Dusk Twins

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/34012585.

Rating:

Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning:

Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Category:

F/M

Fandom:

僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia

Relationship:

Midoriya Izuku & Shinsou Hitoshi, Bakugou Katsuki/Midoriya Izuku, Hatsume Mei & Midoriya Izuku & Shinsou Hitoshi, Midoriya Izuku & Yaoyorozu Momo

Character:

Midoriya Izuku, Shinsou Hitoshi, Hatsume Mei, Midoriya Inko, Midoriya Hisashi, Kendou Itsuka, Yaoyorozu Momo, Bakugou Katsuki, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic, Kayama Nemuri | Midnight, Fukukado Emi | Ms. Joke, Class 1-A (My Hero Academia), Class 1-B (My Hero Academia)

Additional Tags:

Female Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Izuku Has a Quirk, Vigilante Midoriya Izuku, Vigilante Shinsou Hitoshi, Midoriya Izuku and Shinsou Hitoshi Are Siblings, Childhood friends to rivals to enemies to lovers I think idk, Angst, Chaotic Midoriya Izuku, Chaotic Good Midoriya Izuku, Chaotic Shinsou Hitoshi, Chaotic Hatsume Mei, Midoriya Izuku is a Little Shit, Midoriya Izuku is a Dork, Midoriya Izuku is a Ray of Sunshine, Shinsou Hitoshi is a Little Shit, Slow Burn, Growing Up, Snarky Shinsou Hitoshi, Snarky Midoriya Izuku, Sassy Midoriya Izuku, Sexual Tension, BAMF Midoriya Izuku, BAMF Shinsou Hitoshi, Confident Midoriya Izuku, Bullied Shinsou Hitoshi, Good Parent Midoriya Hisashi, Good Parent Midoriya Inko, Shinsou Hitoshi is in Class 1-B, Humor, Sexual Content, Eventual Sexual Content, Nothing too serious just making out

Stats:

Published: 2021-09-21 Updated: 2021-10-01 Chapters: 8/? Words: 41687

Dusk Twins

by periwinklewriter

Summary

Sibling hood, bullying, vigilantism, love, rivalry and heroism.

Follow twins Izumi and Hitoshi as they rise to heroism in a society that never believed they could do it.

~~~

When Izumi suggests they become vigilantes, Hitoshi thought his sister was joking, she wasn't. It spirals into all sorts of craziness and drama.

But now, they're headed for UA again, realising that they aren't quite ready to deal with crimes, and seeing first hand just how dangerous the underground can be. Even if they're going to UA high school, known for the best hero course in Japan, it doesn't mean the vigilante lifestyle will ever leave them.

It's almost as if danger purposely comes looking for them.

Double Trouble indeed

•••

AU where Izuku Midoriya is female and is Hitoshi's twin sister.

Prologue

"I mean, think about it, why not?" Izumi asked, raising her hands in a questioning gesture, "Hito-nii... we could... we could really, actually do it!" She threw her hands into the air, "We could- we could be vigilantes!"

•••

Inko Midoriya sat propped up in a hospital bed, two twin babies curled up in her arms.

A baby boy, lavender wisps of hair sticking up oddly, his violet eyes dreary, like he desperately wanted to go back to sleep. He blinked slowly, looking up at his mother with a bored look.

A baby girl, a few, thick lavender curls on her head and green streaks, emerald eyes with violet rings around the iris crinkled as the baby smiled and giggled. Her chubby, round face dotted with freckles.

Tears of joy spouted out of Inko's eyes like fountains, but she paid them no mind as she stared at her babies in awe and love.

The boy gurgled and the girl cooed.

Inko's tears only became more bountiful.

"Any ideas for names yet?" A nurse asked, smiling as she took a peek at the adorable babies.

Inko sniffled and looked up at her, "Hitoshi," She decided, looking at the boy.

"Compassionate and benevolent?" The nurse responded, "That's nice,"

Inko spared the nurse a quick appreciative glance before looking back down at her babies.

"And the girl-"

"Inko! Inko! I flew over as soon as I could! Is everything... okay.." Hisashi Shinsou rushed over to his wife's side, his eyes widening as he peered at the babies in her arms, "Oh... oh my," A wide grin split his face.

"I know!" Inko blubbered in response, "I named him Hitoshi, do you want to choose our girl's name?"

Hisashi nodded enthusiastically, his gaze never leaving the two babies, "Izumi," He whispered.

"What was that?" Inko asked, breaking eye contact with Hitoshi to look at Hisashi.

"Izumi Shinsou," Hisashi laughed, "And Hitoshi Shinsou! We have.. we have kids! Inko... I.. can I carry them?"

Inko nodded as she held out her arms to him.

"Come here little Izumi. You too Hitoshi," Hisashi gasped, "Oh she has my freckles! And your face. And little Hitoshi looks just like me! I have a mini-me,"

Inko guffawed, "Oh my God Hisashi," She giggled.

"Would you like a picture?" The nurse asked.

Inko and Hisashi nodded enthusiastically.

Hisashi gave Izumi back to Inko and wrapped one arm around her, sitting next to her on the bed with Hitoshi in his other arm.

Inko wore a teary smile, Izumi bounced energetically, Hitoshi had fallen asleep and Hisashi grinned at the camera.

•••

"-already bought a house-"

"----they don't know--"

"-----leave today--"

"Hito-nii," Izumi whispered shouted as she toddled over to her three year old brother, "What are you doing? Momma said not to come into the room,"

"But can't you hear them? They're arguing!" Hitoshi argued, "We gotta stop them,"

Izumi pouted and shook her head.

"You gotta do what I say, I'm older," Hitoshi replied. He wore a grey shirt and blue jeans, walking around with his dad's sliders that were far too big for his feet. He had a head of soft, wispy, gravity-defying lavender hair, violet eyes and a round face.

"That's now how it works," Izumi crossed her arms.

"Fine. If you don't want to save mommy and daddy then fine," Hitoshi shrugged.

Izumi narrowed her eyes, "Of course I'll save them! It's what All Might would do!" Izumi threw a fist into the air. She wore an All Might pyjama onesie, her curly, lavander locks peeking out of the yellow hoodie.

Hitoshi held back a smirk as his revers psychology worked again, not that he knew it was reverse psychology since he was only three.

"Let's go save mommy and daddy," Hitoshi said.

Izumi cheered, "Yeah! Let's save momma and poppa!"

"----you can't seperate them!"

"I can and I will!"

Izumi and Hitoshi creeped along the walls, Izumi put a finger over Hitoshi's mouth to slow his rapid breathing. Normally, Izumi was the rule breaker but today it was Hitoshi who'd suggested they go against what their mom had said.

"Underground heroes gotta be quiet, 'member?" She whispered to him.

Hitoshi nodded and let Izumi take the lead as she always did, he was always happy to follow her though, she was his sister.

And he couldn't imagine them ever being apart.

•••

They were apart.

Their parents had divorced and had gotten custody of a child each. It was stupid how the law worked sometimes.

Hitoshi stared out of the window at the 3-bedroom house. He and Izumi had shared a bedroom and his parents had shared another, until suddenly they started sleeping in different rooms and shouting at eachother.

Hitoshi would miss this house. It was nothing special, 3-bedrooms, 3-bathrooms connected to each, a kitchen connected to the living room, a study room and a garden.

Hitoshi would miss school. He would miss playing with Katsuki and Tsubasa and the other boys. He would miss always being in the top 3 in tests. He would miss playing heroes and villains. He would miss his teachers, they weren't anything special but they were familiar, and Hitoshi didn't like change.

Hitoshi would miss this neighbourhood. He would miss Ms Kai's black cat that he always had to save from the tree, who would save her now? Maybe he should ask Izumi to do it for him on their daily FaceTime calls. And he would miss the stray cats that he'd named Pillow, Caramel and Indigo. He'd miss the nice lady at the store, he'd miss the park he, Izumi and Katsuki would play in while Mitsuki and Inko talked.

Hitoshi would miss his mom. She always tucked him into bed and kissed him goodnight. Dad gave nice kisses too, but he wanted both of them to tuck him in, not just dad. Atleast, dad always told the best bedtime stories.

Hitoshi would miss Izumi, he was sure dad would too. He would miss playing heroes vs villains with her. He would miss making cookies together. He would miss listening to her ramble about quirks and then coming up with hero names together. He would miss her cuddles whenever he had a nightmare, he would miss ruffling her hair whenever she had a nightmare, or learning to do different styles with her hair.

Dad said he could sleepover on weekends, or that Izumi would sleep over at his new house instead. Dad said that he could visit as much as he liked on holidays. And that they would always have their birthdays together. Dad said they could FaceTime everyday.

"HITO-NII! IMMA GONNA MISS YOU SO MUCH. I'M GONNA MAKE YOU SO MANY COOKIES WHEN YOU COME ON SATDAY!" Izumi yelled, running as the car started to move, her small feet pounding against the floor as she waved her arms around frantically in the air, her hair flying into her face, "POPPA I'MMA GONNA MISS YOU TOO! POPPA IMMA GIVE YOU COOKIES TOO!" Tears ran down her face but she was brave, so she put on a smile for them, "I LOVE YOU HITO-NII. I LOVE YOU POPPA! SEE YOU LATER!"

'See you later' She said, not 'goodbye'.

That was good.

They'd see eachother again.

It wouldn't be enough, but it'd do.

•••

"Mommy," Izumi tugged on her mother's sleeve, "Mommy why did they go?"

Inko looked down at her daughter with tears in her eyes, she quickly wiped them, she had to be strong for her daughter, "Why don't we go go inside first?"

And inside they went.

"Oou momma. Are you making katsoodon?" Izumi asked excitedly.

Inko nodded, a fond smile on her face as her daughter jumped up and down, unfortunately her daughter's jumping knocked the bowl over.

Inko quickly used her quirk to pull up the bowl into her hand as Izumi stared in awe.

"I can't wait til me and Hito get our quirks!" Izumi announced, then her smile twitched a little, "Momma, why did Hito leave with Poppa?"

"Izumi... Hitoshi and your dad," Inko crouched down to be level with her daughter, "They aren't going to live with us anymore,"

"What? Why?" Izumi frowned, her big purple eyes widening as tears began to fill them.

"Sometimes... you know how me and your daddy love eachother?" Inko asked.

Izumi nodded, chewing her bottom lip.

"One day... we stopped loving eachother," Inko said, her daughter hiccuped.

"W-What do you mean?" Izumi stuttered, "Poppa left cos you don't love him?"

"Yes," Inko sighed, "We still care about eachother, we just don't love eachother,"

"So? Why does poppa have to take Hito?" Izumi asked, "And if you still care, then you can still live together,"

"Maybe," Inko shrugged, "But Poppa got a new house for him and Hitoshi. But you get to visit on weekends and see their new house,"

"Why can't I go to the new house?" Izumi pouted, tears streaming down her face.

"You can!" Inko assured, "Just not today, okay baby?"

Izumi shook her head and ran off towards her room. A typical three year old throwing a tantrum.

The following week, Inko and Izumi got their surnames changed to Midoriya.

•••

Every weekday, Izumi and Hitoshi would feel each other's absence more and more, longing for their sibling's presence.

To be distracted from Hitoshi's absence, Izumi was enrolled in ballet class (but also because she was incredibly clumsy and she'd knocked a lamp over the desk the third time this month)

And Hitoshi took tuition classes to keep himself at the top of his new class, at whatever new school he went to.

•••

"Kacchan! Why did you blow our candles?!" Izumi shrieked, Katsuki snickered in response before Izumi pounced on him, toppling both 4 year olds over.

Hitoshi frowned, feeling a little left out. But it made sense that Katsuki and Izumi were closer now, that he wasn't as close with Katsuki as Izumi was anymore. But he was also a little jealous that Katsuki got to see his sister everyday and he didn't.

"Hitoshi. Why are you frowning?" One of his new school friends asked, waddling over. He had black hair and black claws on his hands, his quirk. Hitoshi hoped he would get his quirk soon, hoped he would get a heroic quirk, maybe even better than Katsuki's. Would he get an upgraded version of his mom's telekinesis? His paternal grandfather's empath abilities? His maternal grandmother's verbal telekinesis? His dad's fire breathing?

"I'm not frowning," Hitoshi said, attempting a smile, it seemed convincing enough as his friend shrugged and pointed at the cake.

"So... you gunna cut the cake or what? I'm hungry!"

"Mommy said we have to take pictures first," Hitoshi frowned again.

"Oh... well. Can I take some anyway?"

"What? No! Mommy said no. Did you not hear me?"

"I heard yo-" Hitoshi's friend, Suzuki, froze, literally.

"Suzuki-kun?" Hitoshi asked tentatively, waving a hand in front of his friend's face, "Suzuki-kun...?" Hitoshi's eyes widened as he began to panic, clicking his fingers in front of his friend's face, "Suzuki! Wake up! Mommy Suzuki won't wake up!"

Hitoshi ran to his mother, pulling on her sleeve.

"Yes dear, what is it?" Inko asked, pausing conversation with one of Izumi's friend's mother.

"It's Suzuki! He's not moving," Hitoshi said, urgency clear in his voice.

"What do you mean he's not..?" Inko trailed off as she followed his glance towards Suzuki who stood by the table, eyes blank, unmoving, Suzuki's mother rushing over to him, "Oh dear!" Inko gasped.

Inko rushed over to the child, Hitoshi behind her, the rest of the kids at the party and their parents all crowded around the unmoving child.

"Momma? What happened?" Izumi asked, having finally stopped roughhousing with Katsuki.

"Yeah what happened Auntie?" Katsuki asked.

Someone called the ambulance, some of kids started to panic and cry, Suzuki's mother began calling her father and Hitoshi stood pondering.

Izumi panicked and cried in the corner of the room whilst Katsuki 'comforted' her.

"Stop being a baby, Izumi-chan," Katsuki chided, "He's gonna be fine. Don't cry," He patted her back (more roughly than needed).

Izumi hiccuped, "B-but wh-what even happened to h-him?"

"Dunno," Katsuki shrugged, when Izumi cried more Katsuki decided to display his quirk to her, the explosions always managed to calm her, she would always stare on in awe and admiration, and it gave Katsuki an excuse to show off.

Tiny pops erupted from Katsuki's palms and Izumi's purple-green eyes sparkled, "Kacchan! You're so cool!"

"I know I am,"

"Suzuki wake up!" Hitoshi yelled in frustration.

And to everyone's surprise, confusion and relief. Suzuki zoned back in.

"Eh?" Suzuki asked dumbly, "What happened?"

Somehow, it was a 4-year old who first connected the dots, but considering that 4-year-old was Izumi. Was anyone all that surprised?

"HITO-NII. IT'S YOUR QUIRK!" Izumi burst. She stood up quickly and ran over to Hitoshi and began shaking him excitedly, practically vibrating, "HITO-NII!" She squealed, then began a mumble spree, "I think your quirk has something to do with the mind, since Suzuki-kun couldn't move and it's the brain that controls all the body parts, right? So maybe you made him like, stop thinking and that's why his eyes went white. So he stopped moving and..." She kept on mumbling, and everyone in earshot begun to feel drowsy, oblivious to the effect she was having on people. Her eyes began to glow softly.

•••

"Hello, you must be Miss Midoriya and Mr Shinsou?" The doctor asked, as they entered the room, Hitoshi hiding behind his mother's leg and Izumi rushing into the room, a wide smile on her face. Hisashi standing off to the side, watching his daughter with an amused expression.

"Yep! That's my momma! And my poppa! And I'm Izumi! And I got my quirk!" Izumi giggled and the doctor gave a belly-laugh.

"Well aren't you energetic?" He joked.

Inko chuckled fondly as she watched her daughter interact with the doctor, meanwhile, Hitoshi looked around the room inspecting the different equipment silently.

"Well, take a seat, take a seat," The Doctor encourages fondly. He was a short, plump man, with a thick brown moustache and bald head.

The family of 4 took their seats. Hitoshi curled into his mother's arm, Hisashi ruffling Izumi's hair as she swung her legs.

"Could you describe to me what you know of your quirks so far?" The Doctor asked.

"Well Izumi's quirk seemed to make people tired and Hitoshi's quirk made people go into this... sort of.. blank state, unable to move. We suspect it's something more to do with the mind than the body itself," Inko reasoned.

Izumi paid rapt attention, leaning forward in her seat, waiting for the doctor to say something.

"May I ask what other quirks there are in your family to see where theirs come from?" The Doctor asked.

This time Hisashi spoke, "My quirk is fire breathing, the more powerful my emotions are, the more powerful my flames. My father's an empath. And my mother also had a fire breathing quirk, a weaker version of mine,"

Inko spoke next, "My quirk is pull, it's a form of telekinesis. My mother had a quirk called 'verbal telekinesis' she could command any object to move verbally. My father was telepathic,"

The Doctor scribbled somethings down in his notepad, muttering to himself before looking up at the family, a dangerous glint in his eyes, "I have a feeling your children's quirks are something more than just making people tired and making people freeze up, ma'am, sir,"

"Oh? How so?" Inko asked.

Hisashi's eyes narrowed at the doctor, the doctor was acting rather odd, it was nothing obvious, but the slightly manic look in his eyes and his overly friendly demeanour set Hisashi off.

"Well we could run some tests on their quirks. I could take your children to a special testing room-"

"Ah it's fine!" Hisashi butted in, "I think we'll just go home, Hitoshi wasn't feeling well today and I can tell he feels even worse now,"

Hitoshi furrowed his brows in confusion and Izumi began babbling, "Hito-nii? Are you sick? Why didn't you tell me? Are you gonna get me sick too? Do we have to go home? I wanna learn more about my quirk,"

"Another time Izumi," Hisashi patted his daughter's head, "Another time,"

•••

The next day, they visited a new quirk doctor and chose their quirk names.

When Izumi went to school the following week and announced her quirk, she was confused, and hurt, to see that no one was as excited as she was. No one crowded around her like they did with Kacchan, not that she even liked crowds, and no one praised her or congratulated her, no one told her her quirk was cool.

If anything, everyone seemed hell bent on ignoring her.

This continued for a few days until Izumi discovered why.

"What are you doing trying to play hero Deku?!" Kacchan asked, clamping his hand over his fist and popping an explosion.

"D-Deku?" Izumi asked, standing in front of a boy, limp noodle arms held up in a fighting pose and chubby cheeks puffed out, whilst her chin length purple and green hair flowed in the wind.

"It means useless!" Tsubasa informed her, "Just like you!" Tsubasa was a pudgy boy with red wings.

"Eh? I'm not useless!" Izumi defended.

"Move out of our way Deku," Kacchan growled, "I need to show this extra his place,"

Izumi glanced behind her to the boy cowering on the floor.

"N-no," Izumi stuttered, "I- I won't let you,"

"Hah?!" Kacchan asked, "Let me? You don't have a choice,"

And then they all charged at her.

"Wait wait wait wait. Don't hurt me or him! Or I'll never forgive you, ever. If you don't get away from us right now, then I'll have to stop you. Because that's what a hero does!" Izumi rambled, all the while, the boys began to approach her slower, getting more tired as her voice reached their ears.

"A hero?!" Kacchan reached her first, "You're nothing more than a villain with a quirk like that," And with that, he shoved her to the ground harshly.

His words had hurt more than his actions though.

Kacchan 'tch'ed and walked off with his lackeys.

The boy Izumi had protected had run away without even a 'thank you' to her.

And Izumi was left, lying alone on the floor, purple and green curls splayed out behind her, tears flooding out of her eyes.

She watched through her blurry eyes as Katsuki walked away from her.

•••

When Hitoshi returned to his school rumours had already been spread by his so-called friend Suzuki.

"Villain," They whispered as he walked through the halls.

Hitoshi ignored them.

And he would continue to ignore them, for his time at this school, and the next.

He would just prove them wrong in the end.

He'd be a hero.

They'd eat their words.

•••

At the age of 5 years, Hitoshi and Izumi started their weekends together with a swimming lesson. It was a great way to keep the young children fit, and swimming was a necessary skill, one they both enjoyed learning.

After their hellish first year of school, they deserved an activity they could enjoy.

Katsuki almost drowned Izumi at their class swimming lessons (It's okay though because Izumi returned the favour by trapping him under her shark-shaped board. Although, she got in trouble for it and he didn't.) So Izumi used the excuse that she already had swimming lessons to skip out on them, besides, some of the girls made fun of her chubby body.

But Hito-nii never made fun of her body. That's why she preferred swimming lessons with her brother instead of her class.

Hitoshi's school, on the other hand, didn't even have swimming lessons, despite being a better school than Izumi's.

Izumi purposely splashed her feet as she swam past Hitoshi with her red swimming noddle wrapped around her waist.

Hitoshi sputtered, "Is that necessary?" He deadpanned.

Izumi tried to giggle but ended up inhaling water.

Hitoshi laughed at her as she coughed up the water.

She turned to glare at him, but her own giggles ruined the effect, "Not funny," She said, still giggling.

•••

When she returned to school for a new school year, Izumi was being ignored as usual. She got a few weary glances, a few glares and a few insults but her Poppa had told her to ignore what they say and stand up for herself, so she would.

She stood up on her table in the middle of class. The teacher had declared partner work and nobody was partnering up with her, before she had gotten her quirk at least one person would want to be her partner.

"THAT'S IT!" She yelled, stomping her foot down on the table, "I HAVE HAD ENOUGH!"

All her classmates stared at her as she screamed, standing on the table.

Her teacher seemed to startled to even reprimand her.

"IT'S NOT FAIR! You guys all treat me like a villain, but I didn't do nothing! If I wanted to hurt you I would have already! But I don't wanna do that. I don't wanna hurt anyone. So why do you guys hurt me?" She asked, small tears bubbling in the corners of her eyes, "I just wanna be friends with you all. But you all ignore me, and pretend I don't exist. Or you push me around and break my things! You always laugh at me or act scared of me. But what have I done to make you scared of me?"

"Midoriya get off the table-"

"I'M NOT DONE!" Izumi yelled, angry tears streaming down her face, "I just wanna be treated the same! You gotta treat people the way you wanna be treated! So stop being mean to me. My quirk, is gonna be a hero's quirk. Cos I can stop a villain before they can even hurt anyone with my quirk. It's not flashy but it's still heroic! So stop calling me a villain," She ended her speech with a pout as she hopped off her desk and slumped back into her seat with a 'humph' that blew a few strands of hair out of her face, crossing her arms over her chest, and glaring angrily at nothing in particular.

The classroom was silent for a few moments before one girl hesitantly approached her, she had pink hair tied into pigtails and wide green eyes, "M-Midoriya-Chan. I'm so sorry I ignored you when you didn't do nuffin to me. Can we be BFFs again, please?"

Following her example, everyone began clamouring around Izumi.

"I'm so sorry Midoriya-chan!"

"Midoriya, can you forgive me?"

"Wanna partner up Midoriya-san?"

"No partner with me instead!"

"You'll be a great hero,"

"I'm sorry for those mean things I said,"

"Can we be friends again Midoriya-chan?"

Izumi let a wide smile grace her face as her glare disappeared, she stood and held her arms out and announced, "I FORGIVE YOU ALL! GROUP HUG!"

All the students around her glomped her in a massive group hug as joyous tears slipped down her puffy cheeks.

At the back of the classroom, Katsuki and his two extras grumbled to themselves. Katsuki let off a few angry explosions, 'Why does Deku get all that attention? Who does she think she is? She cries a few crocodile tears and everyone loves her again? I'm the main character, not her!'

Meanwhile, Hitoshi continued to isolate himself at school.

•••

At the age of 7, they concluded their swimming lessons and switched them out for martial arts classes. Since martial arts had to be attended more than once a week, it was decided that Hitoshi would go to a dojo nearer his own home and Izumi one nearer hers, so unfortunately, they went to seperate dojos. Though, it was a blessing in disguise, since their body types would grow to be very different and different types of martial arts would be better for them than to do the same one.

Being tall, and skinny, Hitoshi opted to take taekwondo. There, he met his new best friend Kendo who studied a range of martial arts. Unlike Suzuki, she didn't care about his quirk. And though things were tough at school, having a friend outside of school somehow made school more bearable, knowing thay even if his classmates didn't like him, someone did. He talked about Kendou a lot to Izumi, using gender neutral pronouns to hide that Kendou was a girl to avoid being teased by his sister.

Judo, in some scenarios, was a good martial arts for small people. So, Izumi, being shorter than the average partook in it. She also took kickboxing in her later years, a martial arts suited for speed.

•••

At age 8, they began learning to use weapons. They learnt a variety of weapons, but mastered one type.

Hitoshi learnt to use a bo staff - Izumi had wanted to do the same but was too short to use one. He also learnt how to use nunchucks - Izumi had also tried to learn how to use them but ended up whacking herself in the face one too many times.

Izumi learnt how to use throwing knives, her father's idea - her mother disapproved but let it happen. Realising it was better for Izumi to be able to defend herself with weapons even if they were extremely violent weapons. So, Izumi mastered throwing knives and daggers. She had to study the human anatomy very thoroughly to find out where and where not to stab and found herself at the top of her class in biology (something Kacchan never stopped bitching about - though their enemy thing had grown into more of a rivalry, one that wasn't the most healthy, but definitely healthier than bullying eachother.)

Izumi was only upset that baseball bats weren't actual, practical weapons because it would be convenient to just whack a villain over the head with one and call it a day. And maybe she could look badass while doing it, she was tired of people looking at her and calling her 'cute' because the way they said it always sounded condescending, and even if it was a genuine compliment, the word still sounded sour, like she was being underestimated, like her job was to just sit and look pretty.

Being called pretty was fine, or gorgeous perhaps, but the word cute just irked her. Especially when Katsuki used it mockingly, 'Aww cute little Deku's standing up for herself?'

Or 'Deku still thinks she can be a hero? How cute,'

•••

When Izumi started middle school, she'd mostly forgotten the stigma that came with her quirk since she'd dealt with the problem in her elementary school. Occasionally, people had still ignored her, spread rumours about her, and sure it had hurt, but Izumi had shouldered through it.

But middle school was a new setting, with new people. There were some familiar faces from elementary school that waved at her in the halls with a pleasant smile, but once word got out about her quirk, the people she didn't know yet were quick to avoid her, and she began having the same problems all over again.

And this time Izumi was more mature, she didn't feel like she'd give off a great impression if she just stood up on a table again and started crying like a baby and complaining about her mistreatment. Luckily, the teacher's seemed neutral to her, though that treatment paled in comparison to the great treatment of those with 'heroic' quirks who could get away with anything. Fortunately, Izumi was a good student, so she never got in trouble anyways, unless Kacchan was involved.

So with the start of middle school, came a dip in her self confidence.

So, her father signed her up for a beauty pageant and her mother helped her practice for it.

(Hisashi also tried to get Hitoshi to participate in the Male beauty pageants but he strongly declined.)

There, she made a friend arguably better than any of the ones she had at school. This friend was someone Izumi grew to be really close with. Someone who was also at the pageant because they were struggling with self confidence.

They were the same and different in all the right ways.

A reserved girl and an extroverted girl.

A posh, rich girl and a girl who's well off but goes to a shitty school.

At the beauty pageant (which Izumi won and would continue to win all pageants she competed in throughout the year), she met Yaoyorozu Momo.

•••

In his second year of middle school, Hitoshi let out a small groan as his body hit the wall, pinned up by muscular arms. 'Agawa,' was the name Hitoshi's mind supplied for him as he stared into hateful orange eyes. In isolating himself, Hitoshi had forgotten to pay attention to anyone else, and as he looked around at the rest of his bullies, he couldn't recognise any of the others properly, he could vaguely recall seeing them in his homeroom class, or maybe his science class? He did recognise one other than Agawa though, 'Suzuki' He thought, his eyes catching on his most regular tormentor.

Suzuki was Hitoshi's biggest bully, the classic childhood friend turned bully trope thing. Ever since the incident on Hitoshi's 4 birthday where he activated his quirk on Suzuki, Suzuki has never let him live it down. Constantly name calling and spreading rumours and shoving past him in the hallways. Hitoshi never fought back, just kept to himself. Besides, things had never gotten too bad. He would sometimes get targeted in PE, where people would throw the dodgeballs far harder than necessary at him, or someone would 'accidentally' knock his lunch tray over onto himself, or he'd find a muzzle or spider Lily's waiting on his desk. But he'd never been beat up before. It had never been that bad.

This was new.

He watched as Suzuki joined Agawa at the forefront of his vision.

Agawa had a strength enhancement quirk, 'A heroic quirk' Hitoshi thought as he rolled his eyes.

"Who the fuck do you think you're rolling your eyes at, HUH?" Agawa yelled.

Hitoshi wrinkled his nose as Agawa's hot breath hit him, 'What was it for lunch? Oh yeah, spicy beans,'

Agawa pulled Hitoshi off the wall and slammed him down again.

"Hey, hey, hey," Suzuki put an arm on Hitoshi's shoulder.

And Hitoshi's eyes widened in wonder, in hope. Had... had he had a change of heart? Was Suzuki going to stand up for him?

Suzuki made eye contact with Hitoshi, a pitying look in his eyes that quickly gave way to eagerness, "You can't have all the fun. Go pick on Wakanabe or something. Everyone knows Shinsou-kun's all mine,"

Hitoshi felt a sharp stinging pain in his cheeks and felt the sensation spread.

Blood dripped down his cheek, he realised that Suzuki had dragged one of his nasty claws - Hitoshi had a hunch that he didn't wash underneath them - down his face.

Hitoshi let out a quiet hiss and forced himself to make eye contact with Suzuki, he'd seen somewhere on the Internet that eye contact often helped de-escalate situations.

"Huh?" Suzuki wondered aloud, "Kinda thought your blood would be purple too,"

Some of his lackeys laughed, meanwhile Agawa asked, "Isn't everyone's blood red?" Like the dumb shit he is. It was always the ones with brawn and no brain.

One of the lackeys jabbed Agawa and whispered obnoxiously, "He didn't mean it literally, it was just a joke,"

"Listen up bitch," Suzuki said, staring back into Hitoshi's purple eyes, "You're gonna Brainwash our teacher to give me an A on my report card, or else,"

Hitoshi gulped and with a dry tongue whispered, "No,"

"Did you think I was asking?" Suzuki tilted his head.

"I'm not doing that," Hitoshi glared at Suzuki.

"Oh? So you can use your quirk to steal from your classmates but you can't use it to get me a good grade?" Suzuki asked.

"I didn't steal from anyone-"

"Ah, ah, ah," Suzuki clamped a hand over Hitoshi's mouth, "Who do you think the teacher'll believe? Hero hopeful Suzuki, or villain in the making Shinso?" Suzuki put on an innocent look, "Abiko-sensei, I can't find my wallet!" He switched his voice into a deeper one, "Well where'd you put it last?", His voice then went back to normal, "I don't know, I was hanging out with Shinsou and then he said something and the rest of my memory is hazy after that,"

"You're going to frame me?" Hitoshi asked, ignoring the tears that threatened to rise to the surface, he felt claws grip his throat.

"Only if you deny my request. Now be a good little dog and go get me a good grade so we don't have to muzzle you like a bad doggie," Suzuki cooed.

The rest of the boys laughed.

Later that day, Hitoshi walked home, scratch marks on his arms and cheek, bruising on his throat, and an aching body altogether. It was a good thing dad was on a business trip for the rest of the week, by then Hitoshi's injuries would have healed enough for him to blame it on walking into a door or falling down the stairs or an accident in PE.

No one was supposed to be home.

And yet, when he unlocked the door and walked in, he came face to face with Izumi smiling brightly at him.

'What's she doing here? It's a Thursday. She has school,'

"Hey Hito-nii. We get a day off at school tomorrow for some repairs or something, I don't know. And I thought you might be lonely with dad on his work trip so I figured, hey, why not pop in and say Hi! So here I am, maybe we could watch some-" Izumi paused for a second and gave him a scrutinised him, "Shinsou Hitoshi, what the hell?" She asked, looking him up and down, scanning for more injuries.

"It's nothing just an accident in PE-"

"My ass!" Izumi called his bluff, Hitoshi groaned. Izumi rarely swore and when she did, she meant business.

Hitoshi didn't want to deal with his sister today he realised. He loved his sister, but did it have to be today of all days that her school decided they needed repairs? God knows they've needed them for a long time so why now? Did the universe hate him that much?

"What happened to you?" Izumi asked, pulling him through the door, he let out a hiss as she grabbed his bruised arm and slammed the door shut behind them.

"It's usually not this bad-"

"I would sure hope not!" Izumi snapped.

"It's not that big of a deal," Hitoshi glared at his twin, "Stop overreacting, some people have it a lot worse. I just got a few scratches, I can deal with it-" Hitoshi cut himself off as he felt a slight stinging sensation on his cheek, looking at his sister, he realised she had just slapped him (albeit not that hard because she was mindful of his injuries).

"Overreacting? Not that bad? Hitoshi you are bleeding, you're bruised black and blue! Just because someone out there has it worse doesn't mean you don't have it bad! Stop invadlidating your experience, sure someone out there might get stabbed but that doesn't mean getting slapped in the face doesn't hurt like a bitch. Sure, someone might be beaten up bruised everyday for something they can't control, but you getting beaten up just once is still bad," She crossed her arms over her chest and returned his glare with one of her own.

Hitoshi's glare melted into a guilty look and he scratched the back of his neck nervously.

Izumi's glare also disappeared and a softer look took over her features, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I..." Hitoshi's throat felt dry. She had a point. Why hadn't he told her? She always ranted to him about her issues at school whether it be an overload of homework or getting called a villain or Bakugou getting a higher score than her on a test, "I'm sorry," He sighed.

Izumi (ever emotional) began crying, barrelling into Hitoshi full force and wrapping her arms around him, "You have to tell me these things," She cried into his shoulder.

"I know... I just... I'm the older brother,"

Izumi let out a wet snort, "10 minutes,"

When Izumi finally pulled away, Hitoshi looked down at his younger sister and his eyes widened as he realised something, "You're not gonna tell dad or mom, right?"

Izumi scrunched up her face in thought, she hadn't actually considered that yet, "I mean I kinda have to-"

"We both know that's not true," Hitoshi whined, "Please don't tell them. I'll buy you all the vanilla ice cream you want. Although I don't understand how vanilla can be your favourite flavour, so boring, but I digress-"

"Don't diss vanilla!" Izumi looked scandalised, "You have no right to speak anyways. You're favourite flavour is literally mint chocolate chip. Vanilla may be plain, but sometimes plain is good! All other flavours suck!"

"What's wrong with with mint chocolate chip-" Hitoshi paused and gave Izumi an exasperated look, "You're avoiding my question,"

"Damn, you caught me," She muttered, "Now forget we ever had this conversation,"

"Your quirk doesn't work on me, you know this," Hitoshi groaned, "Stop distracting me from the question I asked you! Are you going to tell our parents or not?"

".....I won't," Izumi acquiesced. Hitoshi let out a sigh of relief, "On one condition," Hitoshi sharply sucked in a breath and glared at his sister, "You promise to defend yourself next time. I don't care who they were, you could've whooped all their asses!"

"Actually it was 5 v 1-"

"You could've whooped atleast 2 of their asses," Izumi resolved, nodding soundly at her logic.

"'Whoop their asses' you're starting to sound like Bakugou,"

"You haven't seen or talked to Kacchan in like 8 years,"

"Yeah but I know him through you and all your hour long rants about how much you love- sorry I meant loathe him," Hitoshi grinned.

"I don't- listen up- I- hmph," Izumi huffed, "You aren't as funny as you'd like to think,"

"Uh huh," Hitoshi nodded sarcastically, "So why do you still call him Kacchan?"

"Force of habit," Izumi shrugged in fake nonchalance.

"Sure, sure, force of habit," Hitoshi continued t nod, pretending to agree with her excuse.

"Whatever! That's off topic. We need to talk about why you aren't fighting back,"

"Because that'll prove them right, that I'm a villain. They'll think-"

"Who cares what they think?!"

"I DO!" Hitoshi shouted, "Izumi, I can't fight back..."

"Why not? You don't have to use your quirk to do it, you've been doing taekwondo for years," Izumi's eyebrows pinched together in frustration.

"It's... I... well..."

"I'm not asking you to go pick fights, but if they fight back I don't want you to just stand there and take it. It's okay to fight if it's self-defense, that's what my judo sensei says," Izumi made sure to make eye contact with her brother, "Promise me you'll fight back,"

Hitoshi reluctantly nodded, "Promise," He whispered.

"Pinky swear?" Izumi asked.

"What are we? 6?"

In the end, Hitoshi did pinky swear that he would start fighting back.

•••

"Oh they're just like you guys when you were younger," Hisashi groaned as he watched Hitoshi's pet cat and Izumi's pet rabbit destroy the house. Pouncing and hopping from place to place, "I thought I told you not to let them ever be in the same room- or house!" Hisashi ran a hand down his face.

"Caffeine, stop that!" Hitoshi ran after his pet black cat he's had for 3 years, "Come back here,"

Izumi snorted, "Ha! Atleast my pet listens to me," Izumi was now sitting in the corner of the room, her pet rabbit, Bunny, sitting in her lap after she captured her when she was about to dive off of the ceiling fan and straight onto the floor, "I still can't believe you named your cat Caffeine,"

"You named your bunny Bunny," Hitoshi deadpanned, picking up his cat and cursing as she slipped out of his hands and started scampering across the floor again.

"It was that or All Might jr! Or Miruko. I can't believe you didn't let me call my own rabbit Miruko," Izumi called, "Me and Bunny are going for a walk," She stood up with Bunny in her arms, a small chinchilla rabbit.

"For the last time, he's not a dog, and picking him up and placing him in our garden doesn't count as going for a walk,"

"You're such a hater," Izumi responded.

"Yeah yeah, heard that one before,"

Izumi snorted.

•••

"-And then he said, 'Stupid Deku, watch where the fuck you're walking, loser,'" Izumi mimicked Katsuki's voice by making her own voice deep and aggressive, "So then I ignored him, and yet the teacher goes 'Izumi stop antagonising Bakugou' LIKE, what does that even mean? I didn't do anything? It's frickin Kacchan he antagonises himself!"

"Mmhmm," Hitoshi nodded in agreement, laying on the couch in his mother's house as Izumi paced up and down in front of him making animated gestures and rambling about her day. Hitoshi was one of the few people who could understand her when she spoke so fast, and even then, sometimes he still got confused. So he learnt to just smile and nod.

"And then, I get into the classroom and my fricking desk is bent inwards with scorch marks on it! And then I tell the teacher, obviously, but she says there's no proof it was him even though, who else has a fire quirk?! Apart from this one pyrokinetic girl in my class, but she's my friend, I know she would never! Ugh, Kacchan is such a teacher's pet, actually, if anything, the teachers are the ones who suck up to him, it's honestly embarassing," Izumi continued to ramble (meanwhile, Katsuki stood in his own house, furiously hitting a punching bag whilst shouting about how Deku ruined his day as an outlet for his anger).

"Why do you let him annoy him so much? None of the other dickheads in your class seem to frustrate you as much as him, don't let him get to you," Hitoshi shrugged.

Izumi groaned and flopped next to him on the couch.

'Mood,' Hitoshi thought amusedly.

"But that's just the thing! I can't not let him get to me! I've tried! I don't know he does it but he always manages to get on my every last nerve! Even his breathing annoys me. 'oooh look at me, I can explode my fricking sweat which means I'm better than all these extras, especially fucking Deku! And I'm angry all the time like a feral dog. All bark and no bite!' He's so- UGH!" Izumi threw her arms into the air exasperatedly.

Hitoshi laughed.

Izumi turned her head to him, "So how was your day?"

"Great," Hitoshi huffed bitterly.

Izumi rose a brow, "Wanna talk about it?"

"Not particularly but I will anyway. So you know Suzuki? Today he thought it'd be a good idea to put fucking ants in my bag- which by the way, where the fuck did he even get ants from?"

"Oh my God, ants?! That's so gross and ugh. What the heck is wrong with him? Didn't he used to be your friend?"

"Didn't you used to be Bakugou's friend?"

"Touché,"

•••

"Izumi," A voice croaked as the door to Inko's house was unlocked by Hitoshi and he walked in. His eyes were rimmed red, his posture more slouched than usual, and he looked utterly defeated.

It was a Wednesday. Hitoshi shouldn't have been in this side of the city.

Izumi, hearing the door open, ran to it, seeing her brother standing there, looking emotionally drained, "Hito-nii!" She gasped, "What happened?!"

She dragged him into the house and shut the door, dragging him to his room and sitting him down on the bed.

They sat in silent for a few minutes, Izumi waited patiently for him to speak, her thigh bouncing up and down on the bed in nervousness and anger for whoever or whatever had put her brother in such a state.

"It's not fair," He finally whispered, a few tears slipping down his cheeks, "It's not fair how they treat us. Just because our quirks would be useful for a villain doesn't mean we are villains. Our quirks aren't us. All I've wanted was to be a hero, and now I might never get that chance,"

Izumi was about to interject with a 'why not?' But pursed her lips, sensing he had more to say.

"I've been defending myself like you asked, but today the teacher caught me defending myself and automatically assumed it was not fault, didn't even bother to hear my side of the story. And now I'm excluded for a week, and it's going on my permanent record,"

"What?!" Izumi shrieked, "They can't do that! UA would never let you in with a mark like that. And- and you didn't even do anything? That's illegal, right? It's discrimination, quirk discrimination, we could like, sue them or something? Couldnt we?"

"It'd be a he said, she said situation. There's no proof. The odds are stacked against me," Hitoshi wiped his eyes, "Whatever, it's nothing to cry over, crying's your thing anyway,"

"It is totally worth crying over! Your future is being ruined over something you can't control! I'm gonna grab the teachers head and bash it against the wall and then I'm gonna grab his computer keyboard and shove it up-"

"We're not beating up my dickhead of a teacher,"

"I'm gonna send him, very strongly worded emails," Izumi bashed her fists together angrily.

Hitoshi snorted and leaned his head on Izumi's shoulder.

"I can't be a hero anymore Izumi," He told her, refusing to look her in the eye.

"Of course you can! There are other hero schools than UA,"

"Who won't accept me because of my record,"

"Then we'll go to a lower tier school-"

"-to become trashy D lister sidekicks? No thanks. And what do you mean 'we', this is my problem not yours,"

"Hito-nii, you have to know that we're in this together,"

Hitoshi opened his mouth to speak.

"Nothing you say will convince me otherwise,"

He opened his mouth again.

"Nope," Izumi cut him off, "Nothing,"

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Hitoshi looked at his sister's face, "I can tell you want to say something, spit it out,"

Izumi stood up off his bed and faced him, "What does being a hero mean to you?"

"What? That's what you wanted to say?" Hitoshi asked, befuddled.

"Just answer the question. Shinsou Hitoshi, what does it mean to be a hero?" Izumi asked, picking up a cream bottle and shoving it in his face like a microphone.

Hitoshi sighed and spoke into the 'microphone', "To me, being a hero is about kicking villain butt to save people,"

"Ah, ah, ah. I think you mean saving people by kicking villain butt," Izumi tutted.

"That's literally what said, you just switched the order,"

"Exactly. Hitoshi, my dear brother, saving people always comes first. Saving people is always the priority. Whether from villains, regular criminals or natural disasters. Being a hero is about making people feel safe and doing community work. It's about inspiring people, giving them hope! Like All Might, smiling as he saves the day," Izumi shoved the bottle back into his face, "Now answer me this Hitoshi, do you want to be a hero?"

Hitoshi gave her a sour look, "Are you making fun of me?" He knew it was ridiculous, his sister would never make fun of him like this, she would never rub the fact that he couldn't be a hero in his face. But Hitoshi was just confused, he seriously couldn't understand what she was getting at.

"No I'm not making fun of you silly! now, if you would please, answer the question. Pretty please,"

Hitoshi sighed and rolled his eyes, "Yes, I do want to be a hero," He said dryly.

"That's the spirit!" Izumi cheered, pumping a fist into the air.

"So what's the point of this little intervention?"

"I'm getting to that. Think about it, when I asked you the definition of a hero you said nothing about hero licenses or hero schools,"

"So?"

"So we don't need them to be heroes!"

"Pardon?"

"I mean, think about it, why not?" Izumi asked, raising her hands in a questioning gesture, "Hito-nii... we could... we could really, actually do it!" She threw her hands into the air, "We could- we could be vigilantes!"

Two

PART ONE BEGINS.

"Help me please!" Inko cried out, hiding under a duvet.

The door to the room slammed open and there stood two small figures.

Izumi stood with her fluffy, chin-length curly hair hidden in a yellow hood with antennae like tendrils sticking out. An All Might onesie.

Beside her stood her twin brother Hitoshi, dressed in a black onesie with a grey scarf over it.

"WE ARE HERE!" Izumi announced, "Dont worry, never fear, for it is I, Mightizumi! And my hero partner EraserHitoshi!"

"I told you to call me Eraserboy not EraserHitoshi,"

Izumi ignored Hitoshi and marched into the room, dragging him behind her, "We are here to save you Momm- uh, civilian!"

•••

She threw her hands into the air, "We could- we could be vigilantes!"

"Not quite sure how you came to that conclusion," Hitoshi narrowed his eyes at her, "Our parents will kill us,"

"What they don't know won't hurt them. Besides, dad'd probably support us,"

"That's because dad is irresponsible," Hitoshi argued.

"Yeah, yeah," Izumi waved her hand dismissively, "Back to the point. We could be vigilantes. I mean, firstly we'd have to up our training and get our hands on some weapons. Perhaps we should add running and light weight training to our routines and we should spar with eachother,"

"Or we could just go about our daily lives and not go against the law,"

"Oh boohoo," Izumi said, "People are out there getting hurt and we have the power to save them. Law be damned! What kind of heroes would we be if we ignored someone in need,"

"I don't think that's what ignoring is-"

"Stop yapping-"

"I'm the one yapping?"

"Just hear me out, it would be the perfect way to test out our quirks limits and put our training to use! Also, we could always erase the memory of any villain we encounter, so we'll never get caught,"

Hitoshi sat in silence, letting her words stew for a bit. Sure she raised some fair points, but... dammit was he actually considering this?

"And it could be like, extra brother-sister bonding time," She grinned, "So, whaddya think?"

"I think no," Hitoshi said.

•••

And yet, he found himself preparing to become a vigilante the moment summer holidays began.

Their day started with an early morning jog in which they'd map out different sections of the city and try to memorise them. Sometimes, when the streets were particularly empty, they'd experiment with some parkour, but being completely self-taught, more often than not they'd find themselves falling flat on their faces.

"So if we go straight through that alley and make consecutive lefts we pop out on the road right by the mall?" Hitoshi asked.

Izumi nodded, "Mmhmm," As they continued to jog around the city.

"Wanna do some more parkour?" Hitoshi asked, gesturing to a fire escape ladder on the side of a building, he looked around for a bit, "Coast is clear,"

Izumi nodded enthusiastically.

•••

Their feet pounded against the rooftops as they raced. Izumi let out an excited shout as she ran and jumped onto the next building, Hitoshi a little ahead of her.

"You're too slow," Hitoshi looked back, grinning teasingly.

"Atleast I," Izumi caught up to him, "have more stamina," Izumi pointed out.

"Yeah well you kinda need it for those long rants you go on. And it helps your quirk, you need to speak and fight in a battle, so you need good stamina," And then he ran ahead of her again.

"Fair," She breathed out, sweat lining her forehead, "But it's not fair that you're faster just cos you're taller,"

"Life's not fair," Hitoshi smirked.

Izumi rolled her eyes, "At least I'm lighter on my feet. Vigilantes have to be sneaky and subtle,"

"Yeah well we don't all do ballet so we aren't all light on our feet," Hitoshi responded, leaping into the air and tucking into a roll as he landed hard against a lower rooftop.

Izumi mirrored him, though her roll was much more elegant. Using the moment of her roll, she pushed herself back up on to her two feet whilst Hitoshi stood back up.

Now she was ahead of him, and it would probably stay that way as Hitoshi was tiring out quicker than her.

"How'd you do that roll into a standing position thing?" Hitoshi asked.

"I'll teach you it later," Izumi smiled, letting out a "Whoop!" As she hopped onto another building, bouncing like her pet Bunny.

Parkour turned out be exhilarating. And Izumi wished she'd taken it up as a hobby earlier.

•••

"What are we doing at this trash beach?" Hitoshi asked, looking at his sister.

"We're cleaning it!" Izumi smiled brightly.

"Come again?"

"Not all of it, stupid! We're only 13, but we need to get some more meat on our bones if we're gonna beat up the bad guys," Izumi looked around the beach, "We should clean that section over there," She held her fingers in a picture frame shape over her eyes as she looked through them at a specific section of the beach, "I bet we can get it done by the end of the holidays,"

Hitoshi sighed, "Can't we just go to a gym?"

"Community service is the essence of being a hero!" Izumi smiled.

"Says nobody ever," Hitoshi replied.

•••

"We should go out at around 7pm everyday, just when it starts getting dark. So that we don't have to deal with the proper bad crimes but crimes we can handle. As we get more experienced, we can start later," Izumi pointed at the timetable she'd hung up in her room, normally hidden behind an All Might poster just in case her mom came into her room.

"If we go out at the same time everyday, people will discover a pattern, we'll get caught,"

"Ah, ah, ah. That's where you're wrong," Izumi walked over to her whiteboard on the left wall of the room and picked up a pen, she began a rough map of the city, "Each day, we follow a different line. Which means, each day, we go to a different part of the city,"

Hitoshi nodded in satisfaction at her plan, "Alright. That could work,"

•••

Hitoshi tiptoed across the dark, abandoned warehouse, trying to keep his footsteps light and unnoticed.

All of a sudden, a flashlight clicked on and shined in his face, on the other end of it, stood Izumi, holding it up with a smirk on her face, "You're so shit at this. I could hear you from miles away. Vigilantes need to be good at stealth Hito,"

•••

"Okay I think I've got it this time!" Hitoshi called as he leapt off of a building. Underneath him, he saw the next building coming closer to him, he tucked his body into a roll and pushed up into a standing position. He looked back over his shoulder and gave Izumi a triumphant look, "I did it!"

•••

"That's 1 nil," Hitoshi grinned as he held his sister face down on the floor.

"First to five!" Izumi called, jumping up and getting ready to spar again.

"Your funeral," Hitoshi smirked.

•••

"This is heavy," Hitoshi grunted as he tugged along a desk with Izumi sitting on it.

"Are you calling me fat, Hito?" Izumi asked.

"Why aren't you cleaning?" Hitoshi asked.

Izumi shrugged, "I'm on my break,"

"Little shit," He said, flipping the large desk. She fell off of it and tumbled into the sand with a yelp.

•••

Izumi stood, blindfolded in her house.

She heard a footstep to her right and lunged forward, arms outstretched, but her hands grasped thin air.

She felt a finger tap her back and whirled around but again, found nothing.

"STOP TOYING WITH ME HITO!" She yelled.

She heard a laugh right next to her ear and immediately tried to grab him, but he wasn't there.

"HOW ARE YOU SO FAST?"

"How are you so slow?" A smug voice came from in front of her, so Izumi whirled around behind her, and grabbed him, this time she felt the fabric of his shirt in her hand, "Ha! You thought you could trick me by making noise in front of me when you were behind me," She pulled her blindfold off and let out a screech of frustration as she found herself holding a T-shirt, "I WILL FIND YOU HITOSHI!"

•••

Izumi drop swept her brother and grinned as he thudded against the floor. Quickly, she scrambled to sit on his back, "Ha! I win this time! Take that mother fucker!"

Hitoshi snorted, "Motherfucker? I thought you didn't swear, I guess Kacchan is rubbing off on you,"

"I'll kill you," Izumi replied.

Hitoshi snorted again, "Oh God he really is rubbing off on you, isn't he?!"

•••

"You know," Hitoshi said, looking at the trash filled beach they were currently cleaning, "What if we made this beach our like... Homebase?"

"Homebase?" Izumi asked.

"You know in a game of tag, where you have the home, where you're safe?"

Izumi nodded, "Yeah?"

"What if this beach is that for us? Think about it, it's so dirty, no one'll ever go here. So in case of emergencies we could meet up here, like if the police is chasing us and we have to split up, we meet up back here, and no one knows this beach like we do. We could even arrange the trash into traps and hiding spaces! We could lead them on a wild goose chase!"

"Hito-nii you're a genius-"

"DID YOU SAY TRAPS?!" A loud, feminine voice interrupted.

Hitoshi turned around to find a girl his age completely intruding his personal space, a small blush filled his face as the pink-haired girl pressed up against him.

"And you are?" Hitoshi asked, placing hands on her shoulders to push her backwards and off of him.

"Hatsume Mei, future CEO of Hatsume Industries, pleasure doing business with you,"

"Business-?"

"Hatsume Industries?! Like the support company?" Izumi shrieked, running up to the girl, "I'd love to do business with you," Izumi stuck a hand out for her to shake.

"What- Izumi- stranger danger-" Hitoshi sputtered.

"So could you help us make some traps?" Izumi asked.

Hatsume pondered for a few moments, "And what's in it for me?"

"Why are you even here?" Hitoshi asked.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm here to collect materials,"

"WE COULD CARRY YOUR MATERIALS FOR YOU!" Izumi offered.

Hitoshi glared at her, his eyes communicating 'I never agreed to that,'.

Izumi ignored him, "So? Deal?"

"YES!" Hatsume shook Izumi's hand.

'Great now theres two of them,' Hitoshi sighed, 'Never thought I'd see the day where someone could match Izumi's energy but here we are,'

"I CAN'T WAIT TO MAKE BABIES WITH YOU!"

Hitoshi looked at the pink haired girl incredulously as she talked to her sister about making babies- 'Oh she calls her inventions babies, doesn't she?'

"I- wh-what? Babies- I- I'm sorry. I don't.. I don't swing that way," Izumi covered her red face with her hands.

"I think she's talking about her inventions," Hitoshi deadpanned.

"O-oh," Izumi released her face from her hands, "Okay! Context is key Hatsume,"

"Please, call me Mei, if we're gonna be business partners we'll be seeing a lot of eachother,"

"Oh! I'm Midoriya Izumi,"

'Don't give your full name out to strangers Izumi,' Hitoshi thought.

"But you can call me Izumi then!"

Hatsume looked to Hitoshi.

"I'm not giving you my name Pink," He replied.

Hatsume laughed, "Suit yourself Purple,"

•••

"BOO!"

"AGH!" Izumi shrieked, turning around in the middle of the street she saw her brother looking at her smugly, hands in his pockets, "What was that for?"

"You once said I wasn't light on my feet and sounded like an elephant when I walked," Hitoshi smirked, "How's that for light on my feet?"

Izumi walked away with her middle finger raised in the air.

"Don't be bitter! It's not my fault you have no situational awareness!" Hitoshi responded.

•••

The next time Hitoshi tried to scare her she whipped around, grabbed his hand and twisted it to his back, pinning him against a lamp post in the middle of the street.

"How's that for situational awareness?" Izumi grinned.

Hitoshi smirked proudly, "Alright, that was impressive,"

•••

Izumi grunted as she hauled two microwaves over to a large bin.

"Light weight!" Hitoshi responded as he pushed a couch down the beach.

"SHUT UP!"

"No you,"

•••

"Alright Pile A, West Beach," Izumi pointed at a large trash pile over to the west, "Pile B, West Beach," She moved her finger, "Pile C, West Beach," Moving her finger again she pointed, "Pile A, North Beach,"

"I think I get it," Hitoshi said, looking over the different piles, "So which piles are trapped and which ones are for hiding?"

"OOOH THIS IS THE PART WHERE I SPEAK, RIGHT?" Hatsume giggled, "So each Pile A will fall over when you remove the chair from the bottom of it, it could serve as an obstruction, if you run past the pile then pull it so that the police has to climb over the rubbish-"

"Or it could fall on their heads and kill them," Hitoshi replied, "Wait- police? You told her?!" Hitoshi looked to Izumi.

"She had to know what she was dealing with. If she's going to be an accessory to something illegal it was only fair I told her and let her know if she wanted to drop out. Somehow it made her want to join in more though," Izumi shrugged.

"Piles B in the North and South are made solely of flammable material and there's a detonator in the middle. There's a lighter hidden in the pencil case atop the table, so you can blow up the pile. Don't worry, the explosion will be delayed by 15 seconds, so as long as you can run fast enough-"

"Explosions? We're gonna be vigilantes not murderers!" Hitoshi exclaimed, looking to Izumi for back up.

"She insisted she be allowed to make an explosion," Izumi sighed.

"Piles B in the East and West have a mechanism hidden in them that'll throw a capture net at the next person to run past it, after one of you, activate it by pulling the mirror down,"

Hitoshi kept his face neutral, trying to hide how impressed he was.

Izumi did no such thing and lavished Hatsume with praise, "Mei! That's so cool, how'd you do that in so little time!"

"What can I say? I'm a genius! Now here's where it gets a little tricky, Piles C are all hiding places. You can run straight from Pile C in the north to Pile C in the East without being seen, because of the way the piles are arranged, this does not work if you run from North to West or South. And you can run from the South Pile C to the East Pile and the West Pile to the East pile without being seen. So if you even want to hide, just run to East Pile C. For that reason, Pile C is contained in a large dumpster. But the dumpster has an extra part, there's only space for one person in it, and there's no trash in that part, it's a hidden compartment,"

"Can I have that all on like... paper.. somewhere? Cos I'm not memorising that," Hitoshi deadpanned.

•••

Izumi's blunt dagger clashed against Hitoshi's bo staff, but he easily overpowered her and made her drop her weapon.

"Fuck..." Izumi muttered, "How is it that a staff is better than a dagger?"

"It isn't. But you aren't trying to actually stab me which is why you can't get the upper hand here," Hitoshi pointed out.

Izumi nodded, "Okay that makes sense,"

•••

They ran down the street, feet pounding the pavement as they panted.

"I'm almost as fast as you now Hitoshi!"

"Whatever," Hitoshi stopped running and leaned onto lamppost.

Izumi let out a breathless laugh, "I can't believe we just ran 8 miles,"

"I can't...feel my...legs," Hitoshi panted.

Izumi drank some water out of her bottle then poured the rest over herself.

•••

Izumi slid down the fire escape, Hitoshi slid down after her.

They did their sibling handshake and grinned at eachother, "I think, for people who are self-taught, we're getting pretty good at parkour,"

Izumi nodded her agreement.

•••

Izumi and Hitoshi sat on an empty patch of sand on the dirty beach.

"I think we need weapons," Izumi said abruptly.

"Huh? I have my bo staff and my nunchucks?" He said confused.

"Yeah but what if they get destroyed? They aren't that high quality they're just the ones you got from the dojo. And my throwing knives and daggers are all blunt. And I also need a more defensive weapon. I was thinking, you know that Pro Hero shelter who fights with an umbrella. What if I got like, an umbrella like his, like a large but strong umbrella that can be used as a shield,"

"His umbrella is made of metal Izumi. It's way too heavy for you to lug around," Hitoshi told her, "Why not get... maybe a fan? You could get a metal fan, it would be a small shield but it's better than nothing, right?"

"Yeah but where would I find one.... also I was thinking do you think I'd be able to get my hands on a taser? Or... I've always wanted something similar to Eraserhead's capture weapon, but I feel as though that's too... weak? Don't you think his weapon could be cut through really easily if you have the right knife?" Izumi asked.

"I think I'd also like to have something like Eraserhead's capture scarf. But maybe... on my wrists,"

"Like ribbon dancing! I once did a performance with ballet and ribbon dancing," Izumi smiled.

"I was thinking more along the lines of Spider-Man, but sure, ribbon dancing, that works too," Hitoshi said.

"HI!"

"ARGH!" Izumi shrieked whilst Hitoshi seemed unbothered by Hatsume's sudden appearance.

"I've been eavesdropping for a while and I think I have a few ideas, I could make you some weapons, now..."

•••

"So what do we need to buy?" Hitoshi asked.

"Costumes and earpieces to communicate," Izumi said.

"And why can't we just use our phones and just be on call all the time and use our regular earphones," Hitoshi asked.

Izumi stopped walking and turned to face her brother, "Wait you actually might be onto something. Okay! We'll just get the costumes,"

"So what typa thing are you looking for?" Hitoshi asked.

"Something dark.... easy to move in...," Izumi dragged him into a clothing shop.

They each had ended up purchasing a dark jumpsuit with a hood, black trainers, a dark purple mask that would cover their mouth and part of their nose.

•••

"How about Seductress?" Izumi asked, trying to think up a vigilante persona, "It fits my quirk, in a way, and my quirk is kinda similar to that retired pro hero Seducer, she could seduce people into doing whatever she wanted,"

"No," Hitoshi replied, "You're 13-"

"Exactly, it'll help hide our ages!" Izumi grinned.

"We're not even supposed to have vigilante names, our whole agenda is to stay hidden, we're gonna erase the memory of anyone we save or defeat," Hitoshi reminded her as they talked in hushed whispers in a cafe.

"I was thinking. Some villains might not respond to you, most will, but if they don't..."

"Spit it out,"

"Knock knock jokes. I mean it would be hilarious-"

"-no-"

"-and good strategy! You go 'knock knock' and they reply 'who's there' and then boom! Brainwashed,"

"No,"

"But yeeesssssss," Izumi whined, "Okay what if you flirted with them. Now that would be funny! Flirting with a villain- PFFT. That'll surely get them to respond,"

"No," Hitoshi replied immediately, "And it would be better if you were the one flirting because of your quirk cos it would confuse them enough to stop moving even for just a second and that'll allow your quirk to be used easier. And just them being confused is general is good for your quirk, cos it lowers their willpower,"

"Wait, you're right," Izumi breathed.

"What do you mean, I'm right? I was kidding!" Hitoshi slammed a palm to his forehead.

"No im totally gunna do it now!" Izumi resolved.

"You can't even talk to boys without blushing and stuttering like a fool-"

"Only boys I've never met before!" Izumi defended.

"What could I get you?" A waitress asked, arriving at their table.

"Uhhh... U-Udon please," Hitoshi said.

Izumi covered her snort with a cough, 'And I thought I was bad at talking to new people, who's stuttering like a fool now? Hito-nii is the worst at social interactions. This is why I always end up talking to the cashier when we shop together,'

"And what will the lady have?" But the waitress was still looking at Hitoshi as she asked this.

'Why is she not asking me? Why would Hitoshi order for me-'

Hitoshi his his disgusted face with a deadpan look, "We're not a couple,"

Izumi, on the other hand, could be read like an open book, her face twisted in disgust, "That's my brother. How did you not catch that? Literally look at us? He's me, genderbent,"

The waitress blushed in embrassment, "Oh, oh dear I'm so sorry. Um, what would you like to have?"

"Katsudon please," Izumi replied.

When the waitress disappeared Izumi and Hitoshi both groaned.

"God that's awkward," Izumi said.

"I know," Hitoshi mourned.

•••

"Here!" Hatsume dropped two large boxes on the floor of Izumi's bedroom at her mom's house.

"I still can't believe we're letting her inside our house," Hitoshi groaned.

"Shut up," Izumi replied, reaching for the box labelled 'Zoomi', "You are aware that's not how my name is spelt, right?"

"I'm aware," Hatsume laughed.

Izumi shook her head fondly and picked up the box, immediately dropping it, "I didn't ask for that many weapons, why's it so heavy?"

Hitoshi fake coughed, "*Cough* lightweight,"

"I'm not a- listen you- shut up!" Izumi sputtered at her brother's teasing, "I can lift the same amount you can,"

Hitoshi rolled his eyes and peeked into his own box.

"Oh my God, how did you..." He pulled out two bundles of grey fabric, "It feels exactly how I imagined it would. Is this... the same material?"

"Kinda, it's a bit weaker than Eraserhead's of course but it's the same metal alloy. It was so hard to get my hands on this material, so I stole from my parents' company," She laughed.

"Whaaaat? I want one, why don't I get a capture weapon," Izumi asked.

"Oh but you do," Hatsume reached into Izumi's box and pulled out a large, chunky, silver chain.

"What? How am I supposed to use that?" Izumi asked.

"Honestly I'm not quite sure. I know a guy who can like... manipulate objects with his quirk. So he made this in a way that the user's intent coupled by their body movement can affect the way it moves. So then I modified it a bit so it can be worn as a belt around your waist or hips, and anyone who sees it will think it's just a belt then BOW whacked in the face with metal," Hatsume grinned, "It also defies the law of physics much like Eraserhead's scarf,"

Izumi's eyes seemed to twinkle with stars in them, "You're totally shitting me,"

"I'm not!" Hatsume grinned.

"Mei-chan, you are unreal!" Izumi stood up and crashed into Mei, hugging her tightly, "You're the best,"

"I KNOW!" Hatsume responded, hugging the girl back, "Now go look at the rest of my babies,"

Hitoshi's box had night goggles, a bo staff that had a taser function where one tip of the staff would electrocute anything it touched and also, the staff could be broken into a pair of nunchucks. Hitoshi also got a few flash bombs and smoke bombs.

Meanwhile, Izumi also had night goggles, but her weapons were sharp throwing knives with magnets in them that could be activate by a bracelet she had that would make all the knives fly back to her and stick to her bracelet. She also had a dagger, and just like Hitoshi some flash bombs and smoke bombs. She also had a metal fan that worked as a shield.

•••

At dusk, Inko left the house for work and Izumi and Hitoshi were a bundle of nerves and excitement, standing in front of their mirrors in their rooms.

Today was the day they'd finally go out to look for crime. It was the last week of the summer holidays and they'd had 3 weeks to get accustomed to their new weapons.

In his room, Hitoshi looked at himself and almost let out a squeal of excitement before remembering that his sister was just next door and would never let it go if she heard him squeal like a little girl. Izumi had no such qualms though, he could hear her squealing right now.

Hitoshi stared at himself in the mirror. A dark purple hood hiding most of his hair minus a few strands. His night vision glasses hid his eyes and a black mask hid his mouth. He wore a dark purple jumpsuit, with his bo staff strapped diagonally across his back and grey capture weapons the reaches up from his wrists to his elbows. His zipped pocket contained his phone that was connected to the wireless earphones he had in. He wore a grey utility belt which held his flash and smoke bombs. His black trainers had been modified by Hatsume to be steel-toed. He wore fingerless gloves to keep his hands protected but allow him a firm grip on his staff.

"I look badass," He breathed.

In the room next door, Izumi said a similar thing to her reflection, "I look so badass!"

She twirled around in the mirror to look at her costume from all angles.

Her hair was braided messily hidden mostly by her head, but a few curls stuck out. Her eyes were hidden by the night vision goggles and her mouth by the black mask she wore. She wore a dark green jumpsuit with a chain wrapped around her waist like a belt, directly underneath it, a black utility belt containing her flash bombs and smoke bombs. She had a holster on her upper left thigh containing her stun gun, beneath that by her left knee, another holster contained her dagger. At the top of her right thigh was a holster holding her special fan and at her lower thigh, her throwing knives. On her wrist she wore a magnet bracelet for her throwing knives. And wore wrist length, fingerless gloves. Her black trainers were also steel toed and were high tops.

"Woah," Izumi twirled around again, "I look so badassssssss aaaaaah! I can't believe this, I'm actually doing this,"

"I can hear you through the wall! Pipe down," Hitoshi responded.

"Hito-niiiiii we're actually doing this!! Aaah!" Izumi squealed, "Im so nervous! And excited! I don't know what to feeeeeel,"

"Shut up!" Hitoshi told her as he started blasting music from his room to drown her out.

"DON'T ACT LIKE YOU AREN'T TOTALLY FREAKING OUT TOO!" She screamed over his music, laughing.

She walked out of her room and went into the garden, Bunny sat there, eating the grass.

"Bunny, I'm gonna go okay, which means you gotta get inside," Izumi said, picking up her pet and putting him inside. She poured a bowl of water and set it down on the kitchen floor for her pet, "Now be a good rabbit while I'm gone, okay?"

Then, Hitoshi stepped out of his room, "Ah Hito-nii you look so awesome!" She giggled, "We look like vigilantes!"

"Well then, it's time for us to actually become them," Hitoshi smirked.

•••

They'd been sneaking around alleys for 30 minutes straight and yet, no sign of anything.

"Well this was a bust," Hitoshi sighed, his excitement having already faded.

"Don't be such a downer," Izumi nudged him, "I'm sure we'll find someone, somewhere,"

"And if we don't?"

"We'll try again another day," Izumi shrugged, "Besides, this is a good thing, it means there's little crime in these areas which means that people are sa-"

Hitoshi slammed a palm over Izumi's mouth and they both halted in their step.

'What?' Izumi mouthed at him, removing his hand from her mouth and removing her mask.

Hitoshi pointed to the corner they were about to walk around, 'Listen' He removed his mask and mouthed back.

"I told you 14,000¥ or the deal's off," An angry masculine voice came from the other side.

"And I told you that 14,000¥ is a scam!"

Izumi furrowed her brows at him, 'They're not villains they're just druggies. Is it a must that we turn them in?'

Hitoshi shrugged, 'They're criminals all the same,'

'What if they have guns?' Izumi mouthed.

Hitoshi let out a groan.

A loud one.

Immediately after, he realised his mistake, as the two criminals nearby stopped talking.

"We should run," Izumi whispered to him, pulling her mask back up.

But it was too late. Two criminals rushed around the corner, facing them.

Izumi immediately reached for her dagger and Hitoshi his bo staff.

"Shit, underground heroes, we've gotta go," One of the criminals said.

"Not til you give me my money!" The other one growled.

Whilst they were distracted, Izumi and Hitoshi immediately lunged for their opponents.

Izumi ran at a lanky man, he had navy blue hair, pitch black sclera and pink eyes.

"Quirk is most likely in the eyes. Perhaps thermal vision, increased vision or night vision. Though, eyes seem to have a liquidy appearance," She put her dagger back and cocked a fist back, punching the man in the face harshly, "And I don't think he's crying. Therefore, chances are his quirk allows him to emit stuff from his eyes," She kicked the man as she continued talking rapidly, tiring him and Hitoshi's opponent out gradually.

Hitoshi's opponent was tall and muscular with multiple arms.

"Hey big guy, got some drugs for me too?" Hitoshi asked. When the man didn't respond, Hitoshi began fighting with his bo staff. Using one of his many arms, the man grabbed the staff, but that's exactly what Hitoshi had wanted. Clicking a button at the end of his staff, Hitoshi activated the taser feature and watched as the tall man spasmed, "How'd you like that?"

"You dickhead!" The man responded.

Hitoshi felt himself be granted entry to the man's mind, "Stop moving,"

The man obeyed, immediately stilling, against his own will of course.

Quirk: Brainwashing - Hitoshi's Quirk allows him to put someone in a state where they are forced to obey whatever he commands. He can only activate this power when his target verbally responds to something he says. Brainwashing needs to be intentionally activated and will not take effect if Hitoshi doesn't want it to.

Though he can have multiple people under his control at once, he can only activate his power on one person at a time. He is also unable to have his victims do things that require some kind of advanced brain function, like talking or writing a name from their memory.

User is also immune to quirks that aim to affect his mind.

"But of course, there's always the possibility that his eyes are just a mutation passed down from parents but a quirk didn't come with it," Izumi continued speaking as she engaged in hand to hand with her opponent. He didn't seem to threatening and so, Izumi hadn't pulled out any of her weapons.

"Stop... talking....you little bitch!" The man panted, "Why am I... so tired? It's your quirk isn't it?"

Izumi kicked the man in his abdomen and he stumbled backwards, soon, finding himself pinned up against the wall by Hitoshi's bo staff since he'd quickly finished with his own opponent.

"Let go of me!" The man thrashed.

"What's the magic word?" Hitoshi asked, hoping for a response.

The man said nothing and simply thrashed around, "Ah, you've figured me out already, huh bastard," Hitoshi turned to Izumi, "He tired enough yet?"

The man growled and kicked.

"I don't think so," Izumi sighed then walked up to the man, "This is sad really. Stop squirming and kicking like a toddler, it's pathetic. And if you're going to buy drugs then atleast remember that the dealer decides the price not the customer. And didn't mommy ever tell you not to take drugs? They're not good for you. They can harm you, I'm just looking out for you,"

The man's body began to relax and he felt himself getting even more drowsy as her words reached his ears.

"Just remember that you asked for this," He muttered and then the black substance poured out of his eyes like tears and his sclera were white like a normal person's. The black tears evaporated into smoke.

Hitoshi and Izumi were fortunate to be wearing masks as they couldn't breathe it in. But unfortunately, it wouldn't be enough.

They felt themselves tearing up and their skin began to feel itchy. Apparently their goggles weren't on tightly enough to prevent it from reaching their eyes.

Hitoshi dropped his bo staff to itch his skin.

Izumi looked at the man, "Tear gas," She stated. It wasn't a question, it was a statement. She felt her eyes watering and her skin began to break out in rashes.

Quirk: Tear gas - The user's eyes emits liquid that dissipates into black smoke, containing toxic elements found in tear gasses. This attacks the mucus membranes of the ears, eyes and lungs; and affects skin.

The man punched Hitoshi straight in the nose and Hitoshi stumbled backwards into the man from before, leaving Hitoshi with a bloody nose and the man free from his brainwash.

The man used all 6 of his arms to grab Hitoshi and picked him up and bashed him against the wall.

Quirk: Six Arms - User has six arms which can all regenerate.

Through her blurry, teary vision, Izumi managed to make out the Tear Gas guy coming for her next.

She could feel her quirk wearing off of him, his energy returning. She couldn't let that happen. She needed to tire him again.

"Woah your quirk is so cool! I wonder, how long does it take for the tear gas liquid to form in your eyes. And does it always turn into gas when it leaves your eyes or can it stay in liquid form. Could it turn to gas while still in your eyes? Or would that damage your eyes?" Izumi blocked his hits and then caught him off guard by switching to the defensive, she kicked the man in the balls and then grabbed him, flipping him over her back without too much effort (that weight training was really paying off) the man thudded against the floor and immediately got up.

Izumi could see his eyes beginning to fill with the black substance again, "I wonder what mutations you must have for you to store tear gas in your body and not be harmed by it. I wonder, are you immune to all tear gas or just your own?" She twisted her body and her waist chain lashed out, the chain wrapped around the guy's arm and tugged him forward and his body down so that his head was level with hers, Izumi bashed her forehead against his nose and heard it crack.

The man's eyes were full with tear gas now and Izumi panicked.

"And it would be better if you were the one flirting because of your quirk cos it would confuse them enough to stop moving even for just a second and that'll allow your quirk to be used easier. And just them being confused in general is good for your quirk, cos it lowers their willpower,"

"Do you come round here often?" She blurted out (and hoped Hitoshi hadn't heard because he would never, ever let it go and would make fun of her til the day she died- this was why Izumi never flirted with people! She couldn't do it- she was too awkward. And to think one of her favourite heroes was Midnight, how ironic).

The man paused for a second and Izumi took hold of him, "Stop moving,"

The man stood still, eyes blank.

She turned to see Hitosh still battling the six armed guy.

"Get off me you six armed freak!" Izumi winced at Hitoshi's words, she knew it was best to insult people to get them to respond but she also knew that it hurt Hitoshi that he had to resort to such methods.

Izumi and Hitoshi tag teamed the man. Their co-ordination compared to the poor teamwork of the villains was one of the main factors that had allowed them to win the fight.

Both men stood still, under the control of Izumi's quirk.

"Now what? We don't have anything to tie up with," Hitoshi asked.

"I don't know, why're you asking me?" Izumi responded.

"You're the woman with the plan, right?"

"You're the older one,"

"Only by 10 minutes,"

Izumi huffed and rolled her eyes, then her eyes brightened, "I'm not sure if this'll work. But if I can wipe memories - albeit temporarily - I'm obviously capable of making people do other things with pretty advanced brain functions," She walked up to the Tear Gas man, "Forget this encounter ever happened. After 3 minutes, I want you to go to the police and confess,"

She turned to the other man with six arms, "Forget this encounter ever happened. After 5 minutes, I want you to go to the police and confess,"

"Why in 3 and 5 minutes?" Hitoshi asked.

"To give us time to escape and so that they don't confess at the same time. Or else they might realise someone's forcing them to confess and fight against me," Izumi said.

Hitoshi and Izumi shared their sibling handshake before climbing up a fire escape and running along rooftops, hollering and laughing excitedly.

They'd just defeated their first criminals.

Quirk: Compulsion - The ability to compel someone to do something she requests them to, in the affected person's range of ability. E.g she can't ask someone to touch their toes if they physically cannot. The more she talks the more hold she has on you, hearing her voice makes your will slacken, body relax and brain tire. Once you're weak enough, she can give you orders. The less relaxed you are the easier it is to break her compulsion through will. Nothing but will can break her compulsion and it is a battle of will between the user and the compelled person. Her compulsion is more strong when she raises her voice. User is also immune to other quirks that aim to affect her mind.

•••

Midoriya Izumi

Age: 13

Gender: Female

Height: 4'10

Hair colour: Lavender & Viridian

Eye colour: Violet & Turqoise

Occupation: Student

Quirk: Compulsion

Shinso Hitoshi

Age: 13

Gender: Male

Height: 5'4

Hair colour: Lavender

Eye colour: Violet

Occupation: Student

Quirk: Brainwashing

Three

"Zum-zum!" An excited squeal came. (If you asked him today, he would deny having ever squealed, Hitoshi never squealed).

"Yes Hito-nii?" Izumi asked, putting down her All Might colouring book and looking at her 4 year old twin.

"Lookie what I found!" He shoved their father's phone in his face and on it was a hero with dark hair, yellow goggles and a grey scarf

"Is that a hero?" Izumi asked, awe clear in her voice, "He's so cool!"

"Yeah! He's underground. Like for people with quirk that aren't flashy. Just like us!" Hitoshi replied.

"Woah..." Izumi gasped, "He's so cool,"

"I wanna be just like him!" Hitoshi declared.

•••

A month later from last chapter

"Left!" Izumi yelled to her brother.

He dodged to his left, blocking a blow from a shadow that was shaped into a fist.

Quirk: Shadow - Allows the user to control shadows, including the ability to make them solid, liquid or gaseous. Also allows the user to blend into their own shadow.

Izumi ducked as the shadow fist came flying for her instead, from behind she felt a tap on her back. She whirled around and received a punch to the face from a shadow with the same outline as her, "Great, now I'm fighting my own shadow," She growled. She brought out her dagger and slashed the shadow to pieces but it reformed and began fighting her again.

'My dagger and knives are useless. They only help stall but I can't actually defeat these shadows with it. I just need to locate the actual body,'

Izumi grabbed a throwing knife and threw it at her shadow. Her shadow picked up the knife but she pressed a button on her bracelet and the knife flew back into her hand.

'Dammit, think Izumi,' She pressed herself, 'The user of this quirk is obviously in one of these shadows, so she should be able to hear me, perhaps I can tire her out,'

Hitoshi fought his own shadow with his bare hands, having lost his bo staff to it prior.

"Fuck," Hitoshi grunted, recieving a kick to the back of his shin. He made to grab the shadow foot but watched as it became liquid around his palms, "This quirk is so overpowered,"

"This is bad," Izumi said, her capture chain released four different chains out in different directions, grabbing all the nearby shadows that were trying to attack her an holding them off long enough, "It's so dark, there's so many shadows, this is literally the best place for her to be. We're fighting on her turf," She began to ramble about random topics and was pleased to see the shadows slowing down in their assault, it was clear that the villain was getting tired.

Izumi back flipped to avoid a shadow swiping at her feet.

Their opponent was a known villain who'd committed many assaults and thefts.

She was dangerous and dark.

"Dark," Izumi muttered out loud, she whispered through her earphones, "Close your eyes Hito,"

Then she grabbed a flash bang from her utility belt and threw it on the ground. Even with her eyes closed the bright flash disoriented her a bit, and when she opened her eyes, she came face to face with Villain: Jet Black.

The light had weakened her so much that she'd reverted to her human body.

This was good.

Now they just had to stop her from becoming a shadow again.

"Again," She whispered to Hitoshi, she closed her eyes and he did his, she threw down another flash bang. Opening her eyes she charged at the woman, Hitoshi swung his wrist out and the fabric tightened around the woman's waist. Izumi grabbed her dagger and pressed it up against the woman's neck. She's never actually kill her, but the woman didn't know that. Lots of vigilantes killed villains, so how would the woman know any better?

"Don't move, if I even feel you move a tiny bit I'll kill you and your shadow," Izumi glared.

"What a mouth," The woman gasped, "You're a child, I can tell by your voice and height. I know you're not gonna kill me, this act of yours isn't endearing it's miserable,"

"If you know she won't kill you, why haven't you moved yet," Hitoshi said, tightening his capture weapon around her waist, "You could escape with your quirk,"

The woman sneered and Hitoshi laughed, "That's just what I thought," He said smugly.

"Why is it that you derive joy from poking fun at me?" The woman asked, "Do you enjoy riling people up, threatening people? Cos if so, maybe you should be the one on the recieving end of her knife. Maybe I'm not the only villain in the room,"

Hitoshi grit his teeth and activated his quirk, "Shut up and be still,"

"Don't listen to her. She's deranged, villain's will say anything to be in control and feel like the smartest person there," Izumi said.

"I'm okay," Hitoshi assured his sister. Izumi gave him a soft smile.

Then Izumi turned to the villain, "Where's your sister 'Pitch Black'?"

"She's on the run somewhere in downtown Musutafu, though she could be anywhere right now,"

"Thank you for your co-operation. Now, in 3 minutes, head to the nearest police station and turn yourself in and forget this encounter ever happened,"

"Cmon Hito. We've got another villainess to hunt," Izumi said.

"But it's a school night," Hitoshi groaned.

"We both know you don't get sleep regardless-"

"-I sleep-"

"-those eye bags beg to differ,"

•••

"Knock knock!" Hitoshi called kicking open a warehouse in downtown Musutafu after Izumi picked the lock.

"....goose?" The villainess responded, utterly confused and caught off guard.

Izumi held back a snort as Hitoshi took control of the woman, "Stay still,"

"I told you the knock knock joke would work!" Izumi told him.

"She said goose. As in duck, duck goose!" Hitoshi laughed, "Adding that to my list of 'best things a villain has ever said,'"

"The worst part about that statement is that I know you probably actually have a list somewhere," Izumi shook her head fondly.

•••

"2 vigilantes," Detective Tsukauchi said, sliding Aizawa Shouta, Hero name: Eraserhead, a file with all the information collected so far.

"Vigilantes? Huh," Aizawa said, looking through the file.

"We suspect a mental quirk if not two, are in play. For a month now, villains and criminals have been turning themselves in all over police stations in Musutafu," The detective said, "At first, we thought nothing of it. But it kept happening more and more, so we began interrogating the villains that had confessed so far, all struggled to remember anything from their encounter with these vigilantes, apart from the first two criminals. Akira Kuro, quirk Six Arms, a drug dealer and in possession of drugs, Haru Abe, quirk: Tear gas,"

Aizawa nodded to show he was listening.

"They don't remember much. They say their memory is hazy but sometimes they get flashes of memories. Their descriptions match up to the civilian witness accounts," The Detective continued, "The media got an account from one witness which is why we need these vigilantes dealt with fast before they become popular,"

Aizawa nodded, "They've only been on the scene for a month, newbies. I'll make quick work of them,"

"You shouldn't underestimate them. In only one month they've taken down multiple criminals and villains, even Jet Black and Pitch Black,"

Aizawa's eyes widened in slight shock, 'Maybe they'll be harder to take down than I thought. Vigilantes are a pain in the ass. Hopefully they just rely on their quirks too much, they'll be easy to take down,'

"I might have an idea of what their quirks could be. One of them has been dubbed Mindfog by another villain who caught a glimpse of his memory, his name is Ando

Botan, if you wish to speak with him. He said being under the quirk made his mind feel foggy. The other, he dubbed Submitter, as he was forced to submit to her. If what he says is true, which according to my quirk it is, however if his memory is hazy, what he believes is true cannot be fully trusted. But it's most probable and almost indefinite that we're dealing with mind control quirks here,"

•••

"Feeling vastly outmatched here!" Hitoshi yelled as another wave of cold hit him.

"We need to get thicker costumes," Izumi said.

"Why are we even facing a villain like this? Don't these ones usually appear at daytime with their flashy, attention-seeking quirks for flashy heroes to defeat?" Hitoshi asked as he was blasted backwards by an avalanche of snow.

"Don't judge a book by its quirk," Izumi responded, snow whirled around her like a tornado, or rather, snow storm.

Hitoshi stood, covered head to toe in snow. He poked his head up above the snow and raised a hand with a middle finger up, "F-f-f--fuck you too Elsa!"

"I'M NOT ELSA, I'M BITTERFROST,"

Hitoshi took hold of the man for only a split second before he broke out again, apparently weather this cold was enough to interfere with Hitoshi's brainwashing. They'd have to rely on Izumi's quirk to finish this battle.

"Yadda yadda, wh-who asked, Sn-snow White?" Izumi responded, bursting out of the tornado, wobbling on her feet as the world spun around her.

"You look pretty dizzy there darling," The villain taunted. He was 5'6 with a messy head of long white hair and had green eyes. He wore a blue, winter jacket that reached his knees and underneath that, black baggy trousers

"Sh-shut up, Sn-now Wh-White," Izumi's teeth chattered as she gripped her dagger and charged for the villain.

"I TOLD YOU MY NAME IS BITTERFROST!"

Another waves of frost came but Izumi ploughed through it.

"B-Bitterfrost is a sh-shitty name. How ab-bout Sn-Snow flake? Jack Frost? Ice p-pack? Ice queen?" Izumi rambled, "Hey hey, i-is your refrigerator running?"

"What?" The villain responded, thoroughly confused, "Yes? How did you know-"

"W-Well then y-you b-better go catch it-" a gust of wind hit Izumi and she was thrown backwards.

About to slam into the wall, had Hitoshi's capture weapon not caught her and pulled her towards him.

"Nii-san, quick. G-Give me something to rant about," Izumi asked. She'd been running out of jokes and insults to make, she needed something to talk about.

"A-All Might's quirk," Hitoshi responded, still digging himself out of the large pile of snow.

"All Might's quirk h-has many theories surrounding it. The most popular one being that it is a simple s-strength enhancer quirk," Izumi's chain hooked onto a building and kept Izumi there when another gust of wind hit her instead of her flying off.

Quirk: Extreme Winter - User can manipulate the weather to make it extremely wintery such as cold winds and snow storms

"If it is one, it's probably the strongest one yet. Another th-theory about his quirk is that it's actually a transformative quirk and that he's not always that b-buff or tall," After realising the gusts of winds were no longer working, the villain got in close, and what a mistake that was, "Personally, I l-like this theory because it's not n-normal for someone to be 7 foot tall unless it's part of their quirk,"

Now Izumi's quirk was clearer than ever in their ears and they were playing in Izumi's territory instead of sticking to their own, they were better suited to long range attacks but Izumi specialised in close combat.

Hitoshi had finally gotten out of the snow and was shivering, but otherwise, he was fine, "I'll keep him close to you," He said, he threw his wrists out and his capture weapons wrapped around the villain's legs, tying them together.

The villain threw a punch at Izumi, the punch would've hit harder due to the boost of wind with, but it didn't hit at all.

Izumi dodged and sent a kick, many times when sparring Hitoshi had told her that she used her fists too much, trying to copy All Might when she didn't have the strength to copy his fighting style, that her legs were her strong point and that she should use them more often.

"F-furthermore, the way All Might seems to be a pro at running away from the media when he wants could m-mean that he has a civilian identity, otherwise, it's rather h-hard to not notice a 7 foot, buff guy w-with hair that sticks out like that trying to escape,"

Izumi's capture chain wrapped around the villain's waist, "Stop struggling,"

The villain listened to her.

"3 counts of attempted murder? How did you fail so many times? Never mind, it's clear to me how since you've lost to two kids. You're an evil person, I don't like evil people. Neither does he," She pointed a thumb towards her brother, "Scum like you don't get to roam the streets freely when the people you've hurt lay in hospitals, dying," Izumi glared at the villain, "Now, after 2 minutes, you'll go to the police station and confess. But also, you will forget this encounter,"

•••

"All in a day's work," Hitoshi smirked as he shared a handshake with his sister, "You know, when you said you wanted to be taken seriously and to have villains stop calling you cute I didn't think you were actually gonna. Like you know, intimidate them! Hell, even I was scared when you started calling them evil and stuff,"

"It's what he deserves. Villains don't deserve kindness," Izumi said as they walked down an alley looking for more villains.

"Right. Says the one who tried to talk a villain down last week and told them that they could change," Hitoshi drawled.

"But they could've changed!" Izumi argued, "You didn't see the look of regret in their eye,"

"Because I was too busy trying not to get stabbed," Hitoshi responded, "Not all of us are as experienced with knives that we can casually have a therapy session with a villain whilst we dodge knives,"

"I have to talk to every villain we face if we want to apprehend them, that's how my quirk knows. You know that," Izumi responded, elbowing him. Hitoshi flicked her on the head.

They heard a quiet thud behind them. If they hadn't tuned their situational awareness in the time they'd been vigilantes they probably wouldn't have noticed.

Battle instincts kicked in and they both turned around. Izumi's capture chain already flinging out and Hitoshi grabbing his bo staff.

Never hesitate.

It was a good thing they hadn't because immediately they found themselves battling hand to hand with a villain who was scarily fast, so fast that couldn't even see him properly. Or maybe that was the work of the dark clothes he wore.

Izumi snagged one of his legs with her chain and tugged him.

He fell but took Hitoshi down with him by grabbing him with a capture weapon of his own.

Hitoshi's bo staff rolled out of his hand and he punched the villain in the jaw, when he attempted to roll away the villain grabbed his arm and pulled him forward before kicking him in the stomach.

The villain turned to face Izumi who was charging at him with a dagger in her hand ready to cut up his capture weapon only to pause mid run.

Her eyes, concealed by the night vision goggles, widened in recognition.

Yellow goggles.

Grey capture scarf.

Black jumpsuit.

Red glowing eyes staring at her.

"Eraserhead," She breathed in awe.

Eraserhead crouched on a rooftop, dark hair blowing in the wind, as he observed the scene below him.

'Mindfog' and 'Submitter' were fighting off an A-class villain with a weather manipulation quirk. And they were holding their own despite no obvious use of quirks on their side.

He continued to observe the two vigilantes, trying to decipher who was who. Who was Mindfog and who was Submitter? He knew next to nothing about the vigilantes, not even their gender.

He couldn't hear them properly from up above but they spent too much time talking. Either they were stalling the villain, their quirks had something to do with speaking or they were just stupid enough to talk more than fight.

"I'M NOT ELSA I'M BITTERFROST,"

So they were antagonising the villain? This could be smart because the villain would begin to get sloppy but it seemed the villain was getting sloppy regardless, getting more tired.

Could this be 'Mindfog's quirk? Making the mind so foggy that people slowed down?

Or is getting tired them submitting to 'Submitter' ?

As the fight continued the villains continued to talk. Aizawa was a good lip reader though, it was a skill that came with the job. Unfortunately he couldn't read their lips since they were wearing masks.

He watched as one of the vigilantes was hit with a gust of wind and held his breath, trying to see how they would get out of this, trying to gauge their skill level.

He watched as a grey material flung out and saved the girl before she could hit the wall.

His eyes widened, 'What the hell? Are they mass producing these now? My capture scarf is supposed to be one of a kind,'

He was secretly impressed with how the vigilante had his capture weapon modified for his wrists to fit his fighting style.

He watched as the villain was captured by the two vigilantes using a regular capture weapon and one made of chains which was very interesting and impressive.

He then saw one of the vigilantes seemingly talking to the villain before the villain got a blank look in his eyes the vigilantes walked off and yet the villain stood there. After a few minutes, he walked off in the direction of the police station.

'Smart,' Eraserhead thought, 'They left and gave the order for the villain to leave after they were gone. The shorter vigilante must be Submitter,'

Eraserhead jumped off the roof and poked at the villain, trying to break them out of the mind washing but to no avail. Nothing worked.

Impressed, Eraserhead went to find the vigilantes who couldn't have been that far away. He climbed to the rooftop again and follow their direction.

Surely after a battle like that they'd be exhausted. Taking them down shouldn't be too hard.

He wondered absent-mindlessly if they were related by their matching outfits and the purple hair that peeked out of their hoods. Though, they could be wearing wigs or have dyed their hair.

Creeping along the rooftops, Aizawa Shota noticed them and quietly hopped down from the roof.

At least he thought he'd been quiet but the vigilantes immediately turned around and spotted him.

He looked a little startled at being recognised but figured that as vigilantes, they knew the underground pretty well. But it had only been a month... surely they shouldn't be so familiar with the underground already.

Eraserhead didn't let him being recognised distract him for too long though and charged at Izumi who still stood still.

He wrapped her up in his capture weapon and felt a knock to his head, looking up, he saw a bo staff swinging down on his head again. Ready to knock him out.

He spun so that the vigilante in his capture weapon was in his place instead and watched as the bo staff changed trajectory to avoid hitting her.

Hitoshi grabbed a smoke bomb and threw it onto the ground before rushing to his sister and helping her out of the capture weapon.

"We have to go," Hitoshi told her.

"That's Eraserhead!" Izumi breathed.

"That's exactly why we have to leave. 1. I'm not beating up my idol and 2. Chances are he'd beat me up and instead of me beating him up," Hitoshi told her.

"I can't believe we fought Eraserhead!"

"I know! I feel so dirty-"

"I feel so cool!" Izumi squealed as Hitoshi tugged her arm and ran off down the alleyway. Leaving Eraserhead standing alone in the alleyway, "He's going to remember us. I have to go back and wipe his memory,"

"No. He'll wipe the floor with you. He's going to come after us again. We need to train harder to be prepared. Erase his memory next time, okay?"

"Haha. Erase," Izumi mumbled to herself, "It's funny cos hes Eraserhead,"

"That's such a shit joke," Hitoshi responded.

"You're a shit brother,"

•••

"Tsukauchi, they're kids," Aizawa breathed out in disbelief as he sat down in a cafe sitting opposite the detective.

"Wha- kids, are you sure?" He asked.

They were short, skinny and spoke in pre-pubescent voices, they were definitely kids.

"You're the one with the truth quirk. You tell me, am I sure?" Aizawa responded dryly.

"Right," The detective nodded, "But you haven't captured them? Surely you can deal with kids?"

"I was feeling them out, I needed to know what I was up against. They're amateurs, their takedowns are sloppy, but they have potential. Too bad it's being wasted doing illegal stuff," Aizawa huffed, "Based on their voices, I think one of them's a girl and the other's a boy. They might even be siblings, they work together well like they've known eachother their whole lives. If not siblings, then I'd guess they're childhood friends. I think the girl is Submitter which makes the boy Mindfog,"

"We've discovered a pattern," The Detective said, "They only fight in Musutafu and most of their fights take place around dusk. There's no pattern with where they fight but at least there's a when. That should make things clearer. Any more information on them?"

"I think Submitter's quirk has something to do with her voice," Eraser commented, tapping his fingers against the table and drinking a cup of coffee with his other hand, "She didn't get to use it on me, I erased it before she could,"

"Well if it's a vocal quirk, then we both know someone who can help," Detective Tsukauchi looked at Eraserhead with a smile.

Eraserhead nodded in understanding, "I'll tell the loudmouth,"

•••

"The police are onto us," Hitoshi said, sitting in his room in his dad's house. The room had white walls, a hero poster of all the top 10 heroes and Eraserhead figurine. His bed was a single bed, with white bedsheets and grey covers. He sat on his bed, his pet cat Caffeine in his lap.

"We don't know that for sure. It could be coincidence that Eraserhead found us. I doubt he knows anything of us. Maybe he thought we were villains? I mean we were sneaking around back alleys in dark costumes," Izumi reasoned.

"I doubt a Pro Hero would attack someone if they weren't sure they were a villain," Hitoshi replied, "And even if it is coincidence, we need to plan according to the worst case scenario which is that, they're onto us,"

Izumi sighed then nodded, "Ok. You're right. So what do we do?"

"We need to think of any patterns of ours they may have discovered and switch it up," Hitoshi told her.

"Patterns like what? We were careful not to frequent any places more than others. And the villains we capture...." Izumi trailed off, her eyes widening in realisation, "I'm such an idiot!" She pulled on one of her purple and green pigtails, "Imagine this, you're a police man and this past month a ton of villains have been randomly turning themselves in. If this isn't suspicious I don't know what is,"

"Which means they probably know at least one of us have mental quirks," Hitoshi sighed, "That was one of our biggest advantages,"

"It's fine!" Izumi said, "We've got this. If we have to, we can beat up Eraserhead. We've gotta go beyond like All Might says, Plus ultra!"

"I don't think that's what All Might meant-"

•••

A week passed and, being cautious, they'd only gone out on the weekends to fight crime. They'd defeated two purse snatchers, wasn't too big a feat but they were helping people and that made them feel good enough.

Izumi walked home from school in her black gakuran. As she was walking past a park, the same park Kacchan had first bullied her in, she caught some of a conversation.

"Ha! How'd you like that villain?" One of the kids said.

And if that didn't sound familiar...

Izumi walked into the park to find a group of 3 boys ganging up on 1 boy. Izumi could deal with this, the boys all looked somewhere between ages 4 and 6.

"Hey!" Izumi shouted, "What are you doing?"

"She's pretty," One of the bullies whispered to another bully.

"Uh- ummm. None of your business!" The leader shouted, "Who even are you?"

She looked down at the bullied kid who shook his head at her, as if telling her to leave for her own good.

She gave him a smile that she hoped was comforting and concealed her anger. She knew they were just 5 or 6 years old, that they didn't really know any better. But she couldn't help but feel angry at them.

She turned to face the bullies, "If you don't leave him alone right now, I'm going to tell your moms,"

"Liar!" The leader shouted, "You don't even know my mom!"

Izumi pulled out her phone and began dialing her number, "Are you sure?"

The boy's face paled, "No! I'll stop! Please don't call my mom," And then he ran off, leaving two bullies.

"Sn-snitches g-get stitches," One of them tried.

"Don't care. I'll call your mothers too," Izumi said, waving her phone threateningly. Another one ran away whilst one of them still stood there, chin up, looking confident, "I'll call your mom,"

The boy laughed at her, "Joke's on you! My mom died in childbirth," The kid said, smiling proudly like he'd just accomplished some big thing by revealing his mother's death.

Izumi stood their awkwardly, feeling slightly guilty, "O-oh... I'm sorry...I guess... I'll call your dad then?"

And then the boy ran off screaming, "Please don't call my dad!"

Izumi turned back to the boy on the ground offering her his hand, 'He's just like me and Hitoshi,' She thought.

Hesitantly the boy took her hand and let himself be pulled up.

"Wh-why did you help me?" He asked timidly, he had white hair and brown eyes.

"Because that's what a hero does," Izumi smiled at him, ruffling his hair.

"I wanna be a hero too!" The boy smiled, but then his smile faded, "But I have a villain's quirk,"

"There's no such thing as a villain's quirk," Izumi told him, "Anyone can be a villain and anyone can be a hero. It's not a quirk that decides what you are, your quirk is just a tool, sure having a healing quirk might help you be a doctor but it won't stop you from being a basketball player. The same way having a mind control quirk might help you be a villain but it won't stop you from being a hero,"

The boy's eyes lit up with hope and he grinned at her, "You mean it? You really think I could be a hero?"

Izumi nodded, "Anyone can. If you remember to help people, exercise and get good grades, I know you'll be one of the greatest heroes ever,"

The boy beamed at her, "E-even if my quirk does this?" He asked, out of his back, bat wings sprouted and his eyes turned fully black.

"Woah! That's so cool. Can you fly?" Izumi asked.

The boy hovered a few feet off the ground, "I'm learning," He said.

"That's awesome! Of course you can be a hero. I wish I could fly," Izumi said.

The boy giggled, "You're awesome too,"

"Thanks!" Izumi smiled, then in her peripheral vision, she caught movement by the swing. She turned her head a bit and saw a teenager leaning on the swing, watching them, "Now why don't you go home? I'm sure your mommy is getting worried,"

The boy nodded, "Okay! Will I see you later?" The boy asked.

Izumi shrugged, "Who knows?"

The boy smiled at her and waved her goodbye, "Bye bye!"

"Bye bye!" Izumi responded giggling at his adorableness. Then Izumi turned around to face the teenager fully, hand reaching underneath her skirt for the dagger she always wore on her just in case.

"Did you mean it?" The asked, he had blue hair and red eyes and looked somewhere between 16 and 18 years old, his skin was dry and lips chapped, all in all, he was incredibly creepy.

"Hmm?" Izumi asked, she could feel her dagger in her hand. She wanted to look around to see if there were any passers by before she pulled out her weapon, but she wanted to keep her eyes on him, she couldn't let him out of her sight, somehow she knew that. The dangerous aura he exuded.... she couldn't take her eyes off him or it could mean game over.

The man took a step forward and Izumi took a step back.

"All that stuff you spouted about villain quirks, did you mean it, or did you just lie to the poor kid out of pity?" The man asked, scratching his neck.

"I don't say things I don't mean," Izumi responded, trying to keep her shaky voice under control. She's faced villains before, sure, but this one seemed too different, way more dangerous.

"Hmmm," He said, "Why is it you think that? Do you have a villainous quirk yourself?"

"Villainous quirks don't exist, therefore I cant have one," Izumi responded.

The teenager chuckled and Izumi felt an unpleasant shiver run down her spine.

"I think I like you Princess," The edge of his lips twitched up a little, like a small smile.

"Princess?" She asked.

"Yeah. The player has to save the Princess," He said.

'Is this guy using game references? Is he delusional?'

"What makes you think I need saving?" She asked, taking multiple steps back, to her dismay, he followed her. She pulled out her dagger and held it up to his throat as he came to close.

"Ah," He took a step back and held his hands up in the air, "I mean no harm. You just intrigue me is all,"

"What do you want?" Izumi asked.

"Well, for one, I want to know why you have a dagger on you," The guy asked.

"And that's your business because...?"

"Because the dagger was on my neck just a few moments ago," He said, she didn't respond, "Fine, keep your secrets Princess,"

"Don't call me that," She responded, glaring.

"You spoke about how quirks can't be villainous. You're one of few people who think that way," He said completely ignoring her, "What do you think of heroes?"

"What do you want to know?" Izumi asked, dagger still raised defensively. She didn't know his quirk, if she said something wrong, he could attack her. But if she could talk for long enough, she could get him under her control.

"Who's your favourite hero?" He asked.

"Al...." The moment she started her sentence she saw his face darken, "Eraserhead," She offered instead.

"Ah I've heard of him," He muttered to himself, "Sensei was pretty interested in his quirk,"

He looked up at her, "If you saw a kid, wandering in the streets, scared and alone, asking for help. What would you do?"

"I would... help as much as I can. If the kid's lost ill try to help him find his family," Izumi said.

"What if he has no family?" The blue haired teen asked.

"I'd take the kid to the police station,"

"For them to be put in the horrid foster system?" The man asked, eye twitching.

"I'm not old enough to adopt a kid, it's the best I can do," She replied.

The guy still seemed a little miffed, but overall satisfied, deciding that she wasn't worth killing, he nodded at her answer, "Mmkay. See you later Princess,"

And then he practically disappeared into the shadows.

Izumi let go of a breath she hadn't known she was holding.

•••

Hitoshi walked to his mom's house, it was the weekend which meant he stayed over at hers. He shoved his hands into his pockets, head down, earphones plugged in and listening to music, not particularly paying attention to where he was going.

That's when he bumped into a boy his age. He almost fell to the ground but managed to right himself.

He was about to apologise when he saw who it was, blonde spiky hair and red eyes, after all these years, he still recognised him, "Oh, it's you,"

"Hah?!" Bakugou Katsuki responded, picking up his groceries that had fallen on the floor when they bumped into eachother, "Who the fuck are you?"

"...you don't remember me?" Hitoshi asked. He would've felt hurt but then he remembered that his childhood friend had turned into a dickhead and hated his sister, so of course, Hitoshi hated him, "Whatever," He tried to move past but Katsuki grabbed his arm, out of reflex, Hitoshi pinned Katsuki's arm behind his back as he turned around, "Jeez. Don't just grab people like that,"

Katsuki growled and ripped his arm away from Hitoshi's, "Who the fuck are you?" He asked, then looked at him properly, recognition lit up in his eyes, "Tch. I forgot Deku had a shitty twin,"

"Of course you did," Hitoshi rolled his eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Katsuki asked, raising his eyebrows whilst he flexed his arm that Hitoshi had bent.

"Did I hurt your arm?" Hitoshi asked.

"No," Katsuki growled, 'He's kinda strong, not stronger than me, but probably strong enough to protect his weakling sister,'

"Now get the fuck out of my way, extra," And with that, he shoved past Hitoshi and stomped home.

•••

"In 2 minutes, walk to the nearest police station and turn yourself in,"

"And another one bites the dust," Hitoshi grinned as they walked away from the villain they'd defeated.

Turning the corner of the alley, they found themselves face to face with Eraserhead, and he had ear plugs in.

This wasn't a battle they could win.

"Run," Hitoshi said.

They both turned around to run the other way but only made it so far before they were hit by a sound wave blast, "YEEEEEAAAAAAH!"

"Oh my Gosh it's Present Mic!" Izumi fangirled.

Hitoshi sighed and grabbed her then with his capture weapon, he pulled them on top of a building.

"We need to lose them somehow," Hitoshi grunted, daring a look over his shoulder he found Eraserhead hot on his heels, his capture weapon reaching for them, "Left!" Hitoshi shouted. He and Izumi jumped onto an apartment left of the building they were on.

"The beach?" Izumi suggested.

"Too far away, we'll tire out before they do," Hitoshi said, "We can't use our quirks on Eraserhead, not only because he can erase them, but he's wearing earplugs,"

"I can't use my quirk on Mic if he knows how mine works, he'll just speak louder than me," Izumi said.

"WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?!" Present Mic's shout made them turn to the voice as they were sent tumbling off the building and into another alley.

"Dammit, who to focus on?" Hitoshi asked, standing up.

"We should try taking out Eraserhead. There's no way we can even get close to Mic," Izumi commented.

"I don't think that's smart. Mic wouldn't just let us take down Eraserhead," Hitoshi said.

"Yeah but he can't use his quirk on us if we're too close to Eraserhead," Izumi said, then a metaphorical lightbulb clicked in her head, "We need to go onto the street,"

"The street?"

"There's lots of people, Mic can't use his quirk without risking their safety," Izumi grinned.

"Okay genius," Hitoshi teased.

Izumi felt something snatch around her waist and looked back to see Eraserhead containing her, his hair raised and eyes red.

'Why is he using his quirk when he has the earplugs? And why is he choosing to grab me now, he could've 20 seconds ago, he's been hot on our tail this whole time. It's like he knows we plan to head to the stree-'

"The earplugs are just for show. He can hear us, he heard our plan," She said, grabbing his capture weapon and pulling Eraserhead towards her.

Hitoshi grabbed his bo staff off of his back and whacked Eraserhead with it.

They could've won. They'd had Eraserhead then.

But Present Mic showed up and shit hit the fan.

"NOT SO FAAAAAAAAST!" He yelled, blowing Hitoshi and Izumi back. Their backs slammed against a brick wall and the wind was knocked out of them as they slumped to the floor.

"Pretend you're unconscious," She whispered to him, her mouth concealed by the mask, "I'm better suited to take on Eraserhead, you take on Mic,"

"I think we got them," Present Mic said in a normal volume. He walked closer to the two vigilantes, "You were right Shota, they do have potential. Too bad we've gotta hand them in,"

Present Mic picked up Hitoshi and was about to clasp quirk-cancelling handcuffs on him when Hitoshi's eyes snapped open and he punched Present Mic straight in the nose.

Present Mic staggered back.

Already, Izumi was engaging with Eraserhead. She threw a ton of knives at him which he dodged all, apart from one that hit him in the shoulder. The knives were small though, so while they'd hurt, the damage wouldn't be anything too severe and could be healed with a basic healing quirk.

Eraserhead grabbed the knife out of his shoulder and was about to throw it back at her when he remembered she was only a child.

But the way she fought was nothing to scoff at, her skills had made him forget she was so young. She fought better than some pros, as did her brother.

She activated her magnet bracelet and all the throwing knives came flying back at her, sticking themselves to her bracelet.

She used her chain to grab Eraserhead but he copied her trick from earlier and pulled her towards him before kicking her in the uterus (luckily it wasn't that time of the month - but he would still pay for that).

"Pro Hero: Eraserhead. Quirk: Erasure. The ability to temporarily erase any transformative or emitter quirk, but cannot erase mutation quirks. His quirk is in his eyes, when he looks at a target he can erase their quirks,"

Eraserhead felt himself getting tired and immediately, then his eyes glowed red but the effects didn't wear off. He was still tired, he just wasn't getting anymore tired.

Izumi kicked his shin and he grabbed her foot and flipped her onto the floor.

She turned around quickly and lay on her back, watching him approach her she quickly reached down and grabbed her stun gun, shooting it at him. She never used her stun gun because she hadn't much time to test out her aim. But he was close enough that the chances she missed were small.

With a small bang, she shot him and watched as he began to spasm, electricity taking him over. She stood up and raised her elbow, ready to knock him out.

But then he straightened his body and stopped spasming, her elbow hit his abdomen and he stumbled back slightly.

She lunged to hit him again but was thrown back by a "THAT'S NOT VERY NIIIIIIIIICE!"

She crashed into a wall again and wondered what excuse she'd have to make to her mom this time to explain the concussion she definitely had.

"Hey Eraserhead," Hitoshi said.

And Eraser in his slightly disoriented state forgot not to respond, "Yeah?"

Hitoshi knew he had to give a quick order before Present Mic broke him out of his brainwashing.

"Uhhhh..... punch Present Mic in the face," Hitoshi watched in mild amusement (and horror as he just asked one of his favourite heroes to punch his actual favourite hero).

Eraserhead, against his will, proceeded to punch Present Mic in the face.

"Ack!" Present Mic stumbled back.

"Hey Miiiic," Izumi slurred, probably the worst concussion she'd had yet, "I love your radio show. I listen to it every Friday. It's the best thing ever. It's gotten me through some very hard times. You're one of my biggest inspirations,"

Present Mic, feeling touched, let a smile grace his face, letting his guard down.

"I love you Mic!" Izumi made a heart with her hands, one of the knives on her bracelet lightly pricking the skin on the other hand. Izumi was going to have to talk to Mei about the awkward placement of the magnet bracelet.

Meanwhile, Eraserhead and Hitoshi fought.

"Hey Eraser," Hitoshi said, trying to get a response out of him, "Knock knock,"

Eraser groaned, 'I've dealt with enough jokes from Emi, I don't need this in my life,'

"Whose there?" Hitoshi answered his own joke as he cracked his bo staff into two and a chain emerged, connecting the two parts together, becoming a pair of nunchucks, "Pro Hero. Pro hero, who?" He continued telling his 'joke', "Pro hero Eraserhead about to lose to two kids,"

Eraserhead's face scrunched up in frustration and annoyance and Hitoshi snickered but was disappointed he hadn't gotten a response out of the man.

"Present Mic, kick Eraserhead in the balls,"

"Wait-" Eraserhead asked before receiving a hard kick to his private part.

"That was for kicking me in the uterus!" Izumi smirked. She grabbed Hitoshi and ran out of the alley. Present Mic hot on their heels.

But before he could catch up, they'd reached the streets and had blended into a crowd of civilians.

"Dammit," Mic cursed, whilst Eraserhead was still in the alley, finally recovered from the kick.

"Little shits," Eraserhead cursed.

•••

Tsukauchi Naomasa

Age: 34

Gender: Male

Height: 5'11

Hair colour: Black

Eye colour: Black

Occupation: Detective

Affiliation: Police force

Quirk: Lie Detector

Aizawa Shōta

Age: 28

Gender: Male

Height: 6'0

Hair colour: Black

Eye colour: Black

Occupation: Pro Hero/Teacher

Affiliation: U.A High School

Quirk: Erasure

Four

7 year old Hitoshi stood, hiding behind his father's leg, light eye bags underneath his eyes and a bored look on his face to hide his fear.

He didn't want to be here. Well he did, but he didn't. He wanted to learn to fight, to defend himself, to be a hero. But he didn't want to be here with all these new people, standing in a taekwondo costume too large for this skinny frame.

"Hi! My name's Kendo Itsuka! I'm guessing you're the new kid dad was telling me about?" A ginger girl with turqoise eyes asked, approaching him with an outstretched hand.

Hitoshi's father stepped out of the way and now, Hitoshi had no hiding place.

He scratched the back of his neck, "Yeah? That's umm.. that's me,"

"Awesome! My dad runs this place so he asked me to show you around," She grabbed his hand and began leading him around the martial arts studio, "We leave our shoes here," She said, then walked through a hall way and pointed at the doors, "Here are the changing rooms, showers and toilets for boys,"

Hitoshi allowed a small smile to grace his face as the girl animatedly showed him around, she reminded him of his sister in a way, they both had the same friendly, comforting aura. He allowed himself to hope that she wouldn't be like the others, wouldn't judge him for his quirk.

And he was right. After 2 years of taekwondo training it was decided that he could start trying to incorporate his quirk into his fighting style. Of course, this wouldn't work as he didn't have a physical quirk. But no one seemed to mind. Kendo certainly didn't. She threatened to 'punch the lights out' of all his bullies and always reminded him of how useful his quirk was, using old sayings her dad taught her to give him advice.

•••

3 months later from previous chapter

Izumi opened her eyes to pitch blackness.

No walls, ceiling or floor. Just empty space.

A weight rested on her wrists and she looked up to find silver circles around them, handcuffs.

"----" She tried to speak but her voice was muffled, 'What the actual living fuck?'

She tried to tug her wrists down wards but only succeeding in straining her arms.

"------" Why couldn't she speak?

She couldn't speak...

She couldn't speak.

She couldn't use her quirk.

Had she been kidnapped? How would she escape her kidnapper?

She tugged again on her restraints.

"Awfully violent. Not very Princess like,"

A voice whispered in her left ear, the voice tickled the skin in her ear and made her cringe, she turned head to the left but found herself looking into the same inky blackness.

'Someone help me please!' She thought.

Hitoshi.

Mom.

Dad.

Anyone.

Hitoshi.

Mom.

Dad.

Hitoshi.

Mom.

Dad.

Hito-

A chuckle reverberated around the empty blackness, bouncing off the non existent walls.

The chuckled echoed, sounding in Izumi's ears, hollower each time.

"------ ---- ----" Izumi realised that her mouth had been gagged.

Why was it so hot in here?

She looked down but couldn't find her feet, only green fabric. A poofy large skirt, the shape of a fountain pooled around where her feet should've been.

She could feel a corset digging into her waist.

She thrashed in her restraints, a metallic jingle filling the otherwise silent room.

The deadly silence returned soon after and Izumi gulped.

Sweat trickled down the side of her face accompanied by one tear drop.

The inky black seemed to morph into a grey fog.

Izumi squinted her eyes trying to see through it.

Red eyes appeared first, staring at her, unnervingly.

Izumi forced herself to stare back, "--- --- ---" She should probably stop trying to speak.

The fog cleared and she saw a skinny teenager with blue hair, itching his neck.

Why is he here?

Why is he here?

Whyishehere?Whyishehere?Whyishehere?Whyishehere?Whyishehere?Whyishehere?Whyishehere?Whyishehere?Whyishehere?Whyishehere?Whyishehere?Whyishehere?

"I'm not here to hurt you," He cooed, hand out stretched to her.

She jerked her body back and the restraints miraculously came loose.

She didn't bother fumbling with her mouth gag, it stopped her from screaming anyways.

Through her blurry vision she could see him approaching nearer.

She wiped her eyes (when had she started crying?) and turned around, not daring a glance over her shoulder.

What would she see? Would he be nearer? Would he be gone? Is he there? Is he here?

Whyishehere?Whyishehere?Whyishehere?

She ran, and ran, like her life depended on it because maybe it did. She didn't know, she didn't know anything. What was going on?

So she ran.

She felt her foot stop, getting caught on something and let out a muffled shriek as she came tumbling down, foot caught on the hem of her skirt.

She fell to the ground, and picked herself back up quickly but already he had caught up.

She threw a punch at his face but he caught her fist and pulled her in closer, their faces so close their noses almost touched.

Izumi's eyes brimmed with more tears.

Why was she crying?

She'd always been a crybaby.

"Stop running, Princess,"

Her mouth gag swallowed her whimper as she stumbled backwards, but he didn't let her fall, he had looped a hand around her waist to stop her from falling, like dipping her in a ballet dance. The things Izumi would do to be in her ballet class right now, or anywhere else really.

Izumi pushed herself out of his grip and fell to the ground, rolling into a standing position, she continued her run, this time lifting her skirt slightly as she ran, feet pummelling the ground.

But the blackness never seemed to end.

She was running, but to where?

Where was the exit?

Was there an exit?

All of a sudden, she slammed into something and next thing she knew, black shards flew out of where she'd been, like she'd crashed into glass.

What was a random glass wall doing in... here?

This didn't make any sense.

Was this someone's quirk?

Was this his quirk?

Was this real?

She dared a look back but he was nowhere to be seen. Turning back around she came face to face with him, 'please don't hurt me. please, I don't know who you are, just leave me alone,'

"We'll be together forever Princess,"

Izumi ran again only to find herself looking at him. She turned and was looking at him. Again and again and again.

Like a mirror house. He was everywhere.

He wouldn't leave her alone.

They'd be together forever.

Izumi ran into one of the mirrors and watched as it broke into black shards again.

She continued running until she started falling, the ground beneath her - if there was even any ground there to begin with - slipped from underneath her.

And she felt the air leave her lungs as she tried to scream.

Falling.

But the ground never seemed to come nearer, there was no end. Just inky blackness.

No end.

Together forever.

"Til next time Princess," A whisper.

•••

Izumi jolted in her bed and opened her eyes. She sat up, pulling off her All Might duvet, "One of those falling dreams, huh?" She muttered to herself, "Though it was a lot more than that. I can't believe I've taken down villains before and yet, an encounter with some creep in the park has completely thrown me off. There's nothing to be scared of," She told herself.

She looked at her alarm clock and realised it wasn't ringing, the time read '5.00am'.

Izumi knew she wasn't getting back to sleep and decided to get ready for school early.

She yawned and stretched her arms.

Izumi's room at her mother's house was practically the same as the one at her father's house.

In her mother's house's room, she had a single bed at the centre, with an All Might duvet then pillows in green and purple. She had a computer desk, with a computer (duh) and a few pens scattered and paper, and underneath it were a couple of her weights. Along the walls, hero posters hung, predominantly of All Might but also of Ms Joke, Midnight, Present Mic, Miruko and anyone in the top 10. She also had a few autographs framed around her room from when she'd witnessed villain fights and gotten them.

Multiple pairs of bright red shoes sat at the door of her wardrobe next to a comfy pair of sliders, her black vigilante trainers, ballet slippers and her yellow school backpack.

Her bedside desk had an All Might alarm clock on top of it and the top draw contained multiple notebooks. The bottom draw had to be opened with a key and contained her vigilante weapons and costume.

Near the door, there was a clothing rail, here she kept specific clothes instead of in her wardrobe. Her judo uniform, ballet costumes and leotard, school uniform, kick boxing uniform.

And hung up on pegs on the wall near her bed were her medals from competitions. Her trophies and beauty pageant crowns and tiaras sat on top of her wardrobe.

Izumi removed her All Might pyjama shirt and trousers, grabbed a towel and headed into the bathroom.

•••

The cold water hit her face and washed down the rest of her body and Izumi decided this was just what she needed to really wake up. That stupid nightmare of hers had gotten her into a weird sort of funk and it just wouldn't do.

Heroes didn't get scared, right?

All might was never scared, he always wore a smile.

So Izumi would smile all day today, even if her smile was a little strained, she'd smile. To let everyone know she was fine, to convince herself that she was fine.

She lathered her mid-back-length hair in coconut shampoo and her body in vanilla body wash.

Humming the All Might theme song as she showered.

•••

Izumi dried her hair off with a towel and braided it neatly into two Dutch braids, she normally didn't have time to do her hair properly but since she'd woken up much earlier than usual she decided to spend more time on her appearance.

She pulled on her gym clothes, a sports bra, green tank top, black leggings and her red shoes, and decided to go for a jog before school.

•••

Hitoshi let out a groan as his alarm clock rang for the fourth time and contemplated snoozing it for a fifth time.

He eventually decided against it and got ready to go to the hell that it school.

(By getting ready he means he took a 10 minute shower, didn't brush his hair and had coffee for breakfast).

•••

Izumi clutched her yellow backpack with both hands as she strolled through the halls, waving and smiling at any who caught her eye. In return she'd either get a smile and wave back, a dirty look or just be completely ignored.

Izumi took it all in stride, no matter how often some people would call her one, she knew she wasn't a villain.

She had many friends at school (but none were that close), and she had a reputation for being friendly so much so that the villain rumours eventually died out at some point. Some people would still tease her and try to bully her, but Izumi really couldn't find it in her to care anymore. Besides the people who didn't like her because of her quirk, she was almost popular in her school (or as popular as a second year student can be - though of the second year students, Bakugou Katsuki was undoubtedly the most popular).

•••

Hitoshi walked through the halls head held high despite how tired he was. Becoming a vigilante had done wonders for his confidence, the people in his school may not like him, but he made it very clear to them that they meant nothing to him.

Even his old bullies steered clear of him now, after the first few fights Hitoshi won, they finally learnt their lesson (and their place).

And even though every time Hitoshi would win a fight (that he didn't even start) he'd get a mark on his record (when it was self-defense), he found himself uncaring.

It was better this way, that's what he told himself.

Even though there was now a hundred percent chance of him never getting into UA or any other hero school.

It was better this way.

(Was it though?)

•••

Izumi isn't a mean person. She doesn't enjoy being mean to people, even the ones who deserve it. She normally ignores people who try to get a rise out of her, or even better, she kills them with kindness, as the saying goes.

But.... ugh!

There was something about seeing Bakugou Katsuki that made something snap inside of her, all the time. He always managed to get a rise out of her, always made her lose her cool.

She hated it.

She hated how easily she gave in, let him make her angry.

He brought out the absolute worst in her. Not the villains and criminals she faced. It was he who managed to bring the worst out in her. To uncover a side of her she otherwise wouldn't have known existed, snarky, spiteful, hating, bitchy, cocky, competitive, cold, the list goes on.... and on.... and on...

So when he shoves past her today in the hallway, like he usually does, it's off putting to both her and him (and everyone else in t hallway who knows of their notorious rivalry) that she jumps like 5 feet into the air (like her pet Bunny) at his mere touch. Startled as ever and incredibly jumpy.

"Til next time Princess,"

Izumi shuddered involuntarily and Bakugou paused in his step, and stared at her, eyebrows raised.

"What is wrong with you?" He asked roughly.

"N-nothing Kacchan!" She hadn't stuttered in front of him for years.

Katsuki furrowed his brows and looked at her skeptically before grabbing her arm.

Izumi immediately ripped her arm out of his grasp.

"Awfully violent. Not very Princess like,"

And Katsuki tried to grab at her again before thinking better of it.

"Deku what the fuck is your problem today?" He asked gruffly.

And if Katsuki was anyone else she might have mistaken the intensity in his crimson eyes for concern, but Bakugou was incapable of caring for anyone other than himself.

"I don't have a problem," Izumi responded, crossing her arms over her chest, though her words lacked the usual bite they had on normal days when Katsuki pushed her buttons.

"You've been acting different for months," Katsuki said, eyeing her carefully, "What the fuck are you doing, huh?! Tell me!" He shouted, getting into her face.

'He knows I've been acting different for months.... could it be.... that Kacchan actually pays attention to people other than himself? Even my parents haven't brought anything up. How could he have figured me out that easily...?'

"Say it don't spray it Kacchan," She responded, placing her hands on his shoulders to push him away.

"You're not going to tell me are you?"

"I don't even know what you're talking about," Izumi shrugged in fake nonchalance.

"Bullshit," Katsuki sneered, "You've always been a shitty liar Deku,"

His words echoed around the hallway and that's when they realised that they were both alone.

"...." Izumi pulled out her phone and checked the time, "When did the bell ring?!"

"Stop changing the fucking topic-"

"-We're late to class-"

"-Cos you thought it'd be a great idea to waste my fucking time-"

"-Yeah it's all my fault isn't it that you decided the school hallway was a great place to start interrogating me. Because God forbid Kacchan ever minds his business and lets me go about my day peacefully-"

"-blah blah blah-"

"-You are so childish-"

"-Takes one to know one-"

"-Oh yeah-?"

"-yeah"

"Bakugou, Midoriya," A teacher's voice said, scoldingly, looking at the two students, where Izumi had her finger poking at Katsuki's chest and a hand on her hip, whist Katsuki was invading much of her personal space, "What're you doing in the halls? Get to class!"

Katsuki sniffed and walked away, Izumi rolled her eyes at his snobby behaviour before apologising to the teacher with a bow and heading to class after him.

"Bakugou don't be late next time. Midoriya, talk to me after class I want to know why you were late today,"

•••

After school, Izumi found herself cornered by Katsuki and his goons, a guy with long fingers and a boy who could pop his eye sockets out of his head (both of whoms' names Izumi couldn't remember for the life of her. Perhaps Kacchan was right when he called them extras).

They were in an empty classroom and she was cornered against the wall, not looking scared but looking bored if anything, like this was a daily occurrence (which it kinda was. Katsuki often cornered her and spewed empty threats which Izumi paid absolutely no mind to).

Izumi looked up into Katsuki's crimson eyes, his scrutinising gaze on her made her feel like he was seeing right through her, he looked at her like he knew everything about her. Which he didn't, couldn't. He couldn't know everything about her, she wouldn't let him in, ever. Not that she'd ever have any reason to. He never acted like he cared, he was only interested in her life when he suspected she was rising to do better than him, or when she was 'looking down' on him. He was only interested in her ever because he considered her a threat. To what though, Izumi would never know. A threat to his ego? Superiority complex?

"Scram," Katsuki growled to his goons.

They immediately left and Izumi rolled her eyes. She couldn't believe their willingness to follow Kacchan around like he was some sort of god.

"What are you rolling your eyes at huh?" He demanded.

Izumi scoffed, "You," She replied.

"So you're looking down on me, hah?" Katsuki asked.

Izumi let out an involuntary snort and jolted slightly in surprise when Katsuki slammed his fist into the wall behind to her, right by her head.

"What is it with boys and always wanting to establish dominance? If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to impress me," Izumi said with an innocent facial expression, but Katsuki knew better, he could spot the sly grin hidden in her pout, she was toying with him, as she usually did.

He hated it, hated her.

What right did she have to toy with him? Bakugou Katsuki, Lord Explosion Murder, the next big thing.

Sure he often toyed with her but that didn't mean she should respond in kind.

He slammed his other hand against the wall, palm flat against it.

She didn't jolt this time. Like she was expecting it. Which was absolutely stupid because Bakugou Katsuki was unpredictable!

His scowl deepened as he looked at her with such loathing that Izumi was glad looks couldn't kill, otherwise she'd be six feet under.

Katsuki smirked a little, no one else would've been able to tell, but he saw the slight shift in her demeanour. Good, she was actually paying attention to him now.

"You're different," And this time it wasn't a question. It was a statement.

"Different...." Izumi repeated, as if tasting the word on her tongue, "You'll have to elaborate,"

He grabbed her collar and pulled her up onto her tiptoes to stare at him in the eye, "Don't play fucking dumb with me, Deku,"

"You're crumpling my uniform," She responded, still with that uncaring look on her face. He was losing her interest again. Normally she would be glaring at him, insulting him, trying to intimidate him back, but she looked like she had better things to do. Which was absurd because there was nothing more important than Katsuki.

He dropped her back onto her feet and frowned, "You're really not going to tell me?" He asked.

And Izumi startled a bit, the glare in his eyes seemed to lack a bit of the usual malice they had.

"Do I have to?" She responded.

His glare returned to full force so quickly and Izumi almost convinced herself that the look before had never been, and was a figment of her imagination. After all, Katsuki held nothing but malice toward her.

"Yes," He replied, "You're different. Don't try to deny it. You're confident-"

"I've always been confident-"

"Have you really?" Katsuki asked, tilting his head.

'Ouch,' Izumi thought. She knew she hadn't always been confident, but she had been for a while. She'd been confident for years, of course she had times where she wallowed in self-doubt and drowned in insecurities, but didn't everyone? It was just that when she lacked self confidence, she lacked self-confidence, it was always all or nothing with her.

"What is it you want Kacchan?" She asked, folding her arms over her chest.

Katsuki narrowed his eyes, "Answers,"

"And why is it that you feel entitled to answers?" Izumi responded.

Katsuki blinked at her, as if considering that for the first time.

"Just don't do anything stupid nerd," Katsuki responded, avoiding her eyes.

And this time Izumi blinked. What was he even talking about? What does he think he knows? Who does he think he is?

Izumi should've picked up the slightly softer tone his voice had but all she was hearing was 'I don't trust you not to do something dumb, useless Deku. You're so weak you can't even take care of yourself,'

"You don't own me Kacchan. I don't know why you think you get everything about me but you don't. You think you get me but you don't get me at all! I don't know what 'stupid' thing you think I'll do, but if I did plan on doing something stupid, there's nothing you'd be able to do about it anyways. I'm not weak Kacchan, I'm not some helpless damsel in distress or a useless Deku, I don't need you playing hero. You only see what you want to see and I don't know why it is that you want to see me as some weakling when I'm not. I can, and I already do, stand on the same level as you, despite the pedestal everyone has you on. You can't just push me around and scream at me and demand what you like. That may work on the others, but I won't let you do as you please because you gained the ability to ignite sweat at age four,"

She barged past him and stormed out of the room, leaving Katsuki utterly confused, bewildered and angry.

He didn't even do shit to her. Why was is that she always played victim but then complained when she was seen as weak?

He removed his hands from the wall and looked at the indents he'd left by where her head had been. Letting a few pops from his sweaty palms, why was he sweating so much?

Of all the emotions he was currently feeling, he decided to focus on one. Anger.

It was an emotion he came to more often than not, especially when thoughts of his purple-green headed classmate consumed him.

Why couldn't he stop thinking about the nerd?

•••

Hitoshi stood off in the corner of the room, apart from everyone else, stretching.

He rolled his neck around his shoulders a few times. It was after school and he was at his Taekwondo class.

"Hitoshi!" A female voice called.

He looked up to see Kendo running over to him with a smile on her face. He felt his lips twitch up a little in some semblance of a smile.

"Come do some forms with me," Kendo grinned at him.

"Sure," Hitoshi let her drag him along to the centre of the room where they'd have more space.

Standing in front of the mirror, they started practicing some basic forms before moving onto more complex ones.

"So why haven't you been getting enough sleep lately?" Kendo asked him eventually, as they continued with their forms.

Hitoshi furrowed his eyebrows, "I don't know what you're talking about,"

"You don't?" Kendo responded.

Hitoshi looked at her through the mirror, she didn't look like she believed him, "What makes you think I'm not getting enough sleep?"

"Your eyebags are heavier," She responded.

"That means nothing," Hitoshi huffed.

"You sound awfully defensive,"

"How do I sound defensive?" He responded, sounding defensive.

"You know. If something's up. You can confide in me," She told him.

"Nothing's up," He responded automatically.

She gave him a disbelieving look but then shook her head, "Okay," She'd wait for him to open up. If he needed to tell her anything, he would, right?

(But he couldn't tell her that he was a vigilante at night)

•••

Izumi wore a deep green hoodie over a white tennis skirt with her signature red trainers and her hair still in its braids, walking through the mall with her arm linked in Mei's. Mei, for once, wasn't greasy and wearing a tank top. She wore a simple white polo-shirt tucked into a baby blue skirt and wore white trainers, her pink hair pulled back into a low bun.

They practically skipped through the mall together, trying to locate the fountain where they were to meet someone.

"I could've sworn it was a left-"

"-Meichan, I told you to let me read the mall map," Izumi sighed.

"I thought it would be easy to navigate! They looked like blueprints," Mei responded.

"They weren't even blue-"

"-thats literally not what I meant-"

"Izumi-chan!" A voice called.

They both turned around to see a tall girl with black hair in a spiky ponytail and black eyes.

"Mochan!" Izumi giggled, waving at her.

"I assume this is the Hatsume you wanted me to meet?" Yaoyorozu Momo asked, approaching them and bowing before Hatsume, "Pleased to meet you, Hatsume. My name is Yaoyorozu Momo,"

"A friend of Zoomi's is a friend of mine, and a potential customer! So please, call me Mei!" Hatsume replied.

5 minutes later

"So you're telling me you can create anything. Like anything!" Hatsume had a wicked grin on her face, "Like any material,"

Momo nodded, "Any non-living thing as long as I know the atomic structure of it,"

"Woah, you must be totally smart!" Hatsume responded.

"She is!" Izumi grinned, "Her quirk requires it. It's gotta be a lot of hard work! But I'm soooo jealous of your quirk. I mean imagine the possibilities!" Izumi grabbed Momo's left arm as they walked through the mall.

"The possibilities!" Hatsume repeated with a gasp, grabbing onto Momo's right arm.

Izumi began a rant about possible applications of Momo's quirk whilst Mei got in Momo's face and began ranting to her about support gear.

Momo grinned nervously, feeling thoroughly overwhelmed. She was used to Izumi's behaviour but now there were two of them! Two!

•••

"So where shall we go first?" Momo asked, looking around the mall.

"The hero shop!"

"The cafe!"

Izumi and Mei yelled at the same time.

They both looked to Momo as if expecting her to decide.

"We could... buy clothes?" Momo suggested.

"Oh I saw this nice Midnight shirt online the other day!" Izumi perked up and grabbed both their hands and dragged them into a clothing store.

•••

"Give us a fashion show baby!" Mei yelled, "Strut your stuff!"

Momo let out a startled laugh at Mei screaming in the changing room section of the store, unbothered by the looks of the strangers.

Her first thought was that it was unladylike. Her parents would be disappointed to ever see her behave like this. But Mei seemed to be having fun. Mei was just being unapologetically herself. Why couldn't Momo do that then? Why couldn't Momo let loose for once? Her parents weren't even here to see her. She didn't have any friends in school, so Izumi (and now Mei) was all she had. She couldn't ruin this outing by being a wet blanket. She should let go a little too.

Momo decided that it would be nice to not care about how strangers looked at her.

"Yeah! Pageant girl style!" She joined in, clapping enthusiastically.

Izumi walked out of the changing rooms in a pair of large sunglasses, a bright yellow beanie, a leather jacket, jeans and a skirt, as well as a thick red scarf.

She flashed them a grin, "How do I look?" She asked sarcastically, whipping her hair and posing for the camera.

"Amazing!" Mei called out, snapping photos.

Momo giggled, "Like a goddess!" She commented.

Izumi pulled down her sunglasses and winked at them, "Yeah?"

"Hell yeah!" Mei shouted.

"A true beauty!"

Izumi snorted.

"Uh excuse me," A short woman walked up to them, wearing the store's uniform, "I'm going to have to ask you to leave the store,"

•••

Izumi and Momo were red faced in embarrassment even though it had been 3 whole minutes since they'd left the store and Mei was cackling talking about how hilarious it was.

Momo's face turned redder and Izumi covered her face with her hands. Thought both didn't regret it at all and would do it again.

"Oh oh oh! Ice cream store!" Mei pointed up ahead.

•••

"I beg to differ. I believe that Buttered Pecan is the best ice cream flavour, chocolate is a close second though," Momo argued.

"I- what- no! No no no! You've got it all wrong!" Mei shoved her ice cream cone into Momo's face, "Birthday Cake is the best flavour,"

"I still can't believe you paid for us Momo," Izumi sighed.

"I still can't believe you got vanilla," Momo teased. Teasing... it wasn't something Momo dabbled in often. Even after years she still felt new to this whole friendship thing, and slightly out of place when she watched Mei and Izumi interact and tease eachother so effortlessly, even when Momo had known Izumi longer. How had they gotten so close in so little time? How was it so easy for Izumi to make friends with people? 'Stop being such a downer Momo! You're here to have fun. Your parents allowed you out for once without a body guard so enjoy it,' She chided herself.

She was broken out of her thoughts by a loud squeal and looked to see Izumi almost combusting on the spot.

"There's an arcaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaddddeeeeee!" She squealed, jumping up and down, "There's an arcade. We have to go! We have to!"

Mei followed Izumi's line of sight and immediately joined in with the squealing.

Momo frowned a little, 'I've never been to an arcade before,'

Izumi and Mei spun around to look at her with incredulous facial expressions.

"What?" Momo asked, 'Did I say that out loud? Now they'll think I'm some weird sort of lose with no life. I mean seriously, who hasn't been to an arcade before? I'm probably the only one.'

"Mochan! We have to take you now!" Izumi grabbed her arm and dragged her along as she ran into the arcade. Mei shortly behind them.

"I can't belive you've never been!" Mei shouted, "We're gonna make sure you have the best time of your life 3D Printer!" '3D printer' was a nickname that Mei had come up with for Momo shortly after learning her quirk.

"What would you do without us Mochan?" Izumi teased.

Momo laughed softly, her doubts chipping away a bit, 'Yeah. What would I do without you?' She looked at her friend no, friends, fondly.

•••

After an hour at the arcade (where Izumi demolished them both in all the hero games and set herself high on the leaderboard and managed to come second on the leaderboard in DDR under someone named 'Alien Queen'. And Momo found she had an affinity for aiming games, and Mei beat them both in racing games), they finally said their goodbyes and went home.

•••

"Mom?" Izumi asked, pushing the door open to her mother's bedroom tentatively, "You said you wanted to talk?" She walked into the room.

Her mother had sounded pretty serious when she'd asked Izumi to talk after she'd gotten home.

Inko let Mike grace her face and tapped the spot next to her on the bed.

Izumi sat down next to her mother and waited for her to begin.

"You know, you've been acting quite odd for the past few months," Inko said, "Not just you, Hitoshi has too,"

Izumi froze for a split second before forcing her body to appear more relaxed, but it was too late, Inko had seen.

"What's going on honey?" She asked.

"N-nothing's going on mom," Izumi had always been bad at lying to her parents or Hitoshi.

Inko frowned and reached for her daughter's hand, "You can tell me if something's wrong you know? Are you doing okay in school? Are you being bullied? Is it a boy, or a girl? Do you have a crush? Or a secret boyfriend? Or girlfriend?"

Izumi shook her head rapidly, a scarlet blush blooming on her face, "Mom!" She shrieked, "I don't have a boyfriend! Or girlfriend!"

Inko chuckled fondly, sifting her fingers through Izumi's messy curls, "Izumi... I understand that you're a teenager and you may want privacy. So I'm trusting you, okay? Take care of yourself,"

Izumi wrapped her arms around her mother's waist to embrace her, "Of course," She whispered into her mother's chest.

•••

Five

"Momma, momma, momma," Izumi chanted as she bounded over to her mother who stood at the sink washing the plates.

Izumi hopped from foot to foot, brandishing a piece of paper and holding up to her mother, "Look! I did a drawing," The 3 year old said.

Inko dried her hands off to look at the drawing, it was a picture of their whole family at the beach, making sandcastles and eating icecream. It wasn't a very detailed drawing, but was impressive for a 3 year old and a skill that only got better over the years as Izumi would sketch in her notebooks to accompany her quirk notes.

"It's beautiful," Inko smiled down at her daughter.

•••

7 months later from previous chapter

Izumi and Hitoshi ran across the rooftops, their footsteps making soft thuds that could barely be noticed as they snuck around the darker parts of Musutafu, searching for crime.

"You know, I love painting things red," A feminine voice giggled from nearby.

They were about to ignore it when they heard the next part of the sentence.

"I bet you'd look pretty in red,"

They knew a threat when they heard one, and telling someone they'd look pretty in red, in the evening when the sky is dark, while it's quiet out, was probably a threat.

Izumi sent a hand signal to Hitoshi, showing that they'd approach the situation from opposite sides of the street and that he was to approach first whilst she assessed and analysed the situation.

Hitoshi ran to the other side of the street and quietly jumped from the roof off the 1-storey building. He grabbed his bo staff and held it in front of him defensively.

"Teenager, or someone with an age quirk that keeps them young because it's not every day you see a 15 year old girl with a knife,"

'Do you not see the irony of that statement?' Hitoshi thought, 'You're a 13 year old with a knife,'

"Wait, maybe a vampirism quirk? She has fangs and could be disguising her real age. Or she could actually be a teenager. Age quirks are rare. She has a knife in her hand and- Hitoshi quick!"

Hitoshi ran down the street quickly and spotted a blonde girl with a knife held to someone's neck.

"Hey Blondie!" He yelled.

The girl turned to him with a delirious look, like she didn't really know what was going on, "Hm?" She responded.

"Put the knife down,"

The blonde girl immediately put the knife down, a blank look in her eyes courtesy of Hitoshi's quirk.

Immediately, the boy she had pressed up against the wall, with multiple cuts all over him, pushed past her and ran away.

The push served to break the girl out of the brainwashing and she turned to Hitoshi, "You.... took my blood bag!" She pouted, then her frown turned upwards into a wide, unsettling smile.

Hitoshi visibly shivered, and though his facial features were hidden by his mask and goggles, the blonde girl could tell what affect she'd had on him. It hurt less and less each time though. She was used to it already. From her own parents, her classmates, her 'friends'.

"What's wrong? Don't you like my smile?" She grinned even wider and then ran at him, "Why don't you take that mask off and show me your smile? Or better yet, your blood!"

"No thanks I'm not into that," Hitoshi replied, fending her off with his bo staff.

Her knife slashed his cheek just as he managed to shove her away with his staff.

"Izumi," He whispered, hoping she could hear him through their earpieces, "I need assistance. Knives are your thing, remember?"

Izumi approached from the other end of the street whilst the blonde girl was distracted.

Izumi grabbed her stun gun and shot it, right at her target.

The blonde girl spasmed and fell to the floor.

"Is she conscious?" Izumi asked

"Really? No, 'are you okay Hitoshi?' Or 'did you get stabbed Hitoshi?'" He deadpanned.

"I know you can handle yourself," Even though he couldn't see it, he could hear his sister's smile in her voice. Then Izumi picked the girl up and was about to sling her over her shoulder to drop her off by the police station when she felt a sting on her arm, a slit had formed on her jumpsuit and blood seeped through slowly. It wasn't a deep cut, but that didn't make it hurt any less, "Ah!"

Izumi dropped the girl to the ground and watched in disgust as the girl licked her blood off of the knife, 'Mmm this is the best blood I've tasted in a while, and she's got a pretty voice too. I wonder if her face is pretty too!'

"What the fu-" Izumi started but the girl tried to slash at her again.

Izumi took a step back and then grabbed her own knife, and prepared to throw it at the girl when the girl's eyes widened, clearly realising she could be outmatched.

The girl ran off down the street and right when Izumi and Hitoshi were about to give chase, they both burst out in fits of laughter.

"Wh- HAHHAAHA- what's- HA- happening?" Hitoshi asked, clutching his stomach as he double over in laughter.

Izumi wheezed as she sat on her knees, giggling wildly, "HEHEHE- I don't- HEHEEHE-d-don't know-" tears leaked out of her and Hitoshi's eyes.

"My bad!" A cheerful voice came.

"No- HAHAHHAA- no way!" Izumi giggled. She could recognise that voice anywhere. One of her favourite heroes. Ms Joke.

She looked up to see a woman with sea green hair, dark green eyes and an orange bandanna approaching the group.

"What do you call a vigilante who-"

"Not the time Joke," A deadpan voice came.

'Eraserhead, again?' Hitoshi groaned internally, 'As much as he's my favourite pro hero he's also a pain in the ass,'

For the past 11 months ( a year into their vigilantism), Eraserhead had not let up, always cornering them when they were worn out from a fight, jumping out of nowhere and surprising them. Occasionally he brought Present Mic with him or some random underground hero.

Today, he'd brought along Ms Joke. But by the exasperated tone of voice, something told Hitoshi he hadn't actually wanted to bring her along.

"Alright buzzkill," Ms Joke replied teasingly, "If we capture them can we go on a date?"

"No," Eraserhead picked Hitoshi up by the hood and was about to use cuffs on the laughing boy when his laughter died out.

At the same time, Izumi stopped laughing and charged for Ms Joke, "I'm really sorry about this, I'm a really really really big fan of yours. See we both have quirks that on some level, affect what other people do, and both our quirks are related to vocals. But you already knew that, didn't you? You see every time you think that you've gained an advantage over us, we're two steps ahead, anything you know about us, we let you know. Because it's not going to help you, at all. We have contingency plans A-Z! You'll never catch us out. I don't even know why you'd want to. We're helping you. We could even be co-workers. Then again, I'm not of age to work, but again, you already knew that?" Izumi rambled, trying her best to seem confident and badass.

Ms Joke felt her eyelids begin to droop as she engaged in hand to hand combat with Izumi.

She threw a punch at the girl's gut but her fist was grabbed and Izumi pulled her forward, slamming her forehead against Ms Joke's nose.

"Again, really, truly, terribly sorry. I wish we didn't have to meet like this. I mean, your first impression of me is a law breaker and a nose breaker. Hey can I have your autograph?" Izumi asked.

"Hey look," Eraserhead said to Joke as he fought with Hitoshi, "There actually is someone out there who talks more than you,"

"HAHAHA! You're so funny Eraserhead!" The woman laughed, her quirk began taking affect on Izumi but she was too tired for it to do much.

"Hahah," Izumi laughed as she kept fighting, dodging a kick from Joke and returning with a kick of her own that Ms Joke tanked like it was nothing. She grabbed Izumi's foot and pulled her forward before bashing her own head against Izumi's nose, "Argh!" Izumi shouted in pain, "I guess that's fair. I still don't appreciate it though, so why don't you keep Eraserhead busy for me while me and my bro- companion escape,"

And with that Hitoshi and Izumi dashed down the streets whilst Ms Joke pounced on Eraserhead, keeping him face down on the floor so that he couldn't look at her and erase her quirk.

Eraserhead would've grumbled something about the problem children defeating him again if he wasn't pre-occupied laughing and trying to throw Ms Joke off of him.

It didn't matter if Eraserhead was kept busy by Ms Joke though.

The little shits thought they were 2 steps ahead.

They weren't.

Izumi and Hitoshi dashed around the corner of the empty street (save for Ms Joke and Eraserhead) and were immediately blasted back by sound waves, "YOU DIDN'T THINK THEY FORGOT TO BRING BACKUUUUUUP, DID YA?!"

Izumi wrapped her chain around a street lamp and Hitoshi did the same with his binding cloths to prevent themselves from flying backwards.

Their feet skidded against the ground as the sound waves kept coming, "YOU'RE STILL STANDING? IMPRESSIVE!"

Izumi planted her feet into the ground and tried to keep her balance. Hitoshi mirrored her actions.

Blood slowly trickled out of Izumi's nose, "She's fighting back," Izumi said, "Ms Joke's fighting against my control,"

Hitoshi looked at her worriedly, "Let her go then,"

"But we can't take all three of them down!" Izumi responded, wiping her nose with her pointer finger.

"Then we'll run,"

"WHAT ARE WE WHISPERING ABOUT KIDS?! LET ME IN ON THE SECRET!"

Izumi felt the lamp post begin to bend with her chain and Hitoshi's capture scarf holding onto it.

"I'm..." Izumi panted, she could feel her mind being split apart, a terrible headache coming on. Ms Joke was fighting hard than any of the criminals and villains she'd faced ever had, "Letting her go!"

She released her bond to Ms Joke and could already hear running.

"They're coming," Izumi said.

"Let's go!" Hitoshi said.

"We need to go left," Izumi whispered into her earphones.

Hitoshi nodded and they ran left.

"NOT SO FAAAAAAAAAST!" Present Mic yelled.

Good.

Just as Izumi had planned it, Present Mic's shout sent them further away from him and gave them a boost.

They tumbled down the street but quickly got up in a standing position again and began running.

Their headstart was good. But would it be enough?

Then pink mist began to fill the air.

'Just how many pro heroes are on this case?' Hitoshi thought irritated.

'No way!! Is it who I think it is?!' Izumi fangirled internally, "Hold your breath!"

'They've really thought this through. Midnight's gas is the perfect counter to our quirks. If we talk, we'll be forced to breathe in the gas. And Ms Joke's quirk makes us laugh so hard we can't even talk at all. Then there's Present Mic, who can just talk over us, or rather, shout over us. And of course, Eraserhead who can just point blank erase our quirks,' Izumi thought, holding a breath. Her mask was a normal face mask, as was Hitoshi's, it wasn't a gas mask, which meant she wasn't safe from Midnight's quirk.

"Young kids out at such a time? Isn't it past your bed time? You've been so naughty, time to get you in cuffs!" A whip cracked somewhere nearby, though it was kinda hard to see through all the pink smoke, "Run as far as you can. But I've spread my fumes far and wide, just how long can you hold your breath for?"

Izumi and Hitoshi ran as fast as they could, feet pounding violently against the pavement.

They could see the pink gas thinning out.

Looking up, they saw Eraserhead, Ms Joke and Present Mic running along a rooftop, catching up to them. And behind them, Midnight walked slowly, a smug look on her face as she swayed her hips.

The pink gas was now very faint. Izumi and Hitoshi's faces were turning red from holding their breath in for so long.

'Almost there,' Izumi thought, her mind starting to feel dizzy. She needed to breathe and now.

Hitoshi let a lazy grin grace his face underneath his mask. They made it out of the smoke.

Izumi emerged 2 seconds after him, pulling down her mask and breathing heavily.

Hitoshi's chest heaved, "Ugh... that was a workout,"

"It's not over yet," Izumi replied, pointing to the rooftop where 3 pro heroes began to descend it.

"You think they have any more surprise pro heroes?" Hitoshi asked.

"They don't need it. We stand no chance against the four of them in a fight. Or even one of them in a fight. It's why we always run away," Izumi replied.

"Dagobah," Hitoshi suggested, "I don't think it's too far from here. 10 minutes if we run,"

"We should split up, take convoluted roots. Confuse them," Izumi replied.

•••

Hitoshi ran down the street, pink smoke wafting closer to him.

He was being chased by Present Mic and Midnight.

Midnight was behind me and Present Mic was on the rooftop, avoiding the pink sleeping gas and to get ahead of Hitoshi so he could stand in front of him and push him into the gas with his voice.

And it would soon start, working. Hitoshi was getting exhausted. But he couldn't lose. If he got caught then his mom and dad would find out, he definitely wouldn't be able to get into any hero school (a dream he never could truly give up even when the marks on his record kept increasing). And he would've let Izumi down. He couldn't let her down. She'd become a vigilante for him, to help him live his dream in a different way. He wasn't going down like this.

"You've been running for quite some time young boy," A coo came from behind him, "I hear distance runners have lots of stamina,"

If he had turned around he probably would've seen Midnight winking at him.

Hitoshi resented the bright blush that filled his face at the thought (sue him he was a hormonal teenage boy).

Present Mic began pulling ahead and that's when Hitoshi dipped into a thin alley and ran down it.

He continued taking twists and turns that looked random to his pursuers, but weren't random at all.

•••

Izumi's headstart wasn't doing much for her. She could hear them catching up. Ms Joke was just waiting until she was close enough to use her quirk and Eraserhead's capture scarf kept trying to grab her.

Izumi climbed up a fire escape, nimble as ever and then she jumped onto another roof.

"I'm headed for North Dagobah," Izumi spoke into her earpiece.

"I'm coming in from the South," Hitoshi replied.

"You know the drill," Izumi responded.

"A-B-B-C?" Hitoshi asked.

"Yup," Izumi responded before diving off of a buildings rooftop and landing roughly on a balcony, "Ah crap," Izumi said, rubbing her butt as she stood back up and climbed down the balcony, peering up she saw Ms Joke and Eraserhead a mere metre away from her.

She couldn't keep up. It was a reminder of just how far she had to go before she could be pro hero level. But she would have time to learn, to grow, as long as she didn't get arrested here and now.

Dammit, why had she thought this was a good idea?

But of course it was. She was apprehending villains, helping the civilians and the heroes. Saving people. What was so wrong about that?

Izumi wondered if she'd be able to argue it was 'self-defense' when she got caught.

"I can hear you overthinking from here," Hitoshi's voice came from the other end of the earpiece, "Don't,"

Izumi huffed, "Easier said than done,"

"You whine too much,"

"Yeah yeah," Izumi responded, "I'm approaching the beach, they're on my tail,"

"We know this beach better than anyone. We'll be fine," Hitoshi responded.

"You sound awfully calm," Izumi responded.

"Nah, just tired," Hitoshi stated plainly.

Izumi giggled then let out a shriek as a capture weapon snagged around her feet and she tumbled to the ground.

"Izumi?!" Hitoshi's panicked shout came from the other end.

Izumi rolled onto her feet and with fluidity and grace she'd learnt from her ballet classes, dodged Eraserhead's capture weapon and pulled out her dagger. The next time he tried to grab her with it, she grabbed hold of the cloth and cut a good quarter of it off before bursting into uncontrollable fits of laughter.

Still, she powered through, running towards the beach, not before throwing down a flash bomb in front of the two heroes.

Eraserhead's capture weapon didn't lash out again but him and Ms Joke were still hot on her heels.

Izumi swung her chain out and felt a tug as it looped around the top of the beach gate, she swung herself up and over the gate, flying through the air at a speed so fast she let out a startled yelp before faceplanting in the sand.

She then saw Eraserhead push the beach gates open and groaned, "I thought they were locked,"

"So each Pile A will fall over when you remove the chair from the bottom of it, it could serve as an obstruction," Hatsume had informed them a year ago when she'd booby-trapped the beach for their vigilantism.

Quickly, staggering to her feet, she ran to what she knew as North Pile A and waited for the perfect moment before pulling the chair out from under it and watching the entire pike come crashing down, providing a barricade between her, and Ms Joke and Eraserhead.

She could've sworn she heard Eraserhead murmur 'sly little shit' and cracked a grin underneath her mask as she made her way to North Pile B. Eraserhead would surely think her a little shit after this.

"Piles B in the North and South are made solely of flammable material and there's a detonator in the middle. There's a lighter hidden in the pencil case atop the table, so you can blow up the pile. Don't worry, the explosion will be delayed by 15 seconds,"

Frantically, she zipped open a pencil case in the pile and found a lighter, she lit it up and threw it into the pile before dashing away with her hands over her ears. She'd made sure to set the explosion off before Eraserhead and Ms Joke could get too close to the pile, avoiding any severe injuries.

1...2...3...4....5...

Izumi saw them climbing over the pile of trash she'd left in their way

..6.....7...8...9..10...11

Eraserhead leapt off of the pile, charging at her.

12.....13...14...

He was almost too close to the pile, she didn't want anyone to get hurt.

15.

The pile erupt into flames like a Phoenix and the blast shot Eraserhead and Ms Joke backwards, whilst propelling Izumi forwards. Knocking her hands away from over her ears, her ears began ringing and her head was aching.

If Izumi wasn't sweating like a pig before she sure was now with the heat of the explosion. She faintly heard another explosion in the distance and reasoned that it must've been Hitoshi following the plan. A-B-B-C. Now it was time for the next 'B'.

"Piles B in the East and West have a mechanism hidden in them that'll throw a capture net at the next person to run past it, after one of you, activate it by pulling the mirror down,"

Izumi ran to East Pile B and pulled the mirror down like a lever before scampering away.

She watched as Eraserhead ran at her, Ms Joke not too far behind.

Izumi immediately set off a smoke bomb and set for East Pile C. The hiding place.

Behind her, she heard a loud curse and figured that Eraserhead had gotten trapped by a capture net, she presumed he wouldn't have too much trouble getting out of it though, since he was bound to have gotten caught in his own capture weapon multiple times when learning how to use it and that was infinitely much harder than escaping a capture net.

(Little did she know, both Ms Joke and Eraserhead had gotten caught in it together. Easy to say, that Eraserhead wasn't pleased.)

Izumi made a note to self to request a capture net gun from Mei though, her stun gun was nice but having a capture net gun too? She'd be unstoppable (if she knew how to shoot one with accurate aim. That was something she'd have to work on.)

As Izumi ran towards East Pile C, a memory of what Mei had said popped into her mind, "So if you ever want to hide, just run to East Pile C. For that reason, Pile C is contained in a large dumpster. But the dumpster has an extra part, there's only space for one person in it, and there's no trash in that part, it's a hidden compartment,"

'There's only space for one person in it,' Izumi thought, turning back, she saw Eraserhead and Ms Joke almost free of the capture net, and as she approached East Pile C, she saw Hitoshi doing the same, behind him, Midnight stood still with her eyes glazed over and Present Mic looked like he was preparing for a big sound blast.

"Hitoshi, do you remember what Meichan said about East Pile C?" Izumi asked.

"That it's the hiding place?" Hitoshi asked through his earpiece.

"There's only space for one Hitoshi," She replied, "But it's okay because I've got a plan,"

•••

"What the hell?" Eraserhead breathed out, "Where are they?" He looked around the beach frantically, "We lost them, again?"

"I'm sure it's fine Eraser," Ms Joke panted, "How far can two kids go in a couple of seconds? They've gotta be here some where,"

Meanwhile, Mic continuously snapped his fingers in front of Midnight's face, "Guys it's like she's in a trance,"

Eraserhead's eyes glowed red but it didn't break her out. Ms Joke walked up to Midnight and placed her hands on her shoulders, shaking her until she saw the life return to her eyes.

"What happened?" Midnight asked, feeling a little disoriented, then the memories came back to her, "That mischievous little boy!"

"I told you not to respond to a word he says," Eraserhead groaned, "So what did he have to say to get her to talk?"

"Nemuri said 'Come back here,' then he said, 'Or what are you gonna whip me?' And then she replied with 'Would you like that?'" Present Mic explained.

Eraserhead groaned and Ms Joke chuckled, "Can't say I'm surprised," They said in sync.

Eraserhead looked at Ms Joke with a shit eating grin hidden under his capture scarf, "Jinx,".

Ms Joke pouted and Eraserhead grinned, he could finally have a moment of peace without having to hear her jokes-

"HAHAAAAAA! HE JINXED YOU!" Present Mic yelled.

Eraserhead groaned.

"If you didn't want her to talk, you could've just -"

"Don't finish that sentence Nemuri," Eraserhead warned.

"Let's head out," Midnight said instead, "We'll get them next time,"

"I just don't believe it. 2 kids against 4 pros? How did we lose?" Eraserhead asked.

"Awww is Shouta's pride hurt?" Ms Joke asked.

Eraserhead looked at her, "You're not allowed to talk I jinxed you, so shut up,"

"Make me," Ms Joke replied.

"Oooh~ la la!" Midnight responded.

"What are you? high schoolers?" Eraserhead asked in annoyance as they exited the beach.

Immediately a splashing sound could be heard and Izumi burst out of the ocean's water, hacking up her lungs, her face red whilst Hitoshi left the secret dumpster compartment.

Her hoodie had fallen down, her mask had fallen somewhere so she stood, drenched in a jumpsuit, goggles and wet trainers (eww). Her wet hair plastered to her face as she continued to cough up water.

"I told you couldn't hold your breath for that long!" Hitoshi said, running toward her.

"And I told you that it was-," Izumi hiccuped, "better me than you. You said yourself with all that mumbling -hic- I do and with my quirk, having to talk lots means I'm bett -hic- better at holding my breath," Izumi replied, "What's -hic- the problem anyways? We made it,"

Hitoshi let a smile grace his face, "Damn right we did," He held out his hand for their customary handshake.

•••

Six

"Meichan," Izumi said, "I wanted to talk to you about one of the support items you made for me,"

"Ouu! Which one?! I've been working on these babies for your knives! One knife has a poison in it-"

"No thank you!" Izumi cut her off quickly, "You know the magnetic bracelet, that collects my knives. I think the placement is a bit awkward. Since the knives end up collected on my wrist and then if I throw a punch I end up stabbing them at the same time. Or sometimes I end up stabbing myself since I forget they're right there on my wrist. So I was wondering if there was a way around that. Like instead of a bracelet.... maybe a...."

Hatsume was one of the only people who could understand Izumi when she spoke fast like that. Often, when Izumi got caught up in her mumbling, she accidentally lost grip of her quirk and made all people nearby more tired. Luckily, Hatsume was always energetic no matter how much Izumi accidentally used her quirk on her.

"Fan!" Hatsume finished for her, "Your fan. Think about it Zoomi. I could modify it so it can contain your knives in it and then shoot them out," Hatsume grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and began drawing a diagram, "There'll be a button for each knife and one big button for them all to be released at the same time! Then pressing the button again will activate that magnet!"

"Meichan, have I ever told you how much I love you?" Izumi asked.

"Maybe once or twice," Mei laughed.

•••

"I just can't believe I got to meet Ms Joke and Midnight in the same day!" Izumi fangirled, "Ugh wish I could've asked for their autographs! Do you think they'll come next time Eraser comes for us? Do you think he'll bring more pros? What if they bring... Ingenium! Wait no, his agency is too far away from here- speaking of which, why was Ms Joke even in Musutafu? Doesn't she normally switch between agencies near Ketsubutsu-"

"Izumi, focus," Hitoshi responded.

"Yes?" Izumi asked, looking at him.

"We need to plan, remember? Our Homebase is gone, we have no last resort. Next time, we'll lose. We got lucky today," Hitoshi told her.

"I know," Izumi sighed, "Why can't they just leave us alone? All we want to do is save people, is that so wrong?"

"It's their jobs Izumi, what we're doing is illegal," Hitoshi reminded her.

"And? It shouldn't matter, as long as the job gets done, who cares if it's legal? Why do we need a license to save people? A license takes years to get, people are in danger, now! They don't have years," Izumi groaned.

"Yes but that's-"

"That's why there are pros! I know! I know! I love pros! And I get it, I do. It makes sense, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating!" Izumi groaned.

"So.... how are you gonna let off your steam today?" Hitoshi asked knowingly.

Izumi was energetic, she could never sit still and do nothing, she had to be doing something whether that was bouncing her thigh up and down in her chair or rambling.

When she was sad or stressed, she did ballet, she found it was a great way to express herself and get all the emotions out. Or sometimes, when she was stressed she'd stress bake and the next day at school, each of her classmates would find a package with cookies for them on their table, even Katsuki who made a show of eating her food and making 'disgusted' facial expressions. Or, she would donate the food to local shelters or give them to the children at her dojo aswell as the teachers.

When she got bored she would analyse and draw. Pulling up multiple clips of heroes and muttering to herself about their quirks, fighting styles, costumes and more. Then she'd draw pictures of them next to her notes. Currently, she was on Notebook 13.

When she was angry, she'd do kickboxing, or practice using her dagger on a dummy. Or, she'd throw knives at a target. It depended on how angry she was. She often found herself imagining the target was Kacchan.

Izumi stood up abruptly, "We're gonna spar!" She declared.

•••

"I hate Winter quirks!" Hitoshi screamed as more hail rained down on him and his sister.

Quirk - Hailstone: User can freeze H20 particles in the air into small chunks of ice.

"I don't know, I think they're pretty neat," Izumi responded, "And they're pretty too!" She said, covering her head with her hands, protecting her head from another shower of hail.

"Yeah, pretty painful," Hitoshi quipped.

The two siblings bantered back and forth and quickly took down the villain with some well placed flash bangs, and quirk usage.

"Where'd the other one go?" Izumi asked. And that's when Hitoshi remembered they'd been fighting not one, but two villains, seemingly related if their similar quirks were anything to go by. The other one had a quirk called Snowflake which was literally just the ability to turn H20 particles into harmless snowflakes, for that reason, the villain had carried a range of weapons on him since his quirk wasn't offensive.

There was a grunt around the corner of the alley, then a loud shout and cry of pain.

Hitoshi and Izumi said nothing to eachother, just moving in perfect sync to follow the sound.

Running around the corner, they found themselves watching a man with a long black ponytail, a red mask on his face and a katana in his hands, ready to kill his unmoving opponent, his opponent being the guy with the snowball quirk.

'A fellow vigilante? Or a villain who has beef with another villain? Or an underground hero?' We're questions that ran through both twins' heads.

'No, he clearly intends to kill. So he's not an underground hero.... possibly a villain who has beef with him. Or a vigilante, many vigilantes choose to kill the villains they face,'

Izumi was jolted out of her thoughts by Hitoshi jostling past her and jumping into action, spurring her on aswell.

Izumi needed to stop zoning out, especially on the battlefield, situational awareness and all that jazz.

"Hey ponytail!" Hitoshi called out, to his dismay, the killer didn't respond at all. Instead, looking to his sister.

"I know of you," He said, then he turned to look at Hitoshi, "I know of you too,"

"You do?" Hitoshi asked.

He was irritated to find the man ignoring him again, "If I lead a conversation with you," He said to Izumi, "Then it's not possible for your brother to use his quirk on me, is it? Response-based right?"

Hitoshi and Izumi blinked in shock.

How did he know his quirk?

"I guess I am right. I've heard lots of tales about the two of you. Mindfog and Submitter, been around for a year, give or take?" He said, turning back to his actual opponent, looking down at the snowball guy in distaste.

'Mindfog? Submitter? Are those the names we've been assigned by the underground? By the police?' Izumi thought.

"Not just the police," The vigilante replied to her mumbling, "The media too. It's been a year, did you really think nobody'd hear about you? I've heard plenty rumours about you, but the wildest rumour I've heard is that the both of you are kids," He looked them up and down, "Now I see that the rumours were true,"

Izumi narrowed her eyes beneath her goggles and grabbed her knife, getting into a defensive stance.

"Go," The vigilante told them, "I have no interest in harming kids. My job is to cure the world of these corrupt villains, you are no villains. So leave now,"

"You're going to kill him," Izumi said.

"That I am," He responded calmly, "Do you know what he's done? Multiple murders. This is no place for a child-"

"Bordering on hypocritical here, aren't we Stendhal?" Izumi said, finally recognising him, she'd seen him in the news once before, but he did a good job of staying hidden, "Arent you a murderer too?"

"With good reason," He replied, "He's a villain. Villains are scum and deserve to die. Heroes aren't willing to purge this world of them, only locking them up for a few years before letting them back out into this world to make the very same mistakes, to hurt more people. Locking them up and giving them the opportunity to break out. It's not right, they should be gone, once and for all," He turned back to his opponent, "Now go. I don't kill children but if you get in my way...."

He then lifted his katana, ready to stab when he felt a chain wrap around his wrist and pull his arm away, he turned to glare at the child who'd dared get in his way, "Stupid girl, Ive given you a choice. But since you choose to be a nuisance, I'll kill you first,"

"See!" Izumi said, "You would kill me, a child, and then you'd kill someone else for doing the same. You're just a massive hypocrite,"

"What are you doing? We don't know his quirk and he's clearly more experienced than we are. He's right, we're just children, let's go," Hitoshi said.

"Listen to your companion," Stendhal told her.

"Mindfog," Izumi replied, using Hitoshi's vigilante alias she'd only just learnt about moments prior, "Dont you get it? Meddling where you're not supposed to is the essence of being a hero,"

She couldn't see how Stendhal's eyebrows rose behind his mask, seeming impressed.

"A heroes job isn't to die fighting its to live another day so they can save other people, so let's get out of here," Hitoshi whispered back.

Izumi shook her head and her chain whipped out again and latched onto Stendhal's katana.

Stendhal let go of his katana to grab a knife from a pocket and began to charge at the girl, at swift speeds Izumi could only hope to reach one day.

Her fast reflexes, and ballet training allowed her to dodge, her flexibility allowed her to move like liquid, fluidly moving out of the way of his knife and then grabbing his wrist to try and flip him over her back. He was heavy, but Izumi had put on a lot of muscle the past year, she could handle his weight.

Only, he planted his feet and then pulled her in close, his knife centimetres away from her throat, "Why is it you would risk your life to save a villain?"

"Everyone's worth saving," Izumi replied.

"How naive," Stendhal responded, "You know nothing, I'm giving you one last chance to leave,"

"I won't," She replied determined. She knew she was being stupid and self-sacrificial. Hitoshi called it her 'hero complex'. Izumi hated to admit that he was right, she did have a bit of a hero complex. And she doubted it was something she'd ever grow out of, and she wasn't going to put any effort in trying to anyway.

"I must commend you for the previous villains you've apprehended. A true hero you are. Now, let me make a martyr out of you," He said before feeling a harsh impact against his head and stumbling.

He turned around to see Hitoshi, "Ah, you stuck around?" He replied.

"Heroes don't leave their partners behind, they don't leave anyone behind," Hitoshi told him, holding out his bo staff.

Stendhal didn't respond and leapt at Hitoshi at blinding speeds, his knife slashed his cheek, leaving a shallow cut, but drawing blood.

The knife dropped out of his hand as he felt electricity course through his veins, the girl 'Submitter' had shot a stun gun at him.

'Kids, what a pain,' Stendhal thought. Recovering quickly from the shock, he lunged at the girl but his feet were swept out from under him by the boy.

He lightly stabbed the boy in the ankle, and lifted his mask to lick the blood off.

Immediately, Hitoshi's body seized and he stood still, only his mouth working, "What the hell did you do to me?"

Stendhal didn't listen, instead, going for Izumi who was holding a fan.

He was moving too fast for her to track, in a panic, she pressed a button on the fan that released all the knives in his direction at once. The knives grazed him but nothing more, his costume's material was almost completely stab proof.

Izumi's eyes widened behind her goggles as he throwing knives did nothing. She trembled slightly, 'What did he do to Hitoshi? He cut him, licked his blood and then he froze? I can't... I can't let him defeat me, or Hitoshi will get hurt. I dragged Hitoshi into this. But what can I do?'

She pulled out her dagger and desperately stuck it in Stendhal's thigh.

Stendhal let out a small hiss of pain but seemed relatively fine, like the knife in his leg was nothing but a mere inconvenience.

What was this guy made of?

She needed to speak, to let him hear her voice, tire him out. Because nothing else seemed to wear him down.

Except... he gave her no time to even think, not to talk of speak. She only had time to do, to act on instinct. Time to dodge and defend, no time to attack.

She was constantly on the defensive, fighting a losing battle.

She was outmatched.

She wasn't ready for this.

She wasn't a pro.

She was just a child.

She should've known better.

Being a vigilante was fun, it was really. But it was dangerous, it wasn't a game, and Izumi hated that she realised it now that it was too late.

'I cant die yet,' Izumi thought, with a new resolve. Negativity wasn't going to save her or Hitoshi, 'I have to save Hitoshi,' A sad smile graced her face, All Might always smiled when he saved the day. She had to do the same. Even though her smile was concealed by her mask.

She blocked his knife with her fan, made of a sturdy material that most knives couldn't pass through unless exceptionally sharp. 'What would do I without you, Meichan?'

And then she felt a sting on her forearm, a cut, it wasn't too deep but wasn't shallow either.

She saw him retracting his knife to lick it and kicked the knife out of his hand, and then she pressed a button on her fan and all the throwing knives returned to it.

She briefly glanced at Hitoshi and the Snowball guy, 'How long does his paralysis last?'

"Submitter," Hitoshi said, "Leave," But he knew she wouldn't. She wouldn't leave him, or anyone in need, ever. She always wanted to help, she always wanted to do her best, she never wanted to give up. She was so incredibly stubborn, it was her best trait and her worst.

"You know I won't," She replied.

Another slash to her arm, she uppercutted Stendhal before he could get the knife to his mouth.

She looked down at her arm that had been slashed multiple times, 'This'll probably scar,' She thought with a frown, 'Won't matter if I don't survive though- No, I'll live!'

She'd jinxed it.

Because then Stendhal slashed her same arm again and then forcefully kicked her backwards. Licking her blood, she crumpled to the floor, paralysed.

And watched as he stalked forward. She felt like prey, waiting to be killed.

She didn't like the wait.

He was going to kill her so he should get it on with. Why was he now giving her time to think? To torment herself with her own thoughts? To scold herself? To regret?

She could feel the tears seeping out of her eyes and mourned that she couldn't move her hands to wipe them.

'This is how it ends, huh?' She thought bitterly, "Why are you taking so long? Just kill me dammit!"

She growled in frustration.

Hitoshi, finally broken free from the paralysis, leapt at Stendhal, clear vengeance in his eyes, and the tip of his bo staff crackling with electricity, ready to tase Stendhal, grab his sister and run.

But Stendhal sensed him and ducked underneath the bo staff before grabbing it out of Hitoshi's arms and then tasing the boy with his own weapon.

Izumi's eyes widened, shock, anger and pain all flashing in her eyes.

'You can't die on me Hitoshi... this is all my fault! I'm so stupid! I-'

"I won't kill him," Stendhal said, despite having a knife held to Hitoshi's throat.

"You can kill me, just don't kill her," Hitoshi said in a gruff voice, surprisingly still conscious despite having been tased.

"I won't kill any of you," Stendhal said.

Izumi felt a wave of relief wash over her, "Thank you-"

"What's the catch?" Hitoshi asked.

Stendhal almost responded, but then recalled the boy's quirk.

"I won't kill any of you," He addressed Izumi instead, "I deem you worthy of living,"

'Top 10 best compliments ever,' Hitoshi thought, 'Seriously who says that? I deem you worthy of living? Who does he think he is? Go-'

"You two are only kids. You must stop your vigilantism, this world is too cruel for ones so young. But you have potential, not just to be heroes, but true heroes. So stop vigilantism and go to a hero school to get a license and put some real heroes in this world like All Might. Go save the future," He told them, before releasing his knife from Hitoshi's neck and walking over to the Snowball man who was still paralysed like Izumi.

'So why are we still paralysed? What's the time limit based on if not order of whose blood was consumed first? Or is it that he can't paralyse multiple people easily and chose to let go of Hitoshi's paralysis?' Izumi thought.

Looking up at Stendhal, she found him gone, and the Snowball man. Only Hitoshi remained.

"Hitoshi!" She shouted, "I'm so sorry-"

"Submitter and MindFog. Put your hands up, you're both under arrest,"

Lights flashed, sirens rang, and police approached, accompanied by Eraserhead and Midnight.

Izumi was still paralysed. She couldn't escape this time. She couldn't leave.

And she knew Hitoshi wouldn't leave her.

This time, they were well and truly done for.

Seven

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

"This whole vigilante thing... I want to do it, I do... but... I mean. What if we get hurt? Villains are dangerous, we're just kids. We don't know the underground the way they do. And sure, our quirks give us an advantage but what happens when we find someone it doesn't work on? What then? Or what happens when the police catch us? What then? I want to save people, I do. But I don't want to be arrested, and I don't want you to get arrested. So what do we do if we get caught?" Hitoshi asked.

"The answer to that question is very simple:" 13 year old Izumi replied, "We don't,"

•••

But they had. They'd gotten caught.

They were sitting next to eachother in an interrogation room, quirk-cancelling cuffs around their wrists whilst they waited for their parents to arrive so the interrogation could begin.

Their goggles and masks had been removed as well as all of their weapons.

The paralysis had finally worn off Izumi but she still didn't move. She stared at a spot in the wall, for once having nothing to say.

What could she say?

She'd been so foolish. Did she really think this'd last forever? She really thought they'd never get caught. Not even by the police or pros but by a fellow vigilante no less. It just showed how much farther they had to go.

Except, they'd never get that chance. She couldn't go to UA anymore, the school of her dreams didn't accept people with criminal records.

How was helping people a crime anyways?

She just wanted to be a hero, but she'd gotten arrogant and over confident, she'd gotten ahead of herself. And now she'd brought down Hitoshi with her.

Now they sat alone in an interrogation room.

Her thigh bounced up and down in the plastic chair she sat in.

She vaguely registered a wall clock, tick tocking in the room, it was all background noise to her.

But over that background noise, she heard her brother's voice.

"I've been selfish," Hitoshi said.

Izumi whipped her head around to look at him incredulously, "What are you talking abou-"

He shook his head, telling her to let him continue, "It was selfish of me all along to accept your proposal to be vigilantes. Just because I wanted to spite society and become some semblance of a hero anyways, despite my 'villainous' quirk. My record was tarnished sure, but yours was fine. You never got anything worse than a few detentions on your report, you can still get into UA if you've only gotten detentions. But now you've broken the law, because of me. I shouldn't have let you talk me into it, I was thinking only of myself. Just because I couldn't be a hero the normal way didn't mean I should've dragged you down with me. It was selfish and...."

"And what? Villainous?" Izumi scoffed, "Hitoshi I make my own choices. So what if we got arrested? So what if I can't go to UA? I made up my mind a year ago. I knew what I was getting into. I don't regret this past year, we saved lives Hitoshi, doesn't that mean something to you? We saved people. This isn't... this isn't the end, I just know it. We'll find a way! And if anything it was my fault not yours-"

"How was it your fault?" Hitoshi asked incredulously, "Why do you love blaming yourself?"

"Why do you?" She challenged.

And then they fell into silence again.

"You know," Izumi said suddenly, "I'm sure we could get out of these cuffs. I have a pin in my hair, I bet I could pick the lock. We could escape-"

"And I'm here to make sure that doesn't happen," A dry voice interrupted, the door had opened to reveal.

"Eraserhead!" Izumi gushed, "Im so sorry for that time I kicked you in the balls. Or the time I asked Present Mic to kick you in the balls. And the time I cut your capture scarf. And the time I broke your nose. And the time I-"

"She always talk this much?" Eraserhead asked, looking to Hitoshi.

Hitoshi gave Eraserhead a vaguely amused look, "Yeah," He smiled fondly at his sister.

"So what's the verdict?" Hitoshi asked.

"That's why I'm here, woof," Hitoshi looked to the door to find two other people standing there.

One with short black hair and the other with a dog head who had been the one to speak.

"Wait do you actually woof? Or is that just a thing you like to say-"

"Hitoshi!" Izumi scolded, "You can't just ask that!"

The dog man just laughed, "Woof, it's quite alright. To answer your question, I do actually woof, it comes with the quirk. I'm the Chief of Police here, woof,"

"I'm Detective Tsukauchi," The other man introduced himself.

Just then the door burst open and a green blur rushed towards the two kids.

"Mom?" Izumi asked.

Following Inko into the room was their father, with a scowl on his face, "Why are my children in handcuffs?" He asked.

"They're quirk suppressants," Eraserhead answered.

"And?" Hisashi responded, "Take them off,"

"Sorry, but we can't be sure they won't make an attempt to escape," The Chief of Police told him.

"E-escape?" Inko asked, "My children aren't like... criminals or something? You just called me to come to the police station because my kids were there. I thought they got hurt, or mugged or something but you're telling me they were the ones breaking the law?"

"This is a mistake, uncuff my kids so I can take them home," Hisashi said.

"Have you heard about The Dusk Twins?" Eraser head asked the parents.

"Those two vigilantes, Submitter and Mindfog, who've been in the news for around.... 5 months maybe? But the witness accounts claim they've been around for almost a year," Hisashi's eyes widened as he looked at his two kids, "Please tell me you didn't..."

Inko finally caught on and looked at her kids, "Why would you do that?!" She shrieked, tears running down her cheeks, "Do you have any idea how dangerous it is? What happened to waiting until UA?"

Hitoshi tried to reach up to his neck to scratch it but found the hand cuffs wouldn't let him.

Izumi winced, "Sorry mom,"

"Unbelievable," Hisashi groaned, "I know I told you to live your dreams but this isn't what I meant,"

Eraserhead muffled his snort with his capture scarf.

"I...." Inko trailed off not knowing how to finish.

"I'm grounding you," Hisashi said to Hitoshi, "And you should probably ground her," He said to Inko in regard to Izumi.

"I'm sure that's not necessary-" Izumi tried.

"Young lady I'm not letting you out of my sight ever again," Inko frowned.

•••

After that, Izumi and Hitoshi were asked a few questions for 20 minutes, using Detective Tsukauchi's lie detector quirk to ensure they were telling the truth.

"So you swear you never used excessive force against any of the villains you faced?"

"I swear," Izumi and Hitoshi said in sync.

Tsukauchi frowned at them, "You're lying,"

"Okay there was this one villain..."

"You sound about 11-13 years old. The perfect age, just my type," The villain grinned, putting his hand on Izumi's waist.

"The perfect age? You look 60!" Hitoshi yelled i anger.

"I'm only 39-"

"Hit yourself," Hitoshi ordered, "Hit yourself again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again,"

By the 10th hit, the man broke himself out of the brainwashing and reached for Izumi again, Izumi grabbed his hand and bent it, breaking it.

The man howled, "You bitch!"

"Takes one to know one," Izumi quipped.

"But I'm not particularly sure that counts as excessive force, I mean I feel completely justified," Izumi said, waving her hands around animatedly as she spoke.

"Yeah, I mean, define excessive," Hitoshi said, "Because I feel like we let him off easy,"

"I...." Tsukauchi trailed off, "Nevermind. Let's talk about Dagobah Beach,"

Izumi and Hitoshi gulped.

"How did you get your hands on explosives?" Detective asked.

Inko's eyes widened and Hisashi guffawed, 'Explosives?!' They thought in sync.

"I... uh. Well that's a funny story. You see basically, well what uh..." Izumi fumbled.

"You can't prove that was us," Hitoshi cut in.

"My quirk is Lie Detector, remember?" He asked.

"Shit," Hitoshi grunted.

"Language!" Inko reprimanded.

•••

6 minutes later.

"It's obvious you don't plan on telling us who you got the explosives from so we'll move on. We have a proposition to make," The Chief of Police told them.

"Yes?" Inko asked.

"We can close your records. No one'll know of your vigilantism," He told them.

Izumi's eyes widened, 'I won't have a criminal record! No one will have to know about the double life I lead as a vigilante. I would hate for my identity to be revealed to the media, or worse, the villains I apprehended. What if they came back to me and Hitoshi for revenge? Or tried to attack our parents? Or friends?'

"If," The Chief continued.

"Of course there's an if," Hisashi muttered, "They literally didn't do anything wrong. This is outrageous!" He slammed his palms on the desk and smoke began to drift out of his nostrils.

"They broke the law," Eraserhead was quick to remind them, "I'm not calling them evil and I wouldn't exactly call them criminals either. But like it or not, what they did broke the law, besides, here the Chief out. He's not asking anything too big of them,"

"What is it? A fine you want? I can pay-"

"Just sit down Hisashi," Inko groaned, "Always so angry,"

Hisashi turned his head to her and his eyes narrowed, "Oh yeah, I'm the problem. Forgive me for getting angry on behalf of my kids instead of crying for them like that'll do shit!"

Inko glared at him, "We're in the presence of the police, I don't think getting angry is the appropriate way to deal with the situation. Let's hear them out instead of throwing tantrums,"

"Tantrums?!"

"Mom!" Izumi yelled at the same time Hitoshi yelled, "Dad!"

"Great, now our own kids are teaching us how to behave," Inko sighed.

"You're the only one who doesn't know how to behave," Hisashi replied.

"Thanks for reminding me of why we divorced," Inko murmured.

The Chief of Police coughed in the awkward silence, "So.... I... ehem. I've decided community service will suffice for their crimes,"

"Crimes?!-"

"Dad!" Izumi and Hitoshi yelled in sync.

"What's the catch?" Hisashi asked, "Im not stupid. Community service for a year of vigilantism is frankly a load of bullshit,"

"It is not," The Chief assured him, "Though breaking the law, they did a lot of good for the community and if word got out that the Dusk Twins were only kids and were being punished, well.... citizens wouldn't react well at all. The police department of Musutafu would be heavily bashed,"

"Oh, I get it now. This isn't for them this is for you, to save face," Hisashi chuckled bitterly, "So what Community service will they be participating in?"

"Cleaning the rest of Dagobah Beach,"

Izumi and Hitoshi's jaw dropped. Despite having cleaned some of it before and blowing up two large piles of rubbish, Dagobah was still dirty as ever and would take forever to clean.

"Or having a criminal record. The choice is theirs,"

And Hitoshi was half tempted to choose the criminal record. It wasn't like he could be a hero anymore anyways. But Izumi could, her record would be clean.

"So we'll really have a clean slate?" Izumi asked, eyes sparkling, "I can still go to UA?"

The Chief nodded.

Izumi's face broke out into a grin, and then dropped into a frown, "Actually I don't think I want to go anymore,"

"What?" Hitoshi asked, "What're you talking about? This is your dream?"

"It's yours too! Hitoshi it's our dream! And you still have a bad record from school. So if we can't live our dream together then I don't want to live it at all!"

"That's such backwards logic! If one of us gets to go to UA then they should. Don't let me hold you back. I'm so jealous of you right now that it annoys me you'd turn this opportunity down. Sure it'll suck watching you live our dream without me but I'll get over it. I'll never be content with myself knowing you gave up your dream for me. This isn't what I want for you,"

"If I may," Eraserhead cut in.

His next words surprised everyone and himself. He'd seen Hitoshi's school record, and he related. He'd grown up with a 'villainous' quirk too after all. He could tell this child wasn't the monster his classmates and teachers made him out to be. He knew how predjudice people could be, "I work at UA. I could pull some strings. In fact, I and my friend, could offer you both recommendation spots each,"

•••

"So how did it go down on your end?" Asked Izumi, shoving a shoe box into a black trash bag.

At the age of 14, Izumi stood at 5'0, average height for a Japanese girl her age. Her chubby cheeks had lost some fat and her jawline was a little more defined so her face wasn't completely round, though, she still had apple cheeks. Her cheeks had freckles sprinkled over them and when she smiled, two dimples could be seen, though the one on her left was more pronounced than the one on her right. She had a small button nose and plush lips. Her hair was lavender and viridian, with maegami style bangs (bangs are shorter on the forehead and longer on the sides of the face) framing her face and falling almost over her eyes. The rest of her hair reached her hips when straightened but otherwise, the curly hair reached around the middle of her back. She had wide emerald eyes with violet rings around the iris and thick eyelashes.

Her body had developed plenty since she was 13. Now having slightly defined abs and more toned arms and legs (usually hidden by her baggy clothing). She was busty and yet was slim around the waist but had wider hips, giving her an hourglass figure. Mainly on her arm, but also some small ones on other parts of her body, she had scars from her vigilantism.

"Well dad was livid. As to be expected. He grounded me and took my phone," Hitoshi shrugged, "But then he told me he was proud of me,"

Izumi snorted, "That sounds like dad alright,"

"So what happened on your end?" Hitoshi asked. At 14 years old, Hitoshi stood at 5'7 and was still growing. His once lanky frame had given way to a more toned, muscular body (which he also chose to hide behind baggy clothes). He also had a few scars from his vigilante days, the most visible one, a slash that started in the middle of his eyebrow and ended at the corner of his eye, one he received from a villain who had a metal quirk and had used Izumi's knives against him.

His lavender hair was messy and seemed to defy gravity, sticking up in the air oddly. His violet eyes held more life in them than they had before his vigilantism, but his eyebags still made him look incredibly tired.

"Well, mom bawled her eyes out for an hour-"

"And let me guess," Hitoshi cut her off, as he tied a trash bag and slung it over his back, "You bawled out your eyes with her?"

Izumi pouted, "Okay I might've cried a bit-"

"By that you mean you almost flooded the house-"

"You're not funny," Izumi responded, "At least I'm capable of showing emotions,"

"What do you mean?" Hitoshi asked, "I'm very capable of showing emotions. See right now, my face is expressing an emotion: boredom," He then went to haul the trash bag into the waiting garbage truck.

They were three months into their community service which meant they had four months until the recommendation exams for UA, for regular people the entrance exam for UA was in 7 months.

It meant that if they failed the recommendation exams they still had a chance to pass the general exams.

That wouldn't matter though.

They didn't plan on failing.

•••

PART ONE FINISHED

Chapter End Notes

Do you guys want Izumi to get OFA? If so, should she get the added strength and speed or should OFA only boost her quirk?

Eight

PART TWO BEGINS

"Now, I must be off to return this villain," He patted his pockets, then patted them again, before turning them inside out frantically.

"All Might where's the Sludge villain?" Izumi asked worriedly.

"I don't... I don't know,"

•••

On the railways at Tatooin station, a man with a gigantification quirk began causing trouble, having stolen a bag and looking frantically around for an escape route.

Becoming increasingly nervous about his plight, he ran and hit a portal catenary which begun to fall.

Just in time, Pro Hero Death Arms arrived on the scene, catching the falling structure with his strength.

Next to get onto the scene in Pro Hero Backdraft, using his water pump quirk to create a fence of water, a perimeter to keep the citizens at a safe distance.

Soon, a new hero was on the scene.

Number 10 on the chart, Pro Hero: Kamui Woods.

The moment the villain became aware of Kamui Woods' presence, he began attempting to smash him with his enlargened hand, but the Pro dodged his every attack with perfected ease.

"GET AWAY!" The villain roared angrily, thrashing around again in annoyance and panic, only to have his flurries of attacks dodged again.

Kamui Woods attempted to rush the villain but was pushed back.

Another fist was thrown at Kamui Woods, but he managed to grasp his foe's wrist by extending his wooden limb.

The giant villain merely waved his hand to remove Kamui Woods but the 10th ranked hero managed to stabilise himself and land on his feet, with athletic agility only a pro could have.

"Illegal use of abilities during rush hour, as well as robbery and assault? You're pure evil!" Kamui yelled dramatically, preparing his flashy final attack, his special move, such a defeat would surely be talked about in the media for days. Perhaps, by the end of this year, Kamui Woods should move to Rank 9.

If only his spotlight hadn't been stolen.

By now a large crowd had formed to watch the heroes in action.

"LACQUERED CHAIN PRISON ATTACK!"

"-PRISON ATTACK!" Izumi yelled excitedly, joining in with Kamui Woods as he yelled out his special move. Notebook in hand, eyes gleaming with awe and inspiration, the purple-green haired girl jumped up and down trying to see over the crowd.

A man next to her with odd finger-shaped tendrils sticking out of his head turned to her and asked, "A fangirl, eh?"

Izumi blushed profusely, "Uh. W-well..."

"You taking notes?" He asked.

Izumi nodded enthusiastically.

"Planning to be a hero one day?" He asked her.

Izumi's eyes lit up and she grinned, "Yep!"

"I wish you good luck!"

"Thanks Sir!"

"CANYON CANNON ATTACK!" A feminine voice yelled, as a woman larger than the villain crashed onto the scene, soundly defeating the man.

"Woah!" Izumi's eyes sparkled, "A new hero?"

As Mt Lady's debut stole all the attention, Kamui stood off to the side a little stunned at the sudden intervention and upset he'd missed a moment to shine.

The paparazzi swarmed the hero, giving her full credit for the defeat of the villain.

Izumi felt her phone buzz in her pocket and took it out to see her alarm for school going off. Crap, she was going to be so late.

She quickly shoved her notebook into her bag before running off, thoughts swirling around her head about the villain fight she'd just seen. And a new hero!

Though, the new hero had stolen Kamui Woods' credit and Izumi was a bit miffed.

Kamui had done all the work, Mt Lady had just swooped in at the end and yet, got all the praise.

It wasn't fair.

But nothing ever was.

Not all men are created equal.

A truth Izumi learnt at age 4 when she gained her quirk. Every call of 'villain' and 'evil' and 'useless' had hurt move than the shoves she had received in the hallways, more than the spitballs that hit her in the back of her head or the foot that stuck out in the corridor to trip her up.

At some point, things had gotten better. She'd stood up to them all, she'd made them see that she too was equal!

She'd stood on a table and yelled until they stopped ignoring her, she rose her voice and forced them to hear her.

It didn't mean things immediately got fully better and life was all sunshine and rainbows.

It still hurt every time she was picked last in PE.

It still hurt every time she saw a spider lily on her desk.

It still hurt every time someone would speak over her.

It still hurt being called a Deku.

It still hurt being called a villain.

But it motivated her, it pushed her to be stronger. She would shoulder the pain, she would channel her negative emotions into her training.

It had been a crazy 14 years of her life. And this last year had been the craziest.

If you had told 4 year old Izumi she would've been a vigilante, she probably would've believed you. Even then it sounded like the sort of thing that would appeal to her. Being a hero was always her endgame, no matter how she got there. She was always destined to be a hero, not by license, but by definition, her own definition.

Someone who saved people with a smile on their face to let them know everything would be okay. Someone who saved people because it was the right thing to do.

She walked into her class in her last year at Aldera Middle School. Entering late, she received a break time detention, and yet Katsuki who'd arrived 3 whole minutes later than her had gotten a 'warning'.

Life wasn't fair.

But fair was easy.

And Izumi was never one to take the easy way out anyways.

•••

Hitoshi groaned silently as his science teacher announced they'd be doing paired work.

He sat at his desk at the very back corner of the classroom, counting the amount of students in his class and hoping for an odd number so he could work alone, '...8..9..10..11..12..13..14.. dammit,' Hitoshi sighed and thunked his head against his desk.

He felt a presence behind him and looked up with an automatic glare at whoever had bothered him. He found himself face to face with one of his classmates. A small boy with black hair and brown eyes, "Shinso-kun..." The boy twiddled his thumbs nervously, "I- I don't have a partner and was wondering i-if you'd work w-with me,"

Hitoshi let his head hit the desk one more, not bothering to look up, he raised his hand to give the student an unenthusiastic 'thumbs up'.

Hitoshi hoped the paired activity didn't include talking.

He hated socialising.

•••

"Obviously a gigantification quirk but what are the limits? Can she shrink herself too? What does her quirk feed on? Stamina? What would happen if she was contained in a metal box and tried to enlarge herself bigger than the box? Would she break it? Or be stuck at the maximum height the box would allow mutter mutter mutter mutter muttermuttermuttermuttermutter...."

Gradually, the students closest to Izumi began feeling a little tired, it often happened when Izumi would go on her mumbling sprees, she'd lose grip of her quirk.

"Midoriya-chan," One of the girls whispered, "You're doing it again,"

Izumi's hand, flying across her notebook's paper whilst she muttered about the new her she'd seen, halted, and Izumi blushed profusely in embarrassment, "Sorry!" She squeaked.

A few chuckles spread through the room, some light hearted but some mocking her.

Izumi checked her phone and saw her last class had almost started, and the teacher was nowhere to be seen yet, neither was Katsuki, but he was always late.

Then Izumi was struck with insipiration as she chewed her bubblegum. Izumi felt gross doing something like this, but it was well deserved, Katsuki had tried to trip her 5 times this week and when he failed each time (vigilantism had aided her situational awareness and allowed her to avoid tripping over his feet like she used to) he resorted to just shoving her instead.

So, she took her gum out of her mouth and put it onto the seat in front of her, Katsuki's seat.

One boy caught her and she put a finger to her lips and winked at him, mouthing 'shush'. A pink tinge took over the boys cheeks as she sat back down in her seat, opened her pack of bubblegum and took another one, chewing it and pretending nothing had happened.

The teacher walked in and quieted the class down, and turned on her computer, preparing the PowerPoint for the lesson.

Seconds later, Katsuki kicked the door open and strode in like he owned the place, as he neared his seat, the boy who'd caught Izumi placing gum in it gulped.

Katsuki sat down in his seat and a small squelch sound was heard.

Furrowing his brows, he stood up and looked at his trousers, a sticky, pink blob sat there.

His pupils shrank and explosions emitted from his palms as he whirled around, knocking his chair over, to face the class. Some of whom were poorly disguising their laughs at him, others gulping in fear.

"WHICH ONE OF YOU FUCKERS PUT GUM IN MY SEAT?!" He yelled, his voice slightly cracking, 'Fucking puberty,' Katsuki thought, irritated. A few snickers were heard in the classroom, mostly from the boys.

Izumi made eye contact with him, smirked and blew a bubble with her pink gum.

"DEKU," He growled, slamming his palms on her desk.

"Bakugou sit down. Midoriya, no chewing in class, you know the rules, detention after class," The teacher said.

Katsuki smirked at that and Izumi shrugged and mouthed to him, 'Worth it'.

Katsuki visibly got more agitated but settled for sitting back down in his seat, scowling and flipping her off.

Then, despite being sat in front of her, he twisted his body so he could step on her foot.

Izumi glared at him and kicked him back.

And thus began the most aggressive game of footsies ever, until the teacher interrupted them by starting the lesson.

He stood at the centre and spoke, "Today is a special lesson," And the last lesson of the day, "As you know, you're in your last year of middle school. Which means, it's time to start thinking about your future, what you want to be, and what high school you'd like to attend,"

Izumi's eyes gleamed as she listened to her teacher, just thinking about the future she had ahead of her was enough to get her excited.

She still couldn't believe Eraserhead had offered her his recommendation, and that he'd gotten Present Mic to give one to Hitoshi.

A future where she and Hitoshi got to save people together... to train at UA high school... to participate in the Sports Festival and show the world that 'villainous quirks' could be used for heroics too!

"I would handout these career option sheets, but.... you're all pretty much planning to into the hero course, right?" At the teacher's words, the whole class broke into cheers, displaying their quirks, "Yes, yes you all have great quirks but remember quirk usage is against the rules,"

"Hey teach! Don't lump me in with these extras ! 'S if my quirk is anything like their pathetic ones. They'll be lucky to work as a sidekick for some busted D-Lister," He leant back in his chair, self-satisfied smirk on his face.

Izumi groaned and thunked her head on the desk whilst the rest of the class broke into uproar, "GET OVER YOURSELF BAKUGOU!" They cried out.

"Ah, Bakugou, you're applying for UA, right?" The teacher said, a small smirk on his face.

Katsuki's face split into a wide, cocky grin, "Damn right! There's no place better for me than UA, it's where the best of the best go!"

The rest of the class began muttering amongst themselves.

"UA? I heard that school has a 1 in 300 acceptance rate,"

"I heard it was 1 in 3000!"

"I mean Bakugou's quirk is great, sure. But UA.... it'll be hard,"

"If anyone can do it, it's him though,"

"I dunno. He's a little aggressive to be going to such a prestigious school,"

"He could be the next Endeavour,"

"Oh, Midoriya, you're also applying for UA," The teacher said off-handedly.

The class fell into immediate silence.

Then the talking started.

"What? Isnt UA a little far fetched? Maybe try Seiai or Ketsubutsu, I'm sure you'd do well there,"

"I didn't know UA was accepting people with villain quirks,"

"Please, without a physical quirk she stands no chance,"

"Poor girl needs to get her head out of the clouds,"

"I believe in you Midoriya-chan!"

"She has just as much chance as Bakugou!"

Then the shouting started.

"DEKU!" Katsuki yelled, jumping out of his feet and slamming his hands down on the table, "What do you think you're doing?"

"What do you think you're doing?" She replied.

"You don't actually think you can stand on the same level as me do you? You've always followed me around but know that you can't follow me to UA aswell. I'm gonna be the only one who makes it out of this shithole and into UA, my hero origin story, got that?!" He exploded his palms and a manner that Izumi assumed was supposed to be threatening.

"You sound threatened," She said, her arms crossed on her desk as she learned forward and over them, "Are you insecure Kacchan?" She looked up at him through her thick eyelashes and grinned.

Katsuki sputtered for a few seconds before grabbing her by the collar and shoving her to the floor.

Izumi looked up at him defiantly, "It's always violence with you, isn't it? There's no talking things out and expressing your emotions with words, it's always pushing and shoving. Are you just not good with words? Or do you just lack self-control, like an animal?"

"Midoriya, stop antagonising Bakugou. Bakugou, no quirk usage in class,"

•••

After class, all the students and the teacher filed out, minus Izumi, Katsuki and his two lackeys.

As Izumi packed her stuff into her bag, she reached for her notebook only to find it not there.

Looking up, she saw Katsuki holding it in both hands.

"Wait Kacchan don't-!"

He didn't listen, he exploded the notebook and when she tried to reach for it, he held it high, out of her reach then tossed it out of the window.

"Seriously Kacchan?!" She asked angrily, "Why would you do that? You know how much they mean to me-"

"Hero analysis for the future?" He stalked closer to her and Izumi subconsciously stepped backwards in slight fear, "I thought I told you, you can't be a hero," He placed a hand on her shoulder, firmly stopping her from moving. Then began to heat up his palm, not too hot to hurt, but enough to threaten her.

She batted his hand away immediately, "What's wrong with you?! Why does the idea of me being a hero piss you off so much? Are you that self-centred you can't imagine anyone else possibly wanting to live your dream. Well it's not just your dream, it's mine too, and has been, since I was 2! You always claim I'm getting in your way but you're the one getting in mine,"

"I'm just stopping you from getting killed on the battlefield," Katsuki growled, "Or rather, the entrance exam. You won't even survive that,"

"Yeah," One of Katsuki's lackeys piped in, "If you have so much of a death wish I know a quicker way to get it over and done with,"

Izumi and Katsuki ignored him, until his next sentence.

"Why don't you take a swan dive off the roof of a building and pray for a heroes quirk in your next life?" He jeered.

Katsuki's head snapped around to lay his fiercest glare on his lackey.

But Izumi saw none of that through her quickly blurring vision, 'I didn't even do anything wrong and someone wants me to kill myself... Just because of my quirk. What's wrong with these people? I didn't even do anything wrong?'

Her thoughts jumbled as her body moved on autopilot, slinging her backpack on and storming past Kacchan and the other two boys.

'These are the people you're friends with Kacchan? Maybe you want me to kill myself too huh?'

'What if I actually did it? What would that guy do then? Then his future would be ruined,'

'I didn't even do anything,'

'Just because of my quirk,'

'It's not fair,'

'What did I do, to deserve this..?'

'I would never kill myself, he's so stupid for even suggesting it. Like what he says even matters. Why am I letting this get to me?'

'Stop being weak Izumi. Forget what they said,'

'They're just bullies who put others down because they're insecure,'

Her body continued to move on autopilot, even as she passed the pond her notebook was in, even as she took a wrong turn and entered an alley that didn't leave home, even as the sewer lid was pushed open and a large green pile of sludge seeped out.

"A size S cloak...." A warbly voice crooned.

Izumi still stuck in her thoughts didn't notice until she felt something wet latch onto her leg.

"...And a cute one too..." The voice continued.

Izumi looked down at her legs in panic as the sludge began to crawl upwards.

She let out a yelp as she struggled, trying to move her leg out but it wouldn't budge.

She reached under her skirt for the dagger she always had on her and sliced through the sludge, only to watch it reform.

It continued to crawl up her legs.

"Wait please stop! What is it you want? Money? I have money!" She asked frantically, "Please stop, please don't hurt me, get off me!"

She spoke to the sludge more and more, but before she could give a command with her quirk, her mouth was covered and the sludge poured in. As she choked, tears streamed down her face.

Unable to move....

....just like her fight with Stain...

What happened to her?

How did she go from fearless, unbeatable vigilante Submitter back to weak, useless Deku in a matter of months?

She couldn't even speak.... she couldn't do anything.

"I like the ones who don't struggle, makes it easier for the both of us," The sludge villain laughed, "I'm gonna have fun playing with your body,"

Izumi's eyes snapped open and she began struggling.

Not like this.... it wouldn't end like this.

What would happen to her dreams of a future where she and Hitoshi got to save people together... to train at UA high school... to participate in the Sports Festival and show the world that 'villainous quirks' could be used for heroics too!

To be the greatest hero there ever was.

She thrashed about in the sludge villain's hold and clawed at the sludge in her mouth.

She sure as hell wasn't going down without a fight that was for sure.

If she was going to go down, it wouldn't be as a Deku, she was going to make him submit-

"DETROOOOOIT-"

Izumi's eyes widened in shock. She had met many heroes already, most of them in her vigilante escapades. Eraserhead, Present Mic, Midnight, Ms Joke....

They were all favourite heroes of hers, but they all paled in comparison.... to him

"SMAAAASH!"

And then she felt her body hit the wall and her vision faded.

•••

"-llo. Hello? Hello?"

Izumi slowly opened her eyes in confusion and found herself staring into the blue eyes of-

ALL MIGHT?!

Izumi let out an inhumane screech and shuffled backwards in surprise as the memories of the sludge villain returned to her.

"A-A-A-All Might? All might?! Oh my- frickin- All Might?! I-I...uhhh," She grabbed her bag and fished for her notebook before realising she'd left it wherever Katsuki had dropped it. Instead, she shoved her backpack in his face and a pen, "Sign it!" She demanded, "P-Please!" A crimson blush filled her face at seeing her idol, right there, in front of her eyes.

All Might let out a chuckle as he signed her backpack, "Well, now that you're okay, I must be going. Sorry for getting you caught up in my villain fighting. Now-"

"Wait!" Izumi shouted, "I have so much to ask you!" Without thinking, she grabbed onto his leg as he jumped.

"Isn't this a bit much for a fangirl?!" He yelled midair, as he looked down at his leg, "Let go of me,"

"DO YOU WANT ME TO DIE?!" She yelled frantically.

"I suppose not," All Might grunted.

"YOU SUPPOSE?!" Izumi asked.

They soon landed on a building and All Might prepared to make his leave when Izumi yelled at him.

"CAN SOMEONE WITH A VILLAIN'S QUIRK BE AS GREAT A HERO AS YOU?!" She asked, her eyes shining with unshed tears, it had been a long day after all.

All Might, despite his time limit and everything in his body telling him to go, turned around to look at the girl, asking him a question with sincerity clear in her eyes.

"I- I know, I already know I can be a hero. But can I be as great as you? Will people look up to me e-even if I have a villain's quirk? Even if I'm a girl? Will people feel safe when I smile and tell them I am here? Can I be Number 1? My quirk... it's useful... but it has such a glaring weakness. It requires someone to hear my voice, but what if they just covered their ears or spoke over me? What if I'm in a position where I can't speak? I have other skills, like martial arts and weaponry but will that ever be enough?" She clutched at her shirt where her heart was as she screamed at him hysterically, tears flowing down her face, her voice cracking,

"Will I ever be enough? How can I ever match up?!"

But when she looked up at All Might her sad tears immediately gave way to frightened ones, she reached under her skirt for her dagger that the sludge villain luckily hadn't taken from her and pointed it at All Might - who coughed blood at the sight of a weapon, being held by a 14 year old and being pointed at him.

Or where All Might should've been because instead she found herself staring at a gaunt man, with sunken eyelids and a frail, unhealthy body. All he had in common with All Might was his oddly styled blonde hair and blue eyes.

Izumi had seen a lot of things in her 14 years of living, and a lot of things had surprised her, but Izumi had never been so completely caught off guard, confused and freaked out in her life.

She quickly dried her eyes with her sleeves, grimacing at the smell of sludge and sewage on it.

"Where'd.... where'd All Might go?" She asked, her dagger pointing to him, as she stepped backwards with shaky legs, "You're not him! You're an imposter!"

"I can assure you that I am All Might," The skinny man said, and Izumi scoffed.

"Yeah I'm feeling real assured, who the hell are you?" She asked.

"Listen, kiddo. I'm gonna have to ask you to put the knife down," He said, but when Izumi didn't move at all, he sighed and lifted his shirt, "This is an injury I sustained in a fight 5 years ago-"

"Toxic chainsaw? As if! The real All Might wouldn't be taken down by an average villain like that," Izumi rolled her eyes.

"You're correct. It was a different villain, one I asked to be kept under wraps, hidden from the media and even majority of the police force. A very dangerous villain, left me with this, I can only be a hero for 3 hours a day," He gestured to a large, gross, injury, "So the fearless, invincible All Might you see on TV.... well think of it as guys sucking in their stomach and puffing out their muscles, posturing at the gym," He then buffed up into his big form before sizing down almost immediately and sputtering blood.

"AHH! D-do you need a t-tissue?"

"It's fine," All Might waved off her concerns, "This is normal for me,"

"N-normal?!" Izumi shrieked.

All Might nodded.

Izumi, slowly lowered her dagger, an untrusting look in her eyes, "Let's say I believe you, then I have a question. Why're you telling me this? You don't even know me, you can't trust me. What if- what if I told the media? Or my friends? Or posted it online?"

All Might looked a little embarrassed for a second at being called out for his less than smart actions before giving her a smile - that was creepy on his slender face, it literally looked straight out of a horror movie - and opening his mouth to speak, "No one'll believe you,"

Izumi opened and shut her mouth a few times, trying to speak but not finding anything to refute All Might's statement. She merely huffed and crossed her arms underneath her chest, "....That's...fair,"

All Might grinned at her before his face schooled into something more serious, "You asked me if you could be the number 1 hero with a villainous quirk,"

Izumi nodded nervously.

This was the moment that could make or break her.

That could shatter her dreams or make them come true.

"I think.... Well I think there's no such thing as a villainous quirk,"

Izumi breathed a small sigh of relief. She knew All Might wasn't quirkist but it was good to head him say it himself.

"You'll face lots of predjudice and there'll always be people trying to put you down for both your quirk and gender," He continued.

'I knew that already,' Izumi thought, 'Being number 1 includes having the support of other people... but too many people will be trying to put me down instead,'

"It'll be a hard, long road to make it to Number 1,"

'But I'm capable, right? I can... I can do it! It'll be long and hard but I'm ready,'

"So im not going to say you can't do it, because that's just not correct. It's truly up to you. Do you think you have what it takes?"

Izumi allowed a bright smile to grace her face, "Yes!" She nodded, "I'll do it! I'll do it All Might! I have what it takes to be Number 1, just like you,"

"No," All Might said, and Izumi's face momentarily dropped, "Don't aim to be just like me, aim to be better than me,"

And then a large explosion followed by many more sounded in the distance.

"Do you hear that?" Izumi asked.

"How can I not?" All Might responded, "Now, I must be off to return this villain," He patted his pockets, then patted them again, before turning them inside out frantically.

"All Might where's the Sludge villain?" Izumi asked worriedly.

"I don't... I don't know,"

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Table of Contents

Preface

Prologue

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Afterword