Chapter Text
Izuku was at work, he only had an hour or two left of his shift before he could go home. As much as making minimum wage was *exhilarating*, he had school in the morning and he couldn't afford fail another exam.
*Ding ding*
Izuku's eyes shot in the direction of the service bell and he saw a guy a few years older than him with a black hoodie pulled over his head talking on the phone.
"-ensei is going to be so pleased- Uh, Chicken nuggets and fries."
Sigh.
"Name for the order?" He said with the biggest service smile he could put on. He hated people that treated him like a vending machine.
The man looked annoyed. "Can't you just put a number on it or something?"
Izuku closed his eyes and smiled even brighter, god this guy was ugly. Where was a chapstick when you needed one?! "Of course." He tried not to let the annoyance slip out in his voice. "I'll put you down as 64, just come to the service port when you hear me call it." The guy waved his hand, nodded and walked away.
Izuku didn't think anything interesting would happen that day, the only reason he tolerated this job was because he liked seeing the interesting quirks and he needed to make enough money to pay back his mom for all stuff she'd felt obligated to buy for him over the years. He wasn't thinking of offing himself or anything, but if he got into another villain's path and couldn't make it out in time, at least she'd have something to show for raising him, that's what he told himself at least. The sludge villain was a real eye opener, he couldn't count on the pros to save him, or anyone else for that matter.
He only had 30 minutes left of his shift and he was taking orders to the tables now, some lady with her two kids had ordered two happy meals and a drink, they were all the way on the other side of the room so he had to manoeuvre through all the tables in his way. Luckily it was late enough that there weren't many people left eating. He was almost there when he heard a creepy laugh coming from one of the booths.
"Haha!" It was the freak from earlier. He hadn't even touched his food, what a waste. "Kurogiri.. My plan is finally finished! We've got all the lackeys we need to take care of the noobs while we go for the boss!" More creepy laughing. "All Might doesn't even stand a chance!"
Izuku kept walking, he wasn't about to get killed by some creep with a pipe dream, and quite frankly he didn't care. He got to the table the order was for and started walking back. He passed the creeps table, he was finally eating the food.
Izuku was almost to the counter when he stopped.
If the freak was serious, then he might get rid of All Might. Everyone would know how weak he really was, and he wouldn't have to see his face everywhere anymore.. If Izuku could help that happen, he'd be ecstatic. The man who told him he wasn't strong enough for UA, the man that told him he couldn't be a hero would finally get what he deserved.
He started walking back to the guy's booth. When he sat down across from the creep, he looked very surprised, which is to be expected I guess.
"Who are you?" He said in a low voice.
Izuku was unimpressed. If he was gonna properly talk to this guy he didn't need a mask, his face was a mix of bored, tired and annoyed as he tapped his badge.
"Midoriya Izuku. And you?"
When the guy didn't respond he took the liberty to continue. "I overheard you, just so you know. If you're seriously gonna take on the number one hero you could at least try to not reveal your plan to everyone that walks past you."
The man's face turned cracked into a smile, "So then... Are you going to try to stop me? That's not very clever idea, Midoriya Izuku. I promise you that."
"Nah." He leaned back in his chair, not taking the threat as seriously as he probably should have. "I want to help. I have some info on All Might that you might not know, and if you do.. Well" He shrugged "I haven't really thought that far ahead."
The man was thinking, that much was obvious. His unmoving eyes fixed on Izuku. "How do I know I can trust you?"
Izuku took a second to think, wording was key with guys like this. "He hurt me. More than once. If he thinks he's above everyone else then I'd like to help show the world he isn't."
The creep waited a long moment before putting his hand out for Izuku. "I'm Shigaraki. I don't think you need my first name."
He took his hand cautiously, Shigaraki kept his pinkie finger in the air as if he was drinking tea whilst shaking Izuku's hand.
What's with this guy? Maybe a five-point touch quirk? Or a quirk that lets him do something with his little finger? Or- No! Not the time! "So.. What do you want to know?"
"What do you have to tell?"
"Well... All Might's quirk, it's a strength enhancer right? If he's not actively using it then he's basically a skeleton. I don't really know what changed, but he currently can only hold his enhanced form for up to 3 hours. I'm not sure if that's the reason he's working at UA now, but a teaching gig is definitely a good excuse to why he's barely on the streets anymore."
Shigaraki was silent for a long moment. "Anything else?"
"He's got an injury, on his ribcage. I think that's the reason for his time limit, but yeah, it's really bad." He paused before adding "I don't when he got it or who gave it to him though."
"That's a lot of good info, if you put it to good use." His eyes narrowed "Why should I believe any of it?"
"Hey, I can't force you to believe me, but if you manage to take down All Might, I'd like to know that he was his own downfall."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
Izuku leaned over the table and whispered in Shigaraki's ear with a smile. "He's the one who told me."
They sat there for a minute, in silence. Shigaraki thinking again when- "MIDORIYA! What the hell do you think you're doing?! You've got a counter to be at, no slacking off!"
Izuku jumped slightly before getting up slowly. As he did he left some last words. "Good luck. Seriously. I hope your plan goes well," he bowed his head "and I hope I was of some help."
The rest of his shift was as boring as ever. Shigaraki had left almost immediately after Izuku was called over to man the counter again. He wondered if anything would come of his plan, he'd have to keep an eye out on the news.
He finished his shift and headed home, the sun setting as he went. He saw a few heros on his way, taking care of villains and small-time thugs. As much as he hated All Might, his love for heros themselves hadn't faded in the slightest, he watched as the punching hero: Death Arms took out someone stealing another someone's breifcase. He must have been too into the fight because after he had finished muttering about Death Arm's quirk, the sun had fully set and a completely different vibe had set on the streets, Izuku's mom didn't want him out past dark, especially since they didn't live far from a bad neighbourhood and the invisible dangers that made Izuku stiff this close to home wasn't boding well for him.
As Izuku was walking he found himself thinking about the sludge villain again. He had been completely helpless against it, it had just.. It had been a shitty day all in all. Thinking about it didn't help.
He was passing through the alley that he usually used as a shortcut to get home faster from work when he felt a hand rest on his back. "Ey, you wouldn't happen to have any change on you, would ya?" He turned around to see a gigantic man with metallic-looking hair and a sinister grin on his face staring at him.
Shit.
Izuku was being mugged.
Currently running on the building tops of downtown Musutafu, was none other than pro hero: Eraserhead.
...
God he hated when people introduced him like that. Like everyone was supposed to know who he was, as if his whole M.O wasn't being an underground hero. He really had to talk to Hizashi about that, it was getting out of hand.
He had passed by a purse snatcher and immediately snagged the ugly, leopard print thing and handed back to the lady who had been screeching for it. He was too tired to go through all the paperwork for something as stupid as this so he just activated his quirk and looked in the thief's direction to intimidate her into backing down and running. Luckily she was smart and got the idea, although he did get an earful from the bags owner.
All the preparations for the trip to the USJ were starting to cut into his sleep schedule, and the only way he was able to avoid them was taking patrol shifts out on the streets. No one found it too weird, he was a pro after all. Still, it had been a while since he had gotten out on the roofs, since the start of the year at least, which wasn't that long ago but still..
That's when he heard it. Echoing punches coming from one of the nearby alleys, no screams though. Was the victim already passed out? Shouta hadn't heard any resistance though..
It took him longer than he'd like to admit to find the right alley, but he was right, some massive junkie was beating up a- was that a kid?! Shit!
He took out the guy as quick as possible and went over to the boy.
"Hey, are you alright?" He helped the kid up, he had a black eye and was bleeding from somewhere, there wasn't enough light in the alley to see where though.
"Wh- wha... Yeah, I'm f- ine.." He was definitely not fine. The kid was slurring his words, probably had a concussion. He tried to break away from Shouta's grasp but couldn't get enough energy to his arms to even push. Definitely not fine.
"I.. I gotta get home.."
"No. You need to get to a hospital. What's your name?"
"Huh?... Oh. I'm- just... De..." Aaand he was out. Fuck. Well, at least now he had a reason to not be on the streets.