Chapter Text
His heart was heavy on his way home. It almost seemed like the police’s reprimands hit harder than his favorite hero’s personal dismissal. Or maybe it was just the feeling of having a broken heart stomped on. Izuku’s day had hardly started out as terrific, he was still mad that his childhood-friend-turned-bully told him to jump off a roof. Deciding against that thoughtful piece of advice, Izuku had started his walk home, only to be attacked by a villain.
Having All Might save him was a dream come true, but it sucked to have the hero, the one person Izuku admired most in the world, put his life dream to rest. Being told by the number one hero you can’t be a hero without a quirk was quite the downer when there was nothing else in the world more important to you. He couldn’t really be angry at the hero himself, it felt like All Might genuinely didn’t want someone to overbite what they could chew, but both his clenched heart and the burning in his eyes were hard to ignore.
That is until he saw Kacchan (the childhood-friend-turned-bully himself), being suffocated by the very same villain that attacked him. Izuku was helpless and quirkless, but he also wasn’t thinking, all he knew was that he had to help. Running at the villain and throwing his backpack at the guy’s eye gave Kacchan a chance to take a big breath but not much else. Luckily, it wasn’t too long until the number one hero arrived and put the villain out of commission, getting Kacchan out in one piece.
Maybe what he did amounted to nothing but at least he had done something. Later Izuku would think about how there had been multiple heroes there, just watching. Couldn’t they have even tried to come up with a way to save Kacchan? Even if would put their life at risk? That’s the whole point of a hero, Izuku thought, risking your life for someone else.
All he knew was that, apparently, he was at fault; it was wrong of him to try and help, foolish and problematic. Thank you policemen, Izuku thought, I can just add those adjectives under ‘useless’, my main signifier. ‘Useless’ had been his title at school for many years now. Izuku couldn’t help the thought that maybe he really was, the police said so, the number one hero said so, maybe it was time to face the music. But he couldn’t, not really. Maybe he was useless now, he didn’t care, he was going to do something in the world. Izuku clenched his fists and thought, I will make a difference.
It was those thoughts that helped Izuku hold it together through dinner with his mom; smiling and laughing and reciting the daily lie that school was good (getting a perfect score on the history test wasn’t a lie, at least). Later, when his head hit his pillow to go to sleep, he sobbed till his head pounded and throat burned.
A week passed and his resolve to be someone in the world was passing with it. After helping Kacchan, or trying to, Kacchan hadn’t gone out of his way to make fun of him or bother him. He was still cold and sent him glares, but it certainly was an upgrade. No one was nice to him, of course, but a lot of the taunts and jabs (physical as well as mental) were turned down a notch. It was just a little, but he was still grateful, to a point. He wondered absentmindedly if he should be happier about the change, even if it was small, maybe he should feel re-energized. But he really wasn’t, he was just going through the motions. He’d have days where he’d fight motivation and determination back into himself, but it never seemed to stick.
He had always held on tightly to being a hero and now that it was gone, trying to find a new meaning for living felt like scooping up sand with his hands. There were lots of things he could do or become, his grades were great so he could get into great high schools (there had to be some that didn’t care about him being quirkless, right?). But it didn’t matter because whatever it was, it wasn’t a hero, and whatever school it was, it wasn’t UA. UA was known as one of the, if not the, best hero schools in Japan. The one Kacchan was going to. He knew his mom was getting worried, he couldn’t always hide his somber attitude, so he started spending more time outside after school. He realized he felt better being outside than in his room. Probably as it was full of reminders of what he had wanted - and failed - to get. Even the house in general felt full of memories that just reminded him how he had been so hopeful.
He told his mother that he was taking up running. Sometimes he actually would run, but mostly he just needed to be out of the house. He would walk to a park he vaguely remembered going to as a kid, sit on the bench or (if not a lot of people were there) a swing. He started to wander out into the busier parts of the city. Izuku liked imagine what he looked like, some kid alone wandering around as if he had no purpose in life (which wasn’t necessarily false). Or maybe, just looked doped out. Who knew.
His mom was happy he’d ‘taken up running’ but after two weeks expressed concern that he was coming home really late (as in six thirty…). Izuku shortened his purposeless-wandering-extravaganza times to two and a half hours to be home by five thirty, but it seemed too short. Still, his mom was happy. More days than not she worked the early shifts, meaning she left for work at four am. In order to get enough sleep she went to bed at eight. Tuesdays, however, were even earlier; she had to work at three am so she went to bed at seven. Izuku couldn’t imagine working those hours. It had been four days since Izuku had started coming home by five thirty when Tuesday came around. His mom said goodnight at seven and Izuku realized it was still early enough to go walking again. So, he did. Tuesday night walks became routine and some other nights he’d go out past eight when his mom was asleep.
Izuku was starting to get comfortable enough with the high energy city that he’d venture out to more secluded areas. These were the places he wouldn’t be judged, wouldn’t be reminded about the uselessness of a quirkless person. It was in one of these areas, unsurprisingly, Izuku saw a villain terrorizing a young woman. Really, she was probably just a couple years older than Izuku, maybe seventeen.
It was just a little after ten and Izuku had been on his way home when he heard something in the alleyway he’d just walked by. He quickly turned around and saw the girl lying face down on the disgusting concrete in the back end of an alley, the man (‘villain’ Izuku’s mind supplied) was kneeling, one knee of the ground and the other knee on the girls back. He wasn’t paying attention to the girl as he went through her purse and jacket.
The girl was still except for the slight tilting of her head, eyes moving rapidly seemingly to be looking for a way out. She saw Izuku, whose eyes were wide in surprise. She opened and closed her mouth as if not sure whether to call out or not. It didn’t matter because the second after Izuku looked into her eyes he was running towards them.
“Hey!” he yelled causing the villain to flinch and put more weight on the girl, “get away from her!”
The villain looked up in surprise, he was wearing a long roughed up brown coat that fell open to reveal a dirty dress shirt. His pants were dark, and he had short clunky boots. The streetlight from the main road didn’t give enough light for Izuku to see his facial features except that he was clean shaven and frowning.
The villain snarled at him, “get lost little boy.”
Izuku didn’t. He also didn’t know what he was doing. His brain supplied no further instructions after ‘run towards them’. Nice to know my academic intelligence is not applicable to the real world. Realizing this, that his master plan was currently ‘tackle the guy’, Izuku felt dread travel through his bones. But the girl needed help and he had to do something, even if all he could do was to give the girl time to run by possibly becoming this guy’s new ‘stabbing bag’. Not the life purpose he was looking for but beggars can't be choosers.
Izuku had only gotten a few meters before the villain swiftly picked up the girl. She shouted in pain as he threw her over his shoulder, her legs hanging over his back. His hand grabbed one of her wrists and twisted it behind her back. She sucked in a breath of air and then she froze, unnaturally, stiff like a board.
“If you try anything” he threatened her, turning to the back of the alley, “I’ll snap your wrist”. He took off running. The back alleys were almost a city of their own. If you didn’t know them, it was all too easy to get lost in them. That generally wasn’t a problem since no remotely normal person explored them. Izuku followed.
“Stop! Let her go!” he shouted. The guy, predictably, didn’t respond and kept running. Izuku almost slipped a few times chasing him, once on a newspaper, he wasn’t sure what else. They pivoted around corners and after what would be the length of about four blocks Izuku started to lose his breath.
“Crap” he spit out.
“What a low life” a voice came from beside him. Izuku squeaked and turned towards him. He was still running when he did, so his legs crossed each other and his tripped backwards. The new guy grabbed his shirt, keeping him upright and pulled him to keep running. Izuku quickly found his feet and kept going.
“Do you know the guy?” mystery man asked him. He was wearing all black, the fabric looked stretchy but thick, and there was extra fabric wrapped around his forearms. He also had on a light vest that looked a little too big for him. Izuku noticed the vest had a thin buckle (not unlike the ones on life vests but metal) that was unclasped. The guy was a couple heads taller than Izuku and, although lean in nature, very toned. He had a mask covering the top of his face. It wasn’t fitted and looked like the top half of a motorcycle helmet, but a lot thinner. Izuku’s first thought was, cool .
“No” Izuku managed, feeling energy return to him at the prospect of help, “I was walking by the alley, I saw him with the girl. He had her on the ground and was going through her purse” Izuku sucked in a big breath and finished, “After he grabbed her, she stiffened, strangely, like frozen. I think it might be his quirk.”
“Got it” The guy said, all business. They saw the villain turn a corner and heard a loud crash. When the pair turned they saw two empty garbage bins on the ground. Frozen in the air was all of their contents. Izuku’s feet screeched to a halt, eyes wide in surprise. The new guy had stopped effortlessly, and pushed at a moldy pizza box. It didn’t budge. The guy tried again on something else and then whistled as if impressed. There weren’t any holes big enough to slip through the trash. Izuku watched in surprise as the guy climbed and hopped over the frozen trash wall like he’d done it a thousand times. He turned around to Izuku.
“Come on!”
Izuku, (much more clumsily) climbed over. The man pointed ahead, there were two paths .
“These paths form circle, the only alleyways out lead to the main streets, so, unless he runs into the main street it’ll come around to this same spot. We can separate and cut him off.” Izuku didn’t know which way the villain went, and he didn’t know if this guy did either. “I’ll go this way, and you go that way, good?”
Izuku realized he was waiting for his confirmation, “Yeah!”. His voice came out higher than he would’ve like but the man just nodded.
“Let’s go” he said and ran off. Izuku started down his appointed alley.
Running by himself again Izuku wondered what in the world he was doing. This random guy, who seemed to know what he was doing, had trusted him to help catch a villain? A part of him wanted to be happy, but a bigger part of him was starting to panic. This guy probably hadn’t realized that Izuku was chasing the villain without any plan, or way, of taking him down. But the girl...
What will I do if I am the one to run into the villain first? He thought trying to come up with some plan. Okay , he reasoned, start at the bottom, what do I know? His quirk makes things freeze up and immovable, except they don’t have to make them be immovable since he was running with the girl when she was frozen. He’s physically strong. Still, he is running with another person’s weight and considering how he had to adjust to run with the girl, freezing things with his quirk doesn’t make them weightless either. if using his quirk was physically taxing that would tire him down further. Then again, he could’ve stopped using his quirk on her, he did tell her not to try anything. There wasn’t a way to know for sure.
Focus, Izuku told himself, if I block his path, he’ll probably want to fight me. I could try to barter; let the villain go without a fight and he can keep whatever he stole if he let the girl go. Her safety is more important than anything, Izuku thought, and maybe the new guy could chase after him to get what he took. But if he wanted to hold onto the girl and her stuff Izuku didn’t think he’d be able to stop him. I have to be able to stop him, he thought.
Izuku knew he looked too far from intimidating to pull off a decent bluff. He started looking around the alleys as he ran at a slower pace, to see if there was anything he could use that could help him. There was lots of junk but nothing that Izuku could come up with a way for it to be helpful. He saw a splintered hokey stick and grabbed it, but he honestly doubted he could stop the guy with it. He could feel the fear starting to build but then he told himself, if I think I’m scared imagine what the girl is feeling. He remembered the look in Kachan’s eyes when the slime villain was killing him, choking him. Determination and bravery slipped inside his heart.
Izuku’s eyes fell on 3 buckets, all upright and filled with gross water that must’ve come from the rain. He stopped. Wait , he thought, the alley the new guy ran down was closer and this guy hadn’t paused to choose it. It was possible that he thought the villain ran down that one and, knowing that he was more capable than Izuku, chose it. The villain, in all honesty, didn’t look high end, in fact calling him a villain might be giving him too much credit, but he took a girl, so a villain he is.
If the villain ran down the alley Izuku had gone down he’d likely meet the guy in black first, Izuku knew this guy could take the villain.
If he went down the other alley, one of two things could happen , Izuku thought, the new guy could catch up to him and stop him, or, the villain would find me first . Izuku gulped. Izuku muttered to himself, “I have to be ready for the second option, if he comes it will be up to me to stop him”. He went to the side of the alley and picked up one of the buckets. He looked around at the heaps of trash and his face morphed into one of determination.
The villain must’ve been fast because the guy in black was nowhere to be found when he was met by Izuku. Between him and Izuku, Izuku had created a barrier. Unlike the barrier the villain had made which blocked them vertically, Izuku’s was all on the ground. Not quite two meters between them was mush made up of watery, slippery, trash. If the guy tried to run through it, it’d be impossible not to slip, especially with a girl on his shoulder. Even walking through it, putting any weight on the trash was risky. If he tried, Izuku was ready to hit him down with the hockey stick. He was conflicted about hitting the guy down if he still had the girl on his shoulder, but he figured the higher chance of her getting away would be worth it. Hopefully. He hoped the villain wouldn’t try to cross with the girl, he didn’t want her to get all gross from the soppy trash.
The villain stopped about four meters from the sloppy barrier. He looked at it in disgust before meeting Izuku’s gaze.
“What? You think just because you can’t stay upright in these alleys I can’t either?” He laughed. Izuku cringed at the sound. Izuku noticed that the girl wasn’t stiff anymore. So, it was tiring to use his quirk for a long time, Izuku thought.
“Just let the girl go, then you can move through the sludge, with her stuff and you can be on your way” Izuku was sure the guy in black would’ve been able to save the girl, get her stuff back, and stop the villain from going anywhere but the best Izuku could do was stall the guy, and maybe get the girl free. Hopefully I’d be enough.
The villain huffed out a laugh like that was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard.
“How about this” he sneered, “I put down the girl, walk through you little puddle, stab you in the guts, go back and grab the girl and be on my merry way?”
Izuku was not partial towards that idea. He had, however, already thought the villain might dream it up.
“Put her down then” Izuku was surprised that his voice didn’t shake, his body was also free of tremors, something that he always experienced when cornered by bullies, by Bakugou. He only gripped the hockey stick tighter. He felt his stomach churn and his pulse beat wildly but he didn’t break eye contact with his sleazy opponent.
The villain dropped the girl off his shoulder who hit the ground with a pained gasp before being frozen. Izuku flinched in sympathy.
Izuku clenched his teeth, I really hope my plan works.
Much to Izuku’s amazement and surprise the villain slipped on his second step. Izuku did not feel like a naturally lucky person, but he sure felt it then. The man seemed just as surprised as Izuku. His condescending sneer turned into rage, Izuku could see a true desire in his eyes to make someone hurt. Izuku had seen the look many, many, times.
He quickly looked towards the girl. The real point of getting the guy to slip was to see if it would break his concentration to use his quirk. If his quirk even worked that way. It did. The girl moved, almost immediately, throwing herself into a sitting position.
“Run!” Izuku called. Much to his relief the girl scrambled to her feet and gave Izuku a quick nod, before rushing away. She made it about five meters before dropping down, stiff again.
The man was standing in the sludge, the front of his pants and the bottom of his coat wet with grime. Some of it must have splattered on his shirt and, unfortunately, his face. He looked livid. Despite the familiar look he wore (the impatient-to-get-my-hands-on-you-and-blow-you-up one), he actually walked carefully.
This part wasn’t hard. Hit him with the hockey stick to get him to lose his balance again, give the girl more time to run, then, maybe start all over again. Then, probably, get stabbed. Izuku already had the stick raised but didn’t move. He realized, in horror, I can’t do it. I can’t hurt him, not so directly, it’s almost like using my fists. He thought of Bakugou’s fists. The man moved forward. Izuku looked at the girl, swallowed his bile, and used the stick to jab the villain in the stomach. It did the trick. He didn’t need to tell the girl to start running, she was already pushing herself forward. Thank god.
Izuku knew it would happen if he shoved the man instead of hitting at him; the villain grabbed the stick and pulled it, and Izuku, with him. Izuku managed to let go of the stick quick enough to avoid being pulled down into the slop fest. He saw the girl start to freeze up again, but she managed to keep moving forward in jerky steps. The villain must be losing his grip , he thought. Izuku, now without anything to defend or attack with jumped backwards.
The villain was angry enough to focus solely on him for now. Izuku thought, I just keep his attention on me, if can run him around for a little bit, the girl can get away, and the hero can come. With the livid look on his face Izuku had no doubt that the man wasn’t about to backtrack. All I have to do , he thought, is not get caught .
It wasn’t a bad plan. It likely would’ve worked if Izuku had just been a couple steps further from the soggy mess, and soggy mess of a man. The hockey stick hit Izuku’s legs and the second he fell to the ground, he felt the man grip his arm and drag him into the sludge with him. Yum.
Izuku could kind of understand the man’s anger. It was really gross down there. He felt slimy, he was wearing a long-sleeved shirt but it didn’t do much to protect him from the… ew. Izuku was biting his tongue to keep from yelping (or yelling); he didn’t want to distract the girl.
As disgusting as it was, the sludge, at that moment, became Izuku’s new best friend (sorry neighborhood stray cat). The man grabbed Izuku’s wrist, but his hand was covered in the muck and Izuku squirmed out of his grip.
For the next minute and a half, which seemed more like forever to Izuku, he wiggled, slid around, and even thrashed to keep out of the man’s grip. The man managed to elbow Izuku on his shoulder and Izuku had at some point, although not on purpose, kneed him in the gut. All and all a very dignified fight.
It ended with a loud whack and the man’s full weight crushing Izuku. Before he could freak out the man was pulled off him. Above him Izuku saw the man in black and he immediately relaxed.
The villain was unceremoniously dropped to the side and Izuku’s new hero (sorry slop) offered him a hand to help him up. Izuku went to grab it gratefully before stopping, looking at his hand in disgust.
“I’m all gross” he said ruefully.
The man laughed and grabbed Izuku’s hand lifting him up. Izuku almost slipped and he had to return the grip tightly to avoid falling out of his grasp.
Once out of his homemade sewage Izuku looked over to the villain and, yup, he was out for the count. Izuku’s eyes shot up to the hero’s face,
“The girl! Is she okay?”
The man chuckled, slipping what seemed to be a baton into his jacket, and then turned to look behind them. Izuku followed his gaze and found the girl a way back. She gave him a little wave and a stressed smile.
“Oh good” Izuku let out a breath of relief.
“It won’t be long until he wakes up” the man said, looking at the villain. He seemed pretty dead to the world to Izuku, but he was hardly an expert on these things. “What a trashy guy” the guy mused.
Izuku’s mind stopped for a second, did he just make a pun? Looking at the grin pointed his way confirmed it.
“Personality’s a load of garbage” It came out of Izuku’s mouth before he even thought about it. He blushed a little, but the guy laughed.
“Puns?” the girl huffed out incredulously.
Izuku blushed darker.
“Alright” The man said gaining Izuku’s attention, “I got to haul this guy over to the police, or at least out of this maze so they can find him”, he chuckled as if he was remembering some inside joke. “You remember where we came from? Can you help the gal out of here?”
Izuku nodded vigorously.
The guy found the girls wallet and phone in the villain’s pocket and gave them to Izuku. “See ya on the flip side” he said before tossing the unconscious villain in the sludge, walking across him like a bridge like it was completely normal, and then hefting him onto his back. And just like that he was gone, jogging off like the man barely weighed a thing.
Izuku watched him go, mouth opened wide.
“Cool” He whispered.
With countless sputtering apologies Izuku lead the girl the handful of steps through the sludge. She assured him, sandals in hand, that it was fine. She was sporting some burses and had a couple scratches but other than that seemed to be unharmed.
Izuku had never been more thankful for his good memory than at that moment as he easily guided the two of them back to where it had started.
The girl’s phone screen had a small crack in it but was working fine. Izuku waited as she called someone to come get her.
She turned to Izuku, “I told them I’d meet them in front of that hair dresser place” she pointed back towards the main road, “they said they’ll be there in five minutes” she smiled, “which definitely means they’ll be speeding.”
Izuku nodded.
The two walked the two minutes to the hairdressers. Not as many people were out now but Izuku couldn’t help but feel embarrassed about what he must look like. He had since 'dried', but he felt disgusting, some of it had gotten in his hair. He wondered if he smelled. Probably.
Izuku wasn’t sure who the girl called but it was only three minutes later a car she obviously recognized was in sight. Then a thought crossed his mind; he fought a villain, he was going to get in big trouble. Again . He looked to the side ready to bolt before the people in the car could see him but before he could the girl turned to Izuku and bent down to give him a quick, but strong, hug.
“Thank you” there were tears in her eyes, but she seemed to be pretending there weren’t.
Izuku smiled, “you were really brave”.
“So were you!” she grinned “Thanks for saving me, and thank your partner for me too!”
Izuku was taken aback, looking at the girl it was clear she really did think that he was very brave. He felt his chest swell with warmth and looked to the side bashfully.
Then she ran to the car, got in, and was gone. Izuku started to walk back home trying to sort out what had just happened.
“Thanks for working with me back there” a kind voice came from behind, startling Izuku who narrowly missed tripping on his own feet to try and spin around. Izuku was surprised to see the guy had changed, he was wearing jeans, a dark green hoodie and a black baseball hat.
Izuku was glad to see him, “did you get him to the police?”
“Sure did, the girl get home safe?”
“Yup!” Izuku beamed, “Oh! She says thank you.”
The man smiled, “I’m glad we were able to help her.”
Izuku blushed at the credit he was getting for the whole ordeal.
Even without the mask the baseball cap was casting a shadow over the top half of his face. He seemed to notice Izuku’s curiosity, and he chuckled. Izuku’s stomach grumbled, and the man smiled.
“Here, let’s get you some greasy food.”