Chapter 4: The first meeting
Izuku was definitely being followed, this wasn't a gut feeling or anything, this was the fact that several patrols now had been accented by someone watching them, definitely not getting close enough to be noticed by most people. But Izuku wasn't most people, Izuku was used to bullies who try to follow them through crowds and teachers who watch their every move, not to mention living where they did meant learning to avoid muggers and rapists. The point is that Izuku knows when they're being watched, the question now was, who. It was most likely a professional given how silently they moved, villain or hero. Either way whoever it was definitely wanted to catch them. A lot of local gangs wanted them dead. And if it was a pro hero? Being caught meant getting arrested, and getting arrested either meant getting put back in foster care, or being returned to their parents. Honestly Izuku would prefer the villains, whatever that said about their mental state they really didn't want to know.
They had a plan, it wasn't a great one but they had it. They were going to talk to the person that they had dubbed "shadow", a bit on the nose, but it would do until they learnt the person's name, or, as much of a name as they could get, Izuku wasn't delusional enough to think they would get their shadow's real name. Tonight was the night where they would let their shadow get close enough to question them, not too close of course, hopefully they would be able to keep at least a two meter distance. They'd spent the last few days trying to find a way to learn how to approach their shadow, tracking their shadow's every movement and constantly giving them the slip. Honestly they might have just been getting a little impatient about the whole thing. It was clear that their shadow didn't know where they lived or they would have been visited at the warehouse by now. Not to mention the shadow didn't ever get close enough to get any details of their appearance, unless they had some kind of sight enhancement or perception quirk. So Izuku felt rather safe about the fact that they would be able to maintain some level of anonymity in their meeting.
Of course, they'd need to find out who their shadow was first. It would be idiotic to go into this plan without knowing their shadow's capabilities.
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At this point Shouta was wondering if he just had bad luck. It had been a full hour into his patrol and he still hadn't caught a glimpse of Wraith. The vigilante was certainly slippery, he hadn't even managed to get close in the last few patrols, either Wraith was just normal that stealthy, or (and Shouta really hoped it wasn't the second option) Wraith already knew that he was tailing them. Either way, Wraith was skilled, Shouta certainly wasn't going to underestimate his opponent, especially when considering that he had no idea what quirk they had.
Shouta had originally thought it was some kind of enhancer or stealth quirk given how quickly the vigilante disappeared across rooftops, Shouta couldjust try and use erasure on Wraith to see what happened, but he wasn't quite sure if he had been discovered and he would rather not give himself away if he wasn't. Speaking of the vigilante, Shouta paused as he noticed a particular person on one of the nearby rooftops, the now extremely familiar green hoodie and red shoes giving them away as Wraith. Shouta stopped just short of the rooftop, waiting for Wraith to make a move, a full week (including the weekend) of tracking the vigilante showed that they were almost never still, always in motion unless they were catching their breath. He would however, take this opportunity to try and observe Wraith, to see if he could identify any kind of behaviours that would indicate personality. Contrary to most of the rumours that have rapidly spread around the U.A student body, Shouta was actually incredibly perceptive when it comes to peoples emotions and behaviours, not that he'd ever use that to socialise, being good at recognising peoples emotions and being an extrovert were distinctly separate things.
Wraith was scribbling away in what looked like a notebook, Shouta offhandedly wondered what the contents were, there was something written on the cover but Shouta couldn't see anything except the number eight. Whatever the contents were, they were filling the pages with incredible speed. It seemed like the vigilante was fully engrossed in their writing, a perfect time to observe the vigilante in an unguarded state.
Of course now was the time when something happened. That something being a very high pitched scream that was somehow louder that Hizashi's emanating from the alleyways. And suddenly a blur of movement a few meters ahead of him, running towards the noise. Shouta quickly followed, focused on not letting Wraith notice him, but also fully prepared to help if needed, he was still a hero after all.
He saw Wraith stop near a building, so he stopped a few meters behind them, and Wraith was waiting, for, something. After about two minutes Shouta was about to go down there himself, half wondering why Wraith hadn't tried to intervene yet, when they slowly started to descend with a remarkable quiet and stealth that spoke to years of practice, he idly pondered how long they had trained before going full vigilante. Shouta rushed to the edge of the building and looked down, expecting to see a fight but then quickly realised why wraith had waited. In the middle of the alleyway was a sickly looking man, being held hostage by a lady wearing elegant clothes that certainly had no place in this side of town, she was holding a glowing hand to the man's neck, probably her quirk ready to fire. Meanwhile Wraith was sneaking around the back, out of the woman's sight, Shouta had a bad feeling about this, he got ready to activate his quirk the second that the woman tried anything.
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Izuku was writing up an analysis of the latest villain when they felt it, the unmistakable feeling of being watched. As much as they would love to just turn around and call their shadow out, people tended to get aggressive when caught by their target, and besides, let their shadow think that they had the upper hand, it gave Izuku a better chance to figure out exactly who they were dealing with.
When they heard the screams they bolted towards the noise, surveying the situation, the lady looked to be mugging the man, they decided to sneak down, wait for the man to start emptying his pockets to get the woman away from him before they could do anything.
Of course nothing ever went as planned for them since the universe seemed to hate them, so when, the second that the lady took her focus away from the man, Izuku attacked she immediately turned around and blindly fired her quirk at them, some kind of energy, they quickly dodged the first blast, having expected that, what they didn't expect was the man trying to punch them, 'what the hell? I just saved you!?' Izuku thought indignantly as the man continued attacking them. This combined with the woman's energy beams, Izuku was finding it difficult to get a hit in, it didn't help that they were also trying to prevent the man and woman from killing each other, it seemed that the man's quirk was an enhancer.
Suddenly the woman's hands stopped glowing and she looked startled, looking at her hands like they were broken, did she hit her quirk limit? Izuku couldn't ponder more as they sill had the man to deal with, so they used their staff to knock the man out, while the woman was incapacitated by, something, was that their shadow? Turning around they caught a figure wearing all black, using a grey scarf like thing to tie up the woman, 'wait a damn second' Izuku's eyes darted to the top of the figures face where a pair of yellow goggles covering the eyes confirmed Izuku's suspicions 'holy shit that's Eraserhead'. Izuku needed to leave now, Eraserhead was one of the best underground heroes in Musutafu, Izuku heard about him through whispers in the underground. And Izuku would be lying if they said Eraserhead wasn't one of their favourite heroes, All Might was still number one but Eraserhead was just so cool and he helped people that limelight hero's forgot about... aaand he would probably be able to catch Izuku in a heartbeat if he wanted, so Izuku needed to stop geeking out and run.
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Shouta had just finished tying up the lady when he turned around and saw Wraith running away like a bat out of hell. He would have gone after them but the two unconscious people prevented him from doing so, 'well if Wraith didn't know they were being followed earlier, they certainly know now' Shouta suppressed the urge to groan in annoyance realising that this would make things infinitely more difficult for the investigation. He sighed and pulled out his phone.
"Hello Eraser, please tell me you have an update on the Wraith case" Detective Tsukauchi's voice was heard through the alleyway.
"Well, about that..."
Chapter 5: Answers? Not yet.
Running through the streets of Musutafu, Izuku followed the sounds of fighting towards an area that was generally considered a drug dealer's haven. 'Great, just what I need, another deal gone wrong, lets just hope Eraserhead doesn't show up on this one' it had been a few days since they had figured out their shadow's identity, since then Eraserhead had given up on being unseen. Now Izuku had to be the one hiding, because they would there was no way to be able to outrun an actual hero. Still, they just couldn't stop being Wraith, people needed them, when they were Wraith they weren't useless, they weren't Deku. Izuku jumped across the roofs, reaching the fight quickly.
It looked like the two sides were evenly matched, this must have been between two gangs. Twice the enemies, Izuku sighed, and then winced when the action aggravated their bruised ribs, Bakugo had certainly not gone easy on them today, perhaps they shouldn't have gotten in his way again but they couldn't just stand there.
Izuku was having lunch on the roof when they saw Bakugo and his lackeys cornering one of the other students, a young boy with fly mutations, Izuku couldn't quite remember his name. If they were anyone else they might have just sat there with their lunch and ignored it, but they were Izuku. They used the nearby tree to climb down, running towards the group as Bakugo fired explosion after explosion in the fly kid's face.
"Stop!" Izuku signed, getting in between Bakugo and his victim, an explosion hitting his side. Izuku had learnt JSL a long time ago, at first because Bakugo's quirk was damaging his hearing, and they wanted to be able to talk to him despite that. About a year after their diagnosis however, they had learnt it for a completely different reason, sometimes when they tried to talk, especially to strangers, they just couldn't, it was like their throat just closed up, so they used JSL as a way to communicate without having to speak.
"Get out of the way Deku! Or else!" Bakugo sneered at them miniature explosions crackling in his palms and the burnt caramel smell from the nitroglycerin filling the air. Izuku stood their ground, meanwhile the other kids backed off, knowing that Bakugo didn't take kindly to anyone stealing his victims.
Izuku shook themselves out of their thoughts and leapt down, ignoring the various aches from their body. Several heads turned their way, temporarily pausing the fight. "Well, what do we have here?" One of them snickered "a little vigilante". Izuku tried to be indignant at being called little, but they were nine, and shorter than most nine-year-olds at that, so the comment was kind of justified. Izuku brandished their staff as they got ready for a fight.
The leader seemed to have minor feline mutations, most notably his ears and legs. Izuku waited for him to make the first move, they couldn't risk getting caught off guard if the leader had some hidden aspect to his quirk. The leader threw a quick left hook. Izuku dodged by scrambling backwards 'so he has enhanced speed, or at least, insanely quick reflexes' Izuku thought as they dodged the hit, striking back with their staff, the leader blocked it. The two continued to trade blows until the leader managed to land a hit, Izuku hissed in pain as the leader's fist struck their arm, right where Bakugo had bruised them. Izuku swung back, the staff whacking the leader on the head, dazing him. Unfortunately the other thugs seemed to finally register Izuku as a threat and surrounded them. Izuku got into a defensive stance as they realised that they might have gotten in over their head.
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Shouta was simply on patrol when he saw Wraith fighting off a bunch of thugs, he immediately jumped down to help them, hopefully this time they wouldn't run away. Shouta hasn't managed to get anywhere near Wraith since that fight a few days ago, it seemed that Wraith was now actively avoiding him, this could be a chance to capture them, or at least talk. He quickly captured two of the thugs, they had been caught off guard by his arrival, then looked to see if Wraith needed any help, but they seemed to be doing alright, so he focused on the other three. One seemed to have a mutation quirk that gave them six eyes and the other two didn't have any visible quirks. Shouta quickly apprehended the extra eyed man, meanwhile it seemed that Wraith had knocked out the leader and was fighting the last two criminals, knocking them out in quick succession as it seemed that neither of them had any combat training and were unarmed.
Wraith turned to him and quickly turned to run. Shouta needed to do something, or he'd loose this chance.
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"Hey, wait!"
Izuku temporarily froze in their tracks, momentarily weighing their options they turned around to face the underground hero. They tried to ask what the hero wanted, but they also didn't want him to figure out that they were a child. Izuku thought back to the plan they had made, yes they had wanted to meet their shadow, but that was before they realised that their shadow was one of the most fearsome underground heroes in Musutafu, plus that was on their terms, not in the middle of a random battle. They realised that Eraserhead was looking at them expectantly, so, steeling their nerves they made their choice.
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Shouta watched Wraith freeze at the sound of his voice and slowly turn around. 'Okay, this seems good, they're not running away, now what?' Shouta thought to himself as the vigilante stood there for several seconds before tying their staff back onto their back and signing a question.
"What do you want?"
Shouta was surprised for a second, and then silently thanked the fact that he was fluent in JSL thanks to Hizashi, "just wanted to ask some questions" he said casually, better to gain the vigilante's trust, it was unlikely they would allow themselves to get arrested if they didn't trust him, plus, no vigilante becomes what they are without a damn good reason. After all, most people who want to save people become heroes, so the people who become vigilantes usually become that way because they have a vendetta or because they couldn't become a hero for some reason.
"Right, because that's why you've been following me for the past two weeks Wraith was completely tensed and clearly ready to run, not that Shouta wouldn't be the same way in their situation, after all, they were a vigilante, they had no reason to trust a hero. Shouta wished that he could see their face but they had a mask on that covered the lower half, plus their hoodie covered the upper half in shadow, so it was almost impossible to see their face, let alone get any tells for their emotions.
"Two weeks? You've known the whole time!?" Shouta was impressed, Wraith must be extremely well trained, to detect someone as skilled as Shouta.
Wraith nodded "I was trying to figure out who you are, didn't expect my shadow to be... you"
Shouta tilted his head "alright well, that's impressive, how many years have you been training? Not a lot of people can notice me when I'm trailing them, how long have you been training for?" Shouta was hoping to get an answer, then he might be able to get an approximate age for the vigilante.
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Izuku was panicking mildly, Eraserhead was clearly trying to fish for information, so Izuku decided to be vague about it, just to throw him off the trail a bit. "A few years now technically it was the truth, if you thought about it, they'd been 'training' ever since they were kicked out, running from bullies, stealing to survive, all of these could probably be seen as training, from a certain point of view.
Eraserhead looked like he wanted to say something else when Izuku heard police sirens in the distance, the second that Eraserhead turned to face the entrance to the alleyway they used the opportunity to once again make a swift getaway. Climbing up onto the roofs and then almost immediately dipping down into another alleyway to avoid being detected.
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Shouta turned back towards the alleyway and saw that Wraith was once again, gone, he muttered several curses that would make Nemuri proud as he tried to identify which direction the vigilante had gone in. The police cars pulled into the alleyway and Detective Tsukauchi walked up to him.
"Hey Eraser, what's going on?" the detective asked, already taking notes on the scene as several police officers started arresting the criminals.
"Drug deal gone wrong, Wraith was already here by the time I stumbled across the fight, managed to get them to answer some vague questions, but they ran as soon as they heard your sirens" Shouta explained
"Well, you can tell me the rest back at the station since I still need a detailed statement from you"
Shouta sighed, this was gonna be a long night
Chapter 6: Suspicions
The gates to Aldera Elementary loomed overhead as Izuku felt an overall sense of dread for the day, well, they always felt a sense of dread when school was concerned, but today felt like it was going to be extra awful. The rules of the school running through their mind as they stepped through the gates, feeling like they were stepping towards their own death.
Tripping on the outstretched legs, keeping their head down and somehow managing to make their way through the first part of the day without drawing attention to themself.
They had sat down to their maths lesson when things started going wrong for them, they had dutifully scrubbed out the hateful words on their desk, disposed of the spider lilies sitting on their desk. But then, then they got careless, the topic of discussion from the two students next to Izuku turned towards the latest hero fight, and Izuku, despite themself, had begun muttering without realizing it. They got yelled at by the teacher for disrupting class with their muttering, ignored the jibes and giggles thrown their way as the teacher continued teaching, and throwing glares and grimaces at Izuku. They felt so stupid, they were doing so well, why did they mumble, why did they break the first rule? Couldn't they have just kept their mouth shut? Izuku sat glumly at their rooftop hideout as they watched the other kids play heroes or show off their quirks. They really needed to stop being such a nuisance in class, the other students needed to be focused, and how could they be focused when Izuku was sitting there muttering like the creepy, useless, Deku that they were.
Izuku was so lost in thought that they almost didn't hear the school bell and had to scramble to class. In that scramble they ran into one of the other students, specifically one of the upperclassmen, Iwai-san, a student with a major mean streak as she would use her quirk on anyone that she deemed, weaker, which was a problem because her quirk let her grow stone spikes from her skin, and those spikes were, very sharp. Izuku froze as she turned towards them, anger and disgust clear on her face, they had only been put in their place by her a few times, and all of those times they had broken bones at worst and deep gashes at best, Izuku just hopes she'd go easy on them today, but it seemed that luck was not on their side.
"Well look what we have here" Iwai-san sneered "watch where you're going Deku, a thing like you should be careful, or people might hurt you" her voice was a mocking sweetness, knowing that she was the exact kind of person she was talking about.
"I'm s-sorry" Izuku tried to apologize, even if they knew that it was futile, the least they could do was be polite.
"Sorry? Is that all you can say, and with that stupid stutter too." Iwai-san laughed "that's all a Deku can do huh? Well, you're good for one other thing, quirk practice". The skin on her hands suddenly split and hardened, spikes growing out of the back of her hand in a way that made them effective as knives. She loomed over them menacingly, hands ready to mercilessly stab and slice into flesh, the stone spikes seemingly hungry for blood, and Izuku braced themself for the feeling of tearing flesh and grinding bone that they knew would come once Iwai-san decided to stop playing with her food, like the cat stalking the mouse. And when she did, Izuku sat there and let it happen, and when she stabbed into their leg, they let it happen.
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It had been a few months since first meeting Wraith, and Shouta was slowly getting used to the vigilante, the two would run into each other on patrol almost every night, usually when one of them has a fight that goes on long enough for the other to notice. Shouta had a file dedicated to the things he knew about the vigilante, and although the file was still missing any identifying detail like age (the vigilante's height would be explained away by a quirk side effect), as well as quirk, since they never used it. It wasn't an enhancer, unless it was a mutation, because Shouta had tried erasing Wraith's quirk while they were running from him and they didn't even react, so most likely it was a non-combative quirk. The information that Shouta did have was about Wraith's fighting style and behavioral patterns, like how they always focused on dodging and evasive maneuvers instead of offense, and in fact, the vigilante's offensive capabilities were certainly underdeveloped, the one time that Shouta had seen Wraith throw a punch was when they had been backed into a corner and it looked like the most amateurish punch he had ever seen. Shouta wondered exactly how they had trained their stealth and evasive abilities so well without even thinking to train their offensive abilities.
The two of them had also communicated at certain points, with Wraith consistently using sign language, from those short conversations Shouta had learnt that Wraith was extremely good at reading people, usually able to identify sinister motives within criminals. Wraith only ever talked about the criminals in a very surface level, despite that, in battle they exploited weaknesses that could only be known through a deep understanding of someone's quirk. Wraith was a complete contradiction, confident and friendly one moment, skittish and unsure the next, Shouta was starting to wonder if there was something more to that, but Wraith had successfully avoided every personal, or personal adjacent question that Shouta has asked. So he stuck to helping out the vigilante and hoping that he could gain their trust over time.
That's when the vigilante themself landed on the roof next to them, but the sound was odd, Wraith was always near silent with their movements, it took all of Shouta's situational awareness to hear them, but this time? Shouta heard the vigilante very clearly. The hero turned to look at them, half surprised and half curious about the change in pattern, when he noticed something concerning, Wraith was clearly favouring one of their legs over the other, they were very good at hiding it, which was somehow even more concerning than the fact that they were hurt in the first place.
"Hey Eraser" Wraith seemed otherwise unharmed even being their usual, slightly cautious but still somehow friendly, self. But even Shouta, who once fully ignored being stabbed in the shoulder to the point that Hizashi had to make him stay home under threat of hiding all the coffee, wouldn't go on patrol with an injury that hinders movement, that kind of recklessness is what got people killed.
"You're hurt, why are you on patrol?"
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Izuku was absolutely not freaking out, they were going to be calm and they were going to talk their way out of this. They tried to act nonchalant "What are you talking about?", 'great, just great, that totally wasn't a dumb thing to say' they almost slapped themself about how stupid that was. Eraserhead definitely looked annoyed now, then again, he always looked annoyed so it was difficult to tell, but Izuku was sure he was more annoyed than before.
"Wraith, you're favouring your left leg, you're clearly injured, you shouldn't be on patrol", Izuku tried to figure out what Eraserhead was thinking, but unlike most people he was incredibly difficult to read, they supposed that was a skill that came from being an underground hero.
"That's alright, I've patrolled with worse injuries"Izuku was trying to explain that everything was fine, they could handle this, they once patrolled with third degree burns on their chest, it hurt like hell, but they survived, so what's the big deal? Eraserhead clearly thought it was concerning however.
"You've what? That could get you killed!" If Izuku didn't know better, they'd think that the hero was concerned for them, but that was impossible, why would anyone be concerned about a Deku like them? Eraserhead continued talking "you should go home, it's dangerous for you to be out here with that injury, you could get killed, get some rest". Izuku couldn't understand the hero's words, why would he be worried about if Izuku got killed or not? Sure he was a hero, and heros are supposed to care, but no-one needed to care about a quirkless Deku. And that's when it hit them, Eraserhead didn't know they were quirkless, he was treating them like a normal person, of course he would be concerned.
Izuku didn't quite know what to do with this information, if Eraserhead thought that they had a quirk, the way he was treating them made sense, but what would happen once he found out? Izuku didn't have to think too hard, the best-case scenario was that he would ignore Izuku, leave them like their parents did, worst case, he hurts them like the teachers at Aldera, Izuku doubted that a hero would try and kill them, but that option was also on the table. Izuku knew that they couldn't let Eraserhead figure out that they were quirkless, that would only lead to trouble, and besides, the hero was concerned for them, no-one was concerned for them, and the thought of that kind of care being directed at them made them feel warm and fuzzy inside. Izuku knew they were being selfish, they didn't deserve this kind of attention, but they couldn't help themself, it was so nice to have someone care if they died or not, someone who didn't actively want them to die, maybe they could keep up this charade for a little while longer.
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"Alright, I'll go home, see you tomorrow Eraser"Wraith signed, then they turned and climbed down the fire escape, and while Shouta tried to follow to make sure that the vigilante got home safe, Wraith's uncanny disappearing ability meant that they quickly escaped him. Shouta didn't quite know what to do, the vigilante had mentioned that they had patrolled through worse injuries, and Shouta was just as worried about that as he was annoyed that Wraith didn't seem to take their own safety seriously, it reminded him of some of his students. And that feeling again, like he was missing something really important.
Still, Shouta had a job to do so he continued with his own patrol, determined to ask Wraith some questions next time he saw them. If Wraith was consistently getting hurt to that extent, there was most likely something sinister going on, the vigilante was in danger somehow, and Shouta was a hero, he didn't ignore people in danger.
Chapter 7: Conversations and Concern.
Eraserhead was standing on the rooftop where Izuku had met with him yesterday, their leg was much better now, still not completely healed, but no-one had targeted it during school today, so it was actually able to heal semi-properly, especially since Eraserhead had sent them home the second he saw them limping. Izuku was still trying to process the idea that the hero actually cared about them, but it made some kind of sense after realizing that he thought they had a quirk. Still, Izuku had been mentally preparing for the other shoe to drop, and maybe they were a bit silly for thinking that Eraserhead would instantly know that they were quirkless, but they were used to everyone in their life knowing, and anyone that didn't was quickly told by others about that fact, warning them to stay away from the quirkless Deku. As if they were diseased, and Izuku supposed that, in a way, they were, after all they had to have something wrong with them to be quirkless. So Izuku had spent most of the night figuring out how to keep their secret if Eraserhead ever asked about why they didn't use a quirk. They could just lie and say it was a minor quirk, after all, having an almost useless quirk was still better than being completely useless, and they could easily fake something like that.
Landing softly behind the hero, who noticed them the second they touched the concrete of the roof, Izuku walked up to him, noting exactly how the hero's gaze immediately went to their leg. "Don't worry, it's healed now" Izuku signed before starting to leave, eager to feel the cool night air, and to their surprise, Eraserhead was following them. Izuku stopped in their tracks and turned around instantly to face the hero, making a confused expression underneath their mask, Eraserhead simply tilted his head at them, sensing that they had a question.
"Why are you following me?" the hero hadn't followed them around for a while now, mostly having stopped after their first conversation, so why was he following them now? Of course, the hero looked even more annoyed than normal today, if that was even possible.
"You expect me to let you patrol on your own after being injured just yesterday, honestly, unless you've got a healing quirk a wound like that wouldn't heal completely in a day."
Izuku was a bit caught off guard by the answer, not entirely expecting the concern that leaked through the tone of irritation, they seriously needed to quit being surprised if they were going to keep up this façade of a life. Nonetheless something in the hero's tone made them think twice of arguing, so they simply turned around and continued on their way with the patrol, ever mindful of the hero following them.
The first hour of patrol was uneventful, the criminals must have decided to take a break for the night or something because it was eerily quiet, especially unexpected given the heightened activity lately, but nonetheless appreciated. However as always, the peace never lasted. Eventually the two began running into various crimes being committed, a robbery here, a drunk fight there, generally only one of them was required to solve the issue, however it was simply more efficient to work in tandem, while it is very awkward at first, the two of them slowly gain an understanding of each other's fighting styles throughout the night, of course, eventually something had to go wrong.
Running along the rooftops the two stumbled upon a civilian being beaten up in a back alley, immediately the both of them jumped into action, Wraith taking stock of the situation, 'three assailants, one seems to have a weak fire quirk, very common but still dangerous, the other two are unknown quirks, the civilian seems to be bruised and a little burned but not too badly hurt', it seemed that they had gotten there just in time.
Instantly two of the assailants went down as both Izuku and Eraserhead leapt down into a surprise attack leaving only the fire wielder left who tried to scuffle backwards, clearly making for a retreat as they didn't seem to be willing to fight. Something in the back of Izuku's mind roared in anger at the action 'so you'll be glad to beat on someone weaker than you, but you'll run like a coward the second someone actually stands up to you!?' Izuku didn't quite know where that particular thought came from, or why they were so furious at the bully attacker, either way they punched the guy with much more force than they had intended, hard enough that it left the guy's nose bleeding, and then the man's fire licked at the edges of their hoodie, the scent of burning fiber, suddenly turns to burning flesh as the dark alleyway fills with the sounds of popping and crackling that Izuku knew couldn't be there, and the man stood in front of them, his fire a red glow that reminded Izuku all too much of ruby red eyes and suddenly the man was unconscious at their feet, and their knuckles felt wet, dripping with a dark red.
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Wraith knocked out the last assailant as Shouta handcuffed the others. Shouta was still a bit reluctant to let them patrol given the injury they had yesterday, but as far as Shouta could tell, their fighting and parkour was not hindered by whatever was left of their leg injury. He turned around to see Wraith standing over the fire wielder, blood dripping from the man's nose and their shaking hand, and pure rage radiating off of them like a sickly wave, drowning everything in that alley with cloying anger.
"Wraith?"
The vigilante seemed to snap out of whatever stupor they had been in and dragged the guy over to where the other two lay unconscious, roughly dropping him before swiftly making their escape to the rooftops, Shouta quickly followed, concerned about whatever just happened. He stopped as Wraith sat on the edge of the roof, looking down at the scene as blue and red lights flooded the alleyway. "Wraith, what happened there?" Shouta asked, standing awkwardly a few feet away from the vigilante, not wanting to startle them, but also not wanting to leave them alone.
"I don't know, I-" Wraith paused, hands shaking as they tried to collect themself "he was running away, he hurt someone and couldn't even face the consequences" each word was shakier and shakier as Wraith signed
"You aren't just talking about that man, are you?" Shouta asked, although the answer was fairly obvious.
Wraith sighed and shook their head "I don't know, he just reminded me of, a friend" Shouta had a sinking suspicion, remembering the injury Wraith had yesterday, and how they had acted as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
"Was that, friend, the reason you were hurt yesterday?" Shouta was trying to be gentle, but he was sure it didn't sound right, where was Hizashi when you needed him? He was always much better at this whole, comfort, thing than Shouta was.
Wraith shook their head so rapidly that Shouta almost worried that the vigilante's head would fall off. "No, no, that wasn't him, not that time" Wraith quickly defended this 'friend', and Shouta really didn't like the picture that this was painting. But before he could ask any more questions about what the vigilante meant by "not that time", Wraith continued hurriedly "besides, I've never wanted to hurt him, I don't know why I got so angry at that other guy".
"Okay, well, why did he remind you of your friend?"
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Izuku very carefully thought through their answer, if they said the wrong thing, Eraserhead could find out that they were quirkless! "He always hurts people he thinks are weaker than him, but then pretends like it was the victims fault when he gets confronted", in reality Bakugo was probably the worst bully in that school, while most just focus on Deku, Bakugo and a few others like Iwai-san go after anyone weaker than themselves.
"So why call him your friend, he's targeting you as well, right?"
"I mean, we used to be friends, and he could be harsh at times, but nothing I couldn't take, but then he started hurting other people, and we just, drifted apart".
"What about you?"
"What?" Izuku was confused.
"You said you stopped being friends once he started hurting other people, didn't you stop being friends once he started hurting you?"
Izuku froze, how were they supposed to explain to the hero that they didn't matter, if they did, the hero would find out they were quirkless, Izuku desperately tried to think of ways to get themself out of this corner they had been backed into, would running away be a good idea? Maybe, it was worth a shot at least. Izuku scrambled back to their feet and sprinted, mind running purely on adrenaline as instinct took them back to their warehouse.
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Wraith bolted away and Shouta sighed internally, okay, that was clearly a sore topic, he should avoid that in the future, at least until Wraith trusted him enough to tell on their own. This was going to be tough, maybe he could ask Hizashi for help, his husband always knew exactly what to say to get people to trust him.
Chapter 8: Food builds trust right?
Shouta stared down at the cup of coffe in his hands, Wraith was avoiding him, they have been for three days, he had seriously messed up. Okay, maybe he shouldn't have pressed the issue when the vigilante was clearly stressed by it. But the past was the past, and Hizashi had immediatley called him an idiot when he had gotten home that day and told him what had happened. But his husband also have him some advice on how to deal with Wraith, mostly involving giving the vigilante some space and basically assuming that he's starting from zero unless proven otherwise. On the other hand Hizashi was also very concerned about Wraith possibly being abused by a "friend", both of them were, Hizashi suggested bringing it up, but not pushing it if Wraith didn't want to talk.
Speaking of his husband, "hey Moonlight!" Hizashi called out to him in a singsong voice "leaving for patrol already?" he asked, as if Hizashi didn't have Shouta's patrol times memorized to the minute.
Shouta smiled softly, "yeah, why? " he turned, Hizashi looked concerned, and a bit tired, which was unusual for him, the man was normally a bundle of energy even on the longest days. "Is something wrong Sunshine?"
Hizashi laughed, although it was a forced one, "is it that obvious?" He sighed "Shou, you've been worrying about Wraith constantly", if it were anyone else Shouta would have denied being worried about anything, but Hizashi was the one person he could never lie to.
"I'm the one who chased them off, I have to find them, especially if they're in danger, and we know they are" Shouta was beginning to ramble when he felt Hizashi hug him tightly.
"I'm sure they just want some space, who knows maybe tonights the night they decide to show up again, either way, you need to calm down, it's not doing anyone any good if you're running yourself ragged all patrol looking for a vigilante who has a reputation of not being found unless they want to be". Shouta could hear the concern in his husband's voice and felt more than a little guilty, yeah he had been doing way more hero work than normal, but was it really that obvious that he was just hoping to run into the vigilante?
"Alright, I'll stop looking for them, but I have to get going, so if you wouldn't mind letting go of me?" Hizashi complied, although not before giving him a quick kiss, and also making sure that Shouta took his dinner with him, because apparently jelly pouches didn't count as a real dinner according to Hizashi.
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Izuku sat in their warehouse bandaging up the injuries they'd gotten today, thankfully it wasn't too bad, only a few second degree burns and various cuts and bruises, clearly the universe had decided to go easy on them today, or it was waiting for another opportunity to screw them over.
They hadn't been patrolling for the last three days, every time they thought about going, they remembered how they had hurt that man, and the conversation that had followed. Why did they run away? It had seemed like such a good idea at the time. Of course they had run, that was all a worthless Deku like them could do they could fight. Of course not patroling meant that they were sleeping more, and that also meant nightmares.
Drowning. Blood. Burning. Pain.
So many nightmares. And they were different, still filled with twisted versions of whatever torment the day had inflicted upon them, but also a new fear. Abandonment
Yelling. Hurt. Their parents faces melt away as their mind takes them to a rooftop. A familiar rooftop. What happened if they hadn't run away. Hurt. They were alone
Alone. Alone. ALONE.
Izuku felt a jolt of pain as their nails scratched at the burns on their arm, snapping them out of their spiral. They looked at the blood on their fingers and sighed, wrapping the new wound with what little bandages they had left. They had run out of burn cream a while ago, and were yet to steal more, so their plan was to avoid Bakugo as much as possible, at least until they could steal more. It was a risky plan, when he figured out what they were doing (Bakugo wasn't stupid he would figure it out) they would be in so much more trouble than if they had just let him catch them.
Izuku sighed as they looked at their blanket nest, they didn't want to sleep, but they really didn't want to go on patrol and risk running into Eraserhead, they didn't want to face the disapointment they were sure he felt. Sighing they looked out at the night sky, it was already dark, way past their usual patrol times, but, better late than never, right?
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Shouta noticed some shouting and crashing from the next street over, which abruptly stopped with a pair of thuds. Parkouring over he saw what looked to be the aftermath of a drunk fight, if the stench of alcohol that surrounded the area was any indication. And checking on the unconcious people, was Wraith, the vigilante then quickly scaled the nearby fire escape, getting out of the scene before any police showed up. Shouta immediately wanted to run up to them and make sure they were safe, and then maybe ask for answers, but that went so poorly last time, so he took his husband's advice and decided to say calm.
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Izuku stared at Eraserhead, well there goes the plan of avoiding him, Izuku mentally braced themself for any kind of insult that he could possibly throw at them.
"Hey Wraith" Eraserhead looked oddly awkward, which, seemed so out of place with the image of a fearsome underground hero. Izuku took a deep breath and sat down near the hero.
"Hey Eraserhead" Izuku signed hesitantly.
A long silence stretched between the two, Izuku heard a sigh from Eraserhead "are you okay?"
And wasn't that an interesting question, were they okay? No, not really, they hadn't been okay for a long time, but they weren't about to admit that to Eraserhead. "Yeah, I'm fine".
"Alright, well, im sorry about… the last conversation that we had" honestly Izuku didn't know it was possible for someone so intimidating to be so awkward, it would be funny if they werent the subject of the conversation.
"Why it was my fault for running away?" Why was Eraserhead looking at them oddly? They didn't say anything weird, right?
"You don't have to apologize, look, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to" a pause, Izuku certainly didn't want to talk about it, keep the pretense a little longer, pretend that they could be cared for, just a little longer. They waited for the hero to demand an answer.
Eraserhead just sighed and sat down next to them, he seemed to be thinking about something.
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Shouta looked at the vigilante, who seemed even smaller than normal. This was not going the way he had hoped, quick, what could he do to break this tension, uhh… Wait! The dinner that Hizashi packed, food was always a good peace offering, right?
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Izuku looked up at a rustling sound. Eraserhead was holding out an onigiri towards them. They looked at him, their silence must have conveyed their confusion
"Uh, are you hungry?" Izuku stayed silent, why was Eraserhead offering them food, what did he want from them? Or maybe he was just going to pull it away the second they reached for it. Apparently Eraserhead took their silence as a question "well, you don't have to take it, I just thought you might want…"
It had been, literal years since they'd had something better than stolen bread or stolen energy bars, or stolen anything really. Maybe it would be nice
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Wraith cautiously reached out a hand towards the offered food, and Shouta was reminded of a feral kitten, so he sat very, very, still. And as soon as their hand closed around the onigiri they yanked their hand backwards, like they expected it to be taken away from them, another concerning thing to investigate. The vigilante turned their head away and lifted their mask, Shouta turned his head away, the vigilante was probably trying to preserve their identity and he'd respect that.
The two of them sat in silence for a while until Shouta heard Wraith stand up, he turned his head to face them again. "Thank you, for the food".
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Izuku watched as Eraserhead's mouth twitched into a barely there smile, "it's no problem" he stood up with them and that smile was gone "we've still got the rest of our patrols to complete" he turned to Izuku "see you tomorrow Wraith". The hero parkoured away, leaving Wraith standing alone, yet somehow, they didn't feel alone at all, they felt the warmth of someone who actually cared about them. Or at least someone who cared about their vigilante self. Eraserhead was right, they should get back to patrol.
Izuku spent the rest of the night thinking about that interaction, maybe they could get used to this.
Chapter 9: Kid?
Shouta looked around as he landed on a now familiar rooftop, it had been a month since that awkward first step and the two of them had been meeting on this rooftop every day before and after their patrols. Shouta usually showed up first with Wraith joining him a few minutes after, they'd chat and then head off on their own patrol routes, or, what counted as a patrol route for Wraith, as they apparently just went wherever they felt like. Seeing that the vigilante had yet to show up, Shouta sat down and waited.
After a few minutes he heard a familiar thud from behind him, Wraith walked up to the edge of the rooftop and sat down next to him "hey Eraser, hope I didn't keep you waiting".
"Don't worry about it, we have other things to worry about, it seems like there's been more criminal activity near the south end".
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Izuku hummed to themself, that matched up with what they'd been experiencing on patrols, but those were always drug rings, not always the same ones either. They should probably leave whatever that was to the heroes " Nothing too serious?"
"Probably not, but Detective Tsukauchi asked me to keep an eye on that area just in case" Eraserhead said with a sigh "just great, more work for me". Izuku knew that he didn't actually mind, from tagging along with the hero's patrols Izuku had learnt more of his personality, and melodramatic was certainly not a trait they had expected Eraserhead of all people to have, and yet here they are.
"Well, I could always tag along, it would be more efficient, and we could cover more ground, right?"honestly Izuku barely had any idea what they were talking about, but they were planning on going towards the south end anyway, and they didn't really want to deal with all that fighting alone.
"Just keep up", Eraserhead parkoured away, leaving Izuku to try and catch up. They smiled under their mask.
Over the last month Izuku found that having someone to talk to, someone who didn't immediately avoid their presence, was one of the best feelings they'd ever felt. They still hadn't told the hero about their analysis, they didn't need to ruin the peace between them with their creepy notes, and Eraserhead definitely didn't need to know about the entry that he had in their notebook. Despite all of that they smiled underneath their mask, soon catching up to the hero as the two of them jumped between the buildings of Musutafu.
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Shouta should have known something would happen. Though, to be fair, nothing had happened almost all night, but just before the two of them were about to head back to their rooftop, trouble struck.
Wraith had been fighting some mugger with an enhancement quirk when she yanked the metal staff out of the vigilante's hands. At which point they had immediately backed off, desperately dodging the woman's powered strikes. It was like someone else had begun fighting, since Wraith had suddenly become much more erratic in their movements. The mugger managed to get a good hit on the vigilante before Shouta could restrain her.
He had immediately dragged Wraith out of the alleyway they'd been fighting in, despite the fact that they insisted that they were completely fine. Shouta was concerned, it was like they had lost all confidence the second that they were weaponless, not to mention their hand-to-hand skills could use, a lot, of work. "Are you okay?" he asked them, and his voice was definitely not concerned.
"I'm fine, plus I managed to get my staff back so let's get going" Wraith tried to jump away only to be entangled in a length of capture scarf.
Shouta glared at them, erasure activating on instinct, it really was like trying to deal with his students, the reckless brats. "Alright, now that I know you're okay, what the hell".
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Izuku braced themself for whatever would get yelled at them, what happened, how did they mess up, was it because they couldn't defeat that mugger? They knew it was dangerous to get their hopes up, of course this wouldn't last, why would anyone want them around.
"You could have gotten seriously hurt"
Huh? That's it? No yelling? Nothing about how much of a waste of space they were? Izuku looked up at Eraserhead, head tilting in confusion. The hero sighed "you clearly don't know how to fight without that staff of yours, did you ever try and learn hand-to-hand combat!?" he looked more concerned than angry, although there was some of that too. Izuku silently shook their head and tried to sign something before realizing that their hands were pinned to their side, Eraserhead seemed to notice that too and untangled them, only enough that their hands were free, they were still unable to move.
If the hero could see their face right now, he'd see the most sheepish look someone could possibly have. "I never really got the chance to learn any hand-to-hand" Izuku signed, looking down at their shoes in shame.
"What."
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Shouta stared at the vigilante in pure disbelief, what on earth, how the hell does someone 'not get the chance' to learn a basic combat skill, honestly, it's like they didn't even try, and the irritation in the back of his mind grew, did they think that they could just get by with whatever quirk they had? Unlikely, from what Shouta's seen their quirk was most likely non-combative, in which case any sensible person would train their fighting skills to compensate.
Wraith seemed to shrink in on themselves as they hesitantly started signing again "well, running away from bullies every day only does so much…"something about that sentence rang alarm bells in Shouta's mind. "Bullies? That's how a kid would describe their mean classmates, not a grown adult talking about other people, why would Wraith… oh, shit".
Shouta didn't quite know how to approach this situation, if his suspicions were correct (and he really hoped they weren't) Wraith was probably a kid, maybe high school age, or younger. "Wraith…" Shouta took a quiet breath "how old are you?". He'd asked the question before of course, but every time Wraith would deflect by changing the topic, he'd thought that it was to preserve their identity, but, if they were a kid, a lot of things were starting to make sense.
Wraith immediately tensed at his question. Shouta could see the gears turning in their head "why do you ask?" they looked ready to run, and they had started struggling against the capture weapon.
"Calm down, I only asked because, well you said that you were being bullied, adults don't usually call people bullies" Shouta saw the moment that they froze and looked like they desperately wanted to curl in on themselves, that was basically all the conformation Shouta needed. "You're a kid, aren't you." it was less of a question and more of a statement, his mind already looking through past behavior and noting all the signs that were there from the beginning. Fuck. This was a kid, with barely any fighting experience, running around and being a vigilante.
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Izuku stared at the hero next to them, knowing that he'd probably realized by now, this was bad, they couldn't escape and Eraserhead was probably going to yell at them, or hurt them. They should have thought about what they were saying, how did they let that slip? It wasn't like they had let their guard down, right? Izuku realized that was exactly what had happened, they'd gotten too comfortable and forgotten that they were supposed to be pretending. Not that they were that good at it in the first place, but this was the worst slip up they could have possibly made aside from telling him that they were quirkless. "Hey, kid, can you hear me?"
Izuku realized that they'd zoned out and looked back at Eraserhead, and took a step back, wait what, wasn't the capture weapon. With a start they realized that the hero had freed them sometime during their spiral. "Yeah, I can hear you, sorry"
"Don't apologize kid, you didn't do anything wrong" Izuku would have disagreed, but, if he thought they didn't do anything wrong, maybe they didn't? The hero sat down a little bit away from them, giving them space.
The silence stretched for a good minute before Eraserhead spoke "so is there any way I could convince you to quit being a vigilante?" Izuku thought about it, would they be willing to quit? They knew they should say yes, but, really, being Wraith was all they really had, it meant that they could make a difference. Izuku shook their head, there was no way they'd ever give up not being useless, even if it was pretend.
Eraserhead sighed "I thought so, in that case I can't have you running around without at least knowing how to fight properly". Izuku had to do a double take, did that mean he was just going to let them continue to be a vigilante!? Eraserhead must have seen their confusion "I'll let you keep doing this, as long as you follow some rules, first, you're not going to patrol alone, I'll take you with me during my patrols. Second, you listen to me, if I say you're not getting involved, listen. Lastly, we need to work on your hand-to-hand skills, so I'll be training you, and until I say you're ready you're not going to fight anyone, got it?" Izuku nodded rapidly. "Good, how about we start your first lesson now?". Izuku barely had time to react before they were being pinned to the ground by the hero "lesson one, never let your guard down, always be ready to dodge an attack. Try again." Izuku got up, ready to dodge another punch, and was almost immediately tangled in capture scarf "what did I just say? Be ready for anything". Shaking their head Izuku focused on Eraserhead's movements, this time they dodged a punch, but was then taken out by the next one. The next few attempts went roughly the same way, with Izuku being taken out in seconds. At some point they managed to dodge a few attacks, but they still got pinned within a minute. After what was likely an hour but felt much longer to Izuku, Eraserhead stood back and didn't seem to be attacking the second they got up again.
"It's getting late for both of us, we should get back to our homes" a pause "I'm guessing your parents aren't worried about you?" Izuku almost laughed, their parents didn't even know where they were, still, there was no point in messing up again.
"They're probably asleep right now, I can get back to my house easily enough" and before the hero could ask more questions, they jumped down the fire escape and ducked into an alleyway that they knew was practically invisible from above.
Sure enough they got home easily. Flopping into their blanket nest they found that they could fall asleep much easier than most days, they knew they'd probably be sore in the morning but honestly? They couldn't find it in them to care, not when they were smiling giddily from the realization that they were actually cared about, at least by one person.
Their sleep was blissfully nightmare free.
Chapter 10: The Reveal!
Humming filled the warehouse as Izuku gathered their backpack and notes, their uniform was ratty and motheaten, not to mention the neumerous patchwork fixes from the times they'd tried to stitch up the holes they had gotten from various bullies. There were several patches where the stitching was falling apart, they'd have to patch them up again, not that they could afford a new one. They also debate taking their notebook with them, they'd almost filled out Analysis #8, they'd have to steal a new book soon. Ultimatley they decided to take it, even if the risk was there, they could leave it in their bag during school, and there was a relativley new hero patroling in the area. And without access to the internet, they had to chase down the heroes if they wanted to analyse them, or hear about them from their classmates conversations.
Izuku guessed that they'd be a few minutes early to class as they walked down the road, passing by a food vendor they tried to snatch a sandwich. Sneaking it from the stand when the vendor's back was turned, and then slipping into an alleyway before the man could notice. Izuku jogged as they ate the sandwich, hoping to get to Aldera early so as to avoid the majority of the bullies.
They tried to get to class without incident, but as always Bakugo had also shown up early, he always shows up early because he knows that Izuku does that too. Of course they couldn't avoid him, no, that would mean a worse punishment later and the last time that had happened, Izuku shuddered to think about that. So the day started off rather slow, for some reason everyone else seemed to leave them alone today, it was probably because they were all too excited for the weekend to think about a useless Deku, Fridays were always better for them. Izuku sat down at their desk, it seemed that no-one had gotten to it yet, that was sure to change the second that the next class bell rang.
The next few classes went mostly okay, other than the usual jeers, then lunch happened, and, as usual, the other students hunted them through the halls. They remembered which students to take hits from, and which students they could avoid without repercussions as they tried to get through lunch without too much incident.
Sitting peacefully at their rooftop hideout Izuku took out their notebook, looking around cautiously to make sure no-one would see them. Sometimes students would wander up to the roof, or be dragged there, and ususally Izuku hid whenever that happened, there was no-way they could let anyone find their hideout, or they'd loose the only place they could hide from the torture, and then... Shaking themselves out of their thoughts, not wanting to envision what could happen. Still they should be very carefull especially when they had their notebook with them.
Izuku heard screams from the stairwell as some poor soul was dragged up to the roof, Bakugo practically kicked down the door as his lackeys shoved someone in front of them. Izuku felt a pang of sympathy for the poor soul that had gotten on his bad side today, the safest option would be staying hidden. So Izuku ran out onto the main space of the roof and put themself between Bakugo's explosions and the student behind them. Their hands desperatley clutching onto their notebook, wait, they still had their notebook with them, no no no. They curled over the book trying to block it from veiw and desperatley hoping it hadn't been seen.
"Oi nerd, what the fuck is that?" Bakugo ripped the notebook out of their hands "still keeping the stalker notes eh!? Fuckin' creepy Deku, I thought I taught you to stop that" he opened the book and started reading through it, mocking the contents the entire time. Izuku watched as Bakugo grinned "you know, this shit's creepy as fuck, I could do us all a favour and get rid of it", they watched as he grabbed pages out of the book, tearing them out of the book, lighting off explosions, destroying most of the pages, turning them to ash and scraps. A whole seven months of notes, gone, just like that.
Izuku saw that only three pages were left, they couldn't see which hero they were on but they felt themself tearing up, they just couldn't believe it. Before they could even think they grabbed the last three pages and held them tight to their chest, curling in to protect them. They didn't know why they were protecting something that didn't deserve to exist, but they had always been selfish, the notes brought them undeserved joy, and they selfishly protected it. Even though Bakugo had not stopped trying to get them, even though the explosions burned, Izuku took them numbly, tears threatened to fall from their eyes as Bakugo appeared to switch targets from the papers to Izuku, yelling at them, they wouldn't have been able to talk back even if they wanted to.
"You stupid, useless Deku, why do you even bother trying? I wonder why you havent been killed yet, someone really should leave you and your creepy muttering and stalker notes for dead. Actually why don't you do everyone a favour and find a quiet ditch to die in? Quit being a burden to everyone, do your parents still put up with you? They shouldn't. Creepy stupid Deku with your creepy fucking books. You know, I bet even if you died, no-one would care, I wouldn't."
Izuku was left burned and battered as Bakugo apparently decided that he'd done enough, leaving them to painfully pull themself up, a soft crinkling sound reminding them of the pages from their notebook. They checked which hero had been spared, huh, it was the pages they'd done on Eraserhead, probably the most detailed pages they had on any hero. They stared at the rest of the pages, or, what was left of them.'Don't cry, don't cry don't cry', they'd have to redo all the entries into a new notebook, and they wouldn't be able to take notes on the new hero untill they stole a new one.
The entire rest of the day was filled with mocking laughs as apparently Bakugo had been complaining about their notebook, and everyone had heard. Maki-Sensei scolded them for being a distraction, and gave them detention. Which Izuku panicked about, normally detention meant the teachers would just yell at them about whatever they'd done, but they also needed to get home, patch up their injuries and go for patrol, not to mention the combat training afterwards.
Detention was just as hellish as they had expected, but they had no time to think about that, if they didn't hurry they'd be late. The second they got home they started patching up their burns, the worst ones at least, since they needed to conserve their remaning bandages. It was already dark by the time they left, they just hoped that Eraser hadn't been waiting for too long. Of course, they were so caught up in their hurry that they didn't realised they'd stuffed the pages into their hoodie pocket instead of leaving them at the warehouse.
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Wraith had been acting odd all patrol, first they'd shown up late, which by itself wasn't too unusual, Shouta just assumed that they had been held back for some reason. They also kept messing with their hoodie and was generally being more fidgety than normal. At least they weren't fighting most of the criminals, they might have been practicing for over a week now, but still had a lot to learn before they were ready to fight armed opponents. Still Shouta knew something was bothering the kid.
At the end of patrol the two of them landed on a rooftop, Wraith immediatley fell into a practiced fighting stance, still a little slower than Shouta would have liked, but it was a start, but whatever was throwing them off earlier was clearly still a distraction. The kid had gotten even better at dodging, even if they still couldn't land a hit on him, but today they just kept getting pinned by the same moves they were dodging with ease yesterday. Shouta stopped the spar abruptly, "whats wrong Wraith?"
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Izuku was panicking, Eraser had noticed something, what gave them away? "Nothings wrong" they signed, hoping that the hero would give it up, but they werent so lucky.
"Kid, you've been acting strange all day, don't try to act like you're fine".
"Really, nothing's wrong" by the glare they got it was clear that Eraser wasn't going to belive that, so Izuku changed tactics "you don't have to worry about it"
Eraser sighed tiredly, Izuku tensed, nothing good came of people being annoyed by them, "you know you can tell me if something happened, I'm not going to be mad or anything". Goddamn it, why did he have to sound so genuine? Izuku silently willed themself not to cry in front of the hero
"I swear, it really wasn't that bad, it was probably for the best anyways" they started pacing around frantically as they tried to convince Eraser that nothing was wrong, and that he shouldn't worry about it.
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Shouta shook his head, 'this kid' he thought as they continued pacing around, signing so frantically that he was having trouble figuring out what they were saying. While they were pacing, a piece of paper drifted out of their hoodie, it looked like a mildly burnt notebook page. Shouta picked it up to give it back to Wraith, and hopefully snap the kid out of whatever spiral they were going throug, when he noticed his hero name on the top of the page. It looked like an analysis of his quirk, with notes about how it affects his fighting style written in the margins, overal, it was rather accurate, the hypothesies were clearly labeled, some right some wrong, it was the kind of stuff expected from the third years at UA. "Kid, did you write this?" he asked showing them the piece of paper.
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Izuku paused as their eyes immediatley focused on the notebook page in Eraser's hand, and the panick they'd felt earlier hit them again full force, 'oh no, he's going to think its creepy, and then he'll be mad and-'
Eraser was saying, soemthing, Izuku couldn't quite make it out past the sound of their own heartbeat pounding in their ears, he vaguely sounded concerned and Izuku realised that they'd started crying, they silently cursed their traitorous tear ducts as they desperatley tried to control their breathing.
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Shouta didn't quite know what to do, yes he knew how to help with a panic attack but Wraith didn't seem to be hearing anything he said. They seemed to be calming down though, and after some time their breathing returned to normal
After a few seconds of silence they started shakilly signing "I'm sorry, I know the notes are really creepy and dumb and weird and-" The kid continued to sign but with their shaky hands it was impossible to make out what they were trying to say.
"What do you mean, 'creepy'? This looks like a pretty good analysis to me." At that, Wraith's head shot up.
"What do you mean? everyone thinks its creepy!"
"And everyone is wrong, this is valuable information to know about people, not to mention its pretty good, and most of the stuff here is correct".
Wraith seemed to be confused, understandably so, clearly they've been told that their analysis was creepy (Shouta wanted to find everyone who said that and wring their necks for how stupid they were), they clearly weren't expecting him to say otherwise. "My, 'friend', he said that it was creepy and should be destroyed" they reached into their pocket and took out two other pages.
"Your friend sounds more like a bully to me" Shouta made note of the burn marks on each page "did he cause those burn marks?".
"Yeah, these are the only pages I managed to save from that notebook" Wraith had started shaking again "he said that the book was stupid and useless, like me".
Shouta had to supress his rage at that, where the hell were any adults when this happened! "He said what" Wraith shrunk in on themselves at that and Shouta had to take a breath to calm down "sorry, I'm not mad at you, im angry at your friend" Wraith slightly relaxed, seemingly reassured that Shotua was being genuine. "Where were your parents? Didn't they stop him?"
Wraith shook their head"we were at school, and before you ask, the teachers wouldn't have done anything, they might have encouraged him. Its fine, I mean, I can take a hit, and it's not like I'm worth anything anyways."
Shouta felt rage at that, what kind of teacher would do such a thing!? He'd only been teaching for a year by now, but every other teacher he knew would rather face a hundred villains than let one of their students get bullied like this, for someone to encourage it? If he ever met Wraith's teachers he was going to tear them apart. The second half of that sentence was also rather worrying, "kid, why on earth would you think that you're not worth anything!?"
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Izuku froze, shit, why did they say that? There was no-way out of this corner, and, part of them knew what was going to happen next, but still, another part desperatley wanted to keep playing this charade, even though there was no-way they'd be able to talk themselves out of this one.
They took a deep breath and tensed, ready to run away at the first sign of hostility
"I'm quirkless
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Quirkless
The first thing that went through Shouta's mind were the statistics, quirkless kids were almost always abused or neglected at home, they were suicide baited on average twice a day, and the statistics for actual suicide were alarming, that combined with the murder statistics meant that only about one in fifty kids ever made it past fifteen. And those are old statistics, from a few generations back, when quirklessness was more common, they didn't have any statistics for the newer generations, no-one cared to find out, Shouta knew it was worse.
Wraith seemed to be ready to flee, like they expected Shouta to hate them like everyone else.
"So? You're still human, you don't deserve to be treated like that."
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Izuku stared at the hero, both confused and still anxious, there was no way that he actually belived that, right? He was just messing with them? "But, I'm useless it would be a favour to the world if I ended up dead."
"Kid, listen to me, you aren't useless just because you don't have a quirk, a lot of people don't even use their quirk through their life." Izuku thought about it for a second, that was true, they hadn't even thought about it that way. They really could live a normal life without a quirk, but, they didn't want a normal life, they wanted an impossible dream, they had one question they wanted to ask.
"Eraser? Do, do you think someone like me could be a hero?
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Shouta paused at that question, could someone quirkless be a hero? Shouta didn't know the exact answer to that, there'd never beem a quirkless hero before, but, did that mean it was impossible? Shouta thought about it a bit more, if a quirkless person ever did become a hero, they'd have to work a lot harder, they'd need skill to compensate, a lot of support gear probably, not to mention even with that, they'd most likely have to stay underground or at the lowest end of the rankings. But maybe…
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Izuku got more and more nervous as the silence continued untill finally Eraser spoke.
"Why do you want to be a hero?"
Izuku felt dissapointment and acceptance flood them "I know its unreasonable but-"
"I didn't say anything about that, I just asked why you want to be a hero."
Izuku paused at that, surely he didn't actually want the answer? "I want to be a hero so I can help people, so I can make sure people don't have to be hurt and suffer"
"Even if you never make it far in the rankings? And even if you'll have to work ten times harder than anyone with a quirk?"
Izuku felt a surge of determination at that "yes, I don't care about the rankings, and I know I'd have to work much harder than most people, but I would do it if it meant I could help people"
Eraser smiled, a rare expression on the man, "then I don't see why you couldn't be a hero, with the right training"
Izuku felt themselves start to cry, Eraserhead thought that they could be a hero! Without thinking they hugged the hero, they mildly panicked, ready to appologize, but before they could let go they felt two arms wrapping around them in a hug, the sense of safety brought even more tears to their face.
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Shouta hugged the crying vigilante tightly, if they were anyone else he'd have pushed them off by now, but he had to admit, he'd gotten attached to the vigilante, no, kid, this was a kid, a kid who everyone has hurt, and one that desperatley needed someone to believe in them. Shouta let them cry into his shirt.
Even after Wraith had stopped crying neither of them moved for a few minutes, Shouta didn't mind.
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Izuku let go after what felt like forever, even then they were reluctant to let go from the warmth, "sorry, I didn't mean to do that"
"Don't apologize kid, its fine. Still, I don't think I finished explaining"
Izuku felt their face heat up in embarrasment "sorry"
Eraser just shook his head "quit saying sorry kid, its not your fault." Izuku tried to sign another sorry but a glare from the hero stopped them "I was going to say that I could train you, if you think you're up for it?"
Izuku nodded vigorously "yes, of course, I'll do whatever it takes!"
"Good, we'll start tomorrow"
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"Alright! I promise, I'll work as hard as possible so that I'll be ready!" Wraith was nodding so fast that Shouta was half worried that their head might fall off, and he was sure they were grinning brightly underneath that mask.
Shouta sighed internally, he could already tell this was going to be migrane inducing. But Wraith was practically bouncing with energy. Shouta smiled, hiding his face with the capture weapon so that no-one could see, this kid was just so precious, how could anyone hurt them? Shouta swore to himself that he was going to make sure no-one ever hurt histhe kid again.