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“Please state your name, age, and quirk.” The detective asked Izuku.
“Izuku Midoriya, thirteen, quirkless.”
The detective looked shocked when Izuku mentioned his quirkless status, as they always do, but he could also see the expected flash of pity. Big mistake.
“Alright Midoriya, what do you know about the vigilante ‘Optic’?” He asked, slowly, as if being quirkless somehow made him incompetent.
“Oh, not too much. I think they helped one of my neighbors? I’m not too sure, sorry.”
To be fair, he wasn’t lying, an old woman who lives nearby had almost been mugged, and he had helped her.
“Oh? Have you ever seen the vigilante in person?” The detective asked, with a raised eyebrow.
“No? Why would I have?”
“You mentioned your neighbor had been helped, so it’s possible they patrol around where you live.” The detective explained, the poor kid must not have understood, he couldn’t blame the boy, he was clearly young.
“What are you talking about?” Izuku asked, with a clearly confused expression.
“You said your neighbor had been assisted by-”
“I never said that?” Izuku said, letting a bit of concern leak into his voice.
“Wh- Yes you did.” The detective defended.
“No I didn’t sir.”
Izuku sighed, poor guy must not be getting enough sleep, being a detective must be hard. He’s started to lose it mid interview.
“You didn’t?” The detective started to look like he’d experienced whiplash, saying the question like he was asking himself.
“No I didn’t. Sir, have you been sleeping enough? Not to come off as rude, but your eyebags are also pretty prominent.” Izuku pointed out.
“I have been struggling with- This isn’t about me!”
The detective started shaking his head abruptly, out of concern Izuku walked over and put a hand on the detective’s shoulder.
“Detective, why don’t you take the rest of the day off?” Izuku calmly spoke to the man, trying to give him a reassuring look.
“No. No I don’t need…”
Izuku sighed. He’s dealt with enough people who don’t take care of themself to deal with this.
“It’s okay sir. We all need breaks sometimes.” He told him, patting his shoulder.
“Maybe… maybe I should just head home…” The detective whispered solemnly, while a tear rolled down his cheek, Izuku patted his head.
He helped the detective stand and exit the interrogation room, holding his hand and giving it a comforting squeeze to reassure him. Really, Izuku was such a kind guy, helping people in need.
As they walked out hand in hand, with the detective looking down to the floor as Izuku led him around the building, like he had any idea where he was supposed to be going (He did not). The man’s coworkers looked in shock at the usual stoneface man, with the lead suspect of an investigation patting his back like he was the adult in this situation.
After a bit of roaming, because Izuku had literally no idea what the layout of this place was (he’ll get the blueprint later, right now he’s got someone to help), they eventually found the exit. Izuku asked the man to point out his car, who softly informed him where it was, and they got in the car.
Did Izuku have a driver's license? Nope. Did he know how to drive? Absolutely not. And yet, here he is. People learn better with experience or something.
He’d convinced the detective to let him drive, who agreed way too easily to let a teenager drive his probably expensive car.
Whatever, he’ll figure it out.
He asked the detective where he lived, and pulled up the man’s address on his GPS, then started to drive. At least he used his turn signals, which was better than some people.
20 minutes later for a five minute drive, Izuku arrived at the man’s house, who had fallen asleep while he drove, which was probably for the better seeing as Izuku had broken off one of the wing view mirrors. He shook the man awake, and watched as he headed into his house sleepily, before pulling out of the driveway, and heading home, Izuku’s had a long day.
-
“Izuku Midoriya, I’m a pro hero, I’m gonna need you to come with me.” The black haired man told him, he didn’t expect Eraser to try to interview him, especially during school hours.
He packed up his school work, and notebooks into his freshly smoking (Thanks so much Kacchan) backpack. The rest of his classmates, including Katsuki, stared in shock, before turning to each other before breaking into whispers.
“What the hell did Deku do?”
“Fucking quirkless bitch is getting arrested.”
“That guy can’t be a pro hero.”
“Deku’s finally leaving for good.”
Izuku just sighed as he listened to his classmates gossip, there was no point in him trying to correct their assumptions. Katsuki looked like he wanted to say something to him, but Izuku walked out of the classroom with Eraserhead before he got the chance.
The two walked out together, getting into a car and heading to who knows where while Izuku dissociated not realizing when he’d walked with Eraser to an interrogation room.
He suddenly snapped back to reality when he felt warmth flood his hands, and looked down to see a teacup had made its way into his hands.
“Oh. Hi Eraser” Izuku said, sipping his tea obnoxiously.
Aizawa squinted at him with mild shock, “Eraser?” If this kid was the vigilante they were looking for, he wasn’t very good at hiding it.
“You're the pro hero Eraserhead are you not?” Izuku asked, furrowing his brows as the man.
“I am. How do you know that?” Eraser glared at him, which was honestly really aggressive, and Izuku was not in the mood for it.
“Slow your roll cowboy, I’ve seen videos of you fighting.” He explained.
“There aren’t videos of me, all proof of me online is removed.”
Was he serious? Even when Izuku wasn’t a vigilante, he had known about Eraserhead from online forums.
“Okay… well, why am I here?” Izuku asked, getting a pointed look in return.
“You don’t know?”
“Not really Eraserhead-kun.”
Izuku watched in satisfaction as the hero cringed from the honorific, he deserved it.
“Just call me Eraser, or Aizawa if you prefer kid. And we're here to talk about your vigilante activity.”
“Okay.” Izuku agreed easily, making Aizawa’s usual blank face break with slight shock.
“‘Okay?’ So you are a vigilante?” He asked, wanting confirmation from Izuku.
“No? I never said that.”
“You agreed when I mentioned vigilante activity, the normal response is to deny that you have anything to do with it.” Aizawa pointed out, little did he know, Izuku was Thee Gaslighter.
“You're twisting my words.”
“No I’m not. You made no attempt to deny any vigilante activity.” Aizawa was starting to get flustered.
Izuku changed his expression to a calm approach, looking at Aizawa as if he was a four year old and he was a teacher.
“No Aizawa-kun, I agreed to being interviewed, I’m not a vigilante.” He spoke slowly, with a smile, infuriating the man.
“Don’t talk to me like I’m a toddler kid. You clearly didn’t deny the claim you're a vigilante, like anyone who wasn’t a vigilante would do.” He spoke, but the tone was on the verge of shouting.
Izuku cringed obnoxiously at the loud tone, giving Aizawa a look of fear, before looking down to his feet and shuffling them.
“Kid, I’m sorry for yelling.” Aizawa told him, making Izuku internally smirk.
“It’s alright. I just don’t have good experience with authority figures yelling.” Izuku told him quietly.
“We're gonna have to talk about that later.” No they will not be, Izuku doesn’t need that conversation. “Are you alright with continuing this interview?”
Izuku nodded softly, making Aizawa sigh in relief, he didn’t want to scare the kid.
“You’ve been seen near where the vigilante ‘Optic’ usually patrols, during nights he’s been spotted, with blood on you nonetheless, care to explain?”
“Well. I have a job.” Which is technically true, sometimes people would give him money after they saved him, which was good, because now he could eat at least five times a week.
“Why?”
“Food.” Izuku explained, which answered his question, yet gave him so many more.
“Why do you need a job for food?” Aizawa looked concerned, which confused him, but what can you do.
“So I don’t starve…?” Izuku told him, in a very ‘Duh’ tone.
“Kid. Do your parents not feed you?” Aizawa asked while dropping his head into his hands, which finally made Izuku realize where this conversation was going, and this was also a conversation he didn’t want to have.
“If I tell you I’m a vigilante, would you let me out of this conversation?” Izuku asked, hopeful.
“No.” Fuck.
-
Izuku was packing his clothes and first aid kit into his backpack while looking around his makeshift home, he didn’t want to forget anything, he didn’t have much already.
As he was about to head out he heard a cough, making him spin around quickly. Two men in suits were standing a few feet away, holding their hands behind their back.
“You’re going to need to come with us.”
Which is how he now ended up at the hero commissions headquarters, in an interrogation room. He knew why. Izuku had been getting a lot more attention from the public as his vigilante persona, some people even protesting for him to be an official hero. He’d been saving more people than some limelight heroes, which made the public upset.
Now, would Izuku admit he knew any of that? Of course not.
“So, why am I here?” He asked the men in suits (What was he supposed to call them?), who just stared wordlessly. Talk about awkward.
“Alright. Keep your secrets.” Izuku shook his head at them, as they continued staring.
Is he being challenged to a staring contest? Is that what’s going on here? If they thought they could even attempt to beat him, they were sorely mistaken, Izuku was nothing if not competitive.
Izuku looked suit man 1 in the eyes, staring, which clearly made the man a bit confused, and probably uncomfortable. But no amount of emotion could shake Izuku’s urge to win this contest right now.
As he continued staring, he could see the man’s eyes start to water. Weak bitch.
He was looking so hard into the man’s eyes at this point he could see the dead soul inside the man.
The man had tears streaming down his face when he finally blinked, making Izuku cheer. He jumped out of his seat, pointing a finger at the man, who whispered a, “Fuck” under his breath.
“Get fucking dunked on! Hell yeah! I never lose!” Izuku flexed his arms at the man, who was clearly starting to get a bit salty over his loss. Sucks to suck.
The other man had finally decided to say something, coughing to get Izuku’s attention before he started.
“We know you're the vigilante ‘Optic’ Izuku Midoriya.” He stated matter of factly.
He looked at the man with a raised eyebrow as he sat back down, still smiling from his win against the other man. He continued to look at the man who’d spoken, watching as he became more uncomfortable under the gaze of his acid green eyes, until Izuku finally took pity on him and spoke.
“No I’m not.”
The man looked unimpressed with his reply, pulling out a picture from a file Izuku just noticed the man had. He slid the picture across the metal table separating them, daring Izuku to deny this evidence.
“That’s not me.”
“How? That is a picture of you. Your face is clearly visible and you're wearing the ‘Optic’ vigilante costume.” The man pointed to the picture as he spoke.
“I’m quirkless, how could I be a vigilante?” He asked rhetorically.
The two men looked at him in shock, which surprised him. Did they not even read his file before he brought him in for questioning? Not that Izuku cares, this only helped him.
“Everyone always blames the quirkless kid…” Izuku whispered sadly.
“We’re not-” The suit man who he’d beat in the staring contest (Let’s just call him suit man one) tried to defend before being cut off by Izuku.
“I shouldn’t have expected the commission to be any different…” Tears were welling up in his eyes as he spoke.
“That’s not why. Young man, that’s you in the picture, is it not.” The second suit fellow tried to redirect the conversation, but it was far too late.
“Isn’t being quirkist against the commission's policies!?” Izuku cried out, throwing his hands into the air.
“We are not-”
“I shouldn’t have expected any different. No one cares about the quirkless freak.” Izuku was full on sobbing at this point, while the two men sat disturbed.
“I- I’m sorry? We’re not…” The man seemed confused with himself, not even knowing why he was apologizing.
“My own parents don’t even like me! I should’ve never hoped you guys would…” He choked down more sobs, shoving his head between his knees.
The two men gaped in shock at the display in front of them.
“Am I a mouse? A rat? A bear? All that matters is I’m the principal of UA!” A new voice appeared, making Izuku scream while the men’s eyes changed from pity and guilt to horrified.
Looking over at the room's door, he saw a familiar black haired hero, with Nedzu sitting on his shoulder, kicking his feet (Izuku wanted his orange shoes so damn bad, fucking quirkless shoes), as he looked at the men with a clearly malicious smile.
“You're coming with us, goodbye gentlemen.” The principal finished, as he waited for Izuku to join him and Aizawa in leaving the room, to which he did happily, all tears gone completely from his face.
-
To be honest, Izuku didn’t know how he ended up where he was. He zoned out for about three weeks and now he was legally Eraserhead’s kid and wasn’t homeless anymore. It was weird having his own room again, he hadn’t had his own space since he was seven.
He was sitting in the kitchen as he watched his dad (?) make him food. He was planning on cooking for himself but had been from the kitchen already. You put metal in the microwave once. Dramatic punishment if you ask him.
Aizawa (“Call me Shota kid.”) placed down some rice and miso soup in front of him which he ate like a feral animal, well Aizawa stared in horror, and Mic cheered. He was chewing when Aizawa had decided to speak.
“Kid, are you a vigilante?”
Izuku just sighed as he set his utensils down, he let a tired look rest on his face as he turned to look up at the black haired man.
“It’s really emotionally draining how you keep assuming all of these things.”
“You have vigilante gear in your room, in a box that is labeled ‘Vigilante Gear’, that you aren’t even attempting to hide from me, or ‘Zashi.”
Izuku narrowed his eyes in confusion.
“Are you manipulating me?” He asked.
“Yeah Shota, I don’t think he’s a vigilante.” Mic added while shaking his head, bless his heart.
“I’m not manipulating you!” Aizawa groaned.
“You're getting really defensive.” Izuku pointed out, because he really was.
“What? How?”
“I don’t like the tone in your voice.” Izuku said, pointing his finger at him across the table.
“You said I was manipulating you!”
“I did not say that”
Honestly, Izuku was starting to get worried, the man looked like he was about to cry.
“Yes you did!” Aizawa threw his hands up in exasperation.
“I didn’t say that. It’s not my fault that’s what you heard.” He shook his head as he stared at the older man. He could hear Mic laughing at his husband's pain in the background.
“You need to calm down, your anger issues are kinda a red flag.”
Aizawa stared at him gaping, shocked at this childs audacity.
“I don’t have anger issues, you're gaslighting me.” Aizawa defended.
“Do you hear yourself?” He shook his head as he went back to eating his food.
He did notice when the man left the room, probably to go back to bed, but he was more engrossed in his food.
“Perfect execution.” Mic told him, giving him a high five.
"I don't know what your talking about.” Mic must be hearing things again.