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It really began on Izuku’s twelfth birthday.
School had been shit, as usual — no surprises there. The only thing out of the ordinary was that Izuku’s classmates had gotten him a present.
He had arrived at homeroom to find a parcel on his desk and a surprising absence of slurs and death threats written across the wooden surface in pen, and he had almost teared up. That was until he actually opened the gift.
A box, empty apart from a careful arrangement of red spider lilies across the bottom.
Walking back from school that day, Izuku had been holding back tears. Everybody at school had given him ‘gifts’ of poorly disguised death threats all day, something Izuku was no stranger to admittedly, but on a larger scale than ever before.
He stopped at several hero fights on the way to cheer himself up, but the dopamine felt hollow and he was left trudging home shortly before sunset. His mum wouldn’t be home for a while, leaving Izuku to his own devices until she got home from the shift the hospital had forced on her at the last minute. They would celebrate Izuku’s birthday tomorrow instead.
As he passed by an alleyway, he heard muffled sounds coming from within. He was just debating whether or not to investigate when a poorly muffled scream reached his ears. Izuku rushed in to find a large man pinning a woman against the wall, a knife held threateningly above her. Ropes were emerging from his fingertips to wrap around her wrists.
His quirk.
“I said, your wallet, woman,” he snarled as tears streamed down the woman’s face while she struggled weakly in his grip. “I won’t ask again.”
With only a split-second of hesitation, Izuku ran forwards, swinging the metal water bottle in his hand at the man’s head to knock him out. Knowing he didn’t have long before he regained consciousness, Izuku grabbed the loose ropes that were lying limply on the ground, still attached to his fingers, and tied them around the man’s wrists first, then his ankles, until the thug was bound tightly, slumped against the wall.
“Are you okay, ma’am?” Izuku asked the woman, who was clutching her purse tightly and staring in surprise at her saviour.
“Thank you kid,” she said breathlessly.
Izuku frowned. “I think you might be in shock,” he told her calmly. “You should probably call the police. I… uh, I have to get home. I hope you’ll be alright.” Without waiting for her reply, he bowed deeply and left the alleyway.
He ran all the way back to the apartment, before pausing at the door, out of breath.
Had he really defeated a criminal? God, that was so dangerous. His mum would be so mad if she found out he’d ignored almost every rule she’d set out for him when he started watching villain fights by himself. He would never be allowed outside again!
But then the next realization hit him.
Izuku had just taken out a grown man with a few years of gymnastics training, a metal water bottle and no quirk. He felt his face break into a wide grin as the implications hit.
He really could become a hero if he wanted.
Ha! Take that, bullies!
“Hey, kiddo!” Uncle Hizashi greeted as he walked through the door to the Midoriya apartment, ruffling his nephew’s hair. “How are you?”
“I’m good!”
Hizashi grinned. “That’s good to hear. What’s cooking, Inko?”
Inko poked her head out from the kitchen. “Guess.”
“Katsudon,” Uncle Shouta said, entering the apartment behind his husband.
“You got it in one! Dinner will be ready in twenty minutes, so make yourselves comfortable.”
“Thanks,” Shouta replied, falling onto the sofa.
Hizashi laughed, and patted Izuku’s head. “I’ll help your mum. Shouta’s a little tired this evening, just so you know.”
Izuku nodded, and moved to curl up on the sofa beside his uncle. “How are you, Uncle Shouta?”
“Tired,” Shouta replied gruffly, hiding his face in the capture weapon still around his neck. “I think I told you a few weeks ago, but my class is a little larger than usual, and they’re a bunch of hellions.”
Izuku laughed. “You say that every year.”
“Well, it’s true every year. At least when you get into UA, I’ll have one well-behaved student in my class.”
Izuku hummed noncommittedly. His uncle was always so sure he would get into UA, which, while refreshing, was a little scary to think about. It was only a few years away, and yet Izuku felt so behind! Even with his recent hobby, he felt so unprepared.
“How’s your gymnastics coming along, kid?”
“Pretty good,” Izuku replied. “I was moved up to level seven this week.” He paused for a moment, then decided to bring up the thing weighing on his mind. “I wanted to start doing martial arts and fighting technique, but there’s only one place nearby that will accept me, and they only do a few fighting styles. I’m starting there next month… but I was wondering—”
“If I could teach you? Of course kid,” Shouta sent Izuku a rare smile, and the teenager felt himself tearing up.
“Thanks,” he sniffled. Shouta tossed a tissue his way.
“There’s no reason I wouldn’t. It’s only logical to help you improve to gain an advantage over those who rely too much on their quirks. I’ll talk to your mother about setting up a time.”
Dinner that night was a nice break from the usual. Although Izuku visited his uncles frequently, it was rare that his mum was able to host them for dinner at a time when all three were free.
“You look more tired than usual, Shouta,” Inko noted with a frown as they ate. Shouta grumbled.
“He’s been assigned to a new case,” Hizashi said. “Detective Tsukauchi has him watching over some new guy in town so he’s had to do a bit more paperwork.”
“Oh! Is there a new underground hero?” Izuku exclaimed. Hizashi laughed, recognising the familiar look in his nephew’s eyes that indicated a new notebook entry.
“No, some new vigilante,” Shouta said after swallowing another bite. “He’s popped up in the area recently. Tsukauchi’s worried it’s a kid, because he’s on the shorter side, so I’ve been assigned to make sure the guy’s staying safe.”
Izuku choked on his katsudon, mind racing as Hizashi and his mum fretted over him.
This was bad. Really bad. Uncle Shouta would recognise his voice as soon as he was approached, and then he’d surely be arrested or something, and mum would be so angry.
“I’m fine,” he croaked out after somehow managing to compose himself. “It went down the wrong way.”
Shouta huffed. “Don’t die before you reach UA, Izuku. Or even then, preferably.”
“You’re such a softie, Sho,” Hizashi laughed. “Glad you’re okay, Little Listener.”
He needed a voice modulator. And something to hide his eyes — they were far too recognisable. And he would just have to hope Uncle Shouta realised he was doing fine and left him alone.
“So, Shouta, how’s the case going?”
Shouta lowered his bowl to raise an eyebrow at the question. “You mean the vigilante?”
Inko nodded. “Yes, that one.”
Izuku looked up from his own bowl, feigning interest in the conversation instead of showing the sense of dread creeping up his spine. To be honest, that wasn’t the topic he thought would be brought up over the next family dinner, but the universe decided to hate him today.
“I haven’t approached him yet. He seems pretty safe, and he’s ended up working with a few other pros occasionally, but I’ve just tailed him to be on the safe side. He’s doing well on his own. I don’t want to startle the kid.” Shouta paused, then shrugged and resumed eating his food.
“Why were you the one assigned to the case anyway,” Izuku chanced at asking. “I mean, from what I’ve heard his route’s a little different to yours?”
“I have a reputation of working with vigilantes in the area. I suppose they thought I’d be best working with a kid without trying to bring him in at first.”
“That makes sense,” Izuku said, and went back to his dinner.
As it so happened, it was just a few days later that Izuku finally ran into Shouta on patrol.
He’d just finished tying up the thug with some of the zip-ties he kept on hand for criminals with non-physical quirks who were pretty run-of-the-mill and didn’t have exceptional strength. Zip-ties, he had discovered, were surprisingly difficult to break out of, but he’d managed to snag some extra-strength tape used by most underground heroes, and it lived in his back pocket for the more dangerous criminals or villains he encountered.
All of a sudden, a dark figure dropped out of the sky to land a few feet away. “Kyuusei,” Eraserhead said, eyes glowing red behind his goggles and hair floating about his face. Izuku tensed, ready to boot it out of the alleyway, but the hero just sighed as his quirk shut off.
“Here,” he said, holding out a small object. “You dropped this a few streets back.”
Izuku stepped forward to get a closer look, recognising his burner phone. Shoot, it would’ve been bad if he’d lost that!
“Thanks, Eraserhead,” he replied, taking the phone and carefully zipping it into his trousers. Shouta grunted.
“Sure kid, I can call the cops, but you should head home. Your patrol usually finishes about now.”
Izuku glanced at his watch, doubling back in surprise. “Wow, I hadn’t noticed,” he muttered, voice distorting through his mask, sounding weird even to his own ears. “Thanks, sir!”
Izuku took off quickly, leaving his uncle behind in the alleyway.
The next time Izuku found Shouta on patrol, he would find out that the resident police force had named him Kyuusei following comments by several of the people he had rescued. A few months later, Kyuusei breaks onto news headlines.
The halls of UA are clear, clean, and almost clinical in their blankness. Walking through the long corridors between the entrance and the Staff Room is not unfamiliar by this point, but still vaguely reminiscent of the few times Izuku remembers visiting the hospital prior to his diagnosis. Faint voices seep past the closed doors, but almost all of the blinds on the windows between the classrooms and the hallway are down, and no one notices the odd procession of two pro heroes and a small, masked vigilante on their way to Principal Nedzu’s office.
Inside the staff room, a few of the teachers on break give them strange looks, and one approaches Hizashi, but is waved off with fast assurances. Izuku followed his uncles past the sofas and small offices to a large door at the very back of the room that swings open even before Shouta can knock.
“Please, come in,” says the recognisable voice from within.
Izuku sends a hesitant glance at Hizashi next to him. Seemingly knowing Izuku’s exact worries even with his face obscured, he nods with a smile that’s just that extra bit more genuine than the one Izuku has come to know as his hero persona
Principle Nedzu is as chipper in person as in the countless TV interviews Izuku has watched. The Principle stands as they enter the room, waving to them cheerfully.
“Good morning,” he says. “Tea?”
Funnily enough, that is the first thing that makes Izuku hesitate. “Um… yes please,” he says, unsure. Nedzu merely nods and, hopping down from his seat behind the large desk, makes his way over to the small kitchen on one side of the room to pour out steaming water from the kettle into a tea pot.
“Do have a seat, Kyuusei, Shouta-kun, Hizashi-kun,” he says, returning to the desk with the tea tray. He climbs back up onto his seat, and then faces Izuku with a gentle smile. “Now, I understand you have been identified as Midoriya Izuku in the General Education course following an arrest early this morning, hm? Here,” Nedzu pushes a cup and saucer forward, gesturing for Izuku to take it.
Izuku pushes back the hood to expose his green curls, then lifts the visor and pulls the mask off so it hangs around his neck. He nods slowly, lifting the cup to take a small sip, mindful of the hot steam rising from the tea.
“Excellent. As I’m sure Shouta has informed you, I have been ready to introduce the prospect of a Vigilante Reform system to our school for several years, but it was only approved earlier this year. With your consent, of course, I believe we have found our first student for the programme. What do you say, Midoriya-kun?”
“I’d be honored,” he says. “How does it work, because I’m already in Gen Ed but I assume I’ll be at least partially in the Heroics course. Will I still be allowed to patrol? Can I change my costume with the support department? I’d really like some support items but it wasn’t an option before. Do I have to give up vigilantism entirely—”
Shouta coughs pointedly, and Izuku flushes red under the amused gazes of the three Pro Heroes.
“Wonderful questions!” Nedzu exclaimed brightly. “We would remove you entirely from the General Education track, and you would join the 1-A classroom in one of the two empty places we currently have. You would be primarily in classes with 1-A, aside from a few I gather you have already tested out of, based on the entrance exam and the few tests you have taken so far this semester. For those, you will have a mix of support lessons, as I believe you expressed an interest in support during the application process, correct?” At Izuku’s nod, he continues, “And for the rest of those free periods, I thought you might consider private lessons.”
Izuku frowns. “What do you mean?”
At that, Nedzu’s grin shifts barely into something a little less practiced and slightly more animalistic. “Well, your uncle has attested to your apparent mental fortitude, and provided sufficient evidence of your delightful analysis hobby. I think that with proper guidance, you would be quite the force to be reckoned with, Midoriya-kun. How does that sound?”
Izuku looks up to match his new teacher’s smile. “I’d love that.”
“Wonderful. Now, all that’s left is the paperwork.”
As Shouta and Nedzu fill out the substantial stack of forms on the desk, Izuku reflects that now is as good a time as any to fill his unofficial mentor in. He pulls out his phone and dials the memorized number, the man picking up after the first ring.
“Kid?”
“Ah! Chizome-Sensei,” Izuku greets, voice just barely shaking.
“C’mon, spit it out. What did you get in trouble for this time?”
“Well…” Izuku pauses, then hears a deep sigh from the other side of the call.
“I’m hanging up—”
“Wait no! I um, I kindagotarrestedandsotheyputmeintheherocoursesonowI’matUA... andI’mreallysorryforgettingcaughtbutIthoughtIshouldtellyoujustincaseIneverseeyouagain.”
Another deep sigh. “Repeat. Slower.”
Izuku laughs nervously. “Right, I got arrested earlier so instead of stopping me they’re putting me into the heroics course at UA.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake Izuku!”