4: Impact
His mother warned him not to get too caught up in his mumble storms. After the incident with Ingenium, and with the slough of other incidents to his name, he really should have learned by now.
This one isn't entirely his fault, of course, but no one is going to admit that.
One day after his session with Kurobayashi-sensei, he's walking down the street caught up in imagining the limits of his strength. Not the unlimited aspect of his strength, but the level he can use against other people (or buildings, gods forbid). They've been doing the strength limiter training for almost four days now, and he's nearly accustomed to the 'limiter' that he needs.
"HEY!"
The pressure of something metallic, and circular, presses against his back, and Izuku looks up for the first time in a few blocks. Of course, when he looks up, he looks into the scared eyes of a group of hostages, and turns around to find someone pressing a shotgun into one of his kidneys (that's about right, isn't it? To the left and right of the spine…?) looking… more than a little upset, and maybe a bit confused.
"Oh. Is this a robbery? …I wandered into a robbery, didn't I?"
"Yeah. Get in the fucking circle, dumbass." The one with the shotgun seems to the be the leader, so Izuku shrugs and wanders over to the circle. Before he can sit down, though, he notices an old woman near the edge, shifting around uncomfortably. Izuku sighs turns and wanders towards the edge of the store with his hands up.
"Uh, gimme a sec…"
"Kid, did you not fucking hear me? Sit the fuck…"
"I did! I'm going, I just, she needs a chair!" Izuku frowns at the lizard-quirk-person, lifting a padded chair in one hand and cocking an eyebrow. "Do you want your hostages complaining?"
"I like them docile and not batshit insane, thanks." The leader growls, pressing the shotgun into his gut again. Izuku snorts, then pushes the muzzle away and walks back to the circle. Once he's got the old woman situated, he notices the mother comforting her child and pinches his lip. It isn't until the mom stuffs some of her blouse into the child's mouth that he decides he can't really ignore it.
The leader gapes at him when he stands up again, and points at one of the villains.
"Hey, he really doesn't want me to move, so could you do us all a favor? See that stroller?" The villain blinks in shock, then points to a stroller, only Izuku to point at a different one, "No, that one. Yeah. Can you just…? Thanks!"
Hefting the stroller by a cross section, Izuku waddles it through the crowd to the mother, who looks at him gratefully, with a little bit of caution that Izuku chooses to ignore. The baby quiets down when she receives her pacifier and blanket. Once he's told the mother how cute the little girl is, he wanders back towards the edge of the circle and sits down, trying his best to ignore the people staring at him.
"Hey, kid. I'm curious. How the fuck do you wander into a hostage situation?" The leader finally growls, looking too confused at Izuku's situation to keep his mouth shut and just let things play out. Izuku sighs.
"I just had a lot on my mind. And, uh… I think the officers let me wander in here on purpose, honestly." The looks he gets from the villains are mixed. He tries not to dwell on the pair who look at him with pity in their eyes.
"The police let a civilian wander in here on purpose? What, you got some crazy quirk?" The leader has the shotgun pointed at him this time, right at his eyes, and Izuku is almost curious to know how it would look.
"Uh, no. I'm quirkless actually…"
The leader gapes at that, then offhandedly mutters, "You got a death wish?"
Izuku glances towards the flashing lights on the police cars outside, then back at the shotgun.
"I mean… I'm not actively trying not to die…?" Izuku shrugs. The leader frowns. His frown digs into his cheeks so much that the blue-green scales on his face make deep valleys in the bags hanging off his skin, and his eyelids narrow down in what can only be described as a ridiculously dramatic squint.
"You're an informant, aren't you?"
"No, I really did just wander in here by accident. This is the closest shop to school that has discount track suits."
"What kind of excuse is that? A quirkless kid wanders into a hold up, helps out the hostages, doesn't bat an eye at having a shotgun in his face? Yeah right!" Izuku shoots to his feet as the thug's stance changes, ready to actually fire the gun. "I'm not going in without a fight, especially not on some stupid…"
A blast tears through the shop, and Izuku actually skids backward a bit as the shrapnel from the shot tears into his gut. Thankfully, because of the distance, the burst is concentrated in his stomach and shreds his uniform, leaving Izuku gaping at the villain.
"Do you know how much these things cost?!" The panicked expression on the villain's face is enough warning. Before the second shot goes off, Izuku moves.
He can't control how fast he is very well, or how much force is behind his steps, but the green, black and blue blur racing through the store manages to catch each of the six villains and knock them out of sorts before it tumbles over a discarded weapon and slams into a display with enough force to knock over the shelves. When the police storm the place, seeing the disturbance, they find the six disoriented villains and the crowd all staring at Izuku, lying on his shoulders with his feet in the air and a frustrated look on his face.
Two of them he recognizes from other scenes. One of them is in his phone as a police contact.
"You guys should be ashamed of yourselves." Izuku sighs.
Izuku hates it when the adults in his life are right. Not out of spite, or because he wishes he were older. He hates their tendency to be right about things that he doesn't want to deal with.
His hesitation left the villains awake enough to struggle, though they were definitely sore from the blows, and it gave him just enough responsibility for the situation that Deathgoro (who arrived too late to do anything in the first place) ends up pulling him aside for a lecture on measuring one's strength. Getting a lecture both from the hero, and from the disembodied shark voice in his own head, does nothing for his mood.
"I've seen you too many times in the past few months, you know that?" The hero growls, looking down at him with a firm frown. "And now, you go pulling something like this. What would you have done if you'd killed someone, or if you hadn't been fast enough? In a hostage situation, your job is…"
"To sit there and not cause trouble." Izuku sighs. Deathgoro's frown is even more stern, now, and he jabs a meaty finger into Izuku's chest.
"Quiet, kid. No matter what, using your quirk without a license is illegal, and you endangered everyone in the building by doing what you did."
"Okay, look, you weren't even there!" Izuku snaps, because this is the third time he's been lectured by a hero in a year, and today is the worst possible day to deal with this particular one (though there's one Izuku would probably like seeing even less). "I wasn't escalating the situation. The police let me wander into the scene, and I was minding my own business playing damsel in distress, but he thought I was a cop because they did that instead of following procedure! And for the last time, I DON'T HAVE A QUIRK!"
Izuku doesn't glare at the hero, but he slaps a hand across his chest and frowns.
"If you'll excuse me, I need to get home and change and figure out how to pay for another school uniform, considering I was just SHOT." Izuku takes a little pleasure in the expression on the hero's face as he storms off, knowing that he'll get another police visit tonight and his mom will give him a look and his wallet probably can't handle the cost of the uniform.
Before he can leave the scene, one of the hostages, a girl he doesn't recognize wearing a uniform he definitelyrecognizes, catches him by the shoulder.
"Excuse me!" Izuku frowns in her direction, then panics (because this girl goes to his school and why the hell is she talking to him?!). She doesn't seem to notice and smiles at him nervously as she starts talking. "I just wanted to thank you! You were really cool in there, and I recognized your uniform, but I thought, maybe, I should introduce myself, you know? I'm Tachibana Konomi, class 1-D."
Izuku hadn't seen her on campus before, but that didn't say much since he was basically ignored by most of the student body and completely avoided by his classmates. Spending time on campus was limited to class, lunch in the classroom and gym time with Kurobayashi-sensei. And, if he was honest, he wouldn't have noticed her. Tachinbana-san was cute, but not the type that Izuku could ever dare to approach. Chestnut colored hair pulled back by a blue headband, heterochromatic eyes (one flashing sharp red and the other impossibly rich blue) and a height that left her slightly shorter than him made her about as average as he was, in the grand scheme of things.
Not that Izuku could consider himself average anymore.
Her eyes changed, turning yellow gold in-between blinks, and Izuku shook made a little noise of shock at the change. She frowned.
"Oh, sorry. My quirk changes my eye color. Um, I need to get going, I just wanted to say thank you. Really. I hope you're okay!"
Izuku watched her dart off into the mess, leaving him to sigh and curse himself for freezing up just because a girl spoke to him.
(If it wasn't bad enough, his mother's reaction was a stifled laugh and an awkward pat on the shoulder. At least he knew they were related.)
Going to school was nothing more than routine, despite being more than two months into the first term. The only real break he got from being a pariah was his times with Kurobayashi-sensei. Kurobayashi-sensei is more of the quiet type, and Izuku appreciates that. Usually they share no more than a nod when they see one another before a training session. Walking beside the man leaves an even wider wake than Izuku usually leaves but the presence is calming. Of course they would avoid the pair. It isn't just Izuku when there's an anthropomorphic great white shark involved.
"You!"
Izuku yelps as a finger is thrust out of the crowd, hovering a centimeter from his nose. Staring down the finger leads him straight to a pair of eerily familiar emerald eyes.
"E-e-ehhh?!"
"Ah, Midoriya-kun, you know this student?" Kurobayashi rumbles.
"Huh?!"
"Kurobayashi-sensei, is he in trouble? Is he really a delinquent?!" Tachibana almost looks like she's pleading, completely losing the angry set to her eyes as she turns to their teacher. Izuku glances back and forth between the two as the crowd starts to chatter. Whispers may as well be laughter in his ears, dialing up the blush on his cheeks until his ears might actually catch on fire from the heat.
"Midoriya-kun is a model student. Anyone who believes him to be a delinquent is someone a I would very much like to have a word with." Kurobayashi-sensei's voice overtakes the crowd, causing many of the students to flee. Izuku probably would have too, if he didn't know the man. That was definitely the loudest he's ever heard the teacher speak, and it had an edge to it. He swallows against the knot forming in his throat.
"So… You're not a delinquent?" Tachibana frowns at him.
"O-of course not…" Izuku stammers. "I'm used to people saying things like that, though. I never told anyone anything different, I guess."
"Midoriya-kun, sometimes you're a bit too quiet for your own good." Kurobayashi blinks twice, the way he does when he's happy or cheeky, and Izuku shrinks a bit at the way he says it.
"Well, I'm glad my hero isn't a delinquent, but your character could stand a bit more…" Tachibana sighs, "I don't know. You're awfully plain for a hero."
"I'm n-not a h-h-hero!" Izuku yelps. Tachibana raises an eyebrow, eyes flashing a vivid purple hue. "R-really, I'm quirkless, first of all, and second of all I'm… I mean, I just wandered into that situation by accident. What kind of hero…"
"Perhaps we should talk more in private, students?" Kurobayashi-sensei's tone lowers, and the man's snout leans down a bit more, leaving Izuku staring straight into his teacher's inky black eyes. "I'd very much like to hear about this… incident, Midoriya-kun."
"A-ah…"
"Well, I have the time, I guess. I'll message my friends that I'm staying a bit later." Tachibana sighs, whipping out her phone with grace that Izuku envies. Her smile is sly as she follows their teacher down the hall. "Besides, I don't believe that whole quirkless thing for a second!"
"I was just there with a friend to buy a new charm for her school bag. We had barely been in the shop for a few minutes when the villains came storming in and rounding everyone up! We were panicking, everyone was really scared because the leader kept talking about shooting someone, but then after like a half an hour Midoriya-kun came wandering into the shop out of nowhere…" Tachibana chuckles at the memory, because apparently Izuku's blush and groan are amusing, "He came in kinda out of it, talking to himself and staring at his hands. For like, a few minutes, we just stared as he wandered around the store. Then the leader of it all walks over and points a shotgun at him, asks what he's doing, and Midoriya-kun goes 'Oh, I wandered into a robbery again, didn't I?'"
"I did not! That was the first time, sensei, I swear!" Izuku isn't sure why his voice is so whiny. The shark blinks at him, then turns back the girl.
"He said that?"
"He did!" The way Tachibana grins at him has to be betrayal. It's wispier than he remembers the last time he felt it, but definitely (probably) betrayal. "So he's going to sit down, and everyone is staring at him wondering what the hell this weird kid is doing, or at least I was, and he just stops. After a little bit he starts walking out of the circle. The leader stops him right as he grabs this chair and Midoriya-kun goes 'you don't want your hostages complaining, do you?', and the leader looks at him dead in the eye and says, 'I like them docile and not crazy'. I nearly lost it laughing, my friends had to cover my mouth! Then he keeps going, but this time he asks a villain to push a stroller over, and then he helps out this cute little baby and her mom, and he sits down. So then he starts talking to the leader, says the police let him wander into the robbery and all this crazy stuff, then he says he's quirkless, and the leader shoots him! Before he could do anything the second time, Midoriya-kun was flying around the shop knocking things over and hitting the villains, almost knocking them out but not really, and he slips or something and ends up upside down when the police come storming in, and he goes 'You should be ashamed of yourselves!'"
Tachibana actually does start laughing then, slapping the bench as she cackles at Izuku's misfortune. Kurobayashi-sensei, of course, rumbles and blinks more times than Izuku can count, leaving Izuku feeling even more betrayed than before.
"They did let me wander into that robbery." Izuku says aloud, trying his hardest not to pout as he stacks weights on the squat rack. "I asked them later, and those traitors let me go in because whenever I'm involved things wrap themselves up quickly or something like that."
"What kind of strength quirk user claims to be quirkless, though?" Tachibana breathes, finally recovered from her cackling. Izuku freezes before he can step up to the bar.
For a moment he thinks about how ridiculous it is. Most of his life, he'd have given anything for a quirk. Now, though, over a year after he gave up on his dream of being a hero, he's got something that isn't a quirk but… may as well be. People assume he's blessed, even though he's spent his entire life an outsider. Quirkless… and now cursed to be called a liar for telling the truth.
"I am quirkless. No one knows what's wrong with me." Izuku mutters, just loud enough to be heard, as he takes the bar across his shoulders and lifts, going through the motions.
"It sure doesn't look like anything is wrong with you. How much weight is that, sensei?" Tachibana sounds… indifferent. Izuku hopes it's indifferent. He doesn't want to feel much right then. After fifteen sets, he racks the bar and steps off, finding the pair staring at him with… awe in their eyes.
"I believe… that Midoriya-kun just performed a five-hundred-kilogram squat." Kurobayashi-sensei sounds oddly impressed. Izuku isn't used to that. "I'm a bit hurt, Midoriya-kun. When were you going to tell me that you're bulletproof?"
"I didn't want you worrying, sensei. Plus…" Izuku sighs and leans back against the bar, ignoring the weight that Tachibana is still gaping at. "I should have caught the bullet. Getting shot ruined my school uniform again."
"Again? How often does this happen?!" Tachibana flies to her feet, staring at them both with a split pair of red and blue eyes.
"I think I get caught up in at least two attacks a week, if not more. My current low is five." Izuku sighs. "I had to change my jogging route after that week, since two of those happened in the next town over and I caught two in one day."
"So, you're… super-fast, super strong, bullet proof… and you're a villain magnet?"
"Sword proof." Izuku mumbles mindlessly. He slaps his hands over his mouth immediately, noting the trio of blinks from his teacher and the surprise on Tachibana's face.
"That's pretty specific. Got anything to say about it?"
"Um, no, not really. I don't think that anyone should hear that story." Izuku squeaks.
"Huh. That's a shame. You're a real trip, you know that? Is there some tragic backstory as to why you want to be quirkless? Did you hurt someone or miss saving someone? If you're going for that whole classic protagonist theme, you really need a tragic backstory." Tachibana wags a finger at him, as if lecturing him, and her grin is very self-satisfied. Izuku sighs.
"Honestly, I think having this… whatever this is, is worse than being quirkless. Now I can't even tell the truth." Izuku digs the heels of his palms into his eyes, suddenly feeling very tired. "I don't think my backstory is very tragic, so maybe I'm not cut out for this whole 'protagonist' thing."
"You're serious, aren't you? About being quirkless." Tachibana whispers.
"Should I show you my doctor's reports? I keep it in my backpack." Izuku groans.
"You keep it in your backpack? A signed document telling people you're quirkless?" Tachibana gapes at him for that one. Izuku chuckles wryly.
"The police kept getting confused. It's the only thing that saves me from getting arrested for 'illegal quirk usage'." Izuku stares at the floor, feeling a mix of misery and humor welling up in his gut.
"Man, that's hardcore." Tachibana sighs, smoothing her skirt and sitting down with her back against the rack. "I'm sorry if I pushed it too much. Usually my friends remind me to be more careful about asking questions. If it helps, I'll believe you. You saved us, after all. Being rude is counterproductive."
"Counter-productive…?" Izuku murmurs, glancing over to find a green and a gold eye staring back at him.
"Well, if we're gonna be friends I can't make you uncomfortable!"
"F-friends…?" Izuku blinks.
"Yeah! You don't have many friends here at school, right? What kind of person would just let the boy who single-handedly saved her friends' lives go on being a lonely, tragic shounen protagonist?!" Tachibana grins at him, though it looked a bit odd since she was leaning back and grinning upside down. Izuku thinks that the curve is right, even if he knew she was smiling.
"Ah, w-well I'd hate to be a burden, and I c-couldn't ask you to make time…" He stammers, flying to his feet and turning towards the bar to hide his blush. A hand swats him on the head.
"Don't ask then! No one is happy being alone all the time."
"I'm really not alone! I have Kurobayashi-sensei…!" The pair glance towards the man in question, finding him peering down at a book. He blinks at them in confusion as they stare, and Izuku receives a questioning look from Tachibana. "Eh… I, um, have some friends in the police force… and Smith-san! Lots of friends who own shops on my usual jogging route…!"
"Geez, you're really bad at being friends with people, aren't you? What, are you going to turn down the invitation to be friends with a cute girl?" Tachibana cocks an eyebrow at him, leaving him both confused and much more red than before.
"That… that has to be cheating…" Izuku sighs.
Nothing is that easy. Not even friendship, apparently.
Tachibana's friends are, understandably, not excited to meet the infamous delinquent of class C. After a week, Tachibana is fuming mad about Izuku's reputation and has half a dozen ridiculous plans to redeem him in the eyes of the student body. Izuku lets her rant, because it's nice just to have someone to talk to during lunch once a week. Even it's only been a week, and one lunch, it's nice.
Eventually, though, Tachibana wears her friends down. She finds him in one of his quiet lunch spots the next week with eyes flashing all sorts of colors.
"We're going to the mall!"
Izuku chews, swallows, then calmly sets his bento aside and frowns.
"Is this about my fashion sense again?"
"…I didn't even think about that, but that's always a good point." Tachibana grins. Izuku shrinks a bit. "But I finally convinced everyone to come hang out with you!"
"Tachibana-san, you really don't have to…"
"Midoriya, shut it." Tachibana points her chopsticks at him in a vaguely threatening way, and Izuku winces. Last time he kept talking they ended up digging her chopsticks out of his hair.
"Ok. When is this supposed to be…?" He mutters.
"Next week! We're going to that new mall… Um, Kiyashi? I think it was Kiyashi ward… Basically, after finals are over, on the first day of summer." Tachibana's eyes flash yellow and red, and she frowns at him. "Try not to get involved in anything crazy, okay?"
"Tachibana-san, you know I'm not actively doing this to myself, right?" Izuku sighs, resuming lunch and praying to every god he can remember that maybe he can take a little break. At least a day.
On his run the next day, Izuku sees a plume of smoke. Somehow, one of the apartment complexes he passes on his way to work has caught on fire. The Police aren't there yet, but the blaze has fully engulfed the upper floor of the building and Izuku knows this route all too well. Not a single hero on his route has any firefighting experience, and none of them are equipped for this.
Before anyone can realize what he's doing, Izuku runs through the half-assed line that the two heroes who havearrived have made, and ignores their shouts of panic as he charges in.
He does his best not to worry about breathing. Once he pulls his shirt up over his face, there's no real issue other than seeing what's in front of him. When he's barely halfway through checking the rooms, he hears someone scream. A bonfire blocks his way down the hallway as he tries to get there. The hesitation lasts all of two seconds before Izuku cocks a fist backward, shifts his stance and swings.
The gale that tears through the apartment complex kills all the fire and engulfs everything in smoke, leaving him almost worse off than before. It takes longer than he'd like to get through the building, and when he does, he emerges with four unconscious people (he had to carry them out two at a time. The heroes didn't say much when he came back with the second pair).
When the police show up with the paramedics Izuku has to go through a little bit of chatter about how he should just be a hero already, he's doing as much without trying. He tries to ignore the irritated looks from the heroes, but otherwise the day isn't really all that special.
At least, that's what he'd thought.
"Izuku… Honey! You're on the news!" Izuku trips over his desk chair when his mother calls him out of his room after dinner, and he nearly trips again when he rushes into the living room. They stare as the news reports detail 'a green haired youth' charging into an apartment fire and saving four lives. No one would give them a name, out of respect for his privacy, but they go on to address the local rumors that a green haired student has been diffusing villain situations across Musutafu.
For almost ten minutes after he watches it, he sits there frozen while his mom stares at him and worries.
"You know, I'm actually surprised it didn't happen sooner." He mutters. A choked laugh erupts from his mother, who covers her mouth when she realizes what he means, and they both end up giggling like crazy.
He avoids the news the next day. Seeing himself on the news isn't something he likes, after always getting lectured (or used as a secret police force weapon) but his fingers itch to check through his phone as he usually does. When he arrives and sits down, someone drops heavily into the chair in front of him.
Izuku pauses and glances up at the boy in front of him.
"Yo. You're that vigilante delinquent, right?" He asks, grinning innocently. Izuku frowns.
"Er…" Izuku is very much aware of his lack of social skills. But this person is entirely normal, and he shouldn't be freezing up but now people are realizing who he is, and he's already got enough problems with Tachibana's friends thinking he's crazy. "No?"
"So you're just a normal delinquent then?" The other student tilts his head to the side. Izuku's shoulders slump.
"Unless having bad luck is illegal, I don't think I've ever broken the law, specifically."
"Actually, it's considered illegal to move at speeds faster than 100 kilometers per hour without a special permit or a registered vehicle."
"Oh. Does is count if I didn't know that was illegal?" Izuku asks. The stranger shrugs.
"I have no idea. Can you really run that fast?"
"I've never actually measured…" Izuku groans when he realizes what he's just done. Eventually he's going to spill the whole fight with Stain without even meaning to because he doesn't think before he talks.
"Have you checked the news today?" The other boy narrows his eyes at him, still smiling, as if Izuku is saying something funny.
"Not really. I've been putting it off." Izuku mutters.
"Huh. Could you tell me one thing though?" The boy asks.
Izuku shrugs and sighs, digging his fingers through his hair and sprawling across his backpack, "Sure, go ahead."
"How many times have they arrested you?"
"They haven't. I'm quirkless."
For a moment, they stare at one another. When the boy's smile falls and turns into a frown, Izuku digs through his backpack and pulls out the folder protector holding his diagnosis. After a few moments of reading, the other boy stares at him wordlessly and returned the file.
"Please don't tell anyone."
"Honestly? I don't think anyone is going to believe me if I tried."
"Try telling that to the police after you get shot." Izuku mutters.
"You're bulletproof?"
"Goddamn it…"
Tachibana blinks at him when he reaches the roof with his new 'friend' in tow. Part of him bristles when she does. He's spent three months with Kurobayashi-sensei and now he can't help thinking that people blinking at him that way are laughing at him.
"Apparently I'm famous." He drops to the concrete of the roof, careful to say it quietly to avoid letting everyone else on the roof know.
"Hi! Are you in on his secret identity too?"
"Yeah, he saved me and a few friends from a robbery." Tachibana answers. "What's this about being famous?"
"I don't have a secret Identity…" Izuku mutters.
"Ah, sorry. I'm Nobutaka Kābā. Call me Kābā" He offered a small bow to Tachibana and a grin for Izuku's sake. "Midoriya-kun here got caught dragging some people out of an apartment fire yesterday, and now every new outlet in Tokyo has a report on the Musutafu Vigilante. No one knows his name, though."
Tachibana grins at him too, and Izuku thinks the pair of them look like hyenas.
"Stop it. Please. I've got enough problems just trying to be normal." Izuku sighs.
"He's got a bit of a complex about being quirkless." Tachibana stage whispers. Kābā rolls his eyes.
"Why are you so worried about it? You've basically got your own quirk, and you're like All Might now."
Izuku flinches, apparently noticeably enough that both of his companions notice.
"C-could we not talk about All Might?" Izuku murmurs, trying to eat while he still has the appetite.
"…Sure thing, Midoriya." Kābā says gently. "Honestly, I was just excited to hear that you're not some raving delinquent murderer."
"You thought he could be a raving delinquent murderer? He couldn't even speak properly when I approached him the first time." Tachibana snickers. Izuku rolls his eyes.
"There was a lot going on." Izuku mutters weakly.
"So, is talking just something you're terrible at?" Kābā asks, finally unwrapping what looks like a lunch.
"He's not that bad once he gets over the initial part." Tachibana offers. Izuku snorts.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence."
"If we gave you confidence, you'd be the overpowered rival character, not the tragic protagonist. Pick one already." Tachibana mutters around a mouthful of fruit.
Does that make Kacchan my rival or Stain my rival? Izuku wonders, looking up at the sky.
Kurobayashi-sensei doesn't do much more than blink once when Izuku brings Kābā along to their session that afternoon. The two strike up an interesting conversation about Izuku's exploits, and Kurobayashi-sensei scolds Izuku for running into a burning building, even if it was to save people, before he starts their training. Part of him wonders if it's really 'training' anymore, or if Kurobayashi-sensei is simply remaining after school to let him use the gym and improve himself. Either way, he's happy that his teacher has been so kind.
When Izuku maxes out the weight on the bench, rack and a deadlift bar before he even gets started, Kābā gapes at him.
"Midoriya. You're a twig. Don't show off just…" He trails off as Izuku looks him dead in the eye and picks up the deadlift bar with both hands, standing up as if the bar weren't even there. Just to prove the point, Izuku adjusts, then starts lifting the bar as if it were a dumb bell, just so he can watch Kābā's jaw drop. "Th-that's… How the fuck…?"
"Language, young Nobutaka." Kurobayashi-sensei rumbles.
"But… Midoriya, how much is that?"
"Um… This is three hundred kilograms. I'm up to twelve fifty on the squat rack." Izuku mumbles, going through his routine with the deadlift bar. Kābā laughs hysterically as Izuku goes through a few motions with the bar that definitely shouldn't be safe.
"You're a little green All Might!"
"I'm not a hero." Izuku growls, nearly dropping the bar as he shifts his gaze to Kābā. The other boy returns his glare evenly until Izuku drops his eyes, gently setting the bar down and moving towards the squat rack. "And I'm never going to be as amazing as All Might."
"…Yeah. Okay, Midoriya. Sorry, I forgot you don't like to talk about it." Kābā sighs. "So, what else do you do? Other than working out, I mean. You said this started because of some crazy routine?"
"Three hundred… Push-ups… Sit ups… Squats… Ten-kilometer run… every day…" Izuku grunts out between squats.
"I thought it was one hundred, Midoriya-kun?" Kurobayashi-sensei chirps.
"That was what… I started with… I tried, at least…" Izuku grunts as he re-racks the bar. "I only managed about twenty or so of each for the first week, then I almost died from the pain and dropped a bunch, and then… Then it started getting out of hand. My old phys ed teacher nearly had a heart attack when I benched four hundred kilograms out of nowhere."
"Damn. So, can anyone do this?" Kābā chuckles. Izuku actually laughs at that, but then he stops.
"Huh. I never really stopped to think about that. But… Aren't there still physical fitness competitions? Ones that ban strength quirks and stuff?" Izuku asks. Kurobayashi-sensei looks up from his book and blinks.
"Actually, there are competitions for quirk users, non-quirk users, and for different metamorphic users. The last one is more divided in judging, though. They aren't as popular as, say, the Pro industry or the Sports Festival, but they do well enough. People have done these things for centuries." Kurobayashi-sensei doesn't smile often (Izuku is so, so glad the man seems to know not to do it often) but he offers a bit of a smile and taps his biceps. "I've known quite a few people who use fitness competitions to learn or actually compete in them."
"I guess there's still competitions for everything, huh? Art is like that too." Kābā says, grinning up at the shark teacher. Izuku snorts.
"I only ever paid attention to heroes, before. Guess I was missing out."
"You're a hero nerd?" Kābā asks uncertainly.
"Used to be." Izuku steps up to the bar and lifts. "Being a hero was my dream. I gave up on it a little over a year ago. Started working out instead."
"Instead? So, what, you turned from an otaku to a bodybuilder overnight?" Kābā snorts. "I guess that kind of passion really is unrivaled."
Izuku frowns as he steps out of the rack, moving towards the bench.
"Yeah. Something like that."
"Hey, so, what else have you done? Other than stop all those villain attacks."
Izuku lists off the beach clean-up, the reconstruction work, and a few of his odd jobs helping clean Musutafu. Kābā shakes his head as he stares at the blocks of weight on the ends of the bar.
"Man. Never thought my high school delinquent would end up being an immortal saint." Kābā mutters under his breath. Izuku rolls his eyes, and Kābā blushes slightly.
"You haven't seen him do much more than warm up yet." Kurobayashi-sensei rumbles, blinking sporadically over his book.
"…Life will never be the same now that I know you, will it?" Kābā cocks an eyebrow at Izuku as he starts in on his second set.
"Hey… at least… you don't… get used… as a deterrent…" Izuku grunts.
"What does that even mean?"
"According to miss Tachibana," Kurobayashi-sensei slips a bookmark into his book and stands, heading towards the corner where Izuku's dummy is left between sessions, "The police let Midoriya-kun wander into a hostage situation just to speed things up."
Kābā spins, staring at Izuku with wide eyes as Izuku sits up.
"The bastards got me shot." Izuku grumbles.
"You got shot…?!"
"I'm indestructible, from what I can tell." Izuku sighs. "Bulletproof, sword-proof, knife-proof… It all just hits my skin and stops or breaks the blades."
"WHAT?!"
"Here, pinch me." Izuku grins wryly as he holds out a hand. Kābā takes his arm and inspects it instead, then pinches him several times in quick succession. "Hey, ow, ow, OW!"
"You said…"
"Once! Not five times! What makes you think once isn't enough!" Izuku rubs his arm, staring up at the boy with wide eyes.
"Holy shit, you're a god, aren't you? Are you actually a Shounen protagonist?"
Izuku sighs, ignoring the question in favor of walking towards the dummy and switching it on.
"I have no idea." Izuku steps into the stance Kurobayashi-sensei showed him for standard MM(Q)A fighters. He's done this for three weeks, every day.
"All right, so what does this thing do? You gonna practice ripping its head off or something?" Izuku gapes as Kābā rubs his hands together, almost gleeful at the idea.
"Wha… No!" Izuku shakes his head and turns back to the dummy. "This is for keeping my strength in check. If I used my full strength with every punch, I'd kill someone. So…"
Warm up. Zero speed. He reminds himself. Without any exertion at all, he lays a four-punch combo across the sensors. Each time, he pauses with his fist against the device, then pulls back.
"Midoriya-kun has been studying anatomy and various techniques for boxing since I managed to procure this machine." Kurobayashi-sensei croons, folding his arms as if Izuku were his star pupil. Izuku shakes his head at the praise in the man's tone. "His improvement rate has been beyond what I imagined, but I suppose that's Midoriya-kun's style in the first place."
"I do this every day, three times. Even without the dummy. And I know a couple people who give me advice, sensei." Izuku murmurs.
Low power. Soft punch. First gear. His punches fly hard enough to leave the dummy shaking, but he makes sure each blow is complete before throwing the next. Kābā frowns from beside their teacher. After three rounds of punches, Izuku bounces on his heels and widens his stance.
Low power. Second gear. The screen briefly flashes yellow as he lands the third punch, a blow to the ribs, and Izuku winces. He goes through the combo until he keeps the device green and adjusts his power level.
"He just kinda looks like he's reaching out and touching it. Is that all this is?" Kābā mutters from the side. Kurobayashi-sensei nudges him.
"Midoriya-kun, why don't you show him what you can do? The last combination should be fine."
"If I skip, I'll lose pace…"
"You won't always be able to remind yourself of your power levels. You need to know that in a fight, things just happen. Trust yourself." Kurobayashi-sensei growls.
"…Yes, sensei." Izuku mutters. "The final combination, then… Normal power. Third gear."
"Normal power? Gear?" Kābā snorts. "What are you, a ro…"
Izuku's fist flies. On the screen, a constant yellow screen shows as he lands all seventeen hits in quick succession, hitting every single point that he knows can take his 'normal' power hits. When he returns to his stance, the machine wobbles violently.
"…bot?" Kābā blinks at the shaking machine. "Huh? What just happened, did you hit it?"
Izuku sighs as Kurobayashi-sensei shakes with laughter.
"I hit it seventeen times, actually."
Kābā looks at the device, flashing a green happy face. "Prove it."
"The screen flashes yellow for a half second if the force exceeds the normal amount a person can take at that point of the body." Kurobayashi-sensei explains. Izuku offers up a flick at 'normal' power, straight to the stomach. The screen flashes red and remains there for a second before returning to green. "It will flash red if Midoriya-kun uses lethal force. Originally, the timer on the screen was much slower, but Midoriya-kun raised it to keep up with him. Half of a second in the fastest it can manage."
"Here." Izuku drops to one knee, flips a pair of switches so that the screen is changed. One half remains green, while the other half holds a timer and a pair of zeroes. "This is a time trial mode. Sensei, can you start me?"
"All right…" Kābā swallows, looking a lot paler than when Izuku first started using the weights. Izuku frowns, then steps into his form.
Moving fast, Izuku has slowly learned, isn't different from moving at a normal speed. Unlike he'd originally imagined back when he was a hero nerd, moving fast is just putting effort into the motions. But thinking fast took him a while to figure out.
The word start draws out for almost ten blinks before Izuku notes the tiny zeroes on the timer begin to change. His punches ripple across the device again, keeping the top half of the screen a bright, toxic yellow. Despite his body moving easily at fractions of a second, it's easy to see his fists striking the device while he's still pulling back from that same punch. Faint blurs drag out as he runs through the routine, and when he pulls back from the seventeenth blow a short rush of off-white-pink fills his vision.
When Izuku breaks form, the timer reads four seconds, and the screen flashes back to green with the number of hits still climbing from ten. Kābā blinks, then stares at Izuku with an unreadable expression.
"What the F…"
"Language, young man."
Izuku sighs, smiling despite the expression on Kābā's face.
"What the hell does your actual punch look like?" Kābā asks quietly. Izuku shrugs.
"The wake reaches pretty far out at this point."
"You're gonna have to do better than that, Midoriya!"
"Wanna come to the mall after finals? Tachibana-san is introducing me to her friends. I think they're going to hate me."
"…Sure. Which mall?"
"Kiyashi ward. I think she said it's new?"
"Oh, yeah! That place looks awesome. I hear they have a really awesome arcade."
"That sounds fun. I'll have to take some spending money then."
Finals week is not easy. Between studying and doing a bit of unofficial part time work around the places he knows, Izuku is too exhausted to keep much of his routine. He manages an hour to work out in the morning, in his bedroom, but cutting his jog out of his routine ends up leaving him jittery during the day and almost unable to sleep at night.
All in all, his class rank goes to three from five, and Kābā reveals himself as number six, due to his focus on his art. Izuku is absolutely positive that his new friend is more exceptional than he realizes. Whatever it is, it feels like it's on the tip of his tongue. Kābā is somehow more elusive and shy about his skills than Izuku, and that's saying something.
Then again, Izuku only has two friends and they both know just about everything about his secrets. So far, he's told them everything but his meetings with All Might and Stain, which… He's sure that those two events should never, ever reach the public ear. Or the official ear. Any ear, really.
Tachibana's friends relax when Kābā shows up, all easy smiles and glasses and good vibes. He's around Izuku's height, but a bit broader in the shoulders, which must make him seem like the one keeping Izuku in line. Out of all of them, Tachibana is the most colorful. She shows up dressed in jeans and a bright orange blouse, which is put to absolute shame by the molten orange color of her eyes.
Her friends, of course, take one look at him and stiffen up. One of them is tall (tallish, it isn't hard to be taller than Izuku) and she seems to look at him as if he's about to run off with Tachibana or kick a puppy into traffic. She seems somewhat stylish, though her clothes aren't anything bright or flashy (red blouse and a pair of navy pants reaching her knees) but she wears rings with iridescent stones across each finger, almost like a fortune teller type. Beside her is a guy dressed in his school uniform, with the jacket opened and the tie missing. For a minute, Izuku thinks he might be nice. When the boy looks at him, the smile he'd had disappears entirely and the guy looks at Izuku just the same as the rest.
Off to one side, another pair of girls stood chatting and pouring over something on one of their phones, which left Izuku entirely out of his depth. Both of them seemed the type to keep up with trends and such, decked out in a nice sundress with styled hair or a cute skirt with a striped blouse that fluttered in the breeze.
"Midoriya! Kābā! Finally!" Tachibana grins as she waves them over. Izuku flinches when the two on their phones glance up and roll their eyes at him. "We ended up coming early, so don't start apologizing Midoriya."
He takes a second, because he really thought he had chosen his outfit carefully enough. An olive-green t shirt beneath a cargo jacket, one that's dual sided and made of some crazy tough material just in case his luck goes south, and a pair of cargo shorts over his red sneakers. Maybe he's just a bit too scuffed up in general to look fashionable (Would his mom tell him? She said he'd looked cool…)?
"Oh… all right." Izuku sighs. He turns to the others and offers a bow that's probably deeper than it should be for classmates, but he's not exactly off to a great start anyways. "It's nice to meet you all. I'm Midoriya Izuku. I hope we can be friends."
"Ignore him, he's terrified of you all for some reason." Kābā laughs at the stunned expressions from each of Tachibana's friends. "Call me Kābā, I'm Midoriya's classmate from Class C. Nice to meet ya!"
"Isn't he supposed to be… I don't know. A serial killer or something?" Izuku slumps a bit when he hears that. Tachibana, for all her good intentions, immediately turns to her friends and snaps.
"Hey! You guys promised to give him a chance!" She cries.
"Tachi-chan, you know I trust you." The tall one says. Her voice whines a little more than Izuku would have imagined, but not all tall people have deep voices. Assuming is rude. "But no one is just going to jump in and decide he's not a delinquent in five minutes."
"He saved our lives!"
"The heroes would have done as much." One of the girls, the dress girl, down the walk says. She purses her lips as she looks at him, then smirks and laughs behind one hand. "Not trying to be ungrateful. But… he also provoked the villain."
"I'm really, really sorry about that." Izuku offers. His voice sounds pathetic, but that's better than being rude. And he had actually made things worse by talking to the leader, that time.
"Do we wanna go shop?" Kābā asks, catching everyone's attention. Izuku really envies him, and appreciates him, in that moment. "I heard this place has a super awesome arcade!"
Eventually, they all move towards the mall. Izuku frowns as Tachibana catches his arm and offers him a tight smile, obviously not happy with the result.
"Hey… sorry about that. Um, I promise that they're good people." Her smile wanes some, and she looks after her friends as the pair drift back some. "We're pretty normal, I think, but they're not dumb either. They'll warm up to you."
"Tachibana-san." She glances at him curiously, eyes still vivid orange. From the short distance they're standing, Izuku can tell that she's delicately threaded black through the iris to make her color pop, almost glow.
"Thank you. For being my friend, I mean." Izuku smiles as wide as he can and digs a hand through his hair nervously. "I mean… Even if they don't like me, or whatever… You're being really nice. It means a lot."
Tachibana grins then slips behind him and pushes him towards the mall.
"Don't go getting sappy on me, Midoriya!" Izuku yelps as she shoves him forward, catching everyone's eye as he's all but shoved into the crowd of them and nearly jostles the tall girl. "Oh, and you should smile more! You look prettier when you smile, after all!"
"W-what does that even mean?! Wait, I'm not supposed to look pretty!"
"It's a joke, Midoriya." Kābā cackles. "But you do look prettier when you smile!"
"S-sorry I almost ran into you…" Izuku glances up at the tall girl, watching her lift an eyebrow before she shrugs it off.
"Tachi-chan always does shit like that, don't worry about it." Tachibana grins and pushes between them, completely ignoring the fact that she's nearly pressed against Izuku's side in their little crowd.
"Now, where are we going to go first?!"
Kiyashi ward mall is a huge place. Two stories! Izuku has been in those, but not super often. Most of the time he was chasing hero merch, and he never took the time to appreciate how big they were. Seeing a new one, full of people, is really something to stop and appreciate.
Sadly, he'd taken that moment and lost his friends in the crowd, leaving him fighting just to try and find them.
Just when he's about to give up, his phone rings.
"Midoriya-kun, what the hell man? Where'd you go!"
"Kābā-san? I'm so sorry, I barely stopped for a second and I got separated. Where are you all headed?" Izuku groans.
"Ha, that sounds like you. We're heading for the…"
Izuku blinks as someone jostles him from behind, and he mutters an apology to the person. For a brief second, they turn to look at him and Izuku pales.
"Fuck off." The person mutters, glaring at him through washed out cobalt hair. A black hoodie is pulled up over his head, almost like some cliché way of hiding, but it's the look in his eye and the flaky, dry skin of his cheeks that stops Izuku cold. Something akin to an aura of rage wafts off this guy, something Izuku can't help but notice.
He looks like a villain. Like someone just waiting to be given even the smallest reason to go off the rails.
"Fucking hero brats…" The man mutters, wandering off into the crowd.
"…ya!" Izuku blinks, snapping out of his daze.
"K- Kābā-san…?"
"Hey, did you trip or something man? What's going on with you?"
"Kābā-san… You guys go on without me."
"Huh? Wait, Midoriya-kun, what-" He cuts the call without a glance and shoves his phone in his pocket, finger held over the emergency dial button. Izuku swallows the knot in his throat, then wanders off after the black hoodie.
It doesn't take long to realize that the man is just… wandering. He sees a few people, people that Izuku vaguely recognizes, but it isn't until Izuku catches the man glaring at a boy with six arms on the first floor that Izuku places it. A close call leaves his heart pounding, and Izuku runs for the second story using the stairwell he'd tried to hide in.
He finds the boy with red, spiky hair coming out of a store right as he sees the black hoodie again. Before he can think about it, he grabs the boy and drags him over the rail.
"Sorry to drag you away, but I know who you are, and I need you to tell me if you recognize that person." Izuku mutters, pointing to the black hoodie drifting slowly through the crowd. He feels the red-head's skin harden under his fingers, and he can't really blame the boy.
A lucky moment strikes, and the man pushes back his hood just enough to reveal his hair and scratch at his neck. The boy beside Izuku inhales sharply, sharply enough that Izuku glances over in a panic and jostles his shoulder some. He looks like he's just seen a ghost.
"Hey… Hey," Izuku mutters, "Are you okay? Do you know them?"
"I… I think… maybe it's a villain? I couldn't see much. Who are you? What-" There's panic in the boy's eyes. Izuku frowns the minute he sees it, and he releases the boy. Despite the lecture coming his way later, he can't exactly leave things be.
"Look, there's no time." He's dragging Eijirō from the railing. "He matches the report of the villains almost to the letter, red eyes blue hair, really angry, if he's here then he must be waiting for a chance to strike, but he's… if it stays like this, he's fine, but I can't let him get away, either…"
He trails off and turns to the boy, looking him dead in the eye.
"Aren't you here with your class? You need to get out of here, call the police. I'll track him, here's my number just in case, ok?" Izuku doesn't wait for anything else. The man in the hoodie is almost gone, and Izuku can't risk losing him after a stunt like this. He hops the rail without thinking twice, landing on the ground floor without even a strain in his legs, and takes off through the crowd. People are shouting after him, but it's easy to take off his jacket and flip it inside out to change the color before everything calms down.
Following the man in the hoodie is hard. At one point, he needs to race to keep up, and several people look shocked as he blurs down the street into an alley. Moving like that in public is still iffy, but at least he doesn't break the pavement anymore. It's a bit of a shock that the man actually goes the whole way on foot (they've been walking a full hour) since the reports of USJ reported a warp quirk (not officially… but Izuku knew how to get passed that, when someone like Kacchan and something like All Might's secret are on the line). But Izuku is grateful. They get on the train, and eventually get off somewhere in Kamino. Izuku barely notices the station before he's off again, following the man at a decent distance.
When he watches the man drift into a bar off a side street, he exhales and slips back into an alley to pull out his phone. The number he picks is saved without a real name, only 'Detective Detector', and Izuku grimaces as he dials the number.
"Detective-san. I think I just found the League of Villains' hideout."