as he aimed for the base of the man’s head. The knife’s dull handle conked the man in the back of his head, right in the dip between his skull and his head with a crack. Izuku worried he may have thrown it too softly, but that man’s knees quickly buckled, and he hit the ground with a massive bang. Izuku was ecstatic at his success, but he desperately prayed nobody had heard the sound.

He bolted out of his hidden space, passing the man in the dim lighting and picking up his unbloodied knife off of the man’s body. Izuku sheathed it back in his boot, and followed straight through to where he remembered the briefcase table would be. Izuku turned the corner, and he saw two men standing there, full blown tactical gear adorning their bodies as they stood with the briefcases. The men appeared to be waiting for something, their body language shifting around uncomfortably.

Shit. I can’t grab the briefcases like that.

Izuku had an idea.

A very, very, stupidly dangerous idea.

Welp, gotta try.

He stood up from his hiding place in the dark, boldly walking over to the men. They noticed him immediately, uncertainty sweeping across them as they tensed for combat. Izuku knew he had to play this game. 

He was going to bluff.

“Woah, at ease guys. I’m over from the staircase position.” Izuku forced a casual and confident tone to ring out through his voice. The men tensed further, gripping the briefcases. He already had an upperhand, looking more like these men in their tactical gear than the men in suits on the right side of the drug trade. 

“Who are you? Where’s Setsu?” One of the men asked, his voice reading of something nervous. 

Setsu’s gotta be the guy in the suit they had meant to meet up with, shit.

“Setsu had bigger fish to fry.” Izuku kept it vague, standing in a confident fashion all too unnatural on his body. “Look, he got caught up with whatever. I got word from the boss I was supposed to supply for him in the meanwhile.” The men continued to look at Izuku suspiciously. “You gonna go against the big guy’s word?” Izuku asked, sweat beading on his skin as his heart hammered with his bluffs.

“What was Setsu caught up with?” The men asked, tensing at the mention of their boss. Izuku assumed they were new to this. They looked much too stiff to be an old player in this game like the others he had seen.

“‘Ey, don’t ask me. I know about as much as you.” Izuku raised his hands defensively. “You’re waiting for him, right? Well, I’m in his place for now. Don’t be scared, it’s just the way things roll every so often in this business.” It weighed heavy on Izuku’s mind that the man passed out a few rows away from him could ruin this entire exchange. He hoped he had knocked him out well enough. “You guys hand me the cases, our location changed, you two gotta sneak out the way you came.” Izuku  looked into their eyes, flicking back and forth as he held out his hands for the cases.

The men eyed each other suspiciously.

“Come on, you tryna’ get us caught? Hand me the cases, we gotta go.” Izuku snapped, trying to let his desperation seem calm and collected when it was anything but. The men looked between each other again. Ever so slowly, Izuku watched with bated breath as they lifted their arms to hand him the cases. 

Suddenly, it seemed as though the world crashed down. The men suddenly convulsed, hitting the ground with the briefcases. Izuku looked around swiftly, before a nerve wracking shout completely foiled his plans all together. 

“POLICE! GET ON THE GROUND!” 

The area was surrounded. Izuku knew the men had been tased, yet nobody had tased him. The smog in the room and the darkness must have hid him in his dark clothes. He darted over, picking up the briefcases and ducking behind the nearest booth, hiding under the table in the darkness.
A cacophony of noise erupted around him, bullets began soaring across the room, tearing up the couches. Men fought heavily with their quirks, the upper floor being lit up by barrages of assault. The music of the club continued pumping in Izuku’s ears as he fumbled with the briefcases. He only needed the money. If the police were there, he could hand over the drugs easily. Men dropped down from the ceiling in police gear, shouted commands ringing out over the music.

Izuku popped the first case open, wedging his knife in it to break the case locks open. He saw that it had all of the money still in it, and Izuku thought the situation over for a moment, wracking his head for an escape as he held tightly onto the briefcases. Suddenly, boots shifted in front of where he was hidden. Izuku knew those anywhere. He felt his stomach pool with dread as the bullets rang out.

“Where are they?!” A deep voice yelled over the noise.

Eraserhead.

As the boots passed, Izuku bolted out from his hiding place, both briefcases still in his hands, when he ran into the middle of a brawl. Men shot bullets around him, quirks activated, sending fire and metals soaring across the room around him. He breathed heavily, darting away and staying low to the ground through the noise, he was hiding in the shadows when he heard something he’d dreaded. 

“Hey! That kid’s got the briefcases!” 

Izuku darted past everyone as their eyes, police and lackey alike, all shifted over to him while he ran. He was quickly cornered, the briefcases still in his hands as he panted. Police officers surrounded him, as many others fought off and detained the lackeys that were still struggling being handcuffed or beating the police down in groups. 

Izuku looked around for an escape, desperate to fight his way out of this, when he saw an opportunity. The very same support beams he had come from. 

Bullets flew past him as a police officer lunged to grab him and detain him, shooting off a taser. Izuku jumped over it, before winding his arm up, pushing all of the power he had left in his body into throwing the briefcases up into the air. They wooshed up past everyone, people’s eyes tracking them as they flew in seemingly slow motion over the fight, both of them landing up on the beam. He let an excited huff leave his mouth at his aim, happy he didn’t miss. 

Izuku quickly shifted his focus back to the swarm of police officers surrounding him.

“Well, I gotta go. Nice seeing you boys!” He said excitedly, adrenaline rushing through his veins as the fight around him continued. 

“Stop there immediately!” Someone yelled, lunging towards him. 

They really want a fight, huh? Okay. Fine. He huffed.

The men all braced guns as they came at him, Izuku swiftly moved, kicking the gun out of one of the men’s hands and turning it over into his own. He then grabbed a knife out of his leg holsters, swiftly throwing it behind him at a cop running up towards him as he continued to hold the others at gunpoint.The men all stayed stagnant, before he fired off a shot in the air, causing many to recoil, before diving towards them.

Izuku slashed at them with his new claw gloves, kicking them out of the way and disorienting them as the flashing strobe lights made his movement look like stop motion. He could feel each of their presences, kicking and slashing at their forms to escape. He hit a few in the stomach, cutting through their armour and down into flesh as blood flew around him. He really needed that money, but maybe he felt like a slightly guilty law breaker. 

 Suddenly, as he was given a breather from many of the police officers being downed due to the combat, Izuku quickly reached down to his belt, pulling out one of Mei’s dark red smoke bombs.

“Sorry, gentlemen.” Izuku giggled as he pressed the button on the top, throwing it down a few feet from his feet like Mei had informed him to. A heavy smoke burst forth from the little bomb, filling up the area in an instant, rendering it almost impossible to see through the thick waves of it rolling out. Izuku hiked up his other senses as he dove through the smoke, listening to every foot step around him to avoid the men fighting, running through the aisles of seating like his life depended on it. He just needed to make it to the ledge and scale the wall once again to get back up onto the beams. Sweat beaded on his skin as he pushed his body, the pumping music making it all too disorienting.

I’m almost… Free! 

Suddenly, Izuku felt his organs slam into the walls of his body as he was stopped dead in his tracks, wound up by something restraining his arms and legs. He tried to wriggle his way out, falling to the floor in an instant. He was wound so tightly he could barely breathe, feeling like an animal caught in a trap. As the smoke dissipated around Izuku, he could just see the edge in front of him, only blocked by…

“Eraserhead…”

The man looked down at him, his eyes burning red. His face seemed to morph into a deep surprise, before forming back into fury.

“Biter?!” He yelled out.

Shit, shit, shit.

“Hahaha! Oh my gosshhh, what are you doing heeeeere?!” Izuku asked, as docile as he could as he tried to wriggle out of his confines. “Let me go and I’ll surrender! Pretty please?” Izuku lied through his teeth.

“Not a chance. You’re coming back to the station. I still remember that stunt you pulled in the detainment. You’re a real problem child.” Eraserhead shouted over the music, bored hatred lacing his tone. 

“Come on, ol’ buddy ol’ pal!” Izuku gritted his teeth. “Let me go! I’ll be good, I swear!” Izuku screeched, feeling the scarf tighten around his body.

“Stop wriggling! My scarf won’t break. C’mon, kid. You’ll be better off back at the station than here.”

What a lie.

Izuku knew that he alone couldn’t break Eraserhead’s hero level support gear, but maybe Mei’s inventions could. He could just move his fingers ever so slightly, flexing his hands in anticipation. He needed the claws, and he needed them fast.

Come on…

He tensed his fingers further, moving them ever so slightly with all of his might as he felt the claws unsheath.

Yes!

“The option is still open for you to do better, kid! Be better! We can wipe your record, set you up with a life! Let us get you out of this!” Eraserhead yelled as he picked Izuku, who was still fighting against his confines, off of the ground, holding him up to look at him.

Izuku felt rage boiling in his gut, he cut his claws up against the fabric of the scarf, running it back and forth as the material splintered underneath his extremely sharp claws.

“Don’t…” Izuku huffed. “Patronize me!!” The scarf suddenly split open around him, the material breaking to Eraserhead’s great surprise. Izuku burst forward, taking advantage of the man’s confusion, and punched Eraserhead straight in the face, running past him towards the edge of the lounge. 

“Get back here, Biter!” Eraserhead whipped around, quickly activating his quirk to turn off Izuku's quirk, when Izuku leaped across the expanse to latch onto the wall. His claws dug in the defiled concrete on the other side, when he heard a bang and a deep pain bloomed through his side. 

He looked to the side of him at the wall, to see a bullet had been embedded into it, sprayed with his blood. 

“Agh!” He let out a groan of pain, having been shot through his abdomen. He felt his muscles spasm underneath him, slightly sliding down the wall before regaining his place, pushing through the pain as he used his claws to dig into the wall and travel up to the beams. Izuku kept pushing, jumping across onto the beam to where he saw the two briefcases had landed. He ran across the beam, holding his open bullet wound with one of his hands, and grabbed the briefcases in passing, continuing to run away from the sounds of gunfire and shouting behind him as his feet made loud noises on the metal beam. 

The intense burning in his side clouded his decisions, stumbling and tripping on the beams as he ran very high off of the ground. He put one of the briefcases between his teeth, the other in his hand, and scanned the area. People were screaming at the club below, running out of the doors at light speed as they trampled each other to get out of the chaos. Izuku suddenly zeroed in on something below him. 

A very, very large sewer cover with a ladder down into it.

This must have been an entrance for city sewer repair. The building has to be surrounded by police, I can’t exit with the mob.

Izuku steeled himself.

I’m gonna have to use the sewer system. 

“Get back here!” Izuku whipped around to see a bloody nosed, infuriated Eraserhead charging at him from behind on the beams. 

I’ve gotta go. 

Izuku clamped his teeth down on the briefcase, holding the other one tightly in between his white knuckled fingers. He ran from the furious shouts from Eraserhead behind him, diving forward off of the platform in a desperate attempt to reach the wall, his bullet wound sending searing pain through his outstretched body. He felt his hand roughly connect with the wall, tensing his hands to unsheath his claws as he was dragged down the wall with his momentum. The concrete cracked and crumbled under his hand as he was dragged down, pulling out of the wall. He grit his teeth with the pressure of holding himself using his nails on the wall, the pain from his wound making him want to pass out. 

As Izuku slowed from his descent, his claws still digging into the concrete, he leaped forward, bursting out and transitioning into a roll on the hard floor, blood spurting out from his wound while he rolled.

Swiftly recovering, he immediately sprinted over to the channel into the sewers, kicking up the loose manhole cover to get under. Izuku hopped down the long ladder down to the underground systems, disgusting waste water flowing alongside the tunnel paths he was safely dry in. 

Imagining the layout of the club in his mind, he knew that if he took the right path, he would end up going along the tunnels for a while, whereas the left would lead him out into the streets filled with police. He figured he’d deal with them when he got to them.

Izuku took off in a stumbling bolt to his left, running away from the clanging shouts of the police officers trailing him. The stench of the sewers coated the back of his throat and made his eyes sting, yet he kept running along the repaired sides, the pipes lining them spurting out gas in his face as he ran. The temperature in the sewers was much lower than the bustling club, and he felt the wind bite into his skin as he ran.

The voices fell distant behind Izuku while he sprinted, none of the police officers being able to keep up with his speed in the straight halls. He felt his lungs burning alongside his abdomen, he had been running for a while, passing any manhole covers he heard noise above. Finally, Izuku pushed himself up a ladder to a new one. He must have ran a few kilometers away. He winced as he pushed himself up out of the manhole, looking around slightly. It appeared there was nobody around on the desolate street, so he lifted himself out and began walking home, briefcase in either hand, blood staining his clothes from both his wounds and others.

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Izuku had taken the cash, stuffing it somewhere very secure (Under his bed covers) when he got home. His wound had entirely sealed by the time he had sat down after showering the sewer smell off of his skin. His brain was fogged and tired, Izuku assumed from the effort of healing his wound so quickly, so he fell into a deep sleep.

If Izuku had checked Twitter that morning, he may have seen the absolute uproar caused by the massive briefcase of drugs found at the police station with a sticky note that simply said:  

“Sorry about spoiling ur drug bust ;(

- Biter”

Somewhere, Eraserhead grew gray hairs at twice the speed he normally did.

Chapter Text

Izuku woke up earlier than usual, a cool Saturday awaiting him. He knew he had promised a certain someone a testing meetup, and though he broke almost every promise he had made to himself, he meant to uphold ones to others. 

Izuku threw on his casual clothes, a comfortable, thick hoodie to protect himself from the cool winds, and a pair of baggy capri pants that exposed his ankles, since he was always one for confusing fashion choices.  He made sure to look presentable, washing his face and gargling an unhealthy amount of mouthwash to remove the taste of sleep, before leaping down the stairs to the main area of the Horumon restaurant. The restaurant was just opening, the early afternoon streets being less busy than the night. Izuku said a quick hello to Mr.Landlord, who shot him a fatherly remark about ‘being up so early.’ Izuku playfully rolled his eyes at the sarcasm, leaving out the front door with a jingle.

Izuku felt the cool air bite into his skin when he stepped out of the restaurant’s warm glow and into the streets. It had been a long time since he had been outside in the light of daylight, even though the skies were clouded over, the light burned his eyes as though he was staring into the sun. With his face scrunched, he swiftly walked down the dilapidated roads. 

The street he lived on was entirely different in the night time ambience he was used to, with neon signs and upbeat music ringing out through the streets, scantily dressed women hanging around telephone poles all lighting each other’s cigarettes, men slurring their jokes as they stumble along the roads, people dolled up advertising whatever club they stood outside of. In the daytime, his street was simply a bleak ghost town with graffitied concrete walls and switched off neon signs. People still hung around, but they were much less lively than the night time, many being clearly hung over while others were simply tending to their daily lives as people who lived nearby. For every place filled with nightlife, there had to be a matching daydeath, Izuku guessed. 

The deathly looking boy jogged up to a relic of the past that remained in use in this area of Musutafu; a payphone. Izuku had gone to the one a few blocks down from where he lived, the one-hundred yen rusted phone standing tall as it waited for Izuku outside of a run down tattoo parlor. He shuffled some coins out of his pocket, picking up the phone and slotting in a few coins for around five minutes to talk. He punched in the numbers on the smudged business card he was given a few days prior, and prayed as the line rang on the other side that his coins weren’t wasted.

The phone rang for a few seconds before a cheery voice rang out over the other end.

“Hello! This is the Support Gear Club manager, Hatsume Mei speaking!” Izuku could hear the girl’s voice ringing out across the phone, a smile crowning her words. Izuku could also hear a multitude of horrid clanging noises in the background. 

“‘Sup, Mei.” Izuku spoke, a smile bleeding through from the simple fact he was calling a friend. 

“Ah? Who’s this? You looking to buy one of my babies?” Mei spoke out, excitedly.

“It’s Biter. You- asked me to call?” Izuku winced at his awkwardness.

“OH! You actually called! Biter, man, how ya been?” She asked, a small curse being let out under her breath as a loud bang sounded like a jackhammer.

“Fine. What’s… with the noise?” Izuku asked.

“Ohhh, I’m in the club shop. Working on some totally not explosive things! Speaking of which, YOU gotta test these!” Mei laughed. “By the way, what’s with your phone quality man? I couldn’t even tell who you were, and I never forget a face!” Mei said proudly. “Except for-like- a couple of times. Those don’t count, those people were boring.” A loud welding noise sounded. Izuku huffed a laugh.

“Ah, I’m on a pay phone. Mind giving me an address to meet you at?” Izuku spoke, weary of his time limit on the conversation. The welding noises stopped in the background.

“Ohhh, totally, totally, totally. Got you. Uhhhh…” Some more rusting and clanging noises sounded across the line. “One sec, gotta cut a wire, this thing is about to explode…” More clanging. Izuku suddenly felt a little worried about his safety in the pink haired girl’s shop. “AHA! Ok, sorry about that! The address is… you got a pen and paper? Ok, it’s…” She listed off a street name and number. Izuku knew exactly where she was, but he was a little confused, since that was…

“Your club room is in the old metal scrap yard? I thought that place was closed to the public.” Izuku’s eyebrows scrunched. 

“Oh, no it totally is. We, like, really shouldn’t be here, but wherever innovation leads, I follow! And they left a ton of their scrap junk here- well it’s not junk to me but you know what I mean- and it is prime material! I couldn’t let this place rot away, so I maybe took it into my own hands ever so slightly Illegally. No harm, no foul.” Mei smiled as a saw noise sounded in the background. Izuku lifted the phone away from his ear at the volume of the girl and her machinery, huffing a slight smile.

“You sure do a lot of illegal stuff for someone who wants to go pro.” Izuku heard the girl slightly cackle. “I can get there in around thirty minutes. See you, Mei.”

“Thanks for the help, Biter! Seeya!” 

Izuku hung up the phone with a clang, starting off down the roads, hands in his pockets, and walked to the abandoned warehouse.

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Izuku immediately noticed the loud clanging, drilling, sawing, and frankly explosive noises resonating from inside the abandoned building. The large concrete area around it had scrap metal galore, some rusted, some with potential. The large building stood towering, it’s windows shattered and boarded up,with it’s large doors half opened to let out the noises. The building had lights coming from inside, and Izuku wondered how anybody hadn’t found Mei’s loud operation yet with all of the signs pointing to someone using the space. Izuku pushed open the heavy, black metal door, walking inside. 

“Hello?”

Izuku looked around. The warehouse had massive machines everywhere, with inactive conveyor belts rusting over, and piles of junk lying around. Izuku noticed many machines from fridges to motorbikes lining the path through the junk in the large space. He saw tech potential in everything, even noticing a wall filled with assorted daggers catching his eyes. Rock music rang out, drowned by the loud metallic noise grating on his ears. He saw robots hanging from the ceiling, some in pieces, some being fully finished,with janky designs of different mix-matched metals. The entire room was lit up by massive industrial lights on the ceiling, making Izuku’s head hurt with how bright it was. 

The boy weaved through the seas of robots, pieces of unfinished projects, miscellaneous work benches, and more as he got closer to the saw noises. As he turned around a car with what appeared to be tentacle arms sticking out of the trunk, Izuku laid his eyes upon a hunched Mei. She sat on the ground, welding mask and massive gloves in place as she welded metal together in what looked to be a massive pair of boots. Izuku watched her for a moment, before clearing his voice to speak up.

“Mei-?”

“WAH!” The pink haired girl jumped, nearly dropping her welding materials. She whipped around, turning to face Izuku menacingly as her mask conveyed no emotion. “Biter!” She rang out happily, standing and flicking her mask up onto her head. “You scared me half to death! You’re creepy in daylight! You sleeping all right? I have a robot for that. Anyways-” Izuku couldn’t get a word out before she was lifting his arms, patting down his body. He felt himself flush at the attention. 

“Yeah,okay. Your measurements work.” She popped back up, shooting a smile at him. “Let’s get you geared up!” She swiftly turned around, walking into the depths of her robotics labyrinth. 

“Ah, yeah. Ok.” Izuku could only say dumbly, following her like a lost lamb. She weaved around all of the projects, before practically diving into a pile, rummaging through it like her life depended on it. 

“Aha!” She pulled out a small box. Izuku was confused, as she walked out through the robots again. He stuttered for a moment, before Mei was yelling at him to ‘keep up!’

She brought Izuku to an empty space in the middle of the chaos, a large ring created by the metallic projects lining it. 

“Okay! Biter, I have a few babies to test on you!” She crossed her arms, proudly standing in the center of the ring. “Basically, I’m gonna gear you up in all of my ‘safe-to-test-on-humans’ babies that won't melt your skin, and you’re gonna fight with them. They’re all made for heroics, so they should work best in combat situations. Mostly. If they feel particularly… explodey, just give me a yell, and I’ll get you outta them lickity split!”

Izuku felt a little rushed at all of the information. “What am I fighting?” Izuku questioned. 

“Oh! You’ll be fighting Riri. She’s my war-bot.” She spoke proudly. “I made her back in first year to do some underground robot battling, so she’s been through the ringer. Never lost a robot battle, ol’ gal. She won’t decimate you like a robot though! I made sure of that!” Mei shot Izuku a thumbs up.

“Ah. Ok.” Izuku tried to be casual about the girl’s strange robotics lifestyle, his face blank and confused all at once.

Mei tossed Izuku a mask. Similar in design to his gas mask he had bought off of the pink girl at the weapons trading post, he put it on casually before he could think too much about what it could do, the click in place making him feel ready for battle.

“Alright, this one’s a super nifty baby I started making a month ago! It should be mostly safe, but it has some… Kinks.” Mei hopped up onto a rusted washing machine with a missing door, sitting crisscrossed. “See the thing is, it’s a mask that makes fire breathing more potent or possible at all, using the oxygen from the water vapour humans breathe out to jumpstart a combustion reaction. The only issue is ever so occasionally it causes a teensy weensy itty bitty incomplete combustion that kind of maybe suffocates the user sometimes with carbon monoxide poisoning. No biggie, really. Just a kink.” She shrugged playfully.

“So… I could get carbon monoxide poisoning from this thing?” Izuku asked wearily, pointing at the mask now latched to his face unsurely.

“Hey, don’t be a wimp! What’s a little suffocation?” Mei waved her hands in a dismissive fashion. “I added a detector for the stuff, so whenever the mask starts beeping, it’ll detach from your face. I just wanna see the conditions it needs to be put through to start… kind of killing you.” Mei smiled. Izuku felt he might have met his match in sanity levels.

“Click the button on the side to activate it, use heavy breaths to get it to light up, and mind your breathing control so you don’t pass out before the testing’s over!” She shot Izuku a thumbs up, pulling out a pen and notepad.

Izuku clicked the button, nervousness swelling in his stomach, and breathed out heartily, rasping like a dragon. Fire lit up in front of his face, bursting away from him in a glorious display of light. Excitement pooled in his gut, feeling power rush through his veins. Mei clicked a button on the side of the box she was carrying, and tossed it into the ring with Izuku. Izuku watched as the box unfolded, shifting metal moving seamlessly, expanding outwards from it’s impossibly condensed form into a figure.

The robot stood at around Izuku’s height, with what looked to be an old television for a head, a lanky pair of bendy limbs, and massive metallic hands and feet that looked posed for combat, claws at the ready.

It’s… kinda cute.

“Gettem’ Riri!” Mei yelled. All of a sudden, the robot was lunging at Izuku, it’s speed shocking him as he jumped backwards rearing for combat. He reminded himself of the mask adorning his face, and swiftly jumped forward to meet the robot, letting out a roar of flames. 

Quickly regaining his breath, he sent more flames at the metallic body, Riri sweeping them to the side as she went in for a punch. Izuku blocked it with one of his arms, the metal banging against his skin and making him wince.

Didn’t Mei say she was gonna put this thing on easy?!

Izuku gritted his teeth as he felt the blows continue against his arms, feeling his bones rattle and ache with each piercing shot. He finally was able to dive under the punches, swiftly pouncing through the long metallic limbs of the robot and popping up behind it. He let the flowery flames bloom from his mouth in a hoarse exhale, and they licked the back of the robot with fever. As he inhaled for another blow, Riri turned around to punch him again, her arm twisting around her body with its flexibility. Izuku quickly sucked the air back in that he was going to blast forward, when the mask began to beep and launched itself off of his face, landing with a clatter to the ground.

“Riri, stop please.” Mei yelled excitedly. The robot paused it’s punch, mere inches away from Izuku’s unguarded face. “Interesting! Very interesting!” Mei clapped once, standing up on the washing machine and jumping off to walk towards the beeping mask on the ground. “The traces were faint, but something changed. You were doing great, Biter! Colour me impressed.” Mei shot a thumbs up behind her at Izuku, crouching to intently inspect the mask. 

Izuku thought back to the fight, to his sharp inhale, when it clicked in his head. 

“Lack of oxygen. The issue with the mask is how easy it is to take oxygen away from the reaction before it can be completed. If you’re already deep into using it and you breathe in too much- it messes the whole thing up.” Izuku spoke, muttering slightly.

Mei shot an excited look up at him, turning away from the mask in her hands. “Oh you little nerd! You read my marbles!” 

Izuku was sure that wasn't how the saying went.

“Yep. Ol’ gal is affected by long exposure and breathing. Kinda crucial for a mask.” Mei tossed it up, caught it, and threw it into a pile unceremoniously. 

“Welp, I know how to fix that. Gonna need a few days, then my baby will be running like a well oiled machine!” Mei stood up with a bounce, pumping her fist as she looked at Izuku intently. Izuku huffed a laugh, smiling at the girl.

“Alright, what else do you want me to test?” Izuku spoke, amusement and comfort seeping into his tone.

Mei had a mischievous glint sweep across her eyes.

“We’re gonna be here for a few hours.”

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Izuku was put through the ringer. If he didn’t already have the reflexes of a cat, he was sure he would have been toast. Mei’s inventions were hazardous at best, deadly at worst, yet all ingenious. From pairs of rocket boots that blew up underneath him and left him dangling from the pipes lining the industrial ceiling, to stabilizing belts that would help with motion sickness (Izuku had to be swung in a circle by a giant robot for that one, something he vowed to never do again). Izuku was blown up, frozen, burned, squeezed, pinched, and nearly crushed by Mei’s inventions. 

After the hours of testing torture, Izuku found the darkness of the night creeping into the corners of the well lit shop. Izuku smelt like burnt grease, his clothes tattered and Mei covered in oils and scrapes from her work. The two of them decided to call it a night, literally closing up shop, and heading out into the bitter winds of the night. They walked down the harshly lit roads, occasional dog barks sounding over their conversation in the deep dark of the evening. It couldn’t have been later than eight, yet the winter weather darkened the skies to the cool deep blue that the city lights made them. They happily joked and chatted as they walked back into town, Mei’s loud cackle reverberating across the streets.

“Oh my god, I nearly busted a hip laughing when the leg stabilizers almost compressed your thighs flat. My babies are so feisty! And you screech like an owl!” Mei let out a loud laugh, her shoulders bouncing. 

“Shut up!” Izuku laughed. “It’s your fault I thought I was gonna lose my legs!” Izuku lightly shoved the laughing girl. 

“Hey. Dinner’s on me, if you keep coming back for testing. I have like a bajillion other projects that need human subjects.” Mei spoke. 

Izuku thought for a moment. Was it good for him to get close to anyone like this? A real friend? He shoved his hands in his hoodie pockets, linking them together.

“Alright. Where are we eating?”

They continued down the roads, Mei leading Izuku back into the nearest residential zone, showing him past the outskirts of the city and into a small shop district. Izuku felt out of place in an area that was marginally nicer than where he lived. Instead of hookers walking the streets in the night, fit women walked their dogs. Instead of people fighting in an alley, he saw couples sitting in warmly lit restaurants being served sweets. Izuku almost missed the rough and tough of his life, scared all of this softness would lull him into a comfort that dulled his sharp edges, making him too soft to fight back. He kept his shoulders hunched and his head low as Mei led him to a small diner. 

The door didn’t shabbily jingle when Izuku walked in after the girl, making him even more weary of how he looked in a place like this. They walked through the rows of cushioned booths, and as Izuku looked up at Mei’s oil streaked face and slightly burnt hair tufts, he felt just a little better about his unkempt appearance.

Friends… huh.

He looked away swiftly to hide a smile, before plopping down across from Mei in a cushy red booth. The warm lighting of the restaurant made Izuku feel nostalgic. He used to eat out at places like this with his mother when he was younger, always ordering the most American menu options he could find that reminded him of All Might. As he looked over the menus here, and decided on the ‘ Texas Grilled Ultimate Mega Big Boy Burger’. He let out a laugh at the horrible menu names. 

Mei called the waitress over, both of them swiftly being brought water and having their orders taken. As they waited for their food, Izuku sipped on his water. Truth be told, he was kind of nervous to eat anything that wasn’t raw horumon, not used to whole cooked foods anymore, he wondered how his body would take the massive burger with assortments of things like vegetables. Now that he really thought about it, Izuku couldn’t remember the last time he ate anything other than raw meats, no matter how disturbing that may have seemed. The freckled boy only hungered for blood and flesh each time he was tired, and he couldn’t bring himself to feel any way about it after such a long time of eating like an animal. He pushed down the thoughts of bloodied bodies laying still in alleys that evoked an untouched hunger within him, and looked up at Mei, who was watching him intently. He flinched suddenly, surprised his reflexes didn’t notice her gaze. 

“What’s up?” Izuku asked, trying to sound casual as he linked his hands in front of him. The girl’s eyes narrowed, glowing yellow in the warm lighting. 

“Biter…” Mei starts, her voice low and serious. “Is it a nickname?” 

Izuku starts to sweat a bit. He knew Mei dreamed of going pro, and probably wouldn’t want to dirty her record with someone like Izuku. A criminal with a fake name.

“Something like that…” Izuku shifted his eyes, lowering his tone. Mei scanned his face for a moment longer.

“It’s just… Well, I assumed you were a fanboy or identity thief or something but…” Mei put her hand under her chin, eyes pulling together in question. Izuku’s face swam with confusion, not being able to piece together the girl’s words. Mei mumbled something.

“Sorry?” Izuku asked, wanting to follow the girl’s words.

“Your fighting. You fight, obviously. I mean you nearly decimated poor Riri after a while there, and I had her on the highest setting!” Mei began, looking up at Izuku.

“Wait I thought you said-” Izuku began, before he was cut off by the pink haired girl.

“You fight, your name is Biter, you’re a creepy looking guy- no offense-, you bought high tech weapons off of me, and it’s all just lining up a little too well.” Mei quickly put her hands down on the table, leaning forward.

“I’m on local Musutafu Twitter, like, all of the time, and I know about the going ons of this city, at least in the tech aspect, like the back of my hand. Right now, Twitter is in an uproar about a local ‘hero’, but I had my money put on the guy not being a hero at all. Sure, he’s good. I’ve even seen some footage of him fighting, moves like a cat. But…” Mei trailed off.

Izuku gulped. He really didn’t like where this was going.

“You fight just like him, and I know for a fact you’re no hero. In fact, I’m pretty sure you’re living on the streets. I’m not gonna judge though, I just mean…” Mei let an excited grin spark up her face as she spoke in a hushed tone. 

“You’re a vigilante, aren’t you? You’re Musutafu’s Biter, the one that’s been getting all the attention lately.”

Izuku paled, and before he could stop it, he let his words slip. 

“I’ve been getting… attention?” He looked at her, tilting his head in confusion before slapping his hand over his mouth in realization. “Wait- no- I’m not- I mean-” he waved his hands around in desperate dismissal. Mei looked down, before bursting into a loud laugh, shaking the walls of the secluded booth they were sitting in.

“You are such a bad liar! Wow! How haven’t you been caught?!” She looked up at Izuku, as Izuku panicked. “Oh? You have been, haven't you!? Sly dog!” Mei laughed again. Izuku burned in embarrassment across the table at the loud girl’s intelligence.

Mei, you smart little asshole. Izuku huffed a sigh.

“... So… you’re… not gonna rat?” Izuku asked, his fingers digging into the table in nervousness. 

“Rat?! Honey, you literally just went to my fully illegally operated tech dungeon. I’m not an idiot!” Mei snorted. “I can’t risk my babies’ safety like that! Or, like, going to jail or whatever.” She leaned back and crossed her arms, smiling as she sunk into the plush red seats. Izuku let a genuine smile wash across his features, relief flooding his bones for a moment, before he snapped back into a stiff position.

“So… People are talking about me…?” He spoke in a whisper, leaning across the table towards Mei. “Online? Why?” Izuku’s eyebrows shifted into confusion, a small spark of happiness lighting up in his stomach. He had never wanted recognition for his actions, just change, but that didn’t mean it didn’t feel good for someone to see him. 

“Talking about you? Biter, you have fans . I’m kinda one of ‘em.” Mei played with the straw in her water absentmindedly, the ice cubes shifting around it. “I think it started with a few people trying to find out who you were after being saved and junk, mentioning you were new and underground, but awfully young and skilled. You were kind of an anomaly, but really blew up when you left that note and massive case of drugs out front the police station! That was hysterical! Some cop posted it as a gag, and it totally blew up. You were like number six on trending for a few hours in Japan. Can’t believe you never knew.” Mei shrugged, a smile playing on her features. Izuku was lost in thought. 

“I can’t believe I didn't know either…” Izuku looked off into space, staring down at his hands at the table. He must have been zoning out for a while, as he was suddenly snapped back to the present by the nice waitress delivering their food. Mei tucked into the meal like she hadn’t eaten in weeks, absolutely demolishing the food put in front of her. What was once a plate with a hearty steak sub and fries was reduced to a mere couple of spare potato bits in seconds. As she munched down on a fry, she thought to actually look up at Izuku for the first time in minutes, her yellow eyes locking onto his untouched plate.

“Are you gonna eat that?” Mei spoke, picking some spare beef out of her teeth. Izuku was still in a stagnant state of shock, half watching her devour her food, half thinking about the entire situation with him being a viral sensation. He didn’t know whether he should lean into it or not, make a name for himself. He figured he’d think about it later, and huffed a sigh before pushing his plate over to Mei’s side of the table with a faint dragging screech. 

“Gotta keep up my metabolism you know. These curves don’t make ‘em selves!” Mei giggled, immediately taking a bite of the absurdly large burger. 

“I’ll give you the fries though. Can’t have our shining vigilante go hungry.” She smiled, the food still in her teeth.

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That night, Izuku had dropped Mei off at her home, a nice suburban area he felt out of place in. She walked up to her apartment, the cool air biting through his sweater as he watched the light turn on where her room must have been. He felt tired from the lack of food he had eaten all day, and set his sights on getting home and eating a healthy portion of raw meat. Whatever was left, he was sure he could take. 

Later that night, he heard the front door ring as he entered, and checked the back for any new meats he could eat, yet he had seen that Mr.Landlord had cleaned up for the night, nothing edible left for Izuku. The dim lighting made the restaurant feel other worldly, almost always having drunk patrons and warm lighting for as long as Izuku had been in this way. He was more partial to jumping the rooftops in the deep dark of the night to leave his room nowadays, but he did occasionally go out through the front in civilian clothing. He’d never seen it like this. 

Izuku quietly padded up the stairs and into his small, cozy room. The tatami floors smelled like a welcoming hug to him, and he kicked off his shoes by the door to sit down. 

He was tired. Very tired, yet he couldn’t be bothered to sleep, a deep curiosity pulling him towards the waking hours he normally napped right through. Before he could force himself to knock out, Izuku had found himself booting up his computer. 

Huh? When did I…?

He seemed to blink and again, the screen had changed. He was in the process of making a twitter account. 

The_RealBiter… He hit enter.

Izuku was typing out a tweet. 

Izuku was sending a tweet.

Izuku went to sleep.

Overnight, the tweet by ‘The_RealBiter’ blew up. Every hero gossip blog was talking about it, and it garnered millions of views in a few hours as Izuku slept through the morning. All it read was a simple;

“Eraserhead is a bitch, and his stupid cop friends shot me. Thanks, geezer.”

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Izuku had no idea the chaos he had just caused. 

Chapter Text

Musutafu Hero Twitter was in pandemonium.

 If Biter wasn’t a household name before, it was most certainly now. The hot topic of the 'sassy new vigilante that had the ultimate influencer swagger' was all anyone could talk about, after his first appearance from a comedic delivery to the police station, (A suitcase of highly illegal drugs), to his newest Twitter crusades. 

It all started with a simple tweet towards a prolific underground hero, Eraserhead, calling him out in a jokester way that was so uncharacteristically blunt for speaking to heroes, that Musutafu fell in love with the vigilante overnight. Hundreds of thousands of likes rolled in on Izuku’s account, shocking him in the morning as he awoke to thousands of newfound followers. 

Izuku remained a large mystery in the streets, nobody being able to get a good photo of him to link to any of his tweets, nor a solid idea of what he did. He knew it was an impossibly bad idea to have a social media presence as he remained underground, but the small child seeking approval in him thought just a few more tweets couldn’t hurt. 

And then a few more.

And then a few more…

Over the course of a week, Izuku became a sort of niche microcelebrity in the Musutafu area. He would post things as mundane as a snarky comment towards a criminal he took down, to something as big as the occasional leaked classified information about criminals in the areas that had people scared far and wide. Biter became a common street name, the popular vigilante of the week, and his blunt and humorous takes became a smashing hit every time he posted, with his skills being undoubted among police and villains in his vicinity.

Of course, with popularity comes a price. 

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Izuku had just finished tying up a criminal he had found attempting to assault a civilian, leaving him as he swiftly asked the victim to call the police for him. The street was fairly empty where he was, so he knew to get out of there as quickly as possible to not stir up any commotion. He wanted to feel at least a little rested before he met Mei tomorrow, so he was looking to end his shift early.

Izuku’s stomach growled for horumon, a jittery excitement taking over him as he dreamily thought about eating a good meal when he got home. The wind was strangely stagnant tonight, not that it ever blew too harshly in the cramped downtown Musutafu streets. The world felt quiet for once, only Izuku’s muted footsteps carrying through the streets as he slowed to a light jog. 

He remembered nights like these before he had his abilities were daunting. Though he always knew as a young boy that he shouldn’t have been out at hours like this, he had always found misfortune on his side as a child. The streets scared him. Too tall, too murky, too foreign, nothing like his loving home and soft mother.

He felt his heart ache in his chest. He blended into these streets perfectly now. 

Suddenly, in the deathly quiet, Izuku heard a small noise, his ears picking up on a shrill noise from his right. He slowed his jog, turning to look where it had come from. 

He turned to look beside him, but couldn’t make out the figure in the dark. He heard the noise again, now recognizing it as little sobs coming from the street. 

Izuku’s hairs stood on end, a shiver galloping across his body. The darkness normally comforted him, kept him hidden from the world that had chewed him up and spit him back out, but this was a darkness he didn’t recognize. Something was wrong . 

He stopped dead in his tracks, feeling as though he was being tracked, prey instincts kicking in. The sob sounded again, a mockery to Izuku’s ears. Izuku knew he couldn’t be Izuku in this situation, a shy boy who ran. In this gear, he was Biter, and Biter alone. Biter wouldn’t cower, but he would be strategic about this. He flicked a switch on the side of his gas mask, immediately the sides lit up in a neon green glow for a moment, doing nothing to stop the darkness that permeated the sobbing figure. 

“Hello?” He spoke out, his voice cold and garbled with the gas mask changing it for intimidation sake. 

The sob got a little louder, and Izuku was tempted to simply leave. Maybe, if he was smarter, he would have, but even with the monster he knew he had become, Izuku always tried to do the heroic thing for civilians. He took a cautious step forward, still crouched like an alley cat, ready to pounce. 

“Are you alright? I won’t hurt you.” Izuku’s voice echoed through the eerily quiet street, his ears ringing from the break in the silence. His footsteps were slow as he tracked towards the figure, stalking as he tried to maintain his escape opportunities. 

He couldn’t put his finger on what was wrong, but something was. The sobs were too periodic, like a call, they rang out unnaturally. The hunched figure didn’t run to him for help, didn’t call out for Izuku, unmoving. He attempted to adjust his eyes in the dark of the alley as he got closer, but to no avail. It was all too quiet.

Suddenly, as though it had never been there, the figure dissipated into thin air. Izuku was now deep in the alley, and he knew.

Bad news.

Izuku turned around to bolt, his legs pressing into the ground as he was prepared to leap and bound out of the area, acid thrumming through his veins as his fears were warranted, gut cold in suspended fear. 

It’s a trap it’s a trap shit shit shit!

Izuku took two steps before he tripped, or more like the ground ceased to exist beneath him. He felt his body fall forwards, a little yelp escaping his mouth as he was dragged down into an abyss, falling as his stomach crowded his throat. 

In what felt like slow motion, Izuku was thrust into murky blackness, falling down, down, down, until he tumbled through and into a brighter area than the void, shocking his eyes and rendering him blind for a moment. He tried to stabilize himself, find ground to land on, but he simply hit a hard floor with a loud thud from a direction he hadn’t fallen in. Before he could stand, pain bloomed in his skull, and he was immediately thrust into a falling blackness again, this time, one of sleep. 

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.

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Izuku’s head was killing him. The pounding resonated through his skull like a kick drum to his cranium. He blearily opened his eyes. 

Not another concussion… wh-

Izuku’s eyes shot open, scanning where he was immediately, before trying to move. He had found he was strapped down in chains connecting to a dingy hardwood floor, ratting as he groggily tried to move from where he was captured. 

Oh. Oh no. 

Izuku immediately worried the police had somehow found him again, but the deep worry in his stomach and the malice clouding the air told him something much worse than the police had found him. He was a sitting duck. The deathly looking boy immediately tried to pull out of his chains, but they had him locked in a sitting position on the floor, strapped down by massive metal clamps that wouldn’t budge even as Izuku threw all of his strength into it.

He grunted with his efforts, his head still pounding, before he looked up. 

Izuku could tell he was in a dingy, run down bar. The light flickered wearily overhead, and the bottles lining the wall all appeared to have liquor still filling them. Izuku almost didn’t notice the man standing behind the bar, casually cleaning glassware.

He appeared to be made of a rising black smoke, wisps of it flowing around him, his impressive stature making his smoke seem even higher than it already made him look. He had horrifying yellow eyes that gleamed with a sick distaste that made Izuku’s stomach curl, yet he was dressed like a professional bartender. 

Izuku sensed another presence in the room, but could only see a scraggily head of light bluish white hair peeking over the top of a plush couch. Was he playing… Mario Kart?

“He’s awake.” The smoke man spoke in a deep, rumbling voice, putting down the glassware without sparing a glance towards Izuku. The game of Mario Kart was paused. 

Izuku watched as the man playing the game stood up. All thin limbs and baggy black clothes that hung off of him like a child playing dress up. Izuku felt his stomach churn, the deep resonating malice coming off of the man in waves. Izuku had been scared before, sure, but he had never felt such a level of evil hatred coming from a person. Not on the streets, not from his school, never. 

The man moved unnaturally, hunched and stalking like a dangerous predator as he turned the corner around the couch. Izuku dared to attempt to meet his eyes, but was met with a… hand covering his face? From the skin Izuku could see on the man’s hands and neck, it was scarred. Broken, cracked, and scratched to hell. He looked as though he was going to flake apart on Izuku. Izuku knew when the man had locked his eyes on him, even though he couldn’t see them, they practically burnt holes through him. The deep unease burned in his stomach, his body threatening to jump away, screaming at him to leave this space.

Villains. 

Real, honest to god villains. 

“Biter.” The light haired man spat out with hatred, his voice sounding crushed and scratching on Izuku’s ears unfavorably. 

“You’ve become a real problem for me, you know that? A real nuisance. But you already know what you’ve done. Yess, don’t play stupid. I’m in control here.” The man muttered, seemingly speaking half to Izuku and half to himself. 

“Don’t even try to escape. We took all of your gadgets, bells and whistles. You can’t even fight with a quirk like a real hero, what kind of lame ass NPC needs to have stats like yours? We have to eliminate you, have to, have to, have to…” He trailed off, his words scorching Izuku with their dripping hostility.

This guy’s crazy. I need to get out of here.

“Tomura, stay focused.” The smoke man warned. 

“I KNOW THAT!!!” The man, Tomura, yelled, his vocal chords scraping against each other.

“Biter. You are a scorn on me.” The man warned, his childish mutterings ceasing as he burned holes through Izuku. “You’re a fake hero! A fake in that society of goody two shoes… you have so much potential to be better! To bring the whole system down! Yet you’re playing for the man keeping you down.” Tomura snarled.

“We could use you. A little… asset of ours went rogue not too long ago, and you could very well fill the hole he left in our company. That stupid high ranking rogue… killing the doctor and going off like some hero to disappear… I want to kill him, I want to kill him, I want to kill him…” The man once again clawed at his skin, blood droplets being dragged out and beading on the pale expanse of his skin. 

“You’ll fit perfectly. Yes.” He muttered.

Izuku was horribly confused. Not only was this man asking him to join him doing god knows what and rambling like a mad man, but he was going on about some old… coworker? 

“I should probably tell you the position you’ll fill. Have you heard of Dusk Hunter?” The man rasped out, his words being spat out with such vitriol, Izuku thought he might start spewing acid.

The name rang a bell in Izuku’s brain, the rogue vigilante Eraserhead had been tracking for months that he had informed Izuku of at the police station before they were on… not great terms. He’d even said it was likely that Dusk Hunter was connected to Izuku due to how closely related their fighting styles were, though Izuku had no recollection of the man. He’d never said anything about the vigilante belonging to a villain organization before… 

Izuku quickly realized he was in a very powerful position. If he could just dig a little deeper, pry just politely enough while feigning interest for the man’s organization, he could get a little bit closer to someone who might know what had happened to him in the months since his disappearance. He could find the missing link that had been the closest he’d gotten to anything surrounding his disappearance since he had come back. 

Curiosity curled around his stomach as he continued to listen to the crusty man speak.

“I’m surprised, you actually know who he is… hm.” He rasped out. Izuku was sure he hadn’t said anything. “You probably only know the name, but that fucker was a lot more than a name…” he mumbled some vague threats under his breath, his itching becoming more intense. 

“He was our little pet, of sorts. Like a nutty son to one of the scientists working under us, he was born out of something you wouldn’t understand. He worked like a dog, even acted like one too. Not a happy puppy, a vicious guard dog. All snarling teeth and obedience, a blank slate for us to use. We got him to do our dirty work, disposing of anyone who dared get in our way, hero and villain alike, until he snapped. He went MIA a few months ago, killing his creator before he left us. That really put a wrench in our plans. I just want to watch his face crumble beneath my hands…. That idiot side character didn’t know what he was messing with….” He devolved into curses against the man, violently scratching at his skin at the point, curling in on himself as malice rolled off of him, nearly suffocating Izuku. 

“You were easy enough to find through your idiot Twitter. I know your skill from the lowlifes around this area shaking in their boots at your stupid name. You’re fighting for the wrong side, we want to bring you to the light. Replace Dusk Hunter, join us.”

Izuku was already confident within a few sentences that he had more to go off of surrounding Dusk Hunter than Eraserhead had collected during the course of the case. He felt a slight excitement well in his stomach, but it was quickly replaced by dread. He knew that if he wanted to follow this path to find the man who could have known him when he was gone, he would have to continue to play into the horrifying man’s plans. He really didn’t want to know what those were. He began to croak out his first words in a while.

“What are you guys..?” 

The creepy man stood up taller, his eyes seeming to gleam red between the fingers of the hand gripping onto his face. 

“We are the League of Villains.” He spoke with a haunting tone and a sinister smile. “And we are going to kill the symbol of peace.”

Silence.

Izuku’s heart sunk in his chest, dipping down into the icy pool forming at the base of his stomach. Something about the way the man-child had spoken about his plans with such desire, such certainty, made Izuku’s organs curdle.

They want to…kill All Might?

Izuku couldn’t help but let the unease crowd his face, scrunching his eyebrows and dragging his lips down in disdain. No matter how close he was to finding a link to where he had gone missing, to who he was, he couldn’t side with that. He may have become a monster, but he was still Izuku Midoriya, the effervescent hero lover. He pulled his features into submission, flicking his eyes between the two men in the room. 

“You’re crazy. That would never work.” Izuku croaked out, his voice flat with fear. “All Might is larger than life, there’s nothing that could beat him.” He spoke, panic searing through his chest as Tomura began walking closer to him. 

He crouched down in front of Izuku, now eye to eye with the chained up boy. Izuku had never felt a stronger urge to flee, his entire body pulsing with a dull fear that made his muscles constrict his bones and his organs push against his body uncomfortably. 

“You have no idea what I’m capable of, Biter. What my men are capable of.” Tomura snarled, his red eyes staring straight through Izuku’s sickly ones. While Izuku’s eyes had long lost their sparkle, gray and deathly, Tomura’s had a glimmer of evil. Malice, hatred blooming through them that reached into Izuku’s heart and blackened it by proximity. 

“The League of Villains isn’t some small fry villain organization like those other wannabes out there. No, we’re much, much more than that. We can and will kill that faker All Might, as well as his other dumb hero friends. They are a plague on this world, keeping down the underbelly of society that they dare not look at, born into fortunate power… nothing about them is fair, just, or heroic. ” The pale man spat out the words, searing their intensity into Izuku. 

The freckled boy knew he wouldn’t be able to break the chains he was in, clearly enhanced by some incredible material. He locked his eyes onto Tomura’s, and did what he did best. 

Bluffed.

“...And if I don’t join? If I refuse?” Izuku spoke bitterly, his face twisting in a fearful scowl. Tomrura’s eyes darkened. He walked away from Izuku and over to the bar the shadow man was still dutifully working at, grabbing a small glass between two fingers. He walked back over to Izuku, stalking, before switching the glass to a full grip, all of his fingers locked onto the surface of it. 

Izuku watched, fascinated, as the glass began to flake and disintegrate. The decay rotted the surface, turning it into dust that dropped to the ground in a mere instant, blackened and dead. Izuku kept his eyes on Tomura’s hands, watching in what seemed like half speed as he reached his hand up towards Izuku’s face, fingers spread and ready to maim. Izuku pulled away, but his head hit the wall behind him with a dull thud, his eyes crossing as he watched the man’s hand get closer, stopping a mere centimeter from Izuku’s pale skin. Izuku’s heart roared in his ears, taking quivering breaths. 

“I could get rid of you in a much easier way. There’s many others willing to fill Dusk Hunter’s position, you’re just my favourite waste of space I could change for the better.” The man spoke with a horrifying smile, his own decayed voice grating against Izuku’s nerves.

Izuku saw no way out of this. All he could see was death staring him in the face, the man’s powerful quirk ready to kill Izuku in a mere second. Izuku couldn’t look away, couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe. He was trapped, and the only way to get out was to go through. With death at every stop, Izuku chose to live as long as he could get away with. 

“I’ll…” He stabled his shaking voice, fear cooling his veins. 

“I’ll do whatever you need me to do.” 

Tomura smiled wickedly under the hand latched onto his face.

“I’m glad we see eye to eye on this.” He rasped out. He quickly shot his hand out, Izuku closed his eyes and flinched backwards, expecting to die in that moment, before he felt the heavy weights on his arms and legs vanish, flakes of dust left covering his clothes. Tomura had disintegrated the chains that held him down. Izuku immediately shot up, dropping into a defensive stance while rubbing his sore wrists. 

“Don’t try to escape now that we’ve made our deal. I’d have to find you and kill you, you know.” Tomura spat at Izuku, amusement filling his tone as he stared down at Izuku, daring him to try anything. Izuku froze, forcing himself to relax his stance as much as he could. 

The villain suddenly dropped his face, looking blankly at Izuku. 

“Kurogiri!” The smoke man’s head shot up, looking over to Tomura. “Would you tell Biter our little mission for him? I think I’ve seen enough of his face for a while.” The man stormed off, pushing out through a door to the side of Izuku. He really reminded Izuku of a child dropping a toy they were done playing with in a split second, looking somewhere else for their source of fun. 

Now, it was just Izuku in the room with the freakish silent smoke man and his overwhelmingly panicked thoughts. 

I think… I may have just joined a violent anti-hero terrorist group… 

Izuku mulled over that thought for a moment, still panting with the fear the scraggly man had left in him moments ago, but was pulled out of his stupor by the rumbling voice of Kurogiri.

“Biter, we’re excited to have you here. We’ve had our eyes on you for a while.” He put down the glass he was wiping, a dull clink sounded as it hit the one next to it. Izuku belatedly wondered if polishing glasses was a hobby of his. The dim lights made his eyes seem to glow brighter than should be possible as he locked eyes with Izuku. 

“We can’t fully trust you just yet, though.” He motioned towards the plush, cracking leather couches in the area. “Sit.” 

Izuku hesitated for a moment, before obediently padding over to the couches and sitting, back rigid against the dark material. His heart was still sounding in his ears, but the threat had left the room, easing him for a moment. 

Kurogiri sauntered over to the couches casually, his expensive looking dress shoes making the hardwood floors creak underneath him. The man was a looming figure over Izuku, towering over him like a skyscraper before he sat down in the arm chair across from him, a simple coffee table separating them.

“My name is Kurogiri.” He began, leaning back comfortably in the chair. “The man you just met was Tomura Shigaraki, the head of the League of Villains. He’s had an acute interest in you for a while, I must say, so no matter how harsh he may seem, I guarantee you he’s ecstatic you’ve joined us.” The man’s voice sounded, though the smoke wisped around him, Izuku couldn’t see a mouth moving as he spoke. It was strangely eerie to see the voice come out of nowhere. 

“About the mission, I’ve gathered you have a strength enhancing quirk of sorts. Is that true?” The man placed his hands on top of each other in his lap, polite and docile, in contrast to the man’s appearance. 

 Izuku nodded.

“Ah, good. Any conditions to fulfill for such a quirk? We’ve been watching you for a while, your fighting is incredible.” 

Izuku thought for a moment. There was really only one thing he needed to do to uphold his strength, speed, healing, and overall abilities. 

Eat.

“Ah… I need to… eat raw flesh…” Izuku spoke, slightly embarrassed of such a horrific quirk. Kurogiri’s eyes lit up in interest. 

“I see… Well, you’re certainly an apt replacement, I’ll tell you that much.” He leaned forward in his seat. 

“The mission is simple. All we need you to do is complete a trade of some… goods. If you can keep your head down, no questions asked, and pose a high enough threat, we’ll consider using you for our future projects. Fail? Well, Tomura can take care of you then.” He was silent for a moment, the words sinking into Izuku’s brain. 

“We have a meet up with some business associates. We just need some firepower in the back, and a strength quirk for intimidation and guarding sense is more than ideal. Biter is a name that’s already holding some weight in the underground, and having you as a bodyguard of sorts makes trades a lot smoother for us. Of course, you won’t just be eye candy.” Kurogiri locked eyes with Izuku, the yellow slits burning bright. 

“The trade is going to go south. We have word from the inside that these people are planning something to take out the League during the trade. Your job? Take them out before they have the chance. Fail us, and we discard you too.” Kurogiri finished speaking, leaning back in his chair. 

Izuku swallowed. 

“Yeah, sure.”

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.

.

Izuku stepped through the warp gate Kurogiri had created, out into cool air accompanied by the tailend of a sunset. It was the same murky blackness he had fallen into when he was first kidnapped, recognizing the icy darkness of the feeling of being warped that he had experienced upon falling through the ground on that quiet street. 

His equipment was given back to him before he was thrust through the gate, his mask, gloves, and smoke bombs weighing heavily on his body like a curse. The knowledge that he would actually have to maim to survive haunted him deeply, a vacant wide eyed stare following him through that gate. 

As did around five other miscellaneous villains. Extra backup, Izuku presumed. 

The warp gate had led them to the inside of an abandoned multi level parking garage, the gray never ending parking spaces branching out in front of them like a field of abandon. Izuku could sense there were other people not of their group in the parking garage with them, their heartbeats sounding slightly around the room. 

Shigaraki stepped out of a separate warp gate in front of the men organized as backup, his back hunched, a dramatic overcoat adorning his body covered in pale hands attached to him. He managed to smother his murderous presence as he waited for his dealers to show up impatiently. 

A group of thuggish looking men stepped out into the dim light of the garage, the warm cast of the sunlight filtering in through the windows doing nothing to stop the dark cloud of evil Izuku could sense filling the room. He watched with tuned eyes as the men situated themselves in a defensive position, Izuku tracking their movements. A nervous tick from a man in the back, a confident shoulder roll from a man to the right. Izuku could read lower level criminals like these any day, he’d fought countless people like them on the streets.

“Tomura Shigaraki.” The front man spoke with a snarl. He was big, bald, and looked to be maybe fifty. His clothes were nice, but not nice enough to make him a big deal. “Never thought I’d see the day we trade with an organization like yourselves, but money talks.” The man shrugged, confidently putting his hands in his pockets. Kurogiri materialized next to Shigaraki. 

“Your small talk is infuriating, show us what we’re paying for, and we’ll be on our way.” Shigaraki rasped out, his malice escaping in waves of irritation towards the talkative man.

“Now, now comrade! That’s no way to speak to a business partner, is it? I see you’ve got some fancy toys! A warp gate quirk, a group of men, and…” The man strolled his eyes over to Izuku, locking onto him. His face faltered for a moment, the smug smile seeming to flicker over with shock. “Hm. Biter? Aren’t you a ‘for the greater good’ type? You should be takin’ down guys like Shigaraki here! Haha!” The man let out a hearty laugh. Shigaraki curled in on himself with anger, rasping out a thick growl. 

Izuku kept his jaw locked, showing no reaction to the man’s accusations. Of course he shouldn’t be here, it’s not like he had a choice otherwise. He would never side with these villains, except for his own wellbeing. 

For a moment, the strange boy thought that he really had become a selfish person since he’d come back from missing. That bothered him more than anything the bald man could spew. 

“Cut the yapping, Doro. We want what we’re here for, don’t try to drag this out.” Shigaraki warned. “We upheld our end of the deal.” He snapped his fingers, and one of the men Izuku had come out of the warp gate with held up a briefcase filled to the brim with what had to be millions of yen. “Now show us yours.” 

The man sighed, holding his hands up in mock surrender, before nodding to the man next to him. He and two other men walked off to the other side of the parking garage, coming back with massive covered dog cages. They were the largest cages Izuku had ever seen, and a drop in his stomach told him something really bad was in his presence. 

The men set the cages down in a line in front of Shigaraki, still keeping their distance. The villain holding the briefcase of money handed it over to Shigaraki, and he walked over to inspect the cages, swiftly lifting the ratty covers off of them.

Izuku felt like he was going to throw up.

Each cage held an unconscious person, slurring, beat up, muddied and malnourished. They looked half dead, barely cramped inside the area they were given. One was a middle aged woman, her hair sprawled out across her in a frizzy mess sprayed in blood. She was unmoving, her head falling limply to the side. The next was a younger boy, his bright red bat wings cramming inside the cage with him. He couldn’t be older than Izuku, with a stockier build and what looked to be a busted leg. He groaned for a moment, before a man behind him kicked the cage and he stopped. The final was an older man, his skin pale and his eyes sunken where he was curled up uncomfortably. Izuku bit back bile.

They were trading people.

“You brought us broken ones!” Shigaraki hollered. “We specified good conditions!” He rasped out, itching his skin with feverish intensity. He looked as though he was feigning to decay the men in front of him. 

“Hey, we brought them in the best condition we could. We don’t exactly run a spa resort, you know?” The man smirked. 

Shigaraki looked as though he was about to reach out to press his fingers into the man and turn him to dust, before Kurogiri placed his hand calmly on the young man’s shoulder. He immediately bit back a growl, dropping his hand to his side. Izuku knew how badly they needed these people for whatever sick thing they were planning to do with them, so he didn’t doubt they would pay the men anyways. 

Shigaraki called his men over to pick up the cages with people, and Izuku felt his body frozen in horror. He had to stop this, somehow, but every plan he could think of just didn’t seem good enough. They all ended in his death, or the death of an innocent. 

Suddenly, something caught his vision out of the corner of his eye. In seemingly slow motion, he watched with bated breath as one of the backup men held his hand up, ready to shoot. Izuku remembered, in this game, it was him or the others, and he had no intention of losing. On instinct alone, he ducked down, pulling a throwing knife out of the strap of them he had hooked around his arm, and threw it forward with pinpoint precision. The knife hurdled through the air, wedging itself straight into the man’s hand as he screamed in agony before his quirk could go off. 

Everyone tensed,

.

.

.

The fight was on. 

Chapter Text

Izuku sprinted over to the men, immediately pulling his knives out from holsters around his waist, his grip heavy handed on them, before slashing the man who had raised his hand in opposition across the neck, watching the blood spurt out like confetti. 

The men surrounding him immediately jumped into action, as did the LOV guards, sprinting at Biter as either backup or enemies. Izuku immediately used the momentum of his knife, continuing the motion into a drop kick that brought one of the men down to the ground. He threw a knife straight between the man’s eyes, lodging it in his forehead with a sickening slice. 

Izuku watched as one of the men’s hair immediately shot out of his head, speedily drifting towards him. Izuku slashed at the incoming hair, knowing with that speed it would surely knock him unconscious. His knife cut through the hair, a continuous motion as he slashed hundreds of times a second, guarding himself. The hair just kept coming, encroaching towards him as his knife decimated  it before it could get to him. 

The man was tackled by one of the LOV guards, immediately falling to the ground, his hair being whipped away from its barrage on Izuku. In that split moment, he picked the knife out of the man on the floor’s forehead, throwing it. It sliced through the air in a millisecond, lodging itself in the hair man’s chest. He looked down at the knife sticking out of him, and promptly passed out. 

I’ve been there before…

Izuku threw a kick backwards at one of the men incoming, twisting around to run at him, sending a lethal punch packed with all of the power he could muster straight to the man’s blocking arms. He watched them splinter under the weight of the punch, immediately cracking underneath the blow. The man screamed in agony as his bones pushed through the skin and out the other side of his arm, effectively breaking him too far to continue to fight. He screamed as he dropped to the ground, attempting to grab at his own wounds, and failing as the bones were too broken to move. 

Izuku turned away from him, blocking the swipe from a man who looked to be a lion. He roared at Izuku, sending multiple heavy hitting blows with his powerful paws towards Izuku. Izuku used the holster of his knife to knock back against the man, pushing his arm backwards as he stumbled from the blow. Izuku went to swipe his knife at him, but was immediately kicked from the side by another one of the men. Izuku stumbled, rolling back into standing position as he slid backwards from the blow. He gritted his teeth slightly as his side throbbed in pain from the blow, but regained his composure quickly as the lion man and the kicker ran at him. The freckled boy immediately shot up, blocked a blow from the lion man, and jumped over a low kick from the other. 

“S’ that all you got?!” Izuku roared.

He swiftly pulled knives out from his boots as he crouched, sending both of them flying at the men with extreme accuracy and a grunt of exertion. Chaos sounded around him as the other men fought the hordes of incoming gang members surrounding them.

 Are they hiding in the walls? He thought dryly, They seemed never ending!

One of the knives landed straight into the neck of the man who had kicked Izuku, knocking him down as he dropped like a sack of potatoes. The other knife was quickly dodged by the lion man, skimming the skin under his fur on his face. Izuku cursed under his breath as the man ran at him, dancing around his clumsy attempts to tackle Izuku to the ground. He watched as the man stumbled slightly too far from Izuku, giving the vigilante just enough time to swivel on his foot, shooting a kick sideways that landed straight in the lion man’s gut. He pushed all of his strength through to his leg, feeling the man’s organs squish under his steel toed boots. The lion was immediately sent flying, shooting through the battlefield and falling limply into a support beam, cracking the concrete with his traveling weight, and falling to the ground like a rag doll. 

Through the chaos, Izuku saw Shigaraki watching him, eyes gleaming in interest. His glare sent shivers down Izuku’s spine, unease pooling in his stomach. Izuku looked down in front of the sick man, and saw the cages, still filled with people. Izuku knew he had to get them out of there, no matter what. He wondered if he could use the chaos to his advantage… Kurogiri was using portals to confuse the men they were fighting, preoccupied with opening and closing the inky voids with precision to block the blows.

Izuku was certain he could outrun Shigaraki… The man had very little- if any muscle. He appeared to rely on his quirk, and not his body, which left him overpowered by someone like Izuku. If Izuku could just out-move him, he could escape this situation. 

In the split second he took to think, he was immediately sent flying backwards with a punch to the face. Izuku stumbled, before regaining himself in a crouched position, jumping at the man who had attacked him and hooking his legs around his neck like a monkey. He grabbed the sides of the man’s face on instinct alone, swiftly pushing energy into his hands, and gripping. He swiftly twisted the man’s head, pulling harshly and quickly until a sick crack resonated through the room. 

Izuku thought he would be sick. He had definitely just killed a man. Knives were one thing, but his bare hands..? No, no these were villains. Traffickers. He felt the icy dread continue to fill his veins. 

All he had ever wanted was to be a hero, but do heroes kill their enemies?

Izuku couldn’t think too much about his actions before he was blocking blows from people coming in all directions. The dull pains of blows connected with his blocking arms, redirecting the hits and punches as he sent his own fists flying to keep the men at bay. There had to be almost twenty more men than had originally been guarding the main dealer, half of them gunning for Izuku while the others were stealthily taken down the minute they were ganged up on by two or more of the opposing team. 

This match was nothing but unfair, but Izuku figured that was how it was in the real world. 

At least in his world. 

Izuku felt the smell of blood from the countless bodies around him waft into his nose, suddenly remembering his long unsatiated hunger from the kidnapping. He felt rage fill him, an uneasy feeling that scorched his insides. His fighting became quicker, more overtly aggressive, sloppier, yet stronger. He let out a cackle, salivating while he fought. He reached down to his side, using one of the last smoke bombs he still had from Mei, and threw it down onto the ground with a bang. 

The bomb exploded, sending a massive plume of smoke barreling outwards. It quickly encompassed the battlefield, all of the fighters losing their vision in the area. 

“What the fuck?!” The men screamed, panicked voices rising as they tried to find their barrings. 

Izuku focused, breathing in as he tuned into the world around him. He closed his eyes, listening in for any small noises of people moving. He heard a shuffling noise, he’d throw a knife. Immediately after, a body would hit the floor. He would hear a heartbeat, he’d throw a knife, a body would hit the floor. He continued doing this, standing stark still as the bodies around him dropped like flies. He snuck up behind some lackeys as the smoke laid heavy in the area, stabbing them in the back with a scream of agony sounding. As the others heard their comrades falling, they immediately rushed, making more mistakes, being louder as they blindly swung in an attempt to find Biter amongst the chaos. Izuku’s eyes remained closed as he took out each of the poor men who dared make a noise amongst the smoke, whipping and hurling himself in the directions he sensed any movement from. 

Like a wild animal, he relied entirely on his senses. The boy could almost taste the sweet stench of blood in the air, feel his muscles every movement in his body, sense everything as he cut off his vision. He was absolutely feral, continuing to decimate the numbers of men that were lost in the smoke, blindly swinging. 

Izuku still felt Shigaraki’s eyes on him, extra weary of their intensity.

Until they were gone. 

Suddenly, a loud bang shook Izuku. The door to the stair lobby was bust open, and what had to be at least thirty people funneled in, their boots clunking against the ground in a manner that seemed highly organized compared to the men Izuku had just fought. Izuku opened his eyes, panting. The thick smoke from the bombs he had set off swiftly dissipated, thinning enough for him to make out the intruders in the remaining haze. 

Police crouched, guns aimed straight at Izuku as he stood amongst piles of bodies, some belonging to the LOV guards, others belonging to the countless men he and the others had taken down. Blood pooled at his feet, streaked across his gear. He stared down the barrel of the rifles pointed at him by the SWAT team, wide eyed. 

He wearily looked behind him, frantic, to see the remaining members of the LoV completely gone, as were the people in cages. 

“SIR DON’T MOVE!” Shouted one of the cops, his voice echoing off the walls of the empty parking garage. 

Izuku’s breath came out in wheezy gasps. 

The people are gone… they took them! What… are they going to do to them?

I… failed to save them.

Izuku’s heart sunk in his chest. 

“I-” He began, trying to explain the carnage around him and plead with the officers to go save those people.

“SIR, PLEASE DO NOT MOVE! PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR, WE WILL COME TO YOU!” The man yelled again. Izuku began walking forwards, pleading with the police in his panic.

“No you don’t understand- I-!” 

He felt his entire body tense, pain rippling through his as he gritted back a scream. The taser sunk deep into the vigilante, the voltage extremely high for his young body. He immediately seized up, dropping to the ground as he convulsed from the electricity. The last thing he remembered before everything went black was the stench of bloody concrete and the loud stepping boots running to detain him.

His thoughts were swept from his brain in the pain, and his body failed him. 

He failed.

.

.

.

When Izuku drifted back from the desolate black of unconsciousness, he slowly opened his eyes to the bright, fluorescent lights. He felt strangely light, as though no worries could possibly reach him where he was…

Before the world came crashing down on him.

The police had found him. 

Izuku immediately shot up, the contents of the past twenty four hours crashing down on him. He swung his feet off the side of the bed he was sitting on, cradling his head in his hands as he groaned. 

Fuck, fuck, FUCK! Wait… bed?

Izuku lifted his curls out of the deathly grip his hands had on them, peering down at his feet for a moment. Sure enough, he was on a bed. The bed was cold and hard metal with a white blanket on top of it. The floors beneath his feet were bare concrete, and he looked a little closer at his feet, now placed in an uncomfortable pair of what looked like black slide-on shoes without laces. 

Case in point, definitely not his boots. 

The vigilante shot up, realizing his gear was gone also, patting down his body to feel the scratchy jump suit he was placed in. It was bright orange, a shirt and matching pants that hung too loosely off of his young body. Izuku gulped, looking around. 

The room was small, almost entirely unfamiliar concrete, with a thick window out to the hall. He had a toilet, sink, bed, and that was all. The hallway outside of the window was brightly lit, lined with the same concrete, and looked over out across a large area with stairs leading down, and closed off by a rail that had doors lining across from it. 

Izuku may have still been in shock, his injuries gone and his mind blind with panic, yet he could still recognize how royally screwed he was. 

A high security prison. 

He let out an unbelieving laugh. They didn’t even hear him out, understand why he did what he did. Izuku felt his throat constrict with the weight of the situation. 

Sure, he knew if he had ever been caught, he would have most definitely been put away. He had multiple accounts of theft, obstruction of justice, assaulting officers, and of course, vigilantism, but now? With the blood bath Izuku had left at the parking garage, attempting to make it out of his predicament alive, there was no way he was ever getting out of here. 

Ever.

The boy’s heart echoed in his ears, his breaths coming out in wheezy gasps as he doubled over in shock. His heart felt like it was beating out of his chest, constricting his lungs, making him choke back horrified sobs. 

The wheezes quickened, panic gripping his body tightly. The young boy began gripping at the awfully bright orange shit he was placed in, which he didn’t want to think how he was placed in, and clawing towards his heart, thumping on his chest as he tried to force himself to breathe. The walls felt as though they were closing in on him, locking him in a panic purgatory.

His vision went black, gasping and wheezing while he recounted the events. He went to reach up to his neck, attempting to free his throat from the tight gasping pains of breathing, when he felt cool metal meet his fingertips. 

His breathing stopped entirely, panic still making his skin hot while his insides were cool in fear. He traced his fingers around the metallic ring hooked up to his neck, little breathing room between him and the device.

Izuku knew what this was.

Before he had gone missing, he was not only a massive fan of heroes, but had an acute interest in what happened to the villains. In his time in middle school, he did some research into how criminals are actually treated. A miniature subcategory of his hero hyper fixation, if you will. 

One of the more inhumane things he remembered from his research was just what he had on his neck.

A quirk canceling collar.

Izuku gulped.

See, with any other person, that may not have been that big of a deal. Sure, if your quirk is emitting something, or controlling something, you could live without that. Izuku on the other hand? He was entirely unsure of the consequences of his ‘quirk’ being gone.

Izuku was uncertain of what his quirk really was to his body. 

He gulped back his fear, steeling himself. Panic would do him no good in a situation like this, it’s not like he could will this away. If Izuku had learned one thing since he had come back to life, it was that you couldn’t wish the bad things away. He had to face this head on. 

Izuku’s eyes locked onto a figure walking for a moment past his cell. He immediately trailed the woman, as well as the two massive guards with her, as she walked over to the heavy door guarding his room. Izuku wiped his face of tears he hadn’t realized he’d cried, sitting up straighter as the door began to clank and clang.

Two guards immediately walked in, rushing over to Izuku.

“Wai-” Izuku tried to reason, before they set up a chair in the small space, and both pointed their massive rifles straight at Izuku’s face, staring down the aim on their guns with intensity.

“Would it kill you to loosen up?” Izuku murmured to the men under his breath.

A woman in an all white pantsuit with oval glasses walked in after the men, sitting down in the chair, and confidently crossed her legs. Izuku thought she looked somewhat like a principal, ready to scold him and tired of her job. To his prediction, the woman sighed. 

“Hello, Biter. My name is Miss Ogawa, I’m the general manager of Kondo maximum security prison, which, as you probably guessed, is where you are.” She pushed her glasses up, setting a clipboard on her lap. Izuku wearily looked between the barrels of the men’s guns and the stone cold woman’s long eyelashes. 

“Alright, I have your file here… Ah, right. Biter, no official name found… Weird.” She looked up at Izuku, that same bored look on her face. “Do you have a name?” Her gaze pierced Izuku, narrowing her frigid eyes and pursing her lips. 

“N-no ma’am.”7

“Miss.” She interjected, flipping the page. She began to read without looking up. 

“You’ve been placed in this maximum security prison as of two hours ago on charges of manslaughter, vigilantism, threatening an officer, obstruction of justice- Wow. Aren’t you, like, thirteen? Impressive, kid.” She nodded her head, her normally bored expression shifting into one of vague surprise. Izuku was horrified. 

So he had really killed those men…

“Miss- I- Aren’t I supposed to have… a court case… or something..?” Izuku spoke, not daring to move an inch as the stiff gunmen made him uncomfortable. 

“A court case? Oh, yeah, we settled that while you were out of it. It only took a few hours, there was really too much evidence stacked up against you to do anything about it.” She shrugged casually. Izuku was kind of scared of this woman. 

“Yeah, you’re in here for life. Don’t be alarmed, though, we have one of the nicest facilities in the country. Ah- you were incidentally tried as a grown man, so you’re the youngest here, but you’ll live.” She tapped the clipboard. Izuku gulped, gripping his orange pants as he tried to stomach the information. 

“Alright, we just have a few things to go over, and I can get the fuck out of here…” She flicked to another page on her clipboard. 

“Ah, right. What is  your age. Seeing as you, to be perfectly honest, don’t exist in our system, we have a few blanks to fill. If you lie, things will just get worse for you.” She spoke, pulling a pen out of her coat pocket and clicking the end in a fluid motion. 

“Ah- I’m fifteen.” Izuku spoke, easy to comply while his powers were held back by the hefty collar pressing into his neck. The woman wrote speedily. 

“Quirk?” She didn’t look up at him, pressing her pen back on the paper, ready to write again. 

“Uhhh…” Izuku, for the quirk nerd he was, hadn’t actually given proper thought to what his quirk really was. Sure, he could say “super strength, super speed, super agility, fighting skills included, super healing, raw meat eater.” But something about that didn’t sit right with him. He needed a name he could use to include all of that. He thought for a moment, mulling over what he could possibly call his strange abilities. 

The only thing that came to his mind, the thing he knew he was from day one.

“Monster.”

“My quirk is Monster.” 

The woman looked up at him through questioning brows. Izuku felt himself blush under the stare, nervous at how lame his quirk name sounded. 

“Uh huh… Sure. And what does that entail?” She asked, smirking as she wrote the name down. 

“Super speed, super strength, super healing and… Well a drawback of sorts…” Izuku trailed off, nervous to reveal his horrifying secret. His stomach groaned. 

“Hm, what might that be?” The woman leaned forward in her seat, curious as to what Izuku was hiding. 

“I um… I kind of can only eat… Raw… meat. Fresh raw meat.” Izuku stuttered out, tactfully avoiding his cannibalistic tendencies in his explanation. 

The woman looked stunned, wide eyed and staring at the young boy. 

“Huh, that must have been a pain to grow up with.” She blinked once, twice, before turning back to her clipboard and writing that down swiftly. “We’ll be sure to consider that when serving you in the caf… now, what are the consequences if we don’t do that?”

Izuku really didn’t want to consider not being able to eat raw meat. The last time he had, it sat like lard in his stomach, no nutrients processed, and tasted like bile. He was entirely uninterested. 

“I think I’ll die, starve to death, probably.” Izuku lied smoothly. He figured that was true, but had never had the desire to test it. 

If only past Izuku knew where he was now. 

“Alright, Biter. Wake up is at seven am every day, breakfast at seven thirty, lunch at twelve, dinner at six, and lights out at ten. You are required to work a four hour shift once a day through the many opportunities we have for volunteers. This is a prisoner run prison. Prisoners cook, prisoners clean, prisoners run this place, and discipline is expected. Most of the inmates in this prison are hard core offenders. Murderers, mostly.” She pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose where they had fallen. “Of course, the entire facility is heavily guarded at all times. There are automatic sensors built into your quirk canceling collars that will alert us of any disobedience, and potentially self-destruct if you leave the property unchecked. Don’t try anything fishy, nobody has succeeded.” She warned, tone cold and bored. Izuku swallowed, his stomach churning. 

“You’ll get to know the facility eventually. It’s not too bad, as far as prisons go. Good behavior will be rewarded, and after a minimum year of service here, you have the opportunity to be moved to a medium security prison. Fancy, eh?” Izuku’s head spiraled with all of the new information. 

“Right!” The woman slapped her clipboard down on her thighs, huffing a sigh. “That’s over with, now if you’ll excuse m-” She began to stand, but Izuku jumped into action, standing up to stop the woman. 

“Miss wait-!” The gun men pointed their rifles closer to Izuku, tensing. “Do I… get a call, or anything?” Izuku licked his lips, nervous. His stomach growled.

She stared at him, bored with Izuku’s antics. 

“Ughhh!” She groaned. “I can never just fucking leave this place, can I?” She pinched the bridge of her nose, furrowing her eyebrows, huffing in annoyance. “Alright. Take him to the phones, boys.”  The guards immediately lowered their guns, standing at attention quickly, before they grabbed Izuku by his arms, yanking him along roughly. 

Their meaty hands led Izuku out into the hall, and as he looked over the railing down into the main area, he saw countless prisoners down at the tables below. Some played with cards, some were in verbal arguments that echoed off the high concrete walls. Looking up, he saw rows upon rows of rooms, men hanging off of the rails next to them, spiraling up into oblivion. Izuku gulped, his weariness making his stomach curl. 

All of the men he could see in this place were rough. They definitely looked like murderers, like the type of people Izuku stopped on cloudy nights from assaulting civilians near where he lived. Actually, he almost felt like he could recognize some of them from taking them down. Without his quirk, he wasn’t too certain how much damage he could do to them now. 

Izuku also noted that every person he passed, excluding the guards posed every few meters with massive rifles, all had the same clunky quirk canceling collar pressed into their skin. They gleamed in the light, their harsh metals looking especially uncomfortable on some of the inmates. As they walked down the stairs and along the main area, Izuku saw men snarling at each other, killer looks gleaming in their eyes. Izuku wondered if he would come to look like them too. 

A part of him would never escape being kept locked up like this. 

He would get out eventually. No matter what he had to do. He steeled that thought in himself the moment he knew where he was.

Izuku was thrusted into a room, the two guards standing next to him as they pushed him into a pay phone, Izuku’s body slamming into the wall next to it with a thud. 

Excessive force much..?

Peeling himself up, he picked up the phone, ignoring the two stiff men next to him. Holding it up to his ear, he dialed the only number he could remember. 

It rang once. 

It rang twice.

Izuku let out a breath at the third ring, growing more desperate.

“Yyyyello?”

“Mei.” Izuku spoke, relieved. 

“Biter!!! Man, where have you been?! You totally missed our meet up yesterday! I’m not mad, just disappointed.” The spritely girl joked. Izuku didn’t hear the clanking and clanging that he heard last time he called her. He let out a small smile at the familiar voice. 

“Yyyyyeah. I’m kind of in deep shit.” Izuku laughed a bit, trying to keep the mood light. “Kondo maximum security prison. And… I’m not getting out anytime soon.” Izuku spoke, his heart hammering against his rib cage. 

“WHAT?!!!!!” Mei screeched, making Izuku pull the phone away from his ear. She was way too loud. 

“What did you do?!?!” She exclaimed, her joking energy entirely gone.

“Ah, y’know. Maybe… Took out some bad guys… Fought for the wrong side for a sec there. Uhm… Yeah. Murder charges, I guess.” Izuku trailed off, his natural awkwardness killing his light heartedness he tried to uphold. 

“...what?” Mei sounded deathly serious. 

“I-I was… It was life or death, Mei. I chose life. They were human traffickers anyways! I- I wanted to save the people… but…” Izuku trailed off, gripping his fists tightly at his sides. “I’m sorry we didn’t know each other long enough, but you’re honestly my best friend right now.” Izuku let out a small shuddering breath at his situation. 

The line was silent for a few more moments, Mei still absorbing the information. 

“I… I know you’re not a bad guy.” Mei started, her voice breathless and serious.

“ I don’t know exactly what got you there… And you’re really scaring me but… Whatever happened, I’ll believe you. You’ve always been on the side of justice, haven’t you?” Mei asked, her voice steeled with genuine emotion in a way Izuku had never heard. He gritted out a sour smile. 

“Yeah. I tried. I really, really did.” Izuku lowered his head, staring at his feet while he willed his tears not to fall. Mei was silent on the other end,Izuku’s heart ached. He so badly didn’t want to bring his friend into this world of pain and tooth and nail fighting for survival. He wished he had anyone but Mei to turn to, anyone less important.

But alas, he had become incredibly selfish while he clawed to survive. 

“Mei… I need you to do something for me.” Izuku started, calming his shaking voice. 

“... Biter, I refuse to finish your revenge murder.” Mei spoke, humour seeping back into her tone slowly.

“Har har. No, it’s nothing like that.” Izuku swiped his hair out of his eyes, lowering his voice. “I need you to go somewhere for me…” 

Izuku filled Mei in, asking her to go to the little horumon restaurant he lived at, and store his belongings like her life depended on it. Izuku couldn’t lose the few things he had begun to associate with home. He also told her to deliver a personalized message to Mr.Landlord, informing him of Izuku’s predicament so he wasn’t too concerned. He was too nice of a guy for the area he lived in, really. 

Izuku said his goodbyes to Mei, promising to call her over and over again as she tried to school him on raising a little hell. Izuku promised her he’d escape under his breath, hanging up the phone reluctantly. He underestimated how nice it would feel to hear a familiar voice, to have someone backing him in this world. He let out a shaky sigh, cracking his knuckles, before a bell rang out over the entire facility. 

Izuku could see through to the communal area, where men promptly threw down their books, packing up their cards, groaning, whooping, all excited. The boy turned to the burly guard next to him, confused. 

“Uh, what time is it?” He asked, completely lost with the lack of windows to the outside world.

“Dinner! Get in there or starve!” The man yelled, his voice even and harsh. He didn’t spare a glance at Izuku, standing his guard. 

“Ah, right. Okay.” Izuku quickly silenced his steps, tracking a few feet behind the nearest scary looking men funneling into what Izuku assumed to be the cafeteria doors.

The minute he walked into the grand place, rows upon rows of benches to eat at lining the place with many men already sitting, all eyes in the room seemed to zero in on Izuku, the place going quiet.

The boy suppressed a shiver. 

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.

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Why me?

Chapter Text

Izuku felt the eyes of every inmate burning into his skin, locked onto him like fresh meat. He stood still as a lamp post, caged in between the radiating malice and intrigue that stilled the air and calmed the voices of every inmate. There had to be a little over two hundred of them crammed into the space, and not one wasn’t locked onto the young boy.

Izuku was sure they had questions, most importantly how a scrawny kid like himself got put in a place like this, but Izuku was almost certain many of them might have other thoughts about him. Prisons weren’t exactly known to have the most accommodating people, and he was certain there had to be at least one person looking to wreak hell on a young boy like him in a place like this. 

If there was one thing Izuku had learned to do on the streets, it was bluff. To be able to take any situation thrown at you is a skill in itself when you’re dealing with unreasonable people. So bluff Izuku did. He steeled his nerves, beginning to relax his shoulders and walked over to the end of the line for whatever slop they were excusing as food. Izuku knew he wouldn’t be able to eat the… fish(?) They were served. He wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but he knew it was cooked. Izuku wasn’t even sure if he would eat something like sushi, it felt kind of… clean. That made his stomach curl in displeasure. 

The deathly boy could feel his organs caving as he starved, his strength weaning when he fought in the parking garage earlier. The quirk canceling collar didn’t help much either, he assumed. 

The boy grabbed a dull plastic tray, waiting in line behind the others. He could still feel the eyes of many burning into the back of his head, yet small conversation broke out again, voices mingling in the dining hall. He was honestly surprised a prison of this caliber even let their inmates dine together, but he figured it was for those on good behaviour. 

He neared the front of the line, finally reaching the counter where they were unloading the pale foods. The burly man with a large scar twisting his lips into a scowl glanced down at Izuku, stopping his movement to serve the meal in its tracks. He put the spoon down.

“Ah, it’s you.” He sneered. Izuku felt his heart sink to his feet, worry twisting his guts from the man’s tone. “You’re the kid with the special diet. We got word about you from the main bitch.” The man rolled his eyes, a smirk lighting up his face at the insult. Izuku assumed they meant the crass woman who had interviewed him. 

The man called back towards the other kitchen staff, who promptly smiled sinisterly, before one swiped Izuku’s tray before he could say anything, left there standing wide eyed. Some man yelled behind him, asking about the wait, but the man up front glared at him. He quieted down quickly after that. 

The man who had swiped Izuku’s tray came scurrying back, a lump of something taking up space on it now. Izuku peered closer, and was immediately hit with a stench of death. It wasn’t unwelcome in the slightest . His mouth reluctantly watered as he stared, wide eyed. 

He took the tray back into his hands peering down at the dead rat lying lifelessly in the center of the dull plastic. Blood trickled out where it’s neck had been broken, horrifying glazed over eyes stared back at the pale boy. The cooks snickered. 

“Enjoy, it’s extra fresh.” They sneered, clearly trying to play some prank. Izuku didn’t care, in fact, he was a lot less horrified than he had once been at the prospect of eating a rodent. At least this one wasn’t alive, rest in peace alley mouse. 

Izuku bowed slightly, not saying a word as he turned on the balls of his feet to find a seat. The men behind the counter looked shocked, their smiles wavering as the young boy trotted off with confidence. They scoffed, getting back to work. 

“No way he actually eats it…” One of the men muttered. 

Izuku sat silently, men across the room watching with keen interest as the boy sat down with a freshly dead rat on his tray in place of their delicacy of a fish meal in comparison. 

Izuku didn’t make eye contact with any of them, didn’t acknowledge the stares or murmurs. He was too hungry for that. Izuku figured that after killing men and getting sent to a max security prison for life, he was ready to roll with the punches. He knew this wouldn’t be easy, steeling himself for the life ahead the minute he had gotten off the phone with Mei. Izuku swallowed his overflowing saliva, looking down into the rat’s eyes as his stomach lurched in anticipation. Izuku much preferred this over human food. 

Not that he wasn’t human, of course. 

Izuku picked the rat up with one of his hands, his heart thumping with all of the attention directed towards him from the countless eyes in the room. The soft gray fur felt cool under the pads of the boy’s fingers, his conscience weighing in for a moment. This was another life, after all.

He lifted the rat up to his mouth, biting the head off like a rabid animal. The bones and organs squished in his mouth, the signature tang of fresh blood coating his mouth like a massacre. He chewed, swallowing hungrily. He hadn’t realized just how hungry he had gotten from the possible days without food. He took another bite, tearing the skin away with a grunt under his sharp canines, blood staining the tray beneath him like a warzone. The boy scarfed down the rat, unmoving, unphased. 

Prisoners hooted and hollered, keeping their distance from the strange boy as he feasted on the carcass. People hit the table, surprised, laughing and taunts filling the room at the unusual behavior, while everyone watched in horror. If this weren’t a high security prison filled with some of society’s worst, Izuku was sure he would have heard screams of terror instead of interest. 

He packed the rat into his mouth, blood smeared across his face and drenching his hands as he chewed in bliss, the proper feeling of nourishment sitting heavy in his small stomach. Izuku couldn’t care less about anything as he ate, simply the finality of feeling something fill him, something of substance. Since he had come back from those months without memory, Izuku had known he had one desire, and one desire only. He wanted to consume. He was always eating, always fighting the next challenge, always taking, always conquering. He was pushed along by the world, swallowing up everything put in his way. He planned to do the same in this prison. 

As he ate, he took note of the layout of the prison. There were no windows, concrete wall to wall, and with the dull levels of reverberation inside the building, Izuku wondered if it was underground. He noticed the living quarters of the inmates spiralled upwards, and he assumed they wouldn’t just be reaching into the sky. What a great way to alert a prison’s whereabouts. 

Izuku saw a few doorways as he was travelling that had much higher security than others. He assumed those could either lead to higher risk inmates, or private staff areas. Either way, they were guarded by multiple armed guards. No way Izuku could think to get close. He sighed, feeling the dread of being trapped in his stomach, before shoving the feeling down. He couldn’t afford to feel, he had to learn.

With bloodied hands, Izuku picked up his tray, standing up to put it back. The room seemed to halt, tracking his movement in extreme caution. Izuku was the new wildcard, and experienced criminals knew to watch out for those. 

He dropped it off at the front, the blood on the surface of it splattering as the crack of plastic rang out where he had placed it in the quiet hall from the force of his drop. 

“Thanks.” He said to the chefs in the back, a haunting stare sent their way. The men shuddered, weariness branching across their features from the strange boy. None of them dare move. Izuku pulled his cold gaze away, stealing some napkins from the counter, and wiping his bloodied face on them as he walked to sit back down at his seat, the tension draining out of the air. 

If it were up to him, he would have left the cafeteria to monitor the place, scope out every door, take note of every heavily guarded area he could, yet he couldn’t. Four armed guards stood at the ready, automatic rifles in hand as they watched the inmates eat with poorly hidden vitriol, all guarding the massive doors out to the rest of the prison. Izuku sighed, crossing his bloodied arms on the table, watching people eat through his bangs. 

A notable gap had formed between him and the other prisoners. He looked diseased from the seating arrangement, nobody daring to get close enough to him. 

I don’t bite… always.  

Many prisoners were boisterously loud, their shouts and taunts bouncing around the room, filling up the space with a manic energy. Many of these men were monsters, Izuku was aware, yet he couldn’t help but look at this place like his middle school, cliques, characters, and bombs littered just below the surface. He could do this. 

Suddenly, while deep in thought, he felt a pressure bend the bench across from him. He swiftly snapped his eyes up to meet whoever had dared enter his ‘biting’ zone. 

Izuku met eyes with a rather round man, his bright eyes staring straight at Izuku’s hunched figure. The first thing Izuku noticed were his wild eyebrows, which seemed to branch off in thick waves of hair. He had messy, cropped black hair, with lines running across his features that indicated him to be much older than Izuku. His beard was surprisingly neatly trimmed compared to the rest of his hair. He was tall, broad, and pudgy, nearly casting a shadow on the poor boy from his stature. He looked at Izuku intensely, and Izuku fought back a flinch. 

The strange man continued narrowing his eyes, glaring at Izuku with a strange mix of half hearted intimidation, and interest. He silently held out his bear paw of a hand, reaching across the table towards Izuku. Izuku was floored. 

Do people do handshakes in prison? I thought it was more of a… punch first talk later kind of place.

“Nice to meet you sonny! I’m Kieu. Just Kieu.” The man spoke, a genuine smile lighting up his features. He spoke like a man much younger than him, Izuku noted. 

The freckled boy’s walls were still high, uncertain of the strange large man’s character. Still wary of creeps and threats, Izuku responded accordingly.

“What do you want from me?” The boy muttered bitterly, ignoring the man’s outstretched hand. Kieu chuckled lightly. 

“Nothing, promise!” He smiled wider, crossing his fingers. “I just want to get to know the new inmate! You’re an interesting critter, you know that?” The man looked at Izuku eagerly, somewhat reminding him of a puppy. Izuku kept his lips sealed for a few moments, sending a harsh glare the man’s way. He didn’t budge. 

“If you’re looking for young meat, I’ll break your jaw.” Izuku warned, his heart thumping in his chest. He wasn’t sure how much he could do against a behemoth of a man like Kieu without his quirk, but he knew if one man tried to creep up on him in this place, he would fight like a bat out of hell. The man looked shocked at Izuku’s words. 

“Young mea- did you just accuse me of being a pedophile???” Kieu asked. Izuku narrowed his eyes. “Jesus- okay. Clearly you’ve thought of a worse case scenario. No- they keep those guys separate. Otherwise we’d beat the everloving shit out of them.” The man smiled shyly. 

Izuku didn’t get this guy’s deal. Why he was speaking to him, why he was trying to introduce himself like a colleague. If he didn’t stand to gain anything from Izuku, what was the point?

“No, I just… look I was in your shoes a couple decades ago. Youngest kid in a prison, clawing to survive. I just wanna make sure you… make some better choices than I did. I don’t know, I thought…” The man awkwardly looked away from Izuku’s harsh face. “You don’t look convinced…” Izuku glared harder, crossing his arms. 

“Geez, you know you could knock a man over with that glare..?” Kieu turned back to face Izuku, eyebrows scrunched in a desperate attempt to lighten the mood. Izuku kept his glare strong. Kieu was at a loss for words. “Young folks these days…”

“Just, tell me your name.” He asked, his tone becoming less awkward, straightening his back. Izuku thought it over for a moment, untrust filling his bones, yet seeing no harm in a name. 

“Biter.” Izuku spoke, the word ringing out across the cafeteria. 

The world seemed to slow, heads whipping around as soon as the name left his mouth. Countless prisoners stared at Izuku, eyes blown wide, conversations stopped. Kieu’s bushy eyebrows raised to his hairline, surprise overtaking his features. Izuku felt himself tense again, unsure of the reaction. His eyes flicked around the room, meeting countless glares. Maybe his name really would cause harm. 

“You’re…” Kieu’s words trailed off, jaw hanging slack. “That… was a bad thing to say.” He said under his breath. Izuku felt his heart hammering in his chest. He knew Biter was a name many knew at this point, but he would have never expected a reaction like this. 

The men staring at him slowly turned their heads back around, going back to their conversation with stiff jaws and wary eyes that flickered over to Izuku every few moments. Izuku refocused his eyes back onto Kieu, to see the man was hunching in on himself slightly, sweating bullets. 

“Oh, kid, this could be bad. Really bad. Really, really bad. Probably ten percent of the newbies in here are Biter arrests… Ahhh, shit, you better watch your back.” The man muttered, looking like he’d seen a ghost. 

Izuku felt his heart hammering in his chest, unsure of the consequences of his identity yet. 

“Ah! Putting that aside!” The man ceased his muttering, plastering a wide smile on his face again. “What’re you in for? Classic prison talk, I know, but I'm curious.” He smiled.

Izuku’s eyes flickered over to the guards, still holding the doorway out secure, and sighed. 

“Mass murder, mostly.” Izuku felt a lump in his throat as the words escaped, feeling like his heart was caving in on itself, his skin itching with the incorrectness of that statement. It labelled him, scorched into his skin like a sick reminder of all that he would now ever be. 

A murderer. 

Izuku caught the slightly surprised look on Kieu’s face, but it was quickly replaced with a calmer look. Izuku suddenly felt the need to speak up.

“I-it’s not true though. Not the whole story, I mean. They didn’t even let me attend my own trial… I- I didn’t kill for no reason.” Izuku sputtered out, his jumbled words showing the blatant fear of a kid trapped in a big scary world. It made Kieu’s heart clench for the closed off boy. 

“It’s never fair, eh?” He nodded. “I knew you reminded me of me for a reason. You’re a good kid caught in a bad place, that much is obvious.” He trailed off, his tone slightly more somber as he recalled his own past. Izuku could see the man get lost in his own thoughts as he opened his mouth to speak again. 

“I was young, dumb, n’ stupid. Caught in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people… Did some things I can never escape, just to survive…” Kieu sniffed, his brows creasing. “Same old story…” he smiled up at Izuku. Izuku was shocked at the man’s story, so similar to his own. 

“Yeah. Same story, huh…” Izuku trailed off, lost in his thoughts as he sat silently across from the large man. 

He didn’t seem like a threat, his stature clearly going to waste on his docile personality. He didn’t seem to want anything from Izuku, and Izuku didn’t see what he possibly had to give to the man. There was nothing about him, or his predicament, that would benefit anyone here. He knew he couldn’t survive in a place like this without an ally, so he digressed. 

With a heavy sigh, he held his hand out, expression still guarded. Kieu looked down at the boy’s hand, then looked up at Izuku, meeting his stone cold eyes. Kieu broke out into an infectious smile, lighting up his kind features. 

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance.” The freckled boy spoke in a slightly lighter tone. Izuku let a small, bitter smile light up his mouth ever so slightly. It didn’t go unnoticed by Kieu. 

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“There’s some things you should know about the layout of this place…” Kieu spoke, sitting on the ground next to Izuku, overlooking the prisoner’s common area. “It’s a delicate ecosystem. My best advice? Don’t get involved in any of it.” Kieu sighed.

Izuku nodded, scanning the room. There was a collection of round tables with attached seats in a massive concrete room, reminding Izuku of a picnic area he’d used to go sit at after school near his house. The tables were swarmed by groups of people, some playing cards, some heartily debating whatever nonsense prisoners had to look out for, many were hanging off to the sides, reading or doing other mundane activities to pass their time. Young and old alike congregated, yet Izuku immediately noticed the younger the inmate, the rowdier they seemed. For the amount of people in here he assumed to have a life sentence similar to him, Izuku was nervous with the lack of people over sixty. 

“Miss Ogawa probably filled you in on the whole… business here with schedules and whatnot, but inmates have their own set of sub-rules.” Izuku noticed Kieu had to hunch his wide back to be able to speak quietly to the smaller boy. “ It all starts with the people that run this place when the guards aren’t looking…” Kieu trailed off for a moment, scanning the room. 

“1 O’Clock, that’s Isamu… Folks say he’s been in here twenty years longer than he was supposed to for all of the shit he pulls.” Izuku watched the man, the same man with the twisted scowling scar that had served him his rat meal earlier. He did seem like the confrontational type when Izuku had spoken to him.

“Ah, a newer one to avoid is probably Brains… He knows everything about everyone, real popular with the inmates for information. People even say he knows the way out of this place.” That caught Izuku’s attention immediately, watching the slim thirty something year old sit quietly and scan the crowd. 

 “Oh and there’s also… Hm… Where’s Knuckles?” Kieu looked around in a bit of a panic. “He’s a loose canon. Got put in here last month, it’s a miracle he hasn’t been put in the no-contact zone.” Izuku turned to face the taller man, absorbing this information with great intrigue. 

“No contact?” 

“Yeah. Where they put the psychos who can’t handle cohabitating. It’s like a time out, for every strike you get a month to cool your head in there. Some people say it make’s ya crazier, gotta be true since most never come out…” Kieu trailed off, the grim truth of prison life souring his tone. “Anyway-” He bounced back, happier than ever.

“You wanna know the secret to prison life? How you last in here without going batshit? Trust me, it’s not easy.” Kieu smirked down at Izuku, who tilted his head up to meet the larger man’s kind eyes. 

“Stay unbothered.” He spoke simply. Izuku huffed a humourless laugh. Like something that simple could ever fix how he felt, what he had gone through. Unbothered? He could feel his skin screaming at the wrongness of the situation, his heart broken through injustice. He hated every cruel second he was placed here, looking to fight and claw his way out of here if it killed him. 

“You’re kidding…” Izuku’s smile dropped as Kieu held his statement, unmoving in his statement. “What, you just suppress everything? You don’t get to feel scared? Angry? Haven’t I earned it?” Izuku growled out, desperation peeling from his tone. 

“Oh, you can feel everything. Nobody said you couldn’t. What matters in a place like this isn’t what you feel, it’s what you show. ” The man paused, letting his words sink into Izuku’s skull. Izuku raised an eyebrow, egging the man on to explain. 

“Look, for guys in a place like this, fifty percent of the battle is maintaining an image. If people don’t think they can fuck with you, they won’t fuck with you!” Kieu motioned happily with his large hands. “But a surefire way to make sure nobody messes with you is to be plain uninteresting, not interact, make sure nothing gets to you.” The man looked Izuku in the eyes. “All bullies ever want is to get to you. You’re bothered? You’ve given them power.” 

Izuku thought back to his times with Katsuki, the sickly smell of burnt sugar returning to him in a flash of sensation. Izuku had always been a crybaby, ever since he was born, he would express exactly how he felt. An open book didn’t even begin to describe the boy, and he knew Katsuki had always used that to his advantage. The boy was easiest when his buttons were pushed. Yet, when Izuku looked at himself for a moment, really saw where he was, who he was, what he had gone through…

Not a single tear came to his eyes. Just a bone crushing exhaustion that cooled his heart in his chest. When was the last time he really had shown anything?

He swallowed back the bitter memories, eyes refocusing on the concrete ground under his feet he was peering at. 

“Yeah, I think I get it…” Izuku muttered out. “But… aren’t I already doing that?” Izuku turned his head to Kieu. The larger man smiled with pity down on him. 

“Well, everyone can tell you’re bothered, kid.” Kieu smiled, furry eyebrows bunching.” There’s a difference between unbothered and bottled up. You’re lacking a sort of… confidence. Comfort with the situation.” He spoke, leaning back into the concrete wall calmly. 

“You want me to feel comfortable ? With this ?” Izuku spoke bitterly. For a moment, he barely recognized himself, the hate in his tone burning on it’s way out of his voice box. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s pretty hard to act okay with this situation.” Izuku growled. 

The men were silent for a moment.

“... Do you know the pro hero Hawks?” Kieu asked, not sparing a glance at Izuku. His tone was light, but his face was not. Izuku was surprised by the topic change, his eyes widening as he watched the older man’s still side profile. He tried not to let his inner hero nerd escape, putting on a casual mask. 

“...Yeah..?” Izuku questioned.

“I don’t. He’s way past my time, wasn’t even out of this place when the guy was born .” Kieu smirked, the supposed joke easing Izuku a tad. “But I do know of him. He’s really got something…” 

“A couple of the guys in here have been put in the slammer by him. Y’know, most people track who caught ‘em.” Kieu spoke. “They all say it was really hard to fight him, even when some of them had even, objectively, more offensive quirks than him. Maybe even more fighting experience!” Kieu spoke excitedly. A smile flashing his sharp canines. “But there’s something about him, something that gives him a leg up on all of his competition when he’s fighting, something that irritates guys in a place like this to no end…” Kieu trailed off.

“...What’s that..?” Izuku asked, curious with the direction of the bubbly man’s story. 

“He’s a snarky, sarcastic, playful asshole !” A smile broke out across Kieu’s face while he spoke, clearly imagining the conflicts of the younger hero. “He doesn’t give a shit about who he’s fighting, he’d rather make fun of their haircut! He redirects everything playfully, fights like it’s a hobby, and generally rags on the guys he’s fighting like a school yard diss battle.” Kieu broke out into a laugh. “He even called Hugger over there a ‘busted cabbage patch doll’! HAH!” Kieu wheezed. 

Izuku couldn’t help but feel a small smile tug at the corner of his own mouth at the ridiculous insult. 

“What… so you’re saying I need to… be a cocky comedy show to survive? An asshole who’s unbothered by everything… Like a hero manga protag?” Izuku felt himself smile at the thought. “That… works?” Izuku felt himself giggle a bit as Kieu kept laughing. 

“The weird thing is, it totally does! The guys in here who have lasted the longest are sassy, uncaring assholes! It’s a skill, an art form to be such an unbothered dick.” he cracked a smile down at Izuku, wiping a tear from his eye.

Izuku thought of how ridiculous that would be, to simply hurdle off insults and quips like something out of a webcomic. Yet, as he looked at it deeper, he found the advice to be solid. His own Biter persona was built on a false air of jokes and confidence, his Twitter being a prime example. Every time Izuku had fought an enemy larger than him, faced a challenge, he had felt that irritation that comes with being unregarded. Like you were a pebble to be dealt with and kicked out of the way, a toy. 

That’s how Izuku had felt looking into Shigaraki’s eyes back when he was fighting, like he was an interesting specimen so below the man’s caliber. Not only did it irritate him beyond belief, it was scary.  

Izuku was new to this prison, he still had time to change himself. He didn’t have to be Izuku in the slightest. Here, he was something else. No other rules mattered. Izuku didn’t matter .

“Unbothered, huh…” Izuku mused to himself, thinking over the advice as Kieu sat quietly beside him, eyes closed, leaning back into the concrete wall. 

“Hey, fucker!” A rough voice yelled out, shattering the atmosphere of the upbeat common area into silence. The seas of men in the area seemed to part, a direct path forming between Izuku and a man with a dark shaved head and piercing eyes bored holes through Izuku. 

A twinge of recognition clouded Izuku’s mind as he looked at the man, snapping him into action as he slowly stood from his position on the floor. 

“Are you fucking Biter? THEE Biter?!” The man growled out, his tone venomous. Whispers erupted from the men in the room, wary glances sent between Izuku and the man. 

“Knuckles-” One of the inmates began.

“Shut up! Shut the fuck up!” The man spat back, his voice ringing out across the room, echoing in the space. Izuku’s hair stood on end, but he stilled his face into submission, an almost bored expression being left. 

Unbothered, Izuku.

“You!” The man seethed, pointing a finger at Izuku accusingly. “Your scrawny ass is the reason I’m in this fucking place!” He yelled, the prisoners' eyes all locking on Izuku. He felt his heart shudder in his chest, but kept his cool. A relaxed posture reading of simple disregard. Izuku could practically see the man’s veins tense under his skin. 

“Ohhh, I’m gonna beat the shit out of you. And I’m gonna make it hurt. Can’t do much without your strength quirk, can you?! ” Knuckles hollered, stalking towards Izuku. 

Izuku couldn’t let his fear take him, couldn’t show anything. He glanced down at Kieu, who cracked open one eye, smiling softly as he watched Knuckles get more and more worked up over Izuku’s lack of interest. 

The man stalked up to Izuku, winding up his arm to throw a punch, and Izuku very suddenly knew why this man had rung a bell in his memory. 

Biter had fought Knuckles around a month back, catching him in an illegal drug trade. He was a skilled fighter, to say the least, but Izuku had bested him after a few moments with the advantage of his quirk and parkour abilities. 

Izuku looked at the flat walls of the area, and the punch swiftly approached his face, and let himself feel a little fear. 

“You busted me for doing clean business!” The man swiped, Izuku swift dodged under it, putting his hands in his pockets as a simple display of prowess. He knew something like that would get under this man’s skin, since he was already so worked up. “Now I’m stuck here! All cause I had bills to fucking pay!” The man sent another punch backwards, attempting to elbow Izuku, who dodged gracefully. He wondered when the guards would act, but watching them, he saw no movement.

“You watching the guards, kid? They won’t do anything until you bother them! ” One of the men in the crowd called out. Izuku bit his lip, knowing he really would have to finish the fight with this man. 

“You’re not even a real hero!” The man sent a kick at Izuku’s shins, which he swiftly leaped over. Soon, Knuckles was simply throwing punches, blind with rage, as his animalistic noises pooled, bursting from his stomach with his energy. Izuku lept, swept, and dodged, a gracefully unperturbed expression staying stark still on his features. This only caused the other man to get even angrier. 

He let out a scream. “Say something you stupid fucker! Fight me!” He yelled. Izuku continued to dance around him, deciding now was as good a time as ever. 

Snark… I think I can do that.

“I’ll fight back when you stop throwing punches like a little girl! Honestly, it’s getting embarrassing.” Izuku cooed, egging the man on in his rage with sarcasm baits. 

“Aghh! I’ll fucking kill you!” The man charged again, looking to tackle Izuku. Izuku simply stepped to the side, watching the man stumble past him. 

“Look, why don’t you stop this. You’re not gonna win!” Izuku spoke back, faking a yawn as he moved. The man cried out in rage. Chants and taunts broke out from the men around Izuku, trying to push him to fight. 

Izuku felt the man pull a trick on him, swerving from his punch into a position where he may actually have gotten to Izuku. Immediately switching into offensive, Izuku shot his leg out, kicking the man square in the stomach. Keeping his quirk cancelling collar in mind, Izuku had expected the hit to hurt, but was surprised when his body functioned as it normally did… 

And the brute went flying. 

Knuckles soared through the air, whizzing past the people in the lounge, and burst straight into a concrete wall, a loud crack resonating as the man’s body fell limply to the ground. 

The room was silent, prisoners standing still in shock. They slowly turned to Izuku, who was forcing his face into a bored expression. Anyone who had the gall to look deeper, through his new persona, would have seen Izuku’s utter surprise. 

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Why… isn’t my quirk turned off?

Chapter Text

Quickly after the fight, Izuku found himself thrusted against the concrete ground, arms held behind his back and a knee pressed into his shoulder blades . He wheezed uncomfortably, the full weight of the guard pressed into him as they clamped massive cuffs around the entirety of his hands. 

“Alright, settle down everyone!” The guards hollered, calming the uproar of the crowd as they tried to claw at Izuku, or rushed over to the injured man lying in a crumpled pile on the floor. Izuku was thrusted to his feet, three guards manhandling him as they shoved him past the crowd and out of the room.
“Kieu!” Izuku yelled, turning around to try to catch a glimpse of the man before the guard kicked him into submission, forcing him to face forward. Suddenly, his vision was taken away as he had a blindfold placed roughly around his eyes. Izuku kept his mouth shut, trying to control his breathing as he was led to a section of the prison he hadn’t been in yet. 

Izuku could only think of a few places he was being taken. The place he feared most was solitary confinement, the idea of being kept alone for so long, unable to scope a way out of the hellish concrete wasteland made him nauseous. Like that, he really couldn’t do anything. He swallowed back his fear, steeling his nerves as his footsteps fell lightly on the concrete ground.

Soon enough, Izuku was released from his heavy cuffs, thrusted into a seat, and clamped down tightly, harsh metal grinding against his arms as it held him down. The blindfold was removed, and he quickly took in where he was. 

Izuku tried to lift his arms to rub his eyes, but quickly found he was bound to the leather chair he was sitting in. The room appeared to be a typical doctor's office, cabinets lining one wall, a computer at a desk, and a bright light over Izuku’s head. 

He figured he was in the hospital wing, turning his head to try to see the rest of the room. The only thing he was able to see upon turning around was the multiple guards, standing at the ready with their guns in hand. It was completely silent. 

Izuku cleared his throat. 

“You guys get good dental with this job, or..?” He was cut off, the heavy looking metal door bursting open into the white room, a small woman in a lab coat walking in with a tool bag, followed by an absolutely livid Miss Ogawa. 

Funny thing, it felt like ages since Izuku had seen her scowling yet pretty face, yet here she was, no less than a few hours after Izuku had met her.

The room was uncomfortably silent, the rustling of the doctor woman’s tool bag being the only noise as Izuku glanced around the room, awkwardly avoiding Miss Ogawa’s face-melting glare. 

The doctor pulled out a very small screwdriver, shuffling quickly next to Izuku, pulling up a chair next to him. She quickly stuck it into the collar linked on Izuku’s neck with precision, turning a few times. Izuku turned to watch her, but she quickly shoved his face back forwards, making eye contact with the fuming Miss Ogawa. 

All Izuku could hear were little clinks, before a louder metallic noise sounded as something opened within the collar. Izuku fought the itch to look away from the harsh glare. 

“The rim stabilizer?” Miss Ogawa seethed. 

“Fine.” The doctor woman replied, voice nasally and bored.

“The cooling system working alright? No frayed wires?” Ogawa drummed her fingers against her crossed arms, shoulders hunching in irritation. 

“No Ma’a- Miss.” The woman spoke flatly. 

Miss Ogawa groaned, body practically shaking in anger. 

“Please tell me it’s not the-” 

“I’m gonna stop you right there.” The nasally doctor stood up, pushing her round glasses up her nose as she spoke. “There’s nothing wrong with my collars, miss.” She packed the screwdriver back into her case, pulling out something else to pick at the wires with. “This is a perfectly fine model-”

“Bullshit!” Miss Ogawa screeched. She pinched the bridge of her nose, starting slowly “Doc, I swear to god, don’t lie to me because-” 

“I’m not lying-”

“Don’t cut me off!” Miss Ogawa cried, sending a seething gaze at the poor woman. Izuku felt for her, as he was unfortunately subjected to that gaze for far too long as the doctor prodded at his collar. 

“There’s something wrong with the collar, all of my guards said he used his quirk. And don’t you dare insinuate my guards are lying, because I will have you floating down a river on the news if you fucking speak an inch out of line!” She yelled. Izuku tried to take her seriously, but he could only see her as a bird. All screeching, squawking, and ruffled feathers. It almost made him smile when he pictured her with a beak, but he knew that would be a death sentence. 

“Oh, believe me, I trust what your guards think they saw, but… I just don’t know what’s going on…” The woman sighed, placing her hands on her hips dryly. “I think he might be immune to the technology, somehow. ” She sighed. 

“Immune- Oh, what, we just have to let him walk around with his quirk?! ” Miss Ogawa hissed. “It’s been fucking four hours and he’s already assaulted one of my prisoners!” Miss Ogawa threw her arms up in disbelief. 

“Well, you could always put him in confinement, if you’re that worried.” The words rung out across the room, the severity of them not being lost on anyone present. Izuku was informed by Kieu that confinement was not somewhere he wanted to be any longer than he had to. Even Miss Ogawa seemed to stutter at the doctor’s harsh recommendation. She straightened her back, brushing off her clothes in an attempt to regain her composure. 

“Guards, did Biter start the fight, or just end it?” Miss Ogawa spoke harshly, directing her gaze at the still guards. One of their voices rang out, deep and loud. 

“He did not start the fight, Miss, but he was the only one in the fight to land a blow!” The guard yelled. Izuku thought he might sob in relief at the answer.

Thank you mysterious guard man, I’d kiss you, but I’m bolted to a chair.

The room was silent for a moment as the stern woman considered the information.

“Well, I don’t see why we can’t give him another chance.” Miss Ogawa sighed, looking down. Izuku caught the tension draining out of the doctor’s shoulders out of the corner of his eye. The harsh glare returned to Miss Ogawa’s face in an instant, snapping up to meet Izuku’s eyes. He nearly flinched. 

“Remember, Biter! This isn’t a playground, you can’t just do what you like.” The woman warned harshly. “You’re inching closer to your first strike, and first month in confinement. Don’t push it.” She pointed a well manicured finger at Izuku, eyes narrowing. 

“And I swear to fucking god, if I see you using your creepy little quirk again, you’re getting double punishment. I don’t give a god damn shit if that collar is busted, you better act like it’s working like a fuckin’ charm.” She hissed through her teeth, eyes bitter and cold. Izuku got the memo, only slightly offended that his quirk was called creepy. 

“Sure thing.” He nodded. She sent another glare at him. 

“Alright, get him the fuck out of here. He’s pissing me off.” Miss Ogawa flicked her hand at Izuku, signaling for him to be ushered out. She stormed off, her heels clicking against the concrete as she trailed away from the room. Izuku’s arms were harshly grabbed as he was thrusted to his feet, the clamps of the chair unhooking as he stood. He resisted the urge to pull out of the guard’s grasps to rub his sore arms. 

He was once again blind folded, and led out to the main area. Izuku tried to remember the turns he had taken, but found himself lost after so many. He knew when he was thrust into the main area before he had the blindfold removed, as he could feel the eyes on him. They seared through him, immediately cooling his veins. The blindfold was lifted, and he was uncuffed.

Izuku blinked owlishly as the men all stared at him, scowls placed bitterly on their lips. Izuku tried to calm his tense body, pushing himself back into a calm submission. It was nearly sleep time, quickly scanning the crowd for Kieu, he couldn’t find the man. 

He figured he had already turned in for the night, somewhere in his room in the prison. He was slightly offended that the man hadn’t come to see him, unlike all of the other angry prisoners, but he huffed a sigh and moved on from the thought.

Izuku frowned slightly, before opting to get out of the crowd of angry men. He bounded up the stairs, traveling back to his own cell to turn in early. Izuku turned the corner leading to his cell block, before a man turned the corner into him, socking him square in the jaw. 

Izuku was prepared to fight, before ten or so men crowded him, a loud bang cracking against the back of his skull. Izuku fell to the floor, his knees hitting the concrete, with his vision fading before the rest of his body could.

Shit.

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Izuku awoke in a predicament he had found himself in way too many times before. His arms and legs bound in metal, a pounding dull ache echoing through his cranium, and a horrific woozy feeling of crashing back down to earth filling his being. He writhed against his constraints, as he always had, but found it was no use. 

“Ah, you’re awake.” A voice sounded. 

Izuku looked around the room, and found it to be smelly, dimly lit, and had rusted metal walls and flooring. A large fan turned overhead, obscuring the light every so often. Izuku blinked his eyes into focus, recovering swiftly. 

He had no idea where he was, he hadn’t seen a room like this in the entirety of the prison in the short amount of time he had spent there. Everything was all concrete, well lit, and fairly sanitized. This room was a far cry from anywhere he had been. He had a dull hope that he had, in fact, been taken away from the prison, but his stomach came crashing back with his situation. 

The last time he had woken up like this, it had been in the LOV headquarters, his heart beating out of his ears and mind panicked beyond belief. Izuku felt himself begin to wheeze and dry heave at the memories and dizziness crowding his brain. 

“Wh-Who’s there?” He spoke out, his posture hunched as he squeezed his eyes shut and hoped it was a bad dream. A man walked from behind him, shuffling around the boy to face him. It was…

“Brains?” Izuku asked breathlessly. 

“Oh? You know me already? I’m flattered.” The man smiled sinisterly down at Izuku. Despite the situation, Izuku found himself utterly relieved at the appearance of someone other than Shigaraki. The man had haunted him since he felt the waves of malice that radiated off of him. Brains’ sinister smile had nothing on true evil. 

“What do you want from me?” Izuku evened out his voice, staring up at the man, eyes boring through his thin face. 

“Oh, It’s not me that wants something from you. You’re not very important to me, currently.” he rolled his eyes, leaning on what appeared to be a medical table covered in surgical tools. Izuku felt his heart drop. “I’m more of a messenger. Don’t worry, he’ll be here in a moment.” The man looked towards the rusted door across the large room. 

“Who?-” Izuku was cut off by the door swinging open loudly, its screech and clang making him jump in his skin. 

“Ah, there’s the fucker!” Isamu bounded in, his scar on his face twisting along with his smiling lips. His steps boomed as he walked over to Izuku, the rusted floor quaking under his weight along with his lackeys as they pooled into the room behind him. 

Isamu shot his meaty hand out, gripping Izuku’s hair at the roots and yanking the boy upward, his arms straining against the restraints as he whimpered. 

“You’ve got a lot of fucking nerve, you know that?” His grip tightened, Izuku felt his scalp screaming in agony as it was pulled away from his skull with the force. He thought back to times when Katsuki would jokingly grab at his mop of curls, wishing for simple taunts like that to be his life once again. 

“Knuckles was a good man. Yeah, he was fucking nutty, but he was a good man.” The man snarled in Izuku’s face, staring deeply into Izuku’s pained eyes. “You snapped his spine. Three places, you snapped his spine with one fucking kick!” He roared, the room seeming to shake with the weight of his voice. Spit flew onto Izuku’s face. 

Isamu promptly dropped Izuku back into the chair, the boy wincing from relief as his skull was relinquished from the agony.

“He was a good man… but now I see…” Isamu leaned over Izuku, his hands linking onto Izuku’s thin arms. “He was fucking weak in the real world.” A crazed smile twisted the man’s scar, his eyes lighting up in sick joy. “You’re fresh out of the real world, and a kicking fighter at that.” He stared at Izuku, eyes raking over his pained face.

“Isamu.” Brains spoke, boredom seeping into his tone. Isamu tore his eyes away from Izuku, standing up straight. 

“Yeah, yeah. Die in a ditch.” He grumbled, clearing his throat. 

“What I’m getting at is… You’re gonna replace Knuckles.” He smiled sadistically. Izuku let out pained gasps for a moment, before forcing himself to ignore the sharp pain radiating from his head to speak. 

“Replace him in what?” Izuku gritted out, forcing his tone to seem nonchalant. The lackeys around Isamu giggled, and he smiled wider. 

“In the Scar Rebellion .” He smiled. 

Izuku hadn’t heard of anything like ‘the Scar Rebellion’, so he assumed it was something even Kieu didn’t know about. He knew for sure it was something he shouldn’t get involved with, judging by the crazy man’s ramblings in front of him. 

“The Scar Rebellion is my gang, to put it simply-” The man was cut off. 

“Actually, it’s our gang.” Brains shot a sharp glare at Isamu, his fox-like eyes silencing Isamu for a moment. 

“Fucking- whatever. He gets the point.” Isamu huffed. He turned back to Izuku, intense eyes stabbing through the boy.

“The Scar Rebellion has one goal, and one goal only.” Isamu smiled smugly. “We want to dominate this prison.” He crossed his thick arms. Izuku nearly huffed a laugh at the predictability of the statement.

“We collect the strongest, the smartest, the fastest, and we make deals. We give you influence, you do what we ask. Influence matters in a place like this.” Isamu stalked closer to Izuku. 

Izuku quickly recognized Isamu’s type. He was a brute, a stupid yet powerful figure. The man spoke plainly, really all of his intimidation coming from his figure. Izuku knew that he could have never gotten the power for this by himself, so Izuku’s eyes flickered over to Brains. One look at the man’s bored expression, and he knew who was boss. 

Izuku wouldn’t be joining a gang anytime soon, he was certain of that. He kept Kieu’s advice to ‘not get involved’ in his mind. 

Not much I can say in opposition in this situation though.

“With power in a place like this, you can rule those beneath you. We act for good behaviour, but when the lights go out, you’ll know who really runs this place.” He snarled, yellowed teeth showing through his lips. 

“Really, what I’m saying isn’t an offer.” Izuku felt his stomach sink like a rock in a fountain. “You’re joining, one way or another. We have the power in this place.” 

The world seemed to slow, Izuku having been in this situation with The LOV. Although he feared this man miles less than Shigaraki, he couldn’t help but think back to what led him to prison in the first place. All he wanted was to survive, and he thought that maybe, just maybe, it was a bad idea to get involved with another violent criminal organization. 

“I watched your fight. You’ve got talent, I see why you made it on the streets.” Isamu circled Izuku. “Do you know what I’m in here for?” A grin lit up his words. 

Izuku gulped. 

“Same thing as you, mass murder.” He ruffled Izuku’s hair, his still sore scalp screaming in agony. Izuku winced. “We’re not too different, you know. We’re both leagues better than anyone in this place.” 

Izuku felt bile rise to his throat, his inside scorching with the incorrectness of the man’s statement. Izuku was nothing like him. He knew he never would be. A violent heathen, a horrible person who treads on those below him. No, this man never even tried to be a hero. That was all Izuku did. He wanted to boost those beneath him, make a better world for the weaker and stronger alike, purge men like Isamu from the streets. 

But look where that got him. In the same place as the criminals he took down. He bit his lip, blood nearly coming to the surface. 

“I’ll never be like you…” Izuku murmured, head hanging. Izuku rejected every aspect of the man, knowing he would be better.

“Hmmm? I didn’t catch that.” Isamu hummed playfully. 

“You’re right.” Izuku spoke, his voice even. “I’m better than everyone here. Especially scumbags like you.” Izuku growled. 

“What did you?!-” Isamu began to roar, body puffing up in anger.

“I’m not joining your gang. Let me go.” Izuku spoke, his voice harsh and stable. The room was silent for a moment, only the whirring of the overhead fan being heard, before Isamu huffed out a dry laugh. 

“You’re more of an asshole than I thought, you know?” He gritted out, his teeth gritting against each other as he spoke. “But like I said, It’s not a choice.” 

“I’ll give you one more chance to play nice.” Isamu leaned into Izuku, dropping into a squat until he was at Izuku’s Izuku’s level, looking into his cold eyes. 

“Apologize, and be a good fucking kid.” He smiled wildly, his eyes popping out of his head along with veins in anger. 

“Three.” 

Izuku didn’t budge, his nails leaving divots in his palms where he gripped his hands harshly. He tensed his jaw, heart pounding from beneath his rib cage. 

“Two.”

“I’m not joining. You can’t make me.” Izuku snarled, eyebrows furrowing. 

The fan whirred. Nobody spoke.

“... You absolutely sure about this one, Biter? You dyin’ on this hill?” Isamu spoke uncharacteristically quiet, his face leaning in so close to Izuku’s he thought their noses might touch. Izuku kept his jaw tense. Isamu looked almost sorry, before a playful smile lit up his features. 

“Alright, somebody grab Kitty.” He huffed, standing back up to his full towering height. Izuku huffed a sigh of relief under his breath, but tensed again when the lackeys all seemed to freeze. Silence overtook the room again.

“Boss… He’s a kid…” One of the men spoke up, his eyes blown wide in disbelief. Izuku had no idea what the man was referring to, but he knew it wasn’t good.

“Did I stutter?” Isamu warned, shoving his hands in his pockets. The man bowed quickly, apologizing, and rushed out of the room. Isamu walked out of the room behind him, and the other lackeys followed.

Brains turned to Biter, not a single emotion playing on his features. 

“That was a dumb move, Biter.” He shook his head sorrowfully. 

Izuku swallowed, sweat beading on his skin. 

“I hope you survive.” 

The door swung open, and a large man walked in. He appeared to be wearing a butcher's uniform, gloves placed tightly on his hands. He was almost the same height as Isamu, but had to be two times wider and two times hairier. His breathing was thick and laboured through the effort of carrying his massive body, sweat beading on his skin. 

“You’re gonna be so fun to play with…” He smiled sinisterly. Izuku felt himself begin to panic. He writhed against his confinement, pressing his arms against the tight shackles holding him down. 

“Don’t come any closer, I’ll kill you.” Izuku warned, staring the man down with hatred as he tried to yank himself out of the seat. Even with his quirk, he only dented the metal. The man let out a chuckle, licking his lips. 

Izuku was unsure of what the man was sent to do to him, and suddenly felt his panic increase tenfold as Brains retreating back was leaving the disgusting room. 

“Don’t leave me! Don’t- come back!” Izuku cried. Brains stopped for a moment, turning to look over his shoulder at Izuku. 

“Will you join?” He asked, his eyes cold and playful, looking at Izuku as if he was a cat who had just cornered a mouse. 

Izuku stuttered for a moment, forgetting to respond. As he opened his mouth to speak, the heavy rusted door slammed shut with a screech. 

Izuku paled, the reality of the situation setting in as the horrifying large man towered over him, looking him up and down. Izuku didn’t meet his eyes, staring straight down at his lap as he felt his breaths come out in pained gasps and wheezes. 

No matter how good he was at healing, he couldn’t stop mental scars.

“Alright. Let’s get started.” The man spoke, a smile lighting up his tone. 

Izuku watched the man pick up a scalpel from the nearby table of equipment. Izuku’s eyes widened, his pulse raging through his body as his mind screamed at him to get away. 

“Leave me alone. Don’t!” Izuku began to beg, sweat pouring off of him as he writhed. 

Suddenly, the man lifted his hand above his head, sending the scalpel straight down past Izuku and through the boy’s hand. 

He screamed out in agony, his vocal chords letting out a raspy cry as he cursed. The object cut through his skin and muscle like nothing, the force leaving some of the scalpel’s handle sticking into him bluntly. He pushed against the chair’s restraints, pained pleas escaping him as he attempted to cradle his pained hand. Blood pooled beneath the wound and leaked out onto the chair. 

It almost hurt worse when the man dug the knife out, and blood began pouring in waves. Izuku watched, half horrified, as the bleeding stopped quickly. The skin formed back over the wound in a few seconds. He looked back up at the man, finally meeting his crazed eyes. 

“Oh, you are something special .” Kitty purred. “Is that your quirk? Magnificent. I can have a lot more fun with you this way.” He giggled. 

Izuku felt himself wanting to throw up, still pushing against the restraints. 

“Get the fuck away from me.” He growled. 

“Mmm, no.” The man smiled, putting down the scalpel.

He sent a swift punch straight to Izuku’s jaw, the pain blooming throughout his face in a second. He sent a blow to the boy’s gut, then back to his face again. He pressed down against the boy’s shoulder, elbowing it until a pop resonated. Izuku winced, holding back a scream. If he hadn’t dislocated bones so often as Biter, he would have cried.

The man sent another quick punch to Izuku’s gut, causing Izuku to immediately throw up. Blood stained his clothes from the vomit, his body shaking from the shock of the blow. He felt his bruising already healing, cursing his power along with the horrid smell of blood an vomit. 

The next what had to be hours, Izuku was beaten senseless, his pleas falling on deaf ears. Each hit, jab, horrible squelch, crunch, breaking bone seemed to center him in the moment. He couldn’t escape the agony from his powers, couldn’t help but repair every time he was broken down. 

Izuku was in so much pain he couldn’t bear to form sentences, all of his words slurring out of his mouth like a broken record of pleas to stop. He felt tears streaming down his face, burning into his wounds as he sobbed. All of this seemed to egg Kitty on, who smiled and laughed as Izuku’s blood splattered his butcher's apron. 

Each time Izuku would pass out from the pain, he was immediately thrust back into it as his body repaired itself time and time again. 

Eventually, the beating stopped. Izuku felt the man pick up his head from his weak neck, the bruises and broken bones repairing as he watched. He forced Izuku’s jaw open while Izuku sobbed, taking his tongue between dirty gloved fingers. 

A scalpel glinted in Izuku’s peripheral. He fought to take his tongue back, sobs escaping him as he was unable to speak.

“Let’s see how much you can take…” The man smiled sinisterly, Izuku’s fight leaving him in a moment as he continued to cry. 

The scalpel lined up with Izuku’s tongue, the cool sharp metal pressing against the delicate pink flesh. It pressed a little deeper, the taste of copper filling Izuku’s mouth as the man smiled down at him. 

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Is this… How I die?

Chapter Text

The scalpel pushed deeper, Izuku letting out an agonizing scream as the tendons within his tongue separated themselves while blood pooled in his mouth and stained his teeth. He could hear the maniacal laughter of Kitty as the back track to his heartbeat echoing through his ears, the entire world going black as he choked on the sickening waves of blood escaping him. 

Suddenly, a loud bang shook the room, and Izuku’s head and tongue were released. His neck immediately failed to support his own weight, his head going limp against his chest as blood gushed out of his tongue at an alarming rate. His bangs landed over his eyes, the world seeming entirely too far away while sounds muddled together in his ears as his body went cold. 

He tried moving around his tongue, finding the fleshy pink mass laid dormant in his mouth. His body seared with pain all over, yet he forced himself to look up, jaw slack and blood pouring. Through his darkening vision, he saw the large back of Kitty, back jiggling as he seemed to be… fighting?

The heavy set man was suddenly sent flying backwards, and Izuku’s eyes locked onto an unfortunately battered and bruised Kieu throwing deathly serious punches to the gelatinous stomach of Kitty. The man was covered in gashes and cuts, his right eye swollen almost entirely shut. Sweat glistened on his paler than usual skin as he moved, sending a series of jabs towards Kitty. 

The butcher locked his arms in place, taking the blows with ease as Kieu pushed forward in his assault. Kieu sent a kick inwards at Kitty’s leg, the grotesque man’s knee popping inwards at an unnatural angle before falling to the ground. The room seemed to shake,Kitty clawing at his broken leg, before he grappled onto Kieu, pressing his large hands inward on the man’s calf. Izuku could almost hear the men’s pained screams, but the sound of blood pumping through his body stopped him, filling his senses with dulled endorphins. 

As more men funneled into the room, Izuku couldn’t bring himself to lift his head any higher, his eyes lazily rolling upwards as he tried to track the men’s blurred movements while the corners of his vision continued to darken. Kieu kicked backwards, some of the men falling immediately, but retaliating to jump back up onto their feet. 

Izuku could tell that Kieu had experience in fighting, his punches and kicks both were thrown with certainty and precision only gained by real field experience, yet the man was clearly out of practice. Even as he fought, Izuku could tell he was just keeping his head above water. Multiple punches and kicks landed on him that he could have avoided if he was just a little faster, and Izuku was sure his injuries didn’t help much either. 

The man was a heavy hitter. Izuku appreciated Kieu’s rippling muscles under a layer of fat that made up a powerhouse of a heavyweight fighter. Against the lighter members of the gang, Kieu was able to overpower them by pure strength alone. Izuku himself had come up against quite a few people multiple weight classes above him, and he found the only way to overpower them was speed. There was no issue with their punches if they couldn’t land. 

Unfortunately for the gang members, it seemed Kieu could land his punches perfectly fine. Teeth flew across the room, bones crunching under the pressure of the blows against the young fighters.

Izuku watched the fight, wincing internally each time Kieu got hit. A left uppercut sent a shockwave through a smaller fighter, his body going limp as it spun away from the punch. A man with a ponytail kicked Kieu in the side, yet he bent his body to compensate for the blow in time, still coughing out a wheeze from the hit as he turned to punch the man. Another man tried to sneak up behind the large fighter, but was quickly whacked in the face by a punch with full momentum from a step back. The blows were traded for a while longer, before Izuku found his vision going entirely dark. 

Hey… why isn’t my tongue healing?

Izuku tried to move his tongue, and found that it was in fact moving, yet blood pooled out of his mouth at an increased rate, dripping down his body and drenching the front of his shirt in a mere moment. Izuku tried to use his voice to call out to Kieu, yet found his vocal chords only produced a croak. The darkness encroached deeper on top of him, his body feeling as though it was floating. At first his limbs prickled and felt entirely numb, until the blackness entirely coated his vision, only vague noises that Izuku’s brain couldn’t register sounding in the background. 

The last thing Izuku heard was his name being called, a pained and shrill scream echoing through his mind as he was floated into the void of inky black unconsciousness. 

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Izuku felt strangely comfortable. His body was pressed into something much more soft than it had been in hours. The first thing he noticed, even before light returned to his eyes, was the dull ache through his entire body that seemed to scream out towards him. Tiredness encased his bones, a sickening nausea rolling in waves through his cranium. The freckled boy tried to recall where he was, or what had happened, yet his brain supplied no answer. The darkness coated him, sinking him deeper into nothingness. 

Suddenly, he jolted upwards, light washing into his eyes in a sickeningly bright wave. Izuku cursed, doubling inwards as the memories flooded back to him. 

Rusted metal.

Isamu.

Scalpel.

Kieu.

Izuku looked around the room, noticing he was somewhere unfamiliar. He looked below him to find he was on a fairly comfortable flat bed, its pale beige sheets being much nicer than anything he had slept on in a while. He looked to the side of the bed to see what appeared to be railings, and a curtain wrapped around the entire bed. 

“Kieu…”

Izuku thought back to the beat and battered man, his heavy punches thrown as Izuku laid weakly in the chair. Izuku shot up, pushing the curtain aside as he swung his feet off of the bed. He burst forwards into the room, three other beds being placed in the same section. Izuku set forward, his shoeless feet slapping against the harsh concrete ground as he set off in a speed walk. 

I need to find Kieu…  

Izuku’s panicked brain thrusted him forward, the dull pain a vague memory in his body. His lungs heaved with air as he panicked, desperate to search for his wounded friend. 

Where is he, where is he, where is he?

Izuku pushed forward out of a door at the end of the hall of beds, running forward, before he was immediately yanked backwards by his arms. Two sizable guards were linked onto Izuku’s arms, hands clasped around him. 

“Agh- No- Let me go! I need to see Kieu!” Izuku cried out, writing against the pressure on his arms as he pushed his feet against the concrete floor. He pushed a fraction of his power into escaping, his arms shooting out of the guard’s grasps in a moment. He sprinted down the hall, dropping low as he panted with exhaustion. He bolted down the hall, the shouts of the wardens falling on deaf ears as he ran.  

Each corner he turned, Izuku found he was led deeper into the facility into a new equally dull, long, concrete hallway, locked doors lining the entire expanse. He felt hot tears running down his face, blind with panic, chest expanding and caving each second with strangled huffs of recycled oxygen. 

The stagnant air bit into his skin, the entire world feeling off center and dizzy. Flashes of his torture flashed in his mind, the pain blooming across his skin in a ghost hit each time he remembered. He let out a pained groan as he ran, eventually running through a door and tumbling straight into a familiar face. 

The doctor with the round glasses peered up at Izuku, who was running away promptly after barreling straight into her. 

“Aw shit… Wait! Your friend’s not down that hall!” The doctor yelled from her place in the hall, pushing her glasses up her little nose. Izuku halted immediately, his back rising and falling with his heavy, panicked breaths. His feet rooted into the ground, swallowing back his beating heart that seemed to clog his throat. 

“You know where Kieu is?” He asked, his voice uneven and fearful from his own panic. He looked over his shoulder at the doctor, tracking her for any sudden movements. She smoothly nodded, calming Izuku in a split second. 

“Is…” Izuku breathed in and out, trying to calm his shaking body. “Is he… okay?” Izuku didn’t blink, eyes blown wide. The doctor nodded her head again. 

“He’s in recovery. I can take you there, if you want.” The doctor spoke calmly, her body entirely relaxed as she peered at Izuku from the end of the cold hallway. Izuku swallowed, standing up from his crouched running position. 

“Really?” He spoke, voice small. 

“Mhm. Follow m-” 

The door behind the doctor burst open, guards tunneling through into the hallway. They rushed Izuku as they pulled the woman to the side, all pointing their guns at him in a crouched position that reminded Izuku of when he was caught.

“Cease movement or we will be forced to fire!” One of the guards shouted. Izuku raised his hands immediately, tensing as he lowered to the ground in preparation to bolt again. 

“Aghh, you guys are all so dramatic! Lower the guns, shoo.” The doctor flicked her hand in front of the guards, signalling for them to go away. “He just wanted to see his buddy in the hospital wing. I’ll take him there, so you guys can get out.” She sighed, her voice as bored as ever. She pushed her bangs to the side, flat expression as the guards returned to their standing positions, walking out of the room. 

“Those guys have a stick up their ass…” She muttered under her breath when the door finally closed behind the guards. Izuku still caught it. “Anyways. Follow me.” She coolly tucked her hands into her lab coat pockets, opening the door to her right. Izuku quickly trailed behind her, catching the door before it closed on him to follow the small woman. 

After a series of winding halls with doors leading to more doors that looked exactly the same to Izuku, he was led into a room that looked like any normal hospital room. Monitors blinked and beeped with flashing lights from behind a curtain. The doctor swiftly pulled her hand out from her pocket, grabbing the curtain and whisking it to the side, and Izuku was met with a sight he would never forget. 

Kieu laid still in the hospital bed, his body tattered, bloodied, and bruised. Countless machines were hooked up to him, each monitoring his vitals. The man’s face was much paler and more sunken than Izuku had known it to be, his normally boisterous smile washed completely as bruises took its place. 

Izuku’s eyes widened, watching the steady rise and fall of the man’s bandaged chest while he felt his mind racing. It had been so long since Izuku had seen any real injury recovery due to his quirk, and a sickening thought that he would have very much been dead by now without it crossed his mind. 

Izuku dry heaved, his frantic breathing coming back in a moment as flashes of Kieu’s fight rolled through his brain. The doctor swiftly passed the boy a trash can, which Izuku promptly held up under his mouth to catch anything. Nothing would come but tears that dropped silently into the plastic bucket. 

“He’s going to be alright. A couple of broken bones, some internal bleeding, and a whole lot of bruising, but other than that, he’s a-ok. No major organ injuries.” The doctor spoke bluntly. Izuku figured this was her very analytical approach to comforting the boy, yet he found it didn’t help much. “We have him under some heavy pain meds so he could get some rest. I’m sure he’ll be out and about in a bit, though he might not be able to use his hands that well…” The woman muttered under her breath. 

“What? Why wouldn’t he be able to use his hands?” Izuku questioned frantically, eyes tearing away from his friend’s sleeping figure. 

“He fractured a few bones in them. He wouldn’t be able to do things like type or play an instrument, but he can still use them. Definitely not the worst outcome of a fight in these walls.” The woman spoke, ending her statement with a bored sniff. 

Fury burned bright in Izuku’s chest, swiftly replacing the panic he had felt since waking up. He balled his fists, blood pumping through him like lava. His stomach felt blackened with anger, his tense jaw being the only piece of him betraying his stoic mask. 

“What happened out there anyways?” The bored doctor asked, calmly sitting in the spinny chair inside of the room. She tucked her legs up onto it, sitting crisscrossed in a way that Izuku found strange for a grown woman. Izuku swallowed his anger burning hot in his throat to speak. 

“There’s a gang in this place. A really violent one.” Izuku gritted his teeth, his expression souring at the thought. “Scar Rebellion…” Izuku growled. His posture was rigid with fury, eyes raking over the injured body of Kieu. 

“Oh, yeah. Isamu and Brains’ gang, no?” The woman spoke flatly, eyes flicking away from Izuku to watch her nails as she picked at them. Izuku whipped around to face her, expression surprised. 

“You know them?” Izuku asked, furious. 

“Yeah. Everyone does.” The woman shrugged. “Well, the staff do. I don’t know about the prisoners, but probably them too.” She still wouldn’t look at Izuku, even as he attempted to bore holes through her face with his eyes. 

“Why hasn’t anyone done anything?!” Izuku shouted, throwing his hand out in surprise. “Look at what they’re doing!” He motioned towards Kieu’s limp body, the machines beeping in the quiet of the room. 

A pensive look overtook the doctor’s face, before a wide smile stretched her face in a way Izuku had never seen. 

“Not our problem.” She spoke playfully.

 Izuku was floored. He wanted to lunge at this woman, kick and hit her for the horrific acts committed against him and his friend. The prison knew . They did nothing because they weren’t paid for it, so everyone passed it off to the next person. Izuku felt his heart curdle with the injustice, the phantom pains washing over him in a tense moment. 

He couldn’t attack this doctor. She was clearly high ranking, and she wasn’t the one who had caused Kieu’s pain. Not directly, at least. Izuku inhaled and exhaled, attempting to quell the storm of anger raging underneath his skin. All Izuku had ever wanted was to be a hero, to put a stop to the world that had created people like this woman, yet he himself had feelings. 

He wanted to rip someone apart. 

“You shouldn’t do anything stupid.” 

Izuku turned to look at the woman, the sickening smile already washed out of her features by serene nothingness. 

“You have a future, even if you’ve got life. There’s still a chance you can get into medium security. Y’know… get to go outside again.” The woman leaned against her hand, elbow pressed into her crossed legs. “I mean, it would be outside in a prison yard, but it’s better than this place.” She stared at Izuku, the light reflecting off of her glasses. 

Izuku tensed his jaw, relaxing it in a moment. 

“Yeah. You’re right.” He sighed. 

Bluff. That’s all you’re good at.

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Izuku decided he had one week to prepare for the hunting of the Scar Rebellion. 

The first day out, he decided to play up his acting card. He cowered in on himself, hunching and sniveling weakly each time he saw the gang members. He saw the excitement light up in their eyes each time Izuku would shrivel, yet they had no idea what the boy was doing. 

Each day, in his quiet and shy state, Izuku would track each of the members, learning each of their schedules down to a tee. When they worked usually, when they slept, when they were in the common areas, and most importantly, when they were alone. 

Even if most didn’t realize it, humans are creatures of habit. Izuku found patterns quickly amongst the members, each time they were in an ‘inbetween’ of their normal activities, just out of reach of the other members, Izuku would log it in his memory. 

From Izuku’s days on the street, he became acutely aware of pro hero patrolling patterns in the area. He used this skill to his advantage while trailing the members, remembering to be deemed as a non threat from Kieu’s advice. 

Brains’ was alone in the morning, usually working in the smaller lounge room typically reserved for the men at night who had earned TV privilege. Since nobody was rarely in there in the mornings, Izuku found his opening to strike at that point. 

Isamu was only alone for a very short period of time in his own cell before lights out. Izuku assumed this was his way of seeming innocent to the guards in the area, even though there was no point due to their refusal to act. 

Kitty was typically alone at the strangest time, being the only inmate apparently not allowed to eat amongst other inmates. Izuku found it hardest to trail him at this time, as the guards at the door of the cafeteria were always on patrol to prevent anyone from leaving. Izuku figured he could find a loophole if he tried. 

In terms of combat, Izuku could go in empty handed and make the fight as even as possible, yet he wasn’t looking to fight the men, he was looking to incapacitate them. If everyone truly did know about the gang, Izuku saw a golden opportunity to assert dominance in the meanwhile by rendering it useless. 

During his first lunch after his conversation with the doctor, Izuku sneakily stole one of the plastic trays, snapping it to pieces under the table while pretending to cower. The noise of the lunch room hid the snapping noises, allowing him to create a pointed piece of hard plastic that would work as a shiv. 

It was sharp, but not sharp enough to penetrate skin in the way Izuku needed it to. To sharpen the makeshift knife, Izuku ground the plastic up against the metal rims of his bed during the night, the noises ringing out in his cell like a sickly reminder of his rage. 

During the day, he hid his ‘knife’ down the side of his bed from the guards, and continued with his day like normal. Finally, the day of his hunt had dawned upon him, and with his knife tucking into the rim of his pants, Izuku set off. 

In the morning, he requested for his shift to be moved to a place near the night lounge, cleaning the halls in the area. Izuku conveniently ran out of his cleaning product, having dumped the bottle earlier as no one was looking, and cursed under his breath. 

“I ran out of my stuff… Hold up, I’ll be right back.” Izuku murmured to the inmates. They nodded, barely acknowledging the boy. He trailed off in the direction of the guards, but swiftly turned before they saw him into the room he knew Brains’ was tasked with cleaning. Izuku dropped low to the ground, walking behind the man. 

Brains’ turned around to clean the table near Izuku, to which Izuku leaped into action, immediately punching the nerdy man in the throat, rendering him unable to scream. 

Izuku pulled out his shiv, stabbing the man in his knee in the deathly quiet of the room. Blood squirted outwards as the man fell limply to the ground in agony, hoarse cries escaping his mouth. Izuku pinned the man down, his knees pressing into the man’s wrists, and wrapped his hands around the man’s neck, pushing down against his most likely already damaged windpipe. 

Izuku watched the man turn blue under him, no noises able to escape. He had already rendered him unable to walk with the stab to above his knee, most likely having hit vital ligaments. He deserved it for what he did to Kieu, Izuku figured. 

The man finally fell limp, passing out in a writhing pile on the floor. Izuku released him immediately, unwilling to kill the man, and sat him upwards on top of the couch, turning on the TV. 

“Hm. I wonder if you were the type to watch the morning news…” Izuku joked towards the unconscious body, his leg wound seeping dark blood through his orange jumpsuit. 

Izuku checked himself for blood splatters, finding one on his shirt. He quickly opened the top of his cleaning product, dumping some on the stain until it looked like a vague blur. 

The lunch bell sounded, and Izuku made his way to his next target. 

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Izuku had overheard that Kitty ate in his own secluded room due to a phobia of being stared at. Izuku figured the man was bluffing, since he remembered the monster’s adoration of Izuku’s eyes on him. He shivered at the memories, pushing back vomit. His anger burned too brightly to be quelled by his fear, the dousing coolness of it being lost in the raging inferno that threatened to consume him. 

He had lost whether he was angry for himself or Kieu at this point. Maybe he was just angry. 

Izuku had found where Kitty ate, quickly sneaking in there before the guards and man could enter themselves. Izuku quickly found an error with the entire situation, that being that the room had absolutely nowhere for him to hide now that he was in it. What awaited him behind the doors he had snuck into was a brightly lit concrete box, the only thing in the entire tall, bright room being a metal table and a metal chair in the middle. 

Fuck.

Izuku heard the door begin to open, diving under the table in a last ditch effort. He gripped the legs of the table, pushing his feet against the other two legs, and used his core strength to push himself up off the ground and back flat to the underside of the table. 

He heard those same heavy steps walk towards him, his shiv in his mouth stopping his strained gasps and anxious breaths. He began sweating immediately, the memories flashing through his skull like a sickening dream he couldn't escape. Once the man had sat down at the table, his knees inching extremely close to Izuku’s body, Izuku let himself silently slide down from the table, heart echoing in his ears. 

He swiftly jumped out from under the table, leaping up on top of it to Kitty’s delight. His face lit up in a smile, and he began to speak, before Izuku sent a front kick to the bottom of his jaw, sending his jiggly body flying backwards against the floor. 

“You’ve come back to me! I knew I didn’t break you!” The vulgar man cried in delight while readjusting his jaw. Izuku picked up his shiv, twirling it in his hand, and jumped feet first down onto the center of the man’s chest, bursting his legs downwards. He felt ribs crack beneath the soles of his shoes from the momentum, the man letting out a pained groan from it, immediately swiping to grab Izuku’s ankles. Izuku jumped over his grasp, landing again on his broken ribs.

“Alright piggy, squeal.” Izuku taunted, leaning down towards the insane man and reaching into his mouth. He giggled, and Izuku felt bile rise to the back of his throat at the memories. He relished in the moment as he yanked the man’s tongue forward, swiftly slicing across it with his shiv. It was nowhere as sharp as the man’s scalpel, so Izuku had to struggle as the man let out horrified gasps, gripping Izuku’s arms until he felt them turn black and blue.
Kitty writhed in agony underneath him, his tongue being lopped off by a dull knife sending rockets of pain shooting throughout his body. He began choking and gurgling on his blood as it shot out from the unfinished wound, unable to get up from his position on his back due to his ribs stabbing into him. Izuku eventually pushed harder against the hands gripping his arms as the man weakened from blood loss and choking, slicing all the way through the tongue as blood spurted upwards across his face like a gorey confetti. 

“Gross!” 

He threw the separated tongue meat away from him. It landed across the room, drifting across the concrete floor in a sickening ragdoll like fashion as Izuku wiped his hands on his jumpsuit. 

“Alright.” He huffed, hearing the end lunch bell sound, dusting off his clothes as he left the room. 

“One more to go.”

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Izuku was honestly extremely surprised that nobody had caught him yet. There was a bleeding unconscious man in the TV room, and a tongueless pig left in the private concrete dining hall. Izuku could only assume some staff had to be backing him, or this prison had really low standards of security. 

Whatever the case, he would have to thank the doctor for whatever strings she pulled to let him get away with this. It had her name all over it. 

Izuku knew his good luck streak wouldn’t last long, and had already come to terms with what would happen to him after he took down Isamu. There was no convenient silencing he could use on the man, with guards just outside of his cell at the only point while he was alone. Izuku knew he was going down, but he figured he would be in here for life anyways. What was the harm in going down in style? 

He had steeled himself his entire life for solitary confinement, ever the lonely Deku. Izuku huffed at the memories, a flood of warm nostalgia at his amazing childhood in comparison. All Izuku knew was that the minute he was put in this prison, he was ready to claw to survive. 

This was him clawing. 

Izuku walked past his room and up another set of stairs to the cell section of Isamu. The freckled boy held his shiv in his hand, keeping it pressed against him as he passed the guards. He turned into the open cell of Isamu, the man immediately locking eyes with him. 

It’s now or never.

“The fuck are you-” Izuku brandished his shiv, slicing forwards, digging it into the man’s neck and slicing. Izuku made sure not to hit anything major, but relished in delight as the blood began pouring out, and the man clawed at his slit throat. 

“Y..ou B..tch..!” Isamu choked out, dropping to the floor as he fought against the inevitable bleeding. Izuku felt the hall guards tackle him, clamping down on his arms as they pressed his head into the concrete and cuffed him, the metal pressing heavily against him. 

He made eye contact with Isamu as the man was picked up to be escorted out of his cell, the blood still pouring out of his wound in waves, and Izuku grinned ear to ear, finally satisfied with taking down the criminals. Heroism wasn’t always pretty, he had realized that truth long before he was behind bars, and he would continue to live it. 

He watched Isamu’s eyes widen, the fear Izuku had instilled in many washing across his features as he was taken away. 

“Don’t worry, they won’t die.” Izuku spoke to the guards as he was hoisted upwards. 

“Jesus…” He heard one of the guards curse under his breath, the first time Izuku had even heard one of them speak as though they were a real person behind those reflective masks. 

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He had clawed to survive, and he had won. 

Chapter Text

Izuku’s face ground up against the hard concrete floor as he was unceremoniously thrown into a slightly larger cell than he was used to. After his revenge spree, he was less than surprised at his treatment by the guards. Izuku sat up immediately, jumping back onto his feet from his crumpled position on the ground with ease. The door where the guards once stood slammed shut on him, not a look in his direction granted. 

“Nice service…” Izuku grumbled, brushing off his blood stained prison uniform. He glanced around the room to see its similar look to his old cell. White tightly fitted twin sized bed tucked against the wall, all white floors and walls of painted concrete, and a sink and toilet in the corner with a small desk crammed into the space. Izuku even noticed a small door along the side. Upon sliding it open, he was met with a small shower.

No soap.

The boy sighed, cradling his face in his hands in misery, still facing the grimy shower. 

“Man up Izuku. You did this for Kieu… You helped.” Izuku whined under his breath, his lungs collapsing like a dying star as the reality of his situation sunk in and the adrenaline wore off.

Solitary confinement. 

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The first few days of solitary confinement, Izuku got a fair idea of the schedule. With no sunlight in the building, Izuku never truly knew what time of day it was until lights out. He found that in solitary, the lights never went out. Exhaustion weighed on his bones after his first day without sleep, wondering when the lights would signal the vague time of day he was accustomed to. 

The change never came. 

He only realized this fact after a slot was opened on the door in the room, and a small tray with a dead rat was slid into Izuku’s room. Izuku was in the process of feeling the walls of the room for any weak spots or hidden vents, a task proving to be a waste of time.

After a moment of the rat being passed in, a voice rang out. 

“This is your weekly check up. Do you need supplies?” A stern guard spoke in their usual obnoxiously loud tone. Izuku’s eyes widened, quickly scanning over what he might need. 

“...”

“Soap?” Izuku questioned with a tilt in his voice, leaving him sounding confused at his own request. 

“Understood.” The guard shouted. Izuku leaped from his position off of the tiny desk he was using to feel the ceiling, running over to greet the guard with his plethora of questions.

“Waiwaiwait no don’t close the-!” The slot closed in Izuku’s face with a quick sliding sound, the boy’s questions dying in his throat. 

He ended up accepting the soap later that day with bloodied hands from the rat he had ate, and passing the corpse’s remains back over to the guard who had delivered him his cleaning product. 

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The second week, or at least Izuku had assumed a week had passed since the man had asked for his second ‘weekly check up’, Izuku requested a notebook and a writing utensil. 

During his recent time in solitary confinement, he had become incredibly familiar with boredom. After his adrenaline from his experience in prison up until confinement had worn off, Izuku found himself left with little to do. 

Obviously, that was their intention. Izuku knew people went mad from boredom in the walls of confinement, never seeing the light of day again from their boredom leaching into their brain and killing them inside and out, but Izuku refused to crack. 

He hadn’t cracked yet, and he would be damned if the white walls that haunted his waking nightmares would be his final resting place. 

So, Izuku figured that the best thing to do would be to find outlets that the prison would allow him to use to pass the time. The freckled boy had no idea how long he would be in solitary confinement, no real date being given to him in the heat of the moment while blood spurted out of Isamu’s neck in waves, so he decided to track it for his own good. 

Izuku was granted a small notebook that could fit through the slot, as well as a cheap black pen. He was unimpressed at the set up, but quickly got to work. 

Izuku had always been a studious child, analyzing the events of hero culture to a disturbing degree for a young mind. He had always been one to jot down notes, doodles, organize his thoughts, and train his mind to dissect everything he came across. 

That small childhood habit ended up shaping his career as a vigilante, his quick thinking skills and pattern recognition skills saving him in the nick of time on many occasions. 

Before Izuku became a vigilante, he had gotten up to thirteen notebooks filled with hero notes for his future alone. Almost one for every year of his life, though he obviously hadn’t been writing since he was one. 

Since his days on the streets, Izuku hadn’t found the time to jot down notes, preferring to mentally catalogue what he needed to know on the short term, and using his stolen computer setup to create small pockets of information regarding his hero work. 

He remembered he should really thank Mei for hopefully hiding his tech junk littered throughout his shabby apartment when he gets out. Izuku’s knowledge in the wrong hands could be fatal. 

Izuku had missed the nostalgia of pen and paper, and once he began writing, he couldn’t stop. 

Izuku dedicated the first page of the notebook to counting the weeks he would be captive in solitary confinement, jotting down a tally each time the guards would come by for his weekly check up to make sure he wasn’t dead or rotting or needed toilet paper. He figured that the perspective would help him feel as though he wasn’t wasting into oblivion.

The rest of the words flowed easily, jotting down every piece of information he knew about his quirk for hours on end, cataloging his experience with the strength, speed, and healing side of the ability. 

He created a page as a layout of the facility that he had memorized from blindfolded trips into the back rooms of the place, desperate to find a weak point in the wall of security. Of course, he had never seen a door out, so it was a useless endeavor, yet a comforting one nonetheless. 

On a few pages, he wrote about Dusk Hunter. The bits and pieces of information about the villain stuck in his brain unnaturally, prodding at something sensitive and hyper aware of the name within him. Izuku had been horrified yet elated to learn about the vigilante. Though he couldn’t remember the man in the slightest, he knew he had some connection to him, the vigilante always seeming to be a step away from Izuku, just out of reach, yet something calling for his attention.

He was the closest he had gotten to any idea of what had happened to Izuku in his months away, yet Izuku had never met him. All of his information was word of mouth, which was frustrating to the logical boy to no end. Even as he wrote up the barely six lines worth of information he had on Dusk Hunter, Izuku gripped at the roots of his hair in frustration. 

Izuku needed to chase the trails the vigilante left at some point, or else he feared he would lose the last connection he had to his old self. 

He slammed the notebook shut. 

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Izuku now had five tallies in the section of weeks passed, and he was starting to feel nauseous with unease. The loss of time was seriously beginning to affect his internal systems, not to mention the ever present glaring overhead lights that kept him from reaching any real rest. If Izuku had a mirror, he was sure his eyebags would rival those of Eraserhead. 

Eventually, Izuku began to attempt to exhaust himself into sleep. He would run in place for hours on end, thousands of sit ups carving his abs until he couldn’t bear to move, laying on the floor in a heap. 

He tried everything to keep his body from turning to jello in his cage, as well as force himself to sleep in spite of everything keeping him from resting. It seemed still that no matter how tired he was, the light was always there, and that was enough to hurl the prehistoric diurnal part of his brain into a confused stupor. 

Izuku was incredibly tired, yet he hadn’t been able to do anything.

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Izuku had been talking to keep himself sane over the weeks, nine tallies now sitting neatly within the first page of his notebook. He would hum a tune he kind of knew, failing to continue after the chorus, or simply recited pi, recapped the events of a show he liked to himself, explained the meaning of words like a dictionary, pondered aloud. 

After so long of only his own voice, the voice of the guard asking for his weekly needs was a delight. Izuku would relish in the sound of their shouts, notifying him he was one step closer to escaping, though it never felt that way. 

As he jotted down the tenth tallie, Izuku found himself running out of things to say, things to think. He did his two thousand sit ups with ease, sleepless days and nights still leaving him in a weary state of confusion. 

Eventually, he stopped his chatter. 

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Izuku woke up around a week after he had stopped speaking to himself, yet he couldn’t get out of his uncomfortable, sleek, twin sized bed. His body felt numb and cool, his vision blurred and pulsating with his heartbeat. 

His limbs felt like lead, unable to push himself up from his place on the bed, most likely drooling. His mind was eerily still, yet thoughts still raced in opposition of him. They told him to stay down, unable to conjure enough energy to make it to the shower. 

He stared across the room at the same white walls, a deep and viscerally hopeless emotion settling in the recesses of his organs, clawing at him from the inside. 

Izuku wondered if he would die, for a moment, but realized he didn’t feel hungry. He wasn’t bleeding, bruised, or even sick. He was so tired, he couldn’t finish thoughts he had started, abandoning his mind’s efforts half way through. 

The freckled boy’s journal had been becoming sparser and sparser, the boy often taking time to simply stare into space, thoughts exiting his head entirely as he floated outside of his pale, unused body. He felt exhausted with his situation, with his life. He wanted the nightmare to be over, the pain to stop, yet every time he closed and reopened his eyes, white walls greeted him, teasing his hopes with their blankness. 

Izuku closed his eyes again, the air in his body leaving him in a whoosh as he fully collapsed his lungs. He wanted to be empty, to be rid of the pain. Suddenly, a voice called out to Izuku. It was muffled, a woman speaking to him in a way he couldn’t understand. 

Huh?

“Iz-”

Izuku leaned into the warmth radiating from the woman’s words, a comfort seeping into his heavy body.

“Izuk-”

The words were muffled, yet Izuku could just make out a name. 

His own name, so foreign to his ears, yet familiar on the woman’s tongue. 

“Izuku.” The woman spoke with a smile in her tone. Izuku’s heart leapt into his throat, constricting his body. 

…Mom..?

“Izuku.”

Mom! Izuku cried out, his body still limp on that same mattress, yet so far away from his brain. 

“Izuk-”

Wait, no! Come back! Hey! Mom, stay with me! Izuku searched for the voice in the darkness of his mind, separated from himself completely, until he was violently thrust back into his skin. 

“Biter!”

Izuku jolted upwards, sitting in the white bed as his eyes adjusted to the harsh light, blinking away forming tears. A figure formed in front of him from his blurry vision, yet he blinked a few times, still not believing his eyes. 

“Jesus fucking Christ wake up!” The silver haired woman screeched in Izuku’s face, snapping her well manicured nails in front of him. “You in a coma or something?” She questioned, leaning forward to peer at Izuku. 

“Miss…Ogawa?” The confused boy asked, his voice coming out in a squeak from it’s lack of use. His heart beat heavily in his chest, his first time laying his eyes on another human in months. 

“In the fucking flesh. Get up.” Izuku bolted up, standing at attention in front of the woman immediately. He noticed the door to his cell was open. “Now-”

 The prisoner immediately bolted past the rude woman, bursting through the doors that had held him captive so long, and taking off in a sprint down the hall, barely registering the voices behind him. 

His mind looped on the concept of freedom, tears welling up in his eyes once again as his shoes thumped against the ground. Suddenly, he heard a loud bang sound behind him, a bullet whizzing past him and slamming into the concrete floor at his feet. He tensed immediately, stopping in surprise for a moment. 

In the small opening of stillness, two guards tackled Izuku to the ground, the boy falling to the floor under the  three-hundred pound men. 

“Can you be calm for a second?” Miss Ogawa chastised. “We have guests coming for you, don’t fuck around, Biter.” She cocked her hip, placing her hand on it with a sharp sigh. Izuku wriggled under the guards, desperate for freedom, as cuffs were immediately hooked to his hands. 

“Guests?” Izuku questioned, being hoisted to his feet by the rough guards, guns still pointed at him menacingly. He was panting, licking his lips as his eyes darted around the room. He hadn’t been out of his cell in a long time, even the blank halls of the facility feeling refreshing. “What do you mean guests? I- I thought-” Izuku’s words died in his throat, blinking owlishly as Miss Ogawa stared at him coldly. 

“You’ll see. Don’t get your panties in a twist.” She rolled her eyes, high heels clacking on the floor as she walked past Biter. The guards followed her, the winding hallways leading Izuku through too many similar doors to count. 

Eventually, Miss Ogawa stopped in front of a door, similar to the rest, and swung it open without a moment's notice. Izuku was shoved into the room by the guards, and he laid his eyes on something he never thought he’d see. 

Eraserhead,

A large rat in a suit, 

Detective Tsukauchi

And a nervous man holding a hefty briefcase.  

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Izuku sat down across from what appeared to be a rat wearing a suit, it’s tiny furry hands clasped politely on the polished wooden table. Izuku flicked his eyes up to Eraserhead, panic and confusion pulsing through his system as he was met with the man’s reserved and… slightly pained expression? 

Izuku could barely breathe, thoroughly overwhelmed after months of nothingness in that white room, yet adjusting quickly. 

“Alright. The prisoner is here, as requested, you may begin your process of… whatever this is.” Miss Ogawa rolled her eyes, standing behind Izuku as she lit a cigarette. 

The rat nodded, and Izuku nearly choked in confusion as to how it understood Miss Ogawa. He had come not to judge quirks in his life, and settled on rolling with whatever the rodent man was about to say next. 

“Hello, Biter. My name is Nezu, it’s nice to meet you.” The man smiled sweetly up at Izuku. Izuku bowed slightly in his seat, still confused as to what the creature was.

“I hear you have already met my colleagues Detective Tsukauchi and Eraserhead. You caused quite a commotion at the station, you know?” Nezu spoke with amusement lighting up his tone, though his rodent features betrayed nothing. Izuku nodded. “Anyhow, we will get to my part of the conversation in a moment. My colleagues would like to speak to you first.” Nezu smiled. Izuku glanced up at Eraserhead, ready for the man to begin speaking. He cleared his throat, and in a sterner tone than usual, began his side of the conversation. 

“Biter.”

Izuku gulped. 

“You have been imprisoned at the Ogawa prison complex for three months and some by now, on account of mass murder.” The man spoke harshly. Izuku shrunk in on himself, the reminder of his situation leaving a bitter taste in his mouth. “But somehow… I don’t believe that’s it.” 

Izuku’s head shot up, eyes meeting Eraserhead’s softened black gaze. 

“I want you to tell me what led to those charges.” Eraserhead spoke evenly, his voice ringing out to Izuku’s ears, and piercing through his heart in a moment. He swallowed dryly. 

Someone… wants to listen to me.

“I…” Izuku began, looking down at the polished table, eyes flickering around as his heart beat wildly in his chest. 

“I was kidnapped.” Izuku began. 

“I let my guard down for a moment, and I was kidnapped.” Izuku spoke clearly. “The group who kidnapped me wanted me to join their group, and I…” Izuku swallowed nervously. “They… were like nothing I’ve ever seen. I’ve been in the underground for months, and these men were… Something different.” Izuku’s voice shook, recounting the memories of the incident. 

“They’re a violent anti-hero group, they go by the name ‘League of Villains’. They have a goal, and I can’t prove it to you, but they have something sinister up their sleeve.” Izuku’s eyebrows scrunched together in worry. 

“They’re trying to kill All Might.”

“I can’t tell you for sure, but…” Izuku looked up to meet Eraserhead in the eyes, widened in surprise. 

“They might be able to.” Izuku mumbled in fear. 

Nezu spoke up, his ear flicking for a moment. 

“Interesting. How do you suppose they might do that ?” An interested tilt took over the rodent’s voice. 

“I… I can’t tell you for sure, but they have some insane quirks on their side.” Izuku looked around in panic. “The head of the group, Tomura Shigaraki, he’s a violent All Might hater. He can decay anything he touches, he just has to place all of his fingers down, from what I observed.” Izuku rambled. 

“And they have a warp gate user by the name of Kurogiri on their side. He can transport, from what I’ve seen, possibly hundreds of people many miles with his quirk.” Izuku gulped. 

“Shigaraki- the leader- he… he was going to decay me if I didn’t join…” Izuku shook his head from the memory, eyes wide and haunted. 

“Why did he want you to join?” Tsukauchi asked, his voice wavering slightly. Izuku’s eyes widened, completely forgetting one of the most crucial parts to his experience with the LOV.

“Eraserhead, they… They worked with Dusk Hunter. They wanted me to replace him.” 

The scruffy black haired man shot upright from his position, every muscle in his body tensed. He began walking up to the table in haste.

“What?!” The hero yelled, more riled up than Izuku had ever seen him. 

“Eraserhead, please calm yourself.” Nezu warned with a smile. The hero immediately straightened himself out, backing off with his back still rigid. “Please, continue.” Nezu smiled politely at Izuku. The boy gulped. 

“I… They said they used to work with Dusk Hunter…Basically built him, in a way. None of them had ever seen his face or known his identity, from what I could tell, but he worked closely with one of their men that they referred to as ‘the Doctor.’” Izuku worried his lip with his teeth, taking in a shallow breath. “But… A few months ago, Dusk Hunter killed the Doctor and basically… disappeared.” 

The room was silent with this information, extremely detailed accounts of a case that had been nearly impossible to get close to on anyone’s time working on it coming to light from a young boy’s mouth. Eraserhead appeared to be cycling through the information in his mind, eyes flickering back and forth, before he turned to Tsukauchi. 

“He’s… telling the truth.” The man all but whispered, shocked by the confession. Eraserhead looked warily back at Izuku, eyes narrowed in suspicion. 

“Why would they want you ?” Eraserhead questioned. Izuku’s mouth opened and closed for a few moments, before he landed on the only answer he could think of. 

“Same reason you want me. I’m the last trace of Dusk Hunter that’s escaped all of you.” Izuku guessed, shrugging slightly. The men looked slightly guilty, silence overcoming the table for another moment. 

Nezu decided to break it. 

“Do finish the story, I would like to know where murder becomes involved.” A dangerous glint swept across his beady black eyes. Izuku shook his head. 

“Right…” Izuku forced himself to continue talking, the room’s awkward air thick enough to cut with a knife.

“Well, they forced me to replace Dusk Hunter, and… work with them.” Izuku swallowed. 

“They took me and a few other villains as bodyguards to this… Parking garage. The one I was arrested at.” Izuku licked his lips, remembering the story with his foggy brain. “And… I-I had no idea what would happen. They… They were trading people. ” Izuku choked out. 

“A-A young woman, a teen with red wings, and an old man. They were in cages!” Izuku shook in his restraints. “I wanted to save them, but a fight broke out before I could. These men fought to kill… I did what I had to.” Izuku glared up at the men across from him. 

“I just wanna save people.” He choked. Sobs threatened to spill out from his throat, chest tight with the memory. The men in the room bristled under the boy’s emotion.

“I turned around to grab the people after the smoke cleared, and… and he took them.” Izuku clenched his jaw. “Shigaraki took them to god knows where, and knowing what I know, I can’t say they’re alive.” Izuku hung his head, bile threatening to rise in his throat. He wouldn’t let himself cry until the tears were happy, refusing to let the fury escape his chest in fear that it may be the last light keeping him going.

“The police found me surrounded by bodies in an empty parking garage, and that doesn’t look too great… So… I’m here.” Izuku mumbled out. Eraserhead uncrossed his arms, back relaxing as he looked down at the young boy sympathetically. 

“Biter. Look at me.” Eraserhead demanded, his voice softened from its normal bored sharp edge. Izuku spared a glance, before raising his head entirely to meet eyes with Eraserhead. 

“Dusk Hunter…” The man began, trailing off. 

“He’s back on the streets.” 

Izuku’s eyes widened in surprise, heart thumping wildly in his chest. His mouth hung open, the light returning to his body in an instant. 

This meant he had a chance to find the man.

A chance to understand what everyone saw in him from those missing months. 

Izuku was speechless. 

“The hard thing about Dusk Hunter is that he doesn’t leave witnesses. His crimes are brutal and quick, killing is clearly the objective.” Eraserhead stated, his tone annoyed again. 

“This time, it seems he’s been targeting the hero market. The guy’s taking down heroes left and right. His style changed a bit, but we’re sure it’s him.” Eraserhead spoke, his tone bold and proud.

“We have a chance to follow the trail of blood.” Eraserhead smiled a scary smile. Izuku swallowed, confusion quickly sweeping across his face. 

“Wait… Why tell me this?” Izuku questioned, heart thrumming in his chest. Eraserhead scratched at his five o’clock shadow. 

“Well…” 

“I’ll take this one!” Nezu piped up excitedly, his face radiating an air of excitement at the prospect of joining the conversation. He cleared his throat. 

“Biter, as of yesterday, the Hero Commission deemed you an asset too important to slip away!” Nezu spoke proudly. “Distinct interest was sparked towards your case, and with some suggestions from Eraserhead, the commission has decided to utilize you to the fullest extent.” The rodent spoke cheerfully. Izuku blanked at the stream of words, all incredibly vague. 

“...I’m sorry, the Hero Commission wants something to do with me?” Izuku’s eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. 

“Everything to do with you, actually.” The rodent spoke calmly.

“They’re buying you.” 

Suddenly, before Izuku could react to the statement, a small stack of paperwork was slapped down in front of Izuku by the nervous man in the suit who Izuku had, frankly, completely forgotten about. 

“Uhm- Uh- just- sign here.” The man spoke, his tone vibrating in pitch with nerves. He pointed at a small underlined section at the very back of the multiple page contract, retracting his hand quickly from Izuku and bolting back to his position across the room. Izuku let out a surprised huff. 

Izuku stared at the contract for a moment, not reading any of the small words on it as his mind struggled to keep up.

“...Buy me?” He questioned, utterly confused. 

“Mhm!” Nezu nodded. “They want you on the Dusk Hunter case, but don’t fully trust you. So, they’re buying you… More or less.” Nezu smiled. Izuku gaped at the rodent in disbelief. “You can thank Eraserhead, he pulled the strings to get you released in court.” The rat winked. 

Izuku whipped his head to Eraserhead, giving him the same ‘are you kidding me’ stare. 

“...Don’t look at me like that. It was the closest thing to freedom I could get you.” The man grumbled. He not so subtly muttered something about murdering under his breath, but Izuku chose to believe that had nothing to do with him. 

Izuku looked back down at the contact, nervous energy buzzing in his stomach. He looked down at the first page, and began reading. 

After skimming through the pages, Izuku found the contract rather disturbing. While the Hero Commission would have no say on izuku’s basic human rights, they had full ability to use him as a weapon when they needed to. It was stated Izuku could refuse, but that meant more prison time as he was no longer an asset. 

It was cruel, inhumane, and awful.

Izuku was to be property. 

Yet… He would be able to help people. 

Izuku had always wanted to be a hero, and the more he read about the disturbing implications of being technically owned by a strand of government, the more his brain piped up with the rebuttal of freedom from the prison walls. Freedom to save people from Dusk Hunter. 

Izuku didn’t know how to stop being a hero, and maybe his future would have to come at the price of himself. 

If he could save, if he could figure out what had happened to him, he would sign away what he had to.  

Pen pressed into paper, and as Izuku’s heart thundered in his ears, he swallowed back his doubts, and signed in his messiest penmanship, 

‘Biter’.

He would help people. 

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After the nervous legal man checked over the documents for a moment, Izuku sighed with relief as they were passed around the room for multiple parties to sign. His heart echoed through his body, nervous with the wrong decision having been made. All he could really focus on was the excitement of getting out of the confines of white walls. 

Finally, the lawyer looked over the paper, then looked up at the guards behind Izuku, and nodded. 

Izuku felt large hands clasp onto his shoulders, holding him down. He let air rush out of his lungs in panic, and began to knock the man’s searing touch off of him, writhing to escape. Suddenly, a sharp pain shot into his neck from what looked like a scanner, a series of pained cries leaving his mouth in an instant as he writhed under the hold. 

“Let me go!” Izuku cried. Eraserhead jumped into action, ready to pounce, when the guard took his hands off of Izuku, leaving him panting. Flashes of Kitty’s large hands and scalpels flashed behind his eyes, before he reopened them to the room. 

“What… what was that?!” Izuku screeched. 

“Hm. I guess you didn’t read the contract very well.” Nezu spoke in surprise. “A tracking chip.” Nezu politely spoke, saying the words as if they were a pleasant surprise.

“What?!” Izuku screamed. “Wh-What do you mean a tracking chip?!” Izuku cried, his unused vocal chords rasping against each other. If his hands weren’t cuffed, he would have reached up to claw at his neck to feel where the chip had been inserted.

“Well, the commission can’t have you going rogue. I was personally against it, but business is business.” The small rodent man shrugged. Izuku swallowed, trying to feel if there was a chip in his throat when he moved. 

“Don’t worry, it’s not dangerous.” Nezu smiled politely. Izuku growled under his breath at the horrifying realization that he would be on a leash forever.

Just remember you can help people, Izuku.

The boy gulped, still extremely uneasy with the situation, but willing to trust the Hero Commission’s good intentions. 

“Yeah… Yeah ok. Ok.” Izuku looked down at his lap, trying to cool the searing panic beneath his skin. 

“Ah, Since you didn’t read the contract very well, I hope you know what your living situation entails.” Nezu spoke in his same ever-polite tone. Izuku looked up at him, eyes still blown wide in panic. He hadn’t even considered that they would be tracking him, yet it was now dawning on him that they probably never intended to let him live away from their grasp. Izuku tried to calm himself. 

“You will be under the constant supervision of a hero, who will be your appointed guardian, as you are a minor, but we want to make your environment as relaxed as possible.” Nezu smiled kindly, yet Izuku was beginning to become extremely wary of that smile. 

“As of… around two hours ago, the commission decided that that guardian will be Eraserhead, as you both will be working on the same case.” 

“What?!” Eraserhead yelled, his hair rising menacingly as he switched his quirk on under the stress. “And when was I gonna be told this?!” The black haired man looked as though he may blow a fuse, incredibly surprised by the news, as was Izuku. Both men gaped at Nezu, one much angrier than the other. 

“Well… You vouched for the boy so intently. Why not?” Nezu smiled. Izuku now recognized that smile not as one of polite conversation, but a menacing mask to cover the true madness behind the rodent’s furry face. Eraserhead grit his teeth, jaw tensing. 

“You really want me to do this?” Eraserhead dragged his hand down his face. 

“Yes! It would also be beneficial, as his homeroom teacher for the upcoming year-” Izuku cut the rodent off. 

“Wait… Homeroom?” Izuku asked, previous confusion having turned to an utter entanglement of missed information. His eyes flickered between the furry rodent and Eraserhead’s annoyed face. 

“Oh my, you must read contracts better.” The rodent warned with a smile, now sending shivers up Izuku’s spine.

“We really can’t have an improperly trained hero roaming around, so, as of a week from now,

You will be enrolled in the hero course at UA High School.” 

.

.

.

“...What?”

Chapter Text

Izuku slipped through the door, the foreign feeling of no guards tracking behind him and unbound hands making him feel almost giddy with delight. Izuku hadn’t had his hands free to open a door in a long time. His heart thrummed in excitement 

Once the meeting had concluded, Izuku requested one thing from Miss Ogawa before he was taken away. He pleaded for ten minutes in the recovery wing to have a much needed conversation with his friend before Izuku was gone. Miss Ogawa waved him off, stating he wasn’t ‘her problem’ anymore. Izuku thanked her one last time, walking out. 

His heart thumped in pattern with his steps on the linoleum floors, walking towards the end of the long line of white beds. In the very last one, he saw a heap of a man, sitting as he read a book Izuku had never seen before, his hands covered in bandages. 

“Kieu…” Izuku all but whispered, his heart heavy. 

Kieu looked up to meet Izuku’s wide pale green eyes, blinking a few times, before his mouth stretched into a toothy grin Izuku thought he might never see again. The man sat straight up in his bed, the book being placed to the side, still open on the page the man was reading. 

“Biter.” The man spoke warmly. “I was wondering why they called me in here after so long.” His tone was playful and light for his deep voice, eyes crinkled at the edges with joy. 

Izuku stood awkwardly in place, back rigid and breathing unevenly as he looked at the man. He hadn’t seen Kieu since he was half dead and plugged into all kinds of machines, battered and bruised, and looking at the healthy ox of a man before him almost felt surreal. Kieu patted the side beside him on the bed, urging Izuku to come closer. Izuku gulped, unmoving as he began to speak. 

“Kieu I-” His voice cracked, failing him when he needed it. Izuku silently looked down, clutching at his pants, before he lowered himself silently down onto his knees, pressing his hands into the ground, and bowing his forehead all the way down. He choked back uneven breaths. 

“Thank you.” Izuku called out, his voice slightly muffled due to his position on the floor. The linoleum was cold against his hands and harsh against his boney knees, but it felt necessary. Izuku looked up at Kieu, who looked absolutely flabbergasted. 

“I- I would’ve been dead without you. No doubt. I just wanted to let you know… You saved my life, and I’m forever in your debt.” Izuku choked out, his heart lurching with how truthfully he meant every word. Kieu let out a loud sigh. 

“Get up, kid. Don’t bow to someone like me.” The man grumbled, a soft smile still on his face. Izuku hesitated for a moment, before climbing back up to his standing position. His eyes raked over the man’s face. He was less pale than when Izuku had last seen him, no sheen of sweat coating his deathly skin. His dark eyes held a soft twinkle, and his body seemed to radiate a warmth to Izuku. Something close to home rang a bell within him. 

“I’m…” Izuku struggled to get his words out for a moment, Kieu simply letting him speak. “I’m getting out.” Izuku smiled a wide, wobbly smile, his eyebrows scrunched in relief at the thought. “The Hero Commission bailed me out, I’m… I’m gonna help people, Kieu.” Izuku spoke, the words coming out in a small whisper that filled the room like a storm. “I’m gonna save people-”

Izuku’s words were cut short by a muscular pair of arms wrapping around him, squeezing him into a wide chest. He felt an unfamiliar warmth fill his cool body, shock filling his system in a second from the unfamiliar sensation of being touched. 

His body ached to pull away, the sting of affection scorning him and leaving his skin searing, yet before images of rusted rooms and scalpels could flood his mind, he was thrust back by the smell of the larger man. 

“I always knew you were too good for a place like this.” Kieu chuckled, still holding the boy. “I’m so happy you’re okay. You know that?” Izuku felt tears burning his eyes, vision blurring as he stood stark still within the man’s grasp. He had stopped breathing entirely, mouth hanging open in shock. 

“You’re going to make a great hero.” Kieu spoke gently. 

Izuku was silent for a moment, before a sob wracked his body. He shuddered with the sobs that came after, his back caving as he cried. Tears streamed down his face, his arms linking behind the taller man, grasping the orange jumpsuit he wore like a lifeline. 

Izuku had never been told those words. He had never heard himself in the same sentence as ‘hero’, his life’s goal feeling so out of reach. Yet here he was, ready on his path to become a hero. Even if it had been rocky, he had met so many amazing people along the way, and he wouldn’t trade that for anything. 

Izuku sobbed into the man for a moment, before he managed to speak through the tears. 

“I’m gonna get you out of here.” Izuku sobbed, hiccuping while he spoke. “I’ll call you. I’ll-”

“Stop.” Kieu spoke softly, cutting Izuku off. The boy’s breath hitched. “You’re a great kid. You weren’t meant to be in a place like this. Me, on the other hand?” The man let a huff of air out of his nose, pulling Izuku off of him gently to look the boy in his teary eyes. 

“I made my bed. I have to lay in it.” He smiled. “There isn’t much of a life left for me outside of these walls… But I’ll be okay.” Kieu spoke softly. Izuku shook his head, whipping it back and forth in dismissal. 

“No- no! Kieu, you don’t need to live like this! I- I can help you- I can-” 

“Biter. You aren’t meant for this world. Don’t hold onto it when you have the opportunity to leave it.” The tall man spoke, crouching down to Izuku’s level. “I only want you to do one thing for me- one thing- got it?” He grinned up at Izuku, eyes warm. Izuku nodded slowly. 

“I wanna watch you become something better than this. Promise me, in whatever way, you’ll live for both of us.” Kieu’s smile faltered for a moment, before regaining it’s normal bright composure. “I saved you those months ago not because of the vigilante that came to this prison, but because of the wonderful kid I came to know that got stuck in these walls.” 

Izuku sniffled, wiping tears off of his pale face. 

“Now, get outta here and be a fan-fucking-tastic hero. Bite the shit out of the world until it feeds you, if you catch my drift.” The man chuckled lightly. Izuku found himself smiling as well, chuckling back. 

The man ruffled Izuku’s hair, pushing the boy backwards slightly with his strength. 

“Don’t keep the world waiting, go show ‘em what Biter’s made of, and I’ll be waiting for you whenever you need me.” Kieu spoke, motioning towards the door at the end of all of the beds. Izuku smiled. 

“I’m gonna become number one, make sure to watch me.” Izuku smiled, eyes glossy with tears as he bowed. Kieu chuckled. 

“You know it.” 

.

.

.

Izuku had never felt such immense comfort in his life as he changed out of his prison clothes before he was released, forgetting the joys of cotton and polyester rubbing against his skin instead of the tough orange material he was used to. 

He was correct about the Ogawa Prison Complex being underground, having been led to an elevator in the back rooms of the facility and up to the real world. It turned out the prison was in the middle of nowhere, the single exit being a heavily guarded area with one door at the end of a small hallway above ground. The entire building was in the mountains in god knows where, and Izuku just found it miraculous that he was knocked out from being tased on the entire trip into the facility. 

Izuku was placed in a heavy government vehicle, its sleek black design feeling strangely luxurious to the boy who had been living in squalor for so long. He was sitting next to Eraserhead, and the ride was awkward to say the least. Izuku simply looked out the window at the passing trees the entire time, wondering what kind of place they would take him to now. 

Izuku figured the place he would be taken to would be some highly guarded facility where heroes resided, or somewhere where the Hero Commission kept their troublesome units. The freckled boy knew that he would be put under some sort of strict watch, the possibility of him escaping being all too high. 

Not that that fear was entirely unwarranted, Izuku fully planned to escape at some point.

He really couldn’t bring himself to think about it much further as he rolled down the window and smelled fresh air for the first time in months, the stench of mud and greenery filling his senses like a reminder of a childhood long gone. He let the wind whip around his hair from the slit he had rolled down the window, the bumpy road soothing him with the hum of the car. 

Izuku had expected a tall building with no signs and glass windows, guards standing out front. As they drove for a few hours, the mountain roads eventually evolved into small condos, then the sprawling suburbs of Musutafu, then the main city. Dense buildings that fit Izuku’s description for whatever he figured he’d be forced into passed, Izuku’s breath hitching as he waited for the car to stop each time. 

It never did. 

Eventually as he zoned out, the car pulled up to a slightly shabby apartment building, its tiled exterior and old timey build causing a feeling of nostalgia to rise within Izuku. The boy checked for the stop sign in front of them, wondering why they had stopped the vehicle, before the men inside opened their doors. 

“This is it.” Eraserhead spoke up, grumbling out his statement, getting out of the car as well. Izuku leaped out of his seat , following the man with shock written across his features. He jogged up behind the swift, dark man under the cover of the night sky. 

“Wait- wait- what?” Izuku questioned, brain running in circles. “What do you mean ‘this is it’?” He jogged up the flight of stairs after Eraserhead, the stairs wrapping along the alleyway at the side of the building. 

The man kept walking, ignoring the boy’s questions. Izuku leaned over the rail as he watched the black car speed off, eyes widening in disbelief. His eyes flickered back and forth between the empty space where the vehicle used to be and Eraserhead’s swiftly exiting back, before he continued to run after the man. 

“Uhhh- Okay I think I’m misunderstanding. Is this, like, a secret base… or something?” Izuku questioned, feeling extremely ill at ease. 

He wondered if snipers were following him as he spoke, or if this was another entrance to an underground facility. He simply couldn’t fathom that they’d let a criminal like him out in the open like this with nobody but one hero in a residential area. 

Wasn’t he a villain to them? 

“Secret base? Haven’t you seen an apartment before?” Eraserhead grumbled, pulling keys out of his pocket, and unlocking the single dark door that took up the side of the building the stairs had led him up to. He pushed the door open, walking in. 

“No I mean- why am I in your apartment?” Izuku questioned, dropping to a ready-to-pounce crouch as he snuck through the door in uncertainty. 

Eraserhead turned to look at the boy finally, his eyebrows drawn together in confusion. 

“Why… wouldn’t you be? Where did you think we’d put you?” Eraserhead questioned, his hands tucked into his pockets, face wary. Izuku gulped. 

“Like- A detainment center? Or… I don’t know… sedate me and put me in a room?” Izuku grumbled, eyes scanning the room, before landing on Eraserhead’s shocked face. Izuku suddenly felt self conscious about his response to being very kindly let into someone’s home. He straightened himself, figuring he would have been attacked by now if he was to be attacked. 

“Um. Thanks… for letting me stay here.” Izuku gritted out shyly, the air extremely awkward. Eraserhead was silent for a moment. Clearing his throat and silently turning away from Izuku. 

“Thank Nezu. I didn’t even want you here.” He grumbled. Izuku’s stomach twisted at the words for a moment, before he straightened himself out, no emotions playing on his features to reveal his slight disappointment. 

Izuku looked around the cozy apartment, warm lighting filling the space from the various smaller lights across the room. The kitchen, living room, and dining room were all set in the same space, with a hallway near the back leading to what Izuku assumed to be the washing room, bathroom, and bedrooms. The entire space had light wooden flooring and cream coloured walls, fairly tidy yet just cluttered enough to seem as though someone lived here. 

Izuku was suddenly hit with a wave of something foreign and old rising from within the recesses of who he used to be. It had been a long time since he was in a real home. He had gotten used to the single room of busted tatami flooring he had called a home, and the stiffness of the prison rooms he had been confined in during his stay. A place this warm, comforting, and livable felt almost too livable. Too much for whatever Izuku was. 

He was broken out of his staring trance when Eraserhead spoke up. 

“Your room’s set up, by the way.” The man grumbled from the kitchen as he opened his fridge, pulling his tie off of his neck in a swift motion. Izuku blanked for a moment, forgetting to respond. 

“Uhm… What do you mean?” Izuku questioned, confused at the statement. Eraserhead looked back at him confused. 

“Like… there’s a bed, and we got you some clothes since you didn’t have any belongings… Y’know. Just the basics.” The man grumbled, going back to lurking in the fridge. Izuku stood, feet planted, staring at the man in awe. 

“A- A bed? And clothes?” he spoke in hushed excitement, his words coming out shakily. Izuku felt his body tensing with the foreign kindness being directed his way. The man looked up as he took ingredients out of the fridge and laid them out.

“Is there a problem with that?” He asked softly. Izuku shook his head swiftly. 

“Not at all! I just haven’t had a real bed in- uh- a while. Never had the money, so, uh… thank you.” Izuku bowed slightly, trying to smother his giddy excitement welling in his chest. Eraserhead looked at him strangely, leaning against his counter lazily. 

“You didn’t have a bed ?” Eraserhead questioned with a daunting tone, his arms crossed sternly. Izuku jumped. 

“Oh- uh- no. I didn’t have any furniture, I just slept on the… tatami mats in my one room apartment. I mean… I had to afford the room… so…” izuku trailed off awkwardly, eyes flickering around the room to escape Eraserhead’s scrutinizing glare. “I’m gonna… go check it out.” Izuku padded off towards the rooms, turning into the first one he saw. 

He was met with a very simple, undecorated room. A small bed tucked against the wall with a warm glowing lamp sitting in the corner, and a closet next to a desk on the other side. A window let the night sky show from his bed, where he sat so gently in case it all faded away into a dream. It may have looked basic, no touch of Izuku or his interests at all, yet Izuku hadn’t felt more comforted in a while. 

He felt his throat constrict at the kindness he was being faced with, the feeling of being taken care of so foreign to his body at this point, he almost fell apart. 

He suddenly felt an immense wave of guilt at the things he had done to Eraserhead in the past. All the times he had made the man’s life harder for his own selfish gains, and yet the hero had still let him in his home. Treated him with kindness… Like a human . Something he hadn’t felt like in a long time. 

Izuku must have been ruminating for a while, because a knock sounded at the door. Izuku looked up to see Eraserhead standing in the doorway awkwardly. He must have seen Izuku staring at nothing when he had come to retrieve him. Izuku immediately stood at attention, entire body tense. Eraserhead looked surprised, before continuing to speak. 

“Uh. Do you… want to eat?” The man said awkwardly. 

It was obvious he wasn’t used to company, his apartment undoubtedly being a cozy home for one. Izuku had barely heard him the entire time he was here anyways, but knew the man must have felt uncomfortable with his silent presence. 

“...no, I don’t have the money to pay for my food. Uh- sorry… I’ll eat some other time.” Izuku spoke awkwardly, embarrassed that he couldn’t pay the man back. Eraserhead sighed heavily. 

“I literally just cooked. It’s free, you want it or not?” The man grumbled, growing impatient with Izuku’s strange outlook on life. Izuku suppressed a flinch. 

“I’m sorry, I can’t eat cooked food.” Izuku looked down in shame. 

“I have raw vegetables, if that works. You need to eat.” The man crossed his arms, leaning against the door frame to his room. 

“I… I can’t… Do you… uh… Do you have, like, any rodents or anything?” Izuku questioned, looking back up at the man as he clenched his fists in embarrassment. He figured the prison would have informed the man of Izuku’s eating habits and saved him from the strange confession, but clearly not. Eraserhead’s face was swept with confusion. 

“Rodents???” He inquired. 

“Y-yeah! Uh- I can only eat raw meat from my quirk and stuff, so the prison just fed me the rats they killed.” Izuku grinned a small, awkward grin, eyes flickering between Eraserhead and the polished hardwood floors. 

“They fed you rats?!” The man burst back immediately. “What, for months?” 

Izuku nodded. The room was tense and silent for a moment, before Eraserhead spoke up. 

“Fuck… I’m not gonna feed you rats. They’re psychotic.” Eraserhead grumbled under his breath, walking out of the door frame and back towards the kitchen. Izuku sat down on the bed awkwardly again as he heard some knife noises from the other room. Suddenly, Eraserhead popped his head back into Izuku’s doorway entirely too silently. 

“Feeding a kid rats… ridiculous…” Eraserhead was still cursing under his breath as he walked back into Izuku’s room. “There’s something you can eat out there, c’mon. I’m not gonna starve you.” The man spoke, ruffling his black hair. Izuku nodded and awkwardly padded behind the man out to the dining room. 

The freckled boy was nearly shocked to silence as he looked down at his plate, beautiful cuts of bloody steak sitting in cubes with some form of meat based sauce on the side. To anyone else, it might have looked like a massacre, but Izuku hadn’t seen something look so delicious in months. 

He immediately tucked in, eating as though he hadn’t touched food in eons. Table etiquette was tossed to the side as he scarfed down the meal, barely taking a breath as he ate. The meat was tender and bloody, fresh enough for Izuku’s liking, and there weren’t any small bones in it like with the rats. If the rats were gruel, this was a delicacy of pasta to Izuku. 

After lifting his plate up and drinking the last of the blood down off of it’s porcelain edge, Izuku thumped it down against the table, finally remembering there was a man eating across from him. He spared a glance up at the pro hero, wiping his face on the back of his hand. He locked eyes with Eraserhead, a saddened bitter look washing the man’s features in a dull gray. Izuku recoiled slightly, hiding his surprise under a mask. 

“Sorry.” Izuku cleared his throat awkwardly in the silence. Eraserhead kept his eyes trained on Izuku, eating with a bored expression. The only sound in the room was the occasional clink of chopsticks to bowl, and Izuku kept his head down as the man ate. 

“... Aizawa.” Eraserhead spoke, causing Izuku to look up at him. The man was looking at his bowl as he ate, still speaking to the young boy. “That’s my name.” 

Izuku looked up at Aizawa, tensing his jaw. He couldn’t tell the man his name just in case he had heard of the case for him. Not that it would matter, since he was declared dead anyways. Izuku nodded at the man’s admission, looking back down at his hands in his lap.

The room was very silent.  

.

.

.

Izuku was going to escape. 

The real issue with escaping isn’t the part where you decide to escape, but what you must do after that. 

Izuku eventually came to that part.

The deathly boy really needed to get his old computer equipment back, needing the catalogued information from his vigilante days to help him with the Dusk Hunter case, yet he desperately didn’t want the Hero Commission tracking his wrongdoings back to Mei. She was a sweet girl, and he didn’t want to involve her in the mess that was his criminal record just because he asked her to hold onto some information for him. 

So, he needed to find a way to get to her without being tracked. 

See, the thing about tracking chips embedded in your neck is that they’re normally pretty much impossible to get out. The issue with the neck being a place to put tracking chips is how many vital arteries there are that connect your blood flow to your brain. Without steady blood flow to your brain, you go brain dead. Then you go dead dead. 

Izuku knew this, he really did, and yet…

He had come up with a plan. 

If he was just fast enough, he could dig the chip out of his own neck and heal in time to regain his senses within minutes. Back when he had first been testing his quirk, slitting his throat was how he checked his healing factor due to how effective a misstep would have been to kill him. Izuku thanked his past self for being idiotic enough to try something like that early on. 

Izuku figured that once Aizawa was out on patrol for long enough, he would sneak into the bathroom, dig the chip out, heal in time, and simply walk out the front door. 

Piece of cake. 

Now, as he stood in the cleanly tiled washroom, a large kitchen knife gripped steadily in his hand, Izuku began to question himself. 

He calculated that if he hit an artery, he had around twenty seconds to get the chip out before everything went black. He knew his body would heal him, yet he was still incredibly nervous for his first time cutting his neck open being a fluke. 

Izuku peered at himself in the mirror, staring into his large, hollow eyes. He barely recognized himself anymore, a sick mockery of the sunny boy he used to be despite everything. He looked pitiful, like a dying animal withering away from a disease. His eyes were cloudy, hair dim, skin pale, teeth bared. He forced himself to turn away from the stranger in the mirror, climbing into the bathtub.

He would have to apologize to Aizawa later for the mess he was undoubtedly about to make, but he just had to try to escape. 

Even if it was just once, he wants to know he attempted to fly away. Something about leaving even with how nice the hero was to him felt final. Like it was wrong on a level that offended the old Izuku within him, rude, calloused, cold. 

It was exactly something Biter would do, though, and that was the only Izuku Aizawa had come to know.

Izuku picked the knife up, pressing it to the side of his neck where the sharp pain of the chip insertion had radiated against his skin so long ago. His hands shook slightly. 

You’d think after being stabbed countless times by surprise, stabbing yourself would seem a lot less daunting. Izuku disagrees. No matter how many times he’s in pain, it doesn’t get easier like in the movies. 

He breathed unevenly, in and out a few times, before tightening his grip on the knife. 

You’ve got stuff to do, Izuku. Get to it.

A cicada cried outside the bathroom window. 

He dug the knife into the side of his neck, pushing deeply quickly until he felt a piece of metal clink against the knife as it bushed through layers of skin and muscle. As he writhed in agony, letting out hissing noises and pained half cries from the anguish, Izuku maneuvered the knife under the metal, pushing it up and out of his neck, cutting through tendons with the swift motion. 

Blood spurted out of Izuku in waves, clearly having hit something vital. It pulsated out of him as he dug, and finally, his knife released from the side of his neck, and a centimeter wide metallic chip clinked against the side of the blood filled bathtub as it shot out of the boy’s wound. 

Izuku’s hand fell to his side, knife released from his numb grasp, as the hot blood poured out in waves. Tears streamed down his face from the pain, yet he was satisfied with his work in digging the tracking device out of his own body. His limbs had gone completely numb at this point, unable to move as darkness shrouded the corners of his vision. 

When Izuku was in middle school, he had always considered the notion of dying. Though it had been entirely fantasy, something he never wanted to act on, it still popped up in his conscious from time to time. 

Izuku was barely bothered by the taunts that told him to die, or the hurtful bullying that wreaked havoc on his life, what really got to him was seeing it in action. He vividly remembers the first time he had let curiosity kill the cat and looked up quirkless suicide rates. 

That was what scared him. 

The thought of becoming a statistic.

Maybe the kitchen knives felt too alluring to be normal, maybe he put himself in dangerous situations just a little bit more to test the waters. At least then his death could be labeled as a freak accident and soothe his mother in some twisted way. 

Izuku’s blood flow was steady and spurting out of his neck as he gasped, unmoving. 

With his last conscious thought, he vaguely heard the desperate cry of his vigilante name before the world faded to an inky black, the stench of his own blood like a reminder of what he would always be. 

.

.

.

“...Iter!” 

“...ter!” 

Izuku felt himself groggily coming back to his senses, his hearing repairing as his vision unblurred in the corners. He suddenly realized he was laying on the tiles, and not in the bathtub where he had cut his throat open. 

Blood coated the entire floor of the room, a bright red pool filling the bottom of the bathtub. Izuku knew liters had to have come out of him at this point, smeared along the side of the bathtub from where he had been pulled out and unceremoniously left on the floor to bleed.

He immediately shot up off of the ground, rising to his feet. His body was absolutely drenched in blood from his own blood loss, but what concerned him most was the voice coming from the other room. Aizawa’s panicked cries rang out across the apartment.

“He- He’s on the floor. He’s killed himself, stabbed himself in the neck, and- and I think he’s gone.” The man spoke in a more worried tone than Izuku had ever heard come from the normally stoic man. His voice was gravelly with emotion, stress clearly weighing him down from the situation.

Izuku almost felt bad, but the eerie calm of the dopamine released in his body from healing kept him suspended in disbelief. Like he was watching his life on a screen, invested, yet unperturbed. 

“No, you just need to fucking get here! His pulse is gone!” The man yelled in a deep growl. Izuku’s stomach dropped to his feet, his heart thudding dully in his chest since it had started beating again. 

He hadn’t died…

Had he?

Izuku was still for a moment, before he forced himself into action. More importantly than if he was technically immortal, Izuku’s plan had failed. He wasn’t fast enough, and assumed Aizawa had come home from his patrol around the time Izuku had begun bleeding out in peace. 

Izuku couldn’t exactly sneak around the small apartment he was trapped in, so he breathed deeply, and padded out of the bathroom. 

Act natural.

Izuku walked through the house, bloody footprints fading away as he got closer to Aizawa, who was hunched over on the couch, most likely listening to the emergency operator’s instructions. 

Izuku walked up behind him, and lightly cleared his throat, tucking his hands at his sides awkwardly

Aizawa whipped around to face the boy immediately, jumping off the couch in surprise while letting out a loud curse when he met the blood covered boy’s deathly pale eyes. Izuku looked almost feral. He smiled an unnaturally wide smile, forcing himself to seem cool about the most likely very unnatural situation for the hero. 

“Heeeey. Guess who’s still kicking?” Izuku tried to crack a joke, an awkward wobble making his demeanor fall flat. Aizawa looked as though he had seen a ghost, which he kind of had, before he pulled the phone up to his ear, eyes still wide and unblinking as he watched Izuku’s bloodied figure. 

“Uh, he… woke up.” The man said slowly, before confirming whatever the person on the other end of the line was saying a few times, and hanging up the line. Izuku stood stiff as a board as Aizawa scanned him up and down for a minute, before leaping up to grab Izuku by the shoulders. 

“What the fuck, Biter?!” The man bellowed, his face flashing with anger, betrayal, relief, and confusion. His hands burned Izuku, the heavy touch searing into his skin. He felt his heart thud heavily in his chest, uncomfortable and surprised. 

“What?” Izuku questioned, eyes blown wide at the man’s hands gripping into his bloodied shirt. Izuku very much knew ‘what’.

“Don’t ‘what’ me, I watched you die!” The man screamed, before releasing the boy, pulling his temper into submission  and forcing himself to remain stoic. “Please, explain why I came home to see you half done bleeding to death from a self-inflicted neck wound in my bathtub at two in the morning. “ The man said in a bored and annoyed tone, worry creasing his brows while his mouth was set in a scowl. 

“I… Have a healing quirk.” Izuku explained simply. He shrugged. Aizawa turned red with concealed anger. 

“Yeah, figured that much out, but why test it? Why test it all over my bathroom ?” He growled, eyeing Izuku up and down as he checked him for any extra injuries. Izuku didn’t miss how the man’s eyes lingered on his neck, smooth pinkish skin fully sealed over where the gorey gash had recently been. 

Izuku toyed with the thought of lying for a moment, mouth opening and closing pathetically like a fish, before simply giving up the charade. He fisted his hands at his sides, the unfamiliar and nostalgic feeling of not being able to lie to authority figures welled up within him. 

It had been a long time since Izuku hadn’t lied. 

“I got the chip out.” He mumbled. 

Aizawa looked stunned, his eyebrows drawn together in concern and disbelief, mouth open in surprise. The room spiraled into silence for a long moment. 

“...You… got the chip out?” The hero asked, his voice rising at the end with the ridiculous statement. Izuku nodded. Aizawa was silent for a moment longer, the information repeating on a cycle in his brain.

“Jesus…” He pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment, letting out a large groan. Izuku awkwardly scratched the back of his neck, shame making the back of it prickle slightly under his skin. 

“They sent me a fucking nut job-” Aizawa muttered. He looked up at Izuku, arms crossed against his chest. 

“In my defense I was left unsupervised. I told you you should’ve put me in a detainment centre or something-” Izuku half joked, defensiveness painting his tone with insecurity. The boy knew he was slightly unusual, but it had been a while since he was around anyone who wasn’t . This sort of reaction to his oddities made him feel small and strange. 

“Biter! We’re not locking you up!” The man bellowed. “I fought tooth and fucking nail so the Hero Commission would treat you like a human. You’re a kid , Biter. Maybe they don’t get that, but I do .” The man spat, his voice wracked with stress. Aizawa gritted his teeth.

“I don’t know what’s happened to you, but I just need you to trust me on this, and never pull some shit like that again.” Aizawa warned, eyes dark and glossy, mouth pulled into a frown. 

Izuku was stunned, the only noise filling the apartment after the man finished speaking were the cicadas outside. The room was dim, yet warm. 

He’s… worried about me.

Izuku choked at the realization, barely fighting off the guilt ridden wobble in his lip as his eyes darted across the room. He couldn’t look at the man’s earnest eyes, eyes that actually showed concern for him. 

It had been a long time since someone had cared about Izuku’s wellbeing. Since someone stressed over him living or dying. Izuku forgot how horrible it felt to scare those who care about you. 

“I… I…” Izuku struggled to say anything back to Aizawa, the man’s chest still puffed up in emotion, jaw tense. Aizawa watched the boy’s panicked demeanor, the concept of being acknowledged as the child that he was entirely foreign to him. The man’s body eased ever so slightly. 

“I’m fine-” Izuku finally said, the wobble in his voice making the statement seem weak and forced. Aizawa’s anger left him in an instant, his face crumbling to see the state of Izuku. 

“Are you?” Aizawa asked, seeing right through the blood covered boy. 

“Yeah. I have no injuries or anything, I mean-” 

“No, you know that’s not what I meant.” 

Izuku locked eyes with the taller man, a look of discomfort on his face. He felt himself crumbling, the reality of his life in the past few months sending sharp stabs through his heart. He knew that no matter how much he bluffed, his emotions would betray him. His voice was cracking before he spoke, his words wobbly without being said. 

So, he simply stared. The question left unanswered for both of them, Izuku knowing very well he may finally fall apart if he truly asks if he’s ok. Izuku turned away from Aizawa, walking back down the hall where his bloodied footprints were beginning to turn a deeper red on the man’s nice hardwood floors as they dried. 

Izuku padded into the bathroom, leaning over the blood covered bathtub, sloshing his already bloody hands through the quarter full tub of blood. Eventually, near the end of the tub, Izuku found a small, warm mass of metal. He swiftly picked it out, went over to the sink, and washed it off. 

Izuku padded back out to Aizawa, who was now sitting at the small two person kitchen table in the kitchen area, staring across the room vacantly. He held his clean hand out with the chip placed inside, and Aizawa silently took it into his larger hand. 

He looked at Izuku, mortified at the chip being placed in his hand when it was in Izuku’s neck no less than ten minutes ago. He met eyes with the man, who looked stern and guarded. Izuku pursed his lips, swallowing back the lump in his throat before he spoke. 

“...I’m sorry.” Izuku bowed slightly, feeling bad for putting the man through something that would have undoubtedly traumatized him. Izuku never meant to hurt him, he was simply living how he had to live. It was clear to him Aizawa had never had to claw and kick and fight to get out of the chains he was placed in, but Izuku had. He shouldn’t have subjected the hero to how the unfortunate really lived, even if the man had experienced it at work. 

Izuku guessed it was different for Aizawa. He actually cared about Izuku. 

That thought almost made him smile.

Aizawa let out a hefty sigh, before placing his hand on Izuku’s curls and ruffling them gently, the caked blood getting on the man’s fingers. Izuku looked up in surprise. 

“This chip was a stupid Hero Commission idea anyways.” Aizawa stood up from his seat, dumping the small piece of metal into the kitchen garbage. He turned around to look at Izuku again, who was now standing from his bowed position. Izuku’s eyebrows raised in surprise, expecting the man to call someone to put it back in. 

“So…” Aizawa began, scratching at his scruffy five o’clock shadow. 

“You ready to get started on the Dusk Hunter case?” 

Chapter Text

Izuku had spent the entire first week leading up to his first day at UA studying the information Aizawa had given to him in the form of a measly folder of documents surrounding Dusk Hunter. 

Twenty pages of crude information surrounded the villain-vigilante, his first record being sparked in early April, just after Izuku disappeared. The man had clearly been on the streets before that, with accounts of unrivaled strength and bloodlust from the few survivors that managed to be able to cling onto the case. 

Aizawa was right when he had said it was extremely hard to keep tabs on Dusk Hunter, most of his cases being murders with barely any traces. Disemboweled heroes and villains left on the streets to rot, no signature move, no defining pieces to link the murders. A psychotic killing spree to the untrained eye. 

Izuku often sighed at how much easier the case would have been to research with his information stored from his vigilante days, but from what he could piece together, there were very few strands connecting the murders, other than the location. 

He had memorized every word on those pages, every piece of confidential information awakening something within the boy’s mind, closer to a realization he just couldn’t grasp. It was hard to understand if the man had goals, where he had come from, any form of identity from the man. 

Absolutely nothing. 

After his nth reading of the documents per day, Izuku would close the file with a humph, flopping backwards on his bed and trying to connect the dots. 

With Aizawa’s help, Izuku was able to find a few strands he could hold on to, his vague recognition of affiliated people within the case helping the overarching story being painted by the little information held. 

Izuku’s first discovery that Aizawa would have no way of knowing was the fact that many of the villains Dusk Hunter would kill, or mass murders that took place, were often in areas with record high levels of human trafficking. Izuku had busted a few operations in those areas before, small scale things like minor kidnappings of sex workers and what not. 

Dusk Hunter may have been psychotic, but some sort of moral code upheld him.

It seemed in those earlier days, the man hunted with a lot more variation. Since he took a break around Fall and came back in the Winter, his objective seemed to have changed. 

The murders remained as violent as they always were, little survivors, knife wounds, left to rot, yet the subjects had changed. Heroes were dropping like flies, the fear of a new villain on the rise in the underground with the amount of suddenly dead low-ranking daylight heroes. The man had gotten bolder, his style sloppier, his crimes more public.

Izuku couldn’t imagine his goal, what he wanted, where he was leading by murdering his way through the Musutafu-Hosu area, but he had an idea. 

He knew Dusk Hunter had worked alongside Shigaraki, or atleast alongside someone who worked with Shigaraki, and that was what he felt connected all of the dots. The LOV were involved with high scale trafficking from what Izuku could tell, and the idea that the LOV were using him to work through their dirty laundry seemed plausible to Izuku, so he slowly began to add his own notes to the case. 

The one issue that the freckled boy was uncertain about was Dusk Hunter’s current affiliation with the LOV. Since they were a violent anti-hero group, Izuku would imagine that was what caused the flip in Dusk Hunter’s crime, switching to the hero market. Izuku knew that couldn’t be true, as convenient as it would be to somehow be able to trace his way back to the LOV and find Dusk Hunter along the way, Izuku had heard from Shigaraki himself how much he hated the man. 

He’d killed one of his men, someone important, and Izuku knew they wouldn’t be working together at this point. 

That just left one more piece of information that almost connected to Dusk Hunter, yet was thrown away before it could be used for anything within the case. 

The freckled boy felt as far away from the case as he ever had, knowing the most out of anybody in the world. 

When Izuku had finished his week of revising the notes and updating with his information on the League of Villains, he’d given the case back over to Aizawa to look over. The man immediately rushed off to turn the information in to his agency, coming home later than usual that night. Izuku may have been less than his optimal usefulness without his digital diaries of vigilante work, but he was glad it meant something to the hero.

He’d even received a measly ‘thanks’. His heart nearly beat out of his chest with excitement from the recognition from the hero. 

Not that he needed it. Of course not, he wasn’t a child. 

Totally didn’t like being needed. 

Izuku went to sleep that night, a deep pit in his stomach from the bundle of nerves surrounding the next day crowding his senses. Even in the pleasant, cool, comforting dark of his room, the boy felt too excited to properly sleep. 

He still dozed anyways, his body welcoming every ounce of rest he could gain after his months in prison walls without sleep. 

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Izuku woke up as soon as he heard Aizawa’s shoeless feet hit the ground out of his own bed. The boy had found, ever since his time in prison, he had developed very light sleeping, his senses seeming to heighten while he was unconscious to prevent any sneak attacks. 

On days like today, it was useful. 

He shot out of bed, a pristine uniform hanging off of his door. Its golden buttons and well-fit cut seemed almost unreal to him, the uniform he had been dreaming of since he was a child. 

He threw it on immediately, grabbing a whole raw mackerel and swallowing bones and all on his way out of the door with Aizawa. The man barely took five minutes to get ready, looks clearly not being one of his priorities. As the apartment door clicked behind them, Izuku spoke up. 

“So- uh- why so early?” The vigilante questioned, adjusting the sleeves on his uniform to fit his toned arms. The sun was barely rising over the horizon, the streets empty and the world painted in hues of bluish purples. Izuku almost felt nostalgic for thai time of day, around when he would wrap up his patrols. 

“The principal wants to speak to you. You’re obviously a strange student to house.” The man grumbled, scratching his hair. Izuku wondered if the man’s eye bags were worse or better than the green haired boy’s. 

“Oh, makes sense.” Izuku stalled for a moment, before speaking up again as the hero walked down the stairs in front of him. 

“Wait-who’s the principal?”

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You have got to be kidding me. 

“We meet again, young Biter!” The furry white mouse-man spoke up, Izuku sat in an uncomfortable chair in front of his large desk, the rodent at a higher position than the boy despite their height differences.  

“You’re the… principal of UA..?” Izuku asked, bewildered. He had assumed Nezu was some sort of strange legal man, or even someone used for intimidation factor within the interview back at prison. From what Izuku could tell, the creature hid slightly sociopathic tendencies from behind that smile, little care for human well being behind his beady eyes. 

What on Earth is he doing running a school?!

“Ah, I suppose I never did tell you. My apologies.” The rat man stared, the same polite smile plastered on his features as always. Izuku suppressed a shudder. 

He really didn’t like the outlook of this mouse being in charge of him. 

“Yes, I am the principal of UA High School! And might I add it is a pleasure  for me to welcome our first student in the Vigilante Rehabilitation Program.” The mouse smiled wider. Izuku definitely did not trust his furry grin. 

“You are the start of a bright beacon for the future of troubled youth in the world of quirks. I sincerely hope UA is to your liking!” Nezu continued. Izuku wondered if the man had a word count to fill each time he spoke.

“Thank you.” Izuku mumbled back. His eyes flicked around the room, scoping out the tense heroes standing around the room. He recognized a few of them, such as Ectoplasm and Present Mic, but some appeared to be UA staff that he didn’t quite know. Izuku could sense Aizawa still behind him, and that, strange as it was to say, gave him some vague comfort. 

“I must inform you though, as per the Hero Commission’s request, we will have some counter measures in place to prevent any incidents.” The man linked his furry paws together on the mahogany desk. 

“Until we have a sustained record of good behavior, we will not be permitting you to be around students unsupervised. This means there will be heroes in charge of watching you at any given time, including lunch.” The man spoke lightly, as though he was listing the weather for the day. Izuku wasn’t surprised the commission wanted him on a short leash, he couldn’t imagine them taking much of a liking to him mingling with their non vigilante goody two shoes hero students. 

“And for safety reasons, we will be administering anti-quirk technology during your in-class hours. You’re familiar with quirk-cancelling collars from your time in the Ogawa prison complex, correct?” The rodent smiled. Izuku worried his lip with his teeth for a moment, suppressing a small smile. He was thankful Miss Ogawa had apparently given the Hero Commission no details on their findings considering Izuku during his time underground. 

Those collars did absolutely nothing for Izuku, and he knew it, but he’d let them believe they had him cornered. 

The curly headed boy nodded, putting on his best reserved face. The mouse seemed to buy it, his smile stretching slightly wider across his furry face in the amusement of cornering a human. 

Izuku felt a man walk up behind him, by the footstep weight, he could tell it was Ectoplasm, who asked him to bend his head forward to put the collar on. Izuku did as he was told, the familiar cool metal clicking in place around his neck as the LEDs along the side lit up. 

The young vigilante looked up to meet the beady eyes of Nezu, smiling down at him with his same polite, sinister smile. Izuku fought the urge to smile back, finally having the upperhand on the rodent when it came to his quirk autonomy. 

“Biter, I would like to welcome you as a student at UA High School.” Nezu smiled. Izuku bowed as he stood, turning to walk out of the room without acknowledging the man. 

The moment he left, he heard whispers and concerned shouts erupt from the room. He guessed the heroes hadn’t truly been warned of his arrival, since Nezu seemed to love to spring surprises on his poor staff. 

Before he could listen further, Aizawa started off in a walk down the hall, silently urging Izuku to follow suit. The boy obliged, tracking through the grand halls as students began mulling in. A few students glanced his way, wary of his freakish corpse-like appearance, but not many cared to stare. Izuku wasn’t used to being in such a nice environment, he almost felt like trash left in a ballroom. 

When Aizawa abruptly stopped in front of the massive door labeled “1-A”, Izuku felt his stomach churn in unease. The black haired man opened the door, a cacophony of noise breaching the comparatively quiet hall in an instant. 

Aizawa turned to Izuku as he held the door open slightly, telling him to wait in the hall for a moment. Izuku nodded, his heart calming in his chest for a moment. 

It was stupid, really, to still be nervous of introducing himself in front of a group of people. He had fought off pure evil, lived through torture, been battered, stabbed, bruised, and still, speaking in front of a crowd was scary. 

Teenage years are weird. 

Izuku heard the rowdy class quiet down slightly as Aizawa entered, a few words being spoken about introducing himself as the class's homeroom teacher, welcome to UA, all as unenthusiastic as the man could muster. Izuku’s ears began to prickle as the man began to speak about him, tone much more serious than before. 

“This year is a little different for the hero course students. We’ve started a new program that even I have never dealt with.” The bored man spoke, tone flat and stern. Izuku bounced on the balls of his feet in the hall as he listened. 

“As of today, you are the first class to experience our new program in collaboration with the Hero Commission.” The room went silent for a moment, tension building for the announcement. Aizawa let out a huff as he continued. 

“How many of you know the name ‘Biter’?” The man asked. Izuku heard the light rustle of fabric, before Aizawa continued. “Ah, most of you. Alright then, you there, tell me what you know about him.” Aizawa droned. Izuku felt his heartbeat increase tenfold, his popularity escaping him in the mess that was his life. 

“Uh… Well he’s a vigilante who kinda went viral on Twitter, uhm. Yeah he was kinda insane, but he got arrested. I heard his quirk made him able to read people’s moves before they happen.” The voice of a bubbly girl spoke up, excitement lifting the end of her words. 

“Wasn’t he a murderer though? It’s weird he was so popular…” Another voice, this time one of a boy piped up. 

“Wasn’t his quirk super agility? I think it’s weird nobody knows his face, even though he got arrested.” Another person began. Suddenly, the class erupted into conversation, chatter about Izuku’s history as a slight criminal being brought back up. He picked out some truths amongst the baseless rumours.

Aizawa quieted the class with a stern clearing of his throat, and by the immediate silence, Izuku could tell he was using his quirk. It was pretty intimidating, Izuku knew first hand. 

“Alright, you can come in.” Aizawa spoke, his voice directed towards Izuku behind the class doorway. Izuku swallowed his fear, and turned on the ball of his feet to walk into the classroom. His footsteps resonated in the deathly silence of the room as he scurried up to the front of the class, standing at attention while he kept his eyes trained on the floor in front of him. The class seemed confused, he couldn’t blame them. 

“Biter, say hi.” Aizawa spoke, a creepy grin lighting up his face. 

All eyes immediately snapped onto Izuku, mouths opening in shock. Shoulders raised in guard, eyes blew wide as the class was stunned into silence. Izuku refused to look up, his old middle school habits dying hard. 

“Nice to meet you all.” Izuku bowed slightly, trying to show his polite nature in front of all of the strangers his age. He finally worked up the courage to look out into the sea of shocked faces, scanning the crowd of students. 

As his eyes scanned to the right side of the room, he suddenly met eyes with someone he hadn’t expected to ever see again. 

With eyebags like Izuku had never seen before, a mortified expression plastered on a pale face, and wild tufts of blonde hair falling into his vermillion eyes, Izuku locked eyes with his childhood friend, 

Katsuki Bakugou. 

… shit.

Izuku immediately broke the stare, straining his face to be as still and nonchalant as possible. He couldn’t have Katsuki bring up his old life, get Izuku involved in the life of Biter. The minute he had seen Katsuki, he fully planned to refute all claims of him being Izuku Midoriya. 

His thoughts raced at the thought of the boy revealing who he was to the Hero Commission, somehow telling a staff member and them believing him. Izuku tried to keep his face cool as the familiar stare of his old bully burned through the side of him, looking out across the shocked faces of students while keeping his expression dull. 

“Mister Aizawa I find it highly inappropriate for a villain such as him to be allowed within the walls of a fine facility as UA!” A nerd-like boy shot up out of his desk, arm waving in a chopping motion as he exclaimed his distaste. 

A few students broke out in hushed agreements, while others simply sat still in a state of shock. Aizawa’s hair began to rise as a threat again, to which the glasses-wearing boy immediately sat back down. 

“I’ll have you know…” The stern man began. “Biter is here on a legal agreement between the school and the Hero Commission. Trust me, there’s nothing he can do to you without damning himself.” The man leaned against the podium he was speaking from, finishing with a glare swept across the classroom. 

Each time Izuku’s eyes would move past a student, they would tense in fear of his gaze. He found it made something in his stomach curl with distaste. 

“You see that clunky metal collar on his neck?” Aizawa pointed at Izuku vaguely. “That thing cancels his quirk anyways. Whatever it may be, he can’t use it.” 

Some of the class visibly relaxed after that, still warily eyeing up Izuku’s stiff form. If he could prove how nervous he was, he was sure the class would be sympathetic instead of scared. 

“Wait but didn’t he kill people-?”

“Alright. Here are your uniforms, we’re doing a physical ability test.” Aizawa spoke, passing out the dark blue gear. Izuku was almost momentarily forgotten, but those same vibrant eyes still burned into him. 

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Izuku was walking out of the changeroom he was provided to keep him separate from the other students, when he suddenly felt a presence beside him. He immediately reacted to fight off the attacker, grabbing the hand coming towards him from around the corner without looking. His body tended to react before his mind. Izuku tightened his grip on the assaulter’s arm and turned to face the person who had tried to sneak up on him. 

…Kacchan?

Izuku kept his face cool and emotionless, his surprise hidden deep within his chest as he stared at the widened eyes of Katsuki. 

The boy looked much rougher than how Izuku remembered him, his eyes wilder, his skin paler, his eyebags more prominent, and his posture seemed to lack the blatant confidence Izuku remembered. 

Come to think of it, the boy seemed to have changed a bit. The Katsuki Izuku knew would have jumped up on his desk in that class to exclaim about Izuku showing up, even if he hadn’t gone missing months ago. He wondered why the boy kept quiet…

Katsuki pulled his wrist out of Izuku’s loose grip, letting out an annoyed huff. He kept his eyes trained on the vigilante, and Izuku stared straight back into the boy. Katsuki looked panicked, his eyes flickering around Izuku’s face. 

“...Deku?” The boy gritted out, his voice cracking into a soft whisper. Izuku forced himself not to recoil at the old name, his body lurching to react to what Izuku Midoriya knew. 

Izuku couldn’t have Katsuki knowing he was Biter, promising to himself to protect that part of him with his life. He had changed enough for even Katsuki to be questioning Izuku’s authenticity as himself. He noticed that he and Katsuki were almost the same height. 

“Who?” Izuku spoke abruptly, his voice grating and insensitive towards the softness Katsuki displayed. The vigilante’s face was cold and uncaring, while Katsuki’s split into a desperate anger. 

“Where the fuck have you been?!” The boy cursed in a low tone. “How are you alive?! I-I went to your fucking funeral !” Katsuki stalked closer to Izuku, who forced his face into submission, showing absolutely no sign of understanding. Izuku’s heart felt walled off, the words of his former bully prodding at something old and sad within him. He didn’t react as he was slammed into the wall behind him. 

“Your mom was worried sick, you fucking know that!? You- You’re dead !” The boy screamed, his vocal chords grating against each other with raw emotion. “You- where- what-?” Katsuki spat in anger, his eyes still tracing the deathly features of Izuku as his eyebrows drew upwards in confusion. He seemed unable to speak. 

Izuku began lying, as good at it as he was. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you-” Katsuki cut Izuku off with a guttural scream.

“Deku! What the fuck happened to you?!” Katsuki shouted, slamming his hand against the wall behind Izuku like a child throwing a tantrum, boxing Izuku in. Unlike when they were children, Izuku didn’t cower. He didn’t even flinch as he watched the boy’s predictable movements. 

“I haven’t seen you since that shitty funeral, and now you show up out of the blue a year later as- as Biter? How’d you get a quirk?!” The boy seemed to quiet down, his voice cracking with emotion as he grit his teeth together. Izuku faked a sigh. He watched as Katsuki continued to take in the body Izuku was now inhabiting, his breathing ragged and shocked.  

“Look, I’m not Deku.” Izuku responded, his face guarded. “And I don’t know you.” He cut the boy off, a solid wall built between them.

“Then who the fuck are you, huh!?” Katsuki cursed, leaning in towards Izuku’s unmoved face. 

“I’m Biter.” Izuku leaned into Katsuki as well, their noses nearly touching as cool indifference dampened the blaze in Katsuki. “And I’m not who you think I am.”

The longer Katsuki looked into Izuku’s faded eyes, the pale green peering back into his volcanic panicked ones, the blonde seemed to realize something. 

Izuku couldn’t possibly have known what Katsuki had found in his animalistic eyes, maybe they held a deep truth even Izuku hadn’t admitted, maybe they were too different for Katsuki to recognize as Izuku, but he realized. 

Izuku watched the boy’s face crumble, all of the rage and surprise being wiped off as his breathing evened out, tired sorrow being left in its wake. 

Izuku had never seen a saddened look on his bully, and he couldn’t say it was satisfying in the way the movies made it seem. 

“...Fuck… You- you really aren’t-?” The boy whispered, his hand locked onto the wall behind Izuku falling limp at his side. The boy swayed for a moment, what looked to almost be tears gathering in his eyes. Izuku kept his face still. 

“I-I really thought you came back to life. You stupid fucking idiot…” Katsuki let out a huff, eyes falling to the ground. 

Izuku was surprised at the boy’s docile reaction. Izuku had expected to be hit, thrown, blasted, yet this Katsuki that he had never met seemed to have mellowed out. He was sad, over God knows what, but he was. The silence became awkward quickly as Katsuki continued to stare at his shoes, eyebrows scrunched in disdain and confusion. 

Izuku saw his opportunity to leave, turning to walk away, before a hand grabbed his arm. Izuku dodged it before it could grasp him, but he stopped to look at Katsuki anyways. 

It was strange, he felt something so deeply impactful from the boy, such an integral piece of his life before he was gone standing before him, yet he refused to let the emotions out of the tightly wound up ball he had created in his chest. 

Katsuki stared back, slightly shocked at his own action, before speaking up. 

“Shit- I- Uh.” The boy stuttered over his words, clearly uncomfortable with the emotion he had shown in front of what he now understood to be a stranger. The silence fell flat, and Izuku turned to walk away and down the hall to the outdoors area where the testing was to take place. 

If he let a tear fall while he was facing away from the blonde boy, nobody had to know. 

Upon Izuku entering the outdoor training zone, Katsuki trailing behind him at a distance he believed Izuku wouldn’t notice, the students all lined up in front of Aizawa, ready to test their quirks. 

Izuku joined the line, to some students inching away from him, before he was pulled aside by Aizawa. 

“I need you to keep your abilities secret for a moment. You’re going to be doing me a favour in a bit, so sit tight.” The man grumbled, not even looking at Izuku as he recorded the length of the ball tosses. 

Izuku couldn’t say he enjoyed the act of being treated differently, but he definitely didn’t mind not having to show off his quirk. 

“...Wait, why’d I change into this gym uniform then?” Izuku questioned. Aizawa smiled his signature sinister smirk, face lighting up in interest. 

“We’ve gotta give the other students a bit of a chance, don’t we?” 

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“Alright class 1-A, this is your first time doing a battle simulation.” Aizawa exclaimed, tone dull as ever. The excited whoops of the students around him eased the tension that seemed to cloud the day due to Izuku’s arrival. 

“We were originally going to have this trial take place tomorrow, but with the addition to our class, I saw an opportunity to teach you something today. Nezu agreed, and here we are.” Aizawa grumbled. The students all seemed pumped up, and Izuku felt the nerd side of him kick into action. 

Due to Aizawa’s meddling, the morning academics were cancelled for this training session, instead being taken up by his impromptu lesson. Izuku wondered what the surprise might be, but could barely contain the quirk-loving nerd within him threatening to nerd-ramble about everyone’s costumes.

Everyone had received their hero costumes early, all geared up and excited for the lesson to begin. Izuku saw so many pieces of gear customized to fit the various amazing quirks the class had exhibited during their quirk apprehension testing, and had to physically restrain himself from going up to the students to ask about it. 

He himself was left without gear, which was slightly embarrassing, but Izuku couldn’t bring himself to mind through his thinly veiled excitement. Some of the students eyed him warily, before a bubbly girl with a round face and big brown eyes spoke up. 

“Ah- Mister Aizawa, will Biter do heroics stuff with us? He didn’t get to do the apprehension test.” The cheery girl spoke up with an infectious smile. 

Izuku was shocked at the consideration from the girl, her genuine kindness touching something within him. Though she seemed too apprehensive to talk to him, she didn’t ignore his existence.

“Glad you asked.” The man led the class out to the interior of a massive building labelled ‘Ground Beta’, which looked similar to Izuku’s old stomping ground. Tightly packed, gray, run down buildings cramming small streets together, perfect for parkour and optimally designed for battle. 

Aizawa turned around to face the class, before pulling a set of stickers out of his pocket, and handing them to Izuku. He held the smiley face stickers awkwardly, confusion sweeping across his face as he looked down at his hands. 

He handed a single sticker over to each of the Hero students, as opposed to the multiple ones Izuku held. They all looked around, utterly confused at the development, before the grumpy man began to speak up. 

“Alright. You’re all kids, you’ve never really fought. And don’t say you have, cause you haven’t.” Aizawa began to speak, tucking his hands cooly into his pockets while his back hunched into a relaxed stupor. 

“That is, everyone except Biter. He’s got the street experience none of you have.” Aizawa spoke. The students all began looking at each other, some itching to come up with a rebuttal to the man’s statement. 

“Those smiley faces I handed him represent death. You get stuck with one of those, you’ve been killed. It takes about the same amount of time to stick a sticker on someone as it does to kill them.” The students looked at Izuku fearfully. He hated that he knew he could do it quicker. 

“Those stickers I handed you represent capture. If you can stick one of those on Biter, you win.” The students broke out into whispers, staring down at their stickers in awe. “If you can apprehend him normally, extra points.” 

“Wait- are you saying we’re all up against Biter?” A boy with bright yellow hair and a black streak spoke up. 

“He might be good but he can’t win against nineteen people without a quirk…” Murmured a beautiful girl with a black ponytail. 

Izuku didn’t want to bring up the fact he had indeed fought off more. 

“Oh, don’t worry about him. He’ll have his quirk. I’m just giving you a taste of what the streets are really like.” Aizawa smiled widely, the challenging energy of it not reaching his eyes. The entire class broke out into a panicked squabble, challenging Aizawa on his decision to let Izuku be free without the quirk cancelling collar. 

With a single motion, Izuku felt Aizawa lift his hand up to the back of Izuku’s neck, the collar clicking loudly before releasing itself from his neck and falling to the ground with a thud. Not that it changed much for Izuku, it seemed to change everything for the Hero students. 

They all immediately tensed, dropping into positions that were ready to run or fight, whichever came first. Izuku stood as casually as he could, fully aware the collar had done nothing in the first place.

“Wait- Mr.Aizawa- I don’t think this is fair.” Izuku spoke up, turning to look at the teacher. The entire class seemed surprised at the boy’s words. Izuku wasn’t sure that the students would be able to keep up with him, and he had no intention of hurting them. Even Aizawa seemed surprised at the genuine concern.

“They’ve never fought underground- even with their quirks, I don’t know if this is the best way to teach them-” Izuku was cut off by a shout from amongst the students. 

“You think you’re hot shit cause you went to jail or somethin’?!” The voice hollered. Izuku knew that cocky, brutish tone anywhere. Katsuki was screaming from the back of the group of students, his voice ringing out as the crowd parted like a sea to reveal the boy’s irritated face. 

“Our quirks make up for any fuckin’ brawl you could put up. Try me, bitch!” The boy yelled, beating on his chest once as a threat. Izuku was almost relieved to see the Katsuki he knew from his childhood still hidden behind the bewildered face he had met today. The class immediately began to backtrack the boy’s statement with an uproar, attempting to save their skin in front of Izuku. 

As if sucking up to him would help.

“Bakugou that is highly disrespectful-!” The glasses boy- Iida, Izuku had learned, shouted back. Before the class could finish, Mr. Aizawa took out a timer, beginning it’s countdown. 

“I’m giving you all a minute to scatter and strategize. Let’s see how many of you would survive the real world.” He grumbled. The student’s chatter immediately halted, a deep silence filling the large outdoor area. 

In a split second, the entire class began sprinting into the networks of buildings, blasts echoing as Katsuki burst forward ahead of the group, immediately being overtaken by the nerd with engines in his calves.

Izuku began stretching out his limbs nonchalantly, the timer clicking swiftly in the teacher’s hands as the students' footsteps got farther and farther.

“So, what’s the rules for me ?” Izuku questioned, aching to understand his allowed limits when it came to fighting. 

“You stick the sticker, or you don’t touch ‘em. Don’t go wild on these kids.” Eraserhead yawned. 

“I haven’t done this in a while, you know.” Izuku teased, his skills rusty from time off the street. The last time he had done anything remotely active was months ago, but he trusted the power thrumming beneath his veins. 

“Huh, I guess you’re right…” Aizawa considered for a moment, before speaking up from the brief silence. 

“If you can get them all in under nineteen minutes, I’ll let you eat raw wagyu.” The black haired man joked lightly. Izuku’s mouth salivated at the thought, the fresh, fatty meat reminding him of his days of eating horumon. 

Wagyu was something else, a mouth watering delicacy he had brought up once to Aizawa while working on the case together. His heart felt warm at the fact the man had remembered something so insignificant. A student each minute? 

Izuku would manage.  

“You’re on.” Izuku grinned. 

The timer blasted out a loud couple of beeps, and Izuku was on his way. In a silent sprint, he tuned his ears in for any noises he could find in the alleys in front of him. The winding roads may have been difficult to navigate, if he couldn’t hear three heartbeats and small whispers echoing down the side of one. 

Izuku hopped up to the steps lining the side of the building in a swift motion, running along the exposed metal support, before zeroing in on the three students. A boy with multiple arms crouched down next to a frog looking girl, as well as a boy with a bird head. Izuku swiftly jumped from the support he was on, landing feet first straight into the boy with the extra arms, sticking one of his eyes on his arms with a sticker before it could see him. 

The group immediately let out yelps, the bird boy summoning a massive shadow that Izuku ducked under and stuck a sticker to the boy’s legs. The frog girl swiped her tongue out to catch Izuku, but he promptly picked up the small bird boy and threw him at the girl. They fell together in an entanglement of limbs, and he stuck a sticker between the girl’s eyes as he pounced over her. 

Izuku could hear a single heartbeat just around the corner, but this one seemed a little calmer than many of the others. Izuku scaled a wall and hopped up through to a room entirely filled with pipes. He promptly dug his fingers into a pipe, denting the metal, and yanked it free from the wall, bending it until it snapped off.

A fake gas poured into the room, Izuku imagined to simulate the real thing, but he continued forward, armed with his pipe. He ended up coming up behind the boy with the calmer heartbeat, and Izuku could see why he was calm. 

Izuku had seen that the boy was the split-haired scarred teen who had an extremely powerful ice quirk. Izuku was sure he would feel confident with a quirk like that too. 

It was simply too bad he had no real fighting experience beyond a strong quirk, and no sense as to the fact Izuku was sneaking up on him. He was prepared for Izuku to round the corner, having assumed Izuku was coming from the direction the screams had come from. 

While that’s smart in theory, Izuku knew you couldn’t rely on your logic to outthink your opponents if you didn’t know the lay of the land. 

Izuku simply walked up behind the boy, sticking the sticker on the back of his neck as he stepped by. 

“Wh-?!” The two toned boy exclaimed. Izuku grinned while he continued walking. 

“Not everyone’s footsteps make noises.” He took off in a run down the alleyway, before he sensed two people’s eyes on him from above. Izuku immediately darted into the building’s first floor below the people who were watching him from above, hiding behind a wall. 

Two boys jogged down the stairs behind him, the same yellow haired boy from before, and a boy with black hair and a tape quirk. Izuku knew these two were powerful, but God they were loud. 

“Huh?! He was literally just down here!” The blonde exclaimed, looking around the corner and out into the alley.

“Dude, he’s gotta be hiding. Lower your voice!” The black haired boy whisper-yelled. It really wasn’t much quieter than the shouts of the yellow haired boy. ‘

Izuku picked up a small pebble from the decaying wall he had hid by, winding up his arm with a fraction of his power to throw the small stone. It landed on the other side of the wall, both of the hero students' heads immediately turning to face it. 

The dark haired boy made a shushing motion, slowly creeping around to the other side of the crumbling wall where Izuku had thrown the stone. As they turned, Izuku rounded the other side, silencing his footsteps. He peeled off two of the smiley face stickers, trailing behind the boys slowly.

As he creeped up behind the two boys, completely oblivious to their environment, Izuku stuck the stickers to the boys backs at the same time, to which both of them let out loud yelps, immediately whipping around to face Izuku, readying themselves for a fight that was already over. 

“Jesus! I had no idea you were there!” The black haired one cried, attempting to turn around to see his own back where Izuku had placed the sticker. 

“Never forget your surroundings.” Izuku warned, immediately turning away to jog up the stairs. 

“Scary…” The yellow haired one shivered. 

Izuku made his way up to the roof, bounding across the rooftops towards a heartbeat he heard in the distance. Suddenly, he fell down to a lower roof from the others, two hero students at the ready with stickers. 

They immediately laid their eyes on Izuku, one pink alien looking girl, and a spiked red headed boy. Izuku refused to back down, leaping ten or so feet down to the roof. The hero students immediately tensed for combat, but Izuku gave them no time to breathe. He swiftly ran up to the pink haired girl, sticker at the ready, when she released a clear substance from the bottom of her shoes, gliding across it as it bubbled on the ground. 

Acid… tricky.

Izuku avoided the splashing liquid, the girl moving around him, her movements clumsy and inexperienced. As Izuku dodged, he suddenly bent forward, his reflexes alerting him from the blow behind. Izuku swiveled on his feet to face the red haired boy, a punch still in motion where Izuku had once been. 

“Attacking from behind? Not very heroic.” Izuku mumbled, dodging the blows of both of the students. 

“Stay still!” The pink haired girl shouted, her arm shooting forward in an attempt to stick the large smiley-face sticker in her hand against Izuku. Izuku weaved through the attempted blows from the two, the redhead clearly trying to take him down traditionally while the pink haired girl attempted to stick him with the sticker. Izuku quickly became bored of dodging, and switched to offensive movements. 

“A hardening quirk, right? That means you won’t break easily.” He said to the spiked boy. 

He grabbed the spikey hardened boy’s arm, his grip nearly piercing through the toughness of his skin. He then pulled a sticker out, laying it flat against his hand. While the boy stumbled forward from his halted punch, Izuku sent a blow right up to the boy’s jaw with the palm of his hand, the sticker slapping against the boy’s face. 

He dodged a well-aimed kick from the pink haired girl, ducking down to the ground as acid splashed overhead. He immediately shot back up, grabbing her leg and sending her spinning, slamming against the ground. 

He stuck the sticker to her arm, leaping off of the building before the two could say anything. 

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.

Izuku had found the next seven of his targets in one place, all searching the same area. He stood up on what was supposed to be a makeshift weather vein as he watched them scurry below like ants in a tunnel system. Slowly, one by one, he dropped down from above, creeping up behind them as he stuck them with the sticker before they knew it. 

Izuku had to admit that when he had found the boy with the tail, he put up a great fight. Martial arts were something new for Izuku to fight against, but when you have a pipe in your hand, it really wasn’t all that even. 

He had to trail the girl with wires from her ears, impeccable hearing seemed to alert her of Izuku’s every move. That meant, in the long run, all he had to do was act a little confused as to where she was. That immediately lured her out, her ambition to place her sticker on Izuku leading to her downfall.

He really liked lying. 

Izuku had taken down most of the class, except for three people. 

The boy who Izuku had observed to have a naval laser from the quirk apprehension test was nowhere to be found, his heartbeat incredibly faint at all times, no matter how close Izuku felt he was. For a boy who liked shining so much, he was incredibly well adapted to the shadows. 

Of course, the invisible girl was missing. Izuku was able to track her down at one point, but eventually she was gone as soon as she had come, which was incredibly annoying. 

The final person Izuku couldn’t find was Katsuki. 

Well… Izuku could find him alright. The boy was loud as ever, trashing half of the area in an attempt to lure Izuku out. He could hear his wild heartbeat from around the gym, his taunts echoing along the streets. Izuku really didn’t want to find him. 

After around a minute of silence across the entire area, he decided to cave in and face those explosions that had haunted his childhood days. Even now as they blasted through the surrounding area, the noise ricocheting off the walls, Izuku couldn’t help but wince at the sound and the memories that came with it. 

“Biter! Get the fuck out here! It’s you and me!” The blonde shouted, his vocal chords carrying an impressive strain as he shouted wildly. 

Izuku could tell the boy wasn’t as confident as some of the others had seemed, his heartbeat wild, yet he couldn’t place why. 

He took a steadying breath, calming himself, before swiftly running up behind Katsuki, sticker at the ready. The boy immediately reacted, reflexes as sharp as ever, an extreme blast being shot Izuku’s way.

“There you are!” The blonde licked his lips maniacally, a threatening gleam crossing his eyes. “You’ve been hiding. Didn’t wanna face me?” The boy growled, his teeth bared like a snarling dog. Izuku stood back into position, hunched as he circled Katsuki in preparation to attack. 

Katsuki seemed to stutter at the look in Izuku’s eyes, most likely the first time the boy had ever been hunted in his life. Izuku took the opportunity to get closer, closing the distance between them in an instant. Katsuki immediately ducked under Izuku’s outstretched hand with the sticker in it, weaving between his attacks. 

“Extra points if I mess you up, right?!” The boy roared.

Katsuki lead with a right hook for his first explosion, Izuku dodging it out of habit, moving out of the way as he had many times before when they were children. He rolled from his movement, standing back up to see the wild wide-eyed look Katsuki was glaring at him with. 

“Hey… You knew I was going for that.” Katsuki rasped out, his voice no longer yelling. Izuku had so many openings to attack, yet his feet were planted firmly against the Earth. 

Katsuki stalked towards him, his steps hurried and panicked, Izuku still frozen in place, his heart beating like a kick drum. 

“Who the fuck are you?!” Katsuki screamed, going in for another punch that Izuku dodged out of instinct. “Fight back! God dammit, fight me!” The boy screamed, blasts shooting off in every direction as he wildly swung. 

“Why won’t you go away?!” Katsuki screamed, another explosion narrowly avoided by Izuku. He had many opportunities to overtake the boy, many openings in the boy’s brutish fighting style, yet he couldn’t move his body to hit the boy back. 

As he watched Katsuki’s pained expression mingle with his rage, sweat pouring down his skin, Izuku felt his heartbeat strangle his throat. He couldn’t respond, his mouth opening stupidly. Biter and Izuku’s Kacchan were never meant to mix like this, something about it made Izuku freeze up, return to the boy he once was, scared of his childhood bully. 

“You can’t ever just leave me alone, can you?!” Katsuki screamed, Izuku continuing to easily dodge his blows. “You’re just always there! Even when you fucking die , I can’t escape you!” Katsuki roared, sending a larger explosion towards Izuku’s feet. The freckled boy leapt over it, jumping backwards as the ground shook. Katsuki weakly stood from his attack, the barrage ceasing as Izuku stood a few feet back from the boy, still unable to move. 

“Why’d you have to come back now ?! I-I got better! Got over it! And now you’re looking at me like a fucking stranger-!” Katsuki choked out, his screams echoing through the pavilion. Izuku couldn’t speak, his throat dry and thoughts racing. Katsuki couldn’t know he was Izuku, absolutely not. 

He had a quirk. He was nothing like his old self, yet the one piece of consistency in Izuku’s life always seemed to be Katsuki. 

He guessed, even as Biter, he still couldn’t escape the boy. More importantly, Katsuki couldn’t escape him.

Izuku watched in horror as Katsuki raised his gauntlet up, fingers splayed in preparation to shoot. A large silver pin stood out from the side, the boy’s fingers looped through it and held onto it. Sweat poured down his skin, the smell of burnt nitroglycerin searing through Izuku’s senses like a childhood memory. 

Izuku could have dodged. Moved out of the firing path, anything. 

But his feet were stone, his heat was on fire, and his eyes were drawn to Katsuki. 

Really, had he changed at all?

“You couldn’t have just stayed dead, could you?” The blonde snarled in a low tone.

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He pulled the pin.

Chapter Text

Izuku’s eyes widened as he watched the pin pull out of the side of Katsuki’s grenade shaped gauntlets. The boy suddenly realized the blonde hadn’t just been trashing the area to get his attention, he had been working up a sweat . 

Izuku could have dodged. He had the reflexes to, but something within him kept him in place. The view of a star bursting right in front of him filled his vision, a supernova explosion that locked him in a weak place from his childhood. His ears had tuned out the desperate screams of Katsuki, balling up his fists, and closing his eyes. 

The sick thing was, Izuku wanted Katsuki to finally let out his anger on the boy. Finally do his worst, because this time, Izuku knew he could take it, and he could keep standing just to spite Katsuki. He gritted his teeth as the blinding heat neared him, and Katsuki’s pleas to move fell on lost ears. 

The wave of energy bursting out from the blast nearly knocked Izuku backwards, but he dug his feet in, pushing forward as shrapnel from the surrounding exploded terrain cut through his skin, bursting out of the other side of him like firecrackers. 

Next came a wave of heat so intense Izuku couldn’t even work out a scream. It seared through his skin, his arms shooting up to protect him doing very little. Layer upon layer of him was charred, his skin melting into him and reforming into painful blackened scabs that sunk through his flesh. 

Izuku could deal with knives, he had been tortured, he had been pushed to death so many times, yet the searing heat of resentment from Katsuki had scorched through him, leaving him scorned to the bone. Through their childhood, Izuku had been subject to endless explosion from the other boy; burning his belongings, his hair, but he had never felt the true heat of hatred the blonde was capable of.

As the smoke cleared, Katsuki was staring wide eyed at Izuku, lip quivering in fear as he looked at his destruction. Izuku stared back, his vision half gone from the light of the explosion, his right eye having partially melted out of his skin, seared into a mass connected to his crisp cheek. 

The vigilante was charred, his skin blackened from the force of the blow, red irritation seeping out from the wounds where his own fat had melted back against his skin, mingling to make a sickening display. His muscles pulsed and writhed in agony from the explosion, sharp pieces of concrete sticking out of the burned skin. Pieces of his melted skin hung off of his body, detached from the force of the blow and the heat. 

Katsuki was swept with fear, an immediate look of horror washing his features out. Izuku’s unmelted eye stared at the boy, full eye contact, as he stood, unmoving, a pulsating mass of burnt flesh. 

Izuku couldn’t blink. He couldn’t move. The agony broke him, leaving him thoughtless, entirely blank. But as he always did, he began to heal. 

The scorched muscle began rewrapping itself, the blackened oozing mass brightening to it’s normal degree, tendons reconnecting themselves under his skin as his normal colour returned. His exposed pieces of fat brightened to a normal shade, the dead pieces falling to the ground as they were quickly replaced by new cells, forming at a pace unmatched by any healing quirk on the planet. His skin slowly reformed, wrapping his body back in his normal level of flesh. Throughout the entire process of his body reforming from beyond repair, he continued to watch Katsuki. Their eye contact never broke, and he watched in mindless agony as Katsuki began backing up, stumbling desperately to get away from Izuku. 

“I- I thought you had a strength quirk-” Katsuki whispered out, his voice trembling in fear, eyes wide as he tracked the reforming eye moving back into place on his childhood friend. Izuku finally managed to move his jaw, his body entirely healed and the searing pain subsided. 

“I do.” He spoke, cold and distant from the shock. 

“F-fuck. Who- what are you?” The blonde rasped out, holding a hand over his mouth, back pressed against the wall across the room. His hands shook.

Izuku calmly walked up to the boy, looking into his eyes. The blonde stayed paralyzed with fear, dreading whatever Izuku was going to do to him. Izuku, as casually as possible, took out a sticker, and stuck it gently against Katsuki’s shoulder.

“Wish I knew.” The vigilante murmured, turning around to calmly walk back out of the decimated area of the building Katsuki had nearly caved in from his explosion. 

A strange satisfaction pulled at Izuku from the expression he had plastered on Katsuki’s face, one of internal anguish and disgust. At the same time, it hurt something within him, the small child that always chased after Katsuki’s greatness still weeping in Izuku’s mind. It made his stomach hurt, and his heart thrum in excitement. 

 He hopped down a couple flights of stairs, weaving through the fake city streets, before swiftly jogging back to the front area where Aizawa was stationed. Multiple uncomfortable students flocked around him, peeling stickers off of various parts of their bodies and chatting amongst themselves.

Aizawa swiftly looked up from his timer, meeting Izuku’s eyes. He barely regarded Izuku’s ruined gym uniform, scanning the boy for injuries. 

“You get ‘em all?” The black haired man murmured, his hand casually tucking his timer back into his pocket. 

“Nah, Invisible girl and shiny are missing. I’m forfeiting.” The vigilante spoke softly, pointing behind him with his thumb as he casually strolled to stand next to the hero. Aizawa’s eyes widened, clicking the timer to shut off in his pocket. 

“What about Bakugou?” He asked, voice low in suspicion. Izuku made a slightly guilty face, a beat of uncomfortable silence passing between the teacher and vigilant.

“I think you guys are gonna need to talk to him about how inappropriate it is to attempt to kill a villain on the job with a building-leveling explosion.” Izuku cleared his throat awkwardly, his hands quickly covering his lack of shirt in embarrassment. Aizawa’s eye twitched. 

“Oh- and maybe get him counseling. He had to watch me heal from said explosion, and I don’t think that’s gonna do any good for his psyche.” Izuku shot the hero an apologetic grin, which was met with a surprised silence, followed by a loud sigh while he pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“Problem children…” The hero muttered. Izuku picked it up anyway, looking away awkwardly. “Well, you were already twenty nine seconds too late for wagyu, so whatever.” The black haired male grumbled, itching his five o’clock shadow. 

“U-Uh, Biter!” One of the students in the crowd nearby yelled. Izuku turned to meet the person who had spoken, finding the rude glasses-wearing boy was standing in the middle of the crowd, his hand raised politely to ask something. 

Izuku had met a few types like him, well behaved private hero school boys who are the all rules no nonsense types. He was curious as to what the boy had to say to someone like him . 

“Yeah, what's up?” Izuku called back with a peppy tone, walking up to the group of students. He didn’t miss how many of them tensed in his presence, taking an unconscious step backwards. 

“Well, for purely constructive reasons, I was wondering… how did you manage to find all of us?” The boy asked, pushing his glasses up higher on his face. “Even those who hid well were found by you, or lured into being found by you! I didn’t even have reaction time to outrun you. Please inform us of our mistakes!” The boy choppily spoke, his arm swiftly moving up and down. He was much more polite towards Izuku now that he had seen the boy’s capabilities, which made something heavy settle in Izuku’s guts. 

He wondered if people like this would have even spared him a glance before he was powerful. 

“Oh! Well, it wasn’t necessarily any of your guys’ fault I found you…” Izuku spoke, swaying his hands around in explanation. “I just tracked your heartbeats.” Izuku smiled awkwardly, shrugging lightly. A sudden wave of unease washed across the class, eyes narrowing in suspicion. 

“You have a hearing quirk?” The girl with headphone jacks for earlobes spoke up, her face popping out of the crowd. 

“Well-” Izuku began, before he was cut off. 

“No way! He has a strength quirk!” The spiky red headed boy blurted out. Izuku might have been able to see how the boy had thought that, since he was the only one Izuku actually laid his hands on. 

“Actually-” 

“No, he definitely has a speed related quirk. I’ve never seen someone move that fast.” A frog-like girl spoke out, ending her sentence with a cute ‘ribbit’. 

Suddenly, all eyes from the group of students shifted over to Izuku, finally allowing him to speak. He stalled for a moment, eyes flicking back and forth between the students to make sure they were done with their rambling, before he cleared his throat to speak. 

“Uh, I guess… All of those?” Izuku winced, his shoulders shrugging again. The class continued to stare at the boy, confused. 

“Uh- well- I have an enhancing kind of quirk? Really, my body is just efficient.” Izuku flexed his hands, the tendons stretching under his skin. “I have improved speed, strength, agility, healing… Ah, I don’t really know what it’s called though…” Izuku murmured. He looked down at the ground in embarrassment, before a voice piped up from the crowd. 

“That’s neat!” 

Izuku looked up to find the bright face of the chubby cheeked brunette girl, her eyes twinkling as she stared at the boy. She seemed like a very outgoing girl, and had stood up for him twice now.

“Yes, that does seem extremely beneficial on the battlefield. That also explains all of the ongoing theories about your quirk!” The nerdy boy piped up, his hand swiping up and down in what Izuku assumed was approval. 

Izuku felt his heart warming in his chest, something sweet welling up within him at the positive response to his quirk. It had been a long time since somebody had complimented him on anything, much less his scary abilities. 

Though the class didn’t know the full range of his quirk, he respected their enthusiasm. Through waving hands and a slight flush that didn’t quite show through his deathly pale skin, Izuku thanked everyone as they crowded him to continue discussing the battle, his enthusiastic responses lightening the mood that had surrounded his arrival. 

After a few moments of light chatter, Aizawa arrived behind the group of students, announcing everyone had come out and was to undress from hero gear to prepare for their trips home. 

Izuku looked over to the group emerging. The blonde sparkly boy was so bright, Izuku felt like he had to be missing something. He wondered if he had left the gym, his heartbeat so faint in Izuku’s ears that he barely registered where he had gone no matter where Izuku moved to. Something about him was off. 

Izuku peeled his eyes away from the naval laser boy, and looked over at Katsuki, who was walking a few paces behind the other students. His head was facing down, posture slouched,spiked hair shielding his face. His fists were balled in what Izuku could only assume was anger and shame, and the vigilante had to fight back the childhood urge to run up to the boy to check on him. 

Aizawa pulled Izuku to the side quickly, interrupting the boy’s staring session. 

“You’re meeting with commission officials tomorrow morning, they’re doing an official quirk apprehension test…” The teacher grumbled, walking forward as he urged Izuku to walk alongside him. “They’re doing the official hero tests. The testing for students is a lot less… intense. The commissions’ bringing in some specialists to track you.” 

Izuku nodded, before feeling a sharp prickle along the side of his face. He swiftly looked up to find the eyes that were following him, only to be met with a piercing stare sent his way by the blonde sparkly boy, hidden at the back of the line of students leaving the gym. 

Izuku shot him a confused look, before the boy promptly winked, whipping his head back around to follow the class out the door to the changerooms. Izuku mulled over the interaction, before it was swept from his mind by Aizawa’s gruff voice.

“By the way, put this back on.” Aizawa huffed, throwing the heavy chunk of metal that was Izuku’s quirk cancelling collar at the boy, which he promptly caught. He let out a mock sigh, clicking it into place behind his neck as the device blinked into action. 

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The gym Izuku was being tested at was around thirty minutes outside of the UA campus, an official Hero Commission building. Its sullen gray architecture and looming appearance was exactly how Izuku had imagined his place of residency would be, a vague panic arising within him from the similarity to Ogawa Prison complex. 

He wiped the memories from his consciousness as soon as they surfaced. 

Izuku felt slightly nervous as he entered the building, Aizawa having not been invited due to his obligation to Class 1-A’s homeroom. The vigilante felt it was almost intentional they didn’t want the man here, considering he was the only thing keeping them from treating Izuku like a work-dog. 

For that, he couldn’t thank the man enough. 

The gym was massive, almost as big as the situational training areas at UA. Its ceiling stretched into the sky, an obstacle course floating off the ground, Izuku assumed for flight quirks. The walls were large, their design similar to that of an old-fashioned Dojo, with what appeared to be a sort of paper paneling and large wooden support beams. 

The lights in the room were near blinding, paired with a glass roof that let the sunlight filter through, shining down on Izuku’s pale face in a fashion he still wasn’t quite used to from his days stalking the night, or living underground. 

Izuku was walked to the other side of the room by two commission guards in sharp suits, feeling underdressed next to them in his blue t-shirt hoodie and gym shorts. The silence was interrupted by the guards saying some string of code words into their earpieces. 

One of the walls opened, a grand door opening as the wall slid back into itself like a match box and two more guards walked out. They stood station at each side of the opening, awaiting for the entrance of someone important, no doubt. 

When a familiar white furry face entered from the door, Izuku kept his eyes trained on the small form of the principal of UA. 

Why am I not surprised?

“Hello, Biter!” The little rodent-bear-mouse-man spoke up at Izuku, happily skittering over to the place next to him. Izuku noted he was also wearing his usual suit and tie, making Izuku feel even more casual. He let out a sigh. 

“Nezu.” Izuku spoke, his jaw gritting in unease. “Why are you here? You have a school to run. ” Izuku asked, his fists balling at his side. It didn’t go unnoticed by the principal’s beady eyes. 

“Haha! I’m here to monitor your quirk, of course! I was invited especially by the commission.” The rodent smiled politely, a simple joy overcoming his face at the discomfort of Izuku. Izuku might have thought he was cute, standing around the height of his hips, if he didn’t think the principal was partly the devil behind that little smile. 

“We’ve also got another UA student we’ve been keeping an eye on coming in to assist today. We hope to test both of your capabilities as prodigies.” Nezu spoke, ear flicking slightly towards the open door. Izuku heard the footsteps coming from inside as well, a familiar heartbeat echoing from the hall. 

He whipped his head towards the dark on the other side of the door. 

It couldn’t be…

A happy girl bounded out from the darkness, multiple contraptions tucked under her arms as guards funneled even more mechanical masterpieces out behind her. 

“Alright boys! Handle my babies with care, you break em’, I break you!” She cackled, her bright yellow eyes closing with the maniacal laugh. Izuku’s eyes widened, almost in disbelief of what he was seeing. 

“...Mei?” 

The girl whipped her face around, eyes widening in surprise, stopping dead in her tracks on her way to the gym. 

“Biter?!” She cried out, dropping her machines to the floor with a loud clang, face wide in a surprised smile as the men delicately carrying the machines behind her let out a wince. “What are you doing out of prison?!” Izuku shot her back a wide smile, surprise still evident on his features. The girl immediately began sprinting towards Izuku, her feet pumping against the matted floors heavily. 

The guards on either side of Izuku tensed, but Izuku simply readied himself, Mei barreling into him at the speed of light. Her weight wasn’t enough to knock him down, but it did make him take a step back to support her. She squeezed him in a tight hug, her strong arms wrapping around him. 

“I work for the commission now! What are you doing here?” Izuku spoke, lightly tapping her on the back to signal her to cease her squeezing. She popped her head up from his chest, smiling up at him again. 

“I go to UA, and Principal Nezu offered to let me help with some new hero’s testing! He didn’t tell me it was you !” She cried, smacking a heavy hand down on Izuku’s shoulder as she untangled her limbs from around him. 

“Wait- I go to UA too!” Izuku smiled widely, eyes filling with excitement at the prospect. Mei shot back a large grin, preparing to shout back her excitement at Izuku, before Nezu gently cleared his throat, stopping the conversation between the two teens. 

 “It appears you two know each other already, how delightful!” He clasped his hands together, smiling at the teens. Mei shot him a wide smile, while Izuku let his fall slightly. 

To be entirely honest, he had no idea what Nezu was thinking behind his distant expression. Izuku’s relation to Mei could cause all sorts of trouble for the girl, having been affiliated with a wanted vigilante does not look great on your record. He was about to back track, informing Nezu that the girl was completely innocent and had nothing to do with Izuku’s life of crime… Even if that was a partial lie, but before Izuku could refute, all of the guards stood at attention, turning their focus over to the doors and yelling out a loud ‘welcome!’. 

Izuku turned to face the light footsteps entering from the door, a gangly man walking out in a suit of his own. Really, If Mei wasn’t next to Izuku in her rough-and-tough grease stained mechanic gear, he might have asked the men if he could change. 

“Ah, am I late?” The man asked, a sly grin forming across his face as he pushed his square glasses up his nose. A clipboard was set in his hand, and Izuku immediately knew he was from the Commission. 

“Good to see you Aoki!” Nezu piped up, his arms swiftly moving behind his back as he bounced lightly on his toes. Izuku wondered if he was more of a stuffed animal than a real rodent. Aoki waved back politely, his snake-like eyes squinting down at the man with the movement of his lips. 

Something about him made Izuku feel slightly ill at ease, his muscles tensing to escape. The man’s eyes slithered up to look at Izuku, smile stretching even wider. 

“Biter, in the flesh. Aren’t you just a sight?” The man smiled, stretching out his hand to shake with Izuku. Izuku gulped slightly, placing his hand in the man’s. His long fingers wrapped around Izuku’s hand just a little too eagerly, encasing him tightly in a way that felt domineering and predatory. 

“My name is Aoki, I work as the Hero Commission’s leading expert in quirk analysis. I’m simply here to take you for a test drive, of sorts!” He smiled, hand tightening around Izuku’s while a look of deep pleasure covered his face. The vigilante yanked his hand away, responding with a light nod. Before the man could stare at Izuku for much longer, Mei took his attention quickly. 

“Hello Mister Aoki! I’m Mei Hatsume, I make machines!” The pink haired girl excitedly took the man’s hand, whipping him around to face her as she violently shook his noodle arms. “I’ve been looking up to the commission since I was making my first drones, I hope my babies will leave you as awestruck as possible!” She spoke, excitedly grinning up at the man. 

“Ah… charmed.” He spoke, much less eager and far more surprised than when he had been keening to meet Izuku. Izuku found Mei’s antics funny, letting out a light huff of a laugh as the girl let go of the man’s hands, jogging back over to help set her machines up. He felt that smile fade as he watched Aoki wipe his hand down his pant leg after the girl was gone. 

“Alright, today we were just going to do a few simple tests…” The man spoke, pulling a pen off of his clipboard, smiling eagerly. “We’ll start with punch strength, then we’ll go on to the amount of weight your body can tolerate… After that it’s a speed test, an agility test, and, of course, a healing test.” The man smiled up at Izuku, his teeth flashing and eyes narrowed in a fashion that made Izuku’s skin crawl. 

“Ah, might I ask what a healing test entails, Aoki?” Nezu piped up from near Izuku’s legs, his hands still politely tucked behind his back. Aoki’s smile faltered slightly, but stayed plastered against his thin face. 

“We have some of the best healers on our team if anything goes wrong, but we tend to test using a puncture wound. Nothing intense!” He smiled, his voice rasping slightly at the end of his sentence in excitement. Izuku noticed the flat look Nezu was giving Aoki, his usual smile noticeably dimmer. “A self-healing quirk to Biter’s extent is almost unheard of in the modern age of quirks, so we had to implement some new measures to the test. My apologies for not informing you sooner, but the Commission comes first in the pecking order.” The man grinned, twirling his pen around his fingers as he seemed to keen with delight at the thought of Izuku’s quirk.

The tension was thick between the two men, Izuku caught awkwardly in the crossfires as he shuffled back and forth on his feet. Suddenly, the tension evaporated as Mei shouted out across the large gym, voice carrying the distance. 

“The punch mechanism is ready! Get over here, Biter!” 

Izuku’s eyes flickered over to Aoki, smiling as he watched him. He frowned, bowing slightly, before lightly jogging across the gym to where Mei stood. 

A small contraption was placed in front of Izuku, similar to that of a carnival punch game. A padded circle was hovering in front of Izuku, a thick metal arm supporting the back of it that would hold his blow. A larger, taller piece of metal comprised the back, pained in different colours, a screen in the middle of it. 

“Alright, you punch the area requested, the machine spits out the precise PSI! She’s a beaut.” Mei exclaimed, lightly leaning on the side as she patted it as if to say ‘good job’. Izuku shot her a look. “We just need you to do one punch, then a kick. I put it at a height that’s easy for both, so go nuts! This baby can even take All Might’s punches.” She grinned. Izuku felt surprised at the durability of Mei’s machines, but excited to try himself. 

The girl jogged off, and Izuku backed up from the machine slightly, lining himself up. It had been a very long time since he had actually punched something, preferring to use his skills with knives instead. Though he was proficient at hand to hand combat, there was something almost boring about it compared to weapons. 

In fact, Izuku couldn’t remember the last time he had to put any real effort behind his strength. He had never strained to lift anything, never had to put his all behind a blow for it to be effective. He felt excitement well up within him to test his limits. 

He wound up his arm, muscles pulsing at the ready to release. Izuku threw his entire body with the punch, twisting his torso into the movement as he extended his arm. The hook landed, the action so quick, that nothing reacted by the time his arm had landed. Suddenly, a gust of air channeled out from Izuku, the room filling with an intense blast of pressure from the blow. The machine lurched from the pressure, a bang sounding that nearly popped Izuku’s ears from the impact. 

Shouts sounded from around the room, the air pressure knocking people backwards from where Izuku stood. His arm pulsed in pain, the machine swiftly beeping and clicking as it rattled off numbers. The room seemed to settle into a silence, Izuku looking up to see the pressure number. His eyes widened. 

From what he had learned as a child, a quirkless punch could reach up to somewhere around eight hundred PSI, if they trained hard enough. Maybe that was why he felt his jaw drop, heart shuddering in his chest as the number blinked back at him. 

‘25,125’. 

A loud cry of approval shot up from across the room, Mei cheering as she stood up from her place on the floor, others still cowering from where they had been blown away.

“Biter! Holy mother of machines, what on Earth was that!?” She burst out into a fit of maniacal giggles. Izuku looked over to her, shock on his face as he cradled his rapidly healing hand. “That’s- that’s insane !” She began kicking her legs as she laughed, her back flat against the gym ground. The embarrassed guards began standing up, assisting Aoki and Nezu, who had both been blown back by the blast. 

Aoki stood up, mouth practically salivating, a peaked interested look washing across his features. He wobbled as he frantically wrote on his clipboard. Izuku scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. 

.

.

.

Izuku lined up his shot with the machine, sending out a kick that wracked it’s way through the metallic beast. 

Another absurd number, ‘60,000 PSI’, stared back at him. Izuku understood he had become more powerful, but he had never expected he would be able to produce energy that could break bones like twigs. 

During the dead-weight challenge, Izuku had weights added onto his shoulders using the quirk of a man who could change the mass of objects until it was too much for his body to support, at which point the weights would be immediately switched to weightless before they could crush him.

It reminded him of the bubbly brunette’s quirk, and he envied something so heroic for a moment.

The first amounts of weight had Izuku wondering if they were adding anything at all, that was until he was nearly knocked over by surprise at the amount. 

“Alright, we’ve reached five hundred pounds. Tell us when to stop.” Spoke the man using his quirk. Izuku whipped his head around. 

“Five hundred pounds? Are you sure?” Izuku cried. 

“Deathly, considering we just reached a thousand.” The man spoke, tone monotonous. 

“What?!” 

In the end, Izuku tapped out around the time if felt like his feet were about to break through the concrete floors beneath the mats, his arms becoming tired after a long while of holding the weight. He was informed he tapped out at around twenty tonnes. He nearly passed out after the number was revealed. 

It seemed Aoki nearly passed out in a shock of a more pleasant kind. That man made Izuku want to run from the gym each time he locked eyes with him. 

I know I’ve gotten better since I was new as Biter, but these numbers can’t be right!

During the speed test, Izuku was tested in a fashion similar to when he was testing his own powers as a vigilante. Simply running from the furthest end of the gym to the other, passing the speed cameras Mei had set up near the early middle point. 

Izuku ran by, noticeably faster than when he had tracked down his classmates the day before. The speed cameras read near ninety km/h, and Aoki let out a thrilled noise of excitement, eyes tracking Izuku like prey. 

Agility test went smoothly, Izuku was able to dodge as many targets that were shot at him no matter the speed, his reflexes allowing him to work his way through the challenge. He ended up being hit when Nezu took it upon himself to throw a ball out of his own will, lightly bumping Izuku in the leg. Izuku hadn’t been able to feel it coming due to how weak the throw was, but the little rodent still laughed at his success anyways. 

Finally, the healing test was underway. Two women in nurse gear walked beside Izuku, most likely gearing up their healing quirks in time to save him if anything had gone wrong. Izuku stationed himself in between the women, readying himself for the assault he would face. 

He watched, strangely enough, as Nezu’s ear began to twitch from the side of his head, flicking every few moments while the commission guards prepared to test Izuku’s healing portion of his quirk. He expected the mouse to say something any second, to voice the reason he was practically twitching, expression flatter than Izuku had ever seen it, but he never did. 

“Alright, Biter. You’ve stated your healing capabilities are highly enhanced, no?” Aoki spoke, writing something feverishly on his clipboard without looking down. 

“Uh- yeah. They’re good.” Izuku nodded, confirming the man’s statement. He eyed Izuku up and down, tongue poking at his cheek. Izuku shuddered. 

“Alright, and does that prevent pain as well?” The man questioned, twirling his pen in his finger first. 

“No, not at all.” Izuku said. Aoki hummed, pressing his pen to the bottom of his chin, before beginning to write again. 

“And has your ability to heal ever, say, gone beyond the point of modern medicine?” The man asked, his glasses reflecting the bright light of the room, a sinister tone to his voice. Izuku felt that this question was important in a way, the room seeming to freeze, waiting for his response. 

“Care to clarify?” Nezu piped up, asking the question everyone was wondering. Aoki turned to face him, slowly tearing his eyes away from Izuku, before looking back at the boy to respond. 

“What I’m asking is if you’ve ever come back from the dead.” Aoki grinned, fingers pressing against his clipboard. Izuku paled. 

While Izuku couldn’t confirm it himself, from Aizawa’s accounts, he had come back from the dead that first night he had stayed with the hero after his attempt to take his chip out. His heart was stopped for what could have been minutes, but he was revived by his ever-mysterious quirk. He swallowed, the answer lodged in his throat. 

“If you lie, the commission might not forgive you.” Aoki pressured. Nezu stepped forward, surging to refute the claims. 

“Excuse me but-”

“I have.” Izuku responded, his voice silencing the room. Aoki’s eyes widened, smile stretching sickeningly across his pale face. His eyebrows raised in delight, a purring noise coming from the back of his throat. 

“You have what ?” Aoki questioned, fingers drumming along the side of his clipboard, the seconds seeming to drip like poison. 

“I’ve… died.” Izuku murmured out, looking at his shoes in distaste. “My heart stopped for a few moments and restarted on its own, from what I was told.” 

Aoki grinned, writing something down. Izuku wasn’t sure how much weight that knowledge would hold for the commission, but something about it felt final, like he might have signed away a larger piece of him than he imagined. 

“...You what?” Mei piped up, turning from one of her machines. Izuku knew she wasn’t the type to follow a conversation. Izuku met her horrified face, cool dread seeping through his guts. 

Mei was going to be disgusted with him, scared of him. He was a monster, he knew he was, and just like everyone who had seen him heal, he would no longer be human to Mei. He grit his teeth together, watching her eyes widen from the boy’s sullen expression. 

“Biter, we’re ready for the test.” Mei immediately tore her eyes away from Izuku, looking down at the ground, and reluctantly looked back over at Aoki. His cold eyes sparked a hatred within him. The commission definitely didn’t see him as human. Aoki took two steps back.

It sparks the question;  if no human considers you human, can you still be a human?

“Alright what’s the test-” Izuku was cut off by the loud ringing of a phone, Nezu reaching in his pocket, and taking out his phone. His ear flicked, before answering the call as everyone watched him. 

“Hello?” 

“...”

“I’m on my way.” Nezu hung up the call, immediately turning to the Hero Commission guards. 

“I’m sorry boys, we have to cut this short.”

“There’s been a breach in UA’s security system.”

.

.

.

Izuku and Mei were immediately rushed back to the school, Izuku’s quirk test forgotten. On the drive back, Izuku tried not to let the pit in his stomach consume him from Mei’s avoidant gaze, directed anywhere but Izuku, but it barely worked. 

And here he thought he might have found someone crazy enough to stay with him. 

When they made their way into UA, reporters were flooding the gates as they passed, a frenzy of media having been summoned from God knows where. The security walls channeled high above the entrance, UA’s security system better than anywhere in the country. 

Mei was let off inside the school, asked to return to her class since the issue had been ‘dealt with’, but Biter was asked to follow one of the staff members, leading both him and Nezu through the empty halls of the school. 

“There was an uproar from the students during the lockdown alarm, but we were certain the media had simply tripped the security system.” The man spoke, swiftly walking as Nezu climbed up onto his shoulder for the ride. Those short legs were really no good in getting him around the large halls of UA. 

“The panic was managed by some upstanding student helpers, assuring them it was the media, but the staff weren’t too certain.” The man turned a corner, funneling out of the school with Izuku speed walking behind him. “We had Hound Dog patrol the perimeter and we found…” 

“...This.” 

Concerned heroes surrounded a portion of the tall walls surrounding UA, Hound Dog sniffing around the entire area. As the trees cleared to show the view of the area, Izuku’s heart felt like it had dropped to his feet. 

The entire wall was flaking away, a massive portion of it charred, ashes floating away, blackened and corroded in the wind. It was…

Decayed…

Izuku turned to Nezu, eyes wide and heart thrumming in urgency. 

“A dangerous villain is or was on school grounds, get everyone looking!” Izuku cried, all of the heroes turned to look at him from the outburst. 

“Oh? What makes you so certain?” Nezu asked, crouched on the shoulder of the staff member. 

“I-I had my run in with him during my time underground…He wants to kill All Might.” Izuku spoke in a hurried fashion, his hands shaking at his sides as his eyes looked around to inform all of the heroes present. 

“Wait, the public shouldn’t know All Might is at this school. He’d only been revealed to the students to teach here today.” Midnight piped up, her hip cocking as she spoke. Izuku hadn’t known he was there at all .

“No, the news got out. The media knew, and they crowded the front of the school.” Ectoplasm spoke, his robotic voice ringing out across the grounds. 

They might have still seen the good in civilians, but Izuku had learned to be far more suspicious than any of the heroes present. When you deal with the shadiest people in Musutafu, you’re bound to run into elaborate ruses. 

“Someone’s ratting you guys out from the inside, and I guarantee you the media was a distraction.” Izuku spoke. All eyes immediately turned to him again, faces skeptical. 

.

.

.

“You have a traitor, and I guarantee cracks are going to start showing.” 

Chapter Text

The school was shut down, a small lock down taking place so as to not alert the students while the grounds were searched. Multiple school staff, led by Hound Dog, patrolled the large campus to attempt to find anything pertaining to the mysterious villain entry. 

Nothing turned up. 

Izuku noticed, as he went back to class for the rest of that day, the teachers that he did have ended up seeming a little colder to him. He was used to it from his time at Aldera, but it didn’t exactly feel the best.
They had every reason in the world to be skeptical of him, and most likely had already questioned Nezu about Izuku’s relation to having met an All Might killer in the underground. Izuku knew he could have done more to help them, as he asked to be allowed to patrol the grounds with them so he could use his tracking skills, but he was ushered back with his class anyways. 

It irritated him to no end that they seemed to think he was some sort of loose canon, like they were containing him rather than teaching him. It would have been impossible to miss the way teachers tracked him with their eyes, as though he was some threat to their students. It seemed they forgot Izuku was just as young as their students, yet just as experienced as their colleagues. 

At the end of the day, he was requested to stay behind by Aizawa for a hero costume fitting since he wasn’t present when the rest of the class had designed their own to submit to the General Course. Izuku was quickly whisked off to their classroom through the large halls, entering the workshop awkwardly. 

The area was large and, frankly, looked as though a bomb made of metal scraps had gone off. Grand work areas were covered in countless tools, scattered about like they had been thrown. Half built robots stood tall and proud, hung from the massive ceiling, as well as small gadgets placed in protective areas with massive ‘DO NOT TOUCH’ signs plastered on them. Izuku heard a tinkering noise coming from across the room, a light sawing sound resonating from behind one of the work benches, paired with some mediocre dad rock. Izuku gently padded over, admiring all of the creations already present from the General Course’s first days in school as he shuffled across the concrete floor.

As he got closer to the loud noises, he heard a maniacal rambling sound from the area, mixing with the already explosive noises of the radio and saw. Izuku immediately knew Mei was who he was here to see. 

He suddenly felt… Awkward. He hadn’t seen Mei since earlier that morning, her horrified expression still plastered behind his vision. He had had many people look at him like that through his life, yet it seemed to hurt so much more when it was someone he actually liked. 

Actually cared about. 

And wasn’t that just as horrifying as her not liking him anymore? That he had someone he actually wanted to hold close? That meant he had something to lose , and weakness did not suit the life he had created. 

He soothed himself with a single deep breath, walking out from behind the robots crowding the area. The pink haired girl was still happily sawing away, completely enraptured in her work as sparks flew out from behind her and she rambled on about her creation.

The vigilante walked forward, squatting down into her line of sight. He couldn’t see her eyes through the welding mask she wore, but he could tell she still hadn’t seen him. He cupped his hands around his mouth, sucking in some air, before sending out a bellowing shout. 

“Mei!” He cried. 

The pink haired girl shot up from her work station, her welding mask flicking back up onto the top of her head. She immediately locked eyes with Biter, slight surprise washing off of her face. It was swiftly replaced with a warm smile. 

“I was wondering when you were gonna come in!” She shot up, sliding off her welding mask and placing her signature goggles back on top of her head. Izuku felt relief flood his chest at the girl’s casual attitude, his shoulders tension seeping out at her bright tone. 

“You’re the one making my hero costume?!” He cried over the loud music, following Mei as she speed walked through her work area, sliding through unfinished projects in the small space. 

“Yeah! I put in the request to work on you specifically !” She shouted, before flicking off the switch on her bright red radio to turn the loud rock off. 

“Your original tech was made up of my babies , so why wouldn’t I revisit them?” Mei grinned heartily at Izuku, shooting him a radical thumbs up. Izuku let out a huff of laughter. 

“I’ve gotten better since I made those, honestly I don’t know what I was thinking giving you those devices. Half of them were set to go kablooey after around a hundred uses, hah!” she rambled, dropping down to rummage through the drawers on her work station. 

“Wait what.” 

“I’m actually a little glad you ended up not using them for that long, because my tech was beautifully chaotic back then!” She cackled. Izuku gulped, slightly more nervous. “When you were in prison, I spent day and night perfecting my tech for your costume, so I still have my best prototypes left over. It’s perfect you’re here!” Mei grinned, pulling up a massive box labelled ‘BITER’ from the bottom of her work bench. 

Izuku was stunned, wide eyed as he watched the girl gently open the box. 

“You… made stuff for me while I was in prison..?” Izuku croaked out, his voice noticeably softer. It came as a shock to his system that Mei would think about him enough to account for his return while he was gone. 

“I-I was set to be in there for life.” 

Mei wouldn’t face the boy, her hands pausing from cutting open the box. Izuku looked at her, eyebrows scrunched as his eyes began to search her for answers. She pursed her lips.

“That time you called me while you were in there… You promised you were gonna get out. I really believed that…” She kept looking down, her shoulders raising as her head dropped slightly. “And- and then you went radio silent. I wanted to believe you’d come back, but sometimes it was hard.” Her hands fell off the box, gripping the metal work table. 

Izuku fell silent. He didn’t know what to say. In all of his time behind bars, had he once considered how Mei felt? How he had left his… friend in the dark? He felt something cool pool in his gut, jaw opening and shutting to speak while nothing came out. 

“But… You’re here now.” Mei looked up at him, a bright yet noticeably dimmer smile on her face as she went back to opening the box. Izuku lifted his hand to reach out to her, but stopped as the girl burst open the top of the box excitedly. He wasn’t sure how she was feeling. 

“Alright!” She beamed, pulling gadgets out of their casing. Izuku quickly recognized the three pieces on the top; A thick gas mask, a pair of clawed gloves, and a belt of smoke bombs. He felt his heartbeat pick up in his chest, their new sleek designs staring back at him, reminding him of what he was truly built to do.

“I kept the classic babies, of course, but I added a couple of things to each of them.” She smiled, spreading them out on the table. Izuku noticed the designs were slightly different, but he allowed the girl to speak as he held back his nerd ramblings. 

“First off, your mask before was a royal pain to get off since it was so complex. I didn’t know how to compress it into an easier format, so this one, I added a little something.” She popped it on her face, as it clicked into place along her nose bridge. The mask lit up a deep green as it did before, but the lights on the side were no longer green stripes, as much as they were teeth like designs up until the breathing mechanism.

“ The voice modulator still works like a charm, but if you need a quick removal …” The pink haired girl clicked a button on the side, the layers of the mask shifting backwards and hooking over her ears, still protecting the sides of her face as they shot slightly out. “It retracts at any time you need.” 

Izuku grinned back at the girl. 

“Is that the shift technology you used on that fighter bot back when I had to test it?” Izuku rambled, fist pumping in excitement. Mei cackled wildly. 

“Precisely! Same tech, but I compressed my baby !” She wildly spoke, her energy picking up as she picked up the smoke bombs. 

“I’ve added something real special to these, haha!” Mei spoke, her grin maniacal. “Now when you pull the pin, once the bombs sense they’ve hit the ground, they let out a taunt!” She cried, throwing one up and down in her hand. 

“A taunt?” Izuku questioned. Mei nodded violently, her hair whipping around. 

“Hold on, watch this.” She pulled out a glass container, a remote being used to open the top in a round circle. She placed it down on the work table, before ripping the pin out of the bomb with her teeth, and tossing it down into the glass container. She shut the top. 

The bomb let out a loud cry, what sounded like Izuku’s voice yelling “Over here!”, before it exploded, filling the box with a thick light purple fog. 

“Was that my voice?” Izuku questioned, his actual voice rising to a higher pitch. Mei laughed. 

“Pretty neat, huh? It’s totally disorienting, and you’ll be able to attack in the opposite direction from the bomb to confuse your enemies!” She flashed her canines, a crazy look flashing across her eyes. Izuku briefly thought about how glad he was that she was on the side of heroics. 

Mei swiftly tore her attention away from the smoke-filled box, turning her attention towards her last gadget; Izuku’s gloves. 

The claw gloves had come in handy for Izuku plenty of times while he was a vigilante, whether to climb walls, or to rip through protective gear when his knives weren't available. Though it wasn’t something he was experienced in fighting with, they helped an incredible amount with city navigation and parkour. 

“So, I’m assuming you know about the knives restriction-” Mei spoke, her voice peppy. Izuku whipped around, immediately cutting her off. 

“The huh ?” Izuku cried. Mei blinked a few times, before leaning on her bench. 

“The knives restriction! You aren’t allowed knives. I was, like, specifically told that when making your tech.” She spoke, motioning as though her statement was obvious. Izuku’s mouth dropped in shock. 

“I’m not allowed knives ? That’s- that’s what I fight with!” Izuku threw his arms up, pacing around for a moment. 

“My bad Biter! The commission deemed you a strength class, and they figured knives weren’t ‘heroic’ or whatever.” Mei sighed, rolling her eyes at the notion of ‘heroic’ representation. Izuku groaned slightly, gently placing his forehead down on the workbench, back hunched. 

“S’ not like I need ‘ em…” He grumbled. Knives were a sort of clutch for him, a lot less threatening than having to beat someone to death. 

He lifted his head as he remembered he wasn’t on the streets anymore, and he really shouldn’t be thinking about killing in his line of heroics. He sighed. 

“Well, I worked my babies around that too, so don’t get too down!” She cried, smiling widely as she swiped the gloves off the desk, tossing them at Izuku’s deflated form. He caught them before registering they were being thrown. 

“Feel the knuckles.” Mei spoke, a mischievous grin washing her face in a playful look. Izuku cocked his eyebrow, turning the gloves over to check the knuckles. They looked slightly raised, but he didn’t notice much about them. He gently ran his finger across them, eyes widening. 

“You didn’t.” Izuku deadpanned, looking up at Mei. 

“Oh, I did.” She grinned back, holding back a burst of laughter. 

“Mei!” Izuku cried, the girl breaking out in infectious laughter. 

“You can’t put brass knuckles in my hero costume! You’re gonna get in trouble!” Izuku spoke, watching the wheezing girl crumble to the ground as she laughed. Izuku couldn’t help but choke back his own laughter. 

“They take away your knives because it’s dangerous, watch them try to deal with a brass knuckle punch like yours! Hah!” She cackled, shooting back up as she grabbed onto her work station for support. Izuku let a few giggles escape him. 

“You’re insane, you know that?” Izuku smiled warmly at the girl, who looked up at him, face reddened from laughter. 

“Ehhhh, who isn’t?” She grinned. Izuku rolled his eyes playfully. 

Mei shot back up, pulling everything out of the box that was in it with a breathy chuckle of excitement. Izuku quickly recognized his old gear’s look, but it looked a little… different . She quickly shoved the garments into Izuku’s hands. 

“Alright! There’s a changing curtain on the other side of this bot! Get- Get!” She began shoving the boy, twisting him around to go. He shook her off, thanking her, and changed into his new gear. 

The vigilante walked back out after a moment, twisting around in the new costume.

Instead of his old beat up black hoodie and pants, he had a skin tight one piece top, with a built in bullet proof vest that was a lot less bulky and heavy than the one he had taken from the prison guard. His signature boots were back, their heavy soles still silenced by his trained footsteps, but he noticed they were a lot lighter for his kicking abilities than the prison guard’s shoes. 

They also actually fit, which was definitely a step up from having to loop the laces around his ankles a couple extra times so they would stay on. 

Instead of his hoodie, he had a cropped jacket with a comfortable hood that stayed in place over his wild hair. It had long sleeves, but the main area only met his waist, with a zipper along the middle that could zip up to cover where his gas mask would be. It had comfortable pockets lining the area, and the added knife holsters stitched in did not escape Izuku’s notice. 

A thick belt sat loosely on his hips, which he fumbled with as he walked out of the dressing room. When he met Mei’s eyes, she was bouncing up and down on her toes, excitedly raking her eyes across her design. Izuku huffed a laugh. 

“Does it look good?” He questioned, smiling warmly at the girl. 

“Good? Biter, I’m a genius! Quick- put my babies on to complete the look!” She rambled, quickly thrusting Izuku’s gadgets into his hands. 

He placed the smoke bombs in their built-in holsters, clicked the mask into place on his face, and pulled the gloves onto his hands. He looked up to see Mei, sitting criss crossed on top of her work table, shooting the boy a wide smile. She motioned towards a full length mirror, and Izuku took his silent steps over to it. 

When he looked back at himself, just for a moment, something settled within him. He was alive, and he was a hero. A real one, with a real costume, and a real life. 

He made it out of everything. 

Mei walked up behind him, slapping her hand down on his shoulder. 

“You’re official, Biter.” She grinned. Izuku felt like he could break down into tears. 

“I- I look like a hero.” He smiled widely under the mask, his dead eyes seeming to glimmer under the harsh workshop lighting. Mei cocked her eyebrow.

“Weren’t you always?”

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.

Izuku noticed the sideways glances from his classmates as he loaded on behind them into the bus. His quirk canceling collar sat heavy on his neck once again, and it felt like a barrier that kept everyone comfortable. He realized that his costume was a little less… colourful than most of his classmates, but he found solace in a proud nod sent his way from a bird headed boy.

Of course the goth liked him. 

The class excitedly chirped away about the upcoming field trip, though they weren’t truly leaving the UA campus. Izuku couldn’t help his own excitement over the prospect of their trip, ready to finally be allowed to hone in his own skills in heroics. 

The dark boy took a seat crammed near a window at the back, giving a total clear way to avoid him. He would have felt bad if anyone had felt uncomfortable around him. 

He overheard the voice of the invisible girl chattering away about what she had heard about their field trip, some sort of ‘civilian training’ course. Izuku couldn’t help the thrum of excitement that filled his body. 

He was plenty experienced in combat, and had enough experience with stealth for days , but had no idea how to actually interact with the people he had saved. He normally called the cops on the civilian’s phone and let them clean up the aftermath. It’s not like he was exactly trained in that sort of reassurance stuff. 

He quickly began muttering under his breath about the possibilities of the upcoming trials, maybe a simulator, or some sort of rescue test, when he suddenly felt a presence sit down next to him. 

He immediately snapped out of his small mumbling fit, turning to face whoever had the guts to actually sit next to him. When his eyes landed on the side profile of his childhood friend, he nearly jumped out of his skin. 

Katsuki’s jaw was tense, his gaze purposefully set forward, though Izuku knew Katsuki knew he was looking at him. He quickly turned back forward, ripping his gaze away as quickly as it had come, and rigidly sat as he waited for the boy to get up and leave. 

His thoughts swam at a million miles an hour, the blonde’s leg bouncing, arms crossed sternly, body heat nearing Izuku’s cool exterior. The boy never left. 

He looked up at his classmates to shoot them a confused look, but only found a few glances shot their way, the conversation mostly continuing as normal. He bristled under the uncomfortable tension. 

Izuku briefly wondered if this was an intimidation tactic. 

If it was; it was working. 

If it wasn’t; What on Earth could Katsuki have possibly wanted with him?

In his entire life, Izuku had always known Katsuki to be extremely precise with his actions. Not only did the boy only do what he wanted, but everything he did was for a reason. That simple piece of knowledge sent Izuku spiraling, questioning every possible motive Katsuki could have to gain by getting anywhere near him, yet all he could see were setbacks. 

He watched as the boy’s comfortably spread legs inched closer to his own, and he closed his tighter to escape the searing touch of his ex-bully. His heart felt heavy and confused in his chest, yet the small part of Izuku that remained within him soared with delight at the prospect of his Kacchan sitting with him.

It seemed as soon as the bus ride had started, it had ended. Izuku was still swimming in his confused thoughts as everyone loaded off, his reaction delayed to the massive building in front of them. 

The class quickly entered, their ‘ooh’s and ‘aah’s sounding out as they admired the architecture and grandiose. Upon entering the massive facility, multiple areas of destruction and controlled chaos were scattered throughout the area, with what looked to be multiple natural disasters simulated across the building. 

Izuku’s throat felt tight with excitement at the possibilities of the area.

Suddenly, a familiar hero caught Izuku’s eye at the front, their short stature waddling up to stand next to Aizawa as they began to speak. The space suit wearing rescue hero..,

“Thirteen!” Exclaimed an excited voice from the back of the class before the hero could speak. Izuku turned around to see who had yelled, meeting the cheerful face of the brunette girl. She must have been a fan, her familiar hero fanatic face ringing some bells in his own mind. 

He, of course, had heard of Thirteen before. They were a well known disaster aid hero, with a high record of civilian rescue operations. He huffed a smile at the girl’s reaction, turning back around to face the space-suit wearing hero. They lightly cleared their throat. 

“Flood wrecks, landslides, fires, and more!” 

“This is a practical training area I created to simulate all kinds of disasters! It’s name is… the Unforeseen Simulation Joint!” They exclaimed, their face seeming to brighten even though it was simply a mask. 

Aizawa swiftly pulled the hero aside, whispering something about All Might’s late arrival that Izuku just barely picked up. His heart thrummed in his chest at the prospect of meeting his childhood hero. He had heard his class had already been introduced to All Might the day he was away for testing, but he had never met the man. 

Honestly, he wasn’t sure whether he would be able to keep his inner hero nerd tucked away if he had met him so soon, so he was almost glad. 

“Before we start…” The space suit wearing hero began, “Just one thing… Or two.” 

They swiftly turned around to face the students, beginning to speak in a tone both serious and informative. 

“I’m certain you know this already, but my quirk is called ‘Black Hole’.”

“No matter what gets sucked into it’s vortex, it will get turned to dust in the blink of an eye.” They spoke solemnly, holding their hand up to display the vast amount of power at their finger tips. 

Izuku thought about how destructive that quirk would be in a life or death situation, and how he might go about fighting something like that. Of course, he would most likely have to cut off the assailants hands to rid of a quirk that powerful, or maybe-

“That’s perfect for wreckages and saving people!” Exclaimed the brunette girl. Suddenly, a slight flush of shame befell Izuku. 

“...Yes…” Thirteen agreed. 

“But it’s also a quirk that could easily be used to kill people. As all of yours could.” They spoke, voice deathly serious. Izuku could practically feel the smiles melt off of his classmates' faces, and maybe he felt the hero’s eyes linger on him a little too long behind their opaque mask. 

“Naturally, in a superhuman society, quirks are restricted under heavy laws. That being said, laws can only do so much, and you all must be aware of the power of each of your quirks. The full ability to harm people exists within you.” Izuku saw flashes of blood behind his eyes, the easy snap of a man’s neck under his fingers. He shuddered.

“You experienced that power first hand in your apprehension tests, and in your battle trials. I ask that, from now on…” Tension welled up between the students, the mood suddenly serious and provocative. 

“You restart fresh, and consider your quirks as a tool to save people! No quirks are made for harm, no matter how they may seem.” Thirteen piped up chipperly, tone much lighter than their previous statements. A smile was evident in their voice, and Izuku felt something soft well up within him, a similar feeling to when Aizawa leaves him his favourite meats before he goes on patrol. 

His quirk was going to save people, no matter what people might say. 

“That’s all! You have my gratitude for listening so intently!” Thirteen bowed theatrically, the happy energy returning amongst the students as they clapped and whooped cheers of approval. Izuku nearly smiled, until something shifted. 

Something was very, very wrong. 

The vigilante and Aizawa both whipped thier heads around to face the pavilion, a horrible cool feeling spreading throughout Izuku’s stomach as he looked at the area. Suddenly, before he could blink, a small swirl of darkness erupted from the empty space. 

It swirled larger in a moment, and larger, it’s inky blackness consuming the air around it. He’d seen that darkness before…

The League of Villains .

Before Izuku could think to move, his feet planted to the ground in fear, voice failing him in that moment, the cracked and sinister face of his nightmares appeared through the gate, eyes wide and hungry. 

“Get back!” 

“Huddle together and don’t move!” Both he and Aizawa shouted, their voices cracking with the blind intensity. Izuku’s heart thrummed in his ears, echoing through his body like cracks of thunder rattling the windows of a house. 

“Thirteen, guard the students!” Aizawa shouted, pouncing into action with Izuku immediately behind him. 

“Eraserhead! It’s the League of Villains!” Izuku shouted, his voice carrying across the pavilion. The hero’s eyes widened, still looking forward as hordes of villains flooded out of multiple massive, cloudy, dark portals. 

“What’s going on? Is this like the entrance exam?” Shouted a confused student, peering over at the people flooding out of the portals. 

“Don’t move! Those are real villains!” The teacher cried. Student’s faces immediately widened in horror, huddling together in a panicked fashion. Izuku understood. When you have never seen real villains, it’s always a little scary, not to mention a flock of this size. 

“Eraserhead!” He shouted, getting the villain’s attention. “The one with the hands all over him is Tomura Shigaraki! He’s got the decay quirk, and runs the whole operation! Don’t let him touch you!” Izuku cried. He watched as Shigaraki’s eyes shifted over to him, immediately widening at the presence of the boy shouting out his identity. 

“The warp gate quirk user is Kurogiri! He’s probably gonna pull something to separate us, everyone stay vigilant!” He cried, turning back to the students. They all stared at him, unease sweeping their faces at the information. Aizawa gritted his teeth. 

“According to the teacher’s curriculum we procured yesterday, All Might was supposed to be here…” Kurogiri grumbled out, his unnatural low voice resonating through Izuku. He seemed to have lost his original form, his body of smoke spread out across a large zone. 

“Where is he… We went through all of this… And he isn’t here?!” Shigaraki rasped out, eyes still tracking Izuku, hand reaching up to angrily scratch at his damaged skin.

“Fuck, you were right…” Aizawa cursed under his breath, only Izuku catching the statement. 

He must be referring to the broken UA border…

“Ahh. At least we found something interesting…” Shigaraki rasped out a glare sent Izuku’s way that nearly knocked him over. 

“Biter… It’s been a while.” He purred, his voice grating against Izuku’s ears, his false name unnatural on Shigaraki’s tongue. Izuku gulped back his nerves, body tensing further.

“We still consider you a part of the League, you know. I don’t know why you’re playing on the side of these fakers … You took the fall for us, after all.” He grinned, a squeaky giggle erupting from his broken voice box, malice radiating off of the man in waves. Izuku shuddered, taking off in a sprint to knock away the incoming villains. 

He fought alongside Aizawa, pushing back the incoming hordes. None of the villains seemed very experienced, and he assumed they were simply street hires, as Izuku once was. 

He decided now was as good a time as any to try out his improved tech, brandishing his claws at the ready. Two villains ran up to him, and he quickly sent swift swipes straight through their weakly protected midsections, the pull of his hands slicing open their bellies to a spray of blood. 

He quickly jumped off of their bodies, sending a spinning kick into another villain’s head. With the newfound weight of his boots, the villain went flying, slamming against another one of his colleagues with a crack. 

He downed them one by one, slashing through tendons as blood sprayed out, kicking knees backwards, and even testing his new brass knuckles out on a few unsuspecting victims, elbowing their faces until they caved in. 

Aizawa seemed to fight with a lot more class than Izuku, but he didn’t comment on the boy’s slightly gruesome ways. 

Suddenly, back on the top platform of the pavilion, Izuku heard a loud explosion sound off. 

Stay still, Kacchan!

With a few words exchanged, he watched the black envelop the students in the area, most likely splitting them up across the USJ. Izuku gritted his teeth as he continued to beat down the never ending villains. Eventually, he heard the boy with motors in his legs swiftly speed past the gates, and out to the rest of the campus. 

If he could just get All Might here, we could fend off the hordes. 

Izuku prayed the students were smart enough to be able to fight off the villains that most likely surrounded the testing areas, and prayed they were put into small groups to increase their chances. 

Honestly, he had no doubt that this class was especially excellent. 

He sent another kick towards the incoming villains, their bodies flying backwards from the blow as they collided into each other. 

After another minute of ruthless fighting, bodies piling up around Izuku as they cling to their last moments of consciousness, he suddenly heard words he didn’t think he could dread more. 

“Alright, I’m bored of you.” 

Shigaraki rasped out, his posture slouched in a position ready to pounce. He stuck out his gnarly finger, pointing it straight at Izuku’s position. The vigilante tried to keep his eyes trained on Shigaraki’s sudden movements, but had to keep flicking his eyes back and forth between the leader of the LOV and the villains he was currently fighting.

Just then, Izuku heard a name he would never forget. Shigaraki’s voice dripping with hatred, vitriol sewing its way into Izuku’s pores as the man spoke. 

“Nomu.” 

The ground seemed to shake for a moment, a black blur flashing across Izuku’s vision. It was almost too fast to track, his superior senses just keeping up with the movement as the something barreled towards him at top speed. 

He began to brace for an attack, tensing his body in preparation for an inevitable blow. When that blow came, he realized it really was no use. 

In a spark of movement, the massive beast swept its meaty hand out, sending a rough knuckled punch straight into Izuku’s body. He felt his bones splinter, before shattering beneath his skin. They tore out the sides of him, his muscles being ripped on impact from the force of the blow. His head ricochet back, whipping his neck out of place as he coughed up blood. 

His organs jumbled together from the blow, hitting the walls of his body as they burst and bruised within him. He had felt all of these feelings before, but never at the same time.

It was agonizing .

He went flying through the air, tumbling backwards before his broken body skidded across the floor like a used rag doll. The vigilante was too broken to move, every part of him sticking out in odd ways, his entire body rearranged. 

“Do you like our creation, Biter? It’s gonna be the thing that ends All Might !” The sociopathic leader croaked out, his voice alight with excitement. Izuku heard the distant cry of Aizawa, the man too preoccupied with continuing to fight to say anything. 

Izuku felt his blood pooling beneath him, hot and sticky, before the feeling was gone. 

His organs shifted back into place. 

His bones reattached beneath his skin. 

His tendons stitched themselves back together, and like the undead that he was, he rose back to life again. 

Not a scratch. 

Izuku let out a bellowing scream, his words striking into the surrounding hearts as they watched the boy reanimate.

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.

.

“Kill All Might? It’d be lucky to kill me first! ”

Chapter Text

Izuku charged at the beast, Nomu, as Shigaraki had called it, claws brandished at the ready. He sent a powerful punch aimed at the mass of muscle, yet it dodged easily, seeming to almost teleport behind him as it smashed him across the room once again. 

He gritted his teeth from the force of the blow, most of his ribs cracking and breaking off, puncturing his lung as he was thrown. He caught himself before he could be sent flying as he was earlier, skidding backwards in a position similar to a crouched cat. 

From what he could see, this monster’s punches had to be stronger than anything he had faced before. Even when he was beaten up by the goliath that was Kitty back in the Ogawa prison complex for hours, it hadn’t broken his body in the same way a single punch from the Nomu had. 

The creature's speed seemed to make it almost teleport, near fast enough for his eyes to lose track of, but not quite. He was sure from a less experienced fighter’s perspective, it would appear as though the monster disappeared entirely. 

One of the first things Izuku had noticed about his power was the incredible reflexes it possessed, his body seeming to react before his mind could register what would come next. Maybe that was the reason that he managed to just barely dodge the Nomu’s next blow, it’s black fist swinging straight past where his head was moments before. 

He gritted his teeth as blood seeped from the cut the wind pressure of the punch had created down the side of his face. Suddenly, an idea had come to him. The creature created wind . 

Izuku’s eyes were too busy chasing the monster’s shadow when he could dance around the pressure it created. He felt the wind shift in the still interior of the building for a moment beside him, and ducked down just in time.

Another impressive punch blasted over where his head had been, the vigilante now dropped in a crouch, ready to pounce. Before his legs could propel him forward, the monster swiped it’s hand downwards, Izuku barely having time to leap out of the way. The concrete burst into pieces where he had stood. 

“Huh… You haven’t died yet…” Rasped out Shigaraki, his voice sending shivers down Izuku’s spine. Izuku paused for a moment from the voice, a massive blow immediately tanking him in the side, sending him flying across the room once again. 

“You’re just a fucking NPC… What’s with these stats..?” The blue haired villain cursed, his eyes glowing red through his hand-mask. Izuku felt the hatred burn through him. 

He sent a swipe out at the Nomu, his claws meeting thin air as the creature dodged with ease. The movements of the monster were extremely unpredictable, it’s body stiff and unwavering from it’s position. Izuku couldn’t tell it’s intentions through its expression either, the creature had bulging eyes that stared into nothing placed atop it’s exposed brain, an unmoving beak for a mouth, and no seeming intelligent thought. 

Just what is this thing..?!

Izuku felt the air pressure push towards him, a punch incoming, when suddenly, he felt himself be grabbed at the back of his head, body slammed down into the concrete. 

The vigilante’s vision began to go black, his brains undoubtedly scattered on the ground from where his skull had been crushed into the ground. A pulsating feeling ran through his body, the sickening cackles of Shigaraki sounding in his ears through a thick fog of death. 

His body repaired itself, much quicker than it had before. He felt the strain of each of his muscles, the intense pain of his broken body throbbing against his tortured nerve endings. He let out another cuss as he stood up, before he was hit with another punch that threw him across the room. 

Shigaraki seethed. 

“Why won’t you die?!” He screeched, itching his skin around his neck. Izuku felt his teeth be knocked out of his head, quickly replaced mere moments after. 

Izuku was sure he had to have died a couple of times by now, the blows feeling like absolute agony to his entire body. In all honesty, he didn’t know how long his body could heal for. Though he had lived through human torture in those rusted rooms, he had never experienced true power until now. 

“No! No! No! This isn’t how this is supposed to go! You’re a nobody! Nomu is going to kill All Might, and you’ll die with him!” Shigaraki hissed in a wild cry. He seemed like a child throwing a tantrum, his posture hunching in distaste as he hollered out his explicit threats. Izuku couldn’t focus much on them through the sickening continued crunches of his bones beneath his skin. 

It seemed as though the beast was learning, its movements only became more complex as he seemed to toy with Izuku, his speed creating whirlwinds of misdirection around the boy. Through his increased pain, he found it harder and harder to track the Nomu. 

In a split second, the creature launched itself in the air, fist at the ready as it planned to punch Izuku into the earth. Suddenly, the boy had a sense of Deja Vu. 

When Izuku had fought in the copper bath all those months ago, one of the challengers had done a move similar to this, diving down at the boy with his fist splayed out at the ready. Though Izuku found the memory foggy, he remembered what to do. 

That move may have worked for the slower enemy, but in this case, the motion of falling actually slowed the Nomu from it’s original jumping speed. This gave Izuku just enough reaction time. 

He stepped his foot back, ignoring the searing pain shooting up through his nerves, and shot his leg outward towards the falling beast. It couldn’t dodge it’s direction in the air, so he made the most of the continuous movement. 

The kick landed square against the monster’s face, sending a ripple of energy throughout the creature’s body. It’s jaw immediately snapped from the blow, the crunch audible to Izuku’s ringing ears. In a fraction of a second, the beast was sent flying from it’s trajectory, it’s thousand pound body sent tumbling across the gym from the blow. 

Izuku was surprised the action had worked with the weight of the creature. Before he could get his hopes up, the Nomu flipped itself over, catching it’s own weight as it was sent skidding across the ground. From the dust cloud it kicked up, it immediately pounced towards Izuku. 

Izuku was hit with a punch straight to the stomach, his organs once again turned to cream within him as his bones shattered beneath his skin. Blood began to seep through his costume, his ribs breaking out the other side of his body as they punctured through him. He let out a heavy cough at the blow, flying backwards once again. 

Suddenly, another punch from the beast came before he could react, hitting his already flying body like a spike to the ground. His bones continued to poke out of his skin, his body left to a mangled mess on the ground. 

Everything hurt. 

Everything was on fire. 

His breathing slowed. 

His heart, pierced by a rib, gave its final few beats. 

And then, as he always did, his body rearranged, and he stood back up. 

“Nomu! Why aren’t you killing him?!” Screeched Shigaraki, his gnarled finger pointing an accusatory point towards Izuku. 

“Kill him! Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!-” The man devolved into rasped chants, his mouth practically frothing with rage at the sight. 

Izuku threw up everything in his stomach, the bloody contents of his raw breakfast scattered across the cracked concrete ground in a sickening display. He heaved again, before another punch was directed at him, hitting him into the air, before his body crashed back down into his own chyme. 

He cried out in agony, no coherent thoughts forming under the intensity of the pain, his body begging for an end. The Nomu teleported on top of him, its speed unrivaled to anything Izuku had witnessed. The monster lifted its fist, pounding it down into Izuku’s body. 

The blow caused him to cough up the blood of his ruined organs, the deep crimson staining his face. Blow after blow landed against him, the pain never ending, mind breakingly horrific squelching noises as his body was flattened into the ground. At some point, his stomach had burst open, his bones sticking through him as his stomach juices were pounded out of him. 

He healed again. 

During his childhood, Izuku hadn’t believed in the prospect of ‘bad quirks’. To a young quirkless boy, any type of quirk seemed heroic. 

He would see stories on the news, the broadcasters calling out ‘horrifying’ mutation quirks, or ‘villainous’ quirk attacks. Izuku understood the words, sure, but they never computed. 

How could something as wonderful as a power of your own ever be evil? No person was inherently bad, neither was any quirk! No quirk was for suffering alone, no quirk couldn’t be used for good, no quirk was a lost cause. 

Quirks were the best thing to have happened to the human race!

Now, as he lay still, his body being beaten into an unrecognizable mass, his internal juices spraying out of him as pain seared through him like nothing he’d ever felt, Izuku realized something. 

Quirks were a curse to him. 

Would he have been so relentlessly bullied as a child if quirks had not existed? 

Would the world have shunned him entirely for him to have gotten one? 

Would the quirk he had never let him die ? 

Would the quirk he was given cause the pain to never end?

Could he have finally, finally let go? Died in peace? Been a respectable hero?

Maybe in another universe he was something better than this. 

Better than a stain on the concrete, better than the horrifying undying curse than he was. 

Better than the pain, the unending pain. 

No matter what Thirteen had said about quirks, how all of them were meant to help people, Izuku had to disagree. 

Because never, not once, had his quirk helped him . 

He missed his mom. 

He missed his comfortable All Might bed sheets.