Chapter Text
As soon as Izuku arrived home, his mother was waiting for him. He hadn't even removed his shoes when he noticed her face lean in from the next room.
“Hey Mom, sorry I'm late. I got-”
“I know what happened,” she said flatly as she held up her tablet. On the screen was the news, probably a recording from earlier that day, showing the incident he'd injected himself into. Then a recording of him popped up in the top right, seemingly taken by a phone camera based on the heads and arms that kept getting in the way, combined with the less-than-stellar quality. However, there was definitely enough detail to see exactly how he'd saved Bakugo, followed by All Might's massive punch.
As he finished getting his shoes off, Izuku searched his mother's face for a reaction. There was definitely something going on, but he genuinely couldn't place what.
“Yeah, that,” he started awkwardly. “But if it makes things any better, I'm perfectly fine....”
Inko stepped forward, staring her son in the face. Her dark green hair showed little disheveling, and while she had definitely lost some height since his younger days, she was still just as fit as ever. Early on in his training, she had done her best to encourage Izuku by working out alongside him. Situps, pushups, squats, stretches, the works. And at first, his drive to impress her had kept him going. But soon, he'd found that he didn't need the motivational speeches, nor the exercise partner. In fact, she actually held him back somewhat after a time. But, being the ever-supportive woman she was, she let him do his things without her. Though, by that point, the habits had already taken root in her life. Even today, she had been cleaning the house with ankle and wrist weights, then used the commercials during her favorite show as a timer for her planking. Her fashion had shifted slightly over the years as well. Instead of the old button-up shirt and sweater over short skirts, she wore half-open track jackets with plain tees and leggings. Her hairstyle had shifted from the standard high bun and long bangs to a more manageable single-braid design. It had definitely been a welcome surprise to her husband, and Izuku could tell she was happy to be staying healthy. And the regular early retirements to bed whenever his dad was home were a good sign that he appreciated it, too. But he didn't want to dwell on that particular thought.
Thankfully, his awkward train of thought was interrupted by his mother hugging him around the neck, seemingly on the verge of tears.
“I know I can't admonish you for helping people,” she said shakily. “But could you please at least leave the life-threatening incidents until after you get your hero license?”
Izuku realized in that moment how much she'd probably worried about him. Her concerns for his well being, her worry that he might have been taken to the station. Hell, since Bakugo's face could be seen in the video, she had probably worried that he'd been assaulted on his way home from the scene. So he hugged her back, tightly.
“I'll do what I can,” he replied, his heart only half in the joke. “But you know how I am. I can't just stand by and let someone get hurt.”
“I know, and I love you for it,” Inko smiled, her sadness seemingly gone in an instant. “That's how you met Sutore, after all.”
In that moment, both Midoriyas had similar realizations.
“Shit,” Izuku swore.
“Language,” his mother admonished.
“Japanese.”
His sarcastic response was met with a light bonk on the forehead from the shorter woman. She then continued as though nothing had happened.
“He called as soon as the report made it to tv. You need to call him and tell him everything's alright.”
“I know, I know. And I'm sorry to make you worry, by the way. Love you, Mom. I just want you to know that you're the best.”
Inko blushed a little as Izuku pulled out his phone, already ablaze with multiple dozen missed texts, and at least five missed calls. In all the haze since he'd met All Might, he hadn't realized his phone had buzzed so much. He always kept it on vibrate, after all.
He opened up the text app to find six recent messages from his best friend, Sutore. Named in his phone as “Stretch,” in English of course. It was his chosen hero name, after all.
-Bro, I just saw you on the news! Text me as soon as you can!
-Come on, man! All Might was there! You can't hold out on me!
-If you're dead, I will fucking kill you!
-HEY
-Text me back, bitch!
-You have ten minutes before I come to find you!
Apparently, that last message was sent...eight minutes ago. As much as he thought it would be funny to respond at exactly ten minutes, Izuku decided he should call now. So he hit the phone icon in the top right of his screen.
Sutore Ichi was a dickhead, and the best friend a young Izuku could have asked for. The two had met when Sutore had been bullied by some other kids over his quirk. Since his ability was Expansion, it naturally came with the stigma of being fat. And according to the bullies, “nobody wants to be saved by a tub of lard.” After a quick reminder of Fat Gum's existence and popularity, followed by a short “fight” consisting of a single dodge and a punch to the gut, Izuku had scared off the kids. After that, the two began to hang out during lunch, and after some encouragement from Izuku, Sutore decided he should try his hand at hero business, too. And with some time training his quirk with Izuku, he was definitely well on his way. The biggest seal of trust the two had, though, was definitely the day Izuku told him the truth about his quirk.
Izuku smiled as he listened to the ring tone, silently counting them. One, two, three, and...beep.
“Where the fuck have you been?!” screamed the voice on the other end.
“Well, let's see. There was school, the road under the bridge on my way home, the rooftop courtesy of All Might's back....”
“You fucking what?”
“Well, he tried to leap away,” Izuku responded casually, shrugging despite the fact he knew his friend couldn't see. “I had to ask him.”
“Ask him wha-” Sutore began, his voice catching as he realized the answer. “You told him, didn't you?”
“Yeah.”
“And his response?”
“Honestly, shock. But not so much in the bad way I'd expected. More like an impressed stun.”
“What did you do to impress him?”
“Nothing much, just fought a slime monster.”
“I'm confused.”
After a quick rehash of the events of the day, which left out certain details of course, Sutore simply laughed.
“You have no idea how much I would have payed to see the look on that kid's face when you told him off. But hey, good on you, man. Closure. Oh, and if you need it, we can postpone our training. We got four months, after all. I get it if you need to take some time after today.”
“Nah, we're fine. Pizza Patio tomorrow after school. I still need to get faster, and you need to work on that Springboard move of yours.”
“Alright. Gaming at my place after?”
“Duh, we still have to beat the Forgotten Golem. Just please don't roll spam this time. I need to get some time not gaming so I can get my homework done.”
“Fuck you, panic rolls are a real thing. Good night, man.”
“Later bro.”
As he hung up the phone, Izuku looked at some of the other messages he'd gotten. Most were concern about his well being, a few were encouragement of his quick action, and one was just a meme. After spending a good hour and a half responding to messages, eating dinner, and doing his homework, Izuku decided to get online and look at the footage of his fight properly. He needed to check his form, and reassess his strategy. If All Might hadn't saved him today, he probably would have suffocated to death. So, for the next few hours until bed, he added to his notebook and reconsidered his approach to the fight today. No more needing to be saved.
…............................................................................................................................
The next afternoon, Izuku sat and waited for Sutore, his feet dangling off of their favorite pizza place's roof. As usual, there were a couple of people who noticed him and either pointed, took a picture, or asked the employees about him. Just as he was about to pull out his phone to check on him he saw his friend running up, one arm raised.
Sutore wasn't one to impress just from his outward appearance. He was of pretty average build: five foot nine, and one hundred sixty five pounds. His black hair was pulled back, but naturally resisted the influence, creating a head of backward-facing spikey tufts. Currently, he was wearing his black school uniform in his most common style. Jacket unbuttoned, showing his tee shirt underneath, pants purchased one size too large, and his custom-ordered shoes with a green lightning bolt pattern.
With a quick wave and a smile, Izuku dropped from his seat toward the ground. Several gasps accompanied the fifteen foot drop, which almost made him laugh as he landed in a roll, coming to a stop in front of his friend.
“You're late,” he said casually.
“Yeah,” Sutore replied, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. “Teacher wanted to talk to me about my high school applications. I told him there's only one.”
“U.A.”
“Damn right.”
The two smiled toothily at each other, sharing a fist bump.
“But yeah, he tried to convince me to try for a few other schools. He mainly suggested Shiketsu High. You know, just in case.”
“That's really pragmatic.”
Both kids stood staring for a second, letting the gravity of the claim set in, then both burst out laughing, turning toward the window to order.
“Like either of us isn't gonna make it in.”
As the two friends approached the counter, the cashier folded his arms.
“You were on the roof again.”
“I was. Didn't touch anything up there, I promise.”
“Good,” the man responded, his voice not having changed tone once. “The usual?”
“You bet. Two slices of pepperoni each, with medium fries for me and buffalo wings for him.”
“Any drinks today? Or is it just fountain water again?”
“Nah, I brought flavor packs today. Thanks though.”
“That will come out to four hundred yen.”
Izuku tossed two bills on the counter, then turned and started walking toward an empty table.
“Thanks Kamina. Keep being that ray of sunshine.”
An unamused stare was all he got in response, as usual.
After a quick meal complete with jokes and comparing notes on the fight from the previous day, both Izuku and Sutore stood and readied themselves on either side of the table they were at. Both boys stared intently at the crosswalk signal at the intersection ahead of them.
“So what's the goal?” Sutore asked, not looking away. “Swings? Slide? Tree?”
“Sidewalk.”
“That's rather easy, don't you-”
“On Omochidori Avenue.”
“Now that ought to be interesting.”
Both friends smiled, lowering slightly as they readied for the signal change. The instant the signal switched to green, they took off in a full sprint. Izuku ran with a low lean, pushing his legs around as fast as he could manage. Sutore, on the other hand, took great long leaps with each step, using his quirk to enlarge his foot rapidly and launch him further, before quickly shrinking it again. His shoes changed size to match, having been special ordered from a support item company in America. Though their approaches were wildly different, there was no discernible difference in their speeds overall. Naturally, Izuku would take the lead whenever Sutore landed, but when he launched, Sutore took the lead by a decent margin. As they made it to the other side of the crosswalk, their paths diverged. Izuku continued directly forward, jumping and using a foot against the wall to gain height to grab the top of the seven-foot-tall wall. Sutore had to turn and go around the wall, but he didn't lose much time as his footwork seemed to allow for nearly perfect momentum conservation as he made a ninety degree left turn.
As he pulled himself onto the top of the wall, Izuku jumped a little to his right then sprinted along the top of the concrete barrier overlooking the waterway the two boys were running alongside. Sutore, meanwhile, was running down the rampway toward the water level, his great bounding stride keeping Izuku constantly aware of his relative position. As the concrete wall turned to follow the path around a support beam for the walkway that went perpendicular to the path below, Izuku leapt toward the railing ahead, tucking in his legs to clear the handrails.
He decelerated quickly, catching himself with the opposite rail, then set off to his right, leaving all the people in the vicinity of his appearance slightly bewildered. He continued his mad dash to the end of the walkway, then turned left toward the stairs. Unfortunately, he couldn't just jump down and expect to not break an ankle, so he took the first half three at a time, then jumped the rest, rolling to conserve momentum, and set off again in his sprint. He angled himself to the left, seeing a tree he figured would easily allow him to get back on another wall behind it. He jumped, using the angle of the trunk as a second foothold to get a second great leap, then tucked his feet up to land standing on the wall, only momentarily losing his balance. He quickly recovered, setting off along the top of the wall toward the park that was the site of the finish line. As he cleared the apartment complex that he'd climbed up here to get around, he realized that Sutore was just then making his way into the park. That bastard had gained the lead! However, unfortunately for Sutore, Izuku had one more trick up his sleeve. He dropped down from the wall, now a good distance behind his friend. Instead of running directly toward the fence on the other side of the small playground, Izuku ran to the slide setup, climbing up onto the roof quickly. Now, with just a quick dash and some small steps up, he was able to launch himself onto the top of the fence, and dropped down casually on the other side while Sutore was still pulling himself up toward the top bar so he could swing over. With a groan, the boy shifted himself over the top of the fence, then dropped down to land next to his friend.
“Just how the hell,” Sutore huffed. “Did you jump onto the top of that fence?”
“Slides,” Izuku replied, slightly winded himself. “They give a good enough height advantage.”
“And here I thought I finally had you. Damn your parkour.”
“That's what I studied it for. The fastest path between to points is always a straight line. I had the route advantage at the end.”
“Yeah, whatever. You know any good high jump spots nearby? All I can think of is the jump straight up to the walkway over the canal.”
Izuku thought for a moment, a smile slowly spreading over his face.
“Yeah, there is one I can think of.”
With that, he turned and started walking, motioning over his shoulder for Sutore to follow. The two made their way a few blocks down, and as Izuku turned down an alleyway, his friend stopped. He knew exactly where they were going.
“Izuku, what are you doing?”
“Showing you a high leap I can't make,” the green-haired boy replied innocently.
“Yeah, and it must be just a coincidence that we're near one of Stain's suspected hideouts?”
“Are we? Huh, that's so weird. Either way, the wall is right over here.”
Izuku pointed to a wall of steel sheets reaching over ten feet up ahead and to their right. On the other side was a long-since abandoned warehouse, with several windows boarded up. The wall they were headed toward was just one section of the blockade that encircled the building
“You and I both know you did this on purpose. And I'm not going to just launch you to your death.”
“Come on, Sutore. I'll be in and out in less than five minutes. You can even time me if you want. I'm not trying to run into the guy, just look for evidence. Surveillance of a threat, that kind of thing.”
Sutore wasn't fully convinced, but he knew his friend wasn't actively suicidal, and had to admit that it would be good to be able to confirm or deny the claims of the hero killer being in this area.
“Alright, fine. But if anything happens, you yell for me. I'll break down every wall in my way to kick your ass back home safe.”
“Fine. Just get over there.”
Izuku pointed to a spot in front of a section of the wall. Sutore sighed, but walked to the spot, then took off his backpack, jacket, and shirt. He then braced himself by lowering his stance.
“You have five minutes in there,” the boy said, nodding to his friend.
Izuku smiled, running straight toward him. He jumped, putting both feet directly on his friend's stomach. Sutore in turn leaned his torso back, then activated his quirk, launching the other boy high into the air. Izuku adjusted his position midair to place a hand on the top of the wall, pulling himself just clear of the wall before flipping himself to an upright position in time to land in a roll. He looked around to find a possible exit, and luckily it seemed that the walls seemed more to keep people out than in, as there was chain-link fencing on the interior of every wall. At least that meant it would be easy to climb back out.
“Better start that timer,” he reminded Sutore before making his way over to the warehouse. He was pretty sure he heard the telltale beep of a timer app on his friend's phone.
As Izuku neared the building, he kept himself low, watching every window warily. If the stories were true, he probably wouldn't be in much danger, but a psychopath who hunts “false heroes” isn't exactly someone who's logical consistency should be relied on. The there was the more likely, and more dangerous, possibility that it was a homeless person or people. He made his way over to a broken window that wasn't boarded up, sidling up against the wall next to it. He leaned his head in slightly, only revealing his right eye as he peered in. It was hard to see much in the dark, but the light making its way in the window made him certain there weren't any traps directly under this window. So he carefully, silently climbed up and in.
With a quick motion, he pulled up his phone, turning on its flashlight. He scanned the room, starting with a search of the floor for traps. He raised the light high enough to check down the hallway in front of him, seeing nothing. He lowered the beam so he could see in front of him, but not high enough to give away his position to others. With that, he started forward into the dark, keeping his ears perked up the whole time. As he went, he checked every side room he passed just in case, but nothing moved in any of them. Well, nothing barring a few rats. The far more notable thing was that every single surface and item he saw was damaged in some way. Walls were punched, or had sections collapsed. The floors were stained and cracked with time, weeds coming in through some of the cracks. Pieces of wood, glass, and warped metal dotted the floors in each and every room. He made his way down the hall, took a right, then entered a side room labeled “stairs.”
The second floor wasn't much different. More broken chunks of material, more damaged walls, more busted floors. The difference up here was that some sections of floor were completely missing, having apparently collapsed in from disrepair and possible water damage based on the stains. As he searched, Izuku couldn't shake the nagging sense that someone was watching him. He shook it off, though, since he hadn't heard a single thing yet, and in the dead silence of this place, even his own footsteps felt like they broadcast for miles. As he finished up checking all the rooms on the floor, he checked his phone.
18:35, it read. He had to get out now, before Sutore made good on his promise. It's not like there was anything in here, anyway. With a resigned sigh, Izuku stood properly upright, putting both hands on his hips.
“Well this was a bust,” he said to himself quietly. He shrugged, then pulled up his phone, shutting off its flashlight as he made his way over to the nearest window. Luckily, it was only boarded up partway, allowing him to slip out between the boards and the sill, finding himself on the fire escape. He made his way down, dropping the last eight feet, since the ladder was missing. He walked over to where Sutore should have been waiting, calling out as he approached.
“Nothing, the place has been ransacked,” he said loudly enough for his friend to catch from over the wall. “I kinda feel bad for the building owners. It's gonna take a lot to fix this up and make it livable again.”
“That's on them,” Sutore replied, the relief only barely hidden from his voice. “Now lets get out of here and get to gaming.”
“Yup.”
As the boy climbed back over the fence, a masked man pulled his head back in the window of his hideout, re-sheathing a sword over his shoulder. He never liked dealing with kids. It made him feel too much like a villain. He checked the tarp nearby, making sure all of his equipment was accounted for before setting it all out again. He hoped the kid wouldn't come back. That had been too close.