Chapter Text
Pro-hero Deku just wanted a normal patrol for once. He had places to be today. He was supposed to follow his usual route, maybe say hi to some fans, smile at some cameras like a good show monkey and maybe stop a few muggings. It was supposed to go by quickly. He was meant to pick Eri up from school in an hour to go and visit Aizawa-sensei’s tree. He just wanted to say goodbye to his ex teacher before getting shipped off to America for a year. Being the symbol of peace unfortunately means a lot of travelling. He misses having a home.
But of course things don't always go to plan, do they?
Correction - things never go to plan.
It's not that he doesn't like being a hero. No, he loves being a hero. What he doesn't love however, is being a limelight hero show monkey. He gets cameras in his face and fans coming up to him in the middle of a fight and if this is how he acted when he was a kid, he understands why so many people hated him useless deku.
Enemies too. He has so many enemies. They see him on the news and apparently decided to make it a competition. Who can take down pro hero Deku first?
So now here he is, facing off against fucking Dabi, yet again. And this time there was a new villain 'apprentice' holding an unknown quirk tagging along.
This was a pretty normal routine by now. The league of villains has been taken down, along with all for one when Deku was in his 3rd year at UA - and wasn't that just the most traumatic acid trip of the century - , but a few members (read; toga, twice and dabi) managed to escape being arrested or killed. They seem to take it in turns to attack him on patrol now. Probably mostly out of spite at this point.
Deku and Dabi danced around each other with ease, turning, flipping and throwing powered punches and fire at each other gracefully, as if it were a carefully choreographed dance. And really, it might as well have been. Interactions like these were nothing new, and while Deku himself hated it, they would both still be lost without the odd sense of normalcy that was the adrenalin of battle. Exactly like they were raised, so different, yet exactly the same.
The new villain would join in on the action occasionally, when they notice an opening to land a hit on the "can-do" hero. Deku never came out of these particular fights unscathed; the cuffs of his mint green hero costume were singed and smoking, the skin beneath felt like it was melting. Dabi threw a flame-powered right hook that caught Deku in the jaw, causing him to stumble to the side. He recovered quickly though, and struck back, green lightning surrounding him like a hurricane, and eyes glowing as he lunged at the fire user, tackling him and throwing him to the ground before backing off to ready himself for what he hoped to be a final attack.
Once again, Deku threw himself at Dabi. He landed a solid, lightning fueled kick to the side of one of the scarred villain’s knees and Dabi went down quickly, and the man's surprised shout did nothing to drown out the wet, sickening normal crack of his bones snapping. Deku hurriedly manoeuvred himself to kneel over the villain, and slapped quirk suppressing cuffs over his scarred, mangled wrists.
Standing up, Deku made to turn around and face the other villain, who had moved into a fighting stance behind him. As he made to get into one himself however, the villain moved. She relaxed her stance, and held their hand out towards deku, palm down and fingers stretched out. Their eyes went blank, pupils and irises disappearing until a white void remained, that began to glow a bright, warm yellow; Deku izuku's vision swam. His head became light as he moved towards the villain, green lightning crackling around him as he prepared to attack and the eight past holders of one for all were screaming at him to STOP. He'd never heard anyone other than Yagi outside of the dreamscape before...
His swimming vision faded to black, his eyes clouded over and he dropped to the ground, barely registering his head slamming into the concrete below him. And everything stopped…
"Wake up, nine…"
When Izuku opened his eyes again he noticed a dark figure crouching over him, just a silhouette from the sun behind them. He groaned, head aching from where he hit it on the concrete beneath him.
Then he noticed the figure was speaking. "Kid?" Their voice was deep and rough, softened slightly with concern. It was eerily familiar, he just couldn't place from where. "You with me kid? Can you open your eyes for me?"
Izuku tried his best to do as asked, knowing that if he hit his head that Hard it was important to stay awake. Eventually, he managed to, sitting up slowly at the same time, trying his best to avoid staring at the setting sun. "There-" the figure said, helping him "-better? Can I look at your head?" Izuku, Deku? moved back, shaking his head slightly. Ouch, nope, don't do that. He has no clue who this is still, or what their quirk is. And for someone like him, someone as well known as him, it very well could spell his end. (And how ironic was it that the thought wasn't quite as bad as before he graduated?)
"Alright, it's okay kid. I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm a pro hero."
Is he??
The hero hands Izuku a card. He takes it to look it over and…
He's lying.
How did he get this?
Where did he get this?
"You're lying…" he says. Why is his voice so… small..? He sounds like a kid again. Useless
"Why do you think that?" He sounded… confused…
"You can't be Eraserhead." Izuku said, close to tears and, if he's honest, punching the imposter. "You can't be Eraserhead because he's dead."
Izuku doesn't remember the last time he cried, but now the tears finally started to fall. He didn't know why, but the wet stickiness of blood on the back of his head mixed with the terrible day was bad enough. He supposed the 'hero' pretending to be his teacher was just the final pushed him over the edge. Pathetic
The figure in front of him shuffled slightly, and moved closer, putting his hand in izuku's view, and stretching it out invitingly. "Look at me kid. Please?" Izuku didn't know what he thought that would achieve, but did it anyway, looking up through damp eyelashes at the blurry man sitting in front of him, still holding out a hand in offering;
And immediately threw a punch at the lookalike's jaw.
The hit landed perfectly, and hurt, shocking the imposter. The man stared at the child, dumbfounded for a moment as he watched the boy cycle through what seemed like a hundred thoughts, and twice as many emotions. After what felt like an eternity, Eraserhead opened his mouth to ask the kid why he hit him, when the boy threw himself at the hero, wrapping his arms around the man's neck and hugging him as tightly as he dared, fearing that if he held on too tight he would disappear.
He was well aware he was probably causing a lot of inner panic for the tired hero, but in that moment, he couldn't bring himself to care.
He had his hero back.
His teacher.
His friend…
He was in so much trouble for punching him though.