Chapter Text
There were three things Shouta really loved in life.
Four, once, but that was long gone.
Cats, coffee, and Hizashi.
So when his partner proposed, at a small, nice dinner with Nemuri and Emi, Shouta hadn’t hesitated to accept.
They decided to keep it a quiet ordeal. As heroes, they lived dangerous lives—that sort of information being publicized was begging for trouble.
So, they didn’t do anything big to celebrate. Not that the two would have wanted it, anyway. Shouta especially. A small ceremony with colleagues and friends from over the years, some old classmates, and the little bit of family the pair had. A week before taken off work for wedding prep, a week after for a honeymoon. Although their definition of a “honeymoon” was to stay in town, even mostly at home, and relax that way.
Shouta and Hizashi had promised each other that, during their honeymoon, there would be no work whatsoever. Hizashi took a couple of weeks off from the radio show, and neither of them would be doing any hero work.
Shouta had fully planned on going along with this.
But, when he went out to run some errands, he instead encountered trouble in the park on his way home.
A tall masked man in a trenchcoat, threatening some seemingly ordinary office worker. A couple of other brightly dressed people—kids, at most college age, if he had to guess—seemed to be attempting to intervene, but there didn’t seem to be much physical involvement. Shouta was prepared to ignore it and keep walking, just watching out of the corner of his eye.
It’s my day off. Nothing is happening, so I don’t need to do anything. Just keeping an eye out for a threat, like any concerned citizen.
That is, until the masked man lifted the worker by the front of his shirt, and raised a fist—armed with a knuckle duster—preparing to strike.
Shouta sighed, moving his capture scarf before he could think, restraining the man’s arm in one smooth motion.
“Gonna do that in public when the sun’s still up?” Villains these days. Probably high on Trigger. “Not the smartest move.”
The masked man turned his head toward him. Shouta continued, “Bad times we live in. You instant villains are all over.”
“I know you,” the man responded. “The Erasure Hero. Eraserhead!”
The two colorful kids had a brief exchange Shouta just barely didn’t catch.
He kept his focus on the villain in front of him. “Today’s my day off, so I’m just a concerned citizen.”
“Would you look at that,” the man replied, “You’re the same as me.”
In a quick moment of judgement, while the two kids were talking loudly behind the masked man, Shouta dropped his groceries and moved forward to counter him. The villain rushed forward to attack, only reinforcing his suspicions. Shouta used his capture scarf again to catch him by the arm and swung a leg up to hit him in the face.
The man just grinned and twisted to grip his scarf, swinging it, and Shouta with it, up through the air above his head.
He must be using an endurance Quirk to boost his raw strength.
Shouta locked eyes on the villain and activated his own.
I’m not about to play his game…
He rushed forward and kicked the man again, never once shifting his gaze.
…when I can change the rules!
The villain continued to grin, grabbing Shouta by the leg and launching him once more, strength completely unaffected.
My Erasure didn’t work?
I see what’s happening. His Quirk. If I can’t erase it…
Shouta continued to fight, but quickly split himself off from the man.
“Already done?” He taunted. “Aw, what’s wrong?”
Shouta dusted off the front of his shirt. “My apologies. It appears I was sorely mistaken. It’s clear now that you’re not misusing a Quirk. So, I’ve got no cause to put you under arrest.”
He moved to pick up his bag of groceries from where he’d dropped it, still upright. Before leaving, he turned back to the man. “Something about you made me think you were a villain.”
The man was pulling out a cigarette from a pack. “Yeah, I’ve heard that one before.”
“Of course. Sorry.” And with that, Shouta walked away.
He admits to giving that impression. But I can’t charge him if he hasn’t done anything.
My Erasure didn’t do a thing to him, which means he doesn’t have a Quirk. He really is just that tough.
Even still, that doesn’t make him any less suspicious. To be safe, I should tip the police off about him.
So, he pulled out his phone. Because that was what any concerned citizen would do, right?
But before anything, Shouta heard an ear piercing scream. And not in the same, positive way Hizashi’s screams always pierced his ears. That was fear.
He decided to follow the sound.
Any concerned citizen would at least assess the situation. He wasn’t working. Hizashi would believe that.
He found a large commotion, and amongst it, a raging man covered in spikes. His tongue stuck so far out of his mouth, it was clear to see that he was a Trigger user.
As the instant villain lunged forward at one of the kids along with the masked man from earlier, Shouta stretched out his capture scarf, tightly ensnaring him and dragging him to a stop.
“Huh?!” the villain shouted back at him, “What’d you do to me?! I can’t move!”
“I’m just doing what I’m supposed to do. This is real hero work. Though it is my day off.”
He tied up the villain securely, leaving him hopefully for the police to find in the wake of all this mess. Screams still echoed, supposedly for some other instant villain around.
Shouta followed the sounds.
A gargantuan villain, towering higher than the city buildings, walking down the streets.
Its giant foot moved to take a step… directly onto someone stuck in a trash pile below.
Before the foot could lower onto the citizen, Shouta stared straight at the villain and activated his own Quirk.
As it quickly shrunk back down to normal size, he wrapped it securely with his scarf, restraining it and its extra limbs.
“Not such a big threat without that gigantification power. After that, any concerned citizen would bind the target. That’s all.”
Shouta was simply a concerned bystander. He was not working on his honeymoon.
He kept the villain bound while he waited for the police, who took the man and Shouta’s statement.
Picking up his groceries once again, hoping nothing was broken or missing at this point, Shouta prepared to go home, before seeing the masked man from earlier walking into an alley.
He had caught that the man, along with those kids with him, had helped take down the instant villains, although he hadn’t interacted much with them during the fight, and didn’t recognize them from anywhere.
New vigilantes, maybe.
“Hey,” he called out to the man from the end of the alley, “For what it’s worth, I do appreciate the help.”
That didn’t make these new figures any less of a threat.
He was still grinning, just like earlier. “Like I said, you and I want the same thing. Any concerned citizen would be proud to help a hero.”
“Be careful not to get in over your heads. This little game you’re playing doesn’t end well.”
The man laughed dryly. “We’re only trying to clean up some of the mess the pro heroes can’t.”
“Oh? Such as?”
“Consider that giant villain, and those punks who were terrorizing the streets. Imagine if we beat ‘em up before they ever had the chance to do that.”
“Careful, buddy. Beating someone up who hasn’t done anything wrong yet means you’re the one causing terror.”
“Ahh, I can accept that reasoning. ‘Course, by that logic, you’ve got no business charging us until after the deed is already done.”
Shouta knew something felt off about this man from the moment he’d seen him. And the longer they talked, the more sure he was.
“You’re the kind of guy who’d rather ask for forgiveness than permission? Gotta say… I think your personality sucks.”
“Heard that before, too.”
Without a word more, the man walked away.
Shouta checked the time. He should get home. Hizashi would be wondering where he was.
Groceries in one arm, he clicked open the apartment door, closing it quietly behind him so as not to possibly disturb his partner.
This endeavor proved to be pointless, as the man in question was sitting at their dining room table with a very stern look on his face.
“Shouta.”
“Hizashi.”
“You’re home late.”
“I got held up on my way home.”
“Yeah. By the villain attack, right? It was on the news. You know, I swear I saw a capture scarf.”
Shouta didn’t say a word.
“You know any heroes who use capture scarves, Sho? And can you explain to me why, exactly, you were working. On our honeymoon?”
Here it was. The moment Shouta had been mentally preparing himself for since the park.
Justifying his actions to Hizashi.
“I was walking home from the store, and I saw some things that any concerned citizen would intervene with, hero or not.”
The two had a staring competition over that comment.
Shouta’s eyes were dry. He just sighed.
“We agreed. No work on our vacation, Sho. Especially not our honeymoon.”
“So you wanted me to just be a bystander?”
“No, Sho. I’m not scolding you for intervening. I’m scolding you because I happen to know that the only way you would have been on that street with that villain at that time, instead of being at home thirty minutes prior, is if you took the long route. And you brought your capture scarf on a short shopping trip.”
Shouta sighed again. “So maybe I miss patrol.”
Hizashi gave him one of his signature looks.
“What, like I don’t hear you recording podcast episodes when I’m trying to nap, Zashi?”
Hizashi let off on the glare a little bit. “We always say we need a vacation, and then we get one and use it to work.”
Shouta sat down next to him. “Can’t escape it.”
There was silence, for a moment, an occurrence less rare in their household than you’d expect.
Almost always comfortable. Almost always Hizashi who broke it.
“You are banned from running the errands for the rest of our honeymoon, though. Punishment for sneaking out is lost cat privileges.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
Their tortie, Bastard, ran across the room and jumped onto Shouta’s lap as if she sensed that she was being discussed. Sushi was still curled up on the couch, just in view.
“I would dare, if it means I get to actually spend my honeymoon with my husband,” Hizashi teased, emphasizing the new title.
Shouta smiled. “Well, I suppose I can survive these last few days without patrol. For my husband.”
And their shared apartment was quiet.