Chapter Text
Shota hated summer.
The mid term exams to review, the pointless excitement of the students, the scorching heat that with his scarf made is neck a field of rashes.
Also, he prefered the cold, the shorter days, and in those moments of rest being allowed to stay at home without getting judgemental looks from his colleagues.
But sadly for him, It wasn't fall, or early winter, It was a humid late summer night, and as he jumped from kne roof to the next he could feel his hero costume already reeking of sweat. Lucky for him, his run was over, he dropped down on the sidewalk from the roof.
Looking over to the meeting spot Fukukado had sent him he was left honestly confused, It was a cheap, 24/7 diner. With a vague 50s american aesthetic and a smell that made him wonder how much did they had to pay the health department to stay open.
He crossed the empty street and walked inside, the slow buz of the lights welcomed him as he looked around.
Spotting the green haired heroine sitting at one of the tables, and with her there was another person, wearing a bike helmet and a ski mask, covering the eyes, between both of them two plates filled with hamburger a and fries. The mysterious figure visibly tensed as Shota walked closer.
"Eraserhead! Long time no see," chirped Ms Joke while turning around "I was thinking we should get married!" Even before she was done speaking Shota had already activated his quirk.
"Not even in your dreams." he mumbled while dragging a chair from another table, sitting down while continuing to keep under his gaze the misterious third person.
"And who are you?" The kid, cause now that he looked closer It was clearly a kid, had the guts to look surprised that Shota had aknowledged them.
"He's the reason i called you," interrupted Joke, her voice unusually serious, that alone peaked Shota's interest. "I was around here cause i was working on a case, nothing too crazy, just a raid on a gang's werehouse, knockoff trigger."
Shota had heard of it, Snipe had talked about it last week while on lunch break, his agency was involved in this too.
"Everything was going according to plan, just some runners trying to flee the scene, i was chasing a random thug, when all of a sudden-" she pointed at mistery kid with one of the fries from the plate near her "-wonder boy jumps out of an alley with a baseball bat and knocks cold a grown man" She says it breathlessly, barely containing laughter as if this was the greatest joke ever told. The image was funny, Shota had to give It to her, but not THAT funny.
He looked over to problem child, he was sheepishly eating fries as Ms Joke laughed at his unconventional heroism. "Vigilantism, really?" He pinched the bridge of his nose, that sounded like a headache more than anything "It's not a game kid, couldn't you just get into hero school and get your license like everybody else?" At Shota's comment the kid visibly tensed.
"No." He muttered meekly, but the tone resolute, like what he said was absolute law.
Shota's eyes narrowed, the kid was already getting on his nerves.
The tension was broken by Joke as she turned back to Eraser. "I called you to see if there were reports of vigilantes in the area," her tone jovial, but her eyes told Shota 'we are gonna adress It later' "but you seem just as surprised as me, maybe you're losing your edge"
"Quit It," he deactivated her quirk once again "I'll ask tsunkaichi tomorrow morning, but I had heard some voices about a new vigilante"
"I-I'm sorry Ms Joke, but am I allowed to leave now?" The boy meekly asked, his finger nervously tracing circles on a napkin.
"Yeah kid, sorry that i held you so long, but be more cautious next time. Not all Heroes are nice as me and grumpy over here." The kid bowed to both of them before picking up his backpack, with a shiny metal bat strapped to the side. After that, he bowed again and ran out of the restaurant in the politest way possible.
After almost a minute of silence Shota spoke, his voice flat as a board "Joke, what the fuck was that?"
"What? I think I did good" she shrugged taking a sip out of her milkshake.
"We have two very different definitions of good then," he snatched away the milkshake from her hand "why did you encourage him?"
A bittersweet smile tugged at her lips "Seemed like a good kid, he clearly means well." Shota was about to talk again, but she beat him to It "He reminds me of me when i was his age."
That shut him off, again bringing to the table a palpable tension, "Fukukado," the name heavy on his tongue as their eyes met "no offense, but this isn't doing what you think It should be doing" She snorted a chuckle amused by the clearly diplomatic choice of words "you weren't exactly a good role model at his age"
"I know," she rubbed an invisible stain off her knuckledusters "but it's not about that, i swear." She let out a long resignated sigh.
"But trust me when i tell you what It feels like thinking you can't even dream for something."
The no of the kid earlier echoed in Shota's head, the resolution with which he said it, not like he hadn't considered It before, but as if he already accepted that he couldn't.
"Fine, what do you want me to do?"
Her smile almost blinded him "Bold of you to assume i wanted something" her eyebrows wiggled playfuly.
"If you didn't you wouldn't have called me"
"Touche"
"So what is it?"
"Don't tarp his wings"
Shota hummed, amused, usually Fukukado was less idealistic, more pragmatic, that's one of the things he liked most about her.
"You're letting your self projection cloud your judgement and-"
"It's irrational, I know I know," She rolled her eyes "but you haven't talked to him, he has potential"
"Really? He probably has a mean swing with the bat but that's hardly potential"
"You don't get It," she said tapping at the table, a wild spark in her eye "he sincronizes his patrol so he doesn't cross heroes. He was aware of the werehouse and was pursuing his own research on the group. Hell, in that damned notebook he had there was info the Police doesn't have yet!"
Shota was taken aback for a brief instant, the informations forming a picture he didn't like
"And yes, he was missing a lot of other stuff and the work was somewhat messy, It wasn't perfect, but he's more competent than some second years I've met"
This kid wasn't just a punk that was looking for a way to beat people up, this kid was determined, and half competent from Joke's description, and if there was a thing he had learned in his teaching career was that a stubborn teenager wasn't something to scuff at.
"I know what It means, to think you don't deserve better." Joke said slowly "I didn't get my chance till I was in my late twenties, the kid can get It now before he screws up"
Shota let out a sigh, he didn't like how easy it was to play on his feelings sometimes.
Passing the milkshake he had stolen back to Joke, "I'll do it-"
Her eyes lighted up with the usual mischief "Oh Eraserhead I love you so freaking much, we should-"
"But," he took the milkshake away from her trajectory, his quirk fully activated "You'll help me, you picked up the stray from the side of the road and you won't dump all the responsibility and work on me."
"Eh, seems fine by me." She finally got back her milkshake and took a heavy slurp of the Frozen delight. "Exciting isn't It?"
"What?"
"We aren't even married yet and we're already fighting for custody of the kid."
Shota shrugged, looking at her with one of his creepy grins "That means we would have got a divorce, proof that we couldn't work married, not for long at least."
At that Joke exploded in a wild laugh, Shota scoffing at her usual antics, getting up and heading to the counter to order something to eat. Looking at Fukukado eating her burger made him kinda hungry.
Izuku was so fucked.
He ran away from the restaurant, as soon as the Door closed behind him he dashed the farthest he could from that place.
Don't get him wrong, he got to meet 2 heroes that night, and both were super cool.
But he would have preferred to meet them in his civilian clothes, not while he was patrolling as a vigilante.
He had started almost 2 months ago, and until tonight he never had an encounter with a hero, he actively avoided them for a reason.
As he climbed the fire escape up to the roof of a near appartment complex he finally stopped to regain some breath, he pulled out the map from the backpack. For the first few weeks he used to bring his phone, but after cracking the screen with a bad fall he decided to rely on more... Archaic methods.
He checked his watch, almost 4, he was late and to get home from here would take him another 30 minutes, if he didn't get involved with anything in the way there. Class in the morning will be hell.
He started jumping from one building to another, his entire body was aching, before he met with Ms Joke he already had stopped a couple of muggings, redirected some drunkyards away from a group of teenage girls and ran around the city for almost 3 hours non stop, right now his bed seemed heavenly.
Lucky for him, the return home was much more uneventful that patrol, the streets near empty, with just some tourists here and there coming back from the bars, when he reached his appartment complex Izuku went down the fire escape he got inside his bedroom through the window.
Looking at the allarm clock near the bed, he sighed as the bright red 4:26 made It clear that he'll be a zombie at school.
Slowly he changed into a comfy t-shirt and a pair of shorts, he reeked of sweat, but at least that could be excused with the heathwave of the past few days.
He hummed mindlessly as he folded his rag tagged "costume" and put it inside the backpack, before throwing the culprit under his bed, hiding it behind some boxes he already kept down there.
With a groan he finally laid down, his mattress feeling like absolute heaven, and as the ac air cooled down his sweaty form while the events of the night finally sank in.
He had met 2 heroes, and he felt close to nothing, some adrenaline sure, It felt good in the moment, but after?
If the Izuku Midoriya of 4 months ago would have been in his place he would have been ecstatic, geeking and freaking out, but now, 4 months after his encounter with All Might?
He felt empty, Ms Joke had complimented him, and he felt nothing, less than an hour after the fact. She asked if he tried any hero school, and he almost laughed at her face as if she activated her quirk on him.
He wanted to laugh right now.
That fact alone made him break into giggles, the absurdity of his situation, while not funny at all, made him laugh in this exhausted state.
But as the laughter died down, again, he felt that emptiness crawling back up, usually after a patrol he felt some sort of pride at his actions, but tonight his mind was drifiting back to that roof, 4 months ago.
The white ceiling stared back at Izuku as he sank deeper into his own thoughts, he had accepted All Might's words, he had come to peace with the fact the number 1 hero was right.
But maybe this was a lie he liked to tell himself, after all, if he had taken his words to heart he wouldn't be running around every night pretending to be a hero.
Maybe vigilantism was just another form to fulfill his dumb dream?
The question filled Izuku's mind, but the only answer he found was the lazy humming of the ac.
He rubbed his face trying to escape his own thoughts, he began focusing on the supplies he needed to buy: his medikit was running low, and the prepaid phone he was using to call the police was almost running low on credit.
While he pondered, Izuku's gaze fell on the allarm clock, now accusingly displaying 4:48.
He scoffed, already anticipating the day ahead of him, as he finally fell asleep.